332 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



Our fall from our own four-in-hand to a public omni. 

 bus — oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! — 

 involved the loss of many a long summer's day to us, 

 for long as they had been the sun ever set too soon. 



It was all up after this. Perry and Joe, the coach 

 and the horses, were speeding away by rail to their 

 homes ; we were no longer the coaching party, but only 

 ordinary tourists buying our tickets like other people in- 

 stead of travelling as it were in style upon annual passes. 

 But fate was merciful to us even in this extremity ; we 

 were kept from the very lowest stage of human misery 

 by finding ourselves alone and all together in the 

 omnibus ; our party just filled it. If it was only a hotel 

 omnibus, as one of the young ladies said, it was all our 

 own yet, as was the MacLean boat at the flood, and 

 the ladies, dear souls, managed to draw some consola- 

 tion from that. 



We returned from Inverness by the usual tourist 

 route : canal and boat to Oban, where we rested over 

 night, thence next day to Glasgow. Under any 

 other circumstances I think this part -of the journey 

 would have been delightful. The scene indelibly 

 impressed upon our minds is that we saw at night 

 near Ballachulish. I remember a party of us agreed 

 that what we then saw could never be forgotten. 

 But Black alone could paint it. It is saying much 

 for any combination of the elements when not one 

 nor two, but more of a party like ours stand and whisper 



