1840-41. PEDESTRIAN TOUR. Ill 



of Stirling to Bannockburn, to the sight of the stone where 

 Bruce's standard was placed on the day of battle. With the 

 help of two gentlemen, I got a somewhat good idea of the 

 forces in the affair. 



" Then on Sunday, after hearing two tremendously long 

 sermons in the Established Kirk, it was proposed to walk 

 out to the Bridge of Allan in the evening, and hear a third 

 discourse. We walked out, but as the sermon was in a 

 wright's shed which was crammed, James and I walked 

 farther to learn if there was evening service in the parish 

 church of Lecropt, a beautiful place on the Perth road. 

 Singularly enough, there was no sermon, and we had to 

 occupy ourselves admiring and asking questions of the 

 myriads of bonnie bairns we saw about us. Of these there 

 were so many that I can conscientiously say that Stirling 

 and Perthshire beat all places hollow for beautiful children, 

 and as sharp as beautiful. ... I am out every day walking 

 till nine o'clock. I tried last night to finish this letter, but 

 this is all the length I got. This morning I add that I was 

 away on Monday walking to Doune, which with the return 

 makes a distance of sixteen miles. Tuesday, as I have said, 

 we spent at a farm seven miles off, and now we are just 

 starting for a twenty miles' walk into Perthshire. We shall 

 rest there a day, and come back on Saturday. I leave this 

 on Tuesday at the furthest, so that time presses, and as the 

 period is less than I thought it would have been, I am 

 anxious to make the most of it." 



"STIRLING, Saturday, September 12, 1840. 



" MY DEAR MOTHER, I promised to write to you, when I 



returned from our Perthshire excursion ; I have just come 



back from our twenty miles' walk, and sit down to send you 



a few lines, but as I have been a good deal knocked about, 



