HEY-DAYS AND (k)NIGHTS OF STEAW. 143 



ness to myself at present, -when I sinfully incline to view 

 everything in its most comfortless light. However, I 

 trust you are bearing in mind what I said on my depar- 

 ture, and are not so uneasy as you vould otherwise have 

 been. Did my opportunities correspond with my heart's 

 desire, no hour would pass without a communication ; 

 for I can safely say that scarcely a waking moment has 

 been spent otherwise than in thinking of those I have left 



behind 



" We breakfasted at Cupar on beef-steaks and salmon, 

 and reached Forfar about three o'clock. There we hired 

 a cart for our knapsacks, and also bought thirty or forty 

 threepenny loaves and a round of cold beef, and started 

 on foot for this little hamlet, which is situated in a wild, 

 secluded valley, through the centre of which flows the 

 South Esk. At Forfar we had previously regaled our- 

 selves on cheese and bread, and ale ; and, in the course of 

 our pedestrian progress, in the evening we got bannocks 

 and milk in a cottage by the road-side. It was past ten 

 before we got to Clova, where we regaled ourselves on tea 

 and bread, and went to bed thereafter. The bed for the 

 greater part of the party consisted of a layer of hay upon 

 the floor, with a blanket or two over the top of it. I was 

 voted into one of the two beds, properly so called, out of 

 respect, I suppose, to my years and reverend character; 

 and although I resisted this indulgence for some time, I 



