156 THE MOOES AND THE MOUNTAINS. 



country from the Bay of Cromarty to the Dornoch Firth 

 the day after the Duke [of Sutherland] was buried at 

 Dornoch. An old lady told us, ' He was just deein' when 

 they tuik him awa' frae England ; but it was nat'rel : it 

 wad gie him pleeshur to be puried in the Hielands.' We 

 found the sky as bright and the waters of the frith as 

 sparkling as if no duke had died. When we were entering 

 a narrow defile, with gray crags on one side, a brawling 

 brook below, and. on the opposite side a fine old fir wood, 

 we saw, moving over the tops of the rocks, some black 

 creatures or substances, which we took at first to be crows. 

 A few moments dispelled the illusion, and, with its cross- 

 bones and skulls, its sand-glasses and waving plumes, 

 came rattling down the road the ' narrow house ' which 

 had recently conveyed the mortal remains of him to whom 

 the entire county had belonged. It seemed full of pack- 

 ing boxes, &c, and the coachman appeared to be a little 

 whiskified. 



" As the whole population, to the amount of nine or 

 ten thousand, had been out to see the sight, we found that 

 the eatables in some places had suffered severely from the 

 inroads of these barbarian clans. When we arrived at 

 Bonar Bridge, we found Greville and Barry awaiting us. 

 They had arrived at Tain the day before; and, expecting 

 us to join them there, they ordered dinner for twenty 

 people, which dinner was to take place in the ball-room 



