32 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



and you shall see it enveloped in tartan. Never was 

 there man more zealous for the honour of his country : 

 he finds more mind in her poets, and more meaning in 

 her language, than in the language and the poets of 

 every other put together. Ossian surpasses Homer, and 

 nothing can be more absurd than to question the authen- 

 ticity of his poems. He seems to have attached himself 

 to him by a true Highland contract, and stands by him 

 on all occasions in " the right and the wrong." To con- 

 clude, he has all the characteristic courage of his coun- 

 trymen, and all their hospitality and warmth of heart. 

 He accompanied me eleven miles on my way to Linlith- 

 gow, and as he shook my hand at parting, I saw the 

 tear gather in his eye. Do not grudge him, my Lydia, 

 the page and half which I have devoted to him ; nor 

 chide me when I tell you that I read to him the part of 

 your letter in which you describe the Alness Highlander 

 and the Ross-shire clergy. His remark on your style 

 you will deem a neat one. "There are," said he, "more 

 Mrs Grants than one." 



' I saw much in my journey that interested me ; 

 never before did I pass over so large a tract of the 

 classic ground of Scotland. Almost every stream and 

 mountain in this district have been celebrated in song ; 

 almost every plain has been a field of battle. I stood 

 at Bannockburn on the stone where Bruce fixed his 

 standard, and repeated to my cousin the spirited de- 

 scription of Barbour. I have seen the scene of Wallace's 

 conference with the elder Bruce ; that of the battle of 

 Shirrarnuir, of Stirling bridge, and of Falkirk ; the 

 tombs of Sir John the Graham, Sir John Stuart, and 

 Sir Robert Munro ; the site of the house in which James 

 III. was assassinated; the room in Stirling Castle in 

 which his father, James II., stabbed the Black Douglas ; 



