40 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



and very beautiful pieces of fiction. And I am con- 

 vinced a set of works similar in character to my manu- 

 script history from each district of the kingdom- 

 would form a complete part of this kind. Might not 

 such a set be properly regarded as a magazine of mate- 

 rials for genius to work upon ? ' 



Allan Cunningham, in whom, as a brother of the 

 hammer and a brother of the pen, Miller took a particular 

 interest, and whom he obliged with that sketch of Black 

 Russel which we have seen, was applied to when the sub- 

 scription scheme had been set on foot, in the hope that 

 he might do something for the book in London. 



' Cromarty, August, 1834. 



'For the last few years I have devoted to the pen 

 well-nigh all the hours I could spare from the mallet, 

 and have produced a volume which I would fain see in 

 print. It is traditional, and wants only genius to re- 

 semble very much some of your own. Our materials, 

 at least, must have been collected in the same manner 

 and from the same class in prosecuting a wandering 

 employment in a truly interesting country, rich with the 

 spoils of the past in the work-shed, and the barrack, 

 and the cottage, from old men and old women the 

 solitary, fast-sinking remnants of a departed generation. 

 But the mason of the north has no such creative powers 

 as he of Galloway powers that can operate on a darkened 

 chaos of obsolete superstitions and exploded beliefs, and 

 fashion it into a little poetical world, bright and beautiful, 

 and busy with passion and life. Still, however, my tra- 

 ditions are not without their interest, though possibly 

 they may owe little to the collector. They are redolent 

 of Scotland and the past, and form the harvest of a 

 field never yet subjected to any sickle except my own. 



