ON BOARD SHIP. 5 



changing aspect of the landscape, a fresh delight for eye 

 and soul. 



To be initiated in banking, it was necessary for him 

 to proceed a second time to the South of Scotland. He 

 sailed for Edinburgh, expecting to be taken into the 

 office of the Commercial Bank there, but found, on his 

 arrival, that he was to be stationed in the branch office 

 at Linlithgow. He spent a few days in Edinburgh, both 

 before going on to Linlithgow, and on his return thence; 

 and experienced, on both occasions, great kindness from 

 Sir T. Dick Lauder, Mr Robert Paul, manager of the 

 bank in Edinburgh, and others. 



Hugh was no sooner out of sight of Miss Fraser, 

 than he began writing to her. He embarked after 

 nightfall, November 27,1834; the ship weighed anchor 

 at dawn, and we find him, pen in hand, ' tossing on the 

 Moray Frith, on the swell raised by the breeze of the 

 previous night/ The breeze freshens, and he betakes 

 himself to his berth ; but the pen is not laid aside. He 

 overhears the master and one of the passengers discuss- 

 ing ' a highly interesting topic, woman/ They appear 

 to be no enthusiasts on the subject of the sex. ' Your 

 sweetheart, for instance/ says the master, ' was just as 

 fine a lassie as a man could wish to meet with anywhere, 

 and yet you were only a short while in London when 

 she got married to another. But they are all the same/ 

 ' Rubbish/ thinks Hugh ; ' I don't believe a word of it. 

 The last things I looked on with interest, as we swept 

 along the Sutor, were the little grey rock and the beech 

 tree. How much happiness, my own Lydia, have I en- 

 joyed beside them ! ' But he has too much contempt for 

 the speakers, or is too sea-sick, to rise and do battle for 

 the fair. ' We have an eagle aboard/ he proceeds ; ' a noble- 

 looking bird, but quite as bad a sailor as myself. He is 



