LANDSCAPE OUTLINES. 371 



as profoundly into the real interests of the country as 

 the eyes of the living Duke, they see wonderfully little 

 considering that they are six inches across. The view 

 from the base of the monument is very extensive. Sup- 

 pose one half of the whole occupied by an immense acute 

 angle of sea, the Moray frith. Imagine, further, a long 

 sharp tongue of land striking out into the middle of this 

 angle from the apex, and with a tall tower-like building 

 at its point. This tongue is the peninsula of Easter 

 Ross, and the tower-like erection the lighthouse of Tarbet 

 Ness. At the base of this tongue there is a spindle- 

 shaped lake, the bay of Cromarty. The hills of 

 Sutherland and Ross make a splendid frame to the land- 

 scape on the north and west, and on the south and east 

 stretch the light blue hills of Moray, Banff, and Inver- 

 ness. Remember I am not vain enough to attempt 

 drawing a picture ; I am merely scratching as with a 

 burnt stick a few careless outlines.' 



' Saturday morning, Cromarty. 



' One of our neighbours here, old Mrs Forbes, has 

 just been furnishing me with a new evidence that I am 

 getting old myself. My father was but fifty at the time 

 of his death, and I am now turned of forty. " Oh," she 

 said, after shaking hands with me, " you are growing 

 your father's very image." I have reached the same 

 period of life to which he had attained when she knew 

 him best, and years are bringing out resemblances to 

 him in my face and figure, which seem to have lain 

 latent before. I had a walk yesterday to the rocks 

 with my hammer, and succeeded in picking up several 

 tolerable specimens.' 



4 Saturday evening. 



' I have been holding a tete-a-tete to-night with your 



