442 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



Village/' and seems chiefly remarkable, at present, for its 

 fallen houses and its vacant streets. The laird was call- 

 ing upon me, and we had a long conversation together. 

 He purposes having some memorial over his mother's 

 grave in the old chapel, and I gave him a rude sketch of 

 the remains of the old Gothic inclosure around the spot, 

 as this existed thirty years ago. Two buttresses oc- 

 cupied each corner of a rectangular erection which stood 

 on a broad sloping base, and showed, a little higher 

 up, a portion of a massive moulding. He kindly invited 

 me to dine at Cromarty House, but the invitation I of 

 course declined. Till I get stronger I must take care 

 and avoid dinners, save very quiet ones with my mother. 



1 Among the other things changed for the worse in 



Cromarty is the old captain's house. seems to 



have dealt by it as he usually does by other good texts. 

 The shrubs and trees on the green in front are all cut 

 down, the hillock in the centre levelled, and a stiff, bare 

 stone wall built in front. The place, in short, just looks 

 the thing which it has become, a commonplace 

 Moderate manse. But the change is merely repre- 

 sentative of what is taking place, under the name of im- 

 provement, in the district generally. The line old 

 woods and picturesque hedges are away, and bare corn- 

 land with raw dry-stone fences occupy their place. 



The bairns will, I trust, have good collections of 

 Portobello shells ere my return, and will be able to stand 

 an examination on their names. I had a brief walk two 

 days ago along the shore, to the west of the factory, and 

 found the group of shells strewed along the beach 

 essentially different from the Frith of Forth one. 

 Astarte sulcata was the prevailing shell, Lucina borealis 

 was also very common, and I found in tolerable abund- 

 ance Nuclea nucleus and some specimens of Saxicava 



