37 



CHAPTER IV. 



FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDS EXPERI- 

 MENTS IN SELF-AMUSEMENT THE REBELLIOUS SCHOOLBOY. 



SOON after the occurrence which has detained us so 

 long, the boy proceeded on a visit to certain relatives 

 in the Highlands of Sutherland, a visit which was re- 

 peated in two successive autumns. His faculties were 

 thus exercised by new scenes and new acquaintances ; he 

 listened to discussions on the poems of Ossian, and 

 began secretly to think it probable that the famed Celtic 

 bard belonged to the ancient clan MacPherson ; he 

 added to the picture gallery of his imagination a few 

 fresh subjects, long, low valleys in tender blue, en- 

 livened by green wooded knolls and delicately draped 

 with wreaths of morning mist, reaches of quiet lake 

 with grey ruins nodding on slim promontories, water- 

 falls glancing by the silvery boles of birch-trees, and 

 sending up a steamy spray to fall gemlike on their 

 drooping foliage; and he laid the foundation of that 

 thorough comprehension of the character of the High- 

 landers, and of the condition of the Highlands, which 

 made him in after life one of the best authorities on all 

 Highland questions. 



Whether in Sutherland or at home, his mind was 

 constantly active, constantly growing. His school-fellows 



