73 THE APPRENTICE. 



not all equally poetical. The country round Conon-side 

 abounds with wild fruit, and I have feasted among the 

 woods, during niy long rambles, on gueens, rowans, 

 raspberries, and blae-berries, with all the keenness of 

 boyish appetite. The fruit furnished me with an osten- 

 sible object for my wanderings ; and when complimented 

 by a romantic young girl, who had derived her notions 

 of character from the reading of romances, on that dis- 

 position which led me to seek my pleasures in solitude, 

 I could remark in reply that I was not more fond of 

 solitude than of raspberries/ 



Thirty years afterwards, in the Schools and School- 

 masters, he refers to his walks by Conon-side in these 

 terms : ' I greatly enjoyed those evening walks. From 

 Conon-side as a centre, a radius of six miles commands 

 many objects of interest ; Strathpeffer, with its mineral 

 springs, Castle Leod, with its ancient trees, among the 

 rest one of the largest Spanish chestnuts in Scotland ; 

 Knockferrol, with its vitrified fort; the old tower of 

 Fairburn ; the old, though somewhat modernized, tower 

 of Kinkell; the Brahan policies, with the old castle of 

 the Seaforths ; the old castle of Kilcoy ; and the Druidic 

 circles of the moor of Redcastle My recollec- 

 tions of this rich tract of country, with its woods and 

 towers, and noble river, seem as if bathed in the red 

 light of gorgeous sunsets.' 



In a letter, otherwise unimportant, to William Ross, 

 written, as I conclude, after he had returned to Cro- 

 marty for the winter, there occurs this reference to the 

 same period : ' When the task of the day was over, and 

 I walked out amid the fields and woods to enjoy the 

 cool of the evening, it was then that I was truly happy. 

 Before me the Conon rolled her broad stream to the 

 sea ; behind, I seemed shut up from all intercourse with 



