273 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MISS PHASER HER PARENTAGE, RESIDENCE IN EDINBURGH, 



POSITION IN CROMARTY SOCIETY OF THE PLACE MILLER* S 



MANNER AND APPEARANCE A FASCINATING COMPANION 



HE AND MISS FRASER BECOME LOVERS GLIMPSES OF RO- 

 MANCE METAPHYSICAL LOVE-MAKING A NEW AMBITION 



AWAKES IN MILLER FABLE OF APOLLO AND DAPHNE 



REVERSED LETTER TO MISS FRASER AND TO MRS FRASER. 



BUT there were better things to entertain Hugh Miller 

 at this time than what Mr Carlyle might call the 

 highly unmemorable polemics of the parish of Cromarty. 

 In the summer of 1831 he first saw Miss Lydia Mac- 

 kenzie Eraser. About a year before, when residing with 

 relations in Surrey, this young lady had received a 

 letter from her mother, in which, among other descrip- 

 tive touches relating to Cromarty, occurred the follow- 

 ing : ' You may guess what are its literary pretensions 

 when I tell you that from my window at this moment 

 I see a stonemason engaged in building a wall. He has 

 just published a volume of poems and likewise letters on 

 the herring fishery ; both of which I now send you.' 

 Miss Eraser was quick, intelligent, interested in literature ; 

 this announcement naturally excited her curiosity. On 

 coming to Cromarty, she did not for some time see the 

 poetic stone-mason, and when she did, he was not aware 

 that her eyes rested on him. She and her mother had 



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