276 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



Duddingston, who, when clear and unapproached pre- 

 eminence has been allowed to Turner, must be placed 

 high among the landscape painters not only of Scotland 

 but of Great Britain, was sometimes present, attracted 

 perhaps by the original portrait of Burns by Nasmyth or 

 Wilkie's Auld Robin Gray, both of which adorned George 

 Thomson's drawing-room. Mrs Grant of Laggan and 

 Teniiant of ' Anster Fair ' figured among the literary 

 celebrities. 



A young lady, of great natural ability, accustomed 

 to polite society in Surrey and advantageously educated 

 and introduced in Edinburgh, would be likely to shine 

 in the intellectual circle of Cromarty. For a very small 

 town, Cromarty was happy in the quality of its in- 

 habitants. The Rev. Mr Stewart was the central 

 star in its social firmament, his supremacy beginning 

 about this time to be disputed by Miller. Not that 

 there was any thought of rivalry or of jealousy on 

 either side ; they were the closest and most faithful 

 friends ; but that the reputation of Miller even in its dawn 

 shot its rays to a wider horizon than had as yet been 

 .reached by Mr Stewart's, and that the culture of the 

 minister was, in all save theological reading and gram- 

 matical knowledge of Greek and Latin, narrower than 

 that of the parishioner. A colonel, a captain, both in- 

 telligent beyond the average of their class, with ladies to 

 match, a banker who had been an officer in the navy 

 and retained professional enthusiasm enough to make him 

 study naval history until he became a walking encyclo- 

 pasdia of information on sea-battles, these, with a variety 

 of studious and accomplished ladies, eminent, some for 

 Calvinistic metaphysics, some for geological predilections, 

 made up the cluster of notabilities which circled round 

 Alexander Stewart and Hugh Miller, the Duke and the 



