382 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



try, a light to discover. I have felt this with regard to 

 Mr Robertson. In passing with him along the northern 

 Sutor I could not help regretting that our expedition to 

 it last year should have been so unlucky. Some of the 

 caves are truly superb ; one in particular, which perfor- 

 ates the base of a huge rocky promontory, I have not 

 yet seen surpassed. It has three magnificent entrances, 

 all terminating in one point, from whence a second cave 

 shoots off still deeper into the recesses of the rock, and 

 at the extremity of which noon is dark as midnight.' 



Mr J. R. Robertson, referred to in terms so flatter- 

 ing in this letter, is now resident in London, and has 

 kindly furnished me with the following vivid and inter- 

 esting account of his intercourse with Hugh Miller : 



' In the summer of 1834 I went to Cromarty, intend- 

 ing to stay a few days, and then to pursue my wander- 

 ings through the north Highlands. Circumstances 

 detained me upwards of two months. Almost imme- 

 diately on my arrival, I was introduced to Hugh Miller, 

 who was already a celebrity in his native town and 

 neighbourhood. He was tall and athletic, and had a 

 large head, made to look huge by a rusty profusion of 

 not very carefully-remembered hair. His whiskers were 

 not large, and represented red sand-stone, his eyes grey 

 and keen, his features spoke of intelligence and deter- 

 mination, and exposure to the sun had daubed him with 

 freckles. He did not appear quite so tall as he was, 

 owing to a slouch in his walk, and a tendency to carry 

 his*massive brow in the van, which gave him the sem- 

 blance of stooping. 



f He had before this time exhibited his wonderful 

 powers of composition, and achieved a pretty wide local 

 fame as a great student, a deep and original thinker, 

 and a writer of articles in an Inverness paper, and 



