CHRISTOPHER IN HIS SPORTING JACKET 



education. In the moorland parish God bless it in 

 which we had the inestimable advantage of passing 

 our boyhood there were a good many falcons of 

 course the kite or glead the buzzard the sparrow- 

 hawk the marsh harrier that imp the merlin 

 and, rare bird and beautiful ! there, on a cliff which, 

 alas! a crutched man must climb no more, did the 

 Peregrine build her nest. You must not wonder at 

 this, for the parish was an extensive one even for 

 Scotland half Highland half Lowland and had not 

 only "muirs and mosses many o," but numerous hills, 

 not a few mountains, some most extraordinary cliffs, 

 considerable store of woods, and one, indeed, that 

 might well be called The Forest. 



Lift up thy rock-crowned forehead through thy own 

 sweet stormy skies, Auld Scotland! and as sternly and 

 grimly thou look'st far over the hushed or howling 

 seas, remember thee till all thy moors and mosses 

 quake at thy heart, as if swallowing up an invad- 

 ing army a fate that oft befell thy foes of yore re- 

 member thee, in mist-shrouded dream, and cloud-born 

 vision, of the long line of kings, and heroes, and 

 sages, and bards, whose hallowed bones sleep in pine- 

 darkened tombs among the mountain heather, by the 

 side of rivers, and lochs, and arms of ocean their 

 spirits yet seen in lofty superstition, sailing or sit- 

 ting on the swift or settled tempest. Lift up thy rock- 

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