132 



down stairs at 12 o'clock in the day, all steaming 

 and shining with the sweat and grease of his pro- 

 tracted slumbers ! Now, what does this great 

 moralist of his age, and of all coming ages, say on 

 the matter ? These are his words : < Cleanliness, 

 sir, is the penance which folly pays for its obedience 

 to fashion. This wig of curtailed dimensions, and 

 this coat of antique cut, are covered with half a 

 century's accumulated dust. Eut comfort does not 

 flow from the constant powdering, combing, and 

 curling of the hair ; neither is it to be obtained from 

 the perpetual rubbing of the clothes-brush, nor from 

 the idle vanity of a weekly recurrence to the tailor. 

 Neither broad cloth nor new curls give me half so 

 much ease as the untouched dirt of my old coat, and 

 the uncurled dishabille of my little wig.' So, gentle- 

 men, is it with what we see around us here. We 

 must not conclude that all that we see neat and 

 precise is really useful, and contributes to real hap- 

 piness ; nor all that may offend our tastes and senses 

 is pernicious and useless." 



In skirting along the north-east from Aberdeen, 

 we meet with the Ythan, the Ituna of the Bomans. 

 It springs out of the parish of Forgue, and has a 

 run of full twenty-five miles. It is a capital salmon 

 and trouting stream. Its chief tributaries are the 

 Ebrie, Brony, and Foveran, in all of which there is 

 good rod-fishing, and the country on and around 

 their banks is very beautiful and interesting. Loch 

 Muckle lies near its entrance into the ocean. 



Further north, at the distance of about fifteen 



