-54 HORSE PORTRAITURE. 



boy I bird-nested and gathered hazel nuts in Craigieburn 

 Wood, " where sweet faa's the eve ;" guddled for trouts 

 in the waters, and pou'd gowans on the banks, of the Even 

 and Annan, rendered classical by the sweet lyrics my 

 countrymen have written in their praise ; wandered with 

 awe around some of the old ruined castles whose thick 

 walls and grated windows told tales of the old feudal 

 times, and which needed not the funereal yew and dismal 

 fir to make as ghostly as one could wish ; admired the well- 

 kept parks, with the trees of centuries' growth springing 

 from the verdant sod. Your remark that the English- 

 man's boast was of the most beautiful women, finest 

 horses, and grandest old trees is true, since Scotland was 

 joined by act of Parliament to the richer country. The 

 finest horses, even a Scotchman will admit, they always 

 possessed, but the bonnie lasses and grand trees would 

 never be allowed. No one acquainted with the literature 

 of the two countries, will deny that the Scot has been 

 more felicitous in his description of female beauty, which 

 can only be accounted for by his more frequently seeing 

 it ; but I have got away from the breeding farm and di- 

 gressed merely to compare the trees on it with those of 

 Kentucky and England, superior to the first and quite 

 equaling the finest specimens in the English parks. The 

 site for the house is about midway, in elevation, between 

 the river and top of the bluff, on the summit of one of 

 the smaller hills. To the east and south nothing ob- 

 structs the view, and a grand one- it is. The southward 

 curve of the bluff, forming an arc of a great circle, en- 

 closes several thousand acres between it and the river. 

 "Where it meets the water, it ends in an almost perpen- 

 dicular wall of yellow limestone, broken into deep fissures, 

 where scrubby red cedars and creeping vines are the only 

 verdure that can grow. On the summit of the precipice are 

 gnarled oaks, throwing their branches in fantastic shapes 



