HUGH MILLER 



CHAPTER I 



1 A wet sheet and a flowing sea, 

 A wind that follows fast.' 



ALLAN CUNNINGHAM 



EARLY DAYS IN CROMARTY 



THE little town of Cromarty lies perched on the 

 southern shore of the entrance to the Firth of that name, 

 and derives its name from the Cromachty, the crook or 

 winding of the magnificent stretch of water known to 

 Buchanan and the ancient geographers as the Portus 

 Salutis, 'in which the very greatest navies may rest 

 secure from storms.' In the history of Scotland the 

 place is scarcely mentioned; and, indeed, in literary 

 matters is known only from its association with the 

 names of Hugh Miller and the rare figure of Sir 

 Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, who had followed 

 Charles n. to the ' crowning mercy ' of Worcester fight, 

 to land at last in the Tower. But for the silence of 

 history the imagination or the credulity of the knight 

 has atoned, by the production of a chronicle which 



