408 A Walk from 



inn at the very jumping-off end of Scotland, I was 

 fresher and more vigorous on foot than at any previous 

 stage of the journey. 



Having found to my great satisfaction that they 

 could ' give me a bed for the night, I went with two 

 gentlemen of the neighborhood to see the site of the 

 celebrated John O'Grroat's House, about a mile and a 

 half from the inn. There was only a footpath to it 

 across intervening fields, and when we reached it a 

 rather vigorous exercise of the organ of individuality 

 was requisite to "locate" the foundations of "the 

 house that Jack built." Indeed, pilgrims to the 

 shrine of this famous domicile are liable to much 

 disappointment at finding so little remaining of a 

 residence so historical. Literally not one stone is 

 left upon another. A large stone granary standing 

 near is said to have been built of the debri* of the 

 house, and this helps out one's faith when struggling 

 to believe in the existence of such a building at all. 

 A certain ridgy rising in the ground, to which you 

 try to give an octagonal shape, is pointed out as 

 indicating the foundations ; but an unsatisfactory 

 obscurity rests upon the whole history of the estab- 

 lishment. Whether true or not, that history of the 

 house which one would prefer to believe runs thus : 



In the reign of James IV. of Scotland, three 



