PEEFACE 



I FEEL inclined to ask the printer to use red ink for 

 the introduction to this volume, as serving to indicate 

 how I blush at my temerity in laying before a too 

 indulgent public a fifth bundle of these desultory 

 notes. Nobody can be more conscious than myself of 

 their ephemeral quality; but the public has itself to 

 blame, if blame there be, because of the encouragement 

 it has shown me to give a more or less permanent form 

 to fleeting impressions, and to prose about matters one 

 cannot but notice in moving through our beautiful 

 land. 



After all, it is well within the command of readers to 

 bring the series to a conclusion by ceasing to pay it 

 any attention. 



Of the following papers, Nos. XXI. and LXVIII. have 

 already appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, whereof I 

 thank the editor for his permission to reprint them. 

 Most of the rest have seen daylight in the pages of the 

 PaU Mall Gazette. 



HERBERT MAXWELL. 



MONREITH, 1909. 



