THE SCOTCH LAIRD AND THE PEBBLES. 235 



whole fields and farms where, excepting where 

 the ground has been opened for quarries, every 

 stone that can be picked up is an agate, just as 

 in the chalk districts of England every stone that 

 can be picked up is a flint. Some years ago, 

 those pebbles were fashionable, if not valuable, 

 (and except in durability, size, or some use in the 

 arts, fashion forms much of the value of any 

 stone,) and they were consequently esteemed. 

 The proprietor of one of the estates, on which there 

 is really nothing but pebbles, was in London on 

 some business ; and as he did not often visit the 

 metropolis, he resolved to purchase some trinket 

 for his wife, as a memorial of his journey. He 

 went to a jeweller's, arid was shown all the 

 varieties of gems and pastes, but he rejected 

 most of them on account of their smallness, and 

 made his election of a necklace, &c. of large and 

 strongly-marked Scotch pebbles. So much did 

 he admire these, that he began to question the 

 jeweller (who was also a lapidary), what part of 

 the world was so rich as to furnish jewels so 

 splendid. With utter astonishment he heard the 

 name of his own estate, as the place where in 

 one day each season a sufficient supply had been 

 collected, during the time that the stones had 

 been in fashion. The owner of the mine of so 

 much beauty, and as it appeared to him, from 

 the price that he had paid, of so much wealth, 

 would have been glad to exchange his purchase 

 for something that he could not get at home ; but 

 still he was pleased that the mine was his free- 

 hold. Home he returned; the present from Lon- 

 don was duly seen and admired; and the very 

 next morning, taking his mole-staff with him as 



