248 RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 



reiterating my query in a form that indicated some little con- 

 fidence of receiving the needed information ; " I daresay you 

 could point me out the public-house here T " Aweel I wat, 

 that I can ; but what's that T pointing to the straps of my 

 knapsack ; " are ye a sodger on the Queen's account, or ye'r 

 ain T " On my own, to be sure ; but have ye a public-house 

 here?' "Ay, twa ; yell be a traveller?" "O yes, great 

 traveller, and very hungry : have I passed the best public- 

 house ?" " Ay ; and ye'll hae come a gude stap the day f ' 

 A woman came up, with spectacles on nose, and a piece of 

 white seam-work in her hand ; and, cutting short the dia- 

 logue by addressing myself to her, she at once directed me 

 to the public-house. "Hoot, gudewife," I heard the man 

 say, as I turned down the street, " we suld ha e gotten mair 

 oot o' him. He's a great traveller yon, an' has a gude Scots 

 tongue in his head." 



Travellers, save when, during the herring season, an occa- 

 sional fish-curer comes the way, rarely bait at the Garden- 

 stone inn and in the little low-browed room, with its win- 

 dows in the thatch, into which, as her best, the landlady 

 ushered me, I certainly found nothing to identify the locale 

 with that chosen by the literary lawyer for his open library. 

 But, according to Ferguson, though " learning was scant, pro- 

 vision was good ;" and I dined sumptuously on an immense 

 platter of fried flounders. There was a little bit of cold pork 

 added to the fare ; but, aware from previous experience of 

 the pisciverous habits of the swine of a fishing village, I did 

 what I knew the defunct pig must have very frequently done 

 before me, satisfied a keenly-whetted appetite on fish exclu- 

 sively. I need hardly remind the reader that Lord Garden- 

 stone's inn was not that of Gardenstone, but that of Laurence- 

 kirk, the thriving village which it was the special ambition 

 of this law-lord of the last century to create ; and which, did 

 it produce only its famed snuff-boxes, with the invisible hinges, 



