DEC. GRANTOWN TO FORRES. 69 



vicinity of the Spey, and that curiously-built place 

 Grantown, with its wide street of houses, almost 

 wholly inhabited by Grants, which appellation with 

 every variety of Christian name is written at least 

 on nine houses out of every ten, the traveller comes 

 out on the extended flats and moors of the district 

 round Brae Moray, where there is scarcely a sign 

 of life, animal or human ; excepting when a grouse 

 rises from the edge of the road, or runs with comb 

 and head erect a few yards into the heather, and 

 then crouches till the intruder has passed by. There 

 is, I admit, a turnpike-house here, but it is a 

 wretched-looking aflPair, and its tenant must live a 

 life as solitary as a lighthouse keeper. After several 

 miles of this most dreary though not very elevated 

 range, the road enters the woods and for a long 

 distance passes through a succession or rather one 

 continued tract of fine fir-trees. It goes through 

 the beautiful grounds of Altyre, and along the 

 banks of the most picturesque part of the Findhorn ; 

 and gradually descending it opens upon the rich 

 fields and firth of Moray, with the mountains of 

 Ross, Caithness, and Sutherland — a glorious range — 

 in the background : a great and most pleasing change 

 from the dreary brown muirland near Brae Moray. 

 Having passed through this long and varied tract 

 of woodland, the road suddenly emerges into the 



