36 NETHER LOCHABER. 



attractive and lovely ; and all, in short, that you can reasonahly 

 look for of the grand or beautiful from the sea coast to the central 

 Highlands. With all this, and the redoubted " Davie " to handle 

 the ribbons, as only " Davie " can handle them — said " Davie " 

 the while as full of anecdote, and joke, and local tradition as an egg 

 is full of meat — with all this we say, and much more that might be 

 mentioned, the man who cannot enjoy such a journey at this season 

 is little to be envied ; for, be his other qualities and qualifications 

 what they may, his non-enjoyment of such a drive clearly proves 

 one of two things, — either he is physically unwell, and out of sorts, 

 and had better stay at home ; or, sesthetically, he has no eye for, 

 and no appreciation of, some of the most splendid scenery in the 

 Highlands, and in that case is less to be blamed than pitied. Even 

 in winter we should say that this was the readiest, as well as the 

 most pleasant, line of intercommunication between the north-western 

 Highlands and the south. It were, finally, unpardonable in us, 

 who enjoyed it so much, not to mention the very excellent break- 

 fast on the up-journey, and the equally excellent and substantial 

 " tea," or tea-dinner rather, on returning, to be had in the shep- 

 herd's house at Moy. It may seem unromantic and prosaic to say 

 so, but it is a fact nevertheless, that one's appreciation of the 

 sublime and beautiful — let Mr. Edmund Burke say what he likes 

 — is not a little enhanced by a due supply of creature comforts 

 j)ari passu. If one cannot carry the comforts of home about with 

 him, any more than honest Bailie Nicol Jarvie could carry about 

 with him the comforts of the " Sautmarket," it is no small matter 

 to meet with good cheer off a snow-white cloth, with the attentions 

 of a smart, intelligent serving girl, in odd and out-of-the-way 

 places, where you least expect it. Altogether, a trip by the Fort- 

 William and Kingussie mail-coach during the present fine weather 

 is very enjoyable indeed — superior, upon the whole, wc should say, 

 to the " Rambler's " post-chaise, not forgetting that the latter is a 



