RANNOCH 
28 
so. It was the longest voyage that I had made, and was, perhaps, 
the worst in my experience. Any way the mention or mere thought 
of food was but an intensification of a misery that was scarcely 
endurable. For my part, I reached Punch’s second stage, when one 
fears that the ship will not go to the bottom, yet somehow Dundee 
was reached at last. Now we had taken very little money with us, 
and on the return journey a portmanteau went astray which neces¬ 
sitated posting in a dog-cart some twenty miles, a heavy tax on the 
slender balance in our pockets. The train from the North just missed 
the Dundee train at Perth—we saw our train moving out of the 
station, but were told that if we ran we could catch it at the next 
station! Accordingly run we did, cumbered as we were with 
precious store-boxes and setting-houses. It was a very hot August 
day, and the permanent way did not afford a good running ground. 
At first the train receded hopelessly, but we held on; anon we 
seemed to keep our distance, then to be gaining slowly. How 
hot, but how thankful, we were when the half mile or so was 
covered, and we found ourselves panting and exhausted in our third- 
class compartment! When we got on board our steamer at Dundee 
the head steward again suggested that we should compound for our 
meals, but with proud wisdom after our painful experience, we 
more or less politely declined. We cast off in perfect weather, which 
endured to the end of our voyage over a glassy sea. Naturally a 
month's hard work collecting day and night with truly simple fare 
had got us into splendid health, and given us the appetite of two 
young wolves. Meal followed meal with the usual nautical fre¬ 
quency, and we ate oft and gaily. Alas! the question of payment 
inevitably came up, and to our chagrin we found that the lost 
portmanteau had more than absorbed our surplus cash. Accordingly 
we had a long and sad discussion as to the relative expediency of 
having dinner or breakfast, for we could not afford both. What 
the decision was I forget, but whichever way the lot fell, the event 
entailed more self-denial than we found pleasant. At the docks we 
got into a cab having but a few coppers in our exchequer, and had 
to call at a friendly office in the city to borrow money to pay the 
fare. 
Soon after our return from Scotland the Blackburns introduced 
me to the National Collection, then in the gloomy cellar at Blooms¬ 
bury, and my diary refers to the Tortricina therein as “ in a most 
wretched state ; aceriana , dealbana , and ocdlana all muddled up.” 
I was extremely desirous to capture something new to Britain, 
and my chagrin was great indeed when Dr. Knaggs, after expressing 
