sturdy beggars, but with this difference, that instead of soliciting alms by way of favour and charity, they demanded free quarters, and all the necessaries of life, as things to which they were entitled of right in virtue of their bardship. Upon this ground, land-owners, great and small, with their servants, pedlars, taylors, shoemakers, and people of all descriptions, were laid under contribution; and the danger of disputing the right was so well known from the coarse and filthy, but strong and epigrammatic railings in verse, which were vented against the very few who had the hardihood to be recusants, that the title was almost universally admitted, and the supplies promptly, if not cheerfully, furnished. Extravagant praises were the reward of particular favourites; and both in adulation and satire, all regard to truth was entirely and even professedly disclaimed. The object was, in every instance, to produce the most perfect specimen either of flattery or railing; and it was not uncommon with the bards to exercise their powers, and try the fertility of their invention, by selecting some indifferent or imaginary person, and loading him first with the grossest and most unbounded adulation, and then with the foulest and bitterest abuse. John Lom having mentioned to a favourite that he meant to compose a song in his praise, and the other insisting that it should contain nothing but the truth; the bard, although much might with truth be said, refused to praise upon these terms. His talent, however, lay much more towards railing, which was likewise more to his taste, and better suited to the stern, sullen, and inexorable nature of his character; and many epigrammatic sayings of that description, both by him and of him, are still remembered. One of the latter kind, by a Robertson of Straloch, is a tolerably just account of the general mode of life led by the bards of the period : John Lom the greedy, A bard from his birth, A night on each hearth. He was naturally taciturn, and little disposed to contribute that species of amusement by singing and recitation, which the bards usually reckoned it their duty to furnish in return for their fare and accommodation; and, in one particular, like the singer Tigellius, never sung when called upon. Those who were fond of that amusement, and understood the bard's humour, commenced a blundering recitation of some favourite song or poem, upon which the bard, after exclaiming, "Silence, beast, it was "thus said by the author," proceeded with the recitation in the proper manner. Being a keen Jacobite, like the generality of his clan, and a mortal hater of the Saxons, the public events of the time afforded him abundant subject and provocation for the exercise of his railing talent. He himself knew nothing of reading or writing, but several of his songs have been printed, and, among others, a bitter philippic against the Union between England and Scotland, which is remarkable for the cordial intensity, and perhaps for the truth and justice, of the railing against those who were instrumental in the mode of bringing about that event, and especially against a nobleman of a very ancient Scottish family, who was supposed to have received a large share of the money distributed on that occasion. In advancing from Keppoch towards the head of Glenspean, one may observe, in the face of the ridge of hills on the south, near the summit, some traces of what seems to have been a road, and these vestiges appear more or less distinctly for two or three miles. The southern ridge is in this quarter green to the summit, and the grass rises so thick as to indicate some depth of soil. The ridge on the north of the Spean river is rocky, and for the most part covered with heath: and, after a close inspection from the way which stretches along its base, no corresponding traces of a road were seen on that side. Similar vestiges of roads appear among the hills behind the house of Letter Findley, and other hills in this vicinity; and in Glenroy, the roads are so broad and distinctly exhibited, as to attract the attention of every one, however careless and incurious, who passes through that valley. It has been already stated, that at Keppoch, Glenroy diverges from Glenspean, also stretching eastwards, but with a more northerly inclination, so that the valleys, at first divided only by a narrow ridge, are at their heads fifteen or twenty miles distant from each other. Glenroy is about sixteen miles long, and for eight or ten of these, in ascending from Keppoch, the banks of the river Roy are neatly fringed with natural wood; and the hollow is generally formed into fine green hillocks, like those converted, by highland and lowland superstition, into the chosen abodes of fairies, among which some grain crops are also raised in the vicinity of several farm touns, which a few years ago were, and probably still are, spread over this valley. Judging from the state and situation of this and many other highland glens, it would probably be a good system of management to turn them into sheep farms, with a considerable proportion of black cattle, which in summer might be fed on the hills, and in winter on the green crops that might be produced in large rotations with the grain. For this purpose, the hollows of the valleys must be divided into substantial farms, each in the hands of one person; and the mountain ranges, when too extensive and barren for inclosure, might with proper regulations as to the stocks be pastured in common. This would in general insure the application of capital and skill, as well as industry, and would also be compatible with the retention of a great proportion of the population; which is always. almost entirely swept away, when a whole valley, with a wide tract of adjoining hills, is converted into one vast sheep farm. The latter plan seems to be the favourite with those improvers who reckon the consequences to the ancient population as nothing, and may be the most profitable; but the other would be a valuable medium between the depopulating plan, and that system which makes the soil in a great measure useless, both to the cultivator and the landlord. It has been mentioned, that the separation of the little farms, and the green rotations, have produced a decided amelioration even among |