Loch Ness is also celebrated as the place to which General Wade, of " Highland road-making memory," is known to have been more enthusiastically attached than to any other spot in Great Britain, and as possessing one of the finest roads in Europe, made by that General in the face of physical difficulties such as, perhaps, have never been overcome.

If there were any drawback to the pleasure we enjoyed while luxuriating among the matchless beauties of the scenery around the Scottish lakes, it arose from the reflection that they are comparatively so little frequented. There are thousands of our countrymen who every successive summer quit their homes in quest of picturesque views; but the great majority of them seek for that scenery on foreign shores, though much more beautiful is to be witnessed in their own country. The taste, if such it can be called, which thus induces men to visit far-distant lands for the purpose of viewing their most interesting scenery, while scenery still more interesting and beautiful is to be witnessed in their own, is at once vicious and expensive.

169

THE SOLDIER AND HIS WIFE.

I TAKE a peculiar delight in studying human nature, especially as it exhibits itself among the lower orders of society. He who, like myself, would witness its noblest and most unsophisticated manifestations, must look for them among the working-people. I feel so much gratification in hearing one of the lower classes unbosoming himself to another, with all that freedom and native simplicity so peculiar to themselves, that I often steal away from what is called intellectual society, to listen, for an hour or two, to their conversation.

The metropolis of England affords innumerable opportunities of indulging this disposition to all who choose to embrace them. The coffeehouses which, I should mention, are to be met with in almost every street, are much frequented by the working-people-the extreme moderation

I

the charges made for refreshment, being so suited to their means. There is one of these in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, in which, some years ago, I used to spend a spare hour; ostensibly for the purpose of reading the newspapers, but actually that I might enjoy the luxury of overhearing the conversations in which the working-people, who chiefly attended it, frequently engaged together.

One of the conversations I thus, on one occasion, overheard, made so deep an impression on my mind, that it is not likely I shall ever forget it. It occurred on the Good Friday of 1834. A few minutes after I had seated myself and taken a newspaper in my hand, two young men, apparently about the age of from twenty to twenty-five, entered the room, and took their seats in the box which I then occupied.

"Ah! Robert, how are you?" said one of them to another who had been in the box before I entered it, and who was sitting directly opposite to me. The two cordially shook each other by the hand, and seemed very happy at meeting. The third did not appear to have

previously met with the young man who was in the room before he and his companion entered, as they did not exchange words for some time, and then in such a manner as indicated that they were unacquainted with each other.

I could easily perceive from their accent, that they were all countrymen of my own; in other words, were Scotchmen. That circumstance did not lessen the interest I felt in their after-conversation.

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"I have just been reading," Robert said to the party who was in the box before the other two young men entered the room- "I have just

been reading a very interesting and affecting account of the devoted attachment which an English peasant and his wife cherished towards each other, and which was strikingly manifested under the most trying circumstances. Read it; it is well worthy of perusal."

He hastily handed the newspaper to the other, with the passage marked.

"It is very interesting and very affecting," remarked the latter, after reading it; "but not

of nearly so much so as a story which my father has often told me, illustrative of the affection which a countryman of our own felt for his wife, and of the warmth and sincerity with which that affection was reciprocated by her. My father was himself a witness of the principal incidents in the narrative; and I never yet knew him relate the story without drawing tears from the eyes of all who were present."

let

"Do let me hear it," said Robert.

"It is rather long to tell it you now; I shall you hear it all on some other occasion." "Never mind the length," replied Robert. "There is nothing," he added, "that affords me so much pleasure as to hear of circumstances which are honourable to our common nature. I am free to confess that that pleasure is heightened when the persons, as in this case, exhibiting these excellent traits of character, belong to Scotland."

"Well then," said the other, "I shall tell you the story as well as I can; though I cannot do it with half the effect with which my father was accustomed to relate it."