On the opposite side of the Spey,* a river, grand and picturesque in all its windings, buried amidst the wooded hills of Beneagan, the elegant villa of Arndilly forms a beautiful object. Mr. G----- informed me, vast herds of the red deer and roebucks shelter, during the winter, in his woods, which spread to a considerable extent. During the last year he has planted on Beneagan one million two hundred thousand trees.

A traveller desirous of taking the route from Elgin to Avi-moor, will be delighted with the road along the borders of the Spey, proceeding from Aberlour, the first pass into the Highlands.

Six miles from Elgin, situated on the verge of the sea, is the village of Lossie Mouth, a retired watering-place, frequented during the summer months for the benefit

* "Spey seems to have its name from the Teutonic or Pictish word Spey, Spectum, because the rapidity of it raiseth foam or froth." SHAW.

of bathing. It has a small but indifferent harbour.

The principal sea-port near Elgin is Broughead. During the period the harbour was building, a Roman wall was discovered, in the shape of a bath, which evidently shews it to have been at one period a Roman station.

Extending along the shore, three miles from Lossie Mouth, is a series of extraordinary excavations, called, the Caves of Coversea. Though they are no doubt inferior to the hall of Fingal, yet they merit the attention of the naturalist, who may visit the enchanting province of Moray,* to which I now reluctantly bid adieu.

* " Moray, or Moravia, the name by which the country is called. Hector Bathius writes, that in the first century a colony from Moravia settled in this country, and gave it the name from which it is derived.

SHAW.

LETTER XII.

Inverness, July.

THE HE stages from Elgin to Forres and Nairn, through a pleasant champaign country, bespeaks the most smiling fertility. Near Forres, on the right, I passed a magnificent obelisk, variously ornamented in different divisions, with curious sculptured figures, the character of the devices very extraordinary. The column erected by the gentlemen of Forres to the memory of Lord Nelson, is commemorative of his signal victories, which are inscribed upon it.

Forres derives its name from Far-nus, near the water. The river Finhorn flows close to the town, which is approached by a handsome stone bridge. The fortifica tion was situated on an eminence. It was

in this fort King Duffus was said to be murdered, in the year 966. At the period Donald, grand-uncle of Bancho, Thane of Lochaber, was governor, the king came to Forres, to condemn some villains, and would not grant remission for their crimes, which Donald and his wife warmly solicited; upon which they had his majesty strangled, and hid his body beneath the bridge near Kinloss. Donald, conscious of his guilt, fled; but his wife, on being put to the torture, betrayed her husband, who, with his accomplices, were seized and put to death. No traces of the fort, which was razed, are visible.

Forres is a large handsome looking town, and stands in a richly cultivated country.

Nairn had also a royal fort, placed on the banks of the river, not far from the bridge. It is a place of great antiquity, and is mentioned as far back as the year 1008. Nairn, or Inevernairn, in Gaelic, is so called, from the alder-trees which surround it.

Taking leave of all the soft charms of rural scenery, I passed over a barren tract of country, bounded by the Moray Firth, with a grand stretch of the dark mountains of Ross and Sutherland, which rise in gigantic heaps on the opposite coast, and were beautifully touched with golden streaks of the setting sun, which brilliantly gleamed on the dark waters of the Firth.

A few miles beyond Nairn, the aspect of the country became desolate in the extreme, wild, gloomy, and naked. Far as the eye could discern, extends the Haar, or Hoar moor, the most in

teresting classic ground.

Here all the magic imagery of Shakespear was before me. The Weird Sisters, with Hecate at their head,

"So wither'd, and so wild in their attire,

That look not like the inhabitants of earth,"

I fancied I beheld, when the guard of the mail-coach pointed out the spot where we are told Macbeth encountered them. A shuddering sensation of horrow mingles with the fancy, while gazing on this реси