home. They enwrap themselves in the drapery of the plaid; it looks very graceful, and gives something of the Roman character to their air, which is always stately and erect. Disencumbered in childhood of drapery, the limbs being unfettered, it is rare to see either a lame or ricketty child, or a deformed person. То learn to dance is generally a part of education; and this healthful exercise gives an elasticity to the body, which renders the deportment easy. It is thought that the ladies who appear in the streets of Edinburgh, step with more grace, united to modesty, than any women in Europe.

K

LETTER XIV.

Achnagairn, July.

A

FEW days absence from Inverness has afforded me the opportunity of viewing some of that wild and romantic scenery with which this country abounds.

Entertained in the mansion of Achnagairn, with the cordial kindness of an old friend, I have here found all the urbanity of Highland manners, with an hospitality which there is no resisting; and been shewn a variety of those objects of natural grandeur, to be met with in every part of the Aird. One of the most striking, are the Falls of Kilmorach, a scene little known, and therefore less celebrated than Foyers, yet partaking of the same character of wild magnificence, and deserving the traveller's notice. The name

of every place in this northern region is derived from the Gaelic, which, indeed, is the only language in use amongst the peasantry, very few of whom can speak English, and Scotch is not known here. It is necessary to tell you that Kilmorach implies the burying-ground of Marion, in Gaelic, Morae, the name of a woman, and the first person who was interred in the burying-ground of Kilmorach. Kil, means cell, the cell of Marion; from which circumstance the name has been handed down.

The first Fall, called the Salmon-Leap, is a sort of circular ravine, where

"The whelming torrents roar,

Rude rushing down the excavated deep."
CRERIE.

The waters of the Beauley have formed numberless natural cascades, by the impetuous rapidity of pouring in foaming torrents over the stones. In those parts where the water is not agitated, the river is so translucent that it has the appearance of

rock crystal, and before losing its depth, reflects the impending rocks in its clear bosom. It is here the salmon sport in their native beds in myriads, and take such extraordinary leaps, a stander-by cannot be ten minutes on the spot without seeing them wanton far above the river.

A singular story is related of an experiment of the late Mr. Lovat. He laid a wager, that if a fire was lighted on one of the rocks verging on the river, and a pot boiled on it, a salmon, taking a contrary leap, would plunge into the boiler, and be drest, ready for eating, without the aid of a cook. In a short space of time Mr. Fraser Lovat gained his

wager.

On these precipitous rocks hang beautiful woods of the elegant weeping birch: their towering heights are often crowned with dark fir-trees. Two water-mills enliven the scene, while the manse (or parsonage), and church, on the brow of the hill, have a very rural appearance. These rocks are infested with eagles. One, for several years, built her nest on the steepest,

and daily conveyed thither prey for her

young. and numerous family, was observed by his neighbours to have a constant supply of more substantial fare than falls to the lot of the half-starved highlander; he was seen to feed upon young kids, lambs, and poultry. Convinced that it was impossible to obtain these dainties by honest means, his neighbours informed against him, and the poor man was taken up upon suspicion. On examination, it was found that he had actually climbed this apparently inacessible rock, to daily plunder the eagle's nest for subsistence to his family. Not merely birds, but animals of prey infest this part of the Highlands; innumerable wild cats prowl amongst the mountains.

A poor cottager, who had a wife

The road winds from one fall to others more distant, along the steep banks of the Beauley, fringed with the pensile birch, the yellow broom, red and white roses, also the digitalis, all flaunting in beautiful luxuriance, surmounted by dark and barren hills, broken by huge masses of rocks