Though the arts and the sciences are studied here. with as much attention, perhaps, as any where in Scotland, and improvements in almost every art made daily, yet a surgical operation was required from the medical men here, that they would not perform. In some cases, it seems, the side is opened, and certain operations performed on the lungs, &c. This, like the cæsarean operation, ought to be the last resource; and, certainly, ought not to be tried, if it can possibly be avoided. The surgeons here refused to perform any operation of this kind, on a certain person that applied to them for that purpose; and, before the surgeon arrived from Edinburgh to perform this nice, I should rather have said dangerous, experiment, the patient was dead, and I think better for the surgeon than if he had died under his hands.

mour.

When at Forres, which is a small burgh, beautifully situated not far from the sea, and which may be styled the Montpelier of this part of Scotland, I went to see Sweno's stone, a monument erected by the road side, consisting of a single stone on its end, with a variety of figures of horses and men in arThis stone is fifteen feet above ground, and eight below. Tradition says, it was erected on the final expulsion of the Danes from this part of Scotland. It is the most entire, as well as the most curious, to be found in Britain; but how, or by what means, the men in those days, could either carry or erect a stone of such enormous weight, is more than I can comprehend.

There are fools to be found every where. Upon observing a neat house, beautifully situated in the

midst of trees, and having a delightful prospect at the west end of Forres, and thinking the man must be happy who dwells there, I was informed that it was named Birds-yards; that it was lately sold by a young man, to whom it was left by his father, with a considerable estate attached to it; that, in the course of a few years, the young man, though he had received a liberal education, had spent near twenty thousand pounds sterling; that, being reduced from keeping his carriage, his mistress, &c. &c. he had enlisted as a common soldier in the guards, at London; and that now his friends, who often supplied him with money, and, as he was young and handsome, wished to buy a commission for him in the guards, have given over assisting him, as he has married a woman who keeps a green-stall in Edinburgh; in other words, a street-walker.

FROM FORRES TO INVERNESS.

FROM Forres I went to Auldearn, a parish near the burgh of Nairn, where a battle was fought by Montrose, at the head of a party of Charles I's forces, against the covenanters. A great many lost their lives upon this occasion; though the battle was not decisive; and, it is the tradition, that a rivulet, which runs through the middle of the place, at present, as it did when the battle was fought, ran with blood.

Though the face of the country is improved, and improving fast here; and the arts of peace carefully cultivated, yet I was sorry to observe that here, as well as in too many other places, public worship is neither respected, nor attended by the higher ranks. I am led to this remark, from observing that a neat house, of a peculiar construction, built near the church, in religious times, for the proprietors of a large estate to pray and sing psalms in, between sermons, on Sunday, is converted into a stable and cow-house, and that the family for many years have scarcely, either in the morning or afternoon, been seen in the church. So that, with regard to religion, the face of the country is also changed. The common people, in all ages, have been apt to imitate their superiors. If they, too, come to neglect to worship the God of their fathers, it is not difficult to foresee what will be the consequence.

Being invited to dine with a gentleman near Auldearn, when I was praising the salad, which I

found extremely good, he said, smiling, "You need not be afraid, it is not dressed with castor oil." Upon inquiring what he alluded to, he told me that a gentleman and his lady, in the neighbourhood, who sometimes, as is the case in inland places, where there are no resident doctors, when any of their tenants are sick, recommend an emetic, or the like, to them, and at their own expense afforded the medicine. This gentleman, having an appeal to the house of peers, about a large estate, was at London; and, as he gained the process, and was about to return to Scotland, he bought some gallons of castor oil, to lie at his house, and be served out as occasion should require. Upon his arrival in Scotland, as is natural, all the nobility and gentry, who were acquainted with him, came to dine with him, and congratulate him and the family on so many thousand pounds yearly being added to their fortune. When mostly all the genteel families for twenty miles round had paid their compliments to him in this manner, and he and his lady found leisure to hear the complaints of those sick people that applied to them, he found that some castor oil might be useful to a person that had come to consult them. Upon this, he rang the bell for John, the servant, who appearing, and being desired to bring some castor oil, replied, it is all done. Done! replied the gentleman, do not you know there is a keg of it lately come from London. "Yes, but, if it please your honour, that one is done too." How can that be, replied the gentleman, in a passion? "Why, sir, you have had such a round of company almost every day since it came, and always salad at table, that it is all gone."

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"Don't you know, it is castor oil I want, and that the name is written in large letters on the cask." "So it is," replied the servant, "but as your honour knows, it was for the CASTERS, and dressing the salad: it is all gone.""-"O you scoundrel, now I understand you; so you have been dressing the salad all this time with it. But harkee, John, for God's sake do not mention it." The truth is, all the company were highly pleased with the salads, and had often spoke in their praise; and the gentleman and his family had never in their life a better summer's health, nor the people that visited him.

Notwithstanding the fertility of Murrayshire, I find many people died in it, of want, during the famine which happened about a hundred years ago, and that, in most towns all over Murrayshire, there were men appointed, whose business it was to perambulate the town of Elgin, and its environs, every morning, and bury whomsoever they found dead. Happily for us, we live in other times, when government are not only careful in promoting every measure that may tend to excite industry among the people, but also to import from foreign countries what may be necessary for the support and conveniency of the most distant provinces, when the crop happens to fail.

My next object was to visit Culloden, where the duke of Cumberland gained a complete victory over the rebel army, in April 1746, three thousand of them being killed in thirty-five minutes. This victory was, no doubt, fortunate for the country at large, though it pressed hard on individuals. But, the glory the duke obtained by it was, undoubtedly,