I could not help observing how hard the poor people labour here to gain a subsistence. The mechanics at Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, London, Glasgow, &c. generally gain as much in three or four days as supports and keeps them drinking the rest of the week. It is otherwise here; for all kinds of clothing are generally dearer than in England and the great towns in Scotland, and the food they eat not much cheaper, while their wages is much inferior, though now growing better.

From Cullen to Fochabers, a distance of twelve miles, is a very fine country all the way, and the crops of wheat, barley, and oats, very strong and flourishing. On this road are a number of scats belonging chiefly to gentlemen of the name of Gordon.

FOCHABERS.

The old town of Fochabers is an assemblage of miserable huis: but in the new town there are several good houses and two tolerable inns. At this place there is an establishment for making sewing thread, in which about fifty girls are employed, under the patronage of the duchess of Gordon. As I passed through the Enzie, Fochabers, I fell in with a number of people, though not on a Sunday, seemingly going to church. Having put up my horse, I followed them to the end of their march, wherever or whatever it might be. It was a Roman Catholic chapel, and I believe the

*

on my way to

* A district so called. Of this district, I suppose, the clan Macenzie were the Aborigines.

most numerously attended of any in Scotland. When I entered, I saw five or six hundred people all devoutly kneeling, it being Whitsuntide. There is an elegant painting of St. Gregory over the altar, I believe valued by the cognoscenti at some hundred guineas. The family of Gordon, in this neighbourhood, being long attached to the Roman Catholic persuasion, after the reformation took place in Scotland, is the reason why this, in the language of the canters, is the greatest nest of the Roman Catholics in Scotland. I have seen the Portuguese ambassadors, and several other of the best Roman Catholic' chapels in London; but this, which will, I understand, accommodate fifteen hundred persons, seems to exceed any of them in size, and several of them, particularly in the invalid room, in neatness and convenience. Upon inquiring how the people here could raise money to build so large a house, I was informed, that though they were certain it did not drop from the clouds, yet the managers of this chapel frequently, while it was building, received money from unknown hands, particularly a hundred pounds one morning, without ever being able to trace from whence it came. This, with a variety of anecdotes respecting the nunnery at Winchester, and that at Hammersmith, in the neighbourhood of London, tends to shew, that though, on account of the penal statutes, they did not shew it, many were attached to the Roman Catholic persuasion.

In a large square stone in the front of this chapel, in large capital letters, is the word DEO. As these letters call up the idea of God, the most sublime that can enter the mind of man, I was surprised to

see the word jostled as it is from the centre of the stone, and the mind withdrawn from the sublime idea suggested by it to the insignificant circumstance of 1781, the year, it seems, in which the chapel was built. True criticism requires that the mind should not be drawn away from the contemplation of sublime ideas by insignificant circumstances. If the year in which the chapel was built must be put up, this is not the place. I am surprised this did not strike the Roman Catholic clergy in this part of the country, whom I found in general, as well as Peter Gordon, esq. of Aberlour, one of their supporters, to be polite and intelligent.

Though, as a Protestant, I believe the seat of devotion to be the heart, yet while in this chapel, as well as in every other place of public worship, I complied as far as I could with the ceremonies of their church; since, whatever the articles of their faith may be, I know Roman Catholics whom I believe to be as good Christians, and as fit for the kingdom of heaven, if I may use the expression, as those who are denominated Protestants. And fortunately, with the well-informed, the question now is not so much of what sect or denomination of Christianity, such and such an one is, as if he be a truly good man.

Gordon Castle, the seat of the duke of Gordon, which has, perhaps, the most extensive and splendid fronts of any house in Britain, is situate at Fo chabers, on the banks of the Spey, not far from the place where that river runs into the sea. The plantations and pleasure grounds round this noble mansion are beautiful in the extreme, and serve to

shew what industry can do in the midst of muirs and mountains.

The north-east front is regular. The south-west front has a square tower in the middle, which rises considerably above the top of the house. The wings are new and very elegant. The higher parts of the building, towering amidst the fine old trees in the park, which have been planted in rows and avenues, present to all the country round an image of magnificence. The walks or pleasure-grounds are beautiful, various, and extensive. The hills above the house are all planted with fir.

Near this place, and where the duke of Cumberland crossed the Spey, the most rapid river in Scotland, to attack the rebels at Culloden, in the year 1746, has been lately built a splendid bridge, which I believe cost about twenty thousand pounds, and adds much to the convenience, not only of the people of this part of the country, but to the community at large.

The sal

The salmon fishery here, which, as the land on each side of the river belongs to the duke of Gordon, is solely his grace's property. mon are, in general, boiled and picked, and sent off for the London market. Messrs. Robinson and Co. of the Tay, and Mr. James Gordon, of Portsoy, formerly rented this fishery at the yearly rent of fifteen hundred pounds; but it has been since held on lease at the yearly rent of five thousand.

What makes the fishery so valuable here, and at the mouth of most rivers in Seotland, is, that by a

decision of the supreme court in Scotland, and agreeably to the opinion of the first lawyers in England, the proprietors of land on the banks of rivers at their entrance into the sea have a right to put nets, cruives, or any kind of trap they please, completely across the river, except a few feet in the middle, so as to prevent any salmon going past their own territories; with this single exception, that during Sunday they are not at liberty directly or indirectly to prevent the fish from going up, and must leave a given space in the middle of the river for allowing them, if they please, to proceed upwards. In consequence, salmon are, sometimes, found at the source of the Spey, which is a hundred miles up the country, and not far from Fort Augustus, on the great Caledonian canal.

At a certain town between Buchanness and the Spey, famous for gaiety, and an imitation of the manners and style of living of the great, learning that there was to be a ball, I felt, as nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see my fellow-creatures happy, a strong desire to see it. Knowing the power of a silver key, which I take care always to carry about with me, I went in the evening, and putting something quietly into the door-keeper's hand, found easy admittance. Though I expected to see nobody I knew, I was scarcely seated, when a well-informed gentleman, to whom I was known, came up and accosted me. Glad to find a friend, where I scarcely expected to see a single acquaintance, I asked, in a whisper, "Pray what are these dashing ladies near the head of the dance, with the red and green ostrich feathers."——