matrimony, is Thursday. A custom prevails in this part of the country, at weddings, even among what is called the better sort of people; which, though formerly common all over Scotland, and still generally prevails among the lower classes, will probably be considered in England as either very indelicate, or a proof of great simplicity of manners, according to the cast of different imaginations. The married couple are bedded before witnesses. The bride retires first from the entertainment, accompanied by the unmarried women. She is found sitting upright in bed, in a night dress, when the bridegroom, with the unmarried men enter. The bride and bridegroom drink to the health of the company, and the company to the health and happiness of the bride and bridegroom. The bride turning herself about a little, throws her stocking over her left shoulder; and the person on whom it falls is to be first married.

It is often attempted by the men to make the bridegroom drunk. This I understand had lately been tried with a worthy clergyman, about sixty years old, who was well seasoned to drinking, and very fond of convivial society, in vain. Instead of avoiding, he encouraged the glass. He called for one bottle of wine, and one bowl of punch after another, till the young men fell a yawning, being oppressed with the liquor, and ready to fall asleep. They said, "Come, come, it is time to part." The bridegroom replied, "Aye! aye! what is your hurry?" but followed them up stairs, muttering, "Poor creatures!"

There is a rivulet, across which the Sinclairs went, at a certain hour in the forenoon, to the battle of Flouden, where so many of the Scots were killed; and, as scarcely one returned, the people of Caith

ness to this day think it unlucky to cross the said rivulet at that hour.

WICK AND THURSO.

Having visited Wick and Thurso, which are con、 siderable little towns, and inhabited by some genteel people, I found nothing that surprised me so much as the probability that a straw hat manufactory was about to be established in them, to supply the London market. Our grandmothers wore pinners and veils, or tartan plaids flung negligently over the head; and sometimes velvet hoods, exactly the shape of their heads, who, before their marriage, wore nothing but their hair, the head dress which nature gave them; and our grandfathers plaited straw for mats to wipe their feet, when all over with mud; but what would they say, were they to look up now, and see our finest ladies ornamenting their heads with straw, plaited into all possible shapes of bonnets, from the old fashioned gipsey hats, worn by our soldiers wives, to the small helmet, or head piece, resembling a barber's bason!

When at Thurso, I felt a strong desire to see Cape Wrath, the north-west point of Scotland, it being part of my plan. Therefore, mounting my horse, I set out to see it; but, of all the roads I ever travelled, this is the most dismal and dreary, and Į found that even my horse thought so; as he often wished to return. Indeed, there are so many rivers and torrents to cross, so much bad road, or rather no road at all, such barren, dreary, prospects, and so few well-cultivated spots to diversify the scene, and,

with all, so bad accommodation, even though one has plenty of money, that I was led to think, were the British legislature to enact, that delinquents from the parish of St. Giles, in London, and other parts of the country, should be transported here, instead of Botany Bay, it would be an improvement in our code of laws.

When I arrived at Cape Wrath, I saw the propriety of the name. The rocks that form the shore, though not so stupendous as those at the Red-head in Angus, are very high. The sea ran tremendously high; and, like as I had seen at St. Andrews, the foam was flying over my head for miles into the country. There is no town or village nearer to Cape Wrath, than from thirty to forty miles. It is not one peak or projection into the sea, but, like Cape North, in Lapland, a concave, or portion of a circle, terminated by two promontories or projections. The minister's and the gauger's house are within half a mile of it.

The face of the country is rugged and bleak in the extreme; only a small spot cultivated here and there, and the cattle I saw long haired, lean, and seemingly half starved. Upon seeing the manse of Edracheillis, I felt a strong desire to wait upon the clergyman, and tell him my name and profession; but, having no letters of introduction to him, I did not put him to any trouble; though I wish I had, for my poney's sake, who did not fare so well here.

The minister here has a glebe, not worth, I understand, above five pounds sterling a year; though it be three or four miles long, and nearly as broad; and a farm for about ten pounds per annum, that extends many miles. But though this is the case,

and it supports above fifty cattle, and some hundreds of sheep, yet its value is lessened, both to the proprietor and tenant, from this circumstance, which at once points out what the place is, that the clergyman thinks it surprising if less than ten or a dozen of his cattle fall yearly over the rocks, and break their neck. However, the people here are much attached. to it, and, like the Laplanders, with regard to their country, think it one of the finest places on the face of the earth; and it is fortunate they think so. Were not this the case, it would soon become a desert. But this is not surprising, as man, like other animals, is apt to be in love with the country that produced him, and the objects he is habituated to see in his early days, and particularly those of his earliest, tenderest, and most pure and sincere affections. He recollects how sincerely he loved, and how kindly he was taken care of, and how sincerely beloved. It is moral sentiments and associations, playing about the heart, that attach us to things devoid of sentiment and life.

I am led to this remark, from an excise officer I. accidentally met with in this part of the country, Glad of information, I accepted an invitation to dine with him, and found him hospitable. In the course of conversation, he told me, that of all the places he had ever seen, he liked Cape Wrath the best; that though the face of the country was rugged, and not much wood on it, yet it produced thousands of cattle and sheep, which were driven to the south country; that wool, butter, and cheese, and every produce of the country, fetches excellent prices.; and, when speaking of lord Seaforth, the proprietor

of all the land in this part of the country, and the duke of Gordon, said, that he would think it more honourable to be lord Seaforth's cowherd, than the duke of Gordon's steward. I was the less surprised to find the rest of the people that dined with us in love with Cape Wrath, as they had scarcely ever seen a town, or any road, other than that made by the feet of men and horses, but not a little at the excise officer's opinion; who, in the course of his profession, had been in several parts of the south of Scotland, and north of England. Upon inquiry how they got such excellent wine and coniac brandy, he told me, that some pipes of wine, and casks of brandy had come ashore there, some months before; and that, as nobody claimed it, and there were no names on the casks, they thought there was no harm in now and then making merry with it. Neither the wine nor the brandy was in the least hurt by having been for some time tost about in the ocean.

Some of the people along this coast, like some in other parts of Scotland, particularly on the southeast coast of Fife, do not think it a crime, when a ship is wrecked, to carry off valuable articles from it. They think, if a ship is cast away upon their coast, that providence does it for their good; and, when dead men are washed ashore, they who find them first think themselves fortunate, as they have it in their power to rifle their pockets, and secret the property found on them.

I find there is but little fishing near the Cape. If fish were to come near it, they would be swept along with tremendous waves, and dashed against the rocks.