The walk between the fall of the Corra Linn and that of Stone Byers is in the highest degree romantic. The rocks on each side of the river, all along covered with wood, are a hundred feet above the bed of the river. The fall of Stone Byers, though not so great as that of the Corra Linn in point of height, is three times as wide. Its mass is more diversified; its various forms exhibit a greater appearance of both quantity and disorder. The cascade of Corra Linn ravishes and overpowers your senses. It is not long before you look about towards new objects. That at Stone Byers, though somewhat less commanding, and, as it were, insolent in its rage, has, in some respects, more grandeur, and certainly you contemplate it for a longer time without fatigue.

It now drew towards the end of October, when I was under an engagement to meet a young gentleman from the south, settle him in proper quarters, and introduce him into the university of Edinburgh. To this city I hastened to return; but understanding that the direct road from Lanark, which in many places was not good, and led through a bleak, barren, and uninteresting country, at least to a strange, I returned to my steps pretty late in the evening, and for half the way under the light of the moon to Hamilton, where I staid all night, and next morning set out for Edinburgh, by

THE KIRK OF SHOTS.

While I rested and refreshed myself and my fellow-traveller at this place, I learnt the following anecdote:

Some time ago, a gentleman on horseback, with a livery servant, happening to be overtaken by an unexpectedly heavy shower near this place, made all the haste he could to a farm-house on the road side, where the fowls, children, servants, &c. were all running towards the house. The gentleman, having been obliged to stay an hour or two, on account of the rain, amused himself with observing the good woman and the children, &c. all standing round the fire drying their clothes. Among the rest, he observed a beautiful little girl, completely wet. Having taken hold of the girl's hand, and asked if she would go with him, with a finely modest, innocent look and tone of voice, she said she would. He then asked her parents if they would give her to him; to which, thinking it only words of course, they made no reply, but that she was too young. He then, being much pleased with her sensibility, proposed to them to send her to a boarding school, either at Glasgow or Edinburgh, as to them should seem proper; for which he said he would willingly pay: and, to convince them that he was serious, and meant nothing improper, he desired them to fix on a magistrate and minister in either of these places, under whose care she might be placed, and only to tell him their names; while the girl, listening,

and now and then took a fiue, innocent, and, as it were, stolen view of him, her little bosom glowing with gratitude, the parents replied, "We know nobody either in Glasgow or Edinburgh, much less a magistrate or a minister." He then took out an Edinburgh almanack, and desired them, from the names of the magistrates and ministers they would find in it, to fix on one of each, under whose care they should wish their daughter to be; which they at length did; and, having taken the name of the magistrate and minister in Edinburgh they had fixed on, he wrote to them, begging them to be careful of the girl; to send her to a respectable boarding-school, and to draw on him, at the Bank, for the sum, whatever it might be.

Then, taking an affectionate farewell of the girl, and putting money into her parent's hands, to equip and send her to Edinburgh, he proceeded on his way through Glasgow to the west of England, where he had a handsome estate. The parents sent the girl as desired; and the gentleman, having been twice at Edinburgh, and been much pleased both with her person and growing accomplishments, as well as her amiable temper and deportment, married her when she was little more than fifteen years of age. And, it is a noted fact, that when a certain great personage was born, and the finest women in England were inquired after to be nurse, this little girl, born in a thatched house, and who for several years looked after her father's sheep, even after she had borne two or three children, was reckoned one of the handsomest and best made women in England; and being reckoned among the fittest persons in England

for suckling the heir to the crown, an offer of this honourable office was made to her: but, at the desire of her husband, who was in affluent circumstances, she declined to accept it.

Being safely arrived in Edinburgh, I sold my horse, to which, I confess, I had become much attached, and of whose health and welfare I have since had satisfactory accounts. I sold him cheap to a person whose assurances I could rely that he should be well treated.

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