an air of solitude resting upon the scene. The canal was seen before them, winding its way along a narrow, but cultivated and verdant valley, while on either side, ran long ranges of mountains, with here and there scattered cottages along their green slopes. Not any villages nor busy landings were in view, the canal appearing to be principally devoted to transporting a few tourists along the chain of lochs. As they advanced, the rich green of the heather disappeared, and projecting ledges gave the slopes a stern and desolate aspect; occasionally, however, some broad, lateral, fertile glen opened to view, disclosing fields of waving grain, and sometimes the country houses or hunting-boxes of the gentry, peering forth from a mass of shrubbery. At one place, they passed within a few rods of two gentlemen reclining upon a grassy lawn, in front of one of these residences, and gazing at their boat as it glided by. Our traveler was at the moment conversing with the captain, who told him that Lord owned that estate. "He has recently bought it for thirty-five thousand pounds. That is he, with the white hat, lying upon the grass." The place was beautiful, but the region round about, desolate and lonely. What portion of the year, does the owner spend here?" inquired Mr. A. "Oh," rejoined the captain, "only two or three weeks in the shooting season. He only bought it for his amusement, and keeps it just for game. He has very large estates in England."

66

At the end of Loch Ness, the mountains give place to a broad and fertile country, of surpassing rural loveliness. It was harvest-time, and the reapers were at work in immense bands, there being in one spot, a line of fifty or more, principally women, who, as they advanced together, carried the whole field with them. Immense stacks of hay and oats were being constructed in various spots, as large and as regular in shape as a barn. Amid this scenery, stands the charming town of Inverness, with its handsome villas and gardens; and just east of it, on the margin of Moray Frith, is the fatal field of Culloden Moor, where, in 1745, perished the cause of Charles Stuart and the power of the Highland chieftains was broken forever. Every schoolboy recollects the pathetic lines of Campbell, where the wizard, on meeting the gallant Lochiel, forewarns him of this event-of the defeat of the Highlanders, and the flight of their king:

I tell thee, Culloden's dread echoes shall ring,
With the bloodhounds that bark for thy fugitive king.
Lo! anointed by heaven with the vials of wrath,
Behold, where he flies on his desolate path!

Now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight:
Rise, rise! ye wild tempests, and cover his flight!

'Tis finished! their thunders are hushed on the moors:
Culloden is lost, and my country deplores."

From Inverness our traveler again turned southward, toward Edinburgh,

passing through the old town of Perth, which is some forty-five miles north of the capital, the intervening country being highly cultivated, and presenting in its broad fields, plantations of trees, parks, lawns, villages, and farmhouses, a strong contrast to the Highlands, and the rude homes of their inhabitants. Near midway, stands Loch Leven, a wide lake, some fifteen miles around, imbosoming in its center, a small, low island, where in the midst of a grove of evergreens, stand the ruins of an old castle, its walls grown over with moss and creepers, in which Queen Mary was imprisoned. Mr. Abbott having engaged some boatmen, was rowed to the spot, and gives a lengthy and interesting description. The castle was very small, and Mary was shut up in a little tower overhanging the water. After a confinement of several months, she escaped in a boat, through the aid of George Douglass, a young man, and brother of the keeper, who became interested in the beautiful and unhappy prisoner. While our traveler was gazing upon the scene, his guide narrated the events of her escape and subsequent history, in language that Scott would have been eager to have embodied in a tale, and ended with saying, that after "she got awa', she brocht a few o' her freends thegither, but could na' mak' head against her enemies; an' sae she fled to England, in hopes she could fin' somebody to tak' pairt wi' her there: but she was joost taken up by Queen Eleezbeth, wha was her ain cuisin, an' shut up in prison for many years, an' then beheaded. She was very hardly used puir leddy; but she held firm to her principles through it a'."

In ancient times, castles were first erected and formed points around which towns by degrees grew up. Such was the case with the old castle of Edinburgh, which yet stands on a lofty eminence in the Old town, and is noted in history. The regalia, consisting of the crown, the scepter, and the sword of state, with other royal emblems of the ancient monarchy of Scotland, are yet preserved within its walls. After the crowns of England and Scotland became united, in the person of Charles I, that monarch ordered the regalia to be taken to London. This, the Scotch would not agree to; though they acknowledged that he was lawfully their king, but claimed that Scotland was a distinct monarchy from England, and that he must come to Scone, the ancient place of the coronation of the Scottish kings, to be crowned.

After the execution of Charles, Cromwell made war upon the Scotch royalists, and endeavored to get possession of the regalia. These being of immense pecuniary value, apart from other considerations, were sent to Dunnottar castle, a strong position on the sea-coast, south of Aberdeen, for safety. This castle became invested by a strong military force, and as it was evident that it could not stand a long siege, the royal emblems were in imminent danger of soon falling into the hands of the English. They were, however, saved by a stratagem of a lady-a Mrs. Granger, the wife of a clergyman, in an adjoining parish. Having obtained permission of the English general to visit the lady of the Governor, she took with her two maids, who on their return, carried out the sword and scepter, secreted in some bundles of flax, which they said, they were going to spin for the governor's Lady. The crown, Mrs. Granger secreted about her person, and that same night, her husband buried them under the pavement-stone in front of his

pulpit. A few weeks after, when the castle surrendered, the English general finding the regalia-the great object of his efforts-missing, treated the governor and his lady with great cruelty, to force them to confess where they were deposited. The latter died some time after, in consequence, it was said, of injuries received in the vain attempt to extort the secret from her.

On the restoration of the monarchy in England, the regalia were placed in possession of the Scottish parliament, and all those who had been connected in their preservation rewarded. At the consummation of the union of the kingdoms of Scotland and England, at the beginning of the last century, the Scottish people were much excited, and many deeply opposed to the measure; therefore, to allay the excitement, the royal emblems were locked up out of view, in an enormous oaken, iron-bound chest, and placed in a strong, prison-like room in Edinburgh Castle. The apartment then remained unopened for ninety years, and the chest itself for a quarter of a century longer. At length, generations having passed away and the public mind being at rest upon the subject of the union, orders were given, about the year 1817, to open the chest, and bring to light these royal emblems, upon which no eye had rested for more than a century.

Sir Walter Scott was appointed among the commissioners for this purpose. There was intense interest and excitement in the crowds which surrounded

the castle during the opening of the chest. Numerous stories were afloat, and many declared that the emblems would not be found that they had been stolen away to England. Of course, no one could prove to the contrary. The room was entered, the chest broken open, and the treasures found safe. As evidence of success, a flag was raised upon the castle, whereupon the multitude filled the air with oft-repeated huzzas. There the regalia still remain, and from that day to this, they have been visited by an almost uninter'rupted succession of strangers. Beside the regalia, there are several other of the royal jewels and badges deposited beside them. They all lie upon velvet cloths and cushions, beneath an iron grating the rich gold and brilliant gems, in the dim light of the place, sparkle with a most imposing effect.

Early one morning, before the sun had risen, our traveler mounted a stage-coach in Glasgow, being on the point of his departure from the romantic and picturesque land of the Scots. Standing about in the streets, were numerous groups of countrymen and women, each furnished with sickles, and waiting to be hired for the day, to reap in the neighboring fields, by farmers or their agents, who were walking among them for this purpose. In Great Britain, the word farmer, describes a different sort of person from what it does in our country. He is there a kind of semi-gentleman, a point midway between the proprietor and the laborer. He hires from the former, the right simply to crop the land; another-generally the proprietor himself—has "the shooting," and not unfrequently somebody else still," the fishing."

Neither is the proprietor, in our sense, the owner of the soil. He only has the use of the estate di ring lifetime; he can neither sell nor give it away on decease; its use falls to his eldest son, by the law of entail, who is the sole representative of his family, and so on in rotation, generation after generation. The rest of the brothers and sisters are left to be provided for other

wise; usually they are obliged to shift for themselves. As the sons grow up, some are sent into the army, some into the navy, others embrace professions, and all are obliged to work for their living, that the "family" name and fortune may be aggrandized in the person of the eldest son. The Englishman is proud in having a long line of ancestors, and is desirous for its continuance through all future generations. Abominable and unjust as the law of entail seems to us, yet it is probable that if it were abolished, English gentlemen would generally make wills to endeavor to effect the same purpose. As our traveler was leaving Glasgow in the mail coach, a fellow-passenger conversing with him upon these subjects, was told by him, that in America, the testator could leave his property to any person he chose. "Indeed!" replied the Englishman, "I thought your laws required its being divided equally." "Not at all," rejoined the other; "our laws divide it equally, in the absence of any testamentary directions; but the proprietor may convey it by his will, as he pleases." Then, why does he not give it all to his oldest son ?" "Because he loves the others just as much as he does him." "But does he not want to found a family?" continued the Englishman, in accents of surprise.

On the Scottish border, the coach reached a neat little village, the famous Gretna Green, and the coachman pointed to a handsome white house, seen through intervening shrubbery, where runaway couples are united.

At Carlisle, a few miles farther on, the company changed to the cars, and went on at railroad speed. Soon after, our traveler took a branch line which led into the famous lake and mountain region of Cumberland, in the northwestern part of England, and noted the world over for its romantic scenery. It was Saturday afternoon, and he felt desirous to go to some quiet place, where he could pass the approaching Sabbath; and where would he find one more appropriate than Windermere? the home of the poet Wordsworth, and a spot of surpassing rural loveliness and beauty.

The sun went down ere he reached the place, and the mountains and valleys were assuming the dark, somber hue of night, when he was set down at the castle-like inn on the borders of the romantic lake, Windermere. He ordered his evening meal, and while it was preparing, "began to mount a hill behind the house, which seemed to be a sort of stepping-stone to the mountains beyond." "I walked," says he, "along a little path, through recently reaped fields, with a high wall on one side, which shut me out from some gentleman's park or pleasure grounds. Groups of trees were scattered here and there, and old walls and hedges, over and through which, I made my way slowly, in the dimness of twilight. I seated myself on the rocks on the summit, and looked far and wide, over the valleys which were spread out before me. Lights began to glimmer here and there, from the quiet English homes, with which these valleys were filled. The lake resumed its reflections of the evening sky in its sheltered parts, and was ruffled by the evening breeze in others.. The scene was impressive and almost solemn. But it soon became too cool for me to remain, notwithstanding the protection of the Highland plaid, which almost every tourist has around him, in coming out of Scotland. I reflected that it was September, and that I was in England. My Summer in Scotland, was ended and gone."

SKETCH OF RUSSIA.-War with Circassia-Cochrane crosses to France-Old Soldier of Napoleon-Enters Germany-Curious Adventures-Enters Russia-An old AcquaintanceSt. Petersburgh-Police Regulations-Peterhoff-Yankee Enterprise-Russian HardihoodEaster Holidays-The Nobility-Grand Review-Cochrane departs from St. PetersburgStripped by Robbers-Novgorod-Moscow-the Kremlin-Khans of the Golden HordeCruelties of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great-Life of the Russian Serfs-The KnoutReligious Superstitions-Vladimir-Cochrane broomsticked by fanatical Women-Central Russia-Fair at New Novgorod.

RUSSIA, as a whole, is the most gigantic empire, in point of territorial extent, ever known to have existed, equaling in extent the whole of North America; there is, consequently, a great variety of climate, and of productions; and this vast territory is all under the dominion of one man!

Russia was originally divided into a great number of primitive and original nations, and presents more diversity of language and races than any other country. The principal stocks are, 1st. The Sclavonic, in which are comprised the Russians, the Poles, and the Lithuanians, etc.; 2. The Finnish;