times on the left, and sometimes on the right bank of the Erne to Pitkethley Wells and the bridge of Erne. What he has said of Abernethey, and of the inhabitants of the Ochils and of Abernethey, both of which lie out of the route of other travellers, is very curious and interesting.

"The situation of Abernethey, for the capital of a nation from Scandinavia, was naturally and well chosen. The bay of St. Andrews, and the Frith of Tay, within a mile of which Abernethey is situated, is exactly opposite to the sea that opens an easy communication with Denmark, Sweden, and the west part of Norway; countries with which the Pictish conquerors and colonists would natural ly be desirous of keeping up an easy intercourse: not, perhaps, for the purpose of commerce, of which there was very little in those times, but of aid, when necessary, and protection: in the same manner we may presume that our colonies in North America clung closely at first to the mother country. The steep and high hill, almost overhanging the capital, was a natural fortress. The whole plain of Strathmore, and particularly the Carse of Gowrie and Stratherue, afforded a plentiful store of provisions; and the glen, as well as another passage where Macduff's Cross now stands, between Abernethey and Newburgh, opened an easy communication with Pichtlandia, now called Fife.

"The town of Abernethey, seen at a distance, appears like a grove of trees. It consists of one street, with a few narrow alleys or wynds. It is divided among as many proprietors almost as there are householders; and these, I think, must be about a hundred. Every one has a garden behind his house, narrow, but of

great length, sloping northward to the plain, or rising gently on the lowermost parts of the great hill on the south, which they call the Muckle Benn, or Binn. They bave also most of them some acres of land, from three to five or six, adjoining to the town. The Muckle Binn is common to all the burgesses of Abernethey. It affords pasture for sheep and a few young bullocks. It has been the custom for ages, I suppose, and certainly for many years, for the lairds of Aberuethey, in imitation, no doubt, of lords and greater lairds, to decorate their residences with rows of trees, one planted on each side for the whole extent of their gardens.”

The simple manners and manner of life of those poor, but bappy lairds of Abernethey, being circum stantially described, it is observed of them, on the whole, that having "milk, eggs, potatoes, porridge, and abundance of preaching, they are well contented." As Abernethey was at first, and for a considerable time, "the capital of the SECEDERS," a numerous religious sect, and which has from Scotland ramified into England, and all countries speaking the English language, Mr. Hall gives their history, with the leading features in their doctrine and character.

The description of their Sacrement Week, otherwise called, by way of eminence, the OCCASION, which was communicated by a friend, is lively, and, though somewhat ludicrous, not, on the whole, unfaithful.

"The Sacrament week of the Seceders at Abernethey, which may be considered as the holy city, the Jerusalem of the Seceders, is one of the greatest curiosities to be seen in Scotland; being a lively representation and remembrancer of the times of

the

The same spirit that assembled the covenanters on Loudon-hill in the reign of Charles II. draws together the Seceders at this day, annually to the Muckle Binn, at Abernethey, which is held generally in June or July, when the labours of the spring are over, and those of the harvest have not commenced (for there is scarcely any thing of what is called in England hay-harvest, in Scotland), and when the days are long, and the nights short.

"When the anniversary of the occasion draws near, the sermons for soine weeks are animated with more than usual zeal and fervour. The Sunday immediately preceding that of the Sacrament Sunday, may be considered as the actual commencement of the re

ligious campaign, which is continued, either in reconnoitering, as it were, and various movements, or in hot action. On that Sunday, the minister states the duty of communicating; but, at the same time, the danger of communicating upworthily, and of "eating and drinking damnation to themselves," in such strong language, that it is a great wonder that any one, believing as they do, should venture on the consecrated elements. In fact, some modest and ingenuous spirits, as well as those of a melancholy cast, do hang back from the communion, while others of a more sanguineous temperament and greater presumption, boldy advance to the communion table, rejoicing in some motion of the animal spirits, or emotion, which they call the faith of assurance. The Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, are employed by the minister in examin

particularly young communicants. The elders, in the mean time, make reports concerning their neighbours, and warn the minister to be very cautious how he admits such and such an one to the table, without sifting him to the bottom: in which reports they are supposed frequently to gratify their private resentments, or other malignant passions.

Meanwhile, the news of the approaching occasion at Abernethey spreads far and wide. Travellers in every direction, east, west, south, and north, inquire at the inns where they stop, into the cause of so many people, men and women, trudging along the roads for the space of ten or twenty miles. Even the ferryboat between Stratherne and the Carse of Gowrie, the latter but little tinctured as yet with religious zeal, is unusually busy. The glen of Abernethey, hearing the tread of unusual feet, is astonished at this invasion of his solitary reign!

"By Wednesday night the street, with the little lanes or closes about Abernethey, is in motion. The farm-houses in the neighbourhood too are full of friends and brethren from distant parts of the country. The barns also are full of men and women, young and old: much in the same manner we may suppose that Jerusalem, with its environs, was crowded at the Passover. The period of nine months from this date sometimes produces sad memorandums of the barns of Abernethey.

Thursday is the fast-day preceding the sacrament. Three or four different ministers preacti from ten o'clock to about six or seven in the 30 2 evening,

evening, with an interval of only one hour for refreshment. The minister of Abernethey himself is a silent auditor: but, when all the strangers have done, he mounts the pulpit, and recapitulates to the audience the substance of their sermons, adding exhortations of his own. An equal or greater number of ministers continue the work of preaching in a tent on the Muckle Binn for an equal length of time.

"On Friday, there is a cessation of preaching. On Saturday it is resumed, but not till about one o'clock; it is continued, however, till about eight. On the dismissal of the congregations, I mean that within and that without doors, such of the intended communicants as had not been furnished with tickets, which they call tokens, for the communion table, receive them now from the ministers and elders. On Saturday evening, the voice of some one who has retired for secret prayer, is heard here and there, behind a hillock or a furze-bush, or in the thickest part of the standing corn. A dog here and there stands barking at a noise, which indicates that some stranger is near, though he caunot see him.

"At last the occasion Sunday it self arrives. The church is crowded more than it is easy to imagine. Even the little black gallery, on which penitent offenders against chastity sit, called the cutty stool, is crammed full: there is no disgrace in sitting in this seat on this occasion. Pregnant women faint. For their recovery, sympathetic females loosen or cut the laces of their stays, and move them for air to the win dows. But the windows are beset with dense columns of people, eager to catch some of the words of the minister, who is serving at the communion table; nor is it with

out much difficulty that they can be persuaded to fall back even for a minute or two.

"In the mean time, the work of preaching, praying, and singing psalms, goes forward at the tent. I have heard, that in the time of old Culfargie, it was sometimes necessary to have two tents, as no human voice could extend to the whole multitude which resorted to the occasion at Aberuethey in those days; but I never saw more than one.

"The space occupied by the maltitude in front, on either wing, and at the back too of the tent, may be, including the booths and beer-stands of publicans, about three quarters of a mile in circumference. When a very popular preacher holds forth, the hearers sit fast, or seize the moment when they think that they have been wrought into a suitable frame of mind, to repair to the church, and press forward, as soon as they are able, to the communion table. When it is the turn of one less gifted to fill the tent, as they call it, they beckon to their acquaintance, and retire in crowds to booths or beer-barrels to take a refreshment. two o'clock in the afternoon to about six or seven, when there is an interval of an hour, the people passing to and fro, between the preaching tent, the church, and the booths of the suttlers, forms the whole, when viewed at a distance, into one compacted scene.

From about

"This scene is seen to great advantage on the north, and opposite banks of the Erne, near the Rhynd. The white linen caps and red cloaks, or red or striped plaids of the women of the lower and most numerous classes; the silk cloaks and hats of others; and the blue bonnets or the hals of the men, make altogether a very striking as well as motley appear

ance.

ance. The singing of psalms by so great a multitude, with Stentorian voices, to the number of twelve thousand, reverberated from the hill, is heard at a great distance, like the hum of bees. Had this scene been viewed by the Danes encamped on the eastern slope of the hill of Moncrieff, they would, beyond all doubt, have mistaken it for the camp of the enemy, engaged in some awful incantations.

"The Monday after the sacrament is a thanksgiving-day. There are two preachers, both in the church and at the tent; but the whole service is over by four o'clock, when all the ministers and elders repair to the minister's house, and enjoy a very plentiful, though perhaps I dare not venture to call it, a very hearty dinner; for even now the intensity of the religious tone is not wholly relaxed. Immediately after dinner, which is preceded by a very long grace, there is again singing of psalms, and a very long prayer.

"The pilgrims who had come to this holy city, after visiting, that is, taking a near view of Culfargie, the residence of their first and great minister, return to their respective counties and paristres. Travellers who meet them on their return, as travellers in an opposite direction had done before, inquire at the first iun they alight at, "What the deuce can be the meaning of so many people here and there all along the road for so many miles, as silent and downcast as if they were going to the gallows?"-" Oh! it has been the sacrament at Abernethey.”

From the bridge of Erue our traveller crossed the country, northward to Perth, which he represents as a very beautiful and flourishing, but remarkably inhospitable place, aud

where, as it was long the capital of Scotland, he recollects some striking passages in the Scottish history. He passes on through the Carse of Gowrie, the Campus frumento nobilis of the celebrated Buchannan, stretching along the left bank of the Tay, to DUNDEE: from Dundee, by Arbroath, and the promontory of the Redhead, a most stupenduous rock, to Montrose: from Montrose up to the banks of the South Esk, to Brechin; from Brechin, by Stonehaven, to Aberdeen: from Aberdeen, round by Peterhead and Fyvie, to Bamff: from Bamff, by Portsoy, to Fochabers. And now, having arrived at the banks of the Spey, where he formerly, before his coming to England, passed seven years, in the course of which he made many excursions to different places; he proceeds to describe objects, and relate matters of fact, without troubling his readers, in every instance, with the circumstance of time, or the particular spot from whence he set out to another. His excursions extend to different parts in the interior, and mountainous parts of Banffshire and Aberdeenshire, and over the whole course of the Spey, on both sides, almost up to its source, and into some of the straths (vallies) and giens that discharge their waters in that spacious and rapid river. The circumstances, character, and modes of life of the inhabitants are described, and illustrated by particular examples. Natural objects too are describe, with some curious phenomena and facts in natural history. On a fine day, 'our traveller went to climb Belrinais, a high mountain bordering on the valley of the Spey, about twenty miles from the Murray Frith. It rises 3000 feet above the level of the sea; aud is the first land

that

that is seen by mariners coming from the Northern Ocean. " Though the day was extremely clear before I reached the top, I found myself enveloped in a cloud, whence I could see any object distinctly only at a few yards distance. Perceiving a fine breeze, as I was ascending, I hoped the cloud would disperse, and therefore, though I felt it extremely cold, and myself extremely hungry, having foolishly put nothing in my pocket, I resolved to remain there some time. But, to my astonishment, while I was stepping about to keep myself warm, on the top of the hill, I perceived something of an uncommon appearance through the mist at a distance. I approached it, indeed, not without fear, and at length found it to be a phalanx of wedders, or sheep three years old, on the top of the hill, ready to defend themselves from every attack. They were arranged in a line, forming a blunt wedge, with an extremely large one in the middle, having a large black forehead, and a pair of tremendous horns. There were about a hundred in front, and about fifty on each side of him. A number of weaker ones were in the rear, and not one of them eating, but looking sternly at me. I was not afraid, knowing them to be sheep; yet I was not quite easy, as, if any fox had appeared at this time, in attacking him and even chasing him, they might have killed me. These wedders are sent up into the hill in the end of April, or early in May, and the proprietors never look after them till about the end of October. It is well known they never sleep all at a time, but, as is the case with crows, geese, and other gregarious animals, there is always one at a distance on the book out. They never rest in a hol

low, even in the most stormy night, but upon a rising ground, where they can see all around; and when they are attacked by a fox, or dogs, their assailants never fail to be killed. When furiously attacked, they form themselves into a circle, their heads all outward, and the weaker ones in the centre; and if, as it sometimes happens, that a fox takes a spring, and leaps in among them, they instantly turn, and boxing him with their head, and stamping him with their feet, and tossing him with their horns, never fail to kill him; his ribs being generally all broken, When domesticated, animals generally leave their protection to man; but, when left to themselves, both instinct and experience teaches them how to defend themselves. When these sheep on the top of the hill saw me retire, they grew more care. less, and did not keep their ranks so straight; but whenever I turned, and was approaching them, they looked more steadily at me, and stood closer together, and formed their ranks more regularly; and I verily believe, had I attempted to attack them, they would have resisted. I bad once a mind to try it, but I confess I was afraid, as I observed them seemingly bending their knees, to make a spring at me.

I began to be so extremely hungry, that I would have given five shillings for a halfpenny roll; and it being about four in the afternoon, I had thoughts of descending; when, all at once, as I was looking towards the east, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the clouds went off from the mountain, and fields, hills, rivers, and other objects, thirty miles distant, all at once appeared to view. The sight was grand in the extreme, and called up immediately to my