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BAMBIiES NORTHWARD. 177
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
We Will Take At Random Some Fifty People...
overgrow it : tlie other a perfect Druidical circle on a wooded eminence in the grounds of Leys Castle , perfect both _, in its inner and -outer
circle , and of considerable size . This circle occupies a commanding position in an amphitheatre of considerable extent , and Is open to
the rising and setting sun . It was not -without difficulty that we gained access to it , no one knowing of its existence , or believing in
it , the very driver smiling incredulously as we persisted in reconnoitering for ourselves . Even when arrived at the grounds no
one could give us information , till we lighted on a bonny motherly ¦ woman sitting sewing at her cottage door , who knew , she said ,
" where there were some stones a couple of English ladies had come to see some years before , but no one had asked for them since . "
Witli this good woman's assistance we made our way to " the stones , " crossing a magnificent field of clover , and another ploughed ,
to find , as we have said , a very fine and perfect double Druidical circle . Our enthusiasm communicated itself to our guide , who
scrambled after us through furze and bramble in search of the stones of the inner circle , which she had never seen before , and to
whom we especially commended ourselves hy showing her , on _^ our way back , the common field flowers through a pocket microscope .
The delight of the woman knew no bounds . " Nature is always beautiful , " she exclaimed , and beautiful it was to see how nature
under a new manifestation impressed this simple dweller among hills .
It was a beautiful morning among the last days of May when we left Inverness for a prolonged excursion , which , having
SutherlancLshire and the western coast of Ross-shire in view , led us also into the eastern districts of the last-named county , and through various
portions of Cromarty , which , like raisins in a school pudding , lip few and far between , sprinkled along the northern extremity of
Ross-shire . The secret of these distributions of Cromarty is , we believe , to Toe found in the annals of the church , where those who
are curious upon the subject can seek for information . For ourselves , we confess a sympathy with the happy-go-easy style of these
modern railroad-travelling days * wherein counties are so entirely ignored , that we doubt if the rising generations will contain one
member sufficiently enlightened in the matter of practical g'eography to know that Buckinghamshire resembles a driver ' s goad because it
runs into Oxon and I-Ierts ! The early part of our road ran by the side of Loch Beauly , as
it is called , though it is in fact a continuation of the Moray Firth . The waters danced and sparkled on our right in the fresh morning
breeze , beneath a sky , high , clear , and blue as the skies we are wont to associate with southern latitudes only ; while rows of " golden
haired" laburnums , veritable trees , not shrubs , fringed the bank on our left , giving place now and then to broad fields , highly
cultivated , such as we see , in Scotland , the land of good farming , and nowhere else that we lmoAv of .
vol . iv . ' p
Bambiies Northward. 177
BAMBIiES NORTHWARD . 177
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/33/
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