e Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich,"--(in
English, "the hut of the bearded well," a somewhat singular title, to
say the least,) is so strong and complete as to render necessary the
few words of dedication, where, in inscribing the poem, (or, as the
author terms it, "trifle,") to his "long-vacation pupils," he
expresses a hope, that they "will not be displeased if, in a fiction,
purely fiction, they are here and there reminded of times enjoyed
together."

As the story opens, the Oxford party are about to proceed to dinner
at "the place of the Clansmen's meeting." Their characters,
discriminated with the nicest taste, and perfectly worked out, are
thus introduced:

"Be it recorded in song who was first, who last, in dressing.
Hope was the first, black-tied, white-waistcoated, simple, his Honor;
For the postman made out he was a son to the Earl of Ilay,
(As, indeed, he was to the younger brother, the Colonel);
Treated him therefore with special respect, doffed bonnet, and ever
Called him his Honor: his Honor he therefore was at the cottage;
Always his Honor at least, sometimes the Viscount of Ilay.

"Hope was the first, his Honor; and, next to his Honor, the Tutor.
Still more plain the tutor, the grave man nicknamed Adam,
White-tied, clerical, silent, with antique square-cut waistcoat,
Formal, unchanged, of black cloth, but with sense and feeling beneath it;
Skilful in ethics and logic, in Pindar and poets unrivalled;
_Shady_ in Latin, said Lindsay, but _topping_ in plays and Aldrich.

"Somewhat more splendid in dress, in a waistcoat of a lady,
Lindsay succeeded, the lively, the cheery, cigar-loving Lindsay,
Lindsay the ready of speech, the Piper, the Dialectician:
This was his title from Adam, because of the words he invented,
Who in three weeks had created a dialect new for the party.

"Hewson and Hobbes were down at the _matutine_ bathing; of course
Arthur Audley, the bather _par excellence_ glory of headers:
Arthur they called him for love and for euphony: so were they bathing
There where in mornings was custom, where, over a ledge of granite,
Into a granite bason descended the amber torrent.
There were they bathing and dressing: it was but a step from the cottage,
Only the road and larches and ruinous millstead between.
Hewson and Hobbes followed quick upon Adam; on them followed Arthur.

"Airlie descended the last, splendescent as god of Olympus.
When for ten