their neighbours, about a hundred years earlier than in any
other part of the Scotch Highlands. And as for the Fingalian legends,
they were, I found, very wild legends indeed. Some of them immortalized
wonderful hunters, who had excited the love of Fingal's lady, and whom
her angry and jealous husband had sent out to hunt monstrous wild boars
with poisonous bristles on their backs,--secure in this way of getting
rid of them. And some of them embalmed the misdeeds of spiritless
diminutive Fions, not very much above fifteen feet in height, who,
unlike their more active companions, could not leap across the Cromarty
or Dornoch Firths on their spears, and who, as was natural, were very
much despised by the women of the tribe. The pieces of fine sentiment
and brilliant description discovered by Macpherson seemed never to have
found their way into this northern district. But, told in fluent Gaelic,
in the great "Ha'," the wild legends served every necessary purpose
equally well. The "Ha'" in the autumn nights, as the days shortened and
the frosts set in, was a genial place; and so attached was my cousin to
its distinctive principle--the fire in the midst--as handed down from
the "days of other years," that in the plan of a new two-storied house
for his father, which he had procured from a London architect, one of
the nether rooms was actually designed in the circular form; and a
hearth like a millstone, placed in the centre, represented the place of
the fire. But there was, as I remarked to Cousin George, no
corresponding central hole in the room above, through which to let up
the smoke; and I questioned whether a nicely plastered apartment, round
as a band-box, with the fire in the middle, like the sun in the centre
of an Orrery, would have been quite like anything ever seen in the
Highlands before. The plan, however, was not destined to encounter
criticism, or give trouble in the execution of it.

On Sabbaths my cousin and his two brothers attended the parish church,
attired in the full Highland dress; and three handsome, well-formed men
they were; but my aunt, though mayhap not quite without the mother's
pride, did not greatly relish the exhibition; and oftener than once I
heard her say so to her sister my mother; though she, smitten by the
gallant appearance of her nephews, seemed inclined rather to take the
opposite side. My uncle, on the other hand, said nothing either for or
against the display. He had been a keen High