nteresting
country--low hills, rocky, stony, heathery, and peaty--but a new
country has always something of interest to pass the time with. I
saw a valuable archaeological phenomenon to-day. The Roman roads
were all paved, and went straight over hill and across
valley--never troubled about levels. In the parts of Britain where
the Romans are historically known to have been, such roads have
been fully identified. But there, as well as in other places, where
it has been questioned if the Romans ever were--any road strewn or
surfaced with stones that have been laid down in the paving of the
road, is adopted as a Roman road. I have often supposed that this
conclusion was too readily adopted. And to-day I walked for some
distance on a road that has all the requisites--yet no one is wild
enough to say that the Romans were in Shetland. The weather to-day
was warmer than I have yet known it, the sun, such as he is, having
nearly the whole twenty-four hours to do his work in. The next
stage will be Kirkwall, then Wick.

"I shall intimate my motions as I find them coming up for
consideration. I feel very elastic. There is nothing in my mind
demanding either hard work or anxious adjustment. The 'Queen Anne'
pressed very hard on me before I had done; and the press has rather
too justly noticed a slovenliness about the conclusion. Then came
immediately various cares and troubles, accompanied by the not very
severe, but tedious, drudgery of the index; but I am not going to
grumble more, since I am at present in comparative freedom and
idleness.--Yours, my dear love, J.H. BURTON."

The next is dated merely _Sunday_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,-- ... The weather here has been divine, with
daylight, one may say, for twenty-four hours. The people are kind
and cleanly, and all the necessaries of life are abundant. I do not
know when I have enjoyed better health. There is nothing abnormal
about me, except the extent of my appetite. Walking thirty miles
here, is less fatiguing than from Morton to Edinburgh.

"Love to all the household, and remembrances to guests, from yours
affectionately, J.H. BURTON."

* * * * *

"DOUGLAS HOTEL, ABERDEEN,
_14th July 1880_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,-- ... I had some fun yesterday with a class of
people I de