ne and Sir William Keith
Murray.

"From the observatory, the view of Edinboro' is lovely. 'Auld Reekie,'
as the Scotch call it, always looks her best through a mist, and a
Scotch mist is not a rare event--so we saw the city under its most
becoming veil.

"October, 1857. I stopped in Glasgow a few hours, and went to the
observatory, which is also the private residence of Professor Nichol.
Miss Nichol received me, and was a very pleasant, blue-eyed young lady.

"I found that the observatory boasts of two good instruments: a meridian
circle, which must be good, from its appearance, and a Newtonian
telescope, differently mounted from any I had seen; cased in a
composition tube which is painted bright blue--rather a striking object.
The iron mounting seemed to me good. It was of the German kind, but
modified. It seemed to me that it could be used for observations far
from the meridian. The iron part was hollow, so that the clock was
inside, as was the azimuth circle, and thus space was saved.

"They have a wind and rain self-register, and a self-registering
barometer, marking on a cylinder turned by a clock, the paper revolving
once an hour.

"When I was at Dungeon Ghyll, a little ravine among the English lakes,
down which trickles an exceedingly small stream of water, but which is,
nevertheless, very picturesque,--as I followed the old man who shows it
for a sixpence, he asked if we had come a long way. 'From America,' I
replied. 'We have many Americans here,' said he; 'it is much easier to
understand their language than that of other foreigners; they speak very
good English, better than the French or Germans.'

"I felt myself a little annoyed and a good deal amused. I supposed that
I spoke the language that Addison wrote, and here was a Westmoreland
guide, speaking a dialect which I translated into English before I could
understand it, complimenting me upon my ability to speak my own tongue.

"I learned afterwards, as I journeyed on, to expect no appreciation of
my country or its people. The English are strangely deficient in
curiosity. I can scarcely imagine an Englishwoman a gossip.

"I found among all classes a knowledge of the extent of America; by the
better classes its geography was understood, and its physical
peculiarities. One astronomer had bound the scientific papers from
America in green morocco, as typical of a country covered by forests.
Among the most intelligent men whom I met I found an appreciati