hen I
arrived. I wrote last on Friday. I merely want to know once how you are,
and if all is well I shall move onward. It is of not much use staying
here. After I had written to you on Friday I crossed by the ferry over
the Firth and walked to Beauly, and from thence to Beaufort or Castle
Downie; at Beauly I saw the gate of the pit where old Fraser used to put
the people whom he owed money to--it is in the old ruined cathedral, and
at Beaufort saw the ruins of the house where he was born. Lord Lovat
lives in the house close by. There is now a claimant to the title, a
descendant of old Fraser's elder brother who committed a murder in the
year 1690, and on that account fled to South Wales. The present family
are rather uneasy, and so are their friends, of whom they have a great
number, for though they are flaming Papists they are very free of their
money. I have told several of their cousins that the claimant has not a
chance as the present family have been so long in possession. They
almost blessed me for saying so. There, however, can be very little
doubt that the title and estate, more than a million acres, belong to
the claimant by strict law. Old Fraser's brother was called Black John
of the Tasser. The man whom he killed was a piper who sang an insulting
song to him at a wedding. I have heard the words and have translated
them; he was dressed very finely, and the piper sang:

'You're dressed in Highland robes, O John,
But ropes of straw would become ye better;
You've silver buckles your shoes upon
But leather thongs for them were fitter.'

Whereupon John drew his dagger and ran it into the piper's
belly; the descendants of the piper are still living at Beauly.
I walked that day thirty-four miles between noon and ten
o'clock at night. My letter of credit is here. This is a dear
place, but not so bad as Edinburgh. _If you have written_,
don't write any more till you hear from me again. God bless you
and Hen.

GEORGE BORROW.

'Swindled out of a shilling by rascally ferryman,' is Borrow's note in
his diary of the episode that he relates to his wife of crossing the
Firth. He does not tell her, but his diary tells us, that he changed his
inn on the day he wrote this letter: the following jottings from the
diary cover the period:

_Sept. 29th._--Quit the 'Caledonian' for 'Union Sun'--poor
accommodation--could scarcely get anything to ea