one beautiful place to another,
and stay at each during the time that would otherwise be spent on
the road. Already the artists, who are obliged to find their home
in London, rejoice that all England is thrown open to them for
sketching-ground, since they can now avail themselves of a day's
leisure at a great distance, and with choice of position, whereas
formerly they were obliged to confine themselves to a few "green, and
bowery" spots in the neighborhood of the metropolis. But while in the
car, it is to me that worst of purgatories, the purgatory of dulness.

Well, on the coach we went to Perth, and passed through Kinross, and
saw Loch Leven, and the island where Queen Mary passed those sorrowful
months, before her romantic escape under care of the Douglas. As this
unhappy, lovely woman stands for a type in history, death, time, and
distance do not destroy her attractive power. Like Cleopatra, she has
still her adorers; nay, some are born to her in each new generation of
men. Lately she has for her chevalier the Russian Prince Labanoff, who
has spent fourteen years in studying upon all that related to her,
and thinks now that he can make out a story and a picture about the
mysteries of her short reign, which shall satisfy the desire of her
lovers to find her as pure and just as she was charming. I have only
seen of his array of evidence so much, as may be found in the pages of
Chambers's Journal, but that much does not disturb the original view I
have taken of the case; which is, that from a princess educated
under the Medici and Guise influence, engaged in the meshes of secret
intrigue to favor the Roman Catholic faith, her tacit acquiescence,
at least, in the murder of Darnley, after all his injurious conduct
toward her, was just what was to be expected. From a poor, beautiful
young woman, longing to enjoy life, exposed both by her position
and her natural fascinations to the utmost bewilderment of flattery,
whether prompted by interest or passion, her other acts of folly are
most natural, and let all who feel inclined harshly to condemn her
remember to

"Gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman."

Surely, in all the stern pages of life's account-book there is none on
which a more terrible price is exacted for every precious endowment.
Her rank and reign only made her powerless to do good, and exposed her
to danger; her talents only served to irritate her foes and disappoint
her friends. Th