me influence, Mr. Graham of Fintray,
whose friendship afterwards, both in the Excise business, and in other
matters, stood him in good stead. The Duke, as he bade farewell to
Burns at Blair, advised him to turn aside, and see the Falls of the
Bruar, about six miles from the Castle, where that stream coming down
from its mountains plunges over some high precipices, and passes
through a rocky gorge to join the river Garry. Burns did so, and
finding the falls entirely bare of wood, wrote some lines entitled
_The Humble Petition of Bruar Water_, in which he makes the stream
entreat the Duke to clothe its naked banks with trees. The poet's
petition for the stream was not in vain. The then Duke of Athole was
famous as a planter of trees, and those with which, after the poet's
Petition, he surrounded the waterfall remain to this day.

After visiting Culloden Muir, the Fall of Fyers, Kilravock Castle, (p. 068)
where, but for the impatience of Mr. Nicol, he would fain have
prolonged his stay, he came on to Fochabers and Gordon Castle. This is
Burns's entry in his diary:--"Cross Spey to Fochabers, fine palace,
worthy of the noble, the polite, and generous proprietor. The Duke
makes me happier than ever great man did; noble, princely, yet mild
and condescending and affable--gay and kind. The Duchess, charming,
witty, kind, and sensible. God bless them!"

Here, too, as at Blair, the ducal hosts seem to have entirely
succeeded in making Burns feel at ease, and wish to protract his
visit. But here, too, more emphatically than at Blair, his friend
spoilt the game. This is the account of the incident, as given by
Lockhart, with a few additions interpolated from Chambers:--

"Burns, who had been much noticed by this noble family when in
Edinburgh, happened to present himself at Gordon Castle, just at the
dinner-hour, and being invited to take a place at the table, did so,
without for a moment adverting to the circumstance that his travelling
companion had been left alone at the inn, in the adjacent village. On
remembering this soon after dinner, he begged to be allowed to rejoin
his friend; and the Duke of Gordon, who now for the first time learned
that he was not journeying alone, immediately proposed to send an
invitation to Mr. Nicol to come to the Castle. His Grace sent a
messenger to bear it; but Burns insisted on himself accompanying him.
They found the haughty schoolmaster striding up and down before the
inn-door in a high sta