firs, pines, and some deciduous trees, while the bare moorland above formed a fine background.  On the hill “Beinn-a-Bhragidh,” at a point 1,300 feet above sea-level, standing as if looking down on all, was a colossal monument erected to the memory of the duke’s grandfather, which could be seen many miles away.  The duke must have been one of the largest landowners in Britain, as, in addition to other possessions, he owned the entire county of Sutherland, measuring about sixty miles long and fifty-six miles broad, so that when at home he could safely exclaim with Robinson Crusoe, “I am monarch of all I survey.”

The castle had an ancient foundation, for it was in 1097 the dun, or stronghold, of the second Robert of Sutherland, and the gardens have been famous from time immemorial.  An extract from an old book written in 1630 reads, “The Erle of Sutherland made Dunrobin his speciall residence it being a house well-seated upon a mole hard by the sea, with fair orchards wher ther be pleasant gardens, planted with all kinds of froots, hearbs and flours used in this kingdom, and abundance of good saphorn, tobacco and rosemarie, the froot being excellent and cheeflie the pears and cherries.”

A most pleasing feature to our minds was the fact that the gardens were open to all comers, but as we heard that the duke was entertaining a distinguished company, including Lord Delamere of Vale Royal from our own county of Cheshire, we did not apply for permission to enter the grounds, and thus missed seeing the great Scotch thistle, the finest in all Scotland.  This thistle was of the ordinary variety, but of colossal proportions, full seven feet high, or, as we afterwards saw it described, “a beautiful emblem of a war-like nation with his radious crown of rubies full seven feet high.”  We had always looked upon the thistle as an inferior plant, and in Cheshire destroyed it in thousands, regarding it as only fit for food for donkeys, of which very few were kept in that county; but any one seeing this fine plant must have been greatly impressed by its appearance.  The thistle has been the emblem of Scotland from very early times, and is supposed to have been adopted by the Scots after a victorious battle with the Danes, who on a dark night tried to attack them unawares.  The Danes were creeping towards them silently, when one of them placed his bare foot on a thistle, which caused him to yell out with pain.  This served as an alarm to the Scots, who at once fell upon the Danes and defeated them with great slaughter, and ever afterwards the thistle appeared as their national emblem, with the motto, Nemo me impune lacessit, or, “No one hurts me with impunity.”