fields in the direction of the railway, we observed an engine with only one carriage attached proceeding along the line, which we thought must be the mail van, but we were told that it was the duke’s private train, and that he was driving the engine himself, the engine being named after his castle, “Dunrobin.”  We learned that the whole railway belonged to him for many miles, and that he was quite an expert at engine driving.

About five miles after leaving Golspie we crossed what was known as “The Mound,” a bank thrown across what looked like an arm of the sea.  It was upwards of half a mile long, and under the road were six arches to admit the passage of the tide as it ebbed and flowed.  Here we turned off to the right along the hill road to Bonar Bridge, and visited what had been once a mansion, but was now nearly all fallen to the ground, very little remaining to tell of its former glory.  What attracted us most was the site of the garden behind the house, where stood four great yew trees which must have been growing hundreds of years.  They were growing in pairs, and in a position which suggested that the road had formerly passed between them.

Presently our way passed through a beautiful and romantic glen, with a fine stream swollen by the recent rains running alongside it.  Had the weather been more favourable, we should have had a charming walk.  The hills did not rise to any great elevation, but were nicely wooded down to the very edge of the stream, and the torrent, with its innumerable rapids and little falls, that met us as we travelled on our upward way, showed to the best advantage.  In a few miles we came to a beautiful waterfall facing our road, and we climbed up the rocks to get a near view of it from a rustic bridge placed there for the purpose.  A large projecting rock split the fall into the shape of a two-pronged fork, so that it appeared like a double waterfall, and looked very pretty.  Another stream entered the river near the foot of the waterfall, but the fall of this appeared to have been artificially broken thirty or forty times on its downward course, forming the same number of small lochs, or ponds.  We had a grand sight of these miniature lakes as they overflowed one into another until their waters joined the stream below.

We now left the trees behind us and, emerging into the open country, travelled many miles across the moors alongside Loch Buidhee, our only company being the sheep and the grouse.  As we approached Bonar Bridge we observed a party of sportsmen on the moors.  From the frequency of their fire we supposed they were having good sport; a horse with panniers on its back, which were fast being ladened with the fallen game, was following them at a respectful distance.  Then we came to a few small houses, near which were large stacks of peat or turf, which was being carted away in three carts.  We asked the driver of the first cart we overtook how far it was to Bonar Bridge, and he replied two miles.  We made the same inquiry from the second, who said three miles, and the reply of the third was two and a half miles.  As the distance between the first and the third drivers was only one hundred yards, their replies rather amused us.  Still we found it quite far enough, for we passed through shower after shower.