7:  “For none liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself.”  He gave us a clever oration, but whether extempore or otherwise we could not tell, as from where we sat we could not see the preacher.  There was not a large congregation, probably owing to the fact that the people in the North are opposed to innovations, and look upon crosses and candlesticks on the Communion-table as imitations of the Roman Catholic ritual, to which the Presbyterians could never be reconciled.  The people generally seemed much prejudiced against this form of service, for in the town early in the morning, before we knew this building was the cathedral, we asked a man what kind of a place of worship it was, and he replied, in a tone that implied it was a place to be avoided, that he did not know, but it was “next to th’ Catholics.”  Our landlady spoke of it in exactly the same way.

SECOND WEEK’S JOURNEY

Monday, September 25th.

[Illustration:  CAIRN ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF CULLODEN MUIR.]

We rose early, but were not in very good trim for walking, for a mild attack of diarrhoea yesterday had become intensified during the night, and still continued.  After breakfast we went to the post office for our “poste restante” letters, and after replying to them resumed our march.  Culloden Muir, the site of the great battle in 1746, in which the Scottish Clans under Prince Charlie suffered so severely at the hands of the Duke of Cumberland, is only six miles away from Inverness, and we had originally planned to visit it, but as that journey would have taken us farther from the Caledonian Canal, the line of which we were now anxious to follow, we gave up the idea of going to Culloden.  We were, moreover, in no humour for digressions since we had not yet recovered from the effects of our long walk on Saturday, and our bodily ailments were still heavy upon us.  As we crossed the suspension-bridge, in close proximity to the castle, we purchased a few prints of the town and the neighbourhood through which we were about to pass.

Inverness is built in a delightful situation, skirting the Ness, which here takes the form of a beautiful, shallow river moving peacefully forward to its great receptacle, Loch Ness, a few miles away; but, although the country near the town is comparatively level, it is surrounded by mountain scenery of the most charming description.  Our route lay along the north-western side of the Caledonian Canal in the direction of Fort Augustus, and we again passed the Tomnahurich Hill.  Near this we saw a large building which we were surprised to learn was a lunatic asylum—­an institution we did not expect to find here, for we had only heard of one madman in the three counties of Scotland through which we had passed.  We concluded it must have been built for persons from farther south.

[Illustration:  CULLODEN MUIR.]