architecture being florid Gothic.  The tracery round the capitals of pillars is in wonderful preservation, looking as fresh and sharp as on the first day of their creation; instead of the Grecian acanthus Scotch kail being a favourite ornament.  Some of the images still remain in their niches.  In the east aisle is the grave of the famous wizard, Michael Scott, and at the foot of the tombstone a grim-looking figure,—­query himself?  In the ruined cloisters the tracery is of the most delicate description, foliage of trees and vegetables being carved on them.  This Abbey was founded by David the First, but repaired by James the Fourth, which accounts for his altered crown appearing in stone on the walls,” &c. &c.  The Scotch kail is curious, as indicative of national preference:  and is the wizard still on guard?  Recollect that in those days there were no guide-books,—­so every observant traveller had to record for himself what he saw.

The next, in 1829, was a second visit to the Continent, my first having been in 1826, with those quotations from “Rough Rhymes” which have already met your view.  In this we took the usual tour of those days, via Brussels and the Rhine to Switzerland, and I might quote plenty thereof if space and time allowed.  Here shall follow a casual page from the 1829 MS. Journal, now before me.

“Heidelberg has a university of seven hundred students, who wear no particular academicals, but are generally seen with a little red or blue cap topping a luxuriant head of hair, a long coat, and moustaches which usually perform the function of a chimney to pipe or cigar.  All along our to-day’s route extended immense fields of tobacco, turnips, and vegetals of every description.  Most of the women seem to be troubled with goitres, and we observed that all who have them wear rows of garnets strung tight on the part affected, whether with the idea of hiding the deformity, or of rendering the beauty of the swelling more conspicuous, or of charming it away, I cannot tell.  The roads in these parts are much avenued with walnut trees:  Fels, our courier, told me that of all trees they are most subject to be struck by lightning, and that under them is always a current of air.  I insert his information, as he is both a sensible man, and has had great opportunities of observing,” &c. &c.  Here is a gap of three years.

In 1832, my journal about Dorsetshire and the Isle of Wight is chiefly geological:  as this extract shows, it was mainly a search after fossil spoils at Charmouth:—­“Would you like to see a creature with the head of a lizard, wings of a bat, and tail of a serpent?  Such things have been, as these bones testify; they are called Pterodactyls, and are as big as ravens.  Thus, you see, a dragon is no chimera, but attested by a science founded on observation, Geology.  As their bones (known by their hollowness) often occur in the coprolites or fossil dung of Plesiosauri, mighty monsters of the deep like gigantic swans, it is thought they were their special prey, for which the long and flexible neck of the Plesiosaurus is an a priori argument,” &c. &c.