We

great distance off, standing high up above the blue sea. passed close to it, and got a view of the almost inaccessible castle perched on its cliffs. It is now in ruins, but at one time was used as a state prison, in which several of the most distinguished Covenanters were confined. Wild flocks of seafowl rose above our heads from off the rock, and among others were numbers of gannets or Solan geese.

As we had lost so much time, and had still the whole English coast to run down, papa and Uncle Tom, after a consultation, agreed to give up their visit to Edinburgh, and to continue their cruise across to the southward.

We now stood on towards Holy Island, a few miles south of Beck, off the Northumbrian coast; and as we had still several bos of daylight, we hove to off the island. Here, in the early egy of Christianity, was a college of evangelists, who went forth sch the simple gospel through the northern portions of the wy, to its heathen kings, as well as to the people over whom held sway. Ultimately, monasteries were built here, as for the supposed piety of their inmates.

the coast we were now sailing along is thus described in

"And now the vessel skirts the strand
Of mountainous Northumberland;
Towns, towers, and halls successive rise,
And catch the nuns' delighted eyes.
Monk-Wearmouth soon behind them lay,
And Tynemouth's priory and bay;
They marked amid her trees, the hall
Of lofty Seaton-Delaval;

They saw the Blythe and Wansbeck floods
Rush to the sea through sounding woods;
They passed the tower of Widderington,
Mother of many a valiant son;

At Coquet-isle their beads they tell
To the good saint who owned the cell;
Then did the Alne attention claim

And Warkworth, proud of Percy's name;
And next they crossed themselves, to hear

The whitening breakers sound so near,

Where, boiling through the rocks, they roar

On Dunstanborough's caverned shore;

Thy tower, proud Bamborough, marked they there,

King Ida's castle, huge and square,

From its tall rock looked grimly down,

And on the swelling ocean frown;

Then from the coast they bore away

And reached the Holy Island's bay."

We pulled on shore to visit the ruins of the celebrated Abbey of Lindisfarne. If the pilgrim visitors arrived at low water, they

could get across by following the sandbank which connects it with the mainland; but they had to make haste, to escape being caught by the flood.

Besides the monastery, there was a castle of great strength, which oft resisted the invaders' hostile attacks; and heathen Danes had again and again been driven back to their ships by its stalwart garrison. Its glories, however, are departed. We could find only a few low walls, over which we could leap, and the remains of a staircase of eight or ten steps in a tower but little higher than the wall. A board warning off trespassers took away what little romance we had conjured up.

Returning on board, we again stood to the southward, sighting Bamborough Castle, elevated on a green mound above the village. Off it, lies the Longstone Rock and the Farne Islands. The coast looked, bleak and desolate, with here and there dark rocks running into the sea. The wind was very light as we came off the Longstone Lighthouse.

While the yachts hove to, the boats were lowered, and we pulled up to it, in order to pay a visit to the scene of Grace Darling's heroism. For upwards of fifty years the lighthouse was under the charge of William Darling, the father of Grace. We understood that the present head-keeper was a member of the family. The tower stands on a rock, is painted red, and the light revolves every half minute. We were much interested with the memorials of Grace Darling which embellished the sitting-room. The light-keeper on duty pointed out the various localities connected with the wreck of the Forfarshire.

Before daylight, on the 6th of September, 1838, a furious gale blowing, Grace Darling, who acted as William Darling's assistant and was on watch, heard, as she thought, the cries of people coming from the direction of some rocks a mile away. She awoke her father, and together they stood listening to the appeals for help; but in the dark, with the furious sea there

As we were anxious to look into St. Andrews, we sailed again next morning, in the hope that the wind would continue in the north, or at all events that we should be able to beat down thus far. It is situated on the south shore of St. Andrew's Bay, some little way outside the entrance to the Firth of Tay. The wind favoured us more than we expected, and a pilot-boat showing us the way, we stood into the harbour, passing close under the peninsula on which the town stands. Above us were the ruins of the cathedral and the chapel of St. Rule, who was supposed to have founded the place, with several other buildings. St. Andrews presented a very quiet aspect, forming a great contrast to the bustling town of Dundee; but I must say it is a far more picturesque place. Of course we visited the university, the most ancient in Scotland. It consists of the colleges of St. Salvator, St. Leonard, and St. Mary. There is also a school called the Madras College, founded by Dr. Bell, the originator of the Madras system of education. By means of these colleges, at which an almost free education can be obtained, young Scotchmen without means are able to enjoy advantages which they could not do in England. The town is certainly more alive than it was when Dr. Johnson visited it in the last century; he declared that one of the streets was lost, and that in those that remained there was "the silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy depopulation." We thought it a very picturesque-looking place, and should have remained there longer had the wind not changed and induced us to put to sea.

Having passed round Fifeness, the eastern point of the peninsula, and opened the Isle of May lights-for there are two on the summit of the island-we stood across the Firth of Forth, intending to visit Edinburgh. The wind being light the whole night, we made no way.

When morning broke, we were in sight of Fenton Law, which rose beyond North Berwick, and the Bass Rock, at no

We

great distance off, standing high up above the blue sea. passed close to it, and got a view of the almost inaccessible castle perched on its cliffs. It is now in ruins, but at one time was used as a state prison, in which several of the most distinguished Covenanters were confined. Wild flocks of seafowl rose above our heads from off the rock, and among others were numbers of gannets or Solan geese.

As we had lost so much time, and had still the whole English coast to run down, papa and Uncle Tom, after a consultation, agreed to give up their visit to Edinburgh, and to continue their cruise across to the southward.