void of wood, as well as their slope extremely small. After the many accounts of the beauty of the lake, which every person repeats, I confess it by no means answered my expectation. The chief defect, however, lies in the insipidity of the surrounding scenery. The island, with its ruin, has a very fine effect; and if the environs were not so bleak the sheet of water might be deemed very beautiful. Kinross House, an old Gothic structure, is quite embowered by an ancient copse. presents to the traveller no particular object of attention: one country town is commonly like another when the manners of the people are not strikingly different. But I do not recollect that these objects of which I am attempting to give you such a minute description- No matter, you have at least an opportunity of comparing

The town of Kinross

your own recollections with those of another, and consequently in indulging in a trifling degree that singular propensity of our nature to attend to the feelings of another in a situation which we have experienced; and while you philosophise, be pleased to recollect that I have the pleasure of being yours very sincerely,

JOHN LEYDEN.

NOTES.

NOTE A, p. 13.

THE WATER-HORSE (Each Uisge).

"THE superstitious opinions of the ancient Highlanders seem to have borrowed their tone, in a great measure, from the nature of the country which they inhabited. Living, as they did, amongst dreary wastes, and rugged mountains; their progress from one place to another impeded, frequently, by the rapid torrent, or wide stretched lake; often, in their journeys, sinking under the pressure of fatigue and hunger, or borne down by the rigors of an inclement sky, their imagination was naturally led to ascribe every disaster to the influence of superior powers, in whose character the predominating feature necessarily was malignity towards the human

race.

"Every lake had its kelpie, or water-horse, often seen by the shepherd, as he sat in a summer's

evening, upon the brow of a rock, dashing along the surface of the deep, or browsing on the pasture ground, on its verge. Often did this malignant genius of the waters allure women and children to his subaqueous haunts, there to be immediately devoured. A most disastrous event of this kind is still current in tradition concerning the waterhorse of Loch venachar. Often did he also swell the torrent or lake, beyond its usual limits, to overwhelm the hapless traveller in the flood."Graham's Sketches descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire. Edin., 1806. Pp. 103-105.*

NOTE B, p. 14.

LOCH KETTERIN.

"The etymology, and consequently the spelling, of this name is so often mistaken that it may as well be rectified. Cath-earn, the th being dormant, men of war, or soldiers. Hence, following the orthography, Caterans, Ketterins; the Quatrani of Fordun. Kernes, which follows the Gaelic pronunciation, is the well-known appellation of the High

* According to a later authority, the water-horse and kelpie are two distinct animals: the former haunts lochs, the latter streams and torrents. See Campbell's Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Glasgow, 1900. P. 215.-J. S.