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grandeur of the more distant tremendous waterfalls, woody precipices, hills covered with dingy firs, and o'ertopt by high and heathy mountains. Coming, in their return, to a country inn, they were much struck with the beauty and elegant manners of the landlord's daughters. The father, they found, was a gentleman, the representative of a respectable family, but of small fortune; and that in order to enable him to give his children a good education, to supply the deficiency of his patrimony, he had had recourse to industry. Burke and Mr. Windham were very much pleased with the conversation of the young ladies; and from the first town they came to, sent them a copy of Cecilia;' a present at once a high compliment to the taste of the young ladies and the genius of the author; and which they prized very highly, coming from such donors. One of the Misses McLaren (that was their name) was soon married to a gentleman in the neighbourhood. The younger, some years after, married a medical gentleman who procured

Mr.

an appointment in India. The following circumstance is said to have produced the appointment and accelerated the marriage. Mr. Dundas, riding from his hunting seat in Strathern, to visit the Duke of Athol at Blair, stopped at the inn. Accosting Miss M'Laren with his usual gallantry, and bestowing high and just praises on her beauty, he said, he was surprized that so fine a girl had not got a husband.' Sir,' replied

she,

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my marriage depends upon you.' 'On me, how so?' There is,' she answered,

a young gentleman, to whom I am under promise of marriage as soon as circumstances will permit. He has been in the shipping service of the East India Company, and wishes to procure a settlement in Bengal, as an intimate friend of his, Mr. Dick, married to my eldest sister, is one of the principal surgeons in Calcutta, and would have it in his power very effectually to serve him in his business.' Mr. Dundas, having, on inquiry, found that Mr. M'Nabb (the gentleman in question) was a man of merit and professional skill, on his return to Lon

don sent him permission to go to India. The marriage was concluded; soon after they sailed; and are now established at Patna.

Con

Crossing the Tumel, where, near its confluence with the Tay, it forms the beautiful peninsula of Logerait,* the travellers, passing the venerable mansion of Ballechin, proceeded through the winding woods of StrathTay, to Taymouth, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane, one of the most romantic and grandest scenes in the Highlands. tinuing their route by the banks of LochTay, towards Inverary, they one evening came to an inn, near a church-yard: amusing themselves with reading the inscriptions on the tomb-stones, they were addressed by a gentleman in a clerical habit, who, after some conversation, requested their company to drink tea at the parsonage-house. They

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* Heretofore a royal seat, and the residence of Rot II. a monarch, like his descendant Charles II. chiefly dist ruished for the number of his progeny.

complied, engaging their host to return with them to the inn to supper. They discovered Dr. M'Intire, the clergyman, to be a man of much information, excellent sense, and peculiarly conversant in the history and actual state of the Highlands. They perceived also, that he was well acquainted with the affairs of India, where he had a son in a high situation. Mr. Burke was amused with the idea, that in a remote and sequesteel spot, where there were so few inhabitants, he should accidentally light on the father of a man in high situation in a service, the late head of which he was endeavouring to bring to condign punishment. Burke, who understood the Irish language, spoke to Dr. M'Intire in that tongue. He was answered in Erse; and they understood each other in many instances, from the similarity of these two dialects of the ancient Celtic. The Doctor shewed him an Irish Bible; and informed him that there had been no translation of the Scriptures into Erse till about twenty years before: tha' there was a version of the Testament p

lished by the clergyman of the adjoining parish (through which the gentlemen had passed), Mr. Stewart of Killin; and that that gentleman, in conjunction with two of his sons, and with the assistance of other clergymen, of whom Dr. M'Intire himself was one, was preparing a translation of the Old Testament.* Burke expected, and perceived, that his hosts's notions concerning both the authenticity and merit of Ossian by no means coincided with the opinion which he himself had formed. Burke, indeed, admitted that there might be songs in the Erse descriptive of heroes and their

* The chief conductor is Dr. Stewart of Luss, in Dumbartonshire, son to the translator of the Testament. It may have, perhaps, received interruption from the death of his father and brother, but, with the assistance of Dr. Smith of Campbeltown, Mr. Macklagan, and other gentlemen competent to the task, is now said to be considerably advanced. It will be of peculiar advantage at the present momentous season to have a translation of the Bible into the Erse tongue, in order to counteract the malignant efforts of sseminators of infidelity, who have published among the Hlanders versions of Paine's works, and similar produc

tions.

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