Next morning I left Aberdeen on the top of the Mail, by way of Huntly, and after transacting some business, I think at Elgin, with a person who had been instructed to wait for me at the inn as the coach passed in the evening, arrived at Inverness, (after passing through the Blasted Heath of Shakespeare in course of the night) at the time I expected, early in the morning.

At this distance of time, I cannot recollect all that passed betwixt the brothers and me on the occasion of that visit, nor have I leisure at present to search for the necessary documents, to revive my recollections on the subject. It does not, however, appear that all the representations, and all the eloquence of the young men, even backed by the powerful argument, of the Inverness district subscription list, now amounting to within a little of three thousand five hundred pounds! or, in neat figures, to £3490: 3:4, was still sufficient to induce me to enter into their views at that time, in regard to the farther extension of the business; for it appears, after reviewing their proceeds, looking over stock, seeing the men employed, &c. I returned home, without coming to any decision on that important subject.

Perhaps this hesitation at the time, on my part, arose from the yet disproportionate state of my remittances, and great accumulation of stock, for such a length of time; for it does not appear I brought any money from that quarter home with me, although some followed soon after,—and the balance in books in the warehouse, I see amounted to no less a sum than £1291:14:8.

It was on this journey, I observe, that I had an opportu→ nity on the Sunday afternoon after attending divine service in the forenoon with my landlord in the English church, of hearing a Gaelic sermon in the Gaelic church,-that I first witnessed the effects of the earthquake in the twisted top of the jail spire-and that, I heard an account of the ghost story of one of our men, who had almost lost his wits in consequence of a fright he got, "on the night time," to use his own words in a letter now before me, dated Keith, February 18, 1817, "between Achindown and Glass."-"I am not right yet since I came through that moor; I was travelling some of

the night, wishing to be done as soon as possible, but I could not express to any person what I have seen and heard in that place, but the Almighty brought me safe from what it

It has been supposed by some people with whom I have conversed, and who are acquainted with these parts, that the ghost, on that occasion, was some character got up by smugglers to terrify those who had the temerity to intrude upon their secret haunts, in untimeous hours,-for the safety of their operations under cloud of night.

But whatever was the cause of poor Sandy Ferguson's fright, I got a pretty severe one myself, in my bed in the inn at Dalwhinnie, on my return homewards through the Highlands by the coach, in company with one of the pleasantest parties that one would desire to travel with in these regions, in course of which, instead of any of the party being poverty struck, or without the means of getting a supply of victuals, as was the case with my unfortunate companion outward bound, we had abundance, or more than abundance, in the well filled basket of our kind West India friend, who was resolv- ` ed to live, and to let all others of his travelling companions live also, in these sterile regions, in case there had been a want of provisions, as well as of locks to the doors in the inns.*

During the few days I remained at Inverness, I received a letter from Dunbar, of date, the 23d April, containing, besides information as to how my agents and auxiliaries in other quarters were coming on, the pleasant intelligence that a work, in the completion of which I was much interested, was drawing towards a conclusion, and in that letter, I have also a hint as to how we might advantageously dispose of some of our hands, in case I could discover any "good ground," as it was expressed, in the north; a circumstance that had not previously escaped my inquiries, I believe, among other things at Aber

It would appear, that our hospitable friend, had been strongly impressed with the belief, that there was some chance of starvation staring him in the face, in coming through the Highlands, for he had brought provisions enough to carry us to Perth, even had there not been, that regular chain of Inns, which are now, and were then, situated at convenient distances on the road. The allusion to the locks, and to the fright at Dalwhinnie, will be explained in due time.

*

deen-for, I had not the most distant intention of allowing our auctioneers, as yet, to encroach upon my Inverness district. And to this I seem to have attended in the arrangement of what I would call our SUMMER SALES, for the return of J. T. with T. C. acting as clerk, dated the 14th, I see is from Kirkaldy, on their way out, leaving only my Edinburgh P. C. to operate in the south, say in Leith and the New Town of Edinburgh, in the month of June, and in West Linton and Peebles in the month of July :—while the most productive of these sales, I see, was commenced by my son and his accompanying auctioneer, my Glasgow P. C. towards the end of July, at Peterhead.†—Of date, the 27th of May, I see I have a large tabular return from my agent at Inverness, containing particulars which I think I signified a wish to know, at the time I was north, near the end of April; and by a letter from Mr, of the 20th of July, I am agreeably informed, that the injunction on a certain book, (the one recently alluded to as drawing towards a close) which had put him to so much trouble, and me, to so much inconvenience, in lying out of, after it was completed, had been taken off.

* The sales on the 9th to the 14th, were at Kirkcaldy,-16th to 19th, Leven, -at Ellie, 20th and 21st,-Anstruther, 23d to 26th,-Leuchars, 27th and 28th, -Dundee. 30th to July 5th-Forfar, 8th and 9th,-Brechin, 10th to 12th Laurence kirk, 14th to 17th,-Stonehaven, 18th and 19th.-Kirriemuir, 22d, 23d,-Glammis, 24th to 26th,-Meigle, 28th to 30th -Cupar Angus, 31st to August 2d-Blair-gowrie, 4th to 7th-Caputh, 8th, 9th-Dunkeld, 11th to 16th. Auchtergavin. 18th, 19th,-Bridge of Earn, 20th to 23d,--Auchterarder, 25th to 28th.—Crieff, 29th and 30th,-Dunblane, September 1st to 3d,St Ninians, 4th and 5th,-Linlithgow, 9th to 13th,-Borrowstonness, 15th to 17th.-Bathgate, 18th to 20th,-Whitburn, 22d, 23d,—Blackburn, 24th, 25th, -Midcalder, 26th.

+ From which place, Peterhead, they sent their first return of date the 31st July, from Aberdeen, on the weeks ending the 9th, 16th, 23d and 30th of August, from Old Meldrum, Sept. 5th,-Banff, the 13th,-M'Duff on the 20th, Keith, on the 29th, and Inverury, Oct. 1st,-and in the intermediate dates, I see they were at Turiff, Sept. 4th, Portsoy, 18th and 19th,and Huntly, 26th to 29th.

.

CHAPTER XXI.-1817 (CONTINUED.)

My own Ghost story. Circumstances that may probably have contributed to lead to it.Our recent conversation, in approaching the precincts of Loch Laggan, and of the dreary and desolated spot near Shirra-more, the place of assignation in his last spiritual conflict, of Angus, the hero of Mrs Grant's story of the Highland Visionary.Retire to bed, and fall asleep in the Inn of Dalwhinnie.-Frightful dream, and fearful awakening-Start up in my bed. Strange noises continue to be heard in the adjoining apartment.-Ask my travelling companion if he is asleep.- Half asleep and half awake, rather ludicrous, but laconic answer. Strange discovery, upon day light breaking in. Things in general, exactly in the state, they were represented to me in my dream. Other appearances in the morning. The method of procedure, I adopted on the occasion.-The most mysterious parts of the mystery, satisfacto rily accounted for.-How the others may have been occasioned.-Snow covered mountains in the morning.-Early journey by the side of the snow poles, in the forest of Drumochter. Breakfast at Dalnacardoch.-Pleasant ride by the side of the Garry. Bruar Water.-Blair Athol.-Pass of Killicrankie.-Dunkeld. -Employment at home after my return. How the publication business there, and in the west, was kept moving.-Respectable remittances follow in succession from the north, with other satisfactory information.Give my consent, at last, to the extension of the business to Caithness, &c. Am informed of the departure of three men for Sutherland, &c.-The time when the young man, who was to take the management, went forward himself.-Fifth general or quarterly return, from Inverness, the best, and most productive, I had ever received. Early commencement of our WINTER auctioning campaign. Places of operating, and the routes of the different operators pointed out Things upon the whole, in the publication line, seem to get on well and smoothly. Disastrous tidings from my auctioneers, begin to pour in from all quarters.-Times, instead of mending, continue to get worse.-Corroborating extracts to that effect.-Friend Peter's fears too well founded.I attempt to auction in a state of indisposition, and am obliged to give it up.-Laid up with a fever.News of a rather disastrous nature from Inverness. Loss of the Santola packet -All my effects on board lost, and what is worse, all on board perished.A bad omen, but we need not anticipate.

I HAD too long been the victim to, and buffeted by, too many of the real and substantial evils of life, to be much taken up, at this period, with visionary fears and imaginary terrors. Indeed, I paid so little attention to the affair at Dalwhinnie Inn, as just to have noticed it in my reminiscences as the curious dream, I had, at that place.

As I must have said enough, however, to excite the curiosity of my youthful readers, in my last chapter, and it cannot be supposed that I, should have any wish to revive those feelings by any allusion to what took place a few miles on the one side of Loch Laggan, that I had taken so much pains to do away, in the STORY OF LITTLE JOHN, &c. in my Cheap Magazine for May 1813, in which, I had occasion to introduce what was reported to have taken place a few miles on the other side of that secluded lake; I shall, before proceeding to the weightier matters of this chapter, say a few words, by the way of clearing up and elucidating, what may appear of mystery, in the manner I had expressed myself towards the conclusion of my last.

I must then premise, that as we wheeled along to our domicile for the night, we were fully aware that we were approaching the precincts of Loch Laggan, among the seclugions of whose banks lived the Highland Visionary, who is the hero of Mrs Grant's supernatural kind of story, in her then recently published work on the "Superstitions of the Highlanders"—and indeed, a little more than an hour's exercise with a well trotting horse, along one branch of the road, would have brought us to Shiramore, in the neighbourhood of which, the tremendous, sterile, and desolated pass is represented to be situated, where Angus, it would appear, at the hour of twelve, had his last assignation with what he considered his unearthly visitor; at least, we read no more of him afterwards. And being so aware, it was very natural, that our conversation should take a turn to the subject of that work, although I do not recollect of its being again started at supper, or after our arrival at the Inn of Dalwhinnie.

Be this as it may, I had not long retired to bed, and fallen asleep, until I was awakened by a very curious, or, as I may well style it, alarming and frightful dream, if it may, indeed, be altogether denominated such, where there was so much of reality in the drama.

I dreamed that I lay in a strange house, in a strange bed, and that the foot of that bed stood exactly opposite to, and at a short distance from, the door, which opened up upon it into the room,-that, all on a sudden that door flew open