yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote, the awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side. The saying, as recollected by me, was this, but I have never heard nor seen it since I was nine years of age:

66 Brig of Balgownie, black's your wa',

Wi' a wife's ae son, and a mare's ae foal,

Doon ye shall fa'!"

The bridge was built by Bishop Cheyne, in the time of Robert Bruce, and consists of one spacious Gothic arch, which rests on a rock on each side.*

* From Aberdeen a very interesting tour may be made up the Dee to Ballater and Castleton of Braemar. The district of country which this route gives the tourist an opportunity of visiting is peculiarly wild, exhibiting scenes of savage grandeur unequalled in any other part of Scotland.

Although Aberdeen is made the starting point in this excursion, we shall advert, in our progress, to other routes by which the various interesting spots mentioned in it may be reached, without passing through Aberdeen.

TOUR TO THE HIGHLANDS OF DEESIDE AND THE CAIRNGORM MOUNTAINS.

On leaving Aberdeen there are two routes as far as Upper Banchory—one on the north, the other on the south side of the Dee. The latter is sometimes adopted by pedestrians and horsemen, but the former is the usual turnpike road, and is not only the shorter, but the more interesting of the two in its command of prospect. Opposite the third mile there is the kirk and village of Banchory Devenick on the south bank of the river; and a little farther on is a bridge across the river, built at the private expense of Dr. Morison, the clergyman of the parish, for the use of his parishioners. For several miles after leaving the town there is a succession of small patches of landed property, with handsome houses, generally having lawns and pleasure grounds sloping towards the river. Near the sixth mile-stone, on the south bank, is the Roman Catholic College of Blairs, endowed by the munificent Mr. Menzies of Pitfodels. In its close vicinity the churches of Mary Culter and Peter Culter front each other—the former on the south, the latter on the north side of the river. A little farther on,

After leaving Aberdeen, and passing a number of fishing villages and Cruden Boy, the old castle of Slaines is

the road descending into a ravine, crosses the burn of Culter by a massive stone bridge. The banks are steep and wooded, and refreshing to the tourist's eye, as the first specimen of picturesquely broken ground which he passes on this jaunt. On a bare flat heathy hill, of slight elevation, between this spot and the Dee, the antiquarian will find an object of considerable interest in an undoubted Roman camp in good preservation. It is called Norman Dikes, (supposed to be a corruption of Roman Dikes.) A minute account of it will be found in Chalmers' Caledonia. It has been maintained to be the site of the Roman town and station of Devana, but the ramparts, which are distinctly traceable, are neither in their size nor strength such as to justify the supposition that the Romans had a permanent station within them. In a wooded elevation to the north-east of Norman Dykes there is an oblong space, enclosed by a rampart, which, however, from its irregular construction, appears to be of British origin. It is called Kemp (viz. Camp) Hill. Apropos to this subject, it may be mentioned that the antiquary will find, a few miles to the north-west, in the vicinity of Skene, one of the most remarkable fortified remains in existence. It consists of five concentric ramparts of stone, enclosing the summit of a steep conical hill, which, in reference to these works, is called the Barmekyne (viz. Barbican) of Echt. The outside ring is nearly a mile in circumference, and the inmost encloses about an acre of level land; after toiling up the steep ascent which leads to it, one is astonished by the traces of the mechanical skill, energy, and patience, which must have been combined in the construction of works so gigantic on such a spot. The whole of this neighbourhood bears traces of ancient and long forgotten conflict. There are many minor fortifications and camps, and the peasantry frequently turn up flint spear and arrow heads of exquisite proportion and finish, remnants of an ancient and partial civilization, that must have passed away long before the commencement of Scottish history.

At the tenth mile is the house or castle of Drum, (Alex. Irvine, Esq.) boldly looking out from a noble bill slope among scattered forest trees. The most remarkable part of the building is the old keep or donjon, a massive square tower, with rounded corners, which looks as if it had been built to give battle to earthquakes. The walls are twelve feet thick, and thus, though the outside circumference is considerable, the interior merely consists of a small gloomy vaulted chamber in each floor. The family of Drum is of considerable antiquity, and great fame in local history. It is the subject of a multi

seen standing on a steep precipice overlooking the sea. This fortress was destroyed in 1594, when James VI.

tude of traditions, the more striking of which concern a long deadly feud with the Keith family, and the great battle of Harlaw. A little beyond the tenth mile are Mains of Drum Inn and Drumoak Church and Manse. Opposite the eleventh mile-stone there is, on the south bank of the river, the House of Durris, (Anthony Mactier, Esq.) and a little farther on the Kirk of Durris, or, as it is pronounced in the vicinity, Dores. On the north side of the river, and between it and the road, is Park House, (A. Kinloch, Esq.) a somewhat more dapper and villa looking edifice than the majority of the Deeside buildings. About the 15th mile, Crathes Castle, (Sir Robert Burnett, of Leys, Bart.) looks majestically forth from a sloping mass of thick woodland. It is one of those old Flemish buildings which, rising as it were from a solid root and stem, becomes, as it ascends, broken into a varied picturesque cluster, of turrets chimneys and peaked gables. There are, unfortunately, some modern additions sadly out of keeping with the picturesque character of the older part. Here, as at Drum, there is abundant traditionary lore, both in prose and song.*

or

At eighteen miles from Aberdeen is the village of Banchory Ternan

UPPER BANCHORY,

the first of the genuine pleasure-trip places on Deeside. It enjoys a considerable share of the beauties of water, wood, and mountain.

*Of the latter, there is a somewhat humorous ballad, called "The Baron o' Leys," in which a hopeful heir of the family, having got inveigled in some foreign liaison, is represented as mystifying the object of his affections on the subject of his identity, by successively representing himself as the proprietor of very grotesque and unreasonable names. The dialogue proceeds thus:—

"Some ca's me this, some ca's me that,
Whatever may best befa' me;

But when I'm in Scotland's King's high court,
Clatter-the-speens they ca' me.

"O waes me now, O Clatter the speens,
And alas! that ever I saw thee;

For I'm in love, sick sick in love,
And I kenna well fat to ca' thee.

"Some ca's me this, some ca's me that,
I carena what they ca' me;
But when wi' the Earl o' Murray I ride,
Its Scour-the-Braes they ca' me.

"O waes me now, O Scour the Braes, &c.

marched north after the battle of Glenlivat, to reduce Huntly and Errol to obedience. The Errol family then

The older part of the village consists of venerable sturdy gloomy houses, that have been built for genuine residenters, and to suit the humours of no capricious city lodger. The newer part contains several stylish "boxes," with gardens, and neat lodging houses. A new Gothic church, in good taste, terminating the steep bank of the river, along which the straggling village runs, gives a finished landscape air to the whole. The Dee is here joined by the Feugh, an angry moss-stained stream, which comes thundering down from the Braes of Angus, lashing its black waters into foam, as it quarrels with the surly rocks. Near its junction it crosses a stony barrier, where, after a succession of broken foaming torrents and inky pools, it casts itself over the brow of a rock, and makes a stormy cascade—its last act of independent turbulence, before its troublesome spirit is subdued by intermixture with the more dignified and placid waters of the Dee. Looking up in the direction whence this stream runs, the traveller will see the broken outline of the hills from which its waters are supplied, and towering above the others is the characteristic summit of Cloch-na-ben, with a great stone like a gigantic wart projecting from its brow. Four miles north from the village is the Hill of Fare, wide and flat, and not very elevated, presenting little attraction to the searcher after the romantic. A hollow on the north side, however, is not unfrequently visited, from its being the battlefield of Corrichie, where Murray and Huntly fought in 1562, under the eye of Queen Mary. A small fountain near the spot is called Queen Mary's Well. In a densely wooded recess on the northern declivity of this hill rises an oriental looking cluster of turrets, forming the mansion or castle of Midmar.

A little more than a mile beyond Banchory, on the south bank, is the modern castellated mansion of Blackball, (Colonel Campbell,) a parkish looking place, with a long wide avenue, bordered by magnificent trees. On the north bank is Inchmarlo, (D. Davidson, Esq.) About a mile farther on is Woodend Cottage, peeping from a plantation sloping finely to the Dee. At the 24th mile is the Brig of Potarch, where the old south and north road, still used by drovers, crosses to the Cairn O'Mont, Fetter Cairn, and Brechin.* The Dee,

* If any one wishes to experiment on a really old fashioned Scottish country inn, equally unknown to tourists and commercial travellers, we would recommend him to the hostel of Cutties-Hilloc on this road, should it still remain the respectable relic of former hospitality which we remember it to have been but a few years ago.