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130 was fixed in writing, A Rebel Spy, which, with the addition of good entertainment, might have been a very famous sign."

From Banff our travellers drove on to Elgin, passing through Lord Findlater's domain. It is strange that neither of them mentions the passage of the Spey, which ofttimes was a matter of great difficulty and even danger. Wesley describes it as "the most rapid river, next the Rhine, he had ever seen." It was no doubt very low, owing to "that long continuance of dry weather which," as Johnson complained a few days later, "divested the Fall of Foyers of its dignity and terror." At Elgin they dined, and dined badly. "It was," he said, "the first time he had seen a dinner in Scotland that he could not eat." He might have reasonably expected something better, for in the account of Scotch inns given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1771 (p. 544), the Red Lion at Elgin, kept by Leslie, is described as good. It is added that "he is the only landlord in Scotland who wears ruffles." As this was the inn in which the civic feasts were always held, the honour not only of the landlord, but also of the town was wounded by the publication of Johnson's narrative. I am glad to be able to inform the world that a satisfactory explanation has been given, and that Elgin and the Red Lion were not guilty of the inhospitality with which they have so long been reproached, and so unjustly. It seems that for some years before Johnson's visit a commercial traveller, Thomas Paufer by name, used in his rounds to come to this inn.

Mr. Paufer's means must have been indeed limited, for unless prices had greatly risen in the previous thirty years, a good dinner and wine could have been provided at a most moderate charge, to