Page:Letters from England.djvu/107

 Highlanders stand at attention, behind them the castle of the Scottish kings, and still farther behind them the whole blood-stained and dreadful history of this land. And bang, bang, the drumsticks dance a wild and wise dance overhead-here the music has remained a spectacle as in the earliest times; and the pipers lift themselves, as if with the impatience of a stallion they were dancing into battle.

Another land and other people. It is a province, but a monumental one; a poorer land, but a sturdy one; a russet and angular type of people, but the girls are prettier than down in England; beautiful and dirty-nosed children, a life ample and jolly in spite of all Calvinism. Upon my soul, I quite took a fancy to it; and to show how pleased I was I will give you as make-weight a strip of sea near Leith and Newhaven, a cold and steely sea, and blue sea-shells as a keepsake and a greeting from the fishing-smacks; and on top of that I will add for you the entire old-fashioned and picturesque town of Stirling