Black cattle and the

which is the object of comparison, but, as a whole, second to none. small breed of whitefaced sheep have been banished from the laigh, and splendid heavy beasts, crosses between the English short-horn and the polled Angus breed, have taken their place, while the sheep are the Cheviot and the Leicester or crosses between them. Active, powerful horses of the Clydesdale breed, which can take a single cart loaded a full four miles an hour, are seen on every farm. The best and newest agricultural implements, exhibited at every Club show, are in use all over the country. The farmers are men of a high class in their profession, for agriculture has now become a special profession, in which an amateur can hardly hope to succeed.

The face of the country no longer presents the bare appearance described by Mr. Leslie, for the proprietors are fully alive to the lesson recorded in the quotation already given from Mr. Forsyth's article in the Farmer's Magazine, and now, seeing the advantage of planting on the inferior soils, they have gone in for it largely, with the happiest effect both on their own interest and the beauty of the country. There are few parts of the island of Great Britain more diversified than the land of Moray, none

showing the blending of Lowland with Highland scenery to greater advantage. It produces almost all that man wants, except metals. It is a land of corn, and, if not of wine and oil, it produces first-class whisky and beer, while oil is represented by the finest milk and butter. Its rivers abound in salmon; its burns and lochs in trout. Its hills and woods and lowlands are as well-stocked with game as any in the country. Its cattle and its sheep are of the highest class, and the firth which washes its shores is famous for the quality and the quantity of its fish. It has a more genial climate in the laigh than the surrounding country or indeed any part of Scotland, and it has men in it who can make the most and the best of it. It is, in the language of the local poet, "A land to live and dee in."

CHAPTER VI.

VISIT TO PARIS.

MR. FORSYTH'S INFIRMITY OF DEAFNESS-GOES TO PARIS TO CONSULT AN EMINENT AURIST-NOTES OF HIS JOURNEYFRENCH SOLDIERS - FRENCH AGRICULTURE-ABSENCE OF GENTLEMEN'S CHATEAUS AND OF CARRIAGES-PARISVISIT TO A SYNAGOGUE-FRENCH SUNDAYS-FÊTE DIEUENVIRONS OF PARIS-RETURN HOME-FAILURE TO OBTAIN RELIEF TO HIS INFIRMITY-ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH IT-SINGULARLY SLIGHT EFFECT ON HIS ACTIVITY OF MIND.

ABOUT the year 1825 Mr. Forsyth began to feel that deafness growing on him to which we have alluded as the cause of his resigning the secretaryship of the Morayshire Farmer's Club in 1827. As the infirmity increased he was recommended to go to Paris to consult an aurist there of European reputation. He has left an account of his journey which is very interesting and instructive. His companions on that occasion were Mr. Hardie, the city chamberlain of Aberdeen, who was similarly afflicted and was also seeking advice and relief if possible, and Mr. George Smith, the founder of the wellknown firm of Smith, Elder, & Co., the pub

lishers of London, a firm friend whose early career Mr. Forsyth had helped on. They set out in a steamship, the first Mr. Forsyth had ever been on, and he remarks on the wonder of going from London to Gravesend in three hours against wind and tide. The passage from London to Calais, ninety-three miles in twelve hours and a half, appears to him quite marvellous, and we need scarcely wonder at this, when we recollect his previous experiences of the sea as detailed in the abortive voyage of the Otter in Chapter III. Arrived at Calais the appearance of the French soldiery on the pier struck him as unmilitary. "Their appointments, dress, movements, and manner have nothing of the precision, activity, and cleanliness of the British soldier." He then goes on to describe his first French dinner at the hotel. "A very small tureen of really excellent soup, a carp in rich sauce with a few bad potatoes, three or four small mutton chops, a fricassee of chicken very tasty, and a made dish in which bad mutton, eggs, and garlic predominated, with some good asparagus, cheese with bread and butter, and a dessert of indifferent apples with a few almonds and raisins and some sweetcakes. To moisten all this, we had a glass decanter of excellent water and a bottle of the

best vin ordinaire to mix with it, which the waiter called Bordeaux of the first quality. To finish the business in a superior style, we had a bottle of the best rose champagne, and found it, even though we went no deeper, very exhilarating. It ought to be so, when I tell you that even here it is charged seven francs a bottle."

In a subsequent walk through the town, of which he gives a description, he says: "I was much struck with the kind and respectful manner in which the inhabitants greeted one another, as also with the total absence of anything like curiosity, staring, or anxiety about our appearance; very different from the conduct of the natives in a small town in England, or even in our own dear Scotland. But I was extremely surprised and indeed disappointed in what appears to me a great change in the manners of this people in another respect. I looked for an excess of spirit, gaiety, and grimace in all classes, but have not found it in any. They seem fully as staid and stupid as our ain folk. Among the men there is a gravity of deportment and an independence of air that I was by no means prepared for, but among the women there is rather more liveliness in addressing one another, and I observed some with considerable power of expression and gesture."