* * * * *

Of one thing I am certain, that the reader must be much delighted with
the wholesome smell of the stable, with which many of these pages are
redolent; what a contrast to the sickly odours exhaled from those of some
of my contemporaries, especially of those who pretend to be of the highly
fashionable class, and who treat of reception-rooms, well may they be
styled so, in which dukes, duchesses, earls, countesses, archbishops,
bishops, mayors, mayoresses--not forgetting the writers themselves, both
male and female--congregate and press upon one another; how cheering, how
refreshing, after having been nearly knocked down with such an
atmosphere, to come in contact with genuine stable hartshorn.

* * * * *

My curiosity had led me to a most extraordinary place, which quite
beggars the scanty powers of description with which I am gifted. I
stumbled on amongst ruined walls, and at one time found I was treading
over vaults, as I suddenly started back from a yawning orifice, into
which my next step as I strolled musing along, would have precipitated
me. I proceeded for a considerable way by the eastern wall, till I heard
a tremendous bark, and presently an immense dog, such as those which
guard the flocks in the neighbourhood against the wolves, came bounding
to attack me 'with eyes that glowed, and fangs that grinned.' Had I
retreated, or had recourse to any other mode of defence than that which I
invariably practise under such circumstances, he would probably have
worried me; but I stooped till my chin nearly touched my knee, and looked
him full in the eyes, and, as John Leyden says, in the noblest ballad
which the Land of Heather has produced: