in the course of the day, formerly the stronghold of the once powerful
family of Cummin.

"It's dootless a bonnie place about the abbey," said he, "but naething
like what it was when the great Sir James the Rose came to hide i' the
Buchan woods wi' a' the Grahames rampagin' at his tail, whilk you that's
a beuk-learned man 'ill hae read o', an' may be ye'll hae heard o' the
saughen bush where he forgathered wi' his jo; or aiblins ye may have seen
't, for it's standing yet just at the corner o' gaukit Jamie Jamieson's
peat-stack. Ay, ay, the abbey was a brave place once; but a' thing, ye
ken, comes till an end." So saying, he nodded to me, and brought his
glass to an end.

"This place, then, must have been famed in days of yore, my friend?"

"Ye may tak my word for that," said he, "'Od, it _was_ a place! Sic a
sight o' fechtin' as they had about it! But gin ye'll gan up the trap-
stair to the laft, an' open Jenny's kist, ye'll see sic a story about it,
printed by ane o' your learned Aberdeen's fouk, Maister Keith, I think;
she coft it in Aberdeen for twal' pennies, lang ago, an' battered it to
the lid o' her kist. But gang up the stair canny, for fear that you
should wauken her, puir thing; or, bide, I'll just wauken Jamie Fleep,
an' gar him help me down wi't, for our stair's no just that canny for
them 't's no acquaint wi't, let alane a frail man wi' your infirmity."

I assured him that I would neither disturb the young lady's slumber nor
Jamie Fleep's, and begged him to give me as much information as he could
about this castle.

"Weel, wishin' your guid health again.--Our minister ance said that