enclose the view, except to the farthest east, where the
haze of the horizon rests upon the open sea. There lies
the road to Norway: a dear road for Sir Patrick Spens and
his Scots Lords; and yonder smoke on the hither side of
Largo Law is Aberdour, from whence they sailed to seek a
queen for Scotland.


'O lang, lang, may the ladies sit,
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Or ere they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the land!'


The sight of the sea, even from a city, will bring
thoughts of storm and sea disaster. The sailors' wives
of Leith and the fisherwomen of Cockenzie, not sitting
languorously with fans, but crowding to the tail of the
harbour with a shawl about their ears, may still look
vainly for brave Scotsmen who will return no more, or
boats that have gone on their last fishing. Since Sir
Patrick sailed from Aberdour, what a multitude have gone
down in the North Sea! Yonder is Auldhame, where the
London smack went ashore and wreckers cut the rings from
ladies' fingers; and a few miles round Fife Ness is the
fatal Inchcape, now a star of guidance; and the lee shore
to the east of the Inchcape, is that Forfarshire coast
where Mucklebackit sorrowed for his son.

These are the main features of the scene roughly