in which he was early initiated and completely indulged. Although an
Englishman, he was fifteen before he re-visited his country, and then
his glimpses of England were brief, and to him scarcely satisfactory.
He was hurried sometimes to vast domains, which he heard were his own;
and sometimes whisked to the huge metropolis, where he was shown St.
Paul's and the British-Museum. These visits left a vague impression of
bustle without kindness and exhaustion without excitement; and he was
glad to get back to his glens, to the moor and the mountain-streams.

His father, in the selection of his guardians, had not contemplated this
system of education. While he secured by the appointment of his
brother-in-law, the most competent and trustworthy steward of his son's
fortune, he had depended on another for that influence which should
mould the character, guide the opinions, and form the tastes of his
child. The other guardian was a clergyman, his father's private tutor
and heart-friend; scarcely his parent's senior, but exercising over him
irresistible influence, for he was a man of shining talents and
abounding knowledge, brilliant and profound. But unhappily, shortly
after Lothair became an orphan, this distinguished man seceded from the
Anglican communion, and entered the Church of Rome. From this moment
there was war between the guardians. The uncle endeavored to drive his
colleague from the trust: in this he failed, for the priest would not
renounce his office. The Scotch noble succeeded, however, in making it
a fruitless one: he thwarted every suggestion that emanated from the
obnoxious quarter; and, indeed, the secret reason of the almost constant
residence of Lothair in Scotland, and of his harsh education, was the
fear of his relative, that the moment he crossed the border he might, by
some mysterious process, fall under the influence that his guardian so
much dreaded and detested.