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I shall leave this on Friday for Braemar else I should have to appear at another Balmoral ball and on Saturday proceed to Keir, where I spend Sunday with Stirling, who is very sorry you are not of the party. Birk Hall, September 5th. The day kept its promise, and was fair to the end. We drove up this glen, which is Glen Muich, to the loch which terminates it, about six miles off.
'Neither grew in dyke nor ditch, Nor yet in any shaugh, But at the gates of Paradise That birk grew fair eneugh. Henry was greatly delighted with the verse, and entreated her, if it were not tedious, to repeat it over again.
So that, in fact, nothing can turn out better, and I have certainly no reason to be dissatisfied with my reception. Ever yours most affectionately, Birk Hall, September 4th. At last we have got a beautiful day, quite warm and bright. Nothing can be more lovely than this Strath of the Dee, with its birch woods and pine-covered mountains.
Reeve, thus left to himself, started almost immediately for Scotland on a visit to Sir James Clark, who, with Lady Clark and his son the present baronet was then living up Dee-side at Birk Hall, lent him by the Queen. The Journal's scanty notices of a very interesting visit can be happily replaced by extracts from the letters which he wrote almost daily to his wife at Pencarrow. To Mrs.
"Pretty, isn't it?" sighed Jacques; "but here is another verse: "Yestreen we met beside the birk, A-down ayont the burnie, O, An' wan'er't till the auld gray kirk A stap put to our journie, O. "Ah, lassie, there it stans! quo' I " With which words Jacques shut the book, and threw upon Belle-bouche a glance which made that young lady color to the roots of her hair.
The path was the merest track, and the tramp through the heather and over rough and rugged stones well justified the thick footgear upon which Miss Todd had insisted. Birk Water was a lovely little mountain tarn lying under the shadow of Fox Fell, a smooth, grassy eminence down which hurried a noisy stream. They found a sheltered place in the sunshine on the bank, and sat down to eat their lunch.
"It fell about the Martinmas, when nights are long and mirk, The carline wife's three sons cam hame, and their hats were o' the birk. It neither grew in syke nor dyke, nor yet in ony sheugh, But at the gates o' Paradise that birk grew fair eneuch."
Henry Reeve Birk Hall, Ballater, September 1st. My dearest wife, Matters have turned out here very pleasantly. I proceeded to Aboyne by rail, and then posted along the Dee-side to this place the Strath most beautiful; a lovely mixture of wood, water, and heather, with mountains beyond.
And there's Dunbog has warned the Red Rotten and John Young aff his grunds black be his cast! he's nae gentleman, nor drap's bluid o' gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir bodies the shelter o' a waste house, and the thristles by the roadside for a bit cuddy, and the bits o' rotten birk to boil their drap parritch wi'. Weel, there's Ane abune a'; but we'll see if the red cock craw not in his bonnie barn-yard ae morning before day-dawing.
The weary three sat down and stretched their limbs. The fire had burnt low, and Sholto, reaching to a faggot heap by the side wall, began to toss on boughs of green birch in handfuls, till the lovely white flame arose and the sap spat and hissed in explosive puffs. "Birk when 'tis green Makes a fire for a king!"
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