The Book-Hunter | Page 6

trees from the windows of Miss Peggy Paton's old house, to
which that managing lady added a wing, and which possessed a good
flower and fruit garden, wherein grew plenty of gooseberries, ever Dr
Burton's favourite fruit. His birthday, 22d August, was, during his
mother's life, always celebrated by a family feast of them.
Such were the scenes and circumstances of Dr Burton's childhood and
early youth. As he grew old enough to begin those long walks which to
the end were the great pleasure of his life, he made acquaintance with
the beautiful scenery of the Upper Dee and Don. In holiday time his
mother used to give him a small sum of money, at most one pound, and
allow him to travel as far as the amount would take him. His legs were
almost always his only conveyance; throughout his life he entertained
an aversion to either riding or driving. His temper was too impatient,
too energetic, to allow him to enjoy progress without exertion. After
railways existed he sometimes used them in aid of his walking power;
but all horse vehicles were odious to him, partly by reason of an
excessive tenderness for animals. He could not bear to see a horse
whipped, or any living creature subjected to bodily pain.
Wonderful are the accounts the writer has heard of the duration of that
holiday pound: how Dr Burton and sometimes a chosen companion
would subsist day after day on twopence-worth of oatmeal, that by so

doing they might travel the farther; or how, having improvidently
finished their supply, they would walk some incredible distance
without any food at all, till they reached either their home or the house
of some friend.
In these holiday rambles Dr Burton made the acquaintance of several
families either more or less related to him through his Grandholm
kindred, or willing, in the old Scotch fashion, to extend hospitality to
any wayfarer who needed it. In this way Dr Burton has described
himself as the guest of Mrs Gordon at Abergeldie, who, as he said,
made a request that when he came to visit her he would if possible
arrive before midnight. Invercauld, Glenkindie, Tough, and many other
country-houses, were visited in the same unceremonious way.
The letter here given was written to his mother during one of these
holiday rambles, when its writer was about twenty, and describes some
of the scenes of the wonderful flood of '29, so graphically described by
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. The Colonel H. was the son of Dr Burton's
godfather, and a man of mature years at the time the Highlander and Dr
Burton describe him as having "run away." The writer can offer no
explanation of this rather amusing passage in the letter: it might either
be a mere joke or refer to some family quarrel of the Colonel's.
"LAKEFIELD, 8th September 1829.
"MY DEAR MOTHER,--I have just arrived at Lakefield in the midst of
determined and ceaseless rain. I expected of course to meet A.H. here,
but it seems he ran away the other day, and will by this time be in
Aberdeen. He wrote to Mrs Grant from Elgin, but she has not yet heard
of his arrival in Aberdeen.
"In my way here I ran a risk of being violently used for his sake. As I
was perambulating slowly the border of Loch Ness I met a tall,
gaunt-looking man, who eyed me rather suspiciously, and stretched
forth his hands in the attitude of one interrupting a stray sheep. I looked
at the being in my turn, and began to be a little suspicious of his
purpose, and to think of my dirk. The man approached nearer still in
the attitude of making a spring. When he had come so close that I could

hardly escape him, he roared out: 'Is't you 'at's the laad Colonel H. 'at's
been runnan' awa'?' 'No,' said I, 'I am not.'
"The man continued to eye me rather suspiciously, and then went
slowly away. I suppose he hoped to be rewarded for me. I have told
you that I got rain. When I was proceeding to Huntly, as you are aware,
in the coach, there came two or three heavy gusts of wind from the hills,
carrying along with it a sort of soft drizzle, but nothing like rain, and
the roads appeared dry. After I had passed Keith, however, the whole
country had a drenched and draggled appearance, the burns were
swollen, the corn was hanging like wet hair, the trees were drooping
and black, and the country people themselves looked as if they had
been held in water for the last six months. A heavy and unceasing rain
came on. The clouds grew black and seemed to settle, everything had a
ghastly and dismal