kind of lift he had invented for conveying his guests upstairs, to save them the trouble of walking, or when they were in such a state after dinner that they were unable to mount the stairs. Others again attribute the name to Captain Godsman, who was local factor for the Duke of Gordon, and resided and died at Ness House. His remembrance is still kept alive in Inverness by the name "Godsman's Walk," once a favourite resort. He dressed up the well and neighbourhood, making all easy of access to the public. The spring, however, was put into its present condition about sixty years ago by a Mr Jamieson, who is still alive and resides at Newcastle. He was the son of Charles Jamieson, an Inverness silversmith, a man of some little note in his day, and a bailie of the burgh, of whom the older portion of the natives relate many curious anecdotes. Being so conveniently near the town, it was much frequented, and the number and variety of diseases it could subdue were proportionately great. Its waters were carried away in small and large quantities, far and near. Children and young people affected with rickets were brought to it, and manipulated upon with its waters. To strengthen the virtue of the water, silver coins of all sizes, together with small pebbles, were immersed in the well, and various curious ceremonies were observed. A gentleman, who on one occasion had witnessed the performance, has informed us that in one instance he saw a mother put into the water a half-crown, a shilling, a sixpenny piece, and a groat, as also some small round stones or pebbles. She then stripped her child, and with moistened hands operated upon its ribs and shoulders in a most extraordinary manner, and certainly not at all to the satisfaction of the child, for it howled all the time. This spot is still much frequented, but very few indeed, we imagine, attribute any virtue to the mere drinking of the water or washing with it. Crossing over through the Islands in the Ness, the next well that occurs to us is that of Aultnaskiach, which is thus celebrated by the local poet already quoted. The poetry is the merest doggerel, but will serve to preserve the memory of the well. He sings, or attempts to sing, as follows: At Aultnaskiach's crystal well, What joys I feel no tongue can tell; Of the latent, potent, cheap Hygeia's spring, pure, pure, from nature's hand, The sacred wine of Nessia's mountain land. The spring exhales a sweet perfume, The flowers are gaily springing By Aultnaskiach's crystal buru, A choir of birds is singing I'll wander there wi' my sweet love, And talk of soul-fraught tales of bliss This well was situated on the brae face behind the house at the bridge leading to Drummond. Springs and wells are plentifully scattered over the face of the Leys. From Balrobert onward to the Moor of Culloden, up and down the face of the hill, they are to be met with. There are no less than twelve about Bogbain. These feed the burns and dams which turn all the mills in the valley of Millburn, and that to the east of the "Hut of Health." Near the Culcabock dam, the late Mr Forbes, chemist, discovered two mineral springs, which caused some little stir at the time. In the neighbourhood of Leys Castle, are the Bog-well, Stable-well, Stirrup-well, and Road-well. Of none of these have we heard anything very particular. Near Balmore of Culduthel, are "Fuaran na Lair Bàna,' or the "White Mare's Well," the fabled resort of a kelpie of very destruetive propensities; and the Holy-well, which supplies the farm. The latter had no special characteristics to distinguish it from others of that class, save that it frequently needed a thorough cleansing to keep it in healthy condition. Its sacredness is attributed to its connection with the ceremonies of the ancient religion. Druid circles and stones with rude figures sculptured thereon were once of frequent occurrence all over the Leys, and some of them still remain. Opposite Balmore, by the side of the private road leading to Leys Castle, we have the "Schoolmaster's Well," near which William Mackenzie, one of our Gaelic poets, lived, and "taught the young idea how to shoot," and the possessor thereof to shout, for he was very severe, and that during the space of forty years. bore a loving regard towards this well, and like another Horace celebrated its virtues and the beauties of the locality in song. Though severe during school hours, he was as a poet should be, kind and tender-hearted. His memory is still fresh among the few of the old people who yet survive. To his forcible separation from his beloved well and the neighbourhood he attributed the ill-health which overtook him upon his removal to Inverness, where he died shortly after. The simple-minded in the district, because of the poet's affection for the fountain, attributed to it virtues of which he never dreamed, and long held it in reverence accordingly. It is now, however, sadly neglected, and what with improved drainage and other modern inventions, promises soon to disappear altogether. He By far the most noted well in this quarter was "Fuaran na Ceapaich," or the "Keppoch Well." We say was, as it has disappeared, being covered up and ploughed over, the waters being partly diverted into the adjacent burn, and partly carried into the mansion-house of Culduthel. It was situated above the present smithy, nearly opposite Oldtown of Culduthel, and came, strange to say, from Keppoch in Lochaber, a distance of about sixty miles away. If, however, we consider, this is not after all so very strange. It is related that the famous nymph Arethusa, not liking the attentions of the river god Alpheus, fled from him over hill and dale, and having implored the assistance of Diana, was changed into a fountain. The pursuit still continued, and to aid her votary the goddess opened a path for her under earth and sea; the lover still followed in hot haste, as a god assuredly might, and both rose up again near Syracuse in Sicily, having come all the way from Elis in Greece. Nay, more, we have just quite lately heard of a spring that disappeared from the district of Strathdearn, and re-appeared in an out of the way place in the wilds of Canada, merely to gratify the whim of a silly old man who was unwilling to go and join the rest of his family in the land of promise, to which they had removed many years before, and where they were prospering beyond their fondest hopes, because of his attachment to the spring at the end of his old hut. Being at last compelled to move, we may imagine his astonishment when he recognized the presence of his dear old friend in the new country, and also of that of a large white stone that We stood by its side, on which he was wont to sit on a summer Sabbath's eve reading his bible. In the Leys, water very often appears and disappears in the most annoying and mysterious manner, sometimes gushing gleefully forth as if possessed with a spirit of destructive frolicsomeness, to the dismay of the farmer, in the very midst of a cultivated field. have been told by a farmer in the district, that during a hot season some years ago, when water was scarce, and consequently had to be conveyed at considerable expense and trouble from a distance, he was exceedingly surprised one day to see a fountain burst open in the very centre of his dairy. This might be said to be a little too convenient, and far from ceremonious. However, the phenomenon lasted throughout the season, and as suddenly disappeared. Now that a better system of drainage has been introduced, such sights will become rare. But to return to the Keppoch Well, we are told its patron saint or presiding genius, being insulted in Lochaber, removed his presence and the health-giving waters to their present site in the Leys. By a person who in his youth was wont to frequent the spring it is described as being possessed of a mineral taste, and of a darkish hue. It was situated in a grove of trees, and afforded a rich supply. He says it was much resorted to from all quarters, and large quantities were carried away for home consumption. No matter what the malady, such was the faith in the beneficial effects of the water that recourse was had to it, and the application of the water was both external and internal. It was considered a special and effective specific in cases of diarrhoea. Another peculiarity about this well was that it could inform those who consulted it whether a sick person would recover or not. For this purpose a piece of wood was placed at the bottom, with a stone above it, and the name of the patient pronounced; if the wood within a given time bubbled up with the water to the surface and floated away, it was life; but if, on the contrary, it remained at the bottom, death was certain. The well also declared whether plighted troth had been violated. If a pin or nail were dropped into the water and descended with the point downward all was safe; but if, on the contrary, the pin or nail turned round and went down head foremost, the accused was guilty. Wells possessed of similar powers are common in England and Wales. No tribute appears to have been paid to the Keppoch Well, which is singular. The usual ceremony, however, of walking round the place from east to west, approaching by the south, had to be observed. The only other well in the immediate neighbourhood of Inverness we shall notice is that at Culcabock village, called "Fuaran Slagan Dhonnachaidh," or the "Well of King Duncan's Tomb." Tradition, always stubborn in what it asserts, will have it, in spite of any proof to the contrary, that King Duncan was murdered at Inverness, and buried at a spot near Draikies, not far from this well, called King Duncan's Tomb. The valley through which this spring discharges its contents, and that of Millburn to the west, were in old times considered uncanny places, being believed to be the resort of witches. Here they met safe from intrusion, and practised their devices; among others, that of making clay images of their victims, and placing these in the burns, where they gradually wore away, and so in proportion did their representatives. THE CLEARANCE OF THE HIGHLAND GLENS.* BY COLIN CHISHOLM, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE GAELIC SOCIETY OF LONDON. AFTER forty years' absence from this part of the country, I shall state the opinions that I now entertain of matters in the Highlands, and as briefly as possible place before you the impressions on my mind with regard to the most prominent changes in the Highlands during this long interval. In the first place I feel bound to express my sincere pleasure at the sight of the noble efforts of the Gaelic Society of Inverness to rescue our ancient and venerable language from decay and dissolution. Professor Geddes of Aberdeen says that "it can boast a pedigree better far than that spoken in the highest places in the land, and can claim the start of English on the soil of Britain by ten centuries, and that in a literary form." Professor Morley, of London, states that "a man cannot be a thorough English scholar without a knowledge of Celtic ;" and Professor Alison, of Glasgow, said "that the man who speaks two languages is equal to two men, and advances in usefulness at the same ratio for every language he speaks." It augurs well for the development and success of your Society that the Provost, the Chief Magistrates, and the Town Councillors of Inverness have opened the Town Hall of the largest county in Scotland for your deliberations. All thanks to them for it, and for their friendly appearance among us at our principal meetings. It is a source of pleasure for me to state without favour or prejudice that this town of Inverness has improved in every imaginable respect during the forty years alluded to. In sanitary respects the town is unquestionably 500 per cent. better than it was in my early recollection. In well-designed and stately houses there are portions of Inverness that will compare favourably with, if not surpass, equal lengths of London streets and shops. Large and spacious hotels with every accomodation, comfort and civility; an abundant meat, vegetable, and fish market; suburban villas, and every fanciful architecture. Add to this the daily arrival and departure of railway trains to and from every part of the Kingdom, as well as the steamboats plying both by salt and fresh water. Old nature seems to have designed the town and environs of Inverness as the Madeira of Scotland, but it remained for the scientific acumen of our friend Mr Murdoch to demonstrate the salubrity of the town; and it is satisfactory to note that his labours on this score stand unanswered and unchallenged. My house being on a rising ground above the town where, according to tradition, the Cross or centre of Old Inverness stood, I can see from my windows for many miles, and it is most gratifying to see the surrounding country studded with small but substantial stone and slated houses and offices to correspond with the moderate size of the farms on which they are built. All honour to the proprietors of these estates. * Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. They belong principally to the Baillies of Dochfour, Leys, and Redcastle. Let us now leave the immediate neighbourhood of Inverness, and wend our way north, south, east, or west, and what do we see on all sides? Large farms infested with game and burrowed like honey-comb by rabbits. If we extend our walk to the Glens, we find them thoroughly clearedthe native population sent to the four quarters of the globe, wild beasts, wild birds, and game of every description in quiet possession and feeding among the crumbled walls of houses where we have seen happy families of stalwart Highlanders reared and educated! This is no exaggeration. During the last twelve months I travelled through the counties of Inverness, Rcss, Cromarty, Sutherland, Moray, Banff, Perth, and Argyle; and I can bear testimony to the general depression and desolation caused throughout the Highlands, I maintain, by the operation of the iniquitous Class Laws called Game Laws. They are like the Upas Tree, withering all within their unhallowed atmosphere, sending the bone and sinew of the Highlands to foreign lands. They turn large tracts of country into cheerless and inhospitable deserts. They sever the proverbial and ancient bond of union and attachment between chief and clansman. The chief is distrusted frequently for his acts, communicated through his factor, and the clansman is thereby disheartened. Thus another town-land or perhaps a whole Glen is laid waste and placed at the disposal of wild beasts. The work of destruction and depopulation in the Highlands has gone on so regularly for nearly a hundred years, and especially during the last fifty years, that the few farmers left on the Lowlands have a difficulty in finding servants and labourers to work their farms. Every part of the Highlands through which I have passed seemed to be much in the same way-the surface of the land, as it were, in sombre mourning covered with heather lamenting the absence of the strong arm that used to till and ought to reclaim it, to enable it to fulfil the purposes for which land was given to man, viz., to make it support the greatest possible number of human beings in the greatest possible degree of comfort and happiness. The law that enables one man to say to another, "I will not cultivate one acre, and I will not allow you to do so," is most unnatural and most iniquitous in its results. It is most satisfactory to know, I think, that the British Government has ignored freedom of contract between landlord and tenant in Ireland by the Ulster Tenant Right and the Irish Land Bill of 1870. Since the Bill of 1870 was passed into law the landlord in Ireland is not the judge between his tenants and himself. It is the Chairman of Quarter Sessions, a Government officer, independent of both landlord and tenant, who must decide whether the rent demanded is excessive or not. There may be legal quibbles still in the way of amicable settlements between landlord and tenant in Ireland; but the Land Bill of 1870 seems to me to bear this construction. It is not long since a tenant farmer got £700 damages from his landlord in Ireland for raising his rent and thereby compelling him to leave the farm. At this moment English good sense stands like a bulwark between the landlord and cultivator of the soil in Ireland. Landlords, factors, and leases are no longer supreme in Ireland. The Chairman of Quarter Sessions is arbitrator from this time forward. England abolishes landlordism in Ireland by advancing money through |