Her brother's plans were more eligible and agreeable. His guardians insisted, that in his education he should pursue the routine usually adopted by young men of his elevated rank. He had been entered at one of our public fchools, and thence removed to the University. To counteract a dangerous propenfity to the fatal allurements of Newmarket, it was proposed immediately after his father's death, that he should make the tour of Europe. He returned when of age, assumed the fortunes of his family, and with them the representation of the ancient peerage of Scotland in the British Parliament, an honour which had been for some time enjoyed by his ancestors.

Since the forms of his election rendered his prefence necessary at Holyrood House, he could not avoid paying a visit to the feat of his family. His

manners were popular, his countenance strikingly prepoffeffing, and his perfon dignified, athletic, and graceful. The Highlanders recognized in the "bonny lad" the true representative of the house of Macdonald; and the ancient dependents, who, fince their lairds had deferted Monteith, vegetated on the spot which the attachments of their youth rendered eminently dear to them, led their young master the tour of his domain, and pointed out to him its local advantages. They endeavoured to direct his attention to the massy grandeur of his castle walls, the extensive profpect enjoyed from its turrets, and the faded magnificence of its mouldering furniture. They repeatedly assured him, that in his grandfather's time Monteith boasted a distinguished preference over the abode of any other Highland chieftain. The young Nobleman was not paffionately attached attached to ruins; the stormy winds, howling through the long galleries, difturbed his repose, and he wished for no nearer acquaintance with the genius of the tempeft. He bestowed with a liberal hand such relief as would afford poverty a temporary aid; but, without exerting sufficient patience to investigate the cause of the calamity, or fufficient courage to redress the evils which even a curfory glance discovered, he hastened to Kinloch Castle, to pay his dutiful respects to lady Madelina.

Neither the manners nor the residence of her ladyship were calculated to remove the disgust with which "Scot and Scotland had inspired him." The house was situated on a bare precipice, the foot of which was washed by the stormy fea that separated the main land from the Hebrides. When its amiable mif

of Monteith, she carried with her all her "Household Gods," I mean, the venerable inhabitants of the picture gallery, and the screens, chairs, and tapestry hangings, with which the whitearmed spinsters of Macdonald had fuccessively decorated their family-feat. Sir Simon, doubtless, felt sincere exultation at this valuable acquisition; he only stipulated that the remains of his progenitors should not yield their places to the new comers. A coalition was therefore formed, and every wall and apartment in the castle was crowded with multiplied garniture. Screen concealed screen, chair supported chair; a stripe of Jacob meeting Esau repaired the disastrous rents too visible in the taking of Troy, and puzzled the Ciceroni who attempted to unravel the confused history; while Frazers and Macdonalds, placed in full opposition,

frowned fierce defiance upon each other, regardless of the bond which now united the once rival families, and ungrateful to lady Madelina's eloquence, who gratuitously performed the part of eulogist to them all.

On the third day after her nephew's arrival, when she had explained the family exploits to the eleventh century, he unluckily recollected a most pressing engagement which called him instantly to London. The occafion was so urgent, that he could not poffibly stay to hear the fate of fome collateral branches which were then divided from the parent stock. Lord Monteith threw him. felf into his poft-chaise, and so strongly did the connexions of his ancestors rouse his domeftic feelings, that he could think of nothing but getting a good husband for his fifter, to free her from her confinement, till different scenes excited gayer ideas.

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