KINLOCH-LINCHARD, _August 16, 1856_.
I was not too well pleased with your letter, which I received just as I
was leaving Glenquoich. You are aware that you have an impetuous way of
looking at things, which makes you regard the simplest actions as
impossibilities. Now, reconsider what I have said, and after mature
reflection tell me yes or no. Send your reply to London, care of the
Right Honourable E. Ellice, 18 Arlington Street....
I am beginning to be heartily sick of grouse and venison. The truly
majestic scenery which meets my eyes daily still has the power to charm,
but I am tired of wonders. What I can never cease to admire is the
seclusiveness of these people. They might be sent to penal servitude
together, and they would continue to retain their unsociable habits. As
Beyle says, this comes from their dread of being caught saying or doing
something stupid, or else it is due to their temperament, which makes
them prefer selfish pleasures. Solve it who can.
We reached here in company with two middle-aged men and a woman, all of
high life and familiar with the world. At dinner the ice had to be
broken. After dinner the husband buried himself in a newspaper, the wife
in a book, and the other man began to write letters, while I played
alone against the host and hostess. Observe, if you please, that the
people who isolated themselves thus had not seen their hostess for even
a longer time than I, and they had, necessarily, many more things than I
to tell her. I am told, and from the little I have seen am inclined to
believe it, that the Celtic race know how to talk. ‘Tis a fact that on a
market day one hears an uninterrupted sound of animated voices, of
laughing and shouting. The Gaelic tongue is very soft and smooth to the
ear. In England and the Lowlands there is absolute silence.
It is not kind of you to have written to me but once. I have sent you
two letters, at least, to one of yours. Still I have no desire to scold
you from so far away. These are my plans: I shall leave here to-morrow
to go to Inverness, where I shall remain one day; from there to
Edinburgh, then to York, Durham, and possibly Derby. I expect to reach
Paris the 23d.