Wesley Corpus

He showed us all his improvements, which are very considerable in every branch of husbandry. In his gardens manythings were more forward than at Aberdeen, yea, or Newcastle. And how is it, that none but one Highland gentleman has discovered that we have a tree in Britain, as easily raised as an ash, the wood of which is of full as fine a red as mahogany? namely, the laburnum. I defy any mahogany to exceed the chairs which he has lately made of this. Tues. 12.--We rode through the pleasant and fertile county of Murray to Elgin. I never suspected before that there was any such country as this near an hundred and fifty miles beyond Edinburgh; a country which is supposed to have generally six weeks more sunshine in a year than any part of Great Britain. At Elgin are the ruins of a noble cathedral; the largest that I remember to have seen in the kingdom. We rode thence to the Spey, the most rapid river, next the Rhine, that I ever saw. Though the water was not breast-high to our horses, they could very hardly keep their feet. We dined at Keith, and rode on to Strathbogie, much improved by the linen manufacture. All the country from Fochabers to Strathbogie has little houses scattered up and down; and not only the valleys, but the mountains themselves, are improved with the utmost care. There want only more trees to make them more pleasant than most of the mountains in England. The June, 1764.] JOURNAL, 183 whole family at our inn, eleven or twelve in number, gladly joined with us in prayer at night. Indeed, so they did at every inn where we lodged; for among all the sins they have imported from England, the Scots have not yet learned, at least not the common people, to scoff at sacred things. Wed. 13.--We reached Aberdeen about one. Between six and seven, both this evening and the next, I preached in the shell of the new House, and found it a time of much consolation. Friday, 15. We set out early, and came to Dundee just as the boat was going off. We designed to lodge at the house on the other side; but could not get either meat, drink, or good words; so we were constrained to ride on to Cupar.