There, indeed, you will find many corners that take the
fancy; such as made the English noble choose his grave by a Swiss
streamlet, where nature is at her freshest, and looks as young as on
the seventh morning. Such a place is the course of the Gazeille,
where it waters the common of Monastier and thence downwards till it
joins the Loire; a place to hear birds singing; a place for lovers to
frequent. The name of the river was perhaps suggested by the sound
of its passage over the stones; for it is a great warbler, and at
night, after I was in bed at Monastier, I could hear it go singing
down the valley till I fell asleep.
On the whole, this is a Scottish landscape, although not so noble as
the best in Scotland; and by an odd coincidence, the population is,
in its way, as Scottish as the country. They have abrupt, uncouth,
Fifeshire manners, and accost you, as if you were trespassing, an
'Ou'st-ce que vous allez?' only translatable into the Lowland 'Whaur
ye gaun?' They keep the Scottish Sabbath. There is no labour done
on that day but to drive in and out the various pigs and sheep and
cattle that make so pleasant a tinkling in the meadows.
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