19–25 August 1833

May I send you an account of my romancing from Edinburgh to the Highlands ? I was told it was so easy, at an expense of two days, to see that famous country of Ben Lomond, Loch Katrine and the rest. So up the Forth sailed I, in the steamboat for Stirling, cold, rainy wind in our teeth, all the way. We passed Alloa and Falkirk, yes, close by Bannockburn, I quietly reading my book in the cabin. At Stirling, I saw the ruin of the Abbey ofCambus Kenneth and the view from Stirling Castle.