oreground, when
viewed from the road which ascends along this hilly slope to the
uplands. So thickly are they massed together, that, seen from one
special point of view, they seem a portion of some magnificent city in
ruins,--some such city though in a widely different style of
architecture, as Palmyra or Baalbec. The Cathedral of St. Magnus rises
on the right, the castle-palace of Earl Patrick Stuart on the left, the
bishop's palace in the space between; and all three occupy sites so
contiguous, that a distance of some two or three hundred yards abreast
gives the proper angle for taking in the whole group at a glance. I know
no such group elsewhere in Scotland. The church and palace of Linlithgow
are in such close proximity, that, seen together, relieved against the
blue gleam of their lake, they form one magnificent pile; but we have
here a taller, and, notwithstanding its Saxon plainness, a nobler
church, than that of the southern burgh, and at least one palace more.
And the associations connected with the church, and at least one of the
palaces ascend to a remoter and more picturesque antiquity. The
castle-palace of Earl Patrick dates from but the time of James the
Sixth; but in the palace of the bishop, old grim Haco died, after his
defeat at Largs, "of grief," says Buchanan, "for the loss of his army,
and of a valiant youth his relation;" and in the ancient Cathedral, his
body, previous to its removal to Norway, was interred for a winter. The
church and palace belong to the obscure dawn of the national history,
and were Norwegian for centuries before they were Scotch.

As I was coming down the hill at a snail's pace, I was overtaken by a
countryman on his way to church. "Ye'll hae come," he said, addressing
me, "wi' the great man last night?" "I came in the steamer," I replied,
"with your Member, Mr. Dundas." "O, aye," rejoined the man; "but I'm no
sure he'll be our Member next time. The Voluntaries yonder, ye see,"
jerking his head, as he spoke, in the direction of the United Secession
chapel of the place, "are awfu' strong and unco radical; and the Free
Kirk folk will soon be as bad as them. But I belong to the
Establishment; and I side wi' Dundas." The aristocracy of Scotland
committed, I am afraid, a sad blunder when they attempted strengthening
their influence as a class by seizing hold of the Church patronages.
They have fared somewhat like those sailors of Ulysses who, in seeking
to appropriate their master