alked for ever of Leadhills, of her mother, of the quietness
of the people in general, and the goodness of Mrs. Otto, who, she told
me, was a 'varra discreet woman.' She was sure we should be 'well put
up' at Mrs. Otto's, and praised her house and furniture; indeed, it
seemed she thought all earthly comforts were gathered together under the
bleak heights that surround the villages of Wanlockhead and Leadhills:
and afterwards, when I said it was a wild country thereabouts, she even
seemed surprised, and said it was not half so wild as where she lived
now. One circumstance which she mentioned of Mrs. Otto I must record,
both in proof of her 'discretion,' and the sobriety of the people at
Leadhills, namely, that no liquor was ever drunk in her house after a
certain hour of the night--I have forgotten what hour; but it was an
early one, I am sure not later than ten.

The blacksmith, who had come in to his breakfast, was impatient to finish
our job, that he might go out into the hay-field, for, it being a fine
day, every plot of hay-ground was scattered over with hay-makers. On my
saying that I guessed much of their hay must be spoiled, he told me no,
for that they had high winds, which dried it quickly,--the people
understood the climate, 'were clever at the work, and got it in with a
blink.' He hastily swallowed his breakfast, dry bread and a basin of
weak tea without sugar, and held his baby on his knee till he had done.

The women and I were again left to the fireside, and there were no limits
to their joy in me, for they discovered another bond of connexion. I
lived in the same part of England from which Mr. Rose, the superintendent
of the slate-quarries, and his wife, had come. 'Oh!' said Mrs.
Stuart--so her neighbour called her, they not giving each other their
Christian names, as is common in Cumberland and Westmoreland,--'Oh!' said
she, 'what would not I give to see anybody that came from within four or
five miles of Leadhills?' They both exclaimed that I must see Mrs. Rose;
she would make much of me--she would have given me tea and bread and
butter and a good breakfast. I learned from the two women, Mrs. Stuart
and Mrs. Duncan--so the other was called--that Stuart had come from
Leadhills for the sake of better wages, to take the place of Duncan, who
had resigned his office of blacksmith to the quarries, as far as I could
learn, in a pet, intending to go to America, that his wife was averse to
go, and that t