h they could not do in England. The town is
certainly more alive than it was when Dr Johnson visited it in the last
century; he declared that one of the streets was lost, and that in those
that remained there was "the silence and solitude of inactive indigence
and gloomy depopulation." We thought it a very picturesque-looking
place, and should have remained there longer had the wind not changed
and induced us to put to sea.

Having passed round Fifeness, the eastern point of the peninsula, and
opened the Isle of May lights--for there are two on the summit of the
island--we stood across the Firth of Forth, intending to visit
Edinburgh. The wind being light the whole night, we made no way.

When morning broke, we were in sight of Fenton Law, which rose beyond
North Berwick, and the Bass Rock, at no great distance off, standing
high up above the blue sea. We passed close to it, and got a view of
the almost inaccessible castle perched on its cliffs. It is now in
ruins, but at one time was used as a state prison, in which several of
the most distinguished Covenanters were confined. Wild flocks of
sea-fowl rose above our heads from off the rock, and among others were
numbers of gannets or Solan geese.

As we had lost so much time, and had still the whole English coast to
run down, papa and Uncle Tom, after a consultation, agreed to give up
their visit to Edinburgh, and to continue their cruise across to the
southward.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE NORTH-EAST COAST.

We got a view of North Berwick, which stands on the extreme northern
point of Haddington; and about three miles to the eastward of it we came
off the far-famed Tantallon Castle, in days of yore the stronghold of
the Douglases. Of course, we got out _Marmion_, and read the
description of this celebrated fortress, which by the extent of its
ruins must have been of great size and strength.

"I said, Tantallon's dizzy steep Hung o'er the margin of the deep. Many
a rude tower and rampart there Repelled the insult of the air, Which,
when the tempest vexed the sky, Half breeze, half spray, came whistling
by. A parapet's embattled row Did seaward round the castle go.
Sometimes in dizzy steps descending, Sometimes in narrow circuit
bending, Sometimes in platform broad extending, Its varying circle did
combine Bulwark, and bartizan, and line, And bastion, tower, and
vantage-coign. Above the booming ocean leant The far-projecting
battlement; The billows burst,