sions; but, diffident of
success in more ambitious walks, he resolved to follow the steps of his
progenitors in a life of manual labour. In his sixteenth year he
apprenticed himself to a stone-mason. The profession thus chosen proved
the pathway to his future eminence; for it was while engaged as an
operative stone-hewer in the old red sandstone quarries of Cromarty,
that he achieved those discoveries in that formation which fixed a new
epoch in geological science. Poetical composition in evening hours
relieved the toils of labour, and varied the routine of geological
inquiry. In the prosecution of an ornamental branch of his
profession--that of cutting and lettering grave-stones--he in 1828
proceeded to Inverness. Obtaining the friendship of Mr Robert
Carruthers, the ingenious editor of the _Inverness Courier_, the columns
of that journal were adorned by his poetical contributions. In 1829
these were issued from the _Courier_ office, in a duodecimo volume, with
the title, "Poems Written in the Leisure Hours of a Journeyman Mason."
By the press the work was received with general favour; and the author,
in evidence that his powers as a prose-writer were not inferior to his
efforts as a poet, soon re-appeared in the columns of the _Courier_, as
the contributor of various letters on the Northern Fisheries. These
letters proved so attractive that their republication in the form of a
pamphlet was forthwith demanded.

The merits of the Cromarty stone-mason began to attract some general
attention. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, who had an occasional residence in
Morayshire, afforded him patronage; and the venerable Principal Baird of
Edinburgh, to whom he was introduced, recommended him to quit the
mallet, and seek literary employment in the capital. Such gratifying
encouragement and friendly counsel, though not immediately acted upon,
were not without advantage in stimulating his enterprise. Before
relinquishing, however, a craft at which he could at least earn a
sufficiency for his immediate wants, he resolved to test his
capabilities as a writer by a further literary attempt.

Cromarty and its vicinity abounded in legends of curious interest,
respecting the times of religious persecutions, and of the rebellions in
the cause of the Stuarts, and these Miller had carefully stored up from
the recitations of the aged. The pen of Scott had imparted a deep
interest to the traditions of other localities; and it seemed not
unlikely that