North Berwick is justly esteemed. The sea there is what water is supposed to be, transparent. There are skerries ghostly enough in certain lights to be worth journeying to see, in the wide proportions of nature at the opening of the firth acceptable in all lights. And the villas, with their Scotch comfort and dignified rents! a place, too, where you meet the more discerning of your southern acquaintance ; and in the social atmosphere there are particulars to which visitors rightly attach value: the incidence of immovables to feu a division of time often overlooked, the forenoon, separated between two ticks of the clock from the afternoon. Many accuracies of speech besides assert indeed no grammatical superiority, but hint with politeness that historical English has more than one arbiter; and, above all, for holiday purposes, give a zest to trivial conversation; and— many things are to be said in favour of North Berwick.

But there is a solid background to that ephemeral watering-place all praise. No doubt villages easily reached meet the approval of the visitor and survive comparison with those of Oxfordshire: Dirleton, Whitekirk, Athelstanford; and winding, shady roads lead to desirable spots like Tyninghame Bay, where the river which crosses the county from Fala direction discharges reluctantly in flats dense with sea buckthorn; but better lies closer along the northern wreckage of the moor, Spott, Garvald, Gifford, and many a hamlet. The general aspect of the land, precarious farming, hesitating lines of communication, secure varieties of view to satisfy the exacting.