with walls immoderately thick. There is one internal wall now at Blair above seven feet thick. As I did not know when I passed Castle Calder that I could see the inside of it, I did not stop there; and by that means lost the opportunity of seeing King Duncan's bed on which he was murdered by Macbeth, in Inverness castle. There is a large thorn tree growing through the middle of the house of Calder, older (I was told) than the fabric itself, the house being originally built round the tree, leaving it standing. The whole place is at present a deserted ruin, imbosomed in, and over-run by rude neglected trees, both forest and fruit. A multiplicity of what I took for gyne trees (a small sort of plum), notwithstanding their being choked by high nettles, and other weeds and rubbish, were covered with ripe fruit as I passed this ancient ruin. The road from the castle winds round the orchard wall, and soon comes to a burn, which for width should be called a river, issuing from the matted trees of Calder, and guarding its eastern side. In approaching to this burn I found the road very rough and stony; but I was astonished when I came to the burn's side to find no bridge, and the broad bed of the burn full of very large round
