Kings & rulers > More leaves from the journal of a life in the Highlands from 1862 to 1882

50
Dunkeld, Tuesday, October 2.
Mild and muggy, the mist hanging on the hills.
Breakfasted with the children. Andrew Thomson at¬
tends to Arthur. Emilie* and Annie Macdonald**
are with me here; they help Louise, who, however, is
very handy and can do almost everything for herself.
At half-past eleven I drove out alone with the
Duchess through the woods to Polney, and then along
the road, and turned in at Willie Duff's Lodge, and
down the whole way along the river under splendid
trees which remind me of Windsor Park. How dearest
Albert would have admired them! We ended by a
little walk, and looked into the old ruin. At twenty
minutes to four we drove, the Duchess, Louise, and
I—Janie Ely and Miss MacGregor following—to Crieff-
gate on the road of the Loch of the Lowes, where we
got on ponies and rode for about an hour and a half
through beautiful woods (saw a capercailzie, of which
there are many here), but in a very thick mist (with
very fine rain) which entirely destroyed all idea of
view and prevented one’s seeing anything but what
was near. We came down to St. Colme’s, where we
got off, but where again, like last year, we saw nothing
of the beautiful view. Here we took tea out of the
tea set I had given the Duchess. She has furnished
* Emilie Dittweiler, my first dresser, a native of Carlsruhe, in
the Grand Duchy of Baden, who has been twenty-four years in my
service.
** My first wardrobe woman, who has been twenty-seven
years in my service, daughter of Mitchel, the late blacksmith at
Clachanturn, near Abergeldie, and widow of my footman, John
Macdonald, who died in 1865 (vide “Our Life in the Highlands”^!