Worthing Aug 24/[18]90.
My dear Young Lion, I have been so busy of late with travelling & many letters to write that I have put off answering your last letter of Aug I0th: till I am quite ashamed of myself. I daresay that you have heard something through Grandmama of the trip that I have been making in Scotland with Mama & Grace, whether or no, I will tell you something of it now-hoping that you will follow our route on the Map. First we went to Edinburgh & saw the Castle, & Holyrood Palace, & the little room in it where Rizzio was murdered. We also went to Melrose Abbey, about which you once read with me in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel", but I think I told you of this, if so you have not acknowledged the letter. From Edinburgh we went to Glasgow, & down the Clyde to Kilmun & back. Then by train to Oban, from which place we went by a steamboat all round the Island of Mull, landing on Iona, which you will remember was one of the Earliest Christian Settlements in Great Britain, & that the The Cathedral of Iona is a mere ruin but there are two beautiful stone cropes near it of which I showed you drawings, made by your Grandfather Hooker, in the Scrap book, as well of Iona Cathedral. I thought Staffa quite as wonderful as I did when I saw it some 20 years ago. The engraving at the head of this letter shows you the 5 angled columns on each side of the Cave & which go all round the Island. We landed & walked into the cave, up to the end, on the top of the broken column. The sea was very calm, but the last time I was there the great wavws[waves] came thundering into the cave with great force & a noise like great canon firing at a distance. From Oban we went to Kilmun at the upper end of Loch Tay, a place I

used to visit with my father 60 years ago to botanize in the high mountains of Ben Lawers & to fish in the lakes & rivers. Then we want to Callerdon & to the Trossachs about which you read with me in "The Lady of the Lake" & we went up & down Loch Katrine in a steamboat. From Callerdon a telegram from Miss Bird telling us that Esther was ill, it brought us home in a hurry on our way up we sent Grace to Rugby, where she was to meet Miss Bird, & go to Leamington, Kenilworth, & Stratford-on-Avon, & then to the Musical Festival at Worcester. On Saturday last we all came here, & here we shall be until you & Hugh join us & go to Mr: Walink's school. I shall go to the Camp for a few days, & to Kew now & then to get on with my work. Auntie & Dickie like Worthing very much, & send their love, as does Mama. Give my love to Grandmama & Hugh & kind regards to Mr: Metcalfe. Ever your affectionate Old Lion.