but remarkably attractive. It has recently been restored, and the work is not yet quite complete. Here also the bell-chamber has been thrown into the church, but the bells are rung from a lattice gallery. In an open space to the south of the churchyard is the triangular base of what has once been a rather handsome cross. The last of the three spires of Coventry is at Christ Church, on the way to the railway station. This is smaller than the other two, and formerly belonged to the Grey Friars' Monastery. The body of the church was destroyed, as in the case of the cathedral, but fortunately the steeple was spared, and is now incorporated with the modern church which has been raised on the ancient site.

Of the civil buildings of Coventry the most important is St. Mary's Hall, which stands just opposite to St. Michael's Church on the south. It is said to have been

built about the year 1450 by one of the city guilds, and when this was dissolved was purchased by the corporation. An ancient stone gateway admits from the street to a small courtyard, from which an ancient staircase gives access to the corridor leading to the hall. This part of the building is in brick and timber work, the rest is in stone. The hall, beneath which is a kind of crypt, is an extremely fine specimen of the architecture of the period. It is about seventy-six feet long, thirty wide, and thirty-four high, with a grand oak roof, and a great window at the north end overlooking the street. Beneath this window is a fine piece of tapestry, representing in the centre the Saviour in glory with the heavenly host.t On the one hand are apostles and holy men, on the other female saints. Beneath the former is kneeling Henry VI., with Cardinal Beaufort and other members of his court; beneath the other, Margaret of Anjou with her ladies. At the lower end of the hall is a minstrels' gallery, ornamented with suits of ancient armour. Beneath this are entrances to old chambers, in one of which an extensive and carefully arranged collection of the charters of the city is exhibited in glass cases. Near the other end of the hall a doorway leads into the "Mayoress' Parlour." This room has been modernised, but contains some interesting pictures, among them a half-length of Queen Mary. In this room and in the hall are portraits of all the sovereigns from that queen to George IV. There is also a curious oak chair of state, richly carved. On the ground floor at the back of the hall is an ancient kitchen well worth examination, though apparently later in date. Adjoining the hall on the west is a small but remarkably good brick and timber house, one of the richest in Coventry.

Instances of this style of domestic architecture may be seen in almost every street; *There was also formerly a fine cross in the market-place.

† A figure of Justice appears to have been substituted for the original one in this design.

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but the two finest examples are old hospitals or almshouses. One of these-Bablake Hospital-stands just on the north of St. John's Church, forming with it a kind of square. It was founded in 1506 by Thomas Bond, some time Mayor of Coventry. Even more choice than the principal structure is a smaller detached building on the eastern side of the court, an exquisite specimen of brick and timber work, externally and internally; having an open corridor, like a miniature cloister, running along the face, both on the ground and the upper floor. Facing this is an old school, founded about half a century later. The other hospital is near the site of the Grey Friars' Monastery, and is also one of the richest specimens of brick and timber work remaining in the Midland counties. Though smaller than the Leicester Hospital at Warwick, it is hardly inferior in beauty of design. To the street it presents a front with three gables, the upper storey and the windows projecting, with the overhanging support curved, a characteristic feature in the Coventry houses. The door gives access to a narrow court surrounded by buildings in similar style. This hospital is for aged women, the other being for men, and was founded in the year 1529 by William Ford, a merchant of the city.

St. John's Hospital and Free School is another of the ancient establishments of Coventry, and even its workhouse is located in an old monastery formerly occupied by the White Friars. A part of the cloisters, with the dormitory above, still remains. The former is used as a dining-room for the paupers, the latter for its original purpose. In it is an oriel window, from which good Queen Bess is reputed to have answered a rhyming address from the "men of Coventrie," with an impromptu doggrel equal in merit to their own, concluding with the words "Good Lord, what fools ye be!" These rooms are well worth examination, and the visitor cannot fail to be struck with the scrupulous cleanliness and order in which the whole establishment is maintained. There is also part of a gateway and some other fragments of the monastery remaining.

But we must bring to an end our notice of Coventry, passing by many other picturesque structures, and the more modern additions, such as its market hall, its cemetery, and the like, merely remarking that, whatever neglect its architectural treasures may have suffered in the past, the men of Coventry in the present generation seem wise enough to appreciate the value of these, and to take a just pride in their ancient city.

The Island of Skye: its Structure-The Cliffs and Caves of Strathaird-The Geology of the Cuchullin Hills-Loch Coruisk Glen Sligachan-Accident on Scur-na-Gillian-The Granite Hills-Portree-Prince Charles' Cave-The Old Man of Storr-Kingsburgh House and Flora Macdonald-Wanderings of the Young Pretender--Dr. Samuel Johnson's Visit to Kingsburgh-Quiraing-Dunvegan Castle-The Macleods-Macrimmon's Lament.

HE island group of the outer Hebrides, like a natural breakwater, protects the north-western coast of Scotland against the full force of the Atlantic rollers. Between them and the Highlands of Sutherland and Ross there is a wide expanse of sea, broken, however, by the islands of the inner Hebrides. These, small and large, from groups of skerries to extensive masses of land, fringe the coast of the mainland; the largest, most irregular in shape, and most varied in scenery being Skye. Its south-eastern margin is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, and from this as a base it spreads out towards the north-west, in form something like a hand with the fingers extended, its eastern coast and adjacent islands keeping roughly parallel to the outline of the mainland, its north-western border stretching towards the outer Hebrides. There the interval of sea, called the Minch, between these and the coast of Ross is narrowed fully one-half by the island of Skye; and from shore to shore across the Little Minch is not more than a dozen miles. It must not, however, be supposed that within

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this barrier there always reigns a halcyon calm. The interval between the outer chain and the mainland is a wide one, and opens to the Atlantic towards both the south-west and the north-east; thus the gales can drive the ocean rollers with their full force into the narrowing channel, and the Minch is no pleasant place in a storm.

We have compared the outline of Skye to an outspread hand; but the similitude. is a very rough one. Its form is so irregular that it is not easy to find a likeness. The south-eastern part-the coat-sleeve, we might say, supposing the hand cut off rather below the wrist-is a group of high hills, an obvious continuation of the mountains of the mainland, from which it is separated by a channel, in one place less than a mile wide. This part of the island is called the Sleat, and is seldom visited by travellers, the scenery

ground, the richest portion of the island for agriculture, called the Strath. Beyond it we pass into the mountain region, which has made Skye famous among the islands of Scotland. This, as we shall presently see, is divisible roughly into two districts, differing very conspicuously from each other-the eastern and less lofty composed of conical hills, smooth in outline, and red in colour; the western a chain of mountain peaks, whose sombre brown crags are the boldest in form and wildest in scenery to be found in the British Isles. The remainder of the island, which is pierced by deep sea-lochs or fjords, so as to present a very rude resemblance to fingers-the adjacent islands of Raasay and Rona forming a sort of disjointed thumb-is a level or undulating district covered to a great extent with wild boggy moorland, which here and there rises into a hill of considerable elevation and boldness of outline. This plateau to a very large extent is composed of basalt, which has broken through and rests upon a foundation of rock belonging to the period called by geologists the Jurassic, being thus about the same date as the strata forming the margin of the northern half of our Yorkshire coast.

In this district the inland scenery is generally bleak and dreary, but the cliffs, seamed or capped with huge masses of dark basalt, are often remarkably grand. The centre of attraction of the island, the district whither the traveller first bends his steps, is that of the Cuchullin Hills. These, as it has been said, lie near the western coast, forming a ring, or rather horse-shoe, of lofty and irregular summits, which opens to the sea on the shores of Loch Scavaig. Within this horse-shoe, and close to the sea, the far-famed Loch Coruisk nestles among precipices. This, if the traveller can only indulge in one excursion in the island, should be the object of his visit. Halting-places in Skye are few and far between ; it is only in a few localities that the traveller can find accommodation for the night, unless he has some claim on the hospitality of a factor or a farmer. The nearest resting-places to Loch Coruisk are Broadford, a village on the eastern coast, and the solitary inn at the head of Loch Sligachan, an arm of the sea, which extends for some miles inland to the foot of the glen bearng the same name. The latter route is the shorter, and more generally practicable, as the journey can, if necessary, be made by land the whole way; but the former in fine weather is by far the more interesting, and offers a much more impressive series of views.

The usual course is to walk or drive from Broadford across the narrowest part of the island to a cluster of miserable huts on the shore of Loch Slapin, called Torrin, passing on the way Benna-calleach, a fine granite hill crowned by a cairn. Beneath this, it is said, was interred a Scandinavian prophetess who chose to rest in the path of the gales that blew towards her native land. At Torrin, during the travelling season, a number of boatmen are usually on the look-out for the coming tourist, who will not be long without finding himself engaged in a brisk match at bargaining. Let him remember that veracity is not always a virtue of the West Coast Celt. From Torrin to the head of Loch Scavaig is a distance of ten or eleven miles by sea, so that the voyage generally takes from two to three hours, according to the weather. If, however, that be unfavourable, the sea passage can be considerably shortened by making use of tracks over the land. The nearest of the Cuchullins, a massive wedge of brown rock, called Blabhein,* rises grandly from the opposite shore of Loch Slapin, cut off from its more distant neighbours by Glen Sligachan, a singular trench which extends from shore to shore with only a low water-parting in the middle. Beyond Blabhein, over the cliffs and basaltcapped moorlands that form the headland of Strathaird, rises the remainder of the group.

During the first part of the journey even the most unobservant traveller can hardly fail to remark the singular aspect of the cliffs beneath which he passes. They are formed of a yellowish sandy limestone, regularly stratified, which, even from a considerable distance, is seen to be traversed by dark vertical bands. On a nearer approach these bands are found to

* Pronounced generally, Blaven.