[Illustration: "ATALANTA." 1893 By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the Copyright]
[Illustration: "FLAMING JUNE." 1895 By permission of Mrs. Watney]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR "FLAMING JUNE." 1895]
[Illustration: "FATIDICA." 1894 By permission of Messrs. T. Agnew & Son, the owners of the Copyright]
[Illustration: STUDIES FOR "FATIDICA." 1894 Leighton House Collection]
Leighton wrote the following letter to his father when first visiting Forres, in which he described the "craze" he had for these "dark brown Scotch rivers":--
I drove over to Dunkeld (twelve and a half miles) to lunch at the Millais'; I think the drive one of the most enchanting things I know, and I was favoured, moreover, by a few of those divine glimpses of blue and silver sky of which Scotland has the monopoly (a monopoly which she uses, perhaps, just a trifle too modestly). This is Forres, as the paper shows you; if Macbeth's witches really did live in this neighbourhood, it is just as well they had their hands pretty full, for they would have found the place uncommonly dull otherwise, especially on the "Sawbath." On the other hand, the drive to and the walk along the banks of the Findhorn--the excursion for which one comes here--is quite delightful, and indeed surpassed my expectations. I must tell you that I have nothing short of a craze for your dark brown Scotch (and Irish) rivers, as dark as treacle, and as clear as a cairngorm. This particular stream contrives to rush part of the way through fantastic rocks of pink granite--you may imagine the effect. Here again from the heights over the river I _ought_ to have seen the sea and the coast of Sutherlandshire; but the weather was sulky and I had to draw on my imagination for the view.
In the forenoon I went over by train to Elgin, to see the ruined cathedral, which is fine, but, like all Scotch architecture that I have seen, crude and barbaric. As I stood on the platform before starting, I heard a gruff, good-humoured voice hailing me from a train on the other side; it was the voice which goes so well with the rubicund face of the Duke of Cambridge. I was going by the same train, so he made me get into his compartment; he was going to Balmoral or Aberfeldie. He was very comic about B---- and his article in the _Nineteenth Century_--"A fellow who fouls his own nest is always a d----d bad lot--a d----d bad lot," with which sentiment I close a d----d long letter.--From your affectionate son,