[Written at top] Since June 3rd only three fine days here.

INVERCAULD ARMS HOTEL BRAEMAR (BY BALMORAL)
Dear Mary & Calvin,

We reached here yesterday from Aberdeen and are leaving tomorrow morning for Glasgow. It was a beautiful day and we had a fine view of Balmoral. Tom and H. gathered a quantity of beautiful heather (a false alarm of heather not being out), so she is posting a boxful to save carrying, keep for M. B. sale [Mission Band]. Miserably cold but bearing up; have had no summer here. Grate fires keep us comfortable in the lounge &c. and warm in bed, but it is the cold morning that are trying. Tho' it rained all to-day here, we went for drives, saw the fillies on the hills and some shooters and one grouse, but there are very few birds for all the young ones died from the cold wet season. The King was out on the hills yesterday. Queen comes to-morrow. Great numbers of lovely sheep with horns and black faces. This house is the spot where Earl of Mar raised the standards in 1715. Aberdeen is a very beautiful city very fine public parks. My pen and this paper do not agree. To-morrow we start off for Glasgow, stay there till Monday, not quite sure how, but cross to Ireland at a narrow part and sail from Belfast on 6th. Hope all is well. One of the trials is that no salt is used in any thing.