Excerpt from Braemar: An Unconventional Guide Book and Literary Souvenir This is not a very interesting account of the district; and besides, the work is very rare, and out of print. This was followed in 1831 by an excellent Guide to Deeside, ostensibly by Mr. James Brown, coach-driver between Aboyne and Braemar, but really by afar more experienced author, which a reviewer thus characterises: The object of Mr. Brown is to instruct. He is learned in milestones, stage-coaches, cars, post-omoos, and inns. He writes in the true, unaffected style of the Gazette, and announces Lochnagar and a milestone with the same flourish. He has an eye to the utile only.' Laing's chief fault, like Byron's, is digression; he enlarges, and enlarges, and wanders away, till he becomes tedious. Brown's little book speedily ran through several editions, the second being perhaps the best; but the later editors have, either from want of knowledge or skill, not succeeded in maintaining its original high reputation. Besides, it embraces too large an area, and is not quite up to date, its principal deficiency being within the Braemar district. The same may be said of a number of others that have of late years followed in the same track - useful indeed to the tourist or mountaineer, but lacking in interest to the summer visitor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.