We are indebted to our excellent friend Mr. Snowie, of Inverness, for a very curious and valuable stag's head, admirably stuffed, which reached us the other day by steamer. It is a splendid trophy, a veritable Cabar-Féidh, which the Chief of the Mackenzies himself, when the clan was at its proudest, might be glad to have to adorn the entrance-hall of Brahan Castle. The antlers are of immense girth and spread; one, except for the brow tine, what is called a cabar-slat; the other with two tines, each of them almost big enough for an antler of itself. We have seen many grand and curious heads in our day, both cabar-slats and multicornute; but this, which is properly neither the one nor the other, is, from its size and peculiar style of antlers, a trophy to be singled out and admired in a collection of the best heads of the kingdom. It faces us as we write from the opposite wall of our study, and constantly reminds us of Scott's magnificent description of the stag that led Fitzjames and his attendants such a merry dance in the Lady of the Lake. We must be pardoned for quoting a passage with which every one is familiar:-- "As Chief, who hears his warder call, 'To arms! the foemen storm the wall,' The antler'd monarch of the waste Sprang from his heathery couch in haste. But, ere his fleet career he took, The dew-drops from his flanks he shook; Like crested leader proud and high, Toss'd his beam'd frontlet to the sky; A moment gazed adown the dale, A moment snuff'd the tainted gale, A moment listened to the cry, That thicken'd as the chase drew nigh; Then, as the foremost foes appeared, With one brave bound the copse he clear'd And, stretching forward free and far, Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var." And yet some stupid people will ask if Scott was a poet! Even Landseer never painted anything finer or truer to the life than that word-painting of Scott's. Every one admits that Homer was a poet: well, then, search the Iliad, point out anything better, or anything, entre nous, quite as good, and when you have found it, please let us know, and we promise to reperuse the passage, with every attention and care, in the original of Homer himself, as well as in the translations of Pope, Cowper, and Blackie; and if you are right and we are wrong, we shall not hesitate to confess it, and humbly cry peccavi. Meantime we shall continue steadfast in our belief that Scott is a poet, and not only a poet, but a poet of the highest order; more "Homeric," too, than any other poet you can name, either of the present or past century; and that Mr. Gladstone has had the good sense and penetration to discover this, and the courage to avow it, is one, and not the least, of many things which make us have a liking for that distinguished statesman and scholar.