SACRED WELLS AND LOCHS.—The veneration that has been paid for ages to “Sacred Wells,” and the confidence placed in their charms all over the kingdom for the curing of diseases, both mental and bodily, falls next to be noticed. It appears of old that if a well had a peculiar situation, if its waters were bright and clear, it was dedicated to some tutelary saint, by honouring it with his name. Thus we have St. Fillan’s, St. Conel’s, St. Catherine’s, St. Bernard’s, St. Cuthbert’s wells, and a host of others in Scotland. We have hundreds of holy wells in England, such as St. Chad’s, St. John’s, St. Mary’s, St. Madern’s wells, all remarkable for something. We have St. Winifred’s holy well in Flintshire, the most famous in the three kingdoms, at whose shrine Geraldus Cambrensis offered his devotions in the twelfth century. The vast majority of holy wells were frequented for any disease, while some wells were visited for special ailments, for the cure of which they had been celebrated. St. Tegla’s well was patronised by sufferers from the falling sickness; St. John’s, Balmanno, Kincardineshire, by rickety children, and sore eyes. The waters of Trinity Gask, Perthshire, will render all baptised therein proof against every plague. In the Island of St. Kilda there are two wells—“Tobar nam buadh” (the spring of virtues), celebrated for deafness, and “Tobar a’ chleirich” (the clerk’s well)—which, though covered twice a day by the sea, never becomes brackish. At Kirkden, in Angus, there is a well said to cure all sores, by mere washing, after the applications of skilled physicians had proved ineffectual. But by far the most interesting wells in this country are those formerly resorted to for the cure of insanity. Of these may be mentioned St Fillan’s well, near Tyndrum, Perthshire, as well as St. Nun’s celebrated fountain in Cornwall. The curing process at St. Fillan’s may be described as a specimen. The lunatics were first plunged into the water, wherein they were tumbled and tossed about rather roughly. They were then carried into the adjacent Chapel of St. Fillan’s and there secured with ropes, tied in a special way. A celebrated bell, which has a history of its own, was then placed with great solemnity on the patient’s head. There the poor creature was left all night alone in the dreary chapel, and, if in the morning he was found unloosed, hopes were entertained that he would recover his reason, but the case was hopeless if found still in his bonds. Very frequently the patients were released from the bonds and tormentors by death, caused by the cold, and all the cruelties inflicted upon them. St. Catherine’s well, near Edinburgh, was regarded in olden times with great awe, because there appeared a black substance on its surface which could be set on fire. This dark-looking, greasy substance or oil, was supposed to proceed from the strata of coal underneath, and it was believed to cure all sorts of cutaneous diseases. In the north