PRELIMINARY OUTLINE. 15 (including Kinross) stands, or rather sits, for the sitting part of the old lady. Argyll hangs in pieces from a lap formed by Dumbarton and Stirling. Perth is the abdomen. Angus and the Mearns make the back. Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, and Nairn constitute the prodigious hump. Inverness is the chest. Ross looks like a voluminous kerchief enclosing the neck. Sutherland is the face, ears, and brow. And Caithness is a little nightcap surmounting all. To complete the idea :the isle of Skye is the right palm turned upwards, that of Mull the left inclining downwards. The fire must be understood, unless the distant archipelago of Lewis be held as untowardly representing something of the kind: and the islands of Orkney and Shetland may be pressed into service by a similar stretch of fancy, in the capacity of a rock or distaff which the figure bears over her head, after the manner of a flag-staff.* * With the exception of a few plains near the sea, the whole surface of Scotland is more or less hilly, and level tracts are only to be found along the banks of rivers. As most of the rivers determine their courses latitudinally from the interior of the country towards the sea, the whole may be described as an oblong field, with an irregular alternation of rig and fur. Such is the predominance of mountain land throughout Scotland, that out of the nineteen millions of acres of which it consists, only five are cultivated; and it is an old popular saying that there is no spot anywhere to be found, that is more than two Scotch miles from heather. Though the surface of Scotland do not measure less than a half of that of England, it contains only about a seventh *That this resemblance really holds good, is proved by an anecdote which I have since been told by a Perthshire clergyman. An old purblind Highland woman, visiting the manse one day, was shown into the study, where there was a large map of Scotland hanging against the wall. The whole was highly coloured, and Caithness happened to be pretty strongly marked with scarlet. "Eh!" cried the old woman, who had never seen a map in her life before," what a braw carline, sitting on her hunkers, wi' a red nightcap, and a pipe in her cheek!" 16 PRELIMINARY OUTLINE. part of the population of that more fertile region. While this is to be attributed to the comparative poverty of the soil, the marked inferiority of the Scottish people in point of commercial and manufacturing activity is evidently owing to the circumstance that, till a late happy era, England always acted the part of an over-powerful oppressor in regard to her less fortunate neighbour. From the accident of situation, England was moreover able to intercept the progress of the arts towards Scotland. Had none of these circumstances been sufficient for the depression of North Britain, the infelicity of its independent government would have accomplished it. It is little wonder to see plenty reigning where peace has been undisturbed for centuries; but the case is naturally very different in a territory where dissension and disaster have but recently permitted the sword to be sheathed and the brow to be smoothed. - The prevailing characteristics of the Scottish people are generally allowed to be, caution,-acuteness of mind, endurance of evil, with the prospect of eventual good,-more justice than generosity,-a rigorous system of piety and integrity,-a spirit of adventure which leads them all over the globe in search of fortune,— pride of blood not invariably unaccompanied by sordid. conduct, -more humour than wit,-great fondness for poetry and music,-and a contempt of sensual as opposed to intellectual gratifications. These must be understood as applying to the common people; because the upper ranks, from their intercourse with England, are, in a great measure, identified with people of similar rank in that country; and because, even in the middle class of society, the manners and language of Scotland are fast becoming amalgamated and confounded with those of England. The Scottish people are divided into two classes, corresponding with the two great subdivisions of their country, Lowlanders and Highlanders. The lineage of the former is composed of British, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Danish, and Celtic; and their language, like their manners, is nearly allied to that of their cousins of PRELIMINARY OUTLINE. 17 South Britain. The Highlanders, on the contrary,—at least of the common order, —are the comparatively pure and unmixed descendants of the aboriginal Celts, who, having lived for centuries in a secluded and mountainous territory, beyond the reach of both the laws and manners of the Lowlanders, still exhibit, with but little modification, the dress, customs, and language of their primeval ancestors. Though the Lowlanders and Highlanders may be said to divide the country pretty equally between them, their respective numbers are very illproportioned, the former amounting to about two millions, the latter only to two hundred thousand. Of Scotland, physical and moral, such is the meagre preliminary outline which the following pages are intended fully to develope and illustrate. THE VALE OF TWEED. What beauties does Flora disclose! How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed! THE great strath of Tweed and its accessory glens, comprehending four counties, form by far the most interesting portion of Scotland, in respect of poetical, if not also of historical association. This delightful region, which has been from time immemorial the subject and the birth-place of song, and almost foot of which may every be termed classic ground, is indeed the very Arcadia of Scotland. It is the land of Learmont and Thomson, of Leyden and Scott. The Vale of Tweed, forming the south-eastern limit of the kingdom, comprises the greater part of the district called the Border, so justly celebrated for the mar tial character of its people. Ever forming, in the language of their most illustrious minstrel, "the first wave of the torrent" poured by our sovereigns into England, and kept perpetually in arms by the corresponding aggressions of their enemies, the inhabitants of this district necessarily exhibited in former times all the features of chivalry. The country, at this latter day, con POETICAL CHARACTER. 19 tains innumerable relics of military antiquities; and, the times of war having been here as elsewhere succeeded by "piping times of peace," it abounds no less in the remains of a romantic description of poetry, commemorating the marvellous events and deeds of noble daring, peculiar to that period of warlike glory. Two centuries of domestic tranquillity have now permitted the plough-share of the husbandman, and the pipe of the shepherd to take the place of sword and trumpet. The Vale of Tweed has in that time obtained as great distinction by the arts of peace, as it won of old in those of war. The culture of its plains has afforded an example of skill and success to the rest of Scotland; while the gentle lyrics of Cowdenknowes and Traquair, breathing the pure quiet spirit of pastoral love, have acquired a fame as good as the savage ballads of Otterbourne and Yarrow. The Tweed is held as the fourth of Scottish rivers, ranking after the Tay, the Forth, and the Clyde. It is a river of greater fame than perhaps any of its brethren, on account of its dividing, at the lower part of its course, the two sections of the Island. It performs this office for a space of only about twenty out of an hundred miles; but, as this is the principal point of communication between the two kingdoms, and the boundary is nowhere else so distinct, it has been assumed by a licence of common speech as indicating the separation in general, so that "the two sides of the Tweed" is a phrase equivalent to the names of the two kingdoms. At this, the lower part of the vale, the country is level and fertile; but a little above the place where the river ceases to be the boundary, its aspect is materially altered. The river flows through a vast collection of hills, from the bosom of which it receives many important tributaries. Roxburghshire is thus little more than the vale formed by the Teviot; Selkirkshire, two vales formed in like manner by the Ettrick and Yarrow; and Peeblesshire, the still more mountainous region, from which the river itself draws its earliest waters. The course of the Tweed is about ninety miles in |