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    little conceit of their " education , " why , I suppose we must excuse it . Englishmen have also their conceit ; and so " let that pass . " The sturdy independence of some , and the natural cheerfulness of the many , among the Scotch , make one wonder that this irksome bondage is borne so long . The rise of the " Free Kirk , " too , they say , has tightened the general bondage ; for the new sect vies with the old in setting the example of strictness . I heard that some parties had been summoned before the authorities in Arbroath , and fined , for walking out on the Sunday ! Perhaps it is to be denied that such instances should increase--even till they attempt to nail up people ' s doors and windows on the Sunday . May the Scotch have enough of it ! say I—till they . end it i

    . C 11 U J-K / m i And now , having said my say about the dark side , j let me have done with it , and turn to the bright one . Did I enjoy Scotland ? O yes , most superlatively ! I found warm hearts and a fervent welcome which j made me forget the Sunday bondage ; and the scenery !—it was so glorious that I am trying to repicture it in my mind every day , and shall feel | restless till I see it again . The first leisure day I could seize I got into a steam-packet and went down ¦

    the Clyde , and then by rail to Loch Lomond . A . small steamer plies from one end of the lake to the other . It was a radiant evening—the sky so deeply blue and the sun so bright that the dullest scenery might have pleased ; but here it was so gorgeousthat pomp of sun and sky , and lake and mountainsthat , in plain mother English ( for fine words are of no use here ) , I felt as if emotion would choke me , and hid my face from the glances of gentles , lest they should gaze at me for a sentimental fool . I got on shore at the little inn called " Rowerdrennan" — a

    very choice spot—and found two young Scotch working-men , recently married , who , with their brides , were purposing to climb Ben Lomond , to see the sun rise next morning . Like all Scotchmen , they had to consider aboot it before they fully made up their minds . I told them I would " go even if I went alone . This served to summon their wills to a decision ; and it was arranged that we were to be called at one o ' clock , and commence the journey half an hour after , under the direction of one of the " guides , " kept at the inn . Every body said whisky would be needed to give us strength to reach the summit of the mountain ; and mv companions took

    it liberally on the way , and gave the " guide , " a poor Irishman , a very fair portion at sundry times . There was such an abundant supply of water , however , as we went along , that I declined taking the 6 pirit either in going up or coming down , nor did I feel that I needed it . The Scotch lasses displayed wonderful vigour , and got over the difficulties of the ascents as nimbl y as any of us . At the last spring , I left Pat and the lads and lasses to their whisky and water , and dashed on to win the top first . Ah , the sly rogue Phoebus ! he had just risen when I won the peak ; so that I did not see him rise , but only risen ; and there he was with his huge crimson face

    barred with black clouds , lesting his chin on the horizon . Presently his undress was laid aside , and he put on his robes of glorious gold , and then—by the Titans !—but it was grand , " beyond compare , " to set ; how lie lighted up the giant peaks of lien Ledi , and Ben Mavvr , and Ben Eigh , and Ben Voirlich , and Hen Lawers , and a hundred lesser peaks ; and how he drove away the mists and laid bare the broad , glittering bosom of Loch Lomond , with its hundred islets , and gave us a glimpse of Loch Long , and tinted up Loch Katrine , and showed us the Lake of Montcith , and the interminable lowlands of the east ! The cold became so intense in a few

    minutes ( especially as I was wet through with perspiration ) , iliat 1 was drinking in that draught of magmneence with the thought that 1 must lose it immediately , and never have it again , —when one ol my companions , who had come up , repeated the saying of it rotigh , strong-headed peasant , who iiad seen the same sight with one of his friendsl'Ai , mon Jock , are not , the works o' the Almighty deevilish r" That was such u stroke of real poelry as made me despair of ivcr saying aught equal to it HOout the view

    from the top of Ben Lomond at sunrisi : ; and M > no more . 1 left the lads and lassos wiU descended , . shive . ing with cold ; for although it was the 2 Hih of June , it was but half-past three in the morning , and we were many hundred feet , above tin : level of the . sea . Pat was soon after me , and K"vc : unmistakable fligus of having taken too deep "ml hequenis draughts at the whisky bottle . lie wa . s sure that , I wan a jintleman , and would give him ^ 'H-a crown ! an English jintlenwm ,-and the Eng-Ush jintlemcn always gave the most ! lie had small

    'ges very small wages ; and he took anything imil . the jintlcinen pleased to give him ! Hut he was Kiini ihat I was a rah- jintleman , and would give niinhai . /_ crown ! -and hi on , till down In : fell in the mud . l- ' ivo iilurH i , . iV-11 , befme we reached tin ; ' 'Horn ; but lie would not hear of my suspicion that »<• had t ; . ken too much whicky . " Och , no , yer Honour" ! said he , ' it ' s ( he want o'uleep , and the small wages , ye ,- honour ! I ' m sure yell give me hali-a-down \' „ ¦ kut me not forget one moatra ^ turouu bit of ycencry

    j that r saw in Scotland ; for I saw so much on the j grand scale , that minuter beauties might easily be forgotten for the moment . The " Glen ' of Campsie should be seen by every lover of the picturesque : the winding stream , the magnificent giant beeches , the grand waterfall , are worth walking fifty miles to see ! By the way , the only new wild vegetable that I found in Scotland grows in that romantic glenthe wild leek , or onion ; it scents the air perceptibly . I have heard that it is found in England ; but never found it here myself . Just as it was in Ulster , I found the wild flowers all over Scotland were the same as those of my boyhood ; and looked in vain , with this exception , for a new flower . Even in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen , 500 miles from London , I I found none but old acquaintances .

    Talking of Aberdeen—what a grand street is its " Union-street" —long , wide , and regularly built , and all the houses of granite ! It is unique . The inhabitants may well be proud of it . To speak truth , I was not more happy in any part of Scotland than in Aberdeen . The town itself— " the granite city , " as they call it—is a , very noble one ; but the earnest , intelligent , and kindly working-men by whom I was surrounded , and the interesting character of the four meetings I held there , rendered my

    brief stay of five days as memorable to me as some five weeks of other parts of my life . The rich cultivation , interspersed with transcendent | natural scenery , all the way from Glasgow to Aber-! deen ( passing by Stirling , Perth , Dundee , Dumblane , ; &c . —all most beautifully situated ) , and , again , from j Aberdeen to Dundee , render the journey , even by 1 railway , one continued feast to the eye and the mind . Dundee , itself , is an ill-built town , although the site is in the midst of natural beauty . Of all the rivers of Scotland , the Tay is the broadest , and most imposing ; and the " Law , " or high hill above the town , affords a very noble panorama . In the

    cemetery reposes my friend , poor Willie Thorn . I went and stood upon his lowly grave ; and , as I looked around , I felt that if poor Willie , now his suffering is o ' er , could be conscious of where he lies , he would be glad . It is , indeed , a beautiful spot : flowers bloom on the rich sward , the princely Tay stretches his broad arm on one side , and swelling hills encircle the prospect on the other : it is just where a poet ' s grave should be—and a very lowly headstone records that a " Poet" lies there ; but they have misspelt the name : " it is Thorns , " instead of Thorn ; and the stone is so mean and email , that it compels you to remember poor Willie ' s poverty and suffering , even if you would forget all !

    I found many highly intelligent and kindly men in Dundee ; but , to my great surprise , a considerable number of them were arguers for the foolish doctrine of physical force . I had not expected to find such people in " educated" Scotland ; and , in one protracted conversation , after my public talk was over , we had such a sturdy debate as I shall not soon forget . I so far forgot my philosophy as to be really angry with my friends . Zeal against their error impelled me into error . I rely on their good feeling to excuse me . If ever we meet again , and they have not then forsaken their old-fashioned doctrine , we will try to light out the battle with a little more calmness . At Edinburgh 1 fell into an equal and similar error . I must say so ; for I should not be easy if I did not .

    keep " heart on the outside of my waistcoat . " I really quarrelled with a company of teetotallers real friends , and noble young fellows though they were . 15 ut they seemed , its I thought , intolerant , and inclined to dictate that I should practise what I knew I could not practise without losing my strength and capacity for constant labour . It is not the first time that 1 have been met in this way , and the recurrence of dictation—or what I think is dictation renders such treatment increasingly grievous . Yet I cannot justify my loss of temper ; and when one ol those young men met me the next evening , and , with an expressive look , said , " You ought to have been the meekest ! " the rebuke was felt so keenly that I was heartily humbled .

    _ Erom Dundee ( across the Tay , and through the finely cultivated and mincrally rich county of Eife ) , I went to Dunferndine . Again L was welcomed and suirounded by kind hearts and intelligent minds ; and the " lions " of the place served to swell the list of remarluib ' e historic sights I had witnessed in Scotland . Erom Glasgow ( in addition to my Loch Lomond trip ) , I had found one day ' s leisure to go to ^ , i , ^ ' " h < ' < ;<> " age in which Hums was born , lUrk Alloway , and the Brig o ' Doon . From Paisley in wUh the Mitchell

    company I ' oeL ( the companion ol I annahill ) and several other friends , I had passed to h den-l . e , to see Wallace ' s oak , " and the house m which ( it is said ) the hero was born ; and now . at hndermhne , I was m the Abbey where " Robert the Hiuce , h entombed , and among the stately and picturesque rums ol the favourite palace of many of the ScotUsh Kings . In the house , , oo , of Mr . Paw ,,, , the ^ wedcnborgian minister , I saw the richest collection o .. nuquifes , c ^ H . / ly Iron , the palaces of Dunferm-1 'm , Muling , h ,:,,,,,. Uolyrood , & « . —Umt I have Mr ' raio !' " . " ;;* ) OHM V MHi ° <«< "" miti . led person . wild ! « thoVro'ir T read 11 " ™ ^« wins hu . collection rcuuoia tuo treuc the grouter .

    Edinburgh ! how eager I felt for the first sight of it ! But disappointment fell upon me at first . It had been misrepresented to me . Its houses were not of the charcter that they had been described to have : so tall and regular that you might stretch a straight rod over them and touch all their tops ! Pooh ! nobody had told me of the unparalleled romance of its site—of its monuments , and their striking situations—of the Scott monument ( the most peerless thing in Britain ) ; of the really Athenian air of the " Caltonhill ; " of the majesty of the grand rock , " Arthur ' s

    seat ; " of the frowning but fine effect of the old castle on its mount ! It is the finest city in Britain , so far as I have seen ( and I have now seen every large town , except Dublin and Cork , Plymouth and Devonport ) ; but it is the magical effect of its situation , and not the superior buildings in its streets and squares , which give it the palm . For excellence of streets and squares Glasgow is equal to it , and I should almost say superior ; but no city in the three kingdoms possesses a site so grandly romantic , —so rich in elevations , and the advantage they give to the architect for displaying his work , as Edinburgh .

    Thought is more free from fetters , I think , in the capital than in any other part of Scotland . Not that the " uncoguid" are much disposed to relax their iron rule in Edinburgh any more than in Aberdeen , Dundee , or Glasgow ; but the number of English visitors , chiefly of the holiday classes , renders it almost impossible to preserve the ' * Scottish Sabbath " with such Seville orange-purity in Edinburgh as in Glasgow ; and these visitors , too , mingling with the

    Kirk people , but not being of their peculiar persuasion , must create a more liberal atmosphere in the drawingrooms of the rich and middle classes on the week days . For working-men , it seems to me , that there is a great work to do in Edinburgh , and fine opportunity for doing it . They have intelligence , the number that I saw—and they only need union , discretion , and perseverance to perform a great liberalising deed .

    Of course I saw everything that I could see while in Edinburgh—not omitting " palace " of Holyrood . What a pity it is that the very old lady should die who shows you over Queen Mary ' s rooms , and points you out her bed and the stains of David Rizzio ' s blood ; her stories and her ancient self are so wonderfully in keeping ! I told her so ; and she received it all in earnest , smiled most graciously , dropped me so court-like and grand a curtsey , and said , with a toss of the head as lofty as that of a countess , that she was very much obliged to me ! If the old lady does die , they ought to pull down those miserable gloomy rooms she shows , and make an end of the savage mockery altogether .

    I had two hours delightful conversation with Mr . de Quincy , at Lasswade , and was as deeply impressed with his intellectual power in talking , as 1 was with his writing when , in my boyhood , I read his " Confessions of an English Opium Eater , " in the loveable old London Mayazine . In Dalkeith and Lass wade I stayed too brief a time to be able to make much observation ; and our meetings at the former place were anything but good — all organization having been neglected for a long time . The two remaining towns I visited in . Scotland , Galashiels , and Ilawick , presented a very different state of things . The meetings were , in . Galashiels especially , well-attended , and the listeners eager and intelligent . I was now in the

    neighbourhood of all Scott ' s mighty enchantments — went to gaze at Abbotsiord—made a pedestrian journey to M chose Abbey ( what marvellously perfect and minute carvery ! I have seen nothing equal to it , except that of one chapel in Ely cathedral)— -and to Dryburgh Abbey , where the mighty magician lies . That was a day to be often recalled , so long as I live . O the beauty of all that Tweed land , over which Scott so often rode ! The romantic river , those " cleft" Kildon hills , " Norham ' s castled steep , " — and all the spots refilling the mind with the riches of his verse and prose , —how eagerly I strained to have the last glimpse of it all as the ( . lain went tearing along its way and at last , bore me once more to the edgo of the German ocean , and gave me a . sight of old Berwick !

    Much as I had thought of returning to England , I was surpri . sL-d that I felt sad , when all that glorious scenery was passed , ami tin : common-place landscape was restored to me ; but it was England , and no I soon was iu good humour Avith it . 1 cannot close this already wearisome story without , saying , ( hut on my return from visiting Kirk Alloway , and the cottage of Hums , 1 called on his remaining sister , Mrs . Hegg , a highly intelligent woman ol eighty , who gave mt : Home information of an important character , as I deem it , to be . Her daughter , Isabella , was present while 1 had the short , conversation with her . I ( old her that I entertained strong doublti of the truth of many things which were naid about her illustrious brother , and I

    wished to luive ( he benefit of her own personal knowledge respecting him . She . eplied that she would have pleasure in giving mil all the inform . ition in her power . I told her that , a person in GhiHgow had declared to me , the other day , that ho believed all the jiciounts of her brother ' u irregular

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    I Aug . 23 , 1851 . ] 8 E& * & * & **** 795

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 795, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1897/page/7/