38 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



and convenience of such means of transport from one side of the kingdom to 

 the other are inestimable. 



The city of Inverness, the Highland metropolis, occupies a station highly 

 advantageous for trade, being traversed by the waters of the Ness, and in 

 immediate contact with the great canal, where it joins the Moray Frith. The 

 buildings, extending along the banks of the river, are generally handsome, and 

 such as bespeak the ancient importance and modern improvements of a com- 

 mercial capital. From the bridge, a handsome structure of seven ribbed arches,* 

 the principal street extends eastward at right angles to the river ; and from it 

 two others diverge northward towards the harbour. At the angle of Church- 

 street, one of these, is the prison, built at the close of the last century, and 

 ornamented with a lofty steeple, which adds greatly to its effect as a public 

 edifice. Nearly opposite are the exchange, the town-house, and the ancient 

 market-cross, at the base of which lies the Clach-na-cuddin, or stone of the tubs, 

 ^on which, in former times, the maid-servants, on drawing water from the river, 

 were wont to rest their tubs, or pitchers. This antiquity, ornamented with the 

 royal and city arms, is reckoned the palladium of the town, and recalls a period 

 of national history which recognized none of those " water-companies" which 

 have since banished the classic " pitcher," or, at least, confined it to the painter's 

 canvass. The square tower of the High Church was built by Cromwell ; and 

 the sweet, clear-toned bell which tolls the curfew, was transported hither by 

 his order from the cathedral of Fortrose, where it had long summoned to its 

 altars the followers of a more imposing ritual. 



The various churches and chapels, which give a pleasing effect to the general 

 architecture of the city, are numerous compared with the population well 

 attended, and the service performed by able and conscientious pastors. In 

 addition to those of the Establishment in English and Gaelic, the town contains 

 Episcopalian, Seceder, Independent, Methodist, and Roman Catholic chapels all 

 of which, in the full enjoyment of religious toleration, present a most gratifying 



* One of the arches encloses a vault formerly used as a prison, and latterly as a madhouse, which, says 

 Mr. Anderson, " has only been closed up within the last twenty years." The narrow iron grating through 

 which the unhappy captive caught a distant glimpse of the hills, and of the river, which rushed under his 

 dismal cell, is still visible. The roar of waters, the rolling of wheels, the trampling of horses over the 

 arched roof, or the chime of the evening bell, were the only sounds that reached him in his dreary recep- 

 tacle ; and the only face which had become familiar, was that of the grim attendant who doled out the stinted 

 means of prolonging a miserable existence. The "prison of Chillon" was a palace, and "Bonnivard" almost 

 enviable, when compared with this breathing sepulchre on the Ness. It is a melancholy reflection that this 

 dungeon was not abandoned till the last miserable tenant had been nearly devoured by rats a fact which 

 recalls the " ratten-thurm" on the Rhine. In the present day, a gratifying revolution has taken place in 

 this particular administration, and a humane distinction drawn between the maniac and the malefactor. 



