20 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



Were we to quote the testimony of authors who have written on Scotland, 

 \ve might here adduce many pages in praise of Dunkeld alone* a topic in which 

 all tastes seem to harmonise, and where one of the most graphic modern 

 writers found ample materials for the composition of an interesting volume. 

 But our own remarks must be few ; and, however fascinating the subject, our 

 limited space must plead our excuse for numerous omissions. The pleasure- 

 grounds surrounding the ducal palace of Dunkeld which will shortly be 

 replaced by a magnificent new family mansion are kept up with great nicety. 

 The walks are upwards of fifty miles, independently of a carriage-drive of 

 thirty. f These present every possible variety of picturesque scenery, and in 

 their extent, and constant transition from one style of landscape to another, 

 are equalled by no demesne in Great Britain. The greatest curiosity, however, 

 is the cascade of the Bran. A hermitage, called Ossian's Hall, forty feet 

 above the basin of the cascade, and directly in front, is so constructed, that the 

 stranger, on entering it, is brought suddenly in view of the fall, which 

 multiplied a thousandfold by the mirror-glass with which the walls and 

 ceiling are covered appears as if rushing upon him from every point. 

 The effect is altogether magical, and although too artificial, is well calculated 

 to strike the visitor with astonishment the more so, as there is nothing in the 

 approach that leads him to anticipate such a scene ; for, while he is contem- 

 plating a fine painting of Ossian, which covers the door-way, the latter suddenly 

 springs open, and he is ushered into a fairy world, with the foaming cataract 

 full in his view. 



Between Dunkeld and Perth, the painter will find many rich subjects for 

 his pencil ; and every admirer of that landscape in which fertility predominates, 

 and the sublime softens down into the picturesque, a source of uninterrupted 

 enjoyment. The heath-clad waste and frowning precipice are now succeeded 

 by a kindly soil under industrious cultivation. Birnam-wood, which every reader 

 of Shakspeare is prepared to contemplate with some degree of curiosity, is much 



* " That scene which opens before you after going through the pass, has not, perhaps, its parallel in 

 Europe; and the grounds belonging to the duke, I do not hesitate to pronounce, are almost without a 

 rival." Such is the testimony of the traveller, Dr. E. Clark ; and, in confirmation, we cannot do better 

 than annex to it that of Mr. R. Chambers : " I may mention," says he, " after having seen almost all 

 the rest of Scotland, this place appeared to me, on visiting it, decidedly the finest throughout the whole 

 country." To this the present writer will add, that, after many excursions in the Alps, Switzerland, and 

 continental Europe, he recalls, with undiminished pleasure, the delightful impressions made upon his mind 

 by the scenery of Dunkeld. 



f The pine and larch woods cover an extent of eleven thousand square acres the number of trees 

 planted by the duke, twenty-seven millions, besides several millions of various kinds. (Anderson, p. 100.) 

 At the end of the cathedral the stranger is shown the first two larches introduced into this country. They 

 were at that time treated as green-house plants, but are now of gigantic proportions. 



