MOSS OF KINCARDINE. LORD KAIMES. 3 



corn fields and cottage gardens have overspread the once pestilential marsh, 

 and fruit trees and flowers the dark heath and furze, " unprofitably gay." 

 It is one of those scenes which every philanthropic mind delights to contem- 

 plate, as affording the most gratifying testimony to the capabilities of man, 

 when skilfully applied and perseveringly directed. This pleasing transformation 

 was effected by the enlightened and patriotic Lord Kaimes, to whose exemplary 

 labours we have already adverted in a former page.* 



For the space of four miles above Stirling, the valley continues nearly two 

 miles in breadth, but gradually expands as we ascend. On the north it is 

 bounded by rising grounds, presenting scenes of wood and cultivation. The hills 

 in front are green and pastoral, but in the back-ground the lofty summits of 

 Benlomond, Benledi, and Benmore, rise in majestic dignity upon the scene, 

 and recall to the tourist's mind no inadequate idea of the Bernese Oberland. 

 The points of resemblance are particularly striking when they are crested with 

 snow; and on those who have not witnessed the Alps of Switzerland, these 

 Celtic mountains cannot fail to make a lasting impression. 



Blair-Drummond,f seat of the late Henry Home, Lord Kaimes, enbosomed in 

 rich woodland scenery, and the church of Kincardine, with its Gothic architecture, 

 both pleasingly associated with the surrounding landscape are the principal 

 objects that mark the road as it winds into the vale of the Teith, where the fresh 

 verdure, undulating surface, and wooded acclivities, present the most beautiful 

 varieties of Highland landscape.. The course of the Teith is fringed by luxuriant 

 woods, through which, at intervals, the flashing of the stream and the gentle 

 murmur of its waters exert a' pleasing influence on the eye and ear, as we advance 

 through scenery which fully vindicates to itself the epithet of Arcadian. 



* About sixty years ago, the late Lord Kaimes became proprietor of one thousand five hundred acres of 

 the Moss, which, to his shrewd intellect, appeared readily reclaimable from its then unprofitable condition. 

 At an average deptli of seven feet below the surface of the moss (tourbiere) a substratum of rich coarse 

 clay, with a thin covering of vegetable mould, held forth the prospect of a most inviting return for the 

 expense of disencumbering it ; and as the Kaimes possession extended from the Forth to the Teith, which 

 flows along the north side of the valley, a large wheel was erected to lift water from the latter stream, for 

 the purpose of floating the moss by means of drains cut in the clay into the Forth. Portions of the moss 

 were then let to tenants in lots of eight acres, on leases of " three nineteen years" without rent the first 

 nineteen ; twelve shillings for each acre brought into culture the second nineteen years ; and so increasing 

 till towards the close of the lease they came to pay a guinea per acre. About two hundred families are now 

 settled on this portion of the Moss, who live in neat houses, disposed in regular lanes, and equidistant from 

 each other. At the expiration of the leases, a rental of nearly 5000 per annum will be the fruit of this 

 judicious improvement. See Statist, dec. 



f " And BLAIR, half hid in sylvan shade, 



Where Taste and HOME delighted strayed ; 



What time when Lear and Genius fled, frae bar and town, 



To ' TeithV clear stream, that babbling played by Castle- Doune.' " MACNEILL. 



