THE FIELD OF CULLODF.N. 43 



object for the geologist, while it offers a pleasing feature in the landscape. Its 

 summit, quite flat, and commanding the town and surrounding scenery, is a 

 belvider on which the landscape-loving tourist will be delighted to take his 

 station. This remarkable fragment appears to have resisted the force of those 

 primeval torrents which ploughed their way through the Great Glen, and swept 

 away those mountain barriers originally interposed between sea and sea. It stands 

 as a monument of the catastrophe ; and having survived, as if by miracle, the 

 dissolving floods that stripped the surrounding surface to a depth of two hundred 

 and fifty feet, may well be supposed to inspire superstitious belief. It is 

 compared to a ship with the keel upwards, and scattered with trees instead of 

 sea-weed. Perhaps nothing can convey a clearer idea of its singular appear- 

 ance and position than to compare it to an ark that had ridden out the storm, 

 but remained stranded on the secession of the waters. Dr. Johnson has made 

 it the subject of an amusing legend, in which it is made to figure as the sleeping- 

 station of an original " Rip Van Winkel." 



Among the objects which excite a very different interest in this neighbour- 

 hood, Culloden Moor is that which has acquired a mournful familiarity in the 

 page of national disasters. It was the closing scene in that fearful drama in 

 which the efforts of the Stuart dynasty were finally overcome, and the brave 

 followers of an " exiled house" exposed to every calamity that could afflict the 

 conquered. With the heath, and its undulating ridges of graves expanding 

 before us, it requires little effort of fancy to conjure up the last struggle, and 

 the carnage that followed. Wherever we turn, the words of the seer are 

 forcibly recalled 



... "A field of the dead rushes red on my sight, 

 And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight ; 

 Proud Cumberland nuances, insulting the slain, 

 And their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain." 



After the battle of Falkirk, already adverted to, Prince Charles Stuart having 

 failed to take advantage of those circumstances which were seemingly at his dis- 

 posal, continued his retreat upon Inverness, and here, in April, 1746, took up his 

 last position, where his cause had excited the warmest interest. The duke of 

 Cumberland having drawn together a large army, and anxious to realize 

 the flattering expectations which parliament entertained of his generalship, 

 speedily followed in the same track. An engagement, now eagerly expected 

 by the rival forces, was to be directed on each side by the presence of a royal 

 leader. The army of Prince Charles, however, was far from being under 

 strict discipline ; a spirit of insubordination manifested itself among the clans, 



