BEAULY. FALLS OF KILMORACK. 51" 



mentioned, transported to Inverness, by order of Cromwell. Here resided 

 the celebrated historian, Bishop Leslie the biographer, Dr. Gregory Mackenzie 

 and another physician of the same name, author of " The Art of preserving 

 Health." Here the famous Scottish lawyer and statesman, Sir George 

 Mackenzie, often retired from courts and senates, to enjoy the delightful and 

 secluded walks. And here, also, the late Sir James Mackintosh, the well- 

 known historian and eloquent senator, received the rudiments of his education. 



The magnificent valley of Beauly a plain nearly two miles wide, watered 

 by the broad sweeping river of that name, and encompassed by a ring of high 

 terraced banks is a scene on which the eye reposes with peculiar delight. 

 The surface of the plain, and the sides of the hill which slope down to it, are 

 elegantly chequered with cultivated fields, and dense woods of birch and fir. 

 On the west, where the acclivities approach each other, the eye penetrates 

 the gorge of a rocky opening, through which the descending waters form the 

 picturesque falls of Kilmorack. The lower falls are situate about two miles 

 from the village of Beauly, immediately beneath the parish church. They are 

 less remarkable for their height than for breadth and volume, and for the 

 beautiful accompaniments of lofty rocks, smooth green banks, and hanging 

 woods, which encircle them. The river, dashing from between two lofty 

 precipices, where it is confined to an extremely narrow channel, suddenly 

 expands into an open semicircular basin, through which it slowly glides, and 

 is then precipitated over its lower edge in a series of small cataracts.* 



The next group of waterfalls occurs about three miles up the river, at the 

 top of a most romantic ride, called the Drhuim. This, in character, is the 

 most completely Highland and beautiful p;irt of the course of the Beauly river. 

 On either hand the mountain acclivities are steep and rocky, and the inter- 

 mediate valley not above four hundred yards in breadth. Woods of birch and 

 fir encompass the whole scene, especially on the north side ; and the edges of 

 the river are fringed all along with rows of oak, weeping birch, and alder. In 

 one part, half way up the strath, near the cottage of Teanassie, the waters 

 plunge through a rocky passage encircling high pyramids of stone, slanting up 

 in isolated masses in the midst of the stream gigantic witnesses of its ceaseless 

 and consuming power. This is the point represented in the annexed engraving. 



The bridge of Lovat which spans the Beauly, is a handsome modern structure, and highly ornamental 

 in the landscape. The surface of the opposite hill is diversified with small patches of corn land, allotted 

 by Sir Simon Fraser, of Lovat, to the veteran soldiers of his clan who had served under him in the 

 American war; thus securing a substantial provision for his dependents by a slight tax on their industry 

 the best of all pensions, and redounding to the lasting honour of the chief. 



