650 Monthly Review of Literature. 



ligent foreigners who have ample cause for laughing at the absurdities and ex- 

 travagance of John Bull, an individual who has had the means of ascertaining 

 the real character, habits, and feelings of two or three entirely different nations 

 on the European continent, and has observed the errors (together with the 

 causes of them) into which superficial visitors have fallen of judging from first 

 impressions, and not from mature observation, may be allowed to give vent to 

 his feelings of indignation and regret at the folly of his countrymen. But 

 Mr. Smith has confined his observations to our own island ; and, although he 

 speaks of a tour in Switzerland (of which he has astonishingly meagre recol- 

 lections), we should say without hesitation, that he gives us the lucubrations 

 of one who has examined little or nothing either within or outside of his own 

 native country. 



The tourist during his travels has visited many other parts of Scotland be- 

 sides those usually marked out by our summer adventurers; but it is to remi- 

 niscences of Scott and Burns rather than to his own that he is indebted for the 

 interesting portion of this gold and green volume. He seems to us to have 

 crammed Scott's last edition ofthe Waverly novels and all poorBurns's poetry, 

 and after such preparation in the cloister to have gone forth with gaping cu- 

 riosity, to have tried to assimilate all with standards so generally acknow- 

 ledged, and to have mixed the whole with his own notions into a glorious con- 

 fusion of ideas which would require the genius of Dr. Hartley himself to se- 

 parate into the respective parts. In a word, he is totally deficient in that 

 naivete and freshness of feeling with which a natural and unaffected observer 

 of men, manners, and scenery would be possessed : he is not a citizen of the 

 world, but a regular Englishman and a Cambridge monk. He cannot get rid 

 of his individuality, cannot forget himself, cannot transport himself into scenes 

 that are so much more elevated, so much more etherial than the dank, mias- 

 matic climate of Cambridge. 



That Mr. Smith has done what he has, is at any rate some cause of gratu- 

 lation ; for he has shown to the hundreds of tourists who go northwards that 

 there is something north of the Caledonian canal that merits attention, some- 

 thing that deserves a stare as well as the Giant's Causeway, Fingal's Cave, 

 the ruins of lona, or the pass of Glencoe. That the author has earned for 

 himself any thing beyond a temporary reputation by writing this journal we 

 cannot venture to say ; but we will not deny him the possession of some ta- 

 lent, notwithstanding our previous strictures. Let the following extract suf- 

 fice as a specimen of his descriptive powers. 



" Bidding adieu to Hamilton, who is a shrewd man, and especially convers- 

 ant in practical geology, I mounted a sheltie, which carried me six miles along 

 the shore to Sannox. I then set off on foot with a guide to ascend Glen San - 

 nox, and pass homeward by Glen Rosie. The rain soon came on in torrents, 

 and the clouds, rolling down the steep sides of the mountains, entirely con- 

 cealed all the fine peaks and crags which adorn their summits, This was a 

 grievous disappointment, for the glens are said to be the wildest in Arran, and 

 I saw enough from the occasional shifting ofthe mist, to be fully aware of the 

 grandeur of the scene. The ascent is not difficult, except at the highest part, 

 separating Glen Sannox from Glen Rosie, where we had to climb a barrier of 

 rocks. The footing throughout was wretched ; treacherous peatmosses and 

 concealed dykes continually occurring to annoy the traveller. 



" Under these circumstances I had only to look to my guide for amusement. 

 He combines the three occupations of weaver, shore-porter, and guide ; and, 

 as might be expected from the multiplicity of his vocations, is a very active lit- 

 tle man for his years, of which he numbers fifty-six. He was extremely in- 

 quisitive respecting my history, asking whether my father was alive, and if I 

 were the heir, and if I had a wife. 



" ' There are vera few things,' said he, ' better than a good wife, only they 

 are hard to find ; but I wish you may soon hae one that's good and bonnie 

 too. We had a great man from Glasgow here a wee while ago, that studied 



