Physiogiiomy ofilie Country. 135 



well deserving of notice. Finer plains may in no few places be met with, 

 and grander views are easily found ; but I venture to pronounce it difficult to 

 find in Britain a view which communicates so much the idea of fertility, along 

 with the same degree of the picturesque. I cannot quit the station mention- 

 ed without glancing at a few circumstances within the eye's compass, which 

 naturally attract attention, though they do not lie in the tract which these 

 observations for the most part regard. Placed, as already mentioned, we have, 

 as it were under our feet, the remarkable ruins of Kildrymmy Castle, stand- 

 ing at the extremity of a plain, that contains several of the excavations 

 known by the name of Pictish-houses or Yerd-hoicses ; and not very far off, the 

 hill of Noth, worthy of notice for having on its top one of the most complete 

 of the vitrified forts, structures so interesting from their antiquity, and the 

 uncertainty that hangs over their origin, and from their being almost, if not 

 entirely, confined to Scotland. At a greater distance, and in a different direc- 

 tion, we see the lofty mountains of Morven and Lochnagarr, from which By- 

 ron has said that he derived his earliest inspiration ; and, lastly, it will be al- 

 lowed me, in a memoir of the present kind, to point out the glimpse that we 

 catch of a region which, as the scene of many of the labours of the botanist 

 George Don, will ever be regarded with interest by the lovers of the branch 

 of science that he cultivated with so much ardour and success. Since I have, 

 almost without intention, entered upon scenery, it may be added, that the 

 prospect from Bennochie, a hill situate between Alford and Garioch, is also 

 of an uncommon character. On the one hand, we have a vast lowland tract, 

 composed mainly of the districts of Buchan and Garioch ; and, on the other, 

 an extensive view of the high-lands of Aberdeenshire. I know not in what 

 part of Scotland so large a plain is to be found ; and, I presume, the coun- 

 tries are not many in which a view of so much level land could be got, and 

 also of so much high-lands, from the same spot. The most singular part of 

 the case is, that, of the wide circle within our view, one-half, as nearly as may 

 be, is hilly, while the other half is the extensive plain which has been no- 

 ticed. 



Alford forms a natural district, having, for the most part, a complete boun- 

 dary, from hills of no inconsiderable size. Among these, I can only mention 

 with exactness the altitude of Bennochie, stated by Dr Keith, in his Survey 

 of Aberdeenshire, as being 1440 feet high ; but I may observe, that the hills 

 at the upper part of Cushnie are probably much above 2000 feet. Besides 

 the valley of Alford, which is by far the largest flat part of the district, the 

 interior consists of valleys, rising grounds and hills ; and, seen from a point 

 calculated to command a view of the whole, it presents a hilly and wooded ap- 

 pearance, — a Highland prospect on a small scale. From the valley of Alford 

 to the upper part of Cushnie and Lochell, a gradual, but considerable, rising 

 takes place, so that, while the lowest part of Keig is about 400 feet above the 

 sea, the flat and cultivated tracts at the upper part of the district have, if I 

 mistake not, an elevation of not much less than 1000 feet. Of the hills scat- 

 tered over the surface, none is very conspicuous, if we except Caillievar, the 

 elevation of which Dr Keith found to be 1480 feet. 



The part of the country not under cultivation, may be divided into dry 

 and chiefly hiUy ground, and ground which is low lying and wet The high 



