4 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



was only equalled by her misfortunes — hold alternate sway in our memory, and 

 usurp a command over our feelings, which it is impossible to question or resist. 



The classic spell of Scottish literature and traditions, the weight and influence 

 which, in later times, she has so happily employed for the healthful expansion of 

 human intellect, ser\-e as a fine relief to the darker interest of her political records — 

 while they improve the heart, invigorate the mind, and engage the attention of 

 every reflecting reader. The field of her heroic achievements, like her native 

 landscape, presents a vast assemblage of bold, variegated, and romantic features, 

 which give fresh point and colour to her national \'icissitudes — fascinate the eye 

 by the beauty of her scenery, or feast the imagination with the wild and various 

 character of her legends. It may be fairly surmised, that what Greece and 

 Rome owe to their rich and coj)ious mythology, Scotland owes to her super- 

 stitious, but scarcely less copious and poetical, creed. To this her literature is 

 indebted for many of its choicest gems. Her popuJar belief in the supernatural 

 influence of broivnies, kelpies, water-wraiths, witches, and other mysterious agents, 

 fully establish her claim as the Fairy Land of modern times. — As the Swiss had 

 their peasant of Uri, so had the Scotch their knight of EUerslie — names which, 

 by proud association, have perpetuated the love of freedom in their respective 

 countries, and infused into their descendants that spirit which, under every trial, 

 has proved itself the strength and sanctuary of their independence. 



Of the valour, patriotism, and loyalty of the Scottish nation, innumerable 

 traits are recorded on the contemporaneous authority of foreign as well as 

 native historians — \irtues which the testimony of later times has amply verified. 

 In making common cause against the oppressor of Europe, her troops have 

 stood in many a deadly breach — gathered on many a hard-fought field the prize of 

 unquestioned gallantry — and, what is yet higher praise, have never sullied victory 

 by licentiousness. So high, indeed, have they carried the union of those 

 knightly nrtues — the martial and domestic — strength tempered by moderation, 

 and courage b}- humanitj- — that they have drawn, even from their enemies, the 

 generous epithet of " brave as they are gentle, and gentle as they are brave." 



That political amalgamation with a powerful rival — by which the primitive 

 features of a country and people are so often effaced, has softened, but not 

 obliterated, her native complexion : so that through every successive change the 

 character of Scotland — Uke that of her own glens and mountains — has preserved 

 its identity. From the natural fastnesses of the north, to the Tweed and the 

 Solway, not a river, fortress, lake, or valley, but have had their historian, and 

 not n mountain, it may be literally affirmed, " lifts its head unsung." 



The adventurous system of border warfare, alone, furnishes materials such as no 



