HIGHLAND- CHARACTERISTICS. O 



exhibition for public curiosity. The sacred barrier of the once secluded Gael 

 has been thrown down, and the Sasenach admitted into those mystic recesses which 

 the traditions of eld and the genius of our own times had invested with the gloom 

 of superstition, and the \'ivid colouring of romance. By this unprecedented inter- 

 course, and the means of personal observation, former prejudices have been efiaced, 

 friendly offices interchanged, and the foundation of mutual and permanent 

 advantages estabhshed. The cautious Celt no longer \iews the approach of a 

 stranger vrith apprehension or distrust, but as one who barters substantial comfort 

 for the gratification of personal curiosity, and leaves the inhabitant richer, or, at 

 least, better informed and more civilized, than he found him. 



The highlands, so peculiarly distinct from the lowland provinces, and so long the 

 cherished freehold of impetuous clans, present for our investigation a field of rare 

 and primitive interest. Here, contentment in the midst of privations, cheerfulness 

 in the depths of solitude, fortitude under adversity, courage in the hour of 

 danger, and a waxmth of friendship and hospitality, long proverbial, are hereditary 

 virtues. Here, too, at that disastrous period when the proscribed native had 

 nothing left him but lus poverty and reproach, the last of a powerful dynasty 

 found that inviolable sanctuary, and that ennobling loyalty which no threats 

 could intimidate nor bribes corrupt. 



Those annual pilgrimages to which, in our own day, the spell of poetry and 

 romance gave birth, the beauty and novelty of the scenes have perpetuated ; till, 

 what was at first undertaken at the command of fashion or caprice, is now 

 enjoyed as a matter of taste and feehng, and is every day conducting fresh 

 votaries through those recesses which first inspired our northern Ariosto, and 

 grew immortal under his pen. During the present year tlie Highlands have 

 been unusually frequented by strangers, many of whom were men of science, 

 who sought to unite the pursuit of health with philosophical research, and 

 carried home with them the pleasing conviction of having succeeded in both. 



The political history of Scotland, as an independent state, is full of the most 

 varied incidents, changes, and catastrophes— such as cannot but produce, even in 

 the most Ustless reader, a degree of excitement which the striking character of its 

 details may well excuse. StartHng events, protracted struggles, patriotic devo- 

 tion, striking vicissitudes, hard-earned victories, martial skill and intrepidity— ail 

 are calculated to rouse the mind and enlist our inmost sympathies in their behalf. 

 The fervour kindled by the recital of heroic ballads, or the pity and commiseration 

 awakened by the martyred queen, whose beauty— in the words of Filicaja— 



" Dono infelice di bellezza 

 Funesta dote d'infiniti guai !' 



