1808.] Beauties and Defects of the Scottish Landscape, 
habitually amiable and conciliating: but 
perhaps this is flattery. 
. So ai Me Editcr, for Reviews, a 
term which I use without meaning any 
offence to the army, for as they know 
no. other interpretation of the word, 
than its military one, without this apo- 
logy, I might occasion mischief!—and 
so, I conclude, with most hearty prayers, 
that reviews may be as infallible as 
Moore’s Almanack, in their conjectures 
and prophecies, and not misquote, or 
make mistakes, or dabble too much tn po- 
fitics, all woeful events for these poor 
fellows.—One favour I have to beg of 
the Bow-street or Edinburgh reviewers, 
which is this, that the next time they re- 
view Chatterton’s Works, they will be 
pleased to allow the privilege of having 
once existed to poor Joseph Ischam, the 
author of the Antiocheis ; and another fa- 
our I have to beg, that, seriously speak- 
ing, all the reviewers will take this, as it 
is meant,a mere jeu d’esprit ; their utility 
to country curates, excisemen, and 
schoolmasters, being indisputable. 
I am, your's, &c., Hi tad in 
a 
~ For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS on the BEAUTIES and 
_ DEFECTS of the SCOTTISH LANDSCAPE. 
| ohn age like the present, when con- 
B siderable attention has been paid to 
investigate the naturé of our emotions 
‘produced by the contemplation of the 
beautiful and the sublime in the mate- 
rial world, it may not be out of place to 
direct a few enquiries towards the gene- 
ral character of the scenery of a country, 
‘to which, of late, more than common at- 
tention has been paid. . 
. The beauty, or the excellence, of the 
Scottish landscape arises principally from 
its diversity of surface, its lakes, and its 
Trivers ; its defects arise from its sterility; 
its want of wood, and perhaps in no in- 
considerable degree from the vitiated 
Aaste of great proprietors in improving 
their grounds. 
__ Its rivers, as they are more general 
than any other of the sources of beauty, 
‘shall be considered first. In Scotland, 
from that diversity of surface hinted at 
above, the river possesses more beautiful 
Accompaniments than can possibly attend 
the river in a smooth unvaried tract of 
country ; but this diversity is by no means 
the general attendant of the Scottish 
landscape; it may be divided into two 
classes, the Highland and the Lowland; 
and we may, without the imputation of 
partiality, fairly allow the former to-be 
131 
sublime; the latter, beautiful. The val- 
ley of the latter, becomes in the former, 
contracted into achasm or glen, overhung 
with shrubs; the river, instead of winding 
among fertile meadows, is dashed from 
rock to rock; the woods hang over the 
precipices, and the whole is overtopped 
with the rugged line of the mountain, 
Contrasted with these, the rivers of a 
smooth country appear void of creating 
interest: they are generally sluggish, 
with formal banks without character.— 
How different are the rivers of a moun- 
tain country; the current broken with 
fragments of rocks and foaming over beds 
of yranite! Another advantage of the 
mountain rivers is this: they generally 
lead to cascades beautifully varied, and 
finally to lochs; possessing all the beauty, 
wildness, and variety, which a poetical 
imagination can require. ‘The taste might 
indeed be questioned, which runs to one 
pool of water after another, in quest of 
picturesque beauty; if this species of 
landscape were not accompanied with 
scenery quite various. If every loch, 
though of the extent of Loch Lomond or 
Windermete, were distinguished by one 
kind of scenery, it would become at once 
insipid; but it is the boast of all the 
lochs which I have contemplated, that 
they differ from each other not only in 
shape and form, but in the character of 
accompaniments. The wild hills of 
Loch Caterine, bear uo resemblance to 
the borders of Loch Tay, or the pastoral 
scenes of Loch Earn. 
Having spoken of rivers, we must not 
omit taking notice of some circumstances 
which give those of Scotland in the eye 
of the enthusiast a peculiar charm: 
Music and poetry have been nursed on 
their delightful banks; each little valley 
has its popular songs; we are alike 
charmed with “ the broom of Cowdens 
knows,” and ‘the braes of Yarrow ;” 
and I never saw the scenes which gave 
birth to.these productions, without feel- 
ing an additional pleasure when I con- 
nected the ideas of the poet with my own. 
Having noticed slightly the river and 
the loch, we shall add a few remarks on 
the influence of art in improving or de- 
forming those productions of nature. 
Though the soil of the northern part of 
the island is nore sterile than the south- 
ern, and though its climate is more se- 
vere, yet the vallies even in the remotest 
Highlands are not altogether barren. Wood 
and cultivation mark the low grounds, 
verdure clothes the hills. Some speci« 
mens might be selected from the High. 
lands 
