88 LANDSCAPE AND LITERATURE 



dealing with their influence, we turn to the Scottish 

 lowlands where they both were born, and from which 

 came their poetic impulse. 



A traveller, familiar with the low grounds of Eng- 

 land, when he first enters the northern lowlands is 

 at once impressed by their much more limited extent. 

 He finds them to occupy comparatively restricted 

 spaces between uplands and highlands, their largest 

 expanse lying in the broad depression between the 

 southern border of the Highland mountains and the 

 great tract of high pastoral land in the southern 

 counties. Another considerable area of them inter- 

 venes between these southern uplands and the flanks 

 of the Cheviot Hills. A further contrast to the 

 English type is to be seen in the broken character 

 of the surface. There are no extensive level flats 

 like those of the English midlands, nor any con- 

 tinuous bands of gentle ridge like those of the 

 English downs. The ground is separated into de- 

 tached districts by ranges of hills, which sometimes 

 even become sufficiently high and broad to deserve 

 the name of uplands. A third characteristic arises 

 from the great diversity of geological structure, and 

 especially the intercalation of abundant volcanic rocks 

 among the other formations. As a consequence of 

 this intermingling of hard and durable materials with 

 others more easily abraded, the topography is diversi- 

 fied by endless crags and hills rising picturesquely out 

 of the surrounding lower country, and often crowned 

 with ancient castles or ruined peels. 



Such a disposition of the elements of the landscape 

 is accompanied with a much greater diversity in the 



