CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



out, the only floor of this beautiful cave is the fine 

 green water, reflecting from its white bottom tints 

 which vary and harmonise with the darker tones 

 of the rock, and often throwing on the columns 

 flickering lights, which its undulations catch from 

 the rays of the sun without. 



The lowlands of Scotland are overspread with a 

 network of railways little less dense than that of 

 England, and from Edinburgh or Glasgow, by 

 Stirling and Perth, the counties of Aberdeen, 

 Banff, Elgin, Nairn, Inverness, Ross, and Suther- 

 land are accessible by railway. From the town 

 of Inverness, by Dingwall in Ross-shire, the line 

 runs to Strome Ferry on the west coast From 

 the Ferry, boats communicate with the isle of 

 Skye, famed for the alpine grandeur of its scenery. 

 From Perth there are two lines running north, the 

 one by the east coast to Aberdeen ; the other 

 traverses the centre of Scotland, by Blair Atholl, 

 from which place those who are in quest of scenery 

 may do well to walk or drive to Braemar and 

 Ballater. From Ballater there is a railway to 

 Aberdeen. From Glasgow there is ample steam- 

 boat communication with the Western Highlands 

 and the Hebrides. Natural scenery and science 

 have thus, in combination, done much to compen- 

 sate the Highlands of Scotland for their barren soil 

 and ungenial climate ; the former by rendering 

 them attractive, the latter by making them acces- 

 sible to tourists of whom, and of sportsmen, each 

 month of August brings its fertilising cloud, which 

 dissolves, so to speak, over the land in a golden 

 shower. 



ANTIQUITIES, ETC. 



There are in Scotland, and particularly in the 

 district between the Firth of Tay and Moray 

 Firth, numerous mounds, upright slab-stones, and 

 carved stones, which are supposed to have been 

 raised as monuments over slain warriors, by the 

 early inhabitants of the country, or by the Danes 

 or other northern nations who occasionally in- 

 vaded it in remote times. The most remarkable 

 examples of mounds are two at Dunipace on 

 the Carron, in Stirlingshire, and one at Fetter- 

 cairn, in Kincardineshire. A distinct class of 

 mounds, called moot or moat hills, are common 

 in the south-western and several other districts. 

 They are generally of a square form, with a flat 

 top. It is believed that they served as places for 

 the administration of justice in rude ages. Such 

 is the opinion of the antiquary, who regards these 

 mounds as artificial, and raised for a specific 

 purpose ; but to the geologist, acquainted with the 

 phenomena of raised beaches, moraines, and de- 

 nudations, they appear, what in most instances 

 they really are, substantial natural accumulations, 

 which may have been employed by our early 

 ancestors as above described, but which assuredly 

 were never erected by them. For a geological 

 account of the mounds of Dunipace, the reader is 

 referred to an article in Chamber tf s Edinburgh 

 Journal, No. 144, New Series. 



Of the carved stones, a remarkable example 

 exists at Forres. It contains figures of men and 

 animals in various compartments. There is 

 another very entire and curious specimen at 

 Aberlemno, in Forfarshire. These carved stones 

 are mostly confined to the north-east part of 



252 



Scotland. They are undoubtedly sepulchral 

 monuments ; but the character of the sculptures 

 is unique, nothing resembling them being known 

 in any part of the world. 



In the north of Scotland, and in Orkney, there 

 are some surviving examples of a very remarkable 

 class of early buildings, to which the common 

 people now give the name of Pictf Houses, as 

 supposing them to have been built by the Picts. 

 They are generally round buildings, of no great 

 height, with round vaulted tops, altogether built 

 of courses of dressed stone without mortar, and 

 containing for the most part one central chamber, 

 and several long narrow recesses in the thickness 

 of the walL Circular mounds, the remains of 

 British and Danish camps, are common on the 

 tops of the Scottish hills, having probably been 

 the places to which the early people retired with 

 their flocks in times of danger. On several hills, 

 particularly in Perthshire and Inverness-shire, 

 there are remains of walls, presenting appearances 

 as if the stony materials had been artificially 

 vitrified. It is not yet ascertained whether these 

 vitrified forts, as they are called, were works of 

 our Caledonian ancestors, or the effect of accident, 

 though the former is the more likely supposition. 



The weapons used by the aboriginal people are 

 often found, consisting of stone axes, arrow-heads 

 of flint, &c. Necklaces, bracelets, and other 

 ornaments used by them, barbarous in style, but 

 generally of gold, are also often found. In various 

 districts, so-called Druidical circles still exist in 

 a tolerably entire state, but none on so large or 

 regular a scale as those of Stonehenge and Abury. 

 There are remains of roads and camps formed 

 by the Romans in their hesitating and imperfect 

 attempts to subdue North Britain ; and of the 

 wall built under the Emperor Antoninus, between 

 the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with forts at regular 

 intervals, it is still possible to discern a few traces. 



The next class of antique objects are the remains 

 of the Gothic fanes, reared on account of religion 

 during the period when the Romish Church was 

 triumphant. These are everywhere very numerous, 

 but in few cases tolerably entire. Excepting two 

 cathedrals, those of Glasgow and Kirkwall (in 

 Orkney), all of that class of structures are in 

 ruins. The abbeys, priories, and other con- 

 ventual and collegiate establishments, are in every 

 instance gone to decay. Melrose Abbey, the 

 Cathedral of Elgin, and the Collegiate Church of 

 Rdslin, are the most beautiful of these ruinous 

 buildings. 



Numerous specimens of the towers and castles 

 occupied by men of note in the middle ages still 

 exist, though mostly in a decayed state. Those 

 which indicate the greatest strength and conse- 

 quence are Lochmaben Castle, the residence of 

 the Bruces, Lords of Annandale; Hermitage (Rox- 

 burghshire), which belonged to a powerful noble 

 named Lord Soulis ; Douglas, the residence of 

 the Earls of Douglas ; Turnberry (Ayrshire), the 

 residence of the Earls of Carrick ; JBothwell, 

 another stronghold of the Douglases ; Tantallon 

 (Haddingtonshire), the residence of the Earls of 

 Angus, a branch of the Douglas family ; Dun- 

 nottar (Kincardineshire), the seat of the Earls 

 Marischal ; and Doune (Perthshire), the strong- 

 hold of Robert, Earl of Fife, brother of Robert 

 III. and governor of Scotland. Four places of 

 strength Edinburgh, Stirling, Dumbarton, and 





