290 Four -in-Hand in Britai7i. 



a surprise to me to find its situation so very fine ; but 

 then we are all more and more surprised at what Scot- 

 land has to show when thoroughly examined. The finer 

 view from the hill of Kinnoul should be seen, if one 

 would know of what Scotland has to boast. 



Antiquaries refer the foundation of Perth to the 

 Roman Agricola. who saw in its hills another Rome, and 

 in its river another Tiber. 



" Behold the Tiber! ' the vain Roman cried, 

 Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side; 

 But Where's the Scot that would the vaunt repay, 

 And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay ? " 



But Agricola, poor fellow, was probably homesick, and 

 felt much like the expatriated Scot who tries to imagine 

 himself on his native heath when eating his annual 

 haggis at St. Andrew's dinner in New York. 



From the days of Kenneth McAlpine down to the 

 times of James I., Perth was the capital of Scotland, and 

 witnessed the coronation of all her kings. Every Scot 

 knows the story of James I. — how he hid from the as- 

 sassins in the Dominican Convent, how fair Catherine 

 Douglas thrust her arm through the socket of the bolt 

 and held the door against them until her bones were 

 brutally crushed, and how the fugitive was finally dragged 

 from his place of concealment by 



" Robert Grahame 

 That slew our king-, 

 God give him shame ! " 



