HEATHER BELLS IN SCOTTISH SCENERY. 



the grandeur and beauty of the scenery. Writing to 

 Mason, he says : "The lowlands are worth seeing once, 

 but the mountains are ecstatic and ought to be visited 

 in pilgrimage once a year. None but those monstrous 

 creatures of God know how to join so much beauty 

 with so much horror." 



Burns seems to have felt keenly the necessity of 

 bringing into greater prominence the majesty and love- 

 liness of his native Scotland. He thus writes to Will- 

 iam Simpson, at Ochiltree: 



We'll sing auld Coila's plains and fells, 

 Her moors red-brown wi' heather bells, 

 Her banks and braes, her dens and dells 



Where glorious Wallace 

 Aft bure the gree, as story tells, 



Frae Southern billies. 



Yet these fair mountains failed to appeal to or 

 arouse the admiration of some writers and travelers 

 who have viewed them. 



To Dr. Johnson, for instance, they possessed but 

 little charm. "Of the hills," he says, "many may be 

 called with Homer's Ida abundant in springs; but few 

 can describe the epithet which he bestows upon Pelion, 

 by waving their leaves. They exhibit very little 

 variety, being almost wholly covered with dark heath, 

 and even that seems to be checked in its growth. 

 What is not heath is nakedness a little diversified by 

 now and then a stream rushing down a steep. It 

 will readily occur that this uniformity of barrenness 

 can afford little amusement to the traveler, that it is 



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