HEATHER BELLS IN SCOTTISH SCENERY. 



easy to stay at home and conceive rocks and heaths 

 and waterfalls, and that these journeys are useless 

 labors which neither impregnate the imagination nor 

 enlarge the understanding." Every Scot can read with 

 amusement the doctor's characterization of what is 

 conceded the country's greatest charm, when he remem- 

 bers that for all things Scottish the great lexicographer 

 had an utter contempt, unless it may have been Scotch 

 broth. 



Burt, in his "Letters from a Gentleman in the 

 North of Scotland," says : "There is not much variety 

 but gloomy spaces, different rocks, heath and high 

 and low * * * the wild and the dismal gloomy 

 brown drawing upon the dirty purple, and most of all 

 disagreeable when the Heather is in bloom." 



Contrast the foregoing with some of Sir Walter 

 Scott's unrivaled pen portraits of the majestic grandeur 

 of Scottish scenery! Where the fire of the poetic 

 genius is wanting, or where exists the lack of enthus- 

 iastic appreciation of Nature's most sublime handiwork, 

 one can well conceive of a production so dull and un- 

 interesting as Burt affords. 



To her late Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria 

 the mountains of Scotland, and their infinite charm, 

 were a never-ending source of delight. Her Majesty's 

 unique works, "Leaves From Our Journey in the High- 

 lands" and "More Leaves," abound in passages por- 

 traying the impression made by the Scottish scenery 

 upon the late Queen. Writing of the trip through the 

 Clachan of Aberfoyle, she says : "Here the splendid 

 scenery begins high, rugged and green hills (remind- 

 ing me again of Pilatus) very fine large trees and 

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