HEATHER BELLS IN SCOTTISH SCENERY. 



beautiful pink Heather, interspersed with bracken, 

 rocks and underwood, in the most lovely profusion, 

 and Ben Lomond towering up before us with its noble 

 range." Again: "Altogether the whole drive along 

 Loch Ard, and then by the very small Loch Dow and 

 the fine Loch Chon, which is very long and lovely, 

 the Heather was in full bloom, and of the richest kind, 

 some almost of a crimson color and growing in rich 

 tufts along the road." 



And perhaps one of the grandest tributes ever 

 paid to Scotland and her people has been penned by 

 Queen Victoria in the following words which occur 

 in her description of Loch Lomond and its enchant- 

 ing environments : "This solitude, the romance and 

 wild loveliness of everything here, the absence of 

 hotels and beggars, independent simple people who all 

 speak Gaelic here, all make beloved Scotland the proud- 

 est, finest country in the world. Then there is that 

 beautiful Heather which you do not see elsewhere. I 

 prefer it greatly to Switzerland, magnificent and glori- 

 ous as the scenery of that country is." 



Even when in the late autumn the beauty of the 

 Highland landscape had begun to pass away, it still 

 possessed delight for the Queen, who lovingly quotes 

 the words of Arthur Hugh Clough, as expressive of 

 her own feelings: 



The gorgeous bright October, 

 Then when brackens are changed 



And heather blooms are faded, 

 And amid russet of heather and fern, 



Green trees are bonnie. 

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