40 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



finitely poorer ; and, after all, association is a more powerful 

 agent than mere beauty : 



" Oh, the wafts o' heather-honey, and the music o' the brae, 

 As I watch the great harts feeding nearer, nearer a' the day ; 

 Oh, to hark the eagle screaming, sweeping, ringing round the sky, 

 That's a bonnier life " 



the outlaw may well say, than listening to the rattle of a thou- 

 sand spindles, and living in a mile-long village, where every 

 house is the counterpart of its neighbour. 



The growth of this modern passion for Scotch scenery has 

 been analysed by Lord Macaulay in a well-known passage. It 

 is little more than a century since Johnson penetrated to the 

 Hebrides, and came back to Fleet Street with as much fame as 

 a man now obtains after visiting the sources of the Nile. Gray, 

 the poet, seems to have been amongst the first to discover the 

 romantic beauties of Scotland. In the Lake district, too, he 

 forestalled the encomiums of Wordsworth and his school. 

 Moderns, who leave their club one day and tread the heather 

 of Culloden on the next, little think what a business such a 

 jaunt was considered even at the beginning of this century. 

 Sportsmen who then took the journey carried multifarious sup- 

 plies with them, and made arrangements for their stay resemb- 

 ling those which are made at present for a shooting trip to 

 Arkansas and the Rocky Mountains. An amusing instance 

 may be found in Colonel Thornton's Scotch expedition, which 

 probably took place in 1784 or 1785 ; though, curiously enough, 

 in his stately quarto, published in 1804, he nowhere states the 

 exact year in which it was made. The mere recital of his pre- 

 parations fills pages. Besides horses, dogs, guns, and fishing- 

 rods, with all manner of tackle and ammunition, he took a gig 

 and two baggage-waggons, complete camp equipage, two boats 

 (for the lakes), and even an artist ! All were packed on board 

 a sloop engaged for the purpose, and very racy are his exploits 

 by river-side and on the heather. With the memory of Mr. 



