AMONGST THE HEATHER. 43 



sea-weed vilior pro jecta alga : " Now would I give a thousand 

 furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown 

 furze anything ! The wills above be done, but I would fain 

 die a dry death ! " To heighten the horrors which spring from 

 their prophetic announcement, it is on the " blasted heath " 

 near Forres that the Witches meet Macbeth and Banquo, while 

 the Clown in All's Well that Ends Well (iii., 2) infinitely pre- 

 fers even old heather anywhere save in the country ; " our old 

 ling and our Isbel's o' the country are nothing like your old 

 ling and your Isbels o' the court." How different is popular 

 sentiment at present, when crowds rush to the Academy in the 

 height of the season to see a few square feet of Scotch land- 

 scape and red heather painted by Millais or Graham ! Land- 

 seer with his Highland views, and Ansdell with his homely 

 shepherds, their flocks and dogs, have long been guiding the 

 public taste to these objects. Year by year a larger proportion 

 of our most able artists devote themselves to Scotch scenery, in 

 which heather is seldom forgotten. Under the dull northern 

 clouds, no other feature gives such a breadth of colour, such 

 effective masses of purple to bestow the requisite tone on moor- 

 land or tempest. Even the barest crags, when spread with this 

 rich mantle, testify to Nature's universal liking for the beauti- 

 ful, and form a link by which to connect their rugged horror 

 with human associations of love and tender protection. Turner 

 and the great landscape painters of the Middle Ages looked to 

 bright skies and flowers and laughing streams of water in great 

 measure to supply this void, and, of course, they were power- 

 fully aided by the clearness of their horizons, the vast expanse 

 of aerial perspective which they could command. But a painter 

 would frequently be in evil straits in Scotland, especially when 

 debarred from a sea or loch, were he also cut off from the use 

 of heather. With it he can flood his foreground with as warm 

 a glow as Giorgione diffused over his canvas. Allow him a few 

 dark strips of pine forest, and distant heather-clad mountains 



