WILD SCENERY. 61 



" And now what do you think of this wild region ? Do 

 you not always feel as if you were wandering in a new 

 world ? Here, everything bears the original impress of 

 nature, untouched by the hand of man since its creation. 

 That vast moor spread out below you ; this mass of huge 

 mountains heaving up their crests around you ; and those 

 peaks in the distance, faint almost as the sky itself, give 

 the appearance of an extent boundless and sublime as the 

 ocean. In such a place as this, the wild Indian might fancy 

 himself on his own hunting grounds. Traverse all this 

 desolate tract, and you shall find no dwelling, nor sheep, 

 nor cow, nor horse, nor anything that can remind you of 

 domestic life ; you shall hear no sound but the rushing of 

 the torrent, or the notes of the wild animals, the natural 

 inhabitants ; you shall see only the moor fowl and the plover 

 flying before you from hillock to hillock, or the eagle soar- 

 ing aloft with his eye to the sun, or his wings wet with 

 mist. 



" Nothing more shall you see, except the dun tenants of 



the waste, which we are in search of, and these I hope to 



fall in with long before we reach Blair. You have hitherto 



seen nothing but our tame deer, with their palmated 



branches, cooped up in ornamental parks ; and such are 



picturesque enough ; but when I show you a Herd of these 



magnificent animals, with their pointed and wide-spreading 



antlers, ranging over this vast tract, free as the winds of 



heaven, I think you will agree with me that there does not 



exist a more splendid or beautiful animal ; for whether he 



is picking his scant food on the mountain tops, or wandering 



in solitude through the birch groves, or cooling himself in 



the streams, he gives grace, character, and unity to every 



thing around him. How you feel I know not ; but when I 



first trod these glorious hills, and breathed this pure air, I 



almost seemed to be entering upon a new state of existence. 



I felt an ardour and a sense of freedom that made me look 



back with something like contempt upon the tame and 



hedge-bound country of the South. Perhaps it is impolitic 



thus to raise your expectations as to the chase; and, indeed, 



it is impossible for me to describe the enthusiasm I felt 



when I first began my career. In the pursuit, the stag's. 



