OPINION OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 123 



legend possessing points of interest, of nature, and of 

 effect, which though irreconcilable with sober truth, carry 

 with them something which the mind is not averse from 

 believing ; something, in short, of plausibility, which, let 

 the poet or romancer do their very best, they find it im- 

 possible to attain to.' Sir Walter adds as his opinion, 

 e that the feeling of superstitious awe, annexed to the 

 catastrophe contained in this interesting narrative, could 

 not have been improved by any circumstances of additional 

 horror which a poet could have invented ; that the inci- 

 dents, and gloomy simplicity of the narrative are much 

 more striking than they could have been rendered by the 

 most glowing description; and that the old Highland school- 

 master, the outline of whose tale is so judiciously preserved 

 by the narrator, was a better medium for communicating 

 such a talc, than would have been the form of Ossian, 

 could he have risen from the dead on purpose.' " 



" But a more modern a more wide-spreading calamity, 

 has lately befallen. The gallant spirit is fled the 

 benefactor, the father, the beloved of his people, is 

 gathered to the tomb of his fathers. Mournfully has his 

 lament sounded from the dun heights of Corrie-arich, and 

 been borne over many a mountain, and through many a 

 glen, from the hospitable shores of the Spey to the dark 

 pines of Kothiemurcus.* 



" Thus sadly ends my account of the possessions of the 

 former Earls of Huntley ; and our journey is nearly 

 ended also. Yon speck of light that you see at a distance 

 below, about the size of a half-grown glow-worm, shines 



* In allusion to the late Duke of Gordon. 



