HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 31 



the more imposing ecclesiastical observances and usages of other 

 countries might find the services of divine worship in this country 

 rather meagre, abrupt, and conducted with perhaps too little re- 

 verence. No one can complain of breaches of the fourth com- 

 mandment in Scotland. The day is reverenced ; all work is sus- 

 pended, and all the proprieties are strictly observed. Most of 

 the people attended service in one or other of the churches. It 

 was very interesting to see the small companies, all well attired, 

 coming down the glens to church. Many came from a great 

 distance. The parish of Killin is about thirty miles long, and 

 from eight to ten miles wide, consequently some are nine or ten 

 miles distant from their place of worship. There are two ser- 

 vices in the middle of the day, without any interval. The first is 

 in English, the second in Gaelic. The latter is the language of 

 poetry as well as of religion, and it is deeply rooted in the affec- 

 tions of the people. A large proportion of the people understand 

 English, and they come to the first service. The exclusively 

 Gaelic people, or those who know both languages, attend the 

 second service. In the afternoon all return home as devoutly as 

 they assembled. It is rare to see people idling about the streets 

 or in the fields, or to notice children playing, on the Lord's day. 

 In the remote parts of Scotland, Sunday is strictly a Sabbath, a 

 day of total cessation of labour. How they employ the day 

 withindoors, we venerate the sanctity of the domestic hearth too 

 highly to venture to surmise. It may be said, and truly, that 

 the public solemnities of the day were reverentially kept ; and 

 further, that there were no external indications of what might be 

 justly deemed inconsistent with these strict religious observances. 

 The term Sabbath is as common here as that of Sunday is in 

 England. To the majority of the people it is a Sabbath, a day 

 of rest. To the majority of the English it is a Sunday, a plea- 

 sure-holiday. 



In populous places in England, thousands and tens of thou- 

 sands seek recreation in the country, to which access is now easy 

 by railways and navigable rivers. Probably an equal number 

 stay at home, to cook and eat a hot, heavy dinner. And many 

 of the latter class spend their afternoons and evenings in the 

 public-houses ; not a few of them unwashed, unshaved, and un- 

 shifted. Probably our Scottish neighbours are over-strict in 

 their religious observances, and probably we are too lax. It may 



