O BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE 



show ; but to make up for these she has castles, fortalices, towers, 

 and spences innumerable, and of all sorts and sizes, from the 

 princely edifices of Taymouth, Dunrobin, etc., down to the less 

 extensive but not less characteristic baronial erections of Castle 

 Fyvie, Castle Eraser, and the Castle of Cluny. The genuine 

 Scottish castles do not exist on the shores of the Forth, nor on 

 those of the Tay either. Strathdon, the Straths of Dee, the 

 banks of the Ury, Ythan, Ugie, etc., in the Garioch arid Buchan 

 districts of the north and east of Scotland, contain the most 

 renowned castles of the Middle Ages ; but modern refinements 

 and the necessities of a more civilized age have, even in these, 

 made innovations that impair their ancient characters. 



But as we did not go to Scotland to look for a castle, as our 

 great lexicographer went to look for a tree, we did not pay our 

 respects to many of the baronial residences that lay in our way. 

 To make amends for this the grand features of Scotland, her 

 hills and streams, came in for a full share of our notice and ad- 

 miration. In sailing up the Frith, the first grand object that 

 attracts the notice of the lover of nature, is the Ochil Hills on 

 the north side of the Forth, and the Fintry hills on the southern 

 side : these hills do not form the basin of the Frith. The Ochils 

 meet the Forth at or near Stirling, but are far distant from the 

 river at its lower portion. The Fintry hills form a continuation 

 of that great chain of hills of which Ben Lomond is the facile 

 princeps, and which towers above them as the Lombardy Poplar 

 springs up among, and far above, the humbler Birches and Alders. 

 The windings of this river have ever been famed since Words- 

 worth wrote and published that exquisite morsel of pretty poetry, 

 f To Yarrow Unvisited'/ Who that has read this charming 

 production does not long to feel somewhat of the poet's raptures 

 who sang so sweetly one of Scotland's most renowned classic 

 streams ? 



" From Stirling Castle we had seen 



The mazy Forth unravelled ; 

 Had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay, 

 And down the Tweed had travelled." 



The views from the ramparts of Stirling Castle are very exten- 

 sive and imposing : to the east there is a remarkable hill, called 

 the Abbey Craig, which looks for all the world as if it had been 



