42 FISH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ISLA GLEN ISLA. 

 "Till Birnam wood be come to Dunsinnane." 



THE angler, after fishing Loch Leven, should boldly stretch 

 from Kinross to Perth, viewing in his route Abernethy's Round 

 Tower, vestige of an unknown antiquity, exciting in the beholder 

 a mysterious awe. How singularly has human history been 

 written, and how widely different in their intellectual natures 

 must be the men who now live from those that were. We can- 

 not even guess at the purpose of their grandest architectural 

 works, nor the date of their erection. 



O'Beirne is dead, who wrote, or rather guessed at, the history 

 of these towers. But that book of his explains not why these 

 towers occur chiefly in Ireland, two only in Scotland, and none 

 in England. They are to be found, it is said, in Persia, but I 

 know not who vouches for this. We Westerns comprehend 

 not at all the myths of the Eastern world. Barbarous, vulgar, 

 unimaginative West ! Beer-swilling, heavy-carcased Scandina- 

 vians ! in what time could you have invented a pyramid, a 

 temple, an obelisk ? Or even you flat-nosed Franks, who have 

 more of soul, more of the transcendental within you, even you 

 came not quite up to the Oriental. So says the author of 

 "Tancred." But I will tell you what you have, and what his 

 race has not ; a slight love of truth in ordinary life ; some regard 

 for truth in history ; a deep feeling for truth in science. With 

 you, Orientals, truth in chronology has 110 meaning. The earth 

 with you is a plain; the sun, moon, stars, and planets frisk around 

 it, having been made for it. Even money, which men say we 

 Franks and Scandinavians worship as a god, does not with us 

 represent everything, take the place of everything, as with that 

 race who, whether on Sinai or on Highgate, in Jerusalem or in 

 St. Mary Axe, are always the same. 



The angler will make for Perth, no doubt, and soon for Dun- 

 keld ; but before doing so, I recommend him to look at the Tay, 

 at Kinfauns, and, crossing it, then proceed at once to Newtyle, 



