BIE'NAM WOOD. DUNSINNANE. 43 



and from this point fish the Isla ; he will find excellent streams 

 near the bridge, above and below. The trout, resemble the 

 English trout ; they are red-spotted, excellent to eat, and of a 

 pale rose colour when opened up. There are others, no doubt, of 

 the common sorts, and parrs abound. Sea-trout and salmon 

 appear in their proper season, and much of the ground is open. 

 Other streams exist higher up, but I did not fish them. The 

 natives are primitive, and the slopes of Grlen Isla healthy, no 

 doubt, to strangers ; but nowhere have I seen more disease than 

 in the inhabitants of these original looking villages and detached 

 cottages. The morale beats Paris all to nothing ; but in other 

 respects they are a Sabbath observing population, devout, full of 

 faith, and of large professions. Like the common people of all 

 countries, they are profoundly ignorant of everything around 

 them. Of the past of their own country they know nothing ; 

 of the present but little. I inquired of one of the oldest of 

 these cottar-farmers what mountains those were in the distance 

 He did not know. I knew them to be the Grampians. Of 

 Macbeth he had never heard, but knew a report that a long 

 time ago there lived a great giant in a cave on Dunsinnane hill ! 

 Such is " la peuple." 



Whilst angling in this valley, the kind-hearted proprietor of 

 Dunsinnane invited me to visit him. The mansion he occupied, 

 and which also belonged to him, together with the surrounding 

 estate, stands on the western side of the valley, opposite " high 

 Dunsinnane." It is a wooded valley, terminating in the vale of 

 the Tay. 



As I stood with Mr. Nairne on Dunsinnane hill, it occurred to 

 me that the person who wrote the Macbeth of Shakespere must 

 have been here in person. Mr. N., a brave and experienced 

 officer, concurred with me, that the writer of the tragedy must 

 not only have been on the spot, but viewed the ground with a 

 military eye. It is on Dunsinnane that you command a full 

 view of the entire valley, as far as Birnam Wood. In this wood 

 alone could an army have lain concealed, so as not to be disco- 

 vered from Dunsinnane ; and here Shakespere places the Scoto- 

 English force under Macduff and Seward : 



