54 ITSH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. 



but there lived at the time I speak of, at the bridge of Turk, a 

 hostess, who came as near the character of an athlete as any- 

 one I ever beheld. Still, to complete the character of a prize- 

 fighter, there was wanting the bold brow, the look of defiance, 

 the enormous neck and brawny limbs. Yet, she was, I was 

 assured, a terrible woman in her way, and talked familiarly about 

 the number of men she had knocked down including her hus- 

 band, of course. I did not venture to try her strength in any 

 way. 



And now threading our way by Venachar and Callender, in 

 a single bold march we reached Stirling, and by eventide were 

 passing Number 39, in the Castle-street of Edinburgh, where the 

 author of the "Lady of the Lake" passed so many happy and 

 so many anxious days. Farewell to the Land of the Mist ! 



Savage Maculloch !* what could induce you so to maltreat 

 the unhappy Gael ? Voltaire, it is true, handled them sharply 

 enough; he knew them well; read his "Lettres aux Velsches." 

 But the instrument he used was a fine-edged Damascus blade 

 your weapon, a thing compounded of the geological hammer, with 

 which you fractured the rocks of their mountains, arid a toma- 

 hawk. It was well for you that you did not revisit the High- 

 lands ; had they but caught you on the quay of Greenock, they 

 would have " pruised you like a pinch of snuff." 



The Gael whom you so abused now flees his country ; he must 

 leave ; his doom has come ; his destiny is determined. He flees 

 before "the Saxon butcher ;"t the red deer and the grouse will 

 dislodge his tiny sheep and cattle. Queen Anne said that she 

 would turn Scotland into a hunting-field ; she must have meant 

 Caledonia. A very common mistake of both queens and subjects 

 is the confounding Scotland with Caledonia Scottishmen with 

 Celts. Sam Johnson did it, and so do most people, especially the 

 English. But these countries are very, very distinct. 



Caledonia may soon become a great hunting-field ; its name 

 blotted from out the history of nations. It never was a nation, 

 any more than New Zealand, but a wild land, inhabited by savage 



* "Highlands and Islands of Scotland." By Dr. Maculloch. 

 f " Black wood's Magazine :" the phrase is not mine. 



