BENEFITS OF CLANSHIP. 161 



gain ground, a gradual change will come over the 

 features of the picture, yet this will |,be one of the last 

 points to fade in the dissolving view. Nor indeed 

 is the change one to be desired, for from this constant 

 and unconstrained intercourse of the different ranks 

 has arisen an inborn propriety of manner, and an easy 

 self-possession in the presence of his superiors, still 

 conspicuous in the Highlander, and which gives him a 

 decided advantage over the clownish shyness of the 

 peasantry of England. 



I remember remarking this particularly on a late 

 occasion, when in a small town in the Highlands, I 

 witnessed the population, high and low, mingling in 

 their games (which they did almost every evening) on a 

 piece of ground thrown open to them by one of the 

 first noblemen in the country, who himself joined, 

 heart and soul, in the diversions of his dependants. 

 Though no respect was wanting as he moved among 

 them, yet there was none of that open-mouthed gazing 

 or that awe-stricken awkwardness which would have 

 shown itself in an English crowd under similar circum- 

 stances. All was natural, easy, and unconstrained, 

 and never did I witness anything which realised to my 

 mind so completely the state of things in former days, 

 when the chieftain was not only the ruler, but the 

 friend and protector of all in his clan. 



Such was the school in which those habits and 

 feelings were formed which the Highlander of the 

 present day still inherits. And this inborn self-pos- 

 session tends greatly to the advantage of the people 

 who are so constituted. Hence it is that a Scotchman, 

 put him where you will, almost invariably " falls on his 

 legs." Does adversity overtake him? in the hour of 

 need he can look around him with composure, and, 

 influenced by no feelings of caste, can calmly mould 



