342 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



drink in the loch. These peaceful pictures are far pre- 

 ferable to the scenes of blood described by Sir "Walter 

 Scott in his Fair Maid of Perth, as having taken place on 

 this very spot. 



The Shetlands, Hebrides, and other islands which lie 

 scattered along the Highland coasts, have not been visited 

 by civilisation to the same extent ; but regular steam 

 communication has now been established with them, and 

 in a few years we may expect to see similar proceedings 

 effect the same results. ' The island of Lewis, the largest 

 of the Hebrides, containing about three hundred and fifty 

 thousand acres, has been purchased by an enterprising 

 Englishman Sir James Matheson who has commenced 

 a series of improvements there, the starting-point of which 

 is the emigration, more or less voluntary, of a large por- 

 tion of the inhabitants. 



