AT THE RIVERSIDE. 313 



CHAPTEE VII. 

 THE HOD AT THE EIVERSIDE. 



"Age has experience behind it, Youth hay promise before it ; and this promise is soonest 

 realised by men who refrain from the employment of n'hat, if old in fly-u-ork, is not altogether 

 ijood, and who remember that most of what is good in the carious ti-ays of fixhiny is not altogether 

 old." 



NOTHING is more capable of filling the mind with noble thoughts than the 

 scene viewed from some airy point beside a Highland stream. Would 

 that my pen could describe those charms of Nature in her grandest 

 plenitude, those enchanting panoramas which are the delight of all fishers 

 and other sons of man. 



Picture the majesty of a distant Ben standing out against the deep 

 orange of the western sky, its crowned head a gleaming mass of snow, 

 and the broad plain, irradiated with sunlight, spreading like a golden 

 carpet at his feet. Imagine the outlook on the southern side, partially 

 broken up by the rich fulness of waving woodland bordered with trees of 

 various species and appearance, each differing in glory like the stars. 

 There is one glory of the birch, so elegant in the midst of its silvern 

 tresses ; another glory of the yew, whose eager arms are driven round and 

 tortured by the many scolding winds it faced when young ; another glory 

 of the rowan-tree, whose orderly array of berries are supposed to possess 

 the magical power of charming away the wizards and the witches ; and 

 another glory of the sycamore that " spreads in gentle pomp its honeyed 



