418 SHOOTING. 



racter of the pursuit, and the wild beauty of the 

 scenery, so different from what he is elsewhere in 

 the habit of contemplating, hold out a charm that 

 dispels fatigue ! He feels not the drudgery ! To 

 him the hills are lovely under every aspect ; whether 

 beneath a hot autumnal sun, with not a cloud to 

 intercept the torrid beam, or beneath the dark 

 canopy of thunder-clouds whether in the frosty 

 morn or in the dewy eve whether when through 

 the clear atmosphere he surveys, as it were in a 

 map, the counties that lie stretched around and 

 beneath him, or when he wanders darkly on, amidst 

 the volumy vapour the Ossianic mist that rolls 

 continuously past him ! The sun shines brightlier, 

 and the storms rage more furiously than in the 

 valleys ! The very sterility pleases : and to him 

 who has been brought thither by the rapid means 

 of travelling now adopted, from some' bustling 

 mart of trade, or vortex of fashion, the novelty of 

 lonesomeness is agreeably exciting ! The stillness 

 that reigns around is as new to him as the solidity 

 of land to the stranded sailor ! Scarcely is there 

 a change of scene ; silence and solitude hill and 

 ravine sky and heather universally prevail ! the 

 outline is everywhere bold and where the view 

 terminates amidst rocks and crags, frequently sub- 

 lime ! His noon-day bivouac may be in some 

 quiet dell shut out from the world ; or near some 

 rocky summit, perchance on the boundary of the 

 muir-lands, whence, on the one hand, he beholds an 

 unbounded expanse of heathery hills, by no means 

 monotonous if he looks at it with the eye of a 



