&XX1V PKEFACE. 



it. Even on the other side of the Tweed., 

 a keener attention to pasturage, exerting 

 itself in the more frequent burning off 

 the redundant supply of food and shelter 

 for the game, has of late years been 

 making some lamentable inroads upon the 

 natural privileges of the sportsman. Still, 

 however, there remains for those who have 

 the means of seeking it, an ample field for 

 superior instruction : and, without the risk 

 of setting national partialities on a blaze, 

 by any conjectural opinion how far the 

 milder atmosphere of the south may ven- 

 ture to come in competition with the keen 

 air of the Caledonian hills, for the cultiva- 

 tion of intellect*, I can have no hesitation 



fi5j6t Oil! O v 



* In a book recently " put forth " by one of the Lords of 

 Session in Scotland, containing Memoirs of the celebrated 

 author of the Elements of Criticism, he has thought fit to 

 eke out his two ponderous quartos with observations made 

 by a professor of natural history in the University of Edin- 

 burgh, who had been appointed by Lord Kaimes to make a 

 survey of the Western Isles, A.D. 1764. Amongst other 

 equally valuable matter, we are informed, that in order to 

 instruct the inhabitants in the art of spinning flax, a woman 

 had been sent thither from the county of Fife ; and it seems 

 that " she was struck with bodily amazement at the quick 

 comprehension of the natives of these isles; who, without 

 understanding a syllable of her language, perfectly compre- 



