THE OSSIANIC LANDSCAPE 119 



As a final sample of the Ossianic landscape, with its 

 kaleidoscopic play of atmospheric effect, answering to 

 the changes of human feeling, let me cite some lines 

 from Fingal: 



'Morna, most lovely among women, 

 Why by thyself in the circle of stones, 

 In hollow of the rock on the hill alone ? 

 Rivers are sounding around thee ; 

 The aged tree is moaning in the wind ; 

 Turmoil is on yonder loch ; 



Clouds darken round the tops of Cairns [mountains] ; 

 Thyself art like snow on the hill 

 Thy waving hair like mist of Cromla, 

 Curling upward on the Ben, 

 'Neath gleaming of the sun from the west; 

 Thy soft bosom like the white rock 

 On bank of Brano of white streams.' 1 



Though Macpherson roused the interest of the world 

 in the rugged scenery and boisterous climates of the 

 west, it was some time before any other writer followed 

 his lead among the highlands of this country. It is 

 singular to reflect that though the mountain-world, 

 more than any other part of the land, appeals to the 

 imagination, by revealing all that is most impressive 

 in form and colour, and all that is most vigorous in the 

 elemental warfare of nature, it was the last part of 

 the terrestrial surface to meet with due appreciation. 

 Little more than a century has passed since men began 

 to visit the Scottish Highlands for the pleasure of 

 admiring their scenery. Previous to the suppression 

 of the Jacobite rising, that mountainous region was 

 regarded as the abode of a half-savage race, into whose 



/y i. 211. 



