SCOTIA'S CHARMS, HOW AND WHEN UNFOLDED. 271

They illustrate the history and manners of the age. By addressing themselves to the eye,' they embody, corroborate, and elucidate, those contemporary historical and poetical descriptions which till now have only met 'our ear,' and presented, through this sense, but a vague and indefinite idea." He supposes, that as the art of working in stucco advanced, it superseded or supplanted the art of carving in wood, which had previously been brought to great perfection; and that as the art of adorning in stucco had attained considerable perfection in the very early part of the seventeenth century, these carvings, in all probability, belong to a date anterior to that period.

An ardent love of country and kindred are strongly marked features in the Scottish character. Thousands of Burns' countrymen can sympathize in the wish he expressed, to have it in his power, unplagued by business, to make leisurely pilgrimages through his native country; to sit on the fields of her battles; to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers, and to muse by the stately towers and venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her heroes. We may also quote instances of enlightened Englishmen travelling through the country a century ago, and expressing their delight and gratification.

"On returning to Edinburgh," says Pennant, "it was impossible not to recall the idea of what I had seen; to

imagine the former condition of this part of the kingdom, and to compare it with the present state; and by a sort of second sight, make a probable conjecture of the happy appearance it will assume in a few years. Nor could I forbear repeating the prophetic lines* of Aaron Hill, who seemed seized with a like reverie:

'Once more, O North, I view thy winding shores,
Climb thy bleak hills and cross thy dusky moors;
Impartial view thee with a heedful eye,
Yet still by nature, not by censure try.
England thy sister is a gay coquette,
Whom art enlivens, and temptations whet;
Rich, proud, and wanton, she her beauty knows,
And in a conscious warmth of beauty glows.
Scotland comes after like an unripe fair,
Who sighs with anguish at her sister's air,
Unconscious that she'll quickly have her day,
And be the toast when Albion's charms decay.'

But Pennant and Aaron Hill are exceptions; and we believe the fact to be, that the charming scenery which Scotland presents, and the thrilling incidents interwoven with her national history, were not in themselves sufficient to attract much attention beyond the Tweed until comparatively a very recent period.

The romantic glens and rivers, the battle-fields and venerable ruins, were to be found and seen when Dr. Johnson visited the country, yet he saw nothing he liked so well as Fleet Street.

*Written on a window in North Britain.

INFLUENCE OF SCOTT'S WORKS.

273

The magic touch of Walter Scott was required to throw a light over the pages of Scotia's history, illuminating at the same time, in the back ground, her beautiful valleys and heath-covered mountains.

In the effect produced by Scott's novels, we have a striking example of the wonderful power of language, as well as of the fact, that the pleasurable emotion derived from a description of any object is not dependent on the intrinsic beauty of the object itself; for we cannot ascribe the enthusiasm created in favour of Scotland by the Waverley Novels, solely to the natural features of the country in which the scenes are laid. Much is to be attributed to the admirable manner in which emotions are excited, in connection with the glories or the horrors of the scenery described.

No one understood better than Scott, that every scene, to be complete, must be associated with something which affects the imagination-must be distinguished by some event in which the mind can take an interest.

The result of this skilful interweaving of events with the materials of the world of nature, is, that the same land where Johnson found nothing worth looking at, has become the land of pilgrimage of thousands, eager to gratify themselves by viewing in reality the scenery depicted on the glowing canvas of the "Author of Waverley" thus realizing to themselves, as far as possible, the incidents of his story.

The same Stirling, on which, in the rude ages of the past, so many eyes were fixed, by reason of its being an important pass, the possession of which was eagerly coveted, has lost none of its importance as a pass, the causes only which gave it importance have changed. It is no longer a military position for which barbarous races are engaged in perpetual contests, but it is the great gateway through which peaceful travellers, in quest of the picturesque and romantic, must pass, standing as it does on the confines of some of the most remarkable and interesting scenery in the country.

"From the top of the Castle," Pennant says, "is by far the finest view in Scotland. To the east is a vast plain rich in corn, adorned with woods, and watered with the river Forth, whose meanders are, before it reaches the sea, so frequent and so large as to form a multitude of most beautiful peninsulas; for, in many parts, the windings approximate so close as to leave only a little isthmus of a few yards. In this place is an old abbey, a view of Alloa, Clackmannan, Falkirk, the Firth of Forth, and the country as far as Edinburgh. On the north, the Ochill hills and the moor where the battle of Dunblane was fought. To the west, the strath of Menteith, as fertile as the eastern plain, and terminated by the Highland mountains, among which the summit of Ben Lomond is very conspicuous."

And a little further-" The whole ride from Stirling