A Journey to the Highlands of Scotland. With occafional Remarks on Dr Johnson's Tour: By a Lady. Small 8vo. 3s. Fielding and Walker. The account of this journey is written in the form of Letters to diftant friends; in the preface to which, is given an agreeable, and perhaps the beft, kind of apology, for the publication of the literary effufions of our numerous modern tra vellers. "The following letters are felected from a correfpondence, begun, continued, and completed, upon motives of amufement, invitation, and tenderness. I took up the pen, indeed, to prove what will, I believe, be found univerfally true upon all human occafions. Meditating an excurfion into the interior parts of the kingdom of Scotland, I had fcarcely loft fight of the towers of London, even at the end of my first flage, before I felt that, according to Mr. Pope, "Self-love, and focial is the fame." We may tranfport our perfons, I perceive, to the remoteft regions of the earth: From Caledonia we may direct our rambles into the deferts of Arabia, but the mind ftill remains untravelled, and clings fondly to that dear, and domestic circle whom we have left over our own fire-fide, and whofe prayers and wishes are for ever on the wing to keep pace with our migrations. As the chaife therefore ran rapidly along, bearing me every moment farther from the fcenes of my accustomed con verfation, and the beloved objects, by whofe ingenuity they were fupported, I refolved to make my journey in fome measure compenfate the fatigue of undertaking it. This firft fuggefted to me those pleasures which are allowed even to abfence, the pleasures of the pen; accordingly, I refolved to travel rather critically than cafually, rather to accomodate my friends with information than merely to gratify the greediness of vacant curiofity. The confequences were, I did not fuffer the postilion to indulge his profeffional paffion, to pafs brifkly through any parts of cultivated country, or rattle rapidly over the pavement of towns, that were fertile of remark, but ordered him to go fentimentally. In a word, I rode pencil in hand, employing myfelf in drawing a fketch of the landscape, whether of hill or valley, morals or mountain, as it lay before me; a talk, not the lefs agreeable for its abounding in novelties; or for the various profpects which rewarded it." Such is our female traveller's own account of this production; to which he adds, that, on her return to London, the had diffidence enough to put the copies of her letters into the hands of a literary gentleman, who arranged them for the prefs. Now whether the entertainment, the reader will meet with in the perufal, be owing moft to the literary gentleman, or the traveling lady, is little to the purpofe, if the information be genuine, and that perufal amufing.-How far it is fo, the reader himfelf may judge from the following fpecimens. To the EARL of C Sterling, August 22, 1775. "I refume the pen, my Lord, to let you know, we are once more in motion, having turned our backs on Edinburgh, and begun our journey into Murray. You delire me to continue writing, and to make my remarks on things as they trike me-You fhall be obeyed; fo when you are tired, do not complain. We yellerday dined at Linlithgow, famous for the remains of the palace where Mary Queen of Scots was born, but which has nothing now remaining except the outer walls. It appears from the roads a fine ruin; it was burnt in forty-five by the King's army. The next stage was Falkirk, and from thence to Sterling, where we lodged: We this day took the track of the rebel army; and were I to offer my opinion from the obfervations I have been enabled to make of the life and manners of this people, it would be, that, their fo eafily gaining followers, and poffeling themfelves of thefe towns, is not at all furprifing; fince thofe, who were well-affected to government, were fo tew, in comparison with that ignorant multitude, which ran with the ftream, and were one moment ready to join the Pretender's ftandard, and the next, on fight of our troops, to discard their new-acquired friends and throw up their bonnets for KING George. "Some popular Chief More noify than the reft, but cries halloo, And in a trice the bellowing herd come out ; They never afk for whom, or what they fight, Cry liberty, and tl at's a caufe of quarrels." Is it then matter of wonder that towns fhould yield, which had it not in their power to make the least refiftance to this rabble of defperadoes? for juch, and not an army, it might, with juftice, be itiled. But a truce with politics, they ill become a woman's pen; and I know not a more ridiculous character than a petticoat pedant, or politician. Nevertheless, being on the foot, which, at that period, fet all England in a tremor; I was led irrefiitibly to thefe confequent reflections; let this plead my excufe. I this morning took a view of STERLING CASTLE, which stands on a very high rock, fortified impregnably by nature. Within its walls is a fquare building ornamented with pillars refting on ftrange grotesque-looking figures. It was once the palace of feveral of the Scotch kings. From the ramparts of the caftle, you are prefented with one of the most romantic and beautiful views in Scatland; you fee a vath plain waving with yellow corn (now in all its beauty) adorned with woods, and watered by the river Forth; which though but four miles of water, by its various mazes and labyrinths, peninfula-like, covers twenty miles of ground, and appears, to a cafual obferver, not as one river, but a number of rivers. I think one of the greatest beauties that Scotland eminently poffefies, is, their many noble I rivers, rivers, which is, a full compenfation for that general want of wood which is complained of by unfatisfied travellers; who are fo far from being contented with the profpect before them, they must forfooth have towns and countries made on purpose to please them, or else they exclaim against art and nature, even for prefenting them with that very variety, which conftitutes the greatest entertainment. Nor do thefe querulous gentlemen feem to reflect that, if the face of the earth was naturally uniform; if deftitute of that diverfity, which it derives from the hill and valley, the barren heath, and the blooming garden, there would neither be any motive to excite the curiofity of the traveller, nor, perhaps, any incentive for one country to connect itself commerci ally with another. But with refpect to Scotland it is but in a few places totally denuded. I mean not to infinuate, like the pedantic Dr. J——, that there are but two trees in one county, and they fumpy: But Jis a gentleman whofe ability and veracity as an Hiftorian, I muit beg leave to call in question, in fpite of that curious adaptation of high-flown words, which he hath, with great labour, jumbled together for the edification of thofe good people that travel in their clofets; to fuch only, muft his tour be addreffed, fince thofe who go on the fame road, will foon be convinced, how falfe an account he has given of a country, to the hofpitality of whofe inhabitants he owns himself so much obliged. As a theorist, I allow Dr. J to be a very moral man; but as a practical moralift, at leaft while on his tour, I have as great an objection to him, as I have to his biographical, fecond-fighted effufions: for, what fhall be faid of a perfon, who after many printed confeffions of conftant kindness, goes deliberately through an extentive track of country, drinking your drink, eating your bread, repofing on your bed, and then, with premeditated malignity, dipping his goofe-quill in gall, and returning into his own country, merely to fwell her triumph over that, which hath cherished him? Is it not, my Lord, (to adopt the nervous lan guage of that Shakespeare whom he hath elucidated into obfcurity)* Should tear the mouth that lifteth food to't?" I cannot think that, a greater misfortune can attend a people, than for these fnarlers, (who, from the nature of their conftitutions and their cloistered habits of life, ever look on the black fide of the prospect ;) to visit any nation as literary travellers, fince they travel not with intent to give the world a fair account of manners and customs, but mere ly to exaggerate the bad and fink the good. This is the natural contequence arifing from the writings of a Dr. J-, which ought to meet with the contempt that a falfe reprefentation of a very worthy fet of people deserves. The length of my letter frightens me, therefore I will not add a word more than that I am, my Lord, your much obliged fervant. * Alluding to Dr. J's edition of Shakespeare. O 02 To TO LADY MARY B. Edinburgh, Auguft 18, 1775, "When we returned to Edinburgh, my dear Lady Mary, we made a party to dine at Rofline Caftle, a place which hath given its name to one of their pretty plaintive tunes, of which you are fuch an admirer. We are apt to confider fuch places as the claffic ground of Scotland; which hath certainly produced fome pathetic poets, as well as illuftrious hiftorians; and we have as much pleasure in fitting under the bubes of Traquair, the birks of Invermay, or on the banks of the Tweed, liftening to the fongs of the poets, as in reading the profounder pages of Philofophy, or tracing the biographical annals of the hiftoric Mufe. "Rofline Caftle is fituated on a little hillock on the banks of the river Efk. It appears by the thickness of the walls, and the extent of the foundation, to have been a strong place; and was the feat of a prince of Orkney, who, an old woman-the Cicerone of the placeaflured us, was the fecond man in the kingdom, and that his wife was dreffed in velvet; this was all the information he could give us, and, therefore, all I can give you.-The chapel, which lies about 200 yards from the castle, is more modern; and, though our old woman def canted on its antiquity, by the fiddles and other ornaments on the roof, cannot be above 400 years old. The pillars that fupport it are all different in form, and one of them, which is thought the handsomeft, though I cannot tell why, is called the Prince's pillar, or the 'prentice's our conductrefs told us a legend of the mafter's having killed his 'prentice through envy, because he had excelled him in the conftruction of it. I own I faw nothing to envy in the beauty of any pillar there; but then it must be confidered, that perhaps I understand as little of the beauties of architecture, as thofe by whom these pillars were planned. There is a vaulted chapel underneath the other, which has a holy-water font, and other remains of the popith decorations; which makes me wonder how it efcaped the rage of reformation with fo little damage. Near this place is a pretty little inn, where we had moft excellent trout and eels just taken from the river below us :-the poultry too was fuperior to what we generally meet with, and the civility of the people rendered it one of the most agreeable jaunts I have yet had. Before I conclude my letter, (tho' I am afraid you are alrea dy yawning over it) I must prefent you with an elegy, or a fong, or a fomething, which a gentleman has lately wrote on this delightful fpot: it conveys a very good idea both of the ruinous and flourishing beauties of the place. You will, perhaps, not value very highly the production of a northern Mufe, nor would you fcarcely imagine at times, there was heat enough in the climate to kindle the enthusiasm of the bard But I doubt not you will be (as I was) of a contrary opinion, when you have perufed the following ftanzas; and that I may no longer detain you from them, I conclude myself, : Yours, fincerely. ROS ROSLINE CASTLE, "At dead of night, the hour, when courts And hears fome newer, richer love; No found of joy difturbs my ftrain, Not fo the night, that in thy halls What now avails, how great, how gay, How fair, how fine, their matchlefs dames! There, fleeps their undiftinguifh'd clay, And even the ftones have lost their names. Oh Mira! what is state or wealth? We'll live-and Esk fhall, in a coт, See joys that ROSLINE never gave." The |