Cottages. ning of his shoes, and he extracts a delicious wine from the living tree, which is highly esteemed by some, and is considered as being little inferior to Champaign. Pennant says, "The houses of the common people in these parts are shocking to humanity, formed with loose stones, and covered with clods, which they call divots, or with heath, broom, or branches of fir; they look, at a distance, like so many black mole-hills. The inhabitants live very poorly, on oatmeal, barleycakes, and potatoes; their drink whisky, sweetened with honey. The men are thin, but strong; idle and lazy, except employed in the chace, or any thing that looks like amusement; are content with their hard fare, and will not exert themselves farther than to get what they deem necessaries. The women are more industrious, spin their own husbands' clothes, and get money by knitting stockings, the great trade of the country. The common women are in general most remarkably plain, and soon acquire an old look, and by being much exposed to the weather without hats, such a grin, and contraction of the muscles, as heightens greatly their natural hardness of features: I never saw so much plainness among the lower rank of females; but the ne plus ultra of hard features is not found till you arrive among the fish-women of Aberdeen." The route continues east towards Aberdeen, along a beautiful road by the river-side, in sight of fine pine forests. The vale soon grows narrow, and is filled with woods of birch and alder. On the road side are seen gentlemen's seats, high built, and once defensible. The peasants cultivate with great care their little land, to the very edge of the stony hills. immense masses of granite. All the way are Pass of Bollitir, The glen begins to contract, and the mountains begin to approach each other. The Strait of Bollitir is very conspicuous, whose bottom is covered with the tremendous ruins of the precipices that bound the road, Sometimes the wind rages with great fury during winter, and catching up the snow in eddies, whirls it about with such impetuosity, as makes it dangerous for man or beast to be out at the time. Rain also pours down sometimes in deluges, and carries with it stone and gravel from the hills in such quantities, that the effects of these spates, as they are called, resemble what are called avalanches or snow falls, in the Alps. In former times there were hospitia in the Highlands of Scotland, or places for the reception of travellers, similar to the asylums at this day in the Alps. This is the great eastern pass into the Highlands. The country soon assumes a new appearance; the hills grow less, but the country more barren, chiefly covered with heath and rock. The edges of the Dee are cultivated, and the river swarms with trout and other fresh-water game. Here the sportsman will not seek the speckled trout in vain, for, "Here the Dee its glassy stream While the speckled trout does frisk about, The angler's simple prey. And the mavis chaunts his woodland note, The limpid stream repeats. ་་ Glen Muik-Pananich-Cromar. The birch, the pine, and eglantine, Until the Dee comes to the sea, And mix her waters bright, Then leaves the trout to frisk about, And catch the hooked bait." From a Poem never Published. On the south side of the river is Glen-Muik, remarkable for a fine cataract, formed by the river Muik, which, after running a considerable way over a moor, at once falls down a perpendicular rock of a semi-circular form, called the Lin of Muik, into a hole of so great a depth, worn by the weight of water, as to be supposed by the vulgar to be bottomless. At a village called Tullich, on looking west, there is a fine prospect of the great mountain of Laghin-y-Gair, always covered with snow. Nearly opposite to the village of Tullich is Pananich, noted for a mineral spring; great numbers of people afflicted with gout and rheumatism, resort here to drink the waters. Several commodious houses have been built, and good accommodation may be had; the country around is pleasant for hunting, and the Dee for fishing. At Cromar the Erse language ceases to be the dialect of the country. A large mountain on the left is called the Hill of Morvern, and forms one of a large range of a stupendous height, and on the side next Cromar almost perpendicular on the top; the whole country as far as Aberdeen, thirty miles, seems as plain, and the prospect terminates in the German Ocean. Aboyne Castle-Kincardine O'Neil-Aberdeen. The other great mountains seem to sink into a common size, and even Laghin-y-Gair abates of its grandeur. A little to the north of Charlestown, stands Aboyne Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Aboyne, amidst large plantations of pine, which yield to none in Scotland, excepting those of Dalmore. In this neighbourhood the quantity of pine is so abundant, that in the space of a few years it will supply the country with that useful wood; in the meantime, it gives a sylvan richness to the place, and reminds the spectator what would be the appearance of Britain, when her forests were so extensive, the remains of which are daily found in our marshes and bogs. The village of Kincardine O'Neil is in this neighbourhood; the people here cultivate a large quantity of cabbage and potatoes. Near this place, Sir D. Dalrymple says, is the › vestige of an ancient fortress, once surrounded by a brook that runs past this place, in which Macbeth the usurper was slain, near the church of Lunfanan. The hills gradually begin to lose their towering height, the nearer we approach to Aberdeen; corn › fields, houses more cleanly and better built; gardens in better repair; the people better dressed, and numerous carriages, &c. crowding the high way, mark the approach to a city, when at last comes Aberdeen, › a place of busy industry, science, and a careful looking after every thing for individual comfort. DUNKELD, TO TAYMOUTH, KENMORE, &c. BY DALGUISE, THE RECROSSING the bridge of Dunkeld, travellers take the right hand road to proceed to Taymouth; the distance is twenty-three miles, and hardly any district of equal length can be compared with it in point of richness, variety of prospects, and romantic grandeur. It is particularly beautiful near to Dunkeld, as the whole heights are covered with luxuriant woods, where the dark and solemn pine is finely contrasted with the light green of the larch and birch; and although most of the wood is planted, yet with so much taste and judgment are the groupes disposed and intermingled, that they have the appearance of being natural; and the fine natural features and uneven sur face of the country itself, contribute much to convey |