Aberdeenshire. We counted thirteen different moun- visits to Scotland have turned out to be annual and effective demonstrations of attachment and respect to her person and her throne. The Queen is strictly and deservedly popular in all parts of her dominions, and in none more so than in her ancient kingdom of Scotland. Taking, however, all matters into account, we doubt whether she had ever met a more hearty reception than in Aberdeenshire; and, at the period when an insane attempt to copy France had been made in Ireland, perhaps this matter was not deemed altogether useless by Statesmen. The vast multitudes who hailed her arrival in the city of Aberdeen, appeared to have been drawn from a considerable distance. There could be no doubt that in the principal street of that city-which has a most imposing effect, from its length in one straight line, its breadth, and the uniform regularity of its white granite buildings-there were assembled on that morning double the number of all its inhabitants; and many of the parties present must have, therefore, travelled far. The journey onwards to Balmoral was one continued triumphal progress through an endless series of flower-formed arches, and amidst the most sincere expressions of attachment from a very independent class of her Majesty's people. The splendour of the scenery, and the earnest good-will manifested everywhere in the journey, contributed, probably enough, to put the Royal party in good humour with their new home; and Balmoral Castle gained their approval. The matrons of the district, honest, hardworking housewives themselves, tell many little stories of her Majesty's activity. They will assure any person, who may inquire into these matters, that within an hour after her arrival, the Queen was perfectly acquainted with every nook and pantry in the Castle; and from its singular three-cornered, angular turnings and windings, the picking up of that acquaintance must have been a work of difficulty. Others who approve more of out of door exercise, say that before sunset her Majesty had reached the top of Cairn Gowan, and enjoyed, certainly, a prospect not to be often realized. The habits of the suite were necessarily regulated somewhat by the activity and energy of the movements of their superiors, and they The garden or pleasure-grounds in front of and were occasionally more laborious and rapid than many around the Castle, were laid out with considerable care ladies would care to pursue. For some days after their and taste by Sir Robert Gordon. The approaches to arrival at Balmoral, a number of policemen, some of the Castle from the east and west gates sweep down them, we believe, from London, were stationed at the the bank in a semicircle, and meet together in the gates and on the grounds. The precaution against hollow below, from which, through the shrubberies and over-curious intruders was, however, found to be altowalks, there is a slight ascent to the house itself. The gether unnecessary. The only persons who approached latter is almost indescribable. The additions were the place were on business. The policemen were the made evidently at different periods, upon no fixed plan; || only idle people to be seen, and they gradually disapand an architect must say of it, as political historians peared. Mr. Punch, we believe, in his zeal for the say of the Constitution, that though the various parts || comfort of his Queen, scolded the Scotch very seriously, taken separately might not suit well, yet altogether it for a professional wit, on their inquisitiveness; and, in forms an imposing edifice. Balmoral is said to have proof thereof, quoted the title at least of a sheet pubits name as "the seat of the great Earl," and deserves lished daily-fifty miles from the Castle, under the amit now better than at any former period of its history; bitious name of the Balmoral Guide. Mr. Punch was although we presume that a residence of some descrip- misinformed, for we rather think that this literary tion occupied its place for a long period. Her Majesty speculation originated with, and was conducted by, an and suite arrived at Balmoral from Aberdeen on the Englishman. The people of the district discriminated, 8th of September last. The distance is forty-eight we must say, with very nice tact, between the periods miles, and therefore little more than a pleasant drive. when, without impropriety, they might manifest their All that could be done by the population to render it feelings of loyalty, or indulge a natural curiosity to see thoroughly pleasant was accomplished. Her Majesty's the Queen, the Prince, and all the other great folks, certain its capacity to bear the Royal carriages. It was pronounced safe, but the party crossed the river at Ballater, and declined the experiment. but particularly the small folks-for it seemed always a || the bridge at the same time. The proceeding is comsettled point that the Royal children were the greatest plimentary to the literature of Highland carters, for it objects of curiosity-and those when it would have makes the risk of life a penalty of incapacity to read been annoying and disrespectful to intrude on the pri- notices of traps suspended by the road trustees. Upon vacy and retirement which the Monarch has surely an the proposed visit of the Court to that quarter being equal right to expect with her subjects. So at nomade known, the bridge was tested with a view to astime could a stranger have supposed, from anything visible at Balmoral, or for miles on either side, that any more remarkable person was resident there than "the great Earl," or the laird and his family, for whose accommodation the original mansion had been built. Mr. Punch himself could not have been more courteously dealt with in that respect, if he had received and followed the good advice to take summer lodgings at Ballater, and drink the waters of Pannanich, which are eminently antibilious; or submitted his person to the heaviest shower-bath of the wells-which we take to||lish is used for the first, and Gaelic for the second serbe a cooling process of ablution; and one in favour with cripples, who say they derive great advantage from the waters, discovered in a series of dreams to an old bedridden female some hundred years ago-for the effectual cure and removal of all her maladies. A number of cottages have been erected in the vicinity of Balmoral, and a considerable population gathered together on the river for two miles eastward, both on the north and south banks of the Dec. The cottages are generally remarkable for their neatness, their little gardens, and the apparent attention of the people to floriculture. All their windows are profusely decorated with roses and fuschia, and the neighbourhood wears a satisfactory air of comfort. A mile beneath the castle, at a spot where the Dee labours roughly over a rocky bed, a suspension bridge has been thrown over the river, communicating with the church and school of Crathie on the north bank. Towards the bridge, on the south side, a few cottages in the old style of clachans still remain. Their inmates were, we believe, repeatedly visited by their Royal neigh. bours, who evinced considerable interest in their welfare. We have heard that her Majesty intends to establish a new school, neither at Balmoral nor Crathie, but at Ballater, six or seven miles eastward. There are few districts of country in which elementary education is better conducted than in Aberdeenshire, and one or two more of the eastern counties, where the schoolmasters may participate in the Dick Bequest; which, originating with a private gentleman, secured for the teachers, in the numerous parishes to which it applies, all those reasonable advantages many years ago, that are now generally sought for the profession. Still there is room for new and improved schools in several of these terrible parishes, where a minister may live habitually forty miles from some of his parishioners, but without passing over his ecclesiastical domain. The chain-bridge of Crathie is a pretty toy. Its slender wires and chains have an advantage, in giving something like an electric shock to passengers who look down to the angry current, and the fierce rocks with the black pools between them, streaked occasionally with white; and begin then to contemplate the quantity of iron between them and a dangerous calamity. The trustees of this aerial structure have taken the precaution of affixing boards at each end of the bridge, whereon, in very large letters, of size commensurate with the importance of the announcement, the public are warned against allowing two loaded carts to be on Crathie church stands high on one of the hills that border Dee. The view from the church is very fine, and stretches a considerable distance westward. The church itself is a large and unpretending building, with a small clump of trees surrounding it on the little platform selected for its site. The services arc conducted in two languages by the same minister. Eng vice. The Queen and Prince Albert regularly attended the first service during their residence at Balmoral. This circumstance considerably increased the congregation on the first Sabbath forenoon; but the difference was not, we believe, remarkable on any other day. In this revolutionary year, when emperors and monarchs have been flying hither and thither, in the utmost confusion and consternation, from their subjects, the visits of our Sovereign to Crathie church attested clearly the strength of constitutional principles. The personal popularity of the Queen is unquestionably an element not to be overlooked; but we doubt the possibility of an absolute monarch, or an intriguing monarch, ever being again popular in any European country. The Emperor Nicholas is feared; but he is not a person likely to be loved. Even Nicholas might have envied the simplicity apparent in all the British Monarch's proceedings in the Highlands. The Queen and the Prince occupied one of the front seats in the gallery. They were not surrounded by guards or courtiers; but a farmer's family were seated to the right and another to the left of their pew, and the seats behind were occupied by persons of the same class. A country squireen and his wife would have made more bustle than Prince Albert and the highest lady of the land, in their attendance on public worship. Their route to and from church lay by a narrow lane between the church and the ricketty chain-bridge; and the same line is followed by three-fourths of the congregation. Down this narrow lane walked together prince and peasant-the Queen and the plaided Highland matrons, in their white caps, with their little bibles carefully wrapped in a snow-white 'kerchief, and a sprig of thyme, southern-wood, or of rosemary, placed between the leaves. The blue bonnet and the jewelled crown met once more, in better times, perhaps, than when the ancestors of that Royal lady-daring, fierce, and gallant menhunted, amongst the wide forests of the Dee, the wolf and the wild boar, surrounded by the numerous serfs, who were slaves, affixed to the soil of the district, and the property of the nobles. And yet the Queen of England was safer there than even her rude, bold predecessor, Malcolm Canmore, guarded by his numerous vassals, and the strength of an arm never felt and then forgotten. The lady had no guard. There were no policemen near the spot. The soldiers who were supposed to have been sent as a guard to Balmoral passed onwards to the Castle of Braemar, eight miles above the Royal residence. The conduct of the peasantry was very creditable to their discernment; From religion to deer-stalking the leap is broad; but we may remark that this district, ever famous for its attractions to the sportsman, seemed to gain largely in the esteem of the Prince as a sporting country, by his daily experience. The deer around Balmoral are wild; but that is a recommendation to a good sportsman. They will not be shot without a great amount of fatigue, patient labour, and some skill. All other descriptions of game are very abundant-according to the farmers, "they are too numerous." ||lect began to be felt there; but the revival and extension of deer forests, and artificial wildernesses, will give them room and scope once more; and we may have revivals of the wild cat of the Highlands--ferocious animals, that sometimes reached the dimensions of Mr. Van Amburgh's black tiger. The author of the "Episodes of Insect Life" would find his account in a journey to this portion of the Highlands. In the summer months the supply of insects is most abundant. Occasionally their multitudes are inconvenient. Ants and gnats he would meet of all the different species-the latter annoying the cattle in the woods most unmercifully, and the former pursuing their industrial avocations with abundant success. We have seen great havoc made amongst a nation of ants by a gig wheel, while the poor insects were employed in dragging their winter's provender over one of those nice smooth roads for which the Highlands are celebrated. These calamities and catastrophes must resemble to the poor ants the visitations of cholera, an earthquake, or an inundation, to the human race. Still, the insect world takes terrible vengeance on the perpetrators. People who love to lounge in woods, and rest on mossy banks, should always beat up their neighbourhood first, and make an acquaintance with its inhabitants. Very many years since, in a warm harvest afternoon, we were speculating with some friends on the beauty of one of those Highland landscapes; and although our party was not numerous, yet they managed to stray along the banks of one of the tributaries of this same Dee. One ignorant person of our party most unfortunately appropriated the property belonging to a nation of ants; for the bank was quite pleasant, and the seat promised to be agreeable. The ants speedily began to resent this invasion; but for some time their arch enemy could not comprehend all the sensations that they inflicted, although the position was annoying. Ultimately, however, they were observed moving, in companies of tens and twenties, over mountains of merinoes, across plains of gauze, and through tangled forests of ribbons, to the attack. The alarm was given, and their invader made a rapid retreat, after destroying a considerable part of the works, and carried off hundreds of prisoners in her flight, whom their captor would have gladly exchanged or released; but they would only move by compulsion, and they would not be disarmed. The predicament was most ludicrous for any member of a pic-nic or rambling party, and was rendered more delicate by the fact that the sufferer was a lady who bore her experience in the study of entomology more patiently than many of her friends might have done; yet these wicked, revengeful ants spoiled an afternoon. The numbers of muirfowls on Lochnagar, and several of the other muirs and mountains, are quite astonishing. In the thickets of the forests lurk still great numbers of game, although the wolves and the boars of preceding ages have been long exterminated, and even a wild cat is seldom seen. Another description of animal, more disagrecable than the wildest boar ever speared on the Muick, is also wearing out of the Highlands. Forty or fifty years since, and even at a much nearer period, several species of the serpent tribe were quite common amongst the heather, in the woods, at the roots of hedges, in the trunks of old trees, and amongst the crevices of old walls. Although there were different species, still they all passed under the general name of adders. The adder proper is a beautiful serpent, with a rich yellow ground and numerous spots; but mischievous and venomous. Their bite is productive of very bad consequences, and may even prove fatal, although instances of that nature are A beautiful walk leads from Crathie Bridge, on the very rare in this country. We have seen them, within south side of the river, through the Birks of Abergeldy, twenty years, fully three feet long. They were easily to Ballater. The first cup of the Dee, after passing killed, by following the example of the serpent-eater the bridge, is uncultivated woodland on both sides, -the most useful bird of Africa to the colonists-with the richest heath amongst the trees that bees or which hits the snakes on the head with his wing, and botanists could wish to meet. The mountains, on both makes an end of them. As Mr. Grantley Berkeley said banks of the river, rise very high, crowned by bald, of the poachers, so it was true of the adders, that a grey precipices; and in the narrow hollow between good punch on the head was the best remedy for their them flows the Dec, kissed by a thousand birches, practices. Undoubtedly, however, all wild and wicked whose green branches bend down like little arches over creatures-creeping, running, and flying-have be- their own clear river. The rocks again approach each come scarce in the Highlands since the march of intel-other, the river makes through another pass-the VOL. XVI.-NO. CLXXXI. B opening is this time extensive, and spreads out into the || policies and farms of Abergeldie. The castle is a large building, on a beautiful site, by the banks of the Dee, surrounded by its gardens, lawns, and a noble forest! of splendid birches. To the southward, cultivation has crept far up the low hills that rise between the Dee and Lochnagar. The Geldie, another stream fed by that remarkable mountain, runs through the estate, and confers on it a name. The farms are kept in beautiful order, and the neat hedgerows remind the passengers of the best English or Scotch counties. The north banks of the river do not, at this point, vary greatly from the character that they have hitherto maintained-a narrow strip of cultivated land, with a few cottages, backed by huge pine-covered hills. But the haughs of Abergeldie, and the hills rising out of them, form a sweet and inland scene, where cultivation has been carried forward in the most scientific manner; and art has done its utmost to beautify nature, where nature needed such adornment least. mens of the old Scottish dialect, it matters little whe- Some cottages on the estate, with their gardens and shrubberies, the evergreen bushes round the doors, and the roses and honeysuckles screening the windows, form perfect specimens of cottage architecture, and tempt wearied citizens, harassed by a hundred cares, and despoiled even of heaven's air, except in an adulterated state, to envy the Abergeldie foresters. The blue, sad peaks of Lochnagar, that have accompanied and will accompany the traveller so far, seem to watch over this beautiful valley; and one road to the mountain, although not the easiest, runs immediately south from the castle. The Queen is believed to have expressed a wish to purchase Abergeldie, but the entail laws of Scotland stand in the way; and her Majesty has only yet acquired Birkhill. It is certain that the Queen's walks were repeatedly extended to Abergeldie, which is the first estate on the river in the possession of the Gordon family, who are numerous and powerful in the country to the eastward. The Gordons, like the Farquharsons and Erskines, held, and still hold, immense tracts of the east country. The Gordons were the most powerful family in the north of Scotland. Latterly, their most extensive estates, held by the Duke of|| Gordon, have passed to the Duke of Richmond; and the Marquis of Huntly, whose estates are chiefly on the Dee, may be considered the head of the family. The Earl of Aberdeen is also a Gordon, although of a younger branch. His brother, Sir Robert Gordon, while resident at Balmoral, was only a tenant of the castle; and we believe that this very powerful family, whose wealth and numbers conferred upon their chief great influence in the State during the most troublous times, never extended their possessions farther westward than Abergeldie. I dare na gang, I dare na gang, My daddie he would flyte and ban, These considerations do not appear to have influenced the lady, however, for the moral of the song rests probably in the last verse :— "Bonnie lassic, are ye come, Are ye, tired an' weary, come? Abergeldie's birks are cauld birks, "All that's bright must fade;" and the brightness and beauty of Abergeldie is getting marred as the afternoon closes in, for the mist is creeping down from Lochnagar. On the opposite side of the river, a traveller could find shelter, if not at an inn, in a publichouse; but on the south side, there is no accommodation of that sort for travellers. The houses on the north side of the river, are, for some miles, the worst on the Dee beneath Inverey. On the south side, leaving Abergeldie, the road crosses Craignaban, and the river passes through one of its basins, resembling, in many respects, that which precedes Abergeldie. The wood extends close down to the river on the south side, and the pines have climbed high upon Craignaban; but higher still rise the old grey precipices of its summit, where tradition says that the There is a splendid old Scotch air, "The Birks o' Picts concealed themselves when hard pressed by their Abergeldie," composed, probably, by some unknown foes. Opening out through another gorge, where the peasant of Deeside centuries ago, which Robert Burns Girnock falls into the Dee, the river escapes into a appropriated for his song, "The Birks of Aberfeldy." wide valley, in which there is a considerable populaAberfeldy is in Perthshire; and Abergeldie on the Dee tion, a number of farms and corn-fields coming down may have some reason to complain that Burns so un- close to the river, and rising high up on the cold hills. ceremoniously stole both the air and the chorus; but The Dee turns off to the left, and the road to the he improved the words adapted to the air, for Aber- || right; the river to wind round the base of Craig-Youzie, deenshire has somehow always succeeded better in and the road to escape over its shoulder. Craigmusic than in poetry. The old song of "The Birks || Youzie (the hill of firs), although of moderate height, is o' Abergeldie" is a horrid doggerel. There are several of great extent, and still merits its title well; for it is versions given of the original song; and except as speci-covered with prosperous plantations of fir from the base to the summit, except in places where parks and farms have been cut out of the forest, and they are sheltered and warmed by the thick woods around them. Over the summit of the hill, a rich view rewards the weary walk. The ruins of old castles tell that the country has been long cultivated. The valley to the east is closed in by Craigendarroch on the north, and Pannanich Crags on the south side of the river. Within the limited compass of a few miles, there is every variety of scenery:-Richly-tilled land, the red heath on the northern mountain, the green woods around and before on every side, the grey crags that form literally the brows of every hill, the clear river winding through the deep valleys, the sweet little village of Ballater in a sheltered nook at the foot of the "rock of oaks," backed by the "rock of ravens," many trim, neat cottages scattered "here and there," displaying all the cheerfulness that the world is gathering around summer villages, and the openings of Glengairn and Glenmuick-make altogether a charming prospect, of which the eye never wearies. The Dee sweeps round Craig Youzie to the north to meet its large tributary the Gairn, which, rising in Benavon, has a course nearly as long as the Dee itself; and Gairnside has scenery almost equal to that on the greater river, a considerable population, and another of those exquisite airs so singularly common in a country whose ballad poetry is far beneath mediocrity. Immediately on receiving the Gairn, the Dee turns sharp round the east side of Cairn Youzie, through the narrow pass between it and Craigendarroch, to the south, and meets the Muicka remarkable and important tributary, throwing in the last accession of waters that the Dee gathers out of Lochnagar. The scenery in this pass is magnificent. The vast woods of Craig Youzie come close to the river bank; and the ascent upwards on Craigendarroch, almost precipitous in many parts, is richly clothed with thriving birches and pines. We have at last cleared Braemar and the parish of Crathic. A large, oldfashioned, ill-kept house, with a grave-yard at one gable, somewhat in the rear, and a large corn yard, with office-houses at the other-but with no church near-is the manse of Glenmuick; and that much-neglected garden, formed out of a bank sloping down to the Muick, immediately on its confluence with the Dee, is the manse garden, which might be made so very pretty at little or no cost, and is yet so sad and darksome even in June. The church has been removed to the village of Ballater, but the churchyard remains. To the village of Ballater the tourist had better follow the church-it is a lovely walk of half-a-mile-and then over the wooden bridge, erected as a substitute for one destroyed by the Dee nearly twenty years since, while the first house after passing the bridge-a cheerful, hospitable looking house, with a very pretty flower-garden at its sideis the Monaltrie Arms, where Mr. Ross takes care that the comforts of the interior shall not belie the promises made by the exterior of his hostelry. The "Monaltrie Arms" is exactly forty-two miles from Aberdeen NAME most glorious! name profan'd, Spirit-stirring name! Spell of ancient potency, Dare a bard, unknown to fame, Where the northern breezes blow, An airy, many-noted voice Bids the bright summer woods rejoice: The blackbird's tone, the throstle's strain; Joins with an unobtrusive song; While in the intervals are heard, LIBERTY. As half to heaven, half to earth belong! Oh! ne'er, within the prison bound, As echoes through the wood; AN ODE. Save where the palm is seen to bend, But, gain'd the spot, the picture fair Fades into the deceitful air THERE, 'neath that sun, that cloudless sky, Ignorant of curb or rein, In the pride of liberty. Thou, who dost bid the flying fire Weak as the withes a Samson to restrain! Erst oriental pride desir'd To sway the fiery Greek; To adulation low By freeborn magnanimity inspir'd Ne'er bent the haughty and courageous foc. Vainly the royal madman* deem'd His human pow'r divine; * Xerxes. |
