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to cover 1,260,000 acres, or a fourth of the whole in cultivation. Barley, which forms a conspicuous article in the food of the common people, and is also used in distillation, occupies 280,000 acres. Wheat is believed to occupy only about 140,000 acres; yet it is remarkable that this grain is exported in considerable quantity from Scotland, while the above two grains are in not less quantity imported from England and Ireland, testifying that the ancient frugal habits of the people with respect to food change less rapidly than the improvement of the soil advances. Potatoes are extensively raised in open fields in Scotland, and now constitute an important article of food to the working classes. The southern hills continue as formerly to be covered by extensive flocks, and sheep-farming has also been extensively introduced in the Highlands. The latter change has necessarily caused the extinction of a kind of cottier system, which came down from the old days of feudalism; yet it is believed that black cattle are as extensively reared in the Highlands as ever; and it is certain that the population, so far from being diminished by the suppression of small farms, increased about one seventh during the first thirty years of the present century.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE PEOPLE-THEIR CHARACTER.-PROGRESS CF POPULATION.

THE Scotch, as already mentioned, are, like the English, a Teutonic people, with only a few distinctive varieties of character, perhaps partly original, and partly the effect of local and political circumstances. It may be remarked, that, though in the main Teutonic, the Scotch do not descend from the same branch of that race as the English. From language and other circumstances, it appears likely that the original colonizers of North Britain were from Scandinavia, Denmark, and Zealand. The Scotch (taking as usual the general characteristics of the people) may be described as a tall, large-boned, and muscular race. Even the women appear to a southern eye remarkable for the robustness of their figures, though this is a point which the natives are of course apt to overlook or be unconscious of. The Scotch figure is not so round and soft as the English. The face, in particular, is long and angular, with broad cheek bones. The cranium is also said to be somewhat larger, and tending more to a lengthy shape, than that of the English. A fair complexion and light color of hair abound in Scotland, though there are also many instances of every other variety of tint.

The Scottish character exhibits a considerable share of both energy and perseverance. It may safely be said, that a country with so many physical disadvantages could never have been brought into such a condition as respects rural husbandry, nor, with all the advantage of the English connexion, been made so prosperous a seat of both manufactures and commerce, if the people had not been gifted in a high degree with those qualities. A disposition to a frugal and careful use of means is also abundantly conspicuous in the Scotch. The poorest poor, at least in rural districts, are in few instances of such improvident habits, as to exhibit that destitution of furniture, clothing, and tolerable house accommodation, which meets the eye almost everywhere in Ireland. Caution, foresight, and reflection, may be said to enter largely into the Scottish character. Under the influence of these qualities, they are slow and sometimes cold in speech, and are therefore apt to appear as deficient in frankness and generosity. These, however, are in a great measure only appearances. That perfervidum ingenium, or fiery genius, attributed to them by Buchanan, is still a deep-seated characteristic of the people. On subjects which they regard as important, they sometimes manifest this excitability in a very striking manner; as, for instance, in their almost universal rising against Charles I. in defence of their favorite modes of worship and ecclesiastical polity. Generous affections, in which, as compared with the English, the Scotch might appear deficient, perhaps only take, in their case, somewhat different directions. They cherish, more than most people, a feeling of attachment for their native

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country, and even the particular district and spot of their birth, for their remote as well as immediate kindred, and for everything which reminds them of what is honorable in the doings of those who went before them. A strong sense of religion is a conspicuous feature in the Scottish national character; clear, however, from all regard to external and what appear to them unimportant things connected with it. There is no country where a more decent attention is paid to the sabbath than in Scotland. It may at the same time be remarked, that their religion is more doctrinal than directly venerative or sentimental-a peculiarity which may be traced in the plainness of their forms of worship, as either its cause or its effect. There is a considerable tendency in the Scottish intellect to argumentative reasoning, and this shows itself in the service in their churches as well as in their philosophical literature. The domestic virtues flourish in much the same degree in Scotland as in England; but the humbler classes in North Britain are not nearly so remarkable for cleanliness as the lower English, and they have suffered of late years from the extensive use of ardent spirits. The rural laboring classes are remarkable for their steady industry and decent conduct; and it is only, perhaps, among the lower orders in large towns, that much moral deterioration has taken place. For centuries, the wandering disposition of the Scotch has been remarkable. An immense number of young persons every year leave their native country to push their fortune in the busier English cities, in public employment in India, in the colonies, or in other parts of the world. These persons have generally a tolerable education in propor. tion to their rank and prospects; and being found possessed of steadiness, fidelity, and perseverance, they rarely fail to improve their circumstances. We are here reminded of the advantage which Scotland has long enjoyed in the possession of a universally-diffused means of elementary instruction. This, though in some respects over-estimated, has at least insured that nearly every person reared in Scotland is not without some tincture of literature.

The population of Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, did not probably exceed a million. In 1755, when an attempt was first made to ascertain it, it appears to have been about one million two hundred and sixty-five thousand three hundred and eighty. From that time the country made a start in manufacturing and commercial prosperity, as well as in improved modes of rural husbandry, and the population experienced accordingly a considerable increase, though not so great in proportion as the increase of wealth. The census, at different periods, since 1801, inclusive, gives the following results:

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The increase has taken place chiefly in large towns, a result of the progress of manufactures and commerce. It was ascertained that, of the total families in 1821, 130,679 were employed in agriculture, and 190,264 in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts; leaving a remainder of 126,997 subsisting otherwise. Since then, the proportion of the second class has probably experienced a large increase. The progress of population in Scotland has, according to Mr. McCulloch, “been less than its progress during the same period in England and Ireland; while there are good grounds for thinking that the wealth of Scotland has increased more rapidly than that of either of these two countries. This desirable result," our author adds, seems to have been owing principally to the consolidation of small farms in the low country, the introduction of sheep-farming into the Highlands, and the obstacles imposed, by the law of Scotland as to leases and the operation of the poorlaws, against the subdivision of land and the building of superfluous cottages. These circumstances, combined with the moral and religious habits of the people, and the general diffusion of education, have made marriages be deferred to a later period than in other parts of the empire, and have also led to a very extensive emigration. In consequence, the Scotch have advanced more rapidly than the English or Irish in wealth, and in the command of the necessaries and conveniences of life. Their progress in this respect has, indeed, been quite astonishing The habits, diet, dress, and other accommodations of the people, have been signally improved."

It has been shown, on the other hand, that the comforts of the people have not everywhere improved in the ratio of the general advance of wealth. That operation of the limited poor-laws of Scotland which Mr. M'Culloch eulogises, has been shown,

by Professor Alison, of Edinburgh, to send annually great numbers of superannuated laborers and others into the large towns, where they form a dense population, living in semi-destitution, and in other circumstances unfavorable to health, and are thus exposed to fevers and other contagious maladies, which periodically sweep them off in large numbers. It is contended by the same writer, that the low condition in which the scanty provision for pauperism compels many to live, gives them reckless habits, and tends materially to increase a mean, squalid, and dangerous population. There is certainly much truth in these views. The sanitory condition of Glasgow forms a startling illustration of them. During five years, from 1835 to 1839 inclusive, the number of fever cases treated at the public expense in that city was 55,949, or about 11,000 per annum, and the deaths in the same period were 4,788. The population of Glasgow has risen from 151,540 in 1822, to 272,000 in 1840, and in that period the rate of mortality has been rapidly advancing. In 1822, the mortality was 3,408, or one in about 444 of the population; in 1825, it was 4,571, or as one in about 36. In 1828, the mortality increased to 5,534, which, at the then amount of the population, was one in 33-a proportion alarmingly high. Since then, however, the inhabitants of this great city have suffered still more severely. In the year of the Asiatic cholera, 1832, when the population was 209,230, the mortality reached the enormous amount of 9,654, or one in about 214; and again, in a year of severe fever (1837), when the population was estimated at 253,000, it reached 10,270, or one in about 24. It would appear as if, after such disastrous periods, the mortality becomes for some time lessened. After 1832, it rebounded to one in 36, and after 1837 to one in 37, or thereabouts. Probably this is in some measure owing to the effect of severe epidemics in carrying off so many of the least healthy of the people. It is to be remarked, that in these results no account is taken of still-born children, who, in the eighteen years before 1840, amounted to 8,763. The proportion of the still-born is startlingly high, being, in 1830, 471 out of 6,868, or about a fourteenth. In this fact alone, we can not help thinking we behold a strong proof of the amount of misery and unfavorable modes of living prevailing in Glasgow.

The average annual mortality in Glasgow was, for the period between 1822 and 1830, both inclusive, one in 38; for the period between 1831 and 1839, also both inclusive, one in nearly 32. At the latter date, if it were habitual, Glasgow would stand forth as one of the cities most fatal to human life in Europe. Another fact is most remarkable, that, of the deaths during these eighteen years, 43 per cent., or not much short of the one half, are of children under five years of age, and 18 per cent. under one year of age. It further appears, from minute evidence, that in the years of unusually great mortality, there is a larger proportion of deaths among the adult population, showing how fatal the epidemics are to heads of families. From one fourth to one fifth of the funerals in Glasgow are at the public expensean impressive fact, seeing how it connects poverty with mortality.

CHAPTER XLII.

REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.-NATURAL CURIOSITIES.

THE Comparatively irregular surface of Scotland, or, as a geologist would remark, its being more generally formed of the primitive and early rocks, has caused the existence of much picturesque and romantic scenery, the attractions of which have been greatly heightened of late years by the works of the native poets and novelists, particularly Sir Walter Scott. The Highlands may be said to form one wide tract of such scenery, though some parts are considerably more beautiful than others. Fine scenery in Scotland generally lies along the beds of lakes or the vales of rivers. The chief tracts are the following:

LOWER PERTHSHIRE.

The Trosachs and Loch Katrine. This is a beautiful district, situated at the distance of little more than twenty-five miles from Stirling, and remarkable as the

scenery of Scott's Lady of the Lake. It may be said to commence at the large Lowland village of Callander, which is only sixteen miles from Stirling. This village lies in the bosom of the valley of the Teith, with lofty hills on all sides except the east, and apparently occupying the last patch of level ground before the traveller enters the Highlands. The surrounding scenery is worthy of being explored; two places, in particular, should be visited. The first is the Fall of Bracklin, situated among the hills, at the distance of a mile and a half in a northeasterly direction from the village. It consists of a series of cascades formed by the impetuous rushing of a mountain stream, termed the Keltie, down a rugged rocky ravine. Each cascade is from eight to ten feet in depth, and altogether, the falls may measure upward of a hundred feet, before they finally settle in a profound receptacle at the bot tom. Above the chasm there is thrown a rustic foot-bridge, from which the view of the falls, when the water is large, is particularly grand. This spot is worthy of being visited by geologists, on account of the singular masses of rifted rock over and among which the water impetuously dashes.

The other place to which we would draw attention is the Pass of Leny. This is a narrow opening, about a mile to the northwest of the village, which affords access, as its name imports, from the low country into the wild recesses of the Highlands. While the vale of the Teith continues toward the west, the road to the pass of Leny strikes off in a northwesterly direction. Skirted with waving woods, and bound in by lofty mountains, this is a scene of great sublimity. A rapid river, which issues from the mountain lake denominated Loch Lubnaig, hurries through the narrow vale over a series of little cascades, yielding a music harsh and wild, in strict keeping with the ruggedness of the scene. The road leads along the brink of Loch Lubnaig, to the small parish village of Balquidder, where, in the churchyard, the grave of the celebrated freebooter Rob Roy is still pointed out.

The road toward the Trosachs pursues a tortuous line along the base of a mount. ain range skirting the north side of the valley. In the bottom of the vale lie in succession two long stripes of water, or lakes, called Loch Vennachar and Loch Achray. Immediately before approaching the eastern extremity of the last of these lakes, which is by much the smallest, a road leads off to the right, into the vale of Glenfinlas-a tract of ten miles in extent, formerly a royal hunting forest, destitute of the smallest symptom of habitation or of cultivation, and which any one who wishes to have a complete idea of an Ossianic desert, in all its sterile and lonely wildness, may be recommended to traverse. The bridge crossing the stream which descends from this vale, is called the Bridge of Turk, on account of a wild boar, which had done much mischief in the neighborhood, having been slain at the place in times long bygone.

On coming to the head of Loch Achray, you approach the Trosachs. At this point is situated an inn, having a strange Gaelic name, sounding something like Ardkencrockran. This is the last human habitation on the route, and here travellers usually quit their vehicles in order to walk the remainder of the distance; the road, however, will accommodate a chaise to the verge of Loch Katrine. The Trosachs is simply a concluding portion of the vale, about a mile in extent, and adjoining to the bottom of Loch Katrine. From the tumultuous confusion of little rocky eminences, of all the most fantastic and extraordinary forms, which lie throughout the bottom of the vale, and are everywhere shagged with trees and shrubs, nature here wears an aspect of roughness and wildness, of tangled and inextricable boskiness, totally unexampled. The valley being contracted, hills, moreover, rise on each side to a great height, which, being entirely covered by birches, hazels, oaks, hawthorns, and mountain ashes, contribute greatly to the general effect. The meaning of the word trosach in some measure describes the scene-a rough or bristled piece of territory. The author of the Lady of the Lake has described it as “a wildering scene of mountains, rocks, and woods, thrown together in disorderly groups."

At the termination of the Trosachs, Loch Katrine commences: it measures about ten miles in length, and is justly reckoned one of the most beautiful in Scotland. Its principal charm consists in the singular rugged wildness of its mountainous sides, and its pretty rocket islets, rising to a considerable height out of the water, and tufted over with trees and shrubs. Near the eastern extremity of the lake, there is precisely such an island as that which is described in the poem as the residence of the ou la wed Douglas and his family. To fulfil the wishes of the imagination-if such a phrase

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