happy vassal sat at his ease at the foot of his grey rock, or green tree. Few were his wants, and fewer still his cares, for he beheld his herds sporting round him on his then unmeasured mountains- He hummed the careless song, and tuned the harp of joy, while his soul in silence blessed his chieftain. Now I was going to draw the comparison,-Sed Cynthius aurem vellit, et admonuit." *

In the same manner, and from the same cause, their taste for music, dancing, and all kinds of social amusement, has been chilled. Their evening meetings are now seldom held, and when they do occur, instead of being enlivened with the tale, the poem, or the song, they are too frequently exasperated with political or religious discussions, or with complaints against their superiors, and the established clergy, which have altogether exerted a baneful instead of a salutary influence on their general manners, as well as on that natural civility, which, in the last age, never permitted a Highlander to pass any person of respectable appearance without a salute, or some civil observation. Even the aspect of the Highlander, his air, and his carriage, have undergone a marked change. † Formerly the bonnet was worn

See Report of the County of Argyle, drawn up for the Board of Agriculture.

+ The difference in the personal appearance of the people is remarkable, and forms an interesting subject for a philosophic inquiry. There are evident causes for a change of character and manners, but the causes which have affected personal appearance are not so clear. Those who remember the remains of the chivalrous race, whose character I have attempted to delineate, will not now see any of those martial patriarchal figures, with an erect independent air, at the same time with an ease of manners, and fluency of language and expression, rarely to be found among any peasantry. Even in my own time I remember many, such as I now describe, who, with kindly dispositions and warm attachment to my family and forefathers, never failed, when I met them, to remind me of them, and to be sure to support their character and name. In the districts where these were, we now see only plain homespun folks. To what can this change be attributed, and how can the grandsons of these men be what they are, with figures as opposite as their minds? Many observe that the tacksmen and second order of gentry are more changed

with a gentle inclination over the left or right eye-brow, and the plaid was thrown over the left shoulder (the right arm being exposed, and at full liberty) with a careless air, giving an appearance of ease not distant from grace, while the philibeg gave a freedom to the limbs, and showed them to advantage. At present, as the Highland dress is almost exclusively confined to the lower orders, a degree of vulgarity is attached to it, which makes it unfashionable in the eyes of the young men, who awkwardly imitate the gentry, and their southern neighbours.

Along the line of the Grampians, the Gaelic has nearly kept its ground, and is, to this day, spoken in the same districts to which it was limited, after it had ceased to be the prevailing language of Scotland. But, although it is universally spoken in common discourse, the Gaelic of the counties of Dumbarton, Stirling, and Perth, and, in short, of all the Highlands bordering on the Lowlands, is corrupted by a considerable admixture of English words, ill chosen and ill applied. The chief causes of this corruption are the practice, universal in schools, of teaching children to read English, the more general intercourse with the south, which has lately prevailed, and the introduction of many articles of refinement and luxury, unknown when the Gaelic was in its original purity. Successful attempts have recently been made to methodize the structure of the language, to digest the rules of its composition, and, alongst with the collection of ancient works, to give the means of reading and understanding them by a grammar and dictionary. But if the process continues, which has for some time been going forward, the Gaelic, it is to be feared, will gradually become a dead language. In the remote glens and mountains it might have been preserved for ages, as an interesting example of a most ancient and original language, retaining its peculiar modes and forms of expression un

than the lower orders, and are every way different from the gentlemen tacksmen of former times.

affected by the progress of time, the great innovator in other spoken languages: but the system of modern improvements, marked by an aversion, inveterate as it seems unaccountable, to the ancient inhabitants, their customs, language, and manners, is now extending to the most distant corri and glen, and will probably root out the language of the country, along with a great proportion of the people who speak it.

I have already mentioned, that the Highlanders, though Presbyterians, did not, in former times, rigidly adhere to the tenets of that church. For several ages after the Reformation, they evinced a strong predilection to the Episcopalian form of worship. In many parishes, the Presbyterian clergy were not established till the reigns of George 1. and II.; but whether of the Church of England or of Scotland, the people retained a portion of their ancient superstitions. With these superstitions was blended a strong sentiment of piety, which made them regular attendants on divine worship and the ordinances of religion, at the expence of much bodily fatigue and personal inconvenience. + Guid

• Many of the common people begin to despise their native language, as they see gentlemen endeavouring to prevent their children from acquiring the knowledge of the Gaelic, which has been spoken in their native country for a time beyond the reach of record and even tradition. In order that their children may not hear the language of their forefathers, from a dread of their acquiring the accent, they employ Lowland servants, forgetting that people who know not a word of the Gaelic have the accent as strong and more unpleasant than those who speak it habitually, merely from the ear being accustomed to the sound. Landlords are thus deprived of the power of holding that free and confidential communication with their tenants which is necessary to acquire a knowledge of their character, dispositions, and talents. Trusting, therefore to interpreters, and without any immediate communication, much misconception and often distress to the tenant ensue, as well as frequent misapprehension and prejudiced notions of their character and turn of thinking on the part of the landlord.

† In the parish where I passed my earlier years, the people travelled six, seven, and twelve miles to church, and returned the same evening every Sunday in summer, and frequently in winter. A chapel of ease and an assistant clergyman are now established, and the people have not to travel so far. I do not give this as a singular instance; the case was

ed by the sublime and simple truths of Christianity, they were strangers to the very existence of the sects that have branched off from the national church. In this respect, their character and habits have undergone a considerable alteration since they began to be visited by itinerant missionaries, and since the gloom spread over their minds has tended to depress their spirit. The missionaries, indeed, after having ventured within the barrier of the Grampians, found a harvest which they little expected, and amongst the ignorant and unhappy made uumerous proselytes to their opinions. These converts losing, by their recent improvements, as the changes which have taken place in their opinions are called, a great portion of their belief in fairies, ghosts, and the second sight, though retaining their appetite for strong impressions, have readily supplied the void with the visions and inspirations of the NEW LIGHT, and, in this

*

the same in all extensive parishes, and continues to be so where no chapel of ease is established.

• Thus have been extirpated the innocent, attractive, and often sublime superstitions of the Highlanders-superstitions which inculcated no relentless intolerance, nor impiously dealt out perdition and Divine wrath against rival sects-superstitions which taught men to believe, that a dishonourable act attached disgrace to a whole kindred and district, and that murder, treachery, oppression, and all kinds of wickedness, would not only be punished in the person of the transgressor himself, but would descend to future generations. When the Highlander imagined that he saw the ghost of his father frowning upon him from the skirts of the passing clouds, or that he heard his voice in the howlings of the midnight tempest, or when he found his imagination awed by the recital of fairy tales, of ghosts, and visions of the second sight, the heart of the wicked was subdued; and when he believed that his misdeeds would be visited on his succeeding generations, who would also be rewarded and prosper in consequence of his good actions, he would either be powerfully restrained or encouraged. When so much has been done to destroy these feelings, it were well that equal pains had been taken to substitute good principles in their room. But I fear that some of the new teachers think more of implicit faith in their own particular doctrines, than of good works in their disciples; and that morals are in general left to the teaching and control of the laws. I trust I shall not be thought too partial to the ancient and innocent superstitions of my countrymen, if I wish that there were more checks on

mystic lore, have shown themselves such adepts, as even to astonish their new instructors. Indeed, the latter have, in many cases, been far outdone by the wild enthusiasm and romantic fancy of those disciples whose minds they had first agitated. The ardour of the Highland character remains; it has only taken another and more dangerous direction, and, when driven from poetical recitals, superstitious traditions, and chivalrous adventures, has found a vent in religious ravings, and in contests with rival sects. These enthusiastic notions are observed to be most fervent amongst young women. A few years ago, an unfortunate girl in Breadalbane became so bewildered in her imagination by the picture drawn of the punishment of unbelievers, that she destroyed herself in a fit of desperation; a rare, and I may almost say, the only instance of this crime in the High

lands.

The powerful and gloomy impressions which the doctrines of some of these teachers have made, are evidently owing to an alteration in the state of their proselytes, whose strong feelings, irritated by many causes, sought refuge and consolation in powerful emotions. It is well known, that no itinerant preacher ever gained a footing among the Highlanders, till recent changes in their situation and circumstances paved the way for fanaticism. Some of these new teachers are, no doubt, zealous and conscientious men, but others again arerash, illiterate, ignorant of human nature, and vulgar; very incapable of filling the situation they have assumed, and peculiarly unqualified for the instruction of a people, sensitive and imaginative, devout in their habits of thinking, and blameless in their general conduct. The same force of language and terrors of denunciation, which are barely adequate to produce compunction in the mind of the reckless and god

vice than the laws afford; and confess my belief that the fear of a ghost is as honourable and legitimate a check as the fear of the gallows, and the thoughts of bringing dishonour on a man's country, name and kindred, fully as respectable as the fear of Bridewell, Botany Bay, or of the Constable's whip.