Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-12-17
Brooks, Letters.
Correspondence of Ire Portland -2GpertiSer
THINGS IN SCOTLAND.
No, XVIII.

NO. y III.
Locu Else, lat the head) June &c, 1885
! At Loeb Katrlne, from whence we
! started this morning, there Is al excel
| lent Inn for SO lone place, put up ih-,e
! on purpose TO accommodate travellers
whom curiosity attracts to see lhe scene
jIry so accurately described by Scott, and
which his Lady OF the Lake has made so
well known to the millions who speak The
i English language. The truth is, Scott
has been perhaps, the greatest btneiac-
IItor Scotland has mad, these many days,
- for to this wilderness of rocks, and to
these lone Lakes, his magic pen draws
Il thousands and thousands of tourists eve
ry year, who spend thousands and thou
sands of dollars all over the regions he
has made SO popular. Never was the
power Of the pen made more manifest
for the sword might have shed blood for
years before il could have thus coDse-
Grated such scene passed by, al
most unheedingly, the slaughter ground
Of Bannoch burn. but while the Tro-
sacks stand, or, "the thu der splintered
pinnacle" Of Ben Au, or Loch katrIneI
with its FURNISHED sheet of living gold,
the tourists will study its scenery with
delight; and associate all with the name
of Scotland the older Time is, the
more will antiquity have hallowed the
scene. Already with the people about
there, the Poem has become History
and our Gaelic boatman who rowcd VS.
across Loeb Kalrine pointed out the va
Al IN
leave no doubt on our minds that they
/ believed all of it, as much as they believe
4 in the existence of the rocks and islands
with which he has connected his fiction.
, The town was crowded with men and
women, who, like ourselves, had come
i with the Lady Of the Lake in their hands,
ilto see in person the scenery, the descrip-
tion Of which had so much charmed them
in their closets. Here ] must again ex
claim, how glorious this idea Is, OF Po-
ct himself erecting such monuments as
these to his memory, which VIII stand
centuries after the walls Of Westminster er
!. Abbey and St. Paul's have crumbled in
to dust, monuments whose base Is
broader than the pyrnmids-whose pill
:, lars reach to Heaven, and dwell IN
i clouds whose inscriptions are the WIDE
spread works of the Poet himself, not for
one lone isle, or one city-.but for all lie
nations-aIl climes-all Eternity! Such
.mausoleums as these Sc"tt has IN the
Northumberland the inscription every
Traveller brings here it'll him, as 1t is
written in his works.
i We let our Inn at Loeb Katrine in
the morning, and when we were amid the
i'Trosacks, felt as if ] were in America,
|, for here-here for the first time l saw
! American scenery. My heart beat as
it did when hung over the frlghtlul
chasn of the kanawha, or Ganley river,
in western Virginia, or as when ! have
! ,rodden some Of the wild soIitudes OF
n Maine, or the Provinces. Here was
something such as it was "cracked up
To be. Well done! one might eAclaim.
A capital performance this! For what
lot of cliffs sprinkled about tumbied to-
re,her-hilaer and thnher--wilh will
derucss OF bushes creeping about, an oak
or so anchored fast! you don't catch me
: describing what Walter Scott has touch
led NV poor companions we're quite
frantic. boiling over with "RhoderIC
IDhus" and "Iadies ofthe Lake" Poor
fellows, | thought of a mad house io'
: them. Their very enthusiasm set me or
anoiher strain and ! was at last IN the
temper Of The London Cockney, who
when his guide told him to admire, ex
claimed, "Devlish clever! ve'y well GO
Hun indeed neat an article ns leve'
saw! beats Vauxhal cute 10 sticks"
1.-THE truth is, when an American sees the
IItrue sublime in scenery here, he Is not n
\ all,o blame for running mad-ii he don
lbite. For so much is almost every thing
II Of the kind exaggerated here, that Qn'
at last never expects to see any thing g
ven grand. OF this eXaggeratlon thu
English accuse us, and therefore laugl
at us too--not so much that we exogger
ate say they, in scenery, but that we ex
aggerate in wriiing-in talking tool
Il Ileloauence-in-of,w whatsoever we hav'
tn speak or do-in short, to use their ow'
Language, as when thoy mock us,-tha
we are great chaps for brag -"fea
tfcrtte ters"-" "sieamboais"- s"--"wild horses
Il-"sea sarprnis," with "a touch oil th'
allica ator, and swapping turtle. "
q have Just been talking with nm Eng
}. lishman who says, we are 'the most ex
= ,raordinary (thai phrase is an English
!. mans ultima thule in words) people fo
u ,.s.Ls he ever saw. Every word in a
American book, he says, end in est
lie loves their freshness, he adds-an
: the sal neraius in them he IS sur
u the Americans would not print halt s
i MANY hooks, II they did no, end eat. :
ilThorc 10 sumo truth in this, ] am inc''a