The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-03-01
An Eloquent Tribute to Scotland

An Eloquent Tribute to Scotland
In reply to the toast of Scotland" Civ
en- at the recent Burns Festival in New
York, Professor MARINE, of Columbia
College, sid:
I'm few months, it will be twenty years
since left the Caledosian for the Ameri-
can shore, and not once in all that period
have [ revisited the dear old land How
strange, and indeed how perplexing, is the
effect of distance and fine The hills and
streams, the towns and streets, nay, the
very aspect Of the sky, and the faces of the
people, with which was once SO familiar,
cannot now be recalled without an effort
and even then the picture is more ike the
work of pure magiration than of stimulated
memory Occasionally fear comes over
me, lest, if | returned, should find not
only lessoned magnitude, but diminished
splendor in everything shrunk into
brooks, broad valleys into glens, and over
all dinginess of age and mist, which
would force the conclusion that the country
of my sires, although | left it in mature
manhood, was not the paradise ! had been
fondly dreaming il to be ! To assure my
self that this fear is groundless, | have Of
ten questioned Scosmen coming back from
their ancient home, whether or not it was
the same enchanting region they believed
ill., and been delighted to find that, In their
estimation, it still held its own. But, after
all, my best source of consolation has been
to transfer myself in fancy across the At
lantic, and restore myself to the scenes
where Nature FIRST disclosed her glories to
my heart. From the gray towers OF Stlrl-
ing | follow the windings of the Forth,
still returning on its course as if loath to quit
the lands cape; from Arthur S Seattle
couchants lions head farther follow it,
now grand estuary gemmed with islands,
and bordered with towns, and crowned with
suberb metropolis, till beyond the solitary
Bass, and Berwick Law, it loses itself in
the ocean-and | can recolect nothing
more varied and exquisite in any scenery
within the whole range of my experience
From the woody back and rocky brow Of
Kinnoul [ survey, from the Highlands to
the sea, the lays more lordly flood or,
from the twin eminence of Moredun, l
trace, from mouth to source, the sinuous
Earn, whose lovely ''strath ends In the
peaked Benvorlich, far in the mountain
dwelling of Clan Alpine | can scarce
ly tell to which of the three valleys the
palm of sublimity and beauty is due !
From Ailsa Craig | rush up the Clyde,
past the thunder split ridge of Arran-
past the contrasting loneliness of Butte
past the lonely Cumhrays-past the grand
inlets of many mystic loch-past the
witchery of Roseneath--past the double
topped mbarton-through the country
of the Wallace and the Bruce-on the left
the multitudnous mountains of Argyll, on
the right the ''braes' of Ayr, made classi-
cal by Burns, and the shores OF Renfrew,
made also classical by his only rival in song,
Tannahill-and / feel assured that l utter
not word of vanity when L aver that with
in the same length there is nothing equal,
either on the American Hudson or the
German Rhine From the crumbllng
walls of Berwick | journey along Tweed S
silver stream" to that most charming OF
villages, Kelso, till almost in the shadow OF
the grand old Abbey, Teviot whispers his
temptations that [ should quit the dale OF
Tweed for his own; yet, in whichever OF
these stored valleys | choose to wander, L
feel that their entertainments are not OWING
to poetry alone, but that Tweed dale and
and Teviotdale, Lauderdale, Eskdale, and
liddisdale, were truly the nurses OF their
own MINISTRIES, who did no more than return
in verse the natural beauty on which their
genius was fed that Scott and Leyden,
the shepherd of Ettrick and the bards of
border song, only sang so tenderly and so
heroicaly because they drank inspiration
from the pastoral sweetness, the picturesque
grandeur, and the wizard solitudes Of their
native land.
AS to our Scottish towns, have never
had the same misgiving. To DE sure, In SO
small a country, cities Of any considerable
magnitude cannot be numerous. In fact
we can reckon no more than two-Glasgow
and Edinburg. The former, notwithstand
ing its smoke and the meannes Of all ap-
proaches to it, except that by the river, is
as unquestionably a ma gnlficent, as 1t is an
enterprising city. In twenty years the
West End must have grown immensely,
and if its architecture has advanced with
the wealth Of the place and the progress of
art, there can be few commercial cities else
where to compare with it, | have always
sympathised with the Scottish aversion to
brick. 1t is fit only for stables and factor
les and tall chlmneys. " ho would build
cathedral, or palace of such material if
even. the big rubble of erections like st.
Patrick in Dublin could be procured ?
The finest trimmings do no more than make
the smootheSt bricks tolerable; and | can
easily understand the feeling Of an English
man or an Irishman when he boasts that
such and such edifces are all of cut stone !
''Of course" replies the Scot, ''Of what
else would you have genteman's house
constructed?' Now, [ am certain that,
however far the West End of Glasgow has,
in a score of years, extended, it must be all
of cut stone-of stone cut, carved, and pol
ished and | am further certain that tie
new buildings stand, like their predecessors,
not merely in rows crossing each other at
right angles, but in the varied beauty of
squares, and crescents, and terraces, with,
perhaps, here and there an octagon, or a
circus, so that to wander amid the wilder
ness of handsome dwellings is not weari
ness of foot and flesh, like trudging along a
railway track, but delight and a refresh
ment, like roaming through pleasure
ground. Doubtless, Buchanan street is not
a Broadway for Broadway is unique in
Christendom (; and by the way, it testifes
more loudly every year against brick, and
in favor of stone. Neither is st. Vincent
street Fifth Avenue but as long as the
odd notions of independence in this country
make the fact of my neighbours house being
fifty feet high, sufficient reason for mine
being sixty, and my neighbours Grecian