The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-02-19
FALES OF THE BORDERS
THE GHOST or HoWDVcRAIcs.
BT AMANDA REfHuHn
~ AMANDA BEIHUHS

hnd circulated, in the way Of Statistics
Accounts" " " Typographical Descriptions, >
Guides to Picturesque Scenery" &c.
E.bere are still large tracts of country in
Scotland of which comparatively little ID
known. While certain districts have
fisen, al at once, into notOriety, and occu.
pied for time the efforts of the press and
be attention of the public, there are others,
perhaps little inferior to them in point Of
Icenery, through which no traveller has
passed, no writer drawn his pen, and upon
Rhich no printer has mixed his types.
Among other neglected regions, the Ochil
Hills may me mentioned-at least the east
I,m part of them. These, as far as we
know, have not been fruitful Of battles, and
consequently the historian has had nothing
10 say concerning them. They are traversed
by few roads the few that do exist are
hearty impossible, except to pedestrians Of
daring disposition and the novelist, never
having seen them, bas not thought of max
log them the home of his imaginary heroes
Chey have given birth to no poet Of emf
hence-none such has cOndescended to
celebrate them in his songs and, except to
lhe few scattered inhabitants who nestle in
beir hollows, they are nearl y unknown.
This, however, is not the fault of the
bills themselves, but of the circumstances
bust alluded to; for here heroes might have
Mound field on which to spill whole seas Of
!blOod novelists might have found all the
variation of bill, valley, rock, and stream,
with which they usually ornament their
3pages; and Osslan himself, had it been bis
ifortune to travel in the district, might have
found "g grey mist" and brown heath" to
shis heart : content, and, in the proper season.
Jas much snow as would have served to deck
!out at least balf-a-dOzen " "MOrvens" in their
(winter coat. These bills. on the east and
fsouth, rise from the adjoining country by a
tgradual slope, surmounted, in some in
stances, BY thriving plantations, while, in
iothers, the plough and harrow have reached
iwhat appears to be their summit On the
tnorth, they are terminated by a rocky front,
(which runs nearly parallel to the river Tay,
land afterwards to the Earn, thus forming
the southern boundary of Strathearn, which
lis perhaps one of the most fertile districts in
lScotland. The elevation on this side is partly
composed of the rocky front just mentioned;
partly of cultivated slope at its base and
partly Of green ACTIVITY above, which,
when seen from the plain below, seems to
4 crown the whole, while it conceals from the
( eve those barren attitudes and dreary re-
! gions which lie behind. But, after having
surmounted this barrier, the prospect which
then opens may be regarded as miniature
| picture of those more lofty mOuntain-ranges
! which are to be found in other parts Of the
island. Here the ground again declines q
4 little, forming a sort of shoulder upon the
ascent, as if the Great Architect of nature
had intended thereby to secure the founda
ton Of superstructure which he was about
to rear above. 1t then rises into frownins
eminences, on which nothing seems to vege
tate except coarse heath, few stunted whir
bushes, and, here and there, an astrOgGt"s
n lotus carniculatUS, or a white Orrkus
/ These, however, with the exception Of tht
! first, are too scanty to produce any effec
upon the coloring Of the landscape and
the whole looks witbered, brown, and, II
some instances, even black, in the distance
! But, on passing these barren attitudes, o.
on penetrating one Of the gorges by whict
the central district communicates with th'
country around, and Of which there are sew
eral, the eye is saluted With extensive tract
of plantation-some composed Of the light
green larch, others Of the sombre-lOokinl
! Scottish pine and, where the soil is NOR
favorable to the growth of corn, portions o
cultivated land, intersPersed with streams
giving fresher green to their banks, clump
of trees standing in sheltered positions, sn(
the isolated habtations of men.
The last Of these may be said to consti
tute a sort Of little tCorId, enclosed by
mountain rampant of his own-hOlding littl
or no communication with the great work
without and consequently escaping all th
contamination which such intercourse
supposed to imply. But, if its inhabitant
had escaped the contamination, it were rea
sonable to infer that they had missed tina
stimulus which mind derives from mind
when brought into close contact; and ais
many Of those improvements and more col
rect modes Of thinking which almost ever
passing year brings forth. In such re
, gion, children must travel far for education
and men, not unfrequently, live and die j
the preiudices in which they were nursed
: To conclude this imperfect sketch, it may b
! observed that the scenery Of these hills
bleak, rather than bold barren, rather tha
wild; and though some parts Of them PO
4 sess a sort of dreary interest, in gener'
they can lay no claim to that quality whic
has denominated the sublime.
The particular district of Fifeshire
which the following incidents occurred liz
J between the villages Of Strathmiglo an
: Auchtermuchty on the south, and those
, Aberuethy on the north. From the last
! these places, which is still known as Il
. metropolis Of the ancient Pictish empire,
2 deep and narrow gorge, called 4beTnetI
: Glen, stretches southwark amOnst the Ochl
!; for more than a mile. On leaving the OPt
: fertile country below, aud getting into th
e pass, the contrast is striking. In son
places the fOotpath winds along the face
!. q bank 90 steep, that, but for the cirCun