Morning journal and courier., 1890-10-04
MIR. KEMAN,s JoURNEYINGs.

child does not like the pleasant sound of
tearing paper, HILARY.
MIR. wAKEMAN,S JOURNEYINGS.
At Beauty, Scotland - silence of
Birds During September - Foggy
Weather-Sccnfc Glorfes-Somc As
poets of Nature-Fish Poachers-
Edinburgh-Proof OF the Scotch
Love for Mists, Drizzles, Etc.
BEAULY, Scotland. Sept. /.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
This is the month of silence among the
birds of Scotland. You see all manner of
them here and there flying lazily close to
the earth, or ruminatingly poised upon
swaying boughs as if overcome with pen
siveness and melancholy. The conscious
ness of this autumnal silence of the songs
ters comes upon you suddenly as you
tramp by hedge and field along these
grand old Scottish ways. You turn aside
with an impulse to discover in the forest
if it be a seeming or a reality. Leaping a
wall which separates you from coppice
already tinted with the first delicate PEN
| cilings of the frost, and plunging among
the brush and brambles at its edge, you
find ragged hollow. This can be clearly
traced, straight as an arrow, for a long
distance. There is wonderful fascina-
tion in this bramble-covered swail. You
pother about it for little and find it
paved with huge stones. More digging
| discloses solid walls set beneath the rub
l.. ~, o4. .&,r Il
old Roman road. The sea itself hardly
| broke the line of this stout old artery,
| along which once surged the iron blood of
Rome. Stern Agricola rode at the head of
his legions past the very spot on which
you are standing. Almost ceaseless tides
| of warriors swept over this road to Mons
| Grampus, that ten thousand slain and
stark Caledonian barbarians might form
an impossible wall to the mist-wreathed
mountains beyond. Eighteen hundred
years have passed since jealous Domitian
recalled to Rome this invincible leader of
steel-mailed slaughterers, and the glowing
pen of Tacitus told the surprising brave
| ry of the skin-clad Mortimer who fell be-
meath his onslaughts: but as you inger
upon the old Roman road, dreaming until
the sun is almost level with the far noun
tain-tops, flaming their blue heather mar
velously, countless wraiths pass and re-
pass in olden battle array. Then that it
is the nineteenth and not the first century
upon which the sun is shining is recalled
to you by the face of keenly observant
but solemn collie dog breaking between
some clumps of golden broom above youl
head. He has been minding flock OF
sheep, grazing yonder on the brae-side
and he has stepped aside for moment t.
interrupt your vagarous fancies about Ag
ricola and all the other grim old fellows OF
his blood-letting time, and 10 study YOU
intentions and possibly examine your ere
dentials. You beg his pardon for the tres
pass; leap the wall to the highway again
gaze back down the valley upon score o
red-roofed hamlets; push forward to tn.
wayside inn where you are to tarry; and
between the walls of its huge chamber
you march in dreams from the Seven Hill.
to the Grampians, with mailed hosts ant
forests of spears, along that old Roman
roa6 throughout the livelong night.
Nature wears other aspects than those o
shushine and gladness in Scotland. Tn,
rain falls as though tumbled upon you b,
mischievous elves who have watched 70
, your unwary coming; and the fog an,
mist flap about the mountains and slal
the face of the glens and valleys like
ships unstayed sails pounding its deck il
a storm. But you find a soveignty of ella
ton and exaltation in wandering alon
among the scenic glories of any land; evel
in Scotland through mist thick as Strath
, glass porridge. A good staff or stick,
! stout pair of legs, a receptive mind, ant
above all q CHEEKY and sympathetic heart
whatever your luck, are the regal compan
! ions for such loiterings. Nature neve
! fails to appear to single devotees at he
myriad doors and windows, ever shut I
a noisy crowds, with radiant welcomings
j How witching the morning is, half dis
! closing the wondrous charms OF valley
i haugh, loch, river, glen and mountain
: At times scarcely can your hand be see
a before you for the strange eddies, curling
!, and fantastic convolutions of the fos
: There is your road, centuries old and 1
a hard as Scotch wit, beneath your fee
h You cannot mistake that. What is to ii
right or left, or before, only your fame,
quickened by the mornings awakenin
life, intensified by near and far mysterior
IL sounds, can locate and divine. Tram]
= tramp, tramp, bravely as you may, the
l. grow into consciousness SO imperative I
recognition, that, despite yourself, ev,
s and again you stop to listen, listen. Dri
2 drip, drip, from the leaves of the hedg
,f into water-basins of rock, the great drol
ir striking like silver pellets upon swingiI
glass; until the very chimes of the fairi
r are rung in your ears beside the roa
d Not a rod away, but invisible, rivulets
J. the nights making wimple from rocks
3. pools, from the staccato of tenor trills
i fba haru min nf or In,
Just at your side a goose will sudden
,s hiss as if reaching with its long neck fro
% the door-puddle beside some invisib
r sheeling, to suap at you from behind Il
ls curtainihg mist Beyond or behind, son
b chained dog, making dismal hewgag
le kennel-door and chain, leaps in and o
ID baying to his peasant-master of untime
lie footsteps. Over your head the restle
abrasion of boughs whispers that Il
sigh and moan as if impatient of the
sunless prisoning. Hedge-branches era
kle from the water-weight as in the fro.
battles of approaching winter. Here al
Or there, as the heavy breezes move a trif
ID comes the hesitant pipe of stirring bir
the patter of wild hares' feet upon t
a slippery leaves, the half-caught, hoar
~ resonance of hidden waterfall; while fai
Id and far and strangely mufied the notes
ed school-Dells, Dy nttle clachans IN the d
"a tance, steal along the folds of the clingi
or mist. Making your way is sometimes Ii
IT, pushing through impalpable banks
a snow. But before the crackle and fal
an of the old inn fireplace, in the presen
M of scones white as dove's wing, bac
nv crisp and brown, an omelet as yellow a
of frost painted beech-leaf, jug of cres
ns sweet as NUT kernel, a fragrant brewi
an of tea in the delphi pot under the "cose,
he and guidwife bustling about in sort
ar CHEEKY frenzy to make you welcome, y
" have reason to be glad of the blood-tin
to be found in doing a half-dozen mil
before breakfast, through a genui
Scotch fog.
If you tramp in Scotland you canl
avoid the humidity, nor can you fail
observe one of the curious effects NJ
Scotch people themselves. They are ei
er wholly Indifferent to its influence
seem to possess a sort of liking for il fr
lang syne companionship. A fish poac
will cast his hook in contentedness all /
long through steady drizzle. All SC
of peasant-folk along the roadside pur
their regular vocations in pelting show'
a