Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-11
THE HIGHLAND SCOT
As He Appears at home in the Old
Royal Capital, Inverness.
THE PICT'S OLD METROPOLIS,
Its Famous Prison and Remarkable Pre-.
historic Works,
THE SCENE OF A GREAT BATTLE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

Whether you come from the Western Isle
through the Caledonian Canal, with it
noble reaches Of lakes bordered by cloud
kissed mountains where Monarch Ben NeyI
scowls through the swirling nlists; if by th'
eastern coast where the German Ocear
thunders against granite headlands anc
mighty precipIces, and no sound save thu
roaring of the tempest or the shrieking o
the sea-fowl is ever heard; or whether yor
tramp across fair Perthshire and Iverness
shire over the fine highway where modern
civilization has utilized the old Roman
roads, and in your 100 mile pilgrimage from
Edinburgh you have learned to love High
land scenes in a way that gives you taint
notion of the passionate devotion of the old
clansmen for the glens and straths in which
! they were given birth; however you may
have come, by the time you have begun tc
realize a familiarity and acquaintance with
the royal burgh of Inverness, its bewitchiug
environs. and especially with the most
characteristic of its people and the grave,
silent folk who swarm here from the last
nesses of the North, a curious sense of in
terest, almost reaching the pleasureable
thrill OF discovery, possesses you.
Inverness is the metropolis of the High
lands. You realize you are in Scotland
vet when you recall your surroundings,
when you compare habit, custom, manner,
dialect, motive and even your own feelings
and attitude resulting from stranger S
contact with strangers, you feel that you
have come to a new and distinct land.
While every human north of the English
border is "Scotch," as the term goes, to the
last drop OF blood in his veins, and all pos
sess qualities typical of endless devotion to
a like national pride and feeling, perhaps
when you have come here and .ound such
radical difference between these folk aud
any you have hitherto known in Scotland,
you begin to wonder: Where can
THE GENUINE sCoTCHMAN
be found in Scotland? Is he in Glasgow
with mis- hard, commercial ways; his driv-
ing, restless, endless activities, unsurpassed
by the mad money makers of New York or
Chicago? Is be in Edinburgh, with his phil
osophIes, theologies, aristocracies, geneal.
ogies, and often his threadbare poverties?
Is he among the Border wales with his bar
barous dialects and lethargic, sodden con-
tent9 Is he in the Western Isles, starving
half the time in desolate clachans, the vic
tim OF poor crops, eviction, commissions,
and the slave o: east-shore fisher smackmen?
Or is he of Inverness, Beauty, Elgin, Wick
and Thurso, IN the mystic North, the true
Scotch of Scotchmen, though he has no dia-
lect, speaks Gaelic more exquisitely than
Dublin professor, and reels off "book En-
glish" in greater purity than professor at
Oxford or Il Boston booksellers clerk?
This excellence of speech in the far North
becomes the more surprising when you re-
member that all printed examples of broad
Scotch in dialectic anecdotes have been
attributed by their manufacturers to Scot
tIsh Highlanders, The fact is that the
nearer you come to the English border, on
the one side, or the Scottish border on
the other, the more do both Scottish
and English folk hurl angular chunks of
Doric provincialisms at you until you sicken
with the effort OF intelligent comprehension.
These borderers have the greatest pride in
their "rich broad Scotch" or their "rich
Northumbrian." Both are simply rich
jarcon. From Carlisle through the North
OF England to Berwick-on-Tweed, and back
through Kelso, Jedburgh, Keswick, Amman
and Dumfries, in Scotland, in ordinary
course OF travel YOU will find more people
whom you cannot readily understand than
in all the rest of Scotland; and you will in
the same wav discover more folk from the
most learned Established, or Free Church
minister down TO the most ignorant gillie or
humble crofter, who speak the English
tongue dramatically, with precision and
directness, and with pleasing modulation
and infection, north of the Grampian Hills,
than In Glasgow aud Edinburgh combined.
APoETIC SHEPHERD.
A Highland sheep herder, over on the
sides or grim old Ben Muichdhui, who had
never seen a dozen books in his life, said to
me in connection with his lonely life and
vocation: 81 am not alone when 1 have
these sheep with me, l can see so far from
my sheeling." This was not only sugges-
lively poetic, but it was expressed in excel
lent English; and 1 give his exact words.
A fisherman taking salmon near the mouth
of the Ness told me pleasantly: ave have
not been very fortunate this year with sal
mon; but 1 have always noticed that when
salmon are scarce oatmeal is plentiful" An
old blacksmith at little fo.ge near Car
noch. said: "Were not too old TO take the
journey, 1 should like to still enjoy the ad-
vantages your country offers a workman"
The pierkeeper at Drummadrochit informed
me: The steamers on the canal are verv
punctual in their arrivals" An Inverness
policeman, of whom made an inquiry re-
garding arrival and departure OF Beauty
coaches, responded: 81 am sorry 1 cannot
tell you. Ii you will wait a moment L will
ascertain for you at the Highland Railway
station office A ragged lad, hawking FISH
with donkey and cart, of whom I asked
the value of his diminutive outfit, promptly
replied: II think, sir, as good ones could
not be got for e5; though 1 would not like
to take that for them" My landlady, q very
ordinary sort OF woman, always asks:
(which would you prefer, sir, an infusion
of tea or brewing of coffee?" The hum
blest shopkeeper will say: 81 cannot sup.
ply the article to-day, sir" or, 81 am sorry
i have not the article you wish"
If this royal old capital of the Highlands
were not pleasing to you from the purity of
tongue, the attitude of citizen to stranger,
and, its people, certain fine grain of dig
nifty that is never brusqueness, reserve that
is never selfshness, and yet genial con-
sideration that never betrays, if it possesses,
the contemplate affability of alert venality,
you could not help falling completely in
love with the romance of its history, the
beauty OF the city itself, and
THE ANTIQUARIAN INTEREST
and scenic grandeur OF its environment.
Your fancy can travel a long way back
here at ancient Inverness, for it was the
original metropolis of all the Picts.
COLUMBIA, Scotland's great apostle,
and converted Brudeus, king of the Picts.
William the Lion granted it four charters,
and these brave old documents are still
authority for the freedom OF the city. In
deed until the invasion of Scotland by Ed
ward l., Inverness was undoubtedly the
seat, or frequented resort, OF all Scottish
Kings, whose presence was required in
protecting the ancient capital from the in
eursions of the Danes and northern Vikings.
or for quelling the instructions of rebellIous