The Washington herald., 1921-07-17

& f. l.. .
was Wigan, which 4 woman who'd lived
there for ten years described a. the place
that God forgot"
In the bleak fields were herds Of sheep.
queer, stunted looking, square little black
sheep; and groups Of children, also in black,
whose cries Of excitement and joy as they
played football and hockey were inconsruous
and surprising.
MACAULAY says, Persis tells me. that
4VI the most beautiful cities Of Europe are
Oxford, Edinburgh and Genoa, in the order
named. She added that Macaulay was not
particularly travelled person and that
therefore his opinion was not worth much.
/ should certainly say that while Edin-
burgh has more character than most cities,
and more beauty than many, its magnificent
-eminence in, this respect must be .
purely native legend.
We saw it on a fine, windy day (Glas-
Cow, its hated rival. taunts that Edinburgh
is as windy as its citizens). Our hotel win
dows looked directly across the gardens to
the Castle set upon its great rock, and the
famous Princes street, with the Scott monu-
ment halfway down its length. 1t was a
Sunday, and in no New England town have
1 seen the Sabbath lid more firmly down.
Hardly a sound from the streets; great
difficulty in getting breakfast at 80 early an
hour-9 o'clock.
We decided that the only thing to do in
Edinburgh that morning was to 20 to serv-
Ice at St Giles. By great good luck we
found an atheist cabby who climbed the
steep street, past the Castle, to St. Giles
But we found st. Giles IS tightly closed
as any goddess building in Edinburgh. The
only morning service was at IL, and until
then the doors were locked on Sundays,
though open weekdays. Persis could not
explain this; or rather, she suggested that
on Sunday morning the pious person is sup
posed to commune with his own soul, At
home, until IL.
At II We followed the sedate groups that
passed with pious disapproval through the
Canongate, on their way to service. At st.
Giles an orderly, quiet, packed audience,
in a nave stripped of every semblance Of
ornament. stif f-necked preacher, with
ravaged eyes in q bleak face, conscience
torn, hurled forth an impassioned, menacing
discourse.
/ found Edinburgh and her people dour;
but should think that men and women
born and reared there would find it impos-
sible to live elsewhere; that they would dis
dain and hate our fat towns and level
countrysides. / don't think I could possibly
live with the people, am not of a Puritan
temperament-but. have never seen
country at once so srandly beautiful and so
touchingly lovely that must make its exiles
ache with longing for it.
NEXT morning very sadly We left Edin-
~ burrh bathed in soft blae wells and
smoky sunlight, taking an observation car
across the mountains to Dalmally. And
began to see the outskirts Of the real high
lands-fields yellow, in late September, with
uncut harvests, rolling up to great, slate
colored, craggy hills, with here and there
the smoky depths of a tarn. Son Scotch
mist" enveloped us; we could See it blowing
in silver, airy sheets across the little valleys,
yelling for moments the sta-kly gorgeous
crags. Scarlet rowans lined the braes, and
little silver gray streams traversed them.
At Dalmally, where we changed to .
motor for Inverary, the rain was definite,
and it persisted throughout the rest of the
day. But ID was the most extraordinary,
fattering, vivifying rain 1 have ever seen.
Without it, / think the gorgeous moorlands
of rose-russet bracken and soft gold grass
would have lost some of their bloom. The
two hours drive was an enchantment. We
slipped past forest glades where deer, leap
ing to cover, yet stayed moment to eye
us; rabbits scuttled across the road before
us. Burns, slender silver streaks against
the brown, fell sheer from wooded heights,
or slipped surgling beside us, over narrow
brown beds.
The heather was almost gone-there re-
mained just enough to add mauve to the gold
and brown and green Of the brackens Tn,
glades were so alight with golden leaves that
it looked like sunlight through the rain.
At Inverary, for the first time, met the
Highlander-I even glimpsed him swinging
along his moors in full regalia. And al,
though heard horrid tales of the local breed,
the Campbells, yet the specimens saw were
handsome, outstanding gentlemen. with the
famous crooked mouth not too apparent, the
eyes certainly too close together, yet keenly
pleasant in the dark face.
SCOTLAND so fascinated me that for
~ got, mostly. to observe Persis as did
In England. But I triun phantly constated
that her reaction to 1t was the same as my
own, only more go ; and d,at she really loves
Scotland much more thai England. Within
a mile Of Edinburgh Ioticed that her RS
had begun to brr-r-rr.
1nverary Is a town that makes your heart
sink as you leave It.
l have never read description Of Hell's
Glen. or Glencros Pass, but there must Be
many, 20 I will not, myself, attempt the
impossible. As our car sped down the rib
bon Of road threading the really internal
grandeur Of the gloomy. naked glen, plaided
shepherd haughtiiy guided their iocks from
before us, So haughty were they. SO per-
sistentiy did they avoid any unseemly and