The Fair Maid of Perth | Page 8

the Tay?
Anonymous.
Among all the provinces in Scotland, if an intelligent stranger were
asked to describe the most varied and the most beautiful, it is probable
he would name the county of Perth. A native also of any other district
of Caledonia, though his partialities might lead him to prefer his native
county in the first instance, would certainly class that of Perth in the
second, and thus give its inhabitants a fair right to plead that, prejudice
apart, Perthshire forms the fairest portion of the Northern kingdom. It is
long since Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, with that excellent taste
which characterises her writings, expressed her opinion that the most
interesting district of every country, and that which exhibits the varied
beauties of natural scenery in greatest perfection, is that where the
mountains sink down upon the champaign, or more level land. The
most picturesque, if not the highest, hills are also to be found in the
county of Perth. The rivers find their way out of the mountainous
region by the wildest leaps, and through the most romantic passes
connecting the Highlands with the Lowlands. Above, the vegetation of
a happier climate and soil is mingled with the magnificent
characteristics of mountain scenery, and woods, groves, and thickets in
profusion clothe the base of the hills, ascend up the ravines, and mingle
with the precipices. It is in such favoured regions that the traveller finds

what the poet Gray, or some one else, has termed beauty lying in the
lap of terror.
From the same advantage of situation, this favoured province presents a
variety of the most pleasing character. Its lakes, woods, and mountains
may vie in beauty with any that the Highland tour exhibits; while
Perthshire contains, amidst this romantic scenery, and in some places in
connexion with it, many fertile and habitable tracts, which may vie
with the richness of merry England herself. The county has also been
the scene of many remarkable exploits and events, some of historical
importance, others interesting to the poet and romancer, though
recorded in popular tradition alone. It was in these vales that the
Saxons of the plain and the Gad of the mountains had many a desperate
and bloody encounter, in which it was frequently impossible to decide
the palm of victory between the mailed chivalry of the low country and
the plaided clans whom they opposed.
Perth, so eminent for the beauty of its situation, is a place of great
antiquity; and old tradition assigns to the town the importance of a
Roman foundation. That victorious nation, it is said, pretended to
recognise the Tiber in the much more magnificent and navigable Tay,
and to acknowledge the large level space, well known by the name of
the North Inch, as having a near resemblance to their Campus Martins.
The city was often the residence of our monarchs, who, although they
had no palace at Perth, found the Cistercian convent amply sufficient
for the reception of their court. It was here that James the First, one of
the wisest and best of the Scottish kings, fell a victim to the jealousy of
the vengeful aristocracy. Here also occurred the mysterious conspiracy
of Gowrie, the scene of which has only of late been effaced by the
destruction of the ancient palace in which the tragedy was acted. The
Antiquarian Society of Perth, with just zeal for the objects of their
pursuit, have published an accurate plan of this memorable mansion,
with some remarks upon its connexion with the narrative of the plot,
which display equal acuteness and candour.
One of the most beautiful points of view which Britain, or perhaps the
world, can afford is, or rather we may say was, the prospect from a spot
called the Wicks of Baiglie, being a species of niche at which the
traveller arrived, after a long stage from Kinross, through a waste and
uninteresting country, and from which, as forming a pass over the

summit of a ridgy eminence which he had gradually surmounted, he
beheld, stretching beneath him, the valley of the Tay, traversed by its
ample and lordly stream; the town of Perth, with its two large meadows,
or inches, its steeples, and its towers; the hills of Moncrieff and
Kinnoul faintly rising into picturesque rocks, partly clothed with woods;
the rich margin of the river, studded with elegant mansions; and the
distant view of the huge Grampian mountains, the northern screen of
this exquisite landscape. The alteration of the road, greatly, it must be
owned, to the improvement of general intercourse, avoids this
magnificent point of view, and the landscape is introduced more
gradually and partially to the eye, though the approach must be still
considered as extremely beautiful. There is still, we believe, a footpath
left open, by which the