n the country; that Seggy-cleugh was unequalled for
woodcocks; that Bengibbert Moors afforded excellent moorfowl-shooting;
and that the clear, bubbling fountain called the Harper's Well was
the best recipe in the world on the morning after a HARD-GO with my
neighbour fox-hunters. Still, these ideas recalled, by degrees, pictures
of which I had since learned to appreciate the merit--scenes of silent
loneliness, where extensive moors, undulating into wild hills, were only
disturbed by the whistle of the plover or the crow of the heathcock;
wild ravines creeping up into mountains, filled with natural wood, and
which, when traced downwards along the path formed by shepherds and
nutters, were found gradually to enlarge and deepen, as each formed a
channel to its own brook, sometimes bordered by steep banks of earth,
often with the more romantic boundary of naked rocks or cliffs crested
with oak, mountain ash, and hazel--all gratifying the eye the more that
the scenery was, from the bare nature of the country around, totally
unexpected.

I had recollections, too, of fair and fertile holms, or level plains,
extending between the wooded banks and the bold stream of the Clyde,
which, coloured like pure amber, or rather having the hue of the
pebbles called Cairngorm, rushes over sheets of rock and beds of gravel,
inspiring a species of awe from the few and faithless fords which it
presents, and the frequency of fatal accidents, now diminished by the
number of bridges. These alluvial holms were frequently bordered by
triple and quadruple rows of large trees, which gracefully marked their
boundary, and dipped their long arms into the foaming stream of the
river. Other places I remembered, which had been described by the
old huntsman as the lodge of tremendous wild-cats, or the spot where
tradition stated the mighty stag to have been brought to bay, or where
heroes, whose might was now as much forgotten, were said to have been
slain by surprise, or in battle.

It is not to be supposed that these finished landscapes became visible
before the eyes of my imagination, as the scenery of the stage is
disclosed by the rising of the curtain. I have said that I had looked
upon the country around me, during the hurried and dissipated period
of my life, with the eyes, indeed, of my body, but without those of my
understanding. It was piece by piece, as a child picks out its lesson,
that I began to recollect the beauties of nature which had onc