The two Earls attended again in November, each accompanied by friends; and I observed them impressing on these strangers, the poor state in which they had viewed this ground.in the preceding February, but now covered by a crop (different parts of which were mowed before them,) that their Lordships authorized me to say, seemed treble the amount of those they were used to see cut. The crop of 1816 yielded above thirty tons green sward to the English acre, and now (June, 1817,) the third crop seems to promise better than either of the preceding."

In his memoir on the Agrostis Stolonifera, drawn up for the Archduke of Austria, Dr. Richardson, with the candid spirit of a philosopher, acknowleges that some of the applications of this grass, concerning which he was once very sanguine, and had recommended in the strongest manner, he has since been obliged to abandon: but other unexpected uses and applications have compensated for them. He is now willing to concede that the grand, indeed the sole, use of fiorin is to furnish dry hay for winter-cattle: though it will be recollected that, from some experiments on a small scale, he had eulogized it as affording a steady supply of valuable winter green food. He seems now to suspect that the latter growth of the stolones (that is, the end of the string,) is inferior in quality to the part nearer the root; and that, although the quantity of the crop is increased by this unseasonable growth, no additional saccharum is formed, but, on the contrary, that which had already been produced in the earlier part of the season is now dissipated. Fiorin-hay, however, may still be mown till the second week in October, without any deterioration of its quality. On the principle of this loss of saccharum, Dr. R. has now discontinued the practice of suffering fiorin to remain uncut till the spring of the following year; and experience has likewise induced him totally to give up the irrigation of fiorin-meadows.

Peat-moss is the most favourite soil for Fiorin: but, unfortunately, both the parent and the progeny are under the "ban of the empire" of Agriculture: each being denounced and execrated by most writers, the former on account of its sterility as to all valuable products, and the latter for its mischievous luxuriance. In the controversy between Dr. Richardson and some writers in the Transactions of the Highland Society on this subject, we are not qualified to assume the office of arbiters. When these gentlemen condemn so large an area as the peats of Scotland occupy, as being utterly incapable of producing any valuable crop, and condemn likewise the fiorin itself which flourishes on that soil; while the Doctor extols this grass for qualities which excel those of all other

X 3

grasses;

grasses; we are naturally disposed to take the side of him who inspires us with hope, and who confidently assures us that he can reclaim from sterility this vast reprobated surface. One of the writers says; "The man who discovers the latent causes of the sterility of all moss in general, and of each species in particular, will deserve well of his country, perhaps of all Europe:" to which Dr. Richardson replies:

I am curious to know what claims this gentleman will pronounce me to have on my own country and upon all Europe, when I shall make it appear, not only that this sterility has no existence, but that I can raise on peat soil, in its natural state, and in the very area condemned by the Highland Society, as beyond the bounds of national industry, crops of hay, more valuable than any now raised in the county of Middlesex, with the aid of London dung.

6

To shew that I can actually do so, has been long a favourite object with me; and all I ask is a fair opportunity to make the trial in the face of the world; and I hope the vicinity of the field of action to our metropolis (the peaty mountains just above it) may tempt the proprietors of the soil, perhaps our Viceroy himself, to make experiments, the result of which, if favourable, would be of such incalculable national importance.

My ignorance of the soil through the Austrian dominions, precludes me from knowing if my Imperial pupils be interested in the improvement of peaty soil; but their brother the Emperor's territories abound with mountains, and these afford the finest field for raising fiorin in the greatest abundance, whether by culti vation, or the more recent mode to which I am coming, of 'rousing the efforts of spontaneous nature, to clothe these alpine surfaces with either luxuriant meadow, or grateful pasture; and their Highnesses may live to see the Julian Alps, and the Carpathian Mountains, affording as abundant sustenance to their cattle, winter and summer, as is yielded by their richest low countries.'

We have many untouched wastes in England, the heights in Cumberland to the north, and the forest of Dartmoor in the south, and many fens in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, where, under proper management, the fiorin might prosper luxuriantly; and much pleasure would it afford us to hear that the patriotic efforts of Dr. Richardson, instead of being damped and derided, often times by those who are very incompetent to appreciate the ground-work of his expectations, were encouraged and assisted by those individuals or societies whose more immediate interest it may be, and who have the power, to give them an effective impulse.

ART.

ART. X. Letters from the North Highlands, during the Summer 1816. By Elizabeth Isabella Spence. 8vo. pp. 364. 10s. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1817.

WE

WE have on former occasions taken notice of certain performances by this lady; and a perusal of the present production has not led us to alter the opinion which we before expressed of her literary qualifications. The same defects, indeed, accompanied by the same slender degree of merit, which have hitherto characterized her publications, constitute the features of the volume now before us; and Miss Spence seems to imagine, with too many authors of the day, that to mdite with all the velocity of a ready writer's pen, and to have her book pushed into the hands of the public with the least possible interval between its first conception and its birth, are very clever achievements. As to a total neglect of prévious preparation, of selection or correctness in the thoughts, of elegance or accuracy in the expression, these matters signify not, provided that the meaning, be it what it may, is on the whole intelligible; all is then very well; the task has been performed with perfect facility, the most laudable dispatch has been used by the press, and the peerless genius sits down amid feelings of the happiest self-complacency to await the meed of profit and panegyric which is about to result from so hopeful an enterprise.

In this department of travelling, in particular, Miss Spence, like so many other vagabondizing* journalists, seems to have deemed it altogether unnecessary to spend much thought on the preparatory qualifications of an intelligent tourist. These publishing pilgrims regard all requisites of a literary kind as superfluous except such as may be procured at the stationer's shop; and, if a sufficient supply of clean note-books be put up with a correspondent portion of clean linen, the journey is undertaken under the happiest auspices, and cannot fail to be very successfully accomplished. An enlarged and liberal course of preliminary study on the nature and history of governments, or of ecclesiastical institutions, or of arts, commerce, and manners, as they have appeared in different countries and ages, is out of the question; -habits of discriminating observation are never contemplated;-and even a perusal of former narratives relating to the very country about to be explored is perfectly unnecessary, unless as an ample auxiliary resource on all needful and convenient occasions. Hence no traveller, in these days, makes any scruple to note down

* See the anecdote of the French gentleman drinking the health of the author of "the Rambler."

all that he sees; and to print all that he writes: he needs but open his eyes, and abundance of information enters. Does he visit Russia or Holland? he finds that there are prodigious bells at Moscow, and a not less prodigious organ at Haarlem. At Paris, he discovers that the architecture of the Louvre is wonderfully rich and magnificent; and among the Highlands of Scotland he descries lakes and vallies, and the men breeched in short petticoats. Thus a fact which was once not improper to be told, when told for the first time, is repeated by every successive traveller, until the public is stunned and stupified with tours and journals; which are only an echo of one another, varying merely in the quantity of small-talk superinduced by the traveller himself, or in the degree of embellishment with which the printer or the engraver has been directed to perform his part.

Applying these remarks, we must confess that we find really nothing of any importance in the Letters before us, which has not been already narrated in every book of travels in Scotland; and even of facts of the less frivolous though trite description the proportion is very scanty, there being a copious menstruum of the small-talk to which we have just alluded. We are sorry, moreover, to be obliged farther to state that, notwithstanding our former admonitions relative to grammar, the ordinary rules of this indispensable accomplishment of printed literature suffer a constant and most heedless violation; of which delinquency we shall presently give one or two curious specimens.

Amid these weighty objections, however, we must not omit to observe that a certain cheerfulness and alacrity are diffused throughout this lady's pages, which with indulgent readers will go far in atoning for her offences. She always writes in extremely good humour, and on occasion even with enthusiasm; although, unfortunately, this latter sentiment seldom awakens any new idea in her own mind, or impresses very deeply that of her reader.

Her route lay by Coldstream and Flodden to Dalkeith and Edinburgh; where having stayed some time, she continued northward by Queensferry, Perth, Aberdeen, and Elgin, as far as Inverness, which seems to have been the extreme point of her journey in that direction. Then turning westward, she proceeded to Fort Augustus on Loch Ness; whence returning to Inverness, she dirccted her course southward, by what is called the Highland Road, to Blair-Athol, Dunkeld, Stirling, and Glasgow. From this latter place, she made a shorter excursion over a part of very nearly the same ground; having returned to the neighbourhood of Perth, and journeyed

thence

thence along the banks of the Tay to Dundee, and then to Aberbroath and Montrose; whence she appears to have gone back by the direct route to Edinburgh.

Though the fine ruins at Elgin have been repeatedly described by other travellers, we quote the following passage as not the most unfavourable specimen of the fair author's talent for this sort of writing: but our readers will remark in it some instances of that intrepid disregard of grammatical observances, to which we have before referred.

From a high point of ground, called New Hill, on the Lossie Mouth road, the view of Elgin, resting in the vale, with the towers of the cathedral caught in the view, the double row of painted windows belonging to the grand choir, terminated at their base by a superb arched one, produce an effect singularly magnificent, and rendered eminently beautiful, when contrasted with scenery so soft and luxuriant. This vale is justly called the garden of Scotland. The gentle Lossie, still yet pellucid, glides through the pretty green meadows enamelled with a variety of wild flowers.

Proceeding from the town to the ruins, a circular window forms a fine vista, at the termination of the college, as seen from the cross. The grand arched gateway, separated by the noble west towers, in which are five niches, supposed formerly to contain figures; also in an oval medallion, one of the Virgin. The noble arch of exquisite tracery work, was filled with coloured glass; the ornamental part is still most beautiful. On proceeding forward, the grand choir becomes an object of surprising grandeur. The light elegant stone-work is of the florid Gothic, consisting of the greatest variety of ornament; and the fluted columns, instead of standing in even uniformity, gracefully recedes. From the centre of this mass of ruin, magnificent even in decay, was pointed out to me where the grand tower formerly stood, to the height of 199 feet. I next entered the choir [which was] in a more perfect state than the other parts of the cathedral. A rich stone gallery terminates the top, beautifully carved. Beneath, are five windows to the east, with two on each side to light the grand altar. One grand stall remains, where the bishop sat during the performance of religious ceremonies, with five others of the dignified clergy.

The chapter-house, with a clustered pillar in the centre, and bearing the bishop's arms, is a fine remnant of antiquity. That this majestic ruin may not further fall into decay, it is now undergoing a proper repair, which is done in so judicious a manner, at the liberal expense of Lord Fife, it will sustain the same appearance of venerable decay.

6

Bishop Andrew Murroff is said to have laid the foundationstone of this cathedral, built in the form of a Jerusalem cross, and according to Mr. Forsyth's account, had five towers, two of which were on the corners of the west-end, one in the middle, and two on the west-end, between which, was the grand entrance. The gateway, an arch terminating in an angle, is 24 feet broad at the

base,