Few but have passed the Trossachs; and though I plead guilty to the weakness of feeling it a shock to hear of a steam-boat on Loch Katrine, yet, considering that a steam-boat makes that a pleasure for the many, which would otherwise be confined to the few, the dark chimney may smoke through
"Every vale,
Rent from the Saxon and the Gael."
In nothing more than in travelling are the picturesque and the useful blended together, and Scotland is now, thanks to the author of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," classic ground; it is filled with associations—it is peopled with the past.
It is no paradox to say, that the country is never so much enjoyed as by the dwellers in cities. How many are there who live eleven months on the hope of the twelfth given to some brief but delightful wandering. Even in the dull and mindless routine of a watering-place, where shrimps and rabbles are the Alpha and Omega of the day, there is refreshment and relief; and how much are these increased, when the perceptions, as well as the sensations, are called into play? How much poetical feeling, how much enthusiasm, has the perusal of some favourite work excited in the minds of those about to visit the scenes depicted. How much was the actual enjoyment heightened by the various remembrances called up; what a store of pleasant reminiscences must be carried home to the fire-side, and what
