Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope MoncrieffMoncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
History
Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff
Moncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
Scotland -- Description and travel
poverty which, in the fulness of time, he begins to live down. Both
Major and Minor Prophets deal with their Ahabs and Jezebels much in the
tone of John Knox. A legend, not lightly to be despised, makes our
ancestress Scota, Pharaoh’s daughter; but I do not insist on a possible
descent from the lost Tribes of Israel. Noah is recorded as the first
Covenanter. Cain and Abel appear to have started the feud of Highlander
and Lowlander. Father Adam is certainly understood to have worn the
kilt. The Royal Scots claim to have furnished the guard over the Garden
of Eden, in which case unpleasing questions are suggested as to the
duties of the Black Watch at that epoch. The name of Eden was at one
time held to fix the site of Paradise in the East Neuk of Fife; but the
higher criticism inclines to Glasgow Green. In the south of Lanark,
indeed, are four streams that have yielded gold; but they compass a
country more abounding in lead, and the climate seems not congenial to
fruit trees. “I confess, my brethren,” said the controversial divine,
“that there is a difficulty here; but let us look it boldly in the face,
and pass on.”
The antiquities of Stirling contrast with the modern trimness of its
neighbour, the Bridge of Allan, lying at the foot of the Ochils two or
three miles off, a Leamington to the Scottish Warwick, the tramway
between them passing the hill on which, to humble southron tourists,
Professor Blackie and other ardent patriots reared that tall Wallace
Monument whose interior makes a Walhalla of memorials to eminent
Scotsmen like Carlyle and Gladstone. Bridge of Allan is a place of mills
and bleach works, and of resort for its Spa of saline water,
recommended, too, by its repute for a mild spring climate, rare in the
north. The “Bridge,” which we have so often in Scottish place-names,
points to a time when bridges were not matters of course; as in the
Highlands we shall find “Boats” recording a more backward stage of
ferries. This bridge spans the wooded “banks of Allan Water,” up which a
pleasant path leads one to Dunblane, with the Ochil moorlands for its
background.
Dunblane is notable for one of the few Gothic cathedrals still used in
Scotland as a parish church. Sympathetically restored, it has even
become the scene of forms of worship which scandalised true-blue
Presbyterians, while on the other hand I once came across an Anglican
lady much shocked to find how “actually there was a Presbyterian service
going on!” Carved screen, stalls, and communion table make ornaments
seldom seen in the bareness of a northern kirk, this one admirable in
its proportions and mouldings, if without the elaborate decoration of
Melrose. It has a valuable legacy in the library of a divine well known
in both countries, the tolerant Archbishop Leighton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account