With these pictures of tumult on land and sea, there come glimpses of those cherished interludes of bright sunshine, when the western hills and firths are seen at their loveliest. But whether radiant or gloomy the landscape is in unison with the human emotion described-- 'Pleasing the tale of the time which has gone; Soothing as noiseless dew of morning mild, On the brake and knoll of roes, When slowly rises the sun On the silent flank of hoary Bens-- The loch, unruffled, far away, Calm and blue on the floor of the glens.'[46] As a final sample of the Ossianic landscape, with its kaleidoscopic play of atmospheric effect, answering to the changes of human feeling, let me cite some lines from _Fingal_:-- 'Morna, most lovely among women, Why by thyself in the circle of stones, In hollow of the rock on the hill alone? Rivers are sounding around thee; The aged tree is moaning in the wind; Turmoil is on yonder loch; Clouds darken round the tops of Cairns [mountains]; Thyself art like snow on the hill-- Thy waving hair like mist of Cromla, Curling upward on the Ben, 'Neath gleaming of the sun from the west; Thy soft bosom like the white rock On bank of Brano of white streams.'[47] Though Macpherson roused the interest of the world in the rugged scenery and boisterous climates of the west, it was some time before any other writer followed his lead among the highlands of this country. It is singular to reflect that though the mountain-world, more than any other part of the land, appeals to the imagination, by revealing all that is most impressive in form and colour, and all that is most vigorous in the elemental warfare of nature, it was the last part of the terrestrial surface to meet with due appreciation. Little more than a century has passed since men began to visit the Scottish Highlands for the pleasure of admiring their scenery. Previous to the suppression of the Jacobite rising, that mountainous region was regarded as the abode of a half-savage race, into whose wilds few lowlanders would venture without the most urgent reasons. Even after military roads had been made across it, the accommodation for travellers was still generally of the most wretched kind. Those who had occasion to traverse it gave such an account of their experiences as one would hardly now expect to receive from the heart of Africa.[48] The poet Gray during his visit to Scotland in the year 1765, made a brief excursion into the Perthshire Highlands, and, in spite of the discomforts of travel at that time, came away with a vivid impression of the grandeur and beauty of the scenery. But the only record that remains of this impression is to be found in a few sentences in his letters.[49]