The Genius of Scotland; or, Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and ReligionTurnbull, Robert
Religion
The Genius of Scotland; or, Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature and Religion
Turnbull, Robert
Scotland -- Description and travel
"Oh! who would think, in cheerless solitude,
Who o'er these twilight waters glided slow,
That genius, with a time-surviving glow,
These wild lone scenes so proudly hath imbued!
Or that from 'hum of men' so far remote,
Where blue waves gleam, and mountains darken round,
And trees, with broad boughs shed a gloom profound,
A poet here should from his trackless thought
Elysian prospects conjure up, and sing
Of bright achievement in the olden days,
When chieftain valor sued for beauty's praise,
And magic virtues charmed St. Fillan's spring;
Until in worlds where Chilian mountains raise
Their cloud-capt heads admiring souls should wing
Hither their flight, to wilds whereon I gaze."
Leaving Lochkatrine, we pass in a south-easterly direction, through
Callendar to Auchterarder, a parish famous in the annals of the Free
Church of Scotland, and thence, travelling through a delightful country,
reach "the bonnie town o' Perth," which lies so charmingly on the banks
of the Tay. Surrounded by some of the finest scenery in Scotland, with
Kinnoul House and Kinfauns Castle on the one side, and Scone, the old
palace in which the kings of Scotland were crowned, on the other,
clustering with memories of the olden time, and withal being a
well-built city, with some venerable churches and handsome public
edifices, Perth is one of the most interesting places in Scotland.
Moreover, it was anciently the capital of the kingdom, and contains a
good many relics of its former glory. Here the doctrines of the
Reformation early took root, and some of the citizens suffered martyrdom
for Christ's sake. Helen Stark and her husband, for refusing to pray to
the Virgin Mary, were condemned to die. She desired to be executed with
her husband, but her request was refused. On the way to the scaffold,
she exhorted him to constancy in the cause of Christ, and as she parted
with him, said, "Husband, be glad; we have lived together many joyful
days, and this day of our death we ought to esteem the most joyful of
them all, for we shall have joy forever; therefore, I will not bid you
good night, for we shall shortly meet in the kingdom of Heaven." After
the men were executed, Helen was taken to a pool of water yard by, when,
having recommended her dear children to the charity of her neighbors,
her infant having been taken from her breast, "she was drowned, and
died," says the historian of the town, "with great courage and comfort."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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