Perth rejoices in the possession of two beautiful "Commons," or "Inches," as they are called, green as emerald, and bordered by long avenues of magnificent trees. The Tay gleams through the verdant foliage, and is seen winding, in serene beauty, far down among the rich meadows and smooth lawns which adorn its banks. Behind it are the Sidlaw hills, and looming up, in the distance, the blue ridges of the Grampians. The lands around it are highly cultivated, and support a numerous race of farmers, many of whom have grown rich from the produce of the soil. But the shadows of evening are beginning to fall upon the landscape; to-morrow is "the rest of the holy Sabbath," and a comfortable "'tween and supper-time" awaits us at the house of a friend at some distance from Perth, which we must immediately leave. CHAPTER XVI. Sabbath Morning-- 'The Sabbath,' by James Grahame--Sketch of his Life--Extracts from his Poetry--The Cameronians--'Dream of the Martyrs,' by James Hislop--Sabbath Morning Walk--Country Church--The old Preacher--The Interval of Worship--Conversation in the Church-yard--Going Home from Church--Sabbath Evening. Sabbath morning dawns upon us, bright and clear, and all around a hushed stillness pervades the air. "With silent awe I hail the sacred morn, That scarcely wakes while all the fields are still; A soothing calm on every breeze is borne, A graver murmur echoes from the hill, And softer sings the linnet from the thorn; The skylark warbles in a tone less shrill. Hail, light serene! hail, sacred Sabbath morn! The sky a placid yellow lustre throws; The gales that lately sighed along the grove Have hushed their drowsy wings in dead repose; The hovering rack of clouds forgets to move, So soft the day when the first morn arose." Thus sang Leyden, the celebrated scholar, poet, and traveller, who, like all true sons of Scotland, revered the holy Sabbath, regarding it as the best of days, the sweetest, purest, calmest of the seven! The same images, borrowed not from Leyden, but from nature and his own heart, are used by Grahame, in his delightful poem of 'The Sabbath,' a production not without defects, but one of the most popular in Scotland.