Dunkeld and Birnam are ahead, however, and the temptations to delay must be foregone. There is no nook of Scotland more gloriously apparelled and richly endowed. Grand forests stretch for miles around, clothing the river-banks, filling the glens, and crowning to their crests Birnam Hill, Newtyle, Craig Vinean, Craig-y-Barns, and other heights that gather round the old cathedral town. Through the centre of the scene the Tay sweeps in smooth and spacious curves and long, bright-rippled reaches. All this loveliness is concentrated around the Palace and Cathedral of Dunkeld. Opposite is Birnam, and, a little above the line of arches of the fine bridge, the "mossy Braan," coming from Loch Freuchie and "lone Amulree," tumbles through the romantic dell of the Rumbling Bridge and the "Hermitage," and over its upper and lower Falls, before entering the Tay. [Illustration: SCONE PALACE, PERTH.] A single gnarled and wide-branched oak represents all that remains of the original Birnam Wood. The glory of the ancient Cathedral has also departed, or undergone a change. For some fifteen hundred years, it is reckoned, there has been a Christian house on this spot; and at as early a date Dunkeld ("Dun-Caledon") had a royal residence, probably on the site of the "dun" or fort on the "King's Seat." St. Columba is thought to have founded the church, and to have preached here to the natives of "Atholl, Caledon, and Angus;" and he is said to have found burial at Dunkeld. Adamnan and Crinan were among its Culdee abbots; and in the long line of its Roman Catholic bishops, whose diocese extended over the greater part of the basin of the Tay, Gawin Douglas, the poet and translator of the "Æneid," is not the only eminent name. Very stately without and beautiful within, the edifice of the Cathedral Church must have looked in its prime, before the Lords of the Congregation sent word to "purge the kyrk of all kynd of monuments of idolatrye," but to "tak guid heid that neither the windocks nor dooris be onywise hurt or broken"--a saving clause to which the zealous Reforming mob paid scant attention. The main portion of the Cathedral--the nave--has long been roofless, but the tower, in which the "Cameronian Regiment" of 1689 offered their brilliant and successful resistance to the victors of Killiecrankie, and stemmed the Highland tide rushing down on the Lowlands, still stands, and the choir has been restored and is used as the parish church. Within the walls, the "Wolf of Badenoch," Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan--that type of a savage and ruthless Highland chieftain--is buried; here also are the vaults of the Athole family, and a monument recording the deeds of the "Black Watch." Without, the beautiful lawns, gardens, and woods of Dunkeld Palace, one of the seats of the Duke of Athole, surround the Cathedral ruins, and come down to the river's edge. Fine villa residences are ranged along the hillside, and the town of Dunkeld offers every evidence of prosperity.