as many as it could, by any possibility and in any way, generally maintain. The necessary attention to war, and the uncertainty of enjoying the future fruits of labour, then left hardly any opportunity or motive for peaceful industry, beyond the purpose of the moment; and in the absence of means and inclination, notwithstanding the desire to crowd, one half of the powers of the soil were suffered to remain dormant. When the alteration of circumstances secured the fruits of industry, and the abundance of the produce of the ground became an object of consequence independently of the number of occupiers, the proprietors found it to be their interest to remove the superabundant population, and to throw the possessions of perhaps indigent or ignorant tenants into the hands of one enlightened farmer, in order to give to skill, capital, and industry, their proper inducement and effect. This plan of enlarging the size of farms has possibly been carried too far in this strath, as well as in many other parts of the highlands, by those who have endeavoured to introduce the most approved practice of the low country, without making the proper allowance for difference of situation. Where a considerable portion of hill pasture is attached to the arable farm, which in the highlands is an

obviously convenient mode of occupation, and the hill ground is inclosed, or divided, so as to render it capable of being turned to its utmost account-and inclosure, or division, or both, have now generally been either accomplished, or are in rapid progress-a quantity of arable ground sufficient to afford the proper winter provision for the live stock, fed on the summer pastures, seems quite enough, along with the hill grounds, to employ the time and attention and capital of an able tenant. This appears to be, in general, the proper and natural system for such situations, and the plan by which the productive power of the land can be brought to its utmost possible limit. At all events, the fertile valley of Strath-Tay will ever be an agricultural country, and can never be subjected to that sweeping depopulation, which has already taken place in a great proportion of the purely pastoral districts, and will probably soon take place in all.

One principal cause of the rapid and extensive improvements in this district, and other parts of the highlands, is the advantage long possessed by Scotland with respect to the division and inclosure of lands, without the necessity of resorting to the legislature. Every proprietor had it in his power, by a summary legal

process, to compel such a division and inclosure; while in England they were obliged, till very lately, to apply in every instance for an act of parliament. This, no doubt, was a serious and vexatious obstacle even in England. In the highlands of Scotland, the expense and difficulty would have been an insurmountable bar to the most valuable improvements.

Through this fine valley two excellent roads have been made, one on each side of the river. The road on the southern side is a continuation of the road from Perth to Dunkeld, direct to Kenmore and Loch Tay in Braidalbane. The northern road, stretching from Logierait to Weem, about the middle of the valley there, sends off a branch or cross road, which, passing over an elegant bridge across the Tay, at the village of Aberfeldie, joins the southern or Kenmore road. About two miles above Logierait on this road, Eastertyre appears on the right, in the face of the hill, with its orchard and well-cultivated fields divided by hedgerows and trees in the English fashion, a specimen of the style of cultivation exhibited over the greater part of the valley. The elegant modern mansion-house of Ballechin is seen a little to the west of Eastertyre. On the left, below the road, a modern farm-steading of the

most complete description is erected; and the spacious surrounding fields, in the extensive plain spreading from the road to the brink of the river, presenting every appearance of the most improved plan of cultivation, perfectly correspond to the steading. This is probably the most considerable arable farm in the highlands of Scotland, and Strath-Tay is perhaps the only valley among these mountains in which so much arable land of such excellent quality could be found so conveniently situate, and in all respects so well adapted, for being cultivated as a single farm. Either because an immoderate rent was demanded, or because it was difficult to find a tenant disposed to adventure upon a highland farm who could command the capital necessary for the proper cultivation of a farm of this description, so as to enable him to pay the adequate rent; this farm, it is said, was taken into the hands of the proprietor, with what success, in this particular instance, was not ascertained. It is well known, however, that this plan of cultivation is seldom successful, except under the unremitting superintendance of a proprietor who is himself perfectly conversant with the business of farming. Besides the numberless minute particulars generally overlooked by the proprietor, trifling in detail, but

considerable in the aggregate, in which the farmer contrives to perform the same operations with less expense of implements, labour, and time, and the variety of small matters which he turns to account, there may be a difference between the feelings with which one expends capital, labour, and skill upon the soil of another, and those with which he bestows them upon his own soil, which may probably have some influence upon the degree of judgment and attention with which the amount of the expenditure is adjusted to the value of the produce.

Further on, the elegant mansion-house of Pitnacree appears in the face of the hill, surrounded by a grove of tall fir-trees. The modern house of Derculich, amidst its oak coppice and oak trees, of all ages, next attracts attention. It may be observed, with respect to the highlands in general, that nothing more strongly impresses the minds of those who travel along these roads than the variety of spacious and handsome mansion-houses, which are rendered the more remarkable by their being often unexpectedly seen in wild and bleak situations, to which the rude massy walls and towers of the old castellated fortress seem much better adapted. The vast heathy mountains and rug