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is the case even in those districts adjoining the lowlands, in which the communication with those speaking a different language is most frequent. The youth of these districts, and from every part of the highlands, generally engage themselves as servants to the lowland farmers; and many after a long series of years return to their straths, with sufficient capital to take a small farm where such can still be had. These, although so long in the habit of using another language, on their return to their own districts, return also to their original tongue. Wherever all the parties are supposed to know the Gaelic, that is almost invariably the language of conversation among the remaining highlanders ;—a remarkable instance of the tenacity, with which a native language maintains its ground with the native race, and of the entirety of subjugation which took place in those cases, in which races of victorious invaders were able, in no long time, to extirpate the native language of the conquered people. The circumstance, however, in the case of the Scottish highlanders, as well as in that of the Welsh and others, is partly accounted for by the state of separation in which the highlanders have always lived-the lowland farmers having been seldom introduced, except where the population of a whole, or a

-a

considerable portion, of a district has been swept away. When a family speaking two languages is in daily communication with one or more families speaking only one language, that language which cannot be commonly used beyond the precincts of a single dwelling-house may naturally soon become extinct. But the Gaelic continued the language of common conversation for ages on one side of a village, while nothing but the lowland Scotch was spoken on the other; for, although the highland part of the people necessarily employed the lowland Scotch in communications with their neighbours in front, the Gaelic was still used in conversation with their neighhours behind; and, being the native language, was preferred to the other. Wherever the language has lost ground in the highlands, it has been only by the expulsion of the ancient race, and it will probably remain steadily the language of ordinary conversation among that race; until they shall have ceased to exist in the country as a separate people.

Notwithstanding the decided superiority of the present as compared with the old plan of arable cultivation in this quarter, chiefly owing to the introduction of the valuable rotation of the turnip fallow, unseemly banks still disfigure

the fields, which in several places have a bleak, naked, and cold aspect, from want of inclosures. Some instances appeared of that careless inattention to the preservation of the crop, which is the usual concomitant and symptom of imperfect cultivation, the young calves being permitted to wander at will among the corn, through which, at times, they were chased by boys, who did more injury than they prevented. The farm-houses and cottages, although necessarily small, are, however, much preferable to the ancient hovels; and are set so thickly, that the district has in some degree the appearance of a great number of extensive gardens, with each its gardener's habitation. Throughout the whole of this tract, there was none of that singing which, on the west highland sea-coast, is sometimes heard among the reapers, and which, although to a romantic imagination it might in certain situations seem like the songs of the Syrens, in reality resembles much more nearly the screaming of a flock of sea fowl. Loch Tay side can hardly be supposed to suffer much from the want of a practice, which, though no doubt intended to cheer and animate the labourer, is much more likely to distract the attention, and seems almost incompatible with laborious exertion.

If, by this system of farming, the district is made to produce a greater quantity of human food than it would yield if converted into sheep walks, the greater portion is spent in the maintenance of the crowded population required to carry it on, and in this manner the profits of the landlord are in a great measure exhausted. Considering the natural adaptation of these grounds for sheep and cattle farms, and the high value in the market of the produce of pasture lands, it seems unquestionable that the noble proprietor makes a great sacrifice to the retention of the population; and that he is not one who, like the ancient Suevi, estimates his consequence by the extent of the deserts with which he is surrounded. No invidious comparison is here intended. It is in the natural course of human affairs that that mode of occupation should take place, which is most profitable to the proprietors; and few will suffer themselves to be persuaded that they are blameable for dealing with their own property in any legal manner, that may be most conducive to the real or supposed advantage of themselves or their families. But it is impossible, at the same time, not to respect that generous, humane, and selfdenying feeling, which leads some landlords to sacrifice part of their own interest, to prevent

the expatriation of the posterity of those, by whose means their estates and fortunes were acquired and defended.

About half way or more from Kenmore to Killin, another of the circles of stones already mentioned was seen on the left side of the road; and there are several ruins of circular forts, from thirty to forty feet in diameter, and five feet high, along the whole of this tract. These rude forts were, doubtless, intended as places of retreat and temporary security, upon occasions of sudden alarm and hostile incursion, in those times when each clan was, in a great measure, an independent community, and when the law was

"The ancient, simple plan,

"That they shall take who have the power,
"And they shall keep who can."

Within a few miles of Killin the shape of the ground is altered; the space between the road and the lake sinking into a deep level, and that above the road rising with a more steep ascent to the upper ridge. A ledge of rock appears on the left, jutting out into the lake and raised only a few feet from its surface, the naked sides exposed in some places, and the top covered with soil and a thriving plantation of young

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