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Picts, he has defined the limits of the Northern and Southern Picts, he has shewn that instead of being an obscure colony, limited to what he magnificently terms the Pictish empire (in the North of Scotland), the Picts were really the progenitors of all the nations of Europe, and a great part of Asia! That. we do not ascribe too much to Mr. H.'s prowess in the latter respect, we have only to remind our readers that the Huns were Tatars, totally different from Cimbri or Teutones, from Goths or Vandals, and even from all the Sclavonic nations:" and that all modern Europe is referred to the Picts for their common ancestry, will be evident from comparing the former with the following passage.

The Celts, it is supposed, originated, as well as the Goths and Vandals, from the antient Scythia,though at an earlier period; but in the lapse of time, and change of circumstances and situation, a very material difference took place between the Gothic and the Celtic nations. Both retained the warlike spirit. But the Goths made war with more extensive views, and on a greater scale. The Gauls mingled a turn for war with pastoral occupations; the Goths with naval. The Goths, capable of regular industry, advanced considerably in a knowledge of agriculture and the mechanical arts: the Celts, light, fickle, and impatient of labour, were greatly behind the Goths in these respects. The inability and sloth of the antient Ganls was proverbial even among the Germans. The inhabitants of Wales, Ireland, and the islands and highlands of Scotland, are all of Celtic origin.' pp. 34, 35.

If the Goths and Vandals were Picts, if the Celts originated from the same quarter, if the Welch, Irish, and Highlanders, are Celts, and if all Europe, Turkey excepted, is inhabited by Goths, Vandals, and Celts, then all Europeans are Picts. We believe the reverse of all this to be very near the truth. The appellation of Picts was given by the Romans to other inhabitants of North Britain, beside the Caledonians." The Northern Picts were apparently those colonists from Ireland, who possessed the Hebudes, and the north-western parts of Scotland, many ages before the Dalriads occupied Argyle. The Southern Picts appear to have been the Caledonians, from whom the modern Lowlanders have descended; and they originally came from Germany. Following the retreat of the Romans, they occupied the southern part of Scotland, leaving the Grampian Hills to their northern allies; with whom they became united, under one government, in the fifth century; and being joined by the Dalriads in the ninth, formed the kingdom of Scotland. According to Mr. H. the Gaelic, or Erse language, is even now spoken, not only throughout the Highlands and the Hebudes, but even from Crieff, in the Lowlands near Perth, to Cape Wrath, the northwestern extreme of Britain; that is, over more than half of

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modern Scotland. That the Dalriads, who were not finally established in Argyle till the sixth century, should have been capable of extending their language through so great a space, (and its ancient limits were evidently much wider) is a supposition which needs only to be considered, in order to be rejected. The ancient British records, published in the Archæ ology of Wales, demonstrate, that the Irish first settled in Scotland, before the Belge occupied the southern coast of Britain; that is, long before the Romans visited our island.

If the Highlanders and the Lowlanders of Scotland can be regarded as the same nation, it may reasonably be inferred, that there is but one nation on the face of the earth; for no two nations can be named, which, after having so long been intimately connected, differ more strikingly from each other. The same may be observed of the Welch and the English. The Welch, the Highlanders, and the Irish, are obviously of one original nation; the English, and the Scotch Lowlanders, of another. The former, however, were not Celts. They were Iberians, according to the testimonies of Tacitus and Strabo ; and, according to the latter, the Iberians were of a distinct nation from the Celts. The Germans, Scandinavians, and Belga, were of the same nation with the Celts of Gaul, Italy, and Spain; the Britons, the Aquitanians, the Cantabri Conisci of Strabo, and the Cynesii of Herodotus, were Iberians, who passed from Africa into Spain, and thence, to Gaul and Britain. The language of the Anglo-Saxons and other German tribes of the fifth century, differed little from that of the contemporary Goths in Mæsia, or from the modern German language. The real Celts, of whom the ancient Germans were a branch, ought, therefore, to be considered as a Getic, or Thracian people; not as Scythians, whom Herodotus distinguishes from the Thracians, and asserts to have been correlative with the Sarmatians. The latter are acknowledged to have been the progenitors of the Sclavonic nations of Europe; which, therefore, must be regarded as the modern representatives of the Scythians.

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We should not have blamed Mr. H. had he merely fallen into common errors: but as he has thought it proper to turn all Europeans into Picts, it became necessary for us to intimate who they were. It would, however, be less remarkable, that he should be mistaken about the origin of the Picts, (in which the most opposite opinions have been held) than that he should lay to the charge of the Danes, the ravages committed in the North of Scotland by the Norwegians in the ninth century, if that error had not been sanctioned by precedent. In like manner he calls the Norse, the Danish language, although the former much more nearly resembles the Swedish; the Danish

being a medium between these and the lower German dialects. After perusing Mr. H.'s volumes, we were a little surprised, on recurring to the title page, to find that it announced his "hints for improvements in agriculture and commerce." The torrent of his anecdotes of men, women, children, beasts, birds, fish, vegetables, &c. had carried us on so rapidly, that his "hints" on other subjects had escaped our observation. But on a diligent search, we found to our shame, that we had overlooked the following important article, which occurs at the Carron manufactory,

And here I cannot help expressing my surprize, that, amidst the vast variety of useful and tremendous implements, that are made here, I found scarcely any iron windows. In Scotland, as the houses are generally built of stone, and require three or four sets of new windows before the walls tumble down, would it not be economical, as well as elegant, to have windows of all sorts of cast-iron? They could be painted any colour. The frames with care might last for ages, and the weight of the sashes, or moving parts, could be counter-balanced by the weights attached to them.' p. 4.

If the former part of the next extract be a little obscure, it is only what "hints" are liable to be. The latter part, on the contrary, is so broad, as to remind us of Sir Audrew Agnew, who once said to the officers of his regiment, " As I live, Gentlemen, ye're a' a pack o' rascals!-I mean it as a hint."

There, no doubt, must be different ranks in society, and every attention is due to the great and the good; but how far they ought to ask such a favour, and it is prudent for thousands, in compliance with their request, day after day, and year after year, to go miles about, when a nearer and more direct line road lies through a great man's parks, I leave others to judge. It is shameful, it is unfeeling, in a great man, because he has a few deer and dogs he is fond of, to sit like an Indian nabob, or a Spanish don, and see, day after day, and year after year, thousands go miles about, that he and his pampered domestics may not be disturbed." pp. 44, 45.

Another among these precious hints is, that Edinburgh Castle guns should cease firing," for fear of frightening the

fish!

In short, we find the improvements suggested by Mr. H. (notwithstanding their incalculable utility) too numerous to be extracted for public benefit, and are only surprised that subjects of such striking importance should have been unnoticed by us at the first glance. It is to be hoped that authors will not fail, after his example, to give us a hint, in the title page, of such parts of their works as they deem peculiarly worthy of attention. We should certainly no more have found out the Caledonian Canal in Mr. H.'s map, if he had not mentioned it in his title page, than his hints for improvements: and indeed, with this assistance, we are unable to distinguish the Canal from Loch Ness.

The views, which are likewise indicated by the title, could not, however, have escaped our notice, even without that information. They are twenty-five in number, and having formerly been published, were allowed by the proprietor to be used for the embellishment of Mr. H.'s work. It is to be regretted that they are not accompanied by adequate descriptions. But it is far otherwise with some engravings that illustrate the author's anecdotes of his friends, or his friends' friends; and some scenes, to which he says, he was an eye witness. As these are chiefly not of the most delicate kind, we think that they were fit neither for the pen nor the pencil.

To give a proper specimen of this singular performance, we should extract some of the stories of which it chiefly consists: but as most of these belong to the scandalous chronicle, we could not wish (even were their accuracy unquestionable) to obtrude them on our readers.

Faithful, well chosen, and well told anecdotes, may present a lively picture of the manners of different communities; but when these involve the character either of persons who had hospitably entertained the traveller, or of others who must suspect the channel by which he received the reports, more harm than good is likely to arise from their communication to the public. We should, therefore, prefer some of his stories of animals, or even of vegetables, to those which the author has promulgated of his friends and their connections; but we doubt whether many of the former would obtain credence from our readers. Let us try! The author is speaking of Cape Wrath, the north-western extremity of Great Britain.

• Rhubarb, too, I found, as well as some other plants, have here, in the month of June, been found to grow nine inches in twenty-four hours; a motion visible to the naked eye, and equal to that of the minute hand of a small watch, whose motion is easily perceived, without the help of a glass.' p. 510..

Elsewhere (p. 377) he tells us that this rapid growth of rhubarb, even in the North of Europe, is well known. We rather think that this story was a trick upon the traveller'; and that he should be weak enough to believe any thing of this sort, we see no particular reason to doubt. But how he could

compare this growth, admitting it to be 9 inches in 24 hours, with that of the minute hand of a watch, is really mysterious. It must be a small watch indeed of which the circumference of the dial plate is not more than 3 inches (the diameter being one inch); even in this case, the minute hand travels seventy two inches in 24 hours, instead of nine! Mr H. could not mean the hour hand, because even he would not pretend that its motion is perceptible to the naked eye.

Having visited the field of Culloden, he observes,

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The graves, or long ditches, where hundreds who fell on that day were buried, are yet visible, and are covered with short beautiful grass, much eaten and beloved by the sheep; while all around these silent mansions is heath and barrenness; and the country, to a considerable distance, bleak and dreary, which it has ever been, I suppose, since the flood.' p. 464.

Many good folks in Scotland seem, even at this day, to have so much religion, and our author (though a Reverend A. M.) so little, that we are not at all surprised at his animadversions on their fanaticism, hypocrisy, &c. &c. We most heartily regret the number, and still more the contentions, of religious sects, in almost every part of our island. But is a ludicrous exhibition of the absurdities which may be found in some of all parties, more likely to promote the cause of pure and undefiled religion, or to harden the profligate and the infidel? Some of his delineations we believe to be false, and others we have good reason to regard as violently distorted: this may therefore be the case with the rest. Is he prepared to prove the following charge? If not, how did he dare to advance it? Speaking of some nameless Church, between Rothes and Elgin, which it was intended to demolish, had not the measure been riotously prevented by the parishioners, he adds,

The church, being permitted to stand, is now occupied by dissenters, who, instead of instructing the people, fill their heads with levelling notions respecting government and fanaticism. p. 455.

Every good subject who knows that public worship is perverted to the dissemination of levelling principles, should bring offenders to the bar of legal justice. But who can be a worse subject, than one who propagates such a charge, without adducing proof of its veracity? Indeed Mr. H.'s note, p 106, does not indicate a very cordial disposition toward the government of his country.

If our Revd. author had betrayed less indelicacy, less irreligion, less ill-nature, and related fewer foolish and fewer incredible tales, we think some of the local descriptions and some of the observations on men and manners that are scattered through his work, might have entertained and instructed his readers; but its general faults greatly preponderate over any utility that we could have ascribed to distinct parts of the performance.

We ought not, however, to conclude, without referring to the only intimation in the title of this work, which has not yet been explained. Mr. H.'s Travels in Scotland are suggested to have been made by an unusual route. This epithet can only apply to his almost incredible movements between Edinburgh and Perth, and to his equally eccentric course from Fort Augustus to Fort William. From Perth to the former spot, he usually kept the beaten track, notwithstanding the advantages which his travelling companion afforded him for occasional

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