Striking and Picturesque Delineations of the Grand, Beautiful, Wonderful, and Interesting Scenery Around Loch-Earn/Preface
PREFACE.
The present publication of these singular Sketches may be ascribed to one of those happy accidents to which the world is often indebted for the most important benefits. It was for the Public, indeed, that they were originally composed. But remote as their Author was from the capital, and inadequate as were his means to the expense of printing them, he might have remained long in obscurity, or his fame, at the best, might never have travelled beyond the narrow circle round which his manuscripts could be conveyed; and thus the literary world must have been denied the pleasure which these inimitable productions cannot fail to impart. Fortune, however, had determined that he should not long, like the plovers which he scared upon the heath, ‘sing his wild notes to the listening waste’ alone, or, like the native flower on his hills, exhale ‘his sweetness to the desert air.’
About the beginning of last Autumn, a Gentleman who had gone to spend a few days at Loch-Earn, to enjoy the sport of grouse-shooting, was introduced of course to Angus M‘Diarmid, whom he made his companion in all his excursions. He soon discovered that skill and attention in conducting him to the haunts of the muirfowl, was the least valuable qualification of his new acquaintance. The pleasure which he took in pointing out whatever was remarkable in the country which they traversed,–the rapture with which he dwelt on the wild and magnificent scenery which was ever varying to their view,–and the amazing pomp of expression in which he clothed his enthusiastic descriptions, rendered Angus himself not the least interesting and romantic object in these ‘Alpine solitudes.’ Some compliments on his powers of delineation encouraged him to speak of his manuscripts. Little persuasion was necessary to induce him to recite some of the most choice passages, which he did in a manner admirably harmonizing with the matter. As his confidence increased, he began to hint his intentions of publication: and, at last, in the fullness of his heart, he offered, as a mark of peculiar attachment and regard, to entrust the stranger with his manuscripts, on condition that he would send them to the press.
To give its full value to this mark of confidence, it was accompanied with the assurance that he knew no other person whom he could have trusted so far. ‘It was impossible’ he said, ‘to divine what advantage a designing person might take of such a trust.’ And with this becoming caution he had refused, though very earnestly untreated, to give the manuscripts to a gentleman on whom he was somewhat dependent, lest, by publishing them surreptitiously, he might cheat him of his well earned fame.
To save him from all such anxiety in future, and to discharge, at the same time, an important duty to the public, they have been sent to the press with all convenient speed. With a due tenderness for the Author’s reputation, not a word nor a letter has been altered from his manuscripts; and we trust it is not too sanguine to hope, that they will excite in every reader, an interest similar to that which we feel in ushering them into the world.
Those who are fond of literary curiosities, will doubtless account themselves fortunate in having an opportunity of perusing these truly curious Delineations of the grand and picturesque Scenery around Loch-Earn: and they will probably be inclined to wonder, that an untaught Highlander, whose thoughts have seldom wandered beyond his native mountains, should have been able to express himself in terms of such unparallelled sublimity. So strange, indeed, does this fact appear, that some may be disposed to doubt whether this Angus M‘Diarmid be not altogether a fictitious person: and did we choose to be mysterious, it were easy to involve the matter in as much uncertainty as Mr. Macpherson has thrown over the divine Poems of Ossian, and thus to encircle ourselves with that radiance of renown, which should beam in its full brightness around the fortunate Author. Let it be our fame (nobis magna satis) to have withstood so powerful a temptation.—Whoever will take the trouble to visit Loch-Earn, a trouble which the scenery will amply repay, may satisfy himself of the real existence of Angus M‘Diarmid, and of his being the real author of these Delineations.
If any who have not access to the same mode of conviction should be disposed to be sceptical, let them reflect, that the mind inevitably catches its tone and character from the scenery and local circumstances with which it is most conversant. Hence the elevation of the Highland character; the lofty spirit of the mountain hero; the towering sublimity of the mountain bard. In men of genius and sensibility, this sympathy between mind and external nature is particularly powerful; and hence the peculiarities of our Author’s manner. One who, on the summits of the Grampian mountains, with a mind of kindred grandeur, treads habitually, as it were, in the sky, naturally acquires a loftiness of thought, inconceivable to the inhabitants of humble regions. His very language and style harmonizes with the objects among which he believes. Lifted by his hills to the clouds and storms, he insensibly imitates the sublime obscurity in which he is almost daily enveloped. His speech, bold, rugged, and abrupt, as the rocks which defy all access but to the wing of the eagle and the vulture, bids equal defiance to those who would scan his meaning by the regular steps of criticism. Like the torrent shooting impetuously from crag to crag, his sentences, instead of flowing in a smooth and equal tenor, overleap with noble freedom the mounds and impediments of grammar, verbs, conjugations, and adverbs, which give tameness and regularity to ordinary compositions. Should any reader be startled by these deviations from the established rules of writing, let him pay due homage to the wild and untrammeled originality of genius; and instead of censuring or envying, let him admire the excellence he cannot reach. If the flights of our Author be too high for the languid imaginations, or obtuse intellectual vision of his Southern readers, he may, perhaps, be induced, in some future edition; to lower himself nearer to their level.