Notes on the District of Menteith, for tourists and others . engineers,county councillors, and waiters; it makes themfit to bear their crosses and to impose others onthe general public, but it spoils a shepherd. Ashepherd is bom, rarely made, and the nativeHighlander has generally a genius for thebusiness. In the flat district of Menteith the countrj-man is too anxious to raise and improve ever heard either of a shepherd or a poetanxious to do either the one or the other ? Through-out Menteith, though poets are as scarce as inmost other parts of the world, you can find manyvaluable
Notes on the District of Menteith, for tourists and others . engineers,county councillors, and waiters; it makes themfit to bear their crosses and to impose others onthe general public, but it spoils a shepherd. Ashepherd is bom, rarely made, and the nativeHighlander has generally a genius for thebusiness. In the flat district of Menteith the countrj-man is too anxious to raise and improve ever heard either of a shepherd or a poetanxious to do either the one or the other ? Through-out Menteith, though poets are as scarce as inmost other parts of the world, you can find manyvaluable shepherds. This, no doubt, arises fromthe proximity of the Highlands and the mixtureof blood. The good (Highland) shepherd doesnot give his life for his sheep, or for anythingelse, with the possible exception of whisky; buthe fulfils at least as useful a function in the Stateas the minor poet, and in this respect, therefore,Menteith is at least on an equality with GrubStreet. The people (that is, those of the oldstock) seem to me to have preserved more of. MENTEITH 9 the characteristics of a fighting race than those ofalmost any other district of Scotland. Not that they are quarrelsome more than goodcitizens should be, but a rooted dislUce to anycontinuous occupation is very noticeable amongstthem. This is said to be the case with all thoseraces descended from ancestors who have beenconstantly engaged in war. The climate of the western portion of Menteithis mild and humid ; the snow rarely lies long inwinter, nor does the sun shine overmuch insummer; and much of the country is not far abovethe sea-level. Whether on account of the con-stant rain, or from the virulence of the religiousbeliefs of the natives, it is uncertain, but travellershave remarked that in few parts of Scotland arethe faces of the people so much lined and scai-red. A wet cloak ill laid up, or the new map to-gether with the augmentation of the Indies, areapt descriptions of many of their
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