GLORY OF THE HIGHLANDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15300, 14 November 1911, Page 8

GLORY OF THE HIGHLANDS

(By Geoiwk Euo.ui.) During ft crowded week, epent with hours splashed opulently by golden sunlight, I have flitted 'ike a moth attracted by unusual light, through some picti'irce]ue districts in the higher lands of Scotland. I bave visited Uio wonderland which stands to London as doce tho South to the North Polo, The faetnessce of the Highland regions are different, and are different in a manner which leave* no room ior doubt. Oo to Ynmoath., Brighton, Folkestone, or Margate, andyou find fllicffi of London lifo net by the M-a, and all the accuetomed trappings which give a sugar-coating to existence ur<! brought from the city to reconcile. iU native* during their brief absences. There is do change beyond' the stretch of iioldou eand, the untainted breetoe which rarcGA the land from tho sea, and the low mnrmiiring reng of plaehinjj waves eprirkling nn<l dancing tilvitr. To to to such places is but to pack Inndon life into-a

sort of jlorified luncheon hamper, in n-hicli everything has its proper place down to the lost spoon or fork. I fee my London as a region in which human lift, if it bo fortunate, ie most rarefttlly. cherished and where, if one ie wealthy; any sant appptile tbay be readily gratified. Time, in l/indon, one may eat r-lrawb'rri.'* out of £oanon have ion in cooling quuntitice during the hottest daye of Ilia h«t wace be driven to any

rcnsoiuWe liolol where, nt a-price which i« not pxtortlonato by tho measured mile, one may be hou&cd in different ways, in a n\-»nrier eodulously cultivated for the lndger'n comfort, anil be lulled, soothed, or preoccupied by a thousand and one forme of delightful cntertninmflit. When it L) recognised how completoly London sets iU citizens at ea»o the wonder grows that any man with money to burn ever cosnos lo coeen it. And yet my heart ifl in the Highlands. In the Iliffhlaixifl I/)iidoii becomee a dead letter hidden in n.remote cornor of \ poet ofiice which traflks in the eensjvlions <if a iiniverec. I have often wondnred why, with tho turn of September, society flooded north. It is because I have seen these Highlands that I underetaud. Thoy repnscnt lifo which ie ono wonderful vein of spacious, fragrant, dignifud silenoo. Drive carefully from Blivirgowrie to Baeinar. through the lonely, winding road which paesce betwenn tho mountains, green but bare, and you come in contact with a sparsely peopled loneliness which is anodyne to

tho mind iriitnuj by the clangour of crowdtd town life. The range of the bleak hille, grimly running against tho ekylinp, frown? on city-made frivolity. The nir is sluirp nnd cool, clean and fra grant, and the qaulity of the life one leads is junt the earn". Or it one is obsssied by Hμ prim beauty of the etark Highlands one may como a little lower and ride the road which winds along the Dee from Balmoral to Ballater, a panorama which is. a passing of eccmcally beautiful dreams, Driving to Balmoral

through ft tiigßcd fnirj-land, remote and difficult of accent, one rralieee why three generations of rulers have left their London to find eurceoeo here. The r«y fact that our Royalty lakes root here and turns to this grand country year aft«-.' year.is park,and parcel of its strange charm. It is an unchanging land, where people must take root. Alone here in the whole of Britain the clan not oly crista and thrivee, but ie proud of iU nttsclimonl. A procrsMon of kilted Highlanders, uniform in their historic garb, « a poem of the place il*elf. Their very walk as thoy follow the skirl of the pipec ie im nrietorratic progrces. Theirs is the

pride of living on the land through generations, and tho lord who rule* them has no keener flense of his possessions than the men who ecrve him. Still, it would seem to Uie visitor at the gates that the old fendnl spirit i» alive to-day—that tho land, though it belongs to the lord, is part o( the people 100.- It would seem that th« hiimbket Highlander lias a senso of great ]K«Je*eionfl, and hid wealth appears to lie m the privilege of treading on land which is haunted by racLil traditions. In hie progress the Highlander e6nscs tho fact that he ia ti link in an endkM chain, that lo ie part and pored of the land iteclf, that he is a unit in n clan ns immutable as the meiintnins by which it Ls Toared. To such a land a man may como and feel its strange fneciualion, but lie can nover l>e part of it, as is the Highlander. Ono iiuist be Imrn in such a district before one counts. The nlicn. the mere Snsse- : nacb, may louk like a Highlander and 1 may live as he de*«, bat ho can never bo exactly what the Highlander is. The aid** of tho mountains glwciiiK in tho sunset eky. tho windings oi tin; river, tho sounds of the countryainc, call lo the Highlander, nnd tin* farther he is away tint louder is the beckoning voice. That ie why men leave London to _ i»o back to the "Highlands. Tlu romance, tradition, and etraiiKt, stark teauty of tho lind arc in the blood, and their call pukcf through the li<wrl itself. They go back from town

—the Kin;,.the lord, the clansman; t)w purple honthcr. 'the cool air, the nun hills and glowing valleye, tlw sound of bide whirring along in autumn flight, call, and they must answer. London, with ite gifts' inav offi-r bribes to hold them, but they tuni to dross and are encrifked without a thought when the imi'ir of tho clan call wake's their teeol* lection of the cleanly sweet air etirrinj ia the purple mists wliich stretch across the valleye. •