Recollections of Aubrey de Vere Paperback - 1201

From the publisher

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1897. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX A SHORT TOUR IN SCOTLAND IN 1845 Edinburgh -- Melrose and Roslin -- Glen Etive and its Irish Legends -- Inversneyd -- Wordsworth's "Highland Girl" -- Loch Awe -- Loch Katrine -- Stirling. IN the November of 1845 I made an expedition into Scotland. As I left Miss Fenwick's house beside Windermere she put a small volume of Burns's poems into my hand, and said, "You know nothing about Burns's poetry: read that book in Burns's country, and tell me what you think of him when you return." I made my way to Glasgow. Its stone streets were cleaner and statelier than most of the commercial cities in England, and the Clyde, down which I steamed as far as Bute, combines majesty and loveliness in a very remarkable degree. Next I went to Edinburgh, the most picturesque metropolis I know to the north of the Alps. Few cities boast an Acropolis. Edinburgh boasts two -- the Castle Hill, lacking nothing but a building worthy to crown it, and the Calton Hill, lacking nothing but the completion of its Parthenon and the removal of Nelson's monument, the size of which dwarfs many a better one not far off. The Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, though I believe only eight hundred feet high, are far more mountainous in character, owing to the grandeur of their outlines and the solidity of their cliffs, than many a spongy mountain that lifts its pig's back to the height of three or four thousand feet elsewhere. Few cities have such an historical character as Edinburgh. No one can pass by Holyrood Palace without recalling the day when "To the Lords of Convention, 't was Claverhouse spoke: 'Ere the King's crown goes down there are crowns to be broke, '" and a hundred incidents recorded by the heroic man who strode down that street, humming his own ballad, to announce to ...