A JOURNEY FROM EDINBURGH THROUGH PARTS OF NORTH BRITAIN: CONTAINING REMARKS ON SCOTISH LANDSCAPE; AND OBSERVATIONS ON RURAL ECONOMY, NATURAL Interspersed with TRADITIONAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL; TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, RELATING CHIEFLY TO CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS, FROM IN TWO VOLUMES, Embellished with FORTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS, From Drawings made on the Spot, of the Lake, River, and Mountain Scenery of Scotland. By ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. VOL. I., LONDON: Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street; FOR T. N. LONGMAN AND O. REES, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND 1802. PUBLIC PREFACE. THE HE title-page of a literary production ought, if poffible, to convey to the mind of the reader a pretty accurate notion of its scope and general contents; an apology, therefore, for the feeming prolixity of the title-page prefixed to these volumes, will be found in the utility of this good old practice. Although I have more than once appeared before the public as an author, I feel on this occafion, that diffidence and anxiety which are natural to one who gleans in a field wherein so many have reaped with reward and diftinction; yet confcious of having bestowed due pains in order to render it worthy of acceptance, I await the time when the candid and judicious shall have awarded that share of approbation, to which this performance may be found juftly entitled. It appeared to me, notwithstanding the numerous writers that of late have directed their attention to the examination of the antiquities, natural history, peculiar customs and manners of the northern fection of our island, that many things had efcaped their diligence of refearch, which a native intimately acquainted with the claffic ground and hiftorical incidents thereto belonging, as well as with many traditionary particulars about to fink into that oblivion from which they are now fnatched, might have it in his power to examine more at leifure than any stranger, how accurate foever, traversing hastily the various districts defcribed in the following journey: in collecting materials for which, I have spared neither time nor labour; and toward a proper selection and arrangement of what I deemed most interesting and valuable, I have done all in my power. 1 Aware of that kind of disgust which ceaseless egotifm usually excites, I have chofen to appear as feldom as poffible in the body of the work; by which means the reader is fpared the unneceffary intrufion that too frequently occurs in fimilar productions. In truth, were I to relate but a fmall part of the casual incidents connected with the prefent itinerary, it would fwell into many more volumes to very little purpose. But, befides three feveral excurfions made on purpose to take the sketches of the scenery faithfully on the spot, as well as to ascertain from perfonal furvey the prefent ftate of rural economy, manufactures, trade, and commerce, I have had, during twenty of my life, frequent occafion to vifit the extensive range through which the traveller is herein directed. years |