a descent on
Edinburgh; which transaction occurred in September, 1779. Invernahyle,
as Scott adds, was the only person who seemed to have retained
possession of his cool senses at the period of that disgraceful alarm,
and offered the magistrates to collect as many Highlanders as would
suffice for cutting off any part of the pirate's crew that might
venture, in quest of plunder, into a city full of high houses and
narrow lanes, and every way well calculated for defence. The eager
delight with which the young apprentice now listened to the tales of
this fine old man's early days produced an invitation to his residence
among the mountains; and to this excursion he probably devoted the few
weeks of an autumnal vacation--whether in 1786 or 1787 it is of no
great consequence to ascertain.

In the Introduction to one of his Novels he has preserved a vivid
picture of his sensations when the vale of Perth {p.124} first burst
on his view, in the course of his progress to Invernahyle, and the
description has made classical ground of the _Wicks of Baiglie_, the
spot from which that beautiful landscape was surveyed. "Childish
wonder, indeed," he says, "was an ingredient in my delight, for I was
not above fifteen years old, and as this had been the first excursion
which I was permitted to make on a pony of my own, I also experienced
the glow of independence, mingled with that degree of anxiety which
the most conceited boy feels when he is first abandoned to his own
undirected counsels. I recollect pulling up the reins without meaning
to do so, and gazing on the scene before me as if I had been afraid it
would shift, like those in a theatre, before I could distinctly
observe its different parts, or convince myself that what I saw was
real. Since that hour the recollection of that inimitable landscape
has possessed the strongest influence over my mind, and retained its
place as a memorable thing, while much that was influential on my own
fortunes has fled from my recollection." So speaks the poet; and who
will not recognize his habitual modesty in thus undervaluing, as
uninfluential in comparison with some affair of worldly business, the
ineffaceable impression thus stamped on the glowing imagination of his
boyhood?

I need not quote the numerous passages scattered over his writings,
both early and late, in which he dwells with, fond affection on the
chivalrous character of Invernahyle--the delight with which he heard
the veteran d