th century, _Reid_,
_Vaus_, and _Cuthbert_ are prominent citizens. _Vaus_ is said to mean
"of the vales," _i.e._, _de Vallibus_; _Reid_ is Scotch for "red"; and
_Cuthbert_ is pure Lowland. Evidently the leading men were aliens and
interlopers.

CHAPTER II.

MUSIC, SPEECHES, AND LITERATURE.

Scotch a reading nation--Hardships of students in old
days--Homer in Scalloway--When education ends--Objects of
chapter--Music--M.P.'s--Rural depopulation--Its
causes--Emigration--Village halls--The moon--A lecture in
Islay--Mental and material wealth--Real greatness--A Highland
laird on literature--Varieties of chairmen--"Coming to the
point"--Moral obligation--Compliment to Paisley--Oratory at
Salen--Lecture in a dungeon--Surprises--A visit to the
Borders--Tarbolton--Scotch language--Choice books--The
essayists--A Banff theory--Goldsmith in Gaelic--_Biblia
abiblia_--Favourites for the road--Horace--Shakespeare's
Sonnets--Xenophon--French literature and journalism--Romance and
Augustanism--Victorian writers--Celt and Saxon.

SCOTCH A READING NATION.

I think it was Mr. Holyoake, the veteran lecturer, who, in a volume of
reminiscences, declared he found the audiences in Scotland more
intelligent than elsewhere. I cannot draw such comparisons, for I have
not spoken often south of the Tweed; this I can say with assurance,
however, that no one need hesitate to address an audience of Scotch
peasants on a topic of literary interest. Predestination and such
religious trifles may stir them to disrespectful heat, but pure
literature invariably draws forth their cool and critical attention.
Probably no nation has ever devoted so much attention to books, and, as
the result of this characteristic, Scotland, considering its size and
population, has produced far more than its proportion of eminent men. At
the Reformation epoch, when the comforts of a Lowland cottage would be
little in advance of those in a present-day Uist croft, writers like
George Buchanan and his fellows of the _Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum_ made
the excellence of Scotch scholarship known in every university of
Europe. Buchanan was really a typical Caledonian man of
genius--open-eyed, sagacious, patriotic, and cosmopolitan--and I can
strongly recommend the occasional perusal of his Latin Psalms to all
modern readers who wish to keep their feelings of reverence fresh and
prevent their Latin quantities from gettin