And though I think I
would rather die elsewhere, yet in my heart of hearts I long to be
buried among good Scots clods. I will say it fairly, it grows on
me with every year: there are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh
street-lamps. When I forget thee, auld Reekie, may my right hand
forget its cunning!
The happiest lot on earth is to be born a Scotchman. You must pay
for it in many ways, as for all other advantages on earth. You
have to learn the paraphrases and the shorter catechism; you
generally take to drink; your youth, as far as I can find out, is a
time of louder war against society, of more outcry and tears and
turmoil, than if you had been born, for instance, in England. But
somehow life is warmer and closer; the hearth burns more redly; the
lights of home shine softer on the rainy street; the very names,
endeared in verse and music, cling nearer round our hearts. An
Englishman may meet an Englishman to-morrow, upon Chimborazo, and
neither of them care; but when the Scotch wine-grower told me of
Mons Meg, it was like magic.
"From the dim shieling on the misty island
Mountains divide us, and a world of seas;
Yet still our hearts are true, our hearts are Highland,
And we, in dreams, behold the Hebrides."
And, Highland and Lowland, all our hearts are Scotch.
Only a few days after I had seen M'Eckron, a message reached me in
my cottage.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37