SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTCH.
EDINBURGH, June 3d.
In making the tour of Great Britain, there is an advantage in taking
Ireland first, Scotland next, and England last,--since in this way one
is always going from the less to the more interesting. To the young
American traveller "fresh and green," with enthusiasm unexpended, it
seems on landing in Ireland as if there never was such a bit of green
earth, and indeed it is a very interesting country. But many as are
its attractions, Scotland has far more, in that it is the home of a
much greater people, and is invested with far richer historical and
poetical associations; it has been the scene of great historical
events; it is the land of Wallace and Bruce, of Reformers and Martyrs,
of John Knox and the Covenanters, and of great preachers down to the
days of Chalmers and Guthrie; and it has been immortalized by the
genius of poets and novelists, who have given a fresh interest to the
simple manners of the people, as well as to their lakes and mountains.
And after all, it is this _human_ interest which is the great interest
of any country--not its hills and valleys, its lakes and rivers
_alone_, but these features of natural beauty and sublimity, illumined
and glorified by the presence of man, by the record of what he has
suffered and what he has achieved, of his love and courage, his daring
and devotion; and nowhere are these more identified with the country
itself than here, nowhere do they more speak from the very rocks and
hills and glens.
Scotland, though a great country, is not a very large one, and such
are now the facilities of travel that one can go very quickly to
almost any point. A few hours will take you into the heart of the
Highlands. We made in one day the excursion to Stirling, and to Loch
Lomond and Loch Katrine, and felt at every step how much the beauties
of nature are heightened by associations with romance or history. From
Stirling Castle one looks down upon a dozen battle-fields. He is in
sight of Bannockburn, where Bruce drove back the English invader, and
of other fields associated with Wallace, the hero of Scotland, as
William Tell is of Switzerland. Once among the lakes he surrenders
himself to his imagination, excited by romance. The poetry of Scott
gives to the wild glens and moors a greater charm than the bloom of
the heather. The lovely lake catches, more beautiful than the rays of
sunset,
"A light that never was on sea or shore,
The inspiration and the poet's dream."
Loch Katrine is a very pretty sheet of water, lying as it does at the
foot of rugged mountains, yet it is not more beautiful than hundreds
of small lakes among our Northern hills, but it derives a poetic charm
from being the scene of "The Lady of the Lake." A little rocky islet
is pointed out as Ellen's Isle. An open field by the roadside, which
would attract no attention, immediately becomes an object of romantic
interest when the coachman tells us it was the scene of the combat
between Fitz James and Roderick Dhu. The rough country over which we
are riding just now is no wilder than many of the roads among the
White Mountains--but it is the country of Rob Roy! I have climbed
through many a rocky mountain gorge as wild as the Trossachs, but they
had not Walter Scott to people them with his marvellous creations.
A student of the religious part of Scottish history will find another
interest here, as he remembers how, in the days of persecution, the
old Covenanters sought refuge in these glens, and here found shelter
from those pursuing rough-riders, Claverhouse's dragoons. Thus it is
the history of Scotland, and the genius of her writers, that give such
interest to her country and her people; and as I stood at the grave of
John Wilson (Christopher North), I blessed the hand that had depicted
so tenderly the "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," presenting such
varied scenes in the cottage and the manse, in the glen and on the
moor, but everywhere illustrating the patient trust and courage of
this wonderful people. It is a fit winding-up to the tour of Scotland,
that commonly the traveller's last visit, as he comes down to England,
is to Abbotsford, the home of Walter Scott; to Melrose Abbey, which a
few lines of his poetry have invested with an interest greater than
that of other similar ruins; and to Dryburgh Abbey, where he sleeps.
Edinburgh is the most picturesque city in Europe, as it is cleft in
twain by a deep gorge or ravine, on either side of which the two
divisions of the city, the Old Town and the New Town, stand facing
each other. From the Royal Hotel, where we are, in Princes Street,
just opposite the beautiful monument to Walter Scott, we look across
this gorge to long ranges of buildings in the Old Town, some of which
are ten stories high; and to the Castle, lifted in air four hundred
feet by a cliff that rears its rocky front from the valley below, its
top girt round with walls, and frowning with batteries. What
associations cluster about those heights! For hundreds of years, even
before the date of authentic history, that has been a military
stronghold. It has been besieged again and again. Cromwell tried to
take it, but its battlements of rock proved inaccessible even to his
Ironsides. There, in a little room hardly bigger than a closet, Mary
Queen of Scots gave birth to a prince, who when but eight days old was
let down in a basket from the cliff, that the life so precious to two
kingdoms as that of the sovereign in whom Scotland and England were
to be united, might not perish by murderous hands. And there is St.
Giles' Cathedral, where John Knox thundered, and where James VI. (the
infant that was born in the castle) when chosen to be James I. of
England, took leave of his Scottish subjects.
At the other end of Edinburgh is Holyrood Castle, whose chief interest
is from its association with the mother of James, the beautiful but
ill-fated Mary. How all that history, stranger and sadder than any
romance, comes back again, as we stand on the very spot where she
stood when she was married; and pass through the rooms in which she
lived, and see the very bed on which she slept, unconscious of the
doom that was before her, and trace all the surroundings of her most
romantic and yet most tragic history. Such are some of the
associations which gather around Edinburgh!
I find here my friend Mr. William Nelson (of the famous publishing
house of Nelson and Sons), whose hospitality I enjoyed for a week in
the summer of 1867; and he, with his usual courtesy, gave up a whole
day to show us Edinburgh, taking us to all the beautiful points of
view and places of historical interest--to the Castle and Holyrood,
and the Queen's Drive, around Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. Mr.
Nelson's house is a little out of the city, under the shadow of
Arthur's Seat, near a modest manse, which has been visited by hundreds
of American ministers, as it was the home of the late Dr. Guthrie. His
brother, Mr. Thomas Nelson, has lately erected one of the most
beautiful private houses I have seen in Scotland, or anywhere else. I
doubt if there is a finer one in Edinburgh; and what gives it a
special interest to an American, is that it was built wholly out of
the rise of American securities. During our civil war, when most
people in England thought the Great Republic was gone, he had faith,
and invested thousands of pounds in our government bonds, the rise in
which has paid entirely for this quite baronial mansion, so that he
has some reason to call it his American house. So many in Great
Britain have _lost_ by American securities, that it was pleasant to
know of one who had reaped the reward of his faith in the strength of
our government and the integrity of our people.
When we reached Edinburgh both General Assemblies were just closing
their annual meetings. I had met in Glasgow, on Sunday, at the Barony
church (where he is successor to Dr. Norman Macleod), John Marshall
Lang, D.D., who visited America as a delegate to our General Assembly,
and left a most favorable impression in our country; who told me that
their Assembly--that of the National Church--would close the next day,
and advised me to hasten to Edinburgh before its separation. So we
came on with him on Monday, and looked in twice at the proceedings,
but had not courage to stay to witness the end, which was not reached
till four o'clock the next morning! But by the courtesy of Dr. Lang, I
received an invitation from the excellent moderator, Dr. Sellars, (who
had been in America, and had the most friendly feeling for our
countrymen,) to a kind of state dinner, which it is an honored custom
of this old Church to give at the close of the Assembly. The moderator
is allowed two hundred pounds _to entertain_. He gives a public
breakfast every morning during the session, and winds up with this
grand feast. If the morning repasts were on such a generous scale as
that which we saw, the L200 could go but a little way. There were
about eighty guests, including the most eminent of the clergy,
principals and professors of colleges, dignitaries of the city of
Edinburgh, judges and law officers of the crown, etc. I sat next to
Dr. Lang, who pointed out to me the more notable guests, and gave me
much information between the courses; and Dr. Schaff sat next to
Professor Milligan. As became an Established Church, there were toasts
to the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and her Majesty's Ministers.
Altogether it was a very distinguished gathering, which I greatly
enjoyed. I am glad that we in America are beginning to cultivate
relations with the National Church of Scotland. As to the question of
Church and State, of course our sympathies are more with the Free
Church, but that should not prevent a friendly intercourse with so
large a body, to which we are drawn by the ties of a common faith and
order. Delegates from the National Church of Scotland will always be
welcome in our Assemblies, especially when they are such men as Dr.
Lang and Professor Milligan; and our representatives are sure of a
hearty reception here. Dr. Adams and Dr. Shaw, two or three years
since, electrified their Assembly, and they do not cease to speak of
it. Certainly we cannot but be greatly benefited by cultivating the
most cordial relations with a body which contains so large an array of
men distinguished for learning, eloquence, and piety.
In the Free Church things are done with less of form and state than in
the National Church, but there is intense life and rigor. I looked in
upon their Assembly, but found it occupied, like the other, chiefly
with those routine matters which are hastened through at the close of
a session. But I heard from members that the year has been one of
great prosperity. The labors of the American revivalists, Moody and
Sankey, have been well received, and the impression of all with whom I
conversed was that they had done great good. In financial matters I
was told that there had been such an outpouring of liberality as had
never been known in Scotland before. The success of the Sustentation
Fund is something marvellous, and must delight the heart of that noble
son of Scotland, Dr. McCosh.
I am disappointed to find that the cause of UNION has not made more
progress. There is indeed a prospect of the "Reformed" Church being
absorbed into the Free Church, thus putting an end to an old
secession. But it is a small body of only some eighty churches, while
the negotiations with the far larger body of United Presbyterians,
after being carried on for many years, are finally suspended, and may
not be resumed. As to the National Church, it clings to its
connection with the State as fondly as ever, and the Free Church,
having grown strong without its aid, now disdains its alliance. On
both sides the attitude is one of respectful but pretty decided
aversion. So far from drawing nearer to each other, they appear to
recede farther apart. It was thought that some advance had been made
on the part of the Old Kirk, in the act of Parliament abolishing
patronage, but the Free Church seemed to regard this as a temptation
of the adversary to allure them from the stand which they had taken
more than thirty years ago, and which they had maintained in a long
and severe, but glorious, struggle. They will not listen to the voice
of the charmer, no, not for an hour.
This attitude of the Free Church toward the National Church, coupled
with the fact that its negotiations with the United Presbyterians have
fallen through, does not give us much hope of a general union among
the Presbyterians of Scotland, at least in our day. In fact there is
something in the Scotch nature which seems to forbid such coalescence.
_It does not fuse well._ It is too hard and "gritty" to melt in every
crucible. For this reason they cannot well unite with any body. Their
very nature is centrifugal rather than centripetal. They love to
argue, and the more they argue the more positive they become. The
conviction that they are right, is absolute on both sides. Whatever
other Christian grace they lack, they have at least attained to a full
assurance of faith. No one can help admiring their rugged honesty and
their strong convictions, upheld with unflinching courage. They become
heroes in the day of battle, and martyrs in the day of persecution;
but as for mutual concession, and mutual forgiveness, that, I fear, is
not in them.
It is painful to see this alienation between two bodies, for both of
which we cannot but feel the greatest respect. It does not become us
Americans to offer any counsel to those who are older and wiser than
we; yet if we might send a single message across the sea, it should
be to say that we have learned by all our conflicts and struggles to
cherish two things--which are our watchwords in Church and
State--_liberty_ and _union_. We prize our liberty. With a great price
we have obtained this freedom, and no man shall take it from us. But
yet we have also learned how precious a thing is brotherly love and
concord. Sweet is the communion of saints. This is the last blessing
which we desire for Scotland, that has so many virtues that we cannot
but wish that she might abound in this grace also. Even with this
imperfection, we love her country and her people. Whoever has had
access to Scottish homes, must have been struck with their beautiful
domestic character, with the attachment in families, with the
tenderness of parents, and the affectionate obedience of children. A
country in which the scenes of "The Cotter's Saturday Night" are
repeated in thousands of homes, we cannot help loving as well as
admiring. Wherefore do I say from my heart, A thousand blessings on
dear old Scotland! Peace be within her walls, and prosperity within
her palaces!