posterity of their former proprietors; and whoever is not afraid of
encountering the spectacle of a swarming population in a state of abject
and squalid poverty, will find an abundant field for his antiquarian
researches in the old town of Edinburgh. Like Switzerland, and other
mountainous countries, Scotland is by nature formed to be a land of
romantic associations; but how wonderfully have her historians, poets, and
novelists contributed to create and preserve them! The author of Waverley
has thrown a classic halo around the wild beauties of his native land, and
communicated to stranger minds a national enthusiasm which _his_ soul alone
could have felt, _his_ pen alone inspired! In Scotland, almost every step
we take is on hallowed ground, and the lover of historical recollections
may enjoy to its full extent the delight of visiting places immortalized by
the achievements of her heroes, or the pen of her poets.

To a man fond of localities, travelling either on the continent or in
England, will furnish numerous opportunities of indulging the reveries to
which they give birth. It would be hardly possible to name a town, or a
village, utterly destitute of local interest. In almost every instance,
some memento would be discovered to hallow its site, and to engage the
observation of an intelligent traveller. With a mind predisposed to enjoy
mental associations, they will crowd on us wherever we go, and be suggested
by the veriest trifles. Rousseau could not contain his ecstacy at
beholding a little flower (_la parvenche_) in bloom, which thirty years
before, Madame de Warens had first pointed out to his notice. That simple
incident summoned up a train of exquisite reminiscences. No one, indeed,
ever yielded so entirely to the influence of local enthusiasm as the author
of the _Nouvelle Heloise_. No one has so successfully attempted to invest
scenes, in themselves beautiful, with the additional and powerful interest
of ideal recollections. Picturesque as are the shores of Leman, Meillerie,
and Vevai, yet to Rousseau's sublime conceptions and eloquent descriptions,