a general appellation for the inhabitants of the mountainous parts of any country. In Britain, the name is appropriated to the people who inhabit the mountainous parts of Scotland, to the north and north-west, including those of the Hebrides or Western isles.—They are a branch of the ancient Celts; and undoubtedly the descendants of the first inhabitants of Britain, as appears from the many monuments of their language still retained in the most ancient names of places in all parts of the island. The Highlanders, or, as they are often termed by ancient authors, the Caledonians, were always a brave, warlike, and hardy race of people; and, in the remotest times, seem to have possessed a degree of refinement in sentiment and manners then unknown to the other nations that surrounded them. This appears not only from their own traditions and poems, but also from the testimony of many ancient authors. This civilization was probably owing in a great measure to the order of the bards, or Druids, and some other institutions peculiar to this people.

The ancient Highlanders lived in the hunting state till some time after the era of Fingal, who was one of their kings towards the close of the third century. For some ages after that, they turned their chief attention to the pastoral life, which afforded a less precarious subsistence. Till of late, agriculture in most parts of the Highlands made but little progress.

The Highlanders always enjoyed a king and government of their own, till Kenneth MacAlpine (anno 845), after having subdued the Pictish kingdom, transferred thither the seat of royalty. This event proved very unfavourable to the virtues of the Highlanders, which from this period began to decline. The country, no longer awed by the presence of the sovereign, fell into anarchy and confusion. The chieftains began to extend their authority, to form factions, and to foment divisions and feuds between contending clans. The laws were either too feeble to bind them, or too remote to take notice of them. Hence sprung all those evils which long disgraced the country, and disturbed the peace of its inhabitants. Robbery or plunder, providing it was committed on any one of an adverse clan or tribe, was countenanced and authorised; and their reprisals on one another were perpetual. Thus quarrels were handed down from one generation to another, and the whole clan were bound in honour to espouse the cause of every individual that belonged to it. By this means the genius of the people was greatly altered; and the Highlanders of a few ages back were almost as remarkable for their irregular and disorderly way of life as their predecessors were for their civilization and virtue. It is from not attending to this distinction between the ancient Highlanders and their posterity in later times, that many have doubted the existence of those exalted virtues ascribed by their poets to the more ancient inhabitants of the country. But now that the power of the chieftains is again abolished, law established, and property secured, the genius of the people (where it is not hindered by some other extraneous cause) begins again to show itself in its genuine colours; and many of their ancient virtues begin to shine with conspicuous lustre. Justice, generosity, honesty, friendship, peace, and love, are perhaps nowhere more cultivated than among this people. But one of the strongest features which marked the character of the Highlanders in every age, was their hospitality and benevolence to strangers. At night the traveller was always sure to find a hearty welcome in whatever house he should go to; and the host thought himself happier in giving the entertainment than the guest in receiving it. Even with regard to their enemies, the laws of hospitality were observed with the most sacred regard. They who fought against each other in the day, could in the night feast, and even sleep together, in the same house. From the same principle, they were, in most other cases, so faithful to their trust, that they rarely betrayed any confidence reposed in them. A promise they thought as binding as an oath, and held it equally inviolable and sacred.

The Caledonians in all ages have been much addicted to poetry and music. The poems of Ossian, so universally repeated, and so highly esteemed by every Highlander, are a strong proof of the early proficiency of this people in the poetical art. Even to this day, notwithstanding the many disadvantages they labour under, the most illiterate of either sex discover frequently a genius for poetry, which often breaks forth in the most natural and simple strains, when, love, grief, joy, or any other subject of song, demands it. Wherever their circumstances are so easy as to allow them any respite from toil, or any cheerfulness of spirits, a good portion of their time, especially of the winter-nights, is still devoted to the song and tale. This last species of composition is chiefly of the novel-kind, and is handed down by tradition like their poems. It was the work of the bards; and proved, while they existed, no contemptible entertainment. But since the extinction of that order, both the Gaelic poems and tales are in a great measure either lost or adulterated.—The genius and character of the Gaelic poetry is well known. It is tender, simple, beautiful, and sublime.

Among the ancient Highlanders, the harp was the chief instrument of music. It suited the mildness of their manners, and was well adapted to the peace and quiet which they enjoyed under their own kings. In a later period, however, when the constant quarrels of their chiefs, and the endless feuds of contending clans, turned all their thoughts to war, it was forced to give place to the bag-pipe, an instrument altogether of the martial kind, and therefore well suited to the state of the country at that time. But ever since the cause which has brought this instrument in vogue had ceased Highland to operate, the attention to it has been on the decline; so that the harp, with very little encouragement, might again resume the seat from which it was once expelled.

The most, and especially the oldest of the Highland music, having been composed to the harp, is of a soft, tender, and elegiac cast, as best suited to the genius of that instrument. These pieces are generally expressive of the passions of love and grief. Other pieces, which were composed in their state of war, and adapted to a different instrument, are altogether bold and martial. And many are of a sprightly and cheerful cast, the offspring of mirth, and the sport of fancy in the season of festivity. Many of these last are of the chorus kind; and are sung in almost all the exercises in which a number of people are engaged, such as rowing, reaping, fulling, &c. The time of these pieces is adapted to the exercises to which they are respectively sung. They greatly forward the work, and alleviate the labour. The particular music which is generally used by the Highlanders in their dances is well known by the name of Strathspey reels.

The language of the Highlanders is still the Gaelic; which, with many of their customs and manners, has been secured to them by their mountains and fastnesses, amidst the many revolutions which the rest of the island has undergone in so long a course of ages. The Gaelic seems to be the oldest and purest dialect which remains of the Celtic, as appears from its approaching the nearest to the names of places, &c. which that language left in most countries where it prevailed, and from its most obvious affinity to those tongues, ancient or modern, which have been in any measure derived from the old Celtic. The Gaelic has all the marks of an original and primitive language. Most of the words are expressive of some property or quality of the objects which they denote. This, together with the variety of its sounds (many of which, especially of those that express the soft and mournful passions, are peculiar to itself), renders it highly adapted for poetry. It is generally allowed to have been the language of court, in Scotland, till the reign of Malcolm Canmore. The Gaelic epithet of Can-more, or "large head," by which this king is distinguished, seems to intimate so much. In some particular parliaments at least, it was spoken much later, as in that held by Robert the Bruce at Ardehantian. That it has been formerly a good deal cultivated, appears from the style and complexion of its poems and tales, and from several ancient MSS. that have come down to the present time. To strangers the Gaelic has a forbidding aspect, on account of the number of its quiescent consonants (which are retained to mark the derivation of words and their variation in case and tense), but its sound is abundantly musical and harmonious; and its genius strong and masculine. Its alphabet consists of 18 letters, of which one is an aspirate, 12 are consonants, and five are vowels.

The Highlanders are beginning of late to apply to learning, agriculture, and especially to commerce, for which their country, everywhere indented with arms of the sea, is peculiarly favourable. Cattle is the chief staple of the country; but it produces more grain than would supply its inhabitants, if so much of it were not consumed in whisky. The natives are beginning to avail themselves of their mines, woods, wool, and fisheries; and by a vigorous application, with the due encouragement of government, may become a prosperous and useful people.

The Highlanders are of a quick and penetrating genius, strongly tinctured with a curiosity or thirst of knowledge, which disposes them to learn anything very readily. They are active and industrious, where oppression does not discourage them by excluding even the hope of thriving. They are remarkably bold and adventurous, which qualifies them for being excellent seamen and soldiers. They are generally of a middle size, rather above it than otherwise; their eyes are brisk and lively, their features distinctly marked, and their persons tight and well made. Their countenance is open and ingenuous, and their temper frank and communicative.