tower.

ment but when Kenneth the Second, king of Scots, had Villages entirely subdued the Picts, he translated both the monastery and the bishop to St Andrews in the year 518. After this the cathedral of Abernethy became a collegiate church, and an university for the education of youth, in the possession of the Culdees. In the year 1273 it became a priory of regular canons. The town is a borough of barony, of which Lord Douglas, as representative of the heiress of Abernethy, is superior. Its government is invested in two bailies and fifteen counsellors. It is remarkable for having one of these tall slender towers, of Hollow which there is only one more in Scotland, at Brechin, though they abound in Ireland; but the date and the use of which are doubtful. Gordon visited this tower; of which he gives the following account: "I went directly," says he, "to Abernethy, the ancient capital of the Pictish nation, about four miles from Perth, to see if I could find any remains of the Picts hereabouts, but could discover nothing except a stately hollow pillar without a staircase; so that when I entered within, and looked upwards, I could scarce forbear imagining myself at the bottom of a deep draw-well. It has only one door or entrance facing the north, somewhat above the basis; the height of which is eight feet and a half, the breadth from jamb to jamb two feet and a half. Towards the top are four windows, which have served for the admission of light; they are equidistant, and five feet nine inches in height, and two feet two inches in breadth, and each is supported by two small pillars. At the bottom are two rows of stones projecting from beneath, which served for the basis of a pedestal. The whole height of the pillar is seventy-five feet, and consists of sixty-four rows or regular courses of hewn stone; the external circumference at the base is forty-eight feet, but diminishes

Villages. somewhat towards the top; and the thickness of the wall is three feet and a half. This is by the inhabitants hereabout called the Round Steeple of Abernethy, and is supposed to be the only remains of a Pictish work in these parts."

Highland villages.

Dunkeld.

Upon the upper parts of the Tay are the small Highland villages of Killin and Kenmore, remarkable only for the beauty of the scenery with which they are surrounded. The same remark may be made concerning Blair in Athol upon the Garry and Tilt, and Logiereat near the junction of the Tay and Tumble, though these last are larger in size.

Dunkeld, situated on the north bank of the Tay, is extremely worthy of attention. The scenery which surrounds it has already been in some degree noticed. Nature has here been extremely liberal in combining the finest objects for the landscape painter; and the improvements of the Duke of Athol, conducted on an extensive scale and with great taste, have given an additional ornament to the whole; presenting a variety and a degree of pictu resque beauty, which is seldom equalled, and perhaps no where surpassed. Mr Grey, the author of the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, visited it in 1766, and thus expresses himself in a letter to the Earl of Oxford: "The road came to the brow of a deep descent; and between two woods of oak we saw far below us the Tay, come sweeping along at the bottom of a precipice at least 150 feet deep, clear as glass, full to the brim, and very rapid in its course. It seemed to issue out of woods thick and tall that rose on either hand, and were overhung by broken rocky crags of vast height. Above them, to the west, the tops of higher mountains appeared, on which the evening clouds reposed. Down by the side of the river, under the thickest shades, is seated the town of Dunkeld.