189
subsequent edition of Scotland Delineated, on page 273, has Lawson describing
what to his mind’s eye is the most beautiful waterfall in all of Scotland, namely the
Tummel. He quotes one Dr. MacCulloch, a historian who’d written on the Battle of
the Grampians (Mons Graupius, AD 83), an early prelude to a recent revival of
interest in Britain’s most famous Roman governor: Gnaeus Julius Agricola, fatherin- law to the ancient military historian, Tacitus.
Agricola had famously pressed his armies from southern England clear into
Scotland between 77 and 84 AD. Today, some of the research about this period in
Scottish history is known as the Roman Gask Project, referring to the Gask Ridge in
Perthshire
15
. Wrote MacCulloch, “…it is beautiful in itself, and almost without the
aid of its accompaniments…Whether low or full, whether the river glides transparent over the rocks to burst in foam below, or whether it descends like a torrent of
snow from the very edge, this Fall is always varied, and always graceful….the general landscape is at the same time rich and romantic, nothing being left to desire to
render this one of the most brilliant scenes which our country produces”
16
.
A century prior to Lawson’s masterpiece, and a half-century before Robson
appears in the Grampians, the Reverend William Gilpin had written his own
Observations on the “High-Lands of Scotland”
17
. His three watercolors of Loch
Lomond are somber, exalted and give no evidence of a looming penchant on the part
of the Scottish people to exploit those “modes of beauty” [of which, writes Gilpin]
“we had great profusion”
18
. Although Gilpin’s lyricism does presage a familiar tension when he promotes an eighteenth century common-place aesthetic that declares
that “high places, and extended views have ever been propitious to the excursions of
the imagination. As we surveyed the scene before us, which was an amusing, but
unpeopled surface, it was natural to consider it under the idea of population”
19
.
During Gilpin’s time in the Grampians, another Reverend, Thomas Malthus was but
a 10-year old. But the adult Malthus’s subsequent influence on the social and economic chasms pushing Anglo-Saxon and Celtic cultures apart, and leading by every
continuing vexation and racist outrage to the unprecedented period in Scottish history known as the “Highland Clearances” had not yet occurred. It was to be one of
the most heinous country-wide policies of “forced eviction” ever visited upon a
large population, on ethnic and invented economic grounds, but it was soon to do so.
The political crises in Scotland were looming toward it.
15 See http://www.theromangaskproject.org.uk/Pages/Introduction/Agricola-hecame.html.
16 See Scotland Delineated. A Series Of Views Of The Principal Cities And Towns, Particularly Of
Edinburgh And Its Environs; Of The Cathedrals, Abbeys, and other Monastic Remains; The Castles
And Baronial Mansions, The Mountains And Rivers, Sea Coast, And Other Grand And Picturesque
Scenery, by John Parker Lawson, Day And Son, Lithographers To The Queen, London, 1860.
17 Observations, Relative Chiefly To Picturesque Beauty, Made in the Year 1776, On Several Parts
of Great Britain; Particularly The High-Lands of Scotland, Printed for R. Blamire, London,
Second Edition, 1792.
18 ibid., p. 3.
19 ibid., p. 33.
20.1 Beauteous, Befallen
subsequent edition of Scotland Delineated, on page 273, has Lawson describing
what to his mind’s eye is the most beautiful waterfall in all of Scotland, namely the
Tummel. He quotes one Dr. MacCulloch, a historian who’d written on the Battle of
the Grampians (Mons Graupius, AD 83), an early prelude to a recent revival of
interest in Britain’s most famous Roman governor: Gnaeus Julius Agricola, fatherin- law to the ancient military historian, Tacitus.
Agricola had famously pressed his armies from southern England clear into
Scotland between 77 and 84 AD. Today, some of the research about this period in
Scottish history is known as the Roman Gask Project, referring to the Gask Ridge in
Perthshire
15
. Wrote MacCulloch, “…it is beautiful in itself, and almost without the
aid of its accompaniments…Whether low or full, whether the river glides transparent over the rocks to burst in foam below, or whether it descends like a torrent of
snow from the very edge, this Fall is always varied, and always graceful….the general landscape is at the same time rich and romantic, nothing being left to desire to
render this one of the most brilliant scenes which our country produces”
16
.
A century prior to Lawson’s masterpiece, and a half-century before Robson
appears in the Grampians, the Reverend William Gilpin had written his own
Observations on the “High-Lands of Scotland”
17
. His three watercolors of Loch
Lomond are somber, exalted and give no evidence of a looming penchant on the part
of the Scottish people to exploit those “modes of beauty” [of which, writes Gilpin]
“we had great profusion”
18
. Although Gilpin’s lyricism does presage a familiar tension when he promotes an eighteenth century common-place aesthetic that declares
that “high places, and extended views have ever been propitious to the excursions of
the imagination. As we surveyed the scene before us, which was an amusing, but
unpeopled surface, it was natural to consider it under the idea of population”
19
.
During Gilpin’s time in the Grampians, another Reverend, Thomas Malthus was but
a 10-year old. But the adult Malthus’s subsequent influence on the social and economic chasms pushing Anglo-Saxon and Celtic cultures apart, and leading by every
continuing vexation and racist outrage to the unprecedented period in Scottish history known as the “Highland Clearances” had not yet occurred. It was to be one of
the most heinous country-wide policies of “forced eviction” ever visited upon a
large population, on ethnic and invented economic grounds, but it was soon to do so.
The political crises in Scotland were looming toward it.
15 See http://www.theromangaskproject.org.uk/Pages/Introduction/Agricola-hecame.html.
16 See Scotland Delineated. A Series Of Views Of The Principal Cities And Towns, Particularly Of
Edinburgh And Its Environs; Of The Cathedrals, Abbeys, and other Monastic Remains; The Castles
And Baronial Mansions, The Mountains And Rivers, Sea Coast, And Other Grand And Picturesque
Scenery, by John Parker Lawson, Day And Son, Lithographers To The Queen, London, 1860.
17 Observations, Relative Chiefly To Picturesque Beauty, Made in the Year 1776, On Several Parts
of Great Britain; Particularly The High-Lands of Scotland, Printed for R. Blamire, London,
Second Edition, 1792.
18 ibid., p. 3.
19 ibid., p. 33.
20.1 Beauteous, Befallen