They are fleeting, fickle toys.
Cymbeline.
THE TOPOGRAPHER
ROAD BOOK OF SCOTLAND.
Tourists will never cease to remember their obligations to Mr. Leigh, the publisher of this pretty little volume. He has done so much for their gratification in his New Pocket Road Books, (of which series the present work is one,) that their success ought to be toasted in all the delightful retreats to which they act as ciceroni. In his Road Book of England and Wales, he has done what Mr. Peel is now doing with our old Acts of Parliament—consolidating their worth, and rejecting their obsoleteness. For our own part, one of the greatest bugbears of books is the Road Book on the old system: it is all long columns of small type, in which we lose our way as in the cross-roads of the last century—all direction-posts and "Vides," puzzle upon puzzle, Pelion on Ossa, and Ossa on Pelion—crabbed and complex abbreviations, with which we get acquainted at the end of our journey. They contain nothing like direct information, and the only people who appear to understand them are postmasters and innkeepers, and some old-established bagmen, whose interests and heads will give you a clearer view of the roads than all the itineraries ever printed. It was, however, but reasonable to expect that the Macadamization of roads, or the mending of ways, should be followed up by the improvement of Road Books, since greater facilities and inducements were thereby afforded to the tourist for the detection and exposure of blunders—such as placing a hall on the wrong side of the road, or recording some relic which had never existed but in the book.
The arrangement of the Road Book of Scotland is clear and intelligible, and, moreover, it is a book which may be read in the post-chaise or the parlour, on or off the road, before or after the journey, with equal pleasure. It is so portable, that the pedestrian will not complain of its weight, for it bears the same proportion to an old Road Book that a Prayer Book does to a Family Bible. The picturesque charms of Scotland, and its connexion with eminent individuals, and memorable events of love, war, and chivalric renown, all combine to render a Scottish Road Book attractive and interesting; but the editor prudently observes, that "long descriptions of scenery, except in some few cases, have not been introduced, as they are totally inadequate to convey to the reader any definite idea of the beauties they attempt to portray." Plans of Pleasure Tours are likewise appended, together with a useful Appendix; and, what is indispensable in a work of this description, a good Index, is added.
As might be expected, nearly every page bears the record of some spot consecrated by hoar antiquity, or in the inspirations of olden or modern genius. Sir Walter Scott has probably monopolized every inch of his native country, and invested each memorable spot with the enchantment of his pen; so that little more than reference is necessary to enable the tourist to identify such sites as the novelist has not distinguished in his writings by actual name. Such information is requisite, for as we are reminded by Kett, who observes, "We are told of a noble Roman, who could recollect all the articles that had been purchased at an auction, and the names of the several buyers. The memory of our travellers ought to be of equal capacity and retentiveness, considering the short time they allow themselves for the inspection of curiosities." As books and broad-cloth are now bought by the pattern, we cannot do better than substantiate what we have said by a few quotations from the Road Book of Scotland:—