This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... ii songs of nature, scenery, love of the country I. the tay: its banks and braes It may be convenient to group the songs and the poetry of the Carse round the chief elements that have inspired them. We do not, however, intend to adhere too rigidly to any such division. One writer may appear for review in connection with more than one division; whilst, in the case of others, we shall endeavour merely to indicate the leading element embodied in their writing, with such other allusion or illustration as may seem desirable. The Tay, and the valley through which it sweeps, have always caught the eye. The tradition is, that when the Roman legionaries of Agricola first saw the river from Baiglie Hill, they cried in delight " Ecce Tiber!" Dean Stanley was of opinion that, whatever the external authority was, the form of words put into the mouth of the Roman soldiers had some internal evidence in its favour. Recently, the tradition has been closely canvassed, amongst others by the late Dr. James Macdonald. The views of this eminent Roman authority are to be found in an article in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1898-99, on "The Origin and growth of the Tradition 'Ecce Tiber! Ecce Campus Martius!' as applied to the Tay and the Inches of Perth." He regards the statement that the words were used by the Roman legionaries as fiction; and finds the groundwork of the fiction, in The Muses Threnodie, a poem by Henry Adamson of Perth. Dr. Macdonald points out that there is nothing to support it in Tacitus, nor in any classical writer. Moreover, it is not to be found in any