The conjoint forces of tragedy, comedy, ballads, and music, thus brought to bear on the popular mind, was very great.

Dundee has been a great sufferer during the various civil commotions in Scotland.  In the time of Charles I. it stood out for the solemn league and covenant, for which crime the Earl of Montrose was sent against it, who took and burned it.  It is said that he called Dundee a most seditious town, the securest haunt and receptacle of rebels, and a place that had contributed as much as any other to the rebellion.  Yet afterwards, when Montrose was led a captive through Dundee, the historian observes, “It is remarkable of the town of Dundee, in which he lodged one night, that though it had suffered more by his army than any town else within the kingdom, yet were they, amongst all the rest, so far from exulting over him, that the whole town testified a great deal of sorrow for his woful condition; and there was he likewise furnished with clothes suitable to his birth and person.”

This town of Dundee was stormed by Monk and the forces of Parliament during the time of the commonwealth, because they had sheltered the fugitive Charles II., and granted him money.  When taken by Monk, he committed a great many barbarities.

It has also been once visited by the plague, and once with a seven years’ dearth or famine.

Most of these particulars I found in a History of Dundee, which formed one of the books presented to me.

The town is beautifully situated on the Firth of Tay, which here spreads its waters, and the quantity of shipping indicates commercial prosperity.

I was shown no abbeys or cathedrals, either because none ever existed, or because they were destroyed when the town was fired.

In our rides about the city, the local recollections that our friends seemed to recur to with as much interest as any, were those connected with the queen’s visit to Dundee, in 1844.  The spot where she landed has been commemorated by the erection of a superb triumphal arch in stone.  The provost said some of the people were quite astonished at the plainness of the queen’s dress, having looked for something very dazzling and overpowering from a queen.  They could scarcely believe their eyes, when they saw her riding by in a plain bonnet, and enveloped in a simple shepherd’s plaid.

The queen is exceedingly popular in Scotland, doubtless in part because she heartily appreciated the beauty of the country, and the strong and interesting traits of the people.  She has a country residence at Balmorrow, where she spends a part of every year; and the impression seems to prevail among her Scottish subjects, that she never appears to feel herself more happy or more at home than in this her Highland dwelling.  The legend is, that here she delights to throw off the restraints of royalty; to go about plainly dressed, like a private individual; to visit in the cottages of the poor; to interest herself in the instruction of the children; and to initiate the future heir of England into that practical love of the people which is the best qualification for a ruler.