of those feelings which anything strongly recalling natural emotion is likely to inspire.  But how seldom do I see anything that moves me much!  Wilkie, the far more than Teniers of Scotland, certainly gave many new ideas.  So does Will Allan, though overwhelmed with their rebukes about colouring and grouping, against which they are not willing to place his general and original merits.  Landseer’s dogs were the most magnificent things I ever saw—­leaping, and bounding, and grinning on the canvas.  Leslie has great powers; and the scenes from Moliere by [Newton] are excellent.  Yet painting wants a regenerator—­some one who will sweep the cobwebs out of his head before he takes the palette, as Chantrey has done in the sister art.  At present we are painting pictures from the ancients, as authors in the days of Louis Quatorze wrote epic poems according to the recipe of Madame Dacier and Co.  The poor reader or spectator has no remedy; the compositions are secundum artem, and if he does not like them, he is no judge—­that’s all.

February 14—­I had a call from Glengarry[168] yesterday, as kind and friendly as usual.  This gentleman is a kind of Quixote in our age, having retained, in their full extent, the whole feelings of clanship and chieftainship, elsewhere so long abandoned.  He seems to have lived a century too late, and to exist, in a state of complete law and order, like a Glengarry of old, whose will was law to his sept.  Warmhearted, generous, friendly, he is beloved by those who know him, and his efforts are unceasing to show kindness to those of his clan who are disposed fully to admit his pretensions.  To dispute them is to incur his resentment, which has sometimes broken out in acts of violence which have brought him into collision with the law.  To me he is a treasure, as being full of information as to the history of his own clan, and the manners and customs of the Highlanders in general.  Strong, active, and muscular, he follows the chase of the deer for days and nights together, sleeping in his plaid when darkness overtakes him in the forest.  He was fortunate in marrying a daughter of Sir William Forbes, who, by yielding to his peculiar ideas in general, possesses much deserved influence with him.  The number of his singular exploits would fill a volume[169]; for, as his pretensions are high, and not always willingly yielded to, he is every now and then giving rise to some rumour.  He is, on many of these occasions, as much sinned against as sinning; for men, knowing his temper, sometimes provoke him, conscious that Glengarry, from his character for violence, will always be put in the wrong by the public.  I have seen him behave in a very manly manner when thus tempted.  He has of late prosecuted a quarrel, ridiculous enough in the present day, to have himself admitted and recognised as Chief of the whole Clan Ranald, or surname of Macdonald.  The truth seems to be, that the present Clanranald is not descended from a legitimate Chieftain of the tribe;