Picture of Scotland

‘February 15 [1829].—I wrought to-day, but not much—rather dawdled, and took to reading Chambers's Beauties of Scotland, which would be admirable if they were more accurate. He is a clever young fellow, but hurts himself by too much haste….’

From Scott’s journal.  Robert Chambers’s “The Picture of Scotland”, was published in 1827 .  Other readers must have enjoyed it more than Scott.  Passages of this book have been republished in hundreds of other books.  One example:

 ‘The moon on the east oriel shone, Through slender shafts of shapely stone, By foliaged tracery combined ; Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand ' Twixt poplars straight the ozier wand, In many a freakish knot, had twined ; Then framed a spell, when the work was done, And changed the willow wreaths to stone.‎’