Coupar Angus - nr.
Blairgowrie, Perthshire
On their second visit to Scotland, Victoria and Albert arrived by
boat at Dundee
on their way to Blair Atholl.
They stayed for three
weeks and from all accounts it seems to have been a very happy visit.
Queen Victoria was an enthusiastic traveller and records in some detail
her
recollections of the journey.
*“The country from here to Coupar Angus is very well cultivated,
and you see
hills in the distance. The harvest is only now being got
in, but is very good;
and everything much greener than in England.
Nothing
could be quieter than our journey, and the scenery is so beautiful!
It
is very different from England; all the houses built of stone; the people
so
different - sandy hair, high cheek bones; children with long shaggy
hair and bare
legs and feet; little boys in kilts.
Near Dunkeld and also
as you get more into the Highlands, there are prettier faces.
Those jackets
that the girls wear are so pretty; all the men and women as well
as the
children look very healthy.
Coupar Angus is a small place - a village - fourteen miles from
Dundee.
There you enter Perthshire. We crossed the river Isla which
made me think of my
poor little dog ‘Isla’. For about
five or six miles we went along a very pretty but
rough cross-road
with the Grampians in the distance. We saw Birnam Wood
and Sir W
Stewart’s place in that fine valley on the opposite side of
the river.
All along such splendid scenery, and Albert enjoyed it
so much - rejoicing in
the beauties of nature, the sight of mountains,
and the pure air.