Fall on the Tilt – Scotia Depicta (1804)

Amongst the many rivers, which the rich and fertile county of Perth abounds in, none perhaps affords scenes of a more picturesque nature than the Fender. This little river rises in one of the mountainous districts of that county: and, after a devious course of no great length, falls into the Tilt, a short distance above the junction of that stream with the Garry. Rivers, which pass through a very uneven or mountainous country, acquire a very different character from those, that are found in more level situations. Most of those in North Britain, taking their rise, either in some extensive Loch, or from the numerous rills and springs on the sides of mountains, are innavigable, rapid, and unequal in their depths: sometimes pent up between rocks, and tumbling over them into an abyss of several hundred feet, and thus forming the most beautiful natural cascades; then perhaps assuming, for a short distance, an even, silvery, surface; and again, from fresh obstacles, and greater declivity, rolling, with increased velocity, through some narrow glen. While those of South Britain possess, in general, very different features, and are applied to very different purposes. Boats, barges, and larger shipping, crowd the Thames, the Medway, the Severn, and the Humber; while a mill or a salmon leap are the most pro-fitable uses (if we except agriculture) to which the Fender, the Tilt, or most other rocky rivers are applied. What however they lose in utility, and, perhaps, grandeur, they gain in beauty and picturesque ness. The view here given is not properly a fall of the Fender, but of a mill-stream, or, as it is called, a mill-race, which branches off from the Fender about a mile before it joins the Tilt; and after working several mills on the estate of John Robertson, Esq. falls into the Tilt lower down than the mouth of the parent river. This, therefore, is the Fall of the Mill-race into the Tilt, and is in the grounds of Mr. Robertson, whose estate extends over both sides of the Fender, and is divided from the duke of Athol’s by the Tilt. The spot, however, whence this Fall is seen to most advantage, is in the Duke’s grounds, and more particularly near a small rustic building, called the Heather’s Seat, which is seen in this View on the left, with the Mill-race Fall opposite, and the Tilt running along the foreground.