Romanticism in Scotland Perhaps the most influential composer of the first half of the nineteenth century was the German Felix Mendelssohn, who visited Britain ten times, for a total of twenty months, from 1829. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works, the overture "Fingal's Cave" (also known as the "Hebrides Overture") and the "Scottish Symphony" (Symphony No. 3). On his last visit to England in 1847, he conducted his own "Scottish Symphony" with the Philharmonic Orchestra before Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Max Bruch (1838–1920) composed the "Scottish Fantasy" (1880) for violin and orchestra, which includes an arrangement of the tune "Hey
Hebrides where he set his best known poem, ', about the devastating effect of the Highland Clearances. , raised on South Uist and described by MacLean as "one of the few really significant living poets in Scotland, writing in any language" (West Highland Free Press, October 1992) wrote the Scottish Gaelic-language novel "" which was voted in the Top Ten of the 100 Best-Ever Books from Scotland. In some respects the Hebrides lack biodiversity in comparison to mainland Britain; for example, there are only half as many mammalian species. However, these islands provide breeding grounds for many important seabird species including