■ 
 
 :■ 
 
 L 
 
ijUWiHfDfflJUiiuuiani^ 
 
 Columbia (intt)ers(itj) 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
THE 
 
 HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES 
 
 OP 
 
 SCOTLAND, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR SCENERY AND ANTIQUITIES, 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 POLITICAL HISTORY AND ANCIENT MANNERS, 
 
 AND OF THE 
 
 ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AGRICULTURE, ECONOMY, MUSIC, PRESENT 
 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 FOUNDED ON A 
 
 SERIES OF ANNUAL JOURNEYS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1811 AND 1821, 
 
 AND FORMING AN UNIVERSAL GUIDE TO THAT COUNTRY, 
 
 IN LETTERS TO 
 
 Sljti WALTER, SCOTT, BART. 
 
 bV 
 
 JOHN MACCULLOCH, M.D. F.R.S. L.S. G.S. 
 
 ■ - &xi. 8ic. Sec: 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 FUBLISHED BY 
 
 LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1824. 
 
 4 
 
Josejih Mallctt, Printer, 
 59, Wardour Street, Soho, 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 Introductory Letter I 
 
 Dunkeld — Lochs ofthe Lowes — Chinie — Blairtiow- 
 rie — Grampian Hills — Dunnotier 15 
 
 Dunkeld — Strath Tay — Flemish Architecture of 
 Scotland — Moness — Aherfeldie — Kenmore 41 
 
 Glen Lyon — Fortinrial-^-Military Usages of the 
 Highlanders 68 
 
 Glen Lyon — Taymoiith — Gardening — Loch Tay-— 
 Ben Lawers — Killin — Glen Dochart. . 90 
 
 Loch Earn — Dunira — Comrie — Glen Lednach—- 
 Glen Almond — Loch Lubjiain 120 
 
 Callender — Stirling — Doune — Castle Campbell — 
 Loch Venachar — LochAchray — Loch Cateran. . 150 
 
 Highland Dress 176 
 
 Aberfoyle — Loch Ard — Loch Chon — Loch Lomond. W2 
 
 Drawing , 222 
 
 f^och Long — Inveraray— 'Tyndrnm — -Glenorchy — 
 
 Loch Aioe — Tyanuili — Cruachan 242 
 
 Appin — Ardmncknish — Berigonium — Dun Mac 
 
 Sniochain * 271 
 
 Vitrified Forts 287 
 
 1 V&boV 
 
V CONTENTS. 
 
 Appin — Loch Leven — Glenco — Moor oJ'Rannoch. . 302 
 
 Beti J^evis — Fort William — Inverlochy 322 
 
 Glen Roy 340 
 
 Arasaik — Glen Finnan — LochOich — Fort Augustus 356 
 
 Fyers — Inverness — Beauley — Moy 373 
 
 Spey — Kinrara — Glenmore — Cairn Gorm — Bal- 
 
 venie 390 
 
 Loch Alvie — Pitmain — Dalwhinnie — Loch Laggati 
 
 —Blair 408 
 
 Tumel — Loch Tumel — Schihallien — Rannoch 421 
 
 Highland Generosity and Extortion — Distinctions 
 
 and Exceptions — Loch Ericht 439 
 
 Glen Tilt— Mar— The Dee O • • • • ^^^ 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Vol. I. Page 175 last line but one for maze read mazes. 
 
 179 line 23/or trouser read troussei- 
 
 187 15 after plate add or 
 
 271 title for Bengenium read Berigonium 
 416 line 12 for character read characters 
 422 4 from bottom /or side read ride 
 
 Vol. II. Page 85 line 1 /or appar read appear 
 
 217 8 after some one add probably 
 
 383 10 from bottom /or toher read other 
 
 Vol. III. Page 29 line 3 from bottom erase I 
 
 73 9 from bottom erase yet 
 
 116 —— 19 for whom read which 
 
 149 15/or Tesca read Tecsa 
 
 240 6 from bottom for om read atom 
 
 273 — — 3 after on ac?(i uidiscriminate 
 
 Vol. IV. Page 88 line 3 from bottom/or ra^ciprooe read reeiprocae 
 
 108 23/or tales read tale 
 
 321 14/or seems read seem 
 
 349 9 for feasts read feast 
 
 350 8/or drank read drunk 
 
 374 1 for judical read judicial 
 
 402 4/or Cestrus read Oestrus 
 
 The severe illness under which this work was written, and which often also prevented the 
 author from superintending the press, is the only apology for the following oversights, as for 
 some repetitions and errors which cannot now be amended, arising from the printing of passages 
 in the MS. which had been erased. 
 
 Vol. I. Page 460 line 14/or Purcell read Dryden 
 
 II- 330 7/or Ephori read Reguli 
 
 447 11 for Gygen read Gyan 
 
 III. 286 7 from bottom/or Paniell read Pomfret 
 
 251 13 from bottom' /or Elianus read JEMus 
 
 IV. 326 16/or Amrad read Agib 
 
 Bromton— His literary character is misstated, and the word O Duihne has been somewliere 
 printed by mistake for Clan CoUa. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 MY DEAR SCOTT, 
 
 More years than either you or I are fond of remem- 
 bering, have elapsed, since first, on the borders of 
 Sydenham common, we compared a few of our observa- 
 tions on the subject of the Highlands, since we discussed 
 their wonderful scenery, and since we lamented together, 
 how imperfectly that country, all that belongs, and all that 
 ever did belong to it, was known, even to its immediate 
 neighbours, even, I may fairly say, to its own inhabitants. 
 These days can return no more. You are still deliditina: 
 the world, and so is Campbell ; but our excellent friend 
 Lord Selkirk is gone to receive the reward of his benevo- 
 lence and his virtues. My own tenure has long been pre- 
 carious ; the foot of time is stealing on, but not noiseless 
 and inaudible ; and as I feel that the night is coming 
 when it will be too late to do what I then neither intended 
 nor thought to have done, and too late to repent of it un- 
 performed, I have at length undertaken to collect all that 
 has not been forgotten, and much that you will now hear 
 of for the first time. It is but another consequence of the 
 same train of unforeseen circumstances that led to my 
 intimacy with this country, which has thus caused the 
 record of what those unexpected events forced on my 
 observation. 
 
 VOL, I. B 
 
2 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 From whatever causes these recollections have as- 
 sumed their present form, under whatever circumstances 
 that Avhich was about to vanish has been embodied, to 
 disappear now, only with the paper on which it is written, 
 1 know not to whom these letters could better have been 
 addressed than to him who has so often stepped forward 
 in this very career ; to the Poet of the Highlands, to him 
 who has revived the rapidly diminishing interest of a 
 covuitry as singular in its romantic beauties as its people 
 are in their history, in their position in society, and in 
 their manners and feelings. 
 
 The world knows much of the interest which you have 
 taken in this people, and of the illustration which you have 
 bestowed on them: it knows what you have'acknowl edged, 
 and it believes what you have not confessed. Had I been 
 acquainted with the author of Waverley, of Montrose, 
 and of Rob Roy, I might have balanced in my choice 
 between him and the poet of the Lord of the Isles and 
 of the Lady of the Lake. But the Poet is a substance, 
 and the Novelist is a shadow. To that I could not have 
 addressed myself; yet, as we judge of the presence of 
 the sun by the shade which it casts, and as the midnight 
 robber is detected by his image on the wall, I must trust 
 that, in laying hold of the substance, I have secured the 
 shadow also. More dexterous, however, than the noted 
 Greek litigant, you have contrived, like the German ma- 
 gician, to separate your shadow from yourself, to give it 
 a local habitation and a name, and to erect it into your 
 own rival; eclipsing, like the moon in its darkness, the 
 very luminary on which it depends. Thus I have gained 
 as my correspondent, him whom I should, above all man- 
 kind, have chosen ; for by whom could I hope to have 
 been so well understood as by him who, while he is the 
 poet of the Isles and of the mountains, of Macdonald and 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. d 
 
 Clan Alpin, is, at the same time, the poet of Waverley, 
 and Montrose, and Rob Roy, of the Cearnach and the 
 Clans, of Highland chivalry and Highland feelings. 
 
 If, however, you expect much order in what follows, 
 you will expect what I never intended, and what, if I 
 had even desired it, I could not have accomplished. 
 Many years, a fearful period of retrospect, have elapsed 
 since first I was enchanted with Loch Lomond and 
 Loch Cateran, since first my heart used to beat at the 
 name of Macdonald and Campbell, since I wandered 
 an enthusiast among the visions of Ossian, since no me- 
 lodies had charms like the melodies of Lochaber and 
 Strathspey. After a long interval, I returned to find 
 beauties never forgotten, in every blue hill and bright 
 lake, in the wild woodlands and foaming torrents : to see 
 a friend in every tartan, and once more to feel the joy 
 that was wafted in every mountain breeze. Chance, ne- 
 cessity, duty, each, all, I need not now say what, com- 
 pelled me to cultivate, for many successive years, an ac- 
 quaintance thus unexpectedly renewed; and the same 
 necessity compelled me to visit more of the country, and 
 that more minutely, than it has fallen to the lot of any 
 person existing to do. 
 
 Knowing therefore, as you do, that what follows was 
 the result of many successive journies, the recollections 
 of what had passed before me while occupied in far other 
 and graver pursuits, pursuits which did not often leave 
 me a choice of plan or of time, you will not expect either 
 geographical or chronological consistency. Such order 
 would have incurred the double evil of prolixity and of 
 repetition ; while the necessity of enormous elisions and 
 changes from what was seen and remembered, during 
 various seasons, without the hope or promise that the 
 observations of one summer would be completed or 
 
 k2 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 amended in the next, has inevitably interfered in many 
 places with that simpler form and far different manner 
 which would have attended the records of a journey 
 made with the design of relating what is here related. 
 But we are all the slaves of circumstances: what we in- 
 tend is not often fulfilled, and much comes to pass which 
 we had never expected. And, after all, since chance has 
 so much to do in the affairs of this under world, I know 
 not why it may not produce an author and a book. It 
 operates stranger things every day. If I foresaw not that 
 the boyish wanderings of my college holidays were to 
 lead to a future intimacy that should become the cause of 
 an occupation, as little did I expect that the hours of rain 
 and storm, the days of imprisonment in ships and in High- 
 land cottages, and the far other imprisonment of many 
 weary and painful months, should ever conspire to produce 
 a book. But we sow the seed and forget it; we are sur- 
 prised at its increase, we water and trim the plant, with 
 little thought and less design, because we have com- 
 menced, and are at length surprised to find that it is 
 grown into a goodly bower, and that we can shelter our- 
 selves beneath its branches. Yet it is irregular and wild 
 and imperfect ; and, when too late, we regret that we had 
 not originally designed to plant the arbour under which 
 we are now compelled to sit, as best we can. 
 
 If these letters owe something in accuracy and extent 
 of detail to the intimacy of long experience, I know not 
 but that the advantages are counterpoised by the very 
 failings which flow from the same source. There is a 
 vividness in the first impressions of objects, which va- 
 nishes by repetition. It is not only to female beauty that 
 familiarity is death. Admiration, wonder, are transitory 
 feelings; and well has Nature so ordained it. Peculiarities, 
 also, cease to be peculiar by use : and he, therefore, who 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. O 
 
 neglects to record what he imperfectly knows, in the 
 hope that he will one day know it better, who waits for 
 the fulness of information, will find too late that he has 
 forfeited advantages for which no accuracy of knowledge 
 can compensate; that he is attempting to describe or 
 examine, with blunted feelings, that which owes its all 
 to the very imperfection of his knowledge. These are the 
 magical clouds of gold and crimson that vanish in the 
 glare of noon, the images of beauty which flit before the 
 fancy in the twilight of evening, and are dispersed at 
 the rising of the sun. But we cannot cull at once the 
 flower and the fruit, and must learn to be content with 
 what Nature allows us. 
 
 The picturesque beauties of the Highlands have now 
 for some time been acknowledged ; and, without the ne- 
 cessity of forming comparisons with other' parts of the 
 world, we know that this country has much to boast of, 
 that we have much to admire. It produces examples of 
 every style of scenery: mountains, lakes, rivers, cascades, 
 woods, rocks, sea-coasts, all the elements of landscape 
 are here displayed, and under every form of grandeur 
 and of beauty. All which wild cliflfs, and mountain bays, 
 and rocks, and islands, and open and cultivated shores, 
 can yield, are found on the western coast: in the interior, 
 innumerable lakes of every possible character, the placid 
 and the bold, the rude and the ornamented, are scattered 
 in unsparing profusion. The deep ravine and the wild and 
 rocky alpine glen are succeeded by the rich and open 
 valley, splendent with wood and cultivation; and the 
 cascade which thunders down the mountainside, becomes 
 the lovely river forcing its way amid rocks and trees, 
 chafing through its obstructed channel, and at length 
 meandering through the spacious vale or the wide-spread 
 and wooded plain. While the fading' tints of the blue 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 mountains, grouped in a thousand forms of wildness and 
 magnificence, occupy the distant landscape, their wood- 
 land declivities, their deep precipices, their lofty summits, 
 and all the profusion of trees, and rocks, and chasms, and 
 water courses, and torrents, which vary and ornament 
 their sides, are the unceasing sources of endless scenes 
 of beauty and of variety, of grandeur and of sublimity. 
 
 But if much of this is known, there is far more which 
 has remained unseen and unrecorded ; much which 
 human foot has scarcely trod. It has been my chief object 
 to bring these scenes to light, to render that justice to 
 the country which it has yet but sparingly and partially 
 received ; and to point out to others much that demands 
 their admiration. No accessible part of the country has 
 been untrodden : the islands and the mainland, all that lies 
 within the Highland borders, has been visited, and much 
 too has been examined that is little likely to be visited 
 again. On such unknown and unappreciated objects, 
 the chief attention has been bestowed ; as it was less 
 necessary to dwell on that which has long been familiar. 
 But, even in these places, I have endeavoured to guide 
 the traveller or the artist to such points as are most easily 
 overlooked by cursory observers, and which could only 
 have been discovered after much intimacy and by much 
 study. If I have not dwelt on them in greater detail, it 
 has been chiefly from the interminable length to which 
 such an attempt would have led, but partly from con- 
 sciousness of the insufficiency of mere description, and 
 of the fatigue which attends the reading of such conti- 
 nuous details of visible objects. It is a deep source of 
 regret, that I have not been able to accompany them 
 by engravings from the innumerable drawings that were 
 made for their illustration. On this point alone, the 
 public cannot partake of that which, on all others, belongs 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 7 
 
 alike to you and to tliera. To yourself alone, or to the 
 few to whom they can be opened, must these illustrations 
 remain confined. 
 
 If the local antiquities are neither numerous nor 
 splendid, they are still interesting- ; and nothing* of this 
 nature has been omitted on which I could hope to throw 
 any light. If much has been done by former observers, 
 there is much also which has been overlooked or omitted. 
 That they involve many points of doubt, and some of 
 controversy, are circumstances inseparable from the very 
 nature of this pursuit; but, like others, I would fain 
 imagine that, in these cases, I have had only one object ; 
 truth. 
 
 The historical antiquities are often much more obscure, 
 and have, still more, been subjects of hypothesis and ot 
 controversy. They have a wide bearing, since they in- 
 volve the antient political condition of the country. 
 Hence they are intimately entwined with many preju- 
 dices and many feelings. To have avoided collision on 
 some of these points, was therefore more than could 
 have been expected. I must, however, trust, that being 
 anxious only to ascertain the truth, my own Highland 
 prejudices and attachments have not materially influenced 
 my judgment; and that, on the other hand, where I 
 have differed from those who have engaged in the same 
 subjects, with a laudable, though injudicious, warmth 
 of feeling, and with a partiality to a fictitious and imagi- 
 nary state of things, I have been only desirous to rest 
 these claims, such as they are, on an unimpeached and 
 immutable basis, and thus to give them a firmness and a 
 support, which will be sought in vain in misplaced 
 enthusiasm and in unfounded tradition and belief. 
 
 In attempting to form a distinct idea of the present 
 state of the country, whether as to the manners of the 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 people or their political and agricultural condition, it has 
 been still more necessary to separate from what is actually 
 existing, an order of things long since passed away, and 
 which, though supposed still to survive, by those who 
 derive their notions from former accounts or from ro- 
 mantic tales, has so long vanished as to have become 
 matter of history. I need not tell you how truly this is 
 the case, nor how much the readers, not only of the tales 
 to which I have already alluded, but of many other 
 popular works, and of many recent books of travels, will 
 be disappointed, if they expect to meet a Helen Mac 
 Greg-or, a Dugald, or a Captain Knockdunder, at every 
 corner ; to be greeted, in lona or Sky, by a gifted Seer, 
 or to find every cottage and every stream and hill, re- 
 sounding with the songs of Ossian or the heroic deeds 
 ofFingal. The day is now some time past since these 
 delusions should have subsided : it is impossible to 
 maintain them longer without an unpardonable sacrifice 
 of truth ; but, to reasonable minds, these peculiarities 
 will not have lost their interest, though they are now but 
 the recollections of former days ; and truth demands that 
 the past should now at length be separated from the 
 present, and that things should be exhibited as they 
 really are, not as we have fondly dreamed of them. I 
 am aware that readers will find it difiicult to persuade 
 themselves that such is the present state of the country : 
 for it is very difficult, even for us, as you have doubtless 
 felt no less than myself, to avoid seeing things through 
 the delusive mists of our early and historical impressions, 
 and to avoid imagining what our reason tells us is no 
 longer true. 
 
 Time has already produced, or is fast completing, those 
 changes on the Highlands which were unavoidable ; and 
 which, considering their situation as a portion of one of 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 9 
 
 the most improved political societies of the world, it is 
 surprising- that they should so long have resisted. If, 
 among these, there is somewhat to regret, there is also 
 much to approve : but whatever the balance for good and 
 evil may appear to different minds, all may alike console 
 themselves with the reflection, that they were, and are, 
 inevitable. To unite the manners and actions of youth 
 with those of manhood or of decrepitude, belongs neither 
 to society nor to man : we must submit to what nature 
 has ordained, and learn to be content with such advan- 
 tages, and to suffer such evils, as she has allotted to each 
 state. To lament that they neither possess the peculiar 
 virtues, nor enjoy the peculiar happiness, which belong to 
 a low or early stage of civilization, is to regret the progress 
 of civilization. To desire that, to these, they should unite 
 all the virtues and blessings which arise from improve- 
 ment, is to wish for what the world never yet saw ; to 
 grieve that we cannot at the same instant possess the 
 promise of spring and the performance of autumn. 
 
 This general reflection applies equally to their poli- 
 tical condition as to their manners and feelings. That 
 has been hurried along by an irresistible torrent, by cir- 
 cumstances which could not be controuled. Yet superficial 
 observers see only, in this, the immediate agencies, the 
 proximate actors. Unable, therefore, to comprehend the 
 superior force by which these are directed and urged, 
 they attribute to these intermediate causes, those contin- 
 gent evils, which, among much good, have been the in- 
 evitable consequence of the uncontroulable progress of 
 events. Nor has it been unusual to see, or to imagine, 
 fictitious evils in addition to the real ones : while, by the 
 union of these imperfect views with unreasonable regrets, 
 and with a state of feeling, always in excitement, and often 
 additionally stimulated to anger by controversy, the most 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 simple propositions and the most obvious reasonings have 
 been obscured and perverted. If, where these questions 
 have forced themselves on my attention, I have not suc- 
 ceeded in extricating them from the confusion in which 
 they have been involved, I would still flatter myself 
 that they have been examined without passion or pre- 
 judice. 
 
 I will not however deny that my prejudices are in 
 favour of this people, and that I have often laboured hard 
 to reconcile my wishes to my conviction. I could weep 
 with all my heart over such distresses as I have witnes- 
 sed ; but I know, at the same time, that these will not be 
 remedied by making the people discontented with their 
 superiors or with their condition. I know also that they 
 will neither be diminished nor removed by attempts to 
 flatter or restore ancient feelings or ancient prejudices. 
 If even that were practicable, we ought to remember 
 that these are of a very visionary nature ; and that, in 
 indulging them ourselves, we are in the situation of 
 spectators, not actors ; contemplating, through the mists 
 of distance and of poetry, all that is beautiful or sublime, 
 and unable to see the ruggedness and asperities and bar- 
 renness of the mountain which fades in the far distant 
 horizon beneath all the softness and beauty of an evening 
 sun. Thus also we attribute to the people of past days, 
 feelings which exist only in our own imaginations; feel- 
 ings which they never knew, and happiness which they 
 never enjoyed ; as, in contemplating the heroic ages of 
 Greece, or the fancifully bright periods of Gothic chi- 
 valry, we forget the mass of suflTering and misery that 
 filled the times which produced, as a gleam through 
 the night, an Achilles or a Leonidas, a Richard or a 
 Bayard. 
 
 To the people as they now are, I do not scruple to 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 11 
 
 acknowledge an attachment which may possibly have 
 influenced my judgment in their favour. That very at- 
 tachment has also made me more anxious to point out 
 such faults in their character as are capable of amend- 
 ment. To be without faults, is not the lot of humanity ; 
 to overlook or suppress them where they exist, is either 
 wilfully to lose sight of truth, or is a proof of slender re- 
 gard and of a low estimate of merit, as well in the case 
 of a people as of an individual. It is the faults of those 
 whom we esteem that are the subjects of our notice and 
 regret : and to point them out, is at least the act of a 
 friend, and the first step towards a remedy. I am well 
 aware of the folly and difiiculty of generalizing on na- 
 tional character ; yet I cannot think that I am far wrong, 
 when I say that it has hitherto been the lot and the 
 praise of the Highlanders to have lost the vices which 
 belong to a rude and infant state of society, without ac- 
 quiring those which are the produce of civilization. If, 
 on the other hand, they have lost many of the virtues 
 peculiar to the early stages of political society, they have 
 only lost what it was impossible to retain ; while they 
 have, in return, acquired those which belong to its ad- 
 vanced condition. Exceptions, of course, there are, be- 
 cause there must be : as no national character can also 
 be the character of every individual. To have noticed 
 these, is to inspire confidence in the general truth of the 
 observations : to have omitted them, would be in itself, 
 a condemnation of the fidelity or of the discernment 
 of the observer. Such as these faults are, they are 
 neither numerous nor important. It will also be seen 
 how all those which are the relics of a former state ol 
 things, have originated and been preserved, and how 
 they must necessarily vanish at some future day ; while 
 those which are of recent introduction, are merely the 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 result of novelty, of new opportunities acting on noAv 
 wants ; evils which must subside as the new and the 
 old state of things shall acquire a more uniform level. 
 
 Nor, in thus estimating the mass of the people, would 
 it be just to withhold similar praise from their superiors. 
 I have already noticed the obloquy which, from a narrow 
 yiew of the progress of events, has been thrown on them. 
 That censure is unfounded : nor, were it otherwise, is 
 there good policy in exciting mutual discontent between 
 the upper and the lower classes, in loosening, by force 
 and violence, those bonds of union which have, unfortu- 
 nately, a natural tendency already to dissolution. The 
 same species of attachment which existed centuries ago, 
 can exist no longer, because circumstances have changed. 
 It is, simply, impossible ; and it is therefore folly to 
 regret the loss, and injustice to blame the individuals. 
 These censures, however, such as they are, have been 
 passed by these persons themselves, on each other, and 
 in the warmth of excited feelings. It is Highlander who 
 is armed against Highlander; and an independent spec- 
 tator who can see and appreciate the merits and faults 
 on both sides, is not only the fittest umpire, but will be 
 found the truest friend to both. I should be happy in- 
 deed could any thing that I have said, tend to make 
 the contending parties better satisfied with each other, 
 could it make them learn to discover and value their 
 mutual virtues, and forget those faults which, not them- 
 selves, but the tyranny of uncontroulable events has pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Among the high and the low, in the baronial castle 
 and in the dark hut, I have found many estimable friends; 
 persons whom I should have esteemed in any country 
 and in any place. To that esteem, there has been in- 
 separably united a warmer and a more romantic feeling. 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 13 
 
 o-enerated and fostered by ancient tales and recollections, 
 by early associations, and by the wild beauties of this 
 wonderful and lovely country. Never yet have 1 quit- 
 ted its bright lakes and blue mountains without regret, 
 nor returned to them without delight, though I quitted 
 them for comparative repose, to return again to labour 
 and fatigue ; and it is not a small source of regret, that I 
 can no more hope to revisit those scenes where some of 
 the happiest of my days have been passed. I am too 
 sensible of the impropriety of introducing the names of 
 individuals, to yield to a practice, too easy, and at the 
 same time, too common ; and peculiar, it has also been said, 
 to our own countrymen : highly blameable when censure 
 is to be passed, and, when praise is to be given, too 
 vulgar, too suspicious, to be valued. Those whom it 
 has been my happiness to know, will supply, from their 
 recollections, what I have not thought proper to express : 
 but it is not in my power to prevent the few who prefer 
 pain to pleasure, who delight in finding causes of com- 
 plaint, from extracting, out of the general mass of 
 praise and admiration, such remarks as may gratify 
 that unhappy turn of mind which delights in suffer- 
 ing and in complaining; which finds pleasure only 
 where it thinks it has succeeded in proving that it has a 
 right to be offended, a reason for feeling pain and dis- 
 playing indignation. I shall always, at least, have the 
 consolation of knowing that no such feelings Avill enter 
 the mind of him who, whether he be the parent of Brad- 
 wardine and Dalgetty, of Jarvie and Jenny Deans, or 
 not, has shewn, in his acknowledged character, that his 
 disposition is to look on the right and the bright side of 
 every thing, to be slow in believing offence where no 
 offence is designed ; and who possesses that enviable 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 quality which represents, even vice and wrong', without 
 inflicting unnecessary pain. 
 
 And now, my dear friend, I am about to give you 
 an opportunity of exerting another virtue : patience. Arm 
 yourself with as much as you may ; for there are four 
 octavos now lying uncut on your table. Read when you 
 can, and stop when you list ; but, be your labour what it 
 may, it will be but a feeble shadow of that which was the 
 cause that all this ink has flowed, which attended and 
 carried your correspondent and friend through foul and 
 fair, over the rude mountain and the rougher wave, 
 dnring many a Highland summer. 
 
 I am your's, &c. &c. 
 
DUNKELD, 15 
 
 DUNKELD, LOCHS OF THE LOWES, CLUNIE, 
 BLAIRGOWRIE, GRAMPIAN HILLS, 
 DUNNOTTER. 
 
 As there are many ends in the skein which I have 
 undertaken to unravel, there is no one, of course, that 
 will run the thread off to its termination. It is tolerably 
 indifferent therefore at which 1 begin ; for, begin where 
 I may, I shall often be compelled to seek for a new one. 
 It is a drama of many acts ; and it is one too which does 
 not admit of attention to the unities. Do not therefore 
 be shocked if you find me occasionally annihilating both 
 time and space, like the Winter's Tale or your friend 
 Guy Mannering. I do not pretend to produce either a 
 logbook or a journal; and you will therefore not expect 
 to read one. Thus, balancing the pen in my hand, look- 
 ing now at the point, and now at the paper, and now and 
 then trying whether the ink is dry, I have at last pitched 
 on Dunkeld, for no better reason than that which is the 
 best of all reasons, because, as the dear sex knows, it is 
 a reason for every thing, and an unanswerable reason. 
 Our Highland friends, who have adopted the same line 
 of argument, state it with an enviable brevity. " Why 
 did you do this?" " Because." 
 
 But I shall neither commence with Abbotsford nor 
 with " your own romantic town ;" nor need I tell you of 
 the Queen's-ferry, nor of Loch Leven, nor of Perth : not 
 because these are known to every driver of a stage coach. 
 
16 DUNKELD. 
 
 but because my business, like my heart, is in the High- 
 lands. I have made a convention ; and though standing, 
 myself, alone, as the two high contracting parties, I am 
 bound to adhere to it. When therefore I introduce you 
 first to the pass of Birnam, I am not, like the epic poet, 
 plunging you in medias res, but placing you at the gate 
 and portal whence bold Highland Caterans once issued 
 in dirked and plaided hostility, sweeping our flocks and 
 herds, and where (such are the changes of fashion) their 
 Saxon foes now enter in peace, driving their barouches 
 and gigs, and brandishing the pencil and the memoran- 
 dum book. 
 
 " Birnam wood," says Pennant, " has never recovered 
 the march its ancestors made to Dunsinane." That is odd 
 enough : I do not mean the fact, but the remark. When 
 I was a white-haired boy at college, I made a tour to 
 Dunkeld, with a little red book in my pocket, and thought 
 myself extremely witty to have entered this very remark 
 in those very words. I had neither seen Pennant's book, 
 nor ever heard the name of that worthy gentlenan, and 
 was surprised, some ten years afterwards, to find that he 
 had stolen my good thing- from me. Thus unwittingly 
 do greater men become accused of plagiarisms, when 
 they have only stumbled on coincidences. 
 
 There are few places, of which the effect is so strik- 
 ing, as Dunkeld, when first seen on emerging from the 
 pass of Birnam ; nor does it owe this more to the sud- 
 denness of the view, and to its contrast with the long pre- 
 ceding blank, than to its own intrinsic beauty; to its 
 magnificent bridge, and its cathedral, nestling among 
 its dark woody hills, to its noble river, and to its brilliant 
 profusion of rich ornament. But it is seen in far greater 
 perfection, in approaching from the Cupar road ; present- 
 ing, at the same time, many distinct and perfect land 
 
DUNKELI). 17 
 
 scapes produced by the variations of the foregrounds. To 
 the artist, indeed, these views of Dunkeld are preferable 
 to all which the place affords ; because, while they form 
 many well-composed pictures, they are tractable sub- 
 jects: a circumstance which is here rare; owing to the 
 want of sufficient variety, and to that incessant repetition 
 of trees, from the foreground even to the furthest dis- 
 tance, which often renders the whole a confused and ad- 
 hering mass of unvaried wood. With many changes, 
 arising from the winding of the road, from the trees by 
 which it is skirted, from the broken and irregular ground, 
 and from the differences of elevation for the point of sight, 
 all of them producing foregrounds unusually rich and 
 constantly changing-, the leading object in this magnifi- 
 cent landscape, is the noble bridge striding high above 
 the Tay, here a wide, tranquil, and majestic stream. 
 The cathedral, seen above U, relieved by the dark woods 
 on which it is embosomed, and the town, with its con- 
 gregated and grey houses, add to the general mass of 
 architecture, and thus enhance its effect in the landscape. 
 Beyond, rise the round and rich swelling woods that 
 skirt the river ; stretching away in a long vista to the 
 foot of Craig Vinean, which, with all its forests of fir, 
 rises, a broad shadowy mass, against the sky. The va- 
 ried outline of Craig-y-barns, one continuous range of 
 darkly wooded hill, now swelling to the light, and again 
 subsiding in deep shadowy recesses, forms the remainder 
 of this splendid distance : the middle grounds on each 
 hand being the no less rich and ornamented boundaries 
 of the river, relieving, by their spaces of open green 
 meadow and hill, the continuous wood of the distances ; 
 while the trees which, in profusion and in every mode of 
 disposition, are scattered and grouped about the margin 
 of the river and high up the hills, advance, till they blend, 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
18 DUNKELD. 
 
 without breach or interruption of character, with the 
 equally rich foregrounds. 
 
 If I were thus to point out all the scenes which Dun- 
 keld furnishes, I should write a book instead of a letter ; 
 and as the book is written already, why should it be 
 written again? I never thought, when philosophy for 
 my sins first dipped me in ink, to have become the rival 
 of Margate Guides and of Guides to the beauties of Win- 
 dermere ; the West and Gilpin of Dunkeld and Blair. But 
 when a man once gets astride of a pen, no one knows 
 where he will stop. However that may be, I owed them 
 both a heavy debt of gratitude ; and far heavier ones are 
 every day paid with words. 
 
 The Duke of AthoU's grounds, no one need be told, 
 present a succession of walks and rides in every style of 
 beauty that can be imagined ; but they will not be seen 
 in the few hours usually allotted to them, as the extent 
 of the walks is fifty miles, and that of the rides thirty. 
 It is the property of few places, perhaps of no one in all 
 Britain, to admit, within such a space, of such a pro- 
 longation of lines of access ; and, everywhere, with so 
 much variety of character, such frequent changes of 
 scene, and so much beauty. There are scarcely any two 
 walks which do not differ in their character and in the 
 objects which they afford; and indeed, so far from dis- 
 pensing with any, numerous as they are, we could even 
 wish to add more. Nor is there one which does not, 
 almost at every step, present new objects or new sights, 
 whether near or remote ; so that the attention never flags, 
 and, what is the strongest test of merit, in nature as in 
 art, after years of intimacy, and days spent in succession 
 in these grounds, they are always interesting and always 
 new. 
 
 Though I have pointed out some exquisite landscapes, 
 
DUNKF.LD. 19 
 
 admirably adapted for painting, and could easily point 
 out many more, it is necessary to premise that the mere 
 artist, who only contemplates Dunkeld as a prey from 
 which he can fill his portfolio, will be a disappointed 
 spectator; but he will probably be the only one. I 
 know no place where it is so necessary to abandon this 
 system of measuring all beauty by its capacity for paint- 
 ing, to forget all the jargon of the picturesque gentle- 
 men, the cant of the Prices, and the Gilpins, and others 
 of this sect. Few are aware how much is overlooked by 
 persons of this class, how much natural beauty is wasted 
 on those who have adopted this system, and even on 
 those who, without any system, have accustomed them- 
 selves to form every thing into a distinct landscape, and 
 to be solely on the watch for subjects of painting. If I 
 have said, elsewhere, that no one who has not made art 
 his study, will extract from nature all the beauty of which 
 it furnishes the subjects or the materials, I am also 
 bound to add, that even this power may be abused, and 
 that he who would enjoy all that nature affords, must 
 also learn to see and to appreciate a thousand things 
 which defy imitation, and scorn to assimilate, even in the 
 remotest manner, to any rules. 
 
 It is easy here to see, that the very circumstances 
 which render Dunkeld the splendid collection of objects 
 which it is, are those also which cause it to be generally 
 unfitted to the painter's art. Intricate, and belonging 
 more frequently to the character of close than of open 
 scenery, the profusion of wood prevents that keeping in 
 the landscape which is so essential in art ; while there is 
 also commonly wanting, the contrast arising from vacancy, 
 so necessary, in painting, to relieve multiplicity of orna- 
 ment; still more, that contrast of colour and of dis- 
 
20 DUNKELD. 
 
 tance which requires variety of open ground, of bare 
 green, and grey, and brown ; and, above all, the haze of 
 the vanishing woods and valleys, and the blue of the 
 misty mountain. Still, in its own character, Dunkeld is 
 perfect, even in the nearer grounds of its deep valley ; 
 nor, in its remote parts, is it wanting in all the circum- 
 stances that belong to other classes of landscape. Thus, 
 when properly examined, it contains, even for the painter, 
 stores of the most splendid scenery, in every style : the 
 blue mountain distance, the wide and rich strath, the 
 narrow and woody glen, the towering rock and precipice, 
 the dark forest, the noble river, the ravine, the cascade, 
 the wild mountain stream, the lake, and all which art and 
 cultivation can add besides to embellish nature. If to 
 this we join all the hourly sources of comfort and enjoy- 
 ment produced by its sheltered and secluded walks, its 
 river banks, its groves and gardens and alleys and 
 bowers, its magnificent and various trees, its flowers and 
 its shrubs, we may with justice say, that it has no rival 
 in Scotland, nor, probably, in all Britain. 
 
 With respect to the disposition of the grounds, consi- 
 dered as an ornamented landscape, or an English garden, 
 as the phrase is, it is necessary to say that it is disposed 
 on no system; nor, with the exception of a few remains of 
 the ancient formal arrangements, is there any trace of arti- 
 fice, beyond that which is necessary for use and comfort, to 
 be seen. Even the most formal fragments of art disap- 
 pear in the predominance of careless nature ; or such as 
 are yet remaining, are ornaments instead of defects. It 
 might not have been easy to deform nature here by arti- 
 fice, and yet the inveteracy of system can do much mis- 
 chief. Even Dunkeld might have been rendered absurd 
 by the gardeners of King William's time; nay, Brown 
 
DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 21 
 
 could have ruined it. But it has fortunately escaped the 
 fangs of the whole detestable tribe of capability men ; 
 and after art has done all that it can, and all, in truth, 
 which has been done, we imagine that we see no other 
 hand in the woods and the lawns than that hand which 
 founded the mountains and taught the river to flow. 
 
 Within the home grounds, on the minute details of 
 which I dare not here dwell, the cathedral deserves the 
 attention of the antiquaryas well as of the artist. Want- 
 ing only the roof, it wants nothing as a ruin ; and, as a 
 Scottish ecclesiastical ruin, it is a specimen of consider- 
 able merit. The choir has recently been converted into 
 the parish church : but as the restorations, with very little 
 exception, have been made from the original design, no 
 injury to the building has followed ; while much advan- 
 tage to its preservation has been gained, by supporting 
 with fresh masonry such parts as were falling to decay, 
 and by removing such ruin as produced disorder with- 
 out embellishment. 
 
 Though the early history of this ecclesiastical esta- 
 blishment is obscure, it is understood that there was here 
 a monastery of Culdees. Kenneth Macalpine is said to 
 have brought the bones of St. Columba hither from lona. 
 Mylne asserts that there was a religious foundation esta- 
 blished here by Constantino the Pictish king in 729, and 
 that David the first converted it into an episcopal see in 
 1127; Gregory, then abbot, having been made the first 
 bishop. The death of Gregory took place in 1169; and 
 as there are other traditions which say that Cormac was 
 its bishop in the time of Alexander the First, there is yet 
 a hopeless obscurity respecting the early history of Dun- 
 keld. It appears, however, that it was once the primacy 
 of Scotland, till that was transferred to St. Andrews, 
 
22 DUNKELn CATHEDRAL. 
 
 After Gregory, or Cormac, there is a recorded saccession 
 of thirty-eight bishops, commencing with Gregory the 
 Second, and terminating with Robert Crichton, in 1560. 
 Among these, Gavin Douglas is a name not to be for- 
 gotten in Scottish literature, nor William Sinclair in the 
 history of Scottish independence. The monument of the 
 former is in his works ; more imperishable than brass or 
 marble ; but the latter demands some better monument 
 than the tablet of grey stone which was inscribed to his 
 name. His spirit was worthy of his age; of the proud 
 period of Bruce and Wallace. It was he who, collecting 
 sixty men of his own people, joined a detachment of five 
 hundred belonging to Duncan Earl of Fife ; defeating a 
 party of Edward the Second's troops at Dunnybirsel, 
 and displaying a character alike fitted to command in the 
 army and in the church. 
 
 Of the early building, nothing is known, but the re- 
 cords of the present have been preserved. The original 
 church seems to have consisted of the choir alone, and 
 was built by Bishop Sinclair in 1330. Bishop Cairney, 
 the 18th, commenced the great aisle, and it was finished 
 under Raulston, the 24th, in 1450. In 1469, the chapter 
 house was built, and the foundation of the tower was laid 
 by Lauder ; the latter being completed by George Brown, 
 the 29th bishop, in 1501. There are, besides these, 
 marks ,of alterations, of which there are no records ; 
 particularly in the addition of a gateway at the western 
 end. The church militant demolished all that it conve- 
 niently could, in 1599; and another set of reformers, 
 who formed the garrison in 1698, destroyed its monu- 
 ments, with the very few exceptions that remain. The 
 history of Dunkeld, as well as those of Dornoch, Elgin, 
 and St. Andrews, serve to prove that it is a matter of in- 
 
DUNKELU CATHEDRAL. 23 
 
 difference whether the spirit of mischief is let loose under 
 a red coat or a black one. 
 
 There is much more uniformity in the architecture of 
 this cathedral than was usual in our Gothic ecclesiastical 
 buildings. Nevertheless, like most of the Scottish spe- 
 cimens, it is compounded of several styles; including 
 the Norman, together with every one of the varieties of 
 the three periods of Gothic architecture which followed it. 
 1 have elsewhere remarked, that unity of style had seldom 
 been preserved in the Scottish buildings of this nature,and 
 have attempted to explain the reason : the present work 
 is a proof of the truth of that statement. The arts, in this 
 part of our island, had not made much progress, and the 
 distinctions of styles were probably not understood ; so 
 that, in borrowing or imitating, the artists naturally co- 
 pied from all which they knew, and thus introduced con- 
 fusion. At the same time, following what was then be- 
 come obsolete in England, we receive little or no assist- 
 ance from the architecture of our churches, in determin- 
 ing their dates, where the records have been lost. 
 
 Omitting the choir, or present church, the length of 
 the great aisle is 122 feet, and its breadth 62; that of 
 each of the side ailes being 12, and the height of the 
 walls 40. The tower, 90 feet high, on a base of 24 
 squared, is placed at one of the angles, and merely in 
 contact. The body was divided from the choir by a 
 lofty Gothic arch, now built up. The main aisle is sepa- 
 rated from the side ones by six plain pillars of the Nor- 
 man style, and two half columns ; the height of the shafts 
 being 10 feet, and the diameter four and a half. Their 
 capitals are only plain mouldings, and they support 
 Gothic arches of the second style, with fluted soffits. 
 Above each is a plain semicircular window, of two bays, 
 with a trefoil in the interval. In the third stage, and above 
 
24 DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 
 
 the roof of the side ailes, there is an acute window over 
 each of these, also bisected, with two trefoils, and with 
 a quatrefoil in the intervals. The great western window 
 has lost all its mullions; but the remaining fragments 
 which spring from the arch, shew that it was of a hand- 
 some and florid design, appertaining to the second period 
 of the Gothic. It has a contrasted head-band terminat- 
 ing in a finial, so as to form a sort of canopy ; while it is 
 thrown on one side, with a strange but not unusual neg- 
 lect of symmetry, to make room for a very beautiful cir- 
 cular spiral window; the gable terminating with a hand- 
 some florid cross. At the southern angle of this western 
 gable, there is another anomaly, in the shape of an oc- 
 tagonal watch tower : but it forms a graceful ornament, 
 terminating in an enlarged parapet, supported on a rose- 
 carved moulding, and perforated on its eight faces by sunk, 
 or impanelled, quatrefoils, A staircase within it, communi- 
 cates with the tower, by an ambulatory through the wall. 
 The corbel table, which runs along beneath the roof, still 
 supports the remains of a handsome pinnacle, formed of 
 clustered tabernacle-work, which may be taken as a proof 
 of the former beauty of the whole. The principal door at 
 the western end, is evidently an alteration : a sharp arch 
 with a deeply fluted soffit, standing on clustered columns; 
 while, near it, there is a smaller door in a similar style, to- 
 gether with a circular-headed and ornamental one which 
 gives entrance to the tower. On the south face there is 
 also a door with a porch, which appears to have been con- 
 siderably ornamented, if we may judge by the remains of 
 two crocketed pinnacles, a canopy which has covered some 
 cognizance, and two niches for statues. The windows 
 which light the side ailes below, are remarkable, as well 
 for their beauty as the diversity of their designs; pre- 
 senting eight or ten different patterns, of the second age 
 
DUNKKLD CATHEDRAL. 25 
 
 of Gothic, chiefly produced by the intersections and com- 
 binations of circles. The tower is plain, excepting an 
 ornamental parapet of open trefoils standing- on a corbel 
 table, and three tiers of wrought windows; but it seems 
 formerly to have had pinnacles at the angles. The chap- 
 ter house, different from all the rest, is remarkable for 
 four tall lancet windows with trefoil heads. Within the 
 choir, there was recently a beautiful row of tabernacle- 
 work wrought in the wall ; but it has vexatiously and 
 tastelessly been destroyed by the interior decorations of 
 the new church ; two or three specimens alone remaining 
 to shew what it once was. Thus it must ever be, when 
 every stone-mason and carpenter undertakes the business 
 which belongs to the architect alone. Of the very few 
 ancient tombs which remain, the most remarkable is that 
 of Cumin, the celebrated Alister More-mac-an righ, better 
 known as the Wolf of Badenoch. It is a statue in ar- 
 mour, of somewhat rude workmanship, with a lion's head 
 at the feet, and with the inscription, " Hie jacet Alex- 
 ander Senescalus, filiusRoberti regis Scotorum et El iza- 
 bethe More, Dominus de Buchan et Badenoch, qui obiit 
 A. D. 1394." The reputation of this hero would not be 
 soon forgotten, though this monument had never existed. 
 The statue of a bishop in his full robes, lying under a 
 crocketed canopy, is unknown ; being assigned by 
 some to Sinclair, and by others to Cairney. It is pro- 
 bably, however, that of the latter ; as there was a tablet 
 to Sinclair. 
 
 Beyond the home grounds of Dunkeld, the cascade 
 at the Hermitage is far too well known to require more 
 than a bare notice, as is the deep chasm through which 
 the Braan runs higher up, beneath what is called the Rum- 
 bling Bridge. But near the summer-house, termed 
 Ossian's Hall, there are some round cavities in the rock. 
 
26 DUNKELD, 
 
 produced by the cascade of former ages, which are par- 
 ticularly worth notice in this place, because of their 
 general connection with other similar appearances on the 
 Tay, which I shall point out shortly, and which in- 
 dicate the great revolutions these valleys have under- 
 gone. On this side of the water, it is, however, essential 
 to notice the magnificent views up the vale of the Tay, 
 as well as over the grounds towards Dunkeld House, 
 which may be procured from the various romantic walks 
 of Craig Vinean. No scenes more splendid can be 
 imagined than the former, where the Tay is seen flowing 
 deep below, amidst the noble oaks which skirt its banks ; 
 winding beneath the elegant wooded pyramid of Craig- 
 y-barns on one side, and, on the other, under the pro- 
 longed and wild acclivities of Craig Vinean, which, 
 varied with rocks and deep hollows, and ornamented by 
 the woods of oak and fir that rise irregularly to its sum- 
 mit in magnificent intricacy from the valley below, con- 
 ducts the eye to the rich open vale of the Tay, as, 
 bounded by its lofty hills, and displaying the bright 
 raeanderings of its river, it terminates in the distant blue 
 summits of the remote Highlands. Here too are scenes 
 which do not refuse the painter's art; the compositions 
 being as perfect as they are grand and full of fine detail, 
 and nothing being wanting which can be required for 
 this style of rich landscape. It is in these and similar 
 wide landscapes, that Dunkeld shews itself the rival of 
 the most picturesque Highland scenes ; as, in its closer 
 scenery, in such scenery as is not within the-limitsof art, 
 it exceeds the whole. It is here too that the peculiar and 
 excelling richness of the woods of Dunkeld is best seen ; 
 a richness produced, no less by the great variety and 
 bold features of the ground, which bring all this wood 
 within the scope of the eye, and under every possible 
 
DUNKELD. 27 
 
 aspect, than by the separate variety and grandeur of the 
 trees themselves, and by that intermixture which adds 
 to their ornament without destroying their breadth of 
 style and effect. If, in some places, different kinds of 
 trees are intermingled in a manner not consistent with a 
 correct taste, these parts are seldom very perceptible 
 where the leading features are so properly disposed. 
 One more view in this direction ought to be pointed out, 
 to be obtained from the river side near the further lodge ; 
 peculiarly fitted for a picture, displaying the same vale 
 from a lower level, with a foreground formed by ancient 
 beeches rising high over the deep and bold banks, and of 
 a style equally uncommon and grand. 
 
 But the most perfect and extensive view of the 
 srrounds of Dunkeld, will be found at an unnoticed sta- 
 tion opposite to the village of Inver, and at a considerable 
 elevation above the bridge of the Braan. Striking as is 
 the character of Craig-y-barns from all points of view, 
 no true conception of its magnificence and variety can 
 be formed from any other place ; the undulating and 
 broken outline rising in a gradual succession of woody 
 elevations, dark with trees and interspersed with preci- 
 pices, till it terminates in the noble pyramid which im- 
 pends high over the King's Pass ; displaying there one 
 broad bold face of lofty grey rock, variegated with the 
 scattered firs that root themselves in its fissures. East- 
 ward, this ridge is prolonged till its lines and its woods 
 gradually blend with the distant blue mountains, while, 
 continued westward, it unites to the long wooded ridge 
 of Craig- Vinean ; the whole presenting a huge and lofty 
 barrier of unexampled wildness and ornament united : 
 all the splendour of the grounds below being detailed, 
 together with the course of the Tay, and the nearer wind- 
 
28 DUNKELD. 
 
 ings of the Braan, as it holds its way among woods and 
 trees by the little village of Inver. 
 
 The walks of Craig-y-barns present a class of land- 
 scape totally distinct, Avhether in the closer scenery or in 
 the more distant views. The latter look towards the far 
 remote south, to the Sidlaw and the Lomond hills, or 
 eastward over the rich valley that extends towards Blair- 
 gowrie, and upon the bright lakes that ornament its sur- 
 face. At hand, the towering precipices rise overhead with 
 their crown of firs, or huge masses of rock impending 
 over the paths, with their trees starting from the shelves 
 and fissures, form the various and wild foregrounds to 
 these pictures, or afford, in themselves, subjects for the 
 pencil, resembling the alpine landscapes of Switzerland. 
 No greater contrast can well exist than between the ap- 
 parently native rudeness of this spot and the decorations 
 of the lower grounds. But even here there is decoration: 
 in the variety of the trees, in the huge fragments which 
 are interspersed among them, covered with mosses and 
 giving root to all the bright feathering ferns, and, lastly, 
 in the plants and flowering shrubs which unexpectedly 
 occur, and which art has naturalized from the garden and 
 th€ shrubbery till they seem no longer strangers among 
 the roses, the junipers, the honeysuckles, and the various 
 wild flowers which cover the ground or trail along the 
 summits of the grey rocks. Among- the varieties of forest 
 scenery, there is a singularity and a beauty in this, which 
 can no where else be found, and which render these 
 walks among the most enticing of those which belong to 
 this place of endless walks and rides. The little lake, 
 Pol-na-gates, lying just at the entrance of the King's 
 Pass, cannot fail to attract attention ; presenting, in its 
 high towering and evergreen woods, its deeply secluded 
 
DUNKELD. 29 
 
 and verdant recesses, and its water never ruffled by the 
 breeze, a romantic scene of peace and solitude; and, 
 even in winter, offering the aspect of never-dying sum- 
 mer. But I must leave the remainder of Dunkeld untold, 
 and to the industry of him who has other objects in tra- 
 velling than merely to hasten over a country because he 
 has undertaken to travel ; not to those who expect from 
 the future what they will not seek in the present, or 
 to whom it is enough that they are in motion, or that 
 they are doing what others have done before them. To 
 those who are satisfied with placing their important 
 names in the porter's book, or in wearing out unoccupied 
 time in a mode that is fashionable, what I have written 
 and what I have omitted to write will be alike. 
 
 The valley which stretches away eastward from Dun- 
 keld, gradually passes into Strathmore, and conducts us 
 beyond the Highland boundary. On entering it, the 
 transition from the scenery of that place is as complete as 
 it is sudden ; but it affords a succession of pleasing views, 
 without much of decided landscapes, till it disappears 
 in the wider expanse of the eastern lowlands. One ex- 
 tremely beautiful picture must however be pointed out : 
 a lake scene, which, though on a small scale, is not often 
 rivalled, while it is of a distinct character from that of 
 any Highland lake. It is the usual fault of lake scenery, 
 that, while beautiful in nature, it is very deceiving when 
 we attempt to reduce it to painting ; displaying too often 
 a vacuum of sky and water, blue and faint mountains 
 whose effect is lost on the canvas, and a meagreness of 
 colour and composition for which its grander features 
 cannot atone, because they are thin and unsupported. 
 Such it almost always is when the water occupies too 
 large a space in the picture, and when the boundary is 
 remote ; and this, from the generally great scale of High- 
 
30 LOCHS OF THE LOWES. 
 
 land scenery, is the common fault of our lakes. Here, 
 there is water enough to decide tlie character of the land- 
 scape, and to give it that life and brilliancy which form 
 the captivating part of this style. With this, there is here 
 also a profusion of appropriate ornament : woods, in all 
 the variety of colour and disposition, skirting its margin, 
 covering its promontories, and edging its bays : rising up 
 beyond this in irregular distribution, along the skirts of 
 the rocky hills which bound the valley, and which afford 
 an outline equally uncommon and graceful, till, in the 
 further distance, one mountain, of a form no less elegant 
 and appropriate, terminates the picture. 
 
 Three of these small lakes, called the Lochs of the 
 Lowes, are here accumulated within a small space, un- 
 usually rich in wood and cultivation ; and hence the 
 valley continues to the small and picturesque Loch of 
 Clunie : a scene of summer and repose which almost 
 seems a work of art. The house, or castle, an ancient 
 strong hold of the Ogilvies, appearing to float on the 
 water upon its little woody island, is the reputed birth- 
 place of that notorious personage the Admirable Crich- 
 ton ; the Cagliostro of his day, whose lucky fate it has 
 been to scramble up to the temple of Fame, as the 
 Brodums and the Katterfeltos might have done, had they 
 lived in the same age and turned their attentions to logic 
 and fencing, instead of to cordial drops and cups and 
 balls. The Loch of Marlie follows this ; less picturesque, 
 but wooded and rich, and preserving that air of ancient 
 opulence, in the cultivation around it, and in the hedge- 
 row trees and roadside avenues which are so peculiar to 
 all this valley even to Blairgowrie, and which render 
 the whole space a remarkably pleasing ride, little known 
 to travellers. It reminds us of many parts of the north of 
 France ; nor is it improbable that, like much of our Scottish 
 
BLAIRGOWRIE. 31 
 
 architecture, it is indebted for its character to French 
 example or recollections. This conjecture receives some 
 confirmation from the fact of there having been once five 
 religious establishments in this neighbourhood : the me- 
 mory of two being still preserved in the names of these 
 lakes. 
 
 From Clunie or from Blairgowrie, the road into Brae- 
 mar by Glen Shee, hereafter mentioned, is traced ; being- 
 one of the ancient military branches. The situation of 
 Blairgowrie, commanding one of the Highland passes, is 
 very pleasing*; while it is an opulent and a handsome 
 village. The Erroch, which runs to join the Isla, form- 
 ing one of its greater branches, here holds its course 
 deep through a rocky ravine, affording some picturesque 
 and some very striking scenes. I can only afford to 
 notice that at Craig Hall : no less singular than romantic, 
 from the enormous altitude and absolute perpendicu- 
 larity of the sandstone cliffs, which rise at once from the 
 deep and woody channel of the river; the house itself 
 appearing perched aloft, like a crow's nest, on its very 
 brink, forming an object which is absolutely fearful. Of 
 this class of scenery, not unlike to that of Roslin, but on 
 a far greater scale, there is much more which I cannot 
 afford to particularize ; as I must also pass over some 
 scenes that occur near the junction of the Airdle with 
 the Erroch. 
 
 Hence the road branches into Strath Airdle and 
 into Glen Shee : the former conducting through the wild 
 Glen Fernat to the Tarff, and also over the hills, to 
 , Edradour and Moulin, as I have remarked in another 
 place. Though Strath Airdle is a pleasing valley, it 
 scarcely offers any decided landscape scenery ; and of its 
 celebrated rocking stone I need take no further notice, 
 though it is still considered here as a Druidical work. 
 
32 STRATHMORE. 
 
 Of the road into Braemar, there is little or nothing to be 
 said ; as it is one uniform scene of wildness and deser- 
 tion, with little character of any kind, and with nothing 
 to vary its wearisome prolongation, but the very excel- 
 lent inn, the Spital of Glen Shee ; a welcome sight in the 
 desert, and justifying a name, of which, though common 
 in Wales, this is, I believe, the only instance in Scotland. 
 We may return to Blairgowrie. 
 
 But as the hills which extend hence to Stonehaven, 
 are themselves the Highland boundary, 1 dare not tres- 
 pass into Strathmore, and thus break my agreement; 
 however willing to travel with you through this magnifi- 
 cent valley, the pride of the Scottish valleys, and among 
 the strange and delicious solitudes of the Sidlaw hills, as 
 little known as if they were situated in the moon. While 
 we wander away to Inverness and Rossshire, for what, 
 after all our trouble, does not always occur, we are 
 ignorant or forgetful that, at our very doors, within a 
 few miles of Perth itself, we may enjoy all the seclusion 
 and wildness of alpine scenery, on the top of the Sidlaw 
 and in its deep recesses ; and that, from its summit on 
 the one side, we can look down on the splendid magnifi- 
 cence of the Carse of Gowrie, and over the rich and wild 
 hills of Fife; adding to our landscape the broad and 
 brilliant Tay with its endless variety of shipping, and the 
 noble houses of the opulent, that rise on its banks, or 
 skirt the declivities of this beautiful line of hills. On the 
 northern declivity of the same range, as we quit some 
 wild scene of heath and rocks, or some unexpected 
 picture of peace and fertility embosomed in the desert, 
 and descend along the winding roads amidst enclosing 
 trees, the whole vale of Strathmore breaks suddenly on 
 us, in all its splendour of wood and cultivation ; stretch- 
 ing away till it vanishes, and backed by the long range 
 
GRAMPIAN HILLS. 33 
 
 ofhillstothe northward, above which are seen, far re- 
 tiring, the lofty, blue, and varied mountains of the High- 
 lands. Of all these roads, that perhaps is the finest 
 which descends on Glamis, amid the prolonged and 
 broad sweep of woods, blending, as they reach the vale 
 below, with its trees and its fields, and with the rich parks 
 that surround the towers of this picturesque castle. 
 
 But I must return to the skirts of the Highland bills, 
 my proper place : and, even on these I must be brief, 
 for even there I am trespassing. The length of this 
 continuous line, and the decided separation from Strath- 
 more by which the hilly is here so easily distinguished 
 from the low country, convey a stronger idea of the dis- 
 tinction between the Highlands and the Lowlands, than 
 can easily be obtained any where to the westward ; where 
 the inferior ridges of the Ochiis, the Campsie, the Kil- 
 patrick, and others, render that boundary less obvious 
 to an ordinary inspection. This line is therefore easily 
 followed, from Stonehaven even to Blairgowrie, without 
 interruption ; but from this place, westward, to the pass 
 of Birnara, nature has not so well marked the distinction, 
 as the hills which branch hence to include the valley 
 of the Lowes, interfere with its precision. But from 
 Birnam even to Comrie, the boundary is again well 
 marked; as it afterwards is, if somewhat less decidedly, 
 to Callander, and thence, with similar or greater obscu- 
 rity, even to Dumbarton, where, meeting the sea, its place 
 can no longer be questioned. This therefore, towards 
 the south, is the natural, as it is the artificial boundary 
 of the Highlands, and as it once was the political one. 
 To the east, their political limits were never very well 
 defined ; nor can any proper natural boundary be as- 
 signed, which will not somewhere interfere with any 
 political one that we can fix. The capricious line here 
 
 VOL, I. D 
 
34 GRAMPIAN HILLS. 
 
 drawn by the excise, was chosen because nothing more 
 certain offered. But this is out of our present pursuit. 
 
 It is easy, in a geographical view, to perceive that 
 the southern boundary now before us, which, to a person 
 coming from the low country, appears a ridge of hills, is 
 not a ridge, or a chain as it is commonly called, but the 
 declivity of an irregular group, or of a kind of table land 
 of mountains, which, with more or less continuity, occu- 
 pies the whole north-western side of Scotland with part of 
 the northern ; advancing branches to the eastward in an 
 irregular manner, and intersected by valleys which pre- 
 serve no fixed or common direction. Yet, to this, there 
 has been assigned the term Grampian mountains ; and 
 the people, even those who ought to know better, speak 
 familiarly of a Grampian chain, which some describe as 
 a continuous chain of hills reaching from Aberdeen or 
 Stonehaven to the Clyde, and to which others have at- 
 tached ideas much more vague, since they extend the 
 term to the northward ; no one knows whither. If there 
 is no such thing as a Grampian chain, as little are there 
 any Grampian mountains that are intelligible ; since no 
 one knows what or where they are, unless all the moun- 
 tains of Scotland are Grampian mountains. The Gram- 
 pian mountains are not, however, a very recent con- 
 trivance ; though not much unlike Berigonium in reality, 
 and probably very little heard of in modern times, till 
 young gentlemen were taught to spout '* My name is 
 Norval." 
 
 The original blunder seems to lie with Richard of 
 Cirencester. Tacitus says, that the battle with Galgacus 
 was fought " ad montem Grampium ;" and as that Mons 
 Granipius is a mountain near Stonehaven, it can scarcely 
 form even an integrant part of the mass of the Highland 
 mountains. It may have been corrupted from Grans-ben, 
 
GRAMPIAN HILLS. 35 
 
 or Grant-ben, or Garvh-beii, (Grant's bain in Camden) for 
 aught that any one can prove to the contrary ; but these 
 are quite as likely to have been afterwards fitted to the 
 Roman term: whether or not, the blunder certainly did 
 not originate with the Highlanders, who are far too good 
 natural geographers to have so misapplied any term. 
 Richard, who seems the real sinner in this case, de- 
 scribes the Tay as dividing the province of Vespasiana 
 into " two parts," and then he says again that the " hor- 
 rendusGrampius jugus" divides it also into " two parts." 
 In another place, he speaks of part of the Grampius Mons, 
 as forming a promontory extending far into the German 
 ocean, somewhere near the Dee. Then again, the Va- 
 comagi to the west, or in Moray, are divided from these 
 Dee men, the Taixali, by the " series" of the " Montes 
 Grampii ;" and, in the map belonging to his itinerary, 
 these are represented as a chain extending from Fraser- 
 burgh to Loch Lomond : a chain that has no existence. It 
 is utterly impossible to reconcile a confusion, at which we 
 cannot nevertheless be surprised. It is tolerably plain that 
 he had picked up the name from Tacitus, making it fit 
 wherever he was in want of a term ; and that he had, him- 
 self, no notion, of this part at least, of the geography of 
 Scotland. But I might as well have spared this discus- 
 sion ; for a Grampian chain they will probably remain to 
 the end, like all the chains which have no existence in 
 any place but the map-makers' heads ; since the name is 
 now as firmly rooted as the hills themselves. 
 
 From Blairgowrie, or Alyth, to the road over the 
 Cairney mount, this long acclivity is far too difficult of 
 access to lie within the scope of ordinary travellers ; 
 nor indeed, excepting perhaps the Reekie Linn, does 
 it produce much .temptation to such persons. Though, 
 at the foot of the declivity, the scenes are often fine, 
 
 d2 
 
/ 
 
 36 BATTLE OF THE GRAMPIANS. 
 
 these belong rather to the Vale of Strathmore than 
 to the Highlands. Near Alyth is the ruin of the castle 
 of Barry hill ; about which Pennant has picked up a 
 story, I know not where. It was the prison of Queen 
 Gueniver the wife of Arthur ; and her monument, as he 
 also says, is to be seen in the church-yard of Glamis. It 
 is certain that there are many monuments there in want 
 of claimants; but Queen Gueniver must have had the 
 ubiquity of Ossian himself, if she is buried at Glamis, 
 because she lies also at Glastonbury. At least if ever 
 there was an Arthur and a Gueniver ; since Edward and 
 Eleanor performed a journey to Glastonbury, and dug up 
 the body of the presumed Arthur, where he was lying in 
 peace by the side of his wife, that they might prevent the 
 rebellious Welsh from thinking that he was still alive. 
 That Pennant, a Taffy himself, should have known so 
 little of his own kings and queens, makes it probable that 
 Walpole was not very far wrong when he abused him for 
 publishing the head of Rembrandt's wife as that of the 
 Countess of Desmond ; and for other matters. 
 
 But this is the scene cf much heavier questions 
 than Queen Gueniver or a Grampian chain. There is no 
 stronger instance of the influence of a thing once said 
 and once repeated, than the labour which has been used 
 in vain to subvert the popular theory respecting the place 
 of the battle of the Grampians. Some dreaming antiquary 
 or random etymologist proposes something; and, often, 
 not much knowing or caring what : another follows ; the 
 mob, which has always " adampnable adherence unto au- 
 thority," takes it all for granted, and it becomes a piece 
 of philosophy or history which Archimedes himself could 
 not afterwards move. Sibbald, who thought too much 
 of frogs and butterflies to be very trust-worthy in 
 weightier matters, first misled the pack ; and I doubt if 
 
BATTLR OF THE GRAMPIANS. 37 
 
 Dr. Janiieson will easily set them right again. 1 reinein- 
 ber visiting all these places twenty years ago, and then 
 wondering how such a question could ever have been 
 agitated at all. If the merest schoolboy who had read 
 his Tacitus had been asked the question, he would have 
 said that such a battle could not have been fought near 
 Ardoch ; because that place is in the very teeth of a 
 record, so pointed and so plain that it cannot be for a 
 moment mistaken. That Sibbald had never read that 
 work, seems tolerably clear ; but why my most learned 
 friend Chalmers, that giant in all Scottish antiquarian 
 lore, should go on believing, is a question which none but 
 himself can answer. 
 
 It is provoking that the blackness of a book should 
 give it authority, or the antiquity of a folly render it wis- 
 dom. But thus I suppose it must always be. If so 
 shallow an antiquary as Gordon, or Sibbald, was to come 
 forth now, his book >vould find its way to the snuff shop 
 in a week, and he himself would either be laughed at or 
 forgotten. Now, there is a dingy folio, not to be pro- 
 cured but at a' high price, and a man, of whom we know 
 nothing but the name, looming high and large through 
 the mists of age. For no better reasons, we venerate 
 the one and believe the other ; or go on discussing inter- 
 minably whether they are wrong or right, and fabricat- 
 ing commentaries bigger than the originals, when the 
 reasonable proceeding would be to toss the whole into 
 the fire. Thus it is for our ancient history. Some drowsy 
 monk, shut up in his cell, in Cumberland, or Shetland, 
 or Paris, (for it is pretty much the same where,) ignorant 
 alike of the world and of books, betakes himself to the 
 writing of a chronicle, or a history, of people and lands 
 which he never saw, and of ages that were past before 
 he was born. And these become our histories, and our 
 
38 BATTLE OF THE GRAMPIANS. 
 
 chronicles; to be believed, or disputed about, or collated, 
 or rectified, and finally, in some shape or other, to find 
 their way into what is called history, and into what we 
 believe to be belief. We never think of enquiring how 
 such a person procured the births, names, parentages, 
 deaths, and actions, of an hundred and forty British kings, 
 from centuries when no one could write, or how he could 
 describe motives, and characters, and battles, and trea- 
 ties, even of his own times, when there was neither ex- 
 tended social communication nor printed documents cir- 
 culating, and when he himself was alike a stranger to 
 camps and cabinets. In our own times, when every one 
 is every where, and every person knows every thing, 
 and when there are fifty newspapers, and fifty more, 
 printed every day, all over Europe, we are troubled 
 enough to get at bare facts, and those who produce mo- 
 tives must invent them. And yet we believe in such a 
 historian as this or the other ancient, because he hap- 
 pened to live five or ten centuries ago, and because his 
 name is Boece, or Fordun, or Barry; often, much worse 
 names than even these. If a monk of Mount Athos or 
 Carmel were now to write such histories of Turkey or 
 Arabia, we should turn them into winding sheets for fish ; 
 but who knoM's whether a posterity too will not be found 
 hereafter, which shall buy them with gold, and swear 
 to the truth of what their very authors produced as 
 fiction. 
 
 But to come back to master, Sir Robert, Sibbald. 
 Dealgin Ross is a moor near Comrie ; and Sir Robert 
 being somewhat deaf, and not comprehending Donald's 
 mode of pronunciation in his nose and throat, imagined 
 he heard Galgachan. This produced Galgacus; and 
 Richard's Grampian chain, fortunately, suited any place ; 
 Fraserburgh, Stonehaven, Comrie, or Loch Lomond ; or 
 
DUNNOTTER. 39 
 
 Cape Rath, had it been in Sir Robert's way. Thus the 
 battle of Agricola was fought at Comrie; and neither 
 this learned personage himself, nor one of his hundred 
 followers, ever thought of enquiring whether the Roman 
 fleet was anchored in Loch Earn or upon the top of 
 Drummond castle. Tacitus seems to have supposed that 
 it must have sailed on the sea. He says, at least, that 
 Agricola sent forward his navy to spread terror among" 
 the Caledonians, and that they were dismayed by the 
 sight of this fleet, and that his camp contained seamen, as 
 well as horse and foot. Lest he should have made a mis- 
 take, Agricola himself says that he crossed immense arms 
 of the sea ; in plain terms, the firths of Forth and Tay. 
 As to Galgacus, since Tacitus speaks for him, it is of less 
 moment that he says " the Roman fleet is hovering on 
 our coasts." That Stonehaven must be the place, be- 
 comes therefore a simple case of dilemma; because none 
 other will answer all the conditions. As to the positive 
 class of proofs, from the prolongation of the Roman sta- 
 tions hither through Strathmore, and from the camp at 
 Arduthy, I need not enter on them. 
 
 But I must take my leave of Agricola, Sir Robert 
 Sibbald, and the Grampians ; but not without naming 
 Dunnotter, as that would be an absolute crime. If the 
 buildings had any character, or bore any relation or pro- 
 portion to the noble rock on which they stand, this would 
 be the pride of Scottish castles. It is almost that now; 
 for even the mean, confused fragments and walls, are 
 almost overlooked in contemplating the magnificent di- 
 mensions and disposition of the lofty mass on which they 
 stand. In some positions, indeed, they become grouped 
 in such a manner as to unite well with the general out- 
 line. This is particularly true in the view from the cliffs 
 near at hand, where the rock is seen below the horizontal 
 
40 DUNNOTTER. 
 
 line of the sea; forming, in this position, one of the 
 grandest and most romantic scenes in this class of land- 
 scape, which it is possible to imagine. 
 
 Were Dunnotter castle not commanded from the 
 shore, it would not be easy to find a more impregnable 
 fortress, even in present warfare. Its former importance 
 is well known ; but its history is much longer than I can 
 here afford to trace. It is no small part of its reputation to 
 have been taken by Wallace in 1296. Nearly half a cen- 
 tury after, it was in Edward the Second's possession, and it 
 appears that he added much building to it. Again it was 
 taken by Sir Andrew Murray : and being besieged in the 
 civil wars, the church was burnt. This was the com- 
 mencement of its ruin ; which was CDmpleted to nearly 
 the state it now is, by the York Buildings Company, 
 which purchased and pulled down many of its buildings 
 in 1700. Thus have time, fanaticism, war, ignorance, 
 and poverty, all combined to rob Scotland of most of 
 its ancient records; while, respecting what remains, 
 its negligence seems to have been not much less than 
 its pride. 
 
UUNKELO. 41 
 
 DUNKELD, STRATH TAY, FLEMISH ARCHITECTURE 
 OF SCOTLAND, MONESS, ABERFELDIE, KENMORE. 
 
 We must return to Dunkeld, for the purpose of pro- 
 gressing", as the new barbarians call it, along the banks 
 of the Tay. And he who does return hither from Stone- 
 haven or from Montrose, whether by Fettercairn and the 
 foot of the hills, or by Brechin and Forfar and Glann's 
 and Coupar, or intersecting the country by Kirriemuir, 
 or crossing it from Dundee, or from Dunsinnan castle, 
 (which by the bye never could have been the castle of 
 any Scottish king,) or in any other possible mode in 
 which Strathmore can be traversed or visited, will have 
 much occasion to congratulate himself in having made a 
 tour in Scotland of which he never heard ; nor any one 
 else. I believe I shall be obliged to write a tour book 
 myself for Strathmore too, some of these days; since I 
 have set up as a champion for so much of Scotland al- 
 ready. The world seems scarcely to have heard that there 
 was such a country as Strathmore, or such a river as the 
 Isla; and, certainly, was never told that three yards of 
 the Isla and its tributaries are worth all the Tweed put 
 together, and that three miles of it are worth the whole of 
 the Clyde and the Don ; besides Esks, and Galas, and 
 Etricks,and Avons, out of number, which have been sung 
 and said to very weariness, and which have little other 
 claim to notice than what they derive from an old song. 
 There is much in an old song : a great deal too much ; as 
 
42 DUNKELD. 
 
 many other persons than poets and politicians know. Isia 
 is unsung; while every one knows Gala water and bonny 
 Doon : in song at least ; as few would think of looking 
 for them any where else. And thus too when the tune- 
 ful race thinks fit to sing of Tay, it must talk of the 
 " pleasanter banks of the Tweed." If this is poetical jus- 
 tice, we cannot have too little of it. But this is not the 
 fate of rivers alone ; for more false maxims, false philo- 
 sophy, and false morality, have been propagated and fixed 
 by two or three pair of rhymes, than by as many swords, 
 sermons, or syllogisms. 
 
 The same traveller, at the same time, cannot contrive 
 to leave Dunkeld for Strath Tay by both its roads. He 
 must manage that, however, in the best way he can ; but 
 I must do it at present. Speaking by the road book, 
 the western is the road to Loch Tay, and the eastern leads 
 to Blair; and both have their beauties. By the western, 
 we see once more the beautiful scenery beneath Craig 
 Vinean, its narrowest part presenting two or three land- 
 scapes of great magnificence, and the whole road being, 
 for some miles, unusually rich. At Dalguise, there is a 
 mountain cascade that well deserves a visit ; but though 
 the road itself abounds, even to the flexure of the valley, 
 in much beautiful close scenery, the views of this splen- 
 did vale are far more perfect from the western, or the 
 Blair road. Along this line, the spectator may trace a 
 considerable part of the plantations formed here by the 
 Duke of Atholl ; but those who are interested in this de- 
 partment of rural economy, will find a wider scope for 
 their observations beyond the summits of Craig-y -barns. 
 The plantations of Scotch fir are very extensive; but this 
 tree has long since been abandoned, in favour, first of 
 larch exclusively, and, now, of larch and spruce toge- 
 ther; the latter wood occupying (hose lower and moister 
 
PLANtATIONS OP DTJNKELD. 43 
 
 spots which are unfavourable to the growth of the other. 
 The two larches, whence the taste for planting that wood 
 first originated here, are still flourishing on the lawn at 
 Dunkeld : noble trees, of ninety feet stature and of the 
 same breadth, and with an extreme circumference of 
 nearly fifteen feet. So little was this tree known when 
 first introduced in 1738, that these two plants were first 
 placed in the greenhouse. The total number of trees 
 planted by this very active cultivator, amounts to about 
 thirty millions; and the plantations of Dunkeld alone, 
 which are still in progress, cover eleven thousand acres. 
 How the country has been thus converted, in this place, 
 from a brown rocky desert to what it now is, is too plain 
 to be indicated ; and what it is yet to effect, will be ob- 
 vious to those who examine the young woods that are 
 shooting up. It is something to have done this, were it 
 only for beauty ; but it is much more, thus to have 
 added to the public and private resources of the country. 
 The larch has already been used in ship-building, so 
 that its value is ascertained : but it has been also disco- 
 vered to possess an advantage that was unforeseen, in 
 reducing the barren and brown hills to green pastures. 
 Within twenty years, all the heaths, rushes, and former 
 vegetation of the mountains disappear; and the ground 
 among the woods thus becomes green, and applicable to 
 the feeding of cattle, so as, from a former value of a few 
 pence, to produce a rent of many shillings for the acre. 
 
 To return now to the western road, the first remark- 
 able object is the narrow rocky pass, called the King's 
 Pass, which opens suddenly on a view of this valley ; 
 producing at first a dazzling effect, and no part being 
 more striking than the dark depth of wood through 
 which the Tay winds, silent, black, and majestic, far 
 below. The huge fragments of fallen rock, and the trees 
 
44 DUNKELD. 
 
 that spring- from their crevices, render the pass itself a 
 scene of considerable interest ; and, among these rocks, 
 tradition still shews a fissure, said to have been the den 
 of an ancient Highland Caciis, called Duncan Hogg. He 
 is reputed to have dragged the cows which he lifted, 
 to this hole; to devour them, like a hyrena, at his lei- 
 sure. There is much virtue in a term : liftinq, sanctifies 
 the robberies of Duncan Hogg, as it did the whole breed 
 of Cearnachs, when stealinrf would have destined them 
 to a halter; the language changed, the matter still the 
 same. Thus, it is said, that Duncan would not have 
 taken a purse on the same road on which he would have 
 lifted a cow, as being a dishonourable term.', although 
 we have never been informed where there were any 
 purses to be taken in the Highlands, unless it were 
 an empty spleuchan. To be portable and useful, formed 
 the chief merit of the pecus; and the pecunia, it is 
 likely, had it been to be lifted, would not have been 
 much more sacred. It is very plain, that as Duncan 
 could not possibly have dragged the whole carcase 
 into his inconvenient lair, he must have had recourse 
 to the delicate expedient of pulling it limb from limb. 
 Doubtless, it is very proper and necessary that this 
 practice should be revived, as well as the wearing- of 
 kilts ; and as meetings and olympic games for the dismem- 
 berment of living cattle have been already founded, we 
 must shortly look to see a new society established, under 
 some triply-compounded Greek term, which I will not 
 suggest, lest I should rob it of any portion of its rights. 
 
 There are matters in the King's Pass better worth 
 examining than Duncan Hogg's Hole. It is easy to 
 trace an excavation in the rock, which must have once 
 formed a cascade in the Tay. At a somewhat lower 
 level, on the other side of the small hill on the left called 
 
STRATH TAY. 
 
 45 
 
 the King's Seat, there is a similar mark no less distinct ; 
 and in the pass of Birnani, at Newtyle Quarries, there is 
 a third, equally corresponding in elevation, and thus 
 serving to prove that this general level once formed the 
 course and bed of the Tay. These appearances are 
 analogous to those before pointed out at the Hermitage, 
 which equally indicate the former altitude of the Braan. 
 Now, in examining the ground at Dunkeld, it will be 
 seen, that, high above the town, there is a flat alluvial 
 terrace, and that a similar set of terraces exists on the 
 opposite side of the river. It will also be found that the 
 levels of these correspond on both sides ; indicating that 
 they have been produced by the same causes and at the 
 same time, and that they are the remains of a once con- 
 tinuous alluvial plain. Further investigation will shew, 
 that similar terraces extend through the pass of Birnam; 
 while, above the King's Pass also, they may be traced 
 as far as Logierait, and even further, if it were necessary 
 for the present purpose. Such interruptions as they 
 undergo, can be explained by the passage of lateral 
 streams from the hills, or by the peculiarities of the 
 ground, or by the varying position of the Tay in shifting 
 its place sideways and alternately, during the operation 
 of sinking from its higher to its present level. Thus, 
 having once flowed on a higher strath, it has at length 
 sunk to its present stage ; carrying before it all the land 
 that has been removed, to form the Carse of Gowrie, and 
 thus to convert sea into land. 
 
 That this is the true explanation is most evident. It 
 has been thought that Strath Tay once formed a lake, 
 which, breaking its barriers at the Pass of Birnam, left 
 the river where we now see it: a supposed case resem- 
 bling what is the true one in Glen Roy. But it is plain 
 that, under such a supposition, the river could not have 
 
4^ STKATH TAY. 
 
 
 
 left those traces in the rocks which I have just pointed 
 out, as these imply its flowing- at the higher lerel ; while, 
 as these marks correspond in elevation to the terraces, it 
 follows that both are equally implicated in the present 
 appearances. 
 
 The height of this ancient level may be taken at about 
 100 feet above the present bed of the river; and thus, 
 while it is easy to see how far the Tay has sunk, it would 
 not be very difficult to compute the quantity of land or 
 earth that has been removed and carried forward towards 
 the sea. When we look at this enormous waste, we need 
 not be surprised at the formation of the Carse of Gowrie, 
 nor at the deposits which are still augmenting- it : shoal- 
 ing the sea about Dundee, and laying the foundations of 
 new meadows. For this operation is still going on, and 
 must go on as long as the Tay shall continue to flow ; 
 though diminishing in rapidity, as the declivity,and con- 
 sequent velocity, of the river itself diminish. If it is 
 curious to speculate on the period when Perth, had it 
 then existed, must have been a sea port, and when the 
 narrow Tay, far above and below it, was a wide arm of 
 the ocean, it is not less so to consider Avhat the aspect 
 of Strath Tay itself was, when the present place of 
 Dunkeld was buried deep beneath the earth. Nor is it 
 difficult, even to see what it must have been. By laying 
 our eye on any of the terraces, it is easy to bring the 
 opposed one in the same plane, and thus to exclude all 
 the valley beneath : reducing it once more to what it was 
 when the river was flowing above. These speculations, 
 thus pursued, may interest the artist, as well as the 
 geologist and the geographer: since, not only here, but 
 in every deep valley of the Highlands, he would, in 
 making such trials, be at a loss to recognize, in the 
 original shallow and rude glen, the spacious and rich 
 
STRATH TAY. 47 
 
 valley which is now the seat of beauty and cultivation. 
 Contemplating", in this manner, not only the Highland 
 mountains and valleys, but those of the world at large, 
 we are lost in the magnitude of the changes which have 
 carried the ruins of the Himala to the mouths of the 
 Ganges, which, from the sediments of the Nile, have 
 formed the land of Egypt, and which have created, out 
 of the lofty ridges of America, the plains that now form 
 so large a portion of its continent. 
 
 From the King's Pass, even to Moulinearn, the whole 
 of this ride is one continued landscape, ever splendid in 
 the distance, and equally rich and amusing in the closer 
 ornaments of the road. If, to this space often miles, we 
 add the ten which extend from Moulinearn to Blair, we 
 may fairly say that no twenty miles in all Britain can be 
 compared to it, for the variety, the continuity, and the 
 magnificence of its scenery. While the lower portion, 
 now under review, is scarcely equalled for beauty and 
 richness by any of the Highland straths, it displays many 
 general landscapes well adapted for painting, and so 
 strongly marked with their own peculiar characters, a& 
 to be distinguished from all other analogous scenes; But 
 the most complete general notion of this portion of Strath 
 Tay, will be formed from a situation somewhat elevated, 
 near the Duke of Atholl's farm, which also affords one of 
 the most splendid landscapes upon this portion of the 
 river. Indeed, tvith the exception of Stirling, there is 
 scarcely a place in Scotland which presents a view of 
 vale scenery, at once so spacious, so rich, so grand, and 
 so easily admitting of being formed into a picture. The 
 broadest part of the valley, for a space of about six 
 iftfles, is here detailed before the eye so minutely, that 
 every part of its various ornament is seen in the most 
 advantageous manner; the Tay winding along from its 
 
48 STRATH TAY. 
 
 junction with the Tumel, through its bright meadows in- 
 terspersed with trees, till it rolls along, deep among its 
 wooded banks, a majestic and silent stream beneath our 
 feet. On each hand rises a long- screen of varied hills, 
 covered with woods in every picturesque form ; the whole 
 vista terminating" in the remoter mountains, which, 
 equally rich and various, are softened by the blue haze 
 of the distance, as they close in above the pass of Kil- 
 licrankie. 
 
 This general view, varied in many ways by changes 
 of level and of position, forms the basis of the landscape 
 for some miles; but so great are the changes in the mid- 
 dle grounds, and so various the foregrounds, that although 
 the same leading* character is preserved, the separate 
 scenes are always strongly distinguished. Many distinct 
 pictures can thus be obtained, and each of them perfectly 
 adapted for painting; so that Strath Tay is here an object 
 to charm every class of spectator ; him who desires to see 
 every thing preserved in his portfolio, and him who seeks 
 for nothing in Nature but beauty, come under what form it 
 may. Nor must I forget to remark, that many minor land- 
 scapes, of narrow or close scenery, occur on the road side, 
 among- the infinitude of objects, ravines, bridges, rivers, 
 mills, houses, farms, woods, and trees of the most luxuriant 
 growth, which border it through all this space. The 
 small village of Dowally, among- other points, will par- 
 ticularly attract attention in this respect, indepen- 
 dently of its two tall monumental stones, which are here 
 imagined to be, as usual, Druidical. While on this sub- 
 ject, I may also mention, that there is a small circle in a 
 field north of Pitlochrie, and that a larger one occurs in 
 the western division of Strath Tay, not far from the road. 
 In addition to the landscape scenery of this most en- 
 gaging ride, it presents, in June, a spectacle of united 
 
LOOIERAIT. 49 
 
 splendour and luxuriance which is unparalleled, in the 
 brilliant profusion of broom which, then in full blossom, 
 covers, like a dense grove of gold, all the sandy terraces 
 which, beyond Dowally, hang over it. Nor is it a small 
 pleasure, to witness, in the cottages of the swarm of 
 tenants which crowds it, those marks of comparative opu- 
 lence and of attention to comfort, which seem always 
 connected, and which are so rarely seen in the remoter 
 Highlands. Happiness may perhaps be equally distri- 
 buted among both; but we cannot help imagining that 
 where there is the aspect of negligence and poverty, there 
 must be less ; and we are at least the happier ourselves, 
 in contemplating the presence of the elements of comfort 
 and of comparative enjoyment. Such will the Highlands 
 be more widely, as example shall spread ; since there is 
 nothing here but what the same industry might effect in 
 many other places where it is yet unknown. 
 
 Logierait is the place which marks, alike, the junction 
 of the Tay and the Tumel, and the divergence of their 
 two valleys ; and it is accessible by a ferry from the west- 
 ern road. As there is also a road to Loch Tay on the 
 north side of the river, by the way of Weem, a travel- 
 ler may make his election in this matter, and will pro- 
 bably, if he should try both, be unable to determine 
 which is the most entertaining. The remains of the 
 regality court of Atholl arc still to be seen at Logierait; 
 a building once so spacious as strongly to mark the feu- 
 dal importance of this great family. It is said, I know 
 not with what truth, that Robert the second once resided 
 here, and also that it was an occasional residence of 
 Alexander the third. 
 
 Though the western and upper branch of Strath Tay is 
 not perhaps equal in splendour to the lower and southern 
 one,itstiIl maintains the same character ofrichnessthrough- 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 STRATH TAV. 
 
 out; while, instead of the flat extended meadows which 
 mark the latter, it displays a considerable undulation of 
 g-round. Thus the vale of the Tay, from Dunkeld even to 
 Kenmore,a space of twenty-five miles,is a continued scene 
 of beauty; a majestic river winding- through a highly 
 wooded and cultivated country, with a lofty and some- 
 what parallel mountain boundary, which is itself cultivat- 
 ed as far as cultivation is admissible, and is everywhere 
 covered with continuous woods, or trees, as high as wood 
 can well grow. It contains, of course, much picturesque 
 scenery; presentingnotonly landscapes of a partial nature, 
 comprising reaches of the river, or transient views in the 
 valley produced by the sinuosities of the road, but dis- 
 playing the whole to its furthest visible extremity, under 
 aspects which are varied by the casual variations of level 
 or position, or by the accidental compositions of the fore 
 and middle grounds. Where Ben Lawers is seen tower- 
 ing above all in the remotest distance, these views are 
 peculiarly magnificent; nor is any thing ever wanting 
 which the artist could require to give fulness and interest 
 to the nearer parts of the landscape, where, after all, the 
 chief interest must always lie. I must however remark, 
 that as a picturesque ride, this line has suffered much by 
 the change from the ancient military line to the new turn- 
 pike road; which, being conducted upon a lower and more 
 uniform level, has deprived the traveller through this part 
 of the valley, of many of the beauties which it formerly ex- 
 hibited. Those who have it in their power, should therefore 
 chuse the old road, which is still practicable, and which, 
 in particular, opens those spacious and general views in 
 which so much of the grandeur of Strath Tay consists. 
 
 I believe it is but just to say, that Strath Tay is, in 
 point of splendour and richness, the first of the Scottish 
 valleys. This remark, however, implies a comparison, 
 
THE TAY. 51 
 
 only with those which correspond with it in general 
 character and extent, and it bears a reference, at the same 
 time, to its dimensions. There are others which are 
 equally brilliant, and more picturesque, for a short space ; 
 but there are none which, through so continuous an ex- 
 tent as twenty miles, preserve that character unim- 
 peached. With Strathmore, it cannot be compared at 
 all; because that is a district rather than a single valley. 
 To the valley of the Forth, lying between Menteith and 
 the sea, it is assuredly superior; although the compa- 
 rison, in this case also, is not very easily or properly 
 made. That of the Clyde, is out of the question. So is 
 Strathspey ; since its beauty lies in so very limited a 
 space. The valley of the Tumel, from the junction of 
 these great rivers to that of the Garry, is too narrow to 
 admit of a just comparison ; and the next five miles are 
 a still narrower glen. That portion of this valley which 
 contains the lake, is equally splendid perhaps, but then 
 it is not more than five miles long ; and the same may be 
 said of the valley of Blair. The vale of the Dee at 
 Invercauld, is unquestionably more grand, and, for a 
 space, equally rich ; but the splendour of this also, 
 scarcely occupies one third of the length through which 
 that of Strath Tay extends. 
 
 Thus as the Tay is the largest of our rivers, it is also 
 their pride. This portion of its course alone, from Loch 
 Tay to Dunkeld, would render it so, independently of the 
 richness and brilliancy, of a far different character, 
 which occur in some parts of its course from Birnam to 
 Perth, which attend it at that beautifully situated town, 
 and which accompany it hence to the sea. If we were to 
 include with it, its tributary streams, even omitting the 
 Tumel, the picturesque scenes which would thus belong* 
 to it, would be increased to an incalculable extent. We 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE TAY. 
 
 may even exclude the Lyon and the Isla; and there 
 would still be much remaining, in the smaller tributaries 
 which join it in various parts of its course. If Loch Tay 
 be considered, what it truly is, a collector of tributes to 
 the Tay, the extent, and complication, and distance of 
 its sources, will appear quite extraordinary. It is in- 
 deed the many-headed Tay ; and it is from this cause that 
 there is less inequality in its stream than in that of the 
 Spey, or indeed of most of our rivers. This variety of 
 origin affords a compensation of rain, by which, except in 
 seasons of extreme drought, a sufficient altitude and bulk 
 of water for beauty is always preserved : while the vary- 
 ing distances of these sources also, prevent its floods, 
 however high, from being as sudden as those of the Spey 
 or the Dee. The map will show the extent of country 
 which it drains, from the north, the west, and the east; 
 and also the variety and extent of the ground which it 
 traverses by means of all its contributing branches. 
 Thus we can see from what various and widely separated 
 districts, the materials which are employed in shoaling the 
 firth of Tay, and in laying the foundation of new lands, 
 or in augmenting those already deposited, are collected : 
 while, from the extent and bulk of these additions, we 
 can also explain the rapidity of this process, which will 
 probably, in no great number of centuries, produce ef- 
 fectual obstructions to the port of Dundee. 
 
 But what the map does not explain, I have examined 
 on the ground itself; having traced every one of its 
 branches, even in their remote ramifications, and many 
 of them to their very springs. Thus, from the great va- 
 riety of the rocks through which they flow, we can ac- 
 count for the multiplicity of substances found in the bed 
 of the Tay towards Dunkeld and Perth ; while, in a few 
 marked instances, I have been able to name the very hill 
 
THE TAY. 53 
 
 from which some particular stone has travelled. In the same 
 manner, having examined the scenery of all these rivers, 
 I think I can say that the Tay, when all the waters that 
 meet in its firth are included, contains a proportion of 
 picturesque beauty equal to that of all the rest of the 
 interior of Scotland. Besides many smaller lakes, it in- 
 cludes Loch Lydog, Loch Ericht, Loch Rannoch. Loch 
 Tumel, Loch Tay, Loch Lyon, Loch Lochy, Loch Doch- 
 art. Loch Earn, and the three Lochs of the Lowes, with 
 those of Clunie and Marlie; the whole presenting a 
 great proportion of beautiful lake scenery, of which some 
 has already been noticed. The scenery of its valleys is 
 comprised chiefly in those of the Tilt^ the Tumel, the 
 Garry, the Isla, and of its two last tributaries, the Lyon, 
 and the Earn ; and in that of the Tay itself. Those of the 
 Tumel, the Garry, and the Tilt, will hereafter be described ; 
 and that of the Isla and its tributaries, comprising part 
 of Strathraore, was just noticed: those of the Lyon and 
 the Earn are worthy of ranking with them, as well for 
 richness as for picturesque beauty. 
 
 Besides this species of landscape, its various rivers, 
 great and small, present beauties as various in character 
 as they are remarkable; some belonging to the rivers 
 themselves, some to the glens through which they run, 
 and which are generally of too confined a nature to be 
 included in what I have called vale scenery. A slender 
 enumeration of these will convey a sufficient notion of 
 them, to justify, in addition to what I have already said 
 of the scenery of the lakes and valleys, the high rank 
 which I assign to the Tay in the general landscape of 
 Scotland. The beauties of the Tilt and the Garry, are 
 augmented by innumerable lateral rivers and torrents of 
 more or less note, comprising cascades, and what may 
 be called ravine landscape, under a great variety of forms. 
 
54 THE TAV. 
 
 The Erochkie running through a pleasing and narrow 
 valley, deserves to be included among these. The course 
 of the Gowar from Loch Lydog, and that of the Ericht 
 from Loch Ericht, both contributing to form the Tumel 
 through the intervention of Loch Rannoch, are without 
 beauty; but the Tumel itself receives numerous smaller 
 streams throughout its whole course, displaying many 
 picturesque scenes which it would be equally endless and 
 fruitless to name. The remoter courses of theDochartand 
 the Lochy, which unite to form Loch Tay, have very little 
 interest ; but at Killin, where they meet, they atone, by 
 their numerous and extraordinary landscapes, for much' of 
 the preceding blank. The chief part of the course of the 
 Lyon is included in the enumeration of the vale scenery : 
 but it receives many beautiful lateral streams, of which 
 the Keitnie is scarcely exceeded for picturesque charac- 
 ter, by any river of similar dimensions in Scotland. Of the 
 minor waters which fall immediately into the Tay, the 
 enumeration would be tedious ; but those of Moness and 
 Dalguise, though the first perhaps in rank, are but exam- 
 ples of a class of beauty which is found dispersed through- 
 out the whole. The rivers which fall in the same manner 
 into Loch Tay, deserve also a high place in this enume- 
 ration. Nor must the Braan and the Almond be forgot- 
 ten ; since, either on these, or on their smaller tributaries, 
 much picturesque landscape in many different styles will 
 be found. To the eastward, we have all the streams 
 which feed the Airdle and the Erroch, together with 
 these larger rivers, and those which, often in a far differ- 
 ent style of beauty, join the Isla. The mountain torrents 
 which form the higher part of the Isla, belong to a very 
 different species of landscape from those which join it in 
 Strathmore, of which the Dean and the Melgam are the 
 chief; and the great cascade of the Reeky Linn, near 
 
FLliMlSH VKCHITKCTURli;. 55 
 
 Alytb, among* much more in this style, is a fine example, in 
 this class, belonging to a set of waters which are collected 
 from a great extent of alpine country. Lastly comes 
 the Earn ; the monarch of a thousand tributaries which 
 it would be endless to enumerate, but of the beauties of 
 which, examples may be taken from the wild course of the 
 Lednachjthe Ruchil, the water of Edinample, and others 
 which I must now dismiss, as I must terminate this sketch 
 altogether. Could I place before you one tenth of these 
 landscapes, or even my own portfolios, not containing one 
 hundredth of that tenth, I think you would not refuse to 
 the Tay the title which it most justly deserves, of the 
 king of all the rivers of Britain. 
 
 On the southern Strath Tay road, I must point out 
 the singular house of Grandtully, as I cannot pretend 
 to specify its various landscapes. As a specimen of 
 the French, or Flemish, architecture of this country, 
 since it may pass under either name, it is amusing and 
 picturesque ; though wanting consequence, because of 
 its small scale. It cannot, however, be compared to the 
 beautiful examples of this style in Aberdeenshire, nor, of 
 course, to Glamis, to which, in point of size, it is a mere 
 toy. It is to be regretted that when Scotland was copying 
 or imitating this architecture, it did not always chuse good 
 specimens ; and that it should so often have chanced upon 
 deformity instead of beauty, in applying its pepper boxes 
 and extinguishers to its heavy square unmeaning masses 
 of tower. The value, and the attainable beauty of this 
 style, must have been understood somewhere, or we never 
 should have possessed Heriot's hospital; but how the 
 same people that built this, and which had it daily in 
 view, could have done what it has done at Edinburgh, in 
 twenty places that I need not name, surpasses com- 
 prehension. I shall spare you the enumeration of 
 
56 FLEMISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 hideous examples of this style, whether in Edinburgh or 
 in the country, as there is no pleasure in dwelling- on de- 
 formity. But, besides Heriot's hospital and Giarais, the 
 three specimens which highly deserve to be selected for 
 their beauty, are Fyvie, Clunie, and Castle Fraser ; and 
 that, in the order in which I have placed them. Fyvie is 
 truly a magnificent as well as a picturesque specimen of 
 this architecture ; and had the design been completed, it 
 would have exceeded Glamis in every respect. Even as 
 it is, it excels it in g-randeur and breadth of style, and in 
 a mode of composition more uniformly consistent through- 
 out. It is a considerable fault in Glamis, notwithstand- 
 ing its picturesque beauty and interest, that the want of 
 sufficient variety of projection in its walls, a defective 
 ground plan in short, prevents it from taking such masses 
 of light and shade as are required to support the orna- 
 ments above. This is particularly true of the back part 
 of the building; which rises to a great and disagreeable 
 height, a flat bare wall, carrying aloft a quantity of super- 
 structure which almost appears incongruous, and which 
 renders the nakedness of the body of the building more 
 sensible. It is also a leading fault in Giarais, that the 
 various turrets and crowning parts, are too numerous 
 and crowded; adding confusion to their picturesque 
 effect, and forming a line on the sky, which, however 
 irregular, is still too flat in the general bounding outline. 
 The eye too is not well able to group the parts ; nor do 
 they support themselves more by a general shadow and 
 light, than they do by the design and composition. 
 
 If the design of Clunie is far less grand than that of 
 Fyvie, it is a much more picturesque building. It pro- 
 duces indeed a degree of surprise which I have scarcely 
 ever seen equalled in architecture : and as all this is 
 effected by the contrast and disposition of large masses 
 
FLEMISH ARCHITECTURE. 57 
 
 and great lines, the result is far from deficient, even in 
 grandeur. Nothing here depends on petty ornaments ; 
 and the composition altogether marks a mind perfect in 
 the higher departments of art, and an architectural con- 
 ception formed on the principles of landscape. Van- 
 brugh appears to have had the same feelings respecting 
 rural architecture ; but he never conceived any thing half 
 so good. Excellent as it is in the outline, it is even more so 
 in that which is so general an object of neglect, and which 
 is yet so important : the property of so receiving light and 
 shade in almost every position of the sun, as to produce 
 those effects so indispensable to landscape, and of so much 
 value in architecture. The style of Castle Fraser is from 
 the same architectural school ; but the design is utterly 
 different from those of all the preceding buildings. It is 
 also of different periods; yet the additions have been 
 made in so good a taste, that they do not injure that to 
 which they do not absolutely belong. Its round tower, 
 the principal part of the original building, offers a model, 
 whether in its general design and proportion, or in its 
 ornaments, which those who labour in and about a Gothic 
 which they seldom comprehend, would do well to study. 
 
 It is in vain to say that this style, which has no proper 
 name, is neither Greek, nor Gothic, nor Moorish, nor of 
 any assignable manner, or to affect to despise it as 
 Tudesque or Flandrikan. So much the greater is the 
 merit of those who invented it; and name it as we may, 
 it is sufficient that it is picturesque and appropriate. It 
 is the merest pedantry to judge of architecture, or indeed 
 of any thing else, in this manner. The object is beauty, 
 after utility; and, not only abstract, but appropriate 
 beauty. It is the merit of this manner, that though it 
 may neither resemble Gothic, nor Greek, nor Palladian, 
 nor any mode which has had a name, it is founded on the 
 
58 FLEMISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 general principles of beauty in art. Its lines are grand, 
 its masses are broad, it admits of ornaments either large 
 or minute, or it can dispense with them. It is tied to no 
 rules as to their disposition, any more than it is in its 
 general design ; as its purpose is attained in many ways, 
 and as its objects are general, not particular. Hence 
 its variety is endless ; a matter, in itself, of infinite merit, 
 since nothing can be more wearisome, be its abstract 
 beauty what it may, than the almost eternal identity of 
 Greek and Roman, and the far too frequent sameness of 
 Italian architecture. The same columns, the same pedi- 
 ments, the same porticos, the same windows,the same roof: 
 every thing is the same, vary it as we may within the al- 
 lowed limits, and every one house is too often but a copy or 
 a translation of another. Whatever may be the merits of 
 the Elizabethan architecture, or of Vanbrugh's, this style 
 may be allowed to exceed them in every one of those 
 points which form their chief boast. As applicable to the 
 country, or as contributing objects to landscape, it excels 
 them in every way, as it does equally the several classical 
 styles: no less from its endless variety, than its intrinsic 
 picturesque effects, and the power of adapting it to any 
 position, or to any character or composition of landscape. 
 As far as we can judge from the current applications of 
 the Gothic to buildings of this class, it is even preferable 
 to that system for these purposes. In this style we may 
 build churches and abbeys, or castles; or,if we please, we 
 may intermix them, as is the case with an hundred barba- 
 risms which we see every day; or else, like Taymouth, build 
 a church on the top of a castle. But all this is bad when 
 the object is a dwelling house. It is often incongruous, ge- 
 nerally inconvenient, and always expensive. Nor indeed 
 does the Gothic style offer any models for dwelling houses. 
 Its dwelling houses were its abbeys or its castles, and 
 
CASCADES OF MONESS. 59 
 
 these were on a large scale. When we attempt to reduce 
 them to a small size, they become mean. The turrets of 
 the castle, whicli were meant to contain men, will scarcely 
 hold a cat, the towers will hardly admit staircases, much 
 less chambers, the battlements are like the ornaments in 
 an escutcheon, and, instead of the machicolations, we have 
 a paltry pretence which we hate or despise. But any 
 scale will receive the style under review, and its re- 
 sources, on all scales, are endless. But my dissertation 
 will become endless too; and I must recollect that my 
 business is with Strath Tay, not with architecture. In 
 the mean time, I hope that our architects are beginning 
 to comprehend the value of this system, because I per- 
 ceive that Wilkins has been taking measurements of some 
 of these very buildings. It is quite time that we should 
 cast off all our trammels in art ; in architecture, as in 
 every thing else. There was a time when all but the 
 classical styles were equally despised ; and had not 
 another race sprung up, in contempt even of Wren, not 
 only should we have remained ignorant of our splendid 
 and wonderful Gothic architecture, but, like old St. 
 Paul's, all these magnificent remains of the art, the 
 science, the invention, the taste, the splendour, and the 
 piety of our ancestors, would probably have been ere 
 this converted into stone quarries, or have become heaps 
 of undistinguishable ruins. 
 
 The falls of Moness, near Aberfeldie, stand, very pro- 
 perly, in the list ofsights to be seen, like those of the Bruar, 
 and that of the Braan. Those Avho die of raptures at the for- 
 mer, and to whom a waterfall is simply the falling of water, 
 will be delighted equally, at the three cascades of Moness, 
 It is equally easy to know those to whom the upper fall will 
 be the finest, and also the chosen few who will turn alike 
 from that and from the lowest, to pass half a day at the 
 
60 CASCADES OP MONESS. 
 
 intermediate one. I do not pretend to have seen every 
 cascade in Scotland, but 1 have seen the far greater num- 
 ber, all that any other two-legged animal ever saw, and 
 many more than were ever seen, or possibly ever will be, 
 by one person. And thus, erecting myself, as travelled 
 gentlemen commonly do, into a judge from whom there 
 cannot be any appeal, I pronounce and decide that Moness 
 is the most beautiful cascade in Scotland ; just as I have 
 asserted the same elsewhere, of Tumel. and Fyers, and 
 Urrard. So that there are four firsts. And that too may 
 very well be ; since they are all as different from each 
 other, as are the views from Stirling Castle, Loch Coruisk, 
 Ailsa, and Castle Campbell ; each of which is, in the 
 same manner, first, each in its several way. If Fyers is 
 characterized by the depth, the magnitude, the style, and 
 the ornament of its magnificent abyss, Tumel depends 
 chiefly on the bulk and the beauty of its falling water, 
 and on a landscape Avhich is both romantic and appro- 
 priate. Urrard can no more be compared with these than 
 the Choragic monument of Lysicrates with the Parthenon 
 and the Coliseum. While it is, comparatively, a toy, it 
 owes something, like Tumel, to the beauty of the water, 
 which falls in a similar form and proportion ; but more, 
 like Fyers, to the beautiful disposition and ornament of 
 the including chasm. Moness is still more a toy; but it 
 is the miniature of a great style: the cascade and the 
 chasm alike might belong to Fyers, and it is sometimes 
 difficult to imagine that we are not contemplating an 
 object of overpowering dimensions through an inverted 
 telescope. 
 
 The water at Moness is a narrow stream, but it has 
 great beauty in itself, from the intricate manner in which 
 it falls ; while it is always sufficient, even when most 
 scanty, to give to the landscape that which is essen- 
 
CASCADES OF MONESS. 61 
 
 tial ; life ; and, in every state, it answers that purpose, 
 without gaining much when unusually full. This is 
 the principle, after all, M'hich forms the real attraction, 
 the soul, I may truly say, of cascade scenery; although 
 the cause of its peculiar interest seems to be seldom 
 understood. I do not mean by this, the bustle and the 
 noise, the whiteness and the spray and the roaring, which 
 are the ordinary sources of attraction to the vulgar. These 
 form a separate character, and belong to a far different 
 shade of feeling, to surprise, or wonder, or fear. It is a 
 more delicate principle of life to which I allude, which 
 may exist almost without foam and Avithout sound, Avith 
 little perceptible motion, and without producing either 
 surprise or amazement. It is a principle which seems to 
 diffuse its soul through all the sun'ounding scenery, to 
 animate every stone, and bush, and flower, to pervade 
 them all with a community of feeling, and to give them 
 a joint and living interest in the scene. We use the tenn 
 animation on physical subjects every day, without being 
 always conscious of its meaning or of its value. But 
 animation, which fonns the essence of the cascade, is also 
 the essence, if in a far less degree, of much more in land- 
 scape than we are accustomed to reflect on. Nor is its 
 operation obscure: since, of physical beauty, it is uni- 
 versally true, that it acts chiefly as it affects our moral 
 feelings, though few are used to trace that connection. It 
 is the presence of a living principle which confers on the 
 flat, objectless, vacant ocean, a perpetual charm, which 
 renders the clouds and the sky a picture which we are 
 never weary of contemplating : it is this which forms the 
 attraction of the lake, the river, and the tree ; it is its 
 absence which chills us where these are wanting, and 
 which makes us search for with avidity, and dwell with 
 interest, on even the lowliest hut or the merest ruin that 
 
62 CASCADES OF MONESS. 
 
 seems to speak of its existence. Even the rushing of the 
 mountain breeze over the bare and barren surface of the 
 hill, and the hissing of the storm against the naked and 
 dreary precipice, give them an interest before unknown, 
 as if they, like ourselves, were conscious of the gale. It 
 is this delicate and evanescent property of the cascade, 
 which renders that class of landscape unfitted for paint- 
 ing. It is not that, in the picture, Ave listen for the noise, 
 or desire to see the motion ; for, even in nature, we can 
 admire and enjoy the waterfall, when the sound is inaudi- 
 ble, and the motion is scarcely perceptible. But the soul 
 which animated it is wanting, and its charm is gone. 
 
 The symmetry of the cavity at the cascade of Moness, 
 and the remoteness of the water, form its chief distinc- 
 tions. The fall is seen, scarcely as if it was a natural 
 object, but rather like an optical illusion : as something- 
 vacillating between art and nature, from which, as I 
 have often had occasion to remark, so much, and so pe- 
 culiar an effect is produced in landscape. While the 
 elegant form of this deep hollow cannot be exceeded in 
 beauty, its ornaments of rocks, and stones, and trees, and 
 bushes, and ferns, and wild flowers, are all disposed, as 
 if by the hand of exquisite taste, but with all the inimi- 
 table grace and ease of nature. The rays of the sun do 
 not penetrate it, but every object is illuminated by a 
 general subdued light, and by the reflections proceed- 
 ing from the water, and reverberated in succession from 
 rock to rock. Under these lights, whose value are well 
 known to artists, are seen all the rich browns of the 
 dripping stones, the deep black chasms and fissures, the 
 broad grey faces of the rocks, the brilliant golden mosses 
 that cushion every projection, and the light airy green 
 of the ferns, and of the tender foliage of a thousand 
 shrubs, feathering from above; while, aloft, the trees 
 
ABERFELDIE. 63 
 
 throw their branches across, tinging with green the trans- 
 mitted light, and adding to that general effect of tran- 
 quillity and peace, which distinguishes this cascade from 
 all others. Here also is experienced, very peculiarly, 
 that effect of harmony of colouring and of artifice united, 
 which so often occurs in cascades of this character, and 
 which seems to have almost brought them already under 
 the hands of the painter. It is a compound effect, inter- 
 mediate between the artificial colouring of landscape, and 
 that which is produced by the camera obscura. While 
 the subdued tones of reflected light cause it to resemble 
 that of the latter, the watery vapour of the fall diffusing 
 itself over the objects, generates that atmospheric colour- 
 ing* Avhich, in painting, is too often a conventional arti= 
 fice, and which is the true source of the harmony of 
 colouring peculiar to these cascades. It is particularly 
 remarkable in this one, from the form and space of the 
 cavity, and it is one of the great causes of its effect : 
 producing an appearance of distance in the nearer objects, 
 and thus, while it gives unity to the scene, conferring on 
 it imaginary dimensions, and an air of greatness and mag- 
 nitude which its measurements would not justify. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that all the beauties of 
 Aberfeldie are limited to the falls of Moness. If the 
 tour books have forgotten that this is one of the finest 
 situations on the Tay for landscape scenery, it will 
 justify my hostility to them for their neglect; a hos- 
 tility which seems likely to remain. The chief of 
 these scenes will be found at different points on the de- 
 clivity of the very hill which leads to the cascades ; and 
 they consist chiefly of views looking across towards 
 Castle Menzies. It is a species of vale scenery, yet ut- 
 terly distinct from all else which is found in Strath Tay. 
 It is closer, if I may use such a term, and presents middle 
 
64 TAY BRIDGE. 
 
 grounds of greater space and importance; while the dis- 
 tances do not bear the same undue proportion which, 
 along the greatest portion of this valley, renders its land- 
 scapes unfit for painting. The rocky hill which rises 
 above Castle Menzies, forms a striking object, sufficiently 
 near to the eye ; and all the hill boundary is equally 
 grand. The richness and variety of the middle and fore- 
 grounds, could not well be exceeded ; and the bridge of 
 the Tay forms an object in the flatter grounds, which is 
 alike romantic and characteristic. But I must not enter 
 into these endless details. 
 
 I suppose it is very well known by whom this bridge 
 was designed ; but it is a piece of knowledge which I have 
 not acquired. The fame belongs to Marshal Wade, of 
 course; and with the same justice that the botanist, and 
 an endle*is race besides, found their reputation on works, 
 the whole merit of which belongs to artists, whose names, 
 if they are known, are never mentioned. It is Mr. Some- 
 body's magnificent Opusculum on the Genus Pinus, and 
 so on, not Mr. Bauer's : and the gentleman author 
 who, in a similar way, produces a splendid volume of 
 ancient architecture, or of tygers or butterflies, and who 
 speaks of" my draughtsman," forgets, as do the public, 
 that, but for his draughtsman, he might as well have re- 
 posed in peace. Here we have the " solertia" of Marshal 
 Wade ; and the " auspices" of George the second, — good 
 man, — who knew as much about art as one of his own drum- 
 majors. I know not that Tay bridge has a very pure 
 claim to originality; because the hint of the obelisk^, 
 from which it derives its chief character, seems to have 
 been borrowed from the bridge at Stirling. But the 
 artist, be he who he may, has improved the idea so much, 
 as to deserve even more praise than the mere invention 
 could have conferred ; while, for aught I know, even 
 
TAY BRIDGE. DO 
 
 Stirling- may be but the copy of something unknown to 
 me. Whether that be so or not, the obelisks on Stirling 
 bridge would not be missed were they removed ; while, 
 here, they form an essential part of the architecture. To 
 imagine four obelisks placed on the parapet of a bridge, 
 is to imagine a heterogeneous incongruity ; ornaments 
 irrelevant to the general form of such a structure, and a 
 fantastical effect. But the artist has avoided all this, by 
 the congTuity of the general design, and by the admirable 
 proportions which are preserved throughout, not only in, 
 the exterior lines of the bridge, but in the relative di- 
 mensions and disposition of the arches. While, from 
 each end, the parapets sweep up in a graceful curve to 
 the bases of these obelisks, the eye is conducted to their 
 summits, as to the natural and necessary termination ; the 
 judicious place which they occupy, and the justness of 
 their distances and proportions, producing also a pyra- 
 midal general composition, which is as graceful as it is 
 free of affectation. Nothing can well be imagined more 
 picturesque as a landscape object, than Tay bridge ; 
 while it is no less unexpected, and even romantic ; lead- 
 ing the imagination to an age, and to scenes, which, we 
 feel, are not our own, but which we know not where to 
 fix. As a merely architectural object, it is no less pic- 
 turesque ; affording many striking subjects for painting, 
 according to the different points whence it is viewed. I 
 care not though I pass for a Goth, in admiring what is 
 amenable to none of the former supposed receipts for 
 bridge building; for I still think that, to be picturesque, 
 is an essential quality of architecture, and particularly of 
 rural architecture, and that novelty and variety are as 
 essential to beauty as to pleasure in this art as in any 
 other. We are wearied with the incessant repetition of the 
 same style, and almost of the same objects, at least in that 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
60 TAY BRIDGE. 
 
 architecture which we choose to consider classical. The 
 freemasons took a different and better view of this matter ; 
 but there is much to be done yet, before we shall get rid 
 of the pedantry of art and the servility of imitation. 
 Though Tay bridge had failed of its effect, it is no small 
 merit to have dared such a work. Being what it is, it 
 offers an example of what may yet be done in a line of 
 architecture which seemed to have been particularly ex- 
 hausted ; and if what I have been scribbling about it, 
 shall make it better known and more esteemed, I shall 
 not, as the boastful say, have written in vain. I cannot 
 help thinking that it has a strong savour of Gibbs or 
 Hawksmoor ; whom, with many barbarisms and failures, 
 it would be as well if we sometimes thought a little more 
 of imitating. But I shall be travelling out of the record 
 if I proceed. 
 
 As in the tablet at Dalwhinnie, and in many other 
 places, there is here a long and operose Latin inscription 
 from the pen of Dr. Friend, which relates how the military 
 roads were extended, over bogs and rocks, through a 
 space of two hundred and fifty " M. passuum ;" and how 
 this bridge was built over the indignant Tay, " indig- 
 nanti Tavo insultantem," with a courtly compliment to 
 his Majesty at the end : " Ecce quantum valeant Georgii 
 secundi auspicia." " Ultra Romanos terminos" too. The 
 Tay does not feel the least indignation at the matter, for 
 it is here remarkably tranquil ; and to say that the mili- 
 tary roads were carried so far beyond the Roman boun- 
 daries, is not true. A thousand years hence, when half 
 the letters shall be obliterated, some antiquary will be 
 puzzled to ascertain the name of the Legion and the 
 Prcefectus viaruni ; and may probably conclude that 
 Georgius was only a translation of Agricola; while, im- 
 proving on Sibbald and Chalmers, he will show that the 
 
TAY BRIDGE. 
 
 67 
 
 battle of the Grampians was fought at Aberfeldie. Why 
 could not all this have been told in plain English? If 
 we must be pedants, why not rather bonow from the 
 ancient than from the modern Babylon, and give the 
 record to the world in nail-head characters. It would 
 have the g-reater advantage of being- still less intelligible ; 
 and the only difference would be, that instead of apply- 
 ing to Dr. Friend, we must apply to Professor Grote- 
 fund. If the Highland Tay was to be insulted with a 
 bridge at all, it might as vreU have been insulted in the 
 language of its conquerors : for it was left to England 
 to do what Rome had attempted in vain. The very fact, 
 that a whole nation could not tell posterity that it had 
 built a bridge, without applying to the master of West- 
 minster school, renders the record as ridiculous as it is 
 pedantic. 
 
 Imagine yourself now at Kenmore : but imagine too 
 that you have now entered a narrow pass, among bold 
 hills and rich woods, that you are amid new scenery, and 
 that Loch Tay lies before you, stretching away broad and 
 bright, far towards the western sun. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 GLEN LYON. 
 
 GLEN LYON, FORTINGAL, MILITARY USAGES 
 OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 
 
 I MUST diverge again from Kenmore, and from the 
 hackneyed track, to conduct you to scenery, which it is 
 peculiarly a disgrace to the herd of writers to have for- 
 gotten, because it is as accessible from this place, or from 
 Aberfeldie, as it is beautiful and various. I have already 
 named Glen Lyon as one of our finest valleys ; but it is 
 as little known as the Tumel ; much less indeed, and has 
 never, I believe, been yet visited by any traveller, or even 
 by any native unconnected with it. Though, to the upper 
 or proper valley of the Lyon, there is access beyond For- 
 tingal, from the Killin road, this mode of proceeding 
 would omit some of its principal beauties, which lie be- 
 tween its exit from that valley and its junction with the 
 Tay. It is also accessible by the military road from Tumel 
 bridge, but it is preferable to enter by Tay bridge or 
 from Kenmore ; each of these roads leading through the 
 rich scenery which attends the junction of the two rivers, 
 and each displaying this very ornamental country under 
 different views. 
 
 The ancient and ruined castle of Combra is only a 
 vulgar house, of the very worst style, and is rather a de- 
 formity than an ornament ; but higher up, at Coshiville, 
 is a station where a day may be spent, and where it 
 will seldom be spent to more purpose by an artist. Nor 
 is it interesting to an artist alone ; since there are few 
 places more uniformly beautiful in this particular style, 
 than the space contained between Garth castle on the 
 
GARTH CASTLE. 69 
 
 one hand, and Fortingal on the other; even indepen- 
 dently of the various landscapes which it affords. Though 
 the general character is that of a narrow alpine valley, 
 traversed by a deep and rocky stream of small dimen- 
 sions, the Keltnie burn, there are also some splendid views 
 of widely extended scenery, as well as much river land- 
 scape, on a close but larger scale, upon this portion of the 
 course of the Lyon. 
 
 Garth castle is the object which will naturally attract 
 most attention, nor will it easily attract more than it de- 
 serves. The building is, in itself, nothing, in an archi- 
 tectural view ; as it is merely a ruined square tower, 
 without appendages or variety. But it is an import- 
 ant object in the picture, in many positions, merely as an 
 object; while its interest in this respect, is much in- 
 creased by the romantic singularity of its position, and 
 by the moral interests and recollections that are always 
 attached to these buildings. It occupies what may be 
 called a lofty and acute promontory, at the confluence of 
 two streams running in deep rocky channels ; so that, 
 almost from its very base, on each hand, we look down a 
 perilous and perpendicular chasm, on waters so remote 
 that we do not hear them roaring below. Noble and an- 
 cient ash trees spring up all around ; in many places, hang- 
 ing from these lofty cliffs, and throwing their branches 
 and their drooping foliage high across the dark abyss. 
 Around, the hills sweep up on each side, wooded and cul- 
 tivated as far as wood and cultivation can reach ; and, 
 behind, stretching far away into the lofty and wild moor- 
 lands that decline from Schihallien. But this station, 
 more open in front, presents one of the most noble land- 
 scapes in the Highlands; extending down the ravine, 
 and over the valley, which declines rapidly from the eye, 
 carrying along its rocky and foaming stream amid trees 
 
70 RIVER KELTNIE. 
 
 and precipices, till it disappears in the still richer course 
 of the Lyon. On each hand, the hills continue to rise in 
 the same bold sweep, but more wooded and more rich ; 
 while, in front, the fine woody hill which separates the 
 Lyon from the Tay, partly terminates the picture ; but, 
 yielding on one side, opens also to a distant sight of the 
 rich valley of the Tay, and of the ridge, no less rich and 
 various, which conveys the cascades of Moness. This 
 view will easily recall to mind that from Castle Campbell ; 
 as the position of the castle of Garth will also remind us 
 of that splendid place. It would be too great praise how- 
 ever, to say that it ranks with that, amongst the most 
 sublime of Scottish landscapes ; yet it is second to it, in 
 this particular style ; resembling it in variety and rich- 
 ness, but with far less magnificence, as well as with very 
 inferior dimensions in the essential parts : in the castle 
 itself, in the scale of the ground on which it stands, and 
 in the scenery within which it is more immediately in- 
 cluded. 
 
 Each of the small streams now mentioned, but the 
 Keltnie in particular, after the junction, is the seat of 
 much beautiful scenery. After seeing so many hundreds 
 of rivers, I might have supposed their possibilities ex- 
 hausted, had I not known that the resources of nature are 
 unbounded. The character of the landscapes on this 
 little river, differs from all others in the same class; and 
 I know not how better to explain it, than by reminding 
 you, if you have chanced to see them, of a celebrated 
 picture of Rubens representing the termination of the 
 deluge, and of one of Titian, containing a single conspi- 
 cuous figure of a sleeping nymph. These are lofty objects 
 of reference ; but the landscapes which may be found in 
 this spot will justify it. The deep rocky bed of the 
 stream itself, offers numerous examples of close river 
 
GLBN LYON. 71 
 
 scenery, such as belongs to cascades : the water being* 
 rapid, and often beautifully broken by stones and insu- 
 lated rocks, the including precipices being infinitely va- 
 ried, and the fractures broad and graceful ; while all the 
 ornament and richness which trees can confer, are given 
 by the beautiful ashes, which spring from them, or tower 
 and close in from the banks and hills above. In the 
 deeper parts of the chasm, and most remarkably near the 
 castle, and in the rivers before their junction, the nar- 
 rowness of the ravine and the height of the sides, rising 
 perpendicularly, but irregularly, to the height of an hun- 
 dred teet, produce scenery of a still different character ; 
 resembling that of the celebrated rumbling bridge over 
 the Devon, and the equally well known one of the same 
 name near Dunkeld. But these views do not exhaust 
 the scenery on this entertaining river : as, from various 
 points, its peculiar landscapes become combined with 
 those of the glen through which it flows, so as to pro- 
 duce many pictures of a wider scope and of a distinct 
 character. Garth castle thus forms a very principal object, 
 in various modes and from many points ; but to detail 
 these would be useless labour. My object is attained 
 if I can induce you, or any one else, to add this place to 
 the general list of Scottish landscapes ; and as one which, 
 from its facility of access, as well as its beauty, ought to 
 find a place in every Highland tour. 
 
 The course of the Lyon between the junction of the 
 Keltnie and Fortingal, is also very beautiful, if not easily 
 amenable to the rules of landscape painting. The pro- 
 fusion of wood all through this valley, the narrowness 
 of the glen, the height of the hills, and the beauty of the 
 river itself, with the noble trees that hang over it, render 
 the whole space, short as it is, one which has not many 
 rivals in this country. There is also throughout it, a sin- 
 
72 GLEN LYON. 
 
 gular and unexpected air of seclusion, which adds much 
 to its charm; as if it were, in itself, a little world, un- 
 knowing and unknown. If these are things that can 
 produce happiness, I know not many places where a man 
 might be happier than at Garth ; and if all the scenery 
 which 1 have described belongs to its possessor, he may 
 well be proud of his dominions. 
 
 I have elsewhere mentioned, or, if I have not, I have 
 intended to do so, the accurate, and often minute and 
 extensive, geographical knowledge of the common High- 
 landers. This, in a people who are assuredly acute in 
 general, gives them an additional air of acuteness, to 
 travellers who may chance to require such information. 
 It is peculiarly striking to the mere inhabitant of towns, 
 who finds the ordinary lower classes, and often the higher 
 ones, utterly ignorant, even of the roads about their own 
 dwellings, and of the places to which they lead. I 
 chanced to be sitting on a limestone rock in the Keltnie, 
 part of an extensive bed here traversing the country, 
 and had observed formerly that the people fetched this 
 commodity from a quarry many miles off; being unaware, 
 as is not uncommon, of its existence so near them. A 
 flock of little boys and girls happened to be coming from 
 their school, and I called to the biggest of them, a crea- 
 ture often years old, to shew it him, and to ask him where 
 his father obtained his lime for his farm. He not only 
 described to me the quarry whence I knew it to come, 
 but every known bed of limestone in the country, for many 
 miles round ; some of which I then knew to be truly in- 
 dicated, and others which I was thus led to examine. 
 But this was a philosopher in an egg shell, in many more 
 shapes. His school was one where English was taught, 
 and where it was prohibited to speak Gaelic. He ex- 
 plained to me the whole discipline, and snoke of the re- 
 
GLEN LYON. 
 
 73 
 
 puted policy of this measure, and of general education, 
 as if he had been a reader of Reviews. I had a quantity 
 of pence in my pocket, and as pence are shillings at this 
 age, I gave them to him to divide among his fj lowers, 
 who seemed all to hold him in reverence, and were all 
 silent whenever he spoke or appeared about to speak. 
 Unluckily there were fourteen children, and only thirteen 
 pennies; and as he was about to retain the last for him- 
 self, he saw one little girl who was so small that she had 
 been overlooked. He immediately gave her his own, 
 and seemed happier than the rest when he had done it. 
 Such a hero as this might become a Rennel, or a Malthus, 
 or a Bayard : but he will flourish and fade unseen, at the 
 plough or the mattock, unless Lord Breadalbane or Co- 
 lonel Stewart should discover in him the germ of a Simp- 
 son, a Ferguson, or a Burns. 
 
 After all, it is only thus that we can learn the nature 
 of a people : as the author of Waverley and his host well 
 knows. It is vain to travel in barouches, and to act up 
 to the reputed character of a gentleman. Hence the com- 
 parative advantages of the pedestrian system. Not that 
 I pretend to this latter bold character : but I should have 
 known much less than I do of the Highlanders, though 
 you may possibly think that little enough, had I not 
 made bosom friends of the boatmen, acted King Pippin 
 among the children, driven cattle with the drovers, list- 
 ened to interminable stories about stots, and sheep, and 
 farms, partaken of a sneeshing with the beggar, drank 
 whisky with the retired veteran, sat in the peat reek 
 with the old crones, given ribbons to the lassies and pills 
 to the wives, and fiddled to balls in Rum. And as the 
 conclusion of all is, that I should be very well pleased 
 to do the same every summer, I know not what other or 
 better proof I can give of my esteem for Donald and all 
 
74 FORTINGAL. 
 
 his race. In indiscriminate praise, however, there is no 
 value; because unmixed merit is not the lot even of 
 Highland life. Non melius de laudato, pejus de lau- 
 dante. Universal approbation is suspicious, when it is 
 not false: marks of merited censure are the shadows 
 which give truth as well as brilliancy to the lights of the 
 landscape. As to the miseries of the Highlanders, I should 
 rejoice if all that I have said and written would lighten 
 them but by one grain. But I can never teach myself 
 to weep with the haberdashers of the pathetic, because 
 they do not now see ghosts and tell long-winded stories 
 about Fingal ; nor because " the happy vassal" can no 
 longer " sit under a tree" or a stone, and " chant his 
 poems to the mountain breeze." The happiness of vassal- 
 age is a new discovery ; and there is something else neces- 
 sary in this life than lying in the rain all day, dreaming 
 about ghosts, or singing songs ; nor will these occupa- 
 tions fill the Highlander's belly, or augment his com- 
 forts. Nor can I grieve over the loss of that chivalrous 
 fidelity of which we have heard so much ; because I have 
 long ceased to lament at what is inevitable. 
 
 The celebrated yew tree in the church-yard of For- 
 tingal is going fast to decay. Besides that it is a rare 
 tree in Scotland, this specimen is remarkable for its size, 
 as well as for its marks of high antiquity ; resembling 
 those which still exist about the English lakes. The 
 original circumference is said to have been 56 feet. It is 
 supposed, of course, to have been planted for the pur- 
 pose of furnishing wood for bows, at the time when this 
 weapon was in use. That it was an object of attention to 
 the legislature, in the Lowlands, is well known. It is 
 remarkable, however, that no specimen of the bow and 
 arrow has been preserved in the Highlands, among the 
 other arms still treasured up, and that none were found 
 
USE OF THE BOW. 75 
 
 during the execution of the disarming act ; insomuch that 
 some persons have doubted whether those arms were 
 ever used by the Highland clans. There is no doubt 
 however of this fact, as it can be proved by the most 
 positive testimony ; although it does not appear that this, 
 or other missiles, were ever much in request among the 
 northern nations, any more than among the Highlanders, 
 or that they were very expert in the use of them. This 
 defect may perhaps be accounted for by the laborious 
 training which the bow required : so laborious, that, even 
 in England when its reputation was fully established, it 
 was always falling into disuse or neglect, and required 
 successive statutes, directed to enforce the practice of 
 archery. In that country, the bow seems to have been little 
 used for many years after the invasion and settlements of 
 the northern nations; and it was at a comparative late pe- 
 riod that the English archers acquired that dexterity in 
 the management of this weapon, in which they were ac- 
 knowledged to excel all nations,and the destructive effects 
 of which induced the Scottish crown to cultivate its use 
 among the Lowlanders. It was from the event of Cressy, 
 that its reputation was established : and thus it was not 
 till the time of Edward the third, that it came into gene- 
 ral use in England. It seems to have been established 
 in France long before, as there was a King's Bowyer; 
 and it was there called artillery, yet never seems to 
 have acquired much reputation. The frequent discovery 
 of arrow heads made of flint, proves that the bow was 
 known to many nations, long before they became ac- 
 quainted with the working of metals. It is remarkable 
 that these have been found all over the world, even in 
 Hindostan ; and wherever they do occur, they exactly 
 resemble the various stone utensils of war that are manu- 
 factured, even at this day, by the islanders of the South 
 
76 USE OF THE ROW. 
 
 Seas. In Shetland and Orkney, as in the Western 
 Islands, where they are frequently picked up, that 
 superstition is scarcely yet expired among the common 
 people, which considers them as the arrows of fairies, and 
 as the causes of diseases among- the cattle. Animals thus 
 injured, are cured by touching them with the elfshot, as 
 it is called, or by sprinkling them with water in which it 
 has been dipped. But it is only the gifted few who can 
 discover the cause of the disease ; who can discern the 
 undiscernible mark which this fairy weapon leaves on 
 the skin ; and who, should the animal die, can follow it 
 to its lodgment in the pineal gland or the os coccygis ; 
 or, probably, in default of that, to their own pockets. 
 
 Although certainly known to the Saxons and Danes, 
 the bow and arrow do not seem to have been much 
 used in war, as I have already said. But their use is 
 rendered unquestionable by their being among the sculp- 
 tures in the Stone of Forres, commonly called Sueno's 
 Stone; the date of which is probably not more recent 
 than the ninth or tenth century. It appears also, from 
 the tapestry of Bayeux, in which they are represented, 
 that William employed archers at the battle of Hast- 
 ings. This weapon does not seem however to have 
 been common till after the time of the crusades ; when its 
 value appears to have become better known, from the in- 
 tercourse of the European armies with the East ; where it 
 seems, from the testimony of ancient writers, to have 
 been in great request from a period of high antiquity. 
 
 The earliest evidence that I have been able to trace 
 of its use among the Highlanders, if that indeed be High- 
 land evidence, is in the sculptures on some of the grave- 
 stones in Beaulieu Abbey, the date of which is about the 
 year 1300. In Ayrshire, there is a charge in the Sheriff's 
 accounts, for bows required at the battle of Largs, nearly 
 
USE OF THE BOW. 77 
 
 half a century before. In Henry Vllth's time, according 
 to Polydore Virgil, the Highlanders also fought with 
 bows and arrows. Much later, in the time of Cromwell, as 
 we find in the life of Sir Ewen Cameron, archery was also 
 in use among the Highlanders ; although it does not 
 appear that, even at this late period, the bow and arrow 
 was a general weapon. The last instance on record is 
 in 1665, in the time of Charles lid ; and here the archers 
 seem to have been of considerable importance. In a 
 dispute between Cameron of Lochiel and the Macintosh, 
 about some lands in Lochaber, the latter chief, aided by 
 Macpherson, raised 1500 men, and Cameron, with the 
 Mac Gregors, met him with 1200, of whom 300 were 
 archers. Another action of a similar nature, however, I 
 must remark, took place, about the same time, between 
 Glenco and some Breadalbane men, at Killin. These 
 were the last archers that ever were seen in a body in 
 the Highlands ; and, from that time, this weapon seems 
 to have disappeared ; its fall being acccelerated, doubt- 
 less, by the increasing use of fire arms. 
 
 There seems little doubt that, before this time, the bow 
 and arrow had been occasionally employed by small par- 
 ties, as by the proscribed banditti of the clan Mac Gregor 
 and others ; and if Martin's authority is valid on such a 
 point as this, it continued to be used in the same manner 
 even down to his day, in 1700. Yet that it was never much 
 resorted to, might almost be proved from an examination 
 of the ancient castles, which are rarely supplied with 
 loop holes for defence, and which seem to have relied 
 for their security chiefly on the strength of their walls. 
 
 Having thus far become entangled in war, we may as 
 well fight the battle out, and see what has really been left 
 us respecting this first of all arts in the ancient Highlands. 
 It is one thing to examine evidence, and another to be- 
 
78 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 lieve and repeat whatever has been imagined and told, 
 of a state of things, and of times, respecting which na- 
 tional reporters know no more than the rest of the world, 
 and about which they are far less likely to form a correct 
 judgment. 
 
 The warfare of the Highlands was necessarily that of 
 all early nations, if the term savage may not also be pro- 
 perly applied to their early condition. To believe other- 
 wise, is to believe that human nature differed there from 
 what it has been ever since the creation everywhere, or 
 that the progress of society from barbarism to civiliza- 
 tion has not always been the same. It is to believe that 
 Fingal was a Dunois or a Tirante, as we have been ordered 
 to think. Idleness, division, revenge, destruction ; these 
 are the leading points, (cause and consequence,) in the 
 features of all early nations. It is folly to think other- 
 wise, or to wince at such reflections ; as if it was not once 
 alike true of all Europe. We have been what America 
 and Polynesia are now. Our splendid continent, the seat 
 of arts and the focus of light, consisted once of a thou- 
 sand wandering nations, without towns, arts, or agricul- 
 ture. Hunting and wild fruits, the acorns of the golden age, 
 supplied the food of England and Italy, as they do now that 
 of the Iroquois and the Crees. Inroads, conquest, des- 
 truction, were their business and their amusement alike ; 
 war was even the religion of the north. Cruelty and in- 
 justice are features of savage life everywhere ; idleness 
 produces disquiet, and thence war and rapine. The fear 
 of death is no restraint, because life, having no comforts, 
 is not worth retaining; and it was by rendering life 
 miserable in Sparta, that Lycurgus produced that con- 
 tempt of death which marked the odious savages of this 
 barbarous government. There can be no stronger proof 
 of unhappiness than that carelessness of life which is 
 
ANCIENT niOHLAND WARFARE. 79 
 
 found invariably, whether there be a government or not, 
 where the people are miserable. 
 
 That all this, and much more, should be true of the 
 Highlands, and at a date not extremely remote, is no 
 cause for wonder or anger : the singularity consists in 
 the period, not in the condition. All Europe had, for 
 some considerable time, emerged from that state, when 
 it still continued in a narrow region among ourselves ; 
 offering a political'phenomenon not a little singular, and 
 speaking little in praise of that government which could 
 so long endure it. We, ourselves, have scarcely seen it : 
 but that of which our fathers had read, as of ag-es lono- 
 past, was here embalmed for their inspection ; on a nar- 
 row scale it is true, but not the less a picture of former 
 days. It has been the leading error of the Highlanders 
 to forget this : to imagine themselves distinguished for 
 their peculiarities ; for good, themselves^ as their antago- 
 nists have for evi), from all the world at all periods ; 
 when the only essential distinction is the period. They 
 outlived the system. We have heard moreof their virtues, 
 and more too of their vices, than we have read of those 
 of the parallel people who have long past away. That is 
 the main difference. But they are at length alike past 
 away. That which it required a long lapse of time to 
 effect for Europe at large, was here performed, compa- 
 ratively, in a moment. The change was a work of time, 
 when all were alike and no one could proceed much faster 
 than its neighbour. But the Highlands were suddenly 
 found surrounded by an overwhelming majority; the 
 universal light broke on them at once, and, in an in- 
 finitely short time, they experienced that change which 
 it had required ages before that, to effect for others. Let 
 those who have misled themselves with romantic notions 
 respecting the Highlands, whether for good or evil, reflect 
 
80 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 on this. If it is a mortification to this people that they 
 only share the praise of the former days of general 
 Europe, it is a consolation that they divide the blame : 
 each al ke was incidental to their political condition. 
 
 But, to return to the narrow subject of war, its general 
 nature among the clans is already sufficiently understood. 
 That every man able to bear arms was a soldier, and that 
 the Highlanders were therefore a military people, was 
 only a necessary consequence of their political state. At 
 the same period of civilization, all nations are alike mili- 
 tary. Such a force, however, is not an army ; because it 
 cannot have the discipline of one : nor was it ever pre- 
 tended that the discipline of the clans was what we should 
 respect; unless in some instances, and towards their last 
 warfares, when engaged with the government, whether 
 as allies or enemies. Even to the last, however, it could 
 not have been much ; since they were not easily rallied, 
 and could not be prevented from returning home when 
 wearied of the campaign. I cannot help thinking, 
 that the military condition of the Highlands under 
 the Lords of the Isles, must have been superior to what it 
 was afterwards among the divided clans. An ordinary 
 clan militia was little more than a guerilla party, perhaps 
 sometimes a rabble ; but Alexander and Donald could 
 not have led armies amounting to 10,000 men, without 
 discipline ; nor could the battle of Hara law have been 
 fought by a mob, even though the Highlanders were de- 
 feated ; if indeed both parties did not suifer alike. No 
 system, properly military, could, in fact, subsist in that 
 state of minute subdivision which marked the smaller 
 clans ; while it was equally incompatible with that pre- 
 datory kind of warfare which was waged by them. Plun- 
 der, nocturnal incursions, and robbery, never yet were 
 united to regular military discipline ; even where, as 
 
ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 81 
 
 among the Pandours and Cossacs, the system has been 
 far better organized, the commands more extensive, and 
 the officers possessed of more power. 
 
 The personal courage of the Highlanders seems to have 
 been accompanied by great ardour; a remarkable cir- 
 cumstance in a people who, though keen and acute, are 
 not lively, or mercurial, as the French, who are noted for 
 the same quality of military spirit, are. Steadiness, to 
 impel or bear, in action, and in bodies, are rarely united 
 to this quality ; and this inseparable defect appears to 
 have been that of the clan Highlanders. The Highland 
 soldier was a thinking being who acted for himself, and 
 who felt as if the event of the action lay in his own sword : 
 and this feeling, it is unnecessary to say, is fostered by 
 the use of weapons with which men meet hand to hand, 
 and when a man's life is in his own keeping. To what 
 valuable uses troops of this character may be turned, is 
 well known to military men. Whether it remains yet 
 among this people, it is for them to decide; and, if so, to 
 ask themselves whether, in the modern system, every ad- 
 vantage has been taken of it that might have been, or 
 whether the Highlanders have not been too often con- 
 founded with a class of men who are rather the integrant 
 parts of one valuable and steady body, than possessed of 
 any personal individuality. From this cause arose the 
 irregularity of the Highland charge, so often described : 
 each man advancing according to his own mental energy 
 or personal strength, as happens now in the charges of 
 the Cossac cavalry. 
 
 If the bow was not in general use among the High- 
 landers before the introduction of fire arms, they appear 
 to have had, for their regular arms, only the sword, the 
 dirk, and the target ; at least in the times best known to 
 us. The latter seems to have been sometimes armed with 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 a pike in the centre. The Celtic and Gothic nations both 
 had spears, and that weapon figures in the Ossianic 
 poetry ; yet no record is preserved of its use among the 
 clan Highlanders. The axe is mentioned as a weapon of 
 ancient times ; and the Lochaber axe seems also to have 
 been occasionally employed. The former, at least, we know 
 to have been a Norwegian weapon, and it was in use in 
 Ireland. It appears also that the Irish anciently used 
 slings; but I have never heard that this weapon was 
 known in the Highlands. A dagger, or knife, called a 
 skian, was sometimes worn under the garter of the stock- 
 ing, or in other parts, as an instrument of reserve : and 
 this fashion seems to have prevailed also among- the 
 ancient Irish, The Clymore is, literally, the long or two- 
 handed sword, specimens of which are yet preserved in 
 some Highland families. It is a weapon, however, that 
 could scarcely have been in general use, and was proba- 
 bly limited to officers of peculiar strength or prowess, as 
 we know that it actually was sometimes worn by these. 
 
 This two-handed sword was a Norwegian weapon, and 
 probably reached the Highlands from that source ; as 
 among the English, it seems to have been derived from 
 the Gothic warriors. It is probable, also, that it was in- 
 vented after plate armour, against which a lighter weapon 
 was of little avail. Its power and effect in the hands of 
 the mounted knights of the days of chivalry, are well 
 known ; but it was also used on foot with similar con- 
 sequences. Giraldus tells us that it would cut off a 
 man's thigh through his armour, *' so that one part of the 
 man fell on one side of the horse, and the remainder on 
 the other." In the affair of Largs, this very feat was 
 performed by one of the Norwegian captains, Andrew 
 Nicolson, upon the body of a Scottish warrior whom the 
 Norwegian historians call Perus, and Ferash; and who, 
 
ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 83 
 
 according- to Wintoun, was a certain Peter deCurrie; 
 an unfortunate dandy, apparently, who was armed and 
 bedizened in the very pink of the mode, with a belt, in 
 particular, which the poet Sturla has celebrated in his 
 ode, and who rode up and down along the Norwegian 
 line, in defiance, or to display his new armour. 
 
 The term has now long been applied to the well- 
 known sword in common use. Though the people appear 
 never to have had any other defensive armour than the 
 target, the chiefs or officers must have occasionally been 
 i)etter protected ; as we find proofs of that in the sculp- 
 tures on some of their tombstones. Some relics of com- 
 mon plate mail have also been preserved as further evi- 
 dence. Monipennie indeed says that the Highlanders 
 had iron bonnets, and habergeons to their heels. But 
 he is a very fabulous writer ; and if such armour had ex- 
 isted, so as to have been in general use, it must have 
 been remembered and preserved. In the more modern 
 times of the clans, the Highland charge is described as 
 being impetuous : the men, after the first fire, throwing 
 away their muskets and plaids, and advancing with their 
 swords. Even so recently, it is said that they could not 
 be rallied when beaten, but that they dispersed and 
 returned home ; as they did when the action was over, 
 for the purpose of securing their plunder. When it is 
 remarked that they made an orderly retreat at Pinkie, it 
 seems to be quoted as a special instance. It is remarked 
 also, that they often fell on the ground to avoid the eflfect 
 of the enemies' fire. Before action, if possible, they took 
 up the higher ground ; either to gain a command for fire, 
 or to render their charge more weighty. Like many 
 other mountaineers, they were used, when in possession 
 of fire arms, to act as riflemen ; but it never has been 
 said that they were celebrated as marksmen. It has 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 been asserted that they gave no quarter, and that they 
 shed blood without necessity, even down to the begin- 
 ning- of the last century. Their reputation for cruelty, 
 like many other faults, has, however, passed away, as I 
 have elsewhere more particularly remarked ; and it is 
 also denied, and with justice, that the accusation was 
 generally true. 
 
 It is understood that where the clan was small, or of 
 a moderate size, it was formed into a single regiment ; but 
 that when large, as was the case with the troops brought 
 forward by Atholl and Argyll, it was subdivided into bat- 
 talions. The chief was the Colonel, and the gentlemen 
 of the clan formed the officers. It seems also to be per- 
 fectly known, that, although the discipline of these troops, 
 in the circumstances just mentioned, was not such as to 
 meet our modern military ideas, the moral discipline, on 
 a march, or in an enemy's country, was always excellent; 
 as was indeed proved, both in the wars against the Ca- 
 meronians and in 1745. At the same time, the people 
 always displayed great alacrity in receiving such disci- 
 pline as was taught : and even now, I have often, myself, 
 witnessed the surprising rapidity with which Highland 
 recruits are drilled. The carriage of a soldier, which 
 generally demands some time to be acquired, is to them 
 but the work of a day. 
 
 They were always remarked for being afraid of 
 cavalry, and to a degree which is sometimes described 
 as absolutely ludicrous; as if the animal itself was to 
 devour them. It is remarkable that they themselves 
 were never mounted. Of the Highlands, it is true, we 
 may say what was said of Ithaca; yet the whole country 
 was not so impracticable, but that there were many situ- 
 ations where they might have used irregular cavalry and 
 derived great advantages from them. It is easy to ima- 
 
ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 85 
 
 gine a Highlander, with one of his mountain ponies, form- 
 ing a very effective Cossac; always abstracting the kilt, 
 and substituting something better in its place. But it 
 seems as if they had never even thought of the possibility 
 of such a thing: a circumstance which is the more re- 
 markable, as it might be imagined that horses might 
 have been rendered of great use on their plundering 
 expeditions. But they are not even now a riding people ; 
 although, almost till this day, the horses have been nearly 
 as numerous as the men, sometimes more so. A High- 
 lander walks sixty or seventy miles in a day, without 
 seeming to recollect that he has, perhaps, half a dozen 
 ponies running wild about his hill, doing nothing. It 
 would be a curious speculation to enquire whether the 
 kilt itself was not the cause of this : as little causes have 
 produced even greater effects. 
 
 I think, however, that the use of cavalry could not 
 always have been unknown in this country. The evidence 
 stands on Sueno's stone, at Foitcs: unless, indeed, the 
 action there represented was fought between the Danes 
 and the Picts. This will never be further settled ; but 
 the question of chariots is still more obscure. I shall 
 not quote the Ossianic poems as evidence of any thing; 
 but that the ancient Caledonians, who resisted the Roman 
 armies, had chariots, is matter of Roman history. It is 
 probable, however, that this was a Gothic people, as 
 Pinkerton imagines. What these chariots were, and how 
 they were driven in a country without roads, if indeed it 
 was without roads, is never likely to be accurately known, 
 though their construction has been conjectured. If there 
 could be a moment's doubt respecting the existence of 
 chariots, and these with wheels, even as far back as the 
 sixth century, it is removed by a remark in Adomnan, 
 quoted here on another occasion, who relates it as a mi- 
 
86 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 racle, that Columba had travelled a whole day without a 
 linch-pin. That, however, must have been in the more 
 civilized and flatter parts of the then Pictish dominions. 
 It is equally plain, that if the Caledonians who impeded 
 the progress of the Roman army had chariots, they could 
 not have been mountaineers or Highlanders ; and that 
 these, therefore, have no reason to boast of that resist- 
 ance. It is perfectly visionary to imagine the possibility 
 of any carriage with two wheels, be its construction ever 
 so simple and strong, travelling, even for a mile, in any 
 part of the Highlands, unless where the modern roads 
 have been made. What difficulties this throws in the 
 way of some points relating to the Ossianic poems, I need 
 not now enquire ; that being done elsewhere. 
 
 While the singular activity of the Highlanders must 
 have rendered them admirable light troops and partizans, 
 their endurance and strength wonderfully qualified them 
 for long marches. It is said that Montrose's troops some- 
 times marched sixty miles in a day. Their mode of life 
 is not yet so far changed, but that they retain this valu- 
 able military quality in perfection ; but it is rendered of 
 little comparative value, where, as has been too much 
 the case, men of different countries or powers are united 
 in the same regiment, and when armies made of many 
 discordant materials must move in large masses together. 
 Martin relates that, on an expedition, it was the prac- 
 tice to slay the first animal they met on the enemies' 
 ground, and to sprinkle the colours for good luck. This, 
 if I mistake not, was also a Norwegian superstition. 
 Another modification of this superstition is rather ludi- 
 crous than cruel. It was a good omen to meet with a 
 woman on setting out, provided they could succeed in 
 drawing blood from her above the arm-pit. When I say 
 ludicrous, however, I only allude to some recent in- 
 
ANCIEffT illGHLAQLO WARFARE. 87 
 
 stances, where the ceremony was performed in a regular 
 manner, by drawing a few drops of blood, according to 
 scientific rules, from the temple or jugular vein. In the 
 olden time, it is likely that they were not so scrupulous : 
 and that the unfortunate biped intruder sometimes 
 shared the fate of the goat or the cow. 
 
 Each clan had its war cry, as each had its badge ; the 
 latter being a necessary expedient where there were no 
 uniforms or regimental colours ; as it is not even pre- 
 tended that the common men wore those differently 
 coloured tartans by which the clans were supposed to be 
 distinguished ; and as even some of these would have 
 been undistinguishable in the confusion of a fight. What 
 the badges and what the cries were, has been preserved 
 for some and conjectured for others ; nor need I enume- 
 rate either the one or the other. Of the former, only, it 
 has been said by Lowland critics, that it would have been 
 prudent to have always named such plants as were na- 
 tives of the country, instead of exotics scarcely yet known 
 in its gardens. The field equipage of the Highlanders 
 is known to have been their plaids; nor will any one 
 question that they were, in truth, a hardy as they were a 
 bold race. Yet we must not forget that the power of 
 taking and keeping the field in this manner, has been de- 
 monstrated by all species of troops during the last two 
 wars; nor can even the wars of Montrose produce any 
 instance of Highlanders keeping the field so long, and 
 during a season so inclement, as that which occurred 
 during the unfortunate expedition to the Holder, and 
 with as little means of covering'. We may surely grant 
 the Highlanders all the praise they merit, without robbing 
 all the rest of mankind of its just dues. In the facility 
 of living on little food, they, however, far exceeded all 
 the troops of present civilized Europe. The Swedes and 
 
88 ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 
 
 Russians of Charles the twelfth's time, might, however, 
 probably have competed for the palm of abstinence with 
 them : it is likely that many of the latter would still. 
 Meal mixed with water appears to have been the regular 
 food of the campaign ; but we must also recollect, that 
 the low country Scots were formerly satisfied with the 
 same diet, and showed equal abstinence. 
 
 It appears to have been the usage of the northern 
 nations, to communicate their signal of war by means of 
 beacon lights. We do not hear of this practice among 
 the clans ; and perhaps it was not often applicable, on 
 account of the nature of the ground and the mode in 
 which the people were dispersed. But the practice of 
 sending the fiery cross, or Crosh Tarie, as it has been 
 called, belonged also to their northern progenitors. In 
 some cases, this was a mere stick, burnt at one end and 
 bloody at the other, or provided with a piece of cloth 
 dipped in blood, denouncing fire and sword against the 
 disobedient ; in others, the cross of shame was attached 
 to one extremity ; and the place of meeting was commu- 
 nicated by a word. If, as is stated, it is true, that this pass- 
 word and signal were circulated through Breadalbane^ 
 and over a space of thirty-two miles, in three hours, no 
 one certainly, to whom they were in succession committed, 
 allowed the grass to grow under his feet. Antiquaries 
 who love to fish in troubled waters, may enquire whether 
 the Christmas game of Jack's alive, is not derived from 
 the transit of the fiery cross. 
 
 And thus, in the concatenation of things, we have 
 brought the war to a conclusion, and returned to anti- 
 quities, and thence to Fortingal, once more. The circu- 
 lar stone works called Danish, are very numerous in this 
 neighbourhood ; reaching into Glen Lyon on one side, 
 and to Edradour and Blair in Atholl, and even beyond 
 
ANCIENT HIGHLAND WARFARE. 89 
 
 the latter, on the other ; being further found even as far 
 south as Dunkeld. This must always have been an 
 opulent country, because it is a fertile one ; and this 
 offers a much easier solution of the matter than any of 
 the imaginary causes for these works which have been 
 suggested. Strath Tay must always have been populous : 
 it had wealth to defend and people to defend it with. 
 Roman coins, and urns, said also to be Roman, have been 
 dug up in this neighbourhood ; and it is pretended to 
 point out the traces of a Roman camp. 
 
90 OLliN LYON. 
 
 GLEN LYON, TAYMOUTH, GARDENING, LOCH TAY, 
 BEN LAWERS, KILLIN, GLEN DOCHART. 
 
 After passing- Fortingal, there is a short space, of 
 no peculiar interest ; but the Lyon is then seen forcing 
 its way through a deep and narrow pass, quitting that 
 long and spacious valley which is, more properly, called 
 Glen Lyon. The character of this valley is quite distinct 
 from that of any in the Highlands ; uniting the appear- 
 ances of a glen and a strath, being prolonged for a dis- 
 tance of about twelve miles, almost in a straight line from 
 this pass to Meggarnie, where its beauty ceases, and 
 being bounded, on both sides, by continuous and almost 
 unbroken ridges of mountain, of a very steep acclivity. 
 It is also a green glen and a wooded one, and is highly 
 peopled ; and although this general description might 
 imply uniformity, it presents considerable variety of cha- 
 racter throughout. If its landscapes do not resemble 
 those of the valleys formerly described, they have a 
 character as decided as it is purely their own. There is 
 not here that succession of distant trees in perpetual 
 diminution, and that consequent intricacy and minute- 
 ness of ornament, which belong to Strath Tay, or even 
 to the valley of Blair ; nor are the outlines and forms of 
 the hills so varied by the successive appearance of dis- 
 tant ranges and summits, as in most of the glens which I 
 have described on other occasions. But to compensate 
 that, there is a simplicity and breadth in the general 
 
GLEN LYON. &i 
 
 forms, together with strong markings in the shape of the 
 ground and in the sky line, from which the leading cha- 
 racters of this landscape are chiefly derived ; while, in 
 place of the dazzling minuteness of successive and di- 
 minishing trees, the woods and the groups, and even 
 the rows and single trees, which skirt the river, or are 
 scattered on the sides of the hills and in the bottom of 
 the valley, are all marked by the same character of dis- 
 tinctness and simplicity which belong to the ground 
 itself; thus maintaining a harmony of style in every part. 
 To this I must add, that not only is Glen Lyon thus 
 beautiful, almost throughout a large portion of its extent, 
 with little more of blank perhaps than suffices for con- 
 trast, but that it presents, for the artist's use, many dis- 
 tinct and striking landscapes, in different modes of com- 
 position; always rendered peculiarly rich in the middle 
 and foregrounds, and hence also differing from those of 
 most of the valleys formerly described, where so much de- 
 pends on the middle distances and on the outlines upon 
 the sky. The want of variety and of space in the extreme 
 distances, might indeed almost seem a defect in this 
 place ; were it not that the landscape does not materially 
 depend on these for its character : which may almost be 
 considered as appertaining to close scenery, if such a 
 term can be applied to so spacious a valley. 
 
 The steep descent into Glen Lyon, amid dark and 
 dense woods, is very striking; and we immediately enter 
 on a narrow part of it, giving room to little more than the 
 road, and to the river, which rolls majestically along 
 beneath lofty overhanging mountains and amid trees of 
 noble growth. These, Avith all the freedom of nature, 
 are nevertheless so disposed on its banks, skirting it as 
 with an avenue, that we almost imagine we are entering 
 on some pleasure grounds, and naturally look for the 
 
92 GLEN LYON. 
 
 house to which they may belong. It is all a splendid 
 park scene, where every thing is already done, but 
 where all is deserted and all in the hands of nature. To 
 the artist, it affords many fine subjects for drawing, in a 
 peculiar style of river scenery, where the trees, each of 
 which might form studies, as well for their magnitude as 
 for their beauty, variety, and distinctness,formeven a more 
 important part of the landscape than the hills, which rise 
 suddenly up, high and rocky towards the sky ; adding, 
 to the ornaments of the river, the support and contrast 
 which confer on it an alpine character. I ought to have 
 said before, that where the Tay and the Lyon join, the latter 
 is scarcely inferior in consequence, so that its importance 
 in the scenery, as a mere body of water, is easily compre- 
 hended ; while, in different places, it presents the differ- 
 ent characters of a river forcing its turbulent way 
 through a rocky channel, of a deep and smooth stream 
 gliding majestically beneath its high banks, and of a 
 meandering water whose bright and distant glimpses 
 are occasionally seen as they break out among the 
 trees which adorn it, or among* the intricacies of the 
 ground. 
 
 As the valley expands beyond this part, the scenery 
 changes its character in various ways, so as to display, in 
 some places, new modes of river landscape, in others, 
 the wide and prolonged strath, bounded by its lofty 
 hills and stretching away with a succession of irregular 
 ground and of scattered trees and woods ; offering a 
 class of vale scenery as distinct from all that we had 
 before seen, as it is grand and picturesque. I dare not 
 attempt to specify these, but may observe that some of 
 the most remarkable will be found about the middle of 
 the valley ; one of which, in particular, cannot fail to 
 attract notice, from combining, with the richness that 
 
GLEN LYON. 93 
 
 arises from the repetition of trees along a river in a dis- 
 tant and intricate succession, that grandeur and sim- 
 plicity in their forms and disposition which I have al- 
 ready pointed out as peculiar to this place. It is an 
 additional source of variety in these landscapes, that, in 
 many parts, the bottom of the valley is exceedingly 
 irregular ; being marked with deep and frequent undu- 
 lations of the ground, or with transverse hills and de- 
 pressions, instead of that continuous level so common in 
 most glens and straths in the Highlands. If the long 
 and high terraces which mark the former levels of the 
 river, add nothing to the beauty of the scenery, they are 
 at least interesting objects ; from their great continuity 
 and distinctness, and from their enabling us to trace, 
 with perhaps more ease than in any other spot, the great 
 series of changes which the bottom of this valley has 
 undergone. 
 
 For some space before reaching Meggarnie, there is 
 no longer any distinct landscape, but the valley still 
 continues pleasing, though wild, and wooded as far as 
 the domain of this remote and strangely selected country- 
 seat ; after which all beauty ceases, and the whole is a 
 rude mountain glen, with little decision of feature, even 
 to the source of the river. From this point, there is a 
 road over the ridge of Ben Lawers to Killin, forming a 
 communicating branch of the military roads ; wild and 
 arduous, and if without picturesque beauty, not without 
 interest. On the further declivity, however, as it de- 
 scends on Loch Tay, it affords some magnificent views 
 of the upper part of this lake, and of Killin: superior 
 indeed to those which are obtained, further south, from 
 the immediate ascent of Ben Lawers. I have rarely met 
 with such effects among the clouds of these mountainous 
 
94 GLEN LYON. 
 
 regions, as I here experienced the last time 1 crossed 
 it : effects, the occasional splendour of which is well 
 known to those who have had similar opportunities. There 
 was a dense mist with rain, unusually dense and dark, 
 and it was my chance to reach the rude obelisk which 
 marks the summit, at the very middle of an eclipse of the 
 sun. Had it been a total one, the darkness could scarcely 
 have been greater than it was here. I was alone on this 
 wild ridge, all, of the few objects which I could discern, 
 appeared vast and formless, shadowy, and vague, and 
 uncertain ; and all was fearfully silent, except the whist- 
 ling of the wind, which seemed to sound mysteriously 
 among the whirling and entangling clouds. The obelisk 
 itself, dimly seen among the gray mists by the doubt- 
 ful light, appeared a huge spectre ; the genius of the 
 night and the storm. I could not help pausing to consi- 
 der this strange chaos of half-embodied vacancy, an abyss 
 of darkness and mist and doubt and silence, a day of 
 night more solemn than the night itself, a darkness more 
 tremendous than the utmost gloom of midnight. We have 
 all felt the force of Milton's expression ; but there was 
 here more than the merely visible forms of darkness, 
 more than that conjectural and appalling gloom which 
 we meet in the deep cavern, or in the twilight wood, 
 or on the stormy and midnight sea shore, displaying the 
 doubtful shapes of things unknown. As the mists and 
 the showers drove along before the gale, now rising up 
 as from an unknown abyss below, and then descending 
 as from above, at one moment every object vanished, 
 and all was one blank ; all empty, around, above, below. 
 Again as they passed away, huge and shadowy forms 
 seemed to appear for an instant, and, in a moment again, 
 all was gone ; adding, by the semblance of motion, to 
 
GLEN LYON. 95 
 
 the ghostly and fearful images that seemed flitting and 
 floating among the dark twisting vapours, and whose 
 voices almost seemed to be sounding hollow in the 
 storm. 
 
 Had I not been alone, half the effect of this scene, 
 event I should rather call it, would have been lost. Had 
 I not known, or supposed, whither the road was con- 
 ducting me, and believed that I might trust myself to it, 
 I might have added anxiety or fear, and have related or 
 feigned, like Will Marvel, a tale of terrors. Had I 
 not recollected the eclipse, I might have chosen to ima- 
 gine that the milleniura was at hand ; and, as it is, I 
 have forfeited a noble opportunity of" splendid falsehood," 
 of surprising the audience with the history of my he- 
 roism. But the dark moon passed off" as I descended 
 the mountain ; and as I attained the edge of the cloud, a 
 wild and strange vision of Loch Tay appeared at inter- 
 vals among the rolling and curling mists, gleaming 
 bright in the sun. Higher and higher the curtain rose, 
 becoming silvery and bright as its lower edge still 
 showed, faintly glittering through its tender vapour, the 
 rich vale of Killin, appearing itself to move, like a ma- 
 gical illusion ; a fairy landscape in the clouds. Closing 
 again, the whole gay vision vanished ; till, at length, 
 rolling off" on all hands in huge curling folds, I thought 
 of Harlequin and Columbine, and all my poetical ideas 
 were dissipated. They would have been effectually dis- 
 sipated at any rate, when I found myself dripping and 
 shivering on the edge of the long ravine which leads 
 down the mountain side. 
 
 Like the whirligig which returns to your hand when 
 it has got to the utmost length of its chain, I must come 
 back to Kenmore, to take thence a new flight : " forcing 
 whole regions, in despite of geography, to change their 
 
96 KENMORE. 
 
 site." But I know not that I can say augbt of Kenmore 
 and Taymouth which has not been said by others, and 
 which was never said by any one worse than by Burns ; 
 who, whenever he attempted to describe natural scenery 
 unconnected with his own peculiar moral views and si- 
 tuations, sank, the lowest of the low. But the verses on 
 Taymouth are quoted as often as the cotter's Saturday 
 night ; and thus do the multitude discriminate what they 
 imagine they admire. There is a charm at first sight, and 
 an air of importance at the same time, about this little 
 village, as if it was the capital of a region and the sea 
 port of a mountain land, which cannot fail to be soon dis- 
 sipated. But its real merits remain : space, order, neat- 
 ness, and a situation not easily paralleled, in a moun- 
 tainous country, for commodiousness and beauty. In 
 England, such a village might have become a large 
 town: the resort of the semi-opulent, unemployed, and 
 retired people in which that country abounds, Scotland 
 is far differently situated in this respect ; while the in- 
 crease of Kenmore is naturally checked by the monopo- 
 lizing property which surrounds it, and by its long- 
 established rival, Aberfeldie. We must grieve here over 
 the wretched architectural pretensions of its tower ; 
 which, without an additional foot of stone, might have 
 been rendered as beautiful as it is now paltry. But the 
 dsemon of bad taste seems to have taken the whole sur- 
 rounding spot under his especial protection: marring 
 what it could not destroy. The architect of Inverara 
 probably supposed that he had performed a mighty act 
 when he placed a casino, I ought to say, casino upon casi- 
 no, on the top of a baronial Gothic keep : but he of Tay- 
 mouth, resolved to outwit him, has surmounted his castle 
 with a church. If the effect was good, the incongruity 
 might be pardoned ; but the illegitimate produce is, at 
 
TAYMOUTH. 97 
 
 the same time, ponderous and airy, fantastical and dull : 
 " a house which this, of cards might build." 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance about Taymouth, that 
 although it appears to possess all the elements of land- 
 scape, in its bright lake, its noble river, its rich valley, 
 its woods, and its lofty hills, it affords no subject for 
 painting". It wants variety also : since, once seen, it is 
 all seen. It must nevertheless be allowed the praise of 
 grandeur and beauty ; yet the former is diminished, as 
 the latter is materially impaired, by the artificial man- 
 ner in which the grounds have been laid out and the 
 hills planted. It is plain that it is the base offspring of 
 a capability-man ; who, unable to comprehend the cha- 
 racter of the scene, has done all he could to reduce it, by 
 the clump and the cabbage line, to the standard receipt 
 for beauty. Whether deformed by Brown or not, it is of 
 his school. The hills are dotted and spotted with dry and 
 formal lumps of trees, and the more extensive planta- 
 tions are all similarly bounded bylines of iron; filling 
 the whole so completely, as to reduce it all to the ap- 
 pearance of artifice and stiffness, and utterly marring its 
 natural freedom and grandeur of character. It is like 
 Lude, but on a far other scale ; so that while this is but 
 a patch in a wide and splendid natural landscape, too 
 small to cause much evil, and, in some respects, even 
 advantageous, every thing at Taymouth, hills, water, 
 valley, and even the sky, cut by ignoble regiments and 
 platoons, is an artificial and drilled scene that seems to 
 have been modelled in a toyshop and transplanted hither 
 by a chain and a theodolite. 
 
 The system of Brown has been defended, because, as 
 it is said, his conceptions were correct and in good taste, 
 and that the dryness and artifice of the produce were to 
 be remedied by time. Admitting that time might do 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
 
 much in removing- the immediate formality, it never yet 
 has given, and never will, give ease and grace to his plans; 
 nor can it ever destroy the appearance of art, and of an 
 ugly art. It is not to art, as such, that we ought to 
 object in these cases ; for where man is the obvious mas- 
 ter, where he is seeking for convenience and comfort as 
 well as for beauty, he is justified in using it. There is 
 also a congruity in the artificial arrangement of our do- 
 mestic landscape, because it is related to our architec- 
 ture. It is proper that the domain should form a portion 
 of that artifice which determines the form and position 
 of the house ; and particularly where that domain is im- 
 mediately subservient to our comforts and our uses. 
 That portion, however, is limited to certain bounds ; and 
 there art may appear with propriety, and ought to appear. 
 But it may be magnificent or graceful art, and it ad- 
 mits of propriety and congruity ; of adaptation to the 
 nature without, as to the architecture within. It is thus 
 that the noble stretch of the avenue is justified; and 
 there are few avenues finer than the well-known lime- 
 tree avenue of Taymouth : it is thus that we justify the 
 shaved lawn, the trimmed walks, and even the archi- 
 tectural garden, which, modern fashion, always in ex- 
 tremes, has abolished. But in the system to which I am 
 here objecting, the art offends, because it is an attempt 
 to imitate nature, and because it is a failure. It professes 
 one thing and has performed another. As nature, it would 
 be ugly, because it is stiff and graceless ; and, as art, it is 
 ugly, because it is careless and clumsy art. It is a kind 
 of enormous topiary work. It has no relation or resem- 
 blance to natural landscape ; and it has not the decision 
 or the grandeur which evince the conceptions of man and 
 prove his power over nature. Such, not to dwell on this 
 subject, are the leading faults of this system. But it is 
 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 99 
 
 even a greater one, that it holds no regard to previous 
 nature. It is an universal receipt which reduces every 
 thing to one face and aspect. It is in vain, after this, to 
 talk of the genius of its inventor. All scenes, the vi^ide 
 plain, the spacious vale, the narrow valley, the undulat- 
 ing hills, and the lofty mountain, become the same land- 
 scape. There is no invention : and it is evident that its 
 promulgator never could have formed the slightest con- 
 ception of the nature of that landscape which he pre- 
 tended to produce or to embellish. The receipt is infal- 
 lible : it is universal and invariable, and may be applied 
 by any one. It is said that Brown was a gardener. That 
 may be : but we might have imagined him a cook ; for 
 his hors d'oeuvres and entries resemble fully as much a 
 well ordered table as they do the sausages and patty pans 
 of a flower garden. The belted and clumped park is, at 
 best, but a huge flower garden ; and the obvious imita- 
 tion is one source of its meanness, though we do not al- 
 ways reflect on the cause. 
 
 If we could be surprised at any thing of this kind, 
 knowing how fashion prevails over taste, how rare the 
 latter quality is, and how mankind follows him who 
 makes bold and high pretensions, we should be surprised 
 at the wide adoption and long prevalence of this system, 
 and at the consequent enormous expense which has been 
 bestowed on these imaginary improvements. There is 
 much, even yet, to excite our wonder, when we see the 
 facility with which the opulent still yield up their purses 
 and their lands to the guidance of any new and upstart 
 pretender to taste in these matters. It is impossible that 
 persons of such narrow views and mechanical habits, 
 can succeed in an undertaking which requires, alike, 
 much taste and much education. It is not too much to 
 say that it is the highest department of landscape paint- 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
 
 ing; implying the most perfect and universal intimacy 
 with Nature under every one of her possible forms, and 
 an acquaintance with the general rules and practical 
 principles of art, no less perfect. 
 
 I do not mean to follow a party which exclaims about 
 the picturesque, which cants about roughness and wild- 
 ness, and which would make every scene the subject of 
 a painting. This is a mistaken extreme, were the prac- 
 tice possible, which it is not. The landscape gardener, 
 using that term in its best sense, has no such power over 
 his materials and his tools as the painter. Neither can 
 he hope, nor ought he to desire, to convert the ground 
 which he has undertaken, into a picture or a series of 
 pictures. It is his business to study the natural character 
 and tendency of the peculiar beauties or circumstances 
 with which he has to deal ; to follow and embellish na- 
 ture where he can, not to force her to conform to a sys- 
 tem. Thus he will ensure alike, congruity and variety. 
 An improver of this class will not attempt to reduce the 
 mountain and the plain, the wide sweeping hills and the 
 narrow valley, to the same aspect. He will study the 
 native physiognomy of the lake, the river, the glen, or 
 the acclivity ; and he will study also the peculiar fea- 
 tures of each river, and of every hill or plain that may 
 come under his command. To these he will apply his 
 plantations, (for he has little else to work with) as the 
 principles of beauty, and congruity, and effect, in nature 
 and in art, direct; and from these also he will remove 
 what may interfere with the character or the composition 
 of the scenes which he may have the means of thus ex- 
 tricating and improving. 
 
 Nor can all this be done as it ought, except by him 
 who is familiar with nature in all her endless forms, 
 whose eye is ever open to seize the most delicate and 
 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 101 
 
 evanescent beauties, who can discover where a peculiar 
 feature of grace is suffocated or where it is imperfect, 
 who can see where nature tends, what she might have 
 done, and what obstructions a variety of accidents, in 
 defect or in excess, or in casual misarrangement, has 
 thrown in the >vay of her attempts. It is he whose eye 
 is ever open to natural landscape, who has studied it as 
 a painter does, and as none but a painter can do, who is 
 the true landscape gardener ; and it is thus, but thus 
 only, that this occupation belongs exclusively to the 
 landscape painter, and can, as a trade, properly belong 
 to no one else. It is among the Turners, and the Wards, 
 and the Martins, that we should choose our professional 
 landscape gardeners ; not among the Loudons and the 
 Reptons. These are not the architects of landscape ; they 
 are the stone-masons of this branch of art. It is he too, 
 who to the intimate and wide study of nature has added 
 an acquaintance equally intimate with the works of 
 painters, who can alone extricate, from wild nature, the 
 several characters under which she often conceals, rather 
 than displays, her forms and her beauties. With the 
 eye of Claude, he sees the landscape that Salvator might 
 have overlooked , and thus too he discovers, by the aid 
 of Hobbima and Ruysdael, what, if his studies had been 
 limited to Wilson, he might have passed unnoticed. 
 But, more than this, the landscape painter is not called 
 on to do; and more than this, the judicious improver will 
 never attempt. To endeavour to manufacture landscapes 
 fitted for painting, is to exceed the legitimate bounds of 
 improvement, and to become a pedant instead of an im- 
 prover. To such I would as little commit power as to 
 the capability-man. 
 
 It is another advantage which the judicious landscape 
 painter possesses over the common improver, that his 
 
102 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
 
 alterations contemplate equally the smaller and the 
 greater features. He is accustomed to trace the separate 
 beauties required for every point of his landscape; he 
 sees where all the elements with which he has been 
 accustomed to operate are true, and where they are false, 
 where they are marked by grace and where by deformity, 
 where and how they may be modified or suppressed, 
 brought to light or excluded, or improved by addition 
 or retrenchment. Every bank, and stone, and tree, has 
 been to him a study, as much as the general composition, 
 the colouring, and the greater features ; and from all 
 these he will produce beauty, of which the system-mon- 
 ger has no conception. And it is in the smaller parts 
 that such alterations are most easily made ; in those very 
 parts which do not enter into the contemplation of the 
 common capability-man. Our powers over the general 
 landscape are very limited ; but we can modify the sepa- 
 rate portions to beauty, with little comparative labour 
 and expense. To these we look, as to the middle 
 grounds and foregrounds of the painted landscape ; and 
 thus, often, by means of a single tree planted or removed, 
 a few bushes added to conceal a defect, or a few cut 
 down to display a beauty, or by trivial removals of earth 
 from a river bank, or of similar additions to change a 
 line or a form, the artist of taste will produce, and often 
 at a trivial expense, that which the trading improver is 
 unable to see, or, possibly, destroys, with much labour 
 and much money. 
 
 I have said elsewhere, when on the subject of archi- 
 tecture, that it is one of the great merits of taste to be an 
 economical quality. Nor can this one of its properties be 
 any where more successfully demonstrated than in land- 
 scape gardening. When we contemplate the enormous 
 sums of money that have been lavished in raising or 
 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 103 
 
 lowering ground, in forming canals and lakes, and in 
 injudicious plantations, and when we see what the effects 
 are; and when we reflect, on the other hand, with what 
 slender efforts beauty might often have been obtained in 
 judicious hands, we may fairly conclude that something 
 more than money is required in this line of art, and that 
 extravagance and failure are generally allied. The an- 
 cient painter who could not make his Venus beautiful, 
 made her fine. I have remarked elsewhere, that the art 
 of seeing landscape in nature is limited to few, and is the 
 result of study and education. Had it been more gene- 
 rally difl'used, there would have scarcely been such a 
 trade as an improver of grounds, or it would have fallen 
 into far other hands. We should not then have seen 
 throughout the country, those artificial grounds which 
 we now see ; nor is there now any reason why he who 
 has a taste for nature, and who has cultivated it by the 
 study of art, should not be his own improver, and thus 
 rescue alike his lands and his purse from the fangs of an 
 ignorant class of pretenders. It is a cowardly and an 
 indolent spirit that suffers taste to become a trade, that 
 crouches to the bold assertions and pretension of those 
 who are to profit by this timidity. This is a branch of 
 the commercial system, and of the system of division of 
 labour, which tends to reduce every man to a twister of 
 pin's heads; which divides, in every thing, as in watch- 
 making and cotton-spinning, the whole community into 
 the separate and unthinking parts of one great machine; 
 a division under which the higher faculties of the mind 
 must vanish, whatever dexterity may be acquired by the 
 fingers. Were I a possessor of lands, which I shall never 
 be, I should as soon consent to place ray wife as my 
 estate under the direction of a capability-man. 
 
 Yet a word on the garden, before we part with this sub- 
 
104 GARDENING. 
 
 ject. In the ancienl. system, the garden formed an inte- 
 g^rant part of the house; but the honours of " the flower 
 and the lefe" are no more. It is not now the resort of the 
 proprietors, the scene of the morning- airing, the shelter 
 from the blaze of noon, and the seat of the evening fes- 
 tivity, of the rural supper, the promenade, or the con- 
 versation. Because the term gardening has changed its 
 meaning, the garden has been abolished, or is consigned 
 to the gardener and his myrmidons, the nursery of cab- 
 bages and leeks. It was not sufficient to send back the 
 leaden host of Heathen Gods to the foundery, to break 
 the sheers, and once more to suffer the topiary box and 
 yew to wander back to their native freedom ; but all has 
 been swept away alike, fountain and terrace, and flow- 
 ery walk, and shaded arbour, and alley green. All is 
 vanished together ; and the house is now a cold dry 
 specimen of architecture, placed on a cold, dry, shaven, 
 and polished lawn, where not even a daisy is suffered to 
 raise its head ; resembling the elevation in the builder's 
 office; a mushroom that seems to have sprung up, like 
 an exhalation, we know not why or whence. If we wish 
 for a sheltered or a shrubbery walk, we must seek it 
 far away amidst the damps and dews, or under a burning 
 sun. If there is a flower garden, it must be attained 
 with so much labour, that, like the books of our upper 
 shelves, we never become intimate with it. It is con- 
 nected with nothing, and it is left to the taste of a nur- 
 seryman, or of his pupils, to choose, and form, and direct. 
 It is as if we had entered into a conspiracy against our 
 own comforts. Nor is it against our comforts only, but 
 against our interests. The fruit and the vegetable gar- 
 den are removed from our sight and reach, the gardener 
 looks on our visit with as jealous an eye as the coach- 
 man or cook if we trespass on their departments ; and 
 
GARDENING. 105 
 
 that, over which we have no check of acquaintance, and 
 which we seldom see, finds its way to a distant market 
 instead of to our own tables. 
 
 It is a new refinement in elegance to have discovered 
 that the garden is a disgusting or an ugly object; but it 
 is the interest of the gardener that it should be so, as it 
 is for his interest also that it should be remote from the 
 house. It was not always thus ; nor need it be so now. 
 Even the hot-bed department is not necessarily disagree- 
 able; nor is there any difiiculty in concealing the very 
 little in a garden, which is confused, or which cannot be 
 kept neat. There is scarcely a plant, or a shrub, or a 
 tree, cultivated for use, which has not some beauty ; and 
 there are many which are peculiarly beautiful in them- 
 selves. In many also, there are two seasons of beauty ; 
 the period of the flower and that of the fruit; when our 
 ornamental shrubs and trees and flowers have but one. 
 The raspberry and the currant, the apple and the pear, 
 have their spring and their summer and their autumn ; 
 of sweetness and ornament, of promise and performance: 
 the snow white of the strawberry is succeeded by its bril- 
 liant scarlet, the Jerusalem artichoke is the rival of the 
 sunflower, and the bean emulates in its odour the produce 
 of the sweetest flower garden. We have variety of form 
 and colour, of plants and shrubs and trees, in our kitchen 
 and fruit gardens ; and what more is essential to beauty ? 
 It never can take from their ornament, that they are use- 
 ful ; and it is a miserable affectation which pretends to 
 despise them, because we choose to call them onions and 
 cabbages and gooseberries, and to attach false notions of 
 vulgarity to the term kitchen garden. If it is injudi- 
 ciously disposed for beauty, if formality and nakedness 
 are studied in the arrangements, these are neither neces- 
 sary nor useful. We are limited to no such dispositions, 
 
106 GARDENING. 
 
 and may intermix and unite the several parts, flowers, 
 plants, shrubs, and trees, so as to produce the same orna- 
 ment as from our flower gardens and shrubberies. We 
 may even make them as irregular and picturesque as 
 would satisfy the greatest stickler for roughness and 
 rudeness, without incommoding the workmen or imped- 
 ing the cultivation. The shrubs and trees for use may 
 be grouped, or they may conceal any part which is judged 
 oflTsnsive. 
 
 Nor are we limited, either to merely useful trees or to 
 merely useful plants, nor even to uniformly level ground. 
 If the ancient terraces and inequalities are to be rejected 
 for ever, as they have been, the ground may undulate in 
 any manner that nature may have made it, or art may 
 choose. So may mere ornament be intermixed with 
 utility. It is by no means necessary that the shrubbery 
 and the flower garden should be utterly distinguished 
 from the garden of use. They may form its ornaments, 
 in any mode and on any scale. They may be used, even 
 for concealment. We may have a dressed and an orna- 
 mented kitchen garden ; or we may have a flower garden 
 and shrubbery containing fruit-bearing trees and vege- 
 tables. Thus pleasure and utility may be combined; 
 nor does it require any vast effort of taste to render such 
 a garden a fit companion for the house ; the hourly and 
 commodious, as well as the pleasurable, resort of its in- 
 habitants. If the sight of onions offends, it may be 
 counteracted by sweet pease and carnations. Rose bushes 
 may conceal the cabbage bed ; and even the potagerie of 
 aromatic herbs may aid in ornamenting the borders, in- 
 stead of being pushed and heaped into a remote corner, 
 unseen and unknown. The lily of the valley, and the 
 violet, lavender, pinks, sunflowers, larkspurs, asters, a 
 thousand flowers succeeding from spring to autumn, may 
 
LOCH TAY. 107 
 
 deck and grace the beds, as the lilac, the laburnum, and 
 the barberry, may be used to group the forms, and to 
 produce sweetness and effect united. Nor would any 
 great exertion of taste or ingenuity be required to render 
 our gardens the most attractive objects and the most 
 hourly and convenient sources of amusement in our 
 pleasure grounds. Let us hope that common sense will 
 at length resume its sway, and that fashion may be con- 
 fined where it is comparatively inoffensive, to the taylor*s 
 shopboard and the milliner's secret room. 
 
 Though Loch Tay is a spacious and a splendid piece 
 of water, and though its hills are lofty and its margins 
 are wooded and cultivated and enlivened by houses, it 
 scarcely affords one landscape from Kenmore to near 
 Killin ; nor do I know any place in Scotland which, with 
 so much promise, produces so much disappointment. 
 Nor is this disappointment limited to the artist, or to him 
 who is dissatisfied unless he can mark and define the 
 composition of a specific landscape; as, to all, though 
 pleasing, it equally palls by the want of variety ; leaving, 
 after a transit of nearly fourteen miles, with a bright lake 
 bounded by mountains on one side, and a continued 
 range of wood and cultivation on the other, no recollec- 
 tions on which we can dwell, and affording no one picture 
 which we can readily distinguish from another. 
 
 This remark must, however, be confined to the north- 
 ern bank, the ordinary rout of travellers. It would have 
 been far otherwise had the road been conducted at a 
 lower level ; at the level which the engineer (any en- 
 gineer but Marshal Wade's) and the man of taste would 
 have chosen, along the margin of the lake, and among 
 the intricate and beautiful promontories and bays by 
 which it is bounded. But the Marshal's law was the 
 rule of the Norwegian crabs : and certainly neither the 
 
108 LOCH TAY. 
 
 Medes and Persians, nor this inveterately mathematical 
 army of mailed chivalry, ever stuck more religiously to 
 their edicts, than the Field Marshal's soldiers when they 
 spent a vreek in removing that hundred tons of stone, 
 called Ossian's tomb, in Glen Almond, lest they should 
 diverge one yard from the true line laid down by the 
 canon law of this Prsefectus viarum and rival of Hannibal. 
 At present, the artist and man of taste who is condemned 
 to travel the dull up and down of the north Loch Tay road, 
 will find another powerful ally in the unlucky post-horse : 
 and even the innkeeper forgets to "bless Marshal Wade," 
 when he recollects that, but for his inveterate rectili- 
 nearity, the present fifteen miles might have been twenty. 
 It is far otherwise on the southern shore ; since few 
 roads offer greater temptations, or are more productive 
 of a succession of picturesque landscapes. Nor is the 
 cause of this difference difficult to be seen. While the 
 northern road is continued on a nearly uniform, though 
 undulating, level, high above the margin of the water, 
 the southern frequently runs near the shore, and follows 
 all the inequalities of the ground. It happens also that 
 the declivity of the northern hills is not marked by much 
 variety ; while that of the southern is very intricate. 
 Besides this, the bold outlines of the northern hills, in- 
 cluding Ben Lawers, form the extreme distance of the 
 views from the south side ; while, to those from the 
 northern bank, the southern hills present an uninterest- 
 ing distance. It is the character of the landscapes on 
 the southern side of Loch Tay, to be rich, and full, and 
 various in the middle grounds, and to present also a great 
 variety of foreground. The lake thus becomes rather a 
 portion of the picture than the picture itself; and thus 
 these views escape that appearance of vacuity which forms 
 the leading fault of our lake scenery. As these middle 
 
BEN LAWERS. 109 
 
 and foregrounds are produced, partly by the irregularity 
 of the shore line, broken into bays and promontories of 
 various character, and partly by the undulations of hills 
 containing much irregular wood and many fine and in- 
 dependent trees, there is a frequent change of scene, and 
 as much variety as could well be, where the distance un- 
 dergoes no very conspicuous alterations. I need not 
 attempt to specify any particular landscape, where the 
 whole is a succession of landscapes. 
 
 Of the few objects on the northern side, the wooded 
 island containing the remains of a priory, naturally at- 
 tracts the first attention. This was an establishment 
 dependent on Scone, founded in 1722 by Alexander I, 
 whose queen Sybilla, the daughter of Henry I, is buried 
 here. It possesses another kind of celebrity, from having 
 afforded a retreat to the Campbells in Montrose's wars. 
 It was taken, and surrendered to General Monk in 1654. 
 Being a picturesque object, it adds much to the beauty 
 of this part of the lake. 
 
 The most interesting part of Loch Tay, however, is 
 Ben Lawers, one of our highest mountains, since it is 
 supposed to exceed 4000 feet. It is often a fine object 
 at a distance, particularly from Killin ; but it is much 
 more interesting as a mountain to ascend. It has the 
 additional advantage, to travellers, that the ascent is so 
 easy as to permit riding to the summit. I have ascended 
 almost every principal mountain in Scotland, since I have 
 made almost as many ascensions as Monsieur Garnerin, 
 and have no hesitation in giving the palm to Ben Lawers. 
 Ben Lomond alone can compete with it for the view from 
 the summit; but there is a much greater variety of 
 country seen from this hill, and the range is also greater. 
 It is also a great advantage in this case, that Ben Lawers 
 towers over all the hill^ immediately near it, by more 
 
110 BEN LAWERS. 
 
 than a thousand feet, and that it has no competitor in 
 altitude nearer than Ben More, whicli, while it is also 
 inferior, is so remote as not to obstruct the view. It is 
 impossible to describe the variety and splendour of this, 
 the most magnificent of our mountain views ; but a con- 
 ception of it may, perhaps, be formed from the geography 
 which it embraces. To the south, we look down on the 
 lake, with all its miniature ornament of woods and fields, 
 terminating westward in the rich vale of Killin, and unit- 
 ing eastward with the splendour of Strath Tay, stretching 
 away till its ornaments almost vanish among the hills and 
 in the fading tints of the atmosphere. Beyond the lake 
 the successive ridges of hills lead the eye over Strathearn 
 which is however invisible, to the Ochills, and the Camp- 
 sie, and hence, even to Edinburgh ; the details of this quar- 
 ter, from Perth, being unexpectedly perfect and minute, 
 and at the same time well indicated by the marked charac- 
 ters of the Lowmont hills. The place of Dunkeld, and the 
 peculiar style of its scenery, are also distinctly visible; 
 and it is equally easy to make out the bright estuary of 
 the Tay, the long ridge of the Sidlaw, and the plain of 
 Strathmore. Westward, we trace, without difficulty, the 
 hills of Loch Lomond and Loch Cateran ; and, in the 
 same manner, every marked mountain, even to Oban ; 
 Cruachan and Buachaille Etive being particularly con- 
 spicuous. To the north. Glen Lyon is entirely excluded ; 
 the first objects, in this direction, being Schihallien and 
 its accompanying mountains, leading us to the vale of the 
 Turael and Loch Rannoch, and even to Loch Laggan, seen 
 as a bright narrow line : and thus, on one hand, to Glenco 
 and Ben Nevis, and, on the other, to Ben-y-gloe, lifting- 
 its complicated summit above the head of Ferrogon; 
 beyond which the mountains at the head of Dee, of Marr 
 and Cairngorm, marked with perpetual snow, were the last 
 
BEN LAWERS. Ill 
 
 objects which I could satisfactorily determine. So great 
 a range of view, with so many and such marked objects, 
 is unexampled in any other spot in Scotland. From al- 
 most every other mountain, there is some obstruction in 
 the neighbouring hills, which cuts off a portion of the 
 horizon ; and, from Ben Nevis, where the view around is 
 quite open, the objects are so little marked, and so un- 
 interesting, that no advantages for the view are derived 
 from its great elevation. 
 
 On the summit of Ben Lawers, the rare Lichen crocatus 
 abounds ; but this mountain indeed, is, to the botanist, 
 a perfect botanical garden of alpine plants. Lochan-na- 
 chat, a small lake on its north eastern declivity, is the 
 chief place for these treasures ; but I need not give you 
 a catalogue of my discoveries, as they are probably well 
 known to every Scottish gardener : at least I ought to 
 conclude so ; as I met two missionaries from the Edin- 
 burgh garden, with huge tin boxes slung over their 
 shoulders, who seemed to be in a perfect ecstacy of hap- 
 piness. The whole of this ridge is also remarkable, hence 
 even to Killin, for producing large quantities of a metal- 
 lic mineral, which, though it occurs in many parts of 
 Scotland, is, every where else, scantily found. This is 
 Rutile, an ore of Titanium ; the specimens being also no 
 less beautiful than abundant. 
 
 Whenever you may be tempted to ascend Ben Lawers, 1 
 recommend you to Peter Mac Naughton's inn. Not merely 
 because it is convenient, but because of Peter himself, 
 who is a pattern Highlander, whatever his house may be. 
 Yet that is a pattern house too : for it is a pattern of what 
 is here called a " kind of a white house ;" a species, of 
 which I remember another, performing the same office, 
 in Glen Roy, I have had occasion to notice the generic 
 
112 BEN LAWERS. 
 
 difference between a black house and a white house, else- 
 Avhere: but the former has its species. The genuine, 
 pure black house is built entirely of turf; walls and roof: 
 it is a " good black house" when the roof is of thatch. 
 The true white house consists of masonry and slate, as all 
 the world knows ; but the heteroclite, " kind of white 
 house," is covered with thatch, and, what is much more 
 essential, possesses a chimney. But Peter's house was 
 decorated with a cognizance of Breadalbane, which had 
 suffered as severely from the blasts of Ben Lawers as the 
 great Sir Colin's could possibly have done in the holy 
 wars. What was of more value, it contained excellent 
 port wine. We reconcile ourselves to our fate, and nestle, 
 without grumbling-, in a " good black house," or even in 
 the worst black house that ever was flead off the com- 
 mon, when we are travelling in a land of black houses : 
 and there we hail the " sclate house" as we should the 
 house of that very civil gentleman at Newark, of whom 
 honourable mention is made in Kenilworth. But, in a 
 land of white, slate houses, Peter Mac Naughton's house 
 did look very black indeed. Still blacker looked the 
 truly Augean stable, in which cows and horses had been 
 indiscriminately sojourning together, without even a hint 
 from shovel or broom, since immemorial time. Was there 
 any hay — yes, rushes. Corn — yes, in the sheaf, or grow- 
 ing in the field. Any ropes, to tether the cows, and to 
 prevent them from tickling the Saxon horse with the ends 
 of their sharp Highland horns. But what were all these 
 wants when balanced against the good humour, and ac- 
 tivity, and contrivance of Peter Mac Naughton and his 
 wife and his two tall daughters. In a trice they " shooled 
 the gruip" as clean as ever did Hercules ; and Mrs. Mac 
 Naughton produced her best blankets and whitest sheets, 
 
BEN LAWERS. 113 
 
 and every body did every thing that could possibly be 
 done for the strang-er's accommodation. I declare 1 
 would have slept, like the bride in the song, without 
 blankets or sheets either, and my gallant chesnut should 
 have lain in the embraces of the Highland cows, rather 
 than I would have left Peter's house, to have insulted its 
 blackness and his povert3\ It was his only fault; and if 
 I was my Lord Breadalbane, he should have a better 
 house to manage to-morrow. He seemed ashamed, both 
 of it and of himself, and looked surprised when I had 
 settled myself to remain. Nor did I take my leave of it 
 and him, till I had convinced him that, as his poverty 
 but not his will consented, so it was my time and not 
 my repugnance to his house that drove me from him. 
 
 English travellers are apt to complain that they do 
 not meet with this species of Highlander ; and it cannot 
 be denied that a different one is somewhat more promi- 
 nent ; as is always the case where merit and demerit 
 compete for notice. But he may be found by those who 
 choose to seek him : and I fear that, if he is often spoiled, 
 we have only ourselves to blame, and that, in more ways 
 than one. In ascending Ben Lawers, I had met with a 
 young shepherd boy, who eventually proved to be 
 Peter's son. I asked him to accompany me, for the sake 
 of conversation, and, when about to part, offered him a 
 shilling. This he refused : but it was forced on him, 
 and, in so doing, I am sure I did wrong ; for it is likely 
 that he will never refuse one again, and will possibly 
 end by demanding five. Certainly he will never ascend 
 the hill again with a stranger without expecting a re- 
 ward : and if he does not receive it, he will be disap- 
 pointed. I have probably taught him to sell the civility 
 which he was accustomed to give. It is thus that English- 
 men assist in corrupting the Highlanders, as they have 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 KILLIN. 
 
 long since corrupted each other: by an ostentatious dis- 
 play of that wealth which, to a genuine Englishman, is 
 the substitute for all the virtues; nay, is virtue itself. 
 The condition of society is wrong where every thing has 
 its price ; when even the common charities of life, the 
 friendly intercourse of man with man, is matter of barter 
 and sale. 
 
 The finest view on the north side of Loch Tay, occurs 
 at its upper extremity, where Killin first comes distinctly 
 in sight; this rich valley being displayed in a continua- 
 tion of the lake, and a noble sheet of solid and ancient 
 oak forest sweeping down the deep declivity in one 
 dark mass, from the road to the water, which is stretched 
 out far below. A little industry and attention will also 
 discover, hence to Killin, many beautiful landscapes, 
 and many of them well adapted for painting, of a closer 
 character ; particularly when we first become entangled 
 in the valley of the Lochy. Here too we first meet the 
 extensive and ancient woods of Finlarig, itself a ruin ; 
 one of the seven castles of these Lairds of Lochow, whose 
 present estate has the merit, often told, of being the 
 longest in Scotland. Finlarig was built by Sir Colin in 
 1520; and it was a Sir Colin also, but I know not if the 
 same, (Douglas not being at my elbow,) who originally 
 built Taymouth, in 1580. 
 
 If you know Killin, you also know that it is the most 
 extraordinary collection of extraordinary scenery in 
 Scotland, unlike every thing else in the country, and 
 perhaps on earth, and a perfect picture gallery in itself, 
 since you cannot move three yards without meeting a 
 new landscape. A busy artist might draw here for a 
 month and not exhaust it. If you do not know this already, 
 I may now tell you so. You will not be disappointed 
 when you come ; as my friend, whom I must not name, 
 
KILLIN. 115 
 
 was. This discerning personage, a man of reputed edu- 
 cation and, by grace, a philosopher, and, as he doubt- 
 less flattered himself, a man of taste, since he was travel- 
 ling in pursuit of the picturesque, came up to me at the inn- 
 door, after having spent the preceding day there, in great 
 indignation and wrath. " He had been told that Killin 
 was a beautiful place" — " he had come out of his way to 
 see it" — " he never saw an uglier place in his life" — " he 
 knew that I was a person of taste and understood these 
 things, and he wished 1 would shew him what there was 
 to look at." I might have said, Circumspice ; but to what 
 purpose. I might have said, shall I lend you my fiddle- 
 stick ; but to what purpose ; to him who could not see the 
 fiddle. So I even consoled him in the best way I could, 
 by telling him that his friends had been hoaxing him. 
 And these are the people who travel and write tours, and 
 tell the world what they have — what they have not seen, 
 I should say. The first art to be learnt is the art of see- 
 ing: not landscapes only, but many other things besides. 
 Unless the Doctor found a cascade, or a cave, or an echo, 
 I dare say he returned from his Highland tour as well in- 
 formed on all points as he was on the subject of Killin. 
 But this will not prevent his travels from being written 
 and published : and thus the world jogs on. 
 
 Mac Nab's burying ground might have attracted even 
 this Doctor's eyes ; for it is surely remarkable enough, 
 and there has been enough written and said about it. It 
 is a central object amid this extraordinary scenery ; but 
 there is a congruity among all these strange things, which 
 is no less admirable than the novelty of the whole. It is 
 scarcely possible to conceive so many distinct and marked 
 objects collected within so small a space, and all so 
 adapted to each other as always to preserve one character, 
 and, at the same time, to produce so endless a nimiber of 
 
 i2 
 
116 KILLIN. 
 
 distinct and beautiful landscapes. To find, however, all 
 that Killin has to give of this nature, it is necessary to 
 pry about into corners, like a cat; as the separate scenes 
 are produced by very slight changes of position, and are 
 often found in very unexpected places. Fir trees, rocks, 
 torrents, mills, bridges, houses, these produce the great 
 bulk of the middle landscape, under endless combina- 
 tions ; while the distances, more constant, are found in 
 the surrounding hills, in their varied woods, in the bright 
 expanse of the lake and the minute ornaments of the dis- 
 tant valley, in the rocky and bold summit of Craig 
 Cailleach, and in the lofty vision of Ben Lawers, which 
 towers, like a huge giant, to the clouds, the monarch of 
 the scene. 
 
 These pictures are perhaps most remarkable where 
 this mountain and the lake form the distance, and where 
 the burying place, with its fir trees, occupies the further 
 middle ground. The three bridges which, in succession, 
 cross different branches of this wild and rocky river, are 
 objects no less conspicuous than ornamental : but, from 
 one point, five bridges are thus visible in a line ; removed 
 but a few yards from each other, and all in some way 
 distinguished by their variety of form or position. You 
 have seen the bridges of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 
 and must often have been struck by their picturesque 
 beauty, and by their adaptation to the character of the 
 surrounding scenery. This is frequently the result of 
 the angular outline of the parapet; but it is also often the 
 consequence of a certain carelessness, or rudeness, of 
 workmanship and design, and of an adaptation of the 
 work to the ravine or the river, arising from the attempts 
 of the workmen to gain their ends in the most economical 
 manner. Thus congruity and harmony of character are 
 attained, as if taste instead of convenience had guided 
 
KILLIN. 117 
 
 the artist's hand; and thus also there is produced a va- 
 riety of aspect and design, that mc could scarcely have 
 expected to find in an architectural form, so simple, and 
 which is, too commonly, so uniform. The same remarks 
 are generally true of the Highland bridges ; unless where 
 engineers have had the direction, or where some pert 
 contractor has attempted to display his taste and science. 
 The worthy and plodding-Donalds, who think no moreabout 
 the result than their trowels, turn and vary their arches as 
 if they themselves had been g-enerated of an ellipse or 
 a curve of equilibration; producing, at the same time, 
 beauty which might teach useful lessons to architects. 
 Of so much moment in art, are that congruity and that 
 variety, to which convenience and accident lead them, 
 and from which there is no artificial system or fashion to 
 direct them. I could easily point out to you examples of 
 good and bad, in illustration of these remarks ; and no 
 where better than about Blair in Atholl, where, with 
 specimens of beauty and fitness every where at hand, 
 in the ancient Highland bridges that abound in this 
 neighbourhood, a detestable Lowland Pontifex has lately 
 destroyed the beauty of the Tilt and of the Banavie in the 
 very middle of these splendid grounds. If I were to 
 point out more important instances of this nature, I 
 should offend more of our iiritable countrymen; and I 
 dare say I have made enemies enough already. 
 
 As I cannot pretend to detail the innumerable land- 
 scapes on the Dochart at this place, or even to mark the 
 points of sight, I shall content myself with naming one 
 only, because it might be overlooked, and because it is 
 among the most splendid landscapes which Killin affords. 
 The station is near a wooded ravine crossing the road 
 into Glen Dochart, which forms a noble foreground ; dis- 
 playing all the details of this extraordinary village in the 
 
118 KILLIN. 
 
 middle grounds, and succeeded by a magnificent vista 
 of the valley and the lake, terminated by the blue 
 and towering form of Ben Lawers. But all the beauty 
 of Killin is not comprised in the scenery of the Dochart; 
 as the Lochy, which here joins to produce Loch Tay, pre- 
 sents also many landscapes, equally various and attractive. 
 Nor can any two rivers be more strongly contrasted ; and 
 that contrast is the more striking from their proximity. 
 While the Dochart is a boisterous torrent, roaring among 
 its wild rocks, forming almost a continuous cascade, and 
 split into various parts by its islands and irregularities, 
 the Lochy flows without a ripple, placid as a lake, and 
 reflecting every leaf of the beautiful trees which over- 
 hang its lovely green banks. From the meadows near 
 the inn, it affords one river landscape in a style no less 
 uncommon than beautiful. Where the mysterious course 
 of the stream is concealed by the bend of the valley, the 
 mountain towers up, as if overhanging it ; varied by 
 woods and rocks and deep precipices, and terminating in 
 one bold and broad cliff". On the left hand rises another 
 wooded hill, descending suddenly to the water, where it 
 meets the green meadows and farms adorned by trees 
 of luxuriant growth, which skirt the river banks; while, 
 on the right, the rich woods of Finlarig constitute the 
 boundary, broken by intervening glades ; ash trees of 
 picturesque and varied forms advancing to the very edge 
 of the water, and hanging their branches over its tran- 
 quil surface. Nothing could be imagined capable of 
 adding to this picture of seclusion and repose ; the pas- 
 toral sweetness of which is the more striking, from its 
 contrast with the lofty and rude alpine scenery by which 
 it is enclosed. 
 
 Various beautiful pictures are found on this stream ; 
 marked in the same manner, by their richness, and by 
 
KILLIN. 119 
 
 the height and the sudden ascent of the including hills, 
 which give to the whole of them a peculiarity of cha- 
 racter unknown in any of the river scenery of the High- 
 lands. The declivity of Craig Cailleach also presents 
 much beauty in a different style : a mixture of noble and 
 ancient firs, skirting the ravines, the torrents, and the 
 cascades, which channel its wild and rocky surface, and, 
 with the deep hollows and the lofty precipices, produc- 
 ing a species of mountain landscape not unlike that 
 which is found among the hills of Mar. But I must leave 
 to the pencil that which the pen is inadequate to de- 
 scribe. 
 
 Glen Dochart and Strathfillau, forming one valley, 
 scarcely admit of a remark. Loch Dochart is quite unin- 
 teresting, as is the whole of this nearly naked tract to 
 Tyndrum ; the lofty cone of Ben More, and the castle 
 situated on its island in the lake, being almost the only 
 objects capable of attracting- attention. Dochart castle 
 like many others in this line, belonged to the Campbells 
 of Lochow; and there is a little port on the shore, which 
 appears to have formed their landing place. It is a ruin 
 without any picturesque features. I believe that the 
 reputation of St. Fillan's well as a cure for maniacs, still 
 continues. By Crien-larich is the road which all should 
 take who desire to see Loch Lomond as it deserves to be 
 seen ; unless they should choose to ascend from Tarbet 
 or Luss as far as Glen Fallocb, and thus return again. 
 
120 LOCH EARN. 
 
 LOCH EARN, DUNIRA, COMRIE, GLEN LEDNACH, 
 GLEN ALMOND, LOCH LUBNAIG. 
 
 Should you by this time have cast your eye over all 
 the perilous geography of these volumes, over the quan- 
 tity and extent of strange flood and field that has been 
 traversed, and have computed how many times I and the 
 sun passed the Highland solstice together, you will won- 
 der, perhaps, what I was doing in this country so long 
 and so often ; why I explored the unexplored, why I 
 risked my neck every day on mountain and precipice, 
 and my whole carcase on flood and in ford ; why I walked 
 and rode and ferried and sailed and hungered and 
 watched, day after day and summer after summer. Not 
 for the purpose of writing such writing as this, you may 
 be assured. Not to amuse myself; unless it be amuse- 
 ment to toil, and to hunger, and to thirst ; to be drenched 
 in the rains of heaven and in the salt sea wave ; to wake 
 uneasy nights and spend laborious days; to live the life 
 of a Shetland seal at sea, and that of a Highland stot on 
 shore. 
 
 It was Geology, my dear friend ; Geology, divine maid. 
 Did 1 not look with eyes of anticipation to the day when 
 all my toils were to be rewarded by the display of the 
 map of Scotland, with all its bright array of blues and 
 greens and carnations and browns : all, all, my own 
 handy work : when every granite and every gneiss and 
 every porphyry, coal, lime, lead, gold, what not, was to 
 be spread out like a Turkey carpet before the wondering 
 
LOCH EARN. 121 
 
 eyes of Scottish mortals ; of all geolog-ical mortals from 
 the polar basin to the Himala. And did I not flatter 
 myself that I was to rank with the meritorious worthies 
 who occupy one of the sunny nooks, as we are told, of 
 Pluto's domain. And did I not foresee that my labours 
 were to bring to light the treasures of the unknown 
 world ; hidden wealth to Highland lairds and Scottish 
 heritors ; nay, to the very empire itself; exploring, like 
 Garth's delegate, those profound regions " where metals 
 ripen in vast cakes of ore." Thus vain mortals foresee 
 what is not to happen. Dis aliter visum : and instead of 
 writing about all such knowledge as was never known, 
 knowledge by which the child that is unborn should 
 profit, here I am, calling to mind all that I had marked 
 for forgetting: the idle visions of my lost and wasted 
 hours, the toys and trifles that had crossed my path, 
 uncared for as the grouse that rose before me while I 
 was extracting the square root of a mountain with my 
 hammer. The pen that should have sung of graywack^, 
 must, like Anacreon's lyre, now sing of cascades and 
 antres vast and anthropophagi. 
 
 I could lament over this too: but what on earth was 
 ever mended by lamentation. To be sure, I might con- 
 sole myself by the reflection that my stars were in fault : 
 but, verily, c'est se moquer, de vouloir adoucir un mal, 
 par la consideration que Ton est ne unlucky. Well, 
 what will you have: I have sunk my hammer, like 
 Prospero, ten fathoms deep : ten fathoms ! where line 
 never yet sounded. "Now take it up, quoth he, if any list." 
 Whoever does, will find it no small weight ; and he will 
 stand a fair chance of cracking his knuckles, or his brains 
 perhaps, with it before he has done. 
 
 The philosopher whom I met at Killin, seemed to 
 think it an ornament and an honour; like a red ribband 
 
122 LOCH EARN. 
 
 or a blue garter. By what innate property is it that when 
 a man is a fool, he discovers it even before he speaks ; 
 nay, before he is seen. And, secondly, why does he 
 take so much more trouble to display his folly, than a 
 wise man to shew his knowledge. Is it the only gem 
 worth wearing; is it the only quality of which we ought 
 to be vain. While at breakfast, I received a message 
 from a " gentleman with a hammer," as mine host an- 
 nounced him, requesting the honour of a conference, as 
 he was in search of knowledge, and expected much illu- 
 mination from so celebrated a personage ; as well known 
 through all the Highlands as Jack Pudding himself. The 
 hammer was bright from the anvil : raw as the philoso- 
 pher that bore it; but was displayed in great state, as if 
 to gain consequence, as well in my eyes as in those of 
 Mr. Cameron, and of all the waiters and ostlers, of Killin, 
 and Tyndrum, and Loch Earn, and Callander. The folly 
 and the hammer were equally visible : for he wore both 
 on the outside of his coat: the more prudent conceal 
 them in their pockets. When it was the fashion for gen- 
 tlemen to be " angry," and to fight, every tailor carried 
 his sword by his side. Now, every blockhead who has 
 cracked a stone at Salisbury craig, must display a ham- 
 mer about the country, to the astonishment of innocent 
 people and his own vast inconvenience. The world will 
 never be the wiser for all their hammers. My philo- 
 sopher requested to know what the opposite mountain 
 was "made of" — I answered, neglectingly, I know not 
 what ; but the word was not very long. He looked as 
 much confounded as if I had spoken in heathen Greek : 
 and thus, with one little word, not half an inch in length, 
 I fathomed the depth and bottom of his mineralogical 
 understanding. Yet he will write a book. And, what 
 is worse, he will tell the world his name. It is not for me 
 
LOCH EARN. i23 
 
 to gibbet him : every man has a right to perform this ce- 
 remony on his own person if he pleases. 
 
 This, however, has nothing to do with Loch Earn ; 
 and I need not say that this lake is most advantageously 
 visited from Perth, through a line of country scarcely 
 exceeded in Scotland for wealth and beauty and splen- 
 dour; equalled only by Strathmore, but, in one respect, 
 superior to it, from the dense succession of the highly or- 
 namented seats of the opulent, and from that incessant 
 repetition of artificial planting, which, from many points 
 of view, seems to render the whole northern side of 
 Strathearn one immense park and pleasure ground. 
 Much of this, however, lies out of our appointed limits; 
 and as I have also brought you to Killin, the examina- 
 tion will be better conducted from that point. 
 
 The short ride from this place to Loch Earn head, is 
 not without beauty in the midst of its wildness ; yet it 
 offers no very striking- character till the latter spot comes 
 into view, when a landscape occurs, well deserving of 
 more than a passing notice. To the advantages of an 
 inn, which, whenever I have visited it, I have found, like 
 that of Killin, one of the best in the Highlands, this place 
 presents, in addition, a scene of retirement and comfort 
 not often excelled; although unmarked by any very 
 striking features in its landscape, and therefore apt to 
 be underrated, after leaving the brilliant confusion of 
 pictures which distinguishes that singular spot. Though 
 the high road follows the northern bank of the lake, and 
 is of course the limit of most travellers, the beauties of 
 Loch Earn will be ill estimated by those who are content 
 to do what alone is conveniently done. It has been a 
 misfortune to this beautiful little lake, as it has been to 
 Strath Tay, that the new road, conducted on a conve- 
 nient and low level, has superseded the old one, which, 
 
124 LOCH EARN. 
 
 in the usual ancient fashion, held its undeviating straight 
 course over all obstructions, contemptuous alike of nature 
 and convenience. The difference in the appearance of 
 the landscape, produced by following- the one or the 
 other, is such as could scarcely be credited, particularly 
 towards the eastern extremity of the lake. Many years 
 ago, I had passed the better part of a day here ; and, 
 returning some time afterwards, I was surprised to find 
 that it was no longer the same place, and could scarcely 
 help feeling as in a dream, as if I had mistaken some 
 other lake for Loch Earn ; not at first perceiving the 
 change. Let the artist, at least, profit by this hint ; as 
 the ancient road is still accessible. For similar reasons, 
 let him follow the southern shore as far as he can ; not 
 only on account of the cascade of Edinample, which 
 stands in the list of objects to be visited, but because of 
 much more beautiful scenery which he will otherwise lose. 
 Limited as are the dimensions of Loch Earn, it is ex- 
 ceeded in beauty by few of our lakes, as far as it is 
 possible for many beauties to exist in so small a space. 
 I will not say that it presents a great number of distinct 
 landscapes adapted for the pencil : but such as it does 
 possess, are remarkable for their consistency of character^ 
 and for a combination of sweetness and simplicity with a 
 grandeur of manner scarcely to be expected within such 
 narrow bounds. Its style is that of a lake of far greater 
 dimensions; the hills which bound it being lofty and 
 bold and rugged; with a variety of character not found 
 in many, of even far greater magnitude and extent. It 
 is a miniature and a model of scenery that might well 
 occupy ten times the space. Yet the eye does not feel 
 this. There is nothing trifling or small in the details ; 
 nothing to diminish its grandeur of style, to tell us that 
 we are contemplating a reduced copy. On the contrary, 
 
LOCH EARN. 125 
 
 there is a perpetual contest between our impressions and 
 our reasoning's : we know that a few short miles compre- 
 hend the whole, and yet we feel as if it was a landscape 
 of many miles, a lake to be ranked among those of the 
 first order and dimensions. 
 
 While its mountains thus rise in majestic simplicity 
 to the sky, terminating in those bold and various and 
 rocky outlines which belong to so much of this geological 
 line, from Dunkeld and Killicrankie even to Loch Cate- 
 ran, the surfaces of the declivities are equally various 
 and bold; enriched with precipices and masses of pro- 
 truding rock, with deep hollows and ravines, and with 
 the courses of innumerable torrents which pour from 
 above, and, as they descend, become skirted with trees 
 till they lose themselves in the waters of the lake. Wild 
 woods also ascend along their surface, in all that irregu- 
 larity of distribution so peculiar to these rocky moun- 
 tains ; less solid and continuous than at Loch Lomond, 
 less scattered and less romantic than at Loch Cateran ; 
 but, from these very causes, aiding to confer on Loch 
 Earn a character entirely its own. 
 
 If the shores of the lake are not deeply marked by 
 bays and promontories, still they are sufficiently varied ; 
 nor is there one point where the hills reach the water in 
 that meagre and insipid manner which is the fault of so 
 many of our lakes, and which is the case throughout the 
 far greater part, even of Loch Cateran. Loch Earn has 
 no blank. Such as its beauty is, it is always consistent 
 and complete. Its shores too are almost every where ac- 
 cessible, and almost every where so wooded as to produce 
 those foregrounds which the spectator so much desires ; 
 while, from the same cause, they present much of that 
 species of shore scenery which is independent of the 
 mountain boundary. Elegant ash trees, springing from 
 
126 LOCH EARN. 
 
 the very water and drooping their branches over it, g-reen 
 and cultivated banks, rocky points divided by gravelly 
 beaches which are washed by the bright curling waves 
 of the lake, the brawling stream, descending along its 
 rocky and wooded channel, and the cascade tumbling 
 along the precipice which rises from the deep and still 
 water below, these, and the richly cultivated and green 
 margin, with the houses and traces of art that ornament 
 its banks, produce, in themselves, pictures of great va- 
 riety, marked by a character of rural sweetness and 
 repose not commonly found among scenery of this class. 
 Thus also the style of Loch Earn varies as we assume 
 different points of elevation for our views, and perhaps 
 in a greater degree than any of the Highland lakes: 
 assuredly more than in any one of similar dimensions. 
 At the lower levels, and perhaps most of all at the western 
 extremity, where the banks are lowest, and at the eastern, 
 where the beautifully wooded island forms a leading 
 object in the picture, every landscape is marked by tran- 
 quillity and gentleness of character : a character adapted 
 to glassy waters and summer suns, to the verdure of 
 spring and the repose of evening. High up on the hills, 
 the grandeur of the bold alpine landscape succeeds to 
 the tranquillity of the rural one; and amid the wild 
 mountain forms and the rude magnificence of aspiring- 
 rocks and precipices, enhanced and embellished by the 
 gleaming lights of a troubled sky and the passage of 
 clouds, we almost forget the placid and cultivated scenes 
 we have just quitted, and imagine ourselves transported 
 to some remote spot of the distant Highlands. 
 
 Every one is bound to notice the 'new village of St. ' 
 Fillan's, situated at the eastern extremity of this lake, as 
 an instance of what may be done by good sense and ex- 
 ertion, in reforming the comfortless and dirty habits of 
 
LOCH EARN. 127 
 
 the rural population of this country. The inhabitants are 
 now as fond of their roses and honeysuckles as they for- 
 merly were of their dunghills and g-utters ; a sufficient 
 proof that the people are tractable when properly managed, 
 and that many of the faults of the lower classes in the 
 Highlands which arise from carelessness of comfort and 
 cleanliness, and from a want of that petty industry and 
 ambition which soon extends itself to more important 
 concerns, ought to be attributed to their superiors, who, 
 themselves, unjustly complain of what they never attempt 
 to remedy. St. Fillan's indeed is near the Lowland bor- 
 der, and might, in the progress of time, have acquired 
 that polish which it now displays: but the reform has 
 been as sudden as it is complete : the consequence of 
 regulations rigidly enforced at first, but which are now 
 no longer wanted. Every proprietor in the country has 
 the same power ; and, unquestionably, the facility is the 
 same for all : and it is really incredible, that men of rank 
 and education, even without Lord Gwydir's example 
 before their eyes, should suffer, on their estates, and even 
 at their very doors, those disgraceful sights of neglect, 
 and dirt, and of the apparent extremity of poverty and 
 misery, which, without oppression, rather to the benefit 
 of their poor tenants as of themselves, they might remedy 
 by the most simple and justifiable regulations. 
 
 But it would be unjust to censure the Highlanders for 
 their inattention to cleanliness, as if it was exclusively 
 the fault of this portion of Scotland. Where Mrs. Ha- 
 milton's Glenburnie lies, no one knows ; but we need 
 not be very anxious ; as we can find a Glenburnie every 
 where, and, assuredly, as easily in the Lowlands as in the 
 Highlands. The Maclartys are an ancient and a powerful 
 family ; I wish I could add that it was an antiquated one 
 also; but I fear that it is still a thriving race. If it was 
 
128 LOCH EARN. 
 
 but possible to prevail on this family to have one thing, 
 but one thing, clean about them, the rest would follow 
 of course. If it was their persons, then their houses 
 would soon become clean, as a necessary consequence : 
 or if it was their houses, their persons would probably 
 follow, for the sake of uniformity. If but the water or 
 the salt was clean, if there was a clean spoon, a knife, a 
 plate, if there was even a clean surface on a looking glass, 
 it would detect the vices of the rest so effectually, that, 
 like one sturdy honest man in a parish, it would in time 
 reform, or at least shame, the whole. But, unfortunately, 
 in this family of the Maclartys, every thing is so consist- 
 ently, constantly, uniformly, perenially, dirty in every 
 part, inside, outside, top, bottom, middle, sides, longitu- 
 dinally, transversely, and diagonally, that no article, nor 
 any part of any article, is left to tell the tale on another, 
 or to blush it into reform. Were I the Dey of Algiers, 
 or a Highland Laird, I would enhance even on Lord 
 Gwydir, and keep an officer of health, with power to 
 wash Mr. and Mrs. Maclarty and all their family by force, 
 or to fumigate them like rats, and, in default of ultimate 
 reformation, to burn them out. 
 
 I sometimes fear that you will not believe me when I 
 bestow, as I have so often done, praise, and praise too 
 that may seem extravagant, on scenery which lies at our 
 own doors, which is visited by hundreds, and yet which 
 no one describes or even mentions. I premise this re- 
 mark here, because I am again about to do the same, in 
 pointing out the tract which lies between the end of Loch 
 Earn and Comrie. But I must not be deterred by such a 
 fear. If you doubt me, come and see; and then say, 
 what is rather the truth, that I have failed, not exceeded. 
 Why others have not been equally struck by these scenes, 
 it is not for me to explain. 
 
THE EAUN. 
 
 12& 
 
 The space in question is the narrow valley which 
 attends the course of the Earn from the lake to near 
 Comrie, exceeded in romantic beauty, as it appears to 
 me, by few places of equal dimensions in Scotland, and 
 dissimilar to every other; except inasmuch as the style 
 reminds us of the best parts of the extremity of Loch 
 Cateran. But it is a subject for painting", not for verbal 
 description : abounding also in landscapes, almost beyond 
 the power of reckoning; as distinct, as perfect in com- 
 position, and as consistent in their own peculiar charac- 
 ter, as they are distinguished from all other scenes, ex- 
 cept those to which I have just compared them. Nor, 
 omitting the lake, do they often fall short of the land- 
 scapes of Loch Cateran, either in beauty, in variety, or 
 in their fairy-like and romantic characters ; uniting similar 
 grandeur and breadth of manner to all that delicacy and 
 multiplicity of ornament which form the leading features 
 of that well-known spot. 
 
 Though the river and the road hold a parallel course, 
 in a general sense, the meauderings of the former are 
 such that they are often widely separated, so as to add 
 much to the variety of the scenery, as far as that depends 
 on the river's banks. Where they approach, or when we 
 choose to follow the wanderings of the stream, we gain 
 access to a species of river landscape not less various and 
 rich than that of the finest of the Perthshire rivers ; but 
 which, with the exception of the best parts of the Tumel, 
 maintains a character more consistently alpine and wild 
 than any. Though, in some parts, the Earn here holds 
 a sinuous course through flat meadows, it is never tame 
 nor naked ; nor is it ever wanting in those marked ac- 
 companiments which are formed by the rocky declivities 
 of the southern mountains. These give a wildness of 
 character to its course, even where the flow of the water 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 THE EARN. 
 
 is tardy; and it is everywhere attended by trees, often in 
 great and splendid profusion, which, while they add 
 ornament to the general landscape, serve to break the 
 continuity of its reaches, and to give value to its bright 
 glimpses as they are seen glittering among the dark 
 green and under the shadows of the impending moun- 
 tains. 
 
 But the greater part of its course is of a far other 
 character; rapid, and wild, forcing its way among rocks 
 and trees, a truly alpine river. In some places, having 
 cut its own passage where the mountains meet from op- 
 posite sides, it struggles among promontories and cliffs 
 and overhanging rocks, foaming along its deep and sha- 
 dowy bed : in others, it is seen dividing to surround 
 islands which it seems to have detached from the skirts 
 of the mountains, and which, rising in the middle of its 
 wandering and intricate channels, wooded and wild with 
 dark firs and with the more graceful forms of the pendent 
 and silvery birch, conceal its mysterious course, and 
 cause it to appear as if springing from some unknown 
 recesses of the mountain. The bridges, of stone, and of 
 rude trees, which cross it, add much to its beauty in dif- 
 ferent places : nor does its picturesque character cease, 
 even when, escaping from this narrow pass, it opens into 
 the wider plain at Comrie, to wander now at liberty 
 through its own Strathearn. 
 
 But even this river scenery, beautiful as it is, forms 
 but a small part of the attractions of this romantic valley. 
 On each side, in some places, the continuous mountain 
 declivities descend rapidly and suddenly, so as nearly 
 to meet below, and to give room to little more than the 
 river and the road ; in others, leaving a space occupied 
 by flat but wooded meadows, yet varied by undulating* 
 ground. The northern side contains the ornamented 
 
DUNIRA. 131 
 
 grounds of Dunira, rich with planted and natural wood; 
 but it is by the southern boundary that the brilliant land- 
 scapes of this singular spot are chiefly produced. This 
 consists of the skirts of Ben Vorlich, extending in one 
 continued and lofty wall from the southern side of Loch 
 Earn, till it terminates at the junction of the Earn and 
 the Ruchil. With the exception of Ben Venu, the lead- 
 ing feature of Loch Cateran, no mountain in Scotland 
 presents a declivity so wild and so various ; a continued 
 succession of bold precipices and deep hollows, of ravines 
 and torrents, and of woods dispersed in every mode of 
 picturesque distribution. As these descend to the river 
 and the valley, the knolls, which seemed, when aloft in 
 the mountain, but protuTjerances on its surface, assume 
 the dignity of distinct hills ; producing thus a variety 
 and an intricacy of scenery, as romantic as it is unusual 
 and unexpected. Thus the mountain itself, to those who 
 choose to wander among its strange recesses, presents 
 numberless landscapes of alpine rock and wood, scarcely 
 paralleled any where ; lofty cliffs following each other 
 in wild confusion to the sky, deep hollows shaded from 
 the light of day, torrents and cascades, trees springing 
 from the rocks, or crowning their summits, or distributed 
 in all that variety of wild forest so peculiar to the High- 
 land hills. As at Loch Cateran, which is never out of 
 our mind in contemplating this spot, the oak and the 
 birch are the principal trees ; but it is to the superior 
 advantage of the present scenes, that the fir is also found 
 among them ; in groups, or in solitary grandeur spring- 
 ing from the precipices ; adding much to the variety of 
 character, and peculiarly harmonizing with many of the 
 landscapes. 
 
 It is by these subsidiary hills, bold and various,rugged 
 and precipitous, and rich with all their ornament of wood, 
 
 k2 
 
132 DUNIHA. 
 
 that the peculiar character which distinguished this sce- 
 nery from almost all others is produced. Uniting with 
 the wanderings of the river below, and with the green 
 and woody valley, they produce scenes of splendour, of 
 ornament equally rich and wild, which receives support 
 and majesty alike, from the lofty and broad acclivity 
 above, rising to the sky, and terminating in an outline no 
 less graceful than it is rugged and bold. It is by this com- 
 bination of breadth in the general form, and of extended 
 and massive shade, with multiplicity and variety in the 
 parts, with profusion of ornament, and with the perpetual 
 play of lights and shadows and half tints and reflections, 
 which belong to these rocky knolls and clitfs and hollows 
 and undulating woods, that here, as on the Tumel, mag- 
 nificence is combined with richness, and grandeur of style 
 with minute splendour of detail. 
 
 Among these subsidiary hills, St. Fillan's is conspi- 
 cuous, as well for its grace as for its prominence in the 
 picture. Elsewhere, it would be a little mountain; and 
 did it rise, like our Arthur's seat, from a plain, all Scot- 
 land would not produce an object much more striking; 
 from the elegance of its conical form, its successive stages 
 of precipice and grey rock separated by green and grassy 
 slopes, and from the beautiful disposition of the trees 
 which are scattered about it. Though its magnitude is 
 here swallowed up in the overpowering altitude of the 
 mountains around, it loses nothing of its beauty by this 
 position ; giving character, on the contrary, to the whole 
 surrounding scenery, and being the central and chief 
 feature of some of the finest landscapes which this valley 
 affords. Of these landscapes, wild, romantic, and numer- 
 ous, as they are singular and decided, I shall only add, 
 that the compositions are generally as perfect as can be 
 desired, that the illumination, under every position of the 
 sun, is what an artist would wish, and that the colouring 
 
GLEN LEDNACH. 133 
 
 possesses that delicacy, arising- from a mixture of grey 
 with tender green, which harmonizes so well with the 
 airy gracefulness resulting from the scattered positions of 
 the wood and the light forms of the birch. Many days 
 would not exhaust the subjects which it offers to the 
 pencil ; nor are there many places where one day, at 
 least, would be better occupied than in a ride from 
 Comrie to Loch Earn head. 
 
 Of the town of Comrie I need say nothing; but its 
 situation is scarcely exceeded for beauty by that of any 
 place in Scotland. The pride of Strathearn lies from 
 here to Crieff'; a noble river, profusion of wood, a valley 
 where ornament and cultivation contend for the supe- 
 riority, art and nature both striving which shall embellish 
 it most, and, on each side, a range of hills partaking of the 
 richness of the grounds below, splendid in variety of form 
 as in wood, picturesque without rudeness, and offering 
 in themselves a thousand scenes of secluded beauty, in- 
 dependent of their effects in the general landscape. But 
 while Comrie is the sentinel of two of the Highland 
 passes, that of Loch Earn and that of Glen Lednach, it is 
 beyond ray prescribed bounds ; and I must therefore 
 return to this latter valley, which conducts a road to Loch 
 Tay, through scenery well deserving of a forenoon's at- 
 tention. The cascades of tke Lednach, situated in this 
 pass, and at a short distance from Comrie, are among the 
 enumerated spectacles ; but they possess no great merit, 
 either from their bulk or altitude, or from the surrounding- 
 scenery. The pass itself is, however, wild and richly 
 wooded, as is the whole of the ornamented land on this 
 declivity of the hill ; although it would not be easy to 
 find out any particular subjects of landscape. But be- 
 yond it, when we have reached the open vale of the Led- 
 nach, a valley of a pleasing and uncommon character, 
 
134 GLEN LEDNACH. 
 
 some pictures of great beauty are found ; uniting a dis- 
 tant view of the rich extent of Strathearn and of its bound- 
 ing hills to the southward, with the bold middle ground 
 of the rocky and wooded ridge through which the river 
 cuts its way ; where the obelisk, erected to Lord Melville, 
 forms an object at once conspicuous and interesting. 
 
 That the Highlanders are inquisitive, and that a 
 Scotchman cannot give a direct answer to a plain ques- 
 tion, are truths not very new to you or any one else. The 
 Scottish Hierocles, for Joe Miller's authority is not clas- 
 sical here, will probably furnish you with an example or 
 two in point ; and you may consult him. Some of the 
 modifications of this process of answering one question 
 by proposing another, are amusing enough, and, occa- 
 sionally, not a little tormenting, particularly in the High- 
 lands ; as the difficulty of extorting the information which 
 you may want, is materially increased, or squared, as a 
 mathematician would say, by multiplying the indirect- 
 ness of the Scot by the curiosity of the Highlander. 
 Whatever the metaphysical anatomy of this may be, the 
 characteristic caution of the country is an ingredient in 
 this compound ; as clearly appears from the noted exa- 
 mination regarding a certain ferryboat, which you may 
 find, if you will take the trouble to look for it, loco ci- 
 tato. In the Highlands, there is a certain commercial 
 principle of barter or exchange combined : in short, if he 
 is to furnish information, he is determined to get all that 
 he can in return for it. But it is part of his birthright 
 and descent; for Csesar tells us the same of his ancestors 
 the Gauls ; and, I doubt not, was obliged to relate his 
 own history and motives whenever he wanted to know 
 his road. 
 
 I was considerably troubled here respecting certain 
 roads, and applied to an old snuffy-looking native who 
 
GLEN LEDNACH. 135 
 
 was cutting" some hay with his pocket-knife by the way 
 side. It is true, I saw the inquisition painted in his face ; 
 but there was no choice, so I made up my mind to a 
 cross-examination of more than the ordinary length, and 
 was determined to indulge it for once. " How far is it 
 toKillin?"— « It's a fine day."— « Aye, it's a fine day 
 for your hay." — " Ah ! there's no muckle hay ; this is an 
 unco cauld glen." — " I suppose this is the road to Killin," 
 (trying him on another tack). — " That's an unco fat beast 
 of yours." — " Yes, she is much too fat; she is just from 
 grass." — " Ah ! it's a mere I see ; it's a gude beast to 
 gang, Ise warn you." — " Yes yes it's a very good pony." 
 — " I selled just sic another at Doune fair, five years by- 
 past : I warn ye she's a Highland bred beast." — " I dont 
 know ; I bought her in Edinburgh." — " A weel a weel, 
 mony sic like gangs to the Edinburgh market frae the 
 Highlands." — " Very likely ; she seems to have High- 
 land blood in her." — " Aye aye ; would you be selling 
 her." — "No, I dont want to sell her; do you want to 
 buy her." — " Na ! 1 was na thinking of that : has she had 
 na a foal." — " Not that I knoAv of." — " I had a gude colt 
 out of ours when I selled her. Yere na ganging to Doune 
 the year." — " No, I am going to Killin, and want to know 
 how far it is." — " Aye, ye'll be gaing to the sacraments 
 there the morn." — " No, I dont belong to your kirk." — 
 " Ye'll be an Episcopalian than." — " Or a Roman Catho- 
 lic." — " Na na, ye're nae Roman."—*" And so it is twelve 
 miles to Killin," (putting a leading question).—" Na, it's 
 najust that." — "It's ten then, I suppose." — "Ye'll be 
 for cattle than, for the Falkirk tryst." — " No, I know 
 nothing about cattle." — " I thocht ye'd ha been justane 
 of thae English drovers. Ye have nae siccan hills as this 
 in your country." — " No ; not so high." — " But ye'll hae 
 bonny farms." — " Yes yes, very good lands."—" Ye'll 
 
136 GLEN LEDNACH. 
 
 nae hae better farms than my Lord's at Dunira." — '< No 
 no, Lord Melville has very fine farms." — " Now there's 
 a bonny bit land ; there's na three days in the year there's 
 na meat for beasts on it ; and it's to let. Ye'll be for a 
 farm hereawa." — " No, I'm just looking at the country." 
 — " And ye have nae business." — ** No." — " Weel, that's 
 the easiest way." — " And this is the road to Killin." — 
 *' Will ye tak some nuts," (producing a handful he had 
 just gathered). " No, I cannot crack them." — " I sup- 
 pose your teeth are failing. Hae ye any snuff." — Yes 
 yes here is a pinch for you." — " Na na, I'm unco heavy 
 on the pipe ye see, but I like a hair of snuff; just a hair :" 
 touching the snuff with the end of his little finger, appa- 
 rently to prolong time and save the answer about the 
 road a little longer, as he seemed to fear there were no 
 more questions to ask. The snuff however came just in 
 time to allow him to recall his ideas, which the nuts were 
 near dispersing. " And ye'll be from the low country." 
 — " Yes, you may know I am an Englishman by my 
 tongue." — " Na, our ain gentry speaks high English 
 the now." — " Well well, I am an Englishman, at any 
 rate." — " And ye'll be staying in London." — " Yes yes." 
 " I was ance at Smithfield mysell wi some beasts : it's 
 an unco place, London. — And what's yere name ; asking 
 your pardon." — The name was given. " There's a hantel 
 o'that name i'the north. Yere father '11 may be be a High- 
 lander." — " Yes ; that is the reason why I like the 
 Highlanders." — " Weel, (nearly thrown out) it's a bonny 
 country now, but it's sair cauld here in the winter." 
 " And so it is six miles to Killin." — " Aye, they call it 
 sax." — " Scotch miles, I suppose." — " Aye aye, auld 
 miles."—" That is about twelve English."—" Na, it 'II 
 not be abune ten short miles, (here we got on so fast 
 that I began to think I should be dismissed at last) but 
 
GLEN LEDNACH. 137 
 
 I never seed them measured. And ye'll ha left your 
 family at Comrie." — " No, 1 am alone." — " They'll be in 
 the south, may be." — " No, I have no family." — " And 
 are ye no married." — " No." — " I'm thinking- it's time." 
 — " So am I." — Weel weel, ye'll have the less fash." — 
 " Yes, much less than in finding the way to Killin." — 
 " O, aye, ye'll excuse me ; but we countra folk speers 
 muckle questions." — " Pretty well, I think."— Weel 
 weel, ye'll find it saft a bit in the hill, but ye maun had 
 wast, and its na abune tan mile. A gude day." 
 
 There is much beauty, uniting a secluded rural cha- 
 racter to the wildness of mountain scenery, through the 
 whole of this valley, and about the picturesque and un- 
 expected village of Invergeldy, (I hope that is its name), 
 after which the road enters a narrow and rugged pass 
 among the mountains, striking to those who are new to 
 Highland scenes, but not sufliciently marked or uncom- 
 mon to attract much notice from those who are familiar 
 with the various wild valleys of the central counties and 
 of the west coast. Nor is there much interest in the 
 views from the summit of Ben na Chony, which I as- 
 cended ; although the mountain itself, particularly on 
 the east and south sides, offers some wild rocks and 
 ravines of a striking and picturesque character. To the 
 north, the prospect is one of wild and rude hills, entirely 
 excluding the sight of Loch Tay, but displaying the 
 sources of the Almond ; and, to the south, it is not far 
 diflferent, as the mass of hills in this direction equally 
 excludes the valley of the Earn. But I need not trouble 
 you with details of a country through which neither you 
 nor any one else is ever likely to follow me. Had I in- 
 dulged, like Bruce and others, in registering the log 
 book of all my Highland geography, had I described, 
 with the watch. and compass in my hand, what I saw at 
 
138 STRATHEARN. 
 
 ten and what at eleven, this brook, and that stone, and 
 the other tree, I should have wasted precious paper and 
 more precious time in writing what no one would have 
 read when told of our own country, and what, I suspect, 
 very few read when it is told of Caucasus or Sennaar. 
 Life may be better occupied; on both parts: and the 
 value of other things than the Sibyl's books, may be in- 
 creased by the sheers. The worst of it is, that My Lord 
 cannot see his own excrescences : as little as Sir Geoffrey 
 Hudson, who feels the struggles of a soul six feet long, 
 can conceive that it is imprisoned in a carcase no bigger 
 than a fiddle caise. Fortunately, we can all see each 
 other's humps; and I therefore invest you with the full 
 rights of top lop and crop, after which we will consider 
 what is to be done next. 
 
 In the mean time 1 must go on in the old way ; look- 
 ing askance at Strathearn as I looked at Strathmore, and 
 half inclined to smuggle across the Highland border, 
 Ardoch and the Romans, and Drummond castle, and 
 Auchtertyre, and Tomachastle, and the ten thousand 
 beauties of the lovely Earn, not only to Crieff but beyond 
 it. But this would be an utter breach of contract : and 
 luckily it is a country that need not be told ; for it is like 
 the glorious sun at noon-day, not to be shut out. Every 
 one can see the encampment between the Earn and the 
 Ruchil, the false scene of the battle of the Grampians, 
 which I have already noticed, and of which we have heard 
 more than enough. Every one too can see the strange 
 and picturesque hills of Tomachastle, can wander till he 
 is weary, about the banks of the Earn and the declivities of 
 both ranges of hills, and every one, — who can draw — may 
 draw till "his fingers are weary, his pencils worn out, and 
 his paper expended. Every one too may visit what is 
 here worth visiting, if he will run the risk of steel traps 
 
DRUMMOND CASTLE. 139 
 
 and spring- guns, and of prosecutions according- to law ; 
 a refinement in hospitality, thank heaven, which is rather 
 English than Scottish, and which has not yet found its 
 way across the Highland border. Let those who own the 
 treasures thus guarded by the dragons of law, who de- 
 light to live in a state of warfare Avith the whole world, 
 enjoy, in solitary hostility, their possessions as they may : 
 let him delight in hare and partridge if he can, who 
 values them above human life and liberty. Far different 
 was the theory of good old Admiral Gell, who planted 
 goosebenies and currants in his fields and hedge-rows at 
 Crickhowel, for a treat to the boys of the neighbourhood. 
 It is but a step in embellishment, from the painted board 
 to the gallows ; and the latter would be a more orna- 
 mental form and a more effectual warning. Unfortu- 
 nately, all our ideas of rural beauty, of peace and of 
 happiness, of the calm seclusion of groves and gardens, 
 and of the liberality of free and bounteous nature, are 
 apt to fly before the images that are conjured up by these 
 odious warnings ; the summons, the pettifogger, the writ, 
 the trial, and the jail. Let those enter at the legal gate 
 who delight in steel traps of their own setting : others 
 will be content to remain on the outside of this forbidden 
 paradise. 
 
 But every one may visit Drummond castle, without 
 risk of life, limb, or attorney : yet why none of our thou- 
 sand travellers and writers have done justice to Drum- 
 mond castle, is more than I can say. If it is not all that it 
 might be rendered, it is still absolutely unrivalled in the 
 low country, and only exceeded, in the Highlands, by 
 Dunkeld and Blair. Placed in the most advantageous 
 position to enjoy the magnificent and various expanse 
 around, it looks over scenery scarcely any where equal- 
 led. With ground of the most commanding and varied 
 
140 DRUMMOND CASTLE. 
 
 forms, including water, and rock, and aWupt hill, and deep 
 dell, and gentle undulations, its extent is princely and its 
 aspect is that of ancient wealth and ancient power. Noble 
 avenues, profuse woods, a waste of lawn and pasture, 
 an unrestrained scope, every thing* bespeaks the care- 
 lessness of liberality and of extensive possessions ; while 
 the ancient castle, its earliest part belonging to 1500, 
 stamps on it that air of high and distant opulence which 
 adds so deep a moral interest to the rural beauties of baro- 
 nial Britain. Yet Druramond Castle is neglected by its 
 owners, and yet its owners have taste : while it is capable 
 of every thing, but wanting almost every thing* which art 
 might add. Nor would it require the work of creation, 
 nor the aid of time, to make it all, of which it is suscep- 
 tible. That which it chiefly wants, is access. It is a 
 wilderness from which even its owners are excluded. It 
 requires little or nothing of those additions which, while 
 Nature is making, man dies. Art might accomplish in a 
 few brief years, all which is here demanded, and render 
 Drummond Castle the pride of the Lowlands and the 
 third jewel, at least, of Scotland. 
 
 But I must return to my appointed bourne and limit. 
 There is a wild and pleasing ride into the mountains 
 from Crieff, to the little alpine lake, Loch Turrit, whose 
 wild ducks have been sung by Burns ; but I know not 
 that it is sufficiently tempting for the ordinary traveller. 
 Not so Monzie : and every one who intends to proceed to 
 Glen Almond from Crieff, should choose the circuitous 
 road through this beautiful valley. But the beauties of 
 Monzie are only to be fairly appreciated from the hill 
 above ; where it forms the middle ground and the con- 
 spicuous feature of one of the most magnificent of the 
 extended landscapes of Scotland. The house itself is 
 sufficient to give a centre of unity to the picture : and 
 
UONZIE. 141 
 
 nothing can exceed the felicitous arrangement of the rich 
 woods which surround it, occupying its valley, and rising 
 up the hills in all that happy mixture of carelessness and 
 decision, which holds the due line and limit between 
 the profusion of nature and the restraint and attentions of 
 art. What art may have done, and what nature has done, 
 I know not ; but it is probable that the former has done 
 little, and it is at least certain that it never planned or 
 executed here, that which it generally contrives to mar 
 where it interferes on so large a scale. While Monzie 
 may offer a lesson to the gentlemen of the capability 
 school, it occupies a species of undecided and undulating 
 ground which occurs all over Britain ; and whatever 
 therefore it has done, may be done in a thousand other 
 places. But few parts, even of Scotland, can parallel the 
 noble landscape in which it lies: a landscape which 
 seems to have been created for it, and for which it seems 
 to have been created ; a continuous scene of richness and 
 beauty, of wood, and cultivation, and hill, retiring in 
 varied and endless succession till it terminates in the dis- 
 tant blue mountains of Loch Earn. While the long 
 range of the Highland boundary on the right, guides the 
 eye through the splendid vista of Strathearn to the pic- 
 turesque and crowded forms of Ben Vorlich and its at- 
 tendant mountains, the richly wooded hill which sepa- 
 rates the vale of Monzie from Crieff, is followed by the 
 more distant southern range which is the limit between 
 Strathearn and Strathallan, equally rich, but losing itself 
 in the hazy distance. Hence the peculiarity which dis- 
 tinguishes this view from all the great vale landscapes of 
 the Highlands. It is not, like Strath Tay or Strathmore, 
 a continuous valley bounded and terminated by continu- 
 ous and consistent ranges of hills ; nor is it , like many 
 others, a mere landscape of mountains, and of mountains 
 
142 GLEN ALMOND. 
 
 which seem to derive from each other and to belong to 
 the same family. On the contrary, it opens to the eye a 
 little world of hill and dale, of luxuriant cultivation and 
 plain and forest and mountain, of Lowland wealth and of 
 Highland grandeur: mountains of every character, yet 
 all so disposed that nothing trespasses on the unity and 
 integrity of the scene ; while we marvel how, with objects 
 various as they are, and numerous enough for a hundred 
 pictures, nature has managed to bring the whole into 
 one grand harmonious composition. 
 
 Monzie lies in the way, and before the very eyes, of 
 those who visit Glen Almond, and who yet manage to over- 
 look it. This valley has often been described, and is 
 therefore well known. But though dreary and wild, it 
 presents no remarkable features. While on a contiacted 
 scale, there is nothing marked in the character of its hills, 
 or in the course of its stream. It is dark and desolate, 
 but no more. To those who are not conversant with 
 Highland scenery, it has the recommendation of novelty; 
 and thus it naturally has atti'acted more attention than 
 its intrinsic merits claim. That it is one of the reputed 
 burial places of Ossian, may be an attraction to those to 
 whom shadows are as realities, and who find no property 
 in truth but its inconvenience. Though the large stone in 
 question has been used as a monument, it is a fragment 
 fallen from the hill above, where the very place whence 
 it has been detached is visible: while, from some indi- 
 cations that remain, it seems to have been adopted as 
 the centre of a circle, a few distinct traces of which are 
 still to be seen. But if this be the stone mentioned by 
 Birt, as it cannot fail to be, since there is no other, it 
 must have originally been moved for the purpose of being- 
 used as a monument, before it was displaced by the sol- 
 diers who made this road : as he says that, under its 
 
ossian's tomb. 14Ji 
 
 centre there was found a stone coffin of two feet square, 
 containing bones and ashes. He imagines this to have 
 been the urn, as he calls it, of a Roman officer ; but 
 without reason, as the use of stone coffins and the burn- 
 ing of the dead were common among the ancient inhabi- 
 tants of this country. Moreover, there is no probability 
 that the Romans penetrated the Highlands in this di- 
 rection, although they did so more to the eastward, nor 
 that they ever used those rude stones as monuments. 
 Being almost unquestionably a place of British sepul- 
 ture, it seems to confirm an opinion which I have sug- 
 gested on other occasions ; that many of the stone circles, 
 whatever the purpose of others might have been, were 
 monumental, or funereal : the central stone, which an- 
 swered the same purposes as the Cromlech, forming the 
 stela, and the surrounding ones being an enclosure, giv- 
 ing imaginary protection, and indicating the rank or dig- 
 nity of the person interred ; as in those cases where that 
 wall was erected round the cairn, which became, in after 
 times, and among the Greeks in their stage of refinement, 
 
 the icepioMobofM/j, 
 
 It is an interesting circumstance about this coffin, 
 mentioned by the same author, that as soon as the disin- 
 terment became known, « the Highlanders assembled from 
 distant parts, and, having formed themselves into a body, 
 carefully gathered up the relics and marched with them 
 in solemn procession to a new place of burial ; discharg- 
 ing their fire-arms over the grave, as supposing that the 
 deceased had been a military officer." Not a word is 
 here said about Ossian ; and the manner of the ceremonial, 
 with the reason assigned for it, prove that no such notion 
 was entertained at that time. In fact, Ossian and Fingal 
 were then scarcely known. They are never once men- 
 tioned by this author : a neglect which would have been 
 
144 ossian's tomb. 
 
 impossible, considering his long residence, and his inti- 
 mate knowledge of the country, had these names been 
 popular, as they are now, throughout the whole of the 
 Highlands. I have elsewhere remarked that they were 
 equally unknown to Martin. It is since the publication 
 of Macpherson's translations, that they have become 
 both popular and diffused, and that all these imaginary 
 tombs have been discovered and named. Had the stone 
 in Glen Almond been thought the tomb of Ossian in 
 1720, it would assuredly have been called so by the 
 Highlanders who then proved their respect for an un- 
 known name. But, like a hundred other stones and hills 
 and caves, it has received that appellation in our own day : 
 these heroes, like Solomon among the Arabs, appro- 
 priating to themselves all the waifs and strays that claim 
 no owner. And this is what is called tradition. 
 
 But I believe that the term, Ossian's Tomb, or stone, 
 has here in some measure arisen from the corruption of 
 another word ; as, in Staffa, the name of Fin, or Fingal, 
 seems to have been imposed in a similar manner on the 
 the great cave. It is, or was, a popular theory in this 
 part of the Highlands, that the lark, or some other bird, 
 was not to be found further north. The name is uisog 
 (I know not if I spell it right) and thus Clach na Uisog, 
 the Stone of the Lark, became converted, from some 
 similarity of sound, aided by the now fashionable belief, 
 into the Clach of Ossian. 
 
 The cause for the observance above-mentioned, as 
 assigned by a Highland officer to the author whom I 
 have quoted, was not respect to the memory of the dead, 
 as has been generally imagined, but superstitious fear. 
 They believed, in those days, whatever they may now, 
 that if a dead body should be disinterred by malice or 
 accident, and that the funeral rites were not immediately 
 
GLEN ALMOND. 145 
 
 performed, "storms and tempests vTOiikl arise, destroying 
 their corn and blowing away their huts," and that many 
 other misfortunes would follow the neglect. These have 
 been opinions of wide prevalence ; but little trace of them 
 remains at present in the country. I have seen human 
 bones scattered about, and contemplated with as little 
 fear as respect, not only in the cave of Egg and in that 
 of Oban, but at Portree, and in Barra, and in many other 
 places. 
 
 The road through Glen Almond (Avon, properly) is 
 that which communicates between Stirling and Dalna- 
 cardoch, by Tay bridge; passing through Amulrie and 
 by the pleasing little lake, Loch Freuchie. It is now so 
 little used, and, like most of the ancient military roads, 
 so much neglected, as to be in very bad repair : a con- 
 sequence of that mixture of well-meant extravagance 
 and misplaced economy which has constructed a Cale- 
 donian canal for little other purpose but to enrich con- 
 tractors and engineers, and which rescinded a grant not 
 amounting to one-tenth of its annual expenditure, every 
 farthing of which was productive of valuable results to 
 the country. Except that lake and Amulrie itself, a 
 pleasing little spot, there is nothing in this line of road 
 to induce the mere traveller to follow it; nor is there 
 more attraction in the lateral branch which leads through 
 Strath Braan to Dunkeld. The Rumbling Bridge, the 
 only object much worthy of notice, has already been 
 mentioned in speaking of this last place ; and I may 
 therefore terminate my proceedings in this quarter, and 
 return to Comrie. Hence there is a mountain road to 
 Callander ; but I cannot recommend it. If it be shorter 
 than that by Loch Earn and Lubnaig, it compensates for 
 that by its badness ; occupying at least as much time, 
 
 VOL, I. L 
 
146 BALQUHIDDER. 
 
 and being utterly without beauty or interest of any 
 kind. 
 
 After leaving Loch Earn head for Callander, it is 
 easy, by diverging about two miles to the right, to see 
 Loch Voil and Loch Doine, nearly united, and situated 
 among the Braes of Balquhidder. They are pleasing 
 little lakes, appearing together to be about five miles 
 long, and are surrounded with cultivation. But I cannot 
 say that they offer any picturesque scenes ; not much at 
 least that can be made a subject of painting, as the valley 
 in which they lie is so open, that the hills are at a con- 
 siderable distance from the water, while these are also 
 without any very marked features. Nor is there any 
 temptation to penetrate further in this direction ; the 
 country presenting no beauty, and that extremity of 
 Loch Cateran which may be reached from this quarter, 
 being utterly void of attraction. The church of Balqu- 
 hidder is celebrated in Highland legendary lore, as the 
 scene of one of the noted exploits of the Mac Gregors,the 
 children of the mist : a story which has been often told, 
 like the Raid of Cillechrist and many others which I have 
 not thought it necessary to repeat, and which is to be 
 found, among other places, forming a part, as you well 
 know, of the fabric of " The Legend of Montrose." That 
 these g-entlemen of the mist should have cut off Drum- 
 mond's head, in return for the heads of their friends, 
 seems justifiable enough, as matters were conducted in 
 those days ; but he must have a considerable tenderness 
 towards these descendants of King Alpin, who chuckles 
 at the good taste which placed the head on a sister's 
 table, with a piece of bread and cheese in its mouth, and 
 as a return for her hospitality. There is nothing much 
 worse than this in the history of cannibalism; and really 
 
LOCH LUBNAIG. 147 
 
 if Glenstrae and his followers thought fit to produce the 
 head in the church and avow their intention of protecting 
 the authors of this joke, they cannot have much to com- 
 plain of, if their declaration of war was met by a counter 
 declaration in the shape of a commission of fire and sword 
 to Montrose. 
 
 The road towards Callander is sufficiently dull till we 
 approach Loch Lubnaig; a lake remarkable for its sin- 
 gularity, and far from deficient in beauty. It is rendered 
 utterly unlike every other Scottish lake, by the complete 
 dissimilarity of its two boundaries : the one being flat and 
 open, and the other a solid wall of mountain, formed by 
 the steep and rocky declivity of Ben Ledi. Though long, 
 it therefore presents little variety ; but its best land- 
 scapes are rendered very striking by their great simpli- 
 city, and by the profound and magnificent breadth of 
 shade which involves the hill, as it towers aloft, impend- 
 ing over the black waters on which it casts a solemn 
 gloom. Nor is it deficient in all those minute ornaments 
 of rock and tree and cultivation, and of sinuous and pictur- 
 esque shores, which serve to contrast with and embellish 
 this breadth and grandeur of character. Ardhullary, the 
 seat of the Abyssinian Bruce, has acquired a sort of clas- 
 sical reputation, as having been the place where he is 
 said to have secluded himself for the purpose of concoct- 
 ing his Opus Magnum. Enviable dog — when we un- 
 lucky scribblers are obliged to work when we can, not 
 when we will ; amidst physic, and law, and children, and 
 wives, and the ringing of bells, and visitors, and facheux, 
 and the thunder of wheels : in cabins of ships, and in 
 carriages, in gout, and ague, and rheumatism, in sick- 
 ness and in noise, in vexation, and sorrow, and distrac- 
 tion. But the charitable world cares not for these dis- 
 tinctions : it looks to the end, without enquiring about 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PASS OF LENIE. 
 
 the means ; considering only itself. It cares not that the 
 vanquished general wanted troops or ammunition ; and, 
 like the Egyptian task-master, demands the same pro- 
 duce from him who has the means and the materials, and 
 from him who is in want of every thing. 
 
 The name of Strathire is known to all the readers of 
 your poetry, and indeed I am now arriving on classic 
 ground, and I may add, ticklish ground; about to tell 
 you what you have been telling to other people, to the 
 the whole world. But as I have also been obliged to 
 fight my way through the same career as the Lord of 
 the Isles, I must do the best I can in the regions that 
 have been occupied by the Lady of the Lake. There is 
 no remedy, at any rate, unless you will take the pen out 
 of my hand and fill up this great blank yourself: for it is 
 too serious a tract to be left as a hiatus in MS. But 
 as this is an event more to be wished than expected, 
 and as yourself and Blanche and Malcolm Groeme may 
 look at things in one way, a lucky exemplification of 
 lunatic, lover, and poet, and as I am but a jog trot proser, 
 contemplating them in another, I must even throw the 
 reins on the neck of my own humble grey, in hopes that 
 he may pick out a path somewhat different from his gal- 
 lant predecessor. As in the case of my friend the tra- 
 velling cutler, we have all our several ways of envisager- 
 ing the world : chacun a ses lunettes. No one who has 
 seen the pass of Lenie will ever forget it ; but he who 
 has seen it will forget the rest of Strathire, Kilmahog 
 and all. As a specimen of a mountain pass, it can scarcely 
 be exceeded in grandeur and romantic beauty: as a 
 specimen of river landscape, it has few rivals : uniting 
 both, it produces a picture, unequalled, inasmuch as it has 
 no parallel in character, and not often equalled in mag- 
 nificence and power of effect, in an union of appropriate 
 
PASS OF LENIE. 149 
 
 ornament and alpine sublimity. This is one of those feli- 
 citous compositions to which the artist can add nothing, 
 and from which he can take nothinar. The river is all 
 that we can desire ; broad and majestic, while rapid and 
 rocky, and fringed with wood ; suited to the breadth and 
 elevation of the noble precipices of Ben Ledi that rise 
 to the sky in one solid grey mass, and to the cliffs of 
 wild forest that unite to foiin this romantic scene, and, 
 which, while they are the gate, seem to refuse all further 
 access, an impenetrable barrier to the Highlands. 
 
150 STIRLING. 
 
 CALLANDER, STIRLING, DOUNE, CASTLE CAMP- 
 BELL, LOCH VENACHAR, LOCII ACHRAY, 
 LOCH CATERAN. 
 
 Though, in the course of my g-eography, I have 
 brought you to Callander from the Highlands, it will 
 happen to the far greater number to reach it from Stir- 
 ling, and thus to have an opportunity of seeing what well 
 claims a visit, Doune castle. The noble trees that sur- 
 round this building, the magnitude and variety of the 
 ruin, the river, the position, the country around, all unite 
 to render it one of the most picturesque of our ancient 
 castles. Here, however, I am again transgressing ray 
 bounds; but having got thus far beyond them, why 
 should I not go yet a step further, if it will teach those 
 who may follow me, what I should have been thankful 
 to have been taught myself when I began my career. 
 But it is not Stirling of which I need speak, the glory 
 of Scotland ; for who does not know its noble rock, ris- 
 ing, the monarch of the landscape, its majestic and pic- 
 turesque towers, its splendid plain, its amphitheatre of 
 mountain, and the windings of its marvellous river : and 
 who that has once seen the sun descending here in all 
 the blaze of its beauty beyond the purple hills of the 
 west, can ever forget the plain of Stirling, the endless 
 charm of this wonderful scene, the wealth, the splendour, 
 the variety, the majesty of all which here lies between 
 earth and heaven. It is for the purpose of pointing out 
 
DOLLAR. 151 
 
 the true road hither, that I have thus far encroached on 
 my limits; and chiefly for the sake of Castle Campbell ; 
 scarcely known, though known to exist; named, but 
 named as if it was an every-day sight, and passed every 
 day, by hundreds who are satisfied with knowing- that 
 they are near it, and with hearing a few wretched puns 
 upon its name. 
 
 But I ought to be silent about the puns : for the Dea 
 of puns, if there is such a one in Varro's list, seemed to 
 have pronounced a judgment on me for my contempt. 
 Certainly Dollar was a cause of dolour to me ; as I was 
 condemned to lie still for a week, and wonder at what par- 
 ticular hour 1 should be choked with a squinancy. The 
 throat is an awkward contrivance ; because, as legislators 
 know, it is easily stopped up. Fortunately, Dollar, or 
 Dolour, contained no doctor. The landlady, however, 
 was the howdie of the village, and came to tender her 
 services, producing Dr. Young's certificate. I assured 
 her that my case was not in her line ; but, by dint of the 
 Napoleon practice, I was rescued from this tedious sub- 
 stitute for a halter ; and, in a week, was able to receive 
 the congratulations of all the auld wives, and young ones 
 too, of the neighbourhood. 1 must agree with you. Sir 
 Walter, that it is an odd sex in our hours of ease: and 
 the rest follows. Half of the whole sex of Dollar, kind 
 creatures, came out of their houses when they saw the 
 stranger gentleman crawling up the hill, like a spectre 
 from the vaults of Castle Campbell, to offer him seats, 
 and milk, and what not; and when I returned many 
 years afterwards, to see and again to thank my obstetric 
 hosts, I was received, not as one who had been a source 
 of trouble, but as an old friend. Certainly, when I can 
 choose the inn in which 1 am to have a fever, it shall be 
 at Dollar. 
 
\62 CASTLE CAMPBELL. 
 
 What a piece of work is man ! He certainly is, master 
 Shakspeare. Because his pulse takes a fancy to beat 82 
 instead of 72, he is unable, in twelve hours, to sit up in 
 his bed ; and, when he gets out of it at length to enjoy 
 the fresh air, must hold fast by the wall he could have 
 jumped over a few days before. If the pulse continues 
 rebellious, the carpenter comes and nails him up in a 
 box, and all his half-finished schemes are at an end. 
 Some one says, that if a watchmaker's productions did 
 not go belter, he would get very little practice. How- 
 ever that may be, the sun never shines so warm, the flies 
 never hum such sweet music, the mossy bank never looks 
 so green, and never does the air breathe such perfume, 
 as when he first returns from the edge of the grave to 
 smell the breeze that blows from the wallflowers of Castle 
 Campbell ; or of any other castle. 
 
 To the traveller, there can he no choice between the 
 road to Stirling by Linlithgow, and that by Dunferm- 
 line and Dollar : yet the former is commonly adopted, 
 and if the latter is trod, it is by chance, or by the iew 
 who may know this lovely part of Fife. Dunfermline 
 itself, Saline, Torryburn, the Devon with its rumbling 
 bridge and its cascades, the whole country, in short, is 
 one continued scene of beauty, rendering this portion of 
 Fife one of the most delicious parts of Scotland. From 
 the gates of Muckhart, along the foot of the Ochills, is a 
 ride exceeded iu beauty by very few lines in Scotland 
 of equal length ; singular too as it is beautiful, bounded 
 on one hand by a lofty and continuous wall of green and 
 cultivated and wooded mountain, and, on the other, look- 
 ing over a wide and open expanse of country which daz- 
 zles the eye by the richness of its wood and cultivation. 
 It is in a summer evening, however, that this ride is to be 
 enjoyed in perfect beauty; when the rich purple and 
 
CASTLE CAMPBELL. 153 
 
 yellow haze of the west relieves the majestic rock of 
 Stirling, and when the light is glancing along the end- 
 less objects, the towns and waters and trees and hills 
 and woods and rocks that fill this wonderful picture ; 
 throwing its full yellow gleam on the long and lofty per- 
 spective of the Ochills, as they stretch away from the eye, 
 varied by deep shadowy valleys and wooded dells and 
 hanging forests, and streaming down their bright cas- 
 cades to glitter in the sun-beams. 
 
 But it is for Castle Campbell that I have brought you 
 here ; not for scenes among which days and weeks might 
 be occupied without thinking them long. The general 
 glimpse of this place, as it is seen from the village of 
 Dollar, is sufficiently striking; but those who are satis- 
 fied M'ith this superficial view, will form a very inade- 
 quate idea indeed of the grandeur and variety of this 
 extraordinary scenery. In advancing towards the ra- 
 vine, the importance and interest of this first picture 
 becomes materially increased ; as the castle is now 
 more distinctly seen, perched on its lofty conical hill, 
 and embosomed deep in the surrounding- mountains 
 that appear to overhang it, shadowing it with a per- 
 petual gloom ; continuous woods sweeping up the steep 
 acclivities on each hand, and the wild river burst- 
 ing- out from the deep and mysterious ravine amidst 
 overhanging trees and rocks, as if it had suddenly sprung 
 from the centre of the earth. Many magnificent land- 
 scapes of this strange and wonderful spot may be procured 
 from different stations at the bottom of the valley, and 
 by changing from one side to the other of the river; the 
 essential parts of the picture continuing the same, while 
 the lofty side screens of wood alter their form and po- 
 sition, and the features become varied by new trees 
 and banks and rocks, and by the changes in the aspect 
 
154 CASTLE CAMPBELL. 
 
 of this picturesque and winding river. But, in every 
 position, it maintains its gloomy and solemn character ; 
 a depth and a breadth of shadow, at all hours of the day, 
 in singular harmony with the noble sweep of the woods, 
 the towering majesty of the mountains, and the bold and 
 simple form of the hill which rises with inaccessible 
 steepness from below, crowned with its romantic castle ; 
 a mountain in itself, yet overtopped by the vast amphi- 
 theatre around, which, lifting itself to the sky, impends 
 over it in all the sublimity of shadowy twilight and repose. 
 , But whatever grandeur or variety Castle Campbell 
 may present from below, these are far excelled by the 
 views from above, which offer scenes of magnificence 
 and sublimity not surpassed in Scotland, and possibly 
 not surpassed any where. It adds no small interest to 
 this scenery, that it bears not the slightest resemblance 
 to any thing in the country, nor to any thing that an 
 imagination, however conversant with Scottish landscape, 
 could have conceived. Various as are the pictures from 
 different positions, one general character pervades the 
 whole. The eye, from whatever point, here takes in the 
 whole sweep of this noble amphitheatre of hill and wood ; 
 plunging, in inaccessible steepness, beneath our feet, 
 down to the invisible depths below, in one sheet of wild 
 forest, and towering aloft and over head, a range of sim- 
 ple and majestic mountain summits. In the midst, arises 
 the conical mountain, now seen below us, and bearing its 
 romantic fortress, insulated in the deep hollow; its inac- 
 cessible sides being lost to the eye as they tend down- 
 wards to the dark depths of the surrounding chasms be- 
 neath, where the river struggles amid its rocks and woods, 
 unseen and unheard. From some points, this landscape, 
 wonderful as it is, receives a great accession of splendour 
 and magnificence, by admitting, on one side, a distant 
 
CASTLE CAMPBELL. 155 
 
 view of the richly ornamented country which extends 
 from the foot of the Ochills to the Forth ; the water itself 
 gleaming bright in the distance, and the horizon terminat- 
 ing in the hazy forms and long, retiring, hilly range of 
 the opposite shore. But it would be vain to attempt to 
 describe scenes fitted only for the pencil, and, by a sin- 
 gular felicity of composition, admirably adapted to its 
 powers, even where, from occupying so high a point of 
 view, the landscapes might be expected to lie beyond its 
 scope and means. With a perfect unity and balance of 
 composition from all points, a characteristic foreground 
 is never wanting; while, without breach of perspective, 
 all the objects follow each other, in that succession, from 
 the very nearest foreground to the remotest distance, 
 which is so rarely found in this class of elevated land- 
 scape, and which is so essential to a perfect composition. 
 There is nothing baseless, nothing tottering, nothing of 
 that obliquity of line, and defective balance, and violent 
 contrast between the nearer grounds and the distance, 
 which form so general a character of elevated landscape, 
 and which so commonly render them unfit for painting, 
 however striking or grand they may be in nature. 
 
 There is access to the castle at the only point where 
 its hill is connected with the surrounding mountains; 
 where some ancient and noble sycamores, the remains of 
 an avenue, add much to the picturesque effect of the 
 building. While its extent is such as to be adequate to 
 the grandeur of the landscape by which it is surrounded, 
 its forms are picturesque in a high degree ; and it is in 
 that precise state of ruin which is sufficient to add to its 
 beauty and interest without destroying its importance. 
 From the very narrow area around it, the views are fear- 
 fully sublime : while it is also impossible to quit its walls 
 but for a few yards, without the risk of being hurled into 
 
156 CALLANDER. 
 
 the unknown depths of the surrounding valley. So steep 
 is the declivity all round, that the eye sees not the slope 
 of the ground on which it is standing; looking down on 
 a dark and interminable chasm between the opposing 
 woods, and striving in vain to penetrate those deep re- 
 cesses which even the light of day reaches not. A fright- 
 ful chasm in the hill itself, guarded by an outwork, 
 appears once to have served the purpose of giving access 
 to the water below : it is called Kemp's Score, and still 
 bears some marks of a staircase. It is -said that Castle 
 Campbell was originally called the Castle of Gloom, and 
 that these lands were given by a Bishop of St. Andrew's 
 to an Earl of Argyll, as a reward for his assistance in a 
 dispute respecting precedency with the See of Glasgow. 
 The date of the building is, however, uncertain ; though 
 the estate was possessed by the Campbells in 1465. In 
 1644 or 5, it was burnt by Montrose ; since which it has 
 remained a ruin. 
 
 But I must return to Callander and to the Highlands, 
 leaving to those to whom it more properly belongs, the 
 description of all the particulars that relate to this inter- 
 esting road. The ancient manufactory of Highland fire 
 arms for which Doune was celebrated, has ceased ; as its 
 fairs, the resort of the western Highlanders in former 
 days, have been superseded. It is a mean little town, 
 but will always be a point of attraction to the traveller, 
 on account of its castle, and of the Teith, which is here a 
 fine river; and as giving a near and immediate prospect 
 of those Highlands to which his hopes and plans are 
 tending. I know not but that the first view of Ben Ledi 
 in thus approaching it, is more striking than any of the 
 ordinary approaches to the Highland border. Though of 
 no very great elevation, since it is not 3000 feet high, it 
 rises in graceful and almost solitary magnificence, broad 
 
CALLANDER. 157 
 
 and blue, the chief of the surrounding hills ; thus con- 
 trasting more strongly with the open country to the south- 
 ward which we are leaving, and holding out the promise 
 of scenes yet unexplored, of the landscapes on which our 
 imagination has long been dwelling with hope, and of 
 gratification now in our own immediate grasp. Never 
 at least shall I forget the impression it made on myself, 
 when, after a long lapse of years, of absence from this 
 fair land of the mountain and the glen, all the recollec- 
 tions of boyhood, on which I had so long and so often 
 dwelt, were revived in all their freshness ; and the long- 
 protracted hopes seemed now at length on the very verge 
 of being gratified. It was a delicious July evening, the 
 bright blossom of the furze was perfuming the sweet still 
 air, and the cheerful note of the yellow hammer was re- 
 sounding from every hedge and bush around. Every 
 thing was at peace ; and as the sun, long delaying over 
 Ben Lomond, streamed through its gorgeous attendant 
 clouds of crimson and gold, as if loth to quit the lovely 
 scene, brightening the broad side of Ben Ledi, and gild- 
 ing the smoke which rose curling from Callander along 
 the plain, all the dreary past seemed to vanish, and I felt 
 for a moment that I was then wandering- as I had once 
 wandered among the blue hills and the glassy lakes of 
 the Highlands, when the world was yet new, and when 
 life held out a bright perspective of happiness. 
 
 The situation of Callander is rendered beautiful, no 
 less by the broad and majestic form of Ben Ledi and the 
 long range of mountains, which, vanishing in the west, 
 are crowned by the graceful cone of Ben Lomond, than 
 by the winding of the Teith through its spacious and 
 rich plain, and by the romantic and rude wooded hills 
 which rise immediately behind, screening it from the 
 blasts of the east and from the cold north. Among these, 
 
168 CALLANDER. 
 
 is found the noted cascade of Bracklin, often described. 
 Imagination has discovered a Roman camp in the plain 
 of Callander: but the supposed works are the terraces 
 which the Teith has left in changing its position, and of 
 which the traces are far too conspicuous and decided to 
 have given any just ground for such a mistake. It was 
 not for want of making the attempt, that I did not see 
 whatever there is to be seen from the summit of Ben 
 Ledi. I reached it, but in vain ; and I need not conjec- 
 ture and describe, like Brydone on jEtna, what I did not 
 see. Did I choose thus to deceive you, I should at any 
 rate do it with comparative truth, or rather falsehood ; 
 since I sat myself down on its topmost stone, whereas 
 that personage, like Eustace in other cases, only ascended 
 with the pen, and in his closet. Heaven knows, it is 
 difficult enough to describe what we have seen, without 
 troubling ourselves by ^attempting to look through clouds 
 as dense as a millstone, and by stringing together epi- 
 thets with a map before us. Yet the views ought to be 
 fine, since Ben Ledi commands a very interesting variety 
 of country. That they are so in the direction of Stirling, 
 I can vouch ; as they also are over Loch Lubnaig to the 
 north : but, to me, it was like the vanishing of images in 
 a magic lantern : like the glance of the lightning in a 
 dark night ; gone before I could say, it is here. I thought 
 that I had known Highland rain in all its forms and mix- 
 tures and varieties ; in Sky, in Mull, in Shetland, at Fort 
 William, at Killin, on the summit of Ben Lawers, and in 
 the depths of Glenco. But nothing like the rain on Ben 
 Ledi did I ever behold, before or since. In an instant, 
 and without warning or preparation, the showers des- 
 cended in one broad stream, like a cascade, from the 
 clouds, and in an instant they ceased again. We have 
 heard, in an ode to Molly, of counting the drops of rain : 
 
CALLANDER. 159 
 
 but there were no drops here to be counted ; it was one 
 solidsheet of water. 
 
 There is a peculiarity in these summer showers of the 
 Highlands, which a Lowlander knows not, but will not 
 easily forget when he has experienced it. If he carries 
 an umbrella, it will be useful for him to be told, that, like 
 his fowling piece when the dogs have scent, he must 
 keep it ready cocked. If there is but a button to undo, 
 or a ring to slip off, he will often be wet through before 
 he can get either effected. There is an interval of fair 
 weather : even the cloud which is to produce the rain is 
 not very obvious ; when, in an instant, and without a 
 sprinkling, or even a harbinger drop, the whole is let go 
 on your head as if a bucket had been emptied on it. 
 
 Perhaps the clouds and rain of this cloudy and rainy 
 region are the reason that sun dials are so common in this 
 country ; not only at Kilmahog, where there are a dozen, 
 but wherever you go. So it is in almost all the villages ; 
 and even the solitary house, that has not a stone step to 
 its door, or any pretence to geometry in its walls, carries 
 the evidence of its mathematical knowledge on its front, 
 in the shape of a rusty gnomon. These incessant dials 
 in this land of clouds, offer some apology for the cele- 
 brated question respecting the use of the sun to the dial. 
 The policy is, however, profound : because if he should 
 miss it at Inverness, he may hit it at Callander, or else- 
 where, some time between the vernal and the autumnal 
 equinoxes. But nothing equals the ingenuity of the 
 artist at Glamis, who seems to have been determined that 
 if time escaped him on one quarter, he would catch it on 
 some other. It would be hard indeed, if, in the revolu- 
 tion of a year, the sun did not light upon one of the hun- 
 dred faces of this most ingenious polyedron : for he can 
 scarcely peep through a pin hole, without being caught 
 
160 CALLANDER.' 
 
 in the act by the tip of some one of the gnomons, that 
 bristle their north poles like a hedgehog- all round it. 
 
 I wish I could speak of the inns at Callander as I have 
 spoken of that at Dollar; but it is a mixed world, inns and 
 all, and we must take it as it comes. I mistook the golden 
 head over the door for that of Galen or Hippocrates : if 
 it is not yours, it ought to be ; for the owner is certainly 
 more indebted to you than to either of these worthies, or 
 to any merits of his own, for his practice. All the var- 
 nish of this inn is insufficient to varnish its defects : from 
 the stable to the kitchen, and the kitchen to the parlour, 
 and the parlour to the bed room ; wants of all kinds, 
 except of pride and negligence ; and of bells, which, the 
 more you ring", the more nobody will come. But what is 
 this to John Macpherson's inn, to which you may go if 
 you please, and whither, possibly, you may be compelled 
 to go. It is a genuine specimen of the Maclarty spe- 
 cies ; and is indeed so generic, that it will serve, as well 
 as Tyndrum or any other, for a model of what this kind 
 of hostelry is and may be. 
 
 When you hear Pe ggy called, as if the first 
 
 vowel was just about to thaw, like Sir John Mandeville's 
 
 story, and when you hear Pe ggy answer co ming, 
 
 you must not prepare to be impatient, but recollect that 
 motion cannot be performed without time. If you are 
 wet, the fire will be lighted by the time you are dry ; at 
 least if the peat is not wet too. The smoke of wet peat 
 is wholesome: and if you are not used to it, they are: 
 which is the same thing. There is neither poker nor 
 tongs; you can stir it with your umbrella: nor bellows; 
 you can blow it ; unless you are asthmatic : or what is 
 better still, Peggy will fan it with her petticoat. " Peggy, 
 is the supper coming?" In time, comes mutton, called 
 chops, then mustard, by and bye a knife and fork ; sue- 
 
CALLANDER. 161 
 
 cessively, a plate, a candle, and salt. When the mntton 
 is cold, the pepper arrives, and then the bread, and lastly 
 the whisky. The water is reserved for the second course. 
 It is good policy to place these various matters in all di- 
 rections, because they conceal the defects of Mrs 
 Maclarty's table cloth. By this time, the fire is dying"; 
 Peggy waits till it is dead, and then the whole process of 
 the peats and the petticoat is to be gone over again. It is 
 all in vain. " Is the bed ready." By the time you have 
 fallen asleep once or twice, it is ready. When you enter, 
 it is damp : but how should it be dry in sucli a climate. 
 The blankets feel so heavy that you expect to get Avarni 
 in time. Not at all : they have the property of weight 
 without warmth : though there is a fulling mill at 
 Kilmahog. You awaken at two o'clock; very cold, 
 and find that they have slipped over on the floor. You 
 try to square them again, but such is their weight that 
 they fall on the other side : and, at last, by dint of kick- 
 ing and pulling", they become irremediably entangled, 
 sheets and all ; and sleep flies, whatever King Henry 
 may think, to take refuge in other beds and other 
 blankets. 
 
 It is vain to try again, and you get up at five. Water 
 being so contemptibly common, it is probable that there 
 is none present: or if there is, it has a delicious flavour 
 of stale whisky : so that you may almost imagine the 
 Highland rills to run grog. There is no soap in Mrs. 
 Maclarty's house. It is prudent also to learn to shave 
 withouta looking glass; because, if there isone, it is so fur- 
 rowed and striped and striated, either cross-wise, or per- 
 pendicularly, or diagonally, that, in consequence of what 
 Sir Isaac Newton might call its fits of irregular reflection 
 and transmission, you cut, your nose if it distorts you one 
 way, and your ear if it protracts you in the opposite di- 
 
 VOL. I. 31 
 
162 CALLANDER. 
 
 rection. The towel being either wet or dirty, or both, 
 you wipe yourself in the moreen curtains, unless you 
 prefer the sheets. When you return to your sitting- 
 room, the table is covered with glasses, and mugs, and 
 circles of dried whisky and porter. The fire place is full 
 of white ashes: you labour to open a window, if it 
 will open, that you may get a little of the morning air: 
 and there being no sash-line, it falls on your fingers, as it 
 did on Susanna's. Should you break a pane, it is of 
 no consequence, as it will never be mended again. The 
 clothes which you sent to be washed, are brought up 
 wet ; and those which you sent to be dried, smoked. 
 
 You now become impatient for the breakfast ; and as 
 it will not arrive, you go into the kitchen to assist in 
 making the kettle boil. You will not accelerate this : 
 but you will see the economy of Mrs. Maclarty's kitchen. 
 The kettle, an inch thick, is hanging on a black crook in 
 the smoke, not on the fire, likely to boil to-morrow. If 
 you should be near a forest, there is a train of chips 
 lying from the fire-place to the wood-corner, and the 
 landlady is busy, not in separating the two, but in pick- 
 ing out any stray piece that seems likely to be lighted 
 before its turn comes. You need not ask why the houses 
 do not take fire: because it is all that the fire itself can 
 do, with all its exertions. Round this fire are a few oat 
 cakes, stuck on edge in the ashes to dry ; perhaps a 
 herring: and on the floor, at hand, are a heap or two of 
 bed clothes, a cat, a few melancholy fowls, a couple of 
 black dogs, and perchance a pig, or more ; with a pile of 
 undescribables, consisting of horse collars, old shoes, 
 petticoats, a few dirty plates and horn spoons, a kilt, pos- 
 sibly a bagpipe, a wooden beaker, an empty gill and a 
 pint stoup, a water bucket, a greasy candlestick, a rake, 
 a spinning wheel, two or three frowsy fleeces and a shep- 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 163 
 
 herd's plaid, an iron pot full of potatoes, a never-washed 
 milk-tub, some more potatoes, a griddle, a three-leg-ged 
 stool, and heaven and earth know what more. All this 
 time, two or three naked children are peeping at you 
 out of some unintelligible recess, perchance contesting 
 with the chickens and the dogs for the fire, while Peggy 
 is sitting over it unsnooded : one hand in her head, and 
 the other, no one knows where, as she is wondering 
 when the kettle will not boil ; while, if she had a third, 
 it might be employed on the other two. But enough of 
 Mrs. Maclarty and her generation ; for I am sure you 
 can have no inclination to partake with me of the break- 
 fast, which will probably be ready in two hours. 
 
 Loch Cateran, it need not be said, forms the great 
 attraction of Callander; since, although this is not the 
 only road to that beautiful spot, it is the most convenient 
 one. Such is my orthography, or, if you prefer it, 
 Ketterin : but Catharine or Katrine, can by no means be 
 permitted. Nothing can possibly be plainer ; except to 
 etymologists, who so often take a wrong road when the 
 right one is before them. Why otherwise the very 
 Highlanders, scholars, and natives of the place them- 
 selves, should never have seen the obvious origin of 
 this name, I know not, Kett urrin, says some one ; 
 urrin signifying hell, and kett being added euphonise 
 gratia: and what others say is of much the same quality. 
 But what is this to Mr. Whiter and his Etymologicon 
 magnum. Sleep, says Mr. Whiter, is derived from cabin, 
 because the first huts were places to sleep in ; and soap is 
 derived from sleep, because they are both connected 
 with notions of softness. Vir, says the same philoso- 
 pher, is the same as fear, because man is subject to be 
 frightened ; and war too is the same word as vir and 
 
 m2 
 
164 '' LOCH CATERAN. 
 
 fear, because it is the chief of human occupations. 
 Enough of the etymologists. 
 
 Loch Cateran, from its convenient vicinity to the Low- 
 lands, and from the unsearchable nature of its wild 
 recesses, was one of the most noted resorts of ban- 
 ditti; maintaining that character to the latest period at 
 which any of these tribes existed ; a period not "sixty 
 years since." A plainer origin for the name could not 
 well be desired; and as the radicals themselves are 
 Gaelic, it is the more surprising that Gaelic scholars 
 should have first made these blunders, and then persisted 
 in them. Cateran, pronounced nearly according to the 
 orthography, Cath earn, signifies men of war, or sol- 
 diers, and, by courtesy, thieves and banditti. Hence, 
 according to the Gaelic elided pronunciation, we have 
 Cearn, and in the plural Cearnach ; the common name of 
 the Donald Bean Leans and the rest of that tribe. The 
 old writers sometimes spelt Carnanach, and hence ap- 
 parently the Ka,pvovav.at of Ptolcniy ; as his Kepuveq seem to 
 mean the same thing, from Cearns, or Kearns. Fordun, 
 I think, calls them Quatrani ; and I need not tell you that 
 Shakspeare's Kernes are the same personages. Ket- 
 terin, is, I believe, the last form into which this word has 
 been tormented. Thus much for the honour of etymo- 
 logy and of Loch Cateran ; and though I may differ 
 from the author of the Lady of the Lake, what can be 
 said, except that etymologists will differ, and sounder 
 casuists fail than you or me. Sir Walter. 
 
 Loch Venachar, the first object that occurs in pro- 
 ceeding from Callander towards Loch Cateran, is but an 
 insipid piece of water, except when, as seen from the 
 westward, it partakes of the scenery beyond it which be- 
 longs to Loch Achray ; under which form it offers some 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 165 
 
 very pleasing- pictures. The first very striking view of 
 the scenery to which we are approaching, is obtained 
 from the hill above the bridge of Turk. Ben Venu, des- 
 tined to act so principal a part in all the future landscape, 
 is here a leading object : forming a magnificent termina- 
 tion to a picture which fills the eye by its parts and its 
 ornament. But the chief interest in this part of the ap- 
 proach to Loch Cateran arises from Loch Achray; a 
 name often unjustly swallowed up in that of its greater 
 neighbour, since it may well stand a competition with it 
 for the beauty of its landscapes. Those who hurry from 
 this lovely lake to reach Loch Cateran, are of the tribe 
 which follows where it is led, and which might frequently 
 as well stay at home. Unless indeed they come for the 
 same reason as a Lady whom I once met, and who drove 
 up as if she had been driving through Bond Street, look- 
 ing at nothing, but calling for a guide to shew her the 
 place where Fitz James first saw the fair Ellen. This 
 was the very sword Avhich was exhibited as the one that 
 Balaam wished for when he was angry with his ass; but 
 the Lady was satisfied, and drove back to London again. 
 The very guide seemed to hold his employers in no 
 small contempt. I had accompanied, on one occasion, 
 a cockney friend whom I met here, and who, after scram- 
 bling among the rocks and bogs for an hour, expressed 
 vast indignation when he had reached the Coir nan 
 Uriskin. " Lord, Sir," said the man, "there is no cave 
 here but what Mr. Scott made himself." "What the 
 
 d 1, no cave?" "Na,sir, but we go where the gentry 
 
 chooses, and they always ask for the goblin cave first." 
 
 All that can be said is, that here the Poet and the 
 Lake divide the crown ; so that whatever indignation 
 Nature and Loch Cateran may feel at this neglect, you, 
 Sir Walter Scott, have reason to be pleased with the 
 
166 LOCH CATERAN. 
 
 triumphs of imagination over reality. Why the scenes 
 of a fictitious tale should excite the same interest as 
 those where the great drama of life has been acted in its 
 various forms, I shall leave you to explain, as this is your 
 affair, not mine: but I am quite sure that many of the 
 well-informed personages who come here to see, believe 
 the whole tale as firmly as you and I once believed in 
 Valentine and Orson and More of Morehall. It was not 
 very long ago since I met another party in search of 
 this cave of your Uriskins, looking about them on all 
 hands, with a mixture of fear and expectation, as if some 
 of this Highland satyrhood were about to start up, like 
 roebucks, from the bushes. 
 
 But what can one expect from such a clanjamfray as 
 your poem has let loose upon this place. I thought my 
 Killin friend had been as perfect an example as could be 
 desired, of the power of picturesque scenery on the mind, 
 of that enjoyment of Nature which we charitably sup- 
 pose others to possess, because we possess it ourselves. 
 But it was at the same place that I met a party which had 
 come to see the beauties of the country, and which ar- 
 rived after it was dark in a coach and four ; departing- the 
 following morning with day light, that they might reach 
 Callander in time for dinner. Thus the world goes on ; 
 upon trust and credit. I wish this was the worst ; but 
 Loch Cateran seems in a fair way of being belaked by 
 the same unholy crew which has made the English lakes 
 a standing nuisance. The last time I was here, I found a 
 young cockney apothecary who had taken a lodging in 
 one of the cottages, and who was employing the 
 Edinburgh summer vacation in practising on a French 
 horn. After three months of weary labour, he had at- 
 tained the fourth bar of God save the King; and the 
 whole, valley, rock, mountain, and water, resounded all 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 167 
 
 day long with the odious notes and their more odious 
 echoes. I could have wished for Helen Mac Gregor to 
 have treated, his horn at least, as she did the exciseman. 
 Nay, I am not sure that I was not a little angry with you ; 
 wishing you had laid the venue of your poem any where 
 else than at Ben Venn. Do, pray, take these matters to 
 heart ; and, in future, let it be St. Kilda, or John O' Groat's 
 house, or the wilds of Rossshire. There is room enough 
 in the Highlands for these irruptions of the Vandals; 
 places without number, where they may indulge them- 
 selves with the French horn, or any thing else, without 
 annoying their sober neighbours. 
 
 I am sure you will agree with me, that whatever su- 
 periority the scenery of Loch Cateran may possess, in 
 respect to romantic wildness, or variety, or grandeur, or 
 splendour of alpine ornament, it does not present many 
 landscapes more perfect than those of Loch Achray. It 
 is a frequent fault in Loch Cateran, that its landscapes, 
 like those of lakes in general, consist, for the most part, 
 of a distance and a foreground only ; the vacant water 
 occupying the place of the middle ground, and thus pro- 
 ducing a meagreness of composition, of which every one 
 must be sensible. At Loch Achray, there is water enough 
 to stamp the character of the landscape, and to give life 
 and brilliancy to the surrounding objects, without en- 
 feebling the picture, either by its position or its extent. 
 Whether occupying a portion of the middle ground, or 
 of the foreground, or of both, it only performs that acces- 
 sary part which water should ever do ; contrasting, by 
 its vacancy, its tranquillity, and its breadth of colour, 
 with the splendour and bustle and multiplicity of the 
 rocks, the woods, and the trees ; and thus, while it adds 
 variety and life to the landscape, conferring on it that 
 repose so essential to good composition. I need not des- 
 
168 LOCH CATER AN. 
 
 cribe the particulars of views which can scarcely be over- 
 looked by the dullest spectators; but there are two, at 
 least, of this lake, which ought to be pointed out, because 
 they lie out of the ordinary track, and have probably been 
 seen by few. These are to be obtained by ascending the 
 hill in the direction of Loch Ard, and they are most per- 
 fect under a morning sun. At the uppermost point, Ben 
 Venu occupies a prominent place in the picture; its long 
 rocky ridge sweeping down in a beautiful curve, and 
 separating Loch Cateran from Loch Achray ; the former 
 stretching far away to the west, embosomed in its bold 
 mountains, and the latter buried beneath the romantic 
 and rocky ridge of Binean. A finer mountain view is 
 rarely to be seen, though it is of a map-like character : 
 but at a lower point. Loch Achray itself offers a picture, 
 not only well adapted for the pencil, but exceeded in 
 grandeur by few of the landscapes of this fertile and 
 splendid tract. Its elements are the same; but the rich 
 mixture of rock and wood which closes the western end, 
 is here seen in all its wonderful splendour of detail, 
 uniting with the romantic ridge beyond, to enclose, like a 
 diamond in a rich casket, this lovely sheet of water, and 
 towering high over it, as if to protect it from the injuries 
 of the elements and the intrusion of man. 
 
 There is a sinoular and a romantic scene where 
 the Teith is crossed, just before its entrance into Loch 
 Achray, by a rude alpine wooden bridge. The myste- 
 rious source of the water among the closing rocks, their 
 lofty grey faces, and the oaks, rooted in their fissures and 
 throwing out their knotted branches and dark green fo- 
 liage in contrast with the naked precipices, produce a 
 picture altogether in harmony with the whole of this 
 collection of wild and almost unparalleled landscape. 
 When first I visited this place, when the name of Loch 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 169 
 
 Cateran was scarcely known, even at Edinburgh, that 
 bridge was entire. I returned after many years, and 
 found it so full of holes, that, like the bridge in Mirza's 
 vision, it was easier to fall through than to walk over it. 
 In a few more, I found it again, but now reduced to its 
 two elementary poles; and though the only mode of 
 communication across this water, and between two near 
 neighbours, neither had thought of saving it from des- 
 truction, by repairs that would not have cost a few hours 
 of labour. Had it been the only instance of this kind, 
 I should have concluded that it was the very bridge in 
 Glenburnie. But, as I told you before, there are Glen- 
 burnies every where, 
 
 I have rarely been so disappointed of reasonable ex- 
 pectations, as with the views from the summit of Ben 
 Venu. Its situation naturally leads us to expect a very 
 various and splendid expanse of landscape : but, by a 
 fatality in the distribution of the mountains, many of the 
 interesting objects that we might have hoped to see, are 
 excluded. In particular, a good deal of the wild scenery 
 of the Trosachs and of the lower extremity of its own lake, 
 as well as of Loch Achray, are nearly invisible ; from the 
 difficulty or impossibility of attaining that declivity, so 
 as to look down from the summit. There is still, how- 
 ever, much of their interesting anatomy to be seen. Wild 
 as this face appears from below, no conception could be 
 formed, from any other place, of its inaccessible nature ; 
 of its tremendous cliffs and precipices, and of the depth 
 of the intervening hollows. It is truly a fearful scene, 
 yet a splendid one : as much from the variety of the 
 ground, as from the scattered wood which covers it, and 
 from the naarks of apparent destruction and ruin which 
 it displays, in its broken rocks and deep fissures. On 
 the other sides, the views present little else than the well- 
 
170 LOCH CATERAiW 
 
 known mountains of Loch Lomond and the west : yet 
 there is much grandeur in them; while those which 
 stretch from Ben Ledi towards Loch Earn are also visible, 
 though the moderate elevation of this mountain does not 
 permit a very extensive view over the opener country 
 that extends beyond Callander. The places of Glasgow 
 and Greenock are easily seen : but, as usual, these towns 
 and the Clyde are suffocated in their own smoke. 
 
 There are two common mistakes committed by those 
 who visit Loch Cateran : the one, and the chief, that of 
 making exclusive use of a boat ; and the other, that of 
 limiting the walk to the northern and most accessible 
 side of the water. By the former practice, nearly all that 
 distinguishes this place from every other, all the wonder- 
 ful and wild variety of its foregrounds and middle 
 grounds, is nearly lost; little also remaining but the 
 bioad unvarying declivity of Ben Venn, which, however 
 grand or picturesque as a distance, loses its interest and 
 much of its effect when it forms the chief or sole object, 
 rising from a straight line of vacant water. Thus viewed, 
 the picture is a distance without middle or fore ground ^ 
 nor is this object, grand as it is, and romantic as is the dis- 
 tribution of its parts, free from a similar fault, even when 
 seen from the opposite shore with the advantage of a 
 line of foreground, while the intermediate space consists 
 of water only. This is one of the worst modes of lake 
 scenery, as it is the most common ; and though, from the 
 magnitude and splendour of the objects, the defect is 
 here less sensible in nature than it would be in painting, 
 the landscape at length becomes wearisome by its uni- 
 formity. But many beautiful views may be procured 
 along this shore, by a judicious management of those 
 angles and bays which occur : using them so as to ex- 
 clude a superabundance of water, and to break that 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 171 
 
 straight line which is, throughout, the foundation of the 
 distance. Thus there may be procured that which, if it 
 is not really a middle ground, answers, to a certain de- 
 gree, the same purpose ; by interposing, in some measure, 
 between the immediate foreground and the mountain, 
 and thus diminishing that sudden and, here, almost in- 
 variable, immediate contrast between the foreground and 
 the distance, of which the effect is so disagreeable. 
 
 But these remarks regard art chiefly. In nature, and 
 without such reference, the whole of this line of scenery 
 must always be beautiful ; uniting the utmost magnificence 
 with a fairy-like and romantic character, and with a splen- 
 dour of ornament which is almost unparalleled in Scotland : 
 unparalleled I might perhaps say. The declivity of Ben 
 Venn has no rival any where ; whatever resemblances to 
 it may be found in some of the scenes formerly pointed 
 out. It is the singular felicity of this mountain, that 
 while its outline is every where elegant or graceful, its 
 simplicity and breadth of form and of general surface, 
 serve to support and to harmonize, according to the true 
 rules of beauty, whether in nature or in art, that endless 
 variety of parts of which it consists: its cliffs and knolls 
 and precipices and ravines and dark hollows, with the 
 masses of wood that are scattered in picturesque confu- 
 sion along its side, and the single trees to which are 
 chiefly owing that lightness and airy grace which form 
 such striking features throughout all the scenery of this 
 lake. To this concurrence of circumstances, must be 
 added the breadth of shadow, which, at most times, and 
 at noon day principally, involves this mountain; sup- 
 porting the playful lights which glitter in the endless 
 multiplicity of the rocks and trees of the fore and nearer 
 grounds, and casting a tone of sober repose over the 
 broad water. No where, perhaps, does so much depend 
 
172 LOCH CATERAN. 
 
 on the position of the sun as here ; important as its place 
 is to landscape in all situations. To sit still in any one 
 spot and to watch its progress from morning- to evening, 
 is to witness a succession of pictures equally striking and 
 unexpected. Though the outline continues unchanged, 
 every new light detects some hidden form ; bringing 
 into view, hills and woods and precipices and deep 
 valleys before unsuspected, and producing an ever-mov- 
 ing and changing scene, as if the hand of magic were 
 hourly operating a new creation. In the foregrounds, 
 an incessant variety occurs in proceeding along the mar- 
 gin of the lake, as the road skirts the edge of the water 
 under overhanging rocks and trees, or enters some se- 
 cluded bay, or clambers the precipice and winds along 
 the intricate hollows, or lastly, as taking its stand on 
 some bold promontory, it commands the whole extent of 
 the brilliant landscape around. 
 
 To attempt to detail the various pictures on this north- 
 ern side of the water, would be to undertake a task alike 
 laborious and ineffectual. Only let me remark, for the 
 sake of those to whom this lake is new, that neither the 
 value nor the number of the scenes contained within this 
 short space of two miles, will easily be discovered on a 
 first visit, nor without certain precautions which experi- 
 ence alone will teach. It is natural to fix the eye on the 
 great features, to have the attention engaged by the 
 whole picture rather than by the parts; nor is it easy, 
 without considerable effort, to withdraw the mind from 
 the general and overwhelming effect of the entire scene. 
 Thus we overlook the rapid and incessant changes that 
 occur near us, and see but one or a few pictures where 
 there exist hundreds. Let the spectator bestow his chief 
 attention on the objects immediately near him, on the 
 wonderful variety of rocks and trees, of bays, precipices, 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 173 
 
 promontories, and sinuosities along which the road is 
 conducted, and from these form his pictures. The dis- 
 tance is always nearly the same, and he may safely neg- 
 lect it ; as there is no danger that it will not command 
 his attention whenever that is required. Thus he will 
 add, both to his pleasures and to his stores; and will 
 discover also, if he was not before aware of it, that, even 
 in a single landscape in nature, it is impossible to pay 
 due attention to all the parts, without a considerable 
 effort, and without a degree of study which may be 
 called analytical. I need only further add, with respect 
 to this side of the water, that the point where the land- 
 scapes first cease, is obvious, and that, beyond this, 
 there is no further temptation to proceed up the lake. 
 Nothing- can be so sudden as the transition, or so strong 
 as the contrast, between its lower and upper parts. 
 From this point to the very further extremity, and on both 
 sides, it is among the dullest of our lakes : all the magic 
 lies in Ben Venu and the objects immediately surround- 
 ing- it, and from the moment we part with these, the 
 charm is broken. If there is some little character in 
 Glen Gyle, it is insufficient to attract any attention after 
 quitting these more splendid scenes. 
 
 I must now return to some points on this lake which 
 are known to few, and which are utterly neglected by 
 the mass of travellers. Yet those who do not visit them, 
 will depart with very inadequate conceptions of the in- 
 finite variety of this extraordinary spot. The first sight 
 of the lake, as it breaks on the eye after emerging from 
 the magnificent pass of the Trosachs, is rather bizarre or 
 singular than picturesque, as well from the littleness of 
 the parts as from their unexpected forms, though it can- 
 not be denied the praise of romantic character. From 
 this point, a road or path to the left, strikes off round 
 
174 LOCH CATERAN. 
 
 the base of that singular little hill which here terminates 
 the pass : giving access to the river as it issues from the 
 lake, and to various wild landscapes of extraordinary 
 beauty. The river itself affords one or two pictures 
 scarcely inferior to those of the pass of Lenie, and utterly 
 distinct from every thing else which Loch Cateran pre- 
 sents. Boisterous and wild, forcing its winding way 
 among huge rocks and under the shadow of ancient and 
 rugged oaks, its origin and termination are alike myste- 
 rious and obscure ; appearing to spring from the depths 
 of the mountain, and shortly and suddenly losing itself 
 among the lofty wooded rocks which enclose the head of 
 Loch Achray. Ben Venn, towering aloft in all its simple 
 sublimity, overhangs this scene of romance; of solitude 
 which appears inaccessible alike to man and animals, 
 and which seems fitted for the resort of supernatural 
 beings. Every thing appears wrapt in gloom and in 
 mystery ; and we wander about this awful wilderness of 
 rocks and woods, wondering how we are to extricate our- 
 selves from their deep chasms and recesses, and almost 
 wondering how we entered into the mountain labyrinth. 
 We need not be surprised that such scenes as these were 
 the resort of banditti ; nor is it even now easy, in con- 
 templating them, to cast off the impressions produced in 
 our younger days by tales of romantic horror. 
 
 Here also are found some of the finest views which the 
 lake affords. That angle, in particular, which gives exit 
 to the river, produces some of the grandest scenes about 
 this spot ; Ben Venu here rising, close at hand, in a noble 
 series of romantic precipices till it is lost in the clouds, 
 and stretching away from the eye in a magnificent per- 
 spective, while the left hand of the picture is formed by 
 all that wild variety of ground which conducts the road ; 
 seen from this point under shapes as new as they are 
 
LOCH CATERAN. 175 
 
 picturesque and wild. The island, celebrated by your- 
 self, and not much less famed as the garrison of the wo- 
 men and children during the invasion of Cromwell's 
 soldiers, forms a conspicuous object from this point ; 
 while the distant mountains, which enclose the head of 
 the lake, retire in airy forms till they are lost in the mist 
 of the western horizon. 
 
 But it is time to think of ending with Loch Cateran. 
 Not, however, till I have advised those who are really 
 desirous of knowing this lake, to bestow one forenoon on 
 the southern side of the water, and amid the wilds of Ben 
 Venn itself, as far as they are accessible. The path 
 which leads to Balloch-nam-bo, is not very difficult to 
 find ; and the scenery here is, if possible, wilder, more 
 magnificent, and more romantic than at any other part. 
 The closer scenery about the woods and rocks, formed 
 among the grey precipices and dark recesses and knotted 
 oaks and pendent birches, is unexampled for wildness 
 and beauty; while the same spot also aftbrds various 
 general views of the Trosachs and of the lake, entirely 
 distinct in character from all the former; more wild, more 
 strange, and more romantic. It is an incredible chaos 
 of objects, but it is a chaos of beauty and sublimity : 
 nor let any man imagine that he can pronounce on the 
 merits of Loch Cateran and all that surrounds it, till he 
 has passed days, mornings, noons, and evenings, on it 
 and about it; till he has explored, even at the risk of 
 his neck, all the dark and mysterious places in which it 
 abounds, has climbed every grey rock and precipice 
 where he can obtain footing, and has threaded all the 
 labyrinthine maze of its woods and its torrents, of its deep 
 ravines and twilight recesses. 
 
176 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 Returning through the deep and wild woody pass 
 under Ardkenknochan, I met a smart young Highlander, 
 blazing in a full suit of scarlet tartan, forming a highly 
 picturesque and proper accompaniment to the surround- 
 ing landscape. He was of the better class of farmers, 
 and evidently a Highland dandy of the first water. His 
 colours were of that pattern called royal ; and it was to 
 be presumed that he claimed descent from the Stuarts. 
 Each clan, you know, is supposed to have had its distinctive 
 tartan, (for there are philosophers called sceptics who 
 doubt even this,) and many of these patterns, formed of 
 somewhat dingy mixtures of green, purple, and red, are 
 admirably adapted for that which is thought to have been 
 part of their original purpose ; namely, the concealing^ 
 as is described in your poem, an ambuscade among the 
 heath and bushes, or watching the motions of an enemy. 
 The scarlet patterns, however, must have been fully as 
 efficacious in defeating this object ; if such ever was the 
 purpose of a tartan. Some of these mixtures are ex- 
 tremely beautiful, even to the eye of a painter : being 
 judicious associations of warm and cold tints ; well pro- 
 portioned and well opposed, and further, finely blended 
 by the broken hues which arise from the crossing of the 
 different coloured threads in the other parts of the pat- 
 tern. Notwithstanding the extreme division of the de- 
 sign, they are also frequently managed in such a manner 
 as to produce a breadth of colouring which gives an air 
 of solidity and repose to a mixture of tints that, for want 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 177 
 
 of such care, would only dazzle and fatigue the sight. 
 Many of them, it must however be admitted, are dis- 
 posed in complete defiance of all taste and harmony ; 
 dazzling, gaudy, and confused, so as to give pain instead 
 of pleasure to an educated or correct eye; while others 
 are made ot colours, either so injudiciously arranged and 
 approximated, or so dingy and discordant in themselves, 
 as to produce an unpleasant effect. I must not run the 
 risk of offending any of my worthy friends by hazarding 
 a more special criticism on them, or by naming those 
 which a painter would admire or those which he would 
 reject; since the colour and pattern of his tartan are said 
 to be interwoven in the very heart of a true Highlander, 
 Among some of the greater Reges this is true, or may be 
 supposed : as to the Achivi, they know little about the 
 matter and seem to care much less. 
 
 In some of the clans, the characters of these patterns 
 are thought to have been rigidly preserved ; but, re- 
 specting many, there are disputes in which it would 
 ill become a Sassanach to interfere. Martin does not say 
 that the clans were thus distinguished : he merely re- 
 marks that the different islands had different patterns. 
 Like most other objects of affection, their value seems to 
 have increased just at the moment they were in danger 
 of being lost; and hence those who had long neglected 
 this relic of ancient distinctions, have been lately busy 
 in inventing or imagining what they could not restore. 
 New genera and species have thus crept into the arrange- 
 ment: and, to increase the confusion which thus reigns 
 in the natural history of tartans, the weavers of Bannock- 
 burn, backed by the ladies and the haberdashers of 
 Edinburgh, have lately spawned an illegitimate off- 
 spring, which bids defiance to all classification. It is 
 chiefly in the country indeed, that there is a chance of 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 procuring genuine specimens of the original heraldic 
 bearings of the clans; while the solidity of the manufac- 
 ture as it is woven in a Highland loom, ensures that 
 warmth and comfort which we may seek in vain in the 
 flimsy Lowland imitations that have now superseded 
 them in the towns. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the convenience of the 
 Highland dress, every one must acknowledge that the 
 full costume, as it is worn by the Highland regiments, is 
 highly picturesque. But even this is corrupted by the 
 modern ostritch plume ; which, like that of an under- 
 taker's horse, nods from the bonnet ; although it cannot 
 be denied that it improves the effect. The chief alone 
 was formerly distinguished by some mark of this nature; 
 by an eagle's feather; and, according to his clan, by a 
 sprig of heath or of some other plant : distinct clans 
 being supposed to have been distinguished, as I formerly 
 observed, each by its own botanical bearing. The effec- 
 tive part of this dress is the belted plaid, as it is called, 
 or that arrangement in which the plaid is fastened to the 
 kilt; not a separate garment to be thrown off or put on 
 when convenient. But this is no longer to be seen in the 
 country, except among a few of the gentlemen who 
 choose occasionally to wear it in full dress, or as the cos- 
 tume of the Piper or the Henchman, where these are still 
 retained. It is by no means very common now to meet, 
 even with the kilt ; except among those who have much 
 occasion for walking, and among the children, with 
 whom, from its cheapness and convenience, it is almost 
 universal. The bonnet is still a good deal worn, even 
 when the rest of the dress is merely a jacket and trousers ; 
 but it is not a very picturesque ornament at any time, 
 when unadorned, and is quite the reverse when worn 
 with the coat and the other incongruities of English 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 179 
 
 dress. Nor can much be said in this respect in favour of 
 the kilt, unless the loose plaid happens to be used at the 
 same time. Still less is it to be considered ornamental, 
 when worn, as it sometimes is, with a hat. Nothing in- 
 deed can well look more incongruous and mean than this 
 spurious dress. The plaid is still much in use ; particu- 
 larly among old women in their Sunday attire ; when it 
 is so disposed as to form a cap and cloak both, and is 
 sometimes fastened before, by a huge circular silver or 
 pewter broach that has descended through generations. 
 The coarse plaid, of a plain brown and white chequer, 
 is in universal use among the shepherds and drovers, 
 and among the children who tend the cattle ; and to them 
 it serves the purpose of cloak, umbrella, and sometimes 
 of bedding-; as its texture is sufficiently solid to keep 
 off a great deal of rain. When wet, it is equally im- 
 pervious to the blast ; and, however strange it may ap- 
 pear, forms thus a very comfortable shelter. An ancient 
 Highlander rolled himself in his wet plaid when he lay 
 down to sleep on the heath. 
 
 The trousers, which anciently formed a variety of the 
 Highland costume, under the name of trews, (whence also 
 trouser,) the braccse caligatae of Giraldus Cambrensls, 
 have now quite superseded the kilt among the shepherds, 
 who have learnt to know the comfort of warmth. At sea, 
 no other dress is worn ; nor do I recollect, throughout all 
 the islands, seeing a single boatman in a kilt, except by 
 accident, although some still wear the bonnet. They 
 have, in fact, adopted the bluejacket and trousers, with 
 the warm stockings, of a common seaman; sensible of their 
 advantages in the wet and cold weather in which their 
 occupation lies. As long as Highland regiments are 
 maintained, the full dress cannot be forgotten : it is de- 
 sirable that it should not ; but time, and a sense of its 
 
 N 2 
 
180 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 superior convenience, have now rendered familiar and 
 welcome, that which was originally imposed by force, 
 and was not adopted without many remonstrances and 
 much obloquy against my lord Hardwicke ; of which 
 the popular ballads of the times have preserved ample 
 record. Every year, even in my own experience, is en- 
 croaching on the kilt and bonnet; and, in no long time, 
 it will probably be found only among the few who are 
 laudably tenacious of ancient customs and recollections. 
 A few enthusiasts have amused themselves with de- 
 riving the Highland kilt from one of the dresses of the 
 Romans, to which the resemblance is sufficiently vague. 
 These worthy antiquaries forget the anger they feel at 
 the bare notion that the Romans ever interfered v^'ith the 
 Highlanders; as much as Macpherson forgot himself 
 when he chose to convert Caracul into Caracalla, and to 
 send his hero Fingal to make war on the legions, and to 
 reward his followers with the " gold of the stranger." 
 They were little likely to adopt, either an ornamental or a 
 useful part of dress from their enemies; but whether that 
 be the fact or not, it is nearly certain that the Gael and 
 the Romans had no communication, as the progress of the 
 latter lay along the east coast; among Picts or Cale- 
 donians, a different race, be their disputed origin what it 
 may, until it finally terminated at Cromarty, or rather 
 beyond it, at Tarbet Ness, the Arae finium Imperii 
 Roraani. 
 
 Shocking as it may be to Gaelic pride, it does not seem 
 very difficult to trace the origin of the belted plaid ; the 
 true and characteristic dress from which the other modifi- 
 cations have been derived. It is precisely, as has been 
 often said, the expedient of a savage, unable or unwilling 
 to convert the web of cloth which he had procured, into 
 a more convenient shape. Rolling one extremity round 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 181 
 
 his body, the remainder was thrown over his shoulder, 
 to be used as occasion should require, in covering the 
 rest of his person. The Roman theory of the kilt is in- 
 deed demolished at one blow, by the fact that this article 
 of dress in an independent form, or the philibeg (feala beg), 
 is of very modern introduction: and, what is still worse, 
 that it was the invention of an Englishman. It was first 
 introduced at Tyndrum about a century past, by Rawlin- 
 son, the superintendent, or agent for the lead mines; who, 
 finding his Highland labourers encumbered with their 
 belted plaids, taught them to separate the two into the 
 present form. To such vile causes have great revolu- 
 tions been owing, and by such trifles are ponderous 
 theories overthrown. 
 
 I am as much in danger however for any heterodoxy 
 which I may have the misfortune to entertain in the 
 matter of kilts, particularly if the tartan fever should 
 continue, as for those other difficulties of belief that haunt 
 all unfortunate wights who choose to hunt among Celtic 
 antiquities, and listen to Celtic antiquaries. Nevertheless 
 I must go on, and say, with Kecksy, " who's afraid." 
 
 They tell us it is the Roman dress. Antiquaries are 
 strange fellows every where, but this is wondrous strange. 
 If this hypothesis means any thing, it is that the kilt was 
 an imitation of the skirts of the Roman Tunica, or else of 
 the loose dangling fringe-like armour, the straps of the 
 Lorica, or cuisses, in modern phrase, which were some- 
 times worn over them. Now, at whatever time the kilt, 
 or rather petticoat, was adopted, it was the lower end of 
 the plaid, and nothing else ; not of a waistcoat like the 
 Tunica : the proper philibeg, as I said before, is modern. 
 There is a sort of resemblance between the kilt and the 
 skirts of the Tunica, it is true ; but as to the rest of it, or 
 the principle of the two dresses, they resemble each other 
 
182 HIGHLAND DUESS. 
 
 just as much as Macedon does Monmouth. The Roman 
 soldiers had no plaid ; nor would it he very easy to ex- 
 tract that g-arment from the Sagura ; except that, as differ- 
 ent people may wrap themselves in a simple web, there 
 cannot fail to be coincidences in form. It would not be 
 amiss also if these Celtic tailors would prove that the 
 Roman soldiers who occupied Britain, were so indifferent 
 to cold as to be content to cover their bodies with nothing 
 but the loose skirt of a waistcoat ; or that their officers 
 were silly enough to bring naked men out of the red 
 heat of Italy, and turn them bare to the rains, and storms, 
 and snows, of our delectable climate. They ought also 
 to tell us how it happened that a barbarous people 
 adopted the dtess of their invaders ; invaders, not even 
 conquerors ; and whom moreover it could not have been 
 the fortune of many of them to have seen. The matter is 
 too plain to require any further commentary. 
 
 The real origin of the dress is obvious enough, as I 
 said before, though, probably, extremely remote ; but 
 the present showy combination, which forms the entire 
 dress, seems to be comparatively modern. It has been 
 said that the mere philibeg of tartan cannot be very old; 
 and that the harlequin-like masquerade dress, all of 
 tartan, and sometimes of more kinds than one, is abso- 
 lutely an affair of yesterday. It has also been said, that 
 it must require no common share of Celtic credulity, even 
 to believe that the Highlanders could have woven a tar- 
 tan two or three centuries ago ; and that they were as 
 likely to have made brocade or sprigged muslins. As 
 to their distinguishing their clans by the patterns of these 
 webs, that also, as I have just noticed, is said to be more 
 than doubtful; and is asserted, at any rate, to be very 
 modern indeed. 
 
 The tug of war is severe when Scot meets Gael ; but 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 183 
 
 I suspect that the Gael here has got the right on his side ; 
 at least for an antiquity much more considerable than 
 this criticism would imply; In some canons for regulat- 
 ing the Scottish church, enacted about 1240 and 1250> 
 the ecclesiastics were prohibited from wearing red, green, 
 and striped clothing, as well as garments that were 
 shorter than the middle of the leg That, obviously, 
 alludes both to tartan and to kilts or plaids. Moniepenny 
 also mentions " plaids of divers colours :" but his date 
 scarcely passes 1600. Nor is it reasonable to conclude 
 that the Highlanders were at any period so barbarous, 
 as to have been incapable, either of dyeing or weaving. 
 They manufactured arms; and the arts required for that, 
 are fully as refined. It is usual to run into extremes in 
 these matters ; while, when extravagant claims are set 
 up on one side, the common rule is to allow nothing at 
 all. Admitting that the military or political system and 
 the mode of life, in the middle ages of the Highlands, were 
 what we now call barbarous and savage, these critics 
 ought to remember that many arts, even refined ones, 
 were known to Greece, when its manners were no other 
 than those of the ancient Highlanders ; and that, even in 
 those nations which are now savage, many ingenious and 
 difiicult manufactures are practised. But history itself 
 will shew the unfounded nature of this criticism. To 
 take one portion alone, and the most secluded of the 
 Highlands, viz. the maritime part, it could not possibly 
 have been deficient in arts before 1200, when under the 
 Norwegian government ; when it built and manned large 
 fleets and gave aid to England ; when its kings resided 
 occasionally at the English court, and when, even long 
 prior to that date, the state of Norway was similar to that 
 of Normandy at the time of the conquest of England. 
 Such arts could not have been lost in the Highlands after 
 
184 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 the Norwegian secession : and therefore, whatever we 
 may choose to think of Highland manners in former 
 times, we must beware of imagining them to have been 
 that barbarous people which some persons have chosen 
 to suppose. But anger on one side excites it on the 
 other; and truth, taking wing, flies far away. 
 
 But to return to the antitartanists. Scotland never 
 stood very high in the arts, it must be owned, and her 
 list of painters is as meagre as it is modern. Conse- 
 quently, her galleries of family portraits are rather more 
 defective than her pedigrees. Yet if we go back to the 
 time of Charles the first, which is not a very great way, 
 there are no pictures of tartaned gentlemen, nor any gra- 
 phic records of kilts and plaids ; though many of the 
 Highland chiefs, such as the Gordons, and Campbells, 
 and Murrays, had their pictures painted occasionally. 
 If Jameson, for one, felt like his master Vandyke, about 
 draperies, he would have been very glad to have made 
 use of these supposed Celtic paraphernalia; and it is 
 probable enough that, like the present Lowlanders, and 
 other mob of all sorts, who have adopted, for great occa- 
 sions, a dress to which they have no more title than to a 
 turban and a banyan, a chadre, or a mantilla, he would 
 liave extended these picturesque habiliments far beyond 
 the verge of their legitimate rights. 
 
 This fact proves, perhaps, some points relating to the 
 ancient Highland dress, but it will not prove that the plaid 
 or the tartan was unknown. It seems that as the chiefs 
 wore mail in war, when the people were unarmed, so 
 they also often distinguished themselves in peace, by 
 adopting the dress of France or of the Scottish court; 
 with one or other of which, all the greater ones at least, 
 were in occasional connexion. That those who were 
 Scottish barons, such as the Atholls and the Gordons 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 185 
 
 should have done so, was to be expected. If also the 
 common people, as appears to be true, wore, in latter 
 days, chiefly the grey checked plaid, and that of a 
 scanty size, rolled close, with a naked bonnet, and if, 
 as is probable, and, I believe, true, they were in every 
 sense poorly clad, the dress, in this form, was certainly 
 one which no painter would have wished to copy : since, 
 splendid and picturesque as a modern Highland dress 
 is, it is quite easy to retain all its elements and still to 
 make it hideous. All that follows from the preceding 
 remark therefore, is, that the dresses which we now see 
 in Edinburgh, were unknown in that form, and that the 
 ancient chiefs did not, like the modern, consider their 
 native dress an object to be desired, or conceive it ca- 
 pable of the improvement which it has recently un- 
 dergone. 
 
 What the Highlanders wore in their most ancient 
 days, it is not very easy to discover from any positive do- 
 cuments ; whether they were Celts, Norwegians, or Ger- 
 man Picts. There being no print-shops nor lithography 
 in those days, their costumes have not descended to 
 us ; and there is not much to be learnt from sculptures, 
 unless with respect to churchmen, who were pretty much 
 the same every where, and who are a modern race. Such 
 few warriors as are petrified on the ancient tombs, bear 
 no marks of philibeg or tartan ; their dresses and arms 
 resemble those of the Lowlanders of the same age; but 
 none of these either are of ancient date. The multitude, 
 at the beginning*, had probably as much dress as the 
 ancient Britons or the Chippewas ; and they do not 
 seem to have had much more for a long time afterwards. 
 A web or blanket of some kind, forming philibeg and 
 plaid at once, was probably the whole investment. In- 
 deed there a*e old people in Airdnaniurchan and Morven, 
 
186 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 who pretend to have heard from their parents, that, even 
 in comparatively recent times, when the Mac Donalds 
 came to Ardtorinish castle, their followers had no other 
 dress than a dirty blanket. 
 
 Mr. Eustace, who is a good hater of every thing 
 French, wanted to iutroduce the Highland modern dress 
 at court. Assuredly the French coat and waistcoat, with 
 its bag and the rest of the offal that belongs to it, is as 
 ugly a dress as was ever invented ; and the full 
 plumed, petticoated, plaided, pursed, buckled, pistol- 
 dirk-and-sworded (as Homer would say) dress, is a very 
 showy and a very picturesque one. The King may adopt 
 it if he likes ; or any other that he does like. But he 
 must not adopt it for Mr. Eustace's reason ; as it never 
 was the dress of any court, nor of any king, nor of any 
 Scottish noble ; nor, I believe, I may safely add, of any 
 people. Charles Edward wore it, only out of compli- 
 ment to his Highland army ; and Kemble rigs up Banquo 
 and Macbeth in it, because he knows no better. The 
 gentlemen who constitute the Celtic club and other 
 clubs, wear it because it is handsome, or because they 
 think themselves handsome, or for other reasons; and 
 all these reasons, be they what they may, are very good 
 ones. 
 
 But if we are to be dressed up theatrically, I do not 
 see why we should not go back to the times of our 
 Henrys and Edwards, or even to that of the Charleses. 
 There is abundance of splendour and beauty too to be 
 found, without stripping ourselves half naked to adopt a 
 dress which is not that of ancient England, or even of 
 ancient Scotland. There are historical recollections at- 
 tached to these, that may well heat our minds, as their 
 quilted doublets, and hose, and cloaks, and boots, and 
 gloves, and hats, and caps, and feathers, would our car- 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 187 
 
 cases. Against this, what do the Highlands offer us : 
 absolutely nothing. If the plaid and petticoat, and the 
 vile thrum cap, are more beautiful than all the dresses 
 from Edward the Confessor downwards, then it can only 
 be answered in the words of the vulgarest of proverbs. 
 Why the Highlanders should claim to attend balls and 
 dinners in arms, when they are not soldiers, no one 
 knows ; and if that were, we should smile now to see the 
 Duke of Wellington at Almack's in the uniform of the 
 Blues; pistols, carbine, broadsword, cross buff belts and 
 all. Indeed, if this is to be the system, there is no good 
 reason why my Lord A, and the Duke of B, and the 
 Marquis of C, and not only these, but all the attorneys 
 and merchants' clerks of London, should not walk about 
 Bond Street in plate mail, why they should not make 
 love in helm and hauberk, dance the queue de chat in 
 cuisses, and ride up and down Rotten Row with two- 
 handed swords and matchlocks, or make their way 
 through Fop's Alley with a morning star or a half pike. 
 
 But the advocates of the kilt, not content with wear- 
 ing it themselves in a good warm room, once a year, over 
 a bottle of port, want to compel the unfortunate High- 
 landers to do the same, all the year round ; in the rain, in 
 the snow, in the storm, on a horse, in a boat, over hill, 
 over dale, thorough furze, thorough briar, thorough flood, 
 thorough — bog. This is somewhat hard : dictating to other 
 persons' sensibilities, while, like the gentlemen of Eng- 
 land, they themselves live at home at ease. That this is 
 absurd, is a conclusion which, like a late Lowland critic, 
 you may make if you please, as I never countenance 
 such hard words ; thoughtless is a better phrase : for it 
 is really nothing worse. 
 
 That same, somewhat rough critic, asserts also that 
 there is something metaphysical and refined in this at- 
 
188 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 tempt: that it proves these worthy patriots to have 
 studied their humanities, and that it is but a copy, or 
 rather, a reverse of a former proceeding. Lord Hard- 
 wicke stripped off the petticoat and crammed the people 
 into breeches, that he might uncelt them. They are now 
 to be rekilted and recelted ; and when they have become 
 casehardened with a little practice, heaven knows, as Mr. 
 Speaker Onslow said, what the consequences will be. 
 But this, he remarks, is only the beginning of a reforma- 
 tion ; which ought to proceed from kilts to clans, and 
 from poverty and peace to starvation and war, till the 
 Highlanders shall once more " rise beyond all Greek, 
 beyond all Roman fame :" when they shall become the 
 admiration and terror of the world ; the bugbears of 
 George the fourth, and of such unlucky farmers as hap- 
 pen to have cattle near the pass of Ballybrough ; or any 
 other pass. 
 
 Happy must be such a reformation, or retrogradation 
 rather; if our critic is correct: yet from some unknown 
 cause or other, the project does not take, has not taken, 
 and is jiot likely to take ; to the great discomfiture of the 
 Society for the suppression of breeches. Donald, it is 
 said by this illnatured person, has found out that, besides 
 breeches vice kilts, and heat vice cold, there are many 
 other petty consequences resulting from his emancipation 
 out of the servitude of great chiefs, which are not to be 
 despised. Though not deeply read in the classics, he is 
 supposed to know the meaning of delirant reges, and of 
 what follows. He is said also to have discovered, not 
 only that his interest is, in a good many points, different 
 from that of his chiefs now, but that it was so in the 
 olden time ; and to smile in secret at those who are for 
 returning him to as much of his original barbarism and 
 discomfort as they can, solely to gratify some picturesque 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 189 
 
 fancies of their own. If these societies of ardent High- 
 landers, who, by the bye, are not Highlanders at all, nine 
 times out of ten, but very good-natured quiet gentlemen, 
 want to restore things to their old condition, to have 
 kilts, and brogues, and clans, and tails, and bards, and 
 gillies, and henchmen, and caterans at command, and 
 pit and gallows, they had better begin, the same com- 
 mentator remarks, by selling or eating all their sheep, 
 giving up their rents, living on their estates, and feeding 
 their people with dirty puddings, imrich, shins, livers, 
 and lights, from the ends of long tables in narrow dark 
 stone halls. 
 
 It is not worth this critic's while to be serious in such 
 matters : since assuredly these very worthy men are not 
 serious themselves. All that need be said, is, that no 
 man in his senses will go to sea in a kilt, or mount a horse 
 in one, or — but why trouble ourselves any further. 
 There is a natural progress in all mundane matters, 
 which force may retard, or modify, or divert, but which it 
 never yet stopped. Such is the conversion of kilts into 
 breeches, of bare feet into shoed ones ; with many other 
 matters in many other places, times, and countries than 
 the Highlands. But now for a postcript. 
 
 I said some time ago that there are critics who will not 
 allow that the Highlanders could have woven a tartan two 
 centuries back ; and as I know not who can controvert 
 these writers better than he who has examined all the 
 evidence, and does not care what is established, provided 
 it be the truth, here is another argument on the other 
 sijde. Livy informs us that the great Gaul whom Manlius 
 fought, was dressed in a vestis versicolor ; and what can 
 that possibly be but a tartan. Diodorus, who also lived 
 rather more than two centuries ago, says that the Braccse 
 were made of various colours : and as these were worn 
 
190 HIGHLAND DRESS. 
 
 by the Gauls of one division, that district, or Transalpine 
 Gaul, was also termed Gallia Braccata. I wish the Gens 
 togata had told us more distinctly what were the braccse 
 of the Gens braccata. It is no matter, however, for the 
 main stay of my hypothesis. Bracca is evidently derived 
 from the Celtic breachan, variegated, and the Gauls were 
 Celts ; and therefore, whether breeches or petticoats, the 
 braccsR were tartan, and nothing else. Tartan trews, it is 
 likely : and, to see how etymologies come round, breeches, 
 though they should be made of black satin or pea- 
 green kerseymere, or corduroy, or buckskin, or nankin, or 
 everlasting, are derived from tartan, or breachan, perhaps 
 from a tartan plaid; just as the rapid motion of posting 
 with four or six horses, traces its origin to an immoveable 
 wooden post. I hope the Celtic or Keltic (Celt quasi 
 Kelt or Kilt) nation, the Gens petticoatata in short, will 
 be pleased at the antiquity with which I have thus at- 
 tempited, even in subversion and defiance of Lowland 
 critics, to clothe the naked posterity of the present Gael. 
 Except in St. Kilda, I have never seen the original 
 and true corrane,or brogue of raw hide, which, it is some- 
 what remarkable, is still in use in the Isle of Mann. In 
 St. Kilda, it is found useful among the cliffs, from the 
 hold which it affords to the foot ; but it is a perishable 
 and barbarous contrivance, not much superior to the well- 
 used horny sole itself. The brogue of the present day, 
 is a shoe of tanned leather, made in the usual form, but 
 with a single sole, and open at the side seams for the 
 purpose of giving free passage to the water, which must 
 unavoidably enter it from above, in wet ground, or in 
 boats, and which thus finds a ready exit without incom- 
 moding the walker. They are made of skins tanned by 
 the natives themselves, commonly by the aid of tormentil 
 roots ; and sometimes dyed in the water of ferruginous 
 
HIGHLAND DRESS. 191 
 
 bogs or springs. It is extremely rare to see a man bare- 
 footed ; and even that only happens on some specific 
 occasions, not habitually in any individual ; but it is 
 equally rare to see women with shoes, except when in 
 full dress, on Sundays, or on the borders of the Low- 
 lands. Even among females, however, their use is fast 
 creeping in; but the children of both sexes are bare 
 legged even to an advanced age, not only among the 
 poorer classes, but also in families of condition. It is 
 not long since domestic female servants, even in Edin- 
 burgh, as you well know, paddled about their duties 
 unshod : the fashion is still to be found by those who will 
 seek it, and it must be confessed that it is somewhat re- 
 pulsive to southern feelings. But out of doors, and in 
 the Highlands, it adds much to the general picturesque 
 effect of the female attire, which consists of a short 
 jacket and shorter petticoat; and as the limbs of the fair 
 sex here are well turned, far different from those of the 
 Welsh women, which seem as if they had been shaped 
 in a lathe, a painter will be sorry for the day when the 
 progress of improvement shall have swept away this dis- 
 tinction. I cannot equally praise the mode of dressing 
 the hair ; the smoothed locks of all hues, drawn tightly 
 back so as to stretch the face till it shines, and secured 
 by a huge black comb, form a termination to the general 
 effect of the figure which is far from picturesque. In 
 the Long Island, chiefly, though it is found elsewhere, 
 there is a head-dress consisting of a dirty coloured hand- 
 kerchief tied round the head ; the effect of which is even 
 worse than that of the comb or snood, as there is no at- 
 tempt to give it a pleasing form. But enough, for the 
 present, of tailoring and millinery. 
 
192 ABERFOYLE. 
 
 ABERFOYLE, LOCH ARD, LOCH CHON, 
 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 By pursuing the road along- the side of Loch Cateran 
 and crossing- its waters, it is easy to reach the upper part 
 of Loch Lomond, at a ferry which terminates that branch 
 of the old military road which communicated with the 
 garrison of Inversnaid, long- since abandoned. But it 
 offers few temptations; except to those who may wish to 
 visit this wild country on account of its historical recol- 
 lections, or to examine a cave on this remote part of Loch 
 Lomond, said to have been one of the retreats of the 
 noted Rob Roy. The same road will conduct to Aber- 
 foyle, and there is also a road, across the hills, to this 
 latter place : practicable, I must not say more, even for 
 gigs, but in no respect interesting. The ordinary route 
 to this village from Stirling, will introduce the traveller 
 to the pleasing, though tame. Loch of Monteith, rendered 
 additionally attractive by the ruins on its island, and by 
 the magnificent trees which overshadow it. 
 
 As far as the village of Aberfoyle, this pass into the 
 Highlands is not very interesting; but some wild and 
 pleasing scenes will be found in its neighbourhood ; 
 at the Duchra, and at other places which I need not spe- 
 cify. The great attraction, as I need scarcely say, is 
 Loch Ard ; Loch Chon, connected with it by the same 
 river, being rarely visited, although not inferior to it in 
 picturesque beauty, however differing in style. When I 
 say that Loch Ard is a pleasing lake, it is the utmost 
 
ABERFOYLE. 193 
 
 praise which it seems to deserve; having very little de- 
 cision of character, and scarcely presenting* any variety 
 of scenery. The best view of it is the first that is obtained ; 
 where a small portion only of the lake, nearly separated 
 from the main body of the water by a wooded promon- 
 tory, is seen; a bright and placid basin imbedded in 
 surrounding woods, over which rises the here graceful 
 form of Ben Lomond. Passing this point, amid dense 
 coppices of oak, the whole lake is shortly displayed ; 
 bounded on the west by a range of hill, of no decided 
 features, terminated by the same mountain ; but more 
 open on the east, where the road is conducted along the 
 shore, and where there is a succession of farms and of 
 scattered cultivation, extending onwards to Loch Chon. 
 A low rocky promontory, advancing so close to the water 
 as barely to give room to the road between them, is the 
 only very remarkable object on this shore : nor, except- 
 ing that, does any material change take place, either in 
 the foreground or in the general aspect of the lake, to 
 produce any other picture than that which first meets the 
 eye. If this be the narrow pass intended in the skir- 
 mish described in Rob Roy, a question which you can 
 probably answer much better than any one, it has now 
 acquired an interest similar to that of the Lady's island 
 in Loch Cateran. If Ithaca, Segovia, Bagdad, the Sierra 
 Moreua, and Datchet Mead, are classic ground, and if we 
 cannot visit without interest the scenes of those fictions 
 which have, for centuries, formed the delight of youth 
 and age, neither can we now easily contemplate the pass 
 of Aberfoyle or the wilds of Loch Cateran without view- 
 ing them through that atmosphere of a new enchantment 
 which has been lately spread over them. 
 
 The character of Loch Chon, including its miniature 
 associate Loch Dhu, is utterly distinct from that of Loch 
 
 VOL. I. o 
 
19i ABERFOYLE. 
 
 Ard, and, thougli small, it is a very picturesque lake ; 
 rocky and wild, with bold and steep boundaries ; pre- 
 senting scenes where the surrounding land is of more 
 importance than the water, but wanting in that high de- 
 gree of ornament, derived from scattered wood, which 
 we have so lately parted with. There is little temptation 
 to pursue this road any further towards Inversnaid, or to 
 follow the wild country tracks which lead to the source of 
 the Forth and to the summit of Ben Lomond. This is 
 true, at least, for those who are strangers to this country : 
 as what might be gained by taking this route, is far more 
 than compensated by the beauties of the road along the 
 eastern shore of Loch Lomond to the same point, which 
 would thus be lost. Curiosity alone may be, to many, a 
 sufficient temptation to trace the springs of the Forth ; 
 but this river acquires little beauty till it arrives near to 
 Aberfoyle, to join the water issuing from Loch Ard, its 
 second principal source. Nor, though thus originating 
 in the Highlands, is it long a Highland river ; losing its 
 claims near the pass of Aberfoyle, as its first great coU'- 
 tributor, the Teith, does at Callander. 
 
 But whatever enchantment that pen of yours, whether 
 wielded by yourself or your shadow, may have thrown 
 over these scenes, there is a compensation of evil in it, to 
 us who have lived in other years. In the early days 
 when I wandered first among these wild and lovely re- 
 gions, there was an old romance in every thing', in the 
 lakes, in the hills, in the woods, and in the streams, as 
 there was in the tales of former years that were repeated 
 in every house ; a charm, gilding alike the present and 
 the past, causing the heart to beat at the name of the 
 clans and heroes of old, brightening- every blue moun- 
 tain and hoary rock, and breathing from every whispering 
 birch, and from every billow that curled on the pebbly 
 
ABERFOYLE. 195 
 
 shore. But the mystic portal has been thrown open, and 
 the mob has rushed in, dispersing all these fairy visions, 
 and polluting every thing with its unhallowed touch. 
 Barouches and gigs, cocknies and fishermen and poets, 
 Glasgow weavers and travelling haberdashers, now 
 swarm in every resting place, and meet us at every 
 avenue. As Rob Roy now blusters at Covent-garden 
 and the Lyceum, and as Aberfoyle is gone to Wapping, 
 so Wapping and the Strand must also come to Aberfoyle. 
 The green-coated fairies have packed up their alls and 
 quitted the premises, and the Uriskins only caper now 
 in your verses. If I have lived to see these changes, I 
 must be thankful that I lived before them ; and 1 may be 
 thankful too that I have been able to wander where the 
 sound of Cockayne, which has gone out into all lands, 
 is yet unknown. But the circle of pollution is spreading 
 fast, to the far north and the remote west; and as the old 
 Highlander said when the law had come to Tain, I also 
 may say, " take care of yourselves to the north," the 
 troops of Cockayne are let loose and will soon be upon 
 you. Time was, when 1 strayed about these wild scenes, 
 and, as I listened to the endless tales of Rob Roy and his 
 Mac Gregors, could imagine myself glorying in past 
 times, as if I also had been sprung from the children of 
 the Mist. But now they have found their way to every 
 circulating library, Brighton and Margate flaunt in tar- 
 tan, the citizen from Pudding Lane talks of Loch Hard; 
 and recollections of Miss Stephens, Diana Vernon, and 
 Listen, with the smell and smoke of gas lights, and cries 
 of " Music, Off, Off,'' confound the other senses, and re- 
 call base realities Avliere there was once a delicious 
 vision. 
 
 These are among the things which prevent us, who 
 have fallen upon these evil days, from now viewing ancient 
 
 o2 
 
196 ABERFOYLE. 
 
 Highland manners, and listening to ancient Highland 
 stories, and entering into all the spirit of clanship and ro- 
 mance and wild chivalry, as many would fain flatter 
 themselves they still do. We look to the dark backward 
 and abyss of time, in search of all these illusions, in vain. 
 The mist has rolled away ; and the provoking rays of 
 provoking reason and truth, display past images in all 
 their native shapes and hues, even where they have not, 
 as here, lost their magic, by intimacy and by the fatal 
 effects of vulgar associations. Who can even hope to tell 
 a Highland tale, in the teeth of such company as this. 
 You talk of Rob Roy's cave, or of Inversnaid, or Ben 
 Lomond, and your hearer immediately figures to himself 
 a few feet of painted canvas and twenty-four fiddlers. 
 You speak of a creagh, but the mysterious vague is over 
 and past, and there arises to the eye, a drove of bullocks 
 pricking in to Smithfield market. So I must even strip 
 poor Rob and his oppressed clan as naked as ever the 
 law did, since I dare not pass over such important per- 
 sonages, and exhibit them to you in the style of the New- 
 gate calendar. 
 
 Of the antiquity of this clan, whatever difficulty there 
 may be in deriving it from Alpin or any of his succes- 
 sors, there can be no doubt. It is quite sufficient that 
 it was opulent and powerful in the days of James HI, 
 and some time before that period. To ascertain their 
 ancient possessions, is not a very easy matter, that is, in 
 terms of the law ; as they seem to have held some lands 
 allodially, if this phrase is allowable, and others, as 
 branches, or dependants, or vassals. Of the latter class, 
 were their possessions in this district ; the former ex- 
 tended from Taymouth to Glenorchy, and are said also 
 to have included the rich and fertile valley of Glen Lyon. 
 I do not find that the traditions about their early history 
 
ABERFOYLE. 197 
 
 are very consistent ; and I conjecture that you have ex- 
 perienced the same difficulties. Whether they were more 
 lawless or ferocious than the other clans who were, in a 
 similar manner, seated near the Lowland border, does 
 not appear; but they were the most conspicuous sufferers 
 from the statute of 1581, authorizing private reprisals on 
 any predatory clans, and which was, of course, frequently 
 made a pretext, as I have noticed in the historical sketch, 
 for private feuds and unfounded aggressions. Under this 
 precious mode of ensuring the energy of the laws, the 
 Campbells proceeded to levy war on the Mac Gregors, 
 weakened at that moment by their contests with the 
 Mac Nabs; and having slain the heir of their Chief, 
 Mac Gregor a Ruari, or Roderick, celebrated in song, 
 their principal possessions fell into the power of this ris- 
 ing, though already important clan. The statute of 1587 
 thus, virtually, rendered them outlaws ; since, condemned 
 now to live by depredation, they were totally disabled 
 from finding that security for their good conduct which 
 that law demanded. 
 
 Tradition says that they became, now at least, sufficiently 
 lawless to justify the severity of a proceeding, which, after 
 all, seems, by its injustice and folly, to have given rise 
 to their desperate conduct ; and thus, numerous as well 
 as desperate, and occuping a district almost inaccessible, 
 in times when roads were unknown and the country more 
 covered with wood, they were enabled from their fast- 
 nesses, to carry on a cruel, as well as a predatory, sys- 
 tem of war on the surrounding clans, and of inroads on 
 the Lowlands. In 1589, a party belonging to an inferior 
 leader of the tribe, called Dugald of the Mist, having slain 
 Drummond, one of the king's rangers, with circumstances 
 of peculiar cruelty, noticed, in speaking not long ago 
 of Loch Voil, a writ of fire and sword was issued against 
 
198 ABERFOYLE, 
 
 them, and was carried into effect with considerable 
 slaughter. Still, however, unconqnered, they contrived 
 to fight the celebrated battle of Glen Fruin in 1602, in 
 which the Colquhouns were nearly exterminated ; while 
 their chief, Alister of Glenstrae, having surrendered on 
 terms, was treacherously hanged. 
 
 The clan was now formally outlawed ; their very 
 name being proscribed, and the adoption of it made a 
 felony. Thus, hunted like wild beasts, and executed 
 without trial, they retreated in small bands to the most 
 inaccessible parts of that difficult country which sur- 
 rounds these lakes and Loch Cateran ; becoming the 
 very banditti from which that lake seems to have derived 
 its name. Among these fastnesses, they seem to have 
 been a good deal disturbed by Cromwell's soldiers ; and 
 they were also materially kept in check by the garrison 
 established at Inversnaid, which, though long aban- 
 doned, still remains a memorial of past times. Still, they 
 were far from extirpated ; and, under the same system, 
 sometimes changing their names as convenience dictated, 
 to Stuart, Campbell, or Drummond, they continued to 
 survive, if not as a clan, yet ready again to be united 
 under any chief who should arise, and whenever circum- 
 stances should become more favourable. Thus many of 
 them joined Montrose under these assumed names; and 
 so valuable were their services thought, that, out of 
 gratitude as it is said, a virtue for which that personage 
 was not very particularly distinguished, Charles the second 
 caused the ancient act of outlawry to be reversed in 1633. 
 As this act was, however, renewed by William in 1693, 
 it seems tolerably certain, without a minute enquiry into 
 particulars, that the former statutes against them must 
 have been more or less merited, and that the past lenity 
 had been misplaced. It is indeed certain, that, during 
 
ABERFOYLE. 199 
 
 that period, they carried on, against the Lowlands, that 
 system of plunder and assumed protection which was so 
 common at various times amonsf the Hishland borderers : 
 proving- that the indulgence was as useless, as a means of 
 reform, as they Avere unworthy of it, and justifying- their 
 claims to some, at least, of the former harsh laws : though 
 one of them really seems to have been an instance of op- 
 pression and injustice. I allude to that which followed 
 the battle of Glen Fruin, hereafter noticed. 
 
 It was from their predatory mode of life that the moon 
 in this country still goes by the name of Mac Gregor's 
 lantern. And though it does not, I believe, appear at 
 what time their regular system was first organized be- 
 tween the two periods just mentioned, we find that there 
 was a Captain Mac Gregor in 1658, who seems to have 
 been the pattern to his far better known namesake irj 
 more recent times. So well understood was his system, 
 and so acquiesced in, it must indeed be thought, that 
 the justices of peace met formally at their sessions, to 
 levy the contributions paid to him for protecting the 
 western borders of Stirlingshire from the murders and 
 depredations of their Highland neighbours ; the greater 
 part of whom were probably his own people, who were 
 thus always ready, like thorough-bred police officers in 
 our days, to justify their own necessity, and to take care 
 that the profitable trade of protection should not expire 
 for want of offences. 
 
 In this manner they seem to have gJone on ; gaining 
 the upper hand whenever there was a Captain Mac 
 Gregor who had more courage than the justices and more 
 wit than the law ; and, at other times, paying back, for 
 the black mail and the cattle which they had levied 
 and stolen, the lives of ruffians who were easily spared, 
 and probably of far less value than so many cows. In 
 
200 ABERFOYLE. 
 
 1715 they seemed still to be powerful, though still op- 
 pressed ; a circumstance accounted for, in some measure, 
 by the general state of the country down to that time, and 
 by the interest which some of the neighbouring rival 
 clans had in making use of them as checks on each 
 other. 
 
 It was thus that the feuds between the great houses of 
 Montrose and Argyll, induced the latter to protect the 
 celebrated Rob Roy, now known far and wide, thanks to 
 the author of Waverley ; the vicinity of the Mac Gregors 
 to the estates of the former, enabling him to commit 
 depredations on them with facility, while he could, in no 
 long time, escape and shelter himself in the lands of 
 Argyll to the northward. The first important act that we 
 hear of this worthy, was at the battle of Shirramuir ; 
 where, it is said, he was kept out of action by the Duke's 
 influence, having a command in the rebel army ; while it 
 is even asserted that the strange fortune of this day, was 
 the consequence of his having left the field. Rob Roy 
 is said to have been brother to the chief of this tribe, Clan 
 Alpin ; and, like his immediate followers, generally as- 
 sumed the name of Campbell, as being under the pro- 
 tection of that powerful family. His adventures form 
 the subject of many a tale, as you well know : but of 
 tales too often told to be repeated again. Captain of 
 banditti, and, like his great ancestor, protector of those 
 who submitted to pay for protection, he continued to be 
 the scourge and,-terror of the surrounding country till the 
 day of his death. 
 
 But the whole tribe of Glenstraes and Jack Straws, 
 alike, have never wanted good reasons for their conduct; 
 and when they have, their friends the poets and antiqua- 
 ries have always been ready to step forward with some- 
 thing sonorous in their defence : showy if hollow, like 
 
ABERFOYLE. 201 
 
 the turbans and well drawn fij^ures, the vigour and the 
 grace that render the banditti of Salvator Rosa so capti- 
 vating. Thus did this deep-wronged hero declare, that 
 the lands on which he chose to levy war, those of the 
 Buchanans, the Murrays, and the Drummonds, were his 
 own by inheritance and right, and that he drew the sword 
 to revenge the wrongs of his ancestors: in other words, 
 burning the barn yards and stealing the cattle of inno- 
 cent tenants, who could have no concern in what their 
 lords had done long before their birth, and thus re- 
 venging the punishments inflicted by a people long dead 
 and gone, on his own lawless ancestry, by repeating the 
 very crimes committed ages before by these very ances- 
 tors, who seem, by their own showing, to have well de- 
 served the gallows. Had he confined himself to watch- 
 ing the Duke of Montrose's steward, as he is said once 
 to have done, and robbing him of the rents he had col- 
 lected, this kind of retributive justice would have been 
 more intelligible ; admitting that his own statement of 
 the case was the true one. 
 
 But to the other qualities of a great man, like the be- 
 nevolent cut-throat, Rob Roy added the generosity of 
 Robin Hood ; being a friend to the widow and the 
 orphan, as the story goes, and robbing the rich to pay 
 the poor. This is very fine ; particularly if it could be 
 proved that there was any thing to be got by robbing 
 widows and orphans who had nothing to give. But it is 
 the generosity of the whole breed, from 1720 to 1820, 
 from Italy to the Lennox. The character was cheaply 
 purchased by a few shillings out of the bag of Montrose's 
 steward. After all, Rob Roy may have been a most 
 amiable personage, for aught that any of us may care, 
 setting aside these trifling peccadilloes ; and who indeed 
 dare doubt it, with the fear of Clan Alpin before his eyes. 
 
202 ABERFOYLE. 
 
 The goodness of his character is tlie more probable, as 
 he brought up his sons James and Robert in the same 
 heroic line, dying quietly in his own bed. Poor Rob 
 the second was not however so fortunate. Escaping the 
 vulgar punishment of his crimes, by an act of outlawry 
 for murder in 1736, he was tried in 1753 for the forcible 
 abduction of an heiress, and hanged in the Grass-market 
 at Edinburgh: unjustly enough, as it appears, and pay- 
 ing the penalty, rather of his own general character and 
 that of his ancestry, than of this particular deed. James, 
 his brother, concerned in the same act, contrived to 
 escape, and thus ends the history of the free Mac 
 Gregors. Every one knows that the name and legal 
 rights of this race were afterwards restored, in 1775, and 
 that they are now as respectable as they are ancient. 
 
 From Aberfoyle, it is easy to proceed to Loch Lomond 
 in different modes. By the way of Drymen, there is a 
 good road along the eastern side of the lake, as far as 
 the Row of Dennan, situated at the foot of Ben Lomond, 
 whence there is a carriage ferry across. Or else, the 
 road by the southern side will lead the traveller to the 
 same point on the western margin of the lake as if he 
 had taken the route by Dumbarton. It is not, however, 
 from the eastern shore that the beauties of this queen of 
 the Scottish lakes can be appreciated or known ; nor can 
 any difference well be greater than that of the general 
 pictures of this lake as seen from the eastern or from the 
 western bank. I must not, however, be understood to 
 say that this little frequented side of Loch Lomond is 
 deficient in beauty. Far from it ; as the road is various 
 and interesting throughout ; always accompanying the 
 Jake, generally well wooded, and with many changes of 
 character produced by the indentations of the shore, and 
 by the irregular and undulating line which it follows. 
 
BEN LOMOND. 203 
 
 It is indeed a more beautiful ride from Balmaha to the 
 Row of Dennan than from Renton to Luss ; but it pro- 
 duces few well-marked landscapes : a defect chiefly 
 arising from the tame and uninteresting outline of the 
 mountains which bound the western side. I need not 
 specify the particulars of scenes that are little likely to 
 become much frequented ; as the western bank of the 
 lake will find occupation for far more time than is com- 
 monly allotted to it: but those who may value Loch 
 Lomond as it merits, will not be content unless they have 
 examined every point at which it is accessible, or from 
 which it can be seen. There is one very fine view at the 
 point where the Inversnaid road descends on the ferry, 
 not far from Rob Roy's cave. 
 
 The attraction of Ben Lomond, however, draws, to this 
 point at least on the eastern shore, many of those who 
 take only the more common course. It is the advantage 
 of this well-known mountain, that its ascent is without 
 toil or difficulty, a mere walk of pleasure; and that the 
 views from its summit are exceeded by very few moun- 
 tain views in Scotland. Many a time have I sat on its 
 topmost stone, enjoying the magnificent prospect around ; 
 ranging over the rich and splendid expanse, and tracing 
 the place of each well-known object, or watching the 
 wild flight of the clouds as they blew past, around, above, 
 and beneath my feet. It was at my last visit to a spot 
 which I never yet quitted without regret, that I wit- 
 nessed one of those remarkable caprices of the wind, 
 some of which I have noticed on other occasions in these 
 letters. It was blowing a fresh breeze below, and the 
 waters of the lake were rolling down in long billows, and 
 breaking in a heavy surf on the shore. Armies of white 
 clouds were sailing in from the west in endless succes- 
 sion ; now wrapping the mountain's head far down, then 
 
204 BEN LOMOND. 
 
 breaking away for a moment, and again settling dense 
 upon it in silvery heaps, brightly contrasting with the 
 huge shadowy and dark mass, whose mysterious forms 
 were dimly illuminated by the light reflected from the 
 wide-spread fields of snowy vapour. I ascended never- 
 theless ; enjoying, during the ascent, the magical effects 
 of the landscape, as its glimpses were occasionally 
 caught through the dividing clouds, and the splendid 
 and rapid changes of light and shadow, as the bright sun 
 now gleamed for an instant on the lake and on its green 
 islands, or flew like a brilliant and transitory vision 
 across the mountains, followed, like the flitting joys and 
 hopes of life, by one broad and universal shade. Half 
 lost at times, in the universal grey mist, or struggling 
 with difficulty against the gale, I reached at length the 
 last summit, cushioned with the bright Silene,an island in 
 the wide field of air. 
 
 What was my surprise to find a still and dead calm. 
 The breeze had ceased ; the nodding rush of the moun- 
 tain hung its head by me unmoved, gemmed with the 
 brilliant drops which the thin mists had left on it ; not 
 an air rustled, but all was silence and repose; a death- 
 like stillness, a solemn vacuity, as if all nature had 
 suddenly ceased to be. Above, was the clear blue sky, 
 but around and beneath was an endless field of vapour, 
 in which I felt as if suspended, far above the regions of 
 earth. But soon it all rolled off, displaying for a mo- 
 ment the majestic landscape ; fresh clouds succeeding, 
 as, in solid battalions, they continued to arrive from the 
 west, crowding above and behind each other, and, as 
 they advanced, swelling out their white and expanding 
 bosoms, and then again drawing their misty veil at in- 
 tervals before the bright and changing picture. I then 
 saw that the calm was mine alone ; as the waves were 
 
BEN LOMOND. 205 
 
 still visible, far and deep beneath, whitening- along the 
 rocky shore of the lake. The same gale that I had left 
 below, was still also hurrying the clouds past, around, and 
 overhead ; while, beneath, the thin vapour of their edges 
 was scudding by with the rapidity of lightning. Yet 
 all around was still and at peace: the long grass droop- 
 ed near me unmoved, and the mountain flower that I 
 threw into the air, fell quiet by my side. The silence 
 was awful : it was the silence of death amid a thousand 
 moving forms of confusion and uproar : of turbulence 
 and commotion, seen, but not heard. All seemed under 
 the influence of a supernatural power : as if amidst the 
 fury of the elements and the war of nature, the power 
 who rules the storm and commands the winds, had said, 
 they shall not come nigh thee. 
 
 Capricious indeed are the winds, in more senses 
 than the popular one ; and obscure is their philosophy. 
 The analagous instances which I have elsewhere pointed 
 out, are sufficiently difficult of explanation ; but this per- 
 haps more than all, though bearing a strong resemblance 
 to the case hereafter described in Arran. There was a 
 single portion of the atmosphere which here, as there, they 
 avoided. It included the summit of the mountain, but no 
 more ; and that too, for a very limited space. As I re- 
 mained upwards of an hour watching this strange appear- 
 ance, I easily perceived that immediately as the arriving 
 cloud struck the side of the mountain beneath, it seemed 
 to recoil and ascend in a perpendicular stream, till again 
 meeting a horizontal current over my head, it blew on- 
 wards and passed away with the same stormy velocity that 
 it had arrived. Other portions, separated by the moun- 
 tain, flew off* on each side beneath ; while the eddying 
 breeze which circled round its precipitous eastern face, 
 brought up from the depths below, masses of curling and 
 
206 BBN LOMOND. 
 
 twisting- vapour, which, at the moment they reached the 
 edge of the precipice, recoiled also to mount aloft and 
 mingle with the flying rack. Electricity, which accounts 
 for every thing that is obscure, must account for this too ; 
 as well as it can. 
 
 Next to Ben Lawers, Ben Lomond must, perhaps, be 
 allowed the pre-eminence as the seat of mountain views in 
 Scotland. On the eastern side, while it looks down from 
 its fearful precipice into the deep and dark valley where 
 the Forth is seen springing from the mountain side, as yet 
 a trifling rill, it includes the whole mountainous region 
 about Loch Cateran, with its various lakes : a splendid and 
 variegated picture, stretching* far away till it is lost among 
 the crowded hills that include Loch Earn and Loch Tay, 
 On the same side, further to the northward, the view ex- 
 tends over the whole range of the low country, from 
 Stirling even to Edinburgh, the marked and romantic 
 outline of which is distinctly seen. Pursuing the horizon 
 in the same direction, the eye is guided to Glasgow, 
 scarcely recognised except by its smoke, and thus to the 
 well-known and strongly marked form of Dumbarton 
 Castle, and to the foot of Loch Lomond. The remain- 
 der of the lake, however, for a considerable space, is 
 excluded by the shoulder of the mountain itself; but 
 the western hills, crowded in along succession of romantic 
 and fine forms, are seen, even to the sea ; portions of the 
 deep inlets of Loch Long and Loch Fyne being distinctly 
 visible, and the eye assigning, without difficulty, the 
 highly characterized forms of the Cobler, of Cruachan, 
 and of the other distinguished mountains of this tract. 
 These, ranging round to the north, unite to a wild and 
 wide extended region of elevated land ; an ocean of 
 mountains, in which we discern, among others, the strik- 
 ing cone of Ben More, and the more distant and towering 
 
BEN LOMOND. 207 
 
 summit of Ben Lawers ; while, beneath, the upper and 
 narrow division of the lake is seen, bright gleaming 
 among the noble ranges of hills by which it is included, 
 and on which we now look down, as if at our feet, from 
 the proud elevation of this monarch of the lake and the 
 wide landscape. 
 
 This extreme picture, as it maybe called, is seen par- 
 tially from different parts of the ascent, and, often, under 
 more pleasing forms, from the diminished elevation of the 
 point of sight. Of these partial views, however, I need 
 only point out one, to be obtained at about a third or 
 fourth of the ascent ; because it is one of the finest gene- 
 ral pictures of Loch Lomond, similar in style to that from 
 the hill of Luss, and not much inferior in magnificence. 
 It includes the whole of the lower and wide part of the 
 lake, with all its islands, a splendid and dazzling expanse j 
 and, with some contrivance in the management of the 
 nearer grounds, not incapable of being painted, although 
 approaching to the character of a bird's-eye view. In 
 quitting Ben Lomond, I may remark that, like Ben Lawers, 
 it is one of the botanical gardens of the Highlands ; pro- 
 ducing some of the rarer alpine plants, and containing a 
 large proportion of those usually met with in these situ- 
 ations. I need not enumerate the whole t but amons" the 
 most interesting, are the following ; Salix herbacea, and 
 reticulata, Silene acaulis, Saxifraga stellaris, oppositifolia, 
 and hypnoides, Sibbaldia procumbens, Juncus triglumis,^ 
 trifidus, and alpestris, Poa alpina, Carex atrata, Cerastium 
 alpinum, Gnaphalium supinum, and the beautiful Azalea 
 procumbens. 
 
 As I was about to ascend the hill on this occasion, I 
 met two young ladies descending, who had most courage- 
 ously performed this feat unattended. Man speaks to 
 his fellow man in the desert of Arabia, though they 
 
208 REN LOMOND. 
 
 should even be Englishmen, and though it should be the 
 meeting of a peer and a porter ; nor indeed would the laws 
 of chivalry have permitted me to pass. I remarked that 
 the hill was steep and the ways deep, on which the 
 youngest and the fairest displayed, for my commisseration, 
 a delicate silk stocking and a more delicate shoe, which 
 had suffered what might have been expected, in the cam- 
 paign. You need not ask me whether the ankle and foot 
 that bore them were handsome. Had they been other- 
 wise, it is probable there would have been other shoes and 
 other stockings spoiled in the bogs of Ben Lomond ; and, 
 whatever these might have been, it is very certain that my 
 pity for them would not have been solicited. There is a 
 dexterity in all this, which is delightful. Anacreon will tell 
 you better, how nature has provided the dear sex in this 
 matter. It was not a less ingenious fair who contrived to 
 discover my name, on a similar expedition, where I had 
 acted the part of a preux chevalier ; after having tried a 
 great number of ambages and circumvolutions in vain. 
 She succeeded at last. " Oh dear, sister, let us write our 
 names on this rock." The names were written with the 
 point of a scissars, and the scissars were very politely 
 handed over to the mysterious beau. Anacreon is right. 
 I must now return to the western side of Loch Lo- 
 mond, following the usual track from Dumbarton ; a road 
 little frequented in my earlier days, but now encumbered 
 with the idlers who make this lake, like Loch Cateran, a 
 perpetual fair during the finer months of summer. And 
 as if there was to be no peace either by land or water, 
 the steam boat is now to be seen, daily ploughing its fiery 
 way over the tranquil expanse ; loaded with freights as 
 intellectual as those of a Margate hoy ; a proof of the in- 
 crease of taste among the people, if you please, or, what 
 is much more like the fact, of the spreading of wealth 
 
LOCH LOMOND. 209 
 
 and idleness, and of that neglect of the drudgery of the 
 counter and counting-house which was, not long ago, and 
 in the times of Baillie Jarvie, the characteristic of Glasgow, 
 as, in the days of the " tall apprentices" of London, it 
 was the habit of the metropolis. But we must not mea- 
 sure the enjoyments of others by our own scales; and, 
 doubtless, the groups which contrive to emerge for a 
 week from the profundities of the salt-market or the hum 
 of the jeannies, feel pleasures in eating their cold fowl 
 and drinking their Madeira on Inch Cailleach or the Point 
 of Firkin, as captivating, and far more substantial than 
 the shadowy delights enjoyed by you or me, as we gaze 
 with rapture on this bright lake of lovely islands, or 
 follow the bold perspective of its noble mountains, or 
 watch the sun descending among the brilliant hues of the 
 west, throwing its crimson rays on the broad sides of Ben 
 Lomond, and gleaming upon the silent waters. 
 
 Loch Lomond is unquestionably the pride of our 
 lakes ; incomparable in its beauty as in its dimensions, 
 exceeding all others in variety as it does in extent and 
 splendour, and uniting in itself every style of scenery 
 which is found in the other lakes of the Highlands. I 
 must even assign it the palm above Loch Cateran,the only 
 one which is much distinguished from it in character, the 
 only one to which it does not contain an exact parallel in 
 the style of its landscapes. With all its strange and 
 splendid beauties, it is a property of Loch Cateran to 
 weary and fatigue the eye; dazzling by the style and 
 multiplicity of its ornament, and rather misleading the 
 judgment on a first inspection, than continuing to satisfy 
 it after long familiarity. It must be remembered too, 
 that, splendid and grand as are the landscapes of this 
 lake, and various as they may appear from their excess 
 and boldness of ornament, there is an uniformity, even in 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
210 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 that variety, and that a sameness of character predomi- 
 nates every where. It possesses but one style : and nu- 
 merous as its pictures are, they are always constructed 
 from the same exact elements, and these frequently but 
 slight modifications of each other. 
 
 As, with regard to the superiority of Loch Lomond 
 to all the other lakes, there can be no question, so, in the 
 highly contrasted characters of its upper and lower por- 
 tions, it offers points of comparison with the whole ; with 
 all those at least which possess any picturesque beauty; 
 for it has no blank. It presents no where that poverty of 
 aspect which belongs to Loch Shin, and to many more, 
 and which, even at Loch Cateran, marks nearly three 
 fourths of the lake. Every where, it is, in some way, 
 picturesque ; and, every where, it offers landscapes, 
 not merely to the cursory spectator, but to the painter. 
 Nor do I think that I overrate its richness in scenery, 
 when I say, that if Loch Cateran and Loch Achray are 
 omitted, it presents, numerically, more pictures than all 
 the lakes of the Highlands united. With respect to 
 style, from its upper extremity to a point above Luss, it 
 may be compared with the finest views on Loch Awe, on 
 Loch Lubnaig, on Loch Maree, and on Loch Earn ; since 
 no others can here pretend to enter into competition with 
 it. There are also points in this division not dissimilar to 
 the finer parts of the Trosachs, and fully equal to them in 
 wild grandeur. At the lower extremity, it may compete 
 with the lakes of a middle character, such as Loch 
 Tumel ; excelling them all, however, as well in variety as 
 in extent. But it possesses moreover a style of land- 
 scape to which Scotland produces no resemblance what- 
 ever ; since Loch Maree scarcely offers an exception. 
 This is found in the varied and numerous islands that 
 cover its noble expanse; forming the feature which. 
 
lOCH LOMOND. 211 
 
 above all others, distinguishes Loch Lomond, and which, 
 even had it no other attractions, would render it, what it is 
 in every respect, the paragon of the Scottish lakes. 
 
 The Leven, covered with manufactories, and its green 
 banks whitened with cotton and muslin and table cloths, 
 is no more the pastoral stream which Sraollet sung ; and 
 his monument, rearing its head among paper-mills and 
 print-fields and white houses, and modern Gothic castles, 
 has no longer that interest which it possessed when, 
 alone in the midst of these lovely and tranquil scenes, 
 it pointed to the place of the poet's birth and the gliding 
 waters of the poet's song. The funeral obelisk in the 
 desert, is affecting and sublime : in the town or the vil- 
 lage, it is a lamp-post or a mile-stone. Nothing can well 
 be more striking than the first view of Loch Lomond : 
 its spacious expanse of silvery water, its lovely islands, 
 the rich meadows and trees by which it is bounded, and 
 the distant screen of fading hills, among which Ben 
 Lomond rears its broad and gigantic bulk, like an Atlas, 
 to the sky. Still, most of the landscapes belonging to 
 the lower part of the lake, are meagre ; on account of the 
 great expanse of the water, and a consequent emptiness 
 and want of objects in the composition. Yet that does 
 not prevent the ride, even as far as Luss, where this cha- 
 racter becomes changed, from being one of the most en- 
 gaging that can be imagined ; whether from the beauty of 
 the general views of the lake, as it varies in consequence 
 of the changes in the relative positions of its islands, or 
 from the incessant variations of the foreground, both 
 along the road and along the margin of the water. Had 
 it no other beauties than those of its shores, it would 
 still be an object of prime attraction ; whether from the 
 bright green meadows sprinkled with luxuriant ash trees, 
 that sometimes skirt its margin, or the white pebbled 
 
 p2 
 
212 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 shores on which its gentle billows murmur, like a minia- 
 ture ocean, or its bold rocky promontories rising from the 
 deep water, rich in wild flowers and ferns, and tangled 
 with wild roses and honeysuckles, or its retired bays 
 where the waves sleep, reflecting, like a mirror, the 
 trees which hang over them ; an inverted and softened 
 landscape. 
 
 Here, even the artist may find occupation : but there 
 is luuch also which is beyond the reach of art. Nor is 
 there any thing which is, at the same time, so beautiful 
 and so incapable of representation as one of its most 
 common features : the rich and graceful ash trees hang- 
 ing over the margin, and rooting themselves in the very 
 wash of the silvery waves, while the bright expanse of 
 water glistens between their trunks and through the in- 
 tervals of their drooping foliage. When the sun sets on 
 this delicious landscape, crimsoning the lofty summit of 
 Ben Lomond, throwing its yellow light on the glassy 
 water, and gilding every woody island, every grey rock, 
 and every tree, with its parting rays, while the evening" 
 smoke is seen curling blue vmder the shade of the wooded 
 hills, and the voice of the shepherd's boy and the low- 
 ing of cattle is heard breaking on the universal silence, 
 then it is that Loch Lomond is seen and felt as it deserves, 
 then alone is it appreciated. But thus will it be known, 
 only to the solitary traveller. There is a soul in the 
 scenCf a spirit in its whispering woods and tinkling 
 waves and airy hills, that shuns society, that flies the pro- 
 fanation of the noisy equipage and the glare of fashion 
 and folly, Procul O procul, ye gigs and barouches 
 and haberdashers : but it is in vain to anathematize them, 
 for they will follow you to Luss; making Luss long since 
 what the Gallowgate is, and now, unfortunately, making 
 Tarbet also what Luss was before. 
 
LOCH LOMOND. 213 * 
 
 On the east shore of the lake, the pass of Balmacha, 
 not far from Drymen, forms the Highland boundary; 
 but its position on the western side is not so strongly 
 indicated in the physical geography of the country. 
 Loch Lomond was thus a border country, and the Lennox, 
 with which it was conterminous, was therefore always sub- 
 ject, and, as it appears, in an unusual degree, to inva- 
 sion and plunder, and to forced contributions under the 
 title of black mail. A story is told at Luss, which is not un- 
 likely to be true, and which marks the cool and persever- 
 ing nature of some of the Highland feuds. It is of a gun, 
 said still to be preserved, which \fas planted in a house, 
 and from which the Colquhouns of Comstraden used to 
 fire at those of Luss, every Sunday, as they turned round 
 an exposed corner in their way to the church. But the 
 clan Alpin, or Mac Gregor, already mentioned, were 
 the Kers and Armstrongs of this district ; and I have 
 already noticed the fight of Glen Fruin, acted near the 
 very spot to which 1 have now brought you. The cir- 
 cumstances which relate to this affair are both obscure 
 and contradictory: but there seem reasons for believing 
 that this clan was unjustly marked as being more fero- 
 cious than its neighbours ; and that, however necessary 
 or right it Avas for the law to interfere, it was rather from 
 convenience and accident than from any peculiar de- 
 merits, that they were selected as subjects of the act of 
 1602. 
 
 It appears that they had long been in a state of hos- 
 tility with the Colquhouns of Luss, and that their Chief, 
 having attempted to settle these differences by an ami- 
 cable negotiation, was treacherously assaulted by a far 
 superior force of the enemy; notwithstanding which, he, 
 by greater skill and courage, gained a victory ; leaving 
 200 of the enemy dead on the field, including most of the 
 
214 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 leading men, and making many prisoners. The loss on 
 the part of the Mac Gregors, as the tale is related by 
 themselves, was so trifling, that the Laird's brother and 
 one man only, were missing, although some were 
 wounded. The news of this event, as it is reported, 
 reached James VI. through the widows of the deceased, 
 who appeared at Stirling, in eolemn procession, each 
 bearing the bloody shirt of her husband displayed on a 
 pike. The consequence of this appeal was the act of 
 outlawry, already mentioned: and, if the narrative be 
 true, it was an unjust act, since the Colquhouns must 
 have merited, at least the same punishment as the victors. 
 If the right of private warfare was still permitted, it 
 should have been permitted to all; or else the whole 
 system should have been abolished by general laws, in 
 place of adopting a plan, at once vengeful and timid, 
 oppressive, because partial, and, at the same time, in- 
 efficient, both with respect to the whole country, and to 
 the peace of this particular district. It has been said, in 
 justification of the severity of this law, that the battle of 
 Glen Fruin was attended by circumstances of peculiar 
 cruelty. 
 
 The atrocious deed in question, which is however 
 denied by the Mac Gregors, was the murder of some 
 youths of the sept of Colquhoun, whom curiosity had 
 led to see the fight ; but graver historians have been so 
 much troubled to reconcile the discordant narratives of 
 mfich more important events, that the historian of the 
 Highlands, or the collector of traditions, need not much 
 regret if he also is unable to reconcile jarring narratives, 
 so as to satisfy all the parties concerned. These tales, 
 like those of ghosts, and many others, are best adapted 
 to a winter fire-side. I know not that they are desirable 
 commentaries on the lovely and peaceful scenes where 
 
CASTELLATED ARCHITECTURE. 215 
 
 they have occurred, and which now speak of every thing 
 but rapine and bloodshed. I must confess that they af- 
 ford me little pleasure ; and if they give you as little, you 
 will prefer accounts of cascades and lakes and streams 
 and woods and mountains, to stories of anthropopliagi 
 like the Mac Gregors ; even though all the account that 
 words can give you of these delicious landscapes are 
 but unideal shadows. 
 
 The banks of Loch Lomond, not far from Smollet's 
 monument, display a modern Gothic castle, in which, if 
 the artist has failed to produce any thing very striking, 
 he has at least avoided absurdity, and, what commonly 
 accompanies it, extravagant expense : matters in which 
 the most fashionable architect of Scotland in this line, 
 has been remarkably successful. Doubtless, this inge- 
 nious person takes great credit to himself for his inven- 
 tions: and doubtless also it would trouble any one to 
 discover, either the use or ornament of all the pastry 
 which he has embodied in the shape of masonry. It is 
 a delicate matter to jest with architecture, or to try ex- 
 periments in stone and lime: partly on account of its 
 expensive nature if it proves a bad one, and partly on 
 account of the extreme durability of the jest. The castle 
 is a weapon particularly difficult to wield : and it is one 
 which has proved too weighty for most of the hands that 
 have attempted it. 
 
 If we analyze the elements of which castellated archir 
 tectnre consists, we shall find that this style admits of so 
 much variety, that scarcely any general system can be 
 formed from the works of the ancient artists in it ; and 
 that such a latitude is, in consequence, given to modern 
 imitation, that there is room for the unbounded exertions 
 of fancy. An appearance of strength, and the property 
 of being defensible, either against sudden insult or more 
 
216 CASTELLATED ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 regular attacks, seem to be the only indispensable prin^ 
 ciples which must be seen predominating through all the 
 variety which may be adopted. The supplementary parts, 
 whether these consist in the defensive works, or in the 
 mere ornaments of the building, have varied according to 
 the dates of the various structures which remain. They 
 have partaken of the rudest, and of the most refined 
 Gothic ; and they have descended, in time, till they 
 became contaminated with the no-style of Elizabeth 
 and James, and till nearly all traces of the Gothic man- 
 ner have disappeared. Yet even these buildings retain 
 peculiarities which are characteristic, and which bespeak 
 their uses. 
 
 To be more particular: the peculiar elements on 
 which their character depends, are to be seen in their 
 massive walls, their buttresses, their flanking and watch 
 towers, their machicolations, their spare and distant win- 
 dows, their ponderous and fortified gates, their loop- 
 holes and battlements, and in a few of the more trifling 
 ornaments in fashion at one time or another, the pre- 
 sence or absence of which produces little difference in 
 the general eflfect of the building. If, to all these, we 
 add a moat, and, as in some rare cases, a barbican out- 
 work, we have every thing of which an ancient castle 
 may consist. These simple elements, subject to no gene- 
 ral rules, but disposed according to the caprice or design 
 of the architects, have afforded us structures, of that infi- 
 nite variety and picturesque eflfect which we see in Car- 
 narvon, and Conway, and Raglan, and Pembroke, and 
 Caerphilly, and Kenilworth ; and in innumerable others, 
 equally well known, and unnecessary to enumerate. They 
 have varied in size as they have varied in disposition : yet 
 in almost all instances, they retain the peculiar character 
 of their style, and are productive of striking effects. 
 
CASTELLATED ARCHITECTURE. 2l7 
 
 With the full power of I'ecofnpounding and varying, 
 or copying their material parts, it has still happened that 
 modern artists have almost invariably failed to convey 
 the same ideas, and to produce similar effects. If we 
 were asked for instances of failure, it would be a much 
 easier task to enumerate the examples of success. They 
 scarcely exist. A great part may be the fault of the ar- 
 chitect ; but not the whole. He is perhaps required to 
 combine the conveniences of a modern structure with the 
 aspect and effect of an ancient one ; two things, probably, 
 in themselves scarcely compatible. But it is he who is 
 in fault when he attempts to convey, merely by appear- 
 ances, and by ornaments instead of reality, that notion of 
 strength, of defence, and of solidity, which is, in fact, 
 inseparable from actual mass of masonry, from real 
 strength and capacity of being defended. The eye is 
 never deceived in this ; but detects the trick, and des- 
 pises the imposition. Hence, these imitations have the 
 effects of pasteboard models or of scenes in a theatre. 
 Thus the architect fails, even where his copy is genuine, 
 or his composition legitimate. When he has attempted, 
 on the other hand, to invent and compound for himself, it 
 has too often been his fate to fall into absurdities of his 
 own, which have produced a ludicrous and contemptible 
 building; either by incompatibility of combination, or by 
 those heterogeneous assemblages which we may witness 
 in many more places than I choose to enumerate. 
 
 But there is, beyond these, a difficulty to be over- 
 come, which perhaps no architect, however versatile his 
 fancy or profound his knowledge, can surmount. The 
 idea of a castle is, in reality, a very complicated one, and 
 does not depend on its architecture alone. It recalls to 
 the mind all our chivalrous and historical lore, all that of 
 which it was once the scene ; bringing in a lively man- 
 
218 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 ner before us the deeds which were there acted; its 
 sieges, its defences, its feasts : the dark dungeon, the gay 
 hall, the tilt yard, and the solemn service of the chapel. 
 Here the modern building must fail. It is now also an 
 essential part of an ancient castle, that its towers are 
 perhaps in ruin ; the ivy mantles over its walls, its moat 
 is choaked with rubbish, and its stones are stained with 
 gray lichens, overgrown with mosses, and fringed with 
 wall flowers and tangling plants ; while the owl hoots 
 from its watch towers, and the jackdaw and the rook soar 
 over its roofless chambers. Take away all these adven- 
 titious, but powerful accompaniments, and the charm is 
 at an end. Here, still more, modern architecture must 
 fail : and were even Conway once more to come bright 
 from the mason's hand, with all its walls smooth and 
 fresh-jointed, its towers complete, and its gates and win- 
 dows entire, it ^yould probably fail to excite any great 
 admiration beyond that which depended on its bulk and 
 situation, and on the perfection of its workmanship. 
 
 The finest general view of the lake, that which con- 
 veys the most perfect idea of its lower portion, is ob- 
 tained from the hill above Luss ; resembling in character 
 that already mentioned from the shoulder of Ben Lomond, 
 but much superior in the distribution and richness of its 
 middle ground, and forming a more entire and perfect 
 picture. The double peak of Dumbarton is distinctly 
 seen, with the Clyde and the land beyond it ; the noble 
 expanse of water being now entirely displayed, with all 
 its green and various islands floating on the bright mirror. 
 Inch Lonich, stretching out its long ridge of wild wood, 
 and approaching to the shores of Luss and Comstraden, 
 unites with their richly ornamented grounds, and with the 
 bays and promontories of this varied shore, to produce 
 that splendid middle ground which renders this view all 
 
LOCH LOMOND. 219 
 
 that we could desire; while it enchants the merest spec- 
 tator, by its combination of magnificence and tranquillity, 
 of grandeur in the general aspect, and of the most ex- 
 quisite ornament in the details. 
 
 In quitting Luss and turning northward, we take 
 leave of this portion of the lake, and enter on that class 
 of scenery, so entirely distinct in character, which be- 
 longs to its upper part. The islands are now left behind, 
 with all that peculiar effect which depends on them ; the 
 few that are found henceforward, conferring no longeron 
 the scenery that peculiar character which distinguishes 
 the lower division of Loch Lomond from all other lakes. 
 The lofty hills that enclose it on each side, now approach 
 nearer, and the beauty of the landscapes, which formerly 
 arose chiefly from the water, now depends principally on 
 the forms and ornament of the boundaries. Thus it dis- 
 plays, not only that more common style of lake scenery 
 which I have noticed on former occasions, and have 
 sometimes noticed for its sameness and for its insipidity, 
 but that far superior species of landscape where the 
 nearer grounds, constituted by the declivities of the hills 
 and by the variations of the shore, occupy the principal 
 share of the picture, and leave the water, what it ought 
 always to be, a subsidiary object. It would be endless 
 to point out all these scenes, since they are extremely 
 numerous and no less brilliant : but among the first 
 which occur, is one where the road both ascends and 
 winds round a bold promontory. Here it is proper to 
 ascend the hill by the ancient road, as well as to follow 
 the new one which leads round it along the shore ; as 
 without that, much of this fine scenery will be lost. Ben 
 Lomond, now approaching near to the eye, towers over 
 the whole scene with great magnifiaence ; still however 
 retaining that peculiar form which it has displayed dur- 
 ing the whole progress from Dumbarton. 
 
220 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 A similar style of landscape continues to Tarbet; and, 
 at Inverouglas, a small island, beautifully wooded, and 
 containing the remains of a castellated mansion once the 
 seat of the Mac Farlane, forms a principal object in a 
 scene of unexpected beauty and tranquillity ; where Ben 
 Lomond, having now entirely changed its character, has 
 put on the form of an elegant and acute cone, lifting its 
 head high above the long and picturesque ridge which, 
 hence to the upper extremity, bounds the eastern side of 
 the lake. There is a fine view also here from the summit 
 of Ben Vorlich, an elevation not much inferior to that of 
 Ben Lomond itself; including Loch Lomond on the one 
 hand, and, on the other, looking into Loch Long and 
 over the mountains that extend hence towards the Clyde 
 and the ocean. 
 
 From Tarbet onwards, to the upper extremity of the 
 lake, the breadth of the water becomes materially con- 
 tracted ; the opposed hills rising like an enormous wall, 
 and throwing their shadow upon it; wooded, from the 
 water's edge, with a continuous forest of oak, which, 
 spreading over their rocky faces and clambering along 
 the deep ravines and water courses, at length vanishes in 
 scattered groups and single trees, adding richness of 
 ornament to their already picturesque and rocky outlines. 
 This character of ground, added to the bold promontories 
 and deep indentations, and to the wild career of the road 
 itself, constitutes that peculiar range of grand scenery 
 which renders Loch Lomond, in this part, as superior to 
 almost all the Highland lakes, as it is distinguished from 
 the whole of them by the splendour of its lower portion. 
 One anale of this road cannot fail to attract attention ; 
 and it is here that the landscape particularly reminds us 
 of Loch Cateran ; the rocky and woody declivity of the 
 mountains, with all its precipices and trees, resembling 
 the romantic skirts of Ben Venu and the recesses of the 
 
LOCH LOMOND. 22l 
 
 Trosachs. Marshal Wade has here excelled all his 
 other outdoings ; but if we " deem our hoar progenitors 
 unwise" for making such roads, what shall we say of 
 their posterity, who, with far more ample means, and 
 much more crying wants, suffer them, bad as they origi- 
 nally were, to become utterly impracticable, by neglect, 
 and by what is called economy. 
 
 Shortly after passing this formidable obstruction, the 
 upper extremity of the lake comes in sight ; forming, in 
 itself, a striking landscape ; a single island, the last of 
 all, appearing to float far away on the water, which is 
 here rendered doubly brilliant by the loftiness and 
 strongly marked character of its boundaries, and by the 
 succession of mountains which tower above each other to 
 enclose it. A huge and bold fragment of rock by the 
 road side, equal in size to the celebrated Bowder stone 
 of Keswick, meets us on descending the hill where the 
 view is obtained ; and hence to the last point of the lake, 
 the road follows the level of the water. Here, as well as 
 in the first portion of Glen Falloch, many wild and beau- 
 tiful scenes occur, of various characters ; and, among the 
 rest, several very picturesque views of the lake, which, 
 now reduced to an apparently small compass by the lock- 
 ing over of the hills, displays some of its finest pictures. 
 I know not that it contains any one superior, in this style, 
 to the view from the hill above the inn at Glen Falloch, 
 though almost a bird's-eye scene. This road, I need 
 scarcely add, conducts to Tyndrum and Glenorchy ; but 
 it ceases to possess any interest soon after we lose sight 
 of the lake. 
 
222 DRAWING. 
 
 DRAWING. 
 
 A FRIEND who has been looking over my shoulder 
 this last week, somewhat in the way I suppose in which 
 the devil looks over Lincoln, to watch for prey, tells me 
 that I talk so much about scenery and drawing, that it 
 might be supposed I was an artist, that I am only writing 
 for artists, and that I am as bad as Gilpin. With his per- 
 mission, I should choose to bisect this compliment ; as I 
 have no esteem for the latter half of it. However that 
 may be, console yourself that you are within sight of 
 land. The days of the picturesque are drawing to an 
 end ; for Scotland is not every where what it is in the 
 Perthshire lakes and on the bright margin of Loch 
 Lomond. You will not always have to complain that the 
 country is too beautiful, or that I am too warm an ad- 
 mirer of it. As to the former part. Lord Arundel says, 
 that a man who does not draw, cannot be an honest man ; 
 and therefore I am writing for honest men. I think that 
 1 am writing for all the world, because I think all the 
 world ought to draw. So does the noble antiquary : who 
 seems to have viewed this art as Shakspeare did music. 
 The axiom comes from a warm heart at least, in both. 
 
 But there is a greater authority. The Greeks con- 
 templated the art of painting in so high a light, that they 
 forbade their slaves to learn it. At the same time, it was 
 part of the education of all children in the higher ranks ; 
 being considered as a liberal art. You may consult 
 Pliny, if you please : or Aristotle, who, in his politics. 
 
DRAWING. 223 
 
 says that it ought to be, what it was in Atliens, a branch 
 of general education ; " not to prevent its possessors from 
 being cheated in the purchase of pictures, but because it 
 taught the art of contemplating and understanding beauti- 
 ful forms." It was the same with the Romans ; who had 
 very little respect for any art but that of fighting, or for 
 any science but that of governing and plundering their 
 neighbours. Ha3 tibi erunt artes. Castiglione is not a 
 very bad authority in matters that concern a liberal edu- 
 cation. What he says of the utility of drawing, might 
 have been said a hundred ways, and therefore I need 
 not quote it. But the following sentence contains his 
 opinion of what just now concerns us ; landscape painting. 
 
 " Et veramente chi non estima quest' arte, parmi che 
 molto siadalla ragione alieno : che la machina del mondo 
 che noi veggiamo, con I'amplo cielo di chiare stelle tanto 
 splendido ; et nel mezo la terra da i mari cinta, di monti, 
 valli, et fiumi variata : et di diversi alberi et vaghi fiori 
 et di herbe ornata : dir si puo die una nobile et gran pit- 
 tura sia per man de la natura, et di Dio composta. La 
 qual chi puo imitare, parmi esser di gran laude degno.'* 
 
 His notions of the nature of a courtier differed some- 
 what from my lord Chesterfield's ; that is certain. But 
 that is not the reason why drawing is not, in this country, 
 considered a part of a liberal education. Neither can I 
 assign one ; unless it is that the gentlemen of this land 
 are too much occupied in corrupting Cornish boroughs, 
 driving barouches, reading newspapers, and practising 
 law, physic, divinity, and horse-racing ; and that all the 
 knowledge of art which is requisite for talking about, 
 can be acquired in a few hours by reading Pilkington, 
 and Mr. Haydon's criticisms on the British Gallery. 
 
 I could be very learned, and diffuse too, on the 
 utility of drawing. But to take the negative side, as the 
 
224 DRAWING. 
 
 shortest method of proof, I wish any body would point 
 out a department of life, excepting law, divinity, and 
 taxation, in which it is not of use ; nay, in which it is 
 not necessary. If it really can make a man honest, as 
 Lord Arundel asserts, there are at least two of these 
 trades in which it is particularly required. There are 
 none, at any rate, to which it may not prove a relaxation ; 
 nor are there any persons who may not find, in some of 
 its numerous departments, an amusement. And really, 
 there are so many idle, so many tedious, so many mis- 
 chievous, and so many bitter hours in life, that he will 
 be a wise man who contrives to multiply whatever re- 
 sources may diminish their weariness, add to their inno- 
 cent employments, or lighten their weight. 
 
 Indeed, we have reason, every day, to lament the rarity 
 of this talent among us, in the lighter matters of life, as 
 well as in the weightier ones. It is not a small merit, that 
 it saves vast and vain circumlocutions in many things of 
 daily passage, and that it renders many an obscure tale 
 intelligible. Many a tale, indeed, cannot be told without 
 it; from the professor in his chair to the traveller with 
 bis quarto, the inventor with his schemes, and even the 
 milliner with the project of a new cap. The lawyer and 
 the beau are the slaves of Mr. Vickery and Mr. Stultz, 
 because they cannot describe " the essential form of 
 grace" in the swelling rotundity of a wig, or the iron con- 
 straint of a collar: one little line, less than that which 
 Protogenes drew, might, in the hands of the hero of the 
 barouche club, raise him to immortality ; when he must 
 now, with sleepless anxiety, watch the progress of his 
 mail coach in Mr. Leader's yard : and even the fair must 
 depend on Mr. Taylor's apprehension of the poco piu 
 poco meno, which is to determine the beauty that she is 
 compelled to commit to his charge. 
 
DRAWING. 225 
 
 Nay, the depths of old ocean have been ploughed for 
 years, and countless are the myriads of shapeless mon- 
 sters, nereides, vorticellfe, mediisoe, salpse, naides, 
 holothuriae, and other unspeakable things, whose souls 
 and bodies have been cut through in vain, because they 
 will neither pickle nor preserve, and because our children 
 have not learnt to draw: and even when the hortus 
 siccus has been dried and packed, and the beetles and 
 butterflies have been boxed, and camphorated, and 
 sealed, with infinite toil and thought, behold, they arrive, 
 and all is swallowed up in dusty death. The cockroaches 
 and the white ants would have found little temptation in 
 a few strokes of a pencil and a halfpenny worth of Indian 
 ink : but the pencil and the paint are created in vain, and 
 the world remains as wise as it was before. Thus also 
 we are dying with curiosity to understand some piece of 
 architecture of the days of the Sassanides, or a monument 
 of the age of Nimrod, or a mountain that lifts its head to 
 the moon, and distributes its waters to half the globe; 
 we read, and wonder, and wish, and when the tale is 
 told, it is nothing: the traveller is nothing, and his toils 
 are worth nothing : he could not draw. Thus too, in 
 this enlightened country, we suffer taste to become a 
 trade ; and he who ought, alike, to dictate to the mecha- 
 nical retailer of this commodity and to despise him, now 
 opens his purse, and surrenders his house and lands, to 
 every pretender ; because he has not learnt to draw. 
 
 But putting out of the question, as too minute for the 
 present time and purpose, the particular kinds of utility 
 or pleasure resulting from a diffused knowledge of draw- 
 ing, I am desirous to go further than Aristotle, and to 
 maintain that it is a valuable branch of general educa- 
 tion, from its cultivating one of the most needful powers of 
 the mind; namely, the faculty of observation in general. 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 DRAWING. 
 
 This mental quality, or power, is much more connected 
 with accuracy of vision, and with habits of making^ mi- 
 nute distinctions, than careless thinkers imagine ; and 
 there is nothing which so cultivates accuracy of obser- 
 vation in all visible matters, as drawing. Accuracy, and 
 tenacity, of memory, hang on the same faculty ; and thus 
 it is that minute and careful observation is accompanied 
 by distinct and tenacious recollection. Costard will not 
 allow that he forgot ; but he confesses to the " not mark- 
 ing of it." It will surprise those who are not accustomed 
 to analyze and study their impressions and recollections, 
 to find how little of accuracy their ideas of visible ob- 
 jects really possess : not only in remembrance, but even 
 at the moment of the impression. But it does not sur- 
 prise a painter to find that, even at the distance of years, 
 he can recall a subject which he once intended to paint ; 
 or give, at any time, the true characters of objects long- 
 since impressed on his mind. As far as painting is merely 
 imitative, this is its essence : a correct notion of visible 
 forms, and of colours : and he who cannot paint, differs far 
 more from the artist, in his eye for present observation, 
 or in his memory for past ones, than he does in dexterity 
 of hand. In truth, ordinary observers have but vague 
 notions of form, whatever they may imagine ; and the 
 test is, that they cannot draw them. When the eye has 
 acquired its knowledge, the hand will not be long in 
 learning to record it. It is something to be able, even to 
 copy accurately, forms that are present ; but the artist 
 has yet much to learn, of the human figure for example, 
 who cannot display it in all the attitudes of Rubens, or 
 contort it into the postures of Michael Angelo. To do 
 this, is to have acquired a thorough idea of the form of 
 man. 
 
 He who will take the trouble to reflect on this sub- 
 
DRAWING. 227 
 
 ject at more length than I dare illustrate it, will be con- 
 vinced of the truth of the principle; and will find, on 
 trial, how little he really knows of visible objects as they 
 ought to be known, and how fast his knowledge increases 
 by the practice of drawing. When, after that acquisition, 
 he compares or examines himself at two distant periods, 
 he will soon become convinced of what he would not at 
 first easily have admitted. Nothing else can produce 
 this conviction ; since, in every thing that relates to the 
 senses, we all follow our own standard, and cannot, in 
 fact, follow any other. It is in vain, therefore, to tell the 
 idler who has travelled to Rome, that he cannot truly 
 distinguish between St. Peter's and St. Paul's; since he 
 judges truly enough according to his own vague scale : 
 although, as an artist, or an architect, falsely, and there- 
 fore, incorrectly and imperfectly. It is no less vain, than 
 it is to say to him whose optical defects disable him from 
 distinguishing between blue and crimson, that he does 
 not know colours. Modesty may make him yield his 
 opinion to the majority ; but he is not morally convinced 
 that he is wrong. Yet he is so, because he judges by a 
 wrong standard : and that is precisely the case with him 
 who judges of art without the education; or, what is, 
 fundamentally, the same thing, of the nature and forms 
 of visible objects without the power of drawing. It is 
 possible indeed that there may be an eye without a hand. 
 But power of hand is at least the best proof of its pre- 
 sence ; and we can never be thoroughly convinced that 
 the one exists, if we can find no proofs of the other. 
 
 But, for the present purpose, it is of little moment 
 whether that be true or not, as one of the chief objects 
 here in view, was to shew the utility of drawing- as a 
 means of cultivating the faculty of observation. Whether 
 we are to make drawings or not, that faculty is in con- 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 DRAWING, 
 
 stant requisition in every step of ordinary life; and very 
 particularly so, in many portions of its business. The 
 enumeration would be as tedious as that which relates to 
 the utility of drawing; and I will not therefore enter on 
 it. Yet, among many other things, were it more gene- 
 rally diffused, the relations of travellers would differ far 
 less from each other than they now do, even on ordinary 
 matters ; and would convey far more accurate as well as 
 consistent ideas. No one who has not attended to this 
 subject, can conceive the extensive influence which the 
 art of drawing has in improving the power of observing; 
 and that, even on points with which it would seem to 
 have little connexion. Where works of art are concerned, 
 and even where natural objects are to be described, no 
 one who knows its value, 1 should rather say its neces- 
 sity, will pay much attention to the narratives of ordinary 
 travellers. It is the fashion, however, for every one to 
 imagine that he can describe pictures and buildings ; 
 though ignorant of painting and architecture, and unable 
 to mark on paper the outline of a column or the angle 
 of a pediment. The public at large has no resource in 
 these cases, but to submit with sad civility, or to believe 
 and be deceived. But he who knows what art is, will 
 pay the same attention to these tales, as he does to the 
 criticisms which he daily hears in picture galleries ; 
 where a knowledge of all that belongs to art, is sup- 
 posed innate or inherent in those who do not possess one 
 of its principles, but whose claims to knowledge consist 
 in wealth to purchase or in birth to dictate. Sir Joshua 
 shifts his trumpet and fakes snuff. 
 
 But enough of this; as I must not write treatises for 
 you not to read : so let us turn from utility to pleasure ; 
 which, nine times out of ten, is the better thing of the 
 two. And here I must limit myself to landscape, as the 
 
DRAWING. 22.9 
 
 only question that is before us, and as that which must 
 make my apology ; if an apolog^y for all this sugary 
 writing is possible. If the pleasures derived from any 
 art, from painting, architecture, poetry, or music, are 
 greatest to those who are educated, a truth which will 
 only be denied on the general ground of the felicity of 
 ignorance, then we ought to cultivate the art of draw- 
 ing; not merely for the amusement which it affords by 
 improving the taste, agreeably occupying the time, and 
 preserving the records of useful or beautiful objects, but 
 to ehable us to derive from natural scenery all the plea- 
 sures which it is capable of affording. Nature, as Cas- 
 tiglione says, is a great picture painted by the hand of 
 the Creator: it is an endless collection of pictures, offer- 
 ing inexhaustible sources of pleasure and study and criti- 
 cism; containing, not only all that art ever executed, all 
 its principles and all its details, but infinitely more than 
 it can ever attain. If it requires deep and long study to 
 understand art, if none can truly judge of it but he 
 whose hand can follow his eye, or whose eye at least has 
 acquired that knowledge which makes the painter, it 
 cannot require less to understand nature. Nor must it 
 be said that, in the study of art, any more than in that of 
 nature, taste may be independent of this accuracy of 
 knowledge, or that a perfect perception of beauty can 
 exist without it. As well might it be said that a perfect 
 perception of the beauties of poetry or music may exist 
 without critical knowledge. I do not mean technical 
 criticism ; but a distinct comprehension of all the sources 
 of beauty, of their nature and causes. In effect, taste, 
 in its true sense, is the result of study and of critical 
 knowledge. It is the produce of comparison and analysis, 
 in all the arts; and it is futile to say that, in painting, 
 more than in any other art, it can exist without know- 
 
230 DRAWING. 
 
 ledge; though there may be much minute technical dis- 
 crimination without a great deal of taste, and much 
 knowledge also in the possession of him who hardly sus- 
 pects it. 
 
 Applying this rule to the simple enjoyment of natural 
 scenery, as the object now before us, it is only the poeti- 
 cal painter, he who is, at the same time, every thing that 
 a painter ought to be, who can derive from landscape, all 
 the pleasures which it is calculated to yield. And the 
 ignorant or uncultivated spectator will receive less enjoy- 
 ment from it than he who, though not an artist, has studied 
 the art of painting ; or who, from his practical knowledge 
 of drawing, has learnt to observe and compare truly, and 
 to attend to a thousand minute circumstances, in colour, 
 form, shadow, contrast, and so forth, which escape ordi- 
 nary spectators. He is the poetical critic examining a 
 fine poem. The obvious beauties may strike the coarsest 
 reader; but the refined one alone will appreciate the 
 whole. 
 
 There is an art, even in discovering landscape at all in 
 nature, much more limited than will readily be believed 
 by those who have not long and seriously studied de- 
 sign ; who have not studied it in nature as well as in the 
 works of artists, and even who have not reduced their 
 studies and observations to some practice. Everyone 
 who, after a certain progress, will review his past ex- 
 perience, by travelling again among the scenes which 
 he had before visited, will easily convince himself of 
 this. He will often detect beauties which had before 
 escaped his notice; and will often also be surprised to 
 find, at some distant day, that he had unconsciously been 
 long residing amid scenery of the most exquisite nature, 
 heedless of it charms. In this art, as in all others, his 
 powers in eliciting knowledge, in striking fire from the 
 
DRAWING. 231 
 
 dark flint, in discovering- hidden or retiring beauties, will 
 depend on his previous acquirements. The ignorant and 
 uneducated man overlooks the phenomenon or the sub- 
 stance, from which the philosopher draws important con- 
 clusions or extracts valuable results ; on which he founds 
 the greatest discoveries. It is the experience, guided by 
 the taste of Salvator or Poussin, which elicits the most 
 sublime or varied landscape from a confusion of objects 
 where a common eye sees nothing, or sees nothing but 
 disorder and chaos. 
 
 Among- artists also, each has his particular bent ; each 
 observes something which another will overlook. While 
 the eye of Claude comprehends the whole extent of a 
 rich or fertile country, dressed up in all the luxuriance 
 of art and nature, adorned with mountains and rivers and 
 trees and temples, and teeming with life, that of Cuyp 
 will content itself with a sunny bank and a group of cat- 
 tle, as that of Berghem too often does with a few ruined 
 walls : while the degenerate taste of others is satisfied, 
 where nature spreads all her beauties around, to grovel 
 among hay-fields and pig-sties, to study and detail the 
 anatomy of a wooden bridge or a muddy wharf. 
 
 As we are quite sure that, of the thousands who read 
 Milton or Shakspeare, there are very few who can appre- 
 ciate, or even discern the far greater number of the 
 beauties of these writers, though, as they receive all the 
 pleasure of which their standard renders them suscep- 
 tible, they imagine that they are enjoying the whole, so, 
 in the contemplation of natural landscape, we may be 
 convinced that the far greater number of spectators re- 
 ceive but a very vague and limited pleasure; even ad- 
 mitting that, as far as it exists, it is legitimate. Were 
 not the general principle true, it would be easy to con- 
 vince ourselves of this practically, by observation on the 
 
232 DHAWINO. 
 
 iiiiprcssioiis whicli fine scenery produces on individuals 
 of different talents or acquirements. Among the abso- 
 lutely uneducated, there is an utter insensibility to this 
 class of beauty. The rustic sees nothing in the rude 
 magnificence of alpine landscape but its inconveniences 
 and barrenness; and in the richest scenes of ornamented 
 nature, nothing but the agricultural value. To him, 
 that is the most beautiful country whose produce is the 
 most abundant, where the corn is yellowest and the grass 
 greenest, where the enclosures are most perfect and the 
 woods fittest for the axe. As we ascend in the scale of 
 society, we find similar insensibility, if in a less degree. 
 The apprehension of natural beauty continues to increase 
 with general education and general improvement; or 
 with experience in it, which is education. Thus there is 
 a gradation from insensibility to criticism; that last point 
 of full enjoyment, whicli cannot be attained without a 
 knowledge of art, and which is rarely attained in per- 
 fection but by the thorough artist ; by the Salvators, the 
 Claudes, and the Turners. 
 
 No point can be fixed where a high sense of natural 
 beauty, unaccompanied by a critical knowledge of art, 
 stops ; because Nature must be felt as well as studied by 
 means of art. Nor is this a false or a technical opinion; 
 since the rules of art are derived from Nature: they are 
 her own canons of beauty. Art is the concentration or 
 quintessence of Nature; and it therefore forms her laws. 
 Those, consequently, who are highly sensible on this sub- 
 ject, have made a step in art, even when unaware of it. 
 They are artists to a certain stage, and are in the progress 
 of their education. But as, in all the sciences, a single 
 mind cannot do every thing for itself, but must profit by 
 the observations of others, by the concentrated light of 
 former cultivators, so, in this study of natural beauty, the 
 
DRAWING. 233 
 
 progress of education is accelerated by an acquaintance 
 Mitli that art which contains and concentrates tlie accu- 
 mulated taste of ages. Hence the utility of art in direct- 
 ing* the taste for natural landscape, and in forming- that 
 sensibility which must otherwise have been of slow 
 growth, or which might never have been attained. 
 
 I will not proceed further to illustrate that, of which 
 the truth ought to be apparent. But the Critic in Art 
 finds other sources of enjoyment in landscape, which are 
 unknown, even to those whose acquired taste may, short 
 of this information, stand at a hig-h point in the scale. 
 A thousand circumstances attract his eye and delight his 
 mind, which, to others, are imperceptible, or which they 
 cannot appreciate. In the accidents of light and shade, 
 he perceives beauties which those do not know how to 
 feel or value, who are unaware of their powers in giving 
 force and attraction to paintings. In the multiplicity 
 and harmony of direct, reflected, and half lights, under a 
 thousand tones for which there are no terms, he sees 
 charms which are only sensible to a highly cultivated 
 and somewhat technical eye. It is only such an eye that 
 can truly feel the beauty of colouring, that is sensible to 
 its innumerable modifications, to all the hidden links by 
 which it is connected, and to all the harmony which results 
 from arrangement and contrast. 
 
 Even omitting all consideration of the general land- 
 scape, not a cloud, a rock, or a tree, or even a casual bank 
 or a group of weeds, can occur, in which he does not dis- 
 cover beauties that are insensible to those who have not 
 studied as artists ; who have not learnt to analyze and 
 value whatever they may have occasion to transmit to 
 paper. Thus also, a critic in forms, he learns, from the 
 heap, to select and dwell on those alone which are fine, 
 to make these his study and enjoyment; omitting such 
 
234 DRAWING. 
 
 as are unpleasing, and thus extracting beauties where 
 ordinary spectators see only deformity. It is only the 
 critic also in forms, who can trace those which are really 
 beautiful, or who can derive from them the pleasure which 
 they can yield, but will only surrender to him who pos- 
 sesses within himself a knowledge of the principles of 
 beauty. 
 
 The mere art of omission in contemplating landscape, 
 is a most material one ; nor is it one that can be acquired 
 without study and technical knowledge. Nature is rarely 
 indeed faultless; more commonly she is full of faults to 
 counteract her beauties. And as the deformities are 
 commonly the most obvious, invariably so to the unedu- 
 cated, so these often turn with neglect or aversion from 
 scenes whence the educated and the critic, without diffi- 
 culty, extract beauties. This is the species of criticism 
 which is the result and produce of real knowledge : it is 
 true criticism; a source of felicity instead of discontent : 
 and thus the real critic in art, multiplies the enjoyments 
 which are to be derived from nature. It is in that which 
 is called composition in landscape, that this art of omis- 
 sion is of most use; for it is inseparable from the art of 
 composition. To an ordinary eye, nature is often a heap 
 of confusion, as it is a mass of faults. The artist omits, 
 while he may also add and alter: and thus he extracts 
 ^jeauty from deformity, or discovers what appears to have 
 had no existence. 
 
 This chiefly constitutes the art of seeing landscape, 
 already noticed : an attainment, like many more, to be 
 acquired by practice, and by study of the principles of 
 painting. He who possesses this art, will not only see 
 innumerable beauties undiscoverable by a common eye, 
 but will extract distinct and entire landscapes, where 
 a less practised person feels no pleasure, comprehends 
 
DRAWING, 235 
 
 nothing-, and finds nothing- but confusion. Thus he may 
 also, if he practises drawing-, fill his portfolio with sub- 
 jects, from countries where others would not make a 
 single sketch ; or, if that is not his object, he still travels 
 in the midst of beautiful scenes, when his companions, if 
 he has any, are dull and uninterested ; with the addi- 
 tional satisfaction, if he thinks it such, that results from 
 his consciousness of superiority, and Avith the much more 
 legitimate one, that he is enjoying the reward of his own 
 exertions and studies. Any one who will take the trouble 
 to review his earlier impressions, will be soon convinced 
 of the truth of these views ; he will easily recollect the 
 time when he saw little or nothing; and will the better 
 know how to appreciate the deficient comprehension, and 
 the far less perfect and lively pleasures, of those who 
 are inferior to him in this acquirement. 
 
 Nor is it alone by altering and omitting, by varying, 
 transposing, or adding*, in his imagination, that he thus 
 discovers or creates landscapes. To an uneducated eye, 
 the very magnitude of Nature is often no less an enemy 
 to her picturesque beauties, than her apparent confusion, 
 or occasional want of grace, unity, and consistency. That 
 magnitude he learns to reduce, as he acquires the art of 
 bringing her confusion into order, till he sees it as it 
 ought to be seen. She is every where full of graces, 
 but they are often concealed from every eye but his. He 
 too who knows how to produce consistency himself, will 
 find it in nature; as he will fix on the point where every 
 thing tends to a centre of character or composition ; thus 
 discovering that unity of intention without which land- 
 scape cannot exist. It is the same for the distribution of 
 light, so essential to the composition of landscape, and so 
 essential, even to its existence. Of all the lights which 
 a day may yield, few landscapes can bear the whole; and 
 
236 DRAWING. 
 
 there are innumerable cases where, at certain periods, 
 every thing is confusion, or even deformity, while, at 
 others, all is beautiful. It is for the practised eye to see 
 here, beauty in the midst of confusion : to anatomize and 
 illuminate the mountain and the valley, according to the 
 rules of art or the possibilities of nature; or to view in 
 his mind's eye, under the broad shadows and subdued or 
 harmonious colouring of a morning or evening sun, that 
 which is lost in the glare of noon. 
 
 Such are the chief principles of the art of seeing 
 landscape, on which I might easily dwell at great length, 
 were I not sure that every one must coincide with me in 
 these views. This is the education which, not only 
 teaches us how to enjoy nature, but which absolutely 
 creates the very scenes for our enjoyment. This too is the 
 education which is attainable by all. But the artist who 
 is versed in the works of his predecessors, finds still fur- 
 ther sources of pleasure in comparison ; as the critic does 
 in comparing the several styles of authors. He traces, 
 through the hands of the great masters of the art, the 
 several sources in nature whence their ideas were formed, 
 and compares them with each other and with nature, 
 referring them to their great and original standard. He 
 observes what different persons have selected for study and 
 imitation, and thus improves his powers of criticism in art. 
 
 But even this is far from all which he derives from 
 that source of study. Thus he learns to look at nature 
 alternately with the eye of Poussin, or Claude, or Berg- 
 hem, or Rembrandt, or Waterlo : detecting, by their aid, 
 beauties that would otherwise have escaped him, and 
 multiplying, to an incalculable degree, the sources of his 
 enjoyment as well as of his studies. It is of the character 
 of one artist, perhaps, as I before remarked, to dwell on 
 all that is placid and rich in composition and colour ; 
 
DRAWING. 237 
 
 another delights in the foaming torrent, the ravine, and 
 the precipice; the simplicity of rural nature exclusively 
 attracts a third ; and others yet, select for imitation, the 
 edifices of art, the depths of the forest, the ocean decked 
 with smiles or raging with fury, or the merest elements 
 of landscape, the broken bank, the scathed tree, or the 
 plants that deck the foreground. Viewing with the eyes 
 of the whole, personifying the infinite variety of tastes 
 that has gone before him, stored with the ideas which he 
 has accumulated from the study of their works, his atten- 
 tion is alive and his senses open to every thing ; and not 
 a beauty can pass before him but he is prepared to see it 
 and to enjoy it. There are pleasures in nature for allj 
 when they know where to seek or how to enjoy them. 
 This it is to learn how to see Nature, and thus we must 
 form our own minds : nor let any one imagine that he 
 has exhausted half her stores, unless he knows all that 
 his predecessors have extracted from them. 
 
 In every thing, moreover, the art of seeing is really 
 an art, and an art that must and may be learnt. It must 
 be learnt for the plainest of reasons. It is not a simple 
 eflTort, nor the result of simple sensations. It is the con- 
 sequence of short and quick, but complicated, trains of 
 reasoning, and is necessarily connected with, or depen- 
 dent on, a thousand associations, without which it were 
 the same if the objects were exhibited to the eyes of a 
 child or a quadruped. 
 
 After all, this is but the history of all human know- 
 ledge. It is only the application of a simple and admitted 
 principle, to a daily and common pursuit, which the 
 thoughtless are apt to imagine an easy one, because its 
 objects are daily and common. He who views nature 
 without previous and fundamental knowledge, is no other 
 than he who expects to relish the beauties of poetry with- 
 
238 DRAWING. 
 
 out reading', or the works of art without study of their 
 principles. It is he who travels into foreign lands with- 
 out the requisite preliminary acquirements, and whore- 
 turns as uninformed as he went. It is the incipient bota- 
 nist or juvenile mineralogist, who presumes that he has 
 only to open his eyes, to see and to collect treasures ; but 
 who, yet uneducated, discovers nothing but common 
 weeds and stones. In every science and art, our acquisi- 
 tions of novelty bear an exact proportion to our previous 
 knowledge ; and he who expects that it shall be other- 
 wise, forgets the great law of nature, that neither the 
 mind nor the earth shall yield its stores to those who do 
 not choose to cultivate them. 
 
 It is natural for us to imagine that we must know well 
 and thoroughly, that with which we are familiar; that we 
 cannot fail to understand what we see every day. Thus 
 the vulgar, which imagines itself a judge in music, for- 
 gets also that there may be more in this art than meets its 
 own ear, and refuses to yield its judgment to the learned. 
 As little can it comprehend the natural beauties which 
 surround it, and thus also it disbelieves what it cannot 
 understand. Yet this taste is of slow growth, and is 
 among the last to appear. If we doubt that it requires 
 much and various study, much practice, great delicacy of 
 feeling, a warm and creative imagination, and many col- 
 lateral acquisitions, we have only to examine our own 
 progress, to compare our present state with any previous 
 one, and, in admitting that there may be a much longer 
 path before us than the one we have left behind, learn to 
 be modest. 
 
 As to the public at large, we have ourselves almost 
 witnessed the rise of the very slender degree of taste on 
 this subject which it yet possesses. The varied and beau- 
 tiful scenery in which Scotland abounds, had not been 
 
DRAWING. 239 
 
 dreamt of a century ago. That of England was equally 
 unknown, though accessible to a larger population, and 
 to one in which the number of the educated was arith- 
 metically, if not proportionably, greater; and though the 
 arts were there more diffused, from the presence of col- 
 lections of pictures, the possession of ancient buildings, 
 a longer existence of ornamented villas and rural scenery, 
 and other causes that need not be named. So little was 
 the scenery of its lakes known, that even the lakes 
 themselves are scarcely noticed in the popular work on 
 geography which goes by the name of Guthrie. These 
 beautiful spots are barely mentioned, without even an 
 enumeration, as being " called Derwent waters," and 
 they are classed with Whittlesea mere, to which also the 
 principal place is given. If Gray was not the first to 
 notice them, he was among the first to direct the public 
 attention to them, as Mr. Wyndham did to Wales ; and 
 how rapidly they have risen in fame since, I need not say. 
 You and I can yet remember Avhen all the knowledge 
 of Scottish scenery was confined to Loch Lomond and 
 the most accessible of the Perthshire lakes. At the 
 time of Pennant's and Johnson's tours, now only fifty 
 years past, scarcely any suspicion of the beauty of our 
 scenery was entertained ; nor, excepting Staffa, too re- 
 markable a spot to be easily passed without notice, was a 
 single picturesque object named throughout the country; 
 while even that was then but just known. Johnson, it is 
 true, could not see them, from physical defects; but 
 Pennant talked of pictures, since he described those at 
 Duplin and had an artist in his service : yet he has 
 scarcely mentioned one spot of all that he saw, as a man 
 who felt the beauty of scenery. The account which Birt, 
 long before, gives of the hideous Highland mountains and 
 glens, is absolutely ludicrous. I know not exactly when 
 
240 DRAWING. 
 
 Edinburgh was first discovered to be the most romantic 
 city in the world ; but that is a discovery of no high an- 
 tiquity. I myself was one of the first, and, I believe, the 
 very first absolute stranger, who visited Loch Cateran. 
 I had then a Scottish map in which it was not even in- 
 serted : you and the Lady of the Lake can tell another 
 tale now. Even in another and kindred art, it is well 
 known what was thought of Gothic architecture not very 
 long ago ; and whence, indeed, the very namt^ originated. 
 Every one knows what even professional architects 
 thought of it; nor was it till the time of Gray and Walpole, 
 that the public began to discover that it was not a ponder- 
 ous, gloomy, and tasteless style, the produce of barbarism, 
 and fitted only to delight barbarians. 
 
 The great increase of domestic travelling, while it ap- 
 pears to originate in a taste for the beauties of Nature, is 
 that which chiefly tends to generate it. The people be- 
 gins by imagining that it sees, and admires, and under- 
 stands; and it ends in doing what it had but fancied be- 
 fore; in seeing and admiring and understanding. If a 
 taste for the arts of design is also yet low in Britain, there 
 is a certain moderate portion of it widely diflTused, as is a 
 species of rambling and superficial literature ; and all 
 this aids the cause, at it is equally an earnest of future 
 and further improvement. Let us all strive for more ; 
 and, to attain it, begin by convincing ourselves of our ig- 
 norance. There are few pleasures better worth the pur- 
 suit, for there are few that cost less and produce less pain; 
 few that yield more refined and delicate satisfaction, either 
 in the present enjoyment or the future recollection. The 
 contemplation of nature is a perpetual and a cheap gra- 
 tification ; improving the heart while it cultivates the 
 mind, and abstracting us from the view, as it helps to 
 guard us from the intrusion, of those cares, against 
 
DRAWING. 241 
 
 which it requires all our watchfulness and attention to 
 shut the door. 
 
 Thus I have tried to defend the art of drawing, and, 
 at the same blow, to answer my critic friend. I admit, 
 that those who have never seen, and never are to see, the 
 scenes thus described, are very likely to turn over the 
 pages and to ask, — why all this. But I know that those 
 who have seen them, will be very glad to have them 
 brought again to their recollections, even by the vague 
 and empty array of words ; and I believe that this very 
 array of words which, tell what tale they may, can never 
 tell the reality, will induce others to search in nature for 
 what might have escaped their notice, and thus, by stimu- 
 lating their attention to the improvement of their discern- 
 ment, tend to increase their pleasures. Let me have your 
 approbation, my dear Sir Walter, and we will defy the 
 Critic. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
242 LOCH LONG, 
 
 LOCH LONG, INVERARAY, TYNDRUM, GLENORCHY, 
 LOCH AWE, TYANUILT, CRUACHAN. 
 
 I MUST now return to Tarbet, for the purpose of con- 
 ducting you to Loch Long-, separated from Loch Lomond 
 by a low neck of land about a mile and a half in breadth, 
 which here forms the sole barrier between Loch Lomond 
 and the sea. This is the Tarbet itself, or carrying- place, 
 whence the hamlet derives its name ; a term applied to 
 many places in Scotland similarly situated, and, among 
 others, to the narrow neck which occurs in Harris, and 
 to that which, in Cantyre, separates the east and the 
 west Loch Tarbet. The boat-carrying, is the literal 
 meaning ; and these places are analogous to the Cana- 
 dian portages, and to the 8«oXxo< of the Greeks, one noted 
 example of which existed near Corinth. It is probable 
 that, in this particular case, the name was imposed in 
 consequence of the celebrated raid of Haco (Hakon) in 
 1263, performed by a detachment of his fleet while he lay 
 at the Cnmbrays ; as it does not appear that the natives 
 have ever made a similar use of it as a means of commu- 
 nication between Loch Lomond and the sea. At present, 
 indeed, it is a Tarbet, but of a far other character ; serv- 
 ing to convey, in carts, from one steam boat to another, 
 the idlers whom Greenock and Glasgow evacuate daily 
 in this direction, in pursuit of happiness. 
 
 In the general historical sketch of the Islands here- 
 after given, I have noticed the leading facts which ap- 
 pertain to the affair of Largs ; but there are a few par- 
 ticulars, and this inroad among the rest, which are de- 
 
LOCH LONG. 243 
 
 serving- of a more particular mention. After the conquest 
 of Bute by Rudri, or Roderick, Haco proceeded round 
 Cantyre from Giglia, and anchored in Hereyiar-sund, or 
 the sound of Arran : probably in Loch Ransa, as there is 
 no other anchorage in Kilbranan sound, which must be 
 the place meant. He there received some monks whom 
 the King- of Scotland had despatched to confer with him 
 about a pacification, and soon after sent an embassy him- 
 self to treat about the proposed peace. Having given 
 them an audience, Alexander returned a commission with 
 counter proposals ; and, as far as can be discovered, it 
 appears that he was content that Haco should retain all 
 the Western Islands, or all the Sudreys that lay beyond 
 the mainland of Scotland, if himself was allowed to keep 
 Arran, Bute, and the Cumbrays. No terms were, how- 
 ever, concluded ; and as the weather was now becoming- 
 boisterous, the Norwegian fleet sailed up the Clyde and 
 anchored in the sound between the Cumbrays and Largs. 
 A fresh negotiation was then commenced ; which, pro- 
 ducing- no results, Haco sent an ambassador, to propose 
 that the two sovereigns should meet with all their forces, 
 and treat about a peace ; and that if they could not come 
 to an agreement, they should engage with their whole 
 armies and trust the issue to God. But as no decisive 
 answer was given to this proposal, the truce was declared 
 at an end : and it seems probable indeed that it was the 
 design of the Scots, to draw on these discussions till the 
 advance of winter should render the station of the Nor- 
 wegian fleet untenable; while they were at the same 
 time gradually collecting forces in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The war being thus recommenced, and the fleet being 
 in want of provisions, the Norwegian king sent sixty 
 ships up into Loch Long, commanded by Magnus the 
 King- of Mann, Dugal, of Isla I conjecture, who is also 
 
 r2 
 
244 
 
 LOCH LONG. 
 
 called a Konongr, his brother Allan, Angus, and Mar- 
 g-ad, all Western Island chiefs, with Vigleik Priestson, 
 and Ivar Holm. Having anchored, they drew their boats 
 across this neck of land into Loch Lomond ; wasting the 
 islands, which are said to have been well inhabited, with 
 fire, burning also the houses about the lake, and making 
 a great devastation. Allan proceeded far into Scotland, 
 killing many of the inhabitants and takijig many hundreds 
 of cattle. Returning afterwards to their fleet, they met 
 with a violent storm in Loch Long and lost ten of their 
 ships ; Ivar Holm dying also of an acute disorder. The 
 affair of Largs, hereafter narrated, followed immediately 
 after this inroad : yet this large detachment did not re- 
 turn till it had terminated : a proof that what has been 
 considered by some Scottish historians as a pitched and 
 intended battle, is to be attributed to accident; as Haco 
 could not have intended to fight with less than the half of 
 his forces. 
 
 I have had occasion to remark incidentally, in various 
 parts of these letters, that the condition of the Western 
 Islands, and probably that of the Highlands in general, 
 was superior, in point of civilization and order, previous 
 to 1300, or during the period of the Norwegian rule, to 
 what it was afterwards, when the separate clans had, not 
 only renounced the controul of the Scottish government, 
 but had set up as petty princes, and were engaged in a 
 constant succession of mutual hostilities. I think that 
 conclusion is justified, not only by a variety of facts 
 which have been stated on different occasions, but by the 
 conduct and character of Haco, who appears to have been 
 both an enlightened and amiable personage ; as does John, 
 who seems to have been an ancestor of theMacdonalds,and 
 who was the greatest, after Magnus, of the insular princes 
 holding under the Norwegian crown; though, whether 
 
LOCH LONG. 245 
 
 he held his lands through the intervention of Magnus, as 
 Kin^ of Mann, or immediately from Norway, does not well 
 appear. The several embassies and negotiations seem 
 to have been conducted with all the formality and dignity 
 usual in modern and civilized countries; the Bishops of 
 Hamar and Orkney, with other distinguished persons, 
 having been among the Norwegian envoys. In a similar 
 manner, all the formalities of the several truces were 
 rigidly followed, even where these were demanded and 
 granted for burying- the dead ; matters which formed no 
 part of the system or fashion of clan warfare or policy in 
 after times, where, on the contrary, we find that every 
 species of treachery was, not only adopted, but held to 
 be justifiable. 
 
 When Haco had anchored in Gigha, John came to 
 meet him, in a single ship, accompanied by Bishop 
 Thorgil, and without any precautions. But when, on a 
 former occasion, he had consented to meet Alexander the 
 second at Kerrera, it was on condition that four Scottish 
 Earls should pledge their honour for his safe return, 
 whatever the event of the negotiations might be. This 
 marks a striking difference between the manners, or 
 morals of the two courts; as his situation was nearly the 
 same with respect to both, though holding lands of greater 
 value under the Scottish than under the Norwegian crown, 
 and therefore having stronger claims to its good faith and 
 protection. John's conduct in this case was strictly 
 honourable : as, although pressed by Alexander to de- 
 liver up Cairnburgh and three other castles which he 
 held from Haco, with the promise of the King's favour, 
 and of estates in Scotland of greater value, and though 
 much urged by his friends and relations to comply, he 
 persisted in refusing to break his oath to the Norwegian 
 king. His conduct to Haco in the conference at Gigha, 
 
246 LOCH LONG. 
 
 was equally firm and honourable ; refusing to join him, 
 on account of his oath to the King of Scotland, and choos- 
 ing to resign the lands which he held under Norway, 
 rather than break his allegiance to Alexander. But al- 
 though having this subject thus in his power, Haco used 
 neither force nor treachery to procure his compliance; 
 not even choosing to credit the imputations of rebellion 
 and disaffection that were laid to his charge, until he 
 should have the actual experience of facts. The same 
 mild and upright conduct marked the whole of his tran- 
 sit through the isles ; granting written protections to the 
 churches which applied for them, dismissing the alarmed 
 suppliants from various quarters in peace, and removing 
 the apprehensions which they had justly entertained on 
 account of their late rebellious conduct. In the same 
 manner, he received the apologies of the rebel lords of 
 Isla and Cantyre, Margad and Angus ; countermanding 
 the intended invasion of their estates, confirming them in 
 their lands, and being content, in lieu of their merited 
 punishment, with a supply of cattle for his fleet. When 
 also he at length dismissed John, after having- carried him 
 to Arran, he loaded him with rich presents, suffering him 
 to remain neutral, according to the dictates of his own 
 conscience. 
 
 It is remarked in a general manner, in the historical 
 sketch, that the defeat at Largs could not be considered 
 in any other light than that of an accidental series of skir- 
 mishes, caused chiefly by the inj uries which the Norwegians 
 had suffered from the weather ; and not as a battle, decid- 
 ing the superiority of Scotland, and involving the cession 
 of the islands. So far indeed is that from being the fact, 
 that when Haco had arrived at the harbour of Tobermory 
 in his return northwards, he confirmed Dugal and Allan 
 in their estates, gave Bute to Rudri, or Roderick, who had 
 
LOCH LONG. 247 
 
 rebelled against Scotland and had been employed as 
 commander in the invasion of that island, and also gave 
 Arran to Margad, Thus even the two, and the principal, 
 islands which had been the subject of negotiation with 
 Scotland, and the immediate cause of the affair of Largs, 
 remained in the possession of Norway : which could not 
 have happened had the success of the Scots in this action 
 been as decisive as has been commonly imagined, and 
 asserted by Scottish historians. So far indeed was the 
 Norwegian power in the islands from having been shaken 
 by these losses, that the event of Haco's expedition was to 
 regain, and once more to settle under Norway, all that 
 had originally been acquired by Magnus Barefoot. 
 
 Thoueh it is well known that the earlier northern in- 
 vaders of Britain and Ireland conducted themselves with 
 great cruelty, it must be remembered, that these Ostmen, 
 or Easterlings, were not a people living under a regular 
 government, but independent and fierce pirates. They 
 were the Vikingr, the regular sea kings, whose home 
 was, literally, on the deep ; pirates by trade, without 
 land or settled abode, and occupied in ranging the seas 
 for plunder. But the Norwegian kings in after times, 
 and their subjects equally, committed no unnecessary 
 atrocities ; and in the time of Haco, as I have already 
 shewn, conducted themselves according to the received 
 usages of civilized warfare, and probably with not much 
 less moderation and regularity than is the custom of our 
 own days. That they exceeded the Scots of the same age 
 in civilization, is proved, not only by the facts abovemen- 
 tioned, but by other circumstances which have been else- 
 Avhere narrated, and by many which it is beyond ray 
 limits to enter on ; and which, as no such parallel or con- 
 clusion is drawn from them by the narrators, are the 
 more worthy of reliance. In the invasion of the isles by 
 
248 LOCH LONG. 
 
 the Earl of Ross, in the time of Alexander the second 
 among other cruelties, the Scots destroyed even the child- 
 ren; lifting them on the points of their spears, and then 
 throwing them on the ground. This practice had long 
 been forbidden in Norway, by Olver, wlio thence ac- 
 quired the name of Barna-kall, the protector of infants. 
 Thus also when Haco, in his progress to Orkney, had 
 landed at Oiafiord, which I presume to be Loch Eribol, 
 some Scottish prisoners were brought in ; one of whom 
 he detained as a hostage, while he suffered the others to 
 depart, on a promise that they would bring in some cattle. 
 On the same day, nine of the Norwegians had gone 
 ashore for water, seven of whom were killed by the na- 
 tives; notwithstanding which, and the failure of the for- 
 mer party in performing their promise, Haco dismissed 
 his hostage uninjured. It is safe to conclude, from these 
 facts, and from other circumstances which it would be 
 tedious and unnecessary to state, that the inhabitants of 
 the Western islands and of the western coast, whether 
 Highlanders, (Celts,) or Norwegians, were a far more 
 civilized people before the thirteenth century, than we 
 find them in those after days, when they had split into 
 many states and were equally free of the controul of 
 Norway and of Scotland. 
 
 I remarked that the character of " Haco the aged" 
 himself, seems to have been that of an enlightened and 
 amiable man. On various occasions, we find him studi- 
 ous of the comfort and accommodation of his friends and 
 warriors, and conforming to their wishes, even when 
 these did not coincide with his own views. At all times, 
 the Norwegian nobles seem to have possessed an aristo- 
 cratical influence, but of a far different nature from that 
 of the turbulent nobility of Scotland ; and in this parti- 
 cular instance, the king and his people appear to have 
 
LOCH LONG. 249 
 
 had a common and friendly interest, and to have lived to- 
 gether like brethren. His death, which took place in 
 Orkney, was tedious, and his nights sleepless ; and he 
 passed his weary hours in listening to a succession of 
 readers, who relieved each other at his bedside. When 
 sensible that he was dying, all his friends were sum- 
 moned, and each of them kissed him as he took his leave 
 for ever. 
 
 It would be a matter of interest could we ascertain 
 the nature and size of these Norwegian vessels, and of 
 those generally used at that period in the Western Isles. 
 But we can only form conjectures. When Haco had ar- 
 rived at Kerrera, it appears that he had a hundred ships, 
 most of them of a large size, and well provided with men 
 and arms. The general dimensions of these are not 
 stated, but those of his own vessel may be conjectured 
 from some of the particulars that are related; and though 
 it should have been the largest, it will convey an idea 
 of the nature of these vessels, which seem to have been 
 of three kinds, transports, galleys, or long ships, and 
 boats. The king's ship was built entirely of oak, and 
 ornamented with heads of dragons beautifully overlaid 
 with gold. There was a quarter deck, a main deck, a 
 fore deck, and a forecastle, to each of which a distinct set 
 of officers was appointed, and there were twenty-seven 
 banks of oars. According to the enumeration, there must 
 have been 200 men, or more, and upwards of thirty-four 
 officers ; as the names of individuals to that amount are 
 given, besides some chamberlains and priests who are 
 not named. All else that we can discover about this 
 vessel, is, that she had eight anchors ; as it is mentioned 
 that, in the gale at Largs, she could not be brought up 
 till she had let go her eighth, or sheet anchor. But I 
 need not pursue further that, on which every one, from 
 these few facts, may form his own conjectures. 
 
250 LOCH LONG. 
 
 Having, in the account of the Clyde hereafter, de- 
 scribed the lower part of Loch Long as far as it required 
 description, I have only now to notice its upper extre- 
 mity, so enclosed among- mountains as to resemble a 
 fresh-water lake, and only to be recognised as an arm of 
 the sea, at low water, when the long lines of brown 
 weeds betray its real nature. I know not but that the 
 first view of this spot disappoints those who have just 
 quitted the magnificent scenes of Loch Lomond ; simple 
 and unpretending as it is. But he who, after spending a 
 few hours at Arochar, leaves it with the same impression, 
 may proceed to Inveraray as fast as he pleases, for he 
 would gain nothing by a longer abode. He, however, 
 who has the faculty of seeing- landscape in places where 
 it is less obvious than at Luss or Stirling Castle, will 
 easily discover that, with all its simplicity, Loch Long 
 here affords many beautiful pictures, and in a style of 
 considerable grandeur. Putting out of question the Cob- 
 ler, the form of which is fantastical rather than pleasing, 
 the general character of the mountains is no less pictu- 
 resque than simple and broad ; while, being sufficiently 
 near to fill the eye, they give to the landscape a fulness 
 and richness of effect not often found in lake scenery, 
 and not much unlike to that of the upper and bolder 
 parts of Loch Lomond. The fine trees which surround 
 the inn, and the picturesque outlines of the house itself, 
 form middle grounds, at once various and rich, to 
 this bold distance ; while the foregrounds, where there 
 is an incessant variety produced by the sea banks, the 
 trees, the mountain torrents, and the rocks, possess 
 that happy congruity and continuity of character, which 
 render the composition of these pictures as perfect and 
 harmonious as they are numerous and striking. Many of 
 the landscapes are, however, of a coy disposition, and 
 will not be found without some study, and some of that 
 
LOCH LONG. 251 
 
 courtship wliich Nature, true to her imputed sexual cha- 
 racter, delights in and demands. I may add that the 
 whole of these picturesque scenes are limited to a very 
 small space about the house of Arochar; nor need any 
 one, to whom this is the sole pursuit, follow the margin 
 of the water downwards, beyond the point at which the 
 hills first appear to lock over each other ; a point situated 
 nearly opposite to the house of Ardgartan. I may also 
 add that there is no peculiar interest in the road that leads 
 hence to the Clyde, though it offers a convenient method 
 of terminating a tour in this quarter. 
 
 I think the Highlanders are more interested in the act 
 of drawing, and more civil about this matter than the peo- 
 ple elsewhere. That is a consequence of their general 
 intelligence and politeness ; nor do they always suppose, 
 as is common with the lower classes, that you are making 
 " plans of the country." In Jersey, I have been taken 
 up by a corporal and a file of men, and introduced to the 
 main guard. In Cornwall, I have been marched ten miles 
 to a justice of peace, as a horse stealer. In the same lu- 
 minous county, I have been taken for the merry Andrew 
 and distributor of drugs to a quack doctor. In Plymouth, 
 I have been carried by a Frenchman before the Port Ad- 
 miral. In Wales, ajack-ass, whom I met in the ruins of 
 Lamphey, was the only person who seemed to take any in- 
 terest in the matter. In every town and road of England, 
 all the people crowd round you ; the half pressing on 
 your shoulders and elbows, and the remainder standing 
 right in front. In the Highlands, they have held an um- 
 brella over me to keep off the rain, smoothed a stone for 
 me to sit on, lent a hand to hold down the leaves of my 
 book in a gale of wind, and begged to look at the draw- 
 ing when it was done. As I was amusing myself here with 
 drawing the Cobler among a crowd of herring fishers, 
 
252 LOCH LONG. 
 
 one of them who had been very intent on the proceeding, 
 said, when it was done, "I wish I could draw like you." 
 I remarked that herring fishing was a better trade. " I 
 canna think fhat," was the reply. I assured him I made 
 nothing of it. " That's your fault," said the fisherman ; 
 " if I could draw like you, I would make money of it." 
 So would I, were I Parmenio. 
 
 There is but little beauty in the ride round the upper 
 extremity of the Loch, even to the mouth of Glencro ; 
 although, about the point where the road quits the water 
 to plunge into this rude defile, there are some striking 
 shore landscapes, including the house of Ardgartan. The 
 sun never shone on a brighter vision than the house of 
 Ardgartan contained in our younger days : doubtless, 
 you remember it well : but many suns have rolled over 
 your head and mine since that time, and our flaxen locks, 
 at least, no longer glitter in his beams. 
 
 But, to the Cobler, time rolls on in vain. Still he 
 lifts his head to the clouds, defying the sun and the storm ; 
 still he hammers at his last, unmoved, unchanged; look- 
 ing down from his proud elevation on the transitory sons 
 of little men, reckless as his noted namesake, of the tur- 
 moils and mutations of the world at his feet. Absurd as 
 is this object, the resemblance is indeed striking. This 
 name is, however, modern : as, to the Highlanders, this 
 strange hill is known by the appellation of Arthur's Seat, 
 like the ponderous guardian of your own smoky and 
 romantic city. Arthur, who has a mountain and a seat 
 also in Brecknockshire, Cadair Arthur, as well as a castle 
 in Brittany, has been a puzzling personage at all times, in 
 all his characters and places, since Milton and Hume are 
 at issue even about his existence ; but no where more 
 than on this s de of Tweed. The south of Scotland in- 
 deed was filled with his fame, while the romances of the 
 
LOCH LONG. 353 
 
 north of England even place his court at Carlisle: but 
 how did he obtain a throne in Glencro. His Queen 
 crossed me formerly, at Alyth and Glamis ; and if I could 
 not solve the enigma as to the lady and her ubiquity, I 
 am not a whit nearer the mark here, where her lord is 
 concerned. If, however, Arthur had three spouses, all 
 of the name of Gwenhwyfar, then indeed Pennant and 
 Glamis church-yard may be right still, and I must beg 
 that worthy man's pardon : and the lady who lived at 
 Alyth, is not the lady who deviated with Sir Lauucelot 
 and took the veil at Ambresbury, nor the lady, if that be 
 a different one, whose skull was found by Edward Long- 
 shanks, and preserved, together with her lord's, as a relic. 
 I hope that you have a theory on this subject, as you are 
 in honour bound to have. Perhaps the Arthur of Loch 
 Long is Owen's allegorical personage, and not he who 
 is descended from the Trojan Brutus, who kept a round 
 table, had a frail wife, was buried at Glastonbury, born at 
 Tintagel, conquered all Europe, and is now flying about 
 in the shape of a raven. If so, he is the Great Bear, 
 Charles's Wain; the Northern Wain of our Scandinavian 
 ancestry, the chariot of Odin or Thor. These allegorical 
 personages are very convenient on occasion. If that will 
 not do, then, Arar, in the ancient British, signifies a hero; 
 so that this may have been the mountain of the hero, ge- 
 uerically. It would be a base conclusion, after all this 
 learning, to suppose it had been named after some mo- 
 dern Highland Arter, or Macarter, of the race of Campbell. 
 But why should I trouble myself about what is not the 
 business of Davus : as my concern at present is with the 
 mountain itself, not with its godfathers and godmothers. 
 
 It is well worth ascending: and, as far as the foot of 
 this extraordinary object, the ascent is not difficult. The 
 resemblance is preserved in all its integrity, even to the 
 
254 LOCH LONG. 
 
 base of the precipice ; but the whimsical effect of the 
 form is there almost obliterated by the magnificence of 
 these bold rocks, towering high above, and perched, like 
 the still more noble Scuir of Egg, on the utmost ridge of 
 the mountain. The effect here is truly grand ; from the 
 extent, no less than from the altitude, of these cliffs, and 
 from the beauty and breadth of style which render these 
 rocks a study for a painter. In one sense, however, it was 
 my misfortune to have a day of bright sunshine : for I 
 can easily conceive the romantic effects this object would 
 assume, if seen, as I have seen the rock of Egg, amid 
 the driving mists and among the wild and changing* clouds 
 of a stormy sky. Even amidst all the glaring and un- 
 poetical truth of a full sun and an azure heaven, it was 
 almost a scene of enchantment, like the work of a magi- 
 cian ; the castle of the gigantic genius of the mountain 
 and of the wide spread and wonderful landscape beneath. 
 An English s^avant, whom I met in Glencro, was nearly 
 of the same opinion. "Whose castle is that: the fellow 
 
 must be a d d fool to build it so high." 
 
 There is a tradition that the heir of the Campbells of 
 this country, was obliged to seat himself on its loftiest 
 peak, and that, in default of this heroic deed, his lands 
 passed to the next heir. I had no lands to inherit or lose, 
 no tenement but the uncertain lease of a worthless car- 
 case, but was resolved to place it as high as ever did a 
 Campbell. Not, however, to boast of more courage than 
 was really my own, 1 could not well shun the honour; 
 for I found myself, unwarily, in that position, common 
 enough in these cases, where it was easier to ascend than 
 to go downwards. This clambering of mountains is not 
 unlike that moral clambering which leads us on, occa- 
 sionally, to a descent equally involuntary and rapid. 
 Whatever the fact may be in this latter case, it is often 
 
LOCH LONG. 255 
 
 much easier to ascend a mountain acclivity than to des- 
 cend it : the labor et opus is to go down hill ; and the 
 steeper and the more difficult the ascent, so much greater 
 is the necessity of ascending. We feel an imaginary 
 security in the next step which we have not in the pre- 
 sent; but when we have attained it, all the danger still 
 lies downwards, and still we hope for a surer and a firmer 
 footing on the next shelf or the next tuft of grass. Thus 
 clambering, and thus moralizing, I reached the summit 
 of the ridge, and found myself astride on this rocky 
 saddle, with one foot in Loch Long and the other in 
 Glencro: in the very position, doubtless, of the bold 
 Campbell's bold heir. There is a pride and a pleasure 
 in surmounting' difficulties, even when there is no one 
 present to applaud. 
 
 I was surprised to find the summit so acute and so 
 narrow. It was the bridge Al Sirat, the very razor's 
 blade over which the faithful are to walk into Paradise. 
 But it was a magnificent scene ; and, secure in my ele- 
 vated seat, I could contemplate it without anxiety or fear. 
 The cliffs themselves form a set of objects at once sublime 
 and picturesque ; and, most of all, that square mass at 
 the western extremity, which rises, in lofty and broad 
 magnificence, to a height of 200 feet or more, like a gigan- 
 tic tower rooted on the mountain's brow. These huge 
 masses of rock, equally grand in style and powerful in 
 their effect, give this an advantage over most of the moun- 
 tain views which I have seen in Scotland, by the wonder- 
 ful foregrounds which they afford ; but the surrounding 
 and distant scenery is also various and splendid. To the 
 sea of mountains eastward and northward, among which 
 Ben Lomond towers, distinguished from all the rest, and 
 to the bright gleaming waters of Loch Cateran and Loch 
 Lomond, beyond which even Stirling is recognised, sue- 
 
256 GLENCRO. 
 
 ceeds, to tbe west, the wild chasm of Glencro, on which 
 we look doAvn, a tremendous depth below. Beneath, 
 stretches the whole sinuous extent of Loch Long ; wind- 
 ing bright beneath our feet, and prolonged between its 
 mountain boundaries till it reaches the Clyde and the 
 sea. The glittering courses of the Gare Loch, of Loch 
 Goil, and of Loch Fyne, add to the variety and bril- 
 liancy of this landscape map ; and we pursue the Clyde 
 through all its boundaries, displaying on its wide ex- 
 panse the well-recognised Cumbrays, the lofty rock of 
 Ailsa, and the rude mountains of Arran ; while, beyond 
 all, I could distinguish what appeared to be the island of 
 Mull. 
 
 Glencro, with its continuation Glen Kinglas, has na- 
 turally attracted the attention of the general body of 
 travellers; as it is the only valley of this peculiarly 
 wild character which lies in the course of the ordinary 
 tours. Yet it is very uninteresting : rude, without gran- 
 deur or beauty of any kind, and nearly as void of variety 
 as of magnificence or grace. The prolonged simplicity 
 of Glen Kinglas, is, in my own estimation, far more strik- 
 ing than the rudeness of Glencro ; though, in neither, is 
 there any thing capable of making a strong impression 
 on the mind, and, certainly, nothing picturesque. The 
 single point where the road attains the highest elevation, 
 well known for its resting- place and often-quoted in- 
 scription, is, perhaps, the only striking one along the 
 whole line ; though the small lake, surrounded by rude 
 and misshapen hills and rocks, has neither beauty nor 
 interest. At the termination of Glen Kinglas, the inn of 
 Cairndhu introduces us to Loch Fyne and to disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 To me, at least, it was disappointment at my first 
 visit; and, instead of improving on the second, at each time 
 
INVERARAY. 257 
 
 I have revisited it the disappointment has been greater 
 I oug-ht to be in the wrong, nevertheless, as no place is 
 more talked of or more visited than Inveraray. But how 
 is it possible we should all agree on these and similar 
 matters, when a man finds it sometimes difficult enough 
 to agree with himself; as, if he keeps a journal of his tra- 
 vels during successive years, he assuredly will. What 
 chance is there that half a dozen different persons, labour- 
 ing under the various accidents of dullness, wit, inexpe- 
 rience, study, watchfulness, inattention, learning, igno- 
 rance, besides the other more casual incidents, of rain, 
 sunshine, good humour, bad, before dinner, after, to say 
 nothing of the toothach and other aches, should agree; 
 and what wonder is it that we do not always agree with 
 ourselves, when we are not always ourselves. At any 
 rate, let us not quarrel about the beauties of Inveraray, 
 but recollect the eleg'ant apologue of Jack Sprat. 
 
 But if I am in a right minority, then the multitude is 
 wrong, as happens occasionally in other matters than their 
 judgment of picturesque beauty. And this is probably 
 true, when the praises which are lavished on this place and 
 on Taymouth, are withheld from Killin, and Dunkeld, 
 and Drummond castle, and Blair, and Kinrara, and the 
 Tumel, and a hundred other places which have had no 
 advocate, which have not been pufted into fame. If there 
 are places which are deservedly admired, it is not because 
 their beauties have been discovered by these admirers, 
 but because, like Inveraray, they have been written into 
 notice ; Loch Cateran by yourself, and Loch Lomond and 
 others by a numerous herd of tourists. But it is the same, 
 in this case, for men as for lakes and mountains. It is a 
 mistake of the heathen goddess that she goes before with 
 her trumpet, instead of following in the rear of perform- 
 ance. Thus the various wonders of the day are blown 
 VOL. r. s 
 
258 INVERARAY. 
 
 into notice; in science as in literature ; in talents as in— 
 what not ; it is all the same. 
 
 I know no term by which I can so well characterize 
 the style of Loch Fyne from Cairndhii to Inveraray, as 
 meanness. There is wood at Ardkinglas, and there is a 
 profusion of it at Inveraray ; but, excepting those places, 
 the hills are rude and bare. Even rudeness and bareness 
 may however be beautiful, as they are at Loch Long, pro- 
 vided the forms and the outlines are fine. But there are 
 no such redeeming beauties here. The form of the water, 
 the form of the hills, the shores, the outline, all is tame, 
 though lofty, and, though rugged, deformed. And this 
 is as true of Inveraray itself as of all that surrounds it. 
 The hill of Dun y quaich is the only characteristic feature 
 it possesses, and that is rather an object than a beauty. 
 The style of the house, or castle, could not well be worse: 
 a heavy solid square, one story of which is absurdly 
 sacrificed by being sunk within the ground, bearing a 
 sort of double casino ; as if, in succession, the three parts 
 had been protruded, one out of the other, like a telescope, 
 or as if the whole, had, like the Santa Casa, flown, no one 
 knows whence, to alight on the top of this ponderous 
 mass, itself pitched naked on a green lawn. The praise 
 of magnificence, in point of extent, and wood, and wealth, 
 must however be allowed to the parks or pleasure grounds. 
 But that is all. Nothing here displays that character 
 which we should expect in an alpine country : and that 
 splendour which results from their space and their profu- 
 sion of fine trees, though it would render the pleasure- 
 grounds of Inveraray a noble domain in an open country 
 like England, is here insuflBcient to atone for the utter 
 want of that picturesque beauty which we are entitled to 
 expect among the mountains of the Highlands, and which 
 we meet almost wherever we go. The present building, 
 
INVERARAV. 259 
 
 I need scarcely say, is modern ; but the stone of which it 
 is built is not potstone, as is commonly said, but a soft va- 
 riety of micaceous slate, approaching to the talc slate of 
 mineralogists. There was an ancient castle here prior to 
 1480, but it has long since disappeared. 
 
 It was not very long since, that I was in a company, 
 where a gentleman, describing Inveraray, mentioned, as if 
 incidentally, that the castle was built of lapis lazuli. 
 The company stared, particularly as he was what is called 
 a man of science, and had been talking about rocks and 
 minerals. In hopes of giving him an opportunity of re- 
 calling his raalaprop blunder, which was obvious enough, 
 I whispered the word ollaris; to which the dignified an- 
 swer was, " you must give me leave, sir, to understand 
 these things, as this is a subject to which I have paid par- 
 ticular attention." The argument was unanswerable, and 
 lapis lazuli it remained. I have been for some time watch- 
 ing for the publication of this philosopher's travels; but 
 it is probable that the printer's devil will interpose to pre- 
 vent the catastrophe of the lapis lazuli. This class of 
 people nevertheless does write books, and we read them : 
 like Macaulay, whom I have elsewhere mentioned, and 
 who found that St. Kilda was 5000 feet high. He was 
 equally fitted for an observer and a traveller, with whom 
 I was dining not very long ago. There was a white lilac 
 tree in full bloom opposite the window, which he must 
 have seen on every summer day of his life, for many 
 years before. " You cannot conceive" said he " what a 
 beautiful purple that will be in a week." 
 
 As I have elsewhere noticed the remainder of Loch 
 Fyne, hence to the sea, I may now conduct you to Glen- 
 orchy; accessible from this quarter, as well as from Kil- 
 lin and by the way of Tyndrum. There is nothing 
 remarkable in the valley of Glen Ara, nor throughout 
 
 s2 
 
260 LOCH AWE. 
 
 this ride of twelve miles, till we gain sight of Glenorchy 
 itself. And that I may here dismiss the greater portion 
 of Loch Awe and of the country through which it extends, 
 I may as well add, that almost the only interestmg part 
 of this lake is that which lies between its upper extremity, 
 in Glenorchy, and its exit, which, contrary to the usual 
 rule in our lakes, is at its side, and not very far from this 
 extremity. To the mere traveller, there is no induce- 
 ment to pursue this long lake throughout its exten- 
 sive course ; as it lies in a dull and uninteresting tract of 
 country. 
 
 In approaching from Inveraray, the first views of the 
 lake are very striking, and, I may add, equally magni- 
 ficent and wild. They are very different in character 
 from those which occur in approaching from Tyndrum; 
 the water appearing to be a confined basin enclosed 
 among lofty mountains, rude and savage in their aspect, 
 but lofty and grand ; filling at once the eye and the pic- 
 ture, and, literally, towering to the clouds. It is the 
 elevated ridoe of Cruachan which forms the distant boun- 
 dary: majestic and simple, and throwing its dark sha- 
 dows on the Avater, which, spacious as we know it to be, 
 seems almost lost amid the magnitude of the surrounding 
 objects. The castle of Kilchurn, hence a mere spot in 
 the landscape, adds much to the sublimity of the effect, 
 as affording a scale and an object of comparison. 
 
 Tyndrum, the ramifying point of the road to Glenco, 
 is noted, only for the dreary aspect of its position, and, 
 if it is not changed since my day, for its unspeakable 
 badness and dirt as an inn. This is a base remark: but 
 I only follow the example of all my predecessors. What 
 would modern travellers do, without an inn to abuse. 
 And then, when I have found three bad inns, why should 
 I not say that all the Highland inns are bad. Here too I 
 
TYNDRIJW. 261 
 
 am borne out by abundant examples: and besides, this is 
 the exact mode of philosophizing laid down by my Lord 
 Bacon ; which proceeds to generalization from a few sim- 
 ple facts. He who does not find comfort, even at Tyn- 
 drum, must learn to make it: and if it is on this and such 
 like things that he has pinned his happiness, let him stay 
 at home ; in Portsoken ward, or elsewhere. The lead mine 
 in its neighbourhood was never very productive, and has 
 been wrought, and again abandoned, at different times, 
 as the price of the metal has fluctuated. 
 
 Pennant, whose general accuracy I need not here 
 praise, as I shall often have occasion to do so, thought fit 
 to imagine, I know not why, that Tyndrum was the highest 
 inhabited land in Scotland; I think he says Britain, for I 
 have not his book. It would be easy to shew him many 
 houses in far more elevated positions, in his own princi- 
 pality; and, in Scotland, there are numerous inhabited 
 places which far surpass it in elevation. Dalwhinnie ex- 
 ceeds Tyndrum by many hundred feet; as does Garva 
 more, together with many situations in Badenoch. Boles- 
 kine, and an extensive tract of inhabited land about the 
 sources of the Nairn, are much higher; and, about Blair 
 in Atholl, corn is cultivated, both on the skirts of Ben- 
 y-gloe and above the pass of Killicrankie, at a far more 
 considerable altitude. It is the same in Glen Isla, and in 
 many other places along the whole southern ridge of the 
 Highland mountains : the Duke of AthoH's house at 
 Fealair is probably not much less than a thousand feet 
 higher : but 1 need not extend an enumeration that might 
 easily be quadrupled. 
 
 If no one would willingly go to Tyndrum a second 
 time, or remain there an hour, so, no one will, from choice, 
 take the road from this point to the King's house and 
 Glenco, which is dreary in the extreme. Loch Tulla 
 
262 DALIMALLY. 
 
 makes no kind of atonement for the hideous blank pre- 
 sented by the remainder of the way over Baadnashoag-, 
 or the Black Mount, and for the dreary vacancy of the 
 moor of Rannoch, along the margin of which it is con- 
 ducted. If there be any advantage in Tyndrum and its 
 chilling deserts, it is that of rendering the first view of 
 the vale of Glenorchy and of Loch Awe more acceptable. 
 That view forms a fine landscape, more various, though 
 less grand, than the fii-st sight of the lake from the In- 
 veraray road, and deriving from the tower of the church, 
 bad as is its style, an air of civilization the more striking 
 from its contrast with the preceding blank. The inn of 
 Dalmally is a convenient station for those who are desir- 
 ous of mastering all the beauties of this noble valley, 
 which may assuredly be reckoned among the most at- 
 tractive spots of the Highlands. 
 
 Of all the civil and political usages of the Highland 
 inns, I perceived that the one which most surprised the 
 London companion whom I had on one occasion, was the 
 very kingly and courtly practice of keeping a fool. The 
 Davie Gellatly at the court of Dalmally, seemed to be 
 kept partly for the purpose of sweeping the court, and 
 partly, I suppose, for the entertainment of the courtiers 
 and the guests ; unless there were better reasons in the 
 raggedness of his nether garments and the club which he 
 wore in resemblance of Hercules, whose duty also he per- 
 formed in the stable. He of Tyanuilt, might have sat as 
 a model for the god Anubis; wearing his arms by his 
 sides with the most inveterate perpendicularity, and 
 always moving both together as if they had been copied 
 from a parallel ruler. But the varieties here are infinite. 
 It is a branch of the human species indeed, well worth 
 studying, and which has not yet met with half the atten- 
 tion it deserves; though you have given it a good-na- 
 
KILCHURX. 263 
 
 tured push yourself in the poetical Davie. There was 
 another here, a merry fool, who, had he been well rubbed 
 down and decorated with a cap and a bauble, might have 
 procured a place at a higher court than the miry court of 
 Tyanuilt, in the olden time. I cannot discover that any 
 particular worship is now here paid to this much neg- 
 lected race, as of yore ; but it is plain to be seen that 
 some latent wisdom is thought to lie hid under the ob- 
 vious deficiency of it ; as, in the world at large, a want of 
 common sense is ordinarily held to conceal sense too deep 
 for vulgar use and every day wear. 
 
 Whatever grandeur and variety the lake may here 
 derive from the lofty mountains by which it is surrounded , 
 from its fine expanse, and from the bold and various 
 character of its margin, Kilchurn castle forms its leading- 
 object and chief attraction ; producing, in itself, many 
 fine pictures, and being the principal feature of many 
 more. In the Western Highlands, at least, it claims the 
 pre-eminence, no less from its magnitude and the inte- 
 grity of the ruins, than from the very picturesque arrange- 
 ments of the building; nor indeed has it many rivals in 
 the country at large. If there is nothing very marked 
 in the style of its architecture, the lines and masses are 
 finely disposed, and the irregularity of its form causes it 
 to appear under a great variety of picturesque aspects. 
 At the same time, the various and bold back-grounds 
 produced by the surrounding bills, and the fine sheet of 
 water in which it is nearly insulated, serve to add, ma- 
 terially, both to the beauty and the number of these 
 landscapes. 
 
 It is not recorded, as far as I can discover, that the 
 rocky elevation on which it stands was ever an island in 
 the lake. Yet there can be no doubt of this; whether 
 the building was originally erected on the island, or only 
 
264 KILCIIURN. 
 
 after it had become a peninsula. The flat and wide 
 meadow which now connects it with the higher shore, is 
 evidently alluvial, even now subject to inundation, and 
 obviously rescued, at no very remote period, from the 
 water. This has probably been the result of two distinct 
 operations : the one being a gradual elevation of the bot- 
 tom of the lake at this part, from the deposits of mud, 
 and the other being the deepening of the bed of the Awe 
 by the action of the river, causing a partial drainage of 
 the water. Whether that bed might not yet be further 
 deepened by art, so as to rescue much more land in the 
 same manner, is a question which does not appear to have 
 been examined as its importance merits. 
 
 The date of Kilchurn castle is 1440; having been built 
 while Sir Colin Campbell, who was a Knight Templar, 
 was absent at the crusade. While it bespeaks a degree 
 of architectural taste, such as it is, and of splendour, un- 
 usual in Scotland at that period, it is also an evidence of 
 the opulence of this ancient family. That opulence is ren- 
 dered more striking by the number of castles possessed 
 by his son, the next Sir Colin, named Dhu ; consisting 
 of Finlarig, Tayraouth, Dochart, Bercaldine, and two 
 others whose names I cannot at this moment recollect, as 
 well as by the great extent of that property which now 
 belongs to the title of Breadalbane, Kilchurn was gar- 
 risoned in 1745; and it would be a stigma on its present 
 and late owners that it should have been allowed to fall 
 to decay, were it possible to maintain and occupy all the 
 ancient buildings on an estate of such enormous extent. 
 On Innis Fraoch, elsewhere noticed as the region of one 
 of the Highland fairy tales, there are also the ruins, now 
 trifling', of a castle which is said to have been a royal 
 one, and to have been granted by Alexander III to 
 Mac Naughtane, on the condition of entertaining the 
 
LOCH AWE. 265 
 
 King whenever he should pass that way. Two other small 
 islands in this lake, are also marked by ancient ruins : 
 Innis Hail, as the seat of a nunnery of the Cistercian 
 order, and Innis Eraith, containing the remains of a 
 chapel. 
 
 The hereditary family of blacksmiths, Mac Nab, that 
 '^sempiternal artist who, like the Lama, never dies, and the 
 tombs of Glenorchy burying ground, have so often been 
 described by all the tourists, that I may safely pass them 
 over. Not so the magnificent scenery which occurs before 
 entering the rugged and deep pass of Loch Awe, where 
 the road winds high along- the face of the hill amid over- 
 hanging woods and rocks, looking down over the sum- 
 mits of the oaks on the black and deep water far below. 
 The remainder of the pass, conducting the road and the 
 river, is singularly wild ; particularly near the bridge 
 which is here thrown across this boisterous and rude 
 river. Here was fought the celebrated action between 
 Briice and John Lord of Lorn ; the ratification, if not the 
 original cause, of the downfal of that great family, for- 
 merly noticed. This chief had taken the side opposed to 
 Bruce, and the impulse on the part of the king seems to 
 have been revenge, as he had already gained the con- 
 tested ascendancy. A detached party of archers having 
 taken a commanding position on the hill, annoyed the 
 Argyll men so much that they retreated ; and, having 
 attempted in vain to break down the bridge across the 
 Awe, they were defeated with great slaughter. John 
 escaped by means of his boats on the lake. This defeat 
 argues little for the military tactics of John and his fol- 
 lowers ; as the pass of Loch Awe might easily be de- 
 fended by a handful of men against a very superior force : 
 it is a stronger position than even Killicrankie. 
 
 There is no longer any beauty after arriving at Tyan- 
 
266 TYANUILT. 
 
 uilt, which forms the intermediate stage to Oban, and is, 
 at the same time, the alehouse of the workmen employed 
 at the iron furnaces of Bunawe. As here also I have 
 arrived at the spot which I shall reach hereafter from 
 another quarter, I need proceed no further in the descrip- 
 tion of the country round Oban. This is the most con- 
 venient place whence to ascend Cruachan, though still at 
 a considerable distance from its base. While strolling 
 about these wild moors, my eye was caught by a huge 
 erect stone, which 1 concluded to be, of course, the grey 
 stone of Ossian, or Carril, or Rhyuo, or of some of the 
 bards or heroes of old. No; it was the monument of a 
 hero to whom even Fingal must bend ; whose deeds have 
 eclipsed those of the Cuchullins and the Oscars and of 
 the Norwegian ploughers of the deep. It was an obelisk 
 to Nelson, erected by the labours of the workmen of 
 Bunawe. Of all the monuments which have been 
 placed to this great name, there is not one, of which 
 the effect is so striking* : striking, from its very rudeness, 
 and from the simplicity of the testimony, from the con- 
 dition of those who erected it, and from its unexpected 
 occurrence in this wild and vacant country, which we 
 might fancy the sound of his deeds had never reached. 
 It was here indeed that I could feel that his name had 
 gone out into all lands; while the huge, grey and rude 
 fragment, lifting its head among these wild mountains, 
 the scenes of the exploits of the heroes of other days, 
 seemed already to have ranked him among the worthies 
 of the past and poetical ages, a name long consecrated to 
 history ; as it is a name which will descend to posterity 
 till these rocks and mountains shall pass away. 
 
 I was amused with the disappointment of the fierce 
 antiquary who happened to accompany me. He had ex- 
 pected to find it a Druidical monument, and had scram- 
 
CRIIACHAN. 267 
 
 bled over bog and heath with much energy to reach it. 
 When he had attained it, he turned round with great con- 
 tempt ; not deigning another look. As if it was the only 
 merit in the eyes of these learned personages to possess 
 none; the only fame, to retain no record. He must have 
 been a powerful Druid or a formidable Celt, let his stone 
 be shewn where it may, who has lived to better purposes 
 and higher fame than Nelson ; whose name shall descend 
 louder and further to posterity. He must have per- 
 formed other deeds than even the poetical Fingal, if his 
 arm has been in more battles than that of Nelson, if the 
 nations have been more humbled beneath it. The an- 
 tiquary who shall succeed to my friend a thousand years 
 hence, will not turn his back on the stone of the mighty 
 warrior which lifts its grey head on the skirts of Cruachan. 
 The ascent of Cruachan is tedious, but not difficult ; 
 and, from its position no less than its altitude, it presents 
 some of the finest and most extensive mountain views in 
 Scotland. Compared to Ben Lomond it is a giant ; and 
 its grasp is no less gigantic. From the bold granite preci- 
 pices of its sharp and rugged summit, which is literally 
 a point, we look down its red and furrowed sides into the 
 upper part of Loch Etive and over this magnificent group 
 of mountains, which, extending northward and east- 
 ward, display one of the finest landscapes of mere 
 mountains in the Highlands. Its commanding position 
 not only enables us thus to bring under our feet the whole 
 of this group as far as Appin and Glenco, and even to 
 Ben Nevis, but opens a view of the whole of the eastern 
 ocean of mountains, reaching from Rannoch as far as Ben 
 Lawers and Ben Lomond, and, beyond them, to lands 
 which only cease to be visible because they at length 
 blend with the sky. So marked also are their characters, 
 so rocky and precipitous their summits, and so varied 
 
268 TYANUILT. 
 
 their forms, that this landscape excels, in variety as in pic- 
 turesque character, all other landscapes of mere mountains, 
 excepting perhaps that from Ben Lair in Rossshire. The 
 view which it yields, of the opener country, is not much 
 inferior to that from Ben Lavvers, if indeed it is inferior; 
 and, in this respect, it can only be compared with that 
 mountain and Ben Lomond. While it looks down on the 
 long sinuosities of Loch Awe and over the irregular 
 lands of Lorn, bright with its numerous lakes, it displays 
 all the splendid bay of Oban and the Linnhe Loch, with 
 Jura, Isla, and all the other islands of this coast : com- 
 manding, besides, the horizon of the sea, even beyond 
 Tirey and Coll, together with the rude mountains of 
 Mull and the faint and blue hills of Rum and Sky ; a 
 scene as unusual as it is rendered various by the inter- 
 mixture of land and >vater, by the brilliant contrast of 
 these bright and intricate channels with the dark and 
 misty mountains and islands by which they are separated, 
 and by the bold and decided forms of all the elements of 
 this magnificent landscape. 
 
 If I did not choose to tell you how I breakfasted at 
 Callander, at Mrs. Maclarty's inn, that is no reason why 
 I should not tell you how you may breakfast at Tyanuilt. 
 I admit that the inn at Tyanuilt is a vile pot-house ; but 
 the fashion of a breakfast here is not so singular but that 
 the resemblance may be found in more places than one 
 in this country. Have I not undergone it myself. 
 
 The morning is fine, it is seven o'clock, and you are 
 in a hurry to depart for the top of Cruachan, which you 
 know will occupy you nine or ten hours. Consequently, 
 you have no time to lose ; nor can you afford, either to 
 wait, or to go without your breakfast, as you will find no- 
 thing to eat till night. You order it immediately — immedi- 
 ately ; having ordered it, the preceding night, to be ready 
 
TYANUILT. 269 
 
 at six, having- ordered it again when you got up, an hour 
 before. After ringing, stamping, and knocking nine times, 
 that is, three of each notice, up comes a bare-footed wo- 
 man again, half dressed, without a cap, and her hair hang- 
 ing about her ears like a mermaid ; wondering what you 
 want. Yourepeat, breakfast, immediately. "Aye," says 
 she, " is it breakfast you was wanting," and down she 
 goes. In another quarter of an hour, you repeat the same 
 complicated notice. The maid re-enters. " Is it break- 
 fast you want." " Yes, to be sure, did I not tell you so an 
 hour ago." " It is coming," says she. You must not be 
 angry with the fair sex, and therefore you wait patiently 
 another quarter of an hour ; assuming much merit to your- 
 self. At length she walks in, with a look of much self- 
 approbation and a table-cloth : having evidently made no 
 common exertion to deserve your praise. 
 
 All this time the sun is shining temptingly brio-ht 
 on the summit of Cruachan, as it may not shine again 
 for six months, and another period of patience is passed 
 in wishing yourself there. Lo, the tea-board arrives ; 
 displaying a tea-pot never washed since it issued from 
 the furnace, a milk-jug containing half as much milk 
 as you are likely to want, and a tea-canister holding- 
 a mixture of black dust and little white sticks. In 
 the mean time you are carrying on two new wishes be- 
 sides the wish to be on Cruachan ; one, for the tea- 
 kettle, and the other for some peats to repair the fire, 
 which is at its final gasp. As the maid enters, the last 
 spark is extinguished. You console yourself that at 
 least the kettle is come; behold, it is the sugar-dish. You 
 point to the fire and ask for the kettle. She returns after 
 the usual time ; not with the kettle, but with an apron-full 
 of wet peats. You sigh, first at Cruachan and then at 
 the peats; but the kettle really comes; think of that. 
 With the kettle, there arrives a delicious herring, hot from 
 
270 TYANUILT. 
 
 the fire, anil you perceive that Peggy takes no small praise 
 to herself for having- brought two things at once. Hav- 
 ing poured the water on the tea, it floats. Why would 
 you not give the kettle time to boil. This is, however, a 
 minor evil, and you turn up the top plate and regale your- 
 self with the smell of the herring. That is a consolation 
 for the want of knife, fork, and bread. You have ordered 
 the bread ; you hear her heavy foot on the stair, you draw 
 the herring close to you ; when she enters — with a couple 
 of eggs. You ask again for bread. " Is it bread you was 
 wanting?" To pass the time, you crack an egg, and it is 
 hard. You pour out a cup of tea, and, going' to sweeten it, 
 find, in the sugar bowl, a dingy mixture of white and 
 brown sugar, damp and melancholy. You ring, some- 
 what violently perhaps, for white sugar. " There was 
 some last month, but its a' dune." You wonder where 
 the bread is. " She should have brought it, but she 
 thought you rang for something." You then discover at 
 last, that although you can bring up Peggy, you cannot 
 bring up what you want at the same time. You pour the 
 milk into your tea : it curdles. You go on drinking it 
 nevertheless ; now out of hope. But she comes. With 
 the bread? No, with the salt. The herring is now cold, 
 but you eat your herring and your salt, and when it is 
 done, the bread arrives ; a musty damp loaf. You desire 
 to have it toasted. " The toast is making." It comes, 
 half brown on one side and more like paste than before. 
 You resort to the oat cake. It sticks in your throat for 
 want of butter : you call for butter : she brings a plate- 
 full of cheese, and another of salt butter pulled out of a 
 pot by her fingers and plastered into it. You depart for 
 the top of Cruachan, and arrive just with a cloud that re- 
 mains there the whole day, and will probably remain till 
 you come this way again. 
 
\iPPiN. 271 
 
 APPIN, ARDMUCKNISH, BENGENIUM, DUN MA€ 
 SNIOCHAIN. 
 
 There are few parts of the Western Higblands more 
 beautiful than the district of Appin; and travellers, par- 
 ticularly the g-entlemen and ladies who drive gigs and 
 barouches, have only to lament that the two ferries of 
 Connal and Shian are, not only wide and boisterous, but 
 not so convenient for exit and entrance as a few pounds 
 spent on landing places might make them. The former 
 is in fact abominable. Are ferries always to be bad be- 
 cause it is classical. Because there was a villainous one 
 across the Styx, must there be a bad one at the Shian ; 
 and because the gentlemen whom Achilles dismissed to 
 this navigation, were obliged to wait shivering in the 
 cold till Charon chose to admit them, must we wait, in a 
 Highland shower, on a naked rock, till he of the Connel 
 chooses to see or hear. He who comes to the Connel ferry, 
 will require a large share of the patientia ferry boatica : 
 it might be well to take a previous course in South Wales. 
 To say nothing of a landing place where you can neither 
 enter nor land, since there is no landing place at all ; or 
 of being landed, or rather tumbled out, two or three miles 
 out of your road, under a precipice, or in a bog. As if it 
 was not enough to have a Highland horse who does not 
 choose to take his seat in a boat — neither recte nor 
 retro, nor blindfolded ; and whom, even the hat, which, by 
 a sort of figure of speech, is assumed to contain corn, 
 cannot entice. The Athenians committed a blunder when 
 
272 APPiN. 
 
 they made Neptune the piog-enitor of horses : and if I 
 was condemned to live among Highland ferries, I Avould 
 feed my horse on pitch and tar till he had learnt to hand, 
 reef, and steer. I wish they would take pattern by Bala- 
 hulish ; but I have praised the general management of 
 Highland ferries elsewhere, and if I pick out two or 
 three for blame, it is from the wish to see every thing in 
 this country such as to enable it to defy censure. 
 
 As to the want of civility, generally speaking, those 
 who have met this, must have provoked it ; which is 
 not very unusual among- the gentlefolks who wander 
 hither from the precincts of Cheapside. At Ulva, I met 
 a party who were indulging themselves, for the honour 
 of Oxford, if they were rightly entered in Mr. Macdo- 
 nald's album, with abuse and noise, and with coarse jokes 
 on the barefooted girl who attended, and who received it 
 all with a silent contempt, and with that proud air of High- 
 land breeding which you know so well. She came to 
 apologize for some deficiency ; assuringus that when these 
 English gentlemen (with an emphasis) were gone, it 
 should be rectified. Really, we have little reason to com- 
 plain if we are not always very particularly respected ; 
 here or elsewhere. It is absurd enough sometimes, to 
 meet these bucks, as they consider themselves, blowing 
 bugle horns, wearing Highland bonnets, drinking whisky 
 in the morning, talking of the " Heelands," provided 
 with stores of biscuit, wine, and hams, in their gig seats, 
 as if they were come into Churchill's land of famine, 
 and looking at every hand they see, in expectation of 
 that which must not be named. Then out comes the 
 memorandum book, with a tour or a guide, written forty 
 years ago by some one who knew and saw as much of 
 the country as themselves; and, in due time, we have 
 the old stories fresh hashed, manners that have become 
 
APPiN. 273 
 
 a dream, and a race of people that are now at least as 
 rare as that disorder itself; which he who would find, 
 had better g-o into an English barrack. 
 
 When they do not take the people for Fingalians, they 
 at least suppose them bare-legged savages with "plods ;" 
 and are astonished to see hats and breeches, and, still 
 more, to find a good dinner, and, that criterion of merit in 
 the eyes of a true Englishman, a bottle of port. One of 
 this tribe came up to me here at the inn door, with a fish- 
 ing basket on his back, containing, not fish but shirts ; 
 and, " pray, Sir," said he, " what is that for;" taking me, 
 I suppose, for a road surveyor. The end of the handle 
 was visible out of my pocket. " I'd thank you to take 
 that out. Sir," said the cockney, expecting to be obeyed 
 at a word. " Sir, I want to see that instrument." As 
 Donald is not at all accustomed to this style, except from 
 his chief, I declined. " I suppose, Sir, I am taking a li- 
 berty," said the man of the basket. " Really, Sir, I 
 think you are." «' Sir, I dont understand this usage. Sir. 
 Sir, I'd have you to know. Sir, I'm a person of conse- 
 quence in my own country." And these are the people 
 who go home and write tours. I suppose I have figured 
 in his journal as a savage Highland road-maker. 
 
 As to the Shian ferry-boat, it would not be amiss if 
 there was a step to the mast. The Charon made a step 
 of his foot, and held on with both hands. That answered 
 the purpose very well as long as it was not wanted ; but a 
 breeze came, and away went the mast and sail into the 
 water ; nearly carrying overboard Donald himself and 
 both the ponies. The scenery here is beautiful ; but 
 every thing is beautiful between these two ferries. 
 There are but five miles; yet it is a day's journey to a 
 wise man. The wooded and rocky intricacies of this 
 narrow strait produce endless pictures ; as does the whole 
 
 VOL. T. T 
 
274 APPiN. 
 
 of Loch Creraii, from numerous points of view. I do not 
 suppose that the name of the ferry has any such allusion : 
 it is more likely to have one that I do not know ; but it is 
 fairy land, as far as scenery is concerned. Bercaldine 
 Castle is a heavy mass of building, and its exting-uisher 
 turrets are far from ornamental. But the views from it, 
 and near it, are magnificent ; and it is, with all its defor- 
 mity, an important and an interesting object in the pic- 
 ture. It is not, apparently, very ancient, but was, I be- 
 lieve, built by the same Sir Colin Campbell who built 
 Finlarig, though I do not know its date ; and it is the 
 only castle of this particular style that I have seen in the 
 remote Highlands. But, with its freshness and all its 
 living trees, it carries us back to the habits of times past, 
 with more vividness than most of these buildings that I 
 have met with. 
 
 The granite hills that bound Loch Creran, are equally 
 the boundary of Loch Etive, and are exceeded by few, 
 in elegance of form. They constitute the great features 
 of the outline ; but, on the opposite quarter, the moun- 
 tains of Mull are also visible. On this side, we catch a 
 glimpse of the Linnhe Loch ; and, from different points, 
 obtain views of the bay of Oban and of the distant is- 
 lands; the castles of Dunnolly and Dunstaffnage, and all 
 the shipping that frequent the sound, adding to the land- 
 scape that vivacity and living interest which so especially 
 belong to all the views of this inlet, from whatever quar- 
 ter. But the promontory of Ardmucknish, with all its 
 deep woods of oak, always a striking feature, is here also 
 the most characteristic and conspicuous part of this 
 varied and splendid landscape ; nor do I know a place 
 where all the elements, often incongruous ones, of moun- 
 tains, lakes, wood, rocks, castles, sea, shipping, and cul- 
 tivation are so strangely intermixed, where they are so 
 
APPiN, 275 
 
 wildly picturesque, and where they produce a greater 
 variety of the most singular and unexpected scenes. I 
 need not say that wood abounds throughout the western 
 Highlands, in all the sheltered sea lochs and valleys; but 
 I know not many places or tracts of equal extent among 
 them, where the richness of woody scenery is more strik- 
 ing than here. It is not only that the great forests of 
 coppice, which cover the whole promontory of Ardmuck- 
 nish and skirt the declivities of the mountains, are con- 
 spicuous, from their extent, but their effect is heightened 
 by the contrast of their deep green with the surrounding 
 rocks, with all the grey and airy tints of the distances, 
 and with the bright expanse of sea and lake. This 
 strange intermixture, while it adds to the splendour of 
 the whole, gives often the effect of ancient wood to that 
 which is only coppice ; while that deception is aided by 
 the innumerable trees of fine growth which surround 
 Ardmucknish house and Airds, and are scattered up and 
 down in various places about the margins of the water 
 and the declivities of the hills. 
 
 There is something in the presence of ancient trees in 
 a country, which produces a greater impression on the 
 mind than can arise merely from their picturesque or or- 
 namental effect. The effect of such coppices as these, 
 and that of young wood, are often nearly the same, as to 
 the landscape ; but the impression is far different, and T 
 believe that we must seek it in those moral influences to 
 which the consequence of buildings, however mean, and 
 of castles and ruins, however insignificant or uninterest- 
 ing, is owing. The coppice conveys with it notions of 
 commerce, or of want, or waste : we foresee also the day 
 when it is to fall before the axe, and the prospect is that 
 of ruin and deformity. Young wood may excite hope ; 
 but that is to the possessor only. The spectator may be 
 
 T 2 
 
276 AT'PIN. 
 
 pleased at the prospect of improvement or the sight of 
 industry ; but he contemplates, whether truly or not, the 
 upstart wood, as he does the upstart villa and the mush- 
 room proprietor. But ancient trees imply gentility, for 
 they are ancient wealth ; and that, according to Cicero's 
 definition, is gentility. They remind us of all the splen- 
 dour, the comfort, the protection, and the kindness, which 
 surrounded the baronial residence or the mansion of the 
 ancient gentleman : they are the marks of a country that 
 has long enjoyed peace and wealth, and they are the re- 
 cords, as they are the proofs, of an antiquity that had 
 looked forward to be perpetuated in a long posterity, and 
 that was solicitous about the preservation of all its usages 
 and fashions, of all its dignity and opulence. 
 
 It would be endless to specify all the points in this 
 neighbourhood which afford particular landscapes ; but 
 I cannot help mentioning the view from the tower above 
 Ardmucknish house, which, for magnificence and variety, 
 is scarcely rivalled in the Western Highlands. I am 
 among the unfortunate few now, who have not visited 
 Athens: I do not mean the modern Athens, formerly 
 called Auld Reekie, but that town which contrived to 
 unite the largest number of great and wise men with 
 something approaching to the worst government which 
 the world ever saw. But I have seen it in the Strand ; 
 and, judging by the Panorama, there is a correspondence 
 of character between Attica and Appin, which is quite 
 striking. Nor does the view from this point yield to that 
 of Athens in grandeur of style, whil^ it exceeds it both 
 in extent and variety. 
 
 It is time to enquire about some other matters, in 
 this narrow but amusing district, which must not be for- 
 gotten. It is the seat of Dun Mac Sniochain, which was 
 once a volcano but is now a vitrified fort ; and of a capital 
 
BERIGONIUM. 277 
 
 city, which was once the capital of Scotland, and called 
 Berigonium, and is now nothing at all. Who Mr. Mac 
 Sniochain was, is rather an obscure point. He must 
 therefore wait till we elucidate the other, which is mar- 
 vellously clear. We have all seen antiquaries who could 
 find Roman camps on ground where a mouse could not 
 havejain in ambush, and discover a Gordian or a Galba 
 on an unminted Bromagem flat. Such optics may find 
 the streets of Berigonium. Tradition, for he is the steady 
 friend of the feeble historian, points out, or rather talks 
 of, a meal street and a market street, the Cowgate and 
 the Kyning-gate (not Canon-gate, mind that) of Beri- 
 gonium the capital of Scotland. The people also pretend 
 to point out a causeway. If there be one, it is likely to 
 have led to the vitrified fort ; for, in Aberdeenshire, that 
 is an appendage to these works. But when it is pre- 
 tended that wooden pipes for conveying water to this 
 capital have been discovered, we have nothing to do but 
 to believe or wonder; unless we have courage or scep- 
 ticism enough to deny or doubt. At what age the Beri- 
 gonites discovered the art of boring and laying wooden 
 water-pipes, it would be well to know ; while we must 
 lament, for the sake of some of our senses, that they did 
 not teach it to the rival capital of Dun Edin. When 
 water was conveyed under ground to a Highland city, it 
 must have been when there was no rain in Appin ; as 
 there is now every day. The world must have been very 
 dry three centuries before the Christian sera. Thus an- 
 tiquities prove history ; and we must now see how history 
 proves antiquities ; tradition proves them both, and they 
 all prove each other ; and it is pretty much the same how 
 the matter is managed. 
 
 The Highland name of Berigonium is Balenrigh, or 
 Bal-an-ree, the king's town ; which proves that it was 
 
278 BERIGONIUM. 
 
 a capital city : exactly as Ossian's tomb does that he was 
 buried in five or ten different places. The minister in 
 the statistical survey says it was the residence of the 
 Scottish kings at the end of the third century. So his 
 nurse told him. But Maule is more particular. He says 
 it was a strong castle built by Fergus the first, in the 
 year 330 before Christ. He, at least, is not sparing of 
 his antiquity. He says, moreover, that it was the usual 
 dwelling of the ancient Scottish kings : but really when 
 a man is writing Scottish history from the times before 
 the flood, he need not trouble himself to be very precise 
 in the evidence. We cannot wonder that people write 
 any thing ; but in this sober age, worse than sober, worse 
 than sceptical, we well may wonder to find that there are 
 believers in Hector Boethius, and Maule, and such like 
 things as Berigonium. Unluckily the historians cannot 
 agree ; for others hold that it was built by Fergus the 
 second ; and the still better informed, that it was the 
 Selma of Ossian ; in which case it was built by Fingal. 
 The people say that this Fergus built seven towers, like 
 the king of Bohemia ; and some one says that king Josina, 
 the ninth of the Scottish kings, was buried here. Last 
 of all, comes the catastrophe ; for Berigonium was des- 
 troyed by a fire from heaven. 
 
 This brings us a little nearer to a solution ; for the 
 whole affair resembles, if I mistake not much, the history 
 of the three black crows. The causeway I explained 
 before ; some rotten and hollow fir tree, found in the peat 
 moss, has probably been converted into water pipes ; the 
 seven towers, and the strong castle of Maule, are palpa- 
 bly a magnification of the vitrified fort on Dun Mac 
 Sniochain, and the fire from heaven is the same thing. 
 Here then is a three-headed specimen, of tradition, his- 
 tory, and antiquities : if I were to say Highland, or Scot- 
 
BERIGONIUM. 279 
 
 fish, I should affront all Highlanders and all Scots : and 
 yet they need not care ; for all the world can produce 
 parallels ; even GrsBcia mendax and fabulous Rome. 
 I am very sorry for Berig^oniuni ; and so I am for King 
 Fergus and his seven castles, and for King Josina, and 
 the volcano, and the kingdom of the Highlands three 
 hundred and thirty years before Christ; for there is here 
 a great destruction of knowledge at one blow. But really 
 it is so laborious and so puzzling to make out what has 
 actually existed in history and antiquities, that we may 
 be excused for not loving to encumber ourselves with 
 ascertaining the dates and existences of what never be- 
 longed either to time or space. 
 
 The solution however is not complete till we can ex- 
 plain the name Berigonium, which has a very strange 
 sound, that might pass for Greek in Appin. I at first 
 thought it the contrivance of some of those monks who 
 invented King Constantino Centimachus and such like 
 gentlemen ; who smell strong of the shop in which they 
 were compounded. Awkward dogs these ; who had not 
 wit enough to cover their forgeries with a few well- 
 soundinar Celtic or Teutonic names. But the blunder 
 seems of another cast, and is somewhat more amusing: 
 though whether Maule is the original blunderer, or who 
 is, we need not much care. The etymologists will, of 
 course, tell us, as they have done, that Berigonium is a 
 corruption of Balanree, or Balanree of Berigonium; 'tis 
 all one. But we need not mind them, as there seems to 
 be another road to the capital of King Fergus. 
 
 Loch Ryan appears to be the Pepjyo'vio? v.oK'nQ(;, of Ptolemy; 
 and the name Vkfiyovtov, in some of the copies Vtrtyonov, 
 belongs to a place supposed to be now Bargeny, The 
 anonymous geographer of Ravenna, who appears to have 
 borrowed the little knowledge he possessed of Britain, 
 
280 BERIGONIUM. 
 
 from the Greek mathematician, and whom, by the bye, 
 he misquotes, converts the first P into B, retaining the 
 second p ; and he therefore writes Berigonium. Thus the 
 real Rerigonium or Berigonium, of antiquity, is a place 
 in Ayrshire, not in Appin. Moreover, Ptolemy has no 
 toMu at the mouth of Loch Etive, which he supposed to 
 be the estuary of a river, and has called "irvoi; itoraiMv 
 evcjSoXa/; which should have been the case had there been 
 an ancient capital like the visionary Berigonium here. 
 And it is quite plain that his Loch Etive and his Plpyo'mv 
 are distinct places ; as the astronomical situations are 
 laid down widely asunder: thus, "Itvo?, lat. GO. long. 27 : 
 Veptyoym, lat. 60. 40. long. 20. 10. ; and the koXito?, lat. 60. 
 45. long. 20. 30. 
 
 As to Ptolemy's geography, or astronomy, I need 
 scarcely say that he misapprehends the form of Scotland ; 
 making the western parts the northern, and thus inter- 
 changing latitude and longitude. However, to give 
 Berigonium all the chances we can, let us suppose that 
 the Fergus who built it, was Fergus the second, the true 
 and real Fergus; and that his reign commenced about 
 503, instead of being nearly 900 years earlier, as some 
 Scottish antiquaries choose to say. Then, as Ptolemy 
 wrote in 140, he might have known nothing of this Beri- 
 gonium. I shall leave you to consider the value of this 
 solution ; which I offer to the friends of Berigonium, lest 
 they should hereafter discover it, and think that they 
 had knocked down my theory, as I wish to knock down 
 their capital. 
 
 It would have been rather odd if King Fergus had 
 alighted on this very name for his new city; not less than 
 that he and his wild Dalriadans should have built a capi- 
 tal, when Scotland had no capital for many centuries 
 after, and in such a country, and with water-pipes. 
 
BERIGONIUM. 
 
 281 
 
 That it is a modern blunder, or invention, or rather a 
 transference of a name, is almost certain. By what slight 
 of hand the real Berigonium became thus transferred, 
 is another question ; but it does not appear a very diffi- 
 cult feat. Richard of Cirencester, following the Greek, 
 writes Rerigonium ; but if we may judge of this learned 
 Theban's geographical acquirements by his works, he 
 seems to have been about as well acquainted with the 
 real topography of Scotland, as the gentlemen in Messrs. 
 Lawrie and Whittle's drawing room are with the moun- 
 tains and rivers of Africa ; which, with a pair of com- 
 passes in their hands, they create and allot as is most 
 conducive to the picturesque beauty of their work. Now 
 if you will look at the map which belongs to this Monk's 
 description and itinerary, or to Ptolemy's, to Scotia vete- 
 ribus nota, in short, where things are placed strangely 
 enough to puzzle a better man than Maule or Boethius, 
 you will find that his Lelanonius sinus is Loch Fyne, 
 and that our Linnhe Loch is his Longus Fluvius ; reach- 
 ing from Mull, between the Epidii and Cerones, to the 
 Varar sestuarium, or the Murray firth. But you will be 
 very much troubled to make out a place for Oban bay or 
 Appin ; and, what is much worse, if you do not under- 
 stand the Longus fluvius, you will, perhaps, look for 
 these places in the Clyde, or even further south. There, 
 upon Loch Ryan, which looks still more strange than the 
 restj stands Rerigonium, as a town ; long since vanished, 
 and without a mark, unless Stranraer is come in its place, 
 or unless Bargeny was intended to be there. Now it 
 seems plain that the inventor of the present Berigonium, 
 mistook Loch Ryan for Oban bay or the mouth of Loch 
 Etive, in this map ; and it only required the same blun- 
 der which has been made by the Ravenna geographer, 
 a blunder resembling that which has irrevocably palmed 
 
282 BERIGONIUM. 
 
 the Hebrides on us for the Hebudes, to do the rest. A 
 city in an ancient map, B for R, a vitrified fort, a rotten 
 tree, a transposition of place, tradition, or rather inven- 
 tion, and to sum the whole, the close of all. King Fergus. 
 Thus rose Berigonium : thus it falls. 
 
 If it does not, I will believe in the fire from heaven 
 which melted these walls, or, with Pennant, in the volcano. 
 Not that he is the only believer in this matter, here or 
 elsewhere. In Aberdeenshire, they believe still, in the 
 neighbourhood of Noath. Pennant was a bad antiquary, 
 says Walpole ; but he never spoke well of any body, 
 except General Conway. He was a good naturalist, 
 thinks the same gentleman. Not in volcanoes at least: 
 nor in marble either ; for he rides over miles of " white 
 marble" in Sutherland, striking fire at every step, and 
 does not find out that it is quartz. Spite of all this, he is 
 a good traveller : the best that we have had : better than 
 
 all his followers. But that is nothing to , I must 
 
 not name him, for he is alive and may repent. He too 
 saw mountains of bare white marble in Sutherland, bare 
 from the foot to the summit, and white ; and that there 
 may be no mistake, he compares them to icebergs. This 
 too is part of a tour in two quarto volumes. Certainly, 
 travelling is a very difficult art: truth is a very difficult 
 art; seeing is a very difficult art: but every thing is 
 difficult in this difficult world. The traveller, however, 
 might have been allowed to mistake quartz for marble, 
 because he was not a lime-burner. Still, what are we to 
 do about the icebergs. But the very lime-burner in Loch 
 Torridon, holding the ipsissimum fragment in his hand, 
 told me that he had burnt the quartz into lime, and used 
 it for mortar. Really these things make us rub our eyes ; 
 and truly, as Bayle says, it is not very surprising that so 
 many people « ayent donne dans le Pyrrhonisme," for 
 
DUN MAC SNIOCHAIN., 283 
 
 other reasons than that it is, " la chose du monde la 
 plus commode." 
 
 But to return to Dun Mac Sniochain, which, thoug^h it 
 is not a volcano, displays a very good specimen of a vi- 
 trified fort ; because it is very accessible, because the 
 plan is distinct, and because it is instructive. If more 
 ruined than Craig Phadric, Noath, and many others, it is 
 still not difficult to trace the design ; while, in respect to 
 the condition of the materials, it presents a greater variety 
 of substances than any among the whole that I have 
 examined. Those who, like Pennant and the people of 
 the country, had not the requisite knowledge to guide 
 their opinions, may really be excused their error ; as there 
 is often a very striking resemblance between its fused 
 and scorified stones, and the produce of volcanoes. Many 
 kinds of rude glass occur among them, and some of the 
 scoria are so light as to swim on water ; while, in other 
 cases, some of the slaty rocks are inflated, bent, or con- 
 torted, in a manner very instructive to geologists. 
 
 It is situated on a small rocky hill which forms a kind 
 of island in the plain, of a narrow prolonged shape, and 
 scarped all round, except at one extremity, which afl^ords 
 access to the summit and the fort. The height of this 
 hill, or rock, above the plain, seems to be about forty or 
 fifty feet; and it is, even in the modern military sense, a 
 strong position. It is important to remark, that the rock 
 consists of limestone and slate intermixed; the plain it- 
 self being chiefly alluvial, and the nearest hill and rocks 
 being of trap, and of that pudding stone, so well known 
 to all travellers, which also abounds in the vicinity of 
 Oban. That stone is itself formed of fragments of various 
 trap rocks, and is remarkable for its ready fusibility, while 
 the rock on which the fort stands is of an infusible nature. 
 The fort itself is so contrived as to occupy nearly the 
 
284 DUN MAC SNIOCHAIN. 
 
 whole summif, which is about 250 yards long-, and con- 
 sists of three distinct parallelogramic enclosures. The 
 dimensions of these are as follows, as nearly as that 
 could be measured by pacing : The outer is about thirty 
 yards long and about twenty-four broad ; the next is 
 about thirty-seven, with a similar breadth ; and that at the 
 further extremity is about fifty-six yards in length ; but, 
 being imperfect, it may formerly have been longer. Be- 
 sides this, between the first and second works, there is a 
 transverse wall which reaches from the one precipitous 
 face to the other, so as, when entire, to have cut off the 
 communication from without to the two inner works. The 
 circumferences of the two inner enclosures make, col- 
 lectively, a line of about 260 yards ; which, according to 
 the modern military computation for a redoubt, would 
 contain more than 500 men. The external work would 
 dispose of about a hundred more. Hence it is plain that 
 this must have been a military work of some consequence, 
 as capable of holding a large garrison. 
 
 Now this disposition is so well calculated for defence, 
 that, bating the necessary differences between modern 
 and ancient modes of warfare, a modern engineer could 
 not have occupied Dun Mac Sniochain in a better manner. 
 It might be a redoubt to command and defend a pass 
 now, or it might have been a garrison and a citadel then. 
 Of whatever age, it bespeaks considerable ingenuity, and 
 much practical knowledge of the art of defence. Of the 
 height of the walls, it is impossible to judge from this 
 specimen ; so much is it ruined. Except where the 
 ground has been broken from curiosity, it is chiefly co- 
 vered by turf, so as to present only the appearances of 
 an earthen bank : and the quantity of soil that has accu- 
 mulated, here and in other specimens in Scotland, assists 
 in indicating the high antiquity of all the works of this 
 
DUN MAC SNIOCHAIN. 285 
 
 class. It is only, therefore, by the comparison of many 
 different specimens in different parts of the country, and 
 by estimating from such parts as remain entire and from 
 the quantity of fallen materials, that we can conjecture 
 what the height of the walls was in this instance. Every 
 thing leads us to conclude that they did not exceed five 
 or six feet, or that they m ere perhaps little more than 
 breastworks : and, in this respect, they seem to have re- 
 sembled the circular works in loose stone, dispersed all 
 over the country, and popularly, though wrongly, attri- 
 buted exclusively to the Danes. From their ruined state, 
 it is also somewhat difiicult to be certain about their 
 original thickness, as the fallen parts are heaped up or 
 dispersed about them ; but, from various measurements 
 and comparisons, that of the walls in this place may be 
 taken, with sufficient accuracy for any useful purpose, at 
 twelve feet. 
 
 When it is said that the walls, here or elsewhere, are 
 vitrified, it must not be supposed that they form a solid 
 mass of glass or slag. That condition is very various in 
 different specimens throughout Scotland ; and if it is 
 here more perfect than in many, it is less so than in some 
 others. To speak more accurately, many of the stones 
 which form the walls are more or less perfectly slagged 
 or scorified ; so that while some have been thus changed 
 throughout, the surfaces only of others are affected ; 
 while others again, consisting of less fusible materials, 
 are only burnt. A certain proportion has escaped the 
 fire altogether, or has never been exposed to it : and if 
 we may judge from the ruins, this has taken place chiefly 
 towards the upper part of the wall. The general result, 
 however, is, that, in some parts, the wall forms a solid 
 mass, but of an irregular composition ; consisting of 
 scoria, slag, burnt stones, and stones scarcely altered, 
 
286 DUN MAC SNIOCHAIN. 
 
 united together, but with vacant intervals; while, in 
 other places, it is separable into lumps of various sizes 
 and into single stones. 
 
 I need not be more particular in describing this spe- 
 cimen; as although many conclusions of some value may 
 be drawn from it, with regard to the nature and origin of 
 these works in general, the subject at large could scarcely 
 be made as intelligible as it ought, without a reference 
 to other examples. At the same time, it deserves much 
 more consideration than attaches to this sino^le instance. 
 The very obscurity of the subject would demand this, 
 even if it had not been made a question of controversy, 
 and had not unnecessary difficulties been accumulated on 
 it, by persons who have not studied these works with the 
 attention which they deserve. The high antiquity of 
 these fortresses renders them further interesting; but 
 their highest interest arises from their being hitherto con- 
 fined, with scarcely an exception, to Scotland ; while they 
 abound in various parts of this counti'y. They form, in 
 fact, by far the most curious branch of our local antiqui- 
 ties; nor is it easy, even to conjecture the age and people 
 to which they have belonged. At any rate, whatever is 
 to be conjectured respecting their age, their uses, or the 
 means by which they were produced, that can only be 
 done, to any purpose, by the examination and comparison 
 of different specimens ; and I shall therefore make no 
 apology for deferring that subject to another letter. 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 287 
 
 VITRIFIED FOKTS. 
 
 That very friend, who, like other friends, loves the 
 sound of his own advice, even when he knows it is too 
 late, looks over my shoulder again, and complains now 
 that there is too much vinegar, as there was, before, too 
 much sugar. As the drummer said, strike where I will, 
 it is impossible to please you. If such things as Beri- 
 gonium and cockneys and ferries and Tyanuilt breakfasts 
 will come in the way on one day, and Loch Cateran or 
 Castle Campbell on another, what can we do, except, 
 as the faculty says, follow the indications. If you care 
 not, my dear Sir Walter, I shall answer him from an old 
 countryman of yours: " They say— what say they— let 
 them say." So, now, let us attack the vitrified forts. 
 
 I am far from thinking that I am acquainted with the 
 whole of these singular buildings that have been dis- 
 covered in Scotland, nor do I think that all those which 
 it contains are as yet known. Many, years have not 
 passed since they first attracted attention, and they often 
 exist in situations not much frequented ; particularly 
 now, that so much of the population has been transferred 
 from the interior. Besides this, from their state of ruin, 
 and from the soil and grass which have accumulated above 
 them, they are often so thoroughly obscured, that nothing 
 but an accidental fracture of the surface can detect them. 
 I am convinced of this, in particular, from examining that 
 district in Aberdeenshire which extends from Noath to the 
 North Sea. Fragments of vitrified matter abound all 
 over this tract, and are carried by the rivers along their 
 
288 VITRIFIED FORTS. 
 
 beds, even to their estuaries. Yet, with the exception 
 of Noath, the sources of these have not yet been dis- 
 covered ; although I have found large blocks and even 
 quarries of such scoria and slag, which must have formed 
 parts of these forts, and are possibly their very seats, 
 though their forms can no longer be traced. I shall 
 however give you a list of such as I have myself seen, or 
 have found mentioned by others ; making the proper 
 apology for its imperfection ; ignorance. 
 
 Dun Mac Sniochain : Argyll. 
 
 Knock Farril : Ross. 
 
 Craig Phadric : near Inverness. 
 
 Dun Evan, 
 
 Castle Findlay : both near Calder. 
 
 Tor Dun : near Fort Augustus. 
 
 Dunjardel : in Glen Nevis. 
 
 One near Balbegno, in Mearns. 
 
 Finhaven : near Brechin. 
 
 Creich : in Sutherland. 
 
 Dun Jardel : near Fyers. 
 
 One near Troup. 
 
 One near Cullen. 
 
 One near Stirling. 
 
 One near Forden : Mearns. 
 
 One near Invergarry. 
 
 One in Bute : parish of Kingarth, 
 
 One in Canty re : bay of Carradale. 
 
 Barryhill : parish of Meigle. 
 
 Laws Hill : near Drumsturdy, Forfar. 
 
 Dun Fhionn : on the Beauley. 
 
 One in Loch Sunart. 
 
 One in Loch Teachus : Morven. 
 
 Amwoth : Galloway. 
 
 The Moat of the Mark : ditto. 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 289 
 
 Castle Gower : Galloway. 
 Dunscaich, in Sky : doubtful. 
 One in Isla : Thurot's Bay. 
 Dunadeer : Aberdeenshire. 
 
 Noath: ditto: with many indications in the same 
 vicinity. 
 Vitrified substances had been observed in more than 
 one of these places, long; ago ; and they had, by some, 
 been attributed to volcanoes, by others to the accidental 
 demolition of buildings by fire, and, by a third party, 
 to the effect of beacon lights. Mr. Williams, well known 
 as an able miner, must have the merited honour, not 
 only of pointing out their real nature, as being forts, but 
 of explaining the mode in which they were constructed. 
 As is usual in all similar cases, no sooner had he rendered 
 the subject clear, than every one recollected that be had 
 understood it before ; while a few, ambitious of the merit 
 of discoverers, as is also an invariable rule, propounded 
 other explanations. The history of all discoveries has 
 been similar. Every thing that has ever been found is 
 as obvious as America: when it has been found. Every 
 one can explain what has already been explained: while 
 those who have not judgment enough to appreciate the 
 real explanation, nor candour enough to yield the honour 
 to whom it is due, hope for some poor fame by assigning 
 a new or a bad hypothesis. But Mr. Williams's memory 
 must bear this, as it best may. Many have endured it 
 before him, and many shall endure it hereafter. On the 
 question of their construction, at least, there is little left 
 for me to do, but to state his views; but I may add some 
 facts, unknown to him, and some reasonings which did not 
 occur to him, to confirm what appears as perfectly de- 
 monstrated as any thing of which we have not witnessed 
 the rise and progress can be. 
 
 VOL. I. V 
 
290 VJTRIFIED FORTS. 
 
 In constriicting- these singular buildings, it was sug- 
 gested by Mr. Williams, that, by raising a mound of earth 
 on each side of the intended wall, and filling it with fire- 
 wood and stones, a sufficient heat was produced to ope- 
 rate the intended effects. Of course, this acute observer 
 presumed that the design of the artists was to produce a 
 cemented or solid wall ; while it was a natural conclusion, 
 that structures of the forms which these present, were of 
 a military nature. These works having thus been taken out 
 of the rank of volcanoes, and the matter being now ob- 
 vious to all, another philosopher set himself forth to prove 
 that Mr. Williams was wrong, and that he himself was 
 right; that the walls had been originally constructed of 
 wood and stone intermixed, and that they had been vitri- 
 fied by the assailants, who had destroyed and taken these 
 works by means of fire. A third party, determined also 
 to intrude for some portion of fame in this question, as- 
 sured the world that both his predecessors were wrong, 
 and that he was the real (Edipus : that these works were 
 merely beacons, and that they had been vitrified by the 
 lighting- of the beacon fires. Thus our unlucky world is 
 fated to be pulled and pushed about, in deeper matters 
 than vitrified forts, by every man who cares not what be- 
 comes of it, provided he can find an opportunity of dis- 
 playing himself on the arena. 
 
 It is beyond my intention to describe all the specimens 
 in the preceding list which I have examined. To do this, 
 would not convey instruction or amusement commensu- 
 rate to the tediousness of detail it would require ; and 
 my object is rather to investigate the general question. 
 It is a highly interesting subject; as well from the sin- 
 gularity and ingenuity of this mode of architecture, as 
 from its being limited, nearly, perhaps entirely, as far as 
 is yet known, to Scotland, and from its obscurity, and ap- 
 
VITRIFIRD FORTS. 291 
 
 parently remote antiquity. A sketch of the two remark- 
 able forts of Noath and Diinadeer, added to the preced- 
 ing account of Dun Mac Sniochain, will however be ne- 
 cessary, for the purposes of the general illustrations in 
 view. 
 
 The hill of Dunadeer, having an elevation of about 
 600 feet from the irregular plain on which it stands, with 
 a steep acclivity all round, has a flat oval summit, which 
 is entirely occupied by the enclosure, so as to form a 
 strong military position. Though much ruined, and con- 
 sequently obscured, having apparently been used as a 
 quarry for building a more modern castle in the same 
 spot, it is not ditficult to trace, either the dimensions or 
 the disposition of the original work. The form is a paral- 
 lelogram, of which one extremity is curved so as to be 
 nearly semicircular : and its longest side is about 58 yards, 
 the shortest being about 24. The thickness of the wall 
 seems originally to have been 18 or 20 feet ; although, 
 from the state and nature of the ruin, it is impossible to be 
 very accurate in this particular. The highest remaining 
 portion is about six feet above the present surface; 
 and if one foot be added for the increase of soil, and 
 two for the loss which it has sustained at the summit, 
 to be computed from the ruined part at its foot on each 
 side, we shall have eight feet as the probable original 
 altitude. 
 
 The materials of the hill are chiefly grey granite, an 
 infusible rock ; but there are scattered in the surrounding 
 plain, blocks of a black variety, which, from containing 
 hornblende, is very fusible. To pass over the obviously 
 more modern ruins at this place, as not concerning the 
 present question, there are, at a certain stage down the 
 hill, the well-marked traces of a work which once seems 
 to have encircled the whole. It is a kind of fortification 
 
 u 2 
 
29*2 VITRIFIBD FORTS. 
 
 well knowu to antiquaries, as occurring frequently in the 
 ancient British bill forts ; and it resembles a modern mili- 
 tary field work, as it consists of a single ditch and wall ; 
 the latter being formed of loose stones, not vitrified. I 
 consider this as part of the original defences, because a 
 similar one is found on Noath. 
 
 The materials in the vitrified wall are, as at Dun Mac 
 Sniochain, partly roasted without adhesion, and partly 
 vitrified, or glazed, or scorified, in a similar manner. It 
 is easy to see tliat the dark granite forms the vitrified and 
 scorified substances; but, not to enter on the more minute 
 details, which rather concern the chemist and mineralo- 
 gist than the antiquary, but which are very interesting to 
 them, I shall only further remark, that wherever stones 
 not capable of vitrification themselves, have undergone 
 this change, it has been produced by the alkali of the 
 wood used in the process ; whence the glazed surfaces of 
 many unvitrifiable substances. 
 
 Now I remarked that, at Dun Mac Sniochain, the ma- 
 terials of the hill itself were not vitrifiable, but that a 
 very fusible rock was present at a short distance, or scat- 
 tered in fragments about the plain. The same is true 
 here ; and, in both cases, the forts are not erected out of 
 the materials nearest at hand, which are infusible, but 
 collected with considerable labour from a distance. It is 
 hence evident that the builders of these works were aware 
 of the qualities of these various rocks : and it is equally 
 evident that they chose the fusible in preference to the 
 infusible, although with a considerable increase of labour. 
 The obvious conclusion is, that they designed, from the 
 beginning, to vitrify their walls : and this single fact 
 might serve, in itself, to establish the truth of Mr. 
 Williams's views, against the theory of his ill-informed 
 opponent. 
 
VITIIIFIED FORTS. 2.93 
 
 To turn now to Noatli. This mountain is the highest 
 point of its own ridge, rising to a height of about 1800 
 feet above the level of the sea, and of 300 above any 
 part of the surrounding ground, with a steep acclivity. 
 The summit is a plain : and, as at Dunadeer, that plain 
 seems to have regulated the size of the fort, as it occupies 
 the whole space: an arrangement which is equally found 
 at Dun Mac Sniochain. Nothing can more clearly prove 
 the military and common design of all these works : since 
 they vary in form and size according to the ground they 
 stand on, and are so contrived, just as a military work 
 would be in the hands of a modern engineer, that they 
 may command all the points of access, and prevent the 
 enemy from advancing any where under cover. If the 
 Duke of Wellington chose to occupy Noath to-morrow, 
 he would order his works on the same principle. The 
 area on Noath is nearly twice as large as that on Duna- 
 deer; yet the same system is followed ; and in Dun Mac 
 Sniochain, as I already showed, though the mode of oc- 
 cupying the ground is different, the principle of a com- 
 plete command is equally kept in view ; while other va- 
 riations are made for the purpose of conforming to the 
 peculiar shape of the hill. If the same great soldier 
 were to fortify this hill too, he could only follow the plan 
 of his predecessor General Mac Sniochain ; whoever he 
 was. I notice these points, to shew the folly of that fancy 
 which chooses to consider these as beacons merely ; a 
 notion which could not have entered a mind that had ever 
 seen or heard of a military defence. 
 
 The enclosure on Noath is a long parallelogram, of 
 about 90 by 32 yards, slightly rounded at the angles ; and 
 it contains a well. Hence also we may conclude that this 
 was a station and a garrison. An entire deficiency of the 
 wall at the eastern side, seems to indicate the entrance^ or 
 
294 VITRIFIKD lOUTS. 
 
 gateway : a notion confirmed by its being continuous with 
 a spacious causeway that extends a considerable way 
 down the hill. That connexion also leads us to con- 
 clude that this causeway was not a posterior work, but 
 that it originally belonged to the fort. It is made of 
 laid stones, of considerable bulk, with great care and 
 strength; resembling a Roman road : and it is remark- 
 able that a similar causeway leads to the fort of loose 
 stone on the top of Ben-na-chie. 
 
 At Noath too, as at Dunadeer, there is a similar field- 
 trench and wall, or outwork, on the declivity of the hill ; 
 and though much obscured, it seems also to have for- 
 merly surrounded the whole. In both cases, it seems to 
 have been intended as a covered way to retard the attack 
 on the body of the place. The vitrified enclosure is far 
 more perfect here than in any of these works in Scotland : 
 and it is infinitely more remarkable, since, being unen- 
 cumbered with soil and vegetation, scarcely even bearing 
 a lichen, we see at a glance the whole effect of its black- 
 ness, its bulk, its regularity, and its extent. We may 
 indeed wonder how any one could have imagined such 
 a work the produce of a volcano ; and not less, how any 
 one capable of the least degree of observation or reason- 
 ing could have conceived it the effect of beacon fires. 
 
 The parts of the wall which have been most perfectly 
 vitrified, are, as might have been expected, the most en- 
 tire : where highest, they measure eight feet from the 
 ground, and the accumulation of soil at the base would 
 justify the addition of two, or perhaps three feet more in 
 some places. That rubbish prevents the breadth from 
 being correctly estimated ; but this seems, as at Duna- 
 deer, to have been eighteen or twenty feet. And if, from 
 that rubbish, we may form an estimate of the total height 
 of the wall before dilapidation, and before the growth of 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 2,95 
 
 soil below, it may probably be taken at 12 feet. 1 must 
 also remark that the fallen rubbish, where the standing 
 and vitrified part is eight feet high, consists of unvitrified 
 stones : so that here, as at Dnn Mac Sniochain, and in 
 other examples, the wall, after having been vitrified to a 
 certain height, seems to have been raised, by some 
 courses of dry masonry, to its total altitude. 
 
 The state of the various materials that have here been 
 exposed to the fire, is so like their conditioji in the in- 
 jstances already described, that I need not repeat the de- 
 scription. But it will be useful to remark, that in many 
 of these works, and remarkably here, the largest frag- 
 ments of micaceous schist and gneiss are inflated and 
 contorted ; and that where quartz and felspar, or quartz 
 and mica, have been in contact, a species of porcelain 
 has been produced. These effects will enable us, will 
 enable chemists at least, to judge, both of the duration 
 and the intensity of the heat, and to prove, if additional 
 proof were wanted, the futility of that theory which 
 supposes they had been vitrified by accident, or by an 
 attack. 
 
 The presence of stones untouched by fire, of those 
 which formed the upper part of the wall, is equally valid 
 against both the idle hypotheses which I have here no- 
 ticed. No stone could have escaped, had the wall been 
 originally compounded of stone and wood, and burnt 
 down : and, in the same way, had the walls been the en- 
 closures of beacon fires, every stone from the summit to 
 the base must have felt their effects alike. It seems in- 
 deed a waste of words to argue against such a hypo- 
 thesis as this last, when we consider the great variety 
 found in the forms and sizes of these works, their obvi- 
 ously military and defensible character, and the enor- 
 mous size of some of them; as, for example, of the pre- 
 
296 vn'KiFi!:u forts. 
 
 sent. The work on Craig Phadric is also very extensive 
 and complicated, and is as obviously a military post as 
 the present. At Amwoth, in Galloway, the hill has been 
 scarped by art, so as to form a deep ditch, close to the 
 foot of the wall. Nothing of this kind could have been 
 required for a beacon ; and it is further remarkable that 
 the transverse wall at Dun Mac Sniochain is a common 
 expedient for defence, in the ancient British works that 
 occupy peninsulas or promontories; as at Castle Trereen, 
 Zenor, and Tintagel, in Cornwall. The advanced co- 
 vered ways of Noath and Dunadeer, and the causeway 
 of the former, would be equally unnecessary on such a 
 supposition: nor, at Noath, could any possible purpose 
 of a beacon have demanded or justified such an enormous 
 work, whether we consider the area enclosed, or the 
 height and thickness of the walls. To imagine an area 
 of 2700 square yards covered with burning wood, and 
 to conceive a wall that would have required the labour 
 of many hundred men for weeks, built for no other pur- 
 pose than to enclose what did not want enclosing, are 
 dreams not deserving a serious examination. If a che- 
 mical argument were wanted in addition to these, it 
 would be found in the fact, that though all this wood, a 
 forest in itself, were collected and lighted, and lighted too 
 when a square yard would have served the purpose as well 
 as two or three thousand, it would not vitrify its enclosure 
 in the manner in which these walls are vitrified ; as the 
 current of air from without, would, by cooling the exter- 
 nal part, impede its action on the outside; where the 
 fusion is as complete as within. 
 
 It has been asserted that these vitrified forts actually 
 did communicate in chains, or in connexion, throughout 
 the country. Nothing but a similar ignorance respecting 
 these works and their places, could have led to such an 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 297 
 
 assertion : it is not the fact : in many instances it is phy- 
 sically, geographically and optically impossible: and 
 the mere supposition involves equal ignorance of the po- 
 litical state of Scotland in ancient times, or else a hypo- 
 thesis respecting its union under one organized govern- 
 ment, which is purely gratuitous. Many of them indeed 
 are placed in situations so low or so entangled among 
 hills, as to preclude all communication of this nature; as 
 is the case in Isla, in Morven, in Airdnamurchan, in Gal- 
 loway, and apparently along the course of the Bogie in 
 Aberdeenshire. 
 
 It is fruitless to say more on this hypothesis, and not 
 necesary to say much more respecting the manner in 
 which these works became vitrified. I remarked already 
 that the appearances of the burnt and vitrified substances 
 proved that a long continued heat had been applied, and 
 that this heat had also been intense. Neither of these 
 effects could have arisen from the burning down of a 
 wall formed of stone and wood ; even if it were easy 
 to imagine what the nature of such a wall must be. It 
 must have been of far greater dimensions originally, of 
 dimensions inconceivable, to have admitted of wood 
 enough for the production of this eflfect : and the result 
 must have been the subsidence of the stones into a form- 
 less pile of rubbish; whereas the walls, at Noath in par- 
 ticular, where they are most perfect, are erect, and, if 
 not possessing parallel sides, are at least of a mural 
 form. 
 
 The antiquary who is the father of this theory, had 
 forgotten that he was unacquainted with chemistry. But 
 really there are so many sciences which must conspire to 
 the making of a good antiquary, since there are none on 
 which his pursuits may not touch, or whose aid they may 
 not require, that we may perhaps pardon the present one, 
 
298 VITRIFIED FORTS. 
 
 as not more presumptuous than many of his fraternity. 
 It has been an unlucky opinion, that antiquities, or anti- 
 quarianism (to coin a word) was a pursuit and a distinct 
 trade, of itself. As if it was not the very perfection and 
 overflowing", the luxuriance of accurate knowledge in 
 every art and science on which it may touch : as if it was 
 not the most abstruse and refined species of criticism, and 
 as if he could be a critic in antiquities who was not a 
 critic in all those arts and sciences which they may in- 
 volve ; in literature, poetry, language, history, architec- 
 ture, music, painting, geography, the art of war : but why 
 prolong the enumeration. The Roys and the Rennels 
 are the true antiquaries in their own departments; as are 
 the Burneys in music and the Carters in architecture ; 
 and even the gigantic Seldens and Lipsius', if they have 
 grasped more than one department, it is because they 
 were Lipsius' and Seldens. 
 
 The plan suggested, that of constructing a species of 
 furnace by means of earthen mounds, into which stones 
 and fire were introduced till the structure was erected, 
 not only answers all the conditions, and among the rest, 
 that of vitrifying the materials below more perfectly than 
 the upper ones, but is confirmed, as to its efficacy and 
 probability, by a practice in use in some parts of India, 
 where, according to the report of a French engineer, 
 M. Legoux de Flaix, houses of clay are burnt into a solid 
 brick, in this very manner, and at this day, to prevent 
 the effects of inundations. Nor does this art appear, 
 from other circumstances, to have been absolutely limited 
 to Scotland ; although the same proceeding has been re- 
 sorted to for the production of a different effect. Not 
 very long ago, there was demolished, in Shropshire, Gat- 
 acre house : a part of which was of unknown antiquity, 
 and, in all probability, very ancient, as the same vener- 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 299 
 
 able family has now resided on the same lands from the 
 time of Edward the Confessor. This part, the western 
 gable, was covered with an entire crust of glass ; appa- 
 rently designed to guard against the effects of weather. 
 But enough of these details : as it must be impossible 
 any longer to question, either the purpose for which these 
 works were intended, or the manner in which they were 
 erected. 
 
 Before attempting to form any conjecture respecting 
 the antiquity of these buildings, which, after all, is per- 
 haps a hopeless task, it is interesting to remark the 
 analogy existing in the practice of Hindostan, just men- 
 tioned. It is the same principle, the same system, ap- 
 plied to different materials, and to different purposes. It 
 is not less remarkable, that in Sir John Chardin's travels, 
 a similar process is described as in use in some of the terri- 
 tories which he visited. And I have also read, what it is 
 almost fruitless thus to recollect by halves, since I cannot 
 now refer to the author, that vitrified towers existed in 
 some parts of Tartary. I did not then foresee that I 
 should ever care whether even Ben Nevis itself had been 
 vitrified ; else my Tartarian evidence should have had 
 two legs instead of one. In spite of this deficiency, there 
 appears thus to be an oriental cast about the history of 
 this art and these vitrified forts, which leads us back to 
 the early Celtic tribes ; while this species of antiquity 
 and origin, is countenanced by all those numerous facts 
 noticed in various parts of these letters, which indicate 
 the remote eastern origin of that far-spread people. 
 
 There is little to be conjectured respecting their date, 
 from any local evidence or appearances. If indeed, put- 
 ting aside Berigonium as a visionary capital, we could 
 find any proof, or render it probable, that Fergus, the 
 real Fergus, had actually built the fort on Dun Mac 
 
300 VITRIFIED FORTS. 
 
 Sniocbain, as is not impossible, we sbould bave dis- 
 covered tbe date of tbese works, or tbe age at least wbich 
 produced tbem. But as Fergus and his followers were 
 Irish, or Hibernian Scots, we sbould be entitled to ex- 
 pect similar structures in Ireland, where none bave as 
 yet been found. 
 
 I can extract nothing like an argument from nearly 
 all the rest of these buildings. Noath and Dunadeer 
 alone, are situated in a country where the presence of 
 other ancient remains may allow us, at least to form con- 
 jectures. These seem to be of different ages, and to 
 have been tbe works of different people. Druidical 
 works, as they are called, sculptured stones, and circular 
 stone forts, are the chief. The age of the latter is so far 
 conjectured, that they seem to be safely referable, both 
 to the natives before the northern, even the latest Nor- 
 wegian invasions, and to those invaders themselves. 
 
 Now it is remarkable, that although in this part of 
 Aberdeenshire, where these works abound, the work, or 
 masonry, if it may so be called, of the vitrified forts, and of 
 the stone forts, is so very different, the same military prin- 
 ciple pervades both. It is equally the case in Cornwall, 
 where the principal work, or body of the place, has a de- 
 tached or advanced field work, or covered way, like those 
 at Noath and Dunadeer. Further, the stone fort on 
 Bennachie has a causeway like that of Noath ; and there is 
 a similar causeway to the most splendid and perfect of all 
 our circular forts, that of Castle an Dinas in Cornwall. 
 These are remarkable coincidences : they may probably 
 be nothing more; yet they may give a colour to the sup- 
 position that the vitrified and the circular stone forts are 
 the produce of nearly the same age and people. 
 
 I know of only one other point which we might endea- 
 vour to bring to bear on this question. These works 
 
VITRIFIED FORTS. 301 
 
 occur in Galloway, in the Highlands, and in the Low 
 country of Scotland on its eastern side. If therefore, as 
 might be concluded without much presumption, they were 
 the works of one people, they ought to have been built 
 when one people possessed all this country. Now the 
 ancient Caledonians, or Picts, never seem to have pos- 
 sessed the Highlands. The Scots, the real Scots I mean, 
 whether the Dalriadans or others, and the more modern 
 Highlanders, consisting of Scots and Norwegians, had, on 
 the other hand, no possessions on the east of Scotland. 
 Thus, if built by one people in these widely separated 
 places, they ought to belong to a time prior to the divi- 
 sion of Scotland into a Pictish or Caledonian, and a 
 Scottish, or a Celtic and Norwegian dominion. Thus they 
 should be referred to the aboriginal Celts, or first settlers 
 of Scotland ; that people whom the Pictish invaders 
 found, and on whose defeats they settled themselves. 
 This speculation may probably be thought to give sup- 
 port to the notion of their being specimens of remote 
 Celtic or Oriental art; and, in the same manner, to receive 
 support from that view of their nature and origin. 
 
 But, after all that we can do or conjecture, the date of 
 these works, and the people by whom they were erected, 
 must remain a problem: and it is one not very likely 
 to be solved. Yet I should be unworthy of the office of 
 antiquarian bottle-holder into which I have unwittingly in- 
 truded, if I also did not declare my own hypothesis, by 
 stating my hope that some future traveller in the East, 
 will find further reasons to prove that they are among the 
 earliest military works of our oriental Celtic ancestors. 
 
302 AppiN. 
 
 APPIN, LOCH LEVEN, GLENCO, MOOR OF RANNOCH. 
 
 The road from the Shian ferry to Balahulish is, 
 throughout, interesting, and presents much landscape 
 scenery. It is perhaps most so where it skirts the mar- 
 gin of the water; displaying a lively and moving picture 
 produced by the crowd of vessels and boats which navi- 
 gate the Linnhe Loch ; a picture much enhanced in value 
 by the magnilicence and rudeness of the mountain boun- 
 daries, and by the islands which are scattered through 
 this part of that great inlet. Among these, Eilan Stalker 
 is a striking' object ; from the strange disproportion, often 
 remarked, between the building and the domain on which 
 it stands. It is a very perfect and entire specimen of the 
 ancient incommodious Highland castles, but is utterly 
 without beauty : a kind of square tower with different 
 roofs, in the worst possible taste. But I need not detain 
 you on this road ; as there is no want of a guide here, 
 where every thing is open to the most inattentive spec- 
 tator. 
 
 It is with justice that Glenco is celebrated as one of 
 the wildest and most romantic specimens of Scottish 
 scenery ; but those who have written about Glenco, forget 
 to write about Loch Leven, and those who occupy a day 
 in wandering from the inns at Balahulish through its 
 strange and rocky valley, forget to open their eyes upon 
 those l)eautiful landscapes which surround them on all 
 sides, and which render Loch Leven a spot that Scotland 
 does not often exceed, either in its interior lakes or its 
 maritime inlets. From its month to its furthest extremity, 
 
LOCH LEVEN. 308 
 
 a distance of twelve miles, this Loch is one continued suc- 
 cession of landscapes, on both sides ; the northern shore 
 being accessible by the ancient road which crosses the 
 Devil's Staircase ; but the southern one turning away from 
 the water near to the quarries. The chief beauties, how- 
 ever, lie at the lower half; the interest of the scenes 
 diminishing after passing the contraction which takes 
 place near the entrance of Glenco, and the furthest ex- 
 tremity being rather wild than beautiful. 
 
 I was much amused by meeting here with an antiquary 
 and virtuoso who asked me where he should find Loch 
 Leven castle. He had been enquiring among the High- 
 landers, and was very wrathful that he could obtain no 
 answer. I was a little at a loss myself at first ; but soon 
 guessed the nature of his blunder. He had been crazing 
 himself with Whitaker, and Tytler, and Robertson, and 
 Chalmers, like an old friend of mine who used to sleep 
 with the controversies under his pillow, and had come all 
 the way from England to worship at the shrine of Mary ; 
 stumbling, by some obliquity of understanding, on the 
 wrong Loch Leven. This genius would have made a good 
 antiquary for Foote : but he was a perfect Hearne, com- 
 pared to an old Lady I had met not two months before at 
 Bullock's museum. Among other things, there was a 
 bronze of the well-known wolf; and her companion, who 
 was reading the catalogue, came to the names of Romulus 
 and Remus. Romulus, said the old lady: " Ah, Ire- 
 member, he was Serjeant at arms in the time of Burdett's 
 riots," The good old gentlewoman had entangled her 
 identities in no common manner ; first confounding the 
 Officer of the House with Sir Samuel Rorailly, and then 
 turning him into the Roman King. 
 
 Approaching- from Ardshiel to Balahulish, the road- 
 side is a continued picture : the bright water of the 
 
304 BALAHULISH. 
 
 Linnhe Loch stretching away on one had, bounded by the 
 rug-ged mountains of Morven and Ardgower, and the 
 hills, on the other, descending with a rapid and various 
 slope; covered with woods, and diversified by rocks and 
 torrents, and by valleys leading into many wild and pic- 
 turesque recesses among the hills. Some striking land- 
 scapes occur, in particular, as we approach to the narrow 
 strait which forms the ferry ; the two inns, on opposite sides, 
 appearing like the guardians of the passage, and the re- 
 markable saddle-shaped mountain which rises beyond 
 the house of Glenco, forming a conspicuous feature in the 
 distance. You may take your choice of these Yspyttys, 
 for each has its merit. I had asked an old dame whom I 
 met by the way side, which was the best, seasoning my 
 question with asneeshing. She assured me that I ought 
 to go to Mrs. Forsyths', as she was " a very sensible 
 woman, a very sensible woman indeed ; she had al- 
 ways plenty of good meat and drink in her house." This 
 is not a very bad definition of sense to a hungry traveller : 
 and if it is the Highland one, we can only lament that 
 sense is so rare a quality in the country. The definition 
 of wisdom is not so well judged. I had hired a horse 
 that would only go his own way, and his way was not 
 mine. On complaining to his friend — " Ah," said he, 
 " he is a wise horse." This is a scene which particularly 
 demands two feudal castles in the place of these mean 
 buildings: and if ever I regretted the past days of High- 
 land turbulence, it was here, where I could have wished 
 Cameron of Lochiel and Stewart of Balahulish at war, 
 each threatening the other from his high tower, and each 
 levying pontage and murage on the wights who should 
 pass between their hostile shores. 
 
 The ascent of Ben-na-vear, on the south side of the 
 ferry, is not difficult, though long, as it is a lofty moun- 
 
BEN NA YEAR. 305 
 
 tain ; and if its prospects are not to be compared with 
 those from Ben Lawers or Ben Lomond, they are far more 
 interesting- than the views from Ben Nevis. Of Ben 
 Nevis itself, this position affords a very perfect view ; af- 
 fording- even a glimpse of Loch Treig, with a detailed 
 picture of the wide range of wild mountains which ex- 
 tends to the eastward. Thus also it displays, in great per- 
 fection, the no less wild, but more marked and picturesque 
 groups of mountains which stretch from Glenco to Crua- 
 chan, surrounding Loch Etive and Loch Creran ; the 
 variety of their outlines, and the intricacy and distinctness 
 of their valleys, producing much more beauty than is 
 usual in scenery of this class. The bird's-eye view of 
 Loch Leven itself, forms a very splendid and amusing 
 scene ; as does the long inlet of the Linnhe Loch, hold- 
 ing its course northwards beneath the rugged mountains 
 of Ardgower, till it is lost among the mountains of Loch- 
 aber; and, at the other extremity, exhibiting the endless 
 variety of the bay of Oban, and all its creeks and islands. 
 The western sea presents a picture equally various and 
 engaging, in the whole of the islands from Jura even to 
 Sky: among which Mull forms a leading object; as the 
 eye ranges over the promontory of Airdnamurchan and 
 along the shores of Loch Sunart, hence exhibited with 
 all the distinctness of a map. Unfortunately, Glenco is 
 but partially visible from this point; taking a sudden 
 turn among the hills, so that we can only conjecture its 
 place, from the general appearance of a chasm among the 
 rugged summits that enclose this wild valley. 
 
 As I have so recently noticed some of the Highland 
 ferries for evil, it is but justice to say, that the readiness, 
 and precision, and commodiousness, of the Balahulish 
 ferry, confer great credit on the proprietors. It is fortu- 
 nate when a ferry does fall into the hands of men of 
 
 VOL. I, X 
 
306 BALAHULISH. 
 
 business and right feeling- ; who, instead of tyrannising- 
 over a helpless public, because they dare so to do, are 
 anxious for their convenience and accommodation, and 
 justly attentive to render services for reward, not to take 
 the latter and withhold the former. In a country like 
 ours, where the whole empire is in perpetual motion, 
 where so much of its commercial prosperity depends on 
 facility of intercourse, and where so much has been done 
 for that end, by means of roads and bridges and public 
 carriages, it is perfectly incredible that this barbarous 
 remnant of feudal monopoly should be suffered to con- 
 tinue, to the injury of the public, and often to the defeat 
 of all the other conveniences by which travelling is se- 
 cured or accelerated. While a long line of road is the 
 public property, managed for the public benefit, by per- 
 sons who can have no motives, from interest or temper, 
 to do wrong, and placed under the controul of laws which 
 prevent them from doing wrong by neglect, that portion 
 of such a road, its waters, which is the most important as 
 it is the most inconvenient, is suffered to remain a private 
 monopoly, where every species of abuse, of delay and 
 danger and extortion, may be accumulated, and almost 
 with impunity ; as there are scarcely the means of legal 
 redress, and as these means are too expensive and operose 
 to be available in the ten thousand petty delays and vex- 
 ations which thus occur in the course of travelling, and 
 which are not the less grievous because they would not 
 make much figure in a court of justice. Thus the public 
 is obliged to bear with every kind of hazard, as well as 
 of delay and extortion : incommodious or dangerous land- 
 ing places, insufficient boats, and incapable, or insolent, 
 or drunken boatmen, whose convenience, or will, they 
 must conform to or wait for, and who exert their petty 
 powers of tyranny with impunity, because they too are 
 
BALAHUUSH. 307 
 
 monopolists, not subject to competition and scarcely to 
 legal controul. We may bring an action, possibly, for 
 tbe loss of life or property, against tbe proprietor; but 
 we have no reniedy if a drunken boatman keeps us for 
 hours in fear and risk of our lives, or exposed to storms 
 and rain ; or if an insolent or a lazy one chooses to delay 
 us for half a day, perhaps to our serious inconvenience 
 or loss. Nay, while these absurd rights are suffered to 
 exist, a proprietor may, as happens now in Wales, refuse 
 to keep a sufficient boat, and refuse to permit any other 
 boat than his own to land on his estate; thus having it in 
 his power to put a total stop to travelling. 
 
 That this view is not overcharged, must be well known 
 to all those who have travelled much in England and 
 Wales. In the latter country, it is notorious; and the 
 Conway ferry, in particular, is not only a disgrace to its 
 proprietor, but to Great Britain : it would even dis- 
 grace the negroes of the Congo and the Niger, or the 
 barbarians of the Jenisei or the Lena. The numerous 
 and serious accidents which occur every year at our fer- 
 ries, arise indirectly from this system of monopoly : from 
 misconduct on the part of the proprietors or the lessees, 
 over whom the public has no effectual check. There 
 need never be any loss of lives at any ferry in Britain; 
 and when there is, it may always be traced to causes that 
 might, with proper care, have been avoided. It would 
 be easy to collect a volume of tragic events in proof of 
 this assertion : but I am not writing the preamble of a 
 bill for Parliament. The very last time that I crossed at 
 Conway, and with a heavy cargo of cattle and carriages 
 and passengers, both the boatmen were so drunk that they 
 fell, one after the other, overboard into the water. It 
 was with great difficulty that we saved them from drown- 
 ing; but we were obliged to stow them away in the 
 
 X 2 
 
308 LOCH LEVEN. 
 
 bottom, and to navigate the boat ourselves. Had there 
 been no male passeng-ers, the boat and the men too would 
 probably have been lost. Yet this event neither excited 
 comment nor enquiry; a sufficient proof of the ordinary 
 state of things here. We may well ask, what are the 
 feelings of the proprietor of this ferry. Having none of 
 his own, it should be the business of the law to make him 
 feel, by obliging him to part with a property which he is 
 unfit to manage. It would no more be an oppression to 
 compel the lords of ferries to sell their rights to the public, 
 than it is to oblige them to give passage to roads through 
 their lands. Ferries should, in all cases, form a part of 
 the system of the roads, and be placed under the same 
 controul ; so that the public might have a complete 
 check over their management, and over the conduct of 
 the people employed on them. If ever, like Sancho, I 
 should be King and Parliament for a day, Charon and 
 his crew, wherever they may be found, shall be among 
 the first to feel the weight and impulse of a new broom. 
 The north shore of Loch Leven is much superior 
 in point of scenery, to the south one, whether as to the 
 character or the number of its landscapes. For a con- 
 siderable space, even from the point where it turns north- 
 ward towards Fort William, the road side presents a con- 
 tinued succession of pictures, in a style which is at once 
 grand and simple and ornamented. The noble extent of 
 water is bounded by a distant screen of mountains, as 
 striking in the outline as they are various in the forms ; 
 descending in a gradual succession of lower lands to the 
 edge of the Loch, varied by woods, and terminating, at 
 length, in an intricate and picturesque line of cultivated, 
 rocky, and rude ground. In the middle and fore grounds, 
 we have a long shore sprinkled with scattered trees and 
 farms and houses, in variety of disposition ; rising gra- 
 
LOCHLEVEN. 309 
 
 dually up into a beautiful range of hill, which is covered, 
 on its lower declivities, by ancient woods, and by groups 
 and scattered trees ; while its higher region is diversified 
 by rocks and intersected by torrents, which, as they 
 reach the lower grounds, become beautiful mountain 
 streams, ploughing their way through their wild chan- 
 nels, under the shade of ancient ash trees of the most 
 luxuriant and picturesque forms. These objects, ever 
 varying, and united to the numerous boats which are 
 drawn up on the shores or employed in navigating the 
 Loch, and to the frequent passage of sloops and vessels 
 of larger size to the quarries, combine to render the whole 
 as lively as it is picturesque. 
 
 Proceeding westward along the ancient road, the cha- 
 racter of the nearer or immediate grounds undergoes an 
 important change; while, as we also rise higher above 
 the level of the water, the distant mountains and the in- 
 tricate expanse of the Loch, assume new consequence 
 and new forms. The hilly ridge above us becomes here 
 more rocky; rising into cliffs or precipices, which, in 
 many places, tower over head, or descend suddenly to 
 the water beneath. Protruding rocks, and deep hollows, 
 often giving passage to some mountain stream, also con- 
 duce to vary its surface, and to multiply its intricacies ; 
 thus producing a peculiar class of mountain scenery, in- 
 dependent of the lake and the distant hills. The general 
 character is precisely that of the beautiful declivity of 
 Ben Venn at Loch Cateran ; and it is wooded in the same 
 various and intricate manner, with wide forests of oak and 
 birch, or with the lines and groups of wood which take 
 advantage of some rivulet or sheltered spot, or with single 
 trees, perched on the shelves of the rocks and the sum- 
 mits of the knolls, or rooting themselves in the fissures. 
 The elegant pendent forms and light foliage of the birch, 
 
310 LOCH LEVEN. 
 
 here, as in that place, give that airiness to the outline 
 which produces an effect so beautiful, and, at the same 
 time, so peculiar ; communicating a lig-htness and a grace 
 even to the solid masses of rock, and conferring a ten- 
 derness and transparency on the colouring, which no 
 one who has seen Loch Caferan can ever forget. 
 
 That similarity is even more remarkable in wandering 
 along the margin of the water, wherever that is accessible. 
 At the place now mentioned, the boundary of the Loch 
 is very irregular, and strongly marked ; projecting in 
 bold and varied promontories, and retiring in deep and 
 intricate bays; the trees, as they start from the precipices 
 or crown their summits, hanging over the lake, or des- 
 cending along the intermediate hollows till they are seen 
 reflected in the waves ; while the cliff's sometimes rise 
 suddenly out of the deep water, or, descending more 
 gradually, are skirted with insulated rocks and fragments, 
 adding much beauty and endless variety to these rich 
 and uncommon foregrounds. Thus there is produced a 
 species of scenery partaking equally of the shore scenery 
 of lakes and of that which belongs to mountain decli- 
 vities; presenting numerous landscapes of great beauty, 
 resembling in many places the analogous scenes of Loch 
 Cateran, and, in others, excelling them, by uniting, with 
 these details of rock, and wood, and precipice, and water* 
 the magnificence of a more varied expanse of lake and of 
 a grander alpine distance. 
 
 The upper extremity of Loch Leven, is rather wild 
 than picturesque ; and the cascades which are mentioned 
 in some of the tour books, are rather grotesque than 
 beautiful. The slaty rocks which conduct the torrent, 
 are excavated into bad forms, which are at war with all 
 the principles of grace or of landscape. But the road 
 never ceases to be interesting, and the navigation of 
 
LOCH LliVKN. 311 
 
 the Loch is not less pleasing. In many places, the views 
 from the water are extremely beautiful, but no where 
 more than under that singular hill which rises above the 
 house of Glenco ; where a continued sheet of wild rock 
 and wood towers aloft to the skies, not unlike a part of 
 Killicrankie, and where, as it reaches the lake below, 
 it produces a continuous fairy landscape of wood and 
 water and rock intermixed, luxuriant as it is wild, and 
 strange as it is new. Every where, at this part of the 
 navigation, we forget that we are upon an arm of the 
 sea ; nor even when we see the brown weeds laid bare 
 by the falling of the tide, can we easily convince our- 
 selves that the trees, whose branches are dipping in the 
 water, and whose roots are laid bare by the wash of its 
 waves, are growing on the shores of the ocean. 
 
 At the upper extremity of this Loch indeed, though 
 an open inlet, the water is quite fresh for a considerable 
 space. And such indeed is the check to the tide at the 
 very narrow strait of Balahulish, that it is no where 
 thoroughly salt : the great supply from the rivers, not 
 only serving to freshen it, but generally staining it of a 
 dark colour throughout : a colour often carried out, even 
 to the sea. Hence also there is a rapid current of fresh 
 water at the upper extremity, at the fall of the tide; from 
 the great accumulation which has taken place during its 
 flow. I have reason to remember it well. To have been 
 drowned in a boat, by settling on a stone in a current in 
 Loch Leven, in a calm, after all that I had weathered for 
 so many years among the endless perils of the Western 
 Islands, would have been as provoking as the case of the 
 unlucky Admiral, who, after retiring from forty years 
 service, and having escaped a dozen of shipwrecks, was 
 drowned in his fish-pond. 
 
 St. Mungo's Island is an interesting spot, no less 
 
312 
 
 GLENCO. 
 
 on account of the various views which it affords, than 
 because of its burying ground, crowded with grave- 
 stones and ornaments, and with sculptures which, in a 
 place so remote and unexpected, attract an attention 
 that more splendid works would scarcely command in the 
 midst of civilization. There is an impressive effect also, 
 a check, and an awe, produced, by thus suddenly meet- 
 ing with the emblems of mortality in these wild and se- 
 cluded spots : a feeling well known to those who have 
 thus, in their wanderings among the Highlands, un- 
 warily fallen upon these repositories of the dead. The 
 English church-yard is habitual to our sight, nor is it 
 ever unexpected ; proclaiming itself from afar, by its 
 spire or its church, by its walled enclosure or its ancient 
 elms. We pass it coldly ; and if we look at its monumen- 
 tal stones, it is seldom but to amuse ourselves with their 
 barbarous emblems or the absurdities of their mortuary 
 verse. But in this country, in the midst of the beauties 
 and sublimities of the fairest nature, when, rejoicing in 
 the bright suns of an alpine summer, in all the loveliness 
 that surrounds us, we are suddenly and unexpectedly 
 recalled to the thoughts of that hour when these glorious 
 scenes shall be to us as to those who are sleeping at our 
 feetf then it is that we feel the full force of the narrow 
 green mound, the rude letters, and the silent stone, 
 which seem to say, — the time is at hand when thou too 
 shalt see these bright lakes and blue hills no more. 
 
 But St. Mungo's Island is the cemetery of Glenco; 
 and it is impossible to contemplate it without recalling to 
 mind an event which the lapse of more than a century 
 seems to have left in all its freshness of horror. We 
 cannot help feeling that we are walking on the remains 
 of those unfortunate victims of feudal cruelty, and that 
 we are now viewing the very spot where this tragedy was 
 
GLENCO. 
 
 313 
 
 acted. The tale, too painful to relate, is also far too fa- 
 miliar to be related again, since it has passed into English 
 history. But whatever blame we may throw on William, 
 we must remember that, like other kings on too many 
 occasions, he was misled by interested advisers : advi- 
 sers so conscious of the wrong they were meditating, as 
 to force him to the unusual step of doubly signing his 
 warrant. Let us remember too, that the really guilty 
 were Breadalbane and Glen Lyon ; guilty of every thing; 
 of unjustly extending the power of the unjustly obtained 
 warrant, and of enforcing it, thus doubly unjust, by an 
 act of cowardly treachery. Let us do justice to all. 
 The massacre of Glenco was not the act of Wil lirm.If 
 his ministers were culpable in having sanctioned the 
 eventual and possible penalty, they were wrought on by 
 the demon of feudal and civil jealousy and revenge ; but 
 the deed itself was executed by Highlanders against High- 
 landers, in the true and ancient spirit of clan treachery 
 and clan vengeance. Such a deed could have been per- 
 petrated, only in the spirit of ancient feuds, and by none 
 but Highlanders of the ancient leaven. Let the stigma 
 remain where it is due; not on the house of Nassau, but 
 on that of Campbell. 
 
 The slate quarries of Balahulish have generated a 
 considerable village: and the workmen, the noise, the 
 shipping, the women and children, and the confusion of 
 all kinds, form a strange contrast with the dark and 
 dreary solitude of Glenco itself, scarcely a mile removed. 
 It is a busy-looking and an industrious population ; yet 
 possessing all those Highland peculiarities which are 
 more or less rapidly disappearing, wherever similar 
 manufactories produce an intimate communication with 
 Lowland shipping and Lowland opinions. Here only, 
 and among the poor people at Bercaldine Castle, (let me 
 
314 BALAHULISH. 
 
 say it for the honour of the country) throughout all my 
 wanderings, I found in vogue that pleasure which our 
 Solomon is reported to have thought too great for a sub- 
 ject. My English companion, on this occasion, was de- 
 lig-hted, as I had persisted in denying the existence of 
 this pleasure in modern days. I was obliged to allow 
 him his triumph at last ; after having long assured him, 
 on the faith of the well-known French proverb, that it 
 was indifferent whether it was in his imagination or his 
 fingers, which were never to be seen without gloves. 
 Whether the name of this amusement proves it to have 
 been peculiarly a Celtic one, gale quasi Gael, is a ques- 
 tion of etymology into which I cannot enter. 
 
 Here too I saw, what is not often to be seen now, the 
 wauking of a cloth : coming suddenly on the bare legged 
 nymphs in the very orgasm and fury of inspiration, kick- 
 ing and singing and hallooing as if they had been pos- 
 sessed by twelve devils. Surely the twelve Valkyrs 
 whom Darradus saw, and whom the Saga and Gray have 
 sung, must have been one of these living fulling-mills : 
 or the Highland practice has been derived from the my- 
 thology of Ostrogard and Asgard, from the Pantheon of 
 the North. The web of fate here, was but a blanket ; 
 notwithstanding all this labour, which a couple of 
 wooden hammers would have performed much better, 
 and, if with less fun, certainly with far less noise. As 
 to the music, it is worthy of the dance : and with all my 
 regard for Highland airs, I must confess that the fulling 
 song-, as well as that of the Highland Argonauts, the 
 Ho ieroe of your Lady of the Lake, is too sublime for my 
 comprehension. But they have all equally the merit of 
 classical antiquity and example in their favour. If the 
 music of the Quern is no better than their argonautics, still 
 the auld wife who drones it through her nose ayont the fire. 
 
BALAHULISH. 315 
 
 may boast that she sings, probably, as good a song as the 
 Lesbians, who, as Clearchus tells us, had a Quern song 
 also, called, 'eTn/AvXtov. I have heard the '€ntifA.vKto<; d^ in St. 
 Kilda, and it is worthy of the fulling song. 
 
 No contrast can well be more striking than that of the 
 rich, and open, and beautiful scenery of Loch Leven, 
 with the wild, and narrow, and terrible Glenco; and no 
 transition can well be more sudden than from its smiling 
 banks and green woods and glittering waters and bright 
 sunshine, to this rocky and dreary valley, without tree 
 or verdure, a valley of shadows, where the sun scarcely 
 penetrates, and where there is twilight even at uoon-day. 
 We entirely lose sight of all the previous scenes, as we 
 enter its narrow depths; the commencement of a succes- 
 sion of barrenness and desolation, which is scarcely to quit 
 us again till we reach KillinorRannoch. I must not for- 
 get that Ossian was born in Glenco; or buried : it is indif- 
 ferent which ; and that the little stream, the Cona, which 
 runs out of it, was sung by him : or by Macpherson. He 
 who sang Caracalla, may be allowed to sing Cona: be 
 he who he may. There is nothing to which the scenery 
 of Glenco can be compared : there are only two scenes 
 with which it can be named : Coruisk in Sky, and Glen 
 Sanicks in Anan. But there is no resemblance, in either 
 case. Coruisk is a giant, before which this valley, even 
 such as it is, sinks into insignificance. Glen Sanicks is 
 single and simple in its sublimity: a terrible vacuum. 
 In Glenco every thing is wild and various and strange: 
 a busy bustling scene of romance and wonder: ter- 
 rific ; but terrific from its rudeness, and its barrenness, 
 and its spiry rocks, and its black precipices, not from sub- 
 limity of forms or extent of space. In its own character, 
 it excels all analogous scenes: and yet there is in it, that 
 which art and taste do not love; a quaintness of outline; 
 
316 OLENCO. 
 
 forms unusual in nature, and therefore extravap^ant : 
 when painted, appearing- fanciful and fictitious rather 
 than true. Such it is also when viewed in nature : we 
 rather wonder than admire : and the gloom of its lofty 
 and opposing precipices, the powerful effect of its deep 
 shadows, the impression produced by its altitude and 
 extent and bulk, are injured by a form of outline which 
 attracts the eye as unnatural, and which forces it to ana- 
 lyze and reason, instead of allowing it to feel. 
 
 Thus, though Glenco presents many scenes of suffi- 
 cient unity, its pictures are scarcely pleasing, and they 
 are also deficient in grandeur. If the bizarre which it 
 displays in nature is somewhat overcome by its magni- 
 tude, that advantage is lost in the representation : and 
 we dwell on what is wrong, unable to balance or over- 
 come it by what is right. Nor, even in nature, does it 
 display much variety, though its extent is so consider- 
 able. The southern mountain outline, which is alone vi- 
 sible, although it undergoes variations of form as we pro- 
 ceed, is never thoroughly altered. We trace the same 
 shapes from the beginning to the end : and are almost 
 wearied at length by finding that our hopes of promised 
 novelty are disappointed. Thus also it diminishes in 
 interest in proceeding from the eastward : the most per- 
 fect view being found near a bridge at the commence- 
 ment of the descent, and nearly all the scenes that fol- 
 low being depreciated changes of the same. Hence it is 
 preferable, if we have a choice, to enter it from Balahu- 
 lish, or, what is best, to pass it twice. He who has time, 
 however, must be told that all the beauty of Glenco will 
 not be found from the road side. The noble ravine which 
 conducts its waters, the deep chasm through which they 
 flow, the perpendicular precipices, the varied rocks, and 
 the scattered trees wildly dispersed among them, oflfer 
 
MOOR OF RANNOCH. 317 
 
 many scenes of a close character, of great interest and of 
 much grandeur. But, for these, we must labour, as they 
 are not otherwise to be attained. The change of cha- 
 racter, in proceeding eastward, is completed as soon as 
 we have surmounted the ascent, and reached the common 
 head of the eastern and western waters. But here 
 Buachaille Etive forms a noble object ; rising in a regu- 
 lar pyramid, the king of the rude chain to which it 
 seems to belong. All, every beauty, every thing, va- 
 nishes before we reach the King's House ; where the 
 hideous, interminable, open moor of Rannoch is spread 
 before us, a huge and dreary Serbonian bog, a desert of 
 blackness and vacuity and solitude and death ; the death 
 of nature. 
 
 It was on my last visit to Glenco that I formed the 
 courageous resolution of exploring this almost unknown 
 spot ; unjustly, perhaps, neglected, since it might form an 
 easy connexion between the central Highlands and the 
 Western Sea. If you know how you may breakfast at 
 Tyanuilt, why should I not also tell you how you may 
 hire a horse in Glenco. I had taken the precaution of 
 engaging mine on the preceding evening, and it was pro- 
 mised by six in the morning ; the distance to Rannoch 
 being called twenty miles; a day's journey. The price 
 for the horse and guide was two guineas ; which, for one 
 day's ride upon a Highland poney with two shoes, whose 
 value was five pounds, and whose annual keep was no- 
 thing, while the usual day labour of the guide was a shil- 
 ling, should have satisfied even a Glenco conscience. 
 The same sum would have procured a chaise and a man 
 and two horses, for the same distance, or more, at London 
 or York ; but Donald, no longer able to make a creagh 
 on Saxon cows, must now, he seems to think, compensate 
 for it by a creagh on a Saxon purse. In the morning, 
 
318 MOOR OF RANNOnH. 
 
 the equipage, of course, was not to be found; as the 
 horse had slept on the hill, and was to be caught, not 
 before six, but after nine, and was then to be shod, and 
 saddled, and haltered ; and as the shoes were to be made, 
 the saddle to be borrowed from some one, two or three 
 miles off, and the halter from some one else. There is a 
 pleasing prospect in all these cases, a train of pithy re- 
 flections, by which you amuse the hours of waiting : cal- 
 culating at every hour that passes, in which of all the 
 coming bogs you are to spend the night, on which moun- 
 tain you will break your neck, or in which ford be 
 drowned : knowing* that the longest day is too short, 
 knowing that even the sun himself could not perform the 
 journey in view, in less than the time you have allotted 
 for it. 
 
 After walking three miles in search of the horse, and 
 waiting seven hours, he was found : but it was plain to 
 see that, even then, all was not right : Sandy Macdonald 
 " could not leave his harvest to-day," though he was 
 paid for it. Let no man imagine that he understands the 
 true nature of patience, till he has made a Highland tour, 
 on Highland ponies, and in Highland boats. I agreed 
 to go on alone and sleep at the King's house ; to wait for 
 his convenience. As usual, we were to start the next 
 morning at six : but the Highland six — to day it was 
 only nine. Even then, though the horse was ready, the 
 man was not. 1 departed alone, but was speedily lost 
 among rocks and bogs ; nothing was visible but the wide, 
 black, open, flat waste, all around ; and far away, the 
 blue hills of Perthshire rising- in the distant horizon. 
 Not even the mountain bee was on the wing to give life to 
 the scene ; nay, the very midges seemed to scorn the moor 
 of Rannoch : no water stirred, to indicate that something 
 yet moved or lived ; but the black pool stagnated among 
 
MOOR 0¥ RANNOCH. 319 
 
 the scanty and yellow rushes of the dark bog. The 
 heart-sinking stillness of this solitude, the more dreary 
 that it was so spacious, was undisturbed even by the 
 rustle of a breeze ; since there was not even a bush of 
 heath in which a breeze could have rustled, had it been 
 so inclined. I and the world were alone together, as 
 some one says ; always excepting the horse, who, very 
 sensibly refused to go any further. At length the guide 
 appeared, and soon found a track, which, in no long time, 
 neither man nor horse could follow ; for in no long time 
 there was no longer any track. What distance remained 
 between this and Loch Rannoch, I know not, and nobody 
 knows ; but at five o'clock, the guide, the patient, and 
 the horse, found themselves, severally, at the head of the 
 lake ; having spent eight hours of hard labour in tra- 
 versing twelve miles, as it is called. As to the horse, he 
 might as well have remained at Glenco. A ride, this was 
 not, by any figure of speech : I cannot even call it a walk ; 
 for half the space was traversed by jumping over bogs, 
 and holes, and ditches, and pits, which were generally so 
 wide as to demand much serious meditation. I may 
 fairly say that I jumped half the way from Glenco to 
 Loch Rannoch. 
 
 Pray imagine the moor of Rannoch ; for who can de- 
 scribe it. A great level (I hope the word will pardon 
 this abuse of it) 1000 feet above the sea, sixteen or twenty 
 miles long, and nearly as much wide, bounded by moun- 
 tains so distant as scarcely to form an apprehensible 
 boundary ; open, silent, solitary ; an ocean of blackness 
 and bogs, a world before chaos ; not so good as chaos, 
 since its elements are only rocks and bogs, with a few 
 pools of water, bogs of the Styx and waters of Cocytus, 
 with one great, long, sinuous, flat, dreary, black Acheron- 
 like, lake, Loch Lydog, near which arose three fir trees. 
 
320 MOOR OF RANNOCH. 
 
 just enough to remind me of the vacuity of all the rest. 
 Not a sheep nor a cow ; even the crow shunned it, and 
 wheeled his croaking" flight far off to better regions. If 
 there was a blade of grass any where, it was concealed 
 by the dark stems of the black, black, muddy sedges, and 
 by the yellow, melancholy rush of the bogs. 
 
 As our trio proceeded in such a saltatory and dis- 
 jointed manner, I had not much opportunity of talk with 
 Mr. Macdonald ; but if he thought he had caught a 
 Saxon, I knew full well that I had caught a Highland 
 Tartar. He talked of his harvest, and of the favour he 
 did me by coming, and of the time he should lose in re- 
 turning; with much more that, I well knew, was, in no 
 long time, to lead to some demand beyond his bargain. 
 This however was a point not to be argued in a bog : 
 I hoped that it would be reserved for terra firma. On 
 terra fir ma we at length found ourselves; some whisky 
 and a supper were ordered as an extra gratuity, and the 
 two guineas were presented, with all imaginable thanks 
 in addition. " I shall lose another day of the harvest," 
 said Sandy Macdonald, " and I expect ye'll give me 
 another guinea." I could only request him to excuse 
 me, as he had named his own price, and as two guineas 
 was not a bad exchange for the two shillings he would 
 have gained by his harvest. He remained inflexible : 
 no, did not remain any thing ; but became insolent. At 
 length, finding his eloquence unavailing, " Then you 
 maun give me aght shillings for carrying your um- 
 brella." The knave had carried this in his hand for a 
 few miles, at his own desire. I went up stairs. In a 
 minute however he was at the door, swearing that he 
 would stay there all night, that 1 should have no supper, 
 and that I should not stir til! he was paid all his demand. 
 Accordingly, I betook myself to my little Horace ; listen- 
 
MOOR OF RANNOCH. 321 
 
 ing to much objurgation and vituperation, both in Gaelic 
 and English : the former having a very ferocious sound, 
 but being, fortunately, a dead letter. But finding, after 
 an hour, that he made no impression on Saxon obstinacy, 
 he at length consoled himself by saying that I was not a 
 gentleman, but that he would take the money. I as- 
 sured him that he was right, that I was not a gentleman, 
 but an informer, and that instead of paying him, I would 
 lodge an information against him for letting horses on 
 hire without a license. I had learned this expedient 
 from your friend and mine, Daniell, who had been driven 
 to it on similar occasions. I thank thee Daniell for 
 teaching me that word ; for it was an astounding and 
 an unexpected blow: and like oil on the stormy sea in 
 the Naufragium of Erasmus, it caused the rage of the 
 mountaineer to fall at once to a moderate level; but not 
 till after he had protested that he had been once ruined 
 already by an information, and would be ruined again 
 rather than submit to a Sassanach. I need not tell you 
 that the man got his money and departed : vowing re- 
 venge against the next Saxon who should fall into his 
 clutches. It is not very wonderful that travellers in the 
 Highlands call the people extortioners : for, in the mat- 
 ter of horses, you will find nearly the same wherever 
 you go. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
322 BEN NEVIS. 
 
 BEN NEVIS, FORT WILLIAM, INVERLOCHY. 
 
 He who does not know what is the meaning of a "soft 
 day," must come to Fort William ; or he may go to In- 
 veraray, which will do as well. This is the usual friendly 
 salutation when it is raining what the Scots denominate 
 an even-down-pour, what the Americans call stoning rain, 
 what the Cornish very expressively term lashing, and 
 what is vulgarly denominated cats and dogs. Express- 
 ing- my dissent from the propriety of the Highland epithet, 
 after having been confined three days and three nights at 
 Mrs. Bell Mac Lauchlan's inn, by what is called a shower, 
 in these quarters, the Highlander said with a mixture of 
 fun and surliness, " If you want fine weather you had 
 better go back to England." If dew, as the poet says, 
 is the bridal of the earth and sky, the rains of Fort William 
 bear some resemblance to a Georgian wedding, where the 
 bride is taken, like a hostile garrison, at the sword's point. 
 I remember that when I was at Inveraray, I was told by 
 the ostler, with a knowing leer of the eye, that it would 
 certainly rain, as the clouds were coming from Fort 
 William. When at Fort William, they always deter- 
 mined when it was to rain by looking towards Inveraray. 
 Just so, the rain of Keswick comes from Wastdale, and 
 that of Wastdale comes from Keswick. Either, I be- 
 lieve, might say of the other, "The self-same heaven 
 that frowns on me, looks sadly too on Richmond." I 
 should like to know where the Inver is, where it does not 
 rain two months out of the three which pass by the name 
 
BEN NEVIS. 323 
 
 of summer here ; but I never found the man who would 
 allow it could be fair any where when it was raining at 
 his own Inver. 
 
 Thus three years had passed ; and as it had rained, in 
 each of them, on all the days and weeks that I had been 
 within sight of Ben Nevis, I guessed, and perhaps truly 
 enough, that it had done nought else during my absence. 
 At length, in the fourth year, the shower ceased ; and, on 
 the 20th of August, as I looked out of the window of the 
 inn at Balahulish, at six o'clock in the morning, it was a 
 fine day. It was but twenty miles to the top of Ben 
 Nevis. To wait for the boiling of the kettle, to say no- 
 thing of the lighting of the fire and the awaking of Peggy, 
 and of the ostler, and of much more, was out of the ques- 
 tion ; so I stole my own horse, saddled him, roused the 
 ferryman, launched the ferry-boat, rode off" to Fort Wil- 
 liam, breakfasted, and by one o'clock was on the top of 
 the mountain. In half an hour, it snowed as if it had been 
 January ; and as it has probably been raining or snowing 
 there ever since, it is certain that I secured the only op- 
 portunity which occurred in the space of ten years, by 
 copying Csesar, or by recollecting* that valuable maxim 
 in Cordery which all shivering school boys remember. 
 By the same rule it was that a single vessel of a fleet 
 slipped her cable one morning, made her voyage to Smyr- 
 na, and returned, full of oranges, to find her comrades 
 still wind-bound in the Downs. The morality of this is 
 on the surface. We may all owe it deeper debts, if we 
 choose, than the sight of a shower of snow in August. 
 
 From the rarity of fair weather and a cloudless sky 
 at Fort William, and because the distance to the top of 
 Ben Nevis is considerable, and the ascent laborious, it is 
 not often visited. Measuring it as well as I could by 
 pacing, I found it about eight miles; the path on the 
 
 y2 
 
324 BEN NEVIS. 
 
 mountain, which is very circuitous, amounting to about 
 six, out of which there are two of a very steep and labo- 
 rious ascent. The perpendicular height is more than 
 4000 feet ; but it is exceeded, geometrically, by Ben Muic 
 Dbu, and, I believe, by others of the mountains of Mar. 
 But it must be remembered that Ben Nevis (the Hill of 
 Heaven) is a much more independent mountain ; and that, 
 on the west side at least, it rises, almost immediately, from 
 a plain which is nearly on a level with the sea. Hence 
 it is, in reality, still the highest mountain in Scotland, 
 though not the most elevated ground ; while its effect to 
 the eye is far more striking than that of any other: all 
 the rival elevations, either springing from high land, or 
 being entangled among other hills so as to lose their con- 
 sequence. Its form is, at the same time, heavy and grace- 
 less; particularly from Inverlochy and Loch Eil, where 
 the eye takes in the whole. That form is also very pecu- 
 liar, as if one mountain had been placed on another; and 
 this effect, as of a casual and posterior addition, is ren- 
 dered still more striking by the difference in outline and 
 character between the two portions. This appearance, 
 so remarkable to the ordinary spectator, is easily ex- 
 plained by the geologist ; who finds that the lower portion 
 is formed of granite and schistose rocks, and that the 
 upper is a mass of porphyry. 
 
 Doubtless, the ascent of Ben Nevis is considered a 
 mighty deed; and, in consequence, there are various 
 names inscribed on the cairn within the plain; while 
 some had been written on scraps of paper, and enclosed 
 in bottles which had been drained of their whisky by the 
 valiant who had reached this perilous point of honour. 
 Such is the love of fame, " that the clear spirit doth raise," 
 to carve its aspiring initials on desks, and to scratch them 
 on the win«lows of inns. Is there a man so unworthy of 
 
BEN NEVIS. 325 
 
 a name, were it even MacgufFog or Bumfit, as not to desire 
 that it should be heard of hereafter; even did it prove no 
 more than that its owner had emptied a whisky bottle on 
 Ben Nevis. If I read names here that none but the god- 
 mothers and gossips had ever heard of, and none but the 
 sexton would ever hear of again, there was not one of 
 them all who did not feel a secret satisfaction in thinking 
 to himself, " nomenque erit indelebile nostrum;" in re- 
 flecting that some future Mac Jock or Mac Taw would 
 read that Angus Mac Lehose or Dugal Mac Breeks had 
 been able to scratch his name here on a slate with a horse- 
 shoe nail. But we must not enquire too curiously into 
 this folly ; and when we are inclined to sneer at those 
 who are now inscribing their unheard-of names on the 
 tombs or barracks of Pompeii, we must remember how 
 grateful we are to those, who, probably with no other or 
 greater ambition, scratched their own, two thousand years 
 ago, on the statue of Memnon. 
 
 Some of the rarer alpine plants grow on Ben Nevis ; 
 conveniently situated for the botanist, as they lie chiefly 
 near the sides of the path by which the upper portion is 
 accessible. But the summit itself is utterly bare, and 
 presents a most extraordinary and unexpected sight. 
 If any one is desirous to see how the world looked on the 
 first day of creation, let him come hither. Nor is that 
 nakedness at all hyperbolical ; since the surfaces of the 
 stones are not even covered with the common crustaceous 
 lichens ; two or three only of the shrubby kinds being 
 barely visible. It is an extensive and flat plain, strewed 
 with loose rocks, tumbled together in fragments of all 
 sizes, and, generally, covering the solid foundation to a 
 considerable depth. While these black and dreary ruins 
 mark the power of the elements on this stormy and ele- 
 vated spot, they excite our surprise at the agencies that 
 
326 
 
 KKN NEVIS. 
 
 could thus, unaided by the usual force of gravity, have 
 ploughed up and broken into atoms, so wide and so level 
 a surface of the toug-hest and most tenacious of rocks. 
 Certainly Nature did not intend mountains to last for 
 ever; when she is so fertile in expedients as to lay plans 
 for destroying" a mountain so apparently unsusceptible of 
 ruin as Ben Nevis. 
 
 Situated in the midst of this plain, whence nothing- 
 but clouds and sky are visible, the sensation is that of 
 being on a rocky shore in the wide ocean ; and we almost 
 listen to hear its waves roar, and watch as if for the break- 
 ing- of the surge, as the driving rack sweeps along its mar- 
 gin. As the clouds began to close in around, curling and 
 wheeling- over head, and hurrying up in whirlwinds from 
 the deep and dark abysses which surround it, a poetical 
 imagination might have imaged itself on the spot where 
 Jupiter overthrew the Titans ; the bulk, the apparent 
 freshness, and the confusion of the fragments, resembling a 
 shower of rocks just discharged by a supernatural power 
 from the passing storm. The wild and strange sublimity of 
 this scene is augmented by the depth of the surrounding 
 precipices, whence the eye looks down into interminable 
 vacancy, on the mists that are sailing in mid air, or into 
 the rugged depths of chasms, black as night, impenetrable 
 to the eye or to the light of day. The distant view pre- 
 sents no interest. The whole is a heap of mountains ; 
 but so remote and so depressed, from the altitude of this 
 station, that scarcely any marked feature is to be seen ; 
 and the effect, on the east side in particular, resembles a 
 congregation of mole-hills. 
 
 I had not time, however, to walk round the whole 
 plain before there came on as dense and bitter a storm of 
 snow as I ever experienced : so that what else remains 
 of Ben Nevis, must be told by some more fortunate person. 
 
BEN NEVIS. 327 
 
 I was not, however, alone, since I bad with me what is 
 commonly called a guide; a lad who had volunteered his 
 services, and whose good humour had secured him the 
 place which his talents in pilotage would not have com- 
 manded. I had gained too much experience in guides 
 not to know that, for the purpose commonly understood by 
 that term, they were, generally, either useless or mischie- 
 vous ; and had long been accustomed to trust to my organ 
 of geography, as well as to another organ, of not much 
 less use. The event here did not belie my theory ; for 
 when my guide found himself in a whirlwind of fog and 
 snow, so thick that we could scarcely see each other, and 
 without prospect of any thing- better, he began to cry ; 
 lamenting that he should never see his mother again, and 
 reproaching himself for having undertaken the office. I 
 might have been angry and alarmed both, and with good 
 reason; nor did 1 think him too much punished with 
 half an hour of despair. Feeling safe also, there was 
 something ludicrous in a terror which 1 knew to be un- 
 founded, and which was rendered much more amusing by 
 the mixture of Gaelic and English in which it was ex- 
 pressed, and the extraordinary gestures of the unhappy 
 animal, who vowed that if ever he lived to get home, he 
 would never guide a gentleman again. He would even 
 surrender his five shillings, if I would show him the way 
 down the hill. In truth, it might have been a very se- 
 rious adventure to both of us, had there not been a 
 piece of philosophy in the world of which my friend had 
 never heard. There was but one way down from this 
 wide plain, scarcely visible at any time; while every 
 point of the surface was exactly like every other, and the 
 whole was surrounded by precipices, which we might 
 have stepped over without being aware of it ; landing in 
 mid air, like the eagles, to whom night would, in any case. 
 
328 BEN NEVIS. 
 
 have probably left us for a supper. I had observed the 
 bearing of this path at first, and therefore, taking out the 
 compass, walked boldly on ; while my guide followed, 
 crying, and wondering where all this was to terminate. 
 But to express his astonishment and rapture when 1 found 
 the very track, close to the edge of the deepest precipice, 
 is impossible. I thought that he would have fallen on 
 his knees and worshipped me and the compass; nor did 
 I succeed in making him understand how, though it 
 would show the way to Fort William, it could equally 
 direct him to Inverness. 
 
 It was intensely cold, and my pilot, who had squatted 
 down on a stone in the snow, till we could venture to 
 proceed over this dangerous descent, lamented that he 
 had not his Bpaxa?, if indeed the braccae of Diodorus were 
 breeches, and not a coat or vi^aistcoat; which seems to be 
 the real fact; since, according to Aulus Gellius, the 
 braccee covered the whole body. The ava^vp)^ was proba- 
 bly the very trews of our own Gael, as his a-dyo<; must have 
 been the plaid : and if the xitSv was a jacket or upper 
 coat of any kind, then the whole dress is really as well 
 described as we could desire, even to the itXivGloi, or little 
 tiles, or squares, if we may so translate this word, which 
 formed the checquer, and rendered the whole dress so 
 ■naTaTcXriMTty})^. The virgatum sagulum of Virgil is equally a 
 tartan plaid : and, according to Propertius, the Gaul 
 Virdomarus had striped braccae. You see how anxious 
 I am for the honour of the Gael, by recurring to this 
 subject on the top of Ben Nevis in a snow-storm ; and, 
 I ought to add, for that of Diodorus, to whom I did not 
 do full justice. But when I said there, that the ancient 
 Highlanders did not esteem their own dress as we esteem 
 it now, I might also have quoted the authority of Mrs. 
 Gilderoy, that was to have been ; who boasts that her 
 
FORT WILLIAM. 329 
 
 lover " never wore a Highland plaid, but costly silken 
 clothes :" and that he was a Cateran, need not be told, 
 since the lady never wanted for " cow nor ewe," and the 
 hero " never annoyed those who paid their cess" to him. 
 
 By the time his kilt was thoroughly cooled, and that 
 he had vowed never to wear one again, the storm 
 cleared away, and we returned by the road of Glen 
 Nevis : his spirits so elated, that he frisked about like a 
 goat, and would, I believe, have followed me all over the 
 world, as he besought me to let him attend me through 
 the Highlands. 
 
 The descent from Ben Nevis by the glen is not incon- 
 venient, and it is wild and romantic. It is said that 
 Cameron of Glen Nevis holds his lands by the tenure of 
 an unfailing snow-ball when demanded. He is certainly 
 not likely to fail in his rent; but as this is said in other 
 places also, I know not if it is a truth or a popular tale. 
 There are the remains of a vitrified fort in this neighbour- 
 hood which stands enumerated in the list latiely given, 
 and requires no further remarks ; and my guide also 
 pointed out a rocking stone, which is poised in a very 
 unusual manner on the flat and bare ground near the 
 river. 
 
 The peculiar magnitude and situation of Ben Nevis, 
 serve to account for the singularly rainy climate of Fort 
 William, as they do for the violence of the winds. I was 
 informed by a seaman long engaged in this coasting 
 trade, that he had seen one of the small sloops blown out 
 of the water and laid on the beach ; nor, from what I had 
 seen, did I doubt his report. The situation of the town 
 is wild and rude ; and, in general, the surrounding coun- 
 try is very bare of wood. The margin of the western 
 branch of Loch Eil, and the elevated land immediately 
 west of the canal, afford the most picturesque views of 
 
330 FORT WILLJAM. 
 
 Ben Nevis ; the casfle of Inverlochy always forming an 
 interesting object in the landscape. The town is suf- 
 ficiently respectable, in appearance, and is the capital of 
 this part of the country ; while it is the port of a country 
 coasting- trade, and the center of a fair for sheep and 
 cattle. The loss of the garrison has probably contributed 
 to diminish the means and employment of the inhabitants ; 
 and it remains to be seen whether, and what, it will gain 
 by the opening of the Caledonian canal. The operations 
 required in constructing this work formed a source of 
 wealth for a considerable period, and something of this 
 must still adhere. The town contains all such trades 
 and shops as are required for rural consumption ; and, 
 the latter, in an abundance which impresses strangers 
 with a notion of a more dense surrounding population 
 than they are able to discover. A casual visitor might 
 indeed wonder how all these shopkeepers exist, unless 
 they have agreed to live on gingerbread kings and carra- 
 way comfits, and to buy all their pins and tape from each 
 other ; forgetting-, or ignorant of, the distances whence 
 the people resort to have their wants supplied. 
 
 In one respect, Fort William possesses the distin- 
 guishing marks of a capital : idleness. This is precisely 
 the consequence which the Highlanders themselves say 
 is produced by the building of Highland villages. Per- 
 haps it is more conspicuous because more condensed : 
 while social or gregarious idleness is more prominent 
 than the solitary doing of nothing; being active instead 
 of passive. It is the agere nihil instead of the nihil agere. 
 To lounge about the streets, impede the way, and to be 
 busily and offensively idle, is a Scottish fashion : and to 
 those therefore who are well acquainted with the High 
 Street or the Gallowgate, Fort William will not appear 
 very new. To Londoners, it may be new to see the 
 
FORT WILLIAM. 331 
 
 single street of which it consists, crowded with idle men 
 walking about with their hands in their pockets, or col- 
 lected in groups to yawn together or converse in mono- 
 syllables; except when roused to louder talk by an occa- 
 sional sojournment to a whisky house. Even the rain of 
 Fort William has no effect on these coteries, which stand 
 under the torrents that are showering down on them, un- 
 heeding, undiscomposed; less concerned than the very 
 ducks, which quack remonstrance against the sky, and 
 not even retiring into their own ever-open doors. My 
 very guide, whose respect and confidence the compass 
 had secured, lamented the bad example and the want of 
 employment, complained that his own morals were in 
 danger, and was willing to attend me for any thing or 
 nothing, if he could but escape from Fort Williatn. 
 
 Iftheprojectof building Highland towns is to be pur- 
 sued, as certain politicians seem still to wish, it would be 
 convenient to discover some better employment for the 
 people than that of loitering about in the rain with their 
 hands in their pockets. To build hives for drones, was 
 never reckoned good policy: and that contagion which is 
 most condensed, is commonly reputed to be the most 
 active. To form these into communities, is to provide 
 for their perpetuity, and to diffuse and extend it by re- 
 verberation aud example. It is a premium also for popu- 
 lation, as well as for idleness: and, to borrow from the 
 argument of the nominalists against universals, " Entia 
 non sunt multiplicanda prseter necessitatem." 
 
 In the case of country towns, where a Highland laird or 
 a speculating society has not interfered, it is matter of 
 analysis, for the fashionable science of political economy, 
 to discover how one of them has grown, or by what ce- 
 ment it is united. There is a church ; that is the ordinary 
 foundation. Where there is a church, there must be a 
 
332 FORT WILLIAM. 
 
 parson, a clerk, a sexton, and a midwife. Thus we account 
 for four houses. An inn is required on the road. This pro- 
 duces a smith, a saddler, a butcher, and a brewer. The 
 parson, the clerk, the sexton, the midwife, the butcher, 
 the smith, the saddler, and the brewer, require a baker, 
 a tailor, a shoemaker, and a carpenter. They soon learn to 
 eat plum-pudding ; and a grocer follows. The grocer's wife 
 and parson's wife contend for superiority in dress, whence 
 flows a milliner, and, with the milliner, a mantua-maker. A 
 barber is introduced to curl the parson's wig and to shave 
 the smith on Saturday nights ; and a stationer to furnish 
 the ladies with paper for their sentimental correspon- 
 dences : an exciseman is sent to gauge the casks, and a 
 schoolmaster discovers that the ladies cannot spell. A 
 hatter, a hosier, and a linen-draper, follow by degrees; and 
 as children are born, they begin to cry out for rattles and 
 gingerbread. The parson becomes idle and gouty, and 
 gets a curate, and the curate gets twenty children and a 
 wife ; and thus it becomes necessary to have more shoe- 
 makers and tailors and grocers. In the mean time, a 
 neighbouring apothecary, hearing with indignation that 
 there is a community living without physic, places three 
 blue bottles in a window; when, on a sudden, the parson, 
 the butcher, the innkeeper, the grocer's wife, and the 
 parson's wife become bilious and nervous, and their chil- 
 dren get water in the head, teeth, and convulsions. They 
 are bled and blistered till a physician finds it convenient 
 to settle : the inhabitants become worse and worse every 
 day, and an undertaker is established. The butcher 
 having called the tailor prick-louse, over a pot of ale, 
 Snip, to prove his manhood, knocks him down with the 
 goose. Upon this plea, an action for assault is brought 
 at the next sessions. The attorney sends his clerk over 
 to take depositions and collect evidence : the clerk, find- 
 
FORT WILLIAM. 333 
 
 ing a good opening-, sets all the people by the ears, be- 
 comes a pettifogging attorney, and peace flies the village 
 for ever. But the village becomes a town, acquires a 
 bank, and a coterie of old maids; and should it have ex- 
 isted in happier days, might have gained a corporation, 
 a mayor, a mace, a quarter sessions of its own, a county 
 assembly, the assizes, and the gallows. 
 
 The Fort is not dismantled nor absolutely abandoned, 
 as was intended ; the Duke of Wellington, with his usual 
 steadiness of character and contempt of idle clamour, 
 having opposed this design as to all the Highland gar- 
 risons. Originally it was built by Cromwell, at Monk's 
 suggestion ; and it was then called the garrison of Inver- 
 lochy, being calculated for 2000 men. It was rebuilt on 
 a smaller scale, but on a stronger plan, by William, 
 whence the present name: yet it is still a feeble work. 
 It was besieged in 1746 for five weeks, but that siege 
 was abandoned. I need not however dwell on matters 
 known to every one, nor describe its military details. I 
 need only add that the town was originally built by 
 James VI with the intention of " civilizing the High- 
 lands;" Campbelltown and Stornaway having also been 
 made boroughs with the same view. It is said that 
 Corpach, where the canal basin has been formed, is 
 the place where the bodies of the kings were deposited 
 before their final journey to lona. The same has been 
 said of Pencross in Ayrshire: we may let that question 
 cool for the present. 
 
 There is a good deal of military and historical interest 
 about this spot ; but it has been so often printed and re- 
 printed, that it is all a tale told. Of early and distant 
 events, one of the most remarkable is the battle of In- 
 verlochy, fought by Donald Balloch in 1427, against the 
 Earls of Mar and Caithness ; and another, is that fought 
 
334 INVERLOCHY. 
 
 between Argyll and Montrose in 1645, when the former 
 was defeated. Whether the fame of this action, or that 
 of Major Dugald Dalgetty^ is to be the most imperish- 
 able, time must prove. The occurrences that took place 
 in this quarter also, during the days of Cromwell, in 
 which the energy and fame of the Camerons are so deeply 
 involved, add not a little to its interest ; but the memoir 
 of Sir Ewen, a name not soon to be forgotten by friend 
 or foe, having been printed by Pennant, they are toler- 
 ably well known. Every one has heard of Sir Ewen Dhu 
 and of his duel, and 1 need not chronicle again a ten- 
 times told tale. 
 
 The castle of lnverlocliy,however, possesses a distinct 
 interest; arising partly from its former magnificence and 
 the obscurity of its origin, and partly from the share which 
 it has been supposed to possess in the early fabulous his- 
 tory of Scotland. Those who choose to believe in that 
 arch fabulist, Hector Boethius, may continue to enjoy 
 their belief; but the doul)ts of profound historians and 
 laborious antiquaries, are surely far from deserving their 
 indignation. Romance and history, each possess their 
 separate kinds of merit: but the value of the latter would 
 be low indeed, were it founded on any other laws than 
 those which the judicious have, in all ages, acknow- 
 ledged. Scotland has ample stores of real fame and 
 honour, without wishing to augment them by such 
 means. She need not have recourse, as Pinkerton has re- 
 marked, to false history or false honours of any kind ; 
 the truth would render her far more illustrious. He 
 therefore who refuses his assent to the imaginary league 
 between King Achaius and Charlemagne, signed at 
 Inverlochy, may be permitted to indulge his doubts in 
 peace, even though he could not shelter himself under 
 the shields of Hailes and Chalmers. 
 
INVERLOCHV. 335 
 
 But Inverlochy is not only the place where this vision- 
 ary treaty was signed, since, it is, like Berig-onium, the re- 
 puted capital of ancient Scotland. Nay, Dunstaffnage is 
 a third : so that the former kingdom of Scotland has no 
 less than three competing capitals, when it is, by the same 
 patriots, held to have been one undivided powerful king- 
 dom. The life of St. Columba, if that is held worthy of 
 regard on a historical question, further proves that Inver- 
 ness was the capital, and others assert the same of Aber- 
 nethy ; so that there are no less than five places claiming 
 the honour of a metropolis, when all the judicious and 
 acute antiquaries who have examined this question, deny 
 that there existed any. It is something to show that tra- 
 dition is at variance with itself; even though these anti- 
 quaries should have judged incorrectly on the bare ques- 
 tion. If tradition be authority, we must take it as it 
 exists; for if we only admit what suits our own hypothe- 
 sis, it might as well not have existed. But thus it always 
 involves itself in a chaos of moral, physical, and historical 
 contradiction, and then gravely calls on us to believe: 
 scarcely even gravely; as the indignation, in this, as in 
 all other cases, is commensurate with the feebleness of the 
 arguments. 
 
 But not to quote Hollinshed and others, whose testi- 
 monies to this point have been adduced, and who are just 
 as good authority on Scottish history as the immortal 
 Xixofou would be, the Bishop of Ross, Lesley, pretends, 
 as does Boethius, that the Highlanders had a great 
 trade with France and Spain, in ancient times, from the 
 city of Inverlochy. He calls it " opulentissima civitas 
 Inverlothoea appellata." These foreigners, as he says, 
 came there with ships and carried away the valuable 
 commodities of the country. His indignation serves to 
 fix something like a date; since he is very angry that this 
 
336 INVERLOCHY. 
 
 city was not restored after it had been burat and plun- 
 dered by the Danes. He should have told us whence he 
 derived his information and opinions ; what species of 
 commerce could have been carried on with these countries, 
 and what produce exported to them, from a region, which, 
 even in the present state of improvement, can do little 
 more than maintain its inhabitants, and which, in the days 
 of Highland independence, could scarcely do that. Ac- 
 cording to the Fingalian theory also,and the acknowledged 
 manners of the Fingalian sera, to which his date must al- 
 lude, Caledonia, if it was not here a forest, which, accord- 
 ing to the very theory of the Parallel roads, it was, was 
 then, in its mountains at least, said to be a nation of war- 
 like hunters : and that this stage of society is incompati- 
 ble with commerce, the Reverend author appears to have 
 forgotten, or never considered. It requires more know- 
 ledge of history and policy, of man and of morals, than 
 the Bishop of Ross or the natives of Glen Roy possess, to 
 construct theories and invent fables that will even hang 
 together. 
 
 Enough, and more than enough, of this. But such 
 is the extent of this belief, as even to cause the faithful to 
 assert that the present castle of Inverlochy was the very 
 palace of these imaginary kings. The date of this 
 building is not known ; but we have here, fortunately, 
 a species of evidence, which, within certain limits, is 
 quite satisfactory, and by which we can so far ap- 
 proximate to the sera of its erection, as to show that 
 it cannot be very ancient. It is, at the same time, as 
 a Highland castle, a specimen well meriting description. 
 Its situation near the river, and on the borders of the 
 great peat moss of Inverlochy, is a strong one; but is 
 scarcely such as a Highland chief would have selected, if 
 we may judge from the various examples dispersed all 
 
INVERLOCHY. 337 
 
 over the country, and on nliicli I have made some general 
 remarks elsewhere. If its situation is not well chosen, 
 according to modern military systems, still it is more con- 
 sonant to these than the generality of the Highland castles, 
 as it also differs from them in the nature of its defences; 
 both marking, alike, a different set of military opinions, 
 and the engineering of a distinct people. It is also of 
 superior masonry and construction to most of the High- 
 land analogous works, and consists of a quadrangle, with 
 round towers at the angles. The walls are about nine 
 feet in thickness, and the measure of the curtains is about 
 an hundred feet; so that the flanking defences are here 
 perfect, and formed on a regular design ; while, in most 
 of the Highland castles, they are wanting, and, in many, 
 appear to have been accidental. That opinion is the more 
 confirmed by the prevailing want of loop-holes in the 
 towers of the latter, or of other means of defensive an- 
 noyance, in them. Here, on the contrary, there are both 
 loop-holes and sally-ports ; so that while its size proves 
 it to have been intended for a garrison, its defences show 
 that it was prepared for a siege : the whole of the sys- 
 tem being utterly different from that of most of the other 
 castles of the Highlands. Not to enter into details un- 
 necessarily minute, it is surrounded by a moat, and there 
 are the traces of a former drawbridge between the south 
 and the east towers ; circumstances in which it also differs 
 from the general plan of the Highland castles ; as I have 
 more fully shown elsewhere. 
 
 It is impossible for any one who is acquainted with 
 ancient castles, and who has studied the principles of 
 their fortification in England and Wales, not to detect 
 here, an imitation at least, if not the work of the English 
 engineers of that day. However various are the works 
 of Edward in Wales, and those of parallel date which 
 VOL I. z 
 
338 INVERLOCHY. 
 
 may not have been his, they almost all develope sound 
 principles of defence ; often so very remarkable, that 
 Harlech, which might, in other respects, almost be 
 the work of a modern engineer, possesses a complete 
 fausse-bray ; a contrivance supposed peculiar to modern 
 fortification. Tnverlochy is palpably of the same school ; 
 and the nature and integrity of its ruins, bespeak also an 
 age that could not have been much higher than that of 
 Edward. It was probably therefore the work of the 
 Cumins, about that date. They were the possessors of 
 this territory, and the building bears the marks of an 
 opulence, and of a knowledge, of which, except at Kil- 
 churn, we see no display, and which is there accounted 
 for in a similar manner, by the wealth and the education 
 of bis Colin, the Knight Templar. The abilities or in- 
 formation of the Cumins, may be supposed, like their 
 wealth, to have been of a superior nature to those of the 
 age in this country, from obvious causes ; and their po- 
 litical connexion and history are too well known to require 
 mention in aid of this supposition. The probability there- 
 fore is, <hat Tnverlochy was not only built by this family 
 about the time of Edward, but with assistance or advice 
 from his engineers; nor is it even impossible that, as 
 Aylmer cle Valence both built and garrisoned Bothwell 
 castle, this work also was an English fortress and an 
 English garrison. But the records of friends and foes 
 have vanished alike, I need only add, that the western 
 tower is still known among the natives by the name of 
 Cumin's tower. 
 
 To him who is in search of picturesque beauty, this 
 neighbourhood affords little temptation besides those I 
 have already named. The road from Balahulish is pleas- 
 ing, without oifering any striking scenery ; as there is little 
 of character in the rude hills of Ardgower, which form 
 
INVEKLOCHY. 
 
 m9 
 
 the western boundary of Locheil. There is as little 
 temptation in the western branch of this inlet, which, but 
 for the ebb and the sea weed, might be mistaken for a 
 fresh water lake. High bridge is a striking object; from 
 the depth of the ravine and the height of the arches above 
 the water, which is ninety-five feet ; nor is it wanting in 
 picturesque beauty. Of the surrounding country, how- 
 ever, Glen Roy most deserves attention ; not merely on 
 account of its singularity and its philosophical interest, 
 but of its truly picturesque beauty, and of the very strik- 
 ing and magnificent effect of the Parallel roads, as they 
 are called. The subject itself is, however, too intricate for 
 the tail of a letter, so that I must defer it. It is, un- 
 luckily, one of the Fingalian stumbling blocks ; but we 
 become habituated to this eternal contest, and must learn 
 to bear it as well as we may, in hopes that the age of 
 reason on these subjects will arrive at last. My hetero- 
 doxy, I grieve to say, cost me a dinner and a night's lodg- 
 ing : for, armed with the best of letters, I was not invited 
 into a house, at the door of which I stood, because it was 
 known that I was an unbeliever. Highland wrath must 
 be powerful, so to overcome Highland kindness. It was 
 far otherwise at good old kind-hearted Keppoch's : but he 
 is gone where my gratitude is alike useless and un- 
 witnessed. 
 
 z2 
 
340 GLEN ROY. 
 
 GLEN ROY. 
 
 The popular opinion to which I have alluded, respect- 
 ing the singular appearances in Glen Roy, is no proof 
 that they had been observed by the ancient Highlanders : 
 nor does the existence of that opinion prove that it is an 
 ancient and traditional one. I have already remarked, 
 what I shall probably have occasion to remark again, that 
 the personages who figure in the Fingalian drama, have, 
 since the time of Macpherson, been invested with a right 
 over all streams, caves, mountains, and stones, every 
 where; even where some of these objects have only been 
 brought to light in our own days. It may be doubted 
 whether the fancy in question respecting these Parallel 
 roads, is of much earlier date than the christening of the 
 stone in Glen Almond and of the cave in Staffa, which we 
 have ourselves witnessed. So little was known also, out 
 of the bounds of the Highlands, of their antiquities or 
 scenery, even at the time of Pennant's visit in 1772, that 
 the public was ignorant of the very name of Glen Roy, 
 until he printed a short notice of it in his appendix, from 
 the communications of a neighbouring clergyman; not 
 even having seen it himself. Ten years have indeed 
 scarcely elapsed since these very singular appearances 
 attracted any further notice : my own visit was among 
 the earliest; and, even now, I doubt if they have been 
 seen by twenty people beyond those of their immediate 
 neighbourhood, though so interesting and so accessible. 
 
 The scenery of Glen Roy, of its lower part at least, 
 is both pleaKiiig :uid picturesque; and indeed, indepen- 
 
OLEN ROV. 341 
 
 dently of its Parallel roads, it is among- the most beauti- 
 ful of the Hig-hland valleys ; being richly ornamented 
 with scattered wood, and its boundaries being marked 
 equally by simplicity and grandeur of style. The upper 
 portion, distinguished by the turn which it makes to the 
 eastward, is bare and wild, and the most remote, which 
 is only terminated by Loch Spey, the summit of the 
 eastern-flowing waters, is without any other interest than 
 that which belongs to the appearances under considera- 
 tion. It is a part of the geographical description of this 
 valley, required for understanding the nature and con- 
 sequences of these phenomena, to say that it terminates, 
 so as to be lost, in the great valley of the Spean, which 
 includes Loch Laggan ; a valley with which Loch Treig, 
 communicates : and that there is also a communication 
 with Glen Gloy, by means of Glen Turit ; while some 
 shorter valleys, such as Glen Glastric and Glen Fintec, 
 also open into it. 
 
 On entering Glen Roy, where the Parallel roads are 
 most remarkable, every one must be struck by their ap- 
 pearance and their effect. Nothing indeed that I have 
 ever seen in nature or art, is so striking. Ihere is a 
 magnificence, a grandeur of apparent eflibrt in them, 
 which excites more than wonder : incredulity : and we 
 look again and again, as if there was some deception, as 
 if that which is before us could not be. The impression, 
 in fact, is that of a work of art; because Nature pro- 
 duces nothing similar: yet we contemplate it as impos- 
 sible art. Nature deals not in mathematical lines and 
 forms : and thus, even though we know it is her works 
 that are here before us, we cannot shake off the impres- 
 sion that we are contemplating a work of man, and still, 
 that it is a work, of which the gigantic dimensions and 
 bold features exceed mortal power. We need not won- 
 
342 GLEN ROY. 
 
 der, if the Highlander should have attributed to the ideal 
 and poetical beings of his heroic ages, works which, 
 scorning the mimic efforts of the present race, hold their 
 undeviating course over the mountain and the valley, 
 heedless alike of the impassable crag and the destroying 
 torrent. 
 
 The more calm impression is, that these traces, so 
 strongly marked, drawn with such mathematical exact- 
 ness and truth, so regular in the midst of irregularity, so 
 imlike every line by which they are surrounded and to 
 every form on which they seem to rest, are not in the 
 landscape. It is as if they lay between our eye and the 
 hills, as if they were drawn in the air, or as if they were 
 the transverse wires of a telescope through which we are 
 contemplating the scene before ns. Let it be added to 
 this, that the world has not yet produced, any where 
 e\se, a similar phenomenon; and while we may pride 
 ourselves on possessing what might once have ranked 
 among its seven wonders, let us also add to that wonder, 
 the still greater one, that it should hitherto have received 
 so little attention. 
 
 I need scarcely tell you, that if the Highlanders have 
 their theory, so the philosophers have theirs. This is, 
 that they have been produced by the action of water. As 
 to the mode, however, in which this has acted, opinions 
 have differed. My own solution, of course, I consider 
 the only and the right one ; else, you know, I should not 
 be a true philosopher: while, having been the first to 
 investigate and describe them, I must also swagger and 
 assume the honour of a discoverer and a teacher; as is 
 usual among this race, not less watchful over their vision- 
 ary property than kings and nations are over their boun- 
 daries and rights, and not one whit less ingenious in 
 attempting to encroach on those of their neighbours. 
 
GLEN ROY. 343 
 
 Never let us hear, my dear Sir Walter, of the jealou- 
 sies and squabbles of the fair sex. Did they know us as 
 well as they oug^ht, now that they are become our rivals 
 in science and literature, they might retort on us our 
 academies and our societies, our geologists and our chen)- 
 ists, our Pinkertons and Ritsons and Scaligers. 
 
 I will not allow Donald, however, to be treated with 
 injustice: for, let his betters romance as they may, there 
 is a bottom of good sense and a sharpness of intellect 
 in him, which, while they may give to Fingal all that is 
 his .due, and to his ancient clans and chiefs as much re- 
 spect as they merit, will not suffer him to surrender his 
 own senses and his own reasonings to any one. I met 
 one of them here who entertained me much with his own 
 philosophy on the subject, and who smiled when I re- 
 marked that the roads had been made by Fingal. What- 
 ever the value of his priori arguments might be, he was 
 very deficient, poor fellow, a posteriori; yet I recom- 
 mend future travellers to apply to this Gymnosophist, 
 who held even his minister in great scorn on this point, 
 and whose theory was not so wide of the truth but that a 
 very few words sufficed to render it perfect. He was 
 delighted that he had found a partizan, and fresh argu- 
 ments ; and 1 doubt not, has, by this time, converted all 
 his neighbours to the true belief. Yet he too could point 
 out the Dal Sealg where the deer were killed, after hav- 
 ing thus been deluded into the mouse-trap, the kettles 
 where Fingal and Rbyno cooked their venison, and the 
 lee rock where Carthon, or Fillan, or some other hero of 
 the swift foot and the bright shield, was detected in an 
 intrigue with the " Wabster's dochter." So careful has 
 tradition been, and so delicately minute. 
 
 But before we enter on causes, it will be proper to 
 enquire a little further about effects. In the inferior part 
 
344 OLEN ROV. 
 
 of the valley, where these parallel lines are most perfect, 
 there are three, traced above each other. The correspon- 
 dence of each of these to its representative, or fellow, on 
 the opposite side, is such, that they are on an exact 
 water level, as determined by levelling. Of the three, 
 the vertical distance from the lowest to the second, or 
 middle one, determined in the same manner, is 212 feet; 
 and that from the second to the upper one 82 : and, these 
 distances being invariably preserved wherever they oc- 
 cur, hence arises that parallelism whence they have de- 
 rived their name, and of which the effect is so striking. 
 At the lower part of Glen Roy, the lowest line is about 
 600 feet, perpendicular, above the bottom of the valley, 
 or 633 above the junction of the rivers Roy and Spean ; 
 but as the bottom of the valley itself necessarily rises in 
 proceeding up the stream, the two lowest lines become, 
 in succession, excluded, and disappear ; the upper one 
 alone, continuing to be traced to its most remote ex- 
 tremity. 
 
 These lines, however, are only found, in this perfec- 
 tion, in some places, and chiefly in the lower part of the 
 glen. There, the whole three are often to be seen, on 
 both sides, and for a considerable space; but, in other 
 places, they are interrupted or wanting, so that but two 
 are present, or only one is sometimes to be found ; while, 
 in a few, they are all deficient. In many cases, this can 
 be accounted for by circumstances in the nature of the 
 ground : a very steep acclivity, or a rocky bottom inca- 
 pable of receiving the impressions, or the sliding of the 
 loose surfaces of the hills, or the posterior action of 
 water; while, in a few remarkable cases, no apparent 
 cause for the deficiency can be assigned. In one or two 
 points moreover, there are errors of level, evidently 
 cauised by a descent of the loose ground ; and some frag- 
 
GLEN ROY. 345 
 
 iiients of lines also appear in some places, which do not 
 belong to the principal ones, but which are easily ex- 
 plained by an action of water sin:iilar to that by which 
 these were produced. 
 
 1 need not detail more minutely what could not be 
 rendered intelligible without a map ; nor is a more mi- 
 nute detail necessary for the purpose of this popular view 
 of the subject. But it is important to describe the nature 
 of the lines themselves, that it may be seen how small 
 the resemblance is which they bear to roads. As the 
 surfaces of the hills are alluvial, except where rocks oc- 
 casionally interfere, the lines are necessarily and unavoid- 
 ably formed in, or of, alluvial materials, as roads might 
 be. This, which has been used as an argument for their 
 being- roads, proves nothing; as they could not have been 
 formed in any other manner ; and, indeed, had not these 
 alluvia been present, would not have been formed at all, 
 by any action of water. Both the internal and external 
 angles are very much rounded, and their surfaces are ex- 
 tremely irregular. There is no where an inferior talus 
 or slope ; nor a superior one, except in one casual spot; 
 circumstances inseparable from a road constructed on the 
 side of a hill. In one most essential circumstance, they 
 bear no resemblance to roads, inasmuch as they are not 
 level or flat ; the angles of their deviation from the horizon- 
 tal plane varying from twelve to thirty degrees, in which 
 last case they are scarcely distinguishable from the slope 
 of the hill on which they lie. Hence it is that they are 
 sometimes invisible, or nearly so, except from below, 
 where the shadowy line produced by the foreshortening, 
 renders them apparent. When we are on the same level, 
 so that they are prolonged from the eye, and when we 
 look down on them, we often cannot see them at all; and 
 when even on them, it is frequently very difficult to be 
 
346 GLEN ROY. 
 
 aware of it, far less to suppose that we are standing upon 
 a road. Where widest, they are about seventy feet in 
 breadth ; and from that they vary to one as low as ten 
 or twelve ; fifty or sixty being perhaps the most commoii_ 
 dimension ; while, as might be expected from their 
 causes, they are most perfect, or most flat and most wide, 
 where the slope of the hill is least and the alluvia deepest, 
 and most obscure where the declivity is greatest and the 
 ground rocky. Where there are protruding rocks, they 
 do not exist: and they are deficient in the ravines and 
 water courses, although marked in some places, on the 
 outer parts of these. 
 
 Where the smaller valleys above-mentioned open into 
 Glen Roy, the lines are traced on them in a similar man- 
 ner. But what is of much more importance, the same 
 appearances, to a certain extent, are found in the greater 
 valleys with which it communicates. In Glen Spean, one 
 line only is found, corresponding in level to the lowest 
 of those in Glen Roy* ; much interrupted, but capable 
 of being traced in different places, and on both sides of 
 the valley, from the furthest extremity of Loch Laggan 
 to that spacious and open vale which lies between Tein- 
 drish and the foot of Ben Nevis; disappearing finally 
 about this place. This is not far from the point on the 
 north side of the valley, where was fought the celebrated 
 battle between Keppoch and the Macintosh ; the last act 
 of private warfare which the Highlands produced ; but 
 a tale that has been told again and again. The same 
 line enters into the valley of the Gulban, and also sur- 
 rounds Loch Treig. Lastly, with respect to the geogra- 
 phical distribution, similar appearances are found in 
 Glen Gloy, which opens from Low bridge, where it dis- 
 charges its waters into Loch Lochy, and which commu- 
 nicates with Glen Roy by a level so high as to exclude 
 
 C^ 'InJ^ 
 
GLEN ROY. 347 
 
 the connexions of their respective lines. I need only 
 remark that the uppermost line of Glen Gloy appears to 
 be twelve feet higher than the highest in Glen Roy ; 
 which, if there is no error in the measurement, would 
 lead us to conclude that the appearances in the former 
 valley were in some measure independent of those in the 
 latter. 
 
 It is only further necessary to remark as to these 
 appearances, that where the lines terminate in the upper 
 parts of Glen Roy, by their meeting or approaching to 
 the bottom of the valley, they often end in those deltas 
 and terraces which are so common in alluvial valleys 
 every where. Numerous terraces, at various levels, also 
 skirt the present course of the river in these parts ; and 
 similar ones are found at the lateral entrances of the 
 streams which join the Roy. This also happens in Glen 
 Spean ; but I need not detail with geological minute- 
 ness, what is not necessary for a popular sketch of this 
 curious subject. 
 
 But to understand it, it is still necessary to point 
 out the relation of the heights of these several lines to 
 the present elevations of the surrounding communications 
 with the sea. Supposing that water were now elevated 
 to the highest level or line in Glen Roy, it would flow 
 out at Loch Spey till it was depressed thirteen feet; that 
 being the difference of their respective heights. Its ele- 
 vation above the western sea is 1262 feet, and above the 
 German ocean 12G6, as far as the barometer can be depended 
 on ; while that of the lower line above the former is 9G8, 
 and above the highest part of the great Caledonian valley 
 at Loch Oich, which is 90 feet above the sea, 878. Thus, 
 through Glen Spean and this valley, water, so circum- 
 stanced, might flow, either into the Murray firth or the 
 Linnhe Loch ; while it might also find its Avay through 
 
348 GLEN ROY. 
 
 Loch Eil and Loch Shiel into the western sea, as the 
 elevation of the land is here also inconsiderable. At 
 the eastern extremity of Glen Spean, near the head of 
 Loch Lag-gan, the land is 304 feet below the uppermost 
 line of Glen Roy, or ten beneath the lowest ; so that if 
 Glen Roy and Glen Spean formed one lake, as must have 
 been the fact, at least at the lowest line, the water might 
 have issued at this aperture also, as well as by the greater 
 western communication. The same reasoning, as to the 
 western communications, applies to Glen Gloy. 
 
 Enough of the facts and appearances ; and we can 
 now more easily enquire about the causes. I need not 
 return to the subject of Inverlochy, or the Fingalian 
 kings, or the imagined traditions. But the use of these 
 pretended roads, is said to have been to give facility in 
 hunting the deer of former days. The valley, it is added, 
 has been covered with wood, so that these avenues give 
 access to it; while, being fenced in with stakes, which 
 are said to have been actually found, they served as 
 decoys to force the deer into some spot where they were 
 afterwards killed. That stakes should have been pre- 
 served for more than a thousand years, is not the least 
 wonderful part of this theory. It would be useful also to 
 show the necessity of avenues so numerous and so 
 parallel ; to shew further why they cease where they do 
 cease, in consequence of the rise of the valley, when the 
 Fingalian engineers might have continued them by 
 assuming a higher level ; why there are no remains of 
 bridges, as well as of stakes, since without these they 
 must have been useless ; why that enormous, yet variable 
 breadth ; why they follow every useless indentation, 
 useless for the professed object, merely for the sake of 
 preserving a mathematical level, where a mathematical 
 level was also useless. Deer never were, and never 
 
GLEN ROY. 349 
 
 could have been hunted on any such principle, as every 
 true Highlander knows ; so that, even if artificial, they 
 could not have answered the imaginary purpose, or any 
 other. We should also be pleased to know how the 
 Fingalian engineers contrived to preserve, not only in 
 Glen Roy, but throughout all the other valleys, levels 
 which would cost a modern surveyor, with the best of 
 instruments, no small toil and thought, and which, 
 without them, could not be executed at all : and, more 
 particularly, how this could be done when the valley was 
 a forest, and the surface, of course, invisible. I have 
 already shown that they bear no resemblance to roads, 
 in their form; while it is further evident, that if they had 
 ever been roads, they must have been most perfect or best 
 preserved where the bottom was rocky, where, on the 
 contrary, they are, invariably, either imperfect or want- 
 ing. But, enough of these fancies. 
 
 It has indeed been said by some who still choose to> 
 consider them works of art, that they were levels intended 
 for irrigation. Every objection already urged, applies 
 equally to this most unreasonable notion ; while we might 
 ask, in addition, what probability there is that irrigation 
 was used when agriculture was little known, and refined 
 systems of domestic pasturage, less ; and in a forest, and 
 on the sides of barren hills, by a nation of hunters, utterly 
 wanting in the arts that could have enabled them to 
 execute such works; since, of their high antiquity there 
 can be no doubt. 
 
 The mode in which they have been produced by 
 water, seems perfectly clear and simple ; whatever diffi- 
 culties there may be in explaining the posterior changes 
 which have taken place. Of four modes, however, that 
 have been suggested, there are three evidently incompetent 
 to the effects, and which could not have been proposed 
 
350 GLtN ROY. 
 
 by any one who had bestowed the requisite attention on 
 the subject. 
 
 They could not have been formed by a diluvian and 
 temporary current, or rather by three successive currents, 
 depositing on their margins, as is said, a line of gravel 
 or alluvium. The forms of the valleys and of the sur- 
 rounding land, will not admit the possibility of such a 
 current : it could have had no origin : while, even could 
 it have existed, it must have formed the lines on a de- 
 clivity, not on a level, by spreading in dimensions, and 
 thus losing its depth, in advancing from the shallower 
 and narrower, to the deeper and wider parts of the val- 
 ley. Nor could it thus have been distributed through 
 the communicating valleys, by any contrivance ; nor 
 could a current through Glen Spean and one through 
 Glen Roy, have maintained a common level. And, to 
 say no more, the appearances at the salient and re- 
 entering angles, are not those which such a current 
 would have produced ; as it would have left its deposits 
 in those places only where the motion of the water was 
 retarded. 
 
 Next, they are not the traces of the action of a river 
 on a solid alluvial plain which it has cut down ; the re- 
 mains of the terraces so common in such cases, and of 
 which there are examples here. The river which wan- 
 ders through such a plain from side to side, as it cuts its 
 way downwards, leaves, necessarily, the terraces of 
 opposite sides at different levels : nor, in any case, could 
 such an accuracy of dimension, so prolonged, so distinct, 
 and so narrow, and such a regular correspondence, have 
 been preserved ; while, to suppose that the common level 
 line of Glen Spean and Glen Roy could thus have been 
 maintained over ground of such extreme irregularity, 
 throughout such an enormous extent, and through val- 
 
GLEN ROY. 351 v\ 
 
 ' »i 
 
 ■S 
 
 leys of forms and dimensions so various, is to suppose y 
 
 more than a miracle; a physical impossibility. The ^ 
 
 connexions of these lines with some of the terraces, are >^ 
 
 easily explained on the true theory of their nature and ^^ 
 
 causes. ' 
 
 Lastly, they cannot be the shores of the sea, as has ^ 
 
 also been suggested. To suppose this, is to suppose that 4^ 
 
 the sea once stood here, 1262 feet higher than its present > 
 
 level. It could not, since it was the sea, have stood thus ^ 
 
 hiffh without coveringfmore than the half of Britain. It could "X 
 
 not have stood thus high over Britain, unless the whole , 
 
 ocean had once been 1262 feet higher than it is now ; ^ 
 and we need not ask, either respecting causes or con- 
 
 sequences, in this case. Those who propose such ex- 4q 
 
 planations, must be strangely unwilling to admit an ob- L 
 
 vious and simple solution, for the sake of suggesting an ^ 
 impossible one, or of appearing to have a distinct system 
 of their own. 
 
 The Parallel roads are the shores of ancient lakes, or 
 of one ancient lake, occupying successively different 
 
 levels, and long since drained. In an existing lake j^^ 
 
 among hills, it is easy to see the very traces in question, ^\^ 
 
 produced by the wash of the waves against the alluvial ^ C 
 
 matter of the hills. By this check, and by the loss of x^ 
 
 gravity which the stones undergo from immersion in ^ 
 
 water, they are distributed in a belt along the margin of \ i 
 
 the lake : a belt broadest and most level where there are C\^ 
 
 most loose materials and where the declivity of the hill is ,s^ ^ 
 
 least, narrowest and most imperfect where these circuni- . ^ Ci 
 
 stances are different, and, wherever rocks protrude, ceas- ^ 
 
 ing to be formed. In every one of these points, the shores ^^ '^ 
 
 of a living lake agree precisely with the lines of these ^ >^ 
 
 valleys; and were such a lake suddenly drained now, V; ^J 
 it would be a Glen Roy. Thus also is explained the 
 
352 GLEN ROY. 
 
 coincidence of the great terraces and deltas of Glen Roy 
 with the lines. In the living lake, the delta at the main 
 entrance is necessarily prolonged into its shores, as are 
 those of the lateral streams ; and this is precisely what 
 occurs in Glen Roy. 
 
 Ancient Glen Roy was therefore a lake, which, sub- 
 siding first by a vertical depth of eighty-two feet, left its 
 shore, to form the uppermost line, M'hich, by a second sub- 
 sidence of 212 feet, produced the second, and which, on 
 its final drainage, left the third and lowest, and the pre- 
 > sent valley also, such as we now see it. At its lowest 
 level at least, it formed a common lake with the valley of 
 the Spean, of which lake Loch Laggan remains a memo- • 
 rial, as does Loch Treig of the portion which occupied 
 that valley. Whether Glen Gloy was united with this 
 great lake at its lowest extremity, is a difficult point, to 
 be examined immediately ; but I have already shown, 
 that, from the high level of its communication through 
 Glen Turrit, there could have been no communication at 
 that end. 
 
 Thus far all is simple ; but the difficulty that remains, 
 is to account, not merely for the waste or destruction of 
 the barriers which dammed these lakes, but for the places 
 which they must have occupied. Whether they were 
 demolished by the usual causes, the corroding actions of 
 the issuing streams, or by more sudden and violent ones, 
 it is not easy to conjecture; but the decided interval 
 between each line, would induce us rather to suppose the 
 latter, of whatever obscure nature they may be. We can- 
 not admit, in this case, of the action of earthquakes, the 
 vulgar solution of most similar difficulties ; because such 
 catastrophes should have disturbed that beautiful regu- 
 larity which forms the most striking part of these appear- 
 ances. ^^ 
 
 1^ .. r^y.>?^H<U- H^ ^ C^<^ '/^ ^^^. '^2Sl 
 
 >»-v 
 
CLEN ROY. 353 
 
 A very violent supposition, violent in every sense, 
 might be proposed on this system, capable of solving- the 
 whole difficulty of the western barriers, and of the Great 
 Glen na Albin also, at one blow. But such theories 
 transcend the bounds of legitimate philosophy, and must 
 be left to those to propose seriously, who are fonder of 
 system than anxious for evidence or truth. Let it be 
 imagined that the Great Glen had formerly no existence, 
 and that its opposite or including mountains were once 
 in contact. If it is further supposed that the present se- 
 paration had actually been produced by some great sub- 
 sidence or enormous fissure in the line of the stratification, 
 or by what the vulgar call a convulsion of nature, then 
 the waters in question would find an exit, and produce 
 the appearances under review. This supposition, it is 
 plain, requires many modifications, and it is also liable to 
 the objections just stated. 
 
 The more important difficulty, however, is to assign 
 the places of these dams or barriers. There must have 
 been one at Loch Spey, at least equal to the present dif- 
 ference of its elevation and of that of the uppermost line. 
 But that is trifling; and it is not very difficult to sup- 
 pose causes capable of wearing it down to the present 
 level of this waterhead. There must have been another 
 at Loch Laggan. If Glen Spean and Glen Roy formed 
 a common lake at the level of the highest of the lines, of 
 which there are no indications, that obstruction must 
 have had an elevation of about 300 feet, as before shown : 
 if this was not the case, except at the lowest level, one of 
 ten feet would have been sufficient. In this case, Glen 
 Roy, at its two higher levels, was a distinct lake, and must 
 have had a dam towards Glen Spean,where the two valleys 
 join, which must have given way at successive intervals^ 
 before these two valleys formed one common lake. 
 
 A'OL. I. A A 
 
354 GLF.N ROY. 
 
 Of the causes which destroyed the barrier, or eastern 
 dam at Loch Laggan, it is unnecessary to enquire further ; 
 but it is now plain that, under any supposition, there 
 must have been one at some point beyond that where the 
 lines of Glen Spean, which are the lowest of Glen Roy, 
 terminate, and where the valley is about five miles broad. 
 If this were the case, then Glen Gloy must have had a 
 separate barrier, because it opens into the great Cale- 
 donian valley at a distant point ; and in this case also, 
 the phenomena of Glen Gloy must have been indepen- 
 dent of the others, and its lake a distinct one. If the 
 lines are really on a different level, this must have been 
 the fact. 
 
 There is only one other supposition to be made ; which 
 is, that this latter valley communicated at its mouth with 
 Glen Spean, through the intervention of that portion of 
 the great Glen which lies between them. But from the 
 circumstances I already stated respecting the elevations 
 of the land in this quarter, it would require, in this case, 
 that the Caledonian Gicn should have had one barrier to 
 the north, one towards Loch Shiel, and another towards 
 the Linnhe Loch; a supposition which is still more com- 
 plicated and eventfuK Unquestionably, from the great 
 breadth of the valley of the Spean near Teindrish, where 
 the lines terminate, the difficulty of imagining a barrier 
 there, and that barrier removed so as to leave what we 
 now see, is considerable : while, in this case, we must 
 suppose a distinct one for Glen Gloy, as well as a sepa- 
 rate one for Glen Roy, as far, at least, as the lowest line, 
 besides the eastern ones, which, however, under any 
 view, are necessary. Yet perhaps this is the least difficult 
 supposition of the two, and ought to be that in which we 
 should rest. Whatever difficulties yet remain to be ex- 
 plained, it must be remembered that there is in this 
 
GLEN ROY. 355 
 
 theory, neither geological nor mathematical impossibility, 
 nor even improbability, involved : and, such as the diffi- 
 culties are, they are a »al(>i>oiis to hundreds that we meet 
 with in every attempt to explain the posterior changes of 
 the earth's surface. 
 
 Thus the solution of the phenomena of Glen Roy and 
 its associated valleys, is as complete as we can expect in 
 the present state of our knowledge ; and it is, at any rate, 
 sufficient, as including a positive class of proofs, to esta- 
 blish their natural origin in opposition to their artificial 
 one, even independently of the negative arguments before 
 adduced against this theory. I will not examine the 
 other remarkable geological deductions which may be 
 made from these appearances, because that is beyond 
 my prescribed limits. But if the indignation of a Fin- 
 galian can be satisfied by any thing, he ought to be 
 proud in the possession of one of the most striking and 
 magnificent phenomena of the universe; si ngula r, unex- 'f-^'- /^ 
 ampled, and no less interesting to philosophy than it is f '^ « ^' 
 splendid in its effects and captivating by its grandeur '^' "^"^ 
 and beauty. Let us hope that we shall all at length be 
 reconciled, and that we shall learn to pride ourselves on 
 our real, and not on our imaginary, merits. 
 
 A A SI 
 
356 GLEN FINNAN. 
 
 ARASAIK, GLEN FINNAN, LOCH OICH, 
 FORT AUGUSTUS. 
 
 Every one who can find time or make it, should be- 
 stow a day on an excursion from Fort William to Arasaik. 
 It is a beautiful ride of forty miles. As to the road itself, 
 it is, like all the new ones which are so little used, a kind 
 of plusquam perfectum road, more like a gravel walk in 
 a garden, than a highway. Indeed there are few gravel 
 walks to be compared with them : for it is no exaggera- 
 tion to say, that you might often eat your dinner from 
 them without a table-cloth ; so smooth and so compact 
 are they, and so much resembling a piece of dressed 
 sandstone. It is a great pleasure, unquestionably, to see 
 and to use such roads as these ; but it would be much 
 more pleasing to find them cut up, or, at least, marked 
 by wheel tracks and hoof marks ; that we might have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that they were used, and that 
 some interchange of something, if it was but that of ideas, 
 was going on in this country. 
 
 After losing sight of Ben Nevis and of Loch Eil, al- 
 though the road is wild and varied and pleasing, it dis- 
 plays no very distinguishing features till we arrive near 
 Glen Finnan. The form of this valley, opening in four 
 different directions, is uncommon ; and, from some points, 
 picturesque. Its interest is much increased by the ter- 
 mination of Loch Shiel ; of which lake, two or three miles 
 are seen, till, by the closing of the hills, it disappears. 
 The boundaries of Loch Shiel, however, have the irre- 
 mediable fault of smoothness and uniformity, though in a 
 much less degree than many other of the remoter High- 
 
GLEN FINNAN. 357 
 
 land lakes. In Glen Finnan, the most striking scenery 
 lies near its entrance from Fort William; the forms of 
 the hills being, not only fine, but their acclivities being 
 diversified by rocks and precipices, in a grandeur of 
 style extremely rare ; while their beauty and variety are 
 much enhanced by the remains of an ancient fir forest 
 scattered over them ; exhibiting magnificent examples of 
 the Scottish fir, in its most picturesque forms, flourishing 
 with as much luxuriance as in the wilds of Braemar. The 
 bleached trunks of huge oaks, prove that this was once also 
 the seat of one of those oak forests, the traces of which are 
 still found in many parts of the Highlands. 
 
 It was in Glen Finnan that Prince Charles first raised 
 his standard, when as yet his army was not much more 
 than sufficient to have dethroned the two kings of Brent- 
 ford. Thus Glen Finnan combines, «'ith its natural at- 
 tractions, a degree of interest, about which, were I in 
 the humour of it, as Pistol says, I might write a page or 
 two, even without copying from my predecessors. But 
 that may be left for the notes to your next poem; and, 
 therefore, to far better hands. Whenever you do under- 
 take this task, I trust you will give all due praise to Mr. 
 Macdonald, Glenalladale I think, who, most generously, 
 has erected a monument to perpetuate the memory of 
 an event, which was followed by consequences too deeply 
 important, to permit such a spot as this to be neglected 
 without disgrace to all of us. 
 
 But when you do write these annotations, I do be- 
 seech you to remonstrate with the architect, be he who 
 he may, if he is yet alive, who made that monument a 
 cake house. A cake house, without even the merit of 
 containing cakes ; and with a tower — tower, is a profana- 
 tion of such a word, since the whole building resembles 
 a carpenter's mallet with the handle uppermost. It is 
 
358 OLEN FINNAN« 
 
 said that Winstanley's Edystone was modelled after 
 the pattern of his pastry; and, if we may reason in this 
 manner, we should conclude that the projector of this 
 deformity was a carpenter. I am glad that I never heard 
 his name ; as I should not like to be obliged to tell him, 
 that I hope he will never put his hand beyond the mallet 
 and chisel again as long as he lives. But an architect, 
 like a poet, is a public character. His works are pub- 
 lished for the world, and the world is his critic. No 
 one receives praise more universal and more permanent, 
 when it is merited ; and he who labours for praise, 
 must, if he misses it, learn to endure censure. Let him 
 M'ho may shrink under criticism, recollect that he is thus 
 ranked among the finer spirits of the world, and that he 
 has thrown his lot, not as an artisan, but for the chance 
 of lasting reproach or permanent fame. There is a com- 
 pliment, even in that blame which thus acknowledges 
 his rank in the department of mind. 
 
 It really is very hard upon poor Scotland, that its 
 money should be thus spent in blotting" and deforming 
 its land with such monstrosities; of which it is full from 
 one end to the other ; from Nelson's Pillar on the Calton 
 Hill, though that is not the worst, to the genealogical 
 tree which I have either seen or dreamt of. Are we 
 never to acquire a decent portion of architectural taste; 
 yes; when the Parthenon is built: I hope so. A pillar, 
 a cairn, even an obelisk, (and let any one invent a meaner 
 object if he can,) would have been preferable to this un- 
 lucky mallet. Surely it must be the same Ostrogoth 
 who has covered the country with turrets, and tower- 
 lings, and turretinis, who has intermixed castles, abbeys, 
 churches, houses, Greek, Gothic, Chinese, Flandrikan 
 no one knows what, all in the same building : for it is 
 as impossible that there should be two architects of this 
 
LOCH AYLORT. 359 
 
 calibre, as that there should be two men, (as the judge 
 wisely remarked) called Richard Tittery Gillies. Let 
 him repent as fast as he can. The public at large has a 
 claim over the architecture of a country. It is common 
 property, inasmuch as it involves the national taste and 
 character: and no man has aright to pass himself and 
 his own barbarous inventions as a national taste, and to 
 hand down to posterity, his own ignorance and disgrace, 
 to be a satire and a libel on the knowledge and taste of 
 his age. Against this, we have all an interest in enter- 
 ing our protests ; and thus, for the present, ends the ex- 
 plosion of my architectural anger. Do, my dear Scott, 
 put yourself in a passion for once, like Archilochus, and 
 write some Iambics against these people. 
 
 Loch Ranach, which shortly follows on this road, is 
 pleasing though small ; having that miniature air, de- 
 rived from the variety of its boundary within such narrow 
 limits, which gives it the appearance of a toy ; an imi- 
 tation, in a model, by the hand of Nature herself, of her 
 own more extensive works. In arriving at Loch Aylort 
 head, the mountains, now further asunder, display their 
 forms, even to the summit, in all that intricacy of rocky 
 surface which is so peculiarly characteristic of this tract 
 of country. Here too we first obtain sight of salt water, 
 if not of the sea; as the maritime connexion of Loch 
 Aylort is not at first visible. Its character is that of 
 wildness and grandeur united ; but its scenery is little 
 accessible except from the sea. After passing this spot 
 we enter on the more intricate, yet more open country of 
 Arasaik ; if that can be called open which is one entire 
 confusion of rock and hill. But there is rarely any thing 
 so high as to obstruct the view ; and we thus acquire a 
 general conception of that peculiar class of country which 
 occupies so considerable a space on this coast; an idea 
 
360 
 
 ARASAIK, 
 
 not to be obtained so well in any other place. There is 
 no very accessible tract of Scotland that bears much 
 resemblance to this last portion, consisting- of eight or 
 ten miles, which leads to the villag-e of Arasaik : and 
 there are few more entertaining, from its variety and 
 beauty as well as from its singularity, than the first few 
 miles, somewhat resembling theTrosachs and not inferior 
 to that well-known spot. At one moment you are on 
 the top of a rock, at the next in a deep valley, or en- 
 tangled among wild woods, or in a ravine, or ascending 
 a hill that seemed impracticable, or descending in the 
 same manner, or crossing- a bridge, or hanging over a 
 precipice, or on the sea shore, or winding through an 
 excavated rock; and all these varieties are repeated 
 within the space of a few hundred yards, over and over 
 again, throughout a considerable extent. Jumble, is a 
 vulgar word ; but I know none else that will convey a 
 notion of this strange country. It seems as if it was a 
 first conception, an accumulation of materials intended 
 for another purpose ; or as if some powerless hand had 
 attempted to imitate Nature in her mountains and valleys 
 and rocks, and had made, out of her fragments, a 
 dwarfish blunder and a caricatured model. 
 
 The first impression which it conveys, is, that no road 
 can possibly lead through such a labyrinth of confusion ; 
 and it is impossible to give too much praise to the inge- 
 nuity which conducted this, as well as some other of 
 these Highland roads. But that praise has too often been 
 bestowed on those who have little title to it. In many 
 cases, the new roads have been traced, along, or very 
 near to, the ancient cattle and country tracks ; leaving 
 little for the engineer to do but to make slender and 
 obvious alterations: and, in many more, the distribution 
 is due to the common Highlanders themselves, sometimes 
 
ARASATK. 361 
 
 contractors, and sometimes overseers ; when the engi- 
 neer, who has done nothing- except receiving- his pay for 
 the ideas and exertions of others, carries off all the credit. 
 But that is too common in many matters besides road- 
 making-. Only, I, for one, will lift up my voice, as the 
 fanatics have it, in defence of the talents and ingenuity 
 of these Highland workmen: among the lowest of whom 
 I have found such an eye for ground, and such a quick 
 conception of its height, and distribution, and inclination, 
 and relations of all kinds, as even a general officer or a 
 quarter-master might often envy. They are natural geo- 
 graphers : and as this has formed a part of my trade, I 
 think, as Jock Jaboz says, I should ken something about 
 it by this time. Whoever thinks Donald a dull fellow, 
 never made a greater mistake in his life ; and whoever 
 thinks that he cannot be improved by attention, would 
 probably, if he was in the same situation himself, remain 
 in it for ever. 
 
 These roads are, however, very treacherous, in spite 
 of all the care bestowed on them: for, against torrents, it 
 is often impossible to calculate, and, even when foreseen, 
 they are sometimes not to be resisted. Many a time have 
 I found the bridge vanished, and indeed the road too ; 
 and many a time have I expected to sleep in the moors. 
 By some means or other, however, we get out of these 
 adventures : on foot, commonly well enough ; with a 
 horse, comparatively ill ; but with a carriage, not at all. 
 Even from day to day, there is no security. This very 
 road was in perfect repair when I passed it first. When 
 I returned in a few days, a foundation wall had slid 
 away from a steep face of smooth rock, and the road was 
 gone. We read of narrow ways along precipices, and of 
 terrors and dangers, because perhaps the declivity be- 
 neath is a thousand or two thousand yards long or deep, 
 
362 ARASAIK. 
 
 when there is no more real dang-er than on a high road. 
 The three or four hundred yards of depth in this place 
 would have served the purpose as effectually as the same 
 number of miles : for the rock descended to the valley 
 unobstructed and unbroken. I never made myself 
 smaller, and never trod on ice with a lighter foot; nor 
 did I ever hold a rein with a lighter finger. 
 
 It was here, on this very sea-shore, at Boradale, that 
 Prince Charles landed, and not in Loch Moidart, as is 
 sometimes said ; and it was hence also that he reimbarked. 
 From the hill above, is seen the first and the finest view 
 of Arasaik itself; forming a landscape as singular in 
 character as it is extensive and crowded with unexpected 
 forms and objects. Tn the blue expanse of sea, and far 
 off in the misty horizon, the romantic ridge of Egg rises, 
 more striking, and assuming an air of greater magnitude 
 in this position, than under any other distant view that 
 I know. In the same place, the congregated mountains 
 of Rum add to the richness of the distance ; while the 
 intermediate sea displays numerous rocky islands ad- 
 vancing into the open entrance of Lochan na nuagh, and 
 forming many pleasing combinations with its flat rocky 
 irregular shores and promontories. Skirting the intricate 
 bays, are seen the scattered houses which belong to 
 Arasaik, Avith their boats drawn up on the beaches and 
 lying at anchor in the creeks ; while a confusion of rock 
 and hill and valley fills the remainder of the scene. The 
 sea shores about the village, and most parts of the sur- 
 rounding country, abound in similar scenery ; nor are 
 there many points on the west coast where a traveller in 
 search of amusement may enjoy himself more, from the 
 variety of the landscape, as well as from the freedom of 
 motion in every direction, which is so seldom to be found 
 upon these shores. 
 
ARASAIK. 363 
 
 It is another reason why Arasaik should form part of 
 a Highland tour, that it is the readiest, and, indeed, the 
 only convenient way to Egg, as it also is to Rum. I have 
 elsewhere said, that there is nothing in theAVestern islands 
 much better worth visiting than Egg ; or, at least, nothing 
 which is, at the same time, of such easy access. It does 
 not imply one quarter of the trouble, expense, and in- 
 convenience, of a journey to Staff a ; and a traveller can 
 never be disappointed of landing; while the voyage is 
 scarcely so long as that from Ulva to that celebrated 
 place. 
 
 Hence also there is a ferry to Sky ; if that is a ferry 
 which is derived, according to the well-known rule, a 
 non ferendo. I had been directed to Sky by this route, 
 as the best and the most commodious, and as there was, 
 at Arasaik, the best of all possible ferry boats. But when 
 the enquiry came to be made, nobody knew any thing 
 about a ferry boat. There might be one, or not : if there 
 was, it was uncertain if it would carry a horse; whether 
 it was on this side of the water or the other; whether it 
 would choose to go; whether there was a ferryman; 
 whether the wind would allow it to go; whether the tide 
 would suffer it. The Arasaik road had been made on 
 account of the ferry, or the ferry on account of the road; 
 and though a carriage ferry, and a horse ferry, there was 
 no boat that could hold a carriage, and no horse had ever 
 dared to cross. Furthermore, the ferry-boat, if there 
 really was one, was two miles from Arasaik, somewhere, 
 among some rocks; and there was no road to it, nor any 
 pier. Lastly, I at length found a ferry-boat, a mile from 
 the sea, as fit to carry a camelopardalis as a horse, and a 
 ferry-boat man who could not speak English. 
 
 While I was meditating on this ingenious mode of 
 reaching Sky, I was soon surrounded by the various naval 
 
364 
 
 ARASAIK. 
 
 characters, who expected to extract as many guineas out 
 of the Sassanach as he should prove silly enough to give. 
 One of these Vikingr, half drunk, his mouth streaming 
 tobacco from each angle, desired to know if I was the 
 gentleman who wished to carry a horse to Sky, and in- 
 vited me to drink a glass of whiskey with him. " Had 
 I seen the ferry-boat :" " I had seen two boats." " And 
 which did I like best." " The one with the blue side." 
 " Aye," said he, " that is my boat ; Dugald Finlay." 
 " Are you then the ferryman." " Na — God forbid I 
 should tak the bread from any man ; for ye see," with a 
 leer and a whisper, " I belong to the same place ; and he 
 pays for the ferry ye ken ; he pays rent; but his boat 
 canna carry a horse : and suppose your horse was to put 
 his foot through the boat : and he has no rigging ; but I 
 dinna want to carry you ; na ; my name is Dugald Finlay 
 — ye may ask the landlord — nor tak awa any body's 
 bread — ye may ask the landlord — and I live in the same 
 place as he, ye see ; but his boat is no worth ; and ye 
 may ask the landlord — I'm telling ye the truth — but I 
 dinna want to tak awa any body's bread — ye may ask the 
 landlord." 
 
 In the mean time it blew a gale of wind and was Sun- 
 day ; and all those who had heard the sermon, and those 
 who expected to get five guineas out of the stranger, col- 
 lected in the public house, where, as Froissart says, 
 " ils se saoulerent tres grandement, et s'amuserent selon 
 la coustume de leur pays bien tristement." In the morn- 
 ing, the whole affair seemed to have been forgotten, and 
 I proceeded to the rival boats. Both were high aground; 
 they would not float till the evening; so that, to the other 
 blessings, of a rotten boat and a drunken Celt, there was 
 to be added a night voyage of fifteen miles on a stormy 
 s€a with a refractory horse. It was impossible also to 
 
ARASAIK. 
 
 reach Sky without the flood tide ; and the boats were so 
 ingeniously drawn up at high-water mark, that they could 
 not float till the ebb. The Highlanders have somewhat 
 degenerated from their ancestors of Norway in the matter 
 of boats, it must be allowed. At last, it was discovered 
 that the blue boat was still drunk, and that he of the 
 black was unwilling to go. It would be better to go 
 to-morrow. To-morrow, the boat was found alongside a 
 rock. Alongside; — it was not worth while to speculate 
 how the horse was, first to jump fifty yards, then clear 
 the back stay and the shrowds and the fore stay, and, 
 lastly, not make his way through the bottom of the boat; 
 because, firstly, he could not get on the rock, nor, second- 
 ly, stand on it if he had been there. It was little worth 
 M'hile to speculate on any thing; for the ferryman was 
 gone, no one knew where, and there was no one to na- 
 vigate the vessel but the ferryman's wife, and she was 
 employed in whipping her children. Thus I rode my 
 horse to Sky by the best of all possible roads and 
 ferries. 
 
 I turned to the small ferry-boat. Still there was no 
 ferryman ; but that was of no consequence, as the boat 
 had been lent to some men, to go somewhere or other. 
 In the end, the men admitted me, where I ought to have 
 admitted them ; with a promise to land me somewhere in 
 Sky; if they did not change their minds. The horse did 
 as he liked : it is good to conform to all events in this 
 part of the world ; and I was thus accommodated, " where- 
 by I might be thought to be accommodated," with a 
 passage to Sky, or elsewhere, in a ferry-boat over which 
 I had no controul : in a ferry-boat which was not a ferry- 
 boat, and which had no ferryman. All the arrangements 
 were of the usual fashion ; no floor, no rudder, no seat 
 aft, oars patched and spliced and nailed, no rowlocks, a 
 
ARASAIK. 
 
 ii»ast without stay, bolt, or haulyards ; and all other 
 things fitting, as the advertisements say. 
 
 My companions were soon tired of rowing, and, as 
 usual, would set a sail. As it could not be hoisted, for 
 want of haulyards, the yard was fastened to the mast, and 
 thus it was all set up together, after much flapping and 
 leeway. It was then found that there was neither tack 
 nor sheet ; besides which, three or four feet at the after 
 leach were torn away. The holes in the sail were conve- 
 nient; because they saved the trouble of reefing, in case 
 of a squall. I tried to prove that it could be of no use in 
 this state, upon a wind. That Avas too refined a piece of 
 nautical philosophy. One of them made a tack of his 
 arm, and held it over the gunwale: another pursed up 
 the after leach with a rope's end ; so that when the sail 
 was set, it was very much of the shape of a night-cap. 
 And then the boat began to go backwards. I did not 
 care ; it was a fine day and a long day, and an entertain- 
 ing- coast: they were good-natured fellows, and I was as 
 well at sea as in Sky or Arasaik. But every now and 
 then, the night-cap turned inside out, and then the men 
 began to suspect that the Sassanach duine wassel was in 
 the right, and that we should soon be at Arasaik again, or 
 elsewhere. So the mast and the sail were first diaouled 
 and then struck, and, by the time it was dark, I was 
 landed, very much like a mutinous Buccaneer, on some 
 rocks; which proved, in the end, to be Sky. As to the 
 boat, for aught I know, it may be in Sky still. But we 
 must return to Lochaber — you and I. 
 
 And we must also bid farewell to Lochaber ; since we had 
 passed High bridge before. Well might I, at least, hasten 
 from Lochaber. Not merely on account of its rain, which 
 must have been the reason why King Robert Bruce died of 
 an universal rheumatism, but because there was a genera! 
 
FORT WILUAM. 367 
 
 commotion in Lochaber. When I opened the stable 
 door, there rushed out an army of horses, in pads and 
 sacks and halters and bridles and all sorts of accoutre- 
 ments. " This is an odd way of packing- horses, my good 
 friend." — " They're no pack horses," said the ostler ; 
 " they're a preaching- yonder out bye." Which of all 
 the dissents the orator belonged to, 1 know not ; but (he 
 dissensions of the horses in the stable were considerable. 
 As my horse belonged to the Established Church, I 
 kicked the remainder of the dissenting- horses out of 
 doors, lest they should either kick him, or try to convert 
 him ; as is usual with this tribe. This is one of the un- 
 countable mishaps which dog the heels of an unlucky 
 traveller, to fill the vacuity left by a fair, or a visitation, 
 or a meeting of justices, or a convocation of commissioners 
 of taxes, or a divan of drovers, or the halt of a regiment 
 or the debates of a presbytery, or a bevy of excisemen, 
 or a pack of fox-hunters, or a flight of fiddlers, or a drop- 
 ping of road trustees, or a county ball. If you escape 
 the sessions, it is but to fall on the assizes, or on the gal- 
 lows which they have left in their rear: if you dodge 
 the overture at the Warwick music meeting, it is but to 
 light on the finale at Birmingham or the races at Shrews- 
 bury ; or, if there is not a bull-fight at Wrexham or Stam- 
 ford, some squire is born, and there is a bull-feast at 
 Grantham or Chirk. If the Highlands have not all these 
 varieties, they have enough ; while they make up in 
 noise for what may be wanting in numbers. 
 
 When all is done, it is but a dull journey from Fort 
 William to Inverness ; compared, at least, to the other 
 lines which belong to the fashionable tours. But what 
 would the ghosts of Carthon, and Darthula, and Oscar, 
 and of the Fingalian dynasty which made the Parallel 
 roads, say, if they were to see the stage coach now travel- 
 
368 LOCH LOCHY, 
 
 ling- this way, and the steam boat ploughing- its fiery 
 career over Loch Ness: or their Sassanach conquerors, the 
 Guelphic dynasty, sailing its frigates where they chased 
 their deer. 
 
 Low bridge has the merit of producing some little 
 variety on this dull and uniform line of scenery ; and 
 hence, those who wish to examine the water-lines of Glen 
 Gloy, may enter it. But that valley presents no other 
 interest. Having passed this point. Loch Lochy is with- 
 out features : the forms of the boundaries being- such, that 
 the whole valley resembles a notch in a cheese as much 
 as any thing else. At Letter Finlay, this nakedness of 
 character is seen in great perfection. Yet, in many parts 
 along this road, there is an effect produced by the pro- 
 longation of vacuity, which is greater perhaps than any 
 variety in the scenery would have yielded. While, on 
 each hand, the mountains rise with an acclivity, alike 
 sudden, uniform, and unbroken, bounding a valley so 
 narrow, as to leave but a small space where they meet 
 below, they confine the eye, and concentrate its efforts 
 within this narrow line. Thus, whether looking back- 
 wards or forwards, it pursues the long, linear, empty 
 vista, straining for a termination which it is not to see. 
 The impression is almost painful ; conveying the feeling 
 as of a goal which is never to be reached, an image of 
 the eternal future. Who has not felt this, when looking 
 forward through a lengthened avenue, or chasing with 
 his eye, a long line of straight road. But who can ever 
 feel it as he may here; when, after travelling miles, the 
 same lofty walls are on his right hand and on his left, 
 and still no termination appears, and still nothing occurs 
 to divert his eye from the emptiness towards which his 
 course is directed: when still he is compelled to fix his 
 sight on that vacuum, and when, leaving emptiness 
 
GtEN MORE NA ALBIN. 369 
 
 behind him, and hoping- that he is to leave it at length 
 for ever, the coming is like the past ; a hopeless nothing. 
 There is a rague sublime, an appalling stamp of eternity, 
 on that which has neither beginning nor end. The 
 bridge in the vision of Mirza would lose all its effect, if 
 we could disperse the dark clouds which hang on its 
 extremities. 
 
 To quit our poetics, the soberer impression is, that 
 the island is here divided into two parts, and that, at each 
 end, we ought to discover the sea. And this is the truth. 
 This long valley, the Glen more na Albin of the High- 
 landers, generally called the Great Caledonian Glen, 
 extending for a space of nearly sixty miles, is a continua- 
 tion of that valley which contains the Linnhe Loch, and 
 its direction is accurately parallel to the stratification of 
 the rocks which form the country. Taking the length 
 from the angle of Morven, or from Loch Don, which may 
 be assumed as the extreme southern point, it amounts 
 altogether to ninety miles. The greatest elevation of its 
 surface above the sea-level westward, is ninety feet; so 
 that if the sea ever did communicate through it, that 
 depth, and much more, of the materials, must be gravel, 
 or an alluvial deposit. This is what we are never likely 
 to know ; whatever probability may attend the suppo- 
 sition. That, at a great depth from the surface, this is 
 the fact, is certain ; and that both Loch Lochy and Loch 
 Ness have been thus separated from the sea, appears 
 more than probable. There is less certainty respecting 
 Loch Oich ; nor could any thing but an examination that 
 must ever be impracticable, settle the doubts that must 
 naturally arise on the whole of this subject. Supposing 
 that the whole valley, or at least the great bulk of it, 
 •were alluvial, it is not very difficult to shoAV how these 
 materials might have been accumulated thrpugh a long 
 
 VOL. I. B B 
 
370 OLKN MORE NA ALBIN. 
 
 course of time : but I shall become too geological if I 
 enter further into this subject. 
 
 It is said that Loch Arkeig is a picturesque lake, 
 though unknown ; which seems probable, from the forma 
 of the hills and the nature of the country. But, on this, 
 I must confess ignorance and plead misfortune, not guilt : 
 the flight of what never ceases any where to fly, — time; 
 and the fall of what seldom ceases here to fall, — ^rain. The 
 latter is the great enemy of all Highland tourists, and the 
 former is the universal enemy: the indomitable foe of the 
 idle when it stands still, and the implacable, unappeas- 
 able one of the busy when it moves. It is easy enough 
 to visit Loch Arkeig from Low Bridge, or from Letter 
 Finlay. 
 
 It is not quite so easy to be satisfied with these roads; 
 particularly after quitting such very different specimens 
 of road-making as are found on the lines of Arasaik or 
 Loch Laggan. The epigram on Marshal Wade is well 
 known ; but we might easily make a Marforio to it, and 
 turn up our eyes at the manner in which the roads are 
 made. If Fingal was a far greater hero, he was un- 
 questionably also a much better road maker : and, really, 
 it is somewhat marvellous how the Marshal could have 
 imagined he had adopted the best of all possible plans, 
 when he formed the heroic determination of pursuing 
 straight lines, and of defying nature and wheel-carriages 
 both, at one valiant effort of courage and science. His 
 organ of quarter-masteriveness must have been woefully 
 in arrear ; for there is not a Highland Donald of them all, 
 nay, not even a stot or a quey in the country, that could 
 have selected such a line of march. Up and down, up 
 and down, as the old catch says; it is like sailing in the 
 Bay of Biscay, No sooner up than down, no sooner 
 down than up. No sooner has a horse got into his pace 
 
LOCH OICH. 371 
 
 again, than he is called on to stop ; no sooner is he 
 out of wind, than he must begin to trot or gallop. 
 And then the trap at the bottom, which receives the 
 wheels at full speed. The traveller, says some sentimen- 
 tal tourist, is penetrated with amazement and gratitude, 
 and so forth, at General Wade's roads. Tlie amaze- 
 ment is probable enough. Pennant, who, if he is not 
 very sentimental, is at least the very pink of good- 
 humoured travellers, supposes the General had some 
 valid military reasons for his hobby-horsical system: 
 which is very kind. Yet thus we must arrive at Loch 
 Oich. 
 
 The old castle of Glengarry offers some variety after 
 all the preceding sameness ; but else, Loch Oich is suf- 
 ficiently insipid. Loch Garry, they say, is picturesque ; 
 but I have the same excuse for not having seen it. When 
 I was here, there was nothing particular to be seen ; or 
 else, possibly, I was seized with the malady of not 
 marking. Mr. Du Pin tells another story now j when 
 he describes the Fountain of Heads ; a monument erected 
 in 1812, to commemorate the triumphs and the superior 
 merits of what is called feudal justice. The pleasing 
 spectacle of seven heads on a pyramid, is displayed, says 
 Mr. T^u Pin, to the admiring eyes of the cockneys who 
 wander this way; that they may learn to reverence jus- 
 tice and law : Highland justice and Highland law ; and 
 to regret that they cannot now be hanged and beheaded, 
 without the trouble and delay arising from counsellor* 
 in big wigs, and warrants, and habeas corpuses, aud wit- 
 nesses, and juries, and judges, and such like villainous 
 drafts on a man's time and patience. The owners of 
 these heads were supposed to have murdered the Kep- 
 poch family; — so says Mr. Du Pin: — they were be- 
 headed without trial by an ancient Glengarry ;— so says 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 FORT AUGUSTUS. 
 
 Mr. DuPin: — ^their heads were washed in this fountain 
 that they might be presented in a decent manner to Glen- 
 garry ; — so says Mr. Du Pin. And then Mr. Du Pin 
 says, — " May my feeble voice make known this infamous 
 monument from one end of Europe to the other." Fie ! 
 Mr. Du Pin, how can you expose your ignorance in this 
 manner. 
 
 No one will stay an hour at Fort Augustus if he can 
 avoid it. This garrison was established in 1716; the 
 original design having been to build a Royal borough, 
 out of pique, it was said, to Inverness. Anger is com- 
 monly silly enough in its projects. But many of the 
 wild schemes for civilizing the Highlanders, had not that 
 additional excuse. However, there was just wit enough 
 left to abandon the project before the town was built; 
 when it was found that it was likely to prove a town 
 without inhabitants. It is amusing, to read the attempts 
 to explain why Loch Ness does not freeze. We laugh at the 
 vanity of those ambitious personages who are determined 
 to make the reason which they cannot find ; as we ridi- 
 cule the ancient dealers in occult causes, those who dis- 
 covered that opium was narcotic, because it possessed a 
 " virtus dormitiva, cujus est natura sensus assoupire." 
 Yet the lowest of the vulgar have their philosophical 
 reasons and systenis too, as well as their betters ; and, 
 in them, we ought to laud the aspiring efforts which, in 
 their superiors, are only the contorsions of vanity and 
 ignorance. The quarryman who accounted to me for a 
 fissure in a rock, by the earthquake which happened at 
 the CrucifixioUjShewed a bounding and philosophical spirit 
 worthy of a seat among the geologists of the age; and 
 might, with a little German discipline, have produced a 
 professor at Freyberg. 
 
FYEKS. 
 
 373 
 
 FYERS, INVBRNESS, BEAULEY, MOT. 
 
 The new roads are now valued as they deserve; yet 
 the people still follow many of the ancient country tracks, 
 both on foot and on horseback, from their real or apparent 
 shortness. The roads, however, like the breeches, were 
 originally considered the infliction of tyranny, and an 
 innovation to be resisted ; and the " turnimspike," in 
 particular, was held in as much abhorrence as the gal- 
 lows would have been. That the sumptuary statute, the 
 parliamentary breeches, should have been galling, at 
 first, to Gaelic feelings, we can understand : but the dis- 
 like to the roads was only the eftect of that antinomianism, 
 which induces the universal people, every where, to re- 
 sist all law and regulation ; or of that respect for the 
 follies of their ataviand proavi, which is not less efficient. 
 Even I can remember when they were yet far from wel- 
 come. " Which is the road to Aberfeldie" — there were 
 two branching from a point. " You may gang either," 
 said Donald. — " But the one looks better than the other." 
 J— « It is the most fashionable wi' they gentry." — "And 
 which is the shortest." — " The narrowest is the shortest." 
 " What is the use of two." — " They chused to mak a 
 new ane" — with a sneer and a huft. " Then I suppose 
 the old is bad," — " We like the auld ane best." — " Very 
 likely." — " It is the shortest," — trying to defend him- 
 self. " Which will take me to Aberfeldie soonest."— 
 " The new ane ;" in a surly tone. " Then it is the 
 shortest." — " It's three mile langer," said the advocate 
 of antiquity. " But it is an hour shorter — some new 
 
.374 
 
 FVERS. 
 
 fashions are good." Hungb ! said Donald, with a snort, 
 and walked away. 
 
 Those who prefer a good road and their ease above 
 all other things, will take the road to Inverness by the 
 west side of the lake ; and those who are of the contrary 
 opinion, will follow Marshal Wade on the east; not, 
 however, because of Donald's reasons. This is as wild a 
 line of road as can well be : since it speedily leads up 
 among the mountains, to a high table land which is the 
 source of the Findhorn and the Nairn rivers. There is 
 something unexpected in meeting with large lakes in 
 such a situation, when we had imagined that we had 
 surmounted the region of lakes: and we feel a surprise, 
 as if we were in a new country, with other skies, when 
 we find repeated what we had left a thousand feet below. 
 With such a general view, ordinary observers must be 
 content; as this is a very inconvenient country to traverse. 
 There is something alike terrifying and melancholy, in 
 the snow-poles, which lift their bleached bones at inter- 
 vals, to the winds and rains of this wild region; remind- 
 ing us of winter and death and abandonment, and of the 
 figure our own bones would soon make, under the event 
 against which they stand a warning and a speaking 
 lesson. 
 
 We receive the first notice of the fall of Fyers, by 
 the drizzling rain which crosses the road, and by the 
 perpetual dripping of the birches, and the freshness of 
 the green ferns. But there is a smaller cascade above 
 it, which must not be overlooked; as it affords some 
 excellent landscapes in this class of scenery, and, par- 
 ticularly, when viewed from the bottom of the chasm, 
 Avhere the bridge is seen towering over head. The 
 Highlands do not afford many better scenes in this par- 
 ticular style ; but even these are soon forgotten in the 
 
PYERS. 375 
 
 overwhelming magnificence of Fyers, or of the greater 
 fall ; since the same river forms both. This celebrated 
 cascade, not more celebrated than it deserves, may serve 
 to prove how much of the merit of this kind of scenery 
 belongs to the surrounding parts, and how little to the 
 water. The river is small, and if the fall is high, we see 
 little of it, from the impossibility of gaining a sufficient 
 access. Yet this defect is not felt: and even were the 
 water absent, Fyers would still be a striking scene. 
 
 From above the cascade, and near it, those who are 
 contented with noise, and smoke, and spray, may enjoy 
 all these things with little trouble; and it is the interest 
 of such spectators to choose rainy weather, as, in dry 
 seasons, the fall is trifling indeed. But the dryer weather 
 is preferable : as, without this, it is nearly impossible to 
 reach the really dangerous point from which alone this 
 magnificent scene can be viewed in perfection. The 
 fall is always sufficient to give all the character that is 
 required to the landscape; and, when largest, it does 
 little more, as it never bears any proportion to the mag- 
 nitude of this deep and spacious chasm. Chasm is not 
 a very correct expression ; as it is rather an open cavity ; 
 the rocks rising on one hand, in complicated cliffs and 
 perpendicular precipices, to the height of 200 feet, 
 beautifully ornamented with scattered trees and masses 
 of wood, and the other side presenting a mixture of rocks 
 and of steep slopes similarly wooded. 
 
 Nothing can well exceed in beauty that combination 
 of grandeur and of profuse ornament which is here pre- 
 sented. Still, the first impression is, that the scene is of 
 no unusual magnitude, and that the trees are but bushes ; 
 so uncommon is it to find landscapes of this character, 
 of such overwhelming dimensions. It is not till we dis- 
 cover that we are contemplating trees of the ordinary 
 
376 FYERS. 
 
 size, repeated again and again in succession from the 
 very bed of the river to the sky, that we become fully 
 impressed with the magnitude of the whole. At the 
 further end of this spacious cavity, is seen the cascade, 
 descending in one stream of white foam ; its origin and 
 termination alike invisible, and thus receiving any alti- 
 tude which the imagination chooses to suggest. The 
 smoke rising from it as from a furnace, curls aloft among 
 the woods, distinguishing the parts while it adds conse- 
 quence to them ; and, by diffusing a damp atmosphere 
 throughout the whole, producing that aereal perspective 
 and harmony of colour, which give that effect of unity 
 and of delicacy so peculiar to cascade scenery. Soon 
 after the first cascade is lost, it re-appears in the form of 
 a second fall and of a boisterous torrent : thundering 
 along in a succession of rapids and cascades, among huge 
 fragments of rock, and amid trees, far beneath our feet, 
 till it is finally lost to the eye by the closing of the chasm 
 below. It is matter of much regret, that so little access 
 is afforded to this place, and that it is impossible to attain 
 the margin of the river; as, from the extent and intricacy 
 of its course through the chasm, and from the variety of 
 the forms, these landscapes nlust be as numerous as 
 magnificent. It cannot be disputed thatFyers is the first 
 in order of all our cascades : but it is as vain to attempt 
 to compare it, in respect of beauty, with that of the 
 Tumel or those of the Clyde, as it would be to compare 
 a landscape of Cuyp with one of Rubens, or the bay of 
 Naples with Glenco. Such pictures are not comparable ; 
 and, to draw comparisons, is to compare names, not 
 things : it is only in the word cascade that there is a 
 resemblance. 
 
 If, hence to Inverness, the country presents no pictur- 
 esque scenery, there is one part of the road which may 
 
INVERNESS. 
 
 877 
 
 well redeem the whole. There is none such throughout 
 the Highlands, so that it adds novelty to beauty ; a green 
 road of shaven turf, holding its bowery course for miles, 
 through close groves of birch and alder, with occasional 
 glimpses of Loch Ness and of the open country. I passed 
 it at early morning, wheu the branches were still spangled 
 with drops of dew ; while the sun, shooting its beams 
 through the leaves, exhaled the sweet perfume of the 
 birch, and filled the whole air with fragrance. 
 
 It is always fortunate for a traveller when he has 
 arrived at a place which is known to the whole world, 
 because it saves him a marvellous quantity of trouble. 
 Unless, indeed he wants to make a book. Even then, 
 who would not prefer cooking up new cookery books, 
 like Dr. Kitchener, to manufacturing gazetteers. The 
 man who can quietly sit down to compose Guthrie's 
 Geographical Grammar, or even a tour in Scotland, ought 
 to be immortal, like the steam engine which he rivals: 
 for his arteries and nerves, like that, must be of brass 
 and iron, and his first mover, instead of a heart, must* 
 like the boiler, be his stomach. When I have said that 
 Inverness is a clean town, and a good-looking town, and 
 that it has a handsome bridge, and that its castle has va- 
 nished, and that it possesses the best, and the civilest, 
 and the cheapest inns in Scotland, and that it has a steeple 
 to its jail instead of to its churchy there seems nothing 
 left to say about it. 
 
 But who shall describe its beautiful situation in ten 
 times that number of words. When I have stood in 
 Queen street and looked towards Fife, I have sometimes 
 wondered whether Scotland contained a finer view in its 
 class. But I have forgotten this on my arrival at Inver- 
 ness. I will not say that I forgot Inverness when I 
 stood on the shore at Cromarty ; nor do I know now 
 
378 INVERNESS. 
 
 which to choose. Surely, if a comparison is to be made 
 with Edinburgh, always excepting its own romantic dis- 
 position, the firth of Forth must yield the palm to the Moray 
 firth, the surrounding country must yield altogether, and 
 Inverness must take the highest rank. Every thing too 
 is done for Inverness that can be effected by wood and 
 by cultivation ; the characters of which here, have alto- 
 gether a richness, a variety, and a freedom, which we 
 miss round Edinburgh. The mountain screens are finer, 
 more various, and more near. Each outlet is different 
 from the other, and each is beautiful ; whether we pro- 
 ceed towards Fort George, or towards Moy, or enter the 
 valley of the Ness, or skirt the shores of the Beauley 
 firth; while a short and a commodious ferry wafts us to 
 the lovely country opposite, rich with woods and country 
 seats and cultivation. Inverness has been strangely un- 
 der-rated. To compare the country again with Edin- 
 burgh, since it is the nearest comparison that can be 
 made, there is an air of careless wealth of surface about 
 it, a profusion of rurality, as the grandiloquous phrase it, 
 which is strongly contrasted with the dry and cold eco- 
 nomy of Edinburgh, where the trees that are seen, only 
 serve to remind us of the millions that are wanting, and 
 where every field and road is deformed by a stone wall, 
 as if it was a land of thieves and law, as if the bones of 
 a country were appearing through its meagre surface. It 
 is also the boast of Inverness to unite two opposed qua- 
 lities, and each in the greatest perfection ; the characters 
 of a rich open lowland country with those of the wildest 
 alpine scenery : both also being close at hand, and, in 
 many places, intermixed ; while, to all this, is added a 
 series of maritime landscape not often equalled. 
 
 The singular hill, Tom-na-heurich, and the hill of 
 Craig Phadric, add much variety to the valley of the Ness, 
 
INVERNESS. 379 
 
 which is now a noble river, broad, clear and strong : 
 nor do the extensive sweeps of fir wood produce here that 
 arid effect which so commonly attends them ; contrasted 
 and supported as they are, by green meadows, by 
 woods of other form, and by the variety of the surface. 
 Tom-na-heurich, not ill compared to a vessel with its 
 keel uppermost, is, or rather was, a reputed haunt of fai- 
 ries; and it is plainly a relic of the ancient alluvium, 
 the remainder of which has been carried forward to the 
 sea; and of the original depth of which, in this part, it is 
 a standing measure and testimony. Of Craig Phadric I need 
 take no particular notice, as I have had occasion to men- 
 tion its celebrated vitrified fort already. It is by no 
 means however so satisfactory a specimen as that of Dun 
 Mac Sniochain, in regard to its plan, which is far more 
 difficult to trace : nor, in its vitrification, or perfection in 
 any respect, is it to be compared with the example on 
 the hill of Noath. 
 
 Tora-na-heurich, however, requires another word, 
 from some traditionary tales connected with it, that are 
 not without their interest, in more ways than one. It is 
 the reputed burial place of our poet, Thomas of Ercil- 
 doune, the rhymer; though by what means this hap- 
 pened, it would be difficult to say. It is, in itself, the 
 tumulus that covers his body ; his barrow : and it is as- 
 suredly a most respectable one, as the armies who fought 
 at Hara Law might all lie under it, and find room withal. 
 But this is not all. About three hundred years ago, 
 there arrived at Inverness two itinerant fiddlers,who gave 
 public notice of their profession, and were shortly hired 
 by a venerable old gentleman with a long beard. By 
 him they were conducted, in the night, to a palace, of 
 whose previous existence they knew nothing, and the 
 name of which they could not divine. They found there 
 
380 INVERNESS. 
 
 an assembly of august personag-es, to whose dancing they 
 played all night, and by whom they were well enter- 
 tained. In the morning, being dismissed, they were sur- 
 prised to find that it was not a palace which they were 
 leaving, but the side of a hill. They walked, of course, 
 back into the town, where they were also surprised to 
 find, in so short a period, extraordinary changes: houses 
 in ruins, faces which they did not recognise, and other 
 marks of antiquity and decay. In vain they looked 
 round for their former acquaintances ; till, at last, an old 
 man recollected that they must be the same persons 
 whom his grandfather had entertained a hundred years 
 before. They attended him to the church, it being 
 Sunday, when, behold ! at the very first word which the 
 clergyman uttered, they fell to dust. 
 
 Here is the very story, you see, of Rip van Winkle, 
 in another shape, and substituting Thomas Lermont for 
 Old Hudson. But the Highlanders have not borrowed 
 from GeoflTrey Crayon. It is the same well-known Ger- 
 man tale which is the common and remote parent of both ; 
 The two fiddlers must represent Peter Claus as well as 
 they can ; but our mountain countrymen have a far other 
 claim to it than the excellent American poet, and a claim 
 of a far other antiquity. Whence this community be- 
 tween the superstitious and fairy lore of our Highlanders 
 and of their Celtic and Gothic progenitors, I need not 
 tell you ; but I shall have occasion hereafter to trace 
 some of these points of resemblance more particularly. 
 Why Thomas the Rhymer, above all men, should have 
 been selected as the fairy king, it would be hard enough 
 to conjecture : possibly from his imputed prophetic ta- 
 lents and supposed extramundane knowledge. But some- 
 thing similar happens in all countries. The old tale 
 continues to be transmitted ; sometimes modified by the 
 
INVERNESS. 381 
 
 peculiar usages or feelings of the people to which it 
 passes, and not unfrequently corrupted in various ways ; 
 while the popular hero of one country is substituted for 
 him who was popular in another. Michael Scott here 
 builds the bridges, which, elsewhere, are constructed by 
 no less a personage than the Devil himself. Jack Hick- 
 athrift, who slays the Danes with the axle tree of his 
 cart, and who, after all, is not a genuine Norfolkian, be- 
 comes the ploughman Hay, who destroys other Danes in 
 other places with his yoke. The Highland wife, be 
 her name what it may, who performs her cantrips by 
 means of hell broth made out of a white snake or a dead 
 man's head, is often no other than Medea in a tartan 
 cloak, just as Conan is Theseus, or as Thor is Jupiter, 
 or as Diana herself has a head for each region of the 
 universe, because Siva had three heads before she was 
 born. But enough of this kind of learning for the 
 present. 
 
 Those who have not seen the Highland fair washing 
 clothes in the Ness, have probably seen the same displays 
 elsewhere ; yet they have not any where seen this show 
 in greater purity and perfection. But it has hot hap- 
 pened to every one to see the Inverness ferry-boat 
 launched by the same hands. Hands, to be sure, is not 
 the right word ; but it must pass, for want of a more ma- 
 nageable term. President Forbes, and other physiologists 
 have asserted that the activity of the Highlanders is owino- 
 to the use of the kilt, which renders the inferior muscles 
 elastic. Thus also, says this great lawyer and worthy 
 patriot, the scanty clothing of these mountaineers pre- 
 vents them from suffering by the inclemency of the wea- 
 ther. " My wound is great because it is so small." I 
 need not fill up the couplet ; but the learned Judge has 
 left his own conclusions incomplete. How much better 
 
CALEDONIAN CANAL. 
 
 would it be for the Highlanders to wear no clothes at all ; 
 and thus study, like the Scythian of old, to be " all face." 
 Face is not the word either; but that also must pass. 
 From the same cause, doubtless, must arise the elasticity 
 of the nymphs of Inverness. The winds of heaven visit 
 them quite as roughly, in launching ferry-boats and in 
 washing in the Ness; and thus their — faces — assume the 
 same Scythian insensibility. 
 
 It was Inverness fair. The streets were crowded 
 with little Highland carts and little Highland ponies and 
 stots and gingerbread and ribbons and fishwives; and 
 when the fair was over, the great ferry-boat was aground. 
 Twenty damsels, and more, besieged the ferryman, and 
 the ferryman vowed that the boat would not float for two 
 hours. They might launch her if they were in a hurry 
 for a passage. No sooner said than done. To lift her out 
 of the mud by force of hands, was impossible: but, in an 
 instant, a dozen or more ranged themselves on each side, 
 and, at the word of command, two lines of native fairness 
 were displayed in contrasting contact with ber tarry sides, 
 when, with one noble effort, they bore her on their backs, 
 (that is an incomplete word too) and launched her into the 
 sable flood. O for the pencil of AVilkie. I thought that 
 my English friend would have died on the spot : so bad 
 a philosopher was he, as not to know that it was easier to 
 wash the tar out of the other place than out of the 
 clothes. 
 
 The Caledonian canal isflnished : at last. What shall 
 I say about the Caledonian canal. What, except that I 
 wish, since the object was to spend money, that it had 
 been built on arches, like the Pont du Card; that poste- 
 rity too might have some enjoyment for its expense, that 
 Britain might hand down to futurity some testimonial of 
 its wealth and magnificence, that he who, two thousand 
 
CALEDONIAN CANAL. 383 
 
 years hence, shall seek for its public works, its aque- 
 ducts, or its Coliseums perchance, may not be condemned 
 to labour for them, he knows not where, in vain, or, as 
 here, to seek them in the doubtful ruins of a ditch. But 
 its public wealth flows in mouldering- canals and ploughs 
 the sea in perishable ships, its bridges are of rotting iron 
 and its houses of crumbling gingerbread ; " and when 
 time with his stealing steps shall have clawed us into his 
 clutch," our public works shall be " as if they had never 
 been such," and the future artist and unborn antiquary 
 shall ask in vain for what their fathers did, shall labour to 
 account for evaporated millions, and, weary of the search, 
 turn to the still youthful remains of Egypt, and deter- 
 mine, perchance, that it flourished at a day when the his- 
 tory of Britain was that of some unknown people of the 
 ages of the flood. Rome too thought otherwise : else the 
 rivers which art brought to purify and adorn her towns, 
 would have tended to, " rumpere plumbum," and have 
 sought their way, like moles, beneath the ground, unseen 
 and unknown. Yet we too have wrought for posterity. 
 Long yet shall Conway and Carnarvon stand, the records 
 of energetic Britain ; but, alas, that her ecclesiastical 
 splendour should be subject to the fate of all beauty. 
 But fashions change; and the strong-built castle, the 
 rival of the rock on which it stands, the temple that aspires 
 in airy magnificence to heaven, is superseded by the 
 workhouse, the hospital, the bedlam, and the jail. These 
 are the buildings which are to descend to posterity, the 
 records of our diseases and our crimes ; which now adorn 
 the entrances of our towns and greet us at every avenue, 
 as if our miseries were our pride and our vices our boast. 
 The posterity that contemplates the ruins of agricultural 
 Egypt, of philosophical Greece, and of warlike Rome, 
 finds the records of theirreligion, their arts,their splendour. 
 
384 BEAU LEY. N 
 
 their pleasures, and their triumphs: the posterity that shall 
 seek, two thousand years hence, for the character of Britain 
 in her works, if indeed it finds aught, will conclude that 
 she had outlived her relig-ion, that her art was commerce, 
 her pleasures, disease and misery, and her triumphs, the 
 triumphs of executive justice. 
 
 But, you will ask if this is all that can be said on the 
 Caledonian canal. No ; it is not. It is a splendid work. 
 Is it not more: who shall answer that question. Opinions 
 differ: I have no opinion; and why should I thrust my 
 fingers among the contending parties. It is enough that 
 I have had to fight my way through Glen Roy, to besiege 
 Berigonium and attack Inverlothsea, to draw the sword in 
 defence of Mr. Williams, to bring down on my midnight 
 dreams the grim and angry ghosts of Boece and Maule 
 and Moniepennie and Lesley, and to rouse the Fingalian 
 dynasty in their airy halls of mist. I have had my share 
 of fighting windmills : let whoever chuses, kill the next 
 Percy himself. Besides, like Old Jack, I only war with 
 the dead. It shall stagnate in peace for me. 
 
 There are not many rides of a more various and ani- 
 mating character than that from Inverness to Beauley. 
 The road runs along the border of the firth, which is ge- 
 nerally enlivened by boats and by shipping; and there is 
 an air of comfort and opulence, rarely seen in Scotland, in 
 the cottages and farms by which it is skirted. The oppo- 
 site side is singularly rich and picturesque ; sloping 
 gently down to the water's edge, and covered with culti- 
 vation and trees, among which are scattered the country 
 houses of the opulent proprietors. Advancing to the 
 west, the blue mountains of Rossshire continue to open in 
 endless variety : leading the eye along into numerous 
 wild and rocky valleys, at the entrance of which are seen 
 plantations of fir, and the cultivated grounds of the 
 
BEAU LEY. 385 
 
 Erasers, Chisholms, and others, who are the ancient inha- 
 bitants of this district. A handsome new bridge renders 
 easy the access to the miserable town of Beairley and to 
 the ruins of its abbey. Little of this establishment re- 
 mains; and the church, which is the principal part, is 
 neither picturesque nor interesting; being built of a dark 
 red sandstone, and without any features of architecture to 
 atone for its disagreeable raw colour. It is a ruin without 
 even those hues of age and other accessories, which so 
 often render, even more shapeless masses picturesque or 
 pleasing. The floor is covered with tombstones, but 
 evidently of very different dates. On those whicli appear 
 the most ancient, are sculptured crosses with the usual 
 accompaniments of flowery patterns,swords, animals, and 
 other obscure symbols. On a few, dated in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries, are inscriptions in the Saxon cha- 
 racter, which I need not detail, as this piece of antiquity 
 is well known, and has been sufiiciently described. 
 
 Much wild and entertaining scenery is found in the 
 neighbouring valleys which lead into the Highlands; but 
 he who has arrived thus far, will scarcely open his eyes 
 to look at it. It is the sugar plums, whicli are first en- 
 ticing, which at length become insipid, and which end in 
 being maukish. There is little attraction in the road to 
 Diuo-wall. Nor is there aught on the wild roads which 
 branch hence to Loch Broom, Loch Ewe, Loch Carron, 
 and Loch Duich, to compensate for their inconveniences, 
 or to entice a traveller whose sole object is the gratifica- 
 tion of ordinary curiosity. In general, it is wildness and 
 rudeness without beauty or grandeur; and if a casual 
 scene occurs worthy of attention, it is overwhelmed in 
 the surrounding waste, and neglected amid the weariness 
 and toil and disappointment by which it is sought. I need 
 not occupy pages in describing what none will visit: in 
 
 VOL. I. c c 
 
386 NAIRN. 
 
 repeating, I may add, descriptions which can have no 
 value except to those who have seen, or are to see, the 
 objects themselves. For other reasons, I may pass over 
 Fort Georg-e, often described ; a strong place, though 
 neither built by Tielke nor Vauban, yet without any in- 
 terest but that which arises from its military strength. 
 For similar ones, I may ojiiit all else that lies in this di- 
 rection between Inverness and the Highland border; 
 even Castle Stewart and its pepper boxes. The country 
 is every where uninteresting: and of Calder Castle, and 
 Tarnaway, and other well-known objects, I could tell 
 nothing that has not often been told before. As to Nairn, 
 what ran I say. They build ships in ditches in the sand, 
 and cut them out when ready. Part of the people speak 
 Gaelic, and the rest English, because it is the Highland 
 boundary. The baker and the brewer are not so rich as 
 at Inverness, and the attorney, being poorer, is probably 
 a greater rogue. Those who trust to the apothecary, die 
 of him, here as elsewhere ; the old maids abuse their 
 neighbours ; and those who have the misfortune to come 
 into the town, get out of it again as fast as they can. It 
 is otherwise in proceeding- to the southward, whither we 
 may now bend our steps. 
 
 After quitting the brilliant shores of Inverness and 
 losing sight of its magnificent firth, there is little beauty 
 till we reach Aviemore. This country appears too the 
 more dreary, from the scenery which we have just quitted ; 
 nor is it much otherwise when, having taken the contrary 
 course, we recollect that we have so recently parted with 
 the romantic Spey at Rothiemurchus and Kinrara. Those 
 who know that they shall not pass in vain over the scenes 
 of great or noted deeds, those who flatter themselves that 
 they may feel what is reserved but for the chosen few, 
 and those whose highest ambition is to purchase or pick 
 
MOY. 387 
 
 up a bullet as a memorial of Culloden, will, all equally, 
 turn aside to seek for its green graves ; and the particular 
 gentleman, who fancies that he can amuse and instruct 
 the world, as we all do, good and bad, will leave a blank 
 in his memorandum book, that he may hereafter fill it, in 
 peace and opportunity, from the pages of John Home 
 and the Chevalier Johnstone. But this is the business 
 of the apothecaries, as Old Burton calls them. The plain 
 of Marathon itself, is not a much more trodden subject. 
 
 In any country, less empty and less dull, the rocky 
 ravine of the Nairn would be unnoticed : such is the good 
 fortune of the borgnes dans le pays des aveugles. It is 
 not much otherwise for Moy ; which is like a pearl in a 
 hog's nose, and no great pearl either, looking as if it had 
 mistaken its way to come and sit down in this hopeless 
 country. Its lake, and its trees, and its island, are a gleam 
 of sunshine in a cloudy day: yet one that makes all the 
 surrounding brown browner, and all the wide waste that 
 encloses it, more dreary. Moy, however, as the seat of 
 the ancient and powerful Clan Chattan, has its historical 
 interest as well as its beauty. At what remote period it 
 possessed a castle, is unknown ; but the island where 
 that was situated, is said to have been garrisoned in 1420, 
 or thereabouts, by 400 men. Thus, it is probable, this 
 structure must have resembled Chisamil, and was not 
 merely the strong house of the chief: while the strength 
 of such a standing force bespeaks, what scarcely require 
 such testimony, the opulence and power of this long- 
 independent dynasty. The marks of the ruins are in 
 themselves sufficient to prove the magnitude of this build- 
 ing; but the date which remains, indicates a later erec- 
 tion, or later additions ; since it only reaches to 1665. 
 Lauchlan, said to be the twentieth Chief, is the recorded 
 founder of at least this part. A smaller island, which is 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 MOY. 
 
 thought to be artificial, is related to have been used as a 
 prison. Its name is Eilan na Clach ; and the tale is, that 
 it was so kindly contrived, that its inmates were com- 
 pelled to stand up to their middles in the water. It must 
 be presumed that those who could remain long here, 
 must have been amphibious animals, but that, less dex- 
 terous than frogs, they could not swim. The sword of 
 James the fifth, a present from Leo the tenth, is still 
 preserved at Moy. 
 
 As I was about to quit the ruins of Moy, I observed 
 that a very smart gentleman, not a gentleman rider I 
 assure you, but a gentleman in a barouche, who happened 
 to be investigating them at the same time, slipped a large 
 card, together with his shilling, into the Cicerone's hand. 
 Being a printed one, my curiosity could not be improper. 
 It was the trade card of a certain noted Baronet, &c. &c. 
 " as above :" in which the dignified manufacturer assured 
 the good people all wherever they be, that he would 
 serve them, and so forth, on the lowest terms. The 
 young Squire, in the true spirit of trade, had filled his 
 pockets with these warnings, that, ^mid the pursuit of 
 pleasure, he might not forget the main chance. Sic fortis 
 Britannia crevit. Two and two make four. 
 
 Many a tale offend and battle is related about Moy, 
 and many times have most of them been told. 1 shall 
 only notice one, a familiar one, because it has also been 
 related of the Forbeses and the Gordons, and because I 
 suspect that it is not the only one which, like many other 
 pointed tales, and many pointed sayings, has been ap- 
 plied to whomever it will fit. To appropriate such an 
 action, or to claim the exclusive right to it, would not 
 now appear an object of ambition or pride: but when 
 treachery was a virtue, and when cruelty and revenge 
 stood high in the scale of morality, a Cumin and a Forbes 
 
MOY. ;i89 
 
 might laudably have disputed the priority of the inven- 
 tion and the right to the praise. In a great battle be- 
 tween Cumin and Macintosh, the former was defeated, 
 and being unable or unwilling to renew the war, a peace 
 was proposed and accepted. To celebrate it, the Cumins 
 invited the Macintoshes to a feast ; the hospitable de- 
 sign of these hospitable and honourable personages, 
 being to seat a guest alternately among themselves, as 
 a distinguished mark of friendship, and, at a concerted 
 signal, to murder them ; each stabbing his neighbour. 
 The signal was the introduction of a bull's head ; but its 
 purpose having been revealed by the treachery of a 
 Cumin, (for thus do words change their significations,) 
 the tables were turned on the hosts, and all the Cumins 
 were killed. 
 
3.90 riNi>noRN. 
 
 SPE¥, KINllARA, GLENMORE, CAIRN OORM, 
 BALVENIE. 
 
 " Let no man say, — come, I will write a duodecimo." 
 Take up your pen, says Dr. Johnson, and if there is 
 any thing- in, it will come out. The pen is indeed the 
 key or the picklock, the " open sesame" that is to give 
 access to all the trash which has contrived, in the pro- 
 cess of time, to get itself crammed and crowded into the 
 cells and nooks of a man's brain. But, unluckily, when 
 the dyke is perforated and the water begins to flow, who 
 knows where the current will stop, whether the duo- 
 decimo may not prove a quarto, whether an inundation of 
 ink and ideas may not follow ; till some lump of mud, or 
 a dead rat, comes, fortunately for the reader, across the 
 aperture, and stops the breach. Mr. Locke says that the 
 animal spirits walk up and down in a sort of garden walk: 
 but they have an unlucky trick, at the same time, of di- 
 verging into the several bye-paths which lead to fish- 
 ponds and hog-sties and other such things, and so on 
 from one ramification to another, till a great deal " comes 
 out" that had better staid within, and the reader is in 
 danger of becoming distanced by the vagaries of the 
 writer. Let him who feels the disease of concatenation 
 stealing- on him, concatenate his own legs, like the hero 
 in the fairy tale, lest he overrun his game or vanish from 
 the reader's sight. But surely a walk among fir trees 
 may be allowed, even in Mr. Locke's garden; and a 
 writer's hands are not to be tied up from gathering such 
 flowers as grow by the margin of his great gravel walk. 
 
FINDHORN. 391 
 
 Near the Duliiaiti river there are the remains of an ex- 
 tensive fir forest, stretching* far up the valley, which still 
 g"ives employment to a few saw mills ; and similar woods 
 are still remaining on the Findhorn, here utterly with- 
 out beauty, to its very source. This mountainous tract 
 indeed, included between the great Caledonian valley 
 and Strathspey, and reaching to the sources of the Nairn, 
 the Findhorn, the Spey, and the Roy, is, though high, 
 the least interesting and the least marked of all the High- 
 land mountain land. The fir woods, however, to which 
 I here allude, bear no resemblance to those magnificent 
 reniains still found in Braemar, in Glen Finnan, and else- 
 where; the far greater number of the trees being of com- 
 paratively modern date, and many of them less than a 
 century old. As they still propagate by means of the 
 winds, we have an opportunity of seeing the Scottish fir 
 in its natural state at all ages, and of remarking the 
 striking difference between its character and that of the 
 artificially planted wood. Where the latter produces 
 only tall poles with few lateral branches, and those of no 
 dimensions, the former throws out strong ramifications at 
 short distances from the ground, which proceed to en- 
 large with the growth of the tree, finally producing a 
 form which is often as broad as it is tall ; while, in the 
 planted wood, all the lateral shoots decay in succession 
 towards the summit, leaving at length a scraggy and 
 scanty foliage on the top of the mast-like trunk. This 
 also remains slender to the end of its existence ; almost 
 ceasing, after a certain time, to increase in its lateral 
 dimensions; when, in the natural tree, the trnnk and the 
 branches enlarge alike, so as to produce those magnifi- 
 cent and picturesque objects which scarcely have a rival, 
 even in the oak. The timber partakes, in the samejnan- 
 ner, in both cases, of the general character : being feeble 
 
392 Fiij WOODS. 
 
 in the planted tree, and bciiring the lowest possible price 
 of fir wood, while the natural wood is nearly equal in 
 value to the best timber of this nature. Lastly, it is 
 necessary to remark, after the age of seventy or eighty 
 years, or within a century, the planted wood ceases to 
 grow, and very often Avastes till it dies; when, in the 
 natural forests, trees of three or four centuries are found 
 flourishing with all the luxuriance of youth. 
 
 So striking are these differences, that it has become an 
 opinion among some planters, that the natural and the 
 planted fir were distinct species ; and this has even been 
 maintained by botanists and professional nurserymen, 
 whose duty it was to have known their art better. Other 
 persons have attributed the difference to the practice of 
 transplantation : and thus remedies have been sought in 
 sowing the seed where it was to remain, and in sowing 
 the seeds of the natural instead of the cultivated tree. It 
 might be thought surprising that experience should never 
 have taught planters the real reason, and that oppor- 
 tunities of observation, prolonged through centuries, had 
 produced no fruit, did we not know that experience is as 
 nothing without capacity to profit by it, and that to see 
 facts daily displayed before the eyes, does not constitute 
 observation. It may be thought more surprising, that 
 those whose scientific or practical pretensions ought to 
 have enabled them to apply one of the simplest princi- 
 ples of botanical physiology, should have thus gone on 
 in this error, and should so long have overlooked a solu- 
 tion so perfectly simple. 
 
 It is by the agency of the leaves, not of the roots, that 
 all the matter of vegetables is formed ; the wood and the 
 bark, as well as the blossom, the fruit, and the leaves 
 themselves. The roots supply the simple elements ; but, 
 without the leaves, these cannot be converted to their 
 
FIR WOODS. 393 
 
 destined purposes. The leaves may be considered the 
 stomach of the plant, as the root is its mouth. Thus, a 
 tree possessed of all the leaves which nature has allotted 
 to it, proceeds through its destined stages and performs 
 its natural functions; its produce in wood, being- in a 
 certain sense, proportional to the bulk or quantity of its 
 leaves, because, on their actions, that production de- 
 pends. Whatever therefore is taken from the leaves, is 
 taken ultimately from the wood : for every leaf which is 
 destroyed, a proportional quantity of wood is not formed; 
 if the whole are destroyed, the growth is suspended. 
 This principle, therefore, explains the apparent mystery. 
 Excluded from the light by close planting, leaves are not 
 produced where they otherwise would be. Thus the 
 branches which depended on their actions, first cease to 
 grow and then die. Hence the trunk also is robbed of 
 its organs of nutrition, and the tree is checked through- 
 out; and as the evil proceeds upwards, from the in- 
 creased operation of the cause, the branches and leaves 
 disappear in succession, till, the few remaining leaves at 
 the summit being now incapable of maintaining the vital 
 actions, the whole tree dies. Hence also becomes evi- 
 dent, the folly of removing the lateral branches of trees, 
 for the purpose of increasing the quantity of timber in 
 the trunk. That operation may modify its form, but it 
 diminishes the total weight and bulk, as it sometimes does 
 the good quality of the wood. In this way are the 
 trimmed elms of England destroyed ; and in this way, I 
 am sorry to observe, are some recent planters of spruce 
 ruining their trees, with the notion of forcing them up 
 into mast timber. That tree, left to its own resources, 
 will produce better masts, with all its lateral branches in 
 vigour, than when thus trimmed : and if this system is to 
 be pursued, or if the Norway spruce is to be planted in 
 
394 spEY. 
 
 this country as close as the Scottish fir has been, with 
 the hope ot" producing Norway timber, the event, under 
 the former practice, will be little better than it has 
 proved in the case of our native tree ; although it is 
 a property of the spruce to preserve its leaves and 
 lateral branches, even in woods, when not excessively 
 crowded. 
 
 It is also a leading error in planting, a consequence of 
 the same ignorance of principles, to set the trees at short 
 distances, whether these be fir or larch ; hoping to make 
 profit of the thinnings first, and to obtain valuable forest 
 timber afterwards. The planter must learn to be content 
 with one of these; for it is certain that he cannot obtain 
 both. It is far too late to remove the superfluous plants, 
 when those which are to remain have lost their lateral 
 branches. These cannot be replaced; and though the 
 upper ones may perform a portion of the necessary duty, 
 that will always be imperfectly done, and the best of such 
 trees will for ever be comparatively feeble. If planters 
 will not be convinced by this reasoning, they have only 
 to examine their own forests, where they will find that 
 the outermost trees are the largest, and that, in every 
 situation, that is the largest trunk which possesses the 
 most branches, or, what is the essential fact, the most 
 leaves. That they have here mistaken cause for effect, 
 is also certain : conceiving that it was the vigorous trunk 
 that produced the full foliage and the healthy tree, when 
 the full foliage is the parent and cause of the healthy and 
 thriving trunk. 
 
 As soon as we approach Aviemore, we become sen- 
 sible that we have entered on a new country : a wide 
 and open space now intervening, between the hills that 
 we have quitted and the distant and blue ridge of Cairn 
 Oorm. Through this lies the course of the Spey ; and 
 
SPEY. 395 
 
 here, principally, are concentrated such beauties as that 
 river has to show. I have traced it from its mountain- 
 well to the sea : and, whatever the Strathspey men may 
 boast, it would be a profanation to compare it, in point 
 of beauty, with almost any one of the great branches of 
 the Tay ; as it would equally be to name it as a rival to 
 the Forth, and, I must add, to the Dee, and to the Isla, 
 and to the Earn. In point of magnitude, I believe it must 
 follow the Tay : and in beauty, it may be allowed to fol- 
 low the Earn ; preceding alike the Tweed, and the Clyde, 
 and the Don, but being still inferior to many of our larger 
 rivers, in the important particular of not being navigable, 
 and in being therefore nearly useless. The small lake, 
 or rather pool, whence it originates, is its most un- 
 questionable head ; since, unlike the Tay, none of its 
 subsidiary streams, not even the Truim, can pretend to 
 compete with this primary one. It is one decided Spey 
 from its very spring; receiving numerous accessions, 
 but no rival. Its course is almost every where rapid ; nor 
 does it shew any still water till near the very sea. It is 
 also the wildest and most capricious of our large rivers ; its 
 alternations of emptiness and flood being more complete 
 and more sudden than those of any of the streams which 
 I have named. The causes of this are obvious, in con- 
 sidering the origin and courses of its tributary waters ; 
 while the elevation of its source, amounting to more than 
 1200 feet, accounts for the rapidity of its flow. Though 
 inferior, both to the Tweed and the Tay, in its produce 
 of salmon, it must be allowed the third rank in this re- 
 spect; and the single fishery at its mouth, belonging to 
 the Duke of Gordon, is rented for more than £6000 a year. 
 From the spring, its course displays little beauty till 
 it reaches Clunie and Spey bridge. Hence, nearly, it 
 increases in interest as it approaches Kinrara ; whence. 
 
396 KINRARA. 
 
 for a few miles, it is attended by a series of landscapes, 
 alike various, singular, and mag-nificent. If, after this, 
 there are some efforts at beauty, these are rare, and offer 
 little that is new or striking: while, near its exit from the 
 mountainous country, it loses all character, and continues, 
 from Fochabers to the sea, a wide and insipid sheet of 
 water. 
 
 Though many splendid landscapes are obtained along- 
 the road side between Aviemore and Kinrara, constituted 
 by the far-extended fir woods of Rothiemurchus, the 
 ridge of Cairngorm, the birch-clad hill of Kinrara, and 
 by the variety of the broken, bold, and woody banks of 
 the Spey, no one can form an adequate idea of the beau- 
 ties of this tract, without spending days in investigating 
 what is concealed from an ordinary and passing view. 
 By far the larger proportion of this scenery also, is found 
 near to the river, and far from the road ; and the most 
 singular portions of it lie on the east side of the water, 
 and far beyond it, in places seldom trodden and scarcely 
 known. This too is a country hitherto undescribed, and 
 therefore unseen by the mass of travellers ; though among 
 the most engaging parts of the Highlands, as it is the 
 most singular : since there is nothing with which it can 
 be compared, or to which indeed it can be said to bear 
 the slightest resemblance. Much of this depends on the 
 peculiar forms and distribution of the ground and of the 
 mountains, and still more on the character of the wood, 
 which is always fir and birch ; the latter, in particular, 
 assuming a consequence in the landscape, which renders 
 the absence of all other trees insensible; and which is 
 seen no where in the same perfection, except at Blair, 
 and for a short space along the course of the Tuniel. 
 
 Of this particular class of beauty, Kinrara is itself 
 the chief seat; yielding to very few situations in Scot- 
 
KTNRAKA. 397 
 
 land for that species of ornament, which, while it is the 
 prodnce of Nature, seems to have been guided by art, 
 and being- utterly distinguished from the wohle in 
 character. A succession of continuous birch forest, 
 covering- its rocky hill and its lower grounds, intermixed 
 with open glades, irregular clumps, and scattered trees, 
 produces a scene at once alpine and dressed ; combining 
 the discordant characters of wild mountain landscape 
 and of ornamental park scenery. To this it adds an air 
 of perpetual spring, and a feeling of comfort and of 
 seclusion, which can no where be seen in such perfec- 
 tion : while the range of scenery is, at the same time, 
 such as is only found in the most extended domains. If 
 the home grounds are thus full of beauties, not less 
 varied and beautiful is the prospect around : the Spey, 
 here a quick and clear stream, being- ornamented by trees 
 in every possible combination, and the banks beyond, 
 rising into irregular, rocky, and wooded hills, every 
 where rich with an endless profusion of objects, and, as 
 they gradually ascend, displaying the dark sweeping 
 forests of fir that skirt the bases of the further mountains^, 
 which terminate the view by their bold outlines on the 
 sky. A week spent at Kinrara had not exhausted the 
 half of its charms; and when a second week had passed, 
 all seemed still new. But time flew, never to return : — 
 for I had scarcely taken my leave of its lovely scenes, 
 when the mind that inspired it was fled, and the hand 
 that had tended and decked it was cold. That was a 
 loss indeed. But these matters must not be thought on 
 thus. 
 
 To wander along the opposite banks, is to riot in a 
 profusion of landscape, always various and always new: 
 river scenery, of a character unknown elsewhere, and a 
 spacious valley crowded with objects and profuse of 
 
398 ROTHIEMURCHUS. 
 
 wood, displaying every where a luxuriance of variety, 
 as well in the disposition of its parts, as in the arrange- 
 ments of its trees and forests and the versatility of its 
 mountain boundary. Advancing further into the in- 
 terior, we are soon lost amidst the woods of Rothiemurchus, 
 which, for many miles, cover the ground, extending far 
 away to the great and noble Glenmore. Here we may 
 imagine ourselves wandering in an American forest : 
 while this impression is aided by the saw mills, the log- 
 houses, the dams for floating the timber into the Spey, 
 and the trees in all the stages of preparation, which are 
 lying in the various open glades which the woodman's 
 axe has made. Nor must it be supposed that these 
 woods exhibit that wearisome and interminable unifor- 
 mity which is found in the great plantations about Foch- 
 abers, or in the other forests of planted fir. Nature, who 
 performed this work, has avoided that error. Where art 
 has not, by levelling portions of them, introduced ave- 
 nues and glades and roads, the variety of the soil and 
 surface have produced the same effects. Here a stream 
 holds its course through them, or a small lake, or a mo- 
 rass, or a portion of rocky ground, repels the growth of 
 the trees; while, elsewhere some huge rock serves to 
 contrast, by its grey faces, with the dark green above, 
 and with the bright splendour, below, of the arbutus and 
 the vaccinium, whose vivid green is also embellished by 
 their profusion of scarlet berries. 
 
 But even this is but a small part of the variety which 
 prevails throughout this wide forest. In many places, it 
 rises high up the rocky sides of the mountains, or sweeps 
 down into the valleys, or is seen following the course of 
 a ravine ; while the broken margin where the growth of 
 the wood becomes gradually checked, or the outstanding 
 and irregular clumps which have chosen for themselves 
 
LOCH AN ETLAN. 399 
 
 some favourable position, with the sing-le and separated 
 trees, stationed like out-posts on its borders, by which the 
 forest fades gradually into the mountain, produce effects as 
 beautiful as they are unexpected by him who has con- 
 templated at a distance its wide extended sweep of heavy 
 and solid green. More entertaining and unexpected still, 
 are the rocky hills that shoot suddenly up in the middle 
 of the forest ; lifting their grey crags high above the 
 surrounding wood, and crowned with ranks and masses 
 of trees, the very formality of whose long rows of trunks, 
 as they range along the edge of the precipice, is cha- 
 racteristic and ornamental. Here too, some solitary fir, 
 taking advantage of a fissure, or perched on an occasional 
 shelf, and throwing far out its wide arms and dark fo- 
 liage, serves to embellish the broad tints of grey, and to 
 soften the harsher masses which crown the summit or 
 spread in one broad body of green beneath. 
 
 Of the lakes which are here found, adding also much 
 to the variety and beauty of this forest, I need only no- 
 tice Loch-an-eilan. A fir lake, if I may use such a term, 
 is a rare occurrence ; and indeed this is the only very 
 perfect example in the country. No other tree is seen ; 
 yet, from the variety of the shores, there is not that mo- 
 notony which might be expected from such limited ma- 
 terials. In some parts of it, the rocky precipices rise 
 immediately from the deep water, crowned with the dark 
 woods, that fling a profound shadow over it; in others, 
 the solid masses of the trees advance to its edge ; while 
 elsewhere, open green shores, or low rocky points, or 
 gravelly beaches, are seen ; the scattered groups, or 
 single trees, which, springing from some bank, wash 
 their roots in the waves that curl against them, ad- 
 ding to the general variety of this wild and singular 
 scene. This lake is much embellished by an ancient 
 
400 LOCH AN El LAN. 
 
 castle, standing on an island within it, and, even yet, 
 entire, though roofless. As a Highland castle, it is of 
 considerable dimensiions ; and the island being scarcely 
 larger than its foundation, it appears in some places to 
 rise immediately out of the water. Its ancient celebrity 
 is considerable, since it was one of the strong holds of 
 the Cumins; the particular individual whose name is 
 attached to it, being the ferocious personage known by 
 the name of the Wolf of Badenoch. It has passed now to 
 a tenant not more ferocious, who is an apt emblem and 
 representative of the red-handed Highland chief. The 
 eagle has built his eyrie on the walls. I counted the 
 sticks of his nest, but had too much respect for this wor-. 
 thy successor to an ancient Highland dynasty, even to 
 displace one twig. His progeny, it must be admitted, 
 have but a hard bed : but the Red Cumin did not proba- 
 bly lie much more at his ease. It would not be easy to 
 imagine a wilder position than this for a den of thieves 
 and robbers, nor one more thoroughly romantic; it is 
 more like the things of which we read in the novels of the 
 Otranto school, than like a scene of real life. If ever you 
 should propose to rival the author of Waverley in that 
 line of art, I recommend you to choose part of your scene 
 here. As I lay on its topmost tower amid the universal 
 silence, while the bright sun exhaled the perfume from 
 the woods around and all the old world visions and 
 romances seemed to flit about its grey and solitary ruins, 
 I too felt as if I could have written a chapter that might 
 hereafter be worthy of the protection of Minerva ; the 
 Minerva of Leadenhall-street. But, for these things, we 
 must have the licence of speech which belongs to those 
 cases. Such is the necessity of acting in character. We 
 may perform any antics we please, if we choose to put 
 on Harlequin's jacket, to wear the whole purple cloak ; 
 
GLEN MORE. 401 
 
 but there is no mercy for him who tacks two or three 
 rags of the purpureus panniis to his dingy cassock or 
 liis amice of sober grey. 
 
 I must therefore "jog on the foot-path way," in the 
 old matter of fact pace, to Glen More ; though it was 
 not quite merrily that I passed " the stile a." I have 
 passed many stiles, but never one like the entrance into 
 Glen More, I voav. There is the clamber stile, where 
 you find yourself astride on a knife edge, like a dragoon 
 on the wooden horse ; and there is the in and out stile, 
 which reminds you of what philosophers call the vis in- 
 ertia; and the turn-stile, Avhere you either break your 
 behind or your before ; and the squeeze stile, where you 
 stick like the weasel in the fable; and the gate stile 
 where you break, first your shins and then your heels ; 
 and the ladder stile, which if you escape without break- 
 ing your neck, it is well ; and the Cornish stile, where 
 you slip your foot, crack your tibia, the bone protrudes, 
 the apothecary saws it off, and you die of a lock jaw. 
 When I had scrambled to the top of the Glen More stile, 
 among cross branches, and brambles, and thorns, plumb 
 beneath me was a deep and wide river roaring along, 
 with a bridge formed of a single fir tree, M'hich nature, 
 or the water-kelpie more probably, had kindly thrown 
 across the torrent to entice gentlemen to drown them- 
 selves. Perpendicularity of conduct and character is of 
 many other uses in life besides that of hitting on the axis 
 of a fir tree and on your own axis at the same time, across 
 a deep river in Glen More. Spite of these mathematics, 
 I might have remained balancing yet; but all the chi- 
 valry of Kinrara was on the other side, and I — oh how 
 deep and strong did the water seem, and how narrow 
 did the smaller end of the tree become. 
 
 What a fearful sight is Glen More. But it will not 
 
 VOL I. D D 
 
402 GLEN iMORE. 
 
 do to begin in this violent manner. It had long been 
 known that the timber of these ancient fir woods was 
 very valuable; and, of all Scotland, the trees of Glen 
 More were the finest. The Duke of Gordon still preserves 
 one plank from near the root, which is s-ix feet wide. 
 But so backward in science was our dear country, that it 
 was esteemed impossible to transfer this wood to the sea 
 at such a price as could be repaid. The engineer em- 
 ployed by the York Buildings Company, however, 
 thought otherwise ; and it was accordingly purchased for 
 £10,000. How it was carried off, partly by aid of the 
 Spey, is well known ; and the profits are said to have 
 been £70,000, Of such value is the old maxim in our 
 spelling books : the learning was more valuable than the 
 land, in this case at least. 
 
 Without any picturesque features. Glen More is a 
 magnificent scene, from its open, basin-like form, rising 
 at once up the lofty acclivities of the high and unbroken 
 mountains which surround it, from its wide extent, and 
 from its simple grandeur of character. High above all, 
 towers the summit of Cairn Gorm ; and, in the valley, 
 Loch Morlich adds the variety of its black, still, shining 
 waters to the whole. Every where is seen rising-, young- 
 wood of various ages, promising, when centuries shall 
 have passed away, to restore to the valley its former ho- 
 nours. But it is the wreck of the ancient forest which 
 arrests all the attention, and which renders Glen More a 
 melancholy, more than a melancholy, a terrific spectacle. 
 Trees, of enormous height, which have escaped, alike, the 
 axe and the tempest, are still standing, stripped by the 
 winds, even of their bark, and, like gigantic skeletons, 
 throwing far and wide their white and bleached bones to 
 the storms and rains of heaven ; while others, broken by 
 the violence of the gales, lift their split and fractured 
 
CAIRN GORM. 403 
 
 trunks in a thousand shapes of resistance and of destruc- 
 tion, or still display some knotted and tortuous branches, 
 stretched out, in sturdy and fantastic forms of defiance, to 
 the whirlwind and the winter. Noble trunks also, which 
 had long resisted, but resisted in vain, strew the ground ; 
 some hanging on the declivity Avhere they have fallen, 
 others still adhering to the precipice where they were 
 rooted, many upturned, with their twisted and entangled 
 roots high in air; while a few, prostrated with all their 
 branches still entire, astonish us by the space %yhich they 
 cover, and by dimensions which we could not otherwise 
 have estimated. It is one wide imaffe of death : as if the 
 angel of destruction had passed over the valley. The 
 sight, even of a felled tree, is painful : still more is that 
 of the fallen forest, with all its green branches on the 
 ground, withering, silent, and at rest, where once they 
 glittered in the dew and the sun, and trembled in 
 the breeze. Yet tliis is but an image of vegetable death : 
 it is familiar, and the impression passes away. It is the 
 naked skeleton bleaching in the winds, the gigantic bones 
 of the forest still erect, the speaking records of former 
 life, and of strength still unsubdued, vigorous even in 
 death, which render Glen More one enormous charnel 
 house. 
 
 The ascent of Cairn Gorm is easy, with little variety 
 from protruding rocks or water courses. Yet, though 
 among the highest of the Scottish mountains, the views 
 from it are very uninteresting. One smooth and undu- 
 lating surface of granite mountain, Avithout the variety of 
 bold precipice or deep ravine, follows another, so far and 
 so wide, that when other objects appear, they are beyond 
 the reach and power of the eye, and produce no effect. 
 It is even less interesting than Ben Nevis while, to the 
 botanist, it is almost a blank ; its dry stony soil produc- 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 CAIRN GORIW. 
 
 ing few alpine plants, and none, except the Lichen nivalis, 
 of any peculiar rarity. 
 
 But the sunshine that slept on Cairn Gorm, g-ave 
 beauty, even to its barren and torrid surface, and the 
 waste and vacant expanse smiled to the wide azure of a 
 cloudless sky. Still brighter was that sun and bluer 
 were those skies beneath the influence of other smiles ; 
 and even the arid rock and the misty desert seemed to 
 breathe of loveliness and spring. A single mind ani- 
 mated all the landscape ; that mind which animated all 
 it reached, which diffused happiness around, the joy and 
 delight of all. 
 
 Yet the happiest, like the most wretched hours, must 
 end. That day fled fast indeed. But I did not then fore- 
 see, that, for Her, that blooming and youthful, that intel- 
 lectual and lovely being, who seemed born to be a light 
 and a blessing to all around her, the record which this 
 useless hand is now writing, would be written in vain. 
 We ascended the hill together, we looked together for 
 Craig Elachie and Tor Alvic. Often have I seen Tor 
 Alvie since ; but She can see it no more. 
 
 Hence it is easy to descend into Loch Avon ; a scene 
 which Nature seems nearly to have buried beyond hu- 
 man resort; as, though accessible also from Mar, the 
 distance from any habitation is, on that side also, such, 
 that it is scarcely possible to go and return within the 
 longest summer day. 
 
 The surface of Cairn Gorm is strewed in some places 
 with fragments of the well-known brown crystals, which 
 are generally named from this mountain, from whatever 
 place they may be procured. But they are by no means 
 peculiar to this spot, since they occur on Ben-na-Chie, 
 in Braemar, in St. Kilda, in Arran, at Loch Etive, in 
 Morrer, and in many other situations. They are the ob- 
 
CAIRN GORM. 405 
 
 jects of a petty and poor trade among the country people 
 and the shepherds, and of a much more profitable one 
 among- the jewellers of Edinburgh, who sell Brazil crystal 
 under this pretence, at twenty times its value ; thus wisely 
 making a profit out of a silly modification of patriotism. 
 Of the brown crystal indeed, which is thus sold. Cairn 
 Gorm, or even all Scotland, does not produce the fiftieth 
 part; and of the bright yellow, and only beautiful kind, 
 it never furnished a single specimen. These stones, in 
 fact, are almost all imported from Brazil, of whatever 
 colour they may be, and often ready cut, at a price of a 
 few shillings, which, by elevating them to the dignity of 
 Scottish crystals, become converted into as many pounds. 
 Such is one of the varieties of vanity. Even on the spot, 
 the shepherds demand guineas for what pence will pur- 
 chase in London : and if they can find purchasers, I 
 know no good reason why they should not. I cannot 
 defend in the same manner the harpy whose horse I rode 
 for a hundred yards, and who could not have been more 
 master of his art if he had been educated at Oban or in 
 Mull. The ingenuity of the plea indeed almost deserved 
 the money. One of the party had hired the horse, and, 
 wishing to walk over some particular spot, requested me 
 to mount in his place. The hour of reckoning being 
 come, the knave insisted that I should. pay a day's hire 
 also, as his pony had thus been let to two persons. Is it 
 wonderful that a late traveller calls the Highlanders 
 " the most impudent extortioners on the face of the earth." 
 One remark, however, I must oflTer, for the consolation 
 of those whose anger may be roused, not by the quantity 
 of the fraud but by its spirit, as is the fact in all these 
 cases. Did they know how well the gains are applied, 
 to compensate for the wrong by which they are obtained, 
 they would probably often give freely, that which they 
 
406 BALVENIE, 
 
 indig-nantly withhold when thus claimed. The High- 
 lander is an economist, and a good and generous one. 
 The money thus obtained will not be wasted in riot and 
 drink, but laid by to pay his rent, or better his farm, or 
 maintain his poor relations. There is a balance of good 
 in Donald's extortion, unknown to most of those who 
 suffer from it. 
 
 If the Spey presents little beauty henceforward to the 
 sea, there is equally little interest in the remaining tract 
 of the Highlands to the northwards. The vale of the 
 Spey itself, those of the Avon and the Fiddich, and a 
 few other small tracts which are traversed by rivers, are 
 the only accessible parts ; the rest being a mass of rude 
 uninteresting mountains. Indeed neaily the whole moun- 
 tain tract to the northward of the great central granite 
 mass of Aberdeenshire, including Cairn Gorm and the hills 
 of Mar, is without distinguishing features ; Bell Rinnes, 
 the great ridge of the Cabrach, and that of Bennachie, 
 forming almost the only exceptions ; while, with little 
 exception also, the rivers and valleys are very deficient 
 in picturesque beauty. It would be unjust however to 
 the Spey, not to say that the rides along its banks, north- 
 ward from Aviemore, are, in many parts, pleasing, if 
 not striking ; while, of some, I am bound to plead such 
 imperfect knowledge as I could obtain by the light of a 
 comet ; not an usual lantern to travel by. 
 
 Balvenie is perhaps the most interesting object in this 
 tract of country. The valley is pleasing, and the situa- 
 tion of this castle on an independent knoll, is such as to 
 display its effect to great advantage ; while its magni- 
 tude aids in rendering it one of the most striking of our 
 ancient buildings. It is apparently an erection of dif- 
 ferent periods ; though we cannot be sure that any of it 
 is of so old a date as the eleventh century, when there 
 
BALVENIK. 407 
 
 was a castle of some kind here. There is a tradition that 
 Malcolm the second defeated the Norweg-ians in an action 
 at this place; and, to confirm the possibility at least of 
 this beino- the actual spot, there are traces of ancient 
 monuments sufficient to indicate some field of battle. 
 The tower at the south-west angle is strong and large* 
 and appears to be the oldest part of the building, but 
 those at the other angles are ruined. The histories at- 
 tached to this castle are far longer than 1 have time to 
 relate ; and it seems to have undergone the singular for- 
 tune of having been as effectually as it was often assailed' 
 so as to have passed in succession into many different 
 hands. Cumins, Douglases, Stewarts, and others, seem 
 to have been in turn its masters ; and, among many other 
 cognizances, the " Furth fortune and fill the fetters" of 
 the Atholl family, is still visible over the gateway. But 
 I must return with you to the south^vard. 
 
 The pearl muscle is found in the Spey, as in all these 
 rivers ; but this fishing- is rather a trade than a general 
 pursuit. And wisely : since, at Conway and Bangor, 
 this lottery produces universal poverty among the people 
 Avho pursue it. It is there the remains of the Roman 
 commerce in pearls ; one of the apparent inducements to 
 the invasion of Britain. Hollinshed, a motive monger 
 by trade, is very metaphysical on this subject. " Doubt- 
 lesse, they have as it were a natural carefuUnesse of their 
 commoditie, as not ig-norant how great estimation we 
 mortall men make of the same amongst us ; and therefore 
 so soon as the fishermen do catch them, they binde their 
 shells together." The cunning of the Welsh muscle, 
 like much other cunning, outwits itself; since he is boiled 
 and made into sotjp for his pains. 
 
408 LOCH ALVIE. 
 
 LOCH ALVIE, PITMAIN, DALWHINNIE, LOCH 
 LAGGAN, BLAIR. 
 
 The little lake of Alvie, which lies at the gates of 
 Kinrara, is a jewel in this barren road ; nor is Loch 
 Inch M'ithout its merits. I cannot indeed say that they 
 have much picturesque beauty. Yet there is, in the least 
 of all these Highland lakes, a charm, which depends, not 
 on their boundaries or their magnitude, their variety or 
 their grandeur; a beauty which even the cloud and the 
 mist, that conceal their mountain summits and destroy 
 the landscape, can scarcely obliterate. This lies in their 
 foregrounds ; in their local colouring and minuter forms. 
 It is the pellucid water murmuring on the pebbly shore, 
 the dark rock reflected on the glassy surface or dancing 
 on the undulating wave, the wild water-plants, the broken 
 bank, the bending ash, the fern, the bright flowers, and all 
 the poetry of the " margent green," which give to these 
 scenes a feeling that painting cannot reach ; a beauty 
 that belongs to nature alone, because it is the beauty of 
 life ; a beauty that flies with the vital principle which 
 was its soul and its all. If I cannot give much praise to 
 the elegant town of Kingusie, I cannot admit that this 
 portion of the Inverness road, as far at least as Spey bridge, 
 is so detestable as it is commonly reputed, Pitmain is 
 far from being an ugly spot ; and to those who do not 
 enquire too minutely, Ruthven may still pass for an an- 
 cient castle ; thus deceiving them into the enjoyment of 
 a vision quite as good as the reality. It Mas indeed an 
 
DALWHINNIE. 40.9 
 
 ancient castle once, belonging to the Cumins ; but that 
 metaphysical entity commonly called Government, which 
 is no more free from Gothicism than Alaric and Attila, 
 thought proper to pull it down and replace it with the 
 barrack, which may, in its turn, be an object of antiqua- 
 rian admiration to our posterity. Doubtless, it will be 
 then a record of events somewhat more important than 
 the squabbles of savage Highland chiefs, and not so easily 
 forgotten. It was built in 1718, assaulted by the High- 
 land army in 1745, and burnt in 1746; having been de- 
 fended by twelve men under the command of Sergeant 
 Mulloy ; a hero, doubtless ; but what is a hero with three 
 chevrons on his arm. 
 
 Who shall praise Dalwhinnie. No one, surely, but the 
 commissioners who built it, and who desire you to be very 
 thankful that you have a place to put your head in. But 
 these thanks can be paid only by the gentlemen who have 
 not forgotten what they acquired at school ; for, like the in- 
 scription on Tay bridge, it is a Latin tablet. That bridge 
 might better have stridden over Tay in its own tongue; and, 
 pardon the pun again, I cannot help thinking this an in- 
 sult to our own language, spite of the opinion of Dr. John- 
 son. Is not this vile pedantry. As if the English language 
 will not last as long as that of ancient Rome, as if we are 
 to descend to posterity, a nation without a tongue of its 
 own, or as writing what we can neither read nor speak, 
 or as despising a language which, in a few brief years, 
 has produced more valuable literature, and conveyed 
 more instruction to posterity, than all which Rome ef- 
 fected from the time of Romulus to that of Constantine. 
 Thus, we have epitaphs which the very owners could not 
 read, were they alive again ; inscriptions, which, if they 
 record any thing, it is that a pagan people erected a 
 Christian church, and a Roman king, unknown in the 
 
410 DALWHINNIE. 
 
 annals of that city, called Georgius tertius ; nay, a whole 
 series of Gothic Tudors, and Plantagenets, and Stuarts, 
 and Guelphs, all Roman Kings. Why is not all this done 
 in Greek : it is a more enduring and a nobler language ; 
 it would confer still more of the honours of pedantry ; 
 and, as to the story which is to be told, the Latin itself is 
 but Greek to the million. But the days of logic are 
 passed, and those of other pedantries must pass too; 
 whenever the S^avans en us shall have discovered that 
 education means something more than a knowledge of 
 as in prsesenti, or a memory for all the overwhelming 
 learning enclosed in the treasures of the Gradus ad Par- 
 nassum. 
 
 In spite of this learned tablet, and though the 
 " tellus calva benignuni monstrat viatori signum," no 
 one will ever wish to enter Dalwhinnie a second time; 
 and no one who has crossed its hideous, cold, desolate, 
 naked, starved, melancholy, moors, will ever willingly 
 cross them again. The vicissitudes of human life are 
 strange enough. Yesterday I was in a Highland cottage, 
 with an assemblage of three Duchesses and a Comet, 
 with many minor stars of no small note and bearing ; and, 
 to-day, at Dalwhinnie, in company with three travelling- 
 haberdashers and a farthing candle. But we must bear 
 this and much more, in our transit, Avhether through the 
 Highlands or through life : we must even endure the wet 
 peat of Dalwhinnie, which, since fire and water are ever 
 at variance, as Ovid and Milton assure us, chooses to send 
 forth nothing but indignant smoke. Hence you may go 
 by the way of Garvie More, and across Coryaraick, to 
 Fort Augustus ; but it is probable that this road will now 
 be deserted in favour of the new line by Loch Laggan. 
 By Garvie More also, lies a road into Glen Roy, if road 
 it can be called ; and, to study Glen Roy as a philoso- 
 
BLAIR. 411 
 
 pber, this is the most useful method of proceeding. There 
 is much wild and rocky scenery about Garvie More ; but 
 it is scarcely such as to tempt an ordinary traveller from 
 the main road. All that I need say of Loch Laggan, is, 
 that the eastern extremity is somewhat picturesque, but 
 that it does not afford much variety of scenery. The 
 most remarkable feature is a rocky hill, split by a fissure 
 of great magnitude, and conveying a strong impression 
 of recent and sudden violence. 
 
 With the slight exception of Loch Garry, of which a 
 glimpse is afforded in proceeding from Dalwhinnie south- 
 wards, and which, any where else, would be unnoticed, 
 it is all a Dalwhinnie, not only to Dalnacardoch,but even 
 to the bridge of Erochie ; houseless, treeless, lifeless ; 
 wanting in every thing but barrenness and deformity, 
 while there is not even an object so much worse than 
 another, as to attract a moment's attention. Like life 
 itself in the same circumstances, it is as tedious in the 
 passage as it is disagreeable; but, when passed, leaving 
 no impressions of time or space. But it forms an admi- 
 rable introduction to Blair, which shortly breaks on the 
 eye like sun-rise after a stormy night. The first view of 
 this magnificent and rich valley is obtained near the 
 bridge of the Bruar, but it is still an imperfect one; and 
 it is one of the chief boasts of this place, that it proceeds 
 increasing in beauty till the moment at which we part 
 with it entirely. Those who may visit it from the south, 
 will not enjoy the same effect of contrast ; but, fortu- 
 nately, it is sufficient in itself to disdain all such adven- 
 titious aids. 
 
 A book might be written about Blair and its neigh- 
 bourhood, without exhausting the subject ; as I ought to 
 know, since T have written one. Nothing less than the 
 art which squeezed the fairy's teni into a thimble, could, 
 
412 BLAIR. 
 
 cram this country into a letter ; and therefore I pray you 
 not to expect it. Read my book, as those dexterous 
 persons say, who write one work to pufF off another, and 
 then you will know all about it. But 1 must say some- 
 thing: or it would be ingratitude to a place, of which 1 
 know each dingle, bush, and alley green; ingratitude to 
 its lovely scenes and to its hospitable towers ; to the Noble 
 Owner of which, this country owes a deep debt, for the 
 unwearied activity of his exertions and his example, 
 and of whom it is praise enough to say, that he is the 
 pattern of a truly British Country Gentleman. 
 
 The well-known cascades of the Bruar, are the first 
 objects which meet those who arrive from the north. But 
 he who has that eye for scenery, without which travelling 
 loses half its value, will see here something more, in a 
 fine landscape of the valley, and in some very pleasing 
 pictures of close scenery, about the mills beneath the 
 bridge. Hence to Blair itself, different views occur by 
 the road-side ; the elegant conical form of Ben Vrackie 
 constituting the termination of the picture. He to whom 
 landscape is a leading object, ought also to diverge into 
 a spacious park on the left of the road; remarkable, not 
 only for the beautiful disposition of its own ground, but 
 as affording some of the finest views of the vale of Blair. 
 Similar views, but under considerable variations, will 
 be found in the same direction, at higher elevations : 
 and, at a still higher stage, upon Craig Urrard, the same 
 materials are displayed : but assuming now a far different 
 character, from the altitude of the position, and affording 
 a view of the valley, splendid and rich in the extreme, 
 though somewhat approaching to a bird's-eye view. The 
 interior grounds, or the park, of Blair, abound in beauti- 
 ful scenery in various styles; nor is it too much to say 
 that, excepting Dunkeld, it has no rival in Scotland : 
 
BLAIR. 41S 
 
 while the difference of character in the latter is, at the 
 same time, such, that the two will not admit of a com- 
 parison. Indeed, if all that lies within the immediate 
 reach of this spot be included, it may justly be said to 
 contain a greater quantity of landscape than any tract of 
 equal dimensions in Britain. Besides this, it presents a 
 g-reater variety ; the objects being as different as the 
 styles, each scene having a decided character, and the 
 compositions being remarkable for their integrity and 
 perfection. But an ordinary eye will not at first suspect 
 all this ; and thus the first impression made by Blair, 
 is far different from what will be found by industry 
 and attention, and by that power of discovering natural 
 beauty under all its combinations, which only belongs 
 to taste, experience, and education. 
 
 Such appearance of artifice as occurs in these grounds, 
 belongs to the period of 1742, at which they were laid 
 out. But it scarcely any where offends ; being over- 
 whelmed by the majesty and extent of the scene, and 
 by the careless or felicitous arrangements of the princi- 
 pal objects : while it is also proper to observe, that the 
 artifice which chiefly catches the eye, is that which 
 belongs to Lude, ornamented on the clumping system : 
 though it may be doubted whether this is not, on the 
 whole, an advantage to the general scenery, rather than 
 a blemish. The house is a conspicuous object, from its 
 magnitude and extent ; but it is to be regretted that it 
 is not the grey castle which it anciently was; and still 
 more, that its castellated character has been destroyed. 
 Its ancient outline was irregular, and it was much more 
 lofty. But having been besieged by the Highlanders in 
 1745, when it held out for a month under Sir Andrew 
 Agnew, and until it was relieved, the two upper stories 
 were afterwards removed, with the design of preventing 
 
414 BLAIR. 
 
 its ever being used again in a similar manner. It is a 
 building' of great strength ; and although the date of 
 its erection is not known, it is supposed to have been 
 built by John of Strathbogie, a Cumin, who became 
 Earl of Atholl in right of his wife. His name is still 
 preserved in Cumin's tower, now an inconspicuous part 
 of the building, in consequence of the loss of its summit. 
 As a Highland castle, it has shared, on other occasions, 
 in the casualties of domestic warfare ; having been also 
 occupied by Montrose in 1644, and taken by Daniel in 
 1653, on the part of Cromwell. Subsequently, it was 
 taken possession of by an officer of Dundee's army : 
 and being then threatened by Lord Murray, Dundee 
 marched to its relief: that event being followed by the 
 well-known battle of Killicrankie. 
 
 It was necessarily an important military post, from 
 its commanding one of the main communications with the 
 northern Highlands ; while it also derived importance 
 from the same cause that rendered it necessary, namely, 
 the position of this district towards the low country. 
 Atholl was thus a sort of border land : and from this 
 cause also it arose, that the Atholl men were among the 
 most celebrated of the Highland soldiers : their habits 
 of warfare and depredation rendering them, like the other 
 borderers elsewhere, always prepared for war. I know 
 not, however, that they were ever noted as marauders, 
 like the Liddisdale men, of whom Maitland says, " They 
 plainly throw the country rydis, I trow the mekil devil 
 them gydis ;" carrying off " hors nolt and scheip, and all 
 the laif, quhatever they haif." As soldiers, on the other 
 hand, the esteem in which they were held, appears in 
 the histories of Montrose, to whom, it is said, they dis- 
 played an extraordinary attachment. Dundee also is 
 reputed to have had 1500 of them in his army. The 
 
BLAIR. ^i& 
 
 proverb of the Atlioll tinkers arose, as you doubtless 
 know, from the circumstance of Alister Mac Colla, your 
 friend Colkitto, having been relieved by an Atholl 
 tinker, in one of Montrose's actions, when he had been 
 surrounded in a sheep-fold by a body of Covenanters. 
 
 Of the scenery immediately at hand, the cascades of 
 the Fender are peculiarly worthy of notice : as well from 
 their differences of character, as for the beauty which 
 each, in its several way, exhibits. Though the stream 
 is not large, the accompaniments of the whole are such, 
 that no additional force of Avater could improve them. If 
 the uppermost is the most singular, the middle one is 
 the most picturesque and the most ornamental. The 
 lowest depends more for its interest on the scenery of 
 the Tilt, into which it falls. There are few scenes in 
 this class of landscape more novel and more striking 
 than this last; from the depth and narrowness of the 
 rocky chasm which conveys the Tilt, the wild and deep 
 basin into which its thundering waters are first received, 
 the prolonged narrow tunnel which affords it an exit, 
 and the variety and ornament of the trees which over- 
 shadow it, leading the eye up along the overhanging and 
 romantic landscape to the sky. 
 
 The beauties of Blair extend along the whole valley 
 into the pass of KilJicrankie ; but they will be imper- 
 fectly seen by those who are contented to pursue the 
 ordinary road, attractive as that is throughout. On the 
 opposite side of the water, the hill of TuUoch affords a 
 magnificent display of the grounds and the valley; 
 offering a totally distinct picture from those on the eastern 
 bank, and introducing a view of the mountains of Glen 
 Tilt and Ben y Gloe, before invisible. On the summit 
 of the hill, this view is as splendid as it is extensive: 
 admitting, together with the whole valley, the surround- 
 
416 BLAIR. 
 
 ing mountains to a wide and far range. Below, and 
 near the river, a new style of landscape appears ; con- 
 tinuing for two or three miles, and displaying some of 
 the most perfect compositions in river scenery that can 
 well be imagined : uniting also the richness of cultivation 
 and wood, with the grandeur and variety of an alpine 
 country. There is one spot on the river in particular, 
 marked by a deep and wide pool surrounded by rocks, 
 where, on both sides of the water, the views are pecu- 
 liarly fine, and where, from the variety and perfection of 
 the foregrounds, nothing is wanting to render the pic- 
 ture complete. The character of the rocks are in them- 
 selves studies ; and the water presents every variety, 
 from the dark silent pool sleeping under the shadowy 
 banks and under the trees and bushes which spring up 
 around, to the smooth flowing stream, the rushing tor- 
 rent, and the clear waves rippling over the pebbly shore. 
 Ash trees of the most elegant forms, in groups, or scat- 
 tered along the banks, assist, with the farms and the cul- 
 tivation, and with all the splendour of woods and trees 
 diminishing as they retire in gay confusion, to produce 
 the luxuriant middle grounds; while the distances are 
 formed by the richly covered hills which rise high on 
 each hand, closed, far off, by the elegant conical out- 
 line and rocky surface of Ben Vrackie, and by the bold 
 and woody mountains that impend over the pass of Killi- 
 crankie. 
 
 On the east side of the Garry, or along the high road, 
 the whole valley offers a continued and unremitting suc- 
 cession of new landscapes, among which Alt Girneg is a 
 place to dwell on. Even along the road, it cannot fail to 
 attract attention ; from the striking and strong characters 
 of its landscapes. The lofty precipice on the opposite 
 side of the river, the noble and picturesque ash trees, the 
 
URRARD. 417 
 
 Splendid confusion of bold and varied ground, the bridge, 
 the river, the wooded banks, the mills, and the houses, 
 form altogether a group of objects condensed into a small 
 space, seldom equalled for romantic beauty, and of a 
 character as peculiar as it is beautiful. It is a spot 
 which, like others in the dazzling course of the Tay 
 and its branches, reminds us of Barnaby's description ; 
 " Pontes, fontes, montes, valles, Caulas cellas, colles, 
 calles, Vias, villas, vices, vices." Nor is it a small 
 part of the merit of this singular collection of marked 
 and striking objects, that it is impossible to move, even 
 for the shortest distance, without entirely varying the 
 composition ; so that within the small space of a few 
 yards, Alt Girneg presents numerous landscapes of dis- 
 tinct and decided characters, and of such equal, though 
 different, merits, as to render a choice among them 
 difficult. 
 
 The cascade of Urrard, little known, but not often 
 excelled, lies on the same stream. The breadth of the 
 river is inconsiderable, nor is the fall high. But why 
 should I say again, that the beauty of these Highland 
 cascades does not consist, either in the bulk, the breadth, 
 the violence, or the height of the fall. The beauty at 
 Urrard lies where it must exist every where ; in the re- 
 ceptacle and course of the water, in its boundary, and in 
 the including landscape. It consists in the deep, shadowy, 
 and wooded chasm out of which the river appears to flow, 
 as from some magical and unknown source, in the exqui- 
 site disposition of the falling and departing water, in the 
 forms of the rocks which surround and divide the stream 
 below it, in the overshadowing woods which receive it 
 into depths as unknown as its source, and in the orna- 
 ments of plants, and shrubs, and stones, and the no less 
 beautiful colourino- which harmonizes the whole into such 
 
 O 
 
 VOL. T. E 12 
 
418 KILLICRANKIE. 
 
 a scene of mixed reality and deception as is seen in the 
 dark mirror or the camera obscura. 
 
 To pass over endless scenes on which I dare not dwell, 
 Killicrankie is, among others, a place too well known to 
 require more than a bare mention. That remark must 
 however be limited to the views from the high road ; as 
 it possesses much fine scenery, hitherto unknown. The 
 site of the chapel, whence it probably derived its name, 
 recently existed here. Its military history is almost as 
 familiar as that of Culloden or Marston Moor; but the 
 stone commonly shown as a monument erected to Lord 
 Dundee, appears to have been a far more ancient mark. 
 Nor was that the spot where he fell, which was in the 
 grounds of Urrard far above: while he was interred in 
 the burying ground of Blair church. Omitting such 
 scenery belonging to this romantic and magnificent pass 
 as is visible from the high road, the most detailed and 
 perfect conception of its general form must be sought 
 from an elevated spot in the grounds of Coilivrochan : a 
 scene well detailed in Robson's popular and accurate 
 work. A totally different style of landscape will be found 
 by descending into the bed of the river, generally sup- 
 posed inaccessible, and consequently unknown. The 
 bridge of the Garry here ajfTords a striking- object from 
 below, as it does from above : but the most interesting- 
 part is that where the river is seen from the high road, 
 struggling through rocks and forming a dark pool. At 
 this part, and for a considerable space, its course is 
 under high cliflfs and banks and amid obstructing rocks ; 
 sometimes forming cascades and rapids, at others a rip- 
 pling and gentle stream ; now breaking like a miniature 
 lake on a pebbly shore, and, in another place, a silent 
 pool sleeping beneath the shadow of overhanging trees. 
 Dense woods tower aloft on one side, and, on the other, 
 
KILLICRANKIE. 419 
 
 noble ashes and oaks, perched high above, throw their 
 arms wide over the water ; while, springing from the 
 chasms of the rocks below, the silvery branches and the 
 pale trembling foliage of the aspen, serve to contrast 
 with their dark recesses ; aiding, with the bright green 
 of the woodrush, the feathering ferns, and the wild roses, 
 to relieve the broad masses of rock, and adding ornament 
 of detail to grandeur of forms. Nor is it a small cause of 
 the peculiarly striking effect of this scenery, that almost 
 in an instant, after leaving a village and a frequented 
 road, Ave find ourselves in a spot Avhich human foot 
 has never trod, where all traces of the world without 
 have vanished, and where no sound breaks the silence 
 but the murmuring of the stream and the whispering of 
 the leaves. It is as if we were suddenly transported into 
 the deepest wilds of vinknown mountains, amid masses of 
 ruin and marks of violence, strangely contrasting and en- 
 hancing the profound stillness, while they speak the de- 
 vastations of past ages, which seem as if they could 
 never again return to disturb the calm repose of this 
 solitude. 
 
 Even yet the unknown scenery of Killicrankie is not 
 exhausted. On the west side of the Garry, access may be 
 obtained to the summit of that dark and steep woody 
 hill, which, almost overhanging the river, forms the most 
 conspicuous feature of the pass. The river is here invi- 
 sible, intercepted by the Avoods beneath, which, like 
 a precipice of forest, sweep down to a fearful and un- 
 known depth ; an interminable surface of trees and rocks. 
 On the opposite side, rises, steep and sudden, the moun- 
 tain face; bare and rocky above, its light birch groves 
 below, scattering as they ascend, then skirting a ravine 
 or a mountain torrent, till at length they disappear; while 
 a single tree, perched here and there on some solitary 
 
 E F. 2 
 
420 KILLICRANKIE. 
 
 rock, stands like a centinel on the brink of the sky. It 
 is difficult at first to feel the full effect of this scene: it 
 seems as if we could almost touch the opposite side, or 
 discern the minutest objects below. It is with difficulty, 
 however, that we perceive the road, undulating, like a 
 white thread, along the side of the hill ; and it is only 
 when a carriage chances to pass, when we see it an almost 
 invisible point, advancing with almost imperceptible mo- 
 tion, that the whole magnitude of the landscape breaks 
 on us in all its overwhelming depth and dimensions. 
 
 Such is the closer landscape here : but the same place 
 affords views more general of the valley of Blair and of 
 the hills which surround the pass, equally grand, but in 
 a far different style. Let the spectator, if he can, choose 
 the evening for these views; when the western precipices 
 are under deep shadow and the pass seems a bottomless 
 chasm; and when the sun, shining full on all the splen- 
 dour of wood and water and cultivation below, gilds the 
 whole valley upwards to Blair ; glistening on every reach 
 of its bright river, and tinging the sides of the noble 
 mountains, which, rising- from beneath his feet, and tow- 
 ering high aloft in all their variety of rock and wood and 
 ravine, retire in a long and bold perspective till they 
 vanish in the conical and airy summits of Ben-y-gloe. 
 Nor must he quit this place till he has ascended to the 
 Cairn above, commanding a view all round this majestic 
 country ; ranging down the vale of the Tumel, and 
 adding to that of the Garry, the wild forest of Atholl, 
 with all the long succession of moorland and mountain 
 that stretches away to the rude ridge of Ferrogon, the 
 elegant cone of Schihallien, and far beyond it, to the wild 
 lands of Glenco. But if I have eaten of lotus at Blair, that 
 is no reason why I should serve it all up again to you, 
 recoctus: let us shift our ground to the Tumel. 
 
TUMEL. 421 
 
 TUMEL, LOCH TUMEL, SCHIHALLIEN, RANNOCH. 
 
 If the course of the Tumel is not extensive, it is still 
 a very considerable stream ; receiving, among* many 
 minor tributaries, the united and powerful aid of the Tilt 
 and the Garry. With a total course not exceeding- 
 twenty-five miles, it is thus, at its termination, the rival 
 of many Scottish rivers of a far longer career. But the 
 Tumel has no infancy; no period of weakness and uncer- 
 tainty struggling through moss and moor, and claiming', 
 rather from caprice than right, the honours of dominion 
 over contesting streamlets. It rises in its vigour from 
 Loch Rannoch, already a river; yet a vassal, and owing 
 feudal service to the all-devouring Tay, in which its name 
 and its waters are alike swallowed up at Logierait. The 
 fate of the Tumel is too often that of human life; 
 for if merit and beauty could have rescued it from a 
 violent and premature death, it would have borne its name 
 to the latest hour, and only have terminated its existence 
 in that emblem of eternity where, sooner or later, all must 
 end. 
 
 There are no rivers in Scotland that possess more 
 beauties; there are few that possess greater : but there is 
 not one which presents so few blanks, and there is not 
 therefore one which, through an equal course, displays 
 the same proportion of landscape, the same number of 
 scenes so brilliant, so various, and so perfect. Yet, with 
 the exception of its splendid cascade, the Tumel is, to the 
 world at large, as if it had never been; unpraised, nay, 
 unrecorded and unknown. 
 
422 TUMEL* 
 
 The northern division of the beautiful road between 
 Dunkeld and Blair, as far as from Moulinearn to Garry 
 bridge, owes all its charms to the vale of the Tumel, in 
 which it lies; following the river so as nearly to keep it 
 in sight the whole way. At that inn, better known from 
 its interior merits and the colour of Mrs. Pennicuik's 
 nose, than for its picturesque situation, ungratefully over- 
 looked, the beauties of the Tumel commence. On the 
 opposite side of the river, there is also a good road, dis- 
 playing the scenery of this romantic valley under totally 
 different characters, and finally conducting to Loch 
 Tumel. The ordinary high road presents a succession 
 of beauty too obvious to require detail : and by diverging 
 a mile or more from Pitlochrie to the village of Moulin, 
 much beautiful and unexpected scenery will also be 
 found. It would be difficult to point out a village more 
 picturesque: an irregular mixture of houses, and mills, 
 and bridges, and falling waters, and noble trees ; a care- 
 less profusion of the elements of rustic landscape, to 
 Avhich is added a rich and singular surrounding country, 
 offering all the characters of ancient wealth and cultiva- 
 tion, backed on one hand by the beautiful declivity of 
 Ben Vrackie, and extending its views over the mag- 
 nificent expanded vale of the Tay. Edradour presents a 
 cascade far too important and striking to be overlooked; 
 and hence also there is a very pleasing mountain ride 
 into Strath Airdle, and thus into Braemar or Strathmore. 
 The closing of the road, by the hills on one hand, and 
 by the woods of Fascally on the other, render a con- 
 siderable space, after passing Pitlochrie, a sort of forest 
 side, always romantic and full of character : but, near 
 Fascally, the scenery opens again, to display the singu- 
 larly wild hills which enclose this part of the valley. 
 This too is well known; but all the beauty of Fascally is 
 
TUMEL. 423 
 
 exhausted at the first view ; for, from the lower grounds 
 and near the house, the forms of the mountains become 
 rather distasteful than otherwise, nor does the greater 
 proximity of the river offer any compensation. Hence, 
 however, the peculiar and most characteristic beauties of 
 the Tumel commence ; occupying, first, a space of five 
 miles or more, included between the exit of the lake and 
 the junction of the Garry. Here the river runs through 
 a close and woody valley, with a lofty and various boun- 
 dary ; so narrow throughout, that, with very little excep- 
 tion, the mountain acclivities rise immediately from the 
 water, leaving no flat land or space of any kind on its 
 margin. While this range of scenery, with the exception 
 of the cascade, is nearly unknown, and, through a very 
 large part, utterly so, there is no exaggeration in saying 
 that no equal space can any where be selected in Scot- 
 land, so full of beauties in so grand and romantic a style, 
 and, at the same time, so thoroughly distinguished from 
 all other Scottish landscape. To say that it is a woody 
 valley, is to use terms applicable to a hundred places. 
 The distinguishing characters of this one, consist in its 
 narrowness and prolongation, in the sudden rise and 
 loftiness of the boundaries, in the great variety of their 
 rocky outline, in the wonderful intricacy of their surfaces, 
 and of the woods, rocks, and ravines, which cover and 
 intersect them, in the highly ornamented and varied 
 course of the river, and in the exquisite forms and ar- 
 rangements of the forested and scattered birches which 
 here constitute the only wood. So large and so perfect 
 are these trees, that, where they form continuous woods, 
 their eflfect in the landscape is equal in richness to that of 
 oak forest ; round, full, and swelling, and, from the shape 
 of the land, thrown into broad masses of endless variety ; 
 while, where they are disposed in groups or in scattered 
 
424 TUMKL. 
 
 clumps, or where they stand as solitary trees, their effects 
 are even more beautiful ; more airy, and more in character 
 with that general lightness which, here, as at Loch Ca- 
 teran, forms so essential a part of the effect of the scenery. 
 To see all this, however, it is necessary to take three 
 distinct lines, each having its separate kind of beauty 
 and style of landscape; nor can any one duly appreciate 
 the high merits of the Tumel, who does not bestow this 
 labour on it. These are, the two roads which conduct to 
 Loch Tumel, and that which follows the margin of the 
 water. 
 
 There is a great difference of character between the 
 scenery along the southern road and that on the other two 
 lines; while it is in a grander style; lying also rather 
 above the woods than among them. There is here a con- 
 stant succession of new pictures through a space of four 
 or five miles; every angle of the road producing a dif- 
 ferent one, and almost every one being such as to make 
 us forget the preceding. The termination of this road, 
 as far as our purposes are concerned, is at Loch Tumel : 
 of which beautiful lake it exhibits views quite distinct 
 from those which are obtained from any other quarter. 
 There is no generally known scenery by which this can so 
 well be illustrated as the skirt of Ben Venu at Loch 
 Cateran, to which it does not yield in variety or grand- 
 eur. In taking the northern and best road, the views 
 from Garry bridge, both upwards, and down the stream, 
 are striking: and they are still more so within the giite of 
 Coilivrochan, where the bridge itself forms an important 
 object: the deep vista of the Garry and of Killicrankie, 
 terminating in the finely conical form of Cairn Gower. 
 But among these endless landscapes, the most splendid 
 are to be obtained from various positions near the house 
 of Coilivrochan. Some of these cannot fail to arrest the 
 
TlJMEL. 425 
 
 most superficial attention ; others will be readily dis- 
 covered by the experienced student of nature; but, to 
 the multitude, they are a sealed book. Nor let the mul- 
 titude be surprised at hearing this ; for as well might 
 the spectacled crone who can read every word in her 
 Crook in the Lot, or the attorney whose literature never 
 wandered beyond the magical regions of a Qui tam or a 
 Quo minus, expect to appreciate the differences between 
 John Gilpin and John Milton, as he who has not studied 
 for that end, hope that, without an effort of his own 
 mind, the trees and mountains and rocks and rivers of 
 Nature, will arrange themselves into a landscape on his 
 sensorium. In almost every thing, she gives us little 
 more than the materials which it is our business to appro- 
 priate and to work up ; and though liberal in her land- 
 scape, there is much also that she offers in vain to him 
 who has not learnt to administer to himself. 
 
 By a singular felicity of accident, the casual building 
 here mentioned, has been run out into a long line; and, 
 by an accident no less fortunate, having been rudely 
 crenellated, and being entangled among trees, it as- 
 sumes, in the landscape, an air of castellated antiquity, 
 particularly appropriate to the scenery, and completing 
 that romantic character which so peculiarly belongs to 
 this spot. There is a fulness, a luxuriance of ornament, 
 and a minuteness of subdivision here, combined with the 
 rudeness, the breadth, and the grandeur of alpine scenery, 
 which is exceedingly rare, and which forms the peculiar 
 and distinctive character of this place. While the lateral 
 mountains display all that richness of outline, all that 
 irregularity of surface which is the produce of precipices 
 and hollows and ravines, and all that wildness of scattered 
 and intermingled wood and rock which belongs especially 
 to the rudest and grandest mountain scenery, the distant 
 boundary is the simple and single broad form of Ben 
 
426 TUMEL. 
 
 Vrackie, finely pyramidal, and deeply ploughed by one 
 dark ravine, which descends, skirted with trees, till it is 
 lost in the lower woods of the valley. But the intricate 
 ornaments of the lateral boundaries do not detract from 
 the breadth and grandeur of their forms; rather, serving 
 to embellish them ; so that there is thus produced a basis 
 of landscape, the simplicity and consequent repose of 
 which, no profusion of ornament could afterwards destroy* 
 This is a valuable lesson which Nature teaches to art, and 
 no where more than in this very place ; not, according to 
 the current practice of indolence, or ignorance, or system, 
 to sacrifice every thing to breadth, and to what is called 
 repose, but to adopt every embellishment which the cha- 
 racter admits, rendering these subservient to the unity 
 and effect of the picture. If excess of ornament be an 
 error, it is when that is allowed to distract the eye ; when, 
 in contemplating the parts, we are unable to comprehend 
 a whole. But this is an error in excess : in art, it is the 
 error of inexperience, or of wantonness, or juvenility, and 
 it admits of easy correctives : for the error which, am- 
 bitious to deal only in generalities, produces nothing but 
 emptiness, there is no remedy. 
 
 You may imagine that my comparison resembles that 
 of the blind man who likened scarlet to the sound of a 
 trumpet; but this landscape always reminds me of some 
 of the symphonies of that great master of his art, Beet- 
 hoven. Listen to the violin part alone, and you will 
 imagine it to be a fantastical chaos of endless subdivision 
 and extravagance, without a connecting medium or a 
 possible harmony. Turn your attention to the orchestra, 
 and you have a composition, of the most magnificent re- 
 pose and simplicity, and with a continuous series of melo- 
 dies which would almost render the absence of the violin 
 imperceptible. United, you trace the power and the 
 dexterity of art; an excess of ornament, an extravagance 
 
TUMEL. 427 
 
 of embellishment, restrained within the bounds of the 
 general design, and, like the innumerable stars in the 
 blue expanse, adding splendour to tranquillity and 
 breadth. This is a simile " a longue queue," I admit. 
 If you prefer a metaphysical to a musical comparison, it 
 resembles a well-conducted argument ; where, however 
 a luxuriant mind may wanton in illustration and orna- 
 ment, may riot amid the flowery fields of rhetoric, it still 
 keeps hold of the severer logic by which its end is to be 
 obtained ; playing like the wanton cat, with her fated 
 prey, but never suffering it to escape from its grasp. 
 
 Such is here the character of the landscape. On the 
 basis just described, is engrafted a profusion of ornamen- 
 tal detail that seems absolutely overwhelming, but which 
 leaves all the great features of the picture to produce 
 their full effect. As the southern mountain descends 
 into the deep and shadowy ravine which conducts the 
 river, it receives a broad mass of shade from its position 
 and depth, which supports the whole splendour of the 
 valley and of the opposfed hill ; where woods on woods in 
 endless succession, rise up the acclivities, subdivided 
 into a thousand forms by the knolls which they crown, 
 by the dark hollows and ravines which they fill, by the 
 strangely irregular shape of the valley, and by the intri- 
 cate course of the river beneath : while, to add to this un- 
 exampled profusion, naked rocks are dispersed through- 
 out the whole, and single and scattered trees, clambering 
 the mountain and perched on the margin of the sky, add 
 to the lightness and grace which ever attends the scenery 
 of birch forests, and which is increased by the pale green 
 and grey that forms the harmonious and tender colouring 
 of all this valley. 
 
 The little green glen of Fincastle offers a momentary 
 and pleasing relief to this continuous woody scenery ; and 
 
428 LOCH TUiMEL. 
 
 hence, of two roads, the lower conducts to the river. 
 The upper proceeds with a similar character, still through 
 woods which seem never ahout to end, and hemmed in 
 by a towering and now narrow mountain pass which ap- 
 pears interminable. When, in an instant, in the space 
 of one yard, the whole, wood, mountain, and valley, 
 vanish as if they had never been, and there opens on our 
 dazzled sight, the spacious and splendid green vale of 
 the Tumel, glittering with trees and cultivation and 
 houses, and backed by the noble form of Schihallien, 
 from which the breaks of its bright river are seen wander- 
 ing along till they reach the brilliant lake beneath ; a 
 splendid mirror, reflecting the blue sky and the trees 
 M'hich adorn its lovely pastoral banks. From a lofty and 
 wooded precipitous rock at the left hand, this view, 
 under some variation, may be contemplated at leisure. 
 The lake is now far beneath our feet, and we look down 
 upon its exit where it is yet a contest between the cha- 
 racter of a river and that of a lake ; a fine and bold 
 wooded rock throwing its shadow over the water, which 
 here, black and silent, and reflecting the subdued co- 
 lours of the rocks and the trees which overhang it, gradu- 
 ally unites with the more distant blue expanse. Here also 
 we trace the progress of the vale, from the broad green 
 meadows checkered by the luxuriant ash trees which are 
 sprinkled all over it in gay profusion, to the more remote 
 plain, where, as they retire from the eye, the forms be- 
 come more grouped and more indistinct ; at length mix- 
 ing in one scene of rich and miniature confusion, which 
 vanishes at last in the accumulating haze of the distance, 
 without permitting us to define its termination. On each 
 side, the hills slope gently upwards ; the woods and the 
 cultivation still attending them, till, becoming brown and 
 rocky, they terminate in a varied outline on the sky. 
 
LOCH TUMEL. 4^ 
 
 The left hand range, particularly marked, displays the 
 long serrated and irregular ridge of Ferrogon, rising 
 gradually up into the blue and elegant cone of Schihal- 
 lien, the most graceful of mountains ; while, far in the 
 distance, is seen the triple mountain which separates 
 Loch Etive from Glenco. 
 
 In the opposite direction, we look back through the 
 close valley we have quitted, so that no contrast can well 
 be o-reater than that of these opposed landscapes ; each 
 equally magnificent, but in styles thoroughly contrasted 
 to each other. The valley has now, however, a character 
 entirely different from that which it presented near 
 Coilivrochan : more grand and more simple, but closing 
 at the bottom, and still guiding the eye along a profusion 
 of alpine ornament of rocks and woods, till the long vista 
 terminates, as before, in Ben Vrackie ; that mountain 
 which we are doomed never to lose through all the sur- 
 rounding country, which forms the leading feature at 
 Blair, as here, but which is always graceful and always 
 grand. It is a remarkable part of the character of this 
 spot, that an impression resembling that produced by 
 close scenery, is excited amidst magnitude and space. 
 We feel as if in and among the objects we are contem- 
 plating : the valley is under our feet, the mountains are 
 over our heads; it seems as if every tree was near and 
 about us. Yet all is overwhelming by its extent: and 
 even when the first confusion of mind produced by mag- 
 nitude and multiplicity subsides, we cannot well explain 
 to ourselves how this compound effect is produced. 
 
 Tracing, lastly, the line of the river, the character of 
 the scenery is still distinct, while the landscapes are 
 scarcely less numerous, or less rapid in their succession. 
 But I dare not dwell on them, or I should never quit this 
 fascinating spot. The great cascade of the Tumel, the 
 
430 FALL Of TUMEL. 
 
 chief of these, may be seen from the southern bank of the 
 river, under a point of view little known, as well as from 
 the northern. Every where it is fine ; though, as I have 
 already said, it cannot be compared with that of Fyers. 
 They are both first in rank, of the Scottish cascades, each 
 in its distinct character: and though the altitude of the 
 present bears no comparison to those of the Clyde, no 
 one can hesitate an instant as to the preference. Except 
 those, I ought to say, whose sole notions of beauty, in 
 this matter, are regulated by the noise, the bulk, and 
 the turbulence ; who find nothing- in a waterfall but an 
 object of wonder, who are most contented where they 
 are most deafened, and to whom the criterion of merit 
 is to depart as far as possible from the soft gliding of 
 the New River, and the sleep of the canal in St. James's 
 Park. It is a peculiar and a rare merit in the cascade of 
 theTumel, that it is beautiful in itself, and almost without 
 the aid of its accompaniments. Though the water breaks 
 white, almost throughout, the forms are so graceful, so 
 varied, and so well marked, that we can look at it long, 
 without being wearied with monotony, and without at- 
 tending' to the surrounding landscape. Whether low or 
 full, whether the river glides transparent over the rocks, 
 to burst in foam below, or whether it descends like a 
 torrent of snow from the very edge, this fall is always 
 various and always graceful. The immediate accompani- 
 ments are,i however, no less beautiful and appropriate ; 
 and the general landscape is, at the same time, rich and 
 romantic; nothing being left to desire, to render this one 
 of the most brilliant scenes which our country produces. 
 I know not where the eifects of cascade scenery can 
 be more enjoyed, the impression which it produces can 
 be more felt, than here. If the principle of life, a princi- 
 ple that seems to animate all around, is one of the great 
 
FALL OF TUMF>L. 431 
 
 causes of the effect which the cascade produces on the 
 mind, not a little also is owing- to that image of eternity, 
 which its never beginning, never ending, flow conveys. 
 Nor is that the eternity of the river alone, which flows 
 and will flow on, till time is no more : but every moment 
 is a moment of power and effort, and every succeeding 
 effort is, like the former, unwearied, unabated. It is a 
 tempest and a fury that never cease. The other wars 
 of the elements are transient : the ocean billows subside 
 in peace, the thunder rolls away, and the leaves that 
 sounded to the tempest, soon glitter again with all their 
 bright drops in the sun-beam. But the cascade is eternal ; 
 every instant is a storm and a tempest, and the storm and 
 the tempest are for ever. It is a similar feeling which 
 overwhelms the mind in contemplating the grander 
 efforts of machinery ; the steam engine and the tilt ham- 
 mer. It is not only the power, the noise, the fire, and 
 the magnitude and brilliancy of these operations, 
 which dazzle and astonish us. Every moment is a mo- 
 ment of violence and effort, every instant seems the crisis 
 of some grand operation ; but every succeeding one is 
 like the former, and the unwearied storm of machinery is, 
 like the cascade, the emblem of eternity and of eternal 
 power. 
 
 You will think that I never intend to quit the Tumel. 
 In truth, I am very sorry to part with it ; because I know 
 that when I do, I must shortly bid adieu to hill and dale, 
 forest and mead, to banks whereon the nodding violet 
 grows, and liquid lapse of murmuring streams. These 
 indeed are the pleasures to which there is no alloy. Let 
 who will, possess the lands, their beauties are the property 
 of all ; and even to the Lord of these wide domains, the 
 " laif," as old Dunbar says, is but " a sight." But if I 
 have often hastened over scenes long known, it was to 
 
432 VALE or TITMEL. 
 
 dwelJ on those which have been neglected. To make 
 them known, is equally to do that justice to our native 
 scenery which it has never yet received, and, to add to 
 the pleasures of those who may follow me ; while 1 can- 
 not help feeling a sort of parental affection for what I 
 could almost fancy myself to have discovered ; with less 
 of folly, at least, than the young gentleman who ima- 
 gined that he had made the discovery of Dryden's Ode 
 to Music. After all, the term discovery, in matters of 
 this nature, is rather of precarious application ; and, occa- 
 sionally, perhaps, not less ludicrous than the finding of 
 Alexander's Feast or the vale of the Tumel. If we deify 
 Columbus, who discovered a country known to ten mil- 
 lions of people, we should laugh at Jack Sacheuse, or 
 the Little Weasel chief of the Crees, should they return 
 to Greenland or the Great Slave lake, to announce to 
 their nations the discovery of Europe. He who makes 
 known to the fine gentlemen and ladies of England, what 
 was known before but to a few Highland shepherds, may 
 erect his pole and display his flag. 'Tis true, he cannot 
 take possession in the name of King George : and there's 
 the rub. Yet had his lot been cast in the days of James 
 " the first and sixth,'* he might even have done that. 
 
 The valley of the Tumel continues splendid, even in 
 its expansion; a bright vale of rich wood and green 
 meadows, united to that magnificence of the mountain 
 boundary, of which Schihallien always forms the prin- 
 cipal feature. Every where, Loch Tumel is the same 
 bright mriror : and, we might almost imagine that the 
 hand of art had been employed in forming and decorat- 
 ing what we know to be beyond its powers. Thus it has 
 a character of its own, utterly distinct from that of all 
 our lakes. The mountain boundaries do not press on it ; 
 and the landscape, therefore, is rather formed by the 
 
TUMEL. 433 
 
 beautiful trees which adorn it, by the low banks, and by 
 the windings of the river, than by what we expect to find 
 in a Highland lake. Loch Tnmel, on its banks, might, 
 like the whole of its valley, be imagined a scene in the 
 rich plains of England. 
 
 To pass over much on which I dare not dwell, the 
 Tumel assumes a new character above Tumel bridge, 
 appearing in a succession of broken rapids and cascades, 
 often very picturesque; foaming among rocks whence 
 spring ancient and picturesque firs, and producing a va- 
 riety of romantic scenes resembling the Norwegian land- 
 scapes of Ruysdael. At Mount Alexander, its character 
 is once more changed : forcing its way through a narrow 
 and romantic pass under the foot of Schihallien, and be- 
 ing ornamented by the woods of this picturesque spot on 
 one side, and of Cvossmount on the other. The whole of 
 this space is exceedingly rich in that mixture of wood 
 and rock which is so characteristic of this skirt of 
 Schihallien ; and the various wider landscapes which are 
 found about this place, yield to few in extent of scope, 
 and in splendour of romantic and ornamented mountain 
 character. 
 
 Mount Alexander derives some historic celebrity from 
 its poet, Struan; whose printed works, whatever their 
 poetical merit may be, display a disgusting mixture of 
 profligacy and religion. But I need not tell you what 
 they are. I looked for his argentine spring in vain ; it 
 appears to have been forgotten in the revolutions of time. 
 He, as all the world knows, was out in 1715. But his 
 estate, after having been restored, was forfeited again, 
 and annexed in 1745. He returned nevertheless, and 
 resided on it ; a poet and a sot. This was a somewhat 
 extensive clan, known by the name of Clan Donachie, 
 and supposed to be a ramification of Mac Donald. This 
 
 VOL. I. F F 
 
434 SCHIH ALLIEN. 
 
 extensive estate, including* a large portion of Rannocli, 
 was granted, it is said, as a reward for apprehending- 
 Graham, the murderer of James the first. I know not 
 when this district belong-ed to the Mac Gregors, nor how 
 much of it they possessed. But the whole tract was a 
 long continued scene of their persecutions ; and many a 
 spot is now pointed out by the country people, where 
 some act of petty warfare or murder took place ; a preci- 
 pice whence some one was thrown, a rock where a des- 
 perate leap was made, or a cave in which some of this 
 proscribed clan were concealed. What supereminent 
 demerits the Mac Gregors possessed, it is almost too late 
 to ask : but they could not have been much worse than 
 the celebrated Mac Robert in James the fifth's time, a 
 noted specimen of the Clan Donachie banditti, nor than 
 that " last of all the Romans," Donald Bean Lean ; whose 
 conceptions of the nature of international justice do not 
 seem to have been very clear, when he imagined that he 
 had a right to any man's cow, but that no one had a 
 right to hang him in return. 
 
 It is easy to ascend Schihallien from Kinloch, as the 
 distance is not great. Its mathematical celebrity offers a 
 natural temptation to this attempt ; but, in other respects, 
 it will produce disappointment. Viewed from this eleva- 
 tion, the valley of the Tumel appears trifling as it is 
 remote ; and Loch Rannoch affords no beauty to com- 
 pensate for it. With little exception, all else is a heap of 
 mountains, among which the eye traces few striking 
 forms ; while the great elevation of Ben Lawers excludes 
 the southern horizon, where the most beauty would be 
 expected. In a similar manner. Glen Lyon is shut out, 
 by the breadth and altitude of the interposed mountains. 
 It was in vain that I souo-ht for the remains of Dr. Mas- 
 kelyne's observatories; for time seems to have performed 
 
SCHIHALLIEN. 435 
 
 its appointed duty towards them. But I discovered what 
 I had long before suspected : the error of this celebrated 
 experiment, and the consequent wreck of its conclusions. 
 Nor did our late friend Play fair succeed in effectually 
 correcting them by his geological investigation; since 
 that itself was insufficiently'conducted ; having proceeded 
 on an incorrect and superficial view of the structure of 
 the mountain. A fundamental element in this problem 
 remains therefore yet unassigned : that, namely, which 
 implies the specific gravity of Schihallien. Still, his 
 correction forms a much nearer approximation to the true 
 density of the earth than the original computation ; while 
 both the attempts prove the importance of geology, even 
 in questions of astronomy, and serve to draw a strong 
 line between that science, when judiciously pursued, 
 and that which is too often dignified by this name among 
 the collectors of cockleshells and specimens. But all is 
 vanity alike. While the very words are falling from my 
 pen, Dr. Hutton is gone where, we trust, all the labyrinths 
 of the universe will be revealed to him; leaving, to ma- 
 thematicians, a name seldom equalled for science, for 
 utility, never; and, to his friends, the memory of a cha- 
 racter adding to that science an unwearied fund of know- 
 ledge and conversation, a cheerful and kind disposition, 
 and the simplicity of a child. Smeaton, Maskelyne, 
 Burrowes, Playfair, all are gone. My turn is next. 
 While I write, my pen threatens to stop for ever. It will 
 remain for another to determine the attractions of Schi- 
 hallien. He too must follow : but the mountain will re- 
 main ; a monument to its mathematicians, to terminate 
 only with the great globe itself. 
 
 Time too has clutched the knavish Donachie who 
 erected himself to the post of my guide ; uninvited. 
 There was some ingenuity in this particular Vulture, en- 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 LOCH RANNOCH. 
 
 titling- him to a distinction among that new class of Cear- 
 nachs, now to be found wherever a Saxon traveller is seen 
 or expected. Why he concluded that I was an astro- 
 nomer or a mathematician I know not ; unless he saw the 
 mark of a parabola, or a sinister aspect, in the third house 
 of my face. But he talked of zenith distances, and of 
 Dr. Maskelyne, and was, I doubt not, very profound when 
 he was in proper company. He should be happy to ac- 
 company me if I would permit him ; he would meet me on 
 the morrow, and explain every thing. I wanted no ex- 
 planation. I suppose he thought otherwise; for, the next 
 day, he was at my elbow. I thought this somewhat too 
 much ; however, for the honour of astronomy, I gave him 
 a crown. I found that he had expected a guinea : which, 
 assuredly, was perfectly mathematical ; because if the 
 former was a proper fee for two hours of hire, what re- 
 ward could be sufficient for him who had generously 
 volunteered his services. As he turned off, grumbling, I 
 prepared for my own departure ; when I discovered that 
 this scientific scion of Clan Donachie had taken care to 
 arrive at the inn the night before, where he had regaled 
 himself with all the delicacies he could procure, repeat- 
 ing the same process in the morning, and, for the third 
 time, having ordered a dinner, to be registered in the 
 astronomical bill. This was the very cube of Highland 
 knavery; but unless he and the landlord solved the 
 equation between them, it remains undetermined to this 
 day. 
 
 The beauties of the Tumel cease at Mount Alexander. 
 There is none at Kinloch Rannoch, and the general view 
 of this lake is insipid ; as its boundaries have no marked 
 character, and as the hills of Glenco, which form the remote 
 distance, are lost in that very distance. But the south 
 side of Loch Rannoch offers a very beautiful ride through- 
 
LOCH RANNOCH. 437 
 
 out its whole length of nine miles ; yet if it presents any 
 decided landscapes, they are unknown to me. To dis- 
 cern landscape where it is not very obvious, and, some- 
 times, even to see it where it is, requires an undivided 
 attention, even from those who have made this subject 
 their study. Often have I passed through the Highlands, 
 thinking of their agriculture or their economy, or watch- 
 ing the people, or the rocks, or the plants, or perchance 
 dreaming, and, when the joiuney was over, have noted it 
 as void of beauty. On another occasion, and in another 
 season, I have almost wondered if it was the same scenery. 
 Never yet was it a land of pictures when there were 
 angles to be measured or a mountain of trap to entrap my 
 attention. Such are the ups and downs of our observa- 
 tion ; while it is the fault of the hobby horse of the day, 
 that he is very apt to kick his rivals out of the paddock.* 
 This is often the real excuse of travellers, when they are 
 accused of inattention. If there be a man who can see 
 every thing, it is certain that there is no one who, like 
 Argus, can see every thing at the same time. Of simul- 
 taneous objects, some will not be seen at all ; and of simul- 
 taneous impressions, some will not adhere. Among the 
 herd, he who grubs in beetles and botany, will never 
 raise his eye to the beauty of the temple or the sublimity 
 of the mountain ; and if he whose object is to study and 
 delineate the drift of states and men, can also descend to 
 material nature, it is very certain that it will often pass 
 before his eyes, iniageless. unimpressive. 
 
 The leading character of this shore of Loch Rannocb, 
 lies in the fir wood which skirts it, rising high up the 
 hills : a forest destroyed ; but still containing many trees, 
 and even more picturesque than if it had been entire. It 
 presents also much beautifully wild cultivation, and many 
 farms of a rural and singular character: while the open- 
 
538 LOCH RANNOCH. 
 
 ings in the wood, and the dispersed trees, produce a 
 variety of fir scenery quite distinct from that which 
 occurs at Rothiemurchus or in Mar, The north side of 
 the lake possesses also a good road, but with far less of 
 character, and presentins^ nothing remarkable except the 
 extremely ancient and decrepit, yet picturesque remains 
 of a birch forest, which appears once to have contained 
 trees of unusual size. Unfortunately, it has been dis- 
 covered that birch will make casks for the herring trade ; 
 and Scotland is thus fast losing the most picturesque of its 
 trees; and that too which could least be spared, because 
 nothing- can ever grow again in the same situations. 
 
 The traveller or the artist who writes a book of in- 
 dignation at the sight of a coppice or felled tree, forgets 
 that we must build ships and houses, and wear boots and 
 shoes, and that there are some other uses for a tree than 
 ornament ; that its proprietor did not plant for the public 
 amusement. But in this case of the birch, the miserable 
 profit bears no proportion to the general injury, nor even 
 to that by which the owner himself suflers ; as this de- 
 struction is often committed on his own ornamental 
 grounds. That it should ever be replaced is impossible, 
 for want of enclosures ; while it is a loss even to the 
 proprietors themselves, by depriving the cattle of a shelter 
 which is often much wanted. 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 439 
 
 HIGHLAND GlilNEROSlTY AND EXTORTION. 
 
 DISTINCTIONS AND EXCEPTIONS. 
 
 LOCH ERICHT. 
 
 Thus, in the revolution of things, I have brought 
 you once more to the end of Loch Rannoch, as I brought 
 you to it before, from Glenco ; and, to the very field itself 
 of the battle of Rannoch. But I should be very sorry 
 indeed to think that either Sandy Mac Donald, or my 
 astronomical friend, was a specimen of his countrymen. 
 They are in truth, exceptions, or, at least, specimens of 
 exceptions : and that justice may be rendered where it is 
 due, I shall demand your patience on this point a little 
 longer. Generalization is no less the fault of the vulgar 
 than of philosophers. Thus all the world agrees that 
 the Highlanders are the most hospitable and generous 
 people in the creation. Another party, which is, of 
 course, out of the world, asserts that they are the greatest 
 extortioners on the face of the earth. I need not say of 
 whom the first party consists ; and, as to the latter, the 
 extramundanes, they are only travellers, and may be de- 
 spised. So much for hypotheses on national character. 
 There is a third party, consisting of I know not whom, 
 that believes neither the one nor the other. The Ba- 
 conian philosophy directs us to make experiments and 
 observations, instead of building up theories out of 
 nothing. A few of these, judiciously selected, are, as all 
 philosophers know, as good as a thousand. 
 
 I once came to anchor in the roadstead of lona, and 
 
440 
 
 HIGHLAND CHARACTEIl. 
 
 there were shirts to be washed ; a base conclusion, you 
 will say, to a paragraph that begins on Col umba's sacred 
 isle ; but such vulgar events will happen in every state of 
 life. The shirts returned in due time ; and, as they 
 always do in the Highlands, not much whiter than before ; 
 unironed, unstarched, unannealed ; but not unsmoked. 
 A seaman was sent on shore to pay the bill, but a violent 
 dispute arose between Mrs. Mac Phail and her maid; the 
 former determining to charge two shillings each, and the 
 maid maintaining- that one was enough. But this, and 
 many similar events, are matters of commerce: English- 
 men call it Highland extortion. I have paid worse bills 
 than this one; though Mrs. Mac Phail's conscience was 
 among the most capacious: a true example of Adoniram 
 Byfield's definition ; who says that it is a catskin pouch 
 to put money in. 
 
 A year had scarcely elapsed, and I found myself in 
 Isla. I had walked, as I thought, enough ; but I had 
 yet ten miles before me. I had lost my comb. I went 
 into a shop of all wares, the usual Highland storehouse, 
 and took up a sixpenny horn utensil of this kind. How 
 much ? — eighteen pence. I knew I must pay a triple 
 price, in this country, and therefore was determined to 
 work the extraordinary shilling out of my chapman in 
 talk. How else should we learn any thing about the 
 people and the country. Of course, I was obliged to 
 give an account of myself in return. " And was I deter- 
 mined to walk ? — I seemed tired ; — I should have his 
 horse." I not only got his horse for nothing, but was 
 treated in his house with three times the overcharged 
 value of the comb: and, when I returned some time 
 afterwards, was domiciliated in it for two days, and might 
 have staid twice as many more. Here is the spirit of 
 commerce, the artificial graft, vegetating on the radical 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 441 
 
 generosity of the species. If I had walked out of the 
 shop straightway, with my comb in my pocket, I should 
 have ranked Mr. Mac Arthur with Mrs. MacPhail. 
 
 I was on an expedition to Sky. Loch Cateran lay in 
 my way ; two young countrymen were in a boat : I asked 
 them to row me across ; and this was done. I offered 
 them half a crown, which was repulsed, with some indig- 
 nation, but politely expressed: " They did not put me 
 over for the like of that." I imagine, however, that Eng- 
 lish communication has improved their manners of late ; 
 as this was not an adventure of yesterday. I arrived in 
 due time in Sky. I asked the same question on the shore 
 of a strait of the same breadth. "Aye, aye, we'll put 
 ye across, but it's two guineas for the boat." A Ports- 
 mouth wherry would have done as much for a shilling. 
 Am I to say that a Highlander is generous, or must I call 
 him an extortioner; here are irreconcilable facts for an 
 hypothesis on national character. Montesquieu would 
 say that it was because the climate of Sky differed from 
 that of Loch Cateran. 
 
 In Arran, I was encumbered with minerals ; and 
 meeting an idle lout of a boy half asleep on the common, 
 with an old jade of a pony, offered him two shillings to 
 carry them two or three miles to a place pointed out. 
 No ; he would have four. But this is invariable : had I 
 offered ten it would have been the same : and the boy 
 and his horse both would have been a bad purchase at 
 twenty. When I arrived at the place of destination by 
 another road, he was not there : he had repented perhaps 
 that he had not asked more, and preferred lounging in 
 the old way, to gaining four shillings by an hour's exer- 
 tion. This is common everywhere. Not three hours after, 
 I hired a boat for three shillings, to cross a piece of 
 water which a London waterman would have undertaken 
 
442 HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 
 
 for sixpence. The boat was to be launched, as was ob- 
 vious: and indeed never could, at any period of its ex- 
 istence, have been used without launching. Yet when 
 the account was to be settled, there was an additional 
 demand of three shillings for launching the boat. 
 
 Then, to balance all this, I have had my watch re- 
 paired in Cromarty by an artist whom I could not induce 
 to name a price or take a fee ; my shoes have been mended 
 on the same terms at Comrie, and my nether garments 
 by the Shemus-na-snahdt who keeps the inn at Kinloch 
 Rannoch. But what is this to Greenock ; where your bag- 
 gage is pulled and hauled and carried about by boys and 
 men, who seem never to trouble themselves whether they 
 get a reward or not. Being somewhat bewildered once 
 with trunks and such-like things, one man with a knot 
 on his shoulder, said, " it is a pity to carry them to the 
 inn, only to bring them down again ; it is putting you to 
 expense for nothing." We should listen long for such a 
 speech in London. But this is partly Highland and partly 
 Lowland : and as I have now and then thrown a stone 
 at your countrymen south of the " Grampian chain," it 
 is but fair to give them the praise which is amply their 
 due. There is a high point of honour among them, as 
 among the Highlanders, which it is quite delightful to see ; 
 putting out of question the petty economy of our purses 
 which it may favour : for it is not the paltry loss of a few 
 miserable shillings which is the evil from which we ever 
 suffer, but the odious and fraudulent spirit which accom- 
 panies the imposture. 
 
 At Pluscardine, but Pluscardine is not in the High- 
 lands, I gave my horse to a woman to hold, who, besides 
 this, very goodnaturedly supplied me with a chair, and 
 was abounding in all kinds of civility and attentions. 
 She was poor enough too: but when I offered her a shil- 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 443 
 
 ling, she said — No ; that it was a great deal too much, 
 as she could only earn twopence-halfpenny a day, and 
 she had only held my horse an hour. As the twelfth part 
 of twopence-halfpenny was a problem too deep for either 
 of us to solve, she insisted on threshing out some barley 
 forhnn; and, in the end, I was obliged to compound 
 the superfluity of the shilling, by consenting to take a 
 " spark" of juniper whisky out of her bottle : " vital spark 
 of heavenly flame." Shillings are seldom so well be- 
 stowed any where, and certainly rarely better earned in 
 the Highlands ; but it is due to the virtue of Moray and 
 Aberdeenshire to say that they are utterly free of the 
 propensity to extortion, and, if I mistake not, form the 
 civilest portion of the Scottish population. 
 
 There was a rigidity of virtue in the arithmetical con- 
 scientiousness of my old dame of Pluscardine, which is ex- 
 cellently amusing. And again, what are we to conclude 
 about the national character on this point. What, but to 
 take the amiable side, and allot them the palm of virtue ; 
 as the noted jockey determined that crop-eared horses 
 were the best trotters, his own having been thus orna- 
 mented. 
 
 As to the hiring of boats in the Highlands, it is at 
 their weight in gold nearly. Putting aside hyperbole, 
 however, three days' freight will pay the value of any 
 boat that swims, if swimming it can be called, half full of 
 water, as is the fashion, on the west coast. The half of 
 a board, shoved into the angle of the sharp stern, serves 
 to remind you that there is no seat. As there is no floor, 
 your feet are in the water to the ancles ; the remains of 
 the fish that were caught on the day it was first launched, 
 are there still ; odorous, but not of violets. A man with- 
 out a coat and a boy without breeches, pull upon a 
 couple of oars hung on pins : pretty hard, I admit, if 
 
444 HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 
 
 the machinery is new ; but if old, as is more likely, there 
 is clanger of their breaking, and you sit in terror; for 
 what is a two-oared boat with only one oar. If, unfortu- 
 nately, there is wind, and a sail, that sail is a blanket, 
 without sheet, haulyard, or tack, and you must steer as 
 well as you can, yourself, with one of the oars. If the 
 wind is short, you go all to leeward and nothing forward : 
 if baffling, you are taken aback and overset: if aft, you 
 cannot scud, and are pooped and swamped; or else your 
 sail gibes beyond the power of art to prevent it, and 
 down you go like cormorants before a musket. Suppos- 
 ing you escape, you must pay a guinea, or two, as it 
 happens ; that is, if you have made such a bargain. If 
 not, and you are sulky, and of true English blood, you 
 go before the justice : like a travelling poet whom I once 
 met. The justice was the landlord, and he said, "Ah! 
 poor fellow — it is hard work:" — and the two guineas 
 served to pay the rent when term day came round. Such 
 at least was this poet's conclusion. But the poet reasoned 
 like the jockey. The fares are often regulated. And 
 there are boatmen too whom I have paid with pleasure. 
 
 If boats are thus, what shall we say about horses. The 
 value of the beast is five pounds: his annual grass, 
 possibly, as many shillings; commonly, nothing. If he 
 has any shoes, there are but two, and he is not, perhaps, 
 much accustomed, even to these. Halter or bridle, it is 
 tolerably indifferent which ; but the halter is the softest 
 in your hand. I have ridden on a quadrupled sack, and 
 the stirrups were two nooses of rope. This is perhaps 
 better than a saddle with the flaps curled upwards, which 
 has undergone all the vicissitudes of rain and fire for 
 twenty years; an application which neither man nor 
 horse can bear long. This Bucephalus was hired for the 
 day, and you rose to mount him at six. He was in the 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 445 
 
 bill, however ; was chased for a dozen or two of miles 
 before he could be caught ; arrived at two o'clock, blown, 
 and more ready to lie down than go on ; and you pay 
 half a guinea, or a guinea, as it may be, for crawling out 
 the remainder of a rainy day on him. The guide, who 
 earns a shilling if he stays at home, that is, if he can 
 find one to earn, will not walk by your side to bring him 
 back, without another half guinea ; and, for less than 
 all this, you might have ridden one of Mr. Fozard's best 
 hunters to Epsom races. 
 
 But these are all matters of commerce again ; and 
 your commerce is a sad enemy to your generosity, A 
 man, as Dr. Johnson said of Mr. Thrale, never gives what 
 he can sell. 
 
 It must be owned that the novelty of commercial 
 profit will cover, or at least mollify some of these sins. 
 A young trader does not know what to ask, according to 
 the usual phrase : or, in common parlance, does not know 
 how to ask enough. The infant tiger is quiet enough 
 till he has tasted blood. I have tried to excuse my High- 
 land friends as far as I can ; but I do not find that my 
 English acquaintances, who have been half drowned, and 
 have flayed, and altogether cheated, will back me in 
 this : but that is from their imperfect experience. They 
 have only seen the worst side, because they are them- 
 selves a principal cause of the evil. As to the Highland 
 Lairds themselves, they are no judges in this case. Per- 
 haps they know nothing about this laudable spoiling of the 
 Egyptians : possibly they do : and it is not wonderful if, 
 in the former case, they deny it : in the latter, the sound 
 policy would be to admit the exceptions, and to claim 
 for their countrymen, only that general character which 
 they really deserve. 
 
 The narrow line that divides this generosity from this 
 
446 HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 
 
 commerce, is at times amusing enough. I have sent a 
 sailor on shore for a bottle of milk for breakfast. It has 
 been a penny — twopence — sixpence — flay, a shilling. I 
 have drank many a gallon ; it has been forced on me ; for 
 love. I have eaten, and drank, and slept, and ridden, 
 and been rowed, for pure love, often; and 1 have done 
 all this at the expense of those who were ten thousand 
 times poorer than myself, and to whom I could make no 
 return ; who scarcely thought they were doing a favour. 
 And I have praised their generosity ; and hereby it is 
 praised again. But I have been made to pay, and to 
 some purpose, for every one of these things ; and all that 
 I say, is — These individuals are extortionate dogs; but 
 it is new to them to get money at all, and they know not 
 yet how to do it with grace and moderation. 
 
 But they think too that an Englishman is made of 
 guineas: and who does not, wherever an Englishman 
 goes. " Ah ! you are all so rich in England," a High- 
 lander said to me once ; " there is nobody poor in your 
 country." If he raises the market on his own country- 
 men, let them complain of each other. A Highlander in 
 Sky, not long ago, asked me a guinea for a crystal, I 
 offered him sixpence. " Ach ! now, it's just a guinea — 
 it's all the same to you, a guinea or a saxpence." The 
 following ingenious reasoning was well worth something, 
 but not what it cost. The captain wanted a sheep. The 
 sheep was brought in; a candle would have shone through 
 his flanks, " How much," — " Twenty-five shillings." — 
 " Twenty-five shillings ! why, I could buy a fat sheep 
 for this in Falkirk market." — " Aye, so ye would, but 
 this 'ill be fat too some day, and I canna tak less." One 
 must not starve for the sake of twenty-five shillings, 
 which the rogue well knew ; and the sheep produced 
 ten pounds of uneatable muttop. Within a week after 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 447 
 
 this, a little farmer, of whom I knew no more than that 
 I had gone into his house for shelter and had eaten his 
 dinner, sent me a present of abetter sheep. 
 
 And now I leave you to draw your own conclusions ; 
 for I only undertook to furnish you the materials. But 
 you will say, not only in this case, but in many others^ 
 that you are puzzled with the irreconcileable features of 
 the Highlanders, that they have no steady feature, that 
 their properties are contradictory to each other, and that 
 your Highland acquaintances differ from me. That is 
 not unlikely: but you may enquire first how far your 
 friends are agreed among each other on any of these 
 points. I have heard no censure on them so severe as 
 that of their own countrymen : while others again say, 
 that a Highlander combines all the possible and impossi- 
 ble virtues that belong to civilized and uncivilized society 
 together. That they have a large and an enviable share 
 of good, I verily believe : but we must learn to be reason- 
 able. Perhaps the truth is not very difficult to hit : the 
 obscurity all arises from setting out on a false theory; 
 no unusual source of difficult judgment. 
 
 It is necessary, first, for us all to forget that we have 
 ever read a word on the Highlands : or, if that cannot be, 
 to recollect, that " tis" more than " sixty years since" the 
 battle of Culloden, that it is about fifty since Pennant 
 and Johnson wrote, and that what was fading then is 
 nearly vanished now: there is much of it indeed that is 
 vanished altogether. In the next place, the term High- 
 lands is now, scarcely even a geographical distinction; 
 the shade by which it unites with the Lowlands, is evan- 
 escent and undefinable ; and, every year, the colours 
 blend more, and the neutral tint widens around the border 
 that once separated them. The term Highlander is still 
 less definite : the metaphysical gradation is nearly imper- 
 
448 
 
 HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 
 
 ceptible; the political condition of Scotland is identical 
 in theory, and nearly so in practice ; and the Highlands 
 have long ceased to form a nation and a people. The 
 country preserves many peculiarities, it is true ; fostered 
 by language, occupation, residence, and a little, perhaps, 
 by ancient recollections : but they are fast melting away 
 into the misty shadows of realities that were once as 
 striking as their own rocks and mountains. 
 
 But these changes are, also, neither simultaneous nor 
 equal everywhere. According to the natural and neces- 
 sary progress of civilization, or change, if that term 
 offends you, they cannot be so ; and thus, what is true of 
 some parts of the country, is false of others. This is one 
 of the great sources of all the difficulties in question. 
 Nothing more is proved by the dissatisfaction of those 
 who are displeased: and their own discordance, when 
 narrowly questioned, proves this to be the real cause. 
 Every one judges by the district which he knows best : 
 no one thinks of examining the whole: there are few who 
 know the country in general, even among the High- 
 landers themselves; and why then should we be surprised 
 if we find a discordance in the reports that we read and 
 hear. The genus is the same, if you please, but the 
 species differs everywhere. We cannot easily trace, on 
 the borders of the Lowlands, or in the vicinity of towns, 
 fisheries, manufactures, and improvements, any very 
 violent character of difference between a Scot and a Gael : 
 but, take a wide interval, and the differences are still 
 strongly marked. Mixture of breed has done something : 
 language, example, industry, agricultural improvements, 
 have done more : every day the differences diminish, and, 
 at some day, distant though it assuredly must be, it will 
 be still less perceptible. 
 
 But this is as true of England and of Wales : it is the 
 
HIGHLAND CHARACTER. 441> 
 
 term Higblands that always misleads us ; because it is a 
 term of history. Let me carry you to St. Kilda. It is as 
 little like the St. Kilda of Martin, as it is to Owhyhee ; 
 though so remote a part of the country. The Gannets 
 build as they did, and they are caught and eaten pretty 
 much in the same manner: but,for any thing else, neither 
 Martin, nor even Macaulay, would know their old friends 
 again could they rise from the dead. St. Kilda and the 
 generality of the Long Island may now rank together 
 pretty nearly : but what resemblance does the Barra 
 where the Macneil could once muster a thousand men 
 within the walls of Chisamil castle, bear to the Barra 
 which sends a dozen or two of boats full of salt ling to 
 Greenock, every summer ; bringing back, in return, 
 (irreendck manners and the Greenock tongue. If the 
 Danes who occupy the Butt of the Lewis, still comb their 
 heads as little as their ancestors did, yet, where the Mac- 
 kenzie once led bare-legged clans to battle behind the 
 braying of a bagpipe, the ladies of Stornaway are forming 
 nightly coteries of cards and scandal. 
 
 Perhaps the wild Mac Raws, as they are called by 
 courtesy, are now the most genuine pictures that remain 
 of the ancient Highlander ; and the superficial view is 
 not a very flattering one. Contrast them with the opulent 
 agriculturists of Isla, once the centre of power, the focus 
 of the Macdonald dynasty, the seat of piracy and plun- 
 der, and virtue and valour. Go to the slate quarries of 
 Seil and Luing, and there ask for Highland manners : or 
 to the salmon fisheries of Pol Ewe and Laxford, and find 
 them in the hands of Berwickers; heteroclite dogs, nei- 
 ther Scots nor English. Follow the kelp manufacture 
 and the fisheries; tread in the steps of the excisemen and 
 justices; ride on a turnpike road, finer and better than 
 any in England, from Fort William to Sky, and then ask 
 
 VOL. I. G c 
 
450 HIGHLAND CHARACTER, 
 
 for Hig-hland manners, and expect that he who can wear 
 breeches, dig- in the Caledonian canal, go to Glasgow and 
 weave cotton, or has returned from a Spanish campaign 
 with a leg less and a shilling a day more, will not be a 
 corrupt dog and no Highlander. If you would see him 
 in a state as rude as heart can wish, explore the wilds of 
 Sutherland : but what will you find ; a starving melan- 
 choly wretch, half clothed, living in a dunghill, paying 
 no rent, stealing a sheep when he can catch him, cutting 
 down his landlord's trees, defying all laws, and preferring 
 rather to starve than work. Thus, at least, it was lately. 
 Pursue the same creature to the sea-shore where Lord 
 Stafford has driven him, to the great annoyance of all 
 romantic gentlemen, and find him in a comfortable cot- 
 tage, with a boat, a cow, and a few acres of oats, active, 
 industrious, and happy ; and then ask why travellers do 
 not give a consistent character of the Highlanders. No- 
 thing was ever more unlike himself; except Horace's 
 friend : and, in some places, the savage even elbows the 
 neophyte. Bute and Arran for example : but Arran has 
 changed under my very pen ; thanks to the excise, the 
 steam boats, and the Duke of Hamilton. What with 
 sheep, and ribbands, and excisemen, and shoes, and mus- 
 lin, and rents, and taxes, and absentees, and kelp, and 
 English, and cod, and herring, and lobster smacks, and 
 justices of peace, and breeches, and shops of all wares, 
 and schools, and roads, and cockneys travelling in gigs, 
 and innkeepers who have learnt little from their instruc- 
 tors but the art of making them pay for what they do not 
 get, Donald or Dougal himself, were they alive again, the 
 great fathers of all the Donalds and Dougals of the day, 
 would wonder as much what was become of their own 
 dear country as Owen Glendwr or Jorwerth ap Drwndwn 
 would do if they were to see a bridge over Bangor straits, 
 
LOCH ERICHT. 451 
 
 or as the votaries of Mr. Sams do, that a modern traveller 
 in the Highlands does not make them appear the thing 
 which they are not. The Mac Raws are one thing, and the 
 Mac Kenzies are another, and the Campbells are a third ; 
 and as to the Mac Intoshes, and the Mac Phersons and the 
 Grants, and the Erasers, and the Mac Raes, and the Mac 
 Kays, and the Camerons, and the Mac Donalds, and the 
 Mac Leans, and the Mac Callums, and the Mac Farlanes, 
 and the Mac Gregors, and the Mac Neils, Mac Nabs, Mac 
 Arthurs, Mac Alisters, Mac Phails, Mac Naughtons, and 
 so forth, they are all worthy descendants of worthy and 
 ancient stocks : but, of nine tenths of them, it would be 
 difficult to discover in what respect they belonged to the 
 bold names which they have inherited from their warlike 
 ancestors. 
 
 The romance is pretty nearly expiring : and to those 
 who have found it much otherwise in their books, I can 
 only say, travel, look, enquire. Let them travel the 
 country where they please, if they will but take care to 
 wipe the Highland mist well off from their eyes, they 
 shall see as various a people, and puzzle themselves as 
 much to reconcile the facts and their theories, as they 
 may perchance be puzzled by my lucubrations, or as 
 wiser politicians have often puzzled themselves before in 
 their speculations on a national character. 
 
 It is not very easy to separate ideas of beauty and of 
 picturesque scenery from that of a lake ; particularly, 
 after an intimacy with those of Perthshire and Dumbar- 
 ton, or in the minds of those, to whom the word lake recalls 
 all the briffht remembrances connected with Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland. Yet lakes, like ladies, are not neces- 
 sarily beautiful : and after laking it for some years 
 through all the Scottish ones, I have come to the conclu- 
 sion that nearly half of my labour has been thrown away. 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 LOCH ERICHT. 
 
 Still, the very name lake is something: and it is some- 
 thing- to have pursued Loch Ericht, over moor and moun- 
 tain, through bog and heath, though the result should 
 have proved but an enormous gutter, or a huge cess-pool. 
 The half of our pleasures are no better. You meet a 
 pack of ferocious barking curs galloping across a coun- 
 try, and, by and bye, comes another pack, of auxiliary 
 hounds, as Butler calls them, mounted and mad, bloody 
 with spurring, fiery red with haste, supposing that they 
 are pursuing a miserable hare or a stinking long-tailed 
 fox. In time, it is reported that the prey is taken, pulled 
 to pieces, and swallowed ; and the arrival and the death 
 of the supposed joy are one: the imagined happiness is 
 realized in another supposition, and it is gone. It might 
 be an improvement in this case to suppose the dogs and 
 horses too : for the one supposition would be as valid as 
 the other. 
 
 But he who is bogged to his saddle bows first, and 
 his own neck afterwards, in attempting to reach Loch 
 Ericht, will not at least suppose himself wandering 
 through flowery meads of asphodel. He who wishes to 
 see this lake must seek it, A walk indeed from Dal- 
 whinnie will shew its northern extremity : but, certainly, 
 he who sees that, will not desire to see more. However, 
 it is not all so bad : for though, like Loch Shin and Loch 
 Ness, its margin is without variety, and that the hills 
 descend plumb to the water, so as to give it that ditch-like 
 character which these display, the loftiness of the boun- 
 daries, and the extreme steepness of the acclivities in 
 some places, confer a striking air of wildness on it. 
 Moreover, these declivities are, in many parts, rocky, and 
 marked by huge precipices; while the scattered and 
 perishing remains of the ancient birch forests on its 
 eastern margin, serve to add some kind of ornament to 
 
LOCH ERICHT. 453 
 
 its general air of desolation and solitude. If the western 
 bank presents no great attractions, it enjoys imperishable 
 fame in its Tober na phaisaic at least : an 'Ayfljvo'vnotless 
 celebrated than that of Eleusis, and bidding fair to be 
 somewhat longer remembered by all honest Highlandmen. 
 
 At the southern extremity, Loch Ericht terminates in 
 flat meadows, vanishing by degrees in the moor of Ran- 
 noch, and in that wild and hideous country which ex- 
 tends to Glen Spean along the eastern side of Ben Nevis. 
 This is indeed the wilderness of all Scotland. The wild- 
 est wilds of Rossshire and Sutherland are accessible and 
 lively, compared to this. They might, at least, contain 
 people though they do not; which this tract never could 
 have done, and never will nor can. I know not where else 
 we can travel for two days without seeing a human trace : 
 a human trace, — a trace, a recollection, of animal life; 
 and with the dreary conviction that such a thing is im- 
 possible. It is indeed an inconceivable solitude; a dreary 
 and joyless land of bogs, a land of desolation and grey 
 darkness, of fogs ever hanging on Auster's drizzly beard, 
 a land of winter and death and oblivion. Let him who is 
 unworthy of the Moor of Rannoch be banished hither: 
 where he can go next, 1 know not; unless it be to New 
 South Shetland, Everywhere else in Scotland, wild as 
 it may be, (and assuredly it is often wild enough,) if we 
 do not see the marks of a living world, of something that 
 speaks of man or beast or insect, we can yet conceive that 
 such things might have been, or that they may be at some 
 future time. If even there is not much expectation of 
 life, there is still the hope left. But, here, to live, is im- 
 possible: and if there are any trout in its waters, doubt- 
 less they escape to Loch Ericht, or elsewhere, as fast as 
 they can. 
 
 Certainly, if a traveller has nothing to do but to hunt 
 
454 LOCH ERICHT. 
 
 after scenery, he may spare himself the toil of a journey 
 to Loch Ericht; it is to toil without reward. There are 
 persons, however, who have thought it worth their la- 
 bour to come here, for no other purpose than to see 
 one of the hundred places where Prince Charles was con- 
 cealed between the periods of his defeat and escape. 
 It is lucky that I have met with a Prince, to elevate the 
 dignity of my travels a little, after all the previous base 
 and beggarly account of shillings and sixpences, fitted 
 only for '< the reckoning of a tapster." But life will 
 have its ups and downs ; and travelling too : and if I 
 owed my Highland friends the best defence I could 
 make for them, how could I have pleaded their cause 
 without bringing all the parties into court. Details are a 
 sad drawback on dignity : but I have the example of 
 Demosthenes to back me ; and even the veracious his- 
 torian who relates the fall of empires and the devouring 
 march of armies, is condemned to notice that his armies 
 were without shoes and that their shirts were in rags. 
 This particular spot was certainly as well chosen for con- 
 cealment as was the wild country itself in which it is 
 situated. The place, such as the Highland shepherd 
 pointed it out, though called a cave, was merely the in- 
 terval between two huge masses of rock, that had so 
 fallen as to meet somewhat like the roof of a house ; and 
 these were but two masses out of many hundreds that were 
 scattered for miles along the face of the mountain. This 
 cavity would with difficulty have held three people; but 
 it is said that they had erected a wicker hut, called the 
 cage, at the opening, so as to have rendered it somewhat 
 more spacious and commodious. 
 
 I have an excellent opportunity now of gaining such 
 praise for my historical, topographical, and antiquarian 
 accuracy, as I much fear will never come to my share ; 
 
KINLOCH RANNOCH. 455 
 
 for, in the very inn at Kinlocli Rannoch, I read the 
 whole story in John Home : a very unusual piece of good 
 luck. Let him who would acquire this kind of fame, 
 take care to have his books at his elbow : he who chooses 
 to leave that glory to his predecessors, and to his suc- 
 cessors as it may chance, must submit to be called names 
 as well as he can. Let him at least take care of his little 
 red book and of his daily entries ; lest, trusting to the 
 tablet of his brain, he finds that, like the colour of his 
 mistress's cheek, the impression is faded, or that he has 
 wandered, like Christian, into bye-path meadow, and 
 has lost his track before he is aware of his deviations. 
 After all, which is worst; a little original blundering, or 
 the tenth transmitted copy of a foolish tale. I doubt, as 
 the Lord Chancellor says. Let John Home, however, 
 sleep in peace at present : or seek him, if you please, 
 where he is to be found ; in his own pages : or else, what 
 will do quite as well, in your own head, Sir Walter. 
 
 My landlord's library at Kinloch Rannoch had one 
 prime merit, at least in the eyes of the Roxburghe club : 
 for it was very black. Nothing is much more amusing- at 
 times, than the libraries of these Highland inns: and I 
 need scarcely say how creditable to the people it is, to 
 find these unexpected books in these unexpected places. 
 To be sure, they are often " neither new nor rare;" still 
 you " wonder how the devil they got there." I have met 
 with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in a house of dyvots 
 and thatch; if that is a phenomenon, what will you say 
 of Lempriere's Dictionary, and of Montaigne; Mon- 
 taigne, himself, in his own egotistical amusing na- 
 tive dress. On the same shelves, I have seen Pope's 
 Odyssey, Virgil, not Dr. Trapp's I assure you, but the 
 genuine Mantuan, in his own cloak, a Treatise of Men- 
 suration, Grotius de Veritate, Quin's Book-keeping by 
 
456 HIGHLAND FIDELITY. 
 
 double entry, Clarke's Ovid, Guthrie's Grammar, the 
 Spectator; and far more, and more strange mixtures. 
 As to the good books, such as Hervey and Boston, and 
 countless more, and countless worse and more unintel- 
 ligible, always excepting John, the great John Bunyan, 
 there is always store of them. What most of these good 
 books, as they are politely termed, are good for, it would 
 be somewhat hard to say ; particularly when they deal in 
 " experiences" and other such confessional exposes. 
 Lord Shaftesbury calls this " taking physic in public ;" 
 and, truly, they are often medicinal enough. But we 
 are in danger of losing sight of Prince Charles amid 
 these concatenations. 
 
 In examining this unfortunate personage's different 
 hiding places, as I have done, and in tracing his migra- 
 tions, we cannot help wondering at the necessity of such 
 frequent and, as happened more than once, injudicious, 
 not to say perilous, changes. The reward was unques- 
 tionably great ; but unless Highlanders themselves had 
 been his blood-hounds, he could scarcely have been 
 discovered in any one of the places where he took refuge. 
 English soldiers might have hunted him in vain till now. 
 Of the fidelity of his immediate attendants, no one seems 
 to have doubted ; and that some splendid and heroic 
 examples of attachment were displayed, is well known. 
 Yet we can scarcely help thinking that he must have 
 been betrayed, or at least followed and hunted, on some 
 occasions, by those who knew both him and the country 
 well ; having finally been saved, only by the zeal, at- 
 tachment, and resources, of the few true hearts who 
 never forgot him. 
 
 This virtue of fidelity is one for which, among many 
 others, the Highlanders have been praised, and justly. To 
 repeat the noted story of Kennedy, or others of the same 
 
HIGHLAND FIDELITY. 457 
 
 date, or of the rewards offered for this unlucky Prince, 
 would be to take the trouble of writing what every one 
 knows. The most extraordinary instance of fidelity, how- 
 ever, on record, is that which occurred in the reign of 
 James V; when the Earl of Moray, who had made some 
 prisoners in a battle with Macintosh, in which the chief 
 had escaped, proposed terms of pardon to any one who 
 would discover his retreat; which the whole refusing, even 
 at the gallows, an hundred and thirty were hanged. If 
 this tale has even been exaggerated, it will bear a little, 
 without losing its value. Like Virgil, however, I fancy 
 we must consider this as a kind of prisca fides; though, 
 to lament over its loss, would be quite as silly as Virgil 
 himself; who might as well have grieved that his kitten 
 had grown to a cat. The truth is, that this extreme 
 fidelity, like many other extreme virtues, belongs to 
 periods of imperfect civilization; and, thus far only, was 
 it ever a national character, or will it ever be. It was as 
 much the virtue of the whole race as of Kennedy; and I 
 doubt not that hundreds might have been found who 
 would have acted in a similar manner. But, in the same 
 way, it was the virtue of the sera rather than of the 
 people. Not that I mean to detract from the merit of the 
 Highlanders in this respect. They possessed the virtue 
 in question, whatever the cause may have been ; and it 
 is far from unlikely that there are many who possess it 
 still. Virtue is a good thing, arise from what it may. 
 
 I may say the same of their honesty with regard to 
 exposed property, which has been, foolishly, ridiculed; 
 and I might do so, were it necessary, of many other 
 things. But the fact in general, is a fact with regard to 
 the race of man ; not the characteristic of this or of any 
 other single people. Neither you, nor I, nor deeper 
 moralists than either of us, can explain why civilization 
 
458 HIGHLAND FIDELITY. 
 
 refines away these extremes of virtue, great and small ; 
 for it happens in both : as if the perfections of a rude 
 people were, like their faults, asperities that necessarily 
 wore off in polishing. Wherever we find a barbarous 
 people, we find something of a similar character: virtues, 
 refinements, even etiquettes, that would shame all the 
 civilization of all Europe. The bread and salt, the oath 
 of an Arab to his guest, even were it his enemy, is a 
 noted example. The American Indian provides a house 
 for the stranger : his name is not asked ; it might be that 
 of a hostile tribe. It was formerly the same in the High- 
 lands : precisely ; and has often been told of them as an 
 exclusive merit. The taboo of the South Seas is but one 
 of many things which we might in vain strive to establish 
 among ourselves. But indeed all the etiquettes of these 
 singular people are as singular as they are rigidly ob- 
 served. Such barbarous refinements leave even those of 
 the ages of chivalry far behind ; and I doubt not that the 
 very same causes aided in producing the same effects ; 
 giving rise to those specimens of superfine and romantic 
 politeness, those ultra observances, about which we have 
 all either written or read romances. Who is it that tells 
 us, that, in Africa, a mere mat placed at the door, is suf- 
 ficient to prevent the entrance of any one ; nay, even that 
 of the husband who knows that the gallant is present 
 with his wife. In other places a pair of slippers is a 
 taboo fully as efiUcacious. Commerce is carried on among 
 many people, of nearly the same standing in civilization, 
 in a manner in which the gentlemen of Lombard-street 
 would not be long of outwitting each other. But the 
 instances are endless ; and in fact, when an uncivilized 
 race does possess any of these virtues, small or great, 
 they are always more perfect than among their refined 
 neighbours. Law and order, which take from us the 
 
KINLOCH RANNOCH. 459 
 
 charge of our own personal security and defence, seem to 
 take care for our virtues also. They make machines of 
 us: or, if not machines, calculators. In such a case as 
 this, in a people of law and order and commerce, of regu- 
 lation and system and quid pro quo, fidelity is a com- 
 modity of no price ; because, from its very nature, it can 
 have no reward. The application of this principle to the 
 virtue of hospitality, is too trite : but you will see that it 
 also assists in explaining the politeness so characteristic 
 of the Highlanders. This mode of that virtue, is, as a 
 logician might say, inherent : that which follows refine- 
 ment is adherent ; and, unluckily, when the original sur- 
 face is ground off", the new varnish is apt not to stick at 
 all. I shall leave you to spin this out into a system. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary, in all tours, outlandish or 
 domestic, insular or continental, to abuse inns and postil- 
 lions, and all else, be it what it may, in which the coun- 
 try ad quem differ from the country a quo ; most parti- 
 cularly, if that latter be England. How else should a 
 traveller till up his pages, and make two or three octa- 
 vos ; or six quartos ; as it may happen. If you doubt, 
 consult Twiss, or— but why fill a page with names; the 
 rule is established. And in conformity to it, while the 
 very dinner at Kinloch Rannoch still crowds, in all its 
 vacuity of substances, on my soul, I am going to abuse a 
 Highland dinner : of which I thus give you due notice, 
 that you may skip the next page if you please. Different 
 philosophers, you know, each according to his own trade, 
 say that the civilization of a country is best known by the 
 state of its roads, or its women, or its police, or its postil- 
 lions, or its theatres, or its literature, or its sign posts. 
 The French say it is all in the Cuisine. I hope, by the 
 bye, that you have not dined ; for it makes a wonder- 
 ful difference whether these things are discussed on an 
 
460 KINLOCH RANNOCM. 
 
 empty or a full stomach. Hie impransi mecum disquirite: 
 the authority is classical ; and I quote it, that I may 
 prove to you that I could read the tablet at Dalwhinnie. 
 If the French hypothesis be the true one, then are the 
 Highlands — what must not be told : always excepting 
 the exceptions; as in duty bound. The west is worse 
 than the east ; that is true ; and the middle worse than 
 the circumference. Always the same never-ending din- 
 ner : no attempt at variation in the nutritive art. Boiled 
 mutton and roasted mutton, roasted mutton and boiled 
 mutton: without even the meritorious variety of the Cu- 
 rate's rabbits. And then, a fowl whose progress you have 
 traced from the midden to the table, who was making 
 " tyrannic love" as Purcell calls it, " stoutly strutting" to 
 his wives, an hour before; crowing defiance from his 
 dunghill of vantage, and now about to crow in your crop. 
 If you see a fish, it is one swimming in the lake or the 
 river at the door; unless you chance to fall on a shoal 
 of herrings by good luck. As to beef or veal, you might 
 as well expect to meet them in Hindostan. A hog in- 
 deed is not an object of worship, like a calf: but then he 
 is tabooed for other reasons, and therefore no hams hang- 
 from the black ceiling, brighter to a hungry guest than 
 pearls would be in an iEthiop's ear, nor does the cate- 
 nated and goodly pudding dangle in lovely festoons from 
 the rafters. If the Muse turns to sing of vegetables, what 
 does she find : a potatoe. A potatoe, if potatoes are ripe : 
 if not, nothing. Long you may long for some of the leeks 
 and onions which the masons devoured at the pyramids: 
 but why talk of such superfluities as these, when you 
 might as well seek for a banana, as for carrot, turnip, pea, 
 bean, celery, thyme, parsley, — and small herbs, as Mrs. 
 Glasse says. Kale ; — is not kale Scottish, par excellence ; 
 yet who ever saw kale, cabbage, or brocob\ or any one of 
 
KINLOCH RANNOCH. 461 
 
 the whole tribe of sauer kraut. You may look too till 
 you are weary, for pudding- and pye and all their hosts : 
 you will not here be troubled to determine the physical 
 and metaphysical difference between a pudding and a 
 pye. Dr. Johnson said, half a century ago, that the High- 
 landers had eggs and milk, but had not learned to com- 
 pound them into a custard : perhaps it is from their anger 
 at him, that they have not learnt it yet. Moreover, as 
 misfortunes never come " by single files, but in batta- 
 lions," where the meat is bad, the cookery is bad, the 
 fire is bad, the bell is broke, the salt is black, and the 
 mutton is cold before the potatoes are warm. What would 
 Catius say to all this. You probably will say — enough. 
 But you must bear a little more; for I have Horace him- 
 self for authority, as well as Le Sage. I shall not, how- 
 ever, treat you with as many dinners as Gil Bias, or even 
 Homer, has done: content with telling you how you may 
 dine ; as I fear that, in spite of these examples, you would 
 find more than one of these dinners rather indigestible. 
 
 For indeed the gastronomy of this country is not 
 commendable : nor aught that is connected with it. A 
 dumb waiter is but a substitute, at best; but what is that 
 to a deaf one. At Callander, you may ring the bell forty 
 times in a quarter of an hour, or else for a quarter of an 
 hour at one time : it is pretty much the same. At Luss, 
 you wait four hours for your dinner, the cloth being laid ; 
 and if there be any bread, you have devoured it all be- 
 fore the dinner arrives. When it does, it consists of her- 
 rings which might have been cooked in ten minutes, and 
 of mutton which was cooked yesterday. Unless indeed 
 the time has been more justifiably expended in killing 
 the sheep. At Broadford there is a picturesque dish of 
 milk set on the table at four o'clock, with salt, mustard, 
 and knives and forks. The problem is how to eat milk 
 with a knife and fork ; but, at five, a shoulder of mutton 
 
462 KINLOCH RANNOCH. 
 
 entei-s to apologize for them. In half an hour more, you 
 have a plate full of potatoes and the cheese ; and when 
 you have eaten the cheese and said grace, you receive a 
 dish offish. At this very Kinloch Rannoch, you are pro- 
 mised kale, good mutton kale : you mistake kale for 
 cabbage, foolishly enough ; and find a species of barley 
 water, spangled with the glittering drops elicited from a 
 few mutton bones, in which it is difficult to discover whe- 
 ther the meat or the bone is hardest. 
 
 Supposing also that you travel in the mutton time of 
 the year : — for if you do not — : the mutton is placed on 
 the table. Do you prefer it roasted or boiled. Only wish, 
 and the thing is before you. If roasted, it has been so 
 begravied with hot water that it is boiled: if boiled, it 
 has been kept so long at the fire, to wait for the salt, or 
 the mustard, or Peggy, that it is roasted. Then, what 
 with dry potatoes, dry oatcakes, and the water of the Tay 
 and the Tumel and of all the rivers of the Highlands, of 
 which you cannot procure one drop, you are shortly in 
 the condition of Pantagruel when he had breakfasted on 
 Euphorbium. Whatever you do, beware of that thing 
 called a mutton chop. Boiled fowls you may know by 
 the impossibility of eating them, any more than as you 
 might eat oakham ; and roasted ones, by the blackness 
 of their skins. Eggs, there are none, in mutton time; 
 because then the hens are confined, as the phrase is here : 
 and the effect of confinement on hens is just the reverse 
 of what it is upon our own females. If the salt is black, 
 however, the table cloth is white. Thus censure delights 
 in many words, and praise in few. Eat your dinner, 
 prepare for it with Spartan sauce, drink your whisky, 
 and above all keep your good humour ; for after all, what 
 is a dinner when it is eaten. Would that life had nothing 
 worse than the worst Highland dinner you and I shall 
 ever be condemned to eat. 
 
OLEN TILT. 463 
 
 GLEN TILT, MAR, THE DEB. 
 
 If Ben Nevis were to tumble down, or Loch Lomond 
 to be evaporated to-morrow, the printers' demons who 
 construct the tour books, would still, like Eustace, go on 
 describing their height, and length, and depth, and 
 breadth, and beauties. You and I take another course, 
 in seeking for something new ; and if we do no more, we 
 shall at least furnish them with some fresh plunder. But 
 I must premise that you cannot travel from Blair to Brae- 
 mar in a gig : indeed you must often reverse the plan of 
 Master Robert Hewitt, and use two legs when four are 
 weary, or puzzled. Lovers of ease must enter by the Spital 
 of Glenshee, or else from the eastward. 
 
 Glen Tilt itself belongs to the scenery of Blair ; of 
 which indeed it forms an important part. The Tilt, flow- 
 ing from a small lake in the hills, holds its way through 
 a valley so narrow as seldom to give room for more than 
 the river ; while, in many places, its channel is only a 
 ravine, made by its own corroding action, through the 
 solid rocks. This valley, throughout its whole course, is 
 of a character purely its own ; distinguished from every 
 other Highland glen, no less by its extreme depth, nar- 
 rowness, and prolongation, than by the wildness of its 
 upper extremity and the highly ornamented beauty of 
 that part which approaches to Blair. A very magnifi- 
 cent landscape occurs immediately on entering the glen, 
 where the river is just seen, rushing deep through its 
 dark chasm overshadowed by the graceful birches, whose 
 
464 GLEN TILT. 
 
 silvery trunks,' springing from the rocks, hang" their light 
 and transparent foliage above the water. There is no 
 place, not even the Tumel, where the character of the 
 birch is more perfect and more beautiful than at Blair; 
 tall, graceful, and full in foliage, generally erect, but 
 often drooping in elegant forms, while, in the forest, it 
 has all the beauty that arises from roundness and fulness 
 of outline. The landscape never wants wood where there 
 is birch ; and there is none that would suit so well the 
 style and colouring of the scenery. Tn this spot, the 
 hills on each side rise to a great height; green, or culti- 
 vated, or densely wooded, or covered with wild groups 
 and single trees of oak and ash as well as of birch ; while, 
 on one side, high above, larch and fir continue the forest 
 to the sky, and, on the other, the mountain outline is 
 formed by the lofty and finely flowing lines of Ben-y- 
 gloe, contrasting, by their nakedness, the splendid 
 richness of the valley and the variety of the lower de- 
 clivities. 
 
 The farm offices here form a highly ornamental and 
 appropriate object; similar in design to those at Dun- 
 keld, and to those which occur, very unexpectedly, in 
 the remote island of Rasay. It would be unjust not to 
 point out the merits of their architect, Stewart, when 
 others have been here shown up for punishment. Here, 
 there is elegance without expense, and ornament without 
 ornaments. All the beauty lies in the proportions ; in the 
 purity of the taste; and, on the same uncostly terms, 
 may all the beauty required of rural architecture be 
 everywhere obtained. " Something there is, more need- 
 ful than expense;" and indeed I know not where the 
 principles of that art which has here so often come under 
 review, are better laid down than in Pope's epistle to 
 Lord Burlington. The artist has the command and 
 
GLEN TILT. 465 
 
 cLoice ofronii and colour; and, on the good and the bad 
 in these, every thing depends. Such buildings are neces- 
 sary, and it is a grievous error that does not render what 
 is necessary, ornamental. It is a still greater act of folly 
 to conceal them. They belong to tbe character of British 
 landscape: and it is not by Greek temples and Follies that 
 we are to embellish our rural scenery, but by the struc- 
 tures which appertain to its nature and essence. We are, 
 especially, a rural people; and it is to our houses, our 
 lodges, our farms, our stables, and even our dog ken- 
 nels, that we should look for our ornamental architec- 
 ture, since the numbers of our churches and our bridges 
 must be limited. If proprietors knew, and artists would 
 reflect, how much could be done for this end, without 
 unnecessary expense, how little depends on mere ex- 
 penditure, our landscape would assume a far different 
 character from what it does at present, and we should 
 everywhere trace, not only the occupations of our coun- 
 try, but its taste; instead of being pained, sometimes by 
 deformity and sometimes by desertion. 
 
 For some miles along the course of the Tilt, the 
 scenery continues equally rich and still more various ; the 
 road passing through dense groves, or skirting the margin 
 of this picturesque and wild stream, or opening into green 
 meadows where the woods are sometimes seen towering 
 in a continuous sheet to the sky, and, at others, scattered 
 over the sides of the hills in a thousand intricate forms. 
 Innumerable torrents and cascades fall along their de- 
 clivities, adding, with the numerous bridges which cros& 
 them, much to the beauty of the scenes ; as do the roads, 
 which, winding about the hills in various directions, dis- 
 play those traces of human life, the want of which is so 
 often felt in Highland scenery. Thus there are formed 
 numerous landscapes, all distinguished by peculiarity of 
 
 VOL I. H H 
 
466 BEN-Y-GLOE. 
 
 character, as they are by their wild beauty. But these 
 characters are even better seen from the two roads which 
 are conducted above the glen at a high level. Each of 
 these displays many striking- landscapes of this valley, as 
 they do also of the valley of Blair; often including, in 
 the distance, the long- and varied ridge of Ferrogon and 
 Schihallien, and the more remote Highland mountains of 
 Loch Ericht. On these several scenes I cannot pretend 
 to dwell ; as Glen Tilt might, in itself, afford amusement 
 for many days. 
 
 Though the height of Cairn Gower, the hig-hest sum- 
 mit of Ben-y-gloe, is estimated at 3700 feet, it nowhere, 
 at hand, appears so high, from the great height of the 
 land in which it is entangled. It is only when viewed 
 from the distant eminences, from Schihallien or Ben 
 Lawers, that it is seen towering- above all the rest. The 
 ascent is easy, particularly from the south ; but the view 
 is quite uninteresting; presenting- but one continued sea 
 of mountains, among- which, nearly all are so equally 
 marked, that the particular characters of any one pass 
 unnoticed. From this remark, however, must be ex- 
 empted the mountains that lie about the sources of the 
 Dee ; their bold and broken precipices of granite being- 
 strongly distinguished, no less by their wild forms and 
 savage aspect, than by the snow which never melts in 
 their deep recesses. 
 
 On this mountain is found, in abundance, one of our 
 rarest and most elegant of alpine plants, the Azalea pro- 
 enmbens, as it also is on the range of hills opposite. The 
 neighbourhood of Blair is, indeed, a tempting field for 
 the botanist. Near the dense and trailing cushions of 
 this delicate shrub, and even among its bright crimson 
 flowers, it is not unusual to find the rare Rubus arctica 
 with its elegant berry, and the still rarer Cornus snecica. 
 
BEN-Y-GLOE, 467 
 
 The Rubus clmmaemorus, and the more ordinary alpine 
 plants, are found in profusion ; and, in one place, there 
 is a miniature forest of the Betula nana ; a plant almost 
 limited to this spot. The rare Lichen nivalis occurs all 
 over Ben-y-gloe, as it does on Cairn Gorm ; and, on 
 Ben Derig, the Lichen islandicus almost covers the 
 ground in some places; while the more ordinary alpine, 
 shrubby and imbricated plants of this tribe, abound every- 
 where upon the higher hills. On the calcareous skirts of 
 Glen Tilt, the Dryas, with the Satyrium viride and hir- 
 cinum and some other rare Orchidese are seen every- 
 where; and here, even in the bed of the stream, at a 
 lower elevation than I have ever elsewhere seen it, the 
 rocks are covered with the long- trailing stems and bril- 
 liant crimson flowers of the Saxifraga oppositifolia. Here 
 also, as in Shetland, the cushioned Silene acaulis grows 
 at a low level; while there are few of the alpine Saxi- 
 frages which are not found somewhere : the golden 
 flowers of the Autumnalis decorating every rill and cas- 
 cade, a treasure in itself when all the plants of the sum- 
 mer have vanished. In the wet grounds above, the 
 Anthericum calyculatum occurs in profusion, as does the 
 Trollius, a plant far from common in Scotland. About 
 Blair, the delicate starry flower of the Trientalis is the 
 daisy of the heaths and woods; as the two commoner 
 Pyrolse emulate the lily of the valley in profusion, as 
 they do in odour. In the fir woods also, the very rare 
 Pyrola secunda abounds; and, near the Fender, I found 
 the most rare of our plants, the Convallaria verticillata, 
 only known as yet in one other place, near Dunkeld. Of 
 the Fungi, the parks and woods of Blair are a perfect 
 magazine ; containing almost every Agaricus that exists, 
 together with a great number of species in all the other 
 genera. 
 
 H Il2 
 
468 FOREST OF ATHOLl. 
 
 From Ben y gloe towards the Bruar and the Geonly, 
 lies tlie extensive forest of Atholl, a portion of this dis- 
 trict, the Adtheodle and Gouerin of some ancient geogra- 
 phers, the Athochlach of the Colbertine manuscript. It 
 is a wild mountain range ; a forest, only in the sense of 
 the chace ; containing about an hundred thousand Eng- 
 lish acres, and allotted to deer. Till lately, it contained 
 the chief, indeed almost the sole remains of these ani- 
 mals, now extending over the contiguous estates of the 
 Duke of Gordon, Lord Fife, and Invercauld ; and it is 
 estimated to possess about six thousand. Here is a sur- 
 viving specimen of the taste and occupation, I may almost 
 say of the population, of ancient Scotland ; producing 
 amusement instead of profit, and occupying the room of 
 nearly 20,000 sheep. But that concerns not us who fatten 
 on the well-fed haunch, and who rouse the noble stag 
 from his wild lair in the mountain. Taylor, the waterman 
 and pedestrian, has told the world his adventures ; and 
 Pennant, among many more, has transcribed Pitscottie's 
 account of the Earl of Atholl's magnificent hunting party. 
 Such huntings cannot now befall ; but the deer do not 
 rest in peace, nor does the hospitable board of the modern 
 Duke ever cease to smoke, beneath venison as abundant 
 and wine as profuse, as ever the ancient Earl placed upon 
 it. Four lodges, situated in different parts of this forest, 
 afford convenient stations for the hunters, and not a day 
 throughout the whole season passes in repose. It is a 
 noble sight to watch the army as it advances over the 
 brow of the hill, with all its forest of horns, like a winter 
 wood, on the sky, to see it smoke along the face of the de- 
 clivity, with its long train of vapour, ascending, as from 
 a furnace, to mix with the mists of the mountain. It is a 
 noble sight too, to uncouple the rough deer hounds, to 
 bring the lofty animal to bay, to see him with his bacli to 
 
GLEN TILT, 469 
 
 the precipice, or perched on a rock in the midst of the 
 foaming torrent, looking disdainfully at the dogs, who, 
 afraid to advance on him, make the hills and valleys ring 
 with the echoes of their long and deep baying. Nor is 
 the last scene of all to be disdained ; when, after the mist 
 and the moor, the hot sun, the wild shower, and the keen 
 blast of the hills, the white towers of Blair are seen gleam- 
 ing in the last rays of the twilight, and when, amidst 
 splendour and plenty, surrounded by elegance and beauty, 
 the triumphant haunch is placed on the welcome table. 
 
 Thus much of the philosophy of Glen Tilt can be ap- 
 preciated by all the world. What remains, belongs to 
 those who seek their pleasures in other quarries than the 
 quarry of a wounded deer. The geology of Glen Tilt is 
 far too abstruse for you and me ; partners as we are in 
 the present adventure ; you to read, and 1 to write ; your 
 duty to read all that I do write, and mine to take care 
 that I write nothing which you may be tempted, most 
 ungratefully, to skip. He who would not be skipped, 
 must take care that he writes nothing skippable. But 
 beautiful marbles and beautiful specimens are every one's 
 business ; and in these Glen Tilt abounds. The quarries 
 that have been opened, render them visible to all. Is it 
 not odd that in this country of ours, the land of philoso- 
 phers and ologists of all kinds, the land of Huttonian 
 theories, and of disputes as fierce as ever were the homoi- 
 ousian and the homoousian squabbles. Glen Tilt should 
 have been made of marble, that it should have had bridges 
 of marble, and that its marbles should have remained un- 
 known, though the scenes of geological examinations and 
 dissertations without end, till I, even I, thought fit to fire 
 at an enormous stag three yards off and missed him. 
 Such, says the philosopher M'hose optical range is limited 
 to his nose, is the history of all discovery : Me look for a 
 
470 GLEN TILT. 
 
 mouse and we find a mountain. But such, says the 
 seaman, a truer philosopher, is the consequence of keep- 
 ing a bright eye to windward. Yet thus 1 missed the deer. 
 While the green marble of Glen Tilt is exceeded by few 
 foreign kinds in beauty, its minerals are also numerous and 
 beautiful ; including, among- many more, huge rocks of 
 that rare substance Salite, and the largest, the most splen- 
 did, and the most numerous varieties of that most brilliant 
 of minerals, Tremolite, which the world has ever produced. 
 If Glen Tilt displays, in its mountain torrents, the 
 power of water in cutting through solid rocks, these also 
 preserve some histories of past days, which, but for that 
 aid, might have slept in peace. Did I wish to preserve 
 my name for posterity, I would as lieve lose my puddings 
 at Alt na marag-, as be the incendiary of Ephesus. " That 
 is the pudding burn," said Mac Intyre the forester. I 
 thought of plum puddings or black puddings; I ought 
 to have been thinking perhaps of plum pudding stone; 
 but each way I should have been wrong. Cumin, (they 
 were all alike,) thinking it proper to envy Mac Intosh of 
 Tirinie, attacked him in his castle of Tomafuir, murdered 
 the family, and took possession of his estates. This is 
 what the admirers of the Highland Libitina call honour- 
 able warfare. But one child was saved by a tenant called 
 the Bigstone Carle, and placed under the care of Camp- 
 bell of Achnabreck in Argyllshire. It is pleasing to find 
 some good among all this bad. When Owen had grown 
 up, he proved to be an expert bowman, and proceeded to 
 Blair to revenge his father's death. Cumin was routed 
 and chased up Glen Tilt ; where, in the pursuit, one of 
 his followers, blowing his nose, (thus minute and Homeric 
 are the particulars,) it was shot off and fell into a stream, 
 now called Alt an sroin, the brook of the nose. "The 
 puddings of another," said Mac Intyre, were " let out" at 
 
GLEN TILT. 471 
 
 Alt namaiag. As to the Cumin himself, his hand was nailed 
 to his head by an arrow, as he was wiping the sweat from 
 his brow, and his cairn is still shewn at Loch Lochs. 
 
 At Forest Lodge, Glen Tilt becomes a bare valley, 
 bounded on both sides by steep and lofty hills; and thus 
 it continues for many miles, seeming almost to lengthen 
 as we go. From the upper part of this portion, it pre- 
 sents an extraordinary spectacle, prolonged almost be- 
 yond reach of the eye, an uniform^ deep, straight 
 section of the country ; a ditch to guard and separate a 
 world. Some parts of the road here are sufficiently 
 fearful to an unpractised traveller ; being a mere sheep 
 track along the side of the hill, high above the bottom 
 of the valley, and the declivity being so steep as to appear 
 like a precipice to the inexperienced. The ford of Tarff, 
 who is quite as furious and uncontroulable at times as 
 his horned namesake, will serve the purpose of drowning 
 a man, as effectually as any ford 1 ever saw in my 
 life. This seems to have been a favourite name for 
 rivers ; or a comparison at least : " sic tauriformis volvitur 
 Aufidus." He who escapes the bogs that lie between the 
 Tarff and the Dee, will do better than he who escapes 
 the Tarff alone ; and he who crosses all the fords of the 
 Dee in safety, will do best of all. Why there should be 
 so many fords on one river, I did not at first discover : a 
 wiser man will take care that he does not cross one of 
 these convolutions, till he is quite sure that he will not 
 be compelled to cross the second, and as many more as 
 shall happen ; and he will also keep an account of the 
 odd and even numbers, lest, like me, he finds himself, 
 after crossing four of them at the risk of his carcase, on 
 the same side of the river that he commenced from. 
 
 With all my efforts, and all my Pagan love of high 
 places, I cannot trace the springs of the Dee for you : 
 
472 !MA«. 
 
 I never could reach the summits of these mountains. 1 
 have been about and about them, many times ; but in 
 vain. I had calculated that all Highland impediments 
 were to consist in rain, and I never expected to find the 
 very grass of the mountains converted into dust. Far 
 and wide had I travelled before this, in search of High- 
 land dust, and often as I had been in Mar, I would 
 willingly have given gold dust, if I had had any to give, 
 for the dust Montaigne complained of, or for the clouds 
 which attended Lot and Belisent, " for the poudre of 
 whose charging, no might man see sonne shining." One 
 entire July month did I wait to see the dust of Mar. But 
 he that travels in the Highlands must learn to " make 
 content with his fortunes fit." At lengfth, however, the 
 shower ceased, or seemed to cease. I met a shepherd. 
 " Will it rain to-day." " Na,Sir, it's a fine day, — but it 
 rains here every day." Then you have no dust in this 
 country." — "Dust!" said the shepherd: enough, I 
 thought, and rode on. I arrived at Braemar. I was re- 
 ceived by the Maid, by Peggy : the ground was stream- 
 ing water through all its channels. " Pray did it rain 
 here yesterday." — " Oh no, Sir, it has not rained here 
 these many days." — " Why, then, are the roads so wet." 
 — " Oh, Sir, it rained last night." — Admirable distinction. 
 But at last Aquarius was departed and gone, to Fort 
 William, or elsewhere; the sky was burning and blue, 
 the grass itself was dust, the rivers had left their beds, 
 or remained at peace in their mountain springs, and the 
 waterfalls had ceased to roar. It is a trifle in the land- 
 scape that the waters under the firmament are all burnt 
 up, that the long grass of the lake is bleaching on its 
 hot shores, and the cascades mourning their fountains 
 dry. Let the rivers and lakes cream and mantle, and 
 the torrents run with stones. Let the Misses of Grosveuor 
 
CASTLKTOWN. 473 
 
 Square or Cranbouru Alley lament the emptiness of the 
 waterfalls, so that we are smothered in the dusty whirl- 
 wind, and that the dogs are lolling out their tongues and 
 running mad for want of water. Thus would I see the 
 Highlands ; and thus, at length, I saw Mar, even Mar. 
 It was in 1819. But it was as impossible to ascend the 
 hills as if they had been made of ice. Thus I was pre- 
 vented ascending Ben Avon and Lochan na gar by the 
 sun, as I had often before been prevented by mist and 
 rain. But the infant Dee is a bare and wild torrent 
 without interest. It is not till near Mar lodge, at the 
 rapids commonly called the Linn of Dee, that it begins 
 to assume any beauty; but hence, as far at least as Ban- 
 chory, it amply compensates for all former wants; being 
 rivalled by few of our rivers, while it resembles none. 
 While the structure of the landscape is marked by its 
 magnificence of design, it is no less distinguished by 
 its peculiarity. It is like nothing else. Neither the 
 Tay nor the Spey, in any of their numerous branches, 
 offer the least resemblance to it. Though the glen is 
 narrow and the mountains lofty, they are totally unlike 
 those which bound the Tumel or the Lyon; and though 
 the peculiarities of its character depend chiefly on the 
 fir and the birch which form its woods, these do not 
 here produce the same system of landscape as they do 
 about Rothiemurchus and Kinrara. Yet the Dee is un- 
 known, except to the citizens of Aberdeen, who come 
 here to wash off the rust of the counter and the smoke 
 of the shop, and who probably hold it in much the same 
 estimation as the cockneys do a trip to Margate or an 
 expedition to Richmond. 
 
 Before reaching Castletown from the west, the gene- 
 ral valley presents many splendid landscapes, of what 
 may be called vale scenery. Whatever of richness the 
 
474 CASTLETOWN, 
 
 straths formerly described may show, no one of them dis- 
 plays any where that wildly alpine boundary, at once dis- 
 tant and lofty, which characterizes the vale scenery of the 
 Dee. The river also, winding through green meadows, is 
 everywhere skirted by trees of various kinds, which, whe- 
 ther solitary or in groups, cover the plain. As they rise up 
 the steep acclivities of the hills, the oak and the ash give 
 way to birch and to fir, which continue upwards to the 
 very limits of vegetation, in all the wildness of nature; suc- 
 ceeded by precipices and rocks, where a few solitary strag- 
 glers are still seen, adding ornament to their grey faces and 
 deep hollows, and lightening the outline on the sky. 
 
 Castletown is a wild, straggling village, scattered 
 amid rocks and rapid streams, and among a confusion 
 of all kinds, that seems as if it had been produced by the 
 subversion and wreck of a former landscape. Those who 
 enter it in the night, for the first time, will wonder 
 where they are, and what is to happen next. After a 
 house, you meet a plain, or a hillock, or a rock, or a 
 thundering river; and then there is a house again, or a 
 mill, or a bridge, or a sawpit. You follow some jack-a- 
 lantern of a light, and when you think it is close at hand, 
 you find yourself separated by a ravine : all around you 
 are lights, you cannot conjecture where, with the roar- 
 ing of water, and the noises of saw-mills and fulling 
 mills, and when the village seems to be at an end three 
 or four times, it begins again. I thought of Sancho and 
 his mills more than once, and, when the day broke, was 
 not much less surprised than I had been in the night. 
 
 If I have told you how you may dine at Kinloch 
 Rannoch and elsewhere, I am bound in honour also to tell 
 you, that you may dine at Castletown, of a dinner that 
 Apiciushiaiself might have eaten, if he had ridden through 
 Glen Tilt hither, and forded all the crooks of Dee. I am 
 
CASTLETOWN. 476 
 
 of a very different opinion, as you have long seen, from 
 the old poet who says, " All wyes men will hald me 
 excusit, For never in land quhair Eriche was usit, To 
 dwell bad I delyte." There is abundance of " delyte" in 
 the Highlands ; even in their dinners, for those who do not 
 carry about them that which renders all appliances vaio. 
 The amiable Peggy who performs all the functions of this 
 place, was officious with her custards and her preserves, 
 and was mortified that I would not eat of them. Thus it 
 is ; when we were young and delighted in custard, we 
 were not allowed to eat it, and now that we are grown 
 old, and custard delights no longer, we may eat till we 
 burst. Thus, in other things than custard, by one false 
 system or other, the age of delight is made an age of 
 mortification, and when the period of inevitable mortifi- 
 cation is at length arrived, we are pestered with happi- 
 ness which we can no longer enjoy. There is no want of 
 plausible pretences to restrain the enjoyments in which 
 the happiness of childhood exclusively consists, by con- 
 finement, privation, study, punishment ; what not. But 
 we are to be tormented in early youth, that we may 
 better bear the disappointments which are to be our lot 
 hereafter. They will arrive soon enough : and is the well- 
 flogged breech less sensible to a kick than that which is 
 unprosodied, unannealed. Will not the head that ached 
 at fourteen, ache at forty also. And will the tooth indeed 
 live to be hollow to which the sugarcandy is forbidden. 
 It is not a matter of indifference whether the years of 
 childhood are spent in happiness or misery. Let the age 
 of tops and sugar plums have its adapted enjoyments : 
 the time will soon come when we shall say, I have no 
 pleasure in them. Is it that life is so filled with enjoy- 
 ment that our whole attention should be sedulously 
 turned to appropriate checks. But it is the dregs of the 
 
476 CASTLETOWN. 
 
 Ascetic system. Because we like wine we must drink 
 water: because we prefer a soft bed we must sleep on a 
 hard one, we must walk for exercise when we would 
 rather sit still, and eat horse because we delight in wood- 
 cock. And this is the road to heaven, say the Francis- 
 cans and the Flagellants. And Nature fabricates pine- 
 apples and venison and eiderdown to tempt us to our 
 destruction. There is a better and a better temperea 
 philosophy than this. There is — there will be a disserta- 
 tion if I do not stop ; and thus end my Meditations on a 
 custard. Harvey would have made more of it. 
 
 Notwithstanding the occasional deliberation of Peggy, 
 it is still a pleasure to find a female attendant in these 
 Highland inns, instead of the clumsy, half sober, half 
 dressed, male Highland animal who affects the manners 
 of a Bath waiter, — quantum distans, — and who is now 
 fast usurping the place so much better filled everywhere 
 by the charming sex. This affectation of quality here, 
 is most ludicrous : but it is amusing too to trace the pro- 
 gress of refinement, in this matter, as in every thing else. 
 In the primitive hostelry, the traveller who walks in at 
 night, wet and wearied, is received with civility and 
 treated with kindness. If he chance to come with a horse, 
 alacrity itself is exhausted for his reception. In the 
 second stage of refinement, the pedestrian is received 
 with coldness, and civility is reserved for the man who 
 rides or drives a horse ; while worship is paid to him who 
 comes in a chaise and pair. It is not long before the inn- 
 keeper learns to scan from head to foot the man who at- 
 tempts to walk into his inn : he who comes on a sole 
 horse must call the ostler twice, and the waiter is reserved 
 for him who drives boldly up in the sounding chaise. It 
 must thunder with four horses, however, before it can 
 bring the landlady and her whole establishment to the 
 
INVERCATJLD. 477 
 
 gate. As pride and wealth increase, the pedestrian is 
 refused admittance, the horseman, neglected, turns away 
 elsewhere, the chaise and pair drive to the other Lion, 
 the four horses are barely welcomed ; but the dignity of 
 the landlord is consoled by the barouche and four and 
 the coronet. In time, his ambition rises to two mounted 
 servants and an outrider, and the end is the Gazette and 
 *he King's Bench. 
 
 The castle of Braemar is perfectly French ; a pepper- 
 box square, with a high roof, and within a wall. It 
 would have no analogy to the scenery if it was even 
 Uiuch better supported than it is ; and standing, bare and 
 white, as it does, we can only wish it transported back 
 to its native country. It was occupied for King William, 
 burnt in Mar's rebellion, and was, I believe, afterwards a 
 barrack, as long as barracks were supposed to be neces- 
 sary. At Invercauld, the views are exceedingly fine. 
 Among many that might be named, those in which Loch- 
 an ua gar on one hand, and Ben y bourd on the other, 
 form the extreme distances, are perhaps the most strik- 
 ing. Finer mountain outlines cannot be imagined than 
 those in which the former hill is implicated : so graceful 
 is its pyramidal shape, and so beautifully contrasted 
 and varied are all the lines and forms of the mountains 
 out of which it rises, king of all ; while they seem to 
 cluster round it as the monarch of all the surrounding' 
 country. In the middle grounds, are the rich valley and 
 the windings of the Dee; its dark fir woods sweeping 
 along the sides of the hills, while the rocks and torrents 
 and precipices and trees, that surround us on all hands, 
 vary the landscape till we are almost weary of pursuing 
 it. The character of this scenery is much changed where 
 Ben y bourd bounds the distance; nor can we help ad- 
 miring how Nature contrives to produce grandeur from 
 
478 INVEUCAULD 
 
 forms the most opposite. This mountain, as its name 
 expresses, is a flat table ; yet so broad and simple are its 
 lines and its precipices, and so grand the long- sweeping 
 lines of the hills which support it, that it produces, with 
 the valley, a landscape not less grand than tbe very 
 different pyramidal composition in which Lochan na 
 gar is the principal object. At one point, where the two- 
 arched bridge of Dee becomes a main feature in the mid- 
 dle ground, the pictures are peculiarly complete and fine. 
 In all this part of the valley, the character of the 
 scenery is especially stamped by that of the fir woods ; 
 and yet that character is quite different from what these 
 confer on the scenes about the Spey. It is just what we 
 might imagine of Norwegian landscape, and we feel 
 as if no other tree could have suited the forms of 
 these hills, and the details of this country. With all 
 this, there is no air of heaviness or of formality ; nothing 
 that can for a moment remind us of the black, diugy, 
 solid, never-green forests of planted wood, no iron out- 
 lines that assimilate with nothing on earth or sky, no 
 murky files or clumps blotting the fair horizon. All is 
 ease and variety and grace, all is careless and wild. Even 
 the long ranks that are sometimes seen drawn up on the 
 mountain outline, are in place and in character: they 
 belong to the more extended forests below : and we are 
 sensible, that, to want them, would be for the picture to 
 want something; while we see too, how Nature contrives 
 to blend them with the general landscape, and to harmo- 
 nize the whole into one broken and ornamental forest, 
 by scattered trees, evanescent edges, and a thousand 
 delicacies which art can never hope to imitate. 
 
 In the closer scenery about this country, there is not 
 less to admire in a different style. There is a wildness in the 
 torrents and the rocks, that seems peculiarly appropriate 
 
MAR. 479 
 
 to the fantastic and bold forms of the ancient and noble 
 firs that are everywhere scattered about; or the imagi- 
 nation, which is always ready with its aid, makes us think 
 that all this is in harmony, and that we could not substi- 
 tute an oak for a fir without injury to the landscape. 
 Where the foaming- stream rushes down the mountain 
 amid huge blocks of granite, and all else around is the 
 brown heath, towering up towards the blue and far-off 
 precipice, some solitary tree that has stood the storms of 
 centuries, is seen raising* its rough and knotted trunk, 
 drooping its yellow branches and dark masses of foliage 
 over the water; and, in other places, a giant of the forest 
 spreads wide its fantastic and twisted arras, the chief of a 
 group which seems to have sought shelter from the winds 
 beneath its protection. Aloft on the precipice, long yield- 
 ing to the blasts, but still rooted against their utmost 
 force, some massive trunk stretches forth its tree-like 
 branches from the fury of the west ; a dark canopy of 
 shade, contrasted with the graceful and tall forms which 
 rise beneath the shelter of the rock, uniting the elegance 
 of the poplar and the cypress with the freedom and de- 
 licacy of the d.roopin^ birch. It is said, that there is no 
 solitude where tHeifefis a tieei > Sot^it Jsi not always thus. 
 Neither is the maxim true. There is no' perfect solitude 
 but by a specier.qfl Bu^flJ.* "nJefe mW^t^hfe some one pre- 
 sent to whoni'iris'a solitlrde ;*'6r*lt is* nothing. The lone 
 fir in the brojvn and. bai;e vall&y. ckf Ben Avon, where 
 nothing else J$.seep.:b95.th*eMi>t*ernijnable wide heath, 
 spread far around and above, lifeless and void, is solitude 
 itself: it is man in the desert ; it is the desert, because 
 there is a being to which it is a solitude. 
 
 It is among these hills, exclusively, that the blue 
 topaz and the beryl are found : but the latter is ex- 
 tremely rare. Of this mineral, Scotland may boast if it 
 
480 THE DEE. 
 
 pleases: but under cover of its name and of that of the 
 beryl, the jewellers of Edinburgh sell foreign stones of the 
 same kind at fanciful prices, as they do foreign amethysts 
 and garnets : while some have even offered theemerald as 
 the produce of Scotland. Itis not surprising if the country 
 people sometimes waste, in this pursuit, time that might 
 be better employed; since, as in the case of mining and 
 fisheries, there is a mixture of idleness and hope which 
 offers insuperable temptations to the not uncommon union 
 of indolence and avarice. It is gambling and the lottery 
 in another form. As to the lottery, in spite of moralists 
 and politicians, it is a noble invention. If Hope is the 
 great sweetener of life, how can we enough praise a con- 
 trivance by which that visionary entity is stored up in the 
 pigeon-holes of Messrs. Bish, and Goodluck, and Hazard; 
 to be retailed by the pound and the ounce, by the month, 
 the day, and the hour. 
 
 To see the rest of the Dee as it deserves, it is necessary 
 to follow both sides of the river : it is also preferable to 
 go from the east, as the landscape then faces us, gradually 
 improving till it terminates in the full blaze of Inver- 
 eauld. Abergeldie is peculiarly interesting, as are the 
 vale and the hill of Ballater;: no." indeed flp the beauties 
 of the Dee cease till it reaches the open country. Aboyne 
 yields to few places i<r,fhe:f^(ighlands for magnificence 
 and splendour. But 1 am in dang-fer of passing my bounds. 
 As to the northern ro^sd- by Ca^gaith, :nothing can well 
 be more dreary, nor is there gny tt^wiptation to explore 
 thatdistrict where the Highlands vanish into the Lowlands 
 of Aberdeenshire. 
 
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