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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 m* 
 
 v«* 
 
 
 WU 
 
 I 
 
SCOTTISH PICTURES 
 
 Drawn with Pen and Pencil 
 
 By SAMUEL G. GREEN, D. D., 
 
 Author of "french pictures," "pictures from the German fatherland," etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY EMINENT ARTISTS. 
 
 AFTON WATER. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 56 Paternoster Row, 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 and 164 Piccadilly. 
 
LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
CARRON SIDE 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A friend who has read these pages while passing through the press has 
 suggested that the brighter side of a visit to Scotland is too exclusively 
 given — that more stress ought to have been laid on the probabilities of bad 
 weather, and the miseries of a " Scotch mist " ; that a word of warning 
 might not have been misplaced as to the dearness of Highland hotels, and 
 the high rates charged for posting ; and that English readers might have 
 been put on their guard as to the uncompromising temper and blunt address 
 of some with whom they would have to do. Well, all these points have to 
 be considered ; and yet with every drawback, the delight remains. Even 
 broken weather has its intervals, the brighter and more exhilarating for the 
 storm or mist that has preceded ; while no lover of the sublime and beautiful 
 would willingly exchange the grandeurs and terrors of the mountain gloom, 
 even for days of unclouded sunshine. But, as a matter of fact, I can 
 attest from the experience of many a tour, the weather is seldom or never 
 so bad for long together as absolutely to prevent, or even greatly to injure 
 enjoyment. Then as to the other criticisms : it must be admitted that, unless 
 a traveller is very wary and thrifty, he will not find a tour in Scotland the 
 most economical form of enjoyment. Something is to be said in excuse for 
 high charges, when the season is necessarily so short ; yet I confess I have 
 found things much the same out of the season, when there has been no 
 competitive rush of tourists. There is room for improvement in some places 
 that might be mentioned ; and it is satisfactory to learn, on the high 
 authority of Mr. J. B. Baddeley, 1 that the Scottish hotel system is decidedly 
 
 * The Northern Highlands and Islands ("Thorough Guide" Series). London, 1883. p. xiii. 
 
 =-=•>>» r\i\* »» 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 improving, in this and other respects. For those who do not care to travel 
 from place to place, the great Hydropathic establishments in almost every 
 popular resort afford attractions hardly anywhere to be surpassed. 
 
 It is no part of our business to institute comparisons between Scotland 
 and other countries, in their attraction for tourists. We can but say that 
 it is something to be able to travel where there is no sea to cross, no 
 Custom House to annoy, no foreign tongue with whose difficulties to grapple, 
 no distraction to interfere with the calm enjoyment of the Lord's Day ; where 
 there is enough of difference from ordinary English life to give the charm of 
 novelty, with enough of resemblance to show that we are still at home. 
 The climate, too, in every bracing quality must be declared unsurpassed, 
 even in the Alps ; and there can hardly be a fresher, fuller glow of health 
 than that which is imparted by a stay at Strathpeffer or Castleton in 
 Braemar ; while such marine resorts as Rothesay, Whiting Bay, Nairn, and 
 many others, combine with these invigorating elements all the charms of 
 the seaside for those who welcome its purer enjoyments apart from the 
 intrusion of a noisy crowd. Of the delights of the Western Coast, with its 
 sea lochs, cliffs and islands, to all who love the sea, and can enjoy a cruise, 
 even when the waters are stormy, enough, but not too much, has been said 
 in the following pages. Mr. William Black has portrayed for multitudes of 
 readers the glories of yachting excursions amid these scenes ; and even to 
 the many, who must confine themselves to the steamers which leave the 
 Clyde for these coasts continually all the summer through, there is hardly 
 a form of enjoyment more exquisite or more health giving. In this respect 
 at least, a Scottish excursion surpasses any other attainable in these 
 latitudes. 
 
 The following pages contain memorials of several tours in Scotland, 
 undertaken at different periods of the year ; and it may honestly be certified 
 that some of the most delightful of these were made " out of the season." 
 In spring, the snow lingers on the mountain summits long after the valleys 
 are bright with verdure and with flowers, and many a prospect in April and 
 May is Alpine in its variety and splendour. June is generally a month of 
 surpassing beauty in the Highlands ; but there are few, save a few fishers, 
 to behold the loveliness. We English people have mostly to defer our 
 holidays until the year has past its prime, and, save for the blossoming 
 heather, the charms of wood and moor and mountain glen are already 
 beginning to wane. The " swift steamers" and coaches, indeed, are in many 
 cases not placed upon their several routes until the middle of July, and the 
 railway trains are mostly slow. 
 
 These public conveyances, while, of course the most economical, are also 
 generally the most enjoyable means of effecting a tour in Scotland — save 
 indeed for the pedestrian, who, in noble independence, can strike up 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 mountain glens or lose himself on untrodden heights at his own sweet will. 
 But the truth is that the coach routes, and to some extent the railroads 
 also, traverse much of the finest scenery of the country. The admirable 
 roads constructed through the Highlands by General Wade's soldiers in the 
 early part of the last century (i 726-1 737) were but the beginning of a system 
 by which the Highlands have been pierced in almost all directions, and 
 wild regions opened up once declared inaccessible. On General Wade's 
 bridge over the river Tay, a somewhat grandiloquent inscription was placed 
 in good Latin, which may be Englished thus : 
 
 " Behold with wonder this Military Way, extended by various Passes, 250 miles beyond 
 the Roman limits : triumphing over fens and morasses ; levelled through rocks and mountains, 
 and carried on, as you now see it, in spite of the River Tay (indignanti Tavo). This 
 arduous work, G. Wade, commander of the forces in Scotland, brought to perfection by his 
 great judgment and ten years' labour of his soldiers in the year of our Lord 1738. Of 
 such mighty efficacy are the Royal Auspices of George the Second 1 " 
 
 A more expressive tribute to what was really a great enterprise was in 
 the distich, rather Hibernian than Scottish in tone : 
 
 " Had you seen these roads before they were made, 
 You'd lift up your hands and bless General Wade ! " 
 
 The railroads, too, in some of the fairest and grandest scenes of 
 Scotland, cannot be said even by the most determined votaries of the 
 picturesque to have destroyed the charm. In truth, the thin line creeping 
 along the margin of some stupendous mountain, as in the Pass of Brander, 
 or along Glen Ogle, or amid the heights encircling Strathpeffer, is altogether 
 too inconsiderable to disturb the effect of the scenery. There is nothing 
 intrusive, as there would be, for instance, in many parts of the English Lake 
 District : while, for the travellers themselves, I do not know journeys more 
 replete with charm than the railway routes from Callander to Oban, or from 
 Dingwall to Strome Ferry. Parts of the Highland railway, especially in its 
 downward slope, where it skirts the river Spey, are also surpassingly beauti- 
 ful. On the whole, the tourist has reason to be grateful for the facilities 
 provided, and the votary of the beautiful may restrain his protest. 
 
 Yet of course the paths which lie away from the possibilities of travel 
 by railroad or by coach, will to many form the greatest attraction, as they 
 have the most inexhaustible variety. The Highlands of Scotland have 
 always something new, in every direction, no matter how often the visitor 
 may have explored their recesses. Few persons who have not travelled in 
 this country have any idea of the immense multitude of the mountain 
 heights, of the lochs and glens and streams. Every one knows about Ben 
 Nevis and Ben Lomond ; but there are more than twenty mountains 
 intervening between these two in height. Lochnagar has been made 
 familiar by Byron's poem and by association with Her Majesty's Highland 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 home : Cairngorm, again, is known to have something to do with pebbles : 
 but who, except those who have wandered among the Grampians, have any 
 idea of Brae-Riach or Ben Muich-Dhui ? Yet these, with Ben Lawers, Ben 
 More, Ben Cruachan, Schiehallion, Ben Wyvis and Ben Vorlich, all surpass 
 Ben Lomond in height, and all have grandeurs and beauties of their own. 
 Then there are the countless lower hill-ranges, often surpassing their 
 mightier brethren in grace of outline and in woodland richness. The 
 "waters" that spring from their slopes and become tributary to one or 
 
 JOHN KNOX — (from the Painting in the National Portrait Gallery). 
 
 other of the great rivers that seek the German Ocean — the Forth, the 
 Tay, the Dee, the Spey — have many a nook of inexpressible charm, while 
 the broad "straths," through which these rivers pursue the lower part of 
 their course, are lovely in their luxuriance. Many a loch and lochlet too, 
 besides these which every one visits, have beauties little if at all inferior : 
 and how numerous are these sheets of water may be seen in the Sportsman s 
 Guide, which contains the names of 1037 separate lochs — many of them, 
 no doubt, mere tarns among the hills; and of 11 66 rivers, large and small. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the Lowlands, also, there are some Highland beauties, as shown farther 
 on in this book, with many a charm peculiar to themselves. In fact, it is 
 impossible to select a tour which shall not have its fascinations to lovers of 
 the beautiful. Of the historical and antiquarian interest attached to many- 
 spots, little need be said. Some of these associations will be found touched 
 upon in the following pages : but the topic would require a volume to 
 itself. A few renowned names, ancient and modern, necessarily occur in any 
 book that treats on Scotland ; Knox and Scott and Burns could not fail 
 of mention : nor, on other grounds, Mary Queen of Scots, nor the young 
 11 Pretender." But such references are fragmentary, and connected chiefly 
 with localities that suggest the names. 
 
 Nor have we attempted to sketch the character of the Scottish people, 
 with personal anecdotes and reminiscences. Other writers have done this 
 with distinguished success ; and after Dean Ramsay, and one or two who 
 have followed him, there can be little to say. This volume of Pictures is 
 intended to deal chiefly with external aspects, such as might strike any 
 observant traveller. No one indeed can fail to be struck with certain salient 
 peculiarities, such as a bluntness and independence, which mean not rude- 
 ness, but genuine respect to the worthy, with a caution that is not cunning 
 because it is so frank, and withal a genuine, kindly humour. I know indeed 
 that high authorities have denied to Caledonians the credit of wit. Has it not 
 been said, ." It requires a surgical operation to get a joke into a Scotchman ? " 
 " Maybe," retorted one, " it was an English joke that Mr. Smith was meaning ! " 
 A high intelligence will be found in all classes — the result in part of the 
 school system which has prevailed in Scotland through many generations, 
 and in part of the Biblical training of the people through the ministrations 
 of their churches, and the general familiarity with the dialectics of eccle- 
 siastical and theological controversy. This familiarity no doubt has its 
 unfavourable side : but, on the whole, it has deepened seriousness and 
 quickened intelligence. A stranger in one of the towns soon feels in little 
 things that he has reached a higher level. The first man of whom he asks 
 his way will probably direct him according to the points of the compass. " Go 
 a hundred yards farther to the west : then take the turn to the north," and 
 so on. I have, on the other hand, repeatedly directed London cabmen to set 
 me down on the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard, and the general reply has 
 been, " Which side is that, Sir, right or left?" No Scotch driver would ever 
 be at such a loss in Edinburgh or Glasgow, Dundee or Aberdeen. 
 
 The reader may probably expect to find the volume, like others treating of 
 Scotland, embellished with peculiarities of dialect. These have, however, been 
 purposely disregarded. Masters of the art, like Burns, Scott, or, I may add, 
 Dr. George Macdonald, may indulge this freedom. An Englishman generally 
 fails; and to a practised Scottish eye, the " dialect" appears only a series of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 awkward misspellings. What is gained by writing lang for long, aits for oats, 
 or even fa! for fall ? Possibly the maybe, in the little criticism just quoted 
 on Sydney Smith, ought to have been aiblins ; but it is best to write only in 
 a tongue of which one is sure. At the same time there are words in 
 constant Scottish use which can never sound even to our ears quite like their 
 English synonyms. A brae is more than a slope, and a loch is different some- 
 how from a lake (apart from the application of the word to an inlet of the 
 sea) ; laverock is a more musical name than lark ; Untie than linnet ; gowan than 
 daisy ; the birks of Aberfeldy suggest to us more than the Aberfeldy birch- 
 trees ; while the fond charm of the bonnie wee thing has almost evaporated 
 in little and pretty. We do not pretend to account for this ; the fact is 
 certainly so. I shall not soon forget the sense of strangeness with which I 
 once saw the word brae applied to a steep, unsavoury street in the closest 
 part of Glasgow. It seemed a desecration ! 
 
 But on the tempting subject of language we must not now enter. 
 One interesting application of the topic will be the elucidation of many 
 hundreds of proper names ; but for this the excellent Glossaries given by 
 Murray, Black, or Baddeley must be consulted. There is a history in these 
 Gaelic and Norse appellations ; as interesting and suggestive in its way as 
 we have in another set of words relating to articles in common use, and 
 pointing to olden connections between Scotland and France ; an association to 
 which perhaps few give any thought when they call an earthern dish an 
 ashet (assiette), or speak of a leg of mutton as a jigget (gigot). 
 
 It only remains to express the cordial acknowledgments of the writer and of the Tract Society to 
 Messrs. Valentine & Co., Dundee, for allowing to their draughtsmen the use of their excellent photo- 
 graphs, in sketching the frontispiece to this work, as also the views of the Trossachs (p. 98), of Oban 
 (p. 64), and of John 0' Groat's (p. 194). A similar permission has been as kindly granted by Messrs. 
 G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen, for permission to copy their view of the Martyrs' Memorial in the 
 Greyfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh (p. 42), to employ their photograph of Ben Nevis (p. 78), and to 
 use some of their Ross and Sutherlandshire views in the last chapter. 
 
 KILMUIR KIRKYARD, SKYE (WHERE FLORA MACDONALD WAS BURIED). 
 

 BALMORAL FROM THE MEADOWS. 
 
 fiti of |Iittstratiflttf 
 
 Flowerdale, Gairloch, Ross-shire . -. Frontispiece 
 
 Afton Water, Ayrshire ......... 
 
 Carron Side . . . . . ' • • • • 
 
 John Knox {from the Painting in the National Portrait Gallery) . 
 Kilmuir Kirkyard, Skye (where Flora Macdonald was buried) . 
 Lasswade Church . > . * . 
 
 Balmoral from the Meadows • 
 
 Ailsa Craig ........... 
 
 Title 
 
 xui 
 
 XV 
 
 o>«c 
 
 Acf(0£3 the Border: to Edjjmbu^qh >nd 
 
 .QtAjsqow. 
 
 Bothwell Castle, on the Clyde [frontispiece) . page 2 
 The Braes of Yarrow .' . . . 3 
 
 Roslin Castle ...... 3 
 
 Dunbar' Castle ...... 5 
 
 The Bass Rock : Waiting for the Homeward Bound 7 
 The Bass Rock : Distant View . . . 9 
 
 Tantallon Castle . . . . . .10 
 
 Colonel Gardiner's Monument ... 11 
 
 Melrose Abbey, from the River . . .13 
 
 Dryburgh Abbey ..... 13 
 
 Abbotsford . . . . • • • 14 
 
 Abbotsford : the Drawing-room ... 15 
 
 Abbotsford: the Study . 
 
 Abbotsford: the Library 
 
 Abbotsford : the Armoury 
 
 Hawthornden . • 
 
 Roslin Chapel, with the 'Prentice Pillar 
 
 Habbies' Howe . 
 
 Stonebyres Falls .... 
 
 Covenanters' Monument . • 
 
 The Martyrs' Grave 
 
 On the Doon . 
 
 The Auld Brig of Doon . 
 
 page 15 
 16 
 16 
 18 
 
 14 
 
 28. 
 
 30 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 OjUJVlPJSEg Of EdIJXBURQH AjMD QjLAJSQOW. 
 
 Holyrood Palace and Chapel, with Arthur's Seat 
 
 (frontispiece) ..... page 32 
 
 Edinburgh, from "Rest and be Thankful" . . 33 
 
 Birthplace of Lord Brougham, Cowgate, Edinburgh 34 
 Staircase, Holyrood . . . . . 34 
 
 Castle and Grassmarket, Edinburgh . . 36 
 
 Magdalen Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh . -37 
 
 Riddel's Court, Edinburgh, where Hume began to 
 
 write his History ..... 38 
 
 John Knox's Study . . . . -38 
 
 Signing the Covenant, Greyfriars Churchyard . 40 
 
 Knox's Grave . . . . . -41 
 
 The Covenant Stone ..... 41 
 
 Covenanters' Monument, Giey friars Churchyard . 42 
 
 Head of West Bow, Edinburgh . . . page 44 
 
 Craigcrook Castle, Residence of Jeffrey . . 45 
 
 Knox's Pulpit . . . . . .46 
 
 Queen's Park, Edinburgh : Review of Scottish 
 
 Volunteers, August 7, i860 . . 
 
 Choir of St. Giles's Cathedral . . . 
 
 Leith Harbour ...... 
 
 View from the Burns Monument, Calton Hill . 
 Linlithgow Palace ..... 
 
 Queen Margaret's Bower, Linlithgow . 
 Queen Margaret's Bower, Linlithgow (interior) 
 St. Michael's Well, Linlithgow . 
 Glasgow University . 
 
 47 
 
 49 
 50 
 52 
 53 
 54 
 54 
 55 
 56 
 
 By the Clyde, to the We£tef(n Coajst. 
 
 Arran {frontispiece) 
 
 Dumbarton Rock 
 
 The Clyde, Dumbarton . 
 
 Loch Ranza .... 
 
 Goat Fell, from Brodick Bay . 
 
 Oban 
 
 Iona ..... 
 
 The Shore of Iona 
 
 Staffa: with the "Giant's Colonnade 
 
 Fingal's Cave .... 
 
 Fingal's Cave, from the Entrance 
 
 Fingal's Cave, from the Interior . 
 
 Glencoe: the Road . . 
 
 Glencoe: a Wild Day 
 
 Ben Nevis .... 
 
 58 
 59 
 
 6a 
 
 62 
 63 
 
 64 
 66 
 68 
 70 
 7 1 
 73 
 74 
 75 
 76 
 78 
 
 Section of the Ascent, by Mr. Clement Wragge, w 
 the Successive Stations ... 
 
 Diagram of the Summit, showing the Posit 
 the Huts and Instruments . . 
 
 Plan of the Route up the Mountain 
 
 Summit of Ben Nevis, from a Photograph 
 
 Hebridean Fisher's Hut . . 
 
 Marscow from Scuir-na-Gillean . . 
 
 Loch Coruisk .... 
 
 The Quiraing, Skye . . . 
 
 Huts in Uig, Lewis, inhabited 1859 
 
 Huts at Ness in the Butt of Lewis . 
 
 An Open-air Service in Skye 
 
 Cape Wrath ..... 
 
 Funeral in Glen Outil, Skye. 
 
 of 
 
 79 
 80 
 81 
 
 8.3 
 86 
 88 
 9° 
 9* 
 92 
 
 93 
 95 
 96 
 
 Thf(ouqh the Western HiQHfc^Djs. 
 
 Through the Trossachs " where twines the path " 
 {frontispiece) ....... 
 
 " The deep Trossachs' wildest nook " 
 
 " The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill " 
 
 Loch Katrine, with Ellen's Isle . 
 
 The Silver Strand, Loch Katrine 
 
 Pass of Beal-nam-bo ..... 
 
 99 
 100 
 
 Ben Venue . . . . . 
 
 In Glen Dochart . . . . 
 
 Head of Loch Awe and Kilchurn Castle 
 Lower Fall of Foyers . . 
 
 Loch Maree, with Ben Slioch . 
 " Land of the mountain and the flood " 
 
 i°5 
 107 
 109 
 112 
 
 "3 
 114 
 
 The Ce^tf^al 
 
 Relics of Birnam Wood (frontispiece) 
 
 View from Stirling Castle . 
 
 The Bore Stone, Bannockburn 
 
 Windings of the Forth 
 
 Stirling Castle 
 
 Wallace Monument, Stirling 
 
 Dunblane Cathedral 
 
 Carse of Gowrie. . 
 
 Larches at Dunkeld 
 
 Loch Turrit 
 
 Hermitage Bridge . 
 
 Birks of Aberfeldy 
 
 Glen Tilt 
 
 HlQHJLAND^: j^TJFiU^Q TO 
 
 Inverne;3£. 
 
 116 
 117 
 118 
 
 120 
 
 122 
 
 123 
 
 124 
 124 
 
 126 
 127 
 
 129 
 131 
 134 
 
 Bruar Water . . . . . . 135 
 
 Loch Rulcht and Cairngorm .... 137 
 
 The Grampians as seen from Aviemore: Rothie- 
 
 murchus Forest in the middle distance . 141 
 
 Elgin Cathedral ...... 143 
 
 On the Findhorn ..... 144 
 
 View from the Ladies' Walk, Grantown, Speyside 145 
 On the Findhorn ...... 147 
 
 Dulsie Bridge ...... 147 
 
 Cawdor Castle ...... 148 
 
 Culloden Moor ...... 150 
 
 Mouth of Nairn Harbour in the Flood of 1829 . 152 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Eastern Coa3t AJ^ d Deejside. 
 
 Curling {frontispiece) .... page 154 
 
 Banks of the Devon, near Rumbling Bridge . 15s 
 Loch Leven ....... 156 
 
 Royal Palace, Dunfermline .... 157 
 
 St. Andrews ....... IS9 
 
 St. Andrews Cathedral: West Front . . 160 
 
 Priory Gateway, St. Andrews .... 161 
 
 The Tay Bridge, prior to December 28, 1879 . 162 
 Dundee . . . . • • .163 
 
 Triumphal Arch, Dundee .... 163 
 
 Bell Rock Lighthouse .... page 164 
 Dr. Guthrie's House, Loch Lee . . . 165 
 
 Loch Lee Churchyard ..... 166 
 
 Old Aberdeen 168 
 
 Lochnagar ....... 170 
 
 Balmoral Castle, from the River . . . 173 
 
 Scene in the Grampians : Fair Weather . . 178 
 
 Scene in the Grampians: Stormy . . . 179 
 
 Linn of Dee ....... 181 
 
 Bridge over Sluggan Water, near Braemar . 183 
 
 To the Far North. 
 
 Sunday on the Northern Coast: Going home 
 {frontispiece') . . , . . 
 
 Kirkabister Lighthouse . 
 
 St. Duthus' Church, Tain 
 
 " Murray's Pulpit," Tain .... 
 
 Suilven-Assynt, near Lochinver . . . 
 
 Ben Stack, near Scourie .... 
 
 Dunrobin Castle ..... 
 
 Badgall Bay, Edrachills ; on the Western Coast 
 
 " John o' Groat's " .... 
 
 Smoo Cave, near Durness ; on the Northern 
 Coast ....... 
 
 187 
 187 
 188 
 190 
 191 
 192 
 
 193 
 
 194 
 
 Aultnagealgach, Sutherlandshire . . . 196 
 
 Stack Polly, from Loch Lurgan, Ccigach, West 
 Sutherland ..... 
 
 Loch Sheanaskaig, West Sutherlandshire 
 
 Fair Isle; the "Sheep Craig" 
 
 Fair Isle ; " Shaldi Cliff" 
 
 Lerwick ...... 
 
 " Giant's Leg," Noss .... 
 
 The Holm of Noss .... 
 
 Handa Islands : above Scourie Bay, Sutherlandshire 205 
 The Linn of Quoich, Btaemar . . . 206 
 
 197 
 
 203 
 204 
 
 
 AILSA CRAIG. 
 
" In the history of Scotland, too, I can find properly but one epoch : we may say, it 
 contains nothing of world-interest at all but this Reformation by Knox. A poor barren 
 country, full of continual broils, dissensions, massacrings ; a people in the last state of 
 rudeness and destitution, little better perhaps than Ireland at this day. Hungry fierce 
 barons, not so much as able to form any arrangement with each other Jioiv to divide what 
 they fleeced from these poor drudges ; but obliged, as the Columbian Republics are at this 
 day, to make of every alteration a revolution ; no way of changing a ministry but by 
 hanging the old ministers on gibbets : this is a historical spectacle of no very singular 
 significance ! * Bravery ' enough, I doubt not ; fierce fighting in abundance : but not 
 braver or fiercer than that of their old Scandinavian Sea-king ancestors ; whose exploits 
 we have not found worth dwelling on ! It is a country as yet without a soul : nothing 
 developed in it but what is rude, external, semi-animal. And now at the Reformation, 
 the internal life is kindled, as it were, under the ribs of this outward material death. 
 A cause, the noblest of causes kindles itself, like a beacon set on high ; high as Heaven, 
 yet attainable from Earth ; — whereby the meanest man becomes not a Citizen only, but 
 a Member of Christ's visible Church ; a veritable Hero, if he prove a true man ! " 
 
 " This that Knox did for his Nation, I say, we may really call a resurrection as 
 from death. It was not a smooth business ; but it was welcome surely, and cheap at 
 that price, had it been far rougher. On the whole, cheap at any price; — as life is. 
 The people began to live: they needed first of all to do that, at what cost and costs 
 soever. Scotch Literature and Thought, Scotch Industry ; James Watt, David Hume, 
 Walter Scott, Robert Burns : I find Knox and the Reformation acting in the heart's 
 core of every one of these persons and phenomena ; I find that without the Reforma- 
 tion they would not have been." 
 
 Carlyle's Lectures on Heroes and Hero Worship, IV. 
 
ftCT=(Ogg THE BO^PE^: 
 TO RDINBU^QH ftNP QLftgQOW. 
 
 <L3 
 
THE BRAES OF YARROW. 
 
 ACK0$3 THE BOKDEK: TO EDINBURGH AND 
 
 Qkftpqow, . 
 
 "Por practical purposes, a pleasure tour in 
 ■f Scotland generally begins with Edin- 
 burgh or Glasgow. Travellers are too much 
 in haste to reach the Highlands to spare 
 time for the Border, renowned though it be 
 in song and story ; or to take any leisurely 
 survey of the country that lies between the 
 last towns left on the English side, and the 
 two great Scottish cities. Yet this country 
 is worth visiting in every part of it, for its 
 own sake, and for that of its memories. 
 Draw a straight line across from Greenock 
 to Leith, and south of it, from east to west, 
 will be found much, if not most, that is 
 associated with the chief glories of Scotland. 
 The tourist may well then linger ; and it is 
 hard to say which particular route will prove 
 of the highest interest. There is the Eastern line, by the coast of the Firth 
 of Forth : and the Western, which crosses the Solway Frith near Carlisle. 
 
 ROSLIN CASTLE. 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 Travellers again by the latter may strike across to Edinburgh by the 
 11 Waverley Route," or may follow the course of the infant Clyde by way of 
 Carstairs Junction, or may take the South-western line to Glasgow by the 
 dales of the Annan and the Nith. We have travelled by all these lines in 
 turn, and have found in every one a special charm. In picturesqueness 
 perhaps the palm must be conceded to the route by the East coast, on which, 
 from the first glimpse of Berwick-upon-Tweed, with its encircling wall, its 
 high red roofs, and its houses seeming from the railway above to be crowded 
 together on the steep river's bank, every mile is full of charm ; especially 
 where the line is carried along the verge of the cliff, with the noble expanse 
 of the German Ocean full in view, or where, diverging inland, it passes through 
 the rich pastures and great cornfields of Haddingtonshire (or East Lothian 1 ), 
 throughout which, down to the close-cropped hedges, economising arable 
 space, everything speaks of high farming on a kindly soil. 
 
 The traveller may do worse than stay for a night, or, as the writer did 
 on one occasion, pass a quiet Sabbath, at Dunbar, with its old shattered 
 castle on a rocky brow, in which time and weather and the hand of man 
 have wrought such havoc, that it is hard to distinguish the foundations of the 
 fabric from the rugged cliff, or to decide which of the underground recesses 
 are ocean-hollowed caves, and which are ancient castle crypts. Here was 
 spent the strange sad honeymoon of Bothwell and Mary : and with this the 
 history of the fortress really ends, as the pile was soon afterwards reduced 
 to a ruin by the Queen's half-brother, the Regent Murray. The precincts 
 of the castle now form a fine recreation ground for the week-day use of the 
 people : on the Sabbath, it was observable that chains were drawn across the 
 swing-gates at the entrances — showing that we were in Scotland. The chains, 
 however, it may be remarked, were there rather by way of testimony, than 
 as a material hindrance ; not a few graceless urchins having climbed over 
 them, without let or hindrance, into the enclosure. But upon the whole, the 
 stillness and peacefulness of the day were very refreshing. I remarked here, 
 what afterwards became so noticeable in many a Scottish town, the peculiar 
 resonant tramp of feet on the pavement at the time of the services. There 
 was little or no sound of wheels to break the effect, rendered more impres- 
 sive by the contrast of the previous silence. It was pleasant to join in the 
 worship of the Free Church, led by a pastor, hale though venerable, who 
 had been one of the seceders in 1843, and had ever since that stormy time 
 held on his useful way in this quiet little town. In the course of the services 
 there was a pathetic allusion to the fewness of the survivors of that great 
 conflict. Some of us remember it all so well, and it is already history ! 
 These forty years, it is not too much to say, have revolutionised the religious 
 life of Scotland ; not simply by the organisation and the vigorous work of 
 
 1 Englishmen are often perplexed about the Lothians, especially at election-times. Is it superfluous to inform 
 some readers that Haddingtonshire is East Lothian, Linlithgowshire West Lothian, and Edinburghshire Mid Lothian ? 
 4 
 
LAMMERMOOR. 
 
 another ecclesiastical community, but by the new vigour inbreathed into all 
 the churches. 
 
 Much in the neighbourhood of Dunbar invited a longer stay, had it been 
 possible. To the south-east there is the undulating pastoral district of 
 Lammermoor — scene of Sir Walter Scott's most tragic story, the localities 
 of which are all duly pointed out. Wolf's Crag, the home of the Master of 
 
 DUNBAR CASTLE. 
 
 Ravenswood, famous for the humours and the devices of Caleb Balderstone, 
 is unquestionably recognisable in Fast Castle, on a wild promontory to the 
 east. Not far from the town again is the battle-field, where, in 1650, 
 Cromwell defeated the Scottish army, under General Leslie. Readers of 
 Carlyle's Cromwell will recollect the careful accuracy with which the locality is 
 sketched : 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 " The small town of Dunbar stands high and windy, looking down over 
 its herring-boats, over its grim old castle, now much honey-combed, on one 
 of those projecting rock-promontories with which that shore of the Firth of 
 Forth is niched and vandyked, as far as the eye can reach. A beautiful 
 sea ; good land too, now that the plougher understands his trade ; a grim 
 niched barrier of whinstone sheltering it from the chafings and tumblings of 
 the big blue German Ocean. Seaward, St. Abb's Head, of whinstone, 
 bounds your horizon to the east, not very far off; west, close by, is the 
 deep bay and fishy little village of Belhaven, the gloomy Bass and other 
 rock islets, and farther the hills of Fife and foreshadows of the Highlands 
 ere visible as you look seaward. From the bottom of Belhaven Bay, to 
 that of the next sea-bight St. Abb's-ward, the town and its environs form a 
 peninsula. Along the base of which peninsula, ' not much above a mile and 
 a half from sea to sea,' Oliver Cromwell's army, on Monday, the 2nd of Sep- 
 tember, 1650, stands ranked, with its tents and town behind it — in very forlorn 
 circumstances." l 
 
 The description, as we know from Carlyle's biography, was the result of 
 careful personal examination, and in the Letters of Mrs. Carlyle we read of 
 the author's visit, and his windy walk over the high plain. Equally striking 
 is the battle picture. "' I never saw such a charge of foot and horse,' says 
 one ; nor did I. Oliver was still near to Yorkshire Hodgson, when the shock 
 succeeded. Hodgson heard them say, 'They run! I profess they run.' And 
 over St. Abb's Head, and the German Ocean, just then, bursts the first gleam 
 of the level sun upon us, ' and I heard Nol say, in the words of the Psalmist, 
 " Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered," ' or in Rous's metre, 
 
 ' Let God arise, and scattered 
 Let all His enemies be ; 
 And let all those that do Him hate 
 Before His presence flee ! ' 
 
 * Even so, the Scotch army is shivered to utter ruin ; rushes in tumultuous 
 wreck, hither, thither, to Belhaven, or, in their distraction, even to Dunbar; 
 the chase goes as far as Haddington, led by Hacker. ' The Lord General 
 made a halt,' says Hodgson, ' and sang the hundred and seventeenth psalm,' 
 till our horse could gather for the chase. Hundred and seventeenth psalm, 
 at the foot of the Doon hill. Then we uplift it, to the tune of Bangor, or 
 some still higher score, and roll it strong and great against the sky: 
 
 ' O give ye praise unto the Lord 
 All nati-ons that be 
 Likewise ye people all, accord 
 His name to magnify ! 
 
 11 And now, to the chase again ! " 
 
 For great to us-ward ever are 
 His loving-kindnesses ; 
 
 His truth endures for evermore ; 
 The Lord O do ye bless.' 
 
 1 Oliver CromwclFs Letters and Speeches, with Elucidations. Introduction to Letters cxxxix-cxlvi. 
 6 
 
DUNBAR TO NORTH BERWICK. 
 
 The remembrance of it survives in the local popular name of the battle : 
 Tuesday s Race, from the day of the week on which it was fought, and from 
 the hurry of the flight and pursuit which followed. 
 
 Out at sea the Bass Rock is grandly in sight, and those who have 
 visited it describe the excursion as very pleasant. The enormous flight of 
 sea-birds when disturbed by visitors or by the firing of a gun, is very 
 wonderful. The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a rocky promontory nearly 
 opposite, and at a short distance from the pretty sea-bathing resort of 
 North Berwick. Apparently corresponding to the Bass Rock are the inland 
 craggy hills peculiar to this district, and termed Laws. North Berwick Law 
 is one of the most commanding of these heights. Traprain Law is another, 
 
 THE BASS ROCK : DISTANT VIEW. 
 
 near Linton station, inland, and not far from Hailes Castle, where Mary and 
 Bothwell lived for a time before the surrender of the former at Carberry 
 Hill. The country people say that the name "Traprain Law" was derived 
 from this capture, as it was thereabouts that la reine was trapped. Not a 
 bad illustration of the way in which etymologies are made ! 
 
 Nearer Edinburgh, on the same line, is another battle-field, at which we 
 may pause with interest. It is at Preston Pans (the pans, for getting salt 
 by evaporation) where Prince Charles Stuart defeated the King's troops 
 under Sir John Cope, on the 21st of September, 1745. It was chiefly this 
 delusive gleam of success which encouraged the Young Pretender to march 
 southward, to his ruin ; but the chief interest of the scene to ourselves is 
 that Colonel James Gardiner fell in the skirmish, for it was little more. We 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 give a sketch of his monument, as it stands on the field. To this day the 
 life of Gardiner by Dr. Doddridge remains one of the finest portraitures we 
 
 TANTALI.ON CASTLE. 
 
 possess of a type of character very real, and happily not infrequent in our 
 day— the brave and humble-minded Christian soldier. And Sir Walter Scott, 
 
PRESTON PANS. 
 
 in Waverley, has done more justice to this brave God-fearing man than to 
 some other of his Puritan heroes. 
 
 Soon after leaving Preston Pans the train plunges into a tunnel, 
 from which it emerges in the ravine over which seem to tower, height 
 beyond height, the massive buildings of Edinburgh. The approach is 
 curiously unlike that to any other city ; but we must not linger in the 
 metropolis at present, for we have yet to glance at the other routes 
 
 ^^^^WBS^&^^cl 
 
 COLONEL GARDINER'S MONUMENT. 
 
 enumerated above, at least as rich in their personal and historical asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 Instead, then, of Berwick, we will suppose the traveller to have chosen 
 Carlisle as his starting-point, and to have fixed upon the Waverley Route, 
 as the railway company has named it in memory of Scott. After crossing 
 and recrossing the Esk, a little above the Solway Firth, the line runs up 
 Liddisdale, undulating and beautifully wooded, with glimpses of distant hills : 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 then for mile after mile, after crossing the Border at Kershopefoot, in long 
 sweeps and curves traverses the bare pastoral Cheviots, whose vast rounded 
 summits and grassy slopes fill up the whole field of view ; only a few clumps 
 of fir-trees appearing here and there at the bottom of the dells, where 
 scanty streams pursue their way. Just before reaching Hawick, where we 
 cross the Teviot, Branksome Tower is passed on the left; still beyond is 
 
 MELROSE ABBEY, FROM THE RIVER. 
 
 the Vale of Ettrick, famous for "the Shepherd," James Hogg, who was a 
 very real personage in his day, though Professor Wilson in the Nodes 
 Ambrosiancz, did his best to render his honest friend a mythical person- 
 age. Still farther again is the Yarrow, with its " dowie dens," famous in 
 Scottish pastoral poetry, but better known to us in three lovely poems of 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 At Ettrick, too, lie the remains of an author whose work, now perhaps 
 
DRY BURGH AND MELROSE. 
 
 little read, used to be the great " Sunday book " in grave Scottish house- 
 holds during several generations — Thomas Boston, the writer of the Fourfold 
 State. But Ettrick and Yarrow must both remain " unvisited " by us now, 
 as they may be better approached another time from Moffat on the west, 
 or from Selkirk on the north, and we are nearing Melrose, having crossed 
 from the valley of the Teviot to that of the Tweed ; and we shall need 
 
 all the time at disposal for the Abbey, 
 for Abbotsford and for Dryburgh. 
 
 To describe " fair Melrose " would 
 be superfluous. The impression even 
 of a first visit is that we have seen it 
 before, so vividly has it been brought 
 before us both by poet and artist. Its 
 
 position, close upon the outskirts of the little town, does not destroy, but 
 rather enhances its charm. Instead of finding it, like Tintern, or like 
 Furness, in the heart of a romantic valley, we enter it direct from a 
 modern street, to be plunged at once into its solemn stillness, and awed 
 by the glimpses of its old-world beauty, still most apparent amid the 
 restorations, in which different ages have by turns displayed their sense of 
 the fitness of things ! To see it by moonlight is of course the ambition of 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 every tourist, the achievement of but few ; and it has been said that Scott 
 himself never visited it at this witching time, having evolved the descrip- 
 tion which has enraptured so many by its accuracy as well as by its 
 loveliness, entirely from his own imagination. 
 
 Two roads from Melrose attract the traveller almost equally ; the one, 
 westward, to Abbotsford, the other in the opposite direction, to Dryburgh 
 Abbey. Happily, on the occasion of my visit, there was time for both, in a 
 long summer day's leisurely survey. The walk to Dryburgh was somewhat 
 long, and might have been saved in great part by taking the train back to 
 St. Boswell's, the station passed before reaching Melrose. But the way was 
 
 ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 very beautiful, including one magnificent view of the Tweed, with its 
 wooded banks. The ruin itself is not extensive, but the aisle in which 
 Scott lies buried is surely the ideal of a poet's resting-place. His beloved 
 Tweed half encircles the spot, the ruin is embosomed in fair trees, while 
 the broken walls, still noble in their decay, are more appropriately and 
 solemnly suggestive than the stateliest mausoleum could have been. The 
 remains of Sir Walter Scott are there among those of his kindred — his 
 wife, his eldest son, and his son-in-law and biographer, Mr. Lockhart. 
 The guardian of the ruins also will not fail to point out the tombstone 
 of Henry Erskine, whose sons, Ralph and Ebenezer, founded in 1740 the 
 
ABBOTSFORD. 
 
 ABBOTSFORD : THE DRAWING- 
 ROOM. 
 
 Secession Church of Scotland, 
 now merged in the United 
 Presbyterian body. 
 
 But the journey to Abbots- 
 ford remained. Probably the 
 natural order would have been 
 to visit the home which Scott oc- 
 cupied in his lifetime before this 
 pilgrimage to his grave. Why 
 a different course of proceeding 
 was adopted need not be ex- 
 plained ; I did not regret it 
 afterwards, when even after 
 having duly inspected all the 
 relics so lovingly preserved and 
 so courteously shown, the deepest 
 impression left was still that of 
 the quiet, lovely tomb. The 
 visitor cannot choose but look with interest on Abbotsford as 
 the poet's chosen home — a noble residence and beautiful for 
 situation, although lower in the valley than modern taste ap- 
 proves. It might be ungenerous to ask whether the rearing 
 
 of this lordly abode was worth the toil and struggle that it entailed ; 
 
 the world at least is the richer for those stupendous intellectual 
 
 labours which at length, though slowly, exhausted the poet's 
 
 life. There still we find ourselves in the very scene of 
 
 these great achievements. The Library contains 
 
 his books as he left them : in 
 
 the study there is the writing- 
 table where he used to sit, the 
 
 desk at which he wrote, and 
 
 which was closed when he ceased, 
 
 more than half a century ago. 
 
 The quaint suits of armour that 
 
 he loved to collect are where 
 
 he left them ; but their sight 
 
 awakens no enthusiasm now for 
 
 the days of ancient chivalry. 
 
 That passion seems extinct ; new 
 
 habits of thought have succeeded, 
 
 and not the greatest of novelists 
 
 would venture, if he could, to 
 
 give to the reader of this 
 
 ABBOTSFORD : THE STUDY. 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 generation another Ivanhoe. From 
 casque and mail, the visitor turns 
 to the homely memorial of the 
 man himself; his coat and hat 
 and stick, preserved with reve- 
 rent affection. Yet these ves- 
 tiges of life seemed only to make 
 the fact of death more near : and 
 there was a deeper interest in 
 yonder quiet Abbey, and in the 
 words of Christian faith and hope 
 upon the poet's tomb. Still it 
 was something to have seen even 
 the books and the writing-desk ; 
 for everything connected with the 
 daily habits of a great man tends 
 to illuminate his biography, and 
 
 in some measure to increase our interest in the works in 
 which his spirit most truly lives among men. s -V^^< 
 
 After Melrose there is little of interest immediately bordering the 
 
 Waverley Route, unless indeed the traveller can spare time to change 
 at Galashiels into a line which will take him to Edinburgh by a 
 more circuitous course, passing from the valley of the Tweed 
 (which it follows upwards as far as Peebles) to the dale of 
 
 A13BOTSFORD : THE LIBRARY 
 
 the North Esk, with the wonderfully beautiful ravine of 
 Hawthornden and the famous Roslin Chapel. 
 
 The visit will in most cases 
 be made from Edinburgh : but 
 the traveller who is not incom- 
 moded by luggage may save 
 time by calling there on his 
 northward journey. He must 
 stop at Hawthornden station, 
 from which it is an easy walk 
 to the entrance of the grounds. 
 Here lived the poet Drummond, 
 so famous in his day that Ben 
 Jonson travelled on foot from 
 London to Scotland, chiefly, it 
 is said, to converse with him. 
 But his melancholy strains are 
 now little read ; and to most 
 visitors the beauty of the place 
 
 ABBOTSFORD : THE ARMOURY. 
 
 16 
 
HAWTHORNDEN. 
 
HAWTHORNDEN AND ROSLIN. 
 
 is more than the fame of the inhabitant. We do not say, "It was here 
 that Drummond lived," but, " It was Drummond who lived here." The house 
 is sufficiently picturesque — a mansion of the seventeenth century upon a grey 
 cliff towering above the glen, with the ruined fragment of a tower hard by. 
 But the beauty of the scene is in the glen itself, to which we descend through 
 prettily laid out grounds, noting, as we pass, the caverns in the rock beneath 
 the house, constructed with evident care in ancient times for some unknown 
 purpose ; also, " Ben Jonson's Tree," the " Poet Drummond's Seat," and 
 "John Knox's Pulpit." These may be more or less apocryphal; but 
 there is no doubt about the charm of the deep glen where the stream, 
 albeit denied by the works of man, pursues its way between broken cliffs 
 and overhanging woods. It is the sense of nearness to busy manufactures 
 and great cities in this romantic and apparently sequestered spot, that either 
 heightens or destroys the charm, according to the spectator's mood. He 
 will have abundant time to decide whether the sense of beauty or of incon- 
 gruity is the stronger ; as, after crossing the little bridge from Hawthornden 
 grounds, it is a long walk up the valley to Roslin, which he must also sec. 
 The regular plan is to climb from the glen to the castle, approached by 
 a lofty bridge, and to recross to the chapel. We venture to suggest that 
 the castle may well be omitted, as, apart from the view of the glen from the 
 rocky platform on which the ruin stands, there is neither picturesqueness nor 
 real historic interest to repay the visitor. The chapel, situated on the high 
 ground beyond, overlooking the castle, must by all means be examined, as an 
 almost unique specimen of decorative art applied to somewhat heavy archi- 
 tecture. It is a small building, massive in its details, with a general impres- 
 sion of heaviness that the splendid and even excessive ornamentation but serves 
 to relieve. Had the structure been completed according to the original design, 
 in which this chapel was but the choir of a great collegiate church, the 
 magnificence would have seemed more in place. The chapel is now fitted up 
 with seats, has an organ gallery at the western end, and is used for the 
 worship of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The 'Prentice Pillar, with its 
 wreathed-work of foliage, will of course be noted by the visitor ; and the 
 custodian of the place tells the story effectively, as he has rehearsed it a 
 thousand times. Is there any one of our readers who has not heard it ? In 
 the temporary absence of the master-builder, an apprentice, essaying his hand 
 upon a portion of the fabric, so far surpassed him in skill that the jealous and 
 exasperated master struck the youth dead upon the spot. The story, however, 
 is found in various forms, but with the same main incident, in many ages, 
 and in relation to different walks of art. The incident probably springs from 
 fable, so true to human nature that it has been accepted as an " ower true 
 tale," and shows to us how myths are made. 
 
 Leaving the chapel we find ourselves in the little village of Roslin, or 
 Rosslyn, as it seems now generally to be written, and at about seven 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 minutes' distance the pedestrian may reach the railway station for Edinburgh. 
 There are, however, very few trains in the day, and careful arrangement is 
 necessary that time may not be vexatiously thrown away in a place where, 
 after the glen and the chapel, there is literally nothing to see. Part of the 
 
 ROSLIN CHAPEL, WITH THE PRENTICE PILLAR. 
 
 interest of this excursion, no doubt, as Sir Walter Scott long ago remarked, 
 is that its picturesque features form so sudden and unexpected a contrast to 
 the surrounding country. In the Highlands few persons would take the 
 trouble to walk up this glen, but its nearness to Edinburgh, and the 
 neighbourhood of Roslin, attract crowds of visitors every summer. Still 
 
THE WESTERN ROUTE. 
 
 farther south, below the south-eastern slopes of the Pentland Hills, is the 
 yet more romantic glen of Habbie's Howe, with its waterfall, supposed to 
 
 
 HABBIE'S HOWE. 
 
 have suggested the description in Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd ; and the whole 
 surrounding region is full of pastoral and sylvan beauty. 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 Returning, however, to Carlisle : there are two other railway routes of 
 great interest, and more direct, at least in their access to Glasgow. They 
 unitedly traverse the old Solway Moss, once the notorious haunt of freebooters, 
 and pass through the flat " debateable ground" where, until the union of 
 the two kingdoms, bold maurauders bade defiance to the laws of both, until 
 the little river Sark is crossed, and the train reaches Gretna Green, once 
 famous for runaway weddings. The idea of making the Scottish marriage 
 law available to fugitives from England, seems to have first occurred to a man 
 named Paisley, residing here about 1760; Gretna being fixed upon as near the 
 Border, though, of course, any other part of Scotland would have answered 
 the purpose; and it was not until 1856 that the usage was stopped by Act of 
 Parliament, requiring previous residence as a condition of marriage. The 
 country now has but little attraction ; once it was a vast forest, but in the days 
 of Border rapine the wood was cleared away to destroy the haunts of the 
 moss-troopers, and it is now for the most part a bare open plain. On the left 
 is Annandale, where Edward Irving spent his youthful days ; and some twelve 
 miles from the Border the traveller reaches Ecclefechan, an uninteresting- 
 looking village, but famous for the birth of Thomas Carlyle. His father's 
 strong-built house stands there as when the sturdy God-fearing Scottish 
 peasant put his best work into its stone walls. Truly, whatever else may 
 be thought of Carlyle's Reminiscences, the pictures of his father and mother 
 as there delineated, will live as long as the fame of their illustrious son 
 shall last. The type of man is familiar to all who have watched the stalwart 
 shepherd tramping over the hills with his colley by his side, or who have 
 stopped for a little talk with a fisherman on the shore, or who have joined the 
 group of country folk on the mountain side as they wended their way on the 
 Sabbath morning to the humble house of prayer ; but Carlyle has disclosed 
 the secret of its inner nobleness, and has shown to us how a living faith, 
 with that true humility that does not shrink from self-assertion where it is 
 right, creates the true heroic character. Carlyle could hardly have written 
 his Cromwell so sympathetically, had he not known his father so well. And 
 who is not touched by the picture of that peasant mother, with her anxious 
 cares for her son, denying herself and caring for all his little material 
 comforts, that he might be able to climb to a level whither her earnest spirit 
 could not follow him, save with anxious longings for his spiritual welfare ! 
 To read those simple-hearted letters of hers is infinitely touching, and we do 
 not wonder that the son who cherished them and gave them to the world 
 after more than half a century, with all the scorn and bitterness with which 
 he looked upon men in general, and especially on those who have found a 
 deeper secret in life than his own, could not but believe in the truth and 
 goodness embodied in the belief, the work and the worship of that lowly 
 home. 
 
 But we must pass from Ecclefechan, over the district where the line 
 
WESTERN ROUTES. 
 
 climbs upwards along the banks of the Annan, to Beattock, from which 
 station a line is now opened to Moffat, a charming little watering-place 
 among streams and wooded hills, overtopped by the Hartfell range, the 
 highest in Southern Scotland. There is a pleasant drive to the Spa, 
 with excursions to the waterfall called the Grey Mare's Tail, and to the 
 dark, desolate Loch Skene from which it issues ; or, through a cleft in the 
 mountains beyond the cascade, to St. Mary's Loch upon the Yarrow. Or, 
 diverging before the waterfall is reached, the traveller may pierce the 
 hill-range to the right into the Ettrick valley. The air is most pure and 
 exhilarating, and, in addition to the ordinary watering-place accommodations, 
 a large Hydropathic Establishment has been opened here, as at Melrose, 
 Crieff, Dunblane, Pitlochrie, Callander, Bridge of Allan, Rothesay, Forres, and 
 many other places of popular resort in Scotland. 
 
 We resume our journey from the Beattock junction, and having now 
 crossed the watershed at the height of about a thousand feet above the 
 sea, soon discern a narrow stream making its way with many a winding 
 over the green moor. This is the Clyde, which we cross and recross before 
 reaching the junction at Carstairs, whence radiate lines to Edinburgh, to 
 Glasgow, to Stirling, and the North. It will be a pity, however, not to 
 stay at least for two or three hours to see Lanark and the Falls of the 
 Clyde. The town itself has little that is interesting, unless we are moved 
 by curiosity or by old association to visit the settlement in which Robert 
 Owen, nearly a hundred years ago, strove to organise industry, and to 
 inaugurate a new moral world. The parallelograms and manufactories of 
 the Socialist schemes failed, as might have been expected ; but there was 
 some germ of practical wisdom in his choice of a locality, since the mills of 
 New Lanark, now, I believe, the property of Manchester manufacturers, 
 are thriving and successful, while the aspect of regularity and good order 
 which they present may be in some measure due to the projector's plans. 
 But we must hurry on to the waterfalls, which may perhaps impress us all 
 the more because the glen in which they make their grand successive 
 descents is surrounded by few accessories of beauty of any kind. The 
 country, to say the truth, is uninteresting until the river is reached, but the 
 three falls are magnificent. Corra Linn, the central one, nearest to New 
 Lanark, is the finest ; but Bonnington Linn, the highest, divided into two 
 parts, with a rocky island between — a miniature Schaffhausen — is also 
 imposing, and Stonebyres, three miles from Lanark, by the road-side, with 
 its surroundings of cliff and foliage, is also well worth visiting. The tourist 
 will probably see no finer waterfalls than these three until he reaches Foyers 
 on Loch Ness. 
 
 The railway journey from Carstairs to Edinburgh has no points of 
 special interest ; that to Glasgow gives the opportunity, by a very slight 
 detour, of visiting Hamilton Palace, once famous for its art-treasures, and 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 still sumptuous, although despoiled. More attractive, however, will be the 
 remains of the old Caledonian Forest, where the celebrated herd of Scotch 
 wild cattle still roam at large, with the ruins of Cadzow Castle, the ancient 
 Hamilton Palace, commemorated by Sir Walter Scott. Very near also is 
 " Bothwell Brig," where the Covenanters were defeated by the Duke of 
 Monmouth and Claverhouse, on the 22nd of June, 1679, as described in Old 
 Mortality. But these scenes of historic interest will, perhaps, be better 
 visited from Glasgow, than taken on the way to the city. A day could 
 scarcely be better spent than in traversing them. 
 
 The last of the alternative routes to Glasgow, as mentioned above, 
 denominated the " South Western," is more circuitous than that just described, 
 but derives a special interest from its giving the tourist an opportunity of 
 visiting, at small expenditure of time, the land of Burns. Turning aside 
 at Gretna, the line passes through Annan, where it crosses the river, 
 and at Dumfries reaches the Nith, up which it pursues its way. For 
 lovely glimpses of hill and woodland, with fertile cornfields and pastures 
 between, and the gleaming river amidst them all, there can hardly be a 
 pleasanter summer evening's journey than this. At least, so I found it, 
 after a long morning of wonderful interest spent at Dumfries, beginning, of 
 course, with a visit to the cemetery where, beyond a crowd of monuments, 
 stands the mausoleum over the poet's grave. Much cannot be said for the 
 monument itself. It is a poor Grecian temple, glazed between the columns, 
 and the allegorical design — the genius of Scotland casting her mantle over 
 the ploughman — has a common-place effect. The attempt at classic forms 
 and figures seemed in truth singularly infelicitous ; though it could not but be 
 deeply interesting, apart from all such accessories, to know that here was 
 the last earthly resting-place of Burns, the poet to whom, with Cowper and 
 Wordsworth, each according to his special genius, belongs the distinction of 
 having so widened the domain of poetry as to include the commonest 
 interests and homeliest cares that touch the heart of man. I might have 
 gone to see the house in which Burns spent his last days, and which still 
 has much to remind the visitor of the poet ; but time pressed, and I was 
 bent on another errand. For Dumfries is famous in the annals of martyrdom. 
 In the cemetery itself, a plain obelisk marks the grave of some who 
 suffered in 1667. A lovely drive by Annan Water brought me to Irongray 
 Church, near which, among overshadowing trees, is the grave of two others, 
 with the quaint inscription : 
 
 " By Legg and Bloodie Bruce commands 
 We were hung up by hellish hands ; 
 And so, their furious wrath to stay, 
 We died near Kirk of Irongray ; 
 And boundless peace we now partake 
 
 For freedom's and religion's sake." 
 
 26 
 
MARTYR MEMORIALS IN SOUTHERN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Near this church also is the tomb of Helen Walker, the original of Jeanie 
 Deans, with an inscription written by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 But I had not yet finished with the Covenanters' memorials ; as perhaps 
 the most interesting of all was one among the hills, not to be discovered 
 without difficulty— a long drive, then an ascent through a rugged lane, and a 
 walk over a piece of barren undulating moorland, with much climbing over 
 stone fences. The place was well adapted in its seclusion for a solemn 
 service held there in the summer of 1678, when for the last time a band of 
 Covenanting brethren met together to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Then 
 they parted, some to fall in battle, others 
 to suffer on the gibbet, few to survive 
 the conflict of that terrible time, but all 
 to hold fast by the faith to which they 
 then renewed their solemn pledge. It is 
 no wonder that this bleak spot is regarded 
 with affectionate veneration, the very 
 stones which served for the table and for 
 seats in the service being marked as the 
 Communion Stones of Irongray. But, lest 
 the outward features of the scene should 
 become obliterated or unrecognizable, a 
 simple monument, surmounted by the re- 
 presentation of the Cup, has been raised 
 in recent years ; and in all Scotland there 
 was no memorial that was so deeply 
 impressive to me as this emblem of our 
 faith and hope, with all its sacred and 
 stern associations, on those lonely moor- 
 land hills ! 
 
 Near the head of Nithsdale may 
 be visited another " Martyrs' Grave," 
 not far from Cumnock ; but that I did 
 not stay to see. The country has many 
 
 such memorials ; and not far off is the battle-field of Drumclog, where the 
 Covenanters gained a temporary success, June 1, 1679, three weeks before 
 the rout of Bothwell Bridge. But the neighbourhood of Ayr attracted me 
 again a little from the direct line, to visit Alloway Kirk, the " Twa Brigs," the 
 birthplace and the monument of Burns. The South-western line may be left 
 for this purpose at Mauchline, about twelve miles from Ayr. After a night in 
 Ayr, I took a stroll through its streets to the two bridges, auld and new, 
 celebrated in Burns's Dialogue, then down to the steam-wharf, and found that 
 preparations, which I afterwards learned were made almost daily through 
 the summer, were in full readiness to conduct expected visitors to the 
 
 COVENANTERS MONUMENT. 
 
 27 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 shrine. As soon as the boat from Glasgow arrived, a stream of waggonettes 
 and other " machines " started in full procession through the town. I followed 
 on foot ; there was no mistaking the way ! After a somewhat uninteresting 
 walk of two miles, I reached the poet's birth-place — an unpretending cottage 
 in front, a gaudy drinking-saloon behind, probably erected over the cottage- 
 
 
 THE MARTYRS' GRAVE. 
 
 garden for the reception of visitors, a crowd of whom had evidently just left. 
 The saloon is hung with pictures representing scenes from the poet's works. 
 About half a mile farther on, a flight of steps leads through a gap in a wall 
 to a small roofless building, the ruin of " Alloway's auld kirk." Here are 
 the tombstones of Burns's father and mother, with a new one to the poet's 
 sister, Mrs. Begg. The new church— a somewhat florid Gothic structure — 
 
MEMORIALS OF BURNS. 
 
 is on the other side of the road. The monument stands high beyond. 
 There is, it must be confessed, something very striking in this memorial to 
 the poet, whatever may be thought of its good taste or appropriateness. 
 The nine Corinthian columns that support the circular structure are said to 
 be emblematic of the nine muses. In a chamber within are copies of the 
 
 ON THE DOON. 
 
 chief editions of the poet's works, a bust, and a copy of the celebrated 
 portrait by Nasmyth, with an old Bible, his last present to " Highland 
 Mary." From the summit of the building there is a pretty view of the 
 banks of the Doon, and of the surrounding scenery. Outside in the 
 grounds under a canopy sit the statues of two men boozing and grinning — 
 
ACROSS THE BORDER: TO EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 Tarn o' Shanter and Souter Johnnie ; copies of which in clay or plaster, or 
 carved in wood, are to be seen everywhere in the neighbourhood, for 
 purchase, if one had a mind for such a memorial of what after every draw- 
 back was a truly memorable visit ! The tourists were found in full force 
 around the monument, enjoying themselves according to their respective 
 tastes, the majority, perhaps, in the inn garden, in which were seats and a 
 summer-house, and which descends to the river ; others going farther 
 afield, down to the bank from which there is a pretty view of the old high 
 arched bridge mentioned in Tarn d Shanter. A new bridge spans the 
 stream just by the inn ; and, crossing this, I found a pleasant walk back to 
 Ayr on the other side of the river, arriving in time to reach Glasgow early 
 in the evening. 
 
QLIMPgEg OF 
 
 EDlNBUl^Qtt MP GLftgQOW. 
 
EDINBURGH, FROM "REST AND BE THANKFUL 
 
 qi<IMP£Eg OP EDlNBliHQH AND QWQOW. 
 
 ' I "he first sight of Edinburgh is something never to be forgotten. Many 
 •*■ strangers have their earliest view of the city from the high bridge 
 that crosses from the Old Town to the New, as they emerge from the 
 railway station below ; others, more fortunate, who have arrived after dark, 
 or in the twilight of a summer's evening, see it for the first time from 
 some hotel window in Princes Street commanding the long sweep of Old 
 Edinburgh, downward from the Castle Rock, fronted by tall buildings 
 and towers that overhang the ravine ; while the slopes below are gay with 
 grass and flowers, and Arthur's Seat beyond rears its massive head. The 
 graceful spire of the Scott Monument forms an appropriate foreground ; to 
 the right the low colonnades of the Art Galleries close in the garden view, 
 while to the left the eye ranges from the monuments of the Calton Hill, 
 and the stately buildings at its foot, down to the level on which stand 
 Holyrood Palace and Chapel ; although indeed these are from many points 
 shut out of sight by intervening buildings and the lofty North Bridge. One 
 excellence of Edinburgh is that its plan is so simple. There is first the 
 Old Town, Edinburgh proper — the Edinburgh of eighteenth-century writers 
 — an immense sweep of tall houses with spires and towers interspersed, 
 " from a palace in the plain to a castle in the air "; behind these, narrow 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 BIRTH-PLACE OF LORD BROUGHAM, 
 COWGATE, EDINBURGH. 
 
 streets, with some statelier ones, as " Chambers 
 Street" and "Jeffrey Street," worthily preserving 
 the names of men of whom Scotland is proud ; 
 at the back of all these one of the noblest of 
 infirmaries, built on the " pavilion system," with its 
 spacious grounds, and a fair walk close by ; the 
 far-famed Heriot's Hospital, and the yet more 
 famous Greyfriars Churchyard, beside which we 
 may descend by several different ways to the 
 broad level Grassmarket at the foot of the pre- 
 cipitous Castle Rock, and return to the higher 
 parts of the city by the Cowgate, stopping, if 
 we please, to look at the house in which Lord 
 Brougham was born. 
 
 It is no part of our purpose to describe the 
 city in detail. Excellent Guide-books are to be 
 had, and intelligent canny guides also, by those 
 who care to be "personally conducted" from spot 
 to spot in regulated order, and to be duly reminded 
 of the history or the legend attached to each. 
 
 But most visitors, we suspect, prefer to wander at their own will, and to 
 
 select the special localities or objects to which their taste or their knowledge 
 
 may attract them. The Castle is visited, of course, as much for its superb 
 
 view of the city, as for anything that it contains, the Mons Meg, or even 
 
 the Scottish Regalia. At the other extremity, Holyrood must also be seen, 
 
 with its apartments, strangely small for royalty, 
 
 its pathetic associations, and that dim stain of 
 
 Rizzio's blood ! The chapel behind is lovely 
 
 in its ruins, though tourists often neglect it 
 
 for the more easily comprehended wonders of 
 
 the palace. Then, from Holyrood, few who 
 
 are good walkers, or who enjoy a fine drive, 
 
 will fail to ascend Arthur's Seat, where on 
 
 one side they will come upon a lonely loch, 
 
 to all appearance as far from the haunts of 
 
 men as though it were in some Highland 
 
 mountain recess ; and on the other will skirt 
 
 or traverse Salisbury Crags, and think of the 
 
 Heart of Mid-Lothian. From the summit the 
 
 view is fine, embracing the city outspread as 
 
 a map at the beholder's feet, though too often 
 
 veiled in smoke, with the Firth of Forth 
 
 extending to the north and east, and in an 
 
 STAIRCASE, HOLYROOD. 
 
EDINBURGH RAILWAY STATIONS. 
 
 opposite direction a fair reach of country terminated by the graceful outlines 
 of the Pentland Hills. But the city view here is less interesting on the 
 whole than that from the Castle Rock; and the Firth of Forth with the 
 hills of Fife behind is seen better from the Calton Hill. 
 
 In returning to the city, the tourist may pass through Newington, and 
 by the aid of a tramcar, which seems in the great Scottish cities always at 
 hand, may proceed along Nicolson Street for the sake of looking at least at the 
 outside of the University Buildings and at the College of Surgeons opposite, 
 reaching the head of Princes Street, 
 near the Post Office, over the North 
 Bridge. Should a keen north-east 
 wind be blowing as he crosses this 
 bridge, he will understand why 
 many people inveigh against the 
 spring climate of Edinburgh. The 
 wind whose praises Mr. Kingsley 
 has sung, nowhere gives a better 
 taste of its quality than in Edin- 
 burgh, and this lofty crossing from 
 the Old Town to the New is the 
 very place to test it to the utter- 
 most. Shall we look down from 
 the North Bridge for a moment, 
 into what we have called a ravine, 
 where once spread the unfragrant 
 waters of a shallow loch, but where 
 dingy roofs of iron and glass, and 
 long station platforms, and high 
 flights of steps, and multitudinous 
 branching lines of rail occupy the 
 whole space, from tunnel to tunnel ? 
 Is it a blemish upon this noble city 
 that the railway is thus in the very 
 heart of it ? At the first view it 
 would appear so ; and yet there 
 are two sides to this question. Think of the Charing Cross Terminus and the 
 Cannon Street Station in London, and it will appear a happy thing for the 
 effect of Edinburgh architecture that its main railway offices are packed 
 away, so to speak, below the general surface. Still, it is true, there is too 
 much smoke and steam for the fair gardens that border on part of the line ; 
 but at any rate there is no obtrusive ugliness ; even the spectator on the 
 Waverley Bridge has so much to attract his upward looks in every direction 
 that he forgets to look downwards at all ! Add to this, that the traveller 
 
 MAGDALEN CHAPEL, COWGATE, EDINBURGH. 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 RIDDEL'S COURT, EDINBURGH, WHERE] 
 HUME BEGAN TO WRITE HIS HISTORY. 
 
 entering Edinburgh from the south is not carried 
 past the upper stories of mean and squalid streets, 
 as in so many English towns and cities, but is 
 afforded just one glimpse of Holyrood, a glance at 
 Arthur's Seat, and is then plunged into a tunnel 
 from which he emerges at the foot of all that is 
 most characteristic in the architecture of the city. 
 In this respect, therefore, the balance of advan- 
 tage seems to be with the northern capital. 
 
 The Old Town, as might be expected, con- 
 tains many memorials of the past, though more 
 have disappeared. Ancient courts and wynds 
 sufficiently illustrate the street architecture of by- 
 gone days. Common stairs still lead — and not 
 in these parts of the city only — to tenement 
 above tenement, the value and the respectability 
 diminishing with the height. To all pastoral 
 visitation and mission work in Edinburgh and 
 most Scottish towns, this style of building adds 
 
 a toilsomeness that doubles the fatigue. It is remarkable that while the 
 
 arrangement into flats seems coming into fashion in London for the middle 
 
 classes, there seems a growing preference in Scotland for " self-contained houses." 
 
 Certainly the great height which the former method enables architects to give 
 
 the tenements for all classes is a great element in picturesqueness, and when 
 
 several of these vast dwellings are lighted up at 
 
 night the effect is singularly fine. There can 
 
 hardly be a city in the world in which a general 
 
 illumination is so imposing as it is in Edinburgh. 
 Of the old houses which the traveller may 
 
 care to visit, none perhaps will attract him more 
 
 than the manse of John Knox, still shown, in 
 
 much the same state as left by the great Reformer. 
 
 The quaint inscription over the lower storey: 
 
 " Lofe . God . above . al . and . yovr . nichtbovr . as . 
 
 yi . self ; " and the upward-pointing figure above 
 
 the door, date, it is said, from Knox's own time. 
 
 It is natural to ask for the grave of the great 
 
 preacher, but the spot is uncertain. He would 
 
 have no monument to commemorate his fame. No, 
 
 he would be laid among his people in the old 
 
 burying-place of. St Giles's, and the rude inscription, 
 
 "I. K. 1572," carved on a stone in the pavement 
 
 of what is now Parliament Square, is the only 
 
 38 
 
 
 JOHN KNOX'S STUDY. 
 

 *p 
 
GREY FRIARS CHURCHYARD. 
 
 KNOX'S GRAVE. 
 
 indication of the place where his remains are supposed to rest. For the 
 monuments of others, who after Knox's time helped to make Scotland 
 famous, we must go to the Greyfriars Churchyard, entered through a 
 gateway to the right after crossing the high causeway leading to the Infirmary 
 and Heriot's Hospital, and called George the Fourth's Bridge. The large 
 ugly building just inside the gateway is Greyfriars Church, where the 
 National Covenant was adopted in 1638: the document 
 was brought out into the churchyard for signature, so 
 as to make room for the anxious crowd who pressed 
 forward to add their names or to witness the signature 
 of others. The stone is still pointed out — an authentic 
 and very characteristic . Scottish relic ! But more im- 
 pressive still are the ranges of tombs, with the names 
 they bear of the noble and the obscure. All ranks, all 
 characters, all creeds are here, with inscriptions, curt or 
 elaborate, quaintly original or elegantly common-place — 
 material enough for a biographical History of Scotland ! 
 
 The scene is one in which to spend musing hours, though destitute of the 
 romantic accessories which tempt the sentimental traveller into many a 
 " God's acre." The situation indeed is magnificent, beneath the Castle 
 walls and with a grand view over the city, but nothing can be more formal 
 than the arrangement, nor more tasteless than most of the tombs. The 
 favourite mode of honouring the illustrious dead in this cemetery, is by 
 enclosing a flat grave by tall iron railings, which are sometimes carried over 
 
 it as well as on its three sides, the 
 wall with its monument forming the 
 back of the enclosure. The effect is 
 that of a great iron cage ; and many 
 of the plots, being uncared for even 
 to the planting of a flower, have a 
 singularly desolate appearance. But 
 for all that there are few, if any, 
 places in Edinburgh to compare in 
 true interest with this Greyfriars 
 Churchyard. Here the persecutor 
 and the persecuted rest together ; 
 one of the most elaborate of the 
 monuments is that to " Bluidy Mackenzie," as he was long called by those 
 of whom in his lifetime he had been the terror ; while the memorial to the 
 Covenanters who suffered for their faith, many of them in the Grassmarket 
 below, is of a touching simplicity. 
 
 If we wish to pass from these extinct forms of strife to the discussions, 
 and often the controversies of the present, we should take care to visit 
 
 THE COVENANT STONE. 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 Edinburgh in May, and to secure tickets for the meetings of the three great 
 Ecclesiastical Parliaments, the Established, the Free, and that which is 
 universally called in Scotland the U.P., "United Presbyterian" being too 
 large a phrase for every-day use. An Englishman is above all things struck 
 by the large place which the theological and ecclesiastical debates of the 
 
 several Assemblies occupy 
 in the newspapers. Dis- 
 cussions on difficult points 
 of Biblical criticism, or on 
 details of church polity 
 and order, engross a space 
 in the daily press which 
 in London would rarely 
 be accorded to anything 
 but politics, art, or popular 
 amusements. In the As- 
 semblies themselves, the 
 galleries are thronged by 
 audiences content to listen 
 for hours ; dispersing late 
 in the afternoon, only to 
 resume their eager at- 
 tendance in the evening. 
 On one memorable day 
 in 1876, I had the happi- 
 ness to be present in the 
 Free Church Assembly, 
 when the Reformed Pres- 
 byterian Church, the re- 
 presentatives of the ancient 
 Cameronians, was solemn- 
 ly incorporated into the 
 body, and there became 
 to all intents and pur- 
 poses one sect fewer in 
 Protestant Christendom ! 
 The proceedings were 
 
 covenanters' monument, greyfriars' churchyard. 
 
 partly formal,— the reading of documents, articles of argreement, etc., but 
 there was a dignity and seriousness about the whole that kept the attention 
 strained to the utmost. A vacant space had been reserved in the centre of 
 the Assembly ; and when the preliminary business was over, the representatives 
 of the newly-admitted Church, who had assembled elsewhere to terminate, in 
 their own Assembly, their denominational existence, entered in long procession, 
 
RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 and took their places, the multitude that crowded the hall standing in 
 unbroken silence to receive them. It was not until the last had entered 
 that the pent-up enthusiasm of the multitude welcoming their brethren found 
 vent ; and the proceedings of the morning were fitly crowned by an address 
 from the Moderator of the happily absorbed community, which for dignity, 
 tenderness, and real oratorical power seemed to me about the noblest speech 
 I had ever heard. All this was but an episode. Now and then the atmo- 
 sphere of the Assembly grows electric with the discussion of great religious 
 questions, and of late years, as every one 
 knows, these have had to do with very vital 
 matters of Biblical criticism and interpretation, 
 as well as with the doctrine of inspiration 
 itself. The intense seriousness as well as the 
 vigour and brilliancy with which the debates 
 are conducted gives them a surpassing interest ; 
 the hearers in the galleries take sides, and 
 are often loud in their expressions of approval 
 or otherwise. The keenness with which all 
 classes thus engage in religious discussion no 
 doubt sometimes degenerates into acrimony ; 
 and the eagerness with which some points are 
 debated appears to an Englishman out of pro- 
 portion to their real importance ; and yet on 
 the whole the enthusiasm is healthy. Almost 
 anything is better than religious indifference ! 
 
 The associations of Edinburgh with lite- 
 rature, art, and science are in their way as 
 signal and unique as its connection with 
 matters theological and ecclesiastical. But this 
 is a topic hardly within our present scope, or 
 our Edinburgh " Pictures " might well include 
 a portrait-gallery of men who have done 
 
 more to influence thought and action during the past century than any 
 equal number of persons taken from any single locality. Whether the 
 title of " the Modern Athens " was first conferred in banter, or whether the 
 chief reference was originally to the outward semblance of the city, with 
 the Castle Rock for the Acropolis, we need not inquire. In sober serious- 
 ness, the intellectual pre-eminence of Edinburgh justifies the name. The 
 very atmosphere of society in this favoured city seems charged with mental 
 energy. For the scientific visitor there is the Museum of Science and Art, 
 adjoining the University buildings, and admirably arranged, especially in the 
 departments of Natural History and of British manufactures. The National 
 Gallery of Antiquities, upon the Mound, contains a splendidly-arranged 
 
 CRAIGCROOK CASTLE, RESIDENCE OF 
 JEFFREY. 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 series of objects, illustrating the history of civilisation in Scotland, from the 
 flint axes and arrow-heads of a barbarous people, with relics from their 
 caves and lake dwellings, down to the time when the ancient Celtic church 
 had attained to a high degree of artistic refinement, as shown in ecclesias- 
 tical relics and sculptures of much beauty, and onward to quite modern 
 times. There are some grim memorials, too, recalling times of strife and 
 
 persecution : the " thumbikins " 
 used to extort the secrets of the 
 Covenanting recusants, and the 
 " Maiden," that primitive guillotine 
 beneath whose cruel knife so many 
 of the best and bravest in Scotland 
 fell. John Knox's pulpit from St. 
 Giles's Church is also preserved in 
 this great collection : with originals 
 of the Covenants in their suc- 
 cessive forms ; and — not the least 
 noteworthy among the curiosities — 
 the very " cutty stool " that Jenny 
 Geddes hurled at the Dean's head 
 in St. Giles's when he attempted 
 to introduce the English Liturgy 
 into the Scottish Church, on the 
 23rd of July, 1637. Close by is 
 the National Gallery of Art, a 
 noble collection which, if it were 
 only in a foreign city, every visitor 
 would make a point of seeing. 
 Here also in the early spring is 
 held the annual Exhibition of the 
 Scottish Academy, generally, as 
 might be expected, peculiarly rich 
 in pictures of Scottish scenery, 
 though with a fair number of other 
 paintings, and often including 
 masterpieces from the London Academy Exhibition of the preceding year. 
 
 The visitor to Edinburgh who has time and inclination to inspect the 
 interiors of great buildings must by all means visit two great churches, at 
 least, in the city. The principal, St. Giles's, is often called the Cathedral ; 
 though rigid Presbyterians disclaim the appellation, there being no cathedra 
 or bishop's chair in their ecclesiastical arrangements. A mournful interest 
 attaches now to the sumptuous and tasteful restoration of this building, which 
 
 has for the first time brought out its full design, in stateliness of plan 
 
 46 
 
 KNOX'S PULPIT. 
 
THE BROTHERS CHAMBERS. 
 
 and richness of decoration. The work was carried on at the expense of 
 Mr. William Chambers, the elder of the two brothers who more than any- 
 other men have set their mark on the popular literature of the age, and the 
 simple and graceful record of whose lives will probably outlast all the works 
 that bear their name. Chambers Journal, be it remembered, was before the 
 Penny Magazine, which it has long outlived, both having been started in 1832 ; 
 and the two for many years remained the chief helps in periodical literature 
 to youths and working-men athirst for knowledge. Their one defect — and 
 we must be honest enough 
 to avow this — was that they 
 were exclusively secular ; giv- 
 ing hardly so much as a 
 glance at the deeper problems 
 of existence, or at the prin- 
 ciples of life and conduct 
 which only religion supplies. 
 The great saying of Dr. 
 Arnold, now a commonplace, 
 about treating common sub- 
 jects in a Christian tone, ex- 
 presses an aim which fifty 
 years ago hardly existed. Nor 
 did writers of the Chambers' 
 and the old " Useful Know- 
 ledge" school ever recognise 
 it. It was not that they 
 were always insensible to the 
 supreme claim of Christianity ; 
 but they had deliberately 
 chosen another line of popular 
 instruction. And yet, that 
 the last work of the veteran 
 publisher and philanthropist 
 should be given to a Christian 
 church, which was solemnly 
 re-dedicated to Divine service two days after his funeral, is a fact 
 significant and beautiful. Earthly honours came just too late for him, 
 and perhaps the memory of William and Robert Chambers will live 
 more naturally and happily in the hearts of their fellow-citizens than 
 if they had newly learned to call the elder brother and survivor "Sir 
 William." 
 
 But I have been led too far from St. Giles's Church, especially as I 
 wished to refer to another and a very different ecclesiastical structure in 
 
 E 49 
 
 choir of st. Giles's cathedral. 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 Edinburgh as well worthy of a visit. This is St. Mary's Cathedral, erected 
 for the worship of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and one of the most 
 important works of the late Sir Gilbert Scott. It would be superfluous to 
 attempt a description of this truly magnificent building : the first view of 
 those who look for a masterpiece of architectural design may be a little 
 disappointing, owing to the disproportionate heaviness of the spire ; but on 
 entering the interior the beauty and harmony of every part is felt at once, 
 the general simplicity of plan being well set off by the elaborate magnificence 
 of the details, especially in the choir. To pass in one morning from 
 
 St. Giles's, the oldest of Edinburgh 
 churches, to this of St. Mary's, the 
 newest, is most interesting and im- 
 pressive. More than six hundred 
 years separate the two structures in 
 point of date ; and between the 
 forms of faith which they severally 
 represent, the difference has some- 
 times seemed correspondingly great. 
 Happily, we live in days in which the 
 true worshipper, however strong his 
 preference may be for one or for the 
 other, may find Christian fellowship in 
 both. There may be many folds : 
 but there is " one flock, and one 
 Shepherd." 
 
 From these ecclesiastical reflec- 
 tions, however, into which we have 
 been betrayed by our visits to these 
 great churches, it is good to escape 
 again into the open air, and, quitting 
 St. Mary's Cathedral, by way of 
 RB0UR Melville Street, and passing by St. 
 
 George's Church, and through Char- 
 lotte Square, to make our way, either by the stately houses and terraces which 
 lie to the north of Princes Street, or by Princes Street itself, with its range of 
 shops and hotels on one side, and its lovely gardens on the other, extending 
 as far as the Scott Monument and the Waverley Bridge, and along Waterloo 
 Place, to the Calton Hill. Here the visitor, if he feels so inclined, may 
 ascend the Nelson Monument, which towers above the city like a gigantic 
 telescope, and commands a magnificent view over the Firth of Forth in one 
 direction, and beyond the city southward to the Pentland Hills. I do 
 not know, however, that the prospect from the summit is so much finer than 
 that from the base, as to repay the labour of climbing. Certainly, on a 
 
 5« 
 
MONUMENTS ON THE C ALTON HILL. 
 
 clear summer's day in early morning, before the smoke of the city, with that 
 of Leith and Portobello, has obscured the scene, there can hardly be a more 
 enchanting view than this from the Calton Hill, rich as it is in the beauty 
 of both land and sea, while the " romantic town " as a foreground serves 
 to enhance the charm. To the other monuments on the hill no doubt a 
 passing glance will be given. Much cannot be said in their favour individu- 
 ally, yet in their combination they certainly add to the attractiveness of the 
 place. The National Monument has the effect of a classic ruin ; although, 
 as every one knows, the picturesque incompleteness is due only to want of 
 funds. Why the Parthenon should have been adopted as the most appro- 
 priate type for the commemoration of 
 the Waterloo heroes, it is hard to 
 say ; nor why the monument to 
 Burns, a little lower down, should also 
 be classical in form. It was the 
 taste of the times : and, to say the 
 truth, the adoption of another style 
 in the Wallace Monument near 
 Stirling has not been so conspicuously 
 successful as to make us altogether 
 discontented with the classic ideal ! 
 In satisfying beauty of form, the Scott 
 Monument remains unapproached. 
 Still, the grouping of the somewhat 
 heterogeneous structures on the Cal- 
 ton Hill is without doubt effective ; 
 and the large buildings on its southern 
 edge, the High School and the 
 Prison, are even imposing. 
 
 The railway journey from Edin- 
 burgh to Glasgow is not particularly 
 interesting, save for the opportunity 
 of visiting Linlithgow by the way, if the longer route be taken. The walls 
 of the old Palace in their square massiveness are a striking object from the 
 railway, and the traveller who has an hour or two to spare may well alight 
 to explore the ruin, with the picturesque little lake on the border of which 
 it stands. 
 
 LINLITHGOW PALACE. 
 
 " Of all the palaces so fair, 
 Built for the royal dwelling, 
 In Scotland, far beyond compare 
 Linlithgow is excelling; 
 And in its park, in jovial June, 
 How sweet the merry linnet's tune, 
 
 How blithe the blackbird's lay ! 
 The wild buck bells from ferny brake, 
 The coot dives merry on the lake, 
 The saddest heart might pleasure take 
 
 To see all nature gay." 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 So sings the Minstrel, in Marmion. 
 The fern-brakes are still there, the 
 linnet carols as in the olden days, and 
 there is enough of stateliness remaining 
 in the shattered pile to show what the 
 place must have been when the Lady- 
 Margaret, Queen of James the Fourth, 
 there had her bower, in which, after the 
 fatal day of Flodden, she mourned in 
 widowed state. To Linlithgow James 
 the Fifth conducted his bride Mary of 
 Guise, who expressed her admiration 
 of the place in words which are still 
 remembered ; and here their ill-fated 
 daughter Mary Stuart was born, in a 
 room which is still pointed out. The 
 church, dedicated to St. Michael, also 
 deserves a visit, as " one of the few 
 specimens still left of the ancient Scot- 
 tish parish church." Part of it is still 
 used for Divine worship. It was in 
 is said to have been warned by an 
 
 QUEEN MARGARET S BOWER, LINLITHGOW. 
 
 this church that James the Fourth 
 apparition not to advance to Flodden : 
 " Sir King, my mother hath sent me 
 to desire thee not to pass at this time, 
 whither thou art purposed : for if thou 
 dost, thou wilt not fare well on thy 
 journey, nor any that passeth with 
 thee." It was in the street of Linlith- 
 gow, also, that the Regent Murray was 
 shot by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, in 
 revenge for a grievous wrong, for which, 
 however, the Regent was not wholly re- 
 sponsible. Proceeding down this street, 
 the visitor will notice one or two drinking 
 fountains, one of which, dedicated to St. 
 Michael, is surmounted by a rudely- 
 carved representation of the archangel, 
 with the inscription underneath, " 1720. 
 Saint Michael is kinde to strangers." 
 
 A speedy run by Polmont Junction, 
 leaving for the present the tempting queen Margaret's bower, linlithgow (interior). 
 
GLASGOW CATHEDRAL. 
 
 northerly route to Stirling and the Highlands, and past the great Carron 
 Ironworks, brings the traveller to Glasgow. Here he will hardly linger 
 long, unless some errand of business or claim of friendship should detain 
 him in the great, energetic, progressive, hospitable city ; nor need we linger 
 over the description. The broad and noble streets in the heart of the town, 
 mostly intersecting one another at right angles, and the most important of 
 them traversed ceaselessly by tramcars — among the best-appointed in the . 
 kingdom, — occupy a slope upwards from the north bank of the Clyde. The 
 business streets are nearest the river ; Argyle Street, continued by the 
 Trongate, being the chief ; farther upward the straight thoroughfares are lined 
 with stately residences and offices, with 
 many handsome churches, chiefly be- 
 longing to the three Presbyterian 
 communities. To the north-east is 
 the grand Cathedral, with its wonder- 
 ful crypt. The windows of stained 
 glass by which the cathedral is 
 now adorned are modern, the finest 
 of them having been executed at 
 Munich. An hour or two may well 
 be spent in the study of these very 
 splendid specimens of modern skill, 
 reproducing the style and tone of 
 ancient art. The subjects of the 
 windows are arranged in a kind of 
 order, beginning with the Expulsion 
 from Paradise, and continuing the Old 
 Testament history along both sides of 
 the nave ; the choir and Lady chapel 
 being devoted to the New. A cata- 
 logue, to be had in the building, gives 
 a description of the pictures, with the 
 names of donors, and of the persons to whose memory the windows are 
 severally dedicated. The unsightly building near the cathedral on the south 
 side is the Barony Church, once famous for the ministrations of Dr. Norman 
 McLeod, and still greatly prosperous under the care of a worthy successor. 
 Nearly opposite, on the site of the old Archbishop's Palace, is the Glasgow Royal 
 Infirmary : and a little farther on, crossing a bridge, aptly named the Bridge of 
 Sighs, we reach the Necropolis, a burial-ground notable, perhaps, beyond all 
 other British cemeteries, for the number and variety of its monuments. The 
 hillside on which they stand contributes greatly to their effect, when viewed 
 from a little distance, and the column erected to the memory of Knox, 
 towering in the midst of them, seems to give a fine completeness to the whole. 
 
 ST. MICHAEL'S WELL, LINLITHGOW. 
 
GLIMPSES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW. 
 
 From the east to the west of the city, we may pass by the unpro- 
 nounceable Sauchiehall Street, leading to Kelvin Grove Park, which rises 
 steeply to the new University buildings. Few of our cities can boast a 
 place of public resort at once so accessible, so beautifully laid out, and with so 
 superb a prospect, reaching from the smoky city away to the verge of the 
 Highlands. The University is a noble pile, worthy of a great nation ; but it 
 still awaits completion. The spire which is eventually to crown the tower 
 will rise to a height of more than three hundred feet, and the whole structure, 
 with its library, museum, and halls, will have cost about half a million 
 sterling. The old University buildings are now turned into a railway 
 station, it must be confessed with but indifferent success. 
 
 Pursuing our way westward across the Kelvin, by the Botanic Gardens, 
 the wealth and tastefulness of the merchant princes of Glasgow show them- 
 selves in the long lines of sumptuous buildings with many a charming 
 pleasaunce. The distant hills now rise to view. Few suburban drives are 
 in their way more beautiful than that by the Great Western Road, through a 
 pleasantly undulating wooded country, to the verge of the Kilpatrick Hills, 
 where the Clyde is reached ; and the way back is through the ancient village of 
 Partick, older, it is said, than Glasgow itself. At some points along the route 
 the river may be crossed by well-appointed ferries, giving access to what is 
 really another city, — Glasgow south of the Clyde, extending from Govan and 
 Pollokshields in the west to the crowded districts of Tradeston, Lauries- 
 town, Hutchinsontown, and the Gorbals, with a nobly situated park, the 
 " Queen's," on a height to the south. From this district, several handsome 
 bridges lead back to the northern side, where to the east of the city the 
 great open Glasgow Green will well repay a visit. 
 
 GLASGOW UNIVERSITY. 
 
BY TH£ CLYDE, 
 TO THE WftgTEH^ COft^T. 
 
BY THE CEYPE, TO THE WE^TEKN COA£T. 
 
 'or all Glasgow people the great holiday 
 is down the Clyde. No city in 
 Great Britain, perhaps none in 
 Europe, has such immediate access 
 to scenes where the highest beauty 
 of land and sea combines with every 
 bracing and exhilarating quality of 
 the atmosphere to minister health 
 and delight. Accordingly, " the 
 coast," as it is familiarly called, is 
 annually thronged by visitors, and 
 the broad waters of the estuary are 
 crowded by one of the finest fleets 
 of river steamers in the world. 
 
 For several miles below Glas- 
 gow the river pursues a somewhat 
 H monotonous course between low 
 banks, vast ranges of ship-building 
 yards extending far beyond the city. 
 The waters are muddy, and, it must be 
 said, odoriferous, especially as churned by 
 the paddles or the screw of some mighty 
 steamer. Let no squeamish traveller arrange 
 to leave Glasgow by a boat where breakfast is served between the city and 
 Greenock. In truth, the fare is so good that it is a pity to spoil its relish 
 by any intrusive accessories from the river ! Many tourists prefer to save 
 time and avoid discomfort by taking the rail to Greenock, or to Helensburgh, 
 nearly opposite : but once, at any rate, the visitor who desires to have a full 
 impression of what the commerce of this great city really is should embark at 
 the Broomielaw, and note, as the steamer bears him swiftly down the stream, 
 the enormous vessels, countless in number, and, as it would seem, from every 
 nation under heaven, busily loading or unloading, or lying at anchor in the 
 stream. We do not wish to trouble the reader with stating the tonnage 
 
 DUMBARTON ROCK. 
 
BY THE CLYDE. 
 
 that annually enters or leaves the 
 port of Glasgow. These are found 
 in all books of commercial statistics ; 
 and every one who has passed 
 through those miles of shipping will 
 easily understand that the amount 
 is something enormous. But our 
 errand to-day is one of recreation. 
 After passing Dumbarton, with its 
 singular two-peaked rock, the river 
 widens out ; we are in the blue 
 water ; and before Greenock or 
 Helensburgh is reached the eye 
 already revels in the splendid pano- 
 rama of encircling hills, girdled by 
 fair woods and studded with white 
 villas, with misty mountain tops here 
 and there beyond. A word must 
 be given in passing to the steamers 
 which ply along this favoured coast. 
 They now form a fleet unequalled 
 in swiftness and comfort, as well as 
 in the lowness of their fares. At 
 their head confessedly is the Columba, 
 which runs daily between Glasgow 
 and Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne, by 
 way of Rothesay, and the Kyles of 
 Bute. The lona, which this mag- 
 nificent vessel has succeeded, will be 
 remembered by almost all Scottish 
 tourists as having for many years 
 performed the same service. For 
 swiftness — the rate, I believe, is 
 twenty miles an hour — and for com- 
 modiousness, these steamers are as 
 unrivalled as is the scenery through 
 which they daily carry their crowds 
 of happy passengers. Other steamers, 
 more fitted for a wild and open 
 sea, ply throughout the year round 
 the Mull of Can tyre ; but we must 
 now suppose the short holiday 
 route to be taken. From Greenock 
 
THE WESTERN SHORES. 
 
 for some distance the river seems at many points closed in by the hilly 
 shores like a lake. Large creeks or sea lochs run inland upon the right, 
 suggesting more exquisite beauties still of shore and mountain. Were there 
 time it would be pleasant to sail by Helensburgh up the Gareloch, or, 
 better still, to ascend Loch Long to Arrochar; whence again a short walk 
 over a hilly pass would conduct to Tarbet, where the glories of Loch 
 Lomond are full in view. But this cannot be for us to-day : we pass the 
 pretty watering-places of Kilmun, Dunoon, Inellan, and others looking very 
 lovely from the water, and all crowded with summer guests. We do not 
 land at any of these places now : they are too hot and relaxing for us, 
 although they have the glorious freshness of the sea, and their accessibility 
 from Glasgow makes them favourite resorts of men of business with their 
 families. On the left a more level shore faces the west, with the bracing 
 seaside villages of Wemyss Bay, now accessible from Glasgow by railway, 
 Skelmorlie and Largs. The Great and Little Cumbraes seem, in the distance, 
 to bar the entrance to the river, and complete its lake-like appearance. 
 But the steamer now crosses to Rothesay, on its lovely little bay in the 
 Isle of Bute. There a multitude generally disembark ; and truly, for a 
 day's or a week's holiday, they could find no fairer resting-place. The 
 wooded hills beyond the town are picturesque and attractive, and suggest 
 many a pleasant little excursion over the heights or through the valleys of 
 the island. Leaving Rothesay, the steamer enters the narrow passage 
 between Bute and the mainland in a channel between green hills, strikingly 
 beautiful in one or two places, especially where, near the entrance to a 
 small sea loch (Loch Ridden), lies the village of Tighnabriuaich, which has 
 only recently been discovered, as it were, by summer holiday-makers, but 
 is rapidly becoming a crowded watering-place. We now turn sharply to the 
 south, and soon emerge from the narrow Kyles into open water, with the 
 peaks of Arran full in view. But our vessel to-day does not go near this 
 island — which must be reached in other ways, but which should on no 
 account be omitted by the lovers of bracing air and of noble scenery, 
 especially if their pedestrian powers are good. Loch Ranza, Corrie, Brodick, 
 Lamlash, Whiting Bay, have all their attractions ; but Corrie or Brodick 
 should be chosen by the stranger for his landing-place, as he must ascend 
 Goat Fell. Every one will ask him if he did this : in fact, the question 
 is so universal that, having failed in my first attempt, I found it advisable 
 whenever I referred afterwards to having visited Arran, to add, "but I did 
 not ascend Goat Fell." The ascent (2866 feet) is at once easy and most 
 charming, in the two grand glens, up one or other of which the finest part of 
 the route lies, Glen Sannox from Corrie, Glen Rosa from Brodick. We 
 follow the burn nearly to its source, then turn off to a track amid vast rough 
 boulders, very precipitous in parts and dangerous, if the prescribed path be 
 left. When the summit is gained, the view over sea and land is on all sides 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 magnificent : and we no longer wonder at the question with which we were 
 plied by our friends. Not to have ascended Goat Fell is to have missed 
 one of the noblest and most varied prospects which Great Britain affords. 
 
 But Arran has attractions for others than mountain climbers. Its 
 climate seems, if a flying visit gives sufficient warrant to speak of it, simply 
 perfect— at least when it does not rain ! The belt between the shore and 
 the hills is so equable in temperature that the plants and shrubs of warm 
 climates flourish there all the year round, while on every side breezy uplands 
 are accessible. The glens, beside those just named, are rich in foliage as 
 they approach the sea, stern and craggy in their upper reaches ; the burns 
 
 LOCH RANZA. 
 
 that ripple over their rocky beds abound in trout and perch, generally 
 small, but delicious. No doubt the accommodation and the fare are in 
 general homely. At Brodrick the traveller may live sumptuously in a fine 
 hotel, with prices corresponding : but in general the lodgings are the farm- 
 houses of the island, quitted for the summer visitors by their occupants, 
 who themselves make shift in cottage out-buildings. The houses are in 
 great request, and themselves form a refreshing contrast with the arrange- 
 ments and supposed necessities of city life. If any one wishes to prove with 
 how little luxury he and his family can be contented, blithe and strong, let 
 him apply early in the year — for this is necessary — to secure a farm lodging 
 for July or August in the interior of Arran. It is not wonderful that many 
 
 62 
 
ARRAN. 
 
 who have experienced this kind of life revisit the island year after year, 
 hardly caring to go elsewhere, and often becoming very fanatics in their 
 appreciation of this fair Atlantic isle. 
 
 But we must resume our sail in the Columba, now rapidly drawing to 
 a close, as rounding Ardlamont Point, we turn our back on Arran, and the 
 breadth of Loch Fyne opens before us. Calling at Tarbert, separated only 
 by a narrow isthmus from the waters of the Atlantic, we sail rapidly past 
 beautifully wooded shores into a little recess on the left, Loch Gilp, at the 
 
 GOAT FELL, FROM BRODICK BAY. 
 
 head of which the passengers stream forth upon the quay, many of them 
 starting to walk across the neck of land that separates them from the 
 Hebridean sea, others making their way over a dusty hillside to the canal 
 steamer — it was the Linnet when we visited the place — and passing through 
 some locks, rather tediously, to Crinan on the other side. Women and 
 children selling milk and flowers greet us in our progress, pleasantly, but 
 importunately. At last we reach the steamer for Oban, and perceive at 
 
 once from the difference of its build that it is made for rougher seas than 
 
 6 3 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 the holiday "swift" Columba, though still admirable in all its appointments. 
 The course now lies past the once terrible whirlpool of Corryvrekan 
 (" the cauldron of the haunted sea "), through a vast archipelago, the 
 islands varying almost infinitely in form and extent. Sometimes they almost 
 close around the ship, then again they open out grandly, disclosing the 
 basaltic precipices of Mull to the 'north-west. The rocks on both sides 
 now became grander, and give to the voyager who purposes to follow the 
 coast line to the extreme north of Scotland a foretaste of what he may 
 
 OBAN. 
 
 expect. For soon the steamer enters a narrow sound between the green 
 island of Kerrera and the mainland ; a little bay opens to the right, and he is 
 at Oban, where the long range of shops and hotels fronting the shore, and the 
 villas on the heights, with a mammoth Hydropathic Establishment, finished 
 only as far as the first storey, not to mention the sound of the railway 
 whistle, tell him that he has reached the great tourist centre, the "Charing 
 Cross of Western Scotland." The charm of Oban to the stranger is that it 
 affords so ready a way of access to all that is most beautiful in Scotland. 
 64 
 
A SABBATH AT OBAN. 
 
 Yet a Sunday spent in the little town several years ago is not to be forgotten. 
 It was a sacramental occasion. From an early hour boats were seen coming 
 in from the surrounding islands, and at the time of service the little church 
 on the hill was crowded to its uttermost capacity, while a larger con- 
 gregation still had assembled on the green-sward without for a Gaelic 
 service. The Highland folk had evidently come for a feast, and hour after 
 hour they remained there beneath the blue sky, as one minister after another 
 ascended the " pulpit of wood " which had been placed there for the purpose, 
 and by turns expounded or prayed, or called the congregation to sing, all 
 seated according to their wont ; the Psalms being given out line by line. One 
 of the tunes was the "plaintive Martyrs," and never did those touching 
 strains so much affect me as when the melody floated upwards in the still 
 summer air from that congregation of hardy men and women. The sermon, 
 part of which I heard, appeared amazingly to interest the audience, though 
 no sign of emotion of any kind escaped them. They sat, in fixed attention, 
 evidently prepared for any length of exhortation : but, a little wearied by 
 the cadences of an unknown tongue, my companion and I went indoors and 
 heard a discourse nearly two hours long, on the subject of Solomons palan- 
 quin. " King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon : he 
 made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering 
 of it of purple : the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of 
 Jerusalem." Perhaps the singularity of the text riveted our attention ; it is 
 certain that the sermon was not wearisome : its somewhat romantic tone 
 seemed in unison with the place, and the preacher managed to bring out of 
 his subject much good Gospel teaching, appropriate to the service that was 
 to follow. Then came the " fencing of the tables," and the solemn 
 administration, with further exhortation and appeal, the whole service having 
 occupied more than four hours when we left, and found our Gaelic friends 
 in the act of rising from their seats for the final benediction ; the solemnity 
 of their attitude being instantly, and somewhat oddly exchanged for a 
 scamper down the hills to their boats, while the delight of the dogs was 
 unrestrained ! The evening sermon, to a much smaller audience, of course, 
 carried us again into realms of imagination. " Who are these that fly as a 
 cloud?" was the text. The subject was almost like an enigma: — "Why is 
 the Church like a cloud ? " I do not remember much of the answer, save that 
 one point was the unity in diversity ; millions of drops making up the cloud, 
 
 which 
 
 " moveth altogether if it move at all : " 
 
 wafted by the breath of the Spirit, and reflecting in its splendours the glory 
 of the Sun of Righteousness. A magnificent sunset with a gorgeous environ- 
 ment of clouds seemed to point the preacher's glowing descriptions, which, 
 whatever may be thought of their exegetical correctness, have ever since 
 connected in at least one hearer's mind some refreshing and stimulating 
 
 F 65 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 thoughts respecting the unity and glory of Christ's Church on earth with the 
 summer splendours of the sky on that fair western coast. 
 
 We could not of course leave Oban without a visit to Staffa and Iona. 
 Happily the day for the excursion was bright, the sea was calm, and we 
 could enjoy to the full the little voyage that to some is a drawback to a 
 visit which under any circumstances must be one of rare interest. As we 
 approached Iona the first object visible was the ruined cathedral tower, 
 surmounting the low dark line of coast. The sight brought to mind at once 
 the ancient name and story of Icolmkill, the " Island of Columba's Church," 
 with the Culdee traditions, from the dimness of which this fact at least 
 
 emerges, that out cf the churches in Ireland formed by Patrick's preaching 
 there arose, a century and a half afterwards, an evangelist of princely blood, 1 
 who dedicated himself to the work of Christ in Scotland. As the old 
 Latin rhyming verse has it : 
 
 " Sancte Columba pater ! quern fudit Hibernia mater, 
 Quem Christi numen dedit Ecclesise fore lumen." 
 
 That the brave missionary and his companions chose this Hebridean island 
 for their resting-place, was due to the opposition of the savage Picts ; but 
 they seem to have assiduously visited the mainland, and to have been 
 
 1 See Usher, Britannkarum Eccksiarum Antiquitates, c. xv. (Works, 1864, vol. vi. p. 230). 
 
ION A AND COLUMBA. 
 
 successful in the highest sense. We can fully adopt the conclusion of Dr. 
 Merle D'Aubigne, that though Columba might not have had the faith of a 
 Paul or a John, he lived as in the sight of God. " He prayed and read, he 
 wrote and taught, he preached and redeemed the time. With indefatigable 
 activity, he went from house to house, and from kingdom to kingdom. 
 The king of the Picts was converted, as were also many of his people ; 
 precious manuscripts were conveyed to Iona, a school of theology was 
 founded there, in which the Word was studied ; and many received through 
 faith the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Ere long a missionary spirit 
 breathed over this ocean rock, so justly named ' the light of the western 
 world.' 
 
 " The Judaical sacerdotalism which was beginning to extend in the 
 Christian Church found no support in Iona. They had forms, but not to 
 them did they look for life. It was the Holy Ghost, Columba maintained, 
 that made a servant of God. When the youth of Caledonia assembled 
 around their elders on these savage shores, or in their humble chapel, these 
 ministers of the Lord would say to them ; ' The Holy Scriptures are the 
 only rule of faith . . . Throw aside all merit of works, and look for 
 salvation to the grace of God alone . . . Beware of a religion which consists 
 of outward observances : it is better to keep your heart pure before God 
 than to abstain from meats . . . One alone is your head, Jesus Christ.' 
 
 " The sages of Iona knew nothing of transubstantiation, or of the with- 
 drawal of the cup in the Lord's Supper, or of auricular confession, or of 
 prayers to the dead, or tapers, or incense : they celebrated Easter on a 
 different day from Rome : synodal assemblies regulated the affairs of the 
 Church, and the papal supremacy was unknown. The sun of the gospel 
 shone upon these wild and distant shores." x 
 
 Many a wild and foolish legend no doubt became attached to the later 
 records of a life which we thus see dimly through the mist of centuries 
 and the imagination of the great evangelist's biographers. We reject the 
 Saint Columba of the hagiologies, but we are able to believe in Columba, 
 the great simple-hearted missionary to the Highlands of Scotland ; and if 
 the form of truth that he introduced was defaced by some errors, there 
 was at any rate the vitality in it which proved it to contain the essentials 
 of the faith, and which in times to come was to accomplish its further 
 purification. 
 
 The occasion of our visit proved of especial interest to the islanders, as 
 it was the first excursion of the season. A large number came to the shore to 
 greet our landing, and the conductor of our trip, in particular, having proved 
 himself a warm friend to the islanders, in regard to their temporal and 
 spiritual wants, was received with a warmth of welcome that it was good to 
 
 1 History of the Reformation, vol. v. book xvii. ch. I. See also Iona, by the Rev. Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander (R. T. S. 
 " monthly volume "). 
 
 69 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST 
 
 see. We visited the ruined cathedral, inspected the curious crosses which 
 the island contains, and the unique burying-place, where in close array are 
 ranged the tombstones of the old Scottish kings, forty-eight in number, it 
 is said ; Shakspeare's Macbeth being the last of the series, following his 
 victim Duncan, whose body had been 
 
 " carried to Colmekill, 
 The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
 And guardian of their bones." 
 
 From Iona we passed to Staffa, reversing what we believe is the usual 
 excursion route. Here, too, the first visit of the season was hailed by the 
 inhabitants ; the sea-birds flew in thousands from the cliffs and caves, surround- 
 ing our boat with dissonant terrified screaming, until fragments of biscuit 
 thrown abroad created a diversion, and prepared them afterwards to hail the 
 approach of mankind ! Had we brought guns with us, as many tourists do, 
 
 r^' 
 
 STAFFA ; WITH THE " GIANT'S COLONNADE " 
 
 the effect might have been reversed ! We entered Fingal's Cave without 
 much difficulty by aid of some boats, which seemed to have been brought 
 over in anticipation of our coming, and climbed the wonderful broken columns ; 
 our good conductor reaching the farthest verge, and when all the company 
 had grouped themselves in the cavern side, leading off with the doxology, 
 followed by a verse of God save the Queen. The effect of the strain, echoed 
 from the vault of the cavern, and blending with the restless moan of the 
 sea around the entrance, was something not to be forgotten, while the effect 
 was enhanced by the wild cries of the birds, startled anew at this invasion 
 of their haunts. After a climb by ladder to the summit of this wonderful 
 island, and a walk on its grassy platform, we returned to Oban, with new 
 zest for one yet further excursion northwards. 
 
 But now came in the difficulty of choice. Happily we have since had 
 opportunities of enjoying by turn all the chief tours to which Oban opens 
 
OBAN TO BALLACHULISH. 
 
 the way, and they are all so rich in charm, that we hardly know how to 
 counsel the intending traveller. He may take the steamer upwards, passing 
 Dunolly and Dunstaffnage Castles, crossing the mouth of Loch Etive, and 
 after a fine sail through the lower part of Loch Linnhe, halting at the point 
 
 fingal's cave, from the entrance. 
 
 where the white cottages and clumps of trees which mark Ballachulish and its 
 quarries line the shore of a fine inlet opening among the mountains. Landing 
 there, you are at the mouth of Glencoe ; and a day may well be spent in 
 exploring its gloomy grandeurs. A thunderstorm in the heart of this glen, 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 a few days after the visit to Staffa and Iona just recorded, was a wonderful 
 experience. Only once or twice, in the Alps, have I heard such tremendous 
 reechoing peals, incessant flashes gleaming between, while a pair of eagles 
 screaming overhead seemed to add to the wildness of the scene. The rain 
 that followed came down as rain only can in the Western Highlands. In 
 
 fingal's cave, from the interior. 
 
 a very short time the burn in the valley had swollen to a torrent, and 
 cascades were leaping from all the hills. This was a little beyond the 
 scene of " the massacre," a tragedy on which enough has been written, and 
 which no partizanship or special pleading can make to appear anything but 
 an atrocious crime. The stern, frowning ruggedness of this great glen seems 
 in harmony with the gloomy associations of its history, and well correspond 
 
 7+ 
 
GLENCOE. 
 
 with its name, which, like the Hebrew Baca, signifies " the Valley of 
 Weeping." 
 
 Some travellers pursue their course up Glencoe over the dreary 
 summit of the pass to Kingshouse, and thence up a tremendous ascent, 
 followed by a descent through a vast treeless " Forest " — for in Scotland a 
 forest does not by any means necessarily imply trees — to a little lake, then 
 over a wild pass again to Tyndrum, near which the road is crossed by the 
 
 GLENCOE : THE ROAD. 
 
 Oban railway, of which more anon ; and the route loses its character of 
 wild sterility as it approaches the head of Loch Lomond. The journey 
 is one which emphatically I do not recommend. For wearying monotony 
 of savage stony grandeur, it stands out beyond any other day's excursion 
 I remember ; but this was before the days of the railway. A much finer 
 finish to the drive from Ballachulish would be to turn westwards from Kings- 
 house, and to descend to Loch Etive, following the northern bank, and 
 crossing the loch near its mouth, at Connel Ferry, opposite Dunstafmage 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST 
 
 Castle. This road leads between fine mountain masses all the way, with 
 Ben Cruachan grandly towering to the south. 
 
 But, instead of turning aside at Ballachulish, the tourist may pursue his 
 way up Loch Eil, into which Loch Linnhe suddenly narrows. Both sides are 
 bounded by low hills descending to a level shore, where we now see the 
 "crofts" or small homesteads with plots of land attached, of which so much 
 has lately been heard, Some of these have a comfortable, well-to-do 
 appearance as seen from the deck of the steamer, and contrast well with 
 
 GLENCOE : A " WILD DAY." 
 
 the heathery wastes above ; while others seem hardly more than a part and 
 parcel of the waste, forced by painful efforts into some semblance of fertility. 
 The steamer touches at Ardgour, near the narrow entrance of the loch, 
 where, on occasion of my last visit, the inhabitants of the village seemed all 
 to have assembled on the pier to welcome a bright-looking lad, apparently 
 of nineteen or twenty, with whom I had been chatting a little on board 
 the steamer, who had been sent up from some cottage home to " Glasgow 
 College," and was returning radiant with good humour from his first session. 
 76 
 
BEN NEVIS. 
 
 It was good to see how he went from one to anoiher, shaking hands with 
 fishermen and peasants, and respectfully greeting the minister, who stood in 
 the background of the animated group ; then walking off rapidly with his 
 mother and sister, raising his hat as he passed to the occupants of a 
 carriage, evidently containing the great people of the village, who had driven 
 down to the pier to show their interest in the youth's return. The whole 
 scene, rapidly as it passed, was like some charming idyll, and was charac- 
 teristic of one of the best sides of Scottish peasant life. 
 
 As the steamer pursues its way up the loch, Ben Nevis comes into 
 view on the right hand, a vast elephantine mass, with none of the picturesque 
 grandeur of outline which in some aspects it presents. After seeing the 
 peaked Ben Cruachan, and the gracefully towering outline of Ben Lomond, it 
 is hard to believe that this mountain surpasses both in height. Snow, it is 
 said, lies here in drifts all the year round. When I was there once in 
 April, the whole summit was covered with snow — some who had recently 
 ascended the mountain telling me, to the depth of eighteen feet. The 
 " swift steamers " had not yet begun to ply on these rough waters, the 
 Caledonian Canal, which opens into the head of Loch Eil, was still closed, 
 and Fort William was the end of the journey. The weather, however, was 
 bright and genial, and the great Glen Nevis, which leads up to the heart of 
 the mountain, was lovely with spring flowers and mosses in every crevice 
 of its vast and rugged rocks, while the stream, swollen by the melting snow, 
 dashed grandly downwards among the boulders. There was a charm in the 
 place which summer visitors lose ; and in a homelike little inn, exquisitely 
 clean and comfortable, at the extremity of the village, one had leisure, 
 denied in the full rush of the "tourist season," to dwell upon the aspect, 
 of the scene. Crossing the canal by a bridge near its outlet, I had a 
 magnificent view of Ben Nevis, its snows and precipices lighted by the 
 declining sun ; and it was possible now to feel the grandeur of this monarch 
 among Scottish mountains. With a very deep interest too, I heard, on 
 returning to the inn, of those meteorological observations which have of 
 late years made Ben Nevis so notable in a scientific point of view. Mr. 
 Wragge himself was absent, but of course his work was familiar to many 
 in the little town ; and about the same time a singularly interesting sketch 
 of his disinterested labours, from his own pen, had recently appeared in a 
 scientific periodical. 1 For five months, from the first of June to the first of 
 November, 1881, Ben Nevis had been ascended every morning by Mr. 
 Wragge or his assistants, without one day's intermission ; and the meteoro- 
 logical observations were reported daily in the London papers, for readers 
 who could have but little notion of the toil involved in making them. The 
 observations were first taken at five in the morning, at the Achintore 
 
 1 Nature (Macmillan & Co.), March 22, 1883. I have to acknowledge the courtesy of the publishers in 
 allowing the use of the following diagrams. 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 Station, Fort William. 
 
 The route then led 
 
 upwards for two miles and a quarter to 
 
 what Mr. Wragge called the " Peat 
 
 Moss Station," which was reached on horseback, 
 
 between half-past five and six. This point is but 
 
 forty feet above the sea level. There followed a 
 
 climb to " Livingston's Boulder Station," a mile and 
 
 a quarter farther, 840 feet high, reached at a quarter 
 
 past six. Another mile led to a lake, a thousand feet higher, on a small 
 
 plateau on the side of the mountain-spur Meall an f-Suidhe, " The Hill of 
 
 Rest." Here also a station had been fixed, and observations were taken. 
 
 78 
 
BEN NEVIS. MR. WRAGGE'S OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Soon after passing this point the pony which had carried our energetic 
 observer thus far was left behind. Three stations succeeded, on the main 
 slopes of Ben Nevis, at intervals of half a mile. Brown's Well, 2200 feet 
 high, Red Burn Crossing, 2700 feet, and Buchan's Well, 3575 feet. This 
 last was reached at half-past eight, a.m. Then came the final effort over 
 
 BUCHAMS WELL 
 STATION 
 
 3575 .' 
 
 BEN NEVIS 
 SUMMIT STATION 
 140S FT 
 
 ACHINTORE 
 BASE STATION 
 
 UEALL ANT 
 
 4M.6F.SM.SF. 6M.GF. 6M.ZF. 
 
 FURLONCS 
 
 SECTION OF THE ASCENT, WITH THE SUCCESSIVE STATIONS. 
 
 rocks and boulders to the summit of the mountain, somewhat more than 
 a mile farther on, 4406 feet above the sea, reached at nine o'clock. Here 
 huts had been erected to contain the scientific instruments, and five sets of 
 observations were made, at half-hour intervals, from 9 to 11, comprising the 
 following elements : " Pressure, by 
 
 BRINK OF GREAT PRECIPICE 
 
 4406 F . T 'F 
 
 r 
 
 mercurial barometer ; comparison 
 pressure by aneroid ; temperature of 
 air and evaporation (dry and wet 
 bulbs) ; wind and force ; kind of 
 cloud, amount, and velocities of 
 strata ; hydrometeors and remarks 
 in fullest detail as at the sea-level 
 and intermediate stations at all the 
 above times ; maximum and mini- 
 mum shade temperature, solar 
 maximum and terrestrial minimum 
 temperature, and rainfall by four 
 gauges at 9 a.m ; temperature of 
 Wragge's Well and of ground at 
 depths of 1 and 2 feet between 
 9 and 1 1 a.m. ; Ozone for periods 
 of ^ hour, 1 hour, ij hours, and 2 hours between 9 and 11 a.m.; also by 
 two differently exposed tests for 24 hours ending 9 a.m. ; actinism of the 
 sun's rays and of daylight by Dr. Angus Smith's apparatus for 24 hours 
 ending 10.17 A - M - Hygrometric conditions prevailing about 9 o'clock the 
 previous night by self- registering dry and wet bulbs, were noted at 10.50 a.m. 
 Rainband by Browning's spectroscope was observed at various altitudes, and 
 
 DIAGRAM OF THE SUMMIT, SHOWING THE POSITIONS OF 
 THE HUTS AND INSTRUMENTS. 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 its indications proved of considerable value. Full notes were taken of the 
 cloud limits, and of any important changes observed between the stations." 
 
 The indefatigable observer then retraced his steps, making a second set 
 of observations at each station, and reaching the foot of the hill by 3 p.m. ; 
 observations having been taken at the Achintore station simultaneously with 
 every observation on the mountain side and summit, and being continued 
 until night. 
 
 A few paragraphs from Mr. Wragge's account of his methods will be 
 read with interest. 
 
 " I arrived at Fort William from Edinburgh on May 25, and at once 
 proceeded to give effect to my plans. During the next few days I was 
 
 A 
 
 W LIVINGSTONS BOULDER 
 W STATION 840 F .T 
 
 &PEAT MOSS 
 STATION tO Fl 
 
 THE LAK€ STATION 
 
 18*0 IT 
 \ X HORSE LEFT HERE 
 
 a BROWN'S WELL 
 ^ STATION 2200 PT 
 
 STATION (Ek RED BURN CROSS/NS 
 vv S7Q0 FT 
 
 'eg-** BUCHAN'S WELL 
 STATION ••-. 3575 FT 
 
 '+ 
 
 ''^■-■BEN tiEVIS 
 
 SUMMIT STATION 
 .4406 er 
 
 PLAN OF THE ROUTE UP THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 engaged mainly in erecting Stephenson's thermometer-screens, and laying 
 out the sea-level station ; in establishing a new " midway " observatory at 
 the lake, erecting screen, and building there a gigantic cairn for a barometer ; 
 and in reopening the temporary observatory on the summit of the mountain. 
 It was only by dint of great exertion and a gang of men that I got all in 
 order on the top of the Ben on May 31. I had no occasion, however, to 
 alter the arrangements of the previous summer ; and the heavy work of 
 reopening chiefly consisted in digging out from the vast accumulations of 
 snow the barometer cairn, hut, and thermometer cage which here, as a 
 safeguard, incloses Stephenson's screen. The snow, in fact, was nearly four 
 feet deep, and it was necessary to cut out wide areas around the instru- 
 ments. I also erected another screen to contain Negretti and Zambra's 
 
BEN NEVIS: MR. WRAGGE'S OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 self-registering clock-hygrometer, most kindly placed at my disposal by that 
 eminent firm for the purpose of obtaining 9 r.M. values. I had also to fix 
 a new roof of ship's canvas to the rude shanty that affords some little shelter 
 from the piercing cold and storms. The barometer, a fine Fortin, had been 
 left in its cairn built up during the past winter ; and great labour was 
 expended before the north side of the cairn was reopened, the stones being 
 so hard frozen that a crowbar had to be employed. The instrument was 
 found in good condition. 
 
 " Passing over all other details of arranging the stations and fixing 
 
 SUMMIT OF BEN NEVIS, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. 
 
 instruments, I may say that I had all in order and commenced work on 
 June 1. 
 
 11 Of course my first business was to get the main observations — pressure, 
 temperature, hygrometric conditions, wind, cloud, etc. — into full swing by 
 June 1 ; and as I felt my way and got my hours and distances well under 
 command I added to my work. Thus the ozone observing-system and the 
 three extra rain-gauges on the summit were added on June 15, and the 
 delicate operations for measuring the actinism of light on July 9. The 
 additional gauges were established to discover if and to what extent the 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 rainfall varies in the connection with the wind at different points of the 
 plateau from the centre to the edge of the great precipice. 
 
 " During June, Stephenson's screens were in use only at the sea-level, 
 lake, and summit ; and hence at the other places the dry and wet bulbs 
 had to be swung and the latter moistened afresh from adjacent water at 
 each swinging. But aching wrists and sore fingers soon made me determine 
 to have louvred screens at all the stations, and by July i they were in their 
 places, and dry and wet bulbs, supplied by Hicks and Negretti and Zambra, 
 fixed permanently in each. So above all was accuracy the better insured, 
 and the whole system went like clockwork. I left Achintore before 
 5.30 a.m., and returned about 3 p.m., and the rate of ascending and 
 descending was so regulated as to insure punctuality usually within a few 
 seconds — often to the second — at the various stations. 
 
 " Two assistants, educated by Mr. Colin Livingston of Fort William— a 
 sufficient guarantee for their ability — and trained by myself, helped in the 
 work, and relieved me in the ascent of the mountain three times a week ; 
 and on these occasions I took the sea-level station. One of the greatest 
 difficulties I had to contend with in the Ben Nevis routine was as to the 
 pony on which I rode to and from the Lake, where it was left to graze and 
 await my descent. Occasionally the stable-boy overslept, and I had to 
 make up for lost time, — no easy matter, as the wretched track leads over 
 deep ruts and treacherous swamps, and the poor brute had a trying time of 
 it. Still more frequently the person to whom it belonged gave me rotten 
 saddlery, in spite of all remonstrance ; and on commencing the ascent the 
 girth would break, and I had to turn the animal adrift and plod on to the 
 Lake my fastest. This was decidedly hard, inasmuch as I was obliged to 
 climb afoot some 2500 feet from the tarn in less than two hours by a 
 circuitous route and over rough rock, stopping to observe at the other 
 intermediate stations. Again, the pony often wandered in his hobbles, or 
 having broken the tethering rope had made off to the moss ; so also on 
 the homeward journey I had sometimes to leave him and run my hardest 
 over ruts and through swamps, by a short cut, to get my readings at the 
 next station. Other trying parts of the work consisted in the journeys 
 between Buchan's Well and the top in the allotted time, in having the two 
 hours' exposure on the summit in bad weather, and in becoming chilled 
 after profuse perspiration. The rude hut, with its walls full of holes of all 
 shapes and angles, through which the wind whistles and the snow-drifts drive, 
 afforded but a poor shelter from the drenching rain and cold, and it was 
 impossible to keep anything dry. My hands often became so numbed and 
 swollen, and my paper so saturated, that I had the utmost difficulty in 
 handling keys, setting instruments, and entering my observations. Usually so 
 laden was the air with moisture and so very dense and lasting was the 
 cloud-fog that, even when no rain had actually fallen, all the fixings and 
 
BEN NEVIS : MR. WRAGGE'S OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 instruments were dripping ; and although, of course, I made a point of 
 wiping the dry bulb, it almost immediately became wet again. Occasionally 
 I timed the interval between wiping and fresh condensation on the bulb, 
 and have found it wet again within thirty seconds. 
 
 " After November i, then, I had to discontinue the work. The hut 
 
 HEBRIDEAN FISHER'S HUT. 
 
 ***£*- 
 
 had become choked with snow, and the carrying on of the undertaking 
 satisfactorily impossible. I was, however, satisfied ; and very pleased that I 
 had secured five months' observations without the break of a single day." 
 
 The work is of national interest, and it is satisfactory to know that a 
 properly appointed observatory is to be erected here, on the highest point 
 of land in Great Britain, through the efforts of the Scottish Meteorological 
 
 83 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 Society. A series of observations so important ought hardly to be carried 
 on in rude huts, exposed to the chances of weather, or of mischievous 
 meddling. 1 Such well-sustained and disinterested enterprise in the cause of 
 science merits the largest encouragement, although to reward it adequately 
 would be difficult, if not impossible. 
 
 If the tourist should be disposed for an excursion in which every form 
 of beautiful scenery, mountain, lake and glen, rich woodland and ripplino- 
 stream, may be enjoyed in ever-varying combination, and where a fairly 
 good road, cut of the line of the crowd of travellers, opens up these 
 attractions to easy access, let me recommend him to drive 2 or walk from 
 Banavie, on the opposite side of the loch to Fort William, to Arisaig, on 
 the Atlantic coast. The distance is about thirty-nine miles, the road for 
 one-third of the way continuing along the shore of Loch Eil, which at Fort 
 William makes an abrupt bend westward. At the foot of Glenfinnan, some 
 six miles beyond the loch, there is a little inn, very welcome to pedestrians 
 as a " half-way house." Here there is a colossal statue of Prince Charles, 
 to mark the place where he first unfurled his standard in 1745, with a part 
 of the clan Cameron, headed by the laird of Lochiel. Loch Shiel is now 
 in view, grandly stretching in a south-westerly direction to the Atlantic. 
 Leaving this, the road winds on in alternate ascents and descents, passing 
 to the left a lovely little lake, and reaching the inn of Kinloch Aylort, ten 
 miles from Arisaig. From this point every mile is full of beauty, especially when 
 in the approach of autumn the hillsides put on all their splendour of colouring : 
 while in all seasons, excepting those of incessant misty rain, the sea views 
 are very fine. Arisaig is prettily situated on the head of an inlet, in face 
 of a picturesque group of rocky islets, and just opposite the singular 
 basaltic island of Eigg, with its almost flat-topped precipitous peak (Scuir 
 Eigg), like a stupendous broken column, towering to a height of 1274 feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 By timing the visit to Arisaig carefully, the tourist may catch the 
 steamer southwards to Oban ; or northwards to Skye, Lewis, and Cape 
 Wrath, should he wish to extend his journey to the grandest and wildest 
 coast and island scenery in Great Britain. From Arisaig the steamer crosses 
 the open sea, passing to the left the rocky islands of Rum and Muck, names 
 to which the long u's give a pronunciation more elegant than the appearance 
 of the words ! Thence Loch Scavaig, on the southern side of Skye, is reached, 
 magnificent in the lonely desolation of its broken cliffs of basalt and its rocky 
 caves, though not without softer touches of foliage, shrubs and flowers, in 
 
 1 I heard that on one occasion, before the instruments were so well protected as at present, a party of mountain 
 climbers amused themselves with "shying" at them, ignorant, of course, of what they meant and why they were 
 there ! 
 
 2 The mail-cart here, as in many other parts of the Highlands, is a really comfortable " trap," the driver of which 
 is permitted to take three passengers at a reasonable charge ; although, of course, they must not have much luggage. 
 
 84 
 
BAN A VIE TO ARISAIG. 
 
 the ravines that descend from the Cuchullin (or Coolin) hills to the 
 shore. 
 
 The description of this lake by Sir Walter Scott in the Lord of the 
 Isles is well known, and is as accurate as it is poetical : 
 
 " For rarely human eye has known 
 A scene so stern as that dread lake, 
 
 With its dark ledge of barren stone. 
 Seems that primeval earthquake's sway 
 Hath rent a strange and shattered way 
 
 Through the rude bosom of the hill ; 
 And that each naked precipice, 
 Sable ravine and dark abyss, 
 
 Tells of the outrage still. 
 The wildest glen but this can show 
 Some touch of Nature's genial glow : 
 On high Ben More green mosses grow 
 And heathbells bud in deep Glencoe, 
 
 And copse in Cruchan-Ben : 
 But here — above, around, below, 
 
 On mountain or in glen, 
 No tree nor shrub, nor plant nor flower, 
 Nor aught of vegetative power, 
 
 The weary eye may ken : 
 For all is rocks at random thrown, 
 Black waves, bare crags, and banks of stone, 
 
 As if were here denied 
 The summer sun, the spring's deep dew, 
 That clothe with many a varied hue 
 
 The bleakest mountain side. 
 
 — Canto iii. 14. 
 
 Lech Coruisk is a little inland, and the passengers have often the oppor- 
 tunity, while the steamer waits, of climbing over rocky ground to take a 
 rapid view of its melancholy grandeurs, as it lies there among vast and 
 sterile rocks at the base of the pinnacled mountains. A long walk leads 
 from the foot of Loch Coruisk through Glen Sligachan towards the 
 inhabited part of the island. The path, which throughout is very wild, 
 and in parts romantic, runs along the western flank of the Cuchullins, 
 first climbing steeply upwards, with fine views of Loch Coruisk to the 
 left, then skirting in its descent a little stream, beyond which the view 
 of the peaked hills, and especially of Scuir-na-Gillean (the "scaur of 
 the gillies," i.e., rock of the young men), is very fine. From the Sligachan 
 Hotel there is a long uninteresting carriage road to Portree, the capital of 
 Skye, which travellers who have kept to the steamer have reached more 
 quickly than those who left the vessel at Loch Scavaig. The little town on 
 its steep upward slope has few attractions, beyond the fact of its opening up 
 to the visitor rock and mountain scenery of whose wild ruggedness nothing 
 
 87 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 that he has yet seen could have given him an adequate idea. The drives 
 inland are as well kept as with such a soil and climate could be expected ; 
 there are abundant facilities for hiring ; guides offer themselves at every 
 turn, and the signs of poverty and hard living everywhere prove that "the 
 season" is an inestimable boon to the inhabitants. To the visitor who looks 
 beyond the immediate enjoyment, and endeavours to estimate what must be 
 the conditions of living all the year round, the very elements of the summer 
 picturesqueness appear almost mournful. It was in the early spring that my 
 latest visit was paid to these island coasts. The tourists had not begun to 
 
 LOCH CORUISK. 
 
 arrive, the swift steamers were still laid up in their winter moorings, and 
 the chief passengers in the rest were commissioners and agents sent to 
 inquire into the distress, and if possible to relieve it. One of the most 
 frequent charges against the poor people — very pathetic, as I thought — was 
 that they had cooked and eaten seed potatoes distributed to them with a 
 view to the coming crop ! A wicked thing, no doubt, but with starving 
 children about them what were they to do ? The questions arising out of 
 all this sore need are plainly not yet settled. Immediate relief must be 
 given, and the case of the Highland crofters generally has been so touchingly 
 and strongly presented as to touch the sympathies of the nation : but what 
 is to be the position of these honest hard-working peasants for the future ? 
 
THE ISLE OF SKYE. 
 
 Here, too, is a " Land question," likely to employ our wisest thinkers and 
 ablest administrators for many a day to come ! 
 
 But our business is now with the picturesque. The excursion to Uig 
 and Ouiraing, with its fantastic table rock, will of course be taken ; also, 
 quite as interesting, though less strange in its surroundings, the drive to 
 Dunvegan Castle, on the north-west of the island, the whole route affording 
 magnificent views of mountain and sea. The Cuchullin hills are better seen 
 from the road between Dunvegan and Sligachan than from any other part 
 of the island ; but to the nearer view of this wild romantic mountain range 
 I am inclined to prefer such distant prospects as may be gained, for instance, 
 from the heights above Strome Ferry, on the mainland opposite. On a 
 
 HUTS IN UIG, LEWIS, INHABITED 1859. 
 
 still summer's evening, nothing can be more beautiful than the view of the 
 island beyond the narrow strait, with the bold and peaked range beyond, blue- 
 grey and purple, dappled with cloud shadows and the gloom of many a 
 ravine, standing out against the sunset sky. 
 
 From this wonderful island, the King of the Hebrides, the tourist may, 
 if he will, pursue his way over a grandly open sea to Stornoway, the 
 little capital of Lewis, or " the Lews." The charm of this voyage is chiefly 
 that of the fresh and bracing air, with the changeful colouring of sea and 
 sky. Lewis is bleak and wild enough, but after the wonders of Skye, few 
 will care to explore this island or its neighbour Harris very closely. The 
 sportsman and fisherman, however, will reap here a rich harvest. Another 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 grand sea excursion is to Cape Wrath, the north-westerly extremity of 
 Scotland, a magnificent granite headland chafed incessantly by an angry sea. 
 The whole coast of Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire, indeed, from Strome Ferry 
 to this promontory, is one succession of noble cliffs, indented by lochs and 
 faced by innumerable islets ; while, at almost half the distance, Loch Inver 
 will be found one of those charming seaside nooks about which all who have 
 ever explored their beauties prove enthusiastic. Sea, shore, river and lake, 
 glen and mountain height, combine to make this little spot an earthly 
 paradise. Would it were more accessible ! The calls of the steamer here 
 are infrequent, and the only other public conveyance, I believe, is the mail 
 cart from Lairg, nearly fifty miles inland. But we must leave these 
 
 ' rysz. 
 
 HUTS AT NESS, IN THE BUTT OF LEWIS. 
 
 fascinating scenes. None but those who have explored them can under- 
 stand how great are their fascinations. Pure air, glorious scenery, the splendour 
 of the sea and sky, and the pleasant if transitory companionship of the 
 like-minded, who have also learned to love these islands and shores, 
 deepen the attachment of visitors, who year by year desire no better 
 holiday resort, and find that they can visit these scenes with increasing 
 facility and comfort. There is no fear of a crowd to vulgarize these 
 grand retreats. Only the few, comparatively speaking, will ever find their 
 way thus far from the busy haunts of men. But these few will mostly 
 be of those who have " eyes to see," and faculty to enjoy the wonders 
 outspread before them. Many come hither in their own yachts ; and the 
 number of happy parties of friends who spend their summers thus is yearly 
 
TO CAPE WRATH. 
 
 increasing. For the many again, there are arrangements by which, on 
 the payment of a moderate sum, those who desire to explore the western 
 coasts may avail themselves, for a given period, a week or a fortnight, 
 of any of the swift vessels that navigate these waters, passing if they will 
 from one steamer to another, and remaining on board the whole time. They 
 
 CAPE WRATH. 
 
 need not thus plan out their holiday beforehand ; and almost wherever they 
 may land to explore the surrounding country for a day or two, they will find 
 another steamer ready to convey them where they will — weather permitting. 
 This saving clause in the cruises of which we speak is of unusual importance. 
 For, to confess the truth, these fair western isles, so lovely amid their 
 grandeur in the summer sunlight, have their seasons of gloom and tempest, 
 
BY THE CLYDE, TO THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 with long and trying days of driving rain and mist, with what to many will 
 be worse, an angry raging sea. But even these have their compensations. 
 The sunsets after storm are often gorgeous beyond a poet's dream ; and the 
 " mountain glory " is hardly to be apprehended by those who know nothing 
 of the " mountain gloom," while the effect of both is aided beyond description 
 by the changing aspects of the sea. 
 
 FUNERAL IN GLEN OUTIL, SKYE. 
 
 r/> 
 
THROUGH THE W£$T£T(N HlQHLAKDp 
 
"the deep trossachs' wildest nook." 
 
 THKOUQH THE WEgTEKN HIQHL.ftNDp. 
 
 ' I "he route by sea from Glasgow to Oban, described in the foregoing 
 ■*■ pages, has of late years found a formidable rival in the railway, which 
 also gives to leisurely travellers a fine opportunity of visiting Loch Lomond, 
 with Loch Katrine and the Trossachs. The "circular tour" to these scenes 
 is indeed the best known excursion in Scotland, but it is too hurried for 
 perfect enjoyment. If the reader who has not visited the country would like 
 to know how in three or four days he can see as much as possible of 
 its most characteristic and most beautiful scenery, I would recommend 
 him to go from Glasgow to Oban by way of Loch Lomond, his halting- 
 places being Tarbet, the foot of Loch Katrine, and perhaps Killin or Dalmally. 
 A short run from Glasgow takes him to Balloch, where the Loch Lomond 
 steamer is waiting for passengers at a little inlet, whence there is hardly a 
 glimpse of the loveliness and grandeur beyond. It is well to begin such a 
 tour quietly— -it may be with a little disappointment. But the beauties of 
 the lake soon unfold themselves, as the steamer swiftly makes its way 
 among green wooded islands, and the mountain heights which line the 
 upper leaches of the lake become visible in the distance. When the pretty 
 village of Luss, on the western bank, is fairly past, the mountain grandeurs 
 disclose themselves in ever- varying forms beyond the expanse of blue water at 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS. 
 
 their feet. Ben Lomond towers on the right, while to the left the fantastic 
 peaks of Ben Arthur, or the " Cobbler," and the grand precipices of Ben Voirlich 
 stand out against the sky. There will be time, should the weather prove 
 favourable, for the hardy pedestrian to land at Rowardennan, and to walk over 
 the summit of Ben Lomond, descending at Inversnaid. The path is compara- 
 tively easy, and the prospect on a clear summer's evening is of transcendent 
 beauty, ranging from Arran in the west to the Firth of Forth in the east. 
 Travellers who decline this effort will nevertheless have from Tarbet, on the 
 opposite shore, a magnificent view of the mountain, seeming to descend sheer 
 into the waters to an unfathomable depth, and rising upwards to a noble 
 pyramid. There is no place where a few days' summer quiet, or a Sabbath's 
 
 rest, may be more exqui- 
 sitely enjoyed. " I wonder," 
 once exclaimed Dr. Chal- 
 mers, " whether there is a 
 Loch Lomond in heaven ! " 
 Across a narrow isthmus 
 Loch Long is easily reached, 
 or a long day's ramble may 
 be taken in the wild and 
 rugged Glencroe, at least 
 as far as the " Rest and 
 be thankful " seat to which 
 Wordsworth's sonnet refers. 
 
 " Doubling and doubling with labo- 
 rious walk, 
 
 Who that has gained at length 
 the wished-for height, 
 
 This brief, this simple wayside 
 call can slight, 
 
 And rest not thankful?" 
 
 "the lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill.' 
 
 From this point it is time for us to return to Tarbet, and as soon as 
 we can bring ourselves to leave its fascinations we cross to Inversnaid, made 
 famous again by Wordsworth, in his Highland Girl. " The bay, the 
 water-fall," of which the poet sings, are still there in unspoiled beauty : the 
 " cabin small " has been replaced by a large hotel, chiefly known to tourists 
 as the starting-point for Loch Katrine, which is reached by a five miles' 
 drive or walk over a rough and uninteresting road that crosses one part of 
 the watershed between the Clyde and the Forth. For the two lakes, so 
 near, and to the thoughts of many persons so inseparable, belong to two 
 different water systems. Loch Lomond, almost on the sea level, discharges 
 its waters in the great western estuary. Loch Katrine, 350 feet higher, 
 issues by Lochs Achray and Vennachar into the Teith, which joins the 
 
LOCH KATRINE. 
 
 Forth a little above Stirling, and so flows into the German Ocean. Such 
 at least is the natural course of the Katrine waters : we all know how 
 science and skill have interfered to turn a great portion of them westward 
 also, and to make them tributary to human needs. Somewhat sneeringly I 
 was told by a fellow traveller that we were going to see the great " Glasgow 
 Reservoir " ; and, in fact, knowing that the level of the lake had been raised 
 four or five feet by embankment, with a view to this water supply, and 
 that of course large engineering works had been constructed at the place of 
 issue, it was natural to expect some diminution of the old romantic 
 charm. But there is really little, if any. For one thing, the water-works are 
 
 LOCH KATRINE, WITH ELLEN'S ISLE. 
 
 placed at some distance from the more picturesque part of the lake, and 
 are passed by the little steamer, on which we embarked at Stronachlacher 
 pier, some time before we reach fair Ellen's Isle, the Silver Strand, or the 
 opening to the Trossachs. The beauty that surrounds the outlet of the lake 
 is thus left unimpaired. Then, the flow of water for Glasgow uses, vast as 
 it is, bears but a small proportion to the capacity of the lake. Loch Katrine 
 contains in round numbers 5620 millions of gallons : the daily supply 
 required for Glasgow and its suburbs is at the rate of 54 gallons a head per 
 day for a population of three quarters of a million ; something less than 40 
 millions of gallons in all. 1 Speaking roughly, therefore, the lake contains 140 
 
 The average daily supply has been as follows : — 
 1871. 29,715,501 gallons. 
 1876. 32,336,788 „ 
 
 1881. 39,144,907 gallons. 
 
 1882. 38,045,482 „ 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS, 
 
 days' supply, were the rainfall entirely to cease and every tributary stream 
 from the mountains around to be cut off. As it is, there is no deficiency, and 
 though the trees on the margin of the lake seem in places to have suffered, 
 the outfall to Loch Achray is, generally speaking, as copious as ever ; 
 while, to prevent any diminution in the river Teith, Loch Vennachar has 
 been embanked, so as greatly to increase its storage ; while little Loch 
 Drunkie, a mountain tarn 416 feet above the sea, that discharges into Loch 
 Vennachar (269 feet) is also used for storage. 1 There is thus no fear that 
 the supply may prove insufficient ; and in fact Loch Katrine at the very 
 lowest falls but three feet below the old summer level, while, as we have 
 seen, it may touch four feet above that level, a total range of but seven 
 
 THE SILVER STRAND, LOCH KATRINE. 
 
 feet. From the lake the water is conveyed to Glasgow, a distance of 34 
 miles ; partly by tunnels through the hills, partly by aqueducts, overarched, 
 and carried across valleys by lofty bridges, while in three valleys, those 
 of the Dochray Water, the River Endrick, and the Blane Water, the 
 water is conducted down the slope and ascends on the opposite side in 
 cast-iron pipes four feet in diameter. Eight miles out of Glasgow, at 
 Mugdock, there is a great service reservoir 317 feet above the sea-level, 
 
 1 Here are the exact figures for the information of the curious : — Loch Katrine, raised 4 feet above the old 
 summer level, has a water surface of 3,059 acres, and a capacity of 5,623,581,250 gallons ; Loch Vennachar, raised 
 5 feet 9 inches, covering 1,025 acres, capacity 2,588,960,350 gallons; Loch Drunkie, raised 25 feet, covering 138 
 acres, capacity 773,750,063 gallons; total, 4,222 acres of water level, and a capacity of 8,986,291,663 gallons. 
 These figures, and the facts given above, are taken from a remarkably interesting paper On the Latest Additions to 
 the Loch Katrine Water -7vorks, by Mr. James M. Gale, C.E., in the Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and 
 Shipbuilders hi Scotland, March 20, 1883. 
 
ENTRANCE TO THE TROSSACHS. 
 
 with a capacity of 550 millions of gallons ; and from this the water is carried 
 to Glasgow by several mains, each to its own quarter of the city and 
 suburbs. The result is that the inhabitants of this favoured town have 
 everywhere in their houses and manufactories a practically unlimited 
 supply of the purest water, carefully filtered in its course, and carrying 
 health, cleanliness and comfort everywhere. 1 Who that knows facts like 
 these will not look on Loch Katrine with an interest even deeper than that 
 inspired by the Lady of the Lake ? Or, at any rate, who will not be willing 
 to turn his thoughts for a moment from the adventures of Fitzjames and 
 Roderick Dhu to acknowledge that the most illustrious memory connected with 
 this beautiful lake is that on the fourteenth of October, 1859, our gracious 
 Queen, by opening the first sluice and letting the waters flow, conferred upon 
 one of the greatest cities of 
 her empire this gift beyond 
 all price ? 
 
 We have been led to 
 dwell on this achievement 
 of science somewhat dispro- 
 portionately perhaps for a 
 book like the present ; and 
 yet it seemed not unneces- 
 sary, to meet an impression 
 not uncommon among those 
 who have never seen Lochs 
 Katrine, Vennachar and 
 Achray, with their guardian 
 mountains "huge Ben 
 Venue" and " Ben Ledi's 
 ridge in air." Nothing has 
 impaired, and truly nothing 
 can excel, the beauties of the 
 
 opening to the Trossachs as they unfold before the traveller, borne swiftly 
 past Ellen's Isle, and stepping, full of expectancy and of Sir Walter Scott, 
 upon the little landing near Airdcheanochrochan. This portentous word, we 
 believe, is Gaelic for "the high point at the end of the knoll." He is now in 
 the Trossachs, or the " bristly country ; " and perhaps his expectations have been 
 
 PASS OF BEAL-NAM-BO. 
 
 1 The analysis of the water in one of the large mains during the year 1 88 1-2, may interest our readers : — 
 Analysis of Loch Katrine Water by Dr. E. J. Mills, f.r.s. 
 
 Impurity. Grains per gallon. 
 
 Nitric Nitrogen . . 0*0056 
 
 Total combined Nitrogen . 0.0175 
 Chlorine .... C4410 
 
 103 
 
 Impurity. 
 
 Grains per gallon 
 
 Solid 
 
 2 "1007 
 
 Organic Carbon 
 
 O - 0980 
 
 Organic Nitrogen 
 
 0-0119 
 
 Ammonia 
 
 O'OOOO 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS. 
 
 unduly raised by the poet's description, for I have known some visitors to confess 
 disappointment, and have even been confidentially asked, " But which are the 
 Trossachs ? " The truth is, we pass through this lovely glen too quickly to take 
 in all its beauties. We are in a hurry, perhaps, for luncheon at the hotel, or are 
 wondering whether there will be room on the coach. It is best to linger. 
 The crowd will soon have left; and when the distant horn announces the 
 departure of the coach the lover of solitude may have his fill of delight as 
 he makes his way to the Silver Strand, that edges the lake on the western 
 side a little less than a mile from the landing, or rambles on the opposite 
 side to the Pass of Beal-nam-bo (" Pass of the Cattle"), on the rocky flank of 
 Ben Venue. The name speaks of the wild times when the cattle stolen by 
 Highland Caterans from the pastures beyond were driven down this pass to 
 the refuge of the Trossachs. Katrine itself, so melodious in its sound, is only 
 this Cateran disguised ! The Robber Lake ! So at least Sir Walter Scott 
 informs us. But, without endeavouring to settle this point of etymology, we 
 can now re-enter the glen, in the light of the westering sun, and give our- 
 selves up to the full beauty of the scene. On each side the crags, knolls, and 
 mounds rise "confusedly," streaked grey, weather-stained, green with moss, 
 purple with heather. From every crevice where a root could fasten spring the 
 feathery birch-tree and the quivering aspen : — 
 
 " Aloft, the ash and warrior oak 
 Cast anchor in the rifted rock." 
 
 Look upwards at the sunlight glistening through the boughs, or downward 
 on the long shadows that cross the path, or through the trees at the grey 
 mountain forms dimly discernible. The view at every point is 
 
 " So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 
 The scenery of a fairy dream." 
 
 But even more beautiful is the quiet summer's morning in this exquisite 
 glen, when the dew glistens on every spray, and the birds fill the air with 
 music. The crowd of tourists will soon arrive, but at present the place is 
 free. Walk or drive to Callander, by the Bridge of Turk and beautiful 
 Vennachar ; you will soon meet the long procession of carriages and 
 coaches, with red-coated drivers showing to their passengers the successive 
 points of scenery described in the Lady of the Lake. " There "—pointing 
 with his whip — " is Coilantogle Ford — now occupied by the sluice and 
 salmon ladders connected with the water-works : " — then, breaking into 
 poetry, the driver recites some lines of Scott. To him there is but one 
 poem ; and every character in it is historical. It is pleasant to see such 
 enthusiasm, even though after-thoughts of profit may be connected with it. 
 We have driven through famous historic scenes beside some sullen coachman 
 
BEN VENUE. 
 
GLEN DOC HART. 
 
 IN GLEN DOCHART. 
 
 who had nothing but a gruff Yes or No to our most eager questions. Such 
 drivers would find no place in the Trossachs ! 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Probably we may not be able to remain in the neighbourhood of Loch 
 Vennachar, or there are lovely spots that would well repay the explorer. 
 As a rule, however, these are as lonely all through the summer season as 
 though the crowd of excursionists were not daily rushing past. One bright 
 summer day stands out in memory, spent years ago with pleasant friends by 
 " the only Lake in Scotland." For all the rest are lochs : this of Menteith, 
 for some inscrutable reason, is always called a lake. Here is " Queen 
 Mary's Bower " in Inch-ma-home, the "Island of Rest"; and here, with the 
 "four Maries" as her attendants, the ill-fated princess passed her brief and 
 happy childhood. For varied loveliness of woodland, streamlet, hill, lake, 
 and island, with glimpses of sterner majesty beyond, no little excursion could 
 well be more charming than this from Dullater, at the outlet of Vennachar, 
 to the Port of Menteith and Aberford, whence, for the pedestrian, there is a 
 grand walk over a lower spur of Ben Venue, past Loch Drunkie to 
 Duncraggan, where the road to Callander is again joined. Callander itself, 
 excepting the pretty fall of Bracklinn above the village, presents no points 
 of special interest. The " Dreadnought " Hotel is familiar to tourists 
 as a place for coming and going ; but most travellers now seek the railway 
 station ; and if bound as we are now for Oban, they will soon find them- 
 selves on one of the finest routes by rail which these islands can boast. 
 Many people complain that railways interfere with the enjoyment of scenery. 
 In some localities this may be true. But here the natural features of the 
 country are on so vast a scale that the little railway line (mostly single) 
 and the infrequent trains seem no profanation either of the stillness or of the 
 beauty. To the traveller almost every mile is now full of charm. First of 
 all he proceeds up the glen of the Leny, a stream that flows over rocky 
 banks from Loch Lubnaig to the Teith : the lake then opens up and the 
 railway continues close upon its banks from end to end in view of crags 
 and wooded knolls on the opposite side. Soon the line mounts upwards to 
 a height above Loch Earn Head, a magnificent view of the loch with 
 its girdling mountains being obtained from the railway carriage windows. 
 Glen Ogle that follows is wild and rocky, the line being carried like a 
 slender thread among its gigantic crags. At Killin Station, three or four 
 miles from the village, there is a junction for Loch Tay, beyond which Ben 
 Lawers rises grandly. Glen Dochart, which is next ascended, brings into 
 view the mighty pyramid of Ben More, and the line still rises to Crianlarich, 
 at the head of Glen Falloch, and to Tyndrum. After passing the summit 
 level, we obtain a fine open view over Glen Orchy to the north, and 
 soon after passing Dalmally reach the head of Loch Awe, near Kilchurn 
 Castle. At Loch Awe Station a new hotel commands a grand prospect of 
 lake and mountain, seen in too brief glimpses from the train, which after 
 pursuing its way for somewhat more than a mile by the lake side plunges 
 
 into the Pass of Brander, shared by the railway with the road and the 
 108 
 
INVERNESS AND THE SKYE RAILWAY. 
 
 broad swift river. The latter is crossed just above Taynuilt, and Loch 
 Etive is reached, near the outlet of which by Dunstaffnage Castle the train 
 turns off through a green valley encircled by low rocky hills to its destina- 
 tion at Oban. 
 
 The only other railway route to compare with this in varied beauty also 
 crosses the Highlands from east to west, but is much further north. It 
 may be entered at Inverness, though its proper starting-point is at Dingwall, 
 where the line diverges westward from the railway to the north. From 
 Oban to Inverness the best way is up what has been called the Great Glen 
 of Scotland, by way of Loch Linnhe, the Caledonian Canal, Loch Lochy, and 
 Loch Ness. This route has already been sketched in these pages, as far as 
 Fort William : the part beyond, though the passing of the canal locks is 
 tedious, is very beautiful in fine summer weather, especially between the 
 green hills and woods that line the shore of Loch Ness. Foyers will of 
 course be visited ; though it is far better to take a more leisurely survey of 
 this grand waterfall, " out of all sight and sound," says Professor Wilson, 
 "the finest in Great Britain," than is possible amid the rush of tourists 
 while the steamer waits. It is a scene over which to linger through half a 
 summer's day : and although the Lower Fall is by far the finer, the Upper 
 is worth visiting too, and the paths up the glen are of rich and various 
 beauty. 
 
 Inverness was to me unexpectedly attractive. I had read of a " little 
 Highland town," but I found a modern city, bright, clean, and evidently 
 prosperous, while the swift clear Ness flowing from the loch to the sea 
 (quite independently of the outlet to the Caledonian Canal) added greatly to 
 the charm. But there was no time to stay, beyond one quiet Sunday, where, 
 in a church beside the Ness, I not only heard a most admirable sermon, 
 but listened to some remarkably fine choral and congregational singing, 
 without any instrumental accompaniment. If the service of song could 
 always be so conducted, I thought, there would be no " organ question " to 
 disturb the Assemblies and the churches ! The next morning early found me 
 on the way to Dingwall for what is called the " Skye Railway," having its 
 terminus at Strome Ferry, in full view of that wonderful island. From 
 Dingwall the first stage led to the broad open vale of Strathpeffer, with Ben 
 Wyvis rising grandly to the north, while from the nearer foreground in every 
 direction arose mountains exquisitely diversified in contour. The place invited 
 a longer stay, even apart from the attractions of its mineral waters : but time 
 forbade, and Auchnasheen farther on promised yet greater charms. After 
 passing through a wonderful ravine and through many a rocky cutting, an 
 expanse of rich pasture and lovely woods opened upon the view, with glimpses 
 of a calm lake seeming to recede among the hills. The mountain heights 
 that bounded the valley in all directions became softer and less rugged to 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the view, as well as almost infinitely varied in form. At Auchnasheen, on 
 the margin also of a little lake, the railway was left awhile for an excursion 
 
 LOWER FALL OF FOYERS. 
 
 to Loch Maree and Gairloch, easily attainable by a good pedestrian, though 
 in the season there is generally sufficient coach accommodation for the tourists 
 
LOCH MAREE TO GAIRLOCH. 
 
 who come so far. The route, however, is becoming better known, and certainly 
 there are few excursions even in Scotland to compare with this for interest 
 and grandeur. So much is now said about Loch Maree by those who have 
 visited it that expectation is apt to be disappointed. Yet those who care 
 most for the sterner aspects of nature, who delight in bold mountain forms, 
 and see more beauty in the dark green of pine forests on grey hill slopes, 
 than in the " birks of Aberfeldy" or the oaks and hazels of the Trossachs, 
 will give the palm to Loch Maree over perhaps all other scenery in Scot- 
 land. The green islands on the lake are picturesquely beautiful, and 
 Ben Slioch rears its head on the farther shore, a very giant among the 
 surrounding mountains. 
 
 I.OCH MAREE, WITH BEN SLIOCH. 
 
 A few miles farther, and the Gairloch is reached, — a noble bay, 
 to the head of which a lovely valley opens, well named " Flowerdale." 
 Hence, again, there is a sea route to the Isle of Skye or to Oban. 
 
 The traveller who has not left the train at Auchnasheen, or who 
 returns to that station to pursue the westward route, soon reaches the 
 summit of the line over a wild moorland region, then descends through 
 a glen bordered by mountain forms of singular beauty until Loch Carron, 
 one of the loveliest if not of the grandest sea lochs in the North of Scotland, 
 opens out before him. For some miles the railway closely borders 
 the shore, and in the summer sunshine nothing can exceed the effect of 
 the purple hills across the deep blue waters. The view is seen in its 
 
THROUGH THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS. 
 
 perfection from Strome Ferry, the terminus of the railway, where the hotel 
 is beautifully situated on a little eminence commanding the loch, the sound 
 into which it opens, and the blue-grey Cuchullin Hills beyond. After all, I 
 think there is no approach to Skye so fine as this. 
 
 Our two Western Highland Railway routes were now accomplished, 
 forming with the Caledonian Canal and its connected lakes a vast 
 irregular Z, from Callander at one extremity to Strome Ferry at the other, 
 Oban and Inverness being at the two angles. To all travellers who can 
 take but one Scottish tour we would say, let it be this. Only let us hope, 
 again, that the weather may be fine. Auchnasheen, it is said, means in 
 Gaelic, " The field of rain : " and the name is only too well deserved. 
 
 "IAND OF THE MOUNTAIN AND THE FLOOD." 
 
THE CENTRAL HlQHLftND^: 
 pTIT^LlNG TO INVEF(NE££ 
 
VIEW FROM STIRLING CASTLE. 
 
 THE CENTK&E HiqHL,ftND£: $TII^lNq 
 
 TO INVEHNE^. 
 
 The Scottish Highlands are sometimes spoken of so as to convey the 
 impression that there is a clearly defined mountain district, contrasted 
 with " the Lowlands," as though the latter were a vast plain. There could 
 hardly be a greater mistake. From Kirkcudbright to Caithness, there is 
 hardly a county without its hill-ranges ; and without leaving the Southern 
 districts, the lover of mountain beauty will find noble heights and solitary 
 glens, with many a rippling burn from tarns among the hills. At some of 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 these we have already glanced ; and it is almost with reluctance that we 
 leave the rest for the grander, sterner hill country of the North. 
 
 It is at Stirling that the traveller from 
 the South first begins to discern the immensity 
 of the mountain region to which he is directing 
 his way ; and in comparison with the other 
 routes that have been already described in 
 these pages, or that may be sketched hereafter, 
 possibly the region that lies about " the 
 Highland Railway " affords the most varied 
 as well as the wildest and most magnificent 
 range of scenery. The line really starts from 
 Perth, but the access from Stirling is an ap- 
 propriate and striking introduction to its 
 wonders, although it may be approached a 
 little more directly from Edinburgh by crossing 
 the Firth of Forth, and proceeding through 
 Fifeshire. A detour by Dunfermline and 
 Kinross I found very pleasant, especially as it 
 gave the opportunity of visiting Loch Leven, 
 famed for Queen Mary's romantic escape ; but 
 the journey on the whole proved rather tedious, 
 and the route by Stirling seems preferable, 
 especially if the traveller is imbued with 
 
 nS 
 
 THE BORE STONE, BANNOCKBURN. 
 
BANNOCKBURN AND STIRLING. 
 
 the romance of Scottish history, and is able to stop at Bannockburn. 
 The name had always a peculiar charm to me, perhaps through Sir Walter 
 Scott's Tales of a Grandfather — surely the best " child's history " ever 
 written : and although the place itself is flat and rather disenchanting, 
 the very sight of it brings back some of the old enthusiasm. Standing by 
 the " Bore Stone " where Bruce placed his banner — now protected by 
 an iron grating — it is impossible not to recall that noblest of battle songs, 
 " Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled ; " or the stirring lines in which Scott 
 describes the frenzy that fired the mixed multitude that watched the contest 
 from afar : 
 
 " Each heart had caught the patriot spark, 
 
 Old man and stripling, priest and clerk, 
 
 Bondsman and serf; even female hand 
 
 Stretched to the hatchet or the brand. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 ' To us, as to our lords, are given 
 
 A native earth, a promised heaven ; 
 
 To us, as to our lords, belongs 
 
 The vengeance for our nation's wrongs ; 
 
 The choice, 'twixt death or freedom, warms 
 
 Our breasts as theirs. To arms ! to arms ! ' 
 
 To arms they flew, — axe, club, or spear, — 
 
 And mimic ensigns high they rear, 
 
 And like a bannered host afar, 
 
 Bear down on England's wearied war." 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that in all the strifes of this period our 
 English sympathies should be with the Scotch ! The pride of the Scottish 
 people themselves in their patriot heroes, no Act of Union or blending of 
 interests seems ever able to diminish. 
 
 In Stirling itself the chief interest is concentrated in the Castle, which, 
 as every one knows, surmounts a precipice fronting the plain of the 
 Forth, the town being built upon the slopes behind. From the terraces of 
 this grand rock the view is magnificent. Courteous guides will tell the 
 visitor where Queen Mary stood to admire the prospect, or where Queen 
 Victoria gazed upon the scene. Or, enticing you within, they will show the 
 " Douglas room," and. repeat the tradition of the murder foully wrought, 
 pointing out also memorials of John Knox, side by side with relics from 
 Bannockburn— a singular combination ! Then for the sightseer there are the 
 quaint decorations of the Palace, and the Chapel Royal, now a store-room. 
 But the chief attraction- is still without, in the glorious open plain girded 
 by its amphitheatre of mountains. The windings of the Forth, partially seen 
 from the Rock, so fertilise the vale as to have given rise to the saying, 
 
 " The lairdship of the bonny Links of Forth 
 Is better than an earldom in the north." 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS: STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 IfcjgW**; 
 
 STIRLING CASTLE. 
 
THE WALLACE MONUMENT AND THE BRIDGE OF ALLAN. 
 
 The view is a fitting introduction to the mountain land. Of course we cast 
 one stone, metaphorically, at the unfortunate Wallace Monument, erected in 
 " the baronial style " — whatever that may be — upon a wooded crag nearly two 
 miles off, an outlying spur of the Ochills that had formerly been one of the 
 most charming features of the scene. We are told for our comfort that the 
 structure is 220 feet high, and that if we please we can ascend it for the 
 
 WALLACE MONUMENT, STIRLING. 
 
 sake of the yet more extensive view from its summit. Declining the offer, 
 and hardly caring to remain in Stirling, we pass on to rest for the night at 
 the Bridge of Allan, a watering-place on the brow of the Airthrey range, 
 luxuriantly wooded, and favoured not only by invigorating air, but by mineral 
 waters, which on ascending to the pump-room before breakfast the next 
 morning, we find we may drink ad libitum, on a small payment at entrance. 
 Several persons are already pacing in front of the building with tumblers 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS: STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 DUNBLANE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 in their hands ; but the genial stim- 
 ulating air of the hillside seems at 
 present all we want, and a delightful 
 ramble through the woods higher up 
 sends us back to our comfortable 
 hotel with appetite ready for a Scottish 
 breakfast, to be followed by a long 
 journey to the Grampian Highlands. 
 The line to Perth crosses and re- 
 crosses the fair Allan Water, passing 
 Dunblane with its old cathedral — 
 worth a visit, were there time — then 
 reaches Crieff Junction, or rather, the 
 Junction for Crieff, that lovely rest- 
 ing-place in the strath or valley of 
 the Earn being still at a consider- 
 able distance. Should there be time 
 for a visit, an excursion up the wild Glen Turrit to the foot of Ben Chonzie 
 would be found wonderfully enjoyable ; but we must now press on from the 
 Junction, and leave these scenes for the time unvisited. Auchterarder is 
 next passed, a name once famous in ecclesiastical controversy ; and the train 
 traverses a broad fertile valley until it rolls into the wide echoing station of 
 Perth. The " fair city," however, need not detain us. Its far-famed Inches 
 are broad level meadows. Kinnoul Hill is beautiful for its wooded walks 
 and for its fine views towards the 
 Grampian Mountains, while the Carse 
 of Gowrie, an expanse of rich meadow- 
 land bordering the Tay, stretches east- 
 ward, and the blue waters of the 
 estuary gleam beyond. It is said that 
 Moncrieff Hill, on the other side of 
 the river, is equally fine ; but I had 
 no time to ascend both, or rather, as 
 the time of my visit happened to be 
 the Sabbath evening after the services 
 of the day, it was more congenial to 
 rest, in quiet talk with a friend, as 
 together we watched the sunset over 
 the distant hills. 
 
 Returning to the railway station in 
 the morning, we find two sets of trains 
 bound for the Highlands. One is by 
 Forfar to Aberdeen and the east ; the carse of gowrie. 
 
DUNK ELD. 
 
 other by Blair Athole more directly northward ; both routes meeting again at 
 Forres, and passing along the southern shore of the Moray Firth to Inverness. 
 It is the Blair Athole line that is called distinctively the " Highland Railway" ; 
 and happy are those travellers who can linger at its successive points of 
 interest, and explore at leisure the wonderful regions that lie eastward and 
 westward, offering within a short distance scenes of alternate grandeur and 
 loveliness, enhanced by the stern and rugged desolation by which, on 
 the eastern side especially, they are shut in. At first, however, all is 
 tranquil loveliness, as the train rapidly ascends the valley of the Tay, with 
 many a view of the fair river. Dunkeld is soon reached — to many travellers 
 the first introduction to the Highlands. The town is some distance 
 from the station, and the best way to apprehend its beauty is to walk to 
 
 LOCH TURRIT. 
 
 the bridge over the Tay, from which a panorama of the richest beauty is 
 obtained, the hills, nowhere vast, but picturesque in outline, being clothed 
 to their summits with noble trees. The little town with its old cathedral 
 tower is in front of the spectator ; Birnam Hill, beyond the railway station, 
 rises behind him. Undoubtedly at Dunkeld the two things to be done are 
 to ascend this hill, and to walk through the Duke of Athole's grounds. 
 Birnam is perfectly accessible, even to ordinary walkers ; the " wood " which 
 Shakspeare has made famous x is represented by some fine old trees ; the path 
 to the summit winds round a dense plantation of fir and birch ; above which 
 a grand view of the distant mountains is obtained, with Dunkeld in the 
 foreground, guarded as it were by the wooded bluff of Craigie-Barns. The 
 
 1 Mr. Pennant says that " Birnam Wood has never recovered the march which its ancestors made to Dunsinane." 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 sparkle of lakelets in the valley, and the luxuriance of the foliage on every 
 height, afford a charming contrast in colour to the purple and grey of the 
 mountains ; while the broad and beautiful Tay may be traced both upwards 
 and downwards for many a mile. It is only the background of rugged 
 desolateness that seems wanting to the perfection of this fine view. The 
 harsher features are softened by distance,' and the spectator looks abroad as 
 on an earthly Paradise. 
 
 Descending to Dunkeld, and visiting the cathedral or not, as his anti- 
 quarian tastes may incline him, the traveller must next make a point of 
 visiting the Duke of Athole's grounds, passing on the way some old larch- 
 trees, among the first introduced into Great Britain, having been brought 
 from the Tyrol in 1738. There is a payment at the Duke's gates which 
 nobody will grudge, and the prejudice with which some persons are apt to 
 enter show-grounds of any kind will soon disappear. True, there is much 
 of art in the laying out of walks and shrubberies, and opinions will differ as 
 to the old effect produced in " Ossian's Hall," near the Hermitage, where the 
 throwing open of a door suddenly disclosed a cataract which a cunning dis- 
 position of mirrors made to appear as though environing the spectator on all 
 sides, and ready to pour on his head. He was expected to start back in 
 fear, suddenly changed to admiration ! ' This, however, was several years ago, 
 when I last visited Dunkeld ; not long afterwards I heard that some one, 
 
 1 A naively amusing account of a visit to Ossian's Cave is given by an American traveller in 1835 : — 
 
 " On mounting a bank, I saw my guide at the door of a rustic temple, which he threw open on my approach, 
 and introduced me to a circular mansion about 12 feet in diameter, neatly finished, and lighted in the top of the dome. 
 
 " 'This,' said he, 'is Ossian's Hall.' Then, pointing to a painting on the farther side, he began to explain: — 
 ' That, as you see, is Ossian, singing to his two greyhounds and the maidens that stand before him'.' I saw the 
 listeners were alike enraptured, the dogs no less than the maids, and Ossian lost in the inspirations of his song. 
 And while I myself began to sympathize with the group, and stood gazing on the venerable countenance, the 
 heaven-directed eye, and flowing locks of the Bard, on a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, by some invisible 
 machinery, the painting was withdrawn — it was not to be found. The space occasioned by it opened into a splendid 
 though small saloon, the farther end of which again opened directly on a cataract, 40 feet distant, and of 40 feet 
 descent, which came foaming and rushing down the rocks, heightened in its powers by the full light of a blazing 
 sun, and by the rocky bed and sides of the Braan, overhung by the thick-set trees, all stooping and betiding to 
 look upon the scene. It was grand and overpowering. My first emotions were those of a shock. The whoie 
 vision was thrown upon me so unexpectedly — the painting on which I was gazing had been withdrawn so miracu- 
 lously, that 1 had almost fallen back on the floor with surprise. But the recovery into unqualified transport was 
 as quick and irresistible as the emotions immediately preceding. It is an interesting device. The cataract itself, 
 in its own natural forms, is worth seeing. It is made to spring upon you like a lion pouncing upon its prey. It 
 seems actually to jump and leap towards you — and it takes a second long moment to be convinced that you are 
 not lost, overwhelmed, and borne away. 
 
 " What gives additional, and partly a frightful interest to this scene, is a large reflecting mirror laid upon the 
 ceiling above, which unavoidably attracts the gaze ; and there you behold again the entire flood, with all its 
 terrors impending, and it seems impossible to escape it. It is a most imposing spectacle. 
 
 " 'Walk in, walk in,' said my guide, stepping himself before me into the saloon, as if to convince me it was 
 safe notwithstanding, as he saw me wrapt in amazement. I followed, and behold ! I saw myself thrown full length 
 from the walls on the right and left, presenting my front and rear, and both my sides, with every form and shape 
 I wore, from every point of the compass. I turned, and saw myself turning into a thousand shapes. I looked up, 
 and there saw myself looking down upon myself, and standing on my feet against the heavens. I moved onward, 
 and whichever way I went, saw myself moving in various directions — in one place slowly, in another quickly, in 
 another quicker still, and in another darting forward at a fearful rate. He that has not philosophy eno.igh to find 
 out this secret, may ask me another time." — Four Years in Great Britain, by Calvin Colton. 
 128 
 
DUNK ELD. 
 
 whose aesthetics probably were too much for his honesty, had blown up the 
 place with gunpowder, and left the falls to produce their own impression. 
 Whether Ossian's Hall has been rebuilt I do not know. But, apart from 
 such devices, the natural beauties of the scene are of such a kind as to be 
 really enhanced by taste and culture. The Tay, with its lovely tributary 
 the Braan, the surrounding hills, and the kindly soil, were all ready to 
 hand ; and the result of wisely directed expenditure and labour is seen in 
 
 the charm of the turfy walks, the 
 magnificence of the innumerable trees, 
 and the selection of best points for 
 the opening up of vistas, whence the 
 chief beauties of the place may be 
 seen. The Hermitage bridge and fall 
 in the Braan Valley is perhaps the place that will most tempt the lingering 
 footsteps of the visitor ; although the " Rumbling Bridge " beyond (not to 
 be confounded with the more celebrated Rumbling Bridge over the Devon, 
 between Kinross and Stirling) is romantically wild. Altogether, it will be 
 seen, Dunkeld is a place that may well become the Capua of the tourist 
 who gives way to its fascinations. There is harder work before him, if he 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 wishes to see the Highlands as they are. For, as we proceed northwards, we 
 shall leave this luxuriance and splendour behind, and shall better perhaps be 
 able to enter into the description of Dr. Beattie, author of The Minstrel, 
 and of Essays on Taste, who thus refers to the Scottish Highlands : 
 
 11 The Highlands of Scotland are a picturesque but in general a melan- 
 choly country. Long tracts of mountainous desert, covered with dark heath, 
 and often obscured by misty weather ; narrow valleys, thinly inhabited, and 
 bounded by precipices resounding with the fall of torrents ; a soil so rugged and 
 a climate so dreary as in many parts to admit neither the amusements of 
 pasturage nor the labours of agriculture ; the mournful dashing of waves along 
 the friths and lakes that intersect the country ; the portentous noises which 
 every change of the wind and every increase and diminution of the waters is 
 apt to raise in a lonely region, full of echoes, and rocks, and caverns ; the 
 grotesque and ghastly appearance of such a landscape by the light of the moon 
 — objects like these diffuse a gloom over the fancy, which may be compatible 
 enough with occasional and social merriment, but cannot fail to tincture the 
 thoughts of a native in the hour of silence and solitude." 
 
 Dr. Beattie's remarks occur in an Essay on Music, and are intended to 
 explain how the Highland music is naturally plaintive and much in minor key ; 
 but that it is not therefore devoid of pleasing melody, the works of great 
 composers, notably Mendelssohn in his " Highland Symphony," as well as 
 the native Scottish music, sufficiently attest. Yet the description has interest, 
 as showing how much the enthusiasm about Highland scenery is the result 
 of association. That the taste for such scenery is of comparatively recent 
 origin is shown in the Letters of the poet Gray, who writes almost as if 
 the wonder and beauty of the Highlands were a new discovery. It must 
 be remembered that General Wade's roads, giving easy access for the first 
 time to the chief beauties of this mountain district, were but newly opened. 
 "The Lowlands," writes Gray, "are worth seeing once, but the mountains 
 are ecstatic, and ought to be visited in pilgrimage once a year." And again, 
 speaking of Killiecrankie, " A hill rises, covered with oak, with grotesque 
 masses of rock staring from among their trunks, like the sullen countenance 
 of Fingal and all his family, frowning on the little mortals of modern days. 
 From between this hill and the adjacent mountains, pent in a narrow 
 channel, comes roaring out the river Tummel, and falls headlong down, 
 enclosed in white foam, which rises in a mist all around it. But my paper is 
 deficient, and I must say nothing of the Pass itself, the black river Garry, 
 the Blair of Athol, Mount Beni-gloe, my return (by another road) to Dunkeld, 
 the Hermitage, the Stra-Brann, and the Rumbling Brigg. In short, since I 
 saw the Alps, I have seen nothing sublime till now," x 
 
 The railway, keeping for the most part to the valley, shuts out at 
 present the sterner features of the scenery ; though by-and-by it will pass 
 
 1 See Gray's Letters to the Rev. W. Mason, 1765, p. 348, and Letter to Dr. Wharton {Works, Pickering), vol. iv. p. 61. 
 130 
 
through a dreary country enough ! The route continues from Dunkeld 
 to the point where, in an open valley, the Tay branches to the west : 
 the river that comes down from the north to join it at this spot is the 
 Tummel. It is worth while again to leave the direct line for a brief visit 
 to Aberfeldy with its "birks," or birch-trees, and pretty waterfall. As 
 far as this point there is now a branch railway, so that the visit can be 
 made with but small expenditure of time, although the leisurely traveller 
 will find the drive or walk by the river past Taymouth Castle and as far 
 
 BIRKS OF ABERFELDY. 
 
 as Kenmore very lovely. Here Loch Tay opens up amid a scene of perfect 
 sylvan beauty, with Ben Lawers, the sixth J highest mountain in Scotland, 
 3984 feet in height, rising grandly to the north, and the purple hills about 
 Killin at the head of the loch, ten miles distant, affording some hint of the 
 
 1 Which' are the first five ? We take the list from Mr. Baddeley's Guide to the Highlands : Ben Nevis, 4406 
 feet ; Ben Muich Dhui, 4296 ; Braeriach, 4248 ; Cairn Toul, 4241 ; Cairngorm, 4084. These last four form one 
 stupendous irregular quadrangle about the source of the Dee. Ben Lomond comes only twenty-fourth, with a height 
 of 3192 feet. There are no fewer than forty summits, from Ben Nevis to Ben Venue (2393 feet), that may rank 
 as mountains of the first class. 
 
 K 2 131 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS: STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 sterner grandeurs in the west. At Killin, as shown in a previous chapter, the 
 railway to Oban may be joined : but our present purpose is to return to the 
 northward route. The Tummel, whose course the railway now ascends as far 
 as Pitlochrie, has been called the "loveliest river in Scotland;" but its chief 
 beauties will be seen by those who have time to turn off from Pitlochrie 
 up to Lochs Tummel and Rannoch. The combinations of wood and rock 
 almost along the whole route are exquisite, and the Falls of the Tummel, 
 though not high, are striking when the river is in full flood. I ferried across 
 at the foot of the former lake to a point where a rock, easily reached, 
 commands a superb view, known as " the Queen's," over the loch with its sur- 
 rounding mountains, clothed along their bases with noble woods, their endless 
 curves and slopes culminating in the mighty pyramid of Schiehallion. Should 
 it be impossible to proceed as far as Loch Rannoch, the visitor may well 
 turn back to Pitlochrie. He will see nothing finer of its kind in all Scot- 
 land. The Hydropathic Establishment at Pitlochrie attracts many visitors : 
 the vale here expands into a wide strath ; the air, without being chill or 
 harsh, is very bracing, and, though I cannot here speak from experience, it 
 is said to be well adapted for tender lungs in winter, being dry and pure, 
 while all the sunshine that there is, falls upon this happy sheltered valley. 
 
 Instead of resuming the railway journey at Pitlochrie, the traveller 
 should — I might almost say must, for the sake of the rich beauty of the 
 scene, proceed on foot or by carriage along the road as far as Killiecran- 
 kie, passing up the river Garry from its junction with the Tummel. Road, 
 rail, and river, are all carried along the glen, and though even the railroad 
 does not spoil its magnificence, but, on the contrary, affords many fine views 
 of the wooded heights which seem to close it in, the best view, incompa- 
 rably, is from the path below, close by the rushing river. A chatty, and, as 
 he described himself, a vara ceevil, guide accompanied us : such attendance 
 seems to be the rule when the footpath is taken. He was, as Scottish 
 guides generally are, full of honest enthusiasm for the beautiful ravine of 
 which he was the custodian. The only defect of the pass is that 
 there is so little of it. Not far from the end, we reach the Soldier's Leap, 
 the river being hemmed in by great boulders to a width of not more than 
 ten or twelve feet, where it is said a Highland soldier, hotly pursued after 
 the battle in July 1689, cleared the chasm and saved his life. There always 
 is a Lover's Leap, a Soldier's Leap, or a Smuggler's Leap, over such 
 narrow gorges ! The battle-field is just outside the glen, not far from the 
 station, and close by Urrard House, where Claverhouse died from the wound 
 received in the conflict. 
 
 We seem to linger on these fair scenes : but in fact we are not yet 
 at an hour's distance by train from Dunkeld. Yet a little higher, and we 
 reach Blair Athole, where now the traveller begins to feel the coldness of 
 the hills. The village lies in an open plain, and possesses no remarkable 
 
GLEN TILT. 
 
GLEN TILT. 
 
 features, apart from the castle and grounds of " the Duke." These I did not 
 care much to see, nor even to visit the grave of Claverhouse, who is interred 
 here, but without a monument. For time was limited ; and Glen Tilt, that 
 wondrous path into the mountain land, had supreme attractions. The Tilt 
 is the little river which here comes down from the east into the Carry ; and 
 
 BRUAR WATER. 
 
 after following its upward course through a beautiful valley for a few miles, 
 we emerge upon a grand bare glen, in the bed of which the stream dashes 
 among its rocks. A narrow path is carried- along the mountain side on the 
 right bank of the river : opposite and in front of the pedestrian, hills rise 
 beyond hills, in endless variety of bold magnificent outline ; torrents, which 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 in dry weather dwindle into rivulets, descend from the heights ; and one of 
 these, the Tarff, when in flood has proved a barrier to many a stout pedes- 
 trian. Readers of the Journal of our Life in the Highlands will remember 
 a picture of the royal party crossing the ford on horseback. This seems 
 adventurous enough ; but sometimes the ford has been entirely impracticable, 
 and the traveller on foot who has been resolved to proceed has found it 
 necessary to ascend the rough and broken path by the torrent for about two 
 miles, to some rude stepping-stones. Life has even been lost at the ford ; 
 but quite recently a bridge has been placed over the stream. Some distance 
 higher up the pass, the Tilt, now an inconsiderable burn, is easily crossed ; 
 Loch Tilt, the desolate mountain tarn from which it issues, is a little to the 
 left ; and the weary traveller, having gained the summit, is at the water- 
 shed between the systems of the Tay and the Dee, on the border of the 
 counties Perth and Aberdeen. Before him are the giants of the Grampians, 
 Cairntoul, Ben-Muich-dhui, and Cairngorm ; and the stream which begins to 
 appear through the stones and heather on his right hand is one of the affluents 
 of the Dee. He is now on his way to Braemar ; but we cannot follow him, 
 as we must return to complete our journey over the " Highland line." 
 
 After leaving Blair Athole, this line becomes very dreary ; the last of 
 the woodland glens, with whose beauty we have been almost surfeited, 
 being at the Falls of the Bruar, a tributary of the Garry, to the right. 
 The trains mostly stop at Struan Station, and I would strongly recommend 
 any tourist who cares to see another cataract to alight there and walk up to 
 the series of falls. In its higher reaches the torrent dashes over the wildest, 
 grimmest rocks ; lower down the ravine is clothed with firs and other trees, 
 in accordance with the petition of Burns, who in his admiration of the 
 scene felt that it only needed the adornment of woodland : 
 
 " Let lofty firs and ashes cool 
 
 My lowly banks o'erspread, 
 And view, deep-bending in the pool, 
 
 Their shadows' watery bed. 
 Let fragrant birks, in woodbines drest, 
 
 My craggy cliffs adorn ; 
 And for the little songster's nest, 
 
 The close embowering thorn." 
 
 The line now borders the Forest of Athole — a vast dreary undulating 
 
 waste, scarred by many a storm, with boulders from the heights lying in all 
 
 directions, to tell of fierce battling of the elements through winter days and 
 
 nights. The Garry to the right flows over its wild, rocky, treeless bed ; 
 
 few habitations of men appear, and the glories of the distant hills are 
 
 mostly hidden by the high curves of the desert region close at hand. This 
 
 is the district of which we of the south so often read in winter time 
 
 that it is " snowed up," " impassable." More than once, a train has been 
 136 
 
ON THE HIGHLAND RAILWAY. 
 
 actually missing, until dug out — as wanderers on the St. Bernard are dis- 
 covered by the faithful hounds ! In summer time, however, the air is 
 exhilarating, and some indefatigable travellers who have climbed on foot 
 this watershed between the Tay and the Spey have assured me that they 
 found Glengarry delightful to the end. Near the summit of the line the 
 river is crossed ; Loch Garry, from which it issues, lies a little to the left : 
 and at the Pass of Drumouchter (•' the upper ridge ") a " dip " between the 
 counties of Perth and Inverness, the highest point is reached, fifteen hundred 
 feet above the sea-level, near two singular mountains, the " Badenoch Boar" 
 and the " Athole Sow," which rise right and left of the line, while a little 
 farther on is a glimpse of Loch Ericht — the Scottish Wastwater, only 
 gloomier and bigger. The running stream which we now cross and recross 
 in its stony bed, shows us that we are beginning to descend ; and the pace 
 quickens through the dreary wilderness until we reach the Spey, already a 
 fine river swiftly flowing from the west ; and fair woods and pasture land 
 are once more seen. Kingussie (of which the u, be it observed, is long) is 
 the first considerable village reached ; the line soon skirts a pretty little 
 lake (Loch Inch), and beyond the woods on our right hand the highest 
 mountains of the Grampian range appear ; not frowningly as seen from 
 Glen Tilt, but with considerable beauty of outline, enhanced by the fore- 
 ground of forest. Rothiemurchus, on Spey-side, is a most attractive resting- 
 place, as I can testify, from the memory of bright summer days spent in 
 roaming through the forests, or climbing the neighbouring heights, or 
 pleasant converse with friends in a certain shooting-lodge not far from the 
 mighty slopes and ravines of Cairngorm. For we are now in the haunts 
 of the wild deer ; and the sport which to its votaries not unnaturally seems 
 the noblest and most inspiriting, as well as the most healthful form of 
 recreation, engrosses the. thoughts of all. It is indeed difficult not to share 
 the enthusiasm of the deerstalker, when some noble quarry — the prize of skill, 
 patience, and hardy endurance — is brought home in triumph from the hills. 
 Grouse-shooting, too, though making a far inferior claim upon the physical 
 powers, has its ardent votaries, and a glance down the pages of the Sports- 
 mans Guide to the Rivers, Lochs, Moors, and Deer Forests of Scotland, pub- 
 lished monthly in the summer, will show by the rents attached to the several 
 '•'shootings," how highly the opportunity of sport is rated. Still the sport 
 is but secondary, and the main gift of these wild moors and mountain airs 
 is equally for those who have never held a gun. It is the gift of health, 
 recovered energy of brain and limb, elasticity of spirits, power to resolve 
 and to achieve, so that much of the noblest work wrought by our highest 
 and best through the winter and the spring, may be traced to those 
 autumnal days spent among the moors of Scotland. 
 
 The Spey now gathers volume, and the railroad continues close beside 
 it as far as Grantown ; the views of the river, the woodland and the distant 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 hills continuing very fine, notably where the Braes of Abernethy mark the 
 confluence of the little river Nethy from the east with the grander stream. 
 A beautiful excursion of about ten miles may be taken from Grantown to 
 Loch Ruicht, near Glen More, reflecting on its surface the precipitous sides 
 of Cairngorm and the summits of the greater and smaller Bynach. The 
 scenery around is of the wildest character — the neighbouring moor is studded 
 with pine trunks blackened by fire ; the forest is said, and I believe 
 unjustly, to have been maliciously set on fire, and the crime is spoken of as 
 the " Shepherd's Revenge." 
 
 The loch at its western extremity is the resort of wild fowl, who 
 breed without disturbance among the water-lilies and flags. At the other 
 end the sandy beach is indented with the countless footprints of the deer, 
 who come down to drink, or to relieve themselves from flies, by swimming 
 to the opposite shore. To the east of the loch, lies a rocky defile known 
 as " The Thieves' Road," along which the cattle " lifted " from their southern 
 neighbours were driven by the Highland marauders. The mountains 
 become less elevated ; Strathspey opens to the right, and there is a 
 pleasant route along the banks of the river, turning off some miles below 
 its mouth in the direction of Elgin. Here there is little to be seen but 
 the cathedral, once a truly noble pile, and now imposing in its ruins. The 
 western towers, though dilapidated, stand in their original massiveness : and 
 the chapter-house at the north-east angle is almost intact ; — " an elegant 
 octagonal room supported by one slender central pillar beautifully flowered 
 and clustered, which sends forth tree-like as it approaches the roof its 
 branches to the different angles, each with its peculiar incrustation of rich 
 decorations, and its grotesque corbel." The desk to which a copy of the 
 Scriptures was formerly chained is still attached to the pillar. The 
 architecture of the cathedral is in general " Decorated English ; " the building 
 was founded in 1224, burned in 1390 by Alexander Stewart, son of 
 Robert 11., commonly called the Wolf of Badenoch, and rebuilt during the 
 first quarter of the fifteenth century. A magnificent steeple rose from the 
 centre, but this fell in 1506, and being rebuilt to the height of 198 feet, fell 
 again in 171 1. Before this the building had been irretrievably despoiled in 
 1568 by the Regent Murray, who sold its leaden roof for money to pay his 
 soldiers. 
 
 Perhaps, however, some of the most interesting of the reminiscences 
 connected with this venerable pile are those connected with the name of 
 Andrew Anderson. A little dark room is still shown to the visitor between 
 the chapter-house and the north cloister, said to have been anciently used 
 as a lavatory, or, according to some, as the sacristy of the building. Here, 
 about the year 1747, a poor distraught woman took up her abode, with an 
 infant, whom she cradled in an ancient font. Once Margaret Gilzean had 
 been among the loveliest of the fair maidens of Elgin ; but she had married 
 
ROTHIEMURCHUS FOREST IN THE MIDDLE 
 DISTANCE. 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 a soldier, and had gone off with him without her parents' consent ; he seems 
 to have fallen in one of the battles of the '45 rebellion, and the poor young 
 widow with her babe returned to find herself despised and disowned. 
 Under the accumulated trouble her wits gave way, and resisting all tardy 
 offers of kindness and shelter, she clung to this forlorn home in the ruined 
 cathedral, wandering about with her boy, living on charity, and known by 
 all as "daft Mary Gilzean, a harmless creature, that wept and sang by 
 
 ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 
 
 turns." The boy Andrew received a gratuitous education at the Elgin 
 Grammar School, being appointed " Pauper " to that institution, sweeping the 
 rooms and tending the fires in return for the instruction received. At 
 the end of his school course he was apprenticed to a cruel master, a stay- 
 maker by trade — brother to the soldier Anderson, his father — from whose harsh 
 treatment at last he absconded and found his way to London. He obtained 
 work as a tailor's assistant, and in that capacity attracted the notice of an 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS: STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 officer bound for India, who was struck by his appearance and induced him 
 to enlist as his servant. 
 
 Some forty or forty-five years afterwards Andrew Anderson returned, after 
 many an adventure that it would take too long to tell, a Lieutenant-General in 
 the East India Company's service. None recognised him, as he sought the 
 
 ON THE FINDHORN. 
 
 cathedral which had so strangely sheltered his infancy, and inquired of the old 
 sexton, Saunders Cooke, "if he knew whereabouts in the churchyard a poor 
 woman called Marjory Gilzean had been buried." " Na," answered Saunders, 
 " she was a puir worthless craitur ; naebody kens where she is buried. But 
 I can tell ye where she lived. It was in that place they ca' the Sacristy. 
 
VIEW FROM THE LADIES' WALK, GRANTOWN, Sl'EYSIDE. 
 
TO FORRES. 
 
 ON THE FINDHORN. 
 
 She brought up a bairn there, in a hollow stone that was ance a font 
 for holy water. I mind the laddie weel ; he grew up a browe loon (Moray- 
 shire for a ' stout boy ') and was pauper at our school." " Unfortunate" 
 replied the stranger with much emotion, " but never worthless ! " He took 
 
 up his summer abode in Elgin ; 
 and some years afterwards as- 
 signed the bulk of his property 
 to endow a hospital for ten old 
 and indigent persons, a school of 
 industry for sixty poor children, 
 and a free school for two hun- 
 dred and thirty scholars. The 
 building was to be called " the 
 Elgin Institution," the founder 
 desiring to suppress his own 
 name; but as "Anderson's" it 
 is, and doubtless always will be 
 known. A story like this gives 
 dignity to a somewhat common- 
 place-looking edifice, which sur- 
 passes even the time - worn 
 splendours of the cathedral ! 
 
 DULSIE BRIDGE. 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 The Highland railway itself leaves Strathspey near Grantown, and pro- 
 ceeds directly northwards, first climbing to the summit of a " blasted heath " 
 (but not Shakspeare's) on the road to Forres. The descent to this famous 
 place is long. I did not find it very interesting. " How far ist called to 
 Forres ? " was a question that recurred irresistibly. At length I alighted, 
 
 CAWDOR CASTLE. 
 
 and soon found comfortable quarters, after a journey filled with excitement 
 and delight. Two 'or three days were spent here in exploring the 
 neighbourhood, especially the course of the Findhorn. Nothing that I had 
 heard or read had prepared me for the exceeding beauty of this river, 
 dashing as it does over its rocky bed, amid vast granite boulders and 
 between high, precipitous, wooded banks ; the brown water, with crests 
 
 m3 
 
DULSIE BRIDGE. 
 
 and fringes of white foam, hurrying tumultuously onward in rapid and 
 innumerable small cataracts. There are some charming grounds, through 
 which a path leads above the river, traversing noble woods. Soon after 
 emerging, I came upon the junction of a mountain torrent, the Divie, with 
 the Findhorn, and walked a little way up the lovely glen, returning, 
 however, to the main stream, and following its course upwards as far 
 as Dulsie Bridge — a walk altogether of some thirteen or fourteen miles 
 from Forres, as rich in picturesque beauty as any ramble in these islands. 
 "What spot on earth," writes Mr. St. John, "can exceed in beauty the 
 landscape comprising the old bridge of Dulsie, spanning with its lofty arch 
 the deep, dark pool, shut in by grey and fantastic rocks, surmounted with 
 the greenest of greenswards, with clumps of ancient weeping birches, 
 backed by the dark pine trees ? " The bridge, as will be seen from our cut, 
 consists of one bold lofty arch spanning the yawning chasm, and of one 
 smaller subsidiary one, carrying the roadway from a high rock onwards to 
 the north bank. The greater arch is 46 feet in width. Here are indications 
 even yet of "the Morayshire Floods" in 1829, when the wild little river 
 rose between its granite banks to a height of forty or fifty feet above 
 its ordinary level, 1 overspreading much of the neighbouring country, sweep- 
 ing away stone bridges, and spreading so much desolation around that the 
 catastrophe has become an epoch of reckoning ; and old people at Forres 
 will tell you of events " before the Flood." At Dulsie Bridge the mass 
 of water was so confined that it completely filled the smaller arch, and rose 
 in the greater to within three feet of the keystone ; being thus no less than 
 forty feet in perpendicular height above the usual level. From this spot a 
 " machine " carried me by a good road to Cawdor, where the castle again 
 called up Shakspearean recollections. The building is a fine unmodernized 
 specimen of feudal architecture, with drawbridge and battlemented tower, 
 commanding a magnificent view over the surrounding country. The old 
 and splendid trees by which it is environed increase its charm. 
 
 '•'■Duncan. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
 Unto our gentle senses. 
 
 Banquo. This guest of summer, 
 
 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
 Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
 Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle ; 
 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
 The air is delicate." 2 
 
 From Cawdor, a pleasant drive of six miles along the broad valley of the 
 Nairn, leads to the town at the mouth of the river, also called Nairn, with 
 
 1 See The Morayshire Floods, by Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart. 
 
 2 Shakspeare, Macbeth, Act i., sc. 6. 
 
 M9 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 its broad grassy and sandy beach, unsurpassed, I should think, for bathing 
 purposes. This also was a place that invited a longer stay, from the clear 
 freshness of its air, as well as for the charms of the beautiful Moray Firth, 
 with the distant view of Ben Wyvis rising grandly to the west, beyond the 
 Black Isle and the head of Cromarty Firth. But time pressed, and I had 
 to return to the little inn at Forres by rail. It would have been easy to 
 reach Inverness from Nairn, passing near Culloden Moor, where Prince 
 Charles was defeated in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland, and the cause of 
 the Stuarts was finally lost. The battle-field, on the moor of Drummossie, 
 is three miles from the Culloden station : a bleak and melancholy waste, 
 not inappropriate to that scene of slaughter. " The ground, it will be seen, 
 was admirably adapted for the Royalists — strong in horse and artillery, and 
 
 CULLODEN MOOR. 
 
 everything else appears, as if by a fatality, to have conduced to their 
 success Prince Charles was obliged to fight to protect Inverness, but he 
 might have chosen better ground than this. He had won every battle that 
 he had fought— he had not abused his successes by misconduct — and yet 
 his army was demoralised as though by a succession of defeats. The pay 
 of the men had been long in arrear, and among the officers there was 
 jealousy and distrust of one another. The whole of the previous day the 
 army had but one biscuit per man, and it had been marching all night with 
 the intention of surprising the duke. This it had failed to do, and was 
 now going to fight upon the most unsuitable ground that could have been 
 selected. And to crown all, at the last moment arose that ever-recurring 
 difficulty about the position on the right wing. The Macdonalds claimed it 
 as their right from time immemorial, The Stewarts and Camerons were 
 placed there, and the Macdonalds on the left. The armies had been about 
 equal in numbers, but pressed by hunger and fatigue nearly one-half the 
 
FORRES AND ITS MONUMENTS. 
 
 rebels had straggled into Inverness, or fallen asleep on the line of march. 
 The Duke of Cumberland drew up his forces in three lines, and began the 
 battle with his artillery. The French gunners in Prince Charles' service 
 feebly replied. The Highlanders waxed impatient and began to waver. 
 Lord George Murray, seeing no time was to be lost, led forward the clans 
 on the right, who, charging with their usual impetuosity, broke the Duke's 
 first line. But the second, drawn up three deep, front rank kneeling, 
 reserved their fire till the enemy were almost on their bayonet-points, and 
 then poured in so murderous a volley as to make the Highlanders recoil. 
 M'Lachan and M'Lean were killed, while Lochiel was carried off badly 
 wounded. Now was the time for the Macdonalds to have proved the 
 justice of the claim they held so tenaciously, and, like the Macphersons on 
 a similar occasion, to have retrieved the fortunes of the day ; but in vain 
 the Duke of Perth rode up and implored them to advance. In vain Mac- 
 donald of Keppoch charged at the head of a few personal retainers, and 
 fell, exclaiming, ' My God ! do the children of my clan forsake me ? ' Still 
 one chance remained, and all might yet be well. Lord Elcho galloped up 
 to the Prince, and begged him to put himself at their head and lead the 
 charge in person. The Prince hesitated, and declined. Lord Elcho turned 
 away with a bitter execration, and swore he would never see his face again. 
 A few minutes afterwards Charles suffered himself to be led from the field — 
 the Macdonalds marched off without striking a blow, but with pipes playing 
 and colours flying — the battle of Culloden was lost, and with it the hopes 
 of the Stuarts." ■ 
 
 A thousand Highlanders thus gallantly laid down their lives in the last 
 struggle for a hopeless cause ; and their descendants, while admiring their 
 courage, now unanimously admit their mistake. There are none now, as there 
 were in the days of Sir Walter Scott, to cherish the Jacobite tradition ; and 
 though the cruelties perpetrated by the Duke of Cumberland after the battle 
 have stamped his name with everlasting infamy, all Highland men are now 
 loyal to the cause for which he fought. 
 
 Returning to Forres, I visited its two monuments with no little interest. 
 The modern one, a "Pharos" in honour of Nelson, stands in a lofty 
 position, a little to the east of the town, and commands an extensive view. 
 "It is worth mentioning, as a fine instance of patriotic feeling, that every 
 individual man and woman in Forres contributed by labour or money to 
 the erection of this interesting public work." The other monument, in a 
 field at the roadside, is the mysterious relic known as " Sweno's Stone ;" a 
 Runic obelisk, erected, says Camden, to commemorate a victory gained by 
 King Malcolm MacKenneth over Sweno, King of Denmark. It is twenty- 
 three feet high, and is divided into compartments, five on one side, and three 
 on the other, all filled with rude figures of men and animals, much defaced. 
 
 1 See Murray, Guide to Scotland, p. 369. 
 
THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS : STIRLING TO INVERNESS. 
 
 As far as can be made out, one set seems to represent a military triumph, 
 while the emblems of the other point to some religious meaning : but the 
 stone is still a puzzle to antiquaries. Some have seen in it a relic of 
 Macbeth! The "blasted heath " where that chieftain met the witches is 
 identified in a reach of waste land partly reclaimed, on the border of a 
 wood, five or six miles from Forres on the road to Nairn. A spot called 
 " Macbeth's Hill" perpetuates the tradition : but, when I passed it, the 
 general effect of the scene was moderately cheerful, not to say common- 
 place. There was, at any rate, no help to the imagination in the aspect of 
 the heath, though it was possible to conjecture what it might be "in 
 thunder, lightning, and in rain," when clouds that have gathered over the 
 Grampians sail on the wings of the south wind, gathering blackness as 
 they move, and at the Moray Firth seem to "mingle sea and sky." 
 
 MOUTH OF NAIRN HARBOUR IN THE FLOOD OF 1829. 
 
THE EftgTE^N C.OftpT MP DECIDE. 
 
BANKS OF THE DEVON, NEAR RUMBLING BRIDGE. 
 
 THE EASTERN COft^T AND DEE^IDE- 
 
 A n excursion to Scotland would hardly be complete without a visit to 
 **■ the Grampians from their eastern side. It is not only that some of 
 their most characteristic beauties are thus to be seen, but that an oppor- 
 tunity will at the same time be given for at least a glimpse of that 
 "Highland Home" whose name is so familiar to all the subjects of our 
 Queen. Balmoral, Crathie, Braemar, are household words with us all, and 
 it is as much a feeling of loyalty as a love of the picturesque that sends so 
 many of our countrymen and countrywomen every year along that fair 
 valley which we call Deeside. The city of Aberdeen gives entrance to it, 
 and may be reached most easily by a route already described, through 
 Stirling and Perth, where a line branches eastwards to Forfar. Another 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND BEES WE. 
 
 way, far more interesting, is across the Firths of Forth and Tay ; the traveller 
 pausing if he will to visit Dunfermline, with its singularly beautiful ruined 
 palace wall, and the room where Charles the First was born ; proceeding 
 thence to Kinross and Loch Leven, famed for Queen Mary's romantic escape, 
 and sparing half a day at least, to the banks of the Devon, especially to the 
 beautiful scenery of Rumbling Bridge ; and arranging, if possible for a short stay 
 at St. Andrews. This ancient city ought to be seen, if only for its fine 
 bay and its stately ruins overlooking the sea. To another class of visitors 
 the fine golfing links will have a supreme attraction. There is no place in 
 Great Britain, I believe, where that fascinating game is cultivated with 
 
 greater persistency and enthusiasm, 
 or on more favourable ground. 
 Some English readers may not 
 precisely know what this "royal 
 and ancient " game may be. Some 
 have even proved so benighted as 
 to confound it with "curling," a 
 splendid game, also, it is true, as 
 played over the vast smooth ex- 
 panse of some frozen loch. Golf 
 is yearly becoming more appreciated 
 south of the border, and yet its 
 proper home is still in the North. 
 A few lines, therefore, from a high 
 authority, may be quoted here. 1 
 " Small holes of about four inches 
 diameter are punched in the turf 
 at distances indefinitely variable, 
 but ranging from about ioo to 400 
 or 500 yards ; and from one of 
 these holes into the next in order, 
 a ball of guttapercha of about 13 
 ounce weight has to be driven with 
 implements ('clubs') of some variety 
 devised for the purpose. Their variety is determined by this, that while in 
 starting from the hole, the ball may be ' teed ' (i.e. placed where the player 
 chooses, with a little pinch of sand under it called a « tee ') it must in every 
 other case be played strictly from its place as it chances to be, — in sand, whin, 
 or elsewhere, — a different club being necessary in each particular difficulty. 
 These clubs may generally be defined as shafts of wood, with so-called 
 ' heads ' of wood or iron attached. Starting from the one hole, it is the 
 immediate aim of the player to drive his ball as far towards the next as he 
 
 1 Encyclopedia Britannica, ninth edition, vol. x. art. "Golf," by P. P. Alexander. 
 »s6 
 
 LOCH LEVEN. 
 

ST. ANDREWS: GOLF. 
 
 can. Having got within some moderate distance of it, he proceeds to make 
 his 'approach shot,' carefully selecting the appropriate implement. When 
 he has reached the ' putting green,' a smooth space carefully chosen for the 
 purpose, he essays to put (or 'putt') his ball into the hole; and generally 
 if he does it in two strokes, he may be held skilful or fortunate. The 
 player who ' holes ' his ball in the smallest number of strokes is, as a 
 matter of course, winner of the hole." It may be added that the circuit 
 
 ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 consists of eighteen holes, which have to be successively won. Such is the 
 mystery of the game. The writer goes on candidly to avow that it may 
 not seem, in this description "very lively or entertaining." "And yet," 
 he adds, kindling with his subject into eloquence, "no game stirs a keener 
 enthusiasm in its votaries ; and very few people who have ever fairly 
 committed themselves to the serious practice of it will be found to deny its 
 extreme fascination. It is a manly and eminently healthful recreation, 
 pursued as it is mostly amid the fresh sea breezes ; while as exercise it has 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 this particular merit, that, according to pace, it may be made easy or 
 smart at pleasure, and thus equally adapts itself to the overflowing 
 exuberance of youth, the matured and tempered strength of manhood, and 
 the gentler decays of age." 
 
 I am bound to say that in the game, as it was my good fortune to 
 witness it at St. Andrews, there was not much of the " exuberance of youth :" 
 but it was interesting to see how for hours the patient middle-aged players, 
 attended by " cadies " carrying their sheaves of clubs, followed the little balls 
 over the sandy grassy " links," never seeming to quicken their pace, and 
 
 ST. ANDREWS CATHEDRAL : WEST FRONT. 
 
 only showing the energy that was in them when the club was uplifted for 
 some mighty stroke, that sent the ball 180 yards or more towards its des- 
 tination. The rest was science ; and the skill with which the tiny ball was 
 sped to its resting-place was often really extraordinary. No one who has 
 watched the game well played on these breezy uplands by the sea will 
 wonder at its popularity. Any of us who could and would take easy 
 healthful exercise in the finest of air, without mental distraction or ex- 
 citement, for several hours together, through successive days of early summer, 
 would find the result in the bracing and exhilaration of the whole system ; 
 and it is into exercise like this that the game beguiles its votaries. 
 
 1 60 
 
.97". ANDREWS : UNIVERSITY. 
 
 But we shall be accused of giving way to the tendency of the times, by 
 thus presenting St. Andrews as famous for its golfing ground, rather than 
 for its University. This is the oldest in Scotland, having been founded in 
 141 1, and it has a noble record, as well as great present influence and power. 
 New plans are proposed, as I write, for its constitution and management, 
 and are much discussed in the Scottish newspapers. Whatever may come 
 of these proposals, it is at any rate to be hoped that the result will be to 
 maintain the continuity, as well as to enlarge the scope of this ancient and 
 
 PRIORY GATEWAY, ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 renowned University; the earliest of those institutions which have for cen- 
 turies maintained the standard of general education in Scotland so high 
 above that of other nations. For there has not been through all these 
 generations a barefooted laddie in Scotland who might not hope to become 
 a University student. The common school system instituted by John Knox, 
 and the University system originated in St. Andrews by Bishop Wardlaw, 
 have mainly made the Scottish people what they are ; and from the latter 
 England too has reaped the benefit, as not a few of her greatest names 
 attest. 
 
 i6t 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 But when I visited St. Andrews there was no opportunity of studying 
 even the external features of its University life. For the session was over, 
 the college buildings seemed given up to whitewashers, masons and carpenters, 
 and the little city was decidedly dull, save when happy bright-looking school- 
 children streamed forth upon its pavement, reminding the spectator that St. 
 Andrews is as famous for its elementary school system r as for the University 
 itself. The time for seaside holidays had scarcely arrived, or I could have 
 wondered at the fewness of visitors to a place which must surely be one of 
 the most healthful and bracing resorts in Great Britain. The dry pure air 
 was delightfully invigorating, and the view over the German Ocean in the 
 bright summer weather, truly magnificent. Possibly a visitor's impression 
 might have been different in other aspects of the sea and sky ; and, like our 
 eastern shores generally, St. Andrews may be subject to the visitation of 
 bitter east winds and driving mists, when the weather on the western coasts 
 
 THE TAY BRIDGE, PRIOR TO DECEMBER 28, 1879. 
 
 is clear and bright. Thus the balance assuredly is not entirely against 
 the West! 
 
 From St. Andrews to Dundee, by the Tay Bridge, was but a brief run. 
 The overthrow of that structure in the terrific storm of December 28, 1879, 
 will be fresh in the memory of my readers. In the preceding summer I had 
 crossed it, and, like many a passenger, had noted how frail it seemed. Yet 
 the assurances of its safety appeared decisive, until the crisis came. A much 
 stronger bridge will soon replace it ; meanwhile the ferry over is not un- 
 pleasant on a calm and sunny day. Dundee itself is apt to disappoint the 
 visitor, — very much, perhaps, because he has so often heard the city called 
 "bonnie Dundee." Assuredly this is not exactly the epithet one would 
 choose for the great commercial port. As the Journal already quoted 
 
 1 Dr. Bell, the founder of the "Madras ' system of instruction, was a native of St. Andrews, and the Madras 
 College here, founded by his bequest, has about nine hundred pupils, of both sexes. 
 16a 
 
DUNDEE. 
 
 DUNDEE. 
 
 tersely puts the matter, " Dundee 
 large and open ; the situation of 
 the town is very fine, but the town 
 itself is not so." No doubt the 
 views up and down the Tay are 
 imposing ; but I suspect that the 
 *' bonnie " is from the old Jacobite 
 songs, and means not this city at 
 all, but Viscount Dundee, better 
 known to us as John Graham of 
 Claverhouse ! The city has at least 
 the interest which belongs to a 
 thriving centre of industry, mostly 
 modern, with an intelligent ener- 
 getic working population ; flax, 
 jute, and bitter oranges being con- 
 stantly unloaded at its busy wharves, 
 for the staple products of the place. 
 There is also a fine People's Park, 
 a memorial of the honoured name 
 of David Baxter ; and from Dundee 
 Law, a hill in the neighbourhood, 
 there is a fine sea view, including 
 
 is a very large place, and the port 
 
 is 
 
 TRIUMPHAL ARCH, DUNDEE. 
 
 »63 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 {he Bell Rock, famed through Southey's ballad, of the Abbot of Aberbrothock 
 (Arbroath), with the lighthouse that has succeeded the " warning bell " of the 
 old tradition. 
 
 The journey to Aberdeen will probably not be broken, else the fine 
 landlocked estuary of Montrose, should the visitor be fortunate enough to 
 see it when the tide is high, would richly repay a few hours' tarrying, not 
 to mention the handsome town with its breezy links, and Ferryden Craig 
 with its magnificent view. It should be added that for travellers to Deeside 
 who wish to leave the beaten path, there is a short cut beyond railways, 
 
 BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE. 
 
 through Forfarshire, by way of Brechin, hence twenty miles to Loch Lee, 
 a little lake of rare beauty, surrounded by magnificent scenery, where, in 
 farmhouse or cottage lodgings a few families spend their summer. It was a 
 favourite retreat of the late Dr. Guthrie. Hence a road across the shoulder of 
 Mount Keen leads to Ballater. The route is but little known ; but there are 
 few which have more to repay the lover of fine scenery who can be independent 
 of hotels for some thirty miles of the distance. If the tourist has already 
 seen Aberdeen, he should by all means take this journey. Otherwise he 
 will probably prefer to visit Deeside by way of the "Granite City" and the 
 comfortable, well-appointed railway. After Montrose, the railway runs along 
 
 i6 4 
 
ABERDEEN. 
 
 a level pretty country, approaching the sea near Stonehaven, and thence 
 continuing near the shore with many grand glimpses of the German Ocean, 
 until crossing the north of the Dee it enters the low-lying spacious Aber- 
 deen station, above which tower the lofty granite houses of Castle and Union 
 Streets. There is no more solid-looking imposing city in Great Britain. 
 Union Street in particular is unequalled in its aspect of stately strength. 
 But the interest of Aberdeen is chiefly in its colleges, King's and Marischal, 
 incorporated into the University, and in its cathedral, of which the choir and 
 transepts have been long destroyed, and only the grand nave remains. Maris- 
 chal College was specially attractive for the memories of the two friends Robert 
 
 DR. GUTHRIE S HOUSE, LOCH LEE. 
 
 Hall and James Mackintosh, who there together began their career, two lads of 
 eighteen or nineteen. "They read together," says Hall's biographer, "they 
 sat together at lecture, if possible ; they walked together. In their joint 
 studies, they read much of Homer and Herodotus, and more of Plato; 
 and so well was all this known, exciting admiration in some, in others 
 envy, that it was not unusual, as they went along, for their class-fellows to 
 point at them and say, ' There go Plato and Herodotus ! ' But the arena 
 in which they met most frequently was that of morals and metaphysics, 
 furnishing topics of incessant disputation. After having sharpened their 
 weapons by reading, they often repaired to the spacious sands upon the 
 sea-shore, and still more frequently to the picturesque scenery on the banks 
 
 '65 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 of the Don, above the old town, to discuss with eagerness the various 
 subjects to which their attention had been directed. There was scarcely an 
 important position in Berkeley's Minute Philosopher, in Butler's Analogy, or 
 in Edwards On the Will, over which they had not thus debated with the 
 utmost intensity. Night after night, nay, month after month, for two 
 sessions, they met only to study or to dispute ; yet no unkindly feeling 
 ensued. The process seemed rather, like blows in that of welding iron, to 
 knit them closer together." t 
 
 After visiting the noble library of King's College, I wandered to the 
 Old Town. It lies on the way to the mouth of the river Don, and in its 
 amplitude and repose affords a strange contrast to the great and busy city 
 
 LOCH LEE CHURCHYARD. 
 
 a mile away. The aber, or river mouth, of Aberdeen, it should be noted, 
 is that of the Don, not of the Dee, as some have supposed ; and so the 
 citizens are often called " Aberdonians." Yet the tide of population and 
 commerce has long been shifted to the latter river. A little way beyond 
 the Old Town is the famous Bridge of Don, otherwise known as the Brig 
 o' Balgownie, made famous by Lord Byron, who spent the first ten years 
 of his life at Aberdeen, and to whose youthful fancy the old prediction 
 respecting it had a strange and awful fascination — 
 
 " Brig o' Balgownie, black's your wa' ; 
 Wi' a wife's ae son, an' a mare's ae foal, 
 Down ye shall fa'." 
 
 166 
 
 * Life of Rev. R. Hall, by Dr. Olinthus Gregory, Hall's Works, vol. vi. pp. 14, 15. 
 
ABERDEEN. 
 
 Byron, be it remembered, was an only son. But the bridge has not fallen 
 yet, and its tall pointed arch has outlasted more than five centuries and a 
 half of change. 
 
 When last at Aberdeen, I had the opportunity of attending a perform- 
 ance by the " Dundee Children's Choir " of Handel's Messiah. The choir, 
 it appears, is composed of scholars from the different board schools ; and a 
 party of 220 of these were visiting Aberdeen for the evening, with about 
 sixty grown-up singers for the bass and tenor parts. Three-fourths of the 
 singers were actually children, from eight years old to fourteen, and very 
 beautifully they sang. I never heard children's singing so sweet and true. A 
 tall tenor, and a bass singer, who took the necessary solos, looked like good- 
 natured giants in front of the little mites ! The soprano solos were sung by 
 children themselves, and the effect was very thrilling and tender, while the 
 choruses were delightful. There was a very large and enthusiastic audience, 
 and the general effect was truly impressive. Perhaps Scottish children can 
 undertake such a task more gravely and seriously than would be the case in 
 England : certainly there were no signs of self-consciousness or of a tendency 
 to display : and a pleasanter evening has rarely been spent by me, than in 
 listening to those little folks from Dundee. 
 
 The " Deeside Railway " to Ballater pursues its way through a country 
 beautifully wooded, and for the most part close beside the river, which in a 
 swift and lovely flood comes down from the hills. At the time of my visit 
 the woods that lined the banks were still brown and leafless, save where 
 fir-trees were abundant. By degrees we gained the upper levels, where the 
 view beyond the river was grandly closed by dark hills, with streaks and 
 fields of snow. Ballater at last was reached— a village on a somewhat con- 
 siderable plain, where the river makes a great curve before fairly entering 
 the region of the hills. A conical wooded hill, Craig-an-darroch, " crag of 
 the oaks," rising close by the village, gives a picturesqueness to the scene, 
 which otherwise would be somewhat tame. This hill should be ascended 
 for the sake of the view to be obtained, at a very slight expenditure of 
 time and trouble, of the river Dee, both upward and downward ; the 
 Grampian heights closing in the prospect to the west. To the North is 
 Morven, bare and massive, though scarcely beautiful, and disappointing to 
 those who have formed their anticipations from Byron's lines : 
 
 "When I roved a young Highlander o'er the dark heath, 
 And climbed thy steep summit, O Morven, of snow, 
 To gaze on the torrents that thundered beneath, 
 Or the mist of the tempest that gathered below." 
 
 The so-called " Pass of Ballater " runs behind Craig-na-darroch, and is 
 
 simply a narrow lane separating it from the heights that rise steeply beyond. 
 
 It is overrated, I think, by those who call it " romantic." The true beauty 
 
 167 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 of the neighbourhood is upon the open road that leads from Ballater. This 
 was now comparatively deserted. Public conveyances had not yet begun 
 running, and the glorious freshness of the spring air, the beauty of the sun- 
 shine, and the tender grace of the early flowers, were all lavished on a stray 
 tourist or two, with a few elderly salmon fishers, stalwart educated gentlemen 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN. 
 
 from the south, whose evening talk, though naturally dealing over much 
 with sport, was very pleasant. They seemed like men who had done a 
 good work in life, and who now had a right to their enjoyment. I left 
 them by the river-bank, while pursuing my way to Braemar. There was a 
 little characteristic scene at starting. It appears that the post-cart, here as 
 
LOCHNAGAR. 
 
BALLATER. 
 
 elsewhere, is allowed to take a few passengers. I therefore asked the driver, 
 a youth, whether he had a place to spare. Quite imperturbably, he 
 answered, No ! It was a specimen of the way in which Scottish people 
 spare their words. In the south, it would probably have been " The 
 places are all taken, Sir, to-day;" or "Very sorry \ but we are full this 
 morning!' But the driver's No was at least sufficient, and not another word 
 did he speak. Not that he was inconsiderate, for he readily consented to 
 take my knapsack to Braemar for the small sum of sixpence. And here 
 again was a little incident quite as characteristic. All this took place in 
 front of the post office. I had not wherewithal to pay the sixpence — only 
 gold, for which the postmistress had not sufficient change, but she at once 
 took up sixpence and handed it me, saying, " Oh I'll lend it ye, Sir ! " not 
 knowing of course whether she would ever see me again, and apparently 
 not caring — on that ground, at least ! The walk was grand ; the beautiful 
 Dee was with me all the way, now and then receding in lovely bends round 
 fir-clad peninsulas, but soon reappearing. Its music was unceasing — how is 
 it that guide books do not mention this special charm ? I suppose it is 
 because with most travellers the noise of wheels and the clatter of conver- 
 sation drown the more exquisite melody. Every mountain river, it has been 
 said, has its own peculiar tone, and certainly the song of the Dee, whether 
 in its ripple or its bolder dash, was characteristic all along. The mountains 
 gradually swelled to greater vastness ; Lochnagar, especially (so-called from 
 a lakelet, " The Hare's Loch," at its base), with its peaks and curves, its 
 recesses and precipices, now white with dazzling snow, was not unworthy of 
 the Oberland. As in Switzerland, too, the lesser heights in the foreground 
 were covered with pine forests, interspersed with woods of birch and alder, 
 with that lovely April flush upon their brownness that presages the breaking 
 into leaf. 
 
 Some of Lord Byron's earliest associations were with the mountain 
 scenery of this district, and he has recorded his impressions in lines, less 
 artistic perhaps, but more genuine in their sentiment, than many of his later 
 poems. 
 
 " Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses ! 
 
 In you let the minions of luxury rove ; 
 Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes, 
 
 Though still they are sacred to freedom and love : 
 Yet, Caledoni,a beloved are thy mountains, 
 
 Round their white summits though elements war : 
 Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth flowing fountains, 
 
 I sigh for the valley of dark Lochnagar. 
 
 Ah ! there my young footsteps in infancy wandered, 
 
 My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid, 
 On chieftains long perished my memory pondered, 
 
 As daily I strode through the pine-covered glade. 
 
 »7* 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 I sought not my home till the day's dying glory 
 Gave place to the rays o' the bright polar star; 
 
 For fancy .was cheered by traditional story, 
 Disclosed by the natives of dark Lochnagar." 
 
 For miles I met nobody : reaching in due course the Prince of Wales's 
 shooting lodge Abergeldie, on the opposite side of the river. There, by the 
 way, I noticed what I had heard before, that the banks of the river are lined 
 with beautiful birch tree woods. The birks of Abergeldie being famous, Burns 
 was led partly by the alliteration to celebrate instead the "birks of Aber- 
 feldy," which are also fine, though far inferior in number to these beside 
 the Dee. The tower of Balmoral next rose into view, low down amid a 
 grand amphitheatre of hills. On a knoll to the right stood the little church 
 of Crathie, humble and simple in appearance, very like many a. village 
 chapel in England. On the other side of the road, towards the river, is the 
 little churchyard, surrounding the ruins of the " auld kirk," a very vale of 
 rest amid the silence and splendours of the mountains. Her Majesty's 
 faithful attendant Mr. John Brown had been interred there only a few days 
 before. It was easy to discover his grave, in an inclosure where are grave- 
 stones to his ancestors and relatives, most of them erected by himself. The 
 grave was covered with wreaths of immortelles and other flowers : many 
 with cards attached bearing the names of the givers ; princesses, countesses, 
 some other great people, and John Brown's own associates and kindred. 
 One wreath had on the card " A tribute of love to dear Uncle John from 
 his little niece, Victoria." Probably the Queen had been godmother to his 
 brother's or sister's child. At the head of the grave was a wreath of some 
 lovely purple flower, with the Queen's card attached to it, and in her 
 own handwriting the words : A tribute of loving grate/til- and everlasting 
 friendship and affection from his truest best and piost faithful friend, Victoria 
 R. and I. It was very touching to have such an illustration before one's 
 own eyes of that spirit of true-hearted faithful service which seems like a 
 tradition of the past. 
 
 Balmoral itself need not be described : its outward form is familiar to 
 us all. In beauty of situation, as beauty is reckoned in the Highlands, it 
 is almost incomparable, being surrounded by the grandeur of forest sweep 
 and purple mountains, and, at the time of my visit, vast dazzling snow- 
 fields, with the blue sky and sunshine over all, and the. pellucid, rushing, 
 singing Dee beneath. In different directions the heights are surmounted by 
 cairns, beehive-shaped, commemorative of royal visits, birthdays, and other 
 events. These do not, perhaps, add to the impressiveness of the scenery : 
 yet it was impossible not to sympathise with the feelings which have thus 
 sought expression. They tell of a blithe and happy family life in past days, 
 such as we do not always associate with our ideas of royalty. 
 
 The grounds of the castle appeared in perfect order, with lawns, 
 
BALMORAL. 
 
 paths, and drives, all approached by a bridge, as the palace is on the 
 opposite side of the river from the main road : but access is rigorously 
 forbidden whether Her Majesty is there or not. All looked very lonely : 
 not even a gardener was visible in the grounds, and the blinds of the palace 
 windows were all down. The only sign of movement about the place was 
 in the clock at the top of the tower, which was going as usual, and struck 
 one as I was looking on, reminding me of luncheon, that soon was obtained 
 at a charming little roadside inn at Crathie, a mile farther on, exquisitely 
 clean and beautifully situated. In fact, so attractive was the place that I 
 instantly engaged a lodging for a night on my return ; my business was now 
 to get to Braemar, or rather, as it should be called in full, Castleton of 
 Braemar. The walk now became surpassingly beautiful — the road leading 
 through pine-woods that extend to the river's edge, while the endless 
 mountain forms, black with heather, grey with granite, richly green with 
 firs, and in the back ground ever lustrous with snow, gave a variety and 
 charm to every turn. In many places there were fearful signs of the late 
 winter's havoc. Vast forests had been cut through by the gale almost as 
 cleanly as standing corn by the sweep of the sickle, and the gaps were 
 strewn with hundreds of uprooted trees, some lifting their roots high in air, 
 grasping huge stones and masses of earth, as if in convulsive effort to stay 
 the catastrophe. 
 
 At length a few people appeared upon the lonely road — a very few, 
 but sufficiently numerous to show that groups of human habitations could 
 not be far off. Then Castle Braemar was seen, and immediately afterwards, 
 to the left, the village of Castleton, high up on a hill slope or brae, 
 commanding, of course, an extensive view of valleys and mountains. In a 
 comfortable hotel the only other occupant was again a salmon-fisher, disap- 
 pointed but aspiring. "There are no fish in the Dee this year," he said, 
 " there is no sport at all ! " Yet he seemed to enjoy himself so much that I 
 could not help suggesting there was plenty of sport, though perhaps no salmon 
 — a view of the matter which seemed to comfort him a little. However, he 
 was off the next morning from the Dee to the Don, hoping for better 
 results, and I was left alone to explore this fine village, and to breathe its 
 exhilarating air — the purest, it is said, and most bracing in Great Britain, 
 according to the ozone standard. Yet its mountains are here too near to 
 make the scenery very grand, as for the full effect of mountain prospects a 
 clear space is required, opening up to the loftier heights which of necessity 
 recede from the rest. But the glory of Braemar is that in all directions paths 
 lead directly to the mountain solitudes and sublimities ; while the Dee may be 
 followed by " linns" and rapids and a vast rocky wilderness, to the point where 
 the infant stream leaps from a ledge a thousand feet high, and begins its 
 swift journey to the sea. I could not penetrate to this ledge, high up among 
 the secrets of the Cairngorm mountains ; although those who have followed the 
 
 *75 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 path between the stupendous heights of Ben Muich Dhui to the right and 
 Cairn Toul to the left, crossing the summit of the glen by the Pass of Lario-, 
 and descending through the Rothiemurchus forest to Aviemore, declare that 
 there is nothing so fine in all Scotland. It was possible only to take the 
 comparatively easy road which leads upwards to the head of Glen Tilt, 
 commanding after the first mile or two a magnificent view across the valley 
 of the highest mountains in the Grampian range ; Ben Muich Dhui, the 
 loftiest of all, being grandly conspicuous. Some pretty falls are passed at 
 the Linn of Corriemulzie, and at six miles distance the Linn of Dee is 
 reached, where a handsome bridge of white Aberdeen granite, opened by 
 the Queen in Septembe'r 1857, spans the river. The Linn itself is a narrow 
 fissure between slaty rocks, through which the river chafes and tumbles ; and 
 at the time of my visit, the melting snows having swollen the torrent almost 
 to the projecting edges of the rocks, the force of the river was tremendous. 
 Three miles beyond this the river-side is left, and the climb to the water- 
 shed fairly commences. But to attempt this the snow forbade, and there 
 was nothing for it but to return to Braemar, taking now the opposite, or 
 left bank of the Dee, and visiting on the way the pretty glen and Linn of 
 Ouoich, " the Cup." Some distance below this glen the little Sluggan Water 
 falls into the Dee, and is spanned near the juncture by one of General 
 Wade's bridges. 
 
 The route by Glenshee past " the Spital," or Hospice, a good, though in 
 parts very tedious carriage-road in summer, to Blairgowrie and the valley of 
 the Tay, was likewise impracticable. I could only take this road for a little 
 distance up the beautiful Glen Clunie, and my visit to Braemar was over. 
 
 The Braemar Highlands, like most far-spreading mountain regions, have 
 many a tale and tradition of ancient strife, with weird stories of the super- 
 natural, such as the winter terrors of the mountain land may well suggest. 
 A long evening on my return to the charming inn at Crathie was spent in 
 reading these tales of olden time. I was amused to find that the district 
 had, like other mountain countries of the west and east, its William Tell. 
 Here is the narrative. 
 
 "A young man named M'Leod had been hunting one day in the 
 Royal Forest. A favourite hound of the king's having attacked M'Leod, 
 was killed by him. The king soon heard of the slaughter of his favourite, 
 and was exceedingly angry — so much so, that M'Leod was condemned to 
 death. 
 
 "The gibbet was erected on Craig Choinnich, i.e. Kenneth's Craig. As 
 
 there was less of justice than revenge in the sentence, little time was 
 
 permitted ere it was carried into execution. The prisoner was led out by 
 
 the north gate of the castle. The king, in great state, surrounded by a 
 
 crowd of his nobles, followed in procession. Sorrowing crowds of the people 
 
 came after, in wondering amazement. As they moved slowly on, an incident 
 176 
 
STORIES OF BRA EM A R. 
 
 occurred which arrested 
 universal attention. 
 A young woman with 
 a child in her arms 
 came rushing 
 through the 
 crowd, and, throw- 
 ing herself before 
 
 the king, pleaded with him to spare her husband's life, though it should be 
 at the expense of all they possessed. 
 
 " Her impassioned entreaties were met with silence. Malcolm was not 
 to be moved from his purpose of death. Seeing that her efforts to move 
 the king were useless, she made her way to her husband, and throwing her 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 arms round him, declared that she would not leave him — she would die with 
 him. 
 
 "Malcolm was somewhat moved by the touching scene. Allen Durward, 
 noticing the favourable moment, ventured to put in the suggestion that it 
 was a pity to hang such a splendid archer. 
 
 " ' A splendid archer, is he ? ' replied the king ; ' then he shall have 
 his skill tried.' 
 
 "So he ordered that M'Leod's wife and child should be placed on the 
 opposite side of the river ; something to serve as a mark was to be placed on 
 the child's head. If M'Leod succeeded in hitting the mark, without injuring 
 his wife or child, his life was to be spared, otherwise the sentence was to be 
 carried into immediate execution. Accordingly (so the legend goes) the 
 young wife and her child were put across the river, and placed on Tom- 
 ghainmheine ; according to some, a little farther down the river, near where 
 a boat-house once stood. The width of the Dee was to be the distance 
 separating M'Leod from his mark. 
 
 "He asked for a bow and two arrows ; and having examined each 
 with the greatest care, he took his position. The eventful moment came ; 
 the people gathered round him and stood in profound silence. On the 
 opposite side of the river his wife stood, the central figure of a crowd of 
 eager bystanders, tears glistening on her cheeks as she gazed alternately at 
 her husband and child in dumb emotion. 
 
 "M'Leod took aim; but his body shook like an aspen leaf in the 
 evening breeze. This was a trial for him far harder than death. Again 
 he placed himself in position; but he trembled to such a degree that he 
 could not shoot, and, turning to the king, who stood near, he said in a 
 voice scarcely articulate in its suppressed agony, ' This is hard.' 
 
 " But the king relented not : so the third time he fell into the attitude ; 
 and as he did so, almost roared, ' This is hard ! ' Then, as if all his 
 nervousness and unsteadiness had escaped through the cry, he let the arrow fly. 
 It struck the mark. The mother seized her child, and in a transport of joy 
 seemed to devour it with kisses ; while the pent-up emotion of the crowd found 
 vent through a loud cry of wonder and triumph, which repeated itself again 
 and again as the echoes rolled slowly away among the neighbouring hills. 
 
 "The king now approached M'Leod, and, after confirming his pardon, 
 inquired why he, so sure of hand and keen of sight, had asked for two 
 arrows ? 
 
 "'Because,' replied, M'Leod, 'had I missed the mark, or hurt my wife 
 or child, I was determined not to miss you! 
 
 " The king grew pale, and turned away as if undecided what to do. 
 His better nature prevailed ; so he again approached M'Leod, and with 
 kindly voice and manner told him that he would receive him into his body- 
 guard, and that he would be well provided for. 
 
 182 
 
A SCOTTISH WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 " ' Never,' answered the undaunted Celt. ' After the painful proof to 
 which you have just put my heart, I could never love you enough to serve 
 you faithfully.' 
 
 11 The king in amazement cried out, ' Thou art a Hardy ! and as 
 Hardy thou art, so Hardy thou shall be.' From that time, M'Leod went 
 under the appellation of Hardy, while his descendants were termed the 
 MacHardys, Mac being the Gaelic word for son. 
 
 " ' Why, that is a corruption of the story of William Tell,' I rather 
 uncourteously remarked, on hearing for the first time this MacHardy legend. 
 
 BRIDGE OVER SLUGGAN WATER, NEAR BRAEMAR. 
 
 11 The old lady who had just related it retorted with considerable 
 warmth, and ended by asking when the story of William Tell took place. 
 
 "'About the year 1307,' I replied. 
 
 " ' There,' she said, with such an air of triumph, " I thought that : the 
 William Tell story happened in 1307, and ours in 1060 or thereabouts, 
 more than 200 years before. Na, na ! our story is nae a corruption of 
 William Tell, though William Tell's may weel be a corruption of ours.' " ' 
 
 1 The Braenur Highlands : their Tales, Traditions, and History, by Elizabeth Taylor. Nimmo, 1869, pp. 99-103. 
 
 183 
 
THE EASTERN COAST AND DEESIDE. 
 
 The similarity in the popular legends of mountain lands is a topic for 
 interesting discussion. But we cannot stay to consider it here. The romance 
 is sufficient now ; the rationale may be left to another season. 
 
 It will be observed that many of these stories are connected with the 
 names of families or clans, of which they assign the origin. Another tale 
 accounts for the origin of the Stuarts. The author says that it was " noted 
 down from an old record belonging to one of the residents." It may be 
 older than Shakspeare, presenting one form of the tradition which he has 
 immortalised in Macbeth. There is no mention, it will be seen, of King 
 Duncan's murder in this version of the story. 
 
 " Duncan King of the Scots had two principal men whom he employed 
 on all matters of importance — Macbeth and Banquho. They, travelling 
 together in a wood one day, met three fairies : the first, after making her 
 obeisance, saluted Macbeth as Thane of Glamis ; the second, Thane of 
 Cawdor; the third, King of Scotland. 
 
 " When Banquho complained loudly of their unequal dealing in giving 
 all the honours to Macbeth, one of them thus addressed him : ' Be content, 
 Banquho ; for though you will never be King of Scotland, a race of kings 
 will proceed from you that will rule it for ever.' 
 
 " Macbeth was scarce warm in his seat as king ere he thought of the 
 prediction given to Banquho ; and to prevent its fulfilment, caused him to 
 be killed, and all his posterity. But by some means Fleance, one of his 
 sons, escaped, and fled to Wales, where he prospered greatly, and was 
 married to the prince's daughter of that court. 
 
 " Fleance had a son named Walter, who returned to Scotland in the time 
 of Edgar, Malcolm Canmore's son. And Edgar not only restored Walter 
 to all Banquho's estates and honours, but made him steward over all his 
 house, — the name and office of Stewart becoming hereditary in his posterity. 
 
 " From this Walter the steward descended Robert Stewart, who 
 succeeded David Bruce in the kingdom of Scotland. For this Robert n., 
 surnamed Stuart, became King of Scotland by descent from the eldest 
 sister of David Bruce, and was also extracted from the ancient princes of 
 Wales, by Fleance, as before said ; thus restoring British blood to the throne 
 of Scotland. 
 
 " Thus the name of Stuart originated ; and in early times it was one 
 of the predominant names in Braemar." 
 
 But we must leave these old stories now, for to-morrow will take us by 
 a long journey back to Aberdeen and Inverness ; the far north is as yet 
 unexplored, and we must have at least a glimpse of its glens, mountains, and 
 far-away islands before bidding farewell to Scotland. 
 
 i8 4 
 
TO THE ?A}\ NO^Ttf. 
 
KIRKA13ISTER LIGHTHOUSF. 
 
 TO THE FAT^ NO^TH. 
 
 \ T 7e enter now a region beyond 
 * * the usual tourist haunts, 
 and decidedly inferior to these in 
 its attractions to the lover of 
 scenery. Yet all who delight 
 most in breezy health-giving up- 
 lands, and yet more those who 
 can secure the opportunities of 
 sport which every glen and loch 
 and stream in these vast solitary 
 regions afford, will be ready 
 to place a visit to Sutherland- 
 shire as the crowning delight of 
 a sojourn in Scotland. North of 
 the " Skye Railway," whose course 
 we have already described, lies a 
 wide and comparatively unpeopled region, comprising part of Ross-shire, the 
 counties of Sutherland and Caithness ; with bits of Cromarty here and there, 
 as though that shire had been wrecked by some convulsion of nature, and 
 
 its fragments scattered east and west. Sutherlandshire extends from sea to 
 
 '8 7 
 
 ST. DUTHUS' CHURCH, TAIN. 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 sea. Already in these pages we have given some description of its western 
 
 coast, with cliffs scarred and broken 
 by the fury of the Atlantic, and 
 innumerable lochs and bays indent- 
 ing the shore. The northern coast 
 is not dissimilar ; one of its lochs, 
 Eriboll, with its transparent waters 
 and bare shadowing hills, being 
 one of the most beautiful inlets 
 along the Scottish coast. The 
 eastern side of the great county — 
 or principality, shall we call it ? — 
 is in all respects a contrast. The 
 coast line is almost unbroken, and 
 a broad belt of cultivated land 
 between the sea and the inland 
 heights displays all the signs of 
 prosperous and scientific husbandry. 
 It is along the most fertile part 
 of this rim that the railway runs 
 from Golspie to Helmsdale, after 
 having skirted the northern shore 
 of the Moray Firth from Dingwall ; 
 then diverging to Tain, on the 
 Firth of Dornoch, an antique, pret- 
 tily-situated little town, with a 
 church dedicated to St. Duthus, or 
 Duthac, a bishop of Ross in the 
 thirteenth century. It contains a 
 finely-carved pulpit presented by 
 the Regent Murray. From Tain 
 the line skirts the Dornoch Firth 
 to Bonar Bridge ; then crosses to 
 Lairg, the headquarters of most 
 tourists and sportsmen in Suther- 
 landshire. Hence roads have been 
 carried across the wild barren 
 country to the principal places on 
 the western and northern coasts. 
 One of these, as already shown, 
 leads to the beautiful and rising 
 western watering-place of Lochinver, passing the fishing station of Aultna- 
 gealgach, and the imposing mountain Suilven (the "Sugar Loaf"). There 
 
SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 
 
 is also a road by Loch Shin, "the longest and the dullest lake in Scotland," 
 and the vast treeless Reay Deer-Forest, with a romantic descent to the. pretty 
 sea-side village of Scourie on the west ; while another road less interesting 
 leads to Tongue, on the northern coast, a wild and picturesque nook much 
 admired by tourists, overshadowed by the magnificent peaks and precipices of 
 Ben Loyal. These roads, it may be added, are very good and well-kept ; but 
 their solitariness is something awful, as the traveller drives mile after mile 
 through the monotonous undulating pasture-land, among hills that can hardly 
 be called mountains, and lochs innumerable. 
 
 It must have been a journey through scenes like these that prompted 
 Scott's lines, introducing the Fourth Canto of the Lord of the Isles : 
 
 " Stranger ! if e'er thine ardent step hath traced 
 The northern realms of ancient Caledon, 
 Where the proud Queen of Wilderness hath placed, 
 
 By lake and cataract, her lonely throne; 
 Sublime but sad delight thy soul hath known, 
 Gazing on pathless glen and mountain high, 
 Listing where from the cliffs the torrents thrown 
 Mingle their echoes with the eagle's cry, 
 And with the sounding lake, and with the moaning sky. 
 
 Yes ) 'twas sublime, but sad. — The loneliness 
 
 Loaded thine heart, the desert tired thine eye ; 
 And strange and awful fears began to press 
 
 Thy bosom with a sad solemnity. 
 Then hast thou wished some woodman's cottage nigh, 
 
 Something that showed of life, though low and mean ; 
 Gbd sight, its curling wreath of smoke to spy, 
 
 Glad sound, its cock's blithe carol would have been, 
 Or children whooping wild beneath the willows green. 
 
 Such are the scenes, where savage grandeur wakes 
 
 An awful thrill that softens into sighs ; 
 Such feelings rouse them by dim Rannochs' lakes, 
 
 In dark Glencoe such gloomy raptures rise. 
 Or further, where, beneath the northern skies, 
 
 Chides wild Loch Eriboll his caverns hoar — 
 But, be the minstrel judge — they yield the prize, 
 
 Of desert dignity to that dread shore, 
 That sees grim Coolin rise, and hears Coriskin roar." 
 
 The region was more populous once ; and whether it was or was not 
 a kindness to remove, a peasantry who could never keep themselves much 
 above starvation-point in this wild country, to the fertile western coast, 
 turning the bulk of Sutherlandshire into sheep-walks and deer-forests, is one 
 of those questions on which the wisest and most humane may well hesitate. 
 11 What has been, in fact," writes Lord Ronald Gower, " the result of the 
 policy pursued by my grandfather in Sutherland ? An increase of popula- 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 tion, as well as of rental and wealth. Lord Stafford has been accused of 
 causing these evictions to take place, in order to gain by them : but, as a 
 matter of fact, between the years 1811 and 1833, not a sixpence of rent 
 was drawn from the country ; but over sixty thousand pounds were spent 
 in improving it. If any harshness was used during the evictions, Lord 
 Stafford cannot fairly be blamed, but the agent employed. However, it was 
 never proved that such had been the case." ' 
 
 Lairg is the great rendezvous ; the village is on a heathery upland two 
 miles from the station, and is not to be commended for a sojourn. But the 
 
 SUILVEN-ASSYNT, NEAR LOCHINVER. 
 
 scene both there and at the station is at times very lively ; the trains in 
 summer both ways calling three times a day, " machines " of all kinds being 
 in readiness to carry off tourists and sportsmen to their favourite resorts, 
 and mail-coaches, such as they are, plying three or four times a week. It is 
 true that the visitors are comparatively few, but not even Oban finds such 
 enthusiastic admirers ; and those who have either " used up " or learned to 
 disdain the more ordinary routes, feel when reaching this breezy hamlet that 
 the delights of their Scottish tour are now about to begin. 
 
 1 Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 85. 
 
 190 
 
DUNRODIN CASTLE. 
 
 But we cannot now pursue our way inland. Our route lies again to 
 the eastern coast, to Golspie, whence, as in duty bound, we visit the 
 capital of Sutherlandshire, the old cathedral city of Dornoch, opposite to 
 Tain, across the Firth. "This," says Chambers, "is without exception the 
 most miserable of all our royal burghs." Mr. Baddeley observes that it "is 
 the smallest by several hundred inhabitants of that trio of pigmy capitals, 
 Cromarty, Inveraray, 1 and itself." Every description of the town, the same 
 writer adds, should begin Once upon a time. There may probably be now 
 between six and seven hundred inhabitants. Golspie has become the more 
 
 BEN STACK, NEAR SCOURIE. 
 
 populous and important place, partly from its nearness to Dunrobin Castle 
 \Dnn-Robin, " Robert's Fortress," having been built in the thirteenth century 
 by Robert, the second Earl of Sutherland). This is the chief residence of 
 " the Duke," of whose personality, in Sutherlandshire at least, no further 
 
 1 But let no one despise Inveraray ! There is to my mind hardly a more beautiful excursion in Scotland than 
 one that may be taken from Dunoon on the Clyde, by the wild and beautiful Loch Eck,'to Strachur on Loch 
 Fyne, whence the traveller may reach Inveraray by ferry, with the mountains at the head of the loch rising 
 grandly to the right, and in front the town with its castle (of the Duke of Argyll), the wooded hill of Dunaquoich 
 rising beyond, and farther still, the vast shadowy mass of Ben Cruachan. No : Dornoch has little in common 
 with Inveraray but its smallness. 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 description is necessary. As shown in our cut, the building is a modern, 
 one, the late Sir Charles Barry having reconstructed the whole. " From 
 the terraces and steps leading down to the gardens, there are beautiful views 
 over Moray Fiith to the blue hills of Banffshire and Morayshire beyond. 
 The garden itself is divided into parterres, and is sheltered seawards by 
 thick belts of evergreens ; but trees of the finest description flourish within 
 a stone's throw of the shore without any protection. Unless it be at Mount 
 
 Edgecumbe, we can call to mind no place in Great Britain where the sea air 
 seems to affect the timber so little." To many visitors the place will be 
 additionally interesting from its association with the memory of the Duchess 
 of Sutherland, so well known in the early part of our Queen's reign as the 
 friend and promoter of every good and philanthropic cause. 1 
 
 At Helmsdale the railway diverges once more inland, up a long glen ; 
 
 1 See the Reminiscences of Lord Ronald Gower for an artless picture, drawn by a manly filial hand, of a noble 
 and beautiful life. 
 193 
 
THURSO AND JOHN V GROATS. 
 
 a fair road, however, keeps to the line of the coast, and soon enters Caith- 
 ness-shire over a bold, bleak, immense rocky table-land, or promontory, 
 called the Ord of Caithness, a tremendous barrier between the two counties, 
 after descending which, up to the little seaport of Wick, the inland views 
 become quite changed in character. With the exception of one low range 
 of hills, marked by three separate unpicturesque rounded peaks, the whole 
 country is flat, treeless, and for the most part barren, peaty, with patches of 
 cultivation here and there, and lines of brighter verdure marking the course 
 of the little rivers. At Wick we meet the railway again ; but unless we are 
 
 BADGA1.L BAY, EDRACHlLLIS ; ON THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 enthusiastic anglers there is little or nothing to attract us in the route to 
 Halkirk and Thurso. The last named town, however, is finely situated on 
 a wide bay, and, after the little villages and the scanty population with 
 which we have lately become familiar, is somewhat surprising from its size and 
 substantial appearance. The piles of paving-stones in the yards and on the 
 wharf will attract every visitor's notice. They belong to the old " Devonian " 
 red sandstone, and are sent all over the kingdom. Many visitors will recal 
 the name of Robert Dick, the baker of Thurso, who amid the greatest 
 privations attained to a mastery of geological and botanical science, which 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 has placed his name among the highest in the rank of self-taught men. 
 There is a handsome obelisk in the cemetery, to his memory. 
 
 But it is to "John o' Groat's House" that the curious traveller will 
 desire to wend his way. This extreme northerly point of Scotland may be 
 reached by road, either from Wick along the eastern coast or from Thurso 
 along the north. The ruins of the famous House are still to be seen, and 
 there is now a comfortable inn, commanding a fine view over the Pentland 
 Firth, and embracing the Orkney Isles. Who knows not the legend ? 
 Yet we may tell it again for old association's sake. The family of Groat, 
 it is said, was of Dutch descent ; Groat, or Groot, being the same name as 
 
 'JOHN O' GROATS." 
 
 
 that which in its Latin form, Grotius, 
 is so famous. The founder of the 
 
 Scottish branch of this family was, however, a Lowlander, who in the reign 
 of James the Fourth settled in this northern region. His descendants 
 became numerous, and eight several heads of househoulds were accustomed to 
 assemble once a year to celebrate the memory of their ancestor. A dispute 
 arose concerning precedency, each claiming to be head of the feast. The 
 quarrel became inveterate, and the clan of Groat seemed in danger of being 
 dissolved by intestine feuds ; when one of them whose name was John, 
 proprietor of the ferry to Orkney, erected during a year which intervened 
 between two of their meetings an octagonal building with a door and 
 window on every side, and a table in the interior to correspond, inviting 
 
JOHN 0' GROATS AND DUNCANSBAY HEAD. 
 
 each kinsman when the festal day arrived to enter by his separate door 
 and to take his seat accordingly. The ingenuity and humour of this plan 
 removed all scruples, and all being equally placed the struggle for primacy 
 was forgotten. The story may be true or not : it is certainly very much 
 akin to that of King Arthur and his Round Table. It was probably a 
 parable, to begin with, and thus became a myth : but, whether history or 
 legend, it has a meaning worth consideration still ! 
 
 We have now reached the northern apex, the peak of the conical cap, 
 if the comparison be not too irreverent, by which Scotland is crowned. In one 
 of those quaint pleasant little essays which used to form a distinguishing feature 
 
 
 
 SMOO CAVE, NEAR DURNESS ; ON THE NORTHERN COAST. 
 
 of Chambers s Journal, one of the brothers, I think it was Robert, started the 
 idea that the form of the country was that of an old woman, in the position 
 usually attributed to witches, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire being the hump, and 
 the western coast of Sutherland being the wrinkled front. Paint Caithness red, 
 as in some coloured maps, and the witch-picture is complete without " making 
 believe very much." Yes, the witchery is real, only of another kind ! 
 
 And beyond the point of coast where, above John o' Groat's, Dun- 
 cansbay Head with its precipices and chasms fronts the northern sea, still 
 new wonders lie. First, the Pentland Frith, with its tumultuous agitated 
 waters, then the Orkneys, with their endless convolutions of cliff and 
 coast, their thirty inhabited islands and their almost innumerable rocks 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 and islets, attract, but do not long detain the traveller. The best view is 
 from the outside, and from the west. The little towns of Kirkwall and 
 Stromness may be visited ; both on the island which is called Mainland, or 
 (inappropriately enough) Pomona — the latter town being especially interesting, 
 as having given occasion by its geological phenomena for one of Hugh Miller's 
 most brilliant essays against the doctrine of Evolution, as propounded in 
 the once famous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. For there was a 
 theory of evolution before Mr. Darwin, and the great Cromarty stone-mason 
 addressed himself to its refutation with a fulness of information, a power and 
 brilliancy of argument which few since his time have rivalled. The 
 Asterolepis (star-scale) of Stromness, in his hands, became a sign of Divine 
 
 AULTNA~.EALGACH, SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 
 
 creative power ; and notwithstanding all the advance in knowledge which has 
 
 been made since his day, the discussion may still be read with conviction 
 
 as well as with admiration. The argument is briefly that the very oldest 
 
 vertebrate remains are complete in organization : whereas, had the species 
 
 been developed from a lower type, there must have been intermediate links 
 
 discoverable. The argument has been repeatedly urged in various forms : 
 
 and it has never been answered, save by the conjecture that somewhere and 
 
 somehow the " missing links " may come to light. But every fresh series 
 
 of observations reduces the value of this hypothesis. It is inconceivable that 
 
 if the stages of transition were in truth discoverable they should not have 
 
 been discovered ere now. There is no more eloquent or convincing passage 
 196 
 
TO THE ORKNEYS. 
 
 in Hugh Miller's work than that in which he applies this argument to the 
 presumed transmutation of the algae to land-plants ; l and the same considera- 
 tions, when applied to the vaster processes required by the later form of the 
 development theory, are even more cogent. It may not be out of place to 
 quote a paragraph or two, as not yet out of date : 
 
 " Along the green edge of the Lake of Stennis, selvaged by the line 
 of detached weeds with which a recent gale had strewed its shores, I 
 marked that for the first few miles the accumulation consisted of marine 
 algae, here and there mixed with tufts of stunted reeds or rushes, and that 
 
 STACK POLLY, FROM LOCH LUKGAN, COIGACH, WEST SUTHERLAND. 
 
 as I receded from the sea it was the algae that became stunted and 
 dwarfish, and that the reeds, aquatic grasses, and rushes, grown greatly more 
 bulky in the mass, were also more fully developed individually, till at 
 length the marine vegetation altogether disappeared, and the vegetable 
 dtbris of the shore became purely lacustrine, — I asked myself whether here, 
 if anywhere, a transition flora between lake and sea ought not to be found ? 
 For many thousand years ere the tall gray obelisks of Stennis, whose forms 
 I saw this morning reflected in the water, had been torn from the quarry, 
 
 1 See Footprints of the Creator, pp. 240-256. 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 or laid down in mystic circle on their flat promotories, had this lake 
 admitted the waters of the sea, and been salt in its lower reaches and 
 fresh in its higher. And during this protracted period had its quiet, well- 
 sheltered bottom been exposed to no disturbing influences through which 
 the delicate process of transmutation could have been marred or arrested. 
 Here, then, if in any circumstances, ought we to have had, in the broad 
 permanently brackish reaches, at least indications of a vegetation intermediate 
 in its nature between the monocotyledons of the lake and the algae of the 
 sea; and yet not a vestige of such an intermediate vegetation could I find 
 among the up-piled debris of the mixed floras, marine and lacustrine. The 
 lake possesses no such intermediate vegetation. As the water freshens in 
 its middle reaches, the algae become dwarfish and ill-developed ; one species 
 after another ceases to appear, as the habitat becomes wholly unfavourable 
 to it ; until at length we find, instead of the brown, rootless, flowerless 
 fucoids and confervae of the ocean, the green, rooted, flower-bearing flags, 
 rushes, and aquatic grasses of the fresh water. Many thousands of years 
 have failed to originate a single intermediate plant. And such, tested by 
 a singularly extensive experience, is the general evidence. There is scarce a 
 chain-length of the shores of Britain and Ireland that has not been a 
 hundred and a hundred times explored by the botanist, — keen to collect and 
 prompt to register every rarity of the vegetable kingdom ; but has he ever 
 yet succeeded in transferring to his herbarium a single plant caught in the 
 transition state ? 
 
 "It will not do to tell us, — as Cuvier was told, when he appealed to 
 the fact, determined by the mummy birds and reptiles of Egypt, of the 
 fixity of species in all, even the slightest particulars, for at least three 
 thousand years, — that immensely extended periods of time are necessary to 
 effect specific changes, and that human observation has not been spread over 
 a period sufficiently ample to furnish the required data regarding them. 
 
 "It is not true that human observation has not been spread over a 
 period sufficiently extended to furnish the necessary data for testing the 
 development hypothesis. In one special walk,— that which bears on the 
 supposed transmutation of algae into terrestrial plants, — human observation 
 has been spread over what is strictly analogous to millions of years. For 
 extent of space in this matter is exactly correspondent with duration of 
 time. No man, in this late period of the world's history, attains to the age 
 of five hundred years ; and as some of our larger English oaks have been 
 known to increase in bulk of trunk and extent of bough for five centuries 
 together, no man can possibly have seen the same huge oak pass, according 
 to Cowper, through its various stages of ' treeship,' — 
 
 1 First a seedling hid in grass ; 
 Then twig ; then sapling ; and, as century rolls 
 Slow after century, a giant bulk, 
 
 Of girth enormous, with moss-cushioned root 
 Upheaved above the soil, and sides embossed 
 With prominent wens globose.' 
 
THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. 
 
 But though no man lives throughout five hundred years of time, he can 
 trace, by passing in some of the English forests through five hundred yards 
 of space, the history of the oak in all its stages of growth, as correctly as 
 if he did live throughout the five hundred years. Oaks, in the space of a 
 few hundred yards, may be seen in every stage of growth, from the newly 
 burst acorn, that presents to the light its two fleshy lobes, with the first 
 tender rudiments of a leaflet between, up to the giant of the forest, in the 
 hollow of whose trunk the red deer may shelter, and find ample room for 
 the broad spread of his antlers. The fact of the development of the oak, 
 from the minute two-lobed seedling of a week's growth up to the gigantic 
 tree of five centuries, is as capable of being demonstrated by observation 
 spread over five hundred yards of space, as by observation spread over five 
 hundred years of time. And be it remembered, that the sea-coasts of the 
 world are several hundred thousand miles in extent. Europe is by far the 
 smallest of the earth's four large divisions, and it is bounded, in proportion 
 to its size, by a greater extent of land than any of the others. And yet 
 the sea-coasts of Europe alone, including those of its islands, exceed twenty- 
 five thousand miles. We have results before us, in this extent of space, 
 identical with those of many hundred thousand years of time ; and if terres- 
 trial plants were as certainly developments of the low plants of the sea as 
 the huge oak is a development of the immature seedling just sprung from 
 the acorn, so vast a stretch of sea-coast could not fail to present us with the 
 intermediate vegetation in all its stages. But the sea-coasts fail to exhibit 
 even a vestige of the intermediate vegetation. Experience spread over an 
 extent of space analogous to millions of years of time, does not furnish, in 
 this department, a single fact corroborative of the development theory, but, 
 on the contrary, many hundreds of facts that bear directly against it." ■ 
 
 Yet the wonder of the Orkneys is not in its bold cliffs with their fossils, 
 nor in the cultivated plots which cover its uplands, nor in its remarkable and 
 mysterious sepulchral monuments and " Picts' houses," 2 nor even in the superb 
 climate, as soft and equable as that of the Channel Islands, so much as in the 
 
 1 Footprints of the Creator ; or, the Asterolepis of Stromness, by Hugh Miller, 1849, pp. 240-256. 
 
 2 "Peculiar to the north of Scotland, beyond the Great Glen, or line of the Caledonian Canal, are certain round 
 
 towers, called burghs or brocks, or Picts' castles, of unknown age and origin. The most perfect type is the tower 
 
 of Mousa, on an islet in Shetland. From this example, and others less perfect, they appear to be cylinders of 
 
 masonry tapering upwards into a truncated cone, or waisted like a dice-box. The walls are composed of an outer 
 
 and inner concentric shell of untrimmed stones —evenly set, but without mortar. This rude masonry is bound 
 
 together by four or five courses of slabs of slate placed crosswise, so as to leave in the thickness of the wall a 
 
 gallery or inclined plane winding up to the top like a corkscrew, and lighted by small openings or slits in the 
 
 inside. The rest of the wall is filled up with loose stones, and it may measure in thickness from ten to fifteen 
 
 feet. The towers vary in height from twenty-five to forty feet, and in diameter from thirty to fifty. They were 
 
 not roofed, but the inner slits open into a circular court. A low door on the ground level led into this and 
 
 communicated with the winding galleries or cells, which in some instances are so low and narrow (three feet) that 
 
 it is difficult to understand how any but a race of pigmies could have traversed them. Sir Walter Scott compares 
 
 the tower of Mousa to a ruined pigeon-house. More than four hundred examples are known of these towers in the 
 
 North and North-west of Scotland and in the Isles, for the most part more or less ruined. They are thus 
 
 distributed— in Shetland, seventy-five ; Orkney, seventy ; Caithness, seventy-nine ; Sutherland, sixty ; Long Island, 
 
 thirty-eight ; Skye, thirty, etc." — Murray, Section vi. 3. 
 
 199 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 lingering beauty of its summer days. The evening twilight magically melts 
 into the rose-light of the dawn ; night is practically unknown j you can read at 
 midnight not only the inscriptions over the shop-doors, but the pages of a 
 printed book. Only a little farther north, and you would see the midnight 
 sun. No doubt there is a corresponding loss of daylight in winter, but the 
 natives tell you that the starry nights are glorious, and there are no Arctic 
 chills to impair the enjoyment. Few love their country better, or with 
 better reason than the industrious, simple-minded Orcadians. 
 
 A sail of twelve hours over an often stormy sea takes the traveller 
 from Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkneys to Lerwick, the capital of the 
 Shetlands. Half-way he passes Fair Isle, an island twenty-five miles from 
 
 LOCH SHEANASKA1G, WEST SUTHEKLANDSH1KE. 
 
 any other land, containing just 214 inhabitants, and causing much wonder 
 to many who view it from without, or scramble over its craggy landing, as 
 to the origin of its name. " Fair," it certainly is not, in the sense in which 
 we usually understand that term of an island. We think of coral caves, of 
 yellow sands, of grassy slopes, of groves and shady bowers. But nothing of 
 this kind meets us here. Wild precipices are chafed by an angry sea, the 
 access is by clefts in the rock, leading by rough steep paths to the barren 
 summit; and perhaps the explanation is that "Fair" is not an epithet at 
 all, but a corruption of Norwegian Faar, " a sheep." " Sheep island." 
 " The Faroe Islands have the same etymology." ' On this island one of 
 
 1 See The Orkneys and Shetland, by John R. Tudor (London, 1883), pp. 430-432. 
 
THE SHETLAND ISLES. 
 
 FAIR ISLE; THE " SHEEP CRAIG." 
 
 fully maintained, not so much for 
 the coal mines of England ; it 
 being found that these hardy little 
 creatures can best endure the 
 fatigue of continued monotonous 
 work in those sunless depths. 
 They accordingly are imported 
 southward in great numbers, never 
 to see the light of day from the 
 time of their descent. It is a 
 comfort to know that they are 
 generally well cared for, and greatly 
 petted by the miners. Often one 
 will be rescued by some purchaser, 
 wishing to please his children, and 
 will spend its days in fresh air and 
 sunlight — a happier lot, and to 
 outward seeming more congenial. 
 It is to be hoped that the patient 
 little sturdy four-footed toilers in 
 the mine know not what they lose ! 
 The Shetland Islands contain 
 more than 30,000 inhabitants, a 
 hardy race, who mostly live by fi 
 
 1 See The Orkneys and 
 
 the vessels of the Spanish Armada, 
 driven northwards, was wrecked ; 
 and the crew are said by tradition 
 to have taught the women the art of 
 knitting the brilliantly variegated 
 hosiery that we call Shetland. The 
 account is probably correct, as the 
 patterns in many of these shawls 
 are remarkably similar to those 
 which are wrought by the Moors 
 of Spain. 1 
 
 But Lerwick also, the Shetland 
 town, is famous for its knitting ; 
 the scanty pastures having long 
 sustained a fine breed of sheep. 
 The Shetland ponies too are fa- 
 mous ; though these no longer 
 roam at large. The breed is care- 
 their beauty as for their utility — alas ! in 
 
 FAIR ISLE; "SHALDI CLIFF.'* 
 
 shing. The number of islands is said to 
 
 Shctlands, by J. R. Tudor, p. 439. 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 be exactly a hundred, only between thirty and forty being inhabited. Some 
 of these are very bold in outline. The cliffs of Bressay are extraordinary: 
 but perhaps the greatest wonder is the Holm of Noss, detached from 
 the island of that name by a fissure between the cliffs from four to five 
 hundred feet in depth. " The Holm consists of a rock with perpendicular 
 sides 1 60 feet in height, and having a level top, the area of which is 
 500 feet by 1 70 feet. Somewhere in the seventeenth century this, apparently, 
 inaccessible stack was scaled by a fowler for the promised reward of a cow. 
 
 Once on the summit he drove in a couple ot stout stakes, to which were 
 fastened strong guy-ropes, that had been dragged over the intervening 
 chasm, 60 feet broad, by means of a stone and a string. On these guy- 
 ropes was fastened an oblong box, which slid easily enough down from the Noss 
 side, where the cliff was slightly higher, to the Holm, and was hauled back 
 on the return journey. Tradition says that the original scaler of the Holm 
 refused to avail himself of the box, but essayed to return as he came, and, 
 in so doing, was killed. Latterly the box was made large enough to hold 
 a man and a sheep, and in this manner twelve sheep were taken on to and 
 
THE SHETLAND ISLES. 
 
 off the Holm every summer. Some few years back, however, the whole 
 apparatus was dismantled for fear of accidents, and the summit of the Holm 
 handed back to its original tenants, the gulls, who during the breeding 
 season leave very little of it unoccupied." 
 
 "giant's leg," noss. 
 
 The climate of these islands lacks the delicious softness ol the Orkneys ; 
 the constant dampness being chilly and oppressive to the visitor ; although 
 in the latest and best accounts of these northern islands we read that 
 " Shetland, if liable to greater rainfall, has, so far as the writer can judge, 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 a more bracing and exhilarating atmosphere during the summer months than 
 the southern group, where at times the heat is apparently much more intense 
 and oppressive, and in Shetland, even in the height of summer, it is always 
 well to be provided with warm garments." 1 The inhabitants appear a 
 
 THE HOLM OF NOSS. 
 
 hardy race, honest, shrewd, and sensible. They seem peculiarly open also 
 to the lessons and influences of Christianity, and, beside the Presbyterian 
 churches, there is also a mission of the Baptists, which has effected great 
 
 The Orkneys and Shet 'lands, by J. R. Tudor, p. 411. 
 
 204 
 
THE SHETLAND ISLES. 
 
 good. In courtesy and intelligence the people compare favourably with 
 those of any place in Great Britain. 
 
 It is in these islands of the North that Sir Walter Scott found much 
 of the material for his Pirate ; Sumburgh Head, where much of the action 
 of the story lies, being the most southerly point of the Shetland group — a 
 grand, bare cliff, about 300 feet in height — while the Roost of Sumburgh 
 (" rost," Icelandic for the current or whirlpool caused by the meeting of 
 tides) still rushes with the fury depicted by the great novelist. Some of 
 his descriptions may even seem exaggerated, and in these times of com- 
 
 HANDA ISLAND : ABOVE SCOURIE BAY, SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 
 
 parative civilisation the counterpart may not often be found of his more 
 strongly-marked characters. Yet on the whole the outline is wonderfully 
 correct, as well as vivid ; and the finest creation in his story, Noma of the 
 Fitful Head, seems to have been in part a transcript from life. The 
 grandeurs and terrors of those storm-beaten shores, with their loneliness, and 
 the mystery beyond, quicken the sense of the supernatural, although in our 
 own day this rather appears in the simple intense piety of a well-instructed 
 people, than in any tendency to credulity and superstition. The inhabitants 
 of mountain regions, it is said, have often little sense of the majesty and 
 
TO THE FAR NORTH. 
 
 glory that surround them on their daily path ; not so the dwellers by those 
 wild and stormy seas. To them the lessons of the "great deep" are not 
 wholly in vain. "The sea is His;" and "He made it," finds a response, — 
 often confused and inarticulate, it may be, — in the hearts of men with 
 whose whole life sublimity and terror are so closely intertwined. It was with 
 a strange thrill of sympathy as well as awe that in a little assembly of 
 those northern sailors and fishermen we read the old words : 
 
 " They that go down to the sea in ships, 
 
 That do business in great waters : 
 These see the works of the Lord, 
 
 And His wonders in the deep; 
 For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, 
 
 Which lifteth up the waves thereof. 
 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths ; 
 
 Their soul is melted because of trouble. 
 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, 
 
 And are at their wit's end. 
 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
 
 And He bfingeth them out of their distresses. 
 He maketh the storm a calm, 
 
 So that the waves thereof are still. 
 Then are they glad because they be quiet. 
 
 So He brin^eth them unto their desired haven." 
 
 THE LINN OF QUOICH, BRAEMAR. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbotsford, page 15 
 Aberdeen, its University and associa- 
 tions, 165 
 Aberfeldy, 131 
 Abergeldie, 170 
 Abernethy, Braes of, 140 
 Airdcheanochrochan, 103 
 Allan Water, 124 
 Alloway Kirk, 28 
 Anderson, Andrew of, Elgin, 140 
 Annandale, 22 
 Annan Water, 26 
 Arbroath, 164 
 Ardgour, 76 
 Arisaig, 87 
 Arran, Isle of, 63 
 
 " Assemblies," the, at Edinburgh, 44 
 Asterolepis of Stromness, 197 
 Athole's Duke of, Grounds, 128 
 Auchnasheen, 112 
 Auchterardei, 124 
 Aviemore, 141, 173 
 Ayr, 27 
 
 Ballachulish, 73 
 
 Ballater, Pass of, 168 
 
 Balloch, 99 
 
 Balmoral, 172 
 
 Banavie to Arisaig, 84 
 
 Bannockburn, 121 
 
 Bass Rock, 9 
 
 Bial-nam-bo, Pass of, 104 
 
 Biattie, Dr., on Highland Scenery, 130 
 
 B^lhaven, 6 
 
 Bell Rock, 164 
 
 Ben Arthur, 100; Chonzie, 124; Cru- 
 achan, 76; Lawers, 108, 131; Ledi, 
 103, 122; Lomond, ix., 100, 122; 
 More, 108; Muich-Dhui, ix., 136, 
 173 ; Nevis, Mr. Wragge's observa- 
 tions on, 77; Slioch, 113; Venue, 
 103, 122; Voirlich, 100, 122; Wyvis, 
 III, 150 
 
 Ben Jonson, 16 
 
 Berwick-on-Tweed, 4 
 
 Birnam Wood, 127 
 
 Blair Athole, 127, 132 
 
 Bonnington Linn, 25 
 
 Border, The, 3 
 
 " Bore Stone," 121 
 
 Boston, Thomas, 13 
 
 Bothwell, 4, 9 
 
 Bothwell Brig, 26 
 
 Bracklinn Fall, 108 
 
 Braemar, its pure air, 173 ; mountain 
 scenery round, 173 ; tales and tradi- 
 tions of; 179 
 
 Brander Pass, 108 
 
 Branksome Tower, 12 
 
 Brechin, 164 
 
 Bressay, 201 
 
 Bridge of Allan, 123 
 
 Brig o'Balgownie, 166 
 
 Bruar, Falls of the, 136 
 
 Burns, Robert, 136; Tomb of, 26; 
 Birthplace, 28 
 
 Bute, Isle of, 61 
 
 Byron, Lord, his early days at Aber- 
 deen, 164 
 
 Cadzow Castle, 26 
 
 Cairngorm, ix., 136, 140 
 
 Cairntoul, 136, 173 
 
 Caledonian Canal, 77, III 
 
 Caledonian Forest, 26 
 
 Callander, 108 
 
 " Cameronian " and Free Church, 42 
 
 Cape Wrath, 92 
 
 Carlyle, Birthplace of, 22 ; Father and 
 Mother of, 22 ; at Dunbar, 6 
 
 Carse of Gowrie, 124 
 
 Castleton, see Braemar, 
 
 Cawdor, 149 
 
 Chambers, the brothers, 49 
 
 Cheviots, The, 12 
 
 Children's Concert at Aberdeen, 167 
 
 Claverhouse, 26, 132, 163 
 
 Clyde, The, 25 ; Falls of, 25 ; general 
 view of the, 59 ; Steamers on the, 
 60; Watering-places on the, 61 
 
 Coilantogle Ford, 104 
 
 Colomba at Iona, 66 
 
 " Columba," the steamer, 60 
 
 Communion Service at Oban, 65 
 
 Corra Linn, 25 
 
 Corrie, 62 
 
 Corryvrekan, whirlpool, 64 
 
 " Covenant " the, 41 
 
 Covenanters, 26 ; Monument, 27 
 
 Crathie, 170, 172 
 
 Crianlarich, 108 
 
 Crieff, 124 
 
 Crinan Canal, the, 63 
 
 Cromarty Firth, 150 
 
 Cromwell at Dunbar, 5 
 Cuchullin Hills, 114 
 Culloden Moor, Battlefield of, 150 
 Cumnock, 27 
 
 Deeside Railway, 168 
 
 Dee, source of, 173 
 
 Devon, the river, 156 
 
 Dialect, the Scottish, xi. 
 
 Dingwall ,111 
 
 Don, the river, 166, 173 
 
 Doon, the river, 29 
 
 Dornoch, 192 
 
 " Dreadnought " Hotel, 108 
 
 Drummond, the poet, 16, 19 
 
 Drumouchter, Pass of, 139 
 
 Dryburgh Abbey, 14 
 
 Dullater, 108 
 
 Dulsie Bridge, 149 
 
 Dumbarton, 60 
 
 Dumfries, 26 
 
 Dunbar, 4; Cromwell at, 5 ; Carlyle at, 6 
 
 Dunblane, 124 
 
 Duncansbay Head, 197 
 
 Duncraggan, 108 
 
 Dundee, 164 ; Children's Choir of, 167 
 
 Dunfermline, 156 
 
 Dunkeld, 127, 129 
 
 Dunrobin Castle, 193 
 
 ECCLEFECHAN, 22 
 
 Edinburgh, 1 1 ; Arthur's Seat, 34 ; Calton 
 Hill, 53 ; First view of, 33 ; Grey- 
 friars Churchyard, 41 ; Holyrood Pal- 
 ace, 34 ; University, 37 ; Museums 
 and Galleries, 45 ; Railway Stations, 
 37 ; Religious feeling in, 42 ; St. 
 Giles's and St. Mary's, 48, 50 ; Salis 
 bury Crags, 34 ; The Castle, 34 ; 
 The Old Town, 33 ; The Scott Monu 
 ment, 53 
 
 Ellen's Isle, 101 
 
 Elgin, Anderson's Institution, 145 ; 
 Cathedral, 141 
 
 Erskines, The, 14 
 
 Esk, The, 11, 16 
 
 Ettrick, 12 
 
 Fair Island, 200 
 Fast Castle, 5 
 Findhorn, the, 148 
 Fingal's Cave, 70 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Firth of Forth, 6 
 
 Flocklen, 54 
 
 Flowerdale, 113 
 
 " Forests " in Scotland without trees, 75 
 
 Forres, 148 
 
 Fort William, 77 
 
 Forth, The, 121 
 
 Foyers', Falls of, ill 
 
 Gairloch, The, 112 
 Gardiner, Colonel, 9 
 Garry, river and glen, 132, 136, 139 
 Glasgow, general view of, 56 ; its 
 . Cathedral, 56 ; its University, 56 ; 
 
 Necropolis, 55 ; Public Parks of, 56 ; 
 
 West and South, suburbs of, 56 ; 
 
 water supply, 101 
 Glen Dochart, 10S ; Falloch, 108 ; 
 
 Nevis, 77 ; Ogle, 108 ; Orchy, 108 ; 
 
 Tilt, 135; Turrit, 124 
 Glencoe, A storm in, 74 
 Glencroe, ioo 
 Goat Fell, 62 
 Golf at St. Andrews, 158 
 Golspie, 192 
 Grampians, The, 124 
 Grantown, 140 
 Gray, the Poet, on Highland Scenery, 
 
 130 
 Great Glen, III 
 Gretna Green, 22 
 Grey Mare's Tail Fall, 25 
 Guthrie, Dr., his summer retreat, 164 
 
 Habbie's Howe, 21 
 
 Haddingtonshire, 4 
 
 Hailes Castle, 9 
 
 Hall and Mackintosh at Aberdeen, 166 
 
 Hamilton Palace, 25 
 
 Hawthornden, 16, 19 
 
 Highland Girl, The, 100 
 
 Highland Scenery, Dr. Beattie on, 130 
 
 Highlands out of "the season," viii. 
 
 Hogg, James, 12 
 
 Hotels, Scottish, vii. 
 
 Icolmkill, 66 
 
 Inch-ma-home, 108 
 
 Intelligence of the Scottish people, xi. 
 
 Inveraray, 193, n. 
 
 Inverness, ill 
 
 Inversnaid, 100 
 
 Iona and Columba, 69 
 
 Irongray Church, 26 ; Communion 
 
 Stones, 27 
 Irving, Edward, 22 
 
 Jeanie Deans, 27 
 John o' Groat's, 195 
 
 Katrine Loch Waterworks, 101 
 
 Kershopefoot, 12 
 
 Kilchurn Castle, 108 
 
 Killiecrankie, Pass of, 132 
 
 Kingussie, 139 
 
 Kinnoul Hill, 124 
 
 Kirkwall, Orkneys, 197 
 
 Knox, John, his Grave, 41 ; his House, 
 38 ; his Pulpit, 46 ; Memorials at 
 Stirling Castle, 12 1 ; his School 
 system, 161 
 
 Kyles of Bute, 62 
 
 Lady of the Lake, 1 04 
 Lairg, 92, 190 
 Lammermoor, 5 
 
 Lanark, 25 
 
 Larig, Pass of, 173 
 
 Leny, The, 108 
 
 Lerwick, Shetland, 200 
 
 Leslie, General, 5 
 
 Lewis, 91 
 
 Liddisdale, 11 
 
 Linlithgow, 53 
 
 Linn of Bonnington, 25; of Dee, 173; 
 of Quoich, 173 
 
 Loch Achray, 102 ; Awe, 108; Caddon, 
 113; Carron, 1 13; Coruisk, 88; 
 Drunkie, 102, 10S ; Earn, 108 ; Eck, 
 193, «; Eil, 76; Ericht, 139; Eriboll, 
 190 ; Etive, 73, 75, in; Fyne, 63 ; 
 Gairloch, 112; Garry, 139; Gilp, 
 63 ; Inver, 92, 190 ; Katrine, 100 ; 
 Lee, 164; Leven, 118, 156; Linnhe, 
 "jt,, in ; Lochy, III ; Lomond, 99, 
 102; Long, 61, 100; Lubnaig, 108, 
 Maree, 112; Monteith, 108; Ness, 
 III; Rannoch, 132; Ranza, 62; 
 Ridden, 62; Scavaig, 88 ; St. Mary's 
 25 ; Sheil, 87 ; Skene, 25 ; Tay, 
 131 ; Vennachar, 102 
 
 Lochnagar, ix., 170 
 
 Lochs, their number in Scotland, x. 
 
 Luss, 99 
 
 Macbeth, Burial place of, 70 ; Birnam 
 
 Wood, 127 ; Cawdor Castle, 148 ; 
 
 Scottish version of, 185 ; The 
 
 "blasted heath," 151 
 Mainland, Orkneys, 198 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 4, 9, 54, 108, 
 
 118, 156 
 Massacre of Glencoe, 74 
 Melrose, 13 
 Menteith, Lake, 108 
 Miller, Hugh, Footsteps of the Creator, 
 
 197 
 Moffat, 25 
 Moncrieff Hill, 144 
 Monmouth, Duke of, 26 
 Montrose, 164 
 " Morayshire Floods," 149 
 Mountains, the six highest in Scotland, 
 
 131, n. ; vast number of in Scotland, 
 
 ix. 
 Mugdock Reservoir, 102 
 Murray, the Regent, 4, 54, 140 
 
 Nairn, 150 
 
 Nodes Ambrosianoe, 12 
 
 Nith, The, 26 ; Nithsdale, 27 
 
 North Berwick, 9 
 
 Noss, Shetland, 202 
 
 Oban, hi ; a Sabbath at, 65 
 
 Ochill Hills, 122 
 
 Ord of Caithness, 194 
 
 Orkneys, duration of the clay in, 198 . 
 
 " Ossian's Hall," 128 
 
 Owen, Robert, 25 
 
 Perth, 124 
 Picts' Castles, 199, n. 
 Pirate, the Scenery of, 203 
 Pitlochrie, 132 
 Pomona, Orkneys, 1 96 
 Prestonpans, 9 
 
 Queen Margaret's Bower, 54 
 Queen Mary's Bower, 108 
 Quiraing, Skye, 91 
 
 Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 21 
 Rivers, their number, in Scotland, x. 
 Roslin Chapel, 16; Apprentice Pillar, 19 
 Rothesay, 61 
 Rothiemurchus, 139 
 Rowardennan, 100 
 Rumbling Bridge, 129, 156 
 
 Sabbath, The, 4 
 
 St. Abb's Head, 6 
 
 St. Andrews, Golf at, 156; University 
 of, 161 
 
 Sark River, 22 
 
 Scotland, shape of, 196 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 14, etc. 
 
 Scottish tour, drawbacks and advanta- 
 ges, vii. 
 
 Seafarers, religion of, 264 
 
 Shetland, Hosiery, 200 ; Ponies, 201 
 
 Shetlands, Inhabitants of the, 202 
 
 Silver Strand, 104 
 
 Skye, destitution in, 88 ; Loch Coruisk, 
 88; Portree, 88; Railway, in ; 
 Loch Scavaig, 88; Uig and Quiraing, 
 
 91 
 
 Solway Moss, 22 
 
 Spital of Glenshee, 173 
 
 Sport in Scotland, 139, 173 
 
 Staffa, Fingal's Cave, 70 
 
 Steamboat sailing in the West, 60, 92 
 
 Stirling, 118; Castle, 121 
 
 Stonebyres Fall, 25 
 
 Stornoway, Lewis, 91 
 
 Strathpeffer, in 
 
 Strathspey, 139, 140 
 
 Strome Ferry, in, 114 
 
 Stromness, 197 
 
 Stuarts, their traditional origin, 185 
 
 Sutherland, Duchess of, 194 
 
 Sutherlandshire, evictions in, 191 
 
 " Sweno's Stone " at Forres, 151 
 
 Tain, 190 
 
 Tales of a Grandfather, 121 
 
 Tarn o' Shanter, 30 
 
 Tantallon Castle, 9 
 
 Tarbet, 100 
 
 Tarff, the river, 136 
 
 Tay, The, 127 ; Bridge destroyed, 162 
 
 Teith, The, 100 
 
 Tell, a Scottish, 180 
 
 Teviot, 12 
 
 Thurso, 195 
 
 Tighnabruiach, 62 
 
 Tongue, 191 
 
 Traprain Law, 9 
 
 Trossachs, 103 
 
 " Tuesday's Race," 9 
 
 Tummel, The, 132 
 
 Tweed, The, 14 
 
 Tyndrum, 75 
 
 University, Scottish system, 161 
 
 Wade, General, his Roads, ix. 
 Walker, Helen, 27 
 Wallace Monument, Stirling, 53, 123 
 Wardlaw, Bishop, 161 
 Waverley Route, 1 1 
 Wick, 195 
 
 Wit, Scottish appreciation of, x. 
 Wordsworth, 12, 100 
 Wragge, Mr., his observations at Ben 
 Nevis, 77 
 
 Yarrow, The, 12 
 
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