UC-NRLF B 3 1D7 OJsl JHE COApT O ATURS A. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID STUDIES OF NATUEE ON THE COAST OF AEKAN Reverend watching of each still report That Nature utters from her rural shrine WORDSWORTH written in ' The Complete A ngler* With high objects, with enduring things, With life and nature; purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying by such discipline Both pain and fear, until we recognise A grandeur in the beating of the heart WoKPSWORTH. Influence of Xaiural Objects W Noel Johnson Be] \9oVU&> csnr* STUDIES OF NATURE ON THE COAST OF AEBAN BY GEORGE MILNER [AUTHOR OF 'COUNTRY PLEASURES'] WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. NOEL JOHNSON LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EA.ST 16* STREET 1894 All rights reserved BY THE SAME AUTHOR COUNTRY PLEASURES THE CHRONICLE OF A YEAR CHIEFLY IN A GARDEN Crown 8vo. 3s. Qd. London: LONGMANS, GEEEN, & CO. PREFACE THE present volume may be regarded as, in some degree, a sequel or pendant to a previous work of the author's, published in 1879, and subsequently re-issued several times under the title of ' Country Pleasures.' The motive and plan of the two books are to a large extent the same. What is here presented is not the result of elaboration or afterthought, but is that which was written down at the time in journal-form when the impressions were fresh and vivid. The writer can only expect that his unpre- tentious notes will prove interesting to those vi PREFACE who, like himself, care much for two things Nature and Literature and who have given, or are willing to give, to them devoted and affec- tionate study. In * Country Pleasures ' a chapter that which deals with the month of August is concerned with the Island of Arran. In * Studies of Nature ' the subject is continued at greater length. It should be said with regard to the illustra- tions that they are an integral part of the work, not merely random ' views in Arran,' but draw- ings executed with loving care and conceived, as far as may be, in the spirit of the writer, who considers himself fortunate in having the colla- boration of an artist at once so competent and so sympathetic as Mr. W. Noel Johnson. The names of the authors quoted are given in a separate index, and a few Notes are appended. CONTENTS CHAPTEE I PAGE Arran once more First impressions The ' Provost ' of Corrie The shepherd and his dog Sannox kirk . 1. CHAPTEE II Corrie from the sea Eecollections of the journey north A rainy morning Gulls and jackdaws The am- phibious Boy of the village . . . . .11 CHAPTEE III Corrie steamers Lamlash Sandy McGlosher The Holy Island Brodick Bay 21 CHAPTEE IV Moonlight nights Deep-sea fishing The herring-hake A great catch 31 CHAPTEE V The north wind An early bath The ' Provost ' on the virtues of salt water Cioch-na-h'oighe Mountain solitude -Alpine flowers A river of rocks . 40 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER VI PACK A Highland preacher North Glen Sannox Glen Chal- madale The Witches' Bridge Loch Eanza . . 52 CHAPTER VII A voyage round the Island A hair-breadth escape Stormy weather Pladda lighthouse Ailsa Craig . G2 CHAPTER VIII The long northern twilight Cloud scenery Out in the boat Fairy seascapes. Enchanted measures A gipsy tea 72 CHAPTER IX Twilight on the moor Janet McBride Twilight in South Glen Sannox The shepherd's lad Hot summer in Glen Rosa 82 CHAPTER X Jelly-fish The ' Provost ' on the mysteries of nature Corrie sports Blackbirds A rolling sea . . . 92 CHAPTER XI The two Sannox burns Bees and bats The black hull on the sands The village dance : a pastoral . . 101 CHAPTER XII From the Clyde to the Mersey Garroch Head Largs Lingering at Greenock Ailsa Craig at midnight The horrors of the cabin berth Back from the Mersey to the Clyde Ill CONTENTS CHAPTEE XIII PAGE A perfect day Eeminiscences of the voyage The Lord of the Isles Dunoon A wild night at Corrie How the ' Provost's ' daughter saved a ship on Christ- mas night 121 CHAPTEK XIV North Sannox Glen A figure on the lonely shore A great tide Three voices of the sea ' Prometheus Unbound ' Benighted in the Glen .... 130 CHAPTER XV A cruise in the Blue Bell An Adonis of the ocean Inchmarnock The critic turned skipper Teigh-na- bruich A sylvan nook 143 CHAPTER XVI A day on the mountain ridges Ascent of Am Binnein A rainbow beneath our feet The pranks of the wind An Inferno A red buck shot Boats in danger . 153 CHAPTER XVII Fishing in the Corrie Burn High Corrie Brodick sports Our last day The ' Fallen Rocks ' Songs on the bridge Sunrise and an early drive to Brodick Farewell 167 INDEX OF QUOTATIONS 181 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 183 INDEX 187 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE COPPEEPLATES THE CORBIE ' PROVOST ' Frontispiece DUGALD AND HIS DOG To face page 5 THE BOY. ' WHAT'S THE ODDS so LONG'S YER 'APPT ' 19 CIOCH-NA-H'OIGHE AND THE DEVIL'S PUNCH- BOWL ,,49 LOCH EANZA FROM NEWTON POINT ... ,,59 GLEN SANNOX FROM THE SEA ... ,,67 GLEN EOSA 89 CORRIE FROM THE LANDING ROCK . . 121 NORTH GLEN SANNOX 131 BIRDS ON THE SHORE, BRODICK BAY . . 177 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT I'AGK LAMLASH 25 THE HOLY ISLAND 29 SEA FISHING 34 SANNOX BAY 57 NORTH SANNOX SHORE 80 JANET M'BRIDE 85 THE OLD HULL .105 ARRAN FROM THE SEA 125 ' THE ISLANDS AND THE FAR SHORES ' . . . .140 THE BOATMAN 144 THE SADDLE AND CIOR-MHOR 162 HIGH CORRIE 169 STUDIES OF NATUEE ON THE COAST OP ARBAN CHAPTEE I To make this earth, our hermitage, A cheerful and a changeful page, God's bright and intricate device Of days and seasons doth suffice. E. L. STEVENSON, The House Beautiful. COKRIE : Saturday, August 2. IN Arran once more ! And once more at the dear old hamlet of Corrie. To come here now means not only to attain peace and rest, much- needed and long sighed for, but also to welcome things familiar and already enshrined in the memory the charm, in short, of change and freshness mingled with wont and custom. B STUDIES OF NATUBE And yet it was not without some feeling of loss that we bade good-bye to the old garden at home just when summer, sadly delayed, seemed to be breaking upon us. Hundreds of stately foxgloves, white and red and pale pink, were in full bloom on the sloping bed under the great hawthorn hedge ; the creamy blossom of the elder was at its best ; the first evening primroses were out ; in the twilight at nine o'clock, the air was warmer than we had been accustomed to have it at noon, and the whole garden was filled with the heavy scent of musk and rose. All this was delightful enough, especially after the rigours of a nine-months' winter ; but still, with the advent of August, there came back the old hunger for the mountains and the sea, and an idea haunted me like a superstition that with the first dip in the wave there would come a new life to both mind and body. And here it is. The morning is still early, but I have had my accustomed plunge, and am ON THE COAST OF AEEAN sitting on the bench under the little window waiting for breakfast. No antidote could have more efficaciously ministered to a mind diseased by fume and fret and worry than this strange quiet strange when contrasted with the vast- ness of our horizon. Although the sea is near enough for me to fling a stone into it from where I sit, there are cows feeding on the grass between me and the water, and the only sounds which rise out of all the great area over which the eye travels are the soft wash of the tide, and the crunching sound which the cattle make in cropping the short herbage. The wind is north-west, and, as is usual here, that turns everything into the brightest blue. The sea has many shades, but all of them are shades of blue, and the last is a line of deep sapphire under the opposite coast of Ayr. The islands are also blue, for their natural green is overborne ; the sky is blue ; and even the white clouds as they sail along seem to catch a tinge of the same colour. B 2 STUDIES OF NATURE And now, round the corner of the house, there comes an old friend, John Campbell, the 'Provost ' of Corrie, as, with good-natured banter, he is usually called. Although he carries upon his shoulders the weight of more than eighty years, this last one seems to have added little to his burden. He steps forward as if he were pacing the unsteady deck of a lugger ; and, putting his rough brown hand over his eyes, he looks round with an air of responsible authority upon the little hamlet and the wide sea as one who should say ' Stands Corrie where it did ? ' After salutations he opens out upon me quite at random, and as if we had parted not eleven months ago, but at sundown yesterday The ministers nowadays are a' wrang in their theo- logy j J 118 ^ blind leaders o' the blind, for not the one half o' them have been properly through the colleges. Why, with the Auld Testament in his haund he could pit them through their cate- chism hissel, and mak them a' flee before him W.Noel Johnson. Del ff ON THE COAST OF AEEAN puir creatures as they are. In his opinion the body politic, no less than the ecclesiastic, is in a parlous condition. These workin' folk have sent a' things tapsalteerie wi' their strikes and their high wages. When he was in the quarry he was weel content with his twa shillings a day ; and the best mason among them a' got no more than three. An' what then ; they were better off a lang sight than they are now. When the old man goes slowly away, with steps that move like the minute hand of a clock, to take his accustomed outlook on the beach, another friend of the past comes up to me. He is not garrulous, but silent, and yet his face is full of language. He puts his shaggy and lion- coloured head upon my knee, and when his eye meets mine there is so much meaning in it that I know he recognises me as one who last year was his dead master's friend. This is Dugald's dog Dugald the shepherd, who knew all the ins and outs of Corrie, and with whom I often STUDIES OF NATURE wandered along the burns and up the moun- tain-side. He died in the winter, or, as his old mother put it to me with tears on her cheek, 'He's awa', sir, he's awa'.' And the dog I have heard his story already. It is that old narrative of brute constancy and affection which makes us ashamed for ourselves and our boasted humanity. For months after his master's death nothing would induce him to enter the house. He rambled up and down the village picking up his food where he could, sleeping on the hills and refusing to be comforted. Only during the last few weeks has he been prevailed upon to return to the home which for him had lost its light ; and now, they tell me, he sleeps invari- ably at the door of his late master's chamber. As he trots away from me with his head hung low, he turns and gazes wistfully north and south along the village road and then up at the mountains, as if he were looking for the well- known form that will return to him no more. ON THE COAST OF ARRAN Is it possible that his meeting with me has raised a train of association which leads him back dimly to the idea of his old companion, and arouses in him anew the affection which was so strong ? The dog and the man are now for me, both of them, treasures of the mind. Alas, poor Dugald ! He was a gentle soul, kinder to all than to himself, and bravely risked his life on this coast, more than once, to save the lives of others. He sleeps by the side of a twin brother in the wild kirkyard at Sannox. In my visits to the Glen I shall not unfrequently turn aside to look at the shepherd's grave. Perhaps his dog will accompany me. Sunday, August 3. This morning we had a grey dawn and a grey sea. The water looked sometimes like polished metal shining with a steely gleam in the trans- parent parts, and opaque in the shadows. In the evening the rain began ; and while we sat in STUDIES OF NATUEE the kirk vivid lightning played about the win- dows, and we could hear the thunder rolling from peak to peak in Sannox Glen. The preacher had a voice much too big for his building big enough, indeed, to have filled the dome of St. Paul's ; but once or twice his denunciations were humorously drowned by the tones of the thunder. The sea is now very heavy, and flings an immense volume of water against, and sometimes over, the great rock which is opposite our door. It is quite dark except where a glimmer of twilight, issuing from a break low down in the sky,, catches the tops of the waves as they come hurrying and roaring onward to the shore. What a change is this from the evening of yesterday. We were out fishing for whiting with a deep-sea line when there came on one of those marvellous sunsets which a man sees but a few times in his life. The sea was a sheet of molten glass and ready to mirror every tinge of ON THE COAST OF ARE AN the sky. We were far enough from shore to be outside the shadow of the Island, and literally we floated in a sea of glory. The light came over the top of Suidhe-Fergus and, from where it struck the water, away for miles and miles the waves were of an inconceivable colour an interchanging crimson, purple, blue, and green. Later, when the waves grew dark, the pomp was continued in the sky ; then the mountains became a wall of black, sharp in outline, but without further discrimination of form ; and, finally, the moon, rising late and just past the full, made a bridge of light from Ayrshire to Arran, and filled all the south-east with a radi- ance which was warm enough to be called golden. It is well, perhaps, that such days come but seldom. If they were a frequent visitation we should either have to veil our faces, like the leader of Israel, or repetition would dull the sense of beauty. In the meantime, when such a revelation does come it seems to speak to us as 10 STUDIES OF NATURE a witness and a promise of that other life which we look for, that second birth Of all that is most beauteous imaged there In happier beauty ; more pellucid streams, An ampler ether, a diviner air, And fields invested with purpureal gleams. ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 11 CHAPTEK II They fancied the light air That circled freshly in their forest dress Made them to boys again. Happier that they Slipped off their pack of duties, leagues behind. , . . . Lords of this realm, Bounded by dawn and sunset, and the day Eounded by hours where each outdid the last In miracles of pomp, we must be proud, As if associates of the sylvan gods. EALPH WALDO EMEESON, The Adirondacs. COEKIE : Monday, August 4. ' WHEN you have nothing else to do,' says John Campbell, * take to the boat ' that is good advice, and we often follow it here. Our own little shallop lies at the landing- slip, only a few yards from the door, and we get into it as easily as one puts on a pair of shoes. It is, indeed, our ' water-shoe,' and by means of it, during the 12 STUDIES OF NATURE hours between breakfast and early dinner, we saunter up and down the liquid plain ; or, keep- ing close in- shore, wander round the tiny creeks and coves. This is that judicious idleness which, if we can only attain unto it, is the proper object of a long vacation. The best view of Corrie is to be gained from the water. Lying out, two or three hundred yards from the beach, we take in the whole place at a glance. Its elements are very simple. At the south end is the hotel, where the hostess, a model landlady, buxom, cheerful, motherly, dispenses hospitality with genial firmness. The tourist who can ' get in ' there either by grace or importunity, is a fortunate person, and many are the strange roosting-places which walking- men will put up with rather than be turned away from the door. At the north end is the school, a good building, and constructed, like the hotel, of dark sandstone. Between these two is the village, an irregular string of white, low- ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 13 roofed cottages, with interspaces of garden and green brae-side, from end to end of which one can walk easily in a minute or two. It is one of the peculiarities of a holiday that all the days at first seem singularly pro- tracted; not, of course, by a sense of weari- ness, but by a change of circumstance, and the fulness of enjoyment. Days are mere arbitrary divisions, and Time is a figment We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. And so it seemed to me, floating aimlessly on the tide, as if weeks intervened between the present and my long journey from England. That journey is, indeed, a long one most people regard it as a serious drawback against the advantages of Scotland yet it may be taken as a pleasure. By the courteous arrangement of the railway company we have two or three compartments placed at our service, and pass, without intrusion, and without change either of 14 STUDIES OF NATURE ourselves or our belongings, right on to the edge of the quay on the Clyde at Ardrossan. In this way we are rid of anxiety and disturbance. Disposing ourselves in one corner or another, we bring out our books or our work and settle down for a day's travel through the splendid scenery of the Border. After Skipton, we were assured of a glorious day bright and breezy, full of life and motion, just the kind of weather for the broad, bare, Yorkshire moorland which lies between Penyghent and Ingleborough. There had been heavy rain in the early morn- ing, and the streams were all swollen dark in the deep places, light brown where broken by the rocks. In this limestone country all the rivers are short and swift, leaping down the precipitous ledge on the hillside, or hurrying along some narrow and gloomy rift. Further on, when we come into Westmoreland, where the lime changes to sand, the rivers are wide, slow, t full-fed,' and sweep majestically across ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 15 the fertile plain, with romantic hills on either side. Of all the places we pass, Appleby, with its fine church, its grey clustering houses, and its thick woods, tempts me most to linger, and I make a mental note ' come and stay at Appleby upon the first available opportunity.' At Carlisle we catch a glimpse of Skiddaw ; and, after passing Dumfries, we plunge again into a romantic country, like that which we have left on the other side of the Solway. The landscapes are those of the Scottish Ballads. They are romantic, as I have just said. But romantic is a vague word. I mean by it, how- ever, a country not dependent for its effect either upon cultivated richness or upon moun- tain sternness. A country of glens, and crags, and rivers, and pastoral sweetness, whose eminences are hills rather than mountains. I was reminded of this by passing a station bearing the name of Kirkconnel. We were not quite sure that these were the real Braes of 16 STUDIES OF NATURE Kirtle; but, as we hurry past, we catch a glimpse by the river-side of just such a pensive glade as that on which the incomparable Helen might have received the dart which was in- tended for her lover ; and, thereafter, for the rest of the journey, the sobbing cadences of the old ballad go murmuring through the mind, or break into half- audible song with the rumble of the train for accompaniment. Strange con- fluence of the ancient and the new ! I wish I were where Helen lies ! For night and day on me she cries ; I wish I were where Helen lies, On fair Kirkconnel Lea ! Helen fair, beyond compare ! I'll weave a garland o' thy hair, And wear the same for ever mair, Until the day I dee. 1 wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet about my een, And I in Helen's arms lying On fair Kirkconnel Lea ! At Mauchline the clouded Arran looms in the West, and I remember with much interest ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 17 that this is the view which Burns must have seen familiarly out of his Ayrshire home. One cannot but wonder that a prospect, so startling and lovely by turns as this is, should have left little or no mark upon his poetry. But then he lived before the mountain-passion had been developed. From this point to the time when we land at Brodick we keep our eyes on the ever-nearing Island. As usual, it presents a grand spectacle, being transfigured and pos- sessed by the agencies of light and cloud. It is a delight therefore to think that we are to live for a time upon its margin. Wednesday, August 6. Wind in the North-East. Cold and rainy. The sea a greyish green, flecked with a few white waves, which look like gulls in the dis- tance. Over the landing-slip a dozen real gulls are hovering just now, as they usually are. The eye is fascinated by their motion graceful, c 18 STUDIES OF NATURE deliberate, and consummately adapted to its object. With what ease they float and rise, fall and turn, uttering all the while their plain- tive and half-human cry ! Some of their gyr- ations are evidently intended for exercise or for simple pleasure ; but their main purpose is, of course, to pick up such stray scraps of food as are found lying about the rocks. The fisher- men sit here in the afternoons, baiting their long night-lines, and leave odds and ends behind them. Then there are eels, and dog-fish, and other rejected creatures thrown back into the water, which the gulls appropriate ; and some- times their quick eyes detect the young ' saith ' swimming in the shallow water over the grey slabs, and, sweeping down swiftly, they snatch them out with great dexterity. They are very tame ; and frequently we see one of them sitting like a duck close to the shore for a long time. Probably they are shrewd enough to know that nobody on the Island carries a gun except the li r Walkep & BoutaJl. Ph. Sc. UK- ft///.; .)<> ir//y'.i //<'/ 'ti/t/t i/ . ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 19 duke and his own people, and that consequently there are no random shots fired by what Wen- dell Holmes calls the 'gunning idiot.' Other live creatures frequent the shore. There are the jackdaws which roost in the rocks behind the village and come down to the water's edge for something dainty which they find there. The people warn us not to leave coin or jeweller's work about our tables, as the daws sometimes come indoors and make off with such small valuables. Then there is the restless but delightful pied wagtail. He divides his time between the garden and the beach, and is equally at home with either. If I leave the birds, I must mention first the sheep and lambs the latter looking like woolly toys which just now are leading a happy existence on the sedgy strip of green which joins the road on the side nearest the sea ; and next, the Boy the typical boy of the village who is always to the front, dabbling in the pools, or lying in the c 2 20 STUDIES OF NATURE boats, or hanging over the quay. He is a very small, brown, barefooted, and amphibious creature. On a survey of him you would say that he was three-fourths trousers, and nearly one-fourth blue bonnet. Both the trousers and the bonnet appear to have been originally the property of some much larger person. An adaptive ingenuity, however, has brought them, more or less, into harmony with his necessities. Probably he knows that his attire is not of a fashionable character ; but we can imagine him saying, as our facetious member puts it, ' What's the odds, so long's you're happy ? ' ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 21 CHAPTEE III Trust me, 'tis something to be cast Face to face with one's Self at last, And to be set down on one's own two feet So nigh to the great warm heart of God, You almost seem to feel it beat Down from the sunshine and up from the sod ; To be compelled, as it were, to notice All the beautiful changes and chances Through which the landscape flits and glances, And to see how the face of common day Is written all over with tender histories, When you study it that intenser way In which a lover looks at his mistress. JAMES BUSSELL LOWELL. Pictures from Appledore. COKRIE : Thursday, August 7. THEEE steamers touch at Corrie every day, the Glen Rosa, the Guinevere, and the Sheila, going on to Brodick, and Lamlash, and returning in 22 STUDIES OF NATURE the afternoon. If we want a change we go out in the ferry-boat, jump on to one of these passing steamers, and get a delightful sail of twenty miles or so. Sometimes we do this for the sake of the sail only. We have a pleasant lounge on deck, and come back without landing. On hot afternoons this is a sensible way of taking the siesta ; and one smokes, and another reads, and another sketches. It is healthier and ever so much better than the traditional slumber in an arm-chair. But to-day we landed at Lamlash and walked home. The wind was in our favourite north-west, fresh but not cold ; the sky blue and breezy, the sea ever changing but ever beautiful. As we scud along by the shore we sit so that our faces are turned towards Arran. Nothing else is so interesting. The eye, never wearied, runs again and again along the wonderful mountain-line just as on some ancient melody the ear will dwell for a hundred times without sense of satiety. The visible ridge ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 23 begins northwards with Cioch-na-h'oighe at the mouth of Sannox Glen ; then, sailing southward, comes Am Binnien which looks over Corrie; then Goatfell behind the bold shoulder of Maoldon ; and, as the steamer swirls into Brodick Bay, we see the softer outlines behind Glen Cloy. Further on, the mountains are hidden by the lofty coast line ; but just before we reach Lamlash, there is a break in the. barrier and through it we catch a momentary glimpse of Ben Gnuish, one of the finest hills in the island. The Bay of Lamlash forms a magnificent harbour, the Holy Island running across for quite two-thirds of the distance between one horn and the other, and rising to a height of more than a thousand feet. This island has a legendary interest. It is said to have been the residence of St. Molios, an Irish abbot and bishop, in the sixth century, and of Nicolas, a Norwegian hermit, six centuries later. It rises abruptly from the water, and is a striking and 24 STUDIES OF NATURE picturesque object, whether seen from the land or from the sea. Lamlash has a character of its own. It is neither so rugged as Corrie, nor so soft and beautiful as Brodick. Corrie is a nest at the mountain-foot, and there is little more than standing-room for its houses ; the sea breaks roughly upon it, its air is the most bracing in Arran, it has no pretensions, and its frequent- ers have none. Brodick lies in a basin and, although but six or seven miles away, its clim- ate is perceptibly softer. It is also under the shadow of a castle, and plumes itself upon the frequent patronage of a duke. Lamlash has a sheltered situation, and a mild climate also ; but then it lives in the presence of the duke's factor, and not in that of the duke. It is plebeian, therefore, and in consequence is mildly snubbed by the aristocratic Brodick. It is a right pleasant place, however, and has a clean and homely look. The whitewashed houses ON THE COAST OF AERAN 25 run for perhaps half a mile along the Bay, with a broad green sward in front of them. At one point behind this line a few cottages huddle snugly together, with a smithy and some rural workshops among them, and make a cheerful kind of hamlet on the edge of the green country. Beyond this a lane, shaded by tall trees and having a burn on each side, makes towards the hills. On the pier there is always a little stir, steamers touch frequently, and there is a good deal of boating. The bare-legged lads of the 26 STUDIES OF NATURE village fish there all the day long in the deep water. They are a sharp-witted race, keen of feature, and quick of speech. ' Johnnie,' said one of them to another as I stood there, * Johnnie, ye've got a bigger fish noo than ever ye had in your life before.' Turning round to look at the great catch, I heard the young rascals laughing consumedly. It was myself who had been caught. To get the big hook out of my tweed trousers was a long and some- what trying operation. Among the characters of Lamlash is Sandy M'Glosher. Sandy is a fisherman and a boatman, and has a thriving trade. All through the winter months he fishes hard, and never tastes whisky ; but as soon as summer brings visitors, Sandy is sober no more. It is whisky, whisky, all the day long. Last night, after eleven o'clock, a splash in the water was heard by a casual passer-by. Sandy had rolled off the pier, and had a narrow escape of his life. He was drawn in by one foot a mere ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 27 floating log. ' Well, Sandy,' we said to him, ' it was well you were picked up last night.' ' Oh, don't believe it, gentlemen, don't be- lieve it. I was just bathing.' ' And at midnight, Sandy ? ' * What for no ? It's a guid thing bathing, at all hours.' ' And with your clothes on, Sandy ? ' * What for no ? I have na' always just the time to tak' aff ma' claes when I want to bathe.' Poor Sandy ! Have a care, or some day you will bathe after this fashion once too often, and then there will be sore weeping among the five weans who will be waiting for you at home. In the evening we began our journey home- ward. The road leaves the coast and runs across the promontory which ends in Clachland Point, and which separates the Bay of Lamlash from that of Brodick. As we climb slowly towards the summit-level we turn often to gaze 28 STUDIES OF NATURE at the Holy Island which fronts us, looking east A precious stone set in the silver sea. It would always be worth while to make a journey to Lamlash if only for the sake of seeing the Holy Island under its various aspects. I cannot remember anything at all like it else- where. It is unique. Seen from this road it presents as indeed from many other points an appearance which can only be described as startling a thing not to be expected in the ordinary course of natural scenery. Startling in its beauty, for the shores in this evening light rise soft and green from a placid sea ; startling in its grandeur, for beyond the narrow and verdant margin the rocks tower to a great height, precipitous and dark. When this view is lost we begin the descent towards Brodick, a wide moorland in the foreground and the Goat- fell range behind. It is a pleasant road. Many little burns come wimpling through the heather, ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 29 and are crossed by small bridges. On each of these it seems natural to pause, for a bridge is always a place to linger upon, and over each low and mossy parapet we get a peep into some tiny glen, down which the water glances between banks that are adorned by the foxglove, the fern, and the wild rose. By the roadside we notice the campion, a spring flower still in bloom; the bramble, in flower also, though by this time its fruit should almost be ripe ; the sweet-scented woodruff, and the jewelled forget- me-not. 30 STUDIES OF NATURE We shorten our walk two miles by crossing Brodick Bay in a boat. The waves are heavy, and we have to pull hard to reach the old quay under the castle ; but the splendour of sunset is upon us, and the water, as it drips from the rising oar, is the colour of red wine. The d'ark is falling as we come in sight of Corrie. The night clouds are already enfolding the peak of Goatfell, and there is a wild look about the White Water which can still be seen tumbling down its front. ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 31 CHAPTEE IV Over our manhood bend the skies ; Against our fallen and traitor lives The great winds utter prophecies ; With our faint hearts the mountain strives. Its arms outstretched, the Druid wood Waits with its benedicite ; And to our age's drowsy blood Still shouts the inspiring sea. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. The Vision of Sir LaunfaL CORBIE : Friday, August 8. THE present month of August is dowered with two moons ; or perhaps I had better say, with a moon twice at the full. This is a clear gain to us, and one which we greatly appreciate. On the second night of our stay here we saw, as I have already recorded, the broad golden disk a perfect circle riding in the south ; and we STUDIES OF NATURE shall see it once more before we leave. How much those people lose who do not care to wait upon the moon. It is as though one should miss half the world. Night after night now we watch its waning beauty no, not its waning beauty, but its beauty as it wanes. I say this because the moon is never more lovely than at this time, and diminution of size only seems to give increase to a certain strange and weird quality which appertains to it when the final quarter is approaching. I suppose I shall be told that all this is association. Be it so : I merely record my impressions. Last night, after our long walk from Lam- lash, I opened the door about eleven o'clock and looked out. The hamlet was at rest, the twink- ling lights were all extinguished, and the last fisherman had gone from the rocks. There was no sound of voices, no footfall, only a low babble of waves along the shore. I was alone with the sea and the sky. The sky was a deep ON THE COAST OF AERAN 33 dark blue, the brighter stars were visible, and the moon hung, as it seemed, near the earth, forward, and away from the firmament. And the sea, what was that like ? After looking at it long, I said it is mother-of-pearl. Only that can describe its evanescent tint a shimmering and interchanging mixture of green and blue and silver. To-day has been cloudy, and the evening good for deep-sea fishing. As we pulled out to our moorings we observed how distinct were the details of form away in the distant islands- more distinct than they often are when the sky is bright and clear. About half a mile from the shore we rattle out the anchor, and the boys begin to fish. I take a line too ; but I fear it is more than half pretence. Fishing does not come to me by nature, sea-fishing less than any other ; and so, although I lean over the boat- side with my finger on the cord, I am by no means anxious for a bite. If a fish comes, of D 34 STUDIES OF NATURE course you must pull him in ; and then, there is that ugly half minute while you are getting the hook out of his throat, and during which he looks at you with more intelligence than you care to notice. And so I am better y pleased if the fish will just let me alone, and go on disporting themselves on the brave sea bottom. Perhaps it is this sea-fishing which does not suit me. After all, when I come to remem- ber it, the master of the craft himself had ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 35 evidently no love for angling in salt water. You know what he says in the * Angler's Song ' : I care not, I, to fish in seas Fresh rivers best my mind do please, Whose sweet calm course I contemplate, And seek in life to imitate. I must try the rivers. I must cultivate with more assiduity a disposition of contentedness and patience, and apply myself to the rod, and court the Corrie Burn where it lingers in those deep rock- pools shaded by birch and hazel. It would be worth while to become, even now, an unquestioned angler, if only for the privilege of appropriating and putting into one's mouth that delightful piece of railing which the gen- tle Izaak has included in his first chapter : * There are many men that are by others taken to be serious grave men, which we contemn and pitie ; men of sowre complexions ; mony- getting men, that spend all their time first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it : D 2 36 STUDIES OF NATURE men that are condemn 'd to be rich, and alwayes discontented or busie. For these poor-rich men, wee Anglers pitie them, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think our- selves happie.' While these reminiscences are running through my head I am looking round on what is above and beneath me. The sea is scarcely ruffled, but it swings to and fro with large smooth waves. Lying at this distance from the shore, and with your eye close to the water, how vast the liquid plain appears ! The sky is vast also. There is no brilliant colour to- night. The clouds are grey, or only touched very faintly with amber and green ; but they cover the sky in bands and ranges whose number seems infinite, and the effect produced is that of boundlessness and airy space. Per- haps this feeling is increased by the sight of the birds as they sail slowly round us, rising sometimes to a great height and then sweeping ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 37 down till they touch the water. They are fishing like ourselves. By this time we have got a fair complement of small and delicate whiting lying in the bottom of the boat, and, suddenly, my eldest boy gives an unsportsman-like shout. He has caught a lusty haddock, and looks round triumph- antly at the catchers of tiny whiting. His pre- eminence, however, is of short duration. A younger brother begins to scream, and pulls frantically at his line. There is a rush, and it is as much as I can do to keep the boat from being overturned. I expect he has got into a tangle of seaweed or caught somebody else's lead, and beg him to be calm and to seat himself ; but he turns round upon me with as much of scorn as he dares to show, and keeps on pulling with tremendous excitement, and an eye that seems as if it would pierce the green water to its furthest depths. And there at last, sure enough, is the head of a great fish above 38 STUDIES OF NATURE the waves, a fish that had no business to take so small a hook the fool of his race, I suppose. It is no easy matter to land him, and just at the critical moment the line breaks ; but our young fisherman makes a bold dart he only just missed joining the fish in the water and dexterously slips his hands under the open gills. It is my turn now ; and, seeing what is almost sure to happen, I seize boy and fish at once and fling them both into the bottom of the boat. When we have settled down and have time to look round we find that we have caught i, fine specimen of that voracious rascal, the herring-hake. He is about three feet long and not unlike the salmon in colour. He lashes about wildly among the whiting, and for a few minutes we have to hold him down. The small fry must have wondered much what Triton it was that had come amongst them. And now, lads, pull home ; the larder is ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 39 replenished with fish at any rate pull home, and sing to the stroke I cuist my line in Largo Bay, And fishes I catch'd nine ; 'Twas three to boil and three to fry, And three to bait the line. The boatie rows, the boatie rows, The boatie rows fu' weel ; And muckle luck attend the boat, The merlin and the creel. A proud boy was Master Arthur as he walked heroically up from the creek, at the head of the procession, with the great herring- hake hanging over his shoulder and all the youth of Corrie looking on. We larger boys walked modestly after him, bearing the diminu- tive whiting. 40 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTER V If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget, If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, Go to the woods and hills ! No tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears. LONGFELLOW, Sunrise on the Hills. CORKIE : Saturday, August 9. THE wind this morning is due north blow- ing, that is, right from the Highlands. Between this place and Cape Wrath over what a wild country it travels, bringing messages to me here, on the sea-shore at Corrie, from many a far-off and yet well-known Ben and Loch from Nevis and Cruachan, from Leven and Etive and Awe. The early bath, though cold, has been a fine ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 41 and invigorating thing. How could it be other- wise in such clear, living, tumbling water as that is which comes with this north wind ? As I lay on the waves I could see the moon still shining faintly in the blue, and the purple crest of Am Binnein peering at me over the green foreland. Wet or fine, hot or cold, we never miss the morning plunge. For that the law was promulgated on the first day of our arrival, and it is not to be broken. We may take a bath at noon, for pure luxury, in that warm and sandy cove which we have discovered on the shore about half a mile towards Brodick, and into which we can pull with the boat, but that is not to excuse the Spartan dip among the rocks opposite the door here. It is an advan- tage in such bathing that the preliminary costume may be of the scantiest character. The figures that are to be seen furtively crossing the road each morning before breakfast are grotesque, if not ridiculous. My esthetic friend says they 42 STUDIES OF NATURE present him with pictures of the ignoble savage and his young barbarians all at play; but we can afford to disregard his gibes. When the slender integuments are laid aside Nature asserts herself ; it is then seen that simplicity is beauty and that freedom is grace. Seriously, who will show me the genus homo in finer form than that which is to be seen when the lithe and shapely limbs of a young lad are cleaving the trans- parent waves? It seems then as if we were almost as clearly intended to swim as is the bird to fly. This early bathing has already afforded us several amusing episodes. Here is one of them. It is the vice of our young swimmers to stand shivering on the brink till the skin has cooled down. To remedy this I offer a reward to the one who is first in the water. They start fair from the door and reach the edge together. Then it becomes apparent that the question is simply who can most quickly slip away from the ON THE COAST OF AREAN 43 slough of his shirt. But the next day each mother's son of them tries to steal a march upon the others. There has been rain in the night, the sward is slippery, and as they run helter-skelter down the bank one falls and the rest roll over him. It is then seen that though they have overcoats on their shoulders they are shirtless naked as when they were born, but striped with the wet soil. Peals of derisive laughter are heard from the cottage as they pick themselves up, and, leaving the coats on the ground, rush down and hide themselves in the creek. I have not heard what are the chemical constituents of the salt water at Corrie. It is said to be wonderfully efficacious in strengthen- ing feeble limbs. Certainly it is more pungent than any water I have had experience of. The old Provost, who knows everything and has everything under his charge, is delighted with our persistency in bathing. 'It's the right 44 STUDIES OF NATURE thing ye'r doin', maun, just the right thing ye'r doin' ; for it's graund water graund to douk in and graund to drink o'. Tak' a cup o' it every mornin' fastin' an' ye'll never dee at all ye'll just live on an' renew ye'rsell like the eagles.' Although our boat is not a large one, yet, with a few stones in her for ballast, she will carry a small lug- sail, and we had set to-day apart for a short cruise. Willie MacNiven, however (Willie is the cheeriest and handsomest boatman in Corrie), shakes his head and says we must content ourselves on shore, for the wind as it is now would blow us clean off the water. Having waited till evening we then determined to try the mountains, and decide on Cioch-na-h'oighe for the sake of seeing again the wild river of rocks up in the high hollow. In the village there are signs of Saturday night. The three trading smacks in the little harbour are having their decks scrubbed ; the brown fishing nets are hung up on the trestles there ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 45 is no more fishing till Monday and old Robert Campbell, the Provost's elder brother, is ' penk- ing ' with a hammer at his boat, which he has got turned over on the beach. Eobert is ninety, if not more ; yet he is still hale and strong, and is always in the open air clinging to the rocks like a limpet ; but his eyes are very dim, and when he speaks the sound of his voice is faint and strange and like that of a man talking to you from afar off. He would make an excel- lent study for the Ancient Mariner or for Mr. Gilbert's seaman of the Nancy Bell. We turn from the sea, about half way on the road to Sannox, by a path which leads past a little waterfall and makes straight for the Cioch. When we reach what is called the old sea-level the walking becomes a little rough, and the girls must needs gather up their skirts and make all ' taut,' as the sailors say. The boulders lie thickly about, and are masked with heather and moss. In other places it is wet, 46 STUDIES OF NATUEE but by careful watching you soon come to find the narrow tracks that are made by the shep- herds and their sheep, and these are generally dry. We observe that every important water- course is marked by a birch wood. Strange places are these dim and dark, or lighted only by a green glimmer. The trees are low you must often stoop to pass under them and are much withered beneath, the verdant branches being only those next the sky. All the ground is strewn with fallen twigs, which snap and crack under your feet. These dry and twisted birch stems are singularly like serpents ; and, as we know that the adder is not uncommon in Arran, we frequently get a slight shock of alarm. Nearer the shore many of the trees are large, but at the same time gnarled and hollow. Whenever I come into these groves by the sea I bethink me of the wild woods of Broceliande and of the lissome and snakelike Vivien lying at Merlin's feet. ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 47 When we get into open ground we are on the shoulder of the mountain, and begin to climb steeply by the side of the stream which comes down from the corrie. The water is colourless, and falls over ledges of light grey rock light enough almost to be called white. This is the form which the cataract usually takes among these hills. We see it at the White Water under Goatfell and elsewhere a series of bare, steep slopes of granite, lying on the open mountain side, exposed to sun and wind, and along which the flood, singularly limpid, slides or rolls, as the case may be. At the head of this fall we pause and look upon a glorious prospect. The sun is setting and the north wind, blowing all day, has removed every trace of mist or cloud.. The Frith of Clyde is all beneath us. There is Inch Marnock and Bute and the two Cumbraes. On the larger of these we can see distinctly the white houses in Mil- port. Northward there is Loch Striven and the 48 STUDIES OF NATURE hills of Argyle, and, in the far distance, we can even make out Ben Lomond quite fifty miles away as the crow flies. The only sound we hear is that of the falling water near us, and the distant boom of the sea. Before such a scene the mind naturally takes a tone of reverence and of elevated tranquillity. Things are trans- figured. The earth is not earthly : it appears to hang or float in the sky like an airy band of cloud, while the sea, being flat and solid blue, seems more substantial than the land itself. Readers of Wordsworth will know to what passage I should, under such circumstances, be most likely to revert : The broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquillity ; The gentleness of heaven is on the sea : Listen ! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with His eternal motion make A sound like thunder everlastingly. Nor, when I looked round upon one of my young companions, did what follows in the same sonnet seem to me inappropriate : ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 49 Dear child ! dear girl ! that walkest with me here, If thou appear'st untouched by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine : Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year ; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not. From this point we climbed rapidly into the corrie. Cioch-na-h'oighe is a hollow moun- tain, the summit of which is a narrow, jagged, and semicircular ridge. At the north-eastern corner this ridge ends in a peak which is one of the wonders of the island. Looked at from below, it changes its shape, according to your position, in a marvellous way. Sometimes it is a horn, curving over beyond its base ; sometimes a pyramid, like a lesser Matterhorn, detached from the rest of the mountain ; and again it takes that form from which it derives its name the maiden's breast. The great hollow or corrie is immediately under the ridge. It is dry, but if it held water it would remind you strongly of the Welsh tarn, Llyn Idwal. Up on the right there is even a cleft in the ridge, B 50 STUDIES OF NATURE dark and awful, which is quite a repetition of the well-known Twll-Dhu, or Devil's Kitchen, which, looking up from Idwal, you see on the side of the Glydr Vawr. Even here there are flowers. As we came up we saw the tormentil, the harebell, and the blue milkworfc ; but we did not expect to find any blossom so high as this. But, sure enough, in a green plot, under the very shadow of the crags, we come upon quite a little garden of foxgloves. They are stunted, and pale in colour, but beautiful when seen in such a place. We turn now to that scene which is the special object of our visit, and which it is impossible to describe. Two or three years ago a great waterspout broke on the ridge and poured a tremendous flood down the mountain. What that flood must have been we see from what is around us. Along its course the very bones of the hill, as it were, are laid bare ; rocks, many tons in weight, have been hurled ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 51 from their beds, and have evidently crashed and bounded over each other. You can still see how the ground has been flattened, or dragged, or ploughed up by what went over it ; and how, in some cases, a rock larger than usual has stopped in its headlong course and then divided the stream of smaller blocks. In one place I took a measurement, and found that the width of the torrent must have been fifty yards. It would not be easy to find a scene of wilder confusion, or a more striking evidence of what may be done by the uncontrollable forces of Nature. The twilight pursued us fast as we ran, sometimes breast-high in bracken and heather, down into Sannox Glen. When we reached the village it was almost dark, but the masts of the boats in the harbour were sharp and clear against an orange sky in the north. E 2 52 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTER VI There comes a murmur from the shore, And in the place two fair streams are, Drawn from the purple hills afar, Drawn down unto the restless sea. WILLIAM MOERIS, The Life and Death of Jason. COBKIE : Tuesday, August 12. THIS week, so far, we have had warmer weather. On Sunday service was held at Sannox Kirk, with all the windows open and half the congregation sitting on the grass out- side. This is regarded by many as a convenient arrangement. Those who took their places in the open air had the manse garden, and the sea, and the mountains, and the burn all in sight ; and if they found the discourse too tedious for them, they might wander in search of sermons elsewhere, and return in time for the blessing. But for my part, finding it not a ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 53 whit too long, I listened to the whole. It was a sweet and simple homily from an old Highland preacher, whose mind seemed to be well in tune with all the beauty around him. There was edification even in looking at him. His face had evidently been harsh once, but increasing years appeared to have softened its expression, as they had also probably relaxed the sterner lines of his Scottish theology. I shall always remember with pleasure how in artless phrases he described us, the summer visitants, as chil- dren sent forth for a space to play among the hills, in the presence and under the approving smile of the great Father. When he said this I could not help reverting to that pleasant picture with which the * The Ancient Mariner ' closes, where all the people Walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, Old men, and babes, and loving friends, And youths and maidens gay ! 54 STUDIES OF NATURE This is just what we see at Corrie a goodly company walking together in the bright morning air along the shore, without haste, cheerful and yet sedate; and then sitting together in the little house of prayer with no distinctions of age or rank. And what strikes one most is that all are there; not the visitors only, but the rough lads of the village and the hard-faced boatmen; the Provost and the shoemaker; the ' braw ' lassie and the old wife you recog- nise them all with some surprise as they slowly enter, clad in their blue pilot suits and home- spun gowns. To-day, for the sake of change, we have been to Loch Eanza. The younger folk were anxious for an early start. ' Let us have the whole long day,' they said ; and so it was proposed that we should set out at six, and get the walk over before breakfast. Finally, however, more moderate counsel prevailed, and about nine o'clock we marched through the village, picking ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 55 up friends here and there until our party numbered nearly twenty. A little beyond the school-house there is a certain boulder standing on the shore. It is a strange piece of work, singular in shape and huge in size. Frost, or some other agent, has sent a rift right through it, and the upper portion has slid forward a foot or so. If you stand with your back against it and look southward you get the best pos- sible view of Corrie a view which would always tempt you to take out pencil and sketch- book. There is the curved margin of the beach; the winding high-road; the long, picturesque group of houses, backed from this point by a grove of trees ; and, in the far distance, where the sea makes its horizon line, the bold form of Holy Island. Here we wait to see if there are any stragglers, and then set forward upon our journey. In such a company the high spirits of the young people are infectious, and we sober 56 STUDIES OF NATURE pilgrims not unfrequently find ourselves joining in some wild and guttural Scottish chorus, which echoes again and again from the over- hanging rocks by the shore. A stranger would hardly have known what to make of a grave and reverend person shouting, at such an early hour of the morning, and at the top of his voice With a hey, ho, yeddle ; And a yeddle, ho, high ; Coomlachie, Ecclefechan, Ardnamurchan and Mulga'ie, With a hey, ho, high ! At Sannox, a mile and a half from Corrie, there are two glens .coming down to the sea the South Glen and the North Glen. In going to Loch Eanza you pass the mouth of the first, and turn into the second. The South Glen is the grander of the two. It is a deep and narrow hollow, down into which the great mountains sweep boldly ; and, at the end, the flat face of Cior-Mhor forbids egress except by ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 57 steep and sometimes perilous crag-climbing. It is a place into which one should go alone, and at twilight if a cloudy twilight, all the better. Then you seem to stand in Nature's workshop, everything you see is vast and awful, the mists come creeping over Suidhe-Fergus and Cioch- na-h'oighe, shaping themselves to the moun- tains, but not touching them. Then the night seems to take visible form, and comes down with the clouds into the glen; and, as you stand and listen, there is always a strange 58 STUDIES OF NATURE sound, made up no doubt of many sounds the fall of streams, the sough of the wind, the calling of wild birds and of other creatures, but reaching the ear more like a human cry than anything else. The North Glen, through which we go this morning, is of an entirely different character. It is soft, and sometimes melancholy the South Glen is too stern to be melancholy the hills on either side are rounded rather than craggy, and there is no precipitous termination, but only a gradual acclivity, over which the road passes at a height of eight or nine hundred feet, and then descends into another glen that of Chalmadale. In the bright sunlight of to-day, however, and with such a blithe company round us, it is by no means melancholy. Flowers are all about ; the speedwell lingering still, the blue harebell swinging on its slender stem, the willow-herb, and the heather the last, a glorious sight, bursting just now into full bloom and so ON THE COAST OF AERAN 59 beautiful that the heart rises to meet it, as it were, with a fellowship of joy. We take our long journey leisurely, and by the time we have crossed the summit and begin the descent towards Chalmadale the hot, blue noon is over us. It is really hot one of the few days of the year of which this could be said, and we make a protracted halt at what is called the Witches' Bridge. I have not been able to find any legend attached to the locality, but I suppose it must be a place where some belated shepherd, hurrying down from the dark moorland, fancied that the witches in pursuit of him were cut off, as in ' Tarn o'Shanter,' by the running water. It looks no place for a cold, northern witch or fiend now rather a haunt for the happy naiad and the gamesome faun. The stream at this bridge comes down a little scaur in the hillside. The water is clear and sparkling, and the banks are covered with soft cushions of moss and heather ; so here we 60 STUDIES OF NATURE dispose ourselves in half a dozen groups. One of our young swains makes music on his pipe ; my friend John More murmurs appropriate lines from the Choric song in the * Lotos Eaters/ about hearing the downward stream with half- shut eyes. Then it is proposed that we should make nonsense-verses, and the Eeckless Bhyme- ster, lying on his back and watching the smoke curl from his cigarette, finishes that amusement with the following lune : Sing you a song of Loch Eanza, And knock it all off in a stanza ; There's a castle, the mountains, a bay, And an inn, where they frizzle all day Enough for the paunch of a Panza, The herrings they catch in the bay At Loch Eanza. After this the Moralist threatens to visit the Ehymester with a ' chunk of old red sandstone'; or, at the least, to lame him with reasons ; and so we strike our tent and descend for the sea. At Loch Kanza we lunch and take tea, always with the accompaniment of herrings, ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 61 either eaten or scented on the wind ; we watch the Campbelton steamer put off passengers in a tossing cockle-shell of a boat, and, also much to our amusement, tumble empty herring-boxes into the sea, to be picked up at leisure by the fishermen of the village; then some of our young fellows bathe, and while they stand on the shore in puris naturalibus, myself and the Critic hold debate as to whether the forked radish looks taller with or without its habilitory environments. Finally, in the cool of the even- ing, we walk back our eight or nine miles to Corrie, and startle the quiet village with a part- ing chorus before we turn in for the night. 62 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTEE VII Suddeine they see from midst of all the Maine The surging waters like a mountaine rise, And the great sea, puft up with proud disdaine, To swell above the measure of his guise, As threatning to devoure all that his powre despise. EDMUND SPENSER, The Faerie Queene. COEEIE : Wednesday, August, 13. * AFTER our long walk of yesterday, undertaken with cheerfulness and borne with fortitude, may we not indulge ourselves with a sail round the island ? The steamer goes to-morrow.' This was said last night, and we were thinking then of a fair-weather cruise on a summer sea, such as we had once enjoyed before. We imagined ourselves basking on deck in a hot sun, or, if we chose, sheltered under a canvas awning ; we saw the hills clear of cloud, or with only a little ON THE COAST OF ARE AN white mist curling round their summits ; the sea was unrippled ; globed starfishes in many brilliant colours floated past the ship's side; and when we paused in the bays we could see down and down through the green water thirty, forty feet in depth, to where the great sea-weeds were trailing along the bottom. The night-watch, however, changed all this, and when the morning broke it seemed removed by a whole season from yesterday. ' How did the change come ? ' I said to the Provost, who was making his paces as usual along the shore regardless of the weather. ' Oh, at twa o'clock in the mornin', wi' rain an' thunder eneuch to crack the tap o' Goatfell. An' i' the midst o' it a' the lads were haulin' in the herrin's. Indeed, it's a hard life the puir fellows lead.' * And will the steamer come to-day, Provost? ' The old man, as I have said before, always allows himself a wise latitude in matters con- 64 STUDIES OF NATUEE nected with meteorological opinion, and so he answered with a long look at the sea, ' Well, she may come.' And then, with an equally long look at the sky, ' Or she may no come the day at all. It's no just easy to tell ; and there's a deal o' wind outside a deal o' wind.' Some of us having made up our minds to go, whatever the weather might be, the usually quiet hours after breakfast were much disturbed by impatient speculations and a continual hurrying to and fro with inquiries about the promised steamer. At length we espied her coming round the corner, beating hard against the wind, and much behind her time. We noticed that she could not come straight into Corrie, as is usual, but that she had to fetch a long sweep round in order to get anywhere near. The faint hearts lingered on the shore, so we gave them a melodramatic good-bye, and put off in the rolling ferry. It was a dangerous little journey, and nearly ended in disaster. There ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 65 is always some skill required in bringing the great steamer and the small boat neatly together; but on this occasion the difficulty was much greater than is common. The stal- wart boatmen stood up and pulled till the strong oars were bent like bows, and the muscles swelled and sloped over their bare brown arms As slopes a wild brook o'er a little stone, Running too vehemently to break upon it. And then, when we got close under the steamer, it was clear that a mistake had been made. We were in front of the paddle-box instead of being behind it. Either the captain of the steamer had given a wrong order, or the boatmen, distracted by the tumultuous sea and their own heavy task, had lost their presence of mind and thrown up the oars at the wrong time. What- ever the cause, we were in the wrong place. In an instant we were swept swiftly under the box and against the wheel. There was a cry of * Heads down ! ' and fortunately the order was F 66 STUDIES OF NATURE obeyed. Had it not been, those who were nearest the steamer would have had their necks knocked out, for only by low stooping was there just room to pass under. Happily there was no noise or confusion. Everybody sat still, seeing that in that only lay the chance of safety. Had there been a rush, with such a sea under us, we should certainly have gone over, having escaped one calamity only to fall into another. It was a bad five minutes, and many faces though set firm were very pallid. Quietly the boat was got from under the steamer; and, a rope having been thrown, we were brought-to at the right point. Even then it was no easy matter to land, for the broad-bottomed ferry went up and down like a feather, and some refused to attempt it. The more adventurous spirits sprang up at the right time, and were then caught by strong hands and dragged on board. Some scenes of rapid movement and short duration, especially when accompanied with danger, become indelibly - y f f // - 7 a 'the- ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 67 photographed on the mind. For me this is one of them. I shall always retain a vivid impres- sion of the huge steamer bearing down, as it seemed, mercilessly upon us ; and of the way in which the boatmen looked at each other when it became evident that ' someone had blundered ; ' and of many eyes gazing at us with the anxiety of distress from over the bulwarks of the vessel ; and the expression that of silent and undemon- strative terror which settled upon one dear face which was opposite to me in the boat. The gale was blowing from the south-west, and in passing by the north-east corner of the island and along the Sound of Bute we were surprised to find ourselves in comparatively smooth water and in a warmer air. The circum- navigation of an island either large or small is always a fascinating thing. To-day the clouds were too heavy to permit of our seeing far inland, but the coast was plain enough. The twin glens of Sannox were visible, and in part the F 2 68 STUDIES OF NATURE great hills beyond them ; and then came the fine shore scenery between Sannox and the Cock of Arran. The cliffs, or rather the mountain ridge, is continuous, and rises to about fifteen hundred feet, being never more than half a mile from the sea. We sail near enough to make out the details and the colour distinctly the light moss, the darker green of the grass, the still darker ferns, the heather, the pink and brown sand- stone, and the narrow bright strip of sand. Beyond this comes Loch Eanza with its Castle, and its fleet of boats tossing in the harbour. Then, having rounded the point, we enter the Sound of Kilbrannan, and begin to feel the force of the wind which now meets us full in the teeth. Standing at the prow of the vessel, I realise what that force is by the way in which it seems to press on every square inch of exposed flesh, pushing it back, as it were, from the bone. We pitch a good deal now, and the malady of the sea has already got its victims they huddle ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 69 together in the stern, a melancholy and hopeless crew, provoking in each other that which they would fain avoid ; but to those who can stand it the spectacle is fine. A few fishing smacks running with the wind dart past us with amazing celerity, yet there is time to catch the faces of the brave fellows who man them. On the right, across the Sound, is the long low line of Cantire, a deep purple in colour, and strongly contrast- ing with the greener shores of Arran on our left. And now we pass the lonely but beautiful Bay of Catacol, with Beinn Bhiorach and Beinn Bhreach behind it. Then conies Dugarry and the Duke's Lodge, Mauchrie, and King's Cove. Here, in a cave, The Bruce is said to have shel- tered himself in 1307 when he descended on the island for the purpose of seizing Brodick Castle. Those who love the region of dim tra- dition and thoughts of Old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago, 70 STUDIES OF NATURE need not rest with a commonplace hero like Bruce. They may go further back, for here is a cairn where Columba rested when pursuing his mission to the heathen inhabitants of Arran; and, further still, for here too is the Cave of Fingal, and the grave of Fingal's daughter. We get our worst tossing when we come to round the southern end of the island. We keep well away from the shore, and are glad when we have passed the Pladda Lighthouse ; for after that comes smoother water. They sing a rude song in the island, part of which I remember, about the lighthouses in the estuary of the Clyde, taking them in order, as you go south- ward, and making the storm culminate appro- priately at the Pladda : As we cam by the Toward Light It blew an unca blast ; Says Donald Gray to Duncan More, She'll blow away her mast. As we cam by the Cumbrae Light It blew an unca gale ; Says Donald Gray to Duncan More, We'd best turn round her tail. ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 71 As we cam by the Pladda Light It blew a hurricane ; Says Donald Gray to Duncan More, I wish we were at hame. Before we turn northward we get a fine view of Ailsa Craig with its sheer grey cliffs and green sloping summit ; and then along the familiar eastern shore of Arran, dropping with passengers into all the bays Whiting Bay, Lamlash Bay, Brodick Bay, and so round again once more to Corrie. 72 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTEK VIII * A merry heart is a continual feast.' Then take we life and all things in good part : To fast grows festive while we keep at least A merry heart. Well pleased with nature and well pleased with art ; A merry heart makes cheer for man and beast, And fancies music in a creaking cart. Some day, a restful heart whose toils have ceased, A heavenly heart gone home from earthly mart : To-day, blow wind from west or wind from east, A merry heart. CHRISTINA G. EOSSETTI, Songs for Strangers and Pilgrims. Thursday, August 14. ' ALL things by turns and nothing long ' might be taken for the motto of our weather in Arran just now. Nor would we have it other- wise. Life, movement, variety that is all we ask. It is monotony that kills. Yesterday, for ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 73 instance, when we landed in the evening, after our stormy voyage round the island, almost the first thing we saw on shore was a sight emi- nently suggestive of quietness and peace A flock of sheep that leisurely passed by, One after one. The wind had dropped, the sky was already clearing, and these sheep were slowly travelling with their shepherd along the road from Bro- dick. They all moved together, silent and with their heads down the man as well as the sheep. Coming as we had just done from off the tempestuous fields of ocean, we felt strongly that sentiment which seems so often to have been present to the minds of the ancients, a sentiment arising out of the contrast between the rolling sea with all its dreadful possibilities, and the stable earth which represented to them pastoral occupation, restfulness, safety, and calm. At half-past eleven the twilight was still 74 STUDIES OF NATURE quite brilliant in the north. By that time there was only one cloud left in the sky ; but that one was immense in size and intensely dark one of 'Black Vesper's pageants.' I suppose that people have always fledged their fancy, as Antony had done, in speculations as to what the clouds they see are most like ; and as we took our midnight walk along the beach we talked of this same cloud. One would have it to be a nun ; but as, clearly enough, it had wings, that was held to be inadmissible. Another wondered how we could doubt that it was an eagle the eagle of the Caucasus. That was grand enough ; but finally we decided that it should have a permanent place in our records as the Angel of Night. Outside this cloud, which filled a third part of the visible heavens, the stars sparkled as if there had been frost ; and in the south-east a great planet shone with sufficient strength to cast a narrow lane of light along the sea just as the moon does. It was a grand spectacle, and, ON THE COAST OF AERAN 75 as we stood and looked at it, listening at the same time to the steady beat of the tide, we felt ourselves overawed by a sense of fulness and greatness, and by the presence of vast and irre- sistible forces far off and near, but surrounding us on every side. We did not need the barometer this morning to tell us how changed the air was, how light and effervescent. To breathe was to live : only to live was to enjoy. Out in the boat, about a hundred yards from the shore, I sat and watched what was going on while the boys pulled slowly to and fro. I cannot hope to set down in words the feeling of the hour. It did not, as last night, consist in a consciousness of vast and oppressive force; but in an impression that some mysterious Spirit of Life was moving in ourselves, and in all the swift and lovely transi- tions which were momentarily proceeding around us. Behind Am Binnein we saw a thin white cloud rise in the blue and then draw itself, as a 76 STUDIES OF NATURE gauzy film, over the purple rocks. In five minutes there was a refreshing patter of rain upon our faces ; in five minutes more the hot sun had dried up the moisture. And this was repeated again and again while we tossed gently up and down in the boat. Then the clouds all disappeared, and the day settled into one of great heat. In the afternoon I am out in the boat again, but this time alone. It is too hot to lie on the rocks, and on the water there is just a faint breeze. Having pulled myself out of the way of other craft, I take in the oars and let the boat move and drift as it will ; or, rather, as the waves will. Leaning idly over the stern what a fairy region I see under me ! I am not far from the shore, but the water is about twenty feet deep. Some current carries me gently forward ; and from beneath the boat long streamers of weed trail for many yards in length. They are like round cords, brown in colour, but surrounded ON THE COAST OF AERAN 77 by a silvery film which doubles their thickness. When drawn out of the water this film magically disappears, and it is then seen to consist of innumerable minute filaments which are erect in their native element, but which fall when brought into the air. I note what are the colours of this seascape. The weeds are chiefly brown and yellow, with some little crimson ; the water is clear green ; the common stones are all gemmed or silvered ; and where beds of sand run between them the tint is that of gold. Seen through the medium of the water, the meanest object becomes beau- tiful. It suffers A sea-change Into something rich and strange. To utter these words is, of course, to bring before one's mind the whole of that delightful Eomance of the Sea which Shakespeare gave us in the calm ending of his days ; and no small part of my pleasure, as I lie in the boat, 78 STUDIES OF NATURE consists in .listening with the ear of fancy to those sweet passages in ' The Tempest ' which touch upon the subject of the * salt deep.' Was anyone ever weary of hearing ' Full fathom five,' or ' Come unto these yellow sands ' ? Surely these are among those Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. While these enchanted measures are running through my mind I discover that I have drifted too near the shore. A friend shouts to me from the road under the cliffs, and I hear the keel grating on the stones. My dream is over and I pull out to sea again ; but not without noticing how curiously, as I go into deeper water, the sea-bottom appears to sink or recede from under me, so that I feel as if I were falling into an ever-deepening gulf from which all objects that measure distance gradually disappear. Under certain aspects the bottom of the sea suggests to the mind only images ON THE COAST OF AERAN 79 of undisguised horror. There is, however, another aspect that which I have just seen which presents a more than earthly beauty, and of which we find traces in the romantic legends of all countries. When I have got away from the shore I find another wonderful sight waiting for me. The sun, though falling westward, is yet high in the heavens ; and the great mountains present an appearance not very often observed, and to me more awful than any other. They stand in their own shadows ; they are dark from excess of light ; and, though perfectly clear, their alti- tude is exaggerated as if by mist. The effect is increased by the fact that down into some of the hollows a ray of light streams, cutting the shadow sharply as with a knife. The hot afternoon tempted our young people to hold a ' gipsy tea ' on the shore at North Sannox. A gipsy tea is an institution in which I have lost faith ; unless it is to be celebrated 80 STUDIES OF NATURE on some breezy upland, where the midges dare not come. On the shore, at any rate, the experiment is a snare and a delusion. Creep- ing things innumerable get in among all the eatables ; and marvellous flying creatures per- vade all the drinkables ; and so I kept away, spending my time instead on the water ; but in the evening I went to fetch the company home. They looked rather doleful, and had got their arms and faces much bitten ; but these incon- veniences were soon forgotten in the pleasure of ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 81 a memorable evening walk. The sea was now light blue, and so calm that it reflected like a lake the white clouds that were over it, and the boats with their masts and sails as they lay upon its surface. As we come up from the shore and traverse the heathery moorland we find that the sunset has gone; but the clear twilight remains ; and, as we look at the mountains beyond the moor, some of us are constrained to linger in silence held back by the fascination of a scene so still, so solemn, that in the midst of it even to speak aloud seems to be a desecration, until at length one whispers to me words which recall that strange episode on the Mount of Transfiguration words which were already in my own mind ' Master, it is good for us to be here.' 82 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTEK IX Deep peace abides within the glen profound, Though gaunt the heights its purple depth that rim Peaks of the Castles and the visage grim Of dark Cir Mhor : no sound, nor ghost of sound Comes to me here ; only, where rowans bound The crystal burn, it croons its evening hymn, And the wind stirs the reeds ; while vast and dim, Dimmer and vaster grow the hills around. The home of solitude indeed is thine, Sannox ! Man turns from thee, he dare not stay 'Neath those eternal peaks in jagged line That scorn his puny frame and little day : He seeks the sea-marge where white houses shine, And boats are moor'd within the sheltering bay. CUTHBEBT E. TYBEB, Glen Sannox, Arran. COBRIE : Friday, August 15. MY journal broke off yesterday with the twilight on the nioor. The day had been, in our sense of the word, an eventful one, eventful to those ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 83 who care for nature-study, those by whom all the phenomena of the world, whether great or small, are regarded with interest no less for their beauty than for the suggestive intelligence which is felt to be moving behind them. We lingered for a long time on the moor- land. We know what a charm there is in sitting, very quiet and still, within some chamber already almost dark, watching the clear light of evening fade out of the sky. It was the same on the moor. The night seemed already to have reached the undulating circle of rock and heather in midst of which we stood ; but the mountains, towards whose summits our eyes were lifted, seemed as if they might stand for ever unchanging in the radiance, clear if not brilliant, which still filled the west. The day had been, as we have said, an eventful one ; and yet the story of it was not finished. The way from the moor, passing close by the kirk and the manse, dips into a G 2 84 STUDIES OF NATURE narrow and sandy lane. Here horses and vehicles ford the river ; but foot passengers turn aside and cross by a little wooden bridge. At this point we come upon a sedate and yet happy company of peasants and fisher-folk from the village. Their demeanour is in accord with the landscape. We pause and talk with them. They have been to some little week- night meeting for devotion held at the manse, and the young man who is their pastor is setting them forward on their way home. It is pleasant to listen to their talk gossip with- out garrulousness or levity, the quiet and sim- ple interchange of news about what interests them in the cottage and on the sea. Most of them are elderly women, but there are also some men and boys. Among them is poor Janet M'Bride. She is lame; but they walk slowly enough even for her. Janet is a ' lone woman ' she has neither chick nor child, and lives in a queer little cabin of wood in which ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 85 there is only just room for a fire and a couch. She came to the island as a servant when she was but a girl, and has lived on it ever since, and they will not send her away. She spins wool on an old wheel and knits a few stockings ; JANET M'BKIDE. but her fingers are stiff with rheumatism, and if those who are themselves poor enough were not kind to her it would go ill with Janet in the winter-time. When we reached the lane which turns from the high road by the sea and 86 STUDIES OF NATURE runs up into South Sannox Glen, we bade good -night to Janet and her friends. Their faces showed how happy they were, and I said to my companion, ' Who would rob them of that which not only breaks the monotony of their existence, but which also brings to them consolation of the highest kind ? ' We had observed as we passed that the long twilight was still in the glen, and, although it was growing late, we could not refuse the opportunity offered of seeing the familiar scene under conditions which might not recur. We pushed on as far as the base of Cioch-na-h'oighe it was not safe to go further. Then we stood and listened to the river roaring in unseen depths, and watched with amazement the great wall of mountains in front of us, dark yet clear, so clear that every fantastic peak and each serrated edge was drawn in strong and un- graduated outline across the plane of the sky. As we returned we saw a light appear on the ON THE COAST OF ABB AN 87 crest of a low hill towards the east. It was so large and brilliant that we were all mistaken as to its nature. We said, ' Some shepherd is abroad with his lantern, folding the flocks or seeking for strayed sheep.' But when we looked again we saw it was the evening star, preternaturally large, and climbing above the ridge. As we go forward it disappears ; but by stepping slowly back we reproduce the aspect of its rising. On the road by the shore there is a stillness such as we have not experienced before. There is no wind. The wood on our right is silent ; not a leaf rustles ; no bird moves ; even the wild pigeons are at rest. The sea on our left is silent also. Though we stand and listen intently we cannot hear a wave break on the shore. At last, when our ears are stretched to the utmost, a fish leaps, and is heard falling back into the water. As we get nearer the village, sounds begin to reach us, and the first is the voice of a boy, who, as he 88 STUDIES OF NATURE comes out of the dark, sings with unaffected simplicity a few bars of 'Home, sweet home/ We know the lad, and give him a cheery good- night. He has far to go and along a lonely road, for his home is at the shepherd's farm on the hill side, beyond North Sannox. He will have to skirt the shore, then past the kirk and across the moorland, where the track is dim and uncertain ; but worse than that, he must cross two burns thickly embowered with wood, where superstitious fears may well make him tremble. ' Keep a brave heart, my little man, and a sure foot, for the stepping-stones are wide apart and the water runs deep in the second burn.' To-day we have great heat and hardly any wind. The sea is purple in colour and shore- less, for hot-looking clouds hide all the land north and east. In the afternoon we take the steamer to Brodick and venture to explore Glen ON THE COAST OF ABB AN 89< Eosa. It is not a well-chosen day. The heat is too great, the hills look low and their hue is monotonous. We rest a long time by the Shirag Burn, in a cool nook under the bridge, where we can see the brown trout darting among the stones. Then, the heat having abated a little, we press forward by the mouth of Glen Shirag, from which, looking east, there is a fine view of the wide plain, covered with grass and corn, and beyond that, the park, and Brodick Castle, and the sea. From Shirag we come to Glen Shant, where the principal feature is the broad river flowing over white pebbles, and the great precipice of slate which rises above it to the height of eleven hundred feet. Passing through Glen Shant, the entrance to Glen Eos a is marked by the wild torrent the Garbh-Alt which comes dashing down from Ben-Ghnuis, and leaps at last into the Eosa Burn, where it runs quietly between walls of gray rock. Here my young companions turn 90 STUDIES OF NATURE back, for the path becomes bad, and they are very weary ; but I continue the walk. On the right is the shoulder of Goatfell ; on the left Ben- Cliabhain ; and in front Cior-Mhor and the Col, which separates Glen Eosa from Glen Sannox. The Kosa Glen is a fine piece of scenery, no doubt, but it is not equal to its rival at Sannox. It is larger, but it is neither so wild nor so grandly symmetrical in the lines of its compo- sition. It is always a surprise when one hears for the first time that the col or saddle is all that separates the two glens. Both start from the sea ; but, instead of running directly inland, they sweep round, and would join each other if it were not for the apparently inaccessible ram- part of rock which divides them, by crossing from the base of Goatfell to that of Cior-Mhor. It is said that the practicability of passing from Eosa into Sannox was not known until recent years, except by a few shepherds who had occasionally tried it. ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 91 When I get near to the foot of this barrier I see coming down towards me, out of the clouds, with break-neck strides, two stalwart athletes whom I know. They have come from Corrie, and are making the circuit of the two glens. As it is hardly likely that I should get well over before dusk, I decide to return with them along Glen Eosa. We sit down for a few minutes on a dry patch of heather not easy to find^while they smoke their pipes, and then we start home- ward at a great pace, with trousers turned up and shirts turned back, careless of the way, leaping from rock to rock, and out of one spongy hole into another. I admire their agility, and follow as well as I may. It is a good six miles back through the glen, and six miles more along the high-road by the sea. By the time we reach Corrie, I have had quite enough of it ; but after a smart rubbing down, I am ready for the evening meal, and not indisposed for the well- earned rest which is to follow. 92 STUDIES OF NATURE CHAPTEE X Sport that wrinkled care derides, And laughter holding both his sides. MILTON, L' Allegro. By sports like these are all their cares beguiled ; The sports of children satisfy the child. GOLDSMITH, The Traveller. CORRIE : Saturday, August 16. WIND north-east. It is curious that with the wind in this quarter we always have the sea muddy, and yellow in colour. As I go down to take my bath, in the usual costume that of an Arabian sheikh I meet the boys running back ; they look like small Arabian sheikhs. They dare not bathe, they say ; the creek is full of jelly-fish. This is another unfailing result of a north-east wind. I drag the young rascals ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 93 back ; but nothing will induce them to enter the water. As they stan