:<> Tin; ith all the ;l i;dH: AM \Nh .'ilARLES BLACK. Mi.H'VCLILI. i*-- 70 BLACK'S GUIDE-BOOKS. IS I'ORTABLK I'OOI.SCAP OCTAVO Yni.niF.S. STRONCLY BOTNI IN <;REFA T CLOTH. If'ifltout the pretension of a tutor, dictating what he shall admire, the traveller vill find these looks very pleasing, intelligent, and iiistnictire cam- win* is tij immcruse cuivc lu tunruis. AKI *UL KOIAA*. " They should find a corner in the portmanteau of eeery prrson about to uttder- tnte a journey of pleasure or diisinesi either in England ami Valet, or Scotland." JOHN Bi 1.1. ENGLAND AND WALES; Containing a General Travelling Map. with the liofi'ls and Railways distinctly laid down : I'csidrx sections of the more important Districts on an enlarged scale, and Engraved Charts of lioads. Railroads, ami InteivMiu GLENCOE AND FORT- WILLIAM, LOCH AWE OBAN. TAYMUUTH AND ABERFELDY. EDINBURGH : ADAM & CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE. MDCCCLIII. EDINBURGH I'KINTKl) BY H. AND R. CI.AKK. PREFACE. THIS work is a compilation from the larger Guide book to this district of Scotland. The description of the three great Highland routes from the head of Loch Lomond, not belonging properly to this central portion of the country, is omitted in this cheap edition, although the Itineraries which contain the most important in- formation for Tourists are still continued. The principal difference, however, between this and the larger work, is its want of Mr. Foster's illustrations, which, while they tend not only to embellish the text, and form excellent mementos of the scenery, are by some considered unnecessary. By relinquishing these, and leaving out or curtailing notes of minor importance, the expense of printing is very much diminished, and ihe publishers are enabled to offer this work at a price which it is thought will be sufficiently low to suit every description of readers. The plan of noting the distances and inns is that adopted by Mr. Murray in his Continental Handbooks. IV PREFACK. An Itinerary precedes each tour, while the distances in miles from the starting point are placed in brackets so (8) throughout each separate route; thus enabling the tourist to see at a glance how far he has gone, or the length of the journey still before him, and more ac- curately in his progress to determine the exact localities described. EDINBURGH, July 1853. CONTENTS. TRAVELLING EXPENSES ... . vii STIRLING. The Town. ..The Old Houses... Argyle's Lodging... Mar's Work. ..Path round the Castle Rock. ..The Ladies' Rock. ..The Tournament Ground. ..Cowan's Hospital. ..The Franciscan Church ...The Castle. ..Ita Architecture. ..Chief Events in its History... The Scene from the Ramparts. ..The various Battle-grounds... The Romans. ..The War of Independence. ..The Civil Wars. ..The Grampians. ..The River.. .The Carse... The Geology . 1-22 DETOURS FROM STIRLING. Bannockburn...St. Ninians...Campsie Fells. ..Cambuskenneth.. The Forth. ..The Bridge.. .Craigforth... The Ochil Hills ... Castle Campbell ...Clackmannan Tower... Scenery of the Devon... Calder Linn... Rumbling Bridge... Devil's Mill. ..The other side of the Ochils... Bridge of Allan... Dunblane ...Sheriffmuir... Roman Camp of Ardoch...Auchterarder and its neighbourhood ..... 23-39 STIRLING TO CALLANDER AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. Blair Drum- mond, Lord Kames, and the Drainage of the Carse. ..Doune Castle. ..Deanston.-.Callander... Lowland and Highland Towns... Creel Houses.. .Geology. ..The Roman Camp...Bracklin Linn... The Pass of Leny...The Lubnaig...Walk to the top of Benledi... Hill Climbing in general... Memoranda for Pedestrian Tourists, taking Callander as a Centre . . . 40-94 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. Dumbarton Castle and its His- tory. ..Balloch... The Sail on the Loch. ..The Lowland Banks... The Islands... Historical Incidents. ..Rowardennan... Ascent of Ben Lomond... Different Points whence it is attainable. ..The Way up. ..Scene from the Top...Tarbet...Rob Roy...Inversnaid ...The Highland Scenery of the Loch... Head of the Loch... Ardlui Hotel 95-112 VI CONTESTS. 1 UNERARIES. Lot ic LOMOND HEAD TO FORT- WILLIAM, by Glenfalloch toCrianla- rich...From thence by Strathfillan, the Holy Pool, the King's Field, and Benmore, to Tyndmm... Hills of Glenorehy, through the Marquis of Breadalbane's deer forest of the Black Mount, the Moors of Rannoch, Lochs Tulla and Lydoch, King's House Inn, and the Royal Forest, passing near General Wade's old military road, known as the Devil's Staircase, through the wild scenery of Glencoe, Ballachulish, and along the banks of Loch Linnhe 113-114 LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO OBAN, by Tyndrum From thence westwards by Glenorehy, Dalmally, Kilchurn Castle, Loch Awe, Ben Crua- chan, Taynuilt, and Loch Etive . . . 114-115 L<>CH LOMOND HEAD TO ABERFELDY, by Crianlarich, Strathfillan, Glen Dochart, and Lochanour, base of the lofty Benmore, Loch Dochart, Killin, the ruins of Finlarig Castle, the northern shore of Loch Tay, the base of Ben Lawers, Village of Kenmore, and Taymouth Castle ...... 115 INVKRARY, and the way to it . . . 1KJ-119 INDEX . 12n TRAVELLING EXPENSES. THE expense necessarily attendant upon travelling must be ad- mitted to be a considerable drawoack from its pleasures. Still the evil is inevitable ; and it may be satisfactory to tourists to be able to estimate the price to be paid for their enjoyment. The following scale shows the average charge for the several items which enter into the traveller's bill. The prices in tiiejirst division of the scale are rarely exceeded in any of the Inns in the smaller towns in Scotland ; while in some villages, charges even more moderate may sometimes be met with. The prices in the second division show the charges in Hotels of the highest class in Edinburgh. Breakfast, Is. 63. to 2s Dinner, 2s. to 3s Tea, Is. 6d. to 2s Supper, Is. 6d. to 2s Porter Sherry, per bottle, 5s Porter or Ale, per bottle, 6d. to Is. ... Branay, per gill. Is. 6d 2s. to Ss. 3s. to 4s. 2s. to 3s. According to what is ordered. 6s. Is. 2s. Is. Ss. 6d. to 4s. %* If the Traveller require his table to be furnished beyond the ordinary scale of comfort, he must be prepared for a proportionate increase of charge. Whisky, per gill, 9d. Bed, Is. 6d. to 3s In the inferior country Inns, Wine, Brandy, and Malt Liquor are frequently not to be met with, or, if kept, will probably be of indifferent quality. Posting, Is. 6d. per mile ; postboy, 3d. per mile. A one-horse four-wheeled carriage, Is. per mile, or 15s. per day A grig, 10s. 6d. to 12s. per day. A riding-horse, 6s. or 7s. ; a pony, 5s. per day. *,* In large towns the charges for carriages and riding-horses are about 20 per cent above those here quoted. Where the hire is for several successive days, an abatement may be expected. The posting is the same in town and country. The payment of the gratuities to servants at Inns is a source VI NOTE ON TKAVELLING EXPENSES. of great annoyance to travellers. It would very largely contri- bute to the tourist's comfort were the charges under this head included among the other items of the landlord's bill. Although this practice has been adopted by a few Hotel-keepers in other parts ot the kingdom, it is believed that it has not yet been intro- duced into any of the Inns in Scotland. To enable them to furnish tourists with some information on this subject, the publishers have applied to two Hotel-keepers of the first respectability (the one in Dublin, the other in Liverpool) by whom the practice of charging for servants is adopted, and the following are averaged from the rates charged in their establish- ments : 1. A single gentleman, taking the general accommodation of the Hotel for one or two meals as a passing traveller, "Waiter, 6d ; Chambermaid, 6d ; Porter or Boots, 6d. This includes the removal of auy reason- able weight of luggage ; but extra messages and parcels are charged separately. 2. A single gentleman, staying a day and night, and taking his meals in the hotel, Is. 6d. or 2s. for servants, and if he stays several days, Is. or Is. 6d. per day. 3. A gentleman and his wife, occupying a sitting-room and bedroom, 2s. 6d. to SB. 6d. per night for servants. It accompanied by sons or daughters, or other relatives, half this rate from each ; but no charge for children under nine years of age. 4. A party of four or six for one night, about Is. 6d. each. Upon submitting this scale to several of the most respectable Hotel-keepers in Edinburgh, they consider the rates to be a fair average. In country and village inns, even the lowest of the payments above quoted may be unnecessarily liberal, while in some of the fashionable hotels in London the highest may be con- siderably under par. BLACK'S SHILLING GUIDE TO THE TROSACHS, STIRLING. [Intu .The Royal : The Golden Lion ] THE TOWN THE OLD HOUSES ARGYLE'S LODGING MAR*8 WORK PATH ROUND THE CASTLE ROCK THE LADIES 1 ROCK THE TOURNAMENT GROUND COWAN'S HOSPITAL THE FRANCISCAN CHURCH THE CASTLE ITS ARCHITECTURE CHIEF EVENTS IN ITS HISTORY THE SCENE FROM THE RAMPARTS THE VARIOUS BATTLE GROUNDS THE ROMANS THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE THE CIVIL WARS THE GRAMPIANS THE RIVER THE CARSE THE GEOLOGY. WE take the liberty of supposing that the tourist has found his way to Stirling, now accessible from all parts of Scotland by the Scottish Central Railway and by the steamers on the Forth. Its remarkable resem- blance in general outline to Edinburgh immediately strikes the stranger who may have just left the capital of Scotland. Stirling is, indeed, a very perfect relic of the manner in which the Scots of old built their towns when they found ground of a suitable character. On a rock, precipitous on one side, they would raise the 2 STIRLING ARGYLE S LODGING. acropolis or castle, building the town in one sloping street downwards, so as to be under its protection. Though it boasts of a few suburban villas and neat rows of modern houses, Stirling has not been so much en- larged or changed as materially to alter its character as an ancient town. On either side of the steep as- cending main street, the fronts of ancient houses still show the turrets, crow-stepped gables, or quaint deco- rations of the old street architecture of Scotland. It was the fashion of old for the neighbouring nobles and gentry to have their city mansions in such a town as Stirling. Such was the destined use of many of the buildings now devoted to humbler occupants, and hence they have acquired their handsome decorated character. ARGYLE'S LODGING, BROAD STREET, The most conspicuous of these hotels, stands on the East side of the Castle Wynd, and is now used as a military hospital in connection with the Castle. With its pinnacled round towers and finely decorated windows, it is an excellent specimen of the French castellated architecture so much used in Scotland. It has had an interesting history. It belonged to the accomplished poet, Sir William Alexander, who, in the reign of Charles I., was made Earl of Stirling* (1632), and who got a grant of the vast territory of Nova Scotia, * The Earl of Stirling's paternal estate of Menstrie will be seen on the way to the scenery of the Devon. He was one of those men who, to literary habits, add a keen relish for the pur- suits of active life. He was the originator of the project for the colonization of Nova Scotia, and had the entire management of the scheme. He was the author of several volumes of poetry, which at one time obtained considerable praise, Lithgow styling him "true Castalian fire;" Drayton, "my Alexander;" and King .tames, "my philosophical poet." Indeed, so great a favourite STIRLING MAR'S WORK. 3 to be partitioned off in baronetcies. It afterwards (1 640) fell into the hands of the Argyle family, who removed from it the arms of the Stirling family, and substituted their own ; and here the Duke of York, afterwards King James II. of England, enjoyed the hospitality of the Earl of Argyle, who probably did not predict that his royal guest was on an early occasion to cut off his head. Here the Duke of Argyle had his head-quarters during the Rebellion of 1715. Opposite Argyle's Lodging a new building occupies the site of the house in which George Buchanan the historian lived during the minority of James VI. MAR'S WORK. The remains of the house built by the Earl of Mar, stand at the head of Broad Street. In the centre are the Royal Arms of Scotland, and on the projecting towers on each side, those of the Regent Mar and his Countess. Its architecture is richly decorated, par- taking of the ecclesiastical character. Tradition indeed says that it was built of stones taken from the ruins of Cambuskenneth, and that for this sacrilege its founder was cut off before it was finished. He was engaged in deeper and more substantial crimes, how- ever, than the selfish use of the consecrated stones, for he was laying his plots, with Cecil and Morton, for the assassination of Queen Mary, when death suddenly overtook him at Stirling in the year 1572, probably when was he with the pedantic monarch, whose learning, doubtless, was not seldom the theme of his skilful flattery, that he obtained large grants of land and lordships both in North America and Scotland, as well as the privilege of coining for the latter country a species of base copper money called turners. It is said that when he inscribed the motto, Per mare et terras, upon his house in Stirling, bis countrymen punningly read it, Per metre et turners, in allusion to his double capacity as maker of verses and coin. 4 STIRLING MAR'S WORK. he was overlooking the progress of his building. Some curious inscriptions on the remains look like a defiance of the world by one who was uneasy under its obser- vation, thus The moir I stand in oppin hitht, Mi faults moir subject ar to sitht ; I pray all luikers on this luging, With gentle e to gif thair jugiug. Speik forth and spair nocht ; Consider weil and care noch. It seems odd to our habits in the present day, to find an important statesman the governor of a king- dom thus scribbling doggerel rhymes over his house to attract public attention. The edifice, by its appearance, confirms the tradition that it was never finished, for it will be seen to be in good preservation so far as it goes. The ecclesiastical features in the sculpture will also be readily recognised, and the architect appears to have very ingeniously adapted the gargoils, niches, and mullions of the abbey to the purposes of baronial decoration. Some of the sculptures are very curious one, which almost re- sembles a bundle of rods made up like the Roman fasces, is supposed to have been intended for the babe in swaddling bands, and is doubtless very ancient. THE GREYFRIARS' OR FRANCISCAN CHURCH Stands on the declivity of the rock, and forms part of the general cluster of the Castle buildings. It was erected in 1494 by James IV.; and some additions were made to the eastern portion of it by Cardinal Beaton, whose body is interred there. It will be found on exami- nation to be a fine specimen of the later pointed Gothic. To the English ecclesiologist it will be curious, as a type of architecture peculiar to Scotland. Though STIRLING GREYFRIARS CHURCH. 5 dating from about the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury, and tlms contemporary with the depressed or perpendicular style of architecture in England, to the English antiquary it might thus appear a century older than it is. He will find it a peculiarity often met with in Scotland, where the later forms of English Gothic architecture never were adopted. The Scots, in fact, preferred the taste of their friends in France to that of their enemies in England. In this church the Earl of Arran, regent of the kingdom, abjured Roman- ism in 1543. It was also the scene of the coronation of James VI. on the 29th of July 1597, when John Knox preached the coronation sermon. Since the Reformation it has been divided into two places of worship, called the East and West Churches. The celebrated Ebenezer Erskine, founder of the Secession Church, was one of the ministers of the latter. WALK ROUND THE CASTLE. Ascending to the esplanade in front of the Castle. an exit will be seen to the left, leading to a pathway under the immediate rock, but overtopping the tree- covered bank on the south, and passing entirely round the Castle, over the more bare and broomy descent to the north and west. Part of it is called Edmon- stone's Road, and a seat and inscription commemorate the kind services of the gentleman bearing that name, by whom it was commenced. The first remarkable point to which the path leads is THE LADIES' ROCK, So called as the spot whence the ladies of the court looked down on the tournaments or less knightly sports pursued on the flat meadow ground below. It is inte- resting to look down from it and see still so fresh and ') STIRLING LADIES ROCK. distinct the turf embankments for the sports. In the centre is an octagonal/ mound, where doubtless was raised the banner of the judge of merit in the con- tentions. Surrounding it is an octagonal bank, and, making a still wider circle, an embanked parallelogram all seen from the rock as distinctly as if it were a ground-plan of an ornamental garden ; hence called the King's Park and King's Gardens. It was of this now deserted spot that we read Now, in the Castle-park, drew out Their chequer'd bands the joyous rout. There morricers, with bell at heel. And blade in hand, their mazes wheel ; But chief, beside the butts, there stand Bold Robin Hood and all his band, Friar Tuck with quarterstaff and cowl, Old Scathelocke with his surly scowl, Maid Marion, fair as ivory bone, Scarlet, and Mutch, and Little John ; Their bugles challenge all that will, Tn archery to prove their skill. The stranger's curiosity will probably tempt him to enter a narrow entrance to the left of Edmonstone's path, connected with a quaint building surmounted by a turret steeple. He finds himself in front of COWAN'S HOSPITAL, And right in the presence of the statue of its wor- shipful founder, who, cap in hand, looks down from his elevation with a courtly and majestic dignity. The Hospital was founded in 1639 by John Cowan, for de- cayed Guild brethren, or privileged city tradesmen. It ses a very curious Dutch garden, still trimmed in the old style, with its multiform clipped yew trees and stone terrace, and has lately received an accession in a finelv stained window. STIRLING THE CASTLE. THE CASTLE. We now suppose that the tourist, crossing the drawbridge, enters the Castle by its low-browed arch- way. The buildings grouped immediately before him are extremely remarkable. THE PALACE. This profusely-ornamented edifice which, in the form of a quadrangle, occupies the south-east part of the fortress, was built by James V., who was crowned here. It at once rivets attention, and whoever wishes to examine the peculiarities of the north side as well as the front, may do so by entering a narrow doorway and ascending a small stair on the left. There seem two antagonist systems at work in this remarkable building, the one producing an effect of eminent rich- ness and grace when seen from afar, the other render- ing the very elements of these beauties, when looked at close at hand, grotesque, deformed, and horrible. It is extremely rare to find the architectural incrus- tations on a building productive of so much influence on its general outline. They are very effective, not only from the foot of the rock, but at a considerable distance from it. This arises from large and bold pro- portions which are more curious than beautiful when seen close at hand. The statuary, which produces a sweet and graceful effect in the distant view, is found to embody all kinds of horrors on a close examination. Horrible commixtures of human and brute life idiotic expressions of face painful contortions of body, are all clustered in reckless playfulness. The wildest and least-becoming of the classical legends are here em- bodied without any attempts to realise classic beauty of form. Some of the group are arranged into corbels or 8 STIRLING CASTLE THE PALACE. brackets for the support of the superincumbent archi- tecture, and here the sculptor has given to his super- human figures an appearance of superhuman labour and protracted agonising exertion, such as reminds one of a Sisyphus or Ixion undergoing the eternal punish- ment of the avenging gods. The whole mass of sculpture is apt to arouse reminiscences of some dread- ful nightmare ; and one whose imagination is apt to recall horrid or displeasing ideas need not dwell too long on it. How curious that, through -the graceful architecture of the day, so dire a taste, or rather such utter desolation of taste, should have reigned in archi- tecture's great coadjutor, sculpture ; yet this reminds one that Stirling boasted of remarkable productions in this department of art. Has the tourist heard of " the Stirling Heads?" They belonged to an apartment within the quadrangle of the Castle usually called " The King's Room," or " the presence." It had an oaken ceiling, such as can scarcely have known a rival in Europe, for it was divided into many partitions by richly decorated beams, and in each partition was a magnificently carved head. These heads are to be now seen only dispersed in the houses of some favoured or fortunate men of taste. We are not aware that one of them remains in Stirling. They were removed in the year 1777, when the roof of the apartment threatened, from their weight, to fall in. THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE, Erected by James III., occupies the east side of the upper square. It has been more meddled with and modernized than the Palace, and its original character is chiefly preserved in a few thin decorations. The hall where the parliaments were held was 120 feet long. STIRLING CASTLE THE ARMOURY. THE ARMOURY, Formerly the CHAPEL-ROYAL, stands on the north side of the upper square. It was built in 1594 by James VI. on the demolition of St. Michael's Chapel, for the baptism of his son Henry. Entering the narrow doorway in front of the palace, a way is found through a long vaulted passage to the western parapet. On the right hand are seen the doors of dungeons, occupied by state prisoners so lately as the year 1820, when a slight skirmish took place at Bonny- muir, in the neighbouring parish of Cumbernauld, between the military and a few insurgents, chiefly discontented Glasgow weavers. Underneath the exterior wall, on the west, a narrow road leads from the town, and descends the precipice behind the Castle. This is called BALLANGEICH, A Gaelic word signifying " windy pass," which is remarkable as having furnished the fictitious name adopted by James V. in the various disguises which he was in the habit of assuming, for the purpose, it was said, of seeing that justice was regularly administered, and frequently also from the less justifiable motive of gallantry. To the north of the Castle is a small mount called THE MOLEHILL, Surrounded by small terraces, which has probably made it traditionally be counted an ancient court of justice. In later times it was used as a place of execution. Thou, sad and fatal mound, That oft hast heard the death-axe sound. On this eminence, and within sight of their Castle 10 STIRLING CASTLE MOLEHILL. of Doune and their extensive possessions, Murdoch Duke of Albany, Duncan Earl of Lennox, his father- in-law, and his two sons, Walter and Alexander Stuart, were beheaded by James I. in 1424. The exe- cution of Walter Stuart is supposed, with great proba- bility, to be the groundwork of the beautiful pathetic ballad of "Young Waters." This "heading hill" now commonly bears the name of Hurley-Hacket, from its being the scene of an amusement practised by James V. when a boy, and his courtiers, which con- sisted in sliding in some sort of chair from top to bottom of the bank. At present the Molehill forms a portion of the public walk round the Castle. Stirling Castle is one of the four fortresses of Scot- land, which, by the articles of the Union, are always to be kept in repair. It is now used as a barrack. As a fortification, it will be seen that Stirling Castle is now a place of little moment. Though Scott de- scribes very picturesquely the effect of a cannon ball sent from its ramparts against the party of the rebels conducting Waverley to Edinburgh ; yet it is believed that a discharge from guns of any considerable calibre would shake down the old walls, and save an enemy the trouble of demolishing them. In its day, however, " Grey Stirling, Bulwark of the North," effectually held the tete dupont between the Highlands and the lowlands. It was an old saying that " The Forth bridles the wild Highlander;" and when there was a party stationed at the Ford of Frew, near Aberfoyle, the passage from the mountain districts to the lowlands was completely closed, unless to those following circuitous routes above the sources of the river. It will be observed that no part of the craggy hill is fortified save the little rocky crest which so beautifully surmounts the whole ; but were a fortification actually needed to stop the communica- STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 11 tion between the north and south, it is believed that the castle hill would be available for very extensive works. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. Supposing the tourist to be contemplating the matchless view from the ramparts, let us rapidly lay before him the chief associations connected with what is under and around him. Truly on no other spot upon the earth does one stand in the middle of so wide a circle of visible historical associations as on the rampart of Stirling Castle. To begin with the Castle itself what it may have been when, looking towards the boundary of the ancient kingdom of Strathclyde, anterior to the English and the Scottish monarchies, we know not, but the earliest records show its rock to have then been, as it was so well fitted to be, the site of a powerful fortress. Alexander I. died here in 1124. In the earliest efforts of England to estab- lish a dominion over Scotland, this fortress is conspi- cuous, for when William the Lion was taken prisoner in his unsuccessful expedition in the twelfth century, he delivered over this castle, along with Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick, as pledges for his ransom. In the war of independence, the rock-crowning fortress did its duty well against the invader Edward. It was in 1304 the only strength which he had not subdued. For three months it held out against his whole army. But Edward was not a person to be baffled, if human means could accomplish his object. England must be drained to the last man ere he would give up his point, and so he desired all the besieging implements in the Tower to be sent down to Scotland, and called on all knights and adventurers to abandon separate or personal conflicts, and join his forces at the great 12 STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. siege. The means of attack at that time were but ill-fitted to injure buildings on rocks. Stones and leaden bullets were projected by springs, but not of course with nearly so much effect as missiles could be discharged from above ; and the impatient king, riding round the fortress in impotent exasperation, was more than once hit and in danger of his life. At length two machines were brought up, one of them called the wolfe, which is said to have been so high as to over- top the walls, and so to pour down masses of stone and lead on them, while arrows were discharged conveying ignited combustibles. By degrees the walls gave way, a breach was made, and by filling the ditch with stones, the castle was taken. The English held it for ten years, until they were doomed to see the last remnant of the force destroyed at Bannockburn, rushing in panic-flight beneath its walls. Again, however, it was taken by the aspirant to the Scottish throne, Edward Baliol, who got the Norman knights who had been driven from Scotland to aid him in an attempt which would have given them back their estates, and it was only after a long and fatal siege that it was recovered from King David Bruce. THE DOUGLAS ROOM. Besides the blood shed in open warfare, Stirling is not without its darker tragedies, which made it be apostrophised as- Ye towers ! within whose circuit dread A Douglas by his sovereign bled. There is a pleasant chamber in the north-west cor- ner of the castle with an ancient cornice and some curi- ous decorations. It was here that James II., in a moment of incon troll able wrath, stabbed William, Earl STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 13 of Douglas. Douglas had made a private bond or con- federacy with Lords Ross and Crawford. The king sought, by a private audience, to persuade him to aban- don it ; but the Douglas, as he was powerful, was proud and stubborn. The king lost his temper, and, as people of all ranks did in those days when they lost temper, relieved himself by blood-letting. Drawing a hanger, he stabbed the Douglas, saying, " if thou wilt not break the bond, this shall." In the newspapers of 14th Octo- ber 1797, there appeared the following paragraph, sup- posed to refer to this tragedy : " On Thursday se'night, as some masons were digging a foundation in Stirling Castle, in a garden adjacent to the magazine, they struck upon a human skeleton about eight yards from the window where the Earl of Douglas was thrown over after he was stabbed by King James II. It is thought, and there is little doubt but what it is his remains, as it is certain that he was buried in that garden, but at a little distance from the closet window." James III. added much to the architectural beauties of Stirling, and built, among other portions, the Parlia- ment House. He was in some measure a martyr to his love of architecture, for the rough nobles by whom he was surrounded, resented with ferocity his encourage- ment to Cochran the architect, whom they hanged on the bridge of Lauder. The next reign discloses an in- cident of a totally different character connected with the Castle. Early in the sixteenth century there came an Italian alchemist to Scotland, who was much abused by the courtiers for his quackery, and the influence he ob- tained over the king. The man seems to have been as successful in deceiving himself as any body else. He made a pair of wings with which he could fly, and at once started with them from the battlements of the 14 STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. Castle. There must have been some good mechanism in the wings, for instead of being dashed to pieces he only broke his thigh bone. He had a philosophical reason to give for his mishap. He had the misfortune to use the feathers of a dunghill fowl, which had a na- tural attraction for the earth. Had he chosen those of a nobler bird the attraction would have been upwards. However, he had had enough of it, and tried no more flights. Dunbar the poet, who hated him, describes the birds tugging at him as he stuck in his flight And ever the cushats at him tugget; The rooks him rent, the ravens him druggit ; The hooded crows his hair forth rugget, The heaven he might not bruik. Stirling, as these events will shew, had become, at an early period, a royal residence, and was long the favourite abode of the Scottish monarchs. It was the birth-place of James II. and James V. James VI. and his eldest son Prince Henry, were both baptised in it ; and James V. was crowned in it. After many such minor adventures, Stirling was taken in a great siege by Monk, from batteries raised within the burying-ground of the church, in 1651. In the revolution the Jacobites sought to hold a parliament here, but the Castle was at once yielded to the new government. In 1715, it was held by Argyle, and served its old purpose of bridling the Highlanders, for it commanded at that time the only bridge over the Forth, and they could only send scattered bodies in other directions southwards. In the insurrection of 1745, the Highlanders made vain attempts to take it, and they retreated so precipitately as to blow up the church of St. Ninian, in which their powder was stored. The tower was left standing, and may be seen in the hollow from the ramparts of the Castle. The High- BANNOCKBURN. 15 landers endeavoured to raise works on the northern part of the Castlehill ; but they were so far under the forti- fied rock that it was said the soldiers in the fortress could see the men at the guns in the besieging batteries to their very feet ; and any one looking over the ram- parts to the north can easily believe it to have been so. If we pass from the fortress and look around, the area of interesting historical association widens with the view. First and most illustrious is the BATTLEFIELD OF BANNOCKBURN, Where the greatest king of his age had to flee before a poor peasantry, ennobled by the struggle for free- dom. The characteristics of the ground which influ- enced the battle may still be noticed. Aware that his light-armed troops could not encounter the men-at-arms of the English, with their full equipment of mail and their strong barbs, Bruce determined to move from the flat ground of the Torwood, stretching eastward along the Forth, to ground more suited to the movements of his infantry, in the gradual ascent, cleft and broken by the burn of Bannock. The spot is still wooded, but it had then probably more marsh and timber than it now possesses, for both these features were studied by Bruce as a means of defence. The ascent will be seen to terminate in a pretty abrupt upland, with a gently waving outline ; that is the renowned Gillies Hill, where the appearance of the camp-followers, looking like an army of reserve, turned the trembling scale of battle, and made the great English host, who had been for some time wavering, flee in irretrievable confusion. But there are commemorations of still older battles scattered around. Tacitus tells us in his rapid power- ful style, how bitterly Agricola was resisted by the Caledonian prince, Galgacus, at the rnons Grampius, 16 STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. or the Grampian mountains. The site of the battle has been claimed by many spots, and there is no oc- casion to enter into the antiquarian merits of the several disputes on the subject ; but one thing is clear enough, that in that amphitheatre of mountains stretch- ing round from west to north, we have the chain of the Grampian hills which the Roman army desired to pene- trate, and the Caledonians to defend. Nor are we with- out abundant vestiges of the Roman operations. Besides the wall of Antoninus r of which the eastern extremity touches the Forth in the low flat district to the east, looking in the other direction through the valley sepa- rating the Grampians from the Ochils, the eye may detect, at the village of Ardoch, the spot where stands one of the most perfect specimens of a Roman fortified camp to be seen in any part of the world. But there are associations in the scene around older still than the days of Rome. Her remains have been found here and there on the surface of the flat carse, showing us by undoubted evidence how long the waters have receded from it, or rather that at that age they had receded ; how much earlier who yet can tell. We need not enter into the somewhat vexed question whether the discovery of remains bearing the work of human hands have been authenticated as discovered in such alluvial deposits ; but certainly in the Carse of Stirling remains of animals of the organisation of the present age have been abundantly found. " The most remark- able animal remains," says the author of the statistical account of Logic, conspicuous by Craigforth Hill, " found in this parish in this deposit was the entire skeleton of a whale, which, according to the measurements which were made, must have been 70 feet long. It was found in the year 1819, in the course of some draining opera- tions carrying on by the late Sir Robert Abercromby, CARSE OF STIRLING. 17 on the estate of Airthrey. The place where it was found was adjoining the south side of the turnpike road east from the eastern porter's lodge which leads to Airthrey Castle, and near to the north verge of the alluvial deposit of the river Forth. The bones were in general hard and undeeayed, and lay in regular connected order from the head to the tail. They were imbedded in the blue silt, immediately under the silt claV. It was found, from very accurate levels taken, that this skeleton lay 22 feet higher than the pitch of the present highest stream tides of the river Forth, immediately opposite." Who shall say how long before Agricola passed over it these bones may have been stranded by the tide of a firth running up the carse, till it touched the spurs of the Highland mountains ? And again, how long before the existence of this whale it may have been that the animals studied by the palaeontologist in the red sand- stone stretching beneath the diluvial deposit may have sported in an ocean of different aspect and temperature from the present? But to come back, in the first place, to Agricola as a comparatively modern association, we overleap some sixteen or seventeen centuries, and still armies are found marching in the same track to memorable battles. In the affair of 1715, the troops of the Earl of Mar rested a night within the old Roman camp of Ardoch, on their way to the battle-ground of Sheriffmuir, a broad low up- land northward of where the smoke of the small cathe- dral town of Dunblane is seen curling to the sky. When Argyle marched to meet the enemy he left a party of militia at Stirling. The first intimation they had of the battle was the sight of a part of their own army rushing back as defeated fugitives. It naturally overwhelmed them with the notion that all was lost ; STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. they were ignorant that Argyle was pursuing a larger part of the enemy in the other direction. Again, looking eastward along the level carse to- wards the Forth, across the ground which, in the days of the war of independence, was covered with the great oak forest called the Tor Wood, we look on the fields of other battles, both in early and later times. Just where the ground slightly rises, and the smoke of the Falkirk forges hovers over it, the liberator Wallace had a disas- trous conflict with Edward, in the year 1298. Again, almost on the same spot, was fought the later battle of Falkirk in the year '45. It much resembled that which has just been alluded to at Sheriffmuir ; in the later battle the Highlanders, however, had a greater advan- tage over the government troops than Argyle had over the rebels in '15. The English general was the re- nowned Hawley, a pedantic and severe commander, who despised the undisciplined Highlanders, and built some gibbets to hang them on. He was obliged to employ them in punishing his own troops for fleeing a harsh measure, as he was one of the fugitives himself. We now go back again into hoar antiquity ere we have done with another memorable battle-field or two. You see a tall grey tower, more feudal than monastic in its character, to the eastward, and among the links of the Forth, which seem to have twisted themselves round it like a huge snake. That is the remnant of the abbey of Oambuskenneth, and marks the spot where Wallace, in his short successful career, gained the victory over Cressingham, usually called the battle of Stirling. The abbey itself is well worthy of attention, and has had its own history. Its monks were a wealthy and powerful body, as the luxuriance of the alluvial land all around testifies. They had often within their precincts not only entertained kings and their courts, but even accommo- STIRLING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 19 dated their parliaments ; and it is believed on very good authority, that here met for the first time the re- presentatives of the municipal corporations of Scotland. The occasion on which they were assembled was a proud one it was to continue in David Bruce, the son of the victorious Robert, the succession to the Scottish crown. In the year 1488, a dead body, found on the way- side, was brought within the abbey, and received royal obsequies. Whether it was the body of a king has been ever doubted, and the reasons on either side involve a tragic history, only too characteristic of the old state of Scotland. When the son of James III. was in rebel- lion against him, the king advanced on Stirling, and demanded admittance to that, one of his chief fortresses, but it was refused, and a battle occurred between the king's forces and those of the insurgents, led by his son, afterwards the clever and popular monarch James IV., who fell at Flodden. The battle, if it can fairly receive that dignified name, was fought at Little Cong- lar, on the side of a brook called Sauchie-Burn, about a mile from Bannockburn. King James, who was a weak man, took the advice of some followers, who recommended him to see to his own safety, and, all attired in burnished armour, he galloped along the un- frequented road. A wayside house called Beaton's Mill, remarkable for the thickness of its walls, and cer- tainly very old, is still pointed out as the house whence a woman then issued to draw water from a well. Alarmed by the startling apparition of the king, in full armour, galloping along on horseback, she dropped her pitcher and fled into the mill house. Her motions, in their turn, frightened the king's horse, which .fell. Either hurt or smothered in his heavy armour, the king lay as if dead. He was conveyed into the mill house, and laid 20 BATTLE OF SAUCHIEBURN. on a bed. Abjectly depressed, and fearing immediate death, he told the people of the mill that he was the king, and prayed for a confessor. Thereupon a woman, perhaps the same whose precipitancy had caused the accident, ran out calling frantically for a priest to come and shrive. the king. Friends and enemies were about in abundance at the time. A man clothed in a dark mantle, like an ecclesiastic, said, " I am a priest," and followed the woman into the house. He asked the king how it fared with him, and the king said he was so ill that he desired to confess, and receive absolution. Thereupon the man in the dark mantle, bending down over him, as if to receive the whispered confession, stabbed him with a dagger, and not quite sure that the work was effectively done, stabbed him over and over again, till he was certainly dead, and then vanished as mysteriously as he had come. The people in the mill house had only the word of the man killed on their bed that he was their king. There was a mystery over the whole affair, and scarcely anything is absolutely known, save that James was never seen more. The people of the mill house, apparently not knowing what to do with the body, threw it forth ; and so all that can be in reality vouched for, is the statement of its having been buried, along with other royal clay, as the body of a king, in Cambuskenneth's Abbey grey. Such are a few of the incidents rendering remark- able the landscape spread before the visitor to THE RAMPARTS of Stirling Castle. It is almost needless to call his attention to the visible beauties around him. To the east and north are the fruitful lowlands, with the Forth making windings through alluvial soil, the richness of which has occasioned the rhyming proverb STIRLING CASTLE RAMPARTS. 21 A crook of the Forth Is worth an earldom in the north. The description which Drayton has given of the Ouse, has been often supposed very applicable to the windings of the Forth, especially when he says that the river " in measured gyres doth whirl herself about : That, this way, here, and there, back, forward, in. and out : And, like a sportive nymph, oft doubling in her gait. In labyrinth-like turns, and twinings intricate, Through those rich fields doth run." And so the river winds away through the flat fruit- ful alluvial carse, until it is seen expanding gradually into the Firth, which, between its green hilly banks, looks like a pretty inland lake. It is on the other side, however, that the most in- teresting landscape is seen in the panorama of the Highland hills the mysterious land of precipice, forest, and cataract, to which the tourist is on his way. With Ben Lomond raising its graceful peak in the ex- treme left, there follow in succession, Benvenue, Ben- ledi, and the cone of Benvoirlich, ending with the humbler summit of Uam-var. On the right a good eye will detect Benmore, and some of the more distant hills, just peeping over the shoulders of the nearer range. Differing utterly from a sojourn among their stiff as- cents, their bewildering valleys, and their roaring im- passable streams, is the gentle outline of the range of the Grampians, when standing like a picture against the blue sky. But particularly fortunate is the tourist who sees this panorama in one of the warm rich sunsets peculiar to Scotland. Then the outline of the moun- tains is more distinct than ever, but every asperity is smoothed away and steeped in the golden richness of the atmosphere, which throws a deep purple tinge even into the shadows of the mountain range. '2'2 STIRLING CASTLE GEOLOGY. GEOLOGY. \Ve ought not to leave Stirling Castle without a view of the geological character of the rock, which is very beautiful and interesting. It is chiefly a greenstone trap, and its conjunction with the sandstone may be observed in several places producing the usual effect of quartzose, hardening of the latter. In some cuttings on the north side of the rock, Dr. M'Culloch found a phenomenon, of which he gave an account in the first volume of the transactions of the Geological Society. It shews the trap catching up and bending in folds through its own mass the sandstone strata : and affording a means of opening up discussion on the connection of neptunion ;uid plutinic action, which we would not venture to anticipate. The Castle Rock, Craigforth, and the Abbey ( 'raig, are all of the same formation, masses of green- stone trap, protruded by some internal combustion through the flat sandstone rocks of the coal field around. When the flat river haugh all around was a higher reach of the estuary of the Forth, these must have been nicks projecting out of the water, against which ships may have been wrecked. They have a tendency to be columnar and basaltic, which at a distance gives them, especially when the sun shines on them, a very beautiful and airy appearance, heightened by a kind of metallic lustre. DETOUBS FROM STIRLING. BANNOCKBDRN ST. NINIAS'S CAMPSIE FELLS CAMBU8KENXETH THE FORTH THE BRIDGE CRAIGFORTH THE OCHIL HILLS CASTLE CAMPBELL CLACKMANNAN TOWER SCENERY OF THE DEVON CALDER LINN RUMBLING BRIDGE DEVIL'S MILL THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCH1LS BRIDGE OF ALLAN DUN- BLANE 8HER1FFMCIR ROMAN CAMP OF ABDOCH AUCHTER- ARDER AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. STIRLING TO BANNOCKBUEN. Miles. 1J St. Ninian's (a mile to the right is Gillie's Hill). 2f Cross the Bannock Burn. 3 Bannockburn Battle-field, by road on left. BEFORE attending the stranger to the mountain chain of which he had so tempting a glance from the ram- part of the Castle, we must glance at the objects of interest in the immediate neighbourhood, and indicate the principal detours to be made from Stirling. If he desires historical association rather than scenery, he will bend his steps to the field of Bannockburn, all parts of which are accessible by an easy walk. But there is nothing particularly to strike the attention in the spot justly called the Marathon of Scotland ; and except, perhaps, that the ridge of the celebrated Gillie's Hill and its concern with the battle is better seen and understood from below, it may be said that a better idea is derived of the character of the battle-ground from Stirling Castle than a closer inspection. The visitor to the spot finds himself in a well-ploughed agricultural district, penetrated by a small stream, which leads him 24 BAXNOCKBURN BATTLE-FIELD. to a manufacturing village which has spread far and wide the renown of Bannockburn woollens. There are scarcely any features which profess to be memorials of the battle, save " the bore stone" in which the Scottish standard is reputed to have been raised. The sole fragment of it left by the zeal of relic hunters has been bound in iron to protect it from farther destruction, and may be seen on an eminence called Brock's Brae, to the south-west of St. Ninian's. On this battle-field, no touters have impudence enough to profess to sell or shew relics of the fight ; indeed, scarcely a vestige of the heap of armour scattered over the field, or the numerous bones buried in it, has been discovered within the memory of man. The last relic found on Ban- nockburn was a rotten sword blade, turned up by the workmen employed in draining Halberd's Bog, where Bruce dug the concealed pits for baffling the approach of the English horse. In this short walk the stranger may see the steeple of St. Ninian's, left when the church was blown up by the rebels, as well as the spring of St. Xinian's, deemed a natural curiosity from the enormous volume with which it gushes forth. The line of elevations towards the south, called the Campsie Fells, will be of little interest to any one but a geologist. The highest point is not above 1500 feet above the level of the sea, and its elevation is gradual. The chain consists generally of trap amorphic and columnar. On the declivity, about five miles from Stirling, there is a curious cascade called Gilmour's I .inn, possessing the peculiarity of a cavern behind the water, whence one can look through it ; and, without instituting farther comparisons, it may at least be said that the operation can be performed without the sense of insecurity felt in passing through the hollow way beneath Niagara. On the way to the pretty dell CAMBUSKENNETH ABBEY. L'. pierced by this stream is passed the venerable fortalice of Touch, a residence of the Seton family, consisting of an ancient battlemented square tower, with additions in the massive Vanburgh style. It stands amid oak trees, remarkable in this part of Scotland for their age and girth. STIRLING TO CAMBUSKENNETH AND THE FORTH- The Ferry 1 mile. The Abbey 1J- mile. A visit to " Cambuskenneth's Abbey grey" will repay the ecclesiologist, who will find it a fine specimen of the early English or first pointed Gothic, though the only part remaining entire, the tower, is of a more heavy, massive, and Norman-looking character than the pointed architecture generally assumes in England. It is best reached by a boat in its neighbourhood from the opposite side of the Forth. In attempting to proceed to it by its own side of the river, one is swept round some miles of provoking windings. The Forth here, and for about half-a-mile above Stirling, is tidal, and therefore the banks, except at high water, are slimy and unpleasant. It may as well be mentioned, indeed, that throughout the Carse of Stirling the river is best seen at a distance. The banks are muddy, and the stream winds past them, stained and sluggish like many an English river. At the same time, being of mountain origin, it is subject to inundations which rend the banks and cover the trees hanging from them with ragged streamers from the spoils of the river. 26 OLD BRIDGE STIRLING. STIRLING TO ABBEY CRAIG. VI lies. i Cross New Bridge. l Causewayhead (take road to back of village to the right). 2 Toll, after passing which a small path to the right leads up to the Craig. Airthrey (Lord Abercromby) on left. 2- Logic Church, and road to top of Damyat on left. THE OLD BRIDGE. The old bridge of Stirling, which will at once be distinguished from its spruce modern neighbour, is not only an interesting piece of architecture, but re- markable for its historical associations. It existed long before there was any bridge upon the Tay, or any other bridge over the Forth, and was thus absolutely the gate between the north and the south. Nor was it a very broad or even gate, but narrow, tortuous, and steep. Its inconvenience suggested the erection of the modern bridge by its side, but, with great good taste, the old structure, though superseded, was not removed. It was near or upon the old bridge that Archbishop Hamilton, who will be mentioned in connection with Dumbarton, was hanged. ABBEY CRAIG. The most considerable elevation close to Stirling is that beautiful cluster of precipitous rocks rising through a rich maze of sylvan verdure, called the Abbey Craig. It rises to a height of 560 feet a crest of rock over- topping a talus or bank, and commands one of the finest views of Stirling and the surrounding country. The rock is a greenstone, with so peculiarly lustrous and hard a crystalline fracture, that it has often been used for mill-stones. OCHILS BEN CLEUCH. 27 OCHILS AND DAM Y AT. Of the mountain range of the Ochils, the nearest and most picturesque is Damyat, in form more resem- bling the Highland mountains than its flat-topped neighbours. To one of these, however, very flat and round, called Ben Cleuch, belongs the palm of height it is 2400 feet above the sea level. A great object in surmounting it besides the innate satisfaction of climbing a hill, which has indescribable charms for some ambitious minds is the noble prospect from the top. It has to be noticed that the highest hills do not always afford the most distinct and comprehensive panoramas. Those which rise from the centre of great mountain clusters sometimes give the spectator a confused impres- sion, from the crowd of tops around, as if he were on some great consolidated sea. From the summit of Ben Cleuch, however, you look straight across the broad green intervening valley to the Grampian range on the other side, rising, though so distant, as clear and dis- tinct as the opposite side of a street from your drawing- room window. The hills can be all singled out, from Ben Lomond to Ben Lawers, in one distinct and beau- tiful chain, the outlines of their peaked summits becoming clearly visible against the sky. The scene in some degree resembles the panorama of the Alps from the summit of the Righi in Switzerland, deficient, of course, in the snowy summits and blue glaciers which make so prominent a figure in that scene. The Ochils furnish a rich field to the geologist and mineralogist. The general character of the range is that of a great igneous mound, developing itself in amygdoloid felspar and porphyry, and occasionally in fine pentagonal columns of basaltic greenstone. Its structure used to be well seen to the traveller in the 28 OCHILS. deep romantic valley of Glen Farg, through which the old post road to Perth winded. The clinkstone might there be seen in curved beds ; and Professor Nicol enumerates among the minerals obtainable, analcime, mesotype, stilbite, prehnite, and konilite. On the metaliferous character of the range, the same writer says " Some metallic veins are found in these rocks, particularly in the clinkstone. From one in the Wood- hill, near Alva, 50,000 or 60,000 worth of silver is said to have been extracted, and it also contained peach- blossom coloured cobalt ore. In the hills near this, not less than fourteen or fifteen veins, containing ores of silver, cobalt, lead, copper, or iron, are known. In the Gloom Hill, near Castle Campbell, a vein was formerly wrought, the ores being lead, copper, and silver, along with heavy spar. Copper has also been found at Blair Logic and Airthrey, in a dark-coloured tufa the vein at the latter being from four to five feet wide, and, besides the copper, also furnishes ores of lead, cobalt, and silver." The scenery of the Ochils is peculiar, and unlike any other in Scotland. At a distance they look like steep mounds running in a straight line, as uniform as if they were artificially raised and smoothened, and thus seem to be destitute of breaks and variety of scenery. But they are cut by deep clefts, so narrow as not to be visible at a distance, and all the more striking from that characteristic. The sides of these clefts are very steep and precipitous, and the banks, with precipices between, so close that it would seem no great feat to throw a stone across from hill to hill. In the lowest level of these cavities there generally runs a brook on its brawling course, struggling among great boulders fallen from the impending rocks, leaping over stony shelves, or sweeping, scarcely visible, between cliffs ALLOA CLACKMANNAN TOWER. 29 which almost over-arch it. These glens are silent and uninhabited ; indeed, they are too narrow and steep to be dwelt in ; yet, as the manufacturing villages of the plain below, such as Tillicoultry, are brought close up to the sudden rise of the hills, for the sake of getting the advantage of the water-power, one is sometimes startled, in these narrow secluded glens, by the distant snort of a steam-engine. STIRLING TO ALLOA. The best way to reach Alloa is by Rail. Alloa House, } mile. Clackmannan Tower, 1 mile. The town of Alloa, where the river Forth widens into the firth or estuary, is a seaport town, containing five or six thousand inhabitants, possessed of considerable trade and manufactures, and a hereditary fame for the brewing of good ale. Close by are the modern mansion and the remains of the ancient mansion of the Earls of Mar, with a considerable stretch of pleasure-ground, decorated with ancestral trees. The turbulent ambi- tious Earl of Mar, who headed the rebellion of 1715, had, with other restless men, his gentler pursuits, and among them was a taste for laying out pleasure-grounds, in which he here greatly indulged. CLACKMANNAN TOWER. The square grim mass of old masonry called Clack- mannan Tower, stands conspicuously enough on the sum- mit of a windy hill, two miles from Alloa. To reach it, it is necessary to pass through the capital of the county of Clackmannan, the village of that ilk, as dirty and poor a double strip of road-lining houses as ever sent forth its collection of dogs to bark and children to stare at the passing wayfarer. Clackmannan Tower claims associa- 30 STIRLING TO DOLLAR AND CASTLE CAMPBELL. tion with the great King Robert Bruce, and it certainly was an abode of the Bruces. Some sixty years have now elapsed since the fortalice was inhabited by a veri- table descendant of the Bruces collaterals of the royal house. The old Lady Clackmannan, as Mrs. Bruce of Clackmannan was called, had a full sense of her heredi- tary dignity, which she supported chiefly through the potent influence of a helmet and two-handed sword, which she devoutly believed had been the property of the great King Robert. She was much admired in her day as a fine specimen of the old hardy high-spirited Scottish gentlewoman. When she chose to extend her august approval to a gentleman visitor, she would knight him with the two-handed sword, and she did not by any means believe this to be a barren distinction. STIRLING TO DOLLAR AND CASTLE CAMPBELL. ITINERARY AND DISTANCES. Mile*. Miles. J Cross Stirling Bridge. 3 Blairlogie on left. 1J Causewayhead village, pass through, and keep road by back of village to the right Airthrey (Lord Abercromby) on left. 41 Menstrie. -l JU.VUOMM)* 6| Cross Alva burn village of Alva on the left. 8 Alva House ( Johnstone, Esq.), on left. Tillicoultry House, on left. 2J Logie Kirk, and road to ; 11$ Dollar. Damyat on left ; 12J Castle Campbell. The Devon Water runs almost all the way on the right. The old-fashioned, irregular house and estate of Menstrie, was the original possession of the Earl of Stirling, already mentioned ; and in the house was born at a much later period (1734), a greater man still, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, the first British general to check the conquering progress of Napoleon ; and one who, to the greatest bravery and military skill, united a simple humane heart and honest purposes. DOLLAR CASTLE CAMPBELL. 31 DOLLAR. linn : Campbell.] The village of Dollar is presided over by a deco- rous-looking academy an establishment with a consi- derable foundation for teachers. On a rock projecting into one of the clefts of the Ochils, more broken and varied than the others, stand the ruins of CASTLE CAMPBELL. This old fortress of the Argyle family looks down on the village of Dollar. To reach the Castle a considerable ascent has to be made. Unless a very toilsome and even dangerous scramble is attempted up the projecting rock on which it stands, it is necessary to keep the upper level of the hill, and to descend on it by the neck of land leading to its projecting cliff. The Castle of Gloom, as it was called of old, is altogether peculiar. There is no other Scottish castellated ruin like it. It looks as if it were got up for some Italian chief's strong- hold, to act the mysteries of Udolpho in. All around stretches on the hill sides a deep dark forest line. It is like Thomson's description in the Castle of Indolence Full in the passage of the vale, above, A sable, silent, solemn forest stood ; Where nought but shadowy forms was seen to move, As Idless fancied in her dreaming mood : And up the hills, on either side, a wood Of blackening pines, aye waving to and fro, Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood. The forest coating of the hill sides, however, is broken by a precipitous gulf on either side of the castle, which makes the rock on which it stands a sort of peninsula. At the foot of each is a stream, and the two, meeting in front, rush united to join the Devon. The precipitous descent on either side, amid broken 32 THE DEVON. rocks, creeping wild flowers, and the mouldering remains of ancient trees, has its charms for the adventurous scrambler. One feature of the rock is very remarkable a narrow cut into its face, clean and sharp as if it had been just made with a gigantic hatchet. It is called Kemp's score, and tradition says that John Knox made it a place of abode, but with what rational view he can have done so, it is not easy to conceive. The architecture of the castle is almost as remark- able as its site. Part of it has an air of grim strength, but the other portions are light, elegant, and highly de- corated. There is a noble hall with ribbed vaulting, where the visitor is sometimes startled when his eye in- cidentally catches two grim faces cut in stone, seeming to glare down on him. This castle was a possession of the great Argyle family, distant from their semi-regal territories in Argyle- shire. It suffered, along with the neighbouring village, for its ownership in the great civil wars ; and Mon- trose, on his way from the north to the field of Kilsyth. attacked and burned it. Perhaps it never was restored as a feudal residence after that time. DOLLAR TO CAULDRON LINN, Miles. 3J Rumbling Bridge Inn. Carriages cannot proceed any further than this. Miles. 3J Devil's Mill. 3| Rumbling Bridge. 4* Cauldron Linn. In connection with the Devon and its scenery, the readers of the Lady of the Lake will remember " poor Blanch of Devon" A crazed and captive lowland maid, ' Ta'en in the morn she was a bride. When Roderick forayed Devon-side. DEVIL'S MILL. 33 Passing up the stream, between two and three miles above Dollar, there is a complete cluster of striking scenes, formed by the Devon cutting its way through the chain of the Ochil hills. To visit these, it is ne- cessary to return to Dollar, and from thence to take the high road westwards to the left ; but to the pedes - trian, it both saves distance and gives a more inte- resting journey, to strike off to the right a little beyond the main bridge, and pass by Cowden and Muchart Mill, towards Blair Hill, where he will reach the finest scene of the cluster the Cauldron Linn. If he prefer keeping the best to the last, he can take the regular road to Rumbling Bridge Inn, as above, and return this way. " THE DEVIL'S MILL" Is reached through a footpath among the trees, very close to the edge of the rocks. If you ask why it is so named, you are told it is owing to Sabbath desecration, because the mill in fact works all Sun- day. But the denomination is more probably attri- butable to a curious propensity for awarding pieces of grand scenery as the peculiar property of the author of evil. He seems to possess something of this kind in every part of the world. It is difficult to classify this phenomenon, except by saying, that it is a sort of general hurry skurry of water among the rocks. It is not pro- perly a waterfall, or properly a rapid, but partakes of both, and of every thing else that is confused and noisy and turbulent. THE RUMBLING BRIDGE, Where the stream cuts for itself a deep cavernous path through a barrier of the Ochils. Rocks, jet black in their nakedness, or white with lichen, or covered with a matting of creeping plants, kept green by the spray ; 34 RUMBLING BRIDGE CAULDRON LINN. trees, some old and rotting, others in their fresh youth, and at intervals caught here and there deep deep doAvn the white ravings of the furious river such are the objects seen from the bridge, amid the din of hollow roaring. There are temptations to the adventurous to scramble about here and there to obtain more distinct views of what is going on among all the noise below ; but it is nervous work, not fitted for fluctuating heads or un- steady feet in fact it had better be let alone. The present bridge, crossed by the road, a goodly stone para- peted arch, is far too steady to deserve the old name of the Rumbling Bridge. That applied to a small narrow arch, without a parapet, which will be seen stuck be- tween the rocks under the expanding arch of the new bridge, as if some one had dropped it into the cleft, and it had stuck there and could not be got out again. It must have been an unpleasant operation to ride or drive across that bridge. THE CAULDRON LINN, A very striking waterfall one of the finest in Scot- land. At two bounds the river clears its way from the range of the Ochil chain into the vale below. Standing near the edge of the upper fall we look through a narrow opening in the rock sheer into the valley, where the river, snow-white and furious at our feet as it takes its leap, is seen meandering calm and tranquil, as if it had madly leaped no barriers, and no rocks impeded its dimpled stream. Taking the opposite view, and looking up from the vale below, the white cataract is seen winding its way in indefinite reaches upwards through the black rocks, as if it came from some strange unknown world far behind. The top of the pit above is so narrow that people have been tempted to leap across ; distances, CAULDRON LINN. 35 however, are deceptive in such places, the senses reel, and footings are slippery. The water has bored many round holes in the black basaltic rock, whence it is supposed to have got its name of Cauldron, from the likeness of the same to great cast-iron cauldrons boiling eternally one of these, peculiarly large, is at the stage between the two falls, where the water takes an eccen- tric gyration before taking its second leap. An adven- turous tourist, who attempted the leap at the edge, after being shot down the first fall, was discharged into this cauldron, where his friends above saw him. His posi- tion was awfully critical, for the whirling of the waters made the greater part of the contents of the cauldron a sort of quicksand, and there he was gradually settling down beyond human relief. Some one ran to a neigh- bouring village, and a rope was got at the critical moment, the water approaching close to his lips ; but a gentle hold of the rope enabled him to keep above the insidious quicksands, and he was saved. STIRLING TO BRIDGE OF ALLAN DUNBLANE ARDOCH CAMP. Miles. Miles. Causewayhead. 6| Kippendavie on right (2 3 Bridge of Allan, cross Allan Water and take road to the right. 4f Reeross Allan Water on right. 5 Kippenross, on right. 5J Dunblane. miles to right from this, Sheriffmuir). 10J Keep road to left. 11 Cross Allan Water. 12 Ardoch House on right. 12J Cross Bridge of Ardoch Ardoch camp on right. Let us now briefly indicate what the tourist may find worthy of a visit along the western declivity of the Ochils. By the usual high road or the railway, he comes to the village of 36 BRIDGE OF ALLAN DUNBLANE. (3) BRIDGE OF ALLAN, [/WHS.- Philp's Royal; Anderson's Queen's.] Nestling itself in the sun, behind wooded spurs of the mountain range, which protects it from the north and the east wind those two terrors of the delicate-lunged in Scotland. This is now in the hey-day of its reputa- tion, as the most popular watering-place in Scotland. Its primary attraction is the Airthrey mineral springs, tour in number, and with as many divergencies of medi- cinal character. They were discovered during the work- ing of thfe Airthrey copper mine. It is an important consideration for those who sojourn here, that the neigh- bouring landowners have with wise liberality made it their business to render the place attractive by the free use of their grounds. (4|) KIPPENROSS, the seat of Mr. Stirling, is re- markable for a vast and ancient plane-tree standing in the lawn. (5) DUNBLANE. [fnns : Kinross'.] THE CATHEDRAL, partly used as the parish church, is in better condition than many of the ecclesiastical re- mains in Scotland. The nave is in the oldest pointed style, the choir of a period rather later, when mullions were filled into the windows, and decoration was making progress. The tower is evidently the oldest of all, having decided marks of Norman work. Some of the prebends' oaken stalls and other pieces of carved work have been preserved, and there is a recumbent stone effigy of a man in armour, one of the powerful lords of Strathallan. The chief celebrity of the see of Dun- blane is in its cemetery. One of its bishops was the celebrated Leighton, who left his library, still preserved, to the clergy of the diocese. SIIERIFFMUIR ARDOCH CAMP. 37 Leaving Dunblane by the north road, and (6) turn- ing to the right through the plantations of Kippendavie, we may visit the field of SHERIFFMUIR, Already referred to under the account of Stirling. It Ls u bleak windy muir, now partly covered with a dwarfish plantation of fir trees, in which stands a stone railed round, called by the country people the battle stone. The character of the muir explains the awkward nature of the conflict, from the two armies not facing each other. This arose from the curve of the ground which prevented them from seeing each other until close at nand. Hence it came about that the right wing of either was victorious over the enemy's left, and that portions of the two armies fled in opposite directions, justifying the sarcastic poetical description There's some say that we wan, Some say that they wan, Some say that nane wan at a', man ; But ae thing I'm sure, That at Sheriffmuir, A battle there was which I saw, man ; And we ran, and they ran, And they ran, and we ran, And we ran, and they ran awa, man. (12) Ardoch house and grounds (Major Moray Starling), in which may be seen the ROMAN CAMP OF ARDOCH, Already mentioned. It is remarkably well kept, and the several ridges of the square station are nearly as sharp and distinct as the glacis of a modern for- tress. It will amply repay the visit of the student of Roman castramentation. He will find it to contain remains of three different objects. First, a station or 38 AUCHTERARDER AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. citadel, with its large permanent embankments. Next, the remains of a heptagonal area of a very distinct character, which may be viewed as a porcestrium ; and third, the remains of two parallelogram camps, such as armies threw up on the march. Notwithstanding these well sounding names, however, it is but fair to tell the tourist uninterested in castramentation, that he will not see anything in these fragmentary mounds to astonish him. The archaeologist, however, will ; and if he desire, after seeing them, to study them farther, we can but refer to Sandy Gordon, who, when he wrote his Ttinerarium Septentrionale, saw the remains in a more complete state, to Koy's Military antiquities, and to Stuart's Caledonia Romana. In the neighbourhood there are several hill forts, and the glen of Kincardine, covered with underwood, where a small stream forms many cascades. The ruins of two castles have a traditionary interest the one, called Kincardine, was the seat of the family of Mon- trose, and as such was dismantled by Argyle in retalia- tion for the destruction of Castle Campbell. Another, called Castle Ogilvie, is supposed to have been the place to which Dundee retired for safety when he was concocting the war against the revolution. Six miles distant is a place of another kind, the vil- lage of Auchterarder, which the traveller will see dis- tinctly enough if he be travelling by rail to Perth. It is renowned in ecclesiastical controversy, having not only witnessed the commencement of the proceedings which ended in the disruption of the Church of Scot- land, and the formation of the Free Church in 1843, but having been also very conspicuous in the early part of last century by the " Auchterarder Test," the con- flicts about which were mainly instrumental in produc- ing the secession. TULLJBARDINE. 39 There are no old houses in this or the neighbour- ing villages, as they were burned down by the insur- gents in 1715, to prevent them from affording shelter to Argyle's army. There are, however, many pleasant and varied scenes among the mountains, which make the spot a very agreeable place of sojourn for a summer week, and report speaks favourably of the trouting in the streams. About three miles from Auchterarder, in the parish of Blackford, is Tullibardine, which affords the second title of the Duke of Athole, and is so well known in connec- tion with the '45. There is an ancient ruined chapel on the ground, and one or two aged thorn trees have a curious history. Old Lyndsay of Pitscottie tells an almost fabulous history of a wonderful ship built in James the Fourth's time, to contain a thousand men. It used up all the oak timber in Fifeshire, which may be true enough, without its being also true what Pits- cottie says, that she was " the largest ship ever seen before." He concludes by saying, " Her length and breadth is planted in hawthorn at Tullibardine by the wright that helped to make her." But the remaining trees are too scanty to furnish a plan and elevation of the wonderful ship. Another interesting spot is Glen Eagles, a wild sequestered ravine, the seat of the once celebrated family of Haldane of Glen Eagles. Here too is a ruined chapel, and many hill forts and tumuli are scattered about. STIRLING TO CALLANDER AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. BLAIR DIU'MMOND, LOUD KAMES, AND THE DRAINAGE OF THE CARSE - DOUNE CASTLE - DEAXSTON - CALLANDER - LOWLAND AND HIGHLAND TOWNS - CREEL HOUSES - GEOLOGY - THE ROMAN CAMP - BRACKLIN LINN - THE PASS OF LENY - THE LUBNAIG - WALK TO THE TOP OF BENLEDI -- HILL CLIMBING IS GENERAL - MEMORANDA FOR PEDESTRIAN TOURISTS, TAKING CALLANDER AS A CENTRE. Mile* 1 The Toll. Craigforth on left. ITINERARY. Miles. Cross River Forth by Bridge of Drip, on the right the Forth joins the Teith. Ochtertyre House on right. Blair Drummond on left. Kincardine Kirk on left keep road to right. 7f Cross Bridge of Teith Deanston on left, Doune Castle on the right. 8 Doune. 9 Burn of Cambus, and Doune Lodge on right. Lanrick Castle on left. Cambusmore on left. 14 Cross Kelty Water. 15?r Cal'iander. THE road at its commencement winds along the northern base of the Castle Rock, and at the second mile crosses the Forth. It affords fine views of the Castle Rock, the Abbey Craig, and Craigforth on the one side, as well as of the Highland mountains rising abrupt over the nearer slopes on the other. It is not, how- ever, a road which possesses other immediate attrac- tions for the tourist, however many it may have for the owners of its rich productive acres. Fine park timber, a sluggish river, fat clayish soil producing abun- dant wheat and bean crops, and tidy comfortable cot- tages, with flower gardens here and there, may make FLANDERS MOSS. 41 the Englishman think that Scotland is not so different from his native country after all. In a few miles, how- ever, he will come to symptoms of a country not so old in peaceful wealth as his own, and indicative of com- paratively late reclamation from barrenness. (1^-) The first mansion-house passed on the left is Craigforth (Thomas Smith, Esq.), long possessed by the family of Callender, nestling among trees under the shadow of the rock already mentioned, whose name it bears. (4) On the left is the corner, as it were, of the original cake of moss which lay heavy over all the now fruit- ful carse, and still covers a large portion of its interior surface. Part of it is called Flanders Moss, evidently from its similarity to the tracts of heath land near the lower Ehine ; and one part of the reclaimed territory is named the Polder the term applied to fields recovered from the sea in Holland. Near the spot where it begins, a tree-covered tumulus will be seen on the left hand side. It is of a kind numerous in Scotland, and two of them, farther down the valley of the Forth between Stirling and Falkirk, have been celebrated in history as Dunipace Hills. The symmetrical outline of such emi- nences, and the gravelly and travelled character of their contents, has generally led to the belief that they are artificial, and cover the bones of great kings or heroes. The traditions of the country have universally given them such an artificial origin, and no doubt many great tumnli were built by the aboriginal British ; but, occurring in flat alluvial places, geologists have now found a different origin for them, and they are sup- posed to have been ancient islands or shallows formed by the peculiar currents of the waters which formerly covered the flat land around, which have been left on their subsidence. (4) Ochtertyre house (Sir David Dundas) on the 42 STIRLING TO CALLANDER. right. (5) A road on the right strikes, winding among wood, through which may be partially seen Blair-Drum- mond house (Home Drummond, Esq.) If the tourist should desire a closer examination than the partial glimpse through the trees presents, it is understood that the family are liberal in permitting access to their grounds. The source of chief interest to the spot is its having been the abode of Lord Kames. Leaving the flat carse land, we edge up through gently broken ground, and at the sixth mile, near the modern church of Kincardine, the roads fork that to Callander taking the right hand, while the way to Monteith and Aberfoyle is to the left. At eight miles from Stirling the ground is more deeply broken, and we are among scenery and baronial associations at the village of (8) DOUNE. [/. Macintyre's Woodside of l)oune.] Here the Teith is spanned by a noble bridge tin- work of one who, though by craft a tailor, was thoroughly noble in heart. An inscription, pretty legible, empanel- led in the left hand parapet, tells us that, in the year of God 1535, founded was this bridge by Robert Spital, tailor to the most noble Princess Margaret, the Queen of James IV. Along with the narrative he boldly blazons the distinctive sign of his profession, a pair of scissors en saltier. There is an old popular rhyme about this bridge, bringing it into association with a bridge of Callander, long since gone, and spoken of as old while the Doune bridge is new. The new brig o' Doune and the auld brig o' Callander, Four-and-twenty bows on the auld brig o' Callander. The four-and-twenty bows seem to refer to ribs of the UOUNE CASTLE. 43 arches ; but what is farther meant we must leave the reader to determine, unbiassed by any opinion of ours. DOUXE CASTLE. Above the humble tailor's bridge frown in feudal grandeur the towers of Murdoch of Albany's strong- hold, roofless and ruinous, but still a majestic pile, with its two massive square towers, its machicolations and turrets, its high embattled walls projecting forward in defiance, and, most striking of all, its fine commanding site, which spreads its dusky masses above the woods lining the steep banks of Teith to the water's edge. A fine rambling place does the old castle make for an idle forenoon, with its spiral stair-cases, its dungeons, and its parapet walks. Nor is it without its own inci- dental history. The minister of the parish, in his statistical account, says, " It seems to be unquestionable that the knight of Snowdoun had slept at Doune Castle on the night previous to the chase ; " and we shall not gainsay him. But there are events connected with it fully more distinctly ascertained. Murdoch, Duke of Albany, who governed the country when James I. was a prisoner in England, possessed this stronghold, and probably built it. The young king, when he returned, struck the whole family of Albany with fatal vengeance for the ambition which they had shown ; and the old governor himself was executed on the castle hill of Stir- ling, whence he could see the towers of his own semi- regal fortress. It became subsequently a royal resi- dence ; and the names of several queens of Scotland, including of course Queen Mary, are mentioned as hav- ing been its inmates. The reader of Waverley will remember that Doune Castle figures there as a fortress with a janitor and a governor, Donald Stewart, " Lieu- 44 STIRLING TO CALLANDER. tenant-Colonel in the service of his Eoyal Highness Prince Charles Edward." It was natural that the Jacobite army should make the most of it, for it was for some time the only fortalice which they preserved in Scotland. Here John Home, the author of Douglas, was actually a prisoner in their hands, and performed an achievement for which he ever afterwards deemed him- self entitled to assume the air of a great warrior. Home had been a volunteer, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk. With five others he was shut up in a chamber deemed sufficiently far from the ground to render escape unlikely. Instigated, however, by the adventurous spirit of the poet, they twisted their bed- clothes into ropes, and descended one by one. The parts of the rope had separated ere the last of them descended, and he had to drop so far that he dislocated his ankle and broke some ribs ; but his companions carried him, and they all escaped. THE DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. The influence of this extensive establishment is very percep- tible in the busy and populous character of the neighbourhood, the appearance of ease and comfort, and the many good houses, with their patches of pleasure-grounds. The works owe their origin and greatness to the abundant water-power and Richard Ark- wright. The establishment became the source of several great Glasgow fortunes the original projectors having still more or less connection with it. About the beginning of this century, the chief owner was a Yorkshire qnakcr, with the peculiar name of Floun- ders. The works have always been celebrated for immediately embodying every new improvement in manufacture or organization. The last conspicuous person connected with the place was .Mr. Smith a name well known in the scientific and prartiral world, when its owner is spoken of as Smith of Deanston. Besides the organizations connected with the Deanston Works and their machinery, the- late projects about drainage, irriga- tion, the providing cities with pure water, and the disposal of their impurities for the fructification of the soil, have all owed some- thing to his suggestive mind. But " the Deanston system of LANRICK CASTLE. 45 draining.'' generally called " thorough draining," which has done so much to alter the face of agricultural Scotland, was his in- vention. It consists of applying to agricultural land, not merely local drainage where it seems needed, but a general system throughout for the effective removal of the surplus waters. (9) DOUXE LODGE, formerly called Cambus Wal- lace (the Earl of Murray), to whom, Doune Castle now belongs. It is assuming, through recent operations, a very park-like appearance, with its lodges and extensive offices, crowned by a bran new steeple, which makes people ask if it is the parish church. (10^) LANRICK CASTLE (Andrew Jardine, Esq.), on the opposite side of the river, an old possession of the MacGregors within the low country. (13^) CAMBUSMORE (Miss Buchanan), on the left, where Sir Walter Scott lived in youth, and whence he wandered beyond the Highland line into those scenes which he said became indelibly imprinted in his recol- lection, and which perhaps he little thought he was indelibly to impress on the minds of so large a portion of the human race. Gradually we find the valleys getting narrower the river more rough and noisy the outlines of the hills nearer and everything far and near assuming a rougher aspect. (14) A bridge crosses the wild Kelty, which further up makes the waterfall of Bracklin. The bridge, though old, has a wide span, for the Kelty is a formidable stream, apt to swell into a rage at a moment's warning, and become a very troublesome passenger be- neath a narrow arch. The tourist in the Highlands will generally observe the peculiar expansive character of the arches over the torrents, as well as the narrowness of the parapets the design being to afford a free opening to the stream, and obviate a broad resisting mass should it overflow. From the western parapet of Kelty bridge will be found hanging some mysterious chains. But 4G CALLANDER. the tourist is not to suppose that they are, as they might seem to an imaginative eye, some remnant of an instrument of Highland punishment. It will be suffi- cient to believe that a grating had some time or other been attached to them to keep the cattle from passing along the stream under the bridge, and that one day, as might have been expected, the Kelty in its wild frolics had carried it off. CALLANDER, [7nj: M'Gregor's Dreadnought.] A considerable village, stretching for some distance along either side of the road. The rough conglo- merate, of which it is chiefly built, gives its houses a very rugged appearance ; but a method has been found by bands of smooth sandstone to give the rougher ma- terial an ornamental character as rustic work. Callan- der is a mongrel sort of village, neither Highland nor lowland some of the dirt and laziness it has of the former, and some of the hard stony and slaty comfort of the latter. Neither kind is like the English village, nestling among its trees and woodbine. The High- lander is not seen in his native condition at Callander, where partly the village is occupied by retired members of the farmer families in the neighbourhood, partly by the shopkeepers or u merchants " who supply the agricultural population for some miles round; but mainly it is at the service of tourists. They are the main market of the district ; and all things are arranged, so far as national habits will permit, for their accommo- dation and gratification. If the stranger had been de- sirous of seeing a genuine Highland village, we would have recommended him to step a mile onward to Kil- mahog ; but that has undergone a great change, like its neighbours, towards stony and unpicturesque looking CALLAXDER VICINITY. -U respectability. We remember it of old when the huts were like so many lumps of turf lying in the mud. Their structure was turf, built up, or inclosed in wicker ware ; the smoke curled out of a hole, as if the mass were a heap of peats undergoing spontaneous combus- tion ; and, as Andrew Fairservice said of the Clachan of Aberfoyle, which also is changed, you might know that you had reached it by the horses going through the roofs. Wicker ware or wattle was much used for edi- fices in the Highlands. The tourist will see a modern specimen in a fence along the Lubnaig about three miles beyond Callander, and in the village of Strathire it is still in use for partitions. It is something like the Indian bamboo stockade. Oaken staves or stakes are placed upright, and the wattles are interlaced between them like basket-work. It made a strong though irregular fabric, and was used for making carts, for fences, and for the walls of houses, which, when so constructed, were called creel houses so much for what might have been seen close to Callander but has passed away. As Callander is but partially Highland in the cha- racter of its people, so it is in its immediate scenery. The geological characteristics which make the sharp peaks and fantastic contortions of the Highland mountains have not yet properly begun. They belong to the mica slate and kindred formations, so twisted, marled, and con- torted, and at the same time so hard and indestructible, while we are still in the red sandstone formations with occasional igneous risings through them. Still the mural precipice west from the village is a fine bold rock, sand- stone though it be. The surface of the nearer hills mainly consists of masses of conglomerate, with its small boulders of porphyry, pebble, and greenstone, which, from their broken unequal surface and dark hue, give a savage roughness to the lower ranges of heights. 48 CALLANDER VICINITY. Callander has one or two objects of immediate interest close by, which the tourist generally sees at odd hours, before he starts on any of the greater ex- cursions. He will find a comprehensive and active- rivalry among the junior male population of the vil- lage to have the pleasure of conducting him towards any of the scenes which he desires to honour by his pre- sence. But whatever little superfluity of service may be offered by the gillies of Callander is mitigated and mild in comparison with that of other touring districts ; and we contemplate it with kindly recollections. THE FALLS OF BRACKLIN Are a mile and a half from Callander. The way to them is by a rugged path over the hill, suitable for pedestrians only. To the characteristics of this fall fair Helen had recourse to describe her suitor, Roderick Dhu I grant him brave, But wild as Bracklin's thundering wave. It is formed by the little river Keltic a good name for a Highland stream which leaps from a considerable bank of red sandstone, and rumbles away in fine style among great masses of stone beneath. It has not the pretension of a cataract, with a glen of its own, and a deliberate formal descent from its ledge of rock into a lower level of country. It is but a burn finding its way among broken ground and stones, but the breaks are large enough for precipices, and the stones might be called rocks. Its very carelessness and want of pre- tension to be a great feature in the landscape, has a striking stirring effect to one who has never seen a tempestuous Highland burn. Bracklin is a dangerous place, where one should be careful of his footing on the CAT.LANDER VICINITY. 49 slippery and unprotected edges. A few years ago a marriage party of lowland peasants tried here some horse play or " daffing," as it is called ; but it came to a tragic end with, as far as we remember, two of them, who, tumbling into the broken angry waters, had no more ckance of life than if they had dropped into the crater of Hecla. THE ROMAN CAMP. Scott tells us of the Teith which Sweeps through the plain, and ceaseless mines On Bochastle the mouldering lines, Where Rome, the empress of the world, Of yore her eagle wings unfurled. This refers to some camp-looking mounds above the village, but what is chiefly called "the Koman Camp" is in the pleasure-grounds of a pleasant mansion retired back from the lower part of the village. These mounds of earth, which have the reputation of so distinguished an artificial origin, in some respects remind one of the procestrum at Ardoch, and have a very systematic artifi- cial character. But a creed is now current that these, and other mounds of a similar aspect close to streams, are not the doing of the hand of man, but the terraced banks thrown up by the streams, or left on the retire- ment of the waters, like the instances already men- tioned. This view is confirmed by the fact that on the wide haugh of Callander there are several detached mounds of this character ; one of them, a very correct circular one, stands opposite to the windows of M'Gre- gor's inn. Upon the neighbouring eminences, however, will be found remnants of mounds which may safely be 1 assigned as vestiges of British fortification ; at all events no stream could have raised its terrace banks there. 50 CALLANDER VICINITY. A very pleasant stroll for a sunny evening may be taken towards the pass of Leny. Afterwards, ap- proached on the way to the Trosachs, Strathire and Lochearnhead ; but it is worthy of more than one visit, and the tourist to whom the Grampians are a novelty must be anxious to get a truly Highland view, which he has not yet had. He passes in about a mile the village of Kilmahog on the left, and the mansion of Leny, formerly a small house, but lately enlarged and beturreted, on the right. As we go on, the folds of the hills become more close and complex. CALLANDER BRIDGE, Which is crossed on the way to the Trosachs, and stands so conspicuously on the left, is a favourite point for viewing them with full effect. There the vast mass of Benledi mounts right up in front, and nearer, crossing its line like the bastion of a fortress, to flank the approach, the comparatively lower but still lofty banks on the right stretch across the lower ranges of their more august neighbour. The whole imparts a powerful air of inaccessibility. The mountain ranges seems entirely to block the way, as if there were no entrance to the world beyond save by climbing their craggy shoulders. BENLEDI. Height, according to Trigonometrical Survey, 2381 feet above the mean level of the sea. It is generally ascended from the north side of Loch Venachar at Portinellan. The way to it is as follows: (|) Cross Callander Bridge, (H) Cross Carchonzie Bridge on right, then turn to left, (2) Coilantogle Ford on left, (2) Portinellan. From this strike up the hill to the right. The Gaelic name of Benledi is said to be the hill of the deity ; and it has the reputation of being an CALLANDER VICINITY. 51 altar for ancient heathen worship. In the statistical accounts it is said that down to a late period the bel- tane mysteries, remnants of heathen rites, and connect- ing themselves with the symbol of heathen worship, Bel or Bael, were performed on Benledi. It has a sad interest from a small desolate loch on its farther shoulder, called Loch-an-Corp, or the lake of the dead bodies, because a funeral party once crossing there on the ice, fell through and were drowned. The ascent from the Callander side of the hill is the most gentle and easy, and unless mist come on, there can be no danger, if the tourist is hardy enough to bear the fatigue. One of the chief cares is to avoid bogs, and this can be best accomplished by observing, when there is not hard stony ground, that where heath or juniper grows, there is generally dry footing. Patches of very pallid green, almost approaching to yellow, should always be avoided ; these mossy coverings, which look soft and enticing as velvet, often cover treacherous hidden springs. Black peaty ground has also to be avoided, unless a dry sum- mer has hardened it ; and the eye should become fami- liar with the wild hyacinths, the cotton grass, and the other scanty herbage which indicates not only a damp footing, but a bewildering interruption to the journey, sometimes danger. There may be much danger to the unguided wanderer if he do not look well to the ground he is going over, or if he is prevented from seeing it by mist. > There are rough precipices on the eastern side, towards Loch Lubnaig, and still more formidable rocks on the northern spurs of the mountain, to which, if he be not careful, he may chance to stray. Among hills it is worth remember- ing that the edge of a rapid stream is generally dry, and there is this advantage, if one has lost his reckon- ing, that by following a stream one is sure of getting 52 CALLANDER TO BALQUHIDDER. gradually upwards or downwards as the case may be. A stream descending the east side of Benledi, towards Loch Lubnaig, may be followed by a good scrambler among rocks. They are here piled in gro- tesque variety, so as beneath to look like a feudal castle, but one may find a way through them with a little care and attention. CALLANDER TO LOCH LUBNAIG, LOCH- EARN, BALQUHIDDER, AND LOCH VOIL. Miles. I Miles. 1 Kilmahog, keep road to 7^ Strathire. right Pass of Leny. St. Bride's Chapel on left. Loch Lubnaig, foot. Ardhullary House. Head of Loch. 10 King's House. 11J Balquhidder. 12 Loch Voil. 15 Loch Doine. On right, Braes of Balqu- hidder. Where the Lubnaig meets the stream from the other string of lakes, there is a grave-yard with a small inclosure ; above it is Bochastle already mentioned. (2) PASS OF LENY. " One of those steep passes by which the Highlands are accessible from the low- lands of Perthshire." Here the rocky banks approach closer to each other, making, indeed, in their lower range, a barrier across the valley through which the Lubnaig, notwithstanding the liquid melody of its name, breaks in harsh thunders, tumbling from ledge to ledge, sweeping round rocks, and eddying in dark inky pools. Ir is overshadowed by trees, which give the partial glances of the turbulent stream a certain mysterious awe. The scenery in this district has been celebrated by the illustrious pen in the Lady of the Lake. It was up the pass of Leny that the cross of fire was carried by young Angus of Duncraggan. LOCH LUBNAIG. 03 Benledi saw the Cross of Fire: It glanced like lightning up Strathire; O'er hill and dale the summons flew, Nor rest, nor pause young Angus knew ; The tear that gathered in his eye He left the mountain breeze to dry; Until, where Teith's young waters roll, Betwixt him and a wooded knoll, That graced the sable strath with green, The chapel of St. Bride was seen. Here the cross is delivered to Norman of Arnumdave, who starts off with it along the shores of Loch Lubnaig, and away toward the distant district of Balquhidder. (2^-) The chapel of St. Bride stands on the left on a small romantic knoll, between the opening of the Pass of Leny and Loch Lubnaig. After penetrating the Pass of Leny, the first great feature in the landscape is LOCH LUBNAIG, Skirted by the road, passing under umbrageous woods of birch, hazel, and pine. It accompanies the road for about five miles, and, after Loch Catrine, might be pro- nounced as lovely a lake as could be looked on. Its features are, however, quite peculiar. Its banks are soft and gentle where they immediately touch the water ; but the dark rocks of Benledi press close upon the banks, so as to form a ruling feature in the general scenery, and bestow on it features of massive grandeur. In a still evening, when the sun just peeps over the brow of the hill, gilding the eastern side of the lake, the contrast between the bright smooth water, undisturbed save by the bubbling leap of the trout, or perhaps the splash of a salmon, and the dark boundary of rocks, thrown into shadow by the retiring day, make as fine an alternation of the soft and the rugged as can well be seen. It is thus described in the opening scene of the Legend of .~>4 CALLAXDER TO BALQUHIDDER. Montrose : " Their course had been, for some time, along the banks of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the crimson beams of the western sun. The broken path, which they pursued with some difficulty, was in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-trees, and in others overhung by fragments of huge rock. Elsewhere, the hill, which formed the northern side of this beautiful sheet of water, arose in steep, but less precipitous acclivity, and was arrayed in heath of the darkest purple." (5) Ardhullary house, on the right, was the dwelling- place of James Bruce the Abyssinian traveller, who retired to this solitude from the sneers of a sceptical world. This was a singular end for such a life. After narrowly escaping from the murderoiis effects of the treacherous Abyssinian Naybe fleeing once and again for his life before wild beasts, and men nearly as wild defying a murderous marauder chief in his own fortalice mixing as a commander in the native wars catching the deadly disease of the tropics, and being worn to such a skeleton that his best friends did not know him after having been half buried in simooms of burning dust, reaching the sources of the Nile in spite of native opposition, and eating steaks out of liv- ing cows behold, when handing a lady down stairs after dinner, he slips, tumbles, and is killed. The hero of a hundred dangers had grown fat and pursy. We are bound to say that we believe the event did not happen at Ardhullary, but at Kinnaird, in the parish of Tarbert, in Stirlingshire. STRATHIRE VILLAGE, [Inn : Alexander Campbell.] A comfortable, well-conditioned, commonplace-look- ing, double row of peasants' houses, very different, in- BALQT7HIDDER AND ROB ROY's COUNTRY. 55 deed, from what it was some twenty years ago, what- ever appearance it may have had when the fiery cross glanced like lightning up Stratliire. At the eleventh mile we are at the comfortable- looking decent inn of KING'S HOUSE. Why it has that name we know not ; but it is to be found in the old maps long anterior to touring and the present edifice. It is not to be confounded with the ancient inn bearing the same name near Glencoe. Here the roads fork that on the left passing up Balquhidder, while the right leads to Lochearnhead. KING'S HOUSE TO BALQUHIDDER AND ROB ROY'S COUNTRY. (11-|) Balquhidder, close by Lechanscreaidan, if the tourist can charge his memory with such a name. Here, in the old grave-yard, close behind the school- house, on the right hand side of the road, may be seen what is called ROB ROY'S GRAVE. There is a handsome slab stone, with armorial bear- ings, having the character of a tombstone of that age, raised over a son who predeceased the great freebooter. What is called Eob Roy's grave-stone is a monument of totally different character. A figure is engraved, rather than sculptured, on one part, and a sword occu- pies another division. These representations, and some carvings like mystic knots, to be found on the ancient sculptured stones of Scotland, show this monument to be of considerable antiquity. It is not often, certainly, that tradition makes things more modern than they are. 56 CALLANDER TO BALQTJHIDDER, ETC. Yet the antiquary will probably assign this stone to a period centuries before Eob Roy's birth a circumstance which by no means militates against his having been buried in this churchyard, or against this stone having been placed over him, since it is far too old to have belonged as an ancestral monument to any family. Another stone with the ancient crossed sword sculp- tured on it, as the symbol alike of the warlike pursuit of the departed, and the emblem of meek endurance, in which he trusted for acceptance, lying beside Rob Roy's tomb, is evidently of equally great age. An ancient font, entirely undecorated, and of the most primitive form, may belong to the same period. It was at the old church of Balquhidder that the M'Gre- gors gathered round the amputated head of the king's deer-keeper, vowing to stand by the murderers, and it is likely enough that the venerable font may have wit- nessed the solemn ceremony. Though Balquhidder is thus intimately connected with the M'Gregors, the burial place of their great men was, as is well known, in Inch Cailliach, an Island of Loch Lomond. Balquhidder was the centre of Rob Roy's opera- tions, but it is a general mistake to suppose that Rob was a chief, or even, properly speaking, a gentleman of the clan. The chiefs of clans before his day had become ashamed of the practice of foraying, which the language of the law and of society classed with common pilfering. Perhaps they were not always anxious to suppress its practice among their clansmen, but they looked upon it as decidedly low. Rob was, by profes- sion, a highland farmer and drover or cattle-dealer. He thought, to be sure, that he had good blood in his veins, as what Highlander does not 'i and boasted of a connection with ( 'ampbell of Glenlyon ; but he had no pretensions to rank above the peasantry. As Bailie Nicol Jarvie savs, when Osbaldistone ROB ROY S COUNTRY. < asks if his connection is one of the Highland potentates " \a, na ; he's nane o' your great grandees o' chiefs, as they ca' them, neither though he is weel horn, and lineally descended frae auld (ilen Strae." Yet, for the sake of the romance, there is no doubt that Scott, in the novel, makes him act somewhat like a chief. His character was better personified in the Highland robher, Donald Bean Lean, who figures in Waverley, than in the novel called after his name ; and perhaps Sir Walter, having drawn so much upon his original and true character for the one novel, found it necessary to vary the shades and touches in the other. The origin of all Rob's errors was the same vulgar cause that makes waifs and strays in society in the present day mis- managed and unfortunate speculations, dishonoured bills, and bankruptcy. In modern days, stich a person would require to turn to some sort of very humble drudgery, or go to the workhouse. In Rob's time, contemporary with the palmy days of highway robbery in England, there were more resources for men of spirit. The Englishman took to the highway, the Highlander "took to the brae," and gathering all the scamps of the district about him, forayed or levied black mail. The condition into which his clan had been forced by the harsh laws directed against them favoured his projects. Other clans had their chiefs, who represented them, and were responsible for their good behaviour. But the M'(ire- gors were proscribed, and could not ostensibly unite themselves with any chief. To be chiefless was a great calamity in the Highlands. To say, ' Name your chief.'' was the most insulting taunt which could be thrown out against a man who had the mis- fortune to have none. The men so situated were called broken men, and were always the most ready to be employed in the de- signs of an unscrupulous and clever leader. It was thus that Rob, from a bankrupt cattle-drover, saw him- self metamorphosed into a captain of banditti. His conduct partook of his twofold nature : for he was not sanguinary as one brought up to the dirk might have been, nor was he, to say the truth, so magnanimously courageous as we are apt to suppose him. Pro- liahly he wanted not actual physical courage when put to it, but there was nothing ennobling in his cause or pursuits to call it forth, and he generally evaded danger when he could. As to po- litical matters, when people on the one side were professing to stand by the Revolution settlement and the Protestant religion, and on the other the Jacobite chiefs were devoting them- selves to the caiise of their exiled master, Rob displayed a philosophical impartiality, and served any party that paid him best, or allowed him the fairest opportunities of lifting cattle. In the '15. he professed to take the Jacobite side, but he was all along in the pay of the Duke of Argyle for the Hanover interest : and, when he was ordered to lay on at Sheriff-muir, knowing that 58 CALLANDER TO BALQUHIDDER, ETC. it would be contrary to his paction to take a part, he said if they could not gain the battle without him, they could not do it with him, and there was no necessity that he should trouble himself. Such was Kob, by whose grave, to which we de- dicate this eloge, Wordsworth uttered those reflections, certainly more beautiful than true, which made the Highland freebooter, like an ethical philosopher, analyse the elements of society, and find that its organization, under the existing social system, is utterly false, and that he, Rob, must take the machine to pieces, and reconstruct it in a simpler fashion 41 Yet was Rob Roy as wise as bravo. Forgive me if the phrase be strong ; A poet worthy of Rob Roy Must scorn a timid song. " Say then that he was wise as brave. As wise in thought as bold in deed ; For in the principles of things He sought his moral creed. l: Said generous Rob ' What need of books? Burn all the statutes and their shelves ; They stir us up against our kind, And worse, against ourselves.' " But Rob was not entirely destitute of some qualifications which recommended him to popular fame. His evasions of the law his rapture of persons so unpopular as the Duke of Montrose's factor his seizures of cattle from the Lowland lairds, who were all deemed the natural enemies of the Highlander were held to be very commendatory deeds ; but, desiring popularity, he ap- pears to have done acts of kindness and generosity to poor people, especially any who were connected with his own band, and thus he carried a reputation with other popular freebooters, of plunder- ing the rich of their superfluities, to eke out the scanty store of the poor. His sons, whose probable fate, when thrown on the world, with all their unhappy auspices, is so affectingly alluded to in tho novel, appear to have been far worse men than Rob. The wlmln tribe had a feud chiefly nursed and reared by Rob's sanguinary wife with a body of M'Larens, who had obtained a farm called BALQUH1DDER ROB ROY. 59 Invernenty, in those Braes of Balquhidder which the M'Gregors deemed peculiarly their own, and where they had squatted, from time immemorial, without dreaming of rent. Rob had come to terms with the strangers, as one great power treats with another ; hut the more revengeful sons still nourished malice, and one of them, Robin Oig, walking up to Invernenty with a long duck gun, took aim at the head of the family as he was ploughing a field, and mortally wounded him. If the tourist wishes to know the place where this characteristic tragedy happened, he will find the grounds once occupied by the croft or farm of Invernenty just above the small Loch Dhuine, on the south side of the stream, where it takes a bend in the haugh. It was not to be, however, by the M'Gregors that the intruding family were to be driven forth, but by a totally different power, and the history of their de- parture is eminently curious and interesting. A change in the condition of the estates, when they were to be converted into sheep farms, led to the ejection of the M'Larens. The function fell, as 'law-agent, to Mr. Scott, a highly-respectable practitioner in Edinburgh. Though in the last quarter of the eighteenth cen- tury, it appears that officers of the law, could not venture, unprotected, into so remote and lawless a district, and a party of soldiers was sent up to see the ejection executed. They were ac- companied by a young gentleman from the office to report back that all was properly performed, and this young gentleman was the future Sir Walter Scott, who thus, going as an attorney's clerk, to serve a writ of ejectment, got the first glimpse of the scenery and manners which he worked into the Lady of the Lake, Waverley, and Rob Roy. Balquhidder was one of the scenes of an outrage by Rob Roy's sons one of the last of the kind perpetrated in the High- lands, for it occurred so lately as the year 1752. Seeing that money was becoming the source of all power, they thought it would be a good thing to get possession of an heiress, and induce her to marry one or other of them no matter which. They fixed their eyes on a young widow, named Key, who lived in the old mansion of Edinbellie, near the pass of Aberfoyle, and very con- venient for immediate removal within the Highland line. Col- lecting such remnants of their father's freebooting band as remained unhanged, they came by surprise on the old mansion and carried off their victim, doubled over, and tied on a horse's back. Sir Walter Scott says they were seen by many people, who dared not. however, attempt a rescue, and " among others who saw them was that classical and accomplished scholar, the late Professor William Richardson of Glasgow, who used to describe as a terrible dream their violent and noisy entrance into the house where he was then residing. The Highlanders filled 60 CALLANDER TO BALQUHIDDER. the little kitchen, brandishing their arms, demanding what they pleased, and receiving whatever they demanded. James Mohr, he said, was a tall, stern, and soldier-like man. Robin Oig looked more gentle -dark and yet rugged in complexion a good looking young savage. Their victim was so dishevelled in her dress, and forlorn in her appearance and demeanour, that he could hardly tell whether she was alive or dead." Robin was selected as the bridegroom, his brother James holding the bride while a clergyman of some kind was got to per- form the marriage ceremony. It does not appear that the Estab- lished clergyman would have gone quite so far in assisting the outrage ; but, under the influence of the lawless set he was among, he was compelled to give it his countenance. The bride and bridegroom came formally to the church of Balquhidder, where the clergyman received them as married persons of his flock, the poor woman not daring to say nay. This outrage aroused tin- latent power of the law. Balquhiddrr was occupied by troops. It was impossible any longer to put the civil power at active de- fiance, and the brothers attempted to make out that the widow had consented to be run away with, and was legally married. She died while the discussion went on. Robin the bridegroom was hanged, while his brother, supposed to be the more guilty, escaped, and led a vagabond life in France. Such are the scenes to which the Braes of Balqu- hidder were witnesses a century ago. Nothing can be more in contrast with the placid beauty of the solitary glen and its sweet lakes, now that lawless man no more pollutes them with his presence. Penetrating the wilderness above the hamlet called the Kirktown of Balquhidder, we pass but two farm-houses in the whole strath Craigrie by the side of Loch Yoil, and Inver- lochlairg, several miles up, at the foot of the higher braes. (12) LOCH VOIL, Alone is three and a half miles long ; but if we add to it the small Loch Dhuine, separated from its upper part by a broad patch of haugh, which narrows the lake to a stream, the whole makes a walk of about five miles. It is a beautiful lake, fringed, in many LOCH VOIL. 61 places with trees like Loch Lubnaig ; but few places even in Scotland have snch an air of solitude and re- moteness from the haunts of men. The feeling of lone- liness is even increased when we leave the lochs and enter the level haugh above, which in some ancient day had formed part of the bed of a greater expanse of inland water. What almost tends to increase this feel- ing of loneliness is the alluvial rich-looking character of the haugh, and the beautiful soft green pasture which cushions the braes or lower ranges of the hills ; it looks as if man had uses for the spot, and must have once frequented it. The feeling possibly is suggested by the knowledge that the now deserted valley swarmed at one time with the predatory race of whom we possess such strange legends ; and truly we have no difficulty in seeing the relics of their existence in the grassy mounds which cover the ruins of old cottages, and in the decaying walls which show later abandonment. May we say. as the American poet says of the Indians, A noble race, but they are gone, With their old forests wide and deep ; And we have fed our flocks upon Hills where their generations sleep. The tourist probably has not fed his flocks upon the hills ; but we shall warrant that he must have eaten the mutton thereof. The Braes of Balquhidder are re- nowned for that commodity, as the tourist will easily infer from the beautiful green pastures, even if he do not see the interesting animals themselves. This green- ness is very remarkable, especially in contrast with the bleak, dark, heathery coating of the other sides of the hills. It does not seem to arise from geological forma- tion, for all consist of the same mica slate and its con- geners ; and the clergyman of the parish says, in the statistical account, that it is a new feature, for of old 62 CALLANDER TO BALQUHIDDER. the Braes were as brown as their neighbours. Is it owing to persevering sheep feeding ? Here, as well as in Glencroe and other valleys with good lower stretches of pastoral grass, one may see the very beautiful sight, commemorated by an old poet, of the sheep "reding in raw" or row. In the rugged upper reaches of the Braes, they can only find narrow paths, to pass from ledge to ledge of grass ; and, as they are driven to the lower valleys at night, they may be seen far up in long strings of minute white dots along the faces of the dusky rocks. They might be compared to strings of seed pearls on the neck of an African beauty, if one wished to be poetical. These rocks grow higher and more rugged as the adventurous pedestrian ascends the glen. Great gullies open here and there on the right, affording glimpses of the mountain masses of Ben More, Stobinain, and Meal Naughtan. If he has proceeded so far that he does not desire to return to King's House, the pedestrian may pass by one of the water-sheds into another strath ; but it will be well that he consider which he adopts, as there are two things materially different finding your- self at eve in a valley with a comfortable inn, and finding yourself at the same time in a valley without a human habitation. By striking to the northward near Ben Charra, you may reach Glengyle and the head of Loch Catrine. By penetrating any of the formidable gullies between the vast crags on the other side, one may penetrate to Glen Dochart, on the great north road to Fort-William. The nearest way, perhaps, of completing the expedition, will be to go due west, strike Glen Falloch, and repair to the comfortable inn at In- verarnan. To accomplish this, the pedestrian, keeping a small lake on his left, crosses part of the shoulder of Ben Charra, to avoid the morasses of the water-shed ; BRAES OF BALQUHIDDER. 63 and, when he finds the streams descend almost due west down very steep and rocky hills, he descends with it. If he have found the proper direction, he will see the wild twisted crags of Ben Arthur to the westward, and will be cheered by observing beneath his feet the sullen dark waters of the upper reach of Loch Lomond, while through the openings on the left he has traced the graceful outlines of its Ben. From King's House to Glen Falloch is, however, a stiff walk, partly over very rough and high ground, of about twenty miles, and who- ever undertakes it should know himself competent to its difficulties. In the upper part, he will not even find a foot-path. He will be told perhaps that there is one; but the chances are infinity to one against his keeping it. He must remember too that there is no bridge on the Falloch. It is shallow near the inn where there are stepping-stones ; but, should the season be wet and the waters swollen, there are many chances of his not get- ting over to the inn so temptingly close to him after all his exertions a calamity of very frequent occurrence to the wanderer in the Highlands. Moreover, it must be remembered that, a little way up the glen, the Fal- loch is at all times a wild stream, tumbling over rocks into remorseless holes. KING'S HOUSE TO LOCHEAKN & CRIEFF. Mi'es. ; Miles. King's House, 10 miles from 5 Ardvoirlich W. Stewart, Callander. Esq., right; Benvoirlich, 2 Edinample Castle Marquis < right of Breadalbane, left. 9 East end of Lochearn. 2^ Lochearn and waterfall. 14 Comrie. 3 Lochearnhead. ; 20 Crieff. Lochearn is about seven miles long, and lies perhaps more nearly in a straight line than any other Scottish lake 64 KING'S HOUSE TO CRIEFF. of the same extent. There are many to whom its cha- racter is the perfection of lake scenery a retiring moun- tain boundary of fine outline on either side, and rich woodlands with a sprinkling of agricultural cultivation, and here and there a gentleman's seat. On the other hand, some say it has the defect of all half measures ; that it is neither purely soft woodland and water, like Men- teith Lake of which we have presently to speak ; nor is it wild and rocky like the foot of Loch Catrine or the head of Loch Lomond. (3) LOCHEARNHEAD. linn: Walker's.] From this the tourist may go through the wild scenery of Glen Ogle a narrow precipitous ravine, over which the rough rocks, especially those on the east side, arise to a great height to Killin and Tay- mouth. There is a regular coach this way. In descending the lake, the road on the right hand side is to be preferred. It passes, two miles from the inn, the old Castle of Edinample (Marquis of Bread- albane), with a stream in its neighbourhood which forms a considerable waterfall. Lochearn is perhaps the most ancient in tourist chronology of the Highland lakes ; and, from its accessibility perhaps also from its mere commonplace character it appears to have been visited, admired, and sketched, when the Trosachs were deemed a heap of unsightly rocks, somewhere beyond the limits of civilisation. The fame of the Pit- caithley Wells, in the lower part of Strathearn, did much, in the day when they made the Cheltenham of Scotland, to bring Lochearn into repute. On the south side Benvoirlich towers majestically to the height of 3300 feet. (5) Ardvoirlich house (Kobert Stewart, Esq.), the Darlanvaroch of the Legend of Montrose. COMRIE. 65 ST. FILLAN'S. [Inn : Drummond Arms.] If the tourist, expecting indications of rude savage- ness in the Highland villages, has been discontented with the civilised character of those he may have seen near Callander, he will lose all patience when he comes to St. Fillans, at the lower extremity of Lochearn. It is altogether a show pet village, with its allotments and trellises of creeping flowers, and more adapted to the philanthropist than the searcher after the sublime and terrible. The spot is celebrated as the place of meeting of the St. Fillan's Highland Society, for the encouragement of athletic games. Its name is derived from a celebrated Scottish saint, who had a sacred fountain here, and another in Strath Fillan some thirty miles westward, on the bank of a stream pursuing its course to Loch Tay. Fillan was a saint of great na- tional importance in Scotland, since his arm bone was long kept as a relic in a silver shrine, and received high celebrity from having been borne by the abbot of Inchaffray before the victorious Scots at the battle of Bannockburn. Descending Strathearn through varied scenery of the more cultivated Highland character for about 5 miles, we are in COMRIE. [/ : Commercial.] This is the place so celebrated for its earthquakes ; but we are sorry we have no means of offering the slightest hint to the tourist how he could time his visit so as to alight on one of these interesting phenomena. Geologists have given no good reason for this uneasy predo- minance. In the neighbourhood, it is true, the sandstone forma- tion ends, and mica slate begins ; but that is a common enough 66 DETOUR TO COMRIE AND CRIF.FF. phenomenon. It is said by some that the reason why so many earthquakes have been recorded here and so few elsewhere, is merely because they have been better noted in Comrie a view which has a decided tendency to turn Scottish earthquakes into contempt, as things which may occur without being perceptible to one man out of a whole population. Comrie has an air of the shabby genteel a tone of modernness and decay, much enhanced by the fine names of square and crescent given to its humble rows of houses, in anticipation apparently of their becoming the centre of a great city. We believe it was in view at one time to endeavour to make it a great manufac- turing town. The tourist, if he have time, will not fail to visit a wild ravine, where there is a turbulent little stream, overhung by broken impending rocks, called the Devil's Cauldron. It is perhaps scarcely fair to inform him that the torrent goes by the utterly unromantic and un-Highland name of the " Humble Bumble." CALLANDER TO COMRIE BY THE DIRECT PATH. There is a byeroad leading directly from Callander to Comrie, and the lower district of Strathearn, without passing Lochearn- head. The scenery, without p<>. esMii^ any celebrated feature, is varied and beautiful, sometimes affording lovely glens, bounded by great bare mountains, at others leading through gladcd ravines, rich in variety of foliage and rock, and penetrated by wild and beautiful streams. Leading in the first place across the uplands to the east of Callander, the path strikes the glen of the rest- less Kclty, and ascending with it to the water-shed. There leaving the top of Ben Larig to the left, it descends, the waters leading to the basin of the Tay by Glen Grachan. Turning east- ward, after having held for some time a course almost due north, some hills of note are passed. Uam-Var is to the right, in the ascent of the Kelty. Afterwards two hills of greater size and ruggedness rise to the westward the more southerly is Stuk-a- Chrom, one of the most conspicuous hills in the view from Stirling Castle ; the other is the eastern Ben Voirlich a hill which com- petes with Ben Lomond in grandeur of form, and is nearly as high. It is well worthy being ascended by the ambitious crags- CRIF.FF. 67 man. The Grachan joins the Artney on tlie left, and the pedes- trian descends through " lone Glenartney's hazel shade," an ex- pression of which he will be especially awake to the descriptive beauty if he tread the glen in a summer evening, when the sun is just disappearing behind the western hills in time to let him reach the inn of Conine in safety. The walk perforates the scene of the beginning of the hunt in the Lady of the Lake, for the party are supposed to have proceeded northward by the Braes of Doune, in- stead of going so far west as Callander ; and it is by descending Glenfinlas that the foremost horseman must be supposed to have reached the Brigg of Turk. At Connie, the tourist is about 6 miles from CRIEFF. [Inn : Drummond Arms.] A considerable lowland town, which brings him into close communication with the Scottish Central Eailway. In the immediate vicinity are the celebrated Drummond Castle (Lord Willoughby D'Eresby), the seat of the exiled Jacobite family of Drummond, titular Duke of Perth ; Ochtertyre (Sir William Keith Murray) ; Monzie Castle (A. Campbell, Esq.), all worthy of the tourist's attention. At the obscure village of Muthill, between two and three miles west of Crieff, there are Eoman remains, and the ruins of a considerable Gothic church in the early English style. 68 CALLANDEK TO LAKE MENTEITH, ABERFOYLE, AND LOCH ARD. This Excursion is also sometimes made from Stirling. ITINERARY. Miles. I Miles. Cross Callander Bridge. 7J Two roads meet ; keep road lj First road to right. to right. Loch Ruskie on left. 10 Aberfoyle on right River 4 Rednock Castle ruins right. Forth on left. 12 Loch Ard, foot Ben Lo- 4f Four roads meet, and gate to j mond in front. Rednock House; take road j 15 Head of Loch, to right. 17 Loch Chon, foot. H Port and Church of Men- teith on left, where a boat may be got for sailing on the Lake. 7 Head of Loch two roads meet, keep road to right. From this point there is a beautiful view of the Lake. 21 Loch Arklet, from which the tourist may go either to 21| Loch Catrine, eastwards on right, or 26 Inversnaid, Loch Lomond, westwards, to the left. We now start again from Callander on a detour of A totally different kind, at least for a considerable part of its extent by Menteith and Aberfoyle to the string of lakes above it parallel to Loch Catrine. There is something melancholy in leaving the grandeur of mountain scenery, especially when it is not to be changed for a rich agricultural country, but for the cold swelling moorlands which connect the Lowlands with the Highlands ; and the dreariness of the scenery is apt to be acutely felt on leaving Callander, until one gets thoroughly into the warm, well-wooded valley or strath of Menteith. (5^) LAKE MENTKIT1I. It will then be a rare treat to visit the Lake of LAKE MENTEITH. i9 Menteith, if the southern traveller should be getting somewhat tired of misty mountains, rocks, and cata- racts. A greater contrast he could not find, were he suddenly to transfer himself from the mica schist mountains of Perthshire to the Bedford level. The area of the lake is an indented circle of about seven miles' circumference. Not deposited in the hollow of a rocky valley by the torrents, like the Highland lochs, it has oozed itself into a depression in the soft cake of diluvium which cushions the depression between the Grampians and Campsie Fells. It represents, indeed, a slight indentation in that which was formerly covered by the sea, and may be compared to a drop left behind, on the retirement of the mighty waters, which, thus isolated from the living deep, has turned fresh. All is soft and feathery about the edge of the water rich woodlands, oziers, and murmuring reeds. A calm day should be selected for the visit, for wind or rain would spoil the soft and tender influence of the scene. The Highland hills themselves are softened and beautified by it ; for to give mountains, when they are at a dis- tance, the effect of the awful and rugged, we must have fragments of mountain scenery close at hand, reminding us of the vast masses of which the mountain range, rendered small by distance, consists. It is certain that, were Lake Menteith in the middle of a far- stretching plain, it would not seem so warm and soft as nestling in the hollow, skirted by that distant range of moun- tains basking in the sunlight. In a warm summer evening, when the sunlight gilds the mountain points it is going to sink behind, and casts fragment- ary streaks of light through the massive trees across the unruffled water into the recesses of the islands, with their trees and ruins, the effect is the perfection of beautiful repose in scenery. It is completed in the 70 CALLANDER TO ABERFOYLE, ETC. foreground by the village church of the Port of Menteith r and the picturesque mausoleum of the Grahams of Gartmore ; but still better, perhaps, by singling out one of the large and ancient chestnut trees which stretch forth their massive shades of light and tender green, which has restored their youthful freshness iii the summers of many successive centuries. Taking boat at the Port of Menteith, as it is called r you will probably first land on the island of Talla or the Earl. It is so thickly umbrageous as to seem almost entirely a vegetable concretion. One is inclined to wonder how it was solid enough to support the mass of heavy buildings, whose ruins attest their old extent. These ruins are of the baronial character common in Scotland a strong square tower, with parasitical buildings around it. They possess no peculiarity to give them interest to the architectural student, who must be content, in landing on Talla, with the general pleasing effect of the scene. This was the feudal for- talice of the great Earls of Menteith. It was occupied down to the period of the Revolution, when a curi- ous inventory of its contents throws light on the habits of the aristocracy of the period. The " brew-house chamber" was decorated with a red table-cloth and a " red scarlet resting chair." The warmth of this chamber was a commodity not to be wasted, and it appeal's that several of the bed-rooms were clustered round it. But the more interesting island is that on which the remains of monastic ruins, less conspicuous at a dis- tance, are found. It is called Inch-mahome, or tin- Isle of Rest, and more perfect seclusion cannot be con- ceived. Without fortifications and their warlike asso- ciations, the calm waters of the lake would protect the us recluses from the ravages of the Highlanders, LAKE MEXTEITH IXC1I-MAHOME. 71 who had little more respect than the north men of old for the sanctity of monastic institutions. The architec- tural antiquary has here a fine field for inquiry. The architecture is the early English, or first pointed, with lancet windows. One of these, at the extremity of the choir, has the rather uncommon number of five lights, so close to each other as to make a near approach to mullioning. The full effect of this window can scarcely be experienced, as the lights are built up. It is evident that it possessed great dignity and symmetry. In a chapel on the south side of the main edifice, there is a lancet-topped window of three lights, the centre predo- minating in the usual typical manner. The archaeolo- gist will see with delight the extreme beauty of the western door, richly moulded and sculptured along its deep retiring jambs. In the choir, there are crypt, sedilia, a piscina, and other usual adjuncts of a mediaeval church. But what will most strikingly interest tlu- stranger to that peaceful ruin is a recumbent monument of two figures male and female, cut out of one large stone. The knight is in armour, and one leg is crossed over the other, in the manner held typical of the cru- sader. A triangular shield, with the checque fesse, shows the bearer to have been a Stewart. The arm of the lady is twined affectionately round his neck. The anatomical development of the attitude is not very ac- curate ; but it will be excused, in reflection on the pa- thetic feeling which guided the artist. While much of the monument has been defaced, this memorial of affection seems to have been respected ; and, standing in the evening sunshine within the ruins, surmounted by the green boughs of the huge chestnut trees, there must be little imagination in the mind to which this stony record of heroism and attachment of forgotten persons belonging to a past unknown age, does not create 72 CALLAXDER TO ABKKFOYLE, ETC. some fanciful and pleasing thoughts. The church is said to have been founded by Walter Cumyng, Earl of Menteith, second son of William, Earl of Buchan, who had obtained from the crown a gift of the district of Badenoch. He was born about the year 1190, and the style of the architecture would suit with a foundation soon after this date. The monastery is said to have been endowed at a later period. It was for monks of the Axigustine order ; and it was dependent on the great house of Cambuskenneth, passing with it after the Reformation, as a temporal lordship to the Earl of Mar. The arms on the shield show that the recumbent tomb is not that of the founder, and, had it been intended for him, it would have been designed to mock the world with a falsehood, since Cumyng's wife was so little entitled to a commemoration of her marital affec- tion, that she was accused of murdering her husband. Walter Stewart, who married the sister of the heiress, afterwards obtained a grant of the estate. He was a crusader in the disastrous expedition under St. Louis, called the third crusade, and fought in the national battle nt'Largs. It was probably for him that the monument was de- signed one would desire to believe at all events that it was not for his son, who became infamous under his titular name of Men- teith by the betrayal of Wallace. A charter by King Eobert Bruce in the chartulary of Montrose is dated from this monastery, in the year 1310. He was then in the midst of the wandering un- certain life which preceded his great victory. Other princes have from time to time visited the Isle of Rest. One to whose career it imparted little of its repose, passed her girlhood here. It was the place to which the young Princess Mary was conveyed after the battle of Pinkey, and the " rough wooing," as it was termed, of the English king for his son. Here she lived with her four Marys Mary Beaton, Mary Scaton, Mary Livingston, and Mary Fleming. The place is of course traditionally connected with her, and a summer-house and hawthorn tree are shown near the mar- gin of the lake, as objects in which she took delight. The tourist may believe the tradition or not as he pleases. The Rev. Mr. M'Gregor, Stirling, in his "Introductory Verses to Inchmahome," LAKE MEXTEITH ISCH-MAHOME. 73 My orchard's wealth, my boxwood's grace, Enlivening yet the sylvan place, Embellishing my Isle of Rest; Furnish'd the jocund rural fete To soothe the youthful scepter'd guest, Each wayward thought obliterate, And banish all alarms." The ruins of the buildings subsidiary to the monas- tery are extensive. It is evident that after the Refor- mation the whole had been so practically secularized that the windows of the church had been built up to make it the better serve as a house or fortress. The great size and antiquity of the chestnut trees on the island naturally recalls the scenes they must have wit- nessed there as saplings. But, in the present year 1853, the largest, which excited the admiration and ex- ercised the art of Grecian Williams, lies a prostrate trunk, showing its age in its multitudinous rings. After leaving this lively lake, we are again among those dreary secondary uplands which shoot forth from the Grampians. The desolate character of the track before us, stretching from the Clyde to the edges of the Grampians, is admirably described in Rob Roy, as well as the impression it was calculated to produce on the mind of the young Englishman during his tedious ride towards the adventurous mountain land. Not doomed, like him, to find a willow wand before the door as an emblem that the place is tabooed, he will be glad, per- haps, to arrive at the respectable inn, which, under the auspices of a picture of Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his renowned feat, he will find a very different reception from what the travellers hi that eventful night found in its predecessor. A culter of a plough, preserved with pious care in commemoration of that event, is apt to re- mind one of Horace Walpole's story of the cicerone who showed the sword with which Balaam smote his ass, and being told that Balaam did not actually smite, 74 CALLANDER TO ABERFOYLE, ETC. but desired a sword that lie might do so, said " Well, that's the sword he wanted." (10) ABERFOYLE. [7 : JJrewster's.] Aberfoyle is distant twenty-two miles from Dumbar- ton by Drymen, nineteen from Stirling, and five from the Trosachs. It is not in itself a striking spot. The cold bare-looking inn has a cold bare hill behind, and the Forth, here a small but deep stream, justifies its name of the Avon Dhu or black water, by its dusky, sulky, sluggish current. But if the tourist has not been wandering hi the Highlands, but here approaches the mountains for the first time, he will feel an interest in the near approach to the Highland line, and the symptoms of a decided alteration in the scenery. This spot is interesting from its having been the residence of the Rev. Mr. Graham, the minister of the parish of Deuchvy, the first to draw attention to the scenery of the Trosachs. His little book of " Sketches descriptive of picturesque scenery on the southern confines of Perthshire, including the Tro- sachs, Loch Ard, &c.," will still amply repay a perusal. An excellent road leads westward through the pass. At little more than a mile from the inn is the original Clachan, close to where the stream of the Deuchry joins the Forth. As to the Pass, it is not one of the narrow paths winding between precipices, like the passage through the Trosachs, but it comes to a ridge where the hills on either side approach very close, and make the spot easily defensible. It is interesting, be- cause, when once passed, though the elevation is not very high, the flat moorland scenery of the low country is shut out, and the valleys, with their secluded lakes and rugged mountains, occupy the view. The road is cut through the ridge, leaving a stony bank on either LOCH ARD. 75 side. Near the Clachan will be found some works of an uncommon kind in this country a manufactory of pyrolignious acid or vinegar from the abundant coppice around. (12) LOCH ARD. Passing first the small indented lake of lower Loch Ard, we reach the higher lake, about two and a half miles long. Its northern side is a pretty regular curve on a wide diameter ; but on the other side it runs into a long reach, where on an island there are the remains of a safety retreat, said to have belonged to Murdoch, Duke of Albany. Loch Ard possesses an echo, which, were it haunted as the echoes of Killarney are by fiddlers and buglemen, would be a decided misfortune. The tourist here may, however, amuse himself in peace. It is best found, not under the highest of the rocks walling the path on the right, but under the smoothest. It is a deliberative echo, waiting a while and answering you distinctly after you have perhaps given it up. At the head of the lake on the northern side, the farm-looking house of Ledyard points the way to a waterfall near the road, which has obtained celebrity as the original of Scott's description of the favourite retreat of Flora Macdonald. There is here no repre- sentative of the perilous bridge from which Flora waved her handkerchief, but there is the " natural basin filled to the brim with water, which, when the bubbles of the fall subsided, was so exquisitely clear that, though it was of great depth, the eye could discern each pebble at the bottom." The eifect of this fall depends much on the amount of water. When loaded with recent rain, it sweeps down the whole series of broken ledges overwhelming the deep pool. In its foamy tor- rent, it is a more terrible but less beautiful object than 76 LOCH CHON. in the still evenings of a dry summer. It may be men- tioned that, if the tourist make inquiry at the roadside shop which he passes a mile -or two farther on, he may be directed to two falls farther up in the mountains well worth seeing, when the streams are swollen by rain, but not of great account at other times. From the head of Loch Ard, by crossing the hill to the valley of the Deuchry, the tourist may reach Rowardennan, either ascending Ben Lomond, or, if he be less ambitious, crossing a spur of the mountain. Of the ascent we shall speak more at length in the next department. This hill crossing the rocky barrier to the left is a conspicuous and striking object, during a great part of the route from Aberfoyle. From the upper end of Loch Ard, a winding stream leads to (17) LOCH CHON, Of the same character but not quite so extensive. The tourist may now turn to the left for Inversnaid on Loch Lomond, or to Stronaclachan Inn on Loch Catrine. CALLANDER TO THE TEOSACHS AND LOCH CATRINE. ITINERARY. Miles. Road toLeny House on right. Kilmahog Road on right to Pass of Leny and Loch Lubnaig; keep road to left. Bochastle on the left on pe- ninsula formed bv the Teith and Lubnaig." fc* ck Mead left. Miles. 7 Loch Achray. 8 Ardcheanochrochan, right. 8J Trosachs. 9J Loch Catrine. Benvenue and Coir-nan - Uriskin, and Pass of Beal- 1 ft ' 1 ' n a 2Q Inversnaid ort> righu l.-OILAXTOGLE FORD - LOCH VENACHAR - DUXCRAGGAN HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE FIERY CROSS - BRIGG OF TURK AND ITS HISTORY LOCH ACHRAT - THE BARRIER OF THE TROSACHS AND THEIR HIS- TORY - ARRIVAL AT LOCH CATRINE - THE VIEW BEX- A ! AX BEX- VENUE -COIR-XAX-URISKIX ELLEN'S ISLE - ITS HISTORY AS A SAFETY RETREAT TO THE FREEBOOTERS - THE CLAX GREGOR AND THEIR EXPLOITS - THE SAIL UP THE LOCH. The way to Loch Catrine and the Trosachs leads by the northern border of Loch Venachar, which may either be reached by the Bridge of Kilmahog or through the woods of Carchonzie the more inviting route, so far as the two are distinct. Just as the river widens into the lake, or rather the lake narrows to the river, we 78 CALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. are at (2^) COILANTOGLE FORD, the spot to which Roderick Dhu is supposed to have pledged his faith to convey the stranger scaithless, to the frontiers of his dominions " Far past Clan Alpine's outmost guard." It was on reaching this point that he carne forth with the demand of single combat, which the king, brave as he was, would rather have declined. " See here, all vantageless I stand, Armed, like thyself, with single brand : For this is Coilantogle Ford, And thou must keep thee with thy sword." (5) LOCH VEXACHAR Is about five miles long, and a mile and a-half broad. On the opposite shore may be seen the woods of Dullater, and of Drunkie a name of dissipated sound, which Scott had too much taste to introduce in his poem. Nothing indeed is more remarkable throughout this and his other poems than the skill with which he selects fine sounding names. Loch Venachar's glassy surface is broken by one lonely island, covered with trees, and called Inch Vroin. The scene, but for the surround- ing heights, is soft and verdant, like some of the English lakes. Scott alludes to the dank osiers fring- ing the swampy shallows, and alternating with heaps of mountain debris tossed here and there on the margin from the swollen torrents of the hills. At either end the lake imperceptibly merges into the river, of which it is, properly speaking, a widening. At its upper ex- tremity the tourist may take his choice of any particular spot, as that where Roderick Dhu gave a whistle, and " Instant, through copse and heath, arose Bonnets and spears and bended bows ; DUNCRAGGAN. 79 On right, on left, above, below. Sprung up at once the lurking foe ; From shingles grey their lances start. The bracken bush sends forth the dart." The great wizard has been accused, with some justice, of having used his wand to create a scene too theatrical for the mountains in fact, a scene which the theatre alone can realise. If it had been consistent with the method of Highland warfare to be ready at once in any single spot for such a display which it was not, the mountain scenery is on too large a scale to have given it so startling and conspicuous an effect as the poet describes. To have produced ' Ben Ledi's living side ; would have required the host of Xerxes rather than the gathering of a single clan. But, if it'.be somewhat theatrical, there can be but one opinion on the stirring description of the incident, and there is no harm in the tourist trying his own whistling powers, and imagining the whole scene to himself. LANRICK MEAD. The flat meadow at the head of the loch is the gathering ground of the Clan Alpine, and well suited for the purpose. (6) DUNCRAGGAN AND NEW TROSACIl's INN. A spot connected also with the gathering. Of old it was a truly Highland clachan, where one house, accus- tomed to the visits of belated tourists, had gradually got into a systematic way of accommodating them. This was the stage, it will be remembered, of the first exhausted bearer of the fiery cross, who is now to give it up to the next bearer. " Duncraggan's huts appear at last. And peep, like moss-grown rocks, half seen, Half bidden in the copse so green ; There mayst thou rest, thy labour done, Their lord shall speed the signal on." But, as will be remembered, the henchman bearing the warlike symbol only arrives to see the funeral of the man who should have relieved him. The course of 80 CALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. the messenger of war, however, must not be stopped by such a trifle, and the son, taken from the bier, assumes his father's sword and dirk, and speeds onwards. The incident is finely calculated to bring out the behests of war in a savage country behests to which everything else must bow. The next incident tending to the same social development is the interruption of the bridal party. The bereaved son must let the tear be dried in his eye as he hurries on the bridegroom must part with his bride on the spot where they have been united. Of the geographical progress of the message, Scott himself gives this account in his notes : "The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duncraggan, a plan- near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Ach- ray from Loch Venachar. From thence, it passes towards Cal- lander, and then, turning to the left up the pass of Leny, is consigned to Norman at the chapel of Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the middle of the valley, called Strathire. Tombea, and Arnandave or Ardmandave, are names of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass along the lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district of Balquhidder, including the neighbouring tracts of Glen- finlas and Strathgartney." The fiery cross was no mere creation of the poet's fancy. Though there are many attributes fictitiously applied to the Highlanders, this was a real one, and the adaptation of it shows the great novelist's marvellous capacity for seizing whatever was true and real, and, at the same time, striking and picturesque. The symbol was sometimes called the fiery cross sometimes the crossterie or crossteric. It was made, as Scott has described, by tying two pieces of wood into a cross, burning the ends, and ex- tinguishing them in the blood of an animal. This is said to be symbolic of the fire and sword with which those who failed to obey the summons were to be visited ; but it is not unlikely that the ceremony was a remnant of some ancient heathen sacrificial superstition. It was the method in which the chief assembled his Highland followers for war and for other purposes. It was considered the strongest form of invocation, and when other and feebler appeals had failed, this was sometimes had recourse to. It was repeatedly employed in "the "45," but probably never since that event. BRIGG OF TURK. si Thus. according to the rapid narrative of the < " Fast as the fatal symbol flies, In arms the huts and hamlets HM- : From winding glen from upland brown, They pour'd each hardy tenant down." BRIGG OF TURK. Soon after leaving Loch Achray, where amountan. stream tumbles into the river between the lakes. \\ < come to the lonely old-fashioned bridge with the pecii- liar name, now so renowned from the simple couplet " And. when the Brigg of Turk was won. The headmost horseman rode alone." The spot, lonely enough in the days when Scott wandered past it, has been well peopled by his magic pen. In the thick of the touring season, a whole mob sometimes crosses the narrow bridge. The stream spanned by the Brigg of Turk, as well as the valley of Glenfinlas, through which it passes, have their own attractions. A short way up is the cataract ''Whose waters their wild tumult t".-s Adown the black and cragg 1 . Of that huge cliff, whose ample vergt Tradition calls the Hero's Targe. Couch'd on a shelve beneath its briiiK. Close where the thundering torrents sink. Rocking beneath their headlong sway. And drizzled by the ceaseless spray. Midst groan of rock and roar of stream, The wizard waits prophetic dream/' The author tells that, by tradition, an outlaw was said to have hidden himself under the Targe, whence his food was let down to him, while he supplied him- self with water bv a bucket from the stream beneatn as 82 CALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. from a draw-well. If the tourist do not make a special pilgrimage to the glen through which the stream passes, he will look towards its dark opening with interest as the scene of the strange wild tale of " Grlenfinlas." Two hunters of the deer take up their abode in a lonely bothy, and, in their revelry at night, one of them speaks lightly of beguiling " The fairest of our mountain maids, The daughters of the proud Glengyle." His companion, who has the fatal gift of the seer, solemnly checks him with tragic predictions, but the other grows wilder and more reckless, and sets off with his hounds to keep tryst with one of the damsels. The prophetic friend stays alone. The dogs return one by one, bearing the impress of supernatural horror. After them glides in a female figure, " An huntress maid in beauty bright, all dripping wet her robes of green." She tells the surly seer that '' Where wild Loch Catrine pours her tide, Blue dark and deep round many an isle. Our father's towers o'erhang her side, The castle of the proud Glengyle." But the seer is armed against all her falsehoods and blandishments, and tells her " Not thine, a race of mortal blood, Nor old Glengyle's pretended line ; Thy dame, the lady of the flood ; Thy sire, the monarch of the mine." Thereupon the true fiend is developed in a series of horrors. Fortifying himself with orisons, the seer is xmtouched, but the torn remains of his unfortunate companion fall around him in mangled limbs and a shower of blood. LOCH ACHKAY. 83 The next feature after Brigg of Turk is the widening of the river again into (7) LOCH ACHE AY. This gradual widening is common to the lake and river scenery of other countries, where it is sometimes difficult to separate lake from river, as in the Shannon in Ireland. But it is uncommon in Scotland, where, from the rocky character of the scenery, the feeders generally toss them- selves with great decision into the lake, and the river rushes as distinctly out at some narrow opening. The immediate scenery still preserves its gentle character. " The rocks the bosky thickets sleep, So stilly in thy bosom deep ; The lark's blithe carol from the cloud, Seems for the scene too gaily loud." At its head, however, the mountain boundary has been visible to the tourists, ever nearing ; and the greedy eye of awakening curiosity attempts to penetrate into the mysteries of the renowned Trosachs. To prepare him duly, however, for the feast of the eye and the mind, the hospitable towers of a magnificent hotel attract his attention ; and there, we have no doubt, he will meet a hearty reception, unless the house be full. Nor will the landlord, we venture to say, insist on the unreason- able demand that, as an open sesame, the Saxon traveller should pronounce the name of the Inn. (8) ARDCHEANOCI1ROCHAN INN. When you awaken in the morning, finding yourself in a sort of a casemate of a tower, with a loop-holed window, do not take any sudden alarm that you are transmuted into Koderick Dhu, and transferred to a dungeon in Stirling Castle. Here, as elsewhere around, is evi- 84 CALLANDEK TO LOCH CATRINK. dence of locomotive progress. A few years ago, what is now the embattled castle was a Immble wayside looking inn, where the few visitors of Loch Catrine, who did not get back to Callander, managed to spend the night much crowded together. There are people alive, however, not very old, who remember that, when the first rush of visitors was made by the publication of the Lady of the Lake, the farmer, who had a cottage at the place with the long name, somewhat astonished but not displeased that the fashionable world should all at once take possession of his dwelling, converted it into a public-house, and from a public-house to an inn. Going somewhat farther back still, in the old statistical account, it is mentioned how the few tourists, going out of the beaten track who took this direction, were some- times hospitably relieved by the pristine kindness of the cottager. THE TUOSACHS. " The western waves of ebbing day Roll'd o'er the glen their level way : Each purple peak, each flinty spire, Was bathed in floods of living fire. But not a setting gleam could glow Within the dark ravines below. Where twined the path in shadow hid, Round many a rocky pyramid, Shooting abruptly from the dell Its thunder-splinter'd pinnacle ; Round many an insulated mass, The native bulwarks of the pass, Huge as the tower which builders vain Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain. The rocky summits, split and rent, Formed turret, dome, or battlement, Or seem'd fantastically set With cupola or minaret, Wild crests as pagod ever deck'd, Or mosque of Eastern architect. Nor were these earth-born castles bare. Nor lack'd they many a banner fair ; THE TROSACH3. 85 For, from their shiver'd brows display'd, Far o'er the unfathomable glade, All twinkling with the dewdrops sheen, The briar-rose fell in streamers green, And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes, Waved in the west-wind's summer sighs. This is certainly a brilliant description among the finest referable to scenery that exists in any language ; and yet it is a description rather whetting the appetite to see than appeasing it by affording a full impression of the object. In fact, to describe the Trosachs, so as to let one understand what they are, is, we believe, not in mortal power, and they must be seen to be ap- preciated. The Trosachs are a chaos, clothed in the rich beauty of endlessly varied and diffused vegetation. This maze of broken hills owes its multitudinousness of form to the tough contorted character of the mica slate, the twistings and eccentricities of which seem to have been here tried to their utmost. The first natural feel- ing of the passenger is what a pass for defence how completely could a hostile army be here exterminated unless it took possession of the heights. But of old a hostile army could hardly have got into the defile to be destroyed, it was accessible only by a ladder, such as the alpine tourist may remember, near the baths of Leuk. Still the Trosachs are in some measure provok- ingly inaccessible. Peeps are obtained into multitudi- nous recesses where we might see who shall say what V but the thing is impracticable. We would suppose, however, that were there now need for it, the guides and other Highland neighbours must know one or two rare hiding places in the interstices. It is easy to believe how serviceable this scattered heap of rocks must have been in the old days of cattle-rieving, and perhaps in the later days of smuggling. 86 CALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. Somewhere near the entrance of the defile Sir Walter Scott intended to lay the death scene of Fitz- James' over- ridden horse. The guides show the exact spot with true Highland precision. Nay, farther, they will assert, as indeed they truly believe, that the event was no Saxon poet's dream, but that it happened and happened there. In such a circumstance one may moralise on the certainty of tradition, and reflect how an idle tale striking the fancy, at length becomes ineradicably imbedded in po- pular belief. The romance of the Lady of the Lake, not half a century old, is the most distinct and well attested of ancient Highland traditions. Winding between those verdure-clad rocks we come to a clear, deep, rock-girt pool, so narrow that, as the poet well says, it would scarce serve " The wild duck's brood to swim.' 1 Gradually as the tourist advances, it winds this way and that, and it is difficult to know whether the rocky eminences, so densely covered with verdure, and washed by the clear deep waters, are chains of islands, or head- lands wriggling their way through the water. At length you get gradually clear of this twining confused ganglion of land and water ; the latter widens into a full bright sheet, and so (9) LOCH CATRINE is before you. A favourable spot for a general panoramic view, will expose on the left the broken luxurious masses of the Trosachs ; on the right and behind high banks covered with hazel, oak, birch, pine, and an under- wood of feathery tropical-looking fern; while above, if it happens to be visible from the selected spot, the sharp bare spiked summit of Ben-a'an runs up like one of the alpine aiguilles. In front are an island or two, with headlands, scarce distinguishable from them ; but the finest object in the view is, undoubtedly, LOCH CATRINE. ^7 the hill of Benvenue, on the opposite side of the lake. Scarcely any other hill in the world has such a nobly graduated outline, and combines such rich beauty with alpine dignity. The comes and crags, softened by distance, are blended with the luxuriant herbage ; and the whole character, if the day be fine, conveys a pe- culiar sense of sweetness, combined with dignity. Even the great Coir-nan-Uriskin seems but a gentle opening in the wavy surface of the hill. Among the places to be immediately visited is this opening in the face of Benvenue, which, looking so gentle at a distance, resolves itself, on a nearer ap- proach, into the dread COIR-NAN-URISKIN, OR GOBLIN'S CAVK, Where, when approached by boats, is seen a hideout chaotic dispersal of huge stones, as if some Titanic- ploughshare had torn the stony mountain to its bowels, and tossed the fragments on either side. It is worth visiting, not only for its poetic associations, but as one of the most remarkable specimens of the High- land corry. These peculiar gashes which seam the mountains are supposed to have their origin in the bursting of springs. The cistern in the stony heart of the mountain goes on regularly enough, bubbling out its burn or well. But some day a water-spout or un- usual supply of rain fills it full, and also fills full the pipes or ducts by which it is supplied from the top of the hill. The known law of hydraulic pressure, on which the hydraulic press is founded, then acts. The spring staves out the side of the mountain as fermenting liquor staves a cask, and hence that hurricane of rocks and stones scattered on either side like the moraines of the Alpine glaciers. Climbing up through this mighty I'ALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. debris, a sort of rock- surrounded platform is readied. which is the scene in the poem. Near the projecting rocks above, a view may be taken of the lake and the Trosachs, the converse of that which has been seen from the other side. On the shoulder of the hill is the grand glade overhung with birch trees, constituting a terrace or natural pass, called the BKAL-ACH-NAM-BO, Or pass of the cattle. It was evidently the way by which the cattle taken in forays was conveyed within the protection of the Trosachs, at the time when they could only be passed by a ladder. We have here the scene where the Douglas of the poem, having retreated with his daughter Ellen, King James coming after her, got into his difficulties, and caused the tragic events of the story. (10) ELLEN'S ISLE, " The Stranger view'd the shore around ; "IVas all so close with copsewood bound, Nor track nor pathway might declare- That human foot frequented there. Until the mountain-maiden show'd A clambering unsuspected road. That winded through the tangled screen. And open'd on a narrow green, Where weeping birch and willow round With their long fibres swept the ground. Here, for retreat in dangerous hour, Some chief had framed a rustic bower." A few years ago, the tasteful fancy of the noble pro- prietor prompted him to complete the association of the spot by building there a sylvan lodge adorned with trophies of the chase ; but it was accidentally burnt, falling a sacrifice to the cigar of a careless tourist a I.OCII CATRIXE. 89 class who, by the way, ought sometimes to reflect that they owe a little of their enjoyment to the toleration of the people among whom they sojourn ; and that they are bound to show some care and consideration for the objects around them, as they enjoy their circuit of pleasure. Some early records of the Scottish Privy Council and the cri- minal courts show that of old the island was called Eilan Var- noch a name that would certainly have been adopted by Sir Walter had he known it, for it has just the wild euphony which he always appropriated when he could find it, or made when he could not. But having been disused for nearly a couple of centuries as a safety retreat, the island had retained no traditional name in his days, and the records had not fallen in his way. "With his intuitive s-agai'ity, however, he had discovered that this was the safety re- E the neighbouring marauders, and wove its character and situation effectually into his romance. Here we are in the very eye and centre of the old sorning, rieving. and foraying system which pervaded the Highlands. Of the derivations of Loch Catrine, we adopt without hesitation that which deduces it frum the Highland word for plunderers. Some people say it still deserves the name the only alte- ration iu the condition of matters being that whereas of old the Cateran went to the plain to plunder the Saxon, the Saxon n<)w goes to the hills to be plundered by the Cateran ; but let that pass travellers are licensed grumblers, especially on the sore subject of bills. The Caterans of old were, at all events, persons of a more formidable character. To see how Eilan Varnoch was so well situated as their depot, one has but to look around him and observe the nature of the country, remember- ing at the same time the nature of that which has just been left beuind. Here we have a spot singularly inaccessible. To ap- proach it on the one side the great barrier of the Trosachs had to be passed, where a lew resolute men could defy and destroy an army. Xor was it a much more safe or easy enterprise to sail up Locli Lomond, and cross the country to attack them, and, if the enemy should pierce to Loch Catrine, the difficulty of getting at tin- island still remained. When taunted by Fitz-James, Roderick Dim vindicates tha practice of cattle-rieving by saying ' Pent in this fortress of the North, Think'st thou we will not sally forth. 90 CALLANDER TO LOCH CATRINE. To spoil the spoiler as we may. And from the robber rend the prey ? Ay, by my soul ! While on yon plain The Saxon rears one shock of grain ; While, of ten thousand herds, there strays But one along yon river's maze, The Gael, of plain and river heir, Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share. Where live the mountain chiefs who hold That plundering Lowland field and fold Is aught but retribution true?" It may be questioned, however, if the rievers troubled themselves with views so refined. Wordsworth has well described their system as " The good old plan That they should take who have the power. And they should keep who can. ; ' And of the character of the operation, fair Ellen herself only gives too accurate an account when she says " When back by lake and glen they wind, And in the Lowland leave behind, Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, A mass of ashes slaked in blood." These forays, it must be confessed, despite all the romance cast around Highland life, were ferocious and sanguinary affairs. The criminal charges brought against the frequenters of this beautiful island are sadly in contrast with the scene of peace and loveliness which it now presents. They refer not merely to great forays of cattle, but to every kind of plunder, and shew that the depredators committed many murders, not only against men who might resist. but against women and children. It would put the tourist out of humour for enjoying the romance of the spot and its associations. were we to particularise these out rages with the sordid character possessed by them when they make their appearance in indictments and other such like documents, more fitted for perusal in the winter evenings in the study then on the sunny banks of the loch. But whatever atrocities these outlaws perpetrated, it must be admitted that the law gave them very little inducement to be honest citizens. The inhabitants of the district, though the name of Stewart now prevails among them, were of old generally of that M'Gregor tribe who were perpetually at war with the law. Which side began the contest may be a nice question ; but it was among the most bloody and ferocious that has ever occurred LOCH CATRIXE. ill between savages, or rather between the savage and the par- tially civilized, in any part of the world. Among the earliest and most tragical of its events was the slaughter of Drummond, one of the king's deer-keepers. To profess that he could pro- tect the royal privilege of the chase in those savage solitudes, where the people acknowledged no king but their chief, was absurd enough. Drummoud, however, was able to exercise his office of royal deer-keeper at all events te the extent of mak- ing deadly enemies. He had professed to treat some of the wild children of the mountains as poachers, and threatened them with punishment. They in their turn did not waste their energies on threats, but proceeded to action. When the nuptials of King James "VI., the son of Queen Mary, with Anne of Denmark were to be celebrated. Drummond went to the hills to kill some red deer to grace the occasion. His enemies caught him, and cut off his head. They paid a visit to his brother-in-law, Stewart of Ardvoirlich, in the neighbouring parish of Comrie. Stewart was not at home, but his wife, the sister of the decapitated royal fo- rester, received them with such hospitality as the house afforded. Being in a very sportive humour, they set the head on the table, putting some of the food between the lips. The poor woman, entering the room and recognising the features of her brother in the ghastly exhibition, is said to have run forth a maniac. The perpetrators of this outrage are said to have been the M'Donalds of Glencoe. Whoever they were, taking with them that desirable article, the head, they retired within the country of the M'Gregors. In these kindred spirits they found ready coadju- tors ; and taking the head or " pow," as it was called, they all laid their hands on it, and swore, as on a suitable altar, that they would stand through blood by those who had slain the king's keeper. The method in which the government endeavoured to strike such marauders, was not by sending a body of policemen or of soldiers against them that would have been expensive but by encouraging any family or clan with whom they were at enmity to destroy them. The Colqnhouns of Luss, who possessed a con- siderable extent of fertile territory on the west side of Loch Lo- mond, were peculiarly open to the ravages of the M'Gregors. who could attack them both by land and water. The government thought that by arming the Colquhouns, and stirring them on to an attack on the fastnesses, the M'Gregors would soon be extermi- nated. The freebooters, however, when they saw preparations making against them, resolved on taking the aggressive. In the year 1603, a body of the clan, under M'Gregor of Glenstrae. penetrated to Glen Fruin, a valley descending towards Loch Lo- mond from the eminences separating its basin from that of the Gare Loch. It was said that they went only to have a friendly con- ference with the Colquhouns : but whatever may have been intended. '._' CALLAXDER TO LOCH CATRINE. it is that a deadly battle was fought, and that 140 of thr Colquhouns were slaughtered. Sir Walter Scott and others credit the assertion that the Highlanders, in their savage hate, were not content with putting to death their feudal enemies, but slaugh- tered a number of young students congregated on an eminence to -r<- the conflict. Several neighbouring gentlemen of considerable rank fell in the field of Glen Fruin ; and it is in allusion to this that, rather against chronological order. Roderick Dim's trium- phant bard sings Proudly our pibroch has thrill'd in Glen Fruin, And Bannochars groans to our slogan replied ; Glen Luss and Ross-dhu, they are smoking in ruin, And the best of Loch Lomond lie dead on her side. But the victors did not neglect the main chance ; they drove back, in fact, a magnificent foray, consisting of 600 head of cattle. 800 sheep and goats, and 280 horses, to be dispersed in Ellen's Isle and their other strongholds. It was after this that the whole race of M'Gregors were de- nounced by one Act of Parliament after another. They were pro- hibited from using their clan name of the sons of Gregor, which they proudly said connected them with the ancient kings of the race of M'Alpine. They were not entitled to the protection of the law. It was decreed meritorious to kill them, and the neigh- bouring potentates, ambitious of possessing their lands, were en- couraged to extirpate them. Plans were arranged for removing their children and bringing them up in Fifeshire or other parts of the peaceful Lowlands. Their women even were hunted, and when caught were branded with a red-hot key. It was death for any of them to assemble in a greater number than four at a time : and they were prohibited from using any weapon save a blunt-pointed knife to cut their meat. But it was all in vain : their country was so very convenient for plundering the Lowlands, that they lived on marauding, in spite of the law and their enemies. That they should become thorough barbarians under such a system was natural. and perhaps the Indian forests or the New Zealand mountains scarcely owned a more savage race than those who lurked on the lovely banks of Loch Catrine. A walk along the north bank of Loch Catrine will hardly repay the pedestrian's industry, as the scene be- comes comparatively flat and tame, and the way is rugged and tiresome. The majority of tourists now take the steamer to the head of the Loch. The steamer is a conlparatively recent innovation. A set of stout rowers LOCH CATKIN E HEAD. 93 had established themselves at Loch Catrine, like their multitudinous and noisy brethren at Killarney, indeed differing from them only in substituting, as the hero of their traditions, Koderick Dhu for O'Donahue. The Loch Catrine boatmen thought they had not only a life- lease of their pleasant and profitable occupation, but looked to their children inheriting it ; when, in the year 1846, they were superseded by an invidious little steamer. The spirit of Clan Alpine had not, however, departed. One fine morning when the usual cargo of passengers came up to the Loch the steamer had dis- appeared. From the head of the loch, the tourist may pene- trate Glengyle, entering the main stream which empties itself into the loch, and proceeding in a south-easterly direction up the wooded glen and making a circuit ; or by turning abruptly up by the right and keeping one of the minor feeders of the main stream which falls into the loch, he may reach Balquhidder. Glengyle is an old possession of the M'Gregor family, and its melodious name recommended it to Scott for service in his poetry. The place has a curious history in reference to the practice often spoken of in connection with the High- lands, the levying of black mail. STRONACLACHAN NEW INN. A few years ago, a cluster of Highland ponies with their gilly attendants were generally in waiting here for tourists crossing this isthmus, and, when they were too few in number, the unprovided had to walk the best way, on the whole, of dealing with the rugged foot- path of that day. Now, however, the road has been somewhat improved, and an omnibus conveys passengers from the one loch to the other. Fare Is. The dis- tance is about five miles, by a Highland road of the GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. usual character, with little to vary it but the solitary Loch Arklet. ROB ROY'S GUN. It has been a long established practice in a cottage on the side of this road to favour the inquiring tourist with a sight of an old duck-gun, said to have belonged to Rob Roy; and there is no reason why he should not acknowledge the tradition, and leave a substantial testimony of his belief. (19^-) INVERSNAID, an old fort, or rather barrack, is meantime passed on the right; and (20^) is INVERSNAID INN and LOCH LOMOND. GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. Broomielaw to Bowling, 11 miles. Bowling to Balloch by rail, 9 miles. Balloch to Loch Lomond Head by steam, 30 miles. In going from Bowling to Ballocli, Dumbarton Castle rises conspicuously on the left. BALLOCH TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. Miles. Ballocli Inn. 1 Balloch Castle (Gibson Stott, Esq.) on right. 2 Butruich Castle ruins, right. 3 Inch Murrin, left. 4 Inch Crain, left. 5 Forrinch, left 6 Clareinch, left. 6 Balmaha Pass on right. Inch Caillach, left. 7 Inch Fad, left. 8J Inch Cruinn, left. Hardaig Island, right. 10 Inch Conag, left. Inch Loanag, right. 11 Luss. 13 Ross Point, right. Bendouch, left, 15 Rowardennan, right. 18 Ben Lomond, right ITINERARY. Miles. . 19 21 24 25 30 Stucksjown, left. Rob Roy's Prison on right. Tarbet, left. Passengers for Inverary leave here. Inversnaid, right. Passen- gers for Loch Catrine, the Trosachs, Callander, and Stirling, leave here. Rob Roy's Cave on right; marked by two rings painted on the rock. Inveruglen Island. Ardvorlich, left. Head of Loch Ardlui Hotel. Passengers leave here for Glencoe and Fort- Wil- liam, Loch Awe and Oban, Loch Tay and Aberfeldy, Lochearn and Crieff. DUMBARTON. 95 For Itinerary, see previous page. HUMBABTOX CASTLE AND ITS HISTORY BALLOCH THE SAIL ON TUB LOCH THE LOWLAND BANKS THE ISLANDS HISTORICAL INCI- DENTS UOWARDENNAN ASCENT OF BEX LOMOND DIFFERENT POINTS WHENCE IT IS ATTAJXABLE THE WAY UP SCENE FROM THE TOP TARBET ROB ROY INVERSXAID THE HIGHLAND BCENERY OF THE LOCH HEAD OF THE LOCH ARDLUI HOTEL. During the summer months June to September there is generally a cheap trip, on a certain day of the week, from Edin- burgh and Glasgow to Loch Lomond Head and back, which is a favourable opportunity, as far as expense is concerned, of viewing this scenery. This year, 1853. this trip is every Monday : and the charge from Edinburgh to the head of the loch and back the same day, first class and cabin, is 8s. 6d. It is, however, rather too long a journey from Edinburgh to be accomplished pleasantly in so limited a time. Taking Glasgow as a starting point, we now sup- pose the tourist approaching from the west that in- teresting cluster of Highland scenery, through which we have hitherto been attempting to guide him from the eastern side. It is in the western direction that, reversing of course what now follows, we would expect one who has entered it from Stirling to complete the tour, and, in the same manner, one who passes from the Clyde to Loch Lomond, and thence by Loch Catrine with or without its detours, to Stirling, will go over what we have previously laid down in the inverse direction to that in which we have set it forth. DUMBARTON CASTLE is easily accessible both by land and water, and the traveller who is near railway or westcoast steam com- munication, cannot fail, by consulting the ordinary tables, in speedily finding his way to the spot. As Stirling seems to stand sentinel between the Highlands and Lowlands on the eastern side, much more does this strange abrupt rock, apparently rising out of the 96 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. centre of the water, seem to perform this function on the Clyde. Like almost all the abrupt mountain masses penetrating the great valley from north to south, it is a trap rock, partly amorphous, but partly with a columnar tendency. It is 560 feet high a goodly height for a mere solitary stone standing by the water side ; and it takes the full advantage of its elevation, in its grand and abrupt proportions. The buildings on it are of no great architectural interest, nor would it have been easy for architecture to have done itself jus- tice in connection with natural productions so large. It now professes to be little more than a small barrack for 200 men, with a few petty old-fashioned works. None of them bear a character of great antiquity, but it is likely that some of the foundations and more mas- sive parts of the building may be very ancient, for the earliest use of this remarkable rock as a fortress is among those venerable things whose age tradition notes not. Meanwhile, the most obviously ancient-looking tiling connected with it is an old two-handed sword called the veritable sword of Wallace. It was for some time in England, but its absence was so lamented as that of a national palladium, that it was restored. Dumbarton is identified with that Alclwyd, which was the capital of the' small aboriginal kingdom of Strathclyde, the history of which has deeply perplexed antiquaries, since its appearances in the accounts of ancient writers are so scant and fugitive. Dumbarton is believed to have been the main fortress of this people, and it is supposed, though not on such good ground, that they possessed Stirling as a defence on their eastern frontier. The fortress was obtained without a struggle by King Edward. The governor who gave it up to him was Sir Ingram D'Umfraville, one of those Norman DUMBARTON CASTLE. 97 knights who had so many of the offices of trust in Scot- land, and who cared very little whether they held them from a king in London or a king in Edinburgh. It was given to the custody of Menteith, the betrayer .of Wallace. How it was recovered by Bruce is not re- corded. On account of its great strength for before the time of heavy artillery it was deemed impregnable it remained in the possession of the Scots in the sub- sequent struggles with England, though it was fre- quently assailed. At length it was taken in a siege during the unfortunate civil war of Scotland, with circumstances of romantic bravery. The governor Fleming held it for Queen Mary in 1571, and the party of the Kegent were determined to seize it. A daring fellow, John Crawford of Jordanhall, assembled in Glasgow a party of trusty followers, not trained soldiers, but men who had been concerned in all shapes in the disturbances which then distracted the country, and who were well fitted for any original deed of daring. They reached the rock at midnight, with scaling ladders. Their project was nearly destroyed at its beginning, for the ladders first set for passing a pre- cipitous part of the rock, and reaching the platform above, lost their hold when the men were beginning to swarm up. A mist, however, enveloped the upper part of the rock, and the garrison, unable to see any- thing, seem not to have been disturbed by the noise. The besiegers proceeded scrambling over the slopes and ledges, and mounting the precipitous intervals with ladders, when a new difficulty occurred. One of the men, seized with a convulsive fit. remained immovable on the middle of the ladder, holding to it tightly. The conductor of the expedition lashing him to the ladder with cords, turned it round, and the ascent was accom- plished on the other side. The garrison was not aware 98 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. of these operations until the besiegers made their ap- pearance on the top of the wall, and then they gave up all for lost. Here the victors found John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the last Eoman Catholic Primate of Scotland. He had re-established his old consistory court, for the purpose of dissolving Bothwell's marriage, that he might marry Queen Mary, and from this and other circumstances, he was charged with accession to the murder of Darnley. His opponents gave themselves little trouble about the evidence what they wanted was to get him put to death out of hand. He was hanged, and a poetic enemy affixed to the gibbet a Latin distich, praying that the tree might long flourish which bore such goodly fruit. But we must now leave the grim rock, casting back on it reflective sighs for the many state prisoners who, in the evil days of civil conflict, have pined year after year within its stony recesses. The six miles to Balloch at the northern extremity of Loch Lomond, are passed with great facility by the railway, which almost shovels one into the expectant) steamer. Close to the village of Kenton, not quite half-way, on the left, stands Smollett's monument. Its neglected state was lately the subject of some spirited newspaper corres- pondence, and we trust that the tourists of 1853 will flnd its promised repairs accomplished. The neigh- bourhood is associated with his life and genius. Here he spent his childhood, more merry than that of ordi- nary mankind and at the grammar-school of Dum- barton, he began to learn the classics, and, what he was better acquainted with, the peculiarities and eccen- tricities of mankind. On the other side of the railway runs his classic Leven. Pure stream, in whose transparent wave, My youthful limbs I wont to lave, LOCH LOMOND. 99 Thy torrents stem thy limpid source. No rocks impede thy dimpling course, That sweetly warbles o'er its bed, With white round polished pebbles spread. LOCH LOMOND. Of the lake scenery in Britain, Loch Lomond stands the unrivalled head for a combination of the nobler features that become a lake. Its broad expanse of waters its rich wooded and agricultural sloping banks its archipelago of lovely islands in the lower reaches, far excel in expansive magnitude the English lakes, or the lower Lake of Killarney, while its long nar- row northmost termination penetrates deep into savage mountains whose vast precipitous sides overshadow its dark surface, and form a wonderful contrast to the gay, broad, smiling expanse of waters and cluster of islands left behind. It bears perhaps a greater similarity to Lucerne, " the sacred lake far off among the hills.'' than any other of our British waters. Its commencement is twenty miles from Glasgow and six from Dumbarton. Taking it from the extreme northernmost point, the lake is nearly thirty miles long. In the lowlands it is from eight to ten miles broad, but as it penetrates among the mountains, it gradually becomes narrower until it almost insensibly merges in the river Falloch. Unlike the remote lakes entirely within the Highland boundary, Loch Lomond has an ancient renown as one of the wonders of the land, and the scene of historical incidents. Camden, in his Britannia, speaks of it as plentifully stocked with fish of which it has one species peculiar in itself called pollac. " It is full of islands, concerning which the common people tell many traditional stories." Lochlomond is thus described by Sir Walter Scott in " Rob Roy : " " The lofty peak of Ben Lomond, here the 100 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. predominant monarch of the mountains, lay on our right hand, and served as a striking land-mark. I was not awakened from my apathy, until, after a long and toil- some walk, we emerged through a pass in the hills, and Loch Lomond opened before us. I will spare you the attempt to describe what you would hardly com- prehend without going to see it. But certainly this noble lake, boasting innumerable beautiful islands, of every varying form and outline which fancy can frame its northern extremity narrowing until it is lost among dusky and retreating mountains while, gra- dually widening as it extends to the southward, it spreads its base around the indentures and promontories of a fair and fertile land, affords one of the most sur- prising, beautiful, and sublime spectacles in nature." Lord Jeffrey was an idolater of Loch Lomond, and used often to withdraw there and refresh himself by its beauties. His opinion of it may be gathered from the following extract of letters to his father-in-law r : ' Here we are in a little inn on the banks of Loch Lomond, in the midst of the mists of the mountains, the lakes, heaths, rucks. :i'id cascades, which have been my passion since I was a boy; and to which, like a boy, I have run away the instant I could get my hands clear of law, and review, and Edinburgh. There are several favourite spots for obtaining a view of the lake. Among the most noted is an elevation near Kilpatrick with the unpromising name of Mount Misery, and one at Luss ; but the finest full view is obtained from the top of Benlomond. The steamer usually skirts the eastern base of the lake to BALMAHA. Here tourists may reach Loch Lomond from the Edin- burgh and Glasgow Eailway by the Campsie Branch to Leunoxtown, whence there is generally a coach to LOCH LOMOND. ISLANDS. 101 Balfron. Along the eastern shore there is an oppor- tunity for admiring the rich park and woodland scenery, varied by gentle hills, and dotted with gentlemen's seats predominant among which is Buchanan House, the seat of the Duke of Montrose. It was the rich pro- ductiveness of this district that tempted the Norwegians to make the strange piratical inroad afterwards re- ferred to. ISLANDS. The steamer now threads its way through the archipelago of thirty islands which diversify the broader part of the lake. Many of them have curious re- mains of buildings, which might gratify an antiquary. It is found that the churchmen, both of Ireland and the west of Scotland, were partial to monasteries or cells on lake islands perhaps from their peaceful seclusion ; and they often lasted as burying-places after the religious edifice had departed. Of the four islands which occupy the greater part of the width of the lake slanting in a north-west direction, the largest is Inch Caillach, the burial-place of the MacGregors. The most easterly of these four the largest island in the lake Inch Murren, is used by the Duke of Mon- trose as a deer forest, or rather preserve, and the other large island, the northmost of the group, called Inch Loanag, serves the same purpose for the family of Colquhoun of Luss. Their "country," as it is called in the Highlands, or the territory peculiar to their name, is that which stretches along the left bank of the lake where the swelling uplands gradually enlarge them- selves into craggy hills. (11) LUSS VILLAGE. [/H ; Mrs. Gildard's. ] The Strone Brae and Inchtavanich opposite command beautiful views of the Loch. The district has a melancholv interest as the scene 102 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. of those wild slaughters by the clan Gregor which have been already noticed. When the archipelago is left behind, and (13) THE POINT OF ROSS is passed to the right, we find ourselves gradually merging from the smiling low country into the dark masses of the Highland mountains. Ben Lomond rises close and high above the scene, with his gracefully waving outline, high peak, and far-stretching spurs or off-shoots. Close under his shadow we reach (15) ROWARDENNAN INN, the point from which, as we shall have afterwards to show, the ascent is gentlest. Thus far there is a regular road along the banks of the loch, but farther north its edge can only be kept by a scrambling foot- path. Eowardennan may be considered the entrance of the Highlands in this direction, and is the place to which the sons of Rob Roy first conveyed the poor young widow whom they seized at Edinbellie. ASCENT OF BEN LOMOND. There are many excellent reasons, if we desire to ascend a hill, for selecting Ben Lomond before others. It has an old celebrity recognised in the world of pic- turesque scenery. To have ascended it is to have done something that one can speak about. It is utterly use- less to claim credit for the ascent of hills of unknown fame, however high ; indeed, your enunciation of the prodigious heights of uncommemorated hills which you have ascended, is sometimes suspected to be a mere numerical echo of your great fatigue from the ascent, or altogether a hallucination. Ben Lomond is 3190 feet 4 inches above the level of the sea, according to the BEN LOMOND ASCENT. 103 trigonometrical survey. There are multitudes of moun- tain tops in Scotland further above the sea level, but their bases are on elevated land, and virtually they are far inferior as mountains. Then Ben Lomond has everything that we seek in mountain scenery a grace- ful outline waving towards a high peak overlooking the surrounding world deep conies and noble preci- pices. It is so placed at the extremity of the Gram- pians as to command in one direction the varied low country in the other, to show the full breadth, and in some measure the depth of the great Grampian range. THE ASCENT. It is most usual to make the ascent from Rowar- dennan. Here a pony path leads to the very summit, at least above the level of the great precipice, and the steeps which correspond with it on the other side, so that it reaches the gentler turfy ascent near the summit, where a path is unnecessary. Here it joins another path from Inversnaid, which winds among the secondary precipices on that side, and occasionally takes a scramble over rough places. It is a briefer, but not so gradual an ascent. Tourists starting from Tarbet with the intention of climbing the hill, cross the lake, and gene- rally strike up the Inversnaid path. This approach is recommended by the full view thus obtained of the con- tour of the mountain, showing distinctly how far it is clear of mist a very important consideration. It is re- commended to all who ascend the hill on this western side, that they do not mistake for its summit that of a fine graceful offshoot, which rises to a conical point nearer the lake. Either from the lake itself or from the top of Ben Lomond, one would think it impossible to mistake this for the chief height. Yet, when we climb it, it is amazing how well it passes itself off for its great neigh- 104 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. bour, and how readily the thoughtless novice in hill climb- ing, easily deceived by his desire to see the termination of his toils, is prepared to accept it for the reality. To reach this top, however, and find how much higher the real summit is, with a considerable valley between, is a real annoyance and mortification ; and we mention it as a warning, because we have heard of the mistake occurring. If the tourist employ a guide, he is of course not liable to make this blunder ; nor, when he reaches the true summit of the Ben, to find his way in the evening through radiating corries to some totally distinct quar- ter from that whence he had ascended, leaving his friends in uncertainty about his fate. Some people, however, are not partial to guides, looking on the per- petual presence of such a director as an infringement on the liberty of the subject. We should wish to be of what service we can to such independent spirits, and so, as a general rule, we would recommend them not to attempt the ascent in mist, and in any case to take the bearings of the top before ascending, so as, by the aid of the pocket compass, to find the way back, should mist unexpectedly come on. Ther are innumerable directions whence it may be approached from the other side ; but we shall only men- tion one, because it is not only a very interesting route to the top of the mountain, but may suit very well for the descent, if the tourist, having ascended from the lake, is desirous of pursuing his journey to Aberfoyle or Loch Catrine. Striking from the head of Loch Ard across a ridge of hills, and descending on the Deuchry, two re- spectable-looking cottages may be seen. The one, so far as one can take down the native sound, is called Comer, the other Stuick-vuick, or the goat-field ; and it is con- spicuous from a large square field or paddock enclosed BEN LOMOND ASCENT. 105 by a dyke. Here descends from the north-east a rapid stream. Ascending its western bank, there is much fine lonely scenery the brawling stream sometimes leaping over considerable barriers of rock, and flanked by mural precipices on the one side, and on the other by the gradations of the mountain with its frowning precipice above. It may be questioned which ascent is the more interesting, for on this side the view of the loch, its islands, and the opposite range of the hills bursts on the eye as a novelty after the shoulder is turned, while the precipitous corries have become familiar as companions in the ascent from the other side the lake scenery and the open view have been more or less companions of our toils all the way, and the peep from the edge over the precipice into the -mysterious depths below is the surprise. From whatever point the hill be ascended, this preci- pice is a great and striking object. It extends in a long, almost semicircular wall, bounding the deep corrie, which, from its inmost scoop, has a steep green turf ascent. We are not acquainted with any authentic measurement of the precipice, and guesses are useless, for the eye measures by the grade of magnitudes it has last become accustomed to. The precipice is not quite vertical, but with a slight slope towards the top. In a longitudinal glance along its surface, its various breaks give it almost a columnar appearance, though, from its geological nature as mica slate, it has no right whatever to assume such a character. Often in the hollow gazed down on from the edge of the precipice, the mists, as if they could not get out, remain, while the rest of the hill is clear, and increase the mysterious awfulness to those who gaze over the edge, and see the precipice lose itself in a rolling ocean of dark clouds. Often, too, while the hill on the south-western slopes is 106 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. bright and warm in the spring sunshine, this hollow ia deeply coated with snow, and, from the aid given by this mass to the night frosts, the recesses of the preci- pice are covered with a rich crystallization of hoar frost, while, safely removed from its edge, one may bask in the warm mid-day sun. THE SUMMIT rises in a round mass northward of the precipice. It cannot be mistaken in a clear day, and in a misty is not much worth finding. A bee-hive looking edifice of turf distinguishes it, and, if the tour- ist think it necessary to be absolutely at the utmost height, he will climb this, at more risk of minor per- sonal injury from a slip down than he has yet encoun- tered. It is difficult -to describe the scene from the top. Grand and lovely to a high degree, it shows on one side the Grampian mountains indefinitely swelling west- ward mound after mound on the west the Argyllshire hills, and on the south and east the great Scottish Low- land district, with its minor mountain ranges. The most fascinating object, however, is Loch Lomond, clear below in all its reaches and indentations, with its bright waters studded with islands. If one has just steamed through, it is difficult to suppose how the great expanse of water can have become that pretty minutely diversified pond. How small the islands look ! At the headland of Ross point, a hill may have attracted notice as one of incon- siderable height ; but here it seems as if it were, with its peaked top, a toy imitation of Ben Lomond, which might be put on a chimney-piece. So the hill nearer the lake, which some, as we have mentioned, have sometimes mistaken for Ben Lomond, seen hence makes such a mistake seem ridiculous, if not impossible. It has been mentioned, in the earlier part of this guide, that the Grampian range, with Ben Lomond, has a BEN LOMOND THE TOP. 107 fine effect from Ben Clench of the Ochils, but now Ben Lomond by no means returns the compliment, for Ben Clench has a very humble snubbed aspect when it is looked at from its superior. The tourist books of last century are always elo- quent in praise of some lines on the ascent of Ben Lo- mond, scratched on a window pane of the Inn at Tarbet, and signed J. Russel ; and, though their poetic claims may be denied, their merit, as a distinct statement of what their author has to say, are consider- able. After an invocation, not to the muse, but to the stranger casting a casual glance over the pane of glass, lie says : " Trust not at first a quick adventurous pace, Six miles its top points gradual from its base ; Up the high rise with panting haste I past, And gained the long laborious stec-p at last : More prudent thou when once; you pass the deep, With cautious steps and slow ascend the steep." After offering counsel so eminently disinterested, it is to be regretted that the next morsel of advice is tainted with a slight admixture of dissipation. Oh ! stop a while oft taste the cordial drop, And rest, oh ! rest long long upon the top. There hail the breezes, nor with toilsome haste. Down the rough slope thy useful vigour waste : So shall thy wondering sight at once survey- Woods, lakes, and mountains, valleys, rocks, and sea. Huge hills that heaped in crowded order stand, Stretched o'er the western and the northern land Enormous groups." Shortly before reaching Tarbet, there is seen a pretty white mansion with woody recesses leading up to the mountains behind, and umbrageous lawns spreading gently downwards to the brink of the lake. This is (19) Stuck Gown pronounced Stugoon, the favourite Highland residence of Francis Jeffrey, to which he de- 108 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. lighted to retreat from the dust, drudgery, and gaiety of town life. He thus writes : " This place is more beautiful than ever, and the sight of Swit- zerland has not spoiled it in the least. . . . Yesterday being glorious with sun and calm, we went to the top of lien Lomond quite leisurely and comfortably ; saw all the glorious company of mountains, from Ben Nevis to Stirling ; and also our own shadows, surrounded with glories, reflected on the mist. . . . You will see no lakes like this lake, nor hills like these ; and we have many more sounding rills, and singing cascades, and far more of that deep solitude and wild seclusion, which speak to the heart more impressively than shade or verdure can ever do without them." (21) TARBET INN. A beautiful road bordering the shore leads from this to the head of the loch, a distance of nine or ten miles. From Tarbet the tourist can reach Arrochar, at head of Loch Long, in half an hour, the distance being only 1^ mile. It is usual for the steamer to reach Tarbet in time to give parties an opportunity of enjoying the delight- ful walk from thence to Arrochar, and to catch the afternoon steamer from Arrochar to Glasgow. At Tarbet there is perhaps the most complete and expressive view of Benlomond the expanse of waters between preventing any object from breaking the full effect of the scene. From this the distances to the following places by rowing boats are calculated as follows : To Inversnaiii, 5 miles. Rob Eoy's Cave, 6 do. Ardlui, . 8 do. Rowardennan, 6 do. To Luss, . . 9 miles. Inchtavanich, 10 do. Balloch, . 16 do. A fine view from the top of the Strone Brae above Luss Hill. A fine panoramic view of Luss, and islands, and lake, from the top of the hill on the island of Inchtavanich. INVERSNA1D. 109 ROB ROY'S PRISON. Nearly opposite to Tarbet is a rock whence it i* traditionally said that Rob Roy let down his prisoners by a rope, that when they were suspended half way down, while he stood at ease above, he might make terms with them on highly advantageous circumstances for claiming good conditions. (24) INVERSNAID. [The Station for Loch Catrine and the Trosachs.] Close to it there is a fine clattering waterfall, as well seen from the steamer when landing as from the shore, since the water almost tumbles into the lake. This is one of the points for ascending Ben Lomond, and from which passengers cross to Loch Catrine. " The family and descendants of Dugald Ciar Mhor (the MacGregors) lived chiefly in the mountains between this and Loch Catrine, and occupied a good deal of property there whether by sufferance, by the right of the sword, which it was never safe to dispute with them, or by legal titles of various kinds, it woiild be useless to inquire and unnecessary to detail. Rob's own designation was of Inversnaid ; but he ap- pears to have acquired a right of some kind or other to the property or possession of Craig Royston, a domain of rock and forest lying on the east side of Loch Lomond, where that beautiful lake stretches into the dusky moun- tains of Glenfalloch." Rob Roy, Introduction. This is also the spot chosen by Sir Walter Scott for Rob Roy's parting with Frank Osbaldistone and Bailie Nicol Jarvie. " A boat awaited us in a creek beneath a huge rock, manned by four lusty Highland rowers ; and our host took leave of us with great cor- dialitv and even affection. Rob Rov remained 110 GLASGOW TO LOCH LOMOND HEAD. for some time standing on the rock from beneath which we had departed, conspicuous by his long gun, waving tartans, and the single plume in his cap, which, in those days, denoted the Highland gentleman and sol- dier." Rob Roy, chap, xxxvi. We are now in the centre of the mountains, which are ever, as we advance, changing their shape. Ben Lomond is left behind. On the left, rising above the minor heights, are seen occasionally the distorted horny projections of Ben Arthur or the Cobler, the most strange and extravagant of the twistings of the mica slate rock, and a very fine geological specimen though too large to be removed to any museum of the present age. Near the lake, are the less eccentric but commanding tops of Crocherechan and the western Ben Voirlich, on the ascent of which is the lonely tarn Loch Sloy, whence the Macfarlanes, the old rivals of the MacGregors, took their clan battle-cry. More to the right is Bencharra, and at a greater distance, and seldom seen for the inter- vening heights, Ben More, the great hill. Almost more striking, however, than these more distant eleva- tions, are the truly mountainous banks of the now narrow lake darkened by their reflection. On the face of the rock is a cavern called ROB ROY S CAVE. Its opening is scarcely visible, and is only noticeable from the steamer by two circles painted upon one of the rocks. " The eastern side, peculiarly rough and rugged, was at this time the chief seat of MacGregor and his clan to curb whom, a small garrison had been stationed in a central position betwixt Loch Lomond and another lake. The extreme strength of the country, however, with the numerous passes, marshes. LOCH LOMOND HEAD. Ill caverns, and other places of concealment or defence, made the establishment of this little fort seem rather an acknowledgment of the danger, than an effectual means of securing against it." These crags rise in dark precipitous masses to a vast height, the waters around seem nnfathomably deep, mansions and culti- vation are left behind, a solemn silence reigns, and altogether the impressions of grandeur and gloom from the sail through the upper reach of Loch Lomond are remarkably impressive even to those accustomed to mountain scenery. The uses of a large stone to be seen on the left, remind one of the remote loneliness of the country around, though the steam-boat daily ploughs the lake with its crowd of tourists. The stone serves as a pulpit and vestry of a church, for it has a cell cut into its face with a door, and here at intervals a preacher serves the congregation gathering around in the open air. We pass one small island (27-^), Inver- uglen, far separated from its companions, ere reaching the end. It contains the remains of an old square tower, said to have been a safety retreat of the Macfarlanes. Presently the lake narrows into a river with a sedgy margin, twisting through a small patch of flat alluvial land, brought down by it from the mountain. It is a peaceful, quiet, gentle stream, as any English river, meandering among its meadows, and no one seeing its hypocritical tranquillity would dream, that farther up it tears its way through broken rocks and chafes itself into furious torrents. The steamer moors within the stream of the Falloch, at what is called LOCH LOMOXD HEAD. [Ardlui Hotel.] The mountain chains at the top of Loch Lomond approach so close together, leaving but one narrow 112 LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO FORT-WILLIAM. valley between them, that the only route the tourist can take onwards must be in the first place through Glen Falloch. DETOUKS FROM LOCHLOMOND HEAD. From Ardlui Inn, at the head of Loch Lomond, there are threo favourite Routes thnnigli the Highlands, each of which may he travelled, during the summer season, by the Glencoe and Beuvoir- lich coaches, which run in connection with the steamer on Loch Lomond and Dumbartonshire Railway. FIRST ROUTE The Glencoe coach proceeds by way of Glenfalloch to Crianlarich. From thence by Strathfillan, the Holy Pool, the King's Field, and Benmore, to Tyndrum. Hills of Glenorchy, through the Marquis of Breadalbane'g l>i-n- Forest of the Black Mount, the Moors of Rannocb, Locha Tulla and Lydoch. King's House Inn. and the I!"\al Kovot. passing near General Wade's old military road, known as the Devil's Staircase, through the wild scenery of Glencoe. Ballachulish and along the hanks of Loci Linnhe to Fort- William, situated at the foot of Ben Ni vis. From this, tourists may proceed by the Caledonian Canal to Inverness. SECOND ROUTE Same way to Tyndrum, from thence westwards by Glenorchy. Dalmally. Kilchurn Castle. Loch Awe. Ben Cruarhan, Taynuilt, to Oban. THIKD ROUTE The other Glencoe coach proceeds the same way to Crianlarich. From that it branches off eastwards bv Strathfillan, Glendochart, and Lochanour. foot of the lofty Benmore, Coirchaorach, the birth-place of 'Rob lli>v. L'<-|i Dochart, Killin, the ruins of Finlarig ( 'a>tle. the northern shore of Loch Tay, the base of Ben Lawers, village of Kenmore, and Taynnmth ( 'astle, to Aberfeldy. ( 'oaches in connection proceed from this 1st. By Dunkeld to Perth. 2d. From Leeks by Glen <>;;!<. I.ochearnhead, Benvoirlich, St. Fillans. and Comrie, to Crii-tt'. Passengers going north from Inverary, join the conveyance at Tarbet (on Lochlomoncl). lor Oi);m or Fort-William and Inverness. LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO FORT-WILLIAM. 113 Passenjers from Fort-William or Oban, for Inverary, arrive at Tarbet in time for the coach by Cairndow and Glencroe 10 Inverary. Passengers s'oing south from Fort-William or from Oban, arrive at Greenock, or Edinburgh, the same day ; may also branch off at Crianlarich, and proceed by the coaches from Killin and Abcrfeldy, for Dunkeld and Perth; or by the mail for Crieff, and the Scottish Central Railway, and arrive at Perth, Stirling, Kdinburdi, or Glasgow, the same day ; or may land at luversnaid (on Lorhlu- nioDd), for the Trosachs, Callander, and Stirling. LOCH LOMOXD HEAD TO &LENOOB AND FOBT-WILLIAM. Ifilei 4 11 in 10 m 2(1 _': ->.. Stuckincaple ; right. ~2~l Cross Auld Chum Water. Glen Failoch; Ben Glass, 29 J right Cross Auld Enochbuy Water. Waterfall, rig-lit. CKIAXLARICH INN. ?'<)\ The Falloch River runs all wl this way on the right. Koad to Killin, Loch Tay, Kenmore, and Aberfeldy, on right. Innt'rchagiry House, right. Chichan of St. Fillans. 34 The Holy Pool, left. :!'i Cross the River Etterick or :jS Dochart. Ben Loy, the source of the River Tay (of which the Dochart forms 40j part), lies five miles off on 41 j the left from this. Half a mile up the water, to the left, KING'S FIELD. 4'{ TVNDEUM INN, left. 4<>} Road on left to Dalmally, Loch Awe, Inverary or 4P> Olian. 47 Benbuy on left; lead-mines worked. Benvurie, right ; Benvuridh, 49 left. Auch, left, i olj Kirk of Urchay, left. Cross River Urchay. INVKUOTRAX INN. right. Loch Tulla and Marquis ."/)', of Breadalbane's Shootin Lodge, right. Loch Lydoch and Moors of Rannoch on right. Marquis of Breadalbane's Deer Forest ; Blackmount. left; Bencaugh and Ixx;li Lydoch, right. KING'S HOUSE Inn, left. Path on right to Devil's Staircase; head of Locli Leven and Fort-William. Buchael Etive Mountain, the source of the Etive Watt-i- on, left. Loch Falloch, left. GLENCOE ; entrance. Loch Stroan, left ; Scour-na- Fingal andScour-na-Riach Mountains, right. Glencoe ; exit. Isivercoe House, right; and beautiful prospect of Loch Levin. Slate Quarries. BAIXACHUI.ISII INN and FBBBT, Cross Loch Levin. Ferry House north side of Loch Levin, and enter In- verness-shire. Onich Tillage. Loch Linnhe on left. Inn fore, and comin -ucemeiU of Loch En. Ardgour District on the other side. Maryburgh. PORT- WILLIAM. 114 LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO OBAN. In visiting Glencoe by the coach during the summer, tourists are recommended to do so, going northwards from Glasgow and Lochlomond Head, rather than coming southwards from Fort- William. Oban, or Ballachulish. By the northward road, besides other advantages, is that of arriving at the glen in the evening when the strong lights, deep shadows, and other effects produced by the rays of the setting sun greatly enhance the grandeur of the scene, and the pleasure of witnessing and remembering it. By the other way, coming southwards from rallachulish, &c.. the coach, which is open, and affords no shade, arrives during the hottest part of the day, when the rays of the sun descend vertically into the valley, distributing light and shade uniformly through- out. The scenery, in this cMe, is not seen to such advantage : it is often uncomfortably hot. and the glare of light even painful for the eyesight. In addition to this, the ascent going in this direc- tion being very considerable, it is necessary, every now and then, to get out of the coach, and sometimes under a broiling sun, to climb vigorously all the steep portions of the road, which is avoided here the other way. These circumstances, together with the constant shifting and re-arranging of seats tend very much to dissipate the grandeur and solemnity that pervades the scene, and by distracting the mind from what, during the limited space of time allowed, should engross the attention, they are apt to curtail the expected pleasure, if they do not bring disappointment. Altogether there is little room to doubt that the way northwards is, in every respect, the best and pleasantest for the tourist. LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO DALMALLY, LOCH AWE, AND OB AX. 13 TYNDRUM INN ; road on right to Glencoe, &c. 14J Lochanbeach, left ; Xewbuy. right. 2i Strone; two roads meet that to the right strikes up to Bridge of Urchay, Loch Tulla, ami Glencoe. 26 DALMALLY Ixx ; Loch Awe and Kilchurn Castle ; Ben Loy rises behind. Road to left westwards to Cladieh (6), and Inverary (16). 261 Cross river Urchay; Glenorchy on the right; Kilchurn Castle and Loch Awe, left. 27 Fine view of Kilchurn Castle. .'JO Fine view of Islands in Loch Awe. left. 31J New Inverawe House (Campbell, Esq.), left. 32" Through Pass of Awe or Branders. 33^ Falls ofCmaclian from top of Ben Cruarhau, right, 33 Cliffs of Craiganuni on right; crumbling slanting precipices on the left ; and exit from the 1 LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO ABERFELDY. 115 34 Grand rugged cliffs on right. 35J Cross Bridge of Branders ; -waterfall on right. This is the ter- mination of the Pass ; strait channel called Rocks of Branders . left, from whi^h the Awe pours out its current in a furious stream towards Loch Etive. Ben Cruachan is right up from this. 36 The River Awe a fine salmon stream now rushes rapidly along on left. 36} Fanuns Farm House, left. 36J Road on right to Inverawe House, Bunawe, and Loch Etive. 37 Cross Bridge of Awe; scene of Scott's Highland Widow. 37i Bare summit of Ben Cruachan on right ; Bens Durinish, Mala- gaye, on other side of Loch Etive. 37f Tnverawe House (S. M. Baulderson, Esq.), right. 38 In front are Bunawe and Loch Etive. 38i Road to Loch Awe ; Port Sonachen on left. 38| Cross the Lorn Water. 39J Muckairn Kirk and Manse on right. 39J TAYNUILT ISN ; and beautiful view of Ben Cruachan, Loch Etive, &c. 42 Loch Etive on right; looking back, beautiful view of Ben Cruachan and other mountains, &c. 46 Connel Fern-, and view of Dunstaffnage Castle, Islands of Lis- more, Mull, and Loch Linnhe. 51 OBAN. LOCH LOMOND HEAD TO LOCH TAY, KIL- LIN, KENMOEE, AND ABERFELDY.- 45 MILES. ITINERARY. Miles. Miles. 9 Crianlarich Inn. 11 Loch Dochart and Castle in ruins, left; Benmore, right. 12 Leave Loch Dochart. 20j Leeks Road to the right 23J Cross the Lochy; Finlarig Castle and Chapel, right. 24| Foot of Loch Tay. 31 Lawers, Inn and Village, from which ascent of Ben southwards through Glen Lawers may be made. Ogle to Lochearn Head and , 38J Marquis of Breadalbane's po- Crieff. licies. 22 Rapids of the Dochart 22J Cross the Dochart Island, 38f Cross River Tay. 39 Kenmore and Taymouth. 45 Aberfeldy. 23 Kilim. 62 Dunkeld. lib INVERARY CASTLE. INVERARY. [Holeli. TheArgyle.] Tourists intending to proceed from this by coach to Oban. arc recommended to lose no time in getting themselves booked at the hotel. Inverary, near the head of Loch Fine, may be deemed one of tne most usual radiating centres of the Argyleshire lake scenery, and is the capital of Argyle- shire and of the Campbell country. It has a fine for- tified-looking 1 aspect from the water. Its cross is one of the most symmetrical of the Highland sculptured stones, but it has evidently been tampered with. Near it is Inverary Castle, by no means to be commended for its architecture. It apes the Gothic baronial style, but was built about a century ago a time when the details of Gothic architecture were not studied. The grounds are a magnificent variety of mountain and forest scenery. Some of the glades, with broad venerable trees on either side, and great rocks above, are unrivalled in dignity. The hill of Duniqxioich affords a pleasant climb and extensive prospect of the surrounding country. A fine cataract may be seen on the road to Loch Awe. There is considerable interest in this neighbourhood for geologists. Here are many metaliferous rocks, and, in the grounds near the castle, a mine of nickel mixed with copper has lately been opened. Porphyries and granites of a fine close grain abound ; the pier of Inverary is built of porphyry. The stone of which the castle and its offices are built, from the dark uniform colour and clean cut, looks like marble ; but on examination it turns out to be a close grained schist, probably chlorate, from its soapy feeling to the touch. The quarry whence it has been taken is at St. Catherine's, on the opposite side of the loch, and tradition says that the stones were taken over on the ice in a memorablv severe winter. INVERARY. 117 On a jutting rock, about three miles above Inverary, is the gaunt, tall, square keep of Dunderaw Castle, the stronghold of the M'Xaughtans. One is inclined to wonder how M'Callum Mohr allowed a rival to come so near his capital. Some curiously carved stones built into it, suggest that this edifice has been built from the ruins of an ecclesiastical building. The laird had stuck an admonitory motto on human pride over his doorway, whether for his own use or other people's, in these terms " I man behald the end. Be nocht wiser than the highest is. I hope in God." A few miles below Inver- ary, on the opposite side of the loch and at the opening of a beautiful little green strath, is the square tower of Castle Lauchlan, the fortalice of the M'Lauchlans. Inverary may be reached by a continuous steam voyage up the lake, diverging at Loch Gilp from the route by the Crinan Canal. It is a tedious but very pleasant voyage. The scenery is varied, mountainous of course, but not of the grand or terriffic character. The banks of the lower part of the loch are so thickly studded with ever increasing mansions that it would be tedious to enumerate them. There are other and shorter methods, partly by land, partly by water, of reaching Inverary. The humble pedestrian, or he who luxuriously posts, may take one of the multitudi- nous steamers from Greenock or any other point, and be landed at Kilmun on the Holy Loch, or Ardentinny on Loch Long. Thence he may proceed along the borders of Loch Eck, a scene of remarkable beauty and grandeur. The hills rise above it in great broken musses the lake itself, gentle and generally smooth as glass, throws little bays into soft green meadows while occasionally a mossy and heathery tongue of land stretches into the lake 118 INVERARY CASTLE. And just a trace of silver sand Marks where the water meets the land. At the head of the lake we descend on Strachur, the summer residence of Lord Murray, deep nestling among old trees, gardens, and green-houses. The church- yard hard by is remarkable for some of the ancient sculptured stones already mentioned, covered with the mystic knot and other strange devices. If you ask the country people their history, they will tell you that they were stolen from lona ; that the ship which brought them over was wrecked with another such sacrilegious cargo in Loch Fine ; and that thus many sculptured stones lie to this day at the bottom of the lake. The journey either from Kilmun or Ardentinny to the ferry between St. Catherine's and Inverary may be about seventeen miles. A favourite route to Inverary is by the steamer to Loch Goil head, and by coach across the isthmus seven miles passing through a rocky defile, dignified by the name of Hell's Glen. There are some fine nigged mountains enclosing the head of Loch Goil, and opening scrambling walks through noble scenery of cleft and tor- rent to those who sojourn a while there. An old square Highland keep projects into the loch half-way up, called Carrick Castle, a strength of the Dunmore family. With its foreground of lake and background of mountains, it is a tempting object to the artist. In sailing here, one is of course reminded of Campbell's pathe- tic ballad, " Lord Ullin's Daughter." Poor Campbell indeed one of the noblest poets of our century drew much of his inspiration from his native Argyleshire. The reader will remember the fine stanzas beginning At the silence of twilight's contemplative hour, I have mused in a sorrowful mood, On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower, Where the home of my forefathers stood. GLENCROE. 119 All ruin'd and wild is their roofless abode, And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree, And travelled by few is the grass-cover'd road, Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trod To his hills that encircle the sea. Tourists giving this route their preference, will have the benefit of one of the most facetious and agreeable of cicerones John Campbell, the excellent and lusty driver of the coach through Hell's Glen. Another favourite but more circuitous route to In- verary is by Arroquhar, at the head of Loch Long, reached either by a steamer up the loch, or by crossing the short isthmus at Tarbet on Loch Lomond. The distance from Arroquhar to Cairndow is fourteen miles. Owing to the steep ascent, a stout pedestrian will walk it nearly as fast as he can be conveyed by coach ; and it will well repay him by the savage sublimity of Glen- croe. It is a deep defile, the broadside of Ben Arthur or the Cobbler rising on the right with all his coronet of fantastic horny precipices. At the climax of the ascent, there is a stone placed there by General Wade's engineers, who made the road, and inscribed with the benevolent recommendation " Rest and be thankful." We ask particular attention to this stone, because a friend of ours sojourning in the district, when selecting the spot at which it would be most agreeable to stop for the night, seeing on the map " Rest and be thankful," and deeming this a very comfortable name for an inn, resolved to trust himself to its hospitality, and remain there all night. His feelings may be ima- gined when, at ten o'clock and darkness coming on, he found, instead of the comfortable inn, a stone. INDEX. Abbey Craig. Stirling 26. Aberfeldy, 115. Aberfoyle, 74 ; Clachan of, 74 ; Pass of, 7-1. Alclwyd, 96. Alloa,'29. Animal Remains, Carse of Stirling, 16. Ardchcanochrochaii Inn, 83. Ardhullary House, 54. Ardoch Camp, 37. Ardroirlich House, 64. Aviryle's Lodains:. Stirlinsr, '2. Aue'literarder, 88. Avon Dhu, Aberfoyle, 7 1 . Awe. Pass of. 114 j l',rid;re of, 115; River, 115. !':.;!. ir'cich, Stirling, 9. Ualloch. 98. Kalmnha, 100. Banuockburn Battlefield, 15, 23; Bore Stone, _' I Balqnhidder, 66; Braea of, 60; Grave Yard, 55. Kcnl-ach-nam-bo, 88. Heatou's Mill, 1!). Ueu Arthur, 110. Charra, 110. Clench. -27. Cruarliali, 114 ; Base of. li:.. Lawers, 115. !,<., Lomond, Ascent of. M2. M(,rc, 110, 115. Voiriieb, lid. ]',i:,ck Mount. 113. Blair-Dmmmoiid Hon Uracklin Waterfall, 45. 48. UrandiT. I.oeh AWO, !!.">. HrandiT, 1'ass of. Ill; Horks of, 115. Hn-adaUjJine's. Mar(|iiis of. Sl.ootinir Lodire, US; Deer Forest of Btack- iiM.nnt, 113. Uridge of Allan. 35. Urigg of Turk, 81. ilntisii fortification, Vestiires of, 49. Hruce, James, Abyssinian Traveller, Bun awe V Caledonian Prince Galgacus, 15 Callmider, 46. Cullander Bridge. '>( >. Canitmskeiinei.il Abbey, Is, 25. ("unibufinoi'f, 45. Campbell's Lord Ullin's Daughter, Stviu- of, 118. Campsie Fells, 24. Carcbonzie Woods, 77. Carrick Castle, 118. Curse of Stirling, 16. % Castles Campbell, 31 ; Domic, l:i ; Onimimmd. (17: Dumbarton, 95; Duncleraw, 117 ; l)unstall'nai;f, 11"' : Kdinample, 64; Vinkri^. it."-- Inverary, llfi ; Kilchurn, 114 ; Kincardine, 38; Laurie Lauelilan. 117: Mon/ic, ii7 ; Ogilvie, 38; Stirling, 7 ; Touch, 25. Cauldron Linn. 34. Clacban of Abcrf.nic, 71. Clackmannan Tower. .'.'. Mountain, lid. Coiiiintosrle Ford. 7^. Coir-nau-Uriskiij. sT. Colquhoun of Luss Country, Ml. Comer Cottage, M4. Comrie Village, '>.">. Connel Ferry, ll.i. Corichbad Deer Forest, 113. ' Cotton Works, Deanston, 44. Cowan's Hospital, Stiri Craiganuni Cliff, 114. Craigforth, 41. Crumlarieh, 113. Crteff, 67. Crocherechan, 110. Dalmally, 114. Dainyat, 27. Deiinstou Cotton Woi !. Deuchrv. Valley ofthe, 7fi. Mill, 33". Cauldron, 66. Staircase, 113. Devon, o2. INDEX. 121 Dochart River, 113. Dollar, 31. Doune Village, 42 ; Bridge, 42 ; Castle, 43 ; Lodge, 45. Drayton's Description of the Ouse applicable to the Forth, 21. Drummond Castle, 67. Drunkie Woods, 78. Dullater Woods, 78. Dumbarton Castle, 95. Dunbar, Quotation from, 14. Dunblane, 36. Duncraggan, 79. Dunderaw Castle, 117- Dunipace Hills, 41. Duniquoich Hill, 116. Dunkeld, 116. Dunstaffnage Castle, 115. Earl Island, 70. Edinample Castle, 64. Ellen's Isle, 88. Falkirk, Battles at, 18. Falloch River, 99, 111. Glen. 112. Falls of Bracklin, 48. Fiery Cross, Description of, 80. Finlarig Castle, 115. Flanders Moss, 41. Forth, Windings of, 21 ; at Cam- buskenneth, 25. Fort- William, 113. Franciscan Church, Stirling, 4, Galgacus, 15. Gillies Hill, 15. Gilmour's Linn, 24. Glencoe, 113. Glencroe, 119. Glen Dochart, 167. Eagles, 39. Falloch, 112, 113. Glengyle, 93. Glen Ogle, 64. Gleuorchy, 114. Goblin's Cave, 87. Graham, Rev. Mr., Deuchry, 74. Greyfriar's Church, Stirling, 4. Hamilton, Archbishop, where hanged, 26. John, (Archbishop of St. Andrew's), Murder of, 98. Hawley's Defeat at Falkirk, 18. Hell's Glen, 118. Highland Widow, scene of, 115. Holy Pool of St. Fillans, 65. Home, John, author of Douglas. 44. Humble Bumble. 66. I Inch Caillach, 101. ! Lonag, 101. | -mahome Island, 70; Monastic Ruins on, 70. j Murren, 101. i Tavanich, 108. Vroin Island, 78. Inverary, 116; Cross, 116: Castle, 116; Pier, 116. Inverouran Inn, 113. Inversnaid, 109 ; Fort, 44. Inveruglen Island, 111. Islands in Loch Lomond, 101. Isle of Rest, 70 ; Ruins on, 70. Jeffrey's, Lord, residence on Loch Lomond, 100, 107. i Kames, Lord, 42. , Kelty River, 45 ; Bridge, 45 ; Glen, 66. Kenmore Village, 115. Kilchurn Castle, 114. Kil'.in Village, 115. Kilmahog Village, 46, 50. Kincardine Glen and Castle, 38. King's Field or Dalrie, 113. House, 113. Inn, 55. Kippenross, 36. i Ladies' Rock, Stirling, 5. i Lake Menteith, 68 ; Port of, 70. Lanrick Castle, 45 ; Mead. 79. 1 Lauchlan Castle, 117. Lawers Village, 115. Ledyard House, 75. Leeks Toll and Inn, 115. Leny Mansion, 50; Pass. 50, o2. Leveu River, 98. Loch Achray, 83. Ard, 75. Arklet, 94. Awe, 114. Catrine, 86. Chon, 76. Dhuine, 60. Dochart, 115. Earn, 63. Eck, 117. Etive, 115. Fine, 116. Gilp, 117. Goil, 118. Levin, 113. Lomond, 99; Head, 111; I lands, 101. Lubnaig, 53. Lydoch, 113. Sloy, 110. Tay, 115. 122 INDEX. Loch Tulla, 113. Venachar, 78. Veil, 60. Lochy River, 115. Lorn Water, 115. Luss Village, 101. Macdonald's, Flora, Retreat, 75. Macfarlaue's Retreat, 111. Macsrregor Clan, Description of, 89; Burial Place, 101. Mar's Work. Stirlin?, 8. Maryburgh, 113. Meiiteith Strath, 68. Misery Mount, 100. Molehill, Stirling, 9. Monastic Ruins on luch-maliorae. Lake Menteith, 70. \lonzie Castle, 67. Mount Misery, 100. Murdoch of Albany's stronghold. 43. Murray's, Lord, summer residence. 118. Muthill Village, 67. Oban, 114. Ochils, 27. Ochtertyre House, 41. Ochtertyre, 67. Ofrilvie Castle, 38. Pass of Aberfoyle, 74. Pass of Leuy, 50, 52. I'ass of the Cattle, 88. Pitcaithley Wells, 64. Point of Ross, 102. Polder, The, 41. Pollac Fish, 99. Port of Menteith, 70. Riinnoch Moor, 113. Renton Village, 98. Rest-and-be-Tliaiikfu! stone. 119. Rob Roy, Description of, 56 ; Words- worth's Linf s on, 58. Rob Roy's Cave, 110; Grave, 55; Gun, 94; Prison, 109. Roman Camp of Ardoch, 37. Teith, 49. Roman Operations, Remain;; of, lli. Roman Remains at Muthill Village, 67. Rowardennan Inn, 102. Rumbling Bridge, 33. Russel's, J., Lines on Ben Lomond, 107. Sauchie'iurn, Scene of Battle, 19. Scott, Sir Walter, quotations from, on Blanche of Devon, 32; Bri. Trosachs, 84. Tullibardine, 39. Turk, Bripgof, 81. Tyudrum Inn, 11:1. Wallace's Conflicts with the English. 18. Wallace's Sword, 96. Wicker Ware, 47. Wordsworth's " Good old Plan.'' !*>. UCS8 LIBRARY Ulacfe's (Static lcnifcs> TROSACHS, LOCH LOMOND, AND CENTRAL TOURING DISTIMCT OF SCOTLAND. With Alap. Charts, and numerous exquisite Wood-Engravings, irom Sketches taken on the Spot, by HII:KKT FO.-JTKE. K-'i To be ready in July 1853. EDINBURGH AND ENVIRONS. Illustrated by a Plan of tlic City: a Map of the Country Ten Miles round: and numerous Views of the Public Buildings and of the Neighbouring Scenery. Seventh Edition. Price 2s. 6d. ' This little book should be in the hands of every stranger who desires to be familiar with all that is remarkable in the Antiquities, Institutions/ and Public Buildings of Edinburgh." SCOTSMAN. I "The epithet of Economical is merited not only by the saving in time, but also by Die easy means here pointed out for accomplishing the eml in view." ATI.AS. / GLASGOW AND THE WEST COAST. With Pleasure Excursions in the Neighbourhood, including the Kails of Clyde, the Clyde to Millport, Arran, Ii'.thesay, and Oban, ami the Land of Hums. Illustrated by a Plan of the City, and numerous Maps. Charts, and Views. Fourth Edition. Price 2s. Gd "A most tastefully irot up and useful volume, furnishing in small compass a complete panoramic view of the commercial metropolis of Scotland, with an out- line of its history, various statistics, and social condition. "GLASGOW ("rn/KV BLACK'S ROAD AND RAILWAY TRAVELLING MAPS. Can-fully constructed from the hcsl authorities, and contain intr all flu- Sta^'-Cuach Roads, Railroads. Villa LTCS. Country-Seats. Fishing Streams, Rivers, Lakes, ami Mountains, and every topographical information required by the Tourist on pleasure or business. Well coloured, lined with cloth, and neatly bound in portable caw ENGLAND AND WALES. 32 indu- ! Ki',,1. l v, Jjlaci ENGLISH LAKE] A 000658067 4 WALES (North and South). 14 inches by llf Price Is. tkl. each. SCOTLAND. 32 inches by 22^. Price 4s. 6d. 1 >o. do. Smaller. Si/e, 19 inches by 15. Price 'Js. (3d. IRELAND. Size, 20 inches by 14^. Price 2s. 6d. TOURIST'S AND SPORTSMAN'S COMPANION To TJIK COCNTIK-S OF SCOTLAND. A series of thirty-six Maps, showing all the Roads, Railways, Villages, Mtry-Si-ats, Moors, Fishing Streams. Rivers and Lakes. 1 'laces of Historical and Legendary note : Memoranda of Hattlcs. Heights of Mountains, &e., &c. In a portable volume, strongly bound, in tuck, price 10s. t>d. COUNTY MAPS OF SCOTLAND SEPARATE, Divicl- >ritish Railway. IV! IRON HIGHWAYS. Separate. One Penny each. Hand-Ma] Principal lail\vavs. Connecting ' and Adj.-i try. Minu-> .1 froni tli-- nmsi lit author!; Great Western, South Western and Isle of Wight. North Wes- tern. Lancaster, Carlisle, and Lake District. Great Nor- thern. Midland. York, Newcastle, and Berwick. North British . Caledonian . CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 1 7 inches l.v 21. 4s. n.l. ]:r,n : AI.AM ,v <" HAKT.KS An(i Sold liv ai. AND TliAYKLUXi; MAI'S. CHEAP EDITIONS. Guides. SCOTLAND ;; Ti;o.-v\' L> I/icli CntriiM-. I.m-li I-IIHIMIH!. ;unl Disiricls 1 KWM;I ROD AM) 1 Maps. KXI.I.AND ................................. . I FLAKD ............................................. 1 . i \ND--CenM':vl ................................ 1' LAKD CoUlitii-s ........................ i-:;cli ]/ \M> .................. ............... . 1 i ........................... , \villi ilu- C'"iiucfiii C'(iuiiii-\ . (minutely engraved t ....... ONE PENS - ill : A. ^ C. DI.ACK,