A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
Unfortunately the day on which I took my leave of Dochfour became cloudy and unpromising; but having ordered my carriage to go from Inverness by the south road to meet me at the Bona ferry, where the river Ness issues from the lake, I was obliged to set out. Before I joined the great road it began to rain, and a thick mist soon covered the tops of the mountains; though every now and then it was sufficiently fair to give me an idea of the grand scene before me; a view of which I had taken a few days before from the other side of the lake. The road on the south of the lake is a military road, made under the direction of General Wade, which must have cost his men infinite labour. From the foot of the lake to General's Hut (so called from Wade), the road runs through an almost uninterrupted wood of young oaks, birch, pine, mountain ash, &c. climbing from the water's edge to the very summits of the boldest rocks. Indeed the wood wants to be thinned, as it screens the beauties of the lake far too much. The road sometimes descends to the margin of the lake, and again rises to a high shelf, winding round and up very steep masses of projecting rock, blown up for the purpose of making the road, whose towering fragments, huge and solid, hang over the narrow way just the width of a carriage. At about fifteen miles from Inverness, I came within sight of the Black Rock, and it seemed as if it were impossible to pass by it; In truth, it does require courage and steady horses to perform it, it being a narrow shelf blown out of the rocks; and to get upon it is by a road almost as steep as the ridge of a house, winding round a huge projecting mass, that looks as if it were ready to crush the bold adventurer who dares come under its brow; for it actually hangs over part of the carriage in passing it. Trees branching, shrubs and bushes bending over and sprouting from every chink of the rocks, towering almost to the sky; and on the right hand feathering down to the water, over a rocky precipice of perhaps eighty or a hundred feet perpendicular; and no security whatever, either in climbing to the shelf, or upon it, should the horses there take fright. The scene, however, made me amends for the little palpitation occasioned by the attainment of the awful eminence on which I was mounted. The long extent of the lake, Glen Urquhart, and the ruins of its castle, boldly projecting into the loch, were in sight. The noble mountains, on each side the lake, covered with wood, through which peep masses of huge rock, some descending perpendicularly to the lake's edge, others sweeping with bold variety into it, breaking the line without lessening the majesty of its straightness, which is its peculiar character, for in that respect no other great lake in Scotland is like it. About a mile further I came to a simple bridge, thrown from rock to rock over a rapid river, issuing from a beautiful close cluster of wooded rocks and high hills. This river, swollen to a great height by the violent rains, came tumbling furiously through the arch; dashing afterwards unseen through thick wood, and down almost perpendicular rocks to the bosom of the lake below. The road takes a quick turn from this romantic bridge, and soon leads to the ruins of a kirk, once the only one of Strath Errick, on the other side of the mountains, and then to the General's Hut, the only habitation, except a few hovels, that I saw on the south side of the lake from one end of it to the other.
The outside of General's Hut is repaired since an account of it was given by Henry Skrine, Esq. As to its interior, I am, from my own experience, no judge of it: the peep I had into it from the carriage was not very inviting; but had it been more so, I should not have quitted the chaise; being accustomed to have it drawn to the best point of view at every inn I came to, and there sat, whilst the horses rested, eating my own dinner. Then drawing, or if there were nothing worthy of the pencil, I wrote or walked; but without meaning to affront any body by thus acting: though I learnt both the good folks at General's Hut, and at Letter Findlay inn, were displeased at my mode; attributing it, I suppose, to disdain or nicety, which was not entirely the case.
As I drove to the General's Hut, it was pouring with rain; I never saw harder. My only consolation in such a deluge was the idea of the perfection in which I should see the Fall of Fyres; but how to get at it was the question, without being drowned? As I sat in the chaise, I saw a gentleman wrapped in a plaid, with a guide, penetrating the wood through which the road leads to the fall. In about three quarters of an hour he came back dripping wet. In such sequestered regions ceremony sleeps, and the heart expands to any thing and every thing like humanity; I therefore intreated the dripping stranger to take a comforting drop from my bottle of rum, to keep off the danger of his drenching. When he came near, I found he was one of the officers from Fort George, who had rode from thence to see this famous fall. I was happy in an opportunity, even though so trifling, to shew I was sensible of the civilities I met with at the fort: and I hope my spirits prevented the gentleman from getting cold, of which he ran great risk, as I saw him, immediately after I spoke to him, canter away without changing his Highland waistcoat. After waiting till the horses were ready to proceed, I walked to the fall, leaving the carriage to follow me. At that time the rain had ceased; but the ground was every where swimming, and the trees and torrents streaming.
Mr. Baillie had, with infinite consideration and kindness, sent with me a very clever intelligent Highlandman, to whose assistance I was indebted for a full and complete view of the Fall of Fyres from every spot that was possible for it to be seen. The road, about a quarter of a mile from the Hut, quits the lake, (on whose steep banks there is no possibility of proceeding farther,) and strikes up through the mountains towards Strath Errick. Within about half a mile of it, the thundering noise of the fall announces the approach to it. The first station I attained was on a promontory, at the distance of about a hundred yards from the fall, and about a hundred feet above the surface of the water after its fall, rushing round the rock. I saw from this first point of view, the river issuing with violence from its confined channel above, and dashing over broken rocks down to the pool; but a projecting slip of green bank, and other obstacles, screened from me the better half of the cataract. The rocks on each side the fall are clad with hanging trees, chiefly of birch, mountain ash, and young oak, peeping through, the expanded spray. The river, after running from the pool, has several other projections to compass, before it reaches the foot of the promontory on which I placed myself; I was in ecstasy with all around me; but to get to this station was a bold adventure (for a woman) when the ground is wet, being obliged to creep from one slippery bank to another, and to step from rock to rock, supported only by stumps and branches of birch, and in continual danger of tumbling headlong over pieces of rocks, and into bogs. But I was determined nothing should hinder me from seeing this grand object in all possible points of view. On my return from the promontory I met four travellers, males, not very active in body, who came tumbling and slipping down the banks, with fright and dismay, that made me smile. They stared at me, as much as to say,—how came you there! But bad as the first scramble was, it was nothing in comparison to the hazard (in slippery weather) of creeping to the green bank, close to, and in front of the fall. My postillion's curiosity had carried him thither before me: he met me at his return, to tell me it was impossible for me to venture to the green bank; and if I did, at least, I should be wet through in a few minutes. I could not be much worse in that respect than I was; for my shoes and stockings were by that time complete brown boots, so covered were they with dirt and slime. By the help of the Highlandman, and my own servant, I however slipped, and hung by trees, and clung to pieces of rock, until I got down on the desired bank, which is on the whole not more than two yards wide, and projects, perhaps, twenty or more feet in direct front of the fall. This bank, whether by art, or worn away by frequent visitations, I cannot say, but there is on it a sunk path, in the middle of this slip of rock, (in shape like a marrow-spoon,) sufficiently wide to take in the legs of those who venture themselves in it: the bank rises on each side, and at the end of the path, forming a green earthen parapet, about knee high. I advanced to the furthest point, looking at the vast leap of the river, and tracing its course from the pool round the green bank on which I stood, two hundred feet below me, winding and dashing towards the promontory on which I had first gazed; and the top of the cataract was two hundred and seventy feet above me! The noise, as it was a flood, was beyond belief; it was impossible to hear any other sound; and the spray, in a great degree, deprived me of sight and breath; and obliged me to lay myself down on my stomach, upon the green parapet, and every now and then, by gulping, and shutting my eyes for relief, I was by intervals enabled to look and breathe; to admire, and I might say, almost adore. The river, in its fall, diffused its spray in every direction to a vast distance, over my head, and far beyond my station. The water bounded from the pool, rising like innumerable high fountains, and in the return fell with prodigious force and weight against, and partly upon, the green bank, by which, and the spray, I was in a few minutes pretty well drenched. The want of breath and sight obliged me to quit this grand work of nature much sooner than I wished. If ever I am happy enough to see it again, it shall be in a drier season, when perhaps it may be more picturesque, though far less sublime and awful; besides, in such a a season, there can be neither danger nor difficulty in getting at it.
I believe the Highlanders to be stout men, both in body and mind; and I also know they will dare do many things for whisky: but I cannot well credit what was told me at Fort Augustus of one who, for the trifling wager of a bottle of that spirit, not only put himself into the river at the top of the fall of Fyres, but voluntarily went down the cataract into the pool, from which he paddled away like a duck, and climbed up the rock side, safe and unhurt, saying, "that was nothing to the fall of Niagara, down which he had precipitated himself many a time." Now the fall of Fyres is four hundred and seventy feet perpendicular, over broken rocks to the pool, and that, no one knows the depth of. I own I cannot swallow any part of the history; but I give it as I heard it.
As soon as I left the green bank, I walked to the bridge, not above a hundred yards higher up the river. This is a scene truly picturesque and very romantic, as well as beautiful. A simple arch, from rock to rock, ready to receive the soft winding river above it, and admit it to its rough and narrow approach to the cataract; but its labours begin just before the bridge, where the rough masses seem determined to impede its passage through the arch, lying heap upon heap to stop the way. The contest becomes extremely violent, and the whirl-pools boil up with fury, and then dash through the bridge down falls without end, entering with loud groans into the narrow gulf of rocks, from which it leaps with boisterous force to the pool above described; and thence glides, babbling and laughing as it were, at its miraculous escape, to imbosom itself in the enchanting great lake. Near the bridge I entered several caves, large and dry; where I was told many of the unfortunate rebels hid themselves, before and after the battle of Culloden.
When I had seen every thing about this wonderful situation I entered the carriage, which was standing in a winding part of the road by the river's side, shaded by fine trees, and surrounded by hills not to be described. Such was my dressing room. I drew up the blinds of the chaise, and new dressed myself entirely; took a glass of wine, and gave bumpers to the good Highlandman, the postillion, and my servants; and then proceeded with admiration of what I had seen, and what, at every step, I continued to see. After winding a little way on the margin of the river, the road crosses a burn, and suddenly turns up a steep hill, and leads to a defile of mountains watered by burns; which are, at the beginning of the defile, bordered by a great variety of trees and bushes, creeping up and down the braes (sides of hills and sloping banks of burns), till I again crossed the river by a bridge, and entered Strath Errick, which joins Strath Nairn; both together forming a sort of opening from the town of Nairn, on the Murray Firth, to the mountains near Fort Augustus. The road runs through Strath Errick, amongst mountains so jumbled together, that to avoid their summits, and bogs, there is scarcely a yard of level or straight road for twelve miles: now and then is seen a hut at a great distance, just to shew a trace of humanity; and one tolerable house on a small lake's side; otherwise it is an extended spot of desolation.
A gentleman of some eccentricity whom I met with said, he believed God Almighty had made Stra' Errick on the Saturday night, and had not time to finish it.
About four miles before I came to Fort Augustus, I wound round a lake of a comical shape, something like the present fashionable military cocked hat, with two islands in it: this lake is called Loch Andurive: from one corner of it issues a stream that soon swells into a very rapid torrent, running deep and close below, under the shelf on which the road descends by a zig-zag of about a mile down to the river Doe, with which the lake torrent unites. As soon as I crossed the Doe, the road mounted another shelf hanging over the river, unseen, but heard; dashing through wood and over rocks, forcing its way by perpendicular shoots, down the mountains to Loch Ness, which it enters. It was a sad pull up the shelf over the Doe; but within a mile after that rise, I started from my seat at the view that unexpectedly opened to my sight. The head of Loch Ness, with a verdant flat around it of about a mile in diameter; watered by two large rivers in different directions, with bridges over them near the mouth of each. Fort Augustus itself, like a large old palace, whose white walls rise on the centre of the Loch's head; the rivers forming a rampart on each side of it, emptying themselves into the lake close by the walls of the fort. The town appears like offices to the castle, or palace, a few trees filling up the defects and uniting the whole. The lake; its majestic sides of rocks, some bare, others dressed with wood, and enriched by every tint that nature paints, particularly a soft purplish red blended with yellow, that gave such a rich softness to the rays of the sinking sun, lingering on the tops of the mountains, as cannot be described. From the lake and fort my eyes wandered to the rough points of hill upon hill, that take up the chain which the small plain about Fort Augustus has broken, bordering the lake and river Oich, running towards the sovereign of all the lakes in that quarter of the kingdom. There cannot be a more jagged summit than this Bowling-green of Glen Gary exhibits, (so called in derision.) It is, however, green from the base to the pointed tops of the mountains; wood and meads filling the small space to the lake and river's side. In short, the first view of Fort Augustus from Strath Errick, in a fine day, is like a little paradise; hemmed in on every side, and to appearance, by obstacles impossible to surmount, to have no means either to enter it or escape from it.—In that respect it resembles the happy valley described by Doctor Johnson in his Rasselas, or Prince of Abyssinia.
When I had feasted my eyes with this wonderful view, I began a descent of about a mile; in which, indeed, it seemed impossible for the poor horses either to keep upon their legs, or hold up the carriage behind them, though the wheels were dragged. Had I not had perfect confidence in Allen, and his steady beasts, I must have walked down the precipice, notwithstanding the wet and dirt from the rain in the morning. Fort Augustus is in a state of great neglect, and appears to be going very fast to decay. There were only a few old invalids in it when I was there; and the sight of these old firelocks, on the parade, rehearsing their exercise before the Governor's house in a morning, was quite a burlesque scene of soldiering. The same ceremony, however, was practised at Fort Augustus as at Fort George; and the creeping centinels hailed us with "who goes there?"—I had letters to the worthy Governor, which I sent in; and was admitted over the thundering drawbridge, and through the dark gateway, to the parade and the Governor's door; who, with his lady, received me with every mark of kindness and hospitality. Alas! since that period, that good man, Governor Trapaud, is gone from his earthly friends to reap the reward of his numerous virtues!
The next morning I set off early, to follow the hollow from sea to sea. After crossing the bridge I left the river Oich to my right; and at the end of a mile, entered between hills that secluded it from my sight for two miles more, when the foot of Loch Oich, and its river flowing from it, opened to the view, with a range of mountains on each side, verdant from their bases to their summits, excepting every now and then where rocks covered with wood break the line, and bare masses of rock too, peeping through, just to prove that the outsides of the mountains are fairer and smoother than their insides. The whole way I beheld fine pasture for sheep, both on the sides of the mountains, and in the tiny flats between the chain of lakes. A little before the road joins Loch Oich, a burn crosses the road, tearing away the soil, and leaving only a large bed of round stones. Trees of birch, alder, pines, mountain ash, and other wood, ornament the whole space: at times creeping to the mountain's top, and again hanging over the river and the lake; which, towards the middle, is contracted by the projecting land at Invergary, where the river Gary issues from the glen, bold and broad, shaded by fine trees. The road I was upon is a shelf, hanging over Loch Oich, with lofty mountains, almost perpendicular, of broken and shivering rocks; which, notwithstanding their excessive roughness, are mostly covered with thick Alpine wood; through which rush lofty torrents from their very summits. One of the boldest of these falls is in full sight of Glen Gary's house; and a fine object it must be to it.
From the Callader water, whose flood I before mentioned, as having torn away and overwhelmed the road with stones, to High Bridge, a distance of about seventeen miles, I counted at least a hundred mountain torrents, and above thirty of of them fine ones. These torrents require some sort of bridges to cross them, and art and constant labour, requisite to keep those bridges in passable repair; but it is impossible, without seeing such scenes, to understand or conceive their beauties from description. I was the whole way in constant exclamation;—here is another; oh, how fine! how beautiful! how dashing!—Hopping and rushing sometimes down mountains perpendicular to the road, so that I was continually obliged to draw up the glasses of the carriage to prevent the spouts coming upon us. Again, on the opposite side of the lakes, where the mountains are equally high and woody with those on our side, I saw white stripes of foaming torrents, as often as those I was close to: but all this happens only on a rainy day: as most of these falls suddenly flow with fume and violence, and as quickly subside, when it is fair; leaving nothing but a rough channel to shew where they had been, and would be again the first hard shower.
When I went to Fort William it was a fine day, consequently the greatest number of these torrents were quiet. It was the next day, on my return, when it rained hard, that I was so delighted with these beautiful dashers. Having two days of different weather between Fort Augustus and Fort William, I saw on one day that charming defile, sublime, bright, soft, and smiling: on the other, terrific, gloomy, and dripping. Mr. M'Donell's house at Invergary is sweetly situated, fronting Loch Oich, and close on the side of the river Gary, issuing from a lovely glen, amongst mountains pointed and jagged, with their bases richly clad with wood. A few acres of verdure are seen adjacent to the house, ornamented, as far as I could see, by fine trees, in a picturesque, natural style; and not far from the house, on a bold projecting piece of rock, is the ruin of a castle; whose broken walls, turrets, and fragments, are seen imperfectly through beautiful trees, shrubs, twining ivy, and coarse grass. In front of the ruin is the soft reflecting lake, and at its back the lofty range of mountains called Glen Gary's Bowling-green; whose tops are grey crags, and from their bases creep wood, intermixed with patches of verdure, wherever they can embrace these rough majestic sovereigns. I determined to take a sketch of this place on my return, as I should then face the most beautiful landscape; but I forgot the old true adage, that delays are dangerous. The same determination prevailed when I came in sight of Loch Lochy; but, behold! the next day both these delightful picturesque places were darkened, and mostly concealed by rain and mist, to my great mortification. The road continues hanging over Loch Oich to its head (whence the water runs towards the North sea), and then it descends to a marshy flat, and soon reaches the head of Loch Lochy; where the water runs the quite contrary way, to seek, towards the south-west, the Irish channel.
At the head of Loch Lochy is a charming landscape; the lake almost filling the space between the mountains on each side of it. The Loch itself is a fine vista; reflecting the shores in the softest tints, fading away to a beautiful conical hill, closing the centre in the distant horizon. The road again mounts a shelf hanging over the lake, and at about the midway of it I found Letter Findlay inn, close on the edge of the lake, screened at the back by high mountains, and very much shaded by wood. At the door of the inn is a small green patch, bordered by birch and alders; rushes, bushes, and shrubs creeping down to the water. On this fairy green I had the chaise turned that I might face the grand scenery of lake, wood, and mountains, on the north side of the Loch; whose bold sides, with precipitate projections, drive back the encroaching waters. Two solitary huts I saw under these mountains, nodding, as it were, at Letter Findlay; but how they were got at, I could not imagine. A patch of coarse verdure adorns these habitations: all around besides is wood and rocks, rising from them and the lake nearly perpendicular. Had I not afterwards been told to the contrary, I should have imagined that ravens must feed the beings, if any were, dwelling there, as in appearance nought but what drops from the clouds can reach them; but being informed there was a ferry to them from Letter Findlay I was better satisfied with their fate: besides, I was told they were shepherds, and that they and their flocks made as little of all those crags and mountains, as I do of the stairs, in seeking my dinner from a high room to a low one.
After eating my meal, and sketching what was within my view, I proceeded on the side of the lake, in the same style of scenery, till I came within a mile of Low Bridge, when I was struck with such a variety of beauty that amazed me. It is an opening from Loch Arkeig, with a river sweetly winding amongst little and great hills (verdant and woody), seeking repose in the bosom of Loch Lochy. I do not remember seeing any habitation in that romantic Eden. The banks of Loch Arkeig, however, and its neighbouring glens, are tolerably well inhabited; but the cluster of hills near Loch Lochy, so close up the glen, that it is impossible, from the side of the lake where I was, to look into it.
It was to the neighbourhood of Loch Arkeig, that Prince Charles Stuart fled after the battle of Culloden, where he met with great friendship from Loch Eil, and others. He again visited that part of the country when he returned from the Isle of Skye, where he had been safely (though with infinite risk) conducted by Miss Flora Macdonald, from the island of South Uist. After leaving the Isle of Skye, Charles entered Loch Nevish, which is not at a great distance (to the west) from the head of Loch Arkeig. Whilst he was skulking in that district, four hundred men, under General Campbell, arrived on one side of him, and five hundred more, under Captain Scott, on the other. These officers gaining some intelligence of him, began to form a circle round him not above two miles distant. In this dilemma he sent to Donald Cameron of Glenpean, who, in the night, conducted him through the guards who were in the pass they were obliged to take; and at one time they were forced to creep upon all fours, so close to the tents, that they heard the soldiers talking to each other, and saw them walking between them and the fires. This was only a prelude to their dangers and difficulties, as they still had to pass through the line of little camps, twenty-seven in number, called the chain. The night was very dark, and Charles's faithful guide, Donald Cameron, passed alone through the chain, by way of experiment. He returned safe, and with success conducted the Pretender through it. Before Donald began this hazardous expedition, he said to Charles, "Oh! Sir, my nose is yuiking (itching), which is a sign to me that we have great risks and dangers to go through."
After having passed the guards without being discovered, Charles accosted his friend, and pleasantly said, "Well, Donald, how does your nose now?" "It is better now," said he; "but it still yuiks a little!"
Many were the hardships this suffering patient young man afterwards underwent in Glen Morrison, Lochaber, and in the mountains hanging over Loch Ericht, which became his hiding-place, till he made his escape to France, in Sept. 1746.
Somewhat before I came in sight of Low Bridge, the road turns from Loch Lochy, and is cut through steep rocks, beautiful to look at, rising to the sky, covered with wood and bursting torrents; but in a wet slippery day, not very desirable to pass in a carriage. Low Bridge is of one noble high arch, thrown over a water running from a glen behind the range of mountains, screening Letter Findlay inn, and is called Low, because it was unnecessary to be built so high as that over the Spean river, to which I came in about three miles from Low Bridge, by a road round, and up very steep sides of mountains. At High Bridge, I got a more extensive view over the district both before and behind me: it is very wild, but not totally devoid of beauty. High Bridge is a great work, constructed under General Wade's direction; and is next in wonder to that going by the name of Wade's Bridge, or Tay Bridge, in Appneydow; eight miles from Taymouth, and close by the small town of Aberfeldie. The road at the top of the hill approaching to High Bridge, winds round on a shelf, hanging over the deep and close, bare, rocky (but in some parts verdant), banks of the Spean; which, as if glad of its escape through the arches of the bridge, was dashing with rapid bounds from one bed of rock to another; eager to finish the remainder of its tortured passage to the foot of Loch Lochy, deep below.
The day was declining and getting overcast, I therefore did not dare venture to stop to sketch the bridge; which I much wished to do, as a curiosity of art and nature. As I stood upon the ground higher than the bridge, it appeared to be a a region of the utmost wildness; bare craggy mountains, one above another, on every side, and a dreary rough moor before me. The Spean, though violent just above and below the bridge, came quietly, and tolerably level, from amongst the stupendous mountains towards Badenoch. But this river, at times, rises to an immoderate height, particularly at the melting of snow; as it is fed, not only by five lakes (two of them tolerably large), but innumerable torrents from Ben Nivis, and other far more distant high mountains, south-east and north, from the place where I was admiring it. Some of the feeding streams rise from the mountains farther north than Loch Spey, and near it; others as far east as the ridge hanging over the west side of Loch Ericht, near Rannoch; consequently, at the breaking up of a frost, or in a season of great floods, the Spean river must be filled with such huge pieces of ice, accompanied by a weight of water sufficient to carry off and devastate every thing in its way, with a violence not to be imagined or understood by Lowlanders, unaccustomed to the ravages of rivers in Highland countries.
Through the vast moor before me, there was nothing but the road to be seen, except a few scattered huts; some of them in such bogs, that it seemed impossible for any thing human to exist in such places. Peat-moss, rushes, coarse grass, and now and then a patch of heath, are the whole produce of this up and down waste. The eight miles from High Bridge to Fort William, is the most dreary, though not the ugliest, space I had travelled in Scotland. It is very thinly inhabited; and notwithstanding its non-productive appearance, I never drunk finer milk than I did there, from cows I found milking on the road's side; and what was still more extraordinary, though I gave but a trifle more than the value of what was drunk, the honest creatures thought it too much, although they seemed the poorest of the poor in Scotland. The huts on this moor are very small and low, are soon erected, and must very soon fall down. They consist of four stakes of birch, forked at the top, driven into the ground; on these they lay four other birch poles, and then form a gavel at each end by putting up more birch sticks, and crossing them sufficiently to support the clods with which they plaster this skeleton of a hut all over, except a small hole in the side for a window, a small door to creep in and and out at, and a hole in the roof, stuck round with sticks, patched up with turf, for a vent, as they call a chimney. The covering of these huts is turf, cut about five or six inches thick, and put on as soon as taken from the moor; therefore it seldom loses its vegetation; as I hardly saw any difference between the huts and the moor; for what heath there was on either, was equally in bloom. In these huts they make a fire upon the ground, and the smoke issues in columns at every hole, so that if an inhabitant within be induced to take a peep at any travellers, they are seen in a cloud of smoke; notwithstanding which, the cursches (caps of Highland women) were as white as snow, and the faces of the children mostly fair and blooming. At night they rake out the fire, and put their beds of heath and blankets (which they have in abundance) on the ground, where the fire had been, and thus keep themselves warm during the night. The chief of their furniture is an iron pot, a few bowls, and spoons of wood, and pails to put their milk in.
A person accustomed to the comforts and luxuries of life, cannot conceive how it is possible for human beings to exist, in a state so near that of the brute creation.
It is curious to examine the interior of an habitation called a house, in a cluster of houses, termed in Scotland a town. It consists of a butt, a benn, and a byar; that is, a kitchen, an inner room, and a place in which to put cattle. In the centre of the gavel end of the butt, is heaped up dirt and stones, in which is fixed small iron bars; leaving a hollow by way of grate, with a hob on each side: there is also a sort of crank that moves any way, to which is hooked the meikle pot. There is no resemblance of a chimney, but the hole at the top; so that the whole side of the gavel is covered with soot from the fire to the vent. The dirt floor is full of holes, retaining whatever wet or dirt may be thrown upon it; consequently it is always a mire. In one corner is a box nailed to the partition, between the butt and the benn. This box opens with a door in front, in which is a heath, or other bed, with a great number of blankets. Into this box creep as many as it can hold; and thus they sleep, boxed up on every side, except the small door in front. In the house I was in, close to the box bed, stood another box similar to the bed, containing provisions of milk, oat cakes, broth, &c. and eating utensils. If the family be large, the benn too has a similar bed or beds; between which and the byar, there is generally only a very partial partition. A small farmer will say, he delights to sleep thus close to the byar, that he may lie and see, and hear, his beasts eat. Another pretty fashion among them (and it is universal), their dunghill is close to the door of the house, or hut: let the spot about it be ever so lovely, to them their sweet mixen is their choicest, their chief object. Next the dunghill stand their peat stacks; whilst, perhaps, on the back part of their house, where they seldom or ever go, all is neatness. What a perverse inclination for nastiness!
In most of the sequestered parts of the Highlands, the substitute for tallow candles, are the stumps of birch and fir trees, which the Highlandmen dig out of the peat mosses when they cut that fuel. These stumps appear to have lain buried in the bogs for a vast time; and when prepared for candles, they really give a charming light, but of short duration. After drying these stumps thoroughly, they cut them in slips like long matches, which are burned singly, or in a bundle, according to the light required. It falls to the lot of whatever useless being there is in a hut (old folks or children), to hold this torch, and renew it; for it burns out very fast. It is a pleasant sight to see an old woman of seventy or eighty, dressed in her snow-white cursche, sitting by a cozy (snug) fire, holding this clear taper for her daughter and grand childdren, while they are, some spinning, others singing and dancing, and a group of youngsters playing on the ground with each other, and their faithful sheep dog.
When I lodged at Buttermere, in Cumberland, the good folks of the alehouse there always drew their beer by the light of dried rushes; and also used them on every other possible occasion, as the safest, as well as cheapest candles. Those large reeds grow in abundance about the lakes at Buttermere; and great quantities of them are dried by the villagers for candles.
I had observed no beggars in the Highlands, till I came upon the moor between High Bridge and Fort William; but there, at the sound of the carriage, came bounding like fauns, through the dub and the lare (mire and bog), swarms of half naked boys and girls, muttering Galic. Having no half-pence, I shook my head, and made every sign I could think of to make them understand I had nothing for them; but notwithstanding, one fly of a girl kept skimming over every thing in her way, by the side of the carriage, for at least two miles; I screaming, "to-morrow I will give you something." Whether she became weary, or conceived what I meant, I cannot say; but at length she took a different direction, and bounded away through bog and heath, to a hut on a dismal looking swamp, at some distance. On the morrow, the rattle of the wheels again brought forth a swarm, and my skipping lass amongst them; I had not forgotten her; but all Maryburgh could not furnish me with six-penny worth of half-pence. The girl bounded before me smiling; and seemed to express, by her countenance, that to-morrow was come, and that she claimed my promise. On a steep rise she came close to the window of the chaise; she did not speak, but she looked in my face so expressively, that out came a silver six-pence from my purse, and I threw it before her. She stooped to pick it up, expecting, I suppose, a half-penny: but no sooner did her eye catch the white metal, but she jumped a full yard from the ground, uttering such a scream of joy and surprize as startled me, and might have been heard at a great distance. She then quickly turned to her companion beggars, shewed the six-pence to them, and, with a smile of delight, bounded away towards the huts with an incredible swiftness. I never gave a six-pence with so much pleasure in my life; nor do I suppose one ever was received with more ecstasy.
As I advanced towards Fort William, at a distance, amongst the ridge of stupendous mountains on my left, over the tops of which the clouds and mist were every instant varying, I perceived the hollow parts and cliffs of one of them filled with snow; and when I came opposite to it, I was all admiration and astonishment at its noble crescent of crags; the regularity, the sublimity, and seemingly perfect architecture of which, with the bold massy towers of rocks on each side, convinced me, (though impenetrable clouds concealed its major part) that this mountain could be no other than the Scotch Atlas, Ben Nivis. As I returned the next day, I was, with respect to a view of this gigantic mountain, in high good luck. Its cap of cloud is very seldom off; but the morning was bright, and the mist fast creeping up every side of the mountain. I anxiously watched the humour of the sovereign, and with joy perceived, in his majesty, a strong inclination to uncover. I set off, and by the time I came under the shadow of his wing, his cap disappeared, and I had a fine view of every part that is possible to be seen from the road. In its shape there is beauty, mixed with the sublime and terrific. In front a soft verdant sloping hill; behind which is an hollow, and a lofty crescent rising from it, with its high pointed horns; joining to one of which are towers of huge rocks, furrowed by continual torrents; with hollows and chasms filled with snow, forming a rare contrast in summer, with the black and grey rocks of the crescent, and other huge masses adjoining. The whole, to an eye below, appears to be capped with soft verdure, except where the never-melting patches of snow keep possession. The summit, however, of Ben Nivis, I am told, is a bed of white pebbles, some of them beautiful. There are but few who attain so high a station, it being a very laborious journey to climb that mountain to the top.
I learnt, in those parts, another instance of the great love a Highland man has for whisky. A lady of fashion, having conquered that ascent, before she quitted it, left on purpose a bottle of whisky on the summit: when she returned to the fort, she laughingly mentioned that circumstance before some Highland men, as a piece of carelessness; one of whom slipped away, and mounted to the pinnacle of 4370 feet, above the level of the fort, to gain the prize of the bottle of whisky, and brought it down in triumph.
Loch Eil, a salt water lake, is in shape something like a compass half opened; running from west to east as far as the angle, and then southwest, to enter into Linnhe Loch, an arm of the sea. A traveller from Fort William, whether he proposes to return south, either by the Appin road, or through Glen Coe to Tyndrum, must keep close by the side of Loch Eil, till the ferry at Ballaheulish, at the mouth of Loch Leven, where that lake also empties itself into Loch Linnhe. The Appin road from that ferry continues south-west close to the sea: the new road towards Tyndrum runs nearly by the south bank of Loch Leven, until it enters Glen Coe. This glen runs nearly east to King's-house, in the Black Mount. The road by the devil's staircase is at the head of Loch Leven, but now never travelled: it is, however, the continuation of the military road from the Black Mount to Fort William. Even so late as in General Wade's time, they knew not the art of road making so well as they do now; for his military roads generally go up and down mountains, never dreaming that he could wind round the bases of them.