Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/164

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146
A DESCRIPTION OF

than its left and right hand gigantic neighbours. All three, at a distance from them, appear to the eye of a similar conical shape.

Callender, and the town of Killmahog adjoining to it, lie close to the River Teith, which is there very rapid. The situation of these towns is extremely romantic; Ben Lidi being to the north of them, and prodigiously high crags rising directly behind them; these crags are entirely composed of small stones, cemented in a socket of clay; and so hardened, as to be as firm as solid rock; it is called the plum-pudding stone: the towns are entirely built of it. There is a very good bridge over the Teith at Callender, and one at Killmahog, over the branch of it that comes from Loch Lubnaig. I crossed the latter bridge to see the wonders of the Trosacks, around Loch Catheine. It was a gloomy morning; the waters roared, and the mountains looked black, particularly Ben Lidi, scowling over the pass of Lennie. After crossing the bridge, I for some way kept near Ben Lidi, to my right, and soon came "in sight of Loch Van-a-choir, (the lake of the fair valley). It is thinly wooded, but fertile in corn, and bounded by high hills. It is said to be called the White, or Fair Valley, from