Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/227

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PART OF SCOTLAND.
209

moor-fowl. The red deer so abound, that they are often seen in Atholl forest in herds of two thousand.

The drive from Blair to Dalnacardoch inn, is close by the river Garrie, amongst wild mountains: but to me, even after the village of Bruar, and the kirk-town of Strowan, there was all the way something delightful about the banks of that river to its source, the lake Garrie; having innumerable little picturesque cascades, mountain torrents, and rocky banks, here and there adorned with birch, alder, mountain ash, and an infinity of bushes and creeping shrubs diversifying the charming scene. The view of Loch Garrie from a simple bridge over a torrent, facing the lake, is beautiful. The rising hill from that bridge leads to the source of the Truim water, and the neat solitary inn of Dalwhinie, close to its edge. A person accustomed only to the scenes in the vicinity of London, or the greatest part of England, would be dismayed at the sight of this lonely habitation, the only one for miles round, where not a tree or a shrub is to be seen; only desolate crags, and a boggy heath of great extent on every side; nothing cheering, but the babbling water running to the Spey river. Dalwhinie pleased me; and