PICTURESQUENESS OF BEN VENUE.

235

little mountain,' to distinguish it from its giant friend, Ben Lomond. But on every side its outline is grand; the play of light on the broken masses of its rugged surface is always effective, and its crags, knolls, and mounds confusedly hurl'd,' free it from monotony of appearance from whatever point it may be looked upon. When Scott described it—

A wildering forest feather'd o'er

His ruined sides and summit hoar;

but the alders, birches, oaks, and mountain-ashes that covered the summit have long since been cut down; and, as it seems to me, to the improvement of Ben Venue's appearance. The base of the mountain is still shaggy with foliage, and out of this rises the huge pile of granite whose grey, broken masses are mingled with innumerable veins and patches of green, where the grass grows upon every little ledge and coign of vantage. The great variety of tints and forms assumed by the mountain is thus better seen than if it had been feathered to its summit with its wildering forest, and its leading peculiarity of a huge pile of tumultuous rocks is all the more visible.

I have said above, that the height of Ben Venue is ' about 3,000 feet;' and I am compelled to use this indefinite mode of expression, as in every book or atlas to which I have referred a different altitude is given, the highest being 2,806 feet, and the lowest 2,388. The height of Ben Ledi is given at 2,381, but Sir Walter Scott evidently considered it much loftier than Ben Venue, which, he says, obtained its name of the little mountain' 'as contrasted with Ben Ledi and Ben Lomond.'

6

Venue, with sufficient distinctness to show all the salient points of the landscape. Scott, in speaking of the freeborn glances from Ellen's eye confessing the guileless movements of her breast, says

Not Katrine in her mirror blue,

Gives back the shaggy banks more true.

And, again, you will remember the passage (which I will only indicate, for I said that I would endeavour to forget Scott, a thing more easily said than done) wherein the pleased lake, kissed by the western breeze, trembles, but dimples not for joy, so that the mountain-shadows on her breast are neither broken nor at rest, but lie in bright uncertainty, like future joys to Fancy's eye. And certainly this reflective power of the water is an important item in the beauties of the lake, and one that should not be forgotten. Although the scenery on both shores of Loch Katrine cannot fail to please the most exacting landscape lover, yet a walk along the northern shore by the point of Brianchoil will, on the whole, present the best materials either for study or for a sketch. This is so far fortunate, as there does not happen to be any road formed on the southern shore, and the tourist who scrambles over the rough base of Ben Venue, beneath the Goblin Cave, will sometimes have to do so at the risk of his neck. It is true that, on this very account, the dangers of the southern shore are preferred to the safety of the comfortable road that skirts the margin of the northern shore; but nine out of ten will undoubtedly prefer the latter to the former. Six or seven streams, and innumerable rivulets, pouring down Strath Gartney from the Forest of Glenfinlas and the heights of Mealaonach or Ben Choan, cross the path on their way from the hills to the lake, and fill the air

LOCH KATRINE WATERWORKS.

239

with their gentle plash or drumming thunder.' The rocks, woods, and waterfalls present themselves in every possible combination; and when taken in conjunction with the winding lake and the grand mass of Ben Venue on the farther side, with the more distant Ben Lomond and the Alps of Arroquhar, make a ramble by this path not one of the least delights to be enjoyed in this enchanted land.'

The western end of the lake is much inferior in interest to the eastern, so far as regards scenery; but, to a thoroughly practical man, it possesses (on its southern shore, and about two-and-a-half miles from the Stronachlachar inn) an attraction that will outweigh the charms of the most picturesque landscape. This is the entrance to the tunnel of the Glasgow Waterworks, a tunnel 8 feet in diameter, 2,325 yards in length, and 600 feet below the summit of the mountain under which it passes, and the first of a series of seventy distinct tunnels, having an aggregate of thirteen miles, which assist in conveying the water of Loch Katrine, by an aqueduct thirty-four miles long, to the city of Glasgow. This is one of the most gigantic engineering works of modern times, and surpasses the greatest of the nine famous aqueducts which fed the city of Rome.* It has also the special peculiarity of being a

See Mr. Bateman's speech at the Glasgow Corporation Banquet. For the other details I am chiefly indebted to the address of the Commissioners, The Scotsman, and other reliable sources. Also to The Builder of January 4, 1862, which devoted its leading article for the New Year to a report on Glasgow, in which some curious mistakes are made with regard to the waterworks. It says, that they were 'publicly inaugurated on the 26th of June, 1839'-a misprint for the 14th of October, 1859. It then says, 'the quantity of water delivered is from 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 gallons per day; that is, from 70 to 80 gallons to each individual of the whole population.' Now, here, an additional cypher must have been used to convert the tens into hundreds.

Venue, with sufficient distinctness to show all the salient points of the landscape. Scott, in speaking of the freeborn glances from Ellen's eye confessing the guileless movements of her breast, says

Not Katrine in her mirror blue,

Gives back the shaggy banks more true.

And, again, you will remember the passage (which I will only indicate, for I said that I would endeavour to forget Scott, a thing more easily said than done) wherein the pleased lake, kissed by the western breeze, trembles, but dimples not for joy, so that the mountain-shadows on her breast are neither broken nor at rest, but lie in bright uncertainty, like future joys to Fancy's eye. And certainly this reflective power of the water is an important item in the beauties of the lake, and one that should not be forgotten. Although the scenery on both shores of Loch Katrine cannot fail to please the most exacting landscape lover, yet a walk along the northern shore by the point of Brianchoil will, on the whole, present the best materials either for study or for a sketch. This is so far fortunate, as there does not happen to be any road formed on the southern shore, and the tourist who scrambles over the rough base of Ben Venue, beneath the Goblin Cave, will sometimes have to do so at the risk of his neck. It is true that, on this very account, the dangers of the southern shore are preferred to the safety of the comfortable road that skirts the margin of the northern shore; but nine out of ten will undoubtedly prefer the latter to the former. Six or seven streams, and innumerable rivulets, pouring down Strath Gartney from the Forest of Glenfinlas and the heights of Mealaonach or Ben Choan, cross the path on their way from the hills to the lake, and fill the air

LOCH KATRINE WATERWORKS.

6

239

with their gentle plash or drumming thunder.' The rocks, woods, and waterfalls present themselves in every possible combination; and when taken in conjunction with the winding lake and the grand mass of Ben Venue on the farther side, with the more distant Ben Lomond and the Alps of Arroquhar, make a ramble by this path not one of the least delights to be enjoyed in this enchanted land.'

The western end of the lake is much inferior in interest to the eastern, so far as regards scenery; but, to a thoroughly practical man, it possesses (on its southern shore, and about two-and-a-half miles from the Stronachlachar inn) an attraction that will outweigh the charms of the most picturesque landscape. This is the entrance to the tunnel of the Glasgow Waterworks, a tunnel 8 feet in diameter, 2,325 yards in length, and 600 feet below the summit of the mountain under which it passes, and the first of a series of seventy distinct tunnels, having an aggregate of thirteen miles, which assist in conveying the water of Loch Katrine, by an aqueduct thirty-four miles long, to the city of Glasgow. This is one of the most gigantic engineering works of modern times, and surpasses the greatest of the nine famous aqueducts which fed the city of Rome.* It has also the special peculiarity of being a

See Mr. Bateman's speech at the Glasgow Corporation Banquet. For the other details I am chiefly indebted to the address of the Commissioners, The Scotsman, and other reliable sources. Also to The Builder of January 4, 1862, which devoted its leading article for the New Year to a report on Glasgow, in which some curious mistakes are made with regard to the waterworks. It says, that they were 'publicly inaugurated on the 26th of June, 1839'- -a misprint for the 14th of October, 1859. It then says, 'the quantity of water delivered is from 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 gallons per day; that is, from 70 to 80 gallons to each individual of the whole population.' Now, here, an additional cypher must have been used to convert the tens into hundreds.