it was impossible to pass over the heather without notice, for it was in its full bloom, and in sufficient abundance for thousands of Ellens to dash the dew from its flowers, and for many a Knight of Snowdoun to make his bed amid its moorland fragrance.'

I not only had the pleasure of seeing the Trosachs illuminated by the glories of a brilliant sunset, but I was also fortunate enough to walk through the pass when the moon was silvering the scene, and making it more and more like 'the scenery of a fairy dream.' Of this spot might Scott indeed have written :

If thou would'st view the Trosachs right,
Go, visit it by the pale moonlight;

for it seems to be a place which the moonbeams better suit than the garish light of day. This more especially holds good during the touring season, when a succession of four-horse coaches, rattling through the pass, bring sublimity and usefulness into a somewhat discordant union. By sunset and moonlight the varied beauties of the spot may be thoroughly enjoyed without any such distracting influences, and that healthful introspection may be indulged in of which Wordsworth, in his sonnet on The Trosachs,' thus speaks :

There's not a nook within this solemn pass,
But were an apt confessional for one

Taught by his summer spent, his autumn gone,
That life is but a tale of morning grass

Withered at eve. From scenes of art which chase

That thought away, turn, and with watchful eyes
Feed it 'mid Nature's old felicities,

Rocks, rivers, and smooth lakes more clear than glass
Untouched, unbreathed upon.* Thrice happy guest,
If from a golden perch of aspen spray,

This is gilding refined gold;' for it is an improvement on the splendidior vitro.

MOONLIGHT.

(October's workmanship to rival May)
The pensive warbler of the ruddy breast
That moral sweeten by a heaven-taught lay,
Lulling the year, with all its cares, to rest!

251

From the centre of the pass of the Trosachs, where the defile widens into a tolerably open landscape, the view looking towards Ben Aan is very fine. It lifts high his forehead bare,' overtopping the rocky rampart that closely walls-in the pass, and contrasting its treeless height with the swelling masses of foliage that cover the lower hills. Peaked Ben Aan,' is it truly termed; for its summit terminates, on the Trosachs side, with a sharp peak, from which a precipice falls abruptly down until it is lost in the thick timber that overspreads its base. On the evening of which I have spoken, when I saw the setting sun bathe the purple peaks in floods of living fire,' Ben Aan stood out sharply against the violet sky, with its precipitous side illuminated by the last beams of sunset, and just at that moment two figures of tourists, who had ascended to the peak, became distinctly visible on the bare ridge of the mountain. O, that it were possible, I thought, to transport myself for a moment to their position !—to look over the linked lengths of Loch Katrine, and see them roll'd one burnish'd sheet of living gold,'-just as the hunter saw them from that rocky stair which was once the only outlet to the pass.

From the steep promontory gazed
The stranger raptured and amazed.

There is huge Ben Venue, overtopped by the distant Ben Lomond; and in every direction, whether over the Forest of Glenfinlas, or across its stream to Ben Ledi, the view must be surpassingly beautiful-more so, in

one respect, than from Ben Venue itself, inasmuch as it includes that most picturesque of Highland hills.

I greatly regretted that I was unable to ascend Ben Aan and judge for myself of the beauty of the panorama from its peak; but sketching, although so delightful in itself, has this necessary drawback attending upon its pleasures, that it consumes many hours which might otherwise have been devoted to the exploration of new spots and the visiting of fresh scenes. The sketcher, however, has his ample satisfaction and revenge in that portfolio of drawings, the sight of which can renew his old joys, and, like the company of one's own children, be to him a spring of perpetual delight. As I closed my sketching-book, the two specks on the summit of Ben Aan also disappeared; and I, dusted with heather-bloom up to my knees, waded down through the thick bushes, threading my way among the scattered masses of rock that gleamed ghost-like from amid the dark-stained floor of the heathey hill-side, and again set foot on the coach-road that winds through the depths of the pass, and which leads to the comfortable quarters of the Trosachs Hotel, on the margin of Loch Achray.

CHAPTER XXV.

LOCH ACHRAY.

The Trosachs Hotel-Poetic Realities-Increase of Tourists-
Fortune's Favourites-Detriments to an Enchanted Land-
The Banquet Hall-The Puzzled Waiter-Is it Onion?--
Loch Achray-View from the Hotel-Other Views-Walk
along the Shore-The New Church--Glenfinlas-The Brig o'
Turk-Lanrick Mead-The New Hotel-Loch Vennacher-A
Good Starting Point.

THE

THE Trosachs Hotel is beautifully situated by the high road that leads from the Trosachs along the banks of lovely Loch Achray.'

The building is the baronial successor of that thatched cottage of Ardcheanochrochan—an unpronounceable name, signifying 'the high end of the rock-which, on the publication of 'The Lady of the Lake,' was so inundated by the streams of tourists, who, to the surprise of the old farmer, took the trouble to travel many miles to see a scene in which he had never found anything worth looking at not even a field of barley. But, as the visitors persisted in coming, the old farmer yielded to his fate; and before his death had become so alive to the poetic realities of the spot, that he was enabled to point out (as his successors do to this day) the very spot where Fitz-James' gallant grey sank exhausted,the soldier's grave at Beal an Duine,*-and to tell the

*Or the Pass of the Man.' Here took place a skirmish between the Clan Alpine and some soldiers of Cromwell, in which one of the latter was slain. His comrades determined to be avenged on the wives

romantic story of Ellen's Isle. As the visitors increased, and clamoured for accommodation, the thatched cottage grew out of itself into the dimensions of a goodly inn, which, in its turn, was all too small and insufficient; and, in 1852, was cleared away by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby in favour of that baronial structure which is now so pleasing and striking a feature in the view. Its flanking round towers, surmounted by their spirelets, with the high-pitched roof and dormer windows, help to give it a national character which is in harmony with the spot. But even this building did not suffice for the thronging tourists; and its capacities for entertainment were considerably increased by the addition of a large detached building of two stories high, which has raised the bedroom accommodation to a high pitch, and which helps to remind one of the section of a college 'quad.'

I am unwilling to obtrude personal matters into these pages; but our arrival at this hotel was not only marked by a proof that this route is daily frequented by crowds during the touring season, but also by an occurrence of that good luck that, throughout our tour in Tartanland, rendered us fortune's favourites. I had neglected to secure rooms at this hotel, and we arrived there early in the afternoon to find the building completely full, and every room in it engaged, except one bedroom in the outer building. This, of course, we secured; and as there are two public rooms, used by ladies as freely as by gentlemen, the lack of a private sitting-room was

and children who had taken refuge on 'Ellen's Isle.' A soldier swam across for a boat, and was slain by Ellen Stuart. Sir Walter Scott's ballad of 'The Battle of Beal an Duine,' and also the incident of Duncraggan's widow'd dame' in The Lady of the Lake, are founded upon this event, to which reference has already been made in the previous chapter.