Anonymous

“ We approach cautiously and watch the trout—how alternately mouth and gills open and close, keeping up an incessant pumping—as they lie behind stones watching for luckless flies. Passing over to the other side as at once the quickest route, and that by which the best views are to be got, we are not very far up till we can see the hills that hem in Loch Long on all its sides, standing up weird-like, jagged and fissured, grim and gruesome, even in fine weather, lending sublime impressiveness to the scene. ”

“ Keeping to the right for a quarter of a mile, we find a gate which admits us to the moor. Following an easterly north-easterly direction, now through what will be in autumn a red sea of heather, and now through what is already a diminutive forest of brackens, over hill and dale, too numerous to mention, meeting occasionally a sheep or two feeding on the grass (which seems more fresh and green the higher we go) and apparently wondering how ever we came there, we reach the summit of Dunmyat, after a most pleasant walk of two hours from the time we left Causewayhead. ”

“ We have under our eye at one time a circular space of a hundred miles in diameter, comprising nearly one-third of the surface of Scotland and probably two-thirds of its wealth. On the north the rugged Grampians rise ridge behind ridge. There they all are, the Bens rising one over the other in tumbled confusion—the real Highland hills, peaks, and wild valleys, stormy summits, and dark, dismal clefts, dimly stretching away to the regions of the setting sun. ”

“ In little more than an hour’s walk from where we cross the burn, through bog and heather alternately, we get near to what seems the summit, now sinking an inch or two till we touch the stem of what may be a pre-Adamite tree slowly turning into peat, and now almost putting our foot on the tail of a grouse, which first gets a fright, and then gives its back to us as we startle at the “whirr, whirr,” with which it hurries off beyond our reach. ”

“ There are those who are nothing if they are not practical, and who see in a mountain or a range of hills little more than so many acres or tons of waste soil, which would have had a much greater economic value if it could be levelled down in some way. We can scarcely hope to interest such; but people are getting more alive to the value and significance of mountains, and are beginning to feel that if there be healthy power anywhere on earth for the wasted body, or the sorrowing soul, or larger thoughts of God and of ourselves, they are to be found on the top of some lofty hill. ”

“ Beyond are the fertile woods and fields of Ayrshire, with Loudon Hill, near which the battle of Drumclog was fought, and an extensive sweep of the Ayrshire coast, with the lonely and conical Ailsa Craig and the jagged peaks of Arran in the distance. On a clear day the view in this direction commands the land of Burns. On the other hand, we have in sight the grand valley of the Clyde, with Glasgow and Paisley, and many other towns and villages in its capacious bosom, while away in the dim distance we have a perfect wilderness of mountain-tops. ”

“ There is such an assembly of rude and wild grandeur as fills the mind with the most sublime conceptions. It is as if a whole mountain had been torn in pieces and had fallen down by a great convulsion of the{88} earth, and the huge fragments of rocks and rocky wooded hill lie scattered about in confusion for several miles along the side of Loch Katrine. Black and bluff headlands of rock dip down into the unfathomable water, or, to speak more exactly, into a loch which was found recently to be 75 fathoms deep, and which on account of its depth scarcely ever freezes. ”

“ Looking east and north, we see the outline of the Lowther range, the southern Grampians, with Culter Fell, Tinto, and over Tinto the Pentlands.
Our solitude is all the more apparent by a curlew and a plover which circle round and round uttering most piteous cries, as if to say, “What strange being are you? Have you come here to rob us of the early worm?” One of the hunting spiders settles down beside us. It spins no web, and depends on its power of leaping to catch its prey, and to watch its movements is quite a study. ”

“ The natives, we are told, but will not vouch for the truth of it, have a horror of eels almost as great as of the adders that are to be met with on the sunny side of the burn, but which will not hurt you if you do not hurt them. The natives, however, show them scant{83} mercy. But the perfume of flowers and leaves and heather, the singing of birds, and the sweeps of wooded braes throw one into a poetical turn of mind that begets a dreamy content in which nothing either great or small is overlooked. ”

“ The date of our visit to Ben Ledi’s summit was “on or about” the time when the young grouse begin to lose the number of their covey, and to learn that every man who treads the moor is not so harmless as the shepherd, especially when a dog accompanies him. And ever and again we come across them sitting warily and watchfully among the heather, and saw them rising far out of gunshot. The grouse, indeed, were now being deserted for the black game, which, on account of the general lateness of the grey hen in sitting compared with that of her red sister of the moor, are allowed a little rest. ”

“ We certainly miss at home the solemn and almost unearthly look of the Alps, but our Scottish hills have a greater variety in colour, size, and shape, and many of them have historical and antiquarian associations which help to make them the more interesting to those who climb them. It is astonishing, considering what a wealth of mountain scenery we have in Scotland, that their cult should have been so late and should still be so scanty. ”

“ When we get to the top of the quarry there is a very good path that leads all the way to the summit. As there is no omnibus that runs to the top, we zigzag it in our own way. Now we make a false step; we are finding our way over some troublesome stones, and often a huge mass of bright flesh-coloured felstone. Like all other felstone hills, such as the Pentlands and North Berwick Law, it is worn into smooth conical eminences, usually coated with turf, which, when broken here and there along the slopes, allows a long stream of angular rubbish to crumble from the rock, and slide down the hill. ”

“ But it is somewhat unfortunate that the idea exists in the public mind that it is an impossible excursion to any but rich people on account of its expense. We propose to-day to lead any who are willing to follow us to one of our Scottish mountains which more than any other may feel proud of its surroundings, which is, so to speak, at the very gate of the Trossachs, and to reach and climb which demands no great expenditure of time or of money although we can scarcely add strength, for Ben Ledi is not one of the easiest of our western hills to climb. ”

“ The ridge of the hill is green, but like most such lands is soft; and this is the nature of the way till you reach the last stage, which is steeper (excepting near the very summit) , and is formed of large fragments of slaty-rocky, intermixed with a kind of sparry marble of considerable size. The first part of the journey is the least agreeable, from its soft and boggy nature; halfway up the lake appears to most advantage, its glassy surface studded with islands, round which appears to breathe a perpetual spring. ”

“ The watercourses, swollen with rains that have come rushing down the green and rocky slopes, are broadening and deepening. There is plenty of life also in the woods and on the moor. The grouse are not at all in evidence, and we miss their whirr and cry so pleasant to hear. But the robins sing where there are branches on which they can perch, and the rabbits are running races among the ferns.
When what seems the summit has been attained, the view will be found to be very fine to the north ”

“ However, as we make for it, crossing the Leny, pattering along its stony bed, after it has come down one of the prettiest passes either in this or any other country, as we admire the hollies thickly covered with berries, and think what an added beauty they will have from the first snows of winter, and as we get a foretaste or two of the mountains and the floods that we are to see before the day is done, we have neither the time nor the mind to be disturbed by thoughts of Glasgow and her waterworks. ”

“ It is no part of our plan to describe that wilderness of beauty, “all in the Trossachs Glen,” which attracts so many tourists from all parts of the world year after year. But if our hill climber has got any superfluous energy after he has gone up and come down, it would be a pity to be so near the Trossachs without actually seeing the famed and fabled spot. ”

“ Long before we get halfway to the top of the range we take repeated opportunities of noticing how sharply and distinctly its outline is defined against the horizon, and how clearly the scars and wrinkles on its broad and openly honest face stand out. ”

“ To the west the peaks are too numerous to mention, but are strikingly impressive from the double fact that they are so near to us and so nearly of a size to that on which we stand. The mountain scene here is simply magnificent, and everywhere high peaks toss up their heads, wildly grand in storm, or calmly beautiful as immersed in the lake “100 fathoms down.” To the south-west there is the wild confusion of sea and mountain which forms the sea coast, with Ailsa, Arran, and the Paps of Jura. Due south there lies the glassy mirror of the lake, its islands now mere specks ”

“ As we rest behind the Jubilee Cairn to eat our biscuit and cheese, and get shelter from a stiff north-wester, we again and again look round in all directions, but the views to be had are at once so grand and so various that it would only bewilder the reader to go into details, and we would recommend him to lose no time, but embrace the first opportunity he has of making the ascent and getting the view himself. ”

“ Some desire a flood of water, others a silvery veil of falling mist, others would have grand natural surroundings. The truth is that a cataract, like a human face, depends a great deal on its surroundings. It is a mistake to go to a waterfall with a measuring line and judge it by height, and breadth, and volume alone. There are comparatively trifling cascades, which, by virtue of their natural position and the sweet and sylvan scenery of their home, are far more attractive than a vaster flood of water filling a greater depth amid tame scenic circumstances. ”

“ In a north-easterly direction may be seen the thriving town of Beith, and the high ground behind it, forming part of the watershed between the basin of the Clyde and the river systems of Ayrshire. Due east is the valley of the Garnock, the beauty of which is somewhat marred by a variety of coal and iron works, whose bings of shale and other refuse are considerably higher than any Dutch hills that we have seen. ”

“ A little to the south and west is the farm of Greenfields, with 1000 acres—somewhat of a misnomer, however, for all around is a waste of peat. As we pass the farmhouse we see a herd of lowing cattle, and hear the song of chanticleer in the farmyard. And as we move along we come upon a fresh upheaval of earth, the work of Master Mole, and still more frequently upon the burrow of a rabbit, with tufts of downy fur strewing the neighbourhood. ”

“ It is not easy to leave a sight like this, but time and tide wait for no man, and we have the station below us as constant mentor, and we make the descent for it, paying in passing a visit to the old Castle of Fairlie, which, with the glen in which it stands, all visitors to Fairlie should see. The site is so peculiar that the popular eye has no difficulty in tracing in it the real residence of Hardy Knute, the hero of the well-known beautiful ballad of that name. Whether the story is wholly a fiction seems to be doubted, but it does not follow that it had no foundation in tradition. ”

“ With few exceptions they are wanting in vegetation, and although to one accustomed to the rugged grandeur and rich variety of the northern Highlands, they may seem tame and uninteresting, there is a charm in their peaceful slopes and rounded summits which is not to be found in the stern beauty of their northern neighbours. “Their beauty is not revealed at first sight; it grows on the eye, which never tires of gazing on their grassy slopes and watching the ever-changing play of light and shade.” ”

“ There can be no mistake as to what we have come out to see. There is not much to distract our attention from the object we have in view, nothing near of a like kind to compete with it. There it stands, like a large self-contained house, all others at a respectable distance from it, not to be mistaken with any other—nay, as destitute of relations as Melchisedeck, a great porphyritic hill, dominating like a king over the Upper Ward. After leaving the station, a quarter of a mile{11} to the south, there is a camp still to be seen covering half an acre. ”