G. E. Mitton

“ Something in the shaggy uncouthness of the word fits so well with the land of romance and mountain scenery that it has drawn tens of thousands to make the round between Glasgow and Edinburgh, by rail and coach and steamer, who, if the name had not been so mysteriously attractive, might never have bestirred themselves at all. Since the publication of Rob Roy and The Lady of the Lake the principal actors in these dramas have been just as real and important to the imaginative tourist as the familiar names of history. ”

“ The road from Aberfoyle to the Trossachs rises very steeply past some slate-quarries. As we rise the hills come into view—Ben Ledi and Ben Venue, with Ben Lomond dominating all the landscape; Ben Voil peeping over Ben Lawers; and on the clearest days, far in the distance, Ben Nevis, Schiehallion, and many others. Far below to the right lies Loch Drunkie, and much nearer the desolate little tarn called Loch Reoichte, which signifies “frozen,” and this among them all for desolate beauty stands first. ”

“ The railway crosses the stream about this point, and continues up the west side of the loch, while the road keeps on the right, or eastern, side.{26} The rail passes Laggan Farm, said to be the birthplace of Rob’s Amazonian wife, Helen, who takes a part only second to himself in the reader’s imagination. Passing along, therefore, on either side we come, soon after the head of the loch, to bonny little Strathyre, lying amid its great hills, which are flushed as if with fire when the setting sun catches the sweep of the heather in season. ”

“ Yet they miss much by not doing so, for at Balquhidder, a little beyond Strathyre, is the grave of Rob Roy and the reputed graves of his wife and son, while up the Pass of Leny itself was carried the fiery cross, so that the story of The Lady of the Lake is hardly complete without a visit to it.
Few more beautiful passes are to be seen than{24} Leny. The dashing stream which runs in a wooded cleft below the road is exactly what one expects a Scottish stream to be. The brown peat-water breaks in cascades over huge grey weather-worn stones, or lies in deep clear pools. ”

“ Menteith was from earliest times one of the five great districts into which Scotland was divided. The Earls of Menteith (Grahams) were ever at feud with the warlike Macgregors, and, as often happens, the feuds raged worst just on the borders of the Highlands, where men might attack and retreat in safety, knowing every track which led into their wild fastnesses.
The lake of Menteith is about two miles by one, and it is curious to note this is the only lake in Scotland. On it is an island, where the Earls had their residence. ”

“ The rock on which the castle of Stirling stands is a most remarkable object in the landscape, jutting out with the precipitousness of a sea-cliff from the plain. It is absolutely inaccessible on the one side, but slopes away on the other, and it is on these slopes that the town stands. Many a visitor has grumbled at the long pull up through the narrow, and in some places squalid, streets before reaching the castle ”

“ The lake is about eight miles long by three-quarters broad, but the actual width varies very much, owing to the numerous indentations. The road on the northern shore runs to Glengyle, but there stops, so that the only means of getting right on to Loch Lomond is to take the steamer, which awaits tourists several times daily. No doubt a road by which cyclists could travel on their own account would be strenuously resisted in the neighbourhood, where the chief aim and object of the tourist’s being is supposed to be to pay for everything. ”

“ Fitz-James, however, is warned by a half-witted woman wandering in the wood, and when he discloses his suspicions he is shot at by{13} Murdoch, who, however, misses him and kills the woman instead. Fitz-James, furious at this barbarity, promptly kills him, and, cutting off a tress of the dying woman’s hair, swears to kill the chief, Roderick Dhu, the author of this foul deed, whenever he shall meet him. He wanders on in the wilderness of trees and rocks, and, as night is coming on, he loses himself. ”

“ When the road at length descends we have the pleasing duty of paying an impost, or toll, for the use of it—and by no means a low one either—and thus we come to Loch Achray and the Trossachs Hotel, and pick up the thread where it was dropped. ”

“ The brother and sister visited the graves at Balquhidder before passing on to Callander.
It is said that when the freebooter Rob Roy lay dying in his own house at Balquhidder, his wife mocked at his repentance. He rebuked her, saying: “You have put strife betwixt me and the best men of the country, and now you would place enmity between me and my God.” ”

“ Much the most usual route is from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, via Callander; but a secondary one, which has great attraction for some people, is that by Aberfoyle, which cuts into the heart of the Trossachs from the south. This has the disadvantage of missing Loch Vennachar; but, truth to tell, the coach drive along by Loch Vennachar is not beautiful, and were it not illumined by romantic imagination, and regarded as a prelude or epilogue to something better, it could easily be dispensed with. ”

“ Rob seems to have been in some way a Robin Hood, exercising generosity toward those poorer and weaker than himself, and he was greatly beloved by the people in consequence. Many a ballad is connected with his name, and he became a popular hero even before his death. ”

“ Then, again, anyone who has seen Edinburgh and the Trossachs is fairly safe in saying he has seen Scotland, whereas one of wider range, who had, say, gone up the Highland Railway to Inverness and returned via the Caledonian Canal, if unmindful of the Trossachs, would be taunted with his omission every time the subject was mentioned.
However, the greatly increased facilities of steamer and rail do doubtless tend to send people farther afield, and the much longer round via the Caledonian Canal can count its hundreds where it previously counted units. ”

“ Until Scott’s time the Trossachs were little known, but then the cult of scenery-worship as we know it had not been evolved. That they{8} were somewhat known is shown in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal.
When William Wordsworth, with his sister and the poet Coleridge, made a tour in 1803, they were met at Loch Katrine (coming from Loch Lomond) with stares of amusement from the peasants. “There were no boats,” says Dorothy in her Journal, “and no lodging nearer than Callander, ten miles beyond the foot of the lake. A laugh was on every face when William said we were come to see the Trossachs ”

“ Dorothy thus describes the scenery: “The mountains all round are very high; the vale pastoral and unenclosed, not many dwellings and but a few trees; the mountains in general smooth near the bottom. They are in large unbroken masses,{27} combining with the vale to give an impression of bold simplicity.”
LOCH LUBNAIG.
It was at the end of this loch that Angus handed the Fiery Cross to the Bridegroom.
There were a few reapers in the fields, and it was from this fact that Wordsworth was inspired to write his poem The Solitary Reaper. ”

“ The poem opens with a stag-hunt, when the fine animal, after leading his pursuers a tremendous dance, plunges into the Trossachs and disappears from view. Only one horseman has been able to follow up the chase, and his steed at this juncture drops down dead, leaving his master to scramble onward to Loch Katrine as best he can. This he does, and as he{10} stands on the shore he sees a boat rowed by a young girl rapidly approaching, coming out from a little island. ”

“ She tells him he is expected—in fact, his visit has been foretold by a soothsayer, Allan Bane—and asks him to come to the island and receive the hospitality of her father’s house. She is Ellen, daughter to one of the outlawed Douglases, who have been in arms against their King. ”

“ In the branches rooks have built their nests, and make as cheerful matins as perhaps the monks themselves.{38} The giant chestnuts, grown, as tradition says, from chestnuts brought from Rome, are all stag-headed. ”

“ The girl’s mother receives the stranger courteously on his arrival, and he announces himself as James Fitz-James. He remains with them that night, and leaves next morning before the return of Douglas with Ellen’s young lover, Malcolm Graeme, and a powerful rebel, Roderick Dhu, the head of Clan MacAlpine, the Macgregors.
An outlawed desperate man,
The chief of a rebellious clan. ”

“ From the date of the publication of The Lady of the Lake, the post-horse duty in Scotland rose in an extraordinary degree, and it continued to do so{7} for a number of years, the author’s succeeding works keeping up the enthusiasm for our scenery which he had originally created.”
There are fairer spots in Scotland than the Trossachs, beautiful as they are; yet, notwithstanding this, their popularity remains unabated. The trip certainly has the advantage of being accessible ”

“ Wolves make the coward heart their prize.”
Roderick’s servant, Malise, seizing the cross, starts off through the Trossachs, and along Loch Achray to Duncraggan, where he hands the symbol on to “Angus, heir of Duncan’s line,” who carries it along Vennachar and up to the{12} pass of Leny, passing it on to a bridegroom on Loch Lubnaig, and so it follows round all the haunts of the clan.
Ellen and her father meantime retreat to a cave on Ben Venue. Here she accidentally meets again the fascinating stranger, who tries to persuade her to elope with him ”