Rollo in Scotland

They found shelter when they reached the land, and soon the shower passed away. Then, after rambling about a short time among the huts and cottages of the village where they landed, they set out again on their return. They stopped to fish at a short distance from the shore on the eastern side, and were quite successful. The boys caught several trout, which they resolved to have fried for their breakfast the next morning. While they were fishing Mr. George sat in the stern of the boat, studying his guide books, and learning all he could about the remarkable events in the life of Rob Roy, the great Highland chieftain, who formerly lived on the shores of Loch Lomond, and performed many daring exploits there, which have given him a great name in Scottish history.

It was a little after nine o'clock when they returned to the inn.

The next morning the plan of ascending the mountain was carried into effect. Mr. George hired two horses, intending to take turns with the boys in riding them. By having two horses for three riders, each one could, of course, ride two thirds of the way. This is better than for each one to ride all the way, as that is very tiresome. Both in ascending and descending mountains it relieves and rests the traveller to walk a part of the way.

The top of the mountain was distinctly in sight from the inn, and almost the whole course of the path which led up to it, for there were no woods to intercept the view. The distance was five or six miles. The path was a constant and gradual ascent nearly all the way, and lay through a region entirely open in every direction. There was a perfect sea of hills on every side, all covered with moss, ferns, and heather, with scarcely a tree of any kind to be seen, except those that fringed the shores of the lake down in the valley. The view from the summit was very extended, but the wind blew there so bleak and cold that the whole party were very glad to leave it and come down, after a very brief survey of the prospect.

In coming down the mountain the party stopped at a spring, to rest themselves and to drink; and here, as they were sitting together on the flat stones that lay about the spring, Mr. George explained to the two boys what I have already explained in this chapter to the reader, in respect to the duty of boys, when travelling under the charge of a grown person, to fall in with their leader's plans, instead of forming independent plans of their own.

"When you are at home," said he, "and playing among yourselves, and with other persons of your own age, then you can form your own plans, and arrange parties and excursions for just such purposes and objects as you think will amuse you most. But we are now travelling for improvement, not for play. We are making a tour in Scotland for the purpose of learning all we can about Scotland, with a view to obtain more full and correct ideas respecting it than we could obtain by books alone. So we must attend to our duty, and be content with such enjoyments and such pleasures as come in our way, and not turn aside from our duty to seek them."

The boys both saw that this was reasonable and right, and they promised that thenceforth they would act on that principle.

"We won't ask to go a-fishing again all the time we are in Scotland," said Waldron.

"That's right," said Mr. George. "And now as soon as we get to the hotel it will be time for the boat to come along; and all the rest of our adventures to-day you and Rollo must write an account of, to put into my journal. You will not write the account till you get to Stirling; but you had better take notice of what we do, and what we see, so as to be ready to write it when we arrive."

"May we take notes?" asked Rollo.

"Certainly," said Mr. George. "That will be an excellent plan. Have a small piece of paper and a pencil at hand, and when you see any thing remarkable, make a memorandum of it. That will help you very much when you come to write."

This plan was carried into effect. The boys wrote their account, and after it was duly corrected it was carefully transcribed into Mr. George's journal. It was as follows. Rollo wrote one half of it, and Waldron the other.

Chapter IX.
The Tour of the Trossachs

"The Trossachs is the name of a narrow gorge among the mountains. It begins at the end of a lake, and extends about two or three miles. The sides are covered with forests, and there are high, sharp rocks seen every where, peeping out among the trees.

"The pass of the Trossachs is not in the same valley that Loch Lomond lies in, but in another valley almost parallel to it, about five miles off. There is high land between. We had to cross this high land on foot, or in a carriage. The plan was to go up the lake a few miles farther, to a landing called Inversnaid, and there leave the boat, and go across the mountains.

"When it was nearly time for the boat to come, we took our valise and other things, and walked along the shore path till we came to the pier. We overtook some other people who were going in the boat, too. A soldier came along, also. He was one of the sappers and miners, that we saw on the top of Ben Lomond. He told me that he came down to get some things that were coming in the boat.⁴

"We waited on the pier a few minutes, and then we saw the boat coming around a point of land. As soon as she came up to the pier we all got in, and a gentleman and two ladies came on shore.

"The weather was very pleasant, and so we did not go down into the cabin. All the passengers were on the deck, looking at the mountains. I talked with some of them. One party came from New York, and the gentleman asked me what there was to see at Rowerdennan Inn; and so I told him about our going across the lake, and about our ascending the mountain. He said he wished that he had landed, too, so that he might go up the mountain, since it proved to be such a pleasant day.

"Uncle George gave Waldron and me leave to go up on the bridge to see the mountains before us, up the lake. They looked very dark and gloomy. The captain was there. He told us the names of the mountains that were in sight. He said that when we landed at Inversnaid we should go across the high land, and then should come to another lake, where there was another steamboat, only she had not commenced her trips yet, and so we should have to go down the other lake in a row boat. Waldron and I were both glad of that.

THE BOYS ON THE BRIDGE.

"At last we came to Inversnaid. We thought it would be a town, but it was not. It was only an inn on the slope of the mountain, near the shore, and by the side of a waterfall. We walked up a steep path to the inn, from the pier. We had to pay twopence apiece for the privilege of landing on the pier. Uncle George asked us whether we would rather walk or ride across the high land to the other valley. We said we did not care. He said that he would rather ride. So he engaged one of the machines. They call the carriages machines. There were two standing in the inn yard. There were two seats to these carriages, but no top, and very little room for any baggage. So it was lucky for us that we had so little.

"While the hostler was harnessing the horse we went to see the waterfall. There was a path leading to it through the bushes. There was a small foot bridge over the stream, just below the waterfall, where we could stand and see the water tumbling down over the rocks.

"While we were there they called us to tell us that the machine was ready. So we went back to the inn. There were two machines ready at the door. One was for another party. There was a lady in that machine, and it was just starting. Ours was just starting, too. They told us that there was a steep hill at the beginning, and that it was customary for the gentlemen to walk up.

"So we walked up. The road lay along the brink of a deep ravine, with the brook that made the waterfall tumbling along over the rocks at the bottom of it.

"When we got to the top of the hill the machine stopped, and we all got in. Waldron rode on the front seat with the driver, and uncle George and I rode behind.

"The country was very wild and dreary. There was nothing to be seen all around but hills and mountains, all covered with brakes and ferns, and moss and heather. There were no woods, no pastures, no fields, and no farm houses. It was the dreariest-looking country I ever saw. In the middle of the way we came to some old stone hovels, with thatched roofs—very dismal-looking dwellings indeed. There was usually one door and one little window by the side of it. The window was about as big as you would make for a horse, in the side of a stable. I looked into one of these hovels. There was no floor, only flat stones laid in the ground, and scarcely any furniture. The Irish shanties, where they are making railroads in America, are very pretty houses compared to them.

"The driver told us that the whole country belonged to a duke. He keeps it to shoot grouse in, in the fall of the year. The grouse is a bird like a partridge. They live on the heather. I saw some of them flying about.

"The road was very good. The duke made it, the driver said. We could see the road a great way before us, along the valley. By and by we saw some people coming. They were a great way off, but we could see that they were travellers, by the umbrellas, and shawls, and knapsacks they had in their hands. Presently we could see a man coming up a hill just before them with a wheelbarrow load of trunks that he was wheeling along. So we knew that it was a party of travellers, coming across from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond; but we wondered why they did not take a machine, and ride.

"When we came up to them we stopped a moment to talk to them. There were two gentlemen and two ladies. One of the ladies looked pretty tired. They said that there were no machines on the side of the mountain where they came from, and that there was a party there, that arrived before them, who had engaged the first machines that should come; and so they were obliged to walk, and to have their trunks wheeled over on a wheelbarrow.

"Afterwards we met another party walking in the same way, with their trunks on a wheelbarrow. We thought that five miles was a great way to wheel trunks on a wheelbarrow.

"At last we came to what they called Loch Katrine; but it seemed to me nothing but a pond among the mountains. It was only about ten miles long. There was an inn on the shore, but no village.

"There was a pier there, too, and some boats drawn up on the beach. At a little distance they were putting together an iron steamboat on the stocks. The parts were all made in Glasgow, and brought here by the same way that we had come. The old steamboat of last year was floating in the water near by. The steampipe was rusty, and she looked as if she had been abandoned. The name of her was the Rob Roy.

"We were glad that the new one was not ready, for we liked better to go in a row boat.

"So we engaged one of the boats, and went down to it on the beach, and put our baggage in. And this is the end of my part of the account. Waldron is to write the rest.

"Rollo."

"We all got into the boat; that is, we three, and some other ladies and gentlemen that came over the mountain about the same time with us. The wind was blowing pretty fresh, and the middle of the lake was very rough, and some of the ladies were afraid to go; but we told them there was no danger.

"The boatman said that we would go right across the loch, and then we should get under the lee of the land on the eastern shore, and there we should be sheltered from the wind, and the water would be smooth.

"I told him that I could row, and asked him to let me take one of the oars; and he said I might. But one of the ladies was afraid to have me do it. She said she was afraid that I should upset the boat.

"This was nonsense; for it is not possible to upset a boat by any kind of rowing, if it is ever so bad.

"The boatman told her that there was no danger, and that, if I could really row, I could help him so much that we should get across the part of the lake where the wind blew and the waves run high so much the sooner. So she consented at last, and I took one of the oars, and we rowed across the loch in fine style. We pitched about a good deal in the middle passage, and the lady was dreadfully frightened; but when we got across the water became smooth, and we sailed very pleasantly along the shore.

"The shores were winding and very pretty, and the farther we went the narrower the lake became, and the mountains became higher and higher. At last we came to a narrow place between two mountains, where the pass of the Trossachs began. The mountain on one side was Ben Venue. The one on the other side was Benan. The shores at the foot of these mountains were covered with woods, and the place was very wild. There was an island in the middle of the lake here, called Ellen's Isle. This island was high and rocky, and covered with woods, like the shores adjacent to it.

"This island is very famous, on account of a poem that Walter Scott wrote about it, called the Lady of the Lake. The lake was this Loch Katrine, and the lady was Ellen. She went back and forth to the island in a boat, in some way or other, but I do not know the story exactly. Mr. George is going to buy the Lady of the Lake when we get to Edinburgh, and read it to us, and then we shall know.

"The island is small and rocky, but it is so covered with trees and bushes that we hardly see the rocks. They peep out here and there. The banks rise very steep, and the water looks very deep close to the shore. We sailed by the island, and then the water grew narrower and narrower, until at last we were closely shut in, and then soon we came to the landing.

"There was nothing but a hut at the landing, and a narrow road, which began then and led down the valley. The valley was very narrow, and there were steep rocks and mountains on both sides. They told us that it was a mile and a quarter to the inn, and that there was no other way to go but to walk. The boatman said that he would bring the baggage; so we left it under his care, all except our knapsacks, and walked along.

"We walked about a mile down the valley, by a very winding road, with rocks, and trees, and very high mountains on both sides. At last we came in sight of a tall spire. I thought it was a church. In a minute another spire came into view, and two great towers. Rollo thought it was a castle. I said that a castle would not have a spire on it. Rollo said that a church would not have two spires on it. It turned out that both of us were mistaken; for the building was the inn.

"It was a very extraordinary looking inn. It was built of stone, with towers and battlements, like an old castle. The inside was very extraordinary, too. The public room looked, as Mr. George said, like an old Gothic hall of the middle ages. There were tables set out here for people to have breakfasts and dinners, and Mr. George ordered a dinner for us. There were other parties of tourists there, some coming, and some going.

"While the dinner was getting ready, Rollo and I walked about the inn, and in the yards. It was a very curious place indeed. Close behind it were lofty mountains, which, Rollo said, looked like the mountains of Switzerland; only there were no snow peaks on the top of them. There was no village, and there were no houses near, except two or three stone hovels in the woods behind the inn. Before the inn, in a little valley just below it, was a pond, such as they call here a loch.

"Mr. George decided to go directly on to Stirling, because it was Saturday night, and he did not wish, he said, to spend Sunday at such a lonesome inn. So we hired a carriage and set off. Immediately we began to come out from the mountains, and to get into the level country. The country soon grew very beautiful. The sun was behind our backs, and it shone right upon every thing that we wished to see, and made the whole country look very green and very brilliant. There were parks, and gardens, and pleasure grounds, and queer villages, and ruins of old castles on the hills, and little lochs in the valleys, and every thing beautiful.

"At last we came in sight of Stirling Castle. It stood on the top of a high, rocky hill. The hill was very high and steep on all sides but one, where it sloped down towards the town. The country all around was very level, so that we could see the castle a great many miles away.

"We rode around the foot of the castle hill, under the rocks, and at last came into the town, and drove to the hotel.

"Waldron."

Chapter X.
Stirling

Stirling Castle crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises on the banks of the Forth, in the midst of a vast extent of level and richly-cultivated country. It is, of course, a very conspicuous object from all the region around.

The hill is long and narrow. The length of it extends from north to south. The northern end is the high end. The land slopes gently towards the south, but the other sides are steep, and in many places they form perpendicular precipices of rock, with the castle walls built on the very brink of them.

The town lies chiefly at the foot of the hill, towards the south, though there are one or two streets, bordered by quaint and queer old buildings, that lead all the way up to the castle.

In front of the castle, at the place where these streets terminate, is a broad space, smoothly gravelled, called the esplanade. This is used as a parade ground, for drilling and training the new soldiers, and teaching them the manœuvres and exercises necessary to be practised in the war.

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr. George and the boys went out, to go to church. Bells were ringing in various parts of the town. They were drawn, by some invisible attraction, up the hill, in the direction of the castle. They soon found other people going the same way; and following them, they came, at length, to a very ancient-looking mass of buildings, which, Mr. George said, he should have thought was an old abbey, gone to ruin, if it were not that the people were all going into it, under a great arched doorway. So he supposed it was a church, and he and the boys went in with the rest.

There was a man at the door holding a large silver plate, to receive the contributions of the people that came in. Mr. George stopped to get some money out of his pocket. The man then seemed to perceive that he was a stranger; so he said to him, speaking with a broad Scotch accent and intonation,—

"Ye wull gae into the magistrates' seat. Or stay—I wull send a mon wi' ye, to show ye the wa'."

So he called a door keeper, and the door keeper led the way up stairs, into a gallery. The gallery was very wide, and was supported by enormous pillars. The whole interior of the church had a very quaint and antique air. The magistrate's seat was the front seat of the gallery. It was a very nice seat, and was well cushioned. Before it, all around, was a sort of desk, for the Bibles and Hymn Books to rest upon.

There were three pulpits—or what seemed to the boys to be pulpits—one behind and above the other. The highest was for the minister; the next below was for what in America would be called the leader of the choir; though in Scotland, Mr. George said he believed he was called the precentor. There was no choir of singers, as with us, but when the minister gave out a hymn the precentor rose and commenced the singing, and when he had got near the end of the first line all the congregation joined in, and sang the hymn with him to the end. The third pulpit was only a sort of chair, enclosed at the sides and above. What the man did who sat in it the boys could not find out.

All the people in the church had Bibles on a sloping board before them, in their pews, and when the minister named the text or read a chapter, they all turned to the place, and looked over. Waldron said he thought that this was an excellent plan.

Mr. George and the boys all liked the sermon very much indeed, and when the service was ended, they walked a little way around the esplanade before the castle, and then went home to dinner.

In the course of their excursion, however, they had observed that a great many walks had been made at different elevations on the west side of the hill, and that seats were placed there at different points, for resting-places. These seats, and indeed the walks themselves, commanded charming views of all the surrounding country. The boys wanted to run up and down these paths, and explore the sides of the hill by means of them in every part; but Mr. George recommended to them to wait till the next day.

"We shall come up to-morrow," said he, "to visit the castle, and then we will come out here, and have a picnic, on one of these stone seats. After that I will find a place among the rocks to read or write, for an hour, and while I am there you may climb about among the rocks and precipices as much as you please."

The next morning the boys set out with Mr. George, soon after breakfast, to go up to the castle. When they reached the esplanade they found several small parties of soldiers there, under instruction. They all wore red coats—that being the ordinary uniform of British soldiers. Officers were marching them about, and teaching them how to handle their muskets, and to keep step, and to wheel this way and that, and to perform other such evolutions. A great many of the soldiers looked very young. They were lads that had been recently enlisted, and were now being trained to go to the war in the Crimea.

After looking at these soldiers a short time the party went on. At the upper end of the esplanade there was a gateway leading into the castle yard. There was a sentinel, in a Highland costume, keeping guard there. Mr. George asked him if the public were allowed to go into the castle. He said, "O, yes, certainly;" and so Mr. George and the boys went in.

As they went in they looked up, and saw a great many cannons pointed down at them from the embrasures in the surrounding ramparts and bastions.

"Those guns must be to keep the enemy from coming in," said Waldron.

Presently the party passed through another arched gateway, and came into a large inner court, which was surrounded with various buildings, all built of stone, and of a very massive and solid character. The palace was on one side. It was adorned with a great many quaint and curious sculptures and images. The palace itself, and all the other buildings, were used as barracks for soldiers. A great many soldiers were standing about the doors, and some were playing together about the court. Some of them were dressed in the common British uniform, and some were in the Highland costume.

While the boys were looking at the palace front, a soldier advanced towards them in a very respectful manner, and said to Mr. George,—

"If you and the young gentlemen are strangers in Stirling, I will walk about the castle with you, and point out the objects of interest to you, if you desire it."

Mr. George accepted this offer, and the young soldier accordingly walked with them all about. He pointed out all the different buildings, and mentioned the dates of the erection of them, and referred to the most important historical events that had transpired in them. Finally he led the party through a gate into a small garden, and thence out upon the rampart wall, from which there was a very extended and extraordinarily beautiful view of the surrounding country.⁵ To the north-west were seen the Highlands, with the peaks of Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, and Benan, rising conspicuously among them. On the east were other hills, rising abruptly out of the smooth and smiling plain, and covered with dark plantations of evergreen. All around the foot of the castle, and extending to the distance, in some directions, of many miles, the country was level and fertile, and it presented every where the most enchanting pictures of rural beauty. Some of the fields were of the richest green, others were brown from fresh tillage, with men ploughing or harrowing in them, or plants just springing up in long green rows, which, partly on account of the distance, and partly through the exquisite neatness and nicety of farmers' work, looked so smooth, and soft, and fine, that the scene appeared more like enchantment than reality.

On one side of the mountain was seen the River Forth, winding about through meadows and green fields with the most extraordinary turnings and involutions. The boys had seen winding rivers before, but never any thing like this. The whole plain was filled with the windings of the river, which looked like the links of a silver chain, lying half embedded in a carpet of the richest green. Indeed, these windings of the river, and the vast circular fields of fertile land which they enclose, are called the Links of Forth. The view was diversified by villages, hamlets, bridges, railway embankments, and other constructions, which concealed the river here and there entirely from view, and made it impossible to trace its course. The richness and beauty of these Links of Forth appeared the more surprising to the boys from the contrast which the scene presented to the dreary wastes of moss and heather which they had seen in the Highlands. There is an old Scotch proverb that refers to this contrast. It is this:—

 
"The lairdship of the bonnie Links of Forth
Is better than an earldom in the north."
 

The course of the Forth could be traced for a long distance towards Edinburgh; and Arthur's Seat, a high hill near Edinburgh, could be distinctly seen in the south-eastern horizon.

At one place, in an angle in the wall of the rampart, was a stone step, so placed that a lady, by standing upon it, might get a better view. The soldier said that Queen Victoria stood upon that stone, when she visited Stirling Castle, a few years ago, on her way to Balmoral. Balmoral is a country seat she has among the Highlands, far to the north, in the midst of the wildest solitudes. The queen goes there almost every summer, in order to escape, for a time, from the thraldom of state ceremony, and the pomp and parade of royal life, and live in peace among the mountain solitudes.

The soldier pointed to the coping of the wall, where the figure of a crown was cut in the stone, and the letters "V. R." by the side of it. This inscription was a memorial of the queen's having stood at this spot to view and admire the beauty of the scenery.

After Mr. George and the boys had seen all that they wished of the castle, Mr. George gave the soldier a shilling, and they went out as they had gone in, under the great archway. They passed across the esplanade, and then came to a small, level piece of ground, with a high rock beyond it, overlooking it. The level place was an ancient tilting ground; that is, a ground where, in ancient times, they used to have tilts and tournaments, for the amusement of the people of the palace, and of the guests who came to visit them. The ladies used to stand on the top of the rock to witness the tournaments. There was a large, flat area there, with room enough upon it for twenty or thirty ladies to stand and see. The rock was called the Lady's Rock. The tournaments and tiltings have long since ceased, but it retains the name of the Lady's Rock to the present day.

"Let us go up on it," said Rollo, "and see where the ladies stood."

There were a number of children playing about these grounds, and several of them were upon the top of the Lady's Rock. They looked ragged and poor. Rollo and Waldron climbed up to the place. The path was steep and rugged. When they reached the top they looked down to the level area where the tournaments were held.

"I don't think the place is big enough for a tournament," said Rollo.

"What is a tournament?" asked Waldron.

"A sort of sham fight of horsemen," said Rollo, "that they used to have in old times, when they wore steel armor, and fought with spears and lances. They used to ride against each other with blunt spears, and see who could knock the other one off his horse. What are you laughing at, uncle George?"

Rollo perceived that Mr. George was smiling at his very unromantic mode of describing a tournament. "Is not that what they used to do at the tournaments?"

"Yes," said Mr. George, "that is a pretty fair account of it, on the whole. And now, boys," he continued, "I have got a plan of having a picnic to-day, out under the castle walls here, instead of going to the hotel for dinner; and we will go and find a good place for it."

The boys said that they would like this plan very much. "But then," said they, "we have not got any thing to eat."

Mr. George then explained to them that the plan which he had formed, was for them to go down into the town, and buy something at the shops for a picnic dinner, while he remained on the rocks, or on some seat on the side of the Castle Hill, writing in his journal.

"Well," said Waldron, "we will do that. But what shall we buy?"

"Whatever you please," said Mr. George. "Walk along through the street, and look in at the shop windows, and whenever you see any thing that you think we shall like, buy it."

"Well," said Rollo, "we will. But how much shall we spend?"

"As much as you think it best," said Mr. George. "I leave every thing to you. You see, our dinner at the hotel would not be less than seven shillings, and that we shall save; so that if you don't spend more than seven shillings you will be safe."

The boys were sure that they could procure very abundant supplies for less money than that; and they very readily undertook the commission. They accordingly left Mr. George at a seat near one of the walks on the side of Castle Hill, where, as he said, he could look right down on the famous field of Bannockburn, and they then began to run down the walk, on the way towards the hotel.

They first went to the hotel to get a knapsack. They told the waiter there that they should not be at home to dinner. They then walked along the street, looking out for eatables. They soon found various shop windows where such things were displayed, and in the course of a quarter of an hour they had laid in an abundant supply. They bought some small, flat cakes of bread at one place, and a veal and ham pie at another, and two oranges apiece at another, and a bottle of milk at another, and finally, for dessert, they got a pound of raisins and almonds mixed together, which they chanced to see in a fruiterer's window. The cost of the whole, the boys found, when they came to foot up the account, was only two shillings and fourpence.