When summer came--for in Scotland, alas! there is no spring, winter
rolling itself remorselessly, like a huge polar bear, over what should
be the beds of the early flowers, and crushing them ere they
develop--when summer came, and the trees put on their pale-green
liveries, and the brakes were blue with the wood-hyacinth, and the ferns
unfolded their curl, what ecstasy it was to steal an occasional holiday,
and wander, rod in hand, by some quiet stream up in the moorlands,
inhaling health from every breeze, nor seeking shelter from the gentle
shower as it dropped its manna from the heavens! And then the long
holidays, when the town was utterly deserted--how I enjoyed these, as
they can only be enjoyed by the possess-ors of the double talisman of
strength and youth! No more care--no more trouble--no more task-work--no
thought even of the graver themes suggested by my later studies!
Look--standing on the Calton Hill, behold yon blue range of mountains to
the west--cannot you name each pinnacle from its form? Benledi,
Benvoirlich, Benlomond! Oh, the beautiful land, the elysium that lies
round the base of those distant giants! The forest of Glenfinlas, Loch
Achray with its weeping birches, the grand defiles of the Trosachs, and
Ellen's Isle, the pearl of the one lake that genius has forever
hallowed! Up, sluggard! Place your knapsack on your back; but stow it
not with unnecessary gear, for you have still further to go, and your
rod also must be your companion, if you mean to penetrate the region
beyond. Money? Little money suffices him who travels on foot, who can
bring his own fare to the shepherd's bothy where he is to sleep, and who
sleeps there better and sounder than the tourist who rolls from station
to station in his barouche, grumbling because the hotels are
overcrowded, and miserable about the airing of his sheets. Money? You
would laugh if you heard me mention the sum which has sufficed for my
expenditure during a long summer month; for the pedestrian, humble
though he be, has his own especial privileges, and not the least of
these is that he is exempted from all extortion. Donald--God bless
him!--has a knack of putting on the prices; and when an English family
comes posting up to the door of his inn, clamorously demanding every
sort of accommodation which a metropolitan hotel could afford, grumbling
at the lack of attendance, sneering at the quality of the food, and
turning the whole establishment upside down for their own selfish
gratification, he not unreasonably determines that the extra trouble
shall be paid for in that gold which rarely crosses his fingers except
during the short season when tourists and sportsmen abound. But Donald,
who is descended from the M'Gregor, does not make spoil of the poor. The
sketcher or the angler who come to his door, with the sweat upon their
brow and the dust of the highway or the pollen of the heather on their
feet, meet with a hearty welcome; and though the room in which their
meals are served is but low in the roof, and the floor strewn with sand,
and the attic wherein they lie is garnished with two beds and a
shake-down, yet are the viands wholesome, the sheets clean, and the
tariff so undeniably moderate that even parsimony cannot complain. So up
in the morning early, so soon as the first beams of the sun slant into
the chamber--down to the loch or river, and with a headlong plunge
scrape acquaintance with the pebbles at the bottom; then rising with a
hearty gasp, strike out for the islet or the further bank, to the
astonishment of the otter, who, thief that he is, is skulking back to
his hole below the old saugh-tree, from a midnight foray up the burns.
Huzza! The mallard, dozing among the reeds, has taken fright, and
tucking up his legs under his round fat rump, flies quacking to a
remoter marsh.
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes,"
and lo! Dugald the keeper, on his way to the hill, is arrested by the
aquatic phenomenon, and half believes that he is witnessing the frolics
of an Urisk! Then make your toilet on the green-sward, swing your
knapsack over your shoulders, and cover ten good miles of road before
you halt before breakfast with more than the appetite of an ogre.
In this way I made the circuit of well-nigh the whole of the Scottish
Highlands, penetrating as far as Cape Wrath and the wild district of
Edderachylis, nor leaving unvisited the grand scenery of Loch Corruisk,
and the stormy peaks of Skye; and more than one delightful week did I
spend each summer, exploring Gameshope, or the Linns of Talla, where the
Covenanters of old held their gathering; or clambering up the steep
ascent by the Grey Mare's Tail to lonely and lovely Loch Skene, or
casting for trout in the silver waters of St. Mary's.