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.[D]
[D] The boys had seen a party of sappers and miners, as they are called,
that is, military engineers, who were established on the top of Ben
Lomond, in a hut which they had built there. They were employed there,
in connection with other sappers and miners on the other mountains
around, in making a survey of Scotland.
"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.
[Illustration: 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."