No one can accuse the Scottish lochs of want of variety, for in each
is found some specialty, some individual beauty, that stamps it on the
mind, so that the visitor can carry away a distinct impression.
Nobody, for example, who has been at St. Fillans, or attended the
annual games there, is likely to have any difficulty in remembering
this pretty modern village, and the fine loch near which it lies. St.
Fillan, it may be mentioned is a personage of great sanctity in
Scottish hagiology. And when his crosier, carried away to Canada by
its 'Dewar' or hereditary keeper, was recently restored to Scotland,
and placed in the National Museum at Edinburgh, one might have almost
doubted whether Scotland were really Protestant at all, so full was
every one of the fame of this great miracle-working saint. As is well
known, it was the presence of his arm-bone, in the hands of the Abbot
of Inchaffray, which enabled the Scots to win the battle of
Bannochburn!
Loch Earn, it is to be understood, was known before the Trosachs.
Although shut in at its upper end by the gloomy hills that darken Glen
Ogle, and from that side until recently not very accessible, it was
reached from Crieff and St. Fillans, long before Scott invented those
wondrous stories about the Trosachs district which are to-day so
veritable that the scene of each incident is pointed out. And in its
perfection of beauty--for so we consider it--it well deserves to hold
its place in public regard. The reverse view from that given here is
also beautiful, and it may be said that no more perfect scene can be
witnessed than from the carriage window in the Oban train as, high on
the side of a steep and terror-striking mountain, it enables the
visitor to look down, as with a bird's-eye view, upon this lovely
loch. The sheet of water is symmetrical, a feature which may be a
beauty or a disadvantage, according as the spectator looks for
completeness of display, or for mystery as the aim of the picturesque.
But, as it is expressed by MacCulloch, Loch Earn is 'consistent and
complete,' and he points out that by this completeness it possesses an
appearance of extent beyond which it actually possesses. The mind can
grasp it all, but we feel that there is a great deal to be grasped.
The hills are sufficiently high to give dignity to the scene, and the
glowing verdure all around gives it softness and beauty. Benvoirlich
is its summit hill, and the house of Ardvoirlich--the 'Darlinvaroch'
of Scott's _Legend of Montrose_--occupies a fine spot half way down
the loch. In this mansion is preserved a singular talisman, a perfect
sphere of rock crystal, with four silver bands, which throughout the
country side has the credit of curing diseases when dipped in water to
be drunk by the patient.
It remains to notice some physical peculiarities of this loch.
Although situated at an elevation of several hundred feet above
sea-level, its temperature is so equal that the water is never known
to freeze, and even the stream that flows from it never shows ice on
its surface till it has run several miles into bleaker regions. The
depth of the water is at some places six hundred feet, and as it lies
in the immediate region of earthquake in Scotland, it is allowable to
conjecture that some hidden fire of nature far below keeps the water
just a point or two above ordinary heat, and thus produces the
phenomenon stated. There are trout in the loch, and leave to fish can
readily be obtained at either end, as the hotel keepers have boats
upon the loch.