THE GATHERING.
The day was clear and beautiful; the unclouded sun, I have said,
shone in all his splendour through a summer sky. The vast
amphitheatre of hills which surround the braes of Loch Ora were
mellowed in the sunny haze, or the silver vapour exhaled from the
little pools of water that dotted all the heath-clad plain. At the
base of Ben Ora, which towered above the braes, the monarch of all
the adjacent mountains, the gathering took place. The lower part of
the hill was dotted by a line of snow-white tents and marquees, over
which waved various flags and streamers. Amid these tents were a
number of carriages; but the horses had been untraced, unbitted, and
were quietly cropping the herbage, or enjoying their feeds of corn in
the background. A great oval space was formed by the spectators who
had crowded hither from all quarters to witness the games; the tall
ruins of an ancient tower, once the stronghold of the Thanes of Loch
Ora, enclosed one end of this oval; the waters of the dark-blue loch,
rolling up to the base of the mighty mountain, enclosed the other;
and here the red-funnelled steamers from Glasgow, Oban, and
Inverness, were disgorging their passengers in hundreds at every
trip. The slope of Ben Ora resembled a parterre of flowers, so
varied were the dresses of the ladies. Fringed parasols of the most
brilliant colours were fluttering on the soft wind; and the blue
sunshades and broad bloomer-hats of the fairer portion of the
assembly, mingled with the wide-awakes, Glengarry bonnets, and those
peculiar tartan caps or crush-hats, which, with the checked coat and
'fast' waistcoat, generally indicate Messrs. Brown, Jones, and
Robinson--the thorough Cockney when touring in the Highlands.
Appetized by the long ride, drive, or march to the Braes, or by the
morning's sail up the sunlit loch, already the merrymakers had begun
to uncork their bottles and unpack their hampers, amid a fund of
laughter, frolics, and nonsense; and white cloths were spread on the
grass, on the roofs of carriages, or any other available place; while
champagne cooled in the mountain stream, and pale Bass, Guinness XX
Dublin stout, _uiskey_, cold grouse, veal and venison pies, tongue,
fowl, milk-punch, ices, hock, and seltzer-water, with all other
accessories for pic-nicking were in requisition. In other places
were knots or groups of Highlanders, talking in guttural Gaelic,
laughing or croaking over their ills, or drinking toasts--'up with
horn, and down with corn'--'the mountains and valleys,' &c., while
troops of children, bare-headed and bare-legged, swarmed and
gambolled about them, filling the air with shrill and strange cries
of delight.
Among the _élite_ of the company was a stately duchess, whose family
have long been notorious in the annals of cruelty and eviction; and
whose glens have been swept of thousands of brave men, after the
artifices of an infamous factor, the oppression of the game-laws, the
destruction of the kelp manufacture, the slaughter of the flower of
the clans in the Peninsular war, and other Highland evils, had driven
the people to starvation and despair! There were present also a
couple of chattering countesses, and many old ladies, whose pedigrees
were considerably longer than their purses; but who, nevertheless,
deemed themselves the prime patronesses of the gathering, as they
usually were of the Northern Meeting. Flounced, feathered, and
jewelled, with clan tartan scarfs, they regarded with just and due
condescension the crowds of richly-dressed and handsome South-country
women, many of whom were attired _à outrance_, complete in elegance
and fashion from bonnet and bracelet to their kid shoes. These, our
decayed Highland tabbies regarded with the good-nature which
generally falls to the lot of such wallflowers, who may, as Swift has
it--
"Convey a libel in a frown,
Or wink a reputation down;
Or by the tossing of a fan,
Describe the lady and the man."
Among the _élite_ of the male sex were various holiday warriors
attired in gorgeous clan tartans. Some were distinguished by one
eagle's feather in the bonnet, marking the gentleman; others by two,
indicating the chieftain; but very few by _three_, the badge of a
_chief_. The principal of the latter, was the Most Noble the Marquis
of Drumalbane, Admiral of the Western Isles and Western Coast of
Scotland--one whose forefathers had led their thousands to the field,
and from whose glens our most splendid Highland regiments had marched
to many a torrid clime and bloody victory; but whose vast territories
were now a deathlike waste, where nothing was heard but the bleat of
the sheep and the whistle of the curlew. In Glenarchai alone, this
enterprising exterminator had converted thirty thousand acres into a
hunting-forest. He was attended--_not_ by a thousand brave men in
arms--but by a few puny footmen and Lowland gamekeepers attired as
Highlanders, and a few gentlemen who wore in their bonnets the
eagle's wing, and carried at their necks each a silver key, as
captains of certain ruined fortresses among the mountains of the West
Highlands.
The varied tartans and magnificent appointments of these holiday
Highlanders had a barbaric and picturesque effect. Their belts and
buckles, jewelled daggers and pistols, snow-white sporrans, tasselled
with silver or gold, their brooches studded by Scottish topazes and
amethysts, and all their paraphernalia of mountain chivalry, flashed
and sparkled in the noonday sun; while long bright ribbons and little
banneroles of every colour streamed from the ebony drones of more
than a hundred war-pipes.
Beside these gay duinewassals, the poor men of Glen Ora seemed but a
troop of reapers or fishermen; but we stepped not the less proudly,
because to the same march with which our pipers woke the echoes of
the hills, our fathers had thrice left Glentuirc to sweep the
Campbells of Breadalbane from Rannoch and Lochaber to the gates of
Kilchurn.
In this epoch of civilization and ridicule, when even patriotism,
religion, and love are made a jest, the reader may smile at these
references to a past, and what we _conventionally_ deem a barbarous
age; but a mountaineer never forgets that the brave traditions of
other times are ever his best incentive to heroic enterprise and
purity of thought.
In the centre of the vast oval formed by the spectators, tents, and
carriages, lay the sledge-hammers, the uprooted cabers, the
putting-stones, cannon-balls, broad-swords, targets, and other
appurtenances of the games.
On halting and dispersing my followers, my first impulse was to scan
the crowd for Miss Everingham, now that I could appear before her in
my proper character, and to better advantage than I had hitherto
done; and just as the sports were beginning, I saw the baronet's
four-in-hand drag, the team of which, the showy Captain Clavering
handled in first-rate style, come sweeping round the base of the
hill, with its varnished wheels and embossed harness flashing in the
sun; the captain, whose costume was most accurate, from his
well-fitting white kid gloves to his glazed boots, adroitly halted it
in the most central and conspicuous place. I was standing close by
where he reined up, and then the _sense_ of Laura's presence made my
heart beat violently, while my colour came and went again. No notice
was taken of me for some time by the party of well-dressed
fashionables who crowded the drag, till the studied respect shown to
me by the peasantry, not one of whom passed or approached me without
vailing his bonnet, attracted the attention of Sir Horace, who was
quietly surveying the _canaille_ through a double-barrelled
lorgnette. He then gave me a formal bow and conventional smile, but
barely condescended to notice, even by a glance, my foster-brother
Callum Dhu; but for whom (as Callum himself said,) 'the red
tarr-dhiargan had been then perhaps nestling among his hair at the
bottom of Loch Ora.'
Near the carriage-steps stood Mr. Jeames Toodles in all the splendour
of red plush investments for his nether-man, and spotless white
stockings on his curved but ample calves. He bore a gold-headed cane
and an enormous bouquet, and from time to time cast furtive glances
at Callum Dhu, who, being armed to the teeth, he deemed little better
than a cannibal or Tchernemoski Cossack.
Snobleigh--we beg pardon--Mr. Adolphus Frederick Snobleigh--who
cantered up on a dashing bay mare, languidly gave me the tips of his
fingers, with a dreamy 'aw--how aw you--glad to see you old
fellow--any noos to-day?' But Clavering, who had more of the soldier
about him, shook me heartily by the hand, examined the lock and
barrel of my rifle, and praised the piece; then he turned to his
sister and Miss Everingham, both of whom greeted me in a manner so
winning and gay, that even the heart of my mother, encrusted as it
was by old Highland prejudices, would have been won.
I still remember how my heart throbbed when Laura's soft and velvet
hand touched mine; for her glove was off, and then the little white
fingers on which the diamonds were flashing, rested on the window of
the carriage.
'And _you_ mean to shoot for my prize to-day!' said she, while her
sunny eyes danced with youth and pleasure; 'how kind of you to honour
us so far as to compete for the purse which Fanny and I have made up.
We hope you will prove victorious--indeed, we are quite certain that
you will, Mr. Mac Innon.'
'_Mr._ to the head of the Siol Alpine!' growled Callum, under his
thick black beard.
I pardoned her that prefix, which always jars on a Celtic ear, for
her good wishes were so warmly and so prettily expressed.
Alas! how little she knew the agony that was gnawing my heart, under
an exterior so calm. How little could she conceive the breathless
eagerness with which Callum and I longed to win this wretched
prize--an eagerness fired by no spirit of rivalry; but by an honest
desire to keep a crumbling roof above the head of my dying
mother--for a very little longer. And away over the dun mountains,
far from this gay scene of mirth and sunshine, my heart wandered to
that little darkened room where she was lying in a half-torpid state,
with pretty Minnie reading or knitting beside her, and old Mhari
creeping and creaking about her bed on tiptoe.
Laura Everingham knew nothing of all this, and she looked so pretty
in her white crape bonnet, with her sunny English smile, her blooming
cheek reddened by our healthy Scottish breeze, that I deemed her all
the happier in her ignorance of the misery her presence--or, at
least, the presence and the projects of her father, were about to
work among the old race of Glen Ora. Young, ardent, and
enthusiastic, could I fail to be flattered by her notice, pleased by
the preference which her good wishes inferred, and dazzled by her
beauty?--for I will uphold that her mere prettiness became absolute
_beauty_, when one knew more of Laura, and learned to appreciate her
goodness and worth.
'When will the games begin, Fanny? I am so impatient,' said Laura;
'look at that love of a horse--he eats corn from the groom's hand;
and see, Clavering, such a pet of a bonnet on that old thing's head.
Who is she--does anybody know? Of course they will, for every one in
the Highlands knows every one else. But who would expect to find
such bonnets in Scotland? Who is that handsome fellow in the green
uniform, with the enormous gold epaulettes--a Russian officer?'
'No,' answered Fanny, with a droll smile, 'he is only an archer of
the Queen's Scotch body-guard, who is to shoot for a prize to-day.
From the care with which his whiskers are curled, I will take heavy
odds that _he_ don't win.'
'And that tall handsome fellow with the black beard--oh such a love
of a beard it is! Heavens, it is the man who saved my dear papa's
life!'
'He is my foster-brother, Miss Everingham; he, too, means to compete
for your prize.'
'Aw--the fellow seems so strong that he might squeeze the wataw out
of a whinstone; and aw--aw, as for tossing that fwightful
cabaw--goodness gwacious!' yawned the languid A. F. Snobleigh,
surveying the six feet and odd inches of Callum through his eyeglass.
'He is quite a model of a man, Laura,' said Fanny Clavering; 'I would
marry him in a moment if he would have me. He looks so like----'
'What we read of in romances.'
'A bandit--a wild mountain robber--and I have always thought it would
be so exciting, so delightful to marry a real robber, and be the
bride of a real bandit or corsair--oh, I should love a corsair of all
things, especially if his bark were a fine steam yacht, we should
have such delightful pic-nics among the Greek Isles, and trips to the
garrison balls at Corfu!'
'You perceive, Miss Everingham,' said Captain Clavering, laughing,
while he smoothed his unparalleled white kid gloves, 'our noisy Fanny
has a strong love for the charms of nature in an unsophisticated
state. Hence her rapture at the long whiskers and bare legs of these
Highlandmen.'
The cold, artificial, and aristocratic Sir Horace, whom the gold of
his father, who died a wealthy Manchester millionaire and docile
ministerialist, had made a baronet and king of our Highland glen,
received all who approached his carriage with the same bow, the same
smile, the same welcome, and nearly the same set of stereotyped
phrases, good wishes and warm inquiries; and thus he graciously
received his facile and obnoxious factor and factotum, Mr. Snaggs,
who had been delayed by the ceremony of founding a new dissenting
chapel, and who now galloped up on his barrel-bellied and knock-kneed
pony, which he rode with a huge crupper and creaking saddle. A dark,
almost savage scowl flitted for a moment across the usually placid
and affectedly benign visage of 'the moralist,' and admirer of Blair,
as our piper Ewen Oig passed and repassed him, playing the march of
Black Donald; and then he smiled with malicious triumph, as if
anticipating that day now so near at hand, when the war-pipe of Mac
Innon would be hushed for ever by the shores of the Western Sea.
I exchanged a glance full of deep and bitter import, with the calm,
stern, and stately Callum Dhu; then we withdrew a little way, for the
vicinity of this man's presence was hateful to us, and now, amid a
buzz of tongues began the great business of the gathering--a
gathering summoned to foster the nationality of a people, whom the
grasping aristocracy are leaving nothing undone to exterminate and
destroy.