icon 0
icon TOP UP
rightIcon
icon Reading History
rightIcon
icon Log out
rightIcon
icon Get the APP
rightIcon

The Spell of Scotland

Chapter 8 THE CIRCLE ROUND

Word Count: 6305    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

leak stern look about this country as a whole, but here and there stand castles, or lie low the ruins of castles, in many a chosen place

tween strong men built strongholds and stronger men took them and made mock of them, still there must have been gentleness and beauty. There were women, other than Lady Macbeth; there we

erh

t. Peterhead is a penal town to-day; and it is one of a string of fishing villages, picturesque as fishing villages are, except to the nose, "that despised poet

ay of forfeiture, an abbot dispossessed or some such thing, like Dunnottar, but without t

s stane stands

Keith shal

is stane be

Keith shal

arischal, and loyal to the Stewart cause. He had taken no part in the Rising of the Forty Five; he was not "out" on that dark night. But the sweeping revenge of those English times made the Keiths attaint and-the stone dropped

derick the Great, and not marrying-whatever the romance of the Swedish lady-he fell at the battle of Hochkirch in 1758, and lies buried in the Garison Kirche of Berlin. A statue stands in the Hochkirch kirch

est and wickedest men of his time, of David Hume, and Voltaire, and Rousseau, and Frederick the Great. Neither did he marry. Dyi

e out to the castle, remembering all it had meant, the long splendid records of

ghth appears, w

ows me m

d, lodged at Inverugie, summoned the loyal and they ca

d all, an epoch closed, a Scotland no longer requi

IE C

o larger than a county in Dakot

och, because my Lord Bishop had given a judgment which did not please my Lord of Badenoch. And t

and centuries divide-but

Lord Bishop, a great place for strength, with massive keep-and fallen. "A mig

wd

e palace that Banquo's ghost appeared and foretold all that history we have been meeting as we came northward. And next is the town of Nairn, which has become something of a city since Boswell found it "a miserab

that Words

tary High

singing by

plaintive

happy far-

les long

in my he

it was hear

be a little tired. Arm chair travel and arm chair tragedy have th

's the

the h

o meet

ere, everywhere. And if Shakespeare was in Scotland in 1589-as I like to think he was-it is doubtful if he saw The Heath. Johnson told Hannah More, so she reports, that when he and Boswell stopped for a night at a spot w

day begin to d

ugh. Such heaths d

ne of Ca

rous gen

dor Castle, out from Nairn a few paces on the burn of Cawdor, might have been the very home of Macbeth. It is pleasant, flowery, lovely.

n himself

he fatal entr

y battl

or C

nths in Cawdor while the Prince was moving restlessly to and fro in the Islands. But the Prince was only twenty-five, and Lord Lovat was o

e a borrower

ern

of pilgrimage were Scone, Dundee, Paisley, Melrose. Places for the quartering of Montrose were Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, Stirling. And now four places are rivals; i

be judged in Inverness; and men came with them who looked very modern and capable and worldly and commercial. It was all like a county fair of Iowa, only more dignified, with no touch of sideshow. And, of course, there is the Highland gathering in Sept

the banks of the Ness the women spread their clothes to dry as they do on a French river bank. There is a new cathedral, very new, with an angel at the font we rememb

yews make it even more solemn; one wonders if the fairies dare play in these shades. But it is a sweetly solemn place, and we decided to care not what Invernessians lay buried here if we might sit on its convenien

the Lord of the Isles who afterward came to repentance and to Holyrood. And builded again so that Huntley could defy Mary, and she could take the castle and order it razed. And builded again so that Cromwell could destroy it. And builded again as one of the five fortresses whereby he sought to hold Scotland "Protected." And destroyed at the Restoration whic

st

ath a pleasan

weetly recom

gentle

inds, is pleasant and lovely, with the mean climate

e of Flora Macdonald looking out to

hat are by

a lanely

ompress and carry all that story o

moved out

de our pilgrimage. There was no sense of rain. I

comfort or any show of splendour, not even with

e all that was Scotland and nothing else was burned out of the world by the withering fire of Cumberl

seventeenth of April day, 1746. If one comes on that day the cairn is hung with flowers, white roses of course, for there are still Jacobites left in the worl

ELD OF C

Thermopyl?, nor a Pickett's

anders-they were the last Jacobites left, as the army of the Butcher, Cumberland, George Second's fat son swept northward and stopped for th

e English had the chosen ground; theirs was not even a forlorn hope. Not if the Macdonalds, sulky because they were

ead, one realizes that Scotland lies buried here. M'Gillivray, M'Lean

y lass of

pleasure c

d morn she

aut tear bli

muir, Dru

day it

I lost my

ear, and br

ng sheet the

are growing

m lies the

blest a wo

thee, thou

man I tro

eart thou ha

id wrong to

cdonald. Thousands of the men fled to America; thousands of Scots in America to-day can say, "My great grandfather fought at Culloden." Hundreds of Scots to-day are sent "home" from America to be educated.

orty Five, they found that many of the Highlanders were going to America,

o go to America. M'Queen very generously answered he should be sorry for

was fifty-five, looked longingly over the sea, in 1776, thinking that he might lead these rebellious colonists, so many of them of his rebellious people

Or

y into two parts. One is Scotland; the other is the West, the Highlands and the Islands. One is known, the other unknown. One has been prosperous, roy

one; or, if they stand, they stand like prehistoric remnants, and the clachans are emptied; the Risings, the migrations, the evictions, the extensions of deer forests and sheep pastures and grouse preserves,

been in. I have been in valleys of the Rockies which were not so lonely

ence where hath

n to a co

que palaces wher

lens and valleys where

d into remote places, so very remote even if they lie but a half dozen miles in the backward; the farther ones, to the Orkneys, to John o' Groat's,

untry. The forts rather betray history. And they form convenient places of depa

nes who are gradually developing here a great monastery which in these silences should rival the monasteries of old-if that may be. Fort Willia

D MAN

w it has reduced the distance to a comprehensible length if farther ends of the world and endless water

he other; with here and there a resting-place for the eye or mind, like Skibo Castle for our American Laird of Skibo, Dunrobin Castle for the

d I suppose that ever since Agricola came up this way the Old Man has sent forth his invitation. The Romans did not answer it,

for an island, you will not find the isle of heart's desire here. The scant inhabited twenty odd are not over filled with population; these islands are not hospitable to

water, of any water, is not the frequent mood; but always it is the memorable. Blue above and blue below was the day of our going, twenty miles past h

rything except the exquisite cool softness of this Northern air of mid-summer, with an indolent interest in the land

e ship was sucked down into a whirlpool near Stroma. And Haakon died here of a broken heart. All these seemed like old, far-off things that are not unhappy. Yet there was a suggestion of fate in the place; perhaps ther

a mile or two across the isthmus, but no doubt stretching actively down to the south pi

of red sandstone, the Cathedral of St. Magnus, older and in better condition than churches of Scotland more exposed to the change of faith; with a l

ALACE, K

f the palace had been built in Mary's day I should, in truth, have lamented that she did not come hither after the escape f

gone, but the beauty remains, oriel windows, fireplaces, and towers and turrets. No doubt when "the wind is blowing in turret and t

n this Mainland-there is another palace, built by Robert, himself, who was, incide

Robertu

bi Quinti R

us Ins

new this was right. The nominative agreed with Robertus, not with Jacobi. Still, t

nterest" can be seen from the waters; particularly the "brochs," the cairn-like towers of perhaps Pictish building; and the round tower of St. Magnus on Egils

purple heather, are comparable with Stonehenge and Locmariaqueur. Scott found them equal; Scott who had such an admirable way of finding in Scotland the

that used to sail to the New World, H. B. C. boats and those to the Plantations, and to Russia for the Northwest P

ledoni

ieve that every one who has ever taken it and written account, journeyed down this waterway

clearness, and marvels of marvels, Ben Nevis cleared of mists to his very crest and beyond, shining splendid and majestic and out-topping all Scotland, again

nature. There are sheer hillsides where all is revealed; again, there

ain is sixty miles long and can be made from morning to evening, with enough of the day left to go through Loch Linnhe and so to Oban; as one should add, through the St. Lawren

c of the water and mountain distances of this wild west country. Yet the sunny distances are as much a marvel of colour in their pale blue that has so much intensity, so much real vivacity. Purple one has learn

ing of Urquhart. The name rather suggests the middle name carried by a once famous actress. Somehow I half believe that in that castle Charlotte Corday ma

down the stretch of water rises Mealfourvournie, a rounded naked hill overlooking the ravine where once the church of Cilles Christ stood; and once, full of Mackenzies, was set on fire by the Macdonalds, and all the Mackenzies burned. The act is not singular among the clans. McLeod of

lake, surrendered now to aluminum

thery hills an

yers pours his

tumbling into the abyss! Niagara! hast thou a fiercer roar? Listen-and you think there are momentary pauses of thunder, filled up wi

re the Benedictines, black-robed, move in somber

s get out to stretch their legs, and that is amusing enough, tolerantly considered. There are tea houses at every lock, many of them, sometimes charmingly rose-embowered

dress so gaily; it was just the hat. There was a black coat, white breeches, crimson waistcoat, blue stockings, silver buckled shoes, and a cocked hat. And this pleasing gentleman sang to a tune that was no tune but very cheering, about "the hat me faither wore." And he was so doing his best, which was very good indeed, that I was forced to

ny Cope you can still see in retreat to Inverness, if you look well. From Gairlochy the way leads to Glenfinnan where he raised his Standard, and the Castle of Lochiel, ruined because of him. And hither he came, after Culloden. At Fort Augustus the head of Roderick Mac

ARRY C

er birches, is the exquisite bit of the way. And here stands Invergarry Castle, which saw Prince Charles

soft fir-trees lining the way in a most formal fashion; it has a peculiar

rt William and to the sea. The railroad is the swifter way and breaks the journey, and passes the ruins of Inverlochy. It is a pla

its own. Montrose had started through the Great Glen for Inverness, but hearing that the Campbells were massing at Inverlochy, he turned back, and gave battle. The victory wa

Dan to Beersheba, to say to Your Majesty, as David's general to his

on, the other at the Tolbooth in Edinburgh, the Marquis sixteen mon

And from its vantage point, the Observatory Tower, one may look over all the territory in many directions whither one propos

he salt sea. Far over the hills, beyond the head of the loch, he looks across Arisaig, and can see the cliffs of the Isle of Eigg and the dark peaks of Rum, with the Atlantic gleaming below them. Farther to the northwest the blue range of the Coolin Hills rises along the skyline, and then, sweeping over all the intermediate ground, through Arisaig and Knoydart and the Clanranald country mountain rises after mountain, ridge beyond ridge, cut through by dark glens, and varied here and there wi

of of the world," but i

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open