The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1845-09-03


the royal park; it is shorn of its trees, part is
converted into race-course, part into pasture
for cows, and the old wall which marked its Ii
mits is falling down. Near it you see cluster
of grassy embankments of curious form--cir-
cles and octagons and paralleIograms, which bear
the name of King James's Knot, and once form
ed part of the royal gardens, where-the sover-
eign used to divert himself with his courtiers.-
The cows now have the spot to themselves, and
have made their own paths and alleys all over it..
"Yonder to the southwest of the castle," said a
sentinel who stood at the gate, ''you see where a
large field has been lately ploughed, and beyond
it is another, (which looks very green. That green
field is the spot where the battle of Bannockburn
was fought, and the armies of England defeated
by Bruce" | looked, and so fresh and bright
was the verdure, that it seemed to me as if the
earth was still ertilized with the blood of those
who fell in that desperate struggle for the crown
of Scotland. Not far from this, the spot was
shown us where Wallace was defeated at the bat
tic of Falkirk. This region is now the scene CT
another unbloody warfare; the warfare between
| the free church and the government church,
Close to the church Of the establishment, at the
foot Of the rock of Stirling, the soldiers of the
free church have erected their place of worship,
and the sound of hammers from the unfinished in
te rlor could be heard almost up TO the castle.
We took places the same day in the coach
for Calander, in the highlands. In short time
we came into a country ofhillocks, and pastures,
brown and barren, half covered with ferns, the
lbreckan of the Scotch, where the broom fiowered
gaudily by the road side, and harebells now in
bloom, in little companies, were swinging heavy
with the rain, OH their slender stems.
Crossing the Teith we found ourselves in
Doune, a Highland village, just before entering
which we passed throng Of strapping lasses, who
had just finished their daily task at a manufac-
tory on the Terth, and we're returning to their
homes. Between Doune and Callander we pas
sed the woods of Cambus- More, full of broad
Ibeeches, which delight in the tenacious mountain
Isol Of this district. This was the seat of friend
of the Scott family, and here Sir Walter in his
youth passed several summers, and became fa-
lmiar with the scenes which he has so we'll de.
scribed in his Lady of the Lake AT Callander
we halted for the night among crowd of tour
lists, Scotch, English, American and German
more numerous than the inn at which we stop.
Iped could hold. / went out into the street to
got look at the place, but Z genuine Scotch
mist covering me with water soon compelled me
to return. heard the people, broad shoulder
ed, brawny race of men.with red hair and boards
talking to each other in Gaelic, and saw through
the logs only glimpse of the sides of the noun.
ains and crags which surrounded the village.
The next morning was uncommonly bright and
clear, and we set out early for the Trosachs. We
now saw that the village of Caander lay under
a dark crag, on the banks of the Teith, winding
pleasantly among IFS alders, and overlooked by
the grand summit of Benledi, which rises TO the
height of three thousand feet. A short time
brought us TO the stream
(which daughter of three mighty lakes,
From Vennachar in silver breaks"
and we skirted the lake for nearly its whole
length. Loeb Vennachar lies between hills of
comparatively gentle decliVity pastured by focks,
and tutled with patches of the prickly gorse and
coarse ferns. On its north bank lies Lanrick
mead, little grassy level where Scott makes the
tribe Of Clan AL pine assemble at the command
of Roderick Dhu. At little distance from Ven
nachar lies Loch Achray, which we reached by
a road winding among shrubs and low trees, br-
ches and wild roses in blossom, with which the
air was fragrant. Crossing little stone bridge,
which our driver told US was the bridge of Turk,
we were on the edge of Lochray, little sheet
IoL WulSl 0ullOuHuCu ny WIN IOShy HlllS3 Will
here and there an interval of level grassy margin,
Or grove beside the water. Turning from Loeb
Achray we reached an inn with Gaelic name,
which have forgotten how to spell, and which
|ifI we're TO spell you could not pronounce. This
was on the edge of the Trosachs, and here we
breakfasted.
It's the fashion, believe, for all tourists to pass
thrc' the TrosacIs on foot. The mob of travellers
with whom | found myself on the occasion
there were some twenty of them-did so, TO a
man; even the ladies, who made about third OF
the number, walked. The distance to Loeb Ka-
trine is about a mile and half between lofty
mountains. along a glen filled with masses OF
rock, which seem TO have been shaken by some
convulsion of nature from the high steps on eli.
ther side land in whose shelves and crevices time
had planted a thick wood of the birch and ash.
But wllnot describe the Trosachs after Wal
er Scott. Read what he says of them in the
first canto ofhs poem. Loch Katrine, when we
reached it, was crisped into little waves, by a
fresh wind from the northwest, and boat, with
four bfawny Highlanders, was waiting to convey
US to the head of the lake. We launched upon
the dark deep water, between craggy and shrub
by sleeps, the SUBMITS of which lose on every
side of US; and one of the rowers, an intelligent
looking man, took upon himself the task of point
ing out to us the places mentioned by the poet.
"There," said he, as we receded from the shore,
sis the spot in the Trosachs where Fitz James
lost his gallant grey" He then repeated, in a
sort Of recitation, dwelling strongly on the rhyme,
the lines in the lady of the lake which relate that
incident. ''Yonder is the island where Douglass
concealed his daughter Under that broad oak,
whose boughs almost dip into the wafer, was the
place where her skiF was moored. On that rock
covered with heath, FitzJa stood and wound
his bugle. Near it, but out of sight, is the silver
strand where the skif received HIM on board"
/ Il i IL L =: l.