Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-11

prompted that valiant adventurer to thu
course of enterprise which finally gave hIm
the throne, and Scotland a noble line o.
patriot kings. James 1. when in the North
in 1927, to castigate its turbulent chiefs
held parliament within it. Forty wear.
later James III. occupied it. In 1855 Queen
regent Mary OF Guise was here to summon
courts and punish Highland robbers ther
termed "caterans;" and seven years later,
when Queen Mary was driven from the
castle gate and was compelled to lodge in a
comfortable thatched habitation Of the time,
some of whose walls still stand down there
by the site OF the old bridge. Just at the
harbor edge are the remains OF
A TREMENDOUS FORT
built by Cromwell, among others, to over
awe the North. And it was from here that,
after that most brilliant series OF accom-
plishments in the face of hopeless penury
known to the annals of British warfare. the
broken remnants OF Prince Charles Edwards
little army went forth on that fatal 10th of
| April, 1746, to their slaughter by the Duke
| OF Cumberland's army, and in that slaughter
to forever bury on dreary Culloden Moor,
just over that near ridge of hills there, the
hopes OF the valiant Stuart cause. Standing
upon Castle Hill, around which the fair
city is built, with the River Ness beneath
you, this old Northern capital and its sur
roundings are rich with interest and beauty.
Around the base of the hill are winding
streets, iull of curious old structures
with gable-ends, arched gateways, hang
ing balconies, projecting towers and
round turnpike stairs, fianked bv vennels.
: closes and alleys, quaint as those OF old
| Edinburgh itselS. 1t was at the old Courier
office, just below there, that rare Hugh
Miller, while chiseling Inverness grave
stones and pothering along the old coast
| line to trace pre-Adamite periods, got out
his little volume OF 90 poems, which, if you
have one handy now, you can sell Tor 20
| guineas to the book collectors. Where you
| stand, once came and dwelt Pictish and
| Scottish kings. The blue river sweeps past
from the southwest, after receiving the
waters of that majestic chain of lakes
which, bordered by the greatest mountains
of Scotland, stretches straight as an arrow
from the German Ocean to the Western Sea.
In the opposite direction city and valley
basin sweep to the harbor edge in graceful
circles. There and beyond. where once rode
the Dutch and Indian ireighters, is now,
first the crescent of tide-lretted shore; then
the SPLENDID bay dotted by the lazy sails of
east-coast fishers; then the opaline simmer
ing of the Firth of Iverness, expanding and
fuaIly narrowing where Fortrose stood at
the north, and Cromwell's grim menace,
stupendous Fort George, jutted from the
headland at tine south; and then vast
Moray Firth with its fierce far headlands;
and at last the blue sea. just across the
river there, at the northern edge of the city,
stands Craig-Phadric, lifting its parachute
like crowning forest above the city, and
hiding within it one of those most curious
of antiquarian, enigmas, vltrifled fort of
Pagan construction, the most extensive and
portaot nna Stil1 ovistipp in Rrifaip Down
behind you in the
MAZES OF ANCIENT STREETS
are the remains of an ancient market-cross,
nobody knows how many centuries old; and
in its base is embedded a blue, lozenge-
shaped stone, the palladium of the old
burgh, and called Clsch- -ua-cudden, or
untold generations the resting place for
women with their tubs, as they halted
moment for gossip on their way to and from
the Ness for water. Just a mile from where
YOU stand, at the mouth of the Caledohian
Canal, is one of the most picturesque little
fishing villages of Scotland. 1t is in reality
a part OF the ancient city. 1t is called
CIaclinaharry. 1t clusters about the base
of high, bold headland rock. In olden
times sentinels were stationed upon this
rock to give notice of the approach of cate
y,
Rock OF the Watchman," was its Gaelic
name 1000 years ago, and Clachnaharry it
remains to this day. just there in the
southwestern edge of the town, raises from
the plain bogle-haunted Tomnahurich.
Tom-a-churiach, or "Knoll of the Canoe"
was its Gaelic name; because it re-
sembles an inverted ancient curach, the
hide bottomed canoe of the ancients. Hugh
Miller gives it rank AS Queen of the Scot
tish tomhans." Tradition says the mighty
cairn is the tomb of Thomas the Rhymer,
prophet bard of Ercildoune; tomb as
eternal and almost as mighty as the pyra-
mid of Cheops. Fairy lore peoples it with
colonies and legions of the wee folk Sa-
want and servant quicken their pace by it
at night; and all HIghlanders hold it in
yeneration. .-r-
Not iour miles from where you stand, on
the great Moor of Culloden, which sweeps
in dreary ridges and scrubby plantations of
frs around Culbden House, then, when the
headquarters of "bonnie Prince Charlie"
and now, with its modern restoration, the
property of the Forbes family, Cumber-
lands 10, 900 trained men batchered all the
fierce and devoted band who remained to
stand with sword in hand for the line of
Stuart. Where all the different clans fell
can be as clearly traced by the tiny head
stones as we can follow the old wraith-lines
of our own Blue and Gray on the field Of
Gettysburg.
PREHISTORIC WORKS.
A step beyond CulIoden Moor, just across
the little river Nairn, is another mystic city
OF the dead. In a tiny valley dominated by
two hills called Dun Evan and Dun Daviot,
on which can still be traced the outlines
and walls of stupendous prehistoric forts,
you will find the most extensive and i'm
pressiye series of Gains and stone circles any
where existing in Scotland. Ii ancient
Inverness WAS the capital of Pictavia, here
was the place OF iucineratiou and sepulture
of all those mighty northern hosts from re-
motest, mist-hidden time. But turning
from contemplation of bogle-haunted cairns,
ancient slaughter pens and wondrous Pagan
Metropolis, how fair the valley smiles back,
with cleaning river, shimmering bay,
CLASSY lake and beauteous city, to the Sep
tember sun. 'a
Myriad upon myriad gossamer lines sweep
across it from mountain to cairn, from cairn
to spire, from spire to headland, from head
land to mountain again; and along the ser
reted edges OF northern and southern horizon
these blend with the tender mists which
wreathe the peaks above. Those to the south
disclose and hide the Grampian range.
Those to north glow in the face of their king.
mighty Ben Wyvis, and Ben WYis hints
of unknown Highland straths and glens, of
mystic crags and waterfalls, eagles and
bridle-paths. of red deer and .poachers. of
crofts and sheelings, OF Gaelic and grandeur.
Aud to these, as we may, we shall go.
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.
- - - 80
int I, ,fr,1,l Il.