Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-10-18
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEYINGs.
At Fasnakyle, Scotland-The Route
From Beauly - The Strathglass
ssCoach,,-Northcrn ScOtland-A Ro-
mantle and Beautiful Land-The
Gaelic Language.

From Beauly - The Strathglass
ssCoach,,-Northern Scotland-A Ro.
mantle and Beautiful Land-The
Gaelic Language.
FAsNAKYLE, Scotland, Sept. 10.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Leaving the little railway station at
Beauty, we saw, not an hundred feet
away, at the road-head of long pair of
stairs, q huge wagonette, already filled
with people This was the Strathglass
tcoach," SO my companion said. Two
seats were reserved beside the driver.
These we scrambled into, and before the
train had steamed out of the station our
coach was rolling heavily away towards a
region of silence eternal. For when the
Strathglass coach finally stops, some thir-
ty or forty miles west of Beauty, in every
direction save that from whence it came,
is land that has never known a road or a
wheeled vehicle. Once under the old clan
system it was peopled with a grand and
noble race. From clearance after clear
ance and eviction after eviction it Is now
more lone and silent than when skin-clad
hslots huddled in its straths and glens.
and savage Pagan rites were celebrated
within its olden stone circles and cla
chans. To-day its very foot-paths and
bridle-paths are given over to the game
keeper, the gillie and the red deer. Per-
haps an hundred grave faced crofters may
occupy every hundred square miles of
land. Landlordism has exterminated the
grandest portion of the Scottish people
throughout the entire north of Scotland,
precisely as, with famine and Balfourism,
it is gradually but surely numbering an en-
tire race in Ireland. The Green Isle is be-
ing transformed into a sheep and cattle
range for London butchers; and the Scot
tish Highlands from the Grampians to the
ocean rim around the whole north of Scot
land and to the outer cliffs of the Western
Isle, is always simply vast game pre-
serve for London sportsmen. But Gods
sunlight never shone on so romantically
beautiful land; and the inexpressible pa
thos of it all mists your eyes as they look
in vain for the homes where whole race
has been plundered of its heritage.
Of the scattering remnants of these
nao,,,a who ds.n;ta al, ;n;rst;co and Loss
| pcUp1 w. N'o " ,
stlil crng TO the mountain eeries winch
gave them birth, our coach-load was com
pletely typical. One huge, grave fellow
was a blacksmith who leased little forgt
far up the strath where he still starved
along, now and then getting driblet o.
work In shoeing the horses kept at thu
gentrys huntang.lodges. Another maj
held few acres OF land and a dreary ole
inn at the edge OF the strath, where occa
sionally gillies loitered and dropped few
pence, OF, at odd intervals, lords and la
dies, from freak, or accident requiring
shelter, flung few pounds into hi
groveilng hands Ihree were crofter
pure ana simple wlth lam orShanter hats
pushy peards, hoIow cheeks, bloodies
faces, and deep-set blue eyes that scenes
ever set upon some far object, as if in
tently endeavoring to solve the riddle o
their lives of endless want and wretched
ness. There were two women. One wa
cottar's wife, miserably clad, with an all
ing child which had been taken score O
miles to Beauty that physician might Sc
it, as no doctor hved In all this vast n
gion from sea TO sea. The other was
scraggy old guidwife, trayel-worn, bu
bravely making her way back to som
Highland croft, with few pounds in he