Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-25
A REAL DISCOVERER.
Edgar Wakeman Finds an Almost
Unknown Valley in Scotland.
THE FIRST YANKEE TRAVELLER
To Set Foot Upon What is Really an
Immense Game Preserve.
SCENES OF SURPRISING GRANDEUR
IcoRREsPoNpENoE OF THE p1spArcH.I

Msnee OF raSoakyle IN lne neart ol Srdnu
Strathglass among tine grim peaks of North
ern Scotland. Though the night was already
falling like dark wing from the crags as
we descended from the stage coach, the sit
uation and surroundings of the Manse could
be vaguely discerned. The great strath
stretched east and west for half a days
Journey in front. The river Glass from
whence Strathg!ass derives its name, swept
by the very edge of the coach road beside us
with strong, even flow, and sort of half
roar and song, over its level, though rocky,
bed. Behind, to the north, perhaps dozen
acres of land, part of which belonged to
the Manse, was formed in a sort of horse
shoe-like pocket, or dell, behind which rose
the mountains to lofty heights, and
down whose rough old sides, through
tiny burns, came melodious rills, which
here and therl bsreath the road, leaped and
tuSnbled into the Glass below. Larches
grim, tall and wraith-like in the shadows
half hid the Manse and its low stone out
buildings; and the lights streaming through
the great doors and windows, flung fantastic
shadow scenes of waving larch and happy
children along the walks of gravel white as
snow.
There in the great door were the house
hold members, all gathered for the coming
Of their head and the stranger. The guild
wife first, fine and tall, grand in the phy-
sique of the old Morse race from which she
sprang, gave us gentle, earnest greeting.
Then came the minister's assistant, a pure
Gael, tall, huge and angular, but with a
manhood in his face and grasp in his hand
which did one good to see and feel. Then,
two domestics, shy, voiceless Highland
girls, who knew little OF English but much
of everyday duty. These and the faxen-
haired BARNS in every attitude and place
beamed kindness and welcome.
CHARMING OCCUPATION.
There is something positively bewitchins :
m digging out the meaning of the old Gaelic
names of things and places. still retained in
the everyday topograpy of Scotland. The
beauty and expressiveness of their appliea-
tion are remarkable. Take the single word
strath as an example. Strath is English for
the Gaelic Srath. 1t means valley. But
it means still more. 1t is valley confined
by hills or mountains on either side, through
which q river runs. Then to any one who
has lived, or wandered lovingly, in Scot
land, how perfect in description. covering
whole necessary sentences in our own Ian
guage, are the compact sufixes. Stranraer,
in Wigtown, from Srath-an-radhair, is the
valley of good grass or pasture. Strath-
groy, in Perthshire, from Srathdhruidh is
the valley where the Druids dwell. Stra-
chur, in Argyle, was once Srath-a-choire,
or valley of the ravine. Strathcrombel, in
Ross-shire, is from Srath-crom-beul,o or the
valley or the curved opening, an exact de-
seription IN the fewest possible words
Then there is Strathearn, or Srath-ear-an,
in Perthshire, the valley of the east-running
river Strathbrock, in Linlithgow-shire. is
from Srath-a.bhruic, the valley of the badg-
erS. Strathbran, found both in the shires Of
Perth and Rose, WIS in Gaelic Srath-
Craoin, or valley of the dropping or driZ-
Ellng showers. Again, in Perthshire, is
Strsthallen, from Srath-aluinn, the fair and
beautiful valley. ami StrathtummeI, cor
rupted from Srath-teth-thuiI, is the valley
of the fierce stream or torrent. And here,
away in the ragged northern edge of the
shire of Inverness, is this wonderful Strath-
glass, to the Gaels Srath-glas, their "gray
valley" gray in the skies above It, gray in
its valley-bed where the stubble-felds. banks
of clay and dreamful river blend; gray, de-
spite the splotches of crimson laid by the
pencils of the frost; gray in the masses of
birch, in the myriads of lichened crags; and
gray in the very mlsts of its countless water
falls.
AN UNKNOWN VALLEY.
Not 900 people in all Scotland know of
this grand ''Gray Valley" Not 100 fami-
lies can be found within it from end to end.
No Murray" or BLACK has ever pene-
trated its depths to describe ii. The old
Highlanders look at me curiously from the
doors OF their crofts, and doubt that I am
from so far land as America. To their
ken l am the first American to know Strath-
glass. And what a thrill comes to one at
the consciousness of possibly being the first
American to be seen, nearly at the threshold
of the twentieth century, anywhere on the
face OF this great earth.
The noble strath opens to the German
Ocean at Beauty, and with gradual ascent
cleaves straight and true through the mist
Ereathed mountains for nearly so miles to
the southwest, and then breaks into two
Western chasms, Glen Cannich and Glen
Affric, which nearly equal Strathglass in
beauty and grandeur. 1t is all
one region. And across the 20
or so miles from sea to sea
there are just TWO estates, that of the CHS
olms, of Chisolm, and Kintail, of Rosshire
These cover the straths and glens, reaching
far over upon the mountains to the North
and South; and from 600 to 800 square
miles OF land are possessed by these two
families.
More than one-hslfof this is enclosed as
game preserve, and is controlled through
rental as such by one man. That means
that down through the past century thou
sands of people, who, through the inherited
rights of eianship had precisely the same
original right 10 lands they occupied as had
the heads of the clans themselves, have been
driven from their homes, that one man,
able to pay 10000 per year in rentals,
10000 year IN the expenses of hunting-
lodges, gamekeepers and gillies, and as
much more in litigation, could come here
once q year and butcher red deer; and those
red deer as tame, from the absence of hu-
mankind, as the mild-eyed COW that stands
in croiters' byres.
DANGER OF TREsPAss.
There is little Of human interest in this
magical Gray Valley. The interminable
scenes of splendor are what would bring you
again and again to it when you had once
known it Indeed, it may be called so close
preserve that one commits trespass in en-
tering 1t, unless YOUR feet are kept within
the valley. These wind along the mountain
bases above and at either side OF the river
Glass, and finally branch into bridle-paths
among the Western glens. Passing up the
strath from Beauty one gentleman's seat is
found. A little farther on, an avenue of
sycamores leads to Erchless castle, the great
hall of the Chisholms of Chisholm, who
fought to the death at Culloden for "bonnie
Prince Charlie"
The ChIsholms they have always been
called; an old chief OF the clan once saying
there were but three persons in the world
entitled 10 the distinction of this prefix
"the" Pope, 'the' King and 1.-THE" CHS
holm. Early 10 the century the male line
became extinct, and the attorneys of the
estate, which covers vast Strathglass and the
moor, for 40 years searched the whole earth