Rollo in Scotland Part 10

They said that there were no machines on the side of the mountain where they came from, and that there was a party there, that arrived before them, who had engaged the first machines that should come; and so they were obliged to walk, and to have their trunks wheeled over on a wheelbarrow.

"Afterwards we met another party walking in the same way, with their trunks on a wheelbarrow. We thought that five miles was a great way to wheel trunks on a wheelbarrow.

"At last we came to what they called Loch Katrine; but it seemed to me nothing but a pond among the mountains. It was only about ten miles long. There was an inn on the sh.o.r.e, but no village.

"There was a pier there, too, and some boats drawn up on the beach. At a little distance they were putting together an iron steamboat on the stocks. The parts were all made in Glasgow, and brought here by the same way that we had come. The old steamboat of last year was floating in the water near by. The steampipe was rusty, and she looked as if she had been abandoned. The name of her was the Rob Roy.

"We were glad that the new one was not ready, for we liked better to go in a row boat.

"So we engaged one of the boats, and went down to it on the beach, and put our baggage in. And this is the end of my part of the account.

Waldron is to write the rest.

"ROLLO."

"We all got into the boat; that is, we three, and some other ladies and gentlemen that came over the mountain about the same time with us. The wind was blowing pretty fresh, and the middle of the lake was very rough, and some of the ladies were afraid to go; but we told them there was no danger.

"The boatman said that we would go right across the loch, and then we should get under the lee of the land on the eastern sh.o.r.e, and there we should be sheltered from the wind, and the water would be smooth.

"I told him that I could row, and asked him to let me take one of the oars; and he said I might. But one of the ladies was afraid to have me do it. She said she was afraid that I should upset the boat.

"This was nonsense; for it is not possible to upset a boat by any kind of rowing, if it is ever so bad.

"The boatman told her that there was no danger, and that, if I could really row, I could help him so much that we should get across the part of the lake where the wind blew and the waves run high so much the sooner. So she consented at last, and I took one of the oars, and we rowed across the loch in fine style. We pitched about a good deal in the middle pa.s.sage, and the lady was dreadfully frightened; but when we got across the water became smooth, and we sailed very pleasantly along the sh.o.r.e.

"The sh.o.r.es were winding and very pretty, and the farther we went the narrower the lake became, and the mountains became higher and higher. At last we came to a narrow place between two mountains, where the pa.s.s of the Trossachs began. The mountain on one side was Ben Venue. The one on the other side was Benan. The sh.o.r.es at the foot of these mountains were covered with woods, and the place was very wild. There was an island in the middle of the lake here, called Ellen's Isle. This island was high and rocky, and covered with woods, like the sh.o.r.es adjacent to it.

"This island is very famous, on account of a poem that Walter Scott wrote about it, called the Lady of the Lake. The lake was this Loch Katrine, and the lady was Ellen. She went back and forth to the island in a boat, in some way or other, but I do not know the story exactly.

Mr. George is going to buy the Lady of the Lake when we get to Edinburgh, and read it to us, and then we shall know.

"The island is small and rocky, but it is so covered with trees and bushes that we hardly see the rocks. They peep out here and there. The banks rise very steep, and the water looks very deep close to the sh.o.r.e.

We sailed by the island, and then the water grew narrower and narrower, until at last we were closely shut in, and then soon we came to the landing.

"There was nothing but a hut at the landing, and a narrow road, which began then and led down the valley. The valley was very narrow, and there were steep rocks and mountains on both sides. They told us that it was a mile and a quarter to the inn, and that there was no other way to go but to walk. The boatman said that he would bring the baggage; so we left it under his care, all except our knapsacks, and walked along.

"We walked about a mile down the valley, by a very winding road, with rocks, and trees, and very high mountains on both sides. At last we came in sight of a tall spire. I thought it was a church. In a minute another spire came into view, and two great towers. Rollo thought it was a castle. I said that a castle would not have a spire on it. Rollo said that a church would not have two spires on it. It turned out that both of us were mistaken; for the building was the inn.

"It was a very extraordinary looking inn. It was built of stone, with towers and battlements, like an old castle. The inside was very extraordinary, too. The public room looked, as Mr. George said, like an old Gothic hall of the middle ages. There were tables set out here for people to have breakfasts and dinners, and Mr. George ordered a dinner for us. There were other parties of tourists there, some coming, and some going.

"While the dinner was getting ready, Rollo and I walked about the inn, and in the yards. It was a very curious place indeed. Close behind it were lofty mountains, which, Rollo said, looked like the mountains of Switzerland; only there were no snow peaks on the top of them. There was no village, and there were no houses near, except two or three stone hovels in the woods behind the inn. Before the inn, in a little valley just below it, was a pond, such as they call here a loch.

"Mr. George decided to go directly on to Stirling, because it was Sat.u.r.day night, and he did not wish, he said, to spend Sunday at such a lonesome inn. So we hired a carriage and set off. Immediately we began to come out from the mountains, and to get into the level country. The country soon grew very beautiful. The sun was behind our backs, and it shone right upon every thing that we wished to see, and made the whole country look very green and very brilliant. There were parks, and gardens, and pleasure grounds, and queer villages, and ruins of old castles on the hills, and little lochs in the valleys, and every thing beautiful.

"At last we came in sight of Stirling Castle. It stood on the top of a high, rocky hill. The hill was very high and steep on all sides but one, where it sloped down towards the town. The country all around was very level, so that we could see the castle a great many miles away.

"We rode around the foot of the castle hill, under the rocks, and at last came into the town, and drove to the hotel.

"WALDRON."

CHAPTER X.

STIRLING.

Stirling Castle crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises on the banks of the Forth, in the midst of a vast extent of level and richly-cultivated country. It is, of course, a very conspicuous object from all the region around.

The hill is long and narrow. The length of it extends from north to south. The northern end is the high end. The land slopes gently towards the south, but the other sides are steep, and in many places they form perpendicular precipices of rock, with the castle walls built on the very brink of them.

The town lies chiefly at the foot of the hill, towards the south, though there are one or two streets, bordered by quaint and queer old buildings, that lead all the way up to the castle.

In front of the castle, at the place where these streets terminate, is a broad s.p.a.ce, smoothly gravelled, called the esplanade. This is used as a parade ground, for drilling and training the new soldiers, and teaching them the manoeuvres and exercises necessary to be practised in the war.

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr. George and the boys went out, to go to church. Bells were ringing in various parts of the town. They were drawn, by some invisible attraction, up the hill, in the direction of the castle. They soon found other people going the same way; and following them, they came, at length, to a very ancient-looking ma.s.s of buildings, which, Mr. George said, he should have thought was an old abbey, gone to ruin, if it were not that the people were all going into it, under a great arched doorway. So he supposed it was a church, and he and the boys went in with the rest.

There was a man at the door holding a large silver plate, to receive the contributions of the people that came in. Mr. George stopped to get some money out of his pocket. The man then seemed to perceive that he was a stranger; so he said to him, speaking with a broad Scotch accent and intonation,--

"Ye wull gae into the magistrates' seat. Or stay--I wull send a mon wi'

ye, to show ye the wa'."

So he called a door keeper, and the door keeper led the way up stairs, into a gallery. The gallery was very wide, and was supported by enormous pillars. The whole interior of the church had a very quaint and antique air. The magistrate's seat was the front seat of the gallery. It was a very nice seat, and was well cus.h.i.+oned. Before it, all around, was a sort of desk, for the Bibles and Hymn Books to rest upon.

There were three pulpits--or what seemed to the boys to be pulpits--one behind and above the other. The highest was for the minister; the next below was for what in America would be called the leader of the choir; though in Scotland, Mr. George said he believed he was called the precentor. There was no choir of singers, as with us, but when the minister gave out a hymn the precentor rose and commenced the singing, and when he had got near the end of the first line all the congregation joined in, and sang the hymn with him to the end. The third pulpit was only a sort of chair, enclosed at the sides and above. What the man did who sat in it the boys could not find out.

All the people in the church had Bibles on a sloping board before them, in their pews, and when the minister named the text or read a chapter, they all turned to the place, and looked over. Waldron said he thought that this was an excellent plan.

Mr. George and the boys all liked the sermon very much indeed, and when the service was ended, they walked a little way around the esplanade before the castle, and then went home to dinner.

In the course of their excursion, however, they had observed that a great many walks had been made at different elevations on the west side of the hill, and that seats were placed there at different points, for resting-places. These seats, and indeed the walks themselves, commanded charming views of all the surrounding country. The boys wanted to run up and down these paths, and explore the sides of the hill by means of them in every part; but Mr. George recommended to them to wait till the next day.

"We shall come up to-morrow," said he, "to visit the castle, and then we will come out here, and have a picnic, on one of these stone seats.

After that I will find a place among the rocks to read or write, for an hour, and while I am there you may climb about among the rocks and precipices as much as you please."

The next morning the boys set out with Mr. George, soon after breakfast, to go up to the castle. When they reached the esplanade they found several small parties of soldiers there, under instruction. They all wore red coats--that being the ordinary uniform of British soldiers.

Officers were marching them about, and teaching them how to handle their muskets, and to keep step, and to wheel this way and that, and to perform other such evolutions. A great many of the soldiers looked very young. They were lads that had been recently enlisted, and were now being trained to go to the war in the Crimea.

After looking at these soldiers a short time the party went on. At the upper end of the esplanade there was a gateway leading into the castle yard. There was a sentinel, in a Highland costume, keeping guard there.

Mr. George asked him if the public were allowed to go into the castle.

He said, "O, yes, certainly;" and so Mr. George and the boys went in.

As they went in they looked up, and saw a great many cannons pointed down at them from the embrasures in the surrounding ramparts and bastions.

"Those guns must be to keep the enemy from coming in," said Waldron.

Presently the party pa.s.sed through another arched gateway, and came into a large inner court, which was surrounded with various buildings, all built of stone, and of a very ma.s.sive and solid character. The palace was on one side. It was adorned with a great many quaint and curious sculptures and images. The palace itself, and all the other buildings, were used as barracks for soldiers. A great many soldiers were standing about the doors, and some were playing together about the court. Some of them were dressed in the common British uniform, and some were in the Highland costume.