The third day. which I
have allotted for those who do tot travel for the sake of motion alone,
end who are not satisfied merely with the name i of places, may be
occupied in the work here chalked out; but there are certain near
objects in this division, which may be seen e\ en by those who think a
day a sufficient sacrifice to this part of their tour.
To these, I may
recommend, as well indeed as to all who have a half hour hanging on
their hands, to ascend at the back of the gardener's house into the new
nursery, a track which also conducts to a beautifully retired American
garden, lately rescued from the woods, and not having yet, of course,
attained maturity. In ascending the path through the kitchen garden
there is a view along the high road, of a very singular and romantic
character; which, with some slight alterations in the foreground, to
exclude superfluous and intruding buildings, would form an admirable
picture.
Passing from this, over a
romantic bridge of rustic wood-work, that crosses a deep woody dell, so
dark as nearly to exclude the light of noon day. the visitor may reach
the spot, marked, like most others, by a seat, whence there is a most
perfect view of the lawn of Dunkeld: furnishing a better notion of its
disposition and of the general bearing and form of all the home domain,
than can be procured at any other point. That however is but a small
part of its merit; as it forms a picture equalled by few which the place
affords, whether in the richness end gaiety of the ornamented grounds,
or in the romantic and varied character of its splendid boundary. The
right hand scene displays the wild woods and rocks of Craig-y-barns and
Craig Vinean, under a character totally new; the dark and picturesque
hill of the King's scat rising between them, and indicating the place of
the romantic pass which is to introduce the traveller into the innermost
recesses of the Highland's. A high wooded
terrace, declining from it, descends to the lawn, covered with rich and
varied trees, and founding one of those wild walks winch the visitor had
traced in his former passage through the grounds. The grey irregular
buildings of the farm add much to the effects of this scene; by giving,
not only a subject of art, but an object of decided character for the
eye to repose on: and thus also, while it affords a point of departure
for this side of the picture, furnishing a scale by which its magnitude
can be duly appreciated. Beneath, nothing can well be more hippy than
the disposition and groupings of the trees which are scattered on the
lawn; where, with scarcely an exception, nothing intrudes to convey the
slightest appearance of artifice, but where every thing seems to have
been regulated by the same nature which rules over the rest of the
scene. Though the house has, abstractedly, no claims to beauty, its
effect is good; but, of the cathedral, we are inclined to regret that
more of it could not have been exposed.
A very beautiful walk
over a wooded and rocky knoll, called Tor-y-buckle, gives occasion
for the display of much more scenery connected with this shewing also
the town and the bridge, in various positions and combinations. I dare
not venture into these details; but must pass to that singular scene,
Pol-na-gates, which the spectator may, if he pleases, visit equally from
the high road, and which indeed he cannot help seeing as he proceeds to
the northward. Those who know Switzerland, will be strongly reminded of
some of the small sequestered spots in that country, by the succession
of fir and larch trees, intermingled w ith rocks, which here tower up to
the sky ; overhanging the dark pool, and throwing a sober and subdued
tone, even into the light of noon day. Here, there is no mark of art,
if we except the houses; and these even aid in setting off the natural
carelessness with which the water and the trees arc disposed. When the
north wind blows keen and cold from the mountains, the spectator may
here walk in a noon-day sun, amid all the warmth and quiet of perpetual
summer—since the trees are always green, and scarcely a breeze ever
ruffles the glassy-surface of this little lake. There are few places
more adapted to that undisturbed solitude and quiet for which a
romantic mind might long, and which a studious one might enjoy.
Spacious enough to admit of all
the ornaments of an artificial garden, even art would here be competed to
adopt itself to the accidental forms of nature; and in any other
situation than this, where the profusion of natural beauties is too
great to allow of attention to all, this halt-neglected place would be
sufficient to form the delight and occupy the undivided attention of the
jxissessor. It has been a great misfortune to this spot, that the
passage of the high road has infringed on its solitude and
seclusion—thus almost destroying its most essential character. It is not
flattering to its beauties that it should be allotted to the residence
of gamekeepers; although the effect produced by the houses is pleasing,
rather that, otherwise. If Pol-na-gates could find a poet to personify
it, like Bruar water, it might address his Grace in the language of
supplication, and petition to be restored to its original solitude ; by
planting a thick fence of wood on the edge of the high road, and by
raising it at least to the rank of an American garden; to which it,
possesses peculiar claims, no less from its picturesque character than
from its botanical capacities. But Burns is no more, and it is not every
poet who can hope to comiaanc1 such attention. Poor prose, at any rate,
never pretended to carrv any weight in matters of this nature.
The walks among the
romantic woods that cover the hill which towers high above this secluded
spot, commence here; proceeding in various directions through its
wilderness of forest, till they emerge on the open summit, high above
the surrounding objects. It is not for any guide to describe "each
dingle, bush, and alley green" of these wild walks, among which a summer
day may be spent without thinking it long. With that general similarity
of feature which all forest walks must possess, there is n this spot, no
"alley" which "has a brother." There is character every where; a
character for the whole; and come peculiarity, some impending rock, or
marked tree, or open glade, or glimpse of the distant prospect, to
distinguish the individuals. Here, perhaps, the blue sky breaks
struggling through the dark overhanging branches, or the checquered
sunshine brightens the vivid green of the wood sorrel and the saxifrage
which carpe' the ground with a dense mat of verdure. There, the
entangling foliage of spruce, and oak, and fir, and chesnut, exclude the
day, and produce a solemn gloom, disturbed only by the lively chirp
of the squirrel as he springs from tree to tree ; or else a glimpse of
the roebuck is seen as he bounds away into the recess of the forest,
through the crackling 0f the branches, arc! the fill of the dew drops
which the sun has not yet reached. There is nothing which adds more to
the charm of variety among these woods, of confers on them a character
more their own, than the "musco circumlita saxa;" a feature only known
to the mountain forest. But it is not only to the huge stone half covered
with moss, where the bright green receives a double charm from the grev
of the lichen, to the dark and varied browns of withered leaves, to the
black obscurity of the fissurt or cavity which it overhangs, and to the
graceful feathering of the various ferns, that this scenery is indebted
Enormous masses of rock, detached from the summit in former ages, are
strewed aliout, and among die trees, in every shape of rude and
picturesque beauty; their bases concealed in the soil by the primrose,
the lily of the valley, and the wild plants of all kinds that resort to
their shade and moisture, and their crevices giving root to the rose,
the honeysuckle, and the birch; while violets and strawberries, occupying
the covering of moss and soil which time has produced on their summits,
and intermixed with the towering plumes of the fern, send their trailing
shoots down along the grey mottled faces. Often, they are found piled on
each other in masses of ruin; even then, perhaps, rendered more
picturesque by the black caverns which their interstices have formed,
find by the deep tone of colour which thus relieves the subdued tints of
grey and green, never illuminated but by the reflected light of the
surrounding objects.
To pass over many single
spots that might be particularized, an extensive and beautiful view of
Dunkeld, and of the distant country, even as far as Fife, is obtained
from a walk that conducts to a grotto; and a moss-covered reek which
marks the point of view, will also afford the spectator a seat where he
may forget himself to sleep, while he indulges in reveries, and, viewing
the bustle of a town without hearing its noise, dreams for a moment that
he is elevated, as well beyond the cares of the world as beyond the
world itself he woefully forgets his
office as a writer, whether of guide-books or of better things, who would
strip his reader of one atom of the romantic.imagination to which
poetry, good fortune, and the circulating library have aided him. Let
him not therefore insinuate that Boreas will ever blow, or Philomel grow
dumb, or nights' cold ; that he who delights in cooling his "fervid
blood'" in this grotto, after a laborious walk, or plunges amidst its
refreshing damps and its drops trickling from the roof, to avoid the
Dog-star'® raging heat, will soon be very glad to warm his fro/en
fingers ai a better fire than one of damp leaves, to drink of other
drinks than a chilled cascade, and eat of other diet than that of the
squirrel. It is for him, on the contrary, to recommend the "hairy gown
and mossy cell," night watches "out-watching the bear," with nuts from
the wood, water from the spring, and all other things befitting.
The reader may imagine
the rest; and if he should perchance be smitten with the divine love of
holy solitude, companion of the wise and good, the Duke of Atholl, (as
we, the Authors of this Guide, arc crrdibly informed) will permit him
to occupy this hermitage, with all such agues and rheumatisms as may be
incidental to the possession. It is amusing enough, and it is also true,
that there have been,in this sober-minded country of
Britain, personages absurd enough to hire idle vagabonds to live in huts
of this kind, unshaven and unwashed. To have cultivated a bear might
have been excusable.- if not appropriate; but such a caricature as a
mock hermit, is at least a degree worse than a tin cascade or a
pasteboard temple. Yet so prevalent is the popular belief with respect
to the existence cf this kind of human menagerie, that a few years
seldom pass without some fresh proposal to his Grace, to undertake the
performance of this character, in an appropriate manner, and at clue
monthly wages.
After all, however,
hermitage apart, this grotto is a very romantic and beautiful spit;
executed in a most ingenious manner, out of the cavity of an overhanging
rock, and without any one fantastical ornament or artificial contrivance
to offend the eye of taste. It is impossible to conccive any thing more
perfectly correct and appropriate, or more truly in unity with the wild
and bold scenery by which it is surrounded. A cascade trickling down the
hill forces its dark secluded way among the deep shadows of a rocky bed,
overhung by a profusion of shrubs, and wood-flowers, lulling with its
sounds, and forming a cold ball near
the entrance of the grotto. Ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers,
natives of the garden, but now long naturalized to the soil, and become
joint inhabitants, with the fir and oak, of these wild woods, adorn and
diversify the entrance; while, above, the lofty precipice overhangs with
ail its trees dark rising against the sky, and occasional openings
through the forest, as it sweeps down in a long descent to the base of
the hill, admit various prospects of the distant and splendid landscape.
In this direction, I
shall not pretend to conduct the tourist further than until, by means of
the uppermost of the walks which here skirt the face of the hill, he can
gain free access to the wide and open view which stretches away to the
eastward. The extent and the magnificence of this landscape would be
judged incapable of being exceeded, were it not for the more splendid
and comprehensive views which the Highlands afford to the northward,
after surmounting the whole hill. For this reason, the visitor should
first take the present direction; and, so doing, he will be highly
gratified by the details, as well as by the whole of the map-like
prospect which stretches beneath his feet. From the dark solid green of tile fir forest,
which, rising far above his station, extends from him on all sides, and
which, beneath him, stretches away In a noble expanse till it unites
with the woods of the plain far below, his eye is conducted to die rich,
prolonged, open valley with its chain of lakes, which, commencing near
Dunkeld is gradually lost eastward in the blue mists of Strathmore. Far
beyond, are seen the long range of the Sidlaw and the great and
variegated plain of Stormount, i while the cloud of overhanging smoke
marks the place of Perth, and leads the eye to the Lomond hills and the
elevated land of Fife, gradually fading into misty forms which rather
dazzle and deceive, with imaginary shapes, than display the well-known
outlines of romantic Edinburgh.
A deep chasm in
Craig-y-barns forms a natural pass, of which advantage has been taken,
with the same judgment that has directed all these walks, to gain
access to the summit. From the ease with which the traveller wanders
about the whole of this wild mass of rude rock and ruder ground, over
chasm and ravine, now on the summit of the precipice and now as if but
just adhering to its face, threading his way among enormous piles of
rum, or walking, unto suspicious of what is
under him, on the smooth gravel and turf which crosses them, he is apt
ungratefully to forget, as well as to overlook, the dexterity and the
resource with which this extensive work has been conducted. He will lie
unpardonable if he does not, thus admonished, examine this piece of
rural engineering ; and he will, in so doing, often have occasion to
wonder at the boldness which could thus dare even to imagine! a road
where scarcely a bird could have found footing: and, comparing small
things with great, he may perhaps reflect that the same intellect and
enterprise, had fate so ordained the opportunity, might have conducted
the army of Hannibal or the works of the Simplon. It is but right to
mention, while accidentally on this subject, that the extent of walks
which the Duke of Atholl ha- carried through hi- grounds of Dunkeld,
amounts to fifty miles, and those of the rides or diives to thirty.
There are few proprietor0 who have striven equally, or with better
success, to derive from their possessions all the beauty and convenience
which the capacity of their grounds allowed.
The pass which has thus
led me astray for a moment, will lead the visitor to a pleasing and
secluded scene called Lios-na-craggan, the garden of the rock; hut he must not advance without
opening his eyes to the romantic and abrupt ravine through which he is
thus conducted. There is no part of this whole hill more deserving of
admiration : and it is, indeed, one of the few which is, at the same
time, of such a character and form as to admit of being converted into a
picture. There is an unusual breadth in the great face of rocky
precipice by which it is bounded on one side; and the colouring here
balances and relieves; in a most perfect manner, the deep tone of the
surrounding wood. Other rocks and other banks unite this larger mass to
the rude and broken ground beneath and above: while trees, springing
from every crevice and orifice "of vantage" where they can fix a root,
and growing on every bank, and summit, and rocky interstice, unite by a
gentle gradation with the solid sweep of fir wood around, above, and
beneath, so as to produce a scene of the most perfect harmony, as to
character both of forms and of colouring. A rich distance, which
includes the lakes already mentioned. completes the picture. The whole
is of a character so purely
Alpine, as to transport the imagination to the mountains of Switzerland
and the Tyrol. An artist may possibly at first imagine, that no power of
his art could combine a pure fir forest with landscape. But the first
attempt will undeceive him: and he will find, even in this succession of
cones and pyramids, a variety in the grouping and in the forms, which,
while it remains characteristic of this class of scenery, is, in every
respect, picturesque and beautiful.
Lios-na-craggan is one of
those productions of art which, if it be a source of surprise to him who
is wandering among these wild forests, is also a legitimate one, because
it is judicious and consistent. A garden is not necessarily limited to
the plain nor to the vicinity of the dwelling-house. This is a secluded
and pleasing, as well as a romantic and an ornamented spot; and while
the unwarned visitor unexpectedly finis exotic plants flourishing amid
these rude woods and rocks, he may also be surprised to see that, at an
elevation of eight hundred feet above the grounds below, they are
flourishing with the greatest luxuriance. It is one of the rarer
exertions in gardening, and one from which Dunkeld derives great praise,
to have rendered so many foreign and ornamental plants denizens of the
soil.
Lios-na-craggan possesses
a fountain which was long the Bandusia, if not the Hippocrene, of a
gentle pair, ycleped Andrew and Janet Mac Raw, who, for twenty-one, long
or short years, as it happened, enjoyed the delights of mutual love in a
cottage, without a wish to descend from their misty sublimity of
elevation to the regions of turmoil below. Wood wardens of the forest of
Craig-y-bains, no children disturbed the repose of this gentle pair,
unless some of the urchins of Dunkeld, perchance, in pursuing unripe,
and never-to-bc-ripened, nuts, infringed on their solitary reign. In
summer, basking in the sun, whenever the sun chose to shine on
Lios-na-craggan, and, in winter, shrouded, like Ossian's ghosts, in the
mist of the hill, it was all Andrew's duty to plant his potatoes m
spring and to dig them in autumn, while Janet milked her cow and spun
her thread in due alternation, reckless alike of the world below and the
clouds above. Thus rolled twenty and one suns round to Andrew and Janet
Mac Raw, loving and beloved: mutual peace prepared their
pillow—possibly ; but seasons revolved; with time came years; and thus
they lived,—and thus they died. How they loved and how they lived, few cared, and, alas! no one knows. Carehant vate sacro. Darbv and John
Anderson have fated better. 1 have seer, their mined wails, and the
nettles that rose above the dismantled rafters: long before
rhododendrons had learnt to display their purple blossoms, or moss
roses and lilacs to waft their perfumes, to the rocks of Lios-na-craggan. Had I been a poet, I would have dropt a tear in the
fountain, and a verse on the nettles, to tile loves and memories of
Andrev. and Janet Mac Raw; but of what a-ail are the shambling records
of prose?
I can lead the tourist
but little further or foot; and he who has suffered himself to be led
thus far, may congratulate himself on his energy, as well as on his
taste for the beautiful and the grand in scenery. It is a pleasure to
write to such readers and walkers as these; but it is injudicious to
acknowledge it. The unfortunate author signs his own condemnation, if,
tame, and dull, and wearied, and spiritless, among those who count every
step that carries them from the inn and the dinner, and every minute
that calls on them to rise before ten, he does not pain iii energy when,
accompanied by the enthusiastic and the judicious spectator, he wanders,
careless of dinner and despising laggard sleep, through the wild mazes
of the distant forest, or scales the rugged summit of the mountain.
But having thus brought
the confiding reader to the airy and open land, where- all above is sky,
and all beneath are weeds, and rocks, and rivers, in gay confusion,
little remains to be said; and, for him, little to be done but to spend
half a summer's day in enjoying the diversity of this splendid and
luxuriant prospect. The main feature is the vale of the Tay, as it lies
between Dunkeld end Logierait; but this part, singly considered, is seen
in a more picturesque and advantageous position, from the farm of St.
Columb, which will hereafter be mentioned. Of the remainder, it is as
impossible to speak adequately, as it would be fruitless to attempt it.
As a mountain view, it is singularly happy because, while the position
is not so high as to reduce every thing beneath to a diminished and
uninteresting scale, it is sufficient to carry the eye across all the
mountain ranges; commencing from the purple bloom that waves in the
breeze at our feet, the rugged and grey rock, the dark bed of the
torrent, and the brown heath, and proceeding over the fainter receding
moorlands, the distant precipice, the long channel of the fay-off
descending stream, the obscure forest creeping dark up the hill side,
and the airy succession of fading tints, to the last blue and doubtful
mountain that melts away in the varied horizon.
The walks here are
numerous, and terminate in the rides which conduct to the farm and the
more distant plantations. It is unnecessary to direct the spectator to
these , but there is an object here deserving his attention, whether
contemplated merely as a natural curiosity, or as an example of a
geological feat. If he be ail antiquary, and especially if a spectator of
Druidism, he will be even more gratified by-explaining it on his
favourite hypothesis. The subject in question is a huge mass of stone,
supported, at some distance from the flat surface of solid lock on which
it stands, by means of three fragments. Thus it resembles, in some
measure, a cromlech; and those who chose this system, may, if they
please, conclude it to be. a work of art and a Druidical monument. To
the writer and others, it seems merely the relic of a heap of fragments,
from which Time, having first produced the «hole, has carried away the
smaller parts. It is thus one of the untransported blocks of geologists,
produced in situ; however remarkable for the singularity of its
position, and for an imitation, Crude it must be admitted), of the real
cromlech. |