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Mr. Maughan has here done
a very serviceable piece of work. The peninsula or 'island' of Rosneath
is only some seven miles long by about two broad, and has never been the
scene of any great historical event. Yet few and comparatively
unimportant as the incidents connected with it are, Mr. Maughan has
managed to weave them together into a very readable story, and in fact
to produce one of the best Scottish local histories we are acquainted
with. The chief family on the peninsula is of course the Argyll. After
them come the Colquhouns of Luss, who claim an antiquity greater even
than the Campbells. Of these families Mr. Maughan, as in duty bound,
gives an informing, if brief, account, and does not neglect others of
IHSS note. The fortunes of Rosneath Castle are narrated, and many
incidents of interest are recorded. Wallace is not omitted from the
atory, and Bruce is nearly brought within the bounds of the parish. But
it is in the ecclesiastical traditions of the place that Mr. Maughan is
strongest. The Storys, father and son, Dugald Stewart, and the founder
of the Andersonian College in Glasgow, have given a sort of celebrity to
the place. Of the elder Story, we hare a fairly detailed narrative,
while Dr. John Campbell M'Leod of Row, Carlyle and Irving, and other
names known to fame appear in the annals. Chapters are also devoted to
the topography of the peninsula; some curious things are said about the
remarkable boulders found in it, and there are many notes on its fauna
and flora, amongst which last we have references to the famous silver
firs. The Marquess of Lorne contributes some sonorous lines in which the
history of the peninsula is succinctly told, and one or two notes. Mr.
Maughan ia at great pains to show how rapidly the place has developed in
recent years, and what immense changes have occurred. Perhaps nowhere so
well as in Mr. Maughan's pages can one obtain so good or vivid an idea
of the rapid strides the country has made during the last fifty years.
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