ornaments of woods, and the conveniences of roads, have been supplied with a princely profusion; and the traveller has all the facilities which civilisation affords of enjoying scenes as gloomy, savage, and wild, as when they first started into existence. A superb cataract, to which the tourist is conducted, is called the York, after Archbishop Drummond. It is about a mile distant from Blair Castle upon the Lude estate, near to the bridge of Tilt, where a stream called the Burn of Fender, after descending from the skirts of Ben-y-Gloe through a richly wooded glen, pours its waters over a huge cliff into the impetuous Tilt, whose roaring torrent runs almost invisible in the hollow caverns of the rocks that rise like ramparts from its banks. This cascade is viewed to the greatest advantage from the opposite side of the Tilt. A good footpath up the glen conducts the tourist to other cascades upon the Burn of Fender; the first that is met with is equally beautiful, though of a less lofty character, than the York; the great body of the water gushes through a deep ravine, overhung with trees and underwood, while a portion of the stream is divided from the principal waterfall, and, spouting over a jutting rock, is scattered into a shower of spray in its descent. But the upper fall of the Fender is most worthy of attention, the fall itself and its locale combining the sublime and the magnificent. The stream first appears tumbling amidst trees and over rocks, and being joined by another stream that darts from the side, throws itself down a steep declivity into a profound hollow, and thence sweeps with reckless velocity down the narrow glen. Along the path we have described, there is the Tulchan, a very large cairn ; and a line of smaller tumuli lay at one time between this place and the house of Lude, but cultivation has obliterated the greater part of them. The tourist now ascends into GLEN-TILT, which partakes in a high degree of the wildest Alpine scenery. This glen, in ancient times, was famous for its race of warriors. It is of great length, and hemmed in on each side by the steep sides of two continuous chains of mountains. Ben-y-Gloe forms the southern screen of the valley; and the road, passing from BlairAtholl along the brink of fearful precipices which rise from the bed of the river, descends into the depths of the glen; then, leaving its woody defiles, it winds along the bases of huge and grassy mountains. Ravines and recesses, formed by the brook or the mountain torrent, occasionally occur, half concealed by tangled screens of honeysuckle and wild-brier, which mingle their tints with the golden saxifrage and the snowy parnassia, and combine with numerous birch-trees to load every passing breeze with their odour. Glades open up at short distances, disclosing views of singular beauty; while scenes of rural industry occasionally blend with the wild appearance of herds of red deer, sweeping along the sides of the hills like wreaths of mist. About three miles up the glen, a bridge has been thrown across the river, from which an enchanting view may be obtained. Beyond this the valley is more open, and the river, in all its various forms and torrents, sunless pools, and noisy waterfalls, becomes more interesting to the sight. In the middle of the glen the Duke of Atholl has a hunting lodge; a little beyond which the road is inaccessible to carriages. The scenery increases in wildness, but loses in variety; the eye having only the broad russet surface of the mountains to repose on, excepting where a stream occasionally pours down their sides, affording moisture to the gloomy pine, and other trees waving solemnly over it. The rivulet of Loghaine is now seen to join the Tilt, after flowing from the small lake of Loch-Loch; upon it are the remains of the sylvan palace in which the Earl of Atholl most sumptuously entertained King James V. his mother, the Pope's legate, the French ambassador, and others; an account of which the legate, Æneas Slyvius, has transmitted to posterity. Another very circumstantial account of the same memorable fête is to be found in the writings of Sir David Lindsay. Advancing onwards, the attention is suddenly drawn to the yawning jaws of a ravine, immediately on the left, where the small river Tarff issues from a recess overgrown with brushwood, and bounds into the vale with impetuous speed over two ledges of rock. There is not within the wide region of the Grampians a scene more romantic than this; and the approach to it through a lonely glen, prepares the mind for receiving the deepest impressions. Nothing else particularly deserving of notice presents itself within Glen-Tilt, if we except a valuable quarry of green marble, known all over the kingdom, which was lately opened a little above Gow's Bridge. The same spot produces a great variety of tremolite; and indeed the whole glen is rich in minerals, and interesting to the geologist. Large beds of staklite may be discovered, as also steatite, asbestos, talc, sienite, crystallized chlorite, telanite, sphene, and actynolite, with many varieties of all the primitive rocks. FALLS OF THE BRUAR. The celebrated Falls of the Bruar are about three miles and a half to the westward of Blair-Atholl Inn, a short distance from the road to Inverness. The characteristics of the scenery of those Falls are vastness, sublimity, and terror, which they possess in a degree that ranks them, in point of interest, above the Falls of the Fender. At the lower Fall the stream bursts from beneath a bridge, rushes through an arch worn out in the rock, descends into a black pool, where it lingers as if courting a respite from its troubles, and then hurries onward to join the Garry. Ascending by a footpath cut along the brink of the ravine, the upper Fall is reached. Here an Alpine bridge is thrown across the stream, on the southern side of which the cataract is seen to the best advantage. It consists of three falls or breaks, whose united height is 200 feet, the lowest forming an unbroken and perpendicular descent of 100 feet. The shelving rocks on each side of the bridge, the roaring of the stream, and the profound chasm filled with spray, form a scene of wonderful sublimity, which is increased by the dark hue of the adjoining rocks. Burns has well described these falls in the poetical supplication addressed by the Bruar to the Duke of Atholl, to have its banks shaded with trees. The prayer of the petition has been complied with, and the improvements made by his Grace are now producing their proper effect.* Leaving Blair-Atholl for Inverness, the road, at the distance of three miles and a half, crosses the Bruar, and proceeds along the banks of the Garry, skirted by wild mountains, for the space of nearly other seven miles. This road is not without its peculiar charms, innumerable small cascades, mountain torrents, and rocky banks, clumps of birch, alder, and mountain-ash, diversifying the otherwise cheerless scene. At the distance of ten miles and a half from BlairAtholl, the road reaches the Inn of DALNACARDOCH, where the military road from the south, by Aberfeldy and Tummel Bridge Inn, joins it. As the tourist proceeds onwards, the country continues unaltered in its chief features. Seven miles beyond the inn, there is a lake half-filled up; into it two streams discharge themselves. The deep-green sward of the alluvium appears amid the brown heath, like an oasis in the desert; and the stream glides through it in serpentine windings. About five miles farther on, the road passes the Garry, at a torrent near to its source, by a simple bridge, from which a beautiful view is obtained of the parent lake, Loch-Garry, spread out directly in front. The road From Blair-Atholl an excursion may be made to Braemar, in Aberdeenshire, the country around which is truly Highland in its character. To accomplish this, the tourist has to pass through Glen-Tilt, and travel over a mountainous district, resorted to in the summer season by a few shepherds, who erect, for their accommodation, shealings, or temporary huts. Near this line there is a small lake called Loch-Tilt, abounding in trout, and shaded with natural wood. After leaving Glen-Tilt, twelve miles from Blair-Atholl, the road enters Aberdeenshire. The country becomes more wild and dreary until the Braes of Mar are reached, where the inhospitable waste is succeeded by a valley, the fertility of which is much surpassed by its beauty. There is another line by Phalair, a hunting-seat belonging to the Duke of Atholl ; but it is more hilly, and not so interesting as the former. For the chief objects worthy of notice in Braemar, see a detour from Aberdeen up the river Dee. rising, the hill from the bridge conducts to the source of the Truim (which flows in a direction opposite to that of the Garry) and to the Inn of DALWHINNIE, distant from Dalnacardoch thirteen miles. The tourist is now with inthe district of Badenoch, and shire of Inverness. The situation of the inn of Dalwhinnie is solitary in the extreme, lying upon the western bank of the Truim, far distant from all other habitations; and on all sides it is surrounded by crags and boggy heath, the silence of the scene being only broken by the melancholy murmurs of the water. It is distant about a mile eastward from the head of LochEricht, in a cave at the southern extremity of which the unfortunate Charles Edward sought shelter from his pursuers after the battle of Culloden. When the tourist views the dreary region which the Prince had to traverse, and reflects that, having only a few days before aspired to a crown, and here found protection from an ignominious death under Heaven's canopy, or in the chilly damps of a cave, he forgets for a moment the errors of the Pretender's family, and his best feelings must be deeply interested in the fate of the unfortunate Chevalier : "The small birds rejoice in the green leaves returning, His right are these hills, and his right are these valleys, The Bronnach, in the vicinity of Laggan, and other romantic highland streams, have been celebrated by Mrs. Grant in her "Letters from the Mountains, 1773 to 1803." |