THE PASS OF LENEY. "No longer steel-clad warriors ride Along thy wild and willow'd shore. SCOTT. [Tales of my Landlord, (3rd Series,) a Legend of Montrose, Vol. III. p. 13-14.] "It was towards the close of a summer's evening, during the anxious period of the attempt to establish Presbyterianism in England, that a young gentleman of quality, well mounted and armed, and accompanied by two servants, one of whom led a sumpter horse, rode slowly up one of those steep passes, by which the highlands are accessible from the lowlands of Perthshire. Their course had lain for some time along the banks of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the crimson beams of the western sun. The broken path, which they pursued with some difficulty, was in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-trees, and in others overhung by fragments of huge rock. Elsewhere, the hill which formed the northern side of this beautiful sheet of water, arose in steep but less precipitous acclivity, and was arrayed in heath of the darkest purple. In the present times, a scene so romantic would have been judged to possess the highest charms for the traveller; but those who journey in doubt and dread pay little attention to picturesque scenery. "They had not advanced above half way up the lake, and the young gentleman (Lord Menteith) was pointing to the spot where the intended road turned northward, and leaving the verge of the loch ascended a ravine, when they discovered a single horseman coming down the shore, as if to meet them. This solitary stranger was mounted upon an able horse, fit for military service, and for the great weight he had to carry, and his rider occupied his war-saddle with an air that showed it was his familiar seat. He wore a bright burnished head-piece, with a plume of feathers, together with a cuirass thick enough to resist a musket-ball. These defensive arms he wore over a buff jerkin, along with a pair of gauntlets, the tops of which reached to his elbow; at the front of his saddle hung a case of pistols, nearly two feet in length, and carrying bullets of twenty to the pound. A buff belt with a broad silver buckle sustained on one side a long straight double-edged sword, with a strong guard, and calculated either to strike or pusa. On the right side hung a dagger of about eighteen inches in length: a shoulder-belt sustained at his back a musketoon, and was crossed by a bandalier containing his charges of ammunition. Thigh-pieces of steel, called taslets, met the tops of his jack-boots, and completed the equipage of Ritt-master Dugald Dalgetty of Drumthwachet. This redoubtable warrior was above the middle size, and of strength sufficient to endure conveniently the great weight of his offensive and defensive arms: his age was then above forty, and his countenance that of a resolute weather-beaten veteran, who had witnessed many hard-fought fields, and from which he had borne away more than one defacing token." The reader will remember that Captain Dalgetty had just returned from the service of "the Lion of the North, the Terror of Austria, Gustavus the Victorious;" and that he is borne by his favourite horse, Gustavus, named after the invincible hero, his late master. The meeting of Lord Menteith is supposed to have occurred in the romantic pass of Leney, one of the most picturesque defiles in the whole range of mountain scenery, of which the beauties have been immortalised in the poem of the Lady of the Lake. It is a narrow opening, about one mile west from the village of Callander, affording access from the low country, which terminates here, into the wildest recesses of the mountains. This sublime entrance may be said to commence immediately beyond the village of Killmahog, (i. e. the Cell of St. Hugh, or St. Chug,) where stands a tall pole, with a bell on the top of it, which is generally tolled during the passing of funeral processions. The river, in accomplishing its course through the pass, is interrupted by a series of falls, until it descends at least two hundred feet: the road next winds round the base of Benledi, and, still ascending, at a distance of three miles from Callander, discloses Loch Lubnaig, the source of the rapid-falling river that meets the traveller, sleeping beautifully at the feet of the giants of the highlands. The north shore of the lake is skirted by a mountain road; steep, and rugged, and wooded banks confine the view on every side; and a long ledge of rock, projecting from Benledi's base, terminates in a dark precipitous cliff, that overhangs, in a bold and awful manner, the surface of the lake. The distance, in this exquisite panorama, is occupied by Benmore, rising over the parish and village of Balquidder, where the ashes of Rob Roy have slept since his spirit has ceased to disturb his countrymen. Ardchullery, on the margin of Loch Lubnaig, was the residence of Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, aud there he is said to have arranged his MSS. for publication. T CAPTAIN DALGETTY AT ARDENVOHR. [Tales of my Landlord, 3d Series, (A Legend of Montrose) Vol. XV. p. 135—136 ] "The distance of the galley and the beach was so short as scarce to require the assistance of the right sturdy rowers, in bonnets, short coats, and trows, whose efforts sent the small boat to the little creek in which they usually landed, before any one could have conceived that it had left the side of the birling. Two of the boatmen, in spite of Dalgetty's resistance, horsed the Captain on the back of a third highlander, and, wading through the surf with him, landed him high and dry upon the beach beneath the Castle Rock. In the face of this rock (Ardenvohr) there appeared something like the entrance of a low-browed cavern, towards which the assistants were preparing to hurry our friend Dalgetty, when, shaking himself loose from them with some difficulty, he insisted upon seeing Gustavus, his horse, safely landed before he proceeded one step further. The highlander could not comprehend what he meant, until one who had picked up a little English, or rather Lowland Scotch, exclaimed, 'Hout! it's a' about her horse, ta useless baste.' Farther remon strance on the part of Dalgetty was interrupted by the appearance of Sir Duncan Campbell himself, from the mouth of the cavern, for the purpose of inviting Captain Dalgetty to accept of the hospitality of Ardenvohr, pledging his honour, at the same time, that Gustavus should be treated as became the hero from whom he derived his name, not to mention the important person to whom he now belonged. Notwithstanding this very satisfactory guarantee, Captain Dalgetty would still have hesitated, such was his anxiety to witness the fate of his companion Gustavus, had not two highlanders seized him by the arms, two more pushed him on behind, while a fifth exclaimed, 'Hout awa' wi' the daft Sassenach! does she no hear the Laird bidding her up to her ain castle, wi' her especial voice, and isna' that very mickle honour for the like o' her?" "The Captain, thus impelled, cast a look towards the bark that contained the partner of his toils, and entering the dark passage to which the low-browed cavern conducted, muttered, half aloud, "The cursed highland salvages! what is to become of me, if Gustavus, the namesake of the invincible Lion of the Protestant league, should be lamed among their untenty hands?' 'Have no fear of that,' said the voice of the Laird himself, who was nearer to him than he imagined, 'my men are accustomed to handle horses, and you will soon see Gustavus safe as when you last dismounted his back. The Captain had scarcely entered the reception room of this Celtic fortress, this pretty defensible sort of a tenement," when his ears were saluted with a shout from the salvages below, and looking down from the window to the foot of the precipice, he exclaimed: 'I see they have got Gustavus safe ashore-Proper fellow! I would know that toss of his head amongst a whole squadron, I must go to see what they are to make of him." |