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    EAMBLES NORTHWARD. 321

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    I ^ I. Grazed And Impressive As The Scen...

    the memoried pictures of these rambles northward , you must have closed the weary pages long * ago . Alas ! I am neitlier poet nor painter

    I can only see and feel with the ordinary senses of ordinary human , beings , but these have revealed to me such a world of beauty and

    grandeur at home , that if I can persuade others to seek them there instead of abroad I shall have earned my reward .

    From the Kyle of Scow to Assynt the road lies among mountains , some of which present a grotesque and remarkable appearance .

    Cunaig _, the Gaelic for King , and which apparently has its derivation from the German word Koenig , is a noble rugged mass , its northern

    extremity resembling a colossal sphinx , the head and features being sharply and clearly defined . The country here is wild and

    savage in the extreme till a long descent brings us to the shores of Loch Assynt , where the character of the scenery softens , and though

    mountains still environ one on every side , the lake lying nestled among them , the savage grandeur gives way to wild and picturesque I

    beauty , ever varying in its aspect as the sun changes its position . The natural beauties of the shores of Loch Assynt are heightened by

    the ruins of Ardvrock Castle , situated most effectively on a peninsula jutting out into the dark waters towards the centre of the lake . It

    was here that the Laird of Assynt brought Montrose prisoner in 1650 , tempted to his capture by the reward , which as tradition tells

    was forty bolls of oatmeal ! This loch is renowned for the excel- _A lence of its trout , and though they are said to yield only to skilled

    anglers , the lake has a high reputation among fishermen . For our particular use , the trout offered themselves in the most handsome

    and generous manner , my friend's luck bringing the fish to line and net , which for weeks before had coyly declined to be caught . So

    remarkable was this that at many places the people of the hotel com- , mented of their own accord upon the fact , till— ' s luck became

    a standing superstition , and we pronounced her a favorite with Saint Anthony ! The neighbouring inn at Innisindamff is one of those

    comfortable sporting hotels already dilated upon , and is at present kept by a Macgregor of pur sang , who is not a little proud of the

    distinction . Fortunate are the travellers who find room under its hospitable roof during the season , the public accommodation being *

    somewhat restricted , for here , as elsewhere in the north of Scotland , the inn is let upon condition of certain rooms being set apart for the

    use of sportsmen hiring the shootings , in lieu of the shooting-box usually provided . An arrangement probably satisfactory to all but

    the travelling public , who not unfrequently find themselves obliged to prolong their journey , or cheated of a halt in some place upon

    which they have set their hearts , for want of room . Lochs Assynt and Inverthe latter being the sea loch into which

    , the former empties its waters , are situated in the neighbourhood of four singular mountains , isolated from each other , and looking , as

    some one says , " as though they had tumbled down from , the clouds , having nothing , to do with , the country or each other , either in shape ,

    vox . it . z

    Eambles Northward. 321

    EAMBLES NORTHWARD . 321

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1860, page 321, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011860/page/33/