LOCH AWE. ISLE OF BEAUTY. 99 



of maidens fair and chieftains bold, that will be rehearsed by Gael and Sassenach, 

 when these very ruins shall have disappeared in the boiling wave at their base." 



We now proceed to a survey of the beautiful Loch-awe, whose isle-bestudded 

 bosoin and castellated banks give it a just precedence over its surrounding com- 

 petitors. History and tradition have both united to throw a charm over the 

 scene ; the records of war and the wonder-working spirit of romance, have 

 combined to infuse a spell into all its varied features. Its islands, floating like 

 buoyant gardens on the sunny water, have each some relic of ancient times 

 some stirring tradition to engage the feelings or enliven the fancy. On one 

 of these, religion has left the pleasing evidence of its reign the remains of a 

 secluded sanctuary, to which the disconsolate repaired for solace, the persecuted 

 for refuge, the tempted for fortitude, the forsaken for comfort, the faltering 

 for the gifts of renewing grace, and all of them, in their turn, for that 

 untroubled repose 



" That dreamless rest, 

 Of all Heaven's gifts to those who grieve the best!" 



The islet to which we allude, is the poetical Inishail, or the " Isle of Beauty ;" 

 and the deserted sanctuary, that of a Cistercian nunnery, where the silent victim 

 of unrequited love sought consolation in the soothing arms of religion. 



On another island, the name of which Fraoch-Elan still recalls its poetical 

 origin, stand the ruins of a castle which Gilbert Macnaughten received as a 

 royal grant from Alexander III. The island was called the " Hesperides" 

 of the country, from the flowers and fruit which enriched it being of the most 

 exquisite fragrance and flavour. Ths following legend, however, gives a still 

 more striking feature to the resemblance it was supposed to bear to the classic 

 Hesperides the " Afrte Serores" of Latin poets. An adventurous lover, 

 named Fraoch, seeing that Scotland had her Garden of the Hesperides, resolved 

 that she should also have her Hercules; and at the instigation of a fair idol, 

 named Mego, who had conceived an irresistible desire to taste the enchanted 

 fruit which the island produced, determined to gratify her innocent longing, by 

 laying a full basket of it at her feet. She knew, however, as well as himself, 

 that this fruit was guarded by a huge serpent, the coils of which would have 

 encompassed half the island ; but, along with the desire of the fruit, she had 

 a desire to try the faith and fortitude of her lover, and sanctioned if she did not 

 exactly command the enterprize. Love, they say, is blind ; but, in the present 

 instance, he was bold in proportion to his blindness, and scorned every danger 

 and impediment that stood between him and the forbidden tree. Casing himself, 



