ANECDOTE. KILCHURN CASTLE. 103 



without question, and assured of protection. Those in pursuit coming quickly 

 up, communicated the startling intelligence that the fugitive had blood upon 

 his hands, and was the murderer of the eldest son of their chief, the owner of 

 the very mansion in which he had craved protection. Macgregor, however, 

 having promised him shelter, remained faithful to his word; and, conducting the 

 young man to Loch-fine, saw him safely across. This clemency aud magnanimity 

 were not without their reward ; for, not long after, the Clan Gregor being 

 proscribed, Lament, who owed his life to his forbearance, received the 

 chieftain to his house, and, by every act of kindness to him and his relatives, 

 endeavoured to supply the place of that son, of whose support in the hour of 

 trial he had so unhappily bereaved them. 



Kilchurn Castle, which gives so much life and interest to this beautiful lake, 

 is a capacious structure of great antiquity and strength, remarkable as the 

 ber$eait of the Braidalbane family, and, in itself, one of the most picturesque 

 ruins in Great Britain. It is built on a projecting rock, and, when the water 

 is high, completely insulated. The shore immediately adjacent is low ; but, 

 on the opposite side of the lake, the rocky promontories of Ben-cruachan rise 

 abruptly from the water, till the gradually expanding mass loses its desolate 

 summits in the clouds. Of the building itself, the exterior walls are nearly 

 entire ; the circular towers, which project on the south and east, prevent the 

 monotonous effect of a too regular line, whilst the magnitude of the pile is such 

 as to give the whole a characteristic baronial grandeur. This effect is particularly 

 conspicuous in the view looking towards Dalmally. The entrance is by a small 

 door-way, with the date 1693 ; but the principal building was erected early in 

 the fifteenth century by the lady of Sir Colin Campbell, the black knight of 

 Rhodes, during the absence of her husband in foreign wars. From a court in 

 the centre, the mass is seen to great advantage, and forms an excellent subject 

 for the pencil. The walls are mantled with ivy, the apartments high, and 

 surmounted by lofty towers, in the solid irmnsonry of which the wasting hand of 

 time lias opened many a yawning fissure. Here, in the times of trouble and 

 predatory warfare, the proprietor found a safe retreat from external violence ; 

 here, when an attack was meditated, and the revenge of injuries summoned 

 every vassal to his post, the chieftain sallied forth at the head of his retainers, 

 and carried the terror of his name into the surrounding districts. Then followed 

 the triumphant return the shrill note of the pibroch the division of the spoil 

 the festive bowl and the boisterous mirth of a long wassail night. How 

 changed is the scene ! The plash of the water, as a crumbling stone drops from 



