III.] A LORDLY HOUSE. 5 



whole environed by an amphitheatre of tumbled porphyry- 

 hills, beyond whose fir-crowned crags rose the bare blue 

 mountain-tops of Lorn. 



It was a perfect picture of peace and seclusion, and I 

 confess I had great pride in being able to show my com- 

 panion so fair a specimen of one of our lordly island homes 

 — the birthplace of a race of nobles whose names sparkle 

 down the page of their country's history as conspicuously as 

 the golden letters in an illuminated missal. 



While descending towards the strand, I tried to amuse 

 Sigurdr with a sketch of the fortunes of the great house of 

 Argyll. 



I told him how in ancient days three warriors came from 

 Green Ierne, to dwell in the wild glens of Cowal and Lochow, 

 — how one of them, the swart Breachdan, all for the love of 

 blue-eyed Eila, swam the Gulf, once with a clew of thread, 

 then with a hempen rope, last with an iron chain ; but this 

 time, alas ! the returning tide sucks down the over-tasked 

 hero into its swirling vortex ; — how Diarmid O' Duin, i.e. 

 son of " the Brown," slew with his own hand the mighty 

 boar, whose head still scowls over the escutcheon of the 

 Campbells ; — how in later times, while the murdered Dun- 

 can's son, afterwards the great Malcolm Canmore, was yet 

 an exile at the court of his Northumbrian uncle, ere Birnam 

 wood had marched to Dunsinane, the first Campbell i.e. 

 Campus-bellus, Beau-champ, a Norman knight and nephew 

 of the Conqueror, having won the hand of the lady Eva, 

 sole heiress of the race of Diarmid, became master of the 

 lands and lordships of Argyll ; — how six generations later — 

 each of them notable in their day— the valiant Sir Colin 

 created for his posterity a title prouder than any within a 

 sovereign's power to bestow, which no forfeiture could at- 

 taint, no act of parliament recall ; for though he cease to be 

 Duke or Earl, the head of the Clan Campbell will still 

 remain Mac Calan More, — and how at last the same Sir 

 Colin fell at the String of Cowal, beneath the sword of that 

 fierce lord, whose granddaughter was destined to bind the 



