60 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



The Bass, one of the boldest features on the coast, attractive from its 

 singularity, and soaring in isolated grandeur above the surrounding waters, is 

 a scene no less remarkable for its history than for its peculiar character as 

 the " fragment of a former world." It is the point which more especially fixes 

 the eye of every stranger ; and in connexion vsdth the law, already mentioned, 

 and the other points which give such a castellated appearance to this romantic 

 coast, forms a picture which, in colour and combination, is only to be found 

 on the magnificent estuary of the Forth. 



As the state prison, or Bastile, of former times, its rocky battlements have 

 contained many prisoners of distinction. Here treason to the crown, and 

 zeal for the Covenant, have expiated in solitary durance the charges severally 

 advanced against them by proof or imputation. It is a St. Helena in minia- 

 ture — combining with its peculiarities as a prison, some of the necessary 

 qualifications as an island ; and, with a well of excellent water, furnishes 

 pasture for twenty or thirty sheep. 



Here, in primitive times, St. Baldred is said to have fixed his hermitage, 

 till those pious credentials, of which he was the bearer, were recognized ; 

 and his christian mission prospered on the coast. A more sublime station 

 for the exercise of devotion, and spiritual communion with heaven, it were 

 difficult to find. But here, too, extremes have met. St. Baldred's sanctuary 

 has been profaned ; not only by the voice of the captive, but by the boisterous 

 mirth of buccaneers and marauders, who, in the wane of the national strength, 

 made its caverns and rocks the receptacle of plunder. This desperate band, 

 concealing, under the specious cover of loyalty, a system of piratical adventure, 

 made the Bass thek head-quarters, from which they could sally at any given 

 moment, and safely deposit their lawless spoils when the adventure favoured. 

 At las*'; however, the hour of retribution arrived : the galley that had gone 

 forth, as usual, for plunder, found either its match in some heavier metal, or 

 foundered at sea, for none of the crew returned. The outlaws, therefore, 

 who were left in charge of the rock, seeing no chance of bettering their con- 

 dition, and on the point of suffering from famine, struck their Jacobite flag, 

 and, surrendering at discretion, were, probably, the very last who were disarmed 

 in the Stuart cause. 



The vast quantity of " solan" geese which inhabit the Bass, during the season 

 of incubation, may be compared to a shower of snow. When they take wing 

 from any sudden alarm, and again alight, they contrast well with the " blue 

 above and the blue below," and cover the rock like a white sheet. Like the 

 quails of Capreae, in the bay of Naples, they pay a considerable tribute to the 



