60 The Scalacronica. 



The last Kelpie in Lewis came to his end somewhat differ- 

 ently. Let me conclude by telling briefly how it w^as. So 

 troublesome did he become on the moor between Loch Roag and 

 Loch Langabhat — in the form of a quadruped killing or carry- 

 ing off the cattle, and, in that of a man, annoying the women in 

 charge of them — that the tenant tacksman decided to enlist the 

 services of a famous bowman of the name of Macleod, who had 

 some time before killed one Each-uisage in Skye and another in 

 the parish of Lochs, in Lewis. When Macleod arrived at Glen 

 Langabhat he saw the Kelpie coming up from the loch towards 

 him. An arrow fired into his side made no impression. A 

 second caused him to stagger, but he.came on with his eves flash- 

 ing fire and his gaping jaws fiecked with foam. Then Maclecd 

 took out the Baobhag, the Fury of the Quiver, and drawing his 

 bow at close quarters, sent the shaft in at the monster's mouth and 

 through his heart, so that he at once fell dead. 



Whether all the Kelpies of Scotland have by now shared the 

 same fate I cannot tell. But the traveller of to-day has surely 

 good reason to be grateful that, in his journeying through High- 

 land glen or over Lowland moor, he is no longer haunted by the 

 dread of seeing looming up before him in the misty twilight the 

 shaggy form of the Water-horse, or of hearing, above the moan- 

 ing of the forest or the roar of the waterfall, the weird and hideous 

 shrieking of the Kelpie in pursuit of his prev. 



The Scalacronica. By Dr E. J. Chinnock. 

 Part I. 



The Scalacronica, or Ladder of Time, is divided into five 

 parts. It begins with an allegorical prologue. Part I., which 

 relates the fabulous history of Britain, is based upon Walter of 

 Exeter's Brut, i.e., on Geoffrey of Monmouth. Part 11. reaches 

 to Egbert's accession and is based upon Beda. Part III., extend- 

 ing to William the Conqueror, is based upon Higden's Folv- 

 chronkon, and Part IV. professes to be founded upon "John, the 

 Vicar of Tilmouth, which is entitled the Golden History." The 

 MS. of the Scalacronica is in the library of Corpus Christi 

 College, Cambridge. The title Scalacronica, and the allegory in 

 the prologue, with its series of ladders, point to the scaling 



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