10 A HUNDRED YEARS 



comes in sight of the loch, by the whole male population 

 of Kenlochewe, every man with his flat blue bonnet 

 under his arm, and they followed the laird's cavalcade 

 bareheaded till it crossed the river to the inn. The old 

 inn in those days was on what we should now call the 

 wrong side of the river, and the crossing was often a great 

 difficulty. Sometimes the children were carried over 

 by men on stilts, which was thought great fun by them. 

 The welcome at the inn my uncle described as " grand.** 

 The poor landlady was twice widowed, both her husbands 

 having been drowned in trying to get people across this 

 wild river on horseback when it was in flood. My uncle 

 fancied that what made the widow sufler most was 

 perhaps the fact that neither husband was ever found, 

 both being at the bottom of Loch Maree, and that she 

 had not had the great relief and even " pleasure " of 

 burying each of them with unlimited whisky, according 

 to custom ! I can well remember one of her sons. He 

 was by far the most skilful carpenter in our part of the 

 country, and was always known as Eachainn na Banos- 

 dair (Hector of the Hostess). My uncle says that if 

 ever the Gairloch family had a devotee it was Banosdair 

 Ceann-Loch-Iubh (the hostess of Kenlochewe), and he 

 believed she would cheerfully have gone to the 

 gallows if she were quite sure that would please the 

 laird. 



The following morning the party had only two miles 

 to go to Rudha n'Fhamhair (Giant's Point), where the 

 family and all the precious goods and chattels were 

 stowed away in a small fleet of boats and rowed or 

 sailed some ten or twelve miles down the loch to Slata- 



