ARGYLE AH I ADN K. 



251 



in Scotland, being 3390 feet above the level of the 

 sea ; and about Ben Lomond there are several which 

 tre little inferior to it. The hills and forests abound 

 with fallow deer, stags, roes, and almost every sort 

 -f wild game. The coast, although rocky, being in- 

 dented with navigable bays and lakes, affords safe 

 harbours for shipping. The district of Cowal is 

 "learly surrounded by Loch Long and Loch Fyne, 

 which are inlets from the sea ; and there are several 

 lakes of fresh water in the interior. All these abound 

 with fish, the taking of which employs the greater 

 part of the inhabitants. The summits of the hills 

 are bare of pasturage ; but the sides of the mountains 

 and borders of the lakes supply food to numerous 

 herds of black cattle and sheep, the rearing of which, 

 next to the fisheries, occupies the chief attention of 

 the native population. Some of the glens exhibit 

 great verdure and cultivation, particularly Glen- 

 daruel, the most fertile valley in the county. Agri- 

 cultural produce is principally confined to barley, 

 oats, and potatoes. Iron, copper, and lead, are pro- 

 duced in various parts of the county ; and the iron 

 works in particular have proved very profitable since 

 the opening of the Crinan canal. A great variety of 

 beautiful marbles are found here ; as also free-stone, 

 coal, and large quantities of fine blue slate. The 

 new metal, strontites, was discovered at Strontian in 

 this shire, whence its appellation. The leading arti- 

 cles of export are sheep, cattle, horses, fish, slate, and, 

 formerly, kelp. The chief manufactures are leather, 

 the weaving of wool, and the smelting of ore. The 

 roads have oeen greatly improved of late years, and 

 the establishment of steam-packets between Glasgow 

 and the various districts of the county has proved ex- 

 ceedingly beneficial and convenient. On this sub- 

 ject Mr Chambers speaks with justifiable enthusiasm. 

 " A greater boon," he says, " tlian any that ever the 

 duke of Argyle bestowed, or could bestow upon the 

 county, has, within the last few years, been conferred 

 by steam-boats. It is evident, from the peculiar form 

 ot Argyleshire, that it will always owe as much of 

 the benefit arising from a ready communication be- 

 tween its near ana distant parts, to improvements in 

 water carriage, as to any extension of that by land. 

 The difficulty, indeed, of forming roads in a district 

 so serrated by the sea, and so blocked np by chains 

 of hills, is almost insurmountable , hitherto there 

 have been only two or three roads in the county, 

 skirting along the banks of the lochs. The very 

 barrier, however, which mainly prevented communi- 

 cation in the days of our fathers, lias turned out to be 

 the highway in our own. By the never-to-be- 

 sufficieritly-admired spirit of the city of Glasgow, 

 about twenty steam-vessels are now constantly em- 

 ployed in conveying passengers and goods to and fro, 

 throughout the country, and in transporting the coun- 

 try produce to market at tliat city. The effect of 

 this grand engine, even after so brief a period, is in- 

 calculable. It happens that, notwithstanding the 

 immense extent of the country, there is not a single 

 dwelling-place more than ten miles from the sea, nor 

 a gentleman's seat, (excepting those on the banks of 

 Lochawe), more than ten minutes walk from it. 

 Every farmer, therefore, every gentleman, finds oc- 

 casion to employ steam navigation. . When this mode 

 of conveyance was in its infancy, it was gene^lly 

 supposed that the little wealth, bold shores, and 

 scattered population of the* county, kept it without 

 the circle in which its adoption was to become bene- 

 ficial. It came, however, to be attempted, and there 

 is not now a loch, bay, or inlet, but holds a daily, or 

 at least commands a weekly communication with the 

 Lowlands and the several districts of the country. 

 By this means, the farmers, even upon the smallest 

 scale, are encouraged to fatten slock which they 



would never otherwise think of fattening; the fatten- 

 ing of stock, again, causes them to improve their 

 arable land ; the extra profits enable them to buy 

 luxuries, which, in their turn, communicate senti- 

 ments of taste, and open the mind to liberal ideas. 

 The comparative frequency, moreover, of their visits 

 to the Lowlands causes the speedier introduction of 

 modern and improved systems of agriculture. Steam- 

 boats are, in short, at once the heralds and the causes 

 of every kind of improvement in Argyleshire ; it is 

 no hyperbole to say, that they have in ten years 

 raised the value of land within the county twenty per 

 cent. Every thing connected with tin's invention, so 

 far as Argyleshire is concerned, bears a degree of 

 romantic wonder strangely in contrast with its me- 

 chanical and common-place character. It accom- 

 plishes, in this district, transitions and juxta-positions 

 almost as astonishing as those of an Arabian tale. 

 The Highlander, for instance, who spends his general 

 life amidst the wilds of Cowal or upon the Mis of 

 Appin, can descend in the morning from his lonely 

 home, and setting his foot about breakfast-time on 

 board a steam-boat at some neighbouring promontory, 

 suddenly finds himself in company, it may be, witli 

 tourists from almost all parts of the earth ; he sits at 

 dinner between a Russian and an American ; and, in 

 the evening, he who slept last night amidst the blue 

 mists of Lorn, is traversing the gas-lighted streets of 

 Glasgow, or may, perhaps, have advanced to Edin- 

 burgh itself, the polished, the enlightened, the 

 temple of modern intelligence. Reversing this won- 

 der, he who has all his life trod the beaten ways of 

 men, and never but in dreams seen that land of hill 

 and cloud, whence of yore the blue-bonneted Gael 

 wont to descend, to sweep folds or change dynasties, 

 can stand in the light of dawn amidst the refined 

 objects of a capital, and when the shades of night 

 have descended, find himself in the very country of 

 Ossian, with the black lake lying in imperturbable 

 serenity at his feet, and over his head the grey hills 

 that have never been touched by human foot. Steam- 

 boats, it may be said, bring the most dissimilar ideas 

 into conjunction, make the rude Gael shake hands 

 with the most refined Lowlander, and cause the 

 nineteenth and the first centuries to meet together. 

 No such lever was ever introduced to raise and re- 

 volutionize the manners of a people, or the resources 

 of a country." 



ARGYLE, Marquis and Dukes of. See Campbell. 



ARGYLE ROOMS; a house in Regent-street, London, 

 a great rendezvous of fashion. In 1818, the royal 

 harmonic institution erected the present building, the 

 facjade of which displays very little taste. The rooms, 

 properly so called, are four a ball-room, a drawing- 

 room, an ante-room, and the grand concert-room. 

 The usual price of tickets for the concerts held here 

 is half a guinea, for which the finest performances 

 may sometimes be heard. 



ARIA, in music. See Air. 



ARIADNE ; in mythology, a da lighter of Minos, king 

 of Crete, who, having fallen in love with Theseus, 

 when he was engaged in an attempt to destroy the 

 Minotaur, gave hita, in token of her love, a clue of 

 thread, which served to conduct him out of the 

 labyrinth, after his defeat of the monster. Theseus, 

 on leaving the island, took with him A., but aban- 

 doned her on the isle of Naxos, where she was found 

 by Bacchus, who married her, and presented her 

 with a crown of gold manufactured by Vulcan, which 

 was afterwards transformed into a constellation. A. 

 had a son by Bacchus, called Eumedtm, who was one 

 of the Argonauts. According to Plutarch, there 

 were two females of the name of A. One of their 

 was espoused to Bacchus on the island of Naxos, 

 and iK'oame the mother of Staphylos; the other wai 



