174 WHO WAS OSSIAN ? [CHAP. iv. 



of Arran, but I must say a word or two about Glen Sannox. 

 Near the golden beach of Sannox Bay is situated the solitary 

 churchyard of Cony, with its long grass waving rank over the 

 graves, and its borders of fuchsias laden with brilliant blos- 

 soms. There was, we observed, on peeping over the wall, a 

 new-made grave, that of an orphan girl who had been drowned 

 while bathing. Passing the churchyard there was once a 

 church at the place, but all trace of it, save one stone built 

 into the wall of the churchyard, has long passed away we 

 came upon a brawling stream, which led us up to the ruins of 

 what had been a barytes-mill. The stones lay around in great 

 masses, as if they had been suddenly undermined by the pass- 

 ing stream, and had fallen cemented as they stood. In a year 

 or two they will be grown over with weeds, and in a century 

 hence some persons may ingeniously speculate on the ruins, 

 and give a learned disquisition as to what building once stood 

 there, and its uses. My friend and I wondered what it had 

 been, but an old man told us all about it ; and, strange to say, 

 in the course of conversation, we found this old resident reciting 

 scraps of Ossian's poems. He told us, too, that the bard had 

 died in the very parish in which we were standing. He be- 

 lieved Ossian to have been a great priest and teacher of the 

 people, and this was an idea that was quite new to us. We 

 had heard before, or rather read, that the poet was by some 

 esteemed a great warrior, and by others a necromancer per- 

 haps to esteem him a teacher is right enough ; his poems, at 

 any rate, were at one time as familiar in the mouths of the 

 West Highlanders as household words. 



The scenery of Arran would certainly inspire a poet. As 

 we penetrated into Glen Sannox it became most interesting, 

 whether we noted the brawling and bubbling brook, or the 

 rich carpet of heath and wild flowers upon which we trod. 

 The luxuriance of its wild flowers is remarkable, and of its 

 rabbits equally so. As we proceed up the glen, the lofty hills 



