398 NETHER LOCHABER. 



as frequently happened, he extended his hunting expeditions to 

 this district, it was built. Stewart of Appin, who was a great 

 favourite with the king, was appointed hereditary keeper, and the 

 castle continued in the possession of the family until, about the 

 year 1645, the Mac Ian Stewart of that date, in a moment of 

 drunken folly, made it over to his wily neighbour, Donald Camp- 

 bell of the Airds, receiving in return the handsome and adequate 

 equivalent of an eight-oared birlinn, or small wherry ! Stewart, 

 when sober, would have gladly cancelled so manifestly one-sided a 

 barter-bargain at any sacrifice, but Campbell, having got possession, 

 kept it ; while the disgraceful transaction so stung the pride of the 

 Stewarts that they practically deposed the Baothaire (the silly one), 

 as they nicknamed the chief, from his chieftainship, by un- 

 animously electing his cousins of Invernahyle and Ardsheal to be 

 their leaders in the subsequent wars of Montrose. For a short 

 time during Montrose's ascendancy in the Highlands, and for a 

 longer period towards the close of the reign of Charles II. , Castle 

 Stalker was again in the possession of the Stewarts ; but at the 

 Revolution the Campbells had it all their own way ; they re- 

 possessed themselves of the castle, and it has remained theirs ever 

 since. About forty years ago a gentleman of the family of A-ilein 

 'Ic Rob of Appin, who had amassed a considerable fortune in the 

 West Indies, offered the then proprietor a large sum for the bare 

 rock and ruins of Castle Stalker, but the offer was refused. 



From the wooded knoll to the left, as we entered the village of 

 Portnacroish, we heard some notes that,' harsh as they were, 

 delighted us, for we had not heard them for many years ; and 

 the reader will perhaps smile when we confess delight in asso- 

 ciation with what was neither more nor less than the chattering 

 of a pair of magpies ! Knowing that it must be magpie chattering 

 and nothing else, though the lively confabulators were for the 

 moment invisible, we got out of our conveyance, and on reaching 



