SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



that the promontory of Cantyre, a finger of land 

 about forty miles long and, on an average, not more 

 than seven miles wide, only escapes severance from 

 the mainland by means of a strip of ground a mile 

 wide. When Malcolm Canmore ceded to Magnus 

 Barefoot, King of Norway, all the islands " between 

 which and the mainland he could pass in a galley 

 with its rudder shipped," the Northman secured 

 Cantyre by running his craft ashore at the head 

 of West Loch Tarbert, and causing it to be drawn 

 on rollers across the isthmus to Loch Fyne, with his 

 own hand on the tiller. Three hundred years later, 

 Robert the Bruce repeated the feat, in token of his 

 lordship of the Isles, and built a keep at the eastern 

 end of the portage, which still presides, grim and 

 time-worn, over the snug little town of Tarbert, with 

 its tortuous, but profound, harbour. These incidents 

 are commemorated in the name of the place, Tarbert 

 signifying "boat draft" or portage, from the Gaelic 

 taruinn bada. 



North of the isthmus lies the district of Knapdale, 

 near the southern extremity of which is Mr. George 

 Campbell's fine demesne of Stonefield, facing the blue 

 waters of Loch Fyne on the east and sheltered from 

 prevailing winds by high ground on the south-west 

 and north-west. To enumerate half the rare forms 

 of vegetation which thrive among the ample woodland 

 of Stonefield would fill a very long chapter. Readers 

 will kindly be content with the bare notes of a visit 

 paid to these grounds in mid- April. 



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