LECKIE 



STIRLINGSHIRE 



HE old house of Leckie stands about 

 six miles west of Stirling on that 

 fair wooded slope which makes the 

 foot-hills of the precipitous Lennox 

 range, separating it from the flat 

 Carse of Menteith, through which lowland Forth, 

 deep-cradled in willowy banks, winds her eastward 

 way to meet her Highland sister, impetuous Teith. 

 Apt emblems, these two rivers, of the two races of 

 men whose confines lay along their course of yore. 

 The Teith, poured from the great lochs of Vennachar 

 and Lubnaig, rushes out upon the plain with as 

 much tumult as did of old the Highland caterans, 

 swarming from mountain and glen to drive a 

 prey : the Forth silent, sullen, profound flows with 

 scarcely perceptible current, yet moves as resistlessly 

 as men of Saxon blood to the appointed end. 



A beautiful old house, designed for that com- 

 bination of domestic ease with defensive qualities 

 that was the aim of Scottish architects in the 

 hazardous reign of Queen Mary. On the east side 

 Y 177 



