UP GLEN ROY. 63 



scenery. Sir W. Scott had some such landscape in his mind 

 when he wrote 



" Crags, knolls, and mounds confusedly hurled, 

 The fragments of an earlier world." 



Through woods of birch and oak sloping downwards to the 

 Roy river, the road wound, with the pallid sunshine of autumn 

 sleeping above it on the russet leaves, while every here and 

 there Highland cattle browsed in the open glades, some of 

 that peculiar grey colour which lights up like velvet of the 

 finest pile. This shade of warm grey is seldom or never 

 seen in England, and not even Rosa Bonheur's brush could do 

 justice to its lustre when flooded with sunlight. A few wild 

 flowers yet lingered on the banks; ferns drooped from the 

 rocks ; not a breath of wind stirred the foliage. It was the 

 year's twilight before winter and darkness fell, and even now 

 they were hurrying on apace. Three miles up the valley a 

 lateral moraine is cut through to admit the road, and a huge 

 block of water-worn grey granite lay on one side. To the left, 

 high up in the rock-face, appeared a long straight shelf running 

 upwards, evidently the first sign of the wonderful Roads ; while 

 opposite, over the little river, which here brawls in a deep 

 cutting it has made for itself, are slight indications of no less 

 than five parallel tracks. Passing onwards through some strag- 

 gling farm-buildings where the colleys, after the fashion of 

 their kind, lay in wait behind a wall to spring out and startle 

 the wayfarer with their outcries, and next moment to retreat 

 with their tails between their legs, as if ashamed of their 

 momentary valour a lad directed me to walk a little further 

 on, and then, " Ou ay, ye'll jist see the Roads." 



At length, on reaching the head of the Glen, where it winds 

 round to the right, the three celebrated Roads came in sight, 

 level as if drawn by some giant engineer, with a monstrous 

 parallel ruler, following its sweep to the north-east. There was 

 no mistaking them. Grim, gaunt, and dark, they scored the 



