HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 11 



catalogue of the miseries of an inn of the bad sort, and yet it 

 would be cruel to wish even our enemy to learn them experimen- 

 tally ; therefore let those who wish to know what Highland inns 

 were less than fifty years ago, read Dr. M'Culloeh's account of 

 the inn at Callander which he visited sometime in the first quarter 

 of the current century. The inns at Callander have fully kept 

 pace with the advancing civilization, conveniences, and elegances 

 of the country in general, and of the Highlands in particular ; 

 but the inn at Doune still remains, to convince the incredulous 

 Southrons that the Doctor was a faithful narrator of what he saw 

 and what he suffered. It exists, it is to be hoped, as the solitary 

 evidence that the accounts given of the Highlands, not more 

 than thirty or forty years ago, were neither caricatures nor exag- 

 gerations. 



A pitiless rain, which never ceased till several hours after we 

 reached Callander, frustrated all our botanical expectations. This 

 was however no great disappointment, because all the plants 

 occurring between Doune and Callander^ and many more than 

 these, were seen over and over again in the course of our peregri- 

 nations. The most prominent plants, seen from the road, were 

 Iris Pseudacorus (just coming into flower) and Habenaria bifolia, 

 with her taller sister, H. chlorantha, which had been in flower for 

 some time. 



Our first walk from Callander, which was the centre of our opera- 

 tions for several days, was along the Lochearn road to Kilmahog, 

 a hamlet adjoining the Pass of Leiiy, which we did not visit at 

 this time, reserving it for a future opportunity. The road to Ben 

 Lawers by Lochearn Head and Killin, passes through this Pass 

 and along the northern shore of Loch Lubnaig, one of the finest 

 walks in the Highlands of Perthshire. Although our object was 

 chiefly to observe the vegetation of the Central Highlands, yet to 

 pass by the celebrated picturesque objects which attract annually 

 thousands of tourists of all grades, from the man of title and 

 property, with his escutcheoned chariot, to the humble pedestrian 

 with his knapsack and on his legs, would have evinced want of 

 taste and curiosity both. In the summer season two or more 

 coaches leave Stirling for the Trosachs daily ; in fine weather the 

 number of visitors is increased manifold. Such celebrities as 

 the Trosachs, the Brig o' Turk, Benvenue, and Loch Katrine, 

 being only nine or ten miles distant, could net be passed by un- 



