HIGHLANDS OF PERTHSHIRE. 69 



beautiful sheet of water, plentifully fringed by ancient woods 

 and with two small islands, on the larger of which was a priory, 

 founded by one of the ancient Kings of Scotland. The other 

 islet contains the remains of the castle of the Grahams, Earls of 

 Menteith, a name detested by Scottish patriots, because borne 

 by the betrayer of one of Scotland's most heroic and disinterested 

 warriors. This race has been long extinct. 



The most celebrated passes visited by us were the two at Dun- 

 keld ; the western one between Iiiver and Craigie Barnes, and 

 the eastern between Birnam and Caputh Hills. The former is 

 the most celebrated, and deservedly. Another noticeable pass is 

 that of Leny (Lenie), near Callander. Concerning the latter 

 Dr. Macculloch writes: "No one who has seen the pass of 

 Leny (Lenie) will ever forget it ; but he who has seen it will 

 forget the rest of Strathire, Kilmahog, and all: the river is 

 broad and majestic, while rapid, and rocky, and fringed with 

 wood suited to the breadth and elevation of the noble precipices 

 of Ben Ledi," etc. (vol. i. p. 149). Strathire is not much altered 

 since the Doctor wrote, and Kilmahog (Kilmaig) is probably in 

 the same neglected or forgotten state. But when the railway is 

 extended to Callander from Stirling, the pass of Leny, Loch 

 Lubnaig, Kilmaig, Strathire, and all, may attract some of the at- 

 tentions and admiration now exclusively lavished on the Tro- 

 sachs and Loch Katrine. 



On our homeward journey from Perth to Carlisle, we passed 

 through one of the most fertile districts in Scotland : Stratherne, 

 which is bounded by the Highland Hills on the north-west, and by 

 the Ochils, or by spurs of them, on the south-east, and which is 

 watered by the Erne, yields in productiveness to few straths of 

 Scotland. Long ere we reached the Border, the darkness pre- 

 vented our viewing the scenery. The only scenes very conspicu- 

 ous were the furnaces and fires of the smelting-houses, of which 

 there are many between Glasgow and Carlisle. 



The absence in Scotland of the common wayside plants of the 

 south and centre of England, is a feature which arrests the atten- 

 tion of the wayfarer in the northern districts of Britain. There 

 are, even in Surrey and Hants, tracts as dreary and barren as 

 the moors of Hannoch and Breadalbane ; and the vegetation is 

 very scanty on such places, both in Devon and Perthshire, and 

 there the difference is not very obvious. But about the streams 



