216 DOUNE CASTLE 



numbers of wild ducks. All were busily at work beneath 

 the spreading boughs ; on the approach of my dogcart, 

 pigeons and ducks took wing together and flew across 

 the track a splendid show of fine feathers in the low, 

 bright sunlight. 



LXXXI 



It is not long since we of ' the leisured classes,' were 

 sneering at bicyclists as ' cads upon castors ' ; at the 



present time some people reckon proficiency 

 Donne Castle l i i - i 



on wheels as essential to being in the mode. 



That is rather a drawback, in the view of quiet folk ; 

 but there is plenty of compensation ; not the least part 

 of which being the re-opening of deserted highways, 

 and the re-visiting of scenes which must have been 

 well known to travellers in the coaching days. 



Such is the stretch of excellent Macadam lying 

 between Stirling and Callander, traversing a district 

 more thickly peopled with the past than many others ; 

 for though the traveller turn his back on Bannockburn, 

 every step of the ground he crosses has been fought 

 over times beyond reckoning by Pict and Briton, Roman 

 and Gael, Highland cateran and Lowland Scot, Stuart 

 and Guelph. But now these woods and crags, which 

 have resounded so often to the battle-cry of the hill- 

 men or bellowed with thunder of culverins, carthouns, 

 basilisks, serpents, and other mediaeval artillery, are 

 shaken by no sound more vengeful than the scream of 

 engines on the Caledonian railway. 



Traversing the scene of Wallace's triumph over 



