SPRING FISHING IN LOCH ARD. 241 



waving with natural forests of birch and oak, formed the 

 borders of this enchanting sheet of water ; and, as their leaves 

 rustled to the wind and twinkled in the sun, gave to the depth 

 of solitude a sort of life and vivacity. 



" Our route, though leading towards the lake, had hitherto 

 been so much shaded by wood, that we only from time to time 

 obtained a glimpse of that beautiful sheet of water. But the 

 road now suddenly emerged from the forest ground, and, winding 

 close by the margin of the loch, afforded us a full view of its 

 spacious mirror, which now, the breeze having totally subsided, 

 reflected in still magnificence the high dark heathy mountains, 

 huge grey rocks, and shaggy banks by which it is encircled. 



And that same night the travellers rested, in a fashion, 

 at "the Clachan o' Aberfoyle," and there had that 

 famous encounter in which the Bailie distinguished 

 himself by his deeds with the red-hot culter. "Why, 

 there is the identical culter that made Inverashalloch's 

 plaid smell " like a singit sheep's head," pendent from 

 an iron ring in the tree before the hotel door ; and it 

 is another fact, remarkable also, but not more remark- 

 able, that the culter has in former times been often 

 sold to English and foreign tourists, and carried away 

 to grace private museums in far countries. Farther 

 up towards the loch, too, you shall have pointed out 

 to you the very tree (looking rather young for its age) 

 from which Bailie Nicol Jarvie hung suspended by 

 his coat-tails during the fight between the caterans 

 and the red-coats. On the other side of the hills, to 

 the north, we find the story of Scott's "Lady of the 

 Lake " in like manner more than half consolidated 



E 



