Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland   By: Daniel Turner Holmes

Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland

By D. T. Holmes, B.A.

"Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli" Juvenal , i. 74

PAISLEY: ALEXANDER GARDNER Publisher by Appointment to the late Queen Victoria 1909

To James Coats, Junr., Esq., Ferguslie House, Paisley.

You, but for whom I'd never been Much further north than Aberdeen; Whose mandate sent my willing feet To realms of heather, broom, and peat: Accept this record of my tours As something less my own than yours.

D. T. HOLMES.

PREFACE.

White stands the long Kilpatrick row Of hills with deep and dazzling snow, And eastward, in a glimmering haze, Stretch to the Forth the Campsie Braes.

But see! beyond the Clyde, a stain Of smoke that runs across the plain, And flecks for miles the vivid gleam: It is the tireless steed of steam.

An old acquaintance! Ben and Strath Daily behold his thunderous path, That ceases not, until he feels The breeze of Mallaig cool his wheels.

And Memory, fondly gazing back On many a journey by that track Of splendour, would, at home, retrace The charms and lore of every place;

Yea, pass, in thought, to storied Skye, Where all the glens in glamour lie; And, lightly scorning gust and spray, Leap o'er the Minch to Stornoway.

And many a northern beach besides, Splashed by the foam of racing tides, Rises in thought: from here to there, Let Fancy's coinage pay the fare,

Fancy, that wafts us o'er the main To utmost Thule and home again, Through mingled din of sea and sky, Even in the twinkling of an eye.

D. T. H.

Ingleholm, Bridge of Weir, 16th January, 1909.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY, 9

Village libraries Difficulties of travel Literary Societies in the Highlands Gaelic books Happiness and geniality of natives Oban to Gairloch Winter sailing A crofting village Horrors of the Minch Notes on Lewis Highland doctors Hotels and anglers Recent books Military Moray Firth Among the miners Handloom weaving Professor Blackie and the Highlands.

CHAPTER II. MUSIC, SPEECHES, AND LITERATURE, 60

Scotch a reading nation Hardships of students in old days Homer in Scalloway When education ends Objects of chapter Music M.P.'s Rural depopulation Its causes Emigration Village halls The moon A lecture in Islay Mental and material wealth Real greatness A Highland laird on literature Varieties of chairmen "Coming to the point" Moral obligation Compliment to Paisley Oratory at Salen Lecture in a dungeon Surprises A visit to the Borders Tarbolton Scotch language Choice books The essayists A Banff theory Goldsmith in Gaelic Biblia abiblia Favourites for the road Horace Shakespeare's Sonnets Xenophon French literature and journalism Romance and Augustanism Victorian writers Celt and Saxon.

CHAPTER III. ECCLESIASTICAL, 134

Sectarian feeling Typical anecdotes Music and religion Ethical teaching in schools The Moderates A savoury book The Sabbath "The Men of Skye" The auldest kirk The Episcopal Church An interlude of metre The Christian Brethren Drimnin in Morven Craignish A model minister Ministerial trials in olden times An artful dodger Some anecdotes from Gigha Growing popularity of Ruskin.

CHAPTER IV. EDUCATIONAL, 180