Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Daniel Turner Holmes

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• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 44
• Langue: English

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Title: Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Author: Daniel Turner Holmes
Release Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #29178]
Language: English
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LITERARY
TOURSLiterary Tours in
The Highlands and
Islands of Scotland
By D. T. Holmes, B.A.
"Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli"
—Juvenal, i. 74PAISLEY: 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 mainTo 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,
{5}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
Some Insular Dominies—Education Act of 1872—Education in the
Highlands—Feeding the hungry—Parish Council boarders—
Dwindling attendances—Arnisdale—Golspie Technical School
—On the Sidlaws—Some surprises—Arran schools—Science
and literature—Study of Scott—The old classical dominie—
Vogue of Latin in former times—Teachers and examinations—
Howlers—Competing subjects.
CHAPTER V.—A Trip To Shetland, 217
Aberdeen—En route—Lerwick—Past and present saints—Some
notes on the islands—A Shetland poet—A visit to Bressay—From Lerwick to Sandwick—Quarff—"That holy man, Noah"—
Fladibister—Cunningsburgh—"Keeping off"—The indignant
elder—Torquil Halcrow—Philology—A Sandwick gentleman—
Local tales—Foulah and Fair Isle—The fishing season.
CHAPTER VI.—Commercial Travellers and Their Anecdotes, 255
Trials of commercials—The two-est-faced knave—Mary, the maid
of the inn—Anecdotes of the smoking-room: Sonnet to Raleigh
—Peelin's below the tree—"She's away!"—A mean house—
One of the director's wives—Temperance hotels—A memorial
window—The blasted heath—The day for it—The converted
drummer—A circular ticket—A compound possessive—Sixteen
medals—"She's auld, and she's thin, and she'll keep"—The will
o' the dead—Sorry for London—"Raither unceevil"—An
unwelcome recitation—A word in season—A Nairn critic—A
grand day for it—A pro-Boer—"Falls of Bruar, only, please!"—A
bad case of nerves.
CHAPTER VII.—Legends and Literary Notabilia, 278
Gairloch folk-lore: Prince Olaf and his bride—A laird who had seen
a fairy—Tales from Loch Broom: The dance of death—The
Kildonan midwife—The magic herring—Taisch—Antiquities of
Dunvegan—Miscellaneous terrors—St. Kilda—Lady Grange—
Pierless Tiree—Lochbuie in Mull—Inveraray Castle—The
sacred isle—Appin—Macdonald's gratitude—Notes on the
Trossachs—Lochfyneside: Macivors, Macvicars, and
Macallisters—Red Hector—Macphail of Colonsay—Tales from
Speyside: Tom Eunan!—Shaws and Grants—The wishing well
—Ossian and Macpherson—At the foot o' Bennachie—Harlaw
—Lochaber reivers—Reay and Twickenham—Rob Donn—
Rev. Mr. Mill of Dunrossness.
CHAPTER VIII.—Metrical and Supplementary, 340
Arrival of the Mail-train at a Highland Station—Defoe, the Father of
Journalism—A Village Toper—A Reverend Hellenist—Antigone
—Shadows of the Manse—"My Heart's in the Highlands"—
Saddell, Kintyre—Springtime in Perthshire—Dr. George
Macdonald's Creed—Abbotsford—Carlyle—Shelley—Picture in
an Inn—Rain-storm at Loch Awe—Kinlochewe—General Wade
—Sound of Raasay in December—Les Neiges d' Antan—The
Islands of the Ness—American Tourist Loquitur—The Miners—
In a Country Graveyard—No Place like Home.
INDEX, 369
{9}
LITERARY TOURING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
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 ofthe Minch—Notes on Lewis—Highland doctors—Hotels and
anglers—Recent books—Military—Moray Firth—Among the miners
—Handloom weaving—Professor Blackie and the Highlands.
VILLAGE LIBRARIES.
At pretty frequent intervals, during the last four years, I have sallied forth from
my home in Renfrewshire, north, south, east, and west, to some of the most
remote and isolated nooks of insular and provincial Scotland, on a mission so
uncommon as to justify the writing of a book of impressions and experiences.
The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are, of course, visited every summer by
a great host of excursionists, who go thither to fish, play golf, lounge, climb hills,
{10}and otherwise picturesquely disport themselves. A few earnest devotees of
science spend their holidays botanising in the glens, scanning the geological
strata, looking for fossils, measuring the outlines of brochs and prehistoric forts,
or collecting relics of Culdee churches. My journeys were undertaken for none
of the objects named: they were entirely connected with libraries and lect