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Show IMPRESSIONS OLD AND NEW I Ft. William and Oban Fine Sceneries Glenco's High Mountains and Wild Goats Recalls Brutal Massacre j Lord of Lorn Defeated by Bruce Old Memories of a Castle Bruce's Brooch Preserved at Dunolly Oban a Pic- j turesque Town With Beautiful Sur- i roundings lona, Island of Waves, Visited by St. Columbia. , j (Continued.) J Special Correspondence. . I In the summer months there is a regular service of fine steamers between Fort William and Oban, ' J and the trip between these two towns is full of in- : j terest. You have bold mountain scenery, on the sides ; of which are perched the famous castles of the j chiefs of the olden day, beautiful valleys, dotted ; with streams and trees, and fresh water lakes, water- j falls that tare their steep way round boulder and j withered pine, anxious, as it were, to join those sis- 1 1 ter sheets of water that so peacefully reflect tho I j summers sun; islands on which dwelt in far-off I ; times bishops, monks and warriors. You can feast I . your eyes on all these as the vessel smoothly glide? I : its way between William's fort and the land of Lorn. j The first sheet of water the steamer traverses on : leaving Fort William is Loch Linnic There is not much to be seen until Ballyhulish. remarkabl for its slate quarries, is reached, and here the traveler, ? if he wishes to see the wild glen of Glencoe, the f scene of the famous massacre, must alight from the ! steamer and take the stage. The glen itself is a narrow strip of land, through which the stream of j Cona, celebrated by the poet Ossian, flows. On i either side of this narrow glen' the mountains shoot up perpendicularly to a height ot at leat two tnou- i sand feet, shutting out forever from the glen the glad rays of the sunshine. By the side of the stream is a military road, but the torrents from the moun- 5 tains above render it for a great part of the year j : impassable. It is a very desolate spot, its only in- i habitants, if we except a single cottage with three inmates, are the wild goats and the eagles. As wo gaze upon the wierd scene around us back to our ' minds comes the memory of that awful night in which that wanton massacre occurred, a massacre the equal of which for treachery and brutality is not j in history. ; Situated at the lower part of Loch Linnie is the t long, rugged island of Lismore, a celebrated seat ojc learning and the residence of the Catholic bishop- in the olden days. You can see the ruins of the monastery still. At the time of the French revolu- tion it was in this monastery a great many exiled " French priests found a shelter. Leaving Loch Lin-noe Lin-noe you enter Loch Etive and round about this Loch on all sides is the land of Lorn. The lords of Lorn, as those acquainted with history know, were ever the formidable opponents o fthe Bruce. The castlo of Dunstaffrage. which overhangs the sea. was iu the old days, as far back as 1307, garrisoned by the then MacDougall lord of Lorn, but after a stout re- I sistance was taken bv Bruce. It is a castle of strik- i ing beauty and full of historic memories. King Robert Bruce held parliament within its walls, and ( here, too, many of the old Scottish kings resided. ' Tradit on has it that the coronation stone -which nmr can be seen in Westminster abbey was transferred from here to Scone by that king of another day -Kenneth IT. , Thcr e is an old battle axe still shown in the castle cas-tle which reaches the prodigious length of nine feet, and as you look at it you are reminded that the warriors of the Bruce time must have been no children. chil-dren. Xear Duustaffnage is another historic castle !; Dunolly. This, too, in the olden days belong to . the family of Lorn, and at the present time is the property of one of their descendants a Captain f Macdougal. At Dunolly is still kept the brooch torn from the cloak of Robert Bruce by John of Lorn in ! the Pass of Olendoehart. It is related that Bruce, ' one his way to Ireland, was assailed in this narrow ? pass by the followers of Lorn. Three of Lorn's sol- j diers sprang on the chief at the same time, and in . the gallant struggle which Bruce made for his life ! he lost his cloak, tmt nrhrrwlio r-jMT,J ii,, Tt, i brooch is a plain sdver one. ornamented with a few precious stones, but of considerable value on ic- ! count of its owner and the historic memories that arc connected with it. I Oban is a beautiful little town and much frc- f quented of late years by those seeking restoration ' ot healthy It is nicely situated on the coast of Lorn, j with the isle of Kcrrera in front and the majestic I Ben Cruachsn in the background. It is-one of the principal towns of the Highlands and a great deal of trade is done by its inhabitants with the peoplo ' of Barra. Jury, Islay and those places designated s the Outer Isles. I know of no more delightful spot i to spend a quiet holiday, and the tourist has within easy reach of bim many places of historic interest i Staffa. Iona, Lismore and many more names teem- 'i' ing with recollections of the olden day. The tourist I too, has every luxury in the shape of hotels, and nereis a fine sanitarium overlooking the town. ; Ihe fishing m the many lochs around is very ood r especially in the direction of Loch Awe. The" late r Marquis of Bute used to spend a great portion of ? his time here, and the Catholic church, the onlv iron one that I know of in Scotland, was constructed bv him. Oban, too, is the seat of the Catholic bishop pf Argyle and the Isles. Vespers are sung every day m the Catholic church by a choir of boys The expenses ex-penses connected with this choir are paid out of 'a special fund left by the late marquis for this purpose. pur-pose. y (Continued on Page 5.)' i i IMPRESSIONS OLD AND NEW (Continued from page 1.) Before we leave Scotland we would like to say just a' few words on that sanctified spot of ground called Iona. Iona means the inland of the waves. I believe it was the earliest seat of Christianity in Scotland, and the saving doctrines of Christ were brought to this lonely island by the great Irish saint St. Columba. He landed here about the year 5G5, and by his zeal and learning and amiable characteristics character-istics he won over to Christianity the hardy Picts and Dalrians. iona was frequently invaded by the! followers of Thor and Odin the Norwegians after the death of Columba, and many of the valuable manuscripts collected by him were destroyed by their ruthless hands. Tradition tells us that immediately imme-diately before the Reformation Iona was inhabited by a number of monks who followed the rule of St. Benet. These monks were called Cluniaccnses after, I suppose,'-the name of the mother house Cluny a name inseparably connected with St. Bernard. There are many remains of ancient architecture 6t,ill visible on the island, the oldest being St. Orau's chapel, built by the Norwegians, and near by (he nunnery inhabited in the olden days by sisters who followed the rule of St. Augustine. The ruins of the cathedral, too, is an object of interest for the tourist. tour-ist. Built in the shape of a cross, its length is 170 feet and its breadth 40 feet. It is of Gothic architecture archi-tecture and within its walls you have a great variety varie-ty of monuments erected to the memory of bishops and abbots. It is 6aid, too, that the remains of forty-eight kings, from Fergus II to Macbeth, repose re-pose here, and also the bones of four Irish, one i French and eight Norwegian monarch. I know of ; no more interesting place in all Scotland to visit.! and the man is little to be envied, says Dr. Johnson. whose patriotism will not gain force on the plains of Marathon or whose piety will not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. We leave Tona and Scotland Scot-land and next week we will ask the reader to accompany accom-pany us to England. NAPPER TANDY. Oban, April 2, 1909. |