Read Ebook: The Cruise of the Elena; Or Yachting in the Hebrides by Ritchie J Ewing James Ewing

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A little dwarf, called the "Caointeach," or weeper, is said to weep before the death of some persons. Some people thought this supernatural creature very friendly. An old wife affirmed that she saw the little creature, about the size of a new-born infant, weep with the voice of a young child, and shortly afterwards got notice of the death of a friend. Others affirmed that they heard the trampling of people outside of the house at night, and shortly after a funeral left the house. Many stories are told about apparitions in the hearing of the young, making an impression which continues all their days. Peter the Catechist deprecates such conduct. He writes: "I have seen those who would not turn on their heel to save their life on the battle-field, who would tremble at the thought of passing alone a place said to be frequented by a spirit."

Very provokingly he next observes, "It would be ridiculous to speak of the charms, omens, gestures, dreams, &c." Now, the fact is, it is just these things which are matters of interest to an inquiring mind. They are absurdities to us, but they were not so once; and then comes the question, Why? He does, however, add a little to our fund of information relative to the second sight.

"An old man who lived at Crossibeg, four generations ago, saw visions, which were explained to him by a supernatural being, descriptive of future events in Kintyre. An account of them was printed, and entitled 'Porter's Prophecies,' which I have perused, but cannot tell if any of them have come to pass as yet, but some people believed them.

"The Laird of Caraskie, more than a century ago, is said to have had a familiar spirit called Beag-bheul, or little mouth, which talked to him, and took great care of him and his property. The spirit told him of a great battle which would be fought in Kintyre, and that the magpie would drink human blood from off a standing stone erected near Campbeltown. The stone was removed, and set as a bridge over the mill water, over which I have often traversed; but the battle has not been fought as yet, and perhaps never will be.

"The Rev. Mr. Boes, a minister of Campbeltown, more than a century ago, was said to have the second sight. One time being at the Assembly, and coming home on Saturday to preach to his congregation, he was overtaken by a storm, which drove the packet into Rothesay. He went to preach in the church on the Sabbath. The rafters of the church above not being lathed, in the middle of his sermon he looked up, and with a loud voice cried, 'Ye're there, Satan; ye kept me from preaching to my own congregation, but ye cannot keep me from preaching for all that,' and then went on with his sermon. At another time, his congregation having assembled on the Sabbath as usual, the minister was walking rapidly on the grass after the time of meeting, the elders not being willing to disturb him by telling him the time was expired. At last he clapped his hands, exclaiming, 'Well done, John;' the Duke of Argyle being at that moment at the head of the British army in Flanders fighting a battle in which he was victorious. The minister, by the power of the second sight, witnessed the battle, and exclaimed, when he saw it won, 'Well done, John.' He went afterwards and preached to his congregation.

"Another Sabbath, when preaching, a member of the congregation having fallen asleep, he cried to him 'Awake.' In a short time the man fell asleep again. The minister bade him awake again and hear the sermon. The man fell asleep the third time, when the minister cried, with a loud voice, 'Awake, and hear this sermon, for it will be the last you will ever hear in this life.' Before the next Sabbath the man was dead. On the morning of a Communion Sabbath, Mr. Boes got up very early, convinced that something was wrong about the church. He examined it, and found that the beams of the gallery were almost sawn through by the emissaries of Satan, in order that the congregation, by the falling of the gallery, might be killed. He got carpenters and smiths employed till they put the church in a safe state, and proceeded with the solemn service of the day with great earnestness. Mr. Boes was sometimes severely tried with temptations, having imaginary combats with Satan, and, being very ill-natured, he would not allow any person to come near him. On one of these occasions he shut himself up in his room for three days. His wife being afraid he would starve with hunger, sent the servant-man with food to him, but the minister scattered it on the floor. The servant-man exclaimed, 'The devil's in the man!' In a moment the minister, becoming calm, answered, 'You are quite right,' then partook of the food, and returned to his former habits."

The following is a good illustration of an olden chief:--We have many traditional stories about Saddell Castle, in which Mr. M'Donald or "Righ Fionghal" resided. He claimed despotic power over the inhabitants of Kintyre. It is said he knew the use of gunpowder, and often made a bad use of it. He would for sport shoot people, though they did him no harm, with his long gun, which was kept in Carradale for a long time after his death. His character is represented as being very tyrannical. Being once in Ireland, he saw a beautiful married woman, whom he fancied, and took away from her husband to Saddell. Her husband followed; but M'Donald finding him, intended to have starved him to death without his wife knowing it. He was put in a barn, but he kept himself alive by eating the corn which he found there. M'Donald removed him to another place, but a hen came in every day and kept him alive with her eggs. M'Donald was anxious that the poor man should die, and placed him in another place, where he got nothing to eat, and it is said the miserable prisoner ate his own hand, then his arm to the elbow, before he died, and said, in Gaelic, "Dh'ith mi mo choig meoir a's mo lamh gu'm uilleann. Is mor a thig air neach nach eiginu fhulang." When they were burying him, his wife was on the top of the castle, and asked whose funeral it was; she was told it was Thomson's. "Is it my Thomson?" she inquired. "Yes," they replied. She then said they might stop for a little till she would be with them. She immediately threw herself over the castle wall, and was carried dead with her husband to the same grave.

Perhaps, after all, Saxon rule has not been such an injury to the Western Isles of Scotland as some people think. At Kintyre there are plenty of schools, and parsons and policemen instead of robber chiefs; and if there are few freebooting expeditions to Ireland and elsewhere, it is quite as well that people have taken to a more decent mode of life.

As next morning I crossed the Clyde, and took my seat in a crowded and early train, it seemed to me that rain was not far off, and that at Edinburgh Royalty might be favoured with a sight of what in England is known as Scotch mist. Nor were my forebodings wrong. The modern Athens was under a cloud, and many were the heavy-hearted who had come from far and near to do honour to the day. The Glasgow men have but a poor opinion of the citizens of Edinburgh. They took a very unfavourable view of the matter. If Edinburgh desired to have a statue of Albert the Good, why not? If the Queen liked to be present at its inauguration, there was no harm in that; if there were a little fuller ceremonial on the occasion, it was only what was to be expected; but that Edinburgh should hasten to wash her statues and decorate her streets; that she should clean up her shop-fronts, and drape her balconies; that she should devote a day to holiday-making; that she should go to the expense of Venetian masts and scarlet cloth--in short, that in this way Edinburgh should attempt to rival a London Lord Mayor's Show, was one of those things no Glasgow fellow could understand.

And I own at first sight there seemed to be a good deal in the Glasgow criticism. Few cities have so fair a site as the noble metropolis of our northern brethren; few cities less require ornamentation. Hers emphatically is that beauty which unadorned is adorned the most. To stand in Princes Street, with the castle frowning on you on one side, and with the Calton Hill in front; to loiter under the fair memorial to Sir Walter Scott ; to look from the bridge which connects the New Town with the Old--on the distant hills and the blue sea beyond--is a pleasure in itself. With its far-reaching associations, with its memories of Wilson and Brougham, and Jeffery and Walter Scott, with its dark churches, in which John Knox thundered away at the fair and frail Mary, with its ancient palaces grim and venerable with stirring romance or startling crime, it seemed almost profane to send for the upholsterer, and to bid him deck out the streets and squares with gaudy colours and gay flowers. When on Thursday the morning opened cloudily on the scene, it seemed as if all this preparation had been thrown away; and bright eyes were for awhile dark and sad, and refusing to be comforted. However, the thing went on, nevertheless. The crowd turned out into the streets, the railways brought their tens of thousands from far and near; balconies were full, and all the windows; and the sight was one such as has not feasted the eyes of the oldest inhabitant for many a year. There were the soldiers to line the streets, there were the archers to guard the da?s, there were the Town Council and Lord Provost in their scarlet robes, there were the men whom Edinburgh delights to honour all before them, and, above all, the Duke of Connaught, the Princess Beatrice, Prince Leopold, Brown--the far-famed Highlander--and the Queen. The ceremony itself was not long. When Charlotte Square was reached, Her Majesty took the place assigned to her, and the work was speedily performed. As Her Majesty went back by Princes Street, an additional interest was created, and Princes Street looked very well; its hotels and fashionable shops rejoiced in crimson and yellow banners, and the Walter Scott memorial even broke out in honour of the day. It was decorated with flags, which waved gaily in the sun--for the sun did come out, after all. But Princes Street was not the chief route. It was down George Street that Royalty drove, and it was there that the efforts of the decorative artist had been most effective. Some of them were very beautiful, and full of taste; but the lettering was rather small. Nor did the inscriptions display much ingenuity. They were mostly "Welcomes," or invitations to "Come again." It was the advertising tradesmen who were most ingenious in that way, and it was in the papers that their efforts appeared. As, for instance, an enterprising shoemaker writes:--

"Welcome, Victoria! Queen of Scottish hearts! In many a breast the loyal impulse starts"--

and then finishes with a recommendation of his boots and shoes. As a crowd, also, it must be noted that the mob was far graver than a London one, and that little attempt was made either to relieve the tedium of waiting the arrival of the procession, or to turn a penny by the sale of the various articles which seem invariably to be required by a London mob. The boys who sell the evening papers, one would have thought, would have had correct programmes of the procession, and portraits of the Queen and Prince Albert to dispose of. As it was, all that was hawked about was an engraving of the statue itself.

As to the statue, it will be one of the many for which Edinburgh is famous, and at present, as the latest, is considered one of the best. It is in a good position in Charlotte Square--the finest of the Edinburgh squares--and stands by itself. Afar off is William Pitt; and, further off still, unfortunately for the morals of Albert the Good, who is placed just by, is George the Magnificent, swaggering in his cloak, in tipsy gravity, as it were; and at St. Andrew's Square, at the other end, proudly towers above all the Melville Monument. That was utilised on the day in question in an admirable manner--Venetian masts were erected at the end of the grass-plat which surrounds it. Ropes rich with bunting were suspended between them and the statue, which was gaily decked with flags. It was in this neighbourhood, and as you went on to Holyrood, that the ornaments were of the richest character. Of the sixty designs submitted to the committee, the preference was given to that of Mr. John Steell, R.S.A., who was subsequently knighted by Her Majesty. It was on the occasion of the great Volunteer review in the Queen's Park, in 1861, that Prince Albert was seen by the largest number of Scotch people; and it has evidently been the aim of the artist to represent him as he was then--in his uniform of field-marshal, with his cocked hat in his right hand, while he holds the reins in his left. The princely rank of the wearer is indicated by an order on the left breast. In order that the representation might be as perfect as possible, Her Majesty lent the artist the very uniform worn on the occasion referred to. The modelling of the busts was also done at Windsor Castle, under Royal supervision. The horse was modelled from one lent by the Duke of Buccleugh. On the pedestal are bas-reliefs indicative of the character and pursuits of His Royal Highness. On one side his marriage is represented; on another his visit to the International Exhibition. Again we see him peacefully happy at home in the bosom of his family; then again as a rewarder of the merit he was ever anxious to discover and befriend. In one part of the design are quotations from the Prince's speeches, and classical emblems; rank and wealth and talent, in all phases of society, down to the very lowest, are represented as uniting to do honour to the dead. In this varied work Mr. Steell was assisted, at his own request, by Mr. William Brodie, Mr. Clark Stanton, and the late Mr. MacCallum, whose unfinished work was completed by Mr. Stevenson. The equestrian figure is upwards of fourteen feet high, and weighs about eight tons. The pedestal is of five blocks of Peterhead granite. According to a contemporary, the Queen's emotion was manifest when the statue was unveiled. The Scotch are a cautious people, and are very slow in expressing an opinion on the memorial. All I can say is, that I prefer it very much to that statue at the commencement of the Holborn Viaduct, on which Mr. Meeking's young men look down every day.

It was on the next day that you saw the statue and the preparations to the most advantage, and such seemed to be the opinion of all Edinburgh and the surrounding country. A cloudless sky and an Indian sun tinted everything with gold, and a smart breeze set all the flags of the Venetian masts waving all along the line in a way at once effective and bewildering. Fashionable people filled up the streets, dashing equipages drove rapidly past, shops were crammed, waiters at the hotels were tired to death. I never saw so many hungry Scots as I did at a celebrated restaurant, and a hungry Scot is not a pleasant sight; and at the railway station I question whether half the people got into their right carriages after all. Porters and guards seemed alike confused; and the people walked up and down the platform of the Waverley Station as sheep without a shepherd. However, wearied and hungry and bewildered as they were, they had had a day's pleasure, and that was enough.

As for myself I took the Waverley route, and gliding past the ruins of Craig Millar Castle--the prison-house of James the Fifth, and the favourite residence of Queen Mary--and vainly trying to catch a view of Abbotsford, of which one can see but the waving woods, was gratified with a glimpse of Melrose, where rests the heart of Bruce, which the Douglas had vainly striven to carry to Palestine. All round me are names and places connected with border tradition and song. Dryburgh Abbey is not far off, nor Hazeldean, nor Minto House. Passing along the banks of the Teviot, by the frowning heights of Rubertslaw on the left, I reach Hawick, whose history abounds in heroic tale and legendary lore, although the present town is now only known as an important and flourishing emporium of the woollen manufactures. Passing up the vale of the Slitrig, famous in legendary story, we come to Stobs Castle and Branxholme House, celebrated in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." Close by is Hermitage Castle, founded by Comyn, Earl of Monteith, where Lord de Soulis was boiled as a reputed sorcerer at a Druidical spot, named the Nine Stane Rig, at the head of the glen. At Kershope Foot the railway, having passed through the land of the Armstrongs, renowned in border warfare, enters England. Once more I am at home, thankful to have seen so much of beauty and blessedness, of wonders in heaven above, and on the earth beneath, and in the waters underneath the earth; thankful also for improved health and power of work acquired by yachting among the islands of the Western Coast.

MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Improved and Accelerated Service of NEW EXPRESS TRAINS BETWEEN ENGLAND & SCOTLAND BY THE SETTLE AND CARLISLE ROUTE.

The SUMMER SERVICE of EXPRESS TRAINS between LONDON and SCOTLAND is now in operation, and Express Trains leave St. Pancras for Scotland at 5.15 and 10.30 a.m., and at 8.0 and 9.15 p.m. on Week-Days, and at 9.15 p.m. only on Sundays.

A new NIGHT EXPRESS TRAIN now leaves St. Pancras for Edinburgh and Perth at 8 p.m. on Week-Days, arriving at Perth at 8.40 a.m., in connection with Trains leaving Perth for Montrose and Aberdeen at 9.20 a.m., and for Inverness and Stations on the Highland Railway at 9.30 a.m.

A new Night Express in connection with the Train leaving Inverness at 12.40 p.m., Aberdeen at 4.5 p.m., and Dundee at 6.30 p.m., leaves Perth at 7.25 p.m., and Edinburgh at 10.30 p.m. on Week-Days, arriving at St. Pancras at 8.30 a.m.

A PULLMAN SLEEPING CAR is run between ST. PANCRAS and PERTH in each direction by these Trains.

Pullman Sleeping Cars are also run from St. Pancras to Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Night Express leaving London at 9.15 p.m.; and from Edinburgh and Glasgow to St. Pancras by the Express leaving Edinburgh at 9.20 p.m., and Glasgow at 9.15 p.m. on Week-Days and Sundays. Pullman Drawing-Room Cars are run between the same places by the Day Express Trains leaving St. Pancras for Edinburgh and Glasgow at 10.30 a.m., and Glasgow at 10.15 a.m., and Edinburgh at 10.30 a.m. for St. Pancras.

The 9.15 p.m. Express from St. Pancras reaches Greenock in ample time for passengers to join the "Iona" steamer.

Tourist Tickets, available for two months, are issued from St. Pancras and all principal stations on the Midland Railway to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greenock, Oban , and other places of tourist resort in all parts of Scotland.

The Passenger Fares and the Rates for Horses and Carriages between stations in England and stations in Scotland have been revised and considerably reduced by the opening of the Midland Company's Settle and Carlisle Route.

Guards in charge of the Through Luggage and of Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Day and Night Express Trains in each direction.

GLASGOW and the HIGHLANDS.

THE ROYAL MAIL STEAMERS,

Iona, Linnet, Islay, Chevalier, Cygnet, Clydesdale, Gondolier, Plover, Clansman, Mountaineer, Staffa, Lochawe, Pioneer, Glencoe, Lochiel, Glengarry, Inverary Castle, Lochness, and Queen of the Lake,

Sail during the season for Islay, Oban, Fort-William, Inverness, Staffa, Iona, Lochawe, Glencoe, Tobermory, Portree, Gairloch, Ullapool, Lochinver, and Stornoway; affording Tourists an opportunity of visiting the magnificent scenery of Glencoe, the Coolin Hills, Loch Coruisk, Loch Maree, and the famed Islands of Staffa and Iona.

Time Bill with Maps free by post on application to DAVID HUTCHESON & CO., 119, Hope-street, Glasgow.

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