To the South—the Lomond Hills; Perth in the middle distance.
LUNCHEON AT CAIRN LOCHAN.
After a Drawing by Carl Haag.
We walked on a little way, and then I got upon my pony. Another half hour’s riding again over such singular flat table-land, brought us on to the edge of the valley of Cairn Lochan, which is indeed “a bonnie place.” It reminded me and Louis of Clova; only there one did not see the immense extent of mountains behind. Cairn Lochan is a narrow valley, the river Isla winding through it like a silver ribbon, with trees at the bottom. The hills are green and steep, but towards the head of the valley there are fine precipices. We had then to take a somewhat circuitous route in order to avoid some bogs, and to come to a spot where we looked right up the valley for an immense distance; to the left, or rather more to the south, was Glen Isla, another glen, but wider, and not with the same high mountains as Cairn Lochan. Beyond Glen Isla were seen the Lomond Hills behind Kinross, at the foot of which is Loch Leven.
We sat on a very precipitous place, which made one dread any one’s moving backwards; and here, at a little before two o’clock, we lunched. The lights were charmingly soft, and, as I said before, like the bloom on a plum. The luncheon was very acceptable, for the air was extremely keen, and we found ice thicker than a shilling on the top of Cairn Turc, which did not melt when Brown took it and kept it in his hand.
Helena was so delighted, for this was the only really great expedition in which she had accompanied us.
Duncan and the keeper at Loch Callater (R. Stewart) went with us as guides.
I made some hasty sketches; and then Albert wrote on a bit of paper that we had lunched here, put it into the Selters-water bottle, and buried it there, or rather stuck it into the ground. Grant had done the same when we visited Ben Muich Dhui the first time. This over, we walked part of the way back which we had ridden to avoid the bogs,—we ladies walking only a short way, and then riding. We altered our course, and left Cairn Glaishie to our right, and went in the direction of the Cairn Wall. Looking back on the distant hills above Glen Isla and Cairn Lochan (Lord Airlie’s “Country”), it was even more beautiful; for, as the day advanced, the mountains became clearer and clearer, of a lovely blue, while the valleys were in shadow. Shichallion, and those further ranges, were also most perfectly to be seen, and gave me such a longing for further Highland expeditions! We went over Garbchory, looking down on the road to the Spittal; and on the lower mountains, which are most curiously connected one with another, and which, from the height we were, we could look down upon.