“No pathway meets the wanderer’s view,
Unless he climb with footing nice
A far projecting precipice.
The broom’s tough roots his ladder made,
The hazel saplings lent their aid.”
In a word, the Trossachs remind one of that wonderful geological fault in the Helderbergs, in New York State, named “Indian Ladder,” this term recalling the old method of entrance. One of the finest passes and glens in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, as well as the canyons of the West, now so well known and enjoyed, was shut up at one time by Nature in like manner.
Some of the romance of the Trossachs neighborhood has been spoiled, as has the scenery of the Catskill region, by the necessity of a neighboring great city’s practice of the virtue which is next to godliness. The vicinity of that ever-thirsty conglomeration of humanity, that needs refreshment, cleansing, and mill-power, has modified the scenery. The Glasgow Water Company had to raise the banks of the lake several feet, to form a reservoir for the supply of the mills on the Teith River. Among the sites thus desecrated were the silver shore, where stood Ellen, “guardian naiad of the strand,” before the royal Knight of Snowdon, and the spot where Roderick Dhu challenged Fitz-James to single combat. Coilantogle Ford long invited the fisherman to try his luck and the tourist to survey the ruins near by. Then there is the Loch Vennachar, with its lovely island of Inch Vroin, which breaks its mirror-like surface. On the hillside overlooking the loch is a hollow on the left of the road called “Lanrick Mead,” a flat meadow which was the gathering-ground of the Clan Alpine. A mile beyond Loch Menoca, as the road slopes toward the Brig of Turk, we have a varied and extensive prospect, including Ben Venue.
THE TROSSACHS AND LOCH ACHRAY
A sudden bend in the road winding around the margin of Loch Achrae discloses the spur of the mountain forming the entrance to the Trossachs. Slight wonder that this, one of the finest views to be met with on the way, was selected by the artist Turner for his illustration of “The Lady of the Lake.” He visited Scotland for his book on “Provincial Antiquities,” for which Scott furnished the letter-press.