The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 297
tion of sky, the rising and falling of the mist, and, in the
near foreground, those images of quiet pastoral life, which
cast a spell on my mind that time has neither broken nor
weakened.
The house of Glenbeltane in the main consisted of a
long low building, with two cross wings. It had been built
before the property merged in that of Duncairn, and, having
been intended to form the seat of a landed proprietor, who
was also the head of a sept, it bore evidence of an ambitious
and aristocratic design. The long chimneys, the gables of
unequal proportion, darkly stained with the weather, and
the windows, numberless and narrow, must have had a
picturesque effect even to the casual eye. The roof of the
central block was covered with slates, or, to speak more
accurately, heavy slabs, which had been carried from Corrie
Goblin ; while the flanking wings aforesaid were lower, and
thatched with heather. The gables of these latter, which
faced Lochgoy, were joined by a wall having a gateway in
line with the front door. Within this yard or enclosure
were a few fruit trees and flovvering shrubs of various kinds.
On each of the two grass plots divided by the paved way
that led from the white gate to the door, grew a plum tree
of some hardy species, the tardy ripening of whose fruit I
used to note with an impatient satisfaction. The gateway
opened upon a level green of considerable extent, which,
in front of the house, terminated abruptly on the edge of a
steep bank that overlooked the burn. The effects of many
a winter spate were visible in the vast quantity of debris
spread over the ground below, but the kindly alder had
taken root among the boulders and the bleached shingle,
and, aided by the wild thyme, and the thistle, and the fox-
glove, threw softening touches over the rude scene of
devastation.
From within the house, however, nothing of this was
visible. From there we could see but the banks of Loch-
goy, and the great hills that arose on the further side.
Glens and corries and lochs lay among the mountain