Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

432 STIIATHAIRD.
proportion of the Higblaiiders was concerned in abetting'
this cause. If any of these families or Clans showed a
heroic attachment to that Charles whom they would
willingly have made the Third, it was the more generous ;
since, to him, they were repaying a protracted and almost
uninterrupted series of injuries sustained from his an-
cestors, by the most perilous kindness. Thus universally
to boast, moreover, of hereditary attachment to any mo-
narchy, is to surrender their claims to that ancient inde-
pendence which they pieserved so long, for which they
fought so hard, and in which they may so justly glory.
He who maintains this doctrine, cannot certainly be a
Macdonald, a Macleod, a Macdougal, a Maclean, a Ca-
meron, a Mac Neil, or a Mac Intosh.
The Spar Cave is accessible from the land, but only
at low-water. At other times it must be visited by means
of a boat; and the avenue or approach, which leads to
it, is not the least interesting- object in this expedition.
Two long-walls of smooth and perpendicular rock, stretch-
ing far out into the sea, form a maritime and most ap-
propriate vestibule, v/hich conducts the boat through a
singular scene of solemn and gloomy stillness, to the
entrance of the cave. Those who have been dreaming
of naiads and tritons, will however, be disconcerted at
finding their way stopped by a scarlet door, but not of
coral, which must be opened by a vulgar terrestrial key.
Such precautions have been found necessary against
the philosophy of those who think a stalactite a specimen
of a cave, just as a chip of marble is of the Parthenon.
Had this project not been adopted, there would shortly
have remained as few ornaments here, as hairs in the
tail of Blucher's horse. The first hundred yards after
passing this door, are dull enough; being dark, dirty,
wet, and dreary ; the cave being here, a mere fissure,
with parallel walls, and without variety. A large mount