THE LADY OF THE LAKE: A POEM. IN SIX CANTOS. ΤΟ THE MOST NOBLE JOHN JAMES MARQuis of abercorn, &c. &c. &c THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. ARGUMENT. The Scene of the following Poem is laid chiefly in the vicinity of Loch Katri in the Western Highlands of Perthshire. The time of Action includes Six Da and the transactions of each Day occupy a Canto. THE LADY OF THE LAKE. But THREE years separated Scott's second poetical venture from his first; but the Lady of the Lake" followed "Marmion" after an interval of little more than a uple of years. Scott has told us himself the alarm of his aunt,* when she heard that was meditating another appeal to public favour, lest he should in any way injure e great popularity he had already achieved, or, in her own words, lest standing high he got a severe fall if he attempted to climb higher. "And a favourite,' e added, sententiously," will not be permitted to stumble with impunity." cott, without being guilty of any overweening self-confidence, had taken the easure of his powers, and felt that he might safely make the effort. Besides, he nceived that he held his distinguished position as the most successful poet of the ty, on much the same condition as the champion of the prize-ring holds the belt -that of being always ready to show proofs of his skill. The result fully justified s resolution. Measured even by the standard of the "Minstrel" and "Marmion," e Lady of the Lake" possessed merits of its own, which raised his reputation ill higher. Jeffrey's prediction has been perfectly fulfilled, that the "Lady of the ake" would be "oftener read hereafter than either of the former;" and it is enerally acknowledged to be, in Lockhart's words, "the most interesting, mantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems." Scott's acquaintance with the Highlands dated from his boyhood. sited them before his sixteenth year, and repeatedly returned thither. He had His first troduction to the scenery of the "Lady of the Lake' was curious enough. le entered it, riding in all the dignity of danger, with a front and rear-guard, nd loaded arms. He was then a writer's apprentice, or, in English phrase, an ttorney's clerk, and had been despatched by his father to enforce the execution of legal instrument against some Maclarens, refractory tenants of Stewart of Appin. The armed force with which he was attended, consisting of a serjeant and six men rom a Highland regiment lying in Stirling Castle, proved unnecessary, for no esistance was offered. The Maclarens had decamped, and Scott afterwards earned that they went to America. That such an escort should have been deemed needful, however, gives one an idea of what the Highlands and the inhabitants were even at a time so close upon our own day. In the course of his successive excursions to the Highlands, Scott made himself thoroughly acquainted with their recesses. He not only became familiar with the people, but, as one of his friends said, even the goats might have claimed him as an old friend. With characteristic conscientiousness, however, when he conceived the idea of the "Lady of the Lake," he did not trust to the impressions thus acquired to guide him in the descriptions of scenery, which form one of the chief charms of the poem, and render it, even now, one of the most minute and faithful hand-books to the region in which the drama of Ellen and the Knight of Snowdoun is enacted. He made a special tour, in order to verify the accuracy of the local circumstances of the story, * Miss Christian Rutherford, his mother's sister. K and a hot gallop from the banks of Loch Vennachar to Stirling Castle measured the time which was allotted to King James for his flight after the combat with Roderick Dhu. This " fiery progress was otherwise well known to him. Its principal land-marks were so many hospitable mansions where he had been a welcome and grateful guest-Blairdrummond, the residence of Lord Kaimes; Ochtertyre, that of John Ramsay, tl e antiquary; and Kier, the seat of the Stirling family (now represented by Sir William Maxwell, M. P.). The usual route of the tourist reverses that of FitzJames's desperate ride. Starting from "grey Stirling, with her towers and town," he leaves behind him the Abbey Craig, the site of the Wallace monument, and crosses the Forth and the Allan. The seats above mentioned are all in this neighbourhood, while further on are Doune, with its ruined castle, once the residence of the Duke of Albany, and afterwards of Queer: Mary, and Deanstown, where there are now extensive cotton-mills. Skirting the Teith, the traveller sees, on the north bank, Lanrick Castle, formerly the seat of the chieftain of Clan-Gregor (Sir Evan Murray), and soon reaches Callander, which is now the favourite head-quarters of those who wish to make excursions into the region which Scott rendered at once famous and fashionable. Benledi (2,882 feet) rises on the north; Ben-a'an (1800) is further west, and Benvenue (2,386) appears to the south. At the eastern extremity of Loch Vennachar, where it contracts into the river Teith, is Coilantogle, the scene of the fight between King James and Rhoderick Dhu. This was the limit of the chieftain's passport, Clan-Alpine's outmost guard," and here, on terms of equality, he challenged the mysterious stranger. 66 "The Chief in silence strode before, And reached that torrent's sounding shore, Sweeps through the plain and ceaseless mines Where Rome, the Empress of the world, yore her eagle wings unfurl'd." The last lines refer to the supposed traces of Roman occupation in the mounds on the haugh of Callander, and also near the railway station, which bear the name of the Roman Camp. It is, however, still matter of controversy whether these embankments are of human or of natural origin. At the other end of Loch Vennachar, which is five miles long, is the muster-place of Clan Alpine-Lanrick Mead. The sudden revelation of the ambuscade is supposed to take place a little farther to the westward, when "Instant through copse and heath arose Within a mile "Duncraggan's huts" appear, where Malise surrenders the fiery cross to the young Angus, by the side of his father's bier, while the wail of the coronach for the dead is mingled with lamentations for the orphan's danger." About a mile up Glenfinlas (once a royal deer forest, and still inhabited almost exclusively by Stewarts), which here opens on the right, is the waterfall, which pours down "- that huge cliff, whose ample verge *St. Bride's Chapel, where Angus gives up the cross to Norman, the bridegroom, stands by the side of the Teith, near Loch Lubnaig, while the rest of the course was by Loch Voil, Loch Doine, to the source of Balvaig, and thence southwards down Strath-Gartney. where an outlaw is reported to have found shelter, and where the white bull was slain from which the chieftain sought an augury. The Brig of Turk, said to take its name from a ferocious boar which long haunted the spot, comes next; and then the road which gives access to the Trosachs, skirts the north shore of Loch Achray (Lake of the Laurel Field), "between the precipice and brake." Although the name "Trosachs" is often loosely applied to the whole region comprising Loch Katrine and the adjoining lakes, it belongs, strictly speaking, only to the part between Loch Achray and Loch Katrine. The Trosachs, or Bristled Territory, as the word signifies in Gaelic, now form the entrance to one of the chief passes of the Grampians; but formerly it was a barrier to the progress of all, save the most alert and enterprising travellers. Until a comparatively recent time a ladder of branches and roots of trees, suspended over a steep crag, afforded the only means of traversing the defile. "No pathway met the wanderer's view, A far projecting precipice; The broom's tough roots his ladder made, It is an instance of the complete manner in which Scott has identified himself with this district, that the defile at the end of the Trosachs is known as Bealach-an-Duine (so called from a skirmish between the Highlanders and a party of Cromwell's troops, in which one of the latter was killed), although the real pass of that name is at some distance to the east, on the old road. It was in the opening gorge of the Trosachs that Fitzjames's "gallant grey sank exhausted; and the guides point out this and the spots where the other incidents of the poem are represented as having occurred with as careful an identification as if they had been actually historic localities. The savage tumultuous wildness of the Trosachs is rendered more striking by, and in turn enhances, the rich loveliness of Loch Katrine, which suddenly appears in sight at a turn in the road. At the eastern end of the lake a projecting spit of land forms Ellen's Isle, also, blocks the prospect. It is only by a rude scramble over the rocks in the direction of the old road that the point can be reached from which Fitzjames beheld the lake and its islets. Some lower eminences afford a partial view, but it is usually from the little steamer which plies during the season that the magnificent scene is disclosed to the tourist in its full extent. The lake measures about ten miles in length, and two in average breadth, and is of a winding serpentine form. Towards the west its shores are rocky and precipitous, and each side is clothed with dense copse-wood. The silver strand where the royal wanderer first sees Ellen, lies to the left of the road— "A beach of pebbles bright as snow." The island, with its tangled screen, lies in front, and a little lodge, answering to the description in the poem, was some years back to be found there. It was accidentally burned, however, and the hidden bower, like the heroine who lived there, must now be supplied by the imagination. In other respects Scott's picture is fully realized, nor do the guides forget to call forth the echo which answered Fitzjames's bugle. There are other islands besides this, and on one of them are the ruins of the Castle of Macgregor. On the south side of the lake, opposite to Ellen's Isle, is Coir-nan-Uriskan, or Goblin's Cave, where Douglas hid himself |