LISMORE.-DUNSTAFFNAGE.

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several years. Under his surveillance, from the period of the French Revolution, those intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood here completed their studies, and afterwards assumed their functions in various parts of the Highlands. We have already adverted to the lime-stone quarries which furnish the chief export of Lismore. The lime is of a quality which finds it a ready market wherever it is known, and affords a lucrative source of revenue to the proprietor.

On the opposite shore, near the mouth of Loch-Etive, is the celebrated Castle of Dunstaffnage-the stronghold of the lords of Lorn, and, traditionally, one of the earliest residences of the Scottish monarchy. It is a lofty square, or rather octagonal structure, crowning a perpendicular rock, and accessible only by a narrow outer staircase, which one sentinel could defend against a thousand assailants.* At each of three angles is a round tower, the remaining angle being also rounded; and on the inner area of one of these is a square building of three stories, and of seemingly modern workmanship, compared with the rest of the castle. Of this portion the roof remains entire, and the flooring in a state of considerable preservation. A small house within the ancient walls, erected little more than a century ago, is the only portion of the fortress now inhabited. The circumference of the ancient building is about four hundred feet, and the walls from thirty to fifty feet high, by ten feet thick. It is supposed to have been erected towards the end of the thirteenth century, and was taken possession of by Robert Bruce after his victory over the lord of Lorn, in the Pass of Awe. It was afterwards inhabited till the middle of the fifteenth century by the lords of Argyll; and, during the wars of Montrose, Macdonald of Colkitto narrowly escaped falling into the hands of its hostile garrison. Believing it to be held by his friends, he was unsuspectingly approaching it in a boat, when a faithful piper, himself a prisoner in the garrison, struck up a well-known air, which Macdonald perfectly comprehending, hastily shifted his course and escaped. His escape, however, cost the piper his life;

"Hewn in the rock, a passage there
Sought the dark fortress by a stair,
So strait, so high, so steep,
With peasant's staff, one valiant hand
Might well the dizzy pass have manned

'Gainst hundreds armed with spear and brand,

And plunged them in the deep."-Lord of the Isles, canto 1.

+ See the following historical notice at p. 102. "Pass of Awe."

From Dunstaffnage, as stated in our notice, Perth, the famous stone or palladium on which the Scottish monarchs used to be crowned, was transported to Scoone, and thence to England, where it now remains in Westminster Abbey.

for so exasperated were the garrison at an incident which had lost them a prisoner of distinction, that they wreaked their vengeance on the faithful adherent. On the battlements two brass guns are preserved which formerly belonged to the flag-ship* of the Spanish Armada, when it was blown up at Tobermory, by a supposed emissary from Queen Elizabeth.

During various civil commotions, Dunstaffnage was considered a place of great security, and many curious deeds and charters were consequently deposited in it; of these, it is said, several still remain. The foundation of the Castle is on a mass of breccia. It is still among the number of royal castles, and gives the office of keeper to the duke of Argyll. The Castle is said to have been founded by Edwin, a Pictish monarch-contemporary with Julius Cæsar-who, in honour of himself, called it Evonium. Whether this account be true or not, it is certainly a place of great antiquity. Down to the commencement of the present century part of the ancient regalia was preserved, but at that period, says Dr. Garnet, "it was embezzled by the keeper's servants for the sake of the silver ornaments." An ancient battle-axe is the only relic left. The irregularity of the external walls, as observed in the annexed view, is owing to the angular rocky precipice along which they are carried. At a short distance. from the Castle is a small roofless chapel, of elegant workmanship, which has struggled hard to accompany this venerable seat of kings through the various stages of its prosperity, decline, and fall. Within the hallowed enclosure, it is said, several of the Scottish monarchs lie interred. On the south side is a rock-one point of which stretches towards the chapel, and where, if a person be placed on one side of it, and speak loud, the sound of his voice is so distinctly reverberated from the ruin, as to make him imagine that the voice comes from a person within the walls. It is reported that, a few years ago, a man contracted a fatal illness on hearing a sermon on mortality read to him by an unearthly voice-proceeding from a person who, in the dusk of evening, had concealed himself on the opposite side of the point mentioned, but which he

• This vessel, the Florida, is supposed to have contained a great deal of specie, and attempts have been made, by means of diving-bells, to get at the precious stores, or to raise the ship. Guns of brass and iron, among which were those above-mentioned, have been recovered-some of them bearing the marks of an English founder, with the date 1584. A portion of the ship's plank was presented to his late majesty, George IV., on his visit to Scotland in August, 1822. The local tradition respecting this vessel, is, that a daughter of the king of Spain having dreamed that a young man of most prepossessing figure had appeared to her, resolved to sail round the whole world in search of the living prototype. On her arrival on these shores, Maclean of Duart realized in the eyes of the princess the being of her fond imaginings. His lady, however, becoming jealous of his attentions to the fair Spaniard, took counsel of the witches of Mull, and, by their agency, the ship was sunk with the royal object of her resentment. The story has lately been made the subject of a romantic ballad.-See the local history.

SOUND OF KERRERA.-HACO.

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believed came from one of the dead who had left this sepulchre of kings to warn him of his approaching dissolution. Some years ago, the following custom was still in use at Dunstaffnage Castle:-When a company of unexpected strangers arrived an event by no means uncommon in the Highlands- a flag-staff was immediately erected on the battlements, with the expressive ensign of a tablecloth affixed to it. This served as a signal to the tenants on certain lands bordering the sea, to repair to the Castle with salmon, or any other fish then in season; while others, embracing the opportunity thus afforded of paying their court to the laird, presented any thing else that was rare, or which they thought might be acceptable. But at this period, luxury had not reached these retired shores; the proprietors lived chiefly at home, subsisting on the produce of their own lands and lakes, and exercising a princely hospitality. Campbell of Dunstaffnage is now the liberal proprietor of this ancient" palace, fortress, and shrine,"

"Whose walls once echoed to the battle-cry

Of haughty Lorn-and from whose battlements,
Unfurled, the flag of Bruce has waved on high-
The meteor-star of Scotland's liberty!"

The Sound of Kerrera, so strikingly depicted in the engraving before us, is one of the most romantic and variegated scenes in Scotland. The island abounds in objects of natural curiosity, and affords the scientific traveller a wide field of interesting investigation. The western part, which rises to a great elevation above the sea, exhibits many appearances of volcanic origin. In the page of history it is memorable as the place where, in 1249, Alexander II. breathed his last. He had undertaken an expedition for the final reduction of the Western Isles; but his fleet, being overtaken by a tempest, sought shelter in the horse-shoe anchorage-a place of great safety in the Sound of Kerrera. On the death of the king the enterprise was abandoned, and the troops returned home with his body, which was afterwards entombed in the Abbey of Melrose. Sailing from Norway some time afterwards, with the largest fleet that ever left his country's ports, it was also at Kerrera that Haco, king of Denmark, met the great body of the Highland chieftains, his vassals. By these he was accompanied in his disastrous attempt upon Ayrshire, where a tempest and the Scottish host, headed by the grand steward of the kingdom, and encouraged by the presence of their youthful sovereign-son of the deceased monarch-broke his mighty power, and reduced the Hebrides to the Scottish sceptre. Haco, worn out with fatigue, anxiety, and mortification at his defeat, died on his way home at Kirkwall, in Orkney, in December 1263. The ruins of the Danish