The Highlander who took us to
Rob Roy's cave had foreboded rain, from the way in which the white clouds
hung about the mountain-tops; nor was his augury at fault, for just at
three o'clock, the time he foretold, there were a few rain-drops, and a
more defined shower during the afternoon, while we were on Loch Katrine.
The few drops, however, did not disturb us; and, reaching the top of the
hill, J----- and I turned aside to examine the old stone fortress which
was erected in this mountain pass to bridle the Highlanders after the
rebellion of 1745. It stands in a very desolate and dismal situation, at
the foot of long bare slopes, on mossy ground, in the midst of a
disheartening loneliness, only picturesque because it is so exceedingly
ungenial and unlovely. The chief interest of this spot in the fact that
Wolfe, in his earlier military career, was stationed here. The fortress
was a very plain structure, built of rough stones, in the form of a
parallelogram, one side of which I paced, and found it between thirty and
forty of my paces long. The two ends have fallen down; the two sides
that remain are about twenty feet high, and have little port-holes for
defence, but no openings of the size of windows. The roof is gone, and
the interior space overgrown with grass. Two little girls were at play
in one corner, and, going round to the rear of the ruin, I saw that a
small Highland cabin had been built against the wall. A dog sat in the
doorway, and gave notice of my approach, and some hens kept up their
peculiarly domestic converse about the door.
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