J----- had gone with me part of the way, but stopped to fish with a
pin-hook in Loch Achray, which bordered along our path. When I returned,
I found him much elated at having caught a fish, which, however, had got
away, carrying his pin-hook along with it. Then he had amused himself
with taking some lizards by the tail, and had collected several in a
small hollow of the rocks. We now walked home together, and at half past
three we took our seats in a genuine old-fashioned stage-coach, of which
there are few specimens now to be met with. The coachman was smartly
dressed in the Queen's scarlet, and was a very pleasant and affable
personage, conducting himself towards the passengers with courteous
authority. Inside we were four, including J-----, but on the top there
were at least a dozen, and I would willingly have been there too, but had
taken an inside seat, under apprehension of rain, and was not allowed to
change it. Our drive was not marked by much describable incident. On
changing horses at Callender, we alighted, and saw Ben Ledi behind us,
making a picturesque background to the little town, which seems to be the
meeting-point of the Highlands and Lowlands. We again changed horses at
Doune, an old town, which would doubtless have been well worth seeing,
had time permitted. Thence we kept on till the coach drew up at a
spacious hotel, where we alighted, fancying that we had reached Stirling,
which was to have been our journey's end; but, after fairly establishing
ourselves, we found that it was the
BRIG OF ALLAN.
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