Volume 6

A collection of modern and contemporary voyages and travels containing, I. Translations from foreign languages ... II. Original voyages and travels ... Analyses of new voyages and travels / [Edited by F.W. Blagdon].

Date:
1805-1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of modern and contemporary voyages and travels containing, I. Translations from foreign languages ... II. Original voyages and travels ... Analyses of new voyages and travels / [Edited by F.W. Blagdon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vellers in general overlook in their impatience to reach either Lochloinond, or the magnificent and beautiful seat of his grace of Argyle at Inverary, Besides the noble sheet of water stretch- ing farther than the eye can reach towards its parent ocean, in- numerable mountains in various shapes and elevations rise tower- ing over each other’s lofty heads in all directions round this wild romantic spot; where rocks and precipices, woods and hollow-sounding torrents, combine to form a scene at once august, impressive, and sublime. Loch-long, or Luing, on the banks of which standsArroquar, signifies in the Gaelic language, (i The lake of ships and is of sufficient depth to bear small vessels, with which at a certain season of the year it is nearly covered ; the quantities of herrings that pass up from the firth, bringing numbers of persons employed in the fisheries thither, in pursuit of them. In the year 1250, the Danes, who for many ages plundered and annoyed the inhabitants of Scotland, having threatened a renewal of their ravages, the people collected all the property they could remove, and hastened to convey it (as they imagined) to a place of safety, on one of the islands in Loch- Lomond. The enemy, having obtained intelligence of this, sailed up to the head of Loch-Long: and landing, dragged their boats across the isthmus that separates the Lochs ; and embark- ing again at Tarbert, soon reached the spot which they sought, Laving secured the booty, put many persons to death, and robbed the religious houses in the neighbourhood, they returned by the same route, and got safe to sea with their ill-acquired riches. Fired with the hope of greater plunder, and of equal success, a few years only elapsed before Haco, prince of Norway, again invaded the same part of the kingdom, bringing with him a prodigious army and a large fleet. Landing not far from the mouth of the Firth of Clyde, he gave battle to Alex- ander III., who had advanced to meet him: but fortune proving unfavourable, his army was defeated, and, according to some his- torians, almost entirely destroyed; a circumstance so distressful in its consequences, and so mortifying to his countrymen, that they did not renew an attempt on the kingdom, though the hopes of plunder frequently prompted them to w ish they w ere able to venture on it. Loch-Long, Loch Lomond (which is entirely a fresh water lake), and several others of lesser note, are in the county of Dun- barton: a district of moderate extent, chiefly mountainous and rugged; presenting many romantic and highly picturesque scenes to a traveller, but of little intrinsic value except for the pasture of a small hardy breed of cattle. In the low parts of the county, and particularly upon the banks of the Leven, the soil is richer, and the mode of cultivating it much better, than in