Kings & rulers > More leaves from the journal of a life in the Highlands from 1862 to 1882

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good deal larger than the “Winkelried” (in which we
used to go on the Lake of Lucerne), with a fine large
dining-cabin below, a very high upper deck, and a
gallery underneath on which people can stand and
smoke without incommoding the others above. The
following people were on board: Mr. A. Smollett, late
M.P., Mr. Wylie, factor to Sir T. Colquhoun, and Mr.
Denny, the auditor, and Mr. Young, the secretary.
We steamed southward, and for the first half no¬
thing could be finer or more truly Alpine, reminding
me much of the Lake of Lucerne; only it is longer—
Loch Lomond being twenty-two miles long. We kept
close to the east shore, passing under Ben Lomond
with its variously called shoulders—Cruachan, Craig
a Bochan, and Ptarmigan—to Rowardennan pier, where
there is a pretty little house rented from the Duke of
Montrose (to whom half Loch Lomond belongs) by a
Mr. Mair, a lovely spot from whence you can ascend
Ben Lomond, which is 3,192 feet high, and well wooded
part of the way, with cornfields below. After you pass
this, where there are fine mountains on either side,
though on the west shore not so high, the lake widens
out, but the shores become much flatter and tamer
(indeed to the east and south completely so); but here
are all the beautifully wooded islands, to the number
of twenty-four. Some of them are large; on Inchlonaig
Island the firs are said to have been planted by Robert
Bruce to encourage the people in the use of archery.
Another, Inch Cailliach, is the ancient burial-place of
the MacGregors.
On the mainland we pa sed Cornick Hill, and
could just see Buchanan House, the Duke of Mont¬
rose’s, and to the right the island of Inch Murrin, on