Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

COILANTOGLE FORD.
219
It was on reaching this point that he challenged the Knight of
Snowdoun to single combat.
“ See here, all vantageless I stand,
Arm’d, like thyself, with single brand:
Tor this is Coilantogle Ford,
And thou mnst keep thee with thy sword.”
Loch Venachar, a beautiful expanse of water about five miles
long and a mile and a half broad, now opens upon the view.
On the opposite shore may be seen the woods of Dullater and
Drunkie ; and the surface of the loch is broken by one lonely
island, called Inch Yroin. The scene, but for the surrounding
heights, is softand verdant, like some of the English lakes. Dank
osiers fringe the swampy shallows, and heaps of mountain
debris lie tossed here and there on the margin from the swollen
torrents of the hills. At either end the lake imperceptibly
merges into the river, of which it is, properly speaking, a
widening. At its upper extremity is the spot where, at°the
whistle of Roderick Dhu,