Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

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ABERDEEN TO BRAEMAR.
“ ‘ Dl-starr’d, though brave, did no visions foreboding
Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause ? ’
Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden,
Victory crown’d not your fall with applause:
Still were you happy in death’s earthy slumber.
You rest with your clan in the caves of Braemar;
The pibroch resounds, to the piper’s loud number,
Your deeds on the echoes of dark Loch na Garr.
“ Years have roll’d on. Loch na Garr, since I left you,
Years must elapse ere I tread you again:
Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you.
Yet still are you dearer than Albion’s plain.
England! thy beauties are tame and domestic
To one who has roved o’er the mountains afar:
Oh for the crags that are wild and majestic!
The steep frowning glories of dark Loch na Garr! ”
The Muick Stream joins the Dee at Ballater, and the tra-
veller has but to keep by its rocky banks, along which there is
a tolerable road. At the Linn, the water, in a considerable
body, hurls itself over a precipice into a black-looking pool.
The loch is a considerable sheet of water, but somewhat sombre
in its scenery, except in certain spots, where, over its rounded
banks, the precipices of Lochnagar may be seen frowning grim
and close. The adventurous traveller should not be content
with Loch Muick, but ought to ascend a stream at its upper
extremity, by which, after passing some miles of wildly broken
ground, where cataracts start as it were every now and then at
his feet, he will be led to the Dhu Loch (13 miles), a smaller
lake than that of Muick, but grander in its scenery—its banks,
except where the stream issues, being a circumvallation of
huge black precipices, on the same scale with those of Loch¬
nagar.
There are two roads from Ballater up the Dee, one on the
north, the other on the south bank ; the former is the one
taken by the coach, and it is generally preferred. It will be
remarked that the mile-stones on it (where any happen to
remain), are calculated direct from Aberdeen by the old road
through the pass, and make no allowance for a divergence of a
mile and a half at Ballater. Sweeping round Craigendarroch,
the water of Gairn is crossed at a point about equidistant from
Aberdeen to Ballater. About a mile farther on, on the north
side, is Craig Youzie (the rock of firs), a round knob, some-