Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

BALMORAL CASTLE.
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thing like Craigendarroch. About the forty-fifth mile is a
pristine Highland clachan called the Micras.
Abergeldie Castle (H.R.H. Duchess of Kent), with an old
turreted square tower, and some modern additions of various
dates, is rather more than a mile further on. The river is here
crossed by a rope and cradle bridge. Hitherto the traveller
will have observed the birch trees thickening as he proceeds,
and here he will find them at their climax of dense luxuriance
and beauty, covering almost every spot, save where the broad
river sweeps along the bottom of the glen, or the hills carry
their broken rocky heads to the clouds. Abergeldie owes no
good turn to Burns, who, finding it worthily possessed of the
old air of “ The Birks of Abergeldie,” with the despotism of
genius, transferred its leafy honours, without a moment’s warn¬
ing, to his nearer neighbour Aberfeldy. About a mile farther
on are two localities respectively bearing the expressive deno¬
minations of “ The Thief s Pot,” and “ The Gallows’ Hill.”
These classic spots are held sacred to the memory of that great
effort of political subordination and marital affection which
prompted the high-souled Highland spouse to say to her rebel¬
lious husband, “ Get up, John, and be hanged, and dinna
anger the lairdbut, as in the case of other heroic acts, Dee-
side is not without competitors for this honour.
On the north side of the river, between the forty-eighth
and forty-ninth mile-stones, are the kirk, manse, school, and
post-office of Crathie. Nearly opposite the manse, the river is
crossed by an elegant suspension bridge, which conducts the
tourist to Crathie Bridge, a pretty little village or clachan,
consisting of about twenty cottages of a superior class. About
a quarter of a mile west from this village is
Balmoral Castle,
the Scottish summer residence of her Majesty. The vale or
dell in which it stands is formed by a circumvallation of “ the
everlasting hills,” being, really,
“ With rock-wall encircled, with precipice crown’d.”
The southern section, more spacious than the other, is in
superficial shape a wooded haugh, or natural platform, sloping
gently from under the shade of Craig-an-Gowans’ shaggy side