Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 3

THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. 425
all these personal charms she added much natural kindness and gentle-
ness of disposition. Though Jessie Macgregor was probably not insensible
to her great personal attractions, she Avas by no means desirous of gaining
unmerited conquests ; she neither ckessed gaudily nor exposed herself un-
necessarily ill any public place, where real business did not bring her there.
On the contrary, her greatest delight was in tending to her father's herd ;
and her sweet and melodious voice was often heard sounding through the
glen, as she sang with a merry heart, and trode with a light step of an
evening on her way to and from the shealing with her flowing milk pails.
Jessie was thoroughly domesticated. AVlien not tending her cows, or
assisting her father in his labours on his croft, she busied herself in
carding, spinning, and knitting alternately.
Donald had annually a guodly number of fat cattle to dispose of, and
for these he found a ready market at Crieff, to which place, his daughter,
Jessie, regularly accompanied him in the capacity of gillie since she was
eight years of age. There was no small personal danger incurred on the
route from Lochearn to Crielf and back in those days, more especially if
the pedestrian was suspected of having any money in his possession ; for
the dense wood which then grew, and stretched from Donald's cottage to
the narrow defile beyond St Fillan's, was, as I have already said,
infested by robbers and cattle-lifters ; and the former were as annoying
to the wayfarer and the surrounding inhabitants, as ever the Neishes
were, who, a century before, inhabited the little island at the east end of
Lochearn, called after themselves, jSTeish Island.
At the neat little village of St Fillan's, named after Fillan, the son of
Iveutigerna, who was prior of Pittenweem, and the favourite Saint of Ilobert
Bruce, is a well, out of which the Saint was in the habit of diinkmg very
copiously, and which is said to be not only efficacious for the cure of
many diseases, but which will also beautify the complexion of those who
drink of its water at certain seasons. The Maid of Lochearn, it is alleged,
never passed this well, late or early, without kneeling on its brink and
drinking of its water ; and this, says tradition, may account in some
degree for the unrivalled purity of her wdiite skin.
The last occasion the Maid of Lochearn ever accompanied her father
to Crieff" in the capacity of gillie, was when in her eighteenth year. She
was then the very picture of immaculate perfection. Innocent as the
new-born babe, and beautiful beyond comparison, she was the centre of
all the graces and the master-piece of her sex — her breath as fresh and frag-
rant as the sweet air of her native valley. Donald Macgregor having, as
usual, a lot of excellent cattle — the very best exposed for sale at Crieif
tliat day — he soon found purchasers, Avho gave him remunerative prices ;
but as the cattle were not taken off" his hands till near sunset, it was just
dark when he and his fair daughter started for Lochearn. Being
fully alive to the many dangers by Avhich their long and dreary road was
beset, Donald, before leaving Criett', gave the money, for greater security,
to his daughter, who rolled it up in her handkerchief, and placed it in her
milk-white breast. They then commenced their homeward journey ; and
to make the dreariness of the rough road as lightsome to his daughter as
possible, ])onald, as usual, amused her by giving graphic descriptions of
the differed country-seats, and other places of note which, as they pro-