(84) Plate XXXIX/a

                                                               Plate XXXIX.

                                              THE TROSACKS.

PERTHSHIRE not only contains some of the most beautiful scenery in North Britain, but some also of the
most sublime. The present plate is an example of the latter. The Trosacks are often visited by those
persons, who are fond of seeing nature in her wildest and most unpolished garb. They consist of large
broken masses of rock and mountain thrown into every fantastic shape, as well as some others of a most
stupendous height. By passing along the southern side of Ben Ledi, a traveller may wind along the sides
of two beautiful lakes, which present him with a variety of the finest scenery. The fore grounds are en-
riched with wood, which sometimes admits, and at others secludes, the exposure of the lakes and distant
mountains. In walking along the north side the road is in some parts cut out of the solid rock, two hun-
dred feet above the perpendicular of the lake, and in others passes along the bottom of some rugged and
stupendous masses of rock. In order to examine this spot in all its parts, it is necessary to sail along the
lake to what is called the "Rock and Den of the Ghost," in the dark recesses of which a fanciful and rude
imagination might conceive some supernatural beings to have fixed their residence.—In this neighbourhood
is also the celebrated Glen Finlass, now more generally known from the beautiful poem of Mr. Walter
Scott, which bears the same name, and is published in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border."—When
a person first enters the Trosacks, there appears such an assemblage of wildness and grandeur, as renders
every description inadequate to convey a satisfactory idea: it seems as if a whole mountain had been torn
in pieces by a convulsion of nature, and the huge fragments of its rocks and woods scattered in confusion
along the sides of Loch Ketterin. The access to this lake is through a narrow pass. The rocks are of a
great height, and by their projection seem ready to fall on the head of the traveller, and crush him in their
ruins.—We cannot conclude this description without mentioning the name of Lady Perth, whose good
taste and liberality have caused wicker huts to be placed at the most remarkable points of view.—This
drawing was made in 1799.