Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/159

Rh men were more like wild beasts than human beings. The Grahams had a strong castle on the other side of the Oichills. Two lions, whose dens had only a ridge of hills for a barrier between them, could not be restrained from injurious encroachments on each other's territory. Accordingly, when the Campbells were away, the Grahams stormed and burnt; and, in return, Argyle laid waste and levelled to ruins the castle of Graham, near Auchterarder. There is a small remain of a curious subterraneous passage from the former inhabited part of Castle Campbell, cut in the rock down to the burn; from which the inhabitants of it could get water in safety, and unseen by their enemies from the heights of the surrounding mountains, when they were besieged. There are some pretty falls of the burn, but very difficult to get at them.

The old man who keeps the key of the ruin, in giving the history of the castle, added a piece of wit of a lady of the house of Campbell, in very remote times. This poor lady was confined in this solitary castle (her mind was somewhat deranged), and being asked one day what made her so melancholy.—"How can I be otherwise?" she replied; "being born in grief, christened in