Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/210

192 most westerly of the Western Islands. If St. Kilda be such at present, as it is described to be, what must it have been when poor Lady Grange was turned adrift upon it? Her husband probably carried her to the last rock that could be found to the west; and concluding that that rock was desolate, put her thereon, that she might perish for want of food.

From Mieklour we one morning set out to visit the fine fall of Isla, called the Reeky Lin. We passed through Blair Gowrie, the small town of Rattry, and proceeded to Ailyth, amongst the wildest of the Stormount hills. Torrents of rain fell during our drive thither, so that the burn, which comes from the forest of Ailyth, and runs through the town, was rushing down its precipitate bed with the utmost violence, joined by many streams from every quarter. The town of Ailyth lies upon the declivity of a steep hill; and the streets are so narrow, and sloping, and were rendered so slippery with the wet, that I thought it impossible for the horses to draw the chaise up. After leaving the town of Ailyth, the road became worse and worse; in some parts very steep, with loose ground; in others, boggy, narrow, and rough, beyond belief. At length,