Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/388

370 abandoned by Providence; and the cause of its desolation seems to have been a hard shower of black rocks, poured upon it from the surrounding masses; and although the fragments lie almost as thick as hailstones, yet not visibly have these mountains been decreased either in height or in bulk. This glen, when viewed from above, or within it, seems as if it were the ne plus ultra of all things; but wild as it is, Glen Croe, as well as Glen Coe, has charms for me, and I was sorry to lose sight of it. Had not night and rain been coming on, I should have loitered in this uncommonly wild region.

The reason why the hill above described, as well as the pass, is called "Rest-and-be-Thankful," is as follows.—In the year 1746, the 24th regiment, Lord Ancram Colonel, and Duroure Major of it, being employed in making that road to Inveraray, as I have been informed by a good friend of mine, who was a young Lieutenant in that regiment; when they had completed the zig-zag to the top of the hill, they set up a stone like a tombstone, under a black rock, and engraved thereon the words, "rest and be thankful." The stone is still there, though not under a black rock; but it is raised upon a broken bank, and