Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 1 (1869).djvu/46

30 He walked "where pines are grand in Glen-Mally," and saw all the country which in a few lines here and there he has pictured so powerfully in "The Bothie." The expression about Ben Nevis, with the morning sprinkling of snow on his shoulders, is absolutely true to reality.

'In this expedition he came to Glenfinnan, at the head of Loch Shiel, the place where Prince Charles met the Highland clans, and unfurled his standard. Here there used to stand a nice quiet little-frequented inn, where one could live for weeks undisturbed. But at the time when Clough reached it, a great gathering was being held there. The Queen had gone to Loch Laggan, and the ships that escorted her to Fort William were lying at the head of Loch Linnhe. McDonald of Glen Aladale had invited all the officers of these ships to have a day's deer-stalking on his property of Glen Aladale, down the side of Loch Shiel, and to have a ball at the Glenfinnan Inn, after their day's sport. Clough came in for the ball. It was a strange gathering the English sailors, officers, a few Highland lairds, Highland farmers and shepherds, with their wives and daughters, were all met together at the ball. Clough and one of his reading party were invited to join the dance, and they danced Highland reels, and went through all the festivities like natives. The uproar was immense, and the ludicrous scenes not few. He often used to speak of it afterwards, as one of the motliest, drollest gatherings he had ever fallen in with.

'Often afterwards he used to speak of his Scotch adventures with great heartiness. There was much in the ways of life he saw there that suited the simplicity of his nature. Even when Englishmen would laugh at the baldness of our Presbyterian services, he would defend them as better than English ritualism and formality.'

To these reminiscences of Mr. Shairp's may be added some notes supplied by Professor Conington, of his recollections of the speeches made by Clough in the debates of a society at