trusting too much to the strength of their situation, fell a prey to this unusual, but well-concerted, mode of attack. Loch-Dochart is said to possess the phenomenon of a floating island, which may be pushed about the surface of the water with poles; it is supposed to be an accumulation of the matted roots and fibres of vegetables."-Scenery of the Grampian Mountains, &c. &c. By George Fennell Robson, &c. Edit. 1819.

Note 3. p. 10.

"And now St. Fillan's Pool are near,
Whose plunging waters greet their ear,
Around the rocky cavern wheeled,
Where, of each ailment to be healed,
Flock crowds, and for the aid divine,
Pay offerings at St. Fillan's Shrine."

Saint Fillan was the Patron Saint of Breadalbane, and held in extreme reverence throughout the whole of that elevated and wild region. The pilgrims to this Sacred Pool, said to have been blessed by him, were in days of Popery extremely numerous; the waters being supposed to possess the power of curing almost every kind of ailment; and they are still, by the common people, regarded as a sovereign specific against insanity,—for the cure of which, numerous patients yet continue to be brought to it.

My guide, when I visited it, informed me, that the mode used with such patients, was to dip them over head and ears in the Pool about sunset, and lock them up alone, thus drenched, and bound hand and foot, in the dreary building near by for the night, without food, fuel, or attention of any kind; at the end of which period, if they were not found unloosed by their own or superhuman aid, they were thought to be incurable. With some classes of patients, such murderous treatment may have produced a sedative effect; but with others, it must have induced still greater madness, and often death; and my guide acknowledged, after considerable hesitation, that there were reports of some of the persons being found dead when visited in the morning.

Note 4. p. 10.

"There yet stood whole the little cell,

In which the Saint was wont to dwell," &c.

In addition to the description given in the Poem of this ancient kind of cell, in which most of those pious and venerable men resided, who converted Scotland and its Isles to Christianity, I shall here quote from an unpublished MS. Work on St. Kilda the following particulars,→→ the subject being both interesting and curious, and well worthy of illustration :

"In no case was any material used in those buildings, except stones, which were always chosen of a long flat shape, so as to overlap each other outside, like slates upon a roof, at the same time leaning inward at top, in fashion of a cone, by which means, as every tier both leaned upon the one beneath it, and had a concentric supporting force of its own, the whole tapering edifice stood firmly of itself, without beam or pillar of any kind, and had vaults or dormitories built inside at pleasure, by running up partition walls underneath the curvature. The fire was always in the middle, so as to have the vent immediately over it in the apex of the building; and this vent was shut in stormy weather, either by a broad stone or turf, laid flat over it. The circumference of these buildings at the base, was generally equal to their height; so that those of the larger kind, were often considerably elevated, and very picturesque. This effect was much heightened by the practice of covering them outside with turf, to exclude the wind and rain; so that they often appeared like grassy-green or heath-empurpled cones at a distance. It must, however, be here noted, that these cells were not always circular, but as often elongated, like a house-roof with its eaves resting on the ground;-situation, exposure, and other circumstances, dictating this variety of form, to which no idea of essential consequence was attached. There was no window in any of them; and the door always opened in the direction least exposed to the weather, and was so low and narrow, that only one person could enter at a time,and that, too, only by crawling or stooping greatly.—Such were the buildings in which the Culdees at first pursued so

successfully their great mission, and of which the first examples, as well as the first idea of his celebrated Order, were received by St. Columba at the college of Clonard, where he was sent to be educated under the celebrated Saint Finan." ***** "The original idea and plan of those cells, however, and indeed of the monastic associations also, were derived from the Druids, who lived, studied, and had their seminaries in such places, near to their altars and consecrated groves; and it is as probable that these cells were taken possession of by the early Christians when Druidism was abolished, as it is certain that the altars and consecrated groves were selected for the sites of Churches, as being spots to which the people were in the habit of resorting for worship and instruction, and where, consequently, the missionaries had the best opportunities of publicly addressing and converting them, and the best guarantees for their continued periodical attendance. Toland, in his recondite and valuable History of the Druids,' peremptorily affirms this view, and supports it with authorities and arguments, which it would be no easy task to confute."

Note 5. p. 12.

"The whole loose girnel of his news."

Girnel means an accumulation of anything, but is in strictness applied to the stores of meal, which in former

times farmers an almost all others were wont to treasure up at the end of each season, for winter consumpt. Large oaken chests, very strong and heavy, used to be kept in a particular part of almost every house for this purpose, and the contents of those capacious meal-arks, as they were commonly called, were denominated girnels.

Note 6. p. 15.

"Tis to their own ne'er satiate mill,

They draw the grist's best portion still."

Grist signifies the grain brought to a mill to be ground. In those ages, and until very recently, every proprietor bound his tenants and dependants to take all their grain to particular mills within his own property, to be ground; and those who lay under this obligation, were said to be thirled to such and such a mill. The term is well known to the law of Scotland, and figures in the reports of many a lawsuit. To bring grist to any one's mill, has passed into a proverb, indicative of selfishness, either in one's own behalf, or in behalf of individuals or corporations in whose prosperity one is interested.

For long before the period in question, and down to the Reformation, the Clergy were notorious for this habit of drawing" the grist's best portion" to their own mill; and