(Distance walked twenty-five and a half miles.)

Thursday, September 28th.

After breakfast we commissioned Mrs. MacPherson to engage the services of the guide to conduct us to the top of Ben Nevis, which is 4,406 feet high, offering to pay him the sum of one sovereign for his services.  We had passed the old castle of Inverlochy in the dark of the previous night, and, as we wished to visit it in the daylight that morning, we arranged that the guide should meet us on a bridge outside the town, which we must cross on our way to and from what we were told was once a royal castle, where King Achius signed a treaty with Charlemagne.  The castle was some distance from the town, and quite near the famous distillery where the whisky known as “Long John” or the “Dew of Ben Nevis” was produced.  We found ready access to the ruins, as the key had been left in the gate of the walled fence which surrounded them.  “Prince Charlie,” we learned, had “knocked” the castle to its present shape from an adjoining hill, and what he had left of it now looked very solitary.  It was a square structure, with four towers one at each corner, that at the north-west angle being the most formidable.  The space enclosed was covered with grass.  What interested us most were four very old guns, or cannons, which stood in front of the castle, mounted on wheels supported on wood planks, and as they were of a very old pattern, these relics of the past added materially to the effect of the ancient and warlike surroundings.

We did not stay long in the ruins, as we were anxious to begin our big climb, so we returned to the bridge to await the arrival of the guide engaged for us by our hostess, and whom we had not yet seen.  We waited there for more than half an hour, and were just on the point of returning to the town when we noticed the approach of a military-looking man carrying a long staff spiked at one end, who turned out to be the gentleman we were waiting for, and under whose guidance we soon began the ascent of the big mountain.  After climbing for some time, we came to a huge stone on which the Government engineers had marked the altitude as 1,000 feet above sea-level, and as we climbed higher still we had a grand view of the hills and waters in the distance.  We went bravely onward and upward until we arrived at a lake, where on a rock we saw the Government mark known as the “broad arrow,” an emblem which we also saw in many other places as we walked through the country, often wondering what the sign could mean.  We surmised that it stood for England, Scotland, and Ireland united in one kingdom, but we afterwards learned that it was introduced at the end of the seventeenth century to mark Government stores, and that at one time it had a religious significance connected with the Holy Trinity.  The altitude was also marked on the rock as 2,200 feet, so that we had now ascended half-way to the top of Ben Nevis.

[Illustration:]