Travellers' Stories by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
page 16 of 40 (40%)
page 16 of 40 (40%)
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and genius which they were paying in their visit to Ellen's Isle. I
was glad to join them, and do reverence too. The heather is usually not more than two feet high,--sometimes higher, but often shorter; but on Ellen's Isle it grows to the height of four and five feet. Just before we came to Oban, we passed the estate of Lord Heigh, where we heard the following story. The origin of his name and rank is this: When King Kenneth ruled in Scotland, he was beaten in a great battle by the Danes, and his army scattered among the hills, while the enemy was marching home in triumph. A man in the Scottish army said that he knew a pass through which the victor must go, where one man might stop a thousand, and offered himself and his two sons to defend it. He came to the pass armed only with an ox-yoke, but made such use of his weapon that the Danes were kept at bay, till the Scots rallied and cut them to pieces. When Kenneth reached the pass, he found his brave subject lying in truth quite exhausted. He raised him up, and inquired his name; the fainting man could only gasp, "Heigh-ho, heigh!" From that moment he was called the Lord of Heigh, and the king gave him as much land as an eagle could fly over without alighting. The family arms are an eagle on the wing over an ox-yoke. At Edinburgh, I went to see the Regalia, which are kept in a small room in the castle, in which they were found after being buried there for more than a century. It is a small room, not more than twelve feet square. On one side is the iron chest in which the Regalia were found; and in the middle of the room is a marble table, entirely white, surrounded by an iron grating, on which is the crown which Robert Bruce had made for himself, the sword of James the First, the signet ring of Charles the First, and other jewels that |
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