Further trip report
Jun. 25th, 2022 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaFurther British foods had:
Bread pudding: well, that's an odd dish! But I liked it fine.
Sticky toffee pudding: oh, yum!
Cullen Skink (smocked haddock, potato and leek soup): yes, good!
Bird species seen: 66. This is mostlyregshoe's doing! Only new species for me so far is the black crow, but I have high hopes of the Isle of Rum.
Okay, further trip report:
The river Garry, which poor Keith forded with an injured ankle: "The next obstacle was a river, which he had to cross as best he could on insecure and slippery stones, and the difficulties of doing this with an injured ankle took his mind off remoter possibilities, so that when he was safely over he was surprised to find the ominous tower well behind him, and he went on somewhat cheered."
We tried to find a likely spot for Keith and Ewen's first meeting by Loch Oich side: "And he still had the watch in his hand when his ear was caught by the sound of horse’s hoofs behind him. He stopped to listen. The pace, a smart trot, did not seem hurried; the rider might be some unconcerned traveller. But he might on the other hand be an enemy. Keith Windham looked for cover, but here there was none convenient as a while ago, and the best he could do was to hobble on ahead to where a solitary oak-tree reared itself by the side of the road, for he was minded to have something to set his back against if necessary."
But unfortunately there was a lot of spruce plantation there. /o\ But here are two fairly old oaks, perhaps the descendants of the tree Keith had at his back. Sorry, you don't get to see the silly photo where I pose with a stick pretending to be Keith with a sword. : P
At the West Highland Museum in Fort William. This is a targe/target (shield), like the one Ewen would have had.
A 1740's picture of the mutiny of the Black Watch in 1743, or rather its aftermath with the soldiers being marched to be shot. : ( They wanted to go home to the Highlands rather than be sent to serve in the West Indies... There's a sympathetic verse at the bottom.
A 1755 painting of Fort Augustus, useful for fic research.
Same for Fort William. I must say, I had pictured that fort to be larger. But the outer walls are 20 feet high, so maybe the picture doesn't do it justice. I am sad to say that Ewen's escape through the window in Gleam in the North is not possible, because none of the buildings adjoin the outer walls.
Another one, including the buildings of Maryburgh.
Part of the outer wall of Fort William, pretty much all that's left. But these walls are only about 10 feet high, so picture that twice as high.
The actual warrant for the arrest of Alan Breck Stewart for the Appin murder! : D I have an easier-to-read text if you can't read it.
Heh. Poor Charles Edward, to have people constantly cutting off bits of his clothes to keep every time he turned his back...I was very interested in the bits of old tartan. They called it "hard tartan", and apparently the weave was different back in the 18th century: much tighter, which I imagine would have made it much more wind- and rain-resistant. Much like Ventile, perhaps?
An old pine tree at Glenfinnan, where there was a fragment of old pine forest left. If it had been in Sweden, I would have judged it between 300 and 400 years old? Was definitely there for the events of Flight of the Heron, at least: "So, scornful but half interested too, Keith Windham had been present at a scene which, a week ago, he could little have imagined himself witnessing, when, on the stretch of level ground at the head of Loch Shiel, among that wild and lonely scenery, a thousand Highland throats acclaimed the fair-haired young man standing below the folds of his banner, and the very air seemed to flash with the glitter of their drawn blades. It was very romantical and absurd, of course, besides being rank rebellion; but there was no denying that these deluded and shaggy mountaineers were in earnest, and Lochiel too, who was neither shaggy nor—so it seemed to the observer—deluded in quite the same sense . . . and certainly not absurd."
Sadlyregshoe did not get to see any crested tits, eagles, or black-throated divers here, all birds which I have seen in Sweden but she has not.
We did Morar today, I'll report from that in the next one...
Bread pudding: well, that's an odd dish! But I liked it fine.
Sticky toffee pudding: oh, yum!
Cullen Skink (smocked haddock, potato and leek soup): yes, good!
Bird species seen: 66. This is mostly
regshoe's doing! Only new species for me so far is the black crow, but I have high hopes of the Isle of Rum. Okay, further trip report:
The river Garry, which poor Keith forded with an injured ankle: "The next obstacle was a river, which he had to cross as best he could on insecure and slippery stones, and the difficulties of doing this with an injured ankle took his mind off remoter possibilities, so that when he was safely over he was surprised to find the ominous tower well behind him, and he went on somewhat cheered."
We tried to find a likely spot for Keith and Ewen's first meeting by Loch Oich side: "And he still had the watch in his hand when his ear was caught by the sound of horse’s hoofs behind him. He stopped to listen. The pace, a smart trot, did not seem hurried; the rider might be some unconcerned traveller. But he might on the other hand be an enemy. Keith Windham looked for cover, but here there was none convenient as a while ago, and the best he could do was to hobble on ahead to where a solitary oak-tree reared itself by the side of the road, for he was minded to have something to set his back against if necessary."
But unfortunately there was a lot of spruce plantation there. /o\ But here are two fairly old oaks, perhaps the descendants of the tree Keith had at his back. Sorry, you don't get to see the silly photo where I pose with a stick pretending to be Keith with a sword. : P
At the West Highland Museum in Fort William. This is a targe/target (shield), like the one Ewen would have had.
A 1740's picture of the mutiny of the Black Watch in 1743, or rather its aftermath with the soldiers being marched to be shot. : ( They wanted to go home to the Highlands rather than be sent to serve in the West Indies... There's a sympathetic verse at the bottom.
A 1755 painting of Fort Augustus, useful for fic research.
Same for Fort William. I must say, I had pictured that fort to be larger. But the outer walls are 20 feet high, so maybe the picture doesn't do it justice. I am sad to say that Ewen's escape through the window in Gleam in the North is not possible, because none of the buildings adjoin the outer walls.
Another one, including the buildings of Maryburgh.
Part of the outer wall of Fort William, pretty much all that's left. But these walls are only about 10 feet high, so picture that twice as high.
The actual warrant for the arrest of Alan Breck Stewart for the Appin murder! : D I have an easier-to-read text if you can't read it.
Heh. Poor Charles Edward, to have people constantly cutting off bits of his clothes to keep every time he turned his back...I was very interested in the bits of old tartan. They called it "hard tartan", and apparently the weave was different back in the 18th century: much tighter, which I imagine would have made it much more wind- and rain-resistant. Much like Ventile, perhaps?
An old pine tree at Glenfinnan, where there was a fragment of old pine forest left. If it had been in Sweden, I would have judged it between 300 and 400 years old? Was definitely there for the events of Flight of the Heron, at least: "So, scornful but half interested too, Keith Windham had been present at a scene which, a week ago, he could little have imagined himself witnessing, when, on the stretch of level ground at the head of Loch Shiel, among that wild and lonely scenery, a thousand Highland throats acclaimed the fair-haired young man standing below the folds of his banner, and the very air seemed to flash with the glitter of their drawn blades. It was very romantical and absurd, of course, besides being rank rebellion; but there was no denying that these deluded and shaggy mountaineers were in earnest, and Lochiel too, who was neither shaggy nor—so it seemed to the observer—deluded in quite the same sense . . . and certainly not absurd."
Sadly
regshoe did not get to see any crested tits, eagles, or black-throated divers here, all birds which I have seen in Sweden but she has not. We did Morar today, I'll report from that in the next one...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-25 05:58 pm (UTC)I love your photos and quotes.
So happy to see that painting of Maryburgh! I once spent ages trawling the internet trying to find out what building materials the houses of Maryburgh were made from. I ended up going with "a huddle of low granite buildings clustered by the waterside, their roofs a patchwork of dark slate, thatch and tar-covered canvas". Which was apparently not totally inaccurate g (Though I guess things might have been different before and after it was burnt in the siege.)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-25 06:16 pm (UTC)But obviously I sympathize with your deep research dive...the people at the museum seemed friendly, I'm pretty sure one could email them for help, if needed.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-25 07:02 pm (UTC)Oh no! sobs It looks like stone at this level of resolution.
Although I have to spare a thought for the inhabitants of those houses. Imagine being told "please build your house in wood so it can easily be burnt" !
(no subject)
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Date: 2022-06-28 05:16 am (UTC)I am appreciating the Flight of the Heron illustrations! ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-28 08:47 am (UTC)I am appreciating the Flight of the Heron illustrations! ;)
I'm glad you do! : D
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-05 12:28 am (UTC)Do you think maybe the Garry was lower during August/September? I don't know what its source is, and how much seasonal fluctuation one might expect from it.
The period paintings of the forts are indeed enlightening! I can't get over how open the Glen was. When Keith talks about how oppressive and overbearing the mountains are, this big wide expanse of openness is not at all what I expect it to look like.
As far as Ewen escaping from a window at Fort William goes, however, I'm sure he just used his rope and his Achillean strength to puuuuuuuuuuuuull the wall a little closer. ;-)
And what a magnificent pine!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-06 10:25 am (UTC)I found the Great Glen most narrow at Loch Oich, which in general is the most narrow of the lochs, with the steepest sides. But actually the surface level of the lochs have changed since the 18th century, since the creation of the Caledonian Canal and the locks between the lochs. So the shoreline isn't the same; I think Loch Lochy is higher than it was earlier.
I can't get over how open the Glen was. When Keith talks about how oppressive and overbearing the mountains are, this big wide expanse of openness is not at all what I expect it to look like.
And it was even more open then, because of the lack of the pine plantations, which are definitely oppressive! Although it's possible Keith would not have found them so, since 18th century sentiments have a lot to do with whether the land was usefully cultivated. Plantations are humans using the land and mountains are in this view useless and wild.