as to keep time with the sweep of
the oars, and it is easy to distinguish between those intended to
be sung to the oars of a galley, where the stroke is lengthened and
doubled, as it were, and those which were timed to the rowers of an
ordinary boat" (Scott).

410. Beltane. See on 319 above.

415. Roots him. See on i. 142 above.

416. Breadalbane. The district north of Loch Lomond and around Loch
Tay. The seat of the Earl of Breadalbane is Taymouth Castle, near the
northern end of Loch Tay.

For Menteith, see on i. 89 above.

419. Glen Fruin. A valley to the southwest of Loch Lomond. The ruins
of the castle of Benuchara, or Bannochar (see on 422 just below), still
overhang the entrance to the glen.

Glen Luss is another valley draining into the lake, a few miles from
Glen Fruin, and Ross-dhu is on the shore of the lake, midway between the
two. Here stands a tower, the only remnant of the ancient castle of the
family of Luss, which became merged in that of Colquhoun.

422. The best of Loch Lomond, etc. Scott has the following note here:

"The Lennox, as the district is called which encircles the lower
extremity of Loch Lomond, was peculiarly exposed to the incursions of
the mountaineers, who inhabited the inaccessible fastnesses at the upper
end of the lake, and the neighboring district of Loch Katrine. These
were often marked by circumstances of great ferocity, of which the noted
conflict of Glen Fruin is a celebrated instance. This was a clan-battle,
in which the Macgregors, headed by Allaster Macgregor, chief of the
clan, encountered the sept of Colquhouns, commanded by Sir Humphry
Colquhoun of Luss. It is on all hands allowed that the action was
desperately fought, and that the Colquhouns were defeated with
slaughter, leaving two hundred of their name dead upon the field. But
popular tradition has added other horrors to the tale. It is said that
Sir Humphry Colquhoun, who was on horseback, escaped to the Castle of
Benechra, or Bannochar, and was next day dragged out and murdered by
the victorious Macgregors in cold blood. Buchanan of Auchmar, however,
speaks of his slaughter as a subsequent event, and as perpetrated by the
Macfarlanes. Again, it is reported that the Macgregors murdered a
number of youths, whom report of the intended battle had brought to be
spectators, and whom the Colquhouns, anxious for their safety, had shut
up in a barn to be out of danger. One account of the Macgregors deni