d
by "Ellen's Isle," as it is called, the most exquisite little island
ever formed, a perfect oval, and all covered with the purple heather,
the golden gorse, and all sorts of flowers and exquisitely beautiful
trees. O, what a little paradise it is! A number of little row-boats,
with fine-looking Highland rowers and gay companies of ladies and
gentlemen, were visiting the island as we passed. They show the oak
tree to which they say Ellen fastened her boat. It was beautiful to see
the glancing of the sunlight on the oars of these boats, and the bright
colors of the shawls and bonnets of the ladies in them, and to witness
this homage to nature 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 jewel