Identifier: cu31924013619725 (find matches)
Title: Notes on the District of Menteith, for tourists and others
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Cunninghame Graham, R. B. (Robert Bontine), 1852-1936
Subjects:
Publisher: Stirling, (Scot.) Eneas Mackay
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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e Menteith district. Naturally, as Gaelic be-came forgotten, the pronunciation of the namesbecame a matter of personal convenience ratherthan etymology, and as in Spain, where theArabic names have often been mangled beyondrecognition, the Gaelic words in Menteith havesuffered a sad Lowland change. Never shall Iforget the efforts of a grave Arab to preserve hisgravity before a restored Arabic inscription in aSpanish church. It appeared the verse of theKoran had been written upside down, and severalletters wrongly made, so that the inscriptionassigned some attributes to God which even atrue believer could with difficulty reconcile tohis belief. Whether a Gaelic scholar wouldencounter a ciyptogamic joke in some of our localnames I know not, or even if joking is recognisedin Gaelic, but I am certain that names hke Critil-vean, Polybaglot, and others, would puzzle mostphilologists. One site of a clan battle none of the historiansI have mentioned seem to have dealt with. At \f \.S5s^U;^ v^-
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MENTEITH 65 Craig Vadh, above the slate quarry of Aberfoyle,on the ridge where the old Loch Katrine roadjust loses Menteith from sight, are ten or fifteenlong-shaped cairns. Here tradition has it that aband of foragers from Lochaber were overtakenby the men of Lennox and Menteith, and a fiercefight ensued. The cairns are where the deadmens bodies were found; their graves a littlefarther down the hill, buried in fern and bracken,marked by grey stones. As for burial places, folk are hard to please.Some like your quiet corner, under a yew-tree,close to some Norman church in England. Aquiet resting place enough it makes too, withthe parsons pony (or the intruding donkey ofthe Nonconformist) cropping the long lush grassabove one. Pleasant to come to in the summerevenings, when swifts flit to and fro like ghosts,and cockchafers hum in the leafy trees, are thesesame country churchyards in the south. In spite of the natural heoAitj of the land, in spiteof faith sufficient to turn all Scotland

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