Monday 11th October 1819
Monday Oct 11th At ½ past seven in the morning we started for Loch Katrine the Inn 10 miles off where we breakfasted is situated a mile & ½ from the lake the road to it is exceedingly bad but the country fine & mountainous; after breakfast the day which was very unfavourable became so much worse that the gentlemen thought it advisable for the ladies not to venture out but they returned & we all went to the east end of the loch in the carriage over a wretched road where we entered a boat with a very agreeable party whom we met there & rowed about 4 miles up the lake I cannot describe the beauty of this loch surrounded by the Trosachs rendered doubly interesting by being the subject of Walter Scotts poem the autumn tints also added greatly to the richness of the mountains which are covered with oak & the clouds
now & then dispersing & disclosing the tops of the most rugged mountains complement to render the scene truly enchanting the rain however which continued violently did not prevent us to enjoy it & about 3 o’clock we returned to Callander in the evening the party we met drank tea with us.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Loch Katrine is a freshwater loch and is a popular destination for tourists and day visitors from Glasgow and nearby towns. The loch derives its name from the term cateran from the Gaelic ceathairne, a collective word meaning cattle thief or possibly peasantry. Historically this referred to a band of fighting men of a clan; hence the term applied to marauders or cattle-lifters, which Rob Roy MacGregor, a respectable cattle owner was erroneously accused of being.
1810: Loch Katrine by Alexander Nasmyth, 1810 reproduced by Stephencdickson, the copyright holder of this work, and published it under the (CC BY-SA 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loch_Katrine_by_Alexander_Nasmyth,_1810.JPG
2000: Loch Katrine. Taken just above Stronachlachar, looking eastward the length of the loch which supplies Glasgow with drinking water. © Copyright Richard Webb and licensed for reuse under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) Creative Commons Licence. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/29726
It is the fictional setting of Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake and of the subsequent opera by Gioachino Rossini, La donna del lago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Katrine & https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/loch-katrine-p662921
Local Inns poor. In the first half of the 19th century, intrepid visitors to the area found conditions difficult. Thomas Carlyle visited a little inn near Loch Katrine in 1818 and found only 'bad oatcakes and unacceptable whisky' on the menu. EXCELLENT ARTICLE ON TOURISM HERE AND IN THE LAKES IN THE QUEST FOR “THE PICTURESQUE” http://www.lochlomondtrossachs.org.uk/tourist-era?showall=1&limitstart=
The Trossachs were one of the first parts of Scotland to become a recognised tourist destination due the area's position on the southern edge of the highlands and the quality of the scenery, which may be considered to represent a microcosm of a typical highland landscape.
2016:An overlook viewing an area of wooded land in the Trossachs and part of Loch Katrine by Hobbes The Great, the copyright holder of this work, and published under the (CC BY-SA 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wooded_area_of_the_Trossachs_and_Loch_Katrine.jpg
2007: Ben Venue, seen rising above Achray Forest by Grinner, the copyright holder of this work, and published under the (CC BY-SA 3.0) Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ben_Venue.JPG
2005: a loch (probably Loch Chon) in the Trossachs, Scotland by David Monniaux and licensed under the (CC BY-SA 3.0) Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trossachs_loch_dsc06739.jpg
The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy visited the area, with Dorothy publishing an account of their visit in Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in 1803. The scenic charms of the area came to popularity with Sir Walter Scott's 1810 poem The Lady of the Lake, extending his romantic portrayal of Scotland's past from border ballads to poems of a medieval past rich in chivalry and symbolism. The poem gives a roll call of Trossachs place names, the lady herself being found on Loch Katrine. Scott followed up with his 1817 historical novel Rob Roy romanticising the outlaw cattle thief Raibert Ruadh, who was born by Loch Katrine and buried at nearby Balquhidder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trossachs
The Lady of the Lake is a narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1810.
1822: Portrait of Sir Walter Scott by Henry Raeburn from the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland, Accession number PG 1286 and Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund 1935. Photographer The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 68272. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott.jpg
Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day. The poem has three main plots: the contest among three men, Roderick Dhu, James Fitz-James, and Malcolm Graeme, to win the love of Ellen Douglas; the feud and reconciliation of King James V of Scotland and James Douglas; and a war between the lowland Scots (led by James V) and the highland clans (led by Roderick Dhu of Clan Alpine).
1849: Illustration for The Lady of the Lake, poem by w:Walter Scott. Artist Alexander Johnston. Source/Photographer Art UK. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_of_the_Lake_Johnston.jpg
The poem was tremendously influential in the nineteenth century and inspired the Highland Revival. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_the_Lake_(poem)
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?