The Monastery: Large Print

We have said, that most of the feuars dwelt in the village belonging to their townships.This was not, however, universally the case. A lonely tower, to which the reader must nowbe introduced, was at least one exception to the general rule.It was of small dimensions, yet larger than those which occurred in the village, asintimating that, in case of assault, the proprietor would have to rely upon his ownunassisted strength. Two or three miserable huts, at the foot of the fortalice, held thebondsmen and tenants of the feuar. The site was a beautiful green knoll, which started upsuddenly in the very throat of a wild and narrow glen, and which, being surrounded, excepton one side, by the winding of a small stream, afforded a position of considerable strength.But the great security of Glendearg, for so the place was called, lay in its secluded, andalmost hidden situation. To reach the tower, it was necessary to travel three miles up theglen, crossing about twenty times the little stream, which, winding through the narrowvalley, encountered at every hundred yards the opposition of a rock or precipitous bank onthe one side, which altered its course, and caused it to shoot off in an oblique direction tothe other. The hills which ascend on each side of this glen are very steep, and rise boldlyover the stream, which is thus imprisoned within their barriers. The sides of the glen areimpracticable for horse, and are only to be traversed by means of the sheep-paths which liealong their sides. It would not be readily supposed that a road so hopeless and so difficultcould lead to any habitation more important than the summer shealing of a shepherd.Yet the glen, though lonely, nearly inaccessible, and sterile, was not then absolutely voidof beauty. The turf which covered the small portion of level ground on the sides of thestream, was as close and verdant as if it had occupied the scythes of a hundred gardenersonce a-fortnight; and it was garnished with an embroidery of daisies and wild flowers, which the scythes would certainly have destroyed. The little brook, now confined betwixtcloser limits, now left at large to choose its course through the narrow valley, dancedcarelessly on from stream to pool, light and unturbid, as that better class of spirits whopass their way through life, yielding to insurmountable obstacles, but as far from beingsubdued by them as the sailor who meets by chance with an unfavourable wind, andshapes his course so as to be driven back as little as possible