Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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22 The Branksome Si ogan to find as there were no kind cottagers to guide us on our way, but we succeeded in the end. This one has no pulpit but it still has a wall that was built around the entrance to keep the worshippers safe in times of danger. Next to this cave is a smaller one in which an old woman and her daughter are said to have lived but it has filled up considerably since then so that it is impossible to enter. That night we spent at Ullapool, which is quite a ' large town compared with most of the villages up there. The next day was as glorious as the day before and the morning was very good for photographic purposes although it grew hazy later. From Ullapool to Kylesku there are two roads, one of which goes through the hills and is the better for scenery, and the other by the coast. We wished to visit Achiltibuie, which is right opposite the Summer Isles and so we went by the coast road. After we left Achiltibuie, we caught a last glipipse of the famous Coolin hills in Skye far off in the distance. We joined the main road just past Loch Assynt and made our way to Scourie without any further hap- pening. The inn there was filled with fishermen and the walls were covered with models of some of their trophies. The next day, one of the ghilHes took us to see the Worship Stones at Eddrachillis, a circular wall of stones with one large one as the pulpit, used, as were the preaching caves, by the Free Church. He also showed us where the Covenanters are supposed to have held Communion. He was not very sure of the exact spot and so we had to walk what seemed like several miles over boggy heather. The point farthest north which we touched was Durness, which we reached that morning. Nearly every- where we went there seemed to be an hotel which had been burned down and Durness was no exception. We stopped there to fill up with petrol and learned that the hotel had been burned twenty years before. Near here is a ruined chapel which was built in 1619. In the chapel itself is the grave of someone who died not long after it was built, and outside is the graveyard for the surrounding district in which are buried the people who have died since it was first used for that pur- pose. Rob Doun, a famous Gaelic poet, is buried here.

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The Branksomk Slogan 21 My Trip Around the North of Scotland Althoug h many people go to Great Britain every summer and tour most of England and southern Scotland, few people venture north of Inverness into some of the finest country in the v hole of the British Isles. On the West Coast of Scotland, particularly, are some of the most mag- nificent and awe-inspiring hills, of which someone once said that Dante must have had them in mind when he wrote his Inferno. This summer I spent a short time motoring through some of that glorious country. The first day was wet and misty and so we were unable to see much on our way from Inverness across to Gairloch on the West Coast. The next morning was as fresih and lovely as you could wish and we left Gairloch in a blaze of sunshine. As we did not have far to go, we were able to make our way in a leisurely fashion — I should say, we had to, as the roads are by no means as wide nor so well paved as the highways of Ontario. That morning we visited about the most perfect specimen left of what nowadays is a place of great interest but what once was almost a place of refuge — one of the preaching caves used by the Free Church after the Disruption of 1843. The entrance to this cave is quite hard to find, but with the assistance of the people living nearby, we found it in the end and it was well worth the trouble. Most of these caves are quite bare, but this particular one at Cove still has its pulpit and a few of the pews. Unfortunately the pulpit has been spoiled iby uneducated trippers who have insisted on carving their names upon it. We spent some time there and took several photographs to remind us of the determination of those people to stand for religious freedom. After we left it we went to another cave near Laide which was still harder

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The Branksome Si ogan 23 From Durness we went on our way through Tongue to Bettyihill and aifter then the interest in our trip was practically at an end as we started on our way south back to ordinary, everyday life. The only other place of interest through which we passed was Kildonan, from where Lord Selkirk brought a number of his settlers to Western Canada. It was with great regret that we left the North. The signposts marked To the South seemed ordinary and commonplace, while those marked To the North seemed full of mystery and unexpected loveliness, so much so that we even took a photograph of one of those signs. After the romance of the North, nothing in the South could satisfy us and w€ are looking forward to going back another year to that lovely country MOLLY SCLATER (Clan Macleod). Starting Clang! clang! clang! The unwelcome sound of the bell Reaches the ears of the weary ones In the beds they love so well. the Day Grab, grab, grab, Your face-cloth, towel and brush, The one who gets to the bathroom first Avoids the general rush. Cold, cold, cold, In the world outside the covers — Won ' t somebody shut the window? But the same way feel the others. Pull, pull, pull, On the middy, skirt and tic, Pin up the locks and fasten the pins, Then down the stairs to fly. Run, run, run, To the other side of the room, Shut the window, turn on the light, And brighten the sleepy gloom. AUDREY Clang! clang! clang! But we ' re safe on the morning run; The late-bell may ring, but we joyfully sing. For our day is well begun. SHAW, Form IV (Clan McGregor).