Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/318

sand in it; and which is inexhaustible; for the well has frequently been cleared to a considerable depth; notwithstanding which it filled, and rose to the usual height, in a short time. Between Mount Alexander and the bridge of Rynachan, on the south side of the river Tumel, are vestiges of a temporary habitation, which, from its Galic name, must have been built for King Robert Bruce, when his affairs being at the lowest ebb, he was received in Rannoch by Duncan of Atholl, ancestor to the Robertson's of Strowan. The exploits of that Duncan, in the wars of those times, are great subjects of the traditional stories of the inhabitants of that country. Robert of Struan, Duncan's descendant, from whom the name of Robertson is derived, did great service to the crown, by seizing the conspirators of the murder of King James the First of Scotland, when they were about to place one of themselves on the throne, to the exclusion of the infant king. In the rebellion in Charles the First's time, the then chief of the Robertson's was of infinite service; and those services were acknowledged by Charles the Second, in a letter to the then chief. Robert of Strowan was, for his services, offered an Earldom, but declined it; alledging, a title could add