bower,
From Comyn's lone and moated tower,
From where our chief with skilful eye
Watched wonders in the midnight sky,
From Tomachastel's haunted brow,
From cell for Ronan's prayer and vow,
From lordly Drummond's forest wall,
From Lochlane's grim empannelled hall,
From stately Turleum clothed in pine,
And every height surrounding mine.
'Twere idle then each tale to tell,
Of ancient feat by stream or dell,
From Benychonzie's snow-clad breast
To green Glenartney in the west,
Or round by sweet Dunira's den,
Where "bonnie Kilmanie gaed up the glen."
No need I ween of distant view
My sauntering footsteps hence to woo;
No need of song or knightly feat
To add new charm to my retreat.
Its own associations claim
Far better meed than modern fame,
With books and scenes and neighbours sage,
I commune with a former age.

BETWEEN STRATHALLAN AND STRATHEARN

By Rev. JAMES MACGIBBON, B.D., Blackford.

The name Blackford was given, according to tradition, by an ancient
king of Caledonia, whose experience in passing the River Allan at this
point was of the saddest. The stream spread itself out in those days,
says the story, so as to be more lake than stream. When the king came
to it with his queen and suite the waters were deep and the current
strong. It must have been at night surely, if we are to have any faith
in the tale, for the poor queen was carried away beyond help and hope.
They drained the strath dry to recover the body; and a solitary knoll
on the Allan's bank some way below the present village marks the place
where they found and buried the remains of fair Queen Helen. Hence the
name Blackford. In the days of the Roman occupation the legionaries
frequented this upper part of Strathallan, and have left traces of
their presence. Many of them, indeed, must have quartered near; for at
the Loaninghead, about two miles east of the village, there is an
undeniable Roman camp, an outpost of the great camp at Ardoch.

But the earliest historical reference to Blackford is in Blind Harry's
"Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace." After taking the peel of
Gargunnock, Wallace and his men passed up Strathallan on the way to
Methven, and at Blackford met a party of the English, whom they slew,
and threw their bodies into the Allan.

"At yai Blackfurd, as at yai suld pass our,[1]
A squeir come, and with hym bernys four.
Till Doun suld ryd and wend at yai had beyn