Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland . TANTALLON CASTLE. Upon the top of the rock gushes out a spring of clear water, and there is ver-dure enough to support a few sheep. The Bass was long the stronghold of afamily of the name of Lauder, one of whom distinguished himself as a com-patriot of Wallace. The castle, situated on the south side of theisland, is nowruinous. In 1()71 it was sold by the Lauder family, for £4000, to Charlesn., by whom it was converted into a royal fortress aud state of the most eminent of the Covenanters were confined here. Atthe Revolution, it Avas the la
Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland . TANTALLON CASTLE. Upon the top of the rock gushes out a spring of clear water, and there is ver-dure enough to support a few sheep. The Bass was long the stronghold of afamily of the name of Lauder, one of whom distinguished himself as a com-patriot of Wallace. The castle, situated on the south side of theisland, is nowruinous. In 1()71 it was sold by the Lauder family, for £4000, to Charlesn., by whom it was converted into a royal fortress aud state of the most eminent of the Covenanters were confined here. Atthe Revolution, it Avas the last stronghold in Great Britain that held out PAST CASTLE. 151 for James VII.; but after a resistance of several months, the garrisonwere at last compelled to surrender, by the failure of their supplies ofprovisions. The Bass is now the property of Sir Hew Dalrymple, may be hired for visiting it at North Berwick, or at Cauty Bay,iRar Tautallon, upon due notice being Fast Castle (the Wolfs Crag of the Bride of Lammermoor) forms anagreeable days excursion from Edinburgh by the North British Railway,conung out at Cockburnspath Station, 37 miles distant. Fast Castle isabout .5 miles distant from that station. The promontory on which the castle is biult derives its name from anancient stronghold, built upon the very point of the precipitous castle is thus described in the tragic tale mentioned above :— The roarof the sea had long annovmced their approach to the cliffs, on the summit ofAvhich, like the nest of some sea-eagle, the founder of the fortalice hadperched his eyry. Tlie pale moon, which had hitherto been contending withflitting clouds, now shone out, and gave them a view of the solitary andnaked tower, situated on a projecting cliff, that beetled on the GermanOcean. On three sides, the rock was precipitous; on the fourth, whicliwas that towards the land, it had been originally fenced by an artificial 152 EXCURSIONS FROM EDINBUR
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidblackspictur, bookyear1857
