The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

Loch Torridon: a Poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne

I recently added the above engraving of Loch Torridon to the page "Art of the NW Highlands, part 2". The artist, John MacWhirter is, after all, well-known, and I thought it merited a place on that page. I have only recently discoverd that it accompanies a significant poem with the same title, "Loch Torridon" by Algernon Charles Swinburne. It was published in an 1890 edition of "The Magazine of Art", along with further images of Torridon and Loch Maree.

Swinburne was an eccentric 19thC character. Apparently, he liked to be flogged, so perhaps it is not surprising that Queen Victoria refused to countenance his appointment of Poet Laureate, after the death of Tennyson, "on moral grounds"! However, the poem is well worth reading, a rare description in verse of the region by an English visitor of note. It is not known when he made his trip to the far north. AI suggests it was a youthful expedition, c.1857/8, some 25 years before he wrote the poem. It clearly made a deep impression on him.

It is also not known when John MacWhirter visited the far north, but a search online reveals a watercolour of Loch Maree. The painting is not dated.