Never shall I forget the feeling of animated delight with which I enjoyed this most agreeable excursion. I will love to speak of it to those whom I love; and often and often will my romantic imagination recur to it, in those reveries when I feel a gleam of more than mortal bliss, when the soul is filled with images too exquisite to pass into utterance, and more magnificent than ever appeared in this world of dull realities!

LETTER XXI.

No, ne'er did the wave in its element steep
An island of lovelier charms;

It blooms in the giant embrace of the deep;
Like Hebe in Hercules' arms.

MOORE's Irish Melodies.

Tarbert, May 11, 1819.

FROM the extremity of Loch Katrine, we walked 6 miles, and passed Loch Lomond in a boat; afterwards we proceeded a few miles on foot and arrived at this place, opposite Ben Lomond. The weather continued delightful, and, to use Ossian's language, calm and bright was the breast of the lake. As we sailed along, the expanse of water shone like liquid silver, and the numerous verdant isles, whose bending willows and waving birches bowed their drooping branches into the stream, "stooping as if

to drink," gave a character of animation and loveliness to the scene which defies all description. Loch Lomond is the largest and one of the most beautiful in Great Britain. Its banks are covered with woodland, which extends along the slopes of the mountains. Towards the southern extremity are many beautiful islands clothed with luxuriant woods, some inhabited and under cultivation, others consisting of pasture ground, and almost all of them glittering in mantles of coppice wood. Like the other lochs, it is perfectly transparent; its water is nourished by the streams which flow down the mountains, and fall into it, after displaying themselves in picturesque cascades. These living streams now break around rocks which they have worn smooth, now " leap into life and sparkling woo your thirst," now foam from crag to crag, and then dash into the watery abyss. From the beautiful island I looked upon that waste of waters which rolled in their wrath to the shores.

Proceeding down the lake, the prospect appeared to be bounded by mountains, and we seemed to sail on a basin, the edges of which were the hills which sloped down to it like a natural amphitheatre, Permit me to add the following elegant picture from Rob Roy. "This noble lake, boasting innumerable beautiful islands of every varying form and outline which fancy can form, its northern extremity narrowing until it is lost among dusky and re treating mountains,-while, gradually widen

ing as it extends to the southward, it spreads its base around the indentures and promontories of a fair and fertile land, affords one of the most surprising, beautiful, and sublime spectacles in nature.

Walter Scott, in enumerating the qualities of Malcolm Græme, says

"Right up Ben Lomond could he press,

And not a sob his toil confess."

I had heard so much about the prospect from the summit of this mountain, that I soon persuaded my companions to join me in ascending it. We procured a guide to conduct us by the easiest path, and to carry our refreshments. When we arrived at the summit, we enjoyed a scene which repayed us with interest for the fatigue of the walk. Below us we beheld Loch Lomond expanding to a length of about 30 miles; its surface sprinkled with verdant isles and its shores feathered over with the most luxuriant woodland. The horizon is bounded by a range of lofty mountains, whose shades are gradually melted into the soft tinges of the sky. From east to west, the eye successively reposes on the rich vales of Stirlingshire, the coast of Ireland and the Western Ocean. In the midst of other beauties, the lovely lakes of Perthshire present themselves gleaming in the noon-day sun. The mountain itself affords a rich treat to the observing traveller. One side of it presents a horrible precipice of many yards in depth. He must be fearless indeed,

VOL. I.

who can look down this awful brink and not "taint with fear." When you descend into the abyss, you appear lost to the outward world, and the most awful silence prevails in this solitude of nature.

"The thrill-gorg'd lark so far

Cannot be seen or heard"

It has been said, that a gun fired in this concavity, returns a long and variously reverberated echo; though, from the rareness of the atmosphere on the summit, the report is there extremely faint.

In the variable weather of July and August, (says Dr. Graham,) the traveller has sometimes the awful enjoyment, of sitting in a serene atmosphere on the summit of the mountain, whilst the thunder clouds roll below, and the livid lightning flashes between him and the surface of the lake. Caught in this situation, let him not linger long upon the summit, but retire as fast as he can from a spot where the variations of the weather are sudden, and the war of the elements far more formidable than on the plain!

This morning I left my fellow travellers in bed, and hired a boat to make an excursion on the lake, and to indulge in the Reveries of a Solitary Wanderer. The water was expanded in the most glassy smoothness,

*

"E sul tranquillo mar dormiano i venti;
Sol zefiro ondeggiar facea sul lito

L'erbetta molle, e i fior vaghi e ridenti."*

Tassoni.

The winds lay sleeping on the sea's calm breast;
Soft zephyrs only breathing o'er the meads

Kissed the young grass, and waved the tender reeds.

The horizon was bounded by romantic mountains, with wreathes of snow resting among their gray summits, which towered away beyond the line of perpetual congelation. As I approached the rocky banks of some of the islands, I observed cascades dashing down into the lake, in streams of wonderful clearness and beauty. The azure firmament appeared to admire its magnificence, in the bosom of the crystal mirror; and the flowers on the shores. of some of the smaller isles, seemed to shoot their hues into the water, which reflected them in a myriad of dazzling colours. I often alighted from my boat and walked to the most elevated point of some island, (many of them being 300 feet above the level of the lake:) here I gazed on the diversified landscape which was spread out before me. My eye was first attracted by the bright smile of the lake which was wailing below me; while here and there flashed upward the scintillating radiance of some rivulet, whose course was soon hidden by overshadowing trees, or banks of the brightest verdure. The distant shores of the lake and the innumerable isles exhibited a surprising mixture of wild and cultivated nature; indeed there did not seem to be wanting, in this magnificent picture, a single object of interest which the imagination could conjure up in its dreams of fairy scenery; and there was such a luxuriance of beauty, as would set at defiance the powers of the most magical pencil.