spect from the dwelling-houses except that
they send out no smoke, that one house looks like two or three. Near
these houses was a considerable quantity of cultivated ground, potatoes
and corn, and the people were busy making hay in the hollow places of the
open vale, and all along the sides of the becks. It was a pretty sight
altogether--men and women, dogs, the little running streams, with linen
bleaching near them, and cheerful sunny hills and rocks on every side.
We passed by one patch of potatoes that a florist might have been proud
of; no carnation-bed ever looked more gay than this square plot of ground
on the waste common. The flowers were in very large bunches, and of an
extraordinary size, and of every conceivable shade of colouring from
snow-white to deep purple. It was pleasing in that place, where perhaps
was never yet a flower cultivated by man for his own pleasure, to see
these blossoms grow more gladly than elsewhere, making a summer garden
near the mountain dwellings.

At one of the clusters of houses we parted with our companion, who had
insisted on bearing my bundle while she stayed with us: I often tried to
enter into conversation with her, and seeing a small tarn before us, was
reminded of the pleasure of fishing and the manner of living there, and
asked her what sort of food was eaten in that place, if they lived much
upon fish, or had mutton from the hills; she looked earnestly at me, and
shaking her head, replied, 'Oh yes! eat fish--no papistes, eat
everything.' The tarn had one small island covered with wood; the stream
that runs from it falls into Loch Ketterine, which, after we had gone a
little beyond the tarn, we saw at some distance before us.

Pursued the road, a mountain horse-track, till we came to a corner of
what seemed the head of the lake, and there sate down completely tired,
and hopeless as to the rest of our journey. The road ended at the shore,
and no houses were to be seen on the opposite side except a few widely
parted huts, and on the near side was a trackless heath. The land at the
head of the lake was but a continuation of the common we had come along,
and was covered with heather, intersected by a few straggling foot-paths.

Coleridge and I were faint with hunger, and could go no further till we
had refreshed ourselves, so we ate up one of our fowls, and drank of the
water of Loch Ketterine; but William could not be easy till he had
examined the coast, so he left us