ls covered over; I should have thought that milk so
kept could not have been sweet, but the cheese and butter were good. The
walls of the whole house were of stone unplastered. It consisted of
three apartments,--the cow-house at one end, the kitchen or house in the
middle, and the spence at the other end. The rooms were divided, not up
to the rigging, but only to the beginning of the roof, so that there was
a free passage for light and smoke from one end of the house to the
other.

I went to bed some time before the family. The door was shut between us,
and they had a bright fire, which I could not see; but the light it sent
up among the varnished rafters and beams, which crossed each other in
almost as intricate and fantastic a manner as I have seen the
under-boughs of a large beech-tree withered by the depth of the shade
above, produced the most beautiful effect that can be conceived. It was
like what I should suppose an underground cave or temple to be, with a
dripping or moist roof, and the moonlight entering in upon it by some
means or other, and yet the colours were more like melted gems. I lay
looking up till the light of the fire faded away, and the man and his
wife and child had crept into their bed at the other end of the room. I
did not sleep much, but passed a comfortable night, for my bed, though
hard, was warm and clean: the unusualness of my situation prevented me
from sleeping. I could hear the waves beat against the shore of the
lake; a little 'syke' close to the door made a much louder noise; and
when I sate up in my bed I could see the lake through an open
window-place at the bed's head. Add to this, it rained all night. I was
less occupied by remembrance of the Trossachs, beautiful as they were,
than the vision of the Highland hut, which I could not get out of my
head. I thought of the Fairyland of Spenser, and what I had read in
romance at other times, and then, what a feast would it be for a London
pantomime-maker, could he but transplant it to Drury Lane, with all its
beautiful colours!

THIRD WEEK.

_Sunday_, _August_ 28_th_.--We were desirous to have crossed the
mountains above Glengyle to Glenfalloch, at the head of Loch Lomond, but
it rained so heavily that it was impossible, so the ferryman engaged to
row us to the point where Coleridge and I had rested, while William was
going on our doubtful adventure. The hostess provided us with tea and
sugar for our breakfast; the