one of our lakes; it reminded us of the Severn at
the Chepstow passage; but the shores were less rich and the hills higher.
The sun shone, which made the morning cheerful, though there was a cold
wind. Our road never carried us far from the lake, and with the beating
of the waves, the sparkling sunshiny water, boats, the opposite hills,
and, on the side on which we travelled, the chance cottages, the coppice
woods, and common business of the fields, the ride could not but be
amusing. But what most excited our attention was, at one particular
place, a cluster of fishing-boats at anchor in a still corner of the
lake, a small bay or harbour by the wayside. They were overshadowed by
fishermen's nets hung out to dry, which formed a dark awning that covered
them like a tent, overhanging the water on each side, and falling in the
most exquisitely graceful folds. There was a monastic pensiveness, a
funereal gloom in the appearance of this little company of vessels, which
was the more interesting from the general liveliness and glancing motions
of the water, they being perfectly still and silent in their sheltered
nook.

When we had travelled about seven miles from Cairndow, winding round the
bottom of a hill, we came in view of a great basin or elbow of the lake.
Completely out of sight of the long track of water we had coasted, we
seemed now to be on the edge of a very large, almost circular, lake, the
town of Inverary before us, a line of white buildings on a low promontory
right opposite, and close to the water's edge; the whole landscape a
showy scene, and bursting upon us at once. A traveller who was riding by
our side called out, 'Can that be the Castle?' Recollecting the prints
which we had seen, we knew it could not; but the mistake is a natural one
at that distance: it is so little like an ordinary town, from the mixture
of regularity and irregularity in the buildings. With the expanse of
water and pleasant mountains, the scattered boats and sloops, and those
gathered together, it had a truly festive appearance. A few steps more
brought us in view of the Castle, a stately turreted mansion, but with a
modern air, standing on a lawn, retired from the water, and screened
behind by woods covering the sides of high hills to the top, and still
beyond, by bare mountains. Our road wound round the semicircular shore,
crossing two bridges of lordly architecture. The town looked pretty when
we drew near to it in connexio