n with its situation, different from any
place I had ever seen, yet exceedingly like what I imaged to myself from
representations in raree-shows, or pictures of foreign places--Venice,
for example--painted on the scene of a play-house, which one is apt to
fancy are as cleanly and gay as they look through the magnifying-glass of
the raree-show or in the candle-light dazzle of a theatre. At the door
of the inn, though certainly the buildings had not that delightful
outside which they appeared to have at a distance, yet they looked very
pleasant. The range bordering on the water consisted of little else than
the inn, being a large house, with very large stables, the county gaol,
the opening into the main street into the town, and an arched gateway,
the entrance into the Duke of Argyle's private domain.

We were decently well received at the inn, but it was over-rich in
waiters and large rooms to be exactly to our taste, though quite in
harmony with the neighbourhood. Before dinner we went into the Duke's
pleasure-grounds, which are extensive, and of course command a variety of
lively and interesting views. Walked through avenues of tall
beech-trees, and observed some that we thought even the tallest we had
ever seen; but they were all scantily covered with leaves, and the leaves
exceedingly small--indeed, some of them, in the most exposed situations,
were almost bare, as if it had been winter. Travellers who wish to view
the inside of the Castle send in their names, and the Duke appoints the
time of their going; but we did not think that what we should see would
repay us for the trouble, there being no pictures, and the house, which I
believe has not been built above half a century, is fitted up in the
modern style. If there had been any reliques of the ancient costume of
the castle of a Highland chieftain, we should have been sorry to have
passed it.

Sate after dinner by the fireside till near sunset, for it was very cold,
though the sun shone all day. At the beginning of this our second walk
we passed through the town, which is but a doleful example of Scotch
filth. The houses are plastered or rough-cast, and washed yellow--well
built, well sized, and sash-windowed, bespeaking a connexion with the
Duke, such a dependence as may be expected in a small town so near to his
mansion; and indeed he seems to have done his utmost to make them
comfortable, according to our English notions of comfort: they are fit
for th