had, however, other
recommendations of its own; even in the fertile parts of Somersetshire it
would have been a delicious spot; here, ''Mid mountain wild set like a
little nest,' it was a resting-place for the fancy, and to this day I
often think of it, the cottage and its green covert, as an image of
romance, a place of which I have the same sort of knowledge as of some of
the retirements, the little valleys, described so livelily by Spenser in
his Fairy Queen.

We travelled on, the glen now becoming entirely bare. Passed a miserable
hut on a naked hill-side, not far from the road, where we were told by a
man who came out of it that we might refresh ourselves with a dram of
whisky. Went over the hill, and saw nothing remarkable till we came in
view of Loch Awe, a large lake far below us, among high mountains--one
very large mountain right opposite, which we afterwards found was called
Cruachan. The day was pleasant--sunny gleams and a fresh breeze; the
lake--we looked across it--as bright as silver, which made the islands,
three or four in number, appear very green. We descended gladly, invited
by the prospect before us, travelling downwards, along the side of the
hill, above a deep glen, woody towards the lower part near the brook; the
hills on all sides were high and bare, and not very stony: it made us
think of the descent from Newlands into Buttermere, though on a wider
scale, and much inferior in simple majesty.

After walking down the hill a long way we came to a bridge, under which
the water dashed through a dark channel of rocks among trees, the lake
being at a considerable distance below, with cultivated lands between.
Close upon the bridge was a small hamlet, {134} a few houses near
together, and huddled up in trees--a very sweet spot, the only retired
village we had yet seen which was characterized by 'beautiful' wildness
with sheltering warmth. We had been told at Inverary that we should come
to a place where we might give our horse a feed of corn, and found on
inquiry that there was a little public-house here, or rather a hut 'where
they kept a dram.' It was a cottage, like all the rest, without a
sign-board. The woman of the house helped to take the horse out of
harness, and, being hungry, we asked her if she could make us some
porridge, to which she replied that 'we should get that,' and I followed
her into the house, and sate over her hearth while she was making it. As
to fire, there was littl