ll-looking man, seemingly about thirty
years of age, driving a cart, of whom we inquired concerning the road,
and the distance to Portnacroish, our baiting-place. We made further
inquiries respecting our future journey, which he answered in an
intelligent manner, being perfectly acquainted with the geography of
Scotland. He told us that the village which we saw before us and the
whole tract of country was called Appin. William said that it was a
pretty wild place, to which the man replied, 'Sir, it is a very bonny
place if you did but see it on a fine day,' mistaking William's praise
for a half-censure; I must say, however, that we hardly ever saw a
thoroughly pleasing place in Scotland, which had not something of
wildness in its aspect of one sort or other. It came from many causes
here: the sea, or sea-loch, of which we only saw as it were a glimpse
crossing the vale at the foot of it, the high mountains on the opposite
shore, the unenclosed hills on each side of the vale, with black cattle
feeding on them, the simplicity of the scattered huts, the
half-sheltered, half-exposed situation of the village, the imperfect
culture of the fields, the distance from any city or large town, and the
very names of Morven and Appin, particularly at such a time, when old
Ossian's old friends, sunbeams and mists, as like ghosts as any in the
mid-afternoon could be, were keeping company with them. William did all
he could to efface the unpleasant impression he had made on the
Highlander, and not without success, for he was kind and communicative
when we walked up the hill towards the village. He had been a great
traveller, in Ireland and elsewhere; but I believe that he had visited no
place so beautiful to his eyes as his native home, the strath of Appin
under the heathy hills.

We arrived at Portnacroish soon after parting from this man. It is a
small village--a few huts and an indifferent inn by the side of the loch.
Ordered a fowl for dinner, had a fire lighted, and went a few steps from
the door up the road, and turning aside into a field stood at the top of
a low eminence, from which, looking down the loch to the sea through a
long vista of hills and mountains, we beheld one of the most delightful
prospects that, even when we dream of fairer worlds than this, it is
possible for us to conceive in our hearts. A covering of clouds rested
on the long range of the hills of Morven, mists floated very near to the
water on their