d in the mood in
which we were we could only look upon it as a place of retirement and
peace. The lake is called Loch Dochart. We passed by two others of
inferior beauty, and continued to travel along the side of the same
river, the Dochart, through an irregular, undetermined vale,--poor soil
and much waste land.

At that time of the evening when, by looking steadily, we could discover
a few pale stars in the sky, we saw upon an eminence, the bound of our
horizon, though very near to us, and facing the bright yellow clouds of
the west, a group of figures that made us feel how much we wanted in not
being painters. Two herdsmen, with a dog beside them, were sitting on
the hill, overlooking a herd of cattle scattered over a large meadow by
the river-side. Their forms, looked at through a fading light, and
backed by the bright west, were exceedingly distinct, a beautiful picture
in the quiet of a Sabbath evening, exciting thoughts and images of almost
patriarchal simplicity and grace. We were much pleased with the
situation of our inn, where we arrived between eight and nine o'clock.
The river was at the distance of a broad field from the door; we could
see it from the upper windows and hear its murmuring; the moon shone,
enlivening the large corn fields with cheerful light. We had a bad
supper, and the next morning they made us an unreasonable charge; and the
servant was uncivil, because, forsooth! we had no wine.

_N.B._--The travellers in the morning had spoken highly of this inn.
{186}

* * * * *

_Monday_, _September_ 5_th_.--After drinking a bason of milk we set off
again at a little after six o'clock--a fine morning--eight miles to
Killin--the river Dochart always on our left. The face of the country
not very interesting, though not unpleasing, reminding us of some of the
vales of the north of England, though meagre, nipped-up, or shrivelled
compared with them. There were rocks, and rocky knolls, as about
Grasmere and Wytheburn, and copses, but of a starveling growth; the
cultivated ground poor. Within a mile or two of Killin the land was
better cultivated, and, looking down the vale, we had a view of Loch Tay,
into which the Dochart falls. Close to the town, the river took up a
roaring voice, beating its way over a rocky descent among large black
stones: islands in the middle turning the stream this way and that; the
whole course of the river very wide. We crossed it by