On the next day we began our journey southwards. The
weather was tempestuous. For half the day the ground was rough, and our horses were still
small. Had they required much restraint, we might have been reduced to difficulties; for I
think we had amongst us but one bridle. We fed the poor animals liberally, and they
performed their journey well. In the latter part of the day, we came to a firm and smooth
road, made by the soldiers, on which we travelled with great security, busied with
contemplating the scene about us.The night came on while we
had yet a great part of the way to go, though not so dark, but that we could discern the
cataracts which poured down the hills, on one side, and fell into one general channel that
ran with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy, and the
whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of
the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the rough musick of nature than it had ever been my
chance to hear before. The streams, which ran cross the way from the hills to the main
current, were so frequent, that after a while I began to count them; and, in ten miles,
reckoned fifty-five, probably missing some, and having let some pass before they forced
themselves upon my notice. At last we came to Inverary, where we found an inn, not only
commodious, but magnificent.
The difficulties of peregrination were now at an end. Mr. Boswell
had the honour of being known to the Duke of Argyle, by whom we were very kindly
entertained at his splendid seat, and supplied with conveniences for surveying his
spacious park and rising forests.
After two days stay at Inverary we proceeded Southward over
Glencroe, a black and dreary region, now made easily passable by a military road, which
rises from either end of the glen by an acclivity not dangerously steep, but sufficiently
laborious. In the middle, at the top of the hill, is a seat with this inscription, 'Rest,
and be thankful.' Stones were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have
taken away, resolved, they said, 'to have no new miles.'
In this rainy season the hills streamed with waterfalls, which,
crossing the way, formed currents on the other side, that ran in contrary directions as
they fell to the north or south of the summit. Being, by the favour of the Duke, well
mounted, I went up and down the hill with great convenience.
From Glencroe we passed through a pleasant country to the banks of
Loch Lomond, and were received at the house of Sir James Colquhoun, who is owner of almost
all the thirty islands of the Loch, which we went in a boat next morning to survey. The
heaviness of the rain shortened our voyage, but we landed on one island planted with yew,
and stocked with deer, and on another containing perhaps not more than half an acre,
remarkable for the ruins of an old castle, on which the osprey builds her annual nest. Had
Loch Lomond been in a happier climate, it would have been the boast of wealth and vanity
to own one of the little spots which it incloses, and to have employed upon it all the
arts of embellishment. But as it is, the islets, which court the gazer at a distance,
disgust him at his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns; and shady thickets,
nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.
Where the Loch discharges itself into a river, called the Leven, we
passed a night with Mr. Smollet, a relation of Doctor Smollet, to whose memory he has
raised an obelisk on the bank near the house in which he was born. The civility and
respect which we found at every place, it is ungrateful to omit, and tedious to repeat.
Here we were met by a post-chaise, that conveyed us to Glasgow.
