114 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



romantic estuary or inland loch, which, in many respects, may vie with the more 

 celebrated of the Helvetian lakes. The latter may be enclosed in a bolder 

 frame-work, but, with one or two trifling exceptions, they are destitute of the 

 " fairy isles," which, scattered along their surface, give so peculiar a charm 

 to the Highland lochs, and of which the beautiful Loch-awe and Loch-lomond 

 afford striking examples. 



" Behold our lakes !" the Swiss exclaims, 

 " Like gems encased in gorgeous frames 

 Those mirrors, where the snowy Alps 

 Sleep with the sunset on their scalps. . . ." 

 " Nay, look at ours," replies the Celt, 

 " Each girdled with its mountain belt 

 Of rock, and tower, and forest trees, 

 And gemmed witli island sanctuaries ! 

 Like floating palaces they seem, 

 The Elysium of a poet's dream : 

 I grant ye rocks and glacier-snows, 

 Where sunset leaves a lingering rose ; 

 But every lake without its isle 

 Is Beauty's cheek without its smile." MS. 



On winding round the head of Loch-long, girdled by a romantic shore, this 

 fine arm of the sea is seen to great advantage, and never fails to command 

 admiration. Its mountains send down into the water a series of inclined arms, 

 or ridges, of singularly irregular and indented outline each hinder one pro- 

 jecting beyond the extremity of that which is nearer, closing in towards the 

 centre of the vista, as if they all obliquely converged to one point. Their lower 

 portions are covered with copse-wood, or brought into culture ; while above, 

 they exhibit a pleasing alternation of grey rock, purple heath, and verdant 

 pasture. One of the mountains at the head of Loch-long, Ben-Arthur, presents 

 a singularly bold and fantastic outline ; and, from an imaginary resemblance 

 to that personage when stooping over his last, has obtained the characteristic 

 designation of the " Cobbler" whose lap-stone may justly be considered the largest 

 of any in the craft. Persons disposed to enterprises of danger and difficulty, may 

 here find ample scope for such indulgence, in scaling the rugged side and giddy 

 precipices, which even a practised chamois-hunter would traverse with cautious 

 deliberation. The finest object on the banks of Loch-long, is Ardgarten, the 

 seat of Campbell of Strachur. The view of Loch-long from the Pass of Glencroe 

 is greatly admired.* 



* The conflict so ably introduced by the painter, represents one of those scenes of cattle-lifting (in 

 Gaelic parlance a creach or foray) and reprisal which, in former times, were familiar occurrences in these 

 wild passes, and the cause of many sanguinary contests, with this understanding, that " he might take 

 who had the power, and he might keep who could." 



