124 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



they received such kindness as made the remembrance of that family 

 a bright spot in the wanderings of memory many years after, and 

 meetings with its different members always agreeable. The dis- 

 trict of country, however, which seemed to have the greatest 

 charm, and where they lingered longest, was that between lnverary 

 and Dalmally. Loch Awe with its wooded shores, noble bays, 

 beautiful islands, and unsurpassed mountain range, topped by the 

 magnificent crest of Ben Cruachan, whose mighty base, wood- 

 skirted, sends its verdure-clad bounds gently to the margin of the 

 deep waters — was an object too attractive for such lovers of nature 

 soon to part from. Again and again they retraced their steps to 

 this enchanting scene. 



In this neighborhood they found a resting-place for a time in 

 Glenorchy, at the schoolmaster's house. Dr. Smith, the present 

 clergyman of lnverary, remembers, when a youth, seeing this de- 

 voted pair travelling on foot in these parts ; Wilson laden with 

 their travelling gear, and his gentle wife carrying in her hand the 

 fighter portion of it. He says : " I remember well the feelings of 

 wonder and admiration with which I regarded his manliness and 

 her meekness ; and whether it be that the thoughts of youth are 

 apt to become indelible impressions, or that what awakened them 

 was a reality in this case, as I am inclined to believe ; the thoughts 

 and feelings of youth still remain, so that over and high above all 

 he wrote, I see the man, the earnest, generous man, who though 

 singularly tolerant to others, cared not to measure any odds against 

 his own consciousness of power. It was on this first visit in 1815 

 that some of those incidents occurred which are not easily forgot- 

 ten, in a country where the acts of a stranger are narrowly noticed, 

 though kindly interpreted. He and Mrs. Wilson, on their way to 

 Glenorchy, passed a little thatched cottage close by the falls of the 

 Aray. The spot was beautiful ; the weather had been wet, and the 

 river rushed along its rocky bed with a fulness that was promising 

 to the angler. It was too attractive to be passed, so they lingered, 

 stopped, and waited for ten days or a fortnight, taking up their 

 quarters at the cottage, and living on the easiest terms with its 

 inmates. 



"It is yet told, how on a Sabbath morning the daughter who 

 served came into the room — the only one — where Mr. and Mrs. 

 Wilson slept; and after adjusting her dress at the little mirror 



