54 BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE 



mouth Park is said to be thirteen miles in circumference. But the 

 attractions of home were more powerful than the attractions of 

 Taymouth, and therefore in the evening we packed up all our 

 traps and acquisitions of every sort and kind, in readiness for the 

 Perth carrier, who leaves Acharn for Perth once a week, calling 

 at Kenmore about six o' clock every Tuesday morning. In the 

 morning we saw our baggage safely deposited on his cart, went 

 to breakfast, and were on the road to Dunkeld before eight o' clock. 

 Before taking our final leave of Kenmore we have to notice 

 another scene, one of the most interesting of its kind, viz. the 

 Falls of Acharn. About two miles from Kenmore, on the right 

 or south-east side of Loch Tay, is a large hamlet or group of 

 cottages recently erected in a rather pretentious style, but suf- 

 ficiently in character to harmonize well with the fine scenery. 

 No church is here : Kenmore is the parish, where are two churches, 

 although one would hold all the people, if they were all of one 

 mind on certain minor points, neither affecting doctrine, disci- 

 pline, nor mode of worship; but the less the difference, the 

 greater the animosity of the dissentients. This hamlet contains 

 however a mill, a smithy, a carpenter's shop, and a good school. 

 On the stream above this latter and recent erection there is a her- 

 mitage without a hermit, and a waterfall not without water, like 

 the cascades of the Leasowes, Shenstone's famous folly. The 

 water here has worn for itself a channel of awful depth, and strong 

 are the nerves and cool should be the head of him that ventures 

 to look down through the shading foliage upon the dark linns. 

 About half a mile up the hill is the lower and most imposing of 

 the falls of Acharn, with its hermitage built opposite, where, 

 through a glass door or window, the cascade is viewed very much 

 to the ease and even comfort of the spectator, who is furnished 

 with a chair, a Claude Lorraine glass, a prism, and sundry et- 

 ceteras, artfully contrived to draw the coin from his pockets. 

 Milk and honey flow abundantly from the lips of the genuine 

 Celtic cicerone; and hard-hearted must the Sassenach be who 

 does not feel the effects of the soft sawder in the most sensitive 

 part of his person, his breeches-pocket. This however is a scene 

 well worth seeing; and specimens of Poly podium Dryopteris, grow- 

 ing within reach of the spray from one of the falls, may be had in 

 any ordinary quantity, and of any ordinary or even extraordinary 

 dimensions. 



