88 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



side of it, arrested my attention.* There I stopped, 

 for I had read Smollett's works, and almost adored 

 him as an author. On the pedestal of the monu- 

 ment, was a long Latin inscription, which I was 

 endeavouring to translate, but was puzzled to make 

 out; having never looked into a Latin book since 

 I had left school ; and, for the first time, I felt 

 mortified at not having done so. While I was 

 thus employed, up came a " lish," clever young 

 man, a Highlander, smartly dressed in the garb of 

 his country. He jumped down beside me, and we 

 together made out the translation. When this was 

 done, on learning from me that my sole object was 

 to see Scotland, he pressed me to accompany him 

 to some place or other, the name of which I do not 

 now remember. We, however, walked a long way 

 together on the western side of Loch Lomond, and 

 I know I did not visit Inverary, the seat of Argyle, 

 but stopped with my companion at a grazier's, or 

 farmer's, house, not a long way from it. 



Having made up my mind not to visit any 

 town, or put up at any inn, I commenced my 

 "wild-goose chase," and bent my way, in many 

 a zig-zag direction, through the interior of part 

 of the Highlands, by the sides of its lakes and 

 its mountains. The beauty and serenity of the 

 former, and the grandeur or terrific aspect of the 

 latter, I gazed upon with wonder, and with both 



[ * Smollett lies buried in the Old English Cemetery at Leghorn, 

 having found, like Fielding, a foreign grave. The monument here 

 referred to on the right bank of the Leven is the Tuscan column 

 erected by his cousin, James Smollett of Bonhill; and the ''long 

 Latin inscription" (34 lines), of which Bewick speaks, is to be found 

 at p. 199 of Chambers's "Smollett," 1867. It was written by two 

 famous scholars of that day, Professor George Stewart and Mr. Ramsay 

 of Ochtertyre, with a few finishing touches by Dr. Johnson.] 



