From Fox's Earth 



so complete, so self-contained as the Lomonds. 

 In their very unexpectedness, they are dramatic. 

 Seen in one glance, their rugged features lend 

 themselves to the play of imaginative conceit. 

 Edinburgh is proud of Arthur's Seat. To her 

 partial gaze it is a lion couchant watching over 

 the city. To what the Lomonds, with the height 

 at either end and the level connecting ridge, may 

 be likened it were hard to say. There is the 

 strong head facing west, the flat back, and the 

 weak flank of the Falkland Hill. It may well be 

 a royal beast watching over Fife. A lion in 

 shade. Over all flowed the tawny light of the 

 setting sun that dipped into Loch Leven. 



The ridge alone hid the sunset on the water. 

 To the eye, which could remove or look through, 

 the lake shone in the chill glow of warmly- 

 coloured light, suggestive of a winter life un- 

 fretted by anglers of spawning trout, busy pike, 

 and multitudinous wild-fowl. 



Together, we passed down the gentle incline ; 

 the wren silent under the fence, I making crisp 

 music on the frosty road, and casting a long 

 winter shadow behind. Where a stone had rolled 

 out of the dyke, he went into the hole and did 

 not come out again. He may have had his beat, 

 which he did not overpass. A cunning tunnel 

 may have led to the back, or a windless shelter 

 offered itself for the coming night. So we 

 parted. 



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