It looks like a lump of rock, with just soil enough to
support a crowd of dwarf oaks, birches, and firs, which do not grow so
high as to be shadowy trees. Our voyage being over, we landed, and found
two omnibuses, one of which took us through the famous pass of the
Trosachs, a distance of a mile and a quarter, to a hotel, erected in
castellated guise by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. We were put into a parlor
within one of the round towers, panelled all round, and with four narrow
windows, opening through deep embrasures. No play-castle was ever more
like the reality, and it is a very good hotel, like all that we have had
experience of in the Highlands. After tea we walked out, and visited a
little kirk that stands near the shore of Loch Achray, at a good point of
view for seeing the hills round about.
This morning opened cloudily; but after breakfast I set out alone, and
walked through the pass of the Trosachs, and thence by a path along the
right shore of the lake. It is a very picturesque and beautiful path,
following the windings of the lake,--now along the beach, now over an
impending bank, until it comes opposite to Ellen's Isle, which on this
side looks more worthy to be the island of the poem than as we first saw
it.
Pages:
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353