I think, however, that it is this unusual shagginess which
made the scene a favorite with Scott, and with the people on this side of
the ocean generally. There are many scenes as good in America, needing
only the poet.
July 6th.--We dined yesterday at the table d'hote, at the suggestion of
the butler, in order to give less trouble to the servants of the hotel,
and afford them an opportunity to go to kirk. The dining-room is in
accordance with the rest of the architecture and fittings up of the
house, and is a very good reproduction of an old baronial hall, with high
panellings and a roof of dark, polished wood. There were about twenty
guests at table; and if they and the waiters had been dressed in
mediaeval costume, we might have imagined ourselves banqueting in the
Middle Ages.
After dinner we all took a walk through the Trosachs' pass again, and by
the right-hand path along the lake as far as Ellen's Isle. It was very
pleasant, there being gleams of calm evening sunshine gilding the
mountain-sides, and putting a golden crown occasionally on the Tread of
Ben Venue. It is wonderful how many aspects a mountain has,--how many
mountains there are in every single mountain!---how they vary too, in
apparent attitude and bulk.
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