Ossian Collection > Journey to the western islands of Scotland

WESTERN ISLANDS, &c. 373
ruins of an old caftle, on which the ofprey
builds her annual neft. Had Locb Lomond
been in a happier climate, it would have
been the boaft of wealth and vanity to own
one of the little fpots which it inclofes, and
to have employed upon it all the arts of
embellifhment. But as it is, the iflets,
which court the gazer at a diftanee, dif-
guft him at his approach, when he finds,
inftead of foft lawns and fhady thickets,
nothing more than uncultivated ruggednefs.
Where the Loch difcharges itfelf into a
river, called the Leven^ we paflfed a night
with Mr. Smollett a relation of Dodor Smol-
lett to whofe memory he has raifed an
obelifk on the bank near the houfe in which
he was born. The civility and refpeft
which we found at every place, it is un-
grateful to omit, and tedious to repeat.
Here we were met by a poft-chaifc, that
conveyed us to Glqfgow,
Bb 3 T«