Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

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tooli: place of each other, traversing the lake in every
direction. The whole was indeed a strange mixture of
soothing and restless images, of images inviting to rest
and others hurrjing the fancy away into an activity more
pleasing than repose. Yet, intricate and homeless, that
is without lasting ahiding-place for the mind, as the
prospect was there was no perplexit)' ; we had still a
guide to lead us forward. Wherever we looked, it was a
delightful feeling that there was something beyond.
Meanwhile, the sense of quiet was never lost sight of.
. . . The whole scene was a combination of natural
wildness, loveliness, beauty, and barrenness, or rather
bareness, yet not comfortless or cold, but the whole was
beautiful. '
Professor Wilson, dealing with the remarks of
Wordsworth already given, says, ' The " diffu.sion of
water " is indeed great ; but in what a world it floats !
At first sight of it how our soul expands ! The sudden
revelation of such majestic beauty, wide as it is and
extending afar, inspires us with a power of comprehend-
ing it all. Sea-like indeed it is, — a Mediterranean Sea,
— enclosed with lofty hills and as lofty mountains, —
and these indeed are the Fortunate Isles ! We shall
not dwell on the feeling which all must have experi-
enced on the first sight of such a vision — the feeling of
a lovely and a mighty calm ; it is manifest that the
spacious " diffusion of water" more than conspires with
the other components of such a scene to produce the
feeling ; that to it belongs the spell that makes our
spirit serene, still, and bright, as its own. Nor when
such feeling ceases so entirely to possess, and so deeply
to affect us, does the softened and subdued charm of
the scene before us depend less on the expanse of the
"diffusion of water." The islands, that before had lain
we knew not how — or we had only felt that they were
all most lovely — begin to show themselves in the order
of their relation to one another and to the shores. The
eye rests on the largest, and with them the lesser com-
bine ; or we look at one or two of the least, away by
themselves, or remote from all a tufted rock ; and many
as they are, they break not the breadth of the liquid
plain, for it is ample as the sky. They show its ampli-
tude ; as masses and sprinklings of clouds, and single
clouds, show the amplitude of the cerulean vault. And
then the long promontories — stretching out from oppo-
site mainlands, and enclosing bays that in themselves
are lakes — they too magnify the empire of water ; for
long as they are, they seem so only as our eye attends
them with their cliffs and woods from the retiring
shores, and far distant are their shadows from the
central light. Then what shores ! On one side where
the lake is widest, low-lying they seem and therefore
lovelier — undulating with fields and groves, where
many a pleasant dwelling is embowered, into lines of
hills that gradually soften away into another land. On
the other side, sloping back, or overlianging, mounts
beautiful in their bareness, for they are green as
emerald ; others, scarcely more beautiful, studded with
fair trees — some altogether woods. They soon form
into mountains — and the mountains become more and
more majestical, yet beauty never deserts them, and
her spirit continues to tame that of the frowning cliffs.
Far off as they are, Benlomond and Benvoirlich are
seen to be giants ; magnificent is their retinue, but
they two are supreme, each in his own dominion ; and
clear as the day is here, they are diademed with clouds.
It cannot be that the "proportion of diffused water is
here too great ; " and is it then true that no one " ever
travelled along the banks of Loch Lomond, variegated
as the lower part is by islands, without feeling that a
speedier termination to the long vista of blank water
would be acceptable, and without wishing for an inter-
position of green meadows, trees, and cottages, and a
sparkling stream to run by his side?" We have
travelled along them in all weathers and never felt such
a wish. For there they all are — all but the "sparkling
stream to run by our side, " and we see not how that
well could be in nature. "Streams that sparkle as
they run," cross our path on their own ; and brighter
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never issued from the woods. Along the margin of the-
water, as far as Luss — ay, and much farther — the varia-
tions of the foreground are incessant. "Had it no
other beauties," it has been truly said, "but those of
its shores, it would still be an object of prime attrac-
tion ; whether from the bright green meadows sprinkled
with luxuriant ash trees, that sometimes skirt its
margin, or its white pebbled shores on which its gentle
billows murmur, like a miniature ocean, or its bold
rocky promontories rising from the dark water rich in
wild flowers and ferns, and tangled with wild roses and
honeysuckles, or its retired bays where the waves dash,
reflecting, like a mirror, the trees which hang over
them, an inverted landscape."
'The islands are for ever arranging themselves into
new forms, every one more and more beautiful ; at least
so they seem to be, perpetually occurring, yet always
unexpected, and there is a pleasure even in such a
series of slight surprises that enhances the delight of
admiration. And alongside, or behind us, all the
while, are the sylvan mountains, "laden with beautj';"
and ever and anon open glens widen down upon us
from chasms ; or forest glades lead our hearts away
into the inner gloom — perhaps our feet ; and there, in
a field that looks not as if it had been cleared by his
own hands, but left clear by nature, a woodman's hut.
Half-way between Luss and Tarbet the water narrows,
but it is still wide ; the new road, we believe, winds
round the point of Firkin, the old road boldly scaled'
the height, as all old roads loved to do ; ascend it, and
bid the many-isled vision, in all its greatest glory,
farewell. Thence upwards prevails the spirit of the
mountains. The lake is felt to belong to them — to be
subjected to their will — and that is capricious ; for
sometimes they suddenly blacken it when at its brightest,
and sometimes when its gloom is like that of the grave,
as if at their bidding, all is light. We cannot help
attributing the "skiey influences" which occasion such
wonderful effects on the water, to prodigious mountains ;
for we cannot look on them without feeling that they
reign over the solitude they compose ; the lights and
shadows flung by the sun and the clouds imagination
assuredly regards as put forth by the vast objects which
they colour ; and we are inclined to think some such-
belief is essential in the profound awe, often amounting
to dread, with which we are inspired by the presences of
mere material forms. But be this as it may, the upper
portion of Loch Lomond is felt by all to be most sub-
lime. Near the head, all the manifold impressions of
the beautiful which for hours our mind had been
receiving begin to fade ; if some gloomy change has
taken place in the air, there is a total obliteration, and
the mighty scene before us is felt to possess not the
hour merely, but the day. Yet should sunshine come,
and abide a while, beauty will glimpse upon us even
here, for green pastures will smile vividly, high up-
among the rocks ; the sylvan spirit is serene th&
moment it is touched with light, and here there is not
only many a fair tree by the water-side, but yon old
oak wood will look joyful on the mountain, and the
gloom become glimmer in the profound abyss. Words-
worth says, that "it must be more desirable, for the
purposes of pleasure, that lakes should be numerous,
and small or middle-sized, than large, not only for com-
munication by walks and rides, but for variety, and for
recurrence of similar appearances." The Highlands
have them of all sizes — and that surely is best. But
here is one which, it has been truly said, is not only
" incomparable in its beauty as in its dimensious,
exceeding all others in variety as it does in extent and
splendour, but unites in itself every style of scenery
which is found in the other lakes of the Highlands."
He who has studied and understood and felt all Loch
Lomond, will be prepared at once to enjoy any other
fine lake he looks on ; nor will he admire nor love it
the less, though its chief character should consist in
what forms but one part of that of the Wonder in
which all kinds of beauty and sublimity are combined. '
Elsewhere he says again : ' Loch Lomond is a sea !
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