 rich inkle-manufacturer, in her
snares; but when matters came to an explanation, it appeared that his attachment
was altogether spiritual, founded upon an intercourse of devotion, at the
meeting of Mr. John Wesley; who, in the course of his evangelical mission, had
come hither in person - At length, we set out for the banks of Lough-Lomond,
passing through the little borough of Dumbarton, or (as my uncle will have it)
Dunbritton, where there is a castle, more curious than any thing of the kind I
had ever seen - It is honoured with a particular description by the elegant
Buchannan, as an arx inexpugnabilis, and, indeed, it must have been impregnable
by the antient manner of besieging. It is a rock of considerable extent, rising
with a double top, in an angle formed by the confluence of two rivers, the Clyde
and the Leven; perpendicular and inaccessible on all sides, except in one place
where the entrance is fortified; and there is no rising-ground in the
neighbourhood from whence it could be damaged by any kind of battery.
    From Dumbarton, the West Highlands appear in the form of huge, dusky
mountains, piled one over another; but this prospect is not at all surprising to
a native of Glamorgan - We have fixed our head-quarters at Cameron, a very neat
country-house belonging to commissary Smollett, where we found every sort of
accommodation we could desire - It is situated like a Druid's temple, in a grove
of oak, close by the side of Lough-Lomond, which is a surprising body of pure
transparent water, unfathomably deep in many places, six or seven miles broad,
four and twenty miles in length, displaying above twenty green islands, covered
with wood; some of them cultivated for corn, and many of them stocked with red
deer - They belong to different gentlemen, whose seats are scattered along the
banks of the lake, which are agreeably romantic beyond all conception. My uncle
and I have left the women at Cameron, as Mrs. Tabitha would by no means trust
herself again upon the water, and to come hither it was necessary to cross a
small inlet of the sea, in an open ferry boat - This country appears more and
more wild and savage the further we advance; and the people are as different
from the Lowland-Scots, in their looks, garb, and language, as the mountaineers
of Brecknock are from the inhabitants of Herefordshire.
    When the Lowlanders want to drink a chearupping-cup, they go to the public
house, called the
