Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/165

Rh the appearance of the corn; which, when ripe, and waving, gives a fair look to the vale, and is a fine contrast to the black craggy mountains that surround it. Before I got to the end of this valley there came on a very heavy rain, which made me despair of seeing (what I came out of my way many a mile to see); the surrounding scenes of Loch Catheine, which, I had been informed, were more romantic than any other in Scotland. I was provided for any wet that I might find on the ground; but it was needless to proceed, when it fell in torrents from the clouds; therefore I had the carriage drawn to the side of the road, and, sent the horses and men to be sheltered in a barn at a small farm near; trusting that at noon it would clear up. It did so; and I proceeded through a small cluster of huts, and mounted a very steep rough road, cut out of the mountain; and then went winding in labyrinths of crags, intermixed with patches of verdure; bogs, rushes, and some wood, with pouring torrents from every quarter; the carriage often hanging over a precipice, and the wheels every moment up and down, over large pieces of rocks and stones, in chasms, torn by the rushing waters down the sides of the crags. Though it ceased