Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/243

Rh the scene before me, but I knew not what to admire most; the river flowing on my left, bordered on each side by wood and rich land, with mountains upon mountains, in every form; fine trees in the narrow flat, and wood creeping up on every crag's side; the mountains increasing to a vast size and height as I advanced towards Loch Ness, buried in the bosom of two ranges of mountains not easily described. Tom-ma-hureich to my right, one mile from Inverness, must not be forgotten, though its form is more curious than beautiful; being like the keel of a ship turned topsy-turvy; and planted to the top with firs, so thick, that it looks like a fir wood of that shape.

I was four days under the hospitable roof of Alexander Baillie, Esq. He, his half-brother, his amiable nieces, Miss Frazer of Belladrum, and Miss Chisholm, in short, all who belonged to that friendly worthy man, vied with each other who should pay me most attention, or afford me most pleasure, by shewing me every thing that was to be seen in that quarter; and those pleasures are above description, because every spot about that lovely and sublime situation is a never ceasing source of contemplation to an observing mind. The weather, alas! was not favourable.