Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/269

Rh Fort Augustus is in a state of great neglect, and appears to be going very fast to decay. There were only a few old invalids in it when I was there; and the sight of these old firelocks, on the parade, rehearsing their exercise before the Governor's house in a morning, was quite a burlesque scene of soldiering. The same ceremony, however, was practised at Fort Augustus as at Fort George; and the creeping centinels hailed us with "who goes there?"—I had letters to the worthy Governor, which I sent in; and was admitted over the thundering drawbridge, and through the dark gateway, to the parade and the Governor's door; who, with his lady, received me with every mark of kindness and hospitality. Alas! since that period, that good man, Governor Trapaud, is gone from his earthly friends to reap the reward of his numerous virtues!

The next morning I set off early, to follow the hollow from sea to sea. After crossing the bridge I left the river Oich to my right; and at the end of a mile, entered between hills that secluded it from my sight for two miles more, when the foot of Loch Oich, and its river flowing from it, opened to the view, with a range of mountains on each side, verdant from their bases to their