Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/370

352 and grand view of Glen Orchy, I exclaimed, oh! what a Paradise is there. You who read, imagine yourselves just at the end of a drive, of eight miles, between uniform green mountains up to the sky, and emerging at once from this narrow defile, upon a precipice hanging over a very extensive vale, watered by a fine river, and enriched by an abundance of luxuriant wood, and fields of corn and grass, with houses, ruins, and kirks, scattered thickly throughout the glen, which is bounded by mountains of every form and hue; and in the distant front is Loch Awe, thirty miles long, with Cruchan Ben, rising above the clouds in terrific majesty of towering crags, vulcanic concaves and points: also other mountains, with verdant tops and woody sides, but not equal either in height or sublimity to Cruchan Ben, whose northern aspect is as terrific, as are its east and southern, sublime and beautiful.

As I advanced to Dalmally, every step delighted me: but, alas! the clouds gathered thick, and a deluge of rain succeeded, which continued with unceasing violence the whole night and the next day.

Had I then been acquainted with the beauties I might have seen in my way to Bun Awe and