Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/55

Rh leave of the Alps, and came upon "fields very well cultivated, valleys with rich verdure, and little woods which almost persuaded him he was in England."

There is a passage in Camden's description of Argyleshire in which we find feelings expressed which for the next two centuries were very generally entertained. "Along the shore," he writes, "the country is more unpleasant in sight, what with rocks and what with blackish barren mountains." . One hundred and fifty years after this was written, an Englishman, describing in 1740 the beautiful road which runs along the south-eastern shore of Loch Ness, calls the rugged mountains "those hideous productions of nature." He pictures to himself the terror which would come upon the Southerner who "should be brought blindfold into some narrow rocky hollow, inclosed with these horrid prospects, and there should have his bandage taken off. He would be ready to die with fear, as thinking it impossible he should ever get out to return to his native country." This account was very likely read by Johnson, for it was published in London only nineteen years before he made his tour. In the narrative of a Volunteer in the Duke of Cumberland's army, we find the same gloom cast by