Page:Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (Macmillan, 1897) (IA cu31924104001478).pdf/248

 much steeper, and the lake, having narrowed a little above Luss, was no longer a very wide lake where we lost sight of it.

Came to a bark hut by the shores, and sate for some time under the shelter of it. While we were here a poor woman with a little child by her side begged a penny of me, and asked where she could ‘‘ find quarters in the village.” She was a travelling beggar, a native of Scotland, had often “heard of that water,” but was never there before. This woman’s appearance, while the wind was rustling about us, and the waves breaking at our feet, was very melancholy: the waters looked wide, the hills many, and dark, and far off—no house but at Luss. I thought what a dreary waste must this lake be to such poor creatures, struggling with fatigue and poverty and unknown ways !

We ordered tea when we reached the inn, and desired the girl to light us a fire; she replied, ‘*1 dinna ken whether she'll gie fire,” meaning her mistress. We told her we did not wish her mistress to give fire, we only desired her to let Aer make it and we would pay for it. The girl brought in the tea-things, but no fire, and when I asked if she was coming to hght it, she said ‘her mistress was not varra willing to gie fire.” At last, however, on our insistmg upon it, the fire was lighted: we got tea by candlelight, and spent a comfortable evening. I had seen the landlady before we went out, for, as had been usual in all the country inns, there was a demur respecting beds, notwithstanding the house was empty, and there were at least half-a-dozen spare beds. Her countenance corresponded with the unkindness of denying us a fire on a cold night, for she was the most cruel and hateful-looking woman I ever saw. She was overgrown with fat, and was sitting with her feet and legs in a tub of water for the dropsy,—probably brought on by whisky-drinking. The sympathy which I felt and expressed for her, om seeing her in this wretched condition—for her legs were swollen as thick as mill-