They seem
to me to be among the unchangeable things of nature, like the sea and
sky; but there is no saying what use human ingenuity may hereafter put
them to. At all events, I have no doubt in the world that they will go
out of fashion in due time; for the taste for mountains and wild scenery
is, with most people, an acquired taste, and it was easy to see to-day
that nine people in ten care nothing about them. One group of gentlemen
and ladies--at least, men and women--spent the whole time in listening to
a trial for murder, which was read aloud by one of their number from a
newspaper. I rather imagine that a taste for trim gardens is the most
natural and universal taste as regards landscape. But perhaps it is
necessary for the health of the human mind and heart that there should be
a possibility of taking refuge in what is wild and uncontaminated by any
meddling of man's hand, and so it has been ordained that science shall
never alter the aspect of the sky, whether stern, angry, or beneficent,--
nor of the awful sea, either in calm or tempest,--nor of these rude
Highlands. But they will go out of general fashion, as I have said, and
perhaps the next fashionable taste will be for cloud land,--that is,
looking skyward, and observing the wonderful variety of scenery, that now
constantly passes unnoticed, among the clouds.
At the head of the lake, we found that there was only a horse-cart to
convey our luggage to the hotel at Inverannan, and that we ourselves must
walk, the distance being two miles.
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