The hill-tops, too, wore a
very dark frown. A lake of this size cannot be terrific, and is
therefore seen to best advantage when it is beautiful. The scenery of
its shores is not altogether so rich and lovely as I had preimagined; not
equal, indeed, to the best parts of Loch Lomond,--the hills being lower
and of a more ridgy shape, and exceedingly bare, at least towards the
lower end. But they turn the lake aside with headland after headland,
and shut it in closely, and open one vista after another, so that the eye
is never weary, and, least of all, as we approach the end. The length of
the loch is ten miles, and at its termination it meets the pass of the
Trosachs, between Ben An and Ben Venue, which are the rudest and
shaggiest of hills. The steamer passes Ellen's Isle, but to the right,
which is the side opposite to that on which Fitz-James must be supposed
to have approached it. It is a very small island, situated where the
loch narrows, and is perhaps less than a quarter of a mile distant from
either shore. It looks like a lump of rock, with just soil enough to
support a crowd of dwarf oaks, birches, and firs, which do not grow so
high as to be shadowy trees. Our voyage being over, we landed, and found
two omnibuses, one of which took us through the famous pass of the
Trosachs, a distance of a mile and a quarter, to a hotel, erected in
castellated guise by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. We were put into a parlor
within one of the round towers, panelled all round, and with four narrow
windows, opening through deep embrasures.
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