It is honoured with a particular description by the elegant
Buchanan, as an arx inexpugnabilis, and, indeed, it must have
been impregnable by the antient manner of besieging. It is a rock
of considerable extent, rising with a double top, in an angle
formed by the confluence of two rivers, the Clyde and the Leven;
perpendicular and inaccessible on all sides, except in one place
where the entrance is fortified; and there is no rising ground in
the neighbourhood from whence it could be damaged by any kind of
battery.
From Dumbarton, the West Highlands appear in the form of huge,
dusky mountains, piled one over another; but this prospect is not
at all surprising to a native of Glamorgan -- We have fixed our
headquarters at Cameron, a very neat country-house belonging to
commissary Smollet, where we found every sort of accommodation we
could desire -- It is situated like a Druid's temple, in a grove of
oak, close by the side of Lough-Lomond, which is a surprising
body of pure transparent water, unfathomably deep in many places,
six or seven miles broad, four and twenty miles in length,
displaying above twenty green islands, covered with wood; some of
them cultivated for corn, and many of them stocked with red deer --
They belong to different gentlemen, whose seats are scattered
along the banks of the lake, which are agreeably romantic beyond
all conception.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435