The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

238 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
nature. I believe the exercise occasioned by these jaunts was of ser-
vice to my sister Liddy, whose appetite and spirits begin to revive—
Mrs. Tabitha displayed her attractions as usual, and actually
believed she had entangled one Mr. Maclellan, a rich inkle-
manufacturer, in her snares; but when matters came to an explana-
tion, it appeared that his attachment was altogether spiritual,
founded upon an intercourse of devotion, at the meeting of Mr.
John Wesley; who, in the course of his evangelical mission, had
come hither in person—At length, we set out for the banks of
Lough-Lomond, passing through the little borough of Dum-
barton, or (as my uncle will have it) Dunbritton, where there is a
castle, more curious than any thing of the kind I had ever seen—
It is honoured with a particular description by the elegant Buchan-
nan, as an arx inexpugnabilis, and, indeed, it must have been im-
pregnable 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; per-
pendicular 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 head-quarters at Cameron, a very neat country-house belong-
ing to commissary Smollett, where we found every sort of ac-
commodation 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, unfathom-
ably 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. My uncle and I have left the
women at Cameron, as Mrs. Tabitha would by no means trust her-
self again upon the water, and to come hither it was necessary to
cross a small inlet of the sea, in an open ferry boat—This country
appears more and more wild and savage the further we advance;
and the people are as different from the Lowland-Scots, in their