was a small window, with only two panes of unbroken glass, and the rest all stopt with rags, or old hats, which only served to make "darkness visible" in those parts that depended solely on it for illumination. Another window in the gable, entirely destitute of glass, or any kind of stoppage, gave the only light which, excepting that admitted at the door, they might be said to enjoy. Their dresser, their pots, and a few other homely articles, were ranged along the back-wall; and a number of stools (for, as I mentioned before, I saw only one chair) standing here and there around the fire, made up the sum-total of their kitchen furniture. Of course, I did not see into the parlour, but on going past that end of the house, and perceiving it to be quite destitute of glass in the gable window, I thought I had seen sufficient to convince me that, with out a fire, it must exhibit a more wretched appearance than even the kitchen. And this, thought I, is the house in which the Laird of Glenhowan is contented to live; a man who could afford to erect for himself, if not a splendid, at least a handsome and comfortable mansion!

Mine hostess had now finished her operation upon the tin, which, by the use of her spittle and the dishclout, she had burnished as bright as when it was new; and coming forward from the dresser, she delivered it to me with a low curtsey, at the same time requesting I would take a piece of oatmeal cake along with me, to eat at the well. From the appearance which both she and the house exhibited, I felt little inclination to concede to this request, and excused myself in the best manner I could but in vain. She averred, that it was not sonsy to drink of the well without something to eat at the same time; and opening her cupboard, she thrust, almost perforce, a large piece of cake into my hand, which, as I could not have refused it without rudeness, I accepted, and put into my pocket. Thus provided, I sallied out from the mansion-house of Glenhowan, and proceeded towards the linn.

It lay at the distance of about half a mile to the westward, and formed a deep ravine between the

end of the southern range of hills that there terminated, and the high mountain, which run almost entirely across the glen. A beaten foot-path, leading through desolate, uncultivated fields, and over-fallen and ruined stone inclosures, soon brought me to the brink of the long rocky chasm, at the bottom of which the well was situated. This was near the foot of the mountain; and the brows of the chasm on either side were, of course, low in proportion, so that I descended without any difficulty. From that place the channel of the burn was almost level for about two hundred paces farther up, so that the brows continued to deepen with the increasing altitude of the hills, and at last became so lofty, as to require a considerable effort of the eye to trace them to their summits. They were thickly studded with trees of various kinds, some of them on places where their roots, by striking deep into the earth, had attained a size which astonished me, in so bleak and barren a part of the country; while others, of smaller dimensions, clung like bats to the crevices in the rocks, where scarcely a sprinkling of earth was visible, to supply them with nourishment, and waved their tiny branches above me with a faint and feeble rustling, as I leaped from stone to stone, along the course of the current beneath them, or sometimes halted to look upward, and admire their fantastic appearance. In many parts the rocky walls of my almost subterranean path were indented with huge gaps, the farthest extremities of which were overhung with the gloom of the superincumbent mountains, and frowned as if dark and unfathomable, like an unknown futurity; while other parts projected forward nearly into the middle of the stream, and a short way in advance seemed to deny the possibility of all farther passage. My ears had for some time been saluted with a sullen plunging noise, as of a cataract; and on turning one of those acute angles, a spectacle burst suddenly upon me, which I had been very far from anticipating in such a place, although, had my mind at the time been less under the influence of that enthusiasm which the scene inspired, I would certainly

have been led to conclude, that the course of the stream, by running in a level so far into the deepening hills, must somewhere have an abrupt and precipitous termination. From the edge of a vast rock, which rose abruptly to the height of about thirty feet, the burn was rushing in a sheet of foam that resembled a pillar of crystal, till, dashed to atoms against the bottom of the pool, it threw up around it a cloud of spray, which, as I stood beside the boiling gulph, soon edged the borders of my hat and neckcloth with that beautiful silvery tinsel in which I have often proudly seen myself, assuming the colour of the clouds, while running like a deer among the morning mists of my native mountains. On every side, the black weather-beaten rocks, dripping with the misty shower that incessantly moistened them, rose to a height that set all human efforts to advance at defiance; there was no egress from this gloomy dungeon but by retracing my steps, and while standing beside the cataract, even that seemed impracticable. The deep passage the struggling burn had worn for itself, during the lapse of so many ages, by suddenly bending to the northward, at a short distance from the point of observation, gave it the appearance of being entirely closed, and impressed me with a kind of dreary feeling, as if Nature, since my entrance, had acted the part of a turnkey, and shut me out from the world a prisoner for ever. The eye followed the burn from where its broken and foaming waters poured themselves forth of the basin in which they had been boiling, in hopes by that clue to trace an opening, but in vain. As it rolled onward, it gradually assumed a darker hue, and a more placid motion, winding like a serpent round every obstacle that opposed its progress; and at last, as if by magic, or a miracle, the reverse of that of Moses at the rock of Meribah, it entirely disappeared beneath the vast and seemingly-united masses that hung over it.

At a short distance I discovered the well, from the quantity of ferruginous slime it had deposited in its escape from beneath the mountain, together with the sacred grass, of which I had been told, growing

beside it in abundance. At about the height of three feet from the bottom of the burn, a small cleft appeared in the rock, through which the water oozed slowly, and almost imperceptibly, and dropt into a little basin hollowed out by its own action, immediately beneath where it issued; whence it again trickled over the edge of the rock, and fell into the burn. The grass I found to be by no means peculiar to the place, as had been affirmed by my credulous informants. I had seen it frequently in similar situations, and used it, too, upon similar occasions; and as I therefore knew very well how to apply it, I drew forth mine hostess's tin, which, notwithstanding the cleansing she had given it, I rinsed tightly in the burn; and forming a spout with one of the blades of the grass which was nearest me, I soon gratified myself with a hearty draught of the cooling beverage. It was by no means delicious; and as I apprehended that mine hostess's bread might be equally so, I ventured, maugre its unsonsiness, to break her injunction with respect to eating a piece of it; and as no calamity afterwards befel me which could be attributed to this cause, I had no reason to repent of my disobedience.

I had now accomplished the object of my journey, and pocketing my tin, and casting another lingering look over the sublime features of the savage scene, I turned my back upon the foaming of the waterfall, the majestic cliffs over which it was precipitated, the boiling cauldron at its base, the giant and rocky walls of the linn that frowned above and around me, and the little well at which I was standing,-and directed my steps towards the place at which I had entered. As I withdrew from the cataract, its thunders gradually died upon my ear, while the wild and solemn voice of the gusty winds, that careered along the summits of the hills, or shrilly whistled on the brows of the linn, grew louder in proportion; and, while sometimes scrambling up the sides of the rocks to pluck the strawberries that grew in their crevices, I looked down from my elevation upon the burn that rolled beneath, and upwards to the clouds that still retained their dark

and rainy appearance, and spread their tattered skirts upon the wind in a thousand fantastic forms, and heard still more audibly the voice of the rapid current that bore them, I could not help fancying my situation somewhat similar to that of Elijah on the Mount of Horeb, when the Almighty passed by him, and "a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks;" and when "there came a voice unto him, and said, What dost thou here, Elijah?" I quitted the scene with regret! It was one which entirely coincided with my feelings,-one which so completely took possession of my soul, that, at the moment, I would gladly have relinquished society, to dwell amid its rocks, its torrents, and its tempests, mingle my voice with the wild music of its winds, and admire it for ever!

Darkness was deepening in the glen, and twilight had almost taken its flight from the tops of the hills, where its last faint traces yet continued to linger, like the memory of happiness after its enjoyment is past: the moon had not arisen; the stars were entirely veiled from sight by the deep curtain of clouds that was spread out before them; and all was dark, silent, and lonely, by the time I again reached the house of Glenhowan.

The whole family had deserted the hay bog, and assembled within doors around a large fire in the middle of the floor, above which hung a huge pot full of potatoes, intended for their supper. The fire was newly put on; and the smoke, which oozed through the walls, and rolled in deep and almost tangible volumes out at the doors and windows, told me on my approach how difficult it must be to enter and retain breath enough to thank them for the loan of the tin and the directions they had given me. In I ventured, however, and found the ladies, in expectation of my return, decked out in clean mutches and bed-gowns, (the old housekeeper had even gone so far as to wash her face and hands,) and grouped in a line around the fire, which occupied fully one half of the house; while the male sex, in an opposite line, occupied the other half, with the Laird planted in patriarchal dignity near

est the door upon the only chair in his possession. On my first entering, smoke appeared to be the only tenant of their dreary dwelling; it was so dense and dark, as for some time to baffle my utmost efforts to perceive any thing, (how my lungs must have throbbed under the gross weight of it, I leave the reader to judge ;) and it was not till after the lapse of a few seconds that the blaze of the fire began gradually to become apparent, of a colour resembling the bloody redness of the sun when rising or setting amid the thick watery haze that so often, both at morning and evening, envelopes the horizon. So close and incumbent was the smoke, that the flame actually seemed to be living upon it; and I would, in all probability, have quickly retreated, to enjoy the pure breezes of heaven outside the door, fully satisfied of the absence of every member of the family, had I not at the moment heard a voice from the midst of the gloom exclaiming, in a friendly and familiar tone, "Come away, Sir !" My eyes, though pumping forth torrents of bitter brine, became in a short time so far familiarized with the Glenhowan household medium of vision, that the whiteness of the ladies' mutches became at length perceptible, peering at first like the faint and distant waftures of some sheeted ghost at the depth of midnight, and gradually emerging into greater distinctness, like Satan unfolding himself to the view of his astonished associates, after his first return to Pandemonium, till at last the rigid weather-beaten features of the Laird, and the hag-like visage of old Miss Meg, the housekeeper, who happened to be nearest me, became perfectly visible. On stepping up to the fireside, and catching now and then a glimpse of the whole group, by the help of its lurid gleams, the scene forcibly reminded me of the pictures my fancy had often drawn of a party of the dark-complexioned Aborigines of America, squatted upon the ground in a circle, and gazing upon each other through the smoke of their night fire, blazing in the midst of them.

The Laird was on his shanks long before I could approach him; and setting forward the chair for my ac