Black Mount, falls into Loch Awe. This lake is not only of large extent, but extremely beautiful and picturesque, being in some places interspersed with islands covered with verdure, or oak, hazel, and birch; or where rocky, with tall fir trees; in others, finely indented by promontories advancing and spreading into the lake a great way, and joined to the main land only by narrow isthmuses. At the north, on a tongue of land jutting into the loch, there is a large, old, and ruinous castle, belonging to the earl of Braid-Albin. This was the antient den or strong hold of the family, from which, at the head of their vassals and tenants, they issued forth to commit occasional depredations on their neighbours. The truth is, that, in the times to which I refer, this practice, as I have hinted above, was very far from being singular. The family of Braid-Albin, in the vicinity of Loch Awe, their most antient patrimony, possess a country thirty miles in extent. Bidding adieu to Loch Awe, at Cladich, I made the best of my way, through a bleak and dreary region, to Inverary. From the inn at Inverary, which is more splendid and extensive than one would expect in the midst of lakes and mountains, I went to see the seat of the duke of Argyle, which is a square building of blueish granite, having a round tower at each corner, and a square one in the centre. It is situate on a gentle eminence, in the midst of an extensive plain, bounded behind and on each side by lofty mountains, and having Loch Fyne in front, opening into a wide bay into the sea. The inside of this princely mansion is adorned with every splendid decoration of the useful and elegant arts; and |