From the contemplation of so beautiful a whole, we turn unwillingly to censure any of its parts; yet the desire of minute perfection is, perhaps, strongest on such occasions, and best justifies the severity of criticism. The natural objects are above praise, or dispraise; we can speak only of the artificial. The tower of Dun-y-coich is too simple and characteristic to admit of improvement: the town is, perhaps, ostentatiously displayed; but the castle itself, which should be the most perfect part of the view, appears for that very reason, the most faulty. In a Gothic edifice, such as this is intended to represent, we look for the varied outline, the subordinate buildings, the courts, gateways, towers, whose forms give picturesqueness, and whose extent augments grandeur. Here is nothing of all this. The house is a square mass, with circular towers at the angles, and a kind of square embattled tower rising from the middle: the windows are large, unsuitable to the style of architecture, and there is not even a door-way correspondent to the magnitude of the building.

We were rather disappointed in the town of Inverary, which is but small; nor are the houses answerable, in point of accommodation, to their external appearance. The inn has an extensive front,

and its accommodations are tolerable, but not greatly superior to what we had already met with. Here, however, we staid three days, and found sufficient gratification in the interesting objects around us. The herring-fishery particularly attracted our notice. This fish, on the west coast of Scotland, is of a much larger size, and finer flavour, than on the east; and the Loch Fyne herrings are held in the highest esteem. In consequence of this, a large fleet of boats, from other parts, come hither during the season, which lasts from July till January, and usually return with a profit of 40/. or 50l. and sometimes as much as 100%. per boat. All over the coast, herrings form a very general, and delicious article of food: in the houses of the gentry, they are introduced, even at breakfast; and the poor live almost exclusively upon them, with the addition of potatoes. The excise laws on salt have, in many instances, operated very fatally, to prevent the curing them, when taken in great quantities: this evil was much felt during my stay in Scotland: but since that period, a temporary measure has been adopted by the legislature, which, it is to be hoped, will form the basis of a permanent remedy. Many have been the patriotic attempts to extend this important branch of employ

ment: it has been encouraged by building fishing villages, by offering bounties, &c. ; but it still requires, and deserves, the aid of the most enlightened politicians. To the lover of the picturesque it presents many pleasing circumstances. During the day, the little flotilla lies moored to the shore: the boats are of a singular form; at one end is a sailcloth covering, and at the other, according to the lively sketch of an old poet*,

"The thin net, upon the long oars twin'd, With wanton strife, catches the sun and wind, Which still do slip away, and still remain behind.”

In the evening, they stretch in a line across the lake, and sweep it with their nets. Much of their success depends on the proper depth, to which the nets are sunk the herring sometimes passing over them, and sometimes near the bottom. It is a beautiful sight, to behold the surface of the water silvered, as it sometimes is, by the glancing play of immense shoals, which crowd up to the very head of the Loch: they are pursued by flights of sea-fowl, hovering over them, with ceaseless screams; and it is by these signs, that the experienced fisherman dis

P. Fletcher, Purple Island, c. 1, stanza xiii,