The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
My uncle is in raptures with Glasgow--He not only visited all the
manufactures of the place, but made excursions all round to Hamilton,
Paisley, Renfrew, and every other place within a dozen miles, where
there was any thing remarkable to be seen in art or nature. I believe
the exercise, occasioned by those jaunts, was of service 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 explanation, 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 Dumbarton, 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 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. My uncle and I have left the women at Cameron, as
Mrs Tabitha would by no means trust herself 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 Low-land
Scots, in their looks, garb, and language, as the mountaineers of
Brecknock are from the inhabitants of Herefordshire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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