tourist, distant from any public track, and, therefore, free from all
the horrors of improvement:[10] in which it seemed to me that the
architecture of the cottage had attained a peculiar degree of
perfection. But I think that this impression was rather produced by a
few seemingly insignificant accompanying circumstances, than by any
distinguished beauty of design in the cottages themselves. Their
inhabitants were evidently poor, and apparently had not repaired their
dwellings since their first erection; and, certainly, had never torn one
tuft of moss or fern from roofs or walls, which were green with the rich
vegetation of years. The valley was narrow, and quiet, and deep, and
shaded by reverend trees, among whose trunks the gray cottages looked
out, with a perfection of effect which I never remember to have seen
equaled, though I believe that, in many of the mountain districts of
Britain, the peasant's domicile is erected with equal good taste.

[Footnote 10: Troutbeck, sixty years since?]

58. I have always rejoiced in the thought, that our native highland
scenery, though, perhaps, wanting in sublimity, is distinguished by a
delicate finish in its details, and by a unanimity and propriety of
feeling in the works of its inhabitants, which are elsewhere looked for
in vain; and the reason of this is evident. The mind of the inhabitant
of the continent, in general, is capable of deeper and finer sensations
than that of the islander. It is higher in its aspirations, purer in its
passions, wilder in its dreams, and fiercer in its anger; but it is
wanting in gentleness, and in its simplicity; naturally desirous of
excitement, and incapable of experiencing, in equal degree, the calmer
flow of human felicity, the stillness of domestic peace, and the
pleasures of the humble hearth, consisting in everyday duties performed,
and everyday mercies received; consequently, in the higher walks of