A bartizan, or projecting gallery, before the windows of her parlour,
served to illustrate another of Rose's pursuits; for it was crowded with
flowers of different kinds, which she had taken under her special
protection. A projecting turret gave access to this Gothic balcony, which
commanded a most beautiful prospect. The formal garden, with its high
bounding walls, lay below, contracted, as it seemed, to a mere parterre;
while the view extended beyond them down a wooded glen, where the small
river was sometimes visible, sometimes hidden in copse. The eye might be
delayed by a desire to rest on the rocks, which here and there rose from
the dell with massive or spiry fronts, or it might dwell on the noble,
though ruined tower, which was here beheld in all its dignity, frowning
from a promontory over the river. To the left were seen two or three
cottages, a part of the village, the brow of the hill concealed the
others. The glen, or dell, was terminated by a sheet of water, called
Loch Veolan, into which the brook discharged itself, and which now
glistened in the western sun. The distant country seemed open and varied
in surface, though not wooded; and there was nothing to interrupt the
view until the scene was bounded by a ridge of distant and blue hills,
which formed the southern boundary of the strath or valley.
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