128 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



isolated grandeur. On either hand, the slopes and shores are sprinkled with 

 country seats, villages, farms, cottages interspersed with bays and promontories ; 

 and the river itself enlivened with all the indications of a great mercantile city. 



LANARKSHIRE. 



And now we trace the steps of " those who bide 



Around the valley, where the ' DOUGLAS' stream' 



Devolves from mossy hills his dusky tide, 



Fast by the castle of that haughty name ; 



And those who dwell where ' many-falling Clyde' 



Sweeps down by * Bothwell's towers' of massy frame ; 



And by the green where Glasgow's daughters lave, 



On summer days, their robes within the crystal wave." TENNANT. 



THIS rich and picturesque county is generally denominated Clydesdale, from 

 the river Clyde, which, dividing it longitudinally, traverses it in a winding 

 course for the space of more than sixty miles, and then expands into the noble 

 Frith, which wafts the trade of Glasgow to the ocean. The county is divided 

 into three wards the upper, middle, and lower ; each under the jurisdiction of 

 a sheriff substitute. The upper ward, comprising nearly two-thirds of the 

 county, is mountainous ; the middle, though less so, is diversified by numerous 

 inequalities ; but, on every spot susceptible of improvement, the effects of 

 judicious agriculture are strikingly manifested. Localities which, at the close of 

 the last century, exhibited an aspect of unconquerable sterility, have now under- 

 gone a complete change, and become sites of industry, or the sources of abundant 

 harvests. The lower ward, which is almost covered by the city of Glasgow, 

 and the populous villages adjoining, exhibits a scene of uninterrupted beauty 

 and fertility, realizing the motto " Let Glasgow flourish !" while her poet 

 exclaims 



" As shines the moon among the lesser fires 

 Unrivalled Glasgow lifts her stately spires ; 

 For Commerce, glorious with her golden crown, 

 Has marked fair Glasgow for her favourite town." 



The poet and the utilitarian, however, contemplate these transformations under 

 very different lights. While the latter points with exultation to the vast sources 



