134 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



ourselves of those descriptions with which the Clydesdale muse has already 

 celebrated its numberless beauties 



The Clyde, of ample volume, and alternately smooth and troubled in its 

 channel, after receiving the tribute of Douglas water* and dividing into two 

 streams, dashes down a precipitous ledge of rocks, and forms the " Bonnington 

 Fall." For the space of half a mile from this point, its bed is enclosed on 

 either side by a range of perpendicular and equidistant rocks, rising to the height 

 of a hundred feet, and presenting a stupendous wall of natural masonry. From 

 the crevices of these lofty ramparts, which enclose the channel of the river, choughs 

 and crows are continually springing, and, wheeling in airy circles round the Fall, 

 contribute to heighten the wild and romantic effect : 



" Where, roaring o'er its rocky walls, 



The water's headlong torren falls, 

 ull, rapid, powerful, Bashing to the light ; 



Till sunk tile boiling gulf beneath, 



It mounts again like snowy wreath, 



Which, scattered by contending blasts, 



Back to the clouds their treasure casts, 

 A ceaseless wild turmoil a grand and wondrous sight!" JOANNA BAILLIE. 



The grounds of Bonnington, as' well as those of Lee and Cleghorn, are 

 luxuriously wooded, and much of the timber is of very remote planting. Close 

 to the house of Lee, two trees are especially deserving of notice. The first of 

 these is an oak of prodigious dimensions, measuring sixty feet in height, thirty 

 feet in circumference, and containing fourteen hundred and sixty cubic feet of 

 timber. It is called the Pease tree, and understood to be a relic of the ancient 

 Caledonian forest ; but, although it still vegetates, its huge trunk is hollowed 

 to such a degree, that ten persons have been insinuated into the excavation. 

 The other vegetable wonder is a magnificent larch like those mentioned in 

 our account of Dunkeld said to have been one of the first introduced into 

 Scotland. It measures one hundred feet in height, and eighteen in girth. f 



Cora Lynn, about half a mile from Bonnington, is considered the finest of 

 these magnificent Falls. It is only, however, within these few years that this 

 grand and imposing scene could be enjoyed from the bottom of the Fall. 

 Formerly, the spectator could only contemplate the tortured waters from above, 

 and thus, much of the effect was lost. This inconvenience, however, has been 

 most happily remedied by the taste and liberality of the proprietor, who has caused 



* Douglas Castle, the " Castle Dangerous" of Sir Walter Scott. 



t " Surely," says a critic on Dr. Samuel Johnson, " trees like these, of which there is no scarcity in 

 those parts, might have gibbeted the most bulky of all tourists." In explanation of this the reader is 

 referred to the " Journey." 



