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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



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^ r6^6^i? IN THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



BUCHANAN HOUSE. 



URING the intense sultr>' heat of the speckled coating of green and grey, 



\_) first days of August, in company 

 with a distinguished horticulturist, we arranged 

 for our holidays being spent seeing notable 

 places in the West of Scotland. What we 

 did see, and the writer's notions respecting 

 such, shall form a subject for a continued 

 series of chapters, which, it is to be hoped, 

 may prove generally interesting. 



Avoiding all preliminaries as to the journey 

 between metropolis and metropolis, we will 

 commence our observations from the com- 

 mercial capital of the West. Electing to 

 proceed to the pleasure grounds and gardens tyre on the other, and the river between, 

 of his Grace the Duke of Montrose, per rail widening out to some expanse, clad with a 

 en route to Balloch, we find the agricultural covey of vessels, some with merchandise and 

 state of the country by no means in so lament 



indica- 

 tive of frequent repairs, like a patched-up pair 

 of " unmentionables." Whisking along with 

 considerable rapidity past the roadside sta- 

 tions (for it is one of the " North British " 

 express trains that carry us), we catch the 

 word Kilpatrick, in large letters, done with sea- 

 pink (Armeria maritima), and in beautiful style, 

 very creditable indeed to the station-agent. 

 As we near Bowling, the scenery increases 

 in interest, for, what with the crested hills on 

 the one side, and the richly wooded undulating 

 slopes, comprising the policies of Lord Blan- 



able a plight as in many other localities of 

 which we shall hereafter have to speak upon. 

 The heavy crops, as indicated by the quantity 

 and bulk of the ricks, scattered over the fields 

 from which it had been cut, seemed to be 

 fully up to the average. The com fields were 

 not rank, but they did not indicate that 

 leanness which is certainly more the nile than 



some with multitudes of human bemgs, it 

 assumes quite a panoramic aspect. Our at- 

 tention is called in passing to the Bowling 

 Hotel, once a famous resort of the Glasgo- 

 wegians before the railway was inaugurated ; 

 indeed, a sort of " Star and Garter" for style 

 and viands. Here, too, is to be seen jutting 

 out seaward the end of the old Roman wall, 

 which passes right through Dumbarton and 



the exception over the general districts of the Linlithgowshires, and is always scanned with 



country. As we run along, and pass on the a certain degi'ee of interest. Dumbarton 



left the tall chimneys of some of the public Hill, as if planted into, or vomited out of the 



works of Partick and Govan, the thin haze of Firth, is passed with its tiny-looking casde, and 



smoke which envelopes the city and its then the busy commercial litUe to^^'n itself, 



suburbs becomes almost invisible in the dis- which is remarkable for the style and com- 



tance, and the sky assumes more an eastern as- fort of workmen's houses, arranged in streets 



pect than usual among the hills and Aalleys of with pediment-like windows in the upper 



Renfrewshire on the one hand, and Dumbar- stories, and 



tonshire on the other — the narrow Firth of 

 Clyde that separates the two being scarcely 

 visible. The old thatch house, tenanted 

 chiefly by the Scotch husbandman, crops up 



in the 

 fine arched stairs leading 

 thereto. Then j^assing Alexandria, somewhat 

 famous for its print manufactories, we run on 

 to Balloch. Time being an object, we proceed at 

 once across the bridge, for which we are 



occasionally in the landscape, with its respectfully reminded of pontage dues, to the 



