A Tour in tJic West of Scotland 



Z77 



hotel for the purpose of hiring a convejance 

 to Buchanan. Between bad beer and a 

 ricketty dog-cart, with a roarer of a horse to 

 boot, we were in anything but good humour, 

 notwithstanding the flattering notice painted 

 on the door-post, that the Empress of the 

 French had visited that hotel ; ergo, it was 

 an honour for all and sundry to be admitted 

 within its portals. On, however, we go upon 

 a well macadamized, well kept road, through 

 a fertile district for the first mile or two of 

 the road, passing Boturick Castle, and some 

 other places of less note. Like most coun- 

 ties, some of the farms are apparently well 

 cared for, and others not. Deep plough 

 stirring and manuring are visible at a glance, 

 even to the untutored eye. Many fields of 

 green crops looked well, having in the case of 

 turnips few wants. Some of the farmers were 

 liaving them stirred with the horse-hoe — an 

 operation practically sound in a period of 

 drought, although a theory which many 

 people receive with dubiety. As we pass 

 Kilmaronock, and near the walled policies of 

 the Duke's estate, the landscape is simpl}^ 

 magnificent. Benlomond as a background, 

 and the great chain of hills that join it, with 

 the beautiful Loch at its base, which delights 

 and astonishes the tourist and traveller, are 

 of themselves worthy of a journey to see ; 

 and Avhen the sky is troubled, and the clouds 

 kissing the peaks of these high mountains, 

 like dense great volumes of smoke, with the 

 sun glistening upon the hill sides, the light 

 and shade over the various undulations are 

 such as no pencil could do adequate justice to ; 

 and not only commands but compels admira- 

 tion, and binds the eye of the beholder as if 

 with a spell. 



While musing in that kind of mood upon 

 the variety and magnificence of the scenery 

 that met our gaze, we found ourselves con- 

 fronting the portals of one of the principal 

 entrances to the demesne. Finding a ready 

 admission, we pass up the approach, and at 

 once dive with gusto beneath the shade of 

 some wonderful specimens of arboriculture. 

 It is so agreeable, the change from purely 

 rural scenery, where a tree or a clump is only 

 scattered here and there, to come in contact 



with giants, whose lifetime must cover a 

 period of at least six hundred years, and in 

 such numbers as to engender and promote a 

 gratification which the enthusiastic arboricul- 

 turist so fully enjoys. The oaks, all over the 

 plantations of the estate, are marvellous 

 specimens, not only in respect of size but of 

 robust health. Many of the specimens 

 measure from i6 to i8 feet in circumference 

 3 feet above ground. One in particular, 

 called the " Five sisters," from its having five 

 great limbs of about equal proportions, 

 shooting as if it were simultaneously from the 

 trunks, about 3 feet above ground, measures 

 over 22 feet below the junction, and is the 

 picture of health and beauty. These oaks 

 meet you in no isolated individual spot, but 

 are in the thickets of the forest, in the park, 

 where hundreds of cattle are browsing, and 

 cover, in fact, an island called Inch Murrian, 

 in the famous Loch Lomond, which, by the 

 way, has long been celebrated for "fish with- 

 out fins, waves without winds, and a floating 

 island." Truly the grounds of his Grace of 

 Montrose are a home for the oak revelling to 

 the gi-eatest perfection, and at this period of 

 the age of the world, a.d. 1868, they happen 

 to be in full stature, without the slightest 

 affection or affliction, resulting from age or 

 other debilitating influence, to mar their 

 beauty among a host of numerous compeers. 

 As it is with the oak, so it is with the lime, 

 the beech, the ash, and the elm. These, how- 

 ever, occupy as they deserve to do, a subordi- 

 nate place as to numbers over the demesne. 

 It has been an object evidently all along to 

 nurse and preserve the most valuable timber 

 trees upon the estate generally, so that the 

 denizens of the forest above enumerated are 

 to be rather preserved to give variety of form 

 and feature, as individual trees in the parks, 

 than take their place as permanent tenants of 

 the purely-wooded scener}^, cultivated for its 

 importance from a timber point of view. No 

 one having a regard for beauty of outline in 

 our large parks can depreciate either the lime 

 or the horse chestnut. Our Tilias and our 

 Castaneas shall ever be sought after for their 

 decorative importance, and it was with delight 

 that we saw them studded over the great 



