A LEAF FROM AN OLD JOURNAL. 



321 



eminently favorable to the grasses. The 

 showers being frequent and gentle, clothe 

 with verdure even declivities, " making all 

 one Emerald," and wearied as 1 was with 

 the " glassy surface of the gray sea," the 

 verdure of the country was most refreshing. 

 Mr. Southey has aptly termed England 

 " the Paradise of Cows." 



Too much cannot be said of the fine tact 

 and taste exhibited by the English, in their 

 country places. From the Castle and Pa- 

 latial residences of the nobleman, and the 

 villas of opulent gentlemen, through all the 

 grades of Farm-houses, to the bower-like 

 Cottages of the peasantry — in the latter 

 particularly, where there is no expensive 

 architecture — it is most pleasant to see 

 how a well kept grass plat — the judicious 

 planting of a shrub or flower, or the taste- 

 ful training of a vine — the attention and 

 labor of the smallest intervals of time, can 

 gradually give them an exterior so attractive 

 from without, with such an air of refine- 

 ment, that it is difficult to believe that mean 

 and debasing habits can ever exist there, 

 I saw near Liverpool, some sweet nestling 

 places, where the houses were so embowered 

 and masked by hedges and shrubbery and 

 vines, that they reminded me of the bird 

 traps which boys disguise with bark and 

 mosses, &c., to allure their game. Crossed 

 the Esk (a small stream) into Scotland, 

 and passed through Gretna Green, where 

 the blacksmith welds together runaway 

 matches. The subsequent history of these 

 ardent and impatient lovers, would afford 

 probably, salutary, lessons to many who 

 would marry in haste. Saw the Moss des- 

 cribed in Guy Mannering, and afterwards 

 the Sands of the Solway Frith, which 

 Scott makes the scene of an adventure in 

 the early part of Red Gauntlet. What a 

 witchery his pen has given to Scotland ! 

 Many square miles of " the sands" are left 

 41 



bare in the estuary of the Solway by the 

 receding tide, when persons walk and drive 

 across ; but there are treacherous spots of 

 quicksafid, and some fearful accidents oc- 

 cur ; the flood tide, in this high latitude, 

 comes in with terrific rapidity and threat- 

 ens to overflow the shores. The old church- 

 yard in Dumfries is one of the most inter- 

 esting in the kingdom. It is consecrated 

 by the remains of persons who suffered for 

 their religious faith, whose weather stained 

 tombs are pointed out to strangers by the 

 old sexton, who conducts j^ou also with 

 pride and consequential authority to the 

 tomb of Bur7is, where the poet is represent- 

 ed at the plough. Under a dome, and in 

 the space enclosed by the iron rails, some 

 fine specimens of the Thistle, the noli me 

 tangcre emblem of the Scotch, are cher- 

 ished. The sexton boasted of having 

 often taken whiskey punch with the Poet, 

 and told with satisfaction the following an- 

 ecdote. He said, as Burns was fishing one 

 day, a guager approached and asked, 

 " Weel Mister Burns, what are ye fishing 

 for?" Burns (who disliked guagers) re- 

 plied : " I am fishing, sir, for the auldNick.^' 

 " Eh ! Mr. B., and what do you bait with ?" 

 "I bait with a guager, sir," replied Burns 

 again. 



One of my inducements to visit Dumfries, 

 was to see Mr. S tt, an early and es- 

 teemed friend of my parents, at his charm- 

 ing villa, Castle Dykes, half a mile below the 

 town on the Nith. It is in a bend of the 

 river, and the house commands beautiful 

 views of the town, the river, with its sal- 

 mon fishery and the Criffel mountains, &;c., 

 of Galloway. It was in former days, the 

 site of an old Castle, and the fos§e, &c., 

 have long grown up with trees, and al- 

 though only fifteen acres in extent, the ad- 

 vantages of the ground have been seized 

 with such tact, that the winding walks al- 



