DALZELL CASTLE 



form of argument scarcely courteous, I trow; so it 

 may be explained that in the old Scottish alphabet 

 the character z did not represent the soft sibilant as 

 in " zebra/' but the consonantal y, as in " youth/' to 

 distinguish it from the vowel y, as in "syllable." 

 If you press me further and inquire how "Dal" can 

 fairly be supposed to represent the sound "dee/' I 

 am driven to retort that it is no whit more 

 absurd than to write "Pontefract" when you mean 

 one to read "Pomfret." So we start fair, you see: 

 and having settled that point, let us look into 

 Lord Hamilton's pretty Clydeside garden. 



It is formed in terraces cut in the steep side of 

 a deep and rocky gorge, through which a burn brawls 

 impatiently to join the sweeping Clyde. Quoth 

 William Cobbett, who paid a visit to Dalzell in 

 1832, "Here, were I compelled to live in Scotland, 

 would I choose to reside." Since that time seventy 

 nearly eighty years have run, to the mighty detri- 

 ment of the atmosphere ; for the development of 

 mining, smelting, and malodorous industries in variety 

 has greatly altered for the worse the aspect of this 

 part of Clydesdale. Scarcely would Sir Walter Scott 

 recognise the groves round neighbouring Cambus- 

 nethan, where there is a railway station, solemnly 

 placarded as " Tillietudlem," in compliance with the 

 unconscious decree of the Wizard of the North. 



But what Dalzell has lost in environment it has 

 gained in the charm of contrast. You step off the 

 tram midway between the busy hives of Motherwell 



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