BAKNCLUITH 



LANARKSHIRE 



ARNCLUITH, or Baron's Cleugh as it 

 used to be, and should be still called, is 

 in the same densely-peopled, clangorous, 

 tram-ridden, smoke-shaded district as 

 Dalzell, lying scarcely outside the 

 mining and manufacturing town of Hamilton, as 

 Dalzeil does outside Motherwell. But the seclusion 

 of one is as perfect as that of the other, owing to the 

 precipitous nature of the glen where it is built and the 

 luxuriant greenwood which clothes the cliffs on each 

 side of the Avon. Like Dalzell also in this, that it 

 owes its erection to a Hamilton, namely, John of 

 Broomhill, ancestor of the present Lord Belhaven, who 

 built the triple dwelling house in 1583. Dorothy 

 Wordsworth dismissed it in a sentence, devoting pages 

 to describe the oppressive splendour of Hamilton 

 Palace on the other side of the high road ; but it is 

 certain that neither she nor her husband can have 

 penetrated this delectable pleasaunce, for no poet 

 might view unmoved such a felicitous fusion of art 

 with nature. In good truth the approaches to 



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