404 IsIMROD'S NOIITIIEIIN TOUR. 



had not a good opportunity of seeing a strange country, which I admit I 

 chiefly look at with a sportsman's eye ; and I considered a great part of 

 that which we this day passed through, to have had a good fox-hunting- 

 like appearance. At the end of about the fourth stage, guess ray 

 surprise when, the order of the day was—*' Now, gentlemen and ladies, 

 if you please, you will leave the coach here, and take the boat to 

 Glasgow." The change, however, was for the better, — from a rumbling 

 old drag, badly horsed, and worse driven, to a snug and warm cabin in 

 the Edinburgh and Glasgow barge, which goes at the rate of nine miles 

 and a half per hour, throughout the whole rout, drawn by five horses, 

 which now and then were absolutely "sprung" into a gallop. The 

 increased speed of this conveyance brought me to Glasgow just at five 

 o'clock, and getting into a post-chaise, I reached Hawkhead, the seat of 

 Lord Kelburne, eight miles distant, at the ringing of the first dinner- 

 bell. 



Hawkhead, the residence of Viscount Kelburne, is a large mansion, 

 the property of the Earl of Glasgow— father to the noble viscount,— 

 situated seven miles from the city of Glasgow, and two from Paisley, 

 about a mile distant from the high road leading from one town to the 

 other. The domain is extremely well wooded ; the approach to the house 

 runs parallel with a deep river called the Cart, which, from its slow and 

 silent course, reminded me of " gentle Severn's sedgy banks;" the land 

 is good, and the stables and kennels are at a convenient and suitable 

 distance. 



It is at all times, and under all circumstances, no slight trial of nerve 

 to find oneself and luggage at the door of a person whom one has never 

 set eyes on before ; but, from the character given me of Lord Kelburne 



