CHAP. II.] GLENLAIR CHILDHOOD. 25 



dingle on either side the burn, and coming round to 

 westward of the house and garden, where it ended 

 in a shrubbery, by which the house was approached 

 from the north. On the eastward slope, towards the 

 Water of Urr, was a large undivided meadow for the 

 " kye" and the ponies. To the northward was a yard 

 with a duck-pond, and some humble " offices" or farm- 

 buildings, which were displaced by the new erection 

 of 1843. At the foot of the meadow, near the mouth 

 of the burn, was a ford with stepping-stones, where 

 the bridge was afterwards to be built, and the regular 

 approach to the completed house was to be constructed. 

 But this was far in the future, for in his building pro- 

 jects the laird would not trench upon the resources 

 that were needed for the land. At the foot of the 

 garden a place was hollowed out in the bed of the 

 burn, which has often proved convenient for bathing. 

 The rocky banks of the Urr, higher up, were fringed 

 with wood, and on the upland, on either side the 

 moor, there were clumps of plantation, giving cover 

 to the laird's pheasants, and breaking the force of the 

 winds coming down from the hill of Mochrum (N.W.). 

 Glenlair was the name ultimately appropriated to the 

 " great house " of Nether Corsock. 



Every detail of these arrangements had been 

 planned by the laird himself, and may be said to have 

 been executed under his immediate supervision. The 

 house was so placed and contrived as to admit of en- 

 largement ; but, in the first erection of it, space was 

 economised as in the fitting up of a ship. And while 

 it was building, the owners were contented with still 



