26 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. II. 



narrower accommodation, spending one if not two 

 whole summers in what was afterwards the gardener's 

 cottage. For the journey from Edinburgh was no 

 light matter, even for so experienced a traveller as 

 John Clerk Maxwell. Coming by way of Beattock, it 

 occupied two whole days, and some friendly entertain- 

 ment, as at the Irvings of Newton (his mother's half- 

 sisters), 1 had to be secured on the way. Carriages*, 

 in the modern sense, were hardly known to the Yale 

 of Urr. A sort of double-gig with a hood was the 

 best apology for a travelling coach, and the most 

 active mode of locomotion was in a kind of rough 

 dog-cart, known in the family speech as a "hurly." 

 A common farmer's cart has been seen carrying the 

 laird to church, or to a friend's hall-door. 



Glenlair was in the parish of Parton, of which the 

 kirk is by Loch Ken. Mr. Clerk Maxwell was one 

 of the elders there. (The little church of Corsock, 

 about three miles up the Urr, was not yet thought 

 of; for it was built in 1838, and not completely 

 endowed until 1862.) About seven miles of hilly 

 road lead from the Urr to Loch Ken and the Dee, 

 which is reached at a point near Cross-Michael, about 

 half-way between New Galloway in one direction and 

 Kirkcudbright and St. Mary's Isle 2 in the other. On 

 the high ground between the Urr and the Dee is Loch 

 Eoan, a favourite point for expeditions from Glenlair. 

 L 2 yrs. In a letter dated " Corsock, 25th April 1834 " (the 

 Boy being then aged two years and ten months), 



1 See above, p. 4. 

 2 The seat of the Earl of Selkirk. 



