646 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



fancy bare-legged and bare-footed, seems to have communicated a degree of 

 activity of character not found among the same class in any of the lowland 

 counties of England j nor even, as it appears to us, in Derbyshire, or the 

 hilly districts of Cumberland or Westmoreland. The imperfection of the 

 Scotch dwellings, and the necessity which the Scotch people are under, 

 from infancy, of having recourse to expedients, must have an eiFect in calling 

 forth their inventive powers ; but, while this is favourable to ingenuity aild 

 perseverance, it must be confessed to be unfavourable to the progress of 

 cleanliness and habits of neatness, which are, unquestionably, not so pre- 

 valent among the poorest class in Scotland, as they are among the poorest 

 class in England. These circumstances, the uncertainty of the climate, and 

 their school-education, probably give to the Scotch that sagacity which is 

 generally allowed to be one of the national characteristics. Their attach- 

 ment to their parents, said to be another characteristic, is in part a 

 remainder of the principle of clanship, and in part the result of the 

 mutual dependence of parents and children upon each other, which 

 necessarily takes place in an agricultural country, and one without poor- 

 rates. Where commerce, manufactures, and high wages have been intro- 

 duced, children, in consequence of being early forced to earn money, soon 

 become independent of their parents, and filial affection is often found to 

 give way. This tendency is not to be counteracted by recurring to the 

 agricultural state, but by moral and intellectual education ; by which, it 

 may be said, the head is called in to assist the heart, and that which ori- 

 ginated in feelings of self-preservation is continued through a sense of jus- 

 tice and duty. 



General hnprovement. — Having thus slightly noticed the natural cir- 

 cumstances of the western counties of the Lowlands of Scotland, we shall 

 next take a general view of what has been done by man in the way of 

 improving or adapting for his use that which nature has set before him. 

 The adaptation of a country to the purposes of man must always de- 

 pend on the nature of that country, and on the degree of civilisation, 

 and the amount of skill and capital, possessed by its inhabitants. The 

 progress which the tract in question has made, since we passed through 

 it in 1805, is no less gratifying than it is astonishing. Good lines of 

 road are now formed where the roads were formerly hilly, circuitous, 

 and always in bad order. Extensive tracts of country which in 1803 

 were open waste ; for instance, about Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, Cas- 

 tle Douglas in Kirkcudbright, and Galston in Ayrshire, are now enclosed, 

 drained, sheltered by plantations, studded with farm-houses and cottages, 

 and subjected to a regular rotation of crops. Many thousands of acres 

 of rocky surface have been planted, and of the steep sides of hills where 

 aration could not be practised ; and, we think, we may safely state, that, 

 for every ten acres of plantation which existed in 1805, there are a thousand 

 in 1831. Almost all the farm-houses and farm-yards of the country have 

 been renewed since the former period, and these now present a most 

 regular and comfortable appearance. A great many of the labourers' cot- 

 tages have also been rebuilt in a more substantial style, though not, as 

 we shall hei'eafter show, with that attention to the comfort, decency, and 

 cleanliness of the inhabitants which has taken place in farm-houses. 



Next to the improvement which has been made in the agriculture of the 

 country, is that which has been effected in the country seats of the landed 

 proprietors. Almost every gentleman's house has been enlarged or rebuilt ; 

 new kitchen-gardens have been formed and the pleasure-grounds altered; 

 the number of hot-houses is increased at least a hundred-fold, and lodges, 

 winding approaches, and scattered timber trees are now substituted for 

 commonplace roads, gates, and grass fields ; the latter either naked, or 

 displaying only a few round clumps. All the towns have been more or 

 less increased in size; the new buildings are larger, and of an improved 

 architecture, and the streets are wider. The town which has improved the 



