Seats in the West of Scotland, S 



The Gentlemen's Seats in the West of Scotland are now in a more deserted 

 state than they have been in for many years. Very few of the proprietors 

 reside at them, chiefly, as we were informed, from not having the means 

 (owing to the diminution of their rents, and other causes) of keeping up 

 the requisite establishments, and paying the interest of the mortgages or 

 other encumbrances on their estates. In consequence of this, it will 

 not excite wonder that we found very few gardens kept up in a suitable 

 style. Before this evil can be remedied, material changes must take place 

 in the laws relating to real property, and more especially in the laws 

 of entail and of primogeniture, the evils of which were pointed out by 

 Lord Gardenstone to his countrymen more than fifty years ago. It is 

 proper to mention that the changes which have taken place in the money 

 rent of the land, and in the price of territorial productions, have not 

 been the sole cause of the present neglected state of gentlemen's seats 

 in the line of country through which we passed. A few have overbuilt 

 themselves ; and a few also have curtailed their means by gambling or 

 electioneering expenses. The prevailing cause, however, of the suffer- 

 ings of the Scotch landed proprietors we believe to be the great extent 

 of their mortgages ; and as it is clear to us that the means of pay- 

 ing off these, or at least the interest of them, will, in the great majority 

 of cases, rather diminish than increase, the sooner the mortgagors are 

 authorised by the legislature to sell part of their estates, the better it will 

 be both for themselves and the public. It has been shown in a late num- 

 ber of the Edinburgh Review that more than half the landed property in 

 Scotland is very strictly entailed. 



As compared with the country seats of England, those of Scotland 

 which- we saw during our late tour are inferior in point of park and plea- 

 sure ground scenery. Nature has done much more for the landscape 

 scenery of Scotland than she has for that of England, by supplying the 

 most striking or interesting features j but man has not yet been endowed 

 with sufficient taste, or rather, perhaps, wealth, to make the most of them. 

 We have heard it alleged, that the difference between Scotch and English 

 parks, with regard to wood and lawn, is owing to the inferiority of the 

 northern climate; but this is one of the greatest mistakes that can be made 

 on the subject. A sufficient variety of trees and shrubs, for all the purposes 

 of the most varied shrubberies and plantations, grow as well in Scotland as 

 in England ; grass grows as well, and can be mown as smoothly ; and 

 gravel, or a substitute for it, looks as well, when properly managed. There 

 may be fifty or a hundred ornamental trees and shrubs, which endure 

 the open air in the central counties of England, which will not live through 

 the winter in Scotland ; but this is of no consequence with reference either 

 to landscape-gardening or ornamental planting. The park scenery of 

 Scotland is inferior, as far as art is concerned, to that of England, chiefly 

 from its confined extent, and the formality of all the lines and forms 

 connected with it. This formality may be traced to the love, in Scotch 

 landowners, of agricultural profits ; straight lines, and surfaces uninterrupted 

 by trees, being most favourable for aration. The English beau ideal of a 

 park is that of a portion of natural forest scenery, with smooth glades of 

 lawn in some places, and rough thickets of shrubs and ferns in others ; but 

 the Scotch idea of a park (judging from the parks as we found them) is 

 that of a pasture field of considerable extent, varied by formal clumps of 

 trees and strips of plantation. Unquestionably the latter description of 

 park is most suitable for a comparatively poor country, because it is better 

 adapted for the maintenance of agricultural stock ; but, taking the style of 

 the finest natural scenery as a standard for this kind of beauty, the English 

 park, as a work of art, is by far the most beautiful. The day for extensive 

 parks, however, is gone by ; and we have no wish to see large portions of 



