"33T8 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



wise than on the very best principles. With respect to the 

 greater part of the houses composing the village or town, as it 

 may now be called, they are, we suppose, built on feus, which are 

 generally leases of 999 years ; and the builders, as almost every- 

 where else in Scotland, seem to have carefully avoided showing 

 the least appearance of improved design or of ornament. But 

 what forms the greatest objection to the detached houses of 

 Hamilton is, that they have no front gardens, or, at least, we 

 recollect very few, and they display no flowers or flowering 

 shrubs. The plainest cottage that may be built can be rendered 

 a delightful portion of scenery, if it be surrounded by a few 

 square yards of ground, planted and cultivated with a little care 

 and taste. Even if no creepers are trained against the walls of 

 a cottage, two or three low trees, and especially pyramidal ones, 

 such as the balsam poplar, the pyramidal common thorn, the 

 Irish yew, Swedish juniper, Cembran pine, pyramidal oak, 

 various kinds of pears, cherries, plums, and apples, and several 

 varieties of the white-beam tree, with a number of others, all 

 hardy enough to ripen their wood in this part of Scotland, 

 would break the meagre sharp lines of the slated eaves that have 

 no gutters (roans, as they are called here), and throw a shadow- 

 on the broad expanse of roof. It might, as it appears to us, be 

 worth while for the Duke of Hamilton, and other extensive pro- 

 prietors, each to maintain a small nursery of fruit-bearing and 

 ornamental trees and shrubs suitable for planting cottage gardens, 

 and give or sell them, not only to the cottagers on their own 

 estates at a low price, but to all other cottagers in the surround- 

 ing country who choose to become purchasers. In this way, 

 and by the occasional advice and assistance of an intelligent 

 gardener, a taste for cottage gardens would soon spread over the 

 country. We do not recollect much of the church or the 

 market-house in Hamilton, but we have in our mind's eye a 

 dissenting chapel, and its burying-ground, both of considerable 

 size, and the chapel as deficient in every thing like design or 

 taste as such a mass of building could well be. Even the 

 workmanship appeared bad ; there being apparently neither a 

 truly perpendicular line in the walls or openings, nor a cor- 

 rectly horizontal line in the roof. Ivy, the Ayrshire rose, 

 Clematis montana, and a few scattered trees, would totally change 

 the character of this scenery. 



Hamilton Palace is a noble pile of Roman architecture, stand- 

 ing in a park of 1700 acres. Through His Grace's kindness we 

 were permitted to see the interior of the palace, which is ad- 

 mirably arranged, and superiorly finished and furnished. Among 

 the ancient and curious furniture, are several cabinets, beds, 

 chairs, tapestry, and other things, which belonged to Mary 

 Queen of Scots ; and many articles, also, which were once those 



