Milton Lockhart, Lee. 389 



and the house have been begun to be laid out in terrace gardens, 

 which, when completed, promise to have an admirable effect. 

 At present, nothing is finished but the house ; and all the ground 

 work is at a stand-still, and likely to be so for some time, on 

 account of electioneering expenses. We went over every part 

 of the house, from the cellars to the garrets, and found in it 

 everything which a villa, or rather a mansion, ought to contain, 

 though on a small scale. When Milton Lockhart is finished, it 

 will be a residence of great beauty and variety, from the con- 

 trast of the architectural gardens at the house, with the romantic 

 windings and picturesque banks of the river, and the wooded 

 hilly scenery which extends on every side. The greatest draw- 

 back to its beauty at present is the curved line of the approach, 

 which ought to be conducted in one straight line from the bridge 

 to the entrance court of the house. Such a straight horizontal 

 line is wanted to balance the innumerable curved and broken 

 lines which form the natural characteristic of the locality. In 

 the flower-garden we found a collection of sweet-williams which 

 surpassed in beauty every thing of the kind that we had before 

 seen. The gardener had been collecting them for several years. 



Milton Lockhart to Lanark. The ride from Hamilton to 

 Lanark, along the banks of the Clyde, has long been celebrated 

 for its beauty, and it forms a very good study for the landscape- 

 gardener who has walks to form along the banks of a natural 

 river. Here he may see the effect of such bends in the walk as 

 command long reaches of the river, and others which merely 

 look across it; of seeing the water from an open glade, and from 

 a dark thicket ; of seeing it near at hand, and at a distance ; of 

 the walk being parallel to the river's course, of going away from 

 it, and approaching it ; and, in particular, he will learn the fine 

 effect of some of these changes, when accompanied by the sound 

 of a waterfall, now rising and now dying away on the ear. The 

 inn at Lanark is a larger house than that at Hamilton, but in 

 point of comfort it is far inferior. 



July 30. — Cartland Crags, a remarkable chasm with rocky 

 sides, overhung with trees, and rich in wild plants, and also the 

 Stonebyre Falls of the Clyde, afforded us much enjoyment, but 

 we cannot stop to describe them. The natural oaks on the banks 

 of the Clyde we found to be every where Quercus sessiliflora. 



Lee, Sir Norman Lockhart, is a place of great antiquity, and 

 remarkable for some fine old trees. Amongst these are three 

 larches (mentioned in the Arboretum Britannicum) of the same 

 age as those at Dunkeld, the largest of which is 12 ft. in circum- 

 ference at 4 ft. from the ground, and 100 ft. high; silver firs 

 and spruce firs of the same age, and of nearly similar dimensions ; 

 a row of magnificent old limes, which, however, from standing 

 too close together, have taken the character of a gigantic hedge ; 



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