252 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



finished, was not yet opened. Though every part of this road 

 was familiar to us in 1806, yet we could now with great dif- 

 ficulty recognise only a few natural features, and some bridges 

 and churches. What were newly made plantations when we 

 last saw them had now become full-grown woods, and country- 

 houses and substantially built cottages have been increased by 

 hundreds. We could not help remarking, throughout, the won- 

 derful difference between the gardens and grounds of similar 

 dwellings in the central and southern counties of England. 

 While the English gardens at this season are teeming with 

 flowers, those on the Glasgow road exhibit scarcely any, and 

 only three or four kinds of shrubs. The cold nakedness of the 

 white and grey stone fronts, and the blue slate roofs, are any- 

 thing but inviting to the eye that has been accustomed to brick 

 walls, varied by China roses and honeysuckles, and tiled roofs 

 partially covered with vines. Comparing them in idea with the 

 road-side cottages in Surrey, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, 

 how astonishing the difference ! And yet the occupant of the 

 Scotch cottage, being a far more provident being, is in much 

 more comfortable circumstances than the English cottager. His 

 grand sheet anchor is the oatmeal, which enables him to eat at 

 so much less expense than the English one ; but perhaps the 

 habit of forethought is of still more value than the oatmeal. 



From Glasgow we took the railroad to Ayr, and thence the 

 mail to Stranraer, where we arrived between 2 and 3 o'clock 

 in the morning. Great part of the road is along a rocky shore, 

 against which the dashing of the waves roused the attention 

 and awakened long trains of ideas. 



Aug. 13. to 28. — Culhorn House i the Earl of Stair. The 

 nucleus of this mansion was originally a barrack for the dra- 

 goon regiment of Marshal Stair, about the beginning of the 

 last century ; but, on Castle Kennedy, the ancient seat, be- 

 ing burnt down, the family were compelled to resort to Cul- 

 horn, which has ever since been the residence of the Earls of 

 Stair in this part of Scotland. It has been added to by the 

 different successors of the marshal, and now contains some 

 large apartments, with adequate accommodation in other respects 

 for the ample hospitality exercised by the great landed pro- 

 prietors in Scotland. The situation is near the sea, and great 

 part of the property has, at no very distant period, geologically 

 speaking, been a series of low sand hills, with intervening 

 meres or marshy lakes. The family estate here consists of nearly 

 100,000 acres, chiefly of excellent turnip soil, in a moist climate, 

 and so mild that the fig lives as a standard without any pro- 

 tection, and sometimes ripens its fruit. Both figs and grapes 

 are frequently ripened on walls. There is a beautiful and very 

 distinct variety of the common ash on the lawn, in the library 



