254 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



with his lime, so as to produce a grey tint. There is a great 

 want of handsome specimens of architecture in this part of 

 Scotland, in every department, from the cottage to the villa, 

 and it is to be hoped that the Earl of Stair will commence a 

 reform in this respect, by erecting some handsome and com- 

 fortable cottages in different styles, and rebuilding some of his 

 farm-houses. Something also may be expected from the Earl 

 of Orkney, on whose property at Ballantrae a lodge has recently 

 been built, and some plantations made. There is this great 

 satisfaction in making improvements in this comparatively neg- 

 lected part of the country, that they are certain of attracting 

 public attention and procuring " the world's applause." 



Mr. Lamb was delighted with the wildness of the country 

 through which we passed to Ayr, and with the grandeur and 

 singularity of the rocks along that part of the road which 

 touched on the sea coast. He afterwards made a sketch from 

 memory {fig- 58.) of the normal form of a portion of a row of 



x-a ra the road-side cottages with their 



^-^ — „ '^\^ stone walls and thatched roof, and 



without front gardens, with other 

 sketches {figs. 59. to 62.) showing 

 hoAV the same materials might be 

 disposed somewhat more architec- 

 turally. It is but justice to Mr. 

 Road-side Cottage in the West Lamb to statc that the cngraviugs 

 of Scotland. from his sketches, having been made 



by an amateur at an early period of his progress, do not do 

 justice to the originals. To an architect or a builder, however, 

 they will be quite sufficient to indicate what is intended. The 

 object is not to render the cottages ornamental, but merely to 

 confer on them somewhat more of an architectural character 

 than they at present possess. 



In fig. 59. the door-jambs are brought forward and covered 

 with two flat stones so as to form a sort of porch ; while the 

 ground is lowered so as to admit of a rise of one step into the 

 porch ; the windows are shown arched, and the chimneys raised 

 a little and finished with a squared stone ; a gutter is added to 

 receive the rain from the roof, and a vertical tube from this 

 gutter conducts the water to a stone box, from which it may 

 either pass into a waste drain, or be filtered and sink into a well 

 to be drawn up by a pump inside the house. 



Fig. 60. shows a porch, the roof of which is composed of 

 two flagstones ; a plinth to the walls ; one step of ascent ; the 

 windows with a flat arch and a keystone ; a gutter as va^fig. 52. ; 

 and the chimneys with lateral openings, one on each side, the 

 perpendicular opening being closed by a broad flat stone. 



Fig. 61. shows the door and windows arched, the sills to the 



