410 Dr. Johnston's Journal of a visit to Jar dine Hall, 



ued ascent, until we reached a poor village, with a name so 

 foreign to my ears, that I could not retain it in my memory. 

 There is a considerable seminary, or " Classical and Commer- 

 cial Academy" in it, but we saw none of the scholars or 

 boarders. From the hill above this village, there opened 

 upon us a fine view, which reminded me of Milfield Plain ; 

 but the latter had a decided superiority in all respects. The 

 plain below was a large basin encircled with hills, traversed 

 by the little river Lochar on the nearest side, and occupied 

 by the town of Dumfries to the south-west. Lochar Moss 

 lies in the centre, an enormous peat bog of about 10 miles 

 in length, and 3 in breadth ; and our road cuts it into two 

 unequal halves. This road is remarkable for its origin ; 

 a stranger, a great number of years ago, sold some goods to 

 certain merchants at Dumfries on credit ; he disappeared, 

 and neither he nor his heirs ever claimed the money ; the 

 merchants in expectation of the demand, very honestly put 

 out the sum to interest ; and after a lapse of more than 40 

 years, the town of Dumfries obtained a gift of it, and ap- 

 plied the same towards making this useful road. We presume 

 the good folks of Dumfries had concluded that the stranger 

 had laired himself in this bog, and sunk in one of its pits, 

 which served him for an untombstoned grave, a thing they 

 of Dumfries seem to have in fear. Lochar Moss supplies 

 the good people of Dumfries with an abundance of peat, 

 which is the fuel with the commonality all over this district, 

 and there were workers of it scattered throughout the moss. 

 There is a certain interest about these men, who appeared 

 to be of the lowest class in general. No noise attends their 

 monotonous labour, the spade cuts without grating, the clod 

 is thrown aside without evoking a sound, there is no con- 

 verse, each toils by himself, .without giving or receiving 

 another's orders or directions ; silence reigns around, and 

 imparts to the labour a peculiar, but rather disagreeable, in- 

 terest ; for this outward solemnity of nature tells not fav- 

 ourably on the minds of men of the low degree of cultivation 

 these have. Solitude is not for them. Dumfries is a very 

 fine town. We walked through its broad, clean, busy street 

 with pleasure, admired its shops, its bridges, and its mag- 

 nificent asylum for the insane, at a little distance on a 

 wooded bank above the Nith ; drove through the pretty 

 suburb of Maxwelltown, and following the course of the 

 Nith, took a seaward direction. The road was greatly 



