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



as a guide could, that a rich proprietor's residence is at hand ; 

 and a triumphal arch erected across the road proclaimed to 

 us that this proprietor, Mr. Oswald, M.P., for Ayrshire, had 

 brought to the favourite residence his lady, the widow of 

 the late Sir James Johnstone of Westerhall, to whom he 

 had been married about three weeks ago. And next we 

 admire a small and humble cottage, covered in front with 

 the vine and fig tree, which appeared to be in a flourishing 

 condition ; and I observe that all hereabouts, and afterwards 

 on our route, the brambles abound to a degree greatly beyond 

 what they do on the Eastern Borders, and are loaded with 

 fruit. The species too are not the same as they are with us. 

 The prospect improves as we drive on, and we often stop to 

 admire it ; the Solway and its broad sands, the Westmoreland 

 and Cumberland hills, the opposite coast with its indistinctly 

 seen villages, the hills and woods of Galloway. Many in- 

 teresting localities were pointed out by Sir William which 

 served the purpose of raising and satisfying a curiosity that 

 died away on the spot. We nighed the shore of the Solway; 

 the road sides rough with brambles, and rich in many other 

 plants that interest an eastern botanist, gedum telephium, 

 almost unknown on the eastern side of the island, was not 

 uncommon here, truly wild and luxuriant. But it was as 

 interesting to notice the different habit which some plants, 

 common to the two districts, here assumed ; in general they 

 were more luxuriant. The banks too, where steep and ele- 

 vated, were clothed to the very base with a very rash vege- 

 tation of numerous plants, and with trees and shrubs. A 

 rock called " Lot's Wife," at the foot of a rocky deep ravine, 

 was a tempting object, but time could not be spared for a 

 descent upon it ; it was rich in many a flower, and at an 

 earlier season must have been gay and joyful with their 

 various blossoms. We halt at Douglas Hall, a hamlet of 

 poor cottages, where it was diflicult to find accommodation 

 for the horses. And then we had a nice stroll, first over 

 some links, where I gathered Thalictrum flavum, which is a 

 rare plant in Scotland, and Erythrced linarifolia. Rwppia 

 maritima was plentiful in some pools of brackish water. 

 We then entered on the Solway sands, which spread far and 

 wide, around and before ; my head was full of Sir Walter 

 Scott and his vivid descriptions of them. This extent of 

 sands has a grandeur and solemn influence, which is greater 

 than one could imagine mere extent of a flat surface could 



