118 THE EIVER CLYDE. 



than select the- mral village of Cony, on the Island of Arran, as 

 a centre from which to conduct their operations. 



Our angler, having arrived at Glasgow, can go down the 

 Clyde by steamboat direct to Arran. There is another and a 

 quicker way — viz. by railway to Ardrossan and steamboat to 

 Brodick, but most strangers prefer the river ; and let me say 

 here, without fear of contradiction, there is no pleasure river 

 equal to the Clyde, especially as regards accessibility. The 

 steamers from G-lasgow peer at stated intervals into every nook 

 and cranny of the water, and, on the Saturdays especially, 

 deposit perfect armies of people at various towns and villages 

 below Greenock, who are thus enabled to pass the Sunday in 

 the bright open air by the clear waters of this great stream. 

 Any kind of lodging is put up with for the sake of being " down 

 the water;" and aU sorts of people — merchants even of high 

 degree, and " Glasgow bodies " of lower social standing — are 

 contented, chiefly' no doubt at the instigation of their better 

 halves, to sojourn in places that when at home they would 

 think quite unsuitable for even the Matties of their households. 

 The banks of the Clyde have become wonderfully populous within 

 the last twenty-five years — villages have expanded into towns, 

 hamlets have grown into villages, and single cottages into 

 hamlets. Now the railway to Greenock is insuflScient as a 

 daily travelling aid to persons whose half-hours are of large com- 

 mercial value ; and as a consequence, a new line of rails has 

 been constructed to come upon the water at Wemyss Bay, about 

 twelve miles below Greenock. To your thorough business man 

 time is money, and if he is alternately able to leave his place of 

 business and his place of pleasure half-an-hour later each way, 

 he is all the better pleased witt both. To speculators in want 

 of an idea I would say : Kush to the Clyde, and buy up every 

 inch of land that can be had within a mUe of the water, build 

 upon it, and from the half million of human beings who tenant 

 Glasgow and the surrounding towns I will engage to find two 

 competing occupants for every house that can be put up. 

 Building has progressed even in Arran, and this too despite 

 the late Duke of Hamilton's dislike to strangers, so that there 

 is now a population on the island of about 7000. A friend 

 of mine says that such an important entity as a duke has 

 no right to do as he likes with his own, and consequently 

 that Arran ought to be built upon, and blackcocks and other 

 game birds be left to take their chance. Even with such limited 



