20 
SIEJIOIR OF PENNANT. 
and well husbanded fields, bounded on every side 
with woods, with views of other woods still rising 
beyond. No wonder the inhabitants yet believe the 
Fairies revel in these delightful scenes.” 
From this place he again returned south, and af- 
ter some delay recrossed the border at Gretna, and 
proceeded to Dumfries, which seems to have been 
the intended point of commencement for his northern 
journey. He visited the principal beauties and ruins 
in the district, and proceeded on his way up the 
Nitb, by Lanarkshire, to Glasgow. When describing 
the Solway Firth, he mentions the hunting of salmon, 
and although this method of taking these active fish 
was almost extinct, his work is a record of its being 
still practised in 1772, or about sixty years since. 
There was only one person on the coast who was 
expert enough to practise the diversion. 
The appearance and bursting of the Solway Moss 
is also described ; he had seen it and the suiTounding 
country in his former tour. Speaking of the latter, he 
says, “ it has been finely reclaimed from its original 
state, prettily divided, well planted with hedges, and 
well peopled; the ground, originally not wmrth six- 
pence an acre, was improved to the value of thirty 
shillings. At this time it was a melancholy extent 
of black turbery, the eruption of the moss having in 
a few days covered grass and corn ; levelled the 
boundaries of almost every farm ; destroyed most of 
the bouses, and driven the poor inhabitants to the 
utmost distress.” An authentic account of this ca- 
