TRAVELS IN SCOTLAND.

FROM EDINBURGH TO STIRLING.

HAVING procured letters of recommendation to

some of the best informed men in the places I meant to visit, I left Edinburgh, the 15th of April, 1803, on a Tour to the North.

As most of the travellers who have written their remarks, have chosen summer or harvest for their journey, I also wished to see the aspect of the country when the mountains were beginning to lay aside their winter garb. Therefore, bidding adieu to my friends in the capital, I prepared for my journey.

As there never was and never will be any thriving city or village at a distance from water carriage, and, as every large city or town always has been and always will be situated either on the sea-coast or the banks of some navigable river, I resolved to travel the whole of the sea-coast of Scotland, as also the banks of her most eminent rivers; and, while I thus amused myself, to compare the local improvements, the notions, customs, and follies of the people, with what they are represented to have been in former times; with those existing at present in a sister kingdom; and to

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make, if I could, from the comparisons that might occur, some observations of a practical and useful

nature.

When I came to the Queen's Ferry, so called because Margaret, Malcolm III's Queen, used frequently to pass there in her way to and from Dumfermline, where she resided, I saw one of the passage boats labouring much, and with difficulty turned by the boatman. The ships of the antients, particularly large ones (and Diodorus Siculus tells us that some of them were so large as to contain from three to four thousand men) had always two helms, or rudders; one at the stem or prow, and another at the stern; and sometimes one at each side, as we see in large barges on the Thames at this day. Now as men in a boat with an oar at each end, acting in different directions, produce the same effect, and assist one another in turning her, might not a helm, or rudder at the stem as well as the stern of boats and other vessels, to be shipped and unshipped at pleasure, upon many occasions, be useful?

At Hopetoun House, the seat of the Earl of Hopetoun, I was much pleased with its beauty and elegance; its delightful situation, commanding an extensive view of the Frith of Forth, which once bounded the Roman Empire, and protected the Saxons from the incursions of the Scots; and the correctness and elegance of taste displayed in the extensive pleasure grounds around this splendid

mansion.

The charter to this extensive estate is, I understand, a small slip of parchment, not bigger than

one's fingers, granting a right, as it is expressed, not only to the grounds, specifying their extent, but also to all the fowls, &c. &c. on it, or that fly over it, as high as heaven; and every thing on or below the surface, as low as hell.

I went next to view the Palace at Linlithgow, where Mary Queen of Scots was born. The room is but small, seemingly not much above 12 feet square, and not unlike that in the Castle of Edinburgh, where James VI. was born. However, the ruins of this antient palace serve to shew not only its great antiquity, but also that it has been extensive, and calculated to withstand a vigorous attack.

It is not difficult to account for some of the notions of our forefathers: but what could induce them to make the water, which is excellent here, to appear at the wells as spouting from the mouths of angels, is more than I can comprehend. To paint angels with wings is not unnatural; because they are the messengers of heaven, and are conceived as flying from heaven to earth, and earth to heaven, in obedience to the command of the Great Governor of

all. But to represent them at the wells as spouting water from their mouths, certainly appears unnatural, I had almost said disgusting; as it seems to suggest the idea of their being drunkards, with the liquor running from their over-charged stomachs.

Carron Work, which is but a few miles from Linlithgow, I had seen before; but as I had not seen the boring of cannons, I went to see it again. The gentlemen here, I understand, a few years before, thought that nobody knew the boring of cannon but themselves. However, they were soon undeceived;