Near Beattock, in the upper part of Annandale, lies the pleasant town of Moffat, noted for its medicinal waters, useful in scrofulous

blaar's

and scorbutic cases, &c. Its

virtues were discovered in

1633, and were the subject of a tract in 1 Latin, 1659.1910

published in 1659.

Moffat is situated in a dry, alluvial plain, 370 feet above the level of the sea, and is sheltered on the north, east, and west by lofty mountains. The town consists chiefly of a single spacious street, composed of neat houses. The air is esteemed remarkably mild and salubrious. It is a favourite country resort for visitors from Liverpool and Manchester, but

not so much from the Glasgow people, as they have the world-famed Lochs on the Clyde within easy access.

The only buildings of any consequence in the place are the various churches, Moffat House, a seat of Mr. Hope Johnstone's, and the public baths. vsod to tedigs 57t

cient w in

classic recollections,

and it has long been

a summer

retreat of

the literati of Scotland. It was here

says Currie, were favourite haunts of our

poet, and it was there he conceived several of his beautiful lyrics.".

A wild natural scene, called the Beld Craig, and the ancient tower of Auchincass, said to have belonged to the celebrated Randolph, Earl of Murray, are the objects of frequent visits from Moffat. At Erick-stanc brae, where the road from Edinburgh to Dumfries passes over a range of lofty eminences, there is a profound circular hollow, called the Marquis of Annandale's Beef-stand, on account of the Annandale thieves having used it as a receptacle for stolen cattle. The road passes along the side of an almost perpendicular hill, overhanging this gulf, the bottom of which, when clear of vapour, shows sheep diminished to the apparent size of rabbits.*

46

# " In the autumn of 1746" (Mr. Robert Chambers relates, in his "Picture of Scotland"), as some soldiers were conducting a band of Highland rebel prisoners along this road, to be tried at Carlisle, one of the latter, named Maclaren, who had been a drover, and was well

The lonely pastoral vale of Moffat Water, which opens up a way into the vale of Yarrow, contains several objects worthy of notice. About ten miles from the village, a rivulet joins the principal stream, after having dashed down a cleft in the adjacent hill, so as to form the lofty and precipitous cascade, known by the descriptive epithet of the Grey Mare's Tail. The source of this rivulet is a lovely mountain lake or tarn, called Loch Skene, which contains myriads of trout, and is still haunted by the eagle. The height of the fall is said to be 300 feet, and a wilder or more terrific scene, especially when beheld in solitude and in winter, can scarcely be imagined. A mound, called the Giant's Cave, apparently designed as a rampart for the defence of the pass, is to be seen at the opening of the recess forming the cascade. The whole scene has been thus alluded to by Sir Walter Scott:

"Through the rude barriers of the lake,

Away the hurrying waters break;
Faster and whiter, dash and curl,

Till down yon dark abyss they hurl;
Then issuing forth one foaming wave,
And wheeling round the giant's grave,
White as the snowy charger's tail,

Drive down the pass of Moffatdale."

The steep hills around the Grey Mare's Tail, afforded a refuge to many of the persecuted Presbyterians of the west of Scotland in the reigns of the last two Stuarts. In sheltered spots among the heights they held occasional meetings for worship, while several of their number would watch from the hill-tops, to give warning in case of the approach of an enemy. Near the Grey Mare's Tail is a little carrier's inn, named Birkhill. Opposite to this house, Claverhouse shot four of the Nonconformists. Between the waterfall and the inn is Dob's Linn, noted in the traditions of the district as the refuge of two pious clergymen, who are said to have had one night a visit, in their solitude, from the enemy of man, whom, after a severe struggle, they threw over the precipice.

acquainted with the ground, contrived to draw himself up within his plaid, and to roll down the almost perpendicular hill into the hollow, where a thick mist received and concealed him. The soldiers could only fire their muskets at random in the direction he had taken. Contrary to all reasonable expectation, he was not hurt, but was immediately able to take to his heels; and it is said that he spent that night at the Crook Inn, in Peebleshire, notwithstanding that there was a troop of soldiers in the house. Since that time, the road over Erick-stane-brae has undergone various improvements, which render the journey along that eminence less of an adventure than it was formerly."

The tourist, as the train passes from Beattock, will remark, from time to time, several old border towers, and other places of defence. The railway passes, for several miles, on a parallel line with the Carlisle road and on the Evan Water, but on a level considerably above them. The

line passes on either side the sources of the Clyde, Raecleugh, and Greskin, and Upper Howcleugh and Redhouse. A little distance from Elvansfoot, the Evan Water and the Carlisle road is crossed on a stupendous viaduct of wood, consisting of three arches of 100 feet span. It was erected from the designs of Mr. Locke. ELVANSFOOT STATION is thirteen miles and a-half from Beattock.

Leaving Elvansfoot, the iron route between which and Abington (three miles and a-half in extent), is agreeably diversified, we soon perceive the old castle of Crawford. In Crawford parish, at the head of the Glengowar,* a tributary of the Clyde, is situated the village of Leadhills, said to be the highest inhabited ground in the south of Scotland, being 1300 feet above the level of the sea. The village is inhabited by the miners employed in the lead mines. Allan Ramsay, author of the "Gentle Shepherds," was the son of Robert Ramsay, mine manager, by Alice Bower, daughter of an individual who had been brought from Derbyshire to instruct the miners of Leadhills in their art. The poet was born October 15, 1686, at Leadhills, and spent there the first fifteen years of his life.

We now reach

ABINGTON STATION, 42 miles from Edinburgh. The village is beautifully situated in a nook of the surrounding hills, forming part of the great range which stretches across the south of Scotland from Ayrshire to Roxburghshire. The Clyde, the third in rank among Scottish rivers, is of no great size at this place, having but recently left its fountain head, which is only a few miles distant from this station. In the immediate neighbourhood of its source, but on opposite sides of the hills, also rise the Tweed and the Annan, and each of these three streams falls into a different sea on a different side of the kingdom. At Abington is the seat of Sir Edward Colebrook, Bart.

Five miles and a-half from Abington is

LAMINGTON and STABAN. The parish is opposite to Tinto or Tintoch, the far-famed hill of which is a conspicuous object. It rises from the left bank of the Clyde to the height of 2336 feet; and from being in some degree isolated, and much loftier than the other eternal edifices of nature around it, is exactly that kind of object which is sure to excite an interest in the minds of a secluded and primitive people. Its name (Hill of Fire) seems to indicate that it was in Pagan times a place for the worship of Baal. At Lamington the hills recede, so as to leave some broad haughs, which form excellent grazing ground. Upon the

*The banks of the Glengowar have produced in their time mineral wealth of a still more attractive kind. They were excavated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for gold, which was found in considerable quantities, though ultimately not so readily as to pay the expense of mining.