Space now warns us to return to our main subject, the digression to Lanark being permitted, because that town is generally the centre of tours in every direction.

E will accordingly return to Carstairs Junction, and pursue our journey on the

MAIN LINE TO EDINBURGH,

reaching, at the distance of half a mile, CARNWATH STATION. The small town is inhabited chiefly with hand-loom weavers. The church was collegiate before the Reformation; and in an aisle connected with it is a tomb on which a Lord Somerville and his lady are represented at full length in the costume of the fifteenth century. This aisle has since served as a place of sepulture for the Dalzells, Earls of Carnwáth, and now for the family of Lockhart, of Carnwath. Cowthally or Cowdailly Castle, the seat of the Somerville family during several centuries, is situated on the edge of a morass near the village, and even in ruin shows marks of great strength.

The Lords Somerville frequently entertained the Scottish monarchs, one of whom, it is said, made the remark, that the house was well named, as he saw a cow killed and eaten in it daily." At the west end of the village is a large moat-hill, used in early times for the dispensation of justice. The road from Carnwath to Edinburgh passes for several miles along a bleak tract, denominated Carnwath Moor. In the north of the parish, where the surface of the earth is little less unpromising, there is a great store of both iron and coal.

The nature of this morass rendered it an engineering difficulty in the line of railway which, all obstacles overcome, now runs over a portion of it on the way to AUCHENGRAY STATION, five miles and a half from Carnwath, and twenty miles and a half from Edinburgh. An elevation of 900 feet above the level of the sea has been attained at this part of the line.

ROGRESSING onwards from Auchengray, the tourist will observe that the line is joined by a branch which springs from the Wilsontown Iron Works, founded, in 1779, by the brothers Wilson, from London, and now employing a large population of workmen.

After passing Mossflat and Woolsford we see Cobbinshaw Reservoir, a vast expanse of water, covering many acres of ground, and formed for the purpose of feeding the Union Canal. The route now becomes uninviting until we arrive, four miles and a-half from Auchengray, at

WEST CALDER AND TORPHIN STATION. Five miles further is MID-CALDER AND KIRKNEWTON STATION, ten miles from Edinburgh, where we may rest awhile to enjoy the beautiful scenery presented by the neighbourhood. The considerable village of Mid-Calder lies on the west bank of the Almond, which does not here, as elsewhere, divide the counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgo. Calder, a word signifying a place of wood and water, was anciently the denomination of a large tract around this village, now diminished to the two parishes of MidCalder and West-Calder. The situation of the village of Mid-Calder, almost surrounded by the woods of Lord Torpichen's park, is very pleasing. The connexion of this nobleman's family with the district commenced in 1349, when a brave knight, Sir Walter de Sandilands, obtained the barony of Calder from William, Earl of Douglas, along with the hand of Eleanor, the Earl's sister, a lady who was successively the wife of no fewer than five husbands, all of them men of consequence. The title of Lord Torpichen was conferred by Queen Mary upon Sir James Sandilands, younger brother of the laird of Calder, in 1564. Calder House, the family residence, is an ancient tower, with a comparatively modern addition in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, and derives its principal illustration from the circumstance that it afforded shelter to John Knox at the time of the Reformation, who

here administered the Communion for the first time in Scotland, according to the Protestant form. A large apartment, now the Drawingroom, is shown as the scene of this transaction, and is appropriately adorned with a portrait of the great Reformer, supposed to be an original. Knox is also said to have preached publicly underneath a huge tree in the park, now greatly decayed, and of which the people of the village relate that the principal branch fell to the ground on the day when the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed.

Near Mid-Calder is Greenbank, the birth-place of the celebrated Archbishop Spottiswoode. At a short distance on the left stands Morton Castle. Lord Curriehill and Lord Meadowbank, two lords of the Court of Session, live in this neighbourhood. Ormiston Hill was for many years the residence of Dr. Cullen, who lies interred in the parish churchyard. At East Calder, a private way goes off to Almondell (Earl of Buchan), where the Hon. Henry Erskine, so memorable for his wit, his distinction at the bar, and his amiable character, spent many

years.

Five miles from Mid-Calder and Kirknewton, we reach

CURRIE STATION. This pleasant parish village was, at one time, a highly important Roman station, then known as Coria, of which the present name is a corruption. A little way above the village, a mount overhanging the river side is crowned by the ruins of Lennox Tower, a place of somewhat obscure history, but generally said to have been a mansion of the Earls of Lennox, and consequently, at one time, a residence of Mary and Darnley, as it was subsequently of the Regent Morton. It had a subterranean way leading down to the river, by which the occupants appear to have supplied themselves with water.

Bonally, the delightful summer residence of Lord Cockburn, is within a moderate distance, whence the pedestrian by following the course of bonny Bonally's wee fairy-led stream," may easily ascend to the eminence where the Bonally ponds are situated, from which a magnificent and extensive view is obtained, ranging from North Berwick Law to Benlomond.

Nothing can exceed the grandeur and beauty of the prospect, even in a country where picturesque scenery is met at every step.

On the opposite bank of the river from Lennox Castle, are the ruins of Currie Hill, the ancient seat of the Skenes; and to the eastward lie

Riccarton and Baberton Houses, the former the residence of Sir John Gibson Craig, Bart.*

About a mile westward of Riccarton, is Warriston, which in the seventeenth century was the property of a political character of great eminence, Sir Archibald Johnstone, of Warriston, a grandson of Sir Thomas Craig, and uncle of the celebrated Bishop Burnet. He took a conspicuous part at the head of the Covenanters, and ultimately sat as a peer in one of Cromwell's parliaments. He closed (July 22, 1663) a life full of extraordinary situations, on a gibbet at the cross of Edinburgh, to which he had been condemned by the vengeance of the restored Stuart.

One mile further west is Dalmahoy, the seat of the Earl of Moreton, surrounded by a beautiful wooded park of considerable extent. In the house, among other interesting objects, is an original portrait of Queen Mary, said to have been painted during her imprisonment in Lochleven Castle.

Kaime Hill is the site of an ancient military encampment, the ruins of which are still visible.

Leaving Currie, we soon reach

KINGSKNOWER STATION, established for, the convenience of the inhabitants of Slateford, Colinton, and Juniper Green. This latter village, a favourite summer resort of the Edinburgh citizens, is passed by the train a few minutes after leaving Currie. Hailes Quarry is the property of Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael, of Skirving, Bart. From this place was supplied a great portion of the beautiful stone of which the western part of the New Town of Edinburgh is built. The train now reaches Slateford, a pleasant little village, where Robert Pollck found a delightful retirement while composing his poem, the "Course of Time." Here, the systems of road, canal, and railway come into striking contrast. The line crosses the Water-of-Leith by a viaduct of fourteen arches, each of thirty feet span, parallel with the canal, the

The celebrated lawyer, Sir Thomas Craig, author of the "Treatise on the Feudal Law," acquired this estate, and left it to his family. On the death of his last male descendant, the property fell by a maternal right to the present occupant. A remarkable circumstance in the succession of this estate is noted by Mr. Tytler, in his "Life of Sir Thomas Craig." In 1681, it fell into the possession of a Mr. Robert Craig, full uncle to the last of the male line above-mentioned, who died at the age of ninety-three. Thus, between the accession of the uncle and the death of the nephew, one hundred and forty-four years elapsed !

K

aqueduct of which, sixty-five feet high and five hundred feet long, seems to look frowningly on the less stupendous viaduct of the railway, and both to regard with contempt their elder brother, the now neglected roadway. The rail, however, speedily asserts its supremacy by ascending and overtopping the canal itself, which it crosses by a skew-bridge of cast-iron, with a span of sixty-three feet, and only fourteen feet above the level of the water.*

The Union Canal, constructed in 1818-22, at a cost of £400,000, forms a water communication between Edinburgh and Glasgow, by means of a junction with the Forth and Clyde Canal, about thirty miles from Edinburgh.

Near Slateford, are Red Hall House, the seat of John Inglis, Esq., and Craiglockhart, the property of the Munro family.

Colinton House is the residence of Lord Dunfermline: almost immediately below it, and bordering the river, is Kate's Paper Mill, and near it is the village of Colinton, where the Covenanters passed the night before the battle of Rullion Green, in November, 1666.

The train, as we now approach the Scottish capital, passes through a

* See Mr. Hardie's interesting "Rides upon Railways," published by Mr. John Menzies, of Princes Street, Edinburgh.