CARTLAN CRAIGS.-BONNINGTON.

133

like a Cyclopean rampart of vast rocks, and covered with a verdant netting of trees and underwood, rises to a height of four hundred feet, at the base of which the struggling torrent rushes on in foaming precipitation to the Clyde.

To see the Cartlan Craigs under the most picturesque colouring, the tourist must thread his way along the rocks, and vary his station so as to take in every combination of objects in succession. At every turn of the river, a new and varying scene of rocky grandeur, heightened by the accompaniments of the stream, and a rich and brilliant foliage, bursts on the view. What gives peculiar interest to this romantic solitude is, that, in a natural cave of the ravine, the renowned Wallace once found refuge from his pursuers, and at length emerged to hoist the standard of liberty. The recesses of the craigs present a rich variety of plants to the botanist, and above the falls several rare species of mosses.

The new bridge, which, like a lofty aqueduct, spans the chasm, is an elegant specimen of modern architecture. The height of this noble structure is one hundred and thirty-six feet above the water. The view which it commands is among the finest in the country, including, with the more remote, the immediate features of

"Cartlan craigs, that high

O'er their pent river strike the eye,
Wall above wall, half veiled, nalf seen,
The pendent folds of wood between,
With jagged breach, and rift, and scaur,
Like the scorched wreck of ancient war,
And seem, to musing Fancy's gaze,

The ruined holds of other days."—JOANNA BAILLIE,

In following the banks of the Clyde, we shall not deem it necessary to describe each of the "haunted localities," as they occur to the tourist; but, proceeding at once to the Falls, as the great attraction, touch on the other objects illustrated as we again descend to Hamilton and Bothwell. In this notice of the scenery, where mere prose would fall far short of the subject, we have gladly availed

• "If through the greenwood's hanging screen, high o'er the deeply-bedded wave,
The mouth of arching cleft is seen yawning dark, 'tis 'Wallace' Cave!'

If o'er its jutting barrier gray, tinted by time, with furious din,

The rude crags, silvered with its spray, shoots the wild flood-'tis 'Wallace' Linn!'"

The habit of identifying every thing most remarkable in its natural or artificial properties with the name of Wallace, is well known, and thus alluded to by Joanna Baillie, who adds:-" I cannot help mentioning the pleasure I lately received in being shown by two simple country children on the Blantyre Crags, oppo site Bothwell Castle, the mark of Wallace's footstep' in the rocky brink of a little well."-Poem of "William Wallace." METRICAL LEGENDS.

ourselves of those descriptions with which the Clydesdale muse has already celebrated its numberless beauties

The Clyde, of ample volume, and alternately smooth and troubled in its channel, after receiving the tribute of Douglas water and dividing into two streams, dashes down a precipitous ledge of rocks, and forms the "Bonnington Fall." For the space of half a mile from this point, its bed is enclosed on either side by a range of perpendicular and equidistant rocks, rising to the height of a hundred feet, and presenting a stupendous wall of natural masonry. From the crevices of these lofty ramparts, which enclose the channel of the river, choughs and crows are continually springing, and, wheeling in airy circles round the Fall, contribute to heighten the wild and romantic effect:

"Where, roaring o'er its rocky walls,

The water's headlong torren falls,
ull, rapid, powerful, flashing to the light;
Till sunk the boiling gulf beneath,
It mounts again like snowy wreath,
Which, scattered by contending blasts,

Back to the clouds their treasure casts,

A ceaseless wild turmoil-a grand and wondrous sight!"-JOANnna Baillie.

The grounds of Bonnington, as well as those of Lee and Cleghorn, are luxuriously wooded, and much of the timber is of very remote planting. Close to the house of Lee, two trees are especially deserving of notice. The first of these is an oak of prodigious dimensions, measuring sixty feet in height, thirty feet in circumference, and containing fourteen hundred and sixty cubic feet of timber. It is called the Pease tree, and understood to be a relic of the ancient Caledonian forest; but, although it still vegetates, its huge trunk is hollowed to such a degree, that ten persons have been insinuated into the excavation. The other vegetable wonder is a magnificent larch-like those mentioned in our account of Dunkeld-said to have been one of the first introduced into Scotland. It measures one hundred feet in height, and eighteen in girth.†

Cora Lynn, about half a mile from Bonnington, is considered the finest of these magnificent Falls. It is only, however, within these few years that this grand and imposing scene could be enjoyed from the bottom of the Fall. Formerly, the spectator could only contemplate the tortured waters from above, and thus, much of the effect was lost. This inconvenience, however, has been most happily remedied by the taste and liberality of the proprietor, who has caused • Douglas Castle, the "Castle Dangerous" of Sir Walter Scott.

"Surely," says a critic on Dr. Samuel Johnson, "trees like these, of which there is no scarcity in those parts, might have gibbeted the most bulky of all tourists." In explanation of this the reader is referred to the "Journey."