DOUGLAS CASTLE-DOUGLAS. 169 5 furlongs south of it, is the fragment of | with the Duke of Hamilton, became heir to its possessions, and was raised, in 1796, to the dignity of Baron Douglas. a fortalice built as an outpost of Douglas Castle in the time of Sir Robert de Clifford. The scenery of the Strath of Douglas, in this vicinity, is much admired. 510. DOUGLAS CASTLE, the seat of the Countess of Home, stands on the right side of Douglas Water, three-fourths of a mile below the town of Douglas. The original castle, in its neighbourhood, now reduced to one ruined tower, figured much in the wars of the Succession; was the scene of grand exploits by the great Douglas, the contemporary of Robert Bruce, commonly called "the good Sir James;" and is the Castle Dangerous of Sir Walter Scott's last novel. The present castle, built in the latter part of last century, comprises only about twofifths of what it was intended to be, yet contains 52 chimneyed rooms, and displays a large amount of magnificence. The Douglas family sprang from a Fleming of the 12th century; long wore a coronet which "often counterpoised the crown;" suffered forfeiture in one branch, yet continued to flourish in another; became nearly allied to the royal family; and rose to the honour of a dukedom. Its lineal succession failed in 1761; and Archibald Stewart, Esq., of the house of Grandtully, after a severe litigation 511. DOUGLAS is a small ancient town, long a place of high importance, but now in a condition of decay. Its ancient church was a prebend of Glasgow ; and the spire of it, together with an aisle, containing monuments of the Douglas family, are still standing. The monuments, including one of "the good Sir James," were much mutilated by the troopers of Cromwell and by the boys of the town, yet still show traces of exquisite beauty. The present church is a comparatively modern edifice, and beneath it is the new burying-place of the Douglas family. The town has a post office under Lanark, two banking offices, and various congregational libraries. Its population in 1851 was 1525. The country around it partook largely in the troubles of the persecution under the Stuarts. The Covenanters were better sheltered here than in most other districts; they renewed the swearing of the Solemn League and Covenant on Auchensaugh Hill, 23 miles to the south; and, when the persecution ended, the corps called the Cameronian regiment was embodied on a field in the neighbourhood of the town. 170 THE ORCHARD DISTRICT-CROSSFORD. Paragraph Millburn House, left; fourths of a mile dis- ...... 479 524 miles...... Glasgow, in front; Blan- crossed in the vicinity of its influx to the Clyde 484 Daldouwie House, left; Calderbank, half a mile to the right; Mount Vernon, right; road to Carmyle, three-fourths of a mile distant.......... 494 Sandy Hills, right; Clyde Iron Works, half a mile to the left; Tollcross, 213 miles Shettleston village, half a mile to the right; West-thorn and Belvidere, left......... 526 ...... 500 Parkhead and Camla chie suburbs, passed through; Glasgow, 25 miles. 512. THE ORCHARD DISTRICT lies seen from the vantage-grounds on the along the Clyde, 10 miles to the vici- flanks, is like that of a vast landscapenity of Hamilton. Fertile haughs, teem-garden; and the recesses of it, especially ing with fruitfulness, and sometimes in the lateral ravines, abound with picsloping upwards to elevations of from turesque close scenes. 80 to 120 feet, line the margins of the river, and are overlooked by "banks and braes" of various character, but commonly of steep ascent, about 250 feet high, covered with orchards, and cut laterally by numerous deep, bosky, cavernous ravines. The charms of the district, when the fruit-trees are in blossom, resemble those of the palm-groves of the tropics; the appearance of it, as 513. CROSSFORD is a village with a post office under Lanark, and about 500 inhabitants. Hazelbank village and Cottage, the latter the seat of Dr. Waugh, are 13 mile to the south; Carfin House, the seat of J. Anderson, Esq., is midway between; and the residences of Crossbank, Lisbon Hut, Clydesgrove, Gillfoot, and Stewarthall, are in the near neighbourhood. CRAIGNETHAN CASTLE-CADZOW CASTLE. 171 514. CRAIGNETHAN CASTLE | cent; and Brownlee, Rev. William Harvey, and West Brownlee, Alexander Stewart, Esq., are near, on the other side of the Clyde. Dalserf parish, about 9 square miles in area, anciently bore the name of Machanshire; belonged to the Comyns, passed to the royal Bruces, was given, in the 14th century, to an ancestor of the Duke of Hamilton; and afterwards was divided among junior branches of the Hamilton family. crowns a bold, high, peninsular point, overhanging Nethan Water, about a mile from the Clyde. It is the original of Sir Walter Scott's Tillietudlem Castle in his "Old Mortality.' It was built by an ancestor of the Duke of Hamilton; and it belonged, for ages, to the family of Hay, but passed, about the year 1730, to the family of Douglas. It was a place of much size and strength, fit alike for a grand baronial residence and for a 517. LARKHALL, a mile from the military fortress. Large portions of it Clyde, and 3 miles south-east of Hamilwere carried away, in modern times, for ton, is a modern town of outspread the erection of neighbouring buildings. character, with profusion of suburban What remains, though little more than hamlets; and contains a post office under a fragment of the whole, comprises two Hamilton, an office of the City of Glastowers of the central structure, with gow Bank, a subscription library, three portions of other walls, and presents an places of worship, and about 2000 inimpressive appearance. A large hall, habitants. The residences of Machan, with vaulted roof, still in some preserva- John Marshall, Esq.; Broomhill, T. tion, bears the name of the Queen's M'Neil Hamilton, Esq.; Fairholm, John Room, and is said to have been inhabited | Hamilton, Esq.; Millheugh, Mrs. Clugseveral days by Queen Mary on the eve ston; Glenavon, Patrickholm, Braeheads, of the battle of Langside. An old man- Raplock, and Avonbank, are in the sion, the residence of Mr. Wilkie, ad- neighbourhood. joins the ruin, and bears its name. 518. AVON WATER rises on Distincthorn Hill, 6 miles north-east of Mauchline in Ayrshire, and runs 16 miles north-eastward to the vicinity of Stonehouse, and 5 miles north-westward thence to the Clyde at a point about a 515. NETHAN WATER rises within half a mile of Glenbuck, on the confines of Ayrshire, and runs in a northerly direction to the Clyde in the vicinity of Crossford. Its upper reach, to the extent of 3 miles, lies through bare up-mile south-east of Hamilton. lands; but nearly all the rest lies along a picturesque narrow vale, well adorned with natural wood, and extensively contracting into deep ravine, with mural flanks of from 150 to 250 feet in height. The viaduct of the Lesmahago Railway, one of the grandest in Scotland, loftier from foundation to parapet than either the great viaduct at Newcastle-uponTyne or the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, spans the ravine at a point about 3 miles from the Clyde. The scenery of its upper portions is both bleak and moorish; that of the central portions abounds with amenities, and shows much variety of character; and that of the lower reaches is chiefly a romantic dell, alternately bold and precipitous, knolly and broken, softly green and wildly wooded, and partly a grand gorge flanked with crags from 200 to 300 feet high. The Avon is reckoned one of the best trouting streams in Scotland, and used to be frequented, almost to the source, by salmon. 516. DALSERF is a church village among gardens, now a small place, but 519. CADZOW CASTLE, the ruined formerly much larger. Dalserf House, ancient seat of the ducal family of Hamil. James C. Hamilton, Esq., and Mill- ton, stands in the gorge of Avon Water, buin House, Dr. Mitchell, are adja-1 mile south-south-east of Hamilton. 172 BARNCLUITH-HAMILTON. It crowns a rock, nearly 200 feet high, | tion was made in 1705; and a superb extension was begun in 1822, and carried on during the next twenty years. The new part shows a north front, 265 feet long and 60 feet high, adorned with a very noble Corinthian portico, after the model of the Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. The columns of the portico form a double row; and each has a shaft upwards of 25 feet high, formed of a single stone. The interior of the Palace is fur on the left side of the stream; it consists chiefly of a keep, covered with ivy and embosomed in wood; and it appears, amid the romance and grandeur of the gorge, like "sentinel of fairy-land." It dates from the times of an obscurely known prince of the name of Caw, who lived before the era of the Scoto-Saxon monarchy. It was a royal residence in the times of Alexander II. and Alexander III. It passed to the family of Hamil-nished and decorated with princely splenton in the time of Robert Bruce; and it appears to have been frequently repaired or rebuilt. The summer-house of Chatelherault, built in 1730 after a design by the elder Adam, and partly occupied by the Duke of Hamilton's head gamekeeper, stands on an eminence on the opposite side of the ravine; contains rich French decorations in the style of the times of Louis XIV.; and displays a fantastic front, with four square turrets all in a line, and gaudy pinnacles. The surrounding park, anciently called Cadzow Forest, now called Hamilton Wood, comprises about 1500 acres; contains a noble herd of fallow deer, and a remnant of the ancient breed of the Caledonian ox; and is the scene of Sir Walter Scott's well-known ballad of "Cadzow Castle." 520. BARNCLUITH, on the left side of Avon Water, midway between Cadzow Castle and Hamilton, is a romantic place, constructed about 1583, by the son of Quintin Hamilton, who fell on the field of Langside. Three houses crown a bold bank, about 250 feet high; and a suite of gardens, of antique charac-glen of the Avon and the haughs of the ter and picturesque appearance, descends from them to the bank of the river. The place belongs to Lady Ruthven, and is occupied by Miss Ritchie. 521. HAMILTON PALACE, the chief seat of the Duke of Hamilton, stands on low ground between Hamilton and the Clyde. The original of it was a square tower, about 20 feet long and 16 feet wide. The oldest part of the existing edifice was built in 1591; a large addi dour. The plate alone is estimated to be worth about £50,000; and the collection of pictures has the reputation of being the richest in Scotland. The ducal Mausoleum, built since the completion of the Palace, and situated near it, is a splendid edifice, after a design by David Bryce, in imitation of the Castello di St. Angelo at Rome, enclosing an octagonal chapel, and adorned with striking sculptures from the chisel of A. H. Ritchie. A moat hill, 30 feet in diameter at the base, 16 feet high, and believed to be as ancient as at least the time of Malcolm Canmore, is situated in the haugh to the north of the Palace; and an ancient stone cross, 4 feet high, believed to have been the market cross of the original town of Hamilton, stands in the moat's vicinity. 522. HAMILTON is a post and market town, and a parliamentary burgh. Its site is an assemblage of hollows, banks, and swells, intersected by Cadzow Burn, and overlooking the ducal Park and Palace. Its environs, inward from the Clyde, are an ornate undulating tract, intersected by picturesque ravines or dells of nine burns, six of them going to the Avon and three to the Clyde. Several mansions and numerous villas stand in the neighbourhood; and ruins or vestiges of ancient seats of junior members of the noble family of Hamilton occur, within distances of from half a mile to 3 miles, at Silverton Hill, Ross, Earnock, Neilsland, Allanshaw, Darngaver, |