Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wordsworth, Dorothy
General
Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Diaries; Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855 -- Diaries; Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Family
Left our car in the road, and turned down a field to the Fall of
Stonebyres, another of the falls of the Clyde, which I had not heard
spoken of; therefore it gave me the more pleasure. We saw it from the
top of the bank of the river at a little distance. It has not the
imposing majesty of Cora Linn; but it has the advantage of being left to
itself, a grand solitude in the heart of a populous country. We had a
prospect above and below it, of cultivated grounds, with hay-stacks,
houses, hills; but the river's banks were lonesome, steep, and woody,
with rocks near the fall.
A little further on, came more into company with the river; sometimes
we were close to it, sometimes above it, but always at no great
distance; and now the vale became more interesting and amusing. It is
very populous, with villages, hamlets, single cottages, or farm-houses
embosomed in orchards, and scattered over with gentlemen's houses, some
of them very ugly, tall and obtrusive, others neat and comfortable. We
seemed now to have got into a country where poverty and riches were
shaking hands together; pears and apples, of which the crop was
abundant, hung over the road, often growing in orchards unfenced; or
there might be bunches of broom along the road-side in an interrupted
line, that looked like a hedge till we came to it and saw the gaps.
Bordering on these fruitful orchards perhaps would be a patch, its chief
produce being gorse or broom. There was nothing like a moor or common
anywhere; but small plots of uncultivated ground were left high and low,
among the potatoes, corn, cabbages, which grew intermingled, now among
trees, now bare. The Trough of the Clyde is, indeed, a singular and very
interesting region; it is somewhat like the upper part of the vale of
Nith, but above the Nith is much less cultivated ground--without
hedgerows or orchards, or anything that looks like a rich country. We
met crowds of people coming from the kirk; the lasses were gaily
dressed, often in white gowns, coloured satin bonnets, and coloured silk
handkerchiefs, and generally with their shoes and stockings in a bundle
hung on their arm. Before we left the river the vale became much less
interesting, resembling a poor English country, the fields being large,
and unluxuriant hedges.
It had been dark long before we reached Hamilton, and William had some
difficulty in driving the tired horse through the town. At the inn they
hesitated about being able to give us beds, the house being
brim-full--lights at every window. We were rather alarmed for our
accommodations during the rest of the tour, supposing the house to be
filled with _tourists_; but they were in general only regular
travellers; for out of the main road from town to town we saw scarcely a
carriage, and the inns were empty. There was nothing remarkable in the
treatment we met with at this inn, except the lazy impertinence of the
waiter. It was a townish place, with a great larder set out; the house
throughout dirty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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