II

One Sunday afternoon I went out to- a place called Crestorfern and the hills or braes as they are called, t0 a place which is called “Rest and be thankful” and is very appropriately named indeed, also climbed to the top of another hill called Arthur’s Seat, so named from the British Prince Arthur, and Calton Hill with its noble group of Monuments. No city in Europe occupies a grander site, and few cities are invested with more heroic and romantic associations than historic Edinburgh.

Midway between Edinburgh and Glasgow is the village of

SHOTTS

where are coal mines, iron foundries, and bleak hills. Being anxious to see a coal mine, Hugh Ramsay took me down the shaft and through the mine to where the miners were at work with pick and shovel. Finding the mine damp and anything but pleasant Iwas soon ready to go above ground again. While here I met Cousin lllsa Darling, the Poetess, who was on a visit to her native ome. _ In taking a drive through the country to see the sheep we stopped at a farm house where I was surprised to see a girl trarnping clothes in a tub of water with her bare feet, she told me this was the way they washed heavy clothing in Scotland. ‘i On my first night in Shotts when it was time to retire, I was shown to a bed-room, and on taking a survey of it was rather puzzled as to where I was to sleep, as there xvas no bed in view. Across one side of the room however were hung curtains, which when drawn back exposed to my wondering eyes a bed built in the wall. Leaving here I next visited

GLASGOW

the centre of wide and various industries, it can boast of having the tallest chimneys in the world. The highest one is 454 feet above ground.

Spent a few days in visiting the principal places of interest with john Darling, inventor, saw the Equestrian Statun of King William III, and two _old guns that blazed