Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/411

Rh we were within sight of the bridge over the Mouse, near its junction with the Clyde; we then climbed up its banks, through the wood, and returned to Borronauld, where we again joined the rest of our good friends of Carstairs; who imagined, by our long absence, that one of us at least had been swallowed up by the Mouse, as we were skipping from rock to rock.

On another day from Carstairs, we visited Douglas Castle, which is in a very unfinished state. It stands low, near a sluggish small river; no view at all from it; but it is shaded by an abundance of fine old and very large trees, particularly ash; on some of which, in times of old, offenders were tucked up without the assistance of either judge or jury. These execution-trees were shewn us within a stone's throw of the castle. There is only the ruin of one round tower remaining of the old castle. It is said that one of the Dutchesses of Douglas set it on fire to get her Duke from it. Had he lived, another castle would have been completely raised on the same spot. The plan of the castle begun, if one may judge from what exists, was intended to be a square, only one side of which is built. Had the whole been finished, it must have been a