Page:Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (Macmillan, 1897) (IA cu31924104001478).pdf/225

 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 grow- ing 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 stock- ings 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 un- luxuriant 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 /ozs¢sts; 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 remark- able 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.