Читать книгу Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits. By a Glasgow Pedestrian онлайн

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The old churchyard of Loudon nestles in a quiet nook by the wayside, which has been the burying-place for nearly 400 years of the Loudon family, a family which, in its first Earl, Chancellor Loudon, and oftener than once since, has done good service to the cause of liberty. Here also lie the remains of the gifted but unfortunate Lady Flora Hastings, who is said to have died of a broken heart on account of a cruel and unfounded slander raised against her by one of the ladies of the bedchamber of H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent.

The traveller by the train which reaches Newmilns at one o’clock will get the help of a brake (if so inclined) as far as Darvel.

It was doubtful weather when we started, and the leaden clouds drove over the sky in heavy masses, “one long drift of rugged gloom”—but it is a waste of time to pay any attention to the weather in this country, one has only to go on and take its buffets and its rewards “with equal thanks.” Presently there appeared a bit of blue sky no larger than one’s hand, not even enough to make the Highlandman’s well-known nether garment, which soon spread over the heavens, and in the course of a few minutes the sun’s beams straggled though the lovely green foliage, making golden patches among the roadside flowers, and the wild ferns, and causing the long grass to sparkle as if all the diamonds of Brazil had been scattered over it.