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

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In making the descent by the same route as that by which we reached the summit, we see Loudon Hill taking a sly peep at us over the top of the town; we think of the time not so long ago when there was not a building save the kirk in the muir, in the vicinity of the now thriving town, and of Lord Dundonald’s unfortunate coal tar manufacturing experience here. The adoption of copper for sheathing the vessels of the navy ruined the speculation, and the Earl lost heavily by it.

Coming down once more to the level ground, a good walker, who is also a painstaking hunter of flowers, will not go unrewarded. All along our course there are the yellow blossoms of the buttercup family on the harder ground, daisies in the meadows, on the moor the bluebells hanging their delicate heads, each appearing a little lonely and pale; and there are also the exquisite waxlike blossoms of the bilberry, growing quite abundantly, and looking quite as beautiful as any of the rare heaths of the conservatory.

We find our way to the station through and among some wrought-out lime quarries, the roughness of our route now reminding us of what must have been the state of the road to Sorn, a little further down the valley, when travelled on by one of our Scottish kings on his way from Glasgow, and which he found to be so disagreeable that he said, if he wished to “give the devil a job,” he would send him to Sorn in winter. What thoughts crowd upon us as we review the work of the last hour or two on our homeward journey; thoughts as to the probable, or established history of rock and plant, of mountain and moor! And what an insight do we gain into our ignorance as we have to acknowledge that to many of the problems we must subscribe ourselves “agnostic,” or without knowledge. In two and a half hours we reach the well-paved streets of Glasgow.