Biggar and the House of Fleming

EARLY CONTERMINOUS PROPRIETORS. 589
great elegance and taste. The lobby is covered with a
variety of armour and implements of the olden time ; the
library is a fine apartment, stored with a rich collection of anti-
quarian lore ; the drawing-room is magnificently adorned with
costly furniture, and a perfect profusion of rare and choice
works of art ; one of the rooms above stairs is fitted up in a
very impressive manner, with carved oak panelling in the
mediaeval style of art, with antique furniture and stained glass
windows ; and some of the bedrooms are finely decorated with
panelling, gilding, and painting, and others have stores of
ancient cabinets, mirrors, candelabra, prints, &c. -
The great and distinguishing feature of the mansion, how-
ever, is its collection of antiquities. Mr Sim, during a consid-
erable portion of his life, has employed himself in gathering
together all sorts of things rare, curious, and antique. In this
respect he stands out in broad relief among bis compeers. He
is facile princeps the archaeologist of the district. The late
James Brown of Edmonston, in his time, acquired some repu-
tation as a collector of local antiquities, but Mr. Sim has far
surpassed him in the amount of his labours, expenditure, and
success. He has laid almost every hamlet, mountain, and field
in Upper Clydesdale under contribution ; he has invested the
whole of this region with a new interest ; and he has awakened
a spirit of investigation among ploughmen, drainers, shepherds
&c. that has induced them carefully to preserve every relic of
bygone ages that they could find, and to offer them on the
antiquarian shrine at Coultermains. Here consequently are
articles used by the natives when they were evidently sunk in a
state of deep barbarism ; here are tools of bronze and of iron
that mark the gradual progress of art and civilization ; here
are instruments with which our forefathers tortured and
punished the unhappy perpetrators of real or imaginary crimes;
here are articles once held in great veneration or terror but
now, stripped of all virtue or power, are regarded simply as
objects of curiosity ; here are warlike and domestic implements
familiar to former generations, and now in their very name
and appearance, almost unknown ; here are coins brought by
invaders, or used by the native population centuries ago, and
now treasured up in curious cabinets and boxes, and shown to
intelligent and inquiring visitors ; — and here is a rare collec-