Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

2 JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND
water, were it in a park. I could not perceive
from a mail-coach window whence it derives
its waters. There is a good deal of new
cultivation near, adjoining what my friend
Calvert calls his back settlements.
I had over-painted in recollection the scenery
upon the Esk between Longtown and Lang-
holme. Less of the road is beautiful than I
thought I remembered it to be ; yet it is
every where pleasing. The Esk where you
first see it flows in the midst of a wide bed of
gravel ; higher up the bed becomes rocky,
and the banks are high, steep and wooded
with old trees. The road crosses it thrice,
and there are two more bridges at Langholme.
On the other hand, I had not sufficiently
admired the Esk-dale scenery north of Lang-
holme : it has a quiet sober character, a some-
what melancholy kind of beauty, in accord
with autumn, evening and declining life ;
green hills high enough to assume something
of a mountainous sweep and swell ; green
pastures where man has done little, but where
little more seems to be wanting ; a clear
stream, and about that number of cattle which
one might suppose belonged to the inhabitants
for their own use, and were not bred for the
drover. The higher ground near Mosspaul