John Leech and other papers

344 Horce Subsecivcz.
but was told the only one was occupied by some
young men who were surveying the Caledonian line.
He sent up his card asking to be allowed to join
them, and was requested to go to the place whence
Mr. Kinglake seems to think his Majesty has a
return ticket. He sat down by the kitchen fire, got
his supper, slipped away to bed, and was off early
next morning on foot.
You now take the road to Leadhills by the Glen-
gonar Burn, which, like the river Pison in the Eden
of Genesis, ' compasses the land where there is gold.'
Indeed this region was called in olden times 'God's
treasure-house in Scotland,' and the four petty burns
in which the precious yellow grains were found —
Glengonar, Short Cleuch, Mennock, and Wanlock —
were compared to the four rivers in the Garden of
the Lord — Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates !
Here was got the gold of which King James's bonnet-
pieces were made, hundreds of workmen being then
employed in its search. The glittering sand is still
occasionally to be found, and every now and then a
miner, smit with the sacred hunger, takes to the
deluding, feckless work, and seldom settles to any-
thing again.
It is six miles of a pleasant glen road from Abing-
ton to Leadhills-^-a dreary, unexpected little town —
which has lain great part in ruins for many years,
owing to the suspension or spiritless working of the