Series 6 > Travels in Scotland 1788-1881

Adam Bald:Journal ofTravels and Commonplace Book, 1790—99
45
Some of the shorter trips are omitted, such as the accounts, in verse, of a pedestrian
trip to Gartness from Friday 1 October 1790 to the Monday following - addressd
to William Jamieson dyer there, and a Description of the Laird of Corshouss Kirn,
above mentioned, Friday 15th October 1790’. Also set aside are A ramble to
Campsie, Gartness Etc in March 1792' [p. 45]; A walk to Ayr with a Mr Lawson
Sunday Oct 7th, 1792’ [p. 84]; A five days ramble to Stirling etc with John
Sanderson writing master Thursday Nov 1st 1792’ [p. 86] and A trip to Gartness
for four days from Saturday February 16th 1793’ [p. 92]. Also his note for 1st
August 1799,‘On Saturday last I join’d a Strawberry ploy at the Ibrox where there
was an abundance of that delicious fruit'.
There has been some cutting within the longer accounts when Bald's descriptive
enthusiasm was considered likely to try even the most patient reader too far. There
has also been some tidying of his prose and spelling, but some tasters of his poetry
remain from which the reader can judge whether they would have wished for more.
Journal
A TRIP TO THE NORTH COUNTRY FROM FRIDAY 9 APRIL 1790
TO THE TUESDAY FOLLOWING, WITH PETER WRIGHT, SON
OF DOCTOR WRIGHT GLASGOW
It is too much the irreverent custom of the inconsiderate youth, and at times
indeed of the more advanced in years of this part of Caledonia, to fly (as from a
plague) the vernal celebration of the sacrament of our Lord’s supper, considering
myself to have joined the sceptical throng for no other means than merrily
gratifying a youthful propensity to see a little of the world, which surely, before
becoming a devotionist was not altogether criminal. Embracing therefore the
periodical return of a relaxation from mercantile pursuits, in gratifying the
propensity, by obeying the invitation of my acquaintance Mr Wright to a
pedestrian visit to his clerical uncle of Logie near Stirling and other friends in
and around that neighbourhood. For this purpose we set off one stormy morning
in the month of April, propell’d on our way by the increasing blast, and almost
invisible to one another by the dense clouds of dust which this vernal hurricane
raised around us, and looked like the gypsy tribe by our hats fasten’d with our
handkerchiefs, rais’d our risible organs when a waning blast indulg’d us with a
glimpse of each other. In this situation the Edinburgh stage Coach came up, and
luckily got a lift till near Kilsyth, where we breakfasted with an acquaintance of
Mr Wright, which fortified and prepared us for scaling the soaring Tak-me-
Down, the lonely, rugged, and forbidding surface of which was with difficulty got