DEAR DAVID,

YOU must attribute my silence during the last eight days entirely to the kindness and hospitality of the good folks of Glasgow, who have really gained more upon me than I could have conceived possible in so short a space. Their attention has not been confined to giving me good dinners and suppers alone; they have exerted themselves in inventing a thousand devices to amuse me during the mornings also; and, in a word, nothing has been omitted that might tempt me to prolong my stay among them.—In truth, I have prolonged it much beyond what I had at all calculated upon;—indeed, much beyond what I could well afford, considering how the season is advanced, and how much I have yet before me ere I can bring my tour to its conclusion. However, I shall probably get on with less interruption, after I have fairly entered the Highlands, which, God willing, shall now be very soon, for I have arranged every thing for going by the steam-boat on Thursday to the Isle of Bute, from which I shall proceed in the same way, next morning, as far as Inverary, to which place I have just sent forward the shandrydan, under the sure guidance of your old friend, the trusty John Evans.

I have made good use of the shandrydan, however, in my own person, during the days I have lingered in this charming neighbourhood. In company with one or other of my Glasgow friends, I have visited almost every scene at all interesting, either from its natural beauty, or from the historical recollections connected with it, throughout this part of the country. I have seen not a few fine old castles, and several fields of battle. I have examined the town of Paisley, where some very curious manufactures are carried on in a style of elegance and ingenuity elsewhere totally unrivalled; and where, what is still more to my taste, there are some very fine remains of the old Abbey, the wealth of which was transferred at the time of the Reformation to the family of the Abbot Lord Claud Hamilton, son to the Duke of Chatelherault, whose descendant, the Marquis of Abercorn, now claims that old French title, as being the male representative of the House of Hamilton.