We stayed to speak
with one of the farmers, standing at his gate, and he told us that he
sent potatoes to the Manchester market, which struck us with surprise
because of the great distance. We also stayed awhile, just before
entering Dumbarton, as there had been a slight railway accident,
probably owing to the fog, and the officials, with a gang of men, were
making strenuous efforts to remove the remains of a truck which had come
to grief. We were walking into the town quite unconscious of the
presence of the castle, and were startled at its sudden appearance, as
it stood on an isolated rock, rising almost perpendicularly to the
height of about 300 feet, and we could only just see its dim outline
appearing, as it were, in the clouds. We left it for future inspection
and, as it was now twelve o'clock, hurried into the town for a noon
dinner, for which we were quite ready.
As a sample of the brief way in which the history of an important town
can be summarised, we give the following extract:--
Dumbarton, immortalised by Osian, possessed in turns by first Edward
and John Balliol, the prison of William Wallace, and the scene of
that unavailing remorse which agonised the bosom of his betrayer (a
rude sculpture within the castle represents Sir John Monteith in an
attitude of despair, lamenting his former treachery), captured by
Bruce, unsuccessfully besieged by the fourth Edward, reduced by the
Earl of Argyll, surprised, while in false security, by the daring of
a bold soldier, Captain Crawford, resided in by James V, visited by
that fair and erring Queen, the "peerless Mary," and one of the four
castles kept up by the Act of Union.
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