Description of LANRICK CASTLE.

LANRICK Castle is situated on the southern bank of the Teith, a few miles to the west of Doune. It lies in the parish of Kilmadock, and on the southern extremity of the county of Ayr, where it immediately borders on that of Stirling. This mansion, the seat of Sir John MacGregor Murray, of MacGregor, Bart, is extremely commodious and elegant, and was built by Sir John himself, close to the ancient castle, of which there are now scarcely any remains. There are also some ruins of an ancient chapel, which, with six others, was attached to the monastery of St Madows, or Kilmadock.

The distance consists of some of the most distinguished features of the Grampian range of mountains, Benle-di, Stuck-a-chroan, Ben-vorlich.Stuck-a-chroan has been translated "Hill of Mourning," and is traditionally said to have derived its name from affording a retreat to the remnant of the Caledonian army, after its defeat by Agricola in the plain to the eastward. This mountain, though equal in height to its near neighbour Ben-vorlich, higher than Ben-le-di, and, in form, superior to either, is but little known to the Lowland public,

to whom, on that account, this notice may be the more acceptable. The rapid Teith is seen and heard from the windows of Lanrick Castle; and the mountains seen from thence, including Ua-vore, recently celebrated by the author of the "Lady of the Lake," constitute, in combination with ancient trees of various kinds and forms, interspersed with thriving plantations, scenes which Gaspar Poussin would not have scorned to imitate. The castle stands in the middle of a park, about two miles in length, whose northern boundary, from end to end, is washed by the Teith, along which walks are cut through the plantations and a variety of natural coppice.On an eminence to the south-west of the castle, and within the park, a monument presents itself, erected by the worthy proprietor, in memory of his deceased brother, Colonel Peter Murray, whose patronage of classical learning, by the annual donation of a gold medal to the dux of the highest class in the High School of Edinburgh, is only one of his excellent characteristics. This edifice, uniting solidity and lightness, exhibits, in its general form, an ingenious hieroglyphic expression of the particular circumstances in which it was erected.

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