ΤΟ WILLIAM HARRIS, ESQ., THE DEAR FRIEND OF MANY YEARS, AND THE GENIAL COMPANION or MOST OF THESE RAMBLES, THIS BOOK Is inscribed by his Friend, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. For THIS Book has been written not for the learned and the antiquarian, but for the rambler. people who delight in being out of doors,-who find a joy in sauntering down a green and shady lane,-in climbing a sunny hill,—in rambling over a battle-field,—in groping about old ruins,—or in wandering "adown some trotting burn's meander," for such, and such only, is this book intended. Some of these papers have appeared before in local and other periodicals; they have been entirely re-written, and the gains of subsequent visits have been added. Most of them are the results of numerous rambles to the same place; and although not a little reading and inquiry have been bestowed upon them, they are simply what they assume to be,-Rambles by a Rambler. An enthusiastic pedestrian myself, and open to all the influences of Nature and Poetry, I have endeavoured to put into words the feelings which these "Pleasant Spots and Famous Places" inspire in me whenever I visit them. This may account for the warmth of colouring and occasional abandon which will be found in some of these pages. The |