creation of that city, fince the year 1668, when it was purchafedftom
Sir Patrick Maxwell of Newark, houfes built, a harbour formed, and
the cuftom-houfe for the Clyde eftablifiied.
Proceed two miles lower to Greenock, antiently called the bay of
St. Lawrence-, a place ftill more confiderable for its fhipping than
the former; and,, like the other, a port o f Glafgow, twenty-two
miles diftant from it. The Firth here expands into a fine baf#
four miles wide, and is land-locked on all fides. Dine here, con.
trait for a veffel for my intended voyage, and return to Glafgow &
night.
Crofs the new bridge, at whofe foot on that fide is Goriel, a C*
of fuburbs to Glafgow, The county o f Lanerk ftill extends trirttl
miles down the river; but after a ihort ride, I enter the ihire of
R E N. F R E W.
■ Leave,, on the left, the hill of Langftde, noted for the battle in
1.56S ; which decided the fortune of Mary Stuart, and precipitated
her into that fatal ftep of deferting her country, and flinging
herfelf into an eighteen years captivity, terminating in the
lofs o f her head,, the difgrace o f the annals of her glorious rival
Ride through a fine country to Cruickfton\ caftle, feat^d on the fum-,
mit o f a little h ill; now a mere fragment, only a part.of a lquare
tower remaining of a. place o f much magnificence, when in itt
full glory. The fituation is-delicious,, commanding a view of*
well-cultivated trad, divided into a multitude o f fertile little
hills.
This was originally-the property o f the Crocs,, a potent people
I ty s county 1 but in the reign of Malcolm II, was conveyed, by
Wie marriage of the heirefs, daughter o f Robert de Croc, into the
family of Stuarts, in after-times Earls and Dukes of Lenox, who had
■reat poffeffions in thefe parts. T o this place Henry Barnly retired
with his enamoured Queen, Cruickfton being then, as Cliefden in the '
fiipe of Villiers,
The feat of wantonnefs and love.
Here fame fays that Mary firft refigned herfelf to the arms o f her
beloved, beneath a great yew, ftill exifting: but no loves would
(mile on joys commenced beneath the ihade of this funereal tree ;
the hour was unpropirious,
Ille dies primus Lethi, primufque malorum, caufa fuit.
3 It was even faid * that Mary, unconfcious of events, ftruck a coin
on the Qccafton, with the figure of the fatal tree, honored with a
cfown, and diftinguiihed by the motto, Bat gloria vires. But I have
opportunity of contradifting this opinion from an examination of
the coins themfelves, whofe dates are 1565, 1566, and 1567 -f-.
The tree is evidently a palm, circumfcribed, Exurgat Deus, diftipen-
tur immici ejus. Pendent from the boughs, is the motto above cited,
which is part of the following lines taken from Propertius, alluding
to a fnail climbing up the body of the tree, a modeft comparifon of
the honors that Henry Barnly received by the union with his royal
fpoufe.
55 * SjflmS Ni'crjcl/cn's Scottijb library. 323,
si t See alfo Anderfm's Coins, tab. 165.
Magnum