Next to the improvement which has been made in the agriculture of the country, is that which has been effected in the country seats of the landed proprietors. Almost every gentleman's house has been enlarged or rebuilt; new kitchen-gardens have been formed and the pleasure-grounds altered; the number of hot-houses is increased at least a hundred-fold, and lodges, winding approaches, and scattered timber trees are now substituted for commonplace roads, gates, and grass fields; the latter either naked, or displaying only a few round clumps. All the towns have been more or less increased in size; the new buildings are larger, and of an improved architecture, and the streets are wider. The town which has improved the least appears to be Kirkcudbright. In the suburbs of the enlarged towns, villas and ornamental cottages have been built, though, as yet, only to a moderate extent.
