The Surface of this tract of country is every where of great natural beauty, and is, beyond all the landscape we have seen since leaving London, except that near the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, adapted for country residences. In a general view it is mountainous and hilly; but, in passing through it, we meet with numerous streams or rivers with the most varied banks; and occasionally, where the larger rivers run into the sea, with fertile levels of alluvial or of sandy soil. Leaving Annan in the evening, and passing over the dull flat tract of country which intervenes between that town and Dumfries, we arrived there in the dark. Next morning we took a walk round the town, and were struck with astonishment and delight at the beautifully varied country to the north and west. Immediately round Dumfries the surface is undulating, and richly clothed with corn crops, bounded by neatly cut hedges, with good roads, numerous strips of plantations, and various country seats of the villa kind. Beyond this agricultural surface, the country gradually rises into hills and mountains. The lower parts of the hills display country seats, surrounded by pasture fields and gardens; while the upper parts are mostly clothed with wood, the summits of the mountains being bare. Taking it altogether, it is decidedly the finest combination of agricultural richness and picturesque beauty which we have seen on our present tour; indeed, we do not recollect any thing in Britain more in the Italian style of landscape. The wavy surface, the corn, the pastures, and the trees are often to be met with both in England and in Scotland; but we do not know where to find, south of the Tweed, those finely marked outlines of hills and mountains which, in the neighbourhood of Dumfries, generally terminate the landscape. We arrived at this town with the impression still remaining on our minds which we had received from the surrounding country twenty-six years ago, when the hills were unclothed with wood, and the low grounds in a great measure uncultivated and unenclosed, a great part of them being black peat bog. Our surprise and delight at the change may be more easily conceived than described. We can only repeat, that it recalled to our imagination the scenery of the north of Italy, with the wooded Apennines, backed by the pointed summits of the naked Alps.
