We now returned to our hotel, a very nice one, and found the street of
Dumbarton all alive in the summer evening with the sports of children and
the gossip of grown people. There was almost no night, for at twelve
o'clock there was still a golden daylight, and Yesterday, before it died,
must have met the Morrow.
In the lower part of the fortress there is a large sun-dial of stone,
which was made by a French officer imprisoned here during the Peninsular
war. It still numbers faithfully the hours that are sunny, and it is a
lasting memorial of him, in the stronghold of his enemies.
INVERANNAN.
Evening.--After breakfast at Dumbarton, I went out to look at the town,
which is of considerable size, and possesses both commerce and
manufactures. There was a screw-steamship at the pier, and many
sailor-looking people were seen about the streets. There are very few
old houses, though still the town retains an air of antiquity which one
does not well see how to account for, when everywhere there is a modern
front, and all the characteristics of a street built to-day. Turning
from the main thoroughfare I crossed a bridge over the Clyde, and gained
from it the best view of the cloven crag of Dumbarton Castle that I had
yet found.
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