Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Here, as on the Nith, and much more than in the Trough of the Clyde, a great portion of the ground was uncultivated, but the hills being less wild, the river more stately, and the ground not heaved up so irregularly and tossed about, the imperfect cultivation was the more to be lamented, particularly as there were so many houses near the river. In a small enclosure by the wayside is a pillar erected to the memory of Dr. Smollett, who was born in a village at a little distance, which we could see at the same time, and where, I believe, some of the family still reside. There is a long Latin inscription, which Coleridge translated for my benefit. The Latin is miserably bad[90]--as Coleridge said, such as poor Smollett, who was an excellent scholar, would have been ashamed of. [Footnote 90: The inscription on the pillar was written by Professor George Stuart of Edinburgh, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre and Dr. Samuel Johnson; for Dr. Johnson's share in the work see Croker's Boswell, p. 392.--J. C. S.]