in the night time, which would be both. difficult and dangerous with two streams, perhaps in flood, requiring to be crossed. It is related of some Greenock ladies who had been spending a social evening, of too festive a character, with some friends in Cartsdyke, when returning home, and probably having already forded the Cartsburn and the Dailing Burn, they came to Cathcart Square, and seeing the shadow of the steeple across a clear sheen of moonlight, they naturally concluded that they had reached another stream, so, without more ado, they took off their shoes and stockings, 'kilted their coats,' and arrived safely on the other side!

As we have already observed, Greenock was rich in forests, which extended from the Mansionhouse to the top of the Whinhill, then part of the Shaw Estate Policies, and east and west along the hills and streams.

When the road to Port-Glasgow was being made, we read of its passage being cut through woods then growing down to the water's edge. The names of the districts surrounding the Mansionhouse are speaking evidence of their rustic character, the Deer Park, between the Dailing Burn and the Cartsburn, the Pond Park extending eastwards to the Dailing Burn, the Well Park, adjoining the Mansionhouse, where the quaint old Well, dated 1629, still stands, and the Crow Mount to the west of Bank Street, culminating at the point now occupied by Mount Park Church. the Crow Mount, or in common parlance "The Mount," were the Thrushgrove Gardens, so called from the number and variety of the singing birds which frequented them, and along the base of the hill were numerous orchards, among others, one known as the Broomhill Gardens, on the

Behind

site now occupied by the Low Vennel. In 1785 it is chronicled that the nightingale, a most unusual bird in Scotland, was heard, for several years in succession, sending forth its glorious music from leafy groves on the spot where Buccleuch Street and High Vennel now stand. These sylvan retreats were greatly beloved by those whose 'fancy lightly turned to thoughts of love,' and many tender memories clustered round such names as those of the spots just mentioned, or of the Auld Kirk Road, the Lovers' Loan, the Back Walks, and the Lovie Wood,

"Where mony a summer e'en,
Fond lovers did convene,

In thae bonnie, bonnie gloamins
That are lang awa."