William Cobbett, author of Rural Rides, published three years earlier, journeys north and finds, among others, Dunbar: ' a little sea-port apparently made for the express purpose of robbing Scotland of all its produce.', Edinburgh: 'the finest city I ever saw in my life', Glasgow: 'a city of the greatest beauty', with 'the finest, most convenient, and best conducted cattle market', Greenock: 'streets are regular, conveniently wide, ' with a very fine harbour, and 'forty of the largest mills that can exist.' New Milns: 'that public-spirited manufacturing village', Paisley: 'at no place where I have ever been in my life was I ever received with more cordiality'.His acute observations on his physical surroundings are as wide-ranging as his opinions on the social habits and circumstances of his various hosts.