From the pastoral scenes of Houston House, birthplace of the family, to the bustling little city of Johnstone is a distance of a scant three miles but the two places seem almost in separate worlds. The contrast is symbolic of development in the modern world, whether in Britain or America, the passing of the rural way of life, swallowed up in urban growth.

Even at Houston House, which felt so secure in the pleasant old way of living, Mrs. Maitland had expressed to me a fear of city encroachment from spreading Glasgow, and now I could understand her uneasiness. Glasgow already is overflowing into Johnstone—but Johnstone had been an industrial town from its beginning, near two centuries ago. Its progressive leadership today is promoting civic, cultural and educational development in line with population growth.

At the town hall, I had an interesting and helpful interview with Roderick S. Macrae, town clerk, a cultured and efficient Scot with a personality in keeping with the town motto: "Gang forward." Lie told rue that more than 1800 houses had been built in a housing development on the old Houston of Johnstone estate. One minor calamity—three or four of the houses were being abandoned because of settling into the ground, due to old mines which George Houston, city founder, or his successors had bored beneath the surface.

Evidences of the Houstons still abound in the city. A few steps from the town hail is Houstoun Square, attractively landscaped, and matching it is Ludovick Square. Ludoviék was a popular name among the Houstons of Johnstone. The remaining tower of the old Johnstone castle, improved by George Houston III about 1780, rises in ancient grandeur amid modern homes of the Johnstone Castle housing development. We found a Walkinshaw street, the family name of one of the Houston wives. A portrait of one of the early Houstons has a place of