The mention of Balfron reminds me that there was a well known
wheelwright and cartwright in that place. Was he a Patterson? or is
my memory so failling that I am confusing him with a farmers daughter
from that airt that I met at a dance in the Queen Margaret Union.

    "Ah, days of youth,how sweet are ye!
      But ye ne!re return again."

From a clydeside song of the 18th C.

Incidentaly this song contains the only written evidence I have found
confirming the oral tradition pointing out the spot on the North bank of the Clyde where the hero of the old ballad, Willie, took to the water on returning from his aborted visit to his sweetheart Maggie.
      "
    "And the clattering o Clyde"s watters it wad fear five hundred
      men"

I have checked the O.S. maps and all the local histories but the song
is the only source that indicates that there may be some truth to
the local legend.