racterized our best days, often agreeably bursts forth, to rouse the well disposed, and to reproach the sons of degeneracy. The public institutions at Bristol are duly recorded and praised by Mr. Warner; and we have this account of one which will convey pleasure to the heart of sensibility: I should not forget, whilst thus enumerating the good points of Bristol, to mention its many humane establishments for the comfort, solace, and relief of poverty and sickness. The celebrated Colston, a second Man of Ross, has immortalized the character of the Bristol merchant by some of the most noble institutions that a private individual ever had either ability or liberality to establish. His school, in particular, which gives education, board, cloathing, and subsequent settlement in life, to the children which it receives under its protection, does honour to his understanding as well as his heart; and at once attaches to his character the two most glorious titles of -wise and good. Another most interesting charity, only to be found, I believe, in this place and Liverpool, adds to the respect we feel for the Bristol character. It is a School of Industry for the Indigent Blind, formed in 1793, and supported by the voluntary contributions of the public. Here those unfortunate beings, who, (the blessing of sight being denied to them,) may apply to themselves the pathetic lament of Milton: "For with the year Seasons return; but not to us return Here they are taught to earn their livelihood by the labour of their hands; and by these means relieved from that most distressing of all convictions, the conviction of being a burthen on society. Their employments are of several sorts; that of the males is chiefly basketmaking; of the females, spinning, and making laces for women's stays. No sight can be more interesting or affecting than this little seminary, its scholars busied in their respective avocations. All is cheerfulness, animation, and industry; escaped from that melancholy mental vacuity, that necessary inaction which the privation of sight induces, these unfortunate objects feel a felicity in employment not to be conceived by those who are in possession of vision. The eagerness with which they receive instruction, and the inflexible patience and perseverance they display in endeavouring to profit by it, strongly mark those natural principles engrafted in man, to the love of action, and the desire of independence. The institution only extends to the instruction of the blind in the manner of living by their own exer tions, but the expences even of this limited plan, and of articles necessary necessary for their work, amount to 50cl. per annum. You will be pleased, however, to see by the following statement of the annual profits of their labour since the first formation of the establishment, that they have been gradually increasing in the yearly amount, and promise soon to be sufficient of themselves for the support of the school, without the aid of voluntary contributions: 6 Receipt from Sales of Articles manufactured in the School. The virtues of a late illustrious public character will impart interest to the subsequent passages: Quitting Rotherham, we mounted the hill on the north of the town, and throwing our eye back on the tract we had lately passed through, beheld a picture of such richness and variety as, perhaps, no other part of England can afford. Before us, also an extremely grand country disclosed itself, undulating into broad hills and wide vallies, whose boundless fertility is assisted by an admirable system of agriculture. The prospect terminated with the majestic woods of Wentworth park, within whose embrace stands the gorgeous manfion of Earl Fitzwilliam, about four miles from Rotherham, and half a mile from the turnpike-road. Its front stretches upwards of six hundred feet in a straight line, and consists of a centre and two wings. The portico (which measures sixty feet in length by twenty in the projection) is ascended by a double flight of steps, and supported by eight pillars of the Corinthian order. The arms of the family ornament the tympanum, and the following motto, so appropriate to the inflexible integrity and uncorruptible political virtue of the late Marquis of Rockingham, runs along the entablature, Mea Gloria Fides.' — Every thing without the mansion is consistent with the magnificence and expence which reign within it. The menagerie and stables, in its immediate neighbourhood, are executed upon a princely scale; and the more distant decorations of the extenfive park (which embraces one thousand six hundred acres within its inclosure) evince the grand conceptions of the noble Marquis under whose directions the whole was principally executed. To enumerate and analyse the august and diversified views which are caught from particular parts of the wide domain, would exhaust my powers of description, and fatigue your attention. I should only, indeed, be ringing tiresome changes upon waving woods, fine expanses of water, grand slopes, swelling hills, temples, towers, pyramids, and obelisks; without conveying to your mind one adequate idea of the happy combinations of those different objects, which afford such pleasure to the eye, whilst contemplating them in nature. Let it be sufficient for me, then, to lead you to the chief artificial decoration of Wentworth park, the Mausoleum, (of fine free-stone,) built by the present Earl Fitzwilliam, in honour of his glorious predecessor, the late Marquis of Rockingham. It stands on an elevated spot of ground, to the right of the grand grand entrance into the park from the Rotherham road; is ninety A Doric basement story, feet high, and consists of three divisions. square; another above this of the same figure, but of Ionic architecture; each of its four sides opening into the form of an arch, and This is disclosing an elegant sarcophagus standing in the centre. surmounted by a cupola, supported by twelve columns of the same order, taking a circular arrangement. At each corner of the railing that incloses this superb edifice is an obelisk of great height. But the most interesting part of it is the interior of the lower story; an apartment rising into a dome, ornamentally stuccoed, and supported by eight pillars, encircling a white marble statue of the late Marquis of Rockingham in his robes, as large as life, by the admirable chissel of Nollekens. This stands on a square pedestal, one side of which is inscribed with the titles of this great man. The remaining three form a noble, but just, tribute to his memory, being dedicated to deserved eulogium, and the effusions of disinterested friendship. The verses and laudatory lines are as follow: "Angels, whose guardian care is England, spread "Your shadowing wings o'er patriot Wentworth dead: "Where commerce, science, honour, friendship, weep "They mourn their patron gone, their friend no more, "A man worthy to be held in remembrance, because he did not live for himself. His abilities, industry, and influence were employed, without interruption, to the last hour of his life, to give stability to the liberties of his country; security to its landed property; increase to its commerce; independence to its public counsels; and concord to its empire. These were his ends. For the attainment of these ends, his policy consisted in sincerity, fidelity, directness, and constancy. In opposition, he respected the principles of government. In administration, he provided for the liberties of the people. He employed his moments of power in realizing every thing which he had professed in a popular situation; the distinguishing mark of his public conduct. Reserved in profession, sure in performance, he laid the foundation of a solid confidence. "He far exceeded all other statesmen in the art of drawing toge ther, without the seduction of self-interest, the concurrence and cooperation of various dispositions and abilities of men, whom he assi milated to his character, and associated in his labours. For it was his aim through life to convert party connection, and personal friendship, (which others had rendered subservient only to temporary views and the purposes of ambition) into a lasting depository of his principles; that their energy should not depend upon his life, nor Auctuate with the intrigues of a court, or with capricious fashions amongst the people. But that by securing a succession in support of his maxims, the British constitution might be preserved according to its true genius, on ancient foundations, and institutions of tried utility. "The virtues of his private life, and those which he exhibited in the service of the state, were not in him separate principles. His private virtues, without any change in their character, expanded with the occasion into enlarged public affections. The very same tender, benevolent, feeling, liberal mind, which in the internal relations of life conciliated the genuine love of those who see men as they are, rendered him an inflexible patriot. He was devoted to the cause of freedom, not because he was haughty and intractable, but because he was beneficent and humane. "A sober, unaffected, unassuming piety, the basis of all true morality, gave truth and permanence to his virtues. "He died at a fortunate time, before he could feel, by a decisive proof, that virtue like his, must be nourished from its own substance only, and cannot be assured of any external support. "Let his successors, who daily behold this monument, consider that it was not built to entertain the eye, but to instruct the mind! Let them reflect, that their conduct will make it their glory or their reproach. Let them feel that similarity of manners, not proximity of blood, gives them an interest in this statue. "Remember; resemble; persevere In four recesses in the wall of this apartment within the pillars, are eight white marble busts, placed in the following order: -1 o the right of the entrance, in the first niche, are Edmund Burke and the Duke of Portland; in the second, Frederic Montague and Sir George Saville; in the third, Charles Fox and Admiral Keppel; in the fourth, Lord J. Cavendish and John Lee. From this sumptuous edifice a good idea may be formed of Wentworth demesne. A boundless prospect of the richest part of England lies open to the eye, infinitely diversified; the grandest feature of which is the park. The woods, the water, the tower, the pyramid, and the house, all fall into the picture; and present a scene in which it is difficult to say whether the beauty of nature, the efforts of art, or the operations of taste, are to be most admired. Viewing Wentworth home grounds and mansion from hence, we had no hesitation in pronouncing it ta be the finest place we had ever seen.' We should not have imagined that a mind like that of the present writer would have given way to the vulgar prejudices on the subjects of the trade in corn, and of agricultural economy; and we much wish him to reconsider his opinions on these points. From the second volume, we shall treat the reader with the account of an usage as extraordinary, as any that is to be found in the puerile annals of feudal times: 4 • Alnwick 'Alnwick itself has little beauty, being straggling and irregular. A few vestiges of its former walls are visible, and the late Duke of Northumberland's munificence is manifested in some modern public edifices in the Gothic style. The customs of this borough were formerly many and curious; one only remains now, but sufficiently singular in its nature to be mentioned. The candidate for the few existing rights attaching to a freeman in this dis-used borough has to pass through a purgatory little less alarming than the initiatory rites to the greater mysteries of Eleusis; clad in a white garment, he is led to a little stream which runs across a road on the town moor, anciently called the Forest of Aidon, whose waters are deepened for the purpose by a dam thrown across them, and bottom rendered as unequal and rugged as possible, by holea being dug and stones cast therein. All these accommodating arrangements are made by a man who lives near the stream, and exacts five shillings from each of the freemen for his trouble. Through this water, without the aid of stick or staff, the candidate is to find his way; and provided he effect this without breaking his legs, he is then condemned to an equestrian adventure equally perilous; to ride round the manor, after changing his clothes, accompanied by two of the oldest inhabitants of the borough as his guides, a distance of ten miles, over a road rugged with precipices, deformed with bog, and obstructed with briar. If he do all this, and live, he becomes a freeman of Alnwick.' The philosopher will peruse our next quotation with interest, and it is also not unworthy of notice from the states man. Mr. Warner has been making a slight incursion on the land of Caledonia, and is now returning to the borders: Two turnpike gates, at the distance of twenty yards from each other, now applied for their respective tolls; and, on enquiring the reason of these demands so immediately succeeding each other, we found that they were separate concerns; one standing in Scotland, the other in England - the intervening space, called Scotch dike, dividing the two kingdoms from each other. We could not quit this boundary of Caledonia, little as we had seen of the country, without casting"one longing ling'ring look behind;" not so much on account of the beautiful scenery with which we had of late been so agreeably amused, as on that of the character of its inhabitants, whose manners, as far as our opportunity of observing them extended, had interested us extremely. Tainted, perhaps, (though I am almost unwilling to suppose it) with some of those prejudices which the illiberality of my own Countrymen have so generally excited against the Scottish character; (and which, I am inclined to think, arise rather from our envy at their mental superiority, than from any conviction of their comparative moral or intellectual defects;) I was greatly but agreeably surprized to find nothing but what was amiable and exemplary in every class of Scotch society. Hospitality, kindness, and most minute attention to the comfort and ease of their guests, mark the character of the Scotch gentleman; whilst the peasantry are equally remarkable for the same good qualities in a ruder way, and the more valuable ones of correct morality, sincere piety, and an exemplary decency in lan guage |