upon.

The scenery of the lakes has been so ably analysed by the pen of a gentleman, the Rev. William Gilpin, who viewed nature with the justest, most discriminating, and correctest eye, that it is needless, and would be impertinent, in me to go into a minute detail of their beauties; a few hints, therefore, are all that you ought to tolerate, or I venture With respect to Keswick, we remarked. that however imposing its first appearance, when combined with its accompaniments, might be, yet it lost great part of its charms on a second survey; partly owing to nature, and partly to what, for want of another term, we must call art. Its islands, of which there are three principal ones, (Vicar's Island, St. Herbert's, and Lord's Island) and several smaller ones, are all round, and consequently disagreeably uniform; and the broad sheet of water itself, stretching in one right line from the south-west to the north-east, is submitted to the eye at once, with no windings, promontories, or other interruptions, to break this longitudinal view. To heighten these defects, some miserable buildings have been erected on the islands, and along the eastern margin of the lake, which not only disgrace the grand scenery of the place, but, utterly at war with all rational architecture, convenience, and taste, scarcely deserve

the name of human dwellings. Far be it from me to wish a restraint upon the expenditure of an honest citizen's money in any way he may think proper, provided the application of it do not interfere with the rights or comforts of the society amongst which he is placed; but when he uses it to destroy the effect of those scenes of Nature (the com- . mon property of the public) which the general voice have pronounced to be beautiful, and thus diminishes the stock of public pleasure, and cuts off one fruitful spring of intellectual enjoyment from a whole people, I cannot but think that the legislature should consider it as a sort of popular trespass, deserving prohibition if not punishment; or at least should make the promoters of false taste, in such cases as these, the objects of severe taxation. Mr. Pocklington's erections on and near the lake of Keswick would, if my suggestion were adopted, make an ample return into the coffers of the Exchequer. The fall of Lodore on the southern side of the lake, consisting of a series of cascades down a rocky declivity six hundred feet high, shaded with trees, is rather beautiful than sublime, and picturesque than terrible, for the most part of the year; though when it is charged with the overflowings of the thousand streams which a storm pours occasionally from the mountains, one

stupendous whole is formed by the mighty mass of rushing element, which presents a most magnificent scene to the eye, and an uproar is raised that shakes the surrounding mountains to their foundation.

Penetrating into the awful recesses of Borrodale at the southern extremity of the lake, we took a view of the Bowther stone, a vast mass of rock, torn by some natural convulsion from the aërial brow of the adjoining mountain, and rolled into the flat below. It measures in height thirty-six feet, and in circumference eighty-nine feet, and weighs one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one tons thirteen hundred weight. Beyond this a most pleasing walk, through peaceful hamlets, embosomed by the rudest mountains, brought us to the black-lead mines, the most famous of the kind in the world. Amongst the crags and precipices here which tower on every side, the effects of a loud sound suddenly emitted are truly astonishing, and it is utterly impossible for a lively imagination unused to the delusion, to experience it without a momentary belief that he is surrounded by the unseen spirits of the mountain, reproving his intrusion into their adyta, in vocal thunder.

The animated, enthusiastic, and accomplished Coleridge, whose residence at Keswick gives additional charms and interest to its impressive

scenery, inspired us with terror, whilst he described the universal uproar that was awakened through the mountains by a sudden burst of involuntary laughter in the heart of their precipices; an incident which a kindred intellect, his friend and neighbour at Grasmere, Wordsworth, (whose Lyrical Ballads,' exclusively almost of all modern compositions, breathe the true,nervous, and simple spirit of poetry) has worked up into the following admirable effusion:

"'Twas that delightful season, when the broom,

"Full flower'd, and visible on every steep,

"Our pathway led us on to Rotha's banks,

"And when we came in front of that tall rock

"Which looks towards the East, I there stopp'd short,

"And trac'd the lofty barrier with my eye

"From base to summit; such delight I found

"To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower,

"That intermixture of delicious hues,

Along so vast a surface, all at once,

"In one impression, by connecting force

"Of their own beauty, imag'd in the heart.

"When I had gaz'd perhaps two minutes' space,

Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld

"That ravishment of mine, and laugh'd aloud.
"The rock, like something starting from a sleep,
"Took up the lady's voice, and laugh'd again:
"That ancient woman seated on Helm-crag
"Was ready with her cavern; Hammar-Scar,
"And the tall steep of Silver-How sent forth
"A noise of laughter; southern Loughrigg heard,

"And Fairfied answer'd with a mountain tone:
"Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky

"Carried the lady's voice,-old Skiddaw blew
"His speaking trumpet;-back out of the clouds
“ Of Glaramara southward came the voice;
"And Kirkstone toss'd it from his misty head.
"Now whether, said I to our cordial friend,
(Who in the hey-day of astonishment
"Smil'd in my face) this were in simple truth
"A work accomplish'd by the brotherhood.
"Of ancient mountains, or my ear was touch'd
"With dreams and visionary impulses,

"Is not for me to tell; but sure I am
"That there was a loud uproar in the hills.
"And, while we both were listening, to my side
"The fair Joanna drew, as if she wish'd
"To shelter from some object of her fear."

Here, in the midst of these secluded scenes, formed by the involutions of the mountains, uncorrupted by the society of the world, lives one of the most independent, most moral, and most respectable characters existing-the estatesman, as he is called in the language of the country. His property usually amounts from 80l. to 200l. a year, of which his mansion forms the central point; where he passes an undisturbed inoffensive life, surrounded by his own paternal meads and native hills. Occupied in cultivating the former, and browzing the latter with his large flocks of three or four thousand sheep, he has no temptation