the lakes are found to afford, is the distinct and appropriate character that each of them possesses. Winandermere, near whose banks we were at Ambleside, may claim in a peculiar manner the praise of beauty and grandeur; the former derived from its winding shape, which presents an

endless variety of bay and promontory, island and holm; the latter from its extent, which exceeds that of every other of these sheets of water. The northern and southern extremities are marked by very different features; mountains rude and bare, crags lofty and ragged-Langdale-Pikes, HindKnot, and Wry-Nose-form the impervious barrier to the first termination; whilst the latter presents nothing but soft sloping banks, fringed with wood, and smiling with the marks of human industry. The road running parallel with the eastern shore of the lake passes the excellent inn of Low-Wood, admirably situated for the visitor of Winandermere; the well-tilled fields and widelyspreading plantations of Kalgarth, the residence of the learned Bishop of St. Asaph; who, having thrown light upon science, and corroborated by his reasonings the evidences of revealed religion, is still in the bosom of rural quiet and domestic happiness benefiting mankind, by increasing experiments and new discoveries in the important art of philosophical husbandry.

Hence we proceeded to Bowness, a small village seated close to the waters of Winandermere, and accommodated with every sort of boat and vessel for crossing the lake and visiting the islands upon it. Of these there are fourteen in number; the

principal one is Bella island, about one mile and three quarters round, the property and summer residence of Mr. Curwen. The passage to this, about half a mile, gave us a magnificent view of the lake, its surface studded with islands, and its shores with gentlemen's seats, removed to such a fortunate distance as to prevent the bad taste with which most of them are built from being perceived: Rydale-Head, an august mountain, shuts up the scene to the north. The island was purchased about seventeen years ago by Mrs. Curwen, before her marriage, for the sum of 1640l. of the creditors of Mr. English, who had begun the house which Mr. Curwen now inhabits; the plantations commenced two years afterwards; but so much has the value of property hereabouts increased, and so elegantly has Mr. Curwen compleated the mansion and grounds, that within this present year 20,000l. have been offered as the price of its purchase. Green-house trees form for the most part the belt of wood that encircles the island, which is made as thick as possible, in order to prevent its narrowness from being discovered; through this is a gravel walk, and within it about eighteen acres of lawn, with the house upon a rise in the centre, an elegant classical building, with a portico in front, and a domed roof. On ascending the lofty

hill which rises to the west of Winandermere, we arrived at Mr. West's first station, and from the little castellated summer-house caught a grand view of the lake, its islands, promontories, and shores; a prospect that was once more repeated at the summit of a more distant eminence, and then lost to us for ever. But we were fully recompensed by the broad, quiet, and beautiful valley into which we descended, that soon opened to us Estwaith water, where the pastoral still continues to predominate; and where the affections are agreeably moved, and heart gladdened, by the pleasing contemplation of human happiness dwelling amid the many little villages scattered round the margin of the lake.

Passing through Hawkshead, at the northern end of Estwaith, (a small market-town, which, though its population be not more than three hundred and eighty people, boasts a liberal free-school, founded by Archbishop Sandys, the hot-bed of many a learned plant) we ascended the hill over which the road to Coniston is carried, from whose brow a very different picture presents itself, to that beautiful landscape we had been contemplating. The rude strokes of Salvator again introduce themselves, in the bold fantastic forms and naked heads of its surrounding mountains, particularly the Old Man

and Langdale-Pikes; the shores are left entirely in the hands of Nature, and as beauty and grandeur are the characteristic of Winandermere, so untamed wildness is that of Coniston water.

On quitting this sheet of liquid crystal, along whose margin we rode for six miles, we bade adieu to the lakes, and entered upon a scene of singular contrast to their mountainous features; a wide extent of level sand, the bed of the river Leven; who, when the tide is full, rolls his waters over the expanse, and converts the lately dry surface into one vast lake. This flat tract conducted us to the town of Ulverstone, situated in an open but not unpleasant country; having noble wooded hills to the south, grand mountains to the north, and the bay of Morecambe before it, over whose sands the tide rises to the height of fifteen feet at the spring floods. This is a town of great antiquity, the capital and head port of the district called Furness; its trade increasing, and its population daily extending. Wood, (of which vast quantities are cut in the neighbourhood) iron-ore from the great adjoining mines of Whitrigs, (so rich that one hundred pounds of ore will give seventy-five of fine metal, and so productive that twenty thousand tons of it are annually exported) blue slate, and corn, form its list of exports. The iron is chiefly sent to Sheffield,