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expectation we had formed. An air of romantic wildness reigned throughout the whole, considerably encreased by a small piece of water, on whose unfruitful banks lay rocky fragments, and immense-sized single stones, of various shapes and hues: while a small chapel at a short distance, overhung by mournful yews, completed the scene, and inspired the mind with feelings of pensive melancholy, not wholly useless in their consequences, nor, upon occasions, disagreeable is the indulgence. At length the view of the beautiful lake of Haws-water opened on our sight, and filled us with rapturous admiration. Nothing can be more lovely than the prospect which is here disclosed to the admiring eye of a traveller, in the charming bosom of the lake, with its noble accompani ments of rocks, woods, towering preci pices, and simple rural scenery. On the opposite side from us, an immense ridge of craggy mountains reared their majestic fronts, separated from the water only by a narrow stripe of cultivated ground, where small enclosures of the sweetest verdure were divided by rows of hazel and thorn hedges, and a few straggling cottages peeped from amidst groups of low trees, and formed, with their whitened walls, a charming contrast to the shades in which they were enveloped, and the rugged precipices of the alpine heights that rose behind their little cultivated fields. On the southern side, a huge naked precipice, called Wallow Crag, rose boldly from its base; and near its rough unfruitful heights, there is a cataract, we were told, of uncommon beauty; but not having explored its hidden recess, I cannot affirm whether it exceeds or equals many of the number of beautiful cascades which are to be seen in the neighbourhood of the nor thern lakes.

four or five miles from Kendal, we quite
ted the usual road to Penrith over Shap
Fells, and pursued the way along a nar
row valley, enclosed by rocky heights,
which opened as we advanced, and ad-
mitted of a wider space betwixt: where
a few traces of tolerable cultivation be-
came visible, and some cottages, scat-
tered over the plain, proclaimed it the
abode of human beings; a dreary one,
unquestionably, even at the finest season
of the year. In the depth of winter it
must be truly horrible; and such as, were
some of the gay votaries of Fashion, the
children of luxury and dissipation, to be
condemned to pass one season only amidst
its wild recesses, I am of opinion they
would be tempted to put a speedy period
to their captivity, and, generally speaking,
useless existence, together, in the stream
which winds along the plain, and intersects
the small enclosures that display their
verdure on the flat, and in some parts
mingle on the mountains' sides with tang-
led copses, and grey rocky precipices,
which rise above each other to the sum-
mits of the ridges, and present a rather
pleasing variety to the general wildness of
the scene. From thence, the dale again
becomes contracted, and the heights en-
crease in grandeur of appearance, till some
of them become conspicuously promi-
nent and awful; an endless variety of
cascades, like stripes of silver, issuing from
springs upon the mountain-tops, rushed
furiously down the craggy steeps, swelling,
we were told, after storms, or heavy rains,
to astonishing magnitude, and pouring
impetuously from cliff to cliff, seeming to
threaten universal destruction to the nar-
row plain below. As the dale grows still
more contracted towards its extremity,
the road begins to ascend a rugged, steep,
and winding path, to the summit, of a
considerable height, from which we had
an extensive view of the surrounding
country; and in the distance, perceived it
was varied and agreeable: while the
nearer prospect was as bleak, wild, and
desolate, as fancy can picture: and we
were by no means sorry when, having
reached the top of the ascent, that would
strike terror into the breast of many a
native of the rich, flat, cultivated plains of
England, we began to descend by an
easier and a safer road, into the vale of
Mardale, where, though there appeared
but little to call forth admiration, we be-
lieved the scenery would prove more
pleasing to the sight, than the cold and
desolate height we had crossed; nor
were, we altogether disappointed in the

Continuing our course along the borders of the lake, we found its charms encreasing as we advanced. The heights of Naddle Forest, and Malkside upon the eastern shore, arose in solemn majesty, clothed with wood to the very summits, and reflected in the placid bosom of the water; while neat white cottages amidst tufted trees and bushes, occasionally met the sight, and seemed, to use the language of an early and admired tourist, the abodes of" peace, rus ticity, and happy poverty." These moun tains on the western shore, exhibit a charming diversity of heathy knolls, and craggy precipices, with-here and there a tree or cluster of trees, starting from the

crevices

22 Letters of a Wanderer through England and Wales. [Feb. 1,

crevices of the rocks, and by their rich and vivid colouring, adding indescribably to the beauty of a scene replete with loveliness, variety, and richness: a Iscene, that cannot fail to elevate the soul to the Creator of the universe, and convey the highest sensations of gratitude and delight.

About the midle of the lake, a low promontory divides the water almost into equal parts, and there the depth is said to be upwards of fifty fathoms. Though inferior in size to several of the lakes in Cumberland and Westmoreland, Haws water is no less distinguished than its neighbours, by bold and romantic scenery. Like a number of amiable characters amongst the human race, it is hid from general notice by its retired sequestered situation, consequently known only to a few of the number, who make what is called the "Tour of the Lakes," and visited but by those who are capable of appreciating its beauties, and bestowing on them that praise and admiration they so justly

merit.

In length Haws water is about three miles, and at the widest part does not It produces char, exceed half an one. perch, trout, eels, bass, and other fish; and its banks display the most beautiful assemblage imaginable of rocks and mountains, woods and cultivated grounds: in the whole, forming one of the finest landscapes which a painter, or an admirer of Nature's scenery, could desire to behold, You know my predilection for the simple beauties of Nature, and my dislike to whatever bears the appearance of art, in a spot where all that could be done to render it charming has been effected; you will therefore feel surprised at my giving the scenery around Haws-water a decided preference to that which is now to be seen upon the borders of some of the greater and highly-celebrated lakes in the northern counties, where all native simplicity and interesting loveliness is banished by the hand of art; which, as far as what is termed modern improve ment could go, has tortured and distorted Nature's works; dressed, shaved, and trimmed, spots, which were, in their original state, beauty without a fault, but which now exhibit only the formality of a citizen's vilia, and evince the absurd and glaring impropriety of erecting palaces and shew-houses where the surrounding objects present the boldest and most rug ged features imaginable, or the sweetest simple rural scenery, replete with pastoral beauty, harmony, and natural loveliness.

Of this number is Ulls-water, of which I
shall give you an account in my next. At
present, I shall hasten to conduct you to
Penrith, which we reached after a plea
sant ride of about twelve miles, as the
shades of evening had cast a sombre man-
tle over the surrounding objects; when,
being somewhat fatigued with our journey,
and long fast, (for we had tasted nothing
from the time of leaving Kendal but a
little bread and milk in a cottage near
Haws-water,) we enjoyed an excellent
supper at the principal inn in the town,
and sought repose in beds, which, for
cleanliness and comfort, could not have
been exceeded in a palace.

Penrith, I believe, you have visited, or
at least know so much of, that I need not
attempt giving you a long description of -
itself, or its immediate neighbourhood.
Suffice it to say, the houses are of a red-
dish-coloured stone, in general wearing]
an air of peculiar neatness and comfort;
the streets are clean, and the whole place
appears thriving, populous, and cheerful.
The situation of Penrith is agreeable, be-
ing in the midst of an extensive fertile
plain, watered by the rivers Lowther and
Eamont, on the banks of which are se
veral elegant seats and villas, where art
and nature have united in rendering them
abodes of comfort, convenience, and
beauty. On the northern side of the plain
there is a high extensive ridge, over which
the road to Scotland by Carlisle passes,
and whence there is one of the finest
views in the kingdom. As my companion'
had never seen this view, we rode to the
top of the hill on the morning of the day
we passed at Penrith, and enjoyed the
sight of the surrounding landscape with
much sstisfaction; for the sky being
wholly free of cloud or vapour, we easily
discerned the plain around the ancient
city of Carlisle, about twenty miles dis-
tant, and found the prospect only bounded
by a chain of far-off Scottish mountains,
losing all traces of individual grandeur as
they seemed to mingle with the sky. Of
Ullswater, on the other side, and its ma
jestic towering boundaries, we had a bird's-
eye peep, and anticipated much gratifica
tion by a nearer survey of their beauties
on the succeeding day. In the evening we
had a charming stroll in the environs of
the town; and on the following morning
at an early hour, pursued our way to
wards the justly-celebrated lake of Ulls-
water, passing by some ancient mansions
on the road to Pooley Bridge (where we
purposed breakfasting), the heavy archi
tecture of which presents a striking con

trast

trast to the airy lightness, and unquestion ably more elegant, style of building of modern times. Adieu: believe me, my friend, most truly, yours, &c.

THE WANDErer.

For the Monthly Magazine. ABSTRACT of a JOURNAL kept in MARYLAND, in the years 1805 and 1806.

Tties, of Europe, have contributed amazingly within the last twenty years to the population and commercial prosperity of the United States. The population is supposed to have more than doubled itself, and the imports and exports have been centupled. The federal phoenix has risen from the ashes of the old continent, for so many years a prey to the devouring elements of tyranny and discord. She extends her wings over a vast and fertile region, watered by majestic rivers, and blessed with a variety of genial climates. There the squalid pea sant of Ireland, who starved and rotted in filth and misery, on 1s. per day in his native country, now earns with ease his dollar and quarter, looks hale and ruddy, walks with the port and dignity of independant manhood, and, by his sparkling eyes, elevated towards Heaven, seems to pour forth with an habitual devotion his gratitude to Providence, for having brought him to a land flowing with milk and honey; where the labourer is worthy of his hire, and where he has a certain prospect, with moderate industry, of becoming in a short time the proprietor of a farm. There the German farmer may purchase the best land at a cheap rate, and free from fiscal tyranny and grinding taxation; he may speedily amass a heap of his beloved dollars, which are the objects of daily labour, and the penate gods of his nightly devotions. There may the persecuted philosopher and friend of liberty, find a peaceful asylum, and prosecute his studies in the laboratory of Nature, either in the crowded city, or sheltered by Arcadian groves on the beautiful borders of the meandering and rapid Susquehannah, unapprehensive of danger to himself, or to his apparatus, from the infernal auto-de-fes of furious bigotry and sanguinary despotism. There may the mercantile adventurer carve out his fortune with a rapidity truly astonish. fog, and live surrounded by all the conveniencies, comforts, and elegancies, of Life. There may the man of God go to

wars, oppressions, and calami

Heaven his own way, without paying toll by any of the privileges of his citizenship,

Infirmity is inseperable from the state of man and nations; and though philosophy may dictate, prescribe, and foresee; though wise governments may enact the best possible code of laws, yet cannot they prevent and obviate all the evils arising from the passions and favorite pursuits of individuals and communities. fluence on the human mind and chaThat education has an important inracter, cannot be doubted; and that the nature and variety of worldly pursuits have an all-powerful tendency to strengthen or weaken the principles of a virtuous education, and consequently to produce either happiness or misery, in the proportion in which virtuous principles are imbibed, and to the number and nature of temptations in our passage through life, may be considered a selfevident maxim.

The experience of all ages and nations refers to agriculture, as the primæval and principal source of health, virtue, and happiness. In the mutual, real, aud artificial, wants of individuals, societies, and nations, originated barter and commerce. In their infancy, they were the handmaids of agriculture, by taking off her superfluity from the fertile regions of the globe, and exchanging it for the precious metals, minerals, and drugs, of barren and inhospitable shores. In process of time, however, they have become the mistresses of their natural mistress; and though things must eventually recur to their original state, yet not without violent convulsions and general calamity, we have beheld the ministry of England, for the last twenty years, regulating agriculture (or rather deranging it) by its par liamentary influence in the enacting of laws, by its commercial arrangements, and treaties with foreign powers, and by its orders of Council; and though the holy zealot, and alarmed and selfish friend of his country's liberty, to the exclusion of other parts of the world, from a similar enjoyment, may have given the ministry credit for its chivalrous attempt to defend the religion and law of Europe against the infidelity and anarchy of France, yet the political arithmetician detects the latent, but real cause, in its unextinguishable hatred of France-the consequence of her interference in the American war, and in the opportunity which her revolu tion seemed to afford England of annihilating her industry and commerce, and

of extending her own upon its ruins, over the whole habitable face of the globe, by the empire of the seas. The speeches of Lord Sheffield, Aukland, &c. and the annual budget speeches, proclaim tri

becomes a bad cause, even as to its general results, because the many become sufferers for the benefit of the few. W.

SIR,

ANY of your pages have tended to

umphantly the encreasing and flourishing To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. state of our trade, no doubt, as a vindi cation of the war, and as a reason for its continuance. Sheffield asserted in a speech, about five years ago, that the carrying trade had encreased from two mil. lions at the commencement of the war, to five millions, in a period of less than five years.

Thus has commerce not only subsidized Agriculture to her purposes, but likewise the demon War, to the former of which she was once tributary, and to the latter she was reckoned a deadly foe, whose extinction she threatened by enlightened ideas, the mutual interchange of good offices, and general philanthropy.

Thus are the ostensible objects of the war unmasked, and the real one appears to be to extend and force the commerce of England by the point of the bayonet, and the thunder of her wooden walls, over a continent deluged with blood, and an ocean stained with crimes!

It is almost superfluous to enlarge upon the bad effects of a system reprobated alike by sound policy, justice, humanity, and religion. Even in the most just, necessary, and merely defensive, wars, which may have been undertaken for the achievement and preservation of our liberties, and the security of our commerce, the cruelties and horrors which have been mutually inflicted and occasioned by armies, and the miseries endured by families and individuals, are indescribable. If then so much evil is the result of even just and necessary wars, what must be expected from a war entered into from the base and filthy motive of lucre, and from the sanguinary ambition of a shameful cupidity to extend our commerce over the face of the habitable globe? If, according to religion, philosophy, and sound policy, the means be not sanctified and justified by the end; if war be condemned as a sin by the divine, as immoral by the philosopher, and as the worst mode of settling the disputes of nations, by the politician, it would of course be the height of absurdity to suppose that the means can sanctify and justify the end. If a good cause be dis. graced by improper means used in its defence, how much more is it disgraced and injured by employing these means in promoting it, to the manifest injury of surrounding nations. Then indeed it

promote the amelioration of the condition and sufferings of the Animal World, thereby inculcating the sacred duties of justice and mercy. On this subject you have been laudably ready to give fair and full scope to whatever illustrated or enforced it. To maintain the cause of humanity, is highly pleasing to every good man; and more honour is derived from it, than from inquiries which tend only to amuse the mind, or gratify curiosity. The anecdote communicated by your correspondent, "Zoophilus," in the Monthly Magazine for September, on the effects of gratitude in a wild bull, deeply impressed and interested me. Gratitude can be the result only of kindness, either intended or received. And although I recollect too many instances where the result of kindness has been ingratitude amongst human beings, it very rarely follows any marks of mercy, or even of due consideration, shewn to ward animals. The example which "Zoophilus" has adduced of the wild bull, is certainly a very powerful illustration of this fact; but it would not be difficult to extract from the authentic stories of Natural History, various other instances of gratitude arising from sense of obligation, and even in the way of returning generosity for generosity, and compassion for compassion. In regard to other animals of the fiercest nature, as the lion, the elephant, the tyger, &c. I lately met with some curious parti culars in the notes to an elegant poem lately published by Mr. Pratt, to which I am anxious to refer your readers; and, by the bye, I cannot resist stating the pleasure which I have derived from read ing that production. It is entitled, The Lower World, not referring to the infernal regions, but lower, in a moral and rational sense, and consists of a strong appeal to mankind in favour of the brute creation. The life of the benevolent author has been devoted to constant labour, on this and other kindred subjects; and if he had not written his Sympathy, and Humanity, this production alone would entitle him to a place among the poets of Britain. In short, Sheridan, Pratt, Wolcot, Hayley,

and

and Cumberland, are surviving members of the old school of literature and poetry; and it is grievous to see the triumphs of a pigmy race, while the works of the genuine bards of the country are neglected, and even insulted by that trade in venal criticism, which sterling genius scorns to Court, or purchase.

I feel a strong desire to occupy an occasional page of your excellent miscellany, in adding my mite to the cause of genuine benevolence, from the body of evidence which I have from time to time been collecting from my own observa tions, or from written documents; and I hope you will encourage your corre

Notwithstanding the great variations in several of the months for the two years, the average temperature for the whole years differs but very little, only about three quarters of a degree. The quantity of rain is much less than that which fell during the year 1809; but between the 18th of October to about the same day in December, there fell nearly fourteen inches in depth, a circumstance exceedingly unusual at that season of the year.

During the year 1810, the brilliant days, and those on which it rained, were pretty nearly equal; the proportions will stand thus: