rugged as possible by holes 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 briars. If he do all this, and live, he becomes a freeman of Alnwick." p. 22, 23. On this road the travellers visit Bamborough Castle, which was purchased by Nathaniel Crewe, Bishop of Durham, who with the manor left it by will to the charitable use of af fording aid to vessels in distress, and solace to mariners who had suffered shipwreck. The coast on which it stands is peculiarly dangerous; a constant watch is on the look out, and signals appointed to describe the situation in which the distressed are. A life-boat, constructed by Mr. Henry Greathead, ship carpenter of Shields, is also always ready for use, and is found to answer the valuable purpose for which it was designed. Its form is that of a long spheroid, thirty feet in length by twelve feet over; either end pointed, and thus calculated to row both ways, an oar serving the purpose of the helm. About eighteen inches below the gunwale a strong lining of cork covers the whole of the inside, which gives the boat such a buoyancy as enables it to live in any water. The crew usually consists of about twenty men, and the capacity of the boat enables it to receive about ten more. On the 30th of January 1790, the life-boat of South Shields first put to sea in a horrible gale of wind, for the glorious purpose of rescuing some unfortunate mariners who were the sport of the tempest in the offing, a number of cork jackets being provided for the crew, in case their vessel disappointed the expectations of the inventor, and failed in its purpose. But the precaution was unnecessary; floating like a feather upon the water, it rode triumphantly over every raging surge, and smiled at the horrors of the storm. The wreck was approached in spite of the ele ments, and the wretched crew, equally affected with astonishment and ecstasy, beheld the glorious life-boat, (never was a name more happily. imagined, nor more appropriately bestowed) along side of their shattered vessel, and offering refuge from the tremendous abyss that was opening to swallow them up for ever. Restored to hope and life, they were removed into the friendly boat, and brought to land, to the unspeakable joy of the benevolent projectors of the plan, who had thus the double gratification of seeing that the vessel was calculated to answer its intention in the completest manner, and of rescuing at the same time several fellow creatures from inevitable destruction. Since this first trial, repeated desperate voyages have been made for similar purposes, and with the like success, to the salvation of many hundred distressed sailors; and so confident are the seamen of the safety of the boat, and the impossibility of its being liable to casualty, that it is now become a matter of satisfaction to be employed in this service of saving the shipwrecked, a service that well deserves the civic crown. The inventor, naturally enough supposing that an object of such importance to the state as saving its citizens from perishing would be encouraged by government, submitted his plan, and offered his service to the ministry a few years since for the constru3on and establishment of life-boats all along the coasts of the kingdom; but the attention of the public was then unfortunately directed to other objects than the œcono. mizing of human existence, and his offers were unattended to. In the true spirit of philanthropy, however, Mr. Henry Greathead, waving the idea of exclusive profit, instead of taking out a patent for the admirable invention, and thus confining its advantages to himself, generously offered to communicate to others every information in his power on the subject of the construction of the lifeboat, and to diffuse by these means, as much as possible, the blessings resulting from its adoption. In consequence of this, another person has built vessels of the same kind, and their number has thus been multiplied in the manner before mention ed. The pecuniary remuneration, which the crew of the life-boat receive, is what the generosity of the affluent, saved by their exertions, may bestow upon them; the blessing of him that was ready to perish' is the only, but rich reward, when the poor mariner is rescued from destruc. tion by their means." p. 29-31. Passing through Belford our tra. veller arrives at Berwick, and gives a brief history of the town and its commerce. The yearly rentals of the salmon fisheries in the Tweed, for the course of a few miles, amounts to between 70001. and 80001. There has been known to have been forty thou sand kits or upwards sent from this town in the course of the season, be sides a great number of salmon trouts sent alive to London; the number of kits has not been so great for a few years past, owing to a method of sending great quantities of salmon fresh to London during all the sum mer season, packed in ice collected in the winter season, and preserved through the whole summer for that purpose." p. 39, 40. The article of eggs is a curious and lucrative branch of trade here. They are brought from all parts of the country on both sides of the Tweed in carts, and in panniers. The sum paid for eggs in this town may on au average be estimated at 20,0001. The number of chests of eggs sent from hence to London, from October 1797 to October 1798, was chests." p. 41. 5254 Caledonia, little as we had seen of the country, without casting one longing, lingering 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 oppor tunity of observing them extended, had interested us extremely. Tainted, perhaps, (though I am almost unwil ling to suppose it) with some of those prejudices which the illiberality of my own countrymen have so gene. rally excited against the Scottish character (and which, I am inclined to think, arise rather from our envy to their mental superiority than from any conviction of their comparative moral or intellectual defects) I was greatly, but agreeably, surprised 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 one of correct morality, sincere pie. ty, and an exemplary decency in language and manners, Struggling with a poverty which almost amounts to a privation of food, and condemned to a labour before which the southern Britons would sink down in listless despondence, the Scotch peasant displays a degree of patience and industry, accompanied at the same time with content, that places him on the scale of moral excellence far above those who ridicule or despise him. Serious, without moroseness; quick, without asperity; and sagacious, without conceit; friendly, kind, and just; this may be considered as the "The increase of the trade of Berwick may be judged of from this, that in sixteen years the revenue of the custom-house has arisen from 1000l. to 60001. a year." p. 42. Passing some way along the borders_moral portrait of such part of the of Scotland, our traveller takes leave of that country with describing the characters of its inhabitants in the following manner. "Two turnpikegates, 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 Scotch as are not sophisticated or spoiled by a communication with their southern neighbours. Of this description I think I may pronounce the inhabitants of the borders to be, who perhaps are more national in their manners, practices, and ideas, than the northern counties of the kingdom, from the circumstance of cffects being still felt in these parts, which have long faded away in the more distant divisions of the country. The natural consequence of those perpetual feuds which subsisted between the borderers of both king sire. In a moment the mouldering ashes were re-kindled, the deadly feud was revived, and the spirit of insulted nationality spread itself from the Scotchman to all his countrymen. The feast of the Lapithe once more displayed itself; all was riot and confusion, and few of the party returned home without having received some proofs imprinted on their heads or faces, that the hatred of the borderers for each other had not been extinguished, but had only lain dormant for a time. I believe no trial since this has been made for bringing such dissocial spirits together." p. 55 -59. doms was a reciprocal rooted hatred, piously handed down from father to son, and carefully transmitted through successive generations by legendary tales and popular ballads, whose constant theme and burthen were the injuries which each party had received from the other, and the vengeance which these injuries deserved. Amongst the other Scots the national disgust to the English, though excited before their conquest by frequent wars, had ceased (at least in a great degree) as soon as those wars had terminated. But with the borderers the case had been different; their relative situation with the English prevented the wound from being closed; the cause was always operating; new occasions of rancour were ever occurring in the violence of each Letter VI. Many places contiguparty; and their mutual dislike, in- ous to Carlisle are described, and in stead of being softened by time, was, the road to Ambleside, from whence on the contrary, every day increased this letter is dated, the happiness of and confirmed. Hence it happens, the inhabitants of Keswick is thus that a great degree of coolness and noticed. "Here, in the midst of these dislike still subsists between the inha- secluded scenes, formed by the invobitants of the respective neighbour-lutions of the mountains, uncorrupted ing countries, which not only ope. rate as a bar to free communication between them, but at the same time render the Scotch infinitely more tenacious of those manners, customs, and opinions, which distinguish them from their ancient enemies. "We were concerned to find that these little local prejudices subsisted as well amongst the higher classes of society as the peasantry of both the borders, scarcely any intercourse subsisting between the Scotch and English gentlemen of those parts. Frequent attempts have been made by men of liberal minds to overcome this unsocial spirit, but without effect. About fifty years ago a club was established for the express purpose of bringing these neighbours, separated only by a river, to more friendly communication, and in tended to be held one week in Scotland, and the next in England. The parties accordingly met, dined in peace, and spent part of the day in cheerfulness and friendship, when unfortunately a descendant of an English bordering family, renowned in the history of the petty wars of those parts, reminded a Scotch gentleman, sitting near him, of some successful innovations made by his own ancestors on the castle of this other gentleman's great grand Our traveller is soon brought to merry Carlisle, equally celebrated in British, Roman, and Monkish story. 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 801. to 2001 year, of which his mansion forms his central point; where he passes an undisturbed inoffensive life, surrounded by his own paternal meads and native hills. Occupied in cultivating the former, and browsing the latter with his large flocks of three or four thousand sheep, he has no temptation to emigrate from home; and knowing but few of those artifi cial wants, which spring from luxury, he has no opportunity of lessening or alienating his property in idle expen diture, and transmits to his descendant, without diminution or increase, the demesne which had been left to himself by his own frugal and contented forefathers. pens, that more frequent instances occur in the deep vales of Cumberland of property being enjoyed for a long series of generations by the same family, than in any other part or England. The pride of descent would be put to the blush, were it to be told that in a hallowed recess of this kind, in the neighbourhood of Keswick Lake, a man is now living, who enjoys exactly the same property which Hence it hap ་ his lineal ancestor possessed in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Their sheep, running wild upon the mountains, and never taken into the farmyard, are exposed to perpetual accidents and loss, arising from the inclemency of the weather, and the horrors of snow-storms, which, in some instances, have amounted to twelve or fifteen hundred head in a year. This circumstance prevents them from getting rich; but on the other hand, as the flocks are kept without the least expence to the proprietor, their losses never induce poverty upon them, so that, happily oscillating between their loss and gain, they are preserved in the only bless ed, the only independent state, that golden mean which the wise Agur so earnestly and rationally petitioned of his GOD that he might; Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die. Remove me 'far from vanity and lies; give me 'neither poverty nor riches; feed me 'with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD; or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my 'GOD in vain.' Removed by their situation and circumstances from the ever-shifting scene of fashionable life, their manners continue primitive, unabraded by the collision of general intercourse; their hospitality is unbounded and sincere; their sentiments simple; their language scriptural. Go,' said an estatesman to a friend of mine, whom he had enter tained for some days in his house, Go to the vale on the other side of yon mountain, to the house of such an estatesman, and tell him you came from me. I know him not, but he will receive you kindly, for our sheep mingle upon the moun'tains'." P. 102-104. Letter VII. states the route from Ambleside to Manchester, in which is particularly noticed the sands over which the author passed to Lancaster, made up of the Lesser Syrtis, called Leven Sands, and the greater, called Cartmel Sands, a distance of twenty miles. He observes, "The novelty of this expedition, and the possible danger attending it, (for many have perished in the passage) gave a par ticular interest to this journey, and rendered us more than commonly attentive to its peculiarities. As soon as the sea had sufficiently receded from the sands, (which is a little before half ebb) we proceeded to the carter-house, about a mile from Ulverstone, standing upon the margin of the sands. Here we met with several other vehicles of different descriptions, waiting for the recess of the waters, and having joined the caravan, descended to the immense flat before us, which presented a picture at once awful, new, and magnificent. To the right the horizon was marked by a silver line, the distant sea, who had already retired several miles from the expanse which he lately covered, and over which he was shortly again to roll his waters. A small island starts out of this flat, crowned with a ruined chapel, erected by the monks of Furness, in which masses were daily said in Romish times for the preservation of passengers who passed this dangerous syrtis. Before us the coast of Lancaster bounded our view, whose tame line was broken by the lofty castle and church of Lancaster, sufficiently visible to the eye; whilst on the left the sublime range of mountains, amongst whose recesses we had lately been wandering, formed a grand termination to the prospect. As we approached the united rivers of Crake and Leven, a man on horseback appeared on the margin of the water, who (stationed here for the purpose during the recess) carefully wading before us, directed the carriages what track to pursue, in order to cross the stream in safety. A small donation pays him for his trouble." p. 119, 120. Arriving at the peninsula, the author visited the residence of Lord Frederick Cavendish, and, after viewing it, entered upon the wide expanse of Cartmel Sands, (almost nine miles across), and says, "But though these sands exceeded in extent those we had already passed, the effect was not equal to the impression we received from the first, both from the circumstance of the charin of novelty being lost, and the boundary of mountains, which lately was so grand, being now dwindled into comparative insignificance. But still the accompa niments were pleasing and curious; promontories and bays, hills and woods, villages and towns, in the distance; and numberless old women and children before us earning a scanty subsistence by digging cockles out of the sand, which they sell after wards at two-pence per quart. A little river, flowing across the sands, soon presented itself; but it was small, and passed without the assistance of the guide, who, stationed on the mar. gin of the Kent, took us under his protection as we passed this ford, highly dangerous to the incautious traveller, and so perilous even to the more prudent one, that from very early times the office of guide here has been an important object of public Cognizance. For many centuries the priory of Cartmel was under the necessity of providing a proper person for this charge, and received synodals and peter-pence to reimburse their expences; but since the dissolution, the dutchy of Lancaster grants it by letters patent to a trusty man, whose yearly allowance from the receivergeneral is 201. Nor should it appear, from the many accidents which have repeatedly occurred on these wastes of sand, that the precaution of a director over the fords is at all unnecessary; but larger still is the list of unfortunate people who have perished on their dreary surface, overtaken by darkness, or involved in unexpected mist. Inevitable destruction is the consequence of either of these disasters, since the moment the traveller has lost the distant marks which guide his course, diverted from the line he should pursue, he either turns towards the ocean, or, taking a contrary direction, wanders over the waste, still more and more astray,' till he is overtaken by the tide returning with an impetuosity not to be escaped, to cover the flat which for a time it had deserted. An accident of a very melancholy nature, which nearly involved a whole family in its catastrophe, is yet fresh in the recollection of all the neighbouring country, though it occurred nearly half a century ago. An old fisherman set out to cross the sands from Cartmel one morning, driving in his little cart his two daughters, followed by his wife on horseback, the whole party in gala dress for a day's enjoyment at Lancaster fair. Having journeyed half-way across the sands, a thick fog suddenly arose, and involved them in its darkness. The track now beeame obscure, and whilst the travellers were anxiously endeavouring to trace it, the water began to deepen around them. Bewildered with aların, the poor man stopped his cart, and VOL. I. desiring the women to remain quiet, said he would go a few steps forward, and endeavour to trace his well-known marks. He accordingly went, but returned no more. Distracted with apprehensions for his safety, the faith ful and affectionate wife would not listen to the prayers of the daughters, to hasten on from the inevitable destruction with which the rising waters now threatened her, but wandered about the spot where she had missed her husband, calling vainly on his name, till she was washed from her horse, and found the same common grave with him. The sagacity of the horse saved the lives of the two young women. Perfectly petrified with grief and alarm, they lost the guidance of the animal, who, turning again into the road to Cartmel, at length brought them in safety to their homes. On the ensuing day the bodies of the faithful old couple were found upon the sands." p. 124-127. The regulation of Preston market engaged the author's attention in this road, which he thus describes: “ A regulation subsists here respecting the markets, held every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, admirably adapted to prevent those crying evils, which are as universally felt as they are deplored-regrating and forestalling; and at the same time ensuring to the inhabitants of the town the principal advantages of their own markets. The time of selling begins at eight o'clock, from which till nine no person, unless he be an inhabitant of Preston, can purchase any article exposed for sale; from nine, every thing is sold indiscriminately till one o'clock, when the market time closes, and before which hour nothing must be drawn from the market unsold, except fish, which may be carried away in panniers as soon as the town is supplied. These regulations, so easily adopted at any other place, render Preston market the best in England." p. 137, 138. Letter VIII. From Manchester the author pursues his journey to Watling Street, and in the way takes notice of the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, coal mines, and salt mines, and gives a particular account of the residence of Sir Richard Hill, Bart. at Hawkestone, from which we select the following description: Retracing our steps down the declivity, we descended to a rude seat cut out of 3 D |