retreat, within the most impenetrable shade, where we might stretch our limbs, and listen to the united roaring of the neighbouring cataracts. Not a breath disturbed the tenderest leaf. The whole music of the forest was still as the grave; for the little warblers were panting under the scorching heat. While thus reclined, a party, consisting of a gentleman and two ladies, passed us on their way to the uppermost fall..

"The sky is changed!-and such a change!
Oh, storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light
Of a dark eye in woman! Far along
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among
Leaps the live thunder! not from one lone cloud,
For every mountain now hath found a tongue;
And the big rain comes dancing to the earth.”

The storm had gathered in the southwest: all on a sudden the air became cool: the sky which before was cloudless and serene, had become dark and overcast, and a few drops of rain fell. Our first care was to fly to the pavilion for shelter: but, the rain was now descending in a deluge; a dismal obscurity was thickening around us; the upper regions seemed rent with lightning; and the rocks reverberated the crashing of the thunder. Dren

ched, we reached the pavilion, where the poor ladies sat down exhausted and pale, while we listened with delight to the loud roaring of the storm, and the contending din of the cataract. It reminded us of that awful convulsion, which had torn a passage for the river, deep and broad out of the solid rock, and swept a spacious amphitheatre for the reception of its mighty waters.

During the whole of this appalling scene, a young gentleman, who had been accustomed to the thunders of a tropical sky, kept amusing himself by hopping upon one leg, and leaping over the back of the highest chair in the room. Half an hour relieved us from our imprisonment, and the same youth attempted to rally the ladies upon their want of courage;-but, they shunned him as they would have done the demon of the storm.

On quitting this interesting scenery, there is nothing remarkable on our way to New Lanark, except to point out to the stranger a delightful view of the village, just before leaving the grounds of Bonniton.

Although it is not customary to visit the neat little house belonging to Lady Mary Ross; yet, as

that family are the collateral descendants of the Baillies of Lamington, from whom sprang the amiable wife of the illustrious Wallace; and, as some precious reliques of the immortal Hero, are in the possession of the family of Bonniton, it may amuse us to enumerate these, as we step slowly forward to this far celebrated village. They are, an antique massive oaken Cup, richly enchafed with silver, out which the Warrior is said to have quaffed, when a moment's relaxation from more weighty and important concerns, unbent his great mind; and a Portrait of the Hero himself, in fine preservation. Besides these, a rude chair, said to be the one in which the Patriot sat, is most sacredly kept, and was brought here from Lamington Tower. It is an article quite at variance with the modern form of that indispensable part of British dignity, and resembles more, as Chambers expresses it, 'that piece of farmer's ingle furniture called the settle'.

CHAPTER XIII.

New Lanark.

"Come bright Improvement! on the car of time,
And rule the spacious world from clime to clime:
Thy handmaid ARTS, shall every wild explore,
Trace every wave, and culture every shore."

CAMPBELL.

THE site of this beautiful Village, which has been the admiration of every visitor, was forty-three years ago, a rocky marshy waste; and, not the least romantic in the ravine. The heights on both sides of the river, are nearly commensurate; and, although the hand of cultivation has subdued the barren aspect of the opposite banks, and rendered them capable of bearing rich crops, yet at the same period, they were no less rugged and forbidding. There is indeed, a very striking contrast, between

the neat and regular uniformity of the village, and the rough and uneven surface of the scenery, by which it is on all sides hemmed in, which ill accords with the taste of the amateur, who is in quest of the romantic; but, after the eye has been so long tired wiih contemplating the works of Nature, dashed out in some of her wildest freaks, the scene now before us, forms a fine relief, and the mind turns with gladness to the busy works of Art.-Before we enter these abodes of din and bustle, however, we shall conduct the stranger along some beautiful walks, which Mr. Owen laid out for the recreation of the villagers, from which, at different points, several interesting and varied prospects are to be obtained. And, in no part does the contrast appear more forcible, than here. While the ear is deafened with the noise of machinery, which buries the hoarse murmuring of the waters, the eye at one time rests upon lofty rocky precipices, agreeable woods, and a still turbulent stream.

From one point of these walks, may be seen to great advantage, a Fall, which, apart from those we have already visited, would form a grand and