In Seathwaite untutored nature seems to have held her dominion with a sway more absolute than in any other dale in the country; exotics have been sparingly introduced, and though there is rather a want than a redundancy of wood, the valley is better without them. Almost every sort of tree is fine when aged, even the larch and all the species of the fir; and if introduced sparingly, yet judiciously, into any country, may eventually improve its appearance, as well as enhance its value: They are injudiciously introduced when planted in large patches, where, at every turn, they are intruded on the eye. In Seathwaite the cottages are prettily situate, some are picturesque, and almost all of them adorned with trees. Throng is the hereditary property of Mr. William Dawson, it stands under a hill crowned with wood, with which it is likewise nearly surrounded. From almost every point of this secluded bottom, rocky knolls of various elevations, graced with the native beauties of the country, oak, ash, and. birch, rise sweetly from the lower grounds; and over them, in many wavy windings, the craggy mountains swell upon the eye in grand sublimi ty. In every engulphed valley in this country there is, to the writer's feelings, somewhat of a melancholy solemnity; and, unless it be in Ennerdale-dale, in none more than in Seathwaite : though the vales of Langdale are narrow, yet they possess an air of cheerfulness, probably as being bounded less stupendously than Sea thwaite: indiversified beauty they rival all others, even Borrowdale, yet Borrowdale to its beauty adds an invariable grandeur, not so uniformly seen in Langdale. Seathwaite occasionally exhibits a vastness of desolation, exceeded only in Ennerdale-dale; but in magnificence of mountain precipice, Ennerdale-dale, Wastdale, and Eskdale, excel all others in the country. Early on the morning after the drawings were made at the wooden bridge and Goldrill crag, the writer was joined by his friend Mr. Dawson, who conducted him by a mountain-road to Birker force, in Eskdale. Birker force is seen on the left out of the road from Ambleside to Wast Water, pouring down the side of the hill, and from many stands is an object of great curiosity. In a rainy season the torrent is immense, and its rocky cheeks of a grander and more expanded dimension than those of any other water-fall in Cumberland. The artist chose for a foreground to this singular piece of nature, a picturesque combination of rocks and trees, forming altogether a subject of considerable interest. On the same side of the hill, but lower down the valley, is Stanley Gill, a scene bearing not the slightest resemblance to Birker force. Stanley Gill is 48 of the large etchings. When the traveller is in Eskdale, and about sixteen miles from Ambleside, on his road to Wastdale, he will be near an ancient building called Dale Garth Hall, and if he should have the curiosity to see Stanley Gill, he may have access to it by applying at the Hall. The water-fall part of the Gill, is more than half a mile on the left. The late George Edward Stanley, Esq., of Ponsonby, (to whose son, Edward Stanley, Esq., of Ponsonby, this property now belongs,) made an excellent foot road on the banks of the Gill, which road three times changes sides by three bridges crossing the channel; and this, with other improvements, are highly creditable to the late proprietor. The chasm is awfully sublime, the rocks rising almost perpendicularly over their bases, from the grisly sides of which impend trees in the richest wildness. The mountains of Eskdale and Wastdale are fine distances, as seen out of the chasm on returning to the Hall; Schofell is the principal. Having finished the sketch of Birker force, the shepherd and the draftsman proceeded to Stanley Gill, when, after half an hour's conver sation and drawing, the friendly shepherd departed for his home in a declining sun, but it was nearly dark before the laborious representation of the immense chasm was completed; no time was then lost in journeying to Irton Hall, the seat of E. L. Irton, Esq.; here the artist was politely received by the hospitable and worthy family; and the next morning ac companied by Mr. Irton to Latterbarrow, where he made for that season his first drawing of Wast Water. Having spent several succeeding days at Wast Water, the writer, on his return, through the recommendation of Mr. Irton, was kindly received at the house of Mr. John Towers, of Toes. Toes is the highest house in Eskdale on the western side of the river Esk, here he had intended to have passed a few days in the study of the high mountains at the head of the valley, but, as in all human affairs, the best arranged plans must give way to circumstances, so must the man of art with a firm and patient endurance, support the many disappointments occasioned by changes of weather not to speak of the expence in money, he may expend weeks in gazing at the heavens, when there is little more of earth in view than the level fields around him. In the night, howling winds and rain beating against the window proclaimed a change of weather, and in the morning, though the winds had abated, the rain continued to deluge the valley with little intermission the whole of that day, and till about ten the following morning, when, though the mountains were enveloped in one thick and solemn gloom, it was again fair, but as it did not promise to remain so, the artist gave up his projected return by Walna scar and Coniston, and having taken leave of his new friends, he passed the valley, and commenced his ascent, but in returning up Hardknot was incommoded by showers. From the summit of the hill he slanted on the right of the road down to Black Hall, where he found the good humoured family at dinner on mountain mutton; when he willingly joined them, and fared sumptuously and happily with an honest but blind itinerant bread merchant and his wife, who bore their means upon their backs, as the shepherds do their sheep and the artist his folio, which he now buckled on his shoulders, and departed in rain and gloom, though not without many entreaties from Mr. and Mrs. Tyson, to induce his stay till morning. Black Hall, which was then rented from Lord Muncaster by Mr. Tyson, is little more than half a mile from Cockley Beck, which latter place was Mr. Tyson's property, and these two farms, with another rented farm called Great Scale, had unitedly attached to them upwards of two thousand sheep; all which in his life time were shepherded by Mr. Tyson and his family, but since his death the farms are shared by his sons. At every step from Black Hall to Cockley Beck the rain encreased, and the flats, like little seas, were more than two feet deep, through which plunged the way-worn traveller, accompanied on each hand by the mighty foaming cataracts which tumbled from the mountains. Having arrived at the top of the pass called Wrynose, the rains somewhat abated, and before he had finished his descent into Langdale it ceased to rain. From the New Inn at Coniston Water-head to Ambleside by Borwick Ground it is eight miles, and to Hawkshead three miles. The road to both places, not half a mile from the inn, passes Water-head House, the seat of |