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THE

METROPOLITAN.

THE

METROPOLITAN

MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXI.

JANUARY TO APRIL, 1838.

LONDON:

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET;

BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; SMITH AND SON, GLASGOW;
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.

1838.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

THE

METROPOLITAN.

NATURE AND ART.

BY MRS. C. GORE.

On the coast of Lancashire, within distant view of the ruins of Furness Abbey, lies a small territory, an island or peninsula, according to the ebb or flow of the tides that lave its flat and unfruitful shores. At noon, perhaps, the traveller beholds it an islet, moored, as it were, under the protection of the main land; isolated and cheerless, containing-in the midst of the forty acres of arid land which centuries of cultivation have barely redeemed from barrenness—a single dwelling; a small farm, the rosemary bushes of whose garden-enclosures form the nearest approach to a tree discernible in the place. But a few hours later the dreariness of Hailisle, (or Helisle, as it is pronounced by the fishermen of the coast,) is in some degree relieved by the reappearance of the hard smooth sands, a quarter of a mile in extent, connecting it with the Lancashire coast. It now assumes the aspect of a rude nook of earth, ribbed from the neighbouring farms by the firm compact terrace which affords a delightful and exhilarating walk to the inmates of that solitary abode.

Viewed from the house, however, the scene assumed a totally different appearance. Persons accustomed to the rich garniture of inland landscape, with its contrasting features of hill, dale, or mountain, -river, lake, or torrent,-verdant pasture or golden plain,-are apt to tax a marine prospect with monotony. But ask the abiders by the great deep whether they ever experience the sense of satiety arising from sameness of object? It is not alone the vast transition from the smooth surface of the summer sea to the boiling, seething fury of the mighty ocean labouring with the terrors of the storm, which vary their unspeakable extent of prospect. A thousand intermediary changes are hourly, momentarily, perceptible. Not a cloud sailing across the sunny sky,-and ocean skies teem with those humid exhala tions,--but casts a correspondent shadow on the surface of the waters, darkening their blue to purple, or changing their glossy green to the tinges of the dying dolphin. The "seachanges" of a marinevie ware in fact so infinitely multiplied by the effects of wind and weather, tide and time, that from the first gleam of morning to the last of evening twilight, too wonderful a succession of beauties presents itself to the observant eye, for the commemoration of pen or pencil.

But independently of its fine prospects of the open sea, the farm of Helisle commanded a coast-view of unusual interest. Though immediately adjoining the spot the shore presented only a gravelly bank, Jan. 1838.-VOL. XXI.—NO. 1 XXXI.

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