gust. During these months the mountains are decked in all the trim of summer vegetation, and the woods and trees which hang on the mountains' sides, and adorn the banks of the Lakes, are robed in every variety of foliage and summer bloom. In August nature has given her highest tints to all her colours on the enamelled plain and borders of the Lakes. These are also the months favorable to botanic studies. Some rare plants are then only to be found; such as delight in Alpine heights, or such as appear in ever-shaded dells or gloomy vales.§

Mr. Young visited the Lakes in this fine season, and saw them all, except Coniston and Esthwaite (both Lancashire Lakes), which are on the western side of the others, and lie parallel to Windermere-water.

Nothing but want of information could have prevented that curious traveller from

* Those, however, who love to see the variety of green and olive tints which appear in the springing and decaying foliage, would be much pleased with a sight of the lakes, either in May or September.

§ Can Flora's self recount the shrubs and flowers,
That scent the shade, that clasp the rocky bowers?
From the hard veins of sapless marble rise
The fragrant race, and shoot into the skies.
Wond'rous the cause! can human search explore
What vegetation lurks in every pore?
What in the womb of different strata breeds?
What fills the universe with genial seeds ?
Wond'rous the cause! and fruitless to enquire,

Our wiser part is humbly to admire.-Killarney.

visiting the whole range of the lakes; which had he done, and described their scenery with that accuracy and glow of colouring he has bestowed upon the lakes of Keswick, Windermere, &c. a copy of his account would have served for a guide to all who make the same

tour.

The course of visiting the lakes from Penrith, is by Bampton to Hawes-water, and from thence to Ulls-water, and return to Peurith. Next set out for Keswick, seventeen miles good road. Having seen the wonders of Keswick, and the environs, depart for Ambleside, fixteen miles of excellent mountain road, which afford much entertainment. From Ambleside ride along the side of Windermere, six miles, to Bowness, and, having explored the lake, either return to Ambleside, and from thence to Hawkshead, five miles, or cross Windermere at the ferry, to Hawkshead, 4 miles. The road, part of the way, is along the beautiful banks of Esthwaite-water. From Hawkshead the road is along the skirts of the Furness Appenines, to the head of Coniston-water, three miles, good road. This lake stretches from the feet of Coniston-fells to the south, six miles. The road is on the eastern side, along its banks, to Lowick-Bridge; from thence to Ulverston by Penny-Bridge, or by Lowick-Hall, eight miles; good carriage road

every where. From Ulverston, by Daltou, to the ruins of Furness Abbey, six miles. Return to Ulverston, from thence to Kendal, twentyone miles, or to Lancaster, over the sands, twenty miles.

This order of making the tour of the lakes is the most convenient for company coming from the north, or over Stainmoor; but for such company as come by Lancaster, it will be more convenient to begin the visit with Coniston-water. By this course, the lakes lie in an order more agreeable to the eye, and grateful to the imagination. The change of scenes is from what is pleasing, to what is surprising; from the delicate touches of Claude, verified on Coniston lake, to the noble scenes of Poussin, exhibited on Windermere; and, from these, to the stupendous, romantic ideas of Salvator Rosa, realized on Derwent-lake.

This Guide shall therefore take up the company at Lancaster, and attend them in the tour to all the lakes"; pointing out (what only can be described) the permanent features of each scene; the vales, the dells, the groves, the hanging woods, the scattered cots, the deep mountains, the impending cliff, the broken ridge, &c. Their accidental beauties depend upon a variety of circumstances; light

* An abridged view of the tour may be seen in a table of the roads at the end.

and shade, the air, the winds, the clouds, the situation with respect to objects, and the time of the day. For though the ruling tints be permanent, yet the green and gold of the meadow and vale, and the brown and purple of the mountain, the silver gray of the rock, and the azure hue of the cloud-topt pike, are frequently varied in appearance, by an intermixture of reflection from wandering clouds, or other bodies, or a sudden stream of sunshine that harmonizes all the parts anew. The pleasure therefore arising from such scenes is in some sort accidental.

To render the tour more agreeable, the company should be provided with a telescope, for viewing the frouts and summits of inaccessible rocks, and the distant country from the tops of the high mountains Skiddaw and Helvellyn.*

* As descriptions of prospects, greatly extended and va riegated, are often more tedious than entertaining, perhaps the reader will not lament, that our author has not any where attempted to delineate a view taken from either of these capital mountains, but rather wish he had shown the same judgment of omission in some other parts of his work. However, as an apology of the most persuasive kind for what may appear either prolix or too high-coloured, in some of the following descriptions, let it be noted by the candid reader, at the out-set, that the lakes were his favourite object, and on which he thought enough could scarce ever be said, and, that the seducing effects of an ardent passion, are, in any case, easier to discover in others, than to rectify in ourselves. X.

N. B. In this edition is given Mrs. Radcliffe's description of the scenery in a ride over Skiddaw, Addenda, Article XI.

The landscape mirror will also furnish much amusement in this tour. Where the objects are great and near, it removes them to a due distance, and shows them in the soft colours of nature, and in the most regular perspective the eye can perceive, or science demonstrate.

The mirror is of the greatest use in sunshine, and the person using it ought always to turn his back on the object that he views. It should be suspended by the upper part of the case, holding it a little to the right or left (as the position of the parts to be viewed require) and the face screened from the sun.

The mirror is a plano-convex glass, and should be the segment of a large circle; otherwise distant and small objects are not perceived in it; but if the glass be too flat, the perspective view of great and near objects is less pleasing, as they are represented too near. These inconveniences may be provided against by two glasses of different convexity. The dark glass answers well in sunshine; but on cloudy and gloomy days the silver foil is better. Whoever uses spectacles upon other occasions, must use them in viewing landscapes in these mirrors.