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A TRIP 
 
 THE ENGLISH LAKES 
 
 MAY, 186 4-. 
 
 A GOURMET 
 
 [for private circulation only.] 
 
 
 
A T K I P 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ENGLISH LAKES 
 
 IN MAY, 1864. 
 
 A little" moment, Gourmet, if you please ! Banting has 
 rooms iu Keswick just now, and I must be there soon ; we 
 wish you to join us for a few days, and enjoy the fresh tints of 
 spring in that lovely country. Eh ? 
 
 Spring, indeed ! it's nothing but " blow, blow thou wintry 
 wind,"— ugh ! there'll be many a bleak house in Cumberland, 
 I warrant. 
 
 Now listen to the plan. 
 
 Nonsense man, how can you listen to a plan ? Accept, 
 examine, approve, reject a plan you may, but " listen" is not 
 correct, though youth, with the oldest head on youngest shoul- 
 ders, " I thank thee for the word." Who understands a plan 
 so well as you, Johnny ? 
 
 Why you're Shakespeare struck ; this blessed tercentenary 
 has turned your head— too much it's been for many of you. 
 
 No ; not too much, wise-acre. If it but teach a tithe to 
 read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the works of him who 
 wrought and wrote so lovingly and well. 
 
 Now listen I say, once for all, I can't get a word in edge- 
 ways. * * * 
 Well, that's new sensation anyhow for you, Master. 
 Banting says — 
 Ah ! BantiDg 
 
 — " they call him— but a merrier man 
 Within the limit of becoming mirth, 
 I never spent an hour's talk withal ; 
 His eye begets occasion for his wit ; 
 For every object that the one doth catch, 
 The other turns to a mirth moving jest ; 
 Which his fair tongue " * * * 
 
 Good gracious, " fair tongue !" how could such a Saxon be 
 otherwise than fair? 'Tis indeed " love's labour lost" talking 
 to you — but just bold your unfair tongue a moment. 
 
 What ho ! punster, what ho ! " Anon, anon, Sir !" " I pause 
 for reply." 
 
 Now ! Banting wiil meet us at Springfield with his trap ; I 
 shall be iu Penrith, whither you must come by an early train, 
 and after breakfast there * * * 
 
 Breakfast! "with what appetite we may." Oh! mind, 
 
 B 
 
order trout with fried parsley, dos't hear ? and insist on that 
 greasy and familiar waiter washing his hands and face for once, 
 by way of a treat. 
 
 Then we can post on afterwards. Now, are you game for 
 Whit Tuesday ? 
 
 Certainly, if you'll only write to the weather office for a little 
 lain, and a change of wind— but seriously, send word to our 
 mutual friend as Podsnap has it, "ridiculous opportunity, but 
 so glad of it, 1 am sure." Banting is a vastly agreeable 
 fellow ; he remembers more than most men ever knew ; 
 thoroughly understands what to eat, what to drink, and what 
 to avoid ; and is of that remarkable class which is never in a 
 hurry, never late for a tram, or behind an appointment ; never 
 shocked nor surprised at whatever may turn up, nor perturbed 
 in the slightest degree by circumstances the most weighty and 
 peiplexing. No one I should like to meet better, bar yourself, 
 of course— present company you know is always excepted in 
 personal allusions in good society ; and as Punch tells us this 
 is sure to be a fine spring, as the year of grace 1864 is leap 
 year, we'll hope this cutting nor'-easter may change, and allow 
 us the hilarity of the charming season of hopeful spring in the 
 most delightful district of the north. Go? of course, old boy, 
 and in such company ! I am so glad of the opportunity, 1 
 really am. 
 
 Such was the invitation of my two friends on the 5th of May, 
 of whose genial hospitality 1 availed myself last August. 
 
 Happily, on the 11th, the wind veered round the right way, 
 and nothing could be more acceptable. Vegetation sprang 
 into activity as if influenced by a forcing house, flue rain assist- 
 ing, as the Fieneh have it. 
 
 17th May.— Having done a good hour's gardening between 
 five and six at home, and polished off a batch of letfers, I took 
 the early train for Penrith. Whit-Tuesday, in places where 
 the market is held on Mondays, is always, if the weather be 
 tolerable, the best holiday the hard-worked have. The morning 
 was misty, but of that kind indicating the approach of great, 
 heat, and it was " most jolly" to see the happy faces of fiiends 
 and 'those to whom one nods, anticipating perhaps as much 
 pleasure as myself, whether they had it or not. All the way 
 from umbrageous Piereebridge, along that line by sunny Winston 
 and charming Selaby, up to blowy Barnardcasile, along the tor- 
 tuous, leafy, sparkling Tees the route is lovely, and nevermore 
 so than on this day. From the airy structute of the ingenious 
 Bouch which spans Deepdale, one could see right and left, up 
 and down that charming ravine so famed for ferns and foliage, 
 the mist sweeping off, now revealing, anon concealing the view 
 so exquisite, m that manner peculiar to the summit of high 
 mountains. Arrived at the crest of Stainmoor, the vast plateau 
 of pastoral Westmoreland lies open like a huge map. The 
 variety of tint was brilliant in the now perfect sunlight, and a 
 sycamore, as if suddenly awakened into life ere its unfolded 
 leaves had deepened into green, shone as molten gold. Such 
 an effect 1 had never witnessed before, though three other 
 instances met our gaze in Newlands the following day. Though 
 the gradients are desperate, entailing a serious expenditure of 
 
costly power, the railway with iis stupendous viaducts, that 
 over the Beelah beingthe highest in England, and flue bridges, 
 is worth a journey of itself, and few points are more telling 
 than the first peep of Kirby Stephen, the noted residence of 
 Poet Close, and the important High Sheriff of the county. 
 One of those extraordinary gatherings called a statute fair — 
 against which as an institution so much just indignation some 
 time ago arose, but which, like other spasmodic emotions of us 
 English, has been a nine days' wonder and little more —was 
 being held at Penrith. That small town, by its long enjoyment 
 of railway communication, has distanced in influence all rivals, 
 and become, with its seven means of access other than by rail, 
 the centre of a wealthy agricultural district. Special trains, 
 besides the ordinary traffic, conveyed many hundreds on busi- 
 ness and on pleasure bent. "Punctual to his word," as 
 he always is, my friend tarried for my arrival at the 
 station, the train being just thirty minutes after time. But 
 mark the crowd ! Such Boeotians I never looked at. Though 
 the special had cleared off vast numbers before our 
 regular train arrived, we picked them up all along the line, 
 station after station from Kirby Stephen. Paisau, the gloomy 
 valleys of Switzerland or Savoy could scarcely furnish forth a 
 physiognomy lower in hoih sexes, the exceptional talent being 
 nothing higher than low cunning. There were very few old 
 people— I counted four — and all appeared to belong to the 
 agricultural claSs— farm servants going to he hired at the 
 statute fair, of which there are two every year, one in May the 
 other in December. In elbowing our way, as hest we could, 
 through the densely crammed station, it was odd to observe piles 
 on piles of huge boxes, large chests indeed, Dig enough to hold 
 their owners, belonging to servants changing places. From the 
 top of the 'bus the sight was strange ; all down the heart of the 
 little town, nay to the very outskirts, was one sweltering mass 
 of struggling human beings of the same low type. At certain 
 places more caits and gigs stood on their bottoms, the shafts 
 pointed as if to receive cavalry, than T ever saw assembled in an 
 area so small, shewing inconttstably the purely agricultural 
 population of the surrounding district. Whether it is from 
 want of the means of education— from laxity of moral control — 
 from the extraordinary system of courtship adopted with the 
 acquiescence of the girls' mothers— the apathy of those by whose 
 hands discipline should be enforced — from climate— owing to 
 a sparsely scattered population shut out from the world in most 
 part, and without healthy amusements, or what not, through- 
 out Cumberland, so far as my own observation went, and parti- 
 cularly at this fair, the type of the people was the lowest— faces 
 the weakest, heads the most animal I ever saw- and their 
 manners, without meaning to be uncivil, perhaps the most un- 
 couth ; in fact an aggregate of healthy savages. While the 
 neighbouring county of Durham shows an increase of 30 per 
 cent in the population, as proved, by the census returns of 1861, 
 during the interval of the ten previous years, Cumberland by 
 the same table has but 5. Although Durham contains a mixed 
 population of miners and mechanics, hard-fisted labourers of 
 all kinds, in the year 1860 the illegitimate births in that county 
 were only 5 4 per cent, yet in Cumberland the return is no less 
 
6 
 
 than 12-1, or over 1 in 8 as against London, which is abont i 
 in 24 ! At these statute fairs, which occur throughout the 
 principal towns in the county, the orgies commence at three 
 o'clock in the afternoon in the open streets, and statistical 
 returns of the irregular births in wedlock, besides the state- 
 ment quoted, the causes of death, the amount of drunken- 
 ness, and the exaggerated number of cases of delirium tremens, 
 even in women, would be something appalling to Dean Close 
 and his clique, who want to make folks moral by Act of Parlia- 
 ment — "rob the poor man of his beer" — "starve out the 
 publicans" — and oust the education of the drama for the in- 
 flation of the platform. The people were in rude health ; I did 
 not see a single person pitted by small-pox, and only one 
 cripple. By far the quaintest of the motley crew was Lord 
 Brougham's steward. If he has any other name than this 
 honourable title, we could not make it out, so ignorant were 
 those from whom such information would invariably be gleaned 
 elsewhere, and of such " a character" too ! What a carte the 
 curious old bird, donkey chaise, and all away together, would 
 make, including the leather breeches ! 
 
 Ballads are always instructive upon the interesting question 
 of the manners and customs of a people, and those pursuing 
 such inquiries as may here be excited are referred to Anderson's 
 collection of Cumberland ballads, wherein may be found his 
 note iii., p. 202, to 
 
 " When aw t'auld f wok were liggin asleep,"* 
 
 which appears to me — combined with the marked absence of 
 decent accommodation too frequent in farm houses — to be the 
 key to the whole mystery. It would be unfair to Cumbrians 
 omitting the fact, that, notwithstanding the crass ignorance and 
 extreme irregularity of their peasantry, the county shews a 
 sheet cleaner of heinous crime than most, and in that respect 
 will hold her own against all comers, as the following com- 
 parative analysis proves :— 
 
 Statistics or Crime (1860). 
 
 >, S s->o 'S 8 o) «fc 
 o o B "e" !fa 
 
 Pl. Ph 
 
 to 
 
 Cumberland 205,276 . . 17 . . 7 . . 56 . . 1 .. 1 .. — .. 82 
 
 Bedford.... 135,287 .. 2 .. 6 .. 58 .. 3 .. 1 .. 1 .. 71 
 
 Berks 176,256 .. 12 .. 2 .. 109 .. 6 .. 3 .. — .. 132 
 
 Bucks .... 167,993 .. 13 .. 8 .. 81 . 1 .. 4 .. 2 .. 109 
 
 Cambridge.. 176,016 .. 17 .. 4 .. 67 .. 3 .. 2 .. 5 .. 98 
 
 Dorset .... 18S,789 . . 24 .. 7 .. 106 . . 1 .. 1 .. 7 .. 146 
 
 Hereford ,. 123,712 .. 14 ., 8 .. 56 . . — .. 2 .. 3 .. S3 
 
 Hertford .. 173,280 .. 4 .. 6 .. 79 . . 8 .. 3 .. 4 . . 104 
 
 Oxford .. 170,944 .. 10 .. 4 .. 80 .. 2 .. 3 .. 6 . . 105 
 
 Westm'land. 60,817 .. 3 .. 1 .. 15 . . .. 1 .. — .. 20 
 Allowance must be made, of course, for excess of population. 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
After breakfast, my friend having some business to transact 
 an hour was left me to stroll about, and among other sights I 
 recognised, adorning an itinerent photographic establishment, 
 the portraits of South Durham worthies, who would have been 
 mightily chagrined, I trow, at being held so cheap. At one 
 o'clock we posted to Springfield to join Banting. The day was 
 deliriously hot, and the country fragrant with fresh greenery. 
 On nearing our destination, true enough there was his trim 
 trap in waiting, and soon out he came to welcome us in the 
 hearty but placid manner of his wont. 
 
 How are you ? How are you ? How are you ? 
 
 Where do you live ? Where do you live ? Where do you 
 live? 
 
 (All three speaking at once, the trio adding.) 
 
 Very glad indeed. Very glad indeed. "Very glad indeed. 
 
 Such the greeting, so English and so odd. We always call 
 him "Banting," he's in such a fuuk at becoming corpulent and 
 losing his figure, poor fellow — but he's a rare sort when you 
 know him, though he has dropt his beer and taken to biscuits. 
 He was just like a new pin — almost painfully neat — in short, 
 
 " The glass of fashion and the mould of form." 
 
 Most fortunately at this place, where the Patterdale station 
 will be — the distance from point to point being nine miles— we 
 were introduced to Mr G. Grant Boulton, the eminent contractor 
 of the new line he expects to open in July, and by which Pen- 
 rith will be immediately connected with Keswick and Cocker- 
 mouth, thus making a direct and unbroken route by the North- 
 western and North-Eastern systems to Workington and White- 
 haven, and in fact to all parts of the kingdom. Besides the 
 immense advantage of passenger traffic to the Lake district, 
 the superior coke of South Durham will be exchanged for the 
 hematite of West Cumberland ; not only that, but the moun- 
 tains which have for countless ages been a perennial beauty and 
 delight to the eye, will yield, if we mistake not, an inexhaust- 
 ible source of profit to man. Hitherto their boundless wealth 
 has been sealed up for want, of the very means of access now 
 about to be supplied. That gifted woman Harriet Martineau, 
 some time ago looked upon railroads in Westlmoreland and 
 Cumberland as the chimeras of enthusiasts. The venerable 
 first railway solicitor when he prophesied, in the dawn of rail- 
 way enterprise, that the locomotive would travel 20 miles an 
 hour instead of the eight old George Stephenson was compelled 
 to admit before the committee, was looked upon as distraught ; 
 but once fairly in working order Mr Boulton's line is merely 
 the harbinger of a complete system throughout the district, 
 and not many years will pass over before Windermere and Der- 
 wentwat'er are linked together by iron lines, Ullswater having 
 the benefit of a short branch to Penrith. The minerals in the 
 neighbourhood of Keswick comprise a list so vast, of a value 
 so immense, and a supply so bountiful, that the intelligence 
 and the wealth which unquestionably will be brought to bear 
 for their development must raise the character of the county 
 from its present degradation. The contractor, in the most 
 courteous manner, offered to take us by his little engine along 
 a portion of the line, and the trap having been sent thither, 
 
8 
 
 Sometimes driving, sometimes walking, we reached Mosedale, 
 where one of the finest viaducts is built. The district abounds 
 in beautiful porphyry and building stone in great variety and 
 of the best quality ; of such materials then is the masonry con- 
 structed, and the colour of the works in such scenery is 
 peculiarly harmonious. Although in the valleys the day was 
 sultry, the air along that part of the line which traverses the 
 Hutton Moor to Threlkeld was fresh and crisp — nothing could 
 be more exhilarating. Retaking the trap, after thanking Mr 
 Boulton, we drove down into Keswick, the approach to which 
 is, every yard of it, more and more bewitching. Such a spring 
 as this had not been known almost in the memory of man. The 
 modest primrose sparkled in company with luscious whins 
 and golden broom, lilacs, and laburnums, bird-cherry, horse - 
 chesnuts, apple blossoms, campions, wood-roof, hair-bells, 
 bird's-eye, cranes-bills, stellaria minor and major, wood- 
 anenioiies, forget-me-nots, rhododeudrons, azalias, hawthorn 1 
 (red aud white), herb-robert, crosswort, pimpernel, barberries, 
 orchids, and ferns unfolding their graceful fronds to the summer 
 sun in May. Dotted about here and there were seats of the 
 gentry, their grounds and the whole country being ablaze with 
 gorgeous colour, toned down with the ireshest green of every 
 shade, mingled with the early maroon of the sombre purple 
 beech. Ho scene could be more delightful, but it was only an 
 earnest of brighter gems in store. I have revelled in the 
 luxury of Spring in the South of France, aud the sudden splen - 
 dour of Northern Italy, where Summer treads ou Winters 
 heels, and this was as enchanting, nature seemed so buoyant 
 and so tuneful, the very birds warbling new notes. As Canting 
 was unable to put us up, apartments were ready for us at the 
 George, where we dressed before his dinner at 7.30. About 
 9.30 some one " called for a calendar, and found it was moon- 
 light to-night," so out wc sallied to puff our " weeds" upon 
 the lake, awakening the merry echoes with catches, questions, 
 Kooi Kooi and ram des vackes till nearly midnight. Such was 
 our first pleasant day. 
 
 May 18th. — It almost escaped me to mention my disgust on 
 finding there was no trout for dinner — Banting said it was 
 foolish destroying a fine appetite by vexation, he was inured to 
 every vexation ; at Keswick there was no such precau- 
 tion, but at Lodore they have a tank always at command to 
 prevent disappointment when fish wont bite — so to make 
 assurance doubly sure, we found out a man of the name of 
 Atkinson who promised everything ; first, that fish should be 
 supplied for breakfast without fail this morning ; secondly, 
 that he would accompany me before five a.m., for the purpose 
 of catching it ; thirdly, that he would have his tackle "and bait 
 ready. Inconsequence, of course, I was out by 4'30, thinking 
 it more prudent, having taken stock of him, to look after the 
 man a little ahead of the time appointed. With the greatest 
 difficulty, after belabouring his door and pitching gravel at his 
 window, he was aroused out of a heavy sleep, and we reached 
 the water's edge at 5 - 30 ; thus missing more than a good hall- 
 hour of another glorious morning. Atkinson is a man " when 
 found to take a note on." He is a wonderful fellow to talk, 
 
9 
 
 and talks well. He told me that in July, 1816— it was awfully 
 hot that year— he performed for the miserable sum of £10, 
 more fool he, one of the most remarkable pedestrian feats on 
 record, winning his wager with 19 minutes in hand. No man 
 knows the country better, which is a grand point. Starting 
 from home at seven p.m., he sped to and ascended Scawfell 
 Pike, the highest English mountain, its altitude being 3,166 
 feet ; then he reached the base and attained the summit of 
 Helvellyn, which rises 3,055 feet, and comiug round by Skid- 
 daw climbed that great mountain, no less than 3,022 feet high, 
 by way of a finish ; and returned home smiling at 6"11 the 
 following evening, the distance being between 70 and SO miles, 
 and the ascents and descents something perfectly astonishing, 
 within his limit of 24 hours. He must have been in rare hard 
 condition, as he lost only 31bs. weight, and was hearty enough 
 to enjoy the society of his friends immediately afterwards ; to 
 whose home he had to travel an extra distance. The account 
 of this performance is recorded in Bell's Life. The approach to 
 equality in the various altitudes in the lake district is remarkable. 
 The three mountains named are not far off each other in height. 
 Fairfield is 2,950 feet, Great Gable 2,925, Saddle Back 2,787, 
 Grassmoor 2,756, Red Pike 2,750, High Street 2,700, Grisedale 
 Pike 2 680, Old-man 2,577, and Kirkstone Pass 1,200. Does 
 this affect the argument of subsidence against eruption, as the 
 cause of the irregularity of the earth's crust ? In 1851 I was 
 present at a private gathering of savana at the house of an 
 Italian friend, when Professor Belli, of Bologna, showed us there- 
 suit of an interesting experiment, illustrative of the latter theory. 
 He was the most speechless and reserved person I ever met 
 out of an institution for the deaf and dumb, but there was a 
 deal in him. As to his ingredients, he preserved a profound 
 secrecy ; they were mixed in another room by himself alone. He 
 then shewed us his liquid in a pan, and boiled it before our 
 eyes. When cooked, he allowed us to see it cool, and in that 
 process, sure enough, instead of subsiding, up gradually arose 
 undulations on the surface representing, as he said, moun- 
 tain-ranges, water-sheds, valleys, dales, and so forth. When 
 cold the substance was as hard as metal, basaltic looking stone, 
 and when fractured displayed curious stratifications, and line 
 upon line in places like flints in the chalk formation. We 
 asked no end of questious, but the oracle was dumb. Now the 
 depth of the lakes is much more varied, Windermere being 
 210 feet, Ullswater 210, Basseuthwaite 6S, Derweutwater 72, 
 Crummock 132, and so on. 
 
 But to return to old Atkinson, who had as usual forgotten all 
 about me and my fishing, trolling, and minnows, so the next 
 best thing to be done was to set a lot of trimmers with live 
 perch, in the hope of good luck, of which unhappily there was 
 none, as we did not touch a fin, bar those of the unlucky bait, 
 which were lively for hours. Nevertheless, the morning being 
 so fine, mere existence was luxury, and it was impossible to feel 
 annoyed, the man was so sorry and so civil. Marshall's island, 
 with all its beauteous .varied leafiness, looked more inviting 
 than ever, and as my guide knew the gardener, we went over 
 the entire place, and among other specimens examined a tulip 
 tree of extraordinary growth. Returning home for a bath at 
 
10 
 
 ten, our party sat down to breakfast precisely at eleven ; and I 
 mention this fact merely to note what, as an old traveller, has 
 always appeared to me to be the best mode of dividing a 
 tourist's day in hot weather. Invariably be out at live, after a 
 good cold tub, including the ablution of the head ; work hard 
 till eleven or even twelve. If at all fatigued or over-heated, 
 repeat the tub tepid, and then sit down to a real breakfast, not 
 of the simple tea and toast kind, or bread and water, or even 
 porridge, but a regular meal, served hot and hot, such as they 
 gave us this morning at the George. The menu ran thus — 
 there was tea, as a matter of course ; it is refreshing, and the 
 English always like it. We started with young radishes and 
 watercresses ; fried trout, lamb cutlets with potato chips, and 
 poached eggs, were served separately on the table. Cold veal 
 pie (very well made), calves' head mould, cold tongue, and 
 potted trout being on the sideboard, with a bottle of cool 
 Vin de Grave, which was excellent. Such exactly was the re- 
 past, to which we did mighty execution. After it, we wrote 
 letters or read newspapers or chatted till one. Then the horses 
 were ordered out, and we rode at an easy rapid walk by Portin- 
 scale, round the head of Derwentwater, through Sir John Wood- 
 ford's property, where admirable improvements in road-making 
 are being carried out ; by Keskadale, whence, looking back on 
 Keswick, the lake, representing the Arno or the Inn, one is 
 furcibly reminded of Florence or Tnspruck ; and so on right 
 up the steep road to the summit of Newlands Haws before 
 dropping down upon Buttermere. Even had the way been 
 less precipitous, the heat was too great to have gone faster than 
 a walk, which pace the nags did smartly, and the day was as 
 enjoyablein such weather and suchscenery as is conceivable. We 
 were accompanied by a Scotch gentleman of the name of Wood, 
 the engineer of the new line, who to his many other accom- 
 plishments is a clever draughtsman. Just before halting, the 
 Honister Pass, Buttermere and Crummock water came in view. 
 Buttermere is small, only one and a quarter miles by a little 
 more than half-a-mile, and a plain sheet of water full of de- 
 licious char, which lie in deep places and are not yet in season, 
 at least we could not procure any for love or money. From 
 Crummock the rocks rise perpendicularly, and the whole scene, 
 bathed in the finest sunlight, was never witnessed in greater 
 perfection, much of the water being blue like Geneva. Usually 
 it rains hard there, and we might have gone twenty times with- 
 out anything like such weather. There is only one miserable 
 stuffy little inn at the place, and a more wretched little church, 
 with an unfortunate parson, they told us, existing on a stipend 
 of £40 a year, and blessed, as Dean Swift sometimes was, with a 
 congregation consisting of the clerk and himself. With some 
 little difficulty and alter a long delay — so strangely awkward 
 and queer the people, who are wondrously ignorant of all about 
 them- -we got a boat and rowed up Crummock water till we 
 neared Scale Force, having a little sport by the way. The 
 trout were in capital order, but being unable to carry them on 
 horseback they were given to the boatman. The Cascade is 
 the highest in the district. Owing to the dearth of rain, 
 there was very little water, and the attenuated stream fell 
 plumb 15G feet, like a long, delicate ostrich feather ; the big 
 
11 
 
 walls of the chasm on either side of it were beautiful and fresh 
 with rowans, hollies, hawthorn, wild flowers, ferns, oxalis, 
 cedums, and lichens, dispersed in the most charming and 
 fantastic manner possible. Of this waterfall our Scotch com- 
 panion rapidly made a clever sketch. While waiting at the 
 inn a carriage and pair drove up in almost wedding haste. 
 The party consisted of four men and a youth. Each adult 
 wore a veil round his hat, as if bound for the Derby at least, 
 though there was little dust on that rocky road ; each was fur- 
 nished with a bran new leather case about a cubic foot in size, 
 and each shouldered a marvellous bundle of clean wood. They 
 tumbled themselves out of the vehicle in a surprising style. 
 Banting was diverted with the struggles undergone in the 
 process of unknotting their legs and sticks, and we were all 
 curious to make out what on earth they could be or might 
 do first. One said, "Good heavens they're all cripples, look 
 at their crutches!" — another, on seeing them get upon their 
 legs, "No they are surgeons, there are the medicine chests 
 and splints. Misery, an accident! where— where ?" Then 
 they began squeaking and squirting as only Yankees can 
 talk and spit, so that settled their nationality at once. 
 In they rushed, higgledy piggledy, all first and none last, 
 to order tea with ham and eggs, and off again. Such the 
 introduction. With as much activity, the boy re-reading a 
 letter from his troubled home, the men were at various points 
 photographing like mad, thus explaining their odd belongings. 
 When we took horse to return, tea and ham and eggs, Yankees 
 and apparatuses had all skedaddled, which hurried way of 
 doing scenery amused Banting amazingly. Whether our steeds 
 had had an extra measure, or were glad to get away — whether 
 the varlets, who stood bye enjoying the joke, had gingered the 
 brutes, or they were severally and respectively possessed with a 
 devil, it is out of my power to determine ; but on starting each 
 beast behaved unaccountably ; in short, in the most outrage- 
 ously cocktail manner possible. My cob, usually steady as a 
 haystack, quite foigot himself. At first he ridiculously refused 
 to let me mount at all, and even after yielding nothing could 
 be more absurd than the snorts or " sneers." as a horsey autho- 
 rity has it, with which he executed a. pas sev.l between a minuet 
 and a hornpipe. The Scotchman and Master John, both 
 well mounted with hands down, were off in a nice, and the 
 playful kittens went tearing up the stony mountain road at a 
 frightful pace. Banting was last out ; his gloves required but- 
 toning, of course, and his cigar was only just alight. His 
 slashing mare, with her rakish shoulders, deep chest, rave back 
 ribs, powerful arms and thighs, lean head, and wiry neck, 
 stotted, bounded, and curvetted in the most insane way. He 
 was in the saddle, certainly, but there was no time for stirrups, 
 and, alas ! his hat was jerked off, which spoilt the picture— but 
 for that, no one would have known the whole affair was not 
 intended and well done, so admirably did he sit at home at 
 ease. Properly we should have returned by the Ifonister Pass 
 and Borrowdale, but the distance would then have been in- 
 creased by three miles, and our dislike to rapid travelling in 
 such heat, amidst such beauty, combined with Banting's objection 
 to being hurried or late for dinner, turned the scale in favour of 
 
 c 
 
12 
 
 retracing our steps exactly. It is difficult to decide which is 
 the finer route, the journey or the return —but it is well to lin- 
 ger over both ways through Newlands. At first, if we had a 
 summer sunlight, we were afterwards, if possible, more charmed 
 with the warm flood of golden evening, and the shadows, in 
 one place like a great bear '3 skull, while at the head of Crum- 
 mock, a ridge on the mountain side, another shadow, with 
 the outline of the rock assisting, curiously resembled a brace 
 of setteis standing at dead point. It was just about half- 
 way in this delightful ride we observed the yellow sycamores 
 mentioned yesterday, like that on Stainmoor. Had they 
 been painted, folks would have thought them unnatural — 
 indeed, only Alfred Hunt,, Brett, or young John Linnell dared 
 essay their vivid light, in any landscape. We arrived at the 
 George punctually at eight, the time appointed, allowing us 
 lots of leisure for tub and toilet, before 8 '30 sharp, when din- 
 ner was served. Like all the good hotels in the lake district, 
 and they abound, this preserves a character for scrupulous 
 cleanliness. The linen, the plate, and the glass were unex- 
 ceptionable in all respects. Situated in a street, it is shut out 
 from all view of the lake by Mrs Dewar's boarding-house, the 
 respectable head of which establishment is always keenly on 
 the look-out for the " Exquisite coach," and never so radiant 
 as when that vehicle is clustered with tourists. The George, 
 however, has the advantage of her garden, for from our win- 
 dows we looked down upon lilacs and laburnums in full bloom. 
 Of course, Banting had ordered dinner ; it is quite a treat to 
 see him calmly go through that necessary and pleasing duty. 
 " To study where he well may dine," he strictly observes as a 
 species of devotional morning exercise. All I stipulated for was 
 trout, which came from Windermere, fried parsley, cucumber 
 cut in junks, not in thin slices, a boiled leg of lamb, with acid 
 rhubarb sauce, and plenty of new potatoes. The repast was 
 perfect ; each dish with its accessories being admirably served 
 individually, and dressed without a fault. All the wine, too, 
 was good and cool, while nothing could be more delicious than 
 the water from Skiddaw. At Portinscale, at the foot, and at 
 Lodore, at the head of the lake, are large hotels. In Keswick 
 itself also there is quite a group of them, but I doubt whether 
 there is to be found a hostelry so liberally purveyed as, or 
 better managed than, that we enjoyed. The house is kept by a 
 widow, Mrs Beethom, who with her daughters see personally, 
 without forwardness or fuss, to the comfort of everybody. 
 They thoroughly understand their work, the eldest daughter, 
 though quite young, being an unusually clever woman of busi- 
 ness ; indeed, she is the lubricating oil of the whole machinery, 
 and I can heartily recommend the establishment iu every way. 
 Now this was a toughish day, and another pleasant one. 
 Having left the subject short, let me say those requiring it may 
 take a cup of chocolate or coffee with a biscuit on rising, at 
 4 '40 ; but I maintain that in travelling a man best divides the 
 day by starting work at five, continuing till at least eleven, 
 breakfasting and resting till near two, then again at work till 
 eight or nine o'clock, dining at half after ; bed at eleven, or 
 half an hour later, and a bath before each meal, not forgetting 
 Banting's injunction to sponge the head well as soon as you get 
 
13 
 
 up ; he says it takes the cobwebs eut of one's brains— and he's 
 not far wrong. By this means the intensity and inconvenience 
 of heat are avoided, one is never fagged, and the finest lights 
 are .secured. If you walk, of course, always soap your socks. 
 Between 4 and 5 p.m. a glass of absinthe — of which invigorating 
 liqueur the Messrs Plews, of Darlington, supply the best— or a 
 cup of good tea, may be desirable. 
 
 19th May. — Yesterday we arranged with Atkinson to have 
 an early fishing excursion upon what he called "an out-and- 
 out grand scale." Of course, he promised everything, and 
 to guarantee success would "engage a noted sportsman." 
 named Bowe, I think, "who never failed, and provide ISO 
 trimmers at least !" The man might just as well have said 
 365 when he was at it, but perhaps he wished to be moderate. 
 However, after a ticket from the Vale of Derwentwater angling 
 company had been obtained, for which the charge was the 
 moderate sum of Is, we changed our minds, not liking the 
 trouble of being down by "5 a.m. at latest," with the 
 probability of disappointment similar to my own ; it was 
 far better as it turned out, for we were all three a 
 little fagged with the unusual heat, and one was amiss. 
 I am ashamed to confess that nine o'clock found me in bed, 
 though the morning wa3 just as glorious as yesterday's. Our 
 mutual friend, with the old head on young shoulders, alas ! 
 was suffering the excruciating disturbance a wisdom tooth often 
 occasions. His illness threw a damper over us, so Banting and 
 myself waited upon the doctor and called him in. ne was a very 
 intelligent, pleasant, and even common-sense man, too, though 
 in that condition of extravagant bliss which is said immediately 
 to precede matrimony. "Going to be married, are you?" 
 we said. " Lucky birds— we'll chalk you out a tour." Banting 
 then became as excited as his idiosyncrasy would permit ; but, 
 ever ready to make happy people happier, and dull ones too, 
 he observed, referring in the most impertinent way to me, 
 " Drybones ! will help us, I know. Where's your Bradshaw ?" 
 so at it we went, chapter and verse, for 1 6 days in and out of 
 London. The hotels were all spotted, and what to see in Paris, 
 Basle, Lucerne, Strasbourg, Cologne, Brussels, and Antwerp! 
 &c, and, of course, how long to remain in each place. At two 
 o'clock, our patient being somewhat recovered, we were on 
 horseback, and passing the house in which Souihey lived, and 
 the mother church, his honoured resting place, we marched 
 through rich valleys, nestled among beautiful mountain ranges, 
 by the blue and placid waters of sunny Bassenthwaite calmly 
 sleeping at the base of bigSkiddaw, bound for Peel Wyke, where 
 the bog myrtle casts its spicy fragrance on the air. The wise 
 tooth having become intolerable, we left its unfortunate owner 
 to rest at " The Swan with Two Necks," where that quaintly 
 comfortable specimen of humanity and kindness, the landlady, 
 whom we called alter her own sign, tho' unlike a swan of any 
 variety conceivable, earnestly recommended a poultice made of 
 porridge ! ' ' Alas, poor Yorick !" The new railwav to Cocker- 
 mouth follows in great measure the old road a distance of 15 
 miles, and the line running by the very edge of Bassenthwaite, 
 presents another most beautiful avenue to Keswick. Banting 
 
14 
 
 and I enjoyed the little ride to Peel Wyke much. He is grent 
 at wild flowers and ferns, with which the woods and banks 
 abound ; happily for me he is not so well up in trees and 
 horticulture, so there " I had him on the hip." But nothing 
 is pleasanter than an agreeable chatty companion, full of in- 
 formation, ready alike to impart and receive it. This neigh- 
 bourhood, though they say the variety of flowers is not so great 
 as in that around Windermere, yet, I think it richer in ferns. 
 Above one of the bays of Derwentwater, upon Sir John Wood- 
 ford's property near Portinscale, the osmunda regalis flourishes 
 almost as luxuriantly as near Killarney, and attains really a 
 prodigious growth. In Borrowdale, the aplenium septentrio- 
 nale is found, and very rare indeed it is. The silvery ceterach 
 officiuarum, the bortrychium lunaria, the ophioglossutn vulga- 
 tum, ruta muraria, blechnum boreale, lastrea rigida, polypodies, 
 and phegopteris are common about Keswick and the base of 
 Skiddaw. In several places, but particulai-ly yesterday in 
 ascending Newlands, we found the parsley fern almost by the 
 acre, and the oak fern, with its lovely green and hair-like stem, 
 ■was in cushions here and there. Purple-stalked lady ferns, the 
 sporting fllix mas, indeed almost endless varieties of these inte- 
 resting plants with awkward names, abounded ; but there were 
 very few scolopendriums of any kind, at least so far as I saw, 
 though the vulgare is reported common. Among so many rarer 
 specimens, it was odd to miss so very ordinary a species, and 
 as strange not to find many polystichums. The common spleen- 
 wort (asplenium trichomanes) flourishes at Ambleside ; the 
 adiantum nigrum, at TJUswater ; the Cystopteris fragilis, near 
 Ara force ; the Woodsia ilvensis, near Bowness ; the Lastrea 
 oreopteris, at Fairfield ; the Polypodium calcareum, at Kendall 
 Fells ; the Asplenium viride, on Scout Scar ; the Hymenophyl- 
 lum Wilsoni, near Lodore and Scale force ; Lycopods at 
 Kirkston, Great Gable, Ennerdale, Wastwater, Bowfell, Lang- 
 dale, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn. Banting knew them all, and 
 so did old Atkinson, who supplies them when written to, 
 at least when he does not forget, which will be nine times 
 out of ten. But the jolliest thing would be to hunt in 
 couples for them ourselves, for which we had no time this 
 journey. At reel Wyke there will be a station and an hotel, 
 the latter erected after the design, in Baronial Scotch, of Mr 
 Ross, of Darlington, on Sir Henry Vane's property, which, like 
 many others in these parts, will be materially enhanced by the 
 opening of railway communication. This place will turn out 
 one of the most favourite fishing quarters with which to start 
 an angling tour. The lake always affords good sport, and there 
 are undeniable trout streams within easy distance. At length 
 we returned to ''Old Mother Goose," picked up Master 
 Yorick, much recovered by his rest, and quietly walked 
 home for dinner at the George, which was as perfectly arranged 
 as that of yesterday. Our mutual friend was still obliged, as 
 he said, "to hold his jaw," poor fellow, much to our loss, for 
 what with "his gibes and gambols, his songs and flashes of 
 merriment, he is wont to set the table in a roar."' 
 
 The clever young mistress of the house called the puddings on 
 both days " Windermere ;" but I recollect five and thirty years 
 ago bringing the receipt for precisely the same dish from Cum- 
 
15 
 
 berland, under the name of "Castle," and few things of the 
 kind are better. This is it : — Equal weights of eggs in the 
 shell, flour and white sugar, with half the quantity of butter, 
 put into cups and baked in a quick oven. They should turn 
 out of a delicate fawn colour. They are like hot little sponge 
 cakes, and are excellent eaten cold, with a good custard for 
 those who like it. Ours were served with sugared melted but- 
 ter, and a dash of cognac in it. A table-spoonful of fine old 
 rum is what the Germans would adopt, and they are great at 
 sweets. But the best sauce I know is clear arrowroot, with a 
 wine-glassful of orange brandy. Don't know how it is made ? 
 Well ! now 'tis beyond the season ; but when Easter comes 
 round again, don't forget to put the very thin peel of eight 
 Seville oranges and eight plump lemons, a gallon of the 
 finest new pale cognac, with 31bs of the best white sugar, into a 
 covered jar. Stir the mixture thoroughly twice a-day for three 
 successive days, then strain and bottle it into white glass 
 bottles, and let them stand on end some time. Strain off the 
 clear liqueur, and don't allow the smallest sediment to mix 
 with it — mind take heed of that. Let the sediment remaining 
 from each bottle be put together, and after it has well settled 
 strain off the clear liqueur again, bottle, and hermetically seal 
 the corks. The remainder will do for the shooting flask. The 
 peel is useful for culinary purposes when diied ; the pulp makes 
 good marmalade, and the liqueur itself improves with age. In 
 two years even, it is far better than most sorts one buys ; and 
 after blackpuddingsorice is as fine as curasoasec at 10s a-bottle. 
 And you don't know how to make English chutney? Really, I 
 am so glad of the opportunity, I am sure. Take lib brown 
 sugar, Jib bruised ginger (fresh if you can get it), Jib of garlic, 
 the same quantity of ordinary onions, sliced and pounded tine, 
 ^lb of mustard seed— toasted before the fire, but not bruised, 
 mind that — gib of raisins— stoned and chopped very fine, though 
 Sultanas are perhaps better in every way and less trouble, as 
 they may be used whole — Joz. of cayenne, 3 pints of white vine- 
 gar— that made from hock grapes, or white currants is the 
 best. 15 sour apples, peeled and coved, must be well sim- 
 mered in the vinegar and thoroughly bruised. When cold, put 
 in all the other ingredients, and mix them together. Now, T 
 am never without this pickle, for which if made at this season 
 substitute green grapes or gooseberries for the apples. She was 
 so agreeable and ready to take in and profit by hints in cookery 
 that we got on famously. It was happily unlike the too common 
 talking to a dead wall on so important a subject. One great 
 reason of our having servants absolutely ignorant of the most 
 rudimentary culinary art is that their mistresses in far too many 
 instances are unable to instruct them in manipulation. In 
 Glasgow, when a young lady is engaged, she undergoes a regu- 
 lar tuition, from the simplest to the highest effort in the kit- 
 chen. Now, listen a moment ; here is a very economical, and 
 at the same time most excellent, soup you ought always to have 
 in stock. It should be almost colourless, and as clear as water. 
 Take 71b of the knee or hock of beef, the bone sawn into three ; 
 add i quarts of water, skim well on boiling, then add 2 
 carrots, 2 turnips (if you like them— or 2 Jerusalem arti- 
 chokes), 2 sticks, or a pinch of the seed, of celery, 4 onions, 
 
16 
 
 and a bunch of herbs — any kinds and all sorts you Lave. 
 In a muslin bag put 12 pepper corns, 6 cloves, and 2 blades 
 of mace. Then simmer the whole together for four hours, 
 straia frequently, putting the meat on a dish before serving ; 
 add as much of it (the meat) as you like, but observe the best 
 is the gristle and tendons next the joint. It is called Col. 
 Wood's turtle. We might have gone on for hours, Banting was 
 so attentive — 
 
 Behold ! his breakfasts shiue with reputation ; 
 His dinners are the wonder of the nation ; 
 With these he treats both commoners and quality, 
 Who praise, where 'er they go, his hospitality— 
 
 but we did not, tho' it was impossible resisting giving her a 
 receipt for orange jelly, which is so far superior to the opaque 
 kind one generally meets with. Pour upon an oz. and a half of 
 gelatine half a pint of cold water. Soak half an hour, then stir 
 in half a pint of boiling water until it is dissolved. Break 
 three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar into lumps, and rub 
 them upon some of the rinds of the oranges and lemons to give 
 flavour. Squeeze the juice of twelve China oranges and four 
 lemons, strain off the pips of course, and mix with the 
 other ingredients in a sauce pan, stirring until the sugar is toler- 
 ably dissolved. Have ready three fresh eggs, well beaten with 
 the shells, stir them briskly into the jelly, after which be care- 
 ful not to stir them again. Put it on the fire and let it boil 
 five minutes. Then take it off, and allow it to stand two or 
 three minutes before passing it through the jelly bag. It 
 should turn out brilliantly clear. There now, young lady, and 
 all who haven't done so yet, try that, when fresh fruit come in. 
 Notwithstanding our invalid's condition he perked up won- 
 derfully as the evening stole on, accepted a challenge from a 
 noted player, whose card was sent up, and won the rubber at 
 billiards in gallant style. There's pluck for you. The con- 
 versation after dinner was animated and interesting, turning 
 chiefly upon the early history of the County. Banting is a 
 sort of " book in breeches" for dates and derivations, having 
 ethnology and etymology equally at command. We had the 
 brave old Saxons talked over, who came from the district 
 betwixt the Elbe and the Rhine, and withstood the mighty 
 power of Charlemagne for two and thirty years, and whose 
 numbers in England never exceeded one million and a 
 half, notwithstanding their influence. The Danes too, God 
 help them now, to whose country, by the accidental wreck 
 of a vessel on the coast, the Lake District owes her breed 
 of hornless, hardy, little, grey-faced sheep called Herdivick, 
 which stand starvation better than any known species, and 
 when fat yield capital mutton. From the Danes we English 
 in a vast measure derive our love of truth, our indomitable 
 courage, our home affection, our enterprise on sea and land ; 
 while it is admitted our constitutional ideas of freedom and 
 representative Government, trial by jury, and other noble 
 kindred institutions, sprang from the deep root planted in our 
 grateful soil by the ancestry of those for whom our liveliest 
 sympathies are now more than ever excited. Their first incur- 
 sion is assumed to have taken place in 787, but their conquest, 
 
17 
 
 or rather their motive of action, differed widely from that of 
 the Saxons, who came to settle, inasmuch as it was undisguisedly 
 to harry, and steal home with. Yet they stamped the people 
 indelibly with their imperishable and invaluable character, 
 while to this day no less than 60 per cent, of our language is 
 directly derivable from their own— such their force. We 
 went beyond these Norsemen and the Saxons to the ancient 
 Britons, whom Bauting would persist in calling .Kelts — we 
 argued for Celts, but he was, as usual, inexorably proper ; 
 so Johnny 'woke up from his drowsiness with pain to ask if he 
 went to Parry (Paris) last Easter. Now, there is much obscu- 
 rity about these Celts, who migrated hither from the Continent at 
 some dim prehistoric period, though they have left their names on 
 almost every prominent natural object. Intrepid and warlike, 
 their most powerful tribes were called Brigantes by the Romans, 
 but Cymri or Cumbri by themselves, and hence the Saxon term 
 Cumberland (i.e. ), the land of the Kumbri. They occupied the 
 whole territory extending from sea to sea, its southern limit 
 commencing from the Mersey and the Humber, and extending 
 northward to the district we call Northumberland and the 
 lowlands of Scotland. The violent dissensions of their chiefs, 
 tho' the last in the island to succumb, made them more than 
 otherwise an easy prey to the Romans. The conquest of Britain by 
 the Romans, commencing 55 B.C. , was early interrupted, though 
 Julius established a sort of Government ere his recall home, and 
 England was left unmolested for an interval reaching to A.D. 
 43, when Claudius Caesar completed the victory over a great 
 part of the island, his army perpetrating atrocities unheard of. 
 The final subjugation was accomplished, however, A.D. 80, when 
 Agricola marched his legions by Mancunium (Manchester), 
 along the western coast of Scotland, where he erected a chain 
 of forts from the Frith of Forth to the Clyde, and then boldly 
 pushing back through the conquered tribes four years later, he 
 erected the celebrated chain of Stations from the Solway to 
 Tynemouth, which were afterwards conuected by an earthen 
 rampart in the reign of Hadrian. The object of this great 
 work was to check the Caledonians, who bade defiance 
 to the Roman Eagle which swooped over our own kingdom 
 till overmatched by them and the Saxons in 446. Nor did 
 we forget the Bards and Druids, of whom the destroying 
 host of Claudius made such hideous work, and whose mention 
 sent Banting off to the piano and Norma. Their government 
 was strictly that of a Priesthood, and therefore of irresponsible 
 power; but oddly enough, they were upright and dispensed 
 justice, not from any written code of settled law it is true, but 
 on the immutable principles of equity. Their highest penalty 
 was death, and their second excommunication, which was even 
 more dreaded ; but nothing could possibly be more solemn 
 than their execution of criminals, the victims being immolated 
 upon the very altars of their Temples, with every awful 
 circumstance tending to impress and overawe the multi- 
 tude. Their religious ceremonies were few, and idolatry 
 was not practised by them. They adored the God of Nature 
 without the trammels of superstition, or crafty dogmas 
 elevated into essentials. Their principles were taught in 
 public, and a moral life, in its strictest and Its widest 
 
18 
 
 sense, they inculcated as the foundation of human wisdom 
 and the source of human happiness. They eagerly 
 studied medicine and the virtues of plants, the misletoe 
 being their chief specific. To a man they opposed the Roman 
 invasion, and hence by sheer weight to a man were they 
 cut down. Great as engineers, they have left monuments of 
 their skill almost as remarkable as those of the Egyptians. 
 Stone circles in Cumberland and Westmoreland, of frequent 
 occurrence as they are, must not, however, be attributed solely 
 to the Druids, as there is good reason for believing that the 
 majority of these curious rings were constructed by the 
 Northmen. Ferguson fairly enough suggests, considering 
 their constantly recurring visits, that they are relics of the 
 hcemegang, a species of single combat, which, as its name im- 
 plies, was originally held in a holme or island, but in inland 
 situations a place artificially enclosed was substituted for con- 
 venience. Hence, also, Lord Ellesraere, in his "Guide to 
 Northern Archseology," says it is supposed to account for the 
 quadrangular enclosures found in Denmark and other Scandi- 
 navian countries. Tidemand,* whose admirable picture, "A 
 Norwegian Duel," commands the admiration of all art-lovers in 
 this year's Academy, has made these strange combats a pecu- 
 liar study, and there may have been many a " duel of the 
 girdle" practised in Arthur's Ring, near Penrith, that hard- 
 bye Keswick, and other stone circles in the lake district, for 
 aught we know, as the Danes then, as now, were the most obsti- 
 nate devils to fight, and never knew when they were licked. 
 
 Then we got upon the subject of turnpike roads, which were 
 established between 1750 and 'GO. To the present day through- 
 out the district there are very few "gates" to pay, which is a 
 monstrous comfort, and the horses and vehicles are unexception- 
 able. In 1752 the act was obtained for a road betweeu Keigliley 
 to Kendal, and another from Heron Syke (where it joins the Lan- 
 caster road) to Eamont Bridge, near Brougham Post-chaises 
 were introduced in 1754, carrier's waggons in 1757, and the first 
 stage coach, drawn by six horses, and called "the Plying Ma- 
 chine,'' was seen in the county in 1763. The mail-coach passing 
 through Carlisle and Kendal from Glasgow to Manchester, began 
 to run 1786. In 1792 an act was passed for opening a canal 
 from Kendal by way of Lancaster and Preston to join the Leeds 
 and Liverpool canal ; and in 1819 for another canal from Solway 
 Frith to Carlisle. The Railway was opened to Carlisle 18th June, 
 1838, and in 1846 Penrith received that invaluable boon of 
 modern civilisation. Our chat was so pleasant that Banting 
 and I had a struggle over just a single bottle of claret, which 
 our younger friend said required to be seen to be believed ; 
 however, the night was so hot I could not face billiards, but 
 stole away to bed before midnight, after another enjoyable day. 
 The moon was radiant, but blaming the night expedition of 
 Tuesday last for making the wise tooth angry, no suggestion of 
 the "calendar," of course, was made. 
 
 May 20. — This morning was intensely hot ; without an inter- 
 vening cloud, the sun was positively scorching, and there was 
 not a breath of wind to stir even an aspen leaf or the delicate 
 
 See Appendix. 
 
19 
 
 foliage of the thorny acacia. Yesterday they said the glass 
 Stood at S4° in the shade, and the day previous but 2° lower ; 
 what it was early to day I never heard, hut before eight a.ra. it 
 could not have been much under 90°, and the surface of the 
 limpid lake, gleaming like polished glass, resembled the clearest 
 oil. In passing over it one could see with the greatest ease 
 the fish lying lazily at the bottom, or slowly moving in their 
 transparent •element, and the few weeds were beautiful. 
 HaviDg, almost in vain, tried to arouse snoring Atkinson, with 
 whom I wished to have a pull upon the water, by mere acci- 
 dent a rook-shooting party overtook me, and being recognised 
 by Mr Wood, was kindly asked to accompany them to Lord's 
 Island, the largest on the Lake, once the seat of the Radcliffes, 
 or Ratcliffes, and therefore interesting by association. I never 
 beheld any effect in my life so delicious as the reflections. 
 Marshall's Island was so accurately repeated, even to the most 
 subtle tone and gradations of line, that had it been photo- 
 graphed from life the picture would have presented as much 
 correctness on one side as the other— like Col. Stobart's gem 
 of a Turner in the Bishop Auckland Polytechnic just closed. 
 The wooded, gorsey hills on the other side produced the most 
 charming bits of colour ; and I often wonder how it is that 
 far-receding objects are thus represented at such a dist ance. At 
 Vevey, for instance, the summit of Mont Blanc is reflected 
 beneath, though it is miles and miles away. Oh ! there'3 
 nothing like early morning for clear light and air. 
 
 " Magnificent 
 The morning rose, in memorable pomp, 
 Glorious as e'er I had beheld— in front 
 The lake lay laughing at no distance ; around 
 The solid mountains shone, bright as the clouds, 
 Gorse-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light ; 
 , And in the meadows and the lower grounds, 
 Was all the sweetness of a common dawn — 
 Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds, 
 And labourers going forth to till the fields." 
 The row was delightful ; the floating island had submerged 
 since August, but St. Herbert's Isle, Ramp's Holme, Vicar's Isle, 
 looked serene and lovely. Arrived at the rookery, we managed 
 to make a fair bag of the inglorious game. Mr Wood's minie was 
 a very handy weapon, once the property of a New Zealand 
 chief. Finding I had never used a rifle, he kindly gave me five 
 shots, the first brace of which struck an outer right and left, 
 the second grazed each bird also right and left, while the fifth 
 bullet hit the mark to a hair, which was pretty well for a 
 novice. Returning towards breakfast- time, a very ominous and 
 angry ripple came upon the lake with a chill. The wind had 
 changed, a storm approached, not a fish rose, and clouds " at 
 first no bigger than a man's hand," soon packed and massed 
 themselves together, foretelling weather. In 1S39, when that 
 furious wind occurred so many will remember as devastating 
 fine estates in this country and in Ireland, the effect on Der- 
 wentwater was singular. The fearful gusts reached the very 
 bottom of the Lake, and blew bushels upon bushels of fish 
 upon the shore ; even those varieties like char and vendace 
 (a species ot fresh water herring like those in Como) which 
 lie in the deepest holes. Since then, char are unknown in it, 
 
20 
 
 those left being pike, perch, and trout — none of them great 
 weights. After breakfast it was arranged we should visit the sta- 
 tion for Keswick, now in course of erection, and close bye the 
 new hotel, also in progress. The well-selected site is on rising 
 ground by the river Greta, at the foot of the Skiddaw, and in 
 one of the finest amphitheatres of the district. The 
 blinding dust whirled about, and the sky but lately so clear 
 was completely overcast— there was more than a threaten- 
 ing of rain, yet we reached the spot, and returned to the hotel 
 without a ducking. The station and the hotel are each built of 
 Borrowdale slate, but the former has ordinary stone facings, 
 while the latter presents the most admirable eflect, owing to a 
 beautiful rosy freestone from Lamenby, near Penrith, having 
 been adopted by the tasteful architect, Mr Boss, whom we had 
 the good fortune to meet on the spot. He was kind enough to 
 show us his plans, and explain all their detail. No one better 
 than this rising young man more thoroughly understands econo- 
 mical interior accommodation ; the elevation also of his work 
 in hand does him infinite credit. By way of increasing the 
 importance of the building its plinth is boldly bevelled, 
 which produces a wonderful improvement upon the ordinary 
 plumb line from the base. Whether the railway company will 
 retain this hotel, for which it is said £500 a-year rental has 
 been already offered, in their own hands or no, the course of 
 events alone will solve ; and whether a select body of directors 
 will start the little Saltburn games, and become commissioners 
 ever ready to improve the occasion, time will shew. The sites 
 of the two new railway victualling ventures, one at the extreme 
 East, the other at the West of the Darlington Section, are almost 
 equally perfect ; but the conditions precedent are widely 
 different. At the sea side everything is raw and untried, 
 entailing therefore on the shareholders enormous annual loss, 
 besides the outlay of dead capital to an amount that has never 
 yet been admitted. At Keswick, however, there is an old 
 point of attraction, a long established good will, to which the 
 readier means of access will at the very outset give increased 
 impetus, and such undoubtedly will be the rush of visitors that 
 too much or too excellent accommodation can scarcely be pro- 
 vided. As yet the Zetland Hotel is useful only as a sort of 
 educational establishment, in which directors and their special 
 friends may be initiated into the mysteries of refined French 
 cookery, and is scarcely resorted to by staying company, in 
 consequence no doubt of the expensive charges, and an abso- 
 lute dearth of diversion which a place requiring so much loose 
 cash should afford. But. inasmuch as practically the same 
 directory is at work in both places, it is to be hoped the share- 
 holders' patience will not be pushed to extremity at both ends 
 of the line, for notwithstanding individual advantage to the 
 few may be secured at the expense of collective loss, there is a 
 limit which prudence dictates. How venial soever it may 
 be that railway companies should erect hotels as a commercial 
 speculation in connection with their undertakings, it seems to 
 the most casual observer extremely questionable policy in 
 directors or any section of such a body becoming Licensed 
 Victuallers personally or by deputy, quite independent of the 
 question of the absurd inconsistency of such traffic on the part 
 
21 
 
 of strict teetotallers and supporters of Mr Somes, as some are. 
 Let me not be understood to convey the idea that the Saltburn- 
 by-the-Sea charges, though high, are extravagant. If people 
 will indulge in diners & la Russe admirably served, with wine 
 as good as a man need wish to drink, of course they must put 
 money in their purse. What I mean to indicate is that such 
 an hotel as that erected in such a place, and managed as it is 
 by a committee, is not conducted in the way one would deal 
 with one's own speculations. For if any person incapable of 
 keeping a public was rash enough to make a similar venture he 
 would surely count the cost, and avoid a positive annual loss 
 of something little short of a handsome income if the truth was 
 told ; what the actual amount is I cannot make out from pub- 
 lished accounts, and forbear all questions. We three have had 
 experience of these diners d, la Russe. Not with direc- 
 tors and their favorites, mind; but quiet little parties of 
 eight and ten. The ChSf, Mr Clift, is decidedly one of 
 the most accomplished artists of the day, and with so little 
 help as he had, with kitchen accommodation so ill and 
 ignorantly arranged, it is nothing short of marvellous that his 
 success was so complete as we found it on two occasions lately. 
 I have enjoyed the highest efforts of as many of the best cooks as 
 most fellows in my time and of my class, yet for sauce Tartare 
 — whitebait— consomme de volatile aux points des aspergese— 
 petites bouch6es a la Sultana — curry — iced gooseberry fool — 
 one of the very best things out at this season— crime au 
 chocoldt, and crime ct la pistacke, commend me to the Zetland 
 Hotel — aye and pic-nics, honeymoons, afternoon or evening 
 entertainments of any description, if the guests are beyond the 
 capacity of one's own house or service. That, however, 
 is not the question at issue. It is a great point un- 
 doubtedly to be able to get what you are willing to pay for, 
 which nobody has had a chance of achieving in the North 
 at any hotel I know of equal to this. At Keswick a de- 
 mand will be supplied— at Saltburn the supply is demanded at 
 a positive and long-extended dead loss. The place will well 
 answer the anticipations and suit the book of the Improvement 
 Commissioners, who have bought land cheap and dispose of it 
 at a high price, as well as all who have building material in 
 stock ; but is the venture for the benefit of the share- 
 holders, and as the Hotel is built, should it not be let 
 to an active, competent, and guaranteed person in the trade ? 
 " Shylock ! the world thinks, and I think so too," that the 
 whole thing is " a mistake," which Talleyrand said " was worse 
 than a crime." 
 
 We had much interesting conversation with Mr Ross and 
 Mr Boulton, who also happened to be at the station, upon 
 the minerals and the produce of the Lake district generally with 
 reference to the future development by the railway system. 
 The fine blue slate, of which the hotel was being constructed, is 
 yielded in almost inexhaustible supply from Borrowdale and the 
 Honister Pass, as well as from the Patterdale end of Ullswater. 
 At present, owing to cartage, it is very expensive, the price per 
 yard for roofing being something like 4s 3d, which so soon as 
 the line is opened will be reduced by at least one shilling, and 
 that will make a mateiial difference per ton. Limestone is also 
 
22 
 
 abundant. Tn some places it is burnt in large quantities, and 
 sent into the West of Scotland, the produce at Alston alone ii» 
 1856 being 2,411 tons. Cumberland appears to have possessed 
 manufactories at a very early period. There were fulling-mills 
 at Cockermouth and Dearham in the reign of Henry III. A 
 fustian manufactory was established in Carlisle in 1660, and one 
 of broad cloth at Cockermouth about the same date. Some 30 
 years afterwards there were iron forges at Millom, and fulling- 
 mills at Bassenthwaite where woollen cloths called " Skiddaw 
 greys" were dressed. The cotton trade is located principally 
 at Carlisle. A manufactory of coarse linen, sail-cloth, and such 
 like at Whitehaven and other places. Taper is made exten- 
 sively on several of the rivers ; woollen fabrics at Keswick, as- 
 shewn by an ancient inscviption on a flagstone — 
 
 " May God Almighty grant his aid 
 To Keswick and its woollen trade." 
 
 Earthenware, copperas, &e, , at different points, while at White- 
 haven, Workington, and Maryport there are several ship-build- 
 ing yards. The present Lord Lonsdale is constructing magni- 
 ficent docks at Workington, and those at Whitehaven are by no 
 means despicable. Formerly considerable salt-works existed at 
 Bransted, Whitehaven, Nether/all, Workington, and elsewhere 
 in the county, and it is said the Romans worked an iron mine not 
 far from Keswick. The plumbago or wad of Borrowdale, as the 
 lead is called of which drawing pencils are made, is worked irre- 
 gularly, and the price remains prohibitive, but now that so large a 
 supply of graphite is coming from Sweden and Siberiaat compara- 
 tively the most trifling cost, no increase of trade need be expected 
 hereabouts from this hitherto exceptional mineral. Cobalt has 
 been found in small quantities in Newlands, where we were on 
 Wednesday, antimony at Bassenthwaite, lapis calarainaris, 
 manganese, galena, and spars of various kinds throughout the 
 neighbourhood. The yield oi lead is very large, and will form 
 a considerable item of mineral traffic. Alston is the principal 
 site of the mines which are almost exclusively the property of 
 the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, to whom they were 
 granted by Act of Parliament on the attainder of the Earl of 
 Derwentwater, whose possessions were immense in Cumber- 
 land, though neither they nor his influence saved his noble 
 head in those dark and bloody times. In 18-61, seventy nine 
 lead mines in Cumberland and six in Westmorland yielded 
 6,324 and 2,392 tons respectfully, and the quantity of silver 
 extracted fiom the former was 37,115 oz., as against the 3>9 
 mines in Northumberland and Durham yielding 19.536 tons 
 and 78,261 oz. respectively. Tke quantity of ore yielded from 
 the former counties in 1856 was 7,311 tons, containing 
 5,321 tons of pure lead and as much as 51,931 ou»ces 
 of pure silver. They said both silver and copper are often 
 found in some of the mines in the same veins as the lead ore. 
 The piincipal mass of the carboniferous limestone and iron- 
 producing districts iu the northern counties emerges from 
 beneath the coal measures of Northumberland and Durham on 
 the East, and U bounded by a steep declivity commanding the 
 valley of the Eden on the West. I», reaches its culminating 
 point on the long mountain range of Cross fell, and form* 
 
23 
 
 the vast tract of moorland in the neighbourhood of Alston, 
 about 425 miles in width ; and in the high and dreary region ad- 
 joiningthe Scottish borderextends nearlyfrom sea to sea. After an 
 interval of some miles towards the West the same formation again 
 rises from beneath the new red sandstone of Penrith, and the coal- 
 measures of Workington and Whitehaven — lapping, so to speak, 
 as a narrow belt or zone around the older slaty rocks of the lake 
 district, which it almost entirely encircles, In the north, the 
 actual limestone plays but a subordinate part,5and alternates 
 with a grit-stone, shale, and other rubbish. A shaft sunk, for 
 instance, near Cleator, shows as follows : — 
 
 Ft. in. 
 
 Dark shale 156 
 
 Coarse grit 36 
 
 Shale 30 
 
 Whirlstone 12 
 
 Shale 54 o 
 
 Red limestone ^ n 
 
 Shale 1 s 
 
 Hematite pierced to a depth of 32 
 
 328 8 
 
 The hematite (red ore, sesqui-oxide of iron) from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Whitehaven, is unquestionably the most valuable 
 mineral, from which so much commerce is certain to flow from 
 West to East, for the purpose of judicious blending with the leaner 
 product there. Tt occurs in the carboniferous limestone, near 
 the outcrop. The greater part of the excavations whence it is 
 extracted are subterraneous, but at a place called Tod-holes, 
 near Cleator, it rests so near the surface as to be worked by a 
 simple open cutting. The floor of the deposit is a white and 
 red mottled shale almost of the nature of fire-clay, and belongs 
 to the limestone series. Bore-holes have been sunk in it to 
 the depth of 30 or 40 feet without meeting with any other 
 intervening material ! It varies in places from 15 feet in thick- 
 ness, and is for the most part a dense mass of red ore, sub- 
 divided by irregular and nearly vertical joints. Small cavities 
 rarely occur adjacent, when the ore assumes those botryoidal 
 forms commonly called kidney, and the lumps or clustered nodules 
 are certainly as like beast kidneys as they well can be. In such 
 parts rock crystals are found, and calcareous spar and areogonite 
 appear to be the last substances which have crystallized in the 
 hollows. The ore almost invariably occurring in basins, it is 
 doubtful whether it is a vein or bed. The quantity produced 
 in 1856 was 267,256 tons, of which 8,089 were yielded from 
 the Alston district, the rest being from that of Whitehaven. 
 These quantities, however, must have been immensely increased 
 since, owing to the facilities of transit obtained by way of 
 Tebay, thongh in the year mentioned 51,470 tons were con- 
 veyed to Newcastle and Middlesbro' alone, and the total pro- 
 duce of pig iron in that year from the hematite furnaces of 
 Lancashire and Cumberland was 25.530 tons. Millom pro- 
 duced 2,268 tons of iron pyrites which sold for £l,100, and 
 contained 47 per cent, ot sulphur. From the Alston mines 
 443 tons of barytea (carbonate) were obtained, and 378 
 tons of zinc valued at £1,400. The latest statistics we 
 could find on the moment were iu 1861, when Cuinljeilaud 
 
24 
 
 supplied 472,195 tons of ore, and 55,105 of pig Iron as against 
 10,780, and 385,290 from Northumberland and Durham 
 respectively. The seven copper mines in Cumberland and 
 Lancashire raised 2,331 tons in the same year — in fact it is 
 impossible to estimate the mineral wealth of the district, but 
 by way of illustration we heard that only a few years ago a 
 small estate was offered to one of the mining companies in the 
 Western divison for £750. The purchase was declined, but 
 they took the royalty, and have since paid the fortunate owner 
 of the property as much as between three and four thousand 
 a-year ; while the Arm, consisting only of four, annually divide 
 something like the same amount per head — ao " it is an ill wind 
 that blows nobody good." 
 
 From both Mr Ross and Mr Boulton we received the most 
 patient attention to our many inquiries, and hence these 
 figures, all having an important bearing upon the question of 
 the investment of the railway, to complete which they have so 
 much at heart. In 1861, the 28 collieries of Cumberland 
 raised 1,255,644 tons as against the 271 of Northumberland 
 and Durham, whence 19,144,965 were yielded. With such 
 prospects of developing, as well as latent, wealth in combina- 
 tion with a neighbourhood of unrivalled attraction brought 
 home to the east side of the island, no doubt whatever can rest 
 upon the mind of the least hopeful that the Cockermouth, Pen- 
 rith, and Keswick Railway is a venture with success assured. 
 At the close of our conversation, Mr Boulton kindly shewed 
 me his cabinet of minerals — and fine illustrative specimens 
 indeed they were — found, as each was, in the district so soon 
 to be opened out to the capitalist. The line is to be worked, 
 so far as mineral traffic is concerned, by the Darlington section 
 of the North-Eastern Company, while the North-Western take 
 the passengers in hand. Such a duality revives the recollec- 
 tion of the death of the oldest and most prosperous railway 
 company in the kingdom, while it deepens the feeling that, if 
 merger and amalgamation, suicide or methodical madness as 
 some say, were really necessary — which independent share- 
 holders are as loth as ever to believe— a union with the North- 
 western, rather than the North-Eastern, was the obvious 
 interest of all but the smallest minority. 
 
 There was no doubt whatever about the impending storm, 
 and but for the inconvenience of a wetting before reaching the 
 Hotel, where however we were housed dry, the rain clouds and 
 sweeping distantshowers added great effect to the beautiful scene 
 from the site of the station. We had intended threading our 
 way up the Greta, across which the new railway continually 
 passes, and where by far the prettiest bits on the line will be, 
 but that was now unfortunately out of the question. We 
 thought, too, of visiting a little Methodist chapel, lately erected 
 by Mr Ross, who has his hands full always here, which I had 
 previously seen in the course oi construction, and much ad- 
 mired ; but it was more prudent to postpone that pleasure. 
 Banting's trap was counter-ordered, and we posted back to Pen- 
 rith through a drenching rain, which no doubt benefited the 
 thirsty land, although it came with an uncomfortable chill and 
 aggravated the wise-tooth. 
 
 On the road, excited by the previous investigation, we were led 
 
25 
 
 to discuss the manufactories of the district, and found that in 
 1 861 the comparative table ran thus : — 
 
 _ CO »; H C3 
 
 h «a £ 
 
 6 3 "g o-S 
 
 a 
 
 WOOLLEN. 
 
 Cumberland 10 .. 6,087 .. 30 . . 216 
 
 Westmoreland 9 .. 17,724 .. 84 . . 492 
 
 Lancashire 101 .. 227,655 .. 6,377 .. 9,227 
 
 T ° U and wiles d } 1 ' 456 " L 846 - 850 •■ 2 °. 3 « •• 76 . 309 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 Cumberland 9 .. 27,442 .. 9 .. 1,325 
 
 Westmoreland 3 .. 4,644 .. — .. 303 
 
 Lancashire 13 .. 117,412 .. 489 . . 3,381 
 
 T ° U an°d f Wa 8 le a s nd } 136 " 344 > 308 " 2 ' 160 •■ 20 ' 305 
 
 COTTON. 
 
 Cumberland 15 .. 136,212 .. 1,761 .. 3,281 
 
 Lancashire 1,979 ..21,530,532 ..305,423 ..315,627 
 
 T ° ta and Wates"* } 2 ' 715 " ' 28 > 352 > 125 • • 368,125 . . 407,598 
 
 Both Cumberland and Westmoreland are important agricultural 
 counties. As in the dales of Yorkshire, there is a vast number 
 of yeomanry, small 'statesmen, rich and independent, as well 
 as intensely obstinate, tenacious, pugnacious and litigious —every 
 man holding by his own, and coveting the possession of land 
 with the utmost pertinacity. The country where eligible is 
 cultivated, but where in Scotland, dotted upon the mountain 
 slopes and over the high moorland, one would see flocks of 
 sheep, the number was comparatively small indeed ; and as for 
 game between Penrith and Keswick and back again we did not 
 count a single head. We joked Mr Boulton by the bye about his 
 navvies' partiality for peaching ; but he replied his were a very 
 decent set of fellows to deal with, with whom hitherto be had 
 had neither strike nor trouble, having invariably accommo- 
 dated their wants by anticipation, and tact of course, and that 
 high preserving was not the fashion in the neighbourhood. 
 One cannot take leave of such a place as Keswick without re- 
 commending all interested in such sights to inspect Flintofi/s 
 model in relief of the district, than which nothing gives so 
 rapid and so truthful an idea of the country, as well as the best 
 means of traversing it. Crossthwaite's museum should be seen 
 also. He who collected it and invented the life- boat and the 
 asolian harp died in 1808, but his intelligent daughters survive 
 to explain the collection. Then, there is a gallery of the native 
 artists — the Pettitt's pictures, well worth a visit — and a first- 
 rate lapidary, Mr Furness, to call upon. From Mr Wright, the 
 botanist, geologist, and mineralogist of the district, who lives in 
 the town, every information may be gleaned within the range of 
 his special and extensive studies, his repeated interviews with 
 the King of Saxony, Sir Roderick Murchison, Professor Sedgwick, 
 and other scientific men who have appealed to him for local 
 help, constitute him as the authority to be relied upon. Those 
 anxious for an unrivalled view, should at sunrise, at sunset, or 
 
26 
 
 when the moon is up, by all means not neglect the Castle-head 
 or hill. The place, close by the town, goes by each name, and 
 on Us summit the unfortunate Derwentwaters reared a castle, 
 whence the Countess, at once the instigatrix and participatress 
 of the Earl's rashness, his joys and sorrows ending in cruel fate, 
 escaped when he was captured for being "out," in 1715, after 
 securing the family jewels and valuables, only to be uselessly 
 sacrificed in his behest. At the journey's end, our quarters in 
 Penrith were spacious and beautifully clean, but the cuisine and 
 all the wine, without exception, were sadly inferior to what 
 they gave us at the George, and the cold was so intense the 
 first thing was ordering the fire to be lighted. The storm was 
 evidently electric, though there was neither thunder nor 
 lightning in the neighbourhood, and the rain was partial, 
 notwithstanding a furious burst raged in so many parts of 
 England, creating great destruction of life and property in ihe 
 North East of Scotland, North of Ireland, South of England, 
 Lancashire, Cheshire, North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, 
 and whole of the county of Durham. 
 
 May 2lst. — After the rain and cold of yesterday this morn- 
 ing was bright, genial, and elastic, without, the least oppressive- 
 ness in the 'atmosphere. We were about to suffer the loss of 
 one of our party, for even had not business hastened his return, 
 Yorick's constant suffering— poor fellow, he could not open his 
 mouth to admit any thing beyond a teaspoon now— rendered 
 home comforts imperative. Well, he left, and Banting, who is 
 a gourmet to the back bone — choice almost to eccentricity in 
 all his ways, his belongings, and his doings— said last night, 
 "Now, this won't do, he's going, and two's almost as bad a 
 number as one, for travelling ; we must have a third, even if 
 the fellow does naught but listen and approve, you know — yet 
 he might throw in an idea now and then, perhaps, by mistake, 
 and that's something. So I have asked " Tom Jones " to 
 join us." 
 
 " Ah ! pleasant company he ought to be, if there's anything 
 in a name— with all my heart, though we could have hobbled 
 on together better than most couples, and I had all the picking 
 of your brains to myself, yet perhaps that would have been 
 selfish." 
 
 " Ah ! here he is," and we were introduced. 
 
 There's a picture of ruddy health for you, with as much 
 intelligence as you'd see combined in a long day's march. 
 Above the middle height, yet not tall — stout, broad, thickset 
 and well put together— without an ounce of fat, or extra beef. 
 Strong as a castle, and active as a kitten. Ilead well set upon 
 the shoulders — ears small, and packed closely in— nose and 
 mouth firm, without coarseness— hair crisp and fine, shewing 
 the clear skin through it, but not thin — forehead broad and 
 full, with the back of the head to match. Chin chiseled, hands 
 and feet hard, clean made and not too small -step elastic, gait 
 erect, action quick, without the slightest fuss. Complexion 
 dark russet— eyes bright and penetrating, with a sweet expres- 
 sion, and a set of regular white teeth, sharp enough to bite a 
 badger's tail off. Not know what's in a man when his hat's on ! 
 Why, sir, he would storm a fort, or woo a woman easily alike. 
 
27 
 
 never turn :i hair at the heaviest of small hours — match a 
 
 turkey in digestion — and go through any amount of calculations, 
 when others were dead beat. Such was our new companion, 
 with whom I at once took a stroll through the little town, in 
 search of stereographs, which we soou discovered, very well 
 executed by a young artist of the name of Ogle. It would be 
 too much to say his works equalled Wilson's, of Aberdeen ; 
 Brown's, of Saltburnby-the-Sea; Mudd's, of Manchester; or 
 Piper's, of Ipswich, (whose prize specimens are perhaps the 
 finest things yet produced,) but they are very mellow and happy 
 for all that. 
 
 " Ah ! look there," as we crossed the market place, "that's 
 a four- years-old Scotch wedder, or I'm a Dutchman." 
 
 " How on earth do you know ?" he said. 
 
 "Know! observe the bloom on his back— that delicious 
 dapple — the mulberry on his shoulders, and the deep tone of 
 colour between his ribs —he has a full mouth for a crown. But- 
 cher, turn up his head an' please you ? — and so he has, of 
 course. Cut me both legs off, if you can spare them;" but 
 what a flat I was not to secure the saddle too. Yorick said 
 his was the best joint he ever ate, and I can answer for the other 
 — and only Sd a lb. ; but it was the last of the Mohicans, for 
 I tried since, at least both Banting and Jones did for me, but 
 without success. What a wonderful little place Penrith is for 
 chemists' shops ; there are four of them that would be no dis- 
 grace to London, and that is something extraordinary for a 
 small provincial town of 7,189 inhabitants. But then the 
 neighbourhood is crowded with gentry and well-to-do people, 
 so that accounts for the anomaly. The county balls, at which 
 " the quality sport their diamonds" to the wonder of little folks, 
 are held in the hotel we were in, and the County Court as well ; 
 as the boy Jones was interested in a case that day, we went 
 in. Didn't the judge polish them off fast— not with Dow- 
 ling dispatch, certainly, for he is sui generis, and I'll back his 
 Honour to utter more wit — not always of the nicest either— 
 and more law, as well as do more solid justice, than any 
 other man, or any brace of them, in thrice the time. 
 
 Well, Yorick off with the mutton, and our carriage stop- 
 ping the way at one p.m., we rattled off at score for Brougham 
 Hall, where everything is in the best possible and most refined 
 taste. The whole place is kept to periection. The iron-work 
 would enchant an antiquarian, and South Kensington might 
 envy the door handles, the hinges, bell-pulls, knockers (one of 
 which is the couuterpait of that bird-like grinning demon at 
 the main entrance of Durham Cathedral), the dogs and fire- 
 irons, locks and bolts, which set me a thiulcing of Nuremberg, 
 Florence, Venice, Genoa, and Milan. It is handsome, solidly 
 handsome outside, and admirable in. The views from the win- 
 dows are charming, and some of the timber is magnificent. 
 The walnut-trees, for instance, equal those at Womersley, even 
 those sacrificed by the hard winter of 1 8(30. These shewed no 
 trace of injury whatever. The ancient and perfectly restored 
 chapel, too, is quite a gem of its kind, and outside of it the 
 purple stemm'd and thornless rose was in a blaze of bloom — 
 and very early it was. The rooms were all most comfortable ; 
 and in the library, of irregular form, were several interest- 
 
 E 
 
28 
 
 ing portraits, indicative and characteristic of the great 
 original, their collector. Sterne was there, Elizabeth Cromwell, 
 Sheridan, Burke, Rousseau, Dryden, Voltaire (a most capital 
 picture). Fairfax, the Duke of Richmond, Humboldt, Francis I., 
 and "though last not least in our esteem," Cromwell 
 himself. But what I looked for most of all was Lord Broug- 
 ham's mother— for such a child must perforce have had a 
 great mother, as had Katharine Parr. And in the next apart- 
 ment — a sort of ante-room — there the old lady sat in state. 
 You might have spoken reverentially to her ; salute we did, 
 thanking her for bearing such a son— the champion of the 
 oppressed, matterless their colour or their clime, he who, thank 
 God, still rivets the attention of the highest tribunal of the 
 world for talent and for honour — enchains all hearers in the 
 most erudite academies of science in this country or in France 
 — charms by his writings, and fascinates by his tongue, alike 
 gifted compeers, wittiest of women, or the most artless child. 
 We saw over the whole house— every portion of it furnished 
 with curious and consummate taste, his own study being 
 perhaps the plainest, yet most interesting. Its walls were 
 lined with portraits of contemporaries, chiefly French, and the 
 place of honour was given, as well it might be, to Alexander 
 Humboldt, in his room at Berlin, whose likeness was admirable, 
 and to his daughter when a child, whose death caused such 
 deep distress. 
 
 The day had changed, and the cold was all the more searching, 
 owing to the sudden revulsion. Notwithstanding my back to 
 the horses, I was so perished that enjoyment was out of the 
 question, and ever and anon the neglected warning came upper- 
 most — 
 
 *' Ne'er cast a clout, till May be out ;" 
 rendered all the more impressive by the fact of having only sum- 
 mer clothing packed up, and Banting's buffalo robe left behind 
 into the bargain. However, as good luck would have it, there 
 was neither rain nor dust, and the nags soon set us down at 
 Lowther Castle. Dear me ! what a time it is since first I saw 
 it, though 1829 is not so far back after all. Then it struck my un- 
 accustomed eyes as a wonderfully grand residence, and now, 
 although it does not look a pin the worse for wear, the exterior 
 seems much too regular for a style in which irregularity is most 
 pleasing, while the rooms appear naked and unfurnished 
 from want of colour — in fact, in inferior taste to Brougham. 
 Erected after the designs of Sir Robert Smirke upon the ruins 
 of the old hall, destroyed by fire in 1726, accounts have been 
 discovered showing bills to the amount of £380,000, so that 
 taking into consideration material supplied, independent of 
 payments down, the cost must have been the thick end of half 
 a million, and that's a lump of money. William, the present 
 Peer, during the whole of his career, whether in the Lower or 
 the Upper House, has deserved his high reputation as a first- 
 rate man of business. No one looking at him, or listening to 
 his sententious remarks, could fail being convinced of his talent, 
 and perhaps a better Postmaster-General we never had. I have 
 that opinion from those who worked with and under him, and 
 no better judges can be. But as a large lauded proprietor, as 
 one understanding wealth, not for the advantages it brings 
 
29 
 
 personally so much as the blessings It confers where properly 
 employed, he Is conspicuous as a benefactor to bis neighbour- 
 hood, and an honour to his class. Largely interested in various 
 public works, such as docks and mines, in the West, he has 
 done more to develope the trade and resources of his counties 
 than any other man past or present. None have been more 
 prominent in improving the public roads of the district, and as 
 a landlord his example is, and has been, of infinite value. Des- 
 pising, with the thorough contempt common-sense engenders, the 
 old system prevalent about him of feasting tenantry with a 
 week's gorge at Yule, and letting them dine with Duke Hum- 
 phrey till Christmas came again, he makes it a matter of busi- 
 ness to provide daily labour during the whole twelve months, 
 so that no man is without work and wage. Thus he has con- 
 siderably raised the position of his people, and rejoices in 
 estates physically and socially the best managed in the neigh- 
 bourhood, while as an agriculturist, practically grasping the 
 difficulties of farming — once considered "as easy as driving a 
 gig" — perhaps that's true, as it takes a clever fellow to do 
 either well— he makes tilling and breeding worth his while. 
 You have only to look at his cattle and stock generally, as well 
 as the condition of his property, to see this at a glance. As a 
 connoisseur of art, Lord Lowtber, before he became the Earl of 
 Lonsdale, has long been known ; and anticipating a grateful 
 posterity he has with all the attributes of his career at his feet, 
 placed a life-sized marble statue of himself on the first landing 
 of the principal staircase of the Castle, right in front of the en- 
 trance. Itisan odd idea certainly, andsome might callit vanity, 
 but I can't discern the difference between such a work and a 
 picture one so often sees, or " when it was two guineas on ivory, 
 and you took your chance pretty much how you came out," 
 excepting that of cost. As an example of art portraiture, 
 Stevens' statue is unexceptionable, and those who turn up 
 their little snubby noses at a man spending much over him- 
 self, including the horses, sheep, implements, and grain — 
 blue books on this subject and that, not forgetting the frag- 
 ment of art about the pedestal, but all fairly illustrative 
 of character, and curl their thin lips in disdain, let us 
 see what they, under circumstances similar, would have done. 
 Something in worse taste, I'll warrant, and not worth a tithe 
 of the value, let alone the outlay. His lordship has no gas- 
 works like those at Brougham, and how in the world the place 
 is thoroughly warmed I. can't conceive. This day it was like 
 wandering amidst tombs, and very uncomfortable tombs too. 
 The rooms are well proportioned, but there is sad coldness in 
 the ceilings and the walls ; the pictures were excellent, par- 
 ticularly the Dutch ones, but with the exception of a 
 few — some glorious examples of Tenters — as good a Jan 
 Steen as exists — two Lawrences — the late Lady Lonsdale and 
 George IV. among others for instance — quite equal to Lady 
 Grey, Young Lambton, the lovely Howards, and Lord Eldon — 
 the choicest were all cabinet works. Wouvermans, Ostade, Breu- 
 ghel (velvet), Gerard Dow, Vanderwerf and Vandervelde being 
 amongst thom, and a clever little Murillo ; but it was so abomi- 
 nably cold I could not enjoy them half enough. Fanatics talk 
 about their devotions keeping them warm in a damp church ; 
 
30 
 
 If that be true, the sooner some of us are devotees the more 
 enjoyment we should have ; though as at present advised, I 
 don't believe such nonsense as the mind being at command at 
 all when the body is ill at ease. The gems in this collection 
 are not alone confined to the painter's art, as the antique 
 marbles are worth much more examination than our time or 
 the atmosphere would permit. A finer series of Koman Em- 
 perors I never saw anywhere, and the student in phrenology 
 might, from their marked heads, read his lessons by the hour. 
 There are also some rare fragments of important statues from 
 the Stowe and Hertford galleries, several of which have been 
 most shockingly repaired. Works like these should be placed 
 in the best hands, or their mutilations remain unmeddled 
 with. Topographically, certainly, but not with any reference 
 to art, though some of the pictures are better than others, a 
 very interesting gallery is in the course of formation, 
 in which to assemble all the portraits of Westmoreland 
 worthies, those of Hogarth of undying fame and Katharine Parr 
 claiming our attention at once. Westmoreland may well feel 
 proud of such a pair. The one as a painter of real life never 
 equalled and rarely approached ; the other the great daughter 
 of a great mother. The first Protestant Queen of England, who 
 stood by and defended her faith with fearful risk, directly 
 descended from the proud lineage of our Anglo-Saxon Kings, 
 and the reddest Norman blood. The Protectress of Coverdale, 
 the staunch friend of Ann Askern, the guide and counsellor of 
 the studies of Lady Jane Grey, young Edward VT. and Elizabeth. 
 But among "the Worthies" also were the two Whartons 
 (Duke and Marquess) ; Dean Addison and Joseph ; Justice Wil- 
 son ; Watson, Bishop of Llandaff; Waugh. of Carlisle ; and Sir 
 George Fleming, of the same See ; Barrage, Archbishop of 
 York ; Drs Burn, John Langhorn, and Shaw ; "Jockey" Bell ; 
 George Clifford (Duke of Cumberland) ; Bernard Gilpin ; Ad- 
 miral Pearson ; General Bowser and others. We walked 
 upon the terrace afterwards, which is almost as celebrated 
 as those at Duncombe Park, and on Hearing it observed 
 some fine yews, finer even than those at Byrom or Lord 
 Coventry's place near Malvern. At last we came to Pooley 
 Bridge, and as I could stand it no longer, while the horses 
 bated the resources of my portmanteau came in useful, though 
 there was far too little really warm clothing provided. Ulls- 
 water — which is nine miles by one, and therefore next to 
 Windermere in size— begins here, and like the foot of almost 
 every lake I know— at least any lake of pretension to size- 
 it is tame in comparison to the head ; very good, no doubt, 
 to those who live in a dismally flat country, but really 
 nothing worth a second thought. At the little inn in furmer 
 days I had an eaily experience of the district, and tasted lake 
 trout for the first time there. Aye, and capital they were. 
 They may talk of Loch Awe and Loch Leven fish as they like, 
 but I'll back the Ullswater trout against all comers for flavour 
 and condition in this or any other couutry. We soon arrived 
 and halted at Lyulph's Tower, a shooting box built by the late 
 Duke of Norfolk in Gowborrow Park. . Its name, like that of 
 the lake, is referrable to Ulf or L'Ulf, the first Baron of Grey- 
 stoke, of which property of the Howards the Park is a portion. 
 The walk to Ara Force is but a short way, and of course we did it, 
 
31 
 
 notwithstanding the drought had rendered it as poor as poor 
 could be, and the cold only made matters worse. The beautiful 
 herd of cream-coloured West Highlanders, the troops of nervous 
 fallow deer, the sweetness of the little glen, the freshness of the 
 Way, covering the thorns as with snow, and the charming 
 scenery — for here Ullswater in fact assumes ascendency — were 
 enough to warm us up into something like a sensation. But 
 no ; 'twas no use trying, nothing but dinner could avail ; and 
 Banting had ordered that some days ago for eight sharp. 
 So into the carriage we bundled, as there were four miles 
 further to travel, and it was late. However, sunless and 
 wretched as it was, thence to our destination proved, how 
 difficult soever it may be to make a distinction, where the 
 pictures are so taking and so many, about the best thing we 
 had done. In several portions of the way the Trossachs came 
 so vividly to my recollection that it was almost impossible, but 
 for the good road in place of the worst in Europe, to realize 
 the fact of being elsewhere than in charming Perthshire. 
 
 At length we drew up at Brownrigg's Hotel, in Patterdale, 
 as the clock struck eight, so we had run it far too fine. 
 The night being very raw, it was out of all question, 
 reason, or common-sense to do without a fire — and we 
 refused a down stairs room, after selecting another on the 
 same floor with our sleeping apartments which adjoined 
 it. Now then, Banting, let's know what they are going 
 to give us, and his face (and mine too) was " quite a sight for 
 to see" when the civilest and perhaps the best of all waiters 
 remarked in the blandest manner, " Well, sir, yes, sir — 
 there's trout, sir — you ordered it. Yes, sir ; and sir, a fine piece 
 of beef, sir — ivould you like anything else, sir ?" Poor fellow, he 
 appealed silently and imploringly to me, though all I could 
 get out, being his guest, was— -postpone the hour to nine sharp ; 
 allow the cook and ourselves time ; it strikes me we might 
 enjoy the luxury of beef at home, perhaps — trout, of course, but 
 it can't be in better hands. Oh ! mind order the puddings — 
 "Patterdale puddings?" "Yes, sir." So here was another 
 name, but very good they were, and so was the dinner, for 
 the house is as well kept as any in the district ; as for 
 wine, the sherry, the hock, and the '51 Margeaux were about 
 as topping as any man could serve, I don't care whether Paris 
 and Company, Plews, Griffiths, Fennell, Tod Heatley, Thompson 
 and Garthorne, Frank Greenwell, or any other man. Jones was 
 learned about wines — he'd been in the country d'ye see, and 
 agreed with me that few stomachs could stand Port if once it had 
 been seen made. By the way, we had someBucellas, that rejected 
 and despised of all good stuff ; when it's old and pure to start 
 with, there's nothing better, and so it should— so— it— should 
 — for hock grapes transplanted to such a climate only require 
 care in manipulation, which they too seldom get, and hence 
 the deterioration. The wine was excellent, and "the boy" 
 told us George Crott, in Lisbon, supplied it sparkling, so we 
 ordered some. 
 
 I find there are several methods of making these little pud- 
 dings—no doubt each house-wife will have her own receipt, as 
 in Scotland for haggis or in the Norih of Eugland for yule cake 
 and mince meat. Besides the receipt for Windermere or Pat- 
 terdale or Castle puddings, mentioned In an earlier paper, the 
 
32 
 
 following are also noted in my own M.S. book: — Take four 
 and-a-half ounces of flour, an equal quantity of ground rice, 
 ten ounces of sugar, and half-a-dozen eggs. Beat the sugar 
 and eggs well together, then add the flour and rice, a spoonful 
 at a time, until all is consumed, beating all along and for three- 
 quarters of an hour. Pour into cups, and before baking add 
 (finely grated) the peel oi half a lemon and the quarter of the 
 juice. The other slightly differs, but each is worth trying. 
 This is it : — Three eggs in the shell, equal weights of powdered 
 loaf sugar and flour, and half the quantity of fresh butter. 
 First melt the butter to oil, and then beat it thoroughly with 
 the eggs to a cream, gradually adding the sugar and flour with 
 lemon juice and grated peel at discretion. Half-fill coffee cups, 
 bake moderately rather more than half an hour, and serve hot 
 with Madeira sauce. The night was excessively raw, but the 
 fare and fire resuscitated every one of us, and the evening passed 
 rapidly away, conversation with unflagging smoothness flitting 
 
 " From grave to gay — from lively to severe." 
 Both Banting and " the boy'' equally with myself delight in geogra- 
 phy, and the study of the peopling of the West by the successive 
 immigrations from the East, whence five big waves of population 
 have rolled in, each by turn sweeping the mighty flood preced- 
 ing it, further and still further on. The great Celtic inunda- 
 tion is the first we can distinctly trace as propelled by the 
 irresistible force of the succeeding deluges of the Roman, the 
 Teutonic, and the Sclave hordes, until it arrived at length into 
 the far western extremities of Europe. These Celts being 
 divided into two great branches — or rather distinct bodies — 
 followed one another. Both spoke languages of a common 
 stock, but distinguished by dialectic divergence as great as 
 exist between Greek and Latin, or G-erman and English, or 
 Tuscan and Piedmontese. There are living languages to this 
 day belonging to each of these branches. The first Gadlielic, 
 or Gael, being represented by the Erse of Ireland, the 
 Gaelic of Scotland (that in the west being by far the 
 purest) and the Manx of the Isle of the Man ; the second, 
 or Cymric, by the Welsh and the Armoricans of Biittany, still 
 in well nigh exclusive use by a million and a half of Frenchmen. 
 The Cymri, so it is said, issued from the Alpine region — the 
 Gaels from the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle, from 
 which latter district it seems the earliest historic movements 
 of the Celts took place. Three Celtic tribes burst over the 
 Alps, They pillaged Rome, and after returning to Illyria for 
 a while, broke in upon Greece and plundered the priceless 
 treasures at Delphi. Settling for a time iu Thrace, but ever 
 restless, marauding, and aggressive, then crossing the Bos- 
 phorus, they took possession of the central region of Asia 
 Jlinor, to which they gave the uame of Galatea, or the land of 
 the Gael, where also they long retained their Celtic speech and 
 the ethenical peculiarities of their Celtic blood. There is no 
 base on which to build conjecture as to the precise period or 
 place or occasion when, where, or whence the two great divi- 
 sions of the Celts took place. The most numerous people of 
 Germany were the Gadlielic branch, and it may be inferred, 
 from the fact of finding no names of the Cymric, Slavonic, or 
 Teutonic stock, which have undergone phonetic change in 
 accordance with the genius of the Gaelic language, that the 
 
33 
 
 Gaels found Germany unoccupied. Next came the Cyrari, and 
 they came as conquerors, though numerically much inferiorto the 
 Gaels. Lastly, the Germans from the North, in fewer numbers still, 
 but still as conquerors, and they Germanised many Gadhelic 
 names which previously had been Cymrycised. In the ancient 
 parochial documents relating to several parishes north of the 
 Forth, the gradual increase of the Teutonic element forms an in- 
 teresting illustration of this early transitional period of history. 
 In the Taxates of the 12th century, only 2^ per cent, are Teu- 
 tonic names, while in the Charterlaries, from the 12th to the 
 14th, the proportion rises to 4 per cent., and in the tax-rolls 
 of 1564 to nearly 25. Even so late as the reign of Henry 
 the Second, Hereford was considered to be in Wales — at least so 
 says the Kevd. Isaac Taylor in his Words and Places, p. 255, 
 though he is contradicted by an able reviewer in the July 
 number (231, p. 16) of the Quarterly — and it was not 
 until Henry the Eighth's time that Monmouthshire became 
 English. In Devon, the Cymric speech lingered till Elizabeth, 
 and in Cornwall (where the dialect is very eccentric to this day) 
 it was the only medium of conversation in her father's time. 
 In the reign of Queen Anne, distinguished, as Mr Kirwan tells 
 us, by an extraordinary burst of intellectual vigour, and great 
 - progress in the culinary art, it was confined to five or six villages 
 in the western portion of that beautiful county, and it has 
 only become extinct within the memory of living man, while 
 the Celtic race still survive the absorption of their mother 
 tongue with little admixture of the Teutonic strain. 
 
 In Wales one observes the change of language accompanied 
 by a very partial infusion of Saxon blood, and even in Mercia 
 and Wessex the bulk of the people is of the pure Celtic strain. 
 In Glamorgan, Flint, Denbigh, and part of Montgomery, Eng- 
 lish has almost entirely supplanted the native language, those 
 clinging to it, except in the rarest instances, understanding if 
 not speaking ours : in the other border counties, also, it is 
 rapidly dying out, very much as one observes it even in the 
 most tenacious and remote parts of Ireland and Scotland, as 
 applied to Erse and Gaelic. 
 
 The Saxon keels cannot have transported any numerous popu- 
 lation, and the ceorls or churls were no doubt the pure-blooded 
 descendants of the Celts of Britain. The Celtic element in the 
 population was large, and long remained unabsorbed by the 
 Saxon ; and it is worthy of remark that over the whole land 
 almost all the river and shire names contain Celtic roots, as do 
 likewise a fair sprinkling of those of hills, valleys, and fortresses. 
 Comparative analyses are the readiest reckoners, and Banting 
 seems to have a perfect system of them at command. He fur- 
 nished me with this, which shews at a glance the proportion 
 of Saxon, Danish, and Celtic names of hills, hamlets, woods, 
 villages, &c, in the various places detailed : — 
 
 Percentage of names 
 from the 
 
 Celtic 2 
 
 Anglo-Saxon 90 
 
 Norse 8 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 CO 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 ft 
 
 St 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 r3 
 
 a 
 
 8 . 
 
 . 32 . 
 
 . 80 . 
 
 . 76 . 
 
 . 59 . 
 
 . 80 
 
 91 . 
 
 . 65 . 
 
 . 20 . 
 
 . 24 . 
 
 . 20 . 
 
 . 19 
 
 1 . 
 
 . 3 . 
 
 . . 
 
 . . 
 
 . 21 . 
 
 . 1 
 
34 
 
 By far the larger number of Celtic names in England are dis- 
 tinctly of the Cymric type. These Cymri, by some considered 
 to be the Picts, held the Lowlands of Scotland up to the Perth- 
 shire Hills, until the Scots crossed over from Ireland (then 
 called Scotia, and North Britain Nova Scotia) to Argyle, and 
 extended their dominions over the whole of the North-west of 
 the kingdom, encroaching largsly on the Cymri. In the 12th 
 century the Clyde and Forth were the southern boundaries of 
 what was called Scotland ; and now when treaties are being 
 torn by the mere fact of aggressive war, and the landmarks of 
 Europe wrenched out of their old places, it is somewhat in- 
 teresting to review the former condition of our own neighbour- 
 hood, so comparing the past with the present. 
 
 May 22nd.— Up by times. The fragrant freshness of the day 
 realised to the full Milton's apothegm — 
 
 Sweet is the breath of morn ; her rising sweet, 
 With charm of earliest birds ; 
 and the loveliness of the situation in which Banting had pitched 
 our comfortable tent could not possibly have been seen to more 
 advantage. Browrigg's Hotel is five minutes' walk to the head 
 of the lake. Bonass' house is not only a much larger building, 
 but at the very water's edge a mile off. There seems a good 
 deal of rivalry between the establishments, both of which are 
 considered good ; though from experience I can only form an 
 opinion of the management and purveyance of that in which 
 we were, and which is excellent in all respects. It struck me 
 as, without any comparison, much the more beautifully placed 
 of the two. The perfection of the day went far no doubt in 
 exciting our elastic feelings. " The boy" and I strolled out. 
 long before our host had even commenced his elaborate toilet, 
 much less finished that apparently tedious operation, and as he 
 had ordered breakfast the night before, the brace of us had a 
 pleasant constitutional ramble. The contrast between this day 
 and yesterday materially assisted the brightness of everything 
 around us, and the reflection is not a little humiliating that one 
 so soon forgets blessings just experienced. The weather had been 
 exceptionally delicious for any season both before and since 
 Tuesday, for May in the Lake district nothing had been known 
 like it ; yet the moment it varied on Saturday nothing cculd 
 be more miserable than our feelings, which were now as happily 
 reversed when it turned again. The garden attached to the 
 Hotel presented natural capabilities a fortune could not trans- 
 plant or establish, and the peeps we obtained on all sides were 
 perfect. At one o'clock we turned out for a walk until 7 30, 
 and by the direction of the invaluable waiter, who kindly sup- 
 plied a capital field glass, we took the path to Blowick, past 
 the slate quarry. It was exactly one of those rare days in which 
 it was preterable to moon about and loll, even on high ground, 
 inhaling the soft breath of moor air, while basking in the 
 glowing warmth, rather than travel. A rare day, was it not ? 
 and then the views from a' top of Blowick ! Seated among the 
 rocks and junipers, the Lake far away below, its waters and the 
 cloudless sky of deep pure blue, no dolce far nicntc could be more 
 composing. The pretty little church, in the churchyard of which is 
 railed round a curiously knarled and hollow ancieutyew centuries 
 
35 
 
 of age, Patterd ale Hall, embedded in ornamental timber, a glen 
 opening up, and studded with a mining village, the other hotel 
 and our own, Gowborrow Park, a long reach of all the best part 
 of Ullswater, Kirkstone Pass, where an eagle was seen so late 
 as 1850, a perfect amphitheatre of rugged mountains, and un- 
 dulating ground richly wooded and fat with pastures, such was 
 the scene about us, unequalled to my mind without any com- 
 parison in the district. The parsley fern, flourishing perfectly 
 unshaded, abounded ; that curious little plant the butterburr was 
 also plentiful, and many others we gathered and brought home. 
 In one of the fir plantations we observed the young cones— six 
 inches long at least — clustered in masses together, and of a 
 colour so superb they could be distinguished at a considerable 
 distance in the bright sunlight. Oddly enough it was one of 
 the brilliant tints introduced this year as the Garibaldi ombre, 
 and is the combination of amythest and ruby. Banting was 
 very learned about the monks of old who belonged to F urness 
 Abbey, worked minerals here, and no doubt enjoyed the trout ; 
 and, if they had time for anything in the way of comfort, the 
 JNorthmen must have revelled in the fastnesses and retreats of 
 this one of their most favourite nooks. For three whole centu- 
 ries, from the 8th to the 11th, these hardy vagabonds pursued 
 their restless harry, and became an established terror to western 
 Europe, sacking, burning, ravishing, and murdering, whither- 
 soever they went. They piloted their barks up the shoally 
 and the shallow Elbe, the Scheldt, the Rhine, the Neckar, and 
 the Moselle. They ravaged the sweet valleys of the Somme, 
 the Soane, the Marne, the Loire, and the Garonne. They 
 besieged Paris, Amiens, Tours, Troyes, Chalons, Poictiers, 
 Bordeaux, Toulouse, and London repeatedly. One of the big 
 lions guarding the Arsenal at Venice, and once adorning Athens, 
 is deeply grooved and scored with Norse Runes, recording the 
 capture of the Piraeus by Harald Hardrada, or flaardraade, 
 the doughty Norwegian king, who, with Toste, in 1066 fell at 
 Stamford Bridge, after flaunting his celebrated banner — Landode 
 (the land ravager) — in his expeditions to the East against the 
 Saracens, and real or fictitious enemies of Christianity, his zeal 
 impelled him to worry and hunt down. They established 
 themselves as conquerors or colonists over fully the half of 
 England, in the Hebrides, and Western coasts of Scotland, in 
 Greenland, Iceland, the Isle of Man, and the north of France. 
 They did more, they founded kingdoms in this country, and in 
 Ireland, in France, Naples, and in Sicily, while a Norse dynasty 
 ruled Russia for 700 years, and for centuries the Varangian 
 guard upheld the throne of the Byzantine Emperors. There 
 were principal Danish stations at Deptford, Woolwich, and 
 Greenwich. The fens which bordered the Witham, the Welland, 
 and the Nen, was the southern boundary of these settlers. The 
 Danelag, or district, was divided by agreement between Alfred 
 and Gudrum from the Saxon by a line passing along the 
 sea and the Ouse, and then following to the north-east of 
 Watlinga or Watling-street. Noith of the Tweed they entirely 
 disappear, except in the north-west, and there are very few 
 Norse names in Durham and Northumberland ; indeed only 23 
 and 22 respectively, as against 142 in Cumberland, 158 in 
 Westmoreland, 292 in Lincolnshire, and 405 in Yorkshire, ouc 
 
36 
 
 of the 1,500 in all England. There were Danish fortresses at 
 Leicester, Derby, Stamford, Nottingham, Lincoln and York, 
 and in the same way that the Danish names in England are 
 seen to radiate from the Wash, so the Norwegian immigration 
 seems to have proceeded from Morecornbe Bay and that portion 
 of the coast facing the Isle of Man. Cumberland and West- 
 moreland contain far more Norwegian than Danish names, and 
 the Lake District was well nigh exclusively peopled by the 
 former people, so that while their suffixes— gill — garth — thwaite 
 —force — fell— dale— tarn— beck — are abundant, as well as 
 " by," meaning a town or village, and purely Danish, and 
 hence a paradox, the Danish forms of thorpe— toft — liaugh 
 — with— nses — ey — are almost unknown, and the Anglo- 
 Saxon test-words — ham— ford— worth— and ton are com- 
 paratively rare. More than 150 distinct personal names of 
 the Icelandic type are preserved in the local topography of 
 the Lake district, and the commonest names in Iceland are 
 Kettle, Halle, Ormur, Gils ; whence spring Kettlewell, Hall- 
 thwaite, Ormethwaite, Gilstone, and Gilsland. By far the most 
 prevalent Christian names there are Olafur, borne by 992 per- 
 sons, Einer by 878, and Bjarni by 869 ; which are reproduced 
 in Ulverstone, Eunerdale, and Barneyhouse. Brani or Kennie 
 is found in Ransdale, Eennerdale, Ransbarrow, and Wrenside ; 
 Loki in Lockthwaite and Lockholm ; Buthar in Buttermere, 
 Butterhill, and Buttergill ; and Skogul in Skeggleswater. So 
 much for the local Icelandic derivations. In other parts, 
 Grimsby, Burn thwaite, Harrowby, Thoresby, Haccoxby, and 
 Guttersby are traced up to Grim, Biorn, Harold, Thor, Haco, 
 and Gudor. The Norsemen called the Hebrides the Siidreyjar, 
 or the Southern Islands, and the two Sees of the Sudreyjar 
 (founded in 838) and Man were united in the 11th century, and 
 made dependent on the Archbishop of Trondhjera, in Norway, 
 by whose hand, and that of his successors till 1334, the prelates 
 of that See, which "is better than nothing," as Sidney Smith 
 said, were consecrated. In 13S0, the Bishopric of Man was 
 separated, but all subsequent appointments have been made 
 under the joint title of Sodor and Man, so long under the care 
 of a Presbyterian Church. All interested in these northern 
 people — and despite their insensate obstinacy, who is not in 
 the Danes now, or who that has visited their country in the 
 Norwegians, too — should read Worsaae's "Account" of them, as 
 well as Ferguson's, and Lord Ellesmere's Guide to Northern 
 Archseology, at whose and his brother's (the late Duke of 
 Sutherland) suggestion the first author visited this country. 
 The "Vikings, pronounced Veekings, so called from the Ice- 
 landic Vik, a creek or bay of the sea, or the Danish Vig, 
 battle or slaughter, were terrible fellows, and played the 
 most conspicuous part in the Danish conquest ; but sea rovers 
 and pirates though they were, I now never think of them 
 without delight after »,hat little Prussian business, which, by 
 the way, suggested the verse in Mr Speciall's cheery Shake- 
 spearian song at our Local Celebration dinner on the 12th of 
 May last, which runs thus — 
 
 " The health of the Prince and his lovely bride, 
 Who to English fortunes her. lot has tied ; 
 Toast her old home — ' the Danish land ;' 
 Drink to the fleet, with Vikings mann'd, 
 That sent the base Germans to Heligoland. 
 
at 
 
 Vive le, Vive le, Vive le Vin, 
 Vive le, Vive le, Vive le Chant, 
 Vive le, Vive le, Vive le Vin, 
 
 et Vive la Compagnie.''* 
 
 Tn an ancient Scandinavian Biblical paraphrase Goliath is 
 called a Viking. I much mistake the signs of the times if 
 Germany will not 'ere long discover that wickedness like hers 
 never yet triumphed over public opinion. She has had her 
 little foray and her cruel wrong, but another degradation is at 
 hand. God grant it soon, for Jutland can only look to Heaven 
 for retributiou, though " curses like chickens return to roost," 
 while there is an " inexorable logic of facts," an inevitable 
 corollary therefrom, and the undying justice of cause and effect. 
 Both Austria and Prussia still groan under their chastisement 
 by the first Napoleon, whose violence they have eclipsed with- 
 out his brilliancy. May they from his example soon realise 
 that acts of injustice, such as theirs upon the weak and brave, 
 may cause a severe retaliation from the strong, and that the 
 wrongs of the pettiest state may lead to a conflagration in 
 Europe, in which they will be the first to suffer the overdue 
 penalty of illegitimate aggression. 
 
 Nothing seemed so strange to me as the almost total absence 
 of visitors. To be sure, they said "the season" had not com- 
 menced, as if that was any excuse for not taking advantage of 
 such weather. Well, we are very much creatures of habit, and 
 even yet we find some methodical folks who adopt the detest- 
 able system of "dressing the grate," mindful only of a fixed 
 date, and regardless of all comfort if the weather be change- 
 able or unseasonable, as it often is. AtBrownrigg's there were 
 only two parties — our own and another, but it was large— Man- 
 chester people come to spend the Sunday, and very happy they 
 all looked, especially a young couple, evidently on the eve of 
 marriage. In the afternoon, they filled a special coach inside 
 and out, so we were left alone. No season can come wrong 
 among the lakes. Both Yorick and Banting were at Keswick 
 last winter. They skated on Derwentwater, and the ice was 
 like glass— a great mirror laid flat amidst the frosted scenery — 
 yet nobody goes then. It is the same, in May ; if possible, 
 more brilliant still, owing to the color and the hope of Spring. 
 Nor yet in Autumn ! Is it not strange ? I don't know any 
 tour which can be done more cheaply and better for the money 
 than that of the Euglish lakes. This little jaunt of ours was 
 not an example of my meaning, mind, because, being out of 
 the. season, and no coaches on the road, we had invariably to 
 post whenever hiring was necessary, whilst our living was 
 luxurious ; but if you content yourselves with coffee-room fare, 
 which is unusually good, and avoid private apartments, which 
 are of course expensive, the thing may be done comfortably and 
 well for 7s 3d a-day ! 'Tis surprising how they do it, but 
 they do. Now, I asked for this information at the George, 
 and Miss Beethom told me that 2s for breakfast, Is 9d for 
 meat tea, 2s for bed, and Is 6d for service, was their regular 
 tariff, and the usual price thereabouts. Beer and wine 
 naturally are extra, but the two meals mentioned are so sub- 
 
 * Appendix. 
 
38 
 
 stmtial, so nicely served, and with such variety, that no man, 
 not even a schoolboy, need have more. Why on the 26th and 
 7th of this month Mr and Mrs Bowman, of Gainford, had a 
 wonderful trip with 86 of their pupils at a cost of a crown a 
 he id ! Such an effort could only be accomplished by energy 
 and youth. To Clifton by rail — thence they walked to Pooley 
 Bridge — thence by boats to Lyulph's Tower, Gowborrow Park, 
 and Ara Force, and so on to Patterdale, where they had one of 
 these meat teas, after which the very walk we took was accom- 
 plished. How Brownrigg put them all up is only accounted 
 tor by a mutual and pleasantly natural desire for accommoda- 
 tion ; it is astonishing what any of us can and will do if we like. 
 However, there they all slept, and rose with the lark as fresh as 
 paint, for young stomachs know no fatigue, so that by six 
 o'clock, after breakfast, the lot started for Helvellyn. The 
 young : uns tailed off at quarter distance, and no wonder, for 
 even pluck gives in to lack of thew; but the big lads, with their 
 master and the guide, in all thirty, passing over Squirrel Edge, 
 completed their task, and were enchanted with the view of 
 Windermere, Grassmere, and Ullswater from the summit of 
 Catchedecam, the utmost peak of the mountain it is safe to at- 
 tempt. Returning by coaches and 'bus to Pooley, where a cold 
 collation awaited their arrival, the whole party then retook the 
 train at Clifton and reached home at six that evening. There's 
 expedition and economy for you. The coach-fares are very reason- 
 able, too, and when the railway is opened that item of cost will be 
 reduced, but the whole tour is so much within a ring fence that a 
 fortnight will suffice for leisure in thewhole ofit, notwithstanding 
 a month or two might be most enjoyably occupied daily. No 
 doubt, roaming far away from home excites its own peculiar 
 zest, which no one more than myself appreciates ; but the 
 longer I live, and the more I see, the fact is forced uppermost 
 that we really, as a nation, see too little of what is well worth 
 attention in our own country. " Those nearest io church are 
 last in," is true all the whole world over, and the idea of the 
 ability to visit home scenes at any time often excuses postpone- 
 ment ; but in our distant wanderings we certainly are too 
 prone to ignore, or rather perhaps to underrate the charms 
 of the lake and coast scenery, and the sylvan loveliness of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, as well as the endless variety our rivers 
 afford. We are too apt to strain after the attainment of 
 distance rather than the scrutiny of objects, which, to be seen 
 well, should be examined, pondered over, and reflected upon. 
 
 The people of the hotel seemed to understand us much bet- 
 ter to-day than when they thought the "beautiful piece of 
 beef" would suit our host's fastidious palate, and really nothing 
 could be nicer than the delicate fare served. Early in the 
 morning " the boy" and I inspected the fresh-caught trout. 
 Mr Brownrigg has an extensive take of fishing, and is able to 
 supply his customers on the shortest notice. None of the 
 weights are great in any of these lakes, nothing approaching 
 those in the Scotch or the Italian, where I have known trout 
 30, and even up to 451b. ; but for flavour, those of Ullswater 
 surpass any I ever tasted. They are very handsome and well 
 grown, and the spots are larger, more distinct, and separate 
 than any other breed. 
 
39 
 
 What a night it was ! just such as would follow such a day, 
 and not a veil of fog or vapour. 
 
 " But look ! the moon in silver mantle clad, 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill." 
 
 At full, she hung suspended in mid-air, no breath of wind 
 disturbing the calm of all around. We could not shut out 
 scenery we enjoyed so much from both the windows, which 
 framed each view as a picture, so to speak, but discussed the 
 monks again, and the Margeaux too. Banting is the quaintest 
 dog for scraps of information, as well as real, solid, stiff re- 
 search. We laughed again and again — I believe " the boy" 
 almost cried at some of the items — when, with the utmost 
 solemnity, our host illustrated the subject with Jacques Tas- 
 quin's little bill for some decorations he had carried out for a 
 monastery in Flanders, as he said, " at a remote period of 
 history — but it is a perfectly authentic document.'' The 
 amount was 78 florins 10 sous, and the particulars ran thus : — 
 
 fl. s. 
 1.— Correcting and varnishing the Ten Commandments .. 5 12 
 2. — Embellished Pontius Pilate, and put a new ribbon on 
 
 his hat 3 6 
 
 3. — Put a new tail to St. Peter's cock, and mended his 
 
 crest 2 3 
 
 4. — Refixed the good thief to the cross, and gave him a new 
 
 finger 17 
 
 5. — Refeathered and gilt the left wing of the angel Gabriel 14 18 
 6. — Washed the servant maid of the High Priest Calphas 
 
 and put colour on her cheeks . . . . . . ..514 
 
 7. — Renewed the sky, added two stars, gilt the sun, and 
 
 cleaned the moon . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 14 
 
 8. — Revived the flames of Purgatory, and restored some 
 
 souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..66 
 
 9. — Revived the fire of hell, put a new tail on Lucifer, 
 
 mended his left claw, and did several things for the 
 
 damned 4 10 
 
 10.— Put a new border to Herod's robe, gave him two teeth 
 
 and readjusted his wig . . . . 2 2 
 
 11. — Put a piece on Haman's leather breeches, and put two 
 
 buttons on his waistcoat . . . . . . . . ..23 
 
 12. — Put new gaiters on Tobias's son, travelling with the 
 
 Angel Gabriel ; and a new belt to his travelling bag 2 5 
 13. — Cleaned the ears of Balaam's ass, and shod him .. 3 7 
 
 14. — Put ear-rings on Sarah . 2 
 
 15. — Put a new stone in David's sling, enlarged the head of 
 
 Goliath, and bent back his legs 3 1 
 
 16. — Put new teeth in the jaw-bone of the ass of Sampson 1 5 
 17. — Pitched Noah's ark, and gave him a new pair of sleeves 6 
 18. — Put a piece on the shirt of the prodigal son, washed the 
 
 pigs, and put water in their troughs 3 4 
 
 19. — Put a handle to the Samaritan's cruse 15 
 
 Total 78 10 
 
 We got on talking, comparing the merits of various musicians, 
 and seemed finally agreed that Felix Mendelssohn presented the 
 rarest combination of talent yet produced, and stood alone in 
 his art, as Shakespeare in his own. In him you have the mas- 
 siveness of Handel, the tenderness of Mozart, the sweetness of 
 Purcell and of Arne, the brilliancy of Rossini, the rythme- 
 tical melody of Meyerbeer, Haydn, and Auber ; in fact, the 
 influence of all schools with poetry, descriptive power, and 
 variety infinite. His Elijah* led us on to the Priest of Baal— 
 
 * Appendix. 
 
40. 
 
 their worship and their wilfulness. Thus pleasantly did our last 
 evening float away. Banting read aloud "Wordsworth's " Peter 
 Bell," which he and most consider the happiest effort of this 
 fascinating poet, though T'm all for his ode on " Westminster 
 Bridge," but when he came to — 
 
 " And he had trudged through Yorkshire dales, 
 Among the rocks and winding scars, 
 
 "Where deep and low the hamlets lie 
 
 Beneath their little patch of sky 
 And little lot ef stars"— 
 T had almost to give in. 
 
 What I noticed in this hotel was that brown bread was not 
 to be had, and even the white was inferior. Now that's odd, 
 is it not ? There cannot surely be any difficulty about the mat- 
 ter, but she is not the first good cook I have known who over- 
 looks the importance of bread making, which only requires 
 such ordinary ability that failure is like bad spelling and a 
 positive disgrace while good is no credit. She gave us some 
 excllent macaroni au gratin, which, however, is not half so good 
 as Mrs Howcroft's receipt for doing it white— nay, nor a twen- 
 tieth part as good. The clever body gave it to me the other 
 day at Darlington, where she lives, and I am glad to find " goes 
 out." Being placed unreservedly at my disposal publication of 
 the secret is no breach of good faith, so here it is : — Stew well 
 until thoroughly tender 4 ounces of macaroni in weak stock, 
 add one ounce of grated cheese, a tea spoonful of dry mustard, 
 an idea of pepper and salt, a dessert spoonful of flour, and a 
 little good cream ; then serve in a hot water dish if you have 
 one. Perhaps she has some wondrous subtle mode in the 
 manipulation, or perhaps it is just as easy to do well as making 
 melted butter, in which more cooks fail than otherwise ; but 
 no one ever made better macaroni in my experience, and very 
 few so good, so that I well may thank her for her kind- 
 ness in telling me so simple a method of dressing one of the 
 most nutritious and palatable dishes that comes to table at 
 any time of day or night. 
 
 May 23rd. 
 
 Then let the world jog along as it will, 
 We'll be free and easy still ; 
 Free and easy, 
 Free and easy, 
 "We'll be free and easy still. 
 So runs the melodious chorus of a jolly old song, equalling 
 in sweetness, though it is impossible to surpass, those one heats 
 in Huddersfield and that ilk from Yorkshire throats. "We sang 
 it— aye, we sang it cheerily— on the 29th ult. (July) at the 
 parting dinner to an honoured guest' — one of that rare sort 
 tritely and justly designated by an accomplished speaker, who 
 can think on his legs — an advantage, like good reading, by far 
 too little cultivated — as ' ' a sage amongst men — a lad with bairns 
 — very Cupid with theladies ;" and this reminds me that our plea- 
 sant trip approached its end. "The boy" and I awaited the 
 arrival of the take of trout, and selected enough for Yorick 
 and for home. The hotel master charged Is a pound, which 
 
 * Appendix. 
 
41 
 
 struck me as a groat too much, and no less than 103 Cd per 
 tambourine. Why that's the price for char ! Well, he said, 
 they are just as good ; see how pink they are. Oh ! yes, the 
 colour's all right, no doubt ; and they are oftener sold for char 
 than char, if men are not wide awake ; but the price is absurd. 
 So we left them. Byseven, Joneshad breakfasted and was off. We 
 postponed our meal till eleven, and found the change to Bigg's, 
 at Windermere, very much for the worse— but I must, not anti- 
 cipate. By the way, both my friends say that " the boy," in- 
 stead of being " above the middle height, yet not tall," is good 
 six feet, though he don't look it ; so thick and mouldy, well- 
 proportioned all over, like a clever cob he is, and very bad to 
 match. About the same time he left we ensconced ourselves in 
 a light wagonette behind as fast a pair of posters as one 
 need wish to see. Tight 'uns they were for the job, as our route 
 lay right up Kirkstone pass, at the summit of which there is a 
 stone 
 
 "whose church-like frame 
 
 Gives to the savage pass its name." 
 
 The road they say is the highest in England, and upon its 
 crest is the highest inhabited house. It's very cold up here in 
 winter, Sir, the poor woman said, aye and starving enough 
 this very morning. Bight glad we were of the buffalo robe 
 of silver wolf, which had been sent after us with kind forethought 
 from the George ; it was fit for the Emperor of all the Bussias, or 
 even that Magician, who can conjure millions out of discredit, 
 the financial Chase. It drizzled too, so out came Banting's 
 wonderful umbrella, and my poor old Sarie Gamp, which 
 horrified him ; but she's quite good enough for me, and better 
 than his jemmy affair, as no one falls in love with her. Looking 
 back ever and anon, and looking forward now, the scene from 
 that vast height was great. The mountains and the little hills 
 lay tossed about in wild confusion, and one could see the sea, 
 they said, into Scotland, too, and over islet-dotted Winder- 
 mete. We had sunshine enough yesterday for many a day, 
 and the sullenness of all around after it had got out fair was 
 grand. What a spot for the rites of Baal this must have been, 
 and was. Why the remnants of the ordeal by fire have scarcely 
 died out yet in that most superstitious of Counties, in which a 
 man dare at his peril cry " Cuckoo" in Borrowdale. During this 
 drive I was struck with the children clustering about the 
 carriage, or running in the hope of coppers, just as they used 
 to do in Ireland before the famine, which I witnessed. What 
 a sight of woe and want was that, indeed ! The men and 
 women wan and wasted, stiicken down and thudded, crawling 
 shadows of their former selves — the children with their pro- 
 truding, sightless eyes, swollen bellies, withered haunches, and 
 limbs no thicker than their bones. The whole country looked 
 c irsed, Godforgotten, lost and dreary even in the mocking 
 s inshine in its loveliest parts I had known in happier days. 
 Death, stalking as he did, mowing down his thousands in a 
 week, was in truth a blessing, when life was utter desolation. 
 
 At length the sun dissipated the vapour, and in descending 
 Troutbeck, the ever-changing lovely valley enchanted us by its 
 exquisite variety. Such ferns there were, and miles of under- 
 wood of brilliant broom, like Californian gold amongst the 
 
42 
 
 freshest green about. Hence it was that Hogarth sprang, or 
 rather here and at Kirby Thore his people lived, though he 
 himself was born in London. As an engraver, a painter, a 
 humorist of the highest order, and the most genial friend, his 
 fame will be familiar as household words, so long as a relish 
 for English art exists. The named is derived from hogardr— an 
 enclosure for hay — and the old family were well-to-do 'states- 
 men. The graceful lines Garrick wrote, and had engraved 
 upon the tomb at Chiswick, bespeak at once the author and 
 the artist : — 
 
 Farewell, great painter of mankind, 
 Who reach'd the noblest point of wit : 
 Whose pictured morals charm the mind, 
 And through the eye correct the heart. 
 If genius fire thee, reader, stay ; 
 If nature touch thee, drop a tear ; 
 If neither move thee, turn away, 
 For Hogarth's honoured dust lies here. 
 The sun made it delightfully hot as we rattled along this happy 
 valley; and at last we came to the border of the lake, which 
 Banting dilated upon as having originally been spelt Winander- 
 mere, and combated the received derivation of Gwyn- 
 dur-mere — meaning clear water — as the Celts invariably 
 put their qualifying word last. Which was correct made little 
 difference in its beauty— though mind it is inferior to Fatter- 
 dale — but our conversation soon followed a groove into which 
 mine host slid as it were by nature and inclination. Butter- 
 mere might be, he said, Booth-tor-mere, the lake of the village 
 on the hill as Wordsworth has it ; yet his opinion inclined to 
 that of Ferguson, who considers that the old Norse hero, 
 Buthar Lipr, from whom Butter lip Haw takes its name, has 
 something to do with it. Brothers-water we passed on the 
 road, is Irom Broad dur or Broad water— and it is a tarn just 
 about square. The distinctive difference between a tarn, the 
 Scandinavian spelling of which is tjorn or tjarn, and a lake is 
 that it has no visible inlet or supply, being simply the result of 
 day water, natural drainage, and the weeping from rocks — 
 hence its name, the Danish word taar being almost our own 
 tear. Many of these lake-names have personal associations, 
 and many are purely descriptive. Crummock Water, for in- 
 stance, originally Crumbeck, is compounded of beck aud 
 Krumr, a proper name. In old Norse the final r after a con- 
 sonant 'was not pronounced, and merely signified the nomina- 
 tive case. Again, Ambleside, originally Hamelside (where, 
 by-the-bye, Scott has erected one of his best churches), in like 
 manner is the habitation of Hamel. Grassmoor, Grasmere, and 
 Grisedale are referable to swine ; Gris being the old Saxon for 
 wild pig, which haunted these places. Old man from Alt man, 
 or high mountain. Bassenthwaite from Bassing and thwaite, 
 the habitation of this family, or rather the descendants of Bass, 
 the Saxon patronymic ing being the same as Mac or O', meaning 
 sons or issue. Derwent water from the Celtic Dur (clear), and 
 guyn (water). Some will have it that the river Derwent is the 
 winding water, but there are many of that name, few of which 
 are particularly tortuous, though all are clear. Penrith sig- 
 nifies the hill of the ford, though it is usually given as red 
 hill, which Banting declares to be incorrect. Keswick, for- 
 
43 
 
 merly Keldswicke, means the place of the springs by the 
 water; and, remembering Home Tooke's remark, "Letters, 
 like soldiers, are apt to drop off on a long march," the original 
 orthography has been well preserved. Patterdale, with its well 
 dedicated to St. Patrick, has reference to him. Then as to the 
 names of mountaius. The King of Saxony, a learned authority 
 on these subjects, derives Blencathra from blein (shiny), and 
 catbara (rugged), and it answers that description, the mica in 
 its formation being brilliant in its early stages of degradation. 
 Mell fell is from the proper name Mioll (meaning fresh snow), 
 and is sometimes spelt Maol lell ; the Norwegian Mel Fjeld 
 and the Icelandic Mseli Fell corresponding, the meol, a wind- 
 mill, having nothing to do with it, though the usually accepted 
 base. Scratch Meal Scar is undoubtedly from Skratti, a demon, 
 hence our " old Scratch ;" and mella is ancient Norse for an 
 evil spirit closely related to Mioll, in fact his twin brother. 
 The theory of deriving names of places from two or more dis- 
 tinct languages is now common, but dangerous on the face of 
 it. An exception in Dunmail liaise, however, presents itself, 
 the former, being unmistakeably British, should have had 
 cairn after instead of Raise, which is pure Scandinavian, 
 meaning the same thing so far as the pile of stones goes, though 
 the raise was always to indicate a grave beneath, and the 
 cairn oftener a landmark or memorial— witness that to the 
 Prince Consort at Balmoral as the latest instance. And so on, 
 ad infinitum. For Christian names the Yankees exceed all 
 nations in eccentricities and ugliness. I have known families 
 distinguished by letters of the alphabet, the K Smiths, for in- 
 stance, being thus picked out of the herd from the A's, B's, 
 &c. There is a family in Michigan whose sons were named 
 One Stickney, Two Stickney, Three Stickney, and whose daugh- 
 ters were called First Stickney, Second Stickney, and so on 
 Three elder children of a family in Vermont were christened 
 Joseph, And, Another; and it is supposed that, should they 
 have any more, they might have named them Also, Moreover, 
 Nevertheless, and Notwithstanding. Another family actually 
 named their child Finis, supposing that it was their last ; but 
 they afterwards happened to have a daughter and two sons, 
 whom they called Addenda, Appendix, and Supplement. 
 Another parent set out to perpetuate the twelve apostles, and 
 named the fifth child Acts. A man in Pennsylvania called his 
 second son James Also, and the third William likewise. 
 Following out this favourite study of Banting, I have 
 long taken an interest in names, and once made a list from 
 observation of odd instances, those in Devon being by far 
 the quaintest. It is curious to observe there are above a quarter 
 of a million of persons in England and Wales bearing the cos- 
 mopolitan surname of Smith, and above 4f,000 persons in 
 Scotland. If you meet 73 persons in England, or even 68 in 
 Scotland, you may expect to find a Smith among them. Next 
 to Smith there comes in each country a purely local name — 
 Jones in England and Wales, Macdonald in Scotland ; in every 
 73 persons in Scotland there is a Macdonald. The next most 
 common names in England are : — Williams, Taylor, Davies, and 
 Brown ; in Scotland, Brown occupies a very high numerical 
 position, but several purely Scottish names also stand high upon 
 
44 
 
 the list— Robertson, Stewart, Campbell, Anderson. There is a 
 much greater clan predominance of surnames in Scotland than 
 in England. There are in both countries many surnames de- 
 rived from occupation, locality, or personal qualities ; while in 
 England in the 50 most common surnames only 27, in Scotland 
 37 — the great majority — are real patronymics and truly sire- 
 names, either in their pure unaltered state, as Grant, Came- 
 ron, Ac, or altered so as to express the descent, as in Robert- 
 son and Morrison, or with the Gaelic Mac. A recent examina- 
 tion of the birth-register of Scotland for a year showed 104,018 
 births and only 6,823 separate surnames ; so that there are 
 more than 15 persons, upon an average, to a surname, or only 
 6 5 surnames to 100 persons. In England, a similar examina- 
 tion by the Registrar-General showed only 8 - 4 persons to a sur- 
 name, or 12 surnames to 100 persons. The proportion of 
 persons attached to each surname would have been still larger 
 in Scotland, and more than double that of England, but for the 
 immense immigration from Ireland in the last quarter of a 
 century. In the Scottish registers the 50 most common sur- 
 names embrace nearly 30 per cent, of all the names on the re- 
 gister ; in England only about 18 per cent. Of the 50 most 
 common surnames in Scotland, 32 either entirely or in the form 
 in which they occur in Scotland may be reckoned as having 
 originated in that country, and a3 being peculiar to it — a very 
 large proportion considering all circumstances. The remainder 
 are common also to England. The sobriquets perpetuated as 
 surnames from a supposed likeness to the animal creation of 
 course vary in England and Scotland with the language of each 
 country. English Fox is superseded in Scotland by Tod, a very 
 common name, having the same meaning. Bullock becomes 
 Stott, and Crow Craw. Hogg in Scotland is not to be traced 
 to pig, but a lamb a year old. Mr Stork, of the Scottish 
 register-office, from whose sixth annual report (just issued) 
 these statements are taken, has also had the curiosity to note 
 the Christian names occurring upon the registers. In 3,690 
 entries of births of boys there were only 67 different Christian 
 names, but among a like number of girls there were S6. John 
 and James greatly preponderate among the boys. Among the 
 girls Margaret is the favourite name, but Mary is very close to 
 it. In the Highland clans Mary decidedly preponderates, but 
 Margaret in all other parts of Scotland. Several names not un- 
 common among girls in England did not occur so many as three 
 times in the entire Scottish list of 3,689— Beatrice, Clara, 
 Emma, Julia, Lucy ; and among the 3,690 boys there were not 
 three with either of several of our common English names — 
 Alfred, Arthur, Benjamin, Frederick, Philip, Stephen. The 
 girls' list shows many variations from what we should find in 
 England ; there are twice as many Elspeths as Emilys, twice as 
 many Marjorys as Louisas, four times as many Euphemias as 
 Harriets, five times as many Graces as Carolines. 
 
 Well, at length we reached the well-kept villas clustering 
 about Windermere, and were soon set down at Rigg's Hotel, 
 from which the view is so fine. What the private apartments 
 may command, I know not, though some friends we found there 
 said their breakfast was capital ; our's in the coffee-room was 
 execrable in every way. We strolled down to the lake, past 
 
45 
 
 Spencer Hall's hydropathic establishment, 'ami found its surface 
 crowded with empty boats, "as the season had not commenced," 
 notwithstanding such weather. From its natural formation 
 the lake district is, of course, generally moist, and some idea 
 may be formed from the fact that at Seathwaite, in Borrowdale, 
 no less than 35 inches of rain fell last September (1863). What 
 fell at Keswick during May of that year, I have been unable 
 accurately to make out, hut this year the table is as follows, 
 and without any parallel, they tell me. Nay, such a season 
 they have had during the whole of June and the better half of 
 July, when we were shivering on the east side of the island, as is 
 not in the memory of living man. We all remember the straw- 
 berries without flavor, and the hay without fragrance ; in 
 fact, vegetation halted rather than progressed till St. Swithiu 
 came, and ever since then the drought has been as destructive 
 as the withering cold. Turnips don't grow, peas don't fill, nor 
 potatoes swell ; the brittle stalks of the light-eared corn, 
 blighted with black lice and red robin, snap prostrate and 
 wasted by the electric gusts. Lean stock is a drug, and fat at 
 prices fabulous. The wells fail, and springs, hitherto inex- 
 haustible, cease their welcome health- bestowing flow. Far- 
 mers —with true English privilege, ever grumbling, though ever 
 genial — may well look glum ; and so may we, for the year will 
 he short— very short indeed. Even the foliage, frizzled on the 
 trees, falls 'ere its due time, or rattles in the air. July, as we 
 all know, is usually wet, and to shew the gage this year, Mr 
 Plant, M.B.M.S., says that at Birmingham the fall of rain there 
 that month — - 7 inch — was less than in any previous July since 
 1825, when only 0"32 inch was collected ! For another com- 
 parison we must go back to 1800. The summer of 1826 was 
 very dry ; only 0"53 inch of rain fell there in two months end- 
 ing July 1, but the country suffered more from intense heat 
 than drought. There was more rain in July, 1826, than in the 
 same month in 1825. At Brackley, Northamptonshire, August 
 6, at 3 p.m., the temperature of the air was 75 deg., while the 
 dew point (that is, the temperature to which a body must be 
 reduced in order for the moisture in the atmosphere to begin 
 to condense upon it) was as low as 47 J deg., or 27^ deg. lower 
 than the air temperature. The atmosphere near the surface of 
 the earth contained at the time only 38 per cent, of the vapour 
 of water that it was capable of holding. The wind was north- 
 westerly and moderate, the barometer stood at 20'65 inches, and 
 the sky brilliantly clear.* But here's the table taken at Kes- 
 wick : — 
 
 Rainfall, May 1864. Inches. 
 
 May 2nd -582 
 
 "3rd 174 
 
 "4th 150 
 
 "6th -148 
 
 "7th -470 
 
 "21st -130 
 
 " 29th -145 
 
 "31st -250 
 
 Total s 2049 
 
 The month of May, 1 863, was unusually fine, yet that of this 
 * Appendix. 
 
40 
 
 year surpassed it, as the following extract from Mr Fletcher's 
 " Meteorological Journal '' at Tarubank, proves : — 
 Date. Temperature. Eain. 
 
 ^x. Mil 5g go" Kange. g£J Inches 
 
 May, 1863.. 028 .. 360 .. 54"5 .. 429 .. 268 .. 4872 .. 3756 
 May, 1864.. 78'0 .. 363 .. 59'9 .. 436 .. 417 .. 51-60 .. 2"264 
 The thermometers are standards by Negretti and Zambra, and 
 are four feet above the ground. 
 
 'Ere we went down to the station, Banting received a tele- 
 graphic summons to the West Riding, so instead of driving to 
 Keswick we had each other's company so far as Darlington, 
 where we terminated our trip by a little dinner at the King's 
 Head. I ordered it by telegraph from Tebay. "Dinner for 
 three at seven sharp to-night. T bring fish." Is that all, he 
 said, and where's the third ? All ! quite enough for so good a 
 caterer as you'll see the landlady is. The new tenants 
 are gathering money like hay, and will make their fortunes if 
 they stand corn. As for the odd man, George here will join us, 
 and we will to give you the best dinner we can get. He's fresh 
 from the Sportsman at Caernarvon, though his healthy appetite 
 did not require the good training of that excellent house to 
 enjoy the fare to-night. There was only an hour before the 
 mail train time, but we did a vast deal of execution in sixty 
 minutes. Really, folks may think we were bagmen, " boxing 
 Harry," and out for the week ; but it is pleasant now and then 
 to sing with " our own Sweet Will," 
 
 Then heigh ho ! the holly ! 
 
 The holly ! 
 This life is most jolly, 
 
 Most jolly. 
 
 They are welcome to every speculation within their power, as 
 it does not affect the point one whit. We had a few days of 
 real enjoyment, for which my thanks are due to a couple of as 
 hospitable and as intelligent fellows as are out, and whose kind- 
 ness I can never forget. If anybody else has my luck, may the 
 same feelings be excited— so now. But what on earth should we 
 have done without these public-houses, so reviled by a well- 
 meaning and industrious party, capable of so much good by 
 their admirable organization, yet effecting so little ? We 
 should have been wholly incompetent to derive amusement for 
 want of home comforts, and hence the rapid interchange of 
 passing thoughts would have been impossible. True, every- 
 thing depends upon the choice of our companions in a 
 tour. We must have originality — similarity of taste — 
 and that freshness — that vigour of mind and determination to 
 make the best of whatever comes uppermost. Of course you 
 must ; but suppose for a moment, instead of being treated as we 
 were at the George and at Brownrigg's, the tariff bad been re- 
 versed—the women crabbed, the waiters crusty, aud the menus 
 miserable ! Does any one in his senses believe we could 
 have been so blithe aud hearty as we were ? Not a bit 
 of it — we should never have been in form at all. As it 
 was, we made the most of it ; and let eaoh who can follow the 
 example — that's all I have got to say. These two hotels are 
 not so large as those at Grasmere, Low Wood, Fortinscale, 
 
47 
 
 Windermere, Ullswater, or Bowness ; but I'll back their service 
 to be incomparably better, judging from my friends' experience 
 and my own at various times. The only parallel in the district 
 was the Queen's Head, at Keswick, in old John Frank's time. 
 Buried alive at Oswestry, that man's retirement is a posi- 
 tive loss to tourists— but may he with his kindly family 
 long live to reap their well-earned otium cum dignitate. Such 
 tenants command success. They combine all the essentials of 
 the Boniface and Barleycorn families, which may be summed 
 up in scrupulous attention to the outer and the inner man, 
 with the clever tact of making their guests, whatever their 
 condition, thoroughly comfortable and contented. As Mont- 
 gomery says : — 
 
 " Hail to the timely welcome of an inn ; 
 Hail to the room where home and cheer begin : 
 Where all the frost-bound feelings melt away, 
 And soul- warm sympathies begin to play, 
 While independence shows her manly mien, 
 And sterling traits of human life are seen." 
 At Kirkby Stephen there was the inevitable poet Close, with 
 his interminable books and papers, the latter of which he will 
 supply whether one asks or no. Poor man, he boasts the 
 patronage of the Queen and Prince, the French Emperor, 
 Bishops by the basketful, Duchesses by the dozen, and Peers 
 innumerable. Whether from a typographical error or no, by 
 way of a joke indicative of the merits of his authorship or 
 otherwise, I cannot determine, but he makes out the Hon. Col. 
 Lowther, M.P. , to be the wise man of Stainmore, and has the 
 advantage of the countenance even of the High Sheriff of West- 
 moreland and the influential Pease family ! All this is in print, 
 and much more ; but, knowing the facts, the climax is worth 
 quotation, and defies criticism :— 
 
 " A curious Sight to see at the Kirkby-Stephen Station — the 
 Poet who has fought so many Battles with Punch ; a Pension 
 granted by Lord Palmerston, and £100 from the Queen — to see 
 this man selling his own Books and Portraits at the said Station, 
 talking with Lords and Bishops. Punch has been pleased to 
 praise his last book in connection with the talented Martin 
 Tupper." 
 
 We all three got on talking about dogs and horses, riding and 
 walking. For the latter exercise I know no better preparation 
 than four ounces of clarified white soap, four ounces of clarified 
 mutton suet, and the same quautity of olive oil, with a little 
 essential oil of lavender, to make the application pleasant. Of 
 these ingredients mix the three latter, adding the former, 
 and with the compound anoint your feet well each morning 
 before going out, and slightly on coming in. So far as I am 
 concerned, soaping the socks is all that is necessary for hard 
 and continuous work ; but mentioning this the other day to 
 Charles Elson, the Northampton pedestrian, who does 56 miles 
 a day continuously with ease, and will back himself to surpass 
 his trainer, Mountjoy, who accomplished no less than 60 for 
 six successive days in the year 1S40, he told me all he used was 
 strong brine at night, and a good dry rub after each journey. 
 It is wonderful to see that man run, or rather bound, and 
 spring as he does, without touching the ground with his heel ; 
 taking a fresh man every mile, and beating ten of them within 
 
43 
 
 the hour. He is only 30 years of age and looks younger, stands 
 5 feet 5 inches, and has the most delicately small arms to 
 extraordinary legs, while his chest, of course, is well formed. 
 But for all foot exercise a vast deal depends on boots." He, to 
 be sure, uses shoes ; but for each it is essential to have good 
 dubbing, and perhaps one of the best receipts is this : — Stew 
 for four hours in a steam bath, and then stir till cold, a pint 
 of boiled drying oil, the like quantity of neat's-foot oil, one 
 pound of Russian tallow, half a pound of bees-wax, and the 
 same weight of Venice turpentine. If the mixture is too stiff 
 or inconveniently thick, add more neat's-foot oil, and boil 
 again for a few minutes. For a common dressing for fishing 
 boots there is nothing like fine shreds of Indian rubber dissolved 
 in an equal weight of linseed or fish oil er goose grease. These 
 are of course merely for keeping them in order ; but before every 
 season, if your man is not up to it, the shoemaker should have 
 your boots, and thoroughly soak and soften them for at least 
 three days. Everything depends upon the condition of one's 
 feet, otherwise the best man in England would be nothing on the 
 read or noir. 
 
 In these papers nothing in the form of a guide-book, of which 
 there are already sufficient, has been attempted. They have been 
 written more with a view to forming a grateful souvenir of 
 six happy days passed by friends in the eDjoyment of each other's 
 society ; but the Counties embraced in the narrative are so inte- 
 resting that a reference to the books consulted may perhaps lead 
 others to tread the same ground. The history of Westmoreland 
 and Cumberland, published in 1829 by Parson and White ; Tur- 
 ner's history of the Anglo-Saxons ; Gibbon's " Decline and Fall ;" 
 the Rev. Isaac Taylor's " Words and Places," issued this year, 
 and reviewed in the July number of the Quarterly, occur to me 
 at this moment, as well as "Buckle's History of Civilization," 
 to my mind the most interesting and instructive book of this 
 century; Magna Britannia et Hibernia, antiqua et nova — a 
 very scarce and old book by "an impartial hand," but without 
 the author's name ; Whellan's clear and comprehensive History 
 and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland ; Camden's 
 Britannia ; Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes ; 
 Latham's Ethnology of the British Islands ; his Eastern Origin 
 of Celtic Nations, and his English Language ; Lyell's Antiquity 
 of Man ; Thos. Wright's the Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon — 
 a very useful book; Yonge's History of Christian names; 
 Borrow's Wild Wales ; Celtic researches into the origin, tra- 
 ditions, and language of the antient Britons, by Edwd. Davis ; 
 and Lord Ellesmere's Arohajology ; but above all perhaps the 
 most useful authors for the subject, iu a local point of view, 
 are Ferguson, Anderson, and Worsaae already mentioned. 
 
49 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Vide p. 6 ante. 
 
 After a similar fashion to the extraordinary mode of courtship 
 referred to— ancient customs, no doubt, for securing a material 
 guarantee for the future prospect of peopling the earth — 
 we have the bundling of Wales, and the nocturnal visits of 
 the betrothed in the Canton of Unterwald. The publication 
 of the remarks, circumstances, observations, and facts I felt 
 compelled to notice with reference to the preponderance of 
 illegitimate births in Cumberland having startled a number 
 of persons possibly, and " nettled" an anonymous corres- 
 pondent writing under the sobriquet of " A Cumbrian," 
 it is, perhaps, better to extract the note from Anderson's Cum- 
 berland ballads, referred to in the text under the date of the 
 17th May, premising that no more fair or truthful writer is 
 extant : 
 
 Note TIL, p. 202. 
 " "When aw t'auld fwok were liggin asleep. 
 
 A Cumbrian peasant pays his addresses to his sweetheart during 
 the silence and solemnity of midnight, when every bosom is at 
 rest save that of love and sorrow. Anticipating her kindness, he 
 will travel ten or twelve miles over hills, bogs, moors, and mosses, 
 undiscouraged by the length of the road, the darkness of the night, 
 or the intemperature of the weather. On reaching her habitation 
 he gives a gentle tap at the window of her chamber, at which 
 signal she immediately arises, dresses herself, and proceeds with 
 all possible silence to the door, which she gently opens, lest a 
 creaking hinge or a barking dog should awaken the family. On 
 his entrance into the kitchen, the luxuries of a Cumbrian cottage 
 — cream and sugared curds— are placed before him by the fair 
 band of his Dulcinea. Next the courtship commences, pre- 
 viously to which the fire is darkened or extinguished, lest its light 
 should guide to the window some idle or licentious eye. In this 
 dark and uncomfortable situation (at least uncomfortable to all 
 but lovers) they remain till the advance of day, depositingin each 
 other's bosoms the secrets of love, and making vows of unalterable 
 affection. Though I am so far partial to my fair countrywomen — 
 deaf in some instances — and respect their very prejudices, I can- 
 not conclude this note without representing to them the danger 
 and impropriety of admitting the visits of their lovers during these 
 hours of the night, which virtue and innocence have appropriated 
 to repose. Nothing more encourages unbecoming familiarities, 
 nothing more promotes dissolute manners, nothing more endangers 
 female chastity, nothing more facilitates the designs of the seducer 
 
50 
 
 than these nvM courtships. A custom that leads to such serious 
 consequences, however general it may be, or whatever antiquity it 
 may claim, cannot be too soon abolished ; and I am so much con- 
 vinced of the good sense and purity of mind of the Cumbrian fair, 
 that I am confident as soon as they reflect on the guilt and misery 
 to which it so often leads, their virtue will take alarm, and they 
 will see the danger which arises from admitting the visits of men 
 in improper situations and at improper times." 
 
 This custom, and the statute fair3 still prevailing, cause and 
 effect being indissoluble, and human nature as it was in the 
 beginning, I have nothing to retract— nay, rather much to add, 
 were it worth while, on this subject, and that of ignorance and 
 superstition. Suffice it to say, however, the Cockermouth, 
 Keswick, and Penrith Railway will be opened next month— the 
 Directors having exercised in these days of carelessness and 
 costs a wise discretion in their cautious delay— and civilization 
 is at hand. While yielding to no one in loving the Lake Dis- 
 trict, with its every yard of beauty and of interest, so readily 
 enjoyed on horseback, with a knapsack or otherwise, it would 
 be stupid to ignore facts— such blindness is mere prejudice, 
 and concealment weakness, if not worse. 
 
 Let any impartial man read Miss Martineau's little guide 
 book and peruse pages 35-8 and 57 if he denies the intellec- 
 tual condition of the county, which, existing in this enlightened 
 age when reason guides the chariot, bearing onward, swiftly on- 
 ward science and knowledge understandedof the people, shames 
 to one's very face the pious frauds spoken of by Matthew Paris, 
 the most eminent historian of the thirteenth century ; Tubin- 
 gen's delude and Auriol's Ark at Toulouse in 1524 ; Horst's 
 golden tooth in 1595 ; giants 30 feet high, winged dragons and 
 armies flying through the air, all implicitly believed in with 
 other falsehoods no less extravagant and more crafiy during the 
 Ages of Faith, which were really cycles of delusion and darkness. 
 
 P. 18 ante. 
 
 With reference to the holmgang, the reader may be referred 
 to the 13th sect, of Worsaae's book, as well as other authors 
 mentioned- and for its illustration to No. 542 in this year's 
 academy, "A Norwegian duel," by Tidemand, which claimed 
 as prominent attention during the season as any work in the 
 gallery Until the Exhibition of 1862 this great artist, the 
 head of his school, was almost unknown in this country, save 
 to the highest connoisseurs in art, such as the late Duke of 
 Hamilton the late Lord Lansdowne, the late Lord Ellesmere, 
 and Messrs Cowan and Mathiesen, each of whom lent his pictures 
 on that memorable occasion. Mr Phillips, of 23, Cockspur- 
 street London, in making his extraordinaiy acquisitions in 
 1862 'all of which were particularised in my "Impression" 
 under the date the 28th November in that year, selected at 
 once from this artist the only picture exhibited on sale, No. 
 1428 and no one who beheld "The Administration of the 
 Sacrament to sick persons and cripples in a Norwegian hut," 
 can ever forget its force, or dispute the accurate taste dictating 
 its purchase. But he did more, for he at once commissioned 
 the artist to paint an original picture, leaving the size and 
 detail and subject and everything to himself. The result is the 
 
51 
 
 vemarkable work contributed. I make no apology in explain- 
 ing it in the artist's own words, feeling assured that in au 
 historical point of view it will be as interesting as the paiuting 
 itself is in an artistic. So soon as the letter reached Englaud, 
 the following literal translation was placed in my hands : — 
 
 " You have asked me for some explanatory remarks on my pic- 
 ture of "A Norwegian Duel, "and I have much pleasure in noting 
 down the following facts and observations : — There are traditions, 
 songs, and legends of such fights, which generally occurred at 
 weddings, wakes, and yule feasts ; in short, whenever and where- 
 ever there were gatherings of the people. On such occasions 
 grudges, enmities and rancours came to a head, and were settled 
 by combat ; or — and such an event is suggested by my picture — 
 the dispute was caused by some incident which occurred at the 
 feast, when brains and tongue were excited with drink, and the 
 provocation thus given had to be atoned for in blood. These com- 
 bats, as compared to the brawls of the present day, were decent, 
 solemn, and in fact, chivalrous. They had their rules, which 
 every one observed, and which were enforced by the bystanders. 
 Their issue was held as a legal decision. Few complaints arising 
 from such deeds were ever made to the authorities ; but in most 
 cases, more especially when no mortal blows had been struck, 
 some sort of compensation or indemnity was agreed on by the 
 families of the combatants. I, myself, know of a case where a 
 man's arm was wrenched out of the socket in the course of a fight. 
 Instead of an action for assault, the case was arbitrated on by 
 the friends of both parties, and the compensation consisted in a 
 few days' assistance in harvesting, which the victor promised to 
 give to the man he had injured. The duel which forms the sub- 
 ject of my picture is a fight with axes — a weapon much in use 
 about 150 years ago. It is still found in some of the peasants' 
 houses, and fine specimens are preserved in the Old Norwegian 
 Museum at Christiania. The axe was the peasant's staff and 
 weapon, which he carried about wherever he went, even to church, 
 when they were placed in the porch, which to this day retains its 
 old name of the armoury. The handle was bent and shod with 
 iron stripes, to guard it from blows ; and the blade was thin and 
 carefully worked. My picture represents the issue of a combat 
 with this weapon, and that issue — in the present instance— is 
 fatal to both combatants. According to tradition, the duel took 
 place at a farm in Tellemark, in Southern Norway, and the place 
 is still shown where seven men fell in combat. They had long 
 been feasting and drinking at the farm, when high words were 
 uttered, closely followed by defiance, and that by fi^ht. The man 
 who had first been struck down has been laid on a bench near the 
 table. His young wife, frantic with grief, leans over him, and her 
 child, dimly conscious of a great misfortune, hides its face in the 
 mother's lap. Next to her a little boy, roused from sleep, climbs 
 upon a chair. An elderly man — one who has seen many blows 
 struck in his time — leans ever the body, and, hoping against 
 hope, examines the wound. The other combatant has meanwhile 
 been raised by his friends. Between the two groups an old woman 
 — the mother of the dead man — presses forward ; on her arm is a 
 winding sheet, which women frequently took to feasts, so as to be 
 prepared for all emergencies. Grief, wrath, and revenge strive for 
 the mastery, and with her left arm raised, she invokes heaven's 
 curse upon the murderer. The whole party has broken up — the 
 women move the plates and dishes. In thebackground, a young 
 man leaps over the table to join the principal group, resume the 
 quarrel, and perhaps renew the fight. Crowded together near the 
 hearth, and struggling, illuminated by its blaze, are some women 
 and children. From the bench this side the hearth rises an old 
 blind fiddler, and attempts to grope his way to the door. Two 
 children have sought refuge in the bed, where, frantic with fcur, 
 
 n 
 
52 
 
 they cling to one another. Quite in the foreground to the right, a 
 man comes up from the cellar with a can of beer. The farm-house 
 is built in the oldest fashion to be found in Norway. There is no 
 chimney, and the smoke eddies up and escapes through an outlet 
 in the roof. A moveable bracket projecting over the hearth serves 
 for the hanging up of the pots and kettles over the fire. It is orna- 
 mented with a dragon's head, and this ornamentation, too, in a 
 manner, connects the present with the old pagan times. — With 
 very best greetings, Adolph Tidemand. 
 
 Mr Alfred Morrison, of Fonthill Abbey, a munificent patron 
 of art, secured this interesting example of the Scandinavian 
 school, the size of which is 7ft. 9^in. by 5ft. G^in. sight measure. 
 With reference to my friend Mr Phillips, I wrote the following 
 paragraph for the Durham Chronicle of the 15th January last : — 
 "In our issues of the 10th of October and 28th of Novem- 
 ber, 1862, in the series of papers on the International Exhi- 
 bition of that year, occasion was taken to review, amongst the 
 many collections then exhibited with an emulation and success 
 never surpassed, that of Mr Robert Phillips, of 23, Cockspur- 
 street, Charing Cross, goldsmith, by appointment, to H.R.H. the 
 Prince of Wales. It is unnecessary to repeat the high opinion 
 then expressed of him, either as a virtuoso or a jeweller. At 
 that time his reproductions and adaptations to the present 
 fashion of Egyptian and Etruscan ornaments elicited the 
 unanimous applause of the best judges, and bore the palm 
 even against Castellani, while his display of coral surpassed all 
 the Italian courts unitedly could show. In full corroboration 
 of every word the writer said, the subsequent report to the 
 Imperial Government of the members of the Erench section of 
 the International Jury upon the entirety of the Exposition, 
 published under the immediate direction of their chief, M. 
 Michel Chevalier,- vol. 16, p. 45, observes : — 'M. Phillips, de 
 Londres, est un concurrent serieux pour nos fabricants ; sa 
 collection de coiffures en oorail est remarquable par l'heureux 
 ajustement des forme3 et la beaute des couleurs. Ses bijoux, 
 dans le genre antique, et entre autres, plusiers colliers dans 
 le gout toscan, sont de veritables types de gr&ce.' At the 
 establishment in Cockspur-street has been for some days on 
 view a marvellous collection of the finest coral and works of 
 art — for such Phillips' jewels are rather than mere displays of 
 wealth, gems in them, wondrous specimens though they be, 
 being auxiliary and subservient to the general effect. Going with 
 the times, no sooner was the Danish marriage with our English 
 Prince — nowthe fresh occasionof happy auspices — decidedupon, 
 than, in addition to the adaptations previously mentioned, he 
 ransacked Scandinavian models, and has produced a variety of 
 interesting objects in the most correct taste and perfect work- 
 manship, all from antique designs, though new to our English 
 ideas. Nor are Russian articles, which attracted so much at- 
 tention in 1S62, wanting ; and all these things are so well exe- 
 cuted, from table plate up to personal ornaments, as to rank 
 as works of art each one of them. In our issue, 31st October, 
 ] 862, the sixth of the papers above-mentioned. Mosaic work 
 was specially entered into, and one of the most beautiful ob- 
 jects in Mr Phillips' present display is a specimen of Russian 
 pietra dura, representing a cluster of various fruits, executed 
 
53 
 
 in the round. The raspberries are carved out of rhodonite, the 
 brambles are amethysts, the currants cornelians, the cherries 
 carbuncles, and the foliage jade. By such means is this 
 mockery of nature produced, and the illusion to the eye is so 
 exquisite, that the palate or the touch can alone test the im- 
 posture. Among his acquisitions from the great Exhibition 
 were a set of nine miniature enamels, forming plaques for a 
 casket, by M. Charles Lepec ; and these little gems, which we 
 have had frequent opportunities of examining at leisure, at 
 once stamp the artist as without any question the most original 
 and consummate the world has ever seen. Petitot, Ziucke, 
 Toutin, W. Craft, and numbers of others, brilliant and soft as 
 are their examples, all were copyists, but this man is purely 
 original, not only in design — perhaps a more perfect draughts- 
 man never existed — but in his mode of treatment. As a climax 
 to his efforts in 1 862, Mr Phillips shows the greatest work 
 Lepec has yet conceived or executed, and perhaps the finest 
 specimen of enamel extant. The object is a tazza, or some 
 might call it a coupe. In the hollow is a picture — classic in 
 conception, minutely delicate in detail, and equally brilliant 
 and harmonious in color, as seems invariably to be the case 
 with him — representing "Venus swiftly gliding over the surface 
 of the sea in a car drawn by mermaids, while overhead hovers 
 in mid-air Cupid, with a torch in one hand, and in the other 
 the silken reins wherewith he laughing gently guides the water 
 nymphs. The mermaids represent the two different types of 
 beauty, the blonde and the brunette ; and in each figure there 
 is so much female loveliness, both of form and expression, that 
 one cannot forbear lamenting the hard condition of my- 
 thology which dooms a termination so ignoble to beings at 
 once so attractive and fascinating in the outset of their career : 
 — Superne formosa mulier, desinit inpiscem. The half-buoyant 
 figure of Venus, who, with her fair tresses falling over her 
 shoulders in glossy luxuriance, and her snowy scarf floating 
 gaily in the summer breeze, seems scarce to touch the car, but 
 looks as if about to soar on high, is full of exquisite grace and 
 joyous abandon. The gentle swell and crisp ripple of the sea, 
 upon whose blue water the moon sheds her lustre, is charm- 
 ingly expressed, as also the serene aspect of the sky— its azure 
 vault studded with golden stars and dappled with silver clouds. 
 In the rim, which is concave, are medallion miniatures, mar- 
 vellously painted, of some of the most celebrated women, who, 
 whether in the records of historic or imaginative literature, 
 have exercised the most potent influence over ' the lords of 
 creation.' Of this number are Delilah, Oinphale, Semiramide, 
 Armida, Cleopatra, and Desdemona, whose portraits are in every 
 instance surrounded with allegorical devices emblematic of their 
 respective characters. On the foot, which, a3 well as the stem 
 of the cup, is profusely decorated, are pictures of Laura, Bea- 
 trice, and Leonora, the heroines of the three great Italian poets. 
 The outside of the tazza is elaborately ornamented with flowers 
 and foliage, painted in a manner to resemble the lacquer-work 
 of the Japanese. Tt is not our intention to write any disserta- 
 tion upon the various merits of the cloisonne or champleve pro- 
 cesses -the works of Cellini, those of Venice, Flanders, Flor- 
 ence, or Limoges ; but we believe that so rare an object of fine 
 
54 
 
 art of its kind as that we have attempted thus imperfectly to 
 describe, has not been seen in any age, and the sensation it 
 has created can be no matter of surprise. At the Exhibition of 
 1862 a medal, No. 6,658, class 33, was awarded to Mr Phillips 
 for ' works in gold and silver, coral and precious stones, excel- 
 lence of design and manufacture,' and no one has better sus- 
 tained his reputation." 
 
 Mr Morrison also became the shrewd purchaser of this mar- 
 vellous object, of the plaques mentioned above, many other of 
 the choicest gems in the Exhibition, and T hope may secure 
 those with which M. Lepec has just supplied my friend, about 
 whom the Art Journal writes this month : — 
 
 THE POMPEIAN NARCISSUS. 
 
 The agents of the government excavating at Pompeii, 
 under Signor Fiorelli, have recently discovered some relics 
 of great beauty and value, of which one of the most 
 precious is a statuette of Narcissus, to which, in its sacred 
 oxide of nearly eighteen centuries, a place has been assigned 
 in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, among the bronzes 
 from Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabia;. Our knowledge of 
 the statuette is derived from a reproduction in the possession 
 of Mr Phillips, 23 Cockspur-street, who has been appointed the 
 agent in this country for the disposal of copies. The height of 
 the figure is about two feet ; it stands with the weight of the 
 body resting on the left leg, the right leg behind, as if having 
 either suddenly stopped, or moving very stealthily forward. 
 The right hand is held out as the action of a listener enjoying 
 silence, and the inclination of the head forward and sideways 
 coincides with the hand, as the natural position assumed by a 
 person either listening to an indistinct sound, or waiting for 
 its repetition. The left hand rests upon the side, with the 
 elbow thrown out. The hair is confined by a chaplet without 
 leaves, but with bunches of benics over the forehead— perhaps 
 myrtle or ivy, in which case the artist must have intended a 
 convivial crown. From the left shoulder depend the spoils of a 
 goat, in allusion to the hunting excursions undertaken with his 
 sister. Another reference to this is the Cothurnus, which is 
 admirable in design, as from the he< 1-piece rises a flower that 
 spreads forward on eve'-y practicable space to the front of the 
 foot. The modelling of this, together with the front lacing, 
 is most perfect, and the same care prevails in another part yet 
 more difficult, that is the hair, the arrangement and working 
 of which show the most refined taste and masterly skill. He 
 may be supposed to be listening to the love-wailing of the de- 
 spised Elcho. or he may be contemplating his own figure in the 
 pool, and approaching it with a silent and stealthy step. 
 Youth and beauty are as definite in the figure as In the Apol- 
 lino, and, although at rest, it is as light as the Mercury of Gian 
 Bolonga. In the face there is an individuality far apart from 
 the grave majesty of the Greek type. The expression brings us 
 back to the idea of the wailing Elcho ; the voice seems to be 
 behind him, and he refuses to turn. Whether we consider 
 the back or the front, the course of the lines swelling and re- 
 ceding is remarkably beautiful, and the easy <iuietude and 
 wrapt atten'.ion of the attitude take us into the story, without 
 
55 
 
 leading us to forget the figure, to which, iudeed, it is sorae^ 
 thing to have given a living consciousness of superior personal 
 attraction with some affectation and a maintenance of the 
 style known among ourselves as dandyism. The manner and 
 feeling of the work seems to be Roman. By the way, of Mr 
 Philips's statuette as a copy, it must be said that nothing can 
 be more perfect— we speak, of course, of the surface imitation 
 of the figure, not having seen the original. 
 P. 37. ante. 
 Without an acquaintance with the facts the song loses half 
 its point, but the performance consisted of the trial scene from 
 " the Merchant of Venice," and Bottom's dream in the " Mid- 
 summer's Night's Dream." The verse quoted in the text was 
 the third, the rest being. 
 
 Gloomily roll'd the dull world along 
 Till Pierus gave birth to the Muses and Song ; 
 But Joy ask'd for more than the Grecian Nine, 
 So Noah bethought him, and plated the Vine. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 The first of toasts on our list must be, 
 ' ' The Island Qneen I" with three time three ! 
 May guardian angels round her smile, 
 And shield the throne of the sea girt isle ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 v » y * * 
 
 Now we'll drink in dark red wine, 
 * ' The Tragic Muse in her wreath of vine I" 
 And then a goblet full I'll ask 
 For " Thalia with her comic mask." 
 
 Chorus. 
 With reverend mien we now will fill 
 A bumper to our own "Sweet Will !" 
 Accept, Great Shade ! our widow's mite, 
 Poor tribute that we bring to-night. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Toast now our Actors, every one ; — 
 Thanks for tragedy, thanks for fun, 
 Thanks for song, and thanks for scene, 
 Thanks for the Duke, the King, the Queen. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Thanks for saving Antonio's life 
 From bloody Shylock's sharpen'd knife, 
 Thanks to the Clowns so ably led 
 By wit, for once, in an ass's head. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Thanks to our friend, that rara-avis, 
 Gratiano and Quince, as joined in Davis, 
 Bassanio, too, who has to try-on 
 The tawny skin of a roaring lion. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Thank the " Clerk" that a " tinker" made, 
 The bearded youth that Thisbe played ; 
 Thank the bright elves and fairy myths, 
 Phipps, Wetberell, Bell, and little Smiths. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Thank Starveling, he who next appears, 
 Knight of the thimble and the shears. 
 Starveling ! give to thy starving truce, 
 Forswear thy cabbage and cook thy goose. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
56 
 
 Thanks to our friend who fills the chair, 
 Whose generous hand and vertu rare ; 
 Whose gems and counsels, lace and gold, 
 Made oiir Venetians outshine the old. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Time fails to follow the tempting theme ! 
 Venice farewell ! farewell, sweet "Dream!" 
 Good bye ! sweet Bottom, Titania, Puck ; 
 Adieu, ye flowers, where bees do suck ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Adieu, proud plumes, gold lace, and pearls ; 
 Adieu "mechanical," ill-dressed churls; 
 Adieu the Duke, the Court, the Courtier, 
 The rascal Jew, and the learned Portia. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Adieu the band, the tuneful choir, 
 The painter's brush, and Marshall's lyre ; 
 The curtain falls— dimm'd is the light. 
 "Good night ! with lullaby— Good night !" 
 
 Chorus. 
 And may no sorrow here be found, 
 But mirth and laughter, toasts go round. 
 "Tho" last, not least in our esteem" — 
 Tom Speciall's health— thanks for his theme. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 It seems a strange thing after all, when one comes to think 
 about it, that there should have been so much hubbub and fuss 
 throughout the breadth of merrie England and all Germany 
 to celebrate the birthday of a child 300 years ago, and that 
 even villages became inspired by the enthusiasm and excite- 
 ment of the moment. The rector of Haughton-le-Skerne, the 
 Rev. Edward Cheese, though highly and emphatically disap- 
 proving of the stage and all connected with it, as leading too 
 likely towards dissipation and neglect of work among his 
 parishioners, strove as hard as any man to get up in the neigh- 
 bouring town of Darlington a pronunciation of a more perma- 
 nent and important character than it was found possible to 
 achieve, hit upon the happy expedient of localising the cele- 
 bration of the 23rd of April, 1864, in " the old tithe barn" 
 attached to the rectory, which he of all incumbents on record 
 has made the place of genial githerings. The apartment was 
 hung with flags ; at the back of the dais or stage at the north 
 end was placed the initials of the immortal bard in coloured 
 lamps, and the audience filled the whole of the available space 
 left. About seven o'clock, he read a short address, and intro- 
 duced the name of Mr J. G. Grant, whom he had specially 
 brought over to lecture on " the Life and Works of Shakspeare." 
 The proceedings, however, commenced with a performance by 
 Mrs Cheese on the pianoforte, and then Mr Grant stepped for- 
 ward. As a lecturer generally, and on Shakspeare in particular, 
 this gentleman has few equals. Perhaps his reading of plays 
 and his wonderful power of expression are without parallel in 
 the North of England. He said the bard of Avon had com- 
 posed something like thirty-six distinct works, and among them 
 six or seven tragedies, the least excellent of which were supe- 
 rior to all except the highest order of the Greek drama, while 
 four of them— Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, and Lear— infinitely 
 
57 
 
 surpassed all tragedies, whether aucient or modern, Greek or 
 Gothic, llis comedies, such as "As You Like It," "Much 
 Ado about Nothing," "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and 
 *' Twelfth Night," literally overflowed with wit and humour, 
 besides abounding with profound philosophy and exquisite 
 poetry. His romantic dramas, such as "The Tempest" and 
 "A Midsummer Night's Dream," with the spirits and monsters 
 In the former, and elves and fairies in the latter, exemplify in 
 the highest degree the marvellous inventive faculty of the poet's 
 art — being the pure creation of his original and versatile genius. 
 Indeed, as Dr. Johnson observed, had such beings been possible 
 in life, they would have acted, and thought, and spoken, and 
 moved precisely as Shakspeare tells us, so natural is he even 
 in the preternatural. The lecturer's description of Ariel was 
 charming — "light, graceful, humane, joyous, and exquisite, 
 one of those 
 
 * Gay creatures of the elements 
 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
 
 And play on plighted clouds.' 
 
 The very essence of ethereality ! The very impersonation of 
 glancing, darting, glittering, and unsubstantial beauty and of 
 thought, like the rapidity of motion ! Almost too delicate and 
 fragile to be other than feminine, and yet not female." Shaks- 
 peare's historical dramas, the lecturer remarked, were equally 
 admirable in poetry and natural in spirit. Great kings, grasp- 
 ing and stormy barons, sturdy yeomen, and crafty priests being 
 alike faithfully pourtrayed. One grand peculiarity of Shakspeare 
 was this, that his manner was without mannerism, his style 
 ever without conceit ; and whether he dwelt upon town life or 
 country, legal or medical experience, the court, the camp, or the 
 council, in each he excelled. So profoundly proficient was his 
 knowledge, that his writings never evinced any ignorance of 
 detail or acquisition, the want of which was so marvellous. 
 His lyrics and sonnets — " Venus and Adonis" and " the Rape 
 of Lucrece," for instance — were full of grace and beauty ; and 
 all his writings classed together formed an aggregate of intel- 
 lectual power and wealth unequalled and unapproached in the 
 purest sphere of literature and art of any age or of any coun- 
 try, proving line by line and book after book his inexhaustible 
 acquaintance with human nature, and applying to himself 
 what he wrote of gorgeous Cleopatra — 
 
 "Age cannot wither, 
 Nor custom stale, his infinite variety." 
 By way of illustrating poetic fancy, Mr Grant read, as only lie 
 can read, the scene between Prospero and Ariel. As an instance 
 of the sublime power of the poet, he gave that grand and 
 dramatic scene in Richard III. — Clarence's dream. Comedy 
 was illustrated by the dialogue, graceful and humourous, from 
 "As You Like It," between Orlando and Rosalind, she dis- 
 guised as a boy, and pretending to act his Rosalind, besides 
 the brilliant squabble between Benedict and Beatrice, in 
 "Much ado about Nothing," in a manner which delighted the 
 audience. In defending the morality of Shakespeare, the lec- 
 turer observed that it would be unfair to try the age of Eliza- 
 beth by that of Victoria ; great allowance ought to be made 
 for the bold rudeness of his age, compared with the squeamish 
 
58 
 
 and almost moibid sentimental delicacy of our own. Even his 
 lightest dramas, with all their faults, were openly acted before 
 " the virgin Queen" and her " virgin court" without one word 
 being omitted by the actors, or one syllable of disapprobation 
 from the audience. Such might be the errors of the age, but 
 he mentioned these facts in justification of the idol of the day. 
 As an example of his moral and religious power, Mr Grant read 
 with wonderful expression, from Henry V., the King's conver- 
 sation with two sentinels of his army the night before the battle 
 of Agincourt. Surely, he said, a man who in his own age and 
 by his own contemporaries was called commonly "brave Will," 
 "kind," "sweet," "gentle Will Shakspeare," and in whose 
 honour pretty flowers are named to this day " Sweet William," 
 could not have been any other than one claiming our tenderest 
 affection and our deepest respect, both for his moral excellence 
 and his unbounded talent. At different parts of the lecture. 
 Mr Grant called upon the rustic choral society to perform " Full 
 fathoms five," " Where the bee sucks," and " Come unto these 
 yellow sands," from the Tempest, and "Who is Sylvia" (Cym- 
 beline), and each was given in a manner and with a strength of 
 lungs so vigorous as to show the extreme salubrity of the climate, 
 if nothing else, and in a dialect purely local. By way of con- 
 clusion, "a fairy song" divided a recitation of the quarrel in 
 Julius Ca:sar by Messrs Pallister and Brown, representing Brutus 
 and Cassius— and the handkerchief scene from Othello by Messrs 
 Stabler and Boddy, who sustained the characters of the Moor 
 and Iago respectively. These two efforts produced, notwith- 
 standing their serious nature, the most unbounded mirth, so 
 extremely solemn and furious and determined were the hearty 
 volunteers, one of whom wore an immense beard and mous- 
 taches as his Roman disguise ! ! The proceedings terminated 
 with complimentary speeches and " God Save the Queen," 
 everybody being convinced that no thought could be happier 
 than that of enlisting the sympathies and securing the services 
 of the natives in an entertainment for such a purpose, thus 
 eliciting their interest with a lecture so admirable in every way 
 as that, by the kindness of the Rector, they had the good for- 
 tune to attend. 
 
 In the year 1852, I witnessed, both at Devonshire House and 
 the Lyceum in Sunderland, the performance of that rare band 
 of amateurs who laid the foundation of the guild of literature 
 and art. Antiquated fossil playgoers, carping, snarling critics, 
 who spurn the very notion of nonprofessional attempts as 
 something impertinent and audacious, were alike astonished 
 and bewitched. Under the sole direction of Charles Dickens 
 
 than whom no better or more life-like actor treads the stage 
 
 Mark Lemon, poor Augustus Egg, Frank Stone, Charles 
 
 Knight, Peter Cunningham, Eobert Bell, Wilkie Collins, great 
 John Tenniel, F. W. Topham, and others, formed the troupe 
 for whom Lytton Bulwer wrote " Not so bad as we seem," and 
 dear old Clarkson Stanfield, Telbin, Pitt, Louis Haghe, and 
 glowing David Roberts painted. Such a galaxy of talent defied 
 criticism, and achieved a success that is remembered by each 
 witness of it as nothing short of perfection. To attempt any- 
 thing beyond tableaux vivanU or charades in the way of acting, 
 requires a combination of talent and tact at all times difficult 
 
59 
 
 to attain ; but the very thought of such a thing in Darlington, 
 of all places in the three kingdoms, was considered by many 
 hopeless, and wicked by not a few. So much for faint-hearted- 
 ness and spurious piety, whose professors never reckoned so 
 much without their host as on Tuesday, the 26th of April, 
 when the Darlington Amateur Dramatic Club celebrated the 
 Tercentenary. The entertainment provided by the committee 
 even exceeded the most sanguine anticipations of their best 
 friends— so thoroughly well done was every detail. The names 
 of these gentlemen should be recorded, and each thanked — the 
 chairman, Mr Edward Pease Elgee ; his coadjutors, Messrs 
 Bailey, Heaviside, C. Brady, J. Hoggett, T. Brunton, J. B. 
 Kirsop, J. Davis, W. Lear, J. Fenwick, W. Lee, M. Frier, 
 Thomas Potts, and James Wilson ; the dramatic directors, 
 Messrs W. A. Smith, T. Swinburne, and J. K. Wilkes ; the 
 manager, Mr James Kendall ; the costume director, Mr M. 
 Barker; the courteous and indefatigable hon. sec, Mr G. B. 
 Carter ; the artists, Messrs Elton, Kendall, Bell, and John 
 Dinsdale ; and, "though last not least in our esteem," Mr 
 Clapham and his assistant, Mr Walker (by whom " the fairies" 
 were allowed to aid with charming effect, and no girls could 
 have looked or done better than these clever school-boys)— one 
 and all deserve the kindest greeting. For some days before 
 the performance tickets were so enquired after that it was a 
 matter of no surprise numbers were refused admittance, and 
 the Central Hall has perhaps never witnessed a superior or 
 more universally gratified audience. The little theatre, a trifle 
 too little, with its elegant proscenium surmounted by the arms 
 and monogram of Shakspeare, was arranged on the platform, 
 and the apartment so judiciously lighted that the stage, as in 
 Italy, became, as it ought to be, the centre of attraction. Be- 
 fore half-past seven o'clock every available space seemed filled, 
 and there could not be less than 700 present. Precisely at 
 that hour the bell tinkled — here, it may be observed, nothing 
 could exceed throughout the evening the punctual attention to 
 stage management, it far exceeded the ordinary accuracy of 
 more pretentious houses— and up went the green curtain, dis- 
 playing Mr Elton's graceful drop-scene (fairies dancing on the 
 yellow sands in glowing moonlight), which was much applauded. 
 The performance then commenced with the overture to Cas- 
 sandra by the Philharmonic band, who occupied the orchestra. 
 At its conclusion an admirably painted street scene in Venice, 
 executed by Messrs Bell and Dinsdale from a drawing of Mr 
 Elton's on the spot, was disclosed ; and Mr Kendall delivered 
 the following prologue, which he had composed expressly for 
 the occasion, and by nothing could the earnest of the treat in 
 store have been better harbingered : — 
 
 " All the world's a stage : 
 
 And all the men and women merely player?. 
 
 They have their exits and their entrances." 
 
 Three hundred years ago the world beheld 
 An entrance rare. His life was gentle, 
 And the elements so mixed in him 
 That nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, " This is a man !" 
 
60 
 
 Three hundred years ago none thought the babe 
 
 Slumbering in his cradle should rise up 
 
 And strike with wondrous hand a harp whose chords 
 
 Responding nature ever echoes back, 
 
 Above the noise of party, sect, or creed. 
 
 Strange ! that as lengthening time piles up the years, 
 
 And generations pass, and science grows, 
 
 His words but gather force, and meaning too : 
 
 And furnish cottage, palace, senate, hall, 
 
 With maxim, proverb, wit, law, rhetoric ! 
 
 Hail, William Shakspeare ! such a fame is thine, 
 
 That statues, monuments will fall to dust 
 
 While still the English drama lives in thee : 
 
 And lives because ef thee : and with new lifo 
 
 Must live, since thou hast lived, tho' now and then, 
 
 And here and there, men sagely think to do 
 
 Both God and man a service, when they give 
 
 A dubious hint, or silly slanderous sneer — 
 
 To deprecate the drama, which as surely, 
 
 So long as man shall " strut and fret his hour 
 
 Upon this earthly stage," will ever " hold 
 
 The mirror up to nature," to present 
 
 A reflex of the manners and the ways of men. 
 
 Friends, fellow-men ! let no apology 
 
 Be needed for the play. Apology 1 
 
 T'would be apologising to the world 
 
 That Shakspeare lived 1 The drama follows man 
 
 As surely as his shadow. " Look you to't" 
 
 No queer or ugly traits of character 
 
 Of yours get photographed ; — why then of course 
 
 You'll say " how wicked !"— then perchance you'll try 
 
 To break "the mirror," "drink upEasil?" ha ! 
 
 Or * ' eat a crocodile ?" " Odds bodikins" 
 
 " You may as well go stand upon the beach 
 
 And bid the main flood bate his usual height," 
 
 As seek to still those plaudits which resound 
 
 Along the shores of time — whose voices cry 
 
 " Here was a Caesar, when comes such another ?" 
 
 Three centuries ago he lived, and spoke, 
 
 And, tho' thus long his presence has departed, 
 
 His spirit walks among the sons of men, 
 
 Majestic as the forms of life his pen awoke, 
 
 But with far statelier tread. 
 
 " Why man ? He doth bestride the narrow world 
 
 Like a Colossus, and we petty men 
 
 Walk under his huge shade, and peep about 
 
 To find our little graves." 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — While to-night Darlington preseuts 
 her humble quota to swell the mighty meed of those large honours 
 to which the name of William Shakspeare is entitled, we ask you 
 to be somewhat less critical of the performance than considerate 
 of the occasion that prompts the attempt. Hear us for our 
 cause — believe us for the sincerity of our tribute ; censure us with 
 a wisdom that separates not too distinctly between the will and 
 the deed. Say not with Polonius, "I will use them after their 
 deserts" — but, with Hamlet, resolve, both for your own tranquillity 
 and our 'comfort, "Much better." "Use every man after his 
 deserts, and who should escape whipping?" "Use us therefore after 
 the honour of the occasion ; the less we deserve the more is in 
 your bounty." 
 
 Discriminating applause marked the most striking passages, 
 and the audience at once settled down, with the assurance of a 
 foregone conclusion as to the merits of the company by this 
 
Gl 
 
 worthy specimen of one of its most active and able members, to 
 peruse 
 
 THE PROdRAMME. 
 
 Glee— "Blow, blow, thou wintry wind." 
 
 Members of the Choral Sojicty. 
 
 SELECTION FROM THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 Act I., Scene 3. 
 
 Scene 1.— Grand Canal. 
 
 Shylock Mr M. Barker. Antonio Mr M. Frier. 
 
 Bassanio Mr J. Fenwick. 
 
 Overture " Massaniello." — Aiiber Band. 
 
 Act IV. 
 Scene 2.— Court of Justice. 
 
 Duke of Venice Mr C. Brady. 
 
 Shylock MrM.Barker. 
 
 Antonio . . .Mr M. Frier. Bassanio . . . .Mr J. Fenwick. 
 
 Gratiano. . . . Mr J. Davis. Salanio Mr W. Hodgson. 
 
 Portia.. Mr J. Kendall. Nerissa. .Mr Bell. Clerk.. Mr G.R.Phipps. 
 An Interval of Ten Minutes. 
 
 Overture "Tancredi." Band. 
 
 Overture to Midsummer Night's Dream — Mendelssohn. . Piano-forte. 
 
 Mr J. W. MarshaU. 
 
 SELECTION FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 Act I., Scene 2. 
 
 Scene 1. — Interior of Quince's House. 
 
 Quince Mr J. Davis. Bottom Mr J. Ken dall. 
 
 Snug Mr J. Fenwick Flute Mr W. Hodgson. 
 
 Snout Mr G. R. Phipps. Starveling Mr H. Cuthbertson. 
 
 Song "Where the Bee sucks." MissShutt. 
 
 Wedding March Mendelssohn Band. 
 
 Act II. 
 Scene 2.— A Wood near Athens. 
 
 Puck Mr W. Bell Oberon Master H. Wetherell. 
 
 Titania Master A. Pile. 
 
 Mustard-seed ) ( Master O. Smith. 
 
 Cobweb VFairies-( „ B Smith. 
 
 Peas-blossom ) ( , J. Phipps. 
 
 Duet "I know a Bank" Miss Shutt & Mr Jas. Wilson. 
 
 Scene 2. — A Wood near Athens. 
 
 Glee "Ye Spotted Snakes" Choir. 
 
 Scene 4.— Interior of Quince's House. 
 
 Finale National Anthem. 
 
 Even without the graceful supplication of Mr Kendall, it 
 would be an ungenial and shabby part to criticise an amateur 
 performance — but the finished execution of every portion of 
 this varied programme forbids it. With the most vivid and 
 refreshing memory of the brilliant representations of the distin- 
 guished artists previously mentioned, let me award advisedly 
 the most unqualified applause to this local effort, and say the 
 great event of this year's April has been celebrated in a manner 
 appropriate to the occasion. The dresses were excellent, and 
 in the best taste. No one over- acted his part, or missed his 
 cue. Each looked his character and observed his bye-play. To 
 say this of Shylock, Hie Duke, Antonio, Gratiano, js no mean 
 praise ; yet 'tis true. In the measured calm of Portia, no one 
 on earth could recognise "bully Bottom ;" nor in the jewelled 
 
G2 
 
 exquisite, elegant Bassanio, that stupid dun Jer-head "Snugtho 
 Joiner;" while the metamorphose of the observant " Clerk" 
 into that imbecile coward, "Snout the Tinker," was as prepos- 
 terous and complete as good acting could accomplish. The 
 characters were so well sustained that none other of the com- 
 pany could so well have taken his neighbour's part. Tifeania, 
 with her clear voice, was charming ; and perhaps one of the 
 most telling scenes was that in which she lies watching her 
 drowsy swain, the choir concealed singing the while, "Ye 
 Spotted Snakes." Tuck was as mischievous and agile, and as 
 graceful as he ought to be, which is saying a good deal — indeed 
 how he managed to cut so many capers was marvellous to be- 
 hold. Oberon, and the smaller fairies, "Masters" Cobweb, 
 Mustard-seed, and Peas-blossom, could not have been better; 
 nor could the ass's head or its management have been exceeded 
 by the live animal. The whole performance was admirable ; 
 dignity and drollery, delicious music and beautiful scenery, 
 combined to make it most enjoyable. When one considers that 
 all these gentlemen, with the exception of Mr Barker, have 
 never appeared in public before, the completeness of the 
 arrangements and the performance was something surprising. 
 Oddly enough, too, the bulk of them are engaged in the three 
 Banks in the town. Miss Shutt was encored in "Where the 
 bee sucks," and gave in answer to the compliment, "Tell me 
 where is fancy bred." The musical part of the entertainment 
 was unexceptionable, and on more than one occasion the cur- 
 tain was raised for actors and choir to bow their acknowledg- 
 ments of the hearty applause they elicited and deserved. The 
 chairman, Mr Elgee, announced, amidst great enthusiasm, that 
 the performance would be repeated the following evening at re- 
 duced prices, to accommodate a vast number who had been 
 disappointed, and it transpired that the proceeds would bo 
 divided equally amongst the Philharmonic Band as to one-third 
 — another third being placed at the disposal of Mr Marshall, to 
 whom the public owes so much for his education of the musical 
 talent of the place, and by whom it will be applied for that pur- 
 pose — the remaining third being reserved by the Dramatic Com- 
 mittee for future use. 
 
 It should be mentioned that Mr Day, the proprietor of the 
 Theatre in the Green-tree Field, with the kindliest fellow-feel- 
 ing, suspended his performance on the 2Cth, and that Mr Garth- 
 waite, the painter and house-decorator, with happy readiness 
 to do a good turn, as his wont is, gratuitously supplied the 
 volunteer artists with all the appliances of which they stood in 
 need. Coming so abruptly upon the great success of the first 
 performance, that of the following evening was by many feared 
 as a venture too hazardous, they said " it would be better to 
 leave well alone." The result, however, was another triumph 
 adding fresh laurels to all concerned, surprising and delighting 
 a house almost as good as that of the previous evening. Touch- 
 ing the audience, it was singular to remark the almost total 
 absence of country families who are in the habit of attending 
 the various entertainments at the Central Hall ; theirs was the 
 loss, however, and so many felt when they discovered too lato 
 the choice amusement they missed. Instead of failure by repe- 
 tition, the acting was even better than on the first attempt. 
 
G3 
 
 Good as Sbylock was then, his bye-play was more subtle on the 
 second occasion— Gratiano and Peter Quince were equally 
 graphic — while Bottom and Snout, the tinker, were, if possible, 
 more irresistibly comic and diverting — indeed, young Mr Phippa 
 kept us all convulsed with laughter whenever he appeared. 
 The poor workhouse bairns had the entire front of the gallery 
 placed at their disposal by the generous thought of the commit- 
 tee, who seem to have left little immaturely or hastily con- 
 sidered, and for whom, with the actors and musicians, the 
 celebration dinner was arranged. Well, they deserved any 
 mark of approbation, and right heartily without a doubt it was 
 given. So far as the pauper children were concerned, how- 
 ever, the hours were prudently considered by the authorities as 
 too late to permit more than the compliment being paid, but 
 the will may be taken for the deed, and the exigency regretted. 
 The actors were photographed of course. " Photographed I" 
 that's bo joke at any time, but " a swan on a road" is nothing 
 to the absurd fun of seeing one's own chums " taken in charac- 
 ter," which we witnessed in garish daylight, under the agreeable 
 Influence of a blighting, fluttering north-east wind and sunshine. 
 Poor old Sbylock, with his look of scowling horror, his scales 
 just drop't — the Duke, in all the gorgeous array of rich silk 
 robes, velvet, ermine, and snowy flowing beard (over his own) 
 — the elegant Bassanio, always gay and jaunty, in black velvet 
 slashed with white satin in diamonds bordered with gold, his 
 jewelled cap and pied plume powdered with pearls — Salanio, in 
 plum velvet, pomona cloak, and gold lace wherever it could 
 increase effect — Antonio, in sad and sober garments, relieved 
 with scarlet, as became his peculiarly unpleasant position— 
 Gratiano, in Mazarin blue velvet and silver — all waiting for 
 that horrid moment " ready," shivering in the open air, so that 
 the stage itself should be included in the negative, formed a 
 group, the like of which we never saw before except at Christ- 
 mas, and from which, disregarding altogether Portia, Nerissa, 
 and the Clerk, we might have expected, had there been some 
 ale and yule cake, the best sword dance on record from the 
 cleverest mummers out. No doubt the elements were unpro- 
 pitious ; but the gentlemen appearing determined to immor- 
 talise their fame, and Mr McLeisb, the photographer, having 
 copyrighted his works, the result, embracing scenes from both 
 plays selected, was nothing short of satisfactory at last. The 
 excellence of Mr Marshall's pupils, and the efficiency of the 
 Philharmonic Band, are so notorious that after saying the per- 
 formance of these ladies and gentlemen, all amateurs be it re- 
 membered, was "unexceptionable," lengthened criticism is 
 unnecessary. On Wednesday, with great judgment, but a 
 portion of Stevens' lovely composition, "Ye spotted snakes," 
 was given ; for however delicate the music, the glee as an acces- 
 sory is too long by half. The reading was faultless ; the rich 
 coutralto of Miss Wood in the word " melody" told with deli- 
 cious effect ; and as the lights were gradually dimmed, Bottom 
 and Titania the while gracefully composed in balmy slumbers 
 sweet at the foot of the flowery, ferny, woody scene, exquisitely 
 painted throughout by Mr Bell (Nerissa and Puck), the whisper- 
 ing cadence 
 
 "So, good night, with lullaby. 
 Good night," 
 
64 
 
 was perfectly rendered and managed ; in fact, it would have 
 done credit to London or Paris, Dresden, Vienna, or Berlin, 
 even Venice of former days. The musical programme was 
 faithfully fulfilled throughout with one exception, inasmuch as 
 at the last moment the charming duet, "I know a bank" 
 (singularly appropriate considering the calling in life of so many 
 of the actors), by Miss Shutt and Mr James Wilson, had to be 
 abandoned, in consequence of the absence of the latter. The 
 young lady, however, substituted " Bid me discourse" (Venus 
 and Adonis) at both performances, and the audience greeted 
 her with that rapturous applause she invariably commands. 
 The vocalists on the occasion, led or accompanied, as the case 
 might be, by their accomplished master, Mr Marshall, were in 
 reality the old church choir, and the ladies and gentlemen ten- 
 dering this sweet aid were Misses Sarah and Mary Shutt, Jane 
 Wood, Mary Simpson, Gardham, and Bennison ; Messrs Wal- 
 lace, Young, Stairmand, Chapelosv, Jordan, and Wetherell. 
 The last gentleman assisted his friend at the pianoforte during 
 the overture to " A Midsummer Night's Dream" — a piece per- 
 fectly unfitted for such an instrument in an apartment so large ; 
 indeed, this music, so dainty for a band, fatigued the audience, 
 and from none other than so popular a person as the performer 
 would it have been patiently endured. The real charms of 
 this amateur effort to commemorate the greatest poet and mas- 
 ter of the English language unquestionably were its purely local 
 character in the first instance, and its unlooked for perfection in 
 the second. Everything was home-made, and everything fitted in. 
 All the check-takers, door-keepers, and helpers generally were 
 of the committee or their friends, and each wore the Coventry 
 badge. The whole entertainment resembled much more agree- 
 able private theatricals than any public representation. Never- 
 theless, the order and precision observed were admirable ; and 
 all the seats being numbered, not the smallest confusion arose. 
 How much of our comfort depends upon attention to minor 
 details ! Had there been any trouble about places, as there 
 too often is — but thanks to Messrs Lee, Bailey, Potts, Heavl- 
 side, Hardy, Snaith, and the assiduous treasurer, Mr Wilkes, 
 to whom so much is owing, Kirsop, and the Hon. Sec. , there 
 was no chance of that— it would have unsettled numbers for 
 the whole night, and spoilt all their enjoyment. Nay, had the 
 scene shifting been clumsy or unpunctual, which owing to the 
 accuracy of the ever-ready and willing George Wilson, it was 
 not, blunder after blunder would have marred the nicety of 
 stage effect. The utmost attention was paid to subordinate 
 parts. Nerissa, the Duke's secretary, and Salanio, in the little 
 allotted to them, materially assisted the unity of the trial 
 scene ; Flute, the bellows-mender, and Starveling, a tailor, 
 looked their parts admirably ; and Mr W. Hodgson, when in 
 piteous tones he said, " Nay, faith, let me not play a woman ; 
 I have a beard coming !" stroking his downy chin, excited roars 
 of laughter, so true is it — 
 
 "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 
 
 Other towns may have had grander pronunciations, no doubt ; 
 
 but none can have been a more unalloyed success than our 
 
 own. So well were all the scenes put upon the boards that on 
 
 each rising of the dropscene an animated finished composition 
 
65 
 
 was presented, in which no artist, no critic, could detect the 
 slightest lack of harmony in grouping or in tone. Even the 
 chairman, Mr Elgee, who on every stage of life has a pleasant 
 word and heartiness for all around him, in conducting the 
 songstress of the evening towards and from the footlights, was 
 quite a picture. If the first essay of the dramatic committee 
 had done no more than achieve a wonderful and momentary 
 intellectual success, the town owes thanks ; but it has also 
 created a wholesome and an agreeable impression among all 
 classes, instructing and amusing them, while laying the founda- 
 tion for future study of Shakspeare, than whom none ever so 
 well understood the secret springs in the recesses of the human 
 heart— he who can so deeply interest us with " The Merchant 
 of Venice," as divert us with "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 and send all home singing merrily — 
 
 "Then heigh ho ! the holly I 
 The holly ! 
 This life is most jolly, 
 Most jolly." 
 The result of this Tercentenary is private "Shakspeare reading 
 clubs," and regularly organised " Amateur Dramatic Clubs," all 
 over in England, including even Darlington, than all which 
 nothing can have a better tendency. An admirable code of 
 rules has been arranged for our club, the officers for which are : — 
 President— Fra. Mewburn, Jun. Dramatic Manager— J. Kendall. 
 Treasurer— E. P. Elgee. Honorary Secretary — W. Bell. Committee 
 — C. Brady, G. B. Carter, M. Frier, W. A. Snaith, J. Davis, J. W. 
 Marshall, J. Fenwick, M. Barker, T. Potts, W. Minter, G. Wilson, 
 and W. Smith. 
 
 P. 39 ante. 
 On Thursday, the 7th of April, the Darlington Choral Society 
 gave their ninth, their most ambitious by far, and certainly 
 most successful oratorio, to a crowded and delighted audience, 
 in the Central Hall. At Christmas, 1856, they commenced 
 their successful career with the Messiah, and in June of tbe 
 succeeding year performed Haydu's Creation. In January fol- 
 lowing the Messiah was repeated, and on the 11th oi the ensu- 
 ing November Judas Maccabseus was given. In January, I860, 
 Samson was selected ; in April, 1861, Mendelssohn's St. Paul 
 was chosen, and in the November folio wing Judas was repeated. 
 In March, 1863, The Creation was repeated, and then came in 
 1864 the greatest effort of the highest musical genius of our 
 day, without any exception, but with many imitators, the 
 Elijah of the composer of St. Paul. At not one single per- 
 formance has there been any failure, and the astonishing 
 success of the society is due to the untiring energy, the pati- 
 ence, and the tact of Mr J. W. Marshall, with whom the 
 musical education of its amateur members, belonging to various 
 classes in society, has not only been a gratuitous labour of love, 
 but an essential advantage in a social point of view to the 
 inhabitants of Darlington generally. While the kindred socie- 
 ties of Stockton and Auckland are practically defuuct, aud that 
 of Barnardcastle, if not in a state of absolute collapse, at any 
 rate remains in abeyance, that over which he presides exhibits 
 a vitality and a development truly refreshing. In consequence, 
 therefore, of these other choral societies being unable to assi3t, 
 
66 
 
 from which on previous occasions much help flowed hither, 
 the numbers at the last performance were lessened ; but 
 whether from this circumstance, or the thorough appreciation 
 of the work in hand, or both in combination, there is no doubt 
 the choruses were never either so brilliantly taken up, so accu- 
 rately rendered, or so exceedingly difficult. From Stockton - 
 whence formerly came a little rush of eager friends— but one 
 arrived, Herr Schrniike (oboe), a German gentleman, who gave 
 his time and his talents gratuitously. From Bishop Auckland, 
 Mr Nicholas Kilburn, whose performance on the harmonium 
 elicited great praise, especially in his exqusite accompaniment 
 to the air, "For the mountains shall depart,'' in which he 
 supplied the oboe part with remarkable taste and execution, 
 and Mr Nevison, an alto in the chorus, were the only addi- 
 tions. From Barnardcastle there was not a single representa- 
 tive. The band was strengthened from Leeds and Sunderland 
 — by none so much as Mr Wilson, of the former place, whoso 
 obligato on the violoncello to the air, "It is enough, O Lord," 
 and Mr Tate, of the latter, who, in addition to his thorough 
 musical knowledge and mastery over four instruments, is so 
 accomplished a linguist as to be proficient in no less than five 
 languages ! The piincipals on the occasion were Miss Helena 
 Walker (soprano), and Mr William Dawson (tenor), both from 
 Leeds ; Miss Crossland (contralto), Huddersfield ; and Mr 
 Ferry (basso), of Sunderland. The last gentleman undertook 
 the character of the Prophet, and was a host in himself, for in 
 addition to sustaining his own arduous duties with consummate 
 taste and faultless tune, he brought as graceful accessories to 
 the choir his two gifted daughters. Mr Dawson possesses an 
 organ of ringing sweetness, which he has evidently cultivated 
 with the utmost care, under, to any other man, overwhelming 
 discouragement, and drew down almost the most rapturous 
 applause of the evening, in which the orchestra joined heartily, 
 and the audience positively demanded the repetition of the air, 
 " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun." Both ladies 
 were suffering from catarrh, but each exerted herself admir- 
 ably, and with a will deserving special notice. 
 
 I once heard Mendelssohn improvise on " The harmonious 
 blacksmith" — fine tribute from such a man — and his oratorio 
 of Elijah is so descriptive and dramatic a score — possessing 
 such rhythm throughout, so much unity combined with simpli- 
 city in some parts, and the most wonderful, flashing, terrible 
 genius in others— that it may be compared with any effort of 
 other men, and banish comparison. Mr Ferry as the Prophet 
 commenced with a recitative, "As God the Lord of Israel 
 liveth" — which was immediately followed by an overture, 
 eccentric and brilliant as to composition and situation. He 
 tells the people, "There shall not be dew, nor rain these three 
 years" — the overture woudrously describes the horrors of the 
 drought— and the thirsty multitude then in chorus cry, "Help, 
 Lord, wilt thou quite destroy us ?' In their first line was the 
 only uncertainty or flinching they showed during the evening. 
 Confidence, however, was soon restored, and in the next, 
 " The harvest now is over, the summer days are goue," there 
 was nothing to be desired. "The people" then bewail that 
 ' ' The deeps afford no water, the rivers are exhausted ; the 
 
67 
 
 suckling's tongue now cleaveth for thirst to his mouth ; the 
 infant children ask for bread, and there is no one breaketh it 
 to feed them," in a recitative chorus, one of the most so of the 
 many original and striking beauties of the composition, which 
 was rendered superbly. It is followed by a duett and chorus 
 of "The People" — " Lord, bow thine ear to our prayer," 
 plaintive to a degree. Then Obadiah (Mr Dawson) the servant 
 of Elijah, appears on the stage, giving a recitative " Ye people 
 rend your hearts," and the air, "If with all your hearts ye 
 truly seek me." rfere his clear silvery notes came out to per- 
 fection, and the chorus of "The People," in desperation, 
 " Yet. doth the Lord see it not ; He mocketh at us," formed 
 one of those wonderful contrasts over which the composer had 
 so astonishing a command. "An angel" (Miss Crossland), then 
 warns the Prophet, "Elijah, get thee hence, Elijah !" to de- 
 part, and with a double quartett "For He shall give his angels 
 charge over thee," the most intense interest was excited, and 
 remained unflagging till the close of the performance. It was 
 sustained by the four principals, assisted by Miss Perry, and 
 Miss Sarah Shutt, a very promising pupil of Mr Marshall, Mr 
 John Burgin, and Mr James Wilson, than whom, with his 
 brother, there are few steadier supporters of the society ; it 
 produced a profound sensation, and would like many other 
 parts have been encored, no doubt, but for the rapid flow of the 
 composition, in which there appears no hesitation or hitch 
 whatever. The angel (Crossland) again, " Now Cherith's brook 
 is dried up," urges Elijah to "depart and get to Zarephath, 
 where the Lord hath commanded a widow there to sustain him 
 until He sendeth rain upon theearth. " The widow (Miss Walker), 
 in a recitative, " What have I to do with thee, man of God," 
 laments the sickness of her son, for whom she "goes mourning 
 all the day loHg, and weeps at night," fears the prophet may do 
 her harm, and slay him ; but Elijah says, "Give me thy son," and 
 prays to the Lord to "restore the spirit of the child." The 
 widow exclaims, " The Lord hath heard thy prayer, the soul of 
 my son reviveth, and by this I know that thou art a man of 
 God ;" a dialogue as dramatic as music can be ensues, and it 
 was rendered with an ability surprising everyone. After the 
 floe passage winding up with the chorus, ''Blessed are the men 
 who fear him," Elijah determines, " As God the Lord of 
 Sabaoth liveth," to show himselt to Ahab the King, and then he 
 " Will send rain again upon the earth." Ahab (Mr Dawson) 
 jeers the man of God — " Art thou Elijah ?" and " the people" 
 unite "Thou art Elijah, thou he that troubleth Israel !" in 
 tones the most insulting, when the Prophet magnificently de- 
 claims, " I never troubled Israel's peace ; it is thou, Ahab, and 
 all thy father's house ;" and the chorus follows suite. Between 
 Elijah and "the priests of Baal" — "Baal, we cry to thee"— a 
 tremendous scene results, in which solo and chorus received, 
 as well they deserved, immense applause. In that chorus of 
 the Priests, " Baal hear and answer !" occurs that pause of two 
 bars so much admired, and nothing could well be more telling 
 than the way in which it was observed. In a beautiful 
 recitative and air, " Draw near, all ye people ; come to me !" 
 the Prophet implores the mercy of God on the children of 
 Israel ; and he is supported by a quartett of angels, "Cast thy 
 
68 
 
 burthen upon the Lord ; lie shall sustain thee." In this the 
 four principals combined, and in the chorus of the people, 
 " The Are descends from Heaven," their rage turns upon the 
 priests, and another of those graphic contrasts occurs, render- 
 ing the composition so spirited and sublime. In the following 
 air, " Is not His word like a Are ?" Mr Ferry began a bar too 
 soon, but was instantly recovered by the conductor's unerring 
 baton, and sang the remainder of the piece to perfection, reach- 
 ing with ease and vigour F natural, the same note as tenors 
 generally take, thus showing the extent of his register. Fine 
 as the voice undoubtedly is, and consummate as his execution, 
 it struck me that in this particular and remarkable air it lacked 
 the massiveness and power so requisite for its interpretation. 
 Obadiah and Elijah, the priests, being slain, in recitatives, " Oh, 
 man of God" and "O Lord, thou hast overthrown thine ene- 
 mies;" and the people, in the graceful chorus, "Open the 
 Heavens," then implore God to send rain, while Elijah, " Go 
 up now child," tells a youth (Miss Shutt) to "look toward the 
 sea." A dialogue follows, in which the brilliant voice of this 
 young lady was almost electrifying. At length she exclaims, 
 "Behold, a little cloud ariseth, and the rain descends." Thus 
 the first part closes with a chorus, " Thanks be to God; He 
 laveth the thirsty land," of the most wonderful descriptive and 
 inventive power imaginable, while exemplifying to the utmost 
 the care bestowed in practice. With a punctuality he always 
 observes, at the end of the " ten minutes" Mr Marshall was at 
 his post, and Miss Walker sang with exquisite expression the 
 air "Hear ye Israel," and the recitative, "Thus saith the 
 Lord." reaching A natural with equal ease and precision. A 
 fine chorus, '■ Be not afraid," as fine as anything in the book, 
 followed ; but, although there were two comets in the band, 
 they were tame, if not actually mute, when they should 
 especially have come out in force. Elijah declaims, "The 
 Lord hath exalted thee from among the people," and tells 
 Ahab his wickedness, when Jezebel (Miss Crossland) reproaches 
 him, and the chorus agree with her. The altercation is carried 
 on until Elijah becomes wearied of the stiff-necked and 
 perverse people and their detestable queen, and in the air, 
 " It is enough, O Lord," desires to die. In this air Mr Ferry 
 surpassed himself ; and the violoncello obligato accompaniment 
 of Mr Wilson, of Leeds, was a performance of which dear old 
 Lindley might have been proud. Here begins, and from this 
 point to the recitative chorus, " Go, return upon thy way," is 
 comprised, if it be possible to make a distinction of gems in the 
 Elijah, its finest proportion. The trio of angels (the Misses 
 Walker, Crossland, and Shutt), "Lift thine eyes" was thrilling, 
 and gained a rapturous encore ; followed by the loveliest 
 chorus of them all, "He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, 
 nor sleeps," and its execution scarcely could be exceeded. In 
 Elijah's next part, " O Lord, I have laboured in vain," the 
 trombones, like one instrument, so true was the time, came in 
 magnificently, as indeed they did at the close of the first part, 
 " Unto thee will I cry." Miss Crossland, having at this period 
 of the evening recovered from her hoarseness, gave the angel's 
 air, " rest in the Lord, " with extreme taste, her fine contralto 
 voice suiting the music admirably, while the flute obligato of 
 
09 
 
 Mr Wetherell, a punctual amateur student in the local choir, 
 was exceedingly fine, and gave high promise for the future of 
 this young gentleman's career. Mr Ferry was applauded in 
 Elijah's air, "For the mountains shall depart;*' richly he 
 deserved the compliment, and with great ability, as has been 
 previously observed, Mr Kilburn accompanied hina. When 
 Mendelssohn first listened to this part of his composition 
 on a full band, he wept. It precedes the mighty and 
 dramatic chorus, "Then did Elijah, the Prophet, break 
 forth like a fire," which concludes "Elijah went in a fiery 
 chariot by a whirlwind to heaven," and that beautiful air, 
 " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun," in which 
 Mr Dawson took his audience by storm and gained an encore. 
 A quartett by the principals, " O come every one that thirsteth, 
 O come to the waters, O come unto Him ;" followed amidst 
 unsuppressed admiration, and the grand oratorio concluded 
 with a final chorus, "And then, then shall your light break 
 forth as the light of the morning,'' of jubilant and ecstatic 
 praise and thanksgiving, like that at the close of the former 
 part, reminding one of St. Paul, and finishing with an elaborate 
 fugue. It is difficult to curtail any account of such a perfor- 
 mance as this was ; for any town, even for the West Hiding, it 
 would have been a credit. The numbers engaged in the 
 orchestra were only ninety, including the four principals, and 
 comprising twelve tenor, seventeen treble, eighteen bass, and 
 ten alto voices ; four first violins, including Mr lies, a gitted 
 youth from Leeds, and Messrs Temple and Ellis, local members, 
 who have afforded the greatest assistance in getting up the 
 chorus ; four second violins, two violas, three violoncellos, 
 three contrabasses, two flutes, one oboe, two bassoons, two 
 cornets, three trombones, harmonium, and kettledrums pre- 
 sided over by a remarkably clever lad from Halifax. To Messrs 
 Sang the secretary, Harris the treasurer, and Wallace the 
 librarian, the utmost thanks are due for their enthusiasm and 
 attention to the interests of the society, who, with their able 
 instructor and conductor, Mr Marshall, were heartily con- 
 gratulated on their accomplished success, all of us hoping at 
 the same time that they may never experience less deserved 
 applause than their last achievement elicited. The number 
 of members on the books now is 70 ; in 1861 it was 90, and 
 the continued absence from the society ot several talented 
 amateurs in the town, one of whom particularly might take 
 rank amongst professional violinists, is to be regretted. The 
 audience filled every part of the Hall, and comprised among 
 others the Rev. Dr. and Mrs Edleston, Gainford ; the Rev. E. 
 and Mrs Cheese, Houghton ; Dr. Mackie, Mrs Coleman, Mrs 
 Smithson, and Mrs Calverley Bewicke, Heighington; the Misses 
 Dodgson and Mr Dodgson, Croft Rectory ; Miss Dodgson, 
 Cockerton Hall, and her pupils ; Mrs Raifie, Snow Hall ; the 
 Misses Fell, Gainford ; Mrs and Miss Scurfield, Hurworth ; Mr 
 and Mrs Waldy, the Rev. W. H. G. and Mrs Stephens, the Rev. 
 J. G., Mrs, and Miss Pearson ; the Rev. M. and Mrs Miller and 
 the Revs. — Bentleyand J. T. Taylor ; Dr. Clarkson, Dr. Hasle- 
 wood, Mr H. K. Spark and party ; Mr and Mrs J. P. Pritchett, 
 the Messrs and Miss Macnay and Miss Cook, Mr E. and the 
 Misses Kipling, Mr and Mrs W. Thompson and party ; Mis and 
 
70 
 
 Miss Heslop, the Messrs and Misses Dinsdale, Mr and Mrs J. 
 H. Bowman, Mr George Bowes and party ; Mrs Brewster, Miss 
 Bamber and her pupils ; Mr and Mrs J. R. Fothergill, Dr. Couk, 
 Mr and Mrs J. Marley, Mrs Marshall, Misses Booth and Misses 
 Kilburn, Bishop Auckland ; and Messrs Moorsora, S. Russell, 
 Bryson, C.E., T. Clayhills, Speciall, Clark, Brady, Fra. Mew- 
 burn, jnn., &e., &o. 
 
 P. 40 Ante. 
 This entertainment was given to Mr William Hanson, on 
 quitting the service of the Messrs Pease for that of Mr Samuel- 
 son, over whose furnaces at Newport he has now the complete 
 management— in fact, he will be his employer's alter ego there, 
 instead of the subordinate he was here. All his friends and 
 acquaintances, if of the latter he had any who were not the 
 former, sincerely regret his absence from the social circle, for 
 few, very few are so great in the esteem of others as himself ; 
 but when it is remembered he is now in a position where his 
 exceptional talents and his willing labours will be thoroughly 
 appreciated and handsomely requited by a gentleman in every 
 sense of the word, there is nothing but satisfaction in a change 
 so materially to his own advantage in all respects. His late 
 official chief, Mr J. R. Breckon, presided, and another fellow- 
 mate, Mr C. R. Fry, occupied the vice-chair with equal ability. 
 The evening was a very pleasant one till near its close, when the 
 landlord sent in a, posse of waiters to clear the decks, while the 
 guests remained. Yorick's brother-in-law, never more gay and 
 debonair than on that occasion, ordered them out, and hence 
 the conception of the following prospectus, which in its extra- 
 vagance is no burlesque upon those of other bubble companies 
 of the present day : — 
 
 THE DARLINGTON HOTEL COMPANY (LIMITED). 
 Capital, £5,000,000 Sterling, with power to increase to 
 
 £10,000,000. 
 This company is formed to supply a want long felt and generally 
 expressed, of a really superior and well-conducted hotel in the im- 
 portant and rapidly rising town of Darlington. 
 
 Four sites offer themselves : — one, the present KiDg's Head, 
 with the whole of the north side of Priestgate down to the Skerne ; 
 another, the Sun Inn, with the D.D. Bauk and Prospect Place to 
 Bondgate, on the one hand, and as much of Northgate as may be 
 required on the other. The third site is " Kitching's Corner," 
 with six, eight, or ten houses right and left, as may be agreed 
 upon ; and the fourth from the Waterloo Hotel to the Bullwynd, 
 Houndgate, and Petty's garden inclusive, utilizing or razing the 
 Central Hall if necessary. 
 
 That any of these properties can be obtained on reasonable 
 terms there cannot be the slightest doubt, and it is only for the 
 company to decide which of the four they will select. 
 
 Thus securing all the advantages that position can command ; 
 then ealling to its aid all that architecture in designing and erect- 
 ing an imposing and classic front — all that liberal outlay and good 
 taste can combine of comfort and elegance in interior decoration 
 and arrangement — the company will be able to open to the public 
 an establishment mere than rivalling all that northern England 
 can produce. 
 
 Nor will bricks and mortar, wood and stone, size and decoration 
 
 of rooms, alone receive attention ; the staff — from manager to 
 
 boots, from cook to scullery-maid — will be the object of most 
 
 watchful care. 
 
 The landlord of a good hotel— the temporary home of gentle- 
 
71 
 
 men, men of education and of fortune — should be, as far as pos- 
 sible, a gentleman, too. In vain do you erect a palace, if within 
 you are to find manners the reverse of courteous. Our manager 
 must have the Entree at St. James's, and our " Boots" shall be 
 highly polished. 
 
 THE INNER MAN. 
 
 The cuisine will be, of course, a carefully-studied feature In 
 England, too many people know a dinner only by name — they 
 devour food, but the reality of a good dinner is a thing unknown 
 to them. Hence, alas ! 900 of the 1,000 ills that flesh is heir to. 
 From among the directors will be formed a committee of taste, to 
 whom cookery has been the study of a life — men who wisely live 
 to eat, and do not foolishly eat to live, and who will make of the 
 Darlington Hotel more than a Greenwich "Trafalgar," a Bich- 
 mond "Star and Garter," or a Sal tb urn "Zetland Hotel." 
 
 LUXURY. 
 
 To raise cookery to a science, and to make of eating and drink- 
 ing a fine art, will not be the boundary of the company's ambition ; 
 taste will emphatically reign supreme throughout all their arrange- 
 ments. Wandering through the rooms provided by the Darlington 
 Hotel Company (limited), or reposing on its luxurious couches 
 and divans — the eye resting on statue and statuette, on paintings, 
 both modern and ancient, on inlaid floors and gilded cornices — 
 the guest shall fancy himself in a gallery of art, and not merely 
 in an inn. 
 
 ACCOMMODATION FOR THE INFERIOR CLASSES. 
 
 To secure as much profit as circumstances will admit, and at 
 the same time to allow all classes to share in the advantage 
 offered by the new hotel, second and third class accommodation 
 will be provided. But this will be underground, or carefully 
 separated from the rest of the premises by stone walls and fire 
 brick, so that no offence may be given to the people of quality, for 
 whom the hotel is principally provided. 
 
 VIRTUE. 
 
 The hotel will be conducted on high moral principles. No late 
 revels will be tolerated. At a certain hour the waiters will be 
 ordered to remove bottles, glasses, dessert, or whatever may remain 
 on the festive board. Smoking will be relegated to a remote part 
 of the building, and swearing will be an extra, that is to say, 
 profane language will subject the offender to a fine. The billiard 
 room will be conducted on principles which even a Scotchman 
 may approve. 
 
 PHYSIC. 
 
 The Valetudinarian will be invited to seek health within the 
 walls of the Darlington Hotel. The medicinal waters of Croft 
 and Middleton will be brought to the premises in pipes, thug the 
 guests may have the benefits of Spa waters and Spa baths without 
 quitting their bedrooms. Nor will the German ocean be 
 forgotten, as an early tank or water butt train will be provided 
 from Eedcar to bring to the hotel sea water for baths hot and cold, 
 and fish of every imaginable variety, 
 
 WINES AND LIQUORS] 
 
 Good eating demands good drinking, and the Darlington Hotel 
 Company (Limited} is determined to set its face against the mere 
 "Vinter's brewings," misnamed wine, and to supply a genuine 
 article, the real fermented juice of the grape from the days of 
 Noah, acknowledged to be a health, strength, and joy-giving 
 tipple. To accomplish this object, agents will be appointed in all 
 the celebrated districts of France, the Ehine, Spain and Portugal, 
 Hungary, &c., to make such bids as must secure the best vintages 
 of all sorts. Thus will the wants of the highest and wealthiest 
 class of guests be provided for ; but going lower down in the social 
 scale, and looking to the smaller means of a style of "genteel 
 hindigence," South African sherries, and the Chancellor's shilling 
 Tariff clarets will find a corner on the wine lists. Even the Per- 
 
72 
 
 missive Bill man shall not be sent empty away— a damp quarter 
 near the eaves shall be provided, in which like the " Ancient 
 Mariner" he will find " Water, water, everywhere," "And not a 
 drop o' drink," unless it be Whitwell and Co.'s " Quinine Cham- 
 pague," for wedding breakfasts and occasions of solemn feast. 
 
 PROFITS. 
 
 A late landlord of the house, soon to cease to be the leading hotel 
 in Darlington, was heard to say at a public dinner — " Gentlemen, I 
 consider myself the most prosperous man in the place." This 
 change from early position was entirely due to innkeeping. If, with 
 such limited means of pleasing the public and securing custom, 
 such profits could be secured, and such a position taken in a town 
 where some business men have certainly made some profits, what 
 may not reasonably be expected with such appliances and means 
 as ours? 75 per cent for the first year, with no expenditure car- 
 ried to capital, but everything beyond the building of the house 
 taken to revenue, 75 per cent, is a small and reasonable figure. 
 But on this head we need not dilate, as nearly all the shares are 
 already taken up, and what remain will be allotted only as especial 
 favours, and to persons likely to become good customers. 
 
 Provisional Office. —The Cattle Market, Darlington, 
 Aiigust, 1864. 
 
 P. 45 Ante. 
 
 In many parts of the South of England the drought has pro- 
 duced a disastrous dearth ; in Somersetshire and Cornwall 
 cattle have long been fed on hay ; in the Isle of Wight water is 
 sold at high prices for very small quantities -cattle are being 
 driven miles for water, or it is brought great distances to them. 
 Even here, in South Durham, where we don't suffer so much, 
 the Tees is so low that there is no flow over the Dinsdale fish 
 lock. Mr E. J. Lowe, writing from Highfield- house Observatory, 
 (Aug 10), says the drought has been severely felt there, many 
 shrubs and herbaceous plants having died. The hay crop was 
 gathered with scarcely a drop of rain, the quantity deficient, 
 and at the present moment the corn harvest U general. The 
 following is the rainfall for 1864 : — 
 
 Amount, Amount, 
 
 inches. inches. 
 
 January 74 May 129 
 
 February 150 June 126 
 
 March 256 July 052 
 
 April 208 
 
 v Total 995 
 
 In May, June, and July, the deficiency has amounted to four 
 inches. Up to July 31, 124 days were without rain. 
 
 In Sussex the rainfall for the last eight years in the three 
 months of each year, corresponding with those of this drought 
 
 up to July, is : — 
 
 June. 
 
 195 
 
 17 
 
 152 
 
 478 
 
 3-53 
 
 2 37 
 
 411 
 
 119 
 It will be seen, therefore, that this year we have had less 
 rain than in the dry season of 1859. July of 1863 was nearly 
 as dry as this, hut the ground was better prepared, having 
 over four inches in June. At Diss, in Norfolk (August 12th), 
 when we had a very close day following a hot night, the minU 
 
 Year. 
 
 May. 
 
 1857 .. 
 
 .. 1-57 
 
 1858 .. 
 
 .. 177 
 
 1859 .. 
 
 .. 113 
 
 1860 .. 
 
 .. 365 
 
 1861 . . 
 
 .. 1 93 
 
 1862 .. 
 
 .. 353 
 
 1863 .. 
 
 .. 2 39 
 
 1864 .. 
 
 .. 121 
 
 July. 
 
 Total. 
 
 110 .. 
 
 .. 462 
 
 316 . . 
 
 . . 504 
 
 Ill .. 
 
 .. 376 
 
 350 . . 
 
 . . 1193 
 
 2-65 .. 
 
 .. 811 
 
 195 
 
 .. 775 
 
 0-60 .. 
 
 7-17 
 
 055 . . 
 
 . , 3 65 
 
73 
 
 mum temperature in the morning was 32 -5 <leg. At 5 a m. the 
 greund was covered with white frost, and ice the thickness of 
 common window-glass was found on shallow troughs. That 
 day week the greatest heat in the shade was 88 - 5 deg. Thus 
 we have a range of 56 deg. in little over a week's time. 
 
 After all, I find the crops will reach the average. In Scotland 
 the turnips are excellent, and the harvest as forward as, if not 
 more so than, in the best parts of the North of England, and 
 nothing can exceed the loveliness of the weathei we are enjoy- 
 ing in Argyleshire and the Hebrides. The following table is 
 
 interesting : — 
 
 Rainfall in the British Isles. 
 
 Stations. 
 
 February to July 
 inclusive. 
 
 1863. 1864. 
 
 June and July. 
 
 1863. 186*. 
 
 July, 
 
 1864. 
 
 Camden-town, London 
 
 Selborne 
 
 Banbury 
 
 Wisbeach 
 
 Calne 
 
 Goodamoor, Plymouth 
 
 Taunton 
 
 Orleton, Tenbury 
 Wigston, Leicester 
 West Retford . . 
 Manchester 
 North Shields . . 
 Seathwaite, Cumberland 
 Haverfordwest .. 
 
 Dumfries 
 
 Oban 
 
 Danston, Perthshire . . 
 
 Aberdeen 
 
 Culloden, Inverness . . 
 
 Portree, Isle of Skye . . 
 
 Sandwick, Orkney 
 
 Cork 
 
 Killaloe, Clare 
 
 Portarlington 
 
 Monkstown, Dublin . . 
 
 Galway 
 
 Waringstown, Down , . 
 
 Leckpatrick, Strabane 
 
 Inches. 
 921 
 9 93 
 8 25 
 6 92 
 9'88 
 20 '82 
 967 
 957 
 763 
 6 02 
 1111 
 8-86 
 60-63 
 1257 
 14-47 
 26 93 
 15 65 
 
 9-12 
 
 921 
 47 54 
 13 81 
 11-64 
 1673 
 15 46 
 
 7-59 
 24-52 
 
 8-80 
 15 09 
 
 Inches. 
 
 812 
 10 18 
 10 53 
 
 8-25 
 
 8-72 
 13 85 
 
 9 13 
 11-90 
 
 9 40 
 11-88 
 15 45 
 13-04 
 49 01 
 1219 
 10-84 
 23 65 
 20 47 
 13 54 
 11-56 
 3645 
 13 11 
 11-83 
 12 82 
 1305 
 
 9 33 
 23 78 
 11-26 
 17 21 
 
 Inches. 
 5 78 
 5 03 
 516 
 
 3 76 
 511 
 8-34 
 
 4 50 
 
 5 52 
 433 
 4-13 
 6-26 
 4'85 
 
 13 83 
 5 01 
 
 4 77 
 
 5 25 
 365 
 310 
 2 25 
 8-02 
 
 2 30 
 5-37 
 
 4 04 
 
 5 35 
 
 3 14 
 
 5 59 
 2 88 
 
 6 39 
 
 Inches. 
 2-29 
 1-49 
 238 
 1-67 
 2-34 
 
 4 42 
 1-87 
 4-50 
 1-66 
 275 
 464 
 2-77 
 
 1919 
 
 5 61 
 4-55 
 8 65 
 7-69 
 375 
 3 57 
 
 1208 
 3 53 
 2-76 
 503 
 
 2 91 
 204 
 8-42 
 
 3 79 
 
 6 05 
 
 Inchs. 
 •61 
 •36 
 
 •88 
 
 •55 
 
 •67 
 
 1-63 
 
 •70 
 
 2-64 
 
 •30 
 
 1-01 
 
 170 
 
 •85 
 
 7-57 
 
 2-90 
 
 1-55 
 
 3 95 
 
 3*85 
 
 2-26 
 
 1-90 
 
 4-66 
 
 1-63 
 
 •70 
 
 1-64 
 
 •79 
 
 •68 
 
 3 01 
 
 115 
 
 2-56 
 
 RAILWAY STATISTICS. 
 
 The vast importance of the railway system cannot be ex- 
 aggerated. The struggles during its gestation, owing to the 
 prejudice of ignorance, or the strength of opposing interests, 
 are now matters of curious history. The original Stockton 
 and Darlington line, 25 miles in length, was opened September 
 27th, 1825. In first estimating the revenue passengers were 
 not taken into consideration at all— what the old one-horse 
 coach conveyed being an inconsiderable item. The original 
 calculation was : — 
 
 165,488 tons of coal £11,904 19 
 
 2,000 „ lime 104 13 
 
 Merchandise 4,000 
 
 £16,009 12 
 
74 
 
 Yet, for the year ending June 30th, 1S27, the gross income 
 
 stood : — 
 
 Coals £14,455 5 2 
 
 Lime 1,026 1G 10 
 
 Merchandise 1,240 4 t 
 
 Passengers 563 14 
 
 Sundries 1,018 3 6 
 
 £18,304 4 4 
 So much for the shrewdness and justification of the specula- 
 tion ; but comparing that period with the present, knowing the 
 amazing results of the development of that system, the Parlia- 
 mentary paper issued on the 4th of August, is of prodigious 
 interest. It states : —During the year 1863 there were in 
 England and Wales 12 passengers killed and 371 injured from 
 causes beyond their own control ; and 13 killed and 1 injured 
 from their own misconduct or want of caution. There were 7 
 servants of companies or contractors killed, and 29 injured 
 from causes beyond their own control ; 66 killed, and 12 in- 
 jured from their own misconduct. Five were killed at level 
 crossings ; 25 trespassers were killed, and 4 injured. There 
 were one person killed, and 2 injured from miscellaneous causes. 
 In Scotland the figures were— passengers killed from causes be- 
 yond their own control, 2; injured, 11; from their own mis- 
 conduct, killed, 6 ; servants killed from causes beyond their own 
 control, 4 ; injured, 12 ; from their own misconduct, killed, 11 ; 
 injured, 2; killed at level crossings, 1 ; injured, lj trespas- 
 sers kiiled, 8 ; injured, 1 ; miscellaneous, injured, 1. Ireland 
 — Passengers killed from causes beyond their own control, ; 
 injured, 18 ; killed from their own misconduct, 2 ; servants 
 injured from causes beyond their own control, 3 ; killed from 
 their own misconduct, 10 ; killed at level crossings, 3 ; tres- 
 passers killed, 7 ; injured, 2 ; miscellaneous, killed, 1. The 
 number of miles open in England and Wales, on the 31st of 
 December last, was double, 5,876 ; single, 2,692— total, 8,568. 
 The number of passengers, exclusive of season-ticket holders, 
 was— first-class, 21,992,216; second, 51,794,959; third, 
 99,818,310 ; total, 173,605,485. The season-ticket holders 
 were 42,991. The number of passenger trains was 2,396,334, 
 which ran 50,515,081 miles; goods trains, 1,415,524, which 
 ran 46,909,098 ; total, 3,811,878 trains, which ran 97,424,179 
 miles. The receipts from first-class passengers were 
 £2,868,221 (a slight diminution) ; second, £3,773,684 ; third 
 £3,948,774 ; season tickets, £287,956 ; total, £10,878,635. 
 Keceipts for excess of luggage, horses, dogs, &c, £992,570; 
 mails, £391,211. Total from passenger traffic, £12,262,416; 
 livestock, £465,154 ; minerals, £4,504,43 4 ; general merchan- 
 dise, £8,980,818. Total g«ods traffic, £13,950,406 ; total 
 receipts for traffic, £26,212,822. The total receipts in Scot- 
 laud were £3,424,921 ; and in Ireland, £1.518,654. The pro- 
 portion of expenditure to receipts last year was 48 per cent., 
 the proportion in 1862 having been 49. The total amount of 
 capital paid up on the 31st of December was £404.215,525 ; 
 and the net receipts were £16,048,931, which would yield an 
 average return of something less than 4 per cent. 
 
 Robertson and Calvert, Printers, Saddler Street, Durham. 
 
 tJe*; ,,