will, probably, afford entertainment and inftruction to those who can attain the purchafe. Mr. Clarke writes like a man of capacity, obfervation, and learning; and though his performance cannot, in point of ftyle, rank with thofe of confiderable elegance and taffe, yet it is plain and expreffive.

In the courfe of our perufal of this volume, an idea, was fometimes excited, that it was the work of a man who had acquired fcientific knowlege, rather by dint of application, and the aids of native genius, than by the affiftance of regular education; but in this refpect, we may be deceived. However it may be, we meet with feveral certain proofs of an acquaintance with the learning and history of ancient and modern times. This is particularly difcoverable in the introdu&ion; whence, did our limits allow us regularly to follow Mr. Clarke, we might make many pleafing and ufeful extracts: but, circumftanced as we are, we can attend only to generals.

Mr. Clarke delivers it as his opinion, that very little alteration had taken place in that part of the country of which he treats, from very remote ages to times immediately preceding the reign of queen Elizabeth; and though, perhaps, (he fays) no people altered very far during that period, yet I think this altered the leaft of any, either in manners or condition.' This account is undoubtedly true in refpect to the tract lying on the borders of England and Scotland, which obtained the name of the debateable lands; it is alfo, in a great measure, true, as to the fate of other parts of the country. The debateable land is and will long be famous, as having been, for ages, the receptacle of villains and freebooters; although even there the inhabitants were advanced in fome refpects above the condition which is merely favage. Plander and robbery were indeed too generally the spirit of ancient days; for, as this writer remarks, uniformity of circumHances produces uniformity of manners.

Robbery is not confidered as fhameful among the Arabs; nor was it, as we learn from the old poets, among the Greeks in more remote times; nor, as hiftory uniformly tells us, among the Borderers. In addition to hiftory, tradition, among other things, tells, that a woman had two fons; as long as her provifions lafted, fhe fet them regularly on the table; but as foon as they were finished, the brought them forth two fwords, which the placed on the table, and faid, Sons, I have no meat for you, go teek your dinner." So familiar a thing was rapine!'

The mention of the Greeks, in the above paffage, naturally leads us to obferve what Mr. Clarke farther fays concerning a fimilarity of ancient cuftoms: the most antiquated houses in the neighbourhood of the lakes caufe him always to think of the houles of other nations, and especially the Greeks, in remote times; into this description he more particularly enters, and remarks a resemblance between the household furniture which fill

remains

remains in those parts, and that of which we read in the claffical authors. The Sunday fairs and fports, which, it is here faid, are ftill kept up in England, and particularly in Cumberland, remind us alfo of the games ufual at the folemn times and religious feftivals of the ancients.-Again, fpeaking of cuftoms and fancies almoft obfolete, it is afked, if we make a reference to times and prejudices, why may not the meeting of the flames of two nuts thrown into the fire, each of which is supposed to reprefent a perfon, as fairly betoken the union of thofe perfons, as the parting of the flame that arofe from the funeral pile of Eteocles and Polynices betokened the hatred of those brothers?'It is farther added,

The refort of loungers and idle perfons (as may be found in Hefiod) was the fhop of a fmith, especially in country places and in the winter season. In Rome it was a barber's fhop: but in mo parts of England, a fmithy has always been, in places remote from great towns, their place of rendezvous, and the centre of their news, fcandal, and criticifm. Such power has fimilarity of circumftances on the ways of men, in places fufficiently diftant from one another!'

Under the head of dialects, we meet with feveral pertinent and fenfible obfervations; we only felect the following short paffage as exemplifying what Mr. Clarke fays concerning the tranfpofition of terms, which occafionally prevails in moft, or, we may fuppofe, in all, languages.

Thus as in English the prominence in the face is called Neft, and has a fimilar name in feveral languages, à promontory of lands has often the fame name, efpecially in the northern parts, or, as in Scotland and the ifles, is Nefs, in Norway it seems to be Naze, and beyond Kamfchatka, in the narrow extreme of the Great Pacific Ocean, is Nofs: neither fhall one wonder if all these names fhould be found to have one original, after confidering in how prodigious an extent of nations, utterly disjoined, late navigators have found dialects of the Malay tongue.'

Application of names in this manner, derived from the human body or other things, feems natural to the mind of man: fo natural indeed, fays Mr. Clarke, that I hope it is not true, which 1 have heard related, that the people in a certain diftrict in Cumberland, having a tolerable quantity of hills in their neighbourhood, were obliged, from their want of invention merely, to call one of them Nameless."

Mr. Clarke oppofes thofe who have reprefented the foil of thefe counties as unfavourable to the growth of timber; excepting the moffes and fome other places, he fays, it is well known that the glebe in general, if left to itfelf, would foon be covered with trees, and that the country would become one large foreft.-On the topic of foil and weather, he takes notice of the prognoftics in vogue among the Romans, as related by Virgil and Pliny:

It is a thing (he adds) not unworthy our curiofity to observe what a fimilarity there is between the prognoftics of countries fo remote from

from each other: a fimilarity which however proves that they have been founded on a ftrict obfervation of the nature of things, and that they carry with them not a little of that authority which is due to truth. Thus the fwell of waters in the firths, the found from the mountains, the deeper murmur of woods, the motions of fea-mews, &c. the lofty flights of the mofs-drum, mire-drumble or bittern, the fhooting of stars, the mock battles of crows, and indeed almost all Virgil's prognoftics, with many more not mentioned by him, are fill taken notice of, and furnish to the attentive obferver no inconsiderable knowlege, of what is to come: i. e. in refpect to the weather.' We fhall finifh our account of this writer's introduction, (which confifts of more than forty pages) by one farther extract: It contains an obfervation, relative to the views and landscapes afforded by the lakes, which, he perfuades himself, the greatest artift will excufe:

It is, that thofe pictures impart the most grateful fenfations to the mind, which are expreffive, not only of general beauties, or fuch as may be found common to moft places, but of the particular nature and local genius of the country from the objects of which they are drawn. Thus a funny day, a ftream of water, a ruin, or other kind of building, may be met with almost every where, and may be forted in fuch a manner as to form a pleasant view: but the folemnity. of thofe vapours which hang on mountains in drizly and gleamy wea ther, the shades which they occafion, their filent mixing and rolling together, their magnifying effects, with the tops of the mountains peeping above, as it were in another world, lead away the mind from fcenes of cultivation, and prefent ideas of a new, but not lefs pleafing kind. It is unnatural, at least it feels fo to me, and fubverfive of the general tenor of the piece, to be ftudious of introducing copies of the works of man, and numerous living figures, amidst fuch folitudes.'

We muft juft notice the author's remark, that agriculture, in the beginning of the prefent age, wore a fort of face which it had preferved in the North of England without any material alteration for fome centuries.' In all other refpects, the alterations and improvements in these countics, appear to have been very confiderable in the fpace of fifty or fixty years. Hardly a peafant, we are informed, is now to be found who cannot at least read and write: but though in many inftances altered for the better, the spirit of this people, changed indeed from its original channel, is not left, for now it breaks out in obftinate law fuits, as the learned counsellors who attend this circuit can avouch,'

The furvey of the lakes is divided into five books: the first conducts us from a fpot in Weftmoreland, called Hart's hon Tree, to Penrith in Cumberland, whence we travel on to Ulijwater. We fet out again from Penrith, in the fecond book, and, by a different road, proceed to Kefwick, Derwentwater, and Buttermere. Hence we are carried, in the third book, to Baf fen hwaite or Broad water: and book the fourth leads us from Rev. Dec. 179. Kk Kelwick

Kefwick to Ambleside, in which progrefs there are two or three lakes of a lefs confiderable kind. The last book describes the lake of Winandermere, and the traveller returns by Amblefide to Penrith.

The environs of these lakes, together with the different objects in the countries and roads to them, furnish an obferving traveller, particularly one acquainted as Mr. Clarke is with thefe parts of our island, with a great variety of remarks, amufing, inftructive, and ufeful: among the reft, he does not neglect to point out fuch fpots as are peculiarly picturesque, and adapted to affift and improve the landscape painter: in doing this, Mr. Gray fometimes, in a kind of good-natured way, though not without a degree of fharpnefs, partakes his cenfure: as for inftance, when he mentions Mire-House, near Baffenthwaite, as a most beautiful spot, yet unnoticed by Mr. Weft, Mr. Pennant, Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Gray, and fpeaking of the Skiddow (a mountain of that name) Mr. Clarke proceeds:

• Nothing now remains, but to account for the filence of Mr. Gray concerning this beautiful fpot, which is easily done. When Mr. Gray was at Kefwick, he was defirous of feeing the back of Skiddow, and accordingly took chaife to Ouzebridge, thinking to have a view of the precipices by the way. Timidity, however, prevailed over curiofity fo far, that he no fooner came within fight of thofe awful rocks, than he put up the blinds of his carriage. In this dark fitua tion, trembling every moment left the mountains fhould fall and cover him, he travelled to Ouzebridge: he thus avoided feeing, not only the horrors, but the beauties of the place; and therefore (more honeftly than most of our authors) gives no defcription of what he never faw. It is indeed a question whether, if Mr. Gray had written the hiftory of his terrors, it would not have been as entertaining, at least as corious, as his journal. I cannot, however, help thinking, that the world loft more by this unaccountable weakness, than even Mr. Gray him felf.'

On other occafions, the laugh is excited at this gentleman's expence. Weft, Young, &c. come in alfo for their hare of rebuke; not, we conjecture, wholly without reafon; there may be a finical exactnefs which weakens or otherwife injures the performance of the painter; and beauty, as this writer expreffes it, is of too general a nature to be always confined within rules. He does, however, allow more merit to Mr. Gray in fome refpects, than to others who have described these romantic regions: for, after introducing a long paffage from Mr. Young concerning Winandermere, he adds,

• This extract may likewife fhew us what ftyle has been adopted by our modern authors, and called by them, bold, pi&urefque, and figurative: I fhall only remark in it, that the loads of epithets here introduced are generally ufelefs, and often tautological; that the eafy, unaffected ftyle of Mr. Gray is at once both more pleafing, and more intelligible, and that whoever would with his readers to comprehend

his fubject, ought by no means to perplex them with obfcurity of

diction.'

We might collect paffages in abundance from this volume, which would be amufing to our readers, but we must content Durfelves with very few additions. In the conclufion of his vifit to Kefwick, the author fays:

I cannot but take notice of an eminent physician in that neighbourhood, which fhews, perhaps, fome particulars relative to this country in a stronger light than mere narrative can. The gentleman here alluded to, who was a foreigner and of great eminence in his profeffion, was one day afked by another doctor of equal merit, how he liked his fituation? "My fituation, replied the foreigner, is a very eligible one as a gentleman; I can enjoy every fpecies of country amufement in the greatest perfection: I can hunt, fhoot, and fish among a profufion of game of every kind: the neighbouring gentlemen too feem to vie with each other in acts of politeness: but as a phyfician, I cannot say that it is quite fo alluring to me, for the natives have got the art of preferving their health, and prolonging their lives, without bolufes or electuaries, by a plafter taken inwardly, called Thick Pottage; this preferves them from the various diseases which shake the human fabric, and makes them flide into the grave without pain, by the gradual decays of nature."

The following account of a parifh fituated on the banks of Ullwater has a useful, moral tendency.

Patterdale (or Patrick's dale), though now the pooreft place that I am acquainted with, was once the feat of peace and plenty. Almoft every man had a small freehold, whofe annual produce (though perhaps not equal to the daily expenditure of the rich and gay) not only maintained him and his family in a comfortable manner, but even enabled many among them to amafs fmall fums of money. The fcene is now changed; vice and poverty fit pictured in almost every countenance, and the ruftic fire-fide is no longer the abode of peace and contentment. This lamentable change took place about thirty years ago at that time fome lead-mines were wrought in this Dale, and of course a number of miners were brought from different parts for that purpose. Thefe fellows, who are in general the most abandoned, wicked, and profligate part of mankind, no fooner fettled here, than they immediately began to propagate their vices among the innocent unfufpecting inhabitants. The farmer liftened greedily to flories of places he had never feen, and by that means was brought to drink, and at length to game with thefe mifcreants: his daughters, allured by promifes, were feduced: even thofe who withstood promifes, and were actually married, were, on the stopping of the mines, deferted by their faithlefs husbands, and left to all the horrors of poverty and fhame. Thus we may fee, as it were in epitome, the baleful effects of vice on fociety at large.'

To this melancholy relation of thofe evils which wickedness and villainy have produced, it is not unfuitable to add, for the fake of readers in general, a fhort account of the fuccefs of virtuous and contented induftry. When the author takes notice of Amblefide, a scattered town, fituated among woods of all kinds on

Kk 2

the