I am no stranger, and will make you acquainted with fome paffes thro' the mountains, that will render it easier riding over this country than you have found it. He did fo, and by his guidance I arrived at Ulubra, the 7th day of July; being the 17th day from the morning I left the philofophers. The gentlemen were startled at the fight of me, as they concluded I had perished, and had, as they affured me, mourned my fad fate; they were impatient to hear the adventure of the mountain, and by what strange means, I was jumbled all the way to Tom Fleming's; who lives fo far from the hill I went into; and the road from it to his house, scarce paffable for a mortal. Inform us, we beseech you, how these strange things came to pass. Gentlemen, I faid, I am extremely obliged to you for your concern for me, and will tell you my story as foon as we have dined, as the fervants are now bringing the dishes in, and accordingly, when we had done, I gave them a relation in detail. They were greatly pleafed with my hiftory, and much more, to have me returned to them in fafety again. If they. had not feen me, they faid, they could not believe the thing, and they would order the whole account to be entered in the journal I of -of their fociety, as the most extraordinary cafe they had ever known: or, perhaps, fhould ever hear related again. Their fecretary, as directed, writ it down in the big book of transactions, and it remains in their records to this day.-In fhort, reader, thefe worthy men were fo greatly rejoiced at my being alive, when they thought me for certain among the dead, that they put the bottle round in a feftal manner after dinner. We drank and laughed till it was midnight. My departure 99. The 8th day of July, I from Ulubræ took my leave of the gentlemen to Eggleston. at Ulubre, and proceeded to the Eaft-riding of Yorkshire, to look for Mifs Melmoth. Fleming came with me as far as Eggleston to fhew me the paffes between the hills, and the best ways over the mountains. Many vaft high ones we crosfed, and travelled through very wonderful -glins. Several fcenes were as charming as any I had before feen, and the low ways as bad; but he knew all the roads and cross turnings perfectly well, and fhortned the -journey a great many miles. I had told him the bufinefs I was going on, and he requested, if I fucceeded, that I would bring Mifs Melmoth to his house, that his brother might marry us; and as to Orton 2 Lodge, Lodge, which I had defcribed to him, and told him where to find, (for he had no notion of it, nor had ever been among the fells of Westmoreland; as he thought that country unpaffable), he promised me, he. would go there himself, and bring with him two labouring men to affift my lad in putting the garden and house in the best condition they were capable of receiving; that he would bring there feeds, and trees, fuch as the season allowed, and do every thing in his power, to render the place convenient and pleasing: he would likewife fell me a couple of his cows, a few fheep, and other things, which I should find before me at the lodge, and let me have one of his maids for my fervant in the house. This was good indeed. I could not wish for more. 1725. From Egglefton I to Mrs. Af vent gill's to look for Mifs Melmoth; but he was 100. The 9th of July, early in the morning, Fleming and I parted, and I proceeded as faft and as well as I could to the appointed station: but when I came up to Mrs. Afgill's door, the 2d day in the evening, July 10, and asked for Mifs Melmoth, an old man, the only person in the houfe, told me, Mrs. Afgill had been dead near a month, and Mifs Melmoth went from thence immediately after the funeral VOL. II. N gone. of of her friend; that the had left a letter with him for a gentleman that was to call upon her; but that letter by an accident was deftroyed, and where the lady then was, he could not fo much as guefs: he farther told me, that Mifs Melmoth had fold the goods of the house, and the stock, bequeathed to her by her deceafed friend, to the gentleman who inherited the late Mrs. Afgill's jointure, and fhe would return no more to the place. This was news to me. It ftruck me to the foul. Doleful tidings, how ye wound. wound. What to do I could not tell, but as I rid to the next town, determined at last, to try if I could hear of her at York, To that city I went the next day, afked at the inns, walked the walls, and went to the affembly-room. My enquiries were all in vain. One gentleman only did I fee who was acquainted with her, and he knew nothing of her prefent abode. From York then I proceeded the next morning to fearch other towns, and left no place unexamined where I could think the might be. Three weeks were fpent in this manner, without hearing a fyllable of her, and then I thought it was beft to return to my lodge; for what fignified my five hundred pounds to appear with in the world. It must be foon gone, as I had not the leaft notion of any kind of trade; and if I joined any one that that was in business, I might be mistaken in the man, and fo cheated and undone. Then what could I do but carry a brown mufket, or go a hand before the maft; for, as to being an ufher to a fchool for bread, were I reduced to want, that was the life of all lives that I moft abhorred. Nothing elfe then had I for it but my filent mountain-lodge, which kind providence had brought me to. There I refolved to go, and in that charming folitude, perufe alone the book of nature, till I could hear of fome better way of spending my time. By accident, 101. To this purpose then I went the 2d of Auguft, 1725, to Barnard's Castle in Durham, and intended the next morning to fet out for Mr. Fleming's house in Stanemore, to go from thence to my cottage on the fide of a Weftmoreland-Fell: but after I had rid a mile of the road to Eggleston, where I purpofed to dine, I called out to my lad to stop. A fudden thought came into my head, to ride first to Gretabridge, as I was fo near it, to fee fome fine Roman monuments, that are in the neighbourhood of that village. To that place I went then, and paffed the day in looking over all the antiquities and curiofities I could find there. I returned in the evening to my inn, and while a fowl N 2 was |