parts of the world. In the fide of one of the Apennines, I have seen a large blazing vale. The learned tell us, this is owing to rich veins of bitumen, which crops in fuch borious of all the country dances; and no where have I feen the ground more actively beat, or in jufter measure. Life, and truth, and charms, were in perfection in those Richmond girls. I was there in 29, 37, and 53, and the fenfible club, and bright affembly, were still in being; but no more than three did I fee, of men or women, in 37, that was there in 29; and in 52, they were all ftrangers to me. Some were married away; fome had removed; and others were tranflated to the fhades of eternity. This was to me a moral leffon. When I looked round the affembly room the last time I was there, and found every glorious girl of my acquaintance was gone, and that years had rendered me almost unfit to join with the ladies then prefent, in the dancings of the night, a philofophical fadnefs came powerfully upon my mind, and I could not help fighing in the midft of harmony, and a blaze of charms. This life, I faw, was a fleeting scene indeed. And now, reader, as to Stanemore-country, if it fhould ever come into your head to wander over this wild and romantic part of our world, at the hazard of your neck, and the danger of being starved, your route is, when you have passed the turnpike on Stanemore, in your way to Brugh, to turn off to the right, beyond the public-house, and afcend a fine rifing valley you will fee between two mountains, till you come to the top of the firft hills: then proceed, if you can, in the courfe I have described, and wherever it füch places, and the heat of the air between the hills, in fhallow vallies, caufes it to burn. This crop of bitumen, and accenfion by the agitation of a hot air, is well fancied, I own: but it does not give me full fatisfaction. I think of this, and it is in your power, tend to the north-eaft, for that is the way out. This is one way into the heart of Stanemore in Richmondshire, and will bring you, by the way, among the dreadful northern fells of Weftmoreland; a frightful country, and a fatiguing march. Another way to the Stanemore Alps, is behind Jack Railton's, the quaker's house at Bows. Hire a guide from him, and his man will bring you, as he did me once, through a very surprising way of deep bottoms to a public-houfe at Eggleston, on the border of Richmond-Stanemore. There reft that night, and early the next morning, proceed due north, when you can, with another guide, and you will come to mountains upon mountains, rapid rivers, and headlong torrents, that form amazing and tremendous fcenes. Or, as this way is neither comfortable, nor very fafe, it is a better road to the confines, or beginning of Stanemore, to ride from Gretabridge to Bernard Castle, and from Bernard Cafle to Eggleston, about 16 miles, as I judge, for it is not meafured, and then fet out for the mountains from Eggleston, as before directed. I have been told there is another way into Stanemore, through Bishoprick; but as I am a ftranger to it, I can only fay what I have heard, that it is worse than the bottoms I went through from the quaker's house. This is enough, reader, to fhew you how to get into Stanemore, if you have the curiofity and heart to vifit that very wild and wonderful land, C 2 many many other natural things, as Mr. Moyle does of the Aurora Borealis ;-- that these uncommon appearances fhould be looked on with wonder and admiration, and raise in us a due reverence of their great Author, who has fhewn his Almighty power and wisdom in forming fuch an infinite variety of productions in all parts of the universe. Philofophy undertakes to account for every thing. I am fure it is in many cases miftaken. An account of a waterfall at Stane more. 29. Having paffed the burning valley, we rid over a river, that was up to the horses bellies, very rapid, and a bad bottom, and then proceeded along a steep hill fide, the courfe N. W. till we came tò a rich low land, covered with flowers and aromatic fhrubs, and adorned with feveral clumps of oak, chefnut, and white walnut trees. This plain is about twentyfive acres, furrounded with ftony mountains, fome of which are very high and steep, and from the top of one of the lowest of them, a cataract defcends, like the fall of the river Niagara in Canada, or New France, in North America. Swifter than an arrow from a bow the rapid water comes headlong down in a fall of 140 feet, which is 3 feet more than the defcent of Niagara. The river 2 river here, to be fure, is not half fo large as that which comes from the vaft lakes of Canada, but it is a great and prodigious cadence of water, and tumbles perpendicular in as surprising a manner, from as horrible a precipice; and in this very nearly resembles the Niagara-Fall; that as you ftand below, as near the fall as it is fafe to go, you fee the river come down a floping mountain for a great way, as if it defcended from the clouds. It is a grand and amazing scene. The water iffues from a great lake on the top of a mountain that I found very hard to afcend, and the lake has many vifible feeders from hills upon hills above it, which it is impoffible to climb. June 19, and a wonderful fall of O. Fin the boy. 30. It was 12 o'clock by the time we arrived at this water-fall, and therefore I fat down by the fide of it to dine, before I attempted to get up to the top of the precipice, and fee from whence this water came. While my eyes were entertained with the descending fcene, I feasted on a piece of venifon pafty, and fome fine ale, which, among other provisions,, Mrs. Burcot had ordered her fervants to put. up for me: but as I was thus happily engaged, my lad, O Fin, had climbed up to the top C 3 off of the water-fall, and was going to land from a tree that grew out of the rocky mountain, near the fummit of the hill, when his foot flipt, and he came tumbling down in a miferable way. I expected him in pieces on the ground, as I had him full in my view. view. There feemed no poffibility of an escape; and yet he received no harm. In the middle of the defcent, he stuck in another projecting thick tree, and from it came fafely down. This was a deliverance. Providence often faves us in a wonderful manner, till the work appointed to be finished is done, or the limited time of our trial over. In relation to fuch escapes, I could give myfelf as an instance many a time, and will here mention one extraordi nary cafe. A great deli verance. 31. As I travelled once in the county of Kerry in Ireland, with the White Knight, and the Knight of the Glin (22), we called at Terelah O Crobanes, (22) Such knights were honourable creations made by the Irish kings. We have an account of them in the pfalter of Tarah, before the reigns of Conaire the Great, A. M. 3970, ante. Chriftum 34; Cormac UIfadda, A. D. 230; and the glorious Briem Boirombe, A. D. 1027; the three greatest monarchs that ever Ireland |