had defcended, nor near fo fteep; it began to widen at the distance of a hundred yards from the water, fo as to fhew, at the fummit, a fine plain encompaffed with a sweep of foreft. We could fee the fun fhining there. The view in contraft was quite charming.

For fome time I ftood in this perplexed condition by the water-fide, and could not tell what to do, when one of the lads came running to me, to let me know, that as he carefully examined the fides of the glin we came down, he discovered to the left, about fourscore yards above the river, a pass wide enough for one horse to go through, and he believed it was a way out. This was reviving news, and upon going into it, I found that it went straight on among the mountains, like a rent, or open crack, for three hundred yards, and then turned to the left for about fifty more, when it winded a little, and began to extend wider and wider every yard, till it brought us by feveral turnings to the beginning of a fine valley, where we again found the river we had seen in the bottom of the deep glin, and perceived that it ended in a great water, and went off in fome fubterranean way. The mountains were almost close to this fine water, on either hand, for near half a mile, and made a delightful rural

3

fcene.

scene. We could fee the river, as we looked up it, come tumbling on for a great way between the steep rocky precipices; and the broad bright lake it formed between vast frowning mountains, with wood and lawns in it, at the end of the vale, were altogether a view most charming. This made me more highly value Orton-Lodge.

tion of an

in Stane

more.

56. There is a cave there likewife that a deferip adds great beauty to the place, and in charms extraordiand wonders, exceeds the grot of Tunis, nary cave (a few miles east of Carthage, directly under Cape-Bonn, formerly called the promontory of Mercury), where Eneas fheltered after the ftorm (25.); and St. Donat's Cave in Glamorganshire,

(25.) Dr. Shaw in his travels, fhews that the cave near Cape Bonn was the grot which Virgil defcribes in the following manner

Defeffi Æneadæ, quæ proxima, litora curfu
Contendunt petere, et Lybiæ vertuntur ad oras.
Eft in feceffu longo locus: infula portum
Efficit objectu laterum, quibus omnis ab alto
Frangitur inque finus fcindit fefe unda reductos.
Hinc atque hinc valle rupes, geminique minantur
In cœlum fcopuli. Quorum fub vertice latè
Equora tuta filent. Tum fylvis scena coruscie
Defuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra.
Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum
Intus aquæ dulces, vivoque fedilia faxo;
Nympharum domos.

The

morganshire, which is much more beautiful,

The weary Trojans ply their shatter'd oars
To nearest land, and make the Lybian fhores.

The Trojans, weary'd with the ftorms explore
The nearest land, and reach the Lybian shore.

Within a long recefs there lies a bay,
An island shades it from the rolling sea,
And forms a port fecure for fhips to ride,
Broke by the jutting land on either fide:
In double ftreams the briny waters glide.

Far in a deep recefs, her jutting fides
An ifle projects, to break the rolling tides
And forms a port, where, curling from the fea
The waves fteal back, and wind into a bay.

Betwixt two rows of rocks, a sylvan scene
Appears above, and groves for ever green.

On either fide, fublime in air, arife

than

D.

P.

D.

P.

D.

Two tow'ring rocks, whofe fummits brave the skies;
Low at their feet the fleeping ocean lies:
Crown'd with a gloomy fhade of waving woods,
Their awful brows hang nodding o'er the floods. P.

A grot is form'd beneath, with moffy feats
To reft the Nereids, and exclude the heats:
Down thro' the crannies of the living walls
The crystal streams defcend in murm'ring falls. D.

Oppos'd to thefe, a secret grotto stands,
The haunt of Nereids, fram'd by nature's hands;
Where polish'd feats appear of living stone,
And limpid rills, that tinkle as they run.

P.

There

than the African grot defcribed in the first Æneid. (26.)

There lies a harbour far within the land,
Commodious form'd by an oppofing ifle :
Which breaking as a mound the furious waves,
They run divided, calmer then unite.

On each fide rocks, and two with fteepy height
Afpiring touch the clouds, fafe at whofe feet
The waters far and near pacific fleep.

Diflant from these a fylvan fcene, beyond,
To bound the profpect, woods with horrent shade.
Op'ning to view, beneath the hanging rocks
A cave; within, a fountain pure; and feats
Form'd from the living ftone; the cool recefs
Of nymphs :-

S.

This grot within a mountain over-fhaded with trees, and lying open to the fea, with a cliff on each fide, and not far from Carthage, anfwers fo well to the Nympharum domus of Virgil*, that I think we need not doubt of its being the cave into which the gallant Eneas led the gracious queen but that it ever was a quarry, and that pillars were made by the workmen to fupport the roof, as Dr. Shaw fays, does not feem to be the cafe. The whole grot, which goes in 36 fathoms under the hill, its arches, and pillars were undoubtedly by the hand of nature; like many others I have seen. So it appeared to me. I could not see the leaft fign of a labouring hand in this cave.

(26.) St. Donat's Cave, (by the vulgar called Reynard's Church) in Glamorganfhire, is 160 feet in length,

Y

*The kingdom of Tunis in the west of Barbary in Afric, was once the celebrated republic of Carthage. The city of Carthage was about 4 miles from the fpot the city of Tunis now ftands on. Many ruins of it are still remaining. This glorious city, that was 23 miles round, and built near 100 years before Rome, was taken and utterly rafed by young Africanus, that is, Scipio Emilianus, before Chrift 146 years. It had difputed with Rome for the empire of the world, for the space of 118 years. The most beautiful village in the world, called Marfa, now flands in the western point of antient Carthage, and from thence it is a fine walk to Dido's Cave under Cape-Bonn.

The cave in Stanemore is in the bottom of a perpendicular mountain of a vast height, the east fide of the lake, and four yards from the fhoar. The entrance is a grand sweep, high and broad as the grot, that is, in breadth 52 feet, in height 59. It is an hundred and forty feven feet long. The ftone of it is extremely beautiful; of a yellow and reddish colour, bright and glittering, and beautifully variegated with arched and undulated veins of various tinges. I broke off a piece of it, and found it a congeries of plates of fpar, ftained with a fine mixture of colours. It is a fpecies of the alabafter, called Marmor Onychites, on account of its tabulated zones, refembling thofe of the Onyx, and is very little inferior to the Egyptian alabafter. This Stanemore flone is far beyond the Cornish and Derbyshire alabafter. The caverns there are but incrufted with a fparry fubftance, as I have found upon various examinations; and,

as

length, the breadth 43, and the height 34. Every fpring tide fills it with water, and has fmoothed it to perfection. At the upper end of it, there is a grand feat, arched into the ftone, and near it a falling-fpring of fresh water drops into a ciftern it has made. The rufhing tides have made good feats in the fides of the rock, and from them you have a view of the channel, which is feven leagues. Every fhip that fails to and from Bristol, is feen, and the mountains of Somerfetshire bound the profpect that way. The cliff over the cave is almost double the height of the grot, and to the very edge of the precipice, the cattle come to graze, to avoid the infects, who will not approach the fea-breezes. The whole is a charming fcene.