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as is evident to every eye that fees the workmen making the elegant vafes and chimneycolumns we have of the alabafter of those counties whereas in Stanemore, this alabafter confifts of firata of Sparry fubflance, tho' fomewhat coarser than this kind of Egyptian stone.

The top of the cave is a bold arch, finished beyond all that art could do, and the floor as fmooth as it is poffible to make the stone. At the far end of the grot, there are a dozen rows of feats like benches, that rife one above another. The uppermost will hold but two people: on each of the others a dozen may fit with eafe: they make the place look as if it was the affembly room, or council chamber of the water-nymphs. There was no water dropping from the roof of this cave; but in a thoufand places, where mofs had agreeably covered the walls, it crept through the fides, and formed ftreams that ran foftly over the ground, and weared it fmooth. It brought to my remembrance fome very poetical lines in Lucretius:

-Noctivagi Sylveftria templa tenebant Nympharum, quibus exibant humore fluenta Lubrica, proluvie larga lavere humida Saxa, Humida Saxa fuper viridi ftillantia musco Et partim plano fcatere atque erumpere campo. And then by night they took their reft in caves, Where little freams roul on with filent waves; Y 2

They

A defcrip

tion of a

Stanemore;

They bubble thro' the ftones, and softly
creep,

As fearful to disturb the nymphs that sleep.
The mofs fpread o'er the marbles, feems to

weep.

This was exactly the cafe of the water in this fine cave. In the loweft harmony, it gently fell over the flanting floor, and as Oldham has it

Away the ftreams did with fuch softness creep,

As 'twere by their own murmurs lull'd afleep.

57. Such was the delightful spot I at last fine feat in discovered, when I thought I was come to Yorkshire- the ne plus ultra, that is, had gone on till I which be- could go no farther; and now feeing how my fociety of Way lay, I departed from Orton-Lodge bephilofo- times the next morning, leaving my lad O

longs to a

phers.

the 7th day

1725. Fin to keep poffeffion of the place till I reJune 19 turned, and with the other boy went thro' fince I left the lawns in the wood I have mentioned at Jack Price, the end of the vale. This brought me to a

'

range of mountains most frightful to behold,

and to the top of them, with great toil, we made a shift to climb, and from thence defcended through many perils to a bottom between the hills we had come down, and

fome

fome mountains that stood at a small distance from them. This low ground trended north and north-west for an hour, and then turned north-eaft for three hours more, a very bad way; ftony and wet, and fome ftiff pieces of road but the bottoms brought us at last into a large and spacious plain, that was furrounded with hills, whofe tops and fides were covered with antient trees and lofty groves, and fome mountains whofe heads were above the clouds. Flowers and clover, and other herbs, adorned the ground, and it was watered with many never-drying ftreams. The plain feemed a vast amphitheatre, by nature formed; and variety and difpofition refreshed the eyes whatever they turned.

way

In the very center of this ground, I found a house and gardens that charmed me very much. The manfion had a rufticity and wildness in its afpect, beyond any thing I had feen, and looked like a mafs of materials jumbled together without order, or defign. There was no appearance of rule in any part, and where a kind of proportion was to be feen, it seemed as a ftart into truth, by the inadvertent head of blind chance. It was the most gothick, whimsical, four-fronted thing, without, that ever my eyes beheld; and within, the most convenient, comfortable dwelling I have seen.

Y 3

This

The gardens of U

lubræ.

This edifice, which looks more like a fmall gothic cathedral, than a house, stands in the middle of large gardens, which are not only very fine, but uncommon, and different from all the gardens I have been in. There is no more rule obferved in them, than in the house; but the plantations of trees, and plots of flowers, the raised hills, the artificial vallies, the ftreams that water these vales, and the large pieces of water, and lakes, they have brought in, and formed, are inexpreffibly charming and fine. Wild and natural they feem, and are a beautiful imitation of the most beautiful fcenes of nature. The wilderness, the openings, the parterres, the gardens, the ftreams, the lakes, the cascades, the valleys and the rifing grounds, in the most various difpofition, and as if art had little, or no hand in the designs, have an admirable effect upon the eye.

The paffages from valley to valley, between the hills they have made, are not by formal straight walks, but by windings in various ways, which are decorated with little grotto's, and diverfified in the manner of laying out the ground: the ftreams and canals fometimes ferpent, and sometimes fpread away. Rocks artfully placed, feem to push the waters off, and on the banks are seeming wild productions of flowers. As the hills and rifings are fprinkled with flowery trees,

fo

. fo are thefe banks with all the fweets that grow. Small boats are on the running streams, and over them in many places, are winding bridges of wood, moft ingeniously and finely made. Thefe ftreams which they have from the mountains, fupply the larger pieces of water; and in the largest of those lakes they had raised a rock, in the most natural manner. On this is a fummer-houfe of great beauty. It is the reverse of the mansion, and has every charm that pure architecture could give it. It is large enough for a small family.

lofophers of

58. When I came up to this feat, which an account the owners of it call Ülubræ, fome gentle-of the phimen, who were in the gardens, faw me,Stanemore. and faved me the trouble of afking admif- 1725. fion, by inviting me in with the greatest ci-7th day. vility; but they feemed under a vast furprize

at

my arrival; and much more fo, when I gave them an account of the way I had travelled. It appeared almost incredible. They had not a notion of fuch a journey. They told me I was in Yorkshire now, and had been fo, when I afcended the high mountains that are fome miles behind the hills that furround their boufe; but they did not imagine there was any travelling over those mountains, and the alps upon alps beyond them, to Brugh under Stanemore. The way (they faid) was very bad from their house to Eg

Y 4

glefton,

June 19.

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