need for thought or foresight in travelling in England, no care necessary, but that of keeping your purse well furnished; every thing is done and arranged for you in the most convenient manner beforehand. We had not been many minutes in the inn at Ross, before the master, perceiving, no doubt, that we were people of taste in quest of picturesque beauties, called for our orders respecting a boat to go down the riThese boats attend there during the touring season. The price from hence to Chepstow, 45 miles in two days, is L.4, 10s., and 5s. pour boire. The landlord knew exactly what was necessary for the victualling of the vessel, and we found all ready in a basket in the boat; this boat was covered with an awning, the seats with a carpet, a small table in the middle, and two oars.

ver.

From Ross to Monmouth the Wye is a good little river, rather insignificant and tame-cultivated fields to the right and left, and nothing else. Lower down, the banks rise by degrees, are clothed with woods, and diversified with rocks in fine detached masses; the woods, however, are only coppice, cut every fourteen years, -no fine trees; and at the water line, instead of sand or rock, muddy sedge and reeds, although the current is rapid. The finest parts of the Wye resemble the banks of our Hudson river. One of these rivers is more than a mile wide, and the

other perhaps twenty yards,-extremes on both sides; there the majesty of the banks sinks before the vastness of the river,-here they overpower it. This river meets with so many promontories, and bends in and out so much, that a walk of half a mile, at the point where Goodrich Castle stands, brought us to a place which the boat had a circuit of three miles to make before it could reach; another time, we made a short cut of about a mile over a high promontory, four miles round by the river, called New Weir, or Symond's Yacht.-Goodrich Castle is a very fine ruin. From the summit of this high ridge, the view extends beyond the deep trench at the bottom of which the river flows, far and wide over a waving surface of country, remark. ably well cultivated, and dotted over with whitewashed cottages and houses, most of them owned by the Duke of Beaufort. We were here be set by a great number of beggars, attracted, and in fact created, by the alms of travellers. The hopes of getting their bread that way has prevented honest exertions, and they have become wretchedly poor by pretending to be so. This is more or less the case wherever there is any sight to attract travellers. Wales and the Wye are visited by all tourists; we are precisely in the tract, and meet them at all the inns,-stalking round every ruin of castle or abbey,-and climb

ing every high rock for a prospect; each with his Gilpin or his Cambrian Guide in his hand, and each, no doubt, writing a journal. This is rather ridiculous and discouraging.

The exterior of Tintern Abbey disappointed us; but the coup-d'œil of the interior is wonder. ful. Suppose Westminster Abbey, with the roof off,-the pavement transformed into a short green turf, over which clusters of pillars, like Gothic skeletons, rear their slender forms; dark ivy in matted locks hanging from their high bushy. heads. The walls, and part of the arches over the aisles, are still entire; even the delicate tracery-work of the large windows; and, as we were told, the painted glass adhered to them till within a few years. I took some views of these ruins, Upon the whole the beauties of the Wye itself fall rather short of the descriptions of Gilpin and other travellers.

Wishing to see the last number of Cobbett, we sent the servant of the inn to procure it; he is just returned, and informs us, that nobody in Chepstow knows any thing of Cobbett's Political Register. I do not know whether to wish the good people of Chepstow joy of it, or to pity them; as the Political Register, together with some treason, contains certainly a good deal of information and entertainment.

July 14.-We are at Cowbridge, Glamorganshire. Having travelled 40 miles to-day, through Newport, Cardiff, and Landaff:-the country just uneven enough to afford extensive views over an immense extent of cultivation, lost in the blue distance; nothing wild, or, properly speaking, picturesque, but all highly beautiful, and every appearance of prosperity. Wales seems more inhabited, at least more strewed over with habitations of all sorts, scattered or in villages, than any part of England we have seen, and which are rendered more conspicuous by white-washing of the most resplendent whiteness. Every cottage too has its roses, and honeysuckles, and vines, and neat walk to the door; and this attention bestowed on objects of mere pleasurable comforts, is the surest indication of minds at ease, and not under the immediate pressure of poverty. It is impossible indeed to look round without the conviction, that this country is, upon the whole, one of the happiest, if not the happiest in the world. The same class in America has certainly more advantages, and might have more enjoyments; but superior industry and sobriety more than compensate for the difficulties they have to struggle with here. The women we see are certainly better looking than nearer London. The language of the inhabitants is quite unintel