ULSWATER-PENRITH-CARLISLE.

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other; the opposite bank a naked rock, without any trees; and behind us, between the overhanging branches of the wood, the dark recess of mountains we had just left, of a uniform leaden blue. As we proceeded, the banks on both sides. became lower and tamer,—and, at last, hardly even pretty. The woods, which contribute so much to the beauty of Ulswater, owe their preservation to the Duke of Norfolk, who is proprietor, and has erected a house, in the castellated Gothic style, in a very fine situation. The banks of Windermere, and, I am told, of other lakes, are stripped every fourteen years of their growing honours, to make brooms and charcoal!

Penrith is a tolerably good-looking little town; most of the houses had long boxes of reseda in their windows, and our inn was quite perfumed with "the Frenchmen's weed." On leaving Penrith for Carlisle, and from the top of a moderate hill, we had an extensive view of the whole range of mountains we had passed in the morning, and even saw, west of them, Helvellyn, and, more west, the top of Skiddaw, behind Saddleback. All these mountains appeared sunk behind the well-defined horizon of the rich plain rounding away before us.

We slept at merry Carlisle (dull and ugly enough), 42 miles; and to-day, by Longtown and Langholm, to Hawick, 44 miles. About twelve miles north of Carlisle, our post-boy shewed us a tree which divides the two kingdoms; a nominal division, which brings to mind forcibly the unhappy times, when this very frontier was a desert, called debateable lands, open to the reciprocal depredations of the lawless borderers on both sides, and that little more than one hundred years ago. Our road was beautiful, along the banks of the Esk, the

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Teviot, and several other dashing little rivers, with beds of romantic rocks. Passing over a high stone bridge on the Esk, the two arches of which rested on a middle pier boldly planted on a rock, we were struck with the milder beauties of the hanging wood and smooth lawn on the other side,-too natural to be entirely nature; for art here consists merely in removing those accidental defects which disturb the harmony of the whole. The artificial composition and order of gardens in England, as that of its government, abridges only the liberty of doing harm. A pretty cottage was just seen among the trees, with a neat path leading to it. We alighted, and followed the path to a small building of stones covered with thatch, and were looking through the casements at the rural furniture inside, when a little Scotch girl came running barefooted, with the key in her hand, and informed us that this was the Duke of Buccleugh's boor, and that her mother had the care of the place. The inside was covered, walls, ceiling, chairs, and sofa, with moss, ingeniously woven into a solid velvetty matting ; the tables and frames of seats were of rough sticks and roots; and an adjoining closet contained a set of common earthen-ware, root salt-cellars, &c.: pretty toys for grown children, born in the lap of luxury, to play with, and make believe being poor! The water of the Esk, though very clear, appears deeply tinged with brown, like coffee.

We passed this afternoon a tract of country very different from England. It is a succession of steep hills, with intervening vallies, all uniformly covered with a fine green turf, smooth, and unbroken by a single tree, bush, weed, or stone; sheep hanging along the sides of the acclivities, and here and there a shepherd-boy wrapped up in his plaid;—