jects at Derby, and among the number was the old school, built in the twelfth century, and at which Flamstead, the astronomer royal, received the rudiments of his education. Dr. Darwin, while on a visit, died in this place. Derby may be considered a manufacturing town. On the banks of the Derwent there is a large building occupied as a silk mill, the first and the largest ever erected in England: I did not count them, but it is said to contain 488 windows. The fluor or Derbyshire spar is here principally manufactured into vases, urns, and other ornaments. The neighbourhood of the town affords a number of fine views. About 11 o'clock I left Derby in the coach for Birmingham. The country is not so thickly settled, in many considerable districts, as I expected to find it: there is a great deal of common, or unhedged land, into which all the neighbouring farmers, at certain seasons of the year, turn their cattle and sheep. Still larger open tracts are planted with low bushes, for the purpose of giving shelter to foxes and hares, when they have the honour of being hunted and murdered by the nobility. LETTER IX. Birmingham, England, One feature of an English landscape, common all over the country, is the number of wind mills. Some of these are quite ornamental; many of them are coloured white, and are surrounded with rich ever-green hedges. The graceful motion of their wings, as they slowly revolve, gives an animation to them, which might well provoke the ire of a knight like that of La Mancha. I passed through two or three places which were exceedingly interesting to me. The first stage brought me to a neat little town on the banks of the Trent, called Bur ton-every one has heard of the fine ale which is brewed here-and from curiosity, if not from thirst, I called for a tumbler of the best Burton ale. I have no great faith in the exquisite sensibility of the gustatory organs, said to be possessed by certain persons-at any rate, I would just now prefer to have a draught of the ale made in Philadelphia or Burlington. Our next stage was to Litchfield. This town every one knows as the birth place of Johnson. I could not visit the house where he was born, and which is now shown to many persons annually; but the spot where it stands was pointed out to me, by a man who said that, within a short time, forty individuals had applied to him as a guide to the place. I saw, however, the lit tle school-house in which he and Garrick received the rudiments of their education. The author of Sandford and Merton, a book which gave my youthful hours much delight, was also a native of this place; and Dr. Darwin lived and wrote most of his works here. I should, in gallantry, name Miss Seward also; but I do not think she ought to be placed in such good company. Litchfield is quite a common looking town; there is, however, a cathedral here, which, it is said, is among the finest specimens of Gothick architecture in England -it has two tall stone spires. The next place is Birmingham, the great toy-shop of the world. As we approached, the sooty appearance of the buildings, the dense volumes of smoke rising up from |