for this fall of the Monach is so much interrupted and broken, that by a near inspection, as you ascend from the bottom, you are shewn five separate cascades; which, when you retire to a proper distance, at a particular point of view, appear all united into a one stupendous cataract. We were conducted to this spot, which is on an eminence opposite the fall, and from whence the effect of this cascade is superb. The bare mention of a river, precipitated from a height of four hundred feet, conveys an idea of something great, of something unusually magnificent. But when to this is added the peculiar wildness and gigantic features of the scenery which surrounds the fall of the Monach, no description whatever can do it justice. Soon after its descent, it runs into the Rhyddol, which river also displays a beautiful cascade, before its union with the Monach. Several brooks and smaller streams are seen falling from the tops of the high mountains on all sides, and losing themselves in the valley below. Thus we seemed surrounded by waterfalls, many of which deserved our notice, had it not been for the fall of the Monach, which engrossed our whole attention."

The last extract from this work shall be his farewell address to the reader. It is interesting for the view which he takes of his own production, as well as for the prophetic hope it holds out of better efforts in the same career, when the inexperience and the prejudices of youth should be removed. It was written when he was setting off on his tour to Italy.

"To him, therefore, who has been induced from motives of candour or curiosity to mark the progress and termination of my rambles, I make my grateful acknowledgments. Courteous or inquisitive reader! if, in the perusal of these pages,

thy brow has been sullied with anger or contracted by contempt, let me entreat thee to obliterate the remembrance of it! I have endeavoured to portray with accuracy a variety of scenes in no small extent of territory; I have pointed out every object which I deemed worthy of thy notice; I have considered thee as the companion of my travels, and have given thee the fruits of my labours without the fatigue or expense of acquiring them.

"It would be impertinent to apologize for present deficiency by a promise of future improvement-else, haply, when the hand of time shall remove the curtain of prejudice, and check the sallies of inexperience, I may hope to throw aside my anonymous pen and assume a more respectable appearance. It is with this view I leave my present work to its fate, and go in search of materials for a more important superstructure. I hasten among the wider regions of continental domain; to see peace expel discord, and to witness the downfall of anarchy: to behold the armies of nations combined in restoring serenity to a distracted people: to behold the melancholy condition of a country, where faction, drunk with the blood of multitudes, has fantastically arrayed herself in the garb of liberty, and like the arrogant bird, who envied the meekness and beauty of the dove, vainly endeavours by assuming a borrowed plumage to hide her native deformity."

In a letter to a friend, written while this work was in the press, Mr. Clarke thus expresses himself, with all the ardour of a youthful author:

"I have a work in the press. It is the tour we made. My friends encourage me to hope for success. Two booksellers have it between them. It will make two volumes octavo, with plates, in aquatinta. A few impressions will be struck off in

quarto. The first edition consists of 1000 copies only: if these are sold off, the disposal of the second edition remains with me. It will cost them 1407.: so, I have given them the first edition, all expenses."

and they pay

The work was published in only one volume octavo; and, it is believed, without any copies struck off in quarto. As it attracted no great share of public attention, it is probable that the first edition of 1000 copies only may have remained for some time on the booksellers' hands, and that the author's anticipations of a second edition were never realized.

CHAPTER III.

His engagement to travel with Lord Berwick-Tour to ItalyHis employments and acquirements there-Residence at Naples-Projected excursion to Egypt and Greece-Hasty journey to England and back-Departure from NaplesReturn to England-Conclusion of the tour-Letters on foreign travel.

;

In the autumn of this year, 1791, and shortly after the close of his journey, we find him balancing between the prospect of another winter at Hothfield with his pupil, and the alternative of entering into holy orders with an immediate prospect of the curacy of Uckfield, which had been served by his elder brother, but was at this time offered to him and, certainly, if any proposal of the kind could have tempted him, it would have been the curacy of Uckfield, where all that was most dear to him in life was assembled, and where he was always anxious to take up his abode. But, as he was not at this time disposed to embrace the profession of the church, he did not hesitate long; and the result of his deliberation with the reasons upon which it was founded, will be best learnt from one of his letters to his friend and biographer, dated October, 1791.

66

Your letter came most welcome to me; I had just been framing a remonstrance against your long silence. It was not my wish to leave Mr. Tufton, but all my friends cried out against me, and said it would be madness to resign

M

a certain emolument, for the precarious consequences of another six months' interment at Hothfield. I wrote to the Bishop of Gloucester, and asked his advice; he begged to stand neuter, and give no opinion upon such a nice point. I then sent off my letters to the Duke of Dorset; I represented the whole case, offered to take Mr. Tufton into our family, which must be better for him than being at Hothfield, and ended with saying, if he did not approve of my proposal, my services, such as they were, were entirely at his disposal. I was, I said, bound to him in gratitude for repeated acts of kindness, and was willing if he desired it, to disengage myself from every other occupation; and, dedicating myself solely to Mr. Tufton's welfare, would go with him to any part of the world, and stay with him for any length of time whatever. You have no idea how much the duke was pleased with my offers. He wrote immediately, requesting of me to continue with his nephew, and said that he was fully sensible of my attention to him, and that my conduct upon all occasions demanded, his warmest acknowledgments. I did not hesitate a moment, but swallowing this fine pill, jumped into the mail coach, and reached Uckfield by four o'clock in the morning. There I knocked them all up, adjusted every thing, bid my mother good-bye, travelled all night again to Lord Thanet's, sent the duke my final determination, pursuaded Mr. Charles Tufton to accompany us, and here we are again.

"E. D. C."

But before this resolution was taken, he had paid a visit to his mother at Uckfield, and there, with his usual overflow of filial kindness, had recounted to her the whole story of his adventures, and spread before her admiring eyes the wonders