A GUIDE, &c. THE increased facilities of railway communication have, as might have been anticipated, caused a great addition to the visitors of the delightful scenery of the Lakes. Nor are these exclusively confined as formerly to the higher classes-to those members of the Aristocracy who, when Parliament rises, rejoice to escape from the whirl and bustle of a London season to hold communings with Nature in her loveliest forms and stillest haunts. The railway, like all the products of a growing civilization, is a great leveller; and, availing themselves of its cheap and speedy facilities of transmission, the sons of trade and commerce hasten to leave for a brief space the dusty and crowded streets of our large towns, and duly equip themselves for a tour among the lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Rightly considered, this, and all other evidences of a love of external nature among our town. population, are of pleasing augury. That in an age so practical, so bustling and so money-making, as ours-in which every inhabitant of our great towns seems living at high pressure the appreciation of the beautiful in nature A should display itself in so many shapes, may indeed be a subject of congratulation, even amongst those whose former almost exclusive enjoyment of the exquisite scenery of the English lakes should seem to be now for the first time trenched upon. As a great majority of our lake-visitors approach from the south, so a variety of circumstances usually induce them to make their first halt at Lancaster. Here they see, for the first time, the bold blue hills of the north, among which their fancy already delightedly wanders; while the picturesque situation of the town, the grandeur of its ancient castle, and the beautiful views with which the town and neighbourhood abound, usually dispose them to make a short stay here, before they enter upon the glories of the promised land. No traveller, however much pressed for time, who gave a small portion of it to the county town and its vicinity-to an examination of its varied beauties of sea and mountain, of bay and river,-ever yet repented the time so spent. The want, however, has been greatly felt of some " GUIDE TO LANCASTER," describing, at greater length than the generality of Guides to the Lakes, the objects of interest within the town, and the best points of view from which the adjacent scenery may be observed. With the view of supplying this want the present publication has been undertaken. VIEW FROM THE SCOTFORTH ROAD. One of the finest views in England is that seen from the great South road, near the first mile-stone from Lan |