ninsula of Furness, the double point of Peel Castle stands up from the sea, but is so distant that it resembles a forked rock. This peninsula, which separates the bay of Ulverstone from the Irish channel, swells gradually into a pointed mountain called Black Combe, thirty miles from Lancaster, the first in the amphitheatre that binds the bay. Hence a range of lower, but more broken and forked summits, extends northwards to the fells of High Furness, rolled behind each other-huge, towering, and dark; then, higher still, Langdale Pikes, with a confusion of other fells that crown the head of Windermere and retire towards Keswick, whose gigantic mountains, Helvellyn and Saddleback, are, however, sunk in the distance, below the horizon of the nearer ones. The top of Skiddaw may be discerned when the air is clear, but is too far off to appear with dignity. From Windermere Fells the heights soften towards the vale of Lonsdale, on the east side of which Ingleborough rears his rugged front, the loftiest and most majestic in the scene. The nearer country from this point of the landscape is intersected with cultivated hills, between which the Lune wends its bright but shallow stream, falling over a weir, and passing under a very handsome stone bridge at the entrance of the town, in its progress to the sea. A ridge of rocky eminences shelters Lancaster on the East, whence they decline into the low and uninteresting country that stretches to the channel. "*

On the east side of the Castle, near the vestiges of

*Mrs. Radcliffe's Tour to the Lakes.

Adrian's Tower, is the Record office of the duchy and county palatine. The apartment in this tower in which the archives of the county are kept is called John o' Gaunt's Oven, and is thirty-eight feet high.

The new Crown and County Courts on the northwest and north sides of the Castle, next claim our attention. They are approached by a beautiful terrace of stone, and present an extensive frontage of modern Gothic architecture. The Crown Court is a square and lofty Hall, which will contain 1500 persons. The entrance for the public is along a stone passage and under a deep arch, up a few stone steps. The spectator is now at the extremity of the Court, in the portion open to the public. To approach the barristers and the body of the Court he has to descend to the level of the floor by a flight of steps, which extend along the entire breadth of the Hall, and prevent the audience from rudely pressing upon each other. The Court is lighted by a dome over the barristers' table, which opens to a roof of decorated oak. The accomodations for the grand and petit juries, the bar, &c. are very complete and well arranged. The seat for the judges is surmounted by profusely adorned wood work, above which is a large painting (by Northcote) of George III. in military uniform, and on horseback; in the distance is a view of her majesty's ducal Castle of Lancaster. The picture is the gift of James Ackers, esq., during his shrievalty. There are two galleries on each side, one of which, on the right of the judge, is usually set apart for the ladies who may be attracted to the assize Court to witness the proceedings. The prisoners are

brought to the Court by a dark subterranean passage leading from the interior of the Castle. The apartment at the end of this passage, where the prisoners wait until called for trial, has received the name of "the sweating room. Who shall tell the mingled emotions of suspense, hope, and fear which by turns have swayed the minds of the unfortunate occupants of the "sweating room." The new Crown Court was opened at the August assizes, 1796.

It is the custom for the senior judge to preside in the Crown Court of the County palatine. If the Lord Chief Justice or Lord Chief Baron come the Northern Circuit he always takes his seat in the Crown Court here. If two puisne judges take this circuit (which is usually the case, the laborious duties of the northern circuit usually falling to the lot of the younger judicial personages), the senior judge may always be found in the Criminal Court at Lancaster, and the junior in the Nisi Prius.

The Shire Hall and Nisi Prius Court is a most ele

gant structure. It is formed by the moiety of a space of fourteen equal sides. The roof is supported by seven clustered columns of four single shafts each, which spring into Gothic arches of great lightness and beauty. The ceiling is of stone open work. Here, as in the Crown Court, the body of the Court is raised along the whole breadth by broad steps. The east side of the Hall is ornamented by an alcove of tracery-work, terminating in finials, foliage, and miniature turrets. Over this is a window of stained glass, on one side of which is a portrait of Colonel Stanley, and on the other of John Blackburne, esq., for many years the representatives of the county of Lan

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caster in Parliament. These paintings were presented by the late Sir Robert Peel, bart. This Court is calculated to hold two thousand persons. It was opened in August 1798.

The Grand Jury room (nearly opposite the church) is circular, roomy, and commodious. It is partly wainscoated by oak, and communicates with the Crown Court by a commodious passage.

At an angle between the two great Courts is a room provided for the Chancery Court of the County Palatine. There are also offices for the Prothonotary and Cursitor, and for the Court of Common Pleas. An excellent law library and robing room for the barristers opens into the Crown Court.

A defect, which seems to have been considered unavoidable in the construction of the Courts owing to their high position, is that the judges, in going to or returning from the Courts, have to pass through a cold and gloomy under-ground passage, and to ascend a similar flight of stairs, which to aged or infirm men is a serious inconvenience.

The Castle terrace we have before spoken of as a delightful promenade, with a solid stone pavement always clean and dry, and overlooking a romantic combination of land and water, bay and mountain. Beneath the raised stone terrace are a lower terrace and parade, containing a lawn and a few young trees. The latter terrace and the

Church yard are a favourite promenade, which, in point of beauty, few towns can equal.

The modern additions to the Castle-including the prisons, new Courts, &c.—were completed at a cost to the county of £150,000. Whether the frontage of the new Courts harmonizes as it might and ought to do with the character and design of the structure of which it forms a part, is a question warmly debated by connoisseurs, upon which we shall leave the reader to form his own opinion.

Nearly over the Grand Jury room, but to the east of it, is a half circular room, from which a small door opens upon the platform on which the last sentence of the law is executed. No part of the Castle is regarded with so much awe and interest by the humbler class of visitors as this little door just seen above the outer wall. During the Chaplaincy of the Rev. Joseph Rowley, A.M., commencing in the year 1804, no less than one hundred and seventy-one persons have been executed in Lancaster Castle. In the years 1806, '9, and '12, the number of executions was in these years respectively 11, 13, and 13. In the single year 1817 twenty human beings were hurried into eternity for offences against the law. Happily the Legislature has become more tender of human life, and to the joint influence of this circumstance and to the removal of the assizes to Liverpool it is owing that, since the year 1835, the town of Lancaster has been spared the demoralizing spectacle of a public execution. This fact speaks well for the comparative morality, and the freedom from atrocious crime, which distinguish the northern division. of the county.