(bear The lonely primrose yet renews its bloom, Would lodge her, and the cherished burden Untouched memento of her hapless doom! | O'er hill and valley to this dim retreat !

JOURNEY RENEWED. [wrong; I ROSE while yet the cattle, heat-opprest, Crowded together under rustling trees, Brushed by the current of the water-breeze; And for their sakes, and love of all that rest,

No one believes, or is desired to believe, that these poems were actually composed within such limits of time, nor was there any reason why a prose statement should acquaint the reader with the plain fact, to the disturbance of poetic credibility. But, in the present case, I am compelled to mention, that the above series of sonnets was the growth of many years;-the one which stands the 14th was the first produced; and others were added upon occasional visits to the stream, or as recollections of the scenes upon its banks awakened a wish to describe them. In this manner I had proceeded insensibly, without perceiving that I was trespassing upon ground preoccupied, at least as far as intention went, by Mr. Coleridge; who, more than twenty years ago, used to speak of writing a poem, to be entitled "The Brook." of which he has given a sketch in a recent publication. But a particular subject cannot, I think, much interfere with a general one; and I have been further kept from encroaching upon any right Mr. C. may still wish to exercise, by the restriction which the frame of the sonnet imposed upon me, narrowing unavoidably the range of thought, and precluding, though not without its advantages, many graces to which a freer movement of verse would naturally have led.

rural

May I not venture, then, to hope, that instead of being a hindrance, by anticipation of any part of the subject, these sonnets may remind Mr. Coleridge of his own more comprehensive design, and induce him to fulfil it?There is a sympathy in streams,-"one calleth to another;" and, I would gladly believe, that "The Brook" will. ere long, murmur in concert with "The Duddon." But, asking pardon for this fancy, I need not scruple to say, that those verses must indeed be ill-fated which can enter upon such pleasant walks of nature, without receiving and giving inspiration. The power of waters over the minds of poets has been acknowledged from the earliest ages;-through the "Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius" of Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe to the great rivers of the earth, by Armstrong, and the simple ejaculation of Burns (chosen, if I recollect right, by Mr. Coleridge, as a motto for his embryo "Brook "),

"The Muse nae poet ever fand her,
Till by himsel' he learned to wander,
Adown some trotting burn's meander,
AND NA' THINK LANG."

of Cumberland, and was educated in the vale of
poems
Grasmere, and at Hawkshead school: his
are little known, but they contain passages of
splendid description; and the versification of his
Vision of Alfred" is harmonious and animated.
In describing the motions of the sylphs, that
constitute the strange machinery of this poem,
he uses the following illustrative simile:-
Glancing from their plumes
A changeful light the azure vault illumes
Less varying hues beneath the pole adorn
The streamy glories of the boreal morn,
That wavering to and fro their radiance shed
On Bothnia's gulf with glassy ice o'erspread,
Where the lone native, as he homeward glides,
On polished sandals o'er the imprisoned tides,
And still the balance of his frame preserves,
Wheeled on alternate foot in lengthening curves,
Sees at a glance, above him and below,
Two rival heavens with equal splendour glow.
Sphered in the centre of the world he seems:
For all around with soft effulgence gleams:
Stars, moons, and meteors, ray oppose to ray,
And solemn midnight pours the blaze of day.

He was a man of ardent feeling, and his faculties of mind, particularly his memory, were extraordinary. Brief notices of his life ought to find a place in the history of Westmoreland.

Note 2. Sonnet xvii.

The eagle requires a large domain for its support; but several pairs, not many years ago, were constantly resident in this country, building their nests in the steeps of Borrowdale, Wast dale, Ennerdale, and on the eastern side of Helvellyn. Often have I heard anglers speak of the grandeur of their appearance, as they hovered over Red Tarn, in one of the coves of this mountain. The bird frequently returns, but is Not long since, one visited always destroyed. Rydal Lake, and remained some hours near its banks: the consternation which it occasioned among the different species of fowl, particularly the herons, was expressed by loud screams. The horse also naturally is afraid of the eagle.There were several Roman stations among these mountains; the most considerable seems to have been in a meadow at the head of Windermere, established, undoubtedly, as a check over the passes of Kirkstone, Dunmail-raise, and of Hardknot, and Wrynose. On the margin of Rydal Lake, a coin of Trajan was di-covered very lately. The Roman Fort here alluded to, called by the country people "Hardknet Cas tle," is most impressively situated half-way down the hill on the right of the road that descends from Hardknot into Eskdale. It has es caped the notice of most antiquaries, and is but slightly mentioned by Lysons -The Druidical Circle is about half a mile to the left of the road ascending Stone-side from the vale of Duddon: the country people call it "Sunken Church.”

The reader who may have been interested in the foregoing sonnets (which together may be considered as a poem), will not be displeased to find in this place a prose account of the Duddon,

extracted from Green's comprehensive "Guide to the Lakes," lately published:-"The road leading from Coniston to Broughton is over high ground, and commands a view of the river Duddon; which, at high water, is a grand sight, having the beautiful and fertile lands of Lancashire and Cumberland stretching each way from its margin. In this extensive view, the face of nature is displayed in a wonderful variety of hill and dale, wooded grounds and buildings; | amongst the latter, Broughton Tower, seated on the crown of a hill, rising elegantly from the valley, is an object of extraordinary interest. Fertility on each side is gradually diminished, and lost in the superior heights of Blackcomb, in Cumberland, and the high lands between Kirkby and Ulverstone.

"The road from Broughton to Seathwaite is on the banks of the Duddon, and on its Lancashire side it is of various elevations. The river is an amusing companion, one while brawling and tumbling over rocky precipices, until the agitated water becomes again calm by arriving at a smoother and less precipitous bed, but its course is soon again ruffled, and the current thrown into every variety of form which the rocky channel of a river can give

to water.

as he

fill the spectator's heart with gladsomeness.
Looking from our chosen station, he would feel
an impatience to rove among its pathways, to be
greeted by the milkmaid, to wander from house
to house, exchanging "good-morrows"
passed the open doors; but at evening, when
the sun is set, and a pearly light gleams from
the western quarter of the sky, with an answer-
ing light from the smooth surface of the mea-
dows; when the trees are dusky, but each kind
still distinguishable; when the cool air has con-
densed the blue smoke rising from the cottage-
chimneys; when the dark mossy stones seem to
sleep in the bed of the foaming brook; then, he
would be unwilling to move forward, not less
from a reluctance to relinquish what he beholds,
than from an apprehension of disturbing, by his
approach, the quietness beneath him. Issuing
from the plain of this valley, the brook descends
in a rapid torrent, passing by the churchyard of
Seathwaite. The traveller is thus conducted at
once into the midst of the wild and beautiful
scenery which gave occasion to the sonnets from
the 14th to the 20th inclusive. From the point
where the Seathwaite Brook joins the Duddon,
is a view upwards, into the pass through which
the river makes its way into the plain of Don-
nerdale. The perpendicular rock on the right
bears the ancient British name of the Pen; the
one opposite is called Walla-barrow Crag, a
name that occurs in several places to designate
rocks of the same character. The chaotic as-
pect of the scene is well marked by the ex
pression of a stranger, who strolled out while
dinner was preparing, and at his return, being
asked by his host, "What way he had been
wandering?" replied, "As far as it is finished!"

After all, the traveller would be most gratified who should approach this beautiful stream, neither at its source, as is done in the sonnets, nor from its termination; but from Coniston over Walna Scar; first descending into a little circular valley, a collateral compartment of the long winding vale through which flows the Duddon. This recess, towards the close of September, when the after-grass of the meadows is still of a fresh green, with the leaves of many The bed of the Duddon is here strewn with of the trees faded, but perhaps none fallen, is large fragments of rocks fallen from aloft; truly enchanting. At a point elevated enough which, as Mr. Green truly says, "are happily to show the various objects in the valley, and adapted to the many-shaped water-falls" (or not so high as to diminish their importance, the rather water-breaks, for none of them are high) stranger will instinctively halt. On the fore-"displayed in the short space of half a mile." ground, a little below the most favourable station, That there is some hazard in frequenting these a rude foot-bridge is thrown over the bed of the desolate places, I myself have had proof; for noisy brook foaming by the way-side Russet one night an immense mass of rock fell upon the and craggy hills, of bold and varied outline, very spot where, with a friend, I had lingered surround the level valley, which is besprinkled the day before. "The concussion," says Mr. with grey rocks plumed with birch-trees. A Green, speaking of the event (for he also, in few homesteads are interspersed, in some places the practice of his art, on that day sat expeeping out from among the rocks like hermi- posed for a still longer time to the same peril), tages, whose site has been chosen for the benefit of sunshine as well as shelter: in other instances, the dwelling-house, barn, and byre, compose together a cruciform structure, which, with its embowering trees, and the ivy clothing part of the walls and roof like a fleece, call to mind the remains of an ancient abbey. Time, in most cases, and nature every where, have given a sanctity to the humble works of man, that are scattered over this peaceful retirement. Hence a harmony of tone and colour, a perfection and consummation of beauty, which would have been marred had aim or purpose interfered with the course of convenience, utility, or necessity. This unvitiated region stands in no need of the veil of twilight to soften or disguise its features. As it glistens in the morning sunshine, it would

was heard, not without alarm, by the neighbouring shepherds." But to return to Seathwaite churchyard: it contains the following inscription :

"In memory of the Reverend Robert Walker, who died the 25th June, 1802, in the 93d year of his age, and 67th of his curacy at Seathwaite.

age.

"Also, of Anne his wife, who died the 28th of January, in the 93d of her In the parish-register of Seathwaite chapel, is this notice :

"Buried, June 28th, the Rev. Robert Walker. He was curate of Seathwaite sixty-six years. He was a man singular for his temperance, in dustry, and integrity."

This individual is the pastor alluded to, in the