HAVING, in the courfe of a particular engagement, had occafion to vifit almost every diftrict in the kingdom, I kept a Journal of my progrefs, and noted down every remarkable fact, relative to AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, IMPROVEMENTS, and MANNERS. Herewith I tranfinit you the beginning of my Journal, for infertion in your Magazine; and, fhould it appear to deferve the attention of your readers, it fhall be regularly continued hereafter. I am, fir,, Corby, Your's, &c. Nov. 25, 1796. J. H. March 31, 1796, fet out from COR BY. in Cumberland, arrived at PENRITH; 18 miles.-An open naked country the whole distance. The foil dry, fandy, and in fome places a little loamy. The road, for about 15 miles, paffes over very extensive commons, which ftrongly mark the fupineness of the owners; especially as a great proportion of these moors are capable of great improvement, at a very fmall The farmers bufy fowing oats, and preparing the ground for potatoes: they univerfally plow and harrow with two horfes abreaft, without a driver; the latter office is generally performed by fervant girls. Approaching PENRITH, the Skiddow, Saddleback, and Kefwick mountains appear at a diftance on the right; the later refembling expence. a chaos of hills and rocks. On the fouth, the barren hills of Weftmoreland prefent themfelves; their afpect, how. ever, is foftened by the beautiful woods and plantations of Lowther and Broughham-Hall. On the left, a long range of mountains, whofe tops appear to reach the clouds, ftretch like a wall as far as the eye can penetrate; and on the north, the Scotch hills appear at a great diftance, one behind another,till they are not diftinguishable from the opacity of the atmof. phere. The fmall town of PENRITH ftands at the bottom of the hill, tolerably built with red freeftone (of which there is great plenty in the neighbourhood), and moftly covered with blue flate from KESWICK. An old caftle in ruins adorns the weft fide, and a beacon, entire, ftands on a high eminence to the NE. PENRITH is fituated upon one of the principal roads between LONDON and EDINBURGH; it fupports no manufacture of note. but the chief market is held there for a confiderable part of Cumberland and Weftmoreland. April 1, PENRITH to ORTON, in Weftmoreland, by way of SHAP, 151 miles.-I paffed Carlton-Hall, on the left, near Penrith. It is a neat, pleasant box, on the banks of the Eamont, the feat of THOMAS WALLICE, efq. Entered Weftmoreland at EAMONT BRidge, a fmall village, where the famous Round Table of king Arthur ftands, close by the road on the right, fo often defcribed by different writers. A little farther leave Brougham-Hall on a gentle eminence to the left; and, not far from thence, I entered lord LONSDALE's extenfive demefne, through which the road paffes for feven or eight miles. Lowther-Hall, a feat of his lordship, is fituated to the right, but not in view, being hid from the tions. A great number of cottages ftand eye of the traveller by large plantafome years ago; but most of them left near the road, built by lord LONSDALE unfinished, and now tenanted by jack daws and other birds. Some of thefe dwellings near Lowther Hall are rendered comfortable habitations, and occupied by his lordship's labourers, who, it erected near SHAP, report fays, were is faid, work for is. per day. Thofe originally intended to be given to different people, with as much land annexed lue of each to 40s. in order to increase to them as would increafe the annual va the number of freeholders in the county. theep, and horfes, in his pastures, till His lordship feeds numbers of cattle, fome of them actually die of old age. To a traveller, who is a ftranger in the country, and to his lordship's turn of character, this tract would feem in a state of ruin, wholly deferted by its inhabitants, and left to herds of different animals who were grown old in the pofinftead of keeping men to build houfes feffion. Would this noble proprietor, probably never to be inhabited, and to tend cattle, fheep, and horses, never to be ufefu', employ them in cultivating his grounds, his lordship, as well as the public, would be greatly benefited. I paffed over an excellent common before I arrived at SHAP, but fo much overftocked as to render it of little ufe to the proprietors. SHAP is a long ftraggling village, in a bleak fituation. From SHAP to ORTON is fix miles, five of which ex tend 1796.] Agricultural and Commercial Tour of England. tend over a high dreary common, covered with heath. The foil of this diftrict is various within two or three miles of PENRITH, it is a fertile loam, pretty warm and low; towards SHAP, rather heavy, wet, and cold, but tolerably productive, particularly in grafs; about ORTON, it is rather more warm and dry. The general appearance is naked and is rendered full more fo by itone walls being made inftead of quick fences. The fields and farms are finall, and moftly occupied by the proprietors. The furface of this diftrict, though very uneven. is more level than the neighbouring country. Limestone abounds; a fpecies of bad coal is alfo found, but only uted in burning lime. Coal for fuel is chiefly brought from STAINMORE, which is at a confiderable diftance. There is a general want of trees, though, from the ftature of fome near SHAP, it is evident that wood might fucceed, notwithstanding the cold and moift nature of the climate. It should, however, be planted in clumps, or regular plantations; and, for warmth, be intermixed with Scotch fir; a precaution which never ought to be neglected in cold or expofed fituations. The buildings are good, being of white freeftone, or limeftone, and covered within with the blue flate for which Weftmoreland is fo famous. Farm-houfes, &c. are generally collected into villages, and, in confequence, their fields are ge nerally at an inconvenient distance. Agriculture and mode of farming is nearly the fame as in the diftri&t I paffed through yesterday. A third horfe is, however, on fome occafions, yoked to the plough. Most of the land is in grafs; the farmers fuppofing the foil and climate better adapted to the production of grafs than corn. They, unfortunately, are ftill prejudiced with the notion, that natural herbage, or the fpontaneous growth of the fields, is preferable to clovers, or other artificial graffes; the confequence of which is obvious. ORTON is a very small market town, inhabited by farmers, without any improvement in buildings, and fituated in a wild country. Mr. BURN, author of the book, well known by the name of "Burn's Juftice," has a feat here, and is now making confiderable improvements in his adjoining eftate, by planting and tilling barren moors. The cattle are of the long-horned breeds, and good of the kind; the fheep are of the heath or black-faced fort. The implę 863 ments of husbandry are fimple, and tolerably useful. April 2. Travelled to day from ORTON to KENDAL, in Weftmoreland, 16 miles.-The road winds round high mountains, and thereby rapid afcents or declivities are avoided; from the eafy acquintion of materials, it is kept in good repair: indeed, all the Weltmoreland roads are remarkable for their excellent condition. The foil, in general, is light, and gravelly, particularly towards KENDAL, and produces good grafs, potatoes, oats, and fome barley. Scarcely any attempts have been made to raife wheat or rye. A mountainous common intervenes for about fix miles, confifting chiefly of fine green hills, depaftured with the black-faced, coarsewool breed of fheep; the fituation is worthy of better tenants. The furface of the country is extremely uneven ; the appearance various. Near ORTON, it is rather bare, barren, and wild; a little farther it is rocky and romantic, and the road leads along the fide of a hill, 'overlooking a deep narrow valley below, in which a brook meanders through a few ftraggling fmall farms; the whole affuming the appearance of a map on a large fcale. The fields, in this district, are univerfally divided by ftone walls. Towards KENDAL a few fmall woods, fome beautiful hedge-rows of thorn, and the fmail fertile fields, give the country a more civilized appearance. The cattle are of the long-horned fort, and good in their kind; the hories are middle-fized. Three horfes are generally yoked to a plough, in a line, and neceffarily require a driver; a very unprofitable mode and by no means neceffary. Farms and buildings continue as in the dift ict laft defcribed. The rocks, which present themselves so frequently in these parts, are hard, of a blue colour, and locally called Rag. Limestone abounds near KENDAL; but no coal is found in this neighbourhood. Blue flate is procured at no great distance north of the road. The land is here chiefly applied to the purpose of dairying KENDAL Contains about 8000 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in manufacturing stockings, linfeys, flannels. a coarfe woollen cloth called Kendal cottons, &c. The town, which is fituated on the declivity of a hill, with a fouthern afpect, is very well built of white ftone, and covered with blue flate; but the ftreets are rather too narrow. It is furrounded with high 4 hills hills, which lie at a little distance, except to the north, where the mountain rifes from the centre of the town. The fituation is dry and open, and the air falubrious. The Kent, which winds about one fide of the town, has over it a fine ftone bridge, lately widened and improved; and forms a pleafant vale to the eaft and weft, which fpreads to a confiderable extent in the eastern direction. An old cafile, in ruins, forms a prominent feature on an eminence a little to the fouth of KENDAL; as does a pyramidical monument on the opposite fide. The liberal and charitable difpofition of the principal inhabitants appears in the numerous charitable inftitutions for the education and clothing of poor children, and by public and private buildings, for the reception and maintenance of the neceffitous poor, &c. &c. Took an excurfion to UNDERBAR ROW, a fmall village at three miles and a half distance, and returned to KENDAL the fame day. The road exceedingly fine, but directs its course over mountainous deferts, where the furface is, for miles, entirely compofed of limeftone rock, and loofe ftones; and it is very rare that a particle of foil can be met with. Vegetation is, confequently, in a great measure, precluded. A little furze, or whins, appear here and there, but the juniper-buth is the most prevalent. The roots of that fhrub penetrate the crevices of the rocks; from which they extract plenty of nutriment, and feem to flourish in the fituation. It is, perhaps, not univerfally known, that the Juniper plant produces a very pleasant berry, the liquor of which forms geneva or gin. It is three years in ripening; the first year it is green, the fecond yellow, and the third black, when it is fit for ufe. About UNDERBARROW, the foil is a dry gravel, the farms fmall, the buildings good; the furface fo full of fwells, that it is almoft impoffible to find a yard of level ground. Blue rocks of great magnitude appear every where, fome of which feem entirely above the furface, and others confiderably projecting out of it. Several of the furrounding mountains have the appearance of -being almoft wholly compofed of that fpecies of ftone; not even a fhrub is feen on fome of their grizzled fronts. In fome of the inclofed grounds are pieces of woodland, chiefly oak. The fuel ufed here, and at KENDAL, is chiefly peat, dug from the moffes, or moraffes, in the neighbourhood. The AT from numerous publications, local history obtains more than ordinary refpect, to offer a few reflections on the tinent or ufelefs: a fubject of confiderable fubject, will be deemed neither imperextent, and, when properly pursued, not more interesting to individuals, than beneficial to the community. Of its exfeel compelled to circumfcribe my entent, indeed, I am fo well aware, as to quiries: to the antiquarian, and investiecclefiaftic, and hiftorian, I leave ungator of pedigrees; to the fabulist, the touched their favourite provinces. My department, at prefent, is poetry, and poetry, in reference to rural fcenery. -Flumina amem, fylvafque inglorius. Poetry is an imitative art." This general definition fhall be readily admitted. To enquire, in what refpects poetry differs from the other imitative arts, painting, fculpture, or mufic, or into the various fpecies of poetic compofition, is here unneceffary; it being obvious, that defcriptive poetry must be the subject of the prefent effay and, antecedently to the defign of it, which is to fhow how far the topographer may affift the poet, a queftion arifes-" In what does the true genius of defcriptive poetry confift?" The adjunct defcriptive, in the prefent connection, is not to be confined, exclufively, to a particular fpecies of poetic compofition, called defcriptive poetry; fuch, for inftance, as Thomfon's Seafons, The Splendid Shilling, or Grongar Hill; it applies rather to fubject than to mode, referring to defcription or fcenery in general, which may increase the elegance of the ode, improve even the dignity of tragedy, and heighten the majesty of the epic: in fhort, it may affift any fpecies of poetry, as well as form the characteristic excellence of what is properly called a defcriptive poem; defcription being that ornament and embellishment of poetry, the more permanent as the more true, the more agreeable as the more natural. 1796.] Topography, how far useful to Poetry. -Πουλύποδος κεφαλη εν μεν κακον, εν δε και In part the Polypus's head contains This paffage, quoted by Plutarch*, refers to the fictions and fables of poets, not to their defcriptions of natural objects. It is evident, then, that the courfe to be purfued by a poet, who wishes to excel in defcription, differs from that propofed by Ariftotle to the poet in general: It is the office of the poet," he fays, "to relate, not fuch things as have taken place, but fuch as might have taken place, fuch as are poffible," from probability, or neceffity +. Defcriptive poetry, on the contrary, demands precifion, and is defective without minutenefs; different from tragedy and epic poetry. In like manner, it differs from portrait-painting; for a portrait-painter, as the fame great critic obferves, if he accurately defcribes the peculiar lines of the countenance, fo as to bring out a likeness, permitted to make improvements on the original.' The proper anfwer to the question feems to be this: Defcriptive poetry is then most excellent, when calculated to excite in the mind the cleareft, and most lively picture of the object imitated; and, in proportion as the ideas forming that picture are vivid and circumftantial, and the more minutely they answer to the reality of the prototype, or fcene, the more complete is the imitation, and the more impreffive the refemblance. 865 each county, proceeding from its woods, its forefts, its chaces; he traces rivers and fprings; defcribes vallies, corn-fields, and meadows; climbs, as it were, rocks, and hills, and mountains; caftles, churches, ruins of fortreffes, and falling abbies, pass under his view; the violent and terrific defcent of the precipice, the foaming cafcade, the headlong and tumultuous cataract, must not be unobferved in fhort, whatever engages the attention of the landicape-painter, may enter into the defeription of the local hiftorian; and fuch topographical writers as are unacquainted with landfcape-painting, even in their own art, will be generally defective. I attempt not to refolve the art into elementary principles; I am contemplating it in actual exercife. And what is topography? Clearly a fpecies of painting; and as painting has been called fi lent poetry, and poetry speaking painting, toography may not improperly be called fpearing painting. What advantage, then, does the poet derive from the topographer? By local defcriptions, he may be brought acquainted with fcenes to which he was before a ftranger. This is a plain, but, I apprehend, the proper, anfwer. I know it may immediately be urged, that the poet defcribes nothing fo fuccefsfully as fcenes which he has himself furveyed admitted. We allow that it was the peculiar felicity of Homer, that he copied his imagery from nature, as his original; that he defcribed real life; that he was converfant with heroes, and fhepherds, and pealants, fuch as he paints: The moft fimple definition of topo- in fhort, that he was in familiar intergraphy is, defcription of place; and, courfe with fuch characters as he reprewere I to be determined by literal inter- fents: but does it follow, that a poet pretation, topography I fhould immedi- may not enrich his mind from the ftores ately reckon more favourable to the of other obfervers? The views taken by views of the poet, than even of the an- any individual, in comparison with the tiquary, or the hiftorian: but, not to whole range of nature, are inconfideavail myfelf of etymological meaning, it rable and confined; and if poets are not fhould be noticed, that, in the fame man- permitted to increase their stock, by rener as a painter is an artift, not a me. ceiving a little on credit, many must be chanic, fo a topographer is not a mere poor indeed. noter down of places, a reporter of curiofities, or the panegyrift of elegant feats (though fome topographers are little more) but one who defcribes the nature of places, their relative fituation, their characteristic excellences; he enters the favourite retreats of cafe and elegance, and roves through the walks of art and industry he marks the peculiarity of *De Aud. Poet. lib. 1. It would be endlefs to produce examples from the English poets, of happy imitations, as well of place as of character and manner, when yet the writers poffelfed no ocular proof of the scenery or fubject defcribed. Milton might particularly be mentioned. Sir William Jones published accurate Afiatic Poems, before he vifited India; Collins, charming Oriental Eclogues, though he was *See Du Frefnoy's Art of Painting. He must be a copyift, and the more faithful to nature the better. To no art does the maxim of Du Frefnoy apply with more propriety, than to that of topography: -Errorum eft plurima fylva, filent; whereas topography, as it were, fpeaks to us, and can enliven the paffions by moderate fallies of the fancy, and, occafionally, clevate the mind with moral reflection. This, indeed, thould be attempted but fparingly, but if done with delicacy and with judgment, produces a moft pleafant and poctical effect. Here philofophy may ftep in as the handmaid to topography; and both together form a moft delightful union with poetry. The preceding obfervations may be confidered as general reflections, and stand independent of any particular hiftory: for as in the former Effay I meant not to cenfure any particular writer, fo do I not appear in this paper as the professed critic or panegyrift of any I fhall only obferve, that the modern Hiftory of Mon Mul iplicefque viæ; h ne agendi terminus unus, mouthfhire that has been much admired Linea recta velut fola eft, et mille recurvæ. v. 250. In Error's grove, though thoufand thickets Spread, Ten thousand devious paths our fleps mislead. "Mid curves, that vary in perpetual twine, Truth owns but one direct and perfect line. MASON. But, farther, as no understanding comprehends all fcience, or recoilets every ftage of its enquiries; fo no cye embraces every fcene, and even of a favourite fcene fume parts may efcape its notice. Topography, therefore, may aflift a poet, not only by unfolding to him feenes that he never faw, but by retouching, as it were, the objects already pictured in his eye; by completing the picture, and thus, by increafing the fenfations, and ftrengthening the conceptions, the topographer may give energy and precision to the poet. The analogy between the painter and local hiftorian has already been noticed; but when the latter adorns his work with accurate and elegant engravings, the analogy is rendered more friking: the fervice, too, rendered the poet, becomes two-fold, and appears fo effential an appendage to local hiftory, as almoft always to accompany it. It has been already obferved, that the local hiftorian, who would render effential benefit to poetry, fhould confider himfelf a mere copyift; but, notwithftanding, ample room is left for the exercife of taste, and for fuch embellifh ments of ftyle and compofition as may direct the judgment, and even enliven a poetical imagination. In this refpect, indeed, the topographer excels the paint er; for, as before obferved, painting is for its general contents, feems also highly favourable to the views above-mentioned. Were I difpofed to confider any particular county in England in reference to fcenery, though I might prefer rambling through other counties, I fhould choofe to repofe in Monmouthshire. Mr. David Williams, in his hiftory of this chaiming county, properly obferves, "The whole county forms one exquifite landfcape." In other counties the mountains may be more lofty, the vallies more extenfive, fcenes may arife more grandly irregular, and wildly romantic, at the fame time, fublime and barren, fo as alternately to fill the mind with horror and with pity. But in Monmouthshire the mind is never carried higher than admiration, nor falls lower than complacency and delight. "The beauty of Monmouthshire," Mr. Williams juftly obferves, "is not dependent on fingie fcenes, or particular features; it is the refult of all the circumftances which form the whole furface of the county. "The livers confer as much beauty on the country as they receive from it. The courfe of the Wye is every where inte refting, in feme places fublime that of the Ufk, fringed with woods, or bounded by noble meadows, is a fcene of perpetual beauty. The whole county forms one exquifite landicape, of which the vast expanfe of the Bristol Channel is the foreground; hills covered with woods, which the roads beautifully limit, or nobly cimb; vallies fertilized with ftreams, where fmaller eminences feem to recline against the mountains; thickets indefinitely diverfified, where objects, as the travellers move, fecem perpetually to peep and |