there are grey farmhouses in its quiet dells, and cottages with old high chimnies and projecting latticed windows on the margin of the lake, which give a venerable and primitive air to the scene. I have often thought that lake scenery, however lovely it may be, produces a feeling very like melancholy; yet melancholy is not quite the word. I feel that mirth, a merry jest, or noisy laugh, does not accord with the scene. Perhaps the imprisoned waters, the barrier of mountains, the deep shadows which are cast during a great part of the day over the landscape, and among which one lives, may impart a feeling approaching to gloom. I have felt this most at Killarney, and least on Derwentwater and Conniston. Patterdale, Friday.-We remained four days at Low-wood Inn, on Windermere, and then came here by the pass of Kirkstone, and have since revisited the most beautiful parts of Ullswater, Lowther Castle, and a curious circle of stones, called Long Meg and her daughters. It is one of those Druidical monuments of which there are many remains in England, and I believe, in France. We had a long, and somewhat tedious drive, over a rough road, to the field in which it stands: at last we reached the "sisterhood forlorn," and were quite repaid for the trouble. We were much struck at seeing this giant work of ages long gone by, and can easily imagine the effect it produced on such a mind as that of Wordsworth: he says "A weight of awe not easy to be borne Fell suddenly upon my spirit, cast From the dread bosom of the unknown past, The daughters of Long Meg, seventy-two in number, are placed in a circle, Wordsworth says, eighty yards in diameter. There is in one part an appearance of a double row. Long Meg herself seems "placed Apart, to overlook the circle vast." She is not now more than thirteen feet high above the surface, which, from cultivation, gradually rises. We measured the largest stone in the circle, which is nearly thirty feet in circumference, and about eight feet high. These stones must have been brought from a considerable distance: nothing similar being found in the country immediately near, as we were told by a countryman whom we met there. We lingered for some time amid the mystic circle, and thought with pleasure on the proof which such monuments as these afford, that the early inhabitants of all nations had some kind of religion. It is deeply interesting to think on the rude unlettered giants of those days, (for their mighty handiworks seem to proclaim them stronger and larger than the puny race of our time,) with untutored intellects, who, knowing scarce anything beyond brute force, acknowledging no human preeminence but that of strength and agility, had yet learnt to tremble at some unknown, unseen being, and to turn the immense powers of their frames to set up huge masses in his honour, and pile rude temples as his dwelling place. Chicheley Vicarage, near Newport Pagnell, Monday, August 6th.-To-day we drove to Crawley Grange, a very picturesque old place, about two miles from hence. It is interesting, from having been at one time the residence of Cardinal Wolsey. The mansion is of moderate size, built of crimson-tinted brick, here and there covered with clusters of bright glossy ivy. The front consists of three projecting gables, flanked at either end by arches, leading to a garden on one side, and to the offices on the other. The centre gable contains the entrance-porch, surmounted by the Hackett arms. The windows and chimnies are in perfect keeping with the rest of the building, and give to it that cheerful, interesting appearance, for which the Elizabethan style of architecture is so justly admired. I made the sketch here given of the entrancehall, and the old oak staircase, which are said to be in the same state as they were in the Cardinal's time. His arms are carved on the table |