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LANARK FALLS OF THE CLYDE.

277

to a great fall of the river. Turning a corner, it presents itself in full view, tumbling down broken ledges of rocks, between the two rugged cheeks; this is called Corra-linn. Then soon another fall (Boniton), and another again,-till, after a walk of one mile on even ground, along the precipitous bank, you reach the top of all the falls, and the river, raised to your level, washes the sod at your feet.

Such are the outlines of this wonderful scene; the beauty of which consists in the happy indentments and breaks of the deep rocky banks, affording not merely good points of view for the falls, but admirable details, and an endless variety of picturesque accidents nearer the eye. On the opposite bank, the face of the rock is finely shaped, very dark,-stained with dripping moisture, and spreading moss, pure white, light green, or brimstone colour. Tufts of fern and shrubs struggle for life wherever there is any footing, and out of every cleft trees push forward their knotty branches, and bare roots, creeping plants hanging in wreaths from bough to bough. On either side the hill rises far above the top of these rocky banks, and a hanging wood overshades the path; fountains of pure water spring out of its side, near which resting-places have been provided, thatched over, and lined with moss, as at the Duke of Buccleuch's. Lady Ross is proprietor of this beautiful place, and the public is certainly much obliged to her for the walk, the fountain, and the resting-places; but artists would wish besides to have some means of descending to the bottom of the chasm, so as to obtain a view of the fall fitter for the pencil than the present bird's-eye view; and this might be easily contrived. The opposite bank belongs to a lady also; and both shew their taste in the choice

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LANARK COTTON MANUFACTORY.

of their residence. I like this place better than Piercefield, which it resembles in the shape of the grounds; but the Wye is dull and slimy,-the Clyde clear and boisterous; and the coffee-tinge of the latter temperates happily the whiteness of the tumbling foam, which otherwise might be too, like cascades of magnesia. Quite captivated with the charms of Lady Ross, I paid her a second visit of three hours the next morning, and tried several sketches, but with very indifferent success.

Returning to Lanark, we stopped a moment at a cotton manufactory. It was the first established in Scotland, and the most considerable. It is certainly a prodigious establishment. We saw four stone buildings, 150 feet front each, four stories high of twenty windows, and several other buildings, less considerable;-2500 workmen, mostly children, who work from six o'clock in the morning till seven o'clock in the evening, having in that interval an hour and a quarter allowed for their meals; at night, from eight to ten for school. These children are taken into employment at eight years old, receiving five shillings a-week; when older, they get as much as half-a-guinea. Part of them inhabit houses close to the manufactory, others at Lanark, one mile distance; and we were assured the latter are distinguished from the others by healthier looks, due to the exercise this distance obliges them to take,-four miles a day. Eleven hours of confinement and labour, with the schooling, thirteen hours, is undoubtedly too much for children. I think the laws should interfere between avarice and nature. I must acknowledge, at the same time, that the little creatures we saw did not look ill.

The prodigious increase of manufactories in

LANARK STEAM ENGINE.

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England, and the application of the force of water. to their machinery, threatened equally the purity of mountain-streams and of morals; but farther improvements in mechanics have led to another mode of applying the force of water, and, instead of its weight, its expansion is now made subservient to the arts. The steam-engine is an agent so convenient, so powerful, and so economical, in a country abounding with fossil coal, that falls of water have been abandoned; but the great manufactory of Lanark had been established before this great discovery. The cost of the steam-engine and fuel is more than compensated by the advantage of saving the transportation of both the rough materials and the manufactured articles; of being on the spot of consumption and exportation, and where a great population furnishes workmen, rather than among deserts and mountains. I understand there are now even grist-mills worked by the steamengine.

We set out from Lanark on foot, to visit, in our way, the course of the Mouse, an imperceptible little river, at the bottom of a frightful chasm, quite out of sight and hearing, from the great depth of its banks. The path along the top is, in some places, so narrow and slippery, as to make you cling to the trees and bushes instinctively. We were shewn, by the guide, the very place where the hounds of his Grace of Hamilton, in close pursuit of a fox, rushed down a precipice of five hundred and some feet after him, (the height was measured after the event) and caught the fox in the water, into which they all fell! The guide next shews you, among the rocks on the opposite side, a dark hole leading to a cavern, the hiding-place (he had many) of the Caledonian hero, Wallace;

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HAMILTON PICTURES,

then the place where, quite lately, an adventurous. boy was let down by a rope held by two other; boys, some hundred feet along the surface of a bald rock, to get at a nest of grey hawks, which they sold for fifteen shillings! Then a stone bridge of one arch, all grey and mossy with age, built by the Picts; and all these circumstances are set down in the journals of each tourist, of whom we met several in the same tract with ourselves. At the end of this interesting walk, we reached our post-chaise, glad to be carried along, without further exertions, easily and swiftly, and to see a fine country flying along by the side of us, incessantly varied under our eyes. Soon, however, we left this passive enjoyment, and descended, by a beaten path, to our beautiful Clyde again, which takes here another leap, more magnificent, perhaps, than the first, but so inferior in picturesque accompaniments, as not to be comparable.

On our arrival at Hamilton, we found a pressing invitation from Mr C. to his house, and he soon came himself to repeat it; but we only allowed ourselves the pleasure of spending the next day with him, and of visiting the palace under his guid

ance.

August 22.-Hamilton-Palace is only a large house, without any pretensions to architecture, and its site quite flat; but smooth lawns, and spreading trees, have a charm in themselves, which makes up for the absence of any other. Among the pictures, we noticed one of much reputation, Daniel in the Lions' Den, by Rubens. The prophet, seated on a stone, is surrounded by a number of lions and lionesses, who take very little notice of him. His terror, however, appears extreme; his hands clasped, and elbows squeezed against his sides;

HAMILTON-PICTURES.

281

his knees are pressed together; you could fancy a cold sweat running on his face, the expression of which is low and vulgar. Instead of a prophet, he seems a common malefactor abandoned to the wild beasts, who knows he has deserved his fate, and expects fully to be eaten up as soon as the lions shall be ready for their meal :-not the least appearance of pious resignation, or trust in providence. There is a hole above his head, by which light penetrates into the cave, and which serves probably as a door, as well as a window. This opening is so low, that, if the prophet had not lost his head, he might see that a moderate jump would extricate him at once from his most critical situation. To do justice to Rubens, I must say, that an author of undoubted taste (Gilpin) has praised this very picture as a chef-d'œuvre, and I beg to refer my readers to his book. His theory on the means of exciting imagination by hiding partly, rather than by showing too plainly objects of terror, the angry heads of the lions, for instance, while the rest of their bodies should remain in shadow, is so just, that I should reproach myself the more for not seeing, in the principal figure, all he saw, if I did not know how arbitrary and conventional the taste of connoisseurs is. La Bruyere calls it un gout de comparaison. Connoisseurs take their models among the fathers of the art, and, losing sight of nature,

"widely stray

Where Virgil, not where fancy leads the way."

By the side of this Rubens, there is a N. Poussin,

* Gilpin's Scotch Tour, p. 56 to 64.

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