the left with a floping grove of oaks; and the centre with a pretty circular landscape appearing through the trees, of which Hales Owen fteeple, and other objects at a distance, form an interesting part. The seat beneath the ruinated walls has these lines of Virgil inscribed, suiting well with the general tenour of Mr. Shenstone's late situation;"

"Lucis habitamus opacis,

Riparumque toros et prata recentia rivis
Incolimus."+

You now proceed a few paces down the valley to another bench, where you have this cascade in front, which, together with the internal arch and other appendages, make a pretty irregular picture. I must observe, once for all, that a number of these protempore benches (two stumps with a transverse board) seem chiefly intended as hints to spectators, lest in passing cursorily through the farm, they might suffer any of that immense variety the place furnishes to escape their notice. The stream attending us, with its agreeable murmurs, as we descend along this pleasing valley, we come next to a small seat, where we have a floping grove upon the right, and on the left a striking vista to the steeple of Hales Owen,

IMITATION.

We dwell in shady groves,

And seek the groves with cooling streams refresh'd,

And trace the verdant banks.

which is here seen in a new light. We now descend farther down this shady` and sequestered valley, accompanied on the right by the same brawling rivulet running over pebbles, till it empties itself into a fine piece of water at the bottom. The path here winding to the left conforms to the water before mentioned, running round the foot of a small hill, and accompanying this semicircular lake into another winding valley, somewhat more open, and not less pleasing, than the former: however, before we enter this, it will be proper to mention a seat about the centre of this water-scene, where the ends of it are lost in the two vallies on each side, and in front it is invisibly connected with another piece of water, of about twenty acres, open to Mr. Shenstone, but not his property. This last was a performance of the monks, and part of a prodigious chain of fish-ponds that belonged to Hales Abbey. The back ground of this scene is very beautiful, and exhibits a picture of villages and varied ground finely held up to the eye. . I speak of all this as already finished, but through some misfortune in the mound that pounds up the water it is not completed.

:

. We now leave The Priory upon the left, which is not meant for an object here, and wind along into the other valley and here I cannot but take notice of the judgment which formed this piece of water; for although it be not very large, yet, as it is formVolume I.

C

ed by the concurrence of three vallies, in which two of the ends are hid, and in the third it seems to join with the large extent of water below, it is, to all ap pearance, unbounded. I must confess I never saw a more natural bed for water, or any kind of lake that pleased me better; but it may be right to mention, that this water, in its full extent, has a yet more important effect from Mr. Shenstone's house, where it is seen to a great advantage. We now, by a pleasing serpentine walk, enter a narrow glade in the valley, the slopes on each side finely covered with oaks and beeches, on the left of which is a common bench, which affords a retiring place secluded from every eye, and a short respite, during which the eye reposes on a fine amphitheatre of wood and thicket.

We now proceed to a seat beneath a prodigiously fine canopy of spreading oak, on the back of which is this inscription:

Huc ades, O Melibae? caper tibi salvus et hædi; "Et si quid cessare potes, requiesce sub umbrat."

The picture before it is that of a beautiful homescene; a small lawn of well-varied ground, encompassed with hills and well-grown oaks, and embellished with a cast of the piping Faunus, amid trees

+ IMITATION.

Hither, O Meliboeus! bend thy way;

Thy herds, thy goats, secure from harm, repose;

If happy leisure serve a while to stay,

Here rest thy limbs beneath these shady boughs,

and shrubs on a slope upon the left, and on the right, and nearer the eye, with an urn thus inscribed:

"Ingenio et amicitiæ

"Gvlielmi Somerville."

And on the opposite side,

"G. S. pofvit,

"Debita fpargens lacrima favillam

"Vatis amici +."

The scene is inclosed on all sides by trees; in the middle only there is an opening, where the lawn is continued, and winds out of sight.

Here entering a gate, you are led through a thic ket of many sorts of willows, into a large root-house, inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Stamford. It seems that worthy peer was present at the first opening of the cascade, which is the principal object from the root-house, where the eye is presented with a fairy vision, consisting of an irregular and romantic fall of water, very unusual, one hundred and fifty yards in continuity; and a very striking scene it affords. Other cascades may possibly have the advantage of a greater descent and a larger tor rent; but a more wild and romantic appearance of water, and at the same time strictly natural, is what

+ TRANSLATION.

To the genius and friendship
of

WILLIAM SOMERVILLE,
By W. S.

Sprinkling the ashes of a friendly bard

With tributary tears.

I never saw in any place whatever. This scene, tho' comparatively small, is yet aggrandized with so much art, that we forget the quantity of water which flows through this close and overshaded valley, and are so much transported with the intricacy of scene, and the concealed height from whence it flows, that we, without reflection, add the idea of magnificence to that of beauty. In short, it is not but upon reflection that we find the stream is not a Niagara, but rather a water-fall in miniature; and that the same artifice, upon a larger scale, were there large trees instead of small ones, and a river instead of a rill, would be capable of forming a scene that would exceed the utmost of our ideas. But I will not dwell longer upon this inimitable scene; those who would admire it properly must view it, as surely as those that view it must admire it beyond almost any thing they ever saw.

Proceeding on the right-hand path, the next seat affords a scene of what Mr. Shenstone used to call his Forest ground, consisting of wild green slopes peeping through dingle, or irregular groupes of trees, a.confused mixture of savage and cultivated ground, held up to the eye, and forming a landscape fit for the pencil of Salvator Rosa.

Winding on beside this lawn, which is over-arched with spreading trees, the eye catches, at intervals, over an intermediate hill, the spire of Hales church,