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to enjoy each other's joy-meeting and parting to give salutes and farewells in their loveliness to be capable of love to admire their own motions, as by a sense of the grace accompanying them all-to feel the charm of the shifting scene they kept in perpetual animation, and to be inspired by the poetry of the manyfigured evolutions performed as by magic at the bidding of a breeze or a breath!

See the wide lake is like two lakes separated by a line of light! Beyond the line is the blue region of the zephyrs, whitened by little breakers and as the Fleet, with all canvass set, is beating up to windward, the air is streamered with flags. Between the line and the shore 'tis a perfect mirror-and becalmed there the sail-boat seems at anchor, and to envy skiff and canoe as they steal by and around her with twinkling oars. Yonder all the animation of a waking world! There the repose of slumber! Here the rest of sleep! And now currents of air come creeping over the clear calm and breathless spots appear upon the blue breeze till the prevailing character of each is impaired the line of separation broken-and the two lakes-as fancy had chosen to see them are recreating themselves into one-till all disorder subsides, and settles down into perfect harmony-and the gazer's heart feels that of all the waters beneath the sun, assuredly, on such a day as this, the loveliest is Windermere !

The ten minutes-but two-had now expired, and a sudden thought struck us in connexion with the every-day world, which might turn to good account, viz. to purchase a score of kyloes, to be summer'd on Applethwaite common-a common then, apparently without stint or measure, open to the whole world. We always are our own stake-holder -so we forked out the blunt in the shape of five twenty-pound Bank of England notes (the rest in gold remained in our fob), and putting them into Angus's hairy paw, told him to leave in the red-gated field near Orresthead kyloe-flesh of that value, as we had implicit confidence in his integrity and judgment. Angus whispered in our ear that we should be no losers by the bargain, for that

he would so arrange matters that the gentleman in the blue-silk jacket did not lose his situation till well on in the afternoon. There Sammy sat like "Impatience on a monument, scowling at grief." Time having been called, we pulled Colonsay's nose from the sieve, and hitting him on the rump a thwack. with the Crutch, away we went, amidst loud cheers, on a new career of discovery and adventure.

Near the turnpike gate at Waterhead, the tourist cannot have failed to observe that from the high-road a low road diverges along the lakeside, and is soon lost to sight between two comfortable houses with their appurtenances and a multitude of stone walls. For a hundred yards or thereabouts the two roads are separated by some unenclosed ground, of an irregular shape, on which there was then, and may be now, a saw-pit, and generally a quantity of planks set up to season or to be ready for shipment. Along this piece of common Colonsay now took his way, not having made up his mind which of the two roads he was to take -the upper road, leading direct to Ambleside, or the lower road, leading, though not so direct, to Langdale. Now Ambleside lies between Waterhead and Grassmerewhereas Langdale-head is at least ten miles, as the bird flies, in an opposite direction entirely; so you can easily conceive our anxiety respecting his ultimate decision. For the first fifty yards our politician adhered to the juste millieu, and we became apprehensive, that if he proceeded on that course without turning either to the right or the extreme gauche, that he would carry us slap-bang into the saw-pit; while, again, were he to apostatize to either one side or another, we saw not how we could escape running foul of a pile of planks. Into the pit, which, though not bottomless, was deep, he seemed resolved to go-why, we could not conjecture-as it was not reasonable to suppose, that, immediately after lunching on oats, he could have any very urgent desire to dine on saw-dust. The pit was unoccupied; for those top-sawyers, Mr Woodburn and his son, had gone to Grassmere fair-and so had the Hartleys. It had a sloping approach

or entrance; and to our discomfiture, and we need hardly say to the astonishment of the people, Colonsay trotting in with us, horse and rider disappeared, as it were, into the bowels of the earth! There he stood as in a stall, snuffing in vain for rack or manger. On looking up, we saw many faces looking down, and we confess that we felt shame, which has been beautifully called "the sorrow of pride." We were in a sort of grave, and almost wished to be buried. It was too narrow to admit of his turning, and no power of persuasion could induce him to back out. We heard voices above sug gesting the possibility of hoisting us up by ropes, but we were convinced that Colonsay would not suffer ropes to be passed for that purpose round his barrel. He would have spurned at such an indignity with all his hoofs. Besides, where was the tackle or machinery sufficiently strong to reinstate him on the surface? In this emergency, Billy left the Barge, and came to our assistance with his sage counsel. He remembered hearing Jonathan Inman say, two years before, that he had seen Colonsay, who used to wander by moonlight all over the country, at the grey of dawn going into that self-same pit, and that his curiosity having been awakened, he, Jonathan, had looked down upon him, Colonsay, and observed him devouring a bundle of rye-grass and clover, which it is supposed some tinker had cut, and deposited therein as a place of concealment, to be ready for use on next day's encampment. The remembrance of that feast had been awakened in his mind by the associating principle of contiguity of place, and thus did Billy philosophically explain the phenomenon. Oats had lost their allurement, for our Cob, like Louis the Fourteenth and his Father Confessor, could not stomach toujours perdrix; so a scythe was procured, and a sheaf did the business. To the delight of the multitude, he and we reappeared stern foremost, and as we saw Sammy still safe among the kyloes, we allowed our friend, who, though a great wit, had a long memory, to take his fresh forage at his leisure. There was a tremendous row at the turnpikegate for the foreigners in the ass

drawn nondescript had got out and shewn fight. The clamour had frightened the kyloes, who no longer preserved close order, and from the broken square, now canopied with a cloud of dust, issued the ShufflerSam making strong play, and to avoid the crowd of carriages, down the low road. There was manifestly a strong struggle in Colonsay's mind between the love of clover and the love of glory, but the latter high active principle prevailed over the low appetite-and off he clattered in his grandest style after the mare-this being perhaps, considered merely in a sporting light, the most interesting era of the match. The public anxiety was wound up to the intensest pitch-no odds could be got from the adherents of either party-and two to one were eagerly offered, that we reached Grassmere-five miles-before one o'clock. It was now nine by the shadow on that unerring sundial, Loughrigg-Fell.

We do not know that we are personally acquainted with a more trying bit of road, for such a Cob as Colonsay, than that which, in days of yore, ran between Waterhead and Rothay bridge. We allude not to what are called the sharp turns, though the angles formed there by stonewalls were acute indeed, especially in the coping, sometimes consisting of slate that might have served for the shaver of a guillotine; nor to the heaps of stones that used to accumulate mysteriously for inscrutable purposes by the sides of ditches, deep enough to be dangerous, with out such supererogatory cairns, though it does seem a hard case to have your skull fractured before you are drowned; nor yet to the gableends of man-houses, hog-houses, and barns, that suddenly faced the unsuspecting traveller, with a blank yet bold look, without door or window, that said, or seemed to say, "Thus far, and no farther, mayst thou go;"-but we are meditating now on the vast variety of field gates, most of them well-secured, we acknowledge, but still many left open by stirk or laker, and giving glimpses of pasturage, at sight of which the most stoical steed, however apathetic to ordinary temptations, could not but be seized with an access of passion, hurrying him away into

headlong indulgence, to the oblivion of all other mortal concernsand especially are we meditating on one gate, appropriately called the Wishing-Gate, in a wall encircling a plain, in the centre of which that wonderful people, the Romans, had built a camp. Often had it been our lot to accompany aged antiquaries into that interesting plain, to assist their eyes to trace those invisible military remains; and on such occasions Colonsay employed himself in eating away the grass that now smiled on peaceful mounds, which once, 'tis said, were warlike ramparts. As he had never one single time during his residence in Westmoreland, gone by that gate without first going through or over it, how could we hope that. he would now so far deviate from his established practice, as to continue his career, without paying a visit to his favourite intrenchments, haunted, though he knew it not, by the ghost of Julius Cæsar?

How best to guard against that danger our mind was occupied in scheming, during the close contest on the difficult bit of road now sketched; and we could think of none better than "the good old plan" of sticking close to the Shuffler's offside at the approaching crisis, certain that if Colonsay did bolt -and here it was with him a general rule, admitting of no exceptionshe would carry the mare along with him into the Roman Camp. There was the Wishing-Gate, not twenty yards a-head of us-shut and padlocked-and apparently repaired or rather, as it seemed, speck-andspan new-though luckily there was nothing new about it but the paint. Up to this time we had had no opportunity-except among the kyloes -to enter into conversation with Sam; but now, to throw him off his guard, we became talkative-saying, as we laid ourselves alongside of him, "Pray, Sitwell, what is your opinion of things in general?" But ere he could answer that simple query, crash-smash went the Wishing-Gate before a sidelong charge of cavalry, and in full career, "Shouldering our crutch, we shew'd how

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though in his dotage he forgot to mention it in his Memoirs-was sitting on a portable stool erected on an eminence reconstructing the circumvallation. Providentially we saw him when within about three yards-and so did Colonsay, who took him so easily that we felt no change in the gallop, nor did the antiquary stir from his tripod. In such cases apologies are foolish, so in good time we removed any unpleasant impression our conduct might have made on the good old man's mind, by painting to him, in words brighter than oils, a picture of the Camp on the very day it was brought to a perfect finish-and a sketch of the review of the troops that took place that afternoon in the vale of Ambleside. "Here, my dear sir," said we-" here stood the Prætorian guard-there"-but at that moment we espied Sam on the Shuffler, making for the ruins of the WishingGate, and appealed with hand and heel to Colonsay, if he had the heart to leave his master in the lurch? Luckily the heads of a number of umpires and referees, were seen not far in the rear, bobbing above the enclosure-walls; and the love of society, as strong in man as in horse, instigated him to join the cavalcade, which pulled up on our approach

and the match was resumed, if possible with redoubled vigour. We could not but feel grateful to Colonsay, and resolved not to baulk him of any other enjoyment, however ill-timed it might at first sight appear, which he might be promising himself at some subsequent season of the struggle. Allowances were to be made on both sides-we had our weaknesses and peculiarities tooone good turn deserves anotherand as he pitched out, we patted him on the neck as tenderly as a mother pats her child.

We had not proceeded above a hundred yards, fast gathering the Shuffler, till we heard before us, behind us, and around us, loud cries of mysterious warning and alarmand saw men in shirts waving their arms, with expressive but unintelligible gesticulations not a little appalling-yet mysterious terror is unquestionably one chief source of the sublime. "A blast a blast!" and the truth flashed upon us with

the explosion. Fragments of rock darkened the air, and came clattering in all directions, curiously pointed, of smoking flint. How the coping stones whizzed from the walls! To shivers flew part of a slate-fence within five yards of us, smitten by a forty-two pounder, that buried itself in the dirt. Under a heavy fire let no man bob his head, duck down, or run away. We had learnt that lesson from much reading on war -and Colonsay had been taught it by instinct-so we carried on, and were soon out of range. But neither Sam nor the Shuffler could stand such a cannonade, and were off at the anonymous pace-across Rothay-bridge, and away to Clap persgate-a circuitous way to Grassmere, by which the most sanguine spirit could hardly hope for ultimate success. And what if, in his imperfect acquaintance with the country, he should get into Little Langdale, and so over Hard-knot and Wrynose into Eskdale, and then by Barnmoor Tarn into Wastdale-head.

There are many much more beautiful bridges in Westmoreland than Rothay-bridge-we could mention a hundred-but than the Vale of Ambleside, on which it stands, a much more beautiful vale-nay, one half as beautiful-is not in the known world. Wonderful how, without crowding, it can hold so many groves! Yet numerous as they are, they do not injure the effect of the noble single trees planted by the hand of nature, who has a fine eye for the picturesque, just where they should be, in the meadows kept by irrigation and inundation in perennial verdure that would shame the emerald. The only fault, easily forgiven, that we could ever find with the Rothay herself, is, that she is too pellucid-for she often eludes the sight, not when hidden, as she sometimes is, in osiers, and willows, and alders, but when, in open sunshine, singing her way to the Lake. Colonsay paused on the bridge, that we might admire our beloved panorama; and we requested one detachment to follow our antagonist, and the main body of umpires and referees to proceed to Ambleside for we wished for a while to be alone, and feed on the prospect. Colonsay, left to himself, opened

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the gate adjoining the ledge, and walked sedately along the pasture, as if the coolness were refreshing to his feet, after having so long and fast beaten the dusty road. That feeling was in itself both meat and drink; and as the flies were rather troublesome, he made for a nook overshadowed by a birk-tree, itself a bower-a weeping birch, as it is called-but it sheds no tears but tears of dew or rain-drop-and not in sadness but in joy-the joyful sense of its own beauty-lets fall its rich tresses, dishevelled you would say, were it not that they all hang orderly in the calm, and orderly wave in the wind-calm and wind alike delighting in their delicate grace and pensile elegance. river was within a few yards of our stance-flowing, but scarcely seen to flow-so gently did the stoneless banks dip down to enclose the water in a circular pool, to which there appeared neither inlet nor outlet-a perfect picture of peace. It was enough to know that we were in the Vale of Ambleside; but our eyes saw nothing but the Naiad's Palace. It grew too beautiful to be gazed on, and we looked up through the light foliage, that shewed the fleckered sky. There on a cleft bough was a missel-thrush sitting on her nest, with her eyes fixed on ours-and we knew, from their fond and fearless expression, that her breast was on her callow young. May no callant, cat, or owl, harry the happy and hopeful household!" And she seemed to smile in our face as if she knew the meaning of our words, and that we could keep a secret. But at that moment we heard a doleful lamenting among the silvan rocks behind us-of two poor shilfas that had been robbed of their all. What passions are in the woods!

Colonsay has fallen fast asleep. No doubt he is dreaming-for 'tis a false dictum that sound sleep is dreamless

and not till the senses are all shut up is the spirit wide-awake. He is now on his native isle. Friends he left dapple-grey come up to him milk-white. But why pursue such melancholy fancies? He recognises the green hills on which his unenclosed youth pastured-the mosshags he used to overleap in his play -he snuffs with joy the unforgotten

scent of the kelp on the shore that he was wont sportively toscatter as he raced with his compeers on the yellow sands-he dips his nose in the sea, and rejoicing to find it salt, feels as if foaled again. His mouth has never felt the bit, nor his back the saddle-and away he flies with flow. ing mane and tail, free as the osprey dashing into the deep. And now he sees the majestic figure of the Laird himself and at his side Fingal, the deer-hound. His neighings startle the Nereids in their coral caves, and Neptune, rearing his hoary head above the green-rolling billows, exults in the beauty of the breed of Colonsay-a high-descended strain -and half-designs to lure the rampant lion into the ebbing tide, that, yoked to Amphitrite's car, he may draw the Ocean-Queen in van of that Annual Procession to the Isles of the Blest, where the setting sun smiles on the souls of the now peaceful Heroes!

Such might have been Colonsay's dream-if it were not, it was ours; yet why should we have wandered so far from the Naiads' Palace! Who gave it that name? Ourselves, in some visionary mood. But now those fancies forsook us-beautiful as they were-for, gazing into the mirror, we beheld such an Image! What but the image of ourselves and Colonsay standing upside down-in the air! For the water had disappeared, -yet undisturbed as our reality beneath the living tree that had ceased to whisper. Though not unknown to us the science of optics, we were not prepared to see ourselves partaking of the general inversion of inanimate nature! A slight surprise always accompanies for a moment such reflections; yet how perfectly reconciled do we become to the position of such shadowy worlds! There can be little doubt that in a few days we should love and admire the real world, just the same as we do now, were all the human race to walk along the earth on their heads, with their feet up to heaven!

While thus delighting ourselves with contemplation of our downward double, we became aware that it was a pool we were looking into, by a trout like a fish balancing himself half-way between soil and surface, with his head the cur up

rent, and ever and anon wavering up till his back-fin was in airmanifestly on the feed. He saw neither us nor our shadow-intent on midges. "Thy days are numbered," we inly said-and now we felt why ancient philosophers called Prudence the Queen of Virtues. Not one man in a million, in equipping himself for such a match, as was now on our part in quiet course of performance, would have included in his personal paraphernalia line and angle, and all manner of artificial flies. The beautiful birch-tree was rather in our way-yet that not much-and we were fearful of alarming the missel. But that fear was needless, for, knowing our inoffensive character, she and her mate -we heard now by the fluttering and chirping-had been flying to and fro, feeding their gaping young, all the time of our dream. So we jointed our Walton, and annexed our gossamer, and throwing low, with no motion but of our wrist, dropt a single blue midge on the now visible eddy, and let it circle away down within easy reach of the simple and unsuspecting giant. What profundity of ignorance is implied in the doctrine, that the monarch of the flood lives on large flies! They cannot be too minute for the royal maw, provided he but knows that they are insects. A minnow again, in his impertinence and presumption, will open his mouth, of which, large as it is proportionally to his other members, be has miserably mistaken the dimensions to swallow a dragon-fly as big as a bird. But soft! he has it. A jerk so slight that we must not call it a jerk-and we have hooked him inextricably by the tongue in among the teeth. No fear of our gut. Whew! there he goes-and the merry music of the reel reminds us of the goat-sucker's song, as with mouth wide open, he sits at evening on a paling, sucking in the moths.

Had you your choice, would you rather angle from a too wakeful Cob, or from a Cob-like Colonsay-comatose? Perhaps this question may remind you of another almost as nice -which we have heard mooted"Whether would you have your eyes torn out by pincers, or punched in by rule?" Our answer, after mature deliberation, was, "That we

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