trade, to require from me a particular defcription: Many particulars, relative to its

terrass on the edge of the river) is totally the work of art, being cut out of the rock with much difficulty, and at a great expence. The scenery of these rocks is fine, for oaks, elms, and other trees grow out from every cleft to a great heighth, and hanging over your head, almoft threaten you as you move. The wild imagination of Salvator has scarcely pictured any thing more ftriking, or in a more fpirited ftile, than this variety of wood-breaking forth from the craggy clefts and chafms of these noble rocks. The river aids the general effect, by the rapidity of its current; for raging over rocks and ftones, the roar is in unifon with its fhoar, and all together tend ftrongly to impress upon the mind an idea of awe and terror.

Advancing, the walk leads through a grafs dale, the rocks are loft, and the whole fcene varied: On one fide the river is a hill covered with wood; and you view the other through a tall scattered hedge in a most pleasing manner: It is a projecting rock, with a scattering of fhrubby wood beautifully variegated. Here you fhould turn and view the rocks you have left; the fun fhining on them gives their reflection, in the smooth parts of the river, in a ftile very picturesque.

Still advancing, you catch in front among the trees a ruin on the banks of the river, half covered with ivy, and backed nobly with wood; the river rapid, under a new wall of formidable rocks. Juft before you come to the abbey, you may remark an old oak, fo connected with rock, that one may almoft call it half wood and half ftone.

commerce, I tried to get, but in vain; fuch as I procured are inferted in a very few words; but I can answer for their being ge

Oppofite the abbey the rocks give a fine curve, and under them the river and terrafs wind in the moft beautiful manner: It is here quite an amphitheatre of wood and rock; wild, romantic, and fublime.

Seating yourself on a bench upon the little hill under the rock, with an elm in front, the view is very ftriking. To the right the wall of rocks prefents its bold front, the river lofing itself under them, and the oppofite fteep of wood. To the left a wave of woody hill.

Coming to the turn of the walk, the profpect back upon the rocks is prodigiously fine: They are seen as it were in perfpective, and their tops, all crowned with oaks, have a great effect.

Winding up to the alcove on the hill to the right, you fee a range of fteep woods, hanging over broken rocks, in a ftile peculiar At a distance a scar of rock quite embosomed in a thick wood: The river winds through the valley beneath, and breaking into several diftinct fheets of water, throw a beautiful variety over this romantic scene; it lofes itself to the left under another sweep of hanging woods: You look down upon the ruined abbey, on the oppofite banks of the river, in a hollow. Above it, rifes in front a waving hill, cut into inclosures; and, over all, an extenfive diftant profpect.

From hence, croffing a few inclosures to come again into the ornamented grounds, the path you enter winds on the brink of a woody precipice, upon which you look in a very romantic man

ner.

nuine only, in receiving my intelligence from fenfible inhabitants.

ner. It leads down to the river (here a smooth and gentle current) through a wild rugged way, and there brings you to another fhore of pendent, craggy, broken rock, fringed with wood: In one place, almoft under the dairy, it bulges forth in a vast projecting body, almost threatning to thunder into the river, and obftruct every drop of its stream. The walk takes a winding course through a thick wood, to the terras in front of the house, from which the view is totally different from any of the preceding; it looks down upon a deep winding valley, quite filled with wood: A fine bending hollow-The noife of the river at bottom, raging over the rocks, is heard, but no where feen; nor can any thing be more romantic than this effect: For looking down into the hollow, without perceiving the water, the imagination at once takes fire, and pictures a horrible depth of precipice, far beyond the truth; but in which it is fomewhat affifted by the thickness of the wood breaking the line of found.

Upon the whole, Cocken has received noble gifts from nature, and the affiftance she has had from art has been the work of an elegant fancy, conducted by as correct a taste.

In the house are feveral pictures, which please the lovers of that noble art.

Trevifana. Lot and his daughters. The colouring is strong, and the expreffion fpirited: Nor is it wanting in the effect of the clear obfcure.

This town is fuppofed to contain forty thousand fouls, and to employ of its own,

Rape of Proferpine. The colouring not amifs.

Diana and Endymion. Good.

Acis and Galatea. Expreffive attitudes.

Venus attiring. Happily delicate and expreffive; the roundness of the limbs, and the beauty of the naked, are striking: The preffure of her hand on her bofom is fine; and his want of attention characteristic of fuch a fituation. It is a copy from Guido.

Bacchus and Ariadne. The attitude is very well caught; the colouring, and the naked of Ariadne's body, are pleafing.

Jupiter; and Juno in the Ceftus of Venus. Her attitude is elegant, and the whole beautiful.

Hercules and Omphale.

The co

lours, naked, and attitude, good.

Viviano. Architecture in perfpective, two pieces. Very fine, brilliant, and fpi

rited.

Trevifana. Portrait of the late Mr. Carr, nobly

fpirited.

Unknown. School-miftrefs in her school.

Ditto.

Fine

expreffion; the girls and boy are very well done; the girl reading, and the. other knitting, very natural. The mistress the least spirited in the piece.

An old man feeding his family with chestnuts. Very fine, fpirited, and na

tural.

five hundred fail of fhips; four hundred of which are colliers. The corporation have

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

tural. The minute expreffion is strong: But the diffufion of light appears to be unnatural; to proceed from no visible fource.

Landscape; a cavern. Fine and

brilliant.

A philofopher reproving his copier. Very fine and natural; the airs of the heads well preferved, and the hands excellently done. A copy.

A large landscape; rocks and water. Very fine. The cattle and fi gures excellent; minutely done.

Ditto of rocks, with a ftraggling branch, with the light behind it. Fine and spirited.

The

Three ditto, in a dark stile. light is well done, and much spirit in the piece.

One ditto, their companion. Exceedingly fine. The perfpective and keeping ftriking.

Two ditto, fomething in the ftile of Zuccarelli. Brilliant and pleafing.

Ditto. A ditto, rocks, with a trunk of a tree in water. The rocks fine; and the water excellent.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Two ditto in round. The cattlethe attitudes of the figures-the architecture and the trees, all have merit. Large landscape: It is in a dark ftile, but good.

B 4

Salvator