good-natured fellow, and partook of the civility of his country. But I received a smart retort courteous, assuring me he was not a Welshman, which convinced me I was not yet far enough West to lay hold of the partialities of the country. On inquiry, I learnt that our waiter was born in Clun, a village, part in Shropshire and part in Radnorshire. WElsh POOLE, as it is generally called, is a good town, a little West of the Severn, is the principal of five boroughs in Montgomeryshire, whose joint suffrage sends one Member to the British Senate. It is governed by a Mayor, Burgesses, Common Council, Recorder, &c. But I was sorry to observe in this, as in most other places in the principality, order is preserved more by the influence of petty-fogging Attornies, than the veneration for Corporate Bodies; and security is derived rather from the dread of Common Law, than the regulations of Municipal Legislature. This place probably derived its present name from a deep pool now within the inclosure of Powis Park, denominated from the dark appearance of its water, Llundy Pool. In ages of ignorance, it was considered unfathomable, or, as the people term it, without a bottom. Various attempts have been made to ascertain its depth, the result of which will allow it to be about 300 feet; but from the great variation in the depth, it is not an improbable conjecture, that there is an intercommunication between the waters of the Poole and those of the Severn; yet notwithstanding the average depth has been ascertained, so fond are mankind of the marvellous, that

1

the line of actual admeasurement has not yet exploded the line of superstition.

The town is decently built, the houses consisting chiefly of brick, form one long and handsome street, in the centre of which stands a new County Hall, erected by subscription, comprising apartments above for the purposes of justice and amusement; and below for the accommodation of trade. It has an elegant front, with colonnades, and pilasters of stone, and forms a public ornament to the town, giving a favourable idea of the spirit and liberality of the county.

The principal manufacture carried on here, and at the adjacent villages, is flannel, and it is the mart for this article, and other coarse woollen goods, made by the little farmers in the hill country, which are bought up for ready money by the dealers of Liverpool and Shrewsbury.

We were pleasingly struck with the life and spririt that pervades this little place on the occasion. The show of native and unvarnished beauty is very great, for the business of buying and selling is chiefly conducted by women here, and through all the markets of North Wales.

A reflection naturally arose on the superiority which these females acquired, in the scale of utility and respect, over the English fair, by conducting an important part of the staple manufactures of their

country.

These women, said I, are useful as well as pleasing; while they administer to the happiness of man, they contribute to his wealth. They prove themselves

worthy the honourable station they fill as mothers, by affording such essential assistance to the support of a family, and rise into importance by the considerable portion they perform of the duties in society. The common bar to matrimony, incompetence to maintain a family, does not exist here. Educated for the intended situation, and habituated to those active employments, necessary to domestic comfort and prosperity, a wife is deemed a valuable helpmate, and a numerous family an increasing blessing. "What! (still rivetted to the spot) said I, is the genius of domestic happiness asleep, or is he driven away by luxury and dissipation, that my fair country-women receive an education which only fits them for the theatre or the ball-room, and incapacitates them for every thing venerable attached to the name of wife, or of mother!! Taught to consider the external accomplishments of the body as comprising every thing amiable or important, the modern fair one points all her attention to the graces of her person, while all that would qualify her to soften the asperities of life, to soothe her partner's cares, to assist. in providing for the increasing demands of a rising family, and enable her to educate her children in the same habits of industry and economy is neglected and despised. The daughters of Athens and of Rome were the children of usefulness; and let Christian parents blush to hear they fall far short of the poor benighted Pagans in estimating the importance, and attending to the business of education, In those times no citizen of note appeared in public

in any dress that was not manufactured by the female part of his family; and permit me to ask, have the fair been more respected by the other sex, or has their happiness been increased since that period of our history, when every yeoman appeared at market and at church in a dress that was spun by his wife or his daughters?"

While thus strongly impressed with the fatal system of modern fashionable education, and anticipating its pernicious effects to society, my attitude and gestures had attracted the attention of a crowd of spectators, who, though puzzled to account for my extraordinary appearance, could not possibly conjecture I was making a comparison in their favour. The downcast look of many of the senior part, indicated that their sympathy was excited, and that' they supposed my head was affected, while the significant giggle of some of the junior part, and the loud broad laugh of others, as clearly proved they entertained a more favourable opinion of my case. I added my smile on the occasion, and bowing respectfully, left them.

The church is an old gothic structure, not remarkable for its elegance. Belonging to its ornaments, is a beautiful chalice of pure gold, containing by measure a wine quart. The idle story told by the sexton, of its having been the donation of a transported felon, who had been successful, is refuted by the inscription it bears, which informs the classic reader it was the gift of Thomas Davies, who held the office of Governor-General of all the English

Colonies on the Western Coast of Africa. That this

vessel, formed of Guinea Gold, to the value of 1681, he bestowed upon the church of Poole, as a sacred and grateful offering for the honour of GOD, in commemoration of his life having been preserved in that unhealthy climate through the Divine Mercy. A singular appeal is made to heaven upon any sacrilegious attempt to alienate this sacred property.

The Severn is navigable for small barges, up to a place called the Poole Stake, about three quarters of a mile from the town, where it is joined by a rivulet, called Gledding. Hence taking a Northeasterly direction, and enlarged by the tributary. rivers, the Virnwy and the Tanad, it waters the counties of Salop, Worcester, and Glocester, and empties itself into the Channel below Bristol, But though furnished with this admirable means of conyeyance, a new canal is now making; a branch of the Elesmere joining it, at a right angle near Hordly, passes through Llanymynech, Poole, and Berhiw to Newtown. By this a communication will be opened to the collieries and other mines in Denbighshire; and, by its junction with the Elesmere Trunk, to Chester and Liverpool,

The work was now at a stand from a supposed scarcity of water, arising evidently from ignorance how to apply what was in the hands of the proprietors, to the best advantage, rather than from a real deficiency. The prejudice of the neighbourhood was strongly against the undertaking, and a powerful opposition of the Land-owners attended every step of