impossible. The reader may look on the bold delineation before him, and realize the very scene itself; but language is cold and feeble when attempted as the medium for conveying to the mind's eye perfect ideas of objects so vast and overwhelming. The view is taken from the side of the river flowing into Haweswater. This stream issues from a tarn in the distant central mountains, across which is the pass of Nan-bield leading to Kentmere. Salset-brow appears on the left. The mists gather suddenly and with great density on the mountains in this neighbourhood; and woe to the traveller, who, relying on his knowledge of the road, suffers them to overtake him in his journey.

The clouds gather round the mountains, and hang poised and motionless upon their heights. The gushing streams descend from the hills,

"Still gathering, as they pour along,

A voice more loud, a tide more strong."

To the master spirits of poësy we are indebted for those glowing descriptions, which almost nullify the remark lately made, that language is inadequate to portray the beauties of nature. Apposite to our present subject are these splendid lines of "Caledonia's much lamented son :"

"The western waves of ebbing day
Roll'd o'er the glen their level way;

Each purple peak, each flinty spire,

Was bathed in floods of living fire,

But not a setting beam could glow
Within the dark ravines below,

Where twined the path in shadow hid,

Round many a rocky pyramid;
Shooting abruptly from the dell
Its thunder-splintered pinnacle;
Round many an insulated mass,
The native bulwarks of the pass,
Huge as the tower which builders vain
Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain."

GRASMERE LAKE AND VILLAGE,-WESTMORLAND.

The parish of Grasmere, anciently written Gresmere and Grismere, a name derived from the grise, or wild swine, that formerly abounded in these parts, was once a chapelry attached to Kendal, but is now a rectory. In the reign of Henry VIII., the right of advowson was sold by the crown to Alan Bellingham, who afterwards disposed of it for £100 to the Flemings of Rydal. The church is a burial place of the last-named family.

The lake of Grasmere, situated at the lower end of a valley, whence it obtains its name, is about four miles in circumference. From whatever point it is viewed, nearly the whole of this lake can be seen at once. A small green island partially covered with wood adorns the centre, and the head is decorated with the church and village of Grasmere, behind which rises the lofty pyramidal hill called Helm Crag.