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Read Ebook: England Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel by Cook Joel

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Liverpool--Birkenhead--Knowsley Hall--Chester--Cheshire--Eaton Hall--Hawarden Castle--Bidston--Congleton--Beeston Castle--The river Dee--Llangollen--Valle-Crucis Abbey--Dinas Bran--Wynnstay--Pont Cysylltau--Chirk Castle--Bangor-ys-Coed--Holt--Wrexham--The Sands o' Dee--North Wales--Flint Castle--Rhuddlan Castle--Mold--Denbigh--St. Asaph--Holywell--Powys Castle--The Menai Strait--Anglesea--Beaumaris Castle--Bangor--Penrhyn Castle--Plas Newydd--Caernarvon Castle--Ancient Segontium--Conway Castle--Bettws-y-Coed--Mount Snowdon--Port Madoc--Coast of Merioneth--Barmouth--St. Patrick's Causeway--Mawddach Vale--Cader Idris--Dolgelly--Bala Lake--Aberystwith--Harlech Castle--Holyhead 17

The Peak of Derbyshire--Castleton--Bess of Hardwicke--Hardwicke Hall--Bolsover Castle--The Wye and the Derwent--Buxton--Bakewell--Haddon Hall--The King of the Peak--Dorothy Vernon--Rowsley--The Peacock Inn--Chatsworth--The Victoria Regia--Matlock--Dovedale--Beauchief Abbey--Stafford Castle--Trentham Hall--Tamworth--Tutbury Castle--Chartley Castle--Alton Towers--Shrewsbury Castle--Bridgenorth--Wenlock Abbey--Ludlow Castle--The Feathers Inn--Lichfield Cathedral--Dr. Samuel Johnson--Coventry--Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom--Belvoir Castle--Charnwood Forest--Groby and Bradgate--Elizabeth Widvile and Lady Jane Grey--Ulverscroft Priory--Grace Dien Abbey--Ashby de la Zouche--Langley Priory--Leicester Abbey and Castle--Bosworth Field--Edgehill--Naseby--The Land of Shakespeare--Stratford-on-Avon--Warwick--Kenilworth--Birmingham --Boulton and Watt--Fotheringhay Castle--Holmby House--Bedford Castle --John Bunyan--Woburn Abbey and the Russells--Stowe--Whaddon Hall --Great Hampden--Creslow House 70

The Thames Head--Cotswold Hills--Seven Springs--Cirencester--Cheltenham--Sudeley Castle--Chavenage--Shifford--Lechlade--Stanton Harcourt--Cumnor Hall--Fair Rosamond--Godstow Nunnery--Oxford--Oxford Colleges--Christ Church--Corpus Christi--Merton--Oriel--All Souls--University--Queen's--Magdalen--Brasenose--New College--Radcliffe Library--Bodleian Library--Lincoln--Exeter--Wadham--Keble--Trinity--Balliol--St. John's--Pembroke--Oxford Churches--Oxford Castle--Carfax Conduit--Banbury--Broughton Castle--Woodstock--Marlborough--Blenheim--Minster Lovel--Bicester--Eynsham--Abingdon--Radley--Bacon, Rich, and Holt--Clifton-Hampden--Caversham--Reading--Maidenhead--Bisham Abbey--Vicar of Bray--Eton College--Windsor Castle--Magna Charta Island--Cowey Stakes--Ditton--Twickenham--London--Fire Monument--St. Paul's Cathedral--Westminster Abbey--The Tower--Lollards and Lambeth--Bow Church--St. Bride's--Whitehall--Horse Guards--St. James Palace--Buckingham Palace--Kensington Palace--Houses of Parliament--Hyde Park--Marble Arch--Albert Memorial--South Kensington Museum--Royal Exchange--Bank of England--Mansion House--Inns of Court--British Museum--Some London Scenes--The Underground Railway--Holland House--Greenwich--Tilbury Fort--The Thames Mouth 137

Harrow--St. Albans--Verulam--Hatfield House--Lord Burleigh--Cassiobury--Knebworth--Great Bed of Ware--The River Cam--Audley End--Saffron Walden--Newport--Nell Gwynne--Littlebury--Winstanley--Harwich--Cambridge--Trinity and St. John's Colleges--Caius College--Trinity Hall--The Senate House--University Library--Clare College--Great St. Mary's Church--King's College--Corpus Christi College--St. Catharine's College--Queens' College--The Pitt Press--Pembroke College--Peterhouse--Fitzwilliam Museum--Hobson's Conduit--Downing College--Emmanuel College--Christ's College--Sidney-Sussex College--The Round Church--Magdalene College--Jesus College--Trumpington--The Fenland--Bury St. Edmunds--Hengrave Hall--Ely--Peterborough--Crowland Abbey--Guthlac--Norwich Castle and Cathedral--Stamford--Burghley House--George Inn--Grantham--Lincoln--Nottingham--Southwell--Sherwood Forest--Robin Hood--The Dukeries--Thoresby Hall--Clumber Park--Welbeck Abbey--Newstead Abbey--Newark--Hull--Wilberforce--Beverley--Sheffield--Wakefield--Leeds --Bolton Abbey--The Strid--Ripon Cathedral--Fountains Abbey--Studley Royal--Fountains Hall--York--Eboracum--York Minster--Clifford's Tower--Castle Howard--Kirkham Priory--Flamborough Head--Scarborough--Whitby Abbey--Durham Cathedral and Castle--St. Cuthbert--The Venerable Bede--Battle of Neville's Cross--Chester-le-Street--Lumley Castle--Newcastle-upon-Tyne--Hexham--Alnwick Castle--Hotspur and the Percies--St. Michael's Church--Hulne Priory--Ford Castle--Flodden Field--The Tweed--Berwick--Holy Isle--Lindisfarne--Bamborough--Grace Darling 224

Virginia Water--Sunninghill--Ascot--Wokingham--Bearwood--The London Times--White Horse Hill--Box Tunnel--Salisbury--Salisbury Plain--Old Sarum--Stonehenge--Amesbury--Wilton House--The Earls of Pembroke--Carpet-making--Bath--William Beckford--Fonthill--Bristol--William Canynge--Chatterton--Clifton--Brandon Hill--Well--The Mendips--Jocelyn--Beckington--Ralph of Shrewsbury--Thomas Ken--The Cheddar Cliffs--The Wookey Hole--The Black Down--The Isle of Avelon--Glastonbury--Weary-all Hill--Sedgemoor--The Isle of Athelney--Bridgewater--Oldmixon--Monmouth's Rebellion--Weston Zoyland--King Alfred--Sherborne--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Coast of Dorset--Poole--Wareham--Isle of Purbeck--Corfe Castle--The Foreland--Swanage--St. Aldhelm's Head--Weymouth--Portland Isle and Bill--The Channel Islands--Jersey--Corbi?re Promontory--Mount Orgueil--Alderney--Guernsey--Castle Comet--The Southern Coast of Devon--Abbotsbury--Lyme Regis--Axminster--Sidmouth--Exmouth--Exeter--William, Prince of Orange--Exeter Cathedral--Bishop Trelawney--Dawlish--Teignmouth--Hope's Nose--Babbicombe Bay--Anstis Cove--Torbay--Torquay--Brixham--Dartmoor--The River Dart--Totnes--Berry Pomeroy Castle--Dartmouth--The River Plym--The Dewerstone--Plympton Priory--Sir Joshua Reynolds--Catwater Haven--Plymouth--Stonehouse--Devonport--Eddystone Lighthouse--Tavistock Abbey--Buckland Abbey--Lydford Castle--The Northern Coast of Devon--Exmoor--Minehead--Dunster--Dunkery Beacon--Porlock Bay--The River Lyn--Oare--Lorna Doone--Jan Ridd--Lynton--Lynmouth--Castle Rock--The Devil's Cheese-Ring--Combe Martin--Ilfracombe--Norte Point--Morthoe--Barnstable--Bideford--Clovelly--Lundy Island--Cornwall--Tintagel--Launceston--Liskeard--Fowey--Lizard Peninsula--Falmouth--Pendennis Castle--Helston--Mullyon Cove--Smuggling--Kynance Cove--The Post-Office--Old Lizard Head--Polpeor--St. Michael's Mount--Penzance--Pilchard Fishery--Penwith--Land's End 384

The Surrey Side--The Chalk Downs--Guildford--The Hog's Back--Albury Down--Archbishop Abbot--St. Catharine's Chapel--St. Martha's Chapel--Albury Park--John Evelyn--Henry Drummond--Aldershot Camp--Leith Hill--Redland's Wood--Holmwood Park--Dorking--Weller and the Marquis of Granby Inn--Deepdene--Betchworth Castle--The River Mole--Boxhill--The Fox and Hounds--The Denbies--Ranmore Common--Battle of Dorking--Wotton Church--Epsom--Reigate--Pierrepoint House--Longfield--The Weald of Kent--Goudhurst--Bedgebury Park--Kilndown--Cranbrook--Bloody Baker's Prison--Sissinghurst--Bayham Abbey--Tunbridge Castle--Tunbridge Wells--Penshurst--Sir Philip Sidney--Hever Castle--Anne Boleyn--Knole--Leeds Castle--Tenterden Steeple and the Goodwin Sands--Rochester--Gad's Hill--Chatham--Canterbury Cathedral--St. Thomas ? Becket--Falstaff Inn--Isle of Thanet--Ramsgate--Margate--North Foreland--The Cinque Ports--Sandwich--Rutupiae--Ebbsfleet--Goodwin Sands--Walmer Castle--South Foreland--Dover--Shakespeare's Cliff--Folkestone--Hythe--Romney--Dungeness--Rye--Winchelsea--Hastings --Pevensey--Hailsham--Hurstmonceux Castle--Beachy Head--Brighton--The Aquarium--The South Downs--Dichling Beacon--Newhaven--Steyning--Wiston Manor--Chanctonbury Ring--Arundel Castle--Chichester--Selsey Bill--Goodwood--Bignor--Midhurst--Cowdray--Dunford House--Selborne--Gilbert White; his book; his house, sun-dial, and church--Greatham Church--Winchester--The New Forest--Lyndhurst--Minstead Manor--Castle Malwood--Death of William Rufus--Rufus's Stone--Beaulieu Abbey--Brockenhurst--Ringwood--Lydington--Christchurch--Southampton --Netley Abbey--Calshot Castle--The Solent--Portsea Island--Portsmouth--Gosport--Spithead--The Isle of Wight--High Down--Alum Bay--Yarmouth--Cowes--Osborne House--Ryde--Bratling--Sandown--Shanklin Chine--Bonchurch--The Undercliff--Ventnor--Niton--St. Lawrence Church--St. Catharine's Down--Blackgang Chine--Carisbrooke Castle--Newport--Freshwater--Brixton--The Needles 463

ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE.

LIVERPOOL WESTWARD TO THE WELSH COAST.

LIVERPOOL.

The American transatlantic tourist, after a week or more spent upon the ocean, is usually glad to again see the land. After skirting the bold Irish coast, and peeping into the pretty cove of Cork, with Queenstown in the background, and passing the rocky headlands of Wales, the steamer that brings him from America carefully enters the Mersey River. The shores are low but picturesque as the tourist moves along the estuary between the coasts of Lancashire and Cheshire, and passes the great beacon standing up solitary and alone amid the waste of waters, the Perch Rock Light off New Brighton on the Cheshire side. Thus he comes to the world's greatest seaport--Liverpool--and the steamer finally drops her anchor between the miles of docks that front the two cities, Liverpool on the left and Birkenhead on the right. Forests of masts loom up behind the great dock-walls, stretching far away on either bank, while a fleet of arriving or departing steamers is anchored in a long line in mid-channel. Odd-looking, low, black tugs, pouring out thick smoke from double funnels, move over the water, and one of them takes the passengers alongside the capacious structure a half mile long, built on pontoons, so it can rise and fall with the tides, and known as the Prince's Landing-Stage, where the customs officers perform their brief formalities and quickly let the visitor go ashore over the fine floating bridge into the city.

At Liverpool most American travellers begin their view of England. It is the great city of ships and sailors and all that appertains to the sea, and its 550,000 population are mainly employed in mercantile life and the myriad trades that serve the ship or deal in its cargo, for fifteen thousand to twenty thousand of the largest vessels of modern commerce will enter the Liverpool docks in a year, and its merchants own 7,000,000 tonnage. Fronting these docks on the Liverpool side of the Mersey is the great sea-wall, over five miles long, behind which are enclosed 400 acres of water-surface in the various docks, that are bordered by sixteen miles' length of quays. On the Birkenhead side of the river there are ten miles of quays in the docks that extend for over two miles along the bank. These docks, which are made necessary to accommodate the enormous commerce, have cost over ,000,000, and are the crowning glory of Liverpool. They are filled with the ships of all nations, and huge storehouses line the quays, containing products from all parts of the globe, yet chiefly the grain and cotton, provisions, tobacco, and lumber of America. Railways run along the inner border of the docks on a street between them and the town, and along their tracks horses draw the freight-cars, while double-decked passenger-cars also run upon them with broad wheels fitting the rails, yet capable of being run off whenever the driver wishes to get ahead of the slowly-moving freight-cars. Ordinary wagons move upon Strand street alongside, with horses of the largest size drawing them, the huge growth of the Liverpool horses being commensurate with the immense trucks and vans to which these magnificent animals are harnessed.

Liverpool has several fine buildings. Its Custom House is a large Ionic structure of chaste design, with a tall dome that can be seen from afar, and richly decorated within. The Town Hall and the Exchange buildings make up the four sides of an enclosed quadrangle paved with broad flagstones. Here, around the attractive Nelson monument in the centre, the merchants meet and transact their business. The chief public building is St. George's Hall, an imposing edifice, surrounded with columns and raised high above one side of an open square, and costing ,000,000 to build. It is a Corinthian building, having at one end the Great Hall, one hundred and sixty-nine feet long, where public meetings are held, and court-rooms at the other end. Statues of Robert Peel, Gladstone, and Stephenson, with other great men, adorn the Hall. Sir William Brown, who amassed a princely fortune in Liverpool, has presented the city with a splendid free library and museum, which stands in a magnificent position on Shaw's Brow. Many of the streets are lined with stately edifices, public and private, and most of these avenues diverge from the square fronting St. George's Hall, opposite which is the fine station of the London and North-western Railway, which, as is the railroad custom in England, is also a large hotel. The suburbs of Liverpool are filled for a wide circuit with elegant rural homes and surrounding ornamental grounds, where the opulent merchants live. They are generally bordered with high stone walls, interfering with the view, and impressing the visitor strongly with the idea that an Englishman's house is his castle. Several pretty parks with ornamental lakes among their hills are also in the suburbs. Yet it is the vast trade that is the glory of Liverpool, for it is but an epitome of England's commercial greatness, and is of comparatively modern growth. "All this," not long ago said Lord Erskine, speaking of the rapid advancement of Liverpool, "has been created by the industry and well-disciplined management of a handful of men since I was a boy."

KNOWSLEY HALL.

THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER.

The quaintest part of this curious old city of Chester is no doubt the "Rows," above referred to. These arcades, which certainly form a capital shelter from the hot sun or rain, were, according to one authority, originally built as a refuge for the people in case of sudden attack by the Welsh; but according to others they originated with the Romans, and were used as the vestibules of the houses; and this seems to be the more popular theory with the townsfolk. Under the "Rows" are shops of all sizes, and some of the buildings are grotesquely attractive, especially the curious one bearing the motto of safety from the plague, "God's providence is mine inheritance," standing on Watergate street, and known as "God's Providence House;" and "Bishop Lloyd's Palace," which is ornamented with quaint wood-carvings. The "Old Lamb Row," where Randall Holme, the Chester antiquary, lived, stood by itself, obeying no rule of regularity, and was regarded as a nuisance two hundred years ago, though later it was highly prized. The city corporation in 1670 ordered that "the nuisance erected by Randall Holme in his new building in Bridge street be taken down, as it annoys his neighbors, and hinders their prospect from their houses." But this law seems to have been enforced no more than many others are on either side of the ocean, for the "nuisance" stood till 1821, when the greater part of it, the timbers having rotted, fell of its own accord. The "Dark Row" is the only one of these strange arcades that is closed from the light, for it forms a kind of tunnel through which the footwalk goes. Not far from this is the famous old "Stanley House," where one unfortunate Earl of Derby spent the last day before his execution in 1657 at Bolton. The carvings on the front of this house are very fine, and there is told in reference to the mournful event that marks its history the following story: Lieutenant Smith came from the governor of Chester to notify the condemned earl to be ready for the journey to Bolton. The earl asked, "When would you have me go?" "To-morrow, about six in the morning," said Smith. "Well," replied the earl, "commend me to the governor, and tell him I shall be ready by that time." Then said Smith, "Doth your lordship know any friend or servant that would do the thing your lordship knows of? It would do well if you had a friend." The earl replied, "What do you mean? to cut off my head?" Smith said, "Yes, my lord, if you could have a friend." The earl answered, "Nay, sir, if those men that would have my head will not find one to cut it off, let it stand where it is."

It is easy in this strange old city to carry back the imagination for centuries, for it preserves its connection with the past better perhaps than any other English town. The city holds the keys of the outlet of the Dee, which winds around it on two sides, and is practically one of the gates into Wales. Naturally, the Romans established a fortress here more than a thousand years ago, and made it the head-quarters of their twentieth legion, who impressed upon the town the formation of a Roman camp, which it bears to this day. The very name of Chester is derived from the Latin word for a camp. Many Roman fragments still remain, the most notable being the Hyptocaust. This was found in Watergate street about a century ago, together with a tessellated pavement. There have also been exhumed Roman altars, tombs, mosaics, pottery and other similar relics. The city is built upon a sandstone rock, and this furnishes much of the building material, so that most of the edifices have their exteriors disintegrated by the elements, particularly the churches--a peculiarity that may have probably partly justified Dean Swift's epigram, written when his bile was stirred because a rainstorm had prevented some of the Chester clergy from dining with him:

"Churches and clergy of this city Are very much akin: They're weather-beaten all without, And empty all within."

The modernized suburbs of Chester, filled with busy factories, are extending beyond the walls over a larger surface than the ancient town itself. At the angles of the old walls stand the famous towers--the Phoenix Tower, Bonwaldesthorne's Tower, Morgan's Mount, the Goblin Tower, and the Water Tower, while the gates in the walls are almost equally famous--the Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate, Bridgegate, Newgate, and Peppergate. The ancient Abbey of St. Mary had its site near the castle, and not far away are the picturesque ruins of St. John's Chapel, outside the walls. According to a local legend, its neighborhood had the honor of sheltering an illustrious fugitive. Harold, the Saxon king, we are told, did not fall at Hastings, but, escaping, spent the remainder of his life as a hermit, dwelling in a cell near this chapel and on a cliff alongside the Dee. The four streets leading from the gates at the middle of each side of the town come together in the centre at a place formerly known as the "Pentise," where was located the bull-ring at which was anciently carried on the refining sport of "bull-baiting" while the mayor and corporation, clad in their gowns of office, looked on approvingly. Prior to this sport beginning, we are told that solemn proclamation was made for "the safety of the king and the mayor of Chester"--that "if any man stands within twenty yards of the bull-ring, let him take what comes." Here stood also the stocks and pillory. Amid so much that is ancient and quaint, the new Town Hall, a beautiful structure recently erected, is naturally most attractive, its dedication to civic uses having been made by the present Prince of Wales, who bears among many titles that of Earl of Chester. But this is about the only modern attraction this interesting city possesses. At an angle of the walls are the "Dee Mills," as old as the Norman Conquest, and famous in song as the place where the "jolly miller once lived on the Dee." Full of attractions within and without, it is difficult to tear one's self away from this quaint city, and therefore we will agree, at least in one sense, with Dr. Johnson's blunt remark to a lady friend: "I have come to Chester, madam, I cannot tell how, and far less can I tell how to get away from it."

CHESHIRE.

The county of Cheshire has other attractions. But a short distance from Chester, in the valley of the Dee, is Eaton Hall, the elaborate palace of the Duke of Westminster and one of the finest seats in England, situated in a park of eight hundred acres that extends to the walls of Chester. This palace has recently been almost entirely rebuilt and modernized, and is now the most spacious and splendid example of Revived Gothic architecture in England. The house contains many works of art--statues by Gibson, paintings by Rubens and others--and is full of the most costly and beautiful decorations and furniture, being essentially one of the show-houses of Britain. In the extensive gardens are a Roman altar found in Chester and a Greek altar brought from Delphi. At Hawarden Castle, seven miles from Chester, is the home of William E. Gladstone, and in its picturesque park are the ruins of the ancient castle, dating from the time of the Tudors, and from the keep of which there is a fine view of the Valley of the Dee. The ruins of Ewloe Castle, six hundred years old, are not far away, but so buried in foliage that they are difficult to find. Two miles from Chester is Hoole House, formerly Lady Broughton's, famous for its rockwork, a lawn of less than an acre exquisitely planted with clipped yews and other trees being surrounded by a rockery over forty feet high. In the Wirral or Western Cheshire are several attractive villages. At Bidston, west of Birkenhead and on the sea-coast, is the ancient house that was once the home of the unfortunate Earl of Derby, whose execution is mentioned above. Congleton, in Eastern Cheshire, stands on the Dane, in a lovely country, and is a good example of an old English country-town. Its Lion Inn is a fine specimen of the ancient black-and-white gabled hostelrie which novelists love so well to describe. At Nantwich is a curious old house with a heavy octagonal bow-window in the upper story overhanging a smaller lower one, telescope-fashion. The noble tower of Nantwich church rises above, and the building is in excellent preservation.

THE RIVER DEE.

Frequent reference has been made to the river Dee, the Deva of the Welsh, which is unquestionably one of the finest streams of Britain. It rises in the Arran Fowddwy, one of the chief Welsh mountains, nearly three thousand feet high, and after a winding course of about seventy miles falls into the Irish Sea. This renowned stream has been the theme of many a poet, and after expanding near its source into the beautiful Bala Lake, whose bewitching surroundings are nearly all described in polysyllabic and unpronounceable Welsh names, and are popular among artists and anglers, it flows through Edeirnim Vale, past Corwen. Here a pathway ascends to the eminence known as Glendower's Seat, with which tradition has closely knit the name of the Welsh hero, the close of whose marvellous career marked the termination of Welsh independence. Then the romantic Dee enters the far-famed Valley of Llangollen, where tourists love to roam, and where lived the "Ladies of Llangollen." We are told that these two high-born dames had many lovers, but, rejecting all and enamored only of each other, Lady Butler and Miss Ponsonby, the latter sixteen years the junior of the former, determined on a life of celibacy. They eloped together from Ireland, were overtaken and brought back, and then a second time decamped--on this occasion in masquerade, the elder dressed as a peasant and the younger as a smart groom in top-boots. Escaping pursuit, they settled in Llangollen in 1778 at the quaint little house called Plas Newydd, and lived there together for a half century. Their costume was extraordinary, for they appeared in public in blue riding-habits, men's neckcloths, and high hats, with their hair cropped short. They had antiquarian tastes, which led to the accumulation of a vast lot of old wood-carvings and stained glass, gathered from all parts of the world and worked into the fittings and adornment of their home. They were on excellent terms with all the neighbors, and the elder died in 1829, aged ninety, and the younger two years afterward, aged seventy-six. Their remains lie in Llangollen churchyard.

"They rowed her in across the rolling foam-- The cruel, crawling foam, The cruel, hungry foam-- To her grave beside the sea; But still the boatmen hear her call her cattle home Across the Sands o' Dee."

FLINT AND DENBIGH.

South of Denbigh, in Montgomeryshire, are the ruins of Montgomery Castle, long a frontier fortress of Wales, around which many hot contests have raged: a fragment of a tower and portions of the walls are all that remain. Powys Castle is at Welsh Pool, and is still preserved--a red sandstone structure on a rocky elevation in a spacious and well-wooded park; Sir Robert Smirke has restored it.

THE MENAI STRAIT.

Across the strait is Bangor, a rather straggling town, with a cathedral that is not very old. We are told that its bishop once sold its peal of bells, and, going down to the shore to see them shipped away, was stricken blind as a punishment for the sacrilege. Of Bangor Castle, as it originally stood, but insignificant traces remain, but Lord Penrhyn has recently erected in the neighborhood the imposing castle of Penryhn, a massive pile of dark limestone, in which the endeavor is made to combine a Norman feudal castle with a modern dwelling, though with only indifferent success, excepting in the expenditure involved. The roads from the great suspension-bridge across the strait lead on either hand to Bangor and Beaumaris, although the route is rather circuitous. This bridge, crossing at the narrowest and most beautiful part of the strait, was long regarded as the greatest triumph of bridge-engineering. It carried the Holyhead high-road across the strait, and was built by Telford. The bridge is five hundred and seventy-nine feet long, and stands one hundred feet above high-water mark; it cost 0,000. Above the bridge the strait widens, and here, amid the swift-flowing currents, the famous whitebait are caught for the London epicures. Three-quarters of a mile below, at another narrow place, the railway crosses the strait through Stephenson's Britannia tubular bridge, which is more useful than ornamental, the railway passing through two long rectangular iron tubes, supported on plain massive pillars. From a rock in the strait the central tower rises to a height of two hundred and thirty feet, and other towers are built on each shore at a distance of four hundred and sixty feet from the central one. Couchant lions carved in stone guard the bridge-portals at each end, and this famous viaduct cost over ,500,000. A short distance below the Anglesea Column towers above a dark rock on the northern shore of the strait. It was erected in honor of the first Marquis of Anglesea, the gallant commander of the British light cavalry at Waterloo, where his leg was carried away by one of the last French cannon-shots. For many years after the great victory he lived here, literally with "one foot in the grave." Plas Newydd, one and a half miles below, the Anglesea family residence, where the marquis lived, is a large and unattractive mansion, beautifully situated on the sloping shore. It has in the park two ancient sepulchral monuments of great interest to the antiquarian.

CAERNARVON AND CONWAY.

"On a rock whose lofty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, Robed in a sable garb of woe. With haggard eyes the poet stood."

There are many other historic places in Caernarvonshire, and also splendid bits of rural and coast scenery, while the attractions for the angler as well as the artist are almost limitless. One of the prettiest places for sketching, as well as a spot where the fisherman's skill is often rewarded, is Bettws-y-Coed. This pretty village, which derives its name from a religious establishment--"Bede-house in the Wood"--that was formerly there, but long ago disappeared, is a favorite resort for explorations of the ravines leading down from Mount Snowdon, which towers among the clouds to the southward. Not far away are the attractive Falls of the Conway, and from a rock above them is a good view of the wonderful ravine of Fors Noddyn, through which the river flows. Around it there is a noble assemblage of hills and headlands. Here, joining with the Conway, comes through another ravine the pretty Machno in a succession of sparkling cascades and rapids. Not far away is the wild and lovely valley of the Lledr, another tributary of the Conway, which comes tumbling down a romantic fissure cut into the frowning sides of the mountain. At Dolwyddelan a solitary tower is all that remains of the castle, once commanding from its bold perch on the rocks the narrow pass in the valley. It is at present a little village of slate-quarriers. The Llugwy is yet another attractive tributary of the Conway, which boasts in its course the Rhavadr-y-Wenol, or the Swallow Fall. This, after a spell of rainy weather, is considered the finest cataract in Wales for the breadth and volume of the water that descends, though not for its height. This entire region is full of charming scenery, and of possibly what some may love even better, good trout-fishing. Following the Conway Valley still farther up, and crossing over the border into Denbigh, we come to the little market-town of Llanrwst. It contains two attractive churches, the older one containing many curious monuments and some good carvings, the latter having been brought from Maenant Abbey. But the chief curiosity of this little Welsh settlement is the bridge crossing the Conway. It was constructed by Inigo Jones, and is a three-arched stone bridge, which has the strange peculiarity that by pushing a particular portion of the parapet it can be made to vibrate from one end to the other. Gwydyr House, the seat of Lord Willoughby de Eresby, is in the neighborhood, a small part of the original mansion built in 1555 remaining. Near Trefriw lived Taliesin, the father of Welsh poetry, and a monument erected by that nobleman on the river-bank perpetuates his memory.

The recollection among the Welsh of the life and exploits of the great chieftain of former times, Madoc, is held very dear in Caernarvonshire, and is preserved not only in many legends, but also in the thriving and pleasant little seaport known as Port Madoc, which has grown up out of the slate-trade. Its wharf is a wilderness of slates, and much of the land in the neighborhood has been recovered from the sea. The geology as well as the scenery here is an interesting study. In fact, the whole Caernarvon coast, which stretches away to the south-west in the long peninsula that forms Cardigan Bay, is full of pleasant and attractive locations for student and tourist, and entwined around all are weird legends of the heroes and doings of the mystical days of the dim past, when Briton and Roman contended for the mastery of this historic region.

THE COAST OF MERIONETH.

Let us make a brief excursion south of Mount Snowdon, along the coast of the pastoral county of Merioneth, where Nature has put many crags and stones and a little gold and wheat, but where the people's best reliance is their flocks. At the place where the Mawddach joins the sea is Barmouth, where a fishing-village has of late years bloomed into a fashionable watering-place. The houses are built on a strip of sand and the precipitous hillside beyond, and the cottages are perched wherever they can conveniently hold on to the crags, the devious pathways and flights of steps leading up to them presenting a quaint aspect. The bends of the Mawddach, as it goes inland among the hills, present miles of unique scenery, the great walls of Cader Idris closing the background. Several hilltops in the neighborhood contain fortifications, and are marked by the old tombs known as cromlechs and Druids' altars. On the sea-coast curious reefs project, the chief of them being St. Patrick's Causeway. The legend tells us that a Welsh chieftain fifteen hundred years ago constructed these reefs to protect the lowlands from the incursions of the sea, and on the lands thus reclaimed there stood no less than twelve fortified Welsh cities. But, unfortunately, one stormy night the guardian of the embankments got drunk, and, slumbering at the critical moment, the waves rushed in, sweeping all before them. In the morning, where had before been fortified cities and a vast population, there was only a waste of waters. St. Patrick, we are told, used his causeway to bear him dryshod as far as possible when he walked the waters to Ireland.

Let us penetrate into the interior by going up the romantic valley of the Mawddach and viewing the frowning sides of the chief Merioneth mountain, Cader Idris, which towers on the right hand to the height of 3100 feet. It is a long ridge rather than a peak, and steep precipices guard the upper portion. Two little lakes near the summit, enclosed by cliffs, afford magnificent scenery. Here is "Idris's Chair," where the grim magician, who used to make the mountain his home, sat to perform his incantations, whilst in a hollow at the summit he had his couch. According to Welsh tradition, whoever passed the night there would emerge in the morning either mad or a poet. This mountain, like Snowdon, is said to have been formerly a volcano, and legends tell of the fiery outbursts that came from its craters, now occupied by the two little lakes. But the truth of these legends, though interwoven into Welsh poetry, is denied by prosaic geologists. A rough and steep track, known as the "Fox's Path," leads to the summit, and there is a fine view northward across the valleys to the distant summits of Snowdon and its attendant peaks, while spread at our feet to the westward is the broad expanse of Cardigan Bay. Lakes abound in the lowlands, and, pursuing the road up the Mawddach we pass the "Pool of the Three Pebbles." Once upon a time three stones got into the shoe of the giant Idris as he was walking about his domain, and he stopped here and threw them out. Here they still remain--three ponderous boulders--in the lake.

We leave the Mawddach and follow its tributary, the little river Wnion, as it ripples along over its pebbly bed guarded by strips of meadow. Soon we come to the lovely "Village of the Hazels," Dolgelly, standing in the narrow valley, and probably the prettiest spot in Wales. Steep hills rise on either hand, with bare craggy summits and the lower slopes richly wooded. Deep dells running into the hills vary the scenery, and thus the town is set in an amphitheatre of hills, up whose flanks the houses seem to climb. There is a little old church, and in a back court the ruins of the "Parliament House," where Owen Glendower assembled the Welsh Parliament in 1404. The Torrent Walk, where the stream from the mountain is spanned by picturesque bridges, is a favorite resort of the artist, and also one of the most charming bits of scenery in the neighborhood of this beautiful town. Pursuing the valley farther up and crossing the watershed, we come to the largest inland water of Wales, the beautiful Bala Lake, heretofore referred to in describing the river Dee, which drains it. It is at an elevation of six hundred feet, surrounded by mountain-peaks, and the possibility of making it available as a water-supply for London has been considered.

We have now conducted the tourist to the chief objects in North Wales. The railway runs on to Holyhead, built on the extreme point of Holy Island on the western verge of Anglesea, where there is a fine harbor of refuge, lighthouses, and an excellent port. Here comes the "Wild Irishman," as the fast train is called that runs between London and Ireland, and its passengers are quickly transferred to the swift steamers that cross the Channel to Dublin harbor. Lighthouses dot the cliffs on the coast, and at this romantic outpost we will close the survey of North Wales.

"There ever-dimpling Ocean's cheek Reflects the tints of many a peak, Caught by the laughing tides that lave Those Edens of the Western wave."

LIVERPOOL, NORTHWARD TO THE SCOTTISH BORDER.

Lancashire--Warrington--Manchester--Furness Abbey--The Ribble--Stonyhurst--Lancaster Castle--Isle of Man--Castletown--Rushen Castle--Peele Castle--The Lake Country--Windermere--Lodore Fall--Derwentwater--Keswick--Greta Hall--Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge--Skiddaw--The Border Castles--Kendal Castle--Brougham Hall--The Solway--Carlisle Castle--Scaleby Castle--Naworth--Lord William Howard.

LANCASHIRE.

The great manufacturing county of England for cotton and woollen spinning and weaving is Lancashire. Liverpool is the seaport for the vast aggregation of manufacturers who own the huge mills of Manchester, Salford, Warrington, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn, Preston, and a score of other towns, whose operatives work into yarns and fabrics the millions of bales of cotton and wool that come into the Mersey. The warehouse and factory, with the spinners' cottages and the manufacturers' villas, make up these towns, almost all of modern growth, and the busy machinery and smoking chimneys leave little chance for romance in Southern Lancashire. It was in this section that trade first compelled the use of modern improvements: here were used the earliest steam-engines; here labored Arkwright to perfect the spinning machinery, and Stephenson to build railways. To meet the necessities of communication between Liverpool and Manchester, the first canal was dug in England, and this was followed afterwards by the first experimental railway; the canal was constructed by Brindley, and was called the "Grand Trunk Canal," being twenty-eight miles long from Manchester to the Mersey River, at Runcorn above Liverpool, and was opened in 1767. The railway was opened in 1830; the odd little engine, the "Rocket," then drew an excursion-train over it, and the opening was marred by an accident which killed Joseph Huskisson, one of the members of Parliament for Liverpool. Let us follow this railway, which now carries an enormous traffic out of Liverpool, eastward along the valley of the Mersey past Warrington, with its quaint old timbered market-house, and then up its tributary, the Irwell, thirty-one miles to Manchester.

MANCHESTER.

The chief manufacturing city of England has not a striking effect upon the visitor as he approaches it. It is scattered over a broad surface upon a gently undulating plain, and its suburbs straggle out into the country villages, which it is steadily absorbing in its rapid growth; the Irwell passes in a winding course through the city, receiving a couple of tributaries; this river divides Manchester from Salford, but a dozen bridges unite them. No city in England has had such rapid growth as Manchester in this century; it has increased from about seventy thousand people at the beginning of the century to over half a million now; and this is all the effect of the development of manufacturing industry. Yet Manchester is one of the oldest towns in England, for there was a Roman camp at Mancunium, as the Caesars called it, in the first century of the Christian era; and we are also told that in the days when giants lived in England it was the scene of a terrific combat between Sir Launcelot of the Lake and the giant Tarquin. A ballad tells the story, but it is easier read in prose: Sir Launcelot was travelling near Manchester when he heard that this giant held in durance vile a number of knights--"threescore and four" in all; a damsel conducts him to the giant's castle-gate, "near Manchester, fair town," where a copper basin hung to do duty as a bell; he strikes it so hard as to break it, when out comes the giant ready for the fray; a terrific combat ensues, and the giant, finding that he has met his match, offers to release the captives, provided his adversary is not a certain knight that slew his brother. Unfortunately, it happens that Sir Launcelot is the very same, and the combat is renewed with such vigor that the giant is slain, "to the great contentment of many persons."

"God bless the King--I mean our faith's defender! God bless the Pretender! But who Pretender is, or who is King-- God bless us all!--that's quite another thing."

It was the rapid growth of manufacturing industry in Manchester that changed its politics, and it was here that was first conspicuously advocated the free-trade agitation in England which triumphed in the repeal of the Corn Laws, so as to admit food free of duty for the operatives, and in the Reform bill that changed the representation in Parliament. That fine building, the "Free-Trade Hall," is a monument of this agitation in which Manchester took such prominent part. As the city has grown in wealth, so has its architectural appearance improved; its school-and college-buildings are very fine, particularly Owens College, munificently endowed by a leading merchant. The Manchester Cathedral is an ancient building overlooking the Irwell which has had to be renewed in so many parts that it has a comparatively modern aspect. Other English cathedrals are more imposing, but this, "the ould paroch church" spoken of by the ancient chroniclers, is highly prized by the townsfolk; the architecture is Perpendicular and of many dates. Until recently this was the only parish church in Manchester, and consequently all the marriages for the city had to be celebrated there; the number was at times very large, especially at Easter, and not a few tales are told of how, in the confusion, the wrong pairs were joined together, and when the mistake was discovered respliced with little ceremony. It was in this Manchester Cathedral that one rector is said to have generally begun the marriage service by instructing the awaiting crowd to "sort yourselves in the vestry."

Some of the public buildings in Manchester are most sumptuous. The Assize Courts are constructed in rich style, with lofty Pointed roofs and a tall tower, and make one of the finest modern buildings in England. The great hall is a grand apartment, and behind the courts is the prison, near which the Fenians in 1867 made the celebrated rescue of the prisoners from the van for which some of the assailants were hanged and others transported. The Royal Exchange is a massive structure in the Italian style, with a fine portico, dome, and towers; the hall within is said to be probably the largest room in England, having a width of ceiling, without supports, of one hundred and twenty feet. Here on cotton-market days assemble the buyers and sellers from all the towns in Lancashire, and they do an enormous traffic. The new Town-Hall is also a fine building, where the departments of the city government are accommodated, and where they have an apartment dear to every Englishman's heart--"a kitchen capable of preparing a banquet for eight hundred persons." The warehouses of Manchester are famous for their size and solidity, and could Arkwright come back and see what his cotton-spinning machinery has produced, he would be amazed. It was in Manchester that the famous Dr. Dalton, the founder of the atomic theory in chemistry, lived; he was a devout Quaker, like so many of the townspeople, but unfortunately was color-blind; he appeared on one occasion in a scarlet waistcoat, and when taken to task declared it seemed to him a very quiet, unobtrusive color, just like his own coat. Several fine parks grace the suburbs of Manchester, and King Cotton has made this thriving community the second city in England, while for miles along the beautifully shaded roads that lead into the suburbs the opulent merchants and manufacturers have built their ornamental villas.

FURNESS AND STONYHURST

The river Ribble, which flows into the Irish Sea through a wide estuary, drains the western slopes of the Pennine Hills, which divide Lancashire from Yorkshire. Up in the north-western portion of Lancashire, near the bases of these hills, is a moist region known as the parish of Mitton, where, as the poet tells us,

"The Hodder, the Calder, Ribble, and rain All meet together in Mitton domain."

In Mitton parish, amid the woods along the Hodder and on the north side of the valley of the Ribble, stands the splendid domed towers of the baronial edifice of Stonyhurst, now the famous Jesuit College of England, where the sons of the Catholic nobility and gentry are educated. The present building is about three hundred years old, and quaint gardens adjoin it, while quite an extensive park surrounds the college. Not far away are Clytheroe Castle and the beautiful ruins of Whalley Abbey. The Stonyhurst gardens are said to remain substantially as their designer, Sir Nicholas Sherburne, left them. A capacious water-basin is located in the centre, with the leaden statue of Regulus in chains standing in the midst of the water. Summer-houses with tall pointed roofs are at each lower extremity of the garden, while an observatory is upon a commanding elevation. Tall screens of clipped yews, cut square ten feet high and five feet thick, divide the beds upon one side of the gardens, so that as you walk among them you are enveloped in a green yet pleasant solitude. Arched doorways are cut through the yews, and in one place, descending by broad and easy steps, there is a solemn, cool, and twilight walk formed by the overarching yews, the very place for religious meditation. Then, reascending, this sombre walk opens into air and sunshine amid delicious flower-gardens. On the opposite side of the gardens are walls hung with fruit, and plantations of kitchen vegetables. This charming place was fixed upon by the Jesuits for their college in 1794, when driven from Li?ge by the proscriptions of the French Revolution. The old building and the additions then erected enclose a large quadrangular court. In the front of the college, at the southern angle, is a fine little Gothic church, built fifty years ago. The college refectory is a splendid baronial hall. In the Mitton village-church near by are the tombs of the Sherburne family, the most singular monument being that to Sir Richard and his lady, which the villagers point out as "old Fiddle o' God and his wife"--Fiddle o' God being his customary exclamation when angry, which tradition says was not seldom. The figures are kneeling--he in ruff and jerkin, she in black gown and hood, with tan-leather gloves extending up her arms. These figures, being highly colored, as was the fashion in the olden time, have a ludicrous appearance. We are told that when these monuments came from London they were the talk of the whole country round. A stonemason bragged that he could cut out as good a figure in common stone. Taken at his word, he was put to the test, and carved the effigy of a knight in freestone which so pleased the Sherburne family that they gave him one hundred dollars for it, and it is now set in the wall outside the church, near the monuments.

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