mode of punishment and plan of imprisonment fully evince. Prompt execution on a lofty gallows followed the hearing of his dread tribunal; and till his leisure allowed investigation, the prisoners were confined in the dungeons, four horrible apartments which still exhibit the rings to which the criminals were chained to secure them during the dreadful interval that passed between capture and death.

Severe and rigid, however, towards his enemies, Lord William was right hospitable to the peaceable part of his neighbours; and the hall, a noble old apartment eighty feet long, rang at all the great festivals with the cheerful sounds and loud delights of the long-protracted feast. This room is certainly a grand specimen of the festal chamber of the days of chivalry; and all its ornaments awaken feudal ideas. The cieling is divided into a variety of wooden-pannelled compartments, each containing the portrait of the Saxon, Norman, and other sovereigns of England, and their royal branches, to the union of the houses of York and Lancaster; shields and atchievements emboss the intersections of the ribs. A great gallery rears itself at one end of the room, whence the minstrel poured forth his animating strains, crowned with the figure of a knight in armour. The chimney, stretching to a width of seventeen feet, must have

flamed like a volcano when illuminated with the vast Yule block, in the genial season of social enjoyment.

Our second excursion from Carlisle took us to Wetheral Priory, or rather its gateway, the only part now remaining of a monastery founded by Ralph de Meschins, in the year 1088, for a prior and eight Benedictine monks. Its square turretted form points out the strength with which it was constructed, in order to resist or repel the attacks of the borderers and moss-troopers. Plain and trifling as it is, it yet forms a pleasing feature in the very beautiful picture which opens at this spot: a deep glen, with bold and lofty banks of rock and wood, bearing in its bosom the river Eden, of chrystalline transparency, confines the eye to the right by its verdant eminences, and, opening to the left, lets in a broad luxuriant valley, bounded by distant hills; one amongst numberless other examples of the judicious and tasteful choice which these monks made of situation; who, as Doctor Johnson observes, being permitted by the world to choose, wisely chose the best. On the summit of the opposite, on a bold commanding scite, stands Corby-Castle, which in former times of rapine and disturbance offered its protection to the neighbouring monastery, when it was not equal to its own

security. To reach this place from Wetheral Priory there are three modes-crossing the ferry if on foot, fording the river if on horseback, or by going round two miles to the bridge of Warwick if in a carriage. Having relinquished my accustomed independent manner of journeying for a vehicle, we were obliged to follow the first dictate of rational philosophy, by reconciling ourselves to circumstances, as we could not bend circumstances to us, and driving over the fine bridge of Warwick, were repaid for our trouble by the grand view of the Eden and his wooded banks, whose charms are all commanded from Warwick-Hall, near the stream, the seat of Mr. Warwick.

A pleasing country accompanied us to CorbyCastle, a name conveying an idea rather of what it was formerly than what it is now, since little of the fortress can be discovered in the present irregular mansion, built at different times, and without attention to plan. The chief features of the celebrated views from this place are the river Eden, which flows beneath; and its diversified banks, caught most happily from the balcony-room.

In the dining-room, we were shewn a fine picture by Titian, curious also for its subject. It presents two figures, half-length, Charles V. and his Empress, seated at a table, with an hour-glass before

them; she with a countenance expressive of grief, holding in her hand a white handkerchief; he serious and saturnine, imparting to her his intention of renouncing the world, and spending his future days in monastic severities and seclusion. The artist seems to have exhausted all his pains on the head of Charles, which is in a style of fine composition and colouring, and far superior to the lady's. -A good portrait of the severe Lord William Howard, the owner of Naworth-Castle, and collateral ancestor of the present respectable possessor of Corby-Castle, is in the same room; as well as a still greater curiosity of Saxon antiquity, a square freestone, dug out of the ruins of Hyde-Abbey near Winchester, and inscribed with these words— ælfɲedur rex Mccclxxx1, Elfredus Rex 881, the founder of that monastery.

The walks of Corby were disposed for the most part by the father of the present possessor, who begun his improvements about the year 1706, and might be called the first man that had hardihood enough to oppose the national taste, and break in upon the Dutch style, which had been adopted in England in compliment to King William. The exchange of manners was so far for the better, that the latter had classical ideas for its foundation, but the climate and scenery of this country never

harmonized well with decorations taken from ancient mythology; and after a reign of half a century, in which good sense, led astray by pleasing associations, lost itself amongst temples, statues, and inscriptions, Taste at length took her by the hand, and presented Nature to her for her prototype, bidding her in future borrow all her ideas of gardening from that inexhaustible source of enchanting variety and picturesque beauty. Some of these classically disposed parts are still preserved for the sake of the venerable hand that laid them out; but they only serve as a foil to the more modern improvements of Mr. Howard. To these beautiful scenes we were introduced by a descending path, arched over head by the widely-spreading branches of some fine lime-trees, which affords occasional peeps at the reaches of the Eden, both

up

and down the river, the former shewing him in his rude impetuous course thundering over a rugged bed of rock, maddened by the close confinement of his banks; the latter throwing him before the eye in a still lake-like scene, silently rolling on his floods through flower-enamelled meads and gentle velvet banks.

Proceeding onwards for a few hundred yards, a point of view is caught, at once curious and picturesque. The opposite bank of the river now rises