that such an interesting performance should have fallen into such uninteresting hands.

ART. XII.-A Tour through the Northern Counties of England and the Borders of Scotland. By the Reverend Richard Warner. 2 Vols. 8vo. 18s. Boards. Robinsons. 1802.

WE have repeatedly attended Mr. Warner on his excursions, and generally found him an amusing companion. The present volumes are on the plan of his Walk in Wales; and there are two frontispices-one representing Derwent-water, and the other Uls-water. It has repeatedly occurred to us, that the aqua-tinta manner is wholly unadapted to the representation of water; and this position applies to the present plates, the effect of which is unpleasing only from this unconquerable deficiency. Perhaps it might be an improvement if etching or the burin were employed; but in all events water can never be delineated in a proper manner by the granular style of aqua

tinta.

f

Leaving Bath, as usual, our ingenious traveler proceeds to Gloucester. The numerous castles said, by tradition, (p. 4) to have been residences of king John, may perhaps have only been visited by king John of France during his captivity in this country; or he may have been moved from place to place, to frustrate any plot for the deliverance of so distinguished a prisoner. In p. 11 we find a risible instance of credulity in some churchwardens, who, because a wag had prefixed the figure i to 53, the real age of the defunct, repaired the tombstone, as a monument of a memorable instance of longevity. The trade of Bristol is said to have declined, partly from the oppressive nature of the port-dues. Why are they not altered?-Among the distinguished literary characters of Bristol are mentioned Dr. Beddoes, Mr. Davy, a most skilful and enterprising chemist,' with the poets Chatterton, Southey, the two Cottles, and the gigantic intellect and sublime genius of Coleridge. This is doubtless sublime and gigantic; but, in a prodigality of praise, what epithets are left for Bacon and Milton?

6

We need not follow our author through the common incidents of a tour, or a repetition of catalogues of paintings; but shall select a few specimens here and there.

The situation of Lichfield is low, the land around it flat, and the soil sandy; a character of country that accompanied us the greater part of the road to Burton-upon-Trent; a ride, however, that was rendered interesting, by the great trunk canal connecting Mersey with Trent, which took a course parallel with the road for a considerable distance; some iron-works, busily employed upon its

banks; the fertile meadows, watered by the Trent in the neighbourhood of Burton, and the rich pasturages rising above the town on its northern side. The flourishing appearance of the place announced the several manufactories which are here carried on with briskness and success; seven breweries employed in making that rich and glutinous beverage named after the town, and well known in the neighbourhood of Gray's-Inn Lane; " balm of the cares, sweet solace of the toils," of many an exhausted limb of the law, who, at the renowed Peacock, re-invigorates his powers with a nipperkin of Burton ale, and a whiff of the Indian weed;-a cottonmill;-and a manufactory of screws. The river admits vessels of forty tons to the town quay, and, connecting itself, by means of canals, with all the other parts of the kingdom, affords a ready and cheap exportation to the produce of all the manufactories of the place. A most pleasing picture, formed by Burton, the river Trent (which divides itself about a mile below the bridge into two branches), vessels and fishing-boats, a fine extent of meadow ornamented with handsome houses and neat demesnes, presents itself on mounting the hill that swells to a considerable height on the northern part of the

town.

Pursuing our road to Derby, we soon perceived the style of the country was changing; and that nature, tired with the tameness of a level, began to indulge herself in inequalities and variety. The grand trunk occasionally shewed itself an indication of the great internal commerce carried on in this part of the kingdom. The river Dove also, of bewitching name (which rises a little to the south of Burton, and makes the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire, as far as its junction with the Trent below Burton), crossed the turnpike at the eighth mile-stone, and crouched beneath an aqueduct of twelve arches to the right, which conveyed the canal over its bosom; whilst a beautiful landscape offered itself to the right, formed by the village of Eggington, the seat of sir Henry Everett, and a pleasing groupe of humbler dwellings.

On reaching Derby, its manufactures claimed our first attention. They consist of the silk manufactory; the porcelaine ditto; and the marble and spar works. Of the first, there are six in Derby; that of Mr. Shell employs about three hundred people; one single waterwheel sets in motion all the beautiful machinery, which exhibits above one hundred thousand different movements. All operations upon the silk are performed here, from the skain to preparing it for the weaver. The skain (the production of China) is first placed upon hexagonal frame-work wheels, and the filaments that compose it regularly wound off upon a smaller cylindrical one. The cones of silk thus produced are carried below to be twisted, when a proper machine unites two of them together. The women then receive the thread, and twist four, seven, or ten of them into one, according to the purposes for which they are intended; the finer thread going to the stocking-weaver, the latter to the manufacturer of waistcoatpieces. It is now ft for the dyer, who discharges the glue which it had received in China, and gives it a beautiful gloss. The weaver then takes it, and proceeds to his part of the process; which is so lucrative, that if he have the least industry, he may earn two guineas

per week by his labour; the profits upon a single pair of stockings being from three to four shillings and sixpence, according to the size. A common one consumes about seven hundred yards of twist. It is to the Italians we are indebted for our present elegant and expeditious mode of manufacturing silk thread; who were long exclusively in possession of it, till sir Thomas Lombe clandestinely obtained in Italy, with great risque, difficulty, and expense, a model of one of their mills, and erected one upon the proper scale at Derby.' Vol. i. P. III.

To Poole's-Hole, near Buxton, the author prefers Wookey in Somersetshire. Elden-Hole is thus ridiculously magnified.

These bold fellows descended perpendicularly about one thou sand two hundred feet, when they reached a declivity, which continued in an angle of sixty degrees for one hundred and twenty feet. At the extremity of this, a dreadful and boundless gulph disclosed - itself, whose sides and bottom were perfectly invisible. Here their lights were extinguished by the impurity of the air, which prevented a further descent; and allowed them only to let down a line one thousand feet deeper, without finding a bottom; though, from the circumstance of its being wet when drawn up, they were convinced that the abyss contained a great body of water.' Vol. i. P. 163.

All this is very vast and terrible; but we are rather inclined to trust Mr. Mawe, in his late mineralogy of Derbyshire, who informs us (p. 9) that the depth of Elden-Hole is about sixty yards the stratum separating at the bottom, with some communications of inconsiderable extent. Any miner would go down with ease for a small compensation; he would call it a shake, swallow, or opening.' This plain account shows that modern travelers are as fond of exaggeration as the ancient! The bluejohn (p. 175) is not a singular calcareous substance, but a fluor found in many countries. The insertion of the lead (p. 176) we have reason to regard as a fable--the substance being galena, or lead ore, which often accompanies fluor: defects are filled up with a kind of cement.

The uterus (p. 255) is a laughable blunder for the uter. The collection of antiquities at Newby Park, not far from Boroughbridge, formed by the late William Weddell, esq. is important, and well deserving of commemoration. Our author describes it at some length, and says it is only second to Mr. Townly's superb museum. In pp. 292, 293, we unaccountably find the same arch first denominated Saxon, and afterwards AngloNorman.

In the beginning of the second volume we find our author at Newcastle.

As we continued our progress through Northumberland, the excellent system of husbandry, which has obtained to its farmers the praise of superior skill in agriculture, refreshed our eyes most agree

ably, after the slovenly culture of the coal country from which we had passed. But specious as the appearances were, we could not but lament, that beneath it lay the seeds of national evil and general oppression. The Northumberland estates are divided into large farms, from 500l. per annum to the enormous yearly rent of 6000l. The consequence of this practice is, that, although by these means the husbandry may be more excellent, as the farmer's capital and means of improvement are greater; yet, on the other hand, monopoly is rendered easier, and the public are consequently at the mercy of a few men, who, as experience has fatally convinced us, know not how to make an honest use of any advantage that circumstances may place in their power. Three or four farmers, that occupy a district of country of many miles in extent, have the complete command of the adjoining markets; and by confederating together, (a thing of the utmost ease when the number concerned is so small), can at any time either starve their neighbours, or oblige them to purchase subsistence at a price so unattainable as almost amounts to a privation of it. Their capitals (the result of these accumulated profits, which formerly diffused themselves amongst a number of little farmers} prevent them from being under the necessity of selling immediately; and knowing full well, that, when the competition is between the wants of the purchasers and their own ability of holding out, the former must give way first, they quaff their wine contentedly from market to market, till the consumer be at length obliged to agree to those terms which the humane and patriotic junto may have previously determined upon. But this is not the only evil resulting from large farms; an additional has arisen of late years in that host of harpies called middle-men, the intermediate purchasers between the farmer and the public.

Taking grain in the wholesale way of the former, who find it more convenient to dispose of their crops to one than to many persons, the mealmen deal it out again to the miller and baker at a considerable advance; and thus the great article of life comes to the consumer loaded with an additional charge, independently of the excessive grievance of another set of confederates being produced, whose existence depends on their keeping up the price of grain. The rapid fortunes made by these miscreants are the best proofs of the extent of their pillage.

Excellent, however, as the husbandry of Northumberland may be, the produce is by no means equivalent to the skill and care of the farmer; the soil being for the most part poor and shallow, the air cold, and the climate ungenial. Heavy fogs and boisterous winds frequently disfigure the face of the sky. Capricious as the weather of our island in general is, yet in Northumberland it seems to wear a peculiar inconstancy. Amongst other inconveniences, that deformed child of the ocean, called there the sea-fret, may perhaps be reckoned the most disagreeable; a thick and heavy mist, generated on the ocean, rolling from that grand reservoir of atmospheric discomforts→→→ the east, and deforming the fair face of a day smiling perhaps in sunshine, with a mantle of mist, dark, damp, and chilling; starving the body with its penetrating cold, and shedding a baneful influence on the spirits of those who are unaccustomed to the Baotian atmosphere,

The uncomfortable sensations which it produced in us, brought to my recollection a similar phænomenon and its effects, proceeding from the same quarter, experienced at Barcelona, the only inconvenience of that delightful climate; where this sea-born monster is seen hovering over the waves for three or four days, approaching to and receding from the shore alternately, as if to sport with the terrors of the inhabitants, and at length spreading itself over the land, in "darkness that may be felt ;" and producing in every living creature, which it infolds within its noxious embrace, an irritability that discovers itself in general peevishness and ill-humour for four or five days, the term of its customary duration. Not that the sea-fret is followed by the like effects in Northumberland, since the general character of its inhabitants is kindness of manners, benevolence of heart, and unbounded hospitality in their mode of living. Of a piece with the climate is the face of the country, naked and unpicturesque; nor did we meet with a single pleasing spot from Morpeth to Warkworth, after we had passed the first milestone from the former, to which distance the road, pursuing the course of the river Wanspeck, afforded us a beautiful view in the murmuring stream and lofty-wooded-banks.' Vol. ii. p. 8.

Possibly chemists may be enabled to analyse the state of the atmosphere, and to discover the cause of certain effects which infallibly act upon the human frame.

In vol. ii. p. 24, we find the following sentence.

• Nathaniel baron Crewe, who was made bishop of Durham in 1674, and appeared to have been raised by Providence to the high dignity for the diffusion of happiness amongst his fellow-creatures, purchased (as I have before-mentioned) the manor and castle of Bamborough of the crown; and left them, by his will, (as if unwilling to receive the praise of men for his benevolent actions) to the charitable use of affording aid to vessels in distress, and solace to mą riners who had escaped from shipwreck.'

But, in a catalogue of portraits in the first volume, the same prelate is characterised as a disgrace to the ecclesiastical character. Here is the passage.

• Nathaniel baron Crewe, bishop of Durham, one of the most despicable characters in the annals of James II. by whom he was selected as grand-inquisitor of the ecclesiastical commission, at which he rejoiced," because it would render his name famous (he might more properly have said infamous) in history." On the reverse of fortune which deservedly attended that misguided prince, this obnoxious prelate, hoping to cancel the remembrance of his former offences, basely deserted the sovereign who had raised him, and af fected to espouse the cause of liberty, which he had so long and so lately insulted. Ob. 1721, Æt. 88. Vol. i. p. 124.

Fy! Fy! Mr. Warner! Do not write with so much rapidity. There have been many time-serving ecclesiastics besides bishop Crewe. We would wish to think him an excellent man, but un