plucked up; where there seems to be a manifest allusion to this custom. Our new translation renders this place otherwise:" afore it groweth up, that is to maturity; but it continues unregarded, none caring to gather it: "But in so doing it differs from most, or all other copies; and here we may truly say, the old is the better. There is, indeed, mention of a mower in the next verse; but then it is such a mower as fills not his hand, which confirms rather than weakens the preceding interpretation." P. 144. In answer to this it may be said, that notwithstanding what Maundrel saw in his journey, yet still it might not be the custom, or the general custom, with the Israelites, though they might do it sometimes, as we sometimes cut beans, and sometimes pull them up by the roots. The frequent allusion to reaping with a sickle, and the mention of both straw and stubble, which was sometimes burnt afterwards, (Job, xli. 27-29. Psal. lxxxiii. 13. Isa. v. 24. xlvii. 14. Joel, ii. 5. Mal. iv. 1.) are too many and decisive proofs of this. Besides, the promised luxuriance and abundance to the Israelites, seems to imply a greater plenty and length of straw. Nor can we suppose that they would neglect to make hay of such luxuriant crops of grass as we find they had, especially as mention is expressly made of hay. And the mower filling not his hand, nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom, with the grass or corn, where but a few plants grew casually on the house top, implies that the mower did fill his hand, or scythe; and the reaper, did fill his bosom with that which grew in the fields, and was of more value.

or he that bindeth up the sheaves,

Recollections of a Visit to the Falls of the Clyde.

P.

It was a lovely morning, in the month of June, 1811, when, in company with a friend, I set off from Edinburgh, on a pedestrian excursion to the Falls of the Clyde. A considerable portion of the road, after passing Little Vantage, a miserable public-house about 12 miles from Edinburgh, where we halted for refreshment, lies through one of the dreariest solitudes I have ever traversed. No stranger, passing over these moors, would imagine himself to be near the metropolis of Scotland; for, except the goodness of the road, a few scattered sheep, and "here and there a traveller," there are no indications that he is in regions visited by man. The views towards Edinburgh, however, from the more

elevated parts of this tract of country, are very fine; and we enjoyed the prospect, at one period of our walk, under the most auspicious circumstances. The sun had just broke from a pavilion of clouds, and was gilding the proud crest of Arthur's Seat, that appeared like a couchant lion on the line of the horizon; while the lofty ridges of the Pentland Hills seemed bathed in a flood of glowing ether, and presented a spectacle of singular brilliancy and grandeur.

Towards evening we reached Carnwarth, a small village, interesting only from its having been the residence of the amiable and pious author of "The Traveller," "Solitude Sweetened," and some other devotional productions, long known and justly esteemed in the Christian world. We left Carnwarth at eight, and about ten o'clock in the evening reached the brow of the hill immediately above Lanark. We paused to enjoy the deep tranquillity of the scene, wrapped in the indistinctness of twilight, and the stillness of the tomb. The Clyde was dimly seen, as it meandered serenely through the valley to the left: all was still, save one sound which alone broke upon the ear; not a hasty, confused, or continued roar, but a deep and heavy dash, which, mellowed by distance, and heard in the stillness of the night, seemed like the convulsive throbbings of Nature in an agony. We knew it to be the sound of the cataract; and imagination pictured to itself the solemn grandeur of the scenery whose confines we had reached, and whose minuter features we were bent to explore.

Descending the hill, we entered Lanark, and took up our quarters at Somerville's Inn, where we soon lost the remembrance of the day's fatigue, by a well furnished table, and a blazing fire.

Early the next morning we set off to view the two upper Falls of the Clyde. The day was most auspicious, the rain which had previously fallen gave a delightful freshness to the verdure of the hills, and the abundant foliage of the woods, and a prodigious body of water to the torrent whose sublime cataracts we were about to visit.

The road to the Falls winds down the eastern side of the hill on which Lanark stands; the town itself being about 650 feet above the level of the Clyde at Glasgow. The walk to the Cotton Mills *, or New Lanark, is truly delightful. The extent of country stretched out into illimitable downs is immense. Here and there the eye distinguishes spots of

* The property of the celebrated Mr. Owen.

luxuriant cultivation, and deep ravines richly wooded. In one of these rolls the Clyde, the roar of whose waters now mingled with an immense variety of sounds, indicating life and business, grows upon the ear.

On reaching the Cotton Mills, the road turns abruptly to the left; and again taking a direction to the right, enters the beautiful grounds of Lady Ross, which are obligingly open to travellers every day, Sundays only excepted. The path inclining directly to the Clyde soon becomes a fine terrace, immediately above that romantic river. Thick copses line the torrent's side, and it salutes the ear with an incessant roar, now and then broken by the deeper dash of some inconsiderable cataracts at hand, and gradually heightened as we approached the great Fall itself. Within about three quarters of a mile, we reached a second gate; and, in the course of a few hundred yards, the termination of the carriage road; when, by a narrow winding path, we penetrated into the woods. The roar was now become tremendous -the heart palpitated with suspense-the eye was eager to catch the first glimpse of the unseen object, which every moment promised to give to its delighted gaze, when suddenly the Fall of Corra Linn appeared, accompanied by circumstances of majesty, which, to one unaccustomed to such objects, might well be considered imposing and sublime. We scrambled up the side of the immense rock under which we stood, and from our Alpine retreat enjoyed an uninterrupted view of this mighty cataract. Let the mind picture to itself the whole torrent of the Clyde, tumbled headlong with a fearful crash over a precipice of 90 or 100 feet, into a horrible abyss; surrounded by a noble amphitheatre of rocks, from the midst of which silence is for ever excluded, by the continued scream of wild birds, who appear to claim the solitude as their domain; and the perpetual roar of the lacerated torrent, broken by the rugged rocks over which it falls into innumerable masses of foam, or rising in incessant clouds of mists, from the brink of the unfathomed gulf beneath.

We were resolved completely to explore the scenery of this wonderful cataract, and, for this purpose, left our dangerous retreat, and took a path which promised to conduct us along the brow of the cliff, immediately to the head of the Fall. We were not disappointed in our expectation, for, on reaching the summit of the rocks, an opening judiciously cut in the copse presented us with the most complete view of the cataract which the grounds can boast.

Placed some hundred feet above the surface of the river below the Fall, immediately before us was the principal object in the landscape, like a tumultuous heap of boiling foam above it were rocky ramparts, crowned with luxuriant shrubs, and richly waving woods; on the right a mighty Babel of brown and slimy cliff, partly obtruding its rugged peaks before the face of the Fall, and partly retiring, as if to shew it to advantage, and give it room; in part bare and unsightly, and in part clothed with foliage, which towards the summit, and far above the cataract, becomes thick and luxuriant, and half conceals the old Corra House, a venerable ruin, from which this Fall derives its name. On the left the same kind of rocky barrier, though less rugged and more wooded, confines the waters, and resists their rage.

We now hastened through the woods, till, taking an abrupt turn to the right, we speedily found ourselves immediately above the Fall; but not satisfied to be even a few yards from the object of our delighted contemplation, we scrambled cautiously along the ledges and abutments of the rock, till we reached the very mass from which the river makes its terrific leap; whence, lying all along, we could look down into the abyss below. Here we sat down, so close that we might almost have put our hands into the torrent; while the deafening roar, and the awful singularity of our situation, bewildered and confounded us. The sun shone in all his glory, and shed the bright effulgence of his beams on the magnificent scenery around. We sat watching the fantastic shape of the masses of foam; the inconceivable swiftness of the current just before its fall; and the prismatic colours, that like so many rainbows played amid the clouds of ascending mist. What pencil could paint such a scene, glowing in the splendours of a summer noon! Conceive what effect it must have produced upon minds accustomed only to the bustle of the cities, and the comparatively tame and insipid scenery of the South! I could almost have imagined that the horrors of the resurrection morning were realized before us; that some bar which binds the waters in these intestine caverns having yielded to their impetuosity, the torrent was thundering the loud onset to the uproar of that final day. I bent over the rapid current till I became giddy from its swiftness; the thought of suddenly losing my self-possession, and being hurried down the precipice, made me shudder; and unable any longer to endure my own emotions, I cautiously retreated, and sought a temporary relief in the shade and security of the surrounding woods.

Issuing from the rugged rock which forms the eastern rampart of the abyss, nearly half way down, and projecting immediately before the face of the cataract, we observed the stump of an aged tree; and curious to survey the Fall from so singular, but favourable a situation, with the greatest difficulty we descended down the side of the almost perpendicular precipice, clinging to the underwood which grows luxuriantly upon it; and having reached the tree in safety, and cautiously seated ourselves across its root, no language can possibly describe the appearance of the scene, or the emotions of awe which it inspired. If terror be a constituent part of the sublime, we must have been conscious of the sublime to a very high degree We hung suspended by a leafless trunk, that might have proved treacherous, over a dark and agitated abyss of waters, where torrent rolled on torrent, and rock was dashed against rock, in endless uproar and incessant rage. The lacerated element rose, as if affrighted from the horrid gulf, in clouds of light and airy mist, that soon covered us with their unnatural dews, and appeared to the eye that views them from a distance, like the smoke of a vast cauldron, formed by Nature for some great process, in one of her wildest and most savage glens. On our left rolled the mighty cataract, like a mass of boiling foam, dashed into an infinitude of lesser cataracts, tossed from projecting rocks in wild confusion on each other; but each in a moment lost in one moving wilderness of waters, dazzling by its brilliancy, as its foam sparkles in the sun beams, and presenting an appearance which fancy might readily describe as the wild play of myriads of pearls and diamonds on a bosom of spotless snow. We lost the impression of danger in the luxury of enjoyment; the whole scene was doubled in its effect, from the circumstance of our being, as it were, embosomed in it, and relieved from the obtrusion of every other object. Seldom, perhaps, does it meet the gaze of a human eye, from a solitude which may well be considered as its own, and which the traveller who has once returned from it in safety, has little desire to violate again.

The last station from which we were anxious to view the scenery of Corra Linn, was a small conical hill, standing upon a rocky promontory a few yards above the Fall, around which the Clyde makes a majestic sweep, ere it dashes down the precipice. Having climbed the hill, the view was wonderful indeed. We stood in the centre of a rocky amphitheatre : all around us were stupendous masses of fantastic shapes, piled up like ramparts reared to meet the sky. Above us, trees