it is thought to have been built about the end of the fourteenth century, during the reign of Edward IV., and was once the residence of Richard of Gloster. It was dismantled in the civil wars. From the remaining parts of the walls, the castle seems to have been a very strong and spacious fortress, with the usual accompaniments of dungeons. On the north side of the town is the excellent race-course, furnished with a grand stand, built in 1814. Horse races and stag hunts are held in the autumn, and attract a large concourse of spectators. At the George Inn is a spacious assembly-room, and at the Crown a news-room, which, with libraries, form a fund of amusement for the inhabitants.

Above the race-course, on the point of a woodembowered hill, stands the Beacon, which the traveller may visit for the purpose of seeing from a moderate elevation, the country lying around, and thus of forming a correct idea of the relative situation of places of interest. To the north, Cross Fell is the most conspicuous object, nor can the Pikes of Dufton escape the eye, with the range of mountains reaching from east to west of Carlisle. Stainmore and the heights of Wildbore Fell, towards Kirkby Stephen, fill the east. On the south are Lowther and Brougham, with their teeming plains and luxuriant woods: and the circle on the west is enriched with the town of Penrith and the rural vale of Eamont, overtopped by Skiddaw.

Many pleasant and picturesque walks are in this neighbourhood; and within five miles areLowther Castle, Brougham Hall, Eden Hall, Dalemain, Greystoke Častle, Hutton Hall, and Ulles Water.

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A pleasant road leads to Eamont Bridge, so picturesque an object that it ought to be transferred to the sketch-book of every artist: turning immediately to the right is Arthur's Round Table, on the banks of the stream, an amphitheatre twentynine yards in diameter, surrounded by a ditch and mound. To the west of it, on the right of the road to Pooley, is Mayburgh's Mystic Round, a hill, on the summit of which is a circular enclosure, one hundred yards in diameter, formed by pebble stones, having in its centre a column of unhewn stone eleven feet high, and twenty-two feet in circumference. Antiquarians have hazarded several, but unsatisfactory, conjectures, as to the uses of these mysterious structures. They are evidently of British origin, and to be classed along with such as Long Meg and the Keswick Circle. Following the Shap road till you arrive at the Lowther, on a finely wooded eminence, on which it is perched like a nest, is Brougham Hall, the seat of Lord Brougham and Vaux. It is a lofty and aged pile, having a long front to the west, with an embattled parapet, and a terrace extending north and south: the windows of the Hall are filled with stained glass. The shrubberies and pleasure grounds are extensive, and laid out with taste. On the high road, a little further on, is Clifton: its old hall, now a farmhouse, is a turretted building. The moor is famous as having been the scene of an engagement between the Highlanders and the Duke of Cumberland, to which allusion is made in Waverley. From this pleasant village extend the walk to the Countess' Pillar, a lofty and handsome stone obelisk, erected by the good Countess of Pembroke in 1656, to commemorate her parting with her

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mother, the Countess Dowager. It is adorned with dials and armorial quarterings. return is

BROUGHAM CASTLE,

On the site of the Roman Brovoniacum, at the confluence of the Eamont and Lowther, many Roman remains have been found. The present castle is Norman. The first Roger, Lord Clifford, built part, as appears from an inscription, "This made Roger." In 1651 the Countess reedified it, after it had lain in ruins from 1617. The entrance is by a machicholated gateway and tower, and a short covered way leads to an under gateway with iron-grated gates. The Dongcon, a stately edifice of excellent masonry, rises from the midst of the area; within this is a vault, the groined roof of which is supported by a single octagonal pier. The outward and inner gateways are both vaulted with common arches, and have been defended by portcullises.

These ruins, standing on a tree-clad eminence at the junction of two pretty streams, wear a venerable and majestic appearance; and are, as a whole, a conspicuous and romantic object in every approach. The return is on the London road, which here crosses the Eamont by a new bridge, erected on the site of one washed down in the great floods, in 1822.

Lowther Castle and Hawes Water are most usually and conveniently visited from Penrith. The tourist must go on as far as Eamont Bridge, and then turn direct to the right towards Yanwath, the old hall of which wears a very castellated look, towering

out of the old ancestral trees, and standing on the south bank of this beautiful stream. The guidepost will direct him to the left, and having traversed five miles, he will arrive at Askham, a good village in a pleasant situation, opposite to Lowther Park. The hall is an oblong turretted building, either rebuilt or greatly enlarged in 1574, as appears from a curious inscription over the door. It was, in 1828, converted into the Rectory for the parish. The church is a small edifice, dedicated to St. Peter, having a large chapel belonging to the hall. Cross the river to

LOWTHER CASTLE AND PARK.

The castle stands in a park of six hundred acres, on the east side of the delightful vale of Lowther. The building was begun in 1802, and its general form is pyramidal, the wings adorned with turrets and towers, rising up to an immense square tower occupying the centre. The north front is four hundred and twenty feet in length, having before it a strong rampart forming a semi-polygon, flanked by circular bastions at the angles; below there is a large area enclosed by a parapet wall, with a covered way, and bastions at the corners. At the entrance is a porter's lodge with a double gate and postern, and in the centre a large gateway guarded by two strong octagonal towers. The south front forms a remarkable contrast to this, being built in the decorated style, with pointed windows enriched with tracery, and niches: the cloisters also give additional interest and effect to this side. A lawn of velvet smoothness and emerald green, shut in by

trees of the loftiest growth, stretches along this front. The interior of the castle is fitted up with correspondent taste, oak being very plentifully used. The staircase, which ascends in the central tower, is magnificent. A beautiful flower garden is separated from the park by a sunk fence, and from the south front several walks wind away to Lowther Terrace, through groves of forest trees. Below, the river Lowther pursues with gentle stream its devious course through flowery meads and beneath the leafy foliage, sometimes betraying itself by its glittering stream, sometimes by its noisy babblings. The view from the great central tower is extensive, being shut in by Skiddaw, Helvellyn, St. Sunday Crag, and other distant

mountains.

The tourist who has complained of the deficiency of magnificent forest-wood, will here at least have found no reason to renew his complaints; and indeed scarcely during any of the latter part of the tour. The princely residences of the nobility are scarce in the north country-the halls of the gentry are not numerous and the lands being in the hands of statesmen, who are in general mere agriculturists, they look upon wood as exhausting the fertility of the land.

At Bampton the Lowther is joined by the stream which issues out of Hawes Water. This is a village placed on both sides of the water. The church, vicarage, and grammar-school are on the south side of the vale. The road through this valley is amidst green enclosures and pretty lanes, bordered by wild roses, and honeysuckles, and copse-woods, which beguile the way, till you reach the lake. At Bampton is a free-school, which has pro