country, whilst its head is nestled in mountains, it appears from the foot to the greatest advantage, and is under that aspect most distinguished for sublimity. The mountains are naked to their base, their sides and summits are uniform, shooting up into lofty points and ending in pyramidical forms. Looking upwards, Yewbarrow forms a fine apex; Kirkfell pushes forward its front to the left; and at the head of the dale, the Gable appears conspicuous. On the right, Lingmell comes finely forward, over which the pikes of Scafell reign supreme. Up the side vale of Bowderdale, is the Haycock; and the Pillar crowns the head of Mosedale. Middle Fell runs along the margin of the lake; and on the opposite side are the Screes, which seem going to decay, their foundation in the water, their surface and soil gone, immense debris and torrents of rocks and stones cover their sides. This range of fell prevents the circumambulation of the lake. Proceeding onwards, a retrospective view of Yewbarrow, the Gable, and the Pikes, seen over Over Beck Bridge, is a fine picture. From Nether Beck Bridge the road passes over a rising ground, and from a field in front of Crookhead, where a beautiful cottage has been built by Stansfield Rawson, Esq., of Halifax, is one of the finest views of Wastdale Head and Water. At the Strands, Netherwasdale, is a comfortable inn, where entertainment may be had, set off with civility, and enhanced by economical charges.

On the road to Calder Abbey, the antiquarian must perforce stop at Gosforth, which has a remarkably neat church, and in the churchyard a tall cross of British or Danish origin, sculptured on its four faces with various figures and devices. From

H

hence it is a good and pleasant road to Calder Bridge, where at either of the two excellent inns, the weary traveller may rest for the night.

CALDER ABBEY.

On the north side of the river, about a mile above the bridge, stand the sequestered ruins of this abbey; and on the opposite side of the stream are the vestiges of the Roman encampment. From the Bridge Inn there is a sweetly-wooded walk along the banks of the stream, which presents several glimpses of the solemn ruins, the tower rising magnificently out of the massy foliage of the forest trees, by which it is now enveloped. Ranulph, son of the first Ranulph de Meschiens founded this abbey for Cistercian monks in 1134: its revenues at the dissolution amounted only to £64 3s. 9d. None of the conventual buildings remain : Mr. Irwin's house most probably stands upon their site. The church was of the usual cross form. The south

side of the nave is gone. The west door is good Norman, but plain. The nave consists of five arches in length, pointed, and the mouldings flat: all this part is richly covered with ivy. The centre tower stands on four pointed arches, supported by lofty piers. The east end of the choir is gone; it has had no lateral lights, but the walls are adorned with long slender pillars and niches; and on the south side are four circular niches, foliated, one being pierced as a door. There are the remains of cloisters on the south side sufficient to show them to have been beautiful specimens of early English. There are some old monuments with recumbent figures. The grounds are kept in excellent order;

the greensward is beautiful; and no noxious weeds are allowed to disfigure the precincts of this once hallowed shrine.

Ponsonby Hall standing in a noble park on the opposite side of the road, was built about 1786, and is remarkable for the elegance and convenience of its apartments. The garden and walks on the woody banks of the Calder are beautiful; and the view by sea and land is extensive. Among many curious pieces of antiquity brought from Dalegarth Hall, in Eskdale, is a carved bedstead made about 1345, having the arms of the Austhwaite family quartered with the Stanleys. The church stands in the park, and is a pretty stone building, well paved, and containing some stained glass brought from Dalegarth.

It is usual for tourists to proceed direct over Copeland forest to Ennerdale Bridge and village, and thence by Lamplugh to Lowes Water; but we shall endeavour to carry them a more interesting

route.

On the right, in pursuing the road, is the white village of Hale; and before you lies, in a fine agreeable vale, fertilized by the Ehen,

EGREMONT,

With its ruined castle crowning the northern banks. The heights above the town conceal beneath their surface a productive iron mine. The bridge over the river, and the castle above it, form a romantic scene: indeed the town and castle from many points on the Ehen display pleasing assemblages of the picturesque. The castle, situated upon a rising ground, flanked on the south by the Ehen, was pro

bably built by William de Meschiens, first Lord of the Barony of Copeland, to which he was presented by his brother Ranulph, who held Cumberland and Westmorland under William the Conqueror. Little of it remains at present. The principal part is the keep. The arch of the gate-way is the horse-shoe arch, and its groining is by plain cross-springers. The outward wall has from its base upwards, ten courses of herring-boned work. The other arches which remain are three in number, pointed and covered with ivy. But within these few years, this building has suffered more from wanton spoliation than from the ravages of time. There is nothing worth notice in the town; it is small, neat, and clean; the houses adjoining the market-place have many of them rude colonnades of wood in front, under which the corn is exposed for sale during rainy weather. The church, dedicated to Saint Mary, has been much modernized, the east end is circular in its centre, with flat wings, each containing two pointed windows, ornamented by a single shaft. The name of Egremont signifies the "Mount of sorrow :" but it must not be confounded with Wotobank, which is two miles from the castle.

From Egremont it is four miles to Saint Bees; which is a long village reaching down the side of a ridge into a deep, contracted vale, which embraces in a semi-circular sweep the bold bluff heads. It is chiefly celebrated for its grammar-school, and for its abbey.

ABBEY OF SAINT BEES.

The abbey owes its first foundation, according to tradition, to a holy woman called Bega, who

came over from Ireland in the year 650. This house did not escape the barbarous ravages of the Danes, for we find William, brother of Ranulph de Meschiens, re-establishing it as a cell for a Prior and six Benedictine monks, dependent upon St. Mary's in York. Another great benefactor was William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle. Its revenues at the dissolution were £149 19s. 6d. It was granted to Sir Thomas Chaloner, of York, but now belongs to the Earl of Lonsdale. The Abbey Church consists of a nave with aisles, used as the parish church, transepts, and choir, which has had a south aisle, and is at present fitted up for the clerical institution. The general style is early English, but the west front has a Norman door of imposing appearance, which is a plain bold specimen of that style, though much dilapidated from the nature of the stone and exposure to the sea blasts. The piers, five in number, that support the arches of the nave, are round, hexagonal, and clustered: this part is spoiled by the introduction of modern sash windows quite out of character. The transepts, from the way in which they are appropriated, cannot well be examined. The interior arrangement at the east end of the choir is singular; three beautiful lancets rise from a string, the centre one being higher and wider, as is usually the case, and between each are two tiers of niches, one above the other, having clustered shafts and ornamental capitals, and a common dripstone runs round the whole. The north side of the choir is lighted by a series of lancets, having single shafts set on the sides, the interior being plain, whilst the exterior are filleted. The tower, which rises at the intersection of the nave and choir with the transepts, is only a square