in the most delightful manner with every object that can give variety to art, or elegance to nature;-trees, woods, villages, farm-houses, and cottages, scattered with picturesque confusion, and presenting to the view the most romantic landscapes that nature can exhibit. In this valley, so beautifully enclosed, the lake is situated, spreading forth to the right and to the left in one vast but irregular expanse of transparent water. A more noble object can hardly be imagined; its shore is traced by every variety of line that fancy can conceive; sometimes contracting the lake into the appearance of a winding river,-at others, retiring from it, and opening into large bays; promontories covered with woods or dotted with trees, and enclosures projecting into the lake; rocky points breaking the shore, and rearing their bold heads above the water; and next, the fine sheet of water itself, studded with no less than ten or twelve islands, all verdant and well wooded, and distinctly perceptible to the eye. This is said to be the largest of the English lakes; measured along the middle from north to south, it is nearly twelve miles long. Its breadth varies considerably; at the broadest part it is about two miles across; the depth is estimated at from five to thirtyseven fathoms, and and the circumference of the entire lake may be about twenty-six miles. Though generally spoken of as one of the lakes of Westmoreland, the greater portion of it is, in fact, in Lancashire. It is fed chiefly by the rivers Rothay and Brathay. The Rothay rises in the mountains near Wythburn, on the descent from which it is joined by several mountain-torrents, the principal of which is that from Easdale Tarn; the river then passes through the Lakes of Grassmere and Rydal*, and in its mazy course through the continuous yales of Rydal and Ambleside, it receives several tributary streams. Just as it is about to enter the lake, it is joined by the Brathay, which rises at a place called Great Longdale, and runs through a beautiful romantic valley towards the place of its destination. Besides these rivers, there are several others of inferior note, pouring into it on all sides, some tumbling down the steep and rocky mountains, forming beautiful cascades, particularly after heavy rains. The only outlet for all these waters is by a river, called the Leven, at its southern extremity, which empties itself into Morecambe Bay. To the left, at the foot of the hill, about a mile distant, appeared the village of Bowness, rising out of the midst of a clump of trees, the blue smoke from its cottages curling amongst their branches; at the opposite side of the lake, fully exposed to view, on the declivity of a steep hill, lay the village of Hawk's Head, with its white-washed walls reflected in the still water. The road now lay along the edge of the lake. Here beautiful villas presented themselves on all sides, with "furnished lodgings" written on little boards, hanging from the branches of the trees, and plenty of pleasure-boats fastened to little posts at the water's edge. Having procured a boat, I proceeded across the lake towards Belle Isle, or Curwen's Island, which is the largest on the lake. The day was remarkably fine and calm, and nothing could exceed the clearness and transparency of the water. In very deep places we could see the fishes sporting over the bright sand in the bottom. This island contains about thirty-six acres, and is surrounded by a gravel-walk; the surface is uneven, and a small ridge runs through the *See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XI., p. 15. centre. Its form is oblong, and its shores irregular, retiring into bays and broken into greeks. There is a good house on the island belonging to Mr. Curwen, which commands a view of the entire lake, and is surrounded by lofty trees and shrubberies. Nothing, in fact, can exceed the variety of scenery presented to the eye, in a walk round this delightful little islet, and no tourist who has a love for the picturesque should omit to visit it. The northern shore of the lake affords a mixed prospect of the elegant and sublime; a number of scattered islands interrupt the line of uniformity. Of the side views, that on the left consists of a rocky ridge, descending to the water, partly covered with verdure, on which flocks of mountain-sheep are seen feeding, and partly covered with thick woods, partly with straggling trees and evergreen shrubs. On the right, ncat villages and farms, half buried in wood, present a delightful mixture of woodland and cultivated fields. Windermere is well stocked with fish of divers kinds, as trout, perch, pike, eels, and char; and its banks are much frequented by various kinds of wild fowl, as swans, geese, ducks, teal, and widgeons, besides a host of others. The char caught here is much esteemed; they are taken during the Winter months, potted, and sent to London, and other places. The char is about the size of a herring, its back is of an olive green colour, its belly of a bright vermilion, softened in some parts into white, and changing into a deep red at the insertion of the fins, The waters of this Lake are often violently agitated by the wind, and it is on this account very dangerous for sailing-vessels. Almost every resident in the vicinity has a boat, and some of them several, which they let out to parties visiting the lake. During the Summer, they may be seen tacking about in all directions, at which time the place has a gay and animated appearance, particularly when enlightened by the rays of the sun, throwing the deep shadow of the mountains on the clear surface of the water: the splash of the oar, the animating laugh of some lighthearted merry damsel, the sweet sound of the flute or clarionet, or the more nautical one of the bugle or French horn, the song of the little birds in the groves, the wild scream of the water-fowl, altogether forming a wild and delightful harmony, much more easy to be conceived than described. From the place where I quittea the boat, to Ambleside, is about five miles. The road lay along the border of the lake all the way to its head; in some places, its waters wash the side of the road, and there are trees upon its brink, whose boughs dip into the water. Within about two miles of Ambleside, is Low Wood Inn, a very good looking house, from which there is a magnificent view of the lake, the mountains, and the islands. From Low Wood the road passes by Water Head, so called from its situation at the head of the lake; and from this to Ambleside is about a mile, where I arrived after a pleasant but rather fatiguing walk of fourteen miles. After dinner, I walked about this straggling little town, or village, for indeed it is nothing more; the houses are few and far between. The town actually seems to be hung in a peculiar way on the brow of one hill, while it is surrounded by others; and under the hill on which it hangs, lies the Valley of the Rothay, which extends from the head of Windermere northward. In the evening I went through the fields near the town, from whence the prospect is delightful; the hilly, verdant field and plantations, with the lake itself in the distance, all being within view. In my way, not far from the town, I came to a dark, gloomy the river called Stock Gill, roared here among hanging During the Summer, the town is very much frequented, its romantic situation and scenery inducing many tourists to make it their head quarters. There are but few lodging houses, but there are three good inns. Altogether, this place, both by art and nature, is rendered one of the loveliest spots in this, or perhaps in any other country. On the following day I proceeded towards Keswick, to view the beauties of Cumberland, of which hereafter. POPULAR LEGENDS AND FICTIONS. XII. BRITISH POPULAR MYTHOLOGY. THE English fairy has long been rendered a harmless being, rarely seen of eye, and known quite as much, if not more, through the pleasant fancies of the poets, than the traditions of the common people. In Germany, also, the fairy is said to have become a being almost entirely benevolent, but among our kinsmen of the North, the Swedes and Danes, the Norwegians and the Icelanders, the old opinions appear to be in force. Generally speaking, the pigmy world may be divided into four classes : 1. The white, or good fairies, who live above ground, dancing on the grass, or sitting on the leaves of trees.... the fairies of our poets.... ethereal little creatures, said to delight in sunshine. 2. The dark, or underground fairies.... the dwarfs, trolds, and hell-folk of the Continent.... an irritable race, workers in mines and smithies, and doing good or evil offices, as it may happen. Come follow, follow me, Through key-hole we do glide: Then we pinch their armes and thighes, Is meat that's easily chewde: So lightly we can passe, And when the Moone-calf hides her head, 4. The fourth class comprises the water-fairy....the Kelpie of Scotland, and Neck, Neek, Neckel, Neckan, and Nix, of other countries, already adverted to* ; .. this is reckoned the most dangerous of all, appearing like a horse, or a mermaid, or a beautiful girl, and sometimes enticing people to their destruction. By some, he is supposed not to do this out of ill-will, but in order to procure companions in the spirits of those who are drowned. The word fairy, in the sense of a little miniature being, is peculiar to this country, and is, in fact, merely a southern appellation applied to a northern idea. It is the Fée of the French, and the Fata of the Italians, who mean by it an imaginary lady of any sort, not of necessity small, but generally of the human size. 3. The house, or homestead, fairy.... our Puck, With us it is the Elf of our northern Robin Goodfellow, Hobgoblin, &c..... the Nis of Denmark and Norway, the Kobold of Germany, the Brownie ancestors, and means exclusively the little creature of Scotland, and Tomtegubbe, or Old Man of the House, inhabiting the woods and caverns, and dancing on in Sweden.... good upon the whole, and fond of clean- the grass, such as is described in the preceding stanzas. liness; rewarding and helping the servants for being They have all qualities in common with, and, for the tidy, and punishing them for being the reverse. The most part, eat, drink, marry, and are governed like following fragment of an old poem is an excellent human beings, but all without exception are thieves, description of the supposed habits and peculiarities and fond of power. In a word, they are the counterof this species of the Elfin race called the part of the barbarous people that invented them; performing similar good and ill offices, subject to the FAIRIES' FAGARIES. same passions, and called guid folk and guid neighbours, out of fear or gratitude. The better sort were said to dress in gay clothes of green, and are described as * See Saturday Magazine Vol. X., p. 103. Singing and dancing being all their pleasure, very handsome; the more equivocal as ugly, bignosed, little knaves, round-eyed, and hump-backed, like Punch, or the figures in caricatures, and wearing red or brown caps, which they have a great dread of losing, as they must not rest till they get another. The ordinary German Kobold, or house goblin, delights in a mess of grits or water-gruel, with a lump of butter; in other countries, as in England of old, he aspires to a cream bowl. The poet, Milton, alludes to Stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat; She was pinched and pulled she sed, And he by Friar's lantern led; Tells how the drudging goblin swet, To earn his cream-bowl duly set; When in one night ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn, That ten day labourers could not end; Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, And stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength, And crop-full, out of door he flings, Ere the first cock his matin rings. Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lulled to sleep. The converting of Robin Goodfellow into a giant is, says a contemporary, "a sin against the true fairy notions; but a poet's sins," he observes, very sympathetically, are apt to be too agreeable not to be forgiven." The friar with his lantern is the same Robin, whose pranks Milton delighted to record, even amidst the stately solemnities of Paradise Lost,-philosophizing upon the nature of the ignis fatuus that he might furnish an excuse for introducing him. Lead then, said Eve. He, leading, swiftly rolled The author of the Fairy Mythology observes that the petty size of the household idols of antiquity argues nothing conclusive respecting the size of the beings they represented. Besides, they were often large as well as small, though the more domestic of them, or those that immediately presided over the hearth, were of a size suitable to convenience. The domestic idols of all nations have probably been small for a similar reason. We shall not, therefore, attempt to confine the origin of fairies to this or to that region; a bird, a squirrel, a voice, a tree nodding and gesticulating in the wind, was sufficient to people every one of them with imaginary beings. The Pygmies were supposed by the ancients to people the two ends of the earth, northern and southern, where the growth of nature was faint and stunted. In the North, they were supposed to be inhabitants of India, the Cranes their enemies, being Scythians; while in other quarters, they were said to have been found by Hercules in the desert, where they assailed him with their bows and arrows, as the Lilliputians did Gulliver, and were carried off by the smiling demi-god, in his lion's skin. Odin, the supposed Scythian or Tartar, is thought to have been the importer of the Northern fables, and his wandering countrymen of the crane region, may have a nearer personal acquaintance with the little people of the North, than is supposed. In the tales now extant among the Calmuck Tartars, and origi | nating it seems in Thibet, mention is made, as we have already observed, of certain little children encountered by a wandering khan in a wood, and quarrelling about" an invisible cup." The khan tricks them out of it, and afterwards meets with certain Tchadkuts, or evil spirits, quarrelling about some "boots of swiftness," of which he beguiles them in like manner. Such fictions may be regarded as proofs of the Eastern rise of our Northern Mythologies. It is doubtful whether the Greeks had any little imaginary beings of the fairy kind in their mythology. They looked upon the Pygmies as real earthly folks, and never seem to have thought of making them out to be supernatural. It may also be observed, that, although the Spaniards have a house-spirit, which they call Duende, and Tasso, in the fever of his dungeon, was haunted with a Folietto, which is the Follet, or Lutin, of the French, it does not appear that these Southern spirits are of necessity small; still less have those sunny nations any embodied system of fairyism. Their fairies are the enchantresses of romance. Spirits of old could become small; but we read of none that were essentially little except the fairies. It was a Rabbinical notion, that angelical beings could render themselves as small as they pleased; a fancy of which Milton has not scrupled to avail himself in his Pandemonium. It was proper enough to the idea of a being made of thought and fire; though it might have been easier to make it expand, like the genius when let loose, than to be contracted into the But if spirits went jar or phial in the first instance. in and out of crevices, means, it was thought, must be taken to enable them to do so. This may serve to account for the fairies themselves, in countries where other circumstances disposed the fancy to create them; but all the attributes of the little Northern beings, their petty stature, their workmanship, their superiority to men in some things, their simplicity and inferiority in others, their supernatural practices, conspire to render probable the opinion, that the character of the fairy has been modified by the feelings entertained by our Gothic and Celtic ancestors, respecting the little race of the Laplanders, a people whom they despised for their timid peacefulness, and yet could not help admiring for their industry, and fearing for their magic. Our old prose writers frequently laboured to show how the fairies were confounded with devils, and yet distinguished from them. Terrestrial Devils, (says old Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,) or those Lares, Genii, Faunes, Satyrs, Wood like, which, as they are the most conversant with men, nymphs, Foliots, Fairies, Robin Goodfellows, and the so they do them the most harm. Some think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe of old, and had so many idols and temples erected to them. Of this range, was Dagon among the Philistines, Bel among the Babylonians, Astarte among the Sydonians, Baal among the Samaritans, Isis and Osiris among the rank, which have been in former times adored with much Egyptians, and so forth. Some put our fairies into this superstition, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a pail of water, good victuals, and the like; and then they should not be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be fortunate in their enterprises. These are they that dance on greens and heaths, as Lavater thinks with Tritemius, and as Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle which we commonly find in plains and fields, which others hold to proceed from a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground; so nature sports herself; they are sometimes seen by old women and children. Hieron Pauli, in his description of the city of Bercino, (in Spain,) about the hills and fountains. Giraldus Cambrensis cites relates how they have been familiarly seen near that town, a monk in Wales who was so deluded. Paracelsus reckons in little courts, some two feet long. up many places in Germany, where they do usually walk AMUSEMENTS OF SCIENCE. IV. OPTICS, No. 2. THE second division of Optics, namely, Dioptrics, treats, as we have already said, of the power of refraction; that is, the alteration of the direction of a ray of light, as it passes from one transparent medium to another. The effect of prisms, and the magnifying and diminishing power of lenses of all descriptions, depend on this property of transparent substances. A B in the D C Fed annexed diagram, (which will explain this better,) is a ray of light entering a transparent medium at B. As soon as it enters, it is diverted from its original course, and bent inwards, or towards the perpendicular, c D; but all transparent media do not act with the same force, some bending the ray of light more than others. The diagram represents the way in which different substances would act upon this ray;-air refracts it from B, nearly in a right line with A B, to a; tabasheer, (a flinty substance found in the joints of bamboo cane,) to b; water to c; flint-glass to d; diamond to e; and chromate of lead, a substance of the greatest refractive power, bends the ray to f. the surface of the stream, and, when the tide is high, is brought between the spectator and the opposite of air causing the phenomenon. shore, its refractive power being greater than that This effect is often observed at sea, when the images of the coasts, mountains, and ships appear the seamen looming; but owing to the different denlong before they are seen in reality; this is called by sity, and consequently different refractive power, of the various strata of air, the objects appear at times suspended, as it were, over the surface of the sea, and frequently inverted and doubled; in this case c is the real ship, while A is the image produced by reWhen this singular kind of refraction occurs upon land, the term given to is mirage; it is often seen by the traveller of the African deserts, frequently assuming the appearance of a large expanse of water. fraction. One of the most remarkable Dr. Vince. A spectator at Ramsgate sees the tops cases of mirage was observed by of the four turrets of Dover Castle over a hill between Ramsgate and Dover. Dr. Vince, however, on the 6th of August, 1806, at seven in the evening, saw the whole of Dover Castle, as if it had been brought over and placed on the Ramsgate side of the hill. The image of it was so strong, that the hill itself was not seen through the image. The curious effect of this power meet us at every illustrate this matter. Dr. Wollaston made the following experiment to turn. The sun appears above the horizon for a short into a square phial a small quanHe poured time after it has completely set, owing to the refractive.tity of clear syrup, and above this power of the atmosphere; objects that, according to the usual laws of vision, would be entirely out of sight, gradually became combined with an equal quantity of water, which are by this means brought into view. Perhaps the folThe word syrup upon lowing diagram will explain this better. Suppose a man, standing upon an elevated bank by the side of a river's bed. If the bed was dry he would be able, when looking over the bank, to see a pebble at A; but if the water flowed in until it reached as high as D, a pebble placed at в would be seen, owing to the refracting power of the water; if water still continued to flow in, a pebble at G would be visible, and so on. A simple experiment may be made to illustrate this part of the subject: let a sixpence, or any other piece of money, be placed at the bottom of an empty mug, and the observer remove so far from it as to be just prevented seeing it over the edge of the vessel, then let water be poured into the mug, and the coin will become visible; gradually as it were, rising upon the sight, owing to the refraction of the water. A person standing on the bank of the Thames at Greenwich, in damp weather, will be able, at high water, to see objects on the other side of the embankment of the Isle of Dogs which will not be visible when the tide is low; this is caused by the stratum of watery vapour which rests upon the syrup. arit Pure Spirit Pure Water. a card, held behind the bottle, appeared erect when seen through the pure syrup, inverted where the water and syrup began to combine, and again erect above that; he then put nearly the same quantity of rectified spirits of wine above the water, and a similar effect was produced. ON WASHING NETS. Pure Syrup. By carefully attending to washing and mending, Nets will last a long time; but by neglect of these precautions, they become speedily rotten and worn out. The washing of nets is often entirely overlooked, both by masters and servants, or else, done imperfectly. Mr. Daniel strongly urges the necessity of their being thoroughly cleansed from mud and other impurities, as an effectual precaution against rapid decay. And here let me observe, that we have now before us another of those highly interesting coincidences similar to that remarked under the head of "mending." It is particularly mentioned by St. Luke, that Simon and his partners were "washing their nets." Thus we find two men of different nations, writing two distinct books, without any reference to Scriptural investigation or Scriptural authority, namely, M. Duhamel and Mr. Daniel, the first insisting on the necessity of mending, the other, of thoroughly washing, fishing nets: both saying that these operations are too much neglected, and too little attended too, except by regular fishermen. And then we find it mentioned in the Gospel History, that the earliest teachers of our religion, who, the sceptic reminds us, with a sneer of incredulity, were fishIs it too much to say, that such coincidences as these stamp ermen, were engaged in washing and mending their nets. the narratives of the Evangelists with an indelible mark of truth, which no forger can imitate, how ingenious and cunning soever he may be! [From C BATHURST's Notes on Nets.] SKETCHES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. No. XIX. COUNTY OF CAMDEN-THE COW-PASTURES. PERHAPS there is no division of country throughout the colony, which presents scenery and ground of so diversified a nature as the county of Camden. Mountainous, undulatory, tropical, wild, placid, and gloomy. It possesses some of the worst as well as the very best of land,-the most delightful as well as the most dreary tracts of forest scenery, and its more rugged and romantic features are only equalled by those of the Blue Mountains. and the general interest and welfare is undone! But to proceed. As soon as this information of the lost cattle had been made known to the Government, no time was lost in sending out an exploring party, and the result far exceeded the report or the expectations of the Government. The increase of the cattle was very great, and herds were found depasturing in a wild and untameable state, on land which surprised the adventurers, both by its new scenery and richness of pasture. Stations were soon formed, and parties were appointed to superintend the collection of the cattle. The principal station was at Cawdor, where a good dwelling-house was erected, and which for many years after was used as a cow-house. This was an object of excitement and sport, which for some time animated the colonists who were employed in the undertaking; but it was found no easy matter to hunt the cattle down, to separate, and congregate them into proper herds. Dangers and difficulties attended the laborious exercise, and both men and horses were put to their mettle. Hundreds of cattle were shot and otherwise killed, while others were driven into stock-yards, built for the purpose, and brought under subjection. This county, which lies immediately south of Cumberland, appears to be enclosed by the following natural boundaries on the east by the sea-coast from the point called Bulli, to the mouth of the Shoal Haven River; on the south by part of that river; on the west, from the point where the Shoal Haven River turns eastward, by parts of the Uoingalla (vulgarly called, Paddy's) River, and the Wollondilly River, to the junction of the latter with the Nepean; on the north from thence, by the Nepean and Cataract Rivers, which latter takes its rise near the descent of the Illawarra road, at the back or west of the High Coast Range before mentioned. It Cows in New South Wales are very vicious, and may be said to contain upwards of 2000 square seldom brought to that degree of tameness which is miles, nearly one-third of which may come under seen in England; when milked it is necessary not the denomination of useful lands. The road to only to secure the head, but also to fasten one of the Argyleshire passes nearly through the centre and hind legs to prevent them kicking. In the season some of the most fertile tracts in this country. It of calving, cows are much to be feared; they generally crosses the Nepean River by a wooden bridge, of stray away to some sequestered spot, and if a traveller simple but excellent construction, which has stood should by chance pass anywhere near the beddingthe test of many floods. The bed of the river here place of the calf, the vicious mother will in all cases is sandy, and the banks, which are about thirty feet attack the unwary intruder. deep, are composed of sand and a rich brown earth; but the danger of bridges being destroyed by flood, is not so much owing to the power of the mere waters, as to the trees and dead timbers which are swept away and carried down with the torrent. The portion of country for several miles on either side of the Nepean, is called the "Cow-Pastures," and is probably the finest tract of forest-land in the whole colony, adapted equally for cultivation as for the purposes of grazing. When the colony was first established, about half a century ago, some cattle had strayed from the settlements of the first emigrants, and were lost for years. Some prisoners who had deserted and taken the bush, having wandered accidentally in this direction, were the first to fall in with them. The information these men gave on their return to the settlements, or when they were taken, got them a pardon, and led to the discovery of the Cow-Pastures. Indeed, the first formation of this colony is replete with curious and entertaining incidents; and a fair and simple account of the hardships, troubles, and privations with which the officers of the Government, in common with the convict population, had to contend with, would make, collectively, a very interesting work. The mere relation of Government proceedings is generally insipid; but to give a spirited and effective description of incipient colonization, an anecdotic detail of the miseries, as well as the comparative content of the whole community, should be blended together. The world might then feel for the whole, and admire the humanity of the Government in the exercise of its power. In all cases, I think that system of colonization the best and safest, which is conducted tinder military discipline. People when uncontrolled, are wont to divide in opinion, and when discontent becomes general, united labour ceases; advancement is checked. hopes are blighted, men disperse, The Cow-Pastures are the most extensive tract of good lands nearest to Sydney, and contain some hundreds of square miles. They are well watered by the Nepean River and some minor streams, and exhibit all the softer scenery of rich forest-land. Hills and valleys, all clothed with excellent pasturage, and possessing a richness of soil capable of producing anything. The principal features in this portion of the country are the Monangle Sugar Loaf, (a conical hill near Campbell Town,) and the Razorback Mountain. The latter rises somewhat conspicuous above the surrounding country, in steep, narrow, grassy ridges, which shoot out from the nucleus of the mountain in various directions. It has been called the "Razor-back" from the circumstance of many of the ridges being so sharp and angular. Of late years, a new line of road to Argyle has been cut over it, the eastern ascent of which winds cleverly up the steep side of one of the ridges, and saves the traveller many a weary mile. It is not to be wondered at, that such a country as this, possessing all the advantages of soil, pasture, and locality, should have been eagerly fixed upon soon after its discovery, by the first and most active emigrants, some of whom knew well how to benefit themselves in those times. But the labour and perseverance of first colonists can never be sufficiently rewarded, and they who helped to raise the building, ought to enjoy plenty within its walls About three or four miles eastward of the CowPasture Bridge, before mentioned, the main road passes through several fine estates, two of which of late years have been the scene of most atrocious murders. One of these estates is called Harrington Park, and was the residence of Mr. C., a gentleman, who, having made a fortune in China, intended to settle with his wife and family in New South Wales. He had not been long in possession of this new resi |