To ADAM STEINMETZ KINNAIRD.

"MY DEAR GODCHILD,

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"Years must pass before you will be able to read with an understanding heart what I now write. But I trust that the all-gracious God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, who by his only-begotten Son (all mercies in one sovereign mercy!) has redeemed you from the evil ground, and willed you to be born out of darkness, but into light; out of death, but into life; out of sin, but into righteousness-even into the 'Lord our righteousness;' I trust that he will graciously hear the prayers of your dear parents, and be with you as the spirit of health and growth in body and in mind. My dear god-child, you received from Christ's minister, at the baptismal font, as your Christian name, the name of a most dear friend of your father's, and who was to me even as a son, the late Adam Steinmetz; whose fervent aspirations and everparamount aim, even from early youth, was to be a Christian in thought, word, and deed; in will, mind, and affections.

"I, too, your godfather, have known what the enjoyments and advantages of this life are, and what the more refined pleasures which learning and intellectual power can bestow; and with all the experience that more than three-score years can give, I now, on the eve of my departure, declare to you (and earnestly pray that you may hereafter live and act on the conviction) that

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health is a great blessing; competence, obtained by honourable industry, a great blessing; and a great blessing it is to have kind, faithful, and loving friends and relatives; but that the greatest of all blessings, as it is the most ennobling of all privileges, is to be indeed a Christian. But I have been likewise, through a large portion of my later life, a sufferer, sorely afflicted with bodily pains, languor, and manifold infirmities; and for the last three or four years have, with few and brief intervals, been confined to a sick room, and at this moment, in great weakness and heaviness, write from a sick bed, hopeless of recovery, yet without prospect of a speedy removal. And I thus, on the brink of the grave, solemnly bear witness to you, that the Almighty Redeemer, most gracious in his promises to them that truly seek him, is faithful to perform what he has promised; and has reserved, under all my pains and infirmities, the inward peace that passeth all understanding, with the supporting assurance of a reconciled God, who will not withdraw his Spirit from me in the conflict, and in his own time will deliver me from the evil one. O my dear god-child! eminently blessed are they who begin early to seek, fear, and love their God, trusting wholly in the righteousness and mediation of their Lord, Redeemer, Saviour, and everlasting High Priest, Jesus Christ. Oh! preserve this as a legacy and bequest from your unseen godfather and friend,

"GROVE, Highgate, July 13th, 1834."

"S. T. COLERIDGE."

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CHAPTER V.

LOITERINGS ABOUT HAWES WATER.

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Mountains and meres.-Hawes Water.-The prospect from Burnbanks.-Wallow Crag and Harter Fell.-High Street.-Frossick Hill Bell, and Rainsborrow Crag. The tattooed sailor. hero of the South Sea Island. Karl Lofts and Gunnerskeld Bottom.-Shap Abbey.-Lord Wharton and the Scotch army.-The countryman and the coat of arms. The old nabob.- Jamie Lowther and the old priest. Influence of natural scenery. there a God?

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PAUL RITTER'S father, as he proceeded in the narrative of his loiterings among the lakes, lost no opportunity of setting before his son practical lessons of instruction. At one time the mountains illustrated the almighty power of God; and, at another, the meres exhibited the overflowing abundance of his goodness and mercy. He pointed out the advantages of trouble and trial in forming the human character, and made his statement the clearer by referring to natural scenery.

'Rills o'er rocky beds are borne,
Ere they gush in whiteness:
Pebbles are wave-chafed and worn,
Ere they show their brightness.'

And he placed, also, in a strong light by the same means, the striking fact that the great Creator and Redeemer of mankind frequently reserves his choicest blessings for the dark season of affliction and sorrow.

'Stars come forth when Night her shroud

Draws as daylight fainteth:
Only on the tearful cloud,

God his rainbow painteth.'

"I will now speak of my loiterings about Hawes Water," said Paul's father; and Paul's eyes told, as distinctly as if he had spoken, how ready he was to be a listener. "At one time," continued Mr. Ritter, "I was in the little village of High Hartsope, then I removed to Lower Hartsope, and after that to Shap. There are handsomer lakes than that of Hawes Water, yet still there is something in the place that I like. We are not dependent on the size and beauty of a lake for the pleasure it affords us. Hawes Water, which is the property of the earl of Lonsdale, may be about three miles long, and half a mile broad; and like many other of the lakes, it is embosomed in lofty mountains, that stand like giant defenders all around.

"As you look at the mountains from Burnbanks near the foot of Hawes Water, they seem to be trying to hide one another. No sharp peaks are to be seen, but almost all broad bluffy sides. Wallow Crag and Harter Fell show the most of themselves, but Lad Crag hides behind Blennerhasset, and High Street behind Kidsty

Pike. You see but little of Branstree, and not much of Pyat Crag or Nan Bield Pass, though Riggindale Crag, below, does all he can to come into notice.

Who leaps outright from Wallow Crag,
Leaps bold enough-leaps bold enough:
Who sleeps all night on Harter Fell,

Sleeps cold enough-sleeps cold enough."

"Indeed I should think so! For no money would I sleep on Harter Fell; and leaping from Wallow Crag would be worse still. But what did you mean by High Street? There can be no streets among moun

tains."

"I forgot to explain to you, Paul, that at the head of Kentmere Vale, where Bernard Gilpin, 'the apostle of the north,' was born, there stands a commanding mountain as much as two thousand seven hundred feet high, with a road upon it within a few feet of the top made by the Romans. The name of High Street was given to the mountain on account of this road. There are other Roman roads called streets, so that it seems the word street had been used to mean a road, or public way, even when no houses were there. The prospect from High Street is a noble one."

"I dare say it is, the mountain being between two and three thousand feet high. What mountains did you see from the top of it?"

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"Why, let me consider. There are the two giant mountains Helvellyn and Skiddaw, and Place Fell, and Hallin Fell, and two grey duns, the names of which I