tory of its famous clergyman, Robert Walker; or, as the guide books call him, "the wonderful clergyman. There is a very full account of him in the notes already alluded to. He was born in 1709, at a place called Under Crag, in the valley of Seathwaite. He became curate of Seathwaite, in his twenty-sixth year, and continued curate until the day of his death, when he had attained the great age of ninety-three. His curacy was of the yearly value of 57. only! and he had no fortune whatever. He married a wife in his twenty-seventh year, who brought him a "fortune" of forty pounds; and in due time a family of twelve children, of whom eight survived. The wonder of his history is, that he educated all his children respectably, made one of them a clergyman; was hospitable to all, and generous to his poorer neighbours; and at his death left a sum of 20007. behind him. It is true the income of his curacy was by degrees increased to 50l. per annum; but as this would not account for the accumulation of such a sum, we are led to inquire how he could have managed it, with so many claims upon him, and all so well attended to. It appears that he was as expert at various trades as Robinson Crusoe himself. He spun with his own hands all the wool needed for the clothes of himself, his wife, and his family; and while spinning taught the children of his parishioners spelling and reading. He assisted, for hire,

in haymaking and sheep-shearing: and for hire, acted as clerk and scrivener to the simple people, who were not initiated in the sublime mysteries of the pen. He had moreover a couple of acres of land, which he cultivated by his own labour, and that of his sons; kept and bred cattle; and, though Mr. Wordsworth says nothing of this part of the story, brewed ale, and sold it for two-pence a quart, if drunk in the adjoining field, and for four-pence if drunk in the parsonage. * The wonder very sensibly diminishes when we learn these facts; as, in a similar manner, did that of the inquirer into the history of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, which was built by a poet. The wonder in this case was, that a poet could have possessed money enough to erect a church; but when it was explained that he was a lawyer as well as a poet, there was no wonder in the business. The fortune of the poor curate would have been equally marvellous; but the profits upon the ale and the other et ceteras, make the story intelligible.

In the church-yard of Seathwaite, under a fine old yew tree, this singular character and his wife are buried. They both lived to the same age, ninety-three, as is testified by the grave-stone, a plain blue slab. It states that he died on the 25th of June, 1802, in the

* See Rambles by Rivers, by James Thorne, in Knight's Weekly Volumes, p. 24 and 25.

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ninety-third year of his age, and the sixty-seventh of his curacy; and that Anne his wife died on the 28th of January, in the same year, also aged 93. This patriarch's pew is still preserved in the church as he left it, lined with cloth woven by his own hand; the only pew in the rude and simple edifice that is distinguished by any mark of superior comfort from its fellows, It was his boast, during his life, that there" was not one dissenter in his parish," a boast, which, were he still living, he would not be able to make.

From Seathwaite, the tourist who feels no inclination to trace the Duddon to its source, and for the few miles that it bears the harsh name of Cockley Beck, can strike across a mountain road to Coniston Lake; and so by Hawkshead to Ambleside. The road is steep and difficult over Walna Scar, and is available only to the pedestrian.

From Ambleside to Keswick.-Dunmaile Raise.- Thirlemere.Borrodale Fells.- Helvellyn.-The vale of St. John's.- King Arthur and the Fairies.- Error of Sir Walter Scott.- Saddleback not Glaramara.-Approach to Keswick.-The Greta.Reminiscences of Southey.

FROM Ambleside to Keswick is a very beautiful ride, of which the first few miles have been already described in the account of Rydal Water and Mount, and the vale of Grasmere. Beyond Grasmere the road ascends considerably towards Dunmaile Raise, having the lofty and imposing form of Helm Crag,

with the "ancient woman" in the front on the lefthand. Dunmaile Raise is situated between Steel Fell on the West and Seat Sandal on the East; and at the highest point of the road, which is 720 feet above the sea level, there is a "cairn," a pile of stones, which is generally believed to have been raised in the year 945, by the Anglo-Saxon King, Edmund, after the defeat and death on this spot of Dunmaile, the British King of Cumbria. Tradition rather than history records that the victor seized the son of the defeated monarch, and put out his eyes before his father's face, and then put them both to death. The kingdom of Cumbria was afterwards given to Malcolm, King of Scotland, to hold in fealty. A wall which is said to divide the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland is built through the cairn; but the small stream on the right of the Raise is more generally considered as the boundary line. From this height it is a mile and a quarter to the inn at Wythburn; a place from which travellers who desire to ascend Helvellyn without making the excursion into Patterdale and Ulleswater most commonly start. The inn is about a mile from Wythburn Water,-a. small but beautiful lake, known also by several other names viz. Leathes Water, Thirlemere, and Brackmere. It is three miles in length, and rarely exceeds a quarter of a mile in breadth, and is the highest lake in Cumberland.