vale and lake of Haweswater; and lastly, the vale of Grasmere, Rydal, and Ambleside, brings you back to Winandermere, thus completing, though on the eastern side in a somewhat irregular manner, the representative figure of the wheel.

5

Such, concisely given, is the general topographical view of the country of the lakes in the north of England; and it may be observed that, from the circumference to the center, that is, from the sea or the plain country to the mountain stations specified, there is-in the several 10 ridges that enclose these vales, and divide them from each other, I mean in the forms and surfaces, first of the swelling grounds, next of the hills and rocks, and lastly of the mountains an ascent of almost regular gradation, from elegance and richness, to their highest point of grandeur and 15 sublimity. It follows therefore from this, first, that these rocks, hills, and mountains must present themselves to view in stages rising toward the central point; and next, that an observer familiar with the several vales, must, from their various position in relation to the sun, have 20 had before his eyes every possible embellishment of beauty, dignity, and splendor, which light and shadow can bestow upon objects so diversified. For example, in the vale of Winandermere, if the spectator looks for gentle and lovely scenes, his eye is turned toward the south; if for 25 grand, toward the north: in the vale of Keswick, which (as hath been said) lies almost due north of this, it is directly the reverse. Hence, when the sun is setting in summer far to the northwest, it is seen, by the spectator from the shores or breast of Winandermere, resting among 30 the summits of the loftiest mountains, some of which will perhaps be half or wholly hidden by clouds, or by the blaze of light which the orb diffuses around it; and the surface of the lake will reflect before the eye correspondent

colors through every variety of beauty, and through all degrees of splendor. In the vale of Keswick, at the same period, the sun sets over the humbler regions of the landscape, and showers down upon them the radiance which 5 at once veils and glorifies,-sending forth, meanwhile, broad streams of rosy, crimson, purple, or golden light, toward the grand mountains in the south and southeast, which, thus illuminated, with all their projections and cavities, and with an intermixture of solemn shadows, are 10 seen distinctly through a cool and clear atmosphere. Of course, there is as marked a difference between the noontide appearance of these two opposite vales. The bedimming haze that overspreads the south, and the clear atmosphere and determined shadows of the clouds 15 in the north, at the same time of the day, are each seen in these several vales, with a contrast as striking. The reader will easily conceive in what degree the intermediate vales partake of a kindred variety.

I do not indeed know any tract of country in which, 20 within so narrow a compass, may be found an equal variety in the influences of light and shadow upon the sublime or beautiful features of landscape; and it is owing to the combined circumstances to which the reader's attention has been directed. From a point between 25 Great Gavel and Scawfell, a shepherd would not require more than an hour to descend into any one of eight of the principal vales by which he would be surrounded; and all the others lie (with the exception of Haweswater) at but a small distance. Yet, though clustered together, 30 every valley has its distinct and separate character; in some instances, as if they had been formed in studied contrast to each other, and in others with the united pleasing differences and resemblances of a sisterly rivalship. This concentration of interest gives to the country a decided

superiority over the most attractive districts of Scotland and Wales, especially for the pedestrian traveler. In Scotland and Wales are found, undoubtedly, individual scenes, which, in their several kinds, cannot be excelled. But, in Scotland, particularly, what long tracts of desolate 5 country intervene! so that the traveler, when he reaches a spot deservedly of great celebrity, would find it difficult to determine how much of his pleasure is owing to excellence inherent in the landscape itself; and how much to an instantaneous recovery from an oppression left upon his 10 spirits by the barrenness and desolation through which he has passed.

SUGGESTIONS: The interest and value of this description consist in the simple yet skillful means by which the peculiar contour of a large region is suggested, and suggested vividly, without the use of pictures or diagrams.

Note the old-fashioned quality of Wordsworth's prose style. In what, more particularly, does this consist? Study the length and cadence of his sentences. Compare his vocabulary with that of Ruskin. What differences do you find? Which do you prefer?

ADAPTED SUBJECTS

The topography of my native county.
The situation and plan of my home town.
Roads and parks in a town I know well.
A famous region which I have visited.

EDINBURGH FROM THE CALTON HILL

THE

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON*

HE east of New Edinburgh is guarded by a craggy hill, of no great elevation, which the town embraces. The old London road runs on one side of it; while the 15 *From Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes. First published in The Portfolio, 1878.

New Approach, leaving it on the other hand, completes the circuit. You mount by stairs in a cutting of the rock to find yourself in a field of monuments. Dugald Stewart has the honors of situation and architecture; Burns is 5 memorialized lower down upon a spur; Lord Nelson, as befits a sailor, gives his name to the top-gallant of the Calton Hill. This latter erection has been differently and yet, in both cases, aptly compared to a telescope and a butterchurn; comparisons apart, it ranks among the 10 vilest of men's handiworks. But the chief feature is an unfinished range of columns, the "Modern Ruin" as it has been called, an imposing object from far and near, and giving Edinburgh, even from the sea, that false air of a modern Athens which has earned for her so many slighting 15 speeches. It was meant to be a National Monument; and its present state is a very suitable monument to certain national characteristics. The old Observatory,a quaint brown building on the edge of the steep,—and the New Observatory,—a classical edifice with a dome, 20 occupy the central portion of the summit. All these are scattered on a green turf, browsed over by some sheep.

Of all places for a view, this Calton Hill is perhaps the best; since you can see the Castle, which you lose from 25 the Castle, and Arthur's Seat, which you cannot see from

Arthur's Seat. It is the place to stroll on one of those days of sunshine and east wind which are so common in our more than temperate summer. The breeze comes off the sea, with a little of the freshness, and that touch 30 of chill, peculiar to the quarter. . . It brings with it a faint, floating haze, a cunning decolorizer although not thick enough to obscure outlines near at hand. But the haze lies more thickly to windward at the far end of Musselburgh Bay; and over the links of Aberlady and

Berwick Law and the hump of the Bass Rock it assumes the aspect of a bank of thin sea fog.

Immediately underneath, upon the south, you command the yards of the High School, and the towers and courts of the new jail-a large place, castellated to the extent 5 of folly, standing by itself on the edge of a steep cliff, and often joyfully hailed by tourists as the Castle. In the one, you may perhaps see female prisoners taking exercise like a string of nuns; in the other, schoolboys running at play and their shadows keeping step with them. From 10 the bottom of the valley, a gigantic chimney rises almost to the level of the eye, a taller and a shapelier edifice than Nelson's Monument. Look a little farther and there is Holyrood Palace, with its Gothic frontal and ruined abbey, and the red sentry pacing smartly to and fro before the 15 door like a mechanical figure in a panorama. By way of an outpost, you can single out the little peak-roofed lodge, over which Rizzio's murderers made their escape, and where Queen Mary herself, according to gossip, bathed in white wine to entertain her loveliness. Behind and overhead, lie 20 the Queen's Park, from Muschat's Cairn to Dumbiedykes, St. Margaret's Loch, and the long wall of Salisbury Crags; and thence, by knoll and rocky bulwark and precipitous slope, the eye rises to the top of Arthur's Seat, a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design. This 25 upon your left. Upon the right, the roofs and spires of the Old Town climb one above another to where the citadel prints its broad bulk and jagged crown of bastions on the western sky.-Perhaps it is now one in the afternoon; and at the same instant of time, a ball rises to the 30 summit of Nelson's flagstaff close at hand, and, far away, a puff of smoke followed by a report bursts from the halfmoon battery at the Castle. This is the time-gun by which people set their watches, as far as the sea coast or in hill