impression; but, because, I stood pledged to several beloved friends, and relations, in each of those counties, to parcel out the present summer amongst them; and as it is sometimes good policy to begin the display of what we have in store for curiosity or for friendship, with the less commanding articles-as dealers in sights, artfully conduct you to the minuter objects, before they usher you to the proudest, and largest of all their lions, whether the said lions be dead or alive-I imagined it would be a measure of dexterity and prudence, to introduce you to our gradual ascents, easiest declivities, and softest scenery, before I took you to the depths of our precipices, and summits of our mountains? Perhaps, too, a consciousness that we could do nothing with you in stupendous heights, and dizzy eminences, till I had beguiled you from the lofty ideas and feelings which the tour you made last Autumn of the sublimities of Switzerland must have inspired,might secretly enter into my plan of presenting you to the contrasting views of verdant tranquillity and scenes of content-where indeed,

Nature herself, seems to seek relief from her magnificence-her cloud-piercing rock, terrific steep, and unfathomed abyss, to take repose amongst her lawns, recover her serenity in a less aspiring clime, and condescends herself to become a cottager in an English cottage, my friend, where, I hope to shew you, the Goddess has not been a niggard of her favours, and that if she has not fixed the humbler dwellings of our land on the cloud-top'd hill, or beneath the luxury of a voluptuous sky, she has permitted her lowly children to rear them amidst the violets of the field and the lilies of the vale, and where, so far from their being despoiled, or invaded-as in some prouder climes, where neither a voluptuous sky, nor the cloud-top'd hill are secure from violation,-there lives not a man, who, unpermitted, dares to pluck one fragrant leaf!

Yes, I certainly had some motive like this, mingling with others, for intending to visit our least ambitious counties first. But my design has been long interrupted. Sickness, my dear Baron, which so frequently suspends, or wholly

1

frustrates all the proud arrangements of feeble
mortals in their journey of life, fell on my plans
a few hours after I had dispatched to you my
second letter from London, where I have been
confined from that date to the present; a lapse
of the fairest of the spring months, out of which
I have only been able to rescue one little week,
which,-change of air being thought indispen-
sable,-I have passed at the place of address, a
small town in Kent, situated at the distance
only of twelve miles from London, and for
which, besides its being the residence of some
beloved friends, is endeared to me by other
considerations I shall mention in their place. I
am much recovered.

That the purest air should assist in producing the purest pleasure, both of thoughts and feelings, is natural. It is reasonable, that the imagery of nature, in the diversity of her beauties, pressing on the eye, and entering into the heart, should not a little dispose to such sensations and ideas. Persons resident in the country, may, per- . haps, be less susceptible of this than its occasional visitors. We know that the constant sight of

the most captivating objects invariably dimi nishes their attraction. Indeed, we seem to have neither eyes nor ears for what forms a necessary part of our daily and hourly intercourse. This must, however, be understood of things inanimate: the loveliest flower may bloom and die unheeded by him whose villa is situated in the midst of a garden; and the finest ring of bells will scarcely be heard, or at least with little distinction of sounds, by those persons who live in the precincts of a church. Yet, in a general sense, none of these persons may want taste or feeling; some may have even a relish for natural beauty, and some may be enamoured of musick a similar flower blooming in any remote garden, though neglected in their own, or in their neighbours; and even a less harmonious set of bells in a distant church might call forth their attention, and excite their applause. We will not entangle this fact with abstract reasoning, my dear Baron; it is obvious enough that an unwearied familiarity with objects the most beautiful and sublime, (and those of vegetation are certainly of this kind,) makes D

VOL. IV.

them literally

fade in the eye," even if they

do not "pall upon the sense."

Never, perhaps, has this remark been more strongly confirmed than in this visit to Bromley, after so many months residence in London, amidst the perplexities of business, and the languors of indisposition. I arrived, and have had my vernal banquet, you see, before this inost charming month of the twelve has shone itself away. The contrast has been extraordinary the sensations of your correspondent have been like what might be supposed to attend a person, who, after a long and disturbed state of slumber, in which he had been dreaming of clouds of dust, and of smoke, of unmitigating heat, and of corroding cares, has, by a change in his vision, found his imagination at length conveying him to scenes the reverse of these. Early in the morning I paid my acknowledgment to every object; the Sun and all which he warms and blesses with life, were in the prime

* May.