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Wales.

Tour to remarked a particular manner of propagating motion from a horizontal to a vertical wheel-We were desired to leave the men only two shillings-Mr. Thrale's bill at the inn for dinner was eighteen shillings and tenpence.

At night I went to Mr. Langley's, Mrs. Wood's, Captain Astle, &c.

Wednesday, 20th July.-We left Ashbourn1 and went to Buxton-Thence to Pool's Hole, which is narrow at first, but then rises into a high arch; but is so obstructed with crags, that it is difficult to walk in it—There are two ways to the end, which is, they say, six hundred and fifty yards from the mouth-They take passengers up the higher way, and bring them back the lower-The higher way was so difficult and dangerous, that, having tried it, I desisted-I found no level part.

At night we came to Macclesfield, a very large town in Cheshire, little known-It has a silk mill: it has a handsome church, which, however, is but a chapel, for the town belongs to some parish of another name, as Stourbridge lately did to Old SwinfordMacclesfield has a town-hall, and is, I suppose, a corporate town.

[Thursday, 21st July.]—We came to Congleton, where there is likewise a silk mill-Then to Middlewich, a mean old town, without any manufacture, but, I think, a corporation-Thence we proceeded to Namptwich, an old town: from the inn, I saw scarcely any but black timber houses-I tasted the brine water, which contains much more salt than the sea water-By slow evaporation, they make large crystals of salt; by quick boiling, small granu

[It would seem, that from the 9th to the 20th, the head-quarters of the party were at Ashbourn, whence they had made the several excursions noted.-ED.] 2 [The parish of Prestbury.-Duppa.]

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lations-It seemed to have no other preparation. Tour to At evening we came to Combermere1, so called from a wide lake.

Friday, 22d July.-We went up the mere-I pulled a bulrush of about ten feet-I saw no convenient boats upon the mere.

Saturday, 23d July. We visited Lord Kilmorey's house-It is large and convenient, with many rooms, none of which are magnificently spacious 3—— The furniture was not splendid-The bed-curtains were guarded-Lord Kilmorey showed the place with too much exultation-He has no park, and little water.

5

Sunday, 24th July.-We went to a chapel, built by Sir Lynch Cotton for his tenants-It is consecrated, and therefore, I suppose, endowed-It is neat and plain-The communion plate is handsomeIt has iron pales and gates of great elegance, brought from Lleweney," for Robert has laid all ope "."

[At this time the seat of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, now of Lord Com bermere, his grandson, from which place he takes his title. It stands on the site of an old abbey of Benedictine monks, which was founded 1133; and, about the year 1540, at the dissolution of the monasteries, was granted, with a great part of the estates of the abbey, to George Cotton, esq., an ancestor of Lord Combermere. The library, which is forty feet by twenty-seven, is supposed to have been the refectory. The lake, or mere, is about three quarters of a mile long, but of no great width; it is skirted with woods, and from some situations it has the appearance of a river. It is situated in Cheshire, twenty-two miles from Shrewsbury.-DUPPA.]

2 [Great Cat's-tail, or Reed-mace. The Typha latifolia of Linnæus.DUPPA.]

3 [This house, which is called Shavington Hall, is in Shropshire, twenty-one miles from Shrewsbury, and, like Wrottesley Hall in the adjoining county, is said to have as many windows, doors, and chimnies, as correspond in number to the days, weeks, and months in a year.-DUPPA.]

4 [Probably guarded from wear or accident by being covered with some inferior material.-ED.]

5 [Thomas Needham, eighth Viscount Kilmorey.-ED.]

6 [At Burleydam, close to Combermere, built by Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, Mrs. Thrale's uncle.-DUPFA.]

7 [This remark has reference to family conversation. Robert was the eldest son of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, and lived at Lleweney at this time.DUPPA. All the seats in England were, a hundred years ago, enclosed with walls, through which there were generally " iron pales and gates." Mr. Cotton had, no doubt, "laid all open" by prostrating the walls; and the pales and gates had thus become useless. The same process has taken place at almost every seat in England.-ED.]

Tour to

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[Monday, 25th July'.]-We saw Hawkestone, the seat of Sir Rowland Hill, and were conducted by Miss Hill over a large tract of rocks and woods; a region abounding with striking scenes and terrific grandeur. We were always on the brink of a precipice, or at the foot of a lofty rock; but the steeps were seldom naked: in many places, oaks of uncommon magnitude shot up from the crannies of stone; and where there were no trees, there were underwoods and bushes. Round the rocks is a narrow path cut upon the stone, which is very frequently hewn into steps; but art has proceeded no further than to make the succession of wonders safely accessible. The whole circuit is somewhat laborious; it is terminated by a grotto cut in the rock to a great extent, with many windings, and supported by pillars, not hewn into regularity, but such as imitate the sports of nature, by asperities and protuberances. The place is without any dampness, and would afford an habitation not uncomfortable. There were from space to space seats cut out in the rock. Though it wants water, it excels Dovedale by the extent of its prospects, the awfulness of its shades, the horrors of its precipices, the verdure of its hollows, and the loftiness of its rocks: the ideas which it forces upon the mind are the sublime, the dreadful, and the vast. Above is inaccessible altitude, below is horrible profundity; but it excels the garden of Ilam only in extent. Ilam has grandeur, tempered with softness the walker congratulates his own arrival at the place, and is grieved to think he must ever leave it. As he looks up to the rocks, his thoughts are elevated ;

1 This date is evidently here wanted; a day is otherwise unaccounted for; and it is not likely that Johnson would have gone sight-seeing on a Sunday. ED.]

2 [Now belonging to Sir John Hill, bart., father of Lord Hill. It is twelve miles from Shrewsbury.-DUPPA.]

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as he turns his eyes on the valleys, he is composed Tour to and soothed. He that mounts the precipices at Hawkestone wonders how he came thither, and doubts how he shall return-His walk is an adventure, and his departure an escape-He has not the tranquillity, but the horrors, of solitude; a kind of turbulent pleasure, between fright and admiration. Ilam is the fit abode of pastoral virtue, and might properly diffuse its shades over nymphs and swains. Hawkestone can have no fitter inhabitants than giants of mighty bone and bold emprise1; men of lawless courage and heroic violence. Hawkestone should be

described by Milton, and Ilam by Parnel2.

Miss Hill showed the whole succession of wonders with great civility-The house was magnificent, compared with the rank of the owner.

Tuesday, 26th July.—We left Combermere, where we have been treated with great civility-The house is spacious, but not magnificent; built at different times, with different materials; part is of timber, part of stone or brick, plastered and painted to look like timber-It is the best house that I ever saw of that kind-The mere, or lake, is large, with a small island, on which there is a summer-house, shaded with great trees; some were hollow, and have seats in their trunks.

In the afternoon we came to West-Chester; (my father went to the fair when I had the small-pox). We walked round the walls 3, which are complete, and

[Paradise Lost, book xi. v. 642.-DUPPA.]

2 The whole of this passage is so inflated and pompous, that it looks more like a burlesque of Johnson's style than his own travelling notes.—ED.]

3 [It would seem that a quarrel between Johnson and Mrs. Thrale took place at Chester, for she writes to Mr. Duppa-" Of those ill-fated walls Dr. Johnson might have learned the extent from any one. He has since put me fairly out of countenance by saying, 'I have known my mistress fifteen years, and never saw her fairly out of humour but on Chester wall;' it was because he would keep Miss Thrale beyond her hour of going to bed to walk on the wall, where, from the want of light, I apprehended some accident to her-perhaps to him."-Piozzi MS.-ED.]

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Tour to contain one mile three quarters, and one hundred and one yards; within them are many gardens: they are very high, and two may walk very commodiously side by side-On the inside is a rail-There are towers from space to space, not very frequent, and I think not all complete.

Wednesday, 27th July.-We staid at Chester and saw the cathedral, which is not of the first rank-The castle-In one of the rooms the assizes are held, and the refectory of the old abbey, of which part is a grammar school-The master seemed glad to see me-The cloister is very solemn; over it are chambers in which the singing men live-In one part of the street was a subterranean arch, very strongly built; in another, what they called, I believe rightly, a Roman hypocaust-Chester has many curiosities. Thursday, 28th July.-We entered Wales, dined at Mold, and came to Lleweney 3.

["The hypocaust is of a triangular figure, supported by thirty-two pillars, two feet ten inches and a half high, and about eighteen inches distant from each other. Upon each is a tile eighteen inches square, as if designed for a capital; and over them a perforated tile, two feet square. Such are continued over all the pillars. Above these are two layers; one of coarse mortar, mixed with small red gravel, about three inches thick; and the other of finer materials, between four and five inches thick; these seem to have been the floor of the room above. The pillars stand on a mortar-floor, spread over the rock. On the south side, between the middle pillars, is the vent for the smoke, about six inches square, which is at present open to the height of sixteen inches. Here is also an ante chamber, exactly of the same extent with the hypocaust, with an opening in the middle into it. This is sunk nearly two feet below the level of the former, and is of the same rectangular figure; so that both together are an exact square. This was the room allotted for the slaves who attended to heat the place; the other was the receptacle of the fuel designed to heat the room above, the concamerata sudatio, or sweating chamber; where people were seated, either in niches, or on benches, placed one above the other, during the time of the operation. Such was the object of this hypocaust; for there were others of different forms, for the purpose of heating the water destined for the use of the bathers.". DUPPA.]

2 [Mold is a small market town, consisting principally of one long and wide street.-DUPPA.]

3 [Lleweney-hall, as I have already observed, was the residence of Robert Cotton, Esq., Mrs. Thrale's cousin-german. Here Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson staid three weeks, making visits and short excursions in the neighbourhood and surrounding country. Pennant gives this description of its situation" Lleweney lies on a flat, has most pleasing views of the mountains on each side of the vale, and the town and castle of Denbigh form most capital objects at the distance of two miles." It now belongs to Mr. Hughes of Kin

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