A GUIDE TO THE LAKES. SINCE persons of genius, taste, and observation, began to make the tour of their own country, and to give such pleasing accounts of the natural history and improving state of the northern part of the kingdom, the spirit of visiting them has diffused itself among the curious of all ranks. Particularly the taste for one branch of a noble art (cherished under the protection of the greatest of kings and best of men) in which the genius of Britain rivals that of ancient Greece and modern Rome, induces many to visit the lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire; there to contemplate in Alpine scenery, finished in nature's highest tints, the pastoral and rural landscape, exhibited in all their styles, the soft, the rude, the romantic, and the sublime; and of which, perhaps, like instances can no where be found assembled in so small a tract of country.What may be now mentioned as another inLandscape Painting. # B ducement to visit these natural beauties, is the goodness of the roads, which are much improved since Mr. Gray made his tour in 1765, and Mr. Pennant his in 1772. The gentlemen of these counties have set a precedent worthy of imitation in the politest parts of the kingdom, by opening, at private expense, carriage roads for the ease and safety of such as visit the country; and the public roads are equally properly attended to. The design of the following sheets is to encourage the taste of visiting the lakes, by furnishing the traveller with a Guide; and for that purpose, the writer has here collected and laid before him all the select stations and points of view, noticed by those authors who have made the tour of the lakes, verified by his own repeated observations. He has also added remarks on the principal objects, as they appear viewed from the different stations; and such other incidental information as he judged would greatly facilitate and heighten the pleasure of the tour, and relieve the traveller from the burthen of those tedious inquiries on the road, or at the inns, which generally embarrass, and often mislead. The local knowledge here communicated will not, however, injure, much less prevent, |