1821. 



Picturesque Promenades near Dorking. 



431 



rumantic scenery of this spot abounds 

 with the endless varieties of hill and 

 dale, interspersed with well-wooded 

 retirements, the pleasant features of 

 landscape-gardening, the quiet of echo- 

 ing dells, and the refreshing coolness 

 of caves and subterranean passages, 

 and terraces overlooking a vast extent 

 of country. The decorative elegance 

 of casts and sculpture, and the rusticity 

 of grottoes and hermitages, diversify 

 its winding walks and plantations, 

 mingling the aspect of trim neatness 

 with rude, uncultivated nature. The 

 residence is in the completest order, 

 with offices on a comparative scale of 

 perfection, and the whole is finished 

 with peculiar chasteness of design. 

 • My eye, after measuring the joyful 

 foliage of tlie Deepdene woods, soon 

 rested itself on that immense track 

 of waste land, the H'ibnrood, present- 

 ing a censorious contrast too glaring to 

 be overlooked. It is there llie long- 

 cherished diligence of the labouring 

 peasantry is counteracted and set at de- 

 fiance ; but can any scene be more truly 

 gratifying to the patriot and philanthro- 

 pist, than the neat and cleanly cottages 

 of the poor, besprinkled over a common, 

 each with an apportioned enclosure for 

 garden and pasture ? Let those whose 

 province it maybe to frame laws for the 

 protection of mankind, depict to them- 

 selves the happy cottager, sitting by 

 his own fire side, surrounded by his 

 family, and say whether such groups 

 are not too few. Let them consider 

 how salutary would be the ejection of 

 vice in her inhuman forms from 

 those dens of wretchedness and squalid 

 misery, where the passions are brutal- 

 ized, and the proi)ensities fettered by 

 temptations too forcible to be resisted 

 in such exposures. Add to tins, the 

 terrifying exhibition of prisons, cram- 

 Hicid almost to suffocation with penny- 

 less debtors; householders infested by 

 tax-gatherers and rate-collectors; and 

 tortured by the arrests and executions 

 .4jf implacable creditors; workhouses 

 ■ overflowing with paupers, reduced to 

 the last stage of woe ; and even the pas- 

 senger assailed with their liewailings 

 and solicitations, without the possibi- 

 lity of discriminating incorrigible in- 

 dolence from disabled merit. Tlie in- 

 troduction of the " cottage .system,'''' at 

 once reme<lial and prevf-ntive, for the 

 daily- increasing parochial burthens, 

 would nt no very distant periotl render 

 useless every species of eleemosynary 

 eftlablishment. 



The advancing day seemed to usher 

 in additional beauties, and exhibit the 

 richness of the panoramic view with 

 increased vigour. Contemplating so 

 glorious a field, I scanned as it were 

 each successive season of the revolving 

 year. At this moment, the variegated 

 graces of Summer time stealing on, I 

 could a short time hence behold it ar- 

 rayed in the sliadowy tints of Autumn : 

 but a few weeks of declining magnifi- 

 cence, it would be stripped of all its 

 clothing, and its leafless wrecks left 

 only as memorials of its once flourish- 

 ing stateliness: then, but a few weeks 

 of IFintry cowls, and nature would 

 burst forth in all the gaiety of Fernal 

 hues. Allegorizing with somewhat be- 

 yond that of a fanciful impression, a 

 lively imagery of thought sketched in 

 my mind, the strictness of the analogy 

 to the copious epochs of human life. 



Such is the great drama ! our sorrows 

 are its tragedies! our follies are its 

 farces! its passing scenes furnish us 

 with incident, and by their combined 

 influence, are the dictates of our ac- 

 tions, and the basis of our conclusions. 

 At the foot of the hill, lay the de- 

 lightful little hamlet of Westcott, 

 consisting of a few well-built residences 

 inhabited by farmers of some conse- 

 quence, and several small cottages of 

 the ordinary description. The coup 

 d^ail of the road, the smoke curling 

 between the trees, and the entrance to 

 the retired lanes, well accorded with 

 the much admired simplicity of village 

 scenery, and seemed to indicate the 

 peaceful abode of rural happiness. 

 Groups of lively children, sporting on 

 the flowery banks, \vere emblems of 

 health and. innocence, and broke the 

 silence with their harmless prattle. 

 However ominous this simplicity might 

 appear, it was but in unison with the 

 general deportment of these villagers, 

 among whom scarcely a reprobate cha- 

 racter could be found. Crime, with all 

 its rapid strides, had as yet left them 

 incorrupt ; and notwithstanding the 

 grievances of unrequited labour, the 

 mal-practicesoffilchiug and plundering 

 of property, could only be traced in a 

 few instances. Between Milcott and 

 Dorking, is Milton Court, a monastic 

 old farm-house, celebrated as once hav- 

 ing been the seat of that eminent critic, 

 Jciemiah Miirkstaud ; and beyond both 

 of them is the chequered grandeur of 

 Box Hill, skirting this picturesque 

 valley. 



1 left Westcott-hill, and looking over 



the 



