351 



some huge remains of Cyclopean masonry. Here large patches of 

 Rosa spinosissima occur, with Astragalus glycyphyllus, Carlina vul- 

 garis, Gentiana campestris," Sedum anglicum and acre, and Scutellaria 

 galericulata ; and close upon the sea 1 found on one occasion Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare, Asplenium marinum, and A. Adiantum-nigrum, one 

 patch of each, growing very sociably together on the ground, sheltered 

 from the salt spray under a great i - ock. On the cliffs at Port o'War- 

 ren, on this and a former occasion, I gathered Raphanus maritimus 

 and Carex remota, and on the beach Glaucium luteum, not a scarce 

 plant on this coast. The hill above furnishes a magnificent prospect. 

 To the south you have the boundless ocean, along which, from St. 

 Bees Head to where the symmetrical peaks of Mona appear in the 

 blue distance, 



" Set like a sapphire in the casing sea," 



fleets of merchantmen are occasionably visible fringing the horizon. 

 On the left the eye takes in at a sweep a fine panorama of the English 

 coast, from St. Bees to Bowness, presenting a rich and cultivated sea- 

 board, rising from the wave-brink and the bright towns that border it 

 with gentle undulations upward to the lofty Skiddaw, broad Saddle- 

 back, and the rest of the massive group which forms the back-bone of 

 "rocky Cumberland," exhibiting, when the sun brings out their iron 

 forms in relief, fearful precipices on their scarped sides one almost 

 shudders to look upon, although diminished by distance to the dimen- 

 sions of mountains of faery ; again, on the Scottish side, across the 

 narrowing frith, the expanse of sand that constitutes the point of 

 Southerness, with its tall white lighthouse ; next a rich carse land 

 hedged in from the sea breeze by belted trees ; then the brown and 

 rugged cliffs, sweeping past to Hestan and the Airds of Balcary, and 

 chafed by the restless surge, beyond which, and where sunshine and 

 shadow are chasing each other over a smoother sea, but diversified bv 

 breakers margining treacherous sand-banks, flocks of white-bosomed 

 sea-fowl are scattered like stars in a lower firmament; and, turning, 

 your view is bounded behind by the granite hills from Criffel to Ben- 

 gairn, wild and bare, but relieved from monotony by cottage, hamlet, 

 and silent tarn. Near the farm-house of Port Ling I met with several 

 plants of Sanguisorba officinalis, of a variety apparently analagous to 

 that of Plantago lanceolata with globular heads. The majority of 

 these had only one head of flowers, and that much rounder than 

 usual. The coast hence to the Urr, besides most of the plants 



