AUGUST 159 



Returning from Scotland, we spent a few days near 

 Lancaster. The town is picturesquely situated. It is 

 full of sketching possibilities for those who delight, as 

 Turner did, in the glorification of commonplace objects 

 by the veiling and unveiling of smoke, and in the con- 

 stant colour-changes produced by the same. A very 

 handsome bridge crosses the broad Lune, and carries 

 the Preston and Kendal canal. This is one of the 

 curious historical records of the waste of a people's 

 money, and absolutely dead speculation. This canal was 

 just finished, with its magnificent engineering, at great 

 expense and with high hopes of its usefulness, imme- 

 diately before the railways came and rendered it almost 

 useless. Sleepy barges glide along it, profiting by its 

 dignified engineering, and creeping under its countless 

 bridges as they never could have done had it been cease- 

 lessly ploughed by small steamers, as was intended. I 

 do not exactly know why, but it brought back to my 

 mind from a consecutiveness of idea, I suppose the 

 elaborate fortifications of Quebec, the pride of George III.'s 

 heart, upon which had been spent the nation's money and 

 labour, and which were scarcely finished when the 

 developments of modern warfare rendered them useless. 

 Not very far from Lancaster, at Levens, is the famous 

 example of topiary gardening which figures in the last 

 edition of the ' English Flower Garden.' I was unfor- 

 tunately prevented from going to see it by deluges of 

 rain. 



