228 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



At Bowness, about midway of the lake, we left the 

 coach for the first time for any other kind of convey- 

 ance. After enjoying a rare treat in a sail up and down 

 the lake in the pretty steamer, we rejoined the coach at 

 Ambleside, where we had ordered it to await us. 



Passing Storr's Hall, the mind wandered back to the 

 meeting there of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Chris- 

 topher North, and greater than all, our own Walter 

 Scott ; and surely not in all the earth could a fitter spot 

 than this have been found for their gathering. How 

 much the world of to-day owes to the few names who 

 spent days together here ! Not often can you say of 

 one little house, " Here had we our country's honor 

 roofed " to so great an extent as it would be quite al- 

 lowable to say in this instance. But behold the vanity of 

 human aspirations ! If there was one wish dearer than 

 another to the greatest of these men, it was that Ab- 

 botsford should remain from generation to generation 

 the home of his race. This very hour, while sailing on 

 the lake, a newspaper Avas handed to me, and my eye 

 caught the advertisement, " Abbotsford to let," fol- 

 lowed by the stereotyped description, so many recep- 

 tion-rooms, nursery, outbuildings, and offices, suitable 

 for a gentleman's establishment. Shade of the mighty 

 Wizard of the North, has it come to this! Oh, the pity 

 of it ! the pity of it! Well for your fame that you 

 built for mankind other than this stately home of your 

 pride. It will crumble and pass utterly away long be- 



