EARLY LIFE. 21 



neighbouring gentleman. The house, which is modern, 

 is a handsome building, somewhat like the Physicians' 

 Hall, though without pillars: it is vastly naked, being 

 placed in the midst of a moor or common, with little 

 or no wood of any size about it, and the garden above 

 half a mile from the house. Mr Yates's agreeable 

 family consists of two grown-up daughters (the 

 youngest of whom, with her mother, is now in Edin- 

 burgh consulting Mr Bell), and three sons, the eldest 

 about 16, the youngest 9. 



" About the end of June, Mr Mitchell, James, and 

 I made an excursion to the Lakes, about twenty-five 

 miles from this, and staid there a day or two. The 

 lake at Keswick is certainly a most grand, romantic, 

 and agreeable sight. A fine sheet of water expanded 

 in the bottom of a most beautiful valley, surrounded 

 by mountains of wood, and interspersed with woody 

 islands (one of which is faced with a mock fortifica- 

 tion, and is the residence of a country squire). The 

 lake begins with a fine cascade and terminates in a 

 beautiful river. The whole of this enchanting scene, 

 lighted up by a most beautiful morning, presented to 

 persons like us, unaccustomed to such sights, a picture 

 of beauty and sublimity not to be easily forgotten. At 

 one end is the celebrated vale of Borrowdale, at the other 

 the neat town of Keswick, where we saw a very fine 

 museum filled with great curiosities, both ancient and 

 modern, but scarcely to be compared with Weir's in 

 Edinburgh, though of a more universal nature. Be- 

 sides the Lakes, I have been much about since spring 



