516 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



all the machinery now in use on the island. To }3roduce a 

 maximum of effect by the water which falls on any hill, it 

 ought to be collected in zones, the upper zone being formed 

 50 or ] 00 ft. lower than the summit of the hill or moun- 

 tain, and each succeeding zone being made at a distance 

 below the other, of a foot or two more than the diameter of the 

 water-wheel to be driven by it. The number of wheels of 

 50 ft. diameter which might thus be driven between the foot 

 and the summit of a conical mountain 1500 ft. high, and 

 whose base covered an area of two thousand acres, might 

 easily be calculated ; and the calculation would furnish data 

 for estimating the power of any number of irregular moun- 

 tains. It may possibly happen that in some future age, when 

 the coal mines are exhausted, the manufactures of Britain will 

 be transferred from the plains of Lancashire, Warwickshire, 

 Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and other counties, to the 

 highlands of Scotland, to North Wales, and to the lake 

 scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland. To those whose 

 patriotism can embrace a period of a thousand years, this view 

 of British manufactures may be consolatory. As to coal for 

 domestic fuel, if all the coal, not only in Britain, but in the 

 whole world, were exhausted, it would be easy for every 

 family to grow its own fuel ; even without any farther im- 

 provements in the mode of application, than those which 

 have been already suggested (Vol. VI. p. 145.), or any new 

 discoveries in chemistry. An easy method of expressing, from 

 common air, sufficient heat for all domestic purposes, may 

 probably be discovered long before coal is exhausted. 



In the mean time, the lake district, besides its adaptation for 

 the growth of timber and for pasture, is, by its varied surface, 

 rocks, and waters, admirably suited for the summer residences 

 of persons engaged in business in towns ; and as soon as 

 railroads are completed between London and the large manu- 

 facturing towns of the north, including Lancaster and Car- 

 lisle, an event which must inevitably take place before ten 

 years have elapsed, we hope to see the hills thickly studded 

 with villas and cottages from their bases to their summits. 

 This seems to us the second step in the progress of the appli- 

 cation of the lake scenery to the purposes of human use and 

 enjoyment, as covering it with pasturage and wood was the 

 first, and as the establishment of water-mills will be the third. 

 We are aware how much this prospective view will shock a 

 number of the present residents on the lakes ; but we cannot 

 sympathise with exclusiveness, even in natural scener3\ Na- 

 ture made the lakes and the surrounding rocks and mountains 

 in all their rudeness, as she made the crab and the sloe : 

 from these man has produced the golden pippin and the 



