CHAP. XIV. 



LIBRARIES IN ESKDALE. 



493 



Thus there is scarcely a cottage in the valley in which 

 good books are not to be found under perusal ; and we 

 are told that it is a common thing for the Eskdale 

 shepherd to take a book in his plaid to the hill-side 

 a volume of Shakespeare, Prescott, or Macaulay and 

 read it there, under the blue sky, with his sheep and 

 the green hills before him. And thus, as long as the 

 bequest lasts, the good, great engineer will not cease to 

 be remembered with gratitude in his beloved Eskdale. 



., 



TELFORD'S NATIVE VALLEY, ESKDALE. 

 [By Percival Skelton ] 



