Wig ton. 15 



We had fixed on crossing the Solway-Firth at 

 Bowness, as it was more pleasant to avoid Car- 

 lisle than to pass through that city. A change 

 of sentiments in one party, industriously and 

 daily urged, is capable of producing the like 

 effect on the other. The mistake, one day or 

 other, may be discovered and corrected; but till 

 that is done, it can be as little agreeable to 

 those good folks as to me, to have further in- 

 tercourse. 



The tide did not permit our landing on the 

 other side till late in the afternoon : this gave 

 us an opportunity of attending to the various 

 operations carrying on in the neighbourhood of 

 Wigton. The wastes which surround the town, 

 now enclosing, are in extent little short of six 

 thousand acres. A few months will exhibit a great 

 portion of these under cultivation. How delight- 

 ful to behold such an extensive tract, which hi- 

 therto has been nearly unproductive of human 

 sustenance, furnishing employment to the in- 

 dustrious, and giving food to many hundred 

 families. Nor are these improvements to be 

 regarded through the medium of the substantial 

 benefit only which they will produce ; for they 

 will highly contribute here, as in most other in- 

 stances, to the beauty and luxuriant appearance 

 of the country. Within the last ten years, not 



