42 Mr. Faraday on the 



company. He was given to poetry, and in the " Fortnight's 

 Ramble to the Lakes," referred to in the following letters, 

 there are not only verses descriptive of an ascent of Hel- 

 vellyn in 1793, but others composed in a friend's bungalow 

 in Bengal, whither he proceeded with his regiment, in 1784. 

 The " Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes " is perhaps best 

 remembered as having contained the first description 

 of the famous " Beauty of Buttermere." For the sake of our 

 local literary credit I may be permitted to quote the passage, 

 which, written immediately before the era of the Lake Poets, 

 is not unworthy in its elegant simplicity of the pen of the 

 author of " The Doctor " : — 



" Her mother and she were spinning woollen yarn in the back kitchen. On 

 our going into it, the girl flew away as swift as a mountain sheep, and it was 

 not until our return from Scale Force that we could say we first saw her. 

 She brought in part of our dinner, and seemed to be about fifteen. Her hair 

 was thick and long, of a dark brown, and, though unadorned with ringlets, did 

 not seem to want them ; her face was a fine oval, 'with full eyes and lips as red 

 as vermilion ; her cheeks had more of the lily than the rose ; and although she 

 had never been out of the village (and I hope will have no ambition to wish it) 

 she had a manner about her which seemed better calculated to set off dress, 

 than dress her. She was a very Lavinia, 



Seeming, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most. 

 When we first saw her at her distaff, after she had got the better of her first 

 fears, she looked an angel ; and I doubt not but she is the reigning lily of the 

 valley. Ye travellers of the Lakes, if you visit this obscure place, such you will 

 find the fair Sally of Buttermere." 



Some years later poor Mary obtained increased notoriety 

 in consequence of the cruel fraud practised upon her by a 

 fugitive from justice, John Hatfield, who, representing him- 

 self to be the Honourable Colonel Hope, brother of Lord 

 Hopetoun, obtained her hand in marriage. Shortly after- 

 wards the imposter was apprehended, and executed at 

 Carlisle for forgery on September 3, 1803. After his mar- 

 riage with an Irish heiress, Miss Palmer, of Palmerstown 

 and Bellingham Lodge, on February 27th, 1787, Captain 

 (then Lieutenant) Budworth added the name of Palmer to his 

 own, though it will be observed that in the following letters 



