150 ENGLAND. 



fortable houses, cheerful villages, and well-stocked Farms, often ris- 

 ing in the neighbourhood of populous towns and cities, decorated 

 with the most vivid colours of nature, are objects of which an ade- 

 quate idea cannot be conveyed by description. The most barren, 

 spots are not without their verdure. But nothing can give us a high- 

 er idea of the English industry, than observing that some of the plea- 

 santest counties in the kingdom are naturally the most barren, but 

 rendered fruitful by labour. Upon the whole, it may be safely affirm- 

 ed, that no country in Europe equals England in the beauty of its- 

 prospects, or the opulence of its inhabitants. 



Mountains.. ..Though England is full of delightful rising grounds^ 

 and the most enchanting slopes, yet it contains few mountains. The 

 principal are the Peak in Derbyshire, the Endle in Lancashire, the 

 Wolds in Yorkshire, the Skiddaw and Saddle-back in Cumberland, 

 the Cheviot-hills on the borders of Scotland, the Chiltern in Bucks, 

 Malvern in Worcestershire, Cotswold in Gloucestershire, the Wre< 

 kin in Shropshire ; with those of Plinlimmon and Snowdon in Wales., 

 In general, however, Wales and the northern parts may be termed 

 mountainous. 



Forests. ...The first Norman kings of England, partly for political 

 purposes, that they might the more effectually enslave their new sub- 

 jects, and partly from the wantonness of power, converted immense 

 tracts of grounds into forests for hunting : and these were governed 

 by laws peculiar to themselves : so that it was necessary, about the 

 time of passing the Magna-Charta, to form a code of the forest-laws; 

 and Justices in Eyre, so called from their sitting in the open air, were 

 appointed to see them observed. By degrees those vast tracts were 

 disforested : and the chief forests, properly so called, remaining out 

 of no fewer than 69, are those of Windsor, New-Forest, the Forest 

 of Dean, and Sherwood Forest. These forests produced formerly 

 great quantities of excellent oak, elm, ash, and beach, besides wal- 

 nut-trees, poplar, maple, and other kinds of wood. In ancient times 

 England contained large woods, if not forests, of chesnut trees, 

 which exceeded all other kinds of timber for the purposes of build- 

 ing, as appears from many great houses still standing, in which the 

 chesnut beams and roofs remain still fresh and undecayed, though 

 some of them are above 600 years old. 



'Lakes... .The lakes of England are few; though it is evident from 

 history and antiquity, and indeed, in some places, from the face of the 

 country, that meres and fens have been frequent in England, till drain- 

 ed and converted into arable land. The chief lakes remaining are 

 Soham mere, Wittlesea mere, and Ramsey mere, in the isle of Ely, 

 in Cambridgeshire. All these meres in a rainy season are overflow- 

 ed, and form a lake of 40 or 50 miles in circumference. Winander 

 mere lies in Westmoreland : there are besides some small lakes in 

 Cumberland, the chief of which is Derwent-water. 



Rivers, springs, and mineral waters.., .The rivers in England 

 add greatly to its beauty as well as to its opulence. . The Thames, 

 which, from the situation of the capital on its banks, naturally claims 

 the first place among the rivers of England, rises on the confines of 

 Gloucestershire, a little S. W. of Cirencester ; and after receiving 

 the many tributary streams of other rivers, it passes to Oxford, then 

 by Abingdon, Wallingford, Reading, Marlow, and Windsor; from 

 thence to Kingston, where formerly it met the tide, which, since the 

 building of Westminster-bridge, is said to flow no higher than Rich- 



