The Phenomena of Winter on the Banks of the Wye. 
folid features of the land{cape would be 
-yet unaltered; and, like the mere fketches: 
and outlines of a fiperior mater, would 
command the admiration of every judi- 
cious béholder.; «This being the cafe, it 
will be weadily concluded, that im every 
feafon of the year, the Wye and the fur- 
rounding country have their appropriate 
charms. 
My. firt vifit to thefe parts was in the 
middle of Autumn~a ieafon, if the wea- 
ther had been: fine, the moft favourable 
of any to the lover of the pictureique ; 
and having {een the country adorned with 
all the mellow tints of a-luxuriant and 
decaying foliage, it might naturally he 
expected, «that: when I afterwards  re- 
turned,-atethe ‘latter end of November, 
. Lihould be fomewhat diffatished with the 
chilling makednefs «of Winter. This, 
however, was fo far from being the cafe, 
that I had not been long at my little cot- 
tage (fituated on one of the fineft curves 
of this romantic river) before I was con-. 
vinced that, im fuch a» country; Winter 
has as many varieties as Summer; and 
that her phenomena, not always. leis 
beautiful, «are certainly more fublime.. 
Heavy tallsof\{now, that. whitened over 
‘the mountains, no fooner began to melt, 
than the river:iwelled to a turbid and 
boifterous torrent; the rage and awful 
nnpetuotityot which cannot be conceived 
by thofe) whovare «acquainted only with 
the torpids ferenity o* Englith rivers. 
‘The grandeur of this’ {cene was: confider-. 
ably heightened by the rains which fuc- 
ceeded sat the clofe of November, and 
duringya confiderable: part of the enfuing 
month. Such torrents, indeed, as were 
poured upon-usitrom the clouds, during 
this feafon,, are unprecedented, as far as 
Tecan underftand, in the memory of man. 
The. effects were proportionate tothe 
caufe., The river was repeatedly fwoln, 
and enraged (twice in’ particular) to a 
degree never befere xemembered, except 
pn the melting of the fevere troft in the 
month of February 1795; on which oc- 
cafion, as/ I underftand, was exhibised 
_ one.of the meft tremendous fcenes that 
‘ever. was beheld, 
Rails, land-marks, 
trees imnumerable, and even fheep, and 
cattle,» were borne down by the rapid tor- 
rents from the mountains, sor whirled 
away trom) thermeadows and low lands 
by! the: infuriated: courfe: of the river; 
whole ‘plantations were fhattered, and 
feveral bridges were entirely {wept away, 
Vait thoals: ot ice, mingling and erafhing 
with the general wreck, ingrealed the 
genfufien of the fcene, and the din and 
uproar of the. torrent; and), in fhort, 
from the account I have received from my. 
predeceflor in this little farm, (earth~ 
quakes» and volcanos excepted), a more 
fublime picture. of defolation could hardly 
be imagined. ‘The inundations of this 
Winter were not quite fo deftructive an 
their career. ‘Chey were not, however, 
without their fublimity or their terrors 5 
and once in particular, our whole valley 
feemed threatened, as it were, with an 
univerfal deluge. Through fome of our 
roads our hories were obliged rather to 
{wim than to wad@; and, though my cot- 
tage ftands higher by feveral yards than: 
the river has ever been known to fwell, 
even in the moft dreadful floods, we were 
not free from inundation from another 
quarter: for the water that poured from, 
the mountains, not being able to find fuf- 
ficient vent through the little dingle that 
divides my orchard pilot, flooded the 
whole road, {pread. itfeif over the fur- 
rounding green, and found its way into 
all the apartments of the ground floor. 
At the fame time, a mill that ftands oa. 
the Radnorthire fide of the river, was 
overwhelmed almoft to the very roof, and - 
thé inhabitants were obliged to efcape to 
the higher. neighbourhood for. fatety.. 
In the mean time, the phenomena were 
very grand; and, wrapped up ina large 
rougzh coat, 1 enjoyed. the. interefting 
{cenes from an. elevated alcove, which 
overhangs the river, and commands, at, 
one view, an extenfive reach of its fer- 
pentine meanders above, and a moft, 
peculiar and romantic curve below : 
along the former of which the torrent, 
came pouring in a vapid. and majeltic 
courfe, while through the, other it hud... 
dled along, foaming and dafhing and 
raging againft the banks, tumbling from 
rock to rock with a deafening roar, and 
whirling, in its impetuous eddies, frag- 
ments and limbs and trunks of trees, 
which it had torn away. in its courfe. In 
the mean time, the dim perfpettive of» 
hill beyond hill, and mountain towering: 
above mountain, in all the varieties of 
the picturefque and rémantic form, the 
general hazinefs of ‘the atmofphere, the . 
occafional rays of the fun tinging with 
tranfient glow fome rock or pafture, or 
hanging wood, and the vatt mafles of 
heavy vapour failing through the air, , 
completed the fublimity. of the tcene. 
Nor is reflection embittered by dwelling 
upon the confequences of thee, floods 
for the ravages they commit are. more 
than compenlated by the good which they 
diftribute, Tle wood that is thus born 
Yy% dewn 
~ 
