1810.) Journal of a Winter Tour from Leeds to London. 
little villages, Low and High Harrowgate, 
chiefly supported by the company ‘who 
resort from all parts of the United King- 
doms, either for health, pleasure, or 
gambling. It possesses two advantages 
over inany other places of fashionable 
summer resort. ‘The first 1s that of 
Vicinity to many interesting objects, and 
much picturesque scenery: among the 
former of which may be reckoned Hare- 
wood House, and Ripon Minster; 
and amongst the latter, the wild con- 
fusion of Bramham rocks; the tasteful 
Improvement of nature in Plumpton 
gardens; the town and river at Knares- 
borough; and the grounds of Hack Fall 
and Studleigh. The next advantage at- 
tending this assemblage of gaiety, is the 
variety of company which it draws to- 
gether. ‘The sea is the same in all parts 
of the coast: and as evéry body goes to 
the place nearest his own home, almost 
‘ail sea-bathing quarters are little better 
than county-meetings. A stranger is 
looked upon with curiosity, and almost 
with suspicion, until he is just going 
away: and he wlio wishes to contem- 
plate human nature at large, sees only the 
manners of alittle province. But Har- 
rowgate being, like Bath and Buxton, 
unique, you have here a delightful med- 
ley of Scotch, English, and Irish: the 
London cockney, the Oxford pedant, 
the petit-maitre, and the Yorkshire fox- 
hunter. Character is here found in the 
‘most luxuriant variety ; and the collision 
of these different individuals, all reduced 
‘to an equality, and all throwing off re- 
serve, is whimsically grotesque. 
In High Harrowgate there are three 
excellent inns, or boarding-houses: 
the Granby, the Dragon, and the 
Queen’s Head; respectively known, 
from the character of -their guests, by 
the names of the House of Lords, the 
House of Commons, and the Manches- 
ter Warehouse. Those who have much 
cash to spare,’ and a fine retinue of horses 
and servants, may drive to the first; 
those who chouse to play may ride to 
the second ; while all who luok for plain 
intelligent society, and comfortable 
cheap accommodation, may direct the 
coach to set them down, with their 
portmanteaus, at the aforesaid Man- 
chester Warehouse. The company at 
these houses give balls to each other, once 
every week in the season. There is a 
circulating library at Harrowgate—would 
Harrowgate be a watering-place without 
it? a chapel, where the minister lives on 
’ subscriptions from the visitors ; who also 
relieve the parish by being sconced for 
Monruty Mac, No, 200, 
= 
545 
all the briefs: and a methodist meeting- 
house, where the godly few pray for the 
visitors of that abandoned village, given 
up to the vanities of a wicked world. 
One of these devotees cheated me in 
the matter of a horse though. The 
chabybeate-well stands in Higher Har 
rowgate: Lower Harrowgate is the 
 purgatory.”* IT speak literally of in- 
valids: and indeed it is not surprising 
that men of pleasure should have an in- 
stinctive dislike to it, from its vicinity to 
that sulphureous pool which continually 
sends forth its nauseous exhalations. 
There is a good inn here however, called 
the Crown, of which one detached apart- 
ment is denominated the Infirmary, or 
lazar-house ; being the Lemnos to which 
every unhappy Philuctetes is removed, 
whose cadavarous leg, anointed with the 
oil of olibanum, renders him unfit for the 
society of those who suffer from less of+ 
fensive wounds. 
At the distance of a few miles from 
Harrowgate Jie. Plumpton gardens, a 
pleasure-ground belonging to lord Hare- 
wood. ‘Their beauty consists in a wide 
sheet of water, surrounded by wild crags, 
which are finely overhung with wood. 
In this artificial lake there are several 
istands. The waters seem to wind 
round bold projecting rocks; and some- 
times falling back, form a beautiful bay: 
in the wood above there are pleasant 
umbrageous walks. In proceeding from 
Plumpton to Knaresborough, by the 
river, a noble scene appearsabout a mile 
below the town, where a high and bold 
crag forms the prominent object. The 
picturesque mill at its base, the sloping 
and finely-wooded banks, the winding 
river, and the .bold town and castle of 
Knaresborough at a distance, form, to-~ 
gether with the rock, as delightful a pic- 
ture as the eye of taste can desire to 
contemplate. 
Knaresborough is a very  picts- 
resque town as it is seen from the most 
favourable point of view, the bridge. 
It contains as many raree-shews as in- 
vention could well devise for unbur- 
thening the idle folks from Harrowgate 
of their money. Here is St. Robert’s 
chapel, the former residence of a her~ 
mit; a small apartment hewn out of the 
rock, with a mosaic. pavement, and the 
figure of a warrior.~ Fortmontague, a 
house likewise excavated from the rock, 
having four rooms ‘above each other, 
= 
* The lower well of Harsowgate contains 
sea-Salt, purging salt, and sulphur: and the 
waters are esteemed an excellent alterative, 
purgative, and anthelminthisk medicine. 
4 A, ang 
