A Visit To The English Lakes.

miniature painter , seems to have finished every part of it in a studied manner . " Sitting on the veritable " Poet ' s Seat , " a mound of rock overlooking the lake , we gaze our fill ; a small boat ri pples the water and breaks the reflection , the blue sk y setting off the green mountains to perfection . We resume our way until - " tho steep Of Silver How , and Grasmere ' s placid lake ,

And one green island , gleam between the stems Of the dark firs , a visionary scene . " To-day is a busy one ; the Grasmere annual sports are being observed , consisting of wrestling and running feats , etc ., which , however , we did not come to the lakes to see , so take a boat on the " peaceful Grasmere , " which is rather larger , but not quite so pretty as Rydal . As we gently glide along , we can say , with Mrs . Hemans : — " the hues that steep

Tour shores in melting lustre , seemed to float On golden clouds from spirit lands remote . " A short pull brings us to the " one green island , " on which we land , and on which the Prince of Wales has sported ; there is an outhouse built on it , with a poem of Wordsworth ' s written on one of its stones , beginning , " Rude is this edifice , " etc . Here we can fully appreciate the words of James Payne : —

" 0 lake most fair , set round -with mountain guards , Sweet birds , swift streams , eternal waterfall , Crag lichen , and wild vale flowers . " After our pleasant survey of the lake we repair to the old parish church , with its grey tower dedicated to St . Oswald . " Not raised in nice proportions was the pile

, But large and massive—for duration built , With pillars crowded , and the roof upheld By naked rafters , intricately crossed , Like leafless under-boughs , mid some thick grove , All withered by the depth of shade above . "

A prett y little cottage behind it , in " the little nook of mountain ground , " called Allan Bank , was inhabited for some years b y Wordsworth . We enter the church , and are struck with its simple appearance . On one of the inner walls is a medallion portrait of the poet , with an appropriate inscri p tion . Coming out , we are in the burial-ground , described b y Professor Wilson as—• — " a little churchyard on the side

Of a low hill that hangs o ' er Grasmere Lake , Most beautiful it is—a vernal spot Enclosed with wooded rocks , where a few graves Lie sheltered , sleeping in eternal calm . " Wordsworth , in his "Excursion , " also says : — " Green is the churchyard , beautiful and green , Ridge 2-ising gently by the side of ridge , And mantled o ' er with aboriginal turf And everlasting flowers . "

xn a quiet corner , sheltered by a yew-tree raised b y himself , and surrounded by the graves of his family , is ' the tomb Of the great poet of simplicity . " Behind is that of Hartley Coleridge , and , a few yards further , a slab to the memory of Arthur Hugh Clough , a college friend of the present "Poet Laureate . " At the other end of the churchyard is buried Wordsworth ' s faith-