A Run To The Lakes.

" Mighty Helvellyn are seen towering in bold relief against the horizon . Numerous villages aud cottages here and there gleaming * amongst the exuberant foliage impart an aspect of domestic beauty to the unrivalled landscape , and supply all that is necessary to complete the picture .

The picturesque element in this English fairyland so strongly overshadows and dwarfs every other subject , that it Avill not be easy for us to bear in mind the object we have always more or less in view while travelling , viz ., to obtain some personal information concerning the condition of

the people . The readers of the Builder have had abundant evidence for concludin g that the most beautiful and romantic district of a country is not necessarily the most salubrious and healthy ; and , although Ave shall not be able to point to such flagrant cases of sanitary neglect in the Lake

districts as Ave were unfortunately compelled to do in Buckinghamshire or NeAveastle , still Ave think that the few observations Ave have been able to make will not be altogether useless . For one thing these lovely lakes are very wet places , and , as all good meteorologists knowthey are

si-, g nalized by a rainfall which is beyond comparison the heaviest in England . This fact is of itself sufficiently interesting * to admit of our devoting * some consideration to the condition of existence in the Lake district .

At the same time we must not be supposed to be insensible to the natural beauty and grandeur of the scenery . It is indeed impossible for an Englishman not to feel proud of his native country as he stands over the brink of Windermere , or climbs to the summit of Skiddaw or

Helvellyn ! A thousand associations arise to connect the romantic beauty with much that is memorable in English history ; Avith the superstitions of the ancient Druids ; the Eoman encampments ; the Anglo-Saxon Kings ; the Norman Conquest ; the wars Avith the Scotch ; andfinallyAA'ith the

un-, , fortunate fate of the last of the Earls of Derwentwater . Here Ave stand in presence of the genius loci of some of England ' s greatest modern poets , of AA'honi Southev and WordsAvorfch haA r e found in

the old picturesque churchyards of tho district their final resting-place ; and here , too , are the veritable scenes of the labours of such philosophers as Dalton and Sedgwick , AA *] IO endeavoured not unsuccessfully to educe from the chaos of physical phenomena the true theories of a Avell-ordered and

harmonious universe . The stranger Avho traverses these regions for the first time will be at no loss , if he study the guide-books , to find such associations recalled . Not to speak of WordsAVorth ' s admirable Avork on the scenery of the Lakes , Ave have in this quarter such a prolific crop of .

guidebooks that Ave seriously question if any jjlace in all England — the metropolis excepted—could boast of a literature so extensive . To judge from its popularity and compact information , Ave may reasonably suppose that Black ' s is the best for all

practical purposes ; still , there is valuable stuff contained in them all . Miss Martineau , it is worth mentioning , has Avritten a rather attractive account of the scenery in which she loves to chvell ; of which account we mi ght have been better satisfied had it contained less of that

ingenious lady ' s peculiar opinions . For example , she tells the tourist " that he must spend a day on the mountains , and if alone , so . much the better . If he knosYs Avhat it is to spend a day so far above the every-day world , he is aAvare that it is good to Joe alone . " * To this doctrine Ave are afraid we

must decidedl y demur ; since long experience has taught us that it is better to travel in pairs through all such unfrequented passes either in the English lakes or Scottish highlands . There is only one other little objection Ave must make to the guidebooks ( in most of Avhichby the Avayand as a

, , matter of course , there are many scientific and even topograiDhical inaccuracies ) , and that is the conceit of comparing the English lakes with those of Switzerland and Italy . Thus Windermere is the English Zurich ; Derwentwater is Lake Como ;

Ulleswafcer is Lucerne ; and so on . Such fanciful analogies can serve no good purpose . Those who know the continental lakes best will pronounce that neither in "lake , alp , nor cloud , " to use Mr . Euskin ' s points , is there anything else than a very distant

resemblance . The geological character is different ; tho sky is very different ; the climate , of course , is entirely different . Equally out of place , in our opinion , is a comparison AA'ith the Scotch lochs , which are possessed of another and distinct order of grandeur . It is Pennantthe rince of tourists

, p , AA'ho , if we recollect properly , someAvhere very happily applies a story of Queen Elizabeth ' s time to this very subject . Sir James Melville , the Scotch ambassador at the English court , Avas one day asked in a jesting manner by the Queen , whether he thouht she Avas as handsome as

g Mary Queen of Scots Avas reported to be ? " Most gracious lacby , " replied the wily statesman , " your majesty is the most beautiful Avoman in England ; and my mistress is the most beautiful Avoman in Scotland .- "

It is often a matter of surprise on the part of the travellers that the Lake district should be so destitute of those local traditions and ancient ballads with which the rest of the border country is so profusely enriched . Southey tells us , indeed , by way of hypothesis , "that there is little or

nothing of historical or romantic interest belonging to this region ; for this part of the country Avas protected by the Sohvay and by its natural strength ; nor does it appear at any time after it became English to have been troubled with feuds . The inhabitants being left in peace , had

therefore neither ballad heroes nor ballad poets , happy in having afforded no field for the one and no materials of this kind for the other . " But ,