Visit To Stratford-On-Avon And Its Vicinage.

credulity A \ 'hen I ask for belief in my assertion that this ramble in a fine sylvan part of the country , hallowed by its historical recollections , was alike im-igorating to my body and my mind ; for , as WordsAVorth , the great high-priest of nature , beautifully expresses it in his noble poem , " composed in 1798 , a few miles above

Tin tern Abbey , on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye : "' ' Not for this Faint I , nor mourn , nor murmur ; other gifts Have follow'd , for such loss , I Avould believe , Abundant recompense . For I have learn'd To look on Nature , not as in the hour Of thoughtless youthbut hearing oftentimes

, The still sad music of humanity , Nor harsh , nor grating , though of ample power To chasten and subdue . And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused , Whoso dwelling is the liht of setting suns

g , And the round ocean , and the living air , And the blue sky , and in the mind of man ; A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things , all objects of all thought , And rolls through all things . Therefore am I still A loA er of the meadoAvs and the AA'oods And mountains , and of all that AVC behold

From this green earth ; of all the mighty Avorld Of eye and ear , both Avhat they half create And Avhat perceive ; well pleased to recognise In Nature , and the language of the sense , The anchor of my purest thoughts , the nurse , The guide , the guardian of my heart and soul , Of all my moral being . "

On Saturday morning , the 11 th June , 1 S 59 , after an early breakfast , I left the Bury station of the East Lancashire Railway , by the first" cars " for Manchester , in order to catch the Parliamentary train from that city to Birmingham . The weather was unsettled when I left Bury , but by the time the train reached the Salford stationthe terminus of the East Lancashire line in that

, direction , the rain was falling in torrents . All the cabs are presently engaged , and I have no alternative but to walk to the London Eoad Station , at Bank Top , and " bide the pelting of this pitiless storm ; " for , like the night in the second scene of the third act of King Lear , it " pities neither wise men nor fools . "

Eeader , Avas't thou ever in Manchester on a thoroughly wet day ? Except for variety , thou needst not Avish to be . A good umbrella overhead , and some good cowhide under foot , tanned with genuine oak-bark b y Bro . Martin , of Great Ayton , saves me pretty tolerab ' ly from the wet ; though the smoke it penetrates my lungs until

I am nearly suffocated , and irritates my eyes until they are quite painful . Eight glad am I , therefoz'e , after securing a ticket , when the ring-ting-ting of the porter ' s bell , and cries of " take your seats for Stafford , Wolverhampton , and Birmingham , " announces the time for departure . Punctually at half-past eight o ' clock in the

morning we _ leave Manchester ; and , after calling at Longsight , JLeveushuime , Heaton Chapel , and Heaton Norris , within twenty minutes from the time of starting Ave arrive at Stockport . Hitherto I have not got out of the cotton district , but now ' that we haA'e reached the fine pastoral county of Cheshire , I know that my lungs will

soon cast off the smoke which they have been breathing , and regale themselves with an unlimited supply of oxygen . My eyes too will be refreshed by looking once more upon bucolic scenes . Thank God for railways ! for Avithout them IIOAV could the inhabitants of our o-reafc hi \ 'es of industry ever get their bodies out of the smoke into the fresh air , or gladden their eyes and ears with the soul-purifying sights and sounds of nature ?

Past Cheadle , Handforth , Wilmslow , Alderley , Chelford , Holmes Chapel , and Sandback stations , and by ten o ' clock iu the forenoon , after already haA-ing glimpses of fine sylvan scenery , Ave have arrived at Crewe . There is no time , howe \ er , to inspect the hall designed-by Inigo Jones , whom Bro . Preston informs us " Avas nominated

Grand Blaster of England , and was deputized by his sovereign to preside over the lodges . " I may , howe \ er , mention that during the civil Avars it sustained two assaults , having been occupied alternatel y by Parlimentariaus and Royalists . It could not be otherwise than interesting to the brotherhood if intelligent members of

the Craft would visit the buildings of interest in their OAvn neighbourhoods , and report , through the pages of the MAGAZINE , IIOAV much yet remains of the structures by our ancient brethren before the divorce of operative and speculative Masonry . But the train is oft' again ; and after passing the

stations of Basford , Madeley , * Whitmore , StandonBridge , and Norton Bridge , Ave arrive at the metropolis of Staffordshire . Stafford is a p lace of considerable antiquity ; and the fortress-looking jail and fine old cruciform church of St . Mary , show Avell from the railway , as indeed , does the whole city with the rich pastoral country

around it for a relief . The ride from the commencement of Cheshire , and until Ave are past Stafford is a very pleasant one ; indeed you cannot judge by the scenery where Cheshire ends and Staffordshire begins . But Ave are presently off from Stafford , famous for its manufacture of shoesand , passing the stations of PenridgeSpread

, , Eagle , Four Ashes , and Bushbury , in three-quarters of an hour Ave arrive at Wolverhampton , formerly called Hauipton , until Wulfrana employed certain of our brethren to erect a monastery in the tenth century ,

which she endowed , and from her the place came gradually to be called Wolverhampton . It has longbeen celebrated for its manufacture of locks and keysthings which , were the whole human race truly actuated by Masonic principles would be totally unneeded ; as Ave should only require latches or snecks to keep the Avind from bloAA'ing our doors open . As I watch the

SIOAVlnoving barge in the canal , I cannot hel p thinking of Charles Dickens ' s Little Nell , of whom my poor departed friend , E . M . Heavisides , has Avell observed .: — " It must be a hard heart indeed that can read with indifference the history of the life and death of this promising child—a coarse and unfeeling mind that can

turn from it without experiencing its softening influence —and a dull spirit that can perceive in it no rays of heavenly brightness , nor hues ofeA'erlasting and unfading beauty . " In five minutes Ave are off from Wolverhampton , up the once pleasant Stour Valley , which UOAV looks for all

the world as if some grim demon had scorched up every blade of grass , withered every tree , aud desolated the district with floods of lava . Oh ! that Dante could have seen it before he AATote his Inferno ! for he has nothing in his whole poem so demoniacal as it appears to be , judging from the view I could obtain from the . railroad .

And yet , doubtless , there are noble hearts even here ; but if I considered one portion of the human race more in need of the sublime teachings of Freemasonry than another , I should say that it is the men doomed to pass their existence in such sterile scenes as these . The colliery districts of Durham and the cotton districts of Lancashire are some of them unpoetieal enough , _ but I never saw anything so hideous as the iron districts of Staffordshire . Dash away , then , past Ettingshall Eoad