in the sixteenth century, the residence of one Humphrey Kynaston, a
notorious bandit. This, however, was not his own work, since Ness Cliff,
having been worked as a quarry, the cave, either by accident or design,
was wrought by the labourers, and used by them as _salle à manger_,
dormitory, or tool-house, according to circumstances. We proceeded to it
by a broad rising walk of red sand, delightfully wooded, and presenting
an enchanting view of the Brathyn and Wrekin, as well as the country for
some miles round. At the end of this walk is a gate, which opens into a
small grove; proceeding a little into which, we saw the cave in the high
red cliff immediately before us. We ascended by a considerable flight of
narrow and rugged steps cut from the solid rock: the interior of this
curious place is as black as a coal-mine, and a partition, more than
half the way across, divides the part where Kynaston used to reside
by day from that in which he slept and _kept his horse_, for he had
actually the ingenuity to make the animal ascend and descend the stairs
above-mentioned. The robber's initials, and the date of the year in
which we may suppose he cut them, appear on the partition just opposite
the entrance. The romance of the place was not a little augmented by the
appearance of its inhabitant, (a blacksmith,) whose tall, thin figure,
and whose pale, wild, and haggard countenance, well accorded with the
singularity of his abode. He read for our amusement and _instruction_,
I conceive, a few choice passages from a well-thumbed penny pamphlet,
purporting to contain the veritable history of the adventurous Kynaston;
from whence it appeared that Master Humphrey was a gentleman, like "that
prince of thieves," Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the
poor, avenging the innocent, and chivalrous where ladies, or the lure of
plunder, called forth his prowess; that his depredations were numerous,
even in the face of day, and in the teeth of his enemies; and yet that
those who admired and sided with him were for a considerable period the
terror of the whole legal force who were on the alert to seize him. This