same time--William Westall (who has engraved it among his admirable views
of Keswick,) Glover, and Edward Nash, my dear, kind-hearted friend and
fellow-traveller, whose death has darkened some of the blithest
recollections of my latter life. I know not from which of the surrounding
heights it is seen to most advantage; any one will amply repay the labour
of the ascent; and often as I have ascended them all, it has never been
without a fresh delight. The best near view is from a field adjoining
Friar's Craig. There it is that, if I had Aladdin's lamp, or Fortunatus's
purse (with leave of Greenwich Hospital be it spoken,) I would build myself
a house.

Thither I had strolled, on one of those first genial days of spring which
seem to affect the animal not less than the vegetable creation. At such
times even I, sedentary as I am, feel a craving for the open air and
sunshine, and creep out as instinctively as snails after a shower. Such
seasons, which have an exhilarating effect upon youth, produce a soothing
one when we are advanced in life. The root of an ash tree, on the bank
which bends round the little bay, had been half bared by the waters during
one of the winter floods, and afforded a commodious resting-place, whereon
I took my seat, at once basking in the sun and bathing, as it were, in the
vernal breeze. But delightful as all about me was to eye, and ear, and
feeling, it brought with it a natural reflection, that the scene which I
now beheld was the same which it had been and would continue to be, while
so many of those with whom I had formerly enjoyed it, were past away. Our
day-dreams become retrospective as we advance in years; and the heart feeds
as naturally upon remembrance in age as upon hope in youth.

"Where are they gone, the old familiar faces?"

I thought of her, whom I had so often seen plying her little skiff upon