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RANDAL RODE.

AMONG the pastoral mountains of Cumberland dwells an unmingled and patriarchal race of people, who live in a primitive manner, and retain many peculiar usages different from their neighbours of the valley and the town.

It happened on a fine summer afternoon, that I found myself engaged in the pursuit of an old fox, which annually preyed on our lambs, and eluded the vigilance of the most skilful huntsmen. Leaving Keswick far behind, I pursued my cunning adversary from glen to cavern, till, at last, he struck across an extensive tract of upland, and sought refuge in one of the distant mountains. I had not proceeded far ere I found myself alone and far behind-while the shout and cheer of my companions began to grow fainter and fainter, till at last I heard only the bleat of the flocks or the calling of the curlew. The upland on which I had entered appeared boundless on all sides, while amid the brown wilderness arose innumerable green grassy knolls, with herds of small black cattle and sheep grazing or reposing on their sides and summits. They seemed so' many green islands floating amid the ocean of brown blossom, with which the heath was covered.

I stood on one of the knolls, and, looking around, observed a considerable stream gushing from a small copse of hazel and lady-fern, which, seeking its way into a green and narrow dell, or glen, as it is called, pursued its course with a thousand freakish windings and turnings. While following with my

* From Cunningham's Traditions.

eye the course of the pure stream, out of which I had slaked my thirst, I thought I heard something like the sound of a human voice coming up the glen; and, with the hope of finding some of my companions, I proceeded along the margin of the brook. At first, a solitary alder, or hazel, or mountain ash, was all the protection the stream obtained from the rigour of the mid-day sun. The glen became broader and the stream deeper,―gliding over a bed of pebbles, shining, large, and round,—half-seen, half-hid, beneath the projection of the grassy sward it had undermined; and raising all the while that soft and simmering din, so well known to all lovers of rustic scenery. A narrow footpath, seldom frequented, wirded with the loops and turns of the brook. I had wandered along the margin nearly a quarter of a mile, when I approached a tree of green holly, on the top of which sat a raven, greybacked and bald-headed from extreme age, looking down intently on something which it thought worthy of watching beneath.

I reached the tree unheard or unheeded, for the soft soil returned no sound to my foot; and under it I found a woman seated on the grass. She seemed bordering on seventy years of age—with an unbent and unbroken frame—a look of ladylike stateliness-and an eye of that sweet and shining hazel colour, of which neither age nor sorrow had been able to dim the glance. Her hair, nut-brown and remarkably long in her youth, was now become as white as December's snow, and its profusion had also yielded like its colour to time,—for it hung, or rather flowed, over her shoulders in solitary ringlets, and scarcely afforded a minute's employment to her fingerswhich seemed to have been once well acquainted with arranging

in all its beauty one of nature's finest ornaments. As she disposed of each tress, she accompanied the motion of her hands with the verse of a legendary ballad, which she chanted, unconscious of my presence, and which probably related to an adventure of her ancestors.

When the old dame had finished her song, she opened her lap, from which she showered a profusion of flowers, on two green ridges which lay side by side beneath the shade of the holly. At each handful she strewed, she muttered, what sounded like the remains of an ancient form of prayer; when turning toward the path she observed me, and said,-" Youth. comest thou here to smile at beholding a frail woman strew the dust of the beautiful and the brave with mountain-thyme and scented hawthorn?" I soothed her by a tone of submission and reverence. "Eleanor Selby, I come not to scorn those who honour the fair and the brave. Had I known that the ancient lovers, about whom we so often sing, slept by this lonely stream, I would have sought Cumberland for the fairest and rarest flowers to shower on their grassy beds."-"I well believe thee, youth," said the old dame, mollified at once by my respect for the surname of Selby,-"how could I forget the altar of Lanercost and thee? There are few at thy wilful and froward time of life, who would not mock the poor wandering woman, and turn her wayward affections into ridicule; but I see thy respect for her, shining in those sweet and moist eyes of hazel. But, come, youth, come-the sun is fast walking down the side of the western mountains: Fremmet is a good mile distant; and we shall be wise to seek its porch, with an unset sun." She took my hand, and exerting an energy I little expected, we descended the glen toge

ther, keeping company with the brook, which received and acknowledged, by an augmented murmur, the accession of several lesser streams. At length we came where the glen, suddenly expanding into a beautiful vale, and the brook into a small, deep and clear lake, disclosed to my sight the whole domestic establishment of one of the dwellers in the mountainous regions of Cumberland.

On the northern side of the valley stood a large old-fashioned house. An old gateway and other remains of defences were still visible; but folds and pens usurped the trench and the rampart, and filled the whole southern side of the valley. The descendants of Randal Rode seemed to be sensible that their lot was cast in securer times, and instead of practising with the bow, or that still more fatal weapon the gun, or with the sword, or with the spear, they were collected on a small green plat of ground on the margin of the lake, to the number

of twelve or fourteen, indulging in the exercises of wrestling, leaping, and other rustic games. Several old white-headed men were seated at a small distance on the ground, maidens continually passed backwards and forwards, with pails of milk, or with new-moulded cheese, casting a casual glance at the pastime of the young men-the valley all the while remurmuring with the din of the various contests.

As we approached, a young man came running up to meet my old companion. "Welcome, Dame Eleanor Selby, welcome to Fremmet-ha'. For thy repose I have ordered a soft warm couch, and from no fairer hands than those of my own sister Maude, who I see is also coming to bid you welcome.

Maude Rode greeted old Eleanor with one of those silent glances which say so much, and spread her a seat, and ministered to her with the demeanour of the humblest handmaid of the house of Selby, when its splendour was fullest. This modest kindness soon had its effect on the descendant of this ancient house. She soon found herself at home; and her wild legends, and traditional tales, were related to no ungrateful ears.

"A bright fire, a clean floor, and a pleasant company," is one of the proverbial wishes of domestic comfort among the wilds of Cumberland. The moorland residence of Randal Rode exhibited the first and second portions of the primitive wish, and it required no very deep discernment to see that around the ample hearth there were materials for completing the proverb. Before a large fire, which it is reckoned ominous ever to extinguish, lay half a dozen sheep-dogs, spreading out their white bosoms to the heat, and each placed opposite to the seat of its owner. The lord of Fremmet-ha' himself lay