yesterday we found the road black, here for about half the distance it is bright red, and red carts laden with red iron ore and driven by red men or boys are rumbling along to the port or the smelting-furnace. The ore which is of the kind termed hematite, is abundant in the neighbourhood, as also at Ulverstone, where as many a tourist will remember, it produces the same effect of colour on the roads and the miners. The red has a not unpleasing effect, seen between green hedgerows and lines of trees. Cumberland is now as likely to become famous for iron as for lead and coal. The long ascent brings you to an elevation, whence the view opens on the vale of St Bees and away to the sea. Then a long descent made disagreeable by the noise and dust from train after train of carts, and we come once more to Whitehaven; and my month's walk of nearly four hundred miles is ended. At four in the afternoon, I went on board the steamer for Liverpool. The sunshine still prevailed, and as we passed the Head, the lights and shades of the mighty range of cliffs appeared with marvellous effect, and the dip of the strata to the south was easily discernible. Then the mountains appeared, filling the view between the Head and Black Comb, a glorious range, still showing as two groups with Scafell as the central link. I could not tire of gazing at them, and as the movement of the vessel brought the peaks into new positions, I thought that from no other point of view had I ever seen the great mountain picture to more magnificent effect. Later we passed Walney Island, and the promontory over which Black Comb holds dominion; and the great expanse of Morecambe Bay seemed like another great sea opening on the east. Beyond it rose the hills of END OF A HOLIDAY. 443 Yorkshire; and before us in the south-west the mountains of Caernarvonshire loomed in great purple masses against the evening sky. Then the sun went down in wondrous pomp, and for a few minutes the darkening waters rolled and gleamed all ruddy and golden, as it were with a supernatural splendour that awed the beholder. By-and-by the gleam of lights far ahead, some stationary, some revolving, indicated our approach to the Mersey; one after another we left those solitary floating beacons behind; then a cry went round that we were passing the Bell buoy; twinkling lights multiplied; frequent and quick came the warnings from the look-out as we sped into the throng of vessels on their way to the port, and sharp and brief the steersman's voice in reply sounded far-off in the darkness. Anon, with a great sweep, we approached the long row of lamps that fringe the quays of Liverpool, and at half an hour before midnight we stepped on shore. And so my holiday ended with glorious impressions of the mountains and of the sea. AFTER-CHAPTER. An After-journey-Haltwhistle again-Cawfields Castle--The Wall-Rustic Philosophy-A Good Son-Coins and Bodles-Peel Crag-A Scrap from Camden-Can a Working-man get on ?-Housesteads and the Romans-Haydon Bridge-What Rome built the Wall for-Groups of Miners-The Smelt Mill-A Good Library-A Pack of Harriers -On to the Hills-Bleak Landscape-Allenheads-Treacherous Ground-That Sweep-A Good School-Happy Results-Thrifty Miners-Down the Lead-mine-Melodious Schoolmaster-Hydraulic Engines Wonderful Mining Operations - Economy of Water Newcastle The Two Candidates- Acklington - Felton - Winter having his own Way- Weldon Brig-Brinkburn - The Boys and the Pig. WHEN, after my return to London, I let the Chief Agent know of my adventure in Allendale, he was somewhat surprised, and more than once inquired whether I could not repeat my visit to that remote mining region, where many interesting things remained to be seen. For my part, I wanted to see that part of the Roman Wall which I had missed, between Housesteads and Carvorran, and had heard something concerning Brinkburn which made me wish to have another look at that venerable ruin, so I promised to take a supplementary trip to Northumberland, and travel up Allendale, even to Allenheads, its upper extremity, in the flanks of Kilhope Law. I was enabled to keep my promise in the second week of April of this present year, 1859. My start was a night journey to Carlisle, during which my thoughts ran back to their month of summer travel. The lights and shades of the wayfarer's day re-appear in his after experience, and it seemed to me almost as if I had numerous homes in Northumberland. Eslington had written, promising me such a "hearty welcome" if I would but "come again; Chillingham the same; Keeldar had sent me a brace of woodcocks packed in some of "the very hay that I helped to make in the buttery haugh, that I might get a smell of it." Most delightful odour, as indeed was to be expected. But there came a sad word with the friendly message from Chillingham; the kindhearted lady who poured out the refreshing cup of tea on that sultry July afternoon was carried to the churchyard ere the end of the year. Merry Carlisle" looked anything but merry, as I walked through pouring rain from one station to the other to catch the first train on the Newcastle line. Not very promising, I thought, for a walk along the crags. However, while I tarried to breakfast at Haltwhistle, the steady downpour broke up into showers. “It had been raining for a week," said the hostess, who, by the way, gave me a further piece of information which I must not forget to mention, namely, that since July a baker had set up in the town, and the folk found it nice to be able to get hot rolls for breakfast. In other respects the town is unaltered: the surgeon still lives under ancient thatch; Stick no Bills on this Prison still adorns the side of a small stone edifice; and the cottagers know no more about Housesteads than they did months ago, and that is nothing. I asked two or three who stood lounging at their doors, by way of experiment, how far it was to the old Roman city, and all replied, "Never heard tell o't." I walked up the hill, across Haltwhistle Common, got a distant view of Esica-Great Chesters, and struck the Wall at the gap named by Dr. Bruce, Pilgrims' Gap, where stands Cawfields Castle, the most perfect of the mile-castles between the two seas. It is a good specimen of these defensive structures: walls from nine to ten feet thick, inclosing a parallelogram of sixty-three feet by forty-nine. On the western side nine courses of stone remain in place: wonderful masonry, considering its age and history! The Great Wall forms its northern side, and in this, as well as in the southern wall, the gateways remain ten feet in width, solidly built of huge blocks; and there may be seen the recess into which the gate folded back, and the pivot holes in the lower stones. Eloquent vestiges these of the original builders, of the indomitable legions "Who, conqu'ring, came to civilise, We are here upon that remarkable range of crags, mentioned in a former chapter, and by keeping along their summit to Housesteads we shall see the bestpreserved portion of the Wall. In some places the cliff rises to five hundred feet of perpendicular height, presenting a mighty rampart to the north, and giving us, as it seems, an ever-widening prospect. After all I had a delightful walk, for the clouds broke up, and the damp lazy air worked itself into a vigorous breeze; and yard by yard there ran the Wall, in places higher than my head, exhibiting here and there gratifying signs of the intelligent, and I may say affectionate, care bestowed thereon by Mr. Clayton. I need not go into particulars, and tell of the climbing over fences, the steep descent into gaps, at Thorny |