tastrophe took place on November 3d, 1797, in the fifty-seventh year of his life. The deep regrets of all who knew him-of those the most to whom he was best known-render it unnecessary to enter into any further description of a character, the essense of which was to be amiable. A man's writings have often proved very inadequate tests of his dispositions. Those of Dr. Enfield, however, are not. They breathe the very spirit of his gentle and generous soul. He loved mankind, and wished nothing so much as to render them the worthy objects of love. This is the leading character of those of his discourses which have been selected for publication; as it is, indeed, of all he composed. May their effect equal the most sanguine wishes of their benevolent author! (C. p. 122.) DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY ABOUT DORKING. Ir is a sufficiently trite remark, that objects of admiration and curiosity near at hand are commonly neglected for those at a distance; and that even their existence is often unknown to those who might become spectators of them any day of their lives. I was never more struck with the truth of this observation, than on a late residence for some weeks at Dorking, in Surrey, the vicinity of which place affords scenes not only of such uncommon beauty, but of so romantic a cast, as few would expect to meet with so near the metropolis. I should probably have made use of the term picturesque to characterise the general scenery of this district, had I not been fully convinced by the ingenious Mr. Gilpin, that this word loses all true meaning the instant we deviate from its etymological definition, that of “fitness for pictured representation." Now, being myself but a very inadequate judge of this point, and, moreover, considering it as a manifest degradation of natural beauty and sublimity to submit their merit to the test of the capacity of art to copy them, I shall rather obliterate from my descriptive vocabulary an epithet, however fashionable, than employ it without distinct ideas. The tract of which I mean to attempt a slight sketch, may be reckoned to commence at the pleasant village of Leatherhead, whence a narrow valley extends southwards, forming the bed of the small river Mole, in its course from the foot of Box-hill. The western side of this valley is composed of a chain of heights, the principal part of which is comprehended in the precincts of Norbury park. To them succeed the hills of Ranmer and Denbeighs, which last bends round to join the long ridge running towards Guilford. The eastern side of this valley is formed by the rising grounds of Leatherhead and Mickleham Downs, and finally by Box-hill, which like its opposite Denbeighs, sweeps round to form the ridge running on to Ryegate, and thence quite. into Kent. Thus, the vale of Leatherhead, after a course of about four miles, terminates perpendicularly in another vale, opening on each hand from the town of Dorking, and extending many miles in an eastern and western direction. The river Mole, entering Leatherhead vale from the foot of Box hill, and meandering through it from side to side, bestows on it a beautiful verdure and rich vegetation, though from its narrowness and scanty supply of water, it contributes little to the landscape. Many are the elegant seats and pleasant farms and cottages which decorate this delightful vale; but its two capital objects. are Norbury park on one hand, and Box hill on the other. Norbury park is well known as the domain of Mr. Locke, a gentleman highly celebrated for the elegance and correctness of his taste. It is fortunate that a tract so favoured by nature should have fallen to the lot of a master capable of giving it all the advantages of art, in a style perfectly correspondent with its natural character. The grounds of Norbury consists of rich meadows bordering on the Mole, and abruptly terminating in the steep green sides of a range of irregular eminences, of considerable height, and uniting into a common level at the top. Chalk hills, of which kind are those in question, have commonly a grotesque singularity in their outline. They give the idea of having been formed by vast masses of liquid mortar, poured along over a plain, and at once setting into solidity. Hence, with a general rotundity of shape, the edges are composed of unequal promi nences, pushing into or retiring from the subjacent low grounds, and separated from each other by deep narrow ravines. Such is the surface nature has given to Norbury park. Art has contributed the dress and decoration by means of planting; and this has been managed so as to produce the most striking effects, The bottom of meadow is besprinkled with fine trees, partly following the windings of the river, partly forming rows or avenues, and partly scattered without obvious order. The bold ascents, consisting of round knolls and amphitheatrical sweeps, are for the most part left in their natural nakedness; but the ravines are filled up with shrubs and trees, which shade all deformities, and add great softness and richness to the whole. The summit of the eminence is crowned by noble masses of trees, expanding into full luxuriance, and appearing either as detached groups, or long connected ranges, according to the points whence they are viewed. In the midst of these, on the very edge of a commanding brow, the house is placed; an edifice of striking though not quite regular architecture, and well fitted to reign over the domain in which it is placed. Some fine larches planted near it just on the descent stamp it with somewhat of an alpine character, which its elevation above the vale, and the great variety and extent of prospect visible from it, enable it to maintain. The level plain around the house is a lawn interspersed with timber, chiefly beech, disposed either in grand clumps, or in single trees of vast magnitude, filling the eye with the gigantic rotundity of their forms. The planting is so managed that the lawn seems to terminate all round in a close wood, of which the boundaries are not discoverable. From the house extends a sort of terrace on the brow of the eminence, which at length leads to a thick plantation clothing the steep sides of a precipitous declivity. Through this are led rides and walks, presenting sylvan scenes of exquisite beauty, in which the beeches, drawn up to a vast height with straight unbranched trunks, acquire a character of airy elegance, totally different from the massy roundness of this tree when suffered to expand without interruption A very beautiful appendage to the planting of Norbury, not readily discoverable by a stranger, is a close walk round a coppice or plantation on the back of the park, formed of young trees, among which the pendent birch is one of the most frequent. This walk winds round in the most free and graceful curves, by which the view is successively lost in foliage, and again recovered in long reaches. The trees on each hand form a skreen, just thick enough to exclude surrounding objects, yet admitting a soft and chequered light, the effect of which is rather cheerful than gloomy. In many places the trees arch over at the top. Here. and there, in peculiarly happy situations, views are opened into the surrounding country; but these do not impair the leading character of the walk, which is that of perfect retirement. I do not recollect ever to have felt a sweeter emotion of the kind, than when accident first led me to this sequestered spot. In the descriptions of celebrated places, I think the distinc tion is seldom clearly made between the scenes they themselves afford, and the prospects to be viewed from them. Yet this is a distinction obvious and material. Some spots, if denuded of every ornament of their own, and left merely in a state of nature, would be eagerly resorted to as stations whence surrounding beauties might be viewed to the greatest advantage. Others, like the spots of verdure in an African desert, contain within themselves all the charms they have to boast. The happiest situations combine both these circumstances; but rarely in equal proportions. Norbury-park, naturally a sterile soil, has been rendered, chiefly by exquisite skill in planting, a fine object in itself; but the prospects from it are beauties gratuitously bestowed upon its local situation, which perhaps contribute most to its pre-eminence among the seats in its neighbourhood. From the houses and the whole crest of the eminence on which it is placed, successive views open of the subjacent valley and the remoter distances, scarcely to be paralleled for their gay variety and finished softness. Northwards, Leatherhead, with the variegated country beyond it extending towards Kingston and Epsom ;directly opposite, the charming village of Mickelham, backed by its fine green downs ;-onwards to the south-east, the seat of Sir Lucas Pepys, apparently lying upon the bosom of a steep pineclad hill, of truly alpine character;-somewhat further, Box-hill, presenting its precipitous side, partly disclosing bare and craggy spots of chalk, partly clothed with its proper shrub, of peculiar hue; -beyond it, the richly wooded eminences of parks and seats near Dorking, bending round to the south, and terminating an intermediate vale of perfect beauty, divided to the eye by the aid of planting into separate portions, made more or less extensive at pleasure, and forming landscapes which I should have called singularly picturesque, had I not doubted of the power of painting to give any adequate idea of scenes lying in such a striking manner immediately beneath the sight. Mr. Gilpin, in his late Western Tour, has given a sketch of the prospects from Norbury; and from his remarks may be gathered how they appear to an eye in search of the true picturesque. I believe, however, that a more untaught spectator, gratified with the charms of nature, without referring them to a remoter test, would receive from them a purer delight. Mr. Locke's celebrated painted room is, in fact, the subject of much more of Mr. Gilpin's description than the park |