SIR THOMAS MORE.

Wherever there is a Cathedral, there would be a Religio Loci, into which the University would enter.

MONTESINOS.

There are many places in the North where such a feeling might be revived, though that one to which your thoughts and mine would instantly recur,.. that which was the earliest seat of learning in this kingdom, is desecrated beyond all possibility of purification. It has become a place of colliers and keelmen; and if in national gratitude a monument were to be erected, as it ought to be, in honour of the Venerable Bede, a spot whereon it might decently be set up could not now be found at Jarrow, where his happy and holy life was past.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

Durham, where his dust is deposited, would be in all respects an appropriate place, and not the worse for having been the see of Cuthbert Tonstal.

MONTESINOS.

There are great and good names connected with Durham, both of earlier and later date. The suitableness of that city for the seat of a third University is so apparent, that Oliver Cromwell, at the petition of certain northern

gentry, took measures for establishing one there. But the part of the spoils of the bishopric, little as it was, which he appropriated to that purpose, was thought too much by those who were for sharing the whole plunder among themselves: opposition was made by Oxford and Cambridge, both being at that time in hands from which nothing generous could be expected, and thus the scheme failed even before the Restoration, which would probably have subverted it. Durham would be the fittest place in the north of England, unless Hexham may be deemed preferable.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

On the score of antiquity Hexham has greater claims, and as an ancient seat of learning. And as it is one of those places which were grievously injured by the dissolution of the Monasteries, the reparation, that might thus be made, is a consideration which ought not altogether to be overlooked. You look, methinks, as though this were a consideration which, if mentioned, would only be despised. If such be your meaning, it is an ill symptom of the state of public feeling in these days. Whatever tends to withdraw men from the always too powerful influence of the present, and to connect them with other times, past or to come,.. whatever may lead them to

extend their views out of their own generation, forward or in retrospect,..whatever gives them a more diffused benevolence, a more extended range for their gratitude or their desires, individuals, if they are sensible of their own highest interest, would cherish in their own hearts, and Governments would do every thing to encourage in the people. They who care nothing for their ancestors, will care little for their posterity,.. indeed, little for anything except themselves.

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COLLOQUY XII.

BLENCATHRA.-THRELKELD TARN. THE

CLIFFORDS.

Of the very many Tourists who are annually brought to this Land of Lakes by what have now become the migratory habits of the opulent classes, there is a great proportion of persons who are desirous of making the shortest possible tarriance in any place; whose object is to get through their undertaking with as little trouble as they can, and whose inquiries are mainly directed to find out what it is not necessary for them to see; happy when they are comforted with the assurance, that it is by no means required of them to deviate from the regular track, and that that which cannot be seen easily, need not be seen at all. In this way our of take their degree as Lakers.

Nevertheless, the number of those who truly enjoy the opportunities which are thus afforded them, and have a genuine generous delight in beholding the grander and the lovelier scenes of

a mountainous region, is sufficient to render this a good and wholesome fashion. The pleasure which they partake conduces as much to moral and intellectual improvement, as to health, and present hilarity. It produces no distaste for other scenes, no satiety, nor other exhaustion than what brings with it its own remedy in sound sleep. Instead of these, increase of appetite grows here by what it feeds on, and they learn to seek and find pleasure of the same kind in tamer landscapes. They who have acquired in these countries a love of natural scenery, carry with them in that love a perpetual source of enjoyment; resembling in this respect the artist, who, in whatever scenes he may be placed, is never at a loss for something from which his pencil may draw forth a beauty, which uncultivated eyes would fail to discover in the object itself. In every country, however

poor,.. there is something of "free Nature's poor,..there grace;".. wherever there is wood and water, wherever there are green fields, . . wherever there is an open sky, the feeling which has been called forth, or fostered among the mountains, may be sustained. It is one of our most abiding as well as of our purest enjoyments, .. a sentiment which seems at once to humble and exalt us, which from natural emotion leads us