mountains, heathy flats, and vallies, where the water pouring from the higher grounds, had been permitted to stagnate till it had loosened the earth, and rendered it marshy and boggy. The lands under culture were so inconsiderable as to afford only hay and corn for the exigencies of the steward's family, who lived in the castle, and their occasional visitants and, except a few scattered cottages for the labouring hinds, the country was uninhabited for many miles round. The road towards London had been kept in a state not positively dangerous; but towards any other quarter it was impassable by any kind of carriage.

"This barren and desolate region," said the earl to his steward," is a disgrace to me; I am determined, Sullivan, it shall not remain so. I will have the soil improved and parcelled into farms, and the country peopled round them. What think you of my plan?"

"If your Lordship," replied Sullivan, "would give me leave to speak my poor thoughts of the matter, I should say, it would be throwing away a great deal of money to very little purpose."

"Why should that be your opinion?" questioned the earl. "The heathy lands, by proper manure, might be made to grow corn; and the swamps, by draining, would make excellent pasture."

"I have not a doubt but they might," answered the steward; "but situated as you are, my Lord, among mountains, amidst rocks, and impassable roads, at such an immense distance from any mar

E

ket, what would your Lordship's new tenants do with their corn and hay?"

"Is a market so absolutely requisite?" said the earl.

"It is indispensable," replied the steward; " for if the cultivators of the land are the only consumers of its products, those cultivators and their families will indeed subsist, but will never be able to pay rent for their farms. The cultivators of a fertile soil cannot consume all its increase: the surplus of that increase it is which renders it beneficial; but to whom can your Lordship's tenants sell that surplus, when no market which affords buyers is within their reach"

His lordship paused; at last, as if struck by some sudden thought, he said, "But if I could draw a new set of people near me, who, employed in other businesses, and providing no food for themselves, 'would be obliged to seek provision from the agriculture of the country? Were I to establish some large manufactory for instance, would that assist me?"

"Admirably, my Lord," replied the steward, "for that would be effectually providing a market for the product of your lands. But here again we fail, for you have no place, my Lord, for your manufacturers; you have but one small village, the houses of which are fully occupied; and not a cottage but what is wanted for the husbandmen."

"That village, to-morrow, Sullivan, we will inspect, for I forget its situation; and if I like it I will build upon it. I will turn it into a town."

"It will take a power of money, my Lord," said the careful steward, "and at a vast risk, for you cannot be certain of the success of your project."

"I know my lands are capable of improvement," said the earl, "I am assured I can establish a manufactory upon my own account; and as for the money, Sullivan, I shall not feel it, for I will dedicate to the purpose my good aunt's legacy of twenty thousand pounds, which I am to receive next week; and if that is insufficient, for the expences, some of these old oaks shall defray the rest. You tell me some acres of them should be felled."

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"They ought indeed, my Lord," replied the steward," for every year now diminishes their value. They will furnish your Lordship with an immense sum.'

"What then should, we fear?" said the earl. "I have already as much money as I know what to do with, and surely may be allowed to make ducks and drakes with the rest. What if the odd whim seizes me of raising corn upon barren heaths, building houses, and peopling a desolate country, is it not as rational an expenditure of my fortune as on race-horses, or any other fashionable amusement?" May Heaven bless and prosper the noble whim!" said the steward, with tears in his eyes, "it would do honour to a prince; and proves you, my Lord, to be the true offspring of the best and most benevolent of men, your revered father, whose likeness in this age of folly and dissipation I never expected

the blessing of seeing. I shall be most happy in giving my advice and assistance in forwarding so glorious a work."

Warmed with his half-formed scheme, the earl, hoping to receive some hints for its improvement, made it the topic of his conversation at dinner with the gentlemen who composed his sporting party. But the pretenders to wit ridiculed it as an absurd Quixotism; the pretenders to reason dissuaded him from it, as the gulph of that fortune, and the occupier of that time, which would be more profitably, as well as pleasurably employed, in the circle of fashionable expences, with fashionable people. But the earl, uninfluenced by either, when he retired for the evening, sat two whole hours in his chair digesting plan into some regularity, and the leading ideas of the day pursued him in his sleep: for his dreams presented him with a flourishing town; a rich and fertile country; and a multitude of human beings crouding round him, and with happy countenances hailing him as their protector and benefactor.

Eager to realize these pleasing visions, the earl, after an hasty breakfast, sprang upon his horse, and attended by the good old steward, took his way to the village. He found it delightfully seated on a gently rising ground, and on the banks of a stream which poured its little urn, at some miles distance, into a navigable river.

"In this spot, Sullivan," cried the earl, in trans

port, "I perceive every requisite. I will convert this village into a town, and this stream into a river."

"What a pity it is, my Lord," answered Sullivan, his eyes glistening with pleasure, "that the season is so far advanced."

"It is the season of preparation, man, if not of action," replied his lordship. "There is plenty of proper earth upon the estate, and we will immediately begin burning brick and tile. We will cut down timber, and secure workmen against the spring; and in the spring, my old friend, we will open our separate campaigns: you shall wage war with the barren soil, I with the depopulated waste; and by the time you are victorious, and have redered the earth fertile, I hope to procure a competent number of mouths to consume the productions."

Animated with a portion of his noble master's enthusiasm, Sullivan was nearly as active as the earl, who spent the whole winter in the country, hastening the preparations, and marking the fall of his oaks. The castle, deeply environed by them, and equally debarred from seeing and being seen, was disclosed to the world, and the world to it; the woods which intercepted the front view being all taken down except frequent noble groups of the most majestic and venerable of those ancient trees, which now enrich and diversify the prospect. Even the necessary thinning of those extensive forests afforded