since you left the University, you have now and then looked into a Newspaper, and read the Gazetteer: you are, doubtless, acquainted with Hume's and Henry's histories: and, (for I know you are a scholar,) you probably can ascertain the boundaries of Troy, the course of the Οδος Θησεια, aud the Via sacra: and even point out the very spot where the calf was reared whose skin afterwards supplied parchment for the origi nal Magna Charta. But be not offended when I observe that of modern England you know little or nothing: I can, however, console you by an assurance that when you have read and digested what follows, your case will be advantageously altered, and that you will know a good deal. Excuse my homely style, rely on my veracity, graciously my humble efforts to instruct accept of and amuse, and-read on. King Charles the second was, it must be allowed, a man of unblemished moral character; but he was also, as many worthy persons often are, a dull, matter-of-fact body, yet it is for this very reason that I select him as my authority, to inform, or remind you, of what he said respecting the climate of this blessed Island; viz: "that it was the best in the world, because in England a man might be in the open air during more days of the year, than be could in any other part of the globe. This, after all, is not happily expressed, but the poor king's meaning may be gathered from it; he intended to say something greatly in favour of English weather, though he has done it clumsily. No words of mine nor indeed of any body else, are adequate to a just description of it; nor shall we ever see one approaching to just, unless Rosa Matilda, or the author of the "Battles of Talavera" should try it. But as Milton has come nearest to the truth in attempting to describe the climate of Paradise, I must have recourse to him; for there, says the Poet, Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune This is touched neatly enough for a Roundhead, but falls short of the object, when applied to England; as a residence here of twelve months would convince you: The people of this country inhale perpetually such an element as you may imagine that would be, where the gales of Tempe and Arcadia, and the balmy zephyrs of Eden were combined: besides the climate of this i vast Island is the same in every part: in the north of Scotland, and on the mountains of Cumberland and Wales, where one might expect cutting blasts, drizzly showers, and a cloudy and tem pestuous atmosphere, the traveller is agreeably disappointed by not finding any such vicissitudes. The same is more particularly true of the climate of the Capital; for there it is difficult, if not impossible to determine the season of the year, except by consulting the calendar; and he who walks the streets of London in pursuit of business or recreation, is sure of not being incommoded in Summer, by the heat of scorching pavement, or the stench of flyblown meat hanging up at the stalls and festering in the sun: nor, in Winter, is he in danger of being be-nighted at noon by fogs, smothered in brown snow, blinded by mud, or drowned in torrents of dirty rain, as is the case in some countries less befriended by Nature. Of the soil, and general appearance of Britain, I shall only say, that they are, like the climate, genial, or rather celestial; and refer you, for an accurate description of the face of the Island, to Milton's poem already quoted; and you may depend upon it, that the picturesque features accumulated by the Bard to adorn his scenery, are here realized: crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearls and sands of Gold : # Flow'rs worthy of Paradise, which not nice art, These lines are peculiarly illustrative of the country contiguous to the Metropolis, especially of that part |