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on the day appointed, trembling with apprehenfion, and anticipating all the horrors of fine and imprifonment. The juftice appeared; the gun was delivered up, and nothing remained but the fentence of the law to be pronounced, and the mittimus to be made out; when, to the great joy and furprize of poor Tom, the Colonel addreffed him in the following manner :"I am very forry, Williams, that your neceffities are fuch as lead you to illegal practices in order to fupply them. Deprived as you are of the means of getting your bread, I have no doubt that times are very hard with you; but this, though perhaps fome little palliation of your conduct, is no excufe for your acting against the laws of your country. Convinced, however, that you are at the bottom an honeft fellow, and rather unfortunate than roguifh, I will put you out of the way of being again tempted by want to do an unlawful act. You fhall be my woodward; and, I doubt not, will do the dutics of the place diligently and faithfully. Here, take your gun again; I fhall not now be afraid to truft you with it."-The generous policy had its defired effect; Williams, penetrated with gratitude, thanked his Honour ten thousand times, and fwore he would never in future poach a fingle feather or hair of game; a promife which, i find, he has religiously obferved. -Happy would it be for civilized fociety, could a fimilar policy be extended to the criminal jurifprudence of fates!-It is only by a long courfe of wickedness, my dear fir, that man becomes callous and irreclaimable. There are tender places in the heart of every young criminal, which mildness might affect, when punishment will not reach them. Thousands also commit little breaches of the law, impelled by dire neceffity, who would fhudder at the idea of moral wrong, if in happier circumftances; whom confidence and lenity might fave, but whom fufpicion and vengeance deftroy for ever."

The fubfequent adventure, which the writer honeftly relates, illuftrates, though in a ludicrous manner, the enterprifing spirit of an antiquarian :

"The laugh has been fadly against me to-day, and, I must confefs, with fome reafon. Not that the cap will fit my head alone, fince many a zealous brother antiquary is equally qualifed to wear it, as you will allow when made acquainted with the ftory.

"The

"The road to Machynlleth afcends a tirefome hill of two miles in length, but recompenfes the traveller when he reaches the fummit of it, by a magnificent view of the ocean, and the promontories and headlands which form the fpacious bay of Cardigan. Whilft we were admiring this glorious scene, a man of very decent appearance paffed us in his way to Aberyftwith. Not knowing the track we were to purfue, (for a fhort distance from us were two diverging roads) we asked for information on this fubject. It immediately appeared, that our friend was little qualified to give it, his dialect being a barbarous kind of language, compofed of English and Welth, with the proportion of about one word of the former to ten of the latter. We made out, however, that the left-hand road led to Machynlleth, and the right (as we understood him) to Kilgarran. You know, my dear fir, that I have an ardent paffion for Gothic remains; the moment, therefore, the honest man mentioned the name of Kilgarran, I felt the amabilis inJania ftrong within me; the noble ruin of Cardiganshire rufhed into my mind, and, totally forgetting that we muft have left it at least fifty miles behind us, I eagerly asked whether or not there were an old caftle at the place he mentioned. "Yes," replied the man, with fome hesitation, "but Mr. Pool is not at home at prefent." As I did not conceive there was any need of a ciceroni, to conduct us round a ruin, I initantly preffed my companions to quit the Machynlleth road, and vifit this precious relick of antiquity. Jn, who did not admire an addition of twelve or fifteen miles to the walk of the day, feemed rather averfe to this deviation from the direct track; but I knew how to intereft his mind in the object, and immediately repeated, with all the enthufiafm that I my felf felt, Warton's noble poem, the scene of which is laid in Kilgarran caftle:

"Stately the feaft, and high the cheer:
"Girt with many an armed peer,

"And canopied with golden pall,

"Amid Kilgarran's caftle hall;

"Sublime in formidable ftate,

"And warlike fplendour, Henry fate.".

This had the defired effect, J-n, and C. C—-11, were ΠΟΥ up to the game," and quitting the man abruptly, we

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fet off at full speed, as if fearful that the old ruin would run away from us, before we could reach the fpot on which it food. We proceeded for two miles, without feeing any thing like the object of our purfuit. At length training my vifion to the utmost, I difcerned at a distance fomething like an old building, and exclaimed, with the rapture of the celebrated geometrician, Eupane España: "I have found it, I have found it!" On we pufhed therefore, and in twenty minutes reached the ruin, when, lo! inftead of a castle, we found a dilapidated barn. "Well," faid I, thortly after, now I cannot be deceived, I fee the extenfive remains fpread along yonder valley."Once more we clapped spurs to our heels, and, defying the intense heat of a meridian dog-day fun, laboured through lane, and over field, "thorough bog, and thorough briar," for an other half hour, when in lieu of Kilgarran castle, nought was to be seen, but a small groupe of peasant's cottages, with their fheds and out-houfes. By this time the enthufiafm of my companions was entirely exhausted, and mine, I confefs, like Acres's courage, was 66 oozing out at every pore," when an old man, a cobler by trade, with spectacles on his nofe, popping his head out of a cottage door, J-n asked him how far we were from Kilgarran cattle?-« Alack-a-day," said the man, who fortunately fpoke English," there is no cafile, gentlemen, in this part of the world. The only houfe of confequence, near us, is Curgarren, the feat of Mr. Pool, which you paffed about four miles back." The antiquary, you may fuppofe, looked a little fheepish on the occafion; he was, however, in merciful hands, who contented themselves with configning to old Nick, all the ruins in the world, and swearing they never would go castle-hunting again."

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The following account of Mr, Pennant is interesting and will affect the feeling heart :

"I walked to Downing, the feat of Mr. Pennant, about three miles from Holywell, who had gratified me by an invitation to his houfe, the feat of virtue, kindness, and benevolence, as well as literature, fcience, and taste. The walk is agreeable, and diverfified, particularly towards the mansion, to which I approached by a rural path, winding through a beautiful well-wooded dingle.

"Downing,

"Downing, though not the original feat of this refpectable family, is a house of some antiquity, as the date 1627 in the front of it evinces. Its plan is judicious and commodious, and the fituation, like that of all the rural refidences of our ancestors, is low, fequeftered, and fheltered. The little valley, in the bottom of which it stands, is formed by two finelyfwelling hills, that rise to the eaf and weft, covered with the dark umbrage of venerable woods *; but which, finking into a fweeping depreffion towards the north, admit a fine view of the Chefter channel. Much taste is difplayed in the laying out of the small but beautiful garden ground; where a judicious management, and an agreeable variety, give the appearance of confiderably greater extent to this little paradife than it really lays claim to.

"To fee the literary veteran, by whom the public has been fo much amufed, and fo much inftructed, in the peaceful fhades of his own academical bowers, fpending the close of an honourable and useful life in active beneficence, crowned with the bleffings of the poor, and the love and esteem of an extenfive neighbourhood, would have conveyed to my mind an emotion of unspeakable pleasure, had it not been checked by the appearance of ill health and gradual decay, which is but too perceptible in the countenance of this valuable man. Not that the conviction of his declining ftate disturbs the serenity of Mr. Pennant. Virtue, my friend, feels no alarm at the profpect of changing time for eternity. Aware that its proper reward lies beyond the grave, it does not lose its tranquillity when about to descend into it; but like the glorious fetting fun, fhines with a steadier light, and a calmer radiance, in proportion as it approaches the horizon of mortality. Such, my dear fir, is Mr. Pennant, who, full of dignity and honour, as well as of years, realizes the beautiful defcription of the poet :

"Calmly he moves to meet his latter end,
"Angels around befriending virtue's friend;

*The oak reaches great perfection in thefe grounds. On measuring one, I found it to be twenty-one feet in circumference.

"Sinks to the grave with gradual decay,
"While refignation gently flopes the way;
"And all his profpects brightening at the last,
"His heaven commences ere the world be past.”

"Having spent a truly attic afternoon, I quitted Downing with reluctance, and walked quietly to Holywell, where my companions and myself have paffed a moft agreeable evening with Mr. Th-r--by, our friendly ciceroni to the manufactures and the mines."

In a very few months after this interview, Mr. Pennant died, fo that this appears to have been the last public account of an interview with this excellent man, who was now drawing faft towards the termination of his active life. For a very particular sketch of his Life and Writings, we refer to our number for JANUARY 1799, where the curiofity of the reader may be amply gratified. It is pleafing to perceive in the volume before us, a brother tourist paying him fo handsome a compliment; and we have tranfcribed it because we are happy in paying every poffible respect to his memory.

We fhall only add the concluding paragraph, which affords a pleafing specimen of the manner and fpirit in which the whole work is written. It relates to Swansea, whence our tourist embarked for Bristol, and thus finished his bufy excursion:

"The beauty of its fituation, and its admirable bathing accommodations, have rendered Swansea the resort of many respectable families of South-Wales during the fummer feafon; and an excellent hotel has been erected within these few years, near to the fea-fide, for their reception.

"Here a fine hard ftrand stretches away to the fouth-west, embracing within its sweeping recess the waters of Swansea bay, and commanding the enchanting scenery of the Glamorganshire coaft.

"Even now, my dear fir, am I returned from pacing this fandy level, and watching, for the last time, the full-orb'd fun flowly finking into the western wave. The evening, calm and ferene; the face of the deep, smooth and tranquil; the

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