THE improvement of health by those obvious means, change of air and of scene, the attainment of innocent pleasure, and the renewal of ancient friendships, were the motives which prompted the excursion which this and some following letters will detail. The partiality of friendship has demanded the narrative, and I am convinced that all that partiality will frequently be necessary to give it interest. If, however, you, and several others, to whom I am deeply indebted, and to whose requests it is difficult to return a negative, are gratified by the perusal of what I shall write, my great object will be attained. Many are the tourists who have already laid before the public the particulars of their rambles through various parts of this island. Of the pe

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destrians, Mr. Warner, of Bath, must be placed at the head of his brethren: the general minuteness of his research, the uniform liberality of his sentiments, the clearness of his descriptions, and that genuine good humour which seems never to forsake him, render his productions of this sort admirable parlour companions; I only wish he would use fewer hard words. The amiable and serious GILPIN has great elegance of expression, and, as I recollect (for it is some years since I read his voyage up the Wye, and his accounts of the British Switzerland, the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland,") gives us every now and then some strokes of genuine pathos. With such writers as these I do not presume to class myself, nor indeed with any but those, who, if their "unvarnished tales" gratify an affectionate circle for a few days, are content to be laid by and forgotten. The "silver and gold" of travelwriting I have none, but, "such as I have," the small coin of an afternoon's conversation, I freely give to my friends.

I have stated the " renewal of ancient friendships" as one of the objects of our excursion ; this was, indeed, the pole-star which directed and governed our whole route; this regulated our stages, and, as far as the whole time we could command permitted, determined our stay with our respective friends :-to visit, and to stay as long as we could with a beloved relative, was, from first to last, one of our main objects.

Our number, you know, was five: myself, the dear companion of my life, and three of our children. A great part of the way was new to us all; to the children it was wholly so; to the two youngest, one of whom was twelve, and the other sir years old, it was like an outset in life. You would have been delighted to have seen the vivid curiosity which sparkled in their eyes upon a variety of occasions, and to have heard the various remarks which new objects called forth-to the partiality of parents, at least, they were very interesting.

As it was our object to reach Bristol the first day, which is a distance of 75 miles, it was necessary to go a stage before breakfast; indeed this was what I wished to effect the whole journey, and what, as the inclinations of my companions tallied with my own, I was in general able to effect. How smoothly does not only an occasional excursion, but the great journey of life roll on, when those who are embarked in the same vehicle have a sincere wish to accommodate and oblige each other. I need not tell you how much this is my happy lot.

The clock struck five on the morning of July 5, 1803, when we left our own door. A veil of thick clouds obscured the rays of the sun, and a drizzling rain, the relics of a heavy shower, which for some hours before had drenched our neighbourhood, attended us for three or four miles: the hedges and banks, however, between which we

males of Sidbury. Some very costly and beautiful patterns are worked here; but it is a melancholy consideration that so much comfort and health are sacrificed in producing these, after all, unnecessary articles of female decoration. The sedentary nature of this employment, and the early age at which multitudes of children are confined to it, make a terrible havoc of life and health. The sallow complexions, the ricketty frames, and the general appearances of languor and debility, which numbers of these young women exhibit, are sad and decisive proofs of the pernicious nature of the employment: the small, unwholesome rooms, in which numbers of them, especially during their apprenticeship, are crowded together, are great aggravations of the evil. It is no wonder that the offspring of such mothers are, in a majority of in stances, a puny, feeble, and frequently short-lived race. Perhaps these remarks apply universally to manufactures, and particularly to those in which numbers of children are employed early in life, and to some in a much higher degree than to that of lace-making, in which the material made use of has nothing pernicious in it. The confinement, however, of the children, is by far too rigid; ten hours in the day is the time for which they are commonly kept to work; and even then, if they have not completed their task, they are not released, but deprived of the little pittance of time in which they should be regaining the use of their cramped limbs. In the case of the children em

ployed in the cotton manufactories, the legislature has interfered, I hope to some good purpose. I trust the situation of these little lace-makers will soon be brought under its notice. Society, if only from self-interest, should be as sparing of its hands as possible.

Another hardship in the case of the Devonshire lace-makers ought not to pass unnoticed, and that is the manner in which they are generally paid for their labour. Their employers keep hucksters' shops, and oblige them to purchase whatever they deal in, and, frequently, articles which they do not want: if the poor creatures insist upon money, a penny is unfeelingly and unjustly deducted out of every shilling on that account. There is an act of parliament expressly forbidding such extortion, but as acts of parliament cannot execute themselves, this is of little importance. To such masters of any description, however, as make a profession of religion, it may not perhaps be utterly in vain to remark, that there is a BOOK, in which, amongst many other passages of a similar nature, these words are to be found: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you; your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which