than the African grot defcribed in the first Æneid. (26.) There lies a harbour far within the land, The On each fide rocks, and two with steepy height S. This grot within a mountain over-fhaded with trees, and lying open to the fea, with a cliff on each fide, and not far from Carthage, anfwers fo well to the Nympharum domus of Virgil, that I think we need not doubt of its being the cave into which the gallant Eneas led the gracious queen: but that it ever was a quarry, and that pillars were made by the workmen to fupport the roof, as Dr. Shaw fays, does not feem to be the cafe. The whole grot, which goes in 36 fathoms under the hill, its arches, and pillars were undoubtedly by the hand of nature; like many others I have feen. So it appeared to me. I could not fee the leaft fign of a labouring hand in this cave. (26.) St. Donat's Cave, (by the vulgar called Reynard's Church) The kingdom of Tunis in the weft of Barbary in Afric, was once the celebrated republic of Carthage. The city of Carthage was about 4 miles from the fpot the city of Tunis now stands on. Many ruins of it are still remaining. This glorious city, that was 23 miles round, and built near 100 years before Rome, was taken and utterly rased by young Africanus, that is, Scipio Æmi lianus, before Chrift 146 years. It had difputed with Rome for the empire of the world, for the fpace of 118 years. The moft beautiful village in the world, called Marfa, now ftands in the western point of antient Carthage, and from thence it is a fine walk to Dido's Cave, under Cape-Bonn. Y The cave in Stanemore is in the bottom of a perpendicular mountain of a vast height, the eaft fide of the lake, and four yards from the shore. The entrance is a grand fweep, high and broad as the grot, that is, in breadth 52 feet, in height 59. It is an hundred and forty-feven feet long. The ftone of it is extremely beautiful; of a yellow and reddish colour, bright and glittering, and beautifully variegated with arched and undulated veins of various tinges. I broke off a piece of it, and found it a congeries of plates of fpar, ftained with a fine mixture of colours. It is a fpecies of the alabaftar, called Marmor Onychites, on account of its tabulated zones, refembling those of the Onyx, and is very little inferior to the Egyptian alabaster. This Stanemore flone is far beyond the Cornish and Derbyshire alabaster. The caverns there are but incrufted with a fparry fubftance, as I have found upon various examinations; and, Church) in Glamorganshire, is 160 feet in length, the breadth 43, and the height 34. Every fpring tide fills it with water, and has fmoothed it to perfection. At the upper end of it, there is a grand feat, arched into the ftone, and near it a falling-fpring of fresh water drops into a ciftern it has made. The rufhing tides have made good feats in the fides of the rock, and from them you have a view of the channel, which is feven leagues. Every fhip that fails to and from Bristol, is feen, and the mountains of Somerfetfire bound the profpect that way. The cliff over the cave is almost double the height of the grot, and to the very edge of the precipice, the cattle come to graze, to avoid the infects, who will not approach the fea-breezes. The whole is a charming scene. as as is evident to every eye that fees the workmen making the elegant vafes and chimneycolumns we have of the alabafter of thofe counties: whereas in Stanemore, this alabaster confifts of firata of Sparry fubftance, tho' somewhat coarser than this kind of Ægyptian ftone. The top of the cave is a bold arch, finished beyond all that art could do, and the floor as fmooth as it is poffible to make the ftone. At the far end of the grot, there are a dozen rows of feats like benches, that rife one above another. The uppermoft will hold but two people: on each of the others a dozen may fit with eafe: they make the place look as if it was the affembly room, or council chamber of the water-nymphs. There was no water dropping from the roof of this cave; but in a thousand places, where mofs had agreeably covered the walls, it crept through the fides, and formed ftreams that ran foftly over the ground, and weared it fmooth. It brought to my remembrance fome very poetical lines in Lucretius : -Noctivagi Sylveftria templa tenebant Nympharum, quibus exibant humore fluentà Lubrica, proluvie larga lavere humida Saxa, Humida Saxa fuper viridi ftillantia mufco Et partim plano fcatere atque erumpere campo. And then by night they took their reft in caves, Where little freams roll on with filent waves; Y 2 They A defcrip Stanemore; They bubble thro' the ftones, and foftly creep, As fearful to disturb the nymphs that fleep. weep. This was exactly the cafe of the water in this fine cave. In the lowest harmony, it gently fell over the flanting floor, and as Oldham has it Away the streams did with such softness creep, As 'twere by their own murmurs lull'd afleep. 57. Such was the delightful fpot I at last fine feat in difcovered, when I thought I was come to Yorkshire the ne plus ultra, that is, had gone on till I which be- could go no farther; and now feeing how my longs to a way lay, I departed from Orton-Lodge befociety of philofo- times the next morning, leaving my lad O Fin to keep poffeffion of the place till I reJune 19. turned, and with the other boy went thro' the 7th day the lawns in the wood I have mentioned at Jack Price. the end of the vale. This brought me to a phers. 1725. fince I left range of mountains moft frightful to behold, and to the top of them, with great toil, we made a fhift to climb, and from thence defcended through many perils to a bottom between the hills we had come down, and fome fome mountains that stood at a small distance from them. This low ground trended north and north-weft for an hour, and then turned north-east for three hours more, a very bad way; ftony and wet, and fome stiff pieces of road: but the bottoms brought us at laft into a large and fpacious plain, that was furrounded with hills, whofe tops and fides were covered with antient trees and lofty groves, and fome mountains whofe heads were above the clouds. Flowers and clover, and other herbs, adorned the ground, and it was watered with many never-drying ftreams. The plain feemed a vaft amphitheatre, by nature formed; and variety and difpofition refreshed the eyes whatever way they turned. In the very center of this ground, I found a house and gardens that charmed me very much. The manfion had a rufticity and wildness in its afpect, beyond any thing I had feen, and looked like a mafs of materials jumbled together without order or defign. There was no appearance of rule in any part, and where a kind of proportion was to be seen, it seemed as a ftart into truth, by the inadvertent head of blind chance. It was the moft gothic, whimfical, four-fronted thing, without, that ever my eyes beheld; and within, the most convenient, comfortable dwelling I have seen. Y 3 This |