A Run To The Lakes : Keswick.

dermere , as it does from "Windermere to London . This railway consists of a single line 31 i miles in length . It is estimated to cost £ 300 , 000 . The engineer is Mr . Bouch , of Edinburgh . During the past week , we understand , the Government inspectorCapt . RichR . E ., has been engaged in

, , inspecting this new railway ; and it is expected it will be opened almost immediately . We took some notes of the local manufactures . The cotton-mill described by Hutchison had longbeen out of work before the supply of cotton failed . The woollen trade has dwindled away

almost to nothing . The only flourishing manufacture in Keswick is the pencil-mills , whicli , however , it would require a separate article to describe . We may just mention that Mr . Wilson , of the Greta pencil-mills , informed us that the manufacture in Keswick employs about 100 hands ;

and that from £ 10 , 000 to £ 12 , 000 worth of pencils are annually turned out , and exported to all parts of the world . The celebrated mutton ham of Cumberland and the delicious char , which are indigenous to the Lakes ( the char is chiefly potted for the London market ) , still constitute a considerable item of the revenue of the district .

But , after all , the greatest source of wealth in the Lake district resides in the Lakes themselves . It has been calculated by a gentleman in the neighbourhood , who gave evidence to that effect before Mr . Rawlinson , that the number of tourists visiting Keswick during- a season was , on the

average , from . 12 , 000 to 15 , 000 . Nor is there any reason to suppose that this estimate is too high . Our readers may attach any hypothetical sum to this as the average travelling expenses , aud it will then be seen that a tolerable quantity of English gold is everywhere showered on the

district of the Lakes . Tourists , we ought to point out , will do well to visit the district in May and June . There is less rain about this period ; the atmosphere is clear ; and the beautiful scenery is seen to the best advantage . Tlie month of July is generally wet . After this , there is often a month or five weeks of continued fine weather

( locally called " a Michaelmas summer" ) . Then the foliage begins to vary in colour ; but the oak , birch , and other forest tree ^ retain their leaves till the first severe frost , followed by high wind , when it occasionally happens that the whole is stripped off ina day or twoand the wintry aspect

, is seen at once . But even in winter , we are told , the scenery is beautiful ; and the climate far from uncongenial , particularly in the valleys , which are sheltered from the prevailing winds . We must now conclude our hurried

observations . We have purposely abstained from dwelling on the picturesque beauty of the Lakes . How we climbed over the mountains during the day ,. and rowed on the Lakes by moonlight ; fished for trout in the streams and perch in the Lakes , with other adventures of a similar kind , would probably not be interesting to those who have either visited

A Run To The Lakes : Keswick.

or who mean to visit the district , and find their own experience of a tourist ' s enjoyment . Nor is it necessary to dwell on the invigorating influences which " a run to the Lakes" is calculated to exercise on the health and spirits . We can only addthat such scenery is calculatedamong

, , other things , to . awaken the highest emotions of our nature . The last view , as it happened , we had of Derwentwater , was on a lovely evening in July . The sun was setting- behind Skiddaw , and gilding with a purple glory the placid and silver water of the lake . The stillness was undisturbed ,

except by the famt ripple of a solitary oar in the distance . Suddenly the band of the rifle corps iu Keswick , which separates from drill at ten o ' clock , struck up the Queen ' s anthem , and the effect , as the sound reverberated among the hills and in such a scene , was singularly grand , and even

solemn . We could scarcely help the reflection , that the little town of these loyal ancl demonstrative subjects of Queen Victoria was also the last of the strongholds of the subjects of Queen Boadicea ; that between these two periods of British history , several

empiresrepublicsking-, , doms , and principalities had sunk into oblivion ; but that the little territory of those island queens was still the favourite haunt of the genius of liberty , and that it had carried its arms and its arts

triumphantly through every quarter of the civilised globe ! The next morning saw us travelling through thevalley of Threlkeld , on our way to Penrith , in which ancient town we took rail , ancl so bade adieu for tho present to the district of the Lakes .

Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

TERRA-COTTA AND LUCA DELLA ROBBIA WARE , CONSIDERED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF DECORATIVE ART .

BY D . ROCK , D . D . A Lecture delivered at the South Kensington Museum , ( Continued from page 208 . ) The free and frequent use , in architecture , of decorative burned clay , duringtheMediaival period ,

all over the Italian peninsula , is something astonishing , and deserves the close attention of every art-student who visits that instructive land . Though Alps and Apennines could give its people stone ancl marbles , yet the while we were buildingour churches and castles , everywhere throughout

this country , of stone , even in the fens and roadless swamps of Lincolnshire , the Italians were erecting their edifices , sacred and secular , of brick , with their ornamentation in burned clay . The observant traveller who goes to Rome , brings back with him lasting recollections of its several fine

, tall , many-storied belfries , built of brick , savingsome few low marble columns with their imposts , to the two small arches of the windows . Near Vesta's Temple , by the Tiber , stands that curious old house , once Cola di Rienzi ' s , all of brick , ela-