glefion, or Bowes, on account of hills, waters, and wet bottoms; it was worse to travel northward to Bishoprick; and scarce passable to the north east to Cumberland :—What then must it be to journey as I had done over the northern fells of Westmorland, and the bad part of Yorkshire-Stanemore I had passed.

It was a terrible way (I replied), and what I often defpaired of coming through, even at the hazard of my life. Frequently we were locked in by chains of precipices, and thought we should never find a pafs: fome of the mountains were fo fteep, that it was with the greatest difficulty we could lead the horfes up and down them: and many rivers were fo rapid, and rocky at bottom, that we were often in danger of being loft: befide, if fortune had not conducted us to the habitations of people we little expected to find, we might have perished for want of food, as my fervant could not bring from Brugh provisions sufficient for fo long and uncertain a way. All thefe difficulties I faw very foon; in less than a day's ride to the north from the Bell on the fouthern-edge of Stanemore; a little lone public-house, that lies half way the turnpike-road, on the left hand, as the traveller goes from Bowes to Brugh, Penrith, and Carlisle but friendship and curiofity were too many for all the obftacles in the way; and in hopes of finding a beloved.

friend,

friend, who lives fomewhere towards the northern edge of Yorkshire, or Westmorland, or on the neighbouring confines of Bishoprick, or Cumberland; and that I might fee a part of England, which even the borderers C on it are strangers to, and of which Camden had not an idea (27); I went on, and have had fuccefs thus far. The journey has been worth my pains. I have beheld the most delightful fcenes, and met with very extraordinary things and should I find my friend at laft, my labours will be highly rewarded indeed.

The gentlemen I was talking to, seemed to wonder very much at me and my difcourfe; and as the reft of the fociety by this time came into the parlour, they introduced me to them, and then related what I had

faid.

(27) I obferved before, that Camden, and every other defcriber of England, had not the least notion of Stanemore, that is, the north fells of Westmorland, and the northern mountains of Richmondshire: and as to the people who live on the borders of Stanemore, I could not find fo much as one man in Richmond, Gretabridge, Bowes, and Brugh, that had been any length of way up the mountains. When I afked Railton, the quaker, a very knowing man, who keeps the George at Bowes, what fort of a country Stanemore was? He anfwered, it is, after a few miles riding, more wild and mountainy than the highlands of Scotland, and unpaffable: nay, my landlord at Eggleston, fome miles within Stanemore, knew nothing of the mountains upon mountains that are far beyond his house.

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faid. They all allowed it was very extraor dinary, and requested I would oblige them with fome particulars that occurred. I did immediately. I told them, among other things, of my reception at Burcot-Lodgeand the skeleton of John Orton which I found in the cottage on the fide of a woody hill: I let them know the goods and conveniencies I faw there, and that I was fo pleased with the beauties of the place, the little manfion, the once fine gardens, and the useful things on the premiffes, that I intended to return to it, and make it my fummer retreat: that I had left a man there to that purpose, who was at work in the garden, and expected to be back in a month's time, with fuch things as were wanting to make it an agreeable and comfortable little country-houfe.

The philofophers wondered not a little at what they heard. If they were furprized at feeing me as a traveller in fuch a place, they were much more aftonished at my relation. They could not enough admire Mrs. Burcot and Mrs. Fletcher. The hiftory of the penitent Orton, they thought very strange. They told me they were glad I had a thought of making Orton-Lodge a fummer retreat, and hoped it would occafion my calling upon them many times: that I fhould always be heartily welcome to their house, and might with lefs difficulty go backwards and for

wards,

wards, as their lodge was at my fervice, whenever I was pleased to do them the favor to call. This was civil, and I returned them the thanks they deserved.

Here dinner was brought in, and with thefe gentlemen I fat down to feveral excellent dishes. There was the best of every 5 kind of meat and drink, and it was ferved up in the most elegant manner: their wine in particular was old and generous, and they gave it freely. We took a chearful glafs after dinner, and laughed a couple of hours away in a delightful manner. They were quite polite, friendly and obliging; and I foon found, in converfing with them, that they were men of great reading, and greater abilities. Philofophy had not faddened their tempers. They were as lively companions, as they were wife and learned men.

These gentlemen are twenty in number, men of fortune, who had agreed to live together, on the plan of a college defcribed by Mr. Evelyn in his letter to Mr. Boyle *; but, with this difference, that they have no chaplain, may rife when they please, go and come as they think fit, and are not obliged to cultivate every one his garden. Every member lays down a hundred pounds on the first day year, and out of that fund they live,

of the

pay.

* You will find this curious letter in Biograph. Britan.

pay their fervants, keep their horses, and purchase every thing the fociety requires. What is wanting at home, this stock produces, and is to be expended only at Ulubra, for every thing neceffary and comfortable, except raiment and horfes. When they are abroad, it is at a plus-expence.

I call these gentlemen philofophers, because, exclufive of their good morals, they devote the principal part of their time to natural philofophy and mathematicks, and had, when I first saw them, made a great number of fine experiments and obfervations in the works of nature, tho' they had not been a fociety for more than four years. They make records of every thing extraordinary which come within their cognisance, and register every experiment and observation. I faw feveral fine things in their transactions, and among them a most ingenious and new method of determining expeditiously the tangents of curve lines; which you know, mathematical reader, is a very prolix calculus, in the common way; and as the determination of the tangents of curves is of the greateft use, because fuch determinations exhibit the quadratures of curvilinear spaces, an easy method in doing the thing, is a promotion of geometry in the best manner.

this.

The rule is

59. Suppofe