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page xxxv:-
the ideas of improved society, nor will it permit the
niceties of learning to grow upon the rudeness of antiquated
superstition. Whilst it prevents study and refinement at
home, it also repels the means of them from abroad; by
threatening their teachers with the same, or, as was often
the case, with greater perils. Such I apprehend is the
principal cause of numerous vestiges of ancient manners to
be found in the Borders. We have no doubt how late it was
before any degree of civilization rose, and find on record
under what difficulties, and at how modern a period,
Christianity acquired an establishment there: for though it
might be early known and preached on the Western Border, yet
avarice and rapine in manner quenched it, nor had it a
seminary or fixed seat from whence it could diffuse itself.
Even after the pious bounty of the Royal Earl of Huntingdon
had erected Holm-Cultram, and the murderous hospitality of
the lord of Gillsland had given occasion to the building of
Lanercost, we find that those very houses were levelled at
times, or burned, amidst the general ruin of the
neighbourhood, and the Priests butchered, or flying from
scenes of almost-unequalled wildness and desolation.
Numerous safeguards, (for so they are called,) or lodgings
beneath the ground, which also are yet to be seen, indicate
the horrid nature of these transactions, and hint what the
manners of men must have been in those times; for they were
times when ferocious customs struck at the very existence of
society, bidding defiance to all means of civilization; when
laws held them in with a palsied hand, and the dependence of
the inhabitants on a regular government was uncertain and
unregarded.
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VII. As the business of the following Plans is to conduct
the stranger to those places which furnish the views and
landscapes of different kinds in the neighbourhood of these
Lakes, and which the taste of the times has been so pleased
with, I shall offer nothing upon that subject here, but an
observation which I think the greatest artist will excuse:
It is, that those pictures impart the most grateful
sensations to the mind, which are expressive, not only of
general beauties, or such as may be found common to most
places, but of the particular nature and local genius of the
country from the objects of which they are drawn. Thus a
sunny day, a stream of water, a ruin, or other kind of
building, may be with almost every where, and may be sorted
in such a manner as to form a pleasant view: But the
solemnity of those vapours which hang upon mountains in
drizzly and gleamy weather, the shades which they occasion,
their silent mixing and rolling together, their magnifying
effects, with the tops of the mountains peeping above, as it
were in another world, lead away the mind from scenes of
cultivation, and present ideas of a new, but not less
pleasing kind. It is unnatural, at least it feels so to me,
and subversive to the general tenor of the piece, to be
studious of introducing copies of the works of man, and
numerous living figures, amidst such solitudes. For example,
I have seen a drawing of Dun-Dornadilla, in the
North-Highlands, which seemed to me excellent of its kind:
there was a pensive loneliness about that ruined pile which
corresponded well with the dreary nakedness of the vast
hills that rose around it. On the contrary, I have seen
views of the mountains contiguous to these lakes, at the
bases of which were delineated chaises and waggons: such
vehicles might indeed possibly be dragged along there, but
they were far from being, (if I may be allowed the
expression,) native objects, or consonant with the rest of
the piece.
I may here be asked, what I meant in my seventh paragraph,
at the beginning of this Introduction, mentioning the
affinity between painting and poetry? I may also be told,
that many have heard of the scenes to be met with near these
lakes; but where are the poets, or the poetry? As I have not
leisure to answer such questions at present, I shall leave
them to be resolved at another time.
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