button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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page xlii:-
[of] them than those of the plains, because their weather is subject to greater and more numerous variations. Pliny has taken notice of many of those signs which were in vogue amongst the Romans; he has, however, done little more than copy them from Virgil: and it is a thing not unworthy of our curiosity to observe what a similarity there is between the prognostics of countries so remote from each other; a similarity which, however, proves that they have both been founded on strict observation of the nature of things, and that they carry along with them not a little of that authority which is due to truth; though we can assign no better reason for many of them at this day, than what Virgil has done in a truly philosophic manner, and the most exquisitely beautiful language. Thus the swell of waters in the Firths, and the sound from the mountains, the deeper murmur of woods, the motions of Sea-Mews, &c. the lofty flights of the Moss-Drum, Mire-Drumble or Bittern, the shooting of stars, the mock-battles of Crows, and indeed almost all Virgil's prognostics, with a great many more not mentioned by him, are still taken notice of, and furnish to the attentive observer no inconsiderable knowledge of what is to come. I will add to those already mentioned, that appearance in the heavens called Noah's Ark; which being occasioned by a brisk West-wind rolling together a number of small bright clouds into the form of a ship's hull, and exhibiting a beautiful mottled texture, is pointed North and South, and said to be an infallible sign of rain to happen within twenty-four hours.
  author's apology
Thus have I finished what I intended to say as prefatory to the descriptions included in this Work. I acknowledge that my principal meaning in the hints which I have thrown out, and the observations which I have made, has been to stimulate others whose leisure and abilities are greater, and whose opportunities of information may be more extensive, to prosecute those, or similar subjects, on a larger scale: for I am fully persuaded, that a great deal of good information remains yet to be gathered, and may with ease be collected in these parts, not only by the inquirer after ancient manners, but by the Etymologist, the Grammarian, the Historian of the works both of men and nature, the Antiquarian with respect to inscriptions and coins, the Botanist, and the Painter. As to myself, it is necessary further to acknowledge, that being obliged, in this part of the Work, to quote principally from memory, I may possibly have fallen into some inaccuracies. That being immersed in business of a very different nature, and applying to this only at stolen intervals, there will be found in the stile a sort of inequality, which the human mind, from its different aptitude and vigour at different seasons, and after different degrees of exercise, cannot prevent: and that from thinking on some of the subjects, I may possibly here and there have been led, as it were by sympathy, to the use of quaint or obsolete expressions, and may not have preserved that classical purity of language which I could have wished. I am conscious also, that my arrangements may be found fault with; and to this charge I must answer, that not intending, when I set forward, to write any regular essay, nor ought further than a few cursory notes, I paid no attention to that circumstance; till one idea calling forth others, and those in their turn giving birth to fresh ones, I began to startle at the bulk of this Introduction, deficient as it is in form and order, and forthwith I endeavoured to contract my observation into as little room as possible. I must also frankly own, that the necessity of publishing the Whole Work as soon as possible, on account of the delays it has already met with, utterly prevents me from transcribing it in a more correct form, and compels me to present the first copy of this to the Public. Such therefore as it is, I hope, that if any new information is furnished by it, the faults, which must from the circumstances of its execution be attached to it, will be overlooked and forgiven.
A SURVEY
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