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CORA LYNN.-STONEBYRES LYNN.

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a flight of steps to be cut along the face of the opposite rock, by which the visitor descends into a deep and capacious amphitheatre, where he finds himself exactly in front, and on a level with the bottom of the Fall. Here the imagination is bewildered by the grandeur and sublimity of the scene. The vast body of water churned into foam, and projected in a double bound over the precipice; the dark and weltering pool below; the magnificent rampart of grim perpendicular rocks which project and undulate round him on the left; the romantic banks opposite; the rich garniture of wood with which it is mantled; and the river, after a stormy passage, again pursuing its placid course in the distance-sparkling, as if purified by its recent struggles-present altogether a spectacle which may challenge comparison with the finest scenes of the kind in Switzerland. But such scenes

are the poet's peculiar province.-The awful phenomena exhibited by this Fall, when augmented by sudden storms, are thus ably depicted by a native bard :

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"But when the deluge pours from every hill-
When Clyde's broad bed ten thousand torrents fill,
His roar the thundering mountain-streams augment-
Redoubled rage in rocks so closely pent.

Then shattered woods, with rugged roots uptorn,
And herds and harvests, down the wave are borne ;
Huge crags heaved upward through the boiling deep,
And rocks enormous thundering down the steep,
In swift descent, fixed rocks encountering roar,
Crash, as from slings discharged, and shake the shore....
"From that drear grot which bears thy sacred name-
Heroic Wallace! first in Scotia's fame,

I saw the liquid snowy mountains rolled

Prone down the awful steep; I heard the din

That shook the hill, from caves that boiled within.

Then wept the rocks, and trees, with dripping hair,

Thick mists ascending loaded all the air,

Blotted the sun, obscured the shining day,

And washed at once the blazing noon away.
The wreck below, in wild confusion tost,
Convulsed in eddies, or in whirlpools lost,
Is swept along where Lanark's ancient claim
To eldest rank has given a province name.'

"'-CLYDE.

The lower, or Stonebyres Fall, resembles in so many respects the others of

• Much of the description in the preceding lines will remind the French reader of the well-known ode by Laharpe, in his "Epître au Comte de Schowalow:"

"Au loin, le bruit de son passage

Fait trembler les rochers, fait mugir les vallons," &c. &c.

the series, that it would here be superfluous to indulge in any minute description; for, in this case, description would be little more than a repetition of the same ideas and features. The distinctive character of this cascade is its triple stage, thereby forming three distinct leaps; and on that account it is considered by many as an object of even greater beauty and attraction than the others. This cascade takes its name from Stonebyres, an estate of the ancient family of De Vere, celebrated in the history and poetry of the country.

"From Oxford's lofty race their lineage springs;

Famed Oxford, sprung from emperors and kings.
How bright the Veri Antonini shone

When Virtue's self possessed the imperial throne !. . . .
But when the fierce prætorian cohorts sold

The earth's broad empire for alluring gold,

The generous Veri left imperial Rome...."

"On either side they stretch their wide domain

Where turbid Nethan rends the indented plain.”—WILSON.

Lanark, with its numerous claims to ancient renown, is remarkable as the scene of Wallace's first military exploit, in which he slew the English sheriff Heselrig, and expelled his soldiers from the town. This patriot-the Scottish "Tell"-appears to have resided in the town of Lanark, even then a garrisoned place, after his marriage with the beautiful coheiress of Lamington, barbarously slain by Heselrig, and since become the subject of many a pathetic and popular ballad. For still

"There is a melancholy pleasure

In tales of hapless love; a treasure

From which the saddened bosom borrows

A short respite from present sorrows;

And even the gay delight to feel,

As down young cheeks the soft tears steal."

Bothwell Castle, a specimen of baronial magnificence scarcely equalled by any existing ruins, is situated on the northern bank of the Clyde, and by its stately grandeur and majestic turrets, rouses the admiration of every stranger. It is difficult to imagine a finer situation, or battlements and towers in finer harmony with the scene. One might suppose that the celebrated French poet had these scenes in view when he composed the following lines:--

"Tantôt d'un vieux château s'offre la masse énorme

Pompeusement bizarre, et noblement informe.

• Sir WILLIAM WALLACE, "Metrical Legends," by JOANNA BAILLIE, pp. 93, 94.; in which, and the well-known romance of the "Scottish Chiefs," the reader will find the particulars beautifully and affectingly depicted..

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