dull chance, if it did not fare as hard with me as with Faithful, in the allegory; and I have no kind of doubt, (and may safely challenge Dr. Cheever's opinion in confirmation.) but that there are as many Pick-thanks, and Love-lusts, and Carnal-delights, and Lord Hate-goods in this town of Saratoga, as ever regaled themselves in the stark-mad city which lay on the road to Bunyan's Beulah.

girl satisfaction in having her charms paragraphed as are the good points of a favorite race-horse. Our people do not care to inform the world how they eat and sleep and drive, and their daughters shrink yet from daily bulletins of their changes of toilette, with remarks on the comparative advantage of varying styles in displaying a fine bust or arm. Their amusements are, "As I wished to see all that was to be seen, I have taken rooms at the United States Hotel, perhaps, primitive, and the New Yorker, who has and have entered my name as John Stubbs, of accidentally wandered so far out of his orbit as Stubbston. This semi-titular device, at once to find himself in the mountain region of Virginia, practical and innocent, gives me a little dignity declares the springs very stupid, laments the igwith the bar-tenders and newspaper men; and norance of the company in the last fancy dances has served me, I frankly believe, in way of re- which he has seen at the Salle Valentino in Paris, tainer, for a better room than I could otherwise and goes back, wondering by what evil destiny, have hoped to secure. At the same time, being unknown to almost all the company, I can enjoy he had come among a people in whose horrid my cigar quietly under the trees or upon the cor- society the Reporter of the Herald could no longer ridor, without any fear of remark or of disturb- take cognizance of his movements. ance."

But to dispense with any further remarks on this branch of our subject, we come now to as"But my observations are by no means confined to the hotel where I find myself lodged. If sure the reader, who has not journeyed much in Lords Lechery, and Hate-good, are the patrons the highlands of the Southern States, that they of the United States, I should think it ill reck- contain some of the wildest and most beautiful oned, if the Dowager Love-Money, and the scenery that ever inspired poet; spots, sequeswench Live-loose, did not sometimes thrive at the Union, or at Congress Hall. It is true there is a colder air in that quarter; and there hardly seems to grow upon the frequenters that easy warmth, which is so captivating in the wives and middle-aged gentlemen of the west end."*

tered from the busy routine of commercial life, where the spirit may find repose and revel in a satisfied sense of the grandeur and loveliness of Nature; valleys of surpassing richness and slopes of the most refreshing verdure-all of which We might draw further upon our friend Timon, might have been rendered familiar to us by dewho has been in his day an observer of society scription, had our people sooner discovered their at the Wells of Cheltenham and the Brunnens of attractions. Many, who have heretofore made annual excursions to New England, and who, for Nassau, but we have quoted enough to satisfy the reader that social enjoyment at the Northern the first time last year, had their steps turned by Springs is a humbug-a mere chimera, and that the abolition agitation to Southern retreats, were he who resorts thither for such relaxation of startled to find themselves entering an almost enhis powers, might as well go to one of their hotel chanted region of which they had never before clerks for civility, or step into the furnace of heard, and to see on every haud landscapes rivalling those of Milton's L'Allegro, the Novelty Works to get cool.

Russet lawns and fallows gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The laboring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim with daisies pied;
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;

Happily in the South it is different. At our summer retreats, we have neither the ostentation nor the toadyism, the jewels nor the jealousies, the vice nor the velvet, that deform and bespangle and set off the characters and the persons of the Northern notabilities. It is not our purpose to and at they advanced further into the unsettled inquire into the causes of this difference; it may be, and most probably is owing to the institution portion to come suddenly, and with a sensation of delicious coolness, upon coverts as shady as of slavery, but the process of making this appaany described in the Penseroso, rent is roundabout, nd we care not now to pursue it. We thank Heaven that the fact is so. We rejoice that it has never been our ill fortune. in going to the White Sulphur, to fall in with any Lady Kicklebury such as Thackeray has drawn for us on the Rhine. Above all, we are thankful exceedingly that public sentiment among us does not sanction that prurient taste for newspaper celebrity which causes a young

*The Lorgnette, second series. pp. 180, 191.

arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves,
Of pine, or monumental oak,
Where the rude axe with heaved stroke,
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt
Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.

It is not at all necessary that we should institute any comparisons between the natural features of the Northern and Southern States, as we set out to play cicerone to the reader through

the latter. We believe we have rambled more Virginia, the noble old commonwealth of our extensively over the lake country, from Erie to love, where we first drew breath and to which Quebec, and over the undulating surface of New we owe allegiance, is traversed, as the reader England, than nine-tenths of the Northern plea- knows, throughout its whole extent by the Blue sure-seekers who frequent the Springs. We Ridge and the Alleghanies, and the geographer, have lingered spell-bound above the stupendous in speaking of her, may adopt Cæsar's descripcataract of Niagara; we have pulled up a five tion of Gaul in the opening of his Commentapounder from the blue depths of Lake George; ries, Omnis Gallia divisa est in tres partes. The we have watched the sea break over the craggy three sections of Virginia are the Cismontane, promontory of Nahant and loitered for days along the Valley, and the Transmontane. It is in the the banks of the Hudson, so that we could very latter two that will be found the favoured resorts well undertake to draw the parallel, but we re- of the summer traveller, and it is there that we peat that it is not necessary to do so. Even propose to take the reader for a jaunt of two or were we disposed to concede, as we are not, that three pages, before leaving the State for others Nature has been more lavish of her beauties in farther South. the Northern States, we should still contend that But where shall we first loiter on the road? or one can better enjoy scenery in the South, for what road, indeed, shall we travel? Mr. Burke, here one's meditations upon a prospect of unu- (or rather Dr. Burke, for after many years passed sual sublimity are not interrupted by the intru- in the avocations of the scholar, he has recently, sion of a crowd of vulgar people just arrived in late in life, become a Doctor of Medicine,) must the last train, who insist upon his hearing their relieve us from the perplexity of choosing. We own opinions of it. One's appreciation of the therefore adopt his arrangement and direct our Horse Shoe Fall is marred by the How sub-attention first to the great caravanserai of alllime" of a cockney standing at his elbow, and the White Sulphur Springs of Greenbrier. In the train of reflection, reaching back to Isis and Osiris, at the Pyramids, is rudely broken off by the appearance of one of those " "young ladies with pink parasols," of whom Mr. Thomas Moore has given us an account.

doing so, we are conscious of leaving out of view many remarkable places on the road, to some of which we shall presently return, and some very wild spots where we must catch a hurried glimpse of horizons worth the looking at.

We have this side of the Potomac no great The White Sulphur Springs, though not so subwaterfall like Niagara, nor have we heights as jected to the tyranny of fashion as any of the elevated as the White Mountains. But isolated haunts of the Northern circles, has been neverobjects however grand do not impart interest to theless. for many years, the gathering point of a whole section of country, nor is it among the the most refined and cultivated people of our loftiest elevations that nature most directly ap- section of the Union. The very difficulties of peals to the affections. We think it was Lady getting there have had the happy effect of renMary Wortley Montague, (at least Sir Walter dering the society more exclusive, and though Scott, in the Fair Maid of Perth, says it was, the pomps and vanities' do often manifest their and when we get our quotations at second-hand influence over its habitués, yet mere pretension we like to acknowledge the fact,) who first ex- finds itself wofully out of place on Virginia or pressed the opinion that the most interesting dis- Alabama Row. The mode of living in cottages trict of every country, and that which exhibits which obtains there, adds vastly to the comfort the varied charms of natural scenery in greatest of visiters, and is far better than herding people perfection, is that where the mountain spurs melt together by the hundred under one roof. To the into the champaign or more level land. The family circle it is like carrying their own vine and views, perhaps, are not so extended as else- fig tree with them. They may be as secluded, where, but the constant changes of surface lend or as much in the daily whirl of amusement as a pleasing variety, which is obtained neither upon they please. And there are no more agreeable the plains nor amid the dizzy and awful altitudes receptions any where than those impromptu little of an Alpine range. This variety is seen to assemblages at nightfall, on the cottage porticoes, greatest advantage in our own portion of the particularly when the moon lights up the whole Union, for as the traveller comes South, he finds lawu, and half reveals through the trees the white the Apalachian chain becoming less and less buildings that surround it. The ball room is not lofty until it sinks down into the flat surface in near enough to annoy with its din such as are Alabama. Here then we may look for the pic-not attracted by its fascinations, and the evening turesque and the affecting in scenery, for those air of this healthful locality brings no poison on kaleidoscopic mutations of landscape at every turn, which astonish and delight, while they do not overpower us.

its wings. From the first of July until the frostrime whitens the neighboring hill-tops, the ob server will here see enough of character to en

gage him, if he is fond of the study, for charac Jing through it in the stage-roach. Take your ter here, like the waters, is capable of analysis. gun, as we did, and climb the acclivity on either while on every side, he has at ready command side; the excitement of pheasant shooting will sources of recreation the most salutary and ex-sustain you till you reach the summit, rocky and hilarating. In the inviting umbrage of the trees tangled though you will find the path, and then, around the spring, a spot which seems designed, our word for it, you will feel amply compensated in the fitness of things, for the consumption of for all the toils of the ascent. Is it not the vale cigars, he may puff the morning away in friendly of Rasselas that Dr. Johnson has pictured? If chit-chat with judges, divines, M. C.'s, and other the time should be sunrise, you will, perhaps, see eminent individuals, and for the afternoon there in the distance the semblance of old ocean in the are drives about the vicinage where he may dash mist which hangs suspended between the ridges; with his curricle, or practise quadrupedal hexame-if it should be sunset, tant mieux, for the brown ters on horseback. Parties, too, are frequently shadows of that exquisite hour will dapple the made up for a deer-hunt, and those who engage plain, and make it like some wonderful embroidin the sport have the advantage of witnessing ery. Or. get up a party of agreeable companthe novel phenomena of day-break and sun-rise ions and ride to the cascade of Beaver Dam, under the most favorable circumstances. The some three miles or so from the Sweet Springs East seems streaked in that highland section Hotel. You diverge a short distance from the with rosier dyes, as if Aurora wished to reward main road, and enter a copse of wild-wood such as are not accustomed to look upon her ad- tangled with undergrowth, concealed within vent, with an exhibition of peculiar splendour. which a limpid stream rushes over a precipice of We like deer-hunts. Not that we are anything 50 or 60 feet, forming a salto of the most striking of a shot, for whenever we have engaged in them, character. All along the banks are to be found we have killed nothing but time, but there is a curious petrifactions of the dams built aforetime certain degree of luxury in being able to button by the beavers-the aboriginal inhabitants of the up a warm shooting-jacket over your person in spot. Below the waterfall, are the queerest litAugust, which, added to the auricular delight of the caves in the world, to be entered only with a the chorus of dogs, and the quiet self-assurance light, but filled with all manner of stalactites and of your ability to have dropped the buck in his flashing as we might suppose the interior of some tracks, if he had only passed by your stand. make great minster would flash, if all the tracery and such expeditions in the highest degree pleasura-fret-work of its wondrous ceiling were of crystal. ble. We will not deny that we enjoy, too, the We once rode to Beaver Dam with a large comvenison at dinner, for it is seldom that a party pany of gallant cavaliers and fair ladyes. and spent some hours in examining these things.

come back venisonless.

Such as this is life at the other springs of Vir-The day was charming, the cascade made a blithe ginia. After describing the social aspect of the music iu the air, and we thought that with such White Sulphur we need say nothing of the rest. companions we might turu Troglodyte and live Dr. Burke has given us some animated sketches there forever. of White Sulphur society that we might profitably quote, and he has hinted, most judiciously, at reforms in the cuisine, but we have neither space to make the extracts, nor to enlarge upon the desired improvements. We must hurry along or we may lose altogether some views that we proposed taking of the country.

In the prettiest part of this valley, at the distance of a mile from each other, are situated the two establishments of the Sweet, and the Red Sweet Springs. Their attractions are equal, with perhaps the exception of better fare at the latter, and some difference in the waters which Dr. Burke gives in scientific terms. We shall not inquire into these matters, but we had made up our mind to sonnetize the Sweet Springs bath, when our eye rested on Dr. Burke's description which saves us the trouble. It is both humorous and poetic;

From the White Sulphur to the Sweet Springs the road pursues a narrow valley, between adjoining mountains, through which runs a stream let musically over its pebbly bed, wetting the feet of the horses at innumerable points of crossing The ride of 17 miles is usually accomplished iu three hours and a half. and, as you approach "Let me now approach the noble fountainthe Sweet Springs, becomes more and more in-second only, if second, in volume of water to the teresting. For here the valley is one of singular Warm Springs. The stream which supplies the beauty, presenting an ampler width and deeper drinking water rises from the earth, and is continge of green carpeting, and would be worthy feet deep. The surplus water discharges itself habitation for the Muses themselves. Dr. Burke into the gentlemen's bath, and forms a magnififitly calls it the Tempe of Virginia. When you ceut spout, under which the bathers place themgo there, gentle reader, be not content with pass- 'selves and enjoy indescribable luxury. The tem

fined in an oblong octagon reservoir about seven

perature of the Spring is about 744°, and that of the Baths 7340.

66

The Baths are two in number, of equal dimensions about 20 feet square-with dressing rooms and fire-places. They are under the same roof, but separated by a brick wall such as might defy Pyramus and Thisbe, and having entrances on opposite sides of the building.

"If a German Doctor had such fountains as these to describe, his enthusiasm would carry him to the third heaven. He would imagine his body

nous grandeur. Nearer by are vallies flecked with spots of cultivation, and a mile and a half distant is the cluster of buildings forming the Springs Establishment, yet looking so near at hand that you would think them within easy rifle-shot.

And so we might go on to dilate upon the Mineral Springs and the romantic views scattered all through the mountain section of Virginia. In the Northern part towards the Potomac there was immersed in celestial ether, and his head resting on the bosom of an angel. From the is Harper's Ferry so well known in Jefferson's bottom of the pool, as also at the Warm Springs, Notes, and the lovely valley of the Shenandoah, arise innumerable bubbles of the size of a pea. where lived our lamented friend Cooke and They emerge from the pebbles with a whiz, and which he delighted to celebrate in his verse, and rise in myriads to the surface if they meet with

no impediment. They seem to be chasing each the ice-mountain of Hampshire, and the Fortother from their fairy world, as if in merry sport, Mountain of late spoken of by our correspondent and laughing at their own antics. When the L. I. L." in his "Recollections of Sully." bather places himself among them they strike him There, too, are charming watering places, such all over his body-pat, pat, pat. It is said that as Jordan's Springs and the Shannondale, and these sounds are so distinct that an Irishman. once immersed in their midst, thought they were one recently established-The Capon-of which calling him away to the land of spirits, and, filled we hear great accounts and which we threaten with terror, rushed from the pool. I, however, to visit. The Monumental City, so famous for think my countrymen too gallant to exhibit any the beauty of its daughters, is largely represented such timidity, and do not believe one word of at the "Capon," and the other attractions of the the story, although told by one of themselves. place are said to justify all the poetry of its adAnother version, and one more probable is, that he fancied the "good people" were hitting him with young potatoes-au operation at which he was vastly amused.

"And thou, Sir Francis Head! I would fain invoke a few corruscations from thy geuius, to tell my readers how the old may become young, and the young become Narcissuses, or Deiopeias, by bathing in these pellucid waters, but there is too little poetry in my composition for such an attempt."

vertisement. Perhaps we shall go and see. In other portions of the State are caves, among which are Weyer's and the Blowing Cave, of great reputation, and Cyclopean Towers and the Hawk's Nest, to which Mr. Appleton's Guide book will put you in the way of going. The Natural Bridge will, of course, draw you aside for a day, and we might endeavor here to set down our impressions of it, but that other pens have repeatedly sung its praises in our magazine.

We are, of course, reminded by this of the lux-The Peaks of Otter also demand the tourist's aturious bath at the Warm Springs, and, by associa- tention and let him not withhold it. We shall tion of the comfortable hotel there, and the mag- never forget the May morning we once whiled nificent panorama which the visiter obtains from away on the highest rock of the Sharp Peak, inthe top of the neighboring mountain. We need toxicated with the exceeding loveliness of the only say of the house that it is, in all respects, lowland landscape and inspired by the sublimity admirable, and that any one who visits it, for the of the mountain view. Far away below us the first time, will find in Dr. Brockenbrough, the champaign country lay extended like a garden, proprietor, a character that he will not soon for- with trim parterres and mazes of forest, while on get as a "gentleman of the old school." The the other hand, the eye looked down with deview from the Warm Spring Mountain is un- light into the rejoicing vallies, half in sunshine, questionably one of the finest we have ever seen. half in shadow, that lay between the mountain The “azure hue” in which distance clothes the ridges. Around us there arose, surging through peaks within the range of vision, so often cited the wooded gorge beneath, a wind that uttered from Campbell's hackneyed lines, causes the sur-tones such as might issue from an organ more rounding region to wear the appearance of the sea; grand than ever yet came from the hand of builnot that resemblance, which we catch from any der; louder and louder it grew, and the volume far-off horizon of moorland, to the ocean in a of sound went up to Heaven as an anthem--it calm, but as it is seen in tempest with the huge was the Miserere of the pines. De Quincey has billows careering in their might. You look down described such a wind, blowing at noon, in midfrom your stand-point" upon such a waste, as summer, into the chamber where lay his dead sisif each mountain were a billow and had been sud-ter. Many times since," says he, "upon a denly fixed in its present position, and these giant summer day when the sun is about the hottest, I waves extend as far as eye can reach in monoto-have remarked the same wind arising and utter

ing the same hollow, solemn, Memnonian, but comes in from the Atlantic, and feel like a new saintly swell: it is in this world the one sole au- man. There is indeed nothing to see at Old dible symbol of eternity." But our wind on top Point, apart from the extensive fortifications, but of the Peaks did sometimes become more tu- the waste of waters as it stretches out between multuous, as if it were the pibroch note to some Capes Charles and Heury, yet that "rapture by battle of Titans, and we could not but recall the "the lonely shore," which Lord Byrou has sung in fine lines of Wordsworth who speaks of this his immortal Spenserian verse, is a delight that mountain utterance, as inspiring the sentiment of does not pall. Often have we strolled for miles Freedom

Two voices are there; one is of the Sea,
One of the mountains, each a mighty voice:
In both from age to age thou did'st rejoice,
These were thy chosen music, Liberty!

As we descended to the plain the wind became less noisy, afterward it subsided into a mere whisper, a susurrus, and then died away.

along the beach, playing with the advancing surge in very childishness, and drinking in the "music of its roar." And as the ships went by, or appeared as white specks upon the distant outline of the sea, we have loved to speculate upon their probable missious-how this one might have come from the far east and was laden with all precious merchandise, or that might be destined to plough the sunny main of the MarBut distinctly as the view from above is im- quesas, and what perils of the deep the one had pressed upon our memory, the last glimpse we safely passed through and the other was fated to caught of the Peaks is, perhaps, still more vividly encounter. Such idle fantasies as these are best before us. It was at sunset. We were distant suited to the solitary walk, but for the social from it fifteen miles. The god of day went down promenade with a fair companion, what trottoir just behind the loftier of the two mountains. At at all comparable to the ramparts of the Forfirst its effect was but to encircle the summit with tress? Here you may walk a mile and a half in an aureola of light. Then there was a suffusion making the circuit, and for the greater part of of all gorgeous hues, a sort of chaos of tints the distance the ocean is before you. If the along the sky, which presented no distinct image single gentleman should try this by moonlight, to the imagination. But soon the drifting va- while the Military Band plays its inspiring airs pours began to assume the appearance of plea-within the Fort, and if he should chance to have sure barks, gaily painted, sailing upon rosy seas, and anon as the colours deepened upon the pile of cloud beyond, a city splendid above all earthly language to describe, with palaces of jasper and long burnished colonnades, and spires and domes of gold, rose like an exhalation.' Vitruvius nor Palladio never designed such architectural wonders as these. Soon the city took fire, and, one by one, its temples and capitols blazed with the flames of a vast conflagration. We looked again, and the city had been destroyed; our ærial fancies were dissipated; and the Peaks stood, with a gray and sombre appearance, in relief against the twilight sky.

as fascinating a partner as we have had there, he must be very little of an enthusiast if he does not bless his stars and call it luxury."

But if it be worth while to look upon the sea, at the quiet hour of the gloaming, alone, or when, with a pretty woman for companion, you catch the shimmer of the moonbeam upon its placid surface, how much better to see it lashed in fury by the storm! Softly, good reader; we are not going to try our hand at a description of this phenomenon; we wish merely to say that perhaps there is no place upon the Atlantic coast where the exciting play of wind and tempest may be seen to such advantage as at Old Point. The long, frantic procession of billows dashes into the Chesapeake with a fury that is indescribable. During the last summer we happened to witness, from this spot, the full energy of a violent Northeaster (the same which drove the bark Elizabeth upon Fire Island) and it was a sight to remember! The scuds of rain that you could see approaching with a rapidity beyond the flight of swiftest bird, the flakes of foam upon the beach, We do not know how the fagged and jaded in- the sudden darkness that occasionally came habitant of Baltimore, Richmond or Petersburg athwart the sky, the Titanic violence of the can obtain as sudden a transition from a hot to waves, combined to form a scene at once of a cool atmosphere, as by taking the steamboat in beauty and of terror. At such a time it is not June or July for Old Point. A few hours time desirable to go out in a sail-boat. Indeed, we will place him upon the beach where he may passed across Hampton Roads in a small steamcatch at evening the invigorating breeze that er, during the fiercest of this gale, and though we

"All this is mere rhapsody," we hear the reader exclaiming. Perhaps so. But we gave fair notice of our design to rhapsodize whenever we pleased, and if you tire of our immethodical sketches, have the goodness to lay down the number, or turn to some other article. If not, we will jump from the mountains to the sea-side together, and glance for a moment at the bathing resort of Old Point Comfort.