The public or circulating libraries form, in reality, at stated hours of the day, as at most of the English Spas, the centres and rendezvous of whatever there is of bustling life, fashion, and idleness in Leamington; and of these there are several well worthy of the patronage of the public. Hewett's, as being connected with the Assembly-rooms, and next to it the Athenæum, which has the advantage of a garden and archeryground adjoining to the reading-room (a great acquisition in the summer season), are, I believe, considered to be the best establishments of this description. I visited both, and could not help observing to some friends that the visiters to the ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA (as the place is now emphatically styled by its inhabitants), have no reason to complain of the want of mental, whatever may be the deficiency of bodily recreation.

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CHAPTER XII.

ENVIRONS OF LEAMINGTON-MALVERN.

GUIDE Books to Leamington-Exaggerations injurious― REALITY— Hunting Station-Country around Leamington-Principal LionsWAHWICK CASTLE-Romantic View-Visit to the Baronial Residence -The Court and State Rooms-The Pleasure Grounds and the WARWICK VASE-The Old Gardener and the Bookseller-BEAUCHAMP CHAPEL-Richard, Earl of Warwick, and Dudley, of LeicesterRuins of KENILWORTH-The Necromancer of Abbotsford-View of the Castle-AMY'S TOWER-The Deadly Fall-MALVERN-Polyolbion -"The Pleasant Rise"-Situation and Aspect of the two MalvernsSplendid Panorama-MALVERN WELLS-Its preferable Position-The WELL HOUSE, and ESSINGTON HOTEL-Unlucky Aspect of the Malverns-Obstinate Defence by its Advocates-Theory versus Truth— The "deadly" East Wind-Its Effects-Advantages of Pure Air and Pure Water-Early Hours-The HOTELS at Great Malvern-General Bustle and Movement on the Hills-The MALVERN WATER-Its Character, Source, and Properties-ST. ANN'S WELL-The HOLY WELLWhat is it good for?

If there be one circumstance more calculated than another to work mischief against a Spa, or against any other place of public resort for strangers, it is the fulsome, hyperbolical, and improbable eulogiums upon every thing concerning it, to be found in guide-books and local descriptions. In this respect, I must candidly declare, that "the Old" as well as "the New Guide of Leamington Spa," particularly the former, is obnoxious to such a charge in a degree far be

yond that of any guide-book that I am acquainted with, of any other watering-place in England.

According to the "Old Guide," not only do "the Royal Baths and Pumproom, excel all the baths in this country and the therma of the ancients," but the hotels are magnificent, unique, and unrivalled in England;" the Athenæum "is the ne plus ultra of fashionable and inviting places of resort;" the "Upper Assembly Rooms vie in grandeur and magnificence and convenience with those of Bath and Cheltenham ;" and even the streets and rows of houses not yet built, but only in embryo, are to be the finest things in the world," splendid, palatial, stately, grand, and calculated to call forth the most unqualified admiration.” The trees are all "venerable and majestic," more so "than any in the kingdom;" the footpaths and carriage-drives, "are all delightful," many of them are "romantic," or lead to "deep and bowery strolls for the indulgence of the penseroso and the contemplatist." In fine, exclaims this hyperbolic writer," to what height of greatness Leamington may hereafter soar, who shall venture to conjecture ? *** It will soon rival Bath and Cheltenham, to both of which places it is superior in many particulars, as none of them has roads so good or a supply of water so abundant, neither do they possess a neighbourhood so rich in rustic beauty!"

The "New Guide," is by a very different hand, and does not dip into the vocabulary of friend Robins, of the Piazzas, Covent Garden; though even he, in his description, outsteps the limits of reality a little. He, too, is enamoured of the new town, but not so outrageously nor so ravingly as his contemporary, and unlike him, instead of giving his own. sweeping opinion of the alentours, or country around Leamington, as being the most attractive in the world, he is satisfied with modestly quoting the result of a curious ballot, which is related to have taken place at a meeting "of those useful and well-informed members of society who travel periodically

throughout the kingdom to execute commissions in trade and commerce," held in London. This ballot, it appears, was taken for the purpose of deciding which was the county district, within an extent of twenty miles, most abundant in picturesque scenery, &c.; and on that occasion the palm was awarded to that district of which Leamington is the

centre !

Now, the readers of the two preceding chapters will have perceived what sort of an impression the view of a Spa like Leamington, in its interior and various arrangements, in its old and new buildings, its resources and its accommodations, has had upon one accustomed to travel and to visit places of the same description, both in this country and abroad; and they must have noticed that that impression was a favourable one. But between admitting all that is true and good, as I have done, and subscribing to statements which must mislead the readers, and which neither the temptation of making friends, nor the fear of making enemies, should induce a writer of travels to adopt, there is a wide distinction.

The better alternative of that distinction I covet in my present pages, and that distinction leads me at once to differ from the exaggerated accounts and descriptions of the environs of Leamington, given by its topographers. The neighbourhood may be of the very first water for a "hunt;" and that it is so, the very progress of Leamington town testifies; for we must be of good faith, and confess that hunting, fully as much as water-drinking, has contributed towards that progress. But for the very reason that the neighbourhood of Leamington is made the centre of various distances to at least 140 covers, all within twenty-five miles, for the North Warwickshire the Warwickshire, the Drake's, the Atherstone,

The reader will recognize in this circumlocutory description, our friends the commercial travellers of the first volume.

and the Pytchly hounds, — that neighbourhood cannot be either "romantic or picturesque," for in such landscapefeatures huntsmen delight not.

The truth is, that nothing can be so tame as the country within ten miles of Leamington-a circumference generally considered sufficient at all Spas for pedestrian or even equestrian excursions by the visiters. What can be more uninteresting than the two miles and a half of road which lead from the Spa to Warwick and its castle, westward? or even than the longer and tortuous bye-road leading, to the famed ruins of Kenilworth, in a north-westerly direction? Yet those are the two principal lions of Leamington's surrounding scenery; and to them all strangers are invited to proceed, as the bonnes bouches of enjoyment which Leamington affords in the way of excursions. Can the warmest advocate of this royal Spa point out any other attraction of this sort, that is not a mere gentleman's or nobleman's park, or some well-wooded and undulating spot, without romance or interest, and such as abound in every part of England? Unless, indeed, it be the tranquil and pleasant retreat of the redoubted Sir Guy, Earl of Warwick.

The most attractive and commanding view of Warwick Castle, with its Cæsar's and Guy's towers, is obtained by standing before the left-hand parapet of the stone bridge, which, with a single arch of a hundred feet, spans the classic river Avon. The river itself, in this part, is narrow, and by no means picturesque: but the embattled walls and grey sloping sides of the towers, descending with their mantling of ivy and lichens towards the margin of the water, offer a prolonged line of the best preserved and most striking castellated structure in England. Nor does the eye at first discover that the foundation of this ancient military fastness is upon a rock of its own colour and material, which here rises precipitous from the river side, and seems to form a natural continuation with the superstructure.