Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/101

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
DUTY AND INCLINATION.
93

rest. To escape from the image of Douglas and her own thoughts, she was tempted to wish that she too was at rest. The deep impressions of her feelings had exhausted her; which being perceived by her father, he led her back to the carriage, and they resumed their journey through the rich and cultivated county of Hereford.

If the verdant and interesting scenes of England were calculated to delight them, those of Wales, in their alternate beauties of wildness and magnificence were still more so: the utmost diversity of landscape, hill and dale, wood and water, uniting and harmonizing, contributed to render the effect enchanting. At one time, the road, winding, led them along a chain of mountains, towering above each other, either wholly unproductive and desolate, or richly decorated with foliage. Sometimes a sequestered dale obscured the prospect, which opening again upon the view, exhibited boundless variety.

But the gratification of our travellers was succeeded by feelings of astonishment, not unmixed with awe, upon an abrupt transition to objects as grand as they were tremendous—the almost perpendicular precipice, the stupendous rock, the loose and broken fragments impending from its lofty summit; and where, amidst its cliffs and fallen