man-that is a susceptible being capable of clairvoyance under solar mesmerism-experiences in the soles of his feet an invincible desire to export himself somewhere. He is seized with an alarming horror of his domicile, and is haunted in his dreams by spectral steamers, phantom footpaths, and visionary vehicles. He has a thirst for change-this must be quenched: a longing for locomotion-this must be gratified. Some fine morning a friend calls at his residence-he has vanished, exhaled, evaporated. A month passes by, and he is again seen, with a face darkened by the sun, and a purse lightened by the journey. But the intervening time has been to him fraught with pleasant memories, and he has inflated his lungs with a stock of unpolluted oxygen that will enable him to breathe upon credit for the next twelvemonth. To all who can emancipate themselves from town thraldom, and who have the opportunity of getting away, even into the suburbs, we would most emphatically urge them to go and do likewise. Let them seize every chance of thus turning a fine day to the best advantage. The moil and turmoil of the human hive renders an escape to the region of trees and flowers a privilege not to be lightly despised, and the eye is not less clear, nor the hand less dexterous, for the slight remission of their employment. And then going, like

"One who long in populous cities pent, Where houses thick, and sewers annoy the air, Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe,

Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight,
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,

Or dairy, rural sights, and rural sounds

he shall return with renewed energy to his avocation, and find that these simple pleasures are the best and most enduring. Having, therefore, now fully prepared the reader for the enjoyment of one of those excursive trips which we are about to indicate and describe, we may confidently affirm that if anybody takes an excursion into his head without putting this volume into his pocket he deserve to be

no! we will not be too severe-as the man says in the play, the crime

carries its own punishment along with it.

ADAMS'S

ENVIRONS OF THE METROPOLIS.

EXCURSION I.

HAMPSTEAD-THE HEATH-JACK STRAW'S CASTLE-THE SPANIARD'S-CAEN WOOD-FINCHLEY-HIGHGATE-HIGH

GATE HILL-ARUNDEL HOUSE-HIGHGATE ARCHWAY-THE HIGHGATE OATH-WHITTINGTON AND HIS ALMSHOUSESTHE NORTH LONDON CEMETERY-ISLINGTON-CANONBURY HOUSE, &c. &c.

too little known, it will form an appropriate commencement to our depictions of the scenery and antiquities that may be encountered even in the shortest ramble about the environs. An omnibus-of which there are plenty to be met with, every hour of the day, from the City and Tottenham Court-roadwill furnish a conveyance to Hampstead, at once convenient and economical, and relieve the pedestrian from the least interesting and most fatiguing portion of his journey. Passing through Camden Town-which, notwithstanding its present extent, is one of the most recently erected suburbs, having been first built upon in 1791, on the manor falling into the possession of the Marquis of Camden-we have the line of the NorthWestern Railway branching off to our left, and Chalk Farm, once so noted in the annals of duelling, a little beyond. At Haverstock Hill, where the ascent is palpable enough to make a slower pace necessary and a retrospective glance at the forest of chimneys beneath as obtainable, we have on the left of the road a cottage, now split into two separate dwellings, formerly the residence of Sir Richard Steele, the associate of Addison, and the busy contributor to the " Tatler." The road, which speedily assumes a very rural aspect, though studded with elegant villas in every direction, next leads past Downshire Hill, a pretty vista giving a distant glimpse of Highgate Church and the houses round Kentish Town, anciently bearing the name of Cantislares, or Cantlers. It now belongs chiefly to the possessions of St. Paul's Cathedral, as ecclesiastical property. Soon after we enter the main street of Hampstead, and here, alighting from our vehicle, we may proceed to reconnoitre this ancient and admired resort of the London rambler.

The Romans-that wonderful people, who were the first to find out those attractive situations which modern judgment has since sanctioned and improved-were evidently located here for some time, and many Roman antiquities have been discovered at various periods, particularly near the Wells, in 1774. Ethelred made this district a present to Westminster Abbey in 986; but as it then only contained five cottages, the

benefaction was of less consideration than it would be now, when it includes nearly five thousand. In the reign of Henry the Eighth it had acquired a wonderful reputation among laundresses, and the nobility were wont to send their linen hither to be bleached, in the belief that peculiarly cleansing properties were here attached to the two elements of air and water. For a short time the county members were elected on the heath, but the privilege was lost in 1701, and from that time the chief interest is connected with the eminent literary characters, who made Hampstead a place of frequent resort and residence. At a tavern called "The Upper Flask"-the sign is still perpetuated-the celebrated "Kit-cat Club" was originally held, under the management of its eccentric sponsor, Christopher Cat, and here Addison, Steele, Richardson (the novelist) Pope, Gay, Arbuthnot, and afterwards Akenside and Dr. Johnson, with a host of other celebrities, used frequently to assemble. The Church of St. John's was built in 1747; but the increasing population rendering its want of accommodation severely felt, it has been recently enlarged to nearly double its former extent, at a cost of £3,000. There is a chapel in Wellwalk, where formerly persons were married without fees on condition of ordering their wedding dinner at the Wells, which was of course charged for in proportion. These wells enjoyed much celebrity in the last century, as containing a chalybeate spring suitable for many complaints; but they have become latterly quite deserted and forgotten. Passing on to the Heath, throned upon an elevation of nearly 400 feet above the sea level, there is a magnificent prospect spread forth on every side. The mighty maze of London, with its myriad housetops, lies mapped out in the hollow towards the south, whilst rising amidst the smoky vapour, that hangs over the city like a cloud, may be recognised the massive dome of St. Paul's, the towers of Westminster Abbey, and the New Houses of Parliament, the thread-like elevation of the Monument, and most of the more elevated public edifices. Beyond may be traced the blue outline of the Surrey hills, even to Banstead