ous on rocky ground: top the whole with a straw, or rather willow hat. Nor must an umbrella, by any means be forgotten, it is a trusty useful servant, choose it of silk, and of the largest size.

Next for your luggage. Get made, of the browndressed calf-skin used by saddlers, a case about eleven inches and a half long, by seven wide, a trifle rounded at the bottom, lined with canvas, and having a flap and button. This is to be slung over the shoulder with loop and button (not buckle); and thus may be easily shifted to either side, and adjusted to any height. A complete change of linen, shaving implements, map, and the smaller drawing books, are all it need contain; and when filled, the whole will not weigh more than between three and four pounds. For greater convenience, a small trunk may be dispatched, when you set out, to wait your arrival somewhere, three or four weeks after.

The sketch books I have used are, two about nine inches long by six and three-quarters wide, containing thirty leaves each; and three smaller about four inches and a half long by six and three

quarters wide. All of them should be made of thin hot-pressed paper; this takes the pencil best, is most portable, and if held against the light, the exact reverse of a sketch may be readily copied. The smaller books may be conveniently put into the leather case: the larger, folded in paper, I have usually carried in my hand. By the way, the best preservative of pencil lines that I can tell you of, is a wash of thin starch, twice over very dark parts. This does not shine, and it may be procured almost any where. Some other articles are necessary: a two-sheet map of the principality mounted upon canvass,* a supply of black lead pencils, Indian rubber, a pen-knife or two, (duplicates guard against accidents,) Indian ink, and a few brushes: one or two good lancets also may be found very serviceable.

Whether you will think these preparations complete without a companion, I know not one of congenial taste may be desirable, no doubt, though never my choice. There is one thing more, how

* One is sold by C. Smith in the Strand, accurate in general,

ever which a pedestrian must not be without

perseverance.

The best season is easily determined that, namely, in which the days are longest, and the weather most settled. You will, of course, choose July and August.

I can give you no rule for laying out your day; so much must depend upon constitution, habit, weather, length of stages, and various accidental circumstances. If, to avoid the heat, you walk late in an evening, this plan can hardly be followed up by an early morning walk, and that has never succeeded with me. I have always thought the time from six to nine o'clock in a morning, the most sultry and oppressive part of the day. No breeze is awake, no clouds collected, the sun's power steady and increasing, and the bodily frame not yet braced and fortified against it. The plan I have found most eligible is, to begin my walk after as early a breakfast as I can procure, reach my destination in the afternoon, then taking another meal, give the evening to exploring and sketching. At all events, do not time yourself;

C

many a fine drawing is thus lost: sunrise and sunset are the only hours a pedestrian need notice. Neither is a pocket of provisions necessary; a crust, with a draught from some brook, will carry you through the day.

You will find bathing very useful and refreshing, and have many tempting opportunities in the course of your tour. tour. It should, however, be early in a morning.

Thus lessoned and equipped, I will imagine you to have travelled, with what rapidity you may, to Bristol, then to the New Passage, and, having crossed the Severn, to pitch upon your feet on the coast of Monmouthshire---from thence we will start together in the next letter.

Yours, &c.

I subjoin my route through South Wales, with the number of miles between the places, as accurately as I could collect them; and also the inns I stopped at; though the same inn, remember, may not always continue the best.