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degree, to that which so long distinguished Fonthill.
The usual approach to Arnheim was by the river. The visiter left the
city in the early morning. During the forenoon he passed between shores
of a tranquil and domestic beauty, on which grazed innumerable sheep,
their white fleeces spotting the vivid green of rolling meadows. By
degrees the idea of cultivation subsided into that of merely pastoral
care. This slowly became merged in a sense of retirement--this again in
a consciousness of solitude. As the evening approached, the channel grew
more narrow, the banks more and more precipitous; and these latter
were clothed in rich, more profuse, and more sombre foliage. The water
increased in transparency. The stream took a thousand turns, so that at
no moment could its gleaming surface be seen for a greater distance
than a furlong. At every instant the vessel seemed imprisoned within an
enchanted circle, having insuperable and impenetrable walls of foliage,
a roof of ultramarine satin, and no floor--the keel balancing itself
with admirable nicety on that of a phantom bark which, by some accident
having been turned upside down, floated in constant company with the
substantial one, for the purpose of sustaining it. The channel now
became a gorge--although the term is somewhat inapplicable, and I employ
it merely because the language has no word which better represents
the most striking--not the most distinctive-feature of the scene. The
character of gorge was maintained only in the height and parallelism of
the shores; it was lost altogether in their other traits. The walls of
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