A DESCRIPTIVE POEM: ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES, AT THEIR RETURN FROM VIEWING THE MINES NEAR WHITEHAVEN.

A DESCRIPTIVE POEM : ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES Miss Lowthers , daughters of the late Lord Lonsdale . , AT THEIR RETURN FROM VIEWING THE MINES NEAR WHITEHAVEN . BY DR. DALTON . WELCOME to light , advent'rous pair ! Thrice welcome to the balmy air From sulph'rous damps in caverns deep From sulph'rous damps , &c. ] The coal mines near Whitehaven are greatly infested with fulminating damps ; large quantities of them being frequently collected in those deserted works , which are not ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air : and , in such works , they often remain for a long time , without doing any mischief . But when , by some accident , they are set on fire , they then produce dreadful explosions , very destructive to the miners ; and bursting out of the pits with great impetuosity , like the fiery eruptions from burning mountains , force along with them ponderous bodies to a great height in the air . , Where subterranean thunders sleep , Or , wak'd , with dire Aetnaean sound Bellow the trembling mountain round , Till to the srighted realms of day Thro' flaming mouths they force their way ; From bursting streams From bursting streams , &c. ] The coal in these mines hath , several times , been set on fire by the fulminating damp , and hath continued burning for many months ; until large streams of water were conducted into the mines , and suffered to fill those parts where the coal was on fire . By such fires , several collieries have been intirely destroyed ; of which there are instances near Newcastle , and in other parts of England , and in the shire of Fife in Scotland ; in some of which places , the fire has continued burning for ages . But more mines have been ruined by inundations . , and burning rocks , From nature's fierce intestine shocks ; From the dark mansions of despair , Welcome once more to light and air ! But why explore that world of night Conceal'd till then from female sight ? Such grace and beauty why confine One moment to a dreary mine ? Was it because your curious eye The secrets of the earth would spy , How intervein'd rich minerals glow , How bubbling fountains learn to flow ? Or rather that the sons of day Already own'd your rightful sway , And therefore , like young Ammon , you Another world would fain subdue ? What tho' sage Prospero attend , While you the cavern'd hill descend , Tho' , warn'd by him , with bended head You shun the shelving roof , and tread With cautious foot the rugged way , While tapers strive to mimic day ? Tho' he with hundred gates and chains The Daemons of the mine restrains The daemons of the mine restrains , &c. ] In order to prevent , as much as possible , the collieries from being filled with those pernicious damps , it has been found necessary carefully to search for those crevises in the coal , from whence they issue out ; and at those places , to confine them within a narrow space ; and from those narrow spaces in which they are confined , to conduct them through long pipes into the open air ; where being set on fire , they consume in perpetual flames , as they continually arise out of the earth . , To whom their parent , jealous earth , To guard her hidden stores gave birth , At which , while kindred furies sung , With hideous joy pale Orcus rung ; Tho' boiling with vain rage they sit Fix'd to the bottom of the pit , While at his beck the spi'rits of air With breath of heaven their taints repair ; Or if they seek superior skies , Thro' ways assign'd by him they rise , Troop after troop at day expire In torments of perpetual fire ; Tho' he with fury-quelling charms The whole infernal host disarms , And summons And summons , &c. ] Those who have the direction of these deep and extensive works , are obliged to use great care and art in keeping them continually ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air ; which afford the miners a constant supply of that vital fluid , and expel out of the mines damps and other noxious exhalations , together with such other burnt and foul air , as is become poisonous and unfit for respirtion . to your guarded sides A squadron of etherial guides , You still , when we together view The dreadful enterprize and you , The public care and wonder go Of all above and all below . For at your presence toil is o'er , The restless miner works no more . Nor strikes the flint Nor strikes the flint , &c. ] It having been observed by Mr. Speding , who superintends these collieries , and to whom the author here gives the name of Prospero , that the fulminating damp could only be kindled by flame , and that it was not liable to be set on fire by red-hot iron , nor by the sparks produced by the collision of flint and steel , he invented a machine , in which , while a steel wheel is turned round with a very rapid motion , and flints are applied thereto , great plenty of fiery sparks are emitted , that afford the miners such a light as enables them to carry on their work in close places , where the flame of a candle , or lamp , would occasion dreadful explosions . Without some invention of this sort , the working of these mines , so greatly annoyed with these inflammable damps , would long ago have been impracticable . , nor whirls the steel Of that strange spark-emitting wheel , Which , form'd by Prospero's magic care , Plays harmless in the sulphurous air , Without a flame diffuses light , And makes the grisly cavern bright . His task secure the miner plies , Nor hears Tartarian tempests rise ; But quits it now , and hastes away To this great Stygian holiday . Agape the sooty collier stands , His axe suspended in his hands , His Aethiopian teeth the while " Grin horribly a ghastly smile , " To see two goddesses so fair Descend to him from fields of air . Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode Of gloomy Dis , infernal god , With pity when th' Orphean lyre Did every iron heart inspire , Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains , And respited eternal pains . But on you move But on you move , &c. ] The reader may suppose that he hath entered these mines by the opening at the bottom of a hill , and hath al ready passed through a long adit , hewn in the rock , and arched over with brick , which is the principal road into them for men , and for horses ; and which , by a steep descent , leads down to the lowest vein of coal . Being arrived at the coal , he may suppose himself still to descend , by ways less steep , till , after a journey of a mile and a half , he arrives at the profoundest parts of the mine . The greatest part of this descent is through spacious galleries , which continually intersect other galleries ; all the coal being cut away except large pillars , which , in deep parts of the mine , are three yards high , and about twelve yards square at the base ; such great strength being there required to support the ponderous roof . thro' ways less steep To loftier chambers of the deep , Whose jetty pillars seem to groan Beneath a ponderous roof of stone . Then with increasing wonder gaze The dark inextricable maze , Where cavern crossing cavern meets , ( City of subterraneous streets ! ) Where in a triple A triple story , &c ] There are here three strata of coal , which lie at a considerable distance one above another . The mines wrought in these parallel strata have a communication by pits , and are compared by the author to the different stories of a building . story end Mines that o'er mines by flights ascend . But who in order can relate What terror still your steps await ? How issuing from the sulphurous coal Thick Acherontic rivers Thick Acherontic rivers , &c. ] The water that flows from the coal is collected into one stream , which runs towards the fire-engines . This water is yellow and turbid , from a mixture of ocher , and so very corrosive , that it quickly consumes iron . roll ? How in close center of these mines , Where orient morning never shines , Nor the wing'd zephyrs e'er resort , Infernal darkness holds her court ? How , breathless , with faint pace , and slow How , breathless , with faint pace , and slow , &c. ] Those who descend into these mines , find them most close and sultry in the middle parts , that are most remote from the pits and adits , and perceive them to grow cooler the nearer they approach to those pits which are sunk to the deepest parts of the mines ; down which pits , large streams of fresh air are made to descend , and up which , the water is drawn out , by means of fire-engines . , Thro' her grim sultry realm you go , Till purer rising gales dispense Their cordials to the sickening sense ? Your progress next the wondering muse Thro' narrow galleries pursues ; Where earth Where earth , &c. ] The vein of coal is not always regularly continued in the same inclined plane , but , instead thereof , the miners frequently meet with hard rock , which interrupts their further progress . At such places there seem to have been breaks in the earth , from the surface downwards ; one part of the earth seeming to have sunk down , while the part adjoining has remained in its ancient situation . In some of these places , the earth may have sunk ten or twenty fathoms , or more ; in other places , less than one fathom . These breaks , the miners call Dykes ; and when they come at one of them , their first care is to discover whether the starta in the part adjoining be higher or lower than in the part where they have been working : or , ( to use their own terms ) whether the coal be cast down , or cast up . If it be cast down , they sink a pit to it ; but if it be cast up to any considerable height , they are often-times obliged , with great labour and expence , as at the place here described , to carry forwards a level or long gallery through the rock , until they again arrive at the stratum of coal . , the miner's way to close , Did once the massy rock oppose : In vain : his daring axe he heaves , Tow'rds the black vein a passage cleaves : Dissever'd by the nitrous blast , The stubborn barrier bursts at last . Thus urg'd by hunger's clamorous call , Incessant labour conquers all . In spacious rooms once more you tread , Whose roofs Whose roofs , &c. ] These colours , with which the free-stone roof of the mines is beautifully variegated in many places , and which have the appearance of clouds , seem to proceed from exsudations of salts , other , and other earthy substances . with figures quaint o'erspread Wild nature paints with various dyes , With such as tinge the evening skies . A different scene to this succeeds : The dreary road abruptly leads Down to the cold and humid caves , Where hissing fall the turbid waves . Resounding deep thro' glimmering shades The clank of chains your ears invades . Thro' pits profound from distant day , Scarce travels down light's languid ray . High on huge axis heav'd , above , See ballanc'd beams unweary'd move ! While pent within the iron womb

While pent within the iron womb , &c. ] The author hath here taken occasion to celebrate the fire-engine , the invention of which does such honour to this nation . He has endeavoured to describe , in a poetic manner , the effects of the elastic steam , and the great power of the atmosphere ; which , by their alternate actions , give force and motion to the beam of this engine , and by it , to the pump-rods , which elevate the water through tubes , and discharge it out of the mine . It appears , from pretty exact calculations , that it would require about 550 men , or a power equal to that of 110 horses , to work the pumps of one of the largest fire-engines now in use , ( the diameter of whose cylinder is seventy inches ) and thrice that number of men to keep an engine of this size constantly at work . And that as much water may be raised by an engine of this size kept constantly at work , as can be drawn up by 2520 men with rollers and buckets , after the manner now daily practised in many mines ; or as much as can be borne up on the shoulders of twice that number of men ; as is said to be done in some of the mines of Peru . — So great is the power of the air in one of those engines .

There are four fire-engines belonging to this colliery ; which , when all at work , discharge from it about 1228 gallons every minute , at thirteen strokes ; 1,768,320 gallons every twenty-four hours . By the four engines here employed , nearly twice the above-mentioned quantity of water might be discharged from mines that are not above sixty or seventy fathoms deep , which depth is rarely exceeded in the Newcastle collieries , or in any of the English collieries , those of Whitehaven excepted .

The reader may find an account of Savery's engine in Harris's Lexicon Technicum . — Many great improvements have been made to it since , and are daily making ; several of which are related in the Philosophical Transactions . The best account of it , its various improvement and uses , is , I think , in Dr. Desaguliers's course of experimental philosophy , vol. 11.

Of boiling caldrons pants for room , Expanded steam , and shrinks , or swells , As cold restrains , or heat impells , And , ready for the vacant space , Incumbent air resumes his place , Depressing with stupendous force Whate'er resists his downward course , Pumps mov'd by rods from ponderous beams Arrest the unsuspecting streams , Which soon a sluggish pool would lie ; Then spout them foaming to the sky . Sagacious Savery ! taught by thee Discordant elements agree , Fire , water , air , heat , cold unite , And lifted in one service fight , Pure streams to thirsty cities send , Or deepest mines from floods defend . Man's richest gift thy work will shine ; Rome's aqueducts were poor to thine ! At last the long descent is o'er ; Above your heads the billows roar Above your heads , &c. ] The mines are here sunk to the depth of one hundred and thirty fathoms , and are extended under the sea to places where there is , above them , sufficient depth of water for ships of large burden . These are the deepest coal-mines that have hitherto been wrought ; and perhaps the miners have not , in any other part of the globe , penetrated to so great a depth below the surface of the sea ; the very deep mines in Hungary , Peru , and elsewhere , being situated in mountainous countries , where the surface of the earth is elevated to a great height above the level of the ocean . : High o'er your heads they roar in vain ; Not all the surges of the main The dark recess can e'er disclose , Rocks heap'd on rocks th'attempt oppose : Thrice Dover's cliff from you the tides With interposing roof divides ! From such abyss restor'd to light , Invade no more the realms of night . For heroines it may well suffice Once to have left these azure skies . Heroes themselves , in days of yore , Bold as they were , atchiev'd no more . Without a dread descent you may The mines in their effects survey , And with an easy eye look down On that fair port and happy town . Where late along the naked strand The fisher's cot did lonely stand , And his poor bark unshelter'd lay , Of every swelling surge the prey , Now lofty piers their arms extend , And with their strong embraces bend Round crowded fleets , which safe defy All storms that rend the wintry sky , And bulwark , beyond bulwarks chain The fury of the roaring main . The peopled vale fair dwellings fill , And length'ning streets ascend the hill ; Where industry , intent to thrive , Brings all her honey to the hive ; Religion strikes with reverent awe , Example works th' effect of law , And plenty's flowing cup we see Untainted yet by luxury . These are the glories of the mine ! Creative commerce , these are thine ! Here while delighted you impart Delight to every eye and heart , Behold , grown jealous of your stay , Your native stream Your native stream , &c. ] The river Lowther . his charms display , To court you to his banks again ; Now wind in wanton waves his train , Now spread into a chrystal plain ; Then hid by pendent rocks would steal , But tuneful falls his course reveal , As down the bending vale he roves Thro' Yanwath woods , and Buckholme's groves ; Whose broad o'erspreading boughs beneath Warbling he flows , while zephyrs breathe . Here softly swells the spacious lawn , Where bounds the buck , and skips the fawn , Or , couch'd beneath the hawthorn-trees , In dappled groups enjoy the breeze . Amid yon sunny plain , alone , To patriarchal reverence grown , An oak for many an age has stood Himself a widely waving wood , While men and herds , with swift decay , Race after race , have pass'd away . See still his central trunk sustain Huge boughs , which round o'erhang the plain , And hospitable shade inclose , Where flocks and herds at ease repose ! There the brown fells ascend the sky , Below , the green inclosures lie ; Along their sloping sides supine The peaceful villages recline : On azure roofs On azure roofs , &c. ] The houses of this country are covered with a beautiful blue slate . bright sun-beams play . And make the meanest dwelling gay . Thus oft the wise all-ruling Mind Is to the lowly cottage kind , Bids there his beams of favour fall , While sorrow crowds the lofty hall , That this may fear his awful frown , And grateful that his goodness own . If , grown familiar to the sight , Lowther itself should less delight , Then change the scene : to nature's pride , Sweet

Sweet Keswick's vale , &c. ] This delightful vale is thus elegantly described by the late ingenious Dr. Brown in a letter to a friend . " In my way to the north from Hagley , I passed through Dovedale ; and , to say the truth , was disappointed in it . When I came to Buxton , I visited another or two of their romantic scenes ; but these are inferior to Dovedale . They are all but poor miniatures of Keswick ; which exceeds them more in grandeur than I can give you to imagine ; and more , if possible , in beauty than in grandeur .

" Instead of the narrow slip of valley which is seen at Dovedale , you have at Keswick a vast amphitheatre , in circumference above twenty miles . Instead of a meagre rivulet , a noble living lake , ten miles round , of an oblong form , adorned with a variety of wooded islands . The rocks indeed of Dovedale are finely wild , pointed , and irregular ; but the hilis are both little and unanimated ; and the margin of the brook is poorly edged with weeds , morass , and brushwood . But at Keswick , you will , on one side of the lake , see a rich and beautiful landskip of cultivated fields , rising to the eye in fine inequalities , with noble groves of oak , happily dispersed ; and climbing the adjacent hills , shade above shade , in the most various and picturesque forms . On the opposite shore , you will find rocks and cliffs of stupendous height , hanging broken over the like in horrible grandeur , some of them a thousand feet high , the woods climbing up their steep and shaggy sides , where mortal foot never yet approached : on these dreadful heights the eagles build their nests ; a variety of water-falls are seen pouring from their summits , and tumbling in vast sheets from rock to rock in rude and terrible magnificence : while on all sides of this immense amphitheatre the lofty mountains rise round , piercing the clouds in shapes as spiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale . To this I must add the frequent and bold projection of the cliffs into the lake , forming noble bays and promontories : in other parts they finely retire from it , and often open in abrupt chasms or clefts , through which at hand you see rich and uncultivated vales , and beyond these , at various distance , mountain rising over mountain ; among which , new prospects present themselves in mist , till the eye is lost in an agreeable perplexity .

Where active fancy travels beyond sense , And pictures things unseen . —

Were I to analyse the two places into their constituent principles , I should tell you , that the full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances , beauty , horror , and immensity united ; the second of which alone is found in Dovedale . Of beauty it hath little ; nature having left it almost a desert : neither its small extent , nor the diminutive and lifeless form of the hills , admit magnificence ; but to give you a complete idea of these three perfections , as they are joined in Keswick , would require the united powers of Claude , Salvator , and Poussin . The first should throw his delicate sunshine over the cultivated vales , the scattered cots , the groves , the lake , and wooded islands . The second should dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs , the steeps , the hanging woods , and foaming water-falls ; while the grand pencil of Poussin should crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains .

" So much , for what I would call the permanent beauties of this astonishing seene . Were I not afraid of being tiresome , I could now dwell as long on its varying or accidental beauties . I would sail round the lake , anchor in every bay , and land you on every promontory and island . I would point out the perpetual change of prospect : the woods , rocks , cliffs , and mountains , by turns vanishing or rising into view : now gaining on the sight , hanging over our heads in their full dimensions , beautifully dreadful ; and now , by a change of situation , assuming new romantic shapes , retiring and lessening on the eye , and insensibly losing themselves in an azure mist . I would remark the contrast of light and shade , produced by the morning and evening sun ; the one gilding the western , the other the eastern side of this immense amphitheatre ; while the vast shadow projected by the mountains buries the opposite part in a deep and purple gloom , which the eye can hardly penetrate : the natural variety of colouring which the several objects produce is no less wonderful and pleasing : the ruling tincts in the valley being those of azure , green , and gold , yet ever various , arising from an intermixture of the lake , the woods , the grass , and corn-fields : these are finely contrasted by the grey rocks and cliffs ; and the whole heightened by the yellow streams of light , the purple hues , and misty azure of the mountains . Sometimes a serene air and clear sky disclose the tops of the highest hills : at others , you see the clouds involving their summits , resting on their sides , or descending to their base , and rolling among the vallies , as in a vast furnace ; when the winds are high , they roar among the cliffs and caverns like peals of thunder ; then , too , the clouds are seen in vast bodies sweeping along the hills in gloomy greatness , while the lake joins the tumult , and tosses like a sea : but in calm weather the whole scene becomes new : the lake is a perfect mirror ; and the landskip in all its beauty : islands , fields , woods , rocks , and mountains , are seen inverted , and floating on its surface . I will now carry you to the top of a cliff , where , if you dare approach the ridge , a new scene of astonishment presents itself ; where the valley , lake , and islands , seem lying at your feet ; where this expanse of water appears diminished to a little pool amidst the vast and immeasurable objects that surround it ; for here the summits of more distant hills appear beyond those you have already seen ; and rising behind each other in successive ranges and azure groups of craggy and broken steeps , form an immense and awful picture , which can only be expressed by the image of a tempestuous sea of mountains . Let me now conduct you down again to the valley , and conclude with one circumstance more ; which is , that a walk by still moon-light ( at which time the distant water-falls are heard in all their variety of sound ) among these inchanting dales , open such scenes of delicate beauty , repose , and solemnity , as exceed all description .

Keswick's vale , the muse will guide . The muse , who trod th'inchanted ground , Who sail'd the wonderous lake around , With you will haste once more to hail The beauteous brook of Borrodale . From savage parent , gentle stream ! Be thou the muse's favourite theme : O soft insinuating glide Silent along the meadow's side , Smooth o'er the sandy bottom pass Resplendent all thro' fluid glass , Unless upon thy yielding breast Their painted heads the lilies rest , To where in deep capacious bed The widely liquid lake is spread . Let other streams rejoice to roar Down the rough rocks of dread Lodore Of dread Lodore , &c. ] A very high caseade here falls into the lake of Derwentwater , near where Borrodale-beck ( or brook ) enters into it , as described above . , Rush raving on with boisterous sweep , And foaming rend the frighted deep , Thy gentle genius shrinks away From such a rude unequal fray ; Thro' thine own native dale , where rise Tremendous rocks amid the skies , Thy waves with patience slowly wind , Till they the smoothest channel find , Soften the horrors of the scene , And thro' confusion flow serene . Horrors like these at first alarm , But soon with savage grandeur charm , And raise to noblest thoughts your mind : Thus by thy fall , Lodore , reclin'd , The cragged cliff , impendent wood , Whose shadows mix o'er half the flood , The gloomy clouds , which solemn sail , Scarce lifted by the languid gale O'er the capp'd hill , and darken'd vale ; The ravening kite , and bird of Jove , Which round th' aëreal ocean rove , And , floating on the billowy sky , With full expanded pennons fly , Their fluttering or their bleating prey Thence with death-dooming eye survey ; Channels by rocky torrents torn Channels by rocky torrents torn , &c. ] For an account of an extraordinary storm in a part of this country , called St. John's vale , by which numerous fragments of rocks were driven down from the mountains , along with cataracts of water , see a letter from Cockermouth , inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of October , 1754. , Rocks to the lake in thunder borne , Or such as o'er our heads appear Suspended in their mid career , To start again at his command , Who rules fire , water , air , and land , I view with wonder and delight , A pleasing , tho' an awful sight : For , seen with them , the verdant isles Soften with more delicious smiles , More tempting twine their opening bowers , More lively glow the purple flowers , More smoothly slopes the border gay , In fairer circle bends the bay , And last , to fix our wandering eyes , Thy roofs , O Keswick , brighter rise The lake and lofty hills between , Where giant Skiddow shuts the scene . Supreme of mountains , Skiddow , hail ! To whom all Britain sinks a vale ! Lo , his imperial brow I see From foul usurping vapours free ! 'Twere glorious now his side to climb , Boldly to scale his top sublime ! And thence — my muse , these flights forbear , Nor with wild raptures tire the fair . Hills , rocks , and dales have been too long The subject of thy rambling song . Far other scenes their minds employ , And move their hearts with soster joy . For pleasures they need never roam , Theirs with affection dwell , at home . Thrice happy they at home to prove A parent's and a brother's love , Her bright example pleas'd to trace , Learn every virtue , every grace , Which lustre give in female life To daughter , sister , parent , wife ; Grateful to see her guardian care A tender father's loss repair , And , rising far o'er grief and pain , The glories of her race maintain . Their antient seats let others fly , To stroll beneath a foreign sky , Or loitering in their villas stay , Till useless summers waste away , While , hopeless of their lord's return , The poor exhausted tenants mourn ; From Lowther she disdains to run To bask beneath a southern sun , Opens the hospitable door , Welcomes the friend , relieves the poor ; Bids tenants share the lib'ral board , And early know and love their lord , Whose courteous deeds to all extend , And make each happy guest a friend . To smiling earth the grateful main Thus gives her gather'd streams again In showers on hill , and dale , and plain . O may the virtues , which adorn With modest beams his rising morn , Unclouded grow to perfect day ! May he with bounty's brightest ray The natives chear , enrich the soil , With arts improve , reward their toil , Glad with kind warmth our northern sky , And generous Lonsdale's loss supply .