We gladly accepted her invitation, and were agreeably surprised to find a neat room, carpeted, with a sofa, and half-a-dozen hair-bottomed chairs, and every thing rurally comfortable. The window looked upon the aqueduct, and commanded a beautiful prospect.
Having discussed our beverage, and lighted cigars, we quitted the comfortable little cottage, and bent our steps towards the aqueduct, to cross by it to the opposite side of the Vale.
A cigar in the cool of the evening is delightful,—
“Glorious tobacco, that from east to west,
Cheers the tar’s labour, and the Turk-man’s rest.”
So sang the noble bard, the music of whose lyre is left to charm the race of mankind for ages yet to come.
We soon reached the centre of the aqueduct; it extends, from hill to hill, in length 980 feet; it is sustained by twenty piers, 115 feet in height from the bed of the river Dee, and the span of the arches is forty-five feet.
The length of the viaduct is 1,538 feet; its height 147 feet, the number of arches nineteen, and the span of each arch is sixty feet.
I never felt the influence of the sublime mingled with the beautiful so deeply as when I stood upon this wonderful work of art; wherever I turned my eyes the scene was calculated to excite the warmest feelings of admiration. The Dee flowing beneath, shadowed by the rich tints of the summer foliage; the ruined bridge; the dark mountain masses upon either side, patched with gloomy pines, intermingled with the relieving brightness of the graceful larch. Here waves the lovely blooming heather, there stands the blasted rock in its naked majesty, the noble amphitheatre at the extremity of the vale, with a distant view of the viaduct; the twittering of the birds, as they settled to repose upon the trees around, altogether gave a charm to the evening which can only be felt while witnessing the scene, and which exceeds the power of description.
Having crossed the aqueduct, we proceeded by the left bank of the canal, passing a forge, that nearly stifled us with gaseous smoke, along a pathway made of cinders and small coal, the refuse of the adjacent iron-smelting foundry.
Trees of every description hung over our heads, and sloped down a deep declivity to the margin of the Dee, while on the opposite bank the mountain frowned above us. The partial glances we obtained of the vale through the woods, discovered scenes which the artist’s fancy might vainly attempt to equal.