Beginning in the first week of June of last year, when there were about five hundred visitors, and ending in the last week in October, up to which latter cold date even, there were still about three hundred visitors in Harrogate-twenty thousand five hundred and eighty-six appear to have been registered. But as most of these remain two or three weeks, during each of which their names appear on the list, it will be necessary to deduct something like two-thirds of that large total, in order to come near the true number of arrivals. Hence if we assume that between seven and eight thousand visitors had arrived, and resided three weeks at Harrogate, during the season of 1839, we shall be within, rather than without the mark.

Now this is a considerable number, and one which bespeaks the favour in which Harrogate is held; for even in Germany, hardly any of the most popular Spas, Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, and perhaps Carlsbad excepted, can boast of having had, during any one year, a much larger assemblage of water-bibbers.

By far the largest number of strangers at Harrogate arrive about the 10th of August, and continue to pour in largely until the 15th or 20th of September. To those who at that season are quitting Harrogate, I should strenuously recommend a sojourn of six weeks or two months at Scarborough, to complete their cure.

Now let us see what sort of accommodation and houseroom Harrogate can offer to this crowd of pilgrims hastening to its shrine. This one feature of a Spa I hold to be of such paramount interest to invalids, that in all the mineral watering-places in this country which I visited last summer, I invariably followed the plan adopted regarding the German Spas; namely, that of procuring personally every possible information respecting hotels and lodging-houses, and of ascertaining by ocular inspection, that the information was correct.

Houseroom, independently of that which is to be found in the principal hotels, is plentiful at Harrogate, and of every description, from £10 per week (which a very wealthy and amiable heiress first set the fashion of paying during the last season but one) down to two guineas. Bellevue is the dwelling which has produced the former sum. Two other houses nearer to the Montpellier let for five and six guineas a week. They are convenient, and look westerly. One of them, at the time of my visit, held a family of thirteen children, and their respective progenitors. Other detached houses are to be hired in what is called middle Harrogate, which boasts of a Parliament-street, and a Waterloo place.

Ascending higher along this line towards the Common, one meets with a range of stone buildings, having a certain degree of pretension to something like architectural design. They are enriched in front with very neat flower-gardens, and look down over the esplanade of Low Harrogate, on one side of which is a public library; and the Crown hotel and terrace on the other side, with the Church on the right hand.

Beyond this "Prospect-place," the road, as it keeps still ascending towards the Common or "Muir," as they call it here, insensibly winds by several other buildings or rows of houses ; among which are conspicuous the range called the Queen, with its pretty gardens and beds of roses in front, and a showy private house, standing back by itself on a plot of grass within a railing, belonging to Mr Sheepshanks, a wealthy, good, and benevolent gentleman of Leeds.

But all these buildings, and many of the rest which follow, have the drawback of an objectionable aspect, looking either northward or north-eastward. An invalid will find amongst this great variety of edifices wherewithal to suit his taste and wants, either for a small or a large family. All of them have lying before them the extensive Common, which is intersected by the Leeds, the York, the Ripon, and the Otley roads.

Although the air is purer and lighter at this elevation, - the prospect which the houses of Middle Harrogate have to the south and west, is far more cheerful than that which a vast plain indifferently cultivated, or wholly barren, can offer. In the latter situation it is the keenest eye only (that which can compass an horizon at a distance of ten and fifteen miles) which can find an agreeable or pleasing object before his dwelling. At Harrogate, for an invalid, these are not trifling considerations, and I think I am doing no mean service to those among my readers who may have to spend a season at that place for the benefit of their health, in informing them beforehand as to the most eligible situation for their temporary dwelling.

One great inconvenience attaches besides to the houses in Upper Harrogate, which is the greater distance an invalid has to go over, in order to reach the sulphur springs, all of which, as already mentioned, are in Low Harrogate. Yet with all these disadvantages, many more neat-looking buildings are now starting into existence on the margin of the elevated common.

Of the boarding-houses on this table-land, York House has the most favourable aspects being direct south, and sheltered from the prevailing blasts of north-north-westerly and westerly gales. The Queen, and other houses, I have already mentioned. They form a continuous line, which extends to the left of the common, as far as the insulated and showy hotel of the Dragon, by which the line is terminated.

The church of High Harrogate, a neat stone edifice, stands in front of this line, on the right of the road, at some distance on the common; and some distance past this, with a western and the best aspect on this wide expanse of ground, is seen the Granby, the truly aristocratic hotel of the Spa.

In this direction is one of the purely chalybeate springs, called the Old or Sweet Spa, enclosed within a small circular building, erected by Lord Loughborough, and open to the public. To the water of this spring I attach more importance than I am inclined to do from experience to that of the second chalybeate spring, called Tewit well, situated in a little hollow, or swampy piece of ground, at the east corner of the common. The water of the old chalybeate having reached its stone border, overflows into a channel, and passes out of the covered well into the open air, in a basin that is accessible at all hours. A slight deposition of red oxide may be seen on the border stone, but hardly any at the bottom of the well. The water looks perfectly clear and transparent, and is delightfully cool, the outside of the glass becoming instantly dimmed as it comes out of the spring, into which it is dipped by the attendant girl, by means of a stick, terminated by a cup-holder, as at the German Spas. The water tastes very pleasant, and agreeably sapid, with a slight goût of iron, as if the tongue had been applied to the blade of a steel knife. It sits very lightly on the stomach, and does not affect the head. It is most certainly a valuable auxiliary in curing weak stomachs and dyspepsia, with acidity.

Nearly opposite to the church just mentioned, upon crossing the road from the common to the line of houses before described, and not far from the house of the resident surgeon, Mr. Richardson, and from Langdale's circulating library, that convenient footpath leads to Low Harrogate which I before mentioned, shortening the way thither from the common by snore than half the distance.

Bellevue, the crack house of the place, twice alluded to, in which I spent many agreeable hours in the society of some of my patients, is an excellent square stone building, with several bedrooms on the first floor, of very good size, and well furnished, of which those at the back look over a pretty long slip of garden, full southward. On the ground floor the drawing and dining-rooms are made era suite, and a smaller parlour by the side of them has been converted into au ordinary dining-room. Altogether the conveniences of the house are such as one could desire.

From this house a full view is obtained of the principal objects in Low Harrogate. It stands midway between the latter and High Harrogate, near the Salem chapel, and not a great way from the spot where begins the footpath, already alluded to, which leads across the fields to the upper town.

Two acclivities, running NNE and WSW, beautifully wooded, are seen ascending insensibly from the flat level of Low Harrogate to the plateau of the upper town, separated by a narrow dell, at the bottom of which meanders the beck, or rivulet, previously noticed, running eastwardly. At the entrance of this dell, and on the left, standing rather high, we find the wide-spreading Swan hotel, with its modernized face turned to the south-east; while on the right, the ground is occupied by the Old Sulphur Well, the Crown hotel, and the Victoria rooms and baths.

Following the line of this hollow in an easterly direction, the eye meets with the Montpellier Spa, and, still further on, the handsome temple-like edifice which shelters the Cheltenham saline spring. It is from the back of this last building that the remainder of the wooded dell, forming the beautiful pleasure grounds of that establishment, extends upward to the level eminence of High Harrogate. This line serves also to mark the two regions of sulphur and saline springs, the former being all situated to the south, and the latter to the north of that line.

It is this picturesque arrangement of nature and art which the front of Bellevue and other lodging-houses a little higher up the acclivity, and in the same line, overlook. In tile farthest ground, the landscape is bounded by the segment of a horizontal circle, on the waving line of which Studely's royal stately park rears its ancient clumps, and splendid groves of oaks and columnar beech trees, forming a pleasing and interesting object, constantly under the eye of the inmates of these dwellings.

I have just named the pleasure-grounds of the Cheltenham Spa. To invalids the advantage of such an addition to that handsome Cur-saal, for a mere weekly subscription of three shillings and sixpence, is immense. It is, decidedly the prettiest spot in Harrogate, and may be made quite a bijou - a very Tivoli - by means of a few improvements and alterations, which I ventured to suggest to Mr Gordon, the proprietor, and which he is most willing to undertake if properly encouraged. Neither Leamington nor Cheltenham can boast of such a rural promenade in the immediate vicinity of their springs.

In these grounds there are two lines of walks; the upper, measuring thirteen hundred and eighty feet,-the lower, or the one nearest to the beck, eleven hundred and fifty-two feet; so that the visitor may, without going twice over the same ground (as in that wretched paddock of the imperial pump-room at Leamington), take a very agreeable walk of half a mile, mostly very much sheltered by lofty forest trees, his steps inspirited by the distant musical tones of the band playing from the top of the terrace, the cadences of which serve, as it were, to mark his own movements, which are quickened or retarded by the occasional shrill blast of the trumpet, mingled with the softer notes of the harp and the flageolet.

The grounds are prettily waved and distributed. From the terrace first alluded to, at the back of the great pump room or temple, slopes of grass and winding paths, with seats and tents, offer a more lively scene than we find farther on, where the wild forest-like character has been preserved. The beck, or stream, so often mentioned, descending from the great bogs above Low Harrogate, traversing the latter, and skirting one side of these grounds, has been restrained in its course, and swelled into a "lake," or sheet of water, with a tortuous path on its elongated margin, a thousand feet in length. A boat waits on its unruffled surface the pleasure of such visitors as prefer the exercise of rowing to that of walking, after drinking the saline spring in the morning.

It were to be wished that this water could boast of a more crystal-like hue. But as the sewage of the village, and the waste water from the Montpellier and Victoria baths, must be conveyed through it and out of it, the transparency and clearness of the Cumberland lakes will never be imparted to it; added to which, bog water is never colourless. The idea of adding boat exercise, and the aspect of a large sheet of water, to a spa, is excellent; and we must regret that the materials for carrying it into effect are not better.

Seated on a bench fronting the principal path, from whence I am sketching the present description, the company, which has collected in pretty large numbers at the Royal promenade room, attracted by the fineness of the early morning, now spreads in groups over the grounds, and exhibits to the keen observer their several characteristic peculiarities and infirmities. A lovely widow has just passed before me, whose weeds seem recent; she accompanies an only son, whose left leg has been cut off to arrest the ravaging inroad of scrofula, which seems to have seared also his pale and sunken face with scars and swellings. Perhaps the father, whose loss the sable of both mother and son plainly tells, has been swept away by the same fatal disorder; the poisonous lymph of which, creeping along with the paternal blood, has propagated itself to the unhappy offspring.

Another boy has just been led along to the margin of the lake, for a ride in the boat, His appearance marks the presence of a hip-disease. He is lame, weak, and walks not without sufferings. He has drank, I am told, of the sulphur well for some time past, and is now using the saline chalybeate. His progress towards recovery, of late, is said to be wonderfully great.

Faces still bearing the marks of previous illness, but which my kind cicerone the colonel, who had watched them from the first, assured me had been before saffronized and resembled tallow, - now pass in review, in walking lines, or appear, here and there, dotting the lawns, and exhibiting daily a notable progress towards a better complexion.

Anon, and I recognised among the invalids a good hospitable gentleman, an Alderman of Newcastle, at whose house I had been kindly entertained during my sojourn in that city, at the meeting of the British Association in the year preceding. I had known him in excellent health. He appeared now as if rising from the grave, accompanied by a young and interesting guardian angel-a most affectionate niece-ever watchful over the safety of her uncle. He had been recommended by Doctor Hedlam, the eminent physician of Newcastle, to come hither after a severe and dangerous bilious fever. On his arrival he seemed so ill that the surgeon, Mr Richardson, would hardly venture to sanction the use of the waters. He had all the symptoms of a confirmed hepatic disease. He drank the sulphur water and bathed in it, and he was now quite restored.

After all, these panoramic glances at the congregated numbers of invalids who apply to the mineral springs for health, are the most instructive. Here the merest superficial observer will detect with ease, from among the mere imaginary valetudinarians, those that are really ill; he will trace the daily changes for the better which the latter exhibit; and he cannot fail to be struck, particularly at Harrogate, with the wide distinction of classes among the large number of visitors who frequent the Spa. Here the difference in the company, month by month, as the season advances, is remarkable. The visitors seem to rise in importance and quantity of blood, as the thermometer rises with the increasing heat of the summer sun.

Surely there must be something more than mere fancy in that peculiarity observed in the mould of countenance of certain people in each distinct class of society. But besides "blood," which is always sure of showing itself, and is different in different castes - the distinction of faces must have been implanted on the physiognomy of certain individuals, by the respective daily occupations - the habitual state of their mind - their diet - and, above all, their associations.