- JERY . ; OF ENGLA'- TOURISTS COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE LAKES, COMPRISING jHiuutc H9tt*ction0 for t!je ouri0t, WITH MR. WORDSWORTH'S DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE COUNTRY, fcc. AND FOUR LETTERS ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, BTTHB REV. PROFESSOR SEDGWICK. ISUition, EDITED BY THE PUBLISHER. KEND AL: PUBLISHED BY J. HUDSON. lionttou : LONGMAN AND CO., AND WHITTAKEB AND CO. LITBBFOOi; WEBB,CA8TLB-ST.-MANOHK B TEB-, 8IMM3 AND 1846. 2 6 ADVERTISEMENT. ENCOURAGED by the steady sale which has rapidly ex- hausted the Second Edition of this work, the Publisher has spared no pains to introduce into the present impression such alterations and additions as seemed to him calculated to add to the interest and usefulness of the work. It has been his aim to combine in the present volume not only an accurate " Guide to the Lakes," in the strict sense of the phrase a book which will be useful to the Visitor during his tour, but which also, by containing, in addition, subjects of abiding interest, shall be worthy a permanent place in the library. The distinguished authorship of a considerable portion of the work enables the Publisher to hope that he has gained his object. " Tlie Introduction," " the Description of the Lake Scenery" and much of the " Directions and Information for the Tourist," are from the pen of MH. WORDSWORTH, a name now inseparably connected with the district of the English Lakes, the beauties of which he has so admirably illustrated both in prose and " immortal verse." A 2 1051165 IV. PROFESSOR SEDGWICK has kindly added to the Three Letters addressed to Mr. Wordsworth, on the Geology of the Lake District (which have appeared in former editions), a fourth, containing his latest investigations in this complicated geological country ; together with an Appendix containing a list of the Igneous Dykes and the Fossil Organic Remains of the district. The value and interest of any production from the Professor's vigorous and lucid pen need not to be pointed out. MR. GOUGH, of Kendal, (who bears a name well known in the botanical world,) has kindly contributed lists of the rarer plants which the tourist may meet with in his rambles : those in the more immediate vicinity of Kendal being entirely the fruits of that gentleman's personal researches. To the same friend the Publisher is indebted for a copious list of the Land and Fresh-water Shells of the district, which will be interesting to the Naturalist. The outline Diagrams of the Lake Hills (taken from cer- tain well-known points of view) are from the pencil of MR. FLINTOFT, of Keswick, whose accurate knowledge of the Lake District is proved by his beautiful model of the country, which has been the admiration of so many Tourists. The interesting chapter on the derivation of local names has been supplied by Mr. Nicholson* For the remaining portions of the volume, original and selected, the Publisher holds himself responsible. The Tables of Distances and the Itineraries have been carefully tested by personal survey, and compared with those given in Green's Guide to the Lakes, by far the best and most accurate of the larger works of the kind which have appeared ; and, to render this portion of the work still more complete, several new routes and approaches to the Lakes, by railway and steam, communication, have been added. Grateful for the encouragement which this little volume has already received, the Publisher commits the Third Edition of the Work to the continued liberality of the Public. INDEX. p. p. Ambleside 40 Countess' Pillar 106 Angle Tarn (Troutbeck) ... 46 Angle Tarn Borrowdale 67, 73 Corby Crummock Water 106 77,80 Ash Coarse, or Esk Hause 54 Dacre Castle 87 Ara Force 48, 86 Dalton 13 Arthur's Bound Table ... 103 Deepdale 89 Bardsea 3 Derwent Water 59,62 Barrow Cascade 62 Dockray 86 Bassenthwaite Water ... 85 Belle Isle 38,44 Dove Crag Druid's Circle, Keswick ... 89 65 Birker Force 17, 55 Duddon . 14 BleaTarn 40 Dungeon Gill 41 Black-lead Mine 67 Dunmail Raise 51 Bleaberry, or Burtness Tarn 76 Easedale 50,52 Black Sail 78 Eagle Crag 64 Blowick 89 Edenhall 106 Borrowdale ...53,60,62,64 Egremont 83 Borrowdale Yews ... 67 Elter Water 42 Bowness 38 Ennerdale Water 80,82 "Rnwdpi'Halp *1A BriHfrA 84 Bowder Stone 64 Esthwaite Lake 18 Bowfell 42,73 Eskdale 54 Bowscale Tarn .. ... 75 Fairfield 45 Broughton 15 Brother-water 48, 91 Ferry-house (Windermere) Fleetwood Route 19 4 Brougham Hall 103 Floutern Tarn 80 Castle 103 Friar's Cracr ... 61 Brownrigg Well 101 Furness Abbey 5 Burton 24 Giant's Grave 102 Butterlip How 61 CttVC3 103 Burnmoor Tarn 65 Gillerthwaite 57,78 Buttermere .. ...77,80 Glencoin 88 Calder Abbey 66,82 Glenrididding 86,88 TJriili/ii 01 Goat's Tarn 17 Carl Lofts 105 Gowbarrow Park 86,87 Carlisle 106 Grasmere 50 Cartmel . ... 21 Great Gable 70 Casterton 23 Greenup 53,67 Castlerigg Brow 62 Grisedale 88 Castle Head 61 Grisedale Tarn 51 Castle Crag 66 Grisedale Pike 76 Catchedecam 90 Grassmoor 77 Causey Pike 76 Hardknot 64 Coniston 14 Castle ... 17,55 Cockley Beck 64 Hartshop 48,91 Cockermouth 82 Hawksliead 18 Vlll. Hawes Water ... 32,34 Pillar 80 Hays "Water ... 46, 48 Preston 2, 20, 23 Haul Gill 56 Red Tarn 99 Helm Crag 50 Round Knott 45 Helvellyn 51 Rosthwaite ... 67 .A.sccnt of 99 Rydal Water 49 High Street ... 33, 35 Waterfalls ... ... 45,49 Holy well 21 Saddleback ... 75 Holker 21 Scout Scar 27 Honister Crag 78 Screes 65 Humphrey Head ... 21 Sea wf ell 58 Ingleborough 2 Ascent of 69 Ivy Crag 45 Scales Tarn 76 Kendal Route 23 Scale Force 77 Kendal 25 Scale Hill ... 78,79 Kentmere 34 Scarf Gap 57, 78, 81 Kepple Cove Tarn ... 100 48, 58 Seathwaite (Borrowdale) 68 Tarn J xveswick ... Kirkby Lonsdale ... ... 2, 23 15 Kirkstone 47 Shap Wells 32 Pass of 47, 90, 97 A VHAV 105 Lamplugh ...' ' 81 Skiddaw 73 Lancaster 20 Sour-milk Gill, Easedale... 52 T nnnacf HT ^smi^a 91 ButtrCnucrc 76 Land and Fresh-water Shells 29 Sprinkling Tarn . . . '.'.'. 69 Langdale (Excursion) ... 40,53 Stanley Gill ... 17,55 Pikes 41 Stake 53 Langstreth ... 53,67 Strands '.'.'. 55 Levers Water 18 Sty Head 57,68,84 Levens Bridfire ... 22 Tarn 68 Ling Crag 77 Stockley Bridge ... 68 Long Sleddale 32 Station-house, Windermere 19 Long Meg & her Daughters 103 Stickle Tarn ... 41,50 Low Wood ... 36, 47 Stock Gill Force ... 42 Low Water 17 St. John's Vale ... ... 52,65 Loughrigg Fell 44 Stonethwaite ... 67 Lodore 62 St. Bees 83 Lorton Yew 79 Striding Edge ... 100 Lowes Water 79 Stybarrow Crag ... 88 Lowther Castle ... ... 104 Sunken Church 17 Lyulph's Tower ... ... 48, 86 SwirrelEdge 99 Matterdale ... 86,87 Thirlmere 51 Mayburgh ... 103 Tilberthwaite 14, 18. 46 Milnthorpe 24 Troutbeck 33, 35, 36 Mickledore ... 56, 72 TJllswater ... 48,85 Mosedale ... 57,80 Ulpha Kirk 14 Nab Scar 45 TJlverston 3,13,22 Newlands 76 Walker, Wonderful Robert 16 Newby Bridge ... 13,22 Walney Scar ... 14 North, Route from the 8 Warton Crag 24 Old Man, Coniston 17 Wansfell Pike 45 Old Church 87 Wastdale Head ... ... 57, 81 Old Penrith ... 104 Wast Water 53, 81, 84 Over Sands Route ... 20 Watendlath 64 Patter dale ... 47,85 Wether lam 16 Peas Gill 58 Whinlatter ... 78, 81 Penrith ... 102 Whitehaven 83 Windermere 37 Wishing Gate 51 Workington 82 Wrynose 54 Yewdale 14,46 Yew Crag 78 Heights of the Lakes above the Sea ... ... 107 Waterfalls 107 Mountains ... ... ... 108 Mountain Passes ... .. 108 DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE LAKES. SECTION FIRST. VIEW OF THE COUNTRY AS FORMED BY NATURE. Vales diverging from a common Centre. Effect of Light and Shadow as dependent upon the position of the Vales. Mountains, their Substance, Surfaces, and Colours. Winter Colouring. The Vales, Lakes, Islands, Tarns, Woods, Rivers, Climate, Night. Ill SECTION SECOND. ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY AS AFFECTED BY ITS INHABITANTS. Retrospect. Primitive Aspect. Roman and British Antiquities. Feudal Tenantry, their Habitations and Inclosures. Tenantry re- duced in number by the Union of the Two Crowns. State of Society after that event. Cottages, Bridges, Places of Worship, Parks and Mansions. General Picture of Society .. .. 129 SECTION THIRD. CHANGES, AND HULLS OF TASTE FOR PREVENTING THEIR BAD EFFECTS. Tourists. New Settlers. The Country disfigured. Causes of false Taste in Grounds and Buildings. Ancient Models recommended. Houses. Colouring of Buildings. Grounds and Plantations. The Larch. Planting. Further Changes probable. Conclusion. 140 SECTION FOURTH. ALPINE SCENES COMPARED -WITH CUMBRIAN ... 155 FOUR LETTERS ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, BY THE REV. PROFESSOR SEDOWICK .. .. ... 165 A GLOSSARY, ETC. ETC. . . . . . . ... 239 STAGES. Miles, Lancaster to Kendal, by Kirkby Lonsdale . . . . 30 Lancaster to Kendal, by Burton . . . . . . 22 Lancaster to Kendal, by Milnthorpe . . . . . . 21 Lancaster to Ulverston, over Sands ... .. .. 21 Lancaster to Ulverston, by Levens Bridge . . . . 35J Ulverston to Hawkshead, by Coniston Water Head ... 19 Ulverston to Newby Bridge* ... .. .. .. 8 Hawkshead to Ambleside .. ... .. .,. 5 Hawkshead to Bowness . . . . . . . . 6 Kendal to Ambleside . . . . . . . . . . 14 Kendal to Ambleside, by Bowness ... .. ... 15 Kendal to Patterdale, (Ullswater) by Ambleside ... 24 Kendal to Patterdale, by a new and pleasant road through Troutbeck, which leaves the Ambleside road on the right, a short distance beyond Ings Chapel ... . . From Ambleside round the two Langdales and back again Ambleside to Ullswater . . . . - . . . . Ambleside to Keswick .. ... .. .. Keswick to Borrowdale, and round the Lake ... .. Keswick to Borrowdale and Buttermere . . . . Keswick to Wasdale and Calder Bridge . . ... Calder Bridge to Buttermere and Keswick . . . . Keswick, round Bassenthwaite Lake ... .. Keswick to Patterdale, Pooley Bridge, and Penrith . . Keswick to Pooley Bridge and Penrith . . . . Keswick to Penrith .. ... .. .. Whitehaven to Keswick . . . . . . . . Workington to Keswick . . . . . . . . Penrith to Hawes Water . . . . . . . . Carlisle to Penrith . . . . . . . . . . Penrith to Kendal .. .. .. .. ... A Steam-boat plies from Newby Bridge to Bowness and Ambleside, up the Lake of Windermere, three times a day, during the summer. Fares very reasonable, and ac- commodation on board excellent. INTRODUCTION. Mr. WEST, in his well-known Guide to the Lakes, recommends, as the best season for visiting this country, the interval from the beginning of June to the end of August; and the two latter months being a time of vacation and leisure, it is almost exclu- sively in these that strangers resort hither. But that season is by no means the best ; the colouring of the mountains and woods, unless where they are diversified by rocks, is of too unvaried a green; and, as a large portion of the valleys is allotted to hay- grass, some want of variety is found there also. The meadows, however, are sufficiently enlivened after hay-making begins, which is much later than in the southern part of the island. A stronger objection is rainy weather, setting in sometimes at this period with a vigour, and continuing with a perseverance, that may remind the disappointed and dejected traveller of those deluges of rain which fall among the Abyssinian mountains, for the annual supply of the Nile. The months of September and October (particularly October) are generally attended with much finer weather ; and the scenery is then, beyond comparison, more diversified, more splendid, and beautiful ; but, on the other hand, short days prevent long excursions, and sharp and chill gales are unfavourable to parties of pleasure out of doors. Ne- vertheless, to the sincere admirer of nature, who is in good health and spirits, and at liberty to make a choice, the six weeks fol- lowing the 1 st of September may be recommended in preference to July and August ; for there is no inconvenience arising from the season, which, to such a person, would not be amply com- pensated by the autumnal appearance of any of the more retired vallies, into which discordant plantations and unsuitable buildings have not yet found entrance. In such spots, at this season, there is an admirable compass and proportion of natural harmony in colour, through the whole scale of objects ; in the tender green 11. TIME FOR VISITING THE COUNTRY. of the after-grass upon the meadows, interspersed with islands of grey or mossy rock, crowned with shrubs and trees ; in the irregular inclosures of standing corn, or stubble-fields, in like manner broken ; in the mountain-sides glowing with fern of di- Ters colours ; in the calm blue lakes and river-pools ; and in the foliage of the trees, through all the tints of autumn, from the pale and brilliant yellow of the birch and ash to the deep greens of the unfaded oak and alder, and of the ivy upon the rocks, upon the trees, and the cottages. Yet, as most travellers are either stinted, or stint themselves, for time, the space between the middle or last week in May, aad the middle or last week in June, may be pointed out as affording the best combination of long days, fine weather, and variety of impressions. Few of the native trees are then in full leaf ; but, for whatever may be want- ing in depth of shade, more than an equivalent will be found in the diversity of foliage, in the blossoms of the |fruit-and-berry- bearing trees which abound in the woods, and in the golden flowers of the broom and other shrubs, with which many of the copses are interveined. In those woods, also, and on these mountain-sides which have a northern aspect, and in the deep dells, many of the spring-flowers still linger ; while the open and sunny places are stocked with the flowers of the approaching sum- mer. And, besides, is not an exquisite pleasure still untasted by him who has not heard the choir of linnets and thrushes chaunting their love-songs in the copses, woods, and hedge-rows of a moun- tainous country, safe from the birds of prey, which build in the inaccessible crags, and are at all hours seen or heard wheeling about in the air ? The number of these formidable creatures is probably the chief cause why, in the narrow valleys, there are no skylarks ; as the destroyer would be enabled to dart upon them from the surrounding crags before they could descend to their ground-nests for protection. It is not often that the nightingale resorts to these vales ; but almost all the other tribes of our English warblers are numerous, and their notes, when listened to by the side of broad still waters, or when heard in unison with the murmuring of mountain-brooks, have the compass of their power enlarged accordingly. There is also an imaginative in- fluence in the voice of the cuckoo, when that voice has taken possession of a deep mountain valley, very different from any thing which can be excited by the same sound in a flat country. Nor must a circumstance be omitted, which here renders the ORDER OF APPROACH. close of spring especially interesting ; I mean the practice of bringing down the ewes from the mountains to yean in the val- lies and enclosed grounds. The herbage being thus cropped as it springs, that first tender emerald green of the season, which would otherwise have lasted little more than a fortnight, is pro- longed in the pastures and meadows for many weeks, while they are farther enlivened by the multitude of lambs bleating and skipping about. These sportivecreatures, as they gather strength, are turned out upon the open mountains, and, with their slender limbs, their snow-white colour, and their wild and light motions, beautifully accord or contrast with the rocks and lawns upon which they must now begin to seek their food. And last, but not least, at this time the traveller will be sure of room and com- fortable accommodation, even in the smaller inns. I am aware that few of those who may be inclined to profit by this recom- mendation will be able to do so, as the time and manner of an excursion of this kind are mostly regulated by circumstances which prevent an entire freedom of choice. It will therefore be more pleasant to observe, that, though the months of July and August are liable to many objections, yet it often happens that the weather, at this time, is not more wet and stormy than they who are really capable of enjoying the sublime forms of nature in their utmost sublimity would desire ; for no traveller, pro- vided he be in good health, and with any command of time, would have a just privilege to visit such scenes, if he could grudge the price of a little confinement among them, or interruption in his journey, for the sight or sbund of a storm coming on or clearing away. Insensible must he be who would not congratulate him- self upon the bold bursts of sunshine, the descending vapours, wandering lights and shadows, and the invigorated torrents and waterfalls, with which broken weather, in a mountainous region, is accompanied. At such a time there is no cause to complain, cither of the monotony of midsummer colouring, or the glaring atmosphere of long, cloudless, and hot days. Thus far concerning the respective advantages and disadvan- tages of the different seasons for visiting this country. As to the order in which objects are best seen a lake being composed of water flowing from higher grounds, and expanding itself till its receptacle is filled to the brim, it follows, that it will appear to most advantage when approached from its outlet, especially if the lake be in a mountainous country ; for, by this way of approach, B 2 IV. OKDER OF APPROACH. the traveller faces the grander features of the scene, and is gra- dually conducted into its most sublime recesses. Now, every- one knows, that from amenity and beauty the transition to sub- limity is easy and favourable ; but the reverse is not so ; for, after the faculties have been elevated, they are indisposed to humbler excitement.* It is not likely that a mountain will be ascended without, disap- pointment, if a wide range of prospect be the object, unless either the summit be reached before sun-rise, or the visitant remain there until sun-set, and afterwards. The precipitous sides of the mountain, and the neighbouring summits, may be seen with effect under any atmosphere which allows them to be seen at all ; but lie is the most fortunate adventurer who chances to be in- volved in vapours which open and let in an extent of country partially, or, dispersing suddenly, reveal the whole region from centre to circumference. A stranger to a mountainous country may not be aware that his walk in the early morning ought to be taken on the eastern side of the vale, otherwise he will lose the morning light, first touching the tops and thence creeping down the sides of the opposite hills, as the sun ascends, or he may go to some central eminence, commanding both the shadows from the eastern and the lights upon the western mountains. But, if the horizon line in the east be low, the western side may be taken for the sake of the reflections, upon the water, of light from the rising sun. In the evening, for like reasons, the contrary course should be taken. After all, it is upon the mind which a traveller brings along with him that his acquisitions, whether of pleasure or profit, must principally depend. May I be allowed a few words on this subject. * The only instances to which the foregoing observations do not apply, are Derwent "Water and Lowes "Water. Derwentis distinguish- ed from all the other Lakes by being surrounded with sublimity : the fantastic mountains of Borrowdale to the south, the solitary majesty of Skiddaw to the north, the bold steeps of "Wallow Crag and Lodore to ths east, and to the west the clustering mountains of Newlands. Lowes Water is tame at the head, but towards its outlet has a mag- nificent assemblage of mountains. Yet, as far as respects the formation of such receptacles, the general observation holds good : neither Der- went nor Lowes "Water derive any supplies from the streams of those mountains that dignify the landscape towards the outlets. COMPARISONS, HOW INJURIOUS ALPINE SCENES. V. Nothing is more injurious to genuine feeling than the practice of hastily and ungraciously depreciating the face of one country by comparing it with that of another. True it is, " Qui bane distinguit bene docet;" yet fastidiousness is a wretched travel- ling companion ; and the best guide, to which in matters of taste we can entrust ourselves, is a disposition to be pleased. For example, if a traveller be among the Alps, let him surrender up his mind to the fury of the gigantic torrents, and take delight in the contemplation of their almost irresistible violence, without complaining of the monotony of their foaming course, or being disgusted with the muddiness of the water, apparent even where it is violently agitated. In Cumberland and Westmorland, let not the comparative weakness of the streams prevent him from sympathising with such impetuosity as they possess ; and, mak- ing the most of the present objects, let him, as he justly may do, observe with admiration the unrivalled brilliancy of the water, and that variety of motion, mood, and character, that arises out of the want of those resources by which the power of the streams in the Alps is supported. Again, with respect to the moun- tains; though these are comparatively of diminutive size; though there is little of perpetual snow, and no voice of summer- avalanches is heard among them ; and, though traces left by the ravage of the elements are here comparatively rare and unim- pressive, yet out of this very deficiency proceeds a sense of sta- bility and permanence that is, to many minds, more grateful " While the coarse rushes to the sweeping breeze Sigh forth their ancient melodies." Among the Alps are few places which do not preclude this feeling of tranquil sublimity. Havoc and ruin, and desolation and encroachment, are everywhere more or less obtruded ; and it is difficult, notwithstanding the naked loftiness of the pikes, and the snow-capped summits of the mounts, to escape from the depressing sensation, that the whole are in a rapid process of dissolution ; and, were it not that the destructive agency must abate as the heights diminish, would, in time to come, be levelled with the plains. Nevertheless, I would relish to the utmost the demonstrations of every s|>ecies of power at work to effect such changes. From these general views let us descend a moment to detail. A stranger to mountain imagery naturally on his first arrival looks out for sublimity in every object that admits of it ; and is B 3 VI. INJURIOUS EXPECTATIONS CORRECTED. almost always disappointed. For this disappointment there ex- ists, I believe, no general preventive ; nor is it desirable that there should. But with regard to one class of objects, there is a point in which injurious expectations may be easily corrected. It is generally supposed that waterfalls are scarcely worth being looked at except after much rain, and that the more swoln the stream the more fortunate the spectator ; but this, however, is true only of large cataracts with sublime accompaniments: and not even of these without some drawbacks. In other instances, what becomes, at such a time, of that sense of refreshing cool- ness which can only be felt in dry and sunny weather, when the rocks, herbs, and flowers glisten with moisture diffused by the breath of the precipitous *vater ? But, considering these things as objections of sight only, it may be observed that the principal charm of the smaller waterfalls or cascades consists in certain proportions of form and affinities of colour among the component parts of the scene, and in the contrast maintained between the falling water and that which is apparently at rest, or, rather, settling gradually into quiet in the pool below. The beauty of such a scene, where there is naturally so much agitation, is also heightened, in a peculiar manner, by the glimmering, and, to- wards the verge of the pool, by the steady reflection of the sur- rounding images. Now, all these delicate distinctions are de- stroyed by heavy floods, an . the whole stream rushes along in foam and tumultuous confusion. A happy proportion of compo- nent parts is indeed noticeable among the landscapes of the North of England ; and, in this characteristic, essential to a perfect picture, they surpass the scenes of Scotland, and, in a still greater degree, those of Switzerland. DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOB THE TOURIST. THERE are three approaches to the Lakes through Yorkshire ; the least advisable is the great north road by Catterick and Greta Bridge, and onwards to Penrith. The Traveller, however, taking this route, might halt at Greta Bridge, and would be well recompensed if he could afford to give an hour or two to the banks of the Greta, and of the Tees, at Rokeby. Barnard Castle also, about two miles up the Tees, is a striking object, and the main North Road might be rejoined at Bowes. Every one has heard of the great fall of the Tees above Middleham, interesting for its grandeur, as the avenue of rocks that leads to it is to the geologist. But this place lies so far out of th way as scarcely to be within the compass of our notice. It might, however, be visited by a Traveller on foot, or on horseback, who could rejoin the main road upon Stanemoor. The second road leads through a more interesting tract of country, beginning at Ripon, from which place see Fountains' Abbey, and thence, by Hackfalland Masham, toJervaulx Abbey, and up the vale to Wensley ; turning aside before Askrigg is reached, to see Aysgarth-force, upon the Ure ; and again, near Hawes, to Hardraw Scar, of which, with its waterfall, Turner has a fine drawing. Thence over the fells to Sedbergh, and Kendal. The third approach from Yorkshire is through Leeds. Four miles beyond that town are the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, should that road to Skipton be chosen ; but the other, by Otley, may be made much more interesting, by turning off at Addington to Bolton Bridge, for the sake of visiting the Abbey and grounds. 2 CHOICE OF APPROACH. It would be well, however, for a party previously to secure beds, if wanted, at the inn, as there is but one, and it is much resorted to in summer. The Traveller on foot, or horseback, would do well to follow the banks of the Wharf upwards, to Burnsall, and thence cross over the hills to Gordale a noble scene, beautifully described in Gray's Tour, and with which no one can be disappointed. Thence to Malham, where there is a respectable village inn, and s>o on, by Malham Cove, to Settle. Travellers in carriages must go from Bolton Bridge to Skipton, where they rejoin the main road ; and should they be inclined to visit Gordale, a tolerable road turns off beyond Skipton. A mile north of Settle, under Giggleswick Scar, the road passes an ebbing and flowing well, worthy the notice of the Naturalist ; and when at Clapham, six miles from Settle, the Tourist should not omit to inquire for Clapham Cave, a striking and curious cavern which has recently been discovered within the grounds of Mr. Fairer, of Ingleborough Hall. It is situated within half a mile of the New Inn, from whence parties may be accommo- dated with a guide to this beautiful and singular object. Four miles to the right of Ingleton, is Weathercote^ Cave, also a fine object ; and in the same vicinity are several other caverns of a similar description. About a mile distant from Weathercote is Chapel-le-dale, a favourable point for the ascent of Ingle- borough, the height of which is 2361 feet above the level of the sea ; but whoever diverges for these, must return to Ingleton, and proceed to Kirkby Lonsdale, near to which town observe the view from the bridge over the Lune, and descend to the channel of the river ; and by no means omit looking at the Vale of Lune from the Church-yard. From this point to Kendal the distance is 13 miles, by a good road. The journey towards the Lake country through Lancashire is, with the exception of the Vale of the Ribble at Preston, un- interesting, till you come near Lancaster, and obtain a view of the fells and mountains of Lancashire and Westmorland, with Lancaster Castle, and the Tower of the Church seeming to make part of the Castle, in the foreground. The Tourist approaching through Lancashire should determine, when at Preston, upon the route which he will take on entering the Lake District. The Railway from Preston to Fleetwood, communicating with steam-boats which cross the Estuary, to CHOICE OF APPROACH. 3 Bardsea, on the Furness coast, has opened out a route by which the Lakes District may be approached, and he should, therefore, determine whether he will take this route, or proceed to Lan- caster and cross the Sands to Ulverston, or (which is most direct, as the whole distance may be performed by Railway) to Kendal, and thence to Bowness, Windermere. The latter route, by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway as far as Kendal, and thence by the Kendal and Windermere Railway, is certainly attended with the least danger and interruption, and brings the Tourist at once into the region of the Lakes without the uncertainties of a sea voyage ; but should he wish to visit Furness Abbey before entering upon the Lakes District, then the Fleetwood Route should be preferred to the one over Lancaster Sands, which is somewhat dangerous and objectionable. Travellers from the North would do well to go from Carlisle to Maryportby Railway, and proceed, by Cockermouth and along the Lake of Bassenthwaite, to Keswick ; or, they may proceed from Carlisle to Penrith, by Railway, thence cross the country to Keswick, and begin with that vale rather than Ullswater. From Keswick the Excursions mentioned at page 61 may be taken, and afterwards Ullswater may be conveniently visited by Tourists proceeding to Ambleside and the South. It is worth while to mention, in this place, that the banks of the river Eden, about Corby, are well worthy of notice, both on ac- count of their natural beauty and the viaducts which have re- cently been carried over the bed of the river, and over a neigh- bouring ravine. In the Church of Wetherby, close by, is a fine piece of monumental sculpture by Nollekins. The scenes of Nunnery, upon the Eden, or rather that part of them which is upon Croglin, a mountain stream there falling into the Eden, are in their way, unrivalled. But the nearest road thither, from Corby, is so bad, that no one can be advised to take it in a car- riage. Nunnery may be reached from Corby by making a cir- cuit and crossing the Eden at Armathwaite bridge. A portion of this road, however, is bad enough. We purpose to conduct the Stranger by each of the three Routes from the South, before mentioned, in succession, to AMBLESIDE, as temporary head-quarters, and afterwards to KESWICK, as being the most important Stations from whence Excursions may, with the greatest convenience, be made. FLEETWOOD ROUTE. 5. PRESTON to ULVEKSTON,by FLEETWOOD. To Fleetwood, by Railway 1 hour. Fleetwood to Bardsea,* by Steam-boat 1 Bardsea to Ulverston 3 miles. Correct information of the times of starting the Trains from Preston to Fleetwood may be obtained at the Railway Station, or by consulting Bradshaw's Railway Guide. Fares, 4s., 3s., and 2s., according to the class. FLEETWOOD is a town rising into importance as a seaport and bathing- place. Ample accommodations will there be found at Vantini's elegant Hotel, as well as at other comfortable inns in the place. A Steamer leaves the pier daily ( Sundays excepted) for Bardsea, on the opposite coast, about two hours before high- water, from the months of May to October, both included, and leaves Bardsea for Fleetwood at high- water. The voyage across, in favourable weather, is accomplished in about an hour. Fares, Cabin 3s., Deck, 2s., Carriages with four wheels, 1, Do. two wheels, 10s., one Horse, 10s., two ditto, 15s. Conveyances are in attendance on the arrival of the Steamer at Bardsea to take passengers forward to Ulverston, three miles distant, from which place the Excursion to Furness Abbey, a circuit of fourteen miles, may be conveniently made, taking the direct road to Dalton, but by all means returning through Urswick, for the sake of the view from the top of the hill before descending into the grounds of Conishead Priory. If time should serve, Tourists might at once proceed from Bardsea to Furness Abbey by the following route : Miles. Miles. 5 Bardsea to Furness Abbey, by Birkrigg 5 Miles. Miles. 2 Dalton 7 5 Ulverston 12 Bardsea is within a short walk of Conishead Priory, the mag- nificent residence of T. R. G. BRADYLL, Esq., which the Tourist * Inns and Public Houses are marked thus (*). FITRNESS ABBEY. 5 would be much gratified by visiting. Through the liberality of the proprietor, the house, which has some good pictures, is allowed to be seen on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the spacious gardens are open to the public every day except Sunday. The section of the garden appropriated to the growth of American plants is said to be the most extensive in England. FURNESS ABBEY. The Monastery that has long borne the name of FURNESS ABBEY, according to the authority of John Stell, a Monk who belonged to the House, was first planted at Tulket, in Amoun- derness, in the year 1124 ; three years after which, viz. on the 1st of July, 1127, it was translated, and founded by Stephen, Earl of Bologna and Morton (afterwards King of England), in the Vale of Bekansgill,* in the Peninsula of Furness. Furncss is an abbreviation of Frudernesse (as the name ap- peared in Doomsday Book), or Fut/iernesse, as it seems to have been more frequently written. Father is conjectured by Dr. Whitaker to be a personal name, probably that of the first Saxon planter or proprietor of the district : Nesse is a promontory, than which hardly any appellation could be more appropriate, as de- scriptive of the southern extremity of the territory where the Abbey stands. The Monks of Furness orignally belonged to the Savignian order ; an order which, of all others, complied most scrupulously with the rules of the great parent of monachal institutions, St. Benedict. About 1148, in the Pontificate of Eugenius III., the whole order of Savignian Monks matriculated into the Cistercian or Bernardine, in honour of St. Bernard, a man of great sanctity and learning, who reformed and remodelled the Benedictine rules. In the time of Bajocis, their fifth Abbot, the Monks of Furness (after some hesitation and opposition) consented to become Cis- tercians, the rules of which order they religiously observed till the general Dissolution of Monasteries. Rising from its titular Saint, Barnard, and twelve monks, who filiated from Citeaux,f the Cistercian order, in an incredibly short timo, became of great repute and corresponding extent. * Bekansgill, from Lethel Bekan, the Solanum Lithale, or Deadly Night Shade, which once abouned in the District, f Hence tho name of the order, Cistercian. 6 FURNESS ABBEY. So rapid was its progress that before the death of St. Bernard, he had founded 160 Monasteries ; and in the space of fifty years from its first establishment as an order, it had acquired 800 Ab- beys ! All the Houses belonging to this order were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In England and Wales there were eighty-five Houses of the Cistercian order ; of which number two only were situated in the County of Lancaster, viz. Furness and Whalley. Until the time of Pope Sextus IV. their rules and observances, both as to fasting and religious devotions, were uncommonly rigorous ; but this Pontiff published a decree to mitigate the austerities of their spiritual exercises, and to preserve uniformity in table and dress. From this time they were allowed to eat flesh three times in a week, for which purpose a particular dining-room, distinct from the usual Refectory, was fitted up in every Monastery. Their dress was a white* Cassock, with a Caul and Scapulary of the same. For the Choir dress they wore a white or grey Cassock, with Caul and Scapulary of the same, and a girdle of black wool ; over that a Mozet, or Hood, and a Rochet, the front part of which. descended to the girdle, where it ended in a round, and the back part reached down to the middle of the leg behind. Whenever they appeared abroad, they wore a Caul and a full black Hood. This is only a general description of their dress ; for every house had something particular to itself. With respect to the power, privileges, benefactions and pos- sessions of Furness Abey, it would take almost an entire volume fully to narrate and illustrate the whole. The lordship of Furness comprehends all that tract of land, with the islands included, commencing in the north at the Shire Stones, on Wrynose Hills, and descending by Elterwater into Windermere, and by the outlet of that lake at Newby Bridge, over Leven Sands into the sea. Extending along the sea, it includes the Isle of Foulney, the Pile of Fouldrey, and the Isle of Walney. Beyond which, turning to the north-east, it ascends, first by the estuary of Duddon, and then by the river itself, which, by the names of Duddon, and, higher up, of Cockley Beck, traces an ascending line to Shire Stones again, where the boundary commenced. * The dress of the Savignians was grey, from which they were usually called Grey Monks. FURN'ESS ABBEY. 7 The power of the Abbot, throughout the whole of this territory, in affairs both ecclesiastical and civil, was confessedly absolute. Within these limits he exacted the same oath of fealty which was paid to the King. The veneration which the sanctity and dignity of his office inspired, and the circumstance of his terri- tory being bounded on the one hand by seas almost impassable, and on the other by mountains almost insurmountable, con- spired to give to Furness the character and importance of a separate and independent kingdom. Even the military estab- lishment of the district depended upon the Abbot ; and every Mesne Lord obeyed his summons in raising his quota of armed men for guarding the coasts or for the border service. He had the patronage of all the Churches, except one. He had also, by prescription, the appointment of Coroner and Chief Constable, and all Officers incident to the Courts Baron. He, and all his men, were free from all county amerciaments, and suits of counties and wapentakes. He had a free market and fair in Dalton ; with a Court of criminal jurisdiction. He issued sum- monses and attachments by his own bailiffs. He had the return of all writs ; and the Sheriff, with his officers, were prohibited from entering his territories under any pretext of office what- ever. His lands and tenants were exempt from all regal exac- tions of talliage, toll, passage, pontage, and vectigal ; and no man was to presume to disturb or molest the Abbot, or any of his tenants, on pain of forfeiting ten pounds to the King ! In addition to all which, he was immediate owner and occupant of almost half the low country. And for protections, privileges, and immunities, there were few Monasteries indeed that could boast so much. Pope Eugenius III. and Pope Innocent III. both conferred special favours, on the Furness Monks ; and the princely foundation of STEPHEN was confirmed and secured to them by the Charters of twelve succeeding Monarchs of England. Immense wealth was, besides, conferred on them by propitiatory offerings of the neighbouring families of opulence, who conse- crated their substance, with their bodies, to the sacred retirement of the Abbey. With these means and appliances, the Monks exercised abso- lute dominion over the whole peninsula of Furness during four centuries, from the foundation of the Abbey till the general Dissolution of Monasteries in the time of Henry VIII., when all power and authority, wealth and honours, were surrendered 8 FLEETWOOD ROUTE. up to the King. The last Abbot was humbled to accept, as a pension, during the remainder of his life, the profits of the Rectory of Dalton, which were then valued at 33 6s. 8d. per annum. Such is a brief and bare outline of the histor.y of this once great and magnificent Abbey. The situation of the Monastery indi- cates the peculiar good taste of the architects. Secluded in a deep glen, which nevertheless opens out below into an expanse of fertile meadows, irrigated by a murmuring brook ; and screened by a forest of stately timber, the contemplative Monks could here, unawed and unseen, perform their holy rites, and pour out their souls in prayer ! " Such is the dwelling, grey and old, which in some world-worn mood, The youthful poet dreamed would suit his future solitude ; If the old abbey be his search, he might seek far and near Ere he could find a gothic Cell more lonely than was here. Long years have darkened into time since Vespers here were rung, And here has been no other dirge than what the winds have sung ; And now the drooping ivy wreaths in ancient clusters fall, And moss o'er each device hath grown upon the sculptured wall." We find nothing to add to Mr. West's description of the edi- fice in the " Antiquities of Furness," published in 1805 : The ruins since that time have undergone very little alteration. The magnitude of the Abbey may be known from the dimen- sions of the ruins ; and enough is standing to shew that in the style of architecture prevailed the same simplicity of taste which is found in most houses belonging to the Cistercian monks, which were erected about the same time with Furness Abbey. The round and pointed arches occur in he doors and windows. The fine clustered Gothic and the heavy plain Saxon pillars stand contrasted. The walls shew excellent masonry, are in many places counter-arched, and the ruins discover a strong cement. The east window of the church has been noble ; some of the painted glass that once adorned it is preserved in a window in Windermere Church. The window consists of seven compart- ments, or partitions. In the third, fourth, and fifth, are de- picted, in full proportion, the Crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary on the right, and the beloved disciple on the left side of the cross : angels are expressed receiving the sacred blood from the five precious wounds : below the cross is a group of monks in FL'RNESS ABBEY. 9 their proper habits, with the abbot in a vestment : their names are written on labels issuing from their mouths : the abbot's name is defaced, which would have given a date to the whole. In the second partition are the figures of St. George and the dragon. In the sixth is represented St. Catharine, with the emblems of her martyrdom, the sword and wheel. In the seventh are two figures of mitred abbots, and underneath them two monks dressed in vestments. In the middle compartment, above, are finely painted, quarterly, the arms of France and England, bound with the garter and its motto, probably done in the reign of Edward III. The rest of the window is filled up by pieces of tracery, with some figures in coats armorial, and the arms of several benefactors, amongst whom are Lancaster, Urs- wick, Harrington, Fleming, Millom, &c. On the outside of the east window of the Abbey, under an arched festoon, is the head of Stephen the founder ; opposite to it, that of Maude his queen, both crowned, and well executed. In the south wall, and east end of the church, are four seats adorned with Gothic ornaments. In these the officiating priest, with his attendants sat at intervals during the solemn service of high mass. In the middle space, where the first barons of Ken- dal are interred, lies a procumbent figure of a man in armour, cross-legged. The Chapter-house is the only building belonging to the Abbey which is marked with any elegance of Gothic sculpture ; it has been a noble room of sixty feet by forty-five. The vaulted roof, formed of twelve ribbed arches, was supported by six pillars in two rows, at fourteen feet distance from each other. Now, sup- posing each of the pillars to be eighteen inches in diameter, the room would be divided into three alleys, or passages, each four- teen feet wide. On entrance, the middle one only could be seen, lighted by a pair of tall pointed windows at the upper end of the room ; the company in the side passage would be concealed by the pillars, and the vaulted roof, that groined from those pillars, would have a truly Gothic disproportioned appearance of sixty feet by fourteen. The northern side alley was lighted by a pair of similar side lights, and a pair at the upper end : the southern side alley was lighted by four small pointed side windows, be- sides a pair at the higher end, at present entire, and which illus- trate what is here said. Thus, whilst the upper end of the room had a profusion of light, the lower end would be in the shade. c 2 10 FLEETWOOD ROUTE. The noble roof of this singular edifice did but lately fall in : the entrance or porch is still standing, a fine circular arch, beautified with a deep cornice, and a portico on each side. The only entire roof of any apartment now remaining, is that of a building without the enclosure wall, which was the school-house of the Ab- bot's tenants. It is a single- ribbed arch that groins from the wall. The tower has been supported by four magnificent arches, of which only one remains entire. They rested upon four tall pil- lars, whereof three are finely clustered, but the fourth is of a plain unmeaning construction. The west end of the church seems to have been an additional part, intended for a belfry, to ease the main tower ; but that is as plain as the rest : had the monks even intended it, the stone would not admit of such work as has been executed at Fountains' and Rievaulx Abbeys. The east end of the church contained five altars, besides the high altar, as appears by the chapels ; and probably there was a private altar in the sacristy. In magnitude this Abbey was the second, in England belonging to the Cister- cian monks, and next in opulence after Fountains' Abbey in Yorkshire. The church and cloisters were encompassed with a wall, which commenced at the east side of the great northern door, and formed the strait enclosure ; and a space of ground, to the amount of sixty-five acres, was surrounded with a stone wall, which enclosed the mills, kilns, ovens, and fish-ponds belonging to the Abbey, the ruius of which are still visible. This last was the great enclosure, now called the Deer Park, in which such terraces might be formed as would equal, if not surpass, any in England. EXPLANATION OF THE GROUND-FLAN OF FURNESS ABBEY. A, B, C, Q, T, V, N, represent the parts of the church. A, the east end of the church, where the higher altar stood. Behind that was the circumambulatory. In the south wall was placed the piscina, or cistern, at which the priest washed his hands before service ; there is also a small niche, and over it hung the manutergium, on each side of the cistern for receiving the purifactories. Below these are four stalls, or seats, in the wall, richly ornamented in the Gothic style, in which the officiating priest, with his assistants, sat at intervals, in time of celebrating high mass. Q, the choir. CC, chapels. V, vestry. TT, the transept. At the north end of the transept below T, is the great door into the church ; and at the south end is a door-case leading to the dormitory, through which the monks came into the church at midnight to sing matins, or morning prayers. On the west side of the door at the north end of the transept, there is a spiral stair-case, which, after rising in a perpendicular direction for a considerable height, has branched out into a passage in the western wall, and led to another GROUND PLAN OP FURNESS ABBEY. C 2 12 FLEETWOOD ROUTE. flight of spiral stairs, on the top of one of the clustered columns, which supported the central spire over the intersection of the nave and transept. These different flights of steps have formed the communi- cation between the ground floor of the church and the higher parts of the spire. N, the nave of the church. Above N, is the southern aisle : and be- low N, is the northern aisle. In the south wall adjoining the transept, is a door- way opening into a quadrangular court. There has probably been also a door-way in the north wall, near the west end of the nave. B, the belfry, or tower, at the west end of the church. In the wall on the south side of the ruins of this tower, close to the west window, there is a part of the spiral stairs which led to the top of the tower. CH, CL, H, K, L, M, NO, O, P, PL, QC, R, S, U, represent the chapter-house, the cloisters, and part of the Abbey adjoining. CH, the chapter-house, over which were the library and scriptorium. The roof is represented as it lately stood. The porch has been orna- mented with a deep ox-eye cornice, and pilasters of marble. The pi- lasters are demolished, but the roof is entire. On each side of this porch there is a portico in the wall, with a similar cornice. II, the dining-room, or refectory. There has been a passage leading from it to K, the kitchen and offices, over which were lodging-rooms for the secular servants. L, the locutorium, the calefactory, and conversation room. H, halls and rooms. S, a building on the outside of the strait enclosure, supposed to have been the school-house. There is a stone seat all round, and in the south wall is the stone pillar upon which was erected the pulpit of the teacher. The roof of this building is entire, and also that of a passage adjoining. Over these have been apartments. PP, passages. CL, the opposite wing of the cloisters razed to the ground. QC, the area of the quadrangular court. PL, a porter's lodge and gateway. M, the mill. MR, the mill race. O, the great oven. NO, the ruins of a building of uncertain extent, supposed to have been the Novitiate. UU, the ruins of buildings of uncertain ex- tent and appropriation. The rivulet from the north, which constantly runs through the val- ley, is conducted by the east end of the church and side of the cloisters in a subterraneous passage or tunnel, which is arched over. Another temporary brook from the west, has been conducted by NO, and under S, in a similar manner. There has also been a subterraneous passage, leading from the race of the rivulet, under K, and forwards in an un- known direction. It has probably been conducted under some part of the church, and has served for a drain or sewer. DIMENSIONS Of THE CH0BCH, THE CHAPTER-HOUSE, AND CLOTSTERS. The inside length of the church, from east to west, is 275 feet 8 inches : the thickness of the east end wall, and the depth of the east end but- tress, 8 feet 7 inches : the thickness of the west end wall, 9 feet 7 inches : the depth of the west end buttress, 10 feet 8 inches : the extreme length of the church, 304 feet 6 inches. The inside width of the east end is 28 feet, and the thickness of the two side walls, 10 feet. The total width of the ea*t end is, therefore, 38 feet. The height of the arch above Q, from -tfie floor to the underside of the centre-stone, is 52 feet 6 inches. The inside length of the TRANSEPT is 130 feet : the south wall is 6 feet, and the north wall 3 feet 6 inches in thickness : the inside width of the transept is 28 feet 4 inches : the thickness of the two side walls, S feet B inches. The whole breadth of the transept is, therefore, 37 feet. DALTON ULVERSTON. 13 The inside width of the nave is 66 feet ; and the thickness of the two side walls, 8 feet ; therefore the whole width of the naye is 74 feet. The height of the side walls of the church has been about 54 feet, The inside of the CHAPTEB-HOUSE measures 60 feet by 45 feet 6 inches, and the thickness of each wall. 3 feet 6 inches. The inside width of the CLOISTERS is 31 feet 6 inches, and the thick- ness of the two walls, 8 feet. The area of the quadrangular court is 338 feet 6 inches ty 102 feet 6 inches. On solemn days the monks used to walk in procession round this court, under a shade. DALTON. Dalton was anciently the capital of Furness, and has a population of about 800. Market day, Saturday. The Courts of the Liberty and Manor of Furness are held in the Castle, which consists of an ancient square tower, situated at the top of a spacious market-place overlooking the town. The late distinguished artist, GEORGE ROMNEY, the portrait-painter, was born at a place called Beckside, in Dalton, on the 5th December, 1734. ULVERSTON is a flourishing market town and port, and is the emporium of Furness at the present day. Population, about 5000. Market day, Thursday. Considerable quantities of wrought iron ore from the neighbouring country are exported from this place. INNS, Sun Inn, Bradyll's Arms. From this quarter the Lakes would be advantageously ap- proached by Coniston ; thence to Hawkshead, and by the Ferry over Windermere, to Bowness and Ambleside ; a much better introduction than by going direct from Coniston to Ambleside, which ought not to be done, as that would greatly take from the effect of Windermere. Or, the Tourist may, by leaving out Coniston, proceed direct to Bowness and Ambleside by the Lady of the Lake steamer from Newby Bridge, at the foot of Win- dermere, eight miles from Ulverston, where there is a capital Inn. The Steam-boat plies between the above places twice a day during the summer season. Fares to Bowness, Is., to Am- bleside, 2s. ULVERSTON to CONISTON WATER HEAD. 6 Lowick Bridge 6 I 8 Coniston Water Head* ... 16 2 Nibthwaite 8 | The road to Coniston is along a narrow vale, beautifully di- vided by hanging inclosures and scattered farms, half way up th sides of the mountains, whose heads are covered with heath and brown vegetation. About three miles from Ulverston observe a farm-house on the left, and a group of houses before you on the 14 TLEETWOOD ROUTE. right. Stop at the gate on the brow of the hill, and have a dis- tant view of the lake. The whole range of Coniston fells is now in sight. Advancing, on the left see Lowick Hall, once the seat of a family of that name. Cross the river Crake at Lowick, and keep on the eastern side of the lake of Coniston till you reach the inn at its head. ilxrurs tons from OTotwton Plater 31)mtJ. From this inn, a leisurely Traveller might have much pleasure in looking into Yewdale and Tilberthwaite, returning from the head of Yewdale by a mountain track which has the farm of Tarn Hows a little on the right. By this road is seen much the best view of Coniston Lake from the north. An enterprising Tourist might go to the Vale of Duddon, over Walna Scar, down to Seathwaite, Newfield, and to the rocks where the river issues from a narrow pass into the broad vale. Horses may be taken over this mountain track, which is, how- ever, in places very steep and difficult. The distance is 1 Coniston Church Ill Top of Walna Scar . . . . 4 8 Runner from Goat Scar . . 3 | 2 Newfield 6 The stream is very interesting for the space of a mile above this point, and below, by Ulpha Kirk, till it enters the Sands, where it is overlooked by the solitary mountain Black Comb, the sum- mit of which, as that experienced surveyor, Colonel Mudge, declared, commands a more extensive view than any point in Britain. Ireland he saw more than once, but not when the sun was above the horizon. " Close bj the Sea, lone sentinel, Black-Comb his forward station keeps : He breaks the sea's tumultuous swell, And ponders o'er the level deeps. He listens to the bugle horn, Where Eskdale's lovely valley bends, Eyes Walney's early fields of corn ; Sea-birds to Holker's woods he sends. Beneath his feet the sunk ship rests, In Dnddon Sands, its masts all bare :" ****** * The Minstrels of Windermere, by Chas: Farisb, B,D. EXCURSION TO THE VALE OF SEATHWAITE. 15 The carriage-road to Seathwaite is by either of the two fol- lowing routes, and affords many pleasing and extensive pros- pects : 1 Coniston Church 1 2J Torver 3J 7 Brouehton 10} 1 Duddon Bridge 11} 3J Ulpha Kirk -house . . . . 15 2 Ne*wfield, near Seathwaite Chapel 17 OK, 3} Torver 3J 2 Broughton Mills .. 8} 3 Three miles beyond Torver 4 Newfield . . . . . . 12} take the road to the right ().S The following description of the scenery in this Excursion is extracted from Mr. Wordsworth's Notes to the River Duddon : " This recess (the Vale of Seathwaite), towards the close of September, when the after-grass of the meadows is still of a fresh green, with the leaves of many of the trees faded, but perhaps none fallen, is truly enchanting. At a point elevated enough to shew the various objects in the valley, and not so high as to di- minish their importance, the stranger will instinctively halt. On the foreground, a little below the most favourable station, a rude foot-bridge is thrown over the bed of the noisy brook foaming by the way side. Russet and craggy hills, of bold and varied out- line, surround the level valley, which is besprinkled with grey rocks plumed with birch trees. A few homesteads are inter- spersed, in some places peeping out from among the rocks like hermitages, whose sites have been chosen for the benefit of sun- shine as well as shelter ; in other instances, the dwelling-house, barn, and byre, compose together a cruciform structure, which, with its embowering trees, and the ivy clothing part of the walls and roof like a fleece, call to mind the remains of an ancient ab- bey. Time, in most cases, and nature everywhere, have given a sanctity to the humble works of man, that are scattered over this peaceful retirement. Hence a harmony of tone and colour, a consummation and perfection of beauty, which would have been marred had aim or purpose interfered with the course of conve- nience, utility, or necessity. This un vitiated region stands in no need of the veil of twilight to soften or disguise its features. As it glistens in the morning sunshine, it would fill the specta- tor's heart with gladsomeness. Looking from our chosen station, he would feel an impatience to rove among its pathways, to be greeted by the milkmaid, to wander from house to house, ex- changing ' good-morrows' as he passed the open doors ; but, at 16 FLEETWOOD ROUTE. evening, when the sun is set, and a pearly light gleams from the western quarter of the sky, with an answering light from the smooth surface of the meadows ; when the trees are dusky; but each kind still distinguishable ; when the cool air has condensed the blue smoke rising from the cottage chimneys ; when the dark mossy stones seem to sleep in the bed of the foaming brook ; then, he would be unwilling to move forward, not less from a reluctance to relinquish what he beholds, than from an appre- hension of disturbing, by his approach, the quietness beneath him. Issuing from the plain of this valley, the brook descends in a rapid torrent, passing by the church-yard of Seathwaite. From the point where the Seathwaite brook joins the Duddon, is a view upwards, into the pass through which the river makes its way into the plain of Donnerdale. The perpendicular rock on the right bears the ancient name of THE PEN ; the one op- posite is called WALLABARROW CRAG, a name that occurs in other places, to designate rocks of the same character. The chaotic aspect of the scene is well marked by the expression of a stranger who strolled out while dinner was preparing, and, at his return, being asked by his host, ' What way he had been wandering? ' replied, As far as it is finished !' "* * Seathwaite is remarkable as the place in which " Wonderful Robert Walker" dwelt for the greatest part of a century. A very full and interesting account of this extraordinary man is given by Mr. Wordsworth in his Notes to " The Duddon,'' to which work the reader is referred. It may here suffice to say, that he was born in 1709, at Under-Crag, in Seathwaite, and was the youngest of twelve children. Being sickly in youth, he was "bred a scholar," and, after acting for some time as a schoolmaster at Loweswater, in Cumberland, he was ordained, and, about 1735, became curate of Seathwaite, where he re- mained till his death, sixty-seven years afterwards. The value of his Curacy when he entered upon it was 5 per annum, with a cottage. About the same time he married, and his wife brought him, as he says, " to the value of 40 to her fortune." He had a family of twelve child- ren, of whom, however, only eight lived : these he educatad respect- ably, and one of his sons became a clergyman. He was even munifi- cent in his hospitality as a parish priest, and generous to the needy ; and although the income of his curacy never exceeded 50 per annum- he " at his decease left behind him no less a sum than 2,000 ; and such a sense of his various excellencies was prevalent in the country, that the epithet of WONDERFUL is to this day attached to his name." He died on the 25th of June, 1802, in the 93rd year of his age, and 67th of his curacy. His wife died on the 28th of January in the same year, and at the same age. CONISTON OLD MAN. 17 The Tourist may either return to the inn at Coniston, or he may cross from Ulpha Kirk over Birker Moor to Ambleside, taking care to turn to the right by a very indifferent road over the common, (apparently leading only to a farm house), before beginning to descend into Eskdale, which will conduct him to STANLEY GILL, at the head of the finest ravine in the country. Three-quarters of a mile higher up the valley, on the same side, appears BIRKER FORCE, dashing over a high, naked, and pre- cipitous rock.* Thence proceed up the Vale of the Esk, by Hardknott and Wrynose, to Ambleside. Near the road, in ascending from Eskdale, are conspicuous remains of a Roman fortress, called by the country people " Hardknott Castle," most impressively situated on the left, half way up the hill. It has escaped the notice of most Antiquarians, and is but slightly mentioned by Lysons. There is a DRUIDICAL CIRCLE about half a mile to the left of the road ascending Stoneside from the Vale of Duddon : the country people call it "Sunken Church." The road over Hardknott and Wrynose is scarcely practicable except on foot or on horseback. From SPRINGFIELD, in Seathwaite, over the Mountains to STAN- LET GILL and BIKKER FORCE, in Eskdale, and thence to Ambleside. 4 Stanley Gill 41 16 Ambleside, over Hardknot 2 Birker" Force 6| and Wrynose 22 The ascent to the Top of the OLD MAN Mountain is recommended before leaving Coniston ; but the ground being rugged, in places, it should not be undertaken without a guide. The height of the Old Man is 2577 feet, and the view from it is inferior to no mountain view in the country, excepting that from Scawfell or Helvellyn, if indeed it be inferior to the latter. The ascent should be made by following the ancient horse -road over Walna Scar for about a mile, and then turning to the right towards an old slate quarry, whence you will have to scramble to the summit. Low WATER lies immediately below the highest point, in a hollow of the mountain, to the east, and GOAT'S * STANLEY GILL is often erroneously called BIBREB FORCE, by the dalesmen, by which confusion of the two names the stranger is apt to be misled. The original name of this fall was, we believe, Dalegarth Force ; and was changed to Stanley Gill, by the present proprietor, Mr. Stanley, of Ponsonby. 18 FLEET WOOD ROUTE. WATER is situated under the precipitous side of Dow Crag on the west. The stream from it flows into Coniston. BLIND TARN (so called, perhaps, from its having no outlet) will be seen further to the south, under a part of Walna Scar. A walk of half a mile from the top towards the north-west will bring the Traveller in sight of SEATHWAITE TARN, which sends a tributary to the Duddon. Those who can give a day to the excursion will do well to follow the mountain range to Wetherlam, a lofty ridge that sweeps round to the north of the Old Man, under which lies a fine Tarn called LEVERS WATER where copper- mining is carried on much to the injury of this magnificent scene. From Wetherlam descend into Tilberthwaite, and so return to Coniston. " This lake is six miles long and three-quarters of a mile in breadth. Its greatest depth is twenty-seven fathoms, and it is famous for its charr (salmo aJpinus), a species of trout, which inhabits the deep water, and is only taken at particular times of the year. Large quantities are potted, and sent to the sooth. They do not attain a large size, seldom, perhaps, ex- ceeding a pound in weight. Coniston, Windermere, Wastwater, Buttermere, Crummock, and Ullswater, are, it is said, the only lakes which contain them. The charr of Coniston Water stand highest, and those of Ullswater lowest in repute." The road from Coniston Water Head to Ambleside direct, is eight miles ; but, asJias been before said, a circuitous route by Hawkshead, the Ferry, and Bowness, 15 miles, in the following order, is recommended as a much better introduction to Win- dermere : To HAWKSHEAD, 3 m. From HAWKSHEAD, by the Grove and Esthwaite Hall, round ESTHWAITE WATER. 1| Nearer Sawrey 2J 2J Hawkshead 5 } Esthwaite Water i The Grove \ Esthwaite Hall From HAWKSHEAD to AMBLESIDE, by the Ferry, Windermere, and Bowness. 2} Nearer Sawrey 2J 1J Ferry House, through Far- ther Sawrey 4 2 Bowness, over Windermere by the Ferry 6 4 Low Wood Inn .... 10 2 Ambleside 12 HAWKSHEAD is a compact little market-town, at the southern end of which, on a good elevation, stands the Parish Church, commanding a pleasant prospect of the Vale and Lake of ESTHWAITE, the latter of which is two miles long and half a HAWKSHEAD. BOTANICAL NOTICES. 19 mile in breadth. Here is a Free Grammar School, founded in 1585, by Edwyne Sandys, Archbishop of York, whose family is yet found in the vicinity. Some years ago this school was tilled with pupils not only from the neighbourhood but from the sur- rounding counties, numbering at one period about 120. The poet Wordsworth, and the late Dr. Wordsworth, his brother, with many others distinguished for classical attainments, were educated here. The mosl pleasant way round Esthwaite Water is by the Grove and Esthwaite Hall, passing ESTHWAITE LODGE, (T. Beck, Esq.), on the right; a little beyond which the road skirts the banks of the lake to its outlet near the bridge. From thence pass through the village of Sawrey, with LAKE FIELD (J. R. Ogden, Esq.), on the left, and return on its eastern side, to Hawkshead. From Hawkshead to the Ferry-house on Windermere, where there is a good and commodious inn, the road passes over hilly ground through the villages of Sawrey. The sight of Winder- mere from the top of the hill is extremely fine. The Tourist halting here for a while, ought, by all means, to visit the Station-house, which is within a short and pleasant walk of the Inn, and commands a beautiful prospect of nearly the whole extent of the lake. Proceed to Bownessby the Ferry, and from thence to Low Wood and Ambleside ; or, if there be an objection to crossing the Ferry, there is a good road, abound- ing in a delightful succession of changes, on the west side of the lake, 8 miles, to Ambleside. BOTANICAL NOTICES. ATROPA Belladonna. About Furness Abbey. CIRC A: A alpina. On the road-side between Ulverston and Hawks- head. SAXIFRAQA stellaris }On the Old Man Mountain, Coniston. ., -j ' f These three species may be found on . ~ i most of the mountains in the Lake - nypno aes. y District. GBRANIOM sylvaticum. Coniston Water Head. ORNITHOPUS perpusillus On the road-side on the East side of Coniston Lake. HABENARIA albida. On the high ground between Coniston and Hawkshead. licifolia. At Pool Bridge, near Hawkshead. !dhL*} About the Ferr y> Windermere. GERANIUM columbinum. Near Fell-foot, Newby Bridge. SERRATULA tinctoria. By the river-side, near Newby Bridge. D 20 THE OVER-SANDS ROUTE. From PRESTON to LANCASTER takes three-quarters of an hour, by RAILWAY. Fare 5s. and 3s., according to class. LANCASTER, the capital of the County Palatine of Lancaster, is very finely situated on a hill rising abruptly from the river Lune, which falls into the Bay of Morecambe at the distance of six miles. There is excellent accommodation at two good inns, the King's Arms and Royal Oak. On the summit of the hill is the Castle, a majestic structure originally built by Roger de Poictou in the llth century, and re-edified by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in the 14th. It has been greatly enlarged in modern times, and now serves as the county gaol. The Pa- rish Church of St. Mary's, an ancient structure with a lofty tower, stands also on the Castle Hill. A handsome new church has been recently erected in Penny Street, and there are several other Episcopal and Dissenting Places of Worship in that town. The County Lunatic Asylum is a handsome building situated on Lancaster Moor, about a mile from the town, and is capable of accommodating 300 patients. The foreign commerce of Lan- caster has been on the decline for many years, haying been in- jured by the competition of Liverpool ; and the river being dif- ficult of navigation, in neap tides the larger ships generally un- load at Glasson Dock, five miles distant from the town. Lan- caster is connected with the principal towns of the county by a canal, which is carried over the Lune two miles from the town by a magnificent aqueduct, erected by the late Mr. Rennie. There are two swift packet-boats on the canal to and from Ken- dal daily. Lancaster is celebrated for the manufacture of maho- gany furniture, and several cotton and silk mills have of late years been established here. The formation of the Railway to Lancaster has been of great importance to the town, and may be considered as the beginning of a new era in its history transferring a listless and stationary community into one of those "hives of industry" by which the commercial character of this country is sustained. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. LANCASTER to TTLVERSTON, OVEB SANDS. Hest Bank* . . . . 3J Lancaster Sands . . . . 3| Kent's Bank (across the Sands) 12f Lower Allithwaite . . 13f 1} Flookborongh* .. 15 $ Cark* 15-3 J Leven Sends . . . . 16 5 Across the Sands to Ulver- ston .. 21 LANCASTER TO ULVERSTON. 21 The Stranger, from the moment he sets his foot on those Sands, seems to leave the turmoil and traffic of the world behind him ; and, crossing the majestic plain whence the sea has retired, he beholds, apparently from its base, the cluster of mountains Among which he is going to wander, and towards whose recesses, by the Vale of Coniston, he is gradually and peacefully led. At the side of the channel a guide on horseback is waiting to con- duct passengers over the ford. The Priory of Cartmel was charged with this important office, and had synodals and peter- pence allowed towards its maintenance. Since the dissolution of the Priory, it is held by patent of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the salary, 26 per annum, is paid by the Receiver- General. On leaving Lancaster Sands at Kent's Bank, having the bold headland of Humphrey Head on the left, pass through Flook- borough and Cark, and begin to cross Leven Sands at Cark Lane, three miles to the landing-place, whence the distance is two miles to Ulverston. At the ford of the river Leven another guide conducts you over the stream. On entering these Sands you have " on the right a grand view of Alpine Scenery. A rocky hill, patched with wood and heath, rising immediately from the coast, directs the eye to an immense chain of lofty moun- tains, apparently increased in height and magnitude since they were seen from Hest Bank." On the left is a small island called Chapel Island, on which stand the ruins of a chapel, originally dependent on Conishead Priory, which is seen richly embosomed in wood on the opposite coast. Near Humphrey Head is HOLY- WELL, noted for its mineral water ; and in the immediate vicinity of Flookborough, in a richly-wooded park, stands HOLKER HALL, the magnificent residence of the Earl of Burlington. About a mile and a half from Holker is CARTMEL, whose ancient church, once a priory, is an interesting object. BOTANICAL NOTICES. PYBUS Aria. \ VERONICA spicata. ( On rocks at Humphrey Head, near HELIANTHEMUM canum. \ ASTRAGALUS glycyphyllos. i Cartmel. HYPOCH.SRIS maculata. J CONVALLARIA multiflora. At Holker. Those Tourists who dislike to cross the Sands may take the following extended route by Levens Bridge. The road is ex- cellent, and passes through a pleasant and agreeable country. The objects upon it, as far as Levens Bridge, are noticed in the K.F.NDAL RODTE, p. 24. D 2 22 OVER-SANDS ROUTE. LANCASTLIUo ULVERSTON, by LEVENS BRIDGE. 12 Hale* 12 J Beethom* 12 1} Milnthorpe* . . . . 13| 1} Heversham* . . . . 15 1J Levens Bridge .. 16J 4, Witherslack* 20 J 3 Lindal* .. .. 23 \ 2 Newton* 25 2 Newby Bridge* . . 27 J 2 Low Wood* . . . . 29 3 Greenodd* .. .. 32J 3 Ulverston ... .. 35J After crossing Levens Bridge, the Ulverston road turns off five miles from Kendal, over extensive mosses, to the left, hav- ing the noble limestone rock of Whitbarrow (yielding but few fossils), whose abrupt escarpment forms a remarkable object in the scenery, on the right hand. The road passes CASTLE HEAD, on the left, before reaching Lindal, where there is a long and tedious hill to overcome, from the top of which is seen in retro- spect an extensive view of Morecambe Bay. On ascending the hill, ELLERHOW, the residence of George Webster, Esq. is seen in the valley on the right. The road is now a gradual descent to Newby Bridge, at the foot of Windermere, where there is a comfortable Inn. From this place, as has been stated before, the " Lady of the Lake" steam-boat plies twice a day during the summer season to Bowness and Ambleside. [See page 13.] From Newby Bridge to Ulverston is a pleasant drive of eight miles, passing on the road the extensive Cotton Mills of Ains- worth and Co., at Backbarrow, and the Gunpowder Works of Daye Barker and Co., at Low Wood. [Deviation. Another road to Bowness branches off at the Bridge Inn on the Moss to the right, leading through Lyth, Crosthwaite, and Winster. The distance to Bowness from Milnthorpe by this road is about fourteen miles.] From Ulverston the Tourist may follow the route to Amble- side by Coniston or Newby Bridge, already recommended. BOTANICAL NOTICES. ncum. j LATHBJGA squamaria. CONYZA squarrosa. V- In Levens Park. POLYPODIUM vulgare, var. cambricum. J TRiTOLivitfragiferum. Near Low Levens. HOTTONIA pcdustris. ~\ ANDROMEDA polifolia. f Siviiangustifolium. > On Brigsteer Moss, inunddtum. i APIUM graveolens. Smuspratensis. } HYOSCYAMUS niger. > Near Levens Church. CYNOGLOSSUM off.cina.le. ) VEBBASCUM Thapsus. } Si DM repens. > At foot of Brigsteer Scar. AQDILEGIA vulgaris. j KENDAL ROUTE. POI.T roi>it*M calcareum. Whitbarrow. MELAMPYRUM sylvaticum, Whitbarrow woods. ALLIUM Schcenoprasum. Rusmittle, Lyth. OPIIRVS muscifera. Rusmittle. HABK.VABIA bijblia. \ Ru8m5tt i e . GYMXAPEMA conopsea. j INULA Helenium. Fellside farm at Crosthwaite. GRAMMITIS Ceterach. Near Fellside, do. DROSCRA rotund/folia longifbaa, ~\ Angtica. GENTIAN A Pneumonardhe. > On Fowlshaw Moss. UTKICULARIA vulgaris. minor. / SCIRPUS marilimvs. VKKHENA officinalis. Road-side at Lindal. Let us now go back to Preston, and conduct the Stranger to Ambleside by THE KENDAL ROUTE. The Railway will carry him in three-quarters of an hour to Lancaster, whence there are three roads (besides the Railroad) to Kendal, severally described in the following Tables. The old road to Kendal by Burton is 22 miles, but by making a circuit of eight miles, the vale of the Lune to Kirkby Lonsdale will be included. The whole tract is pleasing: there is one view, mentioned by Gray and Mason, especially so. In West's Guide it is thus pointed out: " About a quarter of a mile be- yond the third mile-stone, where the road makes a turn to the right, there is a gate on the left which leads into a field where the station meant will be found." The shortest and most direct road to Kendal is by Milnthorpe. LANCASTER to KENDAL, by KIRKBY LONSDALE. 5 Caton . . . . ... 5 2 Claughton .. .. 7 2 Hornby* 9 2 Melling 11 2 Tunstall 13 2 Burrow . . .. ... 15 2 Kirkby Lonsdale . . 17 13 Kendal 30 KIKKBY LONSDALE contains a population of 1643, ami is beau- tifully situated on the west bank of the river Lune. Market on Thursday. Inns, Rose and Crown and Green Dragon. The bridge over the Lune is a very picturesque and interesting struc- ture. It is lofty, and has three noble arches beautifully ribbed. Little is known about the date of its erection. The Clergy Daughters' School and the School for the education and trainiiij.'- of Female Servants, at Casterton, a mile and a half distant, are D 3 24 KENDAL ROUTE. objects of interest, and worthy of a visit. UNDERLEY HALL, the seat of Alderman Thompson, M.P., stands a mile north of the town, and nearly facing it, on the opposite side of the river, is CASTEETON HALL, the residence of W. W. C. Wilson, Esq. [See p. 2.] BOTANICAL NOTICES. SAPONABIA officinalis. Under Kirkby Lonsdale bridge. GALIUM boreale. Under Kirkby Lonsdale bridge. ALLIUM oleraceum. Near Kirkby Lonsdale bridge. HTPEBICUM dubium. Below the bridge. GEBANIUM phceum.. .Between Kirkby Lonsdale and Cowan bridge. SALIX Smithiana. Weigleiana. f On_the banks of the Lune, near Kirkky tenuifolia. Croweana. tenuifolia. /" Lonsdale. LANCASTER to KENDAL, by BUBTON. 10| Bnrton . . . . lOf } End Moor* . . . . 16 4| Crooklands .. .. 15J 6 Kendal .. .. 22 A good part of the way from Lancaster to Burton is cheered with fine prospects of the sea, and the mountains of Lancashire and Westmorland. About six miles from Lancaster, at a short distance, on the left, is Warton Crag, a bold elevation, and highly interesting to the Botanist. After leaving Burton, the road passes, on the right, a stupendous limestone-rock, called Farleton Knott, said to resemble the rock of Gibralter in outline : and about three miles from Kendal a hill on the right, called Helm, or Castle-steads, with the traces of a Roman encampment on its summit, is passed. LANCASTER to KENDAL, by MILNTHORPE. Beethom .. .. 12* l| Milnthorpe 13| 1J Heversham* . . 15 1J Levens Bridge . . 16 J Kendal 21 2J Slyne* 2? If Bolton-le-Sands* .. 4 2 Carnfortb* 6 2 Junction of the Milnthorpe v and Burton roads . . 8 4 Hale* 12 This road leaves Warton Crag on the left, and branches off from the Burton road at a distance of eight miles from Lancas- ter ; then passes through the pleasant village of Beethom to Milnthorpe, where there is a good inn The Cross Keys, DALLAM TOWER, the residence of George Wilson, Esq., is seen on the left, in a richly- wooded park. One mile from Milnthorpe pass through Heversham, the birth-place of the late venerable Bishop Watson. A mile further stands LEVENS HALL, the ancient and picturesque seat of the Hon. Mrs. Howard, which KENDAL. 25 is deserving of notice. The gardens were originally laid out by the gardener of James II. in the old Dutch style, and are the admiration of every visitor to this delightful spot. The park is separated from the house by the high-road, and is well stocked with deer. There is a pleasant walk through the park by fol- lowing the river Kent, and passing through the village af Sedg- wick to Kendal. A mile from Levens pass on the left HEAVES LODGE, the residence of James Gandy, Esq., and on the right, at a short distance, SEDGWICK HOUSE, the seat of John Wake- field, Esq. A mile further, on the left, stands SIZERGH HALL, the ancient family seat of the Stricklands. About a mile from Kendal, HELM LODGE, the residence of W. D. Crewdson, Esq., is seen at a short distance on the right hand. BOTANICAL NOTICES. CONVOLVULUS arvensis \ w *, , u . MALTA jyhertrfr. } Near Heyer sham. POTENTILLA verna. Whitbarrow Woods. OsMUNDAre Abundant on Kemlal fell. GNAPIIALIVM dioimm. Pni.i PODIUM culcartvm. GRAMMITIS Ceteruch. > On Kendal fell. vulgare. 28 KENDAL ROUTE. ASPLENIUM viride. On the edge of Scout Scar. SESLEBIA caerulea. Kendal fell and Scout Scar. HELIANTHEMUM canum. HIPPOCBEPIS comosa. THALICTBUM minus. GEBANIUM sanguineum. HTPEBICUM montanum. HYPEBICUM hirsutum. PYBUS Aria. SEDUM Anglicum. POTERIUM sanguisorba. EPIPACTIS palustris. OBCHIS latifolia fy bifolia. GYMNADENIA conopsea. V O EH CLADIUM mariscus. VIOLA palustris. X I J 2 c rll \OH 1 ^J f^ )3i EPIPACTIS latifolia. BBACHIPODIUM sylvaticum. RHAMNUS catharticus. -- Frangula. OPIIBTS Nidus Avis. LATHB^A squamaria. CLINOPODIUM valgare. OBIGANUM vulgare. RUBUS saxatilis. PBIMULA elatior* EUPATOBIA canabinum. PABXASSIA palustris. CABEX vesicaria. TBOLLIUS europaeus. >ot-; }lf EPIPACTIS ensifolia. MONOTBOPA Hypopitys. J HABENABIA aZMda , Barrowfield Wood, but rare. OPHBYS muscifera. ( CONVALLABIA Polygonatum. \ VIOLA hirta (plentiful). BOTBYCHIUM lunare. \ IQ meadows near Barrowfield Wood. OPHIOGLOSSUM vulgatum. f BOTANICAL NOTICES NEAR KENDAL. MYBRHIS odorata. About Spittal. PARIS quadrifolia. ~\ SANICULA europaa. / PRIMULA elatior. \ In Spital Wood. PRUNUS Padus. i CORTDALIS claviculata. j a marsh behind Spital Wood, and in TROLL!US europcms. ) several moist "toations. CHRYSOSPLENIUM alternifolium. Near the gate at Benson Hall. RANUNCULUS auricomus } STELLA RIA nemorum. > Laverock Lane. CARDAMINE amara. GEUM rivale, VICIA sylvatica. f LUZUJ.A pilosa. / Laverock bridge. LATHR^EA squamaria. * EQUISETUM hyemale. Near Old Field Wood, by the river side. POLYPODIUM Dryopteris. ^ Phegopteris. > At Scarf oot. ASPIDIUM aculeatum, var. lonchitiforme. MEUM athamanticum, Docker Garths- RIBES alpinum. Docker Brow. VACCINIUM Oxycoccos. \ Skelsmergh Tarn. COMARUM palustre. ) TANACETUM vulgare. \ In a field near Jenkin Crag GERANIUM robertianum, white var. j Lane. SIUM latifolium. Stock Beck. SENECIO saracenicus. Do. MST OF LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 29 MECANOPSIS cambrica Peat Lane, Oxenholm, and Sprint bridge. CNICUS heterophyllus. Peat Lane. CRYPTOGRAMMA crispa. Do. GERANIUM columbinum. Canal Banks. CALAMINTHA officinalis Kendal Castle. ALLIUM arenarium. By the river side near Helsington and Mint bridge. TAMES communis. Common in hedges. CoLf.'iucrM autumnale. Mintsfeet. GALEOPSIS versicolor. Sprint bridge and Burneaide Hall. LYCOPUS europceus. Burneside Tarn. BIDENS tripartite*. Near Burneside Hall. THALICTRUM minus. Lane to Cowan Head. EUONYMUS europceus. Near Hundhow. SENECIO syhaticus. Pine Crags. SEDUM anglicum. Pine Crags and Ratherheath. NARCISSUS Pseudo-Narcissus. Do. GERANIUM phceum. Pepper-hag, near Barneside. sylvaticum Common in most of the wooded lanes. SIUM inundatum. Coppy Tarn, Tenter-fell, Stricklandgate end. HABENARIA viridis. Tenter-fell, Do. SANGUISORBA officinalis. In meadows round the town. ANCHUSA sempervirens. Near Tolson Hall Gate, t'/t*. Gilling-grove, Kendal. The following List of LAND and FRESH-WATER SHELLS found in the neighbourhood of Kendal, or within a few miles, may be interesting to the Naturalist. 1. NERITINA fluviaiilis (River Neritine) In the Lune near Kirkby Lonsdale, 2. BITHINIA tentaculata (Tentacled Bithinia) Canal. Brig- steer Moss. 3. VALV ATA piscinalis (Stream Valve Shell) BrigsteerMoss. 4. cristata (Crested Valve Shell). Do. 5. AHION ater (Black Arion). Abundant. 6. LIMAX maximus (Spotted Slug) In gardens & outhouses. 7. agrestis (Milky Slug.) In gardens. 8. VITRINA pellucida (Transparent Glass Bubble) Under stones. Not uncommon. 9. HELIX aspersa (Common Snail). In gardens. Too com. 10. h or tensis (Garden Snail). In gardens and hedges. 11. nemoralis (Girdled Snail) In gardens and hedges. Large on Kendal Fell. 12. arbustorum (Shrub Snail) Canal banks, and about the Castle. 13. pulchella (White Snail). On a garden wall at Green Bank, and many other places. var. costata. Among moist moss near Sizergh Fell- side. 14. fulva (Top-shaped Snail) Serpentine Walks Hyneing wood. 30 KENDAL EOtTE. 15. HELIX aculeata (Prickly Snail) Near Beck Mills and Low Groves. 16. hispida (Bristly Snail) Kendal fell, and under stones in shady places. 17. concinna (Neat Snail) On Kendal fell, under stones. 18. rufescens (Rufous Snail). Abundant. 19. caperata (Black-tipped Snail). Kendal fell. More- camb Bay. Not common. 20. ericetorum (Heath Snail) On Kendal fell. Com. 21. ZONITES rotundatus (Radiated Snail). Common under stones. Large on Kendal fell. 22. umbilicatus (Open Snail). On Kendal fell, abun- dant. 23. alliarius (Garlic Snail). Serpentine Walks. 24. cellarius (Cellar Snail). Do. and many other places. 25. nitidulus (Dull Snail). Do. 26. crystallinus (Crystalline Snail) Serpentine Walks. Hyning wood. Not common. 27. SUCCINEA putris (Common Amber Snail). In the Canal. 28. BULIMUS obscurus (Dusky Twist Shell). On Kendal fell. and Sizergh Fell-side. 29. ZUA lubrica (Common Varnished Shell). Under stones. Common. 30. AZECA tridens (Glossy Trident Shell) On Kendal fell. Not common, 31. ACHATINA Acicula (Needle Agate Shell). At Arnside. Not common. 32. PUPA umbilicata (Umbilicated Chrysalis Shell) Kendal fell. Very common. 33. juniperi (Juniper Chrysalis Shell). Kendal fell. Abundant. 34. VERTIGO edentula (Toothless Whorl Shell) Kendal fell. Not common. 35. pygmcea (Pigmy Whorl Shell). On Kendal fell. Old walls. Common. 36. substriata (Six-toothed Whorl Shell). Serpentine Walks. Scarce. 37. ~pusilla( Wry-necked Whorl Shell). Hawes bridge, Serpentine Walks, and near Mint House. Not com. 38. BALNEA perversa (Fragile Moss Shell). On old walls, among moss, on a wall near Fowl Ing. Not uncommon. 39. CLACSILIA biplicata (Folded Close Shell) Kendal fell, Helsf ell wood, in a fence near Madgegill, Helsington, and Arnside Knot. 40. nigricans (Dark Close Shell), On old walls and trees, on the Castle walls. Common. LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 51 41. CAHYCHIUM minimum (Minute Sedge Shell) Hyneing wood, and Cunswick wood, on decayed leaves a few inches under ground. 42. LittyiMVsauricularius( Wide-mouthed Mud Shell) Canal? 43. pereger (Puddle Mud Shell) Canal Kent and brooks. Common. 44. palustris (Marsh Mud Shell). In the Kent be- low Water Crook, and on Brigsteer Moss. 45. truncatulus (Ditch Mud Shell). In Ditches, and in wet places near the Limekilns. *46 AMPHIPEPLEA glutinosa (Glutinous Membrane Shell). In Windermere. 47 AxcvLvsJluviatilis (Common River Limpet), In rivulets. Common. 48. VRLLETI A lacustris( Oblong Lake Limpet) OnBensonKnot. 49. PHYSA fontnialis CStream Bubble Shell). Canal Brig- steer Moss, and Windermere. 50. PLANOBBIS albus (White Coil Shell), Canal Brigsteer Moss and Mill-dam at Cowan Head. 51. tmbricatits (Nautilus Coil Shell). Copy Tarn and Brigsteer Moss. 52. carinatus (Carinated Coil Shell). Brigsteer Moss. 53. marginatus (Margined Coil Shell). Do. 54. vortex (Whorl Coil Shell). Do. 55. spirorbis (Rolled Coil Shell). Do. and Aykrigg Tarn. 56. contortus (Twisted Coil Shell). Brigsteer Moss. 57. CYCLOSTOMA elegans (Elegant Circle Shell) At the roots of Fern on Arnside Knot. 58. CYCLAS cornea (Horny Cycle). In a ditch near Helm Lodge, and Brigsteer Moss. 59. PISIDIUM pusillum (Minute Pera) In the Kent, and Brig-, steer Moss. 60. ANODON cygneus (Swan Fresh-water Muscle). Canal. var. 8 anatina. Brigsteer Moss. 61. ALASMODON margaritiferus (Pearly Alasmodon). In the Mint, Kent, and Gowan. * It has not been ascertained in what part of the Lake this shell occurs ; the specimens examined were taken from the stomach of a large Windermere trout. 32 KENDAL RODTE. Before proceeding to Bowness and Ambleside, the Tourist, if so inclined, may conveniently make the following 12xrur0ion0 from To SHAP WELLS. Skelsmergh Stocks* . . 2J 4 High Borrow Bridge* . . 9 Plough Inn* ..... 5 6 Shap Wells .. .. 15 SHAP WELLS. A spacious Hotel with Baths and every ac- commodation for Visitors has been erected at this place. Shap Spa is stated by Mr. Alderson, in his " Treatise," to be a most genial and santive saline spring, milder than the Harrowgate, and more active than the Gilsland Water, and in its properties nearly allied to that of Leamington. It is much frequented by persons seeking health or recreation. The Lancaster and Carlisle Rail- way passes within a few hundred yards of the Hotel. BOTANICAL NOTICES NEAR SHAP. EPILOBIUM Angustifolium. By the river side above High Borrow Bridge. CARDBUS nutans. Near the Toll-bar. CNICUS heterophyttus. Hardendale. CAMPANULA glomerata. Do. POLTGONCM vimparum Do. GAUUM boreale. Do. HIERACIUM Lawsoni. Between Shap and Anna Well. POTERIUM sanguisorba. Hardendale Nab. SESLERIA ccerulea. Do. To HA WES WATER, through LONG SLEDDALE. 4J Watch Gate . . . . 4J I 2 Sadgill Bridge . . . . 9$ 3 Long Sleddale Chapel ... 7J | 4J Chapel Hill 14 " Following the road from Kendal to Shap for about four miles, the traveller will see a deep and narrow valley, turn- ing somewhat westward into the mountains : this is Long Sled- dale, into which a cross-road down a steep hill will conduct him. If not one of the grandest character, it has the advantage at least of being throroughly free from the intrusion of art. There is nothing to mar its harmony : and while passing along the narrow lanes, enclosed by thickly-lichened walls, tufted with wild flowers and crested by hedges, as the eye rests on the bril- liant green of the meadows, the sparkling purity of the stream, or the autumnal tints of the copses, we heartily rejoice in our emancipation from the turnpike-road, and acknowledge this to be / M -*c. F-fJt^-v**^-*' ^v ri*vir-T tisvlx* HAWES WATER. S a genuine and lovely sj)ecimen of pastoral scenery.* The upper portion of the dale is bleak and sterile, and the ascent to the summit of the pass which divides it from Mardale is wearisome ; but, on attaining the summit, the bird's-eye view of the deep green secluded glen beneath, and the abruptness and ruggedness of the descent, will strike 6ne who is unaccustomed to mountain- passes with surprise and delight. There is a small public-house, the White Bull, where rough but clean accommodation may be had, at Mardale Green, about a mile above the head of Hawes Water. This lake is three miles long, ' a sort of lesser Ulls- water,' Mr. Wordsworth says, ' with this advantage, that it remains undefiled by the intrusion of bad taste ;' and, from the remoteness of the situation, it is long likely to remain so. The eastern bank is clothed by natural wood, of no great size or beauty, but richly feathering the hill side and shore of the lake." The Tourist may return to Kendal through Kentmere, by re- versing the order of the next Excursion ; or, he may proceed to Bowness by striking across the summit of High Street on the right from the pass of Nanbield, and descending into the valley of Troutbeck, which opens to Windermere a little below Low Wood. The distance from Mardale to the public-house at Troutbeck is about six miles, from thence to Bowness it is four miles. High Street is 2,700 feet above the level of the sea. Remains of the Roman road from Kendal (Concangium) to Pen- rith (Petriana), may be traced along its summit. The views from it are extremely fine, and the road all the way to Bowness abounds in charming prospects. BOTANICAL NOTICES. LONG SLEDDALE. ANCHUSA sempervirens. By the road-side in the vale of Long Sleddale. CNICUS heterophyllus. In fields near the road. MECANOPSIS cambrica. Near the Chapel. * The Geologist will examine with interest a narrow band of lime- stone which crosses this valley, the shales of which abound with lower Silurian fossils. It will be found, with the greatest facility, near the junction of two small mountain streams, which pass down the lateral vale, in which is situated the hamlet of Little London. This limestone band may be traced through the valleys of Kentmere (behind the hall) and Troutbeck, near Low Wood, thence by Coniston Water Head, the Old Man, Torver, Broughton Mills, and across the river Duddon. E 2 KENDAL ROUTE. OXTBIA reniformis. EPILOBIUM alsinifoUum. SAXIFBAGA stellaris. aizoides. hypnoides. Above Buckbarrow Well. ALCHEMILLA alpina. COCHLEARIA officinalis. FESTUCA ovina, var. vivipara- LYCOPODIUM selaginoides. CBYPTOGRAMMA crispa. TEESDALIA nudicaulis. \ RHODIO LA rosea. } RUBUS Chamcemorus. On the top of Goatscar. ASPIDIUM Oreopteris. Stony places. GNAPHALIUM dioicum. Very fine on high pastures.* To HA WES WATER, through KENTMERE. 5 Staveley* 5 I 3 Nanbield 12$ 4 Kentmere Chapel* . . 9 | 2f Head of HaweWater* 15 On leaving Kendal, the Ambleside road is to be pursued as far as Staveley, at which place a road to the right leads direct into the valley of Kentmere. This road is practicable for car- riages as far as the Chapel (near which is a small ale-house): be- yond this point the excursion must be made on foot. A little to the south of the Chapel, stands KENTMERE HALL, an ancient building with a square tower, now occupied as a farm-house. BERNARD GILPIN, who, from his learning and piety, was called the " Apostle of the North," was born here in 1517. Towards the head of the vale, Kentmere Tongue shoots boldly forward from the Sleddale side of the dale towards Hill Bell and Rains- barrow, which, with High Street, altogether produce from cer- tain points, arrangements and combinations scarcely to be equal- led in Westmorland for sublimity. The road across Kentmere Tongue on its northern side, from which it is a steep ascent to the pass at Nanbield, where there is a fine prospect of Hawes Water and the country about Low- ther and Penrith. From this place the road descends precipi- tously to Mardale Green, passing a mountain tarn called SMALL WATER in its rugged track. Before reaching Mardale, the * The Botanist will look in vain for STIPA pennata, if this beautiful grass ever grew here. SIBTHORPIA europcea, said to grow at Buck- barrow Well, is nothing more than CHRYSOSPLENIUM oppositifolium, with large foliage but no flowers. The Silurian limestone, before noticed, furnishes none of the plants or land-shells characteristic of the carboniferous Limestone. m s 'iR^S'O < =- ~~ ^l?*- 3 isas^Ser 1 KENDAL TO AMBDESIDE AND BOWNESS. 35 stream which flows from Small Water is joined by a brook is- suing from a little lake called BLEA WATER, lying at the Mar- dale end of High Street, under a high and perpendicular rock. This lake has on one side the mountain called Long Stile, or Riggendale Crags, and on the other the hill that separates it from Small Water. The Kentmere road is joined at the foot of Barter Fell by that from Kendal through Long Sleddale, by which the tourist may return to Kendal ; or, he may proceed to Bowness by the route over High Street, already pointed out. From CHAPEL HILL round HA WES WATER. 3 Foot of the Lake 2 Bridge between the villages of Hampton 2 Foot of the Lake on the eastern side . . . . 7 3 Chapel Hill .. .. 10 KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, Direct. ,5 Staveley* .. .. 5 1$ Ings Chapel .. . . 6J '2 Orrest-head 8J 1J Troutbeck Bridge* .. 10 2 Low Wood Inn .. . . V2 2 Ambleside . . . . 14 Or, by RAILWAY, Kendal to Birthwaite,* 9 miles ; thence, by car, to Ambleside, 5 miles. There are two roads from Kendal to Ambleside for parties not travelling by railway ; the one, direct, by Staveley, the other, circuitous, through Bowness. These roads unite at Cook's House, about four miles from Ambleside. The traveller leaves Kendal by a steep ascent at the extremity of Strickland- gate, having St. Thomas' Church on the left and the Workhouse on the right hand. At the Toll-bar, about two miles from the town, the Bowness road branches off to the left from that direct to Ambleside. From this point the road is uninteresting till it gains the summit of the hill above Orrest Head (8J miles from Kendal), where the middle and lower divisions of Windermere suddenly appear ; and, presently, on the turn of the road, the upper reach of the Lake, with its luxuriantly-wooded foreground and the rugged mountains of Langdale in the distance, come into view. Opposite the gate at ORREST HEAD, (J.Braithwaite, Esq.) a narrow lane to the left leads down to Bowness (two miles), but the main road to Bowness strikes off at Cook's House, before mentioned, a little beyond. The lane branching off at Cook's House on the right, leads to Troutbeck. After leaving Orrest Head the tourist will presently see ELLERAY, the property, and formerly the residence of Professor Wilson, on an eminence on the right, and about a mile further is Troutbeck Bridge, with E 3 36 KENDAL ROUTE. CALGARTH PARK (T. Swinburn, Esq.) on the left. Calgarth Park was the seat of the learned and venerable Bishop Watson, of Llandaff. The tourist going direct through Staveley to Am- bleside, when he reaches Cook's House, the point from which the road to Bowness branches off, ought by all means to go two or three hundred yards along that road, for the sake of the fine view of Windermere and the Calgarth woods which it presents. Having done this, he will return to the road leading to Amble- side, by LOW WOOD INN, a mile from the head of Windermere. This is a most pleasant halting-place ; no inn in the whole district is so agreeably situ- ated for water-views and excursions ; and the fields above it, and the lane that leads to Troutbeck, near it, present beautiful views towards each extremity of the lake. From this place, and from Ambleside, rides may be taken in numerous directions, and the interesting walks are inexhaustible ; a few of these will hereafter be particularized. The road from Low Wood to Ambleside, a distance of two miles, passes DOVE NEST, for a short time in the summer of 1830 the favourite retreat of the late Mrs. Hemans, and WANSFELL HOLM, the seat of Gregg, Esq., from whence, across the head of the lake, at the foot of Loughrigg Fell, is seen CROFT LODGE, the residence of J. T. Clay, Esq. From this point, also, looking in the same direction, the pictu- resque Chapel of Brathay, at the entrance of the vale of Lang- dale, is visible. This Chapel is in the Italian or Swiss style of architecture, and was built by Giles Redmayne, Esq., of London, whose summer residence, BRATHA HALL, is seen a little to the south. The Whitehaven mail passes daily through Ambleside, leaving Kendal at half-past nine o'clock in the morning, and ar- riving at Kendal from Whitehaven at four o'clockin the afternoon. BOTANICAL NOTICE. HELLEBORUS Viridis, in a field on the left side of Banrigg farm- house, near the 8th milestone from Kendal to Ambleside. 4 Crook* 2 Gilpin Bridge 3 Bow ness KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, by BOWNESS. 2J Troutbeck Bridge . . 11 1 2 Low Wood Inn . . 13J 1J Ambleside .. .. 15 Or, by Railway to Birthwaite, 9 miles ; thence to Bowness, 1 mile. It has been before mentioned that the Bowness and Ambleside roads from Kendal divide at the turnpike-gate not two miles from Kendal. This road on the whole is of a more varied description WIXDEHMEKE. 37 than the direct one ; its localities are often pleasing, and its opening southward through Underbarrow is certainly fine. Windermere first bursts on the eye about a mile and a quarter from Bowness. Here it is seen spotted with all its pretty islands, and skirted by shores richly wooded. Presently Bowness comes into view, and the whole length of the lake stretching northward and southward. The road from Bowness to its junction with that direct from Kendal to Ambleside is partly through wooded grounds. RAY- RIGG, the seat of the Rev. Fletcher Fleming, stands on a slight elevation above the surface of the lake, and at an agreeable dis- tance from the road. OR rising the hill beyond Rayrigg, it passes Millar Ground, an ancient farm-house, and soon joins the Ambleside road at Cook's House, having on the left a view of Windermere, with the Pikes of Langdale, forming a landscape of surpassing richness. The road from this point to Ambleside has been before noticed. BOTANICAL NOTICES. POLTPODIUM Dryopteris. Near the 5th milestone. TIIL.VSPI alpestre. Near the 6th do. DUOSEBA longifolia. \ MKXTANTHES trifoliata. / II vi'iciucuM eloaes. \ Near the 7th do. NYMPH.A alba. i NVPHAK lutea. } WINDERMERE. Windermere is the largest of the English Lakes, being ten miles in length, and near a mile at its greatest breadth. Its two principal feeders are the rivers Brathay and Rothay, which join near Croft Lodge, and pour their united waters into the head of the lake The Brathay rises in the group of lofty mountains between Lan^dale and Borrowdale. The Rothay issues partly from Rydal Water and partly out of the hills at the head of Ambleside. A circumstance very interesting to the Naturalist should be mentioned here. The Charr and Trtnit, at the ap- proach of the spawning season, may be seen proceeding together out of the lake up the stream to the point where the Brathay and Kothav meet, when they uniformly separate, as if by mutual ar- rangement, the charr always, and all of them, taking the Brathay, and the trout the other stream, the Rothay. Is it a difference in 38 WINDERMERE. the quality of the waters, or some geological peculiarity in the river beds, that influences these fish in their choice of streams ? Numerous islands adorn the surface of this lake, the largest of which, BELLE ISLE, the summer residence of H. Curwen, Esq., contains upwards of thirty acres. This island is well wooded, and being intersected by shady walks, open to tourists, affords a pleasant change to those who land upon its shores. LADY HOLME, .an islet nearly opposite to Rayrigg, had, in the time of Henry VIII. a chapel dedicated to our Lady within its small territory, belonging to Furness Abbey, but no traces of this sanctuary are left to mark its site. BOWNESS, pleasantly situated upon the western side of the lake, and at an equal distance from each extremity, contains two com- fortable and commodious inns ; the Royal Hotel, Ullock's, (so designated since the visit of the Queen Dowager), and the Crown, (Cloudsdale's). The Church is an ancient structure with a square tower, dedicated to St. Martin. The chancel window is of painted glass, and was brought hither from Furness Abbey after the de- struction of that monastery. (See p. 8, for a description of this window.) The remains of the late learned Bishop Watson, of Llandaff, rest in the Church-yard, close by the eastern window. His tomb bears the following simple and unpretending inscrip- tion: " Ricardi Watson, Episcopi Landavensis, cineribus sacrum, obiit Julii 1, A.D. 1816, ^Etatis 79." A handsome school-house looks down from an eminence in the centre of the village, and stands as a monument of the munificence of the late John Bolton, Esq. of Storrs Hall, who erected the edifice at his own expense. The lower part of Windermere is rarely visited, but has many interesting points of view, especially at Storrs Hall and at Fell- foot, where the Coniston mountains peer nobly over the western barrier, which elsewhere, along the whole lake, is comparatively tame. For one also who has ascended the hill from Graithwaite, on the western side, the Promontory called Rawlinson's Nab, Storr's Hall, and the Troutbeck mountains, about sun-set, make a splendid landscape. The view from the Pleasure-house of the Station near the Ferry has suffered much from Larch plantations ; this mischief, however, is gradually disappearing, and the larches, under the management of Mr. Curwen, are giving way to the native wood. Windermere ought to be seen both from its shores and from its surface. Noneof the other lakes unfold so many fresh beauties to him who sails upon them. This is owing to its greater size, to the islands, and its having two vales at the head, with 9 their accompanying mountains of nearly equal dignity. Nor can the grandeur of these two terminations be seen at once from any point, except from the bosom of the lake. The Islands may be explored at any time of the day ; but one bright unruffled even- ing, must, if possible, be set apart for the splendour, the stillness, and solemnity of a three-hours' voyage upon the higher division of the lake," not omitting, towards the end of the excursion, to quit the expanse of water, and peep into the calm river at its head ; which, in its quiet character,! at such a time, appears rather like a^. overflow of the peaceful lake itself, than to have anymore immediate connection with the rough mountains whence it has de;:3nded, or the turbulent torrents by which it is sup- plied. Many persons content themselves with what they see of Windernere during their progress in a boat from Bowness to the head of the lake, walking thence to Ambleside. But the wholo road from Bowness is rich in diversity of pleasing or grand scenery ; there is scarcely a field on the road side, which, if en- tered, would not give to the landscape some additional charm. In addition to the two vales at its head, Windermere communi- cates with two lateral Valleys ; that of Troutbeck, distinguished by the mountains at its head by picturesque remains of cottage architecture and, towards the lower part, by bold foregrounds formed by the steep and winding banks of the river. This Vale, as before mentioned, may be most conveniently seen from Low Wood. The other lateral Valley, that of Hawkshead, is visited most advantageously and conveniently from Bowness ; crossing the lake by the Ferry then pass the villages of Sawrey, and, on quitting the latter, there is a fine view of the Lake of Es- thwaite, and the cone of one of the Langdale Pikes in the dis- tance. From Bowness many pleasant walks may be taken ; but this station is too remote from the mountains for excursions, which may be more conveniently taken from Low Wood or Am- bleside. BOTANICAL NOTICES. LOBELLA Dortmarma. In "Windermere, and most of the Lakes. ALLIUM carinafwm. On Seamew Crag, Windermere. CONVALLARIA majalis.Qn Holme Island, do. HYPERICUM Androsemum. Near the landing-place from the Ferry. * Upon the western side of the lake has recently been erected, by D. Dawson, a large mansion, of castellated form, which is a great or- nament to the landscape from whatever point it may be looked at. f- Since this was 6rst written, the natural beauty of the scene here alluded to has been grievously impaired. 40 i^xcumon* from 3mt>lr0itrr. AHBLESIDE is a small market town, situate in the Vale of the Rothay, one mile north of Windermere. Good accommodations are here provided for Tourists at the Salutation Hotel (Donald- son), and the Commercial Inn, as well as at private lodgings ; and, as the town is in the neighbourhood of many very interest- ing excursions, Visitors to the Lakes usually make it their head- quarters for some time. Ambleside was formerly a Roman sta- tion (the Dictis of the Notitia), and some slight traces of a fort- ress are perceptible in a field at the head of Windermere, where fragments of tesselated pavement, urns, and other Roman relics have been dug up. This station was established, undoubtedly, as a check upon the pass of Kirkstone, Dunmail-raise, and of Hardknott and Wrynose. Oh the margin of Rydal Lake, a a coin of Trajan was discovered lately. VALES OF GREAT AND LITTLE LANGDALE. 1 Clappersgate ... ..1 Guide Post 2J | Skelwith Fold . . . . 3 1 Colwith Bridge . . 4 1J Little Langdale Tarn ... 5J 2} Hlea Tarn . . . . 7| 2 Wall End 9J 1J Lisle Bridge . . . . 11 2 Langdale Chapel ... 13 1J High Close 14J First sight of Grasmere 15 2 Pelter Bridge, keeping the Lakes on the left . . 17 1 Ambleside . . . . 18 This is a charming excursion. From Ambleside go to Clap- persgate, where cross the Brathay, and proceed, with the river on the right and the chapel on the left hand, to the hamlet of Skelwith-fold. When the houses are passed, turn, before you descend the hill, through a gate on the right, and from a rocky point is a fine view of the Brathay river, Langdale Pikes, &c. ; thence to Colwith-force ; and, after passing through a gate, a short distance from Little Langdale Tarn, the ancient road from Kendal to Whitehaven takes the left hand ; the one to be pur- sued turns to the right, leading over the Common to BLEA TARN. The scene in which this small piece of water lies, suggested to the Author the following description (given in his Poem of the Excursion), supposing the spectator to look down upon it, not from the road, but from one of its elevated sides. " Behold ! Beneath our feet a little lowly Vale, A lowly Vale, and yet uplifted high Among the mountains ; even as if the spot Had been, from earliest time, by wish of theirs, So placed, to be shut out from all the world [ GREAT AND LITTLE LANGDALE. 41 "Urn- like it was in shape, deep as an Urn ; "With rocks encompassed, save that to the South Was one small opening, where a heath-clad ridge Supplied a boundary less abrupt and close ; A quiet treeless nook,* with two green fields, A liquid pool that glittered in the sun And one bare Dwelling ; one Abode, no more ! It seemed the home of poverty and toil, Though not of want : the little fields, made green By husbandry of many thrifty years, Paid cheerful tribute to the moorland House. There crows the Cock, single in his domain : The small birds find in spring no thicket there To shroud them : only from the neighbouring Vales The Cuckoo, straggling up to the hill tops, Shouteth faint tidings of some gladder place." At this point the Langdale Pikes appear in a new and noble aspect ; indeed, a more dignified and impressive assemblage of mountain lines scarcely exists in the north of England. The highest Pike, called Harrison Stickle, is perhaps about three miles from the eye, but Stickle Pike, receding towards the Pass of the Stake into Borrowdale, is more than four. The towering rock between the two Pikes is called Gimmer Crag. After leav- ing the Tarn the road descends rapidly to Wall End at the head of Great Langdale,f from whence it is recommended to proceed to Millbeck, a farm house across the meadows, a mile distant, and see DUNGEON GILL. The Gill, having its source between the Pikes, passes through a deep cleft of the mountain, into the cheeks of which a " mighty block hath fallen" from the neigh- bouring heights, and got so wedged in as to form a grotesque natural arch. LANGDALE PIKES may be conveniently ascended from Millbeck, where a guide may be obtained. The best ascent is by a peat road from Millbeck to STICKLE TARN, a pretty circular piece of water, celebrated for its fine trout, reposing under the steep rocks of Pavey Ark, and thence to the top of the Pike called Harrison Stickle, which is 2,400 feet in height. Although this Pike is inferior in elevation to many of the neighbouring mountains, the views from it are in- * No longer strictly applicable, on account of recent plantations. f The upper portion of the Vale of Langdale, which lies in the di- rection of the Stake Pass, is called MICKLEDEN ; and that portion of the valley which stretches westward towards Bowfell and Crinkle Crags, bears the name of OXENDALE. 42 EXCURSIONS FKOM AMBLESIDE. tercsting and extensive, especially in looking over the Vale of Great Langdale, towards Windermere, and over the open coun- try to the south and south-east. From Stickle Pike, which rises like a cone a little to the north, there is a fine view of Skid- daw and the Vale of Bassenthwaite, the former of which is seen but partially, and the latter not at all, from Harrison Stickle. Great Gable rears his head to the west, Great End is a little neafer the eye, and Scawfell and the Pikes are seen pre-eminent over the summit of Bowfell. Crinkle Crags are a continuation of Bowfell on the south, and to the south-west, looking over the lonely valley of Little Langdale, are the Coniston mountains : on the east are the mountains of Rydal and Grasmere, and on the north-east the Helvellyn range forms a prominent feature in the landscape. In the north, Saddleback, in the distance, pre- sents his front to the spectator. On leaving the Pikes, follow the road down Great Langdale, as far as the Chapel, passing Thrang Crag Slate Quarry on the left, which those who take an interest in geological science ought not to omit looking at. Near the Cha- pel there is a small ale-house, from which it is five miles to Am- bleside. The road is either by Loughrigg Tarn, or by the western side of Rydal and Grasmere Waters. The latter course is much to be preferred. The road strikes off on the left, near the Chapel, and in winding up the hill the whole Vale of Lang- dale, with the small Lake of Elterwater and Loughrigg Tarn, are seen to advantage. The view from High Close is exquisite, and Mr. Green says " there is not a finer thing in Westmor- land." A few hundred yards from this point will bring you in eight of the Lake and Vale of Grasmere, from whence, turning southward, and keeping the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal on the left, it is two miles to Pelter Bridge, which cross, and after- wards one mile to Ambleside. This excursion is altogether twenty-one miles (if Dungeon Gill and the Pikes are visited), of which, though assisted by a carriage, it will be necessary to walk from five to seven miles. STOCK GILL FORCE, half a mile from Ambleside, is a most in- teresting Waterfall if seen to advantage, " but its beauties are in a great degree lost to the generality of visitors, who see the fall only from the footpath skirting the top of the bank, and al- most pependicularly from the bottom of the channel. The spec- tor looks down upon the scene rather than upwards or horizon- tally, and his view of the water is likewise impeded by a redun- dancy of wood." Stock Gill rises in the Screes, on the side of EXCURSIONS FROM AMBLESIDE. 43 Scandale fell, not far from Kirkstone, and, passing through Ambleside, joins the river Rothay a quarter of a mile below the town, about four miles from its source. This rivulet is amoug the finest of its kind in the Lake District. Access to the Water- fall may be had on application at the Salutation Hotel. BOTANICAL NOTICES. PVROLA media, Stock Gill Force. IMPATIENS noli-me-tangere, do. POLYPODIUM Phegopteris, do. ROSA bractescens, Ambleside. HYMENOPHILLUM WUsoni, Nook, Ambleside. AQUATIC EXCURSION on WINDERMERE. J Landing at Waterhead . . I | } Return to the mouth of the } Mouth of the river ... 1} " 1 Pull Wyke 2J 1J Low Wood Inn J .. 4J river f Landing | Ambleside Holme Point . . . . 4J To the Landing at Waterhead, where boats are moored, the walk is three-quarters of a mile. After taking boat, steer a short and attractive course by skirting the deeply-indented coast of_ Brathay into Pull Wyke, a pretty bay surrounded by rich woods, over which peep the Loughrigg and other elevated sum- mits ; and from Pull Wykeproceed by the grounds at Low Wray to the craggy and wooded promontory a little southward. From this place make for the Inn at Low Wood in a direct line, and see the Langdale and Rydal Mountains in two several and dis- tinct arrangements, separated by the imposing heights of Lough* rigg. Then return to the mouth of the Brathay by Holm Point, and up the river to the landing place. From AMBLESIDE to the FERRY, by Water. 1} Mouth of the river by the Landing 1 3 Belle Grange . . 4J 2J Ferry-house, passing be- tween the Lily of the Valley Holmes . . 7 | From the Ferry-house to the Landing on Curwen's 1 J Round the Island . . 9j 4J From the Pier to the Head of the Lake . . . . 14 1} Ambleside .. 15} H If the Station-house is vi- sited from the Ferry- house, the length of line will be 1 J mile more . . IT Island 7j The best situatian on the water for a view of the country around is about half a mile from the junction of the Brathay with the lake, and parties in an excursion ('ownwards will do well to pass in that direction, and from that point rather near to the Lan eashire shore, by which the high lands at Rydal, Ambleside, 44 EXCURSIONS FROM AMBLESIDE. Troutbeck, and Applethwaite, will be seen to the greatest ad- vantage, particularly Hill Bell and the neighbouring summits. In proceeding towards the Ferry, that part of the lake between the two islands called the Lily of the Valley Holmes, having the Station-house about a mile from the eye, and as side-screens the bold and wooded elevation above Harrow Slack on the right, and Curwen's Island on the left, forms a lovely picture. Rather than first touch at the great Island, it will be better to row direct for the Ferry-house, thence walk to the Station, and afterwards return to the Ferry. From the Ferry, Curwen's Island should be visited, after leaving which the party may visit Bowness, or return direct to Ambleside. By a Tourist halting a few days in Ambleside, the Nook also might be visited a spot where there is a bridge over Scandale- beck, which makes a pretty subject for the pencil. And, for residents of a week or so at Amblsside, there are delightful ram- bles over every part of Loughrigg Fell and among the enclosures on its sides ; particularly about Loughrigg Tarn, and on its eastern side about Fox How and the properties adjoining to the northwards. A few out of the main road are particularized in the following Tables : From AMBLESIDE, under Loughrigg Fell, to GRASMERE. \ Rothay Bridge \ Miller" Bridge Cottage \ Fox How (Mrs. Arnold) . -J FoxGill (H.Roughsedge,esq ^ Pelter Bridge i I 1 "1 \ Coat How 1-J "West's Station | Tail End | Grasmere Church 4 Ambleside 2} 4 42 5} 9* To LOUGHRIGG TARN, over Loughrigg Fell. Rothay Bridge . . $ Deviation from the Gras- mere road on the left 1J First sight of Loughrigg Tarn ..22 \ Longhrigg Tarn ... .. 3 1 First sight of Grasmere . . 4 2 Pelter Bridge, keeping the Lakes on the left . . 6 1 Ambleside LOUGHRIGG TARN and GRASMERE. 1 Clappersgate . . 1 1J Guide-post 2J J Loughrigg Fold... .. 2J \ The Oaks 3 3 Grasmere Church . . 6 4 Ambleside ".. .. ..10 ELTERWATER. The foot of Elterwater, either by Skelwith Bridge or Lough- rigg Fold, over Little Loughrigg, is 3 miles from Ambleside. Extensive Gunpowder Works are carried on at Elterwater. EXCURSIONS FROM AMBLESIDE. 45 ROUND KNOTT. By the fields to the bridge over the Rothay. < Miller Bridge . . J Deviation on the left ... 1 Leaving the Loughrigg Tarn road on first coming to the Round Knott . . . . 2 J Down a green lane by Coat How to Pelter Bridge Ambleside runner . . . . 1 J IVY CRAG. Clappersgate (turn to the Opening at the top right at a house recently hill to Windermen occupied by Mr. Robinson) 1 First sight of the Coniston of the mere ... 1J 1J Ivy Crag . . . . 3 Coat How ..... 4J mountains . . . . 1} J Pelter Bridge 1 Ambleside . . . . 5f IVY CRAG is an elevated rock on the south-east of Loughrigg Tarn. This walk, and the walk to Round Knott, a little knoll above Fox Ghyll, are strongly recommended as the most delight- ful of the Loughrigg Excursions. WANSFELL PIKE. } Low Fold . . . . I Terrace Road under Straw- berry Bank i Skelgill RYDAL WATERFALLS. 1J Lower Fall .. .. 1J I 1J Ambleside J Higher Fall .. 2 | FAIRFIELD. Wansfell Pike . . . . 3 Waterfall Lane . . 3f Ambleside . . . . 4J Rydal 1 Turn on the right between Rydal Hall and Rydal Mount to Nab Scar . . 2J 2J Fairfield .. .. 5 4 Nook End Bridge over the High and Low Pikes 9 i Ambleside ... .. 9i FAIRFIELD is the high mountain closing on the north the do- main of Rydal, with an elevation of 2950 feet Commence the ascent to Fairfield at Rydal by the road between Rydal Hall and Rydal Mount, beyond which there is a green lane that leads to the Common, whence it is a steep and craggy climb to Nab Scar. From a certain point on Nab Scar there is an exquisite view commanding eight lakes: viz. Windermere, Blelham Tarn, Esthwaite Water, Rydal Water, Coniston Water, Elterwater, Grasmere Lake, and Easedale Tarn. The Traveller, if so in- clined, may proceed to the topof Fairfield by following the ridge. BOTANICAL NOTICES. JONCUS triqlumis. Fairfield. LCZCLA spicata. Do. * This beautiful stream, the Rothay, has, for a mile of its course above the bridge, been irreparably disfigured lately by cutting off its windings, so as to give it all the formality of a straight-lined canal. F 2 46 EXCURSIONS FROM AMBLESIDE. From AMBLESIDE to HA WES WATER, over High Street. Woundale By Troutbeck Tongue to High Street, where Hays Water is seen on the left 2J Junction of High Street with Riggendale ; Blea Water on the right ... 9 2 Chapel Hill To HAWES WATER, through Troutbeck and Kentmere. 4 Troutbeck . . . . 4 I 3J Nanbield 11 3i Kentmere Church ... 7J | 2J Chapel Hill .. .. 13J HAWES WATER does not exceed three miles in length, and varies in width from half a mile to a quarter. It is seldom visit- ed by Tourists, though the solemn grandeur of its rocks and mountains is exceedingly impressive. (See p. 32.) From AMBLESIDE to HAYS WATER. 7 Low Hartshope . . 712 Return by Low Hartshope 11 2 Hays Water Head ... 9 | 7 Ambleside .. .. 18 From AMBLESIDE to ANGLE TARN. 7 Low Hartshope . . 7 I 1 Low Hartshope . . 10 1J Angle Tarn .. .. 8J | 7 Ambleside 17 HAYS WATER and ANGLE TARN are situated on the west side of High Street, and are celebrated for the fine trout with which they abound. YEWDALE. 3 Skelwith Bridge . . 8(2 Hodge Close 6J J Turn on the left at the top | 1J Shepherd's Bridge .. of the hill between Skel- with and Colwith Bridges Oxen Fell 81 41 Black Bull Inn, Coniston 1 Water Head Inn ... 9J 8 Ambleside .. .. 17J TILBERTHWAITE. Shepherd's Bridge, inYew- dale Tilberthwaite .. .. Little Langdale . . . . 10 Ambleside, over Colwith and Skelwith Bridges 15 TILBERTHWAITE, returning by Elterwater Hall. 7 Shepherd's Bridge, in Yew- | 2 Langdale Chapel, by Flet- dale 3 Little Langdale Road, by Tilberthwaite ... 10 cher's Wood and Elter- water Hall .. .. 12 5 Ambleside, by High Close, Grasmere,& Rydal Waters 17 From AMBLESIDE round the Lake of WINDERMERE. 1 Brathay Bridge . . . . 117 Newby Bridge . . . . 15 4 High Wray 6 1 8 Bowness .. .. 23 3 Ferry House 8 | 6 Ambleside .. ..29 From AMBLESIDE, round the Lake, by the Ferry Points. 1 Brathay Bridge 1 | 2 Bowness 10 7 Ferry House, by High Wray I 6 Ambleside ... 16 and Belle Grange ... 8 | From AMBLESIDE by the Eastern Side of ESTHWAITE WATER and the Eastern Side of WINDERMERE. 5 Hawkshead 5 | 2 Bowness 11 2 Sawrey 7 | 6 Ambleside 17 2 Ferry-house 9 AMBLESIDE TO PATTERDAI! . 47 LOW WOOD INN. From this Inn, which has lately been much enlarged, all the above Excursions may be made with the same convenience at from Amblcside. WALK to 6KELGILL from LOW WOOD. } Troutbeck road ... 3| 1 Low Wood 4J I 1 , Low Fold 1J 1} Skelgill 2J J Low Skelgill ... 8 CIRCUIT from LOW WOOD by AMBLESIDE, KIRKSTONE, and TROUTBECK. JJ Ambleside 1J I 4J Troutbeck l<> 4 Guide-post on Kirkstone 5| | 2 Low Wood JV WALK or HORSE-RIDE through TROUTBECK and APPLC- THWAITE to BOWNESS, or back to LOW WOOD. 2 Guide-post in Troutbeck 2 I 2J Cook's House ;">} f The How, in Applethwaite 2J | li Bowness ... ... 7 If the return is from Cook's House to Low Wood, the round will be eight miles. These Excursions abound in delightful prospects, and the view from the top of the hill about a mile from the inn, on the Trout- beck road, is the finest of its kind amongst the Lakes. From this point the islands of Windermere are seen " almost all lying together in a cluster, below which all is loveliness and beauty above, all majesty and grandeur." AMBLESIDE TO PATTERDALE. The distance from Ambleside to the Inn at Patterdale is ten miles, and the Pass of Kirkstone and the descent from it are very impressive ; but this vale, nevertheless, like the others, loses much of its effect by being entered from the head; so that it is letter to go from Keswick through Matterdale, and descend upon Gowbarrow Park ; you are thus brought at once upon a magnificent view of the two higher reaches of the lake. To such persons, however, as decide upon visiting Patterdale from Am- bleside, the following information may be useful The road leaves Ambleside between the Church and the Free Grammar School, and ascends gradually for upwards of three miles to the summit of the mountain pass on Kirkstone, where a small public- house has been recently erected, and is said to be the highest inhabited house in the kingdom. A large detached mass of rock, called, from its shape, Kirkstone, is seen on the left, near T * 48 AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. the top of the pass. On descending from Kirkstone towards Patterdale, a new and interesting scene appears. Through a vista, you have a pretty peep at BROTHERSWATER and the heights of Patterdale in the distance. The road runs close to Brothers- water, and then turns at right angles across the meadows, where it meets with another road from Hartsop Hall at Cowbridge. Between Cowbridge and the Inn at Patterdale, the romantic valley of Deepdale runs up into the mountains on the left. At the right-angular turn of the road above mentioned, there is a a bridle-road through the picturesque hamlet of Low Hartsop, along the side of Place Fell, which joins the main road again at Goldrill Bridge, a short distance from the Inn. The stream which flows through the hamlet of Low Hartsop, issues from the mountain tarn called HAYS WATER, situate on the western side of a ridge running up to High Street ; and, in wet weather, the stream from Angle Tarn forms a pretty waterfall down the craggy side of Placefell. The finest scenes on Ullswater lie between the Inn at Patter- dale and Lyulph's Tower, about four miles distant. The best way of seeing them is, to take a boat at the head of the lake, pass the islands called Cherry Holme and House Holme, and approach within sight of Stybarrow Crag. From House Holme, the views are exquisite in almost every direction. Proceed to LYULPH'S TOWER, an erection built by the late Duke of Norfolk for a pleasure-house, now the property of Mr. Howard, of Grey- stoke. It stands a little above the road in a part of Gowbarrow Park, and from the front of it are seen fine views of the lake. From Lyulph's Tower, a guide to ARA FORCE, about a quarter of a mile distant, may always be had. In returning to the Inn, it is advisable to row across the lake to a promontary at the foot of Placefell, and walk over the Point to Purse Bay, and thence by the farm of Blowick and Goldrill Bridge to the Inn. In this short walk, the magnificent scenery around the head of Ullswater is seen to the greatest advantage. See ULLSWATER. After having duly explored the beauties of Ambleside and the neighbourhood, the next Station the tourist should aim at is Keswick, which may be approached by various routes. The Direct Road is the only one that can be travelled over by car- riages ; but the hardy pedestrian might select from the several routes hereafter pointed out which he will pursue. There is, AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK DIRECT. 49 however, a carriage road from Ambleside to Keswick by Wast Water, but the circuit is so extended that it is seldom adopted. This road is through Coniston, 8 miles Broughton, 9 miles more and over Birker Fell (a road somewhat rugged) by San- ton Bridge to Nether Wastdale, 17 miles. From Nether Wast- dale through Gosforth and Calder Bridge, thence over Coldfell to Lamplugh, and by Scale Hill to Keswick, 35. By Egremont, a better road, 37i miles making altogether a circuit of 69 miles. If Whitehaven be included, the circuit would be 76 miles. Rydal AMBLESIDE to KESWICK, DIBECT. 3J Swan, Grasmere* ... 5 2 Dunmail Raise 7 4 Smallthwaite Bridge ... 12$ 3 Castlerigg ... ... 15J 1 Keswick 16} 1} Nag's Head, Wythburn ... 8J A mile and a half from Ambleside the tourist reaches the ro- mantic village of Rydal. On the right is seen, embosomed in wood, RYDAL HALL, the residence of Lady le Fleming, in whose grounds two pretty water-falls are pointed out to every one, and may be seen on application at the Cottage near the Chapel. The upper fall is in a glen above the Hall, but the lower fall, which is the more beautiful, is seen from a summer-house in the pleasure-grounds. Rydal Chapel is a neat edifice, and was erect- ed and endowed at the expence of Lad}' le Fleming. RYDAL WATKR is one of the smallest of the English Lakes, but certainly one of the most beautiful, from its woody islets and picturesque shores ; but it ought to be observed here, that Rydal-mere is no where seen to advantage from the main road. Fine views of it may be had from Rydal Park ; but these grounds, as well as those of RYDAL MOUNT (Wm. Wordsworth, Esq.) and Ivy COT- TAGE, now called GLEN ROTHAY (Wm. Ball, Esq.) from which also it is viewed to advantage, are private. A foot-road passing behind Rydal Mount and under Nab Scar to Grasmere, is very- favourable to views of the lake and the vale, looking back towards Ambleside. The horse-road, also, along the western side of the lake, under Loughrigg fell, as before mentioned, does justice to the beauties of this small mere, of which the traveller who keeps the high road is not at all aware. About 200 yards beyond the last house on the Keswick side of Rydal village, the road is cut through a low wooded rock, called Thrang Crag. The top of it, which is only a few steps on the south side, affords the best view of the vale which is to be had by a traveller who confines himself to the public road. if- ,' 50 GRASMERI-l. " Between Rydal and Grasmere the high road formerly ran winding among, and over a succession of knolls ; and being half hidden in its serpentine course, afforded a series of exquisite views without deforming this lovely valley. But the steepness of the hills was ill suited to the convenience of increasing traffic, and a few years ago a new road was made, which runs close along the lower end of Grasmere, and is fenced from it by a long, straight, odious stone wall, which offends the eye, and cuts the sweetest part of the landscape with its rectilinear deformity." The road skirts the margin of the lake, which is more than a mile in circumference, and contains one bare green island, and presently reaches the village of GRASMERE, beautifully situated a quarter of a mile from the high road, at the northern end of the lake. There are two small inns in the Vale of Grasmere, one near the Church ( The Red Lion), the other ( The Swan) on the main road. From the former the valley may be more conveniently explored in every direction-, and a mountain walk taken up Easedale to Easedale Tarn (2| miles), one of the finest tarns in the country, thence to Stickle Tarn and to the top of Langdale Pikes. See also the vale from Butterlip How, half a mile from the inn. It is the finest elevation of moderate height in the neighbourhood. Helm Crag may be visited from Gras- mere- It is two miles to its summit, which is extremely rugged, and the ascent is somewhat difficult. The shattered apex of this mountain, as seen from certain points in the valley, bears a striking resemblance to a lion couchant, with a lamb lying at the end of his nose ; and to an old woman cowering.* ALLAN BANK, * Mr. Wordsworth, in one of his Poems on the Naming of Places, entitled " Joanna," thus introduces the old lady : When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space, Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud. The Rock, like something starting from a sleep, Took up the Lady's voice, and laughed again ; That ancient woman seated on Helm-crag Was ready with her cavern ; Hammar-scar, And the tall Steep of Silver-how, sent forth A noise of laughter : southern Loughrigg heard, And Fairfi eld answered with a mountain tone ; Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky Carried the Lady's voice ; old Skiddaw blew His speaking-trumpet ; back out of the clouds Of Glaramara southward came the voice ; And Kirkstone tossed it from its misty head. AMBLESIDE TO KF.SWICK DIRECT. 51 the residence of T. Dawson, Esq. is only a short distance out of the road leading from The Red Lion to Easedale, and from some places in the avenue, Helm Crag is a pleasing object. Seat Sandal and all the lofty mountains south of it are seen towering over the pretty undulating Butterlip How and other elevations, and the whole Vale of Grasmere is hardly any where seen to greater advantage than from this point. In the Vale of Grasmere, on the middle of the three roads leading to Ambleside, and about a mile from the village, is a gate, which, time out of mind, has been called the WISHING GATE from a belief that wishes formed or indulged there, have a favourable issue. A boat is kept by the Innkeeper, and this circular vale, in the solemnity of a fine evening, will make, from the bosom of the lake, an impression that will be scarcely ever effaced. The steep and rugged bridle-road from Grasmere to Patter - dale, by Grisedale Tarn, a distance of seven miles, turns off at a smithy four miles and three-quarters from Ambleside. Beyond the ^oil-bar the road begins to ascend the Pass of Dunmail Raise, between Steel Fell on the west, and Seat San- dal on the east. At the highest point, which is 720 feet abo ve the sea, it passes a low cairn, or pile of stones, said to have been raised in the year 645, by the Anglo-Saxon King Edmund, after the defeat and death, on this spot, of Dunmail (or Dumh- nail) the British King of Cumbria, and the consequent destruc- tion of that kingdom. The river on the right of the Raise di- vides the counties, whence to the Nag's Head, Wythburn, is one mile and a quarter. This is a convenient Station for ascending Helvellyn, and the mountain track approaching it may be ob- served from the door of the inn. Another favourable point for commencing the ascent of this mountain is at the sixth milestone from Keswick. The ascent of Helvellyn will be hereafter no- ticed in the Patterdale Excursions. The direct road from Grasmere to Keswick does not (as has been observed of Rydal-mere) shew to advantage THIRLMERE, or Wythburn Lake, with its surrounding mountains. By a tra- veller proceeding at leisure, a deviation ought to be made from the main road, when he has advanced a little beyond the sixth milestone short of Keswick, from which point there is a noble view of the Vale of Legberthwaite, with Blencathra (commonly called Saddleback) in front. Having previously enquired, at the Inn near Wythburn Chapel, the best way from this milestone to 52 AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK CY THE STAKE. the bridge that divides the Lake, he must cross it, and proceed with the lake on the right, to the hamlet a little beyond its ter- mination, and rejoin the main road upon Shoulthwaite Moss, about four miles from Keswick ; or, if on foot, the Tourist may follow the stream that issues from Thirlmere down the romantic Vale of ST. JOHN'S, and so (enquiring the way at some cottage) to Keswick, by a circuit of little more than a mile. By following the direct road, and when about a mile from Keswick, at the top of Castlerigg Brow, one of the richest mountain scenes is gra- dually unfolded that can be enjoyed from any of the carriage roads in the North of England. A more interesting tract of country is scarcely anywhere to be seen, than the road between Amble- side and Keswick, with the deviations that have been pointed out. BOTANICAL NOTICES. HESPEBIS matronalis. Rivulets about Dale Head, Thirlmere. SAXIFRAGA hypnoides. Between Thirlmere and Keswick. PEDCEDANUM Ostruthium. By a brook from the north end of Thirl- mere. From AMBLESIDE, through Grasmere, Easedale, Greenup, and Borrowdale, to KESWICK. 4 Grasmere Church ... 4 | J Push forward to Greenup i Goody Bridge 4f Dale Head Thorneyhow ... 5J 1 Far Easedale 2J Wythburn Dale Head ... 9 3J Down Greenup vale to Stonethwaite . . 13 7 Keswick 20 Pursue the road, as before described, as far as Grasmere, from whence " the valley of Easedale runs far into the northern hills on the western side of Helm Crag. Near its mouth a stream flows from Easedale Tarn, and from the whiteness of the broken w.iter is called SOUR-MILK GILL. Up this seldom-visited glen the foot traveller may pursue his way from Grasmere to Keswick, ascending by a steep and laborious climb to a narrow level tract of moor called Colddale fell ; after which he will descend into the Stonethwaite branch ot Borrowdale, nor will he regret, though the way be longer and far more laborious, having ex- changed the high road for the freedom of the mountain-side." From AMBLESIDE, through Great Langdale. to the STAKE, and thence through Borrowdale, to KESKICK. 5 Langdale Chapel ... 5 [ 4i Stonethwaite ...... 17 Lisle Bridge, near Dungeon Gill ......... 7 Langdale Head ...... 8 Top of the Stake ... 12J 1 Rosthwaite* ...... 18 1 Bowder Stone ... 19 5 Keswick ...... 24 AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK BY HARDKNOTT, &C. 53 The finest approach to Great Langdale is by pursuing the Keswick road to Pelter Bridge (one mile), which having cross- ed, pass on the side of the Rothay by Coat How to Rydal and Grasmere lakes, thence by High Close and Langdale Chapel to Lisle Bridge and Millbeck, which places have been before noticed in the Langdale Excursion. Ascending the Stake, the road is ; on the side of a turbulent stream, which dashes down into the valley of Langdale. Half a mile beyond the top of the Lang- dale Stake, begins the descent into Borrowdale by the side of a river through the valley of Langstreth, where all is in a state of wildness and desolation. At the top of the Stake is a grand ex- hibition of the high summits of Bow Fell, Hanging Knotts, Scaw- fell Pikes, and Great Gable, and at a considerable distance is seen Skiddaw, partly intercepted by nearer mountains. Half way down the vale the road crosses the river, having, in the di- rection of Stonethwaite, a large and curious stone on the right, called Black Cap, above which is Sergeant Crag, and nearer Stonethwaite is the bold rocky elevation of Eagle Crag on the right. From Stonethwaite, the road to Keswick is by Ros- thwaite, in Borrowdale, where there is a small public-house. , Thence pass Bowder Stone, Lowdore, and Barrow, which will hereafter be described in the Keswick Excursions. From AMBLESIDE, over Wrynose and Hardknott, to WAST WATER, thence by Sty Head to KESWICK, or return to Amble- side by Sty Head Tarn through Langdale, or by Seathwaite, through Eskdale. i Netherbeck Bridge Overbeck Bridge Head of Wast Water Wastdale Head Stv Head 1 Clappersgate ... ... 1 2 Skelwith Bridge ... 3 1 Colwith Bridge and Force 4 2\ Fell Foot 6J 1} Top of Wrynose ... 8 2* Cockley Be'ck. . . . 10; !} Hardknott Castle ... 12} j Brotherilkeld ... 13 } Bridge over the river Esk 13J 2} Dalegarth Hall and Stanley Gill 16 1 Road on the left by Ulpha to Broughton "... 17 1 Santon Bridge .. ... 20 2 Strands Public House 22 [From Santon Bridge direct to Crook, at the foot of Wast Water, is 1 mile.] 25 26 26} 27} 29} Keswick by Bowder Stone 41} From Sty Head to Amble- side, by Sty Head Tarn, Sprinkling Tarn,& Angle Tarn,andthence through the Vale of Langdale, 16} miles, making the round 46 From Sty Head by Sea- thwaite, and thence thro' Greenup and Eskdale, to Ambleside, 18} miles, making the round ... 48} This road, which is by SkelwJth and Colwith Bridges, and through Little Langdale, has been described in the Langdale Excursion as far as the place where it diverges to Blea Tarn and 54 AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK BY HARDKNOTT, &C. Great Langdale, a distance of scarcely seven miles from Amble- side. (P. 40.) Hence the road is to Fell Foot, formerly a public- house, when this was the main road from Kendal to Whitehaven, a fact which those who now travel over it will find it hard to be- lieve. At the time we are speaking of, the only mode for the conveyance of goods was on the backs of pack-horses, long trains of which were often to be seen traversing these hills.* At Fell Foot begins the ascent of Wrynose to the three Shire Stones, where the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancaster unite on the top of the hill. Here the road enters Lancashire, having the stream which divides it from Cumberland, on the right, and descends, though not abruptly, upon Cockley Beck, only to cross the valley and climb another mountain no less high and difficult of ascent, called Hardknott, which separates Sea- thwaite from Eskdale. ' ' The aspect of the upper part of the valley at Cockley Beck, where it is crossed by the mountain- road of which we have been speaking, is dreary. A tract of desolate hills, nurses of the Esk and Duddon, rises towards the north-west into the lofty range of Scawfell and Bowfell. The head of Eskdale lies between these, the highest and the roughest mountains in the country ; and we might here fancy ourselves deep in the recesses even of the wilder parts of the Scottish Highlands. The precipices of Scawfell, and of the higher point of that great mountain, called The Pikes, tower darkly and aw- fully on the western side ; and even on the eastern, where Bow- fell slopes down more gently, the passage of the traveller must be slow and cautious. The assistance of an experienced guide in this wild and perplexing region is strongly recommended. No precipice, however, bars up the head of the dale, which rises gradually to the green ridge that marks the water's source be- tween Eskdale and Borrowdale. This height, itself a depres- sion between Green End and that part of Bowfell called Hang- ing Knott, is called Esk Hause.f From it we look directly down the whole of Borrowdale, and command a view of Derwentwater, with its specks of islands, the whole closed by the pyramidal group of Skiddaw, which is here seen from head to foot, and to the greatest advantage. The outbreak of the river from this upland glen to the lower valley, some five or six miles from * Bells were attached to the collar of the leading horse of the train. A collar of this kind may be seen in the Museum at Kendal. f Pronounced Ash Course by the dalesmen. AMBLESIDE TO KE8W1CK BY HARDKNOTT, &C. 55 Esk Hause, forms a succession of falls and rapids for a consider- able distance, fringed with birch and mountain ash, the first signs of better soil and milder climate. These, in their varied com- binations of rock and water, furnish ample studies for the artist or sketcher." Something more than half way down the hill in descending into Eskdale, about 120 yards on the right of the road, are the remains of Hardknott Castle, mentioned in p. 1 7, from whence there is a magnificent view of Scawfell and the Pikes, supported by the immense buttresses rising from the Esk. At the foot of the hill there is a very extensive sheep-farm on the right called Brotherilkeld, and one on the left called Toes, " Proceeding down the valley, BIRKER FORCE is seen dashing over the rocks on the left, and about two miles from the foot of the hill we come to a public-house at Bout ; within a mile of which is situated a very fine waterfall called STANLEY GILL, far up a deep, narrow, and thickly-wooded ravine. The stream is small, and in height ^ the fall is not remarkable ; but in the picturesque character of its accompaniments it is inferior to none of those that are better known in the country." The road to this waterfall turns off on the left at the village school, and a guide to the fall may be had at Dalegath Hall, a farm-house close at hand. [See Note p. 17.] From the hamlet of Bout the main road should be followed nearly to Santon Bridge, where it turns off" to the right to the Strands at Nether Wastdale, a distance of two miles and a half, where there are two small inns. There is a nearer cut to the Strands for pedestrians, by a foot-road through Mitredale, which strikes across the hill on the right, a little before reaching Santon Bridge. From Bout there is a rough mountain-road which traverses theX**^-*^**.^ moor to Wastdale Head, passing a cheerless sheet of water called Burn moor Tarn, between Scawfell and the Screes, and then de- scends down a steep peat-track into Upper Wastdale, a little above the lake. From Wastdale Head the road is on the western side of Wast water to the Strands. The eastern side of the lake is skirted by the Screes, and is not only difficult but dangerous to attempt, from the loose and crumbling nature of the materials of which it is composed. Tourists tarrying here for a day or two will find many pleasant excursions in the neighbourhood. From a little hill called Latterbarrow is a good general view of the surrounding country ; but from a hill by the Gosforth road, 50 AJfBLESIDE TO KESWICK BY HARDKNOTT, &C. near the inn, is the best general view of the mountains. From Latterbarrow the lake can be seen , but Scawfell and the Pikes are shut out from this point of view. \_See the Plate I. of Sketches of the Mountains."] CALDER ABBEY, a small but beautiful ruin, is eight miles from the Strands, but this place is more generally visited in going from Wastdale by Ennerdale Water, Lowes Water, and Scale Hill to Keswick. " There is a simplicity and severity about Wast Water not to be found in any of its neighbour lakes, except perhaps that of Ennerdale, which is equally destitute of the cheerfulness imparted by cultivation, but inferior in the height and ruggedness of its mountain boundaries." It is three miles long, half a mile broad, and forty-five fathoms in depth, being deeper than any of the other lakes. " Within some half an hour's walk from Strands is a remarkable spot called Haul-gill, or else Hollow-gill. It \z a deep ravine at the south-west foot of the Screes, among gra- nite rocks, which, by the decomposition of their felspar, have been wasted into abrupt peaks and precipices a sort of miniature mimicry of the aiguilles of Chamouni. This is one of the most curious and striking things in the whole district ; it is a good place for ascending the Screes from Nether Wastdale (as the valley below the lake is called) far those who have strong nerves. There is a very beautiful vein of spicular iron ore here ; also some fine haematite." On the way from the Strands by Gale and Crookhead Cot- tages, the residences of the Messrs Rawson, which the tourist must now pursue on his road to Keswick by Sty Head, the Screes are occasionally in view, from whence the Great Gable is seen in the vista formed by Middle Fell, Yewbarrow, and Kirkfell on the left, and on the right by Lingmell and the north end of the Screes. As you advance toward the head of the lake the pastoral valley of Bowderdale is on the left, stretching up to- wards the Haycocks. From hence Scawfell is a commanding object, and the Pikes begin to shew their separation by the gra- dual development of the deep chasm called Mickle Door, which divides their summits. From Wastdale Head, a sequestered hamlet, with a chapel,' * Tlus chapel is perhaps the humblest specimen of ecclesiastical architecture in the kingdom. The edifice contains eight pews, and is lighted by three small windows one at the eastern end and one on each side of the building. Beside these, there is a small sky-light im- mediately OTer the pulpit ! AMBLESIDE TO KE3WICK BY HARDKNOTT, &C. 57 but no inn,* you commence a precipitous ascent to Sty Head, the highest Pass in the district, having the huge rocks of Great Gable on the left, and those of Lingmell Crag on the right ; in front, Great End. Lingmell Crag is succeeded by Broad Crag, and the Pikes tower majestically over the whole. From Sty Head the road descends by a horse track through Seathwaite and Borrowdale to Keswick, a distance of twelve miles. At Seathwaite, three miles and a half from Sty Head, the tourist, should he require refreshment, will meet with good and homely fare at Mrs. Dixon's hospitable board. The objects on this road will be more particularly noticed hereafter, in the walk to Sty Head from Keswick. From Sty Head the road to Amble- side is either by leaving Sprinkling Tarn on the left and Angle Tarn on the right hand, and proceeding through Langdale ; or, through Borrowdale and Stonethwaite, thence over Greenup through Eskdale and Grasmere. From the hamlet of Wastdale Head there is a rough foot-road through the valley of Mosedale, which stretches westward be- tween the mountains of Kirkfell and Yewbarrow, into Giller- thwaite at the head of Ennerdale dale, and thence by the Pas of Scarf-gap to Gatesgarth at the head of Buttermere. Having gained the head of Mosedale the road crosses a hollow on the right between Kirkfell and the Pillar, and descends rapidly with the stream on the right into Gillerthwaite, which is closed in at the head by Kirkfell and Great Gable. On the opposite side of the valley, High Stile and Red Pike separate it from Buttermere. The small stream called the Lbsa is crossed at the sheep-fold, and must be followed downwards for a short space, where an indis- tinct path over a second hollow, between the Haystacks and High Crag, called Scarf Cap, must be pursued, which brings the traveller to Gatesgarth, at the head of Buttermere. This route from the Strands to Buttermere, comprises a great variety of scenery, and is perhaps one of the finest mountain walks in the district. As the path is ill-marked in many places, it would be prudent to take a guide, In the Autumn of 1842 an inexperi- enced tourist undertook this route, and started from Wastdale Head without a guide. After wandering about for some time, he missed the road, and, instead of getting into Buttermere by the Pass of Scarf Gap, he took the deep ravine between Kirkfell * Tourists can be accommodated with plain and wholesome refresh- ments, at Ritson's, a clean and comfortable farm-house. c 2 58 KESWICK. and the Gable, and arrived (without finding out his mistake) afc the precise point from which he had started several hours before, having made a circuit of many miles ! It may be observed that the ascent of Scawfell may be made with less exertion and fatigue from the Strands than from any other Station. A boat may be taken to the head of the lake, where the ascent commences at once upon Lingmell, and, with a guide to point out the way, the distance to the summit is about three miles, and may be accomplished in an hour and a half by active pedestrians. A remarkable gill, called PEASGILL, situate on the north-west side of Lingmell, might be visited in the de- scent. The ascent of Scawfell is, however, more frequently made from Borrowdale than from any other point, and will, therefore, be fully noticed in the Keswick Excursions. KESWICK. KESWICK is a small market-town of neat appearance, delight- fully situated near the foot of Derwentwater. Tourists gene- rally make Keswick their head-quarters for a time, and are there provided with good accommodations and the requisites for their excursions. The principal manufactures of Keswick consist of black-lead pencils, coarse woollens, flannels, &c. The mineral black-lead (Plumbago) of which pencils are manufactured, is found in the mines of Borrowdale, and although these mines are in the vicinity of Keswick, the pencil-makers are obliged to purchase all their material at the Company's warehouse in Lon- don, whither it is sent in casks and exposed for sale only on the first Monday in every month. There are in Keswick two Museums, illustrating, in addition to many foreign curiosi- ties, the natural history and mineral productions of the surround- ing country. At each of these the visitor can purchase geolo- gical specimens from the rocks of the neighbourhood. An accu- rate Model of the Lake District, ingeniously constructed by Mr. Flintoft, is also exhibited here in the summer season, and is well worth a careful examination. The horizontal and vertical scale of this Model is three inches to a mile ; in length, from Seberg- ham to Rampside, 51 miles, or 12 feet 9 inches ; breadth, from Shap to Egremont, 37 miles, or 9 feet 3 inches ; circumference, exclusive of sea, 176 miles. The coast is shewn two-fifths of the distance, presenting the Bays of Morecambe, Duddon, and Ravenglass. The inspector has before him the whole chain of mountains in the Lake District, in three principal groups the DEEWENT WATER. 59 Scawfell, the Helvellyn, and the Skiddaw group, with their numerous interesting valleys, spotted with sixteen large lakes. On the uplands are seen fifty-two small ones, principally high in the mountain recesses, surrounded by contorted and precipitous rocks. On this Model are marked the towns of Kendal. Amble- side, Ul version, Bootle, Broughton, Cockermouth, Keswick, Penrith, and Shap. The face of the whole is coloured to nature, with the exception of the churches, which are coloured red. The plantations are raised, and coloured dark green ; the rivers, lakes, and sea, light blue ; roads, light brown ; and the houses white, as they usually appear. A new Church was recently built at the south end of the town by the late John Marshall, Esq., the purchaser of the estates in this vale which belonged to Green- wich Hospital. A Parsonage and School-house have, since his decease, been added by the family of Mr. Marshall, of Hall- steads. The Church is an elegant structure, delightfully situ- ated on a gentle eminence, from which an extensive panoramic view of the surrounding country may be had. The Parish Church, called Crosthwaite Church, is a mile from the town, in the op- posite direction. INNS Royal Oak and Queens Head. Dt-RWEST WATEK is upwards of three miles in length, and a mile and a half in its greatest breadth. It is adorned by several richly-wooded islands, amongst which are Lord's Island, St. Her- bert's Island, Vicar's Island, and Ramps Holme. Lord's Island, the largest in the lake, situated perhaps a hundred yards from the shore, under Wallow Crag, was the strong-hold of the pow- erful family of the Ratcliffes, Earls of Derwent Water, whose possessions, it need hardly be said, were forfeited after the Re- bellion of 1715, and transferred to Greenwich Hospital. On St. Herbert's Island are the remains of a Hermitage, said to have been fixed here by St. Herbert, the contemporary and friend of St. Cuthbert, in the seventh century. There is also on this lake a Floating Island, which is generally under water, but it oc- casionally rises to the surface for a short time, when it again sinks. The cause of this phenomenon has not been very clearly explained. The most probable supposition is, that the mass is buoyed up, being swollen by gas produced by decomposed vege- table matter. On piercing it with a boat-hook, gas (carburettea\ hydrogen and azote) issues in abundance. The last appearance of this island was in the summer of 1842. The scenery of Der- went Water is distinguished for its wild sublimity and magnifi 60 VALE OF KESWICKt The Vale of Keswick stretches, without winding, nearly North and South, from the head of Derwent Water to the foot of Bas- senthwaite Lake. It communicates with Borrowdale on the South ; with the river Greta, and Thirlmere, on the East, with which the traveller has become acquainted on his way from Am- bleside ; and with the Vale of Newlands on the West which last vale he may pass through in going to, or returning from, Buttermere. The best views of Keswick Lake are from Crow Park ; Friar's Crag ; the Stable-field, close by ; the Vicarage ; and from various points in taking the circuit of the lake. More distant and perhaps fully as interesting views, are from the side ^of Latrigg, from Ormathwaite, and thence along*"the road at the foot of Skitta'aw towards Bassenthwaitc, for about a quarter of a mile. There are fine bird's-eye views from the Castle-hill ; from Ashness, on the road to Watendlath 5 and by following the Wat- endlath stream down towards the cataract of Lodore. This lake also, if the weather be fine, ought to be circumnavigated. There are good views along the western side of Bassenthwaite Lake, and from Armathwaite at its foot ; but the eastern side from the high road has little to recommend it. The traveller from Car- lisle, approaching by way of Ireby, has, from the old road on the top of Bassenthwaite-hause, much the most striking view of the Plain and Lake of Bassenthwaite, flanked by Skiddaw, and terminated by Wallow Crag on the south-east of Derwent Lake; the same road commands an extensive view of Solway Frith and the Scotch Mountains. They who take the circuit of Derwent Lake, may at the same time include BORROWDALE, going as far as Bowder-stone, or Rosthwaite. Borrowdale is also conveniently seen on the way to Wastdale over Sty Head ; or, to Butter- mere, by Seatoller and Honister Crag ; or, going over the Stake, through Langdale, to Ambleside. Buttermere may be visited by a shorter way through Newlands, but though the descent upon the vale of Buttermere, by this approach, is very striking, as it also is to one entering by the head of the vale, under Ho- nister Crag, yet, after all, the best entrance from Keswick is from the lower part of the vale, over Whinlatter to Scale Hill, where there is a roomy Inn, with very good accommodation. BOTANICAL NOTICES NEAR KESWICK. LEPIDIUM Smithii. Near Lodore. BARTKAMIA arcuata. Do. THALJCTEUM majus. Do. SILEKE maritima. On Derwentwater, between Keswick and Lodore. Sisbd 1 ^ tatxjKlCj PS i X n EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. 61 CIBCJEA dlpina. On the margins of Derwentwater. MENTHA rotundifolia. Between Lodore and Bowder Stone. GERANIUM phceum. Keswick. pyrenaicum. Do. TEESDALIA nudicaulis. Around Derwentwater. CICUTA virosa. About Keswick. ROSA gracilis. Whinlatter. VIOLA lut, a. Hills about Keswick. UTRICDLABIA intermedia. Ditch at the foot of Derwentwater. LITTORKJ.LA lacustris. About Derwentwater. ASARUM europceum. About Keswick. ORCHIS usiulata. Do. ALLICM oleraceum. Borders of Derwentwater. Svycu&filiformis. Foot of Do. CONVALLARIA multiflora. Castle Head Wood, near Keswick. I3xrur0ton0 from CASTLE HEAD. CASTLE HEAD, or CASTLET, as it is called by the inhabitants, is considered the best Station in the neighbourhood (of easy ac- cess) for a bird's-eye view of the lake and surrounding moun- tains, and has consequently been selected for our Diagram. [See Plate No. 2.] Castle Head is approached by a good footpath, which strikes out of the Borrowdale road half a mile from Kes- wick, and leads by a winding ascent to the summit of the hill. FRIAR'S CRAG Is a rocky promontory which stretches out into the lake about one mile from Keswick, and, being the favourite promenade of the residents, is readily pointed out to strangers. From this Station nearly the whole circumference of the lake is viewed. After much rain the waters of Lodore may not only be seen but heard from Friar's Crag, and in the stillness of night the roar of this, combined with the murmur of other distant cataracts, has a solemn and soothing effect on the contemplative mind. General AQUATIC EXCURSION on DERWENT,WATER. Mouth of the river Grange 3J I Walk from Keswick to the Strand J Friar's Crag . . . . 1 Lord's Island . . . . 1 J i Stable Hills . . . . U i Broom Flill 1'J | Barrow Landing Place . . 2} J Floating Island . . 3} Parties navigating the lake for the purpose of seeing its beau- ties, would do well to instruct the boatman to follow the direc- tions pointed out in the above Table. 1} St. Herbert's Island I Water End Bay, with a little walking * . . 5J 1J Derwent Isle .. . . ft} J Strand's Piers . . 7 J Keswick 7J 62 EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. To BORROWDALE and round DERWENT WATER. 2 Barrow-house and Cascade 2 1 Lodore* Waterfall . . 3 1 Grange . . . . . . 4 1 Bowder Stone . . 6 Return to Grange . . 6 Portinscale 10 Keswick 12 The scenes observable on this Excursion are viewed to the greatest advantage by commencing on the eastern, or Borrowdale road, having on the left Castle Head, and the broad fronts of Wallow Crag and Falcon Crag. A deep cleft in the face of Wallow Crag is visible from the road, which bears the name of the Lady's Rake, from the circumstance, it is said, of the Coun- tess of Der went water having made her escape up this ravine when intelligence of her husband's arrest reached her. Two miles from Keswick is Barrow House, the seat of Joseph Pock- lington Senhouse, Esq. It is surrounded by fine old trees, and has within the grounds a pretty cascade, which may be seen on application at the lodge. A mile more will bring the traveller to the celebrated FALL OF LODORE, which lies immediately at the back of the premises belonging to the inn. After incessant rains this Waterfall, with its accompaniments, is a noble object, but unfortunately for those who visit the Lakes, not one in a hun- dred sees it at such a time. The stream falls through a chasm between the two towering perpendicular rocks of Gowdar Crag upon the left, and Shepherd's Crag upon the right. These cliffs are most beautifully enriched with oak, ash, and birch trees, which fantastically impend from rocks where vegetation would seem almost impossible. The height of the fall is about 150 feet. Dr. Southey, the late Poet Laureate, has noticed this interest- ing spot in the following amusing lines : How does the water come down at Lodore? Here it comes sparkling, And there it lies darkling ; Here smoking and frothing, Its tumult and wrath in. It hastens along, conflictingly strong, Now striking and raging, as if a war waging, In caverns and rocks among. Rising and leaping, Sinking and creeping, Swelling and flinging, Showering and springing, Eddying and whisking, Spouting and frisking, EXCURSIONS FROM KESW1CK. 63 Turning and twisting Around and around, Collecting, disjecting, With endless rebound, Smiting and fighting, A sight to delight in, Confounding, astounding, Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound. Receding and speeding, And shocking and rocking, And darting and parting, And threading and spreading, And whizzing and hissing, And dripping and skipping, And whitening and brightening, And quivering and shivering, And hitting and splitting, And shining and twining, And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And pouring and roaring, And waving and raving, And tossing and crossing, And flowing and glowing, And running and stunning, And hurrying and skurrying, And glittering and flittering, And gathering and feathering, And dinning and spinning, And foaming and roaming, And dropping and hopping, And working and jerking, And guggling and struggling, And heaving and cleaving, And thundering and floundering, And falling and brawling and sprawling, And driving and riving and striving. And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling, And sounding and bounding and rounding, And bubbling and troubling and doubling, Dividing and gliding and sliding, And grumbling and mumbling and tumbling, And clattering and battering and shattering, And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming, And rushing and flushing and gushing and brushing, And flapping and -sapping and clapping and slapping, And curling and whirling, and purling and twirling, Retreating and meeting and beating and sheeting, Delaying and straying and playing and spraying, 64 EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing, Recoiling, turmoiling, and boiling and toiling, And thumping and bumping and jumping and plumping, And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing, And so never ending, but always descending, Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending, - All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar And in this way the water comes down at Lodore. At Lodore, in still weather, an extremely fine echo is to be heard ; and a connon is kept at the Inn to be discharged for the gratification of strangers. A mile from Lodore is the village of Grange, where there is a bridge that crosses the Derwent. Should the Tourist wish to see Bowder Stone, the road into Bor- rowdale must be kept for one mile further. This stone is of pro- digous bulk, and lies like a ship upon its keel. It is 62 feet long and 36 feet high ; its circumference is 84 feet, and it weighs about 1771 tons. This massive body has, probably by some great convulsion of nature, been detached from the rock above, but that it should stop in this position after the violence of its motion in its descent from the mountain, is surprising, for to place it in its present position, or even to move it by any power of art, seems utterly impossible. From this point a fine view of the upper part of Borrowdale is obtained, with the village of Rosth waite and Castle Crag on the right, Eagle Crag and Glaramara in front, and Scawfell Pikes in the extreme distance. Returning to Grange Bridge, cross it, and pass through the village of Grange to the hamlet of Manesty, near which place is a medicinal spring. Proceeding at a considerable height along the open side of Cat Bells, which commands one of the best views of the lake and valley, and soon crossing the broad open- ing of Newlands, the road enters the village of Portinscale, from which place it is one mile and a half to Keswick. WATENDLATH. Over Barrow Common ... 2 Ashness Bridre . . 2J Wooden Bridge between High Lodore and Wat- 1} Watendlath 5 2 Rosthwaite .. ... 7 6 Keswick, by Bowder Stone - and Lodore . . 13 eodlath 3| The valley of WATENDLATH is interesting for its seclusion and loneliness, and the primitive character of its inhabitants. It runs parallel with the Vale of Borrowdale on the east, and is not easily accessible except on foot or horseback. The stream which EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. 65 forms the waterfall at Lodore issues from a beautiful little circu- lar lake situated in this upland valley. The road thither from Keswick turns from the road to Borrowdale beyond Wallow Crag, and passes just behind Barrow House. A pretty rustic bridge crosses the stream where it issues from the tarn, and leads over the Borrowdale fells to Rosthwaite, a little above Bowder Stone. " This is a very pleasant morning's ride from Keswick ; it may be varied on foot by turning to the left instead of the right at Watendlath, and crossing the Wythburn fells to Thirl- mere, distant about four miles from Watendlath, over rough, heathery, trackless hills, which, on a fine day, especially when the heath is in blossom, form a wild and delightful walk." Watendlath may also be visited on foot by High Lodore. The road turns off at the first house beyond the Inn, and is very steep till the stream is gained. A deviation to the left will pre- sently unfold a truly magnificent view of the lake and the Skid- daw range through the deep chasm of the waterfall. From this place it is half a mile to the wooden bridge before alluded to. BOTANICAL NOTICE WATENDLATH. HABENABIA albida. Above Watendlath Tarn. VALE OF ST. JOHN. From Keswick through the secluded VALK of ST. JOHN is an , ' interesting excursion of about thirteen miles. A visit to the DRUIDS' TEMPLE may be included in this walk by pursuing the old road to Penrith, which strikes off to the right about a quar- ter of a mile from the toll-bar. The Circle is a mile and three- quarters from Keswick, and will be found in a field on the right of the road, and just on the crown of the hill, whence there is a commanding view of Saddleback, Skiddaw, Helvellyn, and many of the highest mountains in Cumberland. The stones that form this Temple are forty-eight in number, describing a circle of near a hundred feet in diameter. Most of these stones are a species of granite, and all of them varying in form and size. On the eastern side of this monument there is a small inclosure formed within the circle by ten stones, making an oblong square, seven paces in length and three in width, which recess Mr. Pennant supposes to have been allotted to the priests, a sort ot holy place, where they met, separated from the vulgar, to perform their rites and divinations, or to sit in council to determine on con- 66 EXCURSIONS FEOM KESWICK. troversies, or for the trial of criminals. Within a short distance from Threlkeld, four miles from Keswick, a road branches off to the right to the Vale of St. John, " a very narrow dell, hem- med in by mountains, through which a small brook makes many meanderings, washing little inclosures of grass-ground which stretch up the rising of the hills. A nearer bridle-road into the vale leaves the Penrith road at the third milestone. In the widest part of the dale you are struck with the appearance of an ancient ruined castle, which seems to stand upon the summit of a little mount, the mountains around forming an amphitheatre. As you draw near, it changes its figure, and proves no other than a shaken massive pile of rocks which stand in the midst of this vale, disunited from the adjoining mountains, and have so much the real form and resemblance of a castle, that they bear the name of the CASTLE ROCKS OF ST. JOHN."* This is the scene of Sir Walter Scott's Poem of The Bridal of Trier - main. The Tourist, after leaving the vale, enters the high road from Ambleside to Keswick four miles and a half from the latter place, which road he must pursue in returning to his inn. 4 Grange Bridge .. 4 1 Bowder Stone . . . . 5 1 Rosthwaite ... . . 6 i Burthwaite Bridge . . 6} J Strand's Bridge . . 7 \ Seatoller Bridge . . . . 7J J Seathwaite Bridge . . 8 KESWICK to STY HEAD. Seathwaite, which is op- posite the Black Lead Mines ... .. . . 8J I Stockley Bridge . . 9J II Sty Head Tarn 11} | Sty Head 12 12 Back to Keswick ..24 This road, as far as Bowder Stone, has already been noticed. A little beyond Bowder Stone, in the gorge of Borrowdale, rises a high and nearly detached rock called Castle Crag, the site of an anciant fortification, supposed to be of Roman origin, and to have been used to guard the Pass and secure the treasures con- tained in the bosom of these mountains. The Saxons, and, after them, the Furness monks, maintained the fort for the same purpose. All Borrowdale was given to the monks of Furness, probably by one of the Derwent family, and Adam de Derwent- water gave them free ingress and egress through all his lands. The Grange was the place where they laid up their grain and their tithe, and also the salt they made at the Salt Spring, of which works there are still some vestiges remaining below Grange. From the summit of this rock the views are so exten- sive and pleasing that they ought not to be omitted. f " Beyond * Hutchinson. f West's Antiquities of Furness. EXCUKSION3 FROM KESWICK. 67 the hamlet of Rosthwaite (where there is a small public-house, the last in the valley) six miles from Keswick, the valley divides into two branches, that to the left being called Stonethwaite, and that on the right Seathwaite. Stonethwaite is subdivided into two branches, of which the eastern, called Greenup, leads into the fells towards the head of Easedale, and so communicates with Grasmere ; while the Langstreth branch turns south, and communicates with Langdale by the Pass of the Stake. On en- tering Stonethwaite, Eagle Crag is a prominent object. Fol- lowing the valley of Seathwaite, which is the principal vale, we come, two miles from Rosthwaite, to a large substantial farm- house, called Seatoller, near which a rough mountain-road di- verges to the right, and, passing under Honister Crag, descends upon Buttermere. A mile beyond Seatoller the Black-lead (or as it is provincially termed ' Wad ') mine indicates its position, high on the hill-side, by those unsightly heaps of rubbish which always attend mining operations. Under the mine, and rather nearer to Seatoller, a dark spot is seen in the copse-wood, which thus far clothes the hill. These are the celebrated Borrowdale Yews, four in number, besides some smaller ones. Among them one is prominent, which, being in the vigour of its age, and un- decayed, ranks among the finest specimens of its kind in Eng- land. This tree is seven yards in circumference at the height of four feet from the ground. The Lorton Yew is larger, and that in Patterdale Church- yard may have equalled or exceeded this in size, but they have lost the mighty limbs and dark um- brageous foliage, contrasting so well with the rich chesnut- coloured trunk, which are here still to be seen in mature perfection. Mr. Wordsworth, after commemorating that of Lorton, continues Worthier still of note Are those fraternal Four of Borrowdale, Join'd in one solemn and capacious grove ; Huge trunks ! and each particular trunk a growth Of intertwisted fibres serpentine Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved, Nor uninform'd with Phantasy, and looks That threaten the profane ; a pillar'd shade, Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue, By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged Perennially beneath whose sable roof Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, deck'd With nnrejoicing berries, ghostly Shapes H 08 ExcuasioNs FROM KEswicr, May meet at noontide Fear and trembling Hope, Silence and Foresight Death the Skeleton, And Time the Shadow, there to celebrate, As in a natural temple seatter'd o'er With altars undisturb'd of mossy stone, United worship ; or in mute repose To lie, and listen to the mountain-flood Murmuring from Glaramara's* inmost cavee. "At the hamlet of Seathwaite, wood and cultivation end. There is no Inn at Seathwaite, but the Tourist will find ample refreshments at Mrs. Dixons, a private house in the village. The road, now reduced to a horse-track, follows the rapidly- ascending bed of the stream for a mile further, and then, turn- ing sharp over a little bridge, thrown across that branch of the Grange river which comes down from Esk Hause, begins im- mediately to mount |Sty Head. But Stockley Bridge as it is called, will detain our attention for a time, as a perfect minia- ture model of a bridge and waterfall. It is a rough stone arch apparently wedged rather than cemented together, hardly two yards in span, or one in breadth, with no parapet except a slight elevation of the outer stones on either side, between which there seems hardly room for a horse to plant his feet. It is thrown over a rocky cleft, ten or twelve feet above the stream, with a small glittering cascade above, and a sea-green pool below ; for the purest spring is not more free from taint of moss than the water which descends from these hills. Small as it is, this is one of the most perfect specimens left of those native bridges, the gradual disappearance of which is generally regretted. f " The height of Sty Head above the valley is said by Mr. Baines (' Companion to the Lakes') to be 1250 feet ; this, how- ever, is its height above the sea : its height above Stockley Bridge probably does not exceed 750 or 800 feet, At the top of the first ascent is a small plain, in which lies a narrow sheet of water, called Sty Head Tarn. Beyond it, the road still rises, until turning a sharp point of a rock, with a chasm at our feet. * A part of the Borrowdale Fells, above Roethwaite, between Sea- thwaite and Langstreth. f The character of this bridge has been lamentably changed since this description of it was written. The bridge itself has been made wider by two or three feet, and the former singularly picturesque ap- psarance of the parapet has been completely destroyed by the intro- duction of an unsightly smooth coping. EXCURSIONS FROM EESWICK. 69 Wastdale lies in view more than a thousand feet below ; while in front the precipices of the Pikes rise double that height. The grandeur of the scene is enhanced by the suddenness with which it comes into view. On the Wastdale side of the Gable, garnets abound in the hard flinty slate. Sty Head Tarn is fed by a rill from Sprinkling Tarn, the source of one branch of the Grange river, which lies some hundred feet higher, under the broad front of Great End. Horses may be taken in the ascent of the Pikes to Sprinkling Tarn, or, with care, even to Esk Hause. Passing south of the Tarn, we proceed eastward up the hill-side towards Esk Hause, where this route unites with the shorter and more direct one, which follows the water up from Stockley Bridge.'' The return to Keswick may be varied, by striking over the mountains into the Vale of Langstreth and through Stonethwaite. Si "& .>' r ' -^* r I > EXCUB8IONS FROM KESWICJC. 77 have been the smallest in England, and not capable of contain- ing within its walls more than half a dozen households. At a short distance from the chapel stands the Inn where Mary Ro- binson, the Beauty of Buttermere, was for a number of years the unceasing object of public curiosity. The LAKE OF BUTTERMERE is one mile and a quarter in length, and little more than half a mile in breadth. Buttermere Moss and Great Robinson bound it on the east ; Hay Stacks, so called from their form, High Crag, High Stile, and Red Pike rising to a great height, enclose it on the west ; whilst Fleetwith and Honister Crag, at the head of the lake, seem to shut out all communication southwards. At the north end, or outlet of the lake, it is separated from Crummock Water by meadows and luxuriant woods and hedge-rows, over which is seen at some distance, Lowfell, an eminence which separates Lowes Water from Lorton. Buttermere affords excellent sport for the angler. Most persons content themselves with what they can see of, Buttermere in one day, but many days might be profitably em- ployed in exploring the beauties of this secluded vale. To such transient visitors it is recommended to see SCALE FORCE, one of the highest waterfalls in the country. The road to this place is by a footpath across the fields, which, from the soft and boggy nature of the ground, is anything but agreeable in damp weather ; a better arrangement will therefore be, to take a boat at the head of Crummock Water, and proceed to the stream which issues from the fall, where parties are usually landed. From this point it is a mile to the Force, which is one clear fall of 160 feet be- tween two vast perpendicular walls of syenite, beautifully adorn- ed with numerous small trees which grow in the fissures of the rock, and are nourished by the spray of the falling waters. On returning to the boat, row direct to Ling Crag, a little rocky promontory at the foot of Melbreak, and from a point two or three hundred yards above this promontory is the best Station for a view of the two lakes of Crummock and Buttermere, and the surrounding mountains. CIIUMMOCK WATER is bounded on the east by the lofty moun- tain of Whiteside, Grassmoor, and Whitelees ; and Melbreak is the western barrier for a considerable distance. Scale Hill is upwards of three miles from Ling Crag, and, if time should per- mit, parties may resort thither for refreshment at an excellent inn, and afterwards return to Buttermere. The road recom- mended in the return to Keswick is by Borrowdale. A mile and 78 EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. a half from the Inn at Bijttermere, Hassness, the residence of Benson, Esq., is passed on the right, and half a mile more will bring the traveller to a farm-house called Gatesgarth. [From this place a mountain-road strikes off to the right, be- tween Haystacks and High Crag, to Ennerdale (six miles), by the Pass of Scarf Gap, and is met by another path over Black Sail, on the opposite side of the valley of Gillerthwaite, which descends through the Vale of Mosedale, between Kirkfell and the Pillar to Wastdale Head (six miles). These roads are indi- cated on the Map. A horse may be taken over these hills in dry weather, but those who can bear walking will find it much pleasanter than riding : indeed much of the road must be passed on foot. It will be prudent to take a guide."] From Gatesgarth the road to Borrowdale is by a laborious as- cent of nearly three miles to the summit of Buttermere Haws, having the almost perpendicular rock of Honister Crag on the right and Yew Crag on the left hand. In both these there are extensive quarries of valuable roofing slate. A very interesting combination of mountains is exhibited from the top of the road, which begins to descend rapidly to Seatoller, in Borrowdale, from whence it is a mile and three-quartsrs to Rosthwaite, where there is a public-house. From thence, passing Bowder Stone, Grange (where consult Diagrams, Plate 3}, and Lodore, it is six miles to Keswick. This Excursion may be made (but with some difficulty) in a car. DRIVE to SCALE HILL and BUTTERMERE. 2J Braithwaite .. . . 2J Summit of Whinlatter 3 Lorton . . . . . . 8 4 Scale Hill 12 4 Buttermere . . . . 16 9 Thro' Newlands to Keswick 25 The best approach to Crummock and Buttermere is by Whin- latter and Swinside to Scale Hill, ten miles, or by a more cir- cuitous road through the Vale of Lorton, twelve miles. The road to Scale Hill leaves that to Bassenthwaite at the village of Braithwaite, where the ascent of Whinlatter commences, and although long and tedious, the Traveller is fully compensated for his toil by the noble retrospective views of the Vale of Kes- wick which are unfolded. (See Diagrams, Plate 4.J For two miles past the fourth milestone Grisedale Pike is on the left. A little beyond the sixth milestone, a road branches off to the left, along Swinside, and is the one which persons of taste, whe- ther on foot, on horseback, or even in carriages, should take, on EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. 70 their way to Scale Hill. On first entering this road the tra- veller may feel some disappointment, .but, having ascended the hill, he will be charmed with the views of the Vale of Lorton, and the distant prospect of the Scotch mountains. The more circuitous route through the vale of Lorton turns off from the Cockermouth road at the famous Yew Tree,* and joins the terrace-road just mentioned about a mile and a half from Scale Hill. A quarter of a mile beyond the junction of these roads, are two other roads ; that on the left leads to Buttermere ; the other to the Inn at Scale Hill. Scale Hill is well situated for parties wishing to visit Cr urn- mock Water, Buttermere, Lowes Water, and Ennerdale. From Scale Hill a pleasant walk may be taken to an eminence in Mr. Marshall's woods, and another, by crossing the bridge at the foot of the hill, upon which the Inn stands, and turning to the right, after the opposite hill has been ascended a little way, then following the road that leads towards Lorton for about half a mile, looking back upon Crummock Water, &c., between the openings of the fences. (See Diagrams, Plate 4}. Turn back and make your way to LOWES WATER, A small lake, about a mile in length, situated in a deep secluded valley about two miles from Crummock, and surrounded by the bold mountains of Blake Fell, Low Fell, and Melbreak. The valley is prettily wooded and has an air of pastoral beauty. It is only seen to advantage from the other end, therefore any tra- veller approaching from the foot must look back upon it on ar- riving at its head. pride of Lorton Vale, Which to this day stands single, in the midst Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands Of Umfraville or Percy, ere they march'd To Scotland's heath : or those that crossed the sea, And drew their sounding bows at Azincour ; Perhaps at earlier Crecy, or Poictiers. Of vast circumference, and gloom profound, This solitary tree, a living thing, Produced too slowly ever to decay ; Of form and aspect too magnificent To be destroyed." I 80 EXCURSION'S FROM KESWICK. The following Table will shew the route to be observed in a WALK round LOWES WATER from SCALE HILL. J Lowes Water Church . . f 3J Thence by Kirk Head, Bar Gate, Steel Bank, and High Nook, to Water Yeat 2} J Gill falling from Carling Knott 2-2- 1 Place, or High Water End 3J f Bottom, or Low Water End 4 J if Crabtree Beck . . . . SJ 1 Join the road from Scale Hill to the Chapel at the Smithy 6J i Scale Hill 7 CRUMMOCK WATER AND BUTTERMERE Are no where so impressive as from the bosom of Crummock Water ; and the following Excursion to Buttermere from Scale Hill will be found highty interesting. LAND and WATER EXCURSION from SCALE HILL. 1 Boat House on Crummock Water 1 IT, Flat Fields at Rannerdale 2 | Station above Ling Crag 3 To Scale Force and back 5 Join the road at the head of the lake . . . . . . 6 Inn at Buttermere . . 7 ENNERDALE WATER Is situated four miles to the south of Lowes Water. It is three- quarters of a mile in breadth, and extends two miles and a half in length. The scenery is wild and romantic, and beyond the head of the lake are seen some of the highest mountains in the country, of which the most conspicuous is the Pillar, rising to an elevation of 2893 feeti Owing to its difficulty of access to Southern Tourists, Ennerdale Water is rarely seen except from a distance. It may be approached from the Inn at Buttermere by Scale Force and Floutern Tarn ; and also from Scale Hill through Mosedale* and by Flountern Tarn, and by several other mountain roads, all terminating at Crosdale, where the best views of the lake are obtained. There is a small public-house the Boat House at the foot of Ennerdale Lake, with a comfortable and pleasant sitting room, and plain accommodation for the night. The following Tables may be useful to the Traveller. WALK from BUTTERMERE to its union with the Road from Crosdale to ENNERDALE WATER. 2 Scale Force . . . . 2 2$ Floutern Tarn . . 4J 1 i Join the road from Crosdale to Ennerdale Water, where is one of the best views of the lake 6 1 Ennerdale Water .. 7 * This name is common to several valleys in the Lake District. It behoves Tourists to bear this in mind. EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. 81 Three roads on foot to CROSDALE, from SCALE HILL, by HIGH NOOK. Or, to Crosdale by com- mencing the ascent with the rivulet on the left, at High Nook, and then turning on the right . . 4J Crosdale to EnnerdaleWater (the finest views are half way).. .. .. 5* A mile on the high road to Lowes Water . . . . 1 \ High Nook . . . . 1 Passage to Crosdale over Blake Fell ; Or, to Crosdale, deviating at the top of Blake Fell on the left; From SCALE HILL, by a Horse-road, to ENNERDALE WATER. 2J Lowes Water End, at the Head of Lowes Water ... | Enter the Common . . 1 f Lampleugh Church . . J Road on the left, beyond the Church . . . . 2 \ On this road by High Trees and Fell Dyke to Cros- dale 8} Half way to the lake (the best prospect) . . . . 8| Margin of the lake . . 9J From CROSDALE the Tourist may proceed to WASTDALE HEAD by pursuing the following route, or he may return to Buttermere by the foot-road over Scarf-gap after he has passed through the secluded valley of Gillerthwaite, as the upper part of Ennerdale is called. This road he will find marked upon the Map. From CROSDALE, on foot, to the Eastern Side of ENNERDALB WATER, and through Ennerdale and Mosedale to WASTDALE HEAD. } Sheep-fold on the river side 8 } From which, with the stream on the left, ascend to the top of Black Sail . . 8i 2J Wastdale Head, through 1 Join the lake . . . . 1 } Bowness . . . . 1 J 2 Head of the lake ... 3} 1J Gillerthwaite .. .. 5 '2 Foot of the road to Butter- mere over Scarf Gap . . 7$ 11 TWO DAYS' EXCURSION TO WASTWATER. Wast Water is seen to the greatest advantage on approaching it from the open country by the Strands at its foot, rather than by Sty Head. The latter road enters Wastdale at the head of the lake, and can only be taken on foot or on horseback. The Tourist, therefore, should commence this Excursion by going over Whinlatter to Scale Hill, already noticed, and proceeding by Lowes Water and Lampleugh Cross to Ennerdale Bridge, thence to Calder Bridge, from which place there is only one near road, and that is by Gosforth to the Strands in Nether Wast- dale, near the foot of Wast Water. This road, although in part steep and not very good, may without difficulty be travelled over by light carriages ; but there is an excellent carriage road, which makes, however, a circuit of many miles, through Cockermouth, I 2 82 EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. Workington, Whitehaven, and Egremont to Calder Bridge. By leaving Workington on the right, and passing from Cockermouth direct to Whitehaven the distance is shortened two miles. From Scale Hill it is about two miles to Lowes Water ; whence to Lampleugh Cross, where there are two small public houses, four miles ; to Ennerdale Bridge, at the foot of Enner- dale, three miles more ; and from Ennerdale Bridge seven miles to Calder Bridge, where excellent accommodation may be had at two comfortable Inns. The direct road from Ennerdale Bridge to Calder Bridge is over a dreary moor called Coldfell, and is extremely disagreeable and tiresome to drive over from the number of gates ; so that it would be better to go by Egremont, although the distance would be increased four miles. CALDER ABBEY is one mile from Calder Bridge. Little of this ruin is left, but that little is well worthy of notice. It is situated on the north side of the river Calder, close to the residence of Captain Irwin, and was founded A. D. 1134 by the second Ran- ulph des Meschines for Cistercian monks, and was dependent on Furness Abbey. From Calder Bridge to Gosforth, three miles ; thence to the Strands public-house, four miles. Circuitous Carriage Road This road, as far as the famous Lorton Yew-tree, eight miles from Keswick, has been already noticed. From the Yew-tree the turnpike-road must be kept, and after driving through a rich fertile country for four miles, the Traveller will reach COCKERMOUTH, a borough-town sending two members to Par- liament, situate upon the Cocker, where it falls into the Derwent. Hats, coarse woollens, linen, and leather, are manufactured here. The Castle is for the most part in ruins, and belongs to General Windham, who occasionally resides there. Market on Monday and Saturday. Inns Globe, Sun. From Cockermouth to Whitehaven direct, is fourteen miles, and by Workington sixteen miles. On leaving Cockermouth, by turning aside a few steps, a fine view of the river Derwent and the Castle may be had from the bridge. WORKINGTON is situated on the south bank of the Derwent, and has a good harbour well secured by a breakwater. In the vicinity of the town are several valuable coal mines, which are principally worked by Henry Curwen, Esq. the lord of the manor. Some of these were, a few years ago, destroyed by the sea breaking in upon them. The streets are irregularly built, but have of late EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. 83 years been much improved by modern erections. Workington Hall stands on a gentle eminence on the east side of the town, and is celebrated as having: afforded an asylum to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, after her escape from Dunbar Castle. Population, 7226. WHITEHAVEN ranks the second town of importance in Cum- berland. It is situated on a bay, and the harbour has been greatly improved by an elegant and substantial stone pier, said to be the largest in the kingdom. The town is built with great regularity, and the streets are spacious. The Castle is the resi- dence of the Earl of Lonsdale, who is lord of the manor and pro- prietor of the coal mines, which perhaps are the most extraordi- nary in the world. In the William Pit there are 500 acres under the sea, and the distance is two miles and a half from the shaft to the extreme part of the workings. There is a stable also un- dor the sea in this immense pit for forty -five horses. The shaft i- lid fathoms deep. The coals are principally exported to Ire- land, and yield a large revenue to the noble proprietor. Ship- building is carried on here to some extent, and the principal manufactures of the town are linen sail-cloth, checks, ginghams, sheetings, thread, twine, cables, c- From Whitehaven it is six miles to EGREMONT by way of Hensingham, and seven by ST. BEES, "a place distinguished from very early times for its religious and scholastic foundations. ' St. Bees," say Nicholson and Burn, ' had its name from Bega, a holy woman from Ireland, who is said to have founded here, about the year 650, a small monastery, where afterwards a church was built in memory of her. The aforesaid religions house having been destroyed by the Danes, was restored hv William des Meschines, son of Ranulph, and brother of Ranulph dci Meschines, first Earl of Cumberland after the conquest ; and made a cell of a prior and six Benedictine monks to the Abbey of St. Mary at York.' After the dissolution of the monasteries, Archbishop Grindal founded a free school at St. Bees, from which the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland have de- rivod great benefit ; and recently, under the patronage of the Earl of Lonsdale, a college has been established there for the education of ministers of the English Church. The old Con- ventnal Church was repaired under the superintendanoe of the Kev. Dr. Ainger. the late Head of the College ; and is well worthy of being 'visited by any strangers who may be led to thi> i 3 84 EXCURSIONS FROM KESW1CK. neighbourhood of this -celebrated spot." This collegiate insti- tution is now in a highly flourishing condition, under the able management of the Rev. R. P. Buddicom. EGREMONT is a neat little town, with about 1500 inhabitants, situate on the north side of the river Ehen, which flows from Ennerdale lake, seven miles distant. The road is good. The ruins of the Castle stand on an eminence to the west of the town. This fortress is not of very great extent, but bears singular marks of antiquity and strength. From Egremont it is five miles of pleasant road to Colder Bridge, to which place the Traveller was conducted by the route from Scale Hill. Should the Tourist prefer the approach to Wast Water by Sty Head, the following is the route. The objects on the road have been described so far as Sty Head at p. 66, and the ascent of this mountain pass from the Strands is also described at pp. 56, 57. FIRST DAT. WAST WATER by BORROWDALE, a Two Days' Excur- sion on horseback. 12 Sty Head .. ..12 2 Wastdale Head .. 14 1 Head of Wast Water . . 15 i Overbeck Bridge . . 15 J 1 Netherbeck Bridge ... 16| 1 J End of the direct road to Calder Bridge by Harrow Head 17| | Crook at the foot of the lake 18J 1 Strands public house . . 20 1J Junction of the Strands road with the shortest road21 2J Gosforth 24 3 Calder Bridge, where there are two good Inns . . 27 SECOND DAY. See CALDER ABBEY, a mile from Calder Bridge, and then proceed 7 From Calder Bridge to En- nerdale Bridge . . . . 7 1J Kirkland 8 1 Road on the left to Egre- mont and Whitehaven ... 9J Lampleugh Cross (the Cockermouth road is to the left .. .. 10 1 Lampleugh Church . . 11 5 Scale Hill . . . . 16 11 Keswick over Swinside and Whinlatter . . 27 BOTANICAL NOTICES. ARAB is petrcea. Screes, near Wastwater. THAIICTBUM majtts. Do. PoTENTiLLA/rwft'cosa. In the Devil's Hedge-gate, Wastdale Screes. RHODIOLA rosea. Wastdale Screes. SAXIFRAGA oppositifolia. Do. GNAPHALIDM dioicum. Do. Round BASSENTHWAITE WATER. SPeelWyke* 8 1 Ouse Bridge .. .. 9 1 Castle Inn 10 3 Bassenthwaite Sandbed . . 13 5 Keswick . . . . 18 ULLSWATER. 85 Before bidding adieu to Keswick, the tour to Bassenthwaite Water should not be'omitted. Greta Hall, long the residence of the lamented Dr. Southey, late Poet Laureate, is situated on a gentle eminence near the town. The lake of Bassenthwaite lies four miles north of Derwent Water, is four miles in length, and in some places near a mile in breadth. In commencing this Excursion proceed to the village of Braithwaite, at the foot of Whinlatter, which the Tourist must leave on the left. Passing through the hamlet of Thornthwaite and skirting the base of the rugged mountains of Lord's Seat and Barf, the road undulates pleasantly through wood and glade on the margin of the lake, till it reaches Peel Wyke, where there is a small ale-house. A little beyond Peel Wyke the road turns off on the right at the guide-post to Ouse Bridge, which crosses the Derwent, where, and at Armathwaite close by, are the best views for those who keep the road generally pursued in making the circuit of the lake ; but the pedestrian would be fully compensated if he were to deviate at the Castle Inn, one mile from Ouse Bridge, and follow the Hesket road for about a mile, and then turn on the right to the top of the Haws, from which is presented a magni- ficent view of Bassenthwaite and the Vales of Embleton and Isell. The distance from the Castle Inn to Keswick is eight miles ; the road winds agreeably on the eastern side of the lake. ULLSWATER. 8 Moor End . . . . 8 7 Gowbarrow Park 15 5 Patterdale 20 Patterdale to Penrith. 10 Pooley Bridge 10 6 Penrith 16 Ullswater is of an irregular figure, somewhat resembling the letter Z, and composed of three unequal reaches, the middle of which is somewhat longer than the northern one. The shortest is seen from the Inn at Patterdale, and is not half the length of either of the others. Ullswater is less than Windermere, but larger than the rest of the English lakes, and lies engulphed in the majestic mountains that rise sublimely from the valley. From Keswick there are several roads by which Ullswater may be approached. 1st. By a bridle-road that turns off from the Penrith road at the third milestone, and crosses the Vale of St. John near its foot, then enters the Vale of Wanthwaite, and, after passing through Matterdale, unites at Dockray with 2nd. A good carriage-road that leaves the Penrith road a lit- -//. /2 86 L'LLSWATER. tie beyond the twelfth milestone from Keswick, and skirts the base of a bleak uninteresting mountain called Mell Fell, which the Traveller has on his left hand till he reaches the hamlet of Matterdale End, where the road turns sharply to the left to Dockray, before mentioned. From Dockray the Traveller will descend upon Gowbarrow Park, and is thus 'brought at once upon a magnificent view of the higher reaches of the lake. (St# Diagrams, Plate 5). ARA-FOBCE thunders down the ghyll on the left at a small distance from the road. At the foot of the hill, and before proceeding to Patterdale, turn in at the gate on the left to LYULPH'S TOWER, where a guide to the Waterfall is always to be had. 3rd. Ullswater may be approached by proceeding direct to Pooley Bridge, at the foot of the lake, where the angler would find much diversion both in the lake and in the neighbouring 1 streams. (See Diagrams, Plate 3). Pooley Bridge is also favourably situated for visiting Hawes Water, ten miles, and Lowther Castle, four miles ; and the town of Penrith, to be hereafter noticed, is only six miles distant. Beside the approaches to Ullswater, just mentioned, a stout pedestrian might proceed to Patterdale over the northern shoul- der of Helvellyn, and visit its summit in his progress, if thought desirable In this route, the road to Ambleside must be kept for four miles and three-quarters, whence the road from W r yth- burn to Threlkeld must be pursued for a short distance to a farm- house called Stainah. The ascent from Stainah, for a consider- able distance, is by a steep zig-zag path, on the left of one of the mountain streams falling into St. John's Vale. The road at the top of the first steep turns southward, nearly at right agles, and farther on, at another turn on the left, a few land-marks may be observed, which serve as guides into Patterdale by the Greenside lead mines, in the Vale of Glenridding. When at the highest part of the foot-road, the Raise, or Styx, a round-topped hill, is on the right ; and further to the south, with a consider- able dip between them, is another elevation called Whiteside, from whence, by a narrow ridge, the Tourist may proceed to the summit of Helvellyn. The distance, by this road, if Helvellyn be left out, is much less than by an}' of the former routes, and the views from it are exceedingly impressive. In this Excursion strangers would do well to take a guide. See ASCENT OF HEL- VELLYN FROM PATTERDALE. If Ullswater be approached from Penrith, a mile and a half ULLSWATER. 87 brings you to the winding Vale of Eamont, and the prospects increase in interest till you reach Patterdale ; but the first four miles along Ullswater by this road are comparatively tame. The following account of Ullswater is from Mr. Wordsworth : In order to see the lower part of the lake to advantage, it is necessary to go round by Pooley Bridge, and to ride at least three miles along the Westmorland side of the Water, towards Martindale. The views, especially if you ascend from the road into the fields, are magnificent ; yet this is only mentioned that the transient visitant may know what exists ; for it would be in- convenient to go in search of them. They who take this course of three or four miles on foot, should have a boat in readiness at the end of the walk, to carry them across to the Cumberland side of the lake, near Old Church, thence to pursue the road upwards to Patterdale. The Church-yard Yew tree still sur- vives at Old Church, but there are no remains of a Place of Worship, a new Chapel having been erected in a more central situation, which Chapel was consecrated by the then Bishop of Carlisle, when on his way to crown Queen Elizabeth, he being the only Prelate who would undertake the office. It may be here mentioned, that Bassenthwaite Chapel yet stands in a bay as sequestered as the site of Old Church ; such situations having been chosen in disturbed times to elude marauders. The trunk or body of the Vale of Ullswater need not be further noticed, as its beauties shew themselves : but the curious Tra- veller may wish to know something of its tributary streams. At Dalemain, about three miles from Penrith, a stream is crossed called the Dacre, or Dacor, which name it bore as early as the time of the Venerable Bede. This stream does not enter the lake, but joins the Eamont a mile below. It rises in the moor- ish country about Penruddock, and flows down a soft sequestered valley, passing by the ancient mansions of Hutton John and Dacre Castle. The former is pleasantly situated, though of a character somewhat gloomy and monastic, and from some of the fields near Dalemain, Dacre Castle, backed by the jagged summit of Sad- dleback, with the valley and stream in front, forms a grand pic- ture. There is no other stream that conducts to any glen or valley worthy of being mentioned, till we reach that which leads up to Ara-force, and thence into Mattcrdale, before spoken of. Matterdale, though a wild and interesting spot, has no peculiar features that would make it worth the stranger's while to go in search of them ; but, in Gowbarrow Park the Umr of Nature 88 ULLSWATER. might linger for hours. Here is a powerful brook, which dashes among rocks through a deep glen, hung on every side with a rich and happy intermixture of native wood. Here are beds of luxuriant fern, aged hawthorns, and hollies decked with honey- suckles ; and fallow-deer glancing and bounding over the lawns and through the thickets. These are the attractions of the re- tired views, or constitute a foreground for ever-varying pictures of the majestic lake, forced to take a winding course by bold promontories, and environed by mountains of sublime form, tow- ering above each other. At the outlet of Gowbarrow Park we reach a third stream, which flows through a little recess called Glencoin, where lurks a single house, yet visible from the road. Let the artist or leisurely traveller turn aside to it, for the build- ings and objects around them are romantic and picturesque. Having passed under the steeps of Stybarrow Crag, and the remains of its native woods, at Glenridding Bridge, a fourth is crossed, which is contaminated by the operations of the Green- side lead mines in the mountains above. The opening on the side of Ullswater Vale, down which this stream flows, is adorned with fertile fields, cottages, and natural groves, that agreeably unite with the transverse views of the lake ; and the stream, if followed up after the enclosures are left behind, will lead along bold water-breaks and waterfalls to a silent Tarn in the recesses of Helvellyn. Eagles formerly built in the precipitous rock which forms the western barrier of this desolate spot. These birds used to wheel and hover round the head of the solitary angler. It also derives a melancholy interest from the fate of a young man, a stranger, who perished, some years ago, by falling down the rocks in his attempt to cross over from Wythburn to Patterdale. His remains were discovered by means of a faithful dog that had lingered here for the space of three months, self-supported, and probably retaining to the last an attachment to the skeleton of its master.* But to return to the road in the main Vale of Ullswater. At the head of the lake (being now in Patterdale) we cross a fifth stream, Grisedale Beck : this would conduct along a woody steep, where may be seen some unusually large ancient hollies, up to the level area of the valley of Grisedale ; hence there is a path for foot-travellers, and along which a horse may be led to Grasmere. A sublime combination of mountain forms appears in front while ascending * Vide the Poems of Scott and Wordsworth on the subject, *A ti / I i- -> & 2 S- 3 s < c ~ -^ ^ ^ a^C; K; <-. c- >H k ^S I rrvS CLLSWATER. 89 the bed of this valley, and the impression deepens till the path leads almost immediately under the projecting masses of Hel- vellyn. Having retraced the banks of the stream to Patterdale, and pursued the road up the main Dale, the next considerable stream would, if ascended in the same manner, conduct to Deep- dale, the character of which valley may be conjectured from its name. It is terminated by a cove, a craggy and gloomy abyss, with precipitous sides ; a faithful receptacle of the snows that are driven into it by the west wind, from the summit of Fair- field. Lastly, having gone along the western side of Brothers- water and passed Hartshop Hall, a stream soon after issues from a cove richly decorated with native wood. This spot is, I believe, never explored by travellers ; but, from these sylvan and rocky recesses, whoever looks back on the gleaming surface of Brothers-water, or forward to the precipitous sides and lofty ridges of Dove Crag, &c. will be equally pleased with the gran- deur and the wildness of the scenery. Seven Glens or Valleys have been noticed, which branch off from the Cumberland side of the vale. The opposite side has only two streams of any importance, one of which would lead up from the point where it crosses the Kirkstone-road, near the foot of Brothers-water, to the decaying hamlet of Hartshop, re markable for its cottage architecture, and thence to Hays-water, much frequented by anglers. The other, coming down Martin- dale, enters Ullswater at Sandwyke, opposite to Gowbarrow Park. No persons but such as come to Patterdale merely to pass through it, should fail to walk as far as Blowick, the only enclosed land which on this side borders the higher part of the lake. The axe has here indiscriminately levelled a rich wood of birches and oaks, that divided this favoured spot into a hundred pictures. It has yet its land-locked bays and rocky promonto- ries ; but those beautiful woods are gone, which perfected its seclusion ; and scenes, that might formerly have been compared to an inexhaustible volume, are now spread before the eye in a sinirlt; sheet magnificent indeed, but seemingly perused in a moment ! From Blowick a narrow track conducts along the craggy side of Place Fell, richly adorned with juniper, and sprinkled over with birches, to the village of Sandwyke, a few straggling houses, that, with the small estates attached to them, occupy an opening opposite to Lyulph's Twer and Gowbarrow Park. In Martindale, the road loses sight of the lake, and leads over a steep hill, bringing you again into "view of Ullswater, 90 EXCURSION OS THE BANKS OF ULLSWATER. Its lowest reach, four miles in length, is before you ; and the view terminated by the long ridge of Cross Fell in the distance. Immediately under the eye is a deep-indented bay, with a plot of fertile land, traversed by a small brook, and rendered cheer- ful by two or three substantial houses of a more ornamented and showy appearance than is usual in those wild spots. EXCURSION ON THE BANKS OF ULLSWATER. We are induced to subjoin an account of a short Excursion on the Banks of Ullswater, made at a time when it is seldom seen but by the inhabitants. As the journal was written for one acquainted with the general features of the country, only those effects and appearances are dwelt upon which are produced by the changeableness of the atmosphere or belong to the season when the Excursion was made. A.D. 1805 On the 7th of November, on a damp and gloomy morning, we left Grasmere Vale, intending to pass a few days on the banks of Ullswater. A mild and dry autumn had been unusually favourable to the preservation and beauty of foliage ; and, far advanced as the season was, the trees on the larger Island of Rydal-mere retained a splendour which did not need the heightening of sunshine. We noticed, as we passed, that the line of the grey rocky shore of that island, shaggy with va- riegated bushes and shrubs, and spotted and striped with purplish brown heath, indistinguishably blending with its image reflected in the still water, produced a curious resemblance, both in form and colour, to a richly-coated caterpillar, as it might appear through a magnifying glass of extraordinary power. The mists gathered as we went along : but, when we reached the top of Kirkstone, we were glad we had not been discouraged by the apprehension of bad weather. Though not able to see a hun- dred yards before us, we were more than contented. At such a time, and in such a place, every scattered stone the size of one's head becomes a companion. Near the top of the Pass is the remnant of an old wall, which (magnified, though obscured, by the vapour) might have been taken for a fragment of some mo- nument of ancient grandeur, yet that same pile of stones we had never before even observed. This situation, it must be allowed, is not favourable to gaity ; but a pleasing hurry of spirits accompanies the surprise occasioned by objects transformed, dilated, or distorted, as they are when seen through such a EXCORSION ON THE BANKS OF ULLSWATER. 91 medium. Many of the fragments of rock on the top and slopes of Kirkstone, and of similar places, are fantastic enough in them- selves ; but the full effect of such impressions can only be had in a state of weather when they are not likely to be sought for. It was not till we had descended considerably that the fields of Hartshop were seen, like a lake tinged by the reflection of sunny clouds : I mistook them for Brothers-water, but, soon after, we saw that lake gleaming faintly with a steelly brightness, then, as we continued to descend, appeared the brown oaks, and the birches of lively yellow and the cottages and the lowly Hall of Hartshop, with its long roof and ancient chimneys. During great part of our way to Patterdale, we had rain, or rather driz- zling vapour ; for there was never a drop upon our hair or clothes larger than the smallest pearl upon a lady's ring. The following morning, incessant rain till eleven o'clock, when the sky began to clear, and we walked along the eastern shore of Ullswater towards the farm of Blowick. The wind blew strong, and drove the clouds forwards on the side of the moun- tain above our heads : two storm-stiffened black yew-trees fixed our notice, seen through, or under the edge of, the flying mists, four or five goats were bounding among the rocks ; the sheep moved about more quietly, or cowered beneath their sheltering places. This is the only part of the country where goats are now found ;* but this morning, before we had seen these, I was reminded of that picturesque animal by two rams of mountain breed, both with Ammonian horns, and with beards majestic as that which Michael Angelo has given to his statue of Moses But to return ; when our path had brought us to that part of the naked common which overlooks the woods and bush-besprinkled fields of Blowick, the lake, clouds, and mists were all in motion to the sound of sweeping winds ; the church and cottages of Patterdale scarcely visible, or seen only by fits between the shifting vapours. To the northward the scene was less visionary ; Place Fell steady and bold ; the whole lake driving onward like a great river waves dancing round the small islands. The house at Blowick was the boundary of our walk ; and we returned, lamenting to see a decaying and uncomfortable dwelling in a place where sublimity and beauty seemed to contend with each other. But these regrets were dispelled by a glance on the woods that clothe the opposite steeps of the lake. How exqui- * A.D. 1846. These also have disappeared. K 92 EXCURSION ON THE site was the mixture of sober and splendid hues ! The general colouring of the trees was brown rather that of ripe hazel nuts ; but towards the water, there were yet beds of green, and in the highest parts of the wood was abundance of yellow foliage, which, gleaming through a vapoury lustre, reminded us of masses of clouds, as you see them gathered together in the west, and touched with the golden light of the setting sun. After dinner we walked up the vale ; I had never had an idea of its extent and width in passing along the public road on the other side. We followed the path that leads from house to house ; two or three times it took us through some of those copses or groves that cover the little hillocks in the middle of the vale, making an intricate and pleasing intermixture of lawn and wood. Our fancies could not resist the temptation, and we fixed upon a spot for a cottage, which we began to build, and finished as easily as castles are raised in the air. Visited the same spot in the evening. I shall say nothing of the moonlight aspect of the situation which had charmed us so much in the afternoon ; but I wish you had been with us when, in returning to our friend's house, we espied his lady's large white dog lying in the moon- shine upon the round knoll under the old yew-tree in the garden, a romantic image and the elegant creature, as fair as a spirit ! The torrents murmured softly : the mountains down which they were falling did not, to my sight, furnish a back-ground for this Ossianic picture ; but I had a consciousness of the depth of the seclusion, and that mountains were embracing us on all sides ; " I saw not, but I felt that they were there." Friday, November 9th. Rain, as yesterday, till 10 o'clock, when we took a boat to row down the lake. The day improved ; clouds and sunny gleams on the mountains. In the large bay under Place Fell three fishermen were dragging a net picturesque group beneath the high and large crags ! A raven was seen aloft ; not hovering like the kite, for that is not the habit of the bird, but passing on with a straight-forward perseverance, and timing the motion of its wings to its own croaking. The waters were agitated ; and the iron tone of the raven's voice, which strikes upon the ear at all times as the more dolorous from its regularity, was in fine keeping with the wild scene before our eyes. This carniverous bird is a great enemy to the lambs of these solitudes ; I recollect frequently seeing, when a boy, bunches of unfledged ravens suspended from the church-yard BANKS OF DLLSWATER. 93 gates of H , for which a reward of so much, a head was given to the adventurous destroyer. The fishermen drew their net ashore, and hundreds of fish were leaping in their prison. They were all of the kind called skellies, a sort of fresh- water herring, shoals of which may sometimes be seen dimpling or rippling the surface of the lake in calm w eather. This species is not found, I believe, in any other of these lakes ; nor, as far as I know, is the chevin, that spiritless fish (though I am loth to call it so, for it was a prime favourite with Isaac Walton), which must frequent Ullsvvater, as I have seen a large shoal passing into the lake from the river Eamont. Here are no pike, and the char are smaller than those of the other lakes, and of inferior quality ; but the grey trout attains a very large size, sometimes weighing above twenty pounds. This lordly creature seems to know that " re- tiredness is a piece of majesty ;" for it is scarcely ever caught, or even seen, except when it quits the depths of the lake in the spawning season, and runs up into the streams, where it is too often destroyed in disregard of the law of the land and of nature. Quitted the boat in the bay of Sandwyke, and pursued our way towards Martindale along a pleasant path at first through a coppice bordering the lake, then through green fields and came to the village (if village it may be called, for the houses are few and separated from each other), a sequestered spot, shut out from the view of the lake. Crossed the one-arched bridge, be- low the chapel, with its " bare ring of mossy wall," and single yew-tree. At the last house in the dale we were greeted by the master, who was sitting at his door, with a flock of sheep collected round him, for the purpose of smearing them with tar (according to the custom of the season) for protection against the winter's cold. He invited us to enter and view a room built by Mr. Hasell for the accommodation of his friends at the annual chase of red deer in his forests at the head of these dales. The room is fitted up in the sportsman's style, with a cup-board for bottles and glasses, strong chairs, and a dining table ; and ornamented with the horns of the stags caught at these hunts for a succession of years the length of the last race each had run being recorded under his spreading antlers. The good woman treated us with oaten cake, new and crisp ; and after this welcome refreshment and rest, we proceeded on our return to Patterdale by a short cut over the mountains. On leaving the fields of Sandwyke, while ascending by a gentle slope along the valley of Martindale, we K 2 94 EXCURSION ON THE had occasion to observe that in thinly-peopled glens of this cha- racter the general want of wood gives a peculiar interest to the scattered cottages embowered in sycamore. Towards its head, this valley splits into two parts ; and in one of these (that to the left) there is no house, nor any building to be seen but a cattle- shed on the side of a hill, which is sprinkled over with trees, evidently the remains of an extensive forest. Near the entrance of the other division stands the house where we were entertained, and beyond the enclosures of that farm there are no other. A few old trees remain relics of the forest; a little stream hastens, though with serpentine windings, through the uucultivated hol- low, where many cattle were pasturing. The cattle of this coun- try are generally white, or light-coloured ; but these were dark brown or black, which heightened the resemblance this scene bears to many parts of the Highlands of Scotland. While we paused to rest on the hill-side, though well contented with the quiet every-day sounds the lowing of cattle, bleeting of sheep, and the very gentle murmuring of the valley stream we could not but think what a grand effect the music of the bugle-horn would have among these mountains. It is still heard once every year, at the chase I have spoken of ; a day of festivity for the inhabitants of this district, except the poor deer, the most ancient of them all. Our ascent, even to the top, was very easy. When it was accomplished we had exceedingly fine views, some of the lofty fells being resplendent with sunshine, and others partly shrouded by clouds. Ullswater, bordered by black steeps, was of dazzling brightness ; the plain beyond Penrith smooth and bright, or rather gleamy, as the sea or sea sands. Looked down into Boardale, which, like Stybarrow, has been named from the wild swine that formerly abounded here ; but it has now no syl- van covert, being smooth and bare, a long, narrow, deep, cradle- shaped glen, lying so sheltered that one would be pleased to see it planted by human hand, there being a sufficiency of soil ; and the trees would be sheltered almost like shrubs in a green-house. After having walked some way along the top of the hill, came in view of Glenridding and the mountains at the head of Grise- dale. Before we began to descend, we turned aside to a small ruin, called at this day the chapel, where it is said the inhabi- bitants of Martindale and Patterdale were accustomed to assem- ble for worship. There are now no traces from which you could infer for what use the building had been erected ; the loose stones, and the few that yet continue piled up, resemble those BANKS OF ULLSWATEB. 95 which lie elsewhere on the mountain ; but the shape of the building having been oblong, its remains differ from those of a common sheepfold ; and it has stood east and west. Scarcely did the Druids, when they fled to these fastnesses, perform their rites in any situation more exposed to disturbance from the ele- ments. One cannot pass by without being reminded that the rustic psalmody must have had the accompaniment of many a wildly-whistling blast ; and what dismal storms must have often drowned the voice of the preacher ! As we descend, Patterdale opens upon the eye in grand simplicity, screened by mountains, and proceeding from two heads, Deepdale and Hartshop, where lies the little lake of Brothers-water, named in old maps Broack'r- water, and probably rightly so ; for Bassenthwaite-mere at this day is familiarly called Broad-water ; but the change in the ap- pellation of this small lake or pool (if it be a corruption) may have been assisted by some melancholy accident similar to what happened about twenty years ago, when two brothers were drowned there, having gone out to take their holiday pleasure upon the ice on a new-year's day. A rough and precipitous peat-track brought us down to our friend's house. Another fine moonlight night ; but a thick fog rising from the neighbouring river, enveloped the rocky and wood-crested knoll on which our fancy-cottage had been erected ; and, under the damp cast upon my feelings, I consoled myself with moralizing on the folly of hasty decisions in matters of im- portance, and the necessity of having at least one's knowledge of a place before you realize airy suggestions in solid stone. ' Saturday, November IQlh. At the breakfast-table, tidings reached us of the death of Lord Nelson, and of the victory of Trafalgar. Sequestered as we were from the sympathy of a crowd, we were shocked to hear that the bells had been ringing joyously at Penrith to celebrate the triumph. In the rebellion of the year 1745, people fled with their valuables from the open country to Patterdale, aa a place of refuge secure from the in- cursions of strangers. At that time, news such as we had heard might have been long in penetrating so far into the recesses of the mountains ; but nows as you know, the approach is easy, and the commnuication, in summer time, almost hourly ; nor is this strange, for travellers after pleasure are become not less active, and more numerous than those who formerly left their homes for purposes of gain. The priest on the banks of the remotest stream K 3 96 EXCURSION ON THE of Lapland will talk familiarly of Bonaparte's last conquests, and discuss the progress of the French Revolution, having acquired much of his information from adventurers impelled by curiosity alone. The morning was clear and cheerful after a night of sharp frost. At 10 o'clock we took our way on foot towards Pooley Bridge, on the same side of the lake we had coasted in a boat the day before Looked backwards to the southfrom our favourite station above Blowick. The dazzling sunbeams striking upon the church and village, while the earth was steaming with exhalations not traceable in other quarters, rendered their forms even more in- distinct than the partial and flitting veil of unillumined vapour had done two days before. The grass on which we trod, and the trees in every thicket, were dripping with melted hoar-frost. We observed the lemon-coloured leaves of the birches, as the breeze turned them to the sun, sparkle, or rather flash, like dia- monds, and the leafless purple twigs were tipped with globes of shining crystal. The day continued delightful, and unclouded to the end. I will not describe the country which we slowly travelled through, nor relate our adventures : and will only add, that on the after- noon of the 13th we returned along the banks of Ullswater by the usual road. The lake lay in deep repose after the agitations of a wet and stormy morning. The trees in Gowbarrow Park were in that state when what is gained by the disclosure of their bark and branches compensates, almost, for the loss of foliage, exhibiting the variety which characterises the point of time between autumn and winter. The hawthorns were leaf- less ; their round heads covered with rich green berries, and adorned with arches of green brambles, and eglantines hung with glossy hips ; and the grey trunks of some of the ancient oaks, which in the summer season might have been regarded only for their venerable majesty, now attracted notice by a pretty embellishment of green mosses and fern intermixed with russet leaves retained by those slender outstarting twigs which the ve- teran tree would not have tolerated in his strength. The smooth silver branches of the ashes were bare ; most of the alders as green as the Devonshire cottage-myrtle that weathers the snows of Christmas. Will you accept it as some apology for my hav- ing dwelt so long on the woodland ornaments of these scenes, that artists speak of the trees on the banks of Ullswater, and especially along the bays of Stybarrow crags, as having a pecu- BANKS OF ULLSWATER. 97 liar character of picturesque intricacy in their stems and branches, which their rocky stations and the mountain winds have combined to give them. At the end of Gowbarrow Park a large herd of deer were either moving slowly or standing still among the fern. I was sorry when a chance-companion, who had joined us by the way, start- led them with a whistle, disturbing an image of grave simplicity and thoughtful enjoyment ; for I could have fancied that those natives of this wild and beautiful region were partaking with us a sensation of the solemnity of the closing day. The sun had been set some time ; and we could perceive that the light was fading away from the coves of Helvellyn, but the lake, under a luminous sky, was more brilliant than before. After tea at Patterdale, set out again : a fine evening ; the seven stars close to the mountain top ; all the stars seemed brighter than usual. The steeps were reflected in Brothers-water, and above the lake appeared like enormous black perpendicutar walls. The Kirkstone torrents had been swollen by the rains, and now filled the mountain pass with their roaring, which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk. Behind us, when we had climbed to a great height, we saw one light, very distinct, in the vale, like a large red star a solitary one in the gloomy region. The cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us. Reached home a little before midnight. Thus far Mr. Wordsworth. The following verses, from his Miscellaneous Poems, may be appropriately introduced here : ODE. THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE. 1. WITHIN the mind strong fancies work, A deep delight the bosom thrills, Oft as I pass along the fork Of these fraternal hills : Where, save the rugged road, we find, No appanage of human kind ; Nor hint of man, if stone or rock Seem not his handy-work to mock By something cognizably shaped ; Afockery or model roughly hewn, And left as if by earthquake strewn, Or from the Flood escaped : Altars for Druid service fit ; (But where no fire was ever lit, Unless the glow-worm to the skies Thence offer nightly sacrifice:) 98 ODE PASS OP KIBKSTONE. Wrinkled Egyptian monument ; Green moss-grown tower, or hoary tent ; Tents of a camp that never shall be raised : On which four thousand years have gazed ! 2. Ye plough-shares sparkling on the elopes ! Ye snow-white lambs that trip Imprisoned 'mid the formal props Of restless ownership ! Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall To feed the insatiate Prodigal ! Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, All that the fertile valley shields ; Wages of folly baits of crime, Of life's uneasy game the stake, Playthings that keep the eyes awake Of drowsy, dotard Time ; O care ! O guilt ! O vales and plains, Here, 'mid his own unvexed domains, A genius dwells, that can snbdue At once all memory of You, Most potent when mists veil the sky, Mists that distort and magnify ; While the coarse rushes to the sweeping breeze, Sigh forth their ancient melodies ! 3. List to those shriller notes ! that march Perchance was on the blast, When through this Height's inverted arch, Home's earliest legion passed ! They saw, adventurously impelled, And older eyes than theirs beheld, This block and yon, whose Church-like frame Gives to the savage Pass its name. Aspiring Road ! that lov'st to hide Thy daring in a vapoury bourn, Not seldom may the hour return When thou shalt be my Guide : And I (as often we find cause, When life is at a weary pause, And we have panted up the hill Of duty with reluctant will) Be thankful, even though tired and faint, For the rich bounties of Constraint ; Whence oft invigorating transports flow That choice lacked courage to bestow ! 4. My soul was grateful for delight That wore a threatening brow ; A veil is lifted can she slight The scene that opens now ? Though habitation none appear, The greenness tells man must be there : The shelter that the perspective Is of the clime in which we live ; Where Toil pursues his daily round ; Where Pity sheds sweet tears, and Love HELVELLYN. 99 In woodbine bower or birchen grove Inflicts his tender wound. Who comes not hither ne'er shall know How beautiful the world below : Nor can he guess how lightly leaps The brook adown the rocky steeps. Farewell thou desolate Domain ! Hope, pointing to the cultured Plain, Carols like a shepherd boy ; And who is she? Can that be Joy ! Who, with a sun-beam for her guide, Smoothly skims the meadows wide : While Faith, from yonder opening cloud, To hill and vale proclaims aloud, " Whate'er the weak may dread, the wicked dare, Thy lot, O man, is good, thy portion fair !" BOTANICAL NOTICE. TnALicTHUM majus. Ullswater. HELVELLYN. i The altitude of Helvellyn is stated, according to the Ordnance Survey, to be 3055 feet above the level of the sea. From the different summits of this mountain comprehensive views are ob- tained of several of the lakes, and the hills in every direction are thence seen under a more than usually picturesque arrangement. The ascent is frequently commenced from the inn at Wyth- burn, on the road from Ambleside to Keswick, the distance from that point being much less than from other places ; but the ac- clivity is too steep for a horse to keep his footing. From Patter- dale, however, the ascent as far as Red Tarn may, with a Uttle management, be made on horseback, by taking the track up Grisedale, which is approached by a gate on the left, immedi- ately after crossing Grisedale Bridge from the Inn. The road leads through the ancient farm-yard of Grasset How, and pro- ceeds, winding up the side of the hill, in the direction of Blea- berry Crag, an offshoot of Striding Edge, which it leaves on the left, and then strikes off by the foot of Red Tarn* to the stakes where horses are usually tied up while parties proceed to the summit. The road, now, is by ascending Swirrel Edge, a rocky projection of the mountain, crowned by the conical hill called Catchedecam. and a scramble of twenty minutes will place the traveller on the highest point of Helvellyn. Some persons are * " A cove, a huge recess, That keeps, till June, December's snow ; A lofty precipice in front, A silent tarn below !" WORDSWORTH'S Fidelity. 100 HELVELLYN. bold enough, in making the ascent, to traverse the giddy and dangerous height of Striding Edge, a sharp ridge forming the southern boundary of Red Tarn ; but this road ought not to be taken by any with weak nerves. The top in many places scarcely affords room to plant the foot, and is beset with awful precipices on either side. Some years ago a stranger perished near this spot, by falling down the rocks in his attempt to cross over from Wythburn to Patterdale. See p. 88. The summit of the mountain is a smooth mossy plain, inclining gently to the west, but terminating abruptly by broken precipices on the east. There are on this mountain two piles of stones (Men, as they are called), about a quarter of a mile from each other, and from an angle in the hill between these the best view of the country northward is to be had. Skiddaw, with Saddle- back on its right, first claims attention. Nearer the eye, lying in a hollow of the mountain, is Kepple Cove Tarn, bounded on the south by Swirrel Edge and Catchedecam. Further south, between the projecting masses of Swirrell Edge and Striding Edge, lies Red Tarn ; and, beyond them, nearly the whole of the middle and lower divisions of Ullswater are seen. On the eastern, or Westmorland, side of Ullswater, are Swarth-fell, Birk-fell, and Place-fell ; and over them, looking in a south- easterly direction, may be seen Kidsay Pike, High Street, and Hill Bell ; and still further south, and far distant from the eye, the broad top of Ingleborough is visible. Angle Tarn is seen reposing among the hills beyond Patterdale. On the Cumberland side* of the lake, Hallsteads, the residence of John Marshall, Esq. is delightfully situated ; and, at a greater distance, beyond Pen- rith, the ridge of Crossfell is stretched out. Looking south, having on the left St. Sunday's Crag, are Scandale fell, Fairfield, and Dolly Wagon Pike : over these summits appear the lakes of Windermere, Coniston, and Esthwaite, with the flat country extending southward to Lancaster. To the right of Dolly Wagon Pike is Seat Sandal, with a patch of Loughrigg fell be- tween them ; beyond may be descried the mountains of Conis- ton, with Black Comb in the distance. Langdale Pikes and Wrynose are seen beyond Steel fell ; and, more to the right, over Wythburn head, Scawfell and the Pikes look down in ma- jesty upon their more humble neighbours. Great End and Ling- mel Crag project from the vast mass of mountains among which the Pikes on Scawfell stand unrivalled ; and nearer the eye are the Borrowdale mountains, Glaramara and Rosthwaite Cam be- HELVELLYN. 101 ing the most conspicuous. Great Gable rears his head on the right of the Pikes ; and more to the north is Kirkfell, over which, on a clear day, the Isle of Man may be seen. Next suc- ceeds the great cluster of mountains extending from Derwent Water to Ennerdale. The first range beyond the heights of Wythburn are Gate Crag, Maiden Moor, and Cat Bells, all near Derwent Water; and over these are Dale Head and Robinson. On the confines of Buttermere are seen Honister Crag, Fleet- with, Haycocks, High Crag, High Stile, and Red Pike ; and still more remote, and north of the Pillar, the Ennerdale Haycocks. Whitelees Pike, Grassmoor, Cawsey Pike, and Grisedale Pike all lie between the above range and the lake of Bassenthwite, a great part of which lake may be observed from Helvellyn, and beyond Bassenthwaite the distant plains of Cumberland, with the summits of the Scottish mountains. Derwent Water is hid from Tiew. A fine cool spring of water, called BROWNRIGG WELL, which affords a refreshing draught at all seasons, will be found on the western side of the mountain, about 300 yards from ;ts summit. Scawfell and Helvellyn being the two mountains of this region which will best repay the fatigue of ascending them, the follow- ing Verses may be here introduced with propriety. They are from Mr. Wordsworth's Miscellaneous Poems. TO OM HER FIRST ASCENT TO THE SIM MIT OF HBLVELLYN. INMATE of a Mountain Dwelling, Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed, From the watch-towers of Helvellyn ; Awed, delighted, and amazed. Potent was the spell that bound thee Not unwilling to obey : For blue Ether's arms, flung round thee, Stilled the pantings of dismay. Lo ! the dwindled woods and meadows, What a vast abyss is there ! J.o ! the clouds, the solemn shadows, And the glistenings heavenly fair ! And a record of commotion Which a thousand ridges yield; Ridge, and gulph, and distant ocean Gleaming like a silver shield ! Take thy flight; possess, inherit Alps or Andes they are thine ! With the morning's roseate Spirit, Sweep their length of snowy line ; 102 PENBIIH. Or survey the bright dominions In the gorgeous colours drest, Flung from off the purple pinions Evening spreads throughout the west ! Thine are all the coral fountains Warbling in each sparry vault Of the untrodden lunar mountains ; Listen to their songs ! or halt, To Niphate's top invited, Whither spiteful Satan steered : Or descend where the ark alighted, When the green earth re-appeared : For the power of hills is on thee, As was witnessed through thine eye Then, when old Helvellyn won thee, To confess their majesty ! BOTANICAL NOT ICES. SAXIFBAGA nivalis. Helvellyn. palmata. Do. SAOSSCKEA alpina. Do. PYBOLA secunda. Between Great Dod and Helvellyn. SALIX herbacea. Top of Helvellyn. JUNCUS triglumis. West side of Helvellyn. CABEX rigida. Helvellyn. RHODIOLA rosea. Do. ALCHEMILLA alpina. Near the summit of Do. PENRITH. PENRITH is a neat and clean town, situated in a fertile valley, a mile from the confluence of the Eamont and Lowther, with a population of 5385. Market on Tuesday. It is a great thorough- fare, being at the juntion of the two great roads from the south to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Penrith and the neighbourhood abound in objects of antiquarian curiosity. In the church-yard there is a monument of great antiquity, called the Giant's Grave, consisting of two stone pillars about ten feet high and fifteen feet asunder, and four large semicircular stones, two on each side of the grave, embedded in the earth. The common vulgar re- port is, that this is the tomb of Sir Ewan or Owen Caesarius, a gigantic warrior, who reigned in this country in the time of the Saxons. Near this monument there is another antique stone pillar, six feet high, called the Giant's Thumb. The Castle is an object of interest, and stands on the west side of the town, It was probably erected by the Neville family in the time of Richard II. as a defence for the inhabitants of the town from their Scottish enemies, and was dismantled in the time of the Commonwealth. The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway skirts the walls of this ancient ruin. The Beacon stands on the summit of BROUGHAM HALL. BROUGHAM CASTLE. 103 a hill on the east side of the town, and is a most conspicuous and interesting object for some distance round Penrith. A curious relic of British antiquity, called Arthurs Round Table, is to be found about a mile south of the town, on the Westmorland side of the Eamont. It is a circular area twenty-nine yards in diameter, surrounded by a broad ditch and elevated mound, with two ap- proaches cut through the mound opposite to each other. It is supposed to have been an arena for tournaments in the days of chivalry. A few hundred yards to the west of the Round Table is an elevation called Mayburgh, on which is a circular enclosure one hundred yards in diameter, formed by a broad ridge of rounded stones heaped up to the height of fifteen feet. In the centre of the circle is a rude pillar of stone eleven feet high. This is believed to have been a place of Druidical judicature. There is a more remarkable monument, by some supposed of Druidical times, six miles north-east of Penrith, called Long Meg and her Daughters,* It is situated on the summit of a hill near Little Salkeld, and is a circle of three hundred and fifty yards in circumference, formed by seventy-two stones, many of which are ten feet high, with one at the entrance eighteen feet high. Brougham Hall, the residence of Lord Brougham, stands on a gentle eminence one mile and a half to the south-east of Penrith, and from its situation and beautiful prospects has been styled the " Windsor of the North." The majestic ruins of Brougham Castle stand on the south of the rivers Eamont and Lowther at their confluence, and are about a mile from Penrith. This cas- tle was anciently the seat of the Veleriponts, and from them descended to the Cliffords and Tuftons : it still belongs to the Earl of Thanet. Camden supposes it to stand on the site of the Roman Station Brovoniacum. About two miles below Brougham Castle, on the rocky banks of the Eamont, are " two very sin- gular grottos or excavations in a perpendicular rock, by a narrow ledge of which they are alone accessible. One of them is but a small narrow recess, but the other is more capacious, and ap- pears to have had a door and window.'' It was formerly secured by iron gates, and the marks of iron grating and hinges are still observable upon the rock. These grottos are called the Giant's Caves, or Isis Parlis, and in Sandford's MS Account of Cum- berland it is said that Sir Hugh Caesario lived here, and " was buried in the north side of the church i' th' green field." Five * See Scenery of the Lakes. L 104 LOWTHER CASTLE. miles from Penrith, near Plumpton, are the extensive ruins of Old Penrith, formerly a Roman Station, supposed by Camden to be Petriana, and by Horsley Bremetenracum. INNS, Crown and George. LOWTHER CASTLE, the magnificent residence of the Earl of Lonsdale, stands in an extensive park comprising six hundred acres of richly-wooded land, and is five miles south of Penrith. This noble structure is built of pale freestone, and combines the majestic effect of a fortification with the splendour of a regal abode. " Lowther ! in thy majestic Pile are seen Cathedral pomp and grace, in apt accord With the baronial castle's sterner mien ; Union significant of God adored, And charters won and guarded by the sword Of ancient honour ; whence that goodly state Of polity which wise men venerate, And will maintain, if God his help afford." The north and south fronts are of a widely different character, the former presenting the appearance of a castle, and the latter that of a cathedral, with pointed and mullioned windows, deli- cate pinnacles, niches and cloisters. The scene from this front " accords well with the solemn character of the edifice, being a lawn of emerald green and velvet smoothness, shut in by orna- mental trees and shrubs, and by timber [of stately growth." The prospect from the north front is more extensive, and that from the great central tower is extremely grand. A high embattled wall surrounds the entrance court, which is approached through an arched gateway. The interior of the Castle is fitted up in a style of splendour corresponding with the richness of the exterior. The grand staircase has an imposing appearance, and the apart- ments are enriched with a vast quantity of massive plate, and contain several pictures of great value. The building of the Castle was commenced in 1802, from a design by Smirke. Through the liberality of the noble Proprietor it is allowed to be seen by visitors at all seasonable times on application a the lodge. If, during his tour, the Stranger has complained, as he will have had reason to do, of a want of majestic trees, he may be abundantly recompensed for his loss in the far-spreading woods which mrround this mansion. Visitants, for the most part, see little of the beauty of these magnificent grounds, being content with the view from the Terrace ; but the whole course of the EXCURSIONS FROM PENRITH. 103 Lowther, from Askham to the bridge under Brougham Hall, presents almost at every step some new feature of river, wood- land, and rocky landscape. A portion of this tract has, from its beauty, acquired the name of the Elysian Fields ; but the course of the stream can only be followed by the pedestrian.* BOTANICAL NOTICES. EPIPACTIS ensifolia. Woods at Lowther. grandiflora. Woods at Lowther, opposite Askham Hall. I2*rur0ion$ from Urnrttfj. To the INN at PATTERDALE. 1 J The Cumberland road runs by Red Hills .. .. 1J 2 J Dalemain . . . . 3} 2 Junction with theWestmor- If Watermillock TJ H Hallsteads * . . . . 8 J 2J Lyulph's Tower 11 4 Inn at Patterdale . . 15 land road . . . . 5| From PENRITH, on the Westmorland side of the Eamont, toPOOLET BRIDGE, and thence on the northern side of Ullswater,to the INN at PATTERDALE. 1J Over Eamont Bridge to Arthur's Round Table 1} 4J Pooley Bridge . . . . 5} } Junction with the Cumber- land road . . . . (5 J 9J Inn at Patterdale . . 15J From PENRITH to HAWES WATER. 6 Lowther, or Askham* . . 5 7 Bv Bampton* to Hawes Water 12 4 Return by Butterswick . . 16 5 Over MoorDovack to Powley 21 6 By Dalemain to Penrith . . 27 To SHAP ABBEY. 5 Askham 5 4 Bampton Church . . 9 1 Shap 13 11 Penrith . 24 3 Shap Abbey 12 SHAP ABBEY. Of this once magnificent building, little more than the tower now remains. It was built by Thomas, son of Gospatrick, in the reign of King John, for the Canons of the Praemonstratcatian Order, who had been first placed at Preston Patrick, near Kendal. In the neigbourhood of this Abbey is an area upwards of half a mile in length and twenty or thirty yards broad, formed by huge blocks of granite placed at a distance of ten or twelve yards from each other. This stupendous monu- ment of antiquity is called Carl Lofts, and is thought by Pennant to be of Danish origin. Dr. Burn supposes it to have been a Druidical Temple. It is now very much reduced, and can with difficulty be traced, owing to many of the stones having been broken up in clearing the ground for agricultural purposes. * The woods about Lowther, and especially near the Mansion, suf- fered greatly by the hurricane which caused such general devastation of the same kind on the 8th January, 1839. L 2 106 CARLISLE. CIRCUITOUS WALK to EAMONT BRIDGE, ARTHUR'S ROUND TABLE, MAYBOROUGH, BROUGHAM HALL, COUNTESS' PILLAR, BROUGHAM CASTLE, and back to PENRITH. Eamont Bridge ... ... 1 Arthur's Round Table 1J Mayborough ... .. 1 Return to Arthur's Round 1J Countess' Pillar, 50 yards beyond the third mile- stone J Brougham Castle Over the Bridge and through Carlton to Penrith . . 5 Table 1| J Lowther Bridge .. 2 J Brougham Hall 2| WALK to the GIANT'S CAVE, on the Cumberland side of the Eamont, 3 miles. To EDENHALL, KIRKOSWALD, NUNNERY, ARMATHWAITE, CORBY, and CARLISLE. 1 Carlton 1 3 Edenhall .. .. 4 Longwathby .. . . 4J 2J Long Meg and her Daugh- ters 7 SJ Kirkoswald .. .. 10J 2 Nunnery 12J 3 Armathwaite Bridge . . 15J 1 Walk from the bridge by Armathwaite Castle, one mile up the Eden . . 16J 1 Return to the Bridge . . 17$ 7 Corby 24=V 5 Carlisle, by Wetherall .. 29J PENRITH to CARLISLE, Direct. 5 Plumpton 5 2 HighHesket 7 1} Low Hesket 8j 7 Carlton 15J 2J Carlisle .. .. 18 CARLISLE. CARLISLE, the capital of Cumberland, is an ancient city and bishopric. It is situated within eight miles of the Scottish bor- der, and is surrounded by a fertile and open country. Carlisle was a Roman Station, and is within a mile of Hadrian's Wall. In the wars between England and Scotland it was a place of great importance. The town is well built, and many of the streets are very spacious. The Castle is said to have been built in the year 780, and some of the massive and antique buttresses on the north battery are ascribed to William Rufus. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here in 1568, but the rooms she occupied have been recently taken down. The Cathedral is a noble building, and the east window is said to be the largest, as it is certainly the finest, in the island, while the ground is classic, as being the resting-place of the mortal remains of Paley, and the scene of the marriage of the author of Waverley. The new Jail is situated at the southern entrance of the city, contiguous to the County Court-houses, the principal features of which are two magnificent circular towers, A News Room, Reading and Coffee Rooms, have recently been erected from a design by HEIGHTS OF LAKES AND MOUNTAINS. 107 Rickman and Hutchinson, of Birmingham, and are a great orna- ment to the city. There are extensive cotton works carried on here, and the steam-chimney of Messrs. Dixons' cotton mills is a remarkable object for many miles round. Woollens, linens, and other articles are also manufactured here, and Carlisle is particularly celebrated for its whips and hats. Carlisle is the grand focus of Steam and Railway communication for all parts of the kingdom. It is connected with the Irish Channel by a ship-canal to Bowness, on the Solway, from which port steam- packets are constantly plying to Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, &c. It is also connected with the West of Cumberland by a railroad to Maryport, Workington, Whitehaven, and the western coast extending to Furness and Ulverston, with Lancashire and the South of England by the great trunk Lancaster and Carlisle and London and Birmingham Railways, and with Newcastle, Sunderland, and the whole northern coast, by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. The Railway communication will be still further extended in a short time to Edinburgh and Glasgow, by the Caledonian Railway, now in progress. Population, 21 ,354. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. INNS, Bush, Coffee House, and Victoria. Lanercost Priory, Naworth Castle, and Gillsland Spa, may be conveniently visited from Carlisle by Railway Conveyance. HEIGHTS OF LAKES ABOVE THE SEA. Feet. ,Red Tarn (Helvellyn) 2400 Sprinkling Tarn (Borrowdale) 1900 Hawes Water 714 Thirlmere 473 Ullswater 460 Derwent Water : 288 Crummock Water 260 Bassenthwaite Water 210 Esthwaite Water 198 Grasmere . . . . . . . . . . ... 196 Wast Water 160 Windennere 116 Coniston Water 105 WATERFALLS. Feet. Scale Force, near Buttermere 160 Col with Force, five miles from Ambleside 152 Stockgill Force, near Ambleside 160 ,- Lodore Fall, near Keswick 150 Barrow Cascade, near Keswick . . . . 122 Dungeon Gill, Langdale 90 L 3 10S Feet. t Ara Force, Gowbarrow Park ........ 80 , Rydal Fall, near Ambleside ..... ..... 70 Birker Force, Eskdale .............. 65 t Stanley Gill, Eskdale ............... 62 Nunnery Fall, one mile from Kirkoswald ...... 60 Sour Milk Force, near Buttermere ... ... .. 60 Howk, Caldbeck .................. 50 Skelwitb Force ............... 20 HEIGHTS OF THE MOUNTAINS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, Feet. Scawfell Pike, Cumberland - . 3166 Scawfell, Cumberland - - 3100 * Helvellyn, Cumberland and Westmorland 3055 , Skiddaw, Cumberland - 3022 Fairfield, Westmorland - 2950 Great Gable, Cumberland - 2925 Bowfell, Westmorland - - - 2914 Rydal Head, Westmorland - 2910 Pillar, Cumberland - 2893 Saddleback ----- 2787 Grasmoor, Cumberland - 2756 Red Pike, Cumberland - 2750 <" High Street, Westmorland - - - 2700 Grisedale Pike, Cumberland - - 2680 Coniston Old Man, Lancashire - - 2577 Hill Bell, Westmorland - 2500 Westmorland Carrock Fell, Cumberland - - 2110 High Pike, Caldbeck Fells, Cumberland - - 2101 Causey Pike, Cumberland - . 2030 Black Comb, Cumberland - - 1919 Lord's Seat, Cumberland - 1728 Wansfell, Westmorland - 1590 Whinfell Beacon, near Kendal, Westmorland - 1500 Cat Bell, Cumberland - 1448 Latrigg, Cumberland - 1160 Dent Hill, Cumberland - 1110 Loughrigg Fell, Westmorland 1108 Benson Knott, near Kendal, Westmorland - 1098 Penrith Beacon, Cumberland 1020 Mell Fell, Cumberland - 1000 Kendal Fell, Westmorland - 648 Scilly Bank, near Whitehaven, Cumberland - 500 MOUNTAIN PASSES. Sty Head, Cumberland - - 1250 Haws between Bnttermere dale and Newlands, Cumb. 1160 Haws between Buttermere and Borrowdale, Cnmb. 1100 Dunmail Raise, Cumberland and Westmorland - 720 DESCRIPTION SCENERY OF. THE LAKES. SCENERY OF THE LAKES. SECTION FIRST. VIEW OP THE COUNTRY AS FORMED BT NATURE. AT 'Lucerne, in Switzerland, is shewn a Model of the Alpine country which encompasses the Lake of the Four Cantons. The spectator ascends a little platform, and sees mountains, lakes, glaciers, rivers, woods, waterfalls, and valleys, with their cot- tages, and every other object contained in them, lying at his feet; all things being represented in their appropriate colours. It may be easily conceived that this exhibition affords an exqui- site delight to, the imagination, tempting it to wander at will from valley to valley, from mountain to mountain, through the deepest recesses of the Alps. But it supplies also a more sub- stantial pleasure ; for the sublime and beautiful region, with all its hidden treasures, and their bearings and relations to each other, is thereby comprehended and understood at once. Something of this kind, without touching upon minute details and individualities which would only confuse and embarrass, will here be attempted, in respect to the Lakes of the North of Eng- land, and the vales and mountains enclosing and surrounding them. The delineation, if tolerably executed, will, in some instances, communicate to the traveller, who has already seen the objects, new information ; and will assist in giving to his recollections a more orderly arrangement than his own opportunities of observ- ing may have permitted him to make ; while it will be still more useful to the future traveller, by directing his attention at once to distinctions in things which, without such previous aid, a length of time only could enable him to discover. It is hoped, also, that this Essay may become generally serviceable, by lead- ing to habits of more exact and considerate observation than, as far as the writer knows, have hitherto been applied to local scenery. To begin, then, with the main outlines of the country: I know not how to give the reader a distinct image of these more readily, than by requesting him to place himself with me, in imagination, upon some given point : let it be the top of either of the mountains, Great Gable, or Scawfell : or, rather, let us sup- pose our station to be a cloud hanging midway between these 112 VALES DIVERGING FROM two mountains, at not more than half a mile's distance from the summit of each, and not many yards above their highest eleva- tion ; we shall then see stretched at our feet a number of valleys, not fewer than eight, diverging from the point on which we are supposed to stand, like spokes from the nave of a wheel. First, we note, lying to the south-east, the vale of Laugdale,* which will conduct the eye to the long lake of Windermere, stretch- ing near to the sea ; or rather to the sands of the vast bay of Morecambe, serving here for the rim of this imaginary wheel : let us trace it in a direction from the south-east towards the south, and we shall next fix our eyes upon the vale of Coniston, running up likewise from the sea, but not (as all the other valleys do) to the nave of the wheel, and therefore it may be not inaptly represented as a broken spoke sticking in the rim. Looking forth again, with an inclination towards the west, we see imme- diately at our feet the vale of Duddon, in which is no lake, but a copious stream winding among fields, rocks, and mountains, and terminating its course in the sands of Duddon. The fourth vale, next to be observed, viz. that of the Esk, is of the same general character as the last, yet beautifully discriminated from it by peculiar features. Its stream passes under the woody steep upon which stands Muncaster Castle, the ancient seat of the Penning- tons, and after forming a short and narrow asstuary enters the sea below the small town of Ravenglass. Next, almost due west, look down into and along the deep valley of Wastdale, with its little chapel and half a dozen neat dwellings scattered upon a plain of meadow and corn-ground intersected with stone walls apparently innumerable, like a large piece of lawless patchwork, or an array of mathematical figures, such as in the ancient schools of geometry might have been sportively and fantastically traced out upon sand. Beyond this little fertile plain lies, within a bed of steep mountains, the long, narrow, stern, and desolate lake of Wastdale ; and, beyond this, a dusky tract of level ground con- ducts the eye to the Irish Sea. The stream that issues from Wastwater is named the Irt, and falls into the aestuary of the river Esk. Next comes in view Ennerdale, with its lake of bold and somewhat savage shores. Its stream, the Ehen or Enna, flowing through a soft and fertile country, passes the town of Egremont and the ruins of the castle, then, seeming, like the other rivers, to break through the barrier of sand thrown up by the winds on this tempestuous coast, enters the Irish Sea. The vale of Buttermere, with the lake and village of that name, and Crummock-water, beyond, next present themselves. We will follow the main stream, the Cocker, through the fertile and beau* tiful vale of Lor ton, till it is lost in the Derwent, below the noble * Anciently spelt Langden, and so called by the old inhabitants to this day dean, from which the latter part of the word is derived, being in many parts of England a name for a valley. A COMMON CENTRE. 1 1 3 ruins of Cockermouth Castle. Lastly, Borrowdalc, of which the vale of Kes\vick is only a continuation, stretching due north, brings us to a point nearly opposite to the vale of Winder- mere, with which we began. From this it will appear, that the image of a wheel, thus far exact, is little more than one half complete : but the deficiency on the eastern side may be sup- plied by the vales of Wythburn, Ullswater, Haweswater, and the vale of Grasmere and Rydal ; none of these, however, run up the central point between Great Gable and Scawfell. From this, hitherto our central point, let us us take flight of not more than four or five miles eastward to the ridge of Helvellyn, and we shall look down upon Wythburn and St. John's Vale, which are a branch of the Vale of Keswick ; upon Ullswater, stretching due east ; and not far beyond to the south-east (though from this point not visible) lie the vale and lake of Haweswater ; and lastly, the vale of Grasmere, Rydal, and Ambleside, brings us back to Windcrmere, thus completing, though on the east- ern side in a somewhat irregular manner, the representative figure of the wheel. Such, concisely given, is the general topographical view of the country of the Lakes in the north of England ; and it may be observed that, from the circumference to the centre, that is, from the sea, or plain country, to the mountain stations specified, there is in the several ridges that enclose these vales and divide them from each other, I mean in the forms and surfaces, first of the swelling grounds, next of the hills and rocks, and lastly of the mountains an ascent of almost regular gradation, from ele- gance and richness, to their highest point of grandeur and sub- limity. It follows, therefore, from this, first, that these rocks, hills, and mountains, must present themselves to view in stages rising above each other, the mountains clustering together to- wards the central point ; and next, that an observer familiar with the several vales must, from their various positions in rela- tion to the sun, have had before his eyes every possible embel- lishment of beauty, dignity, and splendour, which light and sha- dow can bestow upon objects so diversified. For example, in the vale of Windermere, if the spectator looks for gentle and lovely scenes, his eye is turned towards the south ; if for the grand, towards the north : in the vale of Keswick, which (as hath been said) lies almost due north of this, it is directly the reverse. Hence, when the sun is setting in summer far to the north-west, it is seen by the spectator from the shores or breast of Windermere, resting among the summits of the loftiest mountains, some of which will perhaps be half or wholly hidden by clouds, or by the blaze of light which the orb diffuses around it ; and the surface of the lake will reflect before the eye cor- responding colours through every variety of beauty, and through all degrees of splendour. In the vale of Keswick, at the same period, the sun sets over the humbler regions of the landscape, 1 14 MOUNTAINS. and showers down upon them the radiance which at once veils and glorifies, sending forth, meanwhile, broad streams of rosy, crimson, purple, or golden light, towards the grand mountains in the south and south-east, which, thus illuminated, with all their projections and cavities, and with an intermixture of solemn shadows, are seen distinctly through a cool and clear atmosphere. Of course, there is as marked a difference between the noontide appearance of these two opposite vales. The bedimming haze that overspreads the south, and the clear atmosphere and deter- mined shadows of the clouds in the north, at the same time of the day, are each seen in these several vales, with a contrast as striking. The reader will easily conceive in what degree the intermediate vales partake of a kindred variety. I do not indeed know any tract of country in which, within so narrow a compass, may be found an equal variety in the influences of light and shadow upon the sublime or beautiful features of landscape : and it is owing to the combined circumstances to which the reader's attention has been directed. From a point between Great Gable and Scawfell, a shepherd would not require more than an hour to descend into any one of eight of the prin- cipal vales by which he would be surrounded ; and all the others lie (with the exception of Haweswater) at but a small distance. But, though clustered together, every valley has its distinct and separate character : in some instances, as if they had been form- ed in studied contrast to each other, and in others with the united pleasing differences and resemblances of a sisterly rival- ship. This concentration of interest gives to the country a decided superiority over the most attractive districts of Scotland and Wales, especially for the pedestrian traveller. In Scotland and Wales are found, undoubtedly, individual scenes, which, in their several kinds, cannot be excelled. But, in Scotland, par- ticularly, what long tracts of desolate country intervene ! so that the traveller, when he reaches a spot deservedly of great cele- brity, would find it difficult to determine how much of his plea- sure is owing to excellence inherent in the landscape itself ; and how much to an instantaneous recovery from an oppression left upon his spirits by the barrenness and desolation through which he has passed. But to proceed with our survey ; and, first, of the MOUNTAINS Their forms are endlessly diversified, sweeping easily or boldly in simple majesty, abrupt and precipitous, or soft and elegant. In magnitude and grandeur they are individually inferior to the most celebrated of those in some other parts of this island ; but, in the combinations which they make, towering above each other, or lifting themselves in ridges like the waves of a tumultuous sea, and in the beauty and variety of their surfaces and colours, they are surpassed by none. The general surface of the mountains is turf, rendered rich and green by the moisture of the climate. Sometimes the turf, WINTER COLOURING. 115 as in the neighbourhood of Newlands, is little broken, the whole covering being soft and downy pasturage. In other places, rocks predominate ; the soil is laid bare by torrents and burstings of water from the sides of the mountains in heavy rains ; and not unfrequently their perpendicular sides are seamed by ravines (formed also by rains and torrents), which, meeting in angular points, entrench and scar the surface with numerous figures like the letters W and Y. In the ridge that divides Eskdale from Wastdale, granite is found ; but the mountains are for the most part composed of the stone by mineralogists termed schist, which, as you approach the plain country, gives place to limestone and freestone ; but schist being the substance of the mountains, the predominant colour of their rocky parts is bluish, or hoary grey the general tint of the lichens with which the bare stone is encrusted. With this blue or grey colour is frequently intermixed a red tinge, proceeding from the iron that interveins the stone and impregnates the soil. The iron is the principle of decomposition in these rocks ; and hence, when they become pulverized, the elementary particles crumbling down, overspread in many places the steep and almost precipitous sides of the mountains with an intermixture of colours, like the compound hues of the dove's neck. When in the heat of advancing summer, the fresh green tint of the herbage has somewhat faded, it is again revived by the appearance of the fern profusely spread over the same ground ; and, upon this plant , more than upon any thing else, do the changes which the seasons make in the colouring of the mountains depend. About the first week in October, the rich green, which prevailed through the whole summer, is usually passed away. The brilliant and various colours of the fern are then in harmony with the autumnal woods : bright yellow or lemon colour, at the base of the mountains, melting gradually, through orange, to a dark russet brown to- wards the summits, where the plant, being more exposed to the weather, is in a more advanced state of decay. Neither heath nor furze are generally found upon the sides of these mountains, though in many places they are adorned by those plants, so beautiful when in flower. We may add, that the mountains are of height sufficient to have the surface towards the summit sof- tened by distance, and to imbibe the finest aerial linos. In com- mon also with other mountains, their apparent forms and colours are perpetually changed by the clouds and vapours which float round them : the effect indeed of mist or haze, in a country of this character, is like that of magic. I have seen six or seven ridges rising above each other, all created in a moment by the vapours upon the side of a mountain, which, in its ordinary ap- pearance shewed not a projecting point to furnish even a hint for such an operation. I will take this opportunity of observing, that they who have studied the appearances of nature feel that the superiority, in 116 MOUNTAINS. point of visual interest, of mountainous over other countries is more strikingly displayed in winter than in summer. This, as must be obvious, is partly owing to the forms of the mountains, which, of course, are not affected by the seasons ; but also, in no small degree, to the greater variety that exists in their winter than their summer colouring. This variety is such, and so har- moniously preserved, that it leaves little cause of regret when the splendour of autumn is passed away. The oak coppices, upon the sides of the mountains, retain russet leaves ; the birch stands conspicuous with its silver stem and puce-coloured twigs ; the hollies, with green leaves and scarlet berries, have come forth to view from the deciduous trees, whose summer-foliage had concealed them : the ivy is now plentifully apparent upon the stems and boughs of the trees, and upon the steep rocks- In place of the deep summer-green of the herbage and fern, many rich colours play into each other over the surface of the moun- tains ; turf (the tints of which are interchangeably tawny-green, olive, and brown), beds of withered fern, and grey rocks, being harmoniously blended together. The mosses and lichens are never so fresh and nourishing as in winter, if it be not a season of frost ; and their minute beauties prodigally adorn the fore- ground. Wherever we turn, we find these productions of na- ture, to which winter is rather favourable than unkindly, scat- tered over the walls, banks of earth, rocks, and stones, and upon the trunks of trees, with the intermixture of several species of small fern, now green and fresh ; and, to the observing passenger, their forms and colours are a source of inexhaustible admiration. Add to this the hoar-frost and snow, with all the varieties they create, and which volumes would not be sufficient to describe. I will content myself with one instance of the colouring produced by snow, which may not be uninteresting to painters. It is ex- tracted from the memorandum-book of a friend ; and for its ac- curacy I can speak, having been an eye-witness of the appearance. " I observed," says he, " the beautiful effect of the drifted snow upon the mountains, and the perfect tone of colour. From the top of the mountains downwards, a rich olive was produced by the powdery snow and the grass, which olive was warmed with a little brown, and in this way harmoniously combined, by insen- sible gradations, with the white. The drifting took away the monotony of snow ; and the whole vale of Grasmere, seen from the terrace walk in Easedale, was as varied, perhaps more so, than even in the pomp of autumn. In the distance was Lough- rigg Fell, the basin- wall of the lake : this, from the summit down- ward, was a rich orange-olive ; then the lake of a bright olive- green, nearly the same tint as the snow-powdered mountain tops and high slopes in Easedale ; and, lastly, the church, with its firs, forming the centre of the view. Next to the church came nine distinguishable hills, six of them with woody sides turned towards u, all of them oak copses with their bright red leaves and sno%v- VALES. LAKES. 117 powdered twigs ; these hills so variously situated in relation to each other, and to the view in general, so variously powdered, some only enough to give the herbage a rich brown tint, one in- tensely white and lighting up all the others were yet so placed, as in the most inobtrusive manner to harmonise by contrast with a perfect naked, snowless, bleak summit in the far distance." Having spoken of the forms, surface, and colour of the moun- tains, let us descend into the VALES. Though these have been represented under the general image of the spokes of a wheel, they are, for the most part, winding ; the windings of many being abrupt and intricate. And, it may be observed, that, in one circumstance, the general shape of them all has been deter- mined by that primitive conformation through which so many became receptacles of lakes. For they are not formed, as are most of the celebrated Welch valleys, by an approximation of the sloping bases of the opposite mountains towards each other, leav- ing little more between than a channel for the passage of a hasty river ; but the bottom of these valleys is mostly a spacious and gently declining area, apparently level as the floor of a temple, or the surface of a lake, and broken in many cases by rocks and hills, which rise up like islands from the plain. In such of the valleys as may make windings, these level areas open upon the traveller in succession, divided from each other sometimes by a mutual approximation of the hills, leaving only passage for a river, sometimes by correspondent windings, without such ap- proximation ; and sometimes by a bold advance of one mountain to that which is opposite it. It may here be observed with pro- priety that the several rocks and hills, which have been described as rising up like islands from the level area of the vale, have regulated the choice of the inhabitants in the situation of their dwellings. Where none of these are found, and the inclination of the ground is not sufficiently rapid easily to carry off the wa- ters (as in the higher part of Langdale, for instance) the house* are not sprinkled over the middle of the vales, but confined to their sides, being placed merely so far up the mountain as to be protected from the floods. But where these rocks and hills have been scattered over the plain of the vale (as in Grasmere, Don- nerdale, Eskdale, &c.) the beauty they give to the scene is much heightened by a single cottage, or cluster of cottages, that will be almost always found under them, or upon their sides ; dry ness and shelter having tempted the dalesmen to fix their habitations there. I shall now speak of the LAKES of this country. The form of the lake is most perfect when, like Der went- water and some of the smaller lakes, it least resembles that of a river ; I mean, when being looked at from any given point where the whole may IK; seen at once, the width of it bears such proportion to the length, that, however the outline may be diversified by far- receding bays, it never assumes the shape of a river, and U con- M 2 118 LAKES. templated with that placid and quiet feeling which belongs pecu- liarly to the lake as a body of still water under the influence of no current ; reflecting therefore the clouds, the light, and all the imagery of the sky and surrounding hills ; expressing also and making visible the changes of the atmosphere and motions of the lightest breeze, and subject to agitation only from the winds, The risible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received Into the bosom of the steady lake ! It must be noticed, as a favourable characteristic of the lakes of this country, that, though several of the largest, such as Win- dermere, Ullswater, Haweswater, do, when the whole length of them is commanded from an elevated point, lose somewhat of the peculiar form of the lake, and assume the resemblance of a mag- nificent river ; yet, as their shape is winding (particularly that of Ullswater and Haweswater), when the view of the whole is obstructed by those barriers which determine the windings, and the spectator is confined to one reach, the appropriate feeling is revived ; and one lake may thus in succession present to the eye the essential characteristic of many. But, though the forms of the large lakes have this advantage, it is nevertheless favourable to the beauty of the country that the largest of them are com- paratively small : and that the same vale generally furnishes a succession of lakes, instead of being filled with one. The vales in North Wales, as hath been observed, are not formed for the reception of lakes ; those of Switzerland, Scotland, and this part of the North of England, are so formed ; but, in Switzerland and Scotland, the proportion of diffused water is often too great, as at the lake of Geneva for instance, and in most of the Scotch lakes. No doubt it sounds magnificent and flatters the imagina- tion, to hear, at a distance, of expanses of water so many leagues in length and miles in width ; and such ample room may be de- lightful to the fresh-water sailor, scudding with a lively breeze amid the rapidly-shifting scenery. But, who ever travelled along the banks of Loch-Lomond, variegated as the lower part is by islands, without feeling that a speedier termination of the long vista of blank water would be acceptable ; and without wish- ing for an interposition of green meadows, trees, and cottages, and a sparkling stream to run by his side ? In fact, a notion of grandeur, as connected with magnitude, has seduced persons of taste into a general mistake upon this subject. It is much more desirable, for the purpose of pleasure, that lakes should be numer- ous, and small or middle-sized, than large, not only for commu- nication by walks and rides, but for variety, and for recurrence of similar appearances. To illustrate this by one instance : how pleasing is it to have a ready and frequent opportunity of watching, at the outlet of a lake, the stream pushing its way LAKES. Hi) among the rocks in lively contrast with the stillness from which it has escaped ; and how amusing to compare its noisy and tur- bulent motions with the gentle playfulness of the breezes that may be starting up or wandering here and there over the faintly- rippled surface of the broad water ! I may add, as a general remark, that, in lakes of great width, the shores cannot be dis- tinctly seen at the same time, and therefore contribute little to mutual illustration and ornament ; and, if the opposite shores are out of sight of each other, like those of the American and Asiatic- lakes, then, unfortunately, the traveller is reminded of a nobler object ; he has the blankness of a sea-prospect without the gran- deur and accompanying sense of power. As the comparatively small size of the lakes in the North of England is favourable to the production of variegated landscapes, their boundary-line also is for the most part gracefully or boldly indented. That uniformity which prevails in the primitive frame of the lower grounds among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded, is broken by the secondary agents of nature, ever at work to supply the defici- encies of the mould in which things were originally cast. Using the word deficiencies, I do not speak with reference to those stronger emotions which a region of mountains is peculiarly fitted to excite. The bases of these huge barriers may run for a long space in straight lines, and these parallel to each other ; the op- posite sides of a profound vale may ascend as exact counterparts, or in mutual reflection, like the billows of a troubled sea ; and the impression be, from its very simplicity, more awful and sub- lime. Sublimity is the result of Nature's first great dealings with the superficies of the earth ; but the general tendency of her subsequent operations is towards the production of beauty, by a multiplicity of symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent whole. This is everywhere exemplified along the margins of these lakes. Masses of rock, that have been precipitated from the heights into the area of waters, lie in some places like stranded ships ; or have acquired the compact structure of jutting piers ; or project in little peninsulas crested with native wood. The smallest rivulet one whose silent influx is scarcely noticeable in a season of dry weather so faint is the dimple made by it on the surface of the smooth lake will be found to have been not useless in shaping, by its deposits of gravel and soil in time of flood, a curve that would not otherwise have existed. But the more powerful brooks, encroaching upon the level of the lake, have, in course of time, given birth to ample promontories of sweeping outline that contrast boldly with the longitudinal base of the steeps on the opposite shore ; while their flat or gently-sloping surfaces never fail to introduce, into the midst of desolation and barrenness, the elements of fertility, even where the habitations of men may not have been raised. These alluvial promontories, however, threaten, in some places, to bisect the waters which M 3 1 20 WATER-FOWL. they have long adorned ; and, in course of ages, they will cause some of the lakes to dwindle into numerous and insignificant pools, which, in their turn, will finally be filled up. But, check- ing these intrusive calculations, let us rather be content with ap- pearances as they are, and pursue in imagination the meandering shores ; whether rugged steeps, admitting of no cultivation, de- scend into the water, or gently-sloping lawns and woods, or flat and fertile meadows stretch between the margin of the lake and the mountains. Among minuter recommendations, will be noticed, especially along bays exposed to the setting-in of strong winds, the curved rim of fine blue gravel, thrown up in course of time by the waves, half of it perhaps gleaming from under the water, and the corresponding half of a lighter hue ; and in other parts bordering the lake, groves, if I may so call them, of reeds and bulrushes ; or plots of water-lilies lifting up their large target- shaped leaves to the breeze, while the white flower is heaving upon the wave. To these may naturally be added the birds that enliven the waters. Wild ducks in spring-time hatch their young in the islands, and upon reedy shores ; the sand-piper, flitting along the stony margins, by its restless note attracts the eye to motions as restless : upon some jutting rock, or at the edge of a smooth meadow, the stately heron may be descried with folded wings, that might seem to have caught their delicate hue from the blue waters, by the side of which she watches for her sustenance. In winter, the lakes are sometimes resorted to by wild swans ; and in that season habitually by widgeons, goldings, and other aquatic fowl of the smaller species. Let me be allowed the aid of verse to describe the evolutions which these visitants some- times perform on a fine day towards the close of winter. Mark how the feather'd tenants of the flood, With grace of motion that might scarcely seem Inferior to angelical, prolong Their curious pastime ! shaping in mid-air (And sometimes with ambitious wing that soars High as the level of the mountain tops,) A circuit ampler than the lake beneath, Their own domain ; but ever, while intent On tracing and retracing that large round, Their jubilant activity evolves Hundreds of curves and circlets, to and fro, Upward and downward, progress intricate Yet perplex'd, as if one spirit swayed Their indefatigable flight. 'Tis done Ten times, or more, I fancied it had ceased ; But lo ! the vanish'd company again Ascending; they approach I hear their wings Faint, faint, at first, and then an eager sound Past in a moment and as faint again ! They tempt the sun to sport amid their plumes : They tempt the water or the gleaming ice, ISLANDS. 121 To shew them a fair image ; 'tis themselves, Their own fair forms, upon the glimmering plain, Painted more soft and fair as they descend Almost to touch ; then up again aloft, Up with a sally and a flash of speed, As if they scorned both resting-place and rest ! The ISLANDS, dispersed among these lakes, are neither so numerous nor so beautiful as might be expected from the account that has been given of the manner in which the level areas of the vales are so frequently diversified by rocks, hills, and hillocks scattered over them ; nor are they ornamented (as are several of the lakes in Scotland and Ireland) by the remains of castles or other places of defence ; nor with the still mpre interesting ruins of religious edifices. Every one must regret that scarcely a ves- tige is left of the Oratory, consecrated to the Virgin, which stood upon Chapel-Holm, in Windermere, and that the Chantry has disappeared, where mass used to be sung, upon St. Herbert's Island, Derwentwater. The islands of the last-mentioned lake are neither fortunately placed nor of pleasing shape ; but if the wood upon them were managed with more taste, they might be- come interesting features in the landscape. There is a beautiful cluster on Windermere ; a pair pleasingly contrasted upon Ry- dal : nor must the solitary green island of Grasmere be forgotten. In the bosom of each of the lakes of Ennerdale and Devockwater is a single rock, which, owing to its neighbourhood to the sea, it " The haunt of cormorants and sea-mew's clang," a music well suited to the stern and wild character of the several scenes. It may be worth while here to mention (not as an object of beauty, but of curiosity), that there occasionally appears above the surface of Derwentwater, and always in the same place, a considerable tract of spongy ground covered with aquatic plants, which is called the Floating, but with more propriety might be named the Buoyant, Island ; and, on one of the pools near the lake of Esthwaite, may sometimes be seen a mossy Islet, with trees upon it, shifting about before. the wind, a lusus natures frequent on the great rivers of America, and not unknown in other parts of the world. " fas habeas invisere Tiburis arva, Albuneque lacum, atque umbras terrasque natantes."* This part of the subject may be concluded with observing that, from the multitude of brooks and torrents that fall into these lakes, and of internal springs by which they are fed, and which circulate through them like veins, they are truly living lakes, y inclosures, and also in the forest-trees and hollies, which, though disappearing fast, are yet scattered both over the inclosed and uninclosed parts of the mountains. The same is expressed by the beauty and intricacy with which the fields and coppice- woods are often intermingled ; the plough of the first settlers having followed naturally the veins of richer, dryer, or less stony soil ; and thus it has shaped out an intermixture of wood and lawn, with a grace and wildness which it would have been im- possible for the hand of studied art to produce. Other trees have been introduced within these last fifty years, such as beeches, larches, limes, &c., and plantations of firs, seldom with advantage, and often with great injury to the appearance of the * This species of fir is in character much superior to the American which has usurped its place. "Where the fir is planted for ornament, let it be by all means of the aboriginal species, which can only be pro- cured from the Scotch nurseries. } A squirrel (so I have heard the old people of Wjthburn say) might have gone from their chapel to Keswick without alighting on the ground. WOODS VEGETABLE ORNAMENTS. 125 country ; but the sycamore (which I believe was brought into this island from Germany, not more than two hundred years ago) has long been the favourite of the cottagers ; and, with the fir, has been chosen to screen their dwellings 5 and is sometimes found in the fields whither the winds or the waters may have carried its seeds. The want most felt, however, is that of timber trees. There are few magnificent ones to be found near any of the lakes ; and unless greater care be taken, there will, in a short time, scarcely be left an ancient oak that would repay the cost of felling. The neighbourhood of Rydal, notwithstanding the havock which has been made, is yet nobly distinguished. In the woods of Lowther, also, is found an almost matchless store of ancient trees, and the majesty and wildness of the native forest. Among the smaller vegetable ornaments must be reckoned the bilberry, a ground plant, never so beautiful as in early spring, when it is seen under bare or budding trees, that imperfectly in- tercept the sun-shine, covering the rocky knolls with a pure mantle of fresh verdure, more lively than the herbage of the open fields ; the broom that spreads luxuriantly along rough pastures, and in the month of June interveins the steep copses with its golden blossoms; and the juniper, a rich evergreen, that thrives in spite of cattle, upon the uninclosed parts of the mountains ; the Dutch myrtle diffuses fragrance in moist places ; and there is an endless variety of brilliant flowers in the fields and meadows, which, if the agriculture of the country were more carefully attended to r would disappear. Nor can I omit again to notice the lichens and mosses : their profusion, beauty, and variety exceed those of any other country I have seen. It may now be proper to say a few words respecting CLIMATE and " skiey influences," in which this region, as far as the cha- racter of its landscapes is affected by them, may, upon the whole, be considered fortunate. The country is, indeed, subject to much bad weather, and it has been ascertained that twice as much rain falls here as in many parts of the island ; but the num- ber of black drizzling days, that blot out the face of things, is by no means proportionally great. Nor is a continuance of thick, flagging, damp air so common as in the west of England and Ireland. The rain here comes down heartily, and is fre- quently succeeded by clear, bright weather, when every brook is vocal, and every torrent sonorous ; brooks and torrents which are never muddy, even in the heaviest floods, except, after a draught, they happen to be defiled for a short time by waters that have swept along dusty roads, or have broken out into ploughed fields. Days of unsettled weather, with partial showers, are frequent ; but the showers, darkening, or brightening, as they fly from hill to hill, arc not less grateful to the eye than finely interwoven passages of gay and sad music are touching to the ear. Vapours exhaling from the lakes and meadows after 126 CLIMATE. sun-rise, in a hot season, or in moist weather, brooding upon the heights, or descending towards the valleys with inaudible mo- tion, give a visionary character to every thing around them ; and are in themselves so beautiful as to dispose us to enter into the feelings of those simple nations (such as the Laplanders of this day) by whom they are taken for guardian deities of the mountains ; or to sympathise with others who have fancied these delicate apparitions to be the spirits of their departed ancestors. Akin to these are fleecy clouds resting upon the hill tops : they are not easily managed in picture, with their accompaniments of blue sky ; but how glorious are they in nature ! How pregnant with imagination for the poet ! and the height of the Cumbrian mountains is sufficient to exhibit daily and hourly instances of those mysterious attachments. Such clouds, cleaving to their stations, or lifting up suddenly their glittering heads from behind rocky barriers, or hurrying out of sight with speed of the sharpest edge will often tempt an inhabitant to congratulate himself on belonging to a country of mists and clouds and storms, and make him think of the blank sky of Egypt, and the cerulean vacancy of Italy, as an unanimated and even a sad spectacle. The at- mosphere, however, as in every country subject to much rain, is frequently unfavourable to landscape, especially when keen winds succeed the rain, which are apt to produce coldness, spottiness, and an unmeaning or repulsive detail in the distance a sunless frost, under a canopy of leaden and shapeless clouds, is, as far as it allows things to be seen, equally disagreeable. It has been said that in human life there are moments worth ages. In a more subdued tone of sympathy may we affirm, that in the climate of England there are, for the lover of nature, days which are worth whole months, I might say even years. One of these favoured days sometimes occurs in spring time, when that soft air is breathing over the blossoms and new-born verdure which inspired Buchanan with his beautiful Ode to the First of May ; the air, which, in the luxuriance of his fancy, he likens to that of the golden age, to that which gives motion to the funereal cypresses on the banks of Lethe ; to the air which is to salute beatified spirits when expiatory fires shall have con- sumed the earth with all her habitations. But it is in autumn that days of such affecting influence most frequently intervene ; the atmosphere seems refined, and the sky rendered more crystalline, as the vivifying heat of the year abates ; the lights and shadows are more delicate ; the colouring is richer and more finely harmonized ; and, in this season of stillness, the ear being unoccupied, or only gently excited, the sense of vision becomes more susceptible of its appropriate enjoyments. A resident in a country like this which we are treating of, will agree with me, that the presence of a lake is indispensable to exhibit in perfec- tion the beauty of one of these days ; and he must have expe- rienced, while looking on the unruffled waters, that the imagina- NIGHT. 127 tion, by their aid, is carried into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable. The reason of this is, that the heavens are not only brought down into the bosom of the earth, but that the earth is mainly looked at, and thought of, through the medium of a purer element. The happiest time is when the equinoctial gales are departed ; but their fury may probably be called to mind by the sight of a few shattered boughs, whose leaves do not differ in colour from the faded foliage of the stately oaks from which these relics of the storm depend : all else speaks of tranquillity ; not a breath of air, no restlessness of insects, and not a moving object perceptible except the clouds gliding in the depths of the lake, or the traveller passing along, an inverted image, whose motion seems governed by the quiet of a time, to which its arche- type, the living person, is, perhaps, insensible : or, it may hap- pen, that the figure of one of the larger birds, a raven or a heron, is crossing silently among the reflected clouds, while the voice of the real bird, from the element aloft, gently awakens in the spectator the recollection of appetites and instincts, pursuits and occupations, that deform and agitate the world, yet have no power to prevent nature from putting on an aspect capable of satisfying the most intense cravings for the tranquil, the lovely, and the perfect, to which man, the noblest of her creatures, is subject. Thus far of climate, as influencing the feelings through its effect on the object of sense. We may add, that whatever has been said upon the advantages derived to these scenes from a changeable atmosphere, would apply, perhaps still more forcibly, to their appearance under the varied solemnities of night. Milton, it will be remembered, has given a clouded moon to Paradise itself. In the night-season, also, the narrowness of the vales, and comparative smallness of the lakes, are especially adapted to bring surrounding objects home to the eye and to the heart. The stars, taking their stations above the hill tops, are contemplated from a spot like the Abyssinian recess of Rasselas, with much more touching interest than they are likely to excite when looked at from an open country with ordinary undulations: and it must be obvious, that it is the bays only of large lakes that can present such contrasts of light and shadow as those of smaller dimensions display from every quarter. A deep contracted valley, with diffused waters, such a valley and plains, level and wide as those of Chaldaea, are the two extremes in which the beauty of the heavens and their connexion with the earth are most sensibly felt. Nor do the advantages I have been speaking of imply here an exclusion of the aerial effects of distance. These are insured by the height of the mountains, and arc found, even in the narrowest vales, where they lengthen in perspective, or act (if the expression may be used) as telescopes for the open country. The subject would bear to be enlarged upon; but I will conclude 128 NIGHT. this section with a night-scene suggested by the vale of Keswick. The fragment is well known, but it gratifies me to insert it, as the writer was one of the first who led the way to a worthy admiration of this country. " Now sunk the sun, now twilight sunk, and night Rode in her zenith; not a passing breeze Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods Inverted hung : for now the billows slept Along the shore, nor heav'd the deep ; but spread A shining mirror to the moon's pale orb, Which, dim and waning, o'er the shadowy cliffs, The solemn woods, and spiry mountain tops, Her glimmering faintness threw : now every eye, Oppress'd with toil, was drown'd in deep repose, Save that the unseen Shepherd in his watch, Propp'd on his crook, stood listening by the fold, And gaz'd the starry vault and pendant moon ; Nor voice, nor sound, broke on the deep serene ; But the soft murmur of swift-gushing rills, Forth issuing from the mountain's distant steep, (Unheard till now, and now scarce heard) proclaim'd All things at rest, and imag'd the still voice Of quiet, whispering in the ear of night."* * Dr. Brown, the author of this fragment was, from his infancy, brought up in Cumberland, and should have remembered that the practice of folding sheep by night is unkown among these mountains, and that the image of the Shepherd upon the watch is out of its place, and belongs only to countries with a warmer climate, that are subject to ravages from beasts of prey. It is pleasing to notice a dawn of imaginative feeling in these verses. Tickel, a man of no common genius, chose, for the subject of a Poem, Kensington Gardens, in pre- ference to Derwent, within a mile or two of which he was born. But this was in the reign of Queen Anne, or George the first. Progress must have been made in the interval, though the traces of it, except in the works of Thompson and Dyer, are not very obvious. SECTION SECOND. ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY, AS AFFECTED BY ITS INHABITANTS. HITHERTO I have chiefly spoken of the features by which Nature has discriminated this country from others. I will now describe, in general terms, in what manner it is indebted to the hand of man. What I have to notice on this subject will emanate most easily and perspicuously from a description of the ancient and pre- sent inhabitants, their occupations, their condition of life, the dis- tribution of landed property among them, and the tenure by which it is holden. The reader will suffer me here to recall to his mind the shape of the valleys, their position with respect to each other, and the forms and substance of the intervening mountains. He will people the valleys with lakes and rivers : the coves and sides of the moun- tains with pools and torrents ; and will bound half of the circle which we have contemplated, by the sands of the sea, or by the sea itself. He will conceive that, from the point upon which he stood, he looks down upon this scene before the country had been penetrated by any inhabitants; to vary his sensations, and to break in upon their stillness, he will form to himself an image of the tides visiting and revisiting the friths, the main sea dashing against the bolder shore, the rivers pursuing their course to be lost in the mighty mass of waters. He may see or hear in fancy the winds sweeping over the lakes, or piping with a loud voice among the mountain peaks ; and, lastly, may think of the primeval woods shedding and renewing their leaves with no human eye to notice, or human heart to regret or welcome the change. "When the first settlers entered this region (says an animated writer) they found it overspread with wood ; forest trees the fir, the oak, the ash, and the birch, had skirted the fells, tufted the hills, and shaded the valleys, through centuries of silent solitude ; the birds and beasts of prey reigned over the meeker species ; and the bellum inter omnia maintained the balance of nature in the empire of beasts." Such was the state and appearance of this region when the aboriginal colonists of the Celtic tribes were first driven or drawn towards it, and became joint tenants with the wolf, the boar, the wild bull, the red deer, and the leigh, a gigantic species of deer which has been long extinct ; while the inaccessible crags x 2 130 ROMAN AND BRITISH ANTIQUITIES. were occupied by the falcon, the raven, and the eagle. The inner parts were too secluded, and of too little value, to partici- pate much in the benefit of Roman manners ; and though these conquerors encouraged the Britons to the improvement of their lands in the plain country of Furness and Cumberland, they seem to have had little connexion with the mountains, except for military purposes, or in subservience to the profit they drew from the mines. When the Romans retired from Great Britain, it is well known that these mountain-fastnesses furnished a protection to some un- subdued Britons, long after the more accessible and more fertile districts had been seized by the Saxon or Danish invader. A few, though distinct, traces of Roman forts or camps, as at Am- bleside and upon Dunrnallet, and a few circles of rude stones attributed to the Druids,* are the only vestiges that remain upon * It is not improbable that these circles were once numerous, and that many of them may yet endure in a perfect state, under no very deep covering of soil. A friend of the Author, while making a trench in a level piece of ground not far from the banks of the Eamont, but in no connexion with that river, met with some stones which seemed to him formally arranged : this excited his curiosity, and, proceeding, he un- covered a perfect circle of stones, from two to three or four feet high, with a sanctum sanctorum, the whole a complete place of Druidical worship of small dimensions, having the same sort of relation to Stone- henge, Long Meg and her Daughters near the river Eden, and Karl Lofts near Shap (if this last be not Danish), that a rural chapel bears to a stately church, or to one of our noble cathedrals. This interesting little monument having passed, with the field in which it was found, into other hands, has been destroyed. It is much to be regretted, that the striking relic of antiquity at Shap has been in a great measure de- stroyed also. The DAUGHTERS of LONG MEG are placed not in an oblong, as the STONES of SHAP, but in a perfect circle, eighty yards in diameter, and seventy-two in number, and from above three yards high to less than so many feet : a little way out of the circle stands LONG MEG herself a single stone eighteen feet high. When the Author first saw this monument, he came upon it by sur- prise, therefore might over-rate its importance as an object ; but he must say, that though it is not to be compared with Stonehenge, he has not seen any other remains of those dark ages which can pretend to rival it in singularity and dignity of appearance. A weight of awe not easy to be borne Fell suddenly upon my spirit, cast From the dread bosom of the unknown past, "When first I saw that sisterhood forlorn ; And Her, whose strength and stature seem to scorn The power of years pre-eminent, and placed Apart to overlook the circle vast. Speak, Giant-mother ! tell it to the Morn, While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night ; Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud, When, how, and wherefore, rose on British ground That wond'rous Monument, whose mystic round Forth shadows, some have deemed, to mortal sight The inviolable God that tames the proud. FEUDA.L TENANTRY. 131 the surface of the country of these ancient occupants ; and as the Saxons and Danes, who succeeded to the possession of the vil- lages and hamlets which had been established by the Britons, seem at first to have confined themselves to the open country, we may descend at once to times long posterior to the conquest by the Normans, when their feudal polity was regularly established. We may easily conceive that theso narrow dales and mountain sides, choked up as they must have been with wood, lying out of the way of communication with other parts of the Island, and upon the edge of a hostile kingdom, could have little attraction for the high-born and powerful; especially as the more open parts of the country furnished positions for castles and houses of defence, sufficient to repel any of those sudden attacks which, in the then rude state of military knowledge, could be made upon them. Accordingly, the more retired regions (and to such I am now confining myself) must have been neglected or shunned even by the persons whose boronial or signioral rights extended over thorn, and left, doubtless, partly as a place of refuge for outlaws and robbers, and partly granted out for the more settled habita- tion of a few vassals following the employment of shepherds or \voodlanders. Hence these lakes and inner valleys are unadorned by any remains of ancient grandeur, castles, or monastic edifices, which are only found upon the skirts of the country, as Furness Abbey, Caldcr Abbey, the Priory of Lanercost, Gleaston Cas- tle, long ago a residence of the Flemings, and the numerous ancient castles of the Cliffords, the Lucys, and the Dacres. On the southern side of these mountains (especially in that part known by the name of Furness Fells, which is more remote from the borders), the state of society would necessarily be more settled ; though it also was fashioned, not a little, by its neighbourhood to a hostile kingdom. We will, therefore, give a sketch of the economy of the Abbots in the distribution of lands among their tenants, as similar plans were doubtless adopted by other Lords, and as the consequences have effected the face of the country materially to the present day, being, in fact, one of the principal causes which give it such a striking superiority, in beauty and interest, over all parts of the island. " When the Abbots of Furness," says an author before cited, " enfranchised their villains, and raised them to the dignity of customary tenants, the lands, which they had cultivated for their lord, were divided into whole tenements ; each of which, besides the customary annual rent, was charged with the obligation of having in readiness a man completely armed for the king's ser- vice on the borders, or elsewhere; each of these whole tenements was again subdivided into four equal parts ; each villain had one ; and the party-tenant contributed his share to the support of the man of arms, and of other burdens. These divisions were not properly distinguished ; the land remained mixed ; each tenrn.r had a share through all the arable and meadow land, and common N 3 132 HABITATIONS 1NCLOSCRES. of pasture over all the wastes. These sub-tenements were judged sufficient for the support of so many families ; and no further di- vision was permitted. These divisions and subdivisions were convenient at the time for which they were calculated : the land so parcelled out was, of necessity, more attended to, and the in- dustry was greater, when more persons were to be supported by the produce of it. The frontier of the kingdom, within which Furness was considered, was in a constant state of attack and defence ; more hands, therefore, were necessary to guard the coast, to repel an invasion from Scotland, or make reprisals on the hostile neighbour. The dividing the lands in such manner as has been shewn, increased the number of inhabitants, and kept them at home till called for : and, the land being mixed, and the several tenants uniting in equipping the plough, the absence of the fourth man was no prejudice to the cultivation of his land, which was committed to the care of three. " While the villains of Low Furness were thus distributed over the land, and employed in agriculture, those of HighFurness were charged with the care of flocks and herds, to protect them from the wolves which lurked in the thickets, and in winter to browze them with the tender sprouts of hollies and ash. This custom was not till lately discontinued in High Furness ; and holly- trees were carefully preserved for that purpose when all other wood was cleared off; large tracts of common being so covered with these trees, as to have the appearance of a forest of hollies. At the shepherd's call, the flocks surrounded the holly-bush, and received the croppings at his hand, which they greedily nibbled up, bleating for more. The Abbots of Furness enfranchised these pastoral vassals, and permitted them to enclose quillets to their houses, for which they paid encroachment rent." WEST'S Antiquities of Furness. However desirable, for the purposes of defence, a numerous population might be, it was not possible to make at once the same numerous allotments among the untilled valleys, and upon the sides of the mountains, as had been made in the uncultivated plains. The enfranchised shepherd, or woodlander, having chosen there his place of residence, builds it of sods, or of the mountain-stone, and, with the permission of his lord, encloses, like Robinson Crusoe, a small croft or two immediately at his door, for such animals as he wishes to protect. Others are happy to imitate his example, and avail themselves of the same privi- leges : and thus a population, mainly of Danish or Norse origin, as the dialect indicates, crept on towards the more secluded parts of the valleys. Chapels, daughters of some distant church, are first erected in the more open and fertile vales, as those of Bow- ness and Grasmere, offsets from Kendal : which again, after a period, as the settled population increases, become mother churches to smaller edifices, planted, at length, in almost every dale throughout the country. The inclosures, formed by the INCLOSUBES. 133 tenantry, arc for a long time confined to the homesteads ; and the arable and meadow land of the vales is possessed in common field : the several portions being marked out by stones, bushes, or trees ; which portions, where the custom has survived, to this day are called dales, from the word deylen, to distribute ; but, while the valley was thus lying open, inclosures seem to have taken place upon the sides of the mountains ; because the land there was not intermixed, and was of little comparative value ; and, therefore, small opposition would be made to its being ap- propriated by those to whose habitations it was contiguous. Hence the singular appearance which the sides of many of these mountains exhibit, intersected, as they are, almost to the summit, with stone walls. When first erected, these stone fences must have little disfigured the face of the country, as part of the lines would everywhere be hidden by the quantity of native wood then remaining ; and the lines would also be broken (as they still arc) by the rocks which interrupt and vary their course. In the meadows, and in those parts 01 the lower grounds where the soil had not been sufficiently drained, and could not afford a stable foundation, there, when the increasing value of land, and the inconvenience suffered from intermixed plots of ground in common field, had induced each inhabitant to inclose his own, they were compelled to make the fences of alders, willows, and other trees. These, where the native wood has disappeared, have frequently enriched the valleys with a sylvan appearance; while the intricate intermixture of property has given to the fences a graceful irregularity, which, where large properties are prevalent, and large capitals employed in agriculture, is unknown. This sylvan appearance is heightened by the number of ash trees planted in rows along the quick-fences, and along the walls, for the purpose of browzing the cattle at the approach of winter. The branches are lopped off and strewn upon the pastures ; and when the cattle have stripped them of their leaves, they are used for repairing the hedges or for fuel. We have thus seen a numerous body of Dalesmen creeping into possession of their homesteads, their little crofts, their moun- tain enclosures ; and, finally, the whole vale is visibly divided ; except, perhaps, here and there some marshy ground, which, till fully drained, would not repay the trouble of inclosing. But these last partitions do not seem to have been general till long after the pacification of the Borders, by the union of the two crowns, when the cause which had first determined the distri- bution of land into such small parcels had not only ceased, but likewise a general improvement had taken place in the country, with a correspondent rise in the value of its produce. From the time of the union it is certain that this species of feudal popula- tion must rapidly have diminished. That it was formerly much more numerous than it is at present, is evident from the multi- tude of tenements ( I do not mean houses, but small divisions of 134 STATE OP SOCIETY. land) which belonged formerly each to several proprietors, and for which separate fines are paid to the manorial lords at this day, These are often in the proportion of four to one of the present occupants. " Sir Launcelot Threlkeld, who lived in the reign of Henry VII., was svont to say, he had three noble houses, one for pleasure, Crosby, in Westmorland, where he had a park full of deer ; one for profit and warmth, wherein to reside in winter, namely, Yamvath, nigh Penrith ; and the third, Threlkeld (on the edge of the vale of Kesvvick), well stocked with tenants to go with him to the wars." But, as I have said, from the union of the two crowns, this numerous vassalage (their services not being wanted) would rapidly diminish ; various tenements would be united in one possessor ; and the aboriginal houses, probably little better than hovels, like the kraals of savages, or the huts of the Highlanders of Scotland, would fall into decay, and the places of many be supplied by substantial and comfortable build- ings, a majority of which remain to this day scattered over the valleys, and are often the only dwellings found in them. From the time of the erection of these houses, till within the last sixty years, the state of society, though no doubt slowly and gradually improving, underwent no material change. Corn was grown in these vales (through which no carriage-road had yet been made) sufficient upon each estate to furnish bread for each family, and no more : notwithstanding the union of several tene- ments, the possessions of each inhabitant still being small, in the same field was seen an intermixture of different crops ; and the plough was interrupted by little rocks, mostly overgrown with wood, or by spongy places, which the tillers of the soil had neither leisure nor capital to convert into firm land. The storms and moisture of the climate induced them to sprinkle their upland property with outhouses of native stone, as places of shelter for their sheep, where, in tempestuous weather, food was distributed to them. Every family spun from its own flock the wool with which it was clothed ; a weaver was here and there found among them ; and the rest of their wants were supplied by the produce of the yarn, which they carded and spun in their own houses, and carried to market, either under their arms, or more fre- quently on pack-horses, a small train taking their way weekly down the valley, or over the mountains to the most commodious town. They had, as I have said, their rural chapel, and of course their minister, in clothing or in manner of life in no respect dif- fering from themselves, except on the Sabbath-day ; this was the sole distinguished individual among them ; every thing else, per- son and possession, exhibited a perfect equality, a community of shepherds and agriculturists, proprietors, for the most part, of the lands which they occupied and cultivated, While the process above detailed was going on, the native forest must have been every where receding; but trees were planted for the sustenance of the flocks in winter, such was then NATIVE FORESTS COTTAGES. 135 the rude state of agriculture ; and, for the same cause, it was necessary that care should be taken of some part of the growth of the native woods. Accordingly, in Queen Elizabeth's time, this was so strongly felt, that a petition was made to the Crown, praying, " the Blomaries in High Furness might be abolished, on account of the quantity of wood which was consumed in them for the use of the mines, to the great detriment of the cattle." But this same cause, about a hundred years after, produced ef- fects directly contrary to those which had been deprecated. The re-establishment, at that period, of furnaces upon a larger scale, made it the interest of the people to convert the steeper and more stony of the inclosures, sprinkled over with remains of the native forest, into close woods, which, when cattle and sheep were excluded, rapidly sowed and thickened themselves. The reader's attention has been directed to the cause by which tufts of wood, pasturage, meadow, and arable land, with its various produce, are intricately intermingled in the same field ; and he will now see, in like manner, how enclosures entirely of wood, and those of cultivated ground, are blended all over the country under a law of similar wildncss. A historic detail has thus been given of the manner in which the hand of man has acted upon the surface of the inner regions of this mountainous country, as incorporated with, and subservi- ent to, the powers and processes of nature. We will now take a view of the same agency acting, within narrower bounds, for the production of the few works of art and accommodations of life which, in so simple a state of society, could be necessary. These are merely habitations of man and cover for beasts, roads and bridges, and places of worship. And to begin with the COTTAGES. They are scattered over the valleys, and under the hills, and on the rocks ; and, even to this day, in the more retired dale, without any intrusion of more assuming buildings ; Cluster'd like stars some few, bat single most, And lurking dimly in their shy retreats, Or glancing on each other cheerful looks, Like separated stars with clouds between. MS. The dwelling houses, and contiguous outhouses, are, in many instances, of the colour of the native rock, out of which they have been built ; but, frequently the dwelling or tire-house, as it is ordinarily called, has been distinguished from the barn or byer by rough-cast and whitewash, which, as the inhabitants are not hasty in renewing it, in a few years acquires, by the influence of weather, a tint at once sober and variegated. As these houses have been, from father to son, inhabited by persons engaged in the same occupations, yet necessarily with changes in their cir- cumstances, they have received without incongruity additions 136 COTTAGES. and accommodations adapted to the need of each successive oc- cupant, who, being for the most part proprietor, was at liberty to follow his own fancy : so that these humble dwellings remind the contemplative spectator of a production of nature, and may (using a strong expression) rather be said to have grown than to have been erected; to have risen, by an instinct of their own, out of the naked rock so little is there in them of formality, such is their wildness and beauty. Among the numerous recesses and projections in the walls, and in different stages of their roofs, are seen bold and harmonious effects of contrasted sunshine and sha- dow. It is a favourable circumstance, that the strong winds, which sweep down the valleys, induced the inhabitants, at a time when the materials for building were easily procured, to furnish many of these dwellings with substantial porches ; and such as have not this defence, are seldom unprovided with a projection of two large slates over their thresholds. Nor will the singular beauty of the chimneys escape the eye of the attentive traveller. Some- times a low chimney, almost upon a level with the roof, is over- laid with a slate, supported on four slender pillars, to prevent the wind from driving the smoke down the chimney. Others are of a quadrangular shape, rising one or two feet above the roof; which low square is often surmounted by a tall cylinder, giving to the cottage chimney the most beautiful shape in which it is ever seen. Nor will it be too fanciful or refined to remark, that there is a pleasing harmony between a tall chimney of this circular form, and the living column of smoke ascending from it through the still air. These dwellings, mostly built, as it has been said, of rough unhewn stone, are roofed with slates, which were rudely taken from the quarry before the present art of cut- ting them was understood, and are, therefore, rough and uneven in their surface, so that both the coverings and sides of the houses have furnished places of rest for the seeds of lichens, mosses, and flowers. Hence buildings, which in their very form call to mind the processes of nature, do thus, clothed in part with a vegetable garb, appear to be received into the bosom of the living principle of things as it acts and exists among the woods and fields ; and, by their colour and their shape, affectingly direct the thoughts to that tranquil course of nature and simplicity, along which the humble-minded inhabitants have, through so many generations, been led. Add the little garden with its shed for bee-hives, its small bed of pot-herbs, and its borders and patches of flowers for Sunday posies, with sometimes a choice few, too much prized to be plucked; an orchard of proportioned size ; a cheese-press, often supported by some tree near the door ; a cluster of embow- ering sycamores for summer shade ; with a tall fir through which the winds sing when other trees are leafless ; the little rill or household spout murmuring in all seasons ; combine these in- cidents and images together, and you have the representative LANES. BRIDGES. PLACES OF WORSHIP. 137 idea of a mountain-cottage in this country, so beautifully formed in itself and so richly adorned by the hand of nature. Till within the last sixty years there was no communication between any of these vales by carriage-roads ; all bulky articles were transported on pack-horses. Owing, however, to the population not being concentrated in villages, but scattered, the valleys themselves were intersected as now by innumerable lanes and pathways leading from house to house and from field to field. These lanes, where they are fenced by stone walls, are mostly bordered with ashes, hazels, wild roses, and beds of tall fern, at their base ; while the walls themselves, if old, are overspread with mosses, small ferns, wild strawberries, the geranium, and lichens : and, if the wall happen to rest against a bank of earth, it is sometimes almost wholly concealed by a rich facing of stone- fern. It is a great advantage to a traveller or resident, that these numerous lanes and paths, if he be a zealous admirer of nature, will lead him into all the recesses of the country, so that the hidden treasures of its landscapes may, by an ever-ready guide, be laid open to his eyes. Likewise to the smallness of the several properties is owing the great number of bridges over the brooks and torrents, and the daring and graceful neglect of danger or accommodation with which so many of them are constructed, the rudeness of the forms of some, and their endless variety. But when I speak of this rudeness, I must at the same time add, that many of these struc- tures are in themselves models of elegance, as if they had been formed upon principles of the most thoughtful architecture. It is to be regretted that these monuments of the skill of our an- cestors, and of that happy instinct by which consummate beauty was produced, are disappearing fast ; but sufficient specimens remain* to give a high gratification to the man of genuine taste. Travellers who may not have been accustomed to pay attention to things so inobtrusive, will excuse me if I point out the pro- portion between the span and elevation of the arch, the lightness of the parapet, and the graceful manner in which its curve fol- lows faithfully that of the arch. Upon this subject I have nothing further to notice, except the PLACES OP WORSHIP, which have mostly a little school-house ad- * Written some time ago. The injury done since is more than could have been calculated upon. Singula de nobis anni prcedantur cuntes. This is in the course of things, but why should the genius that directed the ancient architecture of these vales have deserted them ? For the bridges, churches, mansions, cottages, and their richly-fringed and flat- roofed outhouses, venerable as the grange of some old abbey, have been substituted structures, in which baldness only seems to have been studied, or plans of the most vulgar utility. But some improvement may be looked for in future ; the gentry recently have copied the old models, and successful instances might be pointed out, if I could take the libertv. 138 PLACES OF WORSHIP. joining.* The architecture of these churches ancTchapels, where they have not been recently rebuilt or modernised, is of a style not less appropriate and admirable than that of the dwelling- houses and other structures. How sacred the spirit by which our forefathers were directed ! The religio loci is no where violated by these unstinted, yet unpretending, works of human hands. They exhibit generally a well-proportioned oblong, with a suitable porch, in some instances a steeple tower, and in others nothing more than a small belfry, in which one or two bells hang visibly. But these objects, though pleasing in their forms, must necessarily, more than others in rural scenery, de- rive their interest from the sentiments of piety and reverence for the modest virtues and simple manners of humble life with which they may be contemplated. A man must be very insen- sible who would not be touched with pleasure at the sight of the chapel of Buttermere, so strikingly expressing, by its diminutive size, how small must be the congregation there assembled, as it were like one family ; and proclaiming at the same time to the passenger, in connection with the surrounding mountains, the depth of that seclusion in which the people live, that has render- ed necessary the building of a separate place of worship for so few. A patriot, calling to mind the images of the stately fabrics of Canterbury, York, or Westminster, will find a heart-felt satisfaction in presence of this lowly pile, as a monument of the wise institutions of our country, and as evidence of the all- pervading and maternal care of that venerable Establishment, of which it is, perhaps, the humblest daughter. The edifice is scarcely larger than many of the single stones or fragments of rock which are scattered near it.f We have thus far confined our observations on this division of the subject to that part of these Dales which runs up far into the mountains. As we descend towards the open country we meet with halls and mansions, many of which have been places of defence against * In some places scholars were formerly taught in the church, and at others the school-house was a sort of ante-chapel to the place of wor- ship, being under the same roof: an arrangement which was abandoned as irreverent. It continues, however, to this day in Borrowdale. In the parish register of that chapel is a notice, that a youth who had quitted the valley, and died in one of the towns on the coast of Cum- berland, had requested that his body should be brought and interred at the foot of the pillar by which he had been accustomed to sit while a school-boy. One cannot but regret that parish registers so seldom contain any thing but bare names ; in a few of this country, especially in that of Loweswater, I have found interesting notices of unusual occurrences characters of the deceased, and particulars of their lives. There is no good reason why such memorials should not be frequent : these short and simple annals would in future ages become precious. t Since this was written, a new chapel has been erected, on the site of the old one, at the expense of the Rev. T, Vaughan. GENERAL PICTDKE OF SOCIETY. 139 the incursions of the Scottish borderers ; and they not (infre- quently retain their towers and battlements. To these houses parks are sometimes attached, and to their successive proprietors we chiefly owe whatever ornament is still left to the country of majestic timber. Through the open parts of the vales are scat- tered, also, houses of a middle rank between the pastoral cottage and the old hall residence of the knight or esquire. Such houses differ much from the rugged cottages before described, and are generally graced with a little court or garden in front, where may yet be seen specimens of those fantastic and quaint figures which our ancestors were fond of shaping out in yew-tree, holly, or box-wood. The passenger will sometimes smile at such elabo- rate display of petty art, while the house does not deign to look, upon the natural beauty or the sublimity which its situation almost unavoidably commands. Thus has been given a faithful description, the minuteness of which the reader will pardon, of the face of this country as it was, and has been through centuries, till within the last sixty years. Towards the head of these Dales was found a perfect Republic of Shepherds and Agriculturists, amongst whom the plough of each man svas confined to the maintenance of his own family, or for the occasional accommodation of his neighbour.* Two or three cows furnished each family with milk and cheese. The chapel was the only edifice that presided over these dwellings, the supreme head of this pure commonwealth ; the members of which existed, in the midst of a powerful empire, like an ideal society, or an organized community whose constitution had been imposed and regulated by the mountains which had protected it. Neither high-born nobleman, knight, nor esquire, was here ; but many of these humble sons of the hills had a consciousness that the* land which they walked over and tilled had for more than five hundred years been possessed by men of their name and blood ; and venerable was the transition, when a curious traveller, descending from the heart of the mountains, had come to some ancient manorial residence in the more open parts of the vales, which, through rights attached to its proprietor, connect- ed the almost visionary mountain republic he had been contem- plating, with the substantial frame of society as existing in the laws and constitution of a mighty empire. * One of the most pleasing characteristics of manners, in secluded and thinly-peopled districts, is a sense of the degree in which human happiness and comfort are dependent on the contingency of neighbour- hood. This is implied by a rhyming adage common here, "friends are Jar, when neighbours are nar" (near). This mutual helpfulness is not confined to out-door work ; but is ready upon all occasions. Formt rly. if a person became sick, especially the mistress of a family, it was usual for those of the neighbours who were more particularly connected with the party by amicable offices, to visit the house, carrying a present ! This practice, which is by no means obsolete, is called owning the family, and is regarded as a pledge of a disposition to be otherwise serviceable in a time of disability and distress. O SECTION THIRD. CHANGES, AND RCLES OF TASTE FOE PREVENTING THEIR BAD EFFECTS. SUCH, as hath been said, was the appearance of things till within the last sixty years. A practice, denominated Ornamental Gardening, was at that time becoming prevalent over England. In union with an admiration of this art, and in some instances in opposition to it, had been generated a relish for select parts of natural scenery : and Travellers, instead of confining their observations to Towns, Manufactories, or Mines, began (a thing till then unheard of) to wander over the island in search of se- questered spots, distinguished, as they might accidentally have learned, for the sublimity or beauty of the forms of Nature there to be seen. Dr. Brown, the celebrated Author of the " Esti- mate of the Manners and Principles of the Times," published a letter to a friend, in which the attractions of the Vale of Kes- wick were delineated with a powerful pencil, and the feeling of a genuine enthusiast. Gray, the Poet, followed : he died soon after his forlorn and melancholy pilgrimage to the Vale of Kes- wick, and the record left behind him of what he had seen and felt in this journey, excited that pensive interest with which the human mind is ever disposed to listen to the farewell words of a man of genius. The journal of Gray feelingly shewed how the gloom of ill health and low spirits had been irradiated by objects, which the Author's powers of mind enabled him to describe with distinctness and unaffected simplicity. Every reader of this journal must have been impressed with the words which conclude his notice of the Vale of Grasmere : " Not a single red tile, no flaring gentleman's house or garden- wall, breaks in upon the re- pose of this little unsuspected paradise ; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty, in its neatest and most becoming attire." What is here so justly said of Grasmere applied almost equally to all its sister Vales. It was well for the undisturbed pleasure of the Poet that he had no forebodings of the change which was soon to take place ; and it might have been hoped that these words, indicating how much the charm of what was depended upon what was not, would of themselves have preserved the an- cient franchises of this and other kindred mountain retirements from trespass ; or (shall I dare to say ?) would have secured NEW SETTLERS. THE COUNTRY DISFIGURED. 141 scenes so consecrated from profanation. The Lakes had now become celebrated ; visitors flocked here from all parts of Eng- land ; the fancies of some were smitten so deeply, that they be- came settlers ; and the Islands of Derwcntwater and Winder- mere, as they offered the strongest temptation, were the first places seized upon, and were instantly defaced by the intrusion. The venerable wood that had grown for centuries round the small house called St. Herbert's Hermitage, had indeed some years before been felled by its native proprietor, and the whole island planted anew with Scotch firs, left to spindle up by each other's side a melancholy phalanx, defying the power of the winds, and disregarding the regret of the spectator, who might otherwise have cheated himself into a belief that some of the de- cayed remains of those oaks, the place of which was in this man- ner usurped, had been planted by the Hermit's own hand. This sainted spot, however, suffered comparatively little injury. At the bidding of an alien improver, the Hind's Cottage, upon Vicar's Island, in the same lake, with its embowering sycamores and cattle-shed, disappeared from the corner where they stood ; and right in the middle, and upon the precise point of the island's highest elevation, rose a tall square habitation, with four sides exposed, like an astronomer's observatory, or a warren-house reared upon an eminence for the detection of depredators, or, like the temple of -flSolus, where all the winds pay him obeisance. Round this novel structure, but at a respectful distance, platoons of fir were stationed, as if to protect their commander when weather and time should somewhat have shattered his strength. Within the narrow limits of this island were typified also the state and strength of a kingdom, and its religion as it had been, and was, for neither was the Druidical circle uncreated, nor the church of the present establishment ; nor the stately pier, em- blem of commerce and navigation ; nor the fort to deal out thunder upon the approaching invader. The taste of a succeed- ing proprietor rectified the mistakes as far as was practicable, and has rid the spot of its puerilities. The church, after having been docked of its steeple, is applied, both ostensibly and really, to the purpose for which the body of the pile was actually erect- ed, namely, a boat-house ; the fort is demolished ; and, without indignation on the part of the spirits of the ancient Druids who officiated at the circle upon the opposite hill, the mimic arrange- ment of stones, with its sanctum sanctorum, has been swept away. The present instance has been singled out, extravagant as it is, because, unquestionably, this beautiful country has, in numerous other places, suffered from the same sprit, though not clothed exactly in the same form, nor active in an equal degree. It will be sufficient here to utter a regret for the changes that have been made upon the principal Island at Windermere, and in its neigh- bourhood. What could be more unfortunate than the taste that suggested the paring of the shores, and surrounding: with an o 2 142 CAUSES OF BAD TASTE. embankment this spot of ground, the natural shape of which was so beautiful ! An artificial appearance has thus been given to the whole, while infinite varieties of minute beauty have been destroyed. Could not the margin of this noble island be given back to nature ? Winds and waves work with a careless and graceful hand : and, should they in some places carry away a portion of the soil, the trifling loss would be amply compensated by the additional spirit, dignity, and loveliness, which these agents and the other powers of nature would soon communicate to what was left behind. As to the larch plantations upon the main shore, they who remember the original appearance of the rocky steeps, scattered over with native hollies and ash trees, will be prepared to agree with what I shall have to say here- after upon plantations* in general. But, in truth, no one can now travel through the more fre- quented tracts without being offended, at almost every turn, by an introduction of discordant objects, disturbing that peaceful harmony of form and colour which had been through a long lapse of ages most happily preserved. All gross transgressions of this kind originate, doubtless, in a feeling natural and honourable to the human mind, viz. the plea- sure which it receives from distinct ideas, and from the perception of order, regularity, and contrivance. Now, unpractised minds receive these impressions only from objects that are divided from each other by strong lines of demarkation ; hence the delight with which such minds are smitten by formality and harsh con- trast. But I would beg of those who are eager to create the means of such gratification, first carefully to study what already exists ; and they will find, in a country so lavishly gifted by nature, an abundant variety of forms marked out with a precision that will satisfy their desires. Moreover, a new habit of plea- sure will be formed opposite to this, arising out of the perception of the fine gradations by which in nature one thing passes away into another, and the boundaries that constitute individuality disappear in one instance only to be revived elsewhere under a more alluring form. The hill of Dunmallet, at the foot of Ulls- water, was once divided into different portions, by avenues of fir-trees, with a green and almost perpendicular lane descending down the steep hill through each avenue : contrast this quaint appearance with the image of the same hill overgrown with self- planted wood, each tree springing up in the situation best suited to its kind, and with that shape which the situation con- strained or suffered it to take. What endless melting and playing into each other of forms and colours does the one offer to a mind at once attentive and active ; and how insipid and lifeless, com- pared with it, appear those parts of the former exhibition with * These are disappearing fast, under the management of the present proprietor, and native wood is resuming its place. ANCIENT MODELS RECOMMENDED. 143 which a child, a peasant perhaps, or a citizen unfamiliar with natural imagery, would have been most delighted ! The disfigurement which this country has undergone has not, however, proceeded wholly from the common feelings of human nature, which have been referred to as the primary sources of bad taste in rural imagery ; another cause must be added, that has chiefly shown itself in its effect upon buildings. I mean a warp- ing of the natural mind occasioned by a consciousness, that this country facing an object of general admiration, every new house would be looked at and commented upon either for approbation or censure. Hence all the deformity and ungracefulness that ever pursue the steps of constraint or affectation. Persons who, in Leicestershire or Northamptonshire, would probably hav built a modest dwelling like those of their sensible neighbours, have been turned out of their course ; and, acting a part, no wonder if, having had little experience, they act it ill. The craving for prospect, also, which is immoderate, particularly iu new settlers, has rendered it impossible that buildings, whatever might have been their architecture, should in most instances be ornamental to the landscape, rising as they do from the summit* of naked hills in staring contrast to the snugness and privacy of the ancient houses. No man is to be condemned for a desire to decorate his resi- dence and possessions. Feeling a disposition to applaud such an rndcavour, I would shew how the end may be best attained. The rule is simple. With respect to grounds: work, where you can, in the spirit of nature, with an invisible hand of art. Plant- ing, and a removal of wood, may thus, and thus only, be carried on with good effect ; and the like may be said of building, if An- tiquity, who may be styled the co-partner and sister of Nature, be not denied the respect to which she is entitled. I have already spoken of the beautiful forms of the ancient mansions of this coun- try, and of the happy manner in which they harmonize with the forms of nature. Why cannot such be taken as a model, and modern internal convenience be confined within their external grace and dignity. Expense to be avoided, or difficulties to be overcome, may prevent a close adherence to this model ; still, however, it might be followed to a certain degree, in the style of architecture and in the choice of situation, if the thirst for prospect were mitigated by those considerations of comfort, shel- ter, and convenience, which used to be chiefly sought after. But should an aversion to old fashions unfortunately exist, accom- panied with a desire to transplant into the cold and stormy North, the elegances of a villa formed upon a model taken from coun- tries with milder climate, I will adduce a passage from an Eng- lish poet, the divine Spenser, which will shew in what manner such a plan may be realized without injury to the native beauty of these scenes. o 3 144 ANCIENT MODELS RECOMMENDED. Into that forrest farre they thence him led, Where was their dwelling in a pleasant glade "With MOUNTAINS roundabout environed, And MIGHTY WOODS which did the valley shade, And like a stately theatre it made, Spreading itself into a spacious plaine ; And in the midst a little river plaide Emongst the puny stones which seem'd to 'plaine With gentle murmure that his course they did restraine. Beside the same a dainty place there lay, Planted with myrtle trees and laurels green, In which the birds sang many a lovely lay Of God's high praise, and of their sweet loves teene, As it an earthly paradise had beene ; In whose enclosed shadow there was pight A fair pavillion, scarcely to be seen, The which was all within most richly dight, That greatest princess living it mote well delight. Houses or mansions suited to a mountainous region should be " not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired;" and the reasons for this rule, though they have been little adverted to, are evident. Mountainous countries, more frequently and forcibly than others, remind us of the power of the elements, as manifested in winds, snows, and torrents, and, accordingly, make the notion of ex- posure very unpleasing ; while shelter and comfort are in propor- tion necessary and acceptable. Far-winding valleys difficult of access, and the feelings of simplicity habitually connected with mountain retirements, prompt us to turn from ostentation, as a thing there eminently unnatural and out of place. A mansion, amidst such scenes, can never have sufficient dignity or interest to become principal in the landscape, and to render the moun- tains, lakes, or torrents, by which it may be surrounded, a sub- ordinate part of the view. It is, I grant, easy to conceive that an ancient castellated building, hanging over a precipice, or raised upon an island or the peninsula of a lake, like that of Kilchurn Castle, upon Loch Awe, may not want, whether deserted or inhabited, sufficient majesty to preside for a moment in the spec- tator's thoughts over the high mountains among which it is em- bosomed; but its titles are from antiquity a power readily sub- mitted to upon occasion as the vicegerent of Nature : it is re- spected, as having owed its existence to the necessities of things, as a monument of security in times of disturbance and danger long passed away, as a record of the pomp and violence of passion, and a symbol of the wisdom of law ; it bears a coun- tenance of authority, which is not impaired by decay. " Child of loud- throated war, the mountain-stream Koars in thy hearing ; but thy hour of rest Is come, and thou art silent in thy age 1" COLOURING OF BUILDINGS. 145 To such honours a modern edifice can lay no claim ; and the puny efforts of elegance appear contemptible, when, in such situations, they are obtruded in rivalship with the sublimities of Nature. But, towards the verge of a district like this of which we are treating, when the mountains subside into hills of moderate ele- vation, or in an undulating or flat country, a gentleman's man- sion may, with propriety, become a principal feature in the land- scape ; and, being itself a work of art, works and traces of arti- ficial ornament may, without censure, be extended around it, as they will be referred to the common centre, the house ; the right of which, to impress within certain limits a character of obvious ornament, will not be denied, where no commanding forms of nature dispute it, or set it aside. Now, to a want of the per- ception of this difference, and to the causes before assigned, may chiefly be attributed the disfigurement which the Country of the Lakes has undergone from persons who may have built, demo- lished, and planted, with full confidence that every change and addition was, or would become, an improvement. The principle that ought to determine the position, apparent size, and architecture of a house, viz. that it should be so con- structed, and (if large) so much of it hidden as to admit of its being gently incorporated into the scenery of nature should also determine its colour. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, " If you would fix upon the best colour for your house, turn up a stone, or pluck up a handful of grass by the roots, and see what is the colour of the soil where the house is to stand, and let that be your choice." Of course this precept, given in conversation, could not have been meant to be taken literally. For example, in Low Furness, where the soil, from its strong impregnation with iron, is universally of a deep red, if this rule were strictly followed, the house also must be of a glaring red ; in other places it must be of a sullen black ; which would only be adding annoy- ance to annoyance. The rule, however, as a general guide, is good ; and, in agricultural districts, where large tracts of soil are laid bare by the plough, particularly if (the face of the country being undulating) they are held up to view, this rule, though net to be implicitly adhered to, should never be lost sight of; the colour of the house ought, if possible, to have a cast or shade of the colour of the soil. The principle is, that the house must harmonize with the surrounding landscape : accordingly, in mountainous countries, with still more confidence may it be said, " look at the rocks and those parts of the mountains where the soil is visible, and they will furnish a safe direction." Never- theless, it will often happen that the rocks may bear so large a proportion to the rest of the landscape, and may be of such a tone of colour, that the rule may not admit, even here, of being im- plicitly followed. For instance, the chief defect in the colouring of the Country of the Lakes (which is most strongly felt in the summer season), is an over-prevalence of a bluish tint, which the 146 COLOURING OF BUILDINGS. green of the herbage, the fern, and the woods, does not suffi- ciently counteract. If a house, therefore, should stand where this defect prevails, I have no hesitation in saying, that the co- lour of the neighbouring rocks would not be the best that could be chosen. A tint ought to be introduced approaching nearer to those which, in the technical language of painters, are called warm : this, if happily selected, would not disturb, but would animate, the landscape. How often do we see this exemplified upon a small scale by the native cottages, in cases where the glare of white-wash has been subdued by time and enriched by weather-stains ! No harshness is then seen ; but one of these cottages, thus coloured, will often form a central point to a land- scape by which the whole shall be connected, and an influence of pleasure diffused over all the objects that compose the picture. But where the cold blue tint of the rocks is enriched by the iron tinge, the colour cannot be too closely imitated ; and it will be produced of itself by the stones hewn from the adjoining quarry, and by the mortar, which may be tempered with the most gra- velly part of the soil. The pure blue gravel from the bed of the river, is, however, more suitable to the mason's purpose, who will probaby insist also that the house must be covered with rough-cast, otherwise it cannot be kept dry. If this advice be taken, the builder of taste will set about contriving such means as may enable him to come the nearest to the effect aimed at. The supposed necessity of rough-cast to keep out rain in houses not built of hewn stone or brick, has tended greatly to injure English landscape, and the neighbourhood of these Lakes espe- cially, by furnishing such apt occasion for whitening buildings. That white should be a favourite colour for rural residences is natural for many reasons. The mere aspect of cleanliness and neatness thus given, not only to an individual house, but, where the practice is general to the whole face of the country, produces moral associations so powerful that, in many minds, they take place of all others. But what has already been said upon the subject of cottages, must have convinced men of feeling and imagination, that a human dwelling of the humblest class may be rendered more deeply interesting to the affections, and far more pleasing to the eye, by other influences than a sprightly tone of colour spread over its outside. I do not, however, mean to deny, that a small white building, embowered in trees, may, in some situations, be a delightful and animating object in no way injurious to the landscape ; but this only where it sparkles from the midst of a thick shade, and in rare and solitary instances ; especially if the country be itself rich and pleasing, and abound with grand forms. On the sides of bleak and desolate moors, we are indeed thankful for the sight of white cottages and white houses plentifully scattered, where, without these, perhaps every thing would be cheerless: this is said, however, with hesitation, and with a wilful sacrifice of some higher enjoyments. But I COLOURING OF BUILDINGS. 147 have certainly seen such buildings glittering at sunrise, and in wandering lights, with no common pleasure. The continental traveller also will remember, that the convents hanging from the rocks of the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, or among the Ap- penines, or the mountains of Spain, are not looked at with less complacency when, as is often the case, they happen to be of a brilliant white. But this is perhaps owing, in no small degree, to the contrast of that lively colour with the gloom of monastic life, and to the general want of rural residences of smiling and attractive appearance, in those countries. The objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in landscape, especially in a mountainous country, are insurmount- able. In nature, pure white is scarcely ever found but in small objects, such as flowers ; or in those which are transitory, as the clouds, foam of rivers, and snow. Mr. Gilpin, who notices this, has also recorded the just remark of Mr. Locke, of N , that white destroys the gradations of distance; and, therefore, an object of pure white can scarcely ever be managed with good effect in landscape -painting. Five or six white houses, scattered over a valley, by their obtrusiveness, dot the surface, and divide it into triangles, or other mathematical figures, haunting the eye, and disturbing that repose which might otherwise be perfect. I have seen a single white house materially impair the majesty of a mountain ; cutting away, by a harsh separation, the whole of its base below the point on which the house stood. Thus was the apparent size of the mountain reduced, not by the interposition of another object in a manner to call forth the imagination, which will give more than the eye loses: but what had been abstracted in this case was left visible ; and the mountain ap- peared to take its beginning, or to rise, from the line of the house, instead of its own natural base. But, if I may express my own individual feeling, it is after sunset, at the coming on of twilight, that white objects are most to be complained of. The solemnity and quietness of nature at that time arc always marred, and often destroyed, by them. When the ground is covered with snow, they are of course inoffensive ; and in moonshine they are always pleasing it is a tone of light with which they accord : and the dimness of the scene is enlivened by an object at once conspicuous and cheerful. I will conclude this subject with noticing, that the cold slaty colour, which many persons who have heard the white condemned have adopted in its stead, must be disapproved of for the reason already given. The flaring yellow runs into the opposite extreme, and is still more censurable. Upon the whole, the safest colour, for general use, is something between a cream and a dust colour, commonly called stone colour ; jthere are, among the Lakes, examples of this that need not be pointed out,* * A proper colouring of houses is now becoming general. It is best that the colouring material should be mixed with the rough-cast, and not laid on as a tcush afterwards. 148 PLANTING. The principle taken as our guide, viz. that the house should be so formed, and of such apparent size and colour, as to admit of its being gently incorporated with the works of nature, should also be applied to the management of the grounds and plantations, and is here more urgently needed ; for it is from abuses in this department, far more even than from the intro- duction of exotics in architecture (if the phrase may be used), that this country has suffered. Larch and fir plantations have been spread, not merely with a view to profit, but in many instances for the sake of ornament. To those who plant for profit, and are thrusting every other tree out of the way, to make room for their favorite, the larch, I would utter first a regret, that they should have selected these lovely vales for their vegetable manufactory, when there is so much barren and irreclaimable land in the neighbouring moors, and in other parts of the island, which might have been had for this purpose at a far cheaper rate. And I will also beg leave to represent to them, that they ought not to be carried away by flattering promises from the speedy growth of this tree ; because in rich soils and sheltered situations, the wood, though it thrives fast, is full of sap, and of little value : and is, likewise, very subject to ravage from the attacks of insects, and from blight. Accord- ingly, in Scotland, where planting is much better understood, and carried on upon an incomparably larger scale than among us, good soil and sheltered situations are appropriated to the oak, the ash, and other deciduous trees ; and the larch is now gener- ally confined to barren and exposed ground. There the plant, which is a hardy one, is of slower growth ; much less liable to injury ; and the timber is of better quality. But the circum- stances of many permit, and their taste leads them, to plant with little regard to profit ; and there are others, less wealthy, who have such a lively feeling of the native beauty of these scenes, that they are laudably not unwilling to make some sacrifices to heighten it. Both these classes of persons, I would entreat to enquire of themselves wherein that beauty which they admire consists. They would then see that, after the feeling has been gratified that prompts us to gather round our dwelling a few flowers and shrubs, which, from the circumstance of their not being native, may, by their very looks remind us that they owe their existence to our hands, and their prosperity to our care ; they will see that, after this natural desire has been provided for, the course of all beyond has been predetermined by the spirit of the place. Before I proceed, I will remind those who are not satisfied with the restraint thus laid upon them, that they are liable to a charge of inconsistency, when they are so eager to change the face of that country, whose native attractions, by the act of erecting their habitations in it, they have so emphati- cally acknowledged. And surely there is not a single spot that would not have, if well managed, sufficient dignity to support PLANTING. 149 itself, unaided by the productions of other climates, or by elaborate decorations which might be becoming elsewhere. Having adverted to the feelings that justify the introduction of a few exotic plants, provided they be confined almost to the doors of the house ; we may add, that a transition should be contrived, without abruptness, from these foreigners to the rest of the shrubs, which ought to be of the kinds scattered by Nature through the woods holly, broom, wild-rose, elder, dogberry, white and black thorn, &c. either these only, or such as are carefully selected in consequence of their being united in form, and harmonising in colour with them, especially with respect to colour, when the tints are most diversified, as in autumn and spring. The various sorts of fruit-and-blossom-bearing trees usually found in orchards, to which may be added those of the woods, namely, the wilding, black-cherry tree, and wild cluster-cherry (here called heck-berry), may be happily admitted as an intermediate link between the shrubs and the forest trees ; which last ought almost entirely to be such as are natives of the country. Of the birch, one of the most beautiful of the native trees, itmay be noticed, that in dry and rocky situations, itoutstrips even the larch, which many persons are tempted to plant merely on account of the speed of its growth. The Scotch fir is less attractive during its youth than any other plant ; but, when full- grown, if it has had room to spread out its arms, it becomes a noble tree ; and, by those who are disinterested enough to plant for posterity, itmay be placed along with the sycamore near the house ; for, from their massiveness, both these trees unite well with buildings, and in some situations with rocks also ; having, in their forms and apparent substances, the effect of something intermediate betwixt the immoveableness and solidity of stone, and the spray and foliage of the lighter trees. If these general rules be just, what shall we say to whole acres of artificial shrubbery and exotic trees among rocks and dashing torrents, with their own wild wood in sight where we have the whole contents of the nurseryman's catalogue jumbled together colour at war with colour, and form with form ? among the most peace- ful subjects of Nature's kingdom, everywhere discord, distrac- tion, and bewilderment ! But this deformity, bad as it is, is not so obtrusive as the small patches and large tracts of larch planta- tions that are overrunning the hill sides. To justify our con- demnation of these, let us again recur to Nature. The process by which she forms woods and forests is as follows. Seeds are scattered indiscriminately by winds, brought by waters, and dropped by birds. They perish or produce, according as the soil and situation upon which they fall are suited to them : and under the same dependence, the seedling or the sucker, if not cropped by animals (which Nature is often careful to prevent by fencing it about with brambles or other prickly shrubs), thrives, and the tree grows, sometimes single, taking its own 150 PLANTING. shape without constraint, but for the most part compelled to con- form itself to some law imposed upon it by its neighbours. From low and sheltered places, vegetation travels upwards to the more exposed ; and the young plants are protected, and to a certain degree fashioned, by those that have preceded them. The con- tinuous mass of foliage which would be thus produced, is broken by rocks, or by glades or open places, where the browzing of animals has prevented the growth of wood. As vegetation ascends, the winds begin also to bear their part in moulding the forms of the trees ; but, thus mutually protected, trees, though not of the hardiest kind, are enabled to climb high up the moun- tains. Gradually, however, by the quality of the ground, and by increasing exposure, a stop is put to their ascent ; the hardy trees only are left : those also, by little and little, give way and a wild and irregular boundary is established, graceful in its out- line, and never contemplated without some feeling, more or less distinct, of the powers of Nature by which it is imposed. Contrast the liberty that encourages, and the law that limits, this joint work of nature and time, with the disheartening necessities, restrictions, and disadvantages, under which the artificial planter must proceed, even he whom long observation and fine feeling have best qualified for his task. In the first place, his trees, however well chosen and adapted to their several situations, must generally start all at the same time ; and this necessity would of itself prevent that fine connexion of parts, that sympathy and organization, if I may so express myself, which pervades the whole of a natural wood, and ap- pears to the eye in its single trees, its masses of foliage, and their various colours, when they are held up to view on the side of a mountain ; or when! spread over a valley, they are looked down upon from an eminence. It is therefore impossible, under any circumstances, for the artificial planter to rival the beauty of nature. But a moment's thought will show that, if ten thousand of this spiky tree, the larch, are stuck in at once upon the side of a hill, they can grow up into nothing but deformity ; that while they are suffered to stand, we shall look in vain for any of those appearances which are the chief sources of beauty in a natural wood. It must be acknowledged that the larch, till it has outgrown the size of a shrub, shews, when looked at singly, some elegance in form and appearance, especially in spring, decorated as it then is, by the pink tassels of its blossoms ; but, as a tree, it is less than any other pleasing ; its branches (for boughs it has none) have no variety in the youth of the tree, and little dignity even when it attains its full growth ; leaves it cannot be said to have, consequently neither affords shade nor shelter. In spring the larch becomes green long before the native trees ; and its green is so peculiar and vivid, that, finding nothing to harmonize with it, wherever it comes forth a disagreeable speck is produced. PLANTING. 151 In summer, when all other trees are in their pride, it is of a dingy lifeless hue ; in autumn of a spiritless unvaried yellow ; and, in winter, it is still more lamentably distinguished from every other deciduous tree of the forest, for they seem only to sleep, but the larch appears absolutely dead. If an attempt be made to mingle thickets, or a certain proportion of other forest trees, with the larch, its horizontal branches intolerantly cut them down as with a scythe, or force them to spindle up to keep pace with it. The terminating spike renders it impossible that the several trees, where planted in numbers, should ever blend together so as to form a mass or masses of wood. Add thousands to tens of thou- sands, and the appearance is still the same a collection of sepa- rate individual trees, obstinately presenting themselves as such ; and which, from whatever point they are looked at, if but seen, may be counted upon the fingers. Sunshine or shadow has little power to adorn the surface of such a wood ; and the trees not carrying up their heads, the wind raises among them no majestic undulations. It is indeed true that, in countries where the larch is a native, and where, without interruption it may sweep from valley to valley and from hill to hill, a sublime image may be produced by such a forest, in the same manner as by one com- posed of any other single tree, to the spreading of which no limits can be assigned ; for sublimity will never be wanting where the sense of innumerable multitude is lost in and alternates with that of intense unity ; and to the ready perception of this effect, simi- larity and almost identity of individual form and monotony of colour contribute. But this feeling is confined to the native im- measurable forest ; no artificial plantation can give it. The foregoing observations will, I hope (as nothing has been condemned or recommended without a substantial reason), have some influence upon those who plant for ornament merely. To such as plant for profit, I have already spoken. Let me then entreat that the native deciduous trees may be left in complete possession of the lower ground ; and that plantations of larch, if introduced at all, may be confined to the highest and most barren tracts. Interposition of rocks would there break the dreary uni- formity of which we have been complaining ; and the winds would take hold of the trees, and imprint upon their shapes a wildncss congenial to their situation. Having determined what kind of trees must be whollyrejected, or at least very sparingly used, by those who are unwilling to disfigure the country ; and having shewn what kinds ought to be chosen ; I should have given, if my limits had not already been overstepped, a few practical rules for the manner in which trees ought to be disposed in planting. But to this subject I should attach little importance, if I could succeed in banishing such trees as introduced deformity, and could prevail upon the proprietor to 1.52 FCUTHl.K CHANGES PROBABLE. confine himself either to those found in the native woods, or to such as accord with them. This is, indeed, the main point ; for much as these scenes have been injured by what has been taken from them buildings, trees, and woods, either through negli- gence, necessity, avarice, or caprice it is not the removals, but the harsh additions that have been made, which are the worst grievance a standing and unavoidable annoyance. Often have I felt this distinction with mingled satisfaction and regret ; for, if no positive deformity or discordance be substituted or super- induced, such is the benignity of Nature, that, take away from her beauty after beauty and ornament after ornament, her ap- pearance cannot be marred the scars, if any be left, will gra- dually disappear before a healing spirit; and what remains will still be soothing and pleasing. " Many hearts deplored The fate of those old trees; and oft with pain The traveller at this day will stop and gaze On wrongs which nature scarcely seems to heed: For sheltered places, bosoms, nooks and bays, And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed, And the green silent pastures yet remain." There are few ancient woods left in this part of England upon which such indiscriminate ravage as is here "deplored," could now be committed. But, out of the numerous copses, fine woods might in time be raised, probably without sacrifice of profit, by leaving, at the periodical fellings, a due proportion of the healthi- est trees to grow up into timber. This plan has fortunately, in many instances, been adopted ; and they who have set the ex- ample are entitled to the thanks of all persons of taste. As to the management of planting with reasonable attention to orna- ment, let the images of nature be your guide, and the whole se- cret lurks in a few words; thickets or underwoods singletrees trees clustered or in groups groves unbroken woods, but with varied masses of foliage glades invisible or winding boun- daries in rocky districts, a seemly proportion of rock left wholly bare, and other parts half hidden disagreeable objects concealed, and formal lines broken trees climbing up to the horizon, and, in some places, ascending from its sharp edge, in which they are rooted, with the whole body of the tree appearing to stand in the clear sky in other parts, woods surmounted by rocks utterly bare and naked, which add to the sense of height, as if vegeta- tion could not thither be carried, and impress a feeling of dura- tion, power of resistance, and security from change ! The author has been induced to speak thus at length, by a wish to preserve the native beauty of this delightful district, because still further changes in its appearance must inevitably follow, from the change of inhabitants and owners which is rapidly taking FURTHER CHANGES PROBABLE. 153 place. About the same time that strangers began to be attracted to the country, and to feel a desire to settle in it, the difficulty, that would have stood in the way of procuring situations, was lessened by an unfortunate alteration in the circumstances of the native peasantry, proceeding from a cause which then began to operate, and is now felt in every house. The family of each man, whether estatesman or farmer, formerly had a twofold support ; first, the produce of his lands and flocks; and, secondly, the profit drawn from the employment of the women and children, as manufacturers ; spinning their own wool in their own houses (work chiefly done in the winter season), and carrying it to market for sale. Hence, however numerous the children, the income of the family kept pace with its increase. But, by the invention and universal application of machinery, this second resource has been cut off; the gains being so far reduced as not to be sought after but by a few aged persons disabled from other employment. Doubtless, the invention of machinery has not been to these people a pure loss ; for the profits arising from home-manufactures operated as a strong temptation to chose that mode of labour in neglect of husbandry. They also participate in the general benefit which the island has derived from the in- creased value of the produce of land, brought about by the estab- lishment of manufactures, and by the consequent quickening of agricultural industry. But this is far from making them amends : and now that home-manufactures are nearly done away, though the women and children might, at many seasons of the year/cmploy themselves with advantage in the fields beyond what they are accustomed to do, yet still all possible exertion in this way cannot be rationally expected from persons whose agri- cultural knowledge is so confined, and, above all, where there must necessarily be so small a capital. The consequence, then, is that proprietors and farmers being no longer able to maintain themselves upon small farms, several are united in one, and the buildings go to decay, or are destroyed ; and that the lands of the estatesmen being mortgaged, and the owners being constrain- ed to part with them, they fall into the hands of wealthy pur- chasers, who, in like manner, unite and consolidate ; and, if they wish to become residents, erect new mansions out of the ruins of the ancient cottages, whose little enclosures, with all the wild graces that grew out of them, disappear. The feudal tenure un- der which the estates are held, has indeed done something towards checking this influx of new settlers ; but so strong is the inclina- tion, that these galling restraints are endured ; and it is probable that, in a few years, the country on the margin of the Lakes will fall almost entirely into the possession of gentry, either strangers or natives. It is then much to be wished, that a bet- ter taste should prevail among these new proprietors ; and, as p 2 154 FURTHER CHANGES PROBABLE. they cannot be expected to leave things to themselves, that skill and knowledge should prevent unnecessary deviations from that path of simplicity and beauty along which, without design and unconsciously, their humble predecessors have moved. In this wish the author will be joined by persons of pure taste throughout the whole island, who, by their visits (often repeated) to the Lakes in the North of England, testify that they deem the dis- trict a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy.* * See, for a glaring instance of disfigurement of the Country, a barn and cow-shed lately erected on a slip of meadow-ground lying between the river and the road on the banks of the Rothay, under Loughrigg Fell, not far below the bridge where the stream is crossed at the entrance from the south of Rydal village. This building, objectionable as it is from its size and form, is yet much more so on account of its inter- cepting peculiarly beautiful views of the Valley, both up and down the river. This remark is made thus publicly merely with a view to pre- vent like mischief by other proprietors. 1846. SECTION FOURTH. ALPINE SCENES COMPARED WITH CUMBRIAN. As a resident among the Lakes, I frequently hear the scenery of this country compared with that of the Alps ; and therefore a few words shall be added to what has been incidentally said upon that subject. If we could recall, to this region of the lakes, the native pine- forests, with which, many hundred years ago, a large portion of the heights was covered ; then, during spring and autumn, it might frequently, with much propriety, be compared to Switzer- land, the elements of the landscape would be the same, one country representing the other in miniature. Towns, villages, churches, rural seats, bridges and roads, green meadows and arable grounds, with their various produce, and deciduous woods of diversified foliage which occupy the vales and lower regions of the mountains, would, as in Switzerland, be divided by dark forests from ridges and round-topped heights covered with snow, and from pikes and sharp declivities imperfectly arrayed in the same glittering mantle : and the resemblance would be still more perfect on those days when vapours, resting upon and floating around the summits, leave the elevation of the mountains less dependent upon the eye than on the imagination. But the pine- forests have wholly disappeared ; and only during late spring and early autumn is realized here that assemblage of the imagery of different seasons, which is exhibited through the whole summer among the Alps, winter in the distance, and warmth, leafy woods, verdure and fertility at hand, and widely diffused. Striking out, then, from among the permanent materials of the landscape, that stage of vegetation which is occupied by pine- forests, and, above that, the perennial snows, we have moun- tains, the highest of which little exceed 3,000 feet, while some of the Alps do not fall short.of 14,000 or 15,000, and 8,000 or 10,000 i.s not an uncommon elevation. Our tracts of wood and water are almost as diminutive in comparison ; therefore, as far as sublimity is dependent upon absolute bulk and height, and at- rn< spherical influences in connection with these, it is obvious that there can be no rivalship. But a short residence among the I- 3 156 ALPINE SCENES British Mountains will furnish abundant proof, that, after a cer- tain point of elevation, viz. that which allows of compact and fleecy clouds settling upon or sweeping over the summits, the sense of sublimity depends more upon form and relation of objects to each other than upon their actual magnitude ; and, that an elevation of 3,000 feet is sufficient to call forth in a most impres- sive degree the creative, and magnifying, and softening powers of the atmosphere. Hence, on the score even of sublimity, the superiority of the Alps is by no means so great as might hastily be inferred ; and, as to the beauty of the lower regions of the Swiss Mountains, it is noticeable that, as they are all regularly mown, their surface has nothing of that mellow tone and variety of hues by which mountain turf, that is never touched by the scythe, is distinguished. On the smooth and steep slopes of the Swiss hills, these plots of verdure do indeed agreeably unite their colour with that of the deciduous trees, or make a lively contrast with the dark green pine groves that define them, and among which they run in endless variety of shapes but this is most pleasing at first sight ; the permanent gratification of the eye requires finer gradations of tone, and a more delicate blending of hues into each other. Besides, it is only in spring and late autumn that cattle animate by their presence the Swiss lawns ; and, though the pastures of the higher regions where they feed during the summer are left in their natural state of flowery herb- age, those pastures are so remote, that their texture and colour are of no consequence in the composition of any picture in which a lake of the Vales is a feature. Yet in those lofty regions, how vegetation is invigorated by the genial climate of that country ! Among the luxuriant flowers there met with, groves, or forests, if I may so call them, of Monk's-hood are frequently seen ; the flower of deep rich blue, and as tall as in our gardens ; and this at an elevation where, in Cumberland, Icelandic moss would only be found, or the stony summits be utterly bare. We have, then, for the colouring of Switzerland, principally a vivid green herbage, black woods, and dazzling snows, pre- sented in masses with a grandeur to which no one can be insen- sible; but not often graduated by Nature into soothing harmony, and so ill suited to the pencil, that though abundance of good subjects may be there found, they are not such as can be deemed characteristic of the country ; nor is this unfitness confined to colour : the forms of the mountains, though many of them in some points of view the noblest that can be conceived, are apt to run into spikes and needles, and present a jagged outline, which has a mean effect transferred to canvass. This must have been felt by the ancient masters ; for, if I am not mistaken, they have not left a single landscape, the materials of which are taken from the peculiar features of the Alps ; yet Titian passed his life almost in their neighbourhood ; the Poussins and Claude must have been well acquainted with their aspects ; and several COMPARED WITH CUMBRIAN. 157 admirable painters, as Tibaldi and Luino, were born among the Italian Alps. A few experiments have lately been made by Englishmen, but they only prove that courage, skill, and judg- ment may surmount any obstacles ; and it may be safely affirmed, that they who have done best in this bold adventure, will be the least likely to repeat the attempt. But, though our scenes are better suited to painting than those of the Alps, I should be sorry to contemplate either country in reference to that art, further than as its fitness or unfitness for the pencil renders it more or less pleasing to the'eye of the spectator, who has learned to observe and feel, chiefly from Nature herself. Deeming the points in which Alpine imagery is superior to British too obvious to be insisted upon, I will observe that the deciduous woods, though in many places unapproachable by the axe, and triumphing in the pomp and prodigality of Nature, have, in general,* neither the variety nor beauty which would exist in those of the mountains of Britain, if left to themselves. Magnificent walnut-trees grow upon the plains of Switzerland ; and fine trees of that species are found scattered over the hill- sides ; birches also grow here and there in luxuriant beauty ; but neither these, nor oaks, are ever a prevailing tree, nor can even be said to be common ; and the oaks, as far as I had an opportunity of observing, are greatly inferior to those of Britain. Among the interior valleys, the proportion of beeches and pines is 4o great that other trees are scarcely noticeable ; and surely such wood* are at all seasons much less agreeable than that rich and harmoni- ous distribution of oak, ash, elm, birch, and alder, that formerly clothed the sides of Snowdon and Helvellyn, and of which no mean remains still survive at the head of Ullswater. On the Italian side of the Alps, chesnut and walnut trees grow at a con- siderable height on the mountains ; but, even there, the foliage is not equal in beauty to the " natural product " of this climate. In fact, the sunshine of the South of Europe, so envied when heard of at a distance, is in many respects injurious to rural beauty, particularly as it incites to the cultivation of spots of ground which in colder climates would be left in the hands of nature, favouring at the same time the culture of plants that are more valuable on account of the fruit they produce to gratify the palate, than for affording pleasure to the eye as materials of landscape. Take, for instance, the Promontory of Bellagio, so fortunate in its command of the three branches of the Lake of Como, yet the ridge of the Promontory itself, being for the most part covered with vines interspersed with olive trees, accords but ill with the vastness of the green unappropriated mountains, and derogates not a little from the sublimity of those finely-contrasted pictures to which it is a fore-ground. The vine, when cultivated upon a large scale, notwithstanding all that may be said of it in * The greatest variety of trees is found in the Valais. 158 ALPINE SCENES COMPARED WITH CUMBRIAN. poetry,* makes but a dull formal appearance in landscape ; and the olive tree (though one is loath to say so) is not more grateful to the eye than our common willow, which it much resembles ; but the hoariness of hue, common to both, has in the aquatic plant an appropriate delicacy, harmonising with the situation in which it most delights. The same may no doubt be said of the olive among the dry rocks of Attica, but I am speaking of it as found in gardens and vineyards in the North of Italy. At Bel- lagio, what Englishman can resist the temptation of substituting, in his fancy, for these formal treasures of cultivation, the natu- ral variety of one of our parks its pastured lawns, coverts of hawthorn, of wild-rose., and honeysuckle, and the majesty of forest trees? such wild graces as the banks of Dcrwent- water shewed in the time of the Ratcliffes ; and Gowbarrow Park, Lowther, and Rydal do at this day. As my object is to reconcile a Briton to the scenery of his own country, though not at the expense of truth, I am not afraid of asserting that in many points of view our LAKES, also, are much more interesting than those of the Alps ; first, as is im- plied above, from being more happily proportioned to the other features ot the landscape ; and next, both as being infinitely more pellucid, and less subject to agitation from the winds. f Como (which may perhaps be styled the King of Lakes, as Lugano is cer- tainly the Queen) is disturbed by a periodical wind blowing from the head in the morning, and towards it in the afternoon. The magnificent Lake of the Four Cantons, especially its noblest divi- sion, called the Lake of Uri, is not only much agitated by winds, but in the night time is disturbed from the bottom, as I was told, and indeed as I witnessed, without any apparent commotion in the * Lucretius lias charmingly described a scene of this kind : Inque dies rnagis in montem succedere sylvas Cogebant, infrque locum concedere cultis : Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque laeta Collibus et campis ut haberent, atque olearnm Cterula distinguens inter plaga currere posset Per tumulos, et convalleis, camposque profusa: Ut nunc esse vfdes vario distineta lepore Omnia, quaj pomis intersita dulcibus ornant, Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circum. f It is remarkable that Como (as is probably the case with other Italian Lakes) is more troubled by storms in summer than in winter. Hence the propriety of the following verses : Lari ! margine ubique confragoso Nulli coslicolum negas sacellum Picto pariete saxeoque tecto ; Hinc miracula multa navitarum Audis, nee placido refellis ore, Sed nova usque paras, Noto vel Euro jEstivas quatientibus cavernas, Vel surgentis ab Adduae cubili Caeco grandinis imbre provoluto. LANDOK. PHENOMENA. 159 air ; and when at rest, the water is not pure to the eye, but of a heavy green hue as is that of all the other lakes, apparently ac- cording 1 to the degree in which they are fed by melted snows. If the Lake of Geneva furnish an exception, this is probably owing to its vast extent, which allows the water to deposit its impurities. The water of the English Lakes, on the contrary, being of crystalline clearness, the reflections of the surrounding hills are frequently so lively, that it is scarcely possible to dis- tinguish the point where the real object terminates and its un- substantial duplicate begins. The lower part of the Lake of Geneva, from its narrowness, must be much less subject to agi- tation than the higher divisions, and, as the water is clearer than that of the other Swiss lakes, it will frequently exhibit this ap- pearance, though it is scarcely possible in an equal degree. During two comprehensive tours among the Alps, I did not ob- serve, except on one of the smaller lakes, between Lugano and Ponte Tresa, a single instance of those beautiful repetitions of surrounding objects on the bosom of the water, which are so frequently seen here : not to speak of the fine dazzling trembling net-work, breezy motions, and streaks and circles of intermingled smooth and rippled water, which makes the surface of our lakes a field of endless variety. But among the Alps, where every thing tends to the grand and the sublime, in surfaces as well as in forms, if the lakes do not court the placid reflections of land objects, those of first-rate magnitude make compensation, in some degree, by exhibiting those ever-changing fields of green, blue, and purple shadows or lights (one scarcely knows which to name them), that call to mind a sea-prospect contemplated from a lofty cliff. The subject of torrents and water-falls has already been touched upon ; but it may be added, that in Switzerland, the perpetual accompaniment of snow upon the higher regions takes much from the effect of foaming white streams ; while, from their frequency, they obstruct each other's influence upon the mind of the spectator ; and, in all cases, the effect of an individ- ual cataract, excepting the great Fall of the Rhine at Schaff- hausen, is diminished by the general fury of the stream of which it is a part. Recurring to the reflections from still water, I will describe a singular phenomenon of this kind of which I was an eye-witness. Walking by the side of Ullswater upon a calm September morning, I saw, deep within the bosom of the lake, a magnificent Castle, with towers and battlements ; nothing could be more distinct than the whole edifice. After gazing with delight upon it for some time, as upon a work of enchantment, I could not but regret that my previous knowledge of the place enabled me to account for the appearance. It was, in fact the reflection of a pleasure-house called Lyulph's Tower the towers and battle- ments magnified and so much changed in shape as not to be im- mediately recognized. In the meanwhile the pleasure-house 160 PHENOMENA. itself was altogether hidden from my view by a body of vapour stretching over it and along the hill side on which it stands, but not so as to have intercepted its communication with the lake ; and hence this novel and most impressive object, which, if I had been a stranger to the spot, would, from its being inexplicable, have long detained the mind in a state of pleasing astonishment. Appearances of this kind, acting upon the credulity of early ages, may have given birth to, and favoured the belief in, stories of subaqueous palaces, gardens, and pleasure-grounds the bril- liant ornaments of Romance. With this inverted scene I will couple a much more extraor- dinary phenomenon, which will shew how other elegant fancies may have had their origin, less in invention than in the actual processes of nature. About eleven o'clock in {he forenoon of a winter's day coming suddenly, in company of a friend, into view of the Lake of Gras- mere, we were alarmed by the sight of a newly-created island. The transitory thought of the moment was, that it had been produced by an earthquake or some other convulsion of nature. Recovering from the alarm, which was greater than the reader can possibly sympathize with, but which was shared to its full extent by my companion, we proceeded to examine the object before us. The elevation of this new island exceeded consider- ably that of the old one, its neighbour ; it was likewise larger in circumference, comprehending a space of about five acres ; its surface rocky, speckled with snow, and sprinkled over with birch trees ; it was divided towards the south from the other island by a narrow frith, and in like manner from the northern shore of the lake ; on the east and west it was separated from the shore by a much larger space of smooth water. Marvellous was the illusion ! Comparing the new with the old Island, the surface of which is soft, green, and unvaried, I do not scruple to say that, as an object of sight, it was much the more distinct. " How little faith," we exclaimed, "is due to one sense, unless its evidence be confirmed by some of its fellows ! What stranger could possibly be persuaded that this, which we know to be an unsubstantial mockery, is really so ; and that there exists only a single Island on this beautiful Lake ?" At length the appearance underwent a gradual transmutation ; it lost its prominence and passed into a glimmering and dim inversion, and then totally disappeared ; leaving behind it a clear open area of ice of the same dimensions. We now perceived that this bed of ice, which was thinly suffused with water, had produced the illu- sion, by reflecting and refracting (as persons skilled in optics would no doubt easily explain) a rocky and woody section of the opposite mountain named Silver-how. Having dwelt so much upon the beauty of pure and still water, and pointed out the advantage which the Lakes of the North of England have in this particular over those of the Alps, it would be injustice not to advert to the sublimity that must often be COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE. 161 given to Alpine scenes, by the agitations to which those vast bodies of diffused water are there subject. I have witnessed many tremendous thunder-storms among the Alps, and the most glorious effects of light and shadow : but I never happened to be present when any lake was agitated by those hurricanes which I imagine must often torment them. If the commotions be at all proportionable to the expanse and depth of the waters, and the height of the surrounding mountains, then, if I may judge from what is frequently seen here, the exhibition must be awful and astonishing. On this day, March 30, 1822, the winds have been acting upon the small Lake of Rydal as if they had received command to carry its waters from their bed into the sky ; the white billows in different quarters disappeared under clouds, or rather drifts of spray, that were whirled along, and up into the air by scouring winds, charging each other in squadrons in every direction, upon the Lake. The spray, having been hurried aloft till it lost its consistency and whiteness, was driven along the mountain tops like flying showers that vanish in the distance. Frequently an eddying wind scooped the waters out of the basin, and forced them upwards in the very shape of an Icelandic Geyser, or boiling fountain, to the height of several hundred feet. This small Mere of Rydal, from its position, is subject in a pe- culiar degree to these commotions. The present season, how- ever, is unusually stormy ; great numbers of fish, two of them not less than twelve pounds weight, were a few days ago cast on the shores of Derwentwater by the force of the waves. Lest, in the foregoing comparative estimate, I should be sus- pected of partiality to my native mountains, I will support my general opinion by the authority of Mr. West, whose Guide to the Lakes has been eminently serviceable to the Tourist for nearly fifty years. The Author, a Roman Catholic Clergyman, had passed much time abroad, and was well acquainted with the scenery of the Continent. He thus expresses himself: " They who intend to make the continental tour should begin here ; as it w ill give, in miniature, an idea of what they are to meet with there, in traversing the Alps and Appenines ; to which our northern mountains are not inferior in beauty of line, or variety of summit, number of lakes and transparency tit water ; not in colouring of rock, or softness of turf; but in height and extent only. The mountains here are all accessible to the summit, and furnish prospects no less surprising, and with more variety than the Alps themselves. The tops of the highest Alps are inac- cessible, being covered with everlasting snow, which, commencing at regular heights above the cultivated tracts, or wooded and verdant sides, form indeed the highest contrast in nature. For there may be seen all the variety of climate in one view. To this, however, we oppose the sight of the ocean, from the summit of all the higher mountains, as it appears intersected with pro- montories, decorated with islands, and animated with navigation." WEST'S Guide, p. 5. GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, IN dFour Hetters ADDRESSED TO W. WORDSWORTH, ESQ. BY THE REV. PROFESSOR SEDGWICK, M.A., F.R.S., &c. WnOUWARDIAN PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. LETTER I. My DEAE SIR, In writing these letters, I am only endea- vouring to perform a promise, made many years since, when I had the happiness of rambling with you through some of the hills and valleys of your native country. One of your greatest works seems to contain a poetic ban against my brethren of the hammer, and some of them may have well deserved your cen- sures : for every science has its minute philosophers, who neither have the will to soar above the material things around them, nor the power of rising to the contemplation of those laws by which Nature binds into union the different portions of her kingdom. But Geology has now a different form and stature from what she had in earlier days : she is the handmaid of labourers who are toiling, as they believe, for the good of their fellow men : she claims kindred with all the offspring of exact knowledge : and she lends no vulgar help to the loftiest investigations of human thought. To reject her altogether, can only be done consistently by one who shuts his eyes to the light of material science ; and this, I know, is no part of your philosophy ; for no one has put forth nobler views of the universality of nature's kingdom than yourself. You wish not her provinces to be dissevered, but each of them to contribute to the good of the whole state. You believe, however, and I subscribe to the same creed, that material science is only so far truly good, as it tends to elevate the mind of man ; giving him a higher conception of his capacities and duties, and a better power in following them to their proper end. All nature bears the impress of one great Creative Mind, and all parts of knowledge are, therefore, of one kindred and family. In toiling along the narrow path leading to some favourite object of our search, we may perhaps forget the world without us, and so become bigots in our philosophy ; labouring only for our own ends, or at best, for that which may seem but for the good of a sect or party. True philosophy has a loftier and better aim. Truth, of whatever kind, she considers as a part of herself, which she has to bring under the government of her will ; and her only end is " the glory of God, and the good of man's estate." Q 2 166 GEOLOGY OF THE But I must leave these high subjects of speculation, and des- cend to more homely matters: and in commencing my task I meet with a great difficulty. I wish to convey some general notion of the structure of the Lake District ; and it would be an easy task, even within the compass of one letter, to enumerate the successive great rock formations, to explain their order, and to give a short description of them. But in this way my narrative would inevita- bly be so dry and repulsive, that no one but a professed geologist would, ever think of reading it, and even such a person would do so with very little profit. I wish to address more general readers any intelligent traveller whose senses are open to the beauties of the country around him, and who is ready to speculate on such mat- ters of interest as it offers to him. I will therefore endeavour to avoid technical language as far as I am able, and I do not profess to teach, in a few pages, the geology of a most compli- cated country (for that would be an idle attempt) ; but rather to open the mind to the nature of the subject, and to point out the right way towards a comprehension of some of its general truths. The region, I wish in this way to notice, is bounded on the West, by the sea-coast extending from the mouth of the Eden to the mouth of the Lune on the North, by the low country bordering the Eden, and stretching from the Solway Frith to the calcareous hills near Brough and Kirkby Stephen on the East, by the chain of calcareous mountains which ranges from the neighbourhood of Settle (through Ingleborough, Whernside, Wildboar Fell, &c.) to Stainmoor and on the South, by More- cambe Bay and the lower part of the valley of the Lune. But in the following short sketch, many tracts comprehended within these boundaries, will be hardly noticed. By whatever line a good observer enters the region enclosed within the above-mentioned limits, he must be struck with the great contrast between the hills and mountains that are arranged on its outskirts, and those which rise up towards its centre. On the outskirts, the mountains have a dull outline, and a continual tendency to a tabular form : but those in the interior have a much more varied figure, and sometimes present outlines which are peaked, jagged, or serrated. This difference arises partly from the nature of the component rocks, and partly from their position : for the more central mountains are chiefly made up of slaty beds, with different degrees of induration, which are highly inclined, and sometimes nearly vertical : while the outer hills are, with limited exceptions, made up of beds which are slightly inclined, and sometimes nearly horizontal. Good instances of these facts may be seen at Kendal Fell and Whitbarrow Scar. They may be studied in all their details by one who ascends the water-courses between Ingleton and the caves in Chapel-le-dale and perhaps still better in the valleys between Clapham and Horton. In all these places, the great beds of limestone at the base of the calcareous mountains, are LAKE DISTRICT. 167 seen to rest upon the inclined edges of the slates ; and there are hundreds of other places on the outskirts of the lake-mountains where we may find a similar arrangement of the beds. One whose attention has been caught by such phenomena, and who has learned to draw the right conclusion from them, has taken the first firm step in Geology ; he has learned that the tabular, calcareoui hills, which surround the country of the lakes, are of a newer date than the slate rocks within it. But our observer must not rest contented with this conclusion. A study of the slate rocks must soon convince him, that their component beds were deposited by the sea, and were once nearly horizontal ; that great disturbing forces afterwards raised them up, and sometimes twisted them into complicated curves, till at length they permanently settled into their present position and that some of these effects were brought about before the exist- ence of the overlying beds of limestone. Should this remark lead him to speculate on the interval of time that may have elapsed between the periods of the two for- mations he has been considering, he may return to some of those places where they are seen one resting on the other ; and he will find that the overlying horizontal beds of limestone are sometimes separated from the contorted or inclined beds of slate, by masses of conglomerate or cemented shingles, containing innumerable abraded fragments and rolled pebbles, derived from the harder beds associated with the slates : and from the condition of the pebbles he may prove that, at the time the conglomerates were formed, many of the ancient slates were as hard and solid as they are at the present day. Hence he will further conclude that the slate rocks (which contain many regular beds of sea shells and corals) were deposited by the sea during a long lapse of ages that they were elevated and contorted by great internal movements that they passed nearly into the solid state in which we find them now that afterwards, on the outskirts of their ele- vation, they were ground down into great irregular masses and banks of shingle and that all this succession of events was com- plete before the existence of any part of the overlying calcareous chain. Such facts will teach him, that he has been studying phenomena which not only indicate succession, but were ela- borated during vast intervals of time. Again, the previous conclusion may be fortified, by an ex- amination of the organic remains which are buried in the slate rocks and the overlying limestone. The indications given by the organic forms prove that there had been a complete change in the animal kingdom, between the epochs of the two formations, for they hardly interchange a single species. However incom- prehensible this may be, it never could have been brought about, compatibly with any known operations of nature, without a great change of physical conditions, and a long lapse of ages. What has been stated requires for its comprehension no pre- Q 3 168 GEOLOGY OF THE vious knowledge of Geology : and any man may make the right observations, and draw the right conclusions from them, when he is once awake to the interest of those phenomena which rise up on every side of him, and seem to court his senses. But there are other questions belonging to the rudiments of Geology, which I may now touch upon. The world is not as it was when it came from its Maker's hands. It has been modified by many great revolutions, brought about by an inner mechan- ism of which we very imperfectly comprehend the movements ; but of which we gain a glimpse by studying their effects : and there are many causes still acting on the surface of our globe with undiminished power, which are changing, and will continue to change it, so long as it shall last. No one can carefully examine a mountain chain, without being convinced that all its inequalities have been greatly modified ; and that there was a time when many of them had no existence : that many yawning chasms where once closed, and many hollows once filled up by continuous bands of the strata, which still tally, even in their minutest subdivisions, on the opposite sides of a gorge or valley. The calcareous mountains and valleys skirting the lake country, offer the most perfect illustrations of this view .- and we learn that these mountains, though unaffected by some of the great physical revolutions which elevated the older slates, have been lifted out of the sea, rent asunder, and worn down into their present forms, by other causes of like kind, but acting at a later period. I may mention a theory which is not without its advocates even now, and which was once a favourite doctrine with a large school of geologists. This theory assumes, that many of the valleys and great depressions presented by the surface of the earth, have been scooped out simply by the erosion (continued during a countless succession of past ages) of the waters flowing through them. I affirm, in reply that the erosion of rivers and torrents, however indefinitely continued, could not account for the hollows and inequalities of any one of our mountain chains that in in- stances, almost without number, we find streams making their way through clefts and gorges of solid rock, and escaping towards the sea on one side of a chain, while nature offers them an easy and uninterrupted line of descent on the other side that the configuration of no high country yet examined is in accordance with this theory and that, as a general fact, the streams and torrents of our hilly regions have flowed, only during a few thousand years, through the channels in which we now behold them. The lake mountains offer many beautiful illustrations of this conclusion. Let an observer examine the whole course of any river (such, for example, as the Derwent, the Cocker, the Ea- inont, the Lune, or the Kent) from its mouth to the last threads of its ramification through the higher elevations of the country. LAKE DISTRICT. 169 He may first mark the transporting powers of a river in the for- mation of silt and marsh lands ; and the way in which the action of vegetable life, producing great layers of bog earth and turf, combines with this transporting power in raising up and changing the surface of the country. From the marsh lands spreading out on the coast (and perhaps resting on beds of shells like those now living in the sea), he may ascend to the mid region of the river's course, and mark the fertilizing influence of the waters, and the beautiful fringe of country that borders them. He may ascend still higher, and see the torrents wearing out deep grooves and ploughing furrows in the sides of the mountains ; bearing gravel and rounded stones to the plains below, and exposing them to the action of the elements. Lastly, he may mark the mounds of rubbish at the foot of all the great precipices, and the fragments of solid rock scattered on the sides of the valley by which he is ascending. Impressed by such phenomena, produced during past ages by the erosion of the elements, he may perhaps begin to lean towards that false theory I have before alluded to. But other facts must, in their turn, be noticed, which have a most important bearing upon the question in debate. As we ascend the ramifications of a river, we frequently meet with pools of comparatively stagnant water; and sometimes a succes- sion of those tarns and lakes which give so much brightness and beauty to the country here described. Now all these expanses of nearly stagnant water (for this is the homely view in which we must now regard them) are the recipients of the mud and gravel brought down from the neighbouring hills. At every point, where a mountain stream enters a tarn or lake, is accu- mulated a delta of greater or less extent, which is a chronometer to tell us during what time the transporting agents have been carrying on their work. It would be idle to draw any exact conclusion from such rough indicators of past time ; but they all conspire in one story, and tell us in plain terms, that mountain torrents, in the channels where they now flow, have been push- ing silt and gravel and blocks of stone before them, only during a few thousand years. Had rivers been playing their present part during an indefinite lapse of ages, not a lake or tarn could, I believe, have existed in Westmorland and Cumberland. The same conclusion is forced on the mind by the valleys of North Wales, and of every hilly country I have yet examined. Should any one ask, how then were these valleys formed ? We may reply by every great disturbing force which has acted on the crust of the earth since the first deposition of the beds which form the mountains. There has been a long succession of physical revolutions ; and to the combined effects of them all, the older rocks must have been more or less exposed. But during the last few thousand years, this part of the world has been almost quiescent, and the pencilling of its outline has only been slightly touched by the erosion of the waters and the gnawing of the 170 GEOLOGY OF THE elements. Again, we are certain that there have been enormous changes in the relative levels of sea and land, Near the top of Ingleborough, about 2000 feet above the coast level, are beds which were once tranquilly deposited at the bottom of the sea ; for they are full of well-preserved shells and corals. The highest parts of Snowdon, are marked by impressions of sea shells ; and similar organic spoils have been found, in some distant chains, at five times the height of any English mountains. Such changes of level, howsoever brought about, must have produced an in- comparably greater transporting power than is shewn in any or- dinary action of the elements. Accordingly, in our own coun- try, we find, heaped on the flanks of the mountains, choking up the valleys, and spreading far and wide along the plains, great masses of alluvial drift, entirely unconnected with any erosion of the existing rivers. We believe that these masses were formed by the sea, during periods when it was changing its level ; and we sometimes (at the height of considerably more than 1000 feet) see proofs of the truth of our hypothesis, by finding sea shells of modern species, imbedded in the heaps of incoherent rubbish which have been drifted over the surface. As far as regards the phenomena just noticed, it is a matter of indifference whether we suppose the sea to have come down from the tops of the mountains, or the mountains to have been pushed up from the bottom of the sea. The latter supposition agrees with the known powers of nature, and I know of no other intel- ligible cause for a change of oceanic level. Mountains are sim- ply the highest points of elevation, marking the places where subterranean forces have pushed upwards with greatest intensity, or met with least resistance. The first movements would throw the horizontal deposits into a dome-shape ; if pushed too far, the outer coating of the dome would crack and burst asunder in dif- ferent directions according to the conditions of the moving and resisting powers. It might be sometimes in lines diverging from a centre, like the higher valleys of Cumberland. These cracks and fissures, whether formed under the sea, or in the open air, would be the first rudiments of future valleys ; and it is obvious that at all future times, the abrading power of water would act with most intensity upon the lines of fracture and the projecting ends of the shattered strata. Combining this remark with the fact, that there have been many great oscillations of the land, and a long succession of geological periods marked and dated by the plainest physical records, we need not wonder that the val- leys of Cumberland and Westmorland (traversing as they do some of the oldest rocks which have obtained a known place in the chronicles of the earth) should present phenomena not to be explained by any forces, however long continued, which are now seen to act on the surface of the country. One who is alive to the interest of the subject I have just touched on, may, when following the coast between Carlisle and LAKE DISTRICT. 171 Lancaster, or ascending by any one of the valleys towards the higher mountains of the district, find excellent examples both of modern river sediment, and more ancient marine drift. The older gravel often contains blocks of enormous size, bearing wit- ness to the greatness of that power which moved them from their parent seat. But there are transported bowlders unconnected with any other drifted matter, sometimes many tons in weight, and in positions most strange and difficult to be accounted for. To follow this subject into its details would lead me far beyond the limits of this letter. I will, therefore, almost confine my notice to the tra- velled blocks of Shap granite ; and they have too distinct a mi- neral structure to be mistaken, in whatever company we may meet with them. The manner in which they have been scatter- ed over the surface may be understood from the following facts : 1. Setting out from Wasdale Crag near Shap (where is the parent rock), they have passed over the steep calcareous ridge that stretches from Orton Scar to Knipe Scar ; we find them scattered, far and wide, upon the low country bordering the Eden ; many of them have been floated to the height of several hundred feet above that river, against the steep sides of the great Cross Fell ridge ; and in one or two places, near Dufton, the blocks almost cover the ground, and have been mistaken for the decomposing surface of a great mass of undisturbed granite. 2. They have been carried towards the East, and many were stranded on the barrier of Stainmore ; but thousands of blocks, some of them several tons in weight, were pushed over that ridge and then scattered over the plains of Yorkshire. Some floated over the Hambleton hills and were lodged in the valleys near Scarborough : many others were driven over the chalk downs to the coast of Holderness. 3. Bowlders from Wasdale Crag, some of very great size, have descended the valley of the Kent to the head of Morecambe Bay. Such a movement we may comprehend, allowing an ade- quate propelling force of water. But they are not confined to the sides of the water-courses. They have been floated to the tops of hills, and across great chasms and depressions. They are found, in numbers, on the high hills between Kendal and Sedbergh, in positions they could not have reached without crossing valleys, now at least, several hundred feet in depth. I might here notice the bowlders of granite and other hard rock, which have been drifted from the western valleys of Cumber- land over the plains of Lancashire and Cheshire, and to the very tops of the hills between Cheshire and Derbyshire the gigantic masses of crystalline rock (some of them not less than forty or fifty feet in diameter) which have descended from the sides of Mont Blanc, then crossed the great valley of Switzerland, and afterwards been lodged against the sides, or pushed over the tops, of the Jura chain and the innumerable Scandinavian bowlders 172 GEOLOGY OF THE which are scattered over the northern plains of Germany, and the steppes of central Russia. But my limits admit of no details, and I will rest my conclusions on facts supplied by the north of England. Here then is a great difficulty. By what power were these "erratic blocks" scattered over the north of England, and lodged in positions that seem so utterly strange and anomalous ? We may readily admit any change in the relative level of land and water ; and therefore any propelling power of oceanic cur- rents consequent upon such a change, and necessary to account for the superficial drift that sometimes contains, as before stated, recent marine shells at the height of considerably more than a thousand feet. But no propelling force of water seems capable of driving gigantic bowlders across ravines and valleys, from mountain top to mountain top ; yet we want an agent capable of doing this, when we endeavour to account for the phenomena above described. Late observations on the marine shells derived from the upper portion of the Crag of Norfolk and Suffolk, and other very recent marine deposits on the eastern coast of England, make it pro- bable that, during a period not long before the great diluvian drift, our climate was much colder than it is at the present day. The appearances on the coast of North America have given rise to the same conclusion ; and the labours of M.M. Agassiz.Char- pentier, and other Swiss naturalists, have, I think, clearly proved that, just before the historic time, the glaciers of the Alps were far more extended than they are now. If this be true, may we not suppose that, at the same period, some of the highest valleys of England and Scotland were filled with glaciers, and that numberless blocks of stone which had rolled down the mountain sides, or been torn off from the neighbouring precipi- ces, were then packed up in thick-ribbed ice ? No one will, I trust, be so bold as to affirm that an uninter- rupted glacier could ever have extended from Shap Fells to the coast of Holderness, and borne along the blocks of granite through the whole distance, without any help from the floating power of water. The supposition involves difficulties tenfold greater than are implied in the phenomenon it pretends to account for. The glaciers descending through the valleys of the higher Alps have an enormous transporting power : but there is no such power in a great sheet of ice expanded over a country without mountains, and at a nearly dead level. The period of refrigeration (if such indeed there were) had at length an end ; and we can hardly conceive any general change of climate without some great oscillation in the water level. Let us then suppose the earth to sink, or the ocean to rise up, so that the coast line may reach our higher valleys, and then currents of the sea may float away the ancient glaciers with their imbed- ed fragments of rock. In this way we can conceive it possible LAKE DISTRICT. 173 that blocks of Shap granite may have been stranded on the side of Cross Fell, or floated over the top of Stainmoor and the crest of the Hambleton hills ; and dropped, by the gradual melting of the icebergs, on the spots where we now find them. Soon after- wards our island may have gained a condition of equilibrium, and the land may have risen, or the sea descended, to its present level ; in which there appears to have been very little change during the period of modern authentic history. The previous hj'pothesis is not new. It was first started, forty or fifty years since, to explain the transporting power which had brought away millions of bowlders and fragments of rock from the Scandinavian chain, and scattered them over the plains in the north of Germany, and in Poland and a part of Russia. But it seemed to be entangled in the. greatest difficulty, for how were we to find the ice, which was the most important part of the machinery ? Geological phenomena appeared to indicate a gradual lowering of temperature, from the oldest epoch down to the present period : and hence it was inferred, that in the epoch just before the historic time, the earth must have been warmer than in our days. But no analogy can stand against the direct evidence of facts ; and if there has been a period of refrigeration, accompanied by a great oscillation in the level of land and water, the glacial theory will then lend itself readily to the transport of the " erratic blocks," and it involves no supposition which is in antagonism with the known workings of nature. For sea and land have changed their relative levels many times ; and ice- bergs, year by year, do bear away great blocks of stone from the arctic regions, and drop them in the sea many hundred miles from the shores they first started from. But whether the glacial theory truly accounts for all the strange movements of the Shap granite above described, is a question on which I wish not to offer any decided opinion. One thing at least is certain, that, by whatever cause the " erratic blocks " were floated across our valleys and over our mountains, their dispersion took place at a comparatively recent time. For many of them, though lying bare on the surface, and exposed to all the action of our climate, still clink under the hammer, and hardly shew more signs of decay than the granite of an Egyptian obelisk. I see no reason for supposing that the movement of the great bowlders necessarily took place before the existence of the human race. On this question there seems no direct or conclusive evidence leading to one side or the other. We know, indeed, that bowlders, like those above described, are often associated with ancient marine drift, containing bones of mammals of extinct species (such as Mammoth, Mastodon, Rhi- noceros, Hippopotamus, &c. &c.) and we believe that no human bones have been found in the old gravel of Europe, except in situations which seetn to shew that they were introduced at a more recent date. But allowing the negative conclusion, that no 174 GEOLOGY OF THE human bones were entombed, along with the extinct mammals, in the old gravel of Europe, it does not thence follow, that the human race was in no other part of the world ever coeval with the Mastodon and the Mammoth. Whatever may become of such a question, the direct evidence remains untouched ; and the condition of the travelled bowlders of Shap granite proves that they were not floated away from the hills of Westmorland during any ancient and indefinite period of time long before the creation of our species. If we have the clearest proofs of great oscillations of sea-level, and have a right to make use of them while we seek to explain some of the latest phenomena of Geology, may we not reason- ably suppose that, within the period of human history, similar oscillations have taken place in those parts of Asia which were the cradle of our race, and may have produced that destruction among the early families of men, which is described in our sacred books, and of which so many traditions have been brought down to us through all the streams of authentic history ?* Whatever may become of this question, and of some others, which the limits of this letter barely permit me to touch upon, this I will affirm, that among the records of creation discovered to us by the monuments of the earth's crust, we find no chapter more difficult than that which links the past with the present, and leads us up to the historic period, and the beginning of the works of man. Among the older records, we find chapter after chapter of which we can read the characters, and make out their meaning ; and as we approach the period of man's creation, our * There is nothing new in this speculation, which must have offered itself, from time to time, to every geologist who wished to connect the past with the present. Bearing upon this subject, some most striking facts are brought to light in a great work on the structure of the Cau- casus, by M. Dubois de Montpereux. I knew nothing of this work when the above letter was first printed, and I can now only refer the reader to a short but excellent analysis of it by Mr. Murchison in his " Anniversary Address to the Geological Society of London in 1843." I may add, that this letter (in the form in which it is now printed) was in the hands of the publisher before Mr. Hopkins had read a paper on the structure of the Cumbrian Mountains. (See the " Anniversary Address" just quoted, and the "Proceedings of the Geo- logical Society of London," for 1842.) "With many of his views I agree : with some I differ : but all the opinions of one who combines the habits of patient observation with the resources of exact science, demand our consideration and respect. During the present spring (1843), he has made some new experiments on the movements of ice, which have con- siderably modified his former views ; and seem to prove, that glaciers may act as a transporting power on planes of very small inclination. Had the unexpected result of these experiments been known when the above letter was first published, I should have modified one or two sentences especially the one in which it is stated, " that there is no such transporting power in a great sheet of ice expanded over acoun- try without mountains, and at a nearly dead level. (Supra p. 172.) LAKE DISTRICT. 175 book becomes more clear, and nature seems to speak to us in language so like our own, that we easily comprehend it. But just as we begin to enter on the history of physical changes go- ing on before our eyes, and in which we ourselves bear a part, our chronicle seems to fail us a leaf has been torn out from na- ture's record, and the succession of events is almost hidden from our eyes. The strange hypotheses even sober and good ob- servers have been driven to invent, in their endeavours to explain phenomena, which, in the language of geology, happened as yesterday, are but proofs of the difficulty and obscurity of that chapter in the natural history of the earth, which, being the nearest to that describing changes of our own days, one might have expected to have been the most plain and legible. With this remark I conclude my long letter. In my next I hope to notice the successive deposits of the lake mountains, and the way in which they are related to one another. A. SEDGWICK. Cambridge, May 23, 1842. LETTER II. MY DEAE SIR, In my preceding letter I shortly noticed the external features of the Lake District, the structure of its valleys, the erosion of its surface by the daily action of the elements, the accumulations of alluvial silt and gravel within its area, the heaps of diluvial drift, and the great bowlders which have travelled from the higher mountains far and wide over the North of Eng- land. My present object is to convey some notion of the struc- ture of the great mountain masses, aud to shew how the several parts are fitted one to another. This can only be done after great labour. The cliffs where the rocks are laid bare by the sea, the clefts and fissures in the hills and valleys, the deep grooves through which the waters flow, all must be in turn ex- amined ; and out of much seeming confusion, order will at length appear. We must, in imagination, s.weep off the drifted matter that clogs the surface of the ground ; we must suppose all the covering of moss and heath and wood to be torn away from the sides of the mountains, and the green mantle that lies near their feet to be lifted up ; we may then see the muscular integuments, and sinews, and bones of our mother Earth, and so judge of the part played by each of them during those old convulsive move- ments whereby her limbs were contorted and drawn up into their present posture. But all these preliminary labours must here be taken for granted, and I must content myself with giving, in the best way I can, a bare outline of the results to which observers have in this way come. 176 GEOLOGY OF THE The rock formations in the mountain tracts between the basins of the Eden and the Lune (as defined in my former letter), are divided into the following natural groups : 1. New red sandstone. 2. Magnesian limestone and conglomerate. 3. The Carboniferous series, including the carboniferous or mountain limestone. 4. Old red sandstone. 5. Upper slates of Westmorland, Low Furness, and a part of Yorkshire, based on the limestone of Coniston Water Head. 6. A great deposit of green slate and porphyry, forming some of the highest mountains of Furness Fells, Westmorland, and Cumberland. 7. Skiddaw slate, passing in the heart of Skiddaw forest, into a complicated group of crystalline or ' metamorphic' slates. As all the preceding groups were deposited under the sea, the highest (No. 1) must be of the newest, and the lowest (No. 7) of the oldest date. From beneath them all rise great masses of granite and other kinds of crystalline unbedded rock (No. 8) pushed by the force of subterranean fires into the positions where we now find them. But the date of their eruption cannot be made out from their inner structure ; and we can only define the epochs of their appearance by the effects they have produced on the more regular aqueous deposits through which they have forced their way. SECTION NO. I. Calcareous hills t>f Yorkshire. Coniston Limestone. Skiddaw Foreit. li. Eden. Croit Fell ^;3 14 5 6 7876435 The annexed wood-cut, in which the numerals correspond to those given a little above, may convey some notion of the relative positions of the several great deposits. The left side of the section represents a descending series from the calcareous moun- tains of Westmorland and Yorkshire to the granite in the centre of Skiddaw Forest (No. 8) ; but some great derangements of the groups, produced by lines of fault, are not delineated, as they would make the section too complicated for a first general view. The right side of the section (commencing with No. 8) represents an ascending series from Skiddaw Forest to Cross Fell. No attempt is however made to give with any exactness the relative magnitudes of the successive groups ; nor would it be possible, on such a scale, to delineate the contortions of the beds. In the order indicated by the numerals, I now proceed to notice the successive formations. LAKE DISTRICT. 177 NEW BED SANDSTONE. This is the newest formation of the country under notice ; for wherever it is associated with other deposits it is always found to rest upon them. It fills all the lower part of the basin of the Eden, from the neighbourhood of Brough to the shores of the Solway Frith. At Maryport it is cut off by the coal measures ; but it re-appears at St. Bees' Head, and strikes along the coast to the estuary of the Duddon and the western promontories of Low Furness ; and it is seen in a few spots on the shores of Morecambe Bay. In some parts of this long coast range it seems to have been entirely washed away, and in other places it is covered by enormous heaps of diluvial drift, the colour of which is derived from the abraded fragments of red sandstone. If we cross to the other side of Morecambe Bay, we meet with the same great formation on the coast of Lancashire ; and it may then be traced, through the plains of Cheshire, to the great red central plain stretching across our island from the mouth of the Tees to the mouth of the Severn. The upper part of the formation supports a very fertile soil, and contains much red gypseous marl, and sometimes very large deposits of rock salt : but of this part we find few, if any, traces on the flanks of the Cumbrian mountains. The lower part is sometimes covered with an arid and sterile soil, and is chiefly made uj> of a strong thickly-bedded red sandstone, in various degrees of induration. In this form it is seen in several parts of the basin of the Eden : but it is valuable as a building stone, and was largely used in the churches and monastic monuments of the middle ages. The rock here described may be seen, in all its varieties, in the quarries near Carlisle, in the ravines below Furness Abbey, and on the banks of the Calder. At St. Bees' Head it is beau- tifully exposed to view, and rests on some beds of gypseous marl or ' plaster rock' (not to be confounded with the upper gypseous and saliferous marls above noticed), which were formerly much worked. From beneath the gypseous marls rise the magnesian limestone and conglomerate ; and these are in their turn under- laid by a lower red sandstone, forming a connecting link between the coal scries and the deposits I am here enumerating. The formation seldom appears at a high level. Were Eng- land to descend a few hundred feet, all the great central plain above noticed would be under the sea ; and the waters of the Solway Frith would extend to the foot of Stainmore, and cover nearly all the space now marked in our geological maps by the colour of the new red sandstone. From this fact we may infer, that the cluster of the Lake mountains and the chain of Cross * No. 1, in the wood-cut, a 2 178 GEOLOGY OF THE Fell had been, at least partially, elevated before the period of the new red sandstone. The position of its beds seems to justify this conclusion ; for they rest upon the outskirts of the carbon- iferous rocks in their long range from Kirkby Stephen to Mary- port ; and, after being expanded on both sides of the Eden, they abut against the great terrace presented by the ridge of Cross Fell. (See wood-cut, p. 176.J A great cleft or ' fault' (sometimes called the ' Pennine fault') ranges from the foot of Stainmore along the base of this terrace, producing such an enormous ' upcast' towards the N. E., that the carboniferous beds, which on one side of the ' fault ' are lifted to the height of nearly 3000 feet, are, on the other side of it, deeply buried underneath the new red sandstone and the alluvion of the Eden. But I must quit a subject requiring for its discussion a knowledge of details I have no right to presume the readers of this letter to be ac- quainted with. Should any one enquire what was the interval of time be- tween the period of the new red sandstone and of the diluvial rubbish described in the former letter ? we may reply, that Cum- berland gives us no materials for determining such a question. It only teaches us, that while the drifted matter was forming, the red sandstone was 'as solid as we now find it in the quarries. This factj of itself, implies a great interval of time between the two deposits ; and other parts of England leave us in no doubt as to the right answer to the previous question. The new red sandstone is, in many parts of England, overlaid by a scries of secondary formations beginning with the lias and ending with the chalk, each requiring a period of many ages for its elaboration. They contain the remains of many succes- sive creations of organic beings, fitted to perform all the func- tions of life ; but under conditions differing from those of the world in which we now live. Among their strata are the re- mains of gigantic reptiles, lines of undisturbed coral reefs, beds innumerable of sea shells which have lived and died on the spots where we now find them, and the petrified stumps of trees in the very soil in which they once grew. Phenomena of this kind are repeated again and again. These facts, however strik- ing in themselves, become incomparably more so when studied in combination : and they demonstrate, that successive physical epochs were distinguished by successive changes in the forms of animal and vegetable life, each change brought about by no natural transmutation of species, nor by any material law we can comprehend, but by an act of Creative Power. However hard i; may be for the mind to grasp a succession of facts like these, assuredly long periods of time are implied in their very existence. Nor do we end here. The chalk and its imbedded flints were all solid, and its organic remains were all petrified, before the London clay and the other regular ' tertiary' beds were deposited upon it. The London clay swarms with the traces of organic LAKE DISTRICT. 1 1\) life, which are utterly unlike the fossils of the chalk, and almost as widely separated from the living Fauna of our ishimi. W\- cannot take one step in Geology without drawing upon the fathomless stores of by-gone time. Man, and all his fellow- beings in the kingdom of animated nature, are creatures but of yesterday : and in no sense (except as the offspring of the same Creating and Controlling Mind ) are they the descendents or re- lations of those beings which are found entombed among the monuments of the ancient world. But to what does all this tend ? It contains a reply to the question before started. Portions of the diluvial drift, and, I believe, all the ' erratic bowlders, ' have passed over the country since the period of the chalk and of the newest ' tertiary ' rocks on the eastern coasts of England. Thousands of ages must therefore have elapsed between the epoch of the new red sand- stone and the time of their journey There remains another question. If the new red sandstone be of such vast antiquity, what were the forms and conditions 1 of animal and vegetable life coeval with it ? The following sum- mary contains the only reply permitted by the limits of this letter. 1. The remains of reptiles appear among the beds of the new red sandstone under forms so strange and anomalous, that anato- mists have only found a place for them by interpolating new- chapters in nature's history, and separating the class of reptiles into new orders and genera. It contains a lizard with jaws like the beak of a bird of prey ; hence the name Rhynchosaurus . In the upper beds of the same formation are impressions of large feet resembling the marks of a human hand ; hence the name Chirotherium, or hand-beast. These monsters are now proved to be gigantic batrachians (animals of the same order with frog? and toads), and they had jaws armed with formidable teeth re- sembling those of the crocodile.* 2. The vegetable fossils of the new red sandstone belong to a peculiar Flora. They do not interchange species either with the vegetable fossils of the carboniferous epoch, or with those of the lias and oolites : still less do they resemble the vegetables of the tertiary period, or the present Flora of Europe. We cannot believe that these successive forms of animated nature were created and destroyed by the mere impulses of a capricious will : but we do believe that they were called into being, and wisely adapted to the successive conditions of our planet, during its progress from a chaotic state till it reached the perfection in which we now find it. * See Professor Owen's admirable " Report on Fossil Reptiles." Proceedings of British Association, 1840 ana 1841. I forbear to notice in this place the Ornithichnites of Professor Hitchcock (impressions of the feet of gigantic birds, &c.) because the exact age of the re. red sandstone in which they occur is porhap not vet deteniiiued. 3 180 Of the physical changes our planet has undergone, we may gain, at least, a glimmering of knowledge, from a study of its physical records. We may suppose, on analogy, fortified by considerations of a more direct and higher kind, that it was once expanded through space in the form of a luminous vapour. We believe on good evidence, that it was once in a fluid state. The crystalline condition of its inner parts implies a fluidity derived from heat : and if this conclusion be true, the crust of the earth must have passed through many stages of higher temperature before it descended to the mean temperature of the present day. The same conclusion is fortified by the fossils of the older rocks, which indicate a climate warmer than that of the modern period. Again, enormous masses of carbon are now fixed in the upper parts of the earth's crust, both in chemical combination with other elements, and more simply and tangibly in great beds of coal and other carbonaceous deposits. Much of this fixed and solid carbon may once have floated round the earth as one of the constituents of its atmosphere, A dense atmosphere, highly charged with carbonic acid, may have been well fitted to the rank vegetation of the carboniferous epoch ; such an atmosphere may also have been adapted to the respiration of the cold-blooded monsters of the secondary rocks ; but utterly unfit for tribes of warm-blooded mammals, created at a later period, and now flourishing on the surface of the earth. However limited may be our knowledge of the successive physical changes of our planet, this at least is certain, that the Author of Nature has, during all periods, formed organic beings on the same great plan : so that we can reason from the organs to the functions of a cold-blooded monster of the old world, with as much certainty as an anatomist can reason on the adaptation of a skeleton to the habits and wants of a living species. No sober geologist now dares to give an ideal history of the revolutions of the earth. He may speculate indeed, on points respecting which he is at present supplied with very imperfect evidence : but such speculations he considers of little moment. He studies phenomena, groups them together, contemplates them in all their bearings, and so attempts to rise from phenomena to laws. Should he fail in his first attempts, still all his steps are in the right direction, and in the end will lead him towards some higher truth.* * In France and Germany the series of rocks above noticed admits of a triple division (called " Trias," or the " Triassic system") in the following ascending order. 1 . Ores bigar<'; or Bunter Sandstein. The equivalent of the new red .sandstone of St. Bees' Head and the central plains of England. 2. Muschelkalk. A formation altogether wanting in England. Its fossils are very numerous, and form an entirely distinct group : but in LAKE DISTRICT. 181 MAGNESIAS LIMESTONE AND CONGLOMERATE LOWER DIVISION OF THE NEW RED SANDSTONE.* Magnesian limestone and conglomerate. I have before stated that the magnesian limestone rises from beneath the red marl and sandstone of St. Bees' Head. It is of considerable thick- ness, and is well exposed in quarries near the roads leading from Whitehaven to St. Bees. To the south of the valley of St. Bees it degenerates into a thin magnesian conglomerate at the base of the sandstone, and afterwards, for many miles further south, the limestone disappears altogether: but it re- appears in its characteristic form near the village of Stank, in Low Furness. It is generally of a yellowish brown colour, and of a rather earthy structure, and is often full of cells lined with pure carbonate of lime. In the part of England here described, I believe, it contains no organic remains, but many such remains are found in the same rock in its range through Yorkshire and Durham. At Barrow-mouth, on the north side of St. Bees' Head, the magnesian limestone is seen to rest upon, and to pass into, a conglomerate, or 'pudding stone.' Conglomerates of the same structure, and undoubtedly of the same age, are scattered about the flanks of the hills to the north-east of Whitehaven, (for ex- ample, near Gillgarron and Arlecdon, in the lower part of Kes- kill Beck, near Weddicar Hall, &c.), and are generally lodged in the water-worn hollows and inequalities of the lower red sand- stone on which they rest. In some places, however, they rest on the edge of the carboniferous beds without the intervention of any red sandstone. The conglomerates at Barrow-mouth, under St. Bees' Head, are of insignificant thickness ; but at Stenkreth Bridge, near Kirkby Stephen, they are seen in far greater force ; and by their unequal resistance to the waters of the Eden have given rise to some very striking scenery. They contain both angular and water-worn fragments of the mountain limestone and coal mea- sures : and we thence infer, that they were not deposited till the their general types they resemble the fossils of the oolitic series more nearly than those of the magnesian limestone or carboniferous rocks. 3. Marnes irisees, or Keuper. They underlie, and pass into, the Lias, without any apparent break or interruption. The same is true of the gypseous and saliferous red marls in many parts of England : from which it follows, that a portion of these marls must represent the Afarnes irisefs or Keuper. (See Geol : Trans : Lond: Vol. iii. p. 121. Second Series). This conclusion was confirmed by Mr. Strickland and Mr. Murchison, who discovered and described some interesting organic remains from the Keuper of Warwickshire. (Geol : Trans : VoL v. p.331 . Second Series). * No. 2, in the wood-cut. 182 GEOLOGY OF THE carboniferous series had passed into a solid form. It is impossible to study the evidence for this conclusion without being driven to the belief, that a long cycle of ages must have rolled away be- tween the period of the limestone, and that of the conglomer- ates which rest upon its edges and are partly made up of its ruins. There are instances without number, in other parts of England, in which the whole new red-sandstone series is uncon- formable to the lower rocks on which it rests. It often passes over their inclined edges, like a lintel over the side-posts of a door ; and in such cases we have proof positive, that the lower beds had become solid and were set on edge before the red sand- stone was laid upon them. Lower red sandstone. From beneath the magnesian limestone and conglomerate rises a lower red sandstone, finely exposed in the cliffs on both sides of Whitehaven, and forming a connecting link between the coal series and the deposits above described. In some places it seems to pass by insensible gradations into the true coal measures, and has the mineral structure of a common grey carboniferous sandstone. More frequently, it is of a red tint, or is streaked and variegated with red ; and there are many quarries where it cannot be distinguished from the red sandstone of St. Bees' Head. Again, though it may in some places pass into the coal measures, as a more general rule, it is placed in a discordant position on their inclined edges. Such appears to be its more common position in the neighbourhood of Whitehaven ; and the same rule holds in the range of the deposits through Yorkshire and Durham * We may therefore conclude that, in the North of England, the lower red sandstone is, by its structure and position, more nearly related to the formations above it, than to those below it. The fossils of the magnesian limestone and the lower red sand- stone, point to an opposite conclusion, and will perhaps hereafter induce geologists to separate the formations entirely from the new red sandstone (of St. Bees' Head, &c.) and to consider them as the newest members of the ' palaeozoic ' or ' transition ' class ; of which the carboniferous rocks form an integral part. The following facts are all that the limits of this letter permit me to bring forward. 1. In the neighbourhood of Bristol, the magnesian conglom- erates contain, though rarely, the remains of reptiles among them the Palceosaurus (old lizard) is of a new genus, approach- ing, in the structure of its teeth, to the hard-backed crocodiles, * In Warwickshire and Shropshire, the lowest red sandstone is ge- nerally conformable to the coal measures : but in a part of the former county, the upper red sandstone and saliferous marls are unconform- ableto the lower. Traces of this discordancy of position may be found in Cumberland ; for the conglomerates at the base of the new red sandstone (St. Bees' Head, &c ) sometimes rest, as above stated, on- an uneven water-worn surface of the lower red sandstone. LAKE DISTRICT. 183 but in its general bony structure coming more nearly to the scaly lizards. 2. The corals, shells, and fish of the magnesian limestone, with a few exceptions, differ in species from the fossils of the carboniferous series- At the same time there are many generic forms in'this limestone identical with those of the older rocks, but unlike any which appear between the lias and the chalk, or in any newer deposits ; so that the general zoological type of the magnesian limestone very nearly approaches that of the car- boniferous. 3. Vegetable fossils are abundant in the lower red sandstone, and^cannot, as a group, be distinguished from those of the carbo- niferous epoch. It is obvious that these facts, as far as they go, support the conclusion to which I have pointed.* CARBONIFEROUS SERIES. f The rocks included under this name, form an irregular girdle almost surrounding the higher lake mountains. To describe them in detail would require a large volume ; and I must con- tent myself with little more than a bare enumeration of the four groups into which they may be conveniently divided. First group, or Upper Coal-measures. This group extends along the coast from the north side of St. Bees' Head to Mary- port ; and at both places, as before stated, it is covered by the * It has been contended that the existence of fossil reptiles in the magnesian limestone separates it from the carboniferous epoch, and brings it more nearly into the class of the " Trias" and the oolites. But the force of this objection has been taken away by Mr. Lyell, who has recently shewn that reptiles have, in North America, left their traces among rocks containing numerous mountain limestone fossils. Mr. Murchison also states that, in the " Permian system " ( a great deposit in Russia, of the age of the magnesian limestone) there is a Flora distinct from that of the carboniferous period. Facts like these are of great importance in questions of classification ; but I can hardly attend to them without touching on subjects beyond the aim of these letters. In England, between the marine deposits of the magnesian and car- boniferous limestone, there is an interruption caused by the interpo- lation of the upper coal series, which is not marine. But during the long epoch of the upper coal measures, marine deposits, to which we have nothing analogous in England, must have been formed in other parts of the world. In Russia, all the deposits are marine, from the base of the carboniferous, to the higher beds of the " Permian" system. Does it not therefore follow that there may be marine deposits in Russia intermediate between the magnesian and carboniferous lime- stones of this country ? The answer to this question may perhaps tend to reconcile tho conflicting opinions lately given by Mr. Lyell and .Mr. Murchison respecting the exact age of a large class of rocks in North America. t No. 3, in the wood-cut. 184 GEOLOGY OF THE new red sandstone. From the coast it may be followed to the interior, where it bends round the north side of the higher mountains, gradually diminishing in breadth, and at length end- ing abruptly in the neighbourhood of Rosley Hill. It contains man}' thin worthless bands of coal ; but there are eight or ten different beds in it which have been profitably worked. The two beds, from which coal has been so long extracted near White- haven and Workington (one of them, the main band, sometimes nine or ten feet thick), are in the upper part of the group ; the four or five beds formerly worked in the Harrington field, are in the lower part of it ; and its aggregate thickness is perhaps not les* than 1 ,000 feet. The whole deposit once consisted of alternations of sand and finely laminated mud ; with countless fragments of drifted vege- tables sometimes single, sometimes matted together in thick and widely -extended beds. Occasionally the plants are upright in posture, and so entire that they seem not to have been drifted from the spots on which they grew : in such cases the coal-beds become the indications of forests and bogs submerged in by-gone ages, during the changes of level between land and water. In course of time the drifted sand-beds became sandstone; the mud became slaty clay or shale ; the vegetable fossils were bituminized ; and the whole formation passed into the condition in which we now see it. In the upper part of this group (as exhibited in different parts of the North of England) there are no marine remains ; but it contains some beds of shells belonging to fresh-water genera. All the plants are of extinct species ; many of them of extinct genera ; and they are of forms which indicate a high tropical temperature. Among them are coniferous trees, like those in some of the South -sea Islands ; gigantic reeds ; tree-ferns ; enor- mous creeping plants with sharp pinnated leaves (Stigmarice); trees with fluted stems ; and many other strange but beautiful forms of vegetable life, seemingly pushed to rankness and luxu- riance by great heat and moisture. It is in vain to speculate on the exact duration of the carbon- iferous epoch : but we are sure that it lasted through a vast period of time. One who has any feeling for the wonders of the old world, and any interest in the powers of human skill, will do well to visit the Whitehaven coal-field. The enormous under-ground excavations the costly machinery a living world many hun- dred feet beneath the surface of the earth works on a gigantic scale extending far under the bottom of the sea the streams of gas perpetually rising from the coal-beds, which thus give back to the atmosphere a part of the very elements they once drank up from it the great breaks and contortions of the solid strata the prodigious influence the mineral treasures are now exert- ing upon the habits of the whole civilized world these assuredly, LAKE DISTRICT. 185 in whatever light we regard them, physically or morally, are topics of no vulgar interest. But, inviting as the subject is, I must here leave it. Second Group, or Millstone Grit. This group is of compli- cated structure, being made up of coarse sandstone (occasionally used for millstones), siliceous flagstone, shale, Snd two or three thin bands of coal. On the north side of the lake mountains it is seen only in a very degenerate form : but in the calcareous chain on the south-eastern side, it is finely exposed to view along the tops of the highest mountains ; and is not less than six or seven hundred feet thick. There is not, however, any single mountain in which this whole series is well exhibited. Of tho coarser grits, deserving the name of millstone, there are three great beds ; the lowest of which forms the tabular rock, resting, liko a huge coping stone, on the top of Ingleborough, The coal beds in this group are generally very poor, and only worked by horizontal drifts from the sides of the mountains ; but a little above Hawes they increase in thickness, and are worked to con- siderable profit, by vertical shafts. Few shells have been found in this subdivision of the carbon- iferous series ; but as it rests upon marine deposits, and in some parts of Yorkshire is surmounted by beds with marine shells, wo may conclude that it is of marine rather than of fresh-water oritrin ; in which case we must consider the coal beds as formed by vege- table matter drifted from the land into a shallow sea or estuary. Third Group, or Shale Limestone. This group forms the up- per part of the calcareous zone on the north side of the Cumbrian mountains. There, however, it never rises to a high level, and it is so much covered up with drifted matter, that its subdivisions cannot be easily followed. But in the brows of the higher hills between Penyghent and Stainmoor it is seen in great perfection, and sometimes reaches the thickness of 1,000 or 1,200 feet. To give one example ; all the great precipiees under the crown of Ingleborough, are made up of the rocks of this .complicated group, in which are five beds of limestone, alternating with shale, sandstone, and a few thin bands of coal. The beautiful fossil marble, so much used in the north of England, is derived from the two highest calcareous beds of this group ; the black mar- ble is obtained exclusively from the lowest. Several of the coal bands, especially one under the highest ( or upper scar ) lime- stone, have been extensively worked, both by horizontal drifts and by shafts. All the limestone beds are full of marine shells and corals : from which we may conclude, that the coal bands alternating with them, were formed of vegetable matter which had drifted into the sea. Fourth and lowest Group, or Great Scar Limestone This beautiful rock is almost entirely made up of animal remains, es- pecially shells and corals ; and must once have stretched far and wide among shores and shoals which, though long obliterated 186 GEOLOGY OF THE from the face of the earth, were the first rudiments of the British Isles. During this period the scar limestone formed a fringing coral reef round the cluster of the lake mountains. Even now it may be traced uninterruptedly through the'greater part of their circumference ; and on the west coast between Egremont and Duddon-mowth, where it has almost disappeared, there are three small patches of limestone seeming to indicate its former continuity on that side of Cumberland. On the southern limits of the country here described, this great reef was in ancient times severed by faults and breaks, which were gradually opened out into wide valleys : but it requires little effort of imagination to conceive that all the great patches of limestone, now marked in this part of our geological maps, were once united. On the eastern limit of the country under notice, the limestone forms an almost pure and uninterrupted calcareous mass, five or six hundred feet in thickness. In the northern part of the zone it degenerates in thickness, and is in- terrupted by alternating beds of sandstone. It must, during the progress of its formation, have been com- paratively solid : and hence, during subsequent periods of its disruption and elevation, it was incomparably less contorted than the older slate rocks, which 'at one time were soft and pliable. To its internal structure, and to all the disturbing forces that have since acted upon it, we are to ascribe its extraordinary features its mural precipices, its caverns, its reciprocating springs, and its deep clefts and gorges. No formation in our island shows features of more play and beauty. The fair bright islands of Killarney the clefts of Cheddar, and St, Vincent's rocks the delicious valleys of the Wye and the High Peak (and to come nearer the lake country) the sublime gorge of Gor- dale the fine grey precipices at the foot of Ingleborough the caverns of Chapel-le-dale and Clapham the rocks of Kirkby Lonsdale bridge and the great white terrace of Whitbarrow all belong to the features of this limestone. The organic remains of this rock are in infinite abundance, and are described at great length by many authors, especially by Mr. Phillips.* In this place it is only necessary to state that, considered as a group, they differ specifically from the fossils both of the older and newer formations. The newer deposits, commencing with the new red sandstone, contain, as above men- tioned, numberless reptiles, many of which were of gigantic size, and were the tyrants and scavengers of the ancient deep. In the carboniferous series no reptiles have yet been found : theirplace is supplied by animals of a different class, but of kindred habits fierce ' sauroid fish' creatures breathing by the help of gills, and having the skeletons of fish ; but with jaws armed with great conical teeth like those of large crocodiles or lizards. * Geology of Yorkshire, Vol. 2. LAKE DISTRICT. 187 Though the limestone is, like a great potsherd, broken into many fragments, and is now elevated to the tops of mountains ; yet its beds, excepting on the lines of certain great faults, are nearly horizontal in its whole southern and eastern range. In its northern range it is considerably more tilted. The horizontal limestone (as before noticed) is seen to rest on the inclined slate rocks in the valleys between Horton and Clapham, without the intervention of a conglomerate. But in such cases, the jagged edges of the slates have been worn off by the continued erosion of water, and rubbed down almost to a smooth horizontal surface: a fact which shews, that there must have been a long interval of time between the elevation of the slates and the commencement of the superincumbent coral reef. At Thornton Force, near Ingleton (a place on every account deserving a visit), the inclined slates are separated from the horizontal limestone by a thin band of conglomerate ; and thus we arrive at the same conclusion by independent evidence. In terminating this notice of the carboniferous series, I may remark, that very thin bands of impure coal are occasionally found in the great scar limestone that all its darker beds derive their colour from bituminous matter and that, in a few places within the district, carbonaceous shales appear near its base, and have given rise to unprofitable coal works. But the same dark shales in the range of the series from Stainmoor through Cross Fell to- wards Scotland, become greatly expanded, and alternate with sandstone ; and, at length, in the basin of the Tweed, give rise to a profitable coal-field far below the geological level of any one which is worked in the more southern parts of our island. OLD RED SANDSTONE, &C.* This deposit is made up of marl, sandstone, and coarse con- glomerate ; marking a period of great attrition produced by the beating of the sea upon the edges of the old contorted slates, from their first elevation to the time when the reefs of limestone began to form about them. The older rocks were solid, and had been scooped into deep valleys before the existence of the greater part of the conglomerates. This conclusion 'Js proved by the condition of the imbedded pebbles ; and by the fact, that in the upper part of the valley ot the Rother, above Sndbcrgh, enor- mous masses of the old red conglomerates almost fill up an ancient valley of the slate rocks. It is implied also, though on leis im- pressive evidence, from the position of the conglomerates in the upper parts of the basin of the Kent. The formation is inter- rupted and irregular; havincrtoall appearance been ground down, by the action of the sea upon the older strata, into great banks of coarse shingles, but never spread out into long and continuous * No. 4, in the wood-cut. a 188 GEOLOGY OF THE beds. This, atleast, is its present appearance between the terrace of the limestone and the slates. Near Orton, a deposit of a red, and sometimes a grey sand- stone, resting upon a conglomerate, seems to form an under terrace to the limestone, but its relations are not clear. In its farther range to the N. W. the formation is almost always seen as a conglomerate ; and in that state is shewn in three or four places between Shap Fells and the river Lowther ; but always under the limestone terrace or near its base. Its largest deve- lopment is in the very coarse conglomerates near the foot of Ullswater, where it rises into a succession of round-topped hills several hundred feet high, and is of great thickness : but towards the N.W. it suddenly dies away. In the neighbourhood of Hesket Newmarket, it however breaks out again in three or four insignificant patches ; after which it is not again seen under the long range of the carboniferous rocks towards the west coast of Cumberland. There is perhaps no true passage between the old red sand- stone above described, and the overlying beds of limestone : it is not, however, probable that any long lapse of time intervened betsvcen one formation and the other. As soon as the rude me- chanical action that produced the conglomerates had ceased, the shell beds and coral reefs began to skirt the ancient shores. In Herefordshire and some of the neighbouring counties, the old red sandstone exhibits a complete and uninterrupted sequence of deposits from the slate rocks to the carboniferous limestone, and is of enormous thickness. It has long been divided into three groups the lowest characterized by red flagstone (or 'tilestone') the middle group by bands of concretionary limestone) or 'corn- stone') the highest by red sandstone and conglomerate. As a general rule, the old red sandstone of the North of England re- presents only the highest of these three groups. While the two lower groups were forming in Herefordshire, the active powers of nature were employed, among the Cumbrian mountains, in elevating and contorting- the ancient rocks, and not in laying down new deposits. To this remark there seems to be an almost solitary exception on the banks of the Lune, a little above Kirkby Lonsdale : for there we meet with some beds of red flagstone, of the age of the lower beds of ' tilestone' and full of fossils, surmounted by bands of concretionary limestone, and by red marls and conglomerates. But even there the sequence is not complete and uninterrupted : for the red flagstones were in a solid state, and were tilted up, before the marls and conglomer- ates were formed upon them.* We have no right to expect many organic remains in a coarse mechanical rock like that above described. But in Scotland and * Mr. Murchison states that the fish beds of the old red sandstone of Russia are spread over a surface larger than our island ! LAKE DISTKICT. 189 Herefordshire fhe formation contains beds with many fossils, especially fish : and of all strange monsters, they are amongst the strangest which underground labours have brought to the light of day. As a group, they differ gcnerically from all other living and fossil fish : some of them, in external characters, mak- ing u link with the crustacean order having the gills and ske- leton of a fish combined with a rough bony covering like that of a crab.* In other places, especially in Devonshire, the formation has the mineral structure of a slate rock, and abounds with shells and corals ; which, considered as a group, are formed on a type intermediate between that of the carboniferous limestone and of the older slates.f Before I attempt any sketch of the older slate rocks of the Cumbrian mountains, let me endeavour to translate into common language that chapter in the strange old chronicles of the earth, of which we have been turning over the leaves from the end to the beginning. First, then, we have the record of an ancient revolution given by the old conglomerates. Secondly, the great scar limestone tells us of a long period of repose. Its coral reefs were formed in a shallow sea (for in such seas only do corals grow) : but in course of time it sank down, and a sea many hundred feet deep floated over it, and spread out upon it banks of sand, and mud, r.nd drifted vegetables washed from the neighbouring land Thirdly, again was a period of repose, when a second bank of limestone, with its shells and corals, was tranquilly deposited ; after which was a second subsidence, like the former, and follow- ed by^like effects. These operations were six times repeated in the formation of the eastern calcareous mountains ; each period of repose and each subsidence producing a repetition of like phenomena. Fourthly, came the period of the millstone grit, * I take this opportunity of strongly recommending to the reader, a work on the Old red sandstone of Scotland, at once popular and scientific, and full of the most lively interest ; by Mr. H. Miller, EDIN- BURGH, 1841. t After an examination of the fossils in the hills between Kendal and the Lune, I found it impossible to separate the " tilestone" from the rocks on which it rests. (See Proceedings ofGeol. Soc. Lond. Nov. 1841.) Mr. Murchison (Silurian System) adopted a subdivision of the Old red sandstone which had been some years published, and was sug- gested by the physical structure of Herefordshire. It does not, how- ever, represent the natural grouping of the fossils; and he would now place the lower part of the " tilestones" in the upper division of hi " Ludlow Rock. In the text, I am not however discussing the classi- fication of the rocks of Herefordshire, but endeavouring to give an answer to the question whether there be any section, among the lake mountains, shewing a complete sequence of deposits from tlie upper slate rocks to the mountain limestone. I have replied in the negative as to the only snot in which the answer admits of any doubt. The " tilestones" of Helm, near Kendal, throw no light upon the question, as they are not overlaid by any newer rock. s 2 )90 GEOLOGY OF THE when the bays and estuaries were gradually filled up, and marine animals ceased to leave their traces among the waters. Lastly, the lagoons and estuaries were converted into lakes and marshes; a rank tropical vegetation covered the ground, and produced the materials of future coal-fields. Still we are compelled to invoke the same powers of nature : for some of our coal-fields are thousands of feet in thickness, and I can see no intelligible means of accounting for them without the intervention of vast and repeated changes between the levels of land and water. But here I will escape from the slippery ground of hypothesis, and conclude this long letter. A. SEDGWICK. Cambridge, May 24, 1842. LETTER III. MY DEAB SIR, In my former letter I described the New red sandstone, the Carboniferous series, and the Old red sand- stone skirting the Lake mountains. I must now attempt a sketch of the slate rocks and granitic masses of the central regions. Technical details I wish as far as possible to avoid : but I cannot omit them altogether, and am reluctantly compelled to begin this letter with them. Among the deposits above described, there is seldom any difficulty in making out the order of the beds : but the slate rocks are highly inclined ; sometimes set on edge, occasionally (though rarely in the lake country) turned upside down ; so that their order is in certain places involved in almost inextricable confusion. Every one, who pretends to observe for himself, must be pro- vided with a good map and a pocket compass ; and as he rambles across the country, he may often see the slaty beds rising like a knife's edge through the soil, and running over the hills and across the valleys in undulating or zig-zag lines. At such points of view, he may, by help of his compass, easily determine, in a general way, the directions of the beds, and the points towards which they incline. Should he wish to make more accurate ob- servations, he must be provided with a spirit-level, for deter- mining a horizontal plane, and a clinometer, for measuring the inclination of the beds : but these instruments (though easily packed along with the compass in a small pocket-case) are only necessary to one who is engaged in a detailed survey. The true direction of a stratum at any point, is represented by the line formed by the intersection of the smooth surface of the stratum with a horizontal plane, and is determined correctly by the horizontal edge of the spirit-level when applied to the surface. This line is technically called the strike of the bed ; and a line LAKE DISTRICT. 191 drawn on the surface of a bed, perpendicular to this line of strike, is called the line of dip or rise, accordingly as we take it in the descending or ascending direction. The quantity of dip is mea- sured by the clinometer, and gives the inclination of the line of dip to the horizon. The directions of the several lines are de- termined by the compass. In this way, after multitudes of ob- servations and comparisons (carefully registered, and, if possible, laid down on a map), we may make out all the essential changes of dip and strike ; and we gradually learn to connect them to-" gether, to explain the features of the country by their help, and to draw from them results that are consistent with one another, and tell us the true order of the mineral masses. But among the older and more crystalline slates it is sometimes impossible to distinguish the several strata so as to mark their position. All the slate beds were at first in the condition of a very fine mud or silt, deposited, layer upon layer, by the sea : and in passing into a solid state the layers cohered so firmly ae to become inseparable afterwards by any ordinary means. But another change of structure was at the same time brought about : the particles all underwent a new crystalline arrange- ment (like that of the laminae of a piece of spar) producing a re- gular cleavage more or less inclined to the original beds. It is by these cleavage planes, .and not along the planes of the true beds, that the quarry-men obtain the fine roofing slates. The observer must therefore learn to distinguish the nearly vertical laminations of the great open slate quarries from the true beds which are generally much less inclined.* How then are we to determine the position of the true beds of slate ? This can sometimes be done by help of alternating bands of coarser materials wherein the original bedding has not been obliterated by the slaty structure : a mass of slate between two such bands, must have its bedding parallel to them, whatever may be the direction of its laminae of cleavage In other instances we infer the position of the true beds merely from analogy, knowing their situation in the neighbouring coun- try. Fortunately we may in many cases ascertain the lines of the true beds by an internal and secure test. The planes of the slates are often marked by parallel stripes of different colours. Among the finer green slates these stripes are generally paler than the other parts of the rock ; and as they mark the original lines of sediment, they are therefore parallel to the true bedding; indeed they generally mark the passage from one bed to another. Sometimes these stripes are seen on slaty laminae cutting through pyritous bands with shells and corals ; and in such cases the stripes upon the smooth surfaces of the slates are always panil'e! to th'e fossil bands. * In Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall there are many quarries, where the cleavage planes arc less inclined than the bed. s 3 192 GEOLOGY OF THE To make this structure understood, let us place flat layers of coloured clay one over another, and then press them together so that they may cohere and form one plastic mass ; and let us so arrange them that no layer of coloured clay may be visible ex- cepting the one at the top. In this position no inner structure can meet the eye ; but if a cut be made with a knife vertically through the mass, parallel stripes of colour (representing the dif- . ferent layers of clay) will immediately shew themselves on the face of the section thus obtained. The artificial section made by the knife represents the vertical slaty planes obtained by the quarry -man's wedge ; and the stripes of coloured clay are strictly analogous to the sedimentary lines upon the smooth surface of the slates. There are, however, quarries of coarse slate, or flagstone, without the crystalline structure and the fine even surfaces above described, in which the bedding is distinctly visible, and each flagstone represents a true bed. The ripple mark (exactly like that on sea-sand between high and low water) is sometimes seen on the surface of such beds, and they are occasionally studded with the impressions of organic remains. Many of them are found on the hills south of Kendal, especially on Kirkby Moor ; but the finest examples are seen in the quarries near Ingleton and Horton.* There is another difficult}' in the structure of slate rocks which must be shortly noticed. They are often intersected by a double set of parallel fissures or ' joints,' produced apparently by a con- traction of the mass while passing into a solid state. These lines may have been influenced by the crystalline action of the whole mass ; for they often divide the rocks on a mountain side into regular prismatic blocks, and produce much confusion in the po- sition of the true beds. They do not, however, so affect the inner composition of the rock as to produce persistent laminae parallel to their own planes ; and they are not therefore to be confounded with slaty cleavage. Their direction and inclination is variable ; but when they nearly coincide with the strike of the beds they may be called strike joints ; and when they are nearly transverse to the strike they may be called dip joints I must, however, here quit these dry details. My only wish, in alluding to them, is to save the observer from early difficulties, and to start him in the right direction. After all, it is only by expe- rience in the field that he will learn to interpret correctly the complicated characters impressed upon the older slates.f * The Horton flags have, however, an obscure cleavage plane, which sometimes injures the quality of the stone. f Among the Cumbrian mountains, the laminae of slaty cleavage are generally inclined at a great angle to the horizon. Sometimes the beds undulate and the cleavage planes remain constant. In such cases,* the inclination of the cleavage planes to the true beds is continually chang- ing. In Devonshire and Cornwall we find (though very rarely) highly LAKE DISTRICT. 193 UPPER DIVISION OF THE SLATE ROCKS.* This division b based on the calcareous slates, which stretch fromMillum.in the south-western corner of Cumberland, through the head of Coniston Water and the head of Windermere, to the neighbourhood of Shap Wells. To the south of this line, it is expanded through Furness Fells and a considerable portion of Westmorland ; being bounded to the south-east by Morecambc Bay and the carboniferous formations above described. The rocks within this area may be separated into several ill-defined groups. Three will be here adopted, in the hope that, as the country is more examined and better understood, they may be brought into strict accordance with the three principal Silurian groups of Mr. Murchison.-f Upper Group This group commences with red flagstones, which, above Kirkby Lonsdale, and close to their junction with the old red sandstone, contain calcareous concretions and numer- inclined beds with nearly horizontal cleavage planes ; and we also find cleavage planes of great perfection which are parallel to the true beds. I know of no examples of like kind in the North of England : for there the cleavage planes (at least in the fine slate quarries) are always transverse to the beds; but amongst the finer slates the strike of the beds and the strike of the cleavage planes are nearly in the same direc- tion. Again, in Devonshire, Cornwall, and North Wales, and in the chain of the Ardennes, I have seen a second set of cleavage planes, beautifully penetrating the slate rocks, and shewing the perfection of their crystalline arrangement: and these double cleavage planes were associated with the striped and double-jointed structure above no- ticed. As far as I know, there i no example of a second cleavage plane to be seen among the lake mountains ; and it is a rare appearance in the countries above noticed. * No. 5, in the wood-cut. j- In a paper read before the Geological Society of London, in 1832, I adopted Mr. J. Otley's threefold division of the Cumbrian slate rocks; and I separated the upper division into three ill-defined groups; viz. First, the fossiliferous rocks of the fells south of Kendal, and of Kirkby Moor. Secondly, rocks like the former in structure, but with a more slaty impress, and with very few traces of fossils. Thirdly, n, complicated group of calcareous slate (of which there are two prin- cipal bands), alternating with hard coarse siliceous beds, and with several thick beds of fine roofing slate obtained by transverse cleavage (Ireleth slate) the whole resting on the fossiliferous limestone of Coniston Water Head. By " the three principal Silurian groups," are meant all the rocks described under the names " Ludlow, " Wenlock," and " Caradoc." The " Llandeilo flags" have no distinct representative in the north of England, 194 GEOLOGY OF THE ous fossils. In making a traverse towards KirkbyMoor, the red flagstone is succeeded, in descending order, by purple, grey, greenish grey, and blue flagstone. Some of the greenish bands exactly resemble some of the harder flagstones among the ' Lud- low rocks,' of Mr. Murchison : and the red flags nearly resemble the ' tile stones' of Herefordshire, but are far less crystalline and micaceous. Still in descending order, the flagstones are followed by the hard grey siliceous rocks which extend, with many undulations and changes of ' strike' through the hills between the upper part of the valleys of the Kent and the Lune. Among them are beds with an imperfect slaty structure ; and here and there are open and earthy bands (giving a honeycombed appearance to the rock) not unusually of a reddish-brown colour, and with innumerable casts of fossils. Very thin, impure, calcareous beds (but of no continuity, and unfit for use) are seen in a few places near the lines of fossils. The most remarkable of them is at Oxenholme, on the side of the old road from Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale. The whole group appears to be based on a set of hard thick beds, among which the fossils gradually disappear. They are of various colours : blueish-grey, greenish-grey, and occasionally of a dark purple and reddish tint : but their characters and dis- tribution are ill-defined. We may perhaps class with these the hard thick beds which break out from under Kendal Fell, and the similar beds which skirt the marshes near Witherslack and ex- tend to ths hills near Lindal. Middle Group, This group contains many hard, thick, silice- ous beds, nearly like those at the base of the preceding subdivi- sion ; but subordinate to it are striped flagstones, coarse slates with a decided transverse cleavage producing the striped surfaces above described. Good examples of this kind may be seen on the road from Kendal to Bowness, and on the old road from Kendal to Newby Bridge. The fine elevations of Howgill Fells and Middleton Fell are chiefly formed by the rocks of this subdivision: but those moun- tains are separated from the formations on the west bank of the Lune by enormous ' faults, ' and are thrown into such contortions that it is difficult to reduce the subordinate masses to any certain order. Their strike also differs from that on the west bank of the Lune, being nearly east and west ; and at the north end of Middleton Fell, the beds are so much bent to the south as to range nearly at right angles to the average strike of the central moun- tains. The more slaty beds of this group generally effervesce with acids ; but in no part of it have any good fossil bands been yet found. Hence there is considerable uncertainty as to its exact geological place ; especially as its upper and lower limits are so ill defined. Lower, or Ireleth slate, Group The base of this group is LAKE DISTKICT. 195 well defined by the range of Coniston limestone.* (See the icooil- cut.) Its upper limit is not defined by any fossil bands, and may be considered in some measure as arbitrary : but it must inclose all the calcareous beds, and all the beds of good roofing slate. If a line be drawn from the crest of the hills between Broughton and Diversion, through the foot of Coniston Water, to a point a little below the Ferry House on Windermere ; and from thence be prolonged (bending a little towards the east, so as to preserve a parallelism to the range of the Coniston limestone) through the lower part of Long Sleddale and the contorted slates near the foot of Bannisdale, it may be assumed as an approximate boundary between the lower and middle groups. Among the deposits on the north side of this line a slaty structure decidedly predominates ; and the rocks weather into fine picturesque forms, of which there are many beautiful ex- amples between Broughton and the foot of Coniston Water. The same features on a less scale^are seen near the Ferry House on Windermere, where the rocks have an aspect so unlike the higher groups, that I at first mistook their nature, and supposed them to represent some ancient slates brought out by a great dislocation. The most remarkable beds in this group split, by a transverse cleavage, into fine roofing slates distinguished from the more ancient slates, chiefly by a darker colour, and by the absence of green chloritic flakes upon the surface of the laminae. Noble Juarries have lon^ been opened in these slates near Kirkby releth. Very fine beds of a dark-coloured^flagstone (sometimes superficially coated with crystals of pyrites) are also worked in this group, especially in its lowest portions. It contains also three or four bands of calcareous slates, two of which are fossili- ferous. One of these ranges on the south side of the estuary of the Duddon the'other, already noticed, forms the base of the whole series. The latter is the mostjimportant from its numer- ous fossils, its thickness and continuity, and from its enormous shifts and displacements in its long range : especially where it strikes across the valleys that intersect its course. In this way it becomes an_indication,'_not merely of the prevailing strike * As this limestone forms the base of the whole upper division of the slate rocks, it may perhaps be well to give its range in more detail. It is seen at Beck, Water Blain, and Graystone House, in Cumberland. It then crosses into H.igh Furness and may be followed by Broughton Mills, and Applethwaite, &c., to Yew Tree, near Coniston. Thence, after two enormous dislocations, it may be followed over the hills north-east of Coniston to Pool Wyke, near the head of Windermere. From the hills above Low Wood, it may be again followed across Troutbeck, over the hills to Kentmere Hall, and thence to Long Sleddale, where it is exposed in quarries near little London. Lastly, after being lost under the turf bogs and partly cut off by the granite, it re-appears near Shap Wells, and so passes under the carboniferous rocks. 196 GEOLOGY OF THE of the group, but of the manner in which its mineral masses have been fractured and dissevered during the periods of their elevation. Before I quit the upper division of the slate rocks, I may remark that the prevailing strike of the lower group is N. E. ; and traces of the same general impress may be found in the two upper groups as far as the shores of Morecambe Bay. There are however some remarkable deviations from this rule even in the lower group ; and in the two upper groups the exceptions are so numerous, and the rocks exhibit such complicated undulations, that it is difficult to bring their bearings to any rules of sym- metry. Again, the great scar limestone skirting the shores of Morecambe Bay is literally shattered into fragments by enormous north and south ' faults : ' and all the slate rocks on the southern border of the lake mountains have also been ripped up by great ' faults ' (with the same general direction), which have greatly altered the positions and bearings of the beds. Valleys have been scooped out on lines of fracture : and all the great water channels that descend towards Morecambe Bay (from the Lune on the east to the Duddon on the west) have a prevailing north and south course. There still remains a question what is the age of this upper division of the slate rocks ? An answer can only be given by an appeal to the fossilsc So far as I am acquainted with the fossils of the upper group, they contain about forty species found in the ' Upper Silurian ' rocks of Mr. Murchison, and five or six which he formerly referred to the lowest beds of the old red sandstone ; but which in Westmorland are distributed through the whole of the upper group. With these, are eight or ten species not yet described. The conclusion is inevitable, viz. that the whole group represents only the Upper Silurian rocks (Ludlow, &c). The Coniston limestone and the calcareous slates of Kirkby Ireleth contain numerous corals of the Wenlock and Dudley lime- stones. Among them the chain coral (Catenipora) is abundant. They contain also one or two Silurian Trilobites ; and shells of several genera (especially the genus Orthis) specifically the same with the shells of the ' Caradoc sandstone. ' It therefore follows that the base of the lower group, here described, is of the age of the lower Silurian rocks (not using that term in any extended and indefinite sense, but strictly as it was first employed by its author) and that the whole upper division represents the ' Silu- rian system ;' the middle part of it being, unfortunately, almost without fossils to help us in the demarcation of the three groups.* * I profess to make no material changes in the text of these letters, and the above paragraph is reprinted as it was first written. But I have now a much better set of fossils, some of which Mr. Sowerby has been engaged in figuring : and a short account of them will be given in an appendix. I formerly attempted to class the Coniston limestone with the limestone of Bala, and the rocks of the middle group with LAK.': DISTRICT. 197 M1DDLK DIVISION OF THE SLATE UOCCS GREEN SLATE AND PORPHYRY.* This division forms a vast group, rising into the highest and most rugged mountains of the whole region. It contains two distinct classes of rock aqueous and igneous : but they are piled one upon another in tabular masses of such regularity , and are so interlaced and blended, that we are compelled to regard them as the effects of two distinct causes, acting simultaneously during a long geological period. The igneous portions present almost every variety of felstone and felstone porphyry ; sometimes pass ing into greenstone, and rarely into masses with a structure like that of basalt. All the aqueous rocks have more or less a slaty structure, and pass in their most perfect form into the finest roofing slates. f But why are rocks, so different both in appearance and origin, to be confounded in one formation ? Because nature has made them inseparable. The tabular masses of true erupted ' plutonic rock ' alternate with, and pass by insensible gradations into, great beds of breccia and ' plutonic ' silt. The breccias are often as hard as the parent rocks ; being cemented by a felspathic paste, occasionally studded with garnets and crystals of felspar ; and the slate rocks of the Berwyns and of South Wales. But after the discovery of a better arrangement of the Devonian slates, I abandoned this view, and adopted the one here given. Of the older rocks of Sonth Wales, I know little from personal survey, and there are but feu- parts of that extensive country which I have ever visited. I believe, however, that its older rocks will be found nearly of the same age with those of Carnarvonshire and Merionethshire. The fossils of the Coniston and Bala limestones are indeed very nearly the|same. But I do not wish to bring them into a close comparison : because the fossili- ferous rocks of North Wales (with a lower Silurian type) are of an enormous thickness ; and contain bands of organic remains, some of which are far below, and some, if I mistake not, far above the limestone of Bala. In the Geological Map of Westmorland, belonging to the ' Kcndal Natural History Society,' one tint only is given to the upper division of the slates : from the impossibility of drawing, with any degree of correctness, the lines of demarcation between the groups. Should fossils be ever found in sufficient abundance to determine the point, it might be well perhaps to tint the whole division in two colours one representing the upper and the other the lower Silurian rocks. In the absence of well-defaned calcareous beds (Wenlock limestone) any further subdivision will perhaps be found impossible. Of the Coniston fossils, I procured during my survey a good series, which has been since improved by some excellent specimens I owe to my friend Mr. J. M:irsh;iH. My list from the upper group has been greatly improved by the kind assistance of my friends Messrs. Gongh and Danby, of Kendal, and by specimens procured from Mr. John Ruthvcn. My best fossils from Kirkby moor were procured in 1822, under the guidance of Smith, the 'father of English geology,' on the day I first became ac- quainted with him. * No. 6, in the wood-cut. 196 GEOLOGY OF THB they sometimes put on a columnar form; and the plutonic silt passes into a hard, flaky, shining rock, which often has a transverse cleavage with an uneven, shining, wavy surface (exactly like that of some varieties of German schaalstein). We have only to follow such changes a little farther, and we are conducted, with- out seeing where we pass their boundaries, into great deposits of the most perfect roofing slates. Of these slates, quartz in the finest state of comminution, and earthy chlorite partly derived from the plutonic silt, are the chief constituents. The plutonic rocks were poured out under a deep sea ; and the breccias were formed mechanically (like volcanic breccias found among streams of modern lava), and were cemented under great pressure. The plutonic silts have an intermediate struc- ture ; but their beds must have been spread out by the waters of the sea. The roofing slates are but the extreme case of fine aqueous sediment, chiefly derived from the erupted matter, and sinking into successive beds during intervals of repose : and so far they are analogous to the fine beds of volcanic silt as often formed by the waters of a lake out of the ashes of a modern crater. In the Cumbrian mountains, no organic remains are found among these rocks. The aqueous deposits seem to have been too often interrupted by igneous action to permit the growth of shell beds and coral banks. Shells and corals are however found (though rarely) among the slate rocks of Snowdonia : but there the igneous beds are less abundant, and were probably poured out at longer intervals of time. When I began, twenty years since, to examine the lake country, I believed in the igneous origin of basaltic and porphy- ritic rocks : but I was staggered in my creed, and filled with astonishment, almost at every step, when I saw the alternating masses of slate and porphyry, and the way in which they were blended together. The Wernerian hypothesis has now passed away, and has been extinguished by the more mature discoveries of an advancing science ; but it lent itself readily to the expla- nation of many perplexing facts, and had the merit, at first sight, of great simplicity ; and I may venture to affirm, that no one is prepared to understand it, or to do any justice to its author, who has not studied, in the field, such phenomena as are continually offered by the Cumbrian slates.* * I have adopted the \rordfelstone from the Germans ; who, by the word feldstein, sometimes express those minerals which we commonly, but inaccurately, have called compact felspar. The words compact spar involve a contradiction. The name schaalstein (or, shale-stone) has been applied to a great variety of slaty rocks, in Nassau and the Hartz, intermediate between true slates and erupted trappea rocks. The word plntonic is used to distinguish igneous rocks, erupted under the sea, from volcanic rocks which have been poured out in the open air. Any rock is called a porphyry, which has a nearly uniform base studded LAKE DISTRICT. 19t The southern boundary of this great group is defined by the range of the Coniston limestone. "The northern boundary cannot be well understood without the aid of a geological map : but an approximation may be made to it by drawing a line from the foot of Wolf Crag to Wanthvvaite Crag continuing it thence by Wal- low Crag, near Keswick by the foot of the great precipices at the head of Newlands, the base of Honister Crag, and the upper precipices of High Stile, and so round by the great coves of Ennerdale Head to the north side of the Hay Cock and lastly, from the Hay Cock to the north side of Seatallan, and thence in a devious line, which turns to the north, extending several miles beyond Ponsonby Fells. With limited exceptions, all the strati- fied rocks (aqueous and igneous) in the high mountains inclosed within these boundaries, strike towards the N.E., and dip at a great angle towards the S.E. ; and their whole thickness, after every deduction, must be enormous. The beds were set on edge by a gigantic force, urging them from below ; and in the progress of elevation, mountain masses were torn asunder and starred by diverging lines of 'fault.' In a few places, indeed, the dip was reversed ; but the great beds of porphyry (which must have passed into a solid state in cooling) held the masses firm, and kept them from being twisted and bent about, like the upper slates. Of the brecciated rocks, above described, a fine example occurs on the side of the road at Barrow near Keswick. Masses, similar in structure and colour, pass through Wanthwaite Crag and the foot of Binsey Crag. Numerous examples may also be seen in the great precipices that overhang the higher parts of Eskdale, Wastdale, Ennerdale, and Borrowdale ; in the passes between Borrowdale and Grasmere ; at the head of Kentmere ; and on almost every line of traverse through the higher mountains.* The plutonic silt, and other beds intermediate between the erupted rocks and the slates, are spread, here and there, almost through the whole country under notice. They are sometimes cellular (probably from the action of heat), the cells being with crystals Granite is formed by the union of quarts, felspar, and mica when the mica is replaced by hornblende, the rock becomes a syenite. Greenstone is a fine-grained rock composed of felspar and hornblende, and when these minerals are well defined, the rock ia called a syenitic greenstone. "When the crystals are very small, and the rock almost compact, it is said to be basaltic. These different forms of rock pass insensibly one into another. A conglomerate is formed by pebbles more or less rounded by water. A breccia is chiefly made up of angu- lar fragments. All the minerals mentioned in these letters may be easily procured, and will soon be sutt'.ciently familiar to any one who wishes to study the older rocks. * The brecciated rocks near Barrow have often been noticed. They are not, however, local phenomena ; but belong to the general struc- ture of this middle division of the slates. 500 GEOLOGY OF THE filled with agates and other minerals ; and they generally effer- vesce briskly when first plunged in acids. The position and range of some of the principal slate beds can- not escape notice, as they are often marked by lines of great open quarries. The only difficulty is to know their true dip ; for the slaty impress has often destroyed all external traces of the bedding. On this point I must refer to the remarks at the begin- ning of this letter. One of the best spots for studying, among these old rocks, the difference between cleavage and dip, is near the jaws of Borrowdale, especially in the great crags which overhang the Skiddaw slate on the north side of the gorge. Of the external features of the lake mountains I attempt not to speak ; except so far as they are connected with the inner frame-work of the country. The rocks were elevated and rent asunder and the rudiments of all the deeper valleys were thus formed in times immeasurably removed from our own days. Again and again have the mountains been shattered by faults, and swept by denuding currents. Their varied structure has produced features of many forms. Some have been worn down by the corroding power of time, and are now buried under soil and moorland ; others have stood almost unmoved among the buffetings of the elements, and have an aspect now nearly as rugged as that with which they were first lifted from the sea. Another zone, belonging to the green slate and porphyry formation, appears on the north side of the third and lowest division of the slate rocks ; which thus forms a ' mineral axis ' with a repetition of the same formations on its opposite sides. (See the wood-cut). This zone begins at Berriar, skirts the eastern side of Carrock Fell, rises into High Pike, and is well marked in Binsey Crag : it afterwards gradually thins away, and it disappears near Brigham. In this range it rests on the Skid- daw slate, and is immediately surmounted by the carboniferous limestone, the upper division of the slates not appearing on this side of Cumberland. Compared with the groups above described, it is in a very degenerate form ; it contains, however, almost every variety of rock above noticed. In several parts of it the porphyries so abound as almost to exclude all appearance of true slates. Near High Pike it is penetrated by many metallic veins, probably connected with the causes which produced the syenite of Carrock Fell, and the granite of Skiddaw Forest. LOWER DIVISION OP THE SLATE BOCKS SKIDDAW SLATE.* This division (the true position of which was first determined by Mr. J. Otley) is spread over a large area ; being bounded by the rocks of the preceding division, and the carboniferous zone extending from the old red sandstone, near the foot of Ulls- * No. 7, in the wood-cut. LAKE DISTRICT. 201 water, to Egremont. For a few miles south of Egremont, the western end of the Skiddaw slate is immediately overlaid by the new red sandstone. It is of great but unknown thickness ; and it has little con- stancy in its strike and dip, being thrown into great undula- tions, indicated by the irregular features and varied outline of the country. The coombs and peaks surrounding Skiddaw Forest, and the beautiful succession of grassy mountains between Der- wcnt Water and Crummock Water present the best features of this formation. It is chiefly composed of a dark-coloured glossy slate, occasionally penetrated by great veins of white quartz ; and small veins of that mineral are sometimes seen to ramify through every part of the rock ; but it contains no organic re- mains, and hardly a trace of carbonate of lime. Roofing slate has in a few places been obtained from it ; but most of the quar- ries have been abandoned. Occasionally, it passes into the state of a micaceous flagstone, and it alternates, rarely, with coarse gritty beds. On the whole, it is distinguished from the higher groups by its dark colour and fine texture, by the absence of alternating bands of igneous rock, and by its seldom efferves- cing with acids. Many of the beds of the middle division of slates contain a considerable portion of carbonate of lime and effervesce briskly in acids. Again, in the Skiddaw slate many of the masses flake off parallel to the beds, and the cleavage planes are not so well defined as they are among the green slates ; in other places, however, the stratification is very obscure. Except as being the base of the whole series of the Cumbrian deposits, and the matrix of some curious metallic veins, this divi- sion possesses little comparative interest. Before I end this sketch of the Cumbrian rocks, I must notice a beautiful group of crystalline slates, which are seen in Skiddaw Forest, between the black slates above described and the gran- ite of the Caldew. If we descend from the high peaks of Skid- daw or Saddleback to any of the bosses of granite which break out near the banka of the rivulet, we cross a series of slaty rocks nearly in the following order : 1. Dark glossy slate studded with a few crystals of chiastolite. It is overlaid by, and passes into, common Skiddaw slate. 2. A similar slate with more numerous crystals of chiastolite ; passing at its lower limit into a hard, shining, sonorous rock almost made up of matted crystals of that mineral. 3. Mica slate spotted with ill-formed crystals of chiastolite. 4. Quartzose, and micaceous slates of very irregular structure ; sometimes passing, when close to the granite, into the form of gneiss. I believe that this beautiful mineral group is nothing more than the Skiddaw slate, altered and mineralized by the long continued action of subterranean heat. The granite, though a fused rock, may not have produced the whole of this change ; but T 2 202 GEOLOGY OF THE it is at least an indication of the kind of power by which the ' metamorphic' structure was brought about. I here bring to an end my notice of the Cumbrian slates. To one who is not interested by the complicated structure of the older rocks, it may have appeared tedious and repulsive ; but I knew not how to make it snorter, and it relates perhaps to the most difficult chapter in geology. GRANITE, SYENITE, PORPHYRY, PORPHYRITIC DYKES AND OTHER IGNEOUS ROCKS. It remains for me to notice a series of rocks, not formed, bed upon bed, by the agency of water ; but protruded by subterra- nean fires among the deposits above described. Granite of Skiddaiv Forest, Sfc. I mention this rock first, because it rises out from beneath the oldest strata of Cumberland (No. 8, in the ivood-cut) ; and appears to indicate the cause that first elevated the cluster of mountains, of which the peaks of Skiddaw and Saddleback form the highest points. But I can offer no proof that it is older than the beautiful syenite of Car- rock, or the granite of Eskdale, or the red syenite of Ennerdale and Buttermere> It breaks out at Syning Gill, between Saddle- back and Skiddaw ; afterwards at a lower level, near the Caldew, in the channel of which it may be seen for more than a mile ; and lastly, about a mile above Svvinside, near the first ramifica- tions of the rivulet. At this last place it derives great interest from its near approach to the syenite of Carrock Fell, from its changes of structure, from the mineral veins* by which it is tra- versed, and from the highly crystallized and altered form of all the neighbouring slate rocks. Syenite of Carrock Fell, Sfc. This beautiful rock exhibits almost endless varieties of structure : but it is chiefly noted for its crystals of hypersthene, and for the great quantities of titani- ferous oxide of iron disseminated through its mass. On the eastern side of the hill it passes into a common syenite. In its farther range towards the east, it becomes almost as compact as basalt, and has, here and there, a globular structure : and, lastly, in its prolongation in the form of a narrow tongue into the ex- treme branches of the gills on the east side of High Pike, it passes into a felspar rock. This whole mass plunges under a group of * None of the veins were worked to profit when I last visited the spot, nearly twenty years since. They were, however, occasionally opened by mineral dealers : for they contain apatite, schorl, tungsten, wolfram, and several other minerals in considerable abundance. I was struck with the close resemblance of the mineralized portion of Skid- daw Forest to certain parts of Cornwall near the junction of the granite and slate. The physical phenomena are nearly the same ; but the Cornish slates are of a much more recent date than the slates of Skiddaw. LAKE DISTRICT. 203 igneous and altered rocks : and when on the spot, I considered it only as an instance of one of the porphyries, near the base of the middle division of the slates (green slate and porphyry), in an unusual state of crystallization. Should this opinion (thrown out as a conjecture) he confirmed, we must then consider this syenite as older than the neighbouring granite ; for all the gra- nites in the lake country are unquestionably of more recent date than the two lower divisions of the Cumbrian slates. Porphyry of St. Johns Vale Of this rock (which never, I believe, passes into a true granite, but might be described as a variety of syenite) there are two principal masses one, stretch- ing for about a mile northwards from St. John's Chapel the other, of still larger dimensions, ranging in the same direction, on the other side of the valley, from the base of Wanthwaite Crag. Two other small masses break through the Skiddaw slate a little farther towards the east, near White Pike. What was the exact date of the eruption of the plutonic rocks, I do not pretend to determine. When the largest mass was protruded, it bore upon its surface an enormous fragment of Skiddaw slate, which was thus elevated far above its natural level, mineralized by heat, and jammed against the base of Wanthwaite Crag. I mention these phenomena, because they are of great interest to any one who wishes to mark the effects produced by the protru- sion of igneous rocks. The subterranean forces had strength to raise the great masses of porphyry through the soft and yielding Skiddaw slate ; but not to push them through the higher group of green slates, which were held together too firmly by the older bands of bedded por- phyry to be penetrated by such a movement. Hence it is, that the porphyry of St. John's Vale abuts against, but does not pierce, the middle division of the slates, which range through Great Dod and Helvcllyn. The great ' fault' represented by the deep val- ley between Raise Gap and the bottom of St. John's Vale, must obviously have been formed after the eruption of the porphyry. Granite of Eskdale, fyc, This is, out of all comparison, the largest mass of Cumberland granite. It ranges southward as far as Bootle, on the north side of which place it abuts against some highly mineralized Skiddaw slate ; and it forms the rugged hills on both sides of the Esk and the Mite, ranging up to the higher forks of those rivers. At its north-western and north-eastern extremities it runs out into two long projecting masses one of which strikes over Irton Fell and blends itself with the syenite of Wastdale Foot : the other, after ranging along the side of Scaw- fell, above Burntmoor Tarn, breaks out, here and there, from un- der the turf-bogs, and passes over the hills into Wastdale Head. It would be in vain tor me, in this short summary, to attempt any regular description of this granite : but the following facts deserve notice About half a mile from Bootle, the granite has been injected, T 3 '204 GEOLOGY OF THE in the form of large ramifying veins, into a black porphyritic rock, which is, I believe, only an altered condition of Skiddaw slate. In one of the water-courses, in the same neighbourhood, the greater part of the rock is quite earthy in structure ; but shews a number of hard spheroidal central masses, like the hard balls in decomposing basalt. Descending into Wastdale Head by Burntmoor Tarn, we meet with traces of granite veins, and fragments of slate entangled in the granite. In the upper parts of Eskdale, the granite in one or two places passes into a nearly compact rock, and has a semi-columnar struc- ture. At the upper surface of the granite, and near the lines of de- marcation between the granite and the slates, there is not un- usually a zone of felspathic or syenitic rock, which forms such a passage between the two formations that it is no easy matter to determine the exact boundary line of either. These appear- ances seem to have been caused by the gradual fusion and altered structure of the masses at the base of the green slate and porphyry. Red felspathic veins (in structure like the peculiar rocks just noticed) shoot from the granite into the green slates and por- phyries. Many examples of this kind are seen in the hills near Eskdale Head. On the north-western side of Devock Water are many fine masses of crystalline quartz rock close to the junction of the granite and green slate. Pyritous veins with micaceous iron ore are found here and there, at the junction of the granite and the slate. Facts like these may help the observer in drawing right conclusions from the intricate phenomena presented by this part of Cumberland. Syenite of Ennerdale and Buttermere. This beautiful rock ranges from the neighbourhood of Nether Wastdale Chapel to a point about two miles above the foot of the lake. After being covered by some highly crystallized and rugged masses of slate and porphyry, it breaks out again in Bolton wood, and extends towards the north as far as the side of Reveling Pike; and thence across Ennerdale Water to the Scaw and Herdhouse at the latter mountain abutting against the Skiddaw slate. Its eastern boundary ranges on the north side of Seatallan and the Haycock ; and then descends in a long undulating line through the great coves : and crosses the Ennerdale river under the Pil- lar. The red syenite forms the rugged hills, from the lower part of Ennerdale Water to a point more than two miles above the head of the lake ; then ascends towards the N.E. by the shoulder of Red Pike, and thence it may be followed to Butter- mere and the hills beyond Scale Force. After many a toilsome walk, I made out the boundaries of the Eskdale granite and the Ennerdale syenite. But there was no LAKE DIST1UCT. 20o good physical map on which I could lay down my observations correctly. What is here stated may be enough, and perhaps more than enough, for the readers of these letters. The fol- lowing are the best places for studying the nature of the syenite and its effects upon the stratified rocks : The junction between the south side of Reveling Pike and the western shore of Enner- dale Water The junction of the syenite and Skiddaw slate at Herdhouse The south side of the whole pass from Ennerdale by Floutern Tarn to Buttermere ; and the whole escarpment under Red Pike, High Stile, and High Crag. The junctions in the upper part of Ennerdale below the Pillar. The syenite abuts against the Skiddaw slate of Reveling Pike ; and below the junction, in the hills skirting the west side of Ennerdale Water, the slate rocks are much mineralized. Simi- lar effects may be seen on the north side of Herdhouse ; where the black slates are so changed that they can hardly be distin- guished from the porphyries of the middle division. Between the foot of Buttermere and Floutern Tarn the phenomena along the line of junction are most varied and instructive. The syenite runs through the Skiddaw slate in the form of enormous dykes, or ramifies through it in veins. In some places the formations are in almost inextricable confusion the slate rocks in one place abutting on the syenite, in another supporting it, and in a third resting upon it. A great mass of the Skiddaw slate has been caught up by the syenite, carried to the top of Red Pike, and wedged against the green porphyries of High Stile. Three masses of syenite break through the mineralized Skiddaw slate in the brows overhanging Buttermere ; and close to one of them is a mineral vein Lastly, where the line of junction crosses Ennerdale, below the Pillar, veins of syenite are seen streaming from the central mass into the green slate and porphyry of the middle group In no one case, however, has this syenite in mass penetrated the green slates or passed over them. Granite of Wasdale Crags, near Shap. This fine red por- phyritic granite is too well known to need description ; but the effects it has produced on the neighbouring deposits require a short notice. The rocks on all sides of it are extremely miner- alized and changed, apparently by the action of heat. It breaks out at the base of the upper division of the slates, and for some distance appears to have cut off the Coniston limestone. The limestone, however, appears again on the north side of it, and runs down to Shap Wells, but in an altered, shattered, and partly brecciated condition. The flagstones (of the upper divi- sion of the slates) are tilted from the granite at a great angle, are much indurated, and have a splintery fracture. Lastly, the slates close to the granite, above Wasdale Head, are completely mineralized, and pierced by small veins of granite injected from the central mass. As a general conclusion from all the preceding facts, necessarily 206 GEOLOGY OP THE given in a most condensed form, we may venture to affirm, that all the great masses of porphyry, granite, and syenite above noticed, are rocks of fusion that portions of them were raised while in a fluid state (otherwise how can we account for the granitic masses injected among the slates ;) and lastly, that the same heat which fused the granite or syenite, acting perhaps for many ages upon all the neighbouring rocks, produced that altered and mineralized structure which is so often seen round the cen- tres of eruption. Porphyritic dykes, and other Igneous rocks. Soma of the porphyritic dykes are of great interest ; and the subterranean forces by which they were injected among the great breaks and ' faults' of the slate series, have had a very powerful influence upon the position of the beds and the features of the country. A few of them must be noticed. 1 . The tinest dyke in Cumberland is seen in Kirkfell at Wast- dale Head ; the mountain has been rent asunder from top to bot- tom, and a great dyke of granitic porphyry has risen through the fissure. Its junction with the granite at the base of the mountain is not seen, and should it hereafter be found to blend itself with the central mass, it will then be an example of a gi- gantic granite vein ; but from its structure and the straightness of its course, I should rather compare it with the porphyry dykes (or 'el vans') of Cornwall ; and if this view be right, it must have been injected through a iissure cutting both through the granite and the green slates. I may here also notice one or two vertical syenitic dykes which rise from Wastdale Head and cut through the mineralized slates between Great End and Scawfell Pikes. 2. A beautiful dyke of red syenitic porphyry may bfe traced from the crown of the hill west of Thirlmere into a great water- course above Armboth. It shews many changes of structure, and is in some places almost compact at its junction with the slate ; in which respect it is similar to many Cornish ' el vans.' 3. Many striking examples of red porphyritic dykes are seen in the channel of the Duddon below Seathwaite, and in the hills on the west side of the river. They are seen also on the north side of Black Coomb, and in one of the deep gills that descends from the north-eastern side towards Bootle : and on its south-eastern side granitic dykes break out near its base. Black Coomb is of contorted Skiddaw slate ; and has by a great 'fault' been raised two or three thousand feet above its natural level. May we not conclude, that the same subterranean forces which rent the solid rocks asunder and poured the dykes of molten matter through the cracks, employed also their strength in dissevering whole moun- tains, and elevating Black Coomb into its present position among the green slates and bedded porphyries ?* * Any one who takes an interest in these phenomena, would do well to make a traverse from the south-western shore of the Duddon Band* LAKE DISTRICT. 207 4. There are five places, not far from the Sliap granite, where red porphyritic dykes come to the surface on the north side of Wet Sleddale in the valley above High Borough Bridge (the dyke strikes nearly north and south and descends towards 13an- nisdale) on the crown of the hill at the right-hand side of the road ascending from the same place towards Shap and in two places farther north, and near the road side. These dykes can- not, I think, be properly described as granite veins ; because no veins resembling them are seen near the junction of the granite and the slates. They are, however, indications of the same Eowers of nature which produced the granite, but acting at a iter period. 5. Lastly, to avoid details inevitably dry and tedious, I may add., that dykes resembling those above described are found near the foot of Coniston Lake on the road between Coniston and Hawkshead on the north side of Middleton Fell and among the slate rocks between the valleys of Dent and Sedbergh. All the preceding dykes were, I believe, injected before the period of the old red sandstone. But there are, among the Cum- brian mountains, masses and dykes of dark-coloured trappcan rock, sometimes approaching the structure of basalt, which are perhaps of a newer date. They perform no part, however, which makes them of any importance to my present outline ; and geological dates founded on the mineral structure of plutonic rock cannot much be relied upon.* In whatever way the mountain masses of granite and syenite to the Whicham valley, and thence over Black Coomb to Bootle. On this line the formations appear in the following order ; Mountain limestone (Hodbarrow Point, &c.) Dark coloured slate and flagstone Coniston limestone Green slate and porphyry (Millum Park) Skiddaw slate, at alow level on the south-east side of the great 'fault.' All the preceding groups dip toward the S.E. The great 'fault' ranges down the Whicham valley, and on the north-western side of it the contorted beds of Black Coomb are brought up with a dip reversed towards the N.W. In the remaining part of the section over Black Coomb, Skiddaw slate is continued; then porphyry and altered Skid- daw srote : and, lastly, granite and granite veins. The two last are seen near Bootle. * For the sake of those who may wish to examine the country in detail, I may mention a few examples of such dykes as are alluded to in the text. The road-side near Long Close, and thence up to the brow of Great Dod, on the eastern side of Skiddaw : in this brow there are many dykes. The western side of Bassenthwaite Lake. Near the foot of the same lake, and along the ridge of the hill on the north side of the road from thence to Cockermouth. Two or three places to the S. and S. E. of Cockermouth. The left side of the road from Penruddock and Threlkeld, near Lane-head. These are all in the Skiddaw slate. (In the middle division of the slates there may be many recent trappean rocks : but it must be very difficult to separate them from the old bed- ded porphyries). Near Bowland Bridge, on the old road from Kendal to Uiverstone, &c., &c. 208 GEOLOGY OF THE were protruded, they must have produced enormous derange- ments among all the slate rocks. Judging, however, from the Black Coomb ' fault,' and from the dykes in the valley of the Duddon, and at Wastdale Head, in Cumberland, I believe that the greatest elevations and contortions of the slates took place after the eruption of the granite and syenite. The subterranean powers, pent in by the cooling of the plutonic rocks, pushed the whole region upward into an irregular dome. The struggle between the expansive forces below and the tension of the rocks above (igneous as well as aqueous) may have been long con- tinued ; the whole slate series may have been thrown into great undulations, and set on edge ; dyke after dyke may have been injected ; and the highest parts of the dome may have been star- red by diverging faults, cutting their way indifferently through slates, granites, and syenites. The valleys now diverging from Scawfcll represent the directions of these ancient ' faults :' and many other breaks and faults (represented in direction by the other valleys of the lake country) must have been formed during this period of disruption and confusion, before the conglomerates of the old red sandstone were spread upon the outskirts of the mountains. On the northern side of the district described in these letters, many of the valleys descending from the higher mountains are turned aside by the terrace of the carboniferous limestone ; and, after running some distance parallel to its 'strike,' escape through it, by fissures of a newer date. But on the south side, the upper division of the slates was fissured by many great north and south ' faults', which traverse the limestone without being turned aside by it, and must therefore have been produced at some period after it was deposited. Faults of different ages some- times intersect one another, and afterwards contributed to form one valley. Thus, Langdale and the upper part of Windermere shew the direction of one of the old diverging lines of fault: but the lower part of the lake is in the direction of one of the more recent lines of fracture. In the preceding letters I have endeavoured to explain the structure of the district in the same way in which a mechanist teaches the movements of a machine by taking it to pieces. All the deposits have been described in a contrary order from that in which they were put together by nature's hand. Let me now endeavour, in imagination, to re-construct the great frame-work of the Cumbrian mountains. I. Beds of mud and sand were deposited in an ancient sea, appearently without the calcareous matter necessary to the life of shells and corals, and without any traces of organic forms. These were the elements of the Skidddw slate. II. Plutonic rocks were then, for many ages, poured out among the aqueous sediments beds were broken up and re- cemented plutonic silt and other materials in the finest com- LAKE DISTRICT. 200 minution were deposited along with the igneous rocks the effects were again and again repeated, till a deep sea was filled with a formation many thousand feet in thickness These were the materials of the middle division of the Cumbrian slates. III. A period of comparative repose followed. Beds of shells and bands of corals formed upon the more ancient rocks : they were interrupted by beds of sand and mud, and these pro- cesses were many times repeated ; and thus, in a long succession of ages, were the deposits of the upper slates completed. IV. Towards the end of the preceding period, mountain masses of plutonic rock were pushed through the older deposits and after many revolutions, all the divisions of the slate series were elevated and contorted by movements not affecting the newer formations. V. The conglomerates of the old red sandstone were then spread out, by the beating of an ancient surf, continued for many ages, upon the upheaved and broken edges of the slates. VI. Again occurred a period of comparative repose; the coral reefs of the mountain limestone, and the whole carboniferous series, were formed ; but not without many great oscillations between the levels of land and sea. VII. An age of disruption and violence succeeded, marked by the discordant position of the rocks, and by the conglo- merates under the new red sandstone. At the beginning of that time was formed the great north and south ' Craven fault,' which rent off the eastern calcareous mountains from the older slates ; and soon afterwards, the great ' Pennine fault,' ranging from the foot of Stainmoor to the coast of Northumber- land, and lifting up the terrace of Cross Fell above the plain of the Eden. Some of the north and south fissures (shewn by the directions of the valleys leading intoMorecambe Bay) may have been formed about the same time; others must have taken place at later periods.* VIII. Afterwards ensued the more tranquil period of the new red sandstone; but here our records, on the skirts of the lake mountains, fails us, and we have to seek them in other countries. IX. Thousands of ages rolled away during the secondary and tertiary epochs. Of those times we have no monuments in Cumberland. But the powers of nature are never in repose ; her work never stands still. Many a fissure may in those days have started into an open chasm, and many a valley been scooped out upon the lines of ' fault.' X. Close to the historic time, we have proofs of new dis- * The magnesian conglomerates near Kirkby Stephen rest, almost horizontally, on the beds set on edge by the "Craven fault." Bilinear Brongh the same conglomerates are set on edge by the "Pennine fault. Hence we infer that the " Craven fault" was of an earlier date than the " Pennine." 210 GEOLOGY Of THE ruption and violence, and of vast changes of level between land and sea. Ancient valleys may have been opened out anew, and fresh valleys formed by such great movements in the oceanic level. Whatever strain there may have been in the more solid parts of our island at this time, their greatest power must have been exerted upon ancient valleys, where the continuity of the beds was already broken. Cracks among the strata may, during this period, have passed into open fissures vertical escarpments have been formed by unequal elevations on the sides of the lines of fault and subsidences have given rise to many tarns and lakes. The face of nature may therefore have been greatly changed while the land was settling to its present level. But let me not be misunderstood ; this last period may have been of very long duration. I am only attempting to give an outline of a long series of physical facts, proved by physical evidence. I wish to pause before I reach the modern period ; and do not profess to link geology to the traditions of the human race. By some rash and premature attempts of this kind, much harm has been already done to the cause of truth and Christian charity. While geology is an advancing science, and the limits of her discoveries are so ill-defined, such attempts must almost inevitably involve some of the elements of error, and end in un- certain conclusions, ill fitted to form the base of historic truth. Any description of the mineral veins of Cumberland would involve me in difficult details quite unfit for these letters ; and with their present condition, 1 am not acquainted. The anti- mony works in the Skiddaw slate, near the foot of Basssenthwaite Lake, are, as lam informed, now deserted Ores of lead and copper are still extracted from several parts of the middle division of the slates. The large works near Ullswater and Coniston Water Head well deserve a visit The mines of plumbago, or black lead (carburet of iron), near the head of Borrowdale, are so peculiar to Cumberland that they must not be entirely passed over. The mineral is found in a large and very irregular vein, cutting through the green slate and porphyry not in ribs pa- rallel to the sides of the vein, nor in the form of crystalline masses imbedded in spar ; but, here and there, in large irregular lumps or a congeries of lumps ; which begin and swell out, and then thin off, without any apparent order. The miners have sometimes followed the vein for years without stumbling on any of the larger rich masses .* and the works are now, I believe, very un- productive. Several irregular veins, with much red oxide of iron, are found in the neighbouring hills ; but none of them have pro- duced the lumps of carburet of iron Plumbago is sometimes found in small flakes among the slags of our great iron furnaces; * One of the largest masses ever found in this mine, yielding about 70,000 Ibs. of the purer sorts of this mineral, besides more of an inferior quality, was discovered about forty years ago. LAKE DISTRICT. 211 and it has also been found among coal strata near the sides of ' trap dykes.' In such cases we can give an intelligible account of its formation : but I do not venture to account for its sub- limation among the rocks of Borrowdale. I may, however, ob- serve that the Skiddaw slate, which supports the green slate and porphyry, sometimes, I believe, contains a a small quantity of carbon.* The iron mines of Low Furness and of Bigrigg Moor near Whitehaven, are also characteristic of the lake country. Red oxide of iron has been produced abundantly during many geolo- gical periods ; and the old red sandstone derives its colouring matter chiefly from that mineral. But the great deposits of ' kidney ore, ' near Dalton and Whitehaven, are of a newer date ; as they are found in the fissures and hollows of the carboniferous limestone. They in some places mark the presence of a great irregular ' fault ;' in others they have been precipitated in open water-worn caverns. The best example of the kind is seen at Bigrigg Moor In all these places the ' ki'dney ore ' was probably introduced during the period of the new red sandstone, while the waters of the sea, saturated with red oxide of iron, flowed through the fissures and caverns of limestone, and filled them gradually up with the metallic matter held in partial solution. In ending this imperfect outline of the structure of your native mountains, permit me to add one or two remarks, not, I trust, unconnected with the object of these letters. Geology links it- self with every material science. The earth is a great laboratory and storehouse of old experiments, wherein we may discipline our thoughts, and rise to the comprehension of the laws of na- ture : and it is by such means that we learn to bring the mate- rials around us under our control, and make them obedient to our will. Exact science is the creature of the human mind a body of necessary truths built upon mere abstractions. But when physical phenomena are well defined, and their laws made out by long and patient observations, or proved by adequate experi- ments, they then, by an act of thought, may be made to pass into the form of mere abstractions, and so come within the reach of exact mathematical analysis : and many new physical truths, unapproachable in any other way, and far removed from direct observation, may thus be brought to light, and fixed as firmly as are the truths of pure geometry: * A sub-carburet of iron is found in very thin veins or ' strings, ' among the slate rocks of Cornwall, north of the Lizard district. But there the slates are perhaps not older than the lower part of the old red sandstone ; and I may remark that carbonaceous matter and many impressions of plants occur in the Ilhenish provinces, among still older rocks : but among none of such antiquity as the Skiddaw slate. 212 GEOLOGY OF THE Laws of atomic action all that belongs to the highest gene- ralizations of chemical philosophy, may gain light and strength from the advances of geology. For what are crystalline rocks, and cleavage planes of slates, and all the perplexing phenomena of metallic veins, but the results of chemical action carried on upon a gigantic scale of experiments made of old in nature's laboratory which we can sometimes feebly imitate ? The laws of electro-chemical action are among the great discoveries of modern times. We can now separate metals from the fluid in which they are dissolved, in imitation of what nature has done among the cracks and veins of our ancient strata. It is not pos- sible to tell what great things may not hereafter be brought to pass by this happy union of observation and experiment. Again, we are assured from direct observation, that the same chemical and mechanical laws by which the materials of our globe are now bound together, have remained unchanged from the time wheu the solid foundations of the earth were laid, Changes of phenomena imply only a change of conditions, not a change in the primary laws of matter. We may therefore hope that, as geology advances farther towards exactness as a science of observation, its phenomena may be brought more nearly under the government of known mechanical laws, and more closely defined by the powers of exact calculation. For ages to come, sreology may offer problems to call forth the utmost skill of mechanical philosophy. The density of the earth's mass is not yet exactly known ; and no one perhaps has yet found where he is to fix the fulcrum of the lever which is to weigh the world. 1 believe that this problem will one day be more exactly solved (as it was a few years since attempted) by observations at the bottom of a mine ; where geology and astronomy, aided by the refinements of mechanical skill, must all combine in a common labour. This object, if once gained, would not be sterile; but would be pregnant with many results of deep physical importance. But it would be idle for me to dwell on the prospects of geology, or on its bearings on the progress of the exacter sciences. Let me, however, add, that as all parts of nature, material and moral, are the offspring of one Creative Mind, and are wisely fitted to one another ; so we believe that the discovery of every new physical truth must tend to the support of every other truth, whatever be its kind, and to the good of the human race. The great formations of geology, however varied in their features, or imposing in their combination, derive their chief in- terest from being the monuments of successive periods of time. There is, therefore, a kind of historical animation in our labours which hardly belongs to any other physical pursuit. The same re- mark applies to the organic remains buried among the successive strata of the earth. However instructive they may be, in shewing us certain forms of organic life, and whatever delight they may give the naturalist, by enabling him to fill up great chasms in LAKE DISTUICT. 213 the history of animated nature ; in the mind of the geologist they have a still higher value, when he regards them us the marks of Creative Power which called into existence successive races of beings adapted to successive conditions of the earth. In this view, they have been not unaptly called ' the medals of creation' each series marking but one chapter in the physical records of past time. There is one view of geology, considered by some as a sign of its imperfection, but which, in truth, is a part of its glory. Many of its conclusions arc as firmly fixed as the truths of demonstration ; but the boundaries of its conquests are still un- defined ; and there is still so much of wild untamed nature about it, that it is almost as well fitted to inflame the imagination, as to inform the reason. We profess to build only on observation and experiment : but there are many wide provinces in geology still unexplored ; many that are known imperfectly ; and in no part of her realms arc her subjects bound by such unyielding fetters as to have no room for the mind's creative powers. While we are moving on towards a resting-place we are longing for, among objects which to many may seem harsh-featured and repulsive, we may refresh our souls by sometimes soaring into the airy regions of hypothesis, or in fostering dreams as wild as those of a poet's fancy. You, Sir, have told us of ' the mighty voice of the mountains,' and have interpreted its language, and made it the delight of thousands : and in ages yet unborn, the same voice will cheer the kindly aspirations of the heart, and minister to the exalta- tion of our better nature. But there is another mighty voice,' muttered in the dark recesses of the earth : not like the dismal sounds of the Lebadean cave ; but the voice of wisdom, of in- spiration, and of gladness ; telling us of things unseen by vulgar eyes of the mysteries of creation of the records of God's will in countless ages before man's being of a Spirit breathing over matter before a living soul was placed within it of laws as un- changeable as the oracles of nature of harmonies then in pre- paration ; but far nobler now that they are the ministers of thought and the instruments of intellectual joy ; and to have their full consummation only in the end of time, when all the bonds of matter shall be cast away, and there shall begin the reitrn of knowledge and universal love. Whatever be. the value of geology as a science, its bearings upon the ordinary wants of life are too obvious to call for any comment. It leads us to the most glorious portions of the world, and carries us amongst men of kind hearts, and upright independ- ent thoughts. It is amoncr the mountains, as you have told us, that we are to listen to ' liberty's chosen music :' and the very objects with which we have there to struggle, give back to us, as the earth's touch did of old to the giant's body, new spirits and enduring strength. u 2 214 GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. Some of the happiest summers of my life were passed among the Cumbrian mountains, and some of the brightest days of those summers were spent in your society and guidance. Since then, alas, twenty years have rolled away : but I trust that many years of intellectual health may still be granted you ; and that you may continue to throw your gleams of light through the mazes of human thought to weave the brightest wreaths of poetic fancy and to teach your fellow-men the pleasant ways of truth and goodness, of nature and pure feeling. But here I must conclude my letters ; which though of more than twice the length I first intended, do not contain a hundredth part of what might be said on the structure of your country. Such as they are, I send them to you with great good-will ; and rejoice in the thought of having at length performed a promise, made to you many years since, but claimed by you only now. With the honest expressions of admiration and regard, and with hearty wishes for your happiness, I remain, &c., A. SEDGWICK. Cambridge, May 30, 1842. SUPPLEMENTAL LETTER. LETTER IV. MY DEAR Sin, Since the three preceding letters were writ- ten, in 1842, I have twice visited the mountains of High and Low Furness, the most interesting portions of the country be- tween the Coniston limestone and the banks of the Lune, and the whole range of mountains on the east side of the Lune, between Ravenstonedale and Kirkby Lonsdale. My observations on these tracts of country have been embodied in two papers published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society ; to which I may refer for numerous sections and many details unsuited to my present letter. The whole series of slate rock$ which extend from the centre of Skiddaw Forest to the banks of the Lune, may be separated (as was first shewn by Mr. Otley) into three great subdivisions : viz. I. Skiddaw slate. II. Green roofing slate and porphyry. III. Dark-coloured slate and flagstone, alternating with bands, and sometimes with thick beds, of siliceous gritstone. These three primary divisions have been described in my former letters in descending order ; and are delineated on the left side of the first wood-cut, where No. 8 represents the cen- tral granite; No. 7, the Skiddaw slate; No. 6, the Green slate and porphyry ; No. 5, the Dark slates, &c. resting on their band of Coniston limestone ; No. 4, the Old red sandstone ; No. 8, the Carboniferous limestone. This is a true geological sequence : but no attempt is made, in this small wood-cut, to represent the flexures of the beds or to convey any notion of the features of the country. The Skiddaw slate I am not able to bring into close compa- rison with any of the great rock formations of North Wales ; but the green slate and porphyry of Cumberland are so identical in position and structure with the corresponding rocks of N. Wales (expanded through Carnarvonshire and Merionethshire, from the Menai Straits to the Berwyn chain), that I refer them all to one geological epoch. There is, however, one marked difference between these great deposits of Wales and Cumberland. The former contain several bands of fossils, but none have yet been found in the latter. In ray third letter, I have endeavoured to * Vol. i. p. 442. Vol. ii. p. 106. c 3 216 GEOLOGY OF THE explain the cause of this difference, and I cannot now dwell on matters of speculation. But there remains another question. Into how many natural groups may we separate the third and highest division of the slate rocks of the Lake District ? A very inadequate answer was given, in my third letter, to this ques- tion. The boundary line between the upper and lower Silu- rian rocks was drawn hypothetically in 1842, when I estimated the lower Silurian rocks at a much greater thickness than they proved to have been on closer examination. The consequence was that I arranged the Ireleth slates (1 now think, erroneously) in the same group with the Coniston limestone, and placed them both nearly on a parallel with the Caradoc sandstone of Sir R. I. Murchison. To help the reader to comprehend descriptions, of necessity short and imperfect, I subjoin a second wood-cut (No. 2), in which the groups are arranged on an ideal section in the ascending order. This section is supposed to begin with the rugged moun- tains near the head of Windermere or of Coniston Lake thence to be carried southwards to the valley of the Kent, near Kendal and from the valley of the Kent to that of the Lune above Kirkby Lonsdale. No attempt is here made to delineate any of the breaks and flexures of the beds. Those who wish for more exact and detailed sections may consul t the Quarterly Journal o f the Geological Society (Vol. ii. pp.106-131). Ascending Section through the Fossiliferous Slates of Westmorland, tfc . \. Coniston limetlont. 5. Flag* without tranmtnt cltavag i, tub. 2. Coniston flagi . . > divided into 3. Coniston grit*. 4. Coarte striped state, $c. inLoicFurnets ~ subdivided into : 4a Lover Ireleth slate 4b Ireleth limestone. 4c Upper Ireleth slate. ; 6. Old red sandstone. 4d Coarte ilate and grit. -7. Carboniferous limfstone. 1 . Coniston limestone and calcareous slate, Sfc. This group is too well known to need any detailed description. The more pure calcareous bands are generally found in the lower part of it, are seldom of any great thickness, andoften become almostentirely LAKE DISTRICT. 217 degenerate and worthless. The upper part of the group consists of dark-coloured, pyritous, earthy slates and shales, seldom suf- ficiently indurated to be of any value. In its whole range* from Shap Wells to Duddon Bridge its average thickness is not more than 300 feet ; and its fossils, especially abundant in the cal- careous shales, are lower Silurian (see Appendix B). At Graystone House, the limestone beds are much mineralized by the action of the neighbouring porphyry ; beyond which place, an enormous dislocation has thrown the range of the whole forma- tion about two miles out of its former bearing. At the S. end of Cumberland, the calcareous bands predominate over the shales, and are worked in some fine open quarries near Beck and Water Blain. The thickness of the whole group is, at this ex- tremity of the range, not less than 600 feet about double the average thickness of the same group on the other side of the Duddon and all the beds are highly calcareous ; those in the lower part of the group forming a pure dark-coloured limestone with some large white veins. Lastly, I may state that a great flexure or dislocation of the strata has brought up the Coniston limestone at High Haulme, near Dalton, on the south side of the Duddon estuary : but this limestone must not be confounded with a second and higher calcareous band (46), subordinate to the great group of Ireleth slates. 3. Conistonflags This group, which has an aggregate thick- ness of not less than 1500 feet, passes downwards by insensible gradations into the upper shales and slates of the Coniston lime- stone. Its prevailing structure is that of a dark-coloured calca- reous slate or flagstone affected by cleavage planes transverse to the true beds. Hence the lines of deposit are often marked by parallel stripes on the surface of the flags, which are derived from the cleavage planes. These lines may sometimes be traced by bands of pyrites, and especially by spheroidal con- cretions which follow the direction of the beds.f At the top of the group are thin beds (provincially called sheerbate) in which the cleavage planes disappear ; and among these, above Hawkshead Fould, are found some impure bands of limestone. The quarries where this group may be examined with most ad- vantage are near Brathay and Coniston. Considered as a whole, it appears to me perfectly identical with the lower groups of what I have called Denbigh flagstone. But why should we se- parate this group from the shales and slates* which rest immedi- ately upon, and seem to group with, the Coniston limestone ? The answer is given in the list of fossils. The fossils from the * Supra, Note, p. 195. f In the quarries of Coniston limestone, near Beck, are numerous cleavage planes distinct from the true beds ; and there also we meet with tlie very unusual phenomena of calcareous spherical concretions parallel to the cleavage planes, and not parallel to the true beds. I See Quarterly Journal of Geol. Soc. Vol. i. pp. 17-20. 218 GEOLOGY OF THE Coniston limestone, &c. form a most characteristic lower Silurian group. But there are no characteristic lower Silurian fossils in the Coniston flags. The fossils are few in number ; but they either belong to known upper Silurian types, or to species which have not yet been determined. Among the concretions, so abundant in this group, are impressions of Graptolites ludensis ; and in the middle and upper portions of it are one or two upper Silurian Trilobites, one or two species of Creseis, and beds of Cardiola interrupta. On the evidence, then, both of mineral structure and of fossils, we are compelled to separate the Coniston flags from the Coniston limestone and calcareous slates, placing the former at the base of the upper Silurian series of the Lake District ; and, therefore, nearly on a parallel with the ' Wenlock shale' of Sir R. I. Murchison. 3. Coniston grits. This group is of great thickness, and is composed of such unbending materials, that it exhibits no great flexures or contortions, though its beds are very highly inclined, and sometimes vertical. It is composed of thick beds of grey, or bluish-grey gritstone, alternating, indefinitely, with sandy micaceous shales, and with beds resembling tbe flagstones of the lower group (No t 2). Both the gritstones and the shales are marked by spheroidal concretions, sometimes of large size. The great gritstone beds are not unusually divided into irregular prismatic masses by joints nearly perpendicular to the planes of stratification, so as to make it difficult to ascertain the true bed- ding of the rock where the subordinate slates and flags are wanting. Fossils are extremely rare in this group, but some have been discovered in it ; and among them Graptolites ludensis, Cardiola interrupta, Orthoceratites Ibex, O. subundulatus, and fragments of Trilobites, &c. All the known species are upper Silurian. The rocks above described are sufficiently well defined to be laid down upon a geological map ; and are geologically important as forming the true base of the great group to which I have given the name of ' Ireleth slates." * The Coniston grits become degenerate at the N.E. extremity of their range over Shap Fells. They cross the road between High Bor- row Bridge and Shap, at the hill top near the Demmings. Farther to the S.E. they are expanded into a well-defined formation, and may be seen ranging, in grey gnarled elevations, by Bannisdale Head to the hills N. of Long Sleddale Chapel thence in a broad zone to the foot of KentmereTarn, and over the bare hills as far as the trigonometrical station N.E. of Elleray. Their strike afterwards carries them over "Windermere to Latterbarrow, and thence by the head of Esthwaite Water, and Grisedale Head, to the eastern margin of Coniston Water. After crossing the water they are thrown (by the same dislocation which has affected the Coniston limestone) nearly a mile out of their former line of bearing, and re-appear in the bare hills S. of Torver Cha- pel. From these hills they pass, without any apparent deviation, to the low hills S. of Broughton, where they are cut off by the Duddon estuary, and are seen no more on the surface. LAKE DISTRICT. 219 4. Ireleth slates. This group occupies a tract of country, on the average not less than six or seven miles in breadth ; and after passing over Windermcre into Lancashire, it is spread over a still wider zone. Of its thickness (which is unquestionably very great) we might form a very exaggerated estimate, did we not take into account the continual undulations by which the same beds may be repeated again and again over districts of wide extent. The breaks and contortions the changes of strike the anticlinal and synclinal lines, are almost without number. These phenomena meet us wherever we make a long traverse across the beds of this formation. The prevailing rock of the whole group is a rather quartzose slate with transverse cleavage planes which preserve their parallelism even among the most contorted strata. It exhibits the sedimentary stripes and other phenomena of cleavage planes in great perfection ; but very few of the beds, if we except the Ireleth country, have been found of much value as roofing slate. The more slaty bands alternate indefinitely with quartzose bands, and sometimes with great beds of gritstone, or very coarse greywacke, like those of No. 3. Here, however, the coarser beds are subordinate to those with a slaty impress ; while, in No. 3, the coarse grits give the chief impress to the group In the country between Coniston Water foot and Shap Fells, I am unable to separate the formation here described into any natural subdivisions or sub- groups ; but in its range through Low Furness it may be sub- divided as follows : (4a). Lower Ireleth slates These beds rest immediately on the Coniston grits (No. 3), are very highly inclined, and occupy a zone more than half a mile in width. They mu,st, therefore, be of considerable thickness. (46). Ireleth limestone. It breaks out on the brow of a hill about the third of a mileN. E. of the village of Ireleth, and appears to be continuous along the line of strike for about two miles ; for it may be traced through five old quarries, one of which (at Meer Beck) is still worked. At first it is of considerable thick- ness, perhaps twice as thick as the purer bands of Coniston limestone (No. 1), as seen in their range through Westmor- land ; but it soon degenerates and disappears altogether. After an interruption of several miles, it breaks out again on the S. side of Tottlebank Fell not in any well defined beds, but rather in the form of discontinuous calcareous concretions, which may be traced at intervals for more than a mile ; and it finally disappears in the hills on the left bank of the brook which de- scends from Beacon Tarn. A remarkable quadrangular crinoidal stem (Tetracrinites) seems to be characteristic of this calcareous band ; which also contains innumerable fragments of shells, un- fortunately too imperfect to be made out. 220 GEOLOGY OF THE (4c). Upper Ireleth slates. Among these beds are the great slate quarries of Kirkby Ireleth,* (4d). In this subdivision I include all the remaining rocks between the preceding group (4c), and Leven sands, also the slate rocks of Cartmel Fells, and of the contorted ridge which runs from Newby Bridge to Lindal. It is of a coarser and more mechanical structure than the upper Ireleth slates (4c), and contains hardly any slate beds which are now worked with profit. It is undoubtedly of very great thickness, but a large abatement must be made in our estimate, not only on ac- count of the numerous undulations of the strata, but also on ac- count of the breaks and dislocations by which whole mountain masses have been shifted out of their true line of bearing, so as to destroy the continuity of any one line of section. The fossils in Low Furness (where the fourth group of the general section admits of the above-named subdivisions) are by no means abundant. In (4a) I have found Graptolites lu- densis ; but the deposit is ill exposed, and has few open quar- ries. The fossils of (46) have been noticed above. In (4e) are found Graptolites ludensis, a Cyathophyllum, Favosites alveo- laris, and two or three Orthoceratites* In (4rf)-occur, though very rarely, corals, encrinite stems, and Cardiola interrupta. All the species that have been made out are Upper Silurian. In the range of the beds towards the N.E., the sub-group (4rf) appears to thin off, and loses all its distinctive characters. The calcareous bands (4 b} are also wanting. Hence, all the four subordinate groups are packed in one inseparable mass of very great thickness. As, however, the base line of Coniston grits (No. 3) is constant, we may approximate to the relative position of the beds above described. For example, the slaty rocks of Bannisdale Head, and those N. of Long Sleddale cha- pel, appear to be on the exact parallel of (4a). The slate quarries of Bretherdale are probably on the parallel of (4c). The fossiliferous slates between Underbarrow and Crook are high in the series, and therefore on the parallel of (4e/). Not, however, to dwell on minute points of comparison, I may state generally that the whole group I am describing (No. 4) con- tains several bands of fossils, all of which, so far as the species are known, are ?7/9perSilurian. Terebratula navicula (along with eight or ten Upper Silurian species') occurs near the base of the group above the Ferry House on the shore of Windermere ; and also occurs in great abundance in the upper beds between Crook and Underbarrow, f On a review of all the facts above stated, I now think it cer- tain that the Coniston flags and grits, and the Ireleth slates, * For some details respecting these quarries which cannot be given here, I may refer to the Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc. vol. ii. p. 114, &c. f See Geol. Soc. Journ. Vol. ii. p. 123. LAKE DISTRICT. ~2^\ cannot be classed with the Coniston limestone, and that, consi- dered collectively, they are very nearly the equivalents of the Weiiluck shale and the lower Ludlow rock of the Silurian Sys- tem. The southern and upper boundary of the great group above described (No. 4) would be approximately defined by a curve line drawn near the base of the hills between Lindal and Cros- thwaite, and thence to Underbarrovv chapel. From the chapel, it mi'jfht be drawn along the valley to Brundrigg ; thence, on the N. side of Burneside mills, across the Sprint to Garth Row. From the last named place it might be drawn nearly E. & W. as far as the valley of the upper Lune. To the S. of this line is a remarkable group, generally ill exposed, but occupying a coun- try about two miles in width. The lower part of it should bo classed with No. 4 ; the upper part with No. 5 of the ascending section. But, from the obscurity of the country, no continu- ous demarcation can be traced on a geological map. To this last remark the natural section between Underbarrow chapel and the limestone of Kendal Fell forms so remarkable an exception, that it deserves a short notice. Leaving then the hills which extend, with many undulations, from Mountjoy to Crook (about the age of which there can be no doubt, for they contain Terebratula nuvicula and several other characteristic fossils, and have, in perfection, the peculiar structure of the Ireleth slates, No. 4), and commencing an as- cending section with the faulted beds of the valley near Under- barrow chapel ; we find, on the line of the Kendal road, the following series well exposed, and not interrupted by any con- tortions of the beds :* (a). A thick group of coarse slate and flagstone, with a rude and very imperfect cleavage, extending nearly to a farm called High Thorns. In mineral structure this group more resembles -No. .0 than No. 4 of the wood-cut ; but 'it contains Terebra- tula nuvicula, and may, perhaps, be considered as the uppermost limit of No. 4, making a passage into No. 5. (6) A bed six or seven feet thick, with two species of Asterias, one, A. fii-ima va (Forbes' M.S.% the other new. Here the CifallmphylluHt disappears on the ascending section, and the Terebratulu uavicula, one of the most characteristic fossils of the great group (No. 4) is no longer found. (<). Flags, ft/ieerbate (i. e. without cleavage) ; some red cal- careous bands with many fossils. Numerous Trilobites, one like Calymene Bltimenbacltii. * The length ot' this section measured directly across the strike is morn than a mile, and all the beds dip at a high angle towards the The whole thickness of the beds between Underbarrow ami Kendal Fell must therefore be very considerable, and might very -nivd. 222 GEOLOGY OF THE (d). Striated hard grits and sheerbate flags, with many fossils identical with those under Benson Knot, on the S. side of the Kent. The Asterias beds are found at Docker Park, under Benson Knot ; in the valley above Kendal, near Redman Tene- ment ; and also in the river Sprint, about a mile below the Tenement. The upper groups, (c) and (ef) of this section, range, under the great limestone escarpment of Kendal, to Brigsteer : thence they cross the mosses, pass under the ' great scar lime- stone' of Whitbarrow, and re-appear on the other side at Fell- end. From this neighbourhood they may be followed down to Ulpha Crags, on Milnthorpe sands, where they are finally cut off by the sea. 5. Upper slates of Kendal and Kirkby Moors, &fc. This great formation may be conveniently subdivided into three subordinate groups, (oa), (5b), (5c). (5a). Includes at least all the upper portion of the Under- barrow section just noticed, and forms a connecting link, through its fossils, and its structure, between No. 4 and No. 5 of the general section. (56). This great subdivision is bounded to the north by Tenter Fell, Benson Knot, Docker Park, and Lambrigg Fell. Beyond Lambrigg Park, the line (before running nearly E. and W.) deflects towards the S. E., in consequence of a great dis- turbance which has brought the beds of (5a) into a portion of Firbank Fells. To the E. it is bounded by a great fault which ranges down the valley of the Lune. To the W. by the lime- stone ridges of Kendal Fell and Farlton Knot ; and to the S. it is overlaid by the upper sub-group (5c). Some of the beds are composed of a grey, bluish-grey, or greenish-grey gritstone, almost as coarse in structure as the Coniston grits (No. 3), but they alternate with, and are often subordinate to thinner beds of grit and masses of coarse slate and flagstone, in which we lose nearly all traces of the cleavage planes which give an im- press to the great inferior group, (No. 4. of the wood-cut.) The formation is intersected by many earthy, ferruginous decomposing bands, sometimes associated with carbonate of lime and calcareous grit ; and these bands are marked with innumer- able impressions of fossils. The fossils of this sub-group are eminently characteristic. In it we first meet with three or four species of large Aviculce, numerous Meristomyce, (a new genus ofSalter), Nucula the cingulata of Hisinger, and Solenocurtus Fisheri of the former edition of these letters. Three-fourths of all the Upper Silurian fossils of the subjoined list* are found in this single subdivision (5 ft) ; and it is not only distinguished by numerous characteristic fossils, but by the absence of several species found in the Ireleth slates (No. 4). * Appendix B. LAKE DISTRICT. 223 (5c). In this group, of small superficial extent, but of con- siderable thickness, are included the red siliceous flagstones of the Lune, which underlie the old red sandstone of Red Scar and of Barbon Beck foot above Kirkby Lonsdale, and form the southern limit of the slate rocks on the 2nd wood-cut. Were it not fora wish to bring them into a comparison with the ' tile- stones' of the Silurian System, I should not have separated them from the proceeding group (56). For their fossils (especially in some red calcareous concretions, near their upper surface, which might be confounded with the ' cornstones' of the old red sandstone) are, perhaps without exception, identical with those which abound in the rocks between Kirkby Moor and Kendal (56). Again, the red colour of these flagstones is by no means constant ; for we find among them beds of purple, grey, bluish- grey, and greenish-grey flagstone, all forming a part of one group ; and, on the west side of Undcrley Park, are beds of indurated shale and flagstone, identical in structure with the most ordinary varieties of the inferior group (56). Perhaps the best example of these red flags (or ' tilestones'), may be seen at Helme (a couple of miles S. of Kendal). They are of considerable thickness, strike nearly N.W. and S. E., and ap- pear to have been let down into their anomalous position by some of the great faults, which, without any exaggeration, may be said to have broken up all the formations bet ween Kendal and the Lune into great disjointed fragments. At the N. end of Helme (Oxenholme), are some calcareous concretions, and a thin band of impure limestone (noticed in my 3rd letter, p. 194), and near the S. end of the hill are some hard, grey, fossiliferous beds, apparently representing some beds of like structure which break out from beneath the red flags on the old Kendal road a little N. of Kirkby Lonsdale. In conclusion, I may repeat that the fossils derived from all the rocks above described (subordinate to No. 5), form a most characteristic group, on the exact parallel of the Upper Ludlow rocks of the Silurian System. It is obvious, after a single eye-glance, that we cannot immedi- ately connect together the rock formations on the E. & W. sides of the valley of the Lune. The strata on the E. side of the Lune arc raised to an elevation, in some places exceeding 2'JOO feet, and are thrown into great undulations which cannot be traced, if we except a small portion of the upper Lune near Borrow Bridge, to the west side of the river.* As, however, I * The connexion between the formations on the two sides of the Lune may, I think, be made on a line of traverse represented, though very inadequately, in a wood-cut of the Journal of the Geological Society (Vol. ii., p. 121, Section 1C). It is drawn from the Shap granite to Whinfell Beacon ; and thence across the Lune, and over ls, to the carboniferous mountains skirting the upper part 224 GEOLOGY OF THE never saw a proof that any portion of the rocks described in the previous section (wood-cut No. 2) had been deposited on the inclined edges of any lower group, I thought it probable that some portions of the upper Ludlow rock (No. 5) might be caught up among the great folds and contortions of Middleton and How- gill Fells. This expectation was disappointed ; for after a care- ful examination, I have not found a particle of the upper Ludlow series in any of the mountain chains here noticed. The fells of Middleton, Howgill, and Ravenstonedale, are made up ex- clusively of four well-defined groups the lowest being Coniston limestone*(No. 1 ); the highest, Ireleth'slate, ( No. 4. ) as delineated on one line of section in the following wood-cut; and any other complete line of section through these fells would give the same result. Rocks of Middleton, Howgill, and Ravenstonedale Fells. \ . Coniaton limestone, 2. Coniston Jlafs. 3. Coniston grit*. 4. Ireleth slate, $c. in Lou> Purnesi. 7 1 Line of the great Cr avert fault. 6. Old red sandstone. 7. Carlmniferous limes'->ne. 7a. Millstone grit and I'vrdale tlutlei. The only difficulty is to find a base line on which to construct the sections. That being determined, ( notwithstanding the vast undulations of the beds, and the great breaks across the chains, accompanied with a change of strike) we have little difficulty in making out the successive groups, for they retain their usual struc- ture, and have their characteristic fossils. of the valley of the Rother, above Sedbergh. It may be examined on foot without difficulty in two days, and will well reward the labour. The traverse leads past two noble waterfalls, one in the upper part of Carnigiil the other, called Cautley Spout, where the water tumbles over scarped edges of the Coniston grits in the precipices which de- scend toward one of the forks of the Rother. * Ravenstonedale is formed by a kind of horse-shoe depression among the mountains. Its S. E. end is a prolongation of the valley of Sedbergh, and is drained by the Rother. Its middle portion doubles round the mountains and is drained by a branch of the Eden. Its N. "W. end is drained by the Lune. The Coniston limestone runs up the valley of the Rother into the S. E. end of Ravenstonedale. Without this explanation a part of the subsequent description in the text might seem to involve a contradiction. LAKE DISTRICT. 225 The slate rocks, extending from Casterton Fell to the S. E. end of Ravenstonedale, are bounded by the carboniferous lime- stone, near the base of which runs the great ' Craven fault ' : and this fault, when it approaches the older rocks, is generally accompanied by a great elevation of the beds on its eastern side. Hence, I was induced to seek, along the line of fault, for the oldest groups of the mountains here described. Where the Craven fault passes between Ingleton and Thornton Force, a greenish slate rock (overlaid by soft calcareous slates containing irregular bands of impure dark- coloured limestone) is brought up to a considerable elevation, and dips under a great dislocated mass of carboniferous limestone.* I now believe, on analogy, that these calcareous slates represent the Coniston lime- stone ; but they are, unfortunately, so far as I have seen them, without fossils. Whatever may be the age of these calcareous slates, we find nothing like them in the range of the Craven fault on the eastern side of Casterton Low Fell and Middleton Fells. This part of the range cannot indeed give us any continu- ous base line ; for the older rocks strike across the mean bearing of Middleton Fells, and therefore abut against the line of fault. At the N. end of Middleton fells we have a magnificent deve- lopment of Coniston grits, striking about W.N. W. and dipping S.S. W. and overhanging, for several miles, the south side of the valley of Dent. Here, therefore, we reach a low group of our aeries of deposits. On the west side of the Craven fault, in the ridge which divides the valleys of Dent and Sedbergh, the beds are thrown into a great irregular arch dipping on one side into the valley of Dent, and on the other into that of Sedbergh. The northern dip is continued into the hills on the northern side of the Sedbergh valley, where the Coniston grits are repeated in their characteristic form. It is obvious, from this description, that we might expect the presence of some of the lowest groups in the ridge above mentioned, between Dent and Sed- bergh : and, accordingly, in a deep ravine in Dent, called Helm's Gill, and on the west side of the Craven fault, we find the Coniston group (No. 1), with many characteristic fossils. It is made up of calcareous slate and impure beds of dark-coloured limestone, and is intersected by five or six porphyry dykes. Its relations admit of no doubt ; for it is overlaid by, and passes into, a most characteristic group of Coniston flags (No. 2), containing Graptolites ludensis, Cardiola interrupta, and one or two Upper Silurian Orthoceratites. A section commencing with a moun- tain called Risell on the north side of the valley of Dent, drawn across Helm's Gill, and prolonged across the valley, and over the north end of Middleton Fells into the valley of the Lune, would give the following sequence : First, the carboniferous rocks, from the millstone grit to the ' great scar limestone' cut through * See Geological Quarterly Journal, Vol. ii., p. 120, Section 12. 226 GEOLOGY OF THE by the great ' Craven fault :' and on the western side of the fault, the groups would be Coniston limestone, &c. (No. 1), Coniston flags (No. 2), Coniston grits (extending across Dent into Middleton Fells) (No. 3), Ireleth slates (No, 4).* Pro- ceeding north wards, the calcareous slates of Helm's Gill disappear under the turf bogs of the mountain ridge, and for several miles we lose all trace of them as we ascend the valley of the Rother above Sedbergh, on the line of the great Craven fault, f Fartherup the valley, we meet with calcareous slates with bands of dark lime- stone, in the gills which descend from Baugh Fell to the Rother. I believe they are continuous for more than four miles ; and they finally disappear in the S.E. end of Ravenstonedale, about a mile above Rother Bridge, at a low level, and close to the new road. At this extreme end of their range they contain lower Silurian fossils in the greatest abundance ; and they are overlaid, in the brows which overhang the north side of the valley, by the Co- niston flags, with Graptolites ludensis and Cardiola interrupta. This continuity of the group representing the Coniston lime- stone (No. 1), is explained by the fact, that the older rocks in this part of the valley, strike in a direction nearly parallel to the range of the ' Craven fault.' The description above given, and the structure of the mountains of Cautley and Ravenstonedale may be explained by help of a section drawn from the N. W. end of Ravenstonedale to Cautley crags, and from Cautley crags across the valley of the Rother to the top of Baugh Fell. ( Wood- cut, No. 3). This section shews the carboniferous rocks, from the millstone grit to the great scar limestone the Craven fault and the great undulations of the four groups which begin with the Coniston limestone. The second and third groups are ex- posed, on a grand scale, in the ascent from the Rother to the head of Cautley crags. The undulations of Nos. 3 and 4 are. made out by a traverse down Bretherdale. The old red sandstone (placed at the N. end of the section) is not found at Bretherdale foot ; but it does exist at the foot of Langdale, a little further west 4 A general summary of the preceding details contains an an- swer to the question proposed near the beginning of this letter * See Geological Society's Journal, Vol. ii., page 120, Section 13. j- Part of the way along this line, the Coniston group (No. 1.) is probably buried under the conglomerates of the old red sandstone, which are of great thickness. J Some great disturbances which have thrown the calcareous slates, and the beds of Blue Caster, out of their bearing, are not noticed in the text. A little below Rother Bridge are four or five porphyry dykes : and farther down, the rocks are so shattered and contorted that it is, for some distance, almost impossible to define the mean line of strike. These great disturbances appear to have been produced by " cross faults," now indicated by one or two lateral valleys. LAKE DISTRICT. 827 " Into how many natural groups may we separate the third and highest division of the slate rocks of the Lake District :" We have found that it may be separated into five natural groups ; of which No. 1 represents the lower Silurian System ; degenerate in thickness, but abounding in characteristic fossils. Nos. 2, 3, and 4, represent the Wenlock shale and lower Lvd- low rock ; on a grand scale of development, but with a poor list of fossils. And, lastly, No. 5 represents the upper Ludlow rock, on a great scale of development, and with an excellent list ot characteristic fossils. Again, applying the same question to the mountains in the triangular area, bounded on the W. by the great fault of the Lune, on the E. by the great Craven fault, and on the N. by the carboniferous limestone of Ravenstonedale, we find that the fells of Middleton, Howgill, and Ravenstonedale are composed of rocks which may be divided into four natural groups, commencing with No. 1. and ending with No. 4. of the general section. The singular position of these four groups on the E. side of the Lune, and the great expansion of the Ireleth slate group, (No. 4) in the country between the foot of Windermere and the sea coast, naturally suggest the hypothesis, that the upper Lud- low rocks of Westmorland (including all the slate rocks between Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale) were deposited unconformably in a trough or depression of the older strata. But the facts do not appear to bear out the hypothesis. For, so far as I know, there are no examples of conglomerate beds between the groups No. 4 and No. 5 ; nor have I ever seen the strata of one group resting unconformably on the strata of the other. On the con- trary, there are many spots where the strata of No. 4. pass in- sensibly into the strata of No. 5. Hence we may conclude that the whole series of slate rocks was deposited conformably, or, at least, without any great mechanical interruption and that the great disturbing forces, by which the several groups have been so strangely elevated and contorted, did not come into play till near the end of the Upper Ludlow period. Successive periods of elevation, Sfc. If we make successive traverses through the whole cluster of the Cumbrian mountains (beginning with the rocks described in this letter, and ending with the carboniferous system which descends towards the Solway Frith and the vale of the Eden), we are at first disposed to refer the elevation of the older strata to the protrusion of the great central masses of syenite and granite. A mechanical protrusion of granitic mountains through one or two central openings, would naturally produce a somewhat circular arrangement of the neigh- bouring groups of strata : and of this arrangement we do find traces in the rocks round Skiddaw Forest, and in a zone of green slate and porphyry which underlies the carboniferous zone on the w 3 228 GEOLOGY OF THE northern skirts of the great Cumbrian cluster.* As a much more general rule, however, the older groups of strata strike in a di- rection not far from N.E. and S. W". : and by help of this direc- tion we may connect the older Cumbrian mountains with those of Carnarvonshire, of the Isle of Man, and of the great chain which forms the southern boundary of Scotland. Hence we may refer the principal elevations of the Cumbrian cluster of moun- tains to a deep-seated cause of which the central granite and syenite, above mentioned, are mere local indications. These early movements of elevation took place while the slate-beds were soft and flexible ; and the cleavage planes were super- induced afterwards, while the beds were passing into a solid state. We may suppose, on probable evidence, that these movements affected all the groups of strata, including those which now appear on the east side of the Lune. The first contortions of the groups of strata E. of the Lune were undoubtedly effected before the slaty beds were solid or had cleavage planes. But the great vertical elevation of the mountains their separation from the neighbouring groups by the great Lune fault their frequent change of strike the fragmentary masses into which they have been divided by numerous transverse breaks these phenomena must belong to later periods. Some of these phenomena may be referred, perhaps, to disturbing forces connected with the protru- sion of the Shap granite : but we ought, at the same time, to bear in mind that the granite has not much deranged the strike of the beds with which it is immediately associated and that the very complicated phenomena on the E. side of the Lune can hardly be accounted for by any conceivable set of forces ema- nating from one centre. However this may be, the chains on the E. side of the Lune had received their present mineral impress before the period of the old red conglomerates : for, if we follow these conglomerates from Kirkby Lonsdale to their last appearance in the valley of the Rother, about two miles and a half above Sedbergh, we may find, among their rolled fragments, masses of the slate rocks with their cleavage planes, lumps of Coniston limestone with Coniston fossils, and lumps, more or less rounded, of all the other groups, not excluding the ' tile stone.' The appearance of what seemed Coniston limestone among the pebbles of the old red sandstone, above Sedbergh, at one time seemed to me almost inexplicable : but it now offers no difficulty : for the old red sandstone, above Sedbergh, was actually deposited in an ancient oceanic valley partly scooped out of the Coniston limestone and flagstone. Large portions of these conglomerates have been removed by subsequent denudation, and they may never have been perfectly continuous. They are now found sticking, here and there, to the old rocks on the sides of the valley, and sometimes several * See wood-cut (No. 1.) andLetter III. LAKE DISTRICT. 229 hundred feet above the level of the river. In this respect they present striking analogies to the new red conglomerates in the ancient valleys of the Mendip Hills. As a general rule, the old red conglomerates are unconform- able to all the older rocks of the country here described. But we must bear in mind that among the most contorted groups we may have some beds which are nearly horizontal ; and, in such a case, an overlying unconformablc deposit may seem, through a short space, to be perfectly conformable to the beds on which it rests. In this way I would explain the phenomena of Red Scar, above Kirkby Lonsdale. There is not, I believe, there any true passage between the tilestone and the red conglomer- ates ; for the red calcareous concretionary beds between the two contain only Ludlow fossils, and do not represent the ' cornstone ;' and the red conglomerates contain water-worn fragments of the " tilestone'' group. But we do find, here and and there, among the conglomerates, calcareous concretions which are of a newer age, and may perhaps represent the " cornstone." Were it possible to follow out the subject here, I might shew that the great ' Craven fault' was formed before the existence of the new red conglomerates in the valley of the upper Eden : and I might speculate on the epochs of the great faults, ranging nearly north and south, which have broken the carboniferous series into fragments along the south-western skirts of the slate groups above described. During these epochs may have been formed some of the great breaks in the mountains east of the Lune, which are now marked by deep valleys up which we can- not trace the older red conglomerates. But none of these old disturbing forces, nor all of them toge- ther, can explain the present configuration of the mountains and valleys. Countless ages passed away ; and, at the dawn of modern times, we have proofs of great changes of level between sea and land, producing successive periods of diluvial drift : and we have proofs of a period of refrigeration, when our higher valleys gave birth to glaciers. By anew change of level, the glaciers wereborne away by the sea, and became rafts for the transport of innumer- able bowlders from one mountain top to another. Strange as such facts may sound to ears that have not before heard of them, I believe they are capable of perfect physical demonstration. Old as such phenomena may be, in respect of ourselves, they are, in the language of geology, but things of yesterday ; for 1 have shewn, in my first letter, that the rivers of our present valleys have been flowing through them only a few thousand years: and as for the bowlders which have floated over our valleys, and are, in thousands of places, stranded on the mountain sides, and some times perched on their tops many of them still clink under the hammer, and look as fresh as if they had but just started from their parent seat. 230 GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. This letter, though addressed to a Poet, is meant chiefly for the eye of those who make geology their study. To many readers, the previous details may seem insufferably technical and repulsive. They were, however, unavoidable. For how could I, otherwise, attempt to grapple with some of the most difficult problems in geology ? or what right had I to dictate opinions without giving some of the evidence on which they were founded? I subjoin, in an Appendix, a notice of the porphyry dykes of the Cumbrian mountains ; and an excellent list of fossils, pre- pared by my friend Mr. J. W. Salter, who is now employed in figuring the species that are new, or which have been imperfectly described before. When the classification of the rocks is firmly settled, and their fossils are figured and described, a geologist may then take the minuter facts for granted, and give the phy- sical history of the country in general and graphic terms, with- out entering on many of the dry and crabbed details of this let- ter. Such as it is, my dear Sir, I trust you will receive it with the same good will with which I now offer it, and once more ac- cept my fervent and honest wishes for your happiness and health. I remain, &c. A. SEDGWICK. Cambridge, May SO, 1846. APPENDIX (A.) ON THE PORPHYRY DYKES WHICH TRAVERSE THE SLATE ROCKS. A short notice is taken, in my 3rd letter,* of the dykes of igneous rock in 'the several divisions of the slate series. The following notice (with the exception of the dykes of Black Coomb and the valley of the Duddon), is confined to the dykes in the fossiliferous division of the slate series described in the 4th letter. All minute details are omitted, and the following statement professes to be little more than a bare enumeration of the places where the phenomena may be studied. I. Slack Coomb and the valley of Ihe Duddon. This dislocated region (bounded to the north by the Bootle granite), is traversed by dykes at the following places : and beyond doubt, several more dykes will be discovered, and many must remain concealed under the turf bogs. 1. One or two granular felspar dykes break out through the black " Skiddaw slate" in the brows on the south-side of Black Coomb. Not far from one of them is a mineral vein. 2. A great dyke, 60 or 70 feet wide, is seen on the S. E. side of Black Coomb at Whitchamp Mill, above Beckside. It ranges nearly witli the beds of " Skiddaw slate," and mineralizes them only to the depth of a few inches. 3. A similar dyke appears farther up the same mountain stream. The two last mentioned, are said to traverse the neighbouring hills of " green slate and porphyry," but I have not followed them on their strike. 4. A fine dyke of " quartziferous porphyry" is seen in one of the extreme branches of Green Gill, on the N. side of Black Coomb. 5. Another (about a mile east of Fenwick farm), near the highest point of the junction of the " Skiddaw slate" with the " green slate and porphyry." (The following are from the second division of the slate series, "green slate and porphyry.") 6. A red felspar dyke, near Smallthwaite farm, and S. of the moun- tain road from Duddon Bridge to Bootle. 7. & 8. Two similar dykes, crossing the same road, about half a mile north of Fenwick. 9. A dyke (perhaps a continuation of No. G.) of bright red felspar rock, crossing the Duddon between Pen and Sallow ; it may be fol- lowed nearly parallel to the strike of the slates, for about two miles. 10. Another, in the bed of the river, about half a mile below Ulpha Church. 11. Another, near the saw-mill, south-west of the church; and may, perhaps, be continued to No. 12, which breaks out near Whinfield Ground. 13. Lastly, at Wallabarrow (below Seathwaite), where a magnificent red felspar dyke rises from the river, through the Page 206, and Note, page 207, 282 APPENDIX (A) crag (in a vertical mass which seems to thin away in its ascent). It may thence be followed for more than two miles, nearly on the bearing of the strike, to the bed of the rivulet under a farm called Brow Side, where it disappears. The prevailing structure of these dykes is that of a red granular felspar rock, with subordinate grams of quartz : but the quartz some- times predominates, and becomes highly crystalline, and the rock passes into a qnartziferous porphyry. At Whitchamp Mill, the great dyke (No. 2) is extremely pyritous, and some of the specimens containing small flakes of mica, become granitic. In addition to their beautiful mineral structure, these dykes derive an interest from their association, as above stated, with some of the greatest dislocations that have affected the Cumbrian mountains. II. Dykes in the fossiliferous slates between Windermere and Duddon Sands. 1. A fine red felspar dyke, which may be traced in a direc- tion nearly from Field Head, near Hawkshead", to the Coniston road under Hawkshead Hill. At its S. end it appears to branch out into two distinct dykes. 2. Another crosses the road a little above Hawkshead Hill, and may be followed along a water-course about half a mile to the S.W. It appears to strike nearly with the Coniston flags, through which it breaks. 3. A third, of similar structure, and twenty feet wide, may be traced for about 100 yards through the Ireleth slates, just skirting the Coniston grits. The spot is nearly defined by the intersection of two lines one drawn N.E. from Esthwaite Old Hall the other N. by W. from Sawrey Chapel. Numerous bowlders of red syenitic rock, especially on the brows which rise on the S.W. side of Esthwaite "Water, may, perhaps, indicate the passage of one or more dykes towards Grize- dale. 4. A fourth breaks out at the top of the brow, N.E. of Grizedale Hall, and crosses the valley near the village (where it is buried under the superficial drift). It then breaks out by the side of the mountain road leading to Coniston Water foot, and may be followed, almost continuously, to the road on the side of the lake, nearly opposite to the island, and it probably crosses to the other side of the water, near Brown Hall. This dyke strikes for several miles with the beds ; but does not dip with them. In one or two places it underlies, at a great angle to the N.W., while the slate beds dip S.E. Perhaps, the direction of the fissures, through which the dykes were poured, may have been more or less modified by previously existing planes of slaty cleavage. 5 8. The country between Brown Hall and Tottlebank Fell is traversed by four or five lines of dykes, which appear to intersect one another, and may only be ramifications of one central trunk. All of them have nearly tlie same structure : their chief constituent being red felspar ; and some specimens show obscure green spots, derived from green earth, or, perhaps, from hornblende. In the low hills, im- mediately W. of Brown Hall are three lines of red felspar rock. The central mass, which is 30 or 40 feet wide, strikes in a direction about S.S.W. across the brook that runs down from Beacon Tarn. Again, to the W. of this brook, masses of similar rock break out upon, at least, two lines one ranges on the N. side of Tottlebank Fell the other parallel to, and on the south side of the thin band of Ireleth limestone(4b). 9. A dyke of the same prevailing structure (for a knowledge of which I was first indebted to the Rev. J. Bigland, of Finsthwaite) appears to be continuous for 6 or 7 miles nearly along the strike of the " Ireleth slates." Its range is defined by the following places, where it is well APPENDIX (A"). 233 exposed to view. The hill top at the S. side of the Graythwaite Hall plantations, High Crag Head, above Thwaite Head, Force Beck, the meeting-house above Rusland Chapel, below Ickenthwaite, Abbot's Park, and Hill Park f;irm. It probably runs down the hill into the Bridge Field estate, where there are numerous bow!4ers of the rock, but no open quarry. The further range of this great dyke is cut off by the valley of Crake. 10. A fine dyke about a mile above the chapel, and at the S. end of the village of Rusland, is seen on the road side. It mineralizes the beds in contact with it, and probably ranges in a direction nearly par- allel to the former dykes, but it has not been traced far, and its direc- tion is therefore doubtful. 11. Lastly, a dyke of decomposing felspar rock, or porphyry, breaks out on the side of the high-road between Cartmel and Backbaarrow, a little S. of the road turning off to Bigland Hall. Its range is not de- fined in thequarry, but it is said to reappear to the S.W. near Stribers. All the dykes last enumerated (from No. 3 to No. 11) traverse the zone of " Ireleth slate." They have a common prevailing structure s and, in a few places, decompose into great flakes which are parallel to the sides of the dykes, and give them the deceptive appearance of red slates irregularly interpolated among the other rocks. This structure (sometimes seen in true granite near its junction with a slate rock), was probably produced during 'the slow cooling of the mass, whereby the sides of the dykes passed gradually into a solid state sooner than their central portions. III. Dykes in the fossiliferous slates of Westmorland, T 1*1,14 alveolarisj Ireleth slate Fossilia incartte sedis, probably Tunicata. Ischadites, 2undescribed species. The preceding list contains the whole of the know n fossils above the Coniston limestone, of which the greater number are only found in the uppermost group, No 6. The following species have not yet been detected in it, and may therefore serve to distinguish the lower groups from No. 2 to No. 4. Orthoceratites prinuevus (Creseis of Forbes, with one or two other species, all on the road from Coniston to Hawkshead, and in group No. 2-) Ophiura Hirndo, new species. Tetracrinites? new sp. (Ireleth limestone) Favosites alveolaria (on the road from Ulverston to Ireleth) fibrosa (Do., also at Hor- ton, Ribblesdale) Cyathophyllum turbinatum (Old Slate Quarry, Ulverston Road) Orthoceratites elongatocinctus (Portlock) subflexuosus (Mun- ster.) The beds at Underbarrow, High Thorns, &c., which are beds of passage between Nos. 4 and 5, contain especially Encrinites (several species, one Ophiura (one species) square stemmed) Fish jaws and teeth Asterias (both species) Proetn8Rowii(Calymene of Green) x2 238 APPENDIX (B). Calymene Blumenbachii Graptolites Ludensis (not abund- Serpnlites (perhaps distinct from ant). S. longissimus) FOSSILS OF THE LOWER SILURIAN GROUP, CONISTON LI MESTONE, ETC. CRUSTACEA. Calymene Blnmenbachii Odontopleura(Acidaspis) Brightii Phacops (Asaphus) Povisii truncato-caudatus(.Por- lock.) Asaphns tyrannus Isotelus (Asaphus S.S.) Povisii And several species of the genera, Cyphaspis (Burmeister), Illaenus (Dalman), Brontes ( Goldfuss), Nuttainia (Eaton), Isotelus(Ue- Aay)Phacops (JSmmerich),Cjpri- dina? ANNELIDA. Cornulites serpularius Tentaculites annulatus ornatus CEPHALOPODA. Lituites cornu-arietis Orthoceratites, (new species) Orthis elegantula expansa grandis insularis (Eichwald sp.) Pecten, (Linn, not of S.S.) testudinaria virgata Flabellulum /3 Actoniae inflata (Geol. Journal.) Cambriensis ( do. ) Leptaena transversalis, and a variety tennistriata ? depressa, and varieties With several new species of Orthis, Leptaena and Atrypa. ECHINODEBMATA. Sphaeronites (Von Buck) 2 or 3 species. Very few Encrinites, but some ornamented pelvic plates. GASTEROPODA. Turritella, Euomphalus, Pieuro- tomaria, or Murchisonia, a few undescribed species. CONCHIFEBA LAMELLIBRAN- CHIATA. None yet discovered. ZOOPHYTA. Astraea ananas Turbinolopsis bina Cyathophyllum turbinatum caespitosum Porites pyriformis inordinata Ptilodictya dichotoma. (Portlock.) Catenipora escharoides Favosites polymorpha alveolaris fibrosa "With species of Retepora, Chae- tetes, ( Fischer ), Vincularia ? Porites, Cyathophyllum, Aulo- pora. The above Lists have been made out by Mr. J. "W. Salter, after a careful examination of my own collection, and those of Sir R. I. Murchison (both of which were mainly collected by the indefatigable labours of Mr. John Ruthven of Kendal), Rev. F. B. Danby, and Messrs. Gough, Sharpe, and Marshall. The new species, several of which are named in the lists of the Geological Society's Journal, will be shortly published with figures and descriptions. About 170 species in all are now known from the upper and lowe.r groups of Westmorland, &c. BRACHIOPOIA, Lingula, (perhaps attenuata) Terebratula decemplicata Atrypa affinis Spirifer biforatus, war. (crucialis of Geol. Journal). radiatus A GLOSSARY, ETYMOLOGICAL AND EXPLANATORY, OP THE NAMES OP HILLS., LAKES, EIVERS, ETC., OCCURRING IN THIS VOLUME. Mountainous districts, generally speaking, have been 90 many refuges for the primitive dialects. The reason of this, even if our space permitted, it is hardly necessary to explain, as it must be apparent to every reader of history and every reflective mind. Hence we find in the names of the striking natural objects of this district, so many descriptive epithets signifying the same thing, and all proceeding from the oral dialects of the early inhabitants. We recognize, as applied to the names of the Lake mountains, no fewer than twenty-four different words in the Celtic, Saxon, and Teutonic tongues, each signifying hill; and there appears to be almost an equal number expressive of water : hence it is that in the composition of many of the names there are so many repetitions (triplications in some instances) of the same meaning. Most of the names that still pertain to the hills, lakes, &c., come from the Saxon, Dano-Saxon, and Teutonic dialects, and it is natural to suppose that after the invasions by the Saxons and Danes these names have replaced, and been made to obliterate, the previous names in the Celtic or British tongue. Such words as Glaramara, and Blencathra (now Saddleback), look like remains of the pure British, but we have no good clue to their signification. Some of these names, as it will be seen, have their origin in the external appearances or configuration of the object : this class refers chiefly to hills. Others are derived from some essen- tial quality or peculiarity of the place or thing designated: these have reference mostly to lakes and rivers. Again, others are so denominated from the fact of wild animals having abounded there, as the wild boar, deer, goat, cat, &c. The names terminating with thwaite, as Legberthwaitc, Tilberthwaite, &c. have evi- dently received their appellations on the introduction of agri- culture. x 3 240 A GLOSSARY. GENERAL TERMS. BAIIROW (Ang.-Sax. ' beorgh') a hill, natural or artificial. BECK (Sax. and ' bek,' Dan.) a small stream or rivulet. CAM, COMB (Sax.) properly the crest of a hill, as the comb of a cock, COOM OR COVE (British ' cwm') a valley, opening between hills. DAL, (Danish) dale, a little valley. DEN, a dale or glen. DON, OR DCJN, a smaller hill. DOD, applied to a smaller hill to distinguish it from a greater ; for example Skiddaw Dod. DORE, (British ' dwr') water ; a word that enters largely into the composition of names in the Lake district. Dore is applied also to an opening between rocks. FORCE, a waterfall. GATE, (' geat,' Sax.) a way. GARTH, an inclosed piece of ground. GHYLL, (Isl.) a fissure in a mountain, or between two moun- tains. GRANGE, a farm or house near water, but the Farm of a Mo- nastery or Baronial establishment was called the Grange. HAG, a general term used for an inclosure. HAWSE, (Sax. ' hals') a throat, or gullet. HIUST AND HCRST (Sax.) a wood, or grove. HOLM, a piece of land, either surrounded by water, or washed by one or more streams either an island or a peninsula. How, (Teut.) a small hill. Chaucer uses how for a cap or hood. HDL, (Sax.) a hill. INGS, low meadows. KELD, a well. KNOT (Sax.) applied to hills with a marked prominence or protuberance in the same sense as a ' knot' on a tree. MAN. A factitious eminence set on a hill. Maen (Brit?) is an old word for stone, however, and the ' man' of the mountains is always of stone. NAB, (Sax. ' cnep') the ' neb/or nose of a hill. The bill of a bird is called its ' neb.' Thus the Highlanders prayer " Fra' witches and warlocks and l&ng-nebbit things," &c. NE.SS, NEESE, OR NAZE (' nese' Sax.) a point of land project- ing into the water. Thus, Bowness. The Naze, in Norway, and on the coast of Essex. PEN (Brit.) hill whence, also, ' fien,' B and P being con- vertible. PIKE, ('pec' Sax.) peak. RAISE. A tumulus formed of heaped-up stones. SCAR OR SCAUR (Su.-Goth.) a steep escarpment of rock. A GLOSSARY. '-Ul SLACK (Su.-Goth. slak') a depression in the summit line of a hill, or, generally, a hollow. SVKE. A rivulet. TARN. A small mountain lake. THWAITE. A piece of land cleared from wood. WYKE. A bay or creek. NAMES OF PLACES. AMBLESIDE (p. 40). As this name was formerly spelt Hamel- side, and is still pronounced by the vulgar Hamelsed or Amel- Sffl, it may be derived from Ea or Eau (water), mel (a brow.) Water from the side of the brows. APPLETHWAITE (p. 44). Ea-pul-thwaite. The two first syl- lables are the reduplication of water. BASSENTHWAITE WATER (p. 85). Bass is still the provincial term applied to the fresh-water fish, the perch ; in this sense, ' water abounding with bassen,' (plural of perch), or from bass, the rush ; as we speak of ' bass-matting.' In this sense, ' Rush v- thwaite water.' BLEA WYKE, OR BLOWICK (p. 89). An inlet or bay where the Blea-berry or Wtior tie-berry abounds. The word ' blea ' describes the peculiar dark blue colour of the berry, and as the Lake waters often assume the same tint, it is uncertain whether in tlii* case the appellative should be referred to the water or to the berry. BORROWDALE (p. 64). Boar-dale, or Borough-dale. Perhaps a literal variation of Barrow-dale. BOWFELL (p. 73). A bowed, or arched. hill. Very applicable BOWNESS (p. 38). A round-pointed promontory. Sometimes written Bui/ness, which has the same meaning and derivation. BRATHAY (p. 37}. Water from the brae ? BROTHERILKELD. (p. 55). Broad-dur-ail-keld a broad water <"rom the keld or spring. BUTTERMERE (p. 77). Bodc-tor-mere (Sax.) or Booth-tvr- mere the lake of a village by the hill. CARL LOFTS (p. 105). (British 'caer;' Sax. 'loft') a high dwelling. THE CARRS. The Dwellings in one sense. The Scars in another. Scars' appears most appropriate. CATCHEDECAM (p. 100). Probably the high-crested, or high- ti>|)|icd hill where wild cats abounded. The old spelling was Cats-sty, cam. Sty, a ladder. In Westmorland we still call it a stee. CAT BELLS (p. 64). Bael (Ang.-Sax.) is a signal fire, or beacon ; but there is no record of this mountain having ever been one of the beacon hills^ 242 A GLOSSARY. CAUSEY PIKE (p. 76). Causeway Pike. CLAPPERSGATE (p. 40). Perhaps formerly Cappersgate, or Chapel-gate: the road to chapel or altar. This gate leads towards Kirk Fell, over the Stake, and a Druid's Circle, called Sunken Church, or Stoneside. COCKLE? BECK (p. 54). A winding or rugged stream. CONISTON (p. 14). A town, (ton} at the head (con) of the Lake (is) Brit. Some take it to be a corruption of Konygston, or King's-toicn. "CRINKLE CRAGS (p. 42). Sinuous or rough-faced rocks. CRUMMOCK WATER (p. 77). Probably a corruption or varia- tion of cwm-rock ; a water issuing from the opening in the rock or rocks. DERWENT (p. 59). Dwr-gwynt (Brit.) the windy Lake. This lake is remarkable for gusts of wind. Or Ducr-gwyn (clear) water. DONXERDALE (p. 16). Dun-aer, water from the hill. Some think the first syllable a contraction of ' Duddon.' DUDDON (p. 14). Dod-den, the lower, lesser, or inferior valley. EASEDALE (p. 52). Eas, or Is-dale, water dale. ELTERWATER (p. 42). Ael (Brit.) great and Tor (Sax.) hill. Water from the great hill, or the water beset with elders or al- ders. ESKDALE (p. 55). Esk, and Ask, mean Newt or Lizard. Both words also signify water: and the latter is the more pro- bable derivative. F AIRFIELD (p. 45). Faar-feld (Danish). Sheep pasture. FLEETWITH (p. 77). A mountain. Swift water or fleet wa- ter mountain. FLOUTERN TARN (p. 80). A Tarn in a windy place. Flowy is an old word in this dialect meaning windy. GATESGARTH or ' GATESCARTH ' (p. 78). A gate or road over the Scar which is the case in this instance. Or ' gate' may in this place be a variation of ' Goat,' from the Wild Goats, ' Goat-ca 1 is the name of a hill near Gatescarth. GLENCOIN (p. 88). Cyna (in the Saxon) is a ' cleft' or ' fis- sure,' so Glencoin is a reduplication of the same word. BURN says from ' cuna,' (Fr.) (quain) a corner. If the latter deri- vation is preferred, the name has been adopted since the Norman Conquest. Antiquaries will prefer the former. GLENDERATERRA (p. 75). A glen conducting (dwr) water from turret the hill or eminence. GLENRIDDING (p, 88). Glen-renner (Maes-Goth.) a flowing, roaring Gill. Or Glen Rynde (Sax.) fluvius. The RHINE is thus derived ; and our word Rain comes from the same root. Another explanation may also be given of Ridding. It is a word much used in the north of England, and might appropri- A GLOSSARY. 243 ately be put as a cognomen to places from which wood had been rooted out, or ridded. GiiAb.MF.uE AND GRASSMooR (pp. 50, 76). Formerly spelled Gersmere. From Ores (Sax.) 'grass.' The lake of grassy banks. Or, Grismere the Lake of the wild boar. GBEENUP (p. 52). A verdant upper or higher plot of ground. Up is a common adjunct in contradistinction to lor or lower. Instance ' Upton,' ' Lorton,' &c. &c. Or Gren Hope : Hope is often corrupted into up, op, or ip. Very common in North- umberland. GUETA (p. 73). River. Dr. Whittaker supposes this river to take its name from the 'greeting,' or weeping tones of the water down its channel. GRISEDALE PIKE (p. 76). From ' Gris,' wild swine. HAMMAB SCAR (p. 50). Hamur (Sax.) enters into the com- position of the names of many of the Scandinavian hills. HARRISON STICKLE (p. 42). Stigle (Sax.) an acute point. Harrison is evidently a personal name used to distinguish one of ' the Pikes' from the other. Hence our word ' stile,' and ' steel.' ' Steel Pike' was the ancient name of this hill, as Mr. WEST has it and we would like to see this name restored. HARTSOP (p. 91). Harts-up (so pronounced.) The hill of the red deer. Where stalked the huge deer to his shaggy lair. WORDSWORTH. HELVELLYN (p. 99). Hel (hill') ; gwal (wall) ; lyn (lake) a hill that forms a wall or defence for the lake. Some derive Hel-6e/-lyn from ' Bel ' or Belinus the God to whom sacrificial fires were lighted upon hills. HINDSCARTH (p. 76). The Shepherd's hill. HONISTER CRAG (p. 77). In JAMIESON ' hon ' is put as the synonyme of how, a hollow. Is (water) tor (hill). The name with these definitions ill applies to the spot. KESWICK (p. 58). We can make nothing of the pre-fix of this name unless it may be deemed an abbreviation of Caester (Sax.) a fortification.* We incline to this hypothesis, and think it the same word as ' Kearstwick.' Or Kesh is the provincial name still used for the water-hemlock JSTesAwick, the village by the keshes. KIRKSTONE (p. 47). Some derive the name from the rock at the top of the hill.f But there was both a Cairn and a Druidical Altar near the summit of this hill, and we would rather refer the name to that altar. LAMPLCGH (p. 82). This name has reference only to the soil of the place. Lam (Sax.) is loam or clay. The last syllable * See Mr. West's Guide, p. 149. f This block and yon whose church-like form Gives to this savage pass its name. WORDSWORTH. 244 A GLOSSARY. explains itself. Mr. Nicolson (History of Cumberland} says ' Glan-flough' (Irish) dale-wet. LAXGDALE (p. 40). or Langden. Long valley. LANGSTRETH (p. 53). Long street or way, from ' stret,' Sax. LEGBERTHWAITE (p. 51). Leigh (Sax.) a meadow, whence ley, bera (Sax.) barley ; thwaite, inclosure. An enclosed barley field. LIXGMELL (p. 56). A brow (mael, Sax.] remarkable for ling,' or heather. LODORE (p. 62) & LOWTHER (p. 104). are evidently the same; Lo-dwr. In a very old book, Lowther is interpreted black-water. LYDLFH'S TOWER (p. 48). The Wolfs Tower, or Wolf's re- fuge. Some suppose from Lyulph, the first Baron of Greystoke. MATTERDALE (p. 87). Mater, or mother dale, if Pater-dale be adopted. The two dales are adjacent. See a Note in Nicolsoris History of Cumberland, p. 367, where it is de- scribed as Materdale. MICKLEDEN (p. 41). This appears to be mickle, greater or higher valley. MICKLEDORE (p. 72). Greater door or opening. This word ' dore' is sometimes applied to the mouth of a pass. NANBIELD (p. 33). Nant (Welch) a fall ; and bield a shel- tered place. The spot to which this name applies is a pass crossing from Kentmere to Mardale. PATTERDALE (p. 47). Perhaps Pater or father dale. Some say Patrick-dale, from the Patron Saint of Ireland. PAVEY ARK (p. 41). Pavis, a shield. The ' Ark of Defence,' or natural fortress. J&MIESON, in illustration of ' Pavis,' says ' a testudo used in sieges." PENRITH (p. 102). Pen-rhydd (Celtic) red hill. In Wales rhydd is still pronounced rith. PIKE OF STICKLE (p. 42), Pike, apeak (Sax.) Stigle. See Harrison Stickle. PORTINSCALE (p. 64). Port, a landing-place ; ing, a mea- dow ; scale, a basin. The place answers this description. PULL WYKE (p. 43). * A bay in the pool or lake. SADDLEBACK (p. 75). Explanatory of the outline of the hill ; its old name was Blencathra. SAND WYKE (p. 89). A sandy inlet or bay. SCANDALE FELL, AND BECK (p 43). Skans, a fort or rampart, SCAWFKEL (p. 69). (Sax. 'scaew.' conspicuous) a conspicuous hill or one that peers above its fellows, as Scawfell does. Or it may be Scar-fell . SCARF-GAP (p. 57). (Scaf, Sax. ' smooth') a smooth opening or valley ? SEATHWAITE (p. 15-8). Seath (Sax.) a well or pond, thivaite, an inclosure. SEAT SANDAL (p. 551). Perhaps a corruption of Saint, or Saind-er, old French, also for saint, ; therefore a pleonasm. A GLOSSARY. 245 SHAP (p. 105). Shcp or plural Shepen, (old spelling of Ship pon), sheep-cotes. Or (more probably) it may be from the Saxon word cap, a market (whence ' chap-man'). The village would be the market for the Monastery (Shap Abbey), &c. SKELWITH (p. 40). Scale-wat/i, a ford in the hollow. SKIDDAW (p. 73). Sceed (Sax.) sheath, or screen ; how, (hill). The hill that screens or protects. Similar in meaning to ' Pavey Ark.' Or, according to Dr. Stukeley, so called from its shape, like a horse-shoe ' yscyd*. STAKE (p. 53). Stager (Sax.) a stair, or road over the hill. STRIDING EDGE (p. 99), sometimes spelled Strachan Edge. Strachan (Sax.) when applied to steps or walking, will be syno- nymous with ' striding.' Strid, a step across. Instance ' Strid' near Bolton Abbey. ST. SUNDAY'S CRAG (p. 100). Holy Sunday's Crag a place where some religious rite has been observed. STYBARROW (p. 88). From ' stye,' the wild boar ; or from ' stigi' (Isl.) a ' way' over the hill. Wild-boar-fell is an un- doubted instance of the former. STY HEAD (p. 53). [See Stybarrow]. Stigi, way the head of the way. SWINSIDE (p. 76). Wild boar. SWIRREL EDGE (p. 99). Probably from the/orm; swirl. THRELKELD (p. 66). Keld is a spring of water or well ; and threl may be corrupted from Thor's hill ' Thor's hill keld' and Thirlmere, ' Thor's hill mere.' TILBERTHWAITE (p. 14). Till (Eng.) ; bera (Sax.) barley ; thwaite, enclosure. Synonymous with Legberthwaite. TOES (p. 55) Resembling that part of the figure. The place is, as it were, the toes of Hard-knot. WALLABARROW CRAG (p. 15). Gwal-beorg, a natural ram- part. WANSFELL (p. 45). Wang (SaxJ a plain field or land. Wang' s-f ell an exposed hill. WATENDLATH (p. 64). Wadan (Sax.) a ford. Lathe, or lethe a district of a country a ' hundred.' WHINLATTEB (p. 78). Gwynt-hlaw-tor ; Windy-brow-hill. WINDERMERE fp. 37j. Gwyn-dwr-mere ; Bright-water-lake. WRYNOSH (p. 54). The nose of the (rhiti) hill. ULLSWATER (p. 85.) Water from the hills. (See ' how,' ' hull,' &c). BURN derives this name from Ulf, L'ulf, Lyulph, a personal name. We prefer Ull or hul (Sax.) a hill. KENDAL : PRINTED BY JOHN HUDSON. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-Series 4939 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY A 000989218 3 DA 6?0 L1H86 1846 Form L9- *