THE 
 
 LAKE COIfflTBY 
 
 BY 
 
 E. LYNN LINTON 
 
 
 WITH A MAP 
 AND ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN AND ENOHATED BY 
 
 W. J. LINTON 
 
 LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 05, CORNHILL 
 
 1804
 
 Df) 
 
 47O 
 
 L,L 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 C11APTEE PAGE 
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 Early History xiii 
 
 I. Wiiidermere 1 
 
 II. Walks about Ambleside 18 
 
 III. From Ambleside to Keswick 36 
 
 IV. Keswick and Derwentwater 48 
 
 V. The Keswick Walks 65 
 
 VI. Blencatlira, Skiddaw, and Bassenthwaite 85 
 
 VII. Ullswater <J8 
 
 VIII. Hawes Water and High Street 12:> 
 
 IX. Helvellyu and Fairfield 143 
 
 X. Langdale and the Stake 158 
 
 XI. The Tarns 171 
 
 XII. Buttennere, Crummock, and Lowes Waters 183 
 
 XIII. Wastwater and Scawfell 201 
 
 XIV. Calder Abbey, Egremont, and Eunerdale 817 
 
 8GS718
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 (iiArrr.il i V.K 
 
 XV. St. Hi-es and the Sra Coast '-Ml 
 
 XVI. I'n the Duddon 345 
 
 \\ II. Collision and ILawkshead -<>1 
 
 XVIII. FuriK'ss Al)lx v and (lie Sands.... -27? 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 J. Provincialisms of the Lake District ^05 
 
 II. The Botany of the Lake District 318 
 
 III. The Geology of the Lake District 336 
 
 IV. Table of Mountains, Lakes, and Waterfalls 342 
 
 V. Table of Rainfall 346 
 
 INDKX . :(17 

 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Derwent and Bassenthwaite Waters, from Asliness Bridge Frontispiece 
 
 From Esk Hawse Title-page 
 
 Bird's-eye Primrose ii 
 
 Criffel, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn Tops iv 
 
 lloadside, Crummock Water viii 
 
 Oak Fern xii 
 
 Initial W xiii 
 
 Common Maiden-Hair Spleenwort xl 
 
 Windermere, from above Low Wood 1 
 
 Professor Wilson's House, Elleray 4 
 
 Barked Tree 8 
 
 Troutbeck Bridge 8 
 
 Windermere, from near Dove's Nest 11 
 
 Coming Storm 10 
 
 Windermere, from Troutbeck Road 1? 
 
 Head of Stockghyll Force IB 
 
 Sweden Bridge 22 
 
 Top of Kirkstone Pass 2.~> 
 
 gg Tarn 28
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Roman Station at Ambleside 
 
 Bronze Ornament to Roman Sword-hilt 
 
 Rydal Water, from Scandale Side ;tfl 
 
 Upper Force, Rydal Park 
 
 Wordsworth's House, Rydal Mount 38 
 
 Grasmere, from Loughrigg Side 41 
 
 Thirhnere, from the Foot A 40 
 
 Derwentwater, from Castlehead 48 
 
 Derwentwater, from Sir John Woodford's Grounds 57 
 
 Roman Pot 00 
 
 Crosthwaite Church 01 
 
 Borrowdale and Glaramara 05 
 
 Castle Crag in Borrowdale facing 07 
 
 TheBowder Stone 08 
 
 Lodore 73 
 
 Watendlath Bridge 77 
 
 The Druid Circle 79 
 
 Bassenthwaite Water, from Faw Park Woods 85 
 
 Razor Edge and Scales Tarn 87 
 
 Mill Race in Brundholm Woods 91 
 
 Skiddaw, from near Portinscale 93 
 
 Long Side, Skiddaw 97 
 
 Ullswater, from Sharrow Bay 98 
 
 Ullswater, from Gowbarrow Park faciny 101 
 
 Ara, above the Force 104 
 
 Deepdale Head Ill 
 
 Ullswater, from Glencoin 121 
 
 Small Water 122 
 
 Hawes Water i:)l 
 
 Long Stile 135 
 
 1 Lives Water HO 
 
 \i
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Angle Tarn, by High Street 142 
 
 Fail-field Top 143 
 
 Swirrel Edge 144 
 
 Striding Edge 145 
 
 From Helvellyn Top, looking over Striding Edge facing 149 
 
 Fairfield Ridges 152 
 
 The Two Edges, from below 157 
 
 Langdale Pikes 158 
 
 Thrang Crag Quarry Mouth 162 
 
 Dungeon Ghyll 165 
 
 Gimmer Crag 170 
 
 Stickle Tarn, looking over Langdale 171 
 
 Angle Tarn, under Bowfell 176 
 
 Sprinkling Tarn 178 
 
 High House Tarn 17!) 
 
 Sty Head Tarn 182 
 
 Crummock and Buttermere, from Lowfell 183 
 
 The Vale of Lorton 186 
 
 Scale Force 191 
 
 Honister, from Crummock Water 193 
 
 Honister Quarries Sled Roads and Quarryman's Sled 197 
 
 Scawfell and "NVastwater 201 
 
 Sty Head Pass 204 
 
 Wastdale Church 206 
 
 Borrowdale Head 208 
 
 Scawfell Ascent (different Aspects) 209, 210 
 
 The Screes 215 
 
 Colder Abbey 217 
 
 Ennerdale Water 225 
 
 The Isle of Man, from St. Bees 230 
 
 FleswickBay 231 
 
 vii
 
 LIST OF TLIA'STHATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 C'.nulu'. from St. Bees > \ I 
 
 l-';ills of the Duddon, above Scatlnviiitr '.'I"' 
 
 Wordsworth's Stepping Stones -">'- 
 
 From Duddon Bridge vM'.n 
 
 Coniston Old Man, from Brantwood ^('.] 
 
 Coniston Water, from the Head ^7(i 
 
 Furness Abbey T ^77 . ->."i 
 
 Sunset across the Sands .)> 
 
 Si-a\vfi'll Miin : :>!M 
 
 Buttermere 817 
 
 Grass of Parnassus and Fringed Water Lily :S.T> 
 
 Geological Section 337 
 
 Graptolites 337 
 
 Ice-worn Rock, Anibleside 341 
 
 Moraine, Little Langdale 341 
 
 Colith Force .SI.") 
 
 l!;i in Clouds.... :; ir,
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IT is long since any book was written descriptive of the Lake Country. 
 Green, and West, and Mrs. Radcliffe, and others of the Picturesque School, 
 gave their absurdly exaggerated accounts of what they saw and perilled in 
 these " inhospitable regions," as it was then the fashion to call them ; but 
 when the reaction against romanticism set in, and people had learnt for 
 themselves that the ascent of Blencathra could be made without a fit of 
 apoplexy and the necessity of blood-letting midway that Borrowdale 
 had nothing maniacal in it, and that Newlands was rather lonesome but 
 not in the least degree terrifying then all this idealistic writing was at 
 a discount, and only guide-books containing useful road-side informa- 
 tion were asked for. 
 
 Now that these have served their turn, it seemed to my husband and 
 myself that a pleasant book could be made by treating the Lake Country 
 with the love and knowledge artistic and local belonging of right to natives 
 and old inhabitants. We hope that what we have done will bear out our 
 design. Though a faithful description of scenes and places, it is not a tour 
 made up of personal adventures ; neither is it a hand-book, telling what inns 
 to go to and how much to pay for breakfast and dinner ; nor yet an exhaustive 
 monograph, for which we should have needed thrice the time and space 
 
 ix b
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 afforded ; but it is merely a Book on the Lakes, giving such of the general 
 and local history as fell in with our plan and what we thought would interest 
 the reader, while doing our best to worthily illustrate and describe the 
 most beautiful places both those popularly known, and those which only 
 the residents ever find out. It is indeed a " Love-book " which we give 
 to the world, in the earnest desire for others to share in our experiences, 
 and to receive the same joy and healthy excitement as we ourselves 
 have had. 
 
 I wish to express now my most grateful thanks to Thomas 
 Wright, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. F.S.A., &c., for an amount of kindly help, 
 rare even in the literary world where there is so much genuine kindness. He 
 took infinite pains to render my Early History free from faults, and he did 
 this with a fulness and frankness of generosity that enhanced even the value 
 of his scientific aid. To Edward Hull, Esq., F.G.S., &c., I would also 
 add my best thanks for relieving me of the responsibility of the geological 
 chapter, to the great improvement of the work, which has gained so much 
 by his accurate knowledge. Of the engravings I cannot speak, as can be 
 easily understood, because of the relations between the artist and myself; 
 I may however say that all the sketches were made expressly for this 
 work during our rambles, and that they have the merit of absolute fidelity ; 
 for the rest, they will speak for themselves more eloquently than the most 
 florid praises could. The Botanical notices and the Glossary I think 
 will be found to be fuller and more correct than any yet published ; and 
 I have only to lament the want of authority in the comparative tables 
 of lakes and waterfalls, which want however I had no possible means 
 of supplying. 
 
 E. LYNN LINTON. 
 
 Diuntu-ood, Conixttni . 
 
 September, 1864.
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 HEN Imperial Rome held Britain as one of her outlying pos- 
 sessions, she had a troublesome set of subjects in the Brigantes, 1 
 those northern " people of the heights," whose province, 2 in- 
 cluding among others our modern Lancashire, "Westmoreland, 
 and Cumberland, formed part of the larger and later division 
 of Maxima Caesariensis, and of the still later Saxon kingdom 
 of Deira. Those early northern Britons were a wild race, and gave 
 their conquerors no little trouble. They subsisted chiefly by hunting, 
 like most savages, abjuring fish " of which they had a prodigious 
 plenty," and holding hares, geese, and poultry in a kind of religious 
 abhorrence perhaps the more industrious of them keeping cattle, 3 like 
 
 1 Geoffrey of Monmoutli, in the time of Henry II., and Holinshed after him, say that 
 the first Britons were descended from Brutus, or Bruto, son or descendant of ^Eneas, who 
 settled here 1108 B.C. or 2855 A.M. Camden, indignant at the Romans for their aboriginal 
 theory, " as if mankind first sprung up out of the earth like mushrooms," makes Gomer. 
 the eldest son of Japhet, whose posterity became the Gomeri, or Gauls, our great ancestor. 
 The Cambrian Register says that Brigantes is from Beg, a summit, hence Brigantwys. the 
 People of the Summits; and Ridpath, that it is from the goddess Briganta, whose statue 
 was found in Scotland. " The interior of the island northward was occupied by the 
 Brigantes, who held the extensive districts, difficult of approach on account of their moun- 
 tains and woods, extending from the Humber and the Mersey to the present borders of 
 Scotland. This extensive tribe appears to have included many smaller ones. Two of 
 these are called by Richard of Cirencester, the Voluntii and the Sestuntii, the former 
 in the west of Lancashire, the latter in Westmoreland and Cumberland. The Jugantes 
 and the Cangi of Tacitus, on the borders of the Irish Sea, are also understood to 
 have belonged to, or been dependent upon, this tribe. The Brigantes are believed to have 
 been the original inhabitants of the island, who had been driven nortliAvard by successive 
 invasions and settlements, and they appear to have been the least civilized tribe of South 
 Britain." The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. By THOMAS WRIGHT. 
 
 2 " Beyond the boundary which Ostorius had formed by his line of forts, the interior of 
 the island was inhabited by tribes who were fiercer and less civilized than the southern 
 nations. The chief of these was the great tribe of the Brigantes, extending through the 
 mountainous and wooded districts from the borders of Lincolnshire, through Yorkshire. 
 Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland." Ibid. 
 
 3 Numbers were found in the capital of Cassivellaunus. 
 
 xiii
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the old Novsv dalesmen. Their clothing was the skins of heasts, according 
 to some ; according to others, their habit of body was brute nakedness stained 
 with woad for a warlike effect ; their dwellings 4 were " among the pillars of the 
 forest, enclosed with interwoven branches," whence they came out in fierce 
 hordes to harass their invaders ; their government was monarchical in form 
 but independent in individual practice; their religion druidical " furies 
 for gods," said their masters, thinking of Diana and Venus, Minerva and 
 the beneficent Ceres human sacrifices for propitiation, and eternal trans- 
 migration of souls for their only hope beyond the grave; their morality 
 was lax read by the more complex social polity of the Latins, but they 
 were faithful to their law such as it was, and indeed notably obedient to all 
 laws, by which they had a due measure of self-government preserved ; they wore 
 long hair both on the head and upper lip; and they ate a certain fruit of 
 the size of a bean (Cesar's " chara ") which allayed both hunger and 
 thirst. 5 
 
 This portrait of the fierce Britains, with every repulsive feature heightened 
 in the Brigantes, is not a very inviting one ; being, in fact, simply that of 
 unmitigated savages before civilization has developed or history 6 ennobled 
 
 4 Caesar says, ' a town among the Britons is nothing more than a thick wood fortified 
 with a ditch and rampart, to serve as a place of retreat against the incursions of their 
 enemies." 
 
 5 This was probahly the root of the Orobits tuberosus, or Tuberous bitter vetch, the 
 I.eath peaseling," which Sir William Hooker says the Highlanders eat to this day, and 
 
 call Cormeille, and which the Hollanders roast or boil like a chestnut ; the analogue to 
 which is the coca of the South Americans. 
 
 8 " The Britons of Cumbria," says Palgrave, " occupy a tolerably large space on the map. 
 but a very small one in history ; their annals have entirely perished, and nothing authentic 
 remains concerning them. Romance has more. In Cumbria, Merlin prophesied and Arthur 
 held his court. These, and such like fantastic personages Roderic the Magnificent, and 
 Peridur, Prince of Sunshine are, however, of importance in one point of view, showing 
 that from the Ribble to the Clyde existed a dense population of Britons, even in the tenth 
 century inhabiting the greater part of the western coast. Dunbritton now Dumbarton, or 
 Alduyd, Clyde was the residence of the Cumbrian kings, whose kingdom extended nearly to 
 our modern Leeds, but the Saxons drove them continually further back, conquering at a very 
 early period Carlisle, which Egfrith of Northumbria bestowed upon the See of Liiidisfarn. 
 He extended his conquests to Furness. After the reduction of Alcluyd by Egbert (680 to 756), 
 the Britons were governed by Scottish princes, who probably acquired their rights by inter- 
 marriage with a British princess. The Cumbrian Britons gradually melted away into the 
 
 xiv
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 them : whether true or not is another matter. But indeed it is needful to 
 take, with a very large "grain," accounts of things and people so unlike the 
 ordinary home experience which was the only standard whereby Imperial 
 Eome could measure values. 
 
 Rome got many good things out of her Britons, Brigantes and others. 
 Breastplates of British pearls (baccae conchae, " shell-berries," as Carndeu 
 calls them), which Caesar dedicated to Venus Genitrix; ship-loads of chalk, 
 wicker baskets, tin, lead, iron, and other metals ; corn (the Gauls must 
 have starved in 360 had not Julian, then commanding the Roman army in 
 Gaul, fed them with British wheat) ; coal (as Wright has shown, there 
 being coal enough left in the old Roman homes to make many a good- 
 sized fire); fierce dogs of noble breed and glorious aspect; soldiers 7 good 
 for foreign service ; the spectacle of Caractacus bound, but more royally 
 free than his captors ; the noble womanhood of Boadicea as a lesson to the 
 perfumed Julias and soft-eyed Messalinas of the imperial city ; and the fair- 
 haired slaves of later years, who gave a Pope occasion for two moderate 
 puns, and to St. Augustine a mission ; with such gifts as these our little 
 island of Albion 8 was of no mean value to the queen and mistress of the 
 world. What she left would occupy too large a space in these pages. But 
 though we cannot speak of all the Roman legacies to England, we can of 
 
 surrounding population, j r et probably not till a very recent period. The Welsh even were 
 enumerated by David the Lion among his subjects, and the laws or usages of the Brits or 
 Britons continued to Edward I., 1124-53, when he summoned the representatives of 
 Scotland to attend his parliament at Westminster. In some secluded districts the language 
 is thought to have lingered to the Reformation. Pendragon Castle reminds the traveller of 
 the fabled Uther ; and Skiddaw and Helvellyn (he might have added Blencathra, Glaramara, 
 the Glenderamakin, the Glenderaterra, and Walla Crag), retain their original names, as 
 the sepulchral moimments of a race which has passed away." NOTE to GILES'S Translation 
 of Geoffrey of Moninouth. 
 
 7 According to the Notitia, the fourth ala of Britons was stationed in Egypt. The 
 lircnty-sixth cohort of Britons occurs in Armenia. A body of the "Invincible Younger 
 Britons " was stationed in Spain ; and one of the " Elder Britons " in Illyricum. The 
 Younger British Slingers, (exculcatores)" are found among the Palatine auxiliaries. Other 
 bodies of Britons are found in Gaul, Italy, and other countries. The Celt, the Roman, 
 and the S<i.v<i. 
 
 s The earliest mention of Albion is in the treatise De Mundo, attributed to Aristotle, 
 340 B.C. where it says : " Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean which flows round 
 I he earth. In it are two very large islu:i:ls called Britannia : these are Albion and lenn-." 
 
 XV
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 one the harmless amusement left to our antiquaries in the roads'-' still 
 tramihli', in the harrows every now and then stumbled over, in the camps 
 to he still denned among the furrows of potato-fields and wheat-fields, in 
 the tesselated pavements and bits of pottery, the urns and the coins, the 
 
 " Filmhe without a robe to clasp, 
 
 Obsolete lamps, whose light no time recals. 
 Urns without ashes, tearless lachrymals 
 
 to he dug up yet by the curious at any spot famous for their occupation. 
 
 In our special lake country we come across many such relics ; but the 
 chief in point of interest are the roads, about which no two explorers can 
 agree, nor does any antiquarian itinerary intelligibly or credibly trace from 
 end to end. It is very certain, however, that one went from Ambleside to 
 Penrith, and one from Penrith to Kendal, 10 meeting on High-street ; that 
 
 9 It would be only a false pretence of learning if I were to attempt any detailed account 
 of the Roman roads in the Lake district ; and the old county histories are so little to be 
 depended on, that they cannot be quoted as reliable authorities. But for what it may be 
 worth, I will give Hodgson's "Itinerary," taken from his History of Northumberland. 
 Agricola's " two columns marched into Westmoreland one by Overborough on the Lune, 
 Castlebower, Borrowdale, and the Brins of Shap, as far as our present Brougham Castle 
 the other by Water Crook, Kendal, to the Birrens Ring at Ambleside where it was sub- 
 divided, one party going by Kirkstone and High Street (the Saxon Street, the version of 
 the Latin strata), through Patterdale and Matterdale, to the camp of Whitbarrow on Hutton 
 Moor, and thence to Old Penrith ; the other by BorroAvdale, or the pass of Dunmail Raise, 
 down the Derwent, and along the coast to Carlisle, where it would meet the first division 
 from Brougham Castle and Old Penrith, advancing by Netherby and the Birrens of 
 Miildleby to the large camp at Bin-ens-work Hill, their furthest post in this campaign." 
 
 10 " In the spring of the year 80, Agricola placed himself again at the head of the 
 army, and, proceeding to invade and reduce the lowlands of Scotland, extended the Roman 
 territory as far as the estuary of the river Taus (the Tay). When this campaign was over, 
 the Roman troops were employed under the eye of their leader in erecting fortresses over 
 the newly-acquired territory, and the sites were chosen with so much judgment, that it was 
 a common remark that no castellum built by Agricola was ever taken by the enemy, while 
 they were placed near enough together to communicate easily with each other. His fourth 
 summer (A.I). Hi) was employed in the erection of a chain of forts between the two 
 estuaiies known to the Romans by the name of Clota and Bodotria (the Clyde and 
 
 Forth), as a check upon the incursions of the north Highlanders Lollius Urbicus 
 
 nii^rd, on the same site, a new line of forts, and joined them together by an immense 
 continuous rampart of earth and turf, which from the name of the emperor under whom it 
 was built, is usually called the wall of Antoninus. It is now popularly called Graham's 
 
 xvi
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 another was oil the east border of Satterthwaite, pointing to Ambleside where 
 was a camp or station, and apparently made for a by-way to Low Furness ; 
 and that another skirted the lower part of the township of Ulverston, from the 
 White Thorn, the Spina Alba on Conishead Bank, by Lindal, Dalton, and 
 Goldmire, to Roauhead on Duddon Bank. Part of this was found, not very 
 many years ago, in a small lane near Mountbarrow House. 
 
 When the Romans finally withdrew, the Scots and Picts swarmed over 
 the wall n into Cumberland and Lancashire, and farther south still, oppressing 
 the unhappy Britons who had no longer their old power of manhood to 
 protect them. They wrote to Rome for help; the "lamentations of the 
 Britons unto JSgitms their consul " setting forth in piteous terms how the 
 barbarians drove them into the sea, and the sea drove them back to 
 the barbarians, so that of two kinds of death they must choose one 
 either to be drowned in the waves or to be butchered by the sword, if 
 Rome would not help them. But the Mistress of the World, with the 
 troth at her gates and famine within her walls, had neither men nor 
 money for the Britons ; and when all help from that quarter was found 
 to be impossible, the Saxons were invited over instead. How they came 
 to the call in their ships of hide ; how Hen gist and Horsa watched their 
 
 Dike, and along its course are frequently found inscribed tablets commemorating the portion 
 built by the different troops and cohorts of the Roman army. The Celt, the Roman, and 
 the Saxon. T. WRIGHT. 
 
 11 Hadrian's wall, built in 120 A.D., was eighty miles long, of the finest masonry in the 
 world, and had a ditch to defend it. " He caused that formidable barrier to be built 
 across the island, from the Solway to the Tyne, of which we still trace the stupendous 
 remains ; a massive wall, nearly seventy miles in extent, extending over plain and moun- 
 tain, from Bowness on the Solway Frith to the now celebrated locality of Wall's End on 
 the Tyne, accompanied on its southern side by an earthem vallum and a deep ditch, 
 and fortified with a formidable series of twenty-three stationary towns, with intermediate 
 mile-castles and watch-towers. It has been customary to consider the wall only as the 
 structure raised by Hadrian, while the earthern vallum, or rampart, was ascribed to Severus ; 
 but both are parts of one work, erected by the former emperor." Ibid. 
 
 At Moresby the 20th legion stationed at Chester (Deva), for the subjugation of the 
 Brigantes, inscribed a tablet to Hadrian, which was found in digging the foundations of a 
 building there ; and the second cohort of Lingones raised an altar, also at Moresby, 
 dedicated to the god Silvanus (Deo Silvano). Most of our information respecting the 
 Roman occupancy of Great Britain is taken from the Itinerary of Antonine a soil of Road- 
 Book for the empire and the Notitia a list of all the officers and their places of com- 
 mand, or the Courc-calendar of the time. 
 
 xvii c
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 opportunities and made the most of their chances, and how Rowena, the 
 "hlue-eyed," added the power of her fatal heauty as well; and how, in that 
 meeting or "palaver" on Salisbury Plain, the cry of " nemed cure Saxes" 
 gave the signal for the butchery of three hundred of the best in the land the 
 Britons having come unarmed, but the false Saxons with short skeines 
 beneath their cloaks how all this happened with the terrible ruthlessness 
 of Fate, do not the youngest readers of history know? 
 
 But a gleam of light shot through the darkness. Tradition comforts 
 us with the account of how good Ambrosius and his brother, Uther Pen- 
 dragon, took matters into their own hands, repulsed the Saxons, and did 
 many mighty works; though the ordinary proverb spoken of by Fuller, 
 and quoted constantly since 
 
 " Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, 
 The river Eden will run as it ran," 
 
 records one failure, namely, the attempt to divert the course of the Eden 
 to better fortify the castle of Pendragon. Uther was a mighty man in his 
 day the friend of Merlin, and a practiser of the black art himself; but he 
 was finally overcome by the superior cunning of his enemies ; for the Saxons, 
 unable to destroy him in fair fight, threw poison into his favourite spring, 
 of which he, drinking, died. 
 
 The snake was only scotched, not killed. If they had got rid of 
 Uther, they had still his son Arthur at their heels. "This large island 
 of Britain," says Gildas, "placed at almost the uttermost bounds of the 
 earth, with her large spreading fields, pleasantly seated hills, and moun- 
 tains most convenient for the changeable pastures of cattle ; watered with 
 clear fountains and sundry brooks ; beating with snow-white sands, together 
 with silver streams gliding forth with soft sounding noise, and leaving a 
 pledge of sweet savours on bordering banks, and lakes gushing out abun- 
 dantly in cold running rivers," was again to be defiled with war. Arthur, 
 Uther Pendragon's son by Lady Igren, "Duchess of Cornwall" our famous 
 King Arthur, half hero half myth, but about the most popular character 
 of the day put himself at the head of the national party, His first battle 
 was fought at the mouth of the Glem, and his second, third, fourth, and 
 fifth by the Douglas which ran red to Wigan, in " the region of Linius, 
 
 xviii
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 one of the cantreds or great divisions of the Sistuiitiau kingdom or western 
 half of South Lancashire." By which four victories, and eight more to the 
 back of them, Lancashire was delivered from the Saxons, the land had rest, 
 and "Le roy Arthus d'Angleterre et le Due de Lancastre ordonnerent et 
 firent la Table Ronde." A slight anachronism, as there was no " Duke 
 of Lancaster'' for some centuries after. 
 
 The Britons, who had been Christians once, but who had relapsed 
 into their former heathenism, partly owing to the heathendom of the Saxons, 
 were now again to be converted. Augustine came over and did much, 
 but not all ; for a knot of old sinners lived securely at Furness, or Fore- 
 nesse, where, defended by the sea before them and the mountains behind, 
 they enjoyed themselves in their own ways, and worshipped their stone 
 dolls after their own fashion. To remedy these abuses, Egfrid, then King 
 of Northumberland or Deira, 12 gave Saint Cuthbert (686) "the land called 
 Carthmell, and all the Britons in it " (including that special stronghold 
 of iniquity, Furness), to be by him reduced to order and decent living, and 
 appreciation generally of the blessing of enlightenment and good government. 
 
 The next special notice of our particular land is when Egbert (825) 
 united the several distinct provinces into a monarchy and it was called England ; 
 he " divided his new acquisites into seueral portions and shares, and for the 
 preseruation of a future peace set over each of them a Comes, to rule 
 them, whence each portion or bailiwick was styled comitatus, a scyre or 
 county, sc., an earldome. . . . And on the west part from the riuer 
 Solway to the riuer Duden on the south. This he cald Carliershire, or 
 Cumberland; and what lay upon the west, or Durham and Lancashyre, he 
 cald Aplebyschyre or Westmorland; and from the riuer Duden to the 
 riuer Mersey, upon the south, was styled Lancaster schyret Ouer euery 
 scyre, as hath been said, he placed a Comes to rvle and gouern it, according 
 to the Lawes and Customes of the country, who together with the By shop 
 of the Diocess, were to instruct and rvle the people, the one declaring to 
 them the Laws of God, and the other the Laws of the Land ; and they had 
 
 12 Tliis Saxon kingdom of Deira included our modern Lancashire, Yorkshire, West- 
 moreland, Cumberland, and Durham, in its limits ; in fact, much of the ancient Brigantine 
 territory. AVhen it was divided into counties, the southern portion was called Loukeshire 
 from Loncaster, the castle on the Lone or Lime. 
 
 xix c 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 likewise vnder them a Heretoge, chosen hy the people in a folemote, who 
 had the power to raise the people to compell the otherwise disobedient to 
 ohedience, and to inflict chastisement for offences." 13 
 
 After Egbert came Alfred the Great; hut neither saint nor monarch 
 had as yet done much for the enlightenment of the people, if we are to 
 believe the great king's oft-quoted expression, that, when he took the throne, 
 very few even south of the Humber could understand their daily prayers in 
 English or translate a letter from the Latin not one south of the Thames. 
 It was in Lancashire that Alfred allowed the Danes to strike root, to the 
 after disaster of the country ; and still, all through the northern provinces, 
 are types of pure Scandinavian beauty and manhood features more finely 
 cut, and forms more grandly framed, than in any other part of England. 
 
 Canute entered Lancashire in revolt against him, with an army ; (these 
 northern counties were always the last to submit to any change of 
 authority;) he took possession of Cumberland, then, as later, the Debate- 
 able Land, and placed Duncan, the grandson of Malcolm, king of Scotland, 
 in possession thereof, subject to England. But there was little beside 
 war, and tumult, and fighting about boundaries, and private wrongs, and 
 public injuries, and the revolt of this earl and of that, till William the 
 Conqueror finally defeated Earls Morcar and Edwin, the great leaders of 
 the Northmen, and so broke the neck of the northern insubordination. 14 
 He then built Lancaster Castle, 15 as a stronghold in case of future trouble, 
 and married the sister of the offending noblemen to Ivo Tailbois, (or 
 Taillebois,) whom he made Baron of Kendal, and who was the brother of 
 Fulk, Earl of Anjou, his great friend and partisan. 
 
 Lancashire is not mentioned by name in Domesday-book. The southern 
 part of it is included in Cheshire ; while the northern, the south of West- 
 moreland, and part of Cumberland, go into the West Riding of Yorkshire. 
 The different ranks of men given are barons, thanes, 16 freemen, radmen, 
 
 13 Kuerden's unpublished Preface to his History of LancftsJthr. 
 
 14 He had not many enemies to subdue, it would appear, seeing that the whole popula- 
 tion of England was not two millions at the time of the Conquest. 
 
 15 By the end of Stephen's reign there were 1,115 castles in England. " Nests of 
 Devils," Matthew Paris calls them. 
 
 16 Thanage service : Thane ( Saxon, thrinan) ministrare: the same tenure as the feudal 
 Barons.
 
 EAKLY HISTORY. 
 
 drenches (a kind of Socmanni, having land set apart for them as husband- 
 men, and exempt from military service), bordars, bondmen, and villeins. 
 But Lancashire had not many of the nobler sort ; for she was then a 
 miserable place 17 scarcely worth the trouble of holding. In 1086 all the land 
 lying between the Mersey and the Kibble was valued at one hundred and 
 twenty pounds : in 1814, at over two millions and a half. But this is not to 
 be taken absolutely ; a large allowance having to be made for difference in 
 relative value. In that tract between the Mersey and the Kibble lay a famous 
 place of safety, " Christ's Croft " : 
 
 " When all England is alofte, 
 
 Safe are they in Christe's Crofte : 
 And where should Christe's Crofte be 
 But between Kibble and Mersey." 
 
 Ivo Tailbois then was the starting-point of the great House of Lan- 
 caster. William, his great grandson, had the royal licence to call himself 
 William de Lancastre, as well as Baron of Kendal ; Edmund Crouchback, son 
 of Henry III., had granted to him the honour, earldom, castle, and town 
 of Lancaster, in joyful commemoration of the royal victory at Evesham. 
 His son Thomas married the sole daughter and heiress of de Lacy, Earl of 
 Lincoln, possessing by his marriage, and in his own right, six several 
 earldoms. Taking part in the Gaveston troubles, he was attainted and 
 executed ; but his estates were subsequently restored to his brother Henry. 
 Henry's son was the second Knight of the Garter, the Black Prince being 
 the first. He was in both Crecy and Poitiers, and was the first or " good " 
 Duke of Lancaster. At the same time the county was raised into a county 
 palatine, " with power to have a chancery in the county, to issue out writs 
 under his own seal, as well touching pleas of the crown as others relating 
 to the common laws of the realm, as also all other liberties and regalities 
 belonging to the county palatine." His daughter Blanche married John of 
 
 17 Camden, quoted in Pictorial England, speaks of the north country generally with 
 great disdain. He approaches the people of Lancashire " with a kind of dread : may it 
 forbode no ill. However, that I may not seem wanting to this count}*, I will run the hazard 
 of the attempt." He says, too, that Lancaster is not populous, and the people are husband- 
 men; Kendal, on the contrary, is a very populous town, with two streets crossing eacli 
 other ; Appleby has fallen into decay ; and Whitehaven is not so nmch as mentioned, for 
 the good reason that no such town or even hamlet then existed. 
 
 xxi
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Gauut " time-honoured Lancaster," third sou of Edward III. more pro- 
 perly John of Ghent, his birthplace ; and who, as king of Castile and Leon, 
 impaled the Spanish royal arms with his ducal coat. During the rebellion 
 of John Ball, Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw against the poll-tax, John of Gaunt 
 was so unpopular, that his life was threatened by the people ; wiierefore he 
 was forced to bide in Scotland under the honourable guardianship of William 
 Earl of Douglas until the tumult was stayed. Constance, his second wife, was 
 left in woeful plight. She could not get admission into Pontefract, whither 
 she had gone for safety ; and was fain to travel seven miles at night by torch- 
 light to Knaresborough. And a midnight journey of seven miles through 
 a disturbed country was not a thing most high-born gentlewomen would have 
 cared to encounter. After the death of this wife Lancaster married Catherine 
 Swinford a knight's daughter ; already, during his wife's lifetime, the con- 
 fessed mother of two sons and a daughter by him ; "at which all marvelled," 
 not at the motherhood, but at the marriage ; and the ladies of her new degree 
 rebelled against her association, and the Duke of Gloucester, "being a man 
 of a high mind and a stout stomach, misliked his brother matching so meanly ; 
 but Catherine bore herself so honourably, that hate gave place to love and 
 dishonour to esteem." His three children by her were legitimized, and the 
 marriage was a success. Nevertheless, when he died, he was laid by the 
 side of the wife of his youth, Blanche the daughter of the " good." 
 
 John of Gaunt spoke in favour of Wickliffe, "the morning star of the 
 Reformation," and had to fly for his life for this too ; getting into further 
 trouble by the wild revenge which certain friends of his Lord John 
 Holland and Sir Henry Green took on John Latimer, the Franciscan, 
 who had falsely accused him of compassing the death of the king. John's 
 son, Henry Bolingbroke or Bullenbroke, made himself king, as we all know ; 
 and henceforth the House of Lancaster, with its red rose (John of Gauut's 
 device), became the house of royalty, and the duchy was vested in the sove- 
 reignty. Henry gave his friend Henry de Percy, Earl of Northumberland, 
 and his son Henry Hotspur, a grant of the Isle of Man, on condition of 
 their bearing the curtana the Lancaster short-sword at the left shoulder 
 before the king and his heirs ; the same short sword which John of Gaunt 
 had carried before Richard II. 
 
 Lancaster was not famous for its religious zeal, or its means of religion ; 
 
 xxii
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 wherefore, in consideration of its spiritual destitution, 18 Stephen removed (1127) 
 to Furness, then called Bekangesgill or the Glen of the deadly nightshade, 
 the House which had been founded in 1124 at Tulketh for the Cistercian 
 monks of Savigny; which Furness Abhey became one of the most cele- 
 brated Houses of the county, and one of the nursery places of thought 
 and learning. 19 But it was not all get and no give, even with the favoured 
 monks of Furness ; for in the time of Edward III., who knew how to keep 
 people to their duty, the abbot was commanded to provide a suitable house 
 for the custody of the king's pence, during that monarch's war with France 
 as the sheriff of Lancaster was commanded to provide a hundred bows and a 
 thousand sheaves of arrows ; and when a certain royal lady was married to 
 a certain nobleman of high degree, an order was issued to the abbot of Furness, 
 as well as to the Priors of Burscough, Up Holland, and Coningshead, to 
 levy a subsidy for the rnaritagium or dowry. 
 
 King John, who had been endowed by Richard with the earldom and 
 honour of Lancaster, seems to have always retained a friendly feeling for his 
 old estate. At Runnymede special privileges were granted to the Honour 
 of Lancaster, and even before the famous Carta de Foresta, he granted a 
 private forest charter to his duchy (which when he became king he con- 
 firmed, in the first year of his reign), "allowing his knights, thanes, and 
 freeholders, without challenge of him or his heirs, to fell, sell, and give at 
 their will, the forest woods, 20 without being subject to the forest regulations ; 
 and to hunt and take hares, rabbits, and all kinds of wild beasts (except 
 
 18 Domesday records no place of worship in Lonsdale North the North of Lan- 
 cashire save at Hovgvn, where there was a Santa Cherche, or Santon Kirk (which, 
 however, is in Cumberland), and Cherchebi or Kirkby Kendal. Hovgvn was a manor 
 containing twenty villages, known in Stephen's time as Futherness now High Furness 
 and Furness Fell-*. Lonsdale North included the forest of Fudemesse and Wagenei (pro- 
 bably the Hovgvnai of Domesday), Dalton, and Ulverston, the fishery and warren of which 
 were given by Stephen to the monks of Fumess. BAINES' History of Lancashire. But 
 " the fact of a church not being mentioned in Domesday does not always prove that 
 there was no church there ; there were plenty of churches not mentioned in that record." 
 T. WIUGHT. 
 
 19 The couchers' books at Furness show that considerable progress had been made in 
 the arts, in the time of the first Duke of Lancaster even. 
 
 20 In forest terms, vert was the covert, the trees, the herbage ; and, according to Coke, 
 whatever beast of the forest was good for food was venisqn.
 
 THE LAKE COUNTKY. 
 
 <] eer bisse goats, and wild hogs) iu all parts within his forests and 
 demesnes, hays of the county." This was a liberal thing of John to do, 
 for the forest laws, as reduced to consistency by Canute, were horribly severe. 
 A bondman, hunting a beast in the forest so as to make him pant for breath, 
 was to lose his skin. Freemen only might keep greyhounds, provided the 
 bulls of their feet were cut. If a mad dog bit a forest beast, the fine was the 
 price of a freeman ; if a royal beast, death. A solemn inquest was held on a 
 dead deer ; but down to the time of the Plantagenets, these laws had been so 
 far ameliorated, that at a forest assize, held in 1286, only fine and imprison- 
 ment are recorded for killing the deer and " venison." John's generous 
 intentions to his old subjects were not always of avail ; for once they com- 
 plained of Theobald Walter who had abridged their supply of fuel, and of 
 Roger Poer who had deprived them of wood and forest land used as pasturage ; 
 it is to be hoped they got redress and restitution. 
 
 In the reign of Edward I. summonses were issued to the men of the 
 three counties, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, to join the 
 king's army in Wales ; and in 1282 the sheriff of Lancashire was ordered 
 to provide two hundred wood-cutters (coupiatores), each furnished with a 
 hatchet to cut down the trees. They were to muster at Chester on Saturday, 
 the Octaves of the Feast of St. Peter, and each cutter was to have three- 
 pence a day. Not such bad pay at a time Avhen a labourer's wages were 
 three-halfpence, a harvest man's twopence, the rent of the Lord Mayor's 
 house one pound, a cow six shillings, and a sheep one shilling, a pair of 
 shoes fourpence, eggs a halfpenny the dozen, and arable land, even in Kent, 
 threepence and sixpence per acre. 
 
 Lancashire either sent up no Parliamentary representatives, or has not 
 preserved the records, till the thirty-third year of Edward I. Then were 
 elected to serve in the Parliament, to assemble at Westminster on Sunday 
 next after the Feast of St. Martin, Matthew de Redman and John d'Ewyas, 
 "elected knights for the county, by the consent of the whole, who have full 
 power to do for themselves and commonalty what our lord the king shall 
 ordain. The said knights affix their marks ; not able to write." The sheriff's 
 return adds : " There is no city in the county of Lancaster." In 1322 
 Edmundus de Neville, miles, and Johannes de Lancastria, miles, are returned ; 
 one receiving for seventeen days' attendance iu Parliament at York, and six 
 
 xx iv
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 days - l coming and returning, sixty-nine shillings, or three shillings a day ; 
 the other thirty-eight shillings, or twenty-pence a day. But Parliamentary 
 deputies were not always to be had, even for money. In the thirty- 
 ninth year of Edward III. the sheriff returns : " There is not any city or 
 borough from which any citizens or burgesses are able or accustomed to 
 come, according to the tenure of the writ, by reason of their debility and 
 poverty." Under the sixth Edward the franchise was resumed ; had it 
 been in abeyance ever since, and were they always in debility and poverty ? 
 Yet they had a good character for honesty and liberality in those early 
 days, poor as they were ; hence, in the time of the second Richard, arose 
 the necessity for a law respecting uniform weights and measures, because, 
 says the king, " There has always been a larger measure used in Lancashire 
 than in any other part of the kingdom ; " which would scarcely be said now, 
 either of the great sellers or the small. 
 
 Lancashire had her share of the troubles which every now and then 
 disturbed the empire. Lambert Simnel landed at the Pile of Foudrey in 
 1487 (where also they expected the Spaniards to land during the time of the 
 Armada), and brought poor Sir Thomas Broughton to his ruin ; and Swart 
 Moor still owes its name to Martin Swart, who mustered the impostor's 
 forces there the year before. And at the battle of Flodden Field, when : 
 
 " The left hand wing, with all his rout, 
 
 The lusty Lord Dacre did lead, 
 With him the bows of Kenclal stout, 
 
 With milk-white coats ** and crosses red." 
 
 Lancaster was not behind, though not, perhaps, the most forward; but all 
 the three north counties were well represented there. 
 
 " Then for the Earle of Surry hee sente, 
 And Regente of the North him made ; 
 
 21 The time allowed for travel from Lancaster to London was five or six days in good 
 weather, eight in snow, or if foul. 
 
 22 Milk-white cloth was a Kendal manufacture, as was Kendal green and " Kendal 
 cottons." " Master Camden termeth that town, ' Lanilicii gloria et industria prascellens.' " 
 Yet though the home manufacture was so good, Fuller says that fustian of foreign make only 
 was worn by the first quality among us. The knight in Chaucer who " of fustian he weared 
 u gippon," was dressed in the height of the fasliion of the time, provided his fustian was 
 not of local make, or his gippon of home art. The clothiers of Kendal were the first 
 founders of Stourbridge fair. 
 
 xxv d
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 And lad him, if the Scoots were bente 
 
 The Northern Borders to Invaid, 
 
 That he should raise a lloyall Baud 
 
 In Yorkshire and in Bishoppricke, 
 
 In Westmorland and Comberland, 
 
 In Lancashire, and Cheshire eake. 
 
 And, if thou need, Northumberland. 
 
 Quoth he, theare is stronge men and stouto 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 There is the Bower of Kendall bold, 
 
 Which ferce will fight, and never flee. 
 
 And all that clim the Mountayne came, 
 Where groune from Frost is seldome free, 
 With lustie ladds, and large of length, 
 Which dwelt on Sommer water syde. 23 
 
 In 1535 began the dissolution of the monasteries. Dr. Thomas Legh 
 and Dr. Richard Layton were appointed commissioners for Lancashire ; 
 where they questioned : 1. As to the immortality of the heads of each 
 monastery. 2. The name of the founder. 3. The estate of the convent. 
 4. The superstitions therein. 5. Their debts. 6. The names of those 
 therein wishing to be discharged. As to the first, Furness and Cartmel 
 and Conishead came off but badly ; the second hurt them just a trifle ; the 
 rest did not harm much. By this dissolution, says Fuller, "Ten thousand 
 persons were sent to seek their fortunes in the wide world ; some had 
 twenty shillings given them at their ejection, and a new gown, which needed 
 to be of strong cloth to last till they got another. Most were exposed to 
 want, and many a young man proved an old beggar." This suppres- 
 sion was followed by the insurrection in the northern provinces called 
 the Pilgrimage of Grace, under Robert Askew, self-styled Earl of Poverty 
 in his proclamation to the people of Hawkshead; an insurrection in which 
 most of the dispossessed Heads naturally took part. The brunt of the matter, 
 though, fell on the east, and the poor pilgrims who had sought to bring 
 back the old faith were eventually dispersed the Earl of Cumberland 
 repulsing their attack on Skipton Castle, though their priests assured them 
 that their banners were sacred and must prevail ; for on them were emblazoned 
 the five wounds, or stigmata, and a chalice ; every pilgrim wearing on his 
 
 23 From an old MS. in the British Museum. 
 xxvi
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 sleeve, as a badge, the five wounds, and the name of Jesus in the midst. 
 But even sacred banners have to yield to superior numbers, as the Earl 
 of Poverty and his followers found. The king was very scornful and 
 bitter in his words. He could not understand how it was that " ye who 
 be but brutes and inexpert folk " should meddle in state matters, and 
 expressed himself otherwise hardly. Some abbots they of Whalley, Jorvaux, 
 Salley and sundry priors and monks implicated, were executed ; and the 
 rebellion was made cause for still more rigorous suppression of religious 
 houses. 24 But Furness saved its bones, if at the expense of its skin. The 
 only original surrender now to be found is that of Furness, dated the 9th of 
 April, 1537, which proves that the abbot, Roger Pyle, could read the signs 
 of the times as well as most men, and knew when the oak must bend, if 
 it would not be uprooted or cut down. The charges against him and his 
 monks were that they had raised up a rebellion against the king's majesty ; 
 that the abbot had lied to the commissioners at the time of the visitation ; 
 that he had caused his monks to be forsworn ; that he had concealed the 
 treason of one, Henry Salley, a monk, who had said that no secular knave 
 should be head of the Church, and of another who had said that the king 
 
 24 List of religions houses in Lancashire at the time of the Dissolution (visitations 
 1534-1540). From Dugdale and Speed. At Cockerham a Priory. At Cockersand a 
 Premonstratensian Abbey (allowed to remain for a while). At Coiiisltead a Priory of 
 Austin Canons. Gabriel Pennington built, temp. Henry II., by encouragement, and on the 
 land of William de Lancastre, Baron of Kendall (a great benefactor), an hospital and 
 priory of Black Canons, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consisting of a Prior, 
 seven religious, forty-eight servants, valued at 161Z. 5s. 9<l. At Fumes a Cistercian Abbey, 
 to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the monastery begun at Tulket, 1124, for the 
 monks of Savigny, in France, removed, 1127, to Furness Valley, then called Bekangesgill ; 
 the founder Stephen, Earl of Morton and Bouloigne, afterwards king ; value, 8057. 16s. 5d. 
 At Kcrtmel or Cartmell a Priory of Austin's Canons ; Wm. Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, 
 founder; value 1,1 18Z. ; regular canons of Saint Austin, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary, rated 26 Henry VIII. at 91Z. 6s. 3rf., at second valuation, 212/. lls. 1(W. ; ten religious, 
 thirty-eight servants ; site granted 38 Henry VIII. to Thomas Holcroft. At Lancaster, 
 
 (1) an alien priory (Benedictine), dissolved with other aliens, and annexed by Henry V. ; 
 
 (2) a hospital dedicated to St. Leonard, founded by King John, while Earl of Morton, 
 afterwards by Henry Duke of Lancaster, about 30 Edward III. annexed to the nunnery of 
 Seton, in Cumberland ; (8) a priory of Dominican or Black Friars ; (4) a Priory of Grey 
 Friars a Franciscan convent near the bridge. The lands or revenues of Furness, 
 Cartmel, and Conishead, were vested in the officers of the Duchy of Lancaster, for the 
 king's use. 
 
 xxvii d 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 was not the true king, and no rightful heir to the crown. On these charges 
 two monks were taken to Lancaster Castle, and the abbot having been taken 
 into custody was prevailed on to sign a voluntary surrender of the abbey, 
 which he did at Whalley on the date given above. That the charges were 
 merely trumped-up excuses for an arbitrary act, even Henry's own tool was 
 obliged to confess. "After two rigorous investigations, nothing treasonable 
 or in any manner indictable could be brought against the house ; " " where- 
 upon," writes Sussex to Henry, "devising with myself yf one way would not 
 serve, how and by what means the said monks myght be ryd from the 
 said abbey, and, consequently, how the same myght be at your gracious 
 pleasur, I determined to assay him as of myself, whether he would be 
 contented to surrender giff and graunt unto (you) your heirs and assigans 
 the sayd monastery; which thing so opened to the abbot farely, we found 
 him of a very facile and ready mynde to follow my advice in that behalf." 
 The deed acknowledges " misorder and evil rule, both unto God and the 
 king, of the brethren, and of the said abbey," and so in discharge of his 
 conscience, the abbot gives all into the king's hands ; the community con- 
 senting. They were provided for, as were all who voluntarily surrendered. 
 To the abbot were assigned the revenues of the rectory of Dalton, value some- 
 where about thirty-three pounds 25 per annum ; and one hundred and fifty 
 pounds were charged on the revenues of the Lordship for the prior and the 
 twenty-eight brethren who signed the abdication. 
 
 In 1569, Lancaster, surely the true "cock-pit of conscience," if the 
 country of games, 86 w r as again disturbed by the conspiracy of the Earls of 
 
 " A very large sum for one man's income, when ten pounds a year was considered a 
 good salary. 
 
 86 The Lancashire games, from the Second Eandle Holme : 
 
 " And they dare chalenge for to throw the sledge, 
 To jumpe, or leape ovir ditch or hedge ; 
 To wrastle, play at stoole ball, or to runne, 
 To pitch the barre, or to shoote of a gunne ; 
 To play at loggets, nine holes, or ten pinnes, 
 To trye it out at foote ball, by the shinnes, 
 At tick tacke, seize nody, maw and ruffe, 
 At hot cokles, leap frogge, or blind man's buffe ; 
 
 xxviii
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 Westmoreland and Northumberland, for poor beautiful Mary Stuart; and at 
 that time a search was made here, as elsewhere, for vagrants, beggars, 
 gamesters, rogues, or gipsies, lasting from nine o'clock on Sunday morning, 
 July 10th, to four in the afternoon of next day, whereby thirteen thousand 
 " masterless men," with no visible means of living but from games, bowling, 
 archery, and the like, were passed to their own counties (the same process 
 repeated monthly till November). After this came the battle of Thurland, as 
 the next great disturbance (1643), when Colonel Rigby, the Parliamentarian, 
 besieged Thurlaud Castle, the last stronghold of the Cavaliers in the north of 
 the country. The royal force in Westmoreland and Cumberland, lying near, 
 united with that from Cartrnel and Furness, and assembled on the sands, 
 a company of sixteen hundred men, to relieve the garrison. But Colonel 
 Rigby marched into Furness on a Sunday morning, and attacked and defeated 
 them without trouble, the whole affair not lasting much above a quarter of an 
 hour. The Cavalier ciy was, " In with Queen Mary ! " the Parliamentary, 
 " God with us ! " " Upon the close of the business, all our men," writes 
 their commander, October 17th, " with a great shout cried out, Glory be to 
 God, and we all, except one troop of horse and one foot company, which 
 I left to quiet the country, returned forthwith to our siege of Thurland," 
 which capitulated ten days after. The fortress was then demolished, and 
 " mercy set as a crown upon the head of poor Lancashire ; " the mercy 
 culminating in dividing the county (1646) into nine classical Presbyteries. 
 The ninth included the parishes of Aldinghani, Ursewick, Ulverstone, 
 Hawxhead, Coulton, Doulton, Cartmel, Kirkby, and Winnington, of which 
 the ministers were Mr. Thomas Shaw, of Aldingham ; Philip Bennet, of 
 Ulverston ; Kemp, of Hawxhead ; Bryan Willow, of Coultou ; and John 
 
 To drink the halper pottes, or clcale at the whole cann 
 
 To play at chesse or pue, and inke home ; 
 
 To daunce the inoris, play at barley brake, 
 
 At al exploits a man can think or speak : 
 
 At shrove-groate, vanter poynte, or cross and pile, 
 
 Or beshrew him that's last at any stile ; 
 
 At leapinge over a Christmas bonfire, 
 
 Or at the drawinge dame out of the myer ; 
 
 At shoote cocke, Gregory, stoole ball, and what not ; 
 
 Picke poynt, toppe and scourge, to make him hott." 
 
 xxix
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Manjold, of Cartmel ; since which period it may be said to have passed out 
 of the limits of an early history. 27 
 
 Part of the history of Westmoreland or Westmoreland, 28 as it is some- 
 times written, Westmorland and Westmaria is bound up with that of 
 Lancashire ; as in the barony of Kendal, which went with the earldom of 
 Lancaster belonging, indeed, to the Hundred of Lonsdale, one of the 
 divisions of that county ; but the barony of Westmoreland, 59 frequently called 
 the barony of Appleby and the Bottom of Westmoreland, and which went 
 with the countship of Cumberland, was an independent division altogether, 
 and belonged to quite another family. Both barony and countship were granted 
 by the Conqueror to Ranulph de Meschines, from whom they descended to Hugh 
 de Morville, one of the assassinators of A'Becket ; and then the estates became 
 divided, part going with Hugh's sister, Maud, into the family of the de 
 Veteriponts (Maud's Meaburn is a manor to this day), and the castle of 
 Appleby passing into the custody of Grospatric the son of Orme (one of the 
 Tailbois race), when Henry was compelled to chastise those who had translated 
 his wishes but too faithfully before the altar of Canterbury church. The 
 family estates came back in John's time to Maud's son, old Roger de Morville's 
 grandson, though a de Veteripont ; and then, in three generations, passed by 
 marriage to Roger de Clifford, the source of a long and illustrious line. 
 Among them, the eighth of his name, was the Black Clifford, he who slew 
 that " fayre gentleman, and maydenly person," the young 30 Earl of Rutland, 
 
 27 The first potatoes grown in England were raised in Lancashire, and it is still famous 
 for them; Lancashire coal is spoken of as used in 1260, temp. Henry III. again in tin- 
 wars of Edward I. against Scotland, during the king's march from Preston through Carlisle, 
 against " Ilobertus de Brus;" and the finest wheat in Lancashire is grown by Mitrsiili-. 
 
 28 In the time of the Heptarchy, Westmoreland" The land of the Western Lakes" 
 was part of the kingdom of Northumberland, like Lancashire, and when Edward the 
 Confessor divided Northumberland into six shires, one was called " Appelbishire to which 
 appertained the land of Westmorland." In still earlier tunes it seems to have been an 
 independency, for when Edgar summoned liis vassals to Chester, we find among the kings 
 who rowed his barge on the Dee, " the king of Westmere." 
 
 29 The unmarried widow in this barony retained her husband's land, which was a 
 marvellous privilege in those days. 
 
 30 There is some obscurity as to the young earl's age, some making him to be between 
 seventeen and eighteen, others only twelve, or indeed scarce that. He was being taken out 
 of the battle (of Wakefield) by his chaplain and some others, when Black Clifford's band 
 surrounded him before he reached the town, and " by reason of his apparell," seeing him
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 not in the passion of the light, for the battle was to the side, but of mere 
 personal, or rather family revenge ; and there was his son, Henry the Shepherd 
 Lord, whom Wordsworth has celebrated in his poem, and who was so long 
 concealed among the dales and fells of Cumberland, for fear of the Yorkists, 
 then in the ascendant. But Sir Launcelot Threlkeld, his stepfather, and a good 
 Christian gentleman, preserved him to his rights, and when Henry VII. came 
 to the throne, the Shepherd Lord the good Lord Clifford came also to his 
 own. His son was Henry, the first Earl of Cumberland, President of the 
 northern parts, and oftentimes Lord Warden of the Marches a gallant soldier 
 and a gay courtier, the friend of Henry VIII. , when Henry VIII. was young 
 and unspotted with blood, and the especial foe of his gentle old father, whose 
 simple tastes (perhaps, too, somewhat clownish habits for a gay courtier's 
 father), ill agreed with his own. His second marriage with Mrs. Florence 
 Pudsey, our mighty Earl of Cumberland could never forgive. A gentler 
 Clifford was the earl's son, the alchemist, the distiller of waters, and the 
 scholar, he who so narrowly escaped being buried alive when he fell into a 
 trance for grief at the death of his wife, Eleanor Brandon, daughter of 
 Charles Duke of Suffolk and the Queen of France ; and a more noted than 
 them all, was his grand-daughter Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, 
 and Montgomery, and half a score titles beside, who " knew well how to 
 discourse of all things, from predestination to slea silk," and who lost none 
 of her natural advantages by over diffidence in setting them forth. Truly, a 
 great and well endowed lady ; beautiful, intellectual, orderly, and high hearted, 
 uniting in herself the best characteristics of her race, in its courage on the one 
 side, and its love of literature on the other. From her the estates passed to 
 the Tufton family, where they are to this hour. 
 
 to be no common person, demanded who he was. " The young gentleman, disrnayde, had 
 not a word to speake, but kneeled on his knees, cravying mercy and desiring grace, both 
 with holdying up liis hands and making a dolorous countenance, for his speach was gone 
 for fear. ' Save him,' said liis chapleyn, ' for he is a prince's sonne, and peradventure may 
 do you good hereafter.' With that worde, the Lord Clifford marked him, and sayde, ' By 
 God's blood ; thy father slew mine, and so will I do thee, and all thy kinne ! r and with 
 that word strake the erle to the hail with his dagger, and bad his chapleyn beare the erle's 
 mother and brother worde what he had done and sayde. In this act, the Lord Clifforde 
 was accoumpted a tyrant and no gentleman." Beauties of Westmoreland, quoting either 
 Pembroke MS., or Austin Vincent's Nobility it is not very clear which. 
 
 xxxi
 
 TH K LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 The estates and fees belonging to the Barony of Kendal have not 
 been kept so well together. In the seventh generation after Ivo Tailbois 
 they were divided, and after then divided again, part, the Marquis Fee, 
 going into the family of the Parrs, whereof Catherine, Henry's wife, was 
 one, and part dwindling off into many small side-ways ; but of later gene- 
 rations some becoming united again in the Lowther property, where they 
 are still held under a lease, renewable, from the crown. There were no 
 other very exalted names or honours belonging to the county, though 
 singularly rich in old families and estates long retained in the same holding, 
 and names of second-class historic interest, but nothing of so much 
 county importance, however great the local, as to need special recording as 
 matter of history. 
 
 The great military tenure of Westmoreland was by " homage, 31 fealty, 
 and cornage, which last drew after it wardship, 32 marriage, and relief, and 
 the sendee of this tenure was knight's service." Cornage seems to have 
 been peculiar to the border service against the Scots, and was commuted 
 to a money fine in later times : cornage, horngeld, and noutegeld (cow-tax), 
 being all the same thing an annual payment of certain horned beasts for 
 the maintenance of the garrisons in the border castles. The tenants who 
 held by cornage were bound to be always ready to serve the king and the 
 lord of the manor upon horseback or on foot at their own charge ; and 
 when the king marched into Scotland they were in the van, and when he 
 marched out again they were in the rear ; which speaks something for the 
 
 31 In the old days of homage, the tenant " bared of head, unsworded, and kneeling on 
 his two knees," his hands held out and clasped between his lord's, said, " I become your 
 man from this day forward of life, and limb, and earthly honour, and unto you will be true 
 and faithful, and faith unto you will bear for the tenements that I claim to hold of 3*011. 
 saving the faith that I owe to our sovereign lord the king." And then the lord so sitting 
 was to kiss his man, by which kiss he was bound to be his vassal for ever. 
 
 32 In wardship the consent of the superior lord was requisite for the marriage of a 
 female vassal, and this power was distorted into the right of disposing of the ward in 
 marriage. "When the king or lord was in want of money, it was by no means unusual to 
 put up the wards to a kind of auction wife and land to the highest bidder : husband and 
 land, in the case of a male ward. If the ward refused to fulfil the marriage so made, then 
 a sum was due from the estates equal to what they would have fetched. This was a frightful 
 source of abuse, and only got rid of by the famous statute of Charles II., abolishing the 
 Court of Wards and Liveries. 
 
 xxxii
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 valour of the brave mountaineers. " Scutage," or shield money redemption 
 of the service of the shield was another form of compensation for personal 
 service against the Scots. 
 
 The drengage tenure, which prevailed about Brougham and Clifton, as 
 well as in some parts of Northumberland, was horribly servile. " They 
 seem to have been drudges to perform the most laborious and servile 
 offices," says Dr. Burn, and he shows that Sir Hugh de Morvile in West- 
 moreland changed drengage into free service, and that Gilbert de Brougham 
 gave one half of the village of Brougham to Robert de Veteripont to make 
 the other half free of drengage. One of the de Threlkelds also, who lived 
 at Yanwath Hall in the time of Edward I., relieved his tenants at Threl- 
 keld of servile burdens at fourpence a head. The services were half a 
 draught for one day's ploughing ; one day's mowing ; one of shearing ; 
 one of clipping ; one of salving sheep ; one carriage load in two years, 
 not to go above ten miles ; to dig and load two loads of peat every year 
 the tenants to have their crowdy while they worked ; the cottagers the same, 
 only they found a horse and harrow instead of the half plough, and a 
 footman's load not a carriage load. A knight's fee was valued at about twenty 
 pounds, and the lord's rent was called white money or white rent. West- 
 moreland paid subsidies, as well as border service and fines, and always 
 came handsomely to the front whenever men or money was demanded. 
 " Taking all the taxes together," says one writer, " we shall find that 
 this county paid more to government, in proportion to its inhabitants, 
 than any other county in the kingdom." From a return of horsemen 
 and footmen made for Westmoreland and Cumberland during the Border 
 wars (1584), out of eight thousand three hundred and fifty men jointly 
 raised, Westmoreland gave four thousand one hundred and forty -two ; one 
 thousand four hundred " archers furnished," and one thousand three 
 hundred "billmen furnished," which was not a bad proportion for the Land 
 of the Heights. 
 
 More fortresses and castles than churches or monasteries belonged to 
 the old time of Westmoreland. At the date of the Domesday Book, 
 Kendal and Lonsdale were the only places that had churches at all, and 
 when the religious houses were suppressed, the commissioners were not 
 overweighted with a superfluity of work here. There was certainly one of 
 
 xxxiii C
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 some note, Vallis Magdalenae de Heppe Sliap or Heppe 33 Abbey the 
 Briar-fruit abbey founded by Thomas, son of Gospatric, for the Pnemon- 
 stratensiau canons of Preston in Kendal, and dedicated by him to God and 
 St. Mary Magdalene. 34 He endowed them liberally, and allowed them freely. 
 " The monks of Shap had what wood they liked, and all the bark that fell, 
 and toll, free grinding at the lord's mills, and pasture about Swindale for 
 twenty mares, sixty cows, and five hundred sheep." At the time of the 
 dissolution the rated value was 1541. 7s. l%d. only. 
 
 But the great political life of the county, and the artery through 
 which flowed all its passions, was the Border Wars its objects of supreme 
 hatred, as with Cumberland, Scotland and the Scots. Even to this day 
 they are not well regarded by the people meaning by that the uneducated ; 
 and a " Scotch body," like an " Irish body," is a term with as much 
 contempt as geography in it. The boy's version of the southern lad's 
 French and English is here Scotch and English a small raid of miniature 
 moss-troopers, where the clothes of the combatants, called the " wed," 
 represent the gear to be lifted; and the opening of the sport " an Englisher" 
 putting his foot over the boundary line, with "here's a leg in thy land, 
 dry bellied Scot" is an insult and an incursion over the border. But all 
 these local habits and traditions are fast fading away now, and Westmore- 
 land is no longer the half savage wild that writers, less than a hundred 
 
 33 " And sweete as is the bramble flour 
 That beretli the red hepe." 
 
 CHAUCER'S Rime of Sire Thopas. 
 
 34 Other writers say, given to God and St. Mary de Bellalanda, or to the Abbey of 
 I > viand, in Yorkshire. At Shap Thorn were once some beautiful Druidical remains large 
 granite stones, which were recklessly blasted, and taken away for any kind of use the 
 neighhours might wish to put them to for boring into millstones, or building foundations. 
 Would make beautiful chimney-pieces," say Nicholson and Burn. The rough little 
 hamlet of Wet Sleddale where the popular belief is that it always rains, as perhaps it does 
 hud an uncomfortable half hour in 1300, when the bishop commanded the rural dean and 
 various vicars of the various churches to excommunicate the people for violently breaking 
 inio the house and gninge of tin: Abbot of Heap. At High Mass, when the greatest 
 numbers would he a>scmhled, candles were to be lighted, and bells rung, and with bell, 
 hook, and ciindle. all the misdoers were to be excommunicated, which method would surely 
 catch some among the congregation, even though they did. as Fuller said of the moss 
 troopers, " conic to church as seldome as the 29th of February comes into the kalendar." 
 
 xxxiv
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 years ago, declared it was, with manners too gross to be witnessed, living 
 too coarse to be endured, "a country full of infertile places, which the 
 northern Englishmen call moors," 35 a climate unbearable because of its 
 severity, and prejudices too dense for the hope of enlightenment, present 
 or to come. Since 1752, when a bill was obtained for making a road 
 from Burton, through Kendal and Shap, to Eamont Bridge (never, until 
 the rebellion of 1715, when there was good fighting between the two 
 parties in these northern wilds, had government thought of highways here 
 at all) ; since 1774, when the first stage-coach, the Fly, was put on the 
 road, to run between London and Glasgow, over Stanemore ; since the 
 first mail was set on the Kendal and Shap road in 1786; since those 
 times, and even since periods much nearer to our own, what an immeasur- 
 able change of manners and customs, and habits and thoughts, has taken 
 place. Grand hotels, first-class lodging-houses, sumptuous fare, and fashion- 
 able clothing, assimilate the rugged land of the hill and fell to the most 
 fashionable watering-place within the reach of London. "Nubila West- 
 moreland Saxosa et misera poor land," said a rhyming collegian with 
 more love of luxury than of beauty in his young head ; but none save 
 the veriest Cockney, who calls Hampstead " a wild place," would echo his 
 opinion now ; while the doubt, gravely expressed so late as 1814, whether 
 Bishop Watson's new plantations of oak and elm and sycamore, and other 
 fair-growing forest trees at Calgarth, would ever survive the inclemency of 
 the seasons, and whether hardy fir and larch were not the only trees that 
 would thrive in this bleak valley of the Winandermere at all, reads strangely 
 now, under the shadow of woods, luxuriant beyond ordinary course. Yet 
 even old Fuller could see no charm in this, one of the loveliest and 
 choicest spots of God's dear earth. Speaking of " Westmorland," he says, 
 " Here is cold comfort from Nature, but somewhat of Warmth from Industry. 
 That the Land is barren is God's Pleasure, the People painfull, their 
 Praise. . . . Though sterile by general rule, it is fruitfull by some few 
 exceptions, having some pleasant Vales. . . . much of Eden (running 
 clean through it) yet little of Delight ! " If Fuller had written in 1864, 
 when nature was better understood and more intelligently loved, he would 
 
 35 Speed's Theatre, representing the exact geography of 1670. 
 
 XXXV e 2
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 have given a different verdict a verdict as loving and as full of apprecia- 
 tion as our own ! 
 
 Brave and bonny Cumberland, wedged 36 up against the frontier line of 
 Scotland, had even more to do with the Border service than her more 
 southward sister. Her whole life was centered in the struggle for ever 
 going on between herself and those wild moss troopers and rievers across 
 the Border; and all her energies were needed to keep them in anything 
 like check. Once, led by Kobert de Brus, they came trooping down as 
 far as Furness, firing and slaying and lifting all before them ; and once 
 again they swept like a cloud of locusts through the land, till they halted 
 at the Abbey of Holme Cultram, which they plundered, when they departed, 
 replenished, with sacrilege as well as murder on their souls. To Gilsland 
 and Penrith was but a short day's raid, and a frequent ; to Derwent Fells 
 and Alston Moor almost as frequent ; Inglewood Forest they made their 
 constant hunting-ground ; and once (the Earl of Douglas heading the 
 raid) they swarmed down upon Penrith in fair time, and lifted a king's 
 ransom as their reward. So that poor Cumberland had enough to do to 
 hold her own, and found the defence of industry by valour a hard and 
 heavy lesson. The result being a larger amount of individualism, 37 and 
 less attention to rules and law than with most English counties. 
 
 Kumbraland, as she is called in the old map to Thorkelin's Fragments 
 or Caerleylshire, from the capital Caerleyl, in certain other old writers was 
 never famous for amenity of manners, but never infamous for cowardice or 
 
 M Speed says, " The forme of this countie is long and narrow, pointing wedge-like into 
 tin south, which part is altogether pictured with copped hills, and therefore hath the name 
 of Copland. The middle is more level and better inhabited, yielding sufficient for the 
 sustenance of man ; but the north is wild and solitairie, and combed with hilles, as Co]>I<i>n! 
 is. The air is piercing, and of a sharp temperature, and would be more biting, were it not 
 that these high hilles brake off the northern stormes and cold falling snowes. Notwith- 
 standing, rich is this province, and with great varieties of commodities is replenished; the 
 hilles, though rough, yet smile upon their beholders, spread with sheep and cattle, the 
 vallies stored \\itli ^rasse and come sufficiente, the sea affordeth great store of fish, and 
 the land is overspread with great varietie of fowl." 
 
 37 This is seen, as one example, in the immense variety of landed tenures in use among 
 the Cumbrians, until a little more uniformity was introduced by Act 12 Charles II. that 
 is. by the Commonwealth; but even now there is diversity enough, and a great deal of 
 local law and usage afloat. By the way, Blackstone says that copyholders are only 
 villeins improved. 
 
 xxxvi
 
 EAKLY HIST011Y. 
 
 want of manhood. Even in the time of the Heptarchy she seems to have 
 been rather a self-annexing province of Northumberland, governed by her 
 own people and in her own way, than a conquered county held by force 
 or fear. Else how do we hear of the kings of the county ? and what is 
 the meaning of the story of poor Dunmail ? and the grant by Edmund, 
 son of Athelstane, of all our fells and lakes and mountains and morasses 
 to Malcolm the Scottish king, on condition that he protected the North 
 of England generally, against all Edmund's enemies,, both by sea and 
 land ? a grant that led to nothing but bloodshed and confusion between 
 England and Scotland, and wars unceasing, and boundary lines never fixed, 
 and rights by no possible means to be decided, until William the Conqueror 
 took the county to himself, and bestowed it on Ranulph de Meschines, with 
 the Border Service to follow. It was not likely that the Scotch king 38 who 
 laid claim to the county as his right would submit quietly to this. He 
 entered the land and ravaged it, burning and slaying in the wild wilful sin- 
 fulness of those days ; but William Rufus came sweeping down at the head 
 of his men obliged though to sweep back again, because "they could not 
 bear the severity of the seasons," doing little good in his attempt, beyond 
 that of rebuilding Carlisle, which had fallen into ruins, and settling a few 
 agricultural soldiers on the land, which, since the time of the Romans, " had 
 
 38 The following is a summary from the Scottish side of the history of Cumberland. 
 During the heptarchy, part of Northumberland was invaded by the Danes, in the reign of 
 Kthelred, at the end of the eighth century, and thoroughly conquered in 875, by Halfdin 
 tlio Dane, when Carlisle was most probably destroyed. The Scottish King Gregory, in 
 S7(i, helped the Northumbrians to expel the Danes, but the Britons, quarrelling with their 
 benefactor, invaded Scotland, were defeated, and as terms of peace ceded Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland to Gregory, and retired to Wales, about 880. Cumberland, in rebellion 
 iigsiinst Scotland, set up a king of its own, Dummaile. Edward, son of Athelstane (945) 
 laid waste the country, put out the eyes of Dummaile's two sons, and restored Cumberland 
 to Malcolm. 1001, Ethelred invaded Cumberland, because Malcolm, its prince, son of King 
 Kenneth (the Scottish king's eldest son was Prince of Cumberland, as ours is Prince 
 of Wales) had not paid his quota of tribute to the Danes ; Canute confirmed the county to 
 the Scot on condition of homage, agreed to by Duncan, " gracious Duncan," after a struggle ; 
 and young Malcolm, after Duncan's murder by Macbeth, took refuge in his own princi- 
 pality, Edward the Confessor gave it to Seward, Earl of Northumberland, and William the 
 Conqueror, offended at Scottish hospitality to Saxon refugees, took the county into his own 
 hands, and made a grant of it to Ranulph de Meschines, our old friend of Westmoreland. 
 LYSON'S Mitijiut llrit'iniiin. 
 
 xxxvii
 
 Till; LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 never had a ploughshare through it." When Henry III. came to the throne, 
 Scotland demanded back her counties, and Henry, to put off a demand for 
 the moment inconvenient, gave as much land as was worth 200/. about Penrith 
 and Sowerby ; but took it back again directly, and the Border wars went on, 
 as they had been going on for centuries before. 
 
 It was Edward I. that put the Border service into its first reasonable 
 shape. He made Lord Robert de Clifford (1296) first Lord Warden of the 
 Marshes, with full power to execute summary vengeance strict and stern on 
 all offenders. That terrible but needful law of "hot trod" was a mutual 
 convention between the peaceable parts of the two kingdoms ; the permission 
 of pursuit for six days, into the opposite realm, of all moss troopers, rievers, 
 black mailsrnen, thieves, and other offenders, with horn and hound, with hue 
 and cry, hunting them with blood hounds, the sleuth or slough dogs trained 
 and kept for that purpose. But it was not till the time of Queen Anne 
 that these border violences died finally away, for all that there had been a 
 common king for three generations before her. Great names, 39 though, are 
 associated with those lawless times. The Grahams, the Howards, and the 
 Dacres, Musgrave and Eeatherstonhaugh, even Richard Coldale, or Dick o' 
 the Cow, that border guerilla and partisan of Lord Scroop of Greystoke, so 
 dreaded by all naughty children, but lying peacefully now in Penrith church ; 
 
 39 Fuller's Worthies grants but few notabilities to our lake land. Of saints we have 
 but " Herebert, Priest and Confessor," and Saint Abricke, belonging to Carlisle, whose 
 soul another hermit saw " ascend to heaven " as it were in a spherical form of a burning 
 wind, " but we listen unto it as unto wind." He was of very little value anyhow, for he 
 did not more macerate himself with constant fasting than time since hath consumed his 
 memory, which hath reduced it to nothing more than the scelleton of his name, without any 
 historical passages of flesh to fill up the same." Of martyrs in Queen Mary's time nom ; 
 because of our being " mezzell'd in ignorance and superstition ; " of worthies, only Edmund 
 Grindall, of St. Bees, Sir Richard Hutton, " bom at Penrith, of a worshipful family," and 
 called by Charles " the honest judge," " Sir John Banks, of Keswick, another judge in 
 Charles' time ; and John Skelton, the ribald poet king s orator, and poet laureate to 
 Henry VIII., called by Erasmus, Britannicarum Literarum Lumen et Decus. " Indeed 
 he had Sclmlnrxliip enough, and Wit too much ; seeing one saith truly of him, Ejus serum 
 salsus in mordaorin, risus in opprobrium, jocus in amaritudinem. Yet was his satyrical wit 
 unhappy to light on three Noli me tatujcres : vi/., the rod of a sehoolmtixtfi; the mulx of 
 l-'ri'irx, and tin; nip of a Cardinal : " the schoolmaster Lilley, the Dominican Friars, and 
 Cardinal \\'O!N y Alil.ot Islip protected him in Westminster sanctuary, where he died. 
 June 21, 1529. And these are all the old author and philosopher allows us. 
 
 xxxviii
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 Naworth and Corby and Netherby, 40 Lyddal 41 and Greystoke, they are all like 
 snatches of border song in their very sound ; and who cannot realize a whole 
 volume of rude poetry in such names as Clym o' the Clough, and Wyllyam 
 of Cloudesle ? 
 
 Part of the Border service consisted in the firing of beacons 42 at certain 
 places, when the tenants were obliged to attend their lord for forty days 
 against the Scots at their own expense ; some holding by nag tenements 
 (the Manor of Bewcastle was all held by nag tenement), obliged to furnish 
 a certain number of horses, or themselves to attend on horseback ; others by 
 foot tenement, which involved only footmen or individual personal service, 
 as the value of the holding might require. 
 
 Many a castle rose on Cumberland ground, strong and sturdy, if not 
 rich and ornamented ; 43 bonny Carlisle, Naworth and Dacre and Brougham, 
 
 40 About two miles from Netherby, is a strong entrenchment, called LiddaTs Strength, 
 or the Mote, on a lofty and steep cliff, commanding a vast extent of country. At one end 
 is a high mount ; in the middle is the foundation of a square building. On the weakest 
 side it is strongly entrenched, having a sort of half moon before it, with a vast foss ; its 
 form is circular. " This," says Leland, " was the moted place of a gentilman cawled Syr 
 Walter Seleby, the which was kylled there, and the place destroyed yn King Edward the 
 Thyrde time, when the Scottes went to Dyrham." It was taken by storm by David the 
 Second, who caused the two sons of Sir Walter to be strangled before their father's face, 
 and then commanded their parent to be beheaded. Netherby was also a Roman station, by 
 name Castra Exploratorum. 
 
 41 The Barony of Lyddal was given by Ranulph de Meschines to his dependant 
 Turgent Brundey, part of Arthuret going with it. 
 
 4 * The beacons stations in Cumberland were Black Combe, Bootle, Muncaster Fell, 
 St. Bees Head, Workington Hill, Moothay, Skiddaw, Sandal Top, Carlisle Castle, Lingy- 
 Close Head, Beacon Hill, Penrith, Dale Raughton, Brampton Mote, and Spade Adam Top. 
 In Westmoreland, they were Stanemore Top, Ortoii Scar, Farleton Knot, Whinfell Fell, 
 mid Hard Knot. Orton Scar is famous for dottrels, and all manner of wild fowl, and has 
 a tarn Sunbiggin Tarn full of char and trout. 
 
 43 " This county pretendeth not to the mode of Reformed Architecture, the vicinity of the 
 Scots causing them to build rather for strength than state. The Cathedral of Carlisle may 
 pass for the emblem of the Militant Church, Mack, but comely, still bearing in the complexion 
 thereof the remaining signs of its former bunnmj. Rose Castle, the Bishop's best Seat, hath 
 lately the Hose therein withered, and the prickles, in the ruins thereof, only remain. The 
 houses of the Nobility and Gently are generally built Castle-wise ; and in the time of the 
 Romans, this country (because a L im itary) did abound with Fortifications; Mr. Camden 
 inking notice of more Antiquities in Cumberland and Westmoreland, than in all England 
 beside." FULLER'S Worthies. 
 
 xxxix
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Penrith and Corby, and Cockermouth, Rose, and the fortress of Kirkoswald, 41 
 and many more, if strength of wall and wealth of arms might be held to 
 constitute a stronghold ; but if there were castles for the defence of bodies, 
 there were prayer-houses for the salvation of souls, and when the dissolution 
 of the religious houses was ordained, Cumberland had not a few in the list. 
 There was Wetheral Priory, founded by Ranulph de Meschines for the 
 Benedictines, or Black monks ; annual value in 1539, 130L ; and the Nunnery, 
 for the Benedictine nuns, which William Rufus founded, and which, at the 
 time of the dissolution, held one prioress and three nuns, and its rent-roll 
 was but a poor eighteen guineas yearly ; and there was Skelwith Abbey, 
 belonging to the Knights Templars; and Abbey Holm, or Holme Cultram, 
 a Cistercian monastery of the yearly value of 5271. 3s. Id. This was the- 
 monastery where the chancel of the chapel was burnt by means of a jackdaw's 
 nest. And there was Calder Abbey, which Ranulph de Meschines also 
 founded, worth 64L 3s. 9d. ; and Lanercost Priory, an Augustine monastery, 
 worth 791. 19s. ; and the episcopal chapter of St. Austin, at Carlisle, the 
 only one of its order in England, worth 513L ; and the priory of the same, 
 worth 418?., and rich in relics, having a bone of St. Peter, and another of 
 St. John the Baptist, two stones from the Blessed Sepulchre, and a bit of 
 the Holy Cross, for the edification of true believers. 
 
 Ah ! but better gifts than these has old Cumberland ! the gift of 
 loveliness girt with power, of health on its moors, of freedom on its hills ; 
 the gift of bravery and of manhood, of beauty and of strength, of self- 
 respect which knows nothing of servility, of justice that is honest though 
 not lavish, of truth that is straight if not smooth GOD'S better gifts than 
 monkish relics to the men and women of the lakes and mountains to the 
 dwellers in the loveliest homes of England ! 
 
 44 The weapon with which Hugh de Morville slew, or rather helped to slay, Thomas 
 A'Becket, was Ion*,' preserved as a precious relic in the fortress of Kirk-Oswald ; which does 
 not look much like the assassin's remorse.
 
 WINDEBMEBE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ONE of the most noticeable features of the lake district is the broad tract of 
 poor land which lies like a way of separation between the loveliness hidden 
 behind the hills, and the more generous beauty of the plains. If you trace 
 on the map the boundaries of this district, rarely will you find the mountains 
 flowing down into richness and fertility on the outer side, but generally 
 subsiding into barren moors and impracticable fells : generally, though not 
 always, this broad way of desolation between the grandeur of the hills, 
 
 i B
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 with the heart of loveliness within, and the generosity of the plains. And 
 so it is that from Lancaster, which may be taken as the gateway of 
 the lake district, the country has been gradually getting more rugged and 
 less populous as it runs up towards the mountains. Past Oxenholme and 
 Kendal 1 the only human habitations are scattered fell-side hamlets, bleak 
 and bare, where one wonders what the people find to do, and how they 
 live, and what their pleasures and emotions, and what their special uses to 
 the world at large. The laud is poor, with stones lying thick among the 
 voung crops and over the coarse grass; the railway cuttings cleave clean 
 through the solid rock ; bare stone walls, instead of hedges, mark the 
 boundaries of the fields and properties ; streams as bright as crystal, but 
 streams with no fertility in them mere brawling expressions of the waste 
 and wet of the place break in all directions over beds of rock and pebble ; 
 the country on either side gets wilder and rougher, the houses fewer and 
 of still poorer character, the masses of yellow broom and golden gorse and 
 trailing wealth of briar yet more lovely in their contrast with the grey 
 boulders breaking out through the green grass, but yet more eloquent of 
 the poverty they adorn ; the crags and fells are steeper, more jagged, and 
 more inhospitable ; till, as you steam rapidly on, the dim blue outlines, 
 
 1 The lake country may be entered by the traveller from the south, either at Carnforth, 
 taking the branch line from Ulverston, on the other side of Morecambe Bay, to Coniston ; 
 or at Oxenholme Junction, for Kendal and Windermere. The latter is, perhaps, the better 
 way, as Windermere, being the largest and therefore the most important of the lakes, claims 
 priority of notice ; and also, because of its tamer character, ought to be seen before the 
 wilder and more romantic. Before railway times, travellers generally went across the sands 
 at the head of Morecambe Bay, which Wordsworth told Mrs. Hemans he thought the finest 
 entrance. Leland, in his Laboriouse Journey and Searchefor England's Antiquities Geven 
 of hym at a New Yeare't Oyfte to King Henry VIII., says : " If I had kept the by Shore 
 Way from Lancastre to Cumbreland, I should have gone by Cartemaile Sand, wher a fresch 
 W;iter doth cum a vii Myles ; to Conyhed Sande, whither a River resortith, a viij Miles ; to 
 Dudden Sandes, wither a River resortith a iiii Miles ; Furnis Abbay up in the Mountaines 
 a iiii Miles off. A ii Mile from Lancastre the Cuntcri began to be stony, and a little to wax 
 MontAinions."
 
 WINDERMERE. 
 
 first seen like darker clouds in the distance across the glistening breadth 
 of Morecanibe Bay, and which you have been Watching lovingly since you 
 left Kendal behind you, assume definite form and stability, and soon you 
 recognize Wetherlam and Coniston Old Man others coming out from the 
 clouds and unfolding themselves in turn as you rush on. And now the 
 sunlight catches the surface of a small shining tract far to the left; in half 
 a minute more, you see another shining glimpse under the wooded banks 
 of Heald Brow ; and then you draw breath at the station, full in the 
 narrow valley, and WINDERMERE, the first of the lakes, lies like a dream 
 of Eden at your feet. 
 
 Say that it is a May morning when you stand on the green height just 
 above the Elleray Woods ; where, being so close to the hotel, as well as 
 giving one of the best views of the lake, you, like all visitors, make your 
 initiatory walk. The early mists are hanging in slender wreaths about 
 Heald Brow and through the Calgarth Woods, rising up in rounder and 
 more cloudlike forms from the lake which they leave calm and black below, 
 and heaped in broken masses all along the glorious line made by the Old 
 Man and Wetherlam, Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, and the Pikes, up to the 
 denser cluster behind Ambleside. But though it is the middle of May, 
 the spring you left behind in London fully matured you find here shy and 
 tender and undeveloped. The oaks are mere sprinklings of golden beads 
 threaded through with their darker stems ; the ash is unclothed, with 
 naked branches bare as in winter ; but the mountain-ash the quicken 
 or rowan has put out leaves and flowers both, and is as rich in scent 
 and blossom as the dogwood, or the bird-cherry, or the flowery spikes of 
 the laurel growing everywhere so luxuriantly. The copper beeches are brave 
 in their first flush of crimson or more sullen purple, and the golden 
 fringe of the Scotch fir is as beautiful as if the tree hung laden with 
 flowers ; the spruce-fir is reddened with the tender blush of its young 
 cones, and the hawthorn, which is just beginning to blossom, is reddened 
 too, as if its stems and leaf- veins were quickened with crimson blood. 
 
 ;< 2
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Amoug all this richness of colour the cold grey-green of the willow looks 
 wan and ghastly, and the heavy gloom of the yew-trees, of the junipers 
 and the hollies, becomes black by force of contrast ; but the drooping 
 plumes of the larch, and the dainty leaflets of the silver birch, the full 
 given and rounded symmetry of the sycamores, and the golden bursts of 
 broom among the young elms and hazels, tell with increased force ; and 
 not even in the gorgeous autumn are the lake-side woods so full of beauty 
 as they are in the fresh young spring never do they so gloriously enframe 
 that long blue line of water lying between them, " wooded Winandermere, 
 the river-lake." For this is the characteristic of Windermere : its narrow 
 length filling up the valley, and leaving little margin between it and the 
 feet of the fells ; so that, for the most part, it is feathered with wood down 
 to its brink, and only at its head, where the Bydal Valley begins, are there 
 broad spaces of cultivated ground, or level fields for grass and corn. 
 
 But now you must come down from your breezy height, where the air 
 blows fresh and strong, full of sweet wood-scents, and with a power of 
 manhood in it, of health and vigour, only to be had from mountain air ; 
 and, leaving the walls fencing in a higher head the tufts of primroses 
 among the roots of the trees the shining tract studded with islands and 
 broken by promontories below and the 
 everlasting hills above and around you 
 wind through the Elleray Woods again ; 
 passing by the small, low cottage where 
 Professor Wilson first lived, and which 
 is now half hidden by a grand old syca- 
 more; then by his later and more sightly, 
 if less picturesque, home; and on by trim, 
 lu.me-kept, shrubbery paths, to the high road and the grey, half-Swiss, 
 half-Elizabethan, houses in and about the new village of Windermere. 
 
 Here everything is modern, wealthy, and well adapted. Natural 
 arc made the most of, and natural beauties respected; becoming
 
 WINDERMERE. 
 
 sites are chosen for mansions fitted for people of deep purses and liberal 
 education ; a fine old tree is left standing, perhaps even fenced round with 
 rustic palings, if it accords well with the newer building ; a rough ledge 
 of rock is incorporated into the garden wall ; and wild flowers are sedu- 
 lously planted on gate-post toppings, on wall copings, and against garden 
 boundaries, to give an air of country -bred simplicity to the whole ; but 
 it is all a wildness creditably laid out nature under the tuition of a land- 
 scape gardener, smoothed and combed and daintily trimmed Wordsworth's 
 mountain child with a perpetual Sunday frock on, and curls newly taken 
 out of paper. 
 
 Bowness, 2 which all writers agree to call the " port of Windermere," 3 is 
 
 2 Called Bulness (Bull's Nose or Promontory) so late as 1814. Gilpiii speaks of it 
 rather grandly as " the great mart for fish and charcoal," " its harbour crowded with vessels 
 of various kinds." It was to tliis same Windermere, or Wonwaldremere, according to the 
 Melrose Chronicle, that " Ethred, King of the Northerns, in the year 792, convoyed Elf and 
 Edwin, the sons of King Elfwold, prisoners from York, and assassinated them." 
 
 3 There were some strange misapprehensions of this lake in old time. Camden, quoted 
 by Cony, speaks of it as " paved with one continued rock," whereas the bottom is for the 
 most part' soft mud, save just across the head, where was the supposed Roman harbour for 
 the camp : and as " wonderfully deep or unfathomable, as the neighbouring inhabitants 
 informed me" its greatest depth being not quite forty fathoms ; but he speaks truly, even 
 for this day, when saying that it is " abounding with chare, a golden Alpine trout." These 
 char the speciality of our lakes " are of two sorts, called by some, from their colour, the 
 xilrer and the golden char, and, by others, from a supposed anomaly that each breeding fish 
 only spawns once in two years, the case char and the gilt char, the latter being thought the 
 same as the silver char, and only retaining its name for the year that it is barren : it is 
 accounted the most delicious, and is baked and sent in pots to London. A Winandemiere 
 char ' is near twice the size of a herring. Its back is of an olive green, its belly of a light 
 vermilion, softening in some parts into \vliite, and changing into a deep red at the injection 
 of the fins.' The fishery of the lake is divided into three cables, as they were called in 
 Machel's time but now cubbies. The first, or high cable, reaches from the Waterhead 
 to the char bed half a mile above Calgarth ; the middle, from thence to below the ferry ; 
 and the low cable, from below the ferry to Newby Bridge. In each cubble arc four 
 fisheries. The rector has a right to a pleasure boat, and so much a boat in lieu of 
 his tithe fish." Beauties <>f W'csUnorcland, and some others. 
 
 5
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 simpler and more old-fashioned; and, beyond Bowness again, over Cartmell 
 Fells towards Newby Bridge, nature is left natural, and habitations are made 
 picturesque by accident by the loving grace of growing wood and crumbling 
 crag, and not by the scholarly tuition of a landscape gardener understanding 
 the rules of art. The road from Bowness to Ambleside is one of the most 
 beautiful in the neighbourhood ; but there is nothing in the little village itself 
 to call for much attention, excepting first, the old weather-stained church, 
 with its shabby-looking cottage-like aisle windows, and its chancel panes of 
 painted glass from Furness, its prelatic tomb, more unpretending than many 
 a city shopman's, its belt of yews, and primitive lych-gate ; next, on the way 
 to the Ferry Nab, the old parsonage the very ideal of a parsonage with its 
 chimnied porch overgrown with ivy and large enough for a village assembly to 
 be held in it ; and, last, the breezy point of the Ferry Nab itself, with its 
 ghost story of the Crier of Claife in the quarry behind, and its beautiful 
 panorama all round. 
 
 Here, if you want to cross, you stand and call a boat, which comes to you 
 from the ferry-house opposite ; meanwhile you may, if you are fortunate, catch 
 a glimpse of some rare bird skimming over the water, or fluttering uneasily 
 through the woods; or you may sketch the beauty of that little islet of 
 Crow Holm, which is now a mere golden boss like a gigantic tuft of moss on 
 the water; or you may admire the sycamores and snow-white cherry-trees 
 behind the ferry -house ; or you may wander back a little way on the ferny road 
 to Kendal for the ferry is part of the highway between Kendal and Hawks- 
 head and jot down studies of rustic gates and stiles, and note the constantly 
 recurring effect of the line of grey stone wall against the golden green of the 
 woods. For the lake livery in the spring-time is gold and grey ; the gold of 
 the young oaks and the moss and the broom and the Scotch fir- shoots ; and 
 the grey of the stone houses, the stone walls, the boulders and great rocks 
 bared against the green, the blue-grey hills, and the soft grey clouds above 
 them all. Or else you may watch the steep road that goes up to Sawrey, over 
 the shoulder of Heald Brow opposite, winding through walls and flowery
 
 WINDERMERE. 
 
 hedges till it is lost between the hill and the sky ; or learn by heart 
 the names and aspects of the mountains clustered in increasing grandeur 
 at the head across that restless span of blue ever topped by the Pikes 
 which, in the misty mornings, look like two handfulls of unsubstantial dust 
 heaped up against the sky. Or you can turn your face to the foot of the 
 lake, and see how the hills slide off into mere slopes and fells, till finally they 
 slide away into railroads and plains and market-gardens and the lower 
 existence of the midlands, down to the roar and the tumult of the cities of the 
 south. And when you have done this, turn back again and thank GOD that 
 you are breathing mountain air, and that the waves of a north-country lake 
 are at your feet. If you want no ferry-boat, fill your hands with globe-flowers 
 and marsh-marigolds, and then go back through the woods and the fields and 
 the village, and by the Lower-road to Amble side. 
 
 Your way lies between stone walls golden-brown with moss, the earth coping 
 besprinkled with its auburn-coloured filaments and the pale mountain speed- 
 well, and the base bestarred with stitch wort and blue bird's-eye, the yellow 
 pimpernel and the deep pink flowerets of the wild geranium. To the left 
 lies the lake, and beyond it rise the blue tops of the higher mountains; 
 Wetherlam and Bowfell heading the lower sweep of Heald Brow ; with changing 
 vistas of yet more distant hills caught as the road winds on. Mountain 
 streams set in a broad margin of wild garlic " ramps," as it is called 
 here so dainty to see and so evil to touch, rush through the wood on your 
 right; the close-growing small-leaved ivy clothes the walls and tree-stems 
 with a mantle of green ; arcades of beeches overhang the road ; on either side 
 are woods with oak and pine and the waving larch, black firs, flowering 
 garden bushes, and sycamores of the true emerald green ; stone steps and 
 walks, as in a private park, lead through groves and fields, making short cuts 
 to houses on the upper road; the trees are fountains of sound with the 
 rustling of the leaves and the varied song of the birds ; here the round head 
 and back of a green knoll hides all the view there the mountains are caught 
 in broken outline and the water glances like silver through the fretwork of the 
 
 7
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 leaves and stems; and now a full burst of lake and hill breaks across a 
 level meadow dotted with milk-white lambs just yeaned, where a singing little 
 brook winds its way through the grass to the great water. And so over Millar 
 Brow and on towards Ambleside. 
 
 By a wayside publichouse, where an old fir stretches its branches across the 
 road and where a cottage, with high steps leading up to the door and twin 
 rhi umeys covered with ivy, of which a trailing wreath swings to and fro in 
 the wind, makes a pretty sketch for an artist's album, you hear the sound 
 of water. Turn into a field at the left, clamber over a stone wall into a 
 pleasant copse, and you will find yourself by the side of the river which 
 comes down from Troutbeck Valley : the Troutbeck all above that long 
 low-spanned bridge, but the Calgarth river below, and till it runs into the 
 
 lake. They are felling and barking some of 
 the young saplings in the copse, and these 
 have fallen into strange shapes their white 
 limbs branching out like stags' antlers, 
 though some of them are more like ante- 
 diluvian monsters, pterodactyles and bony 
 
 beasts with multitudinous legs ; but the smell of the bark is full of aromatic 
 freshness, and you can sketch the poor naked monsters pleasantly. For there 
 is an old tree with a moss-covered seat in the parted root, where you may 
 
 TROTJTBECX BRIDGE
 
 WINDEHMERE. 
 
 sit for a long summer's hour looking at the branches dipping into the stream, 
 and the mayflies flitting on the water, and the shy fish, so full of mystery 
 and haste, gliding among the stones, and the water rippling about the rocks ; 
 watching the restless waves with that infinite yearning it may be with those 
 infinite memories and regrets which the flow of a river always creates. 
 
 Returning to the highway the ground becomes more undulating, and belts 
 of trees follow the undulations. Stone is quarried out of the road-side for 
 road mending, and parish paupers sit hammering at the granite piled in heaps 
 by the way. A castle, a hideous modern sham, is seen on the fell across 
 the lake, disfiguring the height (Low Wray) on which it stands ; the Calgarth 
 Woods, (in old deeds, the Calfgarth Woods,) planted by Bishop Watson, the 
 Bishop of LlandafF he whose plain, flat tombstone is in Bowness churchyard 
 continue on the left ; pleasant turns are in the road, and the scenery 
 becomes wilder and yet more beautiful. In front stands Wansfell Pike by 
 which a steep road leads up to Troutbeck Valley ; and immediately beyond is 
 Low- wood. But before you halt there, go up that steep Troutbeck road to the 
 right, to get a better view of the lake the view given at the head of the 
 chapter. The first mountain to the left, half hidden by the trees, is Coniston 
 Old Man ; Wetherlam is over Heald Brow, Crinkle Crags following and the 
 Pike o' Bliscow below ; yet more to the right and in front is Lingmoor the 
 round boll ; above it, in the extreme distance, Scawfell Pike ; to the right, 
 seeming higher but only seeming Bowfell ; then, Hanging Knot, Great 
 End, and Glaramara. The lowest dip to the right of the mountain next 
 to Glaramara is the Stake Pass, leading from Langdale into Borrowdale ; 
 Langdale Pikes the Pike o' Stickle, and Harrison Stickle come next, with 
 the depression of Pavey Ark to the right ; and yet more to the right is 
 Easedale Head, with Loughrigg Fell in front. 
 
 The lake is at its widest here at Low-wood, broadening to a full mile 
 across to Pullwyke Bay where the waterlilies grow and the lily of the valley 
 is in the woods beside the shore ; and which is a long ferry towards 
 Collision ; and, just beyond, the road goes close down to the water's edgo, 
 
 9 r
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 mid winds and turns with it. And what a road ! Fringed with beeches 
 dropping their golden buds quite into the ripple globe flowers and marsh 
 marigolds gilding the grey stones little promontories jutting out, and deep 
 l>:tys indented here a wall built up against the further encroachments of the 
 lake there a broken bit of sedgy shore, wooded and flowery twisted roots 
 of trees lying bared like snakes in the water and at every ten yards the 
 aspect of the whole scene changing was there ever such a way of travel set 
 before man for his enticement and delight ? There is not a more lovely 
 bit of coach road than this through the entire breadth of England. Sometimes 
 the Pikes are wholly lost, and sometimes the road turns to the foot where 
 the hills go oiF into plains and the lake joins the sky ; and sometimes there 
 is nothing but a screen of golden oaks standing out against the slaty sky 
 and slaty water, while the waves ripple and splash musically on the beach, 
 and the birds sing from the wooded bank, thick with undergrowth and white 
 with wind-flowers, to the right. Now you pass Doves-nest, where Mrs. Hemans 
 lived, with its cropped hedge, and wealth of yellow poppy about the garden 
 gate ; and you meet, perhaps, a scattered body of otter hounds, a characteristic 
 of the country, headed by a group of broad-shouldered, light-haired men in 
 velveteen and fustian, talking racy Westmoreland and smacking their whips 
 noisily as they pass; or a couple of rough -mannered lads from the farther 
 fells or lonely dales drive by in a small cart filled with frightened lambs ; and 
 then comes the last reach, and again you are turned to the foot of the lake, 
 with Ambleside 4 behind you. 
 
 Now you see the glitter of a shining stream on Brow to the left, and some 
 white houses (Clappcrsgate) clustered on the side of Loughrigg Fell: now 
 
 4 Aiiilili->iik- only since Queen Elizabeth's time. In the Boundary roll of Rydal, 1273, 
 Ainlili-siilo is called Amelsate, and had a park ; after then it was Hamelside, Amylside, and 
 A in. Nidi:. James the Second granted to Ambleside a weekly market on Wednesdays ; two 
 fairs one, the Cow Fair, on Whit Monday ; and another, the Tip Fair, for long horns and 
 tups ; also a Court of Pie powder. It is a common saying that often the market begins at 
 twi-lvo and ends at noon. Here is also the pretty ceremony of rushbcaring, but flowers arc 
 IHI\V substituted for the undent rushes, with better effect. 
 
 10
 
 WIND ERM ERE. 
 
 you are at the tollgate, and copper beeches and stone houses thicken before 
 you, and the rich woods get richer, and the gardens are trimmer and the 
 fields are greener : now you are at Waterhead, and the lake dwindles into a 
 mere tarn : and then, in a few steps more, you are in the quaint, steep, 
 clustered streets of Ambleside, under the lee of Wansfell Pike, and just at 
 the entrance of Rydal Valley. And the first rich lake-country walk is ended. 
 
 NBA.B DOVES-NEST LOOKING BACK 
 
 It was a cold, chill day when we took boat at Waterhead for a row on 
 the lake. The sky was partially covered by sullen-looking clouds, though 
 flashes of angry sunlight broke in between, bringing out into all varied shapes 
 of rock and crag the dim and indefinite grey masses which else showed nothing 
 of their true forms. It was thundery in the distance, and copper-coloured 
 edges and fiery spaces tinged the nearer clouds, while darker masses, swollen 
 and purpled, hung above the farther mountains ; but we disregarded these 
 signs, and pulled out of Waterhead Bay too rich in joy to count the probable 
 cost. Streaks of light quivered across the water, or the shadows of the coming- 
 gusts darkened the waves as they passed; and every now and then a pale, 
 watery ray dashed a line of yellow light across a mountain top or struck a 
 
 11 c 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNT KY. 
 
 distant reach of lake, throwing all else into colder gloom by the contrast. 
 The houses looked marvellously picturesque, scattered on the hills and by 
 the lake side. One was set like a jewel in an enamelled framework of black 
 and gold against its background of fir and oak ; another was almost hidden 
 behind green sycamores and beeches ; a third stood like an Italian convent, 
 declared and aspiring, high up on the treeless mountain side; and a fourth 
 clung to a wooded crag, where it seemed to have scarcely room to root itself 
 upon the jagged ledge : wherever they were they had a special beauty of their 
 own, and seemed to be in the most fitting spot that could have been chosen ; 
 this peculiar gift of adaptability belonging to lake-side and mountain houses 
 generally, and only to be spoiled by an architecture of violent unsightliness. 
 
 We pulled round to the mouth of the Brathay, 5 which divides Westmore- 
 land from Lancashire, and which was one of the boundaries of the old Lord- 
 ship of Furness; 6 and we passed the "Brathay rocks" little wave- washed 
 rock-bases for a clustering of firs and a fair-set mansion backed by wood and 
 fell, with its lawn sloping down to the water and its group of children among 
 the trees their scarlet cloaks, and frocks of vivid blue, coming out powerfully 
 
 * The Brathay comes from the Great and Little Langdale becks, and the thousand rills of 
 that lofty mountain-group up by Langdale head its farthest source, perhaps, the stream on 
 the top of the Stake Pass forming Elterwater, at the foot of Lingmoor, by the way : from 
 Eltenvater, whence it is the Brathay proper, flowing on by Skelwith to where it meets the 
 liothay at Three-foot Brandreth, in the fields just beyond Ambleside. The Rothay comes 
 out of the Grasmere and Hydal becks receiving the waters of Stockghyll and Scandale 
 Becks by the way to where it merges into the Brathay. But though the two rivers join 
 before they pour into the lake, no one yet knows why the char, Camden's " golden alpine 
 trout," always go up the Brathay, and the trout up the B^thay, at spawning time ; and 
 why never, by any chance, do they miss their way or change their routes. 
 
 6 Though not included in the Lordship, yet the Lake of Windennere was put to pleasant 
 HM->. sis well as to pious ones, by the monks of the old abbey. They had too many patrons 
 and beiieiiii-tors aimmg the laity not to get all they wanted. William de Lancastre III., 
 " for the health of liis soul and the soul of Agnes de Brus, his 'wife, gave the monks of 
 1'u rues one boat to be used on Wyuandermere for the carriage of timber and other 
 commodities, and one other boat to fish in that mere one boat and twenty nets." 
 
 1-2
 
 WINDERMERE. 
 
 as points of colour in the landscape ; and we went into the recesses of two or 
 three little bays ; and by a rocky islet Seamew's Crag just big enough for 
 a small party of seamews to alight on ; and then to Pullwyke Bay, opposite 
 Low-wood a rich and gracious harbour of wooded loveliness. Pull Scar is 
 behind the bay a low rough crag ; and behind Pull Scar is Bowfell, and, 
 more to the left, Latterbarrow, making a long soft line to the Ferry House, 
 with a lake-side road passing over it. And on Pull Scar is one lonely white 
 house placed high on the fell; and the name of that house is the "Drunken 
 Duck " (Drook'n Dook, if spelling went by phonography), and the mission of 
 that house is beer. 
 
 On again, past the sham castle and its castellated boat-house on Low 
 Wray High Wray above, with the pretty river, the Wray, forming Blellam 
 Tarn on its way and in by Anthony Wilson's Bay, so called because one 
 Anthony Wilson once kept his boat there ; by meadows with their green 
 feet in the lake, and by small wind-worn trees on the tops of small wave- 
 worn crags ; by lines of grey stone wall and grey wood palings against the 
 green copsewoods ; with ever the crag and the fell and the moor, and the 
 tops of Wetherlam and the Old Man towering over Heald Brow, forming 
 the framework of the whole. But the intermediate mountains, and indeed 
 most of the hills, are strangely dwarfed seen from the breast of this long 
 and narrow lake. In the Belle Grange Woods with their wealth of silver 
 birch or "birk," their black plumed junipers which are so often miscalled 
 "savins," as sycamores are generally "maples," the lake-side road comes 
 creeping down to the water's edge: "up-bank" to Wray, " down -bank " to 
 the Ferry. And as we passed the sun flashed out in a sudden glare and 
 fell on the pretty island of Saint Mary, or Lady Holm, which once belonged 
 to Furness, and where, in the time of Henry VIII., was a chapel dedicated to 
 Our Lady and service duly performed, by a monk of Furness, within, but which, 
 since then, has passed from decay to total obliteration ; and that wild and 
 sudden sunlight almost dazzled us as it flashed full on another group of scarlet 
 cloaks sitting on a felled white tree, naked of its bark. Then we came to the 
 
 13
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Waterloo Gardens where the daffodils (" Lent lilies " or " flocks ") grow wild 
 for the universal colouring of Easter " pace eggs," 7 but where the most notice- 
 able thing at this present time was the crimson foam of apple blossom tossed 
 up over the wall : and full in front were Curwen's Isle 8 and all the smaller 
 islands 9 clustered like a band of broken jewels between the two promontories 
 of the Ferry House and the Ferry Nab. We landed at the Ferry House, 
 and struck off into the woods full of globe flowers by the lake side, and of 
 yellow poppies by the wood wall ; of hyacinths beneath the trees ; of the 
 
 7 A corruption of pasclie or paschal. 
 
 8 Once called Longholme, and, still more anciently, Wynandermere Island. " Amongst 
 the escheats in the 21 Edward III. there is an order, that the wood in the Island of 
 Wynander Mere, called Brendwood (that is, firewood, from the Saxon brennan, to burn), 
 shall not be several, but common to all the free tenants of Kirkby in Kendal, and of 
 Stirkland, Crosthwaite, Croke, and others, as well to depasture all their cattle, as to take 
 hausbote and heybote at their will, without view of the foresters." This island was the 
 scene of the famous siege which Major Robert Philipson Robin the Devil, by more 
 familiar baptism the Cavalier leader, withstood from Colonel Briggs, then Parliamentarian 
 major and magistrate at Kendal. Robin bore the press for ten days gallantly ; and then, 
 the siege of Carlisle being raised, his brother Huddleston Philipson, of Croke, the owner of 
 the property, got together a band of men, and relieved him. The next day, being Sunday, 
 Major Robert put himself at the head of a party of horse, and rode off to Kendal ; passed 
 the watch, and into the church, where he rode up one aisle and down another, looking for 
 liis enemy. But Colonel Briggs, by good hick to himself, had not attended church to-day, 
 so Robin rode out empty-handed, when the congregation, recovering from their stupor, made 
 a dash at him aa he passed out. One cut his saddle-girths, but paid for his act with his 
 life ; and then Robin, chipping the girthless saddle on to his horse, galloped off, slashing 
 liis way through the armed crowd ; and so got safely back to the island on the lake, more 
 than ever " Robin the Devil " after the feat. He was killed at the battle of Washford, in 
 Ireland. 
 
 9 There are ten in this centre group ; Rough Holm and Lady Holm, Hen, Hawse, and 
 Thompson's Holms, two Lily-of-the-Valley Holms, Curwen's Isle, and Crow Holm our 
 little golden boss and Berkshire Isle, somewhat lower down. Still more towards the foot, 
 and close in shore, are Ling Holm and Grass Holm, Silver Holm, and Blake Holm Island : 
 and up at the head are Seamew's Crag, Bee Holm, and Green Love ; but most of these are 
 only like small tufts of gold set in the steel plate of waters, scarcely to be called islands at 
 all : and some are only rocks. 
 
 14
 
 WINDERMERE. 
 
 curved crozier heads of the sprouting bracken ; of young foxglove spathes, 
 thick, downy, and as yet flowerless ; of tufts of mountain fern like Indians' 
 head-dresses ; of trailing brambles and yet more delicate sprays of wild- 
 raspberry ; of bird's-eye, blue and lustrous ; of violets and wood-sorrel ; of 
 lady's-mantles, green, gold-spotted ; of delicate wind-flowers and starry 
 stitchwort, full of all manner of sweet wood-flowers ; and then, returning, 
 we saw two large carts and two large horses put into the ferry-boat, which 
 a man nearly as large rowed leisurely across, according to the mode and 
 manner of the place. 
 
 The lake was bright but opaque; slaty where the lighter clouds were 
 reflected in it, steely where the darker. When the sun came out it glinted 
 on the waves in broken glitter and the shine was reflected in the water below ; 
 when there was no sun the under-side of the ripple was black. There was 
 no reflection to-day, save at the edges of the quietest and most deeply indented 
 bays, where the water was an olive-brown in which the trees looked blackened 
 masses without break or detail ; but the pebbles gleamed bright and many- 
 coloured, and the fish passed like streaks of light as they hurried over the 
 rocks and stones. Yet, save in these still bays, the whole lake was of a 
 dull, grey, troubled hue, and the flow of the waves was troubled too. But 
 now they got darker in the dip and whiter in the crest and deeper in the 
 curve. Up at the head of the lake black rain-clouds were gathered, with 
 ragged edges torn and trailing, blotting out the farther mountains and 
 throwing a smoke-coloured veil over the nearer. The water darkened and 
 rose under the wind, with a wilder clash in its stroke and a fiercer hurry 
 in its flow ; and the waves dashed against the boat which rocked and strained 
 at each blow, while the spray flew over us, and the curling crests broke down 
 the sides and swept across our feet. We were driven as if in a rapid stream, 
 the oars scarcely plied at all ; but the storm flew faster than we, and we were 
 soon overtaken. 
 
 We swirled on, past Storr's Point and the bobbin-mills at the mouth of 
 Cuusey Beck; Grass Holm, close to the bay, was passed, and another point,
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 scarcely discernible ; for now we could see neither hill nor wood ; the storm 
 had won the race, and we were in the midst of a wild waste of blinding rain 
 and stinging hail, of surging waves and sheeted mist. The mountains on 
 either side disappeared as by enchantment, and there was nothing in the 
 
 whole universe but our frail skiff far too frail for the lake and the lashed 
 waves leaping under the hail and the wind ; nothing but the tossing water 
 and the driving rain and the shroud of angry hail. In less than half an 
 hour the storm passed ; and then all the hills stood out in the sun as clear 
 and bright as if of glass, while the ghost-like wrath of cloud and mist hurried 
 on the sun shining on its back as it went, giving it the appearance of a 
 solid body. The wind passed with it, and the waves sank back into a network 
 of rippling lines, with just an under-swell heaving up from beneath in long 
 smooth curves, too smooth to break into crested edges. The woods glittered 
 and sparkled in the sun, each dripping branch a spray of golden light, and 
 the light was married to the loud music of the birds flowing out in rivulets 
 of song. Countless flies shot through the air and vibrated on the water, 
 and the fish leaped up to catch them, dimpling the shining surface with 
 concentric ripples and throwing up small jets of light in the smooth black 
 bays. Every crag and stone and line of waU and tuft of gorse was visible 
 on the nearer hills, where the colouring was intense and untranslateable ; and 
 on the more distant mountains we could see, as through a telescope, the 
 scars on the steeps, the slaty shingles and the straight cleavings down the 
 hides, the old grey watercourses threaded now with a silver line those silver
 
 WINDBRMER& 
 
 lines, after the storm, over all the craggy faces everywhere ; we could see 
 each green knoll set like an island among the grey boulders, each belt of 
 mountain wood, each purple rift, each shadowed pass ; slope and gully and 
 ghyll and scaur, we could count them all glistening in the sun or clear 
 and tender in the shade, while the sky was of a deep pure blue above, and 
 the cumulus clouds were gathered into masses, white and dazzling as marble, 
 and almost as solid-looking. 
 
 And over all, and on all, and lying in the heart of everything, warming, 
 creating, fashioning the dead matter into all lovely forms, and driving the 
 sweet juices like blood through the veins of the whole earth, shone the 
 glad sun, free, cloudless, loving life of the world's life, glory of its glory, 
 shaper and creator of its brightest beauty. Silver on the lake, gold in the 
 wood, purple over the hills, white and lazule in the heavens what infinite 
 splendour hanging through this narrow valley ! what a wealth of love and 
 beauty pouring out for the heart of all nature and the diviner soul of man ! 
 
 17
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MANY and beautiful are the walks about Ambleside : walks within a reason- 
 able distance for any fair pedestrian, and which all but very fine ladies, or very 
 delicate ones, may take without too much fatigue, and without risk or danger 
 if they are but moderately careful. First, there is Stockghyll Force, just 
 at the back of the town ; a rough unspoiled bit of rugged beauty, happily 
 for the lake-world scarcely able to be spoilt even by Improvers, so imprac- 
 ticable is it and so wild. 
 
 (her nx-ks and stones, brawling and leaping in its imprisoned strength, 
 the river rushes on in its mountain vigour past the bobbin-mill, where the 
 
 18
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 barked " stags' antlers " and " antediluvians " go, and where you may stand 
 on the narrow plank that does duty for a bridge, and, if you have lost any 
 one among the rocks, fancy you hear their groans behind you past the town, 
 and Miller-bridge just below the town, where it makes its last leap before sub- 
 siding, spent and dwindled, into the tranquil existence of the Rothay rippling 
 through the meadows to the lake. Traced up beyond the mill, following the 
 wild path of rock and running water and twisted tree-roots the rocks below 
 getting larger and more broken, the rift between them deeper and sharper 
 the roar of the waters louder, and the rush more fierce and rapid close 
 to where an old tree bends over the ravine, with its mossy roots thrust 
 through and through the pathway, while all its weight of stem and branches 
 is flung across the rift there you come upon the "loosening silver" of the 
 fall, with its forked double leap of seventy feet, and its thousand little 
 cataracts below. 
 
 In the centre, and splitting up into four what else would have been one 
 unbroken sheet, is the obstructing rock, its bordering of vivid green marking 
 the point to where the waters flow in fullest seasons, and its old scarred face 
 grey and naked in the centre. Down below the leap are quiet pools where 
 the water fairies live; and pools not quite so quiet which the passing rush 
 of the torrent disturbs if it does not penetrate ; and desolate wastes of 
 pebbles lying dry and many-coloured in the sun ; and rocks which the 
 water never wholly covers but is forced to leave midway, falling like a 
 mantle from their shoulders neither crowning nor concealing ; and others 
 over which it is just able to lip with an effort and an almost visible strain, 
 as of actual nerve and muscle, each wavelet seeming as if it must fall 
 back before it reaches the edge, but each finally conquering and fretting 
 painfully over; and others, with an unchanging crest of foam as the waters 
 dash on triumphantly, burying them body and soul beneath their flow, and 
 planting that crest of foam as a mark of their victory types, all three, of 
 the power of the will and its several degrees of conquest and tyranny in life. 
 Through the breaks in the wood may be seen the purple hills, and in the 
 
 19 D 2
 
 THE LAKE CorXTKY. 
 
 en-vices of the rock, wiudtiowers and young ferns; and, for those who luive 
 stout nerves, and know the pattern of the thing they seek, the pyrola media, 
 :i rare growth of the Winter-green, found only among the rocks in the centre 
 <>t' the fall. But for every one there are sweet spring-flowers in the sheltered 
 corners, and glimpses of the purple hills among the green. 
 
 On a clouded day, rock and river and hill beyond are all soft and tender 
 and subdued, with no angles or sharp outlines anywhere ; but when the 
 sun comes out, the hills look shimmery in the light and the waters are 
 blinding and gem-like ; and every pebble in the waste places, and every tuft 
 of moss or clinging lichen, every ehannel worn by the water, and every furrow 
 traced by the rain, is seen as distinctly as if it was a picture of mosaic work. 
 Indeed, the whole thing looks like mosaic ; meaning by that, startling 
 contrasts of colours and no continuity of sweep or shading, not even in the 
 line of the Fall itself. The Stock, which separates the parishes of Windermere 
 and Grasmere, comes chiefly from the barren heart of Red Screes up by 
 Kirkstoue Pass : a desolate birthplace for so beautiful an outcome ! Round 
 about both Force and Ghyll is a charming day's ramble, with just enough 
 of difficulty and danger l to delight a town-bred tourist, and put a fine white 
 feather in his mountain-cap. 
 
 The Force and Wansfell Pike may be "done" in succession. Properly 
 undertaken, this rather large grassy slope this moderate mountain of only one 
 thousand live hundred and ninety feet is nothing ; but, attempted up his 
 ridgy back and not along his softer shoulder, he is rather a tougher matter ; 
 still, not tough in absolutes, according to the law of mountain nature. As 
 you ascend, Red Screes comes out in rude majesty, the desolate way of Kirk- 
 stone Puss winding between him and .Broad End: Loughrigg, rich and 
 
 1 An. I VH tlinv is dimmer, especially to the rash and over-confident. A fine athletic 
 young man, in the very prime of his life and flower of his strength, lost Ms life at the Force 
 
 while \v.. wciv tlinv. J king for ferns, he overbalanced himself and fell dashed into 
 
 eternity in a Mnmd among the rocks. 
 
 20
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 beautiful, shows Silver How behind, apparently at the foot of Crinkle Crags ; 
 and between Crinkle Crags and Bowfell, Scawfell's steep head appears like a 
 dark point against the sky. You see the Kydal mountains, and where Ease- 
 dale lies behind the Pikes, and where the Stake Pass leads over Langdale to 
 Borrowdale. Then as you go higher, Rydal-mere comes into view ; and, a 
 little higher still, lying behind an intervening point of Loughrigg, Grasmere 
 water, looking as if it might be a continuation of the Rydal lake ; the Rothay 
 winds gently through the meadows, and Brathay comes down more masterfully 
 round by the foot of Loughrigg. 
 
 The sheep-dogs are gathering the sheep on the mountains ; and you will 
 probably meet an old Wordsworthian shepherd with his staff and shepherd's 
 hat, with whom you stop and talk not to much enlightenment of your 
 wits ; while the lambs wilfully lose themselves like wayward children, then 
 bleat passionately for rescue, and the sheep those most phlegmatic of all 
 living mothers answer with a temperate compassion, calmly confident in the 
 providence of lambs. A few cows are dotted about in beautiful ordering of 
 colours ; for the rich brown carries out the gold of the trees, and the slate- 
 colour goes into the blue of the sky, and the white comes out as high light 
 on the green, with much telling effect. On the fell itself you have to 
 encounter all manner of bogs of varying intensity of boghood; and if you 
 choose a way of your own, heedless of the authorized path, you must scale an 
 endless succession of stone walls, with such lightness of limb or heaviness of 
 muscle as nature and training ordain ; but, by time and patience and the 
 philosophy of never minding, the last barrier is scrambled over, the last bog 
 tramped through, and the last stiff bit overcome ; and then your labours are 
 rewarded. For suddenly you burst upon the lake lying below, with its 
 waistband of islands and its girdle of hills ; while far away to the right, out 
 against the sky, lies a broad line of golden light the sea and Duddon 
 sauds. To the left is tne winding thread of the Kent River ; to the right is 
 Esthwaite Valley Coniston and Black Combe beyond. Wrynose is next to 
 Wetherlam, and Scawfell stands up somewhat more distinctly than before, 
 
 21
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 but still only peeping over the shoulders of Bowfell. Blellam lies in the 
 ilip l>ehind Low Wray, and the Brathay Valley and Little Langdale steal up 
 and away into the mountains. The crags, which are so grand when you 
 stand below them, are now dwarfed to molehills; and beyond the 'head of 
 Kydal rises a troubled sea of mountains for all present use of indistinguishable 
 baptism. A steamer is on the lake, and the railroad is to the left, to remind 
 you that you are not quite alone with GOD and nature ; but that, down below, 
 the busy heart of man is toiling, and his hand is fighting, for toys and 
 gewgaws for which you, too, do your share of toil and turmoil in the great 
 battle-field of the world. 
 
 SWEDEN BRIDOB 
 
 By a pretty home-like road in the beginning, but soon going off into stones 
 and loneliness and rough walking, with a lovely view of Kydal-mere loveliest 
 when its waters are flushed with the burning sun on, in ever-increasing 
 wildness, till the music of a stream is heard from the depths of a wooded rift 
 far below wild crags about, and wilder clouds above there lies the Scandale 
 beck, tearing down that narrow gully called the Scandale valley. Every now 
 and then a glimpse of the waters down in the rift is to be had ; but the rough 
 road does not follow the .course of the stream very closely, and it is only when 
 bridge, which spans the stream higher up among the falls, is reached, 
 
 22
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 that a full view of its beauty can be had. But here is repayment for the long 
 rough walking among loose stones and over boggy places and through 
 uncounted mountain streams stretching across the path repayment for false 
 steps on slippery rocks, and for ancle-deep plunges into sweeping streams 
 repayment for even the heavy shower that has fallen between whiles by the 
 rich clusters of bird's-eye primrose starring the watery way, and by the beauty 
 of the scene. In front are the steep mountain sides without house or 
 tree, barren and bare save where stone walls enclose a greener plot 
 where sheep and cattle are feeding; and behind, is the wild torrent coming- 
 down by Kydal Head, and resting in a broad pool beneath the little bridge 
 before making its headlong journey onward. The stones are waterworn in 
 cups and hollows, honey-combed some of them and white as bleached bones ; 
 and the waters dash impetuously against them, with that restless look of force 
 imprisoned which a mountain stream always has ; and the little bridge itself is 
 one of the quaintest in the country. 
 
 Leaving the bridge to the left, you take a sheep-track which soon widens 
 
 out into a green lane between stone fences, through the treacherous swamps of 
 
 which, and its thousand rills bursting over on all sides, you walk to where the 
 
 lane ends and the living wall of mountain begins. For you come out literally 
 
 against a mountain ; face to face with a conical, steep, bare bank, flanked on 
 
 each side by banks still steeper and more bare, over which, however, you can 
 
 tind a path that will lead you down to Brother's Water and Kirkstone 
 
 Pass lying on the other side. Or rather you must make the path you will 
 
 not find. Through the one unending bog that it is, more especially if 
 
 after rain, up the steep ascent over the crags fording the streams 
 
 swollen to quite tumultuous torrents plashing through water all the 
 
 way to the small stretch of level ground on the top, granted as a breathing 
 
 space before the descent is begun this is what your expedition to Scandale 
 
 Beck may end in, if you are adventurous and brave. And now you must 
 
 clamber down as you best can. Barren screes, utterly unscaleable, hem you 
 
 in on both sides, so that you must needs find a way down this sharp descent, 
 
 23
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 for none other is to be had. And in time, by dint of courage and firm 
 tooting, you splash down as you splashed up, and drop into the Patterdale 
 road just above Brother's Water. 
 
 Calm and still lies this lonely lake at the foot of the Patterdale moun- 
 tains a lonely lake at the foot of lonely mountains, cut off from the rest 
 of the world, and of no account in the history of the time. The seagulls, 
 so often in sullen flight above the black waters, only add to the soli- 
 tude ; and seen for the first time, and unexpectedly, in the solemn grey 
 of evening, the place looks the very home of desolation, a witch-haunted 
 mere whence is no beyond and no return, and where life and hope are 
 caught like wandering children, and held imprisoned for ever. But now, 
 leaving Brother's Water behind, toil up Kirkstone Pass to where the Kirk 
 stones look like a ruined church in the distance, and the starry and the mossy 
 saxifrage are in long white lines by the wayside; up through unutterable 
 desolation to the highest inhabited house in England. From here the road 
 down to Ambleside lies between stone walls, which the parsley fern fringes 
 with its tender green. Wansfell, on the left, is gilded with the setting sun, 
 but old Ked Screes lies grimly in deep shadow ; scarred, furrowed with water- 
 courses where the winter torrents plough their way into the very heart of the 
 rock, barred with grey stone walls, and strewn with loose shingle and scattered 
 boulders. Down below lies Windermere, rich and calm, her lake-side moun- 
 tains, gentle hills, her islands specks, and all her blue expanse asleep 
 in the evening sun ; and the contrast between the wildness just passed 
 through, and this quietness beyond, is more than can be expressed 
 by words. Looks may tell it, and a few broken expressions the flush on 
 the cheek and the moisture in the eye; but no conceivable amount of 
 epithets, and no number of graven lines. Kirkstone is one of the first 
 passes to be seen. There are others wilder and steeper and grander, and 
 even more deserted of life ; but these are only footways, or at the best pony 
 paths for the strong-headed ; Kirkstone is a practicable ordinary coach road 
 a good, broad, substantial highway on which you may drive your carriage 
 
 24
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 and pair with ease ; but, perhaps without exception, the most desolate and 
 
 violently wild of all the coach - 
 roads in England. Turning 
 hack when well down the pass, 
 the white road is seen wind- 
 ing up in a long serpentine 
 track, sharper and sharper 
 in its curves and wilder in 
 its way as it nears the top, 
 as if going off to eternal 
 desolation and the end of all 
 human things. 
 
 In another walk you may take in order the Roman Station, the 
 Brathay, Loughrigg Tarn (" Diana's Looking-glass "), Elterwater, and 
 Loughrigg Fell ; a rich programme for a few hours' walking. This Station, 
 formerly held to he the Dictis of the Notitia, but which Wright says was 
 Alonae, in Camden's time " the carcase of an ancient city, with great 
 ruins of walls still remaining scattered about," and which others, later, 
 speak of as "a castrum, a parallelogram of 396 feet by 240 " is now 
 a ploughed field, with a slight depression in the centre, and a raised 
 slope all round; a formation still visible, though so many hundred years 
 have passed since it was first tilled and ploughed, and flattened by wind 
 and rain, yet even, to this day, evident to the most careless observer to 
 be something not usually met with in potato-fields. Signs of the ditch, 
 too, are traceable on one side ; as also a dark meandering track along the 
 meadow where the course of the Rothay was turned for the uses of the 
 camp ; and still across the head of the lake is the great square stone 
 pavement, as if for the foundation of a harbour the only bit of stone 
 bottom in the lake, the rest being mud. And, though no more gold 2 or 
 
 a In the Ifbraiy of the University of Oxford is a collection of coins found here, given 
 bv the Braithwaites.
 
 TIIK LAKK CorXTRY. 
 
 si her coins, rusty swords, brass eagles, sepulchral urns, or tesselatecl 
 pavements 3 are to be found, yet broken shards of red Roman pottery, 
 and bits of old Roman cement, and small fragments of freestone with 
 illegible inscriptions on them, are yet to be turned up ; and a careful and 
 thorough search would, doubtless, bring even more hidden treasure to light. 
 
 This station 4 was certainly, as Wordsworth says, established here as a 
 check on the passes of Kirkstone and Dunmail Raise, Hard Knot and 
 Wryuose ; whence the wild Brigantes sometimes came pouring down, waking 
 the Romans from their day-dreams, and making the old mountains echo 
 to sounds more discordant than the blare of the evening trumpet or the 
 song of the evening meal. How the Mariuses and the Manliuses must 
 have cursed their gods which sent them to such lonely places, away from 
 the blue skies, the vineyards and the olives, the gardens and the fountains, 
 of their own native Italy ! How they must have sighed for the pleasures 
 of Rome again ! for the amphitheatre and the gorgeous processions for 
 the games and the sacrifices and the pomp of imperial majesty for the 
 shining tresses of Julia and the perfumed robes of Lesbia for the love 
 and the glory, and the home more noble than all, with its matron and 
 its young citizens, left behind ! Little they cared for the stern beauty of 
 this desolate Brigantia, this land of wolves and wild beasts and men even 
 
 8 Curwen's island, too, had certain remains, showing that some Roman of taste 
 perhaps the officer in command had once made it his home, and had cared for it enough 
 to decorate and embellish it. For when, in 1774, a Mr. English rebuilt the house, " in 
 rutting a large drain on the west part of the building, to take away the wash from different 
 parts of it, into the lake, were found several pieces of lead and old iron, and a great number 
 of old bricks. About six feet deep they dug through several old drains, and a hearth WM 
 found in a perfect state. They found, at the same time, several pieces of old armour. Ir 
 I. -veiling the ground on the north of the building they dug through a beautiful pavement 
 curiously paved with pebbles of a small kind. They also dug through several curious 
 gravel walks." 
 
 4 One paved road, still traceable beneath its Iyer of mud, branched off from tliis 
 castrum to Keswick, by Grasmere; another to Patterdale, by Kirkstone, meeting the other 
 road on Iliuh Street, mid so on to Kciula nnd Eavonglass. 
 
 26
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 wilder than the beasts, where they were sent simply to subdue but in 
 nowise to enjoy ; little they noted of the march of the clouds or the 
 sunset triumphs in the sky, of the shadows lying softly on the summer 
 lake or the grandeur crowning the hoary heads of the winter crags : the 
 snow upheaped in fantastic shapes across the fells was only the pathway 
 of beasts of prey and stealthy-footed savages to them ; the depths of the 
 summer woods masked only death and danger, and a lurking Painted One 
 crouching behind the leaves, with fierce passions in his heart and murder 
 in his hand : they hid no softening influences of love and beauty in their 
 tender glades ; where now we wander thrilled to the soul by this mar- 
 vellous beauty, the Eoman soldier shivered with dismay or burned with 
 the lust for blood, as nature had given him a strong heart or a weak. 
 Britain was no Elysium for him in any district ; but in these northern 
 parts he foretasted the pains of hell and Hades, and, doubtless, put the 
 punishment to the account of his sins and the righteous anger of the gods. 
 And now this reviled Brigantia is the favourite love-temple of the king- 
 dom ; and more young lovers pass here into the gladness and security of 
 marriage, than Rome ever sent soldiers to curse their unlucky stars which 
 set them face to face with the desolation of the Brigantine lakes, and the 
 lonely savagery of the mountain passes. Times change : it is a thankful 
 echo and we change with them ! 
 
 From the station the road leads over the Rothay bridge, and on beneath 
 the fell, to the side of the Brathay dashing itself noisily among its rocks. 
 Very beautiful is the Brathay, gemmed with little islands of golden mari- 
 golds and " lucken go wans " (globe-flowers) set in the midst of its troubled 
 waters, as if they had dropped from heaven for the good of beauty alone 
 scarcely for the good of service ; very beautiful in its turbulence, in its richness, 
 in its wilfulness and wayward wanderings, and quite different to the meek and 
 tranquil Rothay, which has been tamed and pruned to a home and feminine 
 existence, while this wilder stream shakes the hand of man from his neck, 
 and rushes through the land bound only by the will of nature and the law 
 
 -.'7 E 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTHY. 
 
 of beauty. The two rivers are lilte the man's life and the woman's ; but they 
 meet in the quiet meadows at the end, and there flow, undivided, calm, and 
 strong, into the oblivion of the still greater life beyond. 
 
 Perched on a rock, its feet besprinkled with flowers and the mountain 
 wood clothing its sides, is the Brathay Church ; more like a church of the 
 old time than of the present, for the unwonted picturesqueness of its site 
 and the isolation in which it stands ; a beacon of the light rather than its 
 home calling not indwelling ; and below it is the bridge flung across the 
 stream under the dropping branches of the trees. "Winding beneath the 
 fell all green and gold and brown catching lake-like views of the river 
 now broadening out between its level banks you go forward into the new 
 valley opening before you Skelwith Valley, with the cleft Pikes seeming 
 at its head, but far beyond. Up a brant bit of road, and through a ragged 
 lane with a watercourse dribbling over the stones and a carpet of purple 
 butterwort to walk on, into a field blue with bird's-eye and crimsoned with 
 
 f red rattle, and there lies the tarn, sleepy and still, in the hollow of 
 u green grass basin. The water is absolutely unruffled, save where the leaping 
 tish sprinkle it with sprays and circlets of light ; and the grand old Pikes 
 are mirrored in it with a deeper purple in their shadows, while the gleam 
 of light that takes the edge of Scawfell and falls across the chasm 
 where Dungeon Ghyll is to be found, is translated into gold in its waters. 
 
 28
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 Dark banks of sullen clouds, touched into burning by the living sun, hang 
 above the hills, but far above and beyond them ; while the rays break through 
 the lighter "curl clouds" and pour down across the sky, till all the farther 
 mountain-heads are lost behind a veil of gilded mist, as if it were a film of 
 gold-dust between you and them. 
 
 Partly through woods rich in their spring scents, and partly through 
 the bounteous meadows, follow now the road to Skelwith Force, on the way 
 to Elterwater. A perfectly beautiful, if scarcely to be called a noble, Force, 
 this of Skelwith; beautiful rather for its accessories than in itself richer 
 in the chased setting than in the gem but lovely, as a fair woman is lovely 
 when her beauty is enhanced by grace. As the waters leap among the rocks 
 the sun shining on the fantastic sprays flung up into its face, or on the 
 white plumes of the cascades tossed down into the river the golden leaves 
 mirrored in the quiet pools and the green wood throbbing to the ceaseless pulse 
 of the waters, it is as much like fairy-land as anything to be met with. 
 And as you sit there old dreams and poems of Queens of Faery, of Viviennes 
 smoothing their silky shining tresses, of Titanias wilful and blinded, and of 
 merry Midsummer's Night Dreams, crowd tenderly upon you ; for there are 
 some places that are witch-haunted, some that are nymph-haunted, others 
 that are full of elves and fairies, and others eloquent with the echoes of 
 knightly romance and noble chivalry ; and this special waterfall this Skelwith 
 Force is full of faery life, and rich in loveliness if not in heroism. And 
 all the more penetrated with these sweet and subtle fancies, because of the 
 pastoral simplicity of Loughrigg Tarn, and the grim associations of the 
 Roman camp, just seen. 
 
 Now you go on by the side of the Brathay to Elterwater. Indeed, Elter- 
 water is only the Brathay itself, making three resting-places, or large pools 
 strung together, at the outlet of the Langdale valley, before it goes on again 
 as a river should ; but, as was said before, not yet christened by its name 
 of Brathay until it has strung its watery beads and issued forth by that 
 reedy delta at the end. A rather dead and disheartening place this, pretty 
 
 29
 
 THE LAKE COUXTKY. 
 
 and peaceful but without life or motion. Even the river, which elsewhere 
 is so full of joy and the capricious grace of liberty, trails here in a chained 
 and melancholy kind of way, and the three pools have nothing more vigorous 
 to do than to reflect, in perfect stillness and silence, the outer forms of the 
 mountains set round them, and the marvel of the sunlight beyond. And 
 when the sun pours down a torrent of glory and colour, making the grey 
 of the hills purple, and the metallic shine of the buttercups a hyacinthine 
 orange, flooding the meadows with rose-tints and gold, and blurring all the 
 outlines by excess of light when the day's cup is filled to the brim, and 
 the yellow flood overflows with largest power and unrestraint then Elterwater 
 is a place to meditate by mournfully, asking oneself cui bono ? and to what 
 end this pageantry of loveliness, which so few can see, and still fewer under- 
 stand when they do see it ? The intense solitude and irrepressible mourn- 
 fulness of feeling and thought resulting, of certain of the remoter lake country 
 places, must be felt to be understood. And when once felt, never possible 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 When you have dreamt out your dream, then go through a young wood 
 full of yellow pimpernel and wood sanicle of healing power : 5 full to moss- 
 like closeness of growth : where are exquisite effects, and glorious views, and 
 walls that must be clambered over, and rough gates and uncouth stiles every- 
 where, and where you are sure to find yourselves in places in which you 
 have no earthly business to be ; but you will finally set yourselves straight, 
 and strike the right road for a pathless scramble over the fell. 
 
 And such a scramble ! The plovers wheel over you with their pitiful 
 cry and their heavy flight, and the young lambs start bleating from their 
 couching-places behind the grey rocks bordered with the pretty little parsley 
 fern, or bound from sheltered nooks where the stag's-horn moss spreads its 
 elastic branches, and which the young junipers fence in and the bent heads 
 of the bracken carpet. On you must go ; up one craggy knoll after 
 
 4 " He that hath sanicle needeth no surgeon " an old herbal proverb.
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE. 
 
 another, each seeming to be the last, hut always showing another further and 
 higher, which must for shame, and the mountaineer's pride of perseverance, 
 be surmounted ; down grassy slopes, smooth and soft as a well-kept bowling- 
 green, lying between high grassy banks utterly impassable, down down 
 with a perilous swiftness, till the slope breaks suddenly off into a rift, and 
 you stand some hundred feet above eternity. Back again, up more last crags 
 which never are the last, through pale yellow swamps with scarlet mosses 
 set in their hearts and the graceful butterwort on its frosted leaves about 
 their edges ; and, if you are fortunate, to a black peat tarn, deep and unsavoury 
 but glorified with exceeding glory beautified with a living beauty, which has 
 to be won at any cost its black unsightliness clothed and veiled and trans- 
 formed to splendour by the loveliness of the marsh trefoil, " the fringed 
 water-lily" growing there in the wild with more than garden grace. Care 
 nothing for the black, unsavoury bog-water. In for the prize, no heed given 
 to soaked feet or dripping hems in, even up to the mid leg, and think your- 
 selves well rewarded by a fragile handful of the flowers, one of the loveliest 
 wild-flowers in England ! 
 
 The fells are beautiful everywhere. Those over by Wansfell, and to the 
 source of the Skelghyll, and through the green road between stone walls, 
 down into Troutbeck, 6 though not so varied as the Loughrigg Fells, are yet 
 
 6 Troutbeck is to Ambleside what Borrowdale is or was to Keswick, the land of 
 Gotham, upon whose wise men is saddled every absurdity of the district the scapegoat 
 bound to bear the weight of all the rude wit afloat. In a few years this, too, will be done 
 away with, and pretty, dirty, neglected Troutbeck will be cleaned, schooled, and orna- 
 mented, and made fit company for ambitious Windermere and respectable Ambleside. It is 
 worth seeing, however, in its dirt and neglect ; its tumbledown cottages not one among 
 them all straight according to the plumb-line with ivied walls and casements patched with 
 rags and paper ; its one curious chateau-like house, with its formal courtyard, and formal 
 ten-ace, and formal yew-trees clipped and closely shaven; its destitution and penury; 
 all so grandly enframed that its very poverty becomes a charm the more. It is one of 
 the real bye-hamlets of the lake district, picturesque, wild, dirty, diseased, which the 
 ]>r< >s;uc architect and schoolmaster will sweep away before many years are gone. 
 
 31
 
 TI IK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 v.-rv grand ill their noble solitudes noble because useful though desolate, 
 because fenced into natural fields where the birds find food, and the she' 
 and cattle pasturage, and the wild-flowers root themselves, and even moth 
 and butterflies make their home ; noble because, though deserted and un- 
 tenauted by humanity, they are still brought into the service of humanity, 
 and give of their strength and their substance for the uses of the world. 
 Great, calm, wave-like sweep these fells at the head of Troutbeck, where 
 you may wander for many hours, with no more variety of scene than what 
 is to be had in the relative position of the mountains, or the need of climbing 
 more and more stone walls rising everywhere against you. 
 
 The path is rough and stony enough ; but who notes the rudeness of 
 the way when the world is such as it is on a bright spring day bright 
 as the days here are after rain? A bush with the sun shining through is 
 a tree of golden flowers set upon purple stems ; the distant mountains towards 
 Langdale are threaded with silver where the watercourses have filled ; and 
 the Rothay in her even line, and the Brathay in his far-off pools sun-flecked, 
 break out into spaces of light as eloquent as speech. Crinkle Crags and 
 Lingmell are dusky with light ; but Silver How has caught the shadow of 
 a cloud, and is dark with tenderness, not gloom. Loughrigg is radiant 
 in the sunshine, and the lake is barred with silver or blue as the 
 sun or the shadow falls. Going higher the Pikes come up Pike o' Stickle 
 split in two ; and little Blellam shows itself behind Low Wray like a 
 piece of glass let into the green. The Roman Station at the head of the 
 lake is to be clearly made out now between the Rothay and the wood 
 below, its square form and brown colour the potatoes not yet covering it 
 marking it from among the green fields. Now, over a thorny dyke, 
 down the darkest and loneliest of gipsy glens, through a newly-felled wood 
 where the ground is blue with hyacinths, darkening to purple when broad 
 patches of meadow cranesbill hold the way instead where ladies' mantles 
 trail over the earth, and matted larch twigs make a carpet many feet above 
 the ground up through this enchanted land over the fells to Troutbeck. 
 
 32 

 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE 
 
 THE ROMAN STATIOM 
 
 Troutbeck, the smallest and most primitive of hamlets, has its own minute 
 history, both authentic and legendary, as well as the best of them. It 
 was the dwelling-place of Hogarth's 7 uncle, " Auld Hoggart," as he was 
 called, a satirist, a poet, and an original, whose memory is still green in 
 the vale, and who was by no means an ordinary individual. " He did as 
 much good as a clergyman," was the report of one old lady, fondly mindful 
 of the past however cloudy. And there was, besides, a clever and home- 
 made genius, by name Julius Caesar Ibbotson, who painted a noted sign, 
 called the " Mortal Man ; " one mortal man being round and rosy-gilled, the 
 other cadaverous and lean ; with this distich underneath : 
 
 " Oh, Mortal Man, that liv'st on bread. 
 How comes thy nose to be so red? 
 Thoti silly ass, that looks so pale, 
 It is bv drinking Birkett's ale ! " 
 
 7 The Hogarths, Hoggarts, or Hoggards, were rightfully of Kirkby There. The eldest 
 brother was a yeoman at Bampton ; the second a ploughman at Troutbeck ; the youngest, 
 Richard, the painter's father, was educated at St. Bees, and went up to London, where his 
 son William was born, December 10th. lf>!)7.
 
 TMK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 The Mortal Man still exists as a not too luxurious public-house ; but the 
 famous sign has departed, having been taken away to a place near Cartmell, 
 where it gradually faded out of existence altogether ; thus proving its own 
 mortality without question. There were other local worthies beside the 
 Hoggarts (generally pronounced Hoggartys) and Ibbotsons ; and, for one, there 
 was Huddleston Philipson of Croke (brother to Robin the Devil), who was 
 the magnate of Troutbeck in his time. Charles I. gave him a park and 
 estate there, as a reward for his devotion during the Civil War. Harriet 
 Martineau says it was the same estate so cleverly obtained by a giant of the 
 time of Edward VI., one Hugh Hird, or, as Clarke calls him, " Gilpin, the 
 cook-lad of Kentmere, from his corcousness or corpulency," whose ordinary 
 diet was " Porridge so thick that a mouse could walk over them 8 dryshod, 
 and the sunny side of a wedder when he could get it." This Hird, " a man 
 of amazing strength," " quite uncivilized, and knowing no law but strength," 
 came begging his way to Troutbeck. There he found an empty house one 
 which had been forfeited to the Crown, and of which no one cared to 
 take possession, it was so valueless. But it just suited Hugh, so he 
 established himself in it forthwith. When a lawful tenant appeared, the 
 giant prevented his entrance ; and being sent for to London, there to 
 answer for his contumacy, exhibited to his Majesty such feats of strength 
 
 8 Porridge is always plural. You " stir them with a thivel," and you " sup them " with 
 a good will, unless they are " smeuked" or " bishopped," or " a' lumps and dozzels like 
 Niinny Haikiu's butter;" and you give them to your childer, for they are " serious grand 
 tilings for making banging bairns." When made of barley-meal they are called "kittly 
 slipdnwns, and kittly slipdowns, eaten with fresh cream, are among the real luxuries of 
 tli. north. Oatmeal porridge and oatmeal cake haver bread are very fair tasted. Even 
 Fuller, who was not over fond of the north, does not despise oatcake. " While Wheat and 
 Barley maij seem but the adopted, Gates are the natural issue of this Country. Say not 
 Oates are Horse-yraint', and fitter for a stable than a TABLE ; for besides that the meal 
 thereof is the di-tinguUliing/orro of Gruel or Broth from Water, mot hearty and whole- 
 some Bread is made thcroof." Anciently none other was used north of the Humber ; and 
 William the Conqueror gave the manor of Castle Bithan, in Lincolnshire, to Stephen Earl 
 of Albermarle and Holdernesse, to supply his infant son with wheaten bread. 
 
 34
 
 WALKS ABOUT AMBLKS1DK. 
 
 lifting a beam too heavy for ten ordinary men, tying two bows together 
 Mini breaking them, and showing how he once drove back a party of 
 Scottish moss-troopers with his own bow and arrows unassisted that 
 Edward offered to grant him any reasonable petition he might present. 
 Whereupon Hugh prayed for the house at Troutbeck, the field behind for 
 peat-turf for his fuel, and leave to cut what wood he liked in the new 
 park; which, being granted, he lived happy all the rest of his life, dying 
 at forty-two, pulling up trees by the roots. 
 
 Troutbeck was once a place of some importance, and there is still a 
 hill called Gallows How, where probably the old Barons at Kendal had a 
 place of execution for their rebellious and misbehaving vassals ; and another 
 place called Spying How, where was once a raise, which, when opened, was 
 found to contain a kistvaen full of human bones. Were they the bones of 
 the poor old Brigantes, listening in their woods to the ring of the Roman 
 axe and the clang of the Roman hammer, as the victorious legions of 
 Agricola marched over the mountain tops to join the cohorts at Concagium ? 
 The valley, now so bare of trees, was once so thickly wooded that the old 
 inhabitants used to say a squirrel could have passed from the lake side 
 up to Thresthwaite Mouth without once touching the ground. It is at 
 Troutbeck that we are told of the three hundred bulls, and three hundred 
 bridges, and three hundred constables, belonging to the parish ; the 
 explanation being that the township is divided into three Hundreds, and 
 to each Hundred belonged a bull, a bridge, and a constable. 
 
 BROMZE FODND AT AMBLE31DE 
 
 .",.3 F 2
 
 FROM AMBLE SIDE TO KESWICK 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 , 1 where the Le Flemings live, is the one bit of real aristocracy 
 belonging to Ambleside. The whole valley was once a park for the entertain- 
 ment of the lord, when he left his richer domains for a spell of vigorous 
 north-country hunting ; and though so long since disparked and turned to 
 the ordinary purposes of food and fodder -bearing, still retains traces of its 
 former richness and exclusiveness, specially about the Hall, where the care- 
 fulness of ownership has never been relaxed. There, the trees are trees of 
 mere beauty and ornament, with no firewood in their twigs, no bobbins in 
 their branches, no masts or tables, gate-posts or window-frames in their 
 stems trees, the only functions of which are to give shelter to the rooks ; 
 
 1 llydal is said by some to mean the rye-dale or valley, which is surely a sad straining 
 <>f etymology; by others, among whom was Mr. Wordsworth, to be a contraction of Rothay- 
 dale, from the river a more likely reading, seeing that the old name of the lake was 
 KnwtlmiiTr, which seems to have been from the same root as Rothay ; hence, by elision 
 and contraction, Rydal, for the vale. Black gives it as Rliydle, a passage place. 
 
 36
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESW1CK. 
 
 the mossy lawn has been for centuries a lawn, put to no coarse ends of 
 usefulness ; the meadows, where the cattle stand knee-deep in flowers and 
 grass, seem as if they might have been just what they are now hundreds of 
 years ago, when De Lancastre and De Eos 2 held high court and revel through 
 the vale ; and through the whole estate lies that unmistakeable sign of 
 ancient aristocracy which no money can purchase, and no art or science can 
 supply. It all seems a lord's private property, where nature is elbowed out 
 of court, and where meaner people exist by sufferance. 
 
 The cottages are as trim and picturesque as if made of Dresden china 
 for Madame d'Arblay's princes and princesses, while the Falls 3 the famous 
 Kydal Falls are so pretty and well-arranged that surely their fittest place 
 is the back scene of some pastoral opera, where the shepherds dress in 
 velvet tights and silk stockings, and the shepherdesses dance in muslin and 
 wreaths of roses ! Certainly they are pretty but they have been so trimmed 
 and cared for the trees have been so artistically disposed the vistas so 
 cunningly contrived the channels have been so scientifically deepened the 
 resting-basin so tastefully arranged and the summer-house is such a bit 
 of picturesque trick, that one loses all perception of nature, and cannot but 
 
 2 The Rydal estate was granted by Margaret, widow of Robert de Ros, of Wurk 
 Castle, to Roger de Lancastre, somewhere towards the end of the thirteenth century, the 
 grant being confirmed by Edward I. in 1274. From Roger de Lancastre it passed to the 
 Lancastres of Howgill ; and then, by the marriage of Isabella, coheir with Sir John de 
 Lancastre, to Sir Thomas le Fleming, of Coniugstone. These Le Flemings were the 
 descendants of the famous Sir Michael le Fleming " Flandrensis" the relative of 
 Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, brother-in-law to William the Conqueror, and a strict clansman 
 of the King. Sir Michael was the ancestor of Lady Jane Grey. He was a famous man in 
 his day : good against the Scots especially, and rewarded for his prowess in that direction, 
 by the grant of several manors both in Lancashire and Cumberland: among them, 
 Beckermet Castle, Aldingham Castle, and Coningstone Hall. Rydal Hall suffered much 
 from the Parliamentary party ; the le Flemings remaining Catholic to the reign of James II. 
 
 3 There are two falls the upper and the lower situated in the Rydal Hall grounds, 
 which you pay a fee to see. The way leads through the park meadow and outer 
 gardens by a path of singular beauty and richness ; but all made and artificial luxury and 
 the effeminacy of oivili/atinn stilling everything like natural growth or freedom.
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 regard those very elegant waterfalls as artificial 
 altogether; to the extent of easily believing in a 
 forcing pump or a steam-engine somewhere out of 
 sight and hearing. They are like a wild fawn that 
 has leaped the park-palings in her play across 
 the moor, and has been caught, and led about 
 among the young queens and kings, with a chain 
 of flowers round her neck, and her hoofs shod with 
 gold. She is very lovely in her tameness, and with all 
 her old grace of limb and action ; but she is no 
 longer the wild fawn with the mountain wind for 
 her companion, and the mountain eagle for her 
 playmate she is only a caged creature now ; well- 
 fed and golden-shod, but caged. And so the free 
 mountain stream that ran joyously among the fern 
 and about the rude rocks, uncared for and dis- 
 regarded, when it gave that one sharp leap from 
 off the fell, leapt into civilization and subjection into flowery 
 / , wreaths and mossy banks and all the luxuries of wealth and art ; 
 but it is never the free mountain water again never anything but the toy of a 
 grand domain. And, for this reason of patent artificiality, the Kydal Falls, 
 though sweet, are not entirely pleasing ; like something warped from its first pur- 
 pose and perverted from its natural meaning. 
 Pass across the road, from the Hall to 
 the Mount where the most famous of the 
 lake poets lived ; and see there the celebrated 
 terrace-walks, the garden-steps, the porch 
 with its seat, the mound, and the view ; 
 see and admire; for truly it is a poet's 
 fitting home, set against Nab Scar as 
 its shelter, the steeps of Loughrigg in front, Helm Crag at its side, and 
 
 38
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. 
 
 the gentle little mere at its feet. The terrace-walk along Nab Scar, with its 
 desolation sometimes left bare and naked to the sky, and sometimes clothed 
 with fern and moss and lichen, is very lovely ; lovely from the first step out- 
 side the poet's garden, to the last by White Moss and the little pool of 
 "fringed water-lily." And then the road must be taken; and GRASMERE, 4 
 and the churchyard, and the daisied nook where lie the Wordsworth family 
 in quietness and peace, with poor Hartley Coleridge near them in death, 
 as he had been in life. That quiet little nook in the churchyard among 
 the mountains, with all the burning fire of passion, the light of thought, 
 and the tender weight of love that lie buried there how one could dream 
 away a working day in merely looking at those stone^, and remembering 
 against what manner of human life they have set their solemn seal of 
 "For ever!" 
 
 Of all the lake country villages Grrasmere is the most picturesque and 
 the likest one's ideas of the typical English home. It has no street, properly 
 so called, but is a scattered collection of human habitations cottages, shops, 
 houses, mansions each with its own garden or special plot of greenery, how- 
 ever small, and all for the most part standing apart and individual. The 
 postman walks daily some eight miles in and about the village in the delivering 
 of his letters ; which may give an idea of its scattered and therefore picturesque 
 character. And perhaps more than any other, does it impress one with 
 the feeling of peace and the absence of passion or even of suffering. Though 
 not trimmed and decorated as the dainty Rydal hamlet, nor so evidently 
 
 4 Grasmere, Gresmere, Grismere the mere, or lake, of the grise, or wild swine was 
 once a chapelry only, under the mother church of Kendal. The ecclesiastical patronage 
 was sold by Henry VIII. to Alan Bellingham, of Levins and Helsington, Gaythorn and 
 Fawcet Forest, treasiirer of Berwick, and deputy warden of the Marches, he whose punning 
 
 motto was 
 
 " Amicus amico Alanus, 
 
 Belliger Belligero Bellinghamus." 
 
 He resold it, in Elizabeth's time, for 100Z. to the Le Flemings of Ilydal. The manor was 
 formerly included in that of Windermere. 
 
 39
 
 THE LAKH COfXTRY. 
 
 
 artistic and considered as the new town of Windermere, it has a certain 
 well-to-do look about it not as of fashion and luxury and a few large 
 fortunes flaring out over all the rest like the dominant notes in an orchestra 
 or the master colours of a picture but in the quiet beauty and cleanliness 
 everywhere, and the absence of sordid squalor even in the poorer cottages. 
 It is full of flowers and green trees and pleasant meadows and lovely little 
 lanes, and the signs of human care throughout; but not of human care 
 putting a luxuriant nature too fussily to rights. As the waters have made 
 a halting-place at the foot of Red Bank and Fairfield, so man has halted 
 here too, and finally has settled where he rested. This is the impression 
 that you have of Grasmere, on your way from Ambleside to Keswick, as 
 of a lovely halting-place, where industry has forced a living from nature, 
 and not as if work had been lying there from the beginning which must 
 needs attract hands, sooner or later, to itself. So sheltered and so peaceful 
 is it, that even in the rugged winter time it does not look cheerless or dreary, 
 while in the bright young spring, in the luscious summer, and in the ripe 
 and lusty autumn, it is the pleasantest spot for lotus-eating, and dreaming 
 in bye arbours of Armida's garden, to be found between AVindermere and 
 Lowes Water. Unimportant, uncommercial, unproductive, but serene, beautiful, 
 and happy, it is like some gracious lady sitting by the wayside and offer- 
 ing milk to thirsty travellers. No costly wine in a jewelled goblet, and 
 yet something more loving than water in a cup of leaves, it is the real 
 sweet pastoral milk in the carved beechen cup that Grasmere gives such 
 as Virgil might have drunk when he sat with Tityrus under the spreading 
 beech-tree, or listened to the rivalry of Damoetas and Menalcas. It is the 
 place for poets and lovers and the contented aged; but scarcely for the 
 adventurous or the restless. As indeed may be said of most of these lake 
 country villages, bound in the quiet bondage of love and beauty, but leaving 
 no space wherein the wilder soul may "rage and ramp." Eat then your 
 summer's lotus at Grasmere, but lay aside your life's armour while there, 
 and think of no battles to be fought and of no victories to be won ! 
 
 40
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. 
 
 QRASMEEE FROM LOUQHRIOO BIDE 
 
 Helm Crag stands out now boldly, with Dunmail Raise winding between 
 it and Seat Sandal great sentinels of the pass and the Lion and the Lamb 
 as its crest. Wordsworth called those stones the Astrologer and the Ancient 
 Woman, but they are more like the old designation from this side ; perhaps 
 from the other side the poet's picture may come into clearer shape. 
 
 " Above Helm Crag a streak halt' (load, 
 A burning of portentous red ; 
 And near that lurid light, full well 
 The Astrologer, sage Sidrophel, 
 Where at his desk and book he sits. 
 Puzzling aloft Ms curious wits ; 
 He, whose domain is held in common 
 With no one but the Ancient Woman, 
 Cowering beside her rifted cell, 
 As if intent on magic spell. 
 Dread pair, that, spite of wind or weather, 
 Still sit upon Helm Crag together!" 
 
 At any rate the lines are good if the picture is less than exact, and poets 
 have even more licence than artists. 
 
 41 G
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 But now a white stream, foaming down the deep blue recess between 
 Silver How and Helm Crag, makes you diverge from the main road, choosing 
 White Bridge and Butterlip Meadows instead, and a rough paved, way, us 
 much water-course as way, with purple geraniums and spotted orchis set 
 in golden kingcups among the sedges on either side. And by this rough 
 way, getting still rougher and wilder as you go on, but with snatches of 
 exquisite grace interleaved the wildness to conciliate your rougher moods, 
 and the grace to harmonize with your more loving you finally reach and 
 clamber up the rocky sides hemming in Sour-Milk- Ghy 11 Force, otherwise 
 Easedale Force. 
 
 A broken and tumultuous fall is this ; one fall indeed not, but a 
 multitude of falls a knotted string of cascades rushing down the black 
 rocks from the lonely tarn high up in the barren hills, and pouring out its 
 life with as much of untamed wildness as the Rydal Falls have of artificiality. 
 Nothing can be more thoroughly contrasted than these two waterfalls, so 
 few miles apart and to be seen almost within the hour ; and of the two, 
 surely the untouched natural life is the nobler and more beautiful. 
 
 A little higher up, through reaches where the pale yellow moss is 
 reddened with sundew, and where stag's-horn moss and club moss and 
 the cock'scomb-shaped lycopod'mm complanatum give worlds of delight to 
 those big boys and girls, the botanists, you come upon an amphitheatre, in 
 the centre of which lies Easedale Tarn as it might be the arena. The 
 outline is serrated like an elephant's tooth, and the sides are folded and 
 wrinkled, and there is more the appearance here of landslip than in many 
 other places, and a richer manner of natural beauty. It is especially lovely 
 with the sunlight lying on every rock and stone a cup-full of sunlight indeed, 
 round which the mountains are as pure and full of colour as if they were 
 of metal ; the tarn reflecting every image and adding while giving back. 
 Then up to Codale Tarn, of course not by the gentler way never take the 
 gentler way but up the very face of those wild Carr's Crags ; the true rocky 
 scramble, with the true rocky incidents to give it proper pleasure the ash- 
 
 42
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. 
 
 tree growing out from a rift, and bending over the stream the rocks bleached 
 and bony the whitened skeletons of trees stripped of their leaves by the 
 wind and the hail and the frost, never to be clothed again by the sun and 
 the shower the fling of ferns across the grey all the dear old features of 
 the craggy path, till you come to Codale Tarn, lying under the shadow of 
 its own particular pike. Whence, if you have a mind, you may go to Stickle 
 Tarn and Dungeon Grhyll, and down into Langdale, or over the Stake, as 
 you will. To-day do none of these things ; turn back by the way you came, 
 to the foot of Helm Crag; and passing among farmsteads and gentlemen's 
 seats, shady narrow lanes, and fenced fields full of cattle, fall into the main 
 road again at the pass of Dunmail Raise. 5 
 
 A dreary way enough lies before you; with Grasmere, pretty, pastoral, 
 sleepy, and green, bathed in the summer sunshine, the haymakers just beginning 
 their pleasant labours, and the cows and sheep dotted picturesquely about its 
 pasture lands. Helm Crag is now only a corner-stone of large dimensions, 
 the Ancient Woman and Sage Sidrophel taking the place of the Lion and 
 the Lamb, as expected and Steel Fell, sharp and straight as its name, rises 
 with a threatening kind of front, behind it. You have passed Fairfield which 
 has been so long your landmark ; but Seat Sandal flows out perpetually into 
 new lines, ever rugged and rough both in form and dip, whatever the change 
 
 5 Hutchiiison has a very quaint theory respecting the growth and meaning of this 
 name, which we will give abridged so far as we can. Popular assemblies were called 
 mallums, afterwards mallum-motes, folk-motes, ward-motes, wittenage-motes. Justice used 
 to be administered by the presiding Druid, sub Dio, within the circle of the ray, equal to 
 our bar: hence arraign (at ray in), arrested (at ray est). Even religio is ray-ligio (bound by 
 the ray). Near Cockermouth is the hill Muta or Moota, and on the top Moota-man. 
 Carlisle assizes are still held in the mote or moot-hall, and we still moot a point. A 
 general meeting was a mallum-mote ; and in these motes every arrest or act passed was 
 called dun-ivallo, the will done or enacted, our present parliamentary phrase the outgrowth 
 of the same. Dun-mallard, near Ullswater, and Dun-mail-raise, evidence the same thing. 
 Dun in old law records is a hill, and Dunmallo was the law of the hill. That heap at 
 Dunmail Raise is our only monument, says Southey, and that doubtfi.il, because it may be 
 merely a division made between the two comities. 
 
 43 c. *
 
 II IK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 of position. The Raise beck, which here divides Cumberland and West- 
 moreland, makes sweet mountain music at the foot of Steel Fell, singing 
 its noble song with a clear, loud, freeborn voice that stirs the blood within your 
 veins almost as the blast of a trumpet might, till the highest point of the 
 Pass is reached, and you come upon the ancient pile of stones, now welted 
 together with fern and moss and covered with the sweet charities of time and 
 nature, which, they say, marks the spot where the poor county king, Dun- 
 mail, was buried, when he was defeated and slain by the Saxon Edmund, 
 and his kingdom given to the Scottish Malcolm. As you descend and round 
 the last spur of Seat Sandal, Helvellyn, stern and fervid, sweeps down its 
 barren lines in terrible majesty of power ; the upheaved mountain wall to the 
 west breaks into more distinctive members, and new vistas reveal themselves ; 
 and then, towering up above all the rest, and a long way off, a dim blue top 
 comes out from among the grey clouds, and the dim blue top is SKIDDAW. 
 
 Below lies the little lake of Thirlmere, 6 with its two promontories bound 
 together by a bridge, 7 shaped like a bridge of boats set stem to stern ; and 
 you pass by, not through, the City of Wythburn, a miserable hamlet with 
 nothing curious about it save its ambitious name, past Thrispot, and the 
 humble little church belonging to the district 
 
 " Wytheburn's modest house of prayer, 
 As lowly as the lowliest dwelling 
 
 well in keeping with the place and people. Rough Crag and Raven Crag 
 the last is one of those richly-wooded and ringleted-looking crags so often to 
 be met with in the lake country stand boldly forward on the west of 
 Thirlmere, where also is the Haunted House and the terrible ghost-story 
 as reported by Harriet Martineau. And quite to the left is a mountain 
 shoulder, with the well-known features betokening the probability of a tarn 
 
 6 Thirlmere has many names, Leatheswater and Wythburnwater, and anciently Brack- 
 
 " At th<> foot of Wy I him ni fells lies Brackmere." GOUGH'S CanuJcn. 
 
 7 Siiid to hit Uoiiiiin, but more than doubtful. 
 
 44
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. 
 
 within the dip ; as indeed there is Harrop Tarn, with Dobghyll 8 proceeding, 
 and that noble mass of rock, Tarn Crag, overhanging. 
 
 Go across the boat-like bridge to the west side of the lake, to where 
 Laucey Falls are 1 to be found among the trees and ferns : 9 not prettily tame, 
 like the Rydal Falls not with the same amount of passion and tumult 
 in their rush, as in Sour-Milk Ghyll but with an adorned luxuriance, a 
 generous and graceful beauty, whether flowing through fairy nooks, or lost 
 in shy entanglement of root and rock, or leaping out in bold cascades, 
 laughing so that the old hills catch up the sound and fling it back with 
 dimmer music these seldom-visited falls are as worthy of odes and pictured 
 praises as many others of which so much public account has been made. 
 Feathered with woods but not obscured craggy and wild but not bleak 
 or bare bank and jutting stone moss-covered and fern-adorned but not 
 softened into effeminacy, or their natural beauty crippled by false art 
 dark, cool, lonely, and lovely, their wild grace at once rich and free, it is 
 time well bestowed to take an hour or two from the journey, and spend 
 them in golden moments by the side of those falling waters. If it is a 
 still day, Thirlmere lies absolutely unrippled, the reflection so entire that 
 you cannot, at first sight, tell where the line of water begins, and what 
 is real and what only repetition. These marvellously clear reflections 
 are characteristic of Thirlmere, kept by Helvellyn from the east wind, and 
 by its own crags from the west, closed up by Nathdale 10 Fell and the 
 
 8 Under Bull Crags, not far from the ghyll, is a tall flat-topped stone, called the Justice 
 stone, where the dalesmen of Wythbum, Legberthwaite, and St. John's-in-the-Vale, used 
 to meet to settle public matters, such as the letting of the sheep-runs, repairing roads, &c. 
 An old man now living at Wythbum remembers being taken by his father to the last of 
 these meetings. The stone is half-way between the city and Armboth, and nearly opposite 
 the little promontoiy called Clarke's Lope, where one Clarke tried to get rid of his wife, 
 but was drowned himself instead. 
 
 9 Some rare ferns are to be found here : among them the asplenium viride, or green 
 spleenwort, a limestone fern growing on a thin vein of limestone running through this district. 
 
 10 Pronounced Naddle. 
 
 45
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 St. John's Vale hills against the north, and by Dunmail Raise from even 
 the tender south ; and wonderfully perfect they are. The rich and stately 
 trees of Dalehead, the desperate front of Helvellyn, the bounding leap of 
 Brotto's Ghyll, and Eagle Crag like a bird's wing not in its sweep but in 
 its grey striated lines fringed with growth of wood for feathers, all by turns 
 appear, loaded with additional colour in the mirror below, and all are suddenly 
 swept out, as an artist would sweep out a picture with one stroke of his 
 brush, when a small light breeze glides swiftly across the lake, and shakes 
 it mischievously into smiles. 
 
 Keep still to the left for Shoulthwaite Moss ; passing now under Eaven 
 Crag Great How, where Wordsworth's boys built their- snow man, covered 
 with trees, on the right ; Wanthwaite Fell, a lower shoulder of Helvellyn, 
 still further to the right ; Nathdale Fell, which runs like a hog's back between 
 the vales of Nathdale and Saint John, in front ; and beyond Nathdale the 
 blue mass of Blencathra; to be soon followed in full profile by Skiddaw. 
 Turn back before the scene is changed, and take in the whole of the lake, 
 
 THIRLMERE 
 
 winding and river-like, to the very foot of the Raise ; a view to be well 
 noted when seen, and not the less noted because not one of the more popular 
 or widely known. As you descend, the Castle Rocks appear Green Crag 
 properly where the Bridal of Triermain was held ; and where now, instead 
 
 46
 
 FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESW1CK. 
 
 of Arthur's love and Guendolen's proud beauty, instead of the revelry and 
 knighthood of the magic time, is only a heap of cold grey stone, touched 
 into golden glory by the westering sun; which the imaginative and short- 
 sighted may believe to look like a ruined castle, but which the clear-eyed 
 make to be only a heap of cold grey stone. But, from the Threlkeld side, 
 and in a not too brilliant sunset, even they, the clear-eyed, may be deceived, 
 and think they see the remains of a ruined castle in the broken rocks of 
 Green Crag. 
 
 Then, by sweet flowery lanes rather than an ordinary Queen's Highway, 
 out from the Vale of Thirlmere (Legberthwaite properly) into the Vale of 
 St. John's, and by wooded Castlerigg (which you must pronounce Castrigg if 
 you wish to be understood by the vale people) where the great Derwentwater 
 family had once a house on the heights above Walla Crag ; and down the long, 
 steep, wooded slope to Brow Top, Skiddaw showing his huge bulk more fully, 
 Latrigg standing like a watchdog by its side, Blencathra sharp and picturesque, 
 the Bassenthwaite Fells distant and dim, and Bassenthwaite Lake like a silver 
 line against them and the sky, the Greta, most musical, most beautiful of 
 rivers, flowing on its careless way like a happy child singing in its play : all 
 caught up, one after the other, as the eye wanders lovingly from each to each. 
 There they all are the lake, the mountains, the islands where the sweetest 
 wild flowers are to be found and the loveliest pictures to be made, the bays 
 where the water-lilies grow, and where fairies used to live in the days when 
 life was young and love was not ashamed of faith there are the sweet 
 meadows, and the little golden becks running over their golden sands there 
 smile the sunny slopes of Catbells there peers up to the sky the royal face 
 of Causey Pike Grisedale Pike, and the sharp Newland hills, tell pleasant 
 tales of summer rambles and the bold dark mass of Borrowdale's wilder 
 cluster shuts in the heart of the Lake Rose against the world beyond. For 
 it is in truth the Lake Rose, this VALE of DERWENTWATER the loveliest flower 
 in all the garland the brightest gem of the whole grand crown !
 
 PERWENTWATER 
 
 from 
 
 CASTLEHEAD 
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENT WATER 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE Vale of Derwentwater bears quite a different aspect to that of eith< 
 Windennere or Ullswater. The first a long narrow tongue or inlet from the 
 south modernised and beautiful, but tame, save at the head ; in all its lowe 
 and middle lengths rather a promise of what is to come than the fulfilment 
 hopes strikes one as a lovely garden, or park, where the very wildness is wel 
 kept, and nature is constrained to neatness. A delicious translation for the 
 town-weary Cockney, but too well-dressed for the true-born mountaineer, anc 
 oppressive in its modern luxury to those who remember this country in it 
 simple homeliness of forty years ago. The second is liker the ideal norther 
 life, and has a certain savageness and solitude about it which makes one forge 
 
 48
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER. 
 
 its two grand hotels with their startling London prices, and the grim exclusive- 
 ness of its one stately owner, careful rather for exclusiveness than for simplicity. 
 Even its inconveniences are pleasant as a summer day's experience its no 
 market and its no shops, and the need of sending fifteen miles to Penrith for 
 a cap-string or a fishing fly, its butcher's supply coming once a week, and no 
 oftener, and its postman in his little cart the general Mercury and the great 
 event of the day. All this is very delightful ; though, to be sure, it is only 
 a playing at the life of long ago, with the steamboat hissing on the lake, and 
 crinolines swelling on the mountains ; but it charms during a short stay where 
 no vital inconvenience is felt, and gratifies the imagination. Still Ullswater, 
 like Windermere, for all its grandeur is only partially mountainous ; noble in 
 the upper reach, beautiful in the middle, but tame if lovely in the lower, going 
 off into softness and rich living and the broad plains of castle-crowned 
 Penrith and the flowing wealth of rivers. It is not the amphitheatre that 
 Derwentwater is, though it may be that it has grander lines about it; as in the 
 lines of Helvellyn, which belongs to Ullswater, and which are nobler than 
 those of Skiddaw. 
 
 Yes, Derwentwater is the gem of the whole. Whatever there is of beauty 
 special to the other districts is here in ripest fulness. Crag and fell ; the 
 evidence of the mountain top and the secrets of the dale ; gentle river and 
 brawling stream ; the turbulent ghyll and the grander force ; the lake hiding 
 itself away in bays starred with water-lilies and blue with lobelia, or dashing 
 round rocky promontories where it beats up in waves that are almost billows 
 in the heavy winds of winter, or bossed with islands endeared by legends 
 and beautified by poems ; distant prospects leading down to the dark blue 
 sea, and over to Cumberland's old enemy, Scotland, beyond; and home 
 views across one's own garden that touch the heart like the face of a fair 
 child : nothing is wanting, and nothing is left unfinished, as where the 
 hills rise up only as a kind of hood at the head, but wander off into 
 undeveloped fells at the foot. Here they are set all round the vale in 
 equal majesty a rampart or a crown, as one's mood would phrase it. 
 
 49 H
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Again, the Keswick lake is not all the valley, as with the narrower 
 and more river-formed. Between the roots of the mountains and the 
 lake-side lies a wide tract, where fields and meadows and rivers and 
 hamlets and sunny slopes and secondary heights, make a pleasant world of 
 human industry and love. There is the hill where Southey 1 lived, in the 
 midst of " great flourishing bears and monsters," as Charles Lamh called 
 his " net of mountains," and its fellow fork where the Vicarage stands 
 the Greta flowing between ; the Derwent hills out by Portinscale ; the peopled 
 terraces under Skiddaw, creeping up on to his very breast ; the hills towards 
 St. John's, and those on the Threlkeld road, all lovely with gardened homes, 
 and sanctified by human hopes ; the broadest district and the most populous 
 in the lake country. The form of the valley, too, is so beautiful in its 
 roundness not a geometrical roundness scientifically true but a nearly 
 unbroken circling of hills; its only visible outlet being towards the setting 
 sun, where the Bassenthwaite Fells and Water are the barriers against 
 the Cockermouth plains leading to the sea. Thus the lake itself is not 
 such an all-absorbing feature as either Windermere or Ullswater, or yet 
 Coniston. The first is ten, and the second nine, miles long; the last six 
 with sometimes only the road and sometimes a meadow or a lawn betwec 
 them and the mountain bases. Derwentwater is but three miles at its 
 fullest, and lies away by itself at one end of the valley, leaving the rest 
 free for man. So that it is only part of the life of the place, as the 
 mountains are only part, too, shared with the woods and the fields, and the 
 
 1 Besides Southey and Wordsworth the last only collaterally Keswick has a claim 
 on Shelley and Coleridge. Poor Shelley and his Harriet lived for some time at Chesnut 
 Hill, where he used to go and see Mr. Southey, " like the ghost of his former (Pantisocratic) 
 self," and eat Mrs. Southey's buttered cake, which he wanted to " eat for ever ; " and 
 Coleridge, who was often at,. Greta Hall, wrote the second part of Christabel at Keswick, if 
 not other things. Southey brought up Sara Coleridge as his own daughter, for he was a 
 generous man to his own kindred if less than loving to the world at large, and the most 
 thorough-bred gentleman of the whole lake school. 
 
 50
 
 KESWICK AND DEKWENTWATEB. 
 
 pleasant bye-lanes among hedges and corn-rows, and evening saunters through 
 the hay-fields. 
 
 From the little hill of Castlehead its love-name hereabouts is Castlet 
 that wooded crag just out of Keswick on the Borrowdale road, the most 
 expressive of the home views is to be had. Follow the sweet wood-path, 
 winding and cool as a wood-path should be, up to the craggy apex where the 
 picture bursts upon you. For it is truly a picture, of which the framework 
 is the sky. Skiddaw stands to the right, isolated as ever, but with more 
 sharpness of aspect than is its usual characteristic; even 'little Dod looks 
 impudently independent, and no longer the " cub " resting by its parent, 
 of ordinary times ; and that cone born of the mountain's very heart, that 
 peak within a peak, Carsleddam by name, shows such a fierceness of front, 
 and such a red wrath of background, that it might be a bit of Helvellyn, 
 instead of a member of the mildest mountain patriarch in the country. 
 Through the trees to the right Blencathra shows itself half shyly ; while 
 to the left Bassenthwaite Lake lies like a shining belt against the sky, 
 joining Skiddaw and its own special fells, Barf and Whinlatter, with a line 
 of silver. In clear weather Criffel's dim top is to be seen beyond that line ; 
 but this is rare, and not to be expected by the every-day tourist. The 
 mountains round the lonely Newlands Valley look sharp and peaked and 
 full of temptation to adventurous ramblers ; full of danger, too, let it be 
 distinctly understood. Causey Pike, with its royal fatuous face 2 upon its 
 crest, and Grhyll Mickle at its side, looks well from here ; and between it 
 and Rawling End comes up a small pointed head, which, seen at the other 
 side, has a noble body attached known to guides and tourists as Knot Pike. 
 Red Pike, one of the Buttermere hills and as ruddy as its name, is in the 
 distance, High Stile, its companion, following ; a small bit of Robinson and 
 another, still smaller, of the rich sounding Goldscope look up over their 
 
 " George the Third, double chin, snub nose, receding forehead and all, can be made out 
 quite well in the crowning knobs of Causey Pike. 
 
 51 H 2
 
 TIIE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 neighbours' heads ; and then come the slopes of Catbells, and the wilder 
 fall of Maiden Mawr; Gait Crag and Castle Crag below. But the highest 
 points of all, Scawfell 3 and Scawfell Pike (the Wastwater giant), are far 
 away, almost as dim and blue as the sky against which they stand. 
 Great End and Bowfell, belonging to the same group, are also seen, 
 but indistinctly ; Glaramara is to the left of Bowfell, heading Borrowdale ; 
 and then comes the Lodore range, massed into Walla Crag, so far as 
 perspective goes, which completes the panorama. 4 Below, is the lake, 
 with the reflections as clear as if shadowed in a mirror, save where a 
 light breeze creeps tremulously, as if on tiptoe, just across the surface, or 
 where a boat trails a comet-like stream of widening ripple in its wake ; or 
 perhaps where those shadowed places called " kelds" tell of a coming storm, 
 according to the saying : " It is no hay-day to-day the kelds are on 
 tne lakes." 
 
 But ah ! how lovely is that lake ! Go down to the boat-landings, 
 where the pretty wood of Cockshot on the one side and the sloping space of 
 Crow Park on the other, catch the sunlight with their two expressions of 
 mystery and revelation ; and go through its pleasant places one by one. 
 
 3 Scawfell is generally said to be the centre of the Borrowdale system, perhaps, because 
 it is the highest point, and so appears as if it ought to be the centre. But a careful study 
 of Flintoft 's model will show Great Gable rather as the centre ; the point whence the 
 Langdale ranges and the Wastwater mountains (Scawfell itself and the Screes, and the 
 rest), the Ennerdale mountains, and the Buttermere (but those last at Crummock are broken 
 across, as if against the grain, hi a very strange manner), all radiate as the spokes of a 
 wheel radiate from the nave. This last is a simile often used, but it is too good to be 
 discarded for a newer and less fitting image. 
 
 4 Travelling from right to left, against the sun, and so coming back, save for the 
 wooded knoll on which we stand, to Skiddaw, where we began. It is of course impossible 
 to give tliis view as a panorama. Therefore, the best and most picturesque part has been 
 taken as the heading for the chapter : namely, Walla Crag and Borrowdale, Castle Crag 
 for the very centre of the picture, Glaramara, Bowfell, Great End, and Scawfell Pike 
 behind it, then Maiden Mawr and Catbells, with the lake and islands below. 
 
 52
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER. 
 
 Here is Derwent Isle, which has had almost as many names as owners 
 Vicar's Isle 3 when it belonged to Fountain's Abbey, Peachey's, Pock- 
 lington's, The Island, and now Derwent Isle ; more appropriate if less 
 distinctive ; surely the loveliest water-home ever made by man, with its 
 emerald lawn sloping to the south, and its tulip-tree like a bit of tropical 
 life among the northern growths. Friar's Crag, that bold jut of rock and 
 tree, where the monks of Lindisfarne used to come yearly to be blessed 
 by St. Herbert, and where now every artist tries his hand at a sketch, 
 flanks it to the left; and beyond Friar's Crag is the largest of all the 
 islands Lord's Island, where the Derwentwaters lived. They built them- 
 selves a summer bower there, out of the ruins of the old Castlerigg 
 mansion, when they abandoned that estate for Dilston, on the marriage of 
 Margaret, the heiress and daughter of Sir John de Derwentwater, with 
 the Ratcliffe of Dilston ; 6 cutting through the connecting tongue of land at 
 Strandshag, 7 which made the island part of the mainland, and throwing 
 
 5 Alice de Romeli, the great religious benefactress of this valley, gave this island and 
 the parish church of Crosthwaite to Fountain's Abbey ; but at the dissolution of the 
 monasteries it was granted to one John Williamson, from whom it passed, by successive 
 translations, into the hands of its present owners. It has had many owners, and among 
 others, in Camden's time, German miners, and, perhaps but this is a mere supposition, 
 without proof or groundwork some old Roman may have set up his tent among its trees, 
 and defied the Britons in full security from its pleasant shores. 
 
 6 It was one of these Ratcliffes who figured in the old couplet 
 
 " The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel the Dog, 
 Ruled all England under the Hog;" 
 
 the Rat being Sir Richard Ratcliffe, not one of the Derwentwater set, but belonging to the 
 elder branch the famous Sir Richard, of scarcely enviable notoriety. It brings one face to 
 face with strange things of bygone times, to be able to connect such mighty men with an 
 insignificant little island good only as a show place to summer visitors. 
 
 7 In 1769, money of Queen Elizabeth's time shillings and sixpences, and a half-crown 
 piece of Charles I. were found at Strandshag (hag means a wooded enclosure or coppice) ; 
 doubtless buried there in a moment of peril by the Derwentwaters, or by some of their 
 retainers. 
 
 53
 
 THE LAKE COUNTKY. 
 
 over a drawbridge instead, as a safer manner of way in troublous times 
 than a level space of green. 
 
 The flat of Stable Hills, where Southey would have built his house 
 if he had had Aladdin's lamp or Fortunatus's purse, looks well from here 
 and Scarf Close Bay, under the shadow of Great Wood on Walla Cn 
 has very likely a shoal of banded perch or shy trout sleeping in the si 
 among the stones. In the spring Ramps Holm is or was once thick wii 
 wild garlic, as its name implies ; for Ramps Holm is only Garlic Island wh< 
 translated into English ; and the Scarf Stones may be dangerous 
 high-water time when their heads are covered, if you do not know thei] 
 whereabouts. Then there is Barrow Bay, and the river inlet to Lodore, 
 which takes close steering to keep the boat clear up its centre, and not 
 run it aground on the mud among the reeds and rushes; and the Floating 
 Island, 8 that strange phenomenon of the hotter summers ; and the beautiful 
 Derwent, coming in its last hour, after all its rocky clearness, through a 
 
 8 In the summer of 1863 there were two floating islands a thing not known before ; 
 but the second was part of the same system as the first, and both were portions of 
 the bottom of the lake, torn up by some agency as yet a little undetermined by the scientific. 
 It is evident that one cause is the generation of gases carburetted hydrogen and azote in 
 equal parts, with a little carbonic acid underneath the lake bottom in very hot weather, by 
 which means the flooring is at last torn and lifted up bodily, and floated to the surface. 
 But why those gases are generated in that one particular spot is, after all, the real mystery. 
 The older and more intelligent of the guides will tell you of a little stream that gets lost in 
 the ground before reaching the lake, and which disappearance, they say, has something to 
 do with the subsequent upheaval of the island ; but this point has not been quite 
 established as yet. The island is a mere soft spongy bit of vegetation and earth, such as 
 the bottom of the lake close in shore would be, covered with water lobelia (Lobelia dort- 
 manna), common quillwort (Isoetes lacustris), and shore-weed (Littorella lacustris) ; the 
 same plants, in short, as grow round the margin of the lake everywhere. There seemed 
 great chance at one time this year of a very large portion of that Lodore side of the lake 
 bottom rising to the surface ; for, owing to the heat and long drought, the water was 
 exceedingly shallow the yellow part of the bulrushes standing nearly a foot out of it ; and, 
 had the same kind of weather continued, we should probably have had a floating island of 
 unheard-of magnitude, shaking its loose sides upon the water. 
 
 54
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER. 
 
 mere swamp where the herons find their food, and where there used to 
 be snipes and wild ducks and the like, until population and civilization 
 drove them all away to wilder places. And there are the points, like 
 tongues, darting up towards Grange and Borrowdale ; and the lead-mine 
 at Salt Level Bay, where there is a steam-engine with heaps of grey refuse, 
 and the water soiled and whitened for a broad space outward ; and the 
 Brandelow Woods under Catbells, where old-world smugglers used to live, 
 and run their kegs of brandy ashore bold "Will Watches, bolder than 
 honest, and with a monstrous amount of false sentiment about their 
 memories. And then there is St. Herbert's Island, 9 the sweetest of all. 
 
 Every one lands on St. Herbert's Island, and wanders through the close- 
 grown paths to the summerhouse, where picnic parties, needing a roof over 
 their heads, spread their table-cloths and bring out their veal pies and cold 
 chickens ; and every one studies the new aspect of the mountains as seen 
 from this Omphalos of the lake. Catbells looks steeper than in general, if 
 
 9 Almost every one knows the beautiful tradition attached to this island, where 
 " Herebert, priest and confessor," came when he withdrew himself from the world of men 
 and action, to live in the life of God and contemplation retaining only one earthly 
 affection : his love for St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarn, or, as Bede calls it, Farn Island. When 
 St. Cuthbert came as bishop to Lugubalia, (which we now call Carlisle,) St. Herbert went 
 over to him for godly talk and affectionate communion ; and then it was that the elder saint 
 prayed God to grant his younger brother's prayer, and to let them both depart from life on 
 the same day. And the promise was given. On the same day, which was the 19th day of 
 March, " their souls departed from their bodies, and were straight in union in the beatific 
 sight and vision, and were transported hence to the Kingdom of Heaven by the service and 
 hands of angels." For centuries after, the Vicar of Crosthwaite, attended by the priests 
 and monks of every church and chapel and convent round about, went in grand procession 
 up the lake on the 13th April, to celebrate mass on St. Herbert's Isle, to the joint honour 
 of the two sainted friends ; granting forty days' indulgence to all the pious who accompanied 
 them. Fuller's notice of the story is this, " Herebert, Priest and Confessor, may justly be 
 referred to this county ; for there is a lake therein (Bede calleth \tpregrande stagnum), nigh 
 Keswick, made by the river Darwent, wherein three islands are found, in the least of which 
 this Herebert led an eremitical life." 
 
 55
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 not so high, and Maiden Mawr is wilder ; Skiddaw is infinitely mild and 
 paternal, and the valley between it and the lake is crumpled up into a few dotted 
 lines ; Bassenthwaite seems to be endless miles away, and Blencathra is sharp 
 and aggressive ; the front of Walla Crag, and the rocks about Lodore, are 
 rich in colour and of threatening aspect; and the great purple caverns of 
 Borrowdale seem close at hand, as if you could fling a stone against the very brow 
 of Castle Crag, blocking up the way. In some conditions of the atmosphere 
 the smallest accident of the hills, whatever it may be, is as clearly marked 
 and as vividly coloured as if it was a toy model you had before you. In 
 others you see nothing but the presence of large masses and the shadowy 
 places of the dales, while all the details are rapt away into misty dreamland, 
 and that southern gorge is the home of only spirits and genii. Sometimes 
 the home of pale ghosts, or of furies let loose, when the clouds come down, 
 and the wind and the rain go forth to meet them. Those great purple caverns 
 that deep throat into which you plunge with such insatiable longing how 
 often have the weary-hearted stood here on the very spot where St. Herbert 
 prayed, and cast down the Rurden of their sorrows where he took up his 
 cross ! 
 
 Now back to your boat, past the hole by the Otter-rock where the big 
 eel was caught one day, and into Derwentwater Bay or Waterend Bay, 
 Waterlily Bay, or Sir John Woodford's, as you like to call it but under any 
 name the sweetest haunt to be found within the four seas. One of the chief 
 beauties of Derwentwater is its clearness on account of its shallowness : and 
 of all its bays and shallows this is the clearest and most transparent. The 
 water lies over a pavement of jewels of all kinds and of all hues ; ranging 
 from pale sea-green passing into white, to the deepest purple of the shade 
 next to black. It is a "wonderwork," that lake pavement inside the bay; 
 so is the lovely wood surrounding it ; so is that broad roofing of lily leaves, 
 red and green, beneath which the Undines of the lake sway the white cups 
 to and fro in the evening ripple ; and even the broken steps leading up into 
 the private grounds, with the battered old stags upon the gate-posts even 
 
 66
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENTWATEK. 
 
 the stone arm-chair on the rock ut the corner, with its rustic history belonging 
 have a fascination and a fitness not to be found anywhere beside. 
 
 Then, skirting past pleasant Silver Hill, where the sun always seems 
 to shine, taking care not to get wrecked on either of the little Ling Holms 
 at hand, but keeping within the shadow of the woods, so lovely at this par- 
 ticular spot, as, indeed, they are all along the western side steering up 
 and out again the reedy stretch of the issuing Derwent, the Greta joining 
 close by but not meeting in the lake past the wooded Promontory and Crow 
 Park, and then to the landing-place again ; the inventory of the lake complete. 
 
 FROM SIB JOHN WOODFORD's GROUNDS 
 
 Of the history of Keswick 10 not much is to be said, for all that it is 
 the largest and most important of the Lake Country towns the metropolis, 
 as it is the centre, of the district. It used to have three special branches 
 
 10 Kesh is the local name for the water hemlock, which grows very abundantly here ; so 
 that Keswick is literally the head, or bay, or village of the water hemlock. In early times, 
 Keswick was not the favourite place it is now. The town was almost wholly inhabited by 
 
 57 I
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 of industry the woollen trade, 11 the black-lead mines in Borrowdale, and 
 the gold and silver mines in Newlands; 12 but the woollen trade has dwindled 
 
 miners, and Leland, who seems to have hated our north country bitterly enough, calls it 
 " a lytle poore market town cawlled Keswike, a mile from St. Herherte's Isle, that Bede 
 speaketh of; " but Camden's summary was more gracious : " On the edges of this lake in 
 very rich land," he says, " surrounded by dewy lulls, and defended from the north winds by 
 Skiddaw, a very high mountain, lies Keswicke, a small market town, many years famous 
 for the copper works, as appears from a charter of King Edward IV., and at present 
 inhabited by miners, whose smelting house is by Derwentside, which, with his forcible 
 stream, and other ingenious inventions, serveth them in notable stead for easy bellows - 
 works, hammer-works, forge-works, and sawing of boards, not without admiration of th<' 
 who behold." (This is quoted from a quotation.) A contributor to the Gentiamatt$ 
 Magazine, in 1751, is very severe. He says out boldly, with no chance of being mis- 
 understood, that " the poorer inhabitants of Keswick subsist chiefly by stealing, or 
 clandestinely buying of those that steal, the black lead, which the}* sell to Jews or other 
 hawkers." Hutchinson, in his Tour, gives his verdict, too, on the adverse side. " Keswick 
 is but a mean village, wholly indebted to the amenity of its situation to the notice of 
 travellers," he says ; and he sums up all that is to be said in the facts, that the 
 accommodation is very indifferent, that no tradition is preserved of St. Herbert, that there 
 are eagles in the cliffs near Bank Park (at the head of the lake), and on the shores a saline 
 spring of very salubrious quality (at Manesty, probably), and that a cliff, projecting over 
 the lake, is called " Eve's Crag" from its likeness to a woman. "NVhich was his own dream 
 surely, whatever else he may have had warrant}- for ! 
 
 " There are still some hands emplo} r ed in tin's, but very few compared to old time, when 
 spinning and weaving and carding Avent on in all the cottages, and home-spun ginghams 
 and fustians were the rule, not the exception. 
 
 '- The Newland mines were discovered in Queen Elizabeth's time, by Thomas Thurland 
 siiul I >aniel Hetchletter, a German from Augsburg : the upshot being a law-suit between the 
 Queen and Thomas Percie, Earl of Northumberland, the Lord of the Manor, which ended in 
 favour of the former and her prerogative, because more silver and gold than copper was found, 
 sn they said, and the royal metals belonged to her, the baser only to the Lord. Fuller, in his 
 ll'iirtfiii'x, has a very (jiiaint note on the Newland mines. " These Mines lay long neglected, 
 choaked in their own rubbish, till renewed about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, when 
 plenty of Copper was here afforded, both for home use and for forraign transportation. 
 I '.lit Copper itself was too soft for several! military services, and could not alone (no single 
 person can pnn, ;| Parent) produce. Brass, most useful for that purpose. Here taste and 
 
 'ivine Providem-p : which never doth its work by halfes, and generally doubleth gifts 
 by -(.asonable gning them: /,<////.< i-.ihnnitinrix (whereof hereafter in due place) was then 
 
 58
 
 KESWICK AND DERWENTWATEK. 
 
 now, and is almost dead ; and the " rune " cut into the flagstone, which was 
 to keep it flourishing for ever, 
 
 " May God Almighty grant His aid 
 To Keswick and its woollen trade " 
 
 was before the entrance to a pencil-mill when last heard of; for the pencil 
 manufactory, a little slackened of late, survives all other changes, though 
 the working of the wad-mines has ceased. As for the Newlands mints 
 they were long abandoned, but are now in full yield again ; while a new 
 lead-mine has been opened at Salt Level Bay, and a sufficiency of ore found 
 to make the working profitable. 
 
 The buildings are not specially noteworthy. There is a town hall 
 called Moot Hall locally very much like any other town hall in England, 
 where eggs and butter are sold at the Saturday market, 13 and where certain 
 courts and public meetings are held notably the weekly petty sessions or 
 magistrates' meetings, and the annual Court Leet, on the business of the 
 manor and its lord. It has one or two special objects of interest : one, the 
 
 first found in England, the Mother of Brass, as Copper the Father thereof." " We must 
 not forget the names of the two Dutchmen (good froygs by Sea, but better moles by land}. 
 who refound out these Copper mines, wherein also some Silver (no neir milk without some 
 i-i-i'iime therein) viz., Thomas Shurland and Daniel Hotchslabter, of Auspurge, in 
 Germany," whose nephews bought land (probably in the county). 
 
 13 This was a privilege got by Sir John de Derwentwater, the then lord of the Manor, 
 from Edward I. There are also certain fairs for cattle, cheese, and hiring, held at various 
 times of the year. The old Morlan fair for leather has long since been discontinued, 
 though the shoemakers still get drunk on the day (the 2nd of August) in memoiy of the 
 occasion. The Morlan fair gave rise to the proverb, " Morlan fluid ne'er did .guid," benm-c' 
 of the damage done to the leather by over much rain. And, indeed, the summer floods of 
 the lake country are sometimes very terrific. One of the old chapelry priests was drowned 
 in the ditch near the High Hill, on a Morlan flood, not so very many years ago ; and there 
 have been times, quite of late, when the two lakes were joined together, and the Portinscalo 
 road had to be traversed in boats. Morlan is an instance of the gradual corruption of words. 
 It is Magdalen properly, first brought down to Maudlin, and then still further clipped. 
 to Morliin. 
 
 59 12
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 bell on which the clock strikes, which has an almost illegible date of 1001, 
 and the letters H. D. R. 0. on it ; supposed to have been a curfew-bell of 
 the period, and brought from Lord's Island; and the other, the very 
 stones of which it is built, for they too came from Lord's Island, being the 
 ruins of the Perwentwater House when everything went to decay after the 
 attainder and that tragic execution. It has a more modern interest in 
 Klintoft's masterly model which is exhibited here, and which every lake 
 visitor ought to study if he wishes to understand his whereabouts. It is 
 really a masterpiece, this model, perfectly truthful and admirably explained. 
 
 Farther down the town is a museum 14 of Saxon 
 antiquities, and Greek and Roman remains - 
 coins, swords, celts, urns, bronze eagles, and the 
 like ; some fine geological specimens, a double 
 octave of musical stones the first discovered 
 and the usual curiosities of such a place; the 
 door flanked and guarded by two huge whale- 
 bones as the supporters, to the eternal awe and 
 wonder of the rising generation. 
 
 FOUND AT OAKHMOT ^d fo^ i S __ n0) ^QJ-Q WaS a 1'OWOf 
 
 quaint, old-fashioned almshouses, where eighteen poor and indigent folk 
 were supported, according to the will and bequest of Sir John Banks, Lord 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1640, and a native of 
 Keswick ; 15 but the almshouses have been swept away now, and a Bank is 
 built on the site, and the remnant of the eighteen poor and indigent folk 
 
 14 Better known as Crosthwaite's Museum, a really remarkable collection, not only for 
 matters of intrinsic value, but as a monument of the industry and research of one of our 
 Keswick worthies. Peter Crosthwaite, like Jonathan Otley, was a self-made man ; and 
 In. tli these local celebrities do no little honour to the self-making and self-educating system. 
 They were both Dalton kind of men : not an unusual type in the north country. 
 
 15 Fuller says he left a sum of money " to set up a manufacture of coarse cottons in llu- 
 i nun of Keswick." 
 
 60
 
 KKSWICK AND DEIIWENTWATEK. 
 
 has been drafted oft' to the omnivorous Union, ready for the engulfing of any 
 amount of lives. 
 
 Outside the town is Southey's house, Greta Hall by name, where he- 
 lived the life of a gentleman and a scholar, wrote the " Doctor " and made his 
 " Cottonian library," played with Dapper the dog, and flung stones for 
 exercise into the Greta; and at the other, the east, end of the town, are, 
 St. John's Church, pink and pretty, and the most picturesque parish library 
 to be found anywhere : as well adapted to our modern ways as any of the 
 most beautiful college-halls of olden times. 
 
 And then there is the mother church, 16 St. Mungo's, or St. Kentigern's, 
 if you prefer the latter name instead a saint much honoured in the north 
 country standing alone towards the base of Skiddaw, away from the town 
 and the old church village of Crosthwaite alike. It is the Lake cathedral, 
 
 and was nobly " restored " some eighteen years ago by Mr. Stanger. Strangers 
 flock round Lough's monument of Southey, with Wordsworth's sonnet at 
 the base ; and archaeologists find solace in those old relics of the Derwent- 
 waters two battered figures of a knight and a lady in composite, which, in 
 
 16 Alice de Romeli's gift to Fountain's Abbey, so far as the rectory was concerned ; but 
 the patronage of the vicarage reserved to the see of Carlisle. 
 
 61
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the days of ignorance, used to be called Adam and Eve, but which were 
 doubtless images of the ordinary generation of man once riving up at Castlerigg 
 and known as the Lords de Derwentwater, but now lying under a speckled 
 marble slab close to where the school children sit and make the responses. 
 On this dark speckled slab are some brasses, two being the figures of a knight 
 in armour and his lady, with the inscription in black letter beneath: 17 
 " Of yo r Charite f/ for the Soule of S r John Ratclif, knyght : and for the 
 state of Dame Alice his wyfe : which S r John dyed y e ii Day of February 
 An Di M" D xxvii. 6 whois soule Jhu have m cy ." There are also some 
 painted windows not to be passed over with disrespect; and an old font, 
 very curious, said to have been given by Alice de Romeli. A certain part 
 of the church (the east end of the south aisle) is known as the Derwentwater, 
 or Lord's Chapel, also the Magdalen Chantry, where the souls of the 
 translated Derwentwaters were daily prayed for under the special patronage 
 of " Sancta Maria Magdalena de Keswyke." And then there is a peal of 
 bells. Such a peal ! pouring a very cascade of music through the vale, 
 when the wind blows gustily, sinking and swelling with the breeze in mingled 
 passion and suppression infinitely beautiful. The bells are all inscribed, as was 
 
 17 Tliis monument, and an old carved chair in Crosthwaite's Museum, are almost ;ill 
 the remains left of the Derwentwaters, so long the chief family of the place, and even n< >\\ 
 regarded with romantic tenderness, perhaps hecause of the sad tragedy of the last of the 
 race. For it was not the simple fact of his execution that made the story of the young 
 earl so pitiful it was his youth and gallantry and chivahic character; it was his wife's 
 devotedness, both to the cause for which she sacrificed her husband, and to that husband 
 himself, when the stake for which he had played was lost, and only the player was to be 
 rescued. It was the story of love and heroism a stoiy as old as time, and as noble as human 
 history that has invested the name of the Derwentwaters with so much interest, and that 
 has kept them still the traditionary heroes and local magnates of the vale, no matter what 
 great name or greater wealth comes in their stead and on their land. To this day the 
 Aurora Borealis is called " Lord Derwentwater's Lights," because they shone with unusual 
 brilliancy the night after his execution. The common people said it was a sign of the 
 wrath of Heaven for his execution, but the religious said it was the fiery chariot of his soul 
 taken upwards ; and the last got the greater consolation. 
 
 62
 
 KESWICK AND DEKWKNTWATKK'. 
 
 the custom of old time ; but if their music was no better than their poetry, 
 the world of hearers in and about that old Crosthwaite Church would not 
 be much benefited. 
 
 The manner of electing churchwardens and sidesmen in this church is of 
 old-time origin. 18 The assembly of electors commanded to gather themselves 
 together at Crosthwaite Church on the afternoon of Ascension-day, is to be 
 composed of the Vicar of Crosthwaite, the eighteen sworn men (sidesmen), 
 the churchwardens, the representatives of the house of Derwentwater, the 
 sealer and receiver of the Queen's Majesty's portion at the mines, the bailiffs 
 of Keswick, Wythburn, Borrowdale, Thornthwaite, Brundholm, and the 
 Forester of Denvent Fells ; and these are to choose and elect the eighteen men 
 for the year to come, and also the churchwardens. The oath to be administered 
 on the Sunday following, between the morning prayers and the Litany, is as 
 (juaiut as the rest, but too long to be given here. There is also a free or national 
 school near the church abutting, indeed, on to the churchyard wall with 
 certain local privileges helpful to the young of the place, and which the 
 
 18 There was more to do in those early times than simply to provide for the right ill 
 distribution of the parish funds, or to look after the scholars and their master; for the 
 north countrymen, slow to move in everything, were the last to accept the new dispensation. 
 Clergy and laity, almost to a man, supported Aske's rebellion the Pilgrimage of Grace; 
 iind Sir Ralph Sadler wrote in 1569 to Lord Burghley that, "the hearts of all the com - 
 UK malty of the North country were altogether bunded with th' olde popishe doctrine." These 
 Iioniiinistic proclivities got the poor Eighteen into temporary trouble ; and the authorities 
 appointed for the better ordering of the religious observances of the county, did their best 
 to drive them into the way of simplicity and the Reformation, and to destroy the lingering 
 love of papistry and papistical splendours still existing. No great harm came to any of 
 them, and no lives were lost. Fuller, speaking of Cumberland martyrs, says, in his diy 
 sarcastic way. "This country aftbrdeth none in the Raign of Queen Maiy. First, the 
 People thereof were mezell'd in Ignorance and Superstition. Secondly, such as favoured the 
 Reformation were connived at by Owin Oglethorpe, the courteous Bishop of Carlisle, who 
 crowned f^neen Ell/abeth. However. Cumberland had one- Native, who going up to 
 London, first found a husband, and then met with martyrdomo therein: viz., Elizabeth 
 1'oster." born at ( Iniystock. burnt with six others in one fire at Smithfield, January 27, 
 L556. 
 
 G.T
 
 TIIK LAKE COl'XTKY. 
 
 eighteen sworn men manage to the good or evil of the institution mid 
 scholars, as the worse- or better element among them prevails. Sometimes 
 there are disagreements between the Eighteen and the master ; one objecting 
 to the over-severity and the other indignant at the over-leniency ; one fuming 
 that his son does not learn fast enough and another fretting because his 
 daughter is going to be such a fine scholar she will make but a feckless woman. 
 Self-government has its disadvantages. 
 
 The ancient and original village of the vale is Crosthwaite ; that little 
 hamlet below the Vicarage-hill to the right, where there is a fine old house 
 called Monk's Hall, now a farm, and a tree with a tradition at its roots. This 
 was the parish hamlet when the Christian religion was represented by noble 
 architecture and social inequality; when the monk dwelt in a celled palace, 
 and the serf herded with the pigs and the goats. It is now nothing but the 
 decrepit old name-giver, palsied, withered, and worn out. 
 
 But withered and decrepit as it may be, it still lives in the glories whicl 
 neither time nor circumstance can change : it still looks up to Skiddaw'i- 
 calm, grand front, still sees the burning sunrise flushing it a glowing 
 crimson as the day steals on and over the mountain tops and then 
 down to the valley beneath ; still sees it paling gradually from red and purpl 
 to grey and green, like a fire burning itself out to ashes, as the sun siul 
 down behind the Bassenthwaite lake and the sea beyond ; still sees it whit 
 and silent as a frozen statue in the winter green as a young flower leaf in tl 
 spring belted with gold in the summer, but the gold broken into by purpl 
 shadows and greyer markings and in the autumn time burnished with all tl 
 richest colours nature can give purple and red and gold and bronze 
 till it is one large garden of beauty and fragrance. And so the tim< 
 wear on, and man and all his fashions change from year to year, and froi 
 day to day ; but palsied, withered, and decrepit old Crosthwaite village 
 lives in the presence of the Eternal the Eternally Young and the Eternally 
 Beautiful ! 
 
 G4
 
 BORROWL>iL:E 
 
 FROM 
 BELOW THE BOWDEF 
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 YES, the Vale of Keswick is the opened rose itself, and all the other lakes and 
 mountains are the leaves and buds. Noble sprays, some of them, fall of rich 
 tones and delicious sweetness, but none equal to the perfected flower. And 
 Borrowdale is the heart of the rose ; the inner golden recess where the bees 
 seek their food and the butterflies their enjoyment ; the point where so many 
 lines converge and where we rest before taking wider flights beyond ; for, 
 indeed, the most noticeable thing in the whole vale is that cluster of dark blue 
 mountains up at the head of the lake, if it be not the solitary Northern mass 
 of Skiddaw set up like a kind of mountain Jove above the rest.
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Borrowdale * is generally only ranked as one of the " walks about 
 Keswick." Though the heart and nucleus of the mountain system, it is 
 regarded mainly as the way to Langdale by the Stake, or to Wastwater by 
 Sty Head, or to Buttermere by Honister ; not often as a place of sojourn or of 
 intimate knowledge. And yet it has within itself beauty that would reward 
 long months of loving roaming. For instance, the walk from Grange, ending 
 at Stockley Bridge at the foot of Sty Head Pass, is without an equal ; especially 
 if you choose an evening full of rich sunset tones, and know the worth of 
 the loveliness about you. 
 
 1 The manor of Borrowdale was once part of the Castlerigg manor, belonging to the 
 Derwentwater estate, but probably given by one of the family to the church ; for, in some I 
 accounts, it is said that, " the monks of Furness held, of the honour of Cockerrnouth, in 
 pure and perpetual alms, Borrowdale, which, by the dissolution of the said monasterie, fell 
 into King Henry's hands, and was, at the time this survey of the Derwent Fells manor was 
 taken (1578), still in the possession of the Queen. The abbot and convent of Fountains 
 late held the other Borrowdale of the said honour, in pure and perpetual alms, which came 
 in the said king by the dissolution of the abbey; and, by the said King Henry, granted to 
 Richard Grame and his heirs." Another account gives the manor to William Whitmore 
 and Jonas Verdon, by grant of James I., and they, by a " deed dated the 28th of Novemln >r. 
 1014, sold and conveyed to Sir Wilfred Lawson and thirty others therein named, all the 
 said manor of Borrowdale, except all those wad-holes and wad, commonly called black 
 cawke, within the commons of Seatollar, or elsewhere, witliin the commons and wastes of 
 the manor of Borrowdale aforesaid, of the yearly rent or value of fifteen sliilliugs and 
 fourpence, since which time it has been held distinct from other royalties of the manor." 
 
 Great fun used to be made of the Borrowdale people when intercourse was rarer and 
 local distinctions greater than now, (Clarke, writing in 1789, says that twenty years ago a 
 cart was unknown in Borrowdale,) and many of the old Gotham traditions were fastened on 
 them as on the Troutbeck men. True or not, it is believed to this day in Keswick that the 
 cuckoo wall, which was to build in the gowk or cuckoo, and so ensure eternal spring, w:is 
 actually begun at Borrowdale ; and " Borrowdale gowk " is a term not infrequently applied 
 to the heavy Borrowdale men. There are other stories, as that of the red deer which 
 \\;is certainly a witch, because it escaped the hunters; and that of the mule which was 
 certainly a peacock (a beast heard of just then for the first time), for what else could it be ? 
 and other rough old tales, expressive of the superior enlightenment of the towns and their 
 consequent contempt of the dales. The " tongue," too, is of the broadest, and even a born 
 Cumbrian lias difficulty in understanding tin- ivnl, ripe, racy, Borrowdale vernacular, whl 
 
 66
 
 THE KESW1CK WALKS. 
 
 Grange, 2 though not in itself beautiful as a human dwelling-place, is yet 
 pretty to look at with its long soft line of double bridge leaping over the river. 
 And the river flowing beneath, against that banked waste of stones, is as 
 lovely as its name. Skiddaw and the lake behind look their best from here ; 
 Maiden Mawr facing us, leading off into the bolder mass of Gait Crag, :i 
 is at its noblest ; Castle Crag, wooded from base to summit, and standing like 
 a fortress 4 to guard the pass, is picturesque as ever; and the greater mountains 
 at the head look dim and full of mystery, as belongs to their grandest aspect. 
 A little farther inward and you come to the choicest part of the valley, wild 
 with crag and fell, yet rich with trees and flowers and flower-full meadows, 
 and lightened by the life and music of the bright Derwent, flowing on like 
 a noble song. You are near the bend of the road just facing Castle Crag 
 (the place chosen for the large view), one of the loveliest of the walk, and 
 singularly like a bit of Norwegian road. The wooded hill standing out from 
 
 calls a heron " Joan na ma crank," and a glead or kite " Jackey Slope." The attachment 
 of the dales people to their native place is at all times marked. In the parish register of the 
 chapel is a notice that a youth who had quitted the valley, and had died in one of the 
 towns on the east coast, requested that his body should be brought home and interred at the 
 foot of the pillar where he used to sit as a schoolboy ; and many more of the like could be 
 found by any one interested in the search. To go back to the old cuckoo scandal. In Cum- 
 berland and Westmoreland an April fool is an " April gowk;" and the local proverb for the 
 tirst of April is, " Hunt the gowk another mile." There are also May goslings, or 
 ur slings," for the first of May ; but for that day only. If you tiy to make a May gosling 
 mi any other, your answer will, or ought to be 
 
 " May day is come and gone, 
 
 Thou art the gosling, and I'se none." 
 
 2 Grange was the store place of the monks, their gi-anary or harvest-room, where they 
 kept their grain and salt and tithes secure against all depredations; being guarded by the 
 lake to the north, and by the then almost impassable mountains behind. The mountain 
 passes, be it remembered, are quite things of modem invention. 
 
 3 Goat Crag often improperly spelt Gate Crag. 
 
 4 Castle Crag was a Roman station, commanding the pass behind and the valley in 
 front ; but I believe that no Roman remains have yet been found on it. Some of the guide- 
 books say they have, and that they are to be seen in Crosthwaite's Museum a fallacy. 
 
 67 K 2
 
 THK LAKK COUNTRY. 
 
 the rest is Castle Crag, black with shadow and burnt with sunshine a sun- 
 shine that catches each pointed rock and craggy face upon the edges, and 
 makes them aflame with ruddy gold, while it deepens the shadows in 
 unfathomable blackness. Over Gait Crag and Maiden Mawr is poured a thin 
 golden haze that thin soft haze which, more than any other atmospheric effect, 
 transforms the mountains from their real being, and cheats the eye from its 
 truth. At the base of Castle Crag runs the Derwent, winding away from fields 
 red with ripe grass down to the quiet lake beyond ; and side by side with the 
 river runs the road, grey to its blue, motionless to its flow, but repeating colour 
 and line as an echo repeats the spoken word. The opposite crags are bright 
 and clearly defined in their " coats of many colours," the bramble is corning 
 into flower, and a lovely festooning of ivy of the small-leaved kind runs in and 
 out among the stones of a beck- side wall ; while the air is perfumed with 
 young meadow-sweet "queen of the meadows" just coming into flower, 
 every now and then interrupted by wafts of honeysuckle clinging round the trees. 
 Back, a little way, to where the shingle of the slate quarry is tumbled 
 in road-side masses beautifully blue against the warmer grey of the rocks 
 
 above, and up the side path to the great 
 Bowder Stone, which has been likened 5 to 
 all things on earth to which it has no 
 manner of resemblance. Then, on again, 
 to almost the same spot as that of the large 
 view, but looking up the vale instead of 
 across it, to the station whence the view 
 at the head of the chapter is taken. 
 
 6 " Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground 
 A mass of rock, resembling, as it lay 
 Right at the foot of that moist precipice, 
 A stranded ship, with keel upturn'd, that rests 
 Careless of winds and waves." WORDSWORTH. 
 Tliis is the universal quotation ; but never meant by Wordsworth for the Bowder Stone.
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 It is impossible to worthily describe the craggy rocks clothed in fern 
 and heather ; the grey blue of the slate quarries ; the woods and fields 
 and fells in all their sweet and subtle shades of green and grey and gold ; 
 and, to crown all, the glorious sunset filling everything with intensity as 
 well as delicacy of colour. Man is only a part of nature : how, then, 
 should he fitly translate the infinite ? The western crags and hills are 
 apparently solid black, but a black which, when looked into, is rich with 
 purple and green and the finer tones of orange; on the north the contrast 
 of the bright green bracken touched here and there to red and gold, 
 and the blue slate darkened to indigo or lightened to cold grey, show 
 clear and crisp against the dim uncertainty, the slow, shy, rich revealing, of 
 the southern side. The broad grey bed of pebbles fringed with larch 
 is warmed to purple, and the quiet pools among the waste are like 
 sheets of beryl ; while Glaramara stands bathed in delicious radiance, as 
 if the shadow of a rainbow was passing over it. Every tenderness and 
 variety of tone and colour is there : from the richest orange to the deepest 
 purple, and all possibilities of red and green and blue between ; but all 
 toned down now into an amethystine violet, like a mass of molybdena, 
 or "peacock ore" a little veiled, or the feathers on a dove's throat. 
 The cup-like hollow which looks so like a tarn-bed, but is not, is 
 softened to a mere tender marking a shadow darker, but more bloom - 
 like than the rest ; the great Bull Crags glow and burn as if the very 
 heart of them was on fire within ; and the river hurries through the valley 
 like a thread of gold a little gentle streamlet, too meek for wrath 
 and too weak for work. At least, so it seems now, shrunk to a narrow 
 line against the wide belt of pebbles : wait till the floods break loose, 
 and then see what that tender little stream can do. 
 
 A few steps farther, and you see the way of the Three Passes : not 
 the paths themselves, but the openings of the dales ; where the Stake 
 Pass goes up by Stonethwaite and Langstreth, under Bull Crags and 
 Eagle Crag; where the Sty Head Pass winds up over Aaron End, beyond 
 
 69
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Seathwaite ; and where the Buttermere Pass goes over by Honister Crag. 
 There is also another, less known and less cared for a stony way between 
 High and Low Scawdale which leads into Newlands, and whence the 
 sunset effects are supremely grand. Follow this way to-night, and when 
 you are at the top of the pass, turn back and note them. 
 
 Rosthwaite and the valley, narrowed now to a mere line, lie cool in 
 the evening shadows cooler and deeper for contrast with what is above. 
 For the Borrowdale Fells, just over against the little village, are one 
 broad band of reddened gold ; and beyond, but looking far too close to 
 have all Thirlmere in the dip between, is the Helvellyn range, a burning 
 purple in the chrysolite-coloured sky the very intensity of passion in the 
 wonderful beauty of an eternal calm. While you look the shadows 
 lengthen and the band of red gold contracts, an exquisite greenness 
 mounting or rather flowing up into it, a green through which the gold 
 faintly strikes like the changing hue of an opal ; Helvellyn gets more 
 sombre in colour, but clearer in outline each form distinct against the 
 liquid heavens less passionate and more sullen as the minutes pass. Every 
 gradation of hue is before you, from the cold green and grey of the 
 shadowed fell, which yet, when you look into it, is full of lingering 
 touches of warmth, through the blue and violet and red of Helvellyn, up 
 to the gold of the sky. And here, the intense orange in the line next 
 to the mountain fades from orange to yellow, and from yellow to primrose, 
 and then through a pale cream tint to almost white; till, looking higher, 
 you see the pure blue, and the rose-red clouds turning gently westward to 
 catch the last of the sunshine. And then the shadow finally conquers the 
 golden band of the fell top. Helvellyn burns itself out and gets dark 
 and slaty; and the glory fades from the sky, to be caught back and 
 flung down in reflected light from the higher crimsoned clouds. And then 
 the white moon rises behind amethystine Glaramara; and the daylight 
 flows into the moonlight, in the commingling of indistinguishable beauty. 
 
 And, in the moonlight, walk up to the head of the dale, and see the 
 
 70
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 glistening masses of refuse by the "wad" mines 6 under Ghyll o'Combe 7 
 on Base Brown ; and the black group of the famous yew-trees, the " fraternal 
 four ; " and, farther on, the white streak of Sty Head Ghyll Taylor's Gliyll 
 it is generally called muttering to itself long before seen; and the sharp 
 road up Aaron End. And now you are in the very home of the gnomes 
 and the genii, and may hear their voices sighing in the hills, and the 
 hurrying of their feet across the water as they float like vapoury mists 
 from out their caverns, and swarm about the mountain-tops and down 
 the rocky fells. If no dear ones are waiting on your prudence you may 
 walk away into the gloom of Wastwater over Sty Head Pass by moonlight. 
 It would be worth doing on a reliable summer's night; something to 
 remember for ever, and to set as a seal against the loving glories of the 
 evening. But, alas ! prudence never had much to do with the moonlight 
 yet ; so, if you are wise, you will turn your faces homeward, and lament ; 
 and the owls and the corncrake will lament with you. 
 
 This is Borrowdale in the dry summer weather. See it when the 
 
 6 These are the famous blacklead mines, so long held to be the only ones in the world, 
 where fortunes have been made and some lost and which have been the origin and 
 beginning of the prosperity of Keswick. The mines are very variable, a " sop " of large 
 value being sometimes stumbled against, and sometimes notliing found for months. But 
 so many substitutes have been discovered of late years, not to speak of the great Russian 
 display in the Exhibition of 1862, that the value of the Borrowdale wad is a little 
 diminished ; or, if not its value, yet the dependence of the public on the yield. 
 
 7 Gillercoom, as it is spelt, is a singular instance of the degradation of sense by sound, 
 and the manner in which the true meaning of a word gets lost by phonography. Gillercoom 
 Hollow is the name of the depression on the top of Base Brown, whence issues the fall, 
 " Sour-Milk Ghyll." Now a ghyll is not a waterfall rightfully a ghyll is only a chasm or 
 deep cut between two rocks or through a hill, down wliich is naturally the place of a water- 
 fall. Above the ghyll, or pathway, of Sour-Milk Force is the Combe, or crest of the hill, 
 over which the water of the force comes down. The ghyll, therefore, is the ghyll of the 
 combe, and the hollow is still called Gillercoom (Ghyll o' Combe) Hollow the hollow 
 between the ghyll and the combe. Sour-Milk Force in the Ghyll of the Combe, became 
 Sour- Milk Ghyll only ; and Ghyll of Combe Hollow became Ghyll o' Combe, so intelligent ly 
 spelt in the guide-books as Gillercoom. 
 
 71
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 rain has fallen for twelve hours, 8 after the rising of the " Borrowdale sop," 9 
 and you will find the whole conditions changed. Lodore, which had 
 scarcely a cupfull of water trickling through its stones, is now a turbulent 
 and turhid Force in the place of a limpid stream rippling musically from 
 stone to stone. The river into which it subsides a mere silver line before 
 is now a boiling whirlpool, white or brown as it holds itself together in its 
 sullen flood or breaks passionately into spray and foam upon the rocks. 
 The fall comes down, parting into three fierce streams before they join 
 again in one ; with just one or two black rocks putting out their heads 
 above the waters ; but all the rest are covered, and their places marked only 
 by the fiercer rush and the louder roar. The lake-side meadows are standing 
 swamps ; and the river by Grange is no longer a waste of stones, but a 
 waste of waters breaking up into thundering waves not the mere dashing 
 of petulant spray against the rocks. It is the same higher up. There are 
 no stones now in the river-bed by Castle Crag ; the larches stand waist-deep 
 in the water ; the road is flooded up to the horses' girths, and the waters 
 dash into the carriage and pour through it. The mountains are loud with 
 water-courses ; and not a trace of that gorgeous colouring of twenty-four hours 
 ago is to be seen. All yesterday Skiddaw was hidden under a straight-ruled 
 smoke-coloured coverlet, which came nearly down to Applethwaite ; to-day it is 
 washed clean out of the picture as the storm traverses the vale. So with 
 Glaramara and the mountains at the head of Borrowdale. You see nothing 
 
 8 The accounts of floods, and disasters and irreparable losses following on tlie summer 
 I'M ins. are far too numerous to be quoted liere. Any of the older guide-books and county 
 histories give them, bxit it is a tiling of which south country people have no idea, and of 
 which a simple and unexaggerated statement would look like romance to those uninitiated. 
 
 9 The " Borrowdale sop " is a small, single cloud, at first no bigger than a man's hand, 
 but gradually gathering size and substance, which rises at Pierce Ghyll Head (a ghyll and 
 force by the Sty Head Pass, on Lingmoor side), and floats away round by Sty Head Tarn 
 and Sprinkling Tarn. Should it take the direction of Langdale, and fall over into the vale 
 of Langdale, it will rain within twelve or twenty-four hours, even though the sky be 
 cloudless, and the glass high ; but it marks the continuance of fine weather, if it floats over 
 into the vale of St. John
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 but a driving hoary mist, or a fiercer wrath of rain pitiless as hail ; nothing 
 but trees bent in the wind, and waters foaming from the hill sides, and the 
 rain pouring down a level torrent, and the paths of the mountain ghylls 
 filled with raging mountain streams. This is what twelve hours' rain among 
 the mountains has brought. 
 
 "Round the lake" is perhaps the most beautiful of the home walks 
 about Keswick, more especially if able to gather up into one knot all the 
 scattered points of interest lying by the way the ascent of " Castlet," already 
 spoken of ; the two cascades, Barrow and Lodore ; the Bowder Stone and 
 Borrowdale, for those who have not been there before. Of Castlet and these 
 last two no more need now be said, though, indeed, their loveliness is as fresh 
 to-day as it was yesterday and will be to-morrow ; fresher than the words to 
 paint it. But there is Walla Crag beyond Castlet, of which volumes might 
 be filled, and never end by doing it justice. For what mere verbal description 
 can photograph its purple scaurs and blackened rifts, its clefts and boulders, 
 
 73 L
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and that pleasant tossing of green about its base? Walla Crcg lias the 
 place of the declared Beauty of the Derwentwater range. Then, it is more 
 interesting than any other from its associations; for there is still that 
 steep and dangerous way called the Lady's Eake, up which poor Lady 
 Derwentwater escaped with her jewels, to do her loving woman's utmost 
 for the release of her lord ; and perhaps it is the human interest associated 
 with it that has given it such a special holding in the hearts of the 
 Keswick people. In old times, too, a large white stone in among the boulders 
 used to be pointed out as the Lady's Pocket-handkerchief; and it was firmly 
 believed in a certain nursery then filled with rosy-cheeked credulity, that the 
 Lady had dropped her handkerchief in her flight, and that it still hung among 
 the crags, where no one could get at it. It was a sad blow struck at faith 
 when it became known that the handkerchief was a stone to which a certain 
 Crosthwaite and one Atkinson were said to climb every year, and paint with a 
 material paint-brush and white lead. The last story may be as apocryphal as 
 the first. That Great Wood of Walla Crag, as it is called, is full of delicious 
 walks ; some leading up among the crags, and some keeping to the low ground 
 among the ferns and wild flowers and shy birds and shyer wood beasts ; and 
 one, the sweetest of all, going by a field through the pleasant coppice of 
 Keswick Springs into the road at Brow Top ; very lovely, and lonely enough 
 for lovers. 
 
 But now you are bound for Barrow Falls and " round the lake." Still 
 under Walla Crag, you pass by where a mountain streamlet, set with ferns ;ii)<l 
 flowers, dashes through the cool wood ; and then the bare brow of Falcon 
 Crag keen and wild as its name cuts against the blue sky sharply. The 
 lake shines in the yellow sun, and the ripple just whispers to the pebbles if 
 no wind is astir to-day, and the vale rests in calm radiance, a blue lake 
 under a blue sky, and golden fields shined on by a golden sun. And then you 
 come to the gates of the Barrow grounds, 10 and by the well-kept gardens to 
 Barrow Falls, just behind the house. Wliat a possession for a dining-room 
 10 Barrow means a hill or tumulus. 
 74
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 window ! an out-look right into the heart of a waterfall, not a hundred yards 
 away ! 
 
 The falls make a double leap, one hundred and twenty-four feet in all ; 
 with a resting-place in between, something like a flight of steps with a landing 
 in the middle. The upper fall throws itself off into foam and spray, like a 
 shower of snowflakes ; the lower twines its water into strings, and keeps its 
 forces close. The space is too much cleared of trees, perhaps ; and, though 
 not so artificial as the Kydal Falls, yet there are signs of the spirit, if not 
 traces of the blast, which once made the leap grander than what time and nature 
 had ordained. But even improvers cannot entirely spoil a waterfall. There are 
 still the golden sands and the rocks, the clear pools and the green depths 
 within the shade, the old tree-stems covered with moss and the moss bearing 
 ferns and polypodys, the wild flowers in the sunshine, and the wild birds in 
 the bushes. And though the Barrow Falls look too much like what they are 
 a private cascade in a gentleman's private grounds yet they are very 
 beautiful in substance, and would be more beautiful if left wholly to the 
 gracious care of nature. 
 
 Lodore, of apparently unknown height, for some call it three hundred 
 and sixty, 11 some one hundred and fifty, 12 and some one hundred 13 feet only, 
 has a grander impress. Broken and fierce less thickly wooded than 
 Stockghyll and of a longer range of fall the rift deeper and wider and the 
 boulders larger here is a turbulent scene enough ; but disappointing ; save 
 to those who see it not only immediately after heavy rain but even during 
 the shower. For the supply from Watendlath Tarn runs down perceptibly 
 in half an hour, and then there are only big old rocks and small spaces of 
 fall, and olive-brown pools clear and very shallow, and lipping rills, in place 
 of the rush and the hurry and the wild outpouring, and the funnels of 
 foam driven underneath the pools in long whitened streaks, and the mad 
 outcry and hurtling of the waters. It is not often in perfection during the 
 
 11 Otlcy's Guide. l2 Handbook of Kcswick. 13 Black's Guide. 
 
 75 L 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 summer, excepting in the July rains, such as those spoken of; and again, 
 as with so many points in this country, only residents and natives know 
 its beauty by heart. The dark crags Gowder Crag on the left, and 
 Shepherd's Crag on the right are fringed with trees to the top; and here 
 and there an oak sapling or a young mountain ash has taken root among 
 the very boulders themselves, some of which, covered with moss, look like 
 great green velvet balls, and some, left bare, shine in the sun with prismatic 
 colours. The blackened sides of the rift are wet with spray, and there are 
 dark corners under cavernous ledges, and shallow places barely covering the 
 pebbles. Sometimes huge stones overarch each other, and the water dashes 
 through and over as if spinning from a wheel ; sometimes a thundering leap 
 comes madly down; and sometimes a rock stands stolidly in the way, and 
 forces the dashing stream apart; and then the tumult subsides, and only a 
 clear small stream runs among the stones through the meadows to the lake. 
 
 Now on, towards Grange, past the place where Gowder Crag fell into 
 the road two years before poor Gray's visit, to his mortal terror lest it should 
 fall again as he was passing, to where the Borrowdale gorge shuts in its vale 
 against the world ; and then across the double bridges of Grange, where 
 the old monks used to store their harvests ; and so by steep climbs and 
 sharp descents on to the high mountain road of Catbells. 
 
 The lake lies far below, and boats are gliding over its still waters, making 
 long tracks of light and disturbing the sharply-drawn reflections as they pass. 
 Swineside is unfolding its summer mantle of golden gorse, and the Newlands 
 Mountains, with their quiet vales and glens, entice to further wanderings ; 
 down in the swamps where snipes and herons are to be found, by Ullock 
 Moss, the yellow iris is blooming with lavish grace, the wild columbine 
 bears its doves upon its breast, and orchids and rare ferns are to be found 
 by careful seekers; but purple foxgloves, musical with great brown bees 
 within their bells, and hedges rich with honeysuckles and wild roses, offer 
 themselves to all. Then through a delicious bit of road, dark with wood, 
 and fragrant as no other road in the world turning aside to the old landing 
 
 76 

 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 place of Nichol Ending by the lake, and coming back with a heart full of 
 pleasant memories, and some not quite so pleasant; as of that diseased, 
 deformed, half-idiot lad, poor wretch ! who used to be always there ham- 
 mering at his boat, and who had but two loves in the world, of which his 
 boat was one, and the Portinscale cockatoo the other ; then through the 
 pretty village of Portinscale, 14 where the white cockatoo still flies among the 
 trees, and speaks to the passers by; over Derwent Bridge, which, high as 
 it is, the floods have often washed over, and where those mysterious and 
 fatal " cradles " were always causing the death of drunken men and unwary 
 children ; and so home : with the evening rays reddening the mountain tops and 
 turning into diamonds all the window panes on Brow Top and Chesnut Hill. 
 
 This is one of the Keswick walks, beautiful in all seasons and at all 
 times ten miles only in length but a microcosm of loveliness : being to 
 the vales what an epigram is to literature, or a sonnet to poetry the compass 
 small, but the sense and feeling entire. 
 
 WATENDLATH BBIDGK 
 
 To Watendlath and round by Rosthwaite is also within the powers of 
 the ordinarily strong. You pass under Walla Crag again, striking up to 
 Ashness Bridge where Barrow Beck flows noisily and artists stop to make 
 a sketch of Skiddaw and the two lakes in the valley below ; though, to be 
 sure, Skiddaw is a little hidden on the Latrigg side by Falcon Crag, under 
 which you sit. Then through the Barrow woods, taking care to diverge to 
 
 M <. Portings-ghyll," say some.
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTKY. 
 
 those two magnificent chasms in Thrang Crag, where you stand your only 
 support the small, frail, ash-tree leaning outwards looking at the view ac-ross 
 eternity. After which you go on again through more wood, till you come 
 into the narrow vale of Watendlath. 
 
 The first aspect of the valley is very wild, but the second tells you that 
 the mountains do not exceed in actual height, and that the main elements 
 of grandeur are the narrowness of the pass and the tumultuous forms of 
 the rocks. There is room only for the narrow, stony way of the river, which 
 jumps from rock to rock in a straight line, hemmed in by a rude wall on 
 the one side and by the living crag on the other ; for the narrow, stony WHY 
 of the cart-road ; and for a slender slip of meadow at the side, golden with 
 buttercups and peopled with kine ; the masses of rock overhanging helping 
 to make it all look narrower still. Before you reach the hamlet, you turn 
 aside to see a curious and lovely little cascade, where the rocks are curiously 
 hollowed and waterworn, and which is a small miniature of the future full 
 length of Lodore. For this Watendlath beck, issuing from the Watendlath 
 Tarn (into which originally falls a little stream from Blea Tarn on the Thirlmere 
 fells), makes the Lodore fall in its ending. 
 
 The tarn and the hamlet belonging are noticeable chiefly for their 
 seclusion ; not for wildness, nor for grandeur, but for seclusion life in a 
 recess with no outside relations a bit of primitive isolation, the next step 
 from which would be to savagery. The valley is very high, but the moun- 
 tains are higher still, and there is no way back to the world again save by 
 the hill tops to Borrowdale, or over that spongy flat of mountain table-land 
 to Thirlmere : so you must sit for a short time in the porch of a farm cottage 
 where every one sits, and, if you can, sketch that old woman in her scanty 
 purple dress, with her blue-checked apron over her head, painfully gathering 
 sticks. Some among you may think that more comfort and less picturesque- 
 ness would perhaps advance that poor old flickering life a little ; but others, 
 if artists of a certain school, hold to the blue-checked apron and the scanty 
 purple dress, stained by the weather to such a delicious tone. Now go over
 
 THE KESWrCK WALKS. 
 
 the quaint little bridge to the tarn, and look at the green rushes extending 
 almost half way across, with their red edging of water-lily leaves ; and then 
 up High Ladder Brow, and over the fell top, most probably in the rain 
 to where the beautiful Borrowdale valley 15 opens below you. The hills are 
 smoking, and clouds are hanging round them in all directions ; Scawfell's 
 head is covered and Glaramara is veiled ; but what of that ? the young 
 green ling and the fruitless tufts of bleaberry hang laden with jewels, as 
 the sun dashes aside the nearer mists like a loving face smiling through 
 tears and sorrow. Be grateful for the smile, and glad of the sunlight which 
 gives such splendour to the rain-drops as you come over the fell, wet and 
 tired, and so through the wood to Eosthwaite. 
 
 't 
 
 THE DRtJID CIRCLE 
 
 The Druid Circle is another Keswick possession worth seeing. Not for 
 particular beauty in those forty-eight old cobble-stones set up on end, 
 and looking like so many enchanted creatures sitting in mute perpetual 
 council, and which the saying is that no one can count twice alike; nor yet 
 
 1S This is the manner in which old writers spoke of the view of Borrowdale from High 
 Ladder Brow. " Dark caverns yawn at its entrance, terrific as the wildness of a maniac, 
 and disclose a narrow strait, running up between mountains of granite, that are shook into 
 Almost every possible form of horror, and resemble the accumulations of an earthquake, 
 *!>linterod, shivered, piled, amassed." In reality it is simply beautiful, and no more 
 than Windsor Park.
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 for any particular loveliness in the way thereto ; but because of the asso- 
 ciations and traditions attached, the thoughts to be evoked, and the magnificent 
 panorama to be studied. You can get there by either the Ambleside or 
 Penrith road : if the first, up Brow Top, past Castlerigg, and through the 
 pretty Castle Lonning ; if the second, by Brigham and the old Penrith road, 
 till you come to the waste, where these dumb stone creatures sit in the 
 sunshine, waiting for the hour of their deliverance and the return of their 
 gods, all bound in Ragnarok together. 
 
 What a crowd of feeling rushes on us, as we stand on the sacred place 
 where our savage ancestors so often offered up their sacrifices, and poured 
 out their Custom of blood and agony to propitiate the GOD whom we know 
 now to be the GOD of Love ! What a long and varied chapter of nobler 
 education since those dark times to the present turning of the cleaner historic 
 page ! No better than the Zulu Kaffir or the tatooed Maori, the Druid priest 
 and his flock of trembling worshippers represented only the darkness and 
 the stumbling of ignorance, only the debasement of fear and the cruelty of 
 superstition. And now, the light that has broken through the darkness ! 
 the knowledge that has guided the heart of fear, and the feet of stumbling ! 
 
 This Druid's temple was well chosen for its purpose. Commanding the 
 finest mountain view to be had lower than from a mountain top itself the 
 centre of an amphitheatre closing it in on all sides the lake hidden, and 
 every sign of opening or way of escape concealed we can fancy what it must 
 have been, when rendered even more awful by reverence of place, and when 
 thick woods still further shut out the light of liberty and the chance of 
 deliverance. The inner circle, supposed to be the priest's place, 16 looks 
 directly towards the Vale of St. John and the broken outline of Nathdale 
 Fells. Helvellyn, fierce and dark, stands as the great barrier against 
 
 16 Wright repudiates the theory that these Druids' circles were temples, or places of 
 sacrifice and worship, inclining to the belief that they were burial-places instead, though 
 puzzled with cemeteries of such magnitude as Stonehenge, and of such intricacy as 
 Avcbury. 
 
 80
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 Eastern hope and life ; and we understand now the meaning of its terrible 
 lines, and what is the spirit in-dwelling, and how it has become the repre- 
 sentative of cruelty in the mountain system. Is there such a thing as 
 brute matter ? Cannot even the hills and the woods be filled with the 
 abiding spirit of life, good or ill according to its generation ? Beyond 
 Helvellyn, over Wanthwaite Fells, is Mell Fell, looking like a huge 
 tumulus, suggestive of death to the men of old time. The ravines and 
 precipices of Blencathra show all their wildness, and Skiddaw and Latrigg 
 scarcely soften the fiercer front of their neighbour ; the Newlands Mountains 
 rise sharply against the sky ; and Walla Crag shuts out the Borrowdale 
 range with its dark and clean-cut prison walls. Mountains all round, and 
 never a glimpse of the quiet lake, nor the wide plains beyond ! nothing but 
 a living cell of rocks and hills, with no escape and no reprieve ! 
 
 Think what this place of the Druid Circle has seen. Picture the long 
 procession gathering from the mountain caves and rude forest homes, as 
 the white-robed priests and the holy maidens, oak-crowned and with torque 
 and band of gold, marched slowly through the vale, leading the white bulls 
 for sacrifice and bearing the golden sickle and the unspotted cloth, while 
 chanting their temple songs and striking their barbaric music. Old warriors, 
 scarred with the mark of many a fight and bowed with years and the 
 labours of their savage life ; armed men in the prime of their manhood, 
 their long hair floating on their shoulders, and their garments, of the 
 skins of beasts, hanging loosely round them ; fair-haired women bearing 
 their children in their arms ; youths and maidens ; all swarming in from 
 their fastnesses to attend the high festival held in honour of the gods 
 they worshipped and did not know. And what festivals ! the shrieks of 
 the slain, their organ chaunt ; and the blood of the victims, their incense 
 swinging from the altar ; and muttered invocations to dread names, their 
 Litany of Love; and blind terror, and bewildered guiding, and the heart 
 bowed for fear, and the hand clenched for death, their High Mass and 
 Church Service ; and the earth a charnel-house for the sustenance of heaven, 
 
 81 M
 
 Tlir, LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and man the sport of the gods and their victim, for all their creed of hope ! 
 Oh, those dumb, eternal mountains ! what tragedies of crime and terror 
 have been enacted year by year before them ! Yet there they stand, 
 unchanging witnesses of good or ill, patient in their power and of supreme 
 and infinite compassion ; the same now and always, whatever storms of 
 life beat up about their feet. 
 
 The same and yet how different ! There are mountains which mean only 
 summer days' excursions, and children gathering bilberries, and lovers wander- 
 ing through the bracken, and skylarks singing overhead ; and there are others 
 which the fury of the elements never wholly quits, but which have ever in 
 the heart of them an elemental spirit of wrath and a terrifying Presence ; 
 and there are others, like High Street, where the aspect is one of command 
 and authoritative rule ; and others, like Helvellyn, penetrated with the 
 crying souls of victims and the masterful spirits of torture. And then, 
 again, there are places like this of the Druid Circle, where every expression 
 is of loneliness and terror, and the solemnity of priestly rites, and the help- 
 lessness of man in the grasp of superstition. 
 
 Whether it is that the Druids chose what they saw befitted them, or 
 whether they have left their spirits in their temple yet to this day, who 
 can say? but sure it is that their "Circle" near Keswick makes quite a 
 different impression on the soul to anything else in the district ; and that 
 some such thoughts as these, more or less distinct, flow as naturally through 
 the mind while standing there, as the thought of children in a daisy-field, 
 or of young lovers in the spring time. And for this reason, the best time 
 and manner in which to see the stones is on a dark, lurid, lowering summes 
 day, when the clouds are full of thunder and the mountains full of wrath, 
 when all the forces of nature look fierce and aggressive, and the whole earth 
 teems with secret life and the souls of the slain struggling to come forth. 
 Or else on a wild winter's twilight, when the wind is thronged with demons, 
 and in every blast you hear their voices, and in every flying cloud behold 
 their forms. And you understand the meaning of these stones as well then 
 
 82
 
 THE KESWICK WALKS. 
 
 as in the heavier aspect : the only difference being in the heaving struggle 
 to get loose, and in the riot of escape. 
 
 No such thoughts could come from that lovely walk by Skiddaw Terrace, 
 through Millbeck and Applethwaite, (said by the etymologically crazy to mean 
 Ea-pul-thwaite water- water-place,) and home by the pleasant fields of 
 Orinathwaite, the " cleared place of snakes." This is one of the favourite 
 Keswick walks ; and no wonder. First there is the Bassenthwaite road, 
 worth going on if only for the sake of passing by such places as " Crookeldy 
 Bridge," and "Dancing Grate;" and then there is the turn sharp to the 
 right, and the steep way just under Carsleddam so close under, that you 
 look into the very heart of Skiddaw, and see the form of its bones and the 
 colour of its blood. Millbeck is the first of the hamlets on Skiddaw Ten-ace, 
 and the bridge there has long been a favourite with artists ; while farther 
 on, Applethwaite and its ghyll called locally Wordsworth's Ghyll, because 
 the great poet was once pleased to express his approbation of the same 
 might stay the wandering feet and arrest the roving eyes for many long 
 days together : such mountain climbs and wooded rambles and sketches 
 of picturesque, unhealthy old houses, and such a view as cannot be matched 
 from any mountain side in the world. But the view is the same as that had 
 during the ascent of Skiddaw; so the description of it will come in more 
 properly there. 
 
 The gully and the river divide the village of Applethwaite in two ; and 
 by the water-side in that cleft you may see a bank of nettle-leaved bell- 
 flowers " Canterbury bells," growing as richly as if cultivated in a private 
 garden ; and count the lovely icicles in winter and the pretty cascades in 
 summer, and rejoice in the very home of beauty and picturesque wildness. 
 The village of Applethwaite, with its gardens and its lanes, its fruit-bearing 
 trees- and stretches of gorse-clad mountain, its mill and the rift with the 
 rivulet within, is a gem of its kind the real hamlet of the hills. 
 
 The way home (more rightfully the ways home) is as beautiful as the 
 rest. Either down the lane, and through the Ormathwaite fields and wood, 
 
 83 M 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY 
 
 and by the Lairthwaitc fields where the bearers and mourners in the funerals 
 from under Skiddaw "raise the psalm," 17 and so to Keswick by the Vicarage 
 Limepots ; or by Gale which lies under Lonscale, and through the Latrigg 
 woods, and by Goosegreen and the Greta. Very precious whichever way is 
 taken. And all this time, remember, you have the lake and its islands and 
 the Borrowdale mountains before you ; and the grey town, with its pink church, 
 spreading out to the foot of Brow Top and backed by Walla Crag; and the 
 vale with its green fields and its white terraces below you ; and the great green 
 head of Skiddaw towering above you. Can you ask anything more beautiful '? 
 No section of a book can give even a list of all the walks about 
 Keswick. They would take a volume to their own share, and then leave half 
 untold ; but we can mention a few of them in the catalogue and guide-book 
 style. There is the way from Keswick to the Portinscale road through 
 Howrah's, with a noble view of Skiddaw like a consolidated thunder-cloud 
 sent from the north, and where you can track the course of the Greta, and 
 see the Borrowdale mountains, but not the lake : and that pretty church lonning 
 with the mysterious " dub " attached, called Priest-cuddy-Hole, 18 of strangely 
 dark and mystic meaning : and there are the fields about Portinscale, bringing 
 one to all sorts of pleasant places full of sweet surprises : and Gutherscale 
 and Skelghyll are worth seeing : and the by-ways about and through New- 
 lands. Swineside is a fair young hill to be compassed and surmounted ; 
 the Faw Park woods are the sweetest ever grown between the sun and the 
 generous earth ; and out by Braithwaite and Thornthwaite you come to 
 episodes of beauty which fill your heart, and make you press the hand 
 within your own with a tenderer grasp. All ! go which way you will, in 
 and about that beloved Vale of Derwentwater you must perforce go into 
 the very heart and home of beauty ! 
 
 17 This striking custom is still kept up. At a given spot in the road, before nearing the 
 church, the clerk, who heads the funeral procession, gives out the Old Hundredth, and (he 
 mournful wail may he heard far and wide through the valley. 
 
 18 A cuddy is a donkey, as well as the familiar abbreviation of Cutlibert. 
 
 84
 
 w> 
 
 BASSKN I'llWAITK WAi'KK 
 
 BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTHWAITE 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE Skiddaw l group comprises Blencatbra, Souter Fell, Carrock Fell with 
 its strange Sunken Kirks, the Caldbeck Fells, and Skiddaw proper with 
 its various members ; for every peak and larger crag in this country has a local 
 name, sometimes known only to the shepherds, but sometimes, as with the 
 various peaks and crags of Skiddaw and Blencathra, made historical. 
 
 1 By some made to mean the Great Hill ; by others, the Horseshoe Hill, " from its 
 fancied likeness to a horseshoe (yscycl) ;" and by others, Scoed How, from sheath or 
 M-ivcn the screening or protecting hill. liobinson, rector of Ousby, hazards the etymo- 
 logical conjecture, " JSkidday. or Sky-day, t,o called from tlic height of it." 
 
 85
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Blencathra, though apparently independent, is, in reality, only a portion 
 of the Skiddaw group ; as may be seen by the model ; where the Skidd; nv 
 range stands apart in a mountain crown or circle, Blencathra, and the others 
 merely belonging to the whole. The way to it lies by the Greta, along the 
 Penrith road, leaving the gardens of Low Bryery, so neat and Dutch-like, to 
 the left, and thence, by many a pleasant turn, to Threlkeld, 2 where some old 
 traditions still live and the links between the present and the past can yet be 
 counted. It was here that Sir Launcelot de Threlkeld had his third house ; 
 for he was wont to say that he had three Yanwath (near Penrith), for profit 
 and warmth and comfortable winter quarters ; Crosby, which gave him a park 
 well filled with deer, and days of knightly sport and revelry ; and Threlkeld 
 Hall, which gave him tenants for war-time. Three tolerably desirable posses- 
 sions for a landowner of the olden time barely able to read his mass-book ! 
 But Sir Launcelot was a noble gentleman ; and, if riches may be measured 
 according to desert, had neither men nor money beyond his merit. It was 
 he who married the widow of the ruthless Clifford, and who proved such a good 
 stepfather to the young heir the shepherd-lord of Wordsworth's " Song at 
 the Feast of Brougham Castle." And in days when murder was part of 
 every gentleman's fitting education, and the slaughter of the innocents for the 
 better seizure of their estates by no means a reprehensible act, the tender 
 guardianship which he, a stepfather, bestowed on a lad by whose death lie 
 would have benefited, stamps him as a Christian far removed from his time, 
 and as a knight who had won his spurs on a better than the battle field. 
 
 There is a steep way up Blencathra which those may go who covet 
 superfluous fatigue ; but the more rational path is farther on, by the little 
 hamlet of Scales. Yet, though more rational, by no means ignominiously 
 secure, for it is only a narrow ledge running over the shoulder like a great 
 muscle starting out, and is not always a pleasant track to walk in, especially 
 when the wind blows with such force that you may be blown fairly over by a 
 
 a Tbrall-keld (serf or slave spring) ? or Thors Hill Keld? 
 86
 
 BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AXD BASSENTHWAITE. 
 
 stray blast waiting like a thief round the corner of a rock. Still it can be 
 done without real peril ; but it is not always pleasant, and might be a little 
 unsafe to the very timid. If it is a windy day, the oak and the ash will be 
 white, the fern feathers driven and laid, and the" great dock leaves doubled 
 up, as you turn into the hill-side path, which, followed to its end, would land 
 you in the small town of Hesket New Market, out by High Pike and Carrock 
 Fell ; in which case you would pass by Souter Fell, and, if you wished, by 
 Bowscale Tarn, both famous in local traditions, the one for its spectres and 
 the other for its undying fish. 3 But if you want to go to the top, you must 
 keep straight up the shoulder for Scales Tarn and Razor Edge : with such way 
 of descent as you may choose. 
 
 RAZOR EDOE 
 
 That small and noisy stream to the right, coming out of Scales Tarn, 
 is one source of the Greta : but only the Grlenderamakin as yet, not the 
 
 3 " Both the undying fish that swim 
 In Bowscale Tarn did wait on him ; 
 The pair were servants of his eye 
 In their immortality ; 
 Thej' moved about in open sight, 
 To and fro for his delight." 
 
 These, too, like the old stone dolls in Crosthwaite Church, used to be called " Adam and 
 Eve." We never knew of any one who had seen them, but they are none the less there. 
 
 87
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Greta until it meets the St. John's Vale bock, the ancient Burc. It 
 makes a wide circuit before it comes down into the valley, going all the 
 way to Souter Fell and Mungrisedale before finally subsiding into the Greta. 
 Following then the direction, if not exactly the course of the stream, you 
 soon come upon the thing you want to see Scales Tarn, under the shadow of 
 Tarn Crag, one of the bolder processes of Linthwaite Pike, itself the boldest 
 of the whole mass, saving the Edges. Here, the saying is, the sun never 
 shines and the stars are visible at noonday. Of your own experience the 
 little lake will probably be covered with shining spangles, not of direct 
 sunlight though, and no stars will be visible not even in the blackest part 
 under that jagged height, so precipitous and overhanging that the very sheep 
 learn caution and make no tracks across. 
 
 It is very lovely to watch the ripple of a tarn ; a wonderful lesson 
 in wave curvature, if small in scale yet as true as the wildest ocean 
 storm could give. Ever changing in line and yet so uniform in law, 
 the artist and the hydrographer might learn some valuable truths from 
 half a day's study of one of these small mountain sheets of water. Now 
 the broad, smooth, silky curves flow steadily across ; now a fine network 
 spreads over these, and again another network, smaller and finer still, 
 breaks up the rest into a thousand fragments ; then the tarn bursts out 
 into tiny silver spangles like a girl's causeless laughter ; and then comes 
 a grey sweep across the water, as if it shivered in the wind ; and then 
 again all subsides, and the long silky flow sets in again, with quiet 
 shadows and play of green and grey in the transparent shallows. It is 
 like a large diamond set in emerald ; for the light of the water is radiance 
 simply, not colour, and the grass, with the sun striking through, is as bright 
 as an emerald. We can never get beyond crystals and metals as the image of 
 the supreme excellence of water and earth. 
 
 Now up from the tarn, by a sharp pull, to the Threlkeld side of the 
 mountain, where are some notable transformations. From below the 
 various parts of Blencathra look like the shoulders of Skiddaw, but bonier 
 
 88
 
 BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTI1WAITE. 
 
 and scraggier ; part of the same upheaval, but the wilder and more troubled 
 part, as is always the case with one side of a mountain. Seen from 
 above, these shoulders turn to Edges topping deep and precipitous ravines ; 
 the ridges, like Striding and Swirrel Edge on Helvellyn, only sharper and 
 more dangerous, leading up like the crests of a wave to the grassy mountain 
 top, as smooth and soft as the Sussex Downs. Gold and black are those 
 ravines, sweeping down in enormous mountain bays.; and the top is sharp 
 too, and broken, and not good for weak nerves to venture too near the 
 edge ; but the pictures seen from these high mountain bays are wonderfully 
 grand, and worth a little daring and danger. The whole Helvellyn line is 
 there, from Wanthwaite Fells to Helvellyn Top, with Fairfield and St. 
 Sunday's Crag accompanying ; and there is the enchanted vale of St. John, 
 and Nathdale Fells set like a backbone between the two valleys, and the 
 valleys themselves, calm and rich, and still. Great How and Thirlmere are 
 beyond, with Steel Fell barring the way, and the Dunmail Kaise gap just 
 \isible ; and, far in the distance, are the Coniston Fells, and a shining strip 
 of sea beyond. A mass of blue heads are the mountains about Ambleside 
 and Troutbeck and Hawes Water; and then come the two cones known 
 as the Mell Fells, and the great spine of all, Crossfell, like a dim line 
 of cloud backing up the horizon. 
 
 They say that the castles of the Penrith plains may be seen though 
 a pocket telescope clearly. If you have none, you cannot go maundering 
 about the Danes, or the Border deeds of the Mosstroopers ; or how Anne, 
 Countess of Pembroke, Montgomery, and Dorset, set all her smaller world 
 at nought ; of the magnificent Toryism of the old Lord Lonsdale ; or any 
 other platitudes of the same nature, sure to be uttered by those more his- 
 torical than the rest. But you can make out instead Carlisle as a vapoury 
 marking on the earth's map in between the dip formed by Atkinson's Man 
 and Carrock Fell ; and the lonely living of Caldbeck. 4 The green shoulders 
 
 4 Caldbeck is one of the bleak outlying stations of the lake country lonely and 
 
 89
 
 T1IK LAKE C'UINTKY. 
 
 of Skiddaw and its forest where is never a tree, but only moor-birds and 
 ling and a geological peculiarity to be noticed in its place and a certain 
 shooting-box of enviable circumstance rise up in endless succession ; and then 
 comes a glimpse of the sea between Lonscale and Grisedale Pike, with a 
 fierce bit of Blencathra itself " stern Blencathra's skyey height" all radiant 
 green, and bleached stones like the bones of the creature laid bare ; and 
 the sunlight falling on it heavily, chased by large cloud shadows, and chilled 
 by the raving wind. 
 
 If you are strong, you may go down by Carrock and Bowscale Tarn, 
 ending in Caldbeck and its fells and moors. Or you may take Skiddaw on 
 your way home ; or you may descend by Knot Crag upon Threlkeld, which 
 would however be too much of a retrogression ; or you may find out the 
 
 desolate, but with a past, a history, capacities of wealth, and beautiful nooks, llauulph 
 Engaiu, the cliief forester of Inglewood, granted a licence to the Piior of Carlisle to build 
 an hospital there to secure travellers from thieves and storm, on their way through the 
 wild Caldbeck fells to more civilized parts. When this was done, the church was founded, 
 and dedicated to Saint Mungo, who had already given his name and benediction to a 
 famous well which still exists near the churchyard. Gospatric, the son of Orme, gave the 
 patronage of the rectory to the Prior of Carlisle, from whom it passed to the bishop when 
 times and rulers and church services were changed. The district is divided into Caldbeck - 
 Uptown, or Uppertown, and Caldbeck-Underfell. The Cald (keld) ? beck rises in Braefell 
 from half a dozen heads, coming down from Park End, past the Faulds and Whelpay 
 la wolf's name in disguise), by Pategill, or Paddergill, Rattan Row, and Hudscales, to one 
 of the loveliest places under heaven, called the Meeting of the Waters ; and here it falls 
 into the Caldew that has come out of Skiddaw Forrest round by Mosedale (where it has 
 received the Bowscale Tarn stream) and Hesket New Market, to finally lose itself in the 
 Eden, or Water of the Hills, just below Carlisle. Caldbeck has riches, too. The old 
 saying, " Caldbeck and Caldbeck Fells are worth all England else," is not without some 
 foundation ; for there are mines at Swineside, and even " gowd scope has been found there." 
 As for beauty, the Howk, or Fairy Kirk and Fairy Kettle, the Meeting of the Waters 
 already spoken of, and, within a walk, Iveghyll or Ivesgill Mill, and Sebergham, may stand 
 as fair even after Keswick and the lakes. But it is a desolate old place, for all that : 
 and, towards Carlisle and Wigton, the very essence and extreme of bleakness and poverty, 
 save for those who like and understand the wildest form of moorland life, and can take 
 interest in nature without a single adventitious grace to her share. 
 
 90
 
 BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTIIWAITE. 
 
 birthplace of the Glenderaterra, and follow its course iu the cleft between 
 Skiddaw and Blencathra ; or you may come down the green steep that leads 
 directly upon Waste Cote, and through the Brundholm Woods by Greta 5 
 side, where you have one of the best, though not most characteristic, views 
 of the lake and vale. 
 
 These woods, set up on a height, with the river down in the vale below, 
 and the lake and the mountains as the distant view beyond, are infinitely 
 lovely. Had they been farther south they would have been peopled with 
 nightingales ; as it is, every bird that lives and sings in the north seems 
 to find its home here. The river, too, is a real woodside river broken, rich, 
 varied parts full of happiness and love, like that glorious bit beneath the 
 trees, where, when you have crossed the little wooden bridge, you must needs 
 
 MILLRACE BRTJNDHOLM WOODS 
 
 5 Called Greta, say some, from the word to greet, or cry ; for, indeed, it is a very 
 sounding river, wailing or singing, according to one's mood. But a clever friend suggests as 
 its etymology instead Great-Ea, or the great water ; and older etymologists give it as the 
 Greot-Ea, the rocky water. It is formed by the St. Jolm's beck, formerly the Bure, which 
 issues from Thirlmere, and the Glenderamakin, wliich, falling out of Scales Tarn, winds 
 away round Souter Fell till it joins the St. John's beck, not far from Threlkeld. In old 
 accounts, Keswick is said to be situated near the Bure, and, in some guide-books, this river 
 is said to " issue from the coves of Wythburn ;" but the name is, in fact, lost noAv, and no 
 one knows anytliing of the Bure : neither of that from the coves of Wythburn, nor of that, 
 still more apocryphal, from the top of Castlerigg : both of which may be found by the 
 curious in old books of the county. 
 
 9V N 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 sit down on the bank among the flowers, and dream of the one you love ; 
 and others full of sorrow; and others like the Mill Bace eloquent of human 
 industry and the ceaseless round and nohle glory of toil. Factory life seems 
 to be robbed of half its squalor when the surroundings are such as these. But 
 now indeed the Greta loses its character of the Avood-side river, and becomes 
 the serviceable river to the town ; and for all its length hereafter, from Brierley 
 to Calvert Bridge, and thence to the Keswick Bridge, it has something set it 
 to do ; perhaps nobler in the end, than showing the law of river flow, or teach- 
 ing the perspective of reflection, or even emblemizing the phases of human 
 life, and the changes of human feeling. 
 
 And so you will have accomplished Blencathra : beautiful in itself, with 
 grand prospects from its heights, and by no means difficult to surmount, yet, 
 strangely enough, not one of the " fashionable " mountains among tourists. 
 But, having accomplished it, perhaps it has scarcely been with thorough 
 satisfaction. For, though there may have been sunshine and cloud in 
 abundance, which should, apparently, have made effect enough, yet the shine 
 may have been of that poor and hard kind sometimes seen in the mountain 
 districts a flaring not an enriching light, taking out all the more delicate 
 shades of colour and hardening all the softer touches, reducing the tender 
 gleams to one monotone of lifeless yellow, and leaving only a level glare 
 in the place of those thousand subtle changes which make the true beauty of 
 a mountain day. And though the wild clouds may have been for ever sweeping 
 over the sky, and burying broad tracts of the hillside under their depths of 
 shade, yet the shadow has been perhaps as hard and soulless as the rest. 
 There have been no gentle pencillings of tender grey through which the light 
 might flow shyly down ; no prismatic aureoles crowning the shining crags ; 
 the clouds have come sweeping along, as if they strode mailed and armed 
 through the sky, and dashed aside the heavy glare with a hand as harsh and 
 unloving as itself. For moods of nature are as various as the tempers of 
 men ; and this harshness of sunshine is not an infrequent experience on 
 summer days in a strong east wind.
 
 BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTHWAITE. 
 
 "0 its fine black head, and the bleak air a top of it, with a prospect of 
 mountains all about and about, making you giddy; and then Scotland afar 
 off, and the border countries so famous in song and ballad ! It was a day 
 that will stand out like a mountain, I am sure, in my life ! " That was 
 Charles Lamb's impression of Skiddaw top : not going into guide-book par- 
 ticulars as to what he saw thence. Perhaps because he neither knew nor 
 cared for the formal baptism of small blue points scarce seen in the dim 
 horizon. 
 
 Skiddaw 6 is a mountain peculiar to itself in all things ; of special place 
 and special formation, of a different view to anything else in the whole district, 
 and of quite a different character of ascent. For, instead of the gradual 
 revealing of most other mountain ascents the new lake that peeps out here 
 as you go a few feet higher the hidden tarn that lies below you there the 
 ranges you first look up to and then look down on and the new knowledge 
 of position and relation that you attain here you have nothing but the one 
 same view of Derwentwater all throughout, until you get to the top and look 
 
 6 " Skiddaw, Lanvedin, and Casticand, 
 
 Are the highest mountains in all England." 
 
 This was Camden's proverb ; Clarke's is : 
 
 " Kidstow Pike, Catstycain, Helvellyn, and Skiddaw man, 
 Are the highest hills ever clomb by Englishmen." 
 
 Its real height is said by the Ordnance surveyors to be three thousand and twenty-four feet 
 above the level of the sea. 
 
 03
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 over the plains to the sea, and over the sea to the border land of our old 
 enemy beyond. 
 
 It is an ascent of which very little can be said by way of description. 
 For, when we have spoken of Derwentwater and its islands in the sunshine, 
 of how the mountains stand all round it, a liquid purple if in shadow, 
 or flecked with gold if the sun shines fitfully through the clouds, or bravo 
 in one broad gleaming sheen if the heavens are free and the light of the day 
 unchecked of how the lower hills get gradually lost and are at last reduced 
 to the level of the plains and how the fields and woods and gardens become 
 more and more map-like as we go higher, the houses less distinct, and the 
 lake nothing but a tarn with a few dark spots on it, when we say that new 
 ranges of hills come gradually up behind the others, a very sea of mountain 
 tops, but with less individuality than many other ranges seen from nearer 
 heights, we say all that the first part of the ascent reveals to us. All, 
 that is, leaving the beauty untold. But, from the beginning of the way 
 up by Latrigg and Gale lying under Jenkin Hill which is the shoulder 
 ascended, and whence the Skiddaw Terrace view spoken of before is seen 
 the view of the ascent from the beginning to the end of that chapter by 
 the King of Saxony's Well, a world of beauty if not a world of startling 
 surprises lies before you. And without difficulty in the going ; which is a 
 recommendation with many ; which indeed is the chief cause why Skiddaw 
 is so popular, for the most timid horsewoman can ride to the top, without 
 a really hard pinch anywhere. It is just a smooth rising front of moorland, 
 with a lovely home-view lying below a great, green amphitheatre beyond, 
 Skiddaw forest and then the stony, bleak, wild top, the distant prospect, and 
 the glorious outburst. 
 
 There lies the Solway, yellow in the northern distance, with the blue 
 mass of Criffel r beyond ; there can be sometimes seen the Isle of Man, 
 
 7 " When Skiddaw wears a cap, 
 Criffel wots full well of that." 
 
 94
 
 BLENCATHHA, SKIDDAW, AXD BASSENTHWAITE. 
 
 mid by the specially favoured, so specially that they are almost apocryphal, 
 the coast of Ireland ; the town and castle of Cockermouth not Whitehaven, 
 because of Scilly Bank, but the line of sea-coast about St. Bees; the 
 Newlands Mountains and those of Buttermere ; the Ennerdale range ; Scaw- 
 fell, and part of the Screes in the dip of Black Sail; Black Combe, just 
 appearing in an opening between Great Gable and Kirkfell; the Coniston 
 range, and the sea and plains beyond. Some do speak of Lancaster 
 C'ustle, and some of Ingleborough in Yorkshire, and some of Snowdon 
 " Snowdon and Criffel nodding to each other " (?). You may think yourself 
 fortunate to make out the whereabouts of Penrith against Crossfell, and of 
 Carlisle from the Point of Ullock, whence also you will see Bassenthwaite 
 Lake, which has been hidden before by the intervening heights. Helvellyn and 
 Blencathra stand close up to you, and between them you see Place Fell and 
 High-street, belonging to Ullswater. But the air is too bleak to bear a very 
 long survey ; indeed you are obliged in self-defence to shelter yourself 
 behind the maen, or Man, on the top, whence you see the northern side, 
 and where the grey granite, found at only one other place in Cumberland, 
 crops out from among the Skiddaw slate in the hollow below. The descent 
 is as long and tedious as the ascent was gradual, and tedious too, for 
 the real mountain climber ; relieved, perhaps, by stumbling on a sand- 
 piper's nest in the path, and by the loveliness of a fine ravine near the 
 bottom, where the fern is like forest trees of fairy size, and the rocks are of 
 all colours in the summer sun. As you walk home the yellow light is lying, 
 brighter than gold, on the yellow fields towards the lake, and Walla Crag 
 is black and purple and crimson behind the golden surface poured like a 
 liquid wash over its whole breadth. 
 
 There is a way down the "breast" of Skiddaw, coming on to Millbeck, 
 Avliich is practicable if steep, and shorter than the ordinary round ; and 
 another way down by Bassenthwaite, 8 or Broadwater as it was anciently 
 
 8 Bass, local name for perch Bassenthwaite, the place of perch. 
 
 95
 
 TIIK LAKE COVXTUY. 
 
 , which tourists often take; but Bassenthwaite is generally left for 
 independent tour. Indeed, poor Bassenthwaite gets scarcely its due. Lil 
 a pretty girl by the side of a professed beauty, few people see the sweetues 
 which would have charmed many but for the blinding power of contrast 
 And, as there is a fashion in all things, not one tourist in a hundred 
 knows anything of the real beauty of Bassenthwaite. Yet, even Blea Soughs, 
 and all the other swamps about, are beautiful in their way, and used in 
 olden times to give pleasant skating in the frosty winter weather, and grand 
 days and nights to snipe and wild-duck shooters. Bassenthwaite Lake is a 
 famous place for wild fowl, and keeps " open " in frosty weather longer 
 than any other. It is an early recollection, that a couple of wild swans 
 once flew over Bassenthwaite ; and a flock of wild geese stands out to this 
 day as a childish memory of much wonder and not a little awe. 
 
 Skiddaw looks grand when you are beneath him his big limbs and 
 comely proportions and the roundness of much flesh showing to stately 
 advantage ; and even little Dod sticks its cap of fern and heather knowingly 
 awry, and looks out upon the world as if it were a creature with a will of its 
 own, and an independent social position. As for Longside it is a mountain 
 in itself; and a tourist's day might be far less profitably employed than in 
 exploring Longside and the Skiddaw points adjacent. Very few people know any- 
 thing of the view from Bassenthwaite Hawse, looking towards Isell and Embleton, 
 with the lovely Derwent flowing through, and the valleys spread out in all 
 their sweet pastoral richness like great gardens ; and still fewer know anything 
 of that wild bit of desolation, TJldale Moor, or of Little Tarn and Overwater, 
 or of Brae Fell, beneath which you may pass, if you are so minded, on your 
 way to Caldbeck, or bear more to the left if you dread the rougher road. 
 These are out-lying members not adopted yet into the lake family, but by no 
 means to be despised by the true lover of nature, the artist, or the naturalist. 
 
 The Keswick Mountains look well from the Skiddaw or north side of 
 Bassenthwaite ; so do its own special fells Barf and "Wythop and Whinlatter ; 
 but you cannot see the famous bays Bowness, Braidness, and Scarness ; 
 
 96
 
 BLKNCATHHA, !SK1DUA\V, AM) HASSENT11WA1TK. 
 
 you must wait for these until you are on the other side until you have 
 through the toll-gate where the skeleton of a horse, framed in the house-side, 
 indicates a veterinary surgeon hereabouts ; and by Armathwaite the seat of all 
 the Vanes ; and over Ouse Bridge which crosses the Derwent flowing down 
 now as a fully developed river to Cockerniouth and the sea. 
 
 Stop at Castle How where was once a Roman encampment ; but you will 
 not find anything better now than enchanter's nightshade and wild geranium. 
 
 Tou will see only the way of that pitiless railroad ; the places of the five little 
 islands covered at half-flood ; and the scored mass of rock under which you 
 itand, in a fairy kind of bay. But you ought to know the uncatalogued secrets 
 
 >f the lake-side : where the yellow flag the iris pseud-acorns is to be found, 
 and where the rarer ferns and bog mosses ; and when you are under the 
 Wythop Fells, where the woods are full of fox-gloves towering like great purple 
 thyrsi among the trees, you ought to be thoroughly at home, and to know your 
 paths and where to set your feet. At Beck Wythop you see the three fine 
 bays opposite, Wythop Brows rising nobly behind you, and the Point of Ullock 
 showing grandly as a back-ground with the Long Side of Skiddaw across the 
 lake ; and when you are under Barf, you see the Apostle Crag. The solemn, 
 shrouded figure comes out with bowed head and reverent mien, as if actually 
 detaching itself from the rock a vision seen for not a dozen yards ; and then 
 the magic ceases, and the Apostle goes back to stone. Then by Thornthwaite 
 and its pleasant mountain woods, and through Portinscale, home ; watching 
 a whole battery of rolling clouds pouring across Walla Crag the mountain a 
 burning orange and the sky almost pure gold, Wanthwaite Fells radiant in the 
 sunshine, and Helvellyn clear and glorious like a mass of many-coloured ore. 
 
 I.OXG-SIDE FROM CASTLE HO.V 
 
 97
 
 
 DL1SWATER FROM SH ARROW BAT 
 
 ULLSWATER 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE heroic way from Keswick to Ullswater 1 is straight over Helvellyn ; but 
 for those who do not care to go by the Miner's Path to Glenridding, there 
 is the unheroic road of Wanthwaite Fells, which yet they will find quite 
 sufficiently rough for even boastful mountain travellers ; surely the longest 
 
 1 Has Ullswater anytliing to do with L'ulf, the Wolf; Lyulph, as we call it? A Lyulf 
 was the first Baron of Greystoke ; did he give his name to the sheet of water beliind the 
 mountains ? All the Whelpdales and Whelpays of this country may be referred to the 
 wolf theory, and perhaps Ullswater is Wolf's Water, among the rest ; unless it is, as llobinsi ni 
 says, a pleonasm, the prefix meaning water el, hel, ul, 1ml, wel, elv, elf, all the same 
 tiling and therefore literally water- water. 
 
 98
 
 UIXSWATEH. 
 
 and dreariest line of fell road in the kingdom ! Fine views of the Vale of 
 St. John and of Threlkeld, of Skiddaw, Blencathra, and the bright Greta, 
 are to be had at the outset ; while, as you proceed, the broad expanse of 
 Hutton Moor, with Crossfell blue in the distance, has a charm of its own- 
 that charm of wide range and free breathing belonging specially to the moors. 
 Yet it cannot be called beautiful, as painters use the word, save in its 
 generous expanse and the tender flow of the bounding lines. Turning to the 
 right, and happily leaving that ugly cone of Mell Fell out of sight, the 
 open wild is suddenly changed for the mountains and the narrow pass again ; 
 and the road drops down the sharp hills of Matterdale 2 on to the hamlet of 
 Dockwray, and from Dockwray down the steep descent of Gowbarrow Park ; 3 
 through woods where old thorns are literally smothered by honeysuckle, and 
 the rose-trees are crimsoned with bloom, and the air sweet with orchis, till 
 the blue water shines clear through the trees, and you are by the lake side. 
 
 Ullswater is a long, narrow, irregular lake, in shape not unlike a 
 smaller pattern of Lucerne as has been so often said ; though, of course, 
 immeasurably inferior both in size and circumstance. It is divided into 
 three unequal reaches, which give it the form of a Z if you change the 
 angles into curves ; of which Skelley Neb and Hallin Fell close in the 
 lower, and Birk Fell foot, where it runs out into the water, and Styebarrow 
 Crag, head the middle part where the pretty little island of House Holm 
 stands half-way between, so that you might almost draw a line through for 
 
 2 Mathair or Mothair pronounced maer and moer, and coming down into mere and moor 
 means the mother and source or reservoir of water. This is Dyer's derivation of Mathair. 
 Another makes Matterdale, Mater-dale ; and Patterdale, Pater-dale ; and Miss Martinean 
 relegates such clrristening to the aves and paters said by the trembling monks on their 
 way across Wanthwaite Fells. Matterdale had its little chapter of heroism in 1(530, when 
 the tenants there defended a suit which went to deprive them of common rights, and in 
 the defence spent half their estates. One man is said to have walked to London in three 
 days, in wooden clogs, on business in this suit. The sacramental wine used to be kept in 
 this chapel in a wooden keg : perhaps is so still. 
 
 3 The place or country of the wild swine ; once swarming with foxes. 
 
 99 O2
 
 TIIK I.AKK COUXTUY. 
 
 Ilic divisiou. Even the highest reach, trending away to the Patterdale hills, 
 has a, fourth small independency, very pretty and minute, hut never counted 
 as a separate division. This winding shape and the intercepting of the 
 mountain feet, make it impossible to ever see the lake as a whole ; but the 
 partial view, as you come down between the flowering bushes, is very grand. 
 Birk Fell rises out of the water sheer and sharp before you a mass of 
 intense gold and purple ; High Street is behind in cooler grey, showing clearly 
 now why the Romans chose it as their main road to Penrith, for the long level 
 of its top and the tremendous command it gave of all around and below ; 
 the Kirkstone hills, backing up Brother's Water, 4 or Broad Water as it is 
 sometimes called, are at the head of the lake, grim enough when you are near 
 them, but softened now into dim mysteries of loveliness ; Helvellyn and its 
 main buttress, Catstycam, 5 are behind that wooded crag of Styebarrow ; 6 and, 
 as you advance, Dolly Waggon Pike puts up its pert peak, and challenges 
 notice as much by its form as by its name. 
 
 Turn now to the left to see L'ulf 's or Lyulph's tower and Ara Force ; 
 but if you are of the " true sort," you will care nothing for the first a mere 
 modern make-believe, with glazed windows among the ivy and cucumber 
 frames at the tops of the towers (the views from it, however, are fine, and 
 it has a pair or two of antlers worth seeing, which somewhat redeem its 
 inanity) and when you have seen enough of it, take boldly to the fell and 
 
 4 Called Brother's water, they say, from the circumstance, twice happening, of two 
 brothers being drowned in it together. 
 
 5 Cat-stie-cam, the hill-way of the wild cats, modernised, corrupted, and vulgarised 
 into Catchedecam, which has no meaning whatever. 
 
 6 This is not the Pig Hill, but the Stie-barrow, way-liill, the road over a barrow or 
 height. lu old times, when the road round the lake was yet a thing of the future, pack- 
 horses used to carry all the goods of the country by a way behind the Styebarrow, which thus, 
 it may be supposed, got its name. Speaking of Styebarrow sometimes spelt Styboar, and 
 which he calls Starbery Crag Brand says that the view is, " nobly aweful ;" il the women 
 remarkably beautiful ;" with " intelligent looks ;" " clothed in majesty and politeness united 
 with simplicity of manners." 
 
 100
 
 . 
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 clamber up among the crags and bracken to the spot whence our page-view 
 is taken. The wood, with its birch falling in fountains of green, its light- 
 limbed beeches, and oaks no longer young and golden but green and adult, 
 its hornbeams, its planes, and its twisted thorns, makes a beautiful line as 
 it follows the course of the stream ; indeed, all the lines, whether of cloud 
 or wood or mountain, flow into and fulfil each other in the most marvellous 
 manner marvellous because, with their constant repetition, there is never 
 monotony, nor does their harmony at any time flatten into sameness. The 
 slope of fell opposite, its belt of pasture-land dotted with cows and sheep 
 and its head of larch kept by the grey wall from wandering down into the 
 field, looks quiet and home-like ; while away into the distance the mighty 
 hills, stern, sublime, and silent, seem to take the soul away from human 
 living altogether and to place it in close keeping with the great things of 
 eternity. The teaching of the lake country is everywhere solemn and earnest, 
 but perhaps nowhere is there so much solemnity, at once grave and tender, 
 as about Ullswater. There is greater stillness here, and less stir and throng 
 of visitors perceptible, than with either of the other large lakes ; the hills 
 press round with closer grasp ; the dales are more lonesome, and there are 
 fewer rich estates ; the mountain forms are more impressive, partly because 
 the vale is narrower ; and there is still left here the sentiment of old world 
 life, of simpler times, of society less complex and humanity more child-like 
 than now, such as used to be the characteristic of the whole north country, 
 but which fashion and the universal railroad have swept away from Winder- 
 mere, and are on the eve of sweeping away from Keswick. But here, at 
 Ullswater, man may stand face to face with nature as yet undisturbed and 
 unchilled. All this crowds through the mind while looking at the lake lying 
 below Gowbarrow, and counting up the mountains, naming them one by one. 
 And when you are there, a few deer will probably come about you and stand 
 at gaze, much as they might have done when the Norman baron hunted 
 them with sound of horn and twang of bow, and a villein's life was held of 
 less importance than theirs. 
 
 101
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 The great mass of fell to the left, stretching into the middle of the lake, 
 is Birk Fell ; a part of the larger side of Place Fell which appears above 
 it. The mountain behind the foot of Place Fell and across the head of the 
 lake, is St. Sunday's Crag ; at least, the higher part is St. Sunday, the lower 
 is Birks, and the lowest, over the foot of Place Fell, Bleas ; the one meaning 
 Birches and the other Blue Things. Over Bleas again, in the centre, is the 
 line of Deepdale Park ; and over that, in the extreme distance, Red Screes, 
 the Kirkstone Pass mountains, with Scandale Head to the right. Then, still 
 travelling with the sun, Dove Crags and Hart Crag, a little peep of Rydal 
 Head above Birks, and Fairfield 7 to St. Sunday's right. At the water head, 
 under Birks, is Hall Bank, while Styebarrow bounds the greater part of the 
 western bank of the lake. At the top of Styebarrow is Glenridding Dod. Above 
 that, to the right of Fairfield, is Dolly Waggon Pike; then the long round 
 line of Bleaberry Fell, with Striding Edge behind ; and then Herring Pike, 
 rather more forward, in shadow above the sunny side of Glencoin. 8 
 
 Coming down from the fell, you go through a meadow fragrant with 
 orchids, the sweet-scented and the butterfly, and gilded with yellow cocks' 
 combs, bronze-tipped passing a curiously shaped mass of stone in the river 
 bed, browned with moss and looking like an enormous mushroom, where the 
 Ara dashes down in winter from Great Dod grandly and up to a beautiful 
 initiatory leap, not included in an ordinary visit to the Falls, and thus not 
 made a show-place productive of sixpences to the guide at the sham tower. 
 But very wild and lovely, nevertheless, and the more so, for its comparative 
 loneliness. Then, back to the little wooden bridge, over an inky rift where 
 the water dashes below with a deep and sullen roar, and down to the side of 
 the stream, to look up at the rift from below, and to get dizzy as you look. The 
 rocks are cloven in great square blocks, amethyst and brown and iron-red, 
 
 7 Faar-feld? sheep-pasture. 
 
 8 Sometimes spelt Glencune, Glen-ma-coin, or coyne ; Glen in a corner, hidden away 
 and secret. 
 
 102
 
 ULLSWATEU. 
 
 green and orange and purple ; in places covered with ferns and beaded 
 sprays and swinging fibres trailing over ; here, a holly tree hanging down 
 head foremost over the stream, clings to the ground above, like a live thing 
 clutching for support there a growth of moss, dank and dripping, is thrown 
 like a velvet robe over the nakedness of the stones. The eaves and caves 
 of coloured stones, like various marbles, are reflected in the quiet pools, clear 
 and olive brown, where the golden sands drift to the sides in fine sifted heaps, 
 and wastes of coloured pebbles, large and smooth, lie for margins. The wild 
 wood all around is carpeted with moss close pressed, and wood- sorrel leaves 
 as close as moss, and more freshly green; old trees make pleasant seats in 
 their great roots, and some up-torn by a long past storm, lie across the stream. 
 But the scars of that old strife of elements are covered up now by the 
 generous giving of the spring time and the love of the rich summer; ferns 
 and foxgloves plume the mossy trunks where never leaf or bud of their own 
 will grow again, and hurt is once more, as so often, transformed by grace to 
 beauty ; as so often ! 
 
 On again, through a woodland tract of surpassing sweetness, to where the 
 noise of the water comes louder on the ear ; and then you stand upon the 
 spidery lines thrown across the head of the fall. The little bridge quivers 
 under you, as the waters thunder in a leap of eighty feet, and the spray 
 flies off into the space below like a fine prismatic veil. Birk Fell is seen 
 through the trees at the left, the blue lake lipping its base ; and snatches of 
 richest loveliness are to be had on either side, as you follow the winding path 
 which leads below the fall, whence you can look up and see the full form of its 
 grandeur. A tree has wedged itself into the chasm, spoiling the symmetry 
 while adding to the wildness ; but the whole course is full of beauty of a 
 noble kind, shading off into exquisite grace and sweetness and the gentleness 
 of power suspended, when, after making this one wild bound, the water 
 comes quietly down in soft and tender flow, in sweeping lines and smooth 
 resting-places, where scarce any motion is perceptible. Grand or gracious 
 throughout its length, mournfully tender in its legend, the Ara and its 
 
 1U3
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Force may well attract your footsteps often, and enchain your hearts with 
 love. 9 It is a place where the young would love their hope the hest, where 
 the mature would cling most proudly to their choice, and the aged dream 
 back over the past and the lost, with tenderest memories ; it is a place for all 
 time and for all ages, for all moods and for all minds. 
 
 I'Ufc! t'OIM'K 
 
 9 " In a castle which occupied the site of Lyulph's Tower, there dwelt in days long 
 passed away, a fair damoselle, the wooed of many suitors. Sir Eglamore, the knight of her 
 choice, was in duty bound to prove his knightly worth by seeking and accomplisliing deeds 
 of high empri/e in distant lands. He sailed to other shores, and month after month 
 disappeared without bringing tidings of either his welfare or return. The neglected 
 Emma fell into a bewildered state of mind, her sleep became infected with Ids image, and 
 sometimes in dreams she threaded her way to the holly bower on Airey stream, where she 
 last parted from her errant lover. One evening, when she had betaken herself tliither, 
 her faculties wrapped in sleep, Sir Eglamore unexpectedly approached the castle, and 
 perceived her, to his great astonishment ; upon advancing, she awoke, and fell with the 
 suddenness of the shock, into the stream, from which she was rescued by the knight only 
 in time to hear her dying expression of belief in his constancy. Straightway he built 
 himself a cell in the glen, and spent the remainder of his days as an anchorite." 
 
 104
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 Then again to the right, and by the lake side to Patterdale 10 St. Patrick's 
 dale, 11 in the days before vocal hieroglyphics came into vogue: surely never 
 the dale of Pater Nosters for monkish fears ! a road something like the famous 
 coach-road of Windermere, but not so soft or cultivated ; wilder and richer, 
 with more boldness and variety of form, more grandeur, and owing nothing as 
 yet to art. No coquettish houses stand in studied shyness along its banks ; 
 no trim gardens, with cultivated growths of ferns and wild flowers, give 
 pictures of artificial simplicity; but all is left very much as it might have 
 been in the elder times (we cannot dissociate ourselves from those elder times 
 here!) when aurochs and wolves and wild boars and the Baron's stags ran 
 wild over the fell tops and fought with the eagles for food : much as in the 
 still older days when the Roman legions marched over High Street with blare 
 of music and flash of steel and the imperial eagle glancing in the sun, while 
 the Britons hid, trembling and yet admiring, in the dales below. For all 
 about Ullswater, on both sides, are multitudes of glens that run up behind 
 the mountains, and thread them like garden paths about their feet ; which 
 mountain veins are the principal feature of this lake : more marked here, 
 
 10 Beside Mounsey, the " King of Patterdale," the little chapelry has a notability to 
 boast of in the person of Mr. Mattison, the curate, who for sixty years officiated at that 
 small "chapel with the yew tree," at the foot of St. Sunday's Crag. His ordinary income 
 \\iis generally twelve pounds a year, and never over eighteen ; he married, and had four 
 children, all of whom he christened and married, educating his son to be a scholar, and 
 sending him to college. He buried his mother, married and buried his father, christened 
 his wife, published his own banns, and died worth one thousand pounds. But he had no 
 biographer like Wordsworth, and no one ever appended the Wonderful to his name. 
 1 'iittcrdale is a chapelry in the parish of Barton. All the land in the district once belonged 
 to Ivo de Taillebois ; all save Yanwath out by Penrith, widen was the de Threlkelds' held 
 under the Greystokes. But it went, in the seventeenth century, to the Lowthers, as did the 
 rest. And from the Lowthers it has got parcelled out into different holders: Ivo de 
 Taillebois, rude, strong, and illiterate, but great and generous, being represented by quite 
 another manner of lord in the Patterdale world. 
 
 11 Surely Patrick's-dale ; see the Calendarium Inquisitiomim post mortem, when iu 
 the thirty-first of Henry III., Patricksdale is found to belong to " Will'us de Lancastre." 
 Also called so in the Bishop of Carlisle's Register at Rose Castle, so early as 1581. 
 
 105 P
 
 TIIK I.AKK COUNTRY. 
 
 and at Hawes Water in n minor decree, than anywhere else. You come 
 now to one of these glens ; first passing by fields full of ripe brown grass 
 ivady for the scythe, starred with white ox-eye and splashed with gold and 
 purple the purple mountains matching the meadow crane's-bill, but deeper 
 and darker in tone, and the golden sunshine struck back from the yellow 
 shine of the buttercups; past scores of cows standing knee-deep in the 
 lake, and some under the shade of the rose-trees and honeysuckles; up 
 through fragrant woods, and on by that steep path to Linkin Dale Head, 
 whence issues the Glencoiu beck, dividing Cumberland from Westmoreland. 
 
 The day was fitful when we went up the glen, but full of effects to 
 be noted as studies of sun and shadow. As we turned back to get a view 
 of the lake, the sun flashed out and flung a double rainbow over by 
 Place Fell, and a bright metallic light caught point after point, making 
 the dim grey masses as if of emerald, gold-flecked, throwing a golden 
 shine on the naked crags and forming golden islands on the distant hills, 
 falling with a greener radiance on the water, but barring the fields with 
 streaks of purest gold. A tree became a golden fountain in this bright 
 metallic sunshine, and the thin smoke from the house below was coloured 
 to a rainbow-edged aureole. At the next outburst the light, no longer 
 yellow, was white like exaggerated moonlight, pale and bleaching but 
 intense ; making the near fells of hoary silver against the deep violet 
 mountains behind, and taking out the colour from everything it touched 
 the whitest and most bleaching light possible to fall from the yellow sun. 
 And then all faded as a mist drove through the valley, washing out gold 
 and silver and emerald and rainbow tints into one uniform grey ; the wood- 
 pigeons which had been calling softly to each other in the woods ceased 
 suddenly; and when we turned to the steep fell the clouds were aga'in 
 gathering thick and heavy before us. 
 
 Over shoulder after shoulder our narrow mountain path led us, not 
 too tenderly. Once, where the way had been broken down by a torrent, 
 \\e \\eiv obliged to cling to the face of the rock as we scrambled over 
 
 106
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 the slippery bit carefully ; and always we were obliged to take heed to 
 our steps, and not carry our eyes too high. And now the rain came 
 lilindingly, and the wind blew spitefully, as we stood and looked at the 
 barren sweeps about, beautiful in form and full of noble lines, but bearing 
 neither tree for shelter nor food for life only holding the "back door" 
 to the famous Greenside mines, which pierce the mountain through to 
 the other side. On, higher, tramping blindly into clouds and through 
 peat bogs, till we finally fell upon the actual entrance of the mines, coming 
 upon it suddenly, not knowing where we were, or what we had to find. 
 The artificial desolation about the stones and rubbish cast away the 
 broken rocks the water-wheels not at work the fragments of old iron 
 and riven planks, useless and worn out the utter silence and solitude of 
 this place of man's life and labour (it was Saturday evening, and the 
 workers had gone home), where, at the present moment, his labour was 
 represented only by its destruction, and his life was a sign of the past 
 all made the natural desolation yet more striking. No sign of animate 
 existence was anywhere, save one solitary sheep walking in a bewildered 
 manner along the stony causeway, and the smoke curling up from a mine 
 chimney, as from a volcano, in the mountain beyond. 
 
 And yet many scores of men 12 are employed in these rich lead mines, 
 and neither care nor science spared to make both labour easy and life 
 secure. Tramways are laid for the wheeling of the waste, which is thrown 
 down in a huge dead mass beyond a desolate crag ; the stream is banked 
 and built up scientifically, so as to give most power with least expendi- 
 ture ; a rivulet is made for a rude mountain torrent which rages in the 
 times of the autumn rains and the spring snow meltings, and an archway 
 is built expressly for it, so that it may not tear down that zig-zag rnoun- 
 
 12 The discontented " conservatives " of a hundred years ago used to say that, " Patter- 
 (bili- men were rich before these mines were opened, but since then they had become poor, 
 for having taken to drinking, consequent on earning more money, and then by losing 
 health and estates." 
 
 107 1> 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 tain road one of the most tremendous possible for laden horses ; and 
 strangely beautiful in all this wildness is a very field of the oak and parsley 
 ferns and shining-leaved alpine lady's mantle, set in the stones under a 
 crag as grim as the seal against the gates of death. Nothing is more 
 striking than rare growths found in the midst of desolation. We cannot 
 divorce the idea of care and protection and fitting circumstance from what 
 we prize ; and even a mountain fern, to which we attach an arbitrary value, 
 seems out of place in a mountain wilderness, and as if it needed more 
 tender handling than only the liberty of nature and the leave to grow. 
 
 The lightning- shaped path leads to what looks from above like a flat 
 glass pavement let into the earth ; a refinement on the ancient habits of 
 gnomes and kobolds ; but which are merely miners' houses with shining 
 slate roofs made into flat glass pavements by the glamour of light 
 and perspective. The rain and mist had now cleared, and we saw 
 the Miner's Path leading to Helvellyn top (and over to Keswick also) ; 
 we saw the steep sides and sharp edges set round the crown of Helvellyn ; 
 we saw the vale of Glenridding, rich and beautiful before us, backed by 
 hill and crag tossed up in waves against each other St. Sunday's Crag 
 most masterful of all and feathered by woods seeming to fall softly to the 
 very edge of the lake ; we saw the Kirkstone mountains, where it was 
 still wild and cloudy and dim and full of sorrow; and then we plunged 
 down the steep descent, having to the right the Glenridding beck, coming 
 from Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn in the heart of Helvellyn, rushing 
 down beside us. All in mountain loveliness of place and circumstance 
 is this stream; with fern and flowering bush and feathery ash and sharp 
 escapes and quiet harbours, as beseems a mountain stream ; but so soiled 
 by miner's work that we could trace its white line far into the lake, and 
 the whole bay is whitened where it enters, as if meal or lime were poured 
 into it. The Greenside mines, however, are worth the cost of a soiled 
 streamlet and the destruction of a few yards of lake beauty. Then we went 
 by a pleasant bit of copsewood down into the highway again ; passing 
 
 108
 
 ULLSWATBR. 
 
 St. Patrick's Well a fountain under a peaked niche, almost like a foreign 
 saint-shrine and going under Styebarrow Crag, where the King of Patter- 
 dale, Mounsey of Patterdale Hall, made his famous stand against the 
 Scots, 13 and drove them back from Ullswater. He headed a mere handful 
 of dalesmen against a stout armful of moss troopers ; but he won the day, 
 and bore the title of king for ever after. 
 
 Up at the head of Patterdale, where the valley lengthens out towards 
 Brother's Water, are Deepdale and High Hartsop ; perhaps the two most 
 beautiful of the many beautiful dales about Ullswater. But different in 
 character ; Deepdale, a barren sweep where the snow gathers thick in winter 
 and the wind rushes down in summer, and High Hartsop wooded, sheltered, 
 and rich, like a gentleman's private park rather than an uninhabited, and, 
 save one small enclosure, uncultivated wilderness. A mountaineer could 
 take both dales in one walk, for they lie side by side, divided only by the 
 mountain wall of Deepdale Park a rough but not insurmountable barrier. 
 As independent walks they are within the compass of any south country- 
 woman who can go beyond her own garden. Let us first speak of High 
 Hartsop. 
 
 The road leads by the Goldrill u and the bridge, where the river bends 
 into a broad pool over a growth of brown weed, like the repetition under 
 water of the trees above ; the ashen grey stems of the beeches are reflected 
 in purer black and white in the stream, which is yellow in the sunshine 
 and purple in the shade ; Place Fell, red and purple and 'copper coloured, 
 
 13 Are Glencoin and Glenridding verbal testimonies to their encounters ? Glen is not 
 an ordinary term in Cumberland or Westmoreland topography ; was it taken there in 
 memory of the Scots whose word it is ? 
 
 14 The highest source of the Goldrill is said to be either at Jack Brig, where the three 
 juivishes of Barton, Kendal, and Windermere join; or on Kirkstoiie Fell. At Goldrill 
 Bridge a vein of yellow ore crosses the rock in the bed of the river, hence the name. 
 Six streams enter Ullswater on the west of the lake from the glens ; two only of importance 
 on the east the Goldrill, and Sandywyke Beck from Marthulule, opposite Gowbarrow. 
 
 109
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 rises behind the trees and meadows like a huge side of metallic slag; 
 the dull colour and harsh forms of the knotted figwort break through the 
 lighter and more tender growths by the bridge and the wall ; and most 
 probably you will see a yellowhammer flying across, carrying a golden line 
 through the green of the trees and against the metallic brilliancy of the 
 mountain : a dominant chord of colour, subordinating all the rest. As you 
 go forward St. Sunday's Crag is to your right, and in front are Hartsop 
 Dod, steep and conical, and Codale Moor showing its front seamed with that 
 jagged pathway. You pass the wooded range of Deepdale Park, and that quaint 
 little Bridge of Arches 13 where a third segment has been built seemingly 
 only to buttress up a garden plot; and you come to the strange blighted 
 tree which the lightning has shivered into planks as it stands ; still following 
 the Goldrill worthy of its name and making out the form of the Lion 
 Crag over against the fall which comes from Angle Tarn ; keeping to the 
 right-hand of Brother's Water, under the wooded hill, and by the water- 
 lilies and marsh trefoil. 
 
 The road now leads by Hartsop Hall with its church windows and 
 old trees, once a place of importance, but at present only picturesque ; and 
 then into High Hartsop, the dale itself, the loveliest and the richest in 
 the country. Dove Crags, which back this glen, are softened into a tender 
 mass of bloomy lilac which may be miles away, and may be gentle slopes 
 no more difficult to conquer than Primrose Hill : but as you go on, the 
 subordinate forms come out from behind this tender veiling, and show 
 a thousand different heights, angles unapproachable, crags unscalable, sharp 
 points, and rugged clusters, all the tumbled ruins of the wildest bit of 
 crag in the vale. You are in an amphitheatre. On one side is a curious 
 hollow, like a giant's arm-chair, where the king and his guests would sit 
 when they watched the tournament below; and in the centre is a ruined 
 castle far more like a ruined castle than the Castle Kocks of St. John. 
 
 16 Deepdale-Beck Bridge, rightfully. 
 110
 
 ULLSWATEIt. 
 
 [t is a very rare and a very singular mountain nook altogether ; richly 
 wooded and wildly broken, and sleeping as stilly in the shadow of the 
 great hills about as if it was in truth the enchanted place it seems. Hart 
 Crag is behind Dove Crags, and Fairfield is in the distance to the right; 
 and, if you have a stout heart, you may follow the course of that jocund 
 stream which comes bounding down among the trees and rocks like a 
 wild white horse leaping to the plains, and so clamber up, the best way 
 you can, either over the tops and on to Fairfield, or back and down to 
 Deepdale on the other side. Either way you will have your reward ; if 
 beauty, and pride in a daring feat well accomplished, can reward you. Let 
 us hope it can ; even better than riches, if not so well as love. 
 
 DEEPDALE HEAD 
 
 Deepdale has none of this richness. It has not a tree at its head, 
 save a little rosebush hanging over the stream, and here and there an old 
 twisted thorn, bowed and bent by the wind with which it has battled so 
 many years ; and the crags are not broken up into such picturesque masses, 
 nor flung abroad with the careless grace of High Hartsop, but slope steeply, 
 with the old wave-like sweep like Scandale enlarged, or the trough of a 
 tremendous billow struck to stone. As you stand in the centre a cloud rises 
 slowly before you, strangely counterfeiting the forms below as it gathers 
 itself up off the heights and folds itself together, then drifts away into open 
 space. The wind is roaring down the gorge, and you know now why the 
 thorns are bent and twisted with that crippled look of pain which these 
 
 in
 
 THK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 wind -dwarfed trees always have, and why the rocks are so wan and bleached, 
 worn into such fretted faces, and so heavy and time-troubled. 'Flic wind 
 that sweeps across the vale with such fury on an ordinary summer's day 
 is a sign of what it must be in winter time, when the elements have a harder 
 grip on the throat of nature, and press the earth with a heavier foot. Water- 
 courses wander down in all directions, like silver veins in the purple rocks ; 
 but sometimes a broad green stripe, with yellow spots about the edges and 
 crimson threads among the yellow, tells of a hidden stream dissipating itself 
 silently under the roots of rushes and spearwort and tufts of pale yellow 
 moss over which be careful of your tread, for you may get mid-leg into 
 water before you are aware. Parsley fern and bracken, plentiful if not strong, 
 give the only softening growth to the wildness of Deepdale ; for the gold 
 and green and grey and red of the lichen on the bleached rocks can be 
 scarcely said to soften, though they may beautify; and ever as you go 
 deeper in till you stand against the very back plates of the gorge the 
 sense of its wildness and desolation increases with you the sense of your 
 own loneliness and how your present place is severed from all the uses of 
 the world outside. More desolate and lonely still, if a solitary lamb cries 
 piteously on the crag, its mother lost and silent if the wind raves with 
 frantic wrath and if a bank of dark clouds is gathered against a back- 
 ground of fiery red, with a thunderstorm already breaking in the distance. 
 
 A beautiful way back is to be had by scrambling over part of St. Sunday's 
 Crag, behind Eagle Crag (there is always an Eagle Crag to all mountain 
 masses), across the rifts where the mountain torrents have worn deep wrinkles 
 into the softer mountain face, which the wind has planted with quickens and 
 thorns and rosebushes and fern down the sides, and out on to the wide 
 heights, above all human cares and free from human fears. And here on these 
 wide heights we once saw a thing of no special importance, but which 
 gave a " local colouring " of richest tint to the scene. A troop of horses, with 
 arched tails and flying manes, came thundering past us, making the earth 
 literally shake as they went, and scaring the sheep and lambs into frightened 
 
 112
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 groups, too frightened even to cry. It was really a grand sight, these reinless 
 horses careering over the mountain tops, leaping the chasms and spurning the 
 hillocks, plunging knee-deep through a black peat bog, which they tore and 
 splashed into thick cascades, all finally dashing round and behind a crag, 
 where we heard their hoofs striking the hard rock as they thundered down its 
 face. Soon after, a handsome boy, flushed and panting, his hands and rough 
 jacket pockets filled with wild flowers, his manners shy and modest however 
 awkward, came running across the ridge. He was hunting the horses off the 
 fell to get them home ; and though it was nothing but a troop of farm-horses 
 driven down to work by a farm servant, still it was a very interesting sight ; 
 the more so, perhaps, because of the beautiful face of the boy, one of the 
 noblest of the noble north-country type. 
 
 Now wander on over the fell till you come to the head of Bleas, where 
 you will break upon the lake and its islands and the sweet vales of Grisedale 
 and Glenridding, with the miner's smoke and the miner's slag and the bare 
 tops of Helvellyn and Catstycam, and Dolly Waggon Pike beyond. A scramble 
 down the crags, a swamp or two to cross with light steps, and you are in the 
 beaten track again ; and one more stanza of the poem is complete. 
 
 Two things ought to be seen in the lake country : sheep-washing and 
 sheep-shearing the last by no means so pretty as the first, neither so 
 animated nor so picturesque, but still to be seen by all who have the oppor- 
 tunity. The day before it begins the sheep and lambs are bleating with 
 more than usual passion, for the dogs are bringing them in off the fells, 
 separating them into lots, and dividing the little ones from their mothers, to 
 the really pathetic distress of both. Then the lambs are left to the care of 
 heaven, and the sheep are pent up in a shed together ; whence they are dragged 
 out by boys as they are wanted, and flung on their backs into the lap "of a 
 clipper seated on a long kind of settle " sheep forms " they are called who 
 tranquilly tucks the little pointed head under his arm, and clips away at the 
 under part of the wool, taking care to keep the fleece unbroken ; the art being 
 
 113 Q
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 to hold the middle way, aud neither to graze the skin by going too close, nor 
 to loosen the fleece by cutting above the welted fibres. All four feet are now 
 tied together, and the beast is hauled round as a solid kind of rug, when its 
 back is sheared in the same way, the fleece hanging down like a bit of carpet 
 or small crib blanket. When the whole is off, its legs are untied, and it is 
 lugged that is the only word to express it panting and terrified to the place 
 where the man stands with the ruddle pot and branding-iron ; where it receives 
 its distinctive smear and letter of assignment, and is then dismissed to its 
 huddled group of companions clustering together at the remotest spot in the 
 yard available. 
 
 This is merely a bald catalogue of the scene ; the real portraiture would 
 be very different. For in this must be included the farm buildings over- 
 shadowed with trees, and the low-roofed farmhouse covered with ivy and 
 bordered with English cottage flowers ; the sheep dogs lying in the sun, with 
 a lazy manner of indifference as having nothing to do, it being holiday time 
 for them and a transfer of responsibility some about the feet of the men, and 
 some stretched, wide awake in fact however fast asleep in seeming, as out- 
 posts by the gates and along the walls, to keep the sheep in closed ranks ; the 
 one special strong man generally a dare-devil looking fellow who might be a 
 smuggler or a poacher but who is only an extra powerful shepherd whose 
 particular duty seems to be to supply the jokes and rough horseplay, and to 
 carry the shorn sheep to the ruddle pot : for they are difficult to manage now 
 when they have no wool, and must be held by sheer strength ; the one or two 
 handsome Scandinavian faces, straight and fair, sure to be among the number; 
 the lithe figures of the boys learning of the men, and handled gently even by 
 the roughest ; the pretty young house girls, looking so quiet and gentle, 
 dressed in their Sunday best and carrying great jugs of beer the strongest 
 that can be brewed laughing and yet shy, as they penetrate into the mass of 
 men and animals in the yard ; the cows milking by the byre doors ; the purple 
 hills and the calm lake ; the home fells whitened with the shorn sheep let 
 loose scattered over them like daisies, but very unhappy yet, not recognized 
 
 114
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 by their lambs and utterly humiliated and ashamed ; the harmonious 
 combinations into which all things group themselves, animate and inanimate ; 
 and the hot summer sun shining over all : these are the incidents which make 
 sheep- shearing a striking thing to see. But perhaps, for reasons not needed 
 to be particularised, more pleasing if you stand to leeward, and oat of earshot 
 of what is said. For the first fortnight in July you may take your choice of 
 the farms all over the country, small or large according to your liking ; wanting 
 no other guidance than the incessant bleating you will hear from daybreak to 
 sunset, with the loud barking of the sheep dogs and the rough voices of the 
 men directing. 
 
 A fine steep walk up Place Fell shows you Codale Moor in all its rudeness, 
 Hartsop Dod like the roof of a house rather than an honest mountain, Eed 
 Screes and the Kirkstone Pass, and the deep shadowed hollow where the way 
 comes down from Scandale by that white line of water : a weird-looking place 
 even in the kindly sunlight, like an ogre sleeping in his arbour after dinner, 
 but all the same an ogre when he wakes. And none the less weird for the 
 strange faculty the mountains have of changing themselves and their posi- 
 tions. If you lose sight of them for a hundred yards they are something 
 else when you turn back ; independent members have come out, and guiding 
 landmarks are hidden; an angle of forty-five degrees has become a perpen- 
 dicular descent, if it has not sloped away into a mere gentle swell ; what looked 
 an accidental shadow turns out to be a rift between two heads some miles 
 across ; and no Protean tricks of old times were ever fuller of misleading 
 disguises than the aspects of the hills according to the change of one's own 
 position. 
 
 From this station on Place Fell are to be seen many points of interest 
 and some old acquaintances : the pass to Hayes Water by Nether Hartsop to 
 the left of Hartsop Dod ; the zigzag way up Codale Moor the very essence 
 of bleakness and roughness ; and the lonely Kirkstone Pass beyond Brothers' 
 Water ; the beautiful little hiding-place of High Hartsop under Dove Crags ; 
 
 115 Q 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and Deepdale running up beneath Fairfield ; Grisedale and Glenridding, and 
 where Glencoin lies behind the wood ; the Goldrill, banding Brother's Water 
 and Ullswater together, and turning up in all manner of unexpected places 
 and fugitive glimpses : all paved and underlined by the bright green fields, 
 among which can be made out a certain stately garden, looking from here like 
 a bald geometrical map, or like the pieces of a card puzzle scattered abroad. 
 Helvellyn's square top now appears, and Catstycam, and the miner's smoke by 
 Herring Pike perhaps blown down by the wind into the gorge and the sweep 
 of the mountains coming down into the dales ; which, as you ascend higher 
 so as to take in only the leading lines, are more and more like the typical bird's 
 wing. And now the path leads right away over the shoulder of Place Fell, 
 and the lake and the farther mountains are lost altogether, but the bird's wing 
 and the wave form remain in every higher hollow and mountain side ; and still 
 everything is clear and yet tender with excess of softened light. As you go, 
 the rugged' sheep yet unshorn, with heavy brown fleeces trailing to the ground, 
 some with half their wool rubbed off which makes them still more ragged, 
 but the newly sheared white and milky, look at you wildly, and then bound 
 away like goats ; and sometimes a skilfully ruddled lamb, catching the sunlight 
 slantingly, glows all a-fire like one of Linnell's Sussex sheep. And now you 
 are on the top of Place Fell, on broken ground, spongy and treacherous, with 
 a world to choose from, and only your own will and powers of endurance to set 
 the limits. So you wander on at random, falling upon all manner of wild bits, 
 till brought up suddenly by the deep chasm of Boredale Head. 
 
 At your feet lies a wide, green sweep, tenantless, houseless, lifeless, so 
 far as you can see, with the lake flowing past in a blue line at the outlet, and 
 the Penrith plains beyond, shining in the sun with map-like clearness. High 
 Street, now a green-grey wall patched with purple and white, is above the 
 Martindale range l6 where the wild red deer are still to be found ; and across 
 
 16 The martiii is the clean mart, and the foumart is the foul mart or weasel ; and Martin- 
 dale is the dale of the martin, which once ranged on these hills with red deer and wolves. 
 " We have no great numhers on the south side of the Trent, but yet in the county of "NVestmore- 
 
 116
 
 ULLSWATER, 
 
 the lake, as you go on, the well-known head of Skiddaw comes up out of the 
 blue, and soon the longer side of Blencathra ; while every stone and glittering 
 spar and purpled edge of turned peat-moss nearer home, is translated into 
 living jewels by the lavish sun. And wandering, wandering over the moor, and 
 to the head of all the great sweeping dales flowing like green troughs into the 
 lake, you at last find or make a way for yourselves down the roughest clamber 
 that even cragsmen can call a path. And so by the lake side track at the base 
 of Place Fell to the meadows and your home. 
 
 By the foot of the lake the road leads you to quite another manner of 
 country. Landing at How Town with Fusedale at its back, the Hawse 
 running like a hog's back between the two valleys of Fusedale and Bannerdale, 
 and keeping along the lake-side way rounding Sharrow Bay (the view at 
 the head of the chapter), you come into a lovely land. For after passing 
 through a narrow lane thick with flowers and where the woody cranesbill grows 
 in rank profusion, you come to Pooley Bridge, 17 which is to Ullswater what 
 
 land in Martindale there are main-.' This was Manwood's experience. Martindale used to 
 pay three pounds out of its township for the priest's wages, and the last curate of the parish, 
 or of these pails at all, called " sir," was the Reverend Richard Birket (apud 1089). The 
 old designation of the clergy hefore the Reformation, was always " sir ; " knight being added 
 as the military or civil distinction. Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century says, " Since I can remember, there was not a reader in an}' chapel who 
 was not called ' sir.' " 
 
 17 Pooley Bridge, like Ullswater and Patterdale and Helvellyn, is in Barton parish. 
 Barton was a strange uncouth place by all accounts. It was one of its customs, not 
 peculiar to itself though, that the master should give his scholars a prize to fight cocks 
 for, the scholars too subscribing their cock-pennies, and the match coming off at Shrovetide 
 or Easter. In some schools the salary partly depended on tliis custom, for of course the 
 cocks to be fought did not come up to the value of all the " cock-pennies " subscribed. 
 The village is now quite an obscure little place, but the churchyard has one oddity in a 
 certain epitaph worth transcribing: 
 
 " Under this stone ! reader, interr'd doth lye 
 Beauty and virtue's true epitomy ; 
 
 117
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Newby Bridge is to Wiudermere the archway by which the waters march from 
 beautiful obscurity to stately service. Here the Eamont the Water from the 
 Hills is spanned by a fair stone bridge, " where was once a fair stone cross 
 with steps or seats all round it," and on the top the Dacre arms : which cross 
 was repaired May 2, 1679, by Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, as inscribed on the 
 weathercock. This is not surely the same bridge which was built in 1425, the 
 New Bridge then, in which the Bishop of Durham took such interest that he 
 " granted an indulgence of forty days to all persons truly repenting of their 
 sins, and confessing, who should contribute any of their goods given them by 
 God to the building of a bridge over the river Amot, in the parish of Penrith?" 
 From Pooley Bridge the view up the lake is marvellously grand, but nearer at 
 hand there is beauty and interest too. Dunmallet, once a Eoman station, and 
 now a strange artificial looking hill " a remarkable hill, but itself rather a 
 disgusting object," as some one calls it stands up like a tumulus of trees ; 
 the Dalemain woods, where the squirrels and the robins and the thrushes 
 and the linnets live in perpetual joy and gladness together, stretch far into the 
 distance ; while not quite dx miles away lies Penrith, full of interest to the 
 antiquary 7 , both in itself and in its neighbourhood. 
 
 For here on the banks of the Eamont, and about two miles from Edeuhall, 
 are the giant's caves, Isis Parlis, where it is reported one Isir, a terrible giant, 
 once hid, dragging men thither, like Cacus, to devour them at his better 
 leisure : though another version makes this Isis Parlis the keep of the 
 castle where Tarquin lived, whom Sir Lancelot du Lac came down to slay 
 and destroy. The giant's grave is in the churchyard : two stone pillars twelve 
 
 At her appearance the Noon Sun 
 
 Blush'd and shrunk in cause quite undone. 
 
 "In her concenter'd did all graces dwell; 
 God plucked my rose that he might take a smell. 
 I'll say no more, but weeping wish I may 
 Soon with thy dear chaste ashes come to lay. 
 Sic Efflevit Maritus." CLARKE'S Surrei/. 
 
 118
 
 ULLSWATER. 
 
 feet high, placed there in memory of Ewaiu Caesarius, knight, a famous warrior 
 friii}). Athelstane some call him king in the time of Ida anyhow a magni- 
 ficent man, fifteen feet high (as the distance between the pillars proves), who 
 killed wild boars like sucking pigs ; in memory whereof older writers speak 
 of four boars sculptured between the pillars. Not far from them is the 
 Giant's Thumb, another big stone, to mark the spot where Ewain's thumb 
 was buried, and which was an old rose-cross very rudely done; as, indeed, 
 is all that remains of the workmanship altogether. 
 
 Then there is the Countess's Pillar, where Lady Anne Clifford parted in 
 such bitter grief from her good and pious mother, erecting this stone cross 
 as a memento, with this inscription : " This pillar was erected in the year 1656 
 by Anne Countess Dowager of Pembroke, for a memorial of her last parting 
 with her pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 
 2nd of April, 1616 ; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 41. to 
 be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham every 2nd day of April 
 for ever, upon the stone table placed hard by. Laus Deo ! " 
 
 And there is the Harts Horn tree, or rather there was, where "mutual 
 the victory, mutual the defeat " 
 
 " Hercules killed Hart o' Grease, and Hart o' Grease killed Hercules." 
 And of which the story ran, that when Edward Baliol, King of Scotland, 
 came over to Westmoreland to stay with Robert de Clifford in the year 1333 
 or 1334, visiting his castles of Appleby, Brougham, and Pendragon in 
 succession, they ran a stag by a single dog out of Whinfell Park to Bed 
 Kirk in Scotland, and back again to the same place. The stag leaped the 
 park palings, but fell down and died : the dog tried the leap after him but 
 failed, and fell and died the other side. So they nailed the stag's horns to 
 an old oak hard by, where they remained for three centuries after the 
 bark growing over the horns, and, so to speak, engrafting them ; but in 
 1648 some Vandals in the army broke off many of the branches, and ten 
 years afterwards some Goths took down the remainder at night. Here, too, 
 are the ruins of Penrith Castle, where the Duke of Gloucester once lived so 
 
 119
 
 THE LAKE COUNTKY. 
 
 magnificently, but which belonged to the Nevills, who lived as magnificently 
 as the king himself; if all things were equal to the "six oxen eaten at 
 breakfast at Kichard Nevill's house in London." The date of the castle is 
 unknown. It seems older, say they who understand such things, than 
 Edward V., but no castle was in existence in the times of John or Henry III. ; 
 no mention of it is made when Edward III. seized Penrith in 1300, and none 
 made in the Scotch incursions. It was held for a few weeks by Lambert in 
 1648, and then dismantled by order of Parliament. 
 
 And there is Mayborough, supposed to be Druidical ; and King Arthur's 
 Bound Table which some say was a jousting place ; and Long Meg and her 
 Daughters in Aldingham parish (Keld-ling-harn, "habitation near the Hanging 
 Stones"), which they say was a judicial court of the Druids, where they prayed 
 to the All-healing Power, and burned their criminals in wicker-work baskets. 
 And then there is Brougham Castle, 18 which has so often passed to the younger 
 branch, and which was added to (not built) by Roger de Clifford, who left his 
 seal and signature in an inscription, " This made Roger," over the inner 
 gateway, together with his own arms and those of his wife, Maud Beauchamp, 
 the Earl of Warwick's daughter, sculptured elsewhere. A pond called Maud's 
 Pool is in the grounds to this day. And then there are the castles : Greystoke 
 Castle where the proud Howards have succeeded to the De Meschines and 
 Lyulfs of olden date; Lowther Castle, or Louder, the castle of the Dark 
 Waters ; and Edenhall where the Luck is kept as religiously as if fairies did 
 really give it to the butler, singing as they went 
 
 " If tliis glass should break or fall, 
 Farewell the luck of Eden Hall." 
 
 And, in truth, once when it rolled to the ground, shaking but not 
 
 18 "AtBurgham is an old castel that the commune people ther sayeth doth syiike. 
 About this Burgham plowghmeii fynd in the feldes many square stones, tokens of old 
 buildinges. The castel is set in a stronge place by reasons of ryvers enclosing the cuntery 
 thercabowt." LELAND'S Itinerary. Brougham was the Roman Brocavium. 
 
 120
 
 ULL8WATEB. 
 
 shivering, misfortunes came upon the family of Musgrave thickly. And 
 there is Dacre Castle, or more rightly D'Acre, now a mere rained farm, but 
 once the seat of men as famous in their days as the best in the land; and 
 Brougham Hall, where our youngest, sprightliest, and cleverest statesman 
 and philosopher lives, but which is modern, with no tradition at its back. 
 And then there is the Beacon Tower and Crossfell farther off. These are 
 only a few of the things to be seen in and about the Red Hill (Penrith is 
 archaically Pen Rhudd, or the Red Hill) ; but, not coming quite naturally 
 in a book on the Lakes (though they form part of the instruction of a guide 
 book proper), they must be left on one side. But Penrith would repay long 
 and sound study, where there was any love or understanding of antiquity. 
 
 FROM QLENCOIN
 
 frUALL W-. 
 CNDSR H1OH 
 
 HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THOSE who love the mountains can understand the pleasure of slinging on 
 hag and knapsack and setting off on foot for the discovery of Hawes Water. 
 For all these expeditions are in a manner discoveries, if undertaken without a 
 guide, and steering by map and compass only. The way from Ullswater to 
 Hawes Water and back across Swart Fell, over Moor Dovock, and by the 
 side of the lake (Hawes Water) to Mardale Green, returning by High 
 Street, Hayes Water, and Angle Tarn is a comprehensive and instructive 
 walk ; containing, as it does, so many of the characteristics of the country 
 the wild moor, the open plain, the lake, the hidden tarn, the mountain 
 top, the craggy climb, the hill-side stream, and the rugged puss.
 
 HAWKS WATER AND HIGH STUKET. 
 
 The first tiling to do is to take boat down the lake to Shavrow Bay. 
 Let us suppose it one of the hot, still, passionate July days, when the water 
 is smooth as glass and full of light and colour but chiefly an intense sea- 
 green in the depths, changing to a clear olive brown, gold-hearted, in the 
 shallower bays ; when the mountains have gone miles away in the tremulous 
 summer mist which widens the distances and lowers the heights so strangely 
 in this country ; and when the reflections in the water are as clear and still 
 as the objects they mirror : nowhere so clear as in the bays and under the 
 lee of the islands. 1 Islands indeed they are not ; rather grey rocks crowned 
 with a few trees, which two steps would cross and a flight of swallows cover. 
 There are several things of interest to be seen as you row down the lake. 
 First, there is that strange fissure called the Devil's Chimney, directly under- 
 neath which you may row, and look up the rent which Professor Tyudall 
 would climb, chimney-fashion, without much trouble ; and perhaps you may 
 see an otter come tumbling into the water ; for they have a favourite resting- 
 place there, on a kind of shelf, where they lie till they are disturbed by 
 strange visitors. Then there is Scale How Pike, a sharp pyramidal point, 
 with Scale Force foaming below, a mountain glen leading up into Boredale 
 at its feet, the long High Street line at its back, and the Hawse splitting 
 up the valley into two parts. And then there is the Kail-pot Crag at the 
 foot of Hallin Fell ; a pretty place much frequented by picnic parties its 
 lovely bay, as clear as if a crystal film was spread over the bright stones, 
 its wood-topped crags, its ferns, and luxury of wild flowers, making it an 
 ideal place for that pleasant admixture of flirting and good cheer. The " Kail- 
 pot " is in the crag ; a round hole which the water always washes, and where 
 you could boil a good-sized leg of mutton if the lake was a Geyser, and 
 you had your kitchen fire ready burning. 
 
 1 There are four of these small insurrections of rock on Ullswater : Cherry Holm at 
 the head, where was never a cherry-tree within the memory of man : Wall Holm by the 
 Purse, where no one ever saw a wall ; Lin<j Holm close in shore : and House Holm (house- 
 less), with its little offset under its lee. 
 
 K 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 And so you row leisurely on ; past rude and homely How Town, and 
 its hawse the hog's hack standing isolated like Troutheck Tongue or Nath- 
 dale Fell in St. John's (a common mountain form in the independent 
 valleys) ; and perhaps a heron flies heavily over the lake at the next reach, 
 while, for contrast, the steamboat walks quickly up with its noisy steps, 
 making three large waves, no more, which break into white foam on the 
 shore everywhere, and shatter the reflections like a broken mirror. And 
 when you see the boat you will naturally think of the time, not so very 
 many years ago, when there was no wheel-road along Ullswater at all ; when 
 all goods were carried either on pack-horses behind Stybarrow (Styboar, it 
 was called then), or by carriage -boats up the lake ; and when Patterdale was 
 as much out of the world as the wildest nook now in Styria or the Caucasus. 
 And, if you are not singularly logical and close, you will somehow mingle 
 up into one confused picture as, in a way, representatives of the past and 
 present, the red deer still to be found wild at the head of Bannerdale and 
 on Kidsty Pike, and which you hope to see, and that smart hotel, with its 
 sumptuous fare and its lordly charges, which you have just left ; which 
 musings will bring you to Sharrow Bay, where you repeat again your 
 lesson of the mountain names at the head of the lake, and again confess 
 that, whatever their names, no description of yours can fitly set forth the 
 grandeur of their outlines, the variety of their details, the glory of their 
 colouring, or the magical effect of the hot July noonday mist upon them. 
 
 At the foot, by Pooley Bridge, is a very different view. Here, all is 
 suft and fertile ; with cornfields and broad pasture lands, fair towns, rich 
 castles, and stately rivers bearing golden treasures to all as they pass the 
 life of the plains and of lordly owners, where past service 2 and present 
 honour, the founder's fame and the descendant's wealth, meet in full measure 
 round keep and castle where Penrith carries back the light of history to 
 the old Roman times and the Druidical before them, to the days of the Norman 
 
 2 " The great Earl of Warwick disdained not to be Marshall Steward and Captain 
 of t' honor of Penrith and villages adjoining." SANDFORD. 
 
 124
 
 HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 conquest and the Scottish marauder, 3 the last historical flicker being lighted 
 at the Cavaliers' expiring flame. 
 
 Now follow the track over Swart Fell, watching still the richness of 
 the Penrith plains, and seeing how spectre-haunted Souter Fell, beautiful 
 Blencathra, Skiddaw, and unlovely Mell Fell come out by turns from behind 
 the Ullswater screen ; seeing how the noble Dalemain Woods make a resting- 
 place for the eye in the middle distance ; and how the little wooded cone of 
 Dunmallet gains a beauty not quite its own, when its formal green head 
 rests against the blue line of Crossfell as its background : Crossfell, where 
 the Helm Wind 4 blows, and which was once Fiend's Fell, where all the 
 
 3 The paiish register has not infrequent entries of " incursate of pirites, borderers, 
 theifs and murtherors ;" and great complaints generally of com and beasts destroyed by the 
 Scots ; to whom poor Penrith was a market town of tempting supply all the more tempt- 
 ing, as its wares could be had without repayment. 
 
 4 In Richardson's History of Cumberland, the following is the account given of the 
 Helm Wind : " Its appearance, according to my remarks, have been that of a white cloud 
 resting on the summits of the liills, extending even from Brough to Bampton ; it wears 
 a bold, broad front, like a vast float of ice, standing on edge. On its first appearance, there 
 issues from it a prodigious noise, which, in grandeur and awfulness, exceeds the roaring of 
 the ocean. Sometimes there is a Helm-bar, which consists of a white cloud arranged opposite 
 to the helm, and holding a station various in its distances, being sometimes not more than 
 half a mile from the mountain ; at others, three or four miles. Its breadth also varies 
 from a quarter of a mile to a mile at least, this cloud prevents the wind blowing farther 
 westward. The sky is generally visible between the helm and the bar, and frequently loose 
 bodies of vapour, or small specks of clouds, are separated from the helm and the bar, and 
 flying across in contrary directions, both east and west, are seen to sweep along the sky 
 with amazing velocity. From the bar-cloud the wind blows eastward ; but underneath 
 it is a dead calm, or gusts of wind from all quarters ; and the violence of the wind is 
 generally greatest when the helm is highest above the mountains. The cold air rushes 
 down the hill with amazing strength ; it mostly comes in gusts, though it sometimes blows 
 with unabated fury for twenty-four hours, and continues blowing at intervals for three, four, 
 five, and even six weeks. I have at different times walked into the cloud, and found the 
 wind increase in violence, till I reached the mist floating on the side of the liill , when once 
 entered into that mist, I experienced a dead calm. If the helm is stationed above the 
 mountain, and does not rest upon it, it blows with considerable violence immediately under 
 the helm. Shepherds have frequently observed, that the wind rushes down on each side, 
 
 125
 
 THE LAKE CO I* NTH V. 
 
 unloosed demons used to hold their open-air meetings, till pious St. Augustine 
 reclaimed it to the uses of good angels by building a cross and an altar on 
 the top, administering the Holy Eucharist and baptizing it afresh by the name 
 of Crossfell. A heap of stones there is still called by the country people 
 The Altar on Crossfell. 
 
 If it is a true lake-country summer's day, you will find that life lias 
 enough to do to hold its own against the sun. The birds are silent in the 
 woods, and the woods themselves, no longer broken up into the separate 
 tints and distinctive forms of spring, are in massed and solemn monotony 
 of form and shade ; the mists quiver over the ground, and rise up in a 
 thin grey film, through which the sun breaks with a stifling heat more 
 difficult to bear than the sharper and clearer shine ; but you know that 
 in all this dimness of heat and oppressiveness of silence, nature is 
 perfecting her summer flowers and saturating with rich savours her autumn 
 fruits, turning into golden lances the waving fields of oats and corn, and 
 the stiffer ranks of the bearded barley, and ripening into food the poorer 
 fields of grass, left standing for such days as this. 
 
 And now you are on Moor Dovock ; a wide tract where nothing grows but 
 ling and bracken and peat-bog mosses ; but where, at every ten yards, you put 
 up all manner of unusual creatures whose strange cries only increase the lone- 
 liness of the place. Strange, that is, unless you are a sportsman ; which the 
 writer of these pages is not. The plaintive scream of the plovers, the harsh 
 voices of the moor fowl, the skylarks soaring in their song over head, the 
 startled whirr of the partridges, and the thousand uncatalogued sounds pro- 
 ceeding from things hidden, only serve to make the solitude more entire, 
 because so eloquent of the absence of man. And when you go down into the 
 hollows whence the distant view is shut out, with the grey film between you 
 and the sky, and the voices of these wild creatures like the voices of ghosts, 
 
 so that at a distance from the base of the mountain, it blows from different quarters. The 
 holm does not always observe a regular form ; neither is there always a holm-bar, for that 
 phenomenon only appears when the wind at a little distance blows from the west." 
 
 120
 
 IIAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 heard but not seen, about you, it is as if you were standing alone on the edge 
 of the world, with all life behind you, and only space and the unknown spirit 
 world beyond. That wide misty moor reach after reach the same, till the 
 way becomes almost awful in its monotony its distant landmarks, ever in 
 the same relative positions, seeming to mock the idea of progress is to you, 
 almost fainting under the heat and the stagnation of the air, like an enchanted 
 plain, where you are doomed to wander for ever. But at last what does 
 not come " at last !" the first forms of the Hawes Water hills begin to show 
 themselves on the right ; then you come to a solitary cottage keeping guard 
 over a little space of cultivated ground ; and then to the head of Helotn 
 Dale, with the old wave form, and the end of all things in the closed trough- 
 like sweep. 
 
 At the edge of the moor are the few lonely dwellings, customary 
 with waste places literally taken from the moor-fowl, and made to grow 
 potatoes and oats for men and bairns ; dwellings and people as little 
 part of the social life of the country, as the backwoodsman in his hut is 
 part of the body politic of New York. The people living on the skirts of 
 these wide moors are as peculiar in their way as the dalesfolk; often 
 educated to a scholarly exercise of intellect, while living in a loneliness that 
 is almost eremitical, and in a simplicity and poverty that take you back 
 many generations, and still more cycles of national civilization. At one 
 such lonely place a house standing in the midst of desolation a homestead 
 literally snatched from the wild we, the artist and author of this book, Avent 
 in to ask for bread and milk ; it being well into the evening when we came off 
 the moor, and Hawes Water was still a haven undiscovered before us. And 
 though what we saw and heard there was neither poetical nor dramatic in 
 fact, not specially interesting to the reader at all yet it is worth relating 
 as a kind of typical or general representation of the class of person and 
 manner of life belonging to these places. 
 
 The house was a poor-looking, but well-built stone cottage, surrounded 
 by a wall that of itself at once inspired the feeling of loneliness ; for 
 
 127
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 it enclosed no gardened space of fruit and flowers, only a neglected barren 
 strip of ground that in the winter would be ankle-deep with mud, and 
 in summer was a dusty cart-track thickly grown with weeds and dis- 
 figured by all manner of accumulated unsightliness ; an utterly unlovely 
 and ungraceful enclosure, meaning defence of a kind only, no more. Indeed 
 the general aspect of the place was not so much one of poverty or stint as of 
 bleakness and unloveliness : life with the element of artificial or made beauty 
 entirely absent. Of natural beauty even, there was none of the softer or 
 more ornamented kind ; only such as could be got out of a wide tract of 
 moorland, with the distant line of hills beyond, and the ever-changing aspects 
 of the sky. There was no bustle of a farmhouse about ; no kine lowing, 
 no horses tramping, no bleating of sheep or barking of dogs, and at first 
 not a human being anywhere ; but presently, in a field a little way off, we saw 
 a family group haymaking ; 5 and when they saw us standing by the house- 
 door, they left off work and came to know what we wanted. 
 
 They were noticeable people, these two " house parents." The man a 
 mere working farmer tilling his small piece of ground for family consumption 
 mainly, coming in to greet us, hot and weary with his work was refined and 
 thoughtful ; a man evidently well considered in his degree ; as his wife said 
 with no little pride, though with feigned displeasure, " chosen to be a juryman 
 oftener than was fair, because they knew him, and knew what a fine scholar he 
 was." She was a ruder person, bright-eyed and bonny, but of a less gracious 
 nature ; not at the first so frankly hospitable as he he offering his best with 
 a manly courtesy, and an open-handed generosity essentially noble but she, 
 woman-like, hanging back doubtingly, troubled at the prospect of short- 
 coming in the hay time, and reckoning up mouths and loaves with true feminine 
 carefulness. 
 
 5 The hay and corn harvests lie very lute in these colder uplands. Haymaking at 
 the " back end " of July, or even well into August, is no such uncommon matter ; and 
 corn has been seen so late as the week before Christmas, before the reapers came to the 
 reaping. 
 
 128
 
 IIAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 "I dunno' ken aboot bread, ye see," she said, hesitatingly; "white bread, 
 ye see, 's bad to get at haymakin', and we'se mony to gie' tu." 
 
 After a short time, however, she was as kind and generous as her 
 husband : but her kindness was from personal magnetism, and the quick 
 sympathies of her woman's heart ; his from the dignity of his own nature, 
 and the service he felt bound, by his manhood, to render to all men 
 alike. They gave us freely of their best ; wheaten bread, butter, and a huge 
 jug of milk ; and the man took down a large cheese from the " rannel balk " 
 (the beam running across the kitchen) piled up with cheeses for their own 
 use only, and told us "to spare nothing, we were kindly welcome." The 
 place was well furnished in its way the old settle by the chimney neuk, the 
 press and clock of black oak, the high-backed chairs, and wealth of "delf," 
 giving it a true old-fashioned air and manner of comfort, as understood by 
 these remote farmers. And they were proud of their place, boasting that the 
 Dun Bull (the little inn at Mardale Green) " hadn't a room the like of theirs, 
 and that they could accommodate more folk than them if they had a mind." 
 
 But though they were so kind and genial we saw that their hearts 
 were heavy, and in a short time they told us their sorrow unfortunately 
 too general in these parts the loss by consumption, or more accurately, 
 scrofula, of their eldest two girls; "as fine lassies as you ever set eyes 
 on," said the mother, weeping, " and as guid anes ! " The other girls 
 whom we saw, were apparently ideals of country health and strength, rosy, 
 well-fashioned, as wild and unkempt as colts and as shy, and yet they were 
 not safe ; and we saw that at any moment the same disease might show itself 
 in them as had already struck down their sisters : this disease of scrofula, in 
 its two forms of consumption and brain affection, being the curse of the whole 
 country. We shall ever remember that lonely dwelling on the moor, with its 
 quiet, thoughtful, and religious man, its bonny wife, brave and active, troubled 
 like Martha with many cares, yet with a true human heart beneath them all, 
 its great, bright, rosy girls stealing "behind backs" in the milk-house, too 
 rough and shy to " face t' folk," or " quality," with gratitude and respect. 
 
 129 S
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 For indeed it is a matter of gratitude, if rightly taken, to see human nature 
 in its fairer and better forms. 
 
 Yet they were not uncommon specimens of the more lonely northern 
 folk. In many a secluded home where the outside world never enters, and 
 the whirring wheels of this great material civilization of ours are heard but 
 faint and far off, where the physical life is of the meagrest and the social of 
 the deadest, you may fall upon thoughtful men, well educated to an almost 
 scholarly point, and with a refinement of moral feeling that passes from 
 honesty to real nobleness. Shy perhaps perhaps, too, not a little dry and 
 hard in manner at the outset keen with an almost savage acuteness and 
 by no means disposed to loose-lipped confidences, or to unproved trust with 
 much of the Scottish caution, and hereditary reminiscences of the times when 
 strangers were enemies still clinging to them, and yet men who could hold 
 their own against the best and brightest in the land. Ah ! they are a fine 
 set of men and women, these northerners God bless them ! 
 
 In another desolate place, two little children of four and six years. of 
 age were sitting hand in hand on the fell-side, watching a couple of hundred 
 sheep huddled up at the farm-gate for to-morrow's clipping. Not another 
 human being was to be seen anywhere ; and when we asked them if they 
 were minding the sheep, the elder answered: "Ay! us and 't lisle dog," 
 quite in a fraternal and family manner, as if "us and 't lisle dog" were all 
 on an equal footing together, and accustomed to joint duties. They made 
 a pretty picture as they sat in the evening light, alone on the wild fell-side, 
 with the frightened flock of sheep before them, and the golden rays of the 
 sun slanting through the mottled sky above ; and they, too, told of the 
 entire loneliness, and security of the place. 
 
 And now you are at Hawes Water ; a long narrow lake turning round 
 at the head like Ullswater, and like Thirlmere almost cut in two by an 
 intersecting promontory. The mountains to the right are set edgewise 
 to the lake, with small dales running up between ; but to the left there is 
 only one huge sweep wooded at the foot, craggy at the head standing 
 
 130
 
 HAWKS WATKK AND HIGH STKKKT. 
 
 HAWE3 WATER 
 
 broadside like Place Fell on Ullswater. This broadside sweep is respectively 
 Naddle Forest and Wallow Crag ; where, in the last, lies " Jamie Lowther's " 
 wicked ghost, and which now, in the quiet evening stillness, looks stern 
 enough for any awful tale to hang about it ; while the edgewise ridges 
 are really only spurs of High Street buttressing up the long range, as the 
 Ullswater spurs buttress up Helvellyn. 
 
 It is a grand walk all along the edge of Hawes Water, under the eaves 
 of the mountain ridges, with that great Wallow Crag on your flank, and 
 Harter Fell and the other rough Mardale mountains before you. And none 
 the less delightful for the unwonted simplicity and primitive lives of the 
 people. Very little of distrust here ! If you ask your way, they will, 
 perhaps, lead you right through the house to save you a few steps ; and 
 certainly no new fashion of wealth or luxury or even beauty has yet found 
 its seed-bed at Hawes Water. Here is still the ugly, poor-looking gentleman's 
 house, which one sees so rarely now among the pointed roofs and grey 
 stone cottages in the lake district a cream-tinted, stuccoed square box, 
 adorned by no trellis-work with tea-roses or grape-like westeria, passion 
 flower or purple clematis, flame-coloured pyrus or saffron canariensis, 
 growing up, but standing there in its naked ugliness, a mere windowed 
 
 131 S 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Icirrack stuck down on a coarse and flowerless lawn, with nothing more 
 beautiful in front or rear than a plot of blue iris or a clump of white rocket. 
 And here, too, is still the tumble-down cottage and the rickety farmhouse, 
 with the byre and the stable and the pigsty all in architectural community 
 together; with the " middenstead" at the house door, and the children 
 playing with fever and ague by its side. Measands Becks is one of these 
 old hamlets : a miserable collection of dirty huts made beautiful by the 
 trees and shrubs and wild-flowers growing about, and which might so easily be 
 made clean by the aid of noisy Fordendale Beck a pretty mountain stream 
 dashing through, pleasantly continuing that broad white fall on the crags 
 above, and whence, they say, the best view of Hawes Water is to be had. 
 But every view is lovely, for all that the lake is not one of the most frequented, 
 and, consequently, not of established reputation ; yet, seen in the calm of 
 evening, with every mountain form repeated with tenfold force of line and 
 colour in the black lake, and all these forms so grand and severe, it is 
 something well worth travelling far to see, and looking back upon with love 
 when left for ever. 
 
 But in truth, it is all very primitive and rough ; and it is easy to 
 understand how fine gentlemen and ladies who travel with "comforts," 
 would shrink from the only place of entertainment at Hawes Water as 
 they would shrink from an Indian's wigwam ; and for some of the same 
 reasons. Then, it is not very practicable for grandees in their carriages; for 
 the high road is a mere walled-in path, where two carts, if they met, would 
 have to make compliments to each other, and one must back into the 
 nearest gate there would be no passing with all four wheels left sound. 
 The church is picturesque enough, with its gilt weathercock now so seldom 
 seen, but it is by no means a rustic cathedral ; the royal hotel and the 
 only one is a wretched wayside public-house, where you can get eggs 
 and bacon and nothing else except the company of a tipsy parson lying in 
 bed with his gin-bottle by his side; and the King of Mardale the great 
 man of the place, the largest landed proprietor of the home blood, and in 
 
 132
 
 HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 bis time the best wrestler and best sheep-shearer of the dale is a yeoman, 
 whose family certainly came in with the Conqueror, 6 keeping both name and 
 estates through all the long generations since ; but he is still, according to the 
 Guide Book, nothing better than a yeoman for all that, though he has some 
 of the oldest blood of England in his veins, and is the virtual King of the 
 Dale. So that, on the whole, the social and political life of Hawes Water is 
 not of the most fashionable or brilliant description. 
 
 High Street must now be conquered. Your way lies up Mardale 
 Green, having Branstree to your left, Harter Fell in front, and your right 
 path leading under Pyat Eock, a vicious-looking crag serving as a landmark. 
 Between Branstree and Harter Fell is the rough Gatescarth Pass into Long 
 Sleddale ; and between Harter Fell and Small Water is the entrance to the 
 magnificent pass of Nan Bield, leading to Kentmere, which you must go 
 out of your way to see, for the pleasure of standing a little nervously under 
 its overhanging crags, and feeling as if about to be crushed between its 
 facing rocks. Then cross the crags again, looking back on the long flat of 
 Mardale Green so often overflowed in the winter time, with that one solitary 
 house at the end (the Dun Bull, its royal hotel, near to the church), and 
 
 6 The Holms, the family in question, were originally Swedes of Stockholm, but 
 came into England with the Conqueror; to be rewarded for their adhesion with certain lands 
 and estates in Northainptonsliire, where they lived in such peace as the times afforded, 
 until the days of King John ; when troubles came upon them, and the head of the house 
 had to fly for liis life. He came down to Mardale, then well nigh inaccessible, and con- 
 cealed himself in a cave at the foot of Riggindale Crag, called Hugh's Cave to tliis hour ; 
 not half a mile from Chapel Hill where the present Holm lives, as liis forbears have lived 
 before him. It has its name of Chapel Hill from the fact of Udolphus, one of the family, 
 founding an oratory near liis dwelling-house. The fugitive, when the time of trouble was 
 overpast, bought the present Holm estate in Mardale, and here the Holm family has been 
 from that time to this, never wanting a son to take the estate and perpetuate the name. 
 Many attemps have been made to buy out the old yeoman, but he and liis have been 
 steadily true to themselves and their generations, and no amount of modern money has yet 
 been able to purchase those well-worn and honourable title-deeds. 
 
 183
 
 TIIK LARK rnlNTKY. 
 
 its framework of savage bill; catching the precious breeze as it creeps down 
 tbe gorge so languidly it does not ruffle tbe starry spikes of tbe yellow bog 
 aspbodel, or tbe face of tbat deep blue Small Water lying under tbe sbadow 
 of Higb Street. Tbe tarn is pleasant in tbis clinging summer beat ; 
 cool, quiet, and fresb ; a perfectly round and symmetrical dimple in tbe 
 old mountain cbeek, wbicb tbe dews and the clouds conie down to fill, and 
 wbicb tbe Greeks would have consecrated by some sweet legend into a 
 favourite place of pilgrimage for tbe young Boeotians in the vale. A shoulder 
 of Higb Street, represented by a rough mass of broken rock over which you 
 must make your way, separates Small Water from Blea Water, another tiny 
 mountain lake which you are bound to risk your neck to see before you 
 begin the real ascent of the day. As you stand on the gentle slope by Blea 
 Water, you will begin to make out your work, which, it is to be hoped, you 
 will be gallantly sure is quite of a mild and tranquil character a mere 
 nothing for steady beads and strong feet. Kidsty Pike, staring at you in 
 tbe sunlight with its broad red face, is impassable certainly, save to 
 gnome flies prepared to walk up a shingly perpendicular ; but tbe level line 
 of High Street is no more difficult than a meadow path when you are 
 once on it ; and though there are a few questionable crags, shaped like a 
 lion's head, to tbe left, between which and tbe shingly perpendicular opposite 
 you must make your choice, yet believe them easy (if you must go up 
 them) until better known. Wherefore toil on merrily as others have, till 
 you near tbe questionable crags and stand face to face with the day's event. 
 
 If you are like some others known to us, to this hour it will be a 
 dream, as well as a marvel, how you ever got over those crags. Sharp 
 cuttings, higher than your bead, have to be surmounted, with such aids as 
 small foot-holds worn into tbe rock, or toe-points jutting out, or a stout 
 tuft of bracken or ling may afford ; narrow sheep tracks, with the rock 
 perpendicular above and the crags steep and pointed below, have to be 
 warily trodden, and the loose stones and slanting slides carefully passed, 
 where one false step would be fatnl to life possibly, and to limb certainly ; 
 
 134
 
 HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 a set of steps a yard high, and sometimes overgrown with slippery grass, 
 (like a giant staircase with all the corners worn off, the stairs broken, and 
 
 no balustrades), leading right up the 
 face, has to be taken or none other ; 
 gaps, through which nothing larger 
 than a lean lamb could force itself, 
 are sometimes the only way of pass- 
 ing from a lower round to the higher, 
 unless you can drag yourself up the 
 cleft by mere force of arms and 
 shoulders, or the weaker be dragged 
 up by the stronger, standing on the 
 narrow ledge above ; and when 
 dragged up, there is often not room 
 enough for four feet and two bodies 
 between the rock and destruction. The sharp angles will graze you, the 
 gorse will tear your ancles and the junipers will prick your hands ; and 
 ever the climb gets steeper and the way more rugged ever the need of 
 going on without halting, or daring to look above or below, or to question 
 probabilities of success, or to think of what you have done or have still to 
 do, more absolute, if you would keep your nerves in working order at all ; 
 till, with a supreme effort, scrambling up a narrow ledge where one slip 
 of hand or foot would be simple death, you get over the last barrier, and 
 stand on the broad turfed down, 7 which is the top of HIGH STREET. But for 
 nights after those crags will come back like monsters haunting your dreams, 
 
 7 So broad and spacious and level is this mountain top, that it made not only the best 
 road the Romans could have had in the district, but for centuries after was used as a 
 general meeting-place for the shepherds of Patterdale and Martindale, Mardale, Kentmere, 
 and Troutbeck, who assembled there every tenth of July as much for fun as business, 
 uii (I with as keen eyes to cakes and ale as to professional purposes. It is a grand stretch of 
 table land, but not one of the best in point of views ; though very noble prospects are to be 
 had ; as indeed wherever you can go here half a hundred feet above the level. 
 
 13.5
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and it may prove to be a very close question, whether, as with one of us aftei 
 that day's climb, you are not going crag-crazy. 
 
 High Street is like no other mountain in the country. On the top it 
 is more like a common than a mountain, with scarcely a slope to break its 
 level, until it dips down towards Troutbeck on the one side, before mounting 
 Froswick, and climbs up Lade Pot on the other, before finally descending to 
 the Penrith plains. Standing just above the Tongue which splits Troutbeck 
 in two, and not far from the Scots' Rake, 9 you see Windermere and its islands 
 only part of the lake, cut into by Wansfell Pike ; you see Wetherlam and 
 the Old Man, Black Combe, and the sea beyond, and maybe Ingleborough, and 
 Lancaster church and castle, and Underbarrow Scar at Kendal. To the left is 
 the valley of Kentmere, where Bernard Gilpin 10 was born, and whither the pass 
 of Nan Bield leads from Hawes Water ; and also to the left, Froswick, 111 Bell 
 with its two peaks like horns, and Yoke, the last showing only its mighty 
 Rainsborrow Crag, sharply broken and needle-like on the Kentmere n side where 
 the reservoir, which is the modern substitute for the old natural tarn, lies 
 
 8 Lad means way, and Pot a circular hole or scoop. 
 
 9 Where tradition says a party of Scots came down upon Troutbeck one bright day in 
 1715, but were driven back. It was not often that such incursions happened. " Border 
 contests were carried on at a distance from our lake land," says Southey ; " where the 
 inhabitants being left in peace seemed to have enjoyed it." Wherefore we have no ballad 
 poetry among us, though one old bard, Llywarc Han, is mentioned in liistory as a " Prince 
 of Cumbria." He lived to be a hundred and fifty years old, and had twenty-four sons. 
 " wearing the golden chain leaders of battles," all slain before his death. He was exiled, 
 and died at Bala, at a place still called the Cot of Llywarc the Aged. 
 
 10 Bernard Gilpin was born at Kentmere, 15 17, the great, good man, the apostle of peace 
 that he was ! Bichard Gilpin, before him, was also a mighty man of the place. He was 
 " infeoffed, in the reign of John, by the Baron of Kendal, in the Lordsliip of Keutmere 
 Hall, for liis singular deserts in peace and war." It was he " who slew the Wild Bore that, 
 raging in the Mountains adjoyning (as sometimes that of Erimanthus) much indamaged 
 the country people ; whence it is that the Gilpins in their coat-armes give the Bore." So 
 says Fuller. A valiant man this Richard ; but Bernard stands, perhaps, the highest in the 
 hierarchy of the just. 
 
 11 It seems scarcely fair to pass over the Kentmere Valley so lightly. One of the 
 widest and most important that we have and one of the most important of our rivers 
 
 136
 
 ITAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 below, but smooth enough towards Troutbeck. Langdale Pikes are in the 
 distance ; Red Screes and Codale Moor apparently within a stone's throw ; but 
 if the sun is in the west, St. Sunday's Crag and Helvellyn will be nothing but 
 dim uncertain outlines in a radiant haze dark purple masses lost behind 
 a tremulous sea of golden light. Neither, as you go, will you perhaps 
 make out much of Skiddaw or Blencathra, of Crossfell or the more distant 
 plains. The first will be only great blue limits, the last, reaches of mottled 
 green shading off into cooler grey ; but on the eastern side, where the sun 
 falls, you can almost count the stones on the hills opposite, if the light is 
 
 giving its name to both vale and town it seems to demand a longer notice, which, 
 however, cannot be accorded. Yet the course of the Ken is full of interest. Rising at the 
 back of High Street, passing by Froswick and 111 Bell, and through the old Kentmere Tarn, 
 receiving soon after the stream from Skeggles Water, and those from the two little tarns in 
 Potter's Fell then the Sprint from Long Sleddale, and the Mint from what was once 
 Fawcett Forest then watering the feet of Kendal, turning its mills, and refreshing its 
 parks and gardens then rushing onward, taking up the Uiiderbarrow and Beetham becks, 
 and passing through Leven's park, where the clipped yew-trees are, till it wanders finally 
 into the sea, where it forms its dangerous sands, (" Kent and Keir have parted many a good 
 man and his meer " i. e., mare) what a history might be written of it, from its first shy 
 bubbling forth among the moss and ferns of the mountain tops, to its last wide, rapid flow 
 into the illimitable sea ! So innocent and full of childish play in the beginning, so mighty 
 and full of dangerous wrath in its ending ! " Certes, this riuer Ken is a pretie deepe riuer, 
 yet not safe to be aduentured upon with boats and balingers, by reason of rolling stones and 
 other huge substances that oft annoie and trouble the middest of the channell there," says 
 an old writer ; to which Camden, reported by Fuller, adds his word, respecting the two 
 waterfalls which presage the coming weather : " I learn of Master Camden that in the 
 river Cann, in this County, there be two CataduptB or Waterfalls ; whereof the Northern, 
 sounding clear and loud, foretokeneth Fair Weather ; the Southern, on the same terms, 
 presageth Rain. Now I wish that the former of these may be vocall in Haytime and Harvest, 
 the latter after great Drought, that so both of them may make welcome musick to the 
 inhabitants." These catadupse are, one waterfall in Leven's park and one in the Beetha, 
 below Beetham. " When the Levens fall sounds more loud and clear they look for fair 
 weather; when " that below Beetham " doth the same, they expect rain. The philosophy 
 of which is no more than this, that the south-west winds, blowing from the sea, bring the 
 vapours along with them, and generally produce rain ; consequently, blowing from the north 
 or north-east, they have the contrary effect." BURNKT. 
 
 137 T
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 bright mid the air still. Miss Martincau's report of the weather general to the 
 top of High Street is, " It donks and it dozzlcs, and whiles it's a bit siftering, 
 but it don't often make no girt pell;" but even this mild kind of turmoil was 
 not our experience when we went up. 
 
 And now follow the Roman Road as long as you dare, treading on the 
 very line where the Latin legions trod so many centuries ago, and seeing the 
 very objects which they saw. And yet how different in spiritual percep- 
 tion ! For you love what they coveted, you admire what they abhorred, 
 to you the hills have in them the glory of nature and delight in her love, to 
 them they were but good military roads for the passage of their armies, or 
 natural citadels of the foe to be carefully watched and powerfully beset. One 
 cannot get away from the Romans on High Street. Their ghosts march with 
 us in the evening light, and the summer winds blow the echo of their tread in 
 faint gusts across the air ; we see them in their serried ranks, their bright 
 armour flashing back the sunlight, and their music drowning the roar of the 
 wild beasts and the shrill cries of the barbarians below ; we hear their strong 
 Italian voices singing snatches of Latin song some of the younger and 
 patrician trolling out Greek ditties, perhaps those which old Anacreon had 
 sung under the shadow of the Athenian vineyards and some of the ruder 
 nations breaking in with rougher force of voice than what the Roman 
 gentleman, singing his Greek ode softly, cared to hear ; we see them in their 
 insolent confidence as Masters of the World, condescending to the conquest of 
 this remote island of wolves and savages, where the summer sun was scarce 
 brighter than their native moon, and where the snows lay sleeping on the hills 
 far into the morning of May. They throng the level height on these still July 
 evenings they tramp again through their own road, which neither time nor 
 the elements have yet destroyed, strongest and most masculine of all the 
 nations of the world they fill the air, and they people the earth ; and it is 
 only by an effort that we can banish those ghostly legions from us, and come 
 IK irk to the actual life and being of our tamer nineteenth century. Ossian 
 wrote no fancies. If any one wishes to see ghosts, and to feel and hear them, 
 
 138
 
 HAWES WATER AMD HIGH STHEET. 
 
 let him go up High Street in the evening, and march with the shadowy 
 cohort ever passing from Alonae to Petreana hy that long green strip which 
 was their famous hill-top road. 
 
 When you leave the ghosts you fall upon Hayes Water in the hollow below 
 you ; Grey Crag overshadowing it, and Hartsop Dod putting up its sharp sides 
 beyond ; and then perhaps you stumble against what is even more impressive 
 than the lonely mountain tarn the fleece of a sheep lying almost undis- 
 turbed, and as the creature must have died. Quite in the same attitude and 
 position, though the wool will be spread as if it had been pulled at, while 
 underneath you will see the gaunt skeleton of the ribs as under an artificial 
 coverlet, the skull and leg bones being scattered a little way off. Of all the 
 lonely and desolate impressions of these mountain walks, this finding of dead 
 sheep is by far the most so. It tells such a tale of helplessness and suffering 
 and the wild fight for food, on these dumb heights, with perhaps accidents of 
 winter storms, of hurt, or of mere weakness and decay, that the heart is made 
 more pitiful than if it was not the lot of sheep to die before their time, and as 
 if it was not the appointed law that the rooks and ravens should be fed. 
 
 Then you come to Angle Tarn, in its high shallow basin on the lower 
 heights of Place Fell. The first view of it is more beautiful than the second. 
 Seen from the east side it is symmetrical and harmonious ; from the west, it 
 is like an oddly-shaped trefoil, with a dotting of island spots across the upper 
 leaves. A step to the left brings you in sight of Brothers' Water, not looking 
 so desolate from here as on the Scandale evening ; perhaps because you have 
 now learnt its softer aspects better, and have come to connect it with the life 
 and civilization of Patterdale ; but looking only lovely and picturesque, and of 
 tenderest peace and quietude. The west side, where the Scandale mountains 
 fling their shadows, is a deep black lightening to purple, and there is a wild 
 rising of buttresses and spurs round it, all springing from the same platform, 
 and running up to greater or less majesty of development. The steep sides 
 of Hartsop Dod are fine from here ; so are those rosy clouds coming up over 
 High Street, which you are now facing, having turned back from the direct 
 
 ias T 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 road down Place Fell, for the purpose of descending by Hayes Water and 
 Nether Hartsop. 12 
 
 HAYES WATER 
 
 The solitude here is as perfect as if you were alone in creation. Not a 
 sight, not a sound, not even a wild bird or a wild flower nothing but the 
 close turf, and the peat bogs, and the sharp sides or rough crags or tossing 
 heads of the mountains, with the level sun striking all the eastern side with a 
 hard and shadowless light. Too hard a light ; for by it everything is brought 
 out in the same proportion, and as much importance is given to a heap of 
 stones as to a mountain shoulder ; a crag is as large as a mountain, and the 
 mountain as near as the crag ; nothing is left unrevealed, and the sun thrusts 
 its flaming torch with almost cruel vigour wherever the light can rest. To the 
 
 18 There are many other ways for those so minded. There is one by Troutbeck to the 
 old haunts of Ambleside ; another by Codale Moor to Kirkstone ; or down the face of 
 Codale itself, by the rough -looking path that serpentines along its knotty shoulders into the 
 road by Brothers' Water ; or you may go down by Bannerdale, where you will have a 
 chance of seeing the red deer ; or by Lade Pot to Swart Fell ; but if you have your resting- 
 place at Patterdale, and wish to see Nether Hartsop, choose the pass by Hayes Water 
 which is not recoinmendable, however, on the score of smooth walking or case of going. 
 
 140
 
 1IAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET. 
 
 west everything is wrapped away in golden doubt, and there is nothing but dim 
 purple shapes thickly veiled in gold and crimson. On an eminence to the 
 right you see both Angle Tarn and Hayes Water 13 again ; one on the right hand, 
 the other on the left the one all in light, the other in inky darkness the 
 one barely topped by the fell-side rim, the other set deep at the very base of 
 the hills. 
 
 It looks a mere five minutes' run down to Hayes Water, and perhaps 
 a twenty minutes' pull to High Street, which you have left some hours 
 ago ; and mountaineers as you may be by birth and habit, even you may 
 be easily deceived by the flattering brightness of the atmosphere. You will 
 find out your mistake by the time you have toiled down to the margin of the 
 tarn, through bogs, and water-courses, and plum-coloured peat-mosses, and rare, 
 but welcome patches of fern, and dry peninsulas of rock ; Grey Crag, as you 
 go, slowly clothing itself with gold and crimson as the sun sinks lower and 
 lower. Behind Helvellyn far behind, so that the light is not interrupted 
 comes up a bank of cold grey clouds, not yet sunlit ; and against them, as a 
 background, hangs a flock of small curl-clouds of the deepest crimson for your 
 last evening splendours, as you cross the stream at its issue from the tarn 
 crossing by a curious paved stile, stile and bridge and wall in one. Then 
 you descend by a rough path, following the lovely stream flowing on your 
 right, fern-fringed and fairy haunted resting in pools, or leaping out in 
 foam, or creeping slyly under the shadow of its ash-trees and flowering 
 bushes, a stream full of poems and fairies and nymphs and children's 
 fancies, wild, beautiful, and untouched. 
 
 A sheep maze (they are everywhere by the fell-side brooks, wherever there 
 
 13 The four tarns seen to-day are very characteristic of the three forms most generally 
 taken. Small Water and Blea Water are the usual fillings in of mountain cups hollows 
 made in the lulls as you would make a thumh-mark in a piece of dough; Hayes Water is 
 the lake naturally collecting at the feet of sharp precipices the reservoir into which are 
 drained the springs and becks ; and Angle Tarn is the water lying in a shallow basin on the 
 hill-tups. 
 
 141
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 is a deeper pool than usual handy for the sheep washing) is at the end of the 
 pass ; and you will not be sorry to see even this remote sign of human living ; 
 for by the time you come down into Nether Hartsop, by Atkinson's Cove, the 
 bank of cold grey clouds will have burned itself from dun crimson into ash 
 colour again ; the mountain tops, from having been like sultanas gold and 
 gem-bedecked, will be now like pale nuns wrapped in scapular and veil ; and 
 you will be at the end of your powers, if you have spent, as we once did, 
 more than twelve hours in the transit between Mardale and Ullswater. (The 
 "king" said he would do it in less than two, and he gave us three.) Now 
 you pass the blasted tree, looking black and ghostly, and you hear the fall of 
 the stream from Angle Tarn, and even see its white track against the rocks 
 before leaping into the valley beneath; but all is getting very dim and 
 uncertain, for the faint wash of warm tint in the west has faded finally away, 
 and the sky is all silver and blue and quiet grey grey like the evening moths 
 flitting across the path ; the moon and the stars have come out with the soft 
 light of a summer's night ; and the earth has folded herself to her rest. And 
 now you are at home ; and if you have done what has been written of in 
 this chapter, you will have done what many could not have accomplished in the 
 same manner, and by the same ways the heavy climb, the length of road, and 
 the unresting pace of two days' severe work. 
 
 ANGLE TARN
 
 HELVELLYN AND F AIRFIELD 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE lonely, gleaming miner's town on Glenridding side looks very cold and 
 hard, as you pass it on your way up to Helvellyn. Colder, too, and harder, 
 for the pale sunlight which, if the day is fitful, flashes at intervals through 
 the clouds, bleaching the rocks and works and massed heaps of refuse to 
 a sickly greenish white, and making the slated roofs again as if of shining 
 glass. But uncomfortable as the morning looks, it may be one of those 
 days which have hope, and a noonday crisis, possible in the heart of them ; 
 and when, if the weather does really, as they call it, " take up," you will have 
 far more beautiful effects, and a richer reward of loveliness, than in days 
 which have had no sorrow to begin with. In which may perhaps be found 
 
 143
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 nn analogy to human life ; as indeed may be found in all the conditions 
 and variations of nature whatsoever. 
 
 Passing through this small miner's town, and up hy the steeply winding 
 road keeping by the side of Red Tarn Beck, not yet polluted with the 
 miner's ore, but flowing down the brant brow of the hill, clear and pure as 
 a mountain stream should be the way leads by long and slow degrees right 
 into the wild Helvellyn heart. But many a furlong of lonely mountain 
 road must be trodden before Catstycam, which has been the landmark so long 
 in front, is fairly reached, or before the hollow where lies Keppel Cove Tarn 
 between this " Wild Cat's Hill " and Helvellyn proper, is plainly marked. 
 At last however you reach the tarn, lying under a bleak shoulder which you 
 have to climb ; and here you would do well to sit for a while on the rough 
 hill-side, catching the water trickling from a little nameless brook, and 
 making out the form of what lies before you. 
 
 Clouds are drifting over the whole top of Helvellyn : and you will have to 
 walk into them unless the sun can break a way through, as it has already 
 broken through and utterly routed and destroyed others of the morning's 
 making ; but, for the present, be thankful for them thankful for the grand 
 effect they make, sweeping in broken feathers across the nearer heights while 
 heaped up in denser masses beyond, so that the jagged lines of Swirrel 
 Edge 1 come out against the background with startling clearness and 
 
 isolation. And Swirrel Edge is a fine thing to see, especially when it stands 
 out so utterly alone as now, with only the clouds between it and infinity, or 
 
 1 Swirl-Edge. 
 144
 
 HELVELLYX AND F AIRFIELD. 
 
 perhaps the topmost height of Helvellyn, like some giant keep, peering for 
 a moment dimly through. 
 
 The Tarn lies just below. Shallow, reddened at the sides, and with a 
 certain drawn and drained look about it, (which is not mere fancy, for it is 
 really the reservoir of the mines,) it is not one of the most beautiful of the 
 mountain tarns, and yet its situation is of surpassing grandeur, lying as it does 
 in the shadow of Catstycam's sharp precipices, and under the noble tumult of 
 Swirrel Edge, with its third boundary, that " huge nameless rock," where the 
 path winds up to-day. But though its enclosing lines are so magnificent, Keppel 
 Cove Tarn is, it must be confessed, (comparatively) uninteresting in itself. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the greater dislocation here than usual, note still 
 the ever-recurring bird's sweep of wing in the dale, where the little brook 
 runs like a blue pencil mark, edging the longer feathers ; and the wave form 
 of the mountains, the sharper peaks to one side, where the wave has fallen 
 most steeply down, and been beaten against, and broken into; and the 
 smoother slope to the other the slope of simple flow and upheaval. Go 
 where we will, these same forms recur without exception, if with manifold 
 and most lovely variations. A burst of sunlight now conies through the 
 dark screen of the headland, tearing the clouds to fragments which the 
 wind blows roughly away ; and, as they drive across towards the sea, the top, 
 where that small black point of the stone maen stands, and the second Edge 
 
 Striding, alone and beyond Swirrel are seen in photographic crispuess of 
 outline. In photographic crispness and clearness, too, is the green and 
 purple and rich red brown in the mountain depths, and the lustre of the 
 
 145 U
 
 TIIH LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 thinner yellow lights below. The Penrith plains are all in sunshine; and 
 Ullswater and the lower mountain tops are bathed with the same golden glory ; 
 and the brightness of the plains makes those solemn purple shadows, and the 
 angry clouds yet hovering about, more striking for the contrast. 
 
 But now turn up the shoulder: plodding over its broken steeps with 
 hearts full of mountain joy and there is no joy like that till you come 
 upon an instalment of your day's inheritance the Keswick mountains, with 
 Bassenthwaite lake as the outlet, the Solway beyond the level line of the 
 Cockermouth plains, Criffel in delicate shading against the horizon, with a 
 dimmer Scottish range yet, the Newlands sentinels, and the dark heads of 
 the Borrowdale group, darker and more severe than all the rest. In a few 
 more steps, come up the divided spurs of the flat-topped Thirlmere range 
 that great spongy bog of tableland leading off to Borrowdale : but Keswick 
 lake 2 is hidden. 
 
 Ah, what a world lies below ! But grand as it is on the earth, it is mated 
 by the grandeur of the sky. For the cloud scenery is of such surpassing noble- 
 ness while it lasts and before it is drawn up into one volume of intensest blue, 
 that no kind or manner of discord mars the day's power and loveliness. Of all 
 forms and of all colours are these gracious summer clouds ranging from roseate 
 flecks to dazzling white masses and torn black remnants, like the last fragments 
 of a widow's weeds thrust aside for her maturer bridal ; from solid substances, 
 firm and marble-like, to light baby curls set like pleasant smiles about the 
 graver faces : words and pictures, in all their changes, unspeakably precious to 
 soul and sense. And when, finally, they all gather themselves away, and 
 leave the sky a vault of undimmed blue, and leave the earth a gorgeous 
 picture of human industry and dwelling when field and plain and mountain 
 and lake and tarn and river are fashioned into the beauty of the primeval 
 
 4 Six lakes are seen from the top of Helvellyn, not counting the smaller waters : 
 I'llswatcr and Winclermere, Esthwaite, Collision, Bassenthwaite and Thirlmere; but Rydal 
 and Grasmere and Derwentwater, which it would be natural to expect to see, are all hidden 
 by intervening spurs or ranges. 
 
 146
 
 HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD. 
 
 earth by the purity of the air and the governing strength of the sun and 
 the fragrant sweetness of the summer, and when the very gates of heaven 
 seem opening for our entering where the southern sun stands at gaze in his 
 golden majesty, is it wonder if there are tears more glad than many smiles, 
 and a thrill of love more prayerful than many a litany chanted in the church 
 service? In the very passion of delight that pours like wine through the 
 veins, is a solemn outfall in the very deliciousness of joy an intensity that 
 is almost pain. It is all so solemn and so grand, so noble and so loving, 
 surely we cannot be less than what we live in ! 
 
 Let any one haunted by small cares, by fears worse than cares, and by 
 passions worse than either, go up on a mountain height, on such a summer's 
 day as this, and there confront his soul with the living soul of nature. Will 
 the stately solitude not calm him ? can the nobleness of beauty not raise 
 him to noble likeness ? is there no divine voice for him in the absolute still- 
 ness ? no loving hand guiding through the pathless wilds ? no tenderness 
 for man in the lavishness of nature ? have the clouds no lesson of strength 
 in their softness ? the sun no cheering in its glory ? has the earth no hymn 
 in all its living murmur ? the air no shaping in its clearness ? the wind no 
 healing in its power ? Can he stand in the midst of that great majesty the 
 sole small tiling, and shall his spirit, which should be the noblest thing of 
 all, let itself be crippled by self and fear, till it lies crawling on the earth 
 when its place is lifting to the heavens ? Oh ! better than written sermon 
 or spoken exhortation is one hour on the lonely mountain tops, when the 
 world seems so far off and GOD and his angels so near ! Into the Temple 
 of Nature flows the light of the Shekinah, pure and strong and holy, and 
 they are wisest who pass into it oftenest, and rest within its glory longest. 
 There was never a church more consecrated to all good ends than the stone 
 waste on Helvellyn top, where you sit beneath the sun and watch the bright 
 world lying in radiant peace below, and the quiet and sacred heavens above. 
 
 And now you can make out the faces of old friends, and call to them 
 through the space. Harrop Tarn, on the Thiiiinere Fells opposite, is 
 
 147 L >
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 touched to silver by the geuerous light; and little Blea Tarn a doll's lake 
 it looks from here lying higher and more north than Harrop Tarn, 
 shines like a pool of quicksilver in the purple distance. Dunmail llaiso 
 looks a pleasant hour's walk from end to end, and not more than a few 
 minutes from where you stand, if you care to run briskly down the green 
 slope before you. Just over the doll's lake you see the heads of some of 
 the Ennerdale and Buttermere mountains Steeple, Pillar, Haycock, and 
 Yewbarrow, all in a little group together ; then the Borrowdale family, 
 headed by Scawfell Pike ; farther on a bit of one of the Langdale Pikes 
 (Harrison Stickle), and a dim boll, which you know from its position to 
 be Black Combe. Over to the south lies Coniston, and the sea beyond ; 
 Coniston water looking higher than the rest a mere delusion of distance 
 and the sea quite clear and bright ; and, still farther to the south, part of 
 Windermere, seeming from your present height tame and flat, and, now that 
 its prettiness is invisible, of no importance in the mountain map. Esthwaite 
 lies between these last two ; the three lakes all together in the same sweep. 
 To the east you see Ullswater, with its noble fells brought down to baby-house 
 toys, and Angle Tarn, like a small spangle stuck on a many-coloured ground ; 
 but Kidsty Pike breaking the level line of High Street ; High Street itself, 
 and 111 Bell, hold their own, even from Helvellyn. And then you see some- 
 thing in the far off horizon, over beyond Windermere, which the one of you 
 with the best eyes declares to be Lancaster Castle. It may be so. 
 Faith is not always a bad showman. To the north, Skiddaw is not the 
 soft-natured patriarch of the Keswick side, but showing a noble front of 
 purple rifts and scarred seamings quite a pronounced and energetic mass 
 of mountain life ; and Blencathra the Carrock Fells in the dip, where 
 Caldbeck lies beyond is picturesque as ever, the shadows deep and pure, 
 and the crested edges broken down into cascades of screes and froth of 
 crag, very noticeable and very fine. 
 
 And now you come to the grandest sight of all the one great vision 
 of power the Edges in their eternal majesty of wrath, like an angry 
 
 148
 
 HELVELLYN AND FAEttMBLD. 
 
 word of GOD spoken through the storm. There they stretch in a grand 
 wide sweep above Red Tarn, the broken line of Striding Edge like a mere 
 knotted cord, and Swirrel Edge not much broader, or with a firmer foot- 
 hold. The sharp sides and jags and crags are all green and brown and 
 grey, as you stand on the top and look down into this fierce mountain 
 bay with the still mountain lake in its heart lying nearly eight hundred feet 
 below : a scene never to be forgotten unequalled in our England both for 
 form and colour, both for savageness and majesty. There is no real 
 danger on Swirrel Edge, terrifying as it looks ; so you may pick your steps 
 down among its stones set like ckevaux-de-frise all along the ridge, and 
 enjoy the feeling of standing on a tight-rope slung between the earth 
 and the sky. The two Tarns Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn lie to 
 the right and left ; so closely set under the Edge that you could drop a 
 ball from either hand into both. Striding Edge runs on the other side in 
 mute companionship, furious and more difficult than Swirrel, and with real 
 danger on its sharp, steep, narrow ways ; 3 but yet a portion of the same 
 body torn asunder, each from each, by some great convulsion or giant 
 irresistible power twin Edges, with just so much difference in spirit and 
 temper as marks the individuality. 
 
 Down, too, by Swirrel Edge, among its rocks and sheltered places 
 can be found some rare plants. The rose root (rhodiola rosea), with its 
 curious fleshy leaves, and the scent of roses about its root, as the form of 
 the opened rose is in its crowning spathe, is there; as are also the 
 kidney-leaved sorrel (oxyria reniformis), the clustered alpine saxifrage why 
 not the "snowy" saxifrage? (saxifraga nivalis), and the moss campion 
 (xilene acaulls) ; treasures all of them, worth a little extra difficulty or even 
 
 3 Tills was the Edge wherefrom Charles Gough, whom the guide-books will persist in 
 calling an " unfortunate young lover of nature," was lost more than half a century ago. 
 The memory of liis untimely fate has been embalmed with special and peculiar honour in 
 the poems of Scott and Wordsworth ; and is known to all believers in the superior nature 
 and better morality of dogs, the fidelity of his dog being very pathetic, and indeed the 
 supreme point of interest in the story. 
 
 149
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 danger to obtain. At least it will be well for you if you think so, 
 scrambling and stumbling about the rocks perhaps with more courage than 
 grace, though you have no traveller's business there, and must scramble up 
 a<min, whether full-handed or empty, when the time comes to turn your- 
 self homeward. 
 
 But it is such a fine, rich sensation, that of wandering about these 
 perilous places so grand in their sublime loveliness, so magnificent in 
 their dangerous beauty that almost any amount of foolhardiness may be 
 excused. It is worth whole years of tamer living in the plains worth a 
 generation time of living in the cities. It is like playing with a tiger of 
 which we believe ourselves the master, but which at any time may turn 
 against us and crush our bones in the play that has flashed out into 
 wrath. And so these mountain precipices, so easily mastered and overpassed 
 in a sunny, even-tempered day, may become dangerous as wild beasts in 
 the wind and the mist and the storm, which may burst out in less than 
 half an hour under a fitful and unreliable sky. Yet how one loves these 
 wild beasts ! how one delights to lay one's hands on their manes, and to 
 tread their tawny necks beneath one's feet, and to venture into their 
 deepest dens, even when the thunder of their roar is beginning, and their 
 anger and their fierceness is aroused ! Beautiful mountains ! dear tigers 
 but half tamed ! it is better living with you than with the loveliest of the 
 home-side creatures ! 
 
 Coming up at last from the Edge you need not say with what botanical 
 results, for very likely you have found nothing, searchers are so many and 
 pilferers so unconscientious you first come to the famous spring called 
 Brownrigg's well, and then, three hundred yards off, to the summit where 
 the stone maen is, and where you sit behind the shelter that it makes, and 
 dream away your resting-time in pleasant and sleepy fancies. Then go 
 forward, to where you look down on the top of Fairfield; noting there the 
 same kind and manner of ridges as belong to Helvellyn, of which indeed 
 it is geologically only a buttress and component part; less grand in mass, 
 
 I'M
 
 HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD. 
 
 of course, but of the same broken structure the same cresting of the wave 
 falling over into rocky foam the same flood of movement struck to stability 
 for ever. The prospect on all sides is of a very sea of mountains : wave 
 after wave rising up into the sky : with a boundary line of level shine. And 
 all in such marvellous harmony the lines flowing into each other, and 
 going together for such good ends of beauty and agreement ! Some are 
 battlements, and others are spurs and buttresses, and some are gentle slopes, 
 and some are walls; but the typical form is the wave the sweep and the 
 crest, the flow and the break. Swell after swell has beaten up on this 
 ancient strand : some higher, others lower, some now in cool shadow purple 
 and blue, and others in the hot summer sunshine ; and all flowing out from 
 the Borrowdale centre all but Helvellyn and Skiddaw, both of which are 
 interpolations in the archaic mass. It is a mighty spectacle ; and something 
 to be seen by all men. 
 
 And now turn homeward, for the coming shadows are beginning to lengthen, 
 and Grisedale is not a contemptible valley. So you go to the top of the big 
 hill at the foot of which lies Grisedale Tarn, where the wild swine of old 
 time used to come to drink. But before this you must notice one most 
 eloquent change in the social conditions of the mountain : the wire fence put 
 up round the limits of a certain lordly property. Where the old Normans 
 built their rude stone walls, rough, ready, unscientific, but durable, the modern 
 man of money and education draws a light wire line, as effective for its time, 
 but not quite so durable perhaps, as the stone wall symbolic of the heavy, 
 mailed hand that won roughly and griped hardly. Now we have position 
 instead of valour ; and a long pursa for title in place of the gilded spurs and 
 the uncaptured banner : and a light wire fence carried round the precipices 
 of Helvellyn, as round a gentleman's private park. A strange combination of 
 scientific improvement, and an invincible nature presumed to be conquered ! 
 
 You come down among the plum-coloured patches of turned bog-earth 
 colouring the big shoulder, and see the mountain path, on the other side of 
 the tarn, leading to Grasmere through the dip of Fail-field and Seat Sandal ; 
 
 151
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and you note how the face of the mountain is drawn and puckered as if 
 with wrinkles, and how all the hills seem to go up as you come down 
 twenty feet to your one. And then you lower yourself into the head of 
 the dale, and walk through the evening splendours to your home. Looking 
 behind as you go to see the amethystine light lying so soft, and yet so 
 intense, on every rock and grassy tuft and patch of shingle looking to see 
 the sunset films all red and yellow and purple and orange in the sky the 
 green gorge before you all the greener for the coloured background shedding 
 such a light beyond. Place Fell stands up square and wide ; Birk Fell is 
 conical and sharp ; and the hill sides, as you descend lower and face them, 
 are angular and perpendicular. And the w y ay seems to lengthen as you go ; 
 for the reaches that were shut out by spurs which looked nothing when you 
 were higher up, but which now become large chasms, or heavy feet thrust 
 forward and taking much time to round, seem to be interminable ; but, 
 weary as you are, you will surely still recur to the mighty things you have 
 seen halfway up to heaven, and still vividly rejoice in the beauty lying 
 round you. 
 
 FAIKFIELD RIDGES FROM HBLVELLYN TOP 
 
 Our day on Fairfield was a different experience to this of the typical 
 mountain perfection. We will give it as we proved it ; for though it was 
 not a very instructive ascent, according to the teaching of the guide-books, 
 still, it was great in its way, and of grand, if exceptional, teaching. It 
 should be said, however, that the views from the top of Fairfield on 
 a clear day, are very fine; one special point taking in a circuit of eight 
 lakes and tarns, with a noble range of mountain tops among which Hel- 
 vellyn is the proudest and most majestic, and little Helm Crag, crested 
 
 152
 
 HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD. 
 
 with its strange stone feathers, the most picturesque. But for us it was 
 grand as a bit of cloud scenery chiefly; though oftentimes in between the 
 rents came golden bursts of sunlight, and landscapes of such loveliness as 
 one would willingly have suffered a martyrdom to see. But we will speak 
 of the clouds only. 
 
 It was rash to attempt the mountain at all to-day; for the sky was 
 heavy with dark rain-beds, thick and heaped, of that colour which makes the 
 green of field and wood, and the crimson roses and burning bright geraniums 
 in the garden, all the brighter by force of contrast against so sullen a back- 
 ground. A kind of sky which never by any chance breaks into blue for that 
 morning at least ; but which, however, may continue simply lowering without 
 falling into actual storm. We gave ourselves the benefit of the chance, and 
 attacked the ascent of Fairfield as a thing likely to result in both profit and 
 pleasure. 
 
 As the day wore on the clouds came lower so low that it seemed as 
 if we should have touched them with our hands had we been standing 
 half a yard higher; clouds with dark pencilled edges, and unfathomable 
 caverns in them, where lighter mist wreaths stood at the portals and in 
 the black jaws and throats : and before we were halfway up they had 
 come to meet us in very truth, with the gates of their waters flung abroad. 
 Down came the pouring rain in a torrent which might have been the 
 "tailing" of the deluge; and for the time all other forms and forces of 
 nature were lost, and there was nothing in the whole of creation but a universal 
 sky, leaden-coloured, and a general downfall of the waters. But still we 
 persevered in the ascent ; in our hearts not unwilling to be on a mountain 
 top in a thorough mountain storm. 
 
 And we were rewarded, richly; for we saw such things that day as we 
 had never seen before, and perhaps may never see again. We saw the cloud 
 world in its almost every aspect, from grandeur that was absolutely terrifying 
 to loveliness that was very enchantment. Sometimes a big cloud rose 
 slowly up against the edge of a mountain, and then turned over as if 
 
 153 X
 
 THE LAKK COIM'IJV 
 
 down into the world below, increasing and increasing in bulk and 
 weight till at last it rolled heavily down the sides, as if overpowered by its 
 own density; sometimes we skirted the edge of a precipice, from which 
 boiled up large volumes of vapour, literally as if the earth sent up steam 
 or smoke from its seething heart ; and. sometimes we saw the vapours 
 creeping down into the fathomless abyss creeping creeping till they 
 seemed to fill the whole space, and were then forced to rise up again the rising 
 seemingly as interminable as the fall had been. There was one precipice 
 by the edge of which we stood watching these boiling vapours till our 
 senses almost reeled, and we had to remember that there is no such thing 
 as a physical Hell anywhere ; and that if there is even, it is not on the 
 top of Fairfield. But it was awfully like the ideal Mouth of the Pit ! 
 
 Sometimes we were cheated into the belief that all this would soon 
 end, and that the sun would come out, as he seemed to promise by the 
 clouds getting thinner with a light striking through, most hopeful and 
 suggestive ; and then we congratulated each other on our perseverance and 
 courage, and promised ourselves magnificent views from the top, quite equal 
 to those to be had from Helvellyn after a threatening morning. And while 
 we wagged our heads complacently, and spoke false hopes to each other, 
 suddenly we were entirely enveloped, and everything gone from us, save the 
 stone on which we stood, or the one square foot of ground immediately 
 beneath us. And there was no earth anywhere, no solid foot-hold, no foun- 
 dation, nothing but this one small stable point, and all the rest an infinity 
 of mist an eternity of space. Nothing beyond, behind, above, or around, 
 but a white and ghostly world of cloud, elusive, impenetrable, and formless. 
 
 Then this ghostly world would break up into separate forms, and the 
 heavier masses would heave themselves away into the upper world, while light 
 fragments would be left scudding close to the ground, like lambs or little 
 mountain elves fairy wreaths which a child would have chased to catch, as 
 they swept and curled and careered before us. They came over our feet, and 
 Wi- trod on them but did not hurt them ; and they ran before us, but we 
 
 1J4
 
 1IKI.VKI.LYX AM) FAIRFIELI). 
 
 caught them np again, as they rested round the head of sonic old dumb 
 stone or played round the moss-bed of some patient hillock ; sometimes, 
 when we got up to them, they made themselves into thin air and ran away 
 altogether, and sometimes they gathered substance, and rolled themselves 
 into winged cherubs that took flight up to the graver family above : nothing 
 in the world could have been more bewitching or fairy-like than those 
 fragments of baby clouds scampering like sentient things about the crags 
 and mountain tops. 
 
 Then a cold, thin, grey mist not so dense as what had been would 
 steal on ; a mist in which all forms were exaggerated and all conditions 
 obscured ; which made a sheep look like an elephant, and then dissolve away 
 like a phantom ; which made a mountain wall of some five feet an insur- 
 mountable barrier, like a castle keep ; which made indifferently sized boulders 
 mighty crags, and accidental hillocks towering heights. This light, cold, 
 exaggerative mist gave the strangest effects of all, and was the most pure- 
 bit of glamour of the whole day ; for it came and went with its silent feet, 
 and it deepened or lightened as it crept before the wind, now revealing and 
 now concealing, now enlarging and now withdrawing, till the mind became 
 as unsteady as the eyes, and lost the true perception of everything about. 
 Then there would be a sudden clearing : the denser vapours would gather 
 into solid masses and quit the earth altogether, and the mists would disperse 
 like a film withdrawn, and leave the valley free to the sight. And then 
 we would see lakes and tarns lying to the right and the left, some, by the 
 fantastic perspective of the vapours still hanging about, seeming to lie in 
 the sky ; and some, by the chance angles of reflection, seeming to bear huge 
 waterlilies or strange shapes of tower and castle within them ; all utterly 
 unearthly and weird, however beautiful, when the white curtains shrouding 
 them were withdrawn and we looked through the opening. We saw then 
 how old tales of enchanted lakes and drowned castles and mythic fairylands 
 concealed from near observers, had grown, in times long past, when simple 
 men and women only perceived, and neither understood nor criticised. The 
 
 155 X 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY, 
 sun and the moon and the mist and the rain, the wind and the rending 
 
 ' O 
 
 frost these were the sources of those lovely fairy-tales of old ; yet, lovely 
 as they are, how much less beautiful than the sources whence they sprang. 
 
 And now the clouds were quitting us altogether, to establish themselves 
 finally, after multitudes of changes, in their rightful home. But what a 
 wonder-world of magic was wrought during those changes ! How they 
 mirrored in their forms the features of the earth below ! There were caverns 
 and peaks, and deep dark gorges, and swelling bolls : all softer transcripts 
 of the lower world ; marvels to which the marvel of icebergs is as nothing. 
 And other and nobler forms yet : prophets, angels, sweet praying saints, and 
 dancing peris, winged birds, and bounding beasts whatever the earth holds 
 incorporate within her, given back in this translation of the clouds ; given back 
 in all the loveliest colours, as well as in each perfectness of form ; now soft 
 and warmly tinted like monthly roses shed abroad ; and now a heap of snow ; 
 and now the black grey of funnel smoke ; and now, again, a thin and luminous 
 mist, not strong enough to be called cloud. And with all these changes, one 
 dark bank rested ever against the western sky, as motionless as if anchored ; 
 not changing and not moving, while this petulant foreground shifted its place 
 continually. 
 
 And now they lifted themselves up a few feet higher; and we saw how 
 soft and velvet-like was the light lying on the emerald green and golden 
 mole-skin brown of Loughrigg Fell, and how one side of the Windermere 
 valley was all in sun and like topaz and malachite, and the other all in shade, 
 and like the darker veins of lazule. And here stole in a ray of shame-faced 
 sunlight, touching some of the night-robed clouds and turning them to 
 brides confident of the bridegroom ; making the whiter clouds blush bright 
 rose-colour, and making the black a bloomy purple ; dissolving some to mere 
 vapour, and flinging out others into sable masses, desperately distinct : yet, 
 finally getting strength, and conquering the cloud-world at large, and taking 
 the earth back to his own life and his own love. 
 
 When we came off the mountain it was under the unclouded blue and 
 
 156
 
 IIELVELLYX AND FAIRFIELD. 
 
 the slanting rays of a yellow sun. The birds were singing with a 
 leliriousness of song, and the old hills were alive everywhere with the voices 
 )f the brooks leaping into life ; the grass was gemmed with a thousand shining 
 sun-born jewels, and the trees hung laden with diamonds on every spray ; 
 id everything in heaven and earth looked more beautiful for the heavy 
 tin that had fallen throughout the day, and had washed the atmosphere to 
 silken lustrousness and the purity of crystal. 
 
 THE TWO EDGES
 
 THE PIKES FROM BLEA TAHN 
 
 LANGDALE AND THE STAKE 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FROM Ullswater to Borrowdale by Grisedale Tarn, Grasmere, Great Lang- 
 dale, and the Stake, is a delicious day's walk of only twenty-six miles in 
 all; unless is added the loop of Colwith Force, Little Langdale, and Blea 
 Tarn, which gives another half dozen or so. Those who are not heroes or 
 heroines will split the transit ignominiously into divisions, though to many 
 the whole way would be a mere summer day's journey a moderate " con- 
 stitutional " between breakfast and dinner, pleasantly flavouring the Kos- 
 thwaite ham and eggs. This, however, is a matter of individual liking and 
 power, not affecting the rest. 
 
 158
 
 LANG DALE AND THE STAKE. 
 
 Grisedale Beck never looks so bright and living as on the morning 
 when you are going to leave it it may be for ever. Place Fell is never 
 more majestic ; the Kirkstone mountains never fuller of gloom and mystery ; 
 and the lake is sure to be at its loveliest, whatever its mood, when you 
 turn away from them all, and go up into the wooded glen, with something 
 that is at least sadness if not so bitter as grief. For is it not a heart- 
 wrench to leave these pleasant mountain places ? Truly is it the parting 
 of friends ! quiet friends, where our affections root themselves and grow 
 as if those grand old hills were human beings brothers or lovers to love 
 us in return ! 
 
 The mountains fronting you as you ascend the Grisedale pass are 
 nobly grand the long line to the right, leading to Swirrel Edge, especially 
 full of temptation needing an effort of common sense not to go along its 
 purple ridge and once more risk your neck on the Edges; for it is some- 
 times an effort of common sense not to peril life unnecessarily, as all 
 mountain lovers know. A flock of newly shorn sheep marks out in white 
 the windings of a hill-side track below ; the living line, scattered and broken, 
 but ever continuous, repeating the rougher line above, as does the stream 
 lower down, and the broad grey path beside it. And when colour is 
 added to this delicacy of repeated form when the ascending line of 
 the ridge, and the curved sweep of the side, and the harmonious flow 
 of the path and the stream, are mated with violet shadows and golden 
 sunlight the one softening every discord, and the other giving full power 
 to every harmony it may well be understood that the walk up Grisedale 
 Pass is a thing to be remembered and loved for a lifetime. 
 
 In time you come to Grisedale Tarn, lying under its three mountains 
 Fairfield, Seat Sandal, and Helvellyn : its situation, its speciality, 
 though, for individual distinction, it is the largest of all the tarns; and 
 when you have passed Grisedale Tarn you turn to the left, between Fair- 
 field and Seat Sandal, and set your face towards your old friend Grasmere 
 again. Seat Sandal, to your right, is of a singular blue-green ; Fail-field, 
 
 159
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 to your left, is a rich burnt umber splashed with lake and purple; and 
 your Avay down Tongue Hill the slack between the two is moderately 
 steep and sometimes immoderately boggy, with the usual winding way and 
 winding stream side by side. 1 At one point the stream breaks out into a 
 fall, now a mere suggestion lipping over the brown rocks, but in the rain 
 times forming a wild cascade. A merry little stonechat talks and 
 curtsies to you as you pass; a sandpiper runs scared out of its unpro- 
 tected nest; and then a sudden rush of wings startles you with its 
 strange sound, and a dense flock of rooks probably the Rydal rooks 
 come sweeping over Seat Sandal homewards like a crowd of children 
 trooping out of school. For it is perhaps scarcely a day when even rooks 
 care to be far abroad ; glaring and sultry where you stand, but misty 
 towards the sea, where the tide-clouds are blowing up : a vain day a day 
 of temper and show, with lovely yellow lights across the hills and blue 
 spaces in the sky, like a woman's hair and eyes, but a threatening of pos- 
 sible anger in those sullen clouds above Loughrigg, like the swollen 
 eyebrows and darkened forehead of temper. Under any aspect, however, 
 the view of Grasmere hence is lovely. 
 
 Then across the vale and up by Bed Bank to the west side of 
 Grasmere, where it looks the sweetest for home and the grandest for back- 
 ground ; where no man, who has not yet seen the nobler districts, would 
 ask a better boon of fortune than leave to lay down his staff and pitch his 
 tent for life, like any other bewitched nomad tethered by the magic 
 of beauty. A bit of Helvellyn is seen between Fairfield and Seat Sandal ; 
 Steel Fell is behind Helm Crag ; the still recess of Easedale, and the dip 
 where Codale lies behind its enclosing rim, are to be made out; the great 
 mass of Silver How, dark and beautiful, is to the left as you look down 
 on the valley and the lake : and when you have seen your fill of all these, 
 
 1 " From a small space of ground here the rain-water sheds into Windermere, 
 I'llswater, and Denvent, entering the sea by the river Leven into Morecambe Bay; Ly the 
 Eden into the Solway Frith ; and by the Denvent into the Irish Sea." OTLEY'S Gii'nl<: 
 
 100
 
 LANGDALE AND THE STAKE. 
 
 turn up to the fell, walking among sundew and starry asphodel, yellow 
 saxifrage and the pretty pink bells of the bog asphodel, till you come 
 upon Elterwater at the entrance 2 of Great or "Girt" Langdale. 
 
 The mountains on this side are singularly craggy; broken, rough, 
 untamed masses of rock ; great unscaleable monsters, beneath which the dark 
 valley of Langdale 3 winds away into the very jaws of the hills the most 
 picturesque of any valley yet seen, the most Alpine-looking and pleasantly 
 
 2 Across the dale would lead the traveller past the head of Elterwater to Colwith 
 Bridge and Colwith Force, one of the finest in the country ; and then, either to Oxenfells, 
 Tilberthwaite, and Coniston, or, to the right, round by Little Langdale and its Tarn 
 and Blea Water to Dungeon Ghyll. Those, however, whose chief object is Dungeon 
 Ghyll and the Stake Pass must go straight up the greater dale. 
 
 3 Sir Leoline and Christabel lived at Langdale Hall, where Sir Leoline " rose and 
 found his lady dead," and ordained the slow tolling of the Langdale bell at dawn, 
 as said by Coleridge : 
 
 " Hence the custom and law began, 
 
 That still at dawn the sacristan, 
 Who duly pulls the heavy bell, 
 Five and forty beads must tell, 
 Between each stroke a warning knell : 
 Which not a soul can choose but hear 
 From Bratha Head to Wyndermere. 
 Saith Bracy the bard So let it knell ! 
 And let the drowsy sacristan 
 Still count as slowly as he can ! 
 There is no lack of such, I ween, 
 As will fill up the space between. 
 In Langdale Pike and Witch's Lair, 
 And Dungeon Ghyll so foully rent, 
 With ropes of rock and bells of air, 
 Three sinful sextons' souls are pent, 
 Who all give back, one after t'other, 
 The death note to their living brother, 
 And oft too, by the knell offended, 
 Just as their one ! two ! three ! is ended ; 
 The devil mocks the doleful tale, 
 With a merry peal from Borrowdale." 
 
 161 Y
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 primitive. Not more primitive than Hawes Water and Mardale, but more 
 beautiful and loveable a sweeter mountain retreat where the weary would 
 find a refuge and not only a hiding-place, but where the young and the 
 high mettled would pine to death, reduced to despair by the imprisonment of 
 the hills. 
 
 Behind Lingmoor come up the sharp peaks of Wetherlam and of Wrynose 
 (pronounced Raynuz), where the Three Shire Stones are, chiefly noticeable for 
 the bright violet shadows lying on them, and for their roughness of outline ; 
 the square head of Tilberthwaite, with its heathery crags and tracts of juniper, 
 blocks up a large space in front ; and, to the right, one of the Pikes stands 
 grimly against the sky. Beautiful things that look like artificial cascades are 
 to be caught in the distance, all of a shining fall of grey like water struck to 
 stone : they are the Thrang Crag slate quarries (where the slates are " thraug" 
 or "thronged" enough), noted for their 
 picture slates, which are very curious ; for 
 sometimes a whole landscape is figured on 
 a slab, with trees and lakes and mountains 
 and rivers, just like their own larger natural A 
 selves. If you go into the excavation you /, 
 may knock your head against the propped- / 
 up roof, and see where the last block has ^ 
 been cut ; and stumble on the loose shingle, 
 and cut your hands, and bruise your feet, 
 without being much the wiser for the ordeal ; 
 and then you can come out again, and look 
 at the falling oaks and larches, clinging to 
 the ground by only a root or two where they have been undermined, and 
 admire the porphyritic colour of the stones, and take in the whole beauty of 
 desolateness, in the solitude and the wreck of slates heaped up about. 
 
 Though late in the summer, say in August, hay-making will probably be 
 still on hand ; and the small industry of the few fields makes the loneliness of 
 
 162 
 
 THRANG CRAO QUARRY MOUTH
 
 LAXGDALE AND THE STAKE. 
 
 the vale more apparent. Yet here are our fellow-men, with whom the same 
 human tragedies are enacting as on the largest theatre of social life ; though we 
 cannot help wondering, as so often before, what manner of being it is that they 
 fulfil, and what is their importance in the history of their age, 4 and whether 
 they care for their dales and hills and flowers, which so many grand ladies 
 and gentlemen come whisking down by steam to see ; and what they think of 
 all the fine folk moving about them like Baker Street visitors about the cattle- 
 pens ; how the thorough-bred cockney, inane and self-satisfied, strikes them ; 
 and how the languid young parson, not quite certain as to the permissibility of 
 his manhood at all; and how the stout-limbed collegians, enthusiastic, 
 pedestrian and mathematical ; and the brides and bridegrooms, not looking at 
 the scenery critically, but simply drinking in the impression of its loveli- 
 ness, as flowers drink in the sunlight, and growing in their own love from 
 the draught what do they think of them all ? how do those foreign lives 
 affect the homebred ? One can understand the grandeurs going to Winderniere, 
 and Grasmere, and Keswick, or any other of the more notorious show places ; 
 but in these wild and primitive dales one feels an unusual sympathy with 
 Wordsworth's horror at the idea of lake desecration and cockney travel brought 
 northward by railroads, and more minded to defend these Alpine homes from 
 eyes that do not really love their beauty than glad to welcome new fashions 
 or even a " rasher " spread of gold or a nearer contact with refinements. 
 
 4 This primitive little valley, looking like a strip of Switzerland or one of the German 
 Alp dales, has some importance though, in the history of its tune, and an economic value to 
 the country at large. For here, buried among trees and in a place of beauty fitter for 
 temple or for palace, for parsonage or for love-cottage, than for its present uses are the 
 Government powder- works : the most unlikely of all things to be found in an Alpine valley, 
 where apparently nothing more practical than waterfalls and crags are to be met with. 
 All this side of the country is famous for its charcoal. Richly wooded, and for the most 
 part with quick-growing timber, rather a large business is kept up in bobbins, cask- 
 hoops and staves, bark for tanning, fence-wood, charcoal, and more rarely, flooring- 
 planks and mast-wood, which form the staple of commerce in and about Langdale and 
 the Tilberthwaite side of the Coniston range. 
 
 163 V -2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Carrying such thoughts as part of the impress of the place, not less 
 true because of meeting with a noisy carriage load or two of Regent Street 
 bonnets and " fast " hats intermingled, you continue your appointed way 
 along the high road which in fact is a mere ferny lane bounded on either 
 side by close walls and crags through the meadow and over the beck, Mill 
 Beck, one of the sources of the Brathay : and then by the narrow stony way 
 to the foot of a great white tumbling cascade, called Mill Beck Force, coming 
 out from Stickle Tarn, with the Pikes over-topping. The highest 5 to the 
 right is Harrison Stickle, that to the left Pike o' Stickle, and the long sweep 
 to the right of Harrison Stickle is Pavey Ark, in the cup or lip of which 
 lies Stickle Tarn, whence comes that foaming reach the Mill Beck Force. 
 Just over the tarn is White Crag, where the bodies of poor William and 
 Sarah Green were found forty years ago, lost in a snowstorm on their way 
 from Langdale 6 to Easedale, their own home. Their story has been preserved, 
 not only on account of its sad tragedy, but also because of the sweet womanly 
 thoughtfulness and courage of their little daughter, of nine, left in charge 
 of the younger six at home, and who provided and cared for them with wonder- 
 ful sagacity during the many days when they were blocked up by the snow, 
 and left parentless and almost foodless in their Easedale cottage. 
 
 Mill Beck Force foams grandly down among the crags and broken ledges, 
 its sides beset with purple heather just brightening into colour and now turned 
 by the sun to crimson, with bracken bronzed and reddened, with fleshy um- 
 belliferae some of the younger leaves freed, pluming the veined spathe, 
 and others seeming as if they would burst clean open with the force of 
 the concealed life not yet come out into the sunlight. It is a pleasant 
 exercise to climb up the crags so far as you can without becoming actually 
 
 5 Tliis explanation refers rather to the view heading the chapter, which, taken from 
 the back of Blca Tarn, includes also the glorious point of Gimmer Crag, the point lying 
 farthest to the left, but not seen by the traveller standing near to Mill Beck Force. 
 
 6 There is a way from Grasmere by Easedale and Codale Tarns, over to Stickle Tarn, 
 and down by the Mill Ghyll crags into Great Langdale Head. 
 
 164
 
 LANGDALE AND THE STAKE. 
 
 crag fast ; but it is well to remember that they are not over easy, and that 
 in parts they are absolutely dangerous ; yet, as you mount higher, the cascade 
 becomes grander, the rocks wilder, and the way more difficult, but the reward 
 more royal, so that you must set danger against delight, and balance both 
 by the order of your muscles and the steadiness of your brain. 
 
 This open face of foam and tumult is 
 to the right : to the left is Dungeon Ghyll, 7 
 a dark chasm, cold and black, where the 
 waters pour down through a curious fissure 
 above, and where the stream for all its 
 length hereafter in the open air has a secret 
 look somehow, like the half-confidences of a 
 conspirator. As you follow this deep-voiced, 
 self-contained water to the Ghyllhead, you 
 feel that its heart will be a mystery like few 
 yet penetrated; and so you find it, when 
 you get into the damp, clammy chamber, 
 where the sun never shines and the free airs 
 never enter, but where only the waters leap 
 for ever and for ever, falling from the bright 
 upper world of the fell top into midnight 
 and dungeon gloom, never afterwards to 
 lose the stamp set upon them there. A 
 wonderfully impressive chasm ! indeed it 
 is a piece torn out of the very body of 
 
 7 " It was a spot which you may see, 
 If ever you to Langdale go; 
 Into a chasm a mighty block 
 Hath fallen, and made a bridge of rock ; 
 The gulf is deep below ; 
 And in a basin black and small, 
 Keceives a lofty waterfall." The Idle Shepherd Boys. 
 
 165
 
 Till; LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the hill ; where the roof is two huge stones that have got wedged together, 
 making a narrow pathway for the adventurous to walk over if they please. 
 Down below are steps and ladders and helping stones to enable you to 
 enter into the farther chamber, where you may stand and watch the restless 
 waters ever hurrying down, and listen to their unceasing roar, till your brain 
 teems with weird fancies, and you feel yourself to be in one of the torture 
 chambers of the earth. Then come out into the sunshine again, and see 
 how the rocks look covered with green and purple and swinging honeysuckle, 
 and how the banks show under their carpeting of yellow stars much the 
 same in effect whether spearwort or buttercup or hawkweed or potentilla 
 see how full of life and song and poetry they all appear, after the gloom and 
 mystery of the Dungeon chamber ! 
 
 The Pikes the two Stickles are two or three miles from Mickleden, 
 the head of the dale, and that head is the wildest and finest part of it. 
 Hitherto Lingmoor has bounded the way on the left ; now you must bear up to 
 the right between the Pike o' Bliscow a grand old craggy head and the 
 Pikes, and then between them and a great fore-thrown buttress of Bowfell 
 (itself only an outwork of Scawfell) which stands like a tongue at the 
 head. Bowfell proper rises beyond and behind its henchman ; and Crinkle 
 Crags are to the left. You walk on among the grim rocks not coloured and 
 porphyritic as at Ara Force, but grey and time-worn and through tracks of 
 yellow moss, with the red lines of the sun-dew beading the gold ; and over the 
 stone river-bed, which will have no water to-day if the season is dry, but will 
 be a waste of dry stone ; seeing where one road goes over by Wall End to 
 Blea Tarn and its larches, and where another goes up by Rosset Grhyll to 
 Angle Tarn and Scawfell, and how that grand old Gimmer Crag, so absolutely 
 lifeless not even lichen-covered looks almost white in the pale sunlight, and 
 finer than even the Pikes. As it rises in one unbroken up- springing line from 
 the dale to its height of over two thousand feet, it is, perhaps, the most 
 beautiful thing in the whole country, whether seen alone or in combination 
 with the Pikes from Blea Tarn, or yet farther off, from Tilberthwaite or from 
 
 166
 
 LANGDALE AND THE STAKE. 
 
 "VVindermere ; wherever seen, still the one fine and culminating poiftt of the 
 whole ; but, strangely enough, not even named in some of the guide-books, 
 and not so notorious as the Pikes in any. 
 
 A long flat waste of marshy ground filled with watercourses and stone 
 beds, and a whole congeries of green mammae or giant graves like the last 
 dashes of foam on the strand leads up to the foot of the pass. This is 
 Mickleden, and the great blind alley corresponding on the left, is Oxendale. 
 It is the old end of all creation, so often come to at the dale heads, the old 
 hemming in by the walls of an oblong kind of cup with lips and sides 
 seemingly impassable. These passes are strangely suggestive ; at a distance 
 they look impossible, perpendicular ascents not to be conquered ; close 
 at hand they are nothing, a mere half-hour's pleasant mounting, and then 
 down again into the free country on the other side ; when really on them they 
 are interminable, with tops cut off like the Irishman's end of thread, and not 
 to be attained by any means known to a miserable walking humanity. Yet, 
 though you know all this by frequent experience, you will be sure to let 
 yourself be cheated once again, and not for the last time ; and when you 
 come to the foot of your mountain ladder, and see how it rounds away into a 
 mere garden mound above your head, you will argue quite blithely that the 
 Stake Pass is a nothing after all, and what can people mean by their 
 exaggerations you will be over before you know that you have begun. 
 
 While standing there, looking at the eternal crest of the eternal wave, 
 like the grand sweep and " sshe" on the shingle, noting where it tore down 
 in the days when all was fluid and what a tremendous force once poured 
 through the dale, perhaps one of the sudden mountain storms so common 
 here will come over the pass, white, ghostly, and pitiless an in-pouring of 
 winter through the summer warmth blotting out every trace of the way 
 before you, while all the wild hills lying backward will become solemn and 
 listening, like neutrals waiting for the result of the fight. The clouds pour 
 over the edges of the hills, like waterfalls of mist ; the grey rocks turn to 
 white before them, and the Pikes become of a dead ash-colour ; the monu- 
 
 167
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 mental cumuli of the morning are torn and trailing wrecks in the sky, and a 
 world of future turmoil, angry and full of blackest fears, gathers up from 
 Scawfell. But the valley behind is all in sunlight yet, with no sign of the 
 wrath to come deadening its yellow shine. When you turn to the pass again, 
 there is the ghostly hurrying of silent feet, and the cloudy army rushing over 
 the hills in wrath to sweep through the valley in tears, the wind and the rain 
 and the sheeted mist and the chilling breath, desolation, and the way washed 
 out : perhaps bewilderment and peril, if the storm should continue or deepen. 
 But hope for the best, and, if you dare, walk into it cheerily ; enjoying 
 the sensation of struggling up a steep mountain pass, with the rain beating 
 into your face and drenching your clothes, which the wind will soon shake 
 with such good-will that it will shake the rain-drops out of them, and 
 which the summer sun will then warm and dry. For, in a few minutes 
 perhaps, the sky may burst into blue and sunshine ; the skirts of the mist 
 will gather themselves up, though one black rain-edge may still linger on 
 the top of Bow Fell, and over the Pike o' Bliscow will hang the last shreds 
 of a thin, diffused vapour, like a veil or a garment spread abroad. And the 
 effect of this thin mist gathered up into denseness in one part, and at the 
 other spread out into light grey layers, filmy and diaphanous, is very lovely. 
 Windermere and the plains beyond are enframed in the dip made by the 
 Pikes and Lingmoor, like a picture exquisitely coloured, seen from a window. 
 The bounding line is positive cobalt, intensely and purely blue ; the middle 
 distance is of yellow, shading through grey to green and purple ; and the 
 nearer tints are of velvet softness, or of radiant brightness. You will have 
 the opportunity of watching all this for a long time and often ; for your way 
 is not the mere half hour's stout footing that it seemed to be at the base, 
 but a long, tough, and rough hour's climb, with frequent rests, as of neces- 
 sity, in between. At last, however, you lose it all when you are on the 
 top of the pass, in a waste of stones with a black pool and a brawling stream 
 beside you : rugged forms closing you in all round, and a wide cup a broad, 
 shallow basin before you, which you have to cross. 
 
 168
 
 1.. \.\GDALE AND THE STAKK 
 
 No smooth slopes here ; no mammal likenesses, rich and fertile in 
 their suggestiveness ; if waves, then waves when the wrath of the sea was 
 spoken in foam and broken in angry spray upon the land ; when the 
 fury of passion stamped itself on the rocks, and was incorporated for ever 
 in the tumbled froth of stone scattered abroad. Yet how one longs to go 
 to the tops of all these big mountains reared up round the rim of the 
 waste-cup ! How one yearns to follow the feet of Bowfell, where it crawls 
 away up to Scawfell ; and to tread the long broad shoulder of Gable Moor 
 to Angle Tarn ; and to learn the features of Glaramara's hoary head 
 looking out from the rift yonder ! What delight it would be to climb 
 those crags to the right, beyond which would be found Stickle Tarn 
 and the backs of the Pikes, and Codale Tarn, and the Easedale range ; or 
 even to get down into Borrowdale by the fell tops, where that fine sweep 
 ends (or seems to end) in Eagle Crag ! But tarns and mountain-tops must 
 be left for another day. You must carry yourself and your knapsack 
 over the rim of your great unfinished waste-plot of the world, and down 
 by Langstreth (Longstreet) into Borrowdale ; which you will find quite rude 
 and fatiguing enough before you come to Rosthwaite this evening. 
 
 Skiddaw and Blencathra now show themselves behind and beyond the 
 Borrowdale Fells. The fells get finer and the crags more broken ; the road 
 momently more steeply rugged as it dashes down the broad shoulder so 
 sharply that you constantly lose sight of it altogether, and have no perception 
 of the next turn when this acute angle is ended. Langstreth, the valley 
 below, is wilder than even Langdale, grander and more powerful ; and that 
 Force, unbaptized by any guide-book but which is called in the country 
 Gatescarth Ghyll, falling over the broad face of rock by your right, has a 
 bolder look than many better known and more celebrated. Indeed, it is 
 all wilder and larger and more energetic here than what you have seen 
 before, and more beautiful. 
 
 At last and not until after a long descent you come down into the 
 narrow path, and the stony one, lying between Glaramara and the Borrowdale 
 
 169 Z
 
 T1IK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Fells ; a long hour's rude journey leading you under that magnificent 
 monster, Eagle Crag, standing sentinel between the gorges of Greenup 
 and Langstreth, and under Bull Crags opposite. Then hy a wide, dry 
 torrent bed, where the stones are brought down by the winter rains and 
 storms from the mountain tops ; and by terrible roads of stone, worse than 
 sea-shore shingle ; and under great heaps of stones ; and by hill-side cataracts 
 of stones ; till the primitive old hamlet of Stonethwaite is reached Stone- 
 thwaite rightly called, indeed ! for surely here are all the waste stone-heaps 
 .of creation ! To add to the desolateness of the lonely dwellers in this hamlet, 
 they do not see the sun for three months in the year. "On" or "about" 
 the twenty-fourth of February, the first ray shivers down upon a house- 
 top, from the cleft between Bull Crags and Hanging Haystack. And Stone- 
 thwaite then has nine months of very doubtful shine to make up for its 
 three months of darkness. 
 
 Yet even this miserable place has its amenities. About its rocks and 
 crags are gracious little crumpled sprays of oak fern and the startled - 
 looking beech fern putting back its ears like a kid, or that kid-like plant, 
 the cyclamen and rarer plants still, among its secret sacred haunts, to be 
 found by diligent searchers fond of exploring rough mountain sides, and 
 to whom a rare fern is as precious as a jewel, and a new wild flower as dear 
 as a new friend. There must be this love, though, to make Stonethwaite 
 anything but a desert or a prison ; as there must be love to help man through 
 every rough pass in life. 

 
 STICKLE TARN 
 
 THE TARNS 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 BORROWDALE is good head-quarters for the tarns ; and a tarn hunt is by no 
 means unexciting sport ; for though all of the more important are named 
 in the guide-hooks and figured on the maps, still there are a few neither 
 spoken of nor marked, the finding of which is a true discovery to the 
 ordinary traveller, leading him into the heart of many a secret of nature, 
 and showing the form of many of her workings. We get to the back of 
 the mountains, so to speak, on such expeditions as these ; and when not 
 to the back, then to the inner depths, where we can follow the track of the 
 forces by which these great things have been done, tracing where the fire 
 has fused and the water wasted ; and seeing how the mighty shaping hand 
 has fashioned the mountain world to perfect nobleness, and where it has 
 left rough, unfinished bits, like waste-plots in the great garden : rough 
 bits, where only ferns and moss and heather are flung by the summer's 
 charity, and where useless water gathers into useless hollows, idle for the 
 
 171 Z 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 world's work, if glorious for the world's beauty. Yet not wholly useless : 
 for they all send out small subscriptions to the general fund, and at least 
 help to swell, if they do not originate, the wealth of rivers and the bounty 
 of the sea; in which manner they are working members, if unnoted, in the 
 great republic of natural forces. Not that every mountain stream springs 
 from a tarn, but almost every tarn l sends out a stream. Then, tarn-hunting 
 teaches the relative position of places almost as exactly as do the mountain- 
 tops, leading by "backs," and "shoulders," and "slacks," and "feet," 
 and over the lower heights straight to half a dozen seemingly irreconcilable 
 districts, each one of which is a day's journey from the other by the beaten 
 track. Thus, Easedale and Sty Head in one day must needs include some 
 glorious cross-country experiences, as you will find if you set out from 
 Rosthwaite as your centre, to see how many tarns may be found between 
 the morning and the night. 
 
 Go first to lonely Stone thwaite, on which if the sun is shining as 
 you pass it may be counted a notable thing in the Stouethwaite calendar ; 
 not following the stony road to the Stake Pass, but leaving Langstreth 
 and Eagle Grag to the right, and taking the left-hand gorge of Greenup 
 instead. Climb straight up the gorge, past the rocky pool where the 
 two streams join, past Garnett's Force a beautiful cascade, not generally 
 known, its only present sponsors the shepherds then up Greenup Edge 
 towards High Raise, keeping Line End Crag to the right, till you come 
 upon a vast bowl-shaped amphitheatre, something like that of the Stake, 
 but not so large. This you cross in the direction of Grasmere, climbing 
 the opposite rim where a line of stone piles marks the way for the 
 belated shepherds and the snow-bound, and where an outcrop of grey stones 
 through the yellow boggy grass is in striking contrast of colour. A 
 fine up-rising of mountain tops is to be seen from here : Whinlatter and 
 Grisedale Pike over Maiden Mawr ; Robinson in a dip over Eagle Crag ; 
 
 1 Blind Tarn by Collision Old Man is an exception, being without any issuing stream. 
 
 \7->
 
 THE TARNS. 
 
 Dale Head over Bull Crag; the sheer precipice of Honister over Serjeant 
 Crag ; and the little point of Cam beyond Glaramara. But Glaramara itself 
 has probably faded away into a cloud, which also impenetrably conceals 
 Bowfell. A little farther on, and all this is lost, and you look down on 
 Wythburn Head to Wythburn and Thirlmere (but merely to a corner of this 
 last lying far below, between Cat Crags and Steel Fell), and on Ruddy Ghyll 
 Brow in Wythburn Head to the left of Cat Crags, with Green Comb above. 
 
 The mists may probably be thick here, veiling the tops of the highest 
 mountains Helvellyn, Seat Sandal, and Fairfield and draping their feet too, 
 so that they may be of any imaginable height and circumstance ; but not 
 hiding the great slip of screes a hundred feet high, on Ruddy Ghyll Brow (all 
 green ground now), which burst out with some rush of water one day, laying 
 bare a strip of mountain bark which will never have power to grow again. 
 Across Deep Slack, a disturbed hollow, with wave-like mounds and rocks 
 and stones and all manner of ground irregularities, you look on something 
 round and light ; like a diamond in the heart of an uncut emerald cup 
 about which still clings some of the green-grey matrix ; that green-grey 
 matrix is the outcome of stone against the mountain side, and the diamond is 
 Codale Tarn. So immediately overhanging it is the crag whereon you stand 
 that it seems as if you could drop into the water beneath, as you could drop a 
 ball into Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn from Swirrel Edge. It is a singular 
 effect that of standing on a summit, with a sheet of water immediately 
 below: and of dangerous fascination. For who does not know the impulse, 
 more or less strong according to temperament, to fling oneself off the top, and 
 learn the mysteries of that dark blue world below ? The Germans were not 
 far wrong when they embodied this impulse in the legend of fair-haired Nixes 
 luring men to their destruction by the insatiable longing of the unknown 
 love ! 
 
 As you rise the last few yards, under the unseen horizon unseen, because 
 of the formless mist hanging round it you catch a dim streak of water 
 lying as it might be in the sky, but which you know to be "VVindermere ; 
 
 173
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 another to the right, rather less dim, which is Elterwater ; Rydal-mere is in :i 
 hollow to the left ; and between Rydal-mere and Codale Tarn is Easedale Turn, 
 lying lower than the rest, under those steep, rough, fence-ways, called Carr's 
 Crags pleasant scrambling places for the sure-footed and adventurous, but 
 terrifying to neophytes not yet familiar with mountain circumstance. Very 
 wild and very lonely are these two tarns ; Codale the wilder of the two, because 
 more rock-bound and of higher altitude than Easedale, but neither sparing 
 much for softness or tenderness, neither borrowing of the Sybarite roses or 
 eiderdown for the rugged Doric bonework beneath ; true mountain tarns, both 
 of them, born in the wilds where but little of pleasure and less of gain leads 
 human footsteps their only companions the free creatures of the air and the 
 gracious throngings of the sky. Ah ! if all men could be taught the 
 deliciousness of a lonely mountain tarn, and a rough mountain scramble, 
 where they would cut their feet, and graze their knees, and tear their hands, 
 and get wet-footed in the bogs, and wet-backed in the mists, and meet with 
 nothing more exciting than a flock of frightened mountain sheep or a noisy 
 swoop of plovers screaming overhead ! If they could but be all inoculated 
 with the love of such joys as these, how much better it would be for the present 
 world and for the future generations ! 
 
 Now to the right your landmark Harrison Stickle, which, as well as 
 his Combe, soon comes in sight ; and so to the point whence you can look 
 down on Stickle Tarn, and over it and Great Langdale and Blea Tarn to 
 Wetherlam, and such distance beyond as the day may allow. Esthwaite 
 Water has now come within view, to the right of the dim line of Winder- 
 mere; but Blea Tarn is too close under the rocks overhanging to be seen. 
 Stickle Tarn, however, is enough for any picture by itself, shadowed as it 
 is by those fierce Langdale crests, with mountains stretching away to the 
 right, and to the left Windermere, Esthwaite, and Elterwater, like lakes seen 
 in a dream. White Crags are in front of the Stickle, and the tarn lies between 
 in a sort of shelf or cup, under Pavey Ark. It is used as a reservoir for the 
 service of the Langdale Government powder-works, and is none the less 
 
 174
 
 THE TARNS. 
 
 beautiful for its usefulness ; its outlet is that fine Mill Beck Force which is 
 seen when passing through Great Langdale on the way to Dungeon Ghyll and 
 the Stake. A little peep of Bowfell to the left of the Stickle is to be had, and 
 to the right the line of the peak rises up into an independent jag called 
 Harrison's Combe, a kind of cock's-comb-shaped crest of crags for the 
 mountain's top what old country wives would call a " top-knot." 
 
 The Stickle is a grand tarn, lying in the manner of a hanging water- 
 garden in a shallow basin seemingly specially hollowed out for it : as unlike 
 both Codale and Easedale Tarns as these are unlike each other, but quite 
 as wild and lonely, and as far removed from the human world as either. 
 And, perhaps, this is the real meaning of these tarns this utter isolation, 
 and, in general, severance from all the uses of human life; like something 
 given us which we must retain but over which we have no control a 
 savage child dropped at our doors, of whom we can make neither playmate 
 nor servant. 
 
 And now straight away to the right of the Combe for Angle Tarn under 
 Bowfell at the head of Rosset Ghyll; best reached by crossing the great 
 Stake Pass Amphitheatre, and over the beck that falls down Gatescarth Ghyll, 
 and then up the shoulder of Gable Moor, with Scawfell sullen in the lowering 
 sky before you, and Bowfell blacker and more sullen still. But perhaps 
 old Glaramara has caught a ray of the passing sunlight, and seems to smile, 
 as sunny mountains do, with such a welcome of friendliness ! the only lover, 
 open-faced, in a company of veiled strangers. 
 
 It is a " dree " way up the Gable shoulder at all times, but specially so in 
 the dull monotone of certain atmospheric conditions ; yet even in such dust- 
 coloured times there are breaks of rich effects and gorgeous colourings, and 
 always magnificent outlines and grand circumstance of rock and fell : such 
 as that deep, indented, purple wall of Allan Crags which you fall upon in 
 your way up Gable, and that smaller and further intervention of turf-clad 
 mountain bone called the Tongue, dividing little Ghyll Head. To the left 
 of which stands Rosset Pike, where lies a -black well-head of a tarn ; very 
 
 175
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 deep, for it is black almost to the brink, with grey-white stones and green 
 turf chasing for the jet all around, and a dark mass of fell like that at the 
 back of Small Water behind it. This is Angle Tarn under Bowfell. Ami 
 
 here the dull monotony of your day may be broken ; for down a nameless 
 rift in the dark fells comes an outpouring of clouds, every now and then 
 covering the black face upturned to them, and then quietly stealing down 
 that steep bit of loose screework, by courtesy named a pony road, which goes 
 over the side of Bowfell down Mickleden into Great Langdale in other words, 
 the famous Kosset Ghyll Pass. These sudden outpourings of clouds scatter 
 the monotonous sullenness of the day grandly ; they make the dark beauty 
 of Angle Tarn more gravely, mournfully, tender than it would have been, 
 softening to sorrow what else was fierceness and desolation, and bringing the 
 grace of tears over the hardness of despair. 
 
 From Angle Tarn mount immediately towards Esk Hawse (pronounced 
 Ash Kawse by the dalesmen), taking your farewell of Langdale Pikes : the 
 three very plain now, and beautiful Gimmer Crag, the Crag of the Ewe Lamb, 
 showing well and grandly defined. Directly before you is the same kind of 
 crest or comb as that of Harrison's Combe, crowning the brant brow sloping 
 over from Angle Tarn to Langstreth ; and a few steps farther bring you to 
 a spot where, looking over Tongue Ghyll into Langstreth, you see an inky 
 pool, a rocky edge, a foaming rush, and the beck a mile down immediately 
 
 176
 
 TIIK TAKXS. 
 
 after. Such a magnificent hurling from tho heights as it is ! such a grand 
 and headlong outfall ! But the head should he steady which looks over 
 into the rift, and the feet sure that stand on the edge, and courage should 
 not weaken itself by rashness, and daring should be specially careful of folly. 
 This, indeed, may stand as stereotyped advice for all mountain explorers 
 venturing into unknown places, and beset by many temptations to over 
 boldness. For it is a temptation of surpassing force, the noble view to be 
 had from that giddy crest it is a temptation, the rare fern known to be 
 growing down that steep face of rift ; so steep that even the mountain sheep 
 do not cross it the flower to be found among those perilous rocks, and 
 planted as a trophy in the quiet garden at home the wild bird's nest among 
 those almost insurmountable crags ; what allurements to danger, all of these, 
 to the young and ardent, and those who believe in the worth of a muscular 
 manhood, and in the analogous beauty, for the matter of that, of a powerful 
 womanhood ! If lives are sometimes left at the feet of these great mountain 
 sirens, we can scarcely wonder at the fascination which leads men to such 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Now on to Esk Hawse, where one of the finest. views of the country 
 is to be had a view that takes in, as one section, the Scotch mountains lying 
 beyond Borrowdale and the vale of Keswick, Skiddaw, and the Solway ; 
 as the other, Eskdale and its white line of river running through the 
 green narrow valley, the sands and the sea and desolate Black Combe ; and 
 for the third, the Langdale and Brathay valleys on to Windermere and 
 Ingleborough. A grand view in truth ! grand in the sunshine and the shade, 
 in the morning and the evening alike. Here, too, is the famous Fludder's 
 Brow where the guides and shepherds meet for business, as they do on 
 High Street, and used to do at the Justice Stone by Thhirnere; but your 
 path will keep you nearer to Scawfell than to Fludder's Brow to-day : first 
 passing by that great ravine which looks as if ploughed by some world- 
 wasting cataract, lying almost on the mountain top. A deep, winding, and 
 most noticeable ravine is this : thirty, forty, fifty feet down it may be a 
 
 177 A A
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 hundred or a thousand or many thousands for all the accuracy of measure- 
 ment to be had by the bewildered eye : with fierce-coloured iron-red sides, 
 and a little beck at the bottom, which finds its way down High House side 
 to Stockley Beck and Borrowdale ; a ravine nameless so far as we could 
 find, but grander than half those baptized. This passed, keep away under 
 Great End ; if it be a misty day, walking in and out of the clouds as you 
 walk in and out of passages and fields and woods, till you come to Sparkling 
 Tarn, sometimes called Sprinkling Tarn, set, not in a cup but in a mere 
 hollow, on the top of High House. 
 
 Angle Tarn needed the cloud blackness, which suited well with its depth 
 under the high fell shadow ; but Sparkling Tarn lying in its shallow basin 
 on the very brow of High House, looking up into the face of the sky, and 
 catching the faintest glint of sunshine that falls seems born only for the 
 light of heaven to mirror itself within only for the smiles and the joy of 
 the sunshine : a bright-faced, bright-eyed little Naiad resting on the bosom 
 of the old green hill, and playing with the sunbeams as they get entangled 
 in her hair. The rim of the tarn is singularly shallow ; it seems 
 scarcely high enough to prevent the water from overflowing High House 
 sides, and streaming down at every angle, instead of keeping its appointed 
 channel as feeder in principal to Sty Head Tarn ; but if shallow it is broad, 
 with a great promontory of turf and rock almost an island plunging into 
 its very heart, and giving food and shelter to the mountain sheep. It is 
 very beautiful and remarkable, lying there on the mountain top with only 
 so narrow a ledge of rock to keep it within bounds and prevent it shedding 
 
 178
 
 THE TARNS. 
 
 itself all abroad. The proper course of the issuing stream is down a little 
 rocky bed to Sty Head Tarn, of which it is the principal feeder, as was said ; 
 but not much of a feeder to the Sty Head fishes, for they no, the anglers 
 complain that these suifer considerably in food and flesh by the impoverish- 
 ment of the. Sparkling waters, of which the Sparkling fishes have had the 
 first and fullest benefit. A strange fact, but quite intelligible ; and almost 
 patent in the general aspect of seemliness in this well-conditioned tarn 
 fishpond, or Naiad's home, as one chooses to be practical or imaginative. 
 
 Scarcely a hundred yards from this lovely little water-world you come 
 upon another tarn your real discovery of" the day ; a tarn known only to 
 the shepherds, and not even to the guides, still less to guide-book makers. 
 It is a sort of toy-lake, different to anything seen before ; oval, surrounded 
 by small, slaty, basaltic-looking crags, part with a little grass growing in 
 among them, and part a mere piling up of small stones, as if they were 
 miniature crags built by children : a very fairies' lake on which you will 
 come with as much pleasure as if you had fallen upon a royal child among 
 the shepherds, or a white enchanted fawn among the sheep. It is called 
 by the few who know of it, High House Tarn ; and, like Sparkling Tarn, 
 sends down its little toy tributary into Sty Head Tarn. As the mists steal or 
 scud over it, it is the most lovely and most unreal vision of a lake that can be 
 imagined quite a haunted lake ; the undrugged cup of an innocent Circe, 
 
 HIQH HOUSE TARK 
 
 A A 2
 
 THE LAKE COL" NTH Y. 
 
 the home of a mountain Calypso where is no Ulysses. Beyond it lie three 
 other tarulets mere watery beads on the grass anonymous, yet worth 
 looking at, and of no mean account in the day's "bag;" but dwarfed in 
 interest by the superior beauty of the fairy lake. They ought to be seen 
 first to have real justice done to them. However, there they are, and, 
 first or last, are very pretty watery beads, if not so fair as the brighter 
 gem of High House. 
 
 After this you can go by a short, steep, and it must be owned not 
 wholly safe, cut down to Sty Head Tarn lying black under the green walls, 
 cloud-topped, of Great Gable, which like Helvellyn and Seat Sandal in the 
 morning, may be of any height under the disguise of the evening mist. But 
 Sty Head Tarn, when you reach it, has a worldly look, lying as it does in 
 the midst of the pass ; and wild as it seems to the traveller going over from 
 Rosthwaite to Wastwater, it is but a tame home-pond to the " hunter " who 
 has made his own way across the wildest hills we have, and who, like a moun- 
 tain Columbus, has found for himself water-worlds uncatalogued before. Now 
 descend the pass towards Borrowdale, leaving the immense great end of Ling- 
 mell on your left the two Gables, Great and Green, in front, from between 
 which flows a stream into Sty Head Tarn. On the other side of Gable Head 
 Ghyll the two sources but a few yards apart flows another beck into 
 Ennerdale, to supply Whitehaven with fresh water. You cross Sty Head 
 Beck, the outlet of Sty Head Tarn and one of the " forbears " of the Derwent ; l 
 
 1 The genealogy of the Derwent, so far as we could arrive at it but these local 
 variations were very difficult to verify may serve as a specimen of how these mountain 
 streams are made, and by how many upland littles comes the mickle of the great river 
 watering the plains and bringing riches to towns and cities. Stockley Beck comes from 
 above High House, out of the ravine by Esk Hawse under Great End : this is, we 
 believe, the real or highest source of the Derwent. From Sparkling Tarn and High 
 House Tarn a stream falls into Sty Head Tarn ; another also from between the Gables 
 Great and Green : the outlet of Sty Head Tarn is Sty Head Beck (in which is the Force 
 called Taylor's Ghyll, being at the foot of the Ghyll, but not in it), which falls into Stockley 
 Beck, a little below Stockley Brig. Down Langstreth comes a stream from Angle Tarn 
 under Bowfell; and from tlio Stake Pass falls another, Gatnsoarth Ghyll. into it; and 
 
 180
 
 THE TARNS. 
 
 and then down to Stockley Brig, your old place of desolate delight. Now 
 through lonely, humid Seathwaite, 2 and by the mines and the yew-trees and 
 Keppel Crag and Jenny Bank's Crag beyond, and by Sour Milk Grhyll 
 opposite, and through the fields by the beck (the fields where used to be the 
 mad "man-keen" bull 3 that went raging mad if it heard the voice or step 
 of a man) ; and so, over Seathwaite Brig and Strands Brig to Kosthwaite : 
 the circle of your tarns complete. 
 
 The rooks will be going home in the twilight, the owls hooting, and 
 the bracken throwing out its powerful scent, the yellow moon is looking at you 
 just over Glaramara, peeping into the Tarn of Leaves on Glaramara, and 
 
 these two, united, join a third force, Greenup Edge, at Stonethwaite. Greenup Edge, the 
 Stake, Langstreth, Borrowdale, High House, Sty Head Pass, Honister, and between 
 the Scawdales, and many an untracked beck besides, all send down their supplies to form 
 the river Derwent, which is carried through the Derwent lake on to Bassenthwaite, and 
 thence to the sea a broad, full, gracious river, but born of a mere mountain rivulet 
 which a child could leap across. 
 
 2 Humid indeed : the average annual rainfall, taking ten years as the basis, is over 
 one hundred and twenty-six inches for Seathwaite; for the rest of England it is twenty- 
 nine inches. 
 
 3 Bulls cannot long be kept sane in these narrow valleys ; the constantly repeated 
 echoes of their own bellowings make them mad. There are always some local " bogies " of 
 this kind always a mad bull somewhere in the lake district ; and awful brutes they are to 
 look at, and something more than awful to meet. This mad bull of Seathwaite had a no 
 mean list of killed and damaged, more or less true, tacked to its reputation ; and, indeed, 
 even a brave man might own to something like tremor at the sight of its fierce head thrust 
 above a low stone wall, its eyes literally flashing with fiery red rage, foam hanging about 
 its lips and nostrils, its whole attitude, as it pawed and stamped and tore up the ground, 
 one of ungovernable fury, and its voice a low, harsh grunt, like a bellow dwarfed and 
 roughened and strangled by passion. The wall looked perilously low, and the padlocked 
 gate seemed dangerously old and crazy, when we passed the field where our " man-keen " 
 friend was snorting and grunting and stamping, as he glowered after us viciously, and 
 with a wicked expression of disappointment in his blood-red eyes ; and though we had met 
 and passed tranquilly enough many a bull and many a wild-looking herd of kine on the 
 hills in our rambles, we did not pass the place of the Seathwaite bull with pulses quite so 
 calm or steps quite so even as heretofore ; nor did the dalespeople themselves : all were 
 more or less terrified at the mad man-hater. 
 
 181
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 into Dock Tarn on the Rosthwaite Fells, and then dipping again behind the 
 hills, as you wander up the road it is to he hoped not too tired, after your 
 twelve hours' stiff mountain work, to tell of the beauties of the ten tarns JIIK! 
 the four lakes which you have seen to-day and made friends of for life. 
 
 STY HEAD TARN
 
 CRUMMOCK AND BUTTERMERE 
 FROM LOWFELL 
 
 fjiEr*o '^-ww- )^ v ^ 
 
 V? ^ -/:?' v 
 
 BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THESE three lakes are always taken together; with sufficient geographical 
 reason, connected as they are by a river-chain 1 of which they are only 
 the larger and more open loops, and lying in a banded row between two 
 spokes of the mountain wheel, one of which divides them from Newlands, 
 and the other from lonely Ennerdale. But though so closely united, they 
 
 1 Two mountain streams fall into and form Buttermere lake, and, by consequence, 
 Crummock : the one rising in Honister Crag, called Gatescarth Beck (Gatescarth or. 
 perhaps, more properly Gaitscarth the way over the scaur or steep hill ; or the Goats' hill ). 
 because it runs down through Gatescarth dale; the other rising in the Haystack.-, called 
 1'xck. mot-ting with a third, rising in Flcctworth, and then called Wanscalc. 
 
 183
 
 T1IK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 are very different in character, passing from the tame and pastoral prettincss 
 of Lowes Water through the mature grandeur of Crummock up to the stern 
 severity of the head of Buttermere ; striking a chord of beauty, unlike and 
 yet harmonious, not to be bettered in the country. 
 
 There are three ways from Keswick to these lakes ; one over Whinlatter 
 and by the old Cockermouth road to the Vale of Lorton, and so to Scale Hill 
 and Lowes Water ; another by Newlands and Buttermere Hawse ; and the 
 third and grandest, by Borrowdale and Honister Crag. There are, also, the 
 two fine passes of Black Sail and Scarf Gap, leading from Wastwater to 
 Buttermere ; and a way by Floutern Tarn and Scale Force from Ennerdale 
 to Crummock, or over Blake Fell to Lowes Water beyond. But these 
 are mere mountain " trods." The first three mentioned are good broad 
 carriage-roads, severe in their structure certainly, and demanding extra 
 strength of horse-flesh and more stoutness of skid than usual to ordinary 
 highways but carriage-roads all the same ; though not a little frightful to 
 those unaccustomed to them, and absolutely perilous if south-country horses 
 are used, or, indeed, any but those trained in the mountain ways then they 
 are safe enough, provided the driver is sober and the tackling sound. We 
 will speak first of the way by Whinlatter. 
 
 By Southey's Thorn an ugly, crippled, old thorn-tree in a field on 
 the Cockermouth road; by the Thornthwaite woods and orchards looking 
 
 Beck, coming out from little Loaf Tani, Hassness Beck, and Boulden Beck, and one or two 
 more runlets of no importance, also help as feeders to the lake. The great stream of Sour 
 Milk Force, coming out of Bleaberry Tarn, falls into the Dubs, not the lake ; and the Dubs 
 (or Pools in ordinary English) is the stream connecting Buttermere and Crummock lakes. 
 Ruddy Beck quite a little fellow Rannerdale Beck from between Whitelees and Grasmoor, 
 Cinnerdale (Cinderdale) Beck, and Wandham out of the Newlands mountains, whi<-h is 
 first Wandham, then Millbeck after it has passed the bridge, and then Driggora lower down 
 Mossdale Beck out of Floutem Tarn, High Nook Beck, and Scale Beck, the stream into 
 which Scale Force subsides, all help to form Crummock; falling either into the Dubs 
 flowing from Buttermere, or into Park Beck flowing from Lowes Water into Crummock, 
 or into the lake itself. The stream falling out of Crummock is the Cocker, on which 
 Cockermouth is built, and where it loses itself in the Denvent. 
 
 184
 
 BUTTERMERE, CBUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 full of beauty and the loveliness of home ; past Mad Beck by Braithwaite, 
 which so extraordinarily overflows its bounds at certain times hence its 
 name, by no means a libel on its nature ; over Braithwaite Bridge with the 
 < tuple niiini trichoma nes, the maidenhair spleenwort, feathering its stones; and 
 up by the back of the Newlands mountains Causey Pike, (rhyll Mickle, 
 dimmer Pike, and the rest, finer as you go on ; and then you are fairly 
 upon the slaty, steep ascent of Whiulatter at the back of Thornthwaite, 
 Barf Fells above, with the Wythop woods beyond. The vales of Keswick 
 and of Bassenthwaite wind below ; not the lakes, only the valleys ; Der- 
 vventwater, to the right, being hidden by the Newlands mountains, and 
 Bassenthwaite, to the left, obstructed by Lord's Seat and its own particular 
 fells. But the scene is one of exquisite softness ; and though you know 
 that those bright gold -co loured tracts out by Basseuthwaite cover the poorest 
 heart of soil, and that those fair green level spaces are swanips, fruitful 
 chiefly to the water-fowl, yet you let yourselves be charmed with false faith 
 and fair appearances, and believe in the richness which has only show for 
 its dowry, and no reality for its substance. 
 
 Yes, the view from Whiulatter is very great, if even a little delusive 
 in the matter of commercial value. Skiddaw has a noble frontage, and is 
 mild and many-fleshed, as best beseems him ; while stern Helvellyn, far 
 away, is softened by distance as faults are softened by absence, till its 
 huge severity of bulk and form has become the force of grandeur only, like 
 a turbulent manhood mellowed into a wise old age. The wooded lanes, and 
 homestead fields, and quiet houses scattered about the vales, all blend together 
 in one sweet emphasis of peace and love ; and the silver band of the winding. 
 
 2 Thornthwaite and Braithwaite, hut especially the former, are famous for their orchards, 
 which are held to be the best in the district ; and their spring-time loveliness, when out in 
 full blossom, is one of the really beautiful sights of the place. Pail of the clergyman's 
 income at Thomthwaite arises from the orchard which is the only bit of glebe he has ; mid 
 the value of the fruit of which averages about twelve pounds yearly, lint the lake country 
 generally makes a very indifferent orchard ground, not for berries which are plentiful au 
 fine, hut for all the pomaceous group. 
 
 185 B B
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 river runs from each to each with that wonderful expression of life and spc < -li 
 which a river always infuses into a landscape. It is one of those views 
 which impresses itself on the memory, clamped as it is with so much 
 grandeur in the background, and such softness in the low-lying depths ; 
 and when seen in the autumn time with the Wythop woods all tawny 
 orange and russet brown, and Skiddaw purpled and bronzed and crimsoned 
 with heath and ling and the dying bracken, it is as much a marvel of 
 colouring as of nobleness of form. 
 
 Then along the slaty Whinlatter Pass, with the great masses of fell 
 rising boldly up on either side bare-flanked Grisedale Pike to the left, 
 showing his twenty- six hundred feet and eighty of height in a fine uprearing 
 head Lord's Seat (seventeen hundred and twenty-eight feet high,) and 
 Wythop and Whinlatter and Barf fells, broken not so much into the naked- 
 ness of crags as into green and scattered steeps the sweep between covered 
 with coarse brent grass, a rush which is plaited for basket-work of a kind. 
 It is a desolate way from the top of the pass to King End, when the 
 broad plains of Cockermouth, fertile and field-full, burst on the sight, 
 bounded by the s.ea with its band of light, and broken into on the left 
 by the Lorton hills, overlapping at the foot, and studded with white houses 
 set high up on the sides ; higher than elsewhere, as it seems from here, 
 or whiter, which comes to the same thing perhaps. 
 
 You leave the fair plains of Cockermouth veiled tenderly in haze, and 
 the shining sea line, and the Scottish mountains very dim, too, in the 
 mist beyond the sea, and the road leading down to where the sweet Lorton 
 valley opens out into the plains as a way of escape for beleaguered moun-
 
 BUTTERMEBE, CBUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 taineers keeping the higher terrace ; whence you have a delicious view of 
 the whole vale and the Whinfield fells to back it, and where you can 
 make out the one solitary yew-tree, that famous "pride of Lorton vale," 3 
 as a dark spot beside a white farm-house. You pass hedges flush with 
 summer flowers, rich-coloured cows, whitened sheep with orange-red housings 
 daubed on them, children in big bonnet-hoods and frocks tucked up, weeding 
 in the fields, and calves at the gates being fed as delicately as babes ; and 
 then you turn from all this tenderness of the vale life, and get back to the 
 wilder hills again ; rounding the end of the " spoke," out by Whiteside and 
 Scalehill. 
 
 These rugged, steep ascents ! they dwarf the earlier fells to nothing ! 
 each new cone seeming more terrible than the last as you wind round 
 the forward spurs down into the Crummock valley, past Kirkfell and 
 Harrat Crag, and Swineside and its maen, and over pretty Hope Beck 
 falling into the Cocker at a little distance off, with Dod and Whiteside 
 and high Grasmoor and lower Ladhouse and the naked head of Whitelees 
 Pike, all to the left; where also is "Dick Nieve," a mountain "fist" 4 of 
 goodly dimensions. And then you come down to Scale Hill, where fierce 
 Mellbreak is before you, surpassing, if not overtopping, them all. The bright 
 
 3 " Thei'e is a yew tree, pride of Lorton vale. 
 Which to this day stands single, in the midst 
 Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore, 
 Not loath to furnish weapons for the bands 
 Of Umfraville or Percy, ere they march'd 
 To Scotland's heath, or those that cross'd the sea 
 And drew their sounding bows at Azinconr, 
 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 destroy'd. ' 
 ^ Nieve means a list. 
 
 187 B B 2
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 blue dragon-flies are flitting about, and the day is hot with the true summer 
 heat, gladdening and enlivening, but not flowing over into that sullen con- 
 gestion whereby storms and tempests are engendered ; a bright, innocent, 
 i-heery summer heat, the fittest day in which to see so bright and innocent 
 a lake as Lowes Water. 5 
 
 Then by Gillerthwaite and down the steep hill to the banks of the 
 lake ; through High Gap Yett, and over Crabtree Beck, and under the 
 brows of Low Fell, till you come to the tame and uninteresting country 
 at the foot a land of level ugliness, with neither the richness of the valleys 
 nor the beauty of the hills to give it value. But at the head the old grandeur 
 remains ; and when the sun and cloud throw their magic of light and shade 
 across the broken steeps of Blake Fell, and over the uprising of which 
 Honister is the wildest member, the timid banks of Lowes Water have 
 a charm about them sufficiently satisfying to soul and sense. Add the 
 accessories the orchids in the fields below Low Fell, the birds singing 
 and the bees humming over the cow-wheat and the stonecrops, the smell 
 of the firs and of the peeled oak bark, the lake rippling its tune against 
 the pebbles on the shore, the stream of golden glory falling from the evening 
 sun which makes the cows a fiery red, and the grey walls a purpled red, 
 and the great stony cones round the two inland lakes heather-coloured, and 
 Eannerdale Knot like an immense piece of porphyry stuck cornerwise into 
 the water, and fills all the mountain distances with mystery and love, and 
 bespreads the sky with clouds carrying the last colours of the day : which 
 
 5 Lowes Water has one peculiarity, quite exceptional to itself. Its discharging river 
 (Park Beck), instead of running on towards the sea, as with all the other lakes, flows 
 backward, as it were, into Crummock, so that instead of being a continuation of the 
 preceding two lakes, it is an independency a separate water-world of its own holding no 
 ties or duties in common with its neighbours. And though both Crummock and Buttermere 
 lakes are full of char, none is found in Lowes Water; apparent likeness of food and 
 harbourage, and even actual connexion of water, proving no law to these dainty and 
 capricious creatures : as in the distinction which they and the trout make between the 
 Brathay and the Rotlmy. 
 
 188
 
 BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 illuminations would beautify the tamest paragraph in the great natural 
 page. 
 
 "Bound the lake" of Lowes Water is one of the favourite walks of 
 the neighbourhood ; not often taken, truly, because so few people ever care 
 to stay at any of these lakes. Within a day's excursion of Keswick, they 
 are simply visited, not studied looked at, not learnt; for, in a country 
 where there are professed grandest bits few take to heart the simpler views, 
 which however in a less picturesque neighbourhood would be widely 
 sought after. This walk round Lowes Water is very choice ; though marred 
 in its integrity of beauty by the swampy ugliness of the country at the 
 immediate foot. There is first the quaint little church belonging to 
 the parish ; 6 and then there is the pretty cascade falling from Carling 
 Knot, with its froth and its foam and its unruly mountain life ; and 
 there are the woods and the crags, and the incessant shifting of the 
 mountain picture, and Crabtree Beck, and the sweet lake-side road, and 
 the pleasant inn at the end of it. Only a seven miles walk or so ; and 
 yet how many of the thousands visiting our country yearly, ever dream of 
 taking this walk into their experiences ? 
 
 But if Lowes Water is tame, Crummock 7 is grand. The mountain 
 system is different here to elsewhere ; the spoke is splintered across, as if 
 
 6 Lowes Water was the manor of Randolphus or Ranulphus de Lindsay. In Richard 
 the First's time, " William Lindsay sued out a writ of right against Henry Clarke, of 
 Applehy, the Countess of Albemarle, and Nicholas Estoteville, for Loweswater and other 
 lands." The parish registers of Lowes Water contain some curious particiilars respect'ng 
 the characters and incidents of certain deceased ; things of only local interest, but full of 
 quaint revelations, at least to those to whom the lives of men and women, utterly unknown 
 and unimportant in the world at large, can convey any object of human sympathy. 
 
 7 Crummock means a cow with a crumpled horn. Does not Tarn o' Shanter speak of 
 " Loupin' and flingin' ower a crummock?" Many of the names about here Bttttermere, 
 Orummock, Sour Milk Ghyll, and even Lowes Water, if one chose to force a meaning 
 seem to allude to the dairy-farm capacities of this valley ; and it is, in truth, rich and 
 pastoral, as if the very home and haunt and appointed place of cows. 
 
 189
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 against the grain, and the forms are all sharper and more conical, more split 
 and bare than usual, with a savage, vixenish, unaccommodating look quite 
 special to themselves. Whiteless Pike, Mellbreak, Red Pike and his companions 
 High Stile and High Crag, old Honister and the army at his back, Gras- 
 moor, Ladhouse scarred and naked, and Whiteside black as death, all make 
 a noble array when seen from the various stations in Lanthwaite woods, or 
 from the tops of any of the mountains round about. Rannerdale Knot, too, is 
 a thing to study. It is one of the isolated hills, like Helm Crag and Castle 
 Crag, a petulant hill, standing by itself on its own feet in an aggressive 
 and self-assertive manner not to be overlooked, and seen from Lanthwaite 
 Woods, with Buttermere Moss, Fleetwith, Great Gable and Green Gable, 
 the Wastwater Kirkfell, and, farther still, Rosthwaite Cam, as its supporters 
 and backers, it is by no means a despicable gateway by which to enter into the 
 richer depths of mountain beauty. 
 
 Then to Crummock belongs one of the finest water-falls, Scale Force, the 
 Staubbach of the lakes, over a hundred and fifty feet in 'height, and falling in 
 a sheer perpendicular down a clean-cut rift, after the manner of Dungeon 
 Ghyll but not so gloomy or deep set. It is a channelled fall, which seems as 
 if it would get deeper with the years ; and the waters come down in what 
 at first sight looks all one stream, but which soon resolves itself into a 
 thousand gracious forms a thousand little falls strung together, catching the 
 points of the jutting rocks and flinging themselves off in arching sprays 
 little hidden leaps, continuous and yet broken, dashing down like a 
 cascade of plumy feathers. The rocks of the rift, close to the heart of the 
 
 8 In 1760, on the ninth day of September, there was a tremendous storm in this 
 neighbourhood, during wliich a waterspout burst on Grasmoor written Grasmire then 
 following the course of the little Lissa, wliich runs from it into the Cocker, tearing up the 
 ground and doing irreparable damage. " It laid devastate ten acres with stones no human 
 art can ever restore." Brackenthwaite, the hamlet by Scale Hill, had a narrow escape, and 
 the " lisle Lissa" was thrown into the Cocker with such force and violence of its \\;i1rrs. 
 that the Cocker itself overflowed, and became one vast and stagnant inundation. 
 
 190
 
 
 BUTTERMERE, CKl MM<>( K, AND LOWES WATKRS. 
 
 fall, are bare and lifeless ; but at the entrance they 
 are bespread with moss and flowers, while whole reaches 
 are covered with the film fern, the hymeno]>l/t/ll/iiii 
 Wlhoni, which no one can get at, and only the clear- 
 sighted can distinguish from moss. The water here 
 is not olive-brown as usual, but absolutely colourless 
 pure, limpid, unstained world, which splashes merrily 
 at your feet and flies daintily, all refined to spray, 
 into your face as you scramble up the wet rocks and 
 front the whispering Naiad shrouded behind her long 
 white veil. It is pleasant among these slippery rocks, 
 where, if you do plunge knee-deep in the pools, you 
 come to 110 vital harm, and can shake yourself from 
 the wet out on that spongy bit of waste-land, stone- 
 strewed, leading from the Force to the lake. Mishaps, 
 if not too serious, only add to enjoyment ; and he is 
 but a bastard mountaineer who cannot take a ducking 
 with unruffled equanimity, or to whom a bog or a 
 shower is not as much a matter of indifference as the 
 colour of a gate-post or the fashion of its handle. And, 
 by the way, the gate fastenings are to be noticed here ; 
 the quaintest, most ingenious, and most varied of any 
 to be seen. 
 
 There are other things worth seeing by Scale Force. 
 There is Ling Crag at the foot of Mellbreak, a small 
 kind of Dod or independency coming out into the lake, 
 which the wise will climb for the sake of what they 
 can see from the top ; and there is the green flat head 
 of Herd House, which divides Crummock from Enner- 
 dale, from one special point on which issues the water 
 of the Force, us a kind of boundary between Herd House 
 
 191
 
 THE LAKE COUNTKY. 
 
 and lied Pike, to fall down that tremendous chasm under Blea Crag, and 
 then to mark, with a silver line, the way of separation between Red Pike 
 and Mellhreak Ling Crag rather, if that pert little Dod must be specially 
 mentioned. And there is the way over to Ennerdale already spoken of; and 
 pleasant wanderings all about Floutern Tarn ; and along its river side, that 
 pretty Mossdale Beck, at least as far as you can go which is not very far ; 
 and fine prospects to be had from every point ; and such mountain ascents 
 if the side be properly chosen as even a member of the Alpine club might 
 pronounce " stiff." Crummock is a grand bit of mountain jewellery, and 
 none the less so because of the comparative ignorance of the travelling world 
 about it. 
 
 Then there is Buttermere, 9 a smaller lake, and lying farther still among 
 the mountains, with scenery yet wilder and forms yet grander, and with 
 its own special force, Sour Milk Ghyll, coming out of Blebba 10 or Bleaberry 
 or Burtness Tarn, lying in a hollow between Red Pike and High Stile ; 
 where is also a place called Burtness Cove, said to be an old crater, and 
 where the Buttermere eagles formerly built their nests. And there is White 
 Cove Ghyll as well ; a mountain force of no mean value, but suffering from 
 the neighbourhood of greater values in Sour Milk Ghyll and Scale Force. 
 And there are mountains, Red Pike and High Stile and High Crag, all in 
 
 9 Buttermere was said to allow its priest " whittle-gate " and twenty shillings yearly : 
 by other accounts, " clog-shoes, harden-sark, whittle-gate, and guse-gate" that is, a pair of 
 shoes clogged or iron-shod (capital things for this country), a coarse sliirt once a year, free 
 living at each parishioner's house for a certain number of days, and the right to pasture a 
 goose or geese on the common. Not too luxurious appointments for even a successor of the 
 Apostles, bound to forswear the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life! The person who 
 held Newlands chapel in the time of George II. was a tailor, a clogger, and butter-pat 
 maker, and the Mungrisdale priest had 6Z. Os. Qd. a year. Such cures were often held l>y 
 unordained persons hedge parsons with a vengeance ! 
 
 10 Blebba is a corruption of Bleaberry, or is it the archaic word ? Blseber is the 
 name of the Norwegian fruit. Have we preserved the sound unconsciously? The fells 
 about here are famous for their bilberries, and it is quite' one of the recognized industries 
 of the autumn to gather them for selling and preserving. 
 
 iaa
 
 BUTTERMERE, ORUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 a stretch of cones together ; the Haystacks u those twin brothers backing 
 up old Honister ; the pass of Scarf Gap leading from Gatescarth to Ennerdale 
 between the Haystacks and High Crag Wanscale beneath, meeting that of 
 Black Sail coming from Wastdale between Kirkfell and the Pillar up through 
 Mosedale, and down to Gillerthwaite by Ennerdale on the other side ; and 
 there is Fleetwith, to the east of Honister, and Scarf to its west ; Robinson 
 over Hassness ; and Buttermere Moss, both High and Low ; and there is that 
 magnificent recess, like a deep blue clam-shell and as finely serrated, beneath 
 the pale green line of the Three-legged Brandreth, 12 and known geographically 
 as Grey Knot and Green Crags ; but very like a clam-shell, whatever its 
 name. And above all these is Honister, sullen and sharp and stern : a grim 
 old mountain tyrant, so individual that he can be recognized from the 
 smallest perceptible corner or the loosest sketch. 
 
 HONISTER EVENING 
 
 Belts of blue lobelia are round Buttermere Lake, and great purple spikes 
 of loosestrife are in the meadows, and the air is full of the scent of the 
 meadow-sweet, and the hedges are yellowed with the yellow vetch, and the 
 fields and lanes are gold-spotted with the hawkweed tribe; and down by 
 that sweetly singing Mill Beck grow blue forget-me-nots and still bluer 
 birdlime, and all manner of wild-flowers and pleasant herbs ; and butterflies 
 and dragon-flies, arid softer moths and gaudy beetles, and many a lovely 
 wild bird, pausing in its flight, swarm about the flowers in and round the 
 
 11 Not the Hanging Haystacks of Borrowdale. 
 
 12 A brandreth is the three-legged stand on which is placed the griddle or flat iroii 
 girdle whereon cakes, &c. are baked. 
 
 193 C C
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 beck, mating their sweet music with the happy murmur of the waters, and 
 fashioning out the old idyl of peace and love and the tender harmonies 
 of nature, for ever and for ever repeated but never tiring. And then 
 there is the chapel, which used to be the smallest in the lake district. It 
 is very small now, but not quite so minute as in olden days ; and a great 
 deal more decent in architecture and arrangement. 
 
 And there is the story of pretty Mary of Buttermere to think of, while 
 waiting at the inn, or rambling by the lake side. An old story now, but 
 always finding an echo in human sympathy, because never beyond the 
 pale of social possibility. Poor pretty Mary ! it was a bad day when her 
 foolish but innocent admirer published her charms to the world, and made 
 her the sad gazing-stock of all the idle and curious and dissolute down for 
 a month's holidays to the lakes : still worse when a low-born gambler and 
 forger came to the little inn, and passed himself off as one of our Aristoi 
 brother to Lord Hopetown, a colonel in his own right, and something too 
 magnificent in station and manhood to be mated with anything but beauty 
 as transcendent as her own. Mary caught at the bait : it was a glittering 
 one ; but she found out her mistake, poor simpleton, when her husband was 
 arrested and carried off to Carlisle, where he was hung in his own name 
 as one James Hatfield, thief and forger. Mary was wiser next time. She 
 contented herself with a man of her own class in her second venture ; and, 
 as the stout, sonsy, and by no means over-refined wife of Dick Harrison of 
 Caldbeck, retained very little of the beauty which had procured her so much 
 disaster. She transmitted it though ; for her daughters were the loveliest 
 young women of the district ; but happily preserved from their mother's fate, 
 and given over to the care questionable in one instance of " men of the 
 people," who, if they did use them a little roughly, did it by virtue of 
 equality, which was better than deception and crime and being hanged at a 
 jail door as the upshot. 
 
 Another way to these lakes from Keswick, and a very general one, is 
 by Newlands and Buttermere Hawse ; a way which many think sufficiently 
 
 194
 
 BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 terrifying when they first see that sharp zigzag line built up against the side 
 of the mountain and seeming to hang in the air, down which they have to 
 drive with such safety as the steadiness of their driver and the sure-footed- 
 ness of their horses allow. The pretty vale of Newlands, with its peeps across 
 the wood out to the grand world of Keswick, and its humble admiration of 
 Skiddaw, has many pleasant incidents. It has the beck, where the Newlands 
 bull once chased a notable of the district, and forced him into the water where 
 he stood shivering ; but even then not over-safe from the broad forehead and 
 the vicious horns longing to be at the game of pitch and toss with a shuddering 
 magnate as the ball ; and it has the little village of Stair, where Ludlow once 
 lived, and where society is simplified to almost its primitive elements; and 
 it has Rawling End, a "brawny mountain of goodly proportions ;" and that 
 tremendous cleft or slit by Knot Rigg; and Goldscope, with all her riches 
 hidden in her brown bosom, and those curious old excavations called Penholes ; 
 and it has Grrisedale Pike, which is one of the more difficult mountains ; and 
 Hindscarth and Causey Pike, both of them fine headlands for distant views ; 
 and it has Robinson, and he is a grand old mountain too, but not one to 
 take liberties with in misty weather, or when the night is setting in. There 
 have been sad adventures on Robinson, and aching hearts kept sore for long 
 because of the dangerous ravines and the cleanly cut precipices belonging to 
 him, and veiled from the searching eye by night or cloud. There is also 
 a fine Force in Robinson, where the broken crags are curiously uptorn, and 
 where there is a "punchbowl" of glorious dimensions down below, and the 
 figure of a huge bear, so they say, to be seen climbing up the steepest part 
 of the rock and dividing the water as it falls ; and there is the slack which 
 leads from Scawdale ; and the giant's foot of Whitelees Pike ; and the cavern 
 and the rift and the stream and the dale, the desolation of all things after 
 you have passed by Keskadale, 13 and the long spell of utter loneliness and 
 wildness. 
 
 13 A corruption of Gatescarthdale. 
 
 105 C C 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 It is a very beautiful journey, and used to be one on which the older 
 lake country writers expended a vast amount of fine writing. " The lower 
 parts are pastured with a motley herd; the middle tract is assumed by the 
 flocks; the upper regions (to man inaccessible) are abandoned to the birds 
 of Jove. Here untamed nature holds her reign in solemn silence, amidst 
 the gloom and grandeur of dreary solitude and here the following excla- 
 mation of young Edwin may be properly recalled to the reader's remembrance, 
 ' Hail, awful scenes,' " &c. This was old West's manner of depicting the 
 impressions made by Newlands Hawse ; but the truth plain and collapsed 
 dwarfs his birds of Jove into barn-door fowl, or sparrows on the house-top. 
 
 By Honister the way is the finest of all ; a larger nobleness, a wilder 
 going, a feeling of being in the heart and veins, and receiving the very 
 life of the hills, accompanying one from the first step up by Seatollar, to the 
 last by Gatescarth and Buttermere. A grand pass in truth ! something to 
 be seen with reverence as well as love, and to be remembered in the distant 
 days and nights when time and inexorable circumstance have separated 
 you from "this land of loveliness and grandeur and driven you down into the 
 pallid life of the city again. 
 
 A rough and rugged road leads up between the stream the Seatollar 
 beck and the mountain; the stream becoming wilder, and the mountain 
 sterner, and the road a harder problem for wheeled things to solve, 
 and the whole scene a grander gathering of natural forces, and a nobler 
 revelation. With its human uses too ; which is more than can be said 
 of every mountain pass ; for down that scarred and lined and tear-streamed 
 face are the most famous slate quarries in the lake district, and whence 
 was hewn the slate " that took the prize " in the exhibition of '51. The first 
 you come to are on the right-hand side, in Yew Crag, where was hewn that 
 prize slab, but the second and more important are on the left, in Honister. 
 
 This slate quarrying is awful to look at, both in the giddy height 
 at which the men work, and in the terrible journies which they make 
 
 196
 
 BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 when bringing down the slate in their " sleds." It is simply appalling to 
 see that small moving speck on the high crag, passing noiselessly along 
 a narrow grey line that looks like a mere thread, and to know that it is a 
 man with the chances of his life dangling in his hand. As we look the 
 speck moves ; he first crosses the straight gallery leading out from the dark 
 
 cavern where he emerged, and then he sets 
 himself against the perpendicular descent, and 
 conies down the face of the crag, carrying 
 -,. x something behind him at first slowly, and, 
 as it were, cautiously; then with a swifter 
 step, hut still evidently holding back ; but at 
 the last with a wild haste that seems as if 
 he must be overtaken, and crushed to pieces 
 by the heavy sled grinding behind him. The 
 long swift steps seem almost to fly ; the 
 noise of the crashing slate comes nearer; 
 now we see the man's eager face ; and now 
 we hear his panting breath ; and now he draws up by the road-side every 
 muscle strained, every nerve alive, and every pulse throbbing with frightful 
 force. It is a terrible trade and the men employed in it look wan and 
 worn, as if they were all consumptive or had heart disease. The average 
 daily task is seven or eight of these journies, carrying 
 about a quarter of a ton of slate each time ; the down- 
 ward run occupying only a few minutes, the return 
 climb by another path not quite so perpendicular, 
 where they crawl with their empty sleds on their backs, QUARRYMAN'S SLED 
 like some strange sort of beetle or fly half an hour. Great things used to be 
 done in former times, and the quarrymen still talk of Samuel Trimmer, who 
 once made fifteen journies in one day, for the reward of a small per-centage on 
 the hurdle and a bottle of rum; and of Joseph Clark, a Stonethwaite man, 
 who brought down forty-two and a half loads, or ten thousand eight huudrei 
 
 197 
 
 SLED EOADS HONISTER QUARRIES
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and eighty pounds of slate, in seventeen journies ; travelling seventeen miles 
 eight and a half up the face of the crag, and the same number down, at 
 this murderous pace. These are almost legendary days, though, in the Honister 
 world ; days which belonged to the style and manner, if not to the date, of Guy 
 of Warwick, and our old friend Hugh Hird of Troutbeck. Twelve journies 
 a day rank now as a feat scarcely to be compassed ; for no man of modern 
 slate-quarrying powers can do anything near to these giants of the elder time. 
 
 The quarrymen have small sleeping huts among the crags, and remain 
 during the week at their work, going home only from the Saturday night 
 to the Monday morning; which leaves scarcely too much time for the 
 building up of a man's domestic life; but they are not a bad race, though 
 rough and uncouth, as are all men whose business leads them to much 
 separation from women and exclusive companionship with each other. 
 About the base of the crag are broad tracts of alpine ladies' mantle 
 (alchemilla alpina), while "forked spleenwort (asplenium septentrionale), 
 and many a rare plant besides, are to be found among the screes and 
 shelving sides ; in places not always easily accessible, certainly ; but courage 
 and patience do a great deal towards filling the pockets of a plant collector. 
 
 The Pass is solemn to oppressiveness. Up the steep ascent, with the 
 high broken hills pressed in on either side, and the rough road cleaving 
 the air in the old lightning shape, as usual up to the grim top, where you 
 stand in the very centre of gloom, before and behind and all around you 
 only gloom, and no radiant shine of joy to break in between and then 
 down down where the sun seems scarcely ever to shine, and where the 
 clouds throw deepest shadows, and the serpents' winding way seems going, 
 not to freedom and the tranquil life of the valley, but to everlasting 
 death; down to where Gatescarthdale lies silent in the depths below, the 
 river, the Gatescarth beck, the only living sound to- break the stillness, 
 till you come upon the lake throbbing like an imprisoned heart against 
 its bonds ; follow the road of the Honister Pass with the honest intention 
 to receive its own special spirit, and then confess that it is the most sublime 
 
 198
 
 BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS. 
 
 of all that you have seen yet, whatever larger adjective lies before you in 
 the future. Kirkstone was most desolate ; Sty Head will perhaps prove most 
 terrifying and tumultuously wild ; but Houister is the sternest, the severest, 
 and most majestic ; the Pass where the iron ribs of nature are clothed 
 Avith sparest flesh, where the frown lies heaviest on the eyelids, and the 
 hand is clenched with the firmest grasp, where the old Egyptian Statues of 
 the Plain might be set up as fitting doorkeepers and guardians art like 
 to nature in the stillness and solemn grandeur of their mien. 
 
 Most noble, too, is Honister won Honister from the crest not only 
 from the foot. You go up the road by Seatollar Beck, and on to the 
 common through the gate the sun gleaming through the oaks and across 
 the bracken and making the fells to sparkle like bright steel : behind, as you 
 rise, is seen Black Crag (against and beyond which lies Dock Tarn), an 
 outline of Helvellyn, High Saddle and Green Comb above Greenup, Glara- 
 inara and where lies the Tarn of Leaves, Rosthwaite Cam, Low White- 
 stones, and Serjeant Man, and a host of other points and stony tongues 
 belonging to the Borrowdale mountain world. To the right is Yew Crag, 
 looking from here as if utterly unserviceable to all uses whatsoever, and not 
 in any way the home and habitation of some scores of human beings, with 
 such strong links to civilization and the great world beyond, as that prize slab 
 implies. And when you have looked your fill, you go up without further stop 
 to Honister Head. A wild place this for shepherding ! where many a man 
 has been lost in the snow and the winter's storm, in the darkness of the 
 night, and in the rain and mist ; a wild place in truth ! counting its victims 
 by the score, to count them still in the future as in the past. Stag's 
 horn moss and alpine ladies' mantle, wild thyme, the precious eyebright and 
 yellow torinentil lift their lovely little heads by many a crossing streamlet 
 among the rocks and grass ; a slate causeway ; the remains of some slate 
 shed or shelter a wall with piercings for doors or windows, some six 
 feet thick ; another survey back over the Hawse into Borrowdale, seeming 
 like a pleasant easy descent all the way from where you have climbed ; a 
 
 199
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 sight of Black Sail Pass at Ennerdale Head, with the Pillar to the right 
 of it ; a look against Honister side and its quarries, and down the crag 
 to the pass below road and stream like mere lines from the height above ; 
 the long slate road seeming on the very edge of the crag, sloping steeply 
 down under its several archways ; then higher still, and another look down 
 the precipice into the pass; higher still, again, till you catch the tops of 
 Robinson and Dale Head over Yew Crag; and the quarries on the top 
 of Honister are reached. 
 
 And then, a little beyond the quarries comes the view : Lowes Water 
 and Buttermere and Crummock all lying down at your feet; Buttermere 
 directly within the fork of the pass ; Crummock rounding Rannerdale 
 Knot, and backed up by Mellbreak; and Lowes Water, still further, 
 between Mellbreak and Low Fell. To the right of Rannerdale Knot is 
 Moss, and above it, in the distance, Ladhouse ; and over that, again, the 
 black clouded height of Grasmoor ; while away and beyond lie the plains 
 and the sea and the dim line of Scottish hills. 
 
 Now retrace your steps toward the quarries, noticing their sheer sides, 
 and the slates cropping up edgewise in the turf on the crag top ; then 
 cross back by a grassy, disused road, and see what a direct vein of slate 
 runs right through Honister and into Yew Crag on the other side. 
 It is the hard roofing slate, in contradistinction to the soft clay slate 
 of Grange and Gatescarth, and is noticeably distinct. You are now on 
 " Moses' Trod " going up towards Brandreth, where the sheep are 
 "rank" on the fell sides (Gatescarth farm below being the largest sheep 
 farm in the country), and where the Three-Legged has all his feet in the 
 air; and, as you go, you see the Pillar at the head of Ennerdale, and 
 Black Sail Pass, and the Hay Stacks (Loaf Tarn on the top, and Scarf 
 Gap in between) and the triplet of cones, High Crag, High Stile, and 
 Red Pike ; and when you are a little higher you see down into the heart 
 of lonely Ennerdale, all along the wild dale wilder than any excepting 
 Westdale past the lake, and to the distant country, seaward, beyond. 
 
 200
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AT Stockley Brig beyond Seathwaite (Borrowdale Head) the world of human 
 going seems to have come to an end. Perhaps the goats or the more 
 lissome of the mountain sheep might find a way out over the living barriers 
 closing them in on all sides, but surely no ordinary man, in "boots of 
 the period," could scale those crags or surmount those steeps ! The shep- 
 herds give a different answer. They will tell you that what looks so 
 utterly impossible to you is <mere ordinary habit to them, and that they 
 can " shepherd " all about both crags and mountain side as well as you 
 can walk up Primrose Hill, or down the slope of Hampstead Heath. One 
 spot, however, even they abandon : the red-scarred gash by Taylor Ghyll, 
 
 201 D D
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 which, so far as the world has yet gone, has been found inaccessible ; so 
 sharp and shingly, so loose in footing, and so severe in climb is it. But 
 though the general look of the hills and crags is simply impossible, there is 
 an outlet in the steep ascent between High House Crag and Taylor Ghyll 
 that forked path known as Aaron End, up which you go for Sty Head - 
 Pass; which, indeed, is the beginning of the Pass, and whence you can 
 bend your steps either to Great Gable or to Scawfell, or to any other of 
 the high mountain tops clustered about the nave of the wheel. 
 
 If Honister is stern, Sty Head is violent; if Kirkstone is desolate, Sty 
 Head is terrifying in certain aspects, when the clouds hang low over Wast- 
 water, literally terrifying, as if the road was going down into the home of the 
 Eternal Death. The disruption, the dislocation, the violence of the way, is 
 beyond all that has been seen yet. It is nature in one of her wildest moods, 
 her fiercest and most turbulent. If the Egyptian statue, silent and oppressive, 
 might be taken to represent the spirit of Honister, the strong man in his 
 wrath would be likest to Sty Head Pass. Even in the beginning, up by 
 Aaron End, the key-note of the rest is struck. The castellated heights of 
 High House Crag ; the red scars of Taylor Ghyll with the white foam flung 
 restlessly up through the heart of it ; the purple breadth of the backward 
 lying hills, with the utter loneliness of the valley winding away between 
 Scawdale and Glaramara ; all have a majesty, and some of these incidents 
 a fierceness, which prepare for what has to come. 
 
 And when you have passed the little wooden bridge which a chance 
 tourist put up over Sty Head Beck, in pity for belated travellers or those 
 overtaken by storm and flood, and have come face to face with Lingmell, with 
 that one sharp rift in his side to Green Gable, torn asunder from Great 
 Gable by the deep ghyll which looks like a gash into its very heart and 
 have seen where Sty Head Tarn lies lonely in its shallow cup under the 
 noble crag of Great End, and in the shadow of dark Lingmell and where 
 the path goes up to Scawfell by Sprinkling Tarn all the forms now about 
 you wild and broken and tumultuous exceedingly, and the sense of fierce- 
 
 202
 
 WASTWATEH AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 ness and uprising and the strife of elements and the battling together of 
 natural forces, the greatest impression made on you you have come into the 
 meaning of your way ; but not into its full spirit. That is for the descent ; 
 when you see your path, as a sharp and sudden line, falling down like a 
 straw flung by the winds ; a path literally built up of stones against the moun- 
 tain side, but which the winter winds and torrents will sweep down like a 
 child's fortress on the sea-sand, levelling all that solid -looking embankment, 
 and showing the naked rock and pathless crag again, as the sea wave will 
 level the child's busy day's delight ; when the characteristic features of Wast- 
 water come out Yewbarrow broad and black ; the gorge of Mosedale dark 
 and purple ; Great Gable with his grey crown and his steep sides all red 
 and orange-striped, both he and Lingmell looking jewelled 1 in the sun ; 
 when you see how Kirkfell stands like an impenetrable barrier against 
 you, and how the crags are fiercer and the mountains more aggressive 
 here than elsewhere : you have entered within the gates of one of 
 Nature's grandest temples, and have caught the echo of some of her noblest 
 harmonies. 
 
 It is all so wild here ! The sharp lean sides of the hills ; the stream 
 foaming down in the bottom, and the steep path above ; the crags all hoary 
 and naked, save on the ledges where the summer has cast a few spare tufts 
 of moss and grass, as if in defiance of the sternness which forbids all other 
 forms of love and grace ; the darkness of the Wastdale valley, with, perhaps, 
 a pale sun-gleam stealing over Kirkfell, or across that glorious stalactite- 
 looking crown on Great Gable ; the magnificent markings of Piers Ghyll 
 all furrowed with deep and angry rivings ; the broken line of crag and hill- 
 top no longer the wave line with the quiet flow, but thrown up in broken 
 foam, beaten and lashed and tortured ; all make our mighty Sty Head Pass 
 a fitting way from the grandeur of Borrowdale to the gloom and death of 
 Wastwater. For do we not so often pass from strength through passion 
 
 1 As, indeed, they are ; garnets studding the slate to be found on both. 
 
 203 D D 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 into death ? from the violence and writhing of the tortured spirit into the 
 desolateness of the broken heart, and the still grave lying beyond ? 
 
 Half-way down the pass, on looking back, the road seems to end. 
 You are standing by a huge jutting crag, which you have just rounded, and 
 
 your way is suddenly cut off. You 
 see nothing but the huge jutting 
 crag overhanging its base, and the 
 steep side of the ravine where no 
 v> pathway can possibly go. You have 
 " come by a way of glamour, spirit 
 made, withdrawn so soon as passed 
 over. This is an effect several times 
 repeated ; so that you have an infi- 
 nite succession of endings behind 
 you ; all trace of your past way lost, 
 and no continuation apparently pos- 
 sible. Looking downward it is the 
 same. Here the way is so steep 
 that often the lines lie side by side, 
 In bad weather, when the mists boil 
 up from the valley, and the clouds pour down from the hills, and the 
 foothold is lost, and you see only the crag and the sharp descent 
 and the surging mist and the eternal Nothing, when the wind shouts 
 behind you and drives you on, and the rain and hail envelope you, and 
 you are pelted and hunted and savagely hounded by the furies yelling at your 
 heels, their curses in your ears, their blows on your back or struck open- 
 handed into your face, it is like going into Hell. But not with the facili* 
 descensus. Surely the old mythologists would have named it so ; and he 
 who had been brave enough to first face the dangers of the way, would have 
 been celebrated as another Orpheus victorious over another guardian of the 
 dread gates ! 
 
 204 
 
 the connecting loop entirely lost.
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 As you descend this awful pass, a wonderful effect of form and colour 
 is shown in Great Gable and its crags. Hollowed in the centre, and buttressed 
 with grey pillars on each side a whole cascade of immense boulders pouring 
 from that sweeping curve to show what wind and rain have done, and the 
 jewelled brightness of its sides shining many coloured and glorious if the 
 sun lights on them it is the most picturesque of the Wastdale moun- 
 tains, though not the most sought after. But the centre, as it is, of the 
 Borrowdale system the nave of the nave the key-stone of her arch and 
 point of the pivot with Wastdale, Ennerdale, and Borrowdale branching out 
 from its feet, it deserves all manner of recognition, and will repay all manner 
 of research. It is one of the finest mountains to ascend ; giving some of 
 the grandest views and most glorious effects ; not to speak of the natural 
 basin in a rock on the summit, always full of the purest water, and the garnets 
 to be found imbedded in the slate. 
 
 Wastdale Head has more than mountain road or even mountain top 
 for the traveller ; it has a ravine and a waterfall, both of which would be as 
 famous as Scale Force or Dungeon Ghyll, if the way was more accommo- 
 dating. Piers Ghyll, that long and deep ravine under Great End, where the 
 huge rocks wall you in on both sides and the tremendous steeps of Scawfell 
 look at you in front, while Great Gable bars the way against the world behind, 
 is one of the noblest rifts in the whole lake country ; and Greta Force, close 
 by, is as fine a waterfall as the other is a chasm. But the way thereto is 
 rough and wet and stony, with steep bits to overcome, and rugged bits to 
 master, and rivers to cross, and bogs to wade through, so that only the really 
 strong-hearted tourist would add either rift or fall into his day's sum of 
 exploration. They are close together, however, and both can be seen when 
 one is reached. You see Piers Ghyll from the pass road; but merely see 
 it : you know it only by entering into its heart and learning its secrets from 
 its own telling. Greta Force is not visible ; it has to be sought for, where 
 its double stream falls into the ghyll, with a larger body of water than what 
 belongs to either Ara Force or Scale Force ; but then so few of the ordinary 
 
 205
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 tourists care to clamber up into the heart of a fierce and desolate mountain 
 for the sake of a ravine and a fall, that both Piers Ghyll and Greta Force 
 get passed by unvisited, and almost unmentioned in the guide books. Still, 
 there they are, for the noble delight of those who care for noble beauty. 
 
 And now you see the old shining line of sun and sea out by Gosforth 
 that bounding line, whatever the height on which you stand ; but not the 
 lake, at least not yet : it is lying shyly away under the Screes, and you must 
 go down a good part of the way before its dark, still face catches yours. 
 But now you do see it ; and now you are by a wide river bed of stone and 
 water a waste, as so many mountain streams are ; and now you are fairly 
 at the head of Wastdale, and the Pass is conquered. And when you have 
 got down, and are standing by the wall, you look back, into a bit of veritable 
 enchantment. The buttressed, broken, stalactite segment of Great Gable has 
 gone back into one uniform and flowing curve, over which perhaps a bright 
 cloud is hovering with a repeat of line as accurate as a mirror would have 
 given : the terrible pass has closed in at the top, and has become merely a 
 steep pathway over a mountain shoulder, with not a trace left of the 
 ruggedness hidden behind the crags of the fury and terror and violence by 
 which you have come. Wastdale, which looked so green and calm from 
 the height, is now a desolate wild ; and the Screes, and Yewbarrow square 
 and trenchant, and Kirkfell all scored and skinned, and the dark Mosedale 
 Pass, and the few scattered houses that can scarce be called a hamlet even, 
 they are so few, all come out in their true colours the colours of gloom 
 and savageness unmitigated. 
 
 Wastwater is always desolate, whatever the weather. It has no trees, 
 no cultivated lands, and, indeed, none to 
 cultivate, save a mere handful at the upper 
 end about the feet of the Ennerdale and 
 Borrowdale mountains. All its wealth is 
 gathered round its small quaint church 
 the smallest and quaintest of the country, now that Buttermere has been 
 
 206
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 dowered with one newer and larger ; 2 but down the sides of its mountains is 
 nothing fit for the uses of man or the good of life nothing but desolate grandeur 
 and the awful stillness of nature waiting, rockbound, for deliverance. Even 
 in the sunshine Wastwater is desolate ; perhaps more so indeed, then, than 
 in the gloom. For you cannot help contrasting the loneliness of the place, 
 its deathly silence, and cut off and cornered kind of life, with the brightness 
 lifting up the heart of the world elsewhere ; the sunshine seeming to you, 
 standing in the shadow of these gloomy mountains, like music from the 
 outside filling the death chamber, or the voice of other's laughter when 
 your own is broken with. weeping. One thing is very noticeable in this lake 
 country of ours the distinct spirit and feeling with which each separate place 
 seems to be imbued; so that one place is the representative of gloom, and 
 another of passion, a third of desolation, a fourth of loving homeliness, a 
 fifth of rustic peace, and a sixth of dreadful fear ; each place seeming to have 
 certain qualities with which the spiritual and material impressions accord. 
 
 There are several ways out, though, from this lonely place. There is 
 the Sty Head Pass by which you have come ; and Black Sail to either 
 Ennerdale or Buttermere ; and the way by Strands, at the foot of the lake, 
 to Gosforth and the sea ; and another way to Gosforth, leaving Strands to 
 the left ; and a way up to Scawfell by Lingmell ; and one between Scawfell 
 and the Screes, over by Burnmoor Tarn to Eskdale ; and another to Irton 
 and Eskdale the infant Irt, where the Romans got their pearls, 3 rising in 
 
 2 The Wastdale church has eight pews, three small cottage windows, and is further 
 lighted by a skylight immediately over the pulpit. 
 
 3 Pearls. " These are found commonly by the rivers Irt, where Mussels (as also 
 Oysters and other Shell Jish) gaping for the Dew, are in a manner impregnated therewith; 
 so that some conceive that as Dew is a liquid Pearl, so a Pearl is Dew consolidated in these 
 (l.ihi's. Here poor people, getting them at low water, sell to jewellers for Pence what they 
 sell again for Pounds." But the pearls are " far short of the Indian in Orientness. But 
 whether not as usefull in Physick is not as yet decided." About the year 1695 some 
 gentlemen got a patent for pearl fishing in the Irt ; and Mr. Patrickson, of How, obtained 
 as many as were afterwards sold for ROO/., though the pearl mussels never seem to have been 
 very plentiful. 
 
 207
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Scawfell between Lingmell and Great End so that no one is obliged to 
 remain at Wastwater for want of means of escape, though none of those 
 means, save by the high road and the lake side, are specially easy. But a 
 grander way than that of Sty Head from Borrowdale to Wastwater is straight 
 over the top of Scawfell Pikes ; and this was one of our own experiences. A 
 way to be taken only in the summer, not in the desolate snow-time represented 
 in the view below, a view given to contrast with the crisp clearness of 
 summer, and because Borrowdale under snow is a thing to be seen, and when 
 seen to be remembered for a life. 
 
 UP THE OOKGK BORBOWDALE HEAD IN SNOW 
 
 It was past one in a June day when we left Seathwaite ; not going up by 
 Aaron End as when following the road of the pass, but keeping straight 
 up the gorge, as if for Sprinkling Tarn and Esk Hawse ; and soon coming 
 to a bit of real climbing, over a green shoulder, steep and not pleasant to 
 look back from, for it was very narrow and sharply curved, so that, when 
 we looked back, all our past way was gone, and we had the impression of 
 
 208
 
 WASTWATEK AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 standing in mid air with no material support before or behind us which 
 was not agreeable; with a steep declivity below, where a false step would 
 have been a broken limb at the least. Then we went over another shoulder, 
 broader and less steep, but boggy : Glaramara, Skiddaw, and Base Brown 
 behind us, and before us Great End, looking no nearer and no smaller for 
 our hour's walk, and standing like an upright wall in the sultry summer 
 haze. Still another shoulder ; this time flanked with rocks on both sides, 
 like walls of rock to uphold it ; a way like the old giant's staircase we know 
 of the perpendicular of rock and the step-top of grass, but sometimes of 
 rock too, where the giant's footsteps had worn away the grass. 
 
 And now we seemed to be almost at the top of the pass, with, apparently, 
 only a handful of crags to climb. As we rose, Great Gable loomed up over the 
 other side of Sty Head with a cloud on his summit, as usual; the line of 
 Skiddaw and Blencathra was plain behind us ; Derwentwater beneath, but far 
 away ; and, nearer, the whole length of Borrowdale. But a few steps onward 
 took Borrowdale away from us, and brought us to the edge of a deep chasm, 
 which seemed to divide us from the Sty Head Pass, and directly over which 
 was the place of our bright-faced jewel-like Sparkling Tarn. We found an easy 
 way across the chasm, but we had to go back again and still to the left of Great 
 End, by the little piles of stones set to mark the way ; climbing up and up, 
 with all manner of mountain-tops rising ever behind and beyond each other 
 in a very sea of solid waves ; till two cones appeared far below us the 
 Laugdale Pikes, piercing into the sunshine bright and glowing. In a few 
 moments more, and we looked down into Langdale, and over Bowfell down 
 into Eskdale and far away over fell and valley into the indistinguishable mist. 
 
 Then we turned to the right, and a long shoulder was before us. To 
 the left was the sea of mountains ; to the right, Great Gable, becoming 
 gradually lost in the shadow of the End. 
 In front of this long shoulder was Scawfell. 
 This was what we had to reach, when we 
 had rounded the foreset boll in question. But when we came to the top, we 
 
 209 E E
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 found that while we were toiling on, Great End had slipped away, leaving us to 
 climb an empty sleeve, in which he was only laughing at us ; and there 
 he was as far off as ever, with Scawfell Pike 
 in the distance yet in the distance. To 
 the left again another steep climb ; and to 
 the right, below us, a pit, bottomless for aught that we could see; but a 
 little farther on, a green platform rose in the midst, with Sty Head Tarn 
 shining like a star upon it, and the great black mountains steeply walling 
 it round. Yet all below us ; great as they were, we looked over their tops. 
 
 Then a quarter of a mile of scrambling over a sea of rocks rough as 
 any sea-shore scrambling ; only there was no sea-weed to make them 
 slippery, nor growth of any kind till they were crossed ; and then 
 
 Scawfell rose up, and looked bigger and 
 more formidable than ever. As we pro- 
 ceeded he grew, and our work seemed only 
 beginning : all the climbing we have had mere child's play to what was to 
 
 come. This was his next aspect, still 
 bigger, yet seeming no nearer for his en- 
 largement ; and again he became bigger and 
 bigger yet again, till we rose above every- 
 thing else, and saw only himself before us, 
 more gigantic than ever. We had to get 
 down this steep embankment, over the shale 
 and rocks, to the foot of the Pike itself; 
 but before we went forward we looked down 
 over the tops of the other mountains and 
 saw a lake of gold lying in the grey formless 
 mist beyond them the lonely lake of Ennerdale. Then up the corner, 
 through the steep loose screes ; digging places for our feet, and afraid at every 
 step of disturbing the stones and bringing down a torrent of slates and 
 boulders upon us (it was like going up the corner of a crumbling house 
 
 210
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 for steepness arid insecurity), glad to rest continually, yet almost afraid to 
 stop, lest we should be sent sliding to the bottom by the very sharpness 
 of the angle at which we stood. We could not see how far we had come ; 
 and we could see nothing of what remained above us nothing but loose 
 stones, and sometimes a footing of grass under a bigger mass of rock. 
 And now we were close upon the summit. Behind us, no trace of the 
 way passed over, only a stony and almost perpendicular side, which looked 
 from here impossible ; and a third sea of stones a mound of rocks washed 
 bare, and bleached by the wind and the storm. We saw one golden 
 patch of delicate moss on them, and lichens as brilliant and gorgeous 
 as if they had been garden-beds of flowers, or clusters of precious stones; 
 and then we passed to the pole, set up like a flag-staff above all England 
 the highest point in England; standing three thousand two hundred and 
 thirty feet above the level of the sea. Wastwater lay dark and broken 
 below, and two little tarns beyond it ; a sparkle was on Kirkfell, and 
 Mosedale and Blacksail looked full of purple ripeness; the sun had 
 caught a portion of Crummock lake till it glowed like a cup of red wine 
 spilled on the earth ; we looked over Sty Head Tarn, and a little jewel 
 shimmering above, and we saw Borrowdale and Derwentwater, and the 
 Scottish mountains beyond the Skiddaw range ; we saw the Penrith plains, 
 Windermere and Langdale Pikes, and we looked into Eskdale, and down the 
 vale of the Duddon, and saw where their rivers ran hurriedly from the 
 mountains to the sea ; and then we saw the sun shining down the sea, 
 and Black Combe as the foremost sentinel of the land, and a wild range 
 of mountain tops everywhere beneath us. Amongst them all, most conspicuous 
 from where we stood, was Lingmell, like a huge lion creeping at our feet 
 and guarding us in our lonely majesty. 
 
 And now it was getting very dim and dusky : the sun was sinking, 
 and the wind was cold and noisy; so we went to our new apartments, 
 once held by the ordnance surveyors, but now roofless and doorless; and, 
 selecting the one which had a chimney on the principle of Dickens' Fleet 
 
 211 E E 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 prisoner, who preferred to sleep under the table because he had been used to a 
 four-poster, and the legs were good make-believes we made our beds of the 
 flattest stones we could find, and agreed to wait patiently for the morning. 
 The passing sunshine still settled warmly among the stones on the waste 
 top, and on the one little patch of golden moss which stood out delicately 
 from the blue-grey of the nearer crags ; passing imperceptibly through bluer 
 tones into the hazy distance and warmer sky, where the sun was sinking, 
 leaving long bars of red and gold, and a tender, mellow glory everywhere, 
 like the calm of a prayer for all England. So, before it should get quite 
 dark, we went out on the causeway for a last look at the flagstaff. 
 There it stood alone against the clear sky, the light of the setting sun 
 behind it, and the young moon, clear as crystal, rising in the sunlight 
 below. The silent stars came out one by one, as we lay in our turret 
 chamber, and the white clouds like angels floated noiselessly over us. The 
 only sound was that of the winds, which shouted like thunder, as at last 
 they sang us to sleep in the continuing twilight. 
 
 When we awoke the wind was raving and the stars were gone; 
 Derwentwater and all the distances were lost, and there was a dead mist 
 everywhere; but by-and-by the mist changed to feathery clouds rapidly 
 driven across the sky ; the light in the horizon gradually increased, and 
 a faint tinge of brown came into it, changing to a sea-shell colour to 
 faint red to reddish yellow and then to a broad band of pure gold, into 
 which the great sun came leaping, as if the whole heavens had shouted 
 when he rose. Up from the chasm between Scawfell and the Pike that 
 terrible Mickledore swept huge white masses ; while over Skiddaw, on the 
 opposite side, the long line of clouds, behind which the sun had set, 
 stretched itself out in broad bars, growing more distinct, and seemingly 
 nearer, at each moment. The mountains toward Windermere lay in mist, 
 with mist between us and them, and a band of mist behind them ; and behind 
 that mist rose up strange black monsters, coming close in their blackness 
 though countless miles away. Sometimes a herd of buffaloes leaped over 
 
 212
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 one another; sometimes one gigantic beast came tumbling over the white 
 rock of mist, which then opened and swallowed him up alive ; some- 
 times an eagle, presently dissolving into vapour, flew for one minute 
 through the sky and then was gone ; higher in the arch were great 
 feathers, wind-born, and long white arms thrust across, and caverns many- 
 chambered, and columns and rocks and light pencilled curls, and all the 
 whole phantasy of the world of vapour, which the sun touched now 
 to gold, and now to orange to pale pure rose to burning crimson and 
 then to deep and passionate purple, like the very heart of love outpoured 
 on the heavens. And then, finally, he drew them all up into himself, 
 and the earth was left free to him,, and the heavens were interpenetrated 
 with his life, and there was no sorrow and no dimness and no distrust 
 or shadow of fear anywhere. It was a sunrise like a bridal the renewal 
 of the earth's daily life nature, like humanity, putting on fresh youth and 
 hope by love. 
 
 Now we had to descend. We had done the great feat, and seen the 
 great sight slept on the top of Scawfell, and seen the sunrise in the 
 morning and now it was time to think of the world below and the 
 future of the day. So we turned away from off the top, and went 
 down by Lingmell toward Wastwater ; down steeply but without real 
 difficulty, to boggy grass and water. Very pleasant the first gush of it in 
 the grass, and the feeling of the soft turf after those hard bare stones, 
 and the bleat of a startled sheep after the night's stillness. After a time 
 we reached the real source of the lake and the Irt below, seeing where 
 the infant stream rises in a great shoulder of Lingmell. Then we 
 went on, keeping to the left and close under the crags of Scawfell ; 
 passing the terrible gap of Mickledore, bridged over now by a white cloud, 
 come no one knows whence, or why, or how; and then down by the beck 
 and over a long stretch of wet grass, winding up and over another 
 shoulder, and by loose screes and broken rocks, to get entangled in a 
 labyrinth of walls and watercourses and sheep-tracks and delusive paths, 
 
 213
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 till the hour of deliverance came at last to us, as to us all, and \\c 
 found ourselves at Wastdale Head in the early morning, before the world 
 of man was yet well astir, having accomplished our purpose without let 
 or hindrance, or evil resulting. 
 
 Not by Black Sail to Ennerdale or Buttermere to-day, but by the lake-side 
 and Strands to Gosforth, and round by Calder Abbey, Egremout, Ennerdale, 
 to St. Bees and the sea ; a way which gives to perfection the mountains up at 
 Wastdale Head, Scawfell, and Scawfell Pike, and that magnificent buttress 
 called the Screes, the only thing of its kind in the district. The promise 
 of the morning was not to be fulfilled by the maturer day; for the mist 
 was slowly rising up through the purple chasm of Scawfell, and filling all 
 Mosedale like the very presence of despair : very quietly very stealthily 
 coming down the pass, and over the lake, which it turned from purple 
 to grey as it crept on like a spirit ; first blotting out Great Gable, then 
 Kirkfell, then Lingmell, then veiling Scawfell and the Screes, and then 
 hanging soft and rolling immediately above our heads ; but soon floating away 
 again, and leaving everything brighter for its presence. As we went on 
 everything became grander. Scawfell Pike showed his great bulk, and that 
 fine crest of his, all serrated and fierce a very tiger of a mountain ; 
 indeed, all the mountains here are of the tiger nature ; even at the foot, not 
 going off tamely, but subsiding in throes and bounds and angry claws thrust 
 forward savagely; like tigers passing into cats. Middlefell and Buckbarrow, 
 Kirkfell in his radiant coat, Great Gable well bearing out his name, for he 
 was just like a house side from here, with a pointed roof and great gable 
 end, Lingmell with the perpendicular ghyll, and all the other mountains, 
 glowed or gloomed with wonderful intensity, as sun or shadow fell. Indeed, 
 the colours to-day were of that intense character so much delighted in 
 by artists, and the lines were of that marvellous clearness which seems to 
 multiply and enhance every circumstance. The hazel leaves were burning red 
 and gold, and blue-bells and gorse and the changing leaves of the bracken 
 
 214
 
 WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL. 
 
 bronzed and green elfin ling and purple heather and the little tormentil 
 like drops of gold upon the grass, all made up a compound of colour that 
 was as lustrous as so much enamelled work. The Screes were purple, with 
 patches of golden-brown moss set in rims of golden-green scattered through ; 
 and the lake, that deep still lake which no frost, however severe, can ice over, 
 was blue and green and grey and purple and silver and gold by turns, with 
 great slabs of turquoise and malachite beneath ; the Sty Head mountains, 
 looking glacier-scored, were shining in the sun ; Mosedale was dark, and 
 bloomy, and tender ; and the shadows were everywhere sharply defined, and 
 the lights were everywhere radiantly brilliant. Still watching Scawfell's great 
 shell-shaped head, across a miniature forest of gorse and bracken which grew 
 between us and the lake-side over the bridge, and by the river running away 
 with its burden of song seeing how the sea-wind had dwarfed the few trees 
 about into stunted cripples bowed and twisted, we finally got opposite the Screes. 
 
 Wonderfully soft and velvet-like was the late summer verdure on them 
 great brown velvets, and green satins, and gold-coloured silks, set among the 
 grey stones with a contrast that heightened both ; and wonderfully glacier-like 
 the form. You can almost see where the primaeval waters once rushed down 
 that steep side, which looks like a wave broken down at the top the channels 
 in them (like lava-veins flowing among the velvet green,) all leaf-shaped, like 
 those fan-shaped coralline forms seen in the sea-sand and large stones, and 
 red marks as if the earth had been skinned to the blood-veins beneath, and 
 the great skeleton ribs shown one by one. The Screes stand sheer against 
 
 215
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the lake, almost as straight as if ruled with a line. The other side is 
 gracious with little bays and promontories, but the Screes rise straight and 
 sharp, and suffer no tender play whatever at their feet. Looking back, when 
 opposite this huge buttress, there is no longer any outlet for the world at 
 the head. Great Gable and Buckbarrow, gone now to softest dove colour, 
 close up the dale, while at the foot the Screes mellow down to rocks, the 
 rocks broken into by chasms : Hawl Ghyll, 4 or Hawley Gap, the most 
 remarkable : to finally pass off into the fells and the plains and the sea. 
 
 And now the way goes gradually back into civilization, and the well-known 
 refinements of art and cultivation. Close to a bold crag on the right is a quiet 
 shaded bit of road running between stone walls, with garden and shrubbery on 
 either side ; the evidence of home and human care, and the place of rest and 
 peace, very beautiful to look upon after the wildness gone through. We 
 cannot make a home on the wilds, or pitch our tent on the hill-tops. We 
 have grandeur there, and communion with nature, and the filling of soul 
 and sense, but the care and the thought which make up social life the 
 tenderness and the beauty which are our real home belong to the low-lying 
 lands exclusively. We felt that very strongly to-day, when passing from the 
 cold majesty of Scawfell, and the dark gloom of Wastwater, into the peace 
 and cultivation of the lower country. Near a field filled with sunny sheep, we 
 turned again to look at what we had left. The Wastdale mountains looked 
 quiet and almost tame, and even our tiger Scawfell lay with his forepaws 
 stretched out, and his nose between them, asleep ; the Screes looked low and 
 grey, flowing into the Irton Fells, with the grey line of the Muncaster Fells 
 behind, topped and ended by Black Combe. Then we came on Strands 
 and its pretty river ; and then on the level line of the blue sea, with the clouds 
 heaped up in white cumuli over Wastdale, but lying in filmy streaks across 
 the sea, over each world repeating the line and the form below. 
 
 *The felspar of the rock has decomposed here, and wasted into sharp needle-like 
 points true aiguilles, though minute with very beautiful fashioning and results. A fine 
 vein of spicular iron ore, as well as one of haematite, runs here. 
 
 216
 
 CALDER ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNERDALE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FEOM Strands the way goes through Gosforth the ' ' reddest of villages ; " 
 where an old stone pillar l in the churchyard is covered with unintelligible 
 carving, to the confusion of the wise and the bewilderment of the foolish, 
 and Avhere, from the hill beyond, is a magnificent view of the sea, with 
 the Isle of Man lying clear and distinct on its bosom ; behind, to the right, 
 
 1 In Gosforth churchyard is a cross whether Danish or British no one knows. It is 
 frmrteen feet high ; the lower part is placed on a pedestal of three steps ; the top is per- 
 forated with four holes; the sides are enriched with various guilloches and other ornaments, 
 and with men and animals in bas-relief one of a man on horseback upside down. Another 
 column was there once, but it has been taken away, as also a horizontal stalue between 
 them, with a sword sculptured on it/ Vide Gentleman's j\r<iiiuz'ir, Oct., 1700. 
 
 217 V V
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the "Wastwater mountains blue and dark ; to the left, the purple Muncaster 
 Fells; and in front a rich and varied road, where the hedges, bright with 
 flowers and loud with song-birds, are crowned with great golden fields of 
 corn waving above the green fences; a sweet country road, which leads to 
 Calder Bridge, where is something to be seen before going farther to the 
 abbey, which, however, is the real lion of the district. 
 
 For at Calder Bridge are both Ponsonby Hall, with its beautiful grounds 
 and pleasant cascade, and the picturesque little modern church, with that 
 pleasant walk through the churchyard and by the river side ; also the prettiest 
 inn parlour in the world, with the river dashing underneath the bridge, and 
 the sweetest sentiment of old world rusticity and simplicity to be found 
 anywhere ; the very perfection of an inn parlour of the old-fashioned style. 
 And then there is the mile-long walk underneath the trees, and between 
 the red sandstone walls, which the wind and weather have mellowed to the 
 most delicious tone, and which the black-veined spleenwort, our old friend 
 asplenium trichomanes, covers. And then there is the broad and shady 
 avenue of old elms and oaks and sycamores, leading up to the house and 
 the abbey; the preface, introducing you by a stately chord to the statelier 
 melody beyond. And all these are things worth seeing and noting, before 
 entering into the mystery of beauty and the past in the ruins of the abbey. 2 
 
 2 Calder Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1134 by Ranulph de Headlines. 
 the second Earl of Chester and Cumberland, and completed by Thomas de Multon, who 
 added to the number of monks, and increased their possessions. It was a kind of offset or 
 dependency on Furness, the great institution of the country, and was but a small community 
 at the best, but rich in aristocratic relations. At the Dissolution the whole of the revenues 
 accruing amounted but to 04Z. 3s. 9d., according to Speed. Henry VIII. gave the Abboy 
 and its lands to Thomas Leigh, LL.D., and his heirs, to hold in capite, and Dr. Leigh's 
 grandson, Sir Ferdinand Leigh, sold the abbey to Sir Richard Fletcher, who gave it as a 
 marriage portion to his daughter when she married John Patrickson. From the Patricksons 
 it passed to Mr. John Tiffin, of Cockermouth. and then to Mr. John Senhouse ; it is now in 
 the possession of Captain Irwin. The Senhouses whom we do not meet with again, their 
 history and houses lying out of our track are a very notable family in the north-west of 
 Cumberland ; and among the ancient forbears was a " limb " called Dick Senhouse, a 
 
 218
 
 CALDEll ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNEKDALE. 
 
 It tells the reader little to say that these rums consist of the square 
 tower of the church, supported by pointed arches upheld by four clustered 
 columns ; that the width of the choir appears to have been only twenty- 
 five feet; that traces of a fascia are yet to be made out (or were, but a 
 short time since), above the remaining arches ; and that the various relics 
 dug up from time to time represent such and such knights and noble 
 patrons. The most learned catalogue of architectural details would not advance 
 any one much to know, unless was added that which makes up the true 
 portrait of the place, because giving its real spirit the rich old monkish 
 look of beauty and fertility, assumed to be self-denying because still and 
 quiet ; the low-lying meadows, with the kine standing knee-deep in the 
 luxuriant grass ; the clear trout-stream running among the old oaks and 
 elms of the grove, where Brother Ignatius used to hook out fine fat fish for 
 the prior's supper, with Brother Hilary standing by breaking the tenth 
 commandment as he thought of his own lentils and coarse oaten pottage ; 
 the evidence of centuries of cultivation lying on every square rood of ground, 
 a cultivation of time so different to the ripest of the merely modern ; the 
 green smooth sward which has taken generations of diligent scythemen 
 to bring to its present state of velvet perfectness ; the rooks flocking home 
 in the declining sun ; the sentiment of repose, and the spirit of old time 
 still about it ; all this is to be added to make up anything like a picture 
 of Calder Abbey pure and noble in its ruin, as it was pure and noble in 
 its prime. So different to Wastwater left in the morning ! the one the 
 historic past, the other the natural present; the one dealing only with the 
 world of human uses, the other with the grandeur of material forms : and 
 both so beautiful in their way. 
 
 terrible gambler with terrible luck. "You must be either the Devil or Dick Senhouse 
 for tipping the dice so pat ! " said one man, playing with liim unawares; and " I will do it 
 in spite of the Devil and Dick Senhouse ! " was a common phrase, expressive of other 
 points of Master Dick's character not quite in accordance with received notions of ordinary 
 morality. 
 
 219 *' F 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 The ivy and the pretty little ivy-leaved toad-flax (antirrhinum linarui) 
 hang in clusters and festoons about the dark red arches and moulded capitals ; 
 and the winds have carried winged seeds into the very cells and cloisters 
 where the pious monks said their early orisons, and walked, repeating the 
 hymns and collects of the day, so that now all sorts of trees and shrubs 
 and flowers are springing up round the old stones, and the free things 
 of earth are rooting themselves where the ordered thoughts of heaven went 
 before ; honeysuckles and great ash-trees overshadow arch and aisle and 
 pillar ; and side by side with the rich old ruin stands a modern house, 
 square, stuccoed, and glaring; yet not without value in one's thoughts and 
 meditations among the remains of Calder Abbey. 
 
 Those who care to see everything may go to the Camp, as it is called, 
 where they may make out (if they can) the limits of the ancient encamp- 
 ment which is said to have been on the side of Ponsonby Fell ; but it is 
 not very distinct in its markings, nor have any relics ever been found 
 there, so that its ancient service is perhaps a little doubtful, and certainly 
 its present aspect is by no means inviting. Still, it is there, and the 
 insatiable traveller may bind it into his sheaf of sights if he will. From 
 Calder to Ennerdale he may then choose either of two ways : the one 
 leading up and over Cold Fell, and under Blake Ley, where lies the little 
 tarn that sends out one branch of the Calder though the higher and main 
 issues are from the top of Iron Crag and under Kevelin and where he 
 may see the bleak fell road and the wild fell side to perfection ; and the 
 other taking him by a good and rational carriage-road through Egremont, 
 both meeting at last at Ennerdale Bridge, 3 a little below the foot of the 
 lake. 4 The fell road is the most " accidented." The wide sea view, and 
 
 3 Ennerdale Bridge is the scene of Wordsworth's poem, " The Brothers." 
 * The peculiarity of Ennerdale Lake is that it lies at the outlet of the valley, not at its 
 head among the mountains, as is usually the case with lakes. Instead of hiding away at 
 the feet of the higher hills, Ennerdale has run off as far out into the plain and towards the 
 sea as it could, leaving the dale, little Liza, and the greater hills, to themselves. 
 
 220
 
 C ALDER ABBEY, EGKEMONT, AND ENNERDALE. 
 
 the yellow fling of gorse among the purple heather and the cold crag, 
 have many beautiful points and incidents; and for walkers not irritated by 
 a multitude of gates to open and bad places to pass, it is the most inter- 
 esting; but let carriage folks go by Egremont 5 four miles farther. They 
 will be repaid; for the village, like every place in this district, has its 
 antiquities and historical associations, its legends and its traditions, as well 
 as no little natural beauty. The ruins of the old castle 6 stand on the 
 western height, with the wide fertile plains below, now marred in their 
 
 5 Egremont was a borough at the time when Parliamentary representatives were 
 remunerated, but when that practice was discontinued the inhabitants petitioned to be freed 
 from an expensive privilege, and to have their borough disfranchised, which was accordingly 
 done. They had various privileges secured to them by charters granted by the successors 
 of William de Meschines, but they were burdened also with all the old feudal servile duties, 
 which made men of less account than beasts. By the charter granted by Richard Lucy, in 
 the reign of King John, and which is still extant, " the burgesses were obliged to find armed 
 men for the defence of the castle forty days, at their own charge ; they were bound to aids 
 for the redemption of the lord and his heir from captivity ; for the knighthood of one of his 
 sons ; and the marriage of one of his daughters. They were to find him twelve men for his 
 military array ; to hold watch and ward ; and were restrained from entering the forest of 
 Ennerdale with bow and arrow. Every burgess that kept a plough was compelled to till the 
 lord's ground one day hi the year, and likewise to find a man to mow and reap in autumn. 
 If a w r oman belonging to the borough was seduced, the fine to be paid to the lord by the 
 male offender was three shillings ; but if a burgess seduced the daughter of a rustic, who 
 was not a burgess, he was excused the penalty, unless it could be proved that he had 
 promised her marriage. The wife of a burgess guilty of using contumelious language to a 
 neighbour (in other words, a scold) forfeited fourpence." The parish church is a very old 
 building, built by William de Meschines in honour of St. Mary, and granted by him to the 
 cell of St. Bees. The town has about fifteen hundred inhabitants, and the land yields 
 large quantities of iron ore, which is sent to Whitehaven unsmelted, and thence shipped to 
 South Wales. That pretty river running by is the Ehen or Enna, which falls out of 
 Ennerdale Lake into the sea, almost side by side with the Colder. 
 
 6 It was built about the beginning of the twelfth century by William de Meschines, 
 brother to the mighty Ranulph, who gave Imn the barony of Copeland, which included all 
 the country between the sea and the rivers Duddon and Derwent ; but in process of time, by 
 marriage and other manners of transfer, the property got divided, and the castle of 
 Egremont passed into the hands of the de Lucys. General Wyndham is the present 
 owner. 
 
 2-21
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 beauty by the tall chimneys and mining villages scattered among the fruit- 
 trees and corn-fields ; but still, as ever, enframed by the dark Ennerdale 
 mountains and the long line of deep blue sea, with the changing clouds 
 flung in fleecy masses on the mountain tops, or resting in burning ingots 
 over the water world below. About the old ruins hangs the historical 
 legend of the Two Brothers, 7 known far too well to quote ; and the 
 romance of the Boy of Egremont, the son, say some, of the Lady Alice 
 
 7 This anecdote of Denton's points to the same story, differently related. " The 
 Baron of Egremont being taken prisoner beyond the seas by the Infidels, could not be 
 redeemed without a great ransom ; and being for England, entered his brother or kinsman 
 for his surety, promising, with all possible speed, to send him money to set him free ; but, 
 upon his return to Egremont, he changed his mind, and most unnaturally and unthankfully 
 suffered his brother to lie in prison, in great distress and extremity, until his hair was grown 
 to an unusual length, like to a woman's hair. The Pagans being out of hopes of the 
 ransom, in great rage most cruelly hanged up their pledge, binding the long hair of his 
 head to a beam in the prison ; and tied his hands so behind him, that he could not reach 
 the top where the knot was fastened, to loose himself. During his imprisonment, the 
 Paynim's daughter became enamoured of him, and sought all good means for his 
 deliverance, but could not enlarge him ; she, understanding of this last cruelty, entered his 
 prison, and taking her knife to cut the Lair, being Lastened, she cut the skin of his head, so 
 that with the weight of his body he rent away the rest, and fell down to the earth half dead ; 
 but she presently took him up, causing surgeons to attend him secretly, till he recovered his 
 former health, beauty, and strength ; and so entreated her father for him, that he set him at 
 liberty. Then, desirous to revenge Ms brother's ingratitude, he got leave to depart to liis 
 country, and took home with him the Hatterell (scalp lock) of his hair, rent off as aforesaid, 
 and a bugle-horn, which he commonly used to cany about him. When he was in England, 
 where he shortly arrived, coming toward Egremont Castle, about noontide of the day, when 
 his brother was at dinner, he blew his bugle-horn, which, says the tradition, the Baron 
 presently acknowledged, and thereby conjectured his brother's return; then sending his 
 Mends and servants to learn his brother's mind to him, and how he had escaped, they 
 brought back the report of all the miserable torment which he had endured ; wliich so 
 astonished the Baron (half dead before with the shameful remembrance of his disloyalty and 
 breach of promise), that he abandoned all company, and would not look on liis brother till 
 his just wrath was pacified by diligent entreaty of the friends. And to be sure of his 
 brother's future kindness, he gave the Lordship of Millum to him and liis heirs for ever. 
 Whereupon the first Lords of Millum gave for their arms the Horn and the Huttrirll." 
 
 2-2-2
 
 CAL.DEK ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNERDALE. 
 
 de Romili of Keswick, but about whose personality 8 there is some doubt, 
 antiquarians never agreeing. Still the story remains the same, and the 
 connection of the de Romilis with Egremont, " the Mount of Sorrow," is 
 undoubted. For the rest, Wordsworth's readers and lovers know all that 
 can be said. 
 
 Two miles and a half from Egremont, but nearer to Calder Bridge, 
 is the village of Beckermet, where another tragical tradition is attached 
 to a place called Wotobank, but which reads as if the story had been made 
 to account for the name. There was once a certain Lord of Beckermet, 
 
 8 We -mil give the account as we find it. " The Lady Alice had two sons, the younger 
 of whom, from the place of his birth, was called " the Boy of Egremond," and who, 
 outliving an elder brother, became the last hope of his family. She had also three daughters, 
 Cecily, Amabil, and Avice, who, on the death of their surviving brother, fell heirs to this 
 extensive heritage, which, after their mother's decease, was accordingly parted among them. 
 Her son, who was named William, is said to have been drowned on his return from hunting 
 or hawking as he crossed the river Wharf, near Barden Tower in Craven. The accuracy 
 of this account, though admitted to be true so far as the death by drowning of a scion of 
 Romilfs house, is, however, doubted by that popular antiquarian writer. Doctor Whitaker, 
 who states that the drowned son of the Lady Alice or Aaliza was a party and witness to the 
 charter of translation to Bolton, in 1154, of the canons of the priory of Embsay, founded 
 in 1121 by William le Meschin and Cecilia his wife. Besides, as the boy of Egremond was 
 alive in llfiO, and a partaker in the rebellion of the Pictish Celts of Scotland, of which the 
 object was to set him on the throne as the rightful heir, the lucid archaeologist is of opinion 
 that the story refers to one of the sons (both of whom died young) of Cecilia le Meschin, 
 grandmother of Lady Alice. Be this as it may, the generally received version of the tale 
 affirms that the young lord's greyhound, being tied to his girdle by a leash, hung back as 
 its master sprang across the deep chasm, through which the waters pour with resistless 
 force, and, thus checked in his leap, the unfortunate Romili fell into the seetliing torrent, at 
 a place called " The Strid," where he was drowned. When the report of her bereavement 
 reached liis mother, borne by the attendant who beheld his untimely fate and who, wisliing 
 to break the pitiful tidings as softly as possible, inquired in language whose phraseology in 
 the present day is almost unintelligible, " What is good for a bootless bene ? meaning 
 thereby, "What remains when prayer is useless?" tradition avers, that apprehending 
 from the return of the falconer alone, with despair pictured on his countenance, that some 
 great calamitv had befallen her son, her answer was couched in that memorable archaism, 
 " Bootless bayl brings endless sorrow." 
 
 223
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 who one day went out hunting wolves, accompanied by his lady and a lordly 
 retinue. The "ardour of the chase" separated him from his wife, who 
 was soon missing from the cavalcade, but after a search was found lying 
 dead on the side of a hill, with a wolf devouring her. In the agony of 
 his sorrow the husband cried out, " Woe to this bank ! " and succeeding 
 ages crystallized the cry, which at this day is the name of a pretty modern 
 house built on the site of the poor lady's untimely deathbed. There is also 
 another story attached to Beckermet, of a gayer character. About four miles 
 south of Bout in Eskdale, lies a lonely tarn with a rocky islet in the 
 middle, called Devoke Water; and three-quarters of a mile from Devoke 
 Water are some remains, generally called Barnscar, or the City of Barnscar, 
 which folks say are the remains of a Danish city, though no historical 
 record confirms that idea. However, it was a city of some kind, for 
 silver coins have been found there ; and when Hutchinson wrote his 
 history, the character of the buildings seems to have been more easily 
 traced than now ; for he speaks of walls and a main street, with several 
 cross streets, and an ancient road from Ulpha to Ravenglass as quite well 
 made out; but now there are merely small piles of stones set up on a 
 very desolate bit of fell, and you may believe them to have been a city of 
 human inhabitants if you like. The popular belief further is, that the 
 Danes peopled this Barnscar in something of the old Sabine manner, 
 making a raid on Beckermet and Drigg, 9 with forcible union consequent ; so 
 that when any sudden friendship or love-making springs up between two 
 young people in this part of the world, they are said to "go together like 
 the lads of Drigg and the lasses of Beckermet." 
 
 From Egremont down to Ennerdale the road passes over the fell, rich 
 in gorse and bramble and great bunches of yellow ragwort, with splashes 
 of bronzed and blood-red bracken and purple tufts of vetch for compen- 
 sating colours, till it comes down to Ennerdale Bridge, and thence on 
 
 Drigg, Progg, Perigh, or IVrgh the Irish for oaks. 
 224
 
 CALDER ABBEY, EGRE.MOXT, AM) ENXKKPA I.E. 
 
 KNNERDALE WATER FROM ANGLiiBb OR/ 
 
 to the foot of the lake. The square top of Herdhouse stands well forward 
 as you round the common road or go down the steep hill which leads to 
 the boathouse ; whence the Ennerdale valley is at its best. At the head 
 of the dale stands the Pillar, 10 the steepest and craggiest of all the mountains, 
 till one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six deemed the English Jungfrau, 
 our maiden mountain inaccessible, but now owning to nearly a dozen con- 
 querors ; each traveller who has actually reached the top writing his name on a 
 slip of paper which he places in a bottle left in the crevice of a rock for the 
 purpose. So at least goes the story, which we could not verify by personal 
 observation. It is a magnificent-looking mountain ; the crowning rock, a 
 great grey striated column which fires all one's ambition to surmount. By 
 it is the Steeple, followed by the Haycocks, with a sharp little bit peeping 
 up like a child's pert voice among the grave elders ; and then comes the 
 
 10 " You see yon precipice ; it wears the shape 
 Of a vast building, made of many crags; 
 And in the midst is one particular rock, 
 That rises like a column from the vale. 
 Whence by our shepherds it is called the Pillar." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 U U
 
 TIIK LAKH COt'NTUY 
 
 fine broad sweep of Reveliu, falling into that of Crag Fell Iron Crng 
 behind, and the Angler's Crag below. On the left are Black Sail and Red 
 Pike and the distant point of Grasmoor ; Latterbarrow, a little green 
 knoll, thrusting its feet into the water, is followed by Windsor Crag a small 
 bit of screes and Bowness Knot, fellow comrade and of like nature to 
 itself; next are the long slopes of Bannerfell, leading over to Floutern 
 Tarn on Blake Fell ; and, quite at the back, looking towards the sea, 
 one of the last of the wavelets thrown up in this mountain tide, the Knock 
 o' Murton Hill, a smooth round protuberance bulging out on the plain like 
 a great green wen. 
 
 All the Ennerdale mountains are of the same nature ; a kind of craggy 
 moorland, capital for sportsmen ; but, save in the sheltered nooks at the foot, 
 where are patches of forward land and good crops enough, no cultivation 
 anywhere. The place is wilder even than Wastdale ; more lonely and austere 
 if less sublime ; at the head wonderfully noble, with a majesty of mountain 
 unusual. But it is not lovely, taking that word to mean an admixture of 
 softness with the grandeur: not even when "on the lake," which is- such 
 a soft and lovely experience everywhere else. An extraordinary collection of 
 small stones in this lake is called "the island." How they ever came 
 there, or why they should be there at all, surpasses the intellects of the 
 best guessers ; as also why a fine rift in the rock on Crag Fell should 
 be called Robin Hood's Chair. Scores of names and initials are carved, 
 modo Anglice, on the walls of this rift ; some of them dating so far back 
 as the year one thousand seven hundred. Jenny Crag Well, under Revelin, 
 is another of the notabilities of Ennerdale. It is a spring of perfectly pure 
 water, cool in summer and unfrozen in winter ; of the same temperature 
 the year round ; never failing whatever the drought, and never muddied 
 whatever the rainfall ; one of the many such to be found in the lake country. 
 
 Revelin itself is an important mountain, all things considered. The 
 whole land hereabouts being more or less impregnated with iron ore, even 
 Revelin has had its secret chambers rifled with the rest, and has been forced 
 
 226
 
 CALDER ABBEY, EGREMONT, AM) KXXKKDALK. 
 
 to give up its treasures. Lately, they have begun to work for irou ore on 
 Bowness Knot the yield in Revelin failing, or the directors quarrelling 
 among themselves, or some other of the many casualties of mining property 
 having befallen both works and yield, so that it has returned to its earlier 
 and humbler function that of feeding bees. Every summer and autumn 
 hundreds of hives are brought up to Ennerdale and set on Kevelin, for the 
 bees to get strength and sustenance before winter time. Carts come in the 
 early morning laden with beehives, and " a vast o' good honey gets shakt 
 oot ont' road." A certain wall on the mountain is called Bee Wall End; 
 and the honey gathered from the heather hereabouts is their Hymettau 
 honey to the north-country people. 
 
 The head of the dale flows up into the old closed barren sweep, with the 
 Liza running through; the pretty, clear, bright little Liza starting with a 
 laugh from her birthplace on Great Gable, and laughing to the end, where she 
 loses herself in the Big Water. But though presenting many of the ordinary 
 features of the dale, it has some special and noble characteristics of its own : 
 and the walk over Blacksail to Wastwater by Gillerthwaite, and between 
 Kirkfell and the Pillar, and Kirkfell and Yewbarrow, into Mosedale valley, is 
 one of the finest in the country one of the wildest as well, and to the 
 inexperienced, of no contemptible danger. Scarf Gap to Butterniere is not 
 so bad ; but the mountain path over by Floutern Tarn and Blake Fell to 
 Lowes Water, is a thing not to be attempted by the ignorant or unwary : 
 such a wild, lost bit of travel as it is ! when the eager mountain storms 
 come on, like great white wolves raging over the heights and hollows, a 
 perilous way even to the guides themselves, and to the stranger too often fatal. 
 More stories are told of travellers lost about the Ennerdale paths and passes 
 than in any other part of the country, the distances between point and point 
 not being long which is a temptation ; and the ways apparently easy which 
 is another temptation; but under any obliteration, or disguisement by storm, 
 proving utterly unreliable and destructive. 
 
 Eunerdale is the least known, and, at the present time, the least likely t<> 
 
 227 (i <: 2
 
 THE LAKK COUNTRY. 
 
 be visited of all the lakes. Indeed, it can have only its own special sifting of 
 visitors, for the carriage-road to the foot goes no farther than the Boat-House ; 
 at least what follows is very indifferent and leads nowhere ; and the Boat-House 
 itself, the only place of accommodation, cannot house many visitors at a time, 
 and has no attractions for fine folks at all. The other approaches to the lake 
 are either severe pony roads, as the Black Sail and Scarf Gap passes, impossible 
 to all save good walkers and hardy riders ; or mere mountain paths, like the 
 Bannerdale Fell way over to Floutern, or by Iron Crag and Tong Fell down to 
 Scalderskew and Calder. So that until Ennerdale has the benefit of carriage 
 ways along its banks, it will remain comparatively a terra incognita to the 
 tourist world, save those who can brave a rough pass, and those who care only 
 to gape away an hour at the foot while their horses are baiting at the inn. 
 And this is what butterfly people generally do ; driving over from Lowes "Water 
 through Lamplugh u to Ennerdale Bridge, or from Wastwater by Egremont, 
 or the fell road higher up ; to be for ever after quite contented with the belief 
 that they have seen Ennerdale, and have " done " the lake effectively. 
 
 Those who want variety in scenery would do well to pass from Enner- 
 dale to St. Bees. A more thorough diversity could scarcely be found, from 
 the lonely mountain lake imprisoned within its iron barriers, through flowery 
 country lanes, and by dirty and ugly mining villages, down to the mighty 
 sea the term and bound of all things. The character and spirit of the 
 way change strangely as you go on. When you leave Ennerdale you pass 
 first through the dear old country roads, narrow, tortuous, bordered with 
 hedges full of flowers in this early autumn time silvered with great bind- 
 weed, azured with hairbells passing into the deeper purple of the tufted 
 vetch, and gilded with hawkweed, bright yellow vetchling, and heavy ragwort 
 country roads diversified by stretches of copse wood and the sudden windings 
 
 " I.aiu]ilugh, siiid to mean (lie \v< I (lnlc, being a corruption of Glan-lillough or Glan- 
 ploiigli. Tlir manor and otatrs \vrrr held by the Laniplughs, a race- of valorous gentlemen, 
 all of whom were knighted on the iiekl. 
 
 228
 
 CALDEU ABBEY, EGREMOXT, AND EXXEUDALE. 
 
 of the Ehen by pretty bridges such as that of Wath Bridge, with the fine 
 spun of arch so customary to this country by picturesque cottages, and 
 healthy, honest faces ; but gradually losing all these features as the way leads 
 you into the mining district. And then you come to a new order of things ; 
 to a village like Cleator, formal and ugly, with evil faces and squalid looks 
 haunting every door and window ; with ragged children ; girls and women 
 unkempt, flaring, and untidy; men lounging and vicious, sometimes brutal- 
 looking for a change ; in a word, with the outward signs, so fatal and so 
 easily recognized, of a trade that excludes healthy physical influences, and 
 where bodily waste is supplied by sensual excess. They all look sodden and 
 hard- worked, and in the whole of the two villages you will pass through you 
 will not perhaps see one well-looking woman meaning by that, modest and 
 cleanly nor one really cared-for child. The very colour of the earth, too, is 
 altered from that of the lake-land proper. The rich browns and pure greys 
 of the mountains have given place to a coarse, hard red, which ruddles every- 
 thing to the same ochreous tint alike. The roads are red and the houses are 
 red, the carts and the horses and the slouching canvas-clothed men and the 
 bare-footed children they are all daubed and saturated with red. About 
 the Big Rigg works, where the landslip took place on the high road one day, 
 the redness is singularly offensive ; but by-and-by the mining district yields 
 to the clean, close-shorn uplands of the sea-side ; and when you mount the 
 last hill, leading to St. Bees, you are in another world. 
 
 You cannot see the sea-line yet, because of the intervening headland, 
 but if you are fortunate you may see instead what will serve for many minutes 
 of pleasant wonder. The sky in a long straight line of deep blue, flecked 
 with warm-grey clouds standing as it seems far above it, at times so perfectly 
 represents the sea, that it is long before one can be convinced it is only 
 cloud and sky, and not the sea beneath. The heavens overhead are upheaped 
 with clouds, while on the horizon this band of intensest cobalt lies, like the 
 ocean, perfectly still and unruffled, with the clouds standing above it. The 
 illusion lasts till a deep cut in the Head lets in a view of the real sea, with 
 
 229
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 the Scotch mountains and the Isle of Man; and then the Fata Mor;/<tit 
 vanishes, and when the sun sinks below a broad blood-red band that fades off 
 to divinest grey, through purple and violet and yellow and green and blue, 
 to the great white clouds above, you have one of Nature's most beautiful 
 phantasmagoria replaced by one of her noblest realities. 
 
 1SLK OF MAN FROM ST. BEE6
 
 FLESWICK BAY 
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 ST. BEES 1 is the favourite watering-place of the lake district ; and it is 
 easy to understand that it should he preferred to Allonhy or Parton, or any 
 other station on the coast, because of the greater amount of beauty and poetry 
 
 1 St. Bees is said to take its name from Bega or Beza, according to some, Begoth 
 (beg og, little, young) a sweet Irish saint who was shipwrecked on the coast, and who, in 
 gratitude for the holy love that heard her prayer, founded, about the year 650, a small 
 monastery, where afterwards a church was built in memory of her the Lord of Egremont 
 giving her all the land where the snow should fall on St. John's Eve : and it fell in a broad, 
 bold band, as of course it would. The " aforesaid religious house having been destroyed by 
 the Danes, was restored by William le Meschines (the Lord of Egremont), son of Ranulph, 
 and brother of Ranulph le 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." 
 William further " granted to God and St. Mary of York and St. Bega, and to the monks 
 serving God there, all the woods within their boundaries, and everything within the same, 
 except hart and hind, boar and hawk ; and all liberties which he himself had in Coupland. 
 
 231
 
 Till-; LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 associated with it. Its foundations laid in legend and romance, hut with ;i 
 positive history to lift it out of cloud-land into the world of fact; rich in both 
 land and sea treasures, in the flowers of the field 2 and in those of the wave ; with 
 sunsets unequalled on any sea-line in England ; with a wide belt of sound sand, 
 and a bed of rock full of anemones and star-fish, jelly-fish, and all manner of 
 odd sea creatures ; with pretty country walks, and a glorious sea-beach ; what 
 is wanting for its reputation ? and what to its power of fascination ? So near 
 to Ennerdale, too, as it is, it seems as if a ray of mountain loveliness has 
 flashed across it ; as if the sweet influences of the hills and lakes have flowed 
 down even to the great sea, and that the breezes which bring back health and 
 strength and the freshness of the free skies, go out from the land laden with 
 beauty and delight. It is strange how much the sentiment of the mountains 
 lingers round St. Bees, and how we find it to be the true and real outlet of the 
 lake system ; the last expression, if not the culminating point. 
 
 Very sweet are the close flowery lanes about, and gloriously noble the 
 wide reach of downs, with the sea shining below, and the great burning sun 
 
 as well on land as on the water, both salt and fresh." At the Dissolution, Archbishop Grindal 
 (who introduced the tamarisk into England) Fuller's " pious Grindal," and other men's 
 " perfidious prelate "founded a free grammar school in the -place of the Benedictine cell, 
 where the youths of Cumberland and Westmoreland might learn the Humanities at small 
 charges and to large profits: his spur thereto being that he was a native of Hensingham. ;< 
 small village close at hand. This was in 1587, by a charter got from Queen Elizabeth ; 
 and in later days a college was established, under the patronage of Lord Lonsdale, for the 
 education of our northern priests and curates of small incomes and unimportant cures. At 
 the Dissolution, Edward VI. granted the manor of St. Bees to Sir Thomas Chaloner, from 
 whom it passed to the Wyberghs; and from them, by foreclosed mortgage, to Lord Lonsihilf 
 about the year 1663. Of the old church only the tower is Saxon ; the rest is florid 
 Gothic. It is built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood ; and at the east end are some 
 fine carvings. The nave is used as the parish church, the cross aisle (used to be) the phu-e 
 of burial; and there is a wooden effigy of Anthony, the last of the Lords Lucie or Lucy. 
 of Egremont, which is very ugly and vory curious. 
 
 2 " Who climbs on hands and knees, 
 
 For some rare plant, yon headland of St. Bees." 
 
 The great cliff called Bees Head, or Bamhead, says Gough, abounds with sea-fowl. 
 
 232
 
 ST. BEES AXD THE SEA COAST. 
 
 in the cloudless heaven above. All so silent, too ! as silent as on the 
 mountain tops ; the only breaks to the stillness there being the cry of a 
 sheep, or the music of the falling waters within the ghylls, while here it is 
 the song of the skylark, or the lowing of the cattle pastured on the downs 
 those wide shadowless downs seething in the summer sun. And all the 
 more impressive is this stillness, because of the life and movement we know 
 of, but do not recognise below. We know that the waves are breaking with 
 sounding murmurs against the rocks and on the shore, though now the whole 
 glittering expanse has neither sound nor movement ; that the ships, lying 
 seemingly as idly as "painted ships upon a painted ocean," are full of human 
 life and industry, freighted with passions as well as with cargoes, loud with 
 hope and fear and love and sorrow, as well as with flapping sails and twanging 
 cordage ; we know that the villages and towns shining white and still in the 
 scene, are plenished with varied life ; and that the hum of men and the 
 whirling wheels of commerce are echoing in the lower lands, while we stand, 
 silent and alone, beyond them all ; we know all this, and therefore the stillness 
 of those great sea-downs falls on the heart with a powerful fulness of emotion, 
 deeper and stronger than any speech or sound could give. 
 
 There is a choice of pleasant ways about St. Bees. One carries you 
 by the breezy downs, where the elastic grass is beaded with white mush- 
 room balls, and starred with flowers sea-pinks and thrift and lavender 
 and rest-harrow and countless others whence you look over to the sea dotted 
 with ships, some standing close in shore, their white sails looking like 
 large wings, and others gliding noiselessly away over the edge of creation, 
 bound " one knows not for what distant port ; through heath and pleasant 
 pasturage, down to the head of that strange red rift gemmed with agates and 
 pretty pebbles, called Fleswick Bay. Here the St. Bees and Whiteliaveu 
 people make pic-uic parties, finding every requisite for that agreeable pastime ; 
 for a little stream of fresh water, good for many uses, meanders through the 
 glen; and flat blocks of red freestone serve for tables, and round smooth 
 stones for seats ; and a grim but none the less convenient cave, once doubtless 
 
 233 H H
 
 THK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 given up to unhallowed kegs of brandy and casks of whiskey overproof and 
 innocent of excise duties, but which now young couples are fond of exploring, 
 offers facilities for one essential element in a happy pic-nic to get itself enacted. 
 So that on the whole Fleswick Bay is the most popular place for miles round ; 
 and in truth worth a long hour's visit, without a merry pic-nic party or a pair 
 of bright eyes as incentives. 
 
 The way off the cliffs is down a true gipsy lane, where you have to do 
 a little scrambling: not more than is good for you, but still, at one point, 
 rather a pinch for the stately and many-fleshed; the red walls of rock on 
 either side are covered with a small fine green bordering of moss, and flowers 
 grow on the ledges chamomile with its hair-like leaves, samphire, and thrift. 
 The cows, pasturing on the uplands, come down the red glen to drink at 
 the sweet streamlet of fresh water, and to stand knee-deep in the warm, 
 smooth sea; and you have to drive them boisterously before you when 
 you go back, if you return by the way of the downs, for the rift is too 
 narrow for you and those four-footed beasts, in comfortable intermingling 
 together. The stones are water-worn and ribbed and channelled, and you can 
 sac where the waves have washed up in their remorseless strength for centuries 
 past, and how the once sharp ribs of the earth are worn away under that 
 incessant sweep ; and you can learn, if you will, something of the law of 
 wave force, which is the same, with a difference, as what you have learnt 
 in the lake wave ; with a difference : for the sea wave is a long, steady, 
 and incessant sweep, regular and rhythmic, and the lake wave is irregular 
 and interrupted partial in its flow and of uncertain boundary so that lake 
 rocks, though they get worn and channelled too, do not show such persistent 
 action as either river stones or sea-side rocks. 
 
 From Fleswick you may go back either by the road or the downs, or, 
 at low tide, by the rocks and the sea-shore ; or you may' go farther on 
 the Whitehaven side, to the lighthouse, and see what fine arrangements 
 they have there for the guidance into safety of the ships wandering in 
 fog or darkness about the pathless dangers of the St. Bees headland, and 
 
 234
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST. 
 
 how the very perfection of cleanliness is attained in that tall, chimney- 
 looking building a cleanliness almost approaching to genius, it is so full 
 of watchfulness and thought. 3 The road and the downs are both delightful 
 ways, but by the sea-shore is the best of the three; for there you not 
 only pass under magnificent cliffs, where the sea birds are sitting in the sun 
 or wheeling round in heavy flight screaming to their young within their 
 nests, where you have the sensation of being at the roots of creation, and 
 under the shadow of the remorseless grandeur of Nature ; but you also come 
 upon a bed of rocks, where you may lose yourself for as many hours as 
 the tide will give you free-warren and the right of search. And how many 
 soever these hours may be, you will not have seen half the wonders of that 
 marvellous world. 
 
 Limpets and periwinkles, and small gray cirrhipeds and great yellow 
 whelks and deep blue mussels some of them of singular smallness with 
 their long beards like slender rootlets beaded with fragments of stone and 
 seaweed, cling all about ; some fastened to the lifeless rock with a look of 
 ancient holding as if they had sat there since before the flood, and some 
 entangled in among the ulva that fine green weed hanging down from the 
 rocks like hair newly smoothed and combed, as if those great round stones 
 were the heads of enchanted mermen, and that smooth growth of weed 
 their comely locks. And there are broad bands of purple sea- weed like 
 great ribbons floating about ; and little coralline tufts of the daintiest growth 
 and loveliest tint red and pink and white, and some as if dyed in the royal 
 purple, and some as if newly taken from a vat of liquid amber. And there 
 are sea grapes, which, however, are nothing but cuttle-fish eggs; and sea 
 barberries, which are the eggs of the purpura whelk ; and mermaid's purses, 
 which, if not empty, hold a very ugly creature as their treasure ; and masses 
 of bladder wrack, which you pop with a sounding noise and great squirt 
 
 3 Camden did not even mention Whitehaven in his accounts of the northern counties ; 
 and in 1506, Gough says there were but six houses and only one pichard of eight or nine 
 tons belonging. 
 
 235 H H 2
 
 TMK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 of sea water; and balls of honey-combed froth like desiccated sponges or 
 consolidated foam, which are the worn-out egg clusters of the whelk; and 
 other wonderful things to be picked up and studied by those caring to 
 know what lies about them. 
 
 And then there are the live things : little brown crabs scuttling away all 
 on one side, and queer little shrimps diving about in great perplexity of soul ; 
 and, sticking underneath the rocks, so that you must go down on your hands 
 and knees to find them, are some wet, shining, deep-coloured masses. Of all 
 colours are those wet shining masses, and of all patterns : some like big 
 carbuncles of dark blood-red ; and others of emerald-green ; and some of dull 
 olive-green, like the oriental peridot; some like chrysolites, with a kind of 
 brown struck through the yellow shine ; and some pale rose colour, like 
 delicate pink topazes : mere fleshy masses now, without life or motion or 
 change ; but take them tenderly from their rocks tenderly, and yet autho- 
 ritatively slipping underneath some thin and harmless instrument, like a 
 small paper-knife, or even, if you have a steady hand and are careful not to 
 injure the base of your prize, the blade of a pocket-knife itself feed them 
 with some of that fine green hair-weed, and some of that purple growth as 
 well, and give them plenty of sunlight and fresh sea-water and then see 
 what your monochromatic bits of sea-flesh become. That brown lump throws 
 out a million yellowed anthers, each threaded with a bright blue bead at 
 the base, while round the inner circle is another edging of bright blue, 
 contracting or enlarging, paling or deepening, at the creature's will. That 
 little pale rose topaz puts on an outer robe all pearl strung rows of small 
 spots, like seed pearls, banding it round ; and the large, solid, blood-red gout 
 puffs itself out till it looks a congeries of bladders of a transparent white shot 
 with pink. The yellow nodule shows a deep violet lining ; and they all 
 expand like flowers, and turn to the sun for joy and increase. They are 
 indeed living flowers ; flowers that move their petals and anthers at will, and 
 that open and close themselves from formless buds to full-blown blossoms also 
 at will ; flowers that have all manner of lovely markings about their edges, 
 
 236
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST. 
 
 and coloured hearts and changing petals ; flowers that are never two hours 
 the same, but that put on their crowns and royal mantles in the sun with 
 more than the peacock's pride, and then sit in the ashes with dust-coloured 
 Cinderella, sullen and disarrayed; flowers that change like things in a fairy 
 tale gifted with powers of transformation. Our rock hed here is rich in 
 these sea anemones ; " crass " and " mess " growing to enormous sizes and 
 in large quantities. 
 
 Then there are star-fishes, queer leathery beings with orange painted 
 backs, and a dull and lifeless look altogether till they are thrown into a 
 pool of sea-water or cast upon their backs, when they show the wealth 
 of beauty with which Nature has dowered them in rich excess. Myriads 
 of small, fine, pellucid threads unfold themselves from the inside of the 
 rays, moving about in a strange kind of order as if making patterns or 
 geometric figures now all clustered together in a pearly cloud, and now 
 fringing the edges with the daintiest beads, like small moonstones or colour- 
 less opals. The silent, ceaseless wandering of these fragile threads, which are 
 the creature's feet with which it walks over sand and rocks and treads 
 the surface of the wave with the certainty, if not the force, of a giant, 
 has a very fairy-like appearance. Yet no one seems to care much for these 
 five-rayed, orange-backed, star-fish, though they are wonderfully interesting 
 beasts, if you have patience enough to watch how they accommodate them- 
 selves to circumstances, and how they fit their thick bodies into all manner 
 of inequalities, and how they change themselves from mere dead-alive leathery 
 bits of inanimation into the most exquisitely jewelled surfaces, instinct with 
 life and feeling and movement. Ah, truly, not the meanest thing of Nature 
 but has its secret world of loveliness and wonder, if we only look for it. 
 
 Then, on the sands, you will see lying flat plates of dirty-looking 
 jelly, torn and ragged at the edges, covered with sand, and altogether of 
 a disreputable appearance. Take one up carefully not touching him with 
 your naked hand and fling him into a shallow pool left by the receding 
 tide among the rocks. In a few moments your dirty plate of jelly will 
 
 237
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 expand into the most lovely disc striped and barred with brilliant colours, 
 shooting out long threads that wave and play in the water as the creature 
 slowly sways itself to and fro. It is a jelly-fish a Medusa a sea-nettle 
 one of the acephalae that you have captured, and hundreds of them are 
 probably lying on the beach, mere battered and bruised masses, but needing 
 only to be taken back to their own sea world to become again things of 
 loveliness and grace unequalled. 
 
 These, and many more than these, you will find among those green 
 and black-haired rocks by the bluff headland ; there where the escarp- 
 ment, split into great parallel blocks of the richest red, wears such a 
 different aspect to the sea-beach pavement smoothed and rounded into 
 gigantic pebbles ; yet both are of the same formation ; only the one shows 
 the varied action of the wind and rain and frost, and the other the uniform 
 sweep and swell of wave, for ever and for ever repeated. 
 
 When the tide has run down the sands are ribbed and channelled in 
 the old form, like the markings on the Screes at Wastwater ; and you see 
 again the leaf, both the coralline growth and the fan shape, which the 
 downward pour of water on a yielding surface always gives. And farther 
 on, you most likely fall against a thick length of iron cable, now bent 
 and twisted like a doll's wire, telling its sad tale of wreck and disaster, 
 and noble lives entombed and lost to humanity for ever. Nothing gives a 
 more vivid idea of the tremendous force of the waves than a cast-up iron 
 cable, not one strand of which you can bend, now all twisted and unravelled 
 as if it had been made of thread. 
 
 The sea beach and the rocks and the cliffs, with their pleasant downs 
 above the cliff of Baruth and Tall Tomlyn, as the Head is affectionately 
 called are of course the chief features of interest about St. Bees ; but 
 there are others for the stranger beside. There is Grindal's college 4 with 
 
 4 " Edmund Grindall, born at St. Bees, bred Scholar, Fellow, and Master of Pembroke 
 Hall, in Cambridge, and Proctour of the University ; " in Mary's reign he fled beyond 
 
 238
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST. 
 
 its antiquities; and the giant's burying-place 5 if you can find it; and the 
 villages round about ; and the lanes and fields full of wild flowers ; and 
 the strange Scalegill pond, the birth of which did so much damage, or 
 rather was coincident with so much damage for, on the first of March, 
 one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the ground in a meadow 
 belonging to Lord Lonsdale suddenly sank several feet, and immediately 
 after the water rushed out, falling through the fracture as into a funnel, 
 drowning the Scalegill colliery, and making the Scalegill pond in question. 
 And there is Whitehaven, for those who care to see a town given up to 
 coals and fish ; and then there is the sea-coast, and the stations leading 
 gradually on to Coniston and Furness. 
 
 Lonely and desolate are those small grey stations on the sea-shore ; 
 without history and without trade ; spare in population and poor in 
 circumstance ; devoid of all that makes a western civilized home more 
 beautiful than a savage wigwam ; but ever with the dark blue mountain 
 boundary behind, and the wide and fathomless sea, with its teeming life 
 and its gorgeous sunsets, its power and its unrest, in front. Nethertown 
 and Braystones and Sellafield close to which, however, the Calder escapes 
 into the wider world of waters, so that dusty, stony, desolate little Sellafield 
 has that interest if none other Seascales and Drigg, whence the lasses of 
 
 l>y Elizabeth he was made Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and Canterbury ; a man 
 of learning and piety, modesty and single life : he offended Leicester when he would not let 
 him have Lambeth House, and forbade the Earl's physician from marrying another man's 
 wife, so he was undermined with the queen, and had lost his archbishopric but for the 
 queen's relenting. He died July 6th, 1683. " Worldly wealth he cared not for, desiring 
 only to make both ends meet ; and as for that little that lapped orer, he gave it to pious uses in 
 both Universities, and the founding of a fair Free-school at St. Bees, the place of liis nativity." 
 5 In the library of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle is an account of the finding a 
 giant at St. Bees, in the year 1601, just before Christmas time : it is in Machell's MSS., 
 and tells how that " he the said Gyant was four yards and a half long, and was in complete 
 nriiimir; that his teeth were six inches long, and that he was buried four yards deep in the 
 ground, which is now a cornfield. His armour, sword, and battle-axe are at Mr. Sand's, 
 of Redington (Rollington), and at Mr. Wyber's, at St. Bees." 
 
 239
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 Beckermet got their lads what are they all but the poorest and most pitiful 
 sea-side hamlets to be seen anywhere ? There is not a paragraph of history 
 to be written on them all. 
 
 Eavenglass 6 is better. Not that the little town is much, but some 
 of the traditions are interesting. The three rivers, the Irt, the Mite, and 
 the Esk, fall into the sea near together, forming an estuary called Esk 
 Meals, 7 which, at low tide, is a wide bed of sand, and at high tide a 
 grand and foaming river ; and there are fine oysters to be had here, which 
 to some would prove the greatest attraction of all. The three rivers, fol- 
 lowed to their sources, would lead you into very noble company. The 
 Irt would take you up to Wastwater, Scawfell, and Lingrnell, and, 
 if you chose to add the track of the Bleng which falls into it just above 
 Santon Bridge, you would get into the wilds of Ponsonby Fells, Seatallan, 
 and the Haycock, where you might lose yourself between Ennerdale and 
 
 6 Anciently part of the barony of Egremont, till the manor was granted by Richard 
 Lucy "to the Penningtons, ancestors of the present Lord Muncaster. Richard Lucy, 
 however, obtained for Ravenglas the privileges of a fair and a market from King John, 
 and the fair is still held by the Earl of Egremont or his representative on the eve, the day, 
 and the morrow of St. James. " On the first day the Earl or his proxy attends, 
 accompanied by the serjeant of the borough of Egremont, with the insignia called -the Bow 
 of Egremont, by the foresters, with their bows and arrows, and by all the tenants of the 
 forest of Copeland, who hold their estates by the special service of attending the Earl or 
 his representative dining Ravenglass fair. On the third day, at noon, the Earl's officers 
 and tenants of the forest depart after proclamation, and Lord Muncaster and liis tenants 
 take formal repossession of the place, when the day is concluded by horseracing and various 
 rustic diversions. The children of Ravenglass manor go about from house to house 
 singing for the bounty they were wont to have in old King Edward's days." They get a 
 pie or twopence at each house. Denton says that Ravenglass was anciently a place of 
 ferns, and that the name is a corruption of the Irish Rainigh Fernsald. 
 
 7 " Eskmeals is a plain, low, dry ground, at the foot of the Esk, between the mountains 
 and the sea, which sort of grounds, lying under mountains and promontories into, or at the 
 sea, are commonly called Meeles or Meiles, as it were the entrance or mouth from the sea 
 into a river or such like place, as the Meild or (query of?) Esk. Kirksanton Meil, Cartmeil, 
 Mealholme, the Mule of Galloway, and Millom itself, and many other such like." 
 
 240
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST. 
 
 Wustwater, and be days and even weeks before you found yourself and 
 civilization again. The Mite would carry you up into wild and desolate 
 Mitredale under tbe Muncaster Fells, and face to face with Scawfell, and 
 finally to the back of the Screes, just escaping Burnmoor Tarn where one 
 of the tributaries of the Esk has its head-quarters. As for that same 
 sweet winding Esk, to follow it would take you to Devoke water, and into 
 green Eskdale, to Stanley Ghyll and Birker Force, to Harter Fell and 
 Hard Knot and Bow Fell, and finally to Scawfell, close under the 
 shadow of the Pike, where it has its highest spring and earliest cradle. 
 The dale itself would carry you over by Hard Knot and Wrynose and 
 Fell Foot, with a diversion to Blea Tarn, down into Little Langdale and 
 Colwith Force ; where, however, you have no business at this moment, if you 
 want to go by the way of the sea-coast, under the lee of Black Combe to 
 Broughton ; a way worth seeing, if only for the sake of the purple background 
 of hills always standing between you and the sky Scawfell topped far above 
 the rest, and the Screes drawing the noblest line against the grey clouds. 
 Very beautiful, too, is it to see the valleys opening up towards the hills, Mitre- 
 dale and Eskdale, with Birker and Harter Fells behind, and Muncaster 
 Fells below ; and grander still the way becomes as you go on towards 
 Black Combe from Bootle. 8 The golden oats and purple heather make a 
 lovely contrast between fell and field ; and the hedges look like golden 
 lines, all yellowed in the early autumn by the great square ragwort growing 
 here in wonderful profusion ; and then you get to the foot of Black 
 Combe 9 that grand culmination of the mountain system on the southern 
 
 8 Boot hill Beacon hill, so some of the etymologists say : others Bothal, from 
 cromlechs, or Bethel, the House of God. In some old records it is Bodele. It is the 
 smallest market town in England, and has a market cross. 
 
 9 Some superstitions, and a few odd customs, still exist about Black Combe. It is said 
 there that the bees sing, and the labouring ox kneels in adoration at twelve o'clock at night on 
 Christmas Eve ; and that what quarter soever a bull lies facing, on Alllialloween. them-.- 
 will blow the prevailing winter wind; and Hob Thross, " a body all ower rough," like the 
 Brownie of old time and Milton's lubber fiend, has still, we believe, private quarters somc- 
 
 241 I I
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 side, the buttress, the advanced guard, the foremost sentinel of all. Black 
 Conibe, indeed, has the widest range of any fourteen counties being to 
 be seen from it, and as far as Talk-on-the-Hill, in Staffordshire, a hundred 
 miles off. It is no rare thing to see Ireland too before the sun rises, 
 not after. Of the same geological formation as Skiddaw, 10 it is still more 
 marked in its condition, isolated as it is from the green slate at its back, 
 and the red sandstone in front; and, with its fine black head, 11 deserves 
 well its name, and regal sovereignty of the south. But if its head is 
 black, the fells belonging are bronzed with seeding gorse brown where the 
 gorse and the still green bracken flow into each other, and reddened gold 
 where the fern-leaves have begun to change. The changing bracken, and the 
 
 where in the lowly dwellings about Black Combe ; or had, before the railroad came to ST 
 him away into the limbo of the unproved and the unpractical. Newly married people d< 
 not buy corn for their first sowing about Black Combe ; they go tlirough the country side, 
 begging a handful here and a handful there, till their friends and neighbours have filled 
 their sack, and given them their future crop : else sorrow a loaf of bread would they rear, 
 were they to give money for their grain. They are called cornlaiters when on tliis 
 interesting mission : laiting meaning seeking or looking for. On Christmas morning the local 
 dish hereabouts is hack pudding, made of sheep's heart, suet, and dried fruits. Servant 
 are hired only at Martinmas and Whitsuntide ; money is lent only at Candlemas ; and tin 
 dead are always waked. 
 
 10 It is of Skiddaw slate ; the only outcome of that special geological formation 
 this side. At the summit is a cavity, as of an extinct crater, out of a corner whereof 
 rivulet flows into Whicham, with vitrifications as at Bowscale. The same kind of crater 
 on Coniston Old Man, and Helvellyn, but on each of these is a lake at the mouth of the 
 cavity. 
 
 11 Black Combe is literally Black Head. It is in the lordship of Millom, and where is 
 still a " castle," then " Millom Castle," which is now partly a farmhouse and partly a ruin. 
 The lordship belonged to William de Meschines, and was given by him, in the reign of 
 Henry I., to a de Boyville, who exercised "jura regalia" there, including the pleasant 
 privilege of erecting a gallows, with the right to hang men thereon. From the de Boyvillos. 
 who were related to the Lords of Egremont, it passed to the Huddlestons, and then 
 in 1714 to the Earl of Lonsdale for twenty thousand pounds. It was disparked only as 
 lately as 180-2. During the Parliamentary wars, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, vicar of 
 Staindrop, who had enterel the royal army, was slain at Millom Castle. 
 
 242
 
 ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST. 
 
 purple heather, and the undertone of grey crag, make, in the early autumn 
 days, a glorious arrangement of hill- side colouring, more ripely gorgeous 
 than the spring, and more varied than the summer. Indeed, the early autumn 
 time is the grandest of all for scenic effects in the lake district ; the time 
 when the atmosphere lends the greatest charm, and when vegetation is at its 
 loveliest emphatically the fittest time for this sea-side route, and for watching 
 the hills and hollows and lights and shadows of the grand old solitary sentinel 
 glooming in the sun, itself the fitting witness, in its massiveness and 
 mystery, of the ancient spirits 12 still hovering round its base. 
 
 From Bootle you come to the mouth of the Duddon, seeing where the 
 railroad bridge is flung across the wide Duddon sands, 13 like a mere thread 
 suspended between earth and sky seeing, too, where the old monks, in their 
 rich valley of Furness, gave motive and action, and a rule whereby the lay 
 world was forced to live, lording it over the lake country with somewhat a 
 heavy hand if a beneficent, and caring as much, we must confess, for their own 
 
 12 Many Druidical circles exist in this district, to be best seen by the Ordnance maps. 
 At Annaside twelve stones in a circle, which were once, it is natural to suppose, a temple 
 like that at Keswick ; near Gutterby are thirty stones in a circle called Kirkstoues, and two 
 hundred yards off is a cairn. The Standing Stones are three miles farther south ; these are 
 eight big blocks, which once formed part of a circle twenty-five yards in diameter; in 
 Millom grounds are the imperfect remains of a circle ; about a mile east of Black Combe is 
 the Sunken Kirk ; and a mile off, another circle, smaller. All these are assumed to be 
 Druidical remains ; and probably the reasons which led the monks to Fnmess previously 
 caused the bards and priests of Druidism to establish their temples and celebrate their rites 
 in the same district. 
 
 13 The Lancashire side of the estuary is called Dunnerholme-sand-side. The Cumber- 
 laud side is Barrick Railes. The Duddon has a speciality in its cockles, which are reputed 
 the best and finest of any in the north country ; though both the Lancaster and Leven 
 sands prodiice very largely in size and quantity, yet the " fresh Dutton cockles," as they ;irc 
 called, bear the palm over both, and help to the support of many a poor family by the sea- 
 side. The calculation a few years ago was of 8,553,600 cockles in a month, allowing ninety 
 to the quart. Sandford (about 1675) speaks of the Duddon as " a brave river, wln-iv tin- 
 famousest Cockles of all England is gathered in the sands, scraped out with hooks like 
 sickles, and brave salmons and fiookcs. the bravest in England, hung up and dried like 
 bacon." 
 
 Vi." 112
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 pleasant temporalities as for the spiritual graces of their vassals. But for 
 the present you must leave Furness Abbey on one side, until you have 
 learnt what Donnerdale and Eskdale, Wrynose, Little Langdale, and 
 Collision have to show YOU. 
 
 BLACK CHMB1
 
 FROM BIRKS BRIDGE 
 
 UP THE DUDDON 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI 
 
 BKOUGHTON ' is the " chief town " of the Duddon ; the metropolis and capital, 
 
 1 Broughton belonged to the tie Broughtons, the grant confirmed to Edward do 
 Broughton by Wm. do Lancastre III. to he held hy knightly service and a rent amount 
 unknown. "NY hen Lambert Sinmel landed at the Pile of Foudrey in 1487, the Duchess of 
 Burgundy, sister t > the deposed king and so-called aunt to the adventurer, prevailed on Sir 
 Thomas Broughton to join the invaders landing there probably through some such agree- 
 ment with the fair plotter. After the defeat at Stoke, near Coventry, Sir Thomas escaped, 
 and found an asylum with sonic of his tenantry at NYithersack, in Westmoreland, \\heiv 
 he died without issue in 14U."). And so the grand old family, which had lived unstinted from 
 the Saxon times, through the Norman Conquest and the troubles of the York and 
 disturbances, fell for an adventurer.
 
 THE LAKE COINTHY. 
 
 whence post-horses can be taken seven miles up the road, as far as Newfield ; 
 or a couple of miles farther to Birks Brig ; or, indeed, over the pass entirely, 
 if not particular in the matter of carriage-springs, and if a sharp climb one 
 way, or a steep pitch the other, can be faced without wincing. The road 
 cannot be called a normal carriage-road, let it be remembered ; still, it is 
 practicable ; but whether riding or driving or walking, your way up the 
 Duddon is to start from Broughton, fronting the hills, and leaving the sands 
 and the plains and the sea behind you. 
 
 The river first fallen upon is only the Lickle, 2 a side branch of the 
 greater stream, coming from the heathery bee-haunted Furness Fells, but not 
 the real thing yet for a few paces. There is no mistaking the Duddon 
 when you do see it ; for you feel it at once to be a pathway 3 up into a 
 world of beauty and strength unusual and supreme, and that the waters 
 foaming under the wooded heights that bank it up on the left, while 
 tender copses and bright fields lead down to it on the right, are sure to 
 carry you to a birthplace equal to their out-fall. Very rich is the way for 
 the first long part sweet and flowery and pastoral ; reminding one some- 
 what of the broken picturesqueness of Great Langdale, but not so primitive ; 
 with Broughton Tower rearing itself up through its screen of trees, and 
 Duddon Grove displaying its luxury in the midst of simplicity like an 
 exotic plant blowing among our English wild-flowers ; with pretty homes 
 and hamlets, and pleasant signs of work and industry by the road-side, but 
 getting wilder and less rich, if more noble, as you proceed. Till, when you 
 
 a Often erroneously set down as the Little in maps and charts. 
 
 3 " Now it has assumed something of the port and strength of a river ; the water, too, 
 which like Cotton's favourite Dove, was ' black at its source, because it springs from the 
 mosses,' has, like it, become ' so clarified by the addition of several clear springs, bigger than 
 itself, which gush out of the limestone rocks, that in a few miles you will find it one of the 
 purest crystalline springs you have seen.' Wordsworth says, ' the water is perfectly 
 pellucid, through which in many places is seen, to a great depth, its bed of rock or blue 
 
 l. which gives to the water itself an exquisitely Cerulean colour.'" THORXK'S 
 liiiera. 
 
 246
 
 UP THE DUDDOX. 
 
 are at Ulpha (which you must call Oopha, if you want to be understood), 
 you have come into quite untrimmed life again, and have got your first grip 
 on the mountains. For you stand some feet higher above the sea at Ulpha 
 Kirk, ("to the pilgrim's eye as welcome as a star,") 4 than you did at 
 Broughton in the morning. 
 
 The scenery hereabouts is wonderfully grand, and from a certain point 
 in the road you get one of the finest views of your day. Cove and Blakerigg 
 and Walna Scar and Seathwaite Fell, all purple and gold, rise up before 
 you ; while dusky Wrynose and steep-sided Hard Knot break through the 
 clouds in the extreme distance, and the sea lies like a sheet of silver at 
 your feet. A marvellously beautiful view, turn where you will ; to the 
 richness of the open valley and the sea ; to the white track of river ; to the 
 sterner distance before you, or the desolateness of the hill-side, too bleak 
 for cultivation and too poor for human life. And tempting even to steady- 
 headed travellers are the many by-roads leading to all manner of hidden 
 beauty. At one place a grey, roughly-marked road leads over Wallabarrow 
 to Eskdale. (There was a good wheel track before you came to Ulpha, but 
 this steep, fell-side cat's climb has fascinations far superior to the plain, 
 broad, rolling way.) By another cat's climb you would be taken right into 
 the heart of the Furness Fells, and over to Coniston by the help of the 
 sky and the sun as your compass only ; but if you are bound for the track 
 "up the Duddon," you will have to rein in your curiosity with a strong 
 hand, and away by the beaten track to Newfield, which is Seathwaite, and 
 the home of Wordsworth's Wonderful Walker ; who, by the way pity 
 that it should be so ! pity that any idol whatever should have its clay feet 
 smashed ! was not so wonderful after all, but simply a shrewd and thrifty 
 " statesman-priest," who knew how to turn an honest penny with the best 
 
 * '' The Kirk of Ulpha to the pilgrim's eye 
 Is welcome as a star that doth present 
 Its shining forehead through the peaceful rent 
 Of a hlack cloud diffused through half the sky." Sonnet .rj-.fi . 
 
 247
 
 THE LAKK rol'XTKY. 
 
 of them, and who, by this thrift and divided genius for turning honest 
 pennies, managed to leave a handsome mass of savings out of an apparently 
 beggarly income. His cottage parsonage still exists, of the humhlest archi- 
 tecture hut beautified by flowers and climbing roses ; and the cloth lining 
 of his pew, woven by his own hand, is a local lion of the place ; his tombstone 
 is in the quiet churchyard, where, under the shadow of the yew-tree and 
 near to an old-fashioned sun-dial, the world is told by the record on a 
 plain blue slab that Eobert Walker died the 25th day of June, 1802, in 
 the ninety-third year of his age and the sixty-seventh of his curacy at 
 Seathwaite ; and that Anne, his wife, also died this same year of grace 1802, 
 on the 28th day of January, in the ninety-third year of her age. A right 
 worthy and venerable couple, but in no wise superior to many others of the 
 ancient parson class in the mountain district, save in the ability to make 
 money by a variety of sources, even including that of unlicensed beer- 
 selling. 
 
 At Seathwaite comes down the Seathwaite brook, bringing with it the 
 freshness and cheerfulness of its birthplace on breezy Dow Crag for one 
 portion, and from Seathwaite Tarn on Seathwaite Fells for the other. This 
 is the brook spoken of by Wordsworth as desecrated by the erection of a 
 mill for spinning yarn upon its banks, but which he would not have much 
 cause to lament now at least, for the unpicturesqueness of use and neatness ; 
 for the old mill is a tangled ruin ; and the poet's ghost may rest appeased. 
 Poor Wordsworth ! how he fretted and fidgeted his soul at the inevitable 
 march of events, and the throwing open to the world at large the hidden 
 mountain beauties he wanted so earnestly to keep to himself and the 
 shepherds ! 
 
 Going up this supplementary valley, or gorge, of the Seathwaite beck, 
 passing under Under Crag as if to ascend Walna Scar, you come upon 
 wild and beautiful nooks hidden recesses, where it seems to you that no 
 one has ever been before ; lovely hiding-places, which you and the mountain 
 spirits alone know of, and which the sins and follies of humanity have 
 
 248
 
 UP THE DUDDON. 
 
 never polluted. So it seems to you, going up that wild gorge of the little 
 beck. And so does it seem to you also when sitting under the lee of that 
 tall rock called emphatically The Pen, or The Hill, according to the speech 
 of our forefathers, the Painted Ones; with Wallaharrow on your left, and 
 the foaming river below. This is the place where the pensive stranger 
 wandered out for a noonday stroll while dinner was preparing at the little 
 inn. Coming back sooner than was expected, and asked, " Where he had 
 been ? " he answered innocently, " As far as it was finished ; " not under- 
 standing the beauty, which to him was simple chaos. 
 
 And here a divergence must be made. Go off the road and scramble down 
 to the bed of the Duddon, and see how wildly and how grandly the rocks 
 have been riven and tossed about by frost and wind and the pitiless pene- 
 tration of rain. Deep and fierce lies the river below, marking its way by 
 a thousand white cascades, leaping all obstacles with a bound, and flinging 
 up its cap of spray and foam with a wild hurrah and a furious hurling 
 onwards ; and high and broken towers Wallabarrow Crag above you ; and 
 dark and full of fear the mountains at the head, which you have to learn 
 and conquer before the day is out. And when you have wandered about 
 the rocks for as long as you may and dare, you must come back to the road 
 again ; if, indeed, you be not minded to follow the Duddon step by step, 
 and never quit its side till you have come to its birthplace ; which you may 
 do if you have stout sinews, and the summer day is long, and you are not 
 finical in the matter of your pavement. But, perhaps, you had better come 
 back to the road and Nettleslack Bridge, unless you wish to be bogged and 
 belated. 
 
 To the right a sharp clear way is traced over Walna Scar that great 
 broken crag with Seathwaite Tarn in the dip and Wetherlam behind. This 
 leads to Coniston ; is, indeed, the recognized way of communication between 
 the Duddon and Coniston ; and a noble way it is ! By the Walna Scar 
 quarries, and near to Blind Tarn under Dow Crag a streamless lakelet set 
 in the moss like a thing lost, with never an outlet beyond; by Black Fell, 
 
 249 K K
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 and across Ashgill and Torver Becks, till you come down under Yewdale Crag 
 to Coniston, just where the railroad ends, on the west side of the lake ; if 
 you want one of the best fell-side walks that can be named, take this some 
 day when you have perfectly learnt the Duddon in its main artery, and so 
 have leisure to study the ramifications. But not to-day. 
 
 Then on again, having now lost the river within the rocks until you 
 pass Wallabarrow, when there it is again, beautiful as ever, under the crags, 
 the birds singing in the trees, and the cows pasturing in the fields a perfect 
 picture of peace and sweetness, till you come to a greenish-grey lane which 
 leads you down to some stepping-stones. Not the famous stones; only a 
 few " water- teeth " for the shepherds, where, however, you may stand and 
 see the grandeur of the rift a sheer chasm where the water rushes in un- 
 checked force, the fell all in gold and purpled tones, while isolated crags come 
 out in cool grey, and the background of wild mountains of a deep bloomy 
 purple. A very noticeable bit this of the Duddon ; perhaps the loveliest and 
 most noticeable of all, with the stormy river rushing so fiercely forward to 
 bury itself, like many a life too eager and too passionate, within the depths 
 of the rock, and behind the gates of death and bondage. Only, with no 
 eternity of death for the river, as so often for the life ; for the rock gates 
 open again beyond, and the Duddon strides through them into the light 
 of life and the joy of the sun once more, for many a long and lovely mile 
 before its last issue into the waste of waters by Duddon Sands. 
 
 A long dale, and a wild one, this which you are now traversing, unin- 
 habited save at rare intervals, when you fall upon a few poor fell-side dwellings ; 
 at least not fall upon them, for oftentimes they are off the line of such "high 
 road " as it is, and well-nigh inaccessible at certain seasons and in certain 
 weathers ; but great is the courage of the dalesmen, and wonderful their 
 power of isolation, sustaining, as they so often do, a life of almost unbroken 
 solitude, with minds not uncultivated, and manners Hot rude if less than 
 soft. They form a race apart, and are the most interesting of the mountain 
 folk. But wild and lonely as this dale is, how full of incident ! Here you 
 
 250
 
 UP THE DUDDON. 
 
 come to Goldrill Crag 5 and Wordsworth's Fairy Chasm, where the roots of the 
 roc-k are of a pure blue below the water, though only of a warm dove-colour 
 in the sunlight ; where the water is no longer a river but a broken cascade ; 
 and where the wild fells, backed by the wilder mountains Harter Fell and 
 Birker Fell on the one side, the Old Man and Wetherlam and Walna Scar 
 on the other, Wrynose and Grey Friars in front seem the very term of all 
 human life. 
 
 Then on again to Birks Bridge, a stone bridge flung across a black 
 rift where the stones are hollowed into deep " pots," all the angles rounded, 
 and all asperities softened honeycombed through and through one reck 
 specially worn away into an arch through which the river leaps merrily. 
 The water has a strange sound. The surging in and out these holes gives 
 a weird kind of anger to its flow, both by sound and look ; and the life and 
 tumult here make the next reach a stony, marshy, flat, stagnant rather 
 than running still more dead and dull. But the fell-side and the river 
 meadows are covered with sweet-gale, and the loveliest bog plants are to 1 e 
 found here in their season ; beautifying the desolation and peopling the 
 solitude. Else it is all a mere waste, doing nothing, bearing nothing, giving 
 nothing towards the great commonwealth of human life ; its only use the 
 scanty pasturage to be had off the fells for a few sheep and shabby "beasts," 
 the wildest, loneliest, most lifeless place yet seen. But by-and-by you 
 come to some stepping-stones Wordsworth's stepping-stones which, of 
 course, you go down to see and stand on, and sentimentalise about ; 
 
 s Green speaks of his escape from what might have been rather an embarrassing 
 experience. Not long after he and a friend had been sitting on a certain stone that rises 
 out of the river under Goldrill crag, an immense fragment came down from above, and fell 
 on the exact spot where they had been. It was in the night time when it fell, and the 
 shepherds were, naturally, much alarmed, biit did not discover till morning what tlie noise 
 had meant. These slips and fractures are by no means uncommon in the lake country, 
 where the frost splits the rocks with such a clean and unseen fracture, that you have a ton's 
 weight hanging loose above your head, held together by perhaps the last rootlets of a huneli 
 of ling, without your knowing that it is anything but the solid side of a rock, as linn as the 
 earth itself. 
 
 251 K K -2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 " A zone 
 
 Chosen for ornament stone matched with stone 
 In studied symmetry, 6 Avith interspace 
 For the clear waters to pursue their race 
 Without restraint." 
 
 and then you pass Black Hall ; and then you come to Cockley Bridge 
 Cocklety Brig, as the dalesmen call it where the Eskdale Pass to the left 
 joins your present road Wrynose Pass before you. Mickledore Chasm is 
 seen over where Burnmoor Tarn lies ; Scawfell and Scawfell Pike ranging 
 to the left. If a storm is coming on, walking over the mountains with a slow 
 and solemn tread, the fields below you, and the woods and crags, will all look 
 doubly bright and full of colour in the grey of the coming shower ; the subtle 
 darkness of background having the power to bring out to the utmost all the 
 brighter tones in the landscape beyond. The wonderful vividness of colour 
 against the blotted, misty, grey-clad hills, is one of the special atmospheric 
 effects of the mountain district. It may be seen to a faint degree on the 
 plains, but never as here. 
 
 You have come twelve miles from Broughton when you stand on 
 Cockley Beck Brig, and have eight more at the least before you land at 
 Langdale. It is a long day's journey, adding the side excursions to the 
 river, and wandering afield for any new beauty that may attract you. 
 
 6 " As harmonious in colour as symmetrical in form of a delicate wliite, with the 
 slightest admixture of blue." THOHNE'S Rambles by Hirers. 
 
 252
 
 UP THE DUDDON. 
 
 And now you have your real mountain pass before you ; the steep shingly 
 road ; the sweep of the bird's wing, broken here, though, out of its true 
 line, and heaped up with adventitious bones ; the wet and watery river side ; 
 the jutting crags, the crossing stream, and the true mountain desolateness 
 of all. The interminable dale that it looks, viewed which way you will ! 
 backward to the sea, with the road and the river winding together, in 
 harmony and completeness, if not in repetition ; or forward, to the barren 
 fells and the crags above, and the grey chain of mountains below and 
 against the sky ! But in due time you reach the top of the pass, where 
 the Three Shire Stones 7 mark the point of junction of the three counties. 
 And near the stones, among the oozy moss and bog, is the highest source 
 of the Duddon ; a little pool of water welling silently up among the 
 stones and moss, to become hereafter one of the most celebrated of the 
 Lancashire rivers. 8 And without being sentimental and absurd, it is impos- 
 
 7 The " Tliree Shire Stones " are something like a rude three-sided altar, with the 
 name of each county Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland carved on smoothed 
 slabs let into each side, and facing according to the compass. A wliite pillar, with 
 " W. F., 1816," on one side, and a bold " Lancashire " on the other, asserts the position of 
 that county with even more distinctness than the others. Young men not burdened with 
 flesh, and possessing long limbs, may stand in two counties, and touch the third at the same 
 time, which is still held to be a noteworthy geographical feat. 
 
 8 The venerable Harrison, chaplain to Lord Cobham, in a description of the Lancashire 
 rivers, " nearly three hundred years ago," says : " Having passed the Leuen, or Corny - 
 sandes, or Winander fall (for all is one), I come to the Lew, which riseth at Lewicke 
 chappell, and falleth into the sea beside Plumpton. The Rawther, descending out of Lowe 
 Furnesse, hath two heads, whereof one cometh fro' Pennyton, the other by Uhnerstone 
 Abbey, and joyning both in one chanell, they hasten into the sea, whither all waters direct 
 theyr voyage. Then come we to another rill south-west of Altlingham, descending to 
 Glaiston Castell, and likewyse the fourth that ryseth neare Lyndell, and running by Dawlto 
 Castell and Furnesse Abbey, not farre from the Barow heade, it falleth into the sea oner 
 against Wauey and Wauey chappell, except myne aduertisements misleade me. The 
 Dodon cometh fro' the Shire stonehill bottome, and going by Black hil, Southwake, S. John's, 
 Uffay parke, and Broughton, it falleth into the salt water betweene Kyrby and Mallum 
 C'astell, and thus we are now come unto the Ravenglasse point," where our authority quits 
 ilic vivers of Lancashire. 
 
 253
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 sible to see the insignificant, scarce definable source of a noble river without 
 experiencing something more than mere delight in a fine prospect, or pleasure 
 at a curious discovery. The analogy between it and our human life is so 
 strong that we cannot choose but recognize it, with happy meditations or 
 gloomy, according to the teaching of our lives, and the lessons learnt from 
 experience. Bleak and dark and desert is this fell top this cradle of that 
 sunny reach below; as if it is the crest of the last wave, where the only 
 Beyond will be destruction. But as you go on, following now the rough 
 marking of what was the old Kendal and Whitehaven road in the days 
 when carts and railroads were not, and the universal pack-horse did the 
 commercial carrying of all 'cross country traffic, you come upon Little Langdale 
 Valley, lying in its beauty below you. In a short time you see Little Langdale 
 Tarn, where the pass goes over by the Stake, the Pikes topping and ending 
 that section of your view. For the rest there is a wild upheaval of mountains, 
 and when you turn to the left, across Lingmoor, for high-lying Blea Tarn 
 and Fell Foot, you are wandering in a corner of old chaos a forgotten corner, 
 never reduced to symmetry and order. 
 
 Blea Tarn has one or two specialities. It is the scene of Wordsworth's 
 Solitary that one lonely house still there to make it yet more lonely and 
 the hill-sides round it are clothed with larch- wood ; almost the only instance 
 in the country of wood growing about a real mountain tarn ; it lies in a 
 more regularly formed basin, as if it had been made in a more compact 
 and finished manner than its congeners, and the Pikes " that from some 
 other dale peer into this," but more especially Gimmer Crag, look their 
 best from here ; all of which give boggy, black, and desolate Blea Tarn a 
 specific value, even beyond what belongs by right to a tarn ; the solitude 
 and the distant heights that rise up over the immediate mountain wall, 
 the crags and the free life, the wild prison that it is, and the yet more 
 wild escape. There is a stronger, and, for its very strength, a tenderer and 
 more chastened beauty, in the mountain shapes and lines in these most 
 desolate places, than there is in even the richest luxuriance of cultivation. 
 
 254
 
 UP THE DUDDON. 
 
 Is it that they are the types of Christ-like resignation and Promethean patient 
 fortitude, more beautiful than all the undulations of happiness and success ? 
 and that when we see these lean, gaunt, lonely hills clustered round their 
 dark and lonely tarns, with a grip of love all the stronger because unshared, 
 we see a positive picture of man's soul, and the emblem of silent endurance, 
 and the love that sometimes binds the strong and the unlovely together ? 
 
 If you care to go down by Fell Foot and Wall End, you will come 
 out nearly opposite to Dungeon Ghyll ; but if you want to see Little Langdale, 
 and one or two lonely spots connected, come back again to the old road, 
 simply knitting Blea Tarn in with the day's chain, making it a loop but 
 not an ending. For this walk into Little Langdale and on to Colwith 
 Force is something worth seeing. Every step of the way is lovely. The 
 leafy lanes through belts of copsewood, with the valley below and the heavy 
 mountains behind and on each side, are beautiful both in themselves and 
 in what they show. Rich as the richest parts of the Midland counties, and 
 grand as only mountain scenery can be, these wooded lanes are things to 
 remember for ever, especially if seen in the autumn time, when the yellow 
 leaves are scattered in showers of gold on the ground, and the sunlight, 
 slanting across the trees, brings out all hues and tones possible to nature, 
 from cobalt in the shadows to gold on the surface, and from gold, through 
 orange, to blood-red crimson in the heart. 
 
 The place of the powder-mills alone is a poem in itself, and the bridge 
 across the Langdale Beck (the Brathay in its embryonic state,) lets you into 
 such a scene of river loveliness as you will never forget all your life long. 
 The river has made itself a pathway there, under the overhanging trees and 
 down the steep fall of stones, which, in its one small bit of isolation, is 
 unparalleled for beauty. Even the Greta in Brund Holme, even the Derwent 
 in Borrowdale, or Grisedale Beck, or the bright-eyed Goldrill, or the Duddon 
 itself, cannot surpass these few yards of river beauty at the back of the 
 powder-mills as seen from Langdale Brig. 
 
 Then through the primitive Alpine lanes, of which you have seen 
 
 255
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 something before ; between woods and over hills, and diving down into 
 valleys again, with the Brathay valley before you, and Loughrigg, and the 
 back of Red Bank Grasmere between it and Fairfield with all the sweet 
 incidents of a true country walk, till you come to Colwith Force fretting 
 out its life under the crags and about the tree roots, while the great rocks look 
 serenely down into the very heart of its turmoil, and the branches whisper 
 to each other gently, and shake their leaves, light as the fall of baby 
 fingers, on its troubled breast. The spray flies off as the fall leaps down 
 from stone to stone, and the sun glints on it cheerily, and the huge 
 mountains at the back, Wetherlam and the Old Man, send down their clouds 
 and mists to swell the flow, which, in rainy times, is really grand. It is 
 a leap in the river running between Little Langdale Tarn and Elterwater ; 
 an heroic leap, plunging down its rocky rift with the fury of a wild Arab 
 rushing to the plain. 
 
 On the height above the Force, crossing Colwith Bridge, is a fine 
 panorama of mountains. Wetherlam, big as an" elephant and grim and 
 wolfish in appearance, is to the extreme left, and next it comes the oddly- 
 shaped crest of Wrynose ; Bowfell between it and Lingmoor ; the highest 
 point to the right is one of the Pikes, and Pavey Ark follows, while it 
 lowers, the line : High Raise Serjeant Man just peeping up above Silver 
 How, and the dip of Dunmail Raise, are all in a cluster together; and then 
 come Seat Sandal, Grisedale Pass, and Fairfield above. The rest are 
 probably in the clouds, but the lower foreground crags are sure to come out 
 fine and bold, and a bit of Elterwater shines in the sun to give animation 
 to the landscape. 
 
 And now the road becomes at every yard more beautiful. You are no 
 longer among the mountains, but among the fells the Tilberthwaite Fells 
 notoriously the most picturesque of all. Not an attempt at neatness ; not 
 a sign of the intelligent landscape gardener anywhere ; a good road, newly 
 made, and an old and indifferent one abandoned, the only marks of man's 
 life at all ; not a house, not a garden, not a field, only the wildness of the 
 
 256
 
 UP THE DUDDON. 
 
 fell-side, with the steep hill and the steep valley, and the blue crags feathered 
 with ling and bracken and sullen juniper, with the crimsoned leaflets of the 
 bilberry and the purple pods of the gorse ; little copses of elms and hazel 
 by the wayside, the leaves all turned to fiery jewels in the autumn sun, with 
 here and there a solitary thorn -tree, or an ash set high up among the rocks, 
 or belted in with a chain of larch across the middle ; wild -flowers of all 
 kinds, from the dainty scarlet pimpernel to the coarse-leaved prickly ox- 
 tongue ; Wetherlam and the Old Man and Grey Friars ever in the landscape, 
 and glimpses of Black Combe and the sea to be had at intervals ; wildness, 
 with nothing desolate about it, but only beauty and solitude ; this is the 
 character of the way between Little Langdale and Collision. It is like a 
 mountain park or garden, run wild ; in its wildness bearing fruits and 
 flowers, perhaps of little value, but still bearing both fruits and flowers, left 
 to the grace of nature unchecked, not to barrenness and the disgrace of 
 nature destroyed. Over by Oxenfell and Yewdale runs this beautiful fell-side 
 road ; one of the richest, the most varied, and the most picturesque ; well 
 worthy to be known and loved by all who care for the noblest kind of hill- 
 side scenery, not necessarily including the hill-top. 
 
 If you have wanted to include Eskdale 9 in this walk " up the Duddon," 
 
 9 Speaking of Eskdale chapelry, Hutcliinson says, " Wakes and Doles are customary, 
 and weddings, christenings, and funerals are always attended by the neighbours, sometimes 
 to one hundred. The popular diversions are hunting and cock-fighting." Winning the 
 kail in Scotland the brosa, in West Cumberland Riding for the Ribbon is mentioned in 
 a curious local poem by one Edward Chicken, parish clerk of St. John, Newcastle-on-Tync : 
 and though not belonging strictly to the present note, yot it may be included as ;m 
 
 appendix : 
 
 " Four rustic Fellows went the while 
 
 To kiss the Bride at the Church Stile : 
 
 Then vig'rous mount their fetter'd Steeds 
 
 To scourge them going, head and tail. 
 
 To win what country call ' the kail. 
 
 In the Westmoreland dialect we are told, the ceremony being over, " Awe raid haanic 
 fearful wele, and the youngans raaid for th' Ribband, me Cuson Betty banged awth Lads. 
 an gat it for sure." 
 
 257 L L
 
 INK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 you must have either started from Ravenglass, or have turned back on Hard 
 Knot, or else have diverged midway over by Wallabarrow Crag, as you were 
 told. If you have gone from Ravenglass you will have had a fine day's excur- 
 sion. In the first place there is Muncaster Castle, 10 at the foot of the Muncaster 
 Fells, dividing you from Mitredale ; and to those who care for grandeurs 
 and the like, the castle will be a treat. Then there is Devoke Water, with 
 the city of Barnscar (Bardskew and Barnsea), tempting the antiquarian with 
 its strange old remains and suggestive fancies ; and then there is beer to 
 be had at the " King of Prussia." And beer in a mountain ramble does 
 not count for little. Indeed, the " King of Prussia " is an institution of 
 such importance that it is marked on the maps as a station equal in 
 interest with Stanley Ghyll or Birker Force. Stanley Ghyll, by the way, 
 is a stupid modernism. Dalegarth Force is the old name of the waterfall, 
 and until the Stanleys of Ponsonby bought the property ; but if our fells 
 and falls are to change their names according to the baptism of the lords 
 of the manor for the time being, we shall have rather a confused geography 
 for future generations to commit to memory. 
 
 The name, however, cannot spoil the thing. Stanley Ghyll or Dalegarth 
 Force, what matters it ? here is one of the choice places of the earth. It 
 is not the finest waterfall by any means (it is only sixty feet in fall), but 
 it is the finest glen, and the view from the moss-house at the top is superb. 
 A deep, dark, cool recess, where wild-flowers and ferns and bilberries grow 
 
 10 Muncaster has its Luck as well as Edenhall, but the one has no pretension to tho 
 supcrnaturalism of the other. The Musgraves got their Luck from the fairies; it was 
 Henry VI. who gave Sir John de Pennington his a curiously wrought glass cup in remem- 
 brance of the zeal with which he had served him, and the fidelity with which he had 
 followed the kingly fortunes, even when they were at their worst, and the head that wore a 
 crown wanted a shelter, which who but Sir John supplied ? The Fool of Muncaster, 
 Thomas Skelton, was a man of note in his day, and his portrait is still to be seen in the 
 castle. The boys of the district have preserved his memory in a certain game, which tliey 
 call " Mad Tom of Mulcaster." The right name is Mulcastrse or Moelcastre, according to 
 Denton's MS., or Mealcastro, from the Meal on which it stood. 
 
 258
 
 UP THE DUDDOX. 
 
 iu more than ordinary luxuriance ; a great steep rift, one side of which is 
 bare crag, but the other covered with wood through which the sun slants 
 with brightest radiance ; a river as clear as a tremulous sheet of crystal flowing 
 over its bed of rock and small fine golden sands ; and then the waving of the 
 plumy birch and the greater greenness of the damp moss, step by step 
 greener and more damp, till you come up to the fall; the leap the many 
 leaps the mad uproar, and the foaming waters, with those three frail bridges 
 leading you across and across, till you have learnt every feature and have 
 taken to heart every line that is Dalegarth Force, such as you see it when 
 you have got the key from the farmhouse and have fee'd the keeper. It 
 is something after the pattern of Ara, but smaller in volume and not so 
 sheer in fall ; and of even grander accessories. Or perhaps they look grander 
 here in this narrow valley, where one has so lately left the long flat of 
 sands and sea-side wastes, than they would if seen in the powerful nobleness 
 of the larger mountain district. 
 
 Eskdale can boast a very fair share of natural riches ; one of which is 
 the green dale itself, with its glittering river winding like a silver snake 
 through its midst ; while Dalegarth is a thing to remember for ever, to 
 long for, and to love as one loves a noble poem or a beautiful and suggestive 
 story. Passing on from this cool recess, you follow next the road that takes 
 you to Birker Force, a finely placed waterfall, coming, in its small beginning, 
 from Low Birker Tarn out on Birker Fell. Wilder and less rich than 
 Dalegarth, with more mountain strength and less woodland loveliness about 
 it, broad and bounding, and with a fine volume of water, not high, yet 
 inspiring, like a full-toned mountain song Birker Force is as unlike to 
 Dalegarth as the Highland chieftain is unlike the Lowland lord. Both are 
 noble and both full of manhood ; but the one has added richness, not 
 effeminacy, and the other has kept to his simplicity, which yet is not 
 barrenness. They are well contrasted in tone and spirit ; and if niciv 
 words of description fail to give their picture, at least they can give their 
 meaning. For every place has its special meaning, and its secret sympathy 
 
 259 L L 2
 
 THE LAKE I'orXTUY. 
 
 with human mood and circumstance ; and it needs no fanciful imagination, 
 no aptness at idealisms, to read a page in human character, or to fashion out 
 the conduct of a life in the aspect of a waterfall or the features of a 
 mountain side. 
 
 Then on by the road a good highway as mountain paths go ; through 
 patches of common land, where wayside bogs show rare mosses, and the 
 rough places have the bristly ox-tongue as their treasure, where the ground 
 is blue with harebells and the air alive with birds; on, over the brow and 
 under the crag, past the rock and the river, and in the shadow of the hill, 
 till you come to where a long line of blue glitters in the autumn sunshine, 
 and the sweet and tranquil waters of CONISTON welcome you like a loving 
 face upturned to yours. 
 
 FROM DDDDON BRIDGE
 
 THK OLD MAN 1'KUM BKAN J.-WOUI} 
 
 CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IT is a strange fact that Collision, 1 which may be taken as the first of the 
 lake series by the visitors approaching from the south, and which has direct 
 communication by way, if not by vehicle, with all the rest, is still the least 
 known and the least loved. Yet the scenery here is as beautiful as elsewhere, 
 excepting, perhaps, the choicest parts about Keswick and Ullswater, which 
 stand out as unique and inimitable. For there must always be the Best 
 with everything, and Nature, like man, has the purple for some of her 
 
 1 Anciently Conyngstone, or Cunyngstone, or Thurston Water. The several meanings 
 given for these names may be mentioned here as an instance of the troubles into which 
 etymologists get, when they attempt their rational (and irrational) derivations of the names 
 of places. "Coniston: ton, a town ; 'con, at the head of ; in. a lake." " Conyagstone, or 
 Konyg'ston," the royal town, without authority or tradition to connect it in any way with 
 royalty. " Cunyngstone, or Cunning Stone," because of its many clefts, and caves, and 
 hill-side hiding-places, good for old-time fugitives to whom the law was inconvenient : 
 though indeed for that matter it is less suitable for a hiding-place than Ullswater. <>r 
 Derwentwater, or Ennerdalc. or Wastwator. In the tenth year <>f Ivlwanl III. the Abbot 
 of 1'urncss had a grant of free warren in several places, among which was " Kunygst<>n. 
 
 261
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 cradles, if nothing better than shabby linings, torn and jagged, for others. 
 Yet Conistou Lake, that long and narrow 2 sheet of water stretching its six 
 miles of blue between the fells, deserves a more generous appreciation than 
 what it has met with, and a more popular acceptance. And now that it 
 has a railroad probing its very heart, it is likely that lovers will come round 
 it, as thickly as round Windermere and Derwentwater. 
 
 Take the circuit round the lake, beginning at the Waterhead on the 
 west side, and going southwards towards Furness, past the islands and by 
 Brantwood on the east, as one example of the sweetness and the richness 
 of the place. There is first that grand Old Man, at the feet of which you 
 reverently walk, overshadowed by his huge crags as you pass through the 
 ancient village of Church Coniston one of those quaint villages with the 
 flavour of old times about them, and the generous beautifying of nature 
 around, so characteristic of our lake country. The old deer-park, where 
 once the lord held his high days of sport and revelry, and which has still 
 the inheritance of richer foliage and nobler growths than belong elsewhere, 
 is one of those flavourings : so is that ivied and venerable house, Coniston 
 Hall, 3 where the Flemings used to live, and which was the residence for a 
 
 2 It is six miles long, and from three-quarters to a mile in breadth, iind contains the 
 best char of all the lakes, as Ullswater has the worst and poorest. Even Corry bears 
 testimony to this fact, when he says, " Our learned Clarencieux (Camden) was imposed 
 npon when he was informed that the char was a fish peculiar to Winder Meer, since in 
 Coningston Meer, within five (?) miles, a char much fairer and more serviceable is caught.' 
 Also the best black-faced mutton feeds on the Coniston Fells, which are the richest in mines, 
 have the best slate, and are of most geological importance, of the whole lake district. 
 
 3 The manor of Coniston passed, by the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of 
 Adam de Urswick, in the reign of Henry III., to Richard le Fleming, and Coniston Hall 
 became the family seat for seven generations. About the tenth year of Henry IV., Thomas 
 le Fleming married Isabella, one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John 
 de Lancastre, and acquired the manor of llydal ; and for seven generations more Rydal and 
 Coniston vied with each other which should hold the family seat, and whether it should be 
 in Westmoreland or Lancashire. Rydal conquered. Michael le Fleming, the founder of 
 the family, had much land and property about this neighbourhood, but he was fond of 
 
 262
 
 CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAI). 
 
 time of the Countess of Pembroke" Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," 
 but which is now only a farmhouse famous for its sheep-clipping. Both of 
 these places have a world of suggestive thought lying about them; of quite 
 another character to what is awakened by the primitive hamlet of Torver 
 farther on; where was never a name of note, nor a family \\ith spurs at 
 their heels, nor " cote armoure " on their shields, but only sons of the soil- 
 brave thralls and faithful serfs whose descendants are, some of them, living 
 on the same lands to this day, as brave, and happily somewhat better educated 
 than their forbears. Here, at Torver, was once an old chapel, lately removed 
 for one more suited to the ideas of the present day ; but which had a special 
 interest in that it was consecrated by Archbishop Cranmer, and said to be 
 the first place of Protestant worship consecrated in England. It is doubtless 
 right that these relics should pass away, and yet one cannot refrain from a 
 feeling of sorrow and untimely loss when they have gone. It is the sacrifice 
 of sentiment to convenience ; and the sentiment seems to be the stronger 
 fact of the two. The Black Beck of Torver is a beautiful episode in the 
 day's ramble, and the Black Beck Falls, flowing down from the mountain's 
 side and joining the Torver Beck which comes from Gait's Water lyin^; 
 under Dove or Dow or Dim Crags, are worthy of all renown. But indeed 
 these mountain cascades are so exquisite everywhere, that we might build 
 shrines and say our orisons of praise impartially and equally by all. 
 
 Then on, under the hoary fells, where gorse and bracken clothe the old 
 bleached bones with grace and glory; past Beacon Tarn, which, unless you 
 have chosen the higher road from Oxenhouse, you must go out of your way 
 to see, though it is not specially picturesque, being merely a well-sized pond 
 lying tranquilly on the dark brown moors of Beacon Hill, and sending out 
 
 exchanging his rights and estates. Tims, he gave ' Eos, with its fishponds and members 
 and appurtenances " for Berdesey and its fishponds;" and lie gave away Urswick and its 
 appurtenances, save the church. Muchlands was originally " Michael's Land," as Much 
 Urswick is only the corruption of Michael's Urswick : it is called Mychel-land in the 
 Denby records as the manor of Aldingham is called the manor of Muchluud. 
 
 263
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 a small thread of living water, known to the world as Beacon Beck, which 
 joins the Crake at Bouthray Bridge ; then by Water Yeat, and Arklid, and 
 Low Nibthwaite, first turning to note the whole length of the lake shining 
 like a bright blue ribbon from the copper sheds to the noble park at the 
 head. You are not among the mountains at the foot of the lake ; only 
 in the fell country, with the purple heights clustered against the sky in the 
 distance, and nothing but whitened rocks or dark stretches of mossy uplands 
 around you, bronzed or reddened as the growth upon them is dying fern 
 or seeding gorse or the elfin bells of heath or heather. There, away to the 
 south, lie the plains and the cities and the waste of sands and the eternal 
 sea ; there the loud whirr of the factory and the rattle of the steam engine, 
 the hoarse murmur of life concentrated, and the fierce struggle for existence 
 and pre-eminence for ever going on ; and here, up to the north, is the love- 
 liness of fell and flood, the noble peace of the mountain top, the grandeur 
 of the mountain torrent, the sufficing space, and the breadth and power of 
 true manhood : all emblemised in the glorious majesty of the Old Man, 
 standing up against the west like a royal lord, with his court of lower nobles 
 surrounding. Such a noble mass as he is, clothed now in this autumn time 
 in purple and gold, with a crown of crimson if it is in the evening and the 
 cloud wreaths are light and vapoury, but clothed ever with power and beauty, 
 no matter what the season or the weather. 
 
 And now you turn up the east side of the lake, seeing where the floating 
 island (for Coniston could once boast of this phenomenon as well as Derwent- 
 water and Esthwaite) got stranded among the reeds at Nibthwaite during a 
 high wind and heavy flood, and has never been able to get off again ; passing 
 by Gridiron or Peil or Montague Island as you choose, and then by Fir, or 
 Knott's Island sometimes island, sometimes promontory, according to the 
 rain-gauge where the wild balsam grows among the raspberries and black- 
 berries, and where, on the road-side bank across the way, a very cloud of 
 white convolvuluses hold up their "moonlight-coloured cups," and the grnss 
 of Parnassus shows its gold-green veins under its waxen skin. Then on 
 
 264
 
 CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD. 
 
 again, past pretty copses and over pleasant becks one, the Black Beck, though 
 not the "Black Beck of Torver" opposite with a wide wealth of flowers by 
 the wayside, and ever the noble mountain king to the left ; past Brantwood, 
 which Wordsworth's seat, where the great poet sat pronouncing this the 
 best view of the lake and the Old Man, has made classical ; past Tent Lodge, 
 made classical, too, by the tragedy of poor Elizabeth Smith, who, in her last 
 illness, used to be brought down to the lake-side here, and laid on her couch 
 under a tent, whence the name of the house succeeding ; up steep hills and 
 down sharp pitches,, through copses and by fields, and past the hazel-tree 
 where the toothwort grows under the stone at its root ; and so to the quaint 
 and ancient village again Church Coniston, at the foot of the Old Man. 
 And here, it may be well to say, that there are two Conistons, though not 
 two villages : Church Coniston on the west side of the lake, reaching from 
 Yewdale, or Yellow r or Udale, or Ulldale Beck to Torver, and backwards to 
 Fell Foot once a chapelry in Diversion parish, but made parochial in 1586; 
 and Monk Coniston on the east side r and at the head of the lake, a chapelry 
 in Hawkshead parish. 
 
 There are very few traditions about Church Coniston, but such as they 
 are, they may be had for the asking. For instance, there is that brawling, 
 rocky Church Beck, where a young miner was not drowned, but dashed to 
 pieces before he had time to drown^one dark night Avhen out a-courting ; 
 and there is Priest's Stile, so called it is said because an old priest died 
 suddenly while crossing it, or, according to another " saga," which got its 
 name from the frequency of the priest's visits to Coniston Hall, when the 
 right of Whittlegait was part of his stipend, and the larder at the hall the 
 most inviting ; for Priest's Stile leads to the Old Hall. Then there is 
 Jenkin Syke, where poor Jenkin's dead body, enclosed in its coffin, slipped 
 from the "sled" into the ditch, all unbeknown to the bearers until they 
 came to Torver, when they turned back for their burden and found it in 
 the " syke " or ditch just out of Conistou. This was in the days when 
 Coniston had no burying-place of its own, but was obliged to send all its 
 
 265 M M
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 deceased to Ulverston for interment and Christian "happing up." And 
 beside these far-away traditions, interesting only for the glimpse they afford 
 of the rougher ancient times, there is a certain classical savour remaining, 
 for the Black Bull was the "Howf" where De Quincey established himself 
 when he came to Coniston, and is therefore a fitting place of literary pilgrimage 
 in the eyes of some. Though, after all, this is not much on which to found 
 a Coniston Parnassus. 
 
 Of walks about, and to, and from, Coniston, there are plenty ; and numerous 
 excursions to be made into some of the finest and most striking scenery of 
 the lake district. Tilberthwaite and the Langdales, Windermere, and even 
 Derwentwater for the moderately strong who can take kindly to a mountain 
 walk of over twenty miles, Furness Abbey and the Duddon ; these are just 
 a few of the most noteworthy among a crowd of the desirable. Then there 
 is the road to Broughton, by the west side of the lake and over by the foot 
 of the Duddon fells ; but the better way is from Coniston to Seathwaite, over 
 Walna Scar, and so down the Duddon by the way you know. You do 
 not know the Walna Scar road yet ; you have not yet mounted that " brant 
 bit " rising so sharply out of the village mounting by what is a good road 
 enough in the beginning, but which soon goes off into rudeness as you creep 
 higher up on the flank of the Old Man, and the farms and fields of the 
 home-land sink lower. On the way and when the way is merely a dry 
 torrent bed, and well for you if dry turn aside to the "right, and steer 
 your course among bogs and stones and over watercourses and through 
 stretches of reedy grass, to Gait's Water, the progenitor of the turbulent 
 Torver Beck, which, by-the-by, gets lost in the ground soon after its issue 
 from the tarn ; and as you walk over the natural archway of moss and stones, 
 you hear it bubbling and running beneath your feet down in the earth. The 
 wildest of all the tarns is this of Gait's W r ater, hidden away under the bleak 
 rocks of Dow Crags, like the very wreckage of creation and the spoils 
 of a world foregone. Hemmed in on one side by a wall of precipice 
 black where the shadow, of a dead ashen colour where the sun, lies on those 
 
 266
 
 CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD. 
 
 jagged columns and shivering screes surrounded on another by a tumbled 
 mass of dark grey stones, at the roots of which foxes make their homes, 
 as the ravens used on the crest of the precipice lying far away from all 
 signs of man, with no outlet into the wider world beyond, no prospect of 
 distant lands, no opening to softer scenes it is the most weird-looking and 
 imprisoned of all the tarns ; as if a ghoul or an Afrit was chained and fettered 
 beneath its pitchy waters. In fact, it is a miniature Wastwater, as fierce 
 and savage in degree if not in extent ; and if seen on a gloomy day, with 
 the winter wind raving through the sky, or the sullen summer thunders 
 muttering overhead, it is a place where it would not be matter of surprise 
 if weak nerves lost their balance, and unsteady wits were overset. Close at 
 hand, too, to add to the weirdness and facility of terrifying imaginations, is 
 what is locally known as the Giant's Cave ; a large deserted slate quarry, 
 about which are some tremendous traditions of how it goes right through the 
 very entrails of the Old Man, falling into the copper mines on its way, and 
 coming out on the other side a terrible place, filled with bogies and 
 kobolds and gnomes and all manner of evil influences, and utterly impos- 
 sible to be explored through all its extent with safety to life or limb ; so say 
 the gobemouches of the district. 
 
 Now ascend (if you can) the rocky ridge that divides you from Low 
 Water the highest of the Coniston tarns, Levers Water lying just below 
 it where the hairy (?) trout used to live ; a big monster very nearly as 
 apocryphal as the Adam and Eve of Bowscale ; and see the ripple and the 
 shadow chase each other like smiles and sighs over its steel-grey face, and 
 then scramble back to the main road again, where the view, even though 
 familiar, will seem to you of divine sweetness by contrast with the savagencss 
 you have just left. 
 
 There is Coniston lake from Waterhead to Nibthwaite and on by the 
 shining Crake to the glittering sea beyond ; and there is Windermere with 
 its islands like a nest full of young birds, and the pleasant line of the Lrvrn 
 running down to meet the Crake at the root of that rich tongue of land thrust 
 
 267 M M -'
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 out between Morecambe Bay and the estuary of the Duddon, one of the 
 "papillae" of which is Furness Abbey; and there is Black Combe like a 
 darkened Pharos built up against the sea ; and, if the air is clear, you may 
 see the hills of the Isle of Man, St. Bees Head, and the Scotch mountains 
 faintly : but at all times, save those of persistent gloom, you may 
 see Bowfell and Great End out by Borrowdale, and Scawfell Pikes and 
 Scawfell proper, and the Pillar and the other Ennerdale mountains ; and 
 ever the sweet valleys lying peacefully at the giant feet bestriding them, and 
 ever the glittering expanse of sea, with the long thin lines of dusky grey 
 where the steamers are passing up and down. 
 
 Then down the steep path to Seathwaite ; diverging on your way to 
 Blind Tarn, that voiceless pool which no clear stream issuing therefrom 
 reveals or expresses ; unique in this " blindness " and isolation ; very different 
 to its neighbour which sends out a mountain river every step of which is a 
 cascade, and the voices of whose waters are noisy exceedingly, and of wonderful 
 variety of modulation. Thence to the ruins on Black Fell, which archaeologists 
 pronounce definitively to have been what Dan Birkett says they were, " the 
 ruins of a city of t' ould ancient Britons," though they cannot date them 
 quite accurately ; but which certain shrewd shepherds, without reverence, say 
 are merely the remains of an abandoned "peat-scale," a building used for 
 storing peats before carting them away for use in the farms and cottages, thus 
 bringing into actual life Sir Walter's famous satire and rebuke. Then back 
 to the road again and stop to admire that little oasis of fields and farms, 
 the first meeting of human habitation which befals you, and perhaps for that 
 reason striking you as so specially sweet and homelike. And now on to New- 
 field, by the rugged path and the leaping stream and the flowers and the ferns 
 and the purple heather, and so to Broughton if your will carries you there ; 
 or by Wrynose and the Three Shire Stones, to Langdale at your pleasure. 
 
 But the day of days at Coniston is the day spent on the Old Man, that 
 lig old patriarch of two thousand six hundred and fifty feet, with his "wife" 
 
 268
 
 CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD. 
 
 .and " son " in his arms, and Wetherlam, his friend, by his side. You go 
 up through Church Coniston, and by the old Walna Scar road, past the 
 blue slate quarry where the birds' nests, built on the ledges, show 
 desertedness and long disuse, even more eloquently than the tufts of ling 
 and closeness of white heath bedstraw; and when a steep pull has set you 
 well on to the fell, note for they are worth noting with much love 
 the tossing, tumbling Boon Beck falls in the ghyll yonder the Boon Beck 
 being the joint production of Low Water and Levers Water, aided by a third 
 anonymous stream forking that of Low Water. Then to the coppermiues, 
 Avith the yellow veins glittering like gold in the shining quartz, and where 
 you may go through the whole process and mystery of mining, even to a 
 descent in profimdum, and the pleasant chance of knocking your head against 
 the roof and grazing your shoulders and elbows against the walls of the mine 
 passages. In old times these mines were wrought on somewhat the same 
 principles as those by which Hannibal cut his way through the Alps : the 
 rocks were heated with fire, to the utmost heat attainable, then suddenly 
 cooled with water, which caused them to split and crack sufficiently to admit 
 the old workmen's rude wedges ; some of which, scarcely fit for a modern 
 Christian's " darrack," have been found jammed into the rock. They use gun- 
 powder and the ordinary process of blasting now ; generally without evil results, 
 but sometimes to the destruction of the workman ; as witness that fatal cut called 
 " Simon Nick," still to be seen in the face of a precipice not far off, where 
 one luckless Simon once made his ill-omened nick for blasting, but got caught 
 in a premature explosion and so was blown to eternity unawares. Refuse 
 heaps are about the mouth of the mines, troughs and water-pools, broken 
 beams and rusted iron, and all the litter and lumber belonging ; but they 
 are not so desolate-looking as the Greenside mines at Ullswater, and have 
 a more heartsome and inhabited appearance generally. And in truth they 
 are inhabited ; and not only with human beings ; for they are also 
 swarming with rats, which get sustained by some mysterious process of 
 assimilation unexplained, seeing that they have nothing but quartz and 
 
 269
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 copper to eat ; if they do not take to clay for a diversion. Higher up, and 
 seemingly unconnected with the lower works, is a huge waterwheel, turning 
 round as if for the benefit of the crows and ravens only; but in reality it 
 hoists the kibbles in the mines below to a certain level, and does its business 
 none the less effectually because remotely. 
 
 Then, leaving the mines, a rough and steep road leading zigzag up 
 the hill takes you to some more works at Paddy End, and on to Kernal 
 Crag; this last, a huge mass of solid rock with a face of broken precipice 
 turned, threatening and impassable, against you. There is always a raven's 
 nest on Kernal Crag. Let the shepherds kill one or even both the parent 
 birds, with a nestful of younglings to look after by which bereavement 
 it is expected they will all perish and the world be rid of that generation, 
 at least so surely do other ravens appear and take the orphans under 
 their charge. It is said to be impossible to exterminate the ravens on 
 Kernal Crag only one nest and one brood yearly, but a constant succession 
 of foster-parents, and the orphans fed by strange maternal charity let the 
 shepherds shoot " till their arms drop off." 
 
 Then up and up, the way now becoming very steep, to the edge of 
 Levers Water, the largest of all the tarns and one of the most beautiful, 
 both in shape and position ; nearly round and measuring a mile in circum- 
 ference, with copper-mines near, to the uses of which it is turned. It 
 lies between the Old Man and Wetherlam, and is not far from Low Water, 
 the highest of the Old Man's lakelets, and placed immediately under the 
 highest point Buckbarrow Crags surrounding and overtopping it. It is 
 as famous for foxes as Gaits Water ; the fallen rocks affording the same kind 
 of harbourage. And here it may be mentioned, what perhaps every one 
 would not see for themselves even by looking at a map, that all the Waters 
 on the Old Man lie to the west, and the Tarns to the north : though no 
 one now knows why that distinction of terms was made. Now go along 
 the bad road that you will find to the west of Levers Water ; see Oukrigg 
 precipice ; toil up the side of a watercourse ; see Ghyll cove ; mount Brimfell, 
 
 2:0
 
 CONISTOX AND HAWKSHEAD. 
 
 which you will find as stiff a bit of work as you can desire ; and then on to the 
 narrow ledge of rock and fell which leads you to the top " the varra topmost 
 towerin' height," of the Old Man the Alt Maeu, as some people say it is 
 righteously, and according to etymology the Giant of Coniston Lake. 
 
 And now see your view. It sweeps round, as the outline, from Lancaster 
 to the Scottish hills, seen over Skiddaw but faintly, and from Crossfell to 
 Ingleborough ; some indeed adding to the list Snowdon and Slieve Donard 
 in Ireland. But these are the exceptionally clear-sighted who have made the 
 ascent on exceptionally clear days, so are not to be taken as averages of 
 what ordinary travellers may expect. Black Combe is there dark against the 
 brightness, and Devoke Water filled yet with the fine fat trout, the fore- 
 fathers of which the merry monks of Furness brought from Italy, to help the 
 lentils and dry bread of abstinence days ; Scawfell and Wastwater you see ; 
 the Borrowdale hills in a confused, inextricable mass ; Skiddaw, Blencathra, 
 and all the huge Helvellyn range, including Fairfield and Seat Sandal, Steel 
 Fell, and the other lower heights ; Langdale Pikes and Stickle Tarn ; the 
 Kirkstone Hills and High Street ; 111 Bell ; Windermere in fragments ; and 
 the sea beyond the valley. All these the eye takes in with loving admiration, 
 while, lying seemingly close under you, are Seathwaite Tarn and the valley 
 of the Duddon, Coniston Lake, and the houses and fields belonging, with the 
 sparkling threads of running rivers, and the foam of the hill-side falls. And 
 then, right against you, highest and grandest of all from where you stand, 
 is the sober face of your companion, Wetherlam, and the mysteries of the 
 Tarns and Waters not a stone's throw from you. 
 
 Come down by the slate quarries again ; for almost all the mountain, 
 where it is not copper, is of a fine blue roofing slate, of varying quality and 
 of varying uses for "London," "Country," "Tom," and "Peg," do not 
 represent the same geological conditions or the same commercial value. Then 
 see the Pudding Stone, that great travelled boulder of the like nature as the 
 Borrowdale Bowder Stone ; see High and Low Crawberry, with Crawberry 
 Hawse between, the Old Man's " Sons," those queer protuberant gemini, 
 
 271
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 standing like massive heads crusted over with turf and stone; see all that 
 lies before and behind and around you, and then fall into the road again, 
 thankful for the emotions learnt on the heart of Coniston Old Man. 
 
 Another beautiful walk is to be had from Coniston to the Ferry 
 (Windermere), passing by High Cross, Esthwaite Water, and Sawrey ; 
 adding the ascent of Iron Eeld off the old Ambleside-road, going by Tarn 
 Hawse, and coining down by Borwick Lodge. From Iron Keld is to be had 
 one of the finest views of the whole lake district, at the least expendi- 
 ture of force and from the most unusual level. For you see the other 
 mountain ranges, not from a commanding height and thus flattened and 
 foreshortened, but breast-high and face to face, so that you can understand 
 all their magnificence and rejoice in their relative positions and distinctive 
 features of structure undiminished by any tricks of perspective. This view 
 from Iron Keld is very little known ; it does not come into the programme 
 of the ordinary lake tourist, and only a few of the more adventurous ever 
 dream of exploring out-of-the-way places ; so that, save the immediate neigh- 
 bours who ferret out all things strange or lovely in their locality, the marvels 
 to be seen from Iron Keld are as though they were not. 4 
 
 When you have seen as much as you have time for, come down into the 
 wild fell-road again, noticing the gorgeous autumn colouring of the way, till 
 you come to Hawkshead Hall, called Hawks Hall in old deeds, that low- 
 
 4 This is the roll-call of what you can see from the top of Iron Keld. Black Comhe, 
 the Old Man, Wetherlam, Wrynose, Crinkle Crags, Scawfell, Bowfell, Skiddaw, Helvellyn, 
 Seat Sandal, Fairfield, Nab Scar, Ilydal Park, Arnold Crag, Scandale, Kirkstone Pass, 
 Red Screes, 111 Bell and Froswick, the Kentmere Hills, Farleton Knot, Ingleborough, 
 Wyresdale Fells, Morecambe Bay, the Furness Fells, Greenodd, Ulverston, and the Diiddon 
 again. This is the outline. In the. inner circle the middle distance Coniston Lake, 
 The Tarns on Borwick Moor, Yewdale and Oxenfell, Little LangdaJe, the Pikes and 
 Fellfoot, Great Langdale, Elterwater, and Loughi-igg Tarn and Fell, Amhlcside, Winder- 
 mere, Blellam Tarn, Bowness, Latterbarrow, Lindal Fell and Heald Brow, Hawkshead, 
 and Esthwaite Water. 
 
 272
 
 CONISTON AISD HA \VKESHEAD. 
 
 1 rowed ecclesiastical-looking old place, where the monks from Furness used 
 to come at stated times to hold their manorial Court of Rights, looking after 
 the temporalities while administering spiritual life and consolation and the 
 righteous ordinances of the Church. It is a pleasantly placed old house, with 
 noble trees about it, and the brawling Hawkshead beck running through the 
 grounds ; and it stands well for a sketch, which can be made without difficulty, 
 leaning against the stone wall fencing off the house and its appurtenances 
 from the highway. Like all these old places where the church met the parish, 
 and pocketed the proceeds, it is turned now to very low mundane uses, being 
 merely a barn and " shippon," or barn and beast-place, instead of the lordly 
 dwelling, and the holy, of old time. 
 
 Then on to Hawkshead, 5 where again the evidences of the past 6 meet you 
 in the face, and where the spirit of the departed is mightier than that of the 
 present. It is a desolate-looking town enough, bleak and uncomfortable, as if 
 it wanted counterpanes and blankets on winter nights; the want of "snug- 
 ness " being the want most evident of all. The church is of the same class 
 as Crosthwaite, but dedicated to St. Michael instead of to St. Kentigern, with 
 one tablet against the wall worth noticing, and one tombstone in the church- 
 yard, that of Elizabeth Smith's. Hawkshead has a grammar-school of some 
 
 5 Hawkshead has four townships Hawkshead, Monk Coniston with Skelwith, Claife 
 including Sawrey, and Satterthwaite including Grizedale. It was a perpetual curacy only, 
 though called a vicarage, and was ecclesiastically under Ulverston ; but Diversion was 
 ecclesiastically under Dalton. In or about 1200 a dispute arose as to which of the t\\<> 
 belonged a chapel at Hawkshead, when it was shown by old testimony that Ulverston had 
 been dependent on Urswick, and Urswick on Dalton. Urswick, like every other valley in 
 the days of the origin of names, gave a denomination to a family. Yet Urswick is tke 
 Wick of Urse, which seems a misnomer somehow. 
 
 6 In the time of Elizabeth certain " blomaries " or iron smithies were suppressed at the 
 common request of the tenants of Hawkshead and Coulton, that the tops and cropping <>i 
 the woods might be preserved for the nourishment of the cattle. Christ. Sandys, gent., and 
 Wm. Sawrey leased these smithies, and paid the Queen twenty pounds annually for tin- 
 wood. At the suppression the tenants charged themselves with this rent, called blooinsmitliy 
 or wood-rent, assessed on and by the customary tenants. These Uoomaries first belonged t.i 
 Furness, then to the Crown, and nave since been bought by private individuals 
 
 273 N N
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 note, founded in 1588, by Archbishop Sandys, whose family came into Furness 
 before the time of Henry VI., and where the two Wordsworths were educated. 
 The old prelate, the friend of Cranmer, Jewel, and Hooker the "judicious," 
 is represented by the family at Graythwaite High, where are also other 
 relics 7 of the past beside genealogical traditions. Hawkshead is not a very 
 stirring place by history or by fact. The only register of consequence in the 
 parish books, beside the record of its numerous charities, is of a tremendous 
 storm in the summer of 1686, an account of which is given at full length, 
 as in the note below. 8 It is perhaps better for a parish to be so destitute of 
 disturbance ; but only in the sense in which it is better to be an oyster than a 
 man ; thus avoiding anguish, but also foregoing nobleness and the sphere of 
 noble action. It has Esthwaite for its lake ; full of pike, as well as of such 
 other fish as that ogre of the waters will suffer to exist in its vicinity, with its 
 floating island, bearing alders and willows, careering about the little offset at 
 the head called Priest's Pot ; though why so called no one knows, if many 
 guess. It was here that Wordsworth laid the scene of his famous skating 
 
 7 A Saxon commill, with a small channel and a circular recess like a basin, was found 
 in Field Head Moss, near Graythwaite High, at ploughshare depth. Graythwaite High is 
 the seat of the Sandys, who came into Furness before the reign of Henry VI. : Graythwaite 
 Low, of the Sawreys of the time of Henry VIII. There is a yew-tree at Graythwaite 
 Head which is sixty-four inches in girth at the height of six feet above ground. 
 
 8 " Be it remembered that upon the tenth day of June, at nighte, in the yeare of our Lord 
 God one thousand six hundred eighty and six, there was such a fearfull thunder with fyrn 
 and rayne, which occasioned such a terrible flood, as the like of it was never seene in these 
 parts of no man liveninge, for it did throwe down some houses and mills, and tooke away 
 several! briggs, the water also did run through houses, and did much hurte to houses, 
 besides the water washed down trees and timber, and the rills carried them, with stones and 
 
 other things, a greate waye off, where they layd on ground : yea, further, the water did 
 
 so fiercely run down the hye ways, made such deepe holes and ditches in them, that at 
 severall places neither horses nor foote coulde passe, and the brookes and - did so 
 breake out of their places that they brought exceedinge greatt sand beds into men's grounds 
 at many places, which did greater hurte than ever like was knowne. I pray God of his 
 gront mercy grant that nomi which is now liveninge never see the like again." 
 
 274
 
 CONISTON AND IIAWKESHEAD. 
 
 picture ; here that Matthew was dreaming on the old grey stone, and "growing 
 double " as he dreamed ; and here, too, is the yew-tree, on the seat near which 
 were left the lines beginning : 
 
 " Nay, traveller! rest. This lonely yew-tree stands 
 Far from all human dwelling." 
 
 Esthwaite is not a large lake, though not one of the smallest, being 
 sixth in degree from the smallest standing indeed eleventh in the scale, 
 of which Windermere is the largest and Brothers Water the least. The 
 stream therefrom is the Cunsey Beck, which flows into Windermere, 
 having first made Out Dubs Tarn and Eel House Pool, above the first 
 of which is Ees Bridge, whence a glorious view is to be had, with the 
 special grace of Helvellyn standing as a distant background, and filling 
 in the bounding lines with a mightier sweep than any other hill repeats. 
 
 From Esthwaite water which you leave before you have seen the last 
 ripple at the foot you go through the Sawreys, High and Low, where 
 you may see where " Cooks' braw bog house " once held all the Saw- 
 reyans during a Scottish raid ; and a braw bog house it must have been 
 to have sheltered all the people on that dreadful day. And from the 
 Sawreys you wind down the hill where the old blasted tree used once 
 to stand, and on to the ferry and the Fashion of the lakes again. 
 
 Another way takes you to Ambleside by the Brathay and Skelwith, passing 
 under Loughrigg Fell by the road we know of; unless Blellam Tarn is 
 preferred instead, and the walk over the Wrays, both High and Low. And 
 another famous Coniston walk is into Yewdale and on to Tilberthwaite 
 that most picturesque of all the fell foot valleys, lying between Oxenfell and 
 Wetherlam; or by Oxenfell into Tilberthwaite. But the first is perhaps 
 the most beautiful, because you keep under the steep wall of Couiston Crags. 
 If you go into Yewdale you must look out for the old yew-tree, the 
 patriarch of the Yewdale family, which, people do say, dates somewhere near 
 the deluge, and which is a living fable as it is, with no exaggeration to help 
 
 275 X X 2
 
 TIIK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 its fabulousness. But there are plenty of yew-trees in the dale generally ; 
 and at High Yewdale (a farm of that name) is a small wood of them quaintly 
 clipped and carved into all manner of monstrous shapes ; the taste for which 
 came in with our Dutch William. Then you can go to Esthwaite over the 
 Grizedale fells if you like ; or stop short at Grizedale if you like that better, 
 though you will not come to much when you get there ; still, it is a wild walk, 
 and you see how the remoter dalesmen live, and what manner of minds and 
 thoughts spring up in these far-away regions. In short, you can go every- 
 where to or from Coniston ; but for all that, it is not one of the more 
 frequented of the lakes : though, like many other things little flattered, it 
 is among the more deserving of praise. And now turn down to the south, 
 and set your face to the Abbey, of which this lovely lake was formerly the 
 fief, and see where the Lords of Furness and of Coniston used to live and 
 have their beinsf. 
 
 CONISTON WATER
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 BEAUTIFUL as Furness 1 is now at this present time, with its noble ruin glowing 
 among the autumn trees and across the rich meadows of its native glen, 
 its main interest lies in the past. The system of which it is the representative 
 
 1 Frudernesse or Futhernesse Fudemesiain Stephen's charter, 1120 the farthest point 
 or promontory, according to some ; according to others, Fruder's point or promontory ; 
 but Fruder's identity left undetermined. Originally the name was Bekangsghyll, the Glen 
 of the Deadly Nightshade, from Lethel Bekan, the solanum lethale. So says one John Stcll, 
 a monk and poetical historian of the time of Henry VI.. in his famous lines : 
 " Hsec vallis olim sibi nomen ah licrl>;i 
 Bekan. qua viruit, dulcis mine, tune sed acerb:) : 
 Inde domus nomen, Bekansgill, claruit ante." 
 
 277
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 was one of so much importance in our English life, it was at one time so 
 wholly the law and the gospel, the guide of man's soul and the guardian of 
 his body, that we cannot regard these ruins only as beautiful red sandstone 
 architecture, but must go back to the days when they formed one of the thrones 
 and castles of the rule set up throughout England for all men to obey. 
 
 Furness Abbey was a wide domain. The Lordship 2 included all that land 
 between the Duddon and the Leven, and the sea and Windermere. It followed 
 the water-line, beginning at the mouth of the Duddon and tracking the 
 stream up to its source on Wrynose (then called the Wrinrose Hills), going 
 down the opposite side with the infant Brathay, taking in Elterwater, following 
 the Brathay to Windermere, and thence along the west side of the lake 
 by the Leven to the sea again, where it swept in the Leven sands, the Isle 
 of Foulney, the Pile of Fouldrey, 3 and the Isle of Walney. 4 On which 
 last was built Peil Castle, 5 (the ruins to be seen yet near the landing pier,) 
 by an abbot of Furness in the time of Edward III. 
 
 2 The Duke of Buccleugh is the present Lord of the Liberty of Furness, and Ulverston 
 manor is part of the same Liberty, which went to Furness by the grant of Stephen. At 
 the Dissolution the Crown seized what the Crown had given, or at least confirmed ; but 
 Charles II. gave the lordship to John, Duke of Albemarle, as a reward for his services, 
 and from him it passed by various descents and purchases to the Duke of Buccleugh and 
 his heirs. Various privileges are attached to the Liberty, amongst them that of executing 
 all writs, processes, and precepts of her Majesty within the limits. 
 
 3 Where Lambert Simnel landed in 1487. 
 
 4 The boundaries of Furness and the barony of Kendal are mentioned in the coucher's 
 books of the Abbey. " Ab Eltrewatra ad Tillesbure, et inde ad Conigston et inde ad caput 
 de Thurstin Watra (Coniston Water) , et per ripam ipsius Aque, usque Crek, et inde ad 
 Levenam." Later in another deed : " Ab Eltrewatra per vallem de Tildebtirghthwaite, inde 
 per Ywedale bee ad Conigton, sic in Thurstin Water, &c." WHITAKEU'S History of 
 Bichmondshire. 
 
 5 Peil was reported to Elizabeth in 1588 as the only good haven for great ships between 
 Milford Haven and Scotland. The famous " Papist Dr. Allen was bom hard by the pyle : " 
 and at the time of the Armada it was named as one of the places for the likely landing of 
 the Spaniards : one reason thereof being its fine harbourage ; the other, and in those days 
 the most conclusive, that the depiity lieutenant was a Catholic. 
 
 278
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 The Abbot's power was equal to his domain, and recognized no other 
 man's sovereignty or independence. He was the one absolute autocrat of 
 his territory, and exacted the same oath of allegiance as was paid to the 
 king. In all matters, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, he was supreme, 
 ordering the supplies of men and the raising of armies for the border service 
 or his own uses 6 as he liked; subject to the king only in so much that 
 he was bound to furnish him with arms and men, when a general levy was 
 commanded. He had the patronage of all the churches, save one, in his 
 Lordship, and the appointment of the coroner, the chief constable, and all 
 the officers connected with the Courts Baron ; "he and all his men were free 
 from all county amerciaments and suits of counties and wapentake ; " he 
 had a free market, a fair, and a criminal court at Dalton ; in fact, he had 
 all manner of rights everywhere, " with sac and soc, tol and team, infangene- 
 theof, 7 and everything within Furness, except the lands of Michael le 
 Fleming," as Stephen's charter expressed it. He issued summonses and 
 attachments by his own bailiffs ; he had the return of all the writs, and 
 his territories were closed against the sheriff and his officers under any 
 pretext whatsoever. His lands and his tenants were exempt from all 
 " talliage, toll, passage, pontage, and vectigal ; " and the man who presumed 
 
 6 " The military establishment of Fumess likewise depended on the Abbot. Every 
 mesne lord and free liomager, as well as the customary tenants, took an oath of fealty to the 
 Abbot, to be true to him against all men, excepting the king. Every mesne lord obeyed 
 the summons of the Abbot, or his steward, in raising his quota of armed men, and eveiy 
 tenant of a whole tenement furnished a man and a horse of war for guarding the coast, for 
 the border service, or any expedition against the common enemy of the long and kingdom. 
 The habiliments of war were a steel coat, or coat of mail, a falce or falchion, a jack, tin 1 
 bow, the byll, the crossbow, and spear. The Furness legion consisted of four divisions 
 one of bowmen horsed and harnessed ; bylmen horsed and harnessed ; bowmen without 
 horse and harness ; bylnien without horse and harness." Antiquities of Furness. 
 
 7 Saccum, the power of imposing fines ; soccuin, the power of administering justice ; 
 tollum, the right of levying tolls ; team or theam, a royalty granted for trying bondsmen 
 
 and villeins, with sovereign power over the villein, tenants, their wives, children, and g Is 
 
 (abolished 12 Car. II.) ; infangthefe, the power of judging theft. 
 
 279
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 to disturb or molest my lord abbot or any of his tenants was to pay a 
 fine of ten pounds to the king. In addition to which he was the owner 
 and occupant of almost half the low country, and he and his order had 
 prolations, privileges, and immunities of every kind. One of which was, that 
 as the sands of Morecambe Bay were dangerous (sixteen men having been 
 drowned therein at one time, and six at another), the Abbot of Furness prayed 
 Edward II. that he might have a frank-pledge and coroner of his own, " for 
 everywhere it would be the salvation of one soul at least ; " which was 
 granted. Another was, that he was absolved from the obligation of appearing 
 at the wapentake of Staincliffe and Friendless in York, it being a long way 
 off forty miles, with two dangerous arms of the sea to cross; wherefore 
 my lord abbot was allowed to appear there by proxy, and in the person of 
 an attorney only. In fact, he was the greatest man in the whole north 
 country ; and that wild and savage Lordship of Furness was as absolute an 
 autocracy as Russia or China at the present day ; happily, perhaps, for 
 the district, which had greater chance of good rule and civilizing influences 
 under the monks of Furness than if it had been under the ruder hand of 
 some lawless old baron or God-denying knight, intent only on rapine and 
 revel. The ecclesiastical rule of the middle ages might be hard and heavy 
 and unloving, but it was not so actively oppressive, nor so thoroughly evil 
 as many another. 
 
 Originally the monastery of Furness was of the Savignian order of 
 St. Benedict, and was established at Tulketh in Amoundernesse, a branch of 
 the Kibble near Preston. But two years after, namely, in 1127, it was 
 taken by its founder and patron, Stephen, 8 then Earl of Morton and 
 
 8 " In the name of the Blessed Trinity, and in honour of St. Mary of Furness, I, 
 Stephen, Earl of Bologne and Moreton, consulting God, and providing for the safety of my 
 own soul, the soul of my wife, the Countess Matilda, the soul of my lord and uncle 
 Henry, King of England and Duke of Normandy, and for the souls of all the faithful, 
 living as well as dead, in the year of our Lord 1127 of the Roman indiction, the 5th 
 and 18th of the Epact. Considering every day the uncertainty of life, that the roses and 
 flowers of kings, emperors, and dukes, and the crowns and palms of the great wither and 
 
 280
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 Boulogne, to Furness, where it reigned as we have seen in absolute supre- 
 macy until the Dissolution in 1537. In the meantime it changed its order 
 and its colour. In 1148, under the Pontificate of Eugenius, the whole 
 Savignian order passed over into the Cistercian, 9 or Bernardine, in honour 
 of St. Bernard of Citeaux (hence the name), who remodelled the Benedictine 
 rules. And after a severe struggle with the conservative element of the 
 house, Bajocis, the fifth Abbot of Furness, and his prior and his almoner 
 and all the rest of the body, made themselves Cistercians like the rest, and 
 were no longer the Grrey monks but the White. For instead of the grey 
 dress which had formerly marked them, cassock, cowl, and scapulary were 
 
 decay, and that all things, with an uninterrupted course, tend to dissolution and death, I 
 therefore return, give and grant to God and St. Mary of Fumess, all Furness and "\Valney 
 (Wagnea), with the privilege of hunting; with Dalton and all my lordsliip in Furness 
 (infra Frudemisiam) , with the men and everything belonging, that is in woods and in open 
 groxmd, in land and in water; and Ulverston (Olvestonam), and Roger Braithwaite, with 
 all that belongs to him ; my fisheries at Lancaster and Little Guoiing (Guorenem Pan-am), 
 with all the lands thereof, with sac and soc, tol and team, iufangtheof, and everything 
 within Furness, except the lands of Michael le Fleming : with this view and upon this 
 condition, That in Furness an order of regular monks be, by divine permission, established ; 
 which gift and offering I, by supreme authority, appoint to be for ever obsen r ed ; and that it 
 may remain firm and inviolate for ever, I subscribe this charter with my hand, and confirm 
 it with the sign of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " HEXRY, King of England and Duke of Normandy. 
 THURSTAN, Archbishop of York. 
 
 " AUDIN.) -r>. , 
 
 \ Bishops. 
 
 BOCKO, / 
 
 " ROBERT, Keeper of the Seal. 
 
 ROBERT, Earl of Gloster." 
 
 9 The spread of the Cistercian order was very rapid. Beginning with its titular saint 
 and twelve monks who filiated from Citeaux, it soon rose to such repute that St. Bernard 
 himself founded one hundred and sixty monasteries, and in fifty years from its first 
 establishment it had eight hundred abbeys. In England and Wales were eighty-five Houses 
 of Cistercians, two only in Lancaster, namely, Furness and Whalley ; but nine in all as 
 dependencies or filiations from Fumess, the House of most importance in England, after, 
 perhaps, Fountains in Yorkshire. All the Cistercian Houses were dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 281 O O
 
 T1IK LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 now white, with, in full choir, a girdle of black wool with a mozet or hood 
 coming down in front as far as the girdle, where it was rounded off, and 
 falling to the mid leg behind. When they went abroad they wore a cowl 
 and full black hood ; but each house had its distinctive marks and signs ; 
 the description above is only general to the order. Furness once disputed 
 with its brother abbey of Waverley in Sussex. It was on a question of 
 precedence, wherein the pride of both holy fathers was roused almost to 
 bloodshed point, and the Christian virtues got sadly put out of court 
 hi favour of the ecclesiastical. It was a long quarrel and a hard one, but 
 it was settled at last by the good offices of the calm-headed ; when it was 
 arranged that the Abbot of Furness should have precedence through all the 
 houses of eleemosyna in England, and that the Abbot of Waverley should 
 be foremost in the Chapter of Abbots, with superiority over the whole order ; 
 which was not supremacy, be it remembered. This was about the hardest 
 lesson that the proud House of Furness ever had to learn, till the end of 
 all monkish things, when the abbot was fain to accept as his pension for 
 life the rectory of Dalton, valued at thirty-three pounds six shillings and 
 eightpence per annum. Rather an awkward translation for the head of a 
 sovereign and independent establishment, worth, according to Dugdale, 
 805Z. 16s. 5d. per annum, or 946L 2s. 10c/., according to others ; and 
 766/. 7s. WcL, by Speed's calculation ; exclusive of the woods, meadows, 
 pastures, and fisheries retained in the hands of -the monastery, and the 
 mines, salt-works, and mills belonging, which would bring up the revenue 
 to something more than princely. 
 
 Some of the painted glass formerly belonging to the Abbey, is in Bowness 
 churchyard ; the Virgin Mary, St. John, the Crucifixion, a group of monks 
 and their abbot, some angels, St. George and the dragon, St. Catharine and 
 her wheel, the arms of France and England, and the arms of various patrons 
 and benefactors of the Abbey I,ancaster, Urswick, Le Fleming, Millom, &c. 
 are yet to be seen. The glass belonged to the large east window a magnificent 
 and noble inlet of God's light ; r.nd on the outside, under an arched festoon,
 
 FUHNE8S ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 are still the crowned heads of Stephen and Maud, his queen, which have 
 evidently been finely executed. But the red sandstone of which the church 
 and abbey were built is not good for finer sculpture. In the south wall, and 
 at the west end of the church, are four seats with Gothic ornaments ; and in 
 the middle space, where the first strong-handed old Barons of Keudal were 
 interred, lies the figure of a man in armour, cross-legged. As West's account 
 is the best that has been given yet, and as the ruins are very much in the same 
 condition as when he wrote of them, it is better to give part of his description 
 as it stands, than to run the risk of obscuring what else is so plain and distinct. 
 " 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, supposing each of the pillars to be eighteen inches in diameter, the 
 room would be divided into three alleys or passages, each fourteen 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 these 
 pillars, would have a truly Gothic disproportional 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, besides a pair at the higher end, at present entire, and 
 which illustrate 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. 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 is supposed to have been 
 a private chapel to the Guest Hall. 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 pillars, whereof 
 
 283 OO2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 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 Bievaulx Abbies. 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 Cistercian 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 ruins 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." 
 
 And now in these glorious grounds, where formerly the mighty Abbot 
 and his monks walked and prayed and framed the laws of their generation, 
 is a grand hotel for summer tourists, full of all modern luxury and modern 
 self-assertion : the greatest contrast to that great thing of the past that could 
 have been possibly made : greater even than a row of modern barracks, or a 
 union, or a police-station would have been. The Furness Abbey Hotel is 
 an essay in itself on the change of society included in the title. 
 
 The seal of the House was the Virgin and child in a circle, she with a 
 crown, the nimbus, and a globe, he with only the nimbus ; on either side 
 were two escutcheons of the House of Lancaster, supported by bundles of 
 nightshade, and charged with the three lions of England. At the base each 
 shield was supported by two monks in full habit ; in the foreground were two 
 plants of nightshade, and over each monk's head a sprig of the same. The 
 wyvern in the lower compartment was the device of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, 
 and the legend was " Sigillum. Commvne. Domvs. Beate. Marie, de. Furnesio." 
 
 284
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 Until the time of Pope Sixtus IV. the rules of the order as to fasting and 
 devotional exercises were very severe ; but the good Pontiff, taking into account 
 the frailties of human nature, granted them the privilege of meat thrice a 
 week, for which a special room, distinct from the usual Refectory, was fitted up 
 in every monastery. They were great benefactors in their way, and did their 
 best for the land and the people committed to their charge no doubt with 
 an eye always to the advantage of the House and the permanence of their 
 influence ; but still, under this restriction, they did their best. They built 
 chapels and threw out new Houses, as bees throw off new swarms ; they 
 enclosed waste places, and favoured piety and learning ; if they laid their 
 grip heavily on purse or scrip, it was with less cruel clenching of the fingers 
 than the mailed hand would have had ; and on the whole the- rule of that 
 great Cistercian autocracy was no hindrance to the progress or prosperity of 
 the subjects living under its sway. 10 
 
 Though Furness was the seat of ecclesiastical supremacy in the pro- 
 montory, consequently of greatest importance to men and history, there were 
 many other places of interest round about. There was, rather there is, the 
 beautiful Conishead Priory, the paradise of Furness, founded by William 
 
 10 In the reign of Edward I. the Abbot of Furness, to whom belonged the bailiwick of 
 Coulton, enclosed by royal licence Abbott Stott, Oxen and Hill Parks, all in the said parish. 
 By indenture dated the 28th of January, 1 Henry VIII., each tenant was allotted his pro- 
 portion of common by a jury composed of the monks of Furness and the tenantry of Coulton. 
 The lands feU to the Duchy on the dissolution of the monasteries, and were held of Queen 
 Elizabeth by customary land, and bloomsmithy or wood-rents. 
 
 285
 
 THE LAKE COUXTHY. 
 
 Tailbois the first baroii of Kendal ; for though the name still remains, 
 it is only as belonging to a gentleman's mansion built on the old site. And 
 there is Dalton, which used to be a Roman station 11 as well as the capital 
 of the district in the time of the Abbey and before the rise of Ulverston, and 
 which West thinks must have been the mother church, if antiquity and 
 seniority go for anything. Dalton, too, was the place where George Romney 
 the painter was born one fifteenth of December (1734) ; at least at Bankside 
 or Cocken, nigh at hand and in the parish. Certain old customs are still 
 kept up here : such as the cherry fair the child's fair, held on the Sunday 
 before Lammas ; the habit of hiring reapers on Sundays in harvest time ; 
 and the strange fashion at funerals of not only giving bread and cheese at 
 the house, but, when the corpse is buried, of the clerk proclaiming at the 
 grave- side that the company must assemble at some public-house appointed, 
 where they sit in groups of four to each four one quart of ale allowed, 
 half to be paid by the conductor of the funeral, and half by the company. 
 In the meantime the waiter goes round with cakes, and gives one to each 
 guest, which he must carry home with him, not eat. And then the Dalton 
 Crag is worth looking at, being of the finest limestone in the district. 
 
 And there is Kirkby Irelath, with its relics 12 and its church the " kirk by 
 the western place of assembly," temp. Henry IV., and dedicated to St. Cuth- 
 bert ; and its house Kirkby Hall, or Cross House, or Kirkby Cross, as you 
 like to call it, before which once stood a cross that Edwin Sandys, Archbishop 
 .of York, demolished in his Protestant zeal; nearly as zealous in his 
 Protestantism as Barnaby Potter, the Right Reverend of Carlisle, of whom it 
 
 11 West says the Roman road proceeds from the Thorn on Conishead Bank west 
 through Street Gate (an important and decisive name), to the place where it joins the new 
 turnpike road from Ulverston, and forming an obtuse angle to the south-west, points directly 
 by Lindal to Dalton ; at the Cross it turns up Scalegate, and slanting over the rocks by 
 St. Helen's, crosses Goldmire, and circling a little takes its direction by Roan Head to 
 Duddon Sands. The station must have been at Dalton, abandoned before the Itinerary 
 was written. 
 
 12 Four celts, three rude and one polished, were found at Haunie, near Kirkby Irolatli. 
 
 28G 

 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 was said "that the organs would blow him out of church." 13 This Kirkby 
 Hall was the home of the Kirkby family u for ten generations ; the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood is famous for the dark blue slate worked in almost 
 inexhaustible quantities out of the fells surrounding. And there is Irelath 
 hard by, where the best iron mines are ; and Whitrigg, called the " Peru 
 of Furness ; " and Whicham, with its lake or pond famous for Will-o'-the- 
 Wisps, where it is always calm when Barfield is troubled, so that the two 
 parishes at the foot of Black Combe have never the same kind of weather ; and 
 Whicham Hall, where Scot's Croft is supposed to have been the site of an 
 old battle with the border enemy. For once, Furness Fells, the " Apennines 
 of Lancashire," as West calls them, were the boundary lines between Scotland 
 and England, and the incursions into the low country were many and mighty ; 
 specially one in 1138, of gigantic violence and rapine. And there are the 
 ruins of Gleaston Castle built in such haste, which belonged to the Duke 
 of Suffolk, poor Lady Jane Grey's father; and Gutterby Bay, where the 
 sunken rock, called Black Segs, causes the loss of many brave lives by ship- 
 wrecks, and where old roads, visible below water-mark, show that the sea has 
 gained here, and how much, within the record of man's hand. 
 
 And there is Swart Moor, where, in 1486, " the German Baron, bold Martin 
 Swart," mustered the forces of Lambert Simnel, poor knave ; and where on 
 the last day of September, 1643, Colonel Eigby, with seven or eight companies 
 of foot, all "firemen," save about twenty with pikes assembled for prayers, 
 coming in from Ulverston, after which exercise they went on to Lindal Moor 
 
 13 Sandys was imprisoned for taking part with Lady Jane Grey, and kept for some time 
 in the Nun's Bower with Bradford the Martyr. He escaped, however, happily for himself, 
 and went to Zurich and Peter Martyr, where he remained until Queen Elizabeth's 
 accession, when he returned to safety and esteem, to be ultimately made Archbishop of 
 York. 
 
 14 Saxon families, so late as in the time of Henry VIII., lived in villages and places 
 of their own names, as appears from the court rolls the Braithwaitcs at Brathay, the 
 Sawreys at Sawrey, &c. At Nibthwaite all were Redheads, at Finsthwaitc ;ill Taylors, 
 at Coltham all Satterthwaites, &c.. still a north-country peculiarity. 
 
 287
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 for more mundane matters. A few years ago, some labourers, making a new 
 road over the moor, came upon large numbers of horse-shoes of very small 
 size ; but whether they had belonged to Colonel Rigby's forces, or to Lambert 
 Simnel's, the antiquarians could not decide. Swart Moor is famous, too, for 
 its connection with George Fox. In 1652, he went there in his character 
 of itinerant preacher, 15 preaching Quaker doctrines to Judge Fell and his 
 family; converting the women, but not at first the judge, whom afterwards 
 however he reclaimed; converting the wife indeed daughter of John Askew 
 to such good purpose, that he married her in 1669, eleven years after the 
 judge's death. He lived at Swart Moor Hall, now a farmhouse merely, 
 where his bed-room and study may still be seen ; and he built a Quaker 
 meeting-house on the moor, the first in England, with Ex Dono G. F. 1688, 
 to be spelt out at this day over the door. 
 
 And there is Kirkby Thore, with its Whelp Dale, and Whelp Castle, 
 where the Machels once lived ; a grand family in their day, and going quite 
 back into the haze of tradition. Their seal is a problem in itself, " an Indian 
 dog, ex grseco et tigride nato, and with a forked tail," on which hung a whole 
 world of romance. They were great patrons of the church, for we find that 
 Henry II. confirmed the grant of land at Crackenthorpe, (the village of the 
 crakes, rooks, or crows,) to the priory of Carlisle, which had been given 
 by Halth le Malchael, and Eva his wife ; and L'Ulf, or Liulf of Kirkby 
 Thore gave some lands there to the Abbey of Holme Cultram, also in the time 
 of Henry II. Ulf le Malchael, "Wolf, that mischievous whelp," was a noted 
 man in his day, though now only a name a mere breath and no more. And 
 then there is Cartmel, 16 still a place of some note if not so much as in olden 
 times, when it was of such large monkish value that the priory was a kind of 
 
 15 " The Quakers, whose en-ant lives as errant preachers made them the first travellers 
 to solicit goods," have always been well considered in the north, and are notorious for their 
 commercial respectability and worldly success. 
 
 16 " The high antiquity of this district, with a town in it called Sudgetluit, is identified 
 by a grant of Egfrida, a king of the Northumbrians (670 685), who gave the whole of it, 
 with all the Britons in it, to St. Cuthbert." 
 
 288
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS. 
 
 rival to Furness. It stood on the little Ay stream, which rises in the small pool 
 called the Ayside Tarn, in Stavely, three miles north of Cartmel. 1 * Below 
 the latter it goes by the name of Lower Cark Tarn, and Cark Beck, and fulls 
 into the Leven by Holkar Hall. Cartmel Priory was founded in 1188 by 
 William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, for the regular canons of St. Augustin, 
 and dedicated to St. Mary. The founder said in his instrument : " This house 
 I have founded for the increase of our holy religion, giving and granting to it 
 every kind of liberty that heart can conceive, or the mouth utter, and whoso- 
 ever shall in any way infringe upon these immunities, or injure the said priory, 
 may he receive the curse of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the 
 other saints, as well as my particular malediction." 
 
 The priory had various privileges ; as was the case with all religious 
 Houses ; among them that of the exclusive appointment of guides over the 
 sands, as the priory of Birkenhead had the privilege of appointing boatmen 
 for the ferry across the Mersey. There were two of these guides, and the 
 prior had synodal and Peter's pence allowed for them, afterwards commuted 
 to a yearly stipend. It had also a spring good for scorbutic affections 
 the Holy Well in the limestone rock of Humphrey Head, where are th> 
 Fairy Church and Chapel, and where the knight once destroyed a ferocious 
 wolf; the same knight as lies in Cartmel church, supposed to be Sir John 
 Harrington, who went to Scotland with King Edward I. and was there 
 knighted. He and his lady lie now in a fine open-wrought arch, with 
 grotesque figures monks chanting and others on the surbase. Here is 
 also the tomb of the prior William de Walton, with "Hie facit Frater 
 Wilelmus de Walton, prior de Kartmel," on it. There is also a free 
 grammar-school at Cartmel, under the superintendence of the church- 
 wardens and sidesmen of the parish, where sixpence quarterage used to 
 be paid for "grammarians" in 1635, and fourpence for "petties" (little 
 
 17 Kert camp, aud mell hill, some et^vmologists say ; but these derivations are dan- 
 gerous things to play with. 
 
 289 P P
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 ones). In 1664 the master's salary was twenty pounds a year; in 1674 
 the quarterage for grammarians was eightpence, but no charge was made 
 for petties ; in 1711 the quarterage was one shilling and sixpence for Latin, 
 and one shilling for English. People of means gave cockpence at Shrove- 
 tide, on the plea of a prize for cockfightiug. Any one may be taught 
 here, but only twenty non-parishioners at a time. Dr. Law Edmund 
 Law, D.D., the Bishop of Carlisle was educated at Cartmel free school, 
 his father being only the curate of one of the small chapelries in the 
 parish, which office he held for forty-nine years. When Lonsdale Hundred 
 had a part to play, while Thurland Castle was besieged, Roger Kirby and 
 Alexander Rigby of the Burgh, assisted by all the malignant gentry of 
 Westmoreland and Cumberland, set on foot " to raise all the forces of 
 Cartrnel and Furness part of Lancaster, to surprise Lancaster and Hornby 
 Castle, and to assault on all sides, and to raise on siege, and then to 
 proceed further into Lancashire (as upon credible information, I believe), 
 to joyn with Latham House and all the ill-affected in our country to our 
 generall devastation. And for this end they drew together part of the 
 Cumberland forces into Fourness, and with them the strength of that place 
 to about the number of 1000, intending the next day to march into Cart- 
 mel." But they never did. The colonel intercepted and defeated them 
 instead. And besides these ancient things there is the HoUy or Holy 
 Well much frequented in summer-time and very lovely; and an inter- 
 mittent spring at Pet Farm, something like the famous Giggleswick well 
 in Yorkshire, and which old John Gough accounts for as produced by " a 
 natural compound syphon formed in the recesses of the hills." 
 
 And then there is the comparatively modern town of the present 
 capital of the peninsula, Ulverston ; which was once pronounced Owston, 
 and which is a derivation somehow from ulf, or wolf; where, in old times,, 
 William de Lancastre he whose body lies buried in the quire of Furness 
 Abbey gave the mills to Lawrence de Cornwall, who, in his turn, gave 
 them to Edmund Neville and his heirs, confirming also the manor of 
 
 290
 
 FURNESS ABBEY AND T1IK SANDS. 
 
 Broughton or Broghton to Edward de Broghton. The Neville family 18 came 
 into Furness in consequence of this grant, establishing themselves at Neville 
 Hall ; hut lands and mills and estates were all forfeited by the rebellion of 
 Sir John de Neville against his lawful sovereign. He joined his kinsman, 
 Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and Thomas Percy, Earl of 
 Northumberland, in the Mary Stuart attempt of 1569, and lost his go<n|-< 
 and gear in consequence. Ulverston rose to favour and importance during 
 the plague year of 1631, when Dalton was decimated, as was Bigger in 
 the Isle of Walney. From the parish registers it appears that " there died 
 in Dalton three hundred and threescore, and in Walney one hundred and 
 twenty." It lasted up to the next Easter, and was so severe that the people 
 left their homes and took to tents in the fields ; the market being thus 
 suspended for some months, Ulverston came into its place. The tradition 
 went that it was brought into the town in a parcel of ribbon. So at least 
 reports old West. In the eighth year of his reign Edward I. granted to 
 Ulverston a charter for a weekly market and annual fair ; but Dalton swallowed 
 up all the good of this and of everything, till the see-saw of history adjusted 
 itself. 
 
 And so come dreams and echoes of the old times as we wander by the 
 sea-shore in the autumn evening, listening to the murmur of the receding 
 waves, and looking back into the darkening depths of the mountain land 
 behind us. It was the early spring morning when we stood on the wooded 
 heights of Elleray ; the mists were rising from the earth, and the new town 
 of Windermere, and the young life of the year, lay burnished and bright in 
 gold below us. It is the late chill autumn now, when we are on the level 
 sands looking over the gloomy waste towards mutilated Furness, with tin- 
 wreck of the past, and ruins and relics the only world before us. The 
 
 18 It is almost impossible to know how to spell tliese old names. Should they be spelt 
 as was usual at the time whereof we are writing, or as they are spelt at the present day'. 1 
 The name in question may be Nevil, Nevill. >r Neville, as the reader likes. 
 
 .,<U P T 2
 
 THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
 
 sun is sinking, and a broad blood-red band dyes the sea with crimson ; but 
 a bank of sullen purple clouds is slowly gathering up and gaining on the 
 last glory of the dying day; the wind is rising in the distant ocean caves, 
 the sands are bleak and bare, the sea-birds are wheeling over head 
 uttering their mournful cries, the wild night is coming on, and the tide 
 is running out, like the tide of life ebbing into eternity and death.

 
 I. PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT 
 
 II. BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT 
 
 III. GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT 
 
 IV. TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS 
 V. RAINFALL

 
 APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT 
 
 1 GLOSSARY 
 
 A or AT, yes; "Hoot ay mon! " Pshaw! yes, 
 man; also always, ever. 
 
 AANDORN, ORNDORN, or ORNDINNEU, anything 
 taken between dinner and tea; an afternoon 
 luncheon or country " kettledrum ; " also the 
 afternoon. 
 
 ABACK o' BEIIINT, behind; in the rear; and "the 
 other end of nowhere." 
 
 ABRAIDE, to feel nausea after food; " to have the 
 acid," in fact. 
 
 ACKER, "to curl, as the curl of water from the 
 wind, hence Ackeraph-e, the term for the 
 shooting of barley when in steep for malt." 
 Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects. 
 
 ADDLE or ETTLE, to earn by work; as ADDLINGS 
 or ETTLINGS, are earnings or wages received for 
 work; but a horse that falls and rolls from side 
 to side " addles his shoon." 
 
 AE, a or one. 
 
 AFIT, on foot; and A-FOAT, afoot; as "a design is 
 afoot." 
 
 AGNAILES, or NANGNAILES, or HANGNAILS, the 
 small strip of flesh, sometimes also called a 
 Backfriend, which grows by the side of the 
 nail and tears off down into the which, or quick 
 of the flesh. 
 
 AIIINT, behind; "Gang ahint ! " the word of 
 command to thecolley,or shepherd's dog, to fall 
 into the rear of the sheep and bring up the 
 straying members. 
 
 AIBLINS, perhaps; maybe. " Aiblins I wool, and 
 
 aiblins I woonot: " Maybe I will, and maybe I 
 
 will not. 
 AIL, to be ill; "She's varra ailing," she is very 
 
 unwell. 
 AIRT, AIRTU, a point in the compass, or the 
 
 horizon. 
 
 " Of a* the airts the wind can blaw, 
 I dearly like the west." 
 
 AITHER, either and each. 
 A JEE, awry ; crooked. 
 
 " The best laid schemes o' mice and men, 
 Gang aft ajee." 
 
 ALAAN, A LANE, alone. 
 
 A LANG, along. 
 
 ALEGAR, or ALLEKAR, vinegar. 
 
 AI.LAR, or ELLER, the alder tree, (Alnus glutinosa.) 
 
 ALL HALLOWMAS, All Saints' Day; when (on All 
 Hallow Een rather,) the girls try charms: such 
 as melting lead, or breaking the white of an 
 egg into a tumbler of water, tying up their 
 garters, peeling apples before the glass, burning 
 nuts, and other like efficacious manner of pro- 
 phesy for the matrimonial future. 
 
 AMACKILT, in some fashion. 
 
 AMANG, among. 
 
 AMBRV, a pantry or cnpb >.inl.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 AMEAST, almost. 
 
 AN, if; AN', and; EN', and. 
 
 AXAN, directly; immediately. 
 
 AND AW, and all. 
 
 ANE, own. 
 
 ANENST, over against. 
 
 ANTERS, in case that; also adventures and needless 
 scruples. " He's fashed wi' anters," he is 
 troubled with fancies and doubts. 
 
 ANUDDER, another. 
 
 AXUNDER, beneath. 
 
 APRIL GOWK, April fool. 
 
 ARD, or AIRD, high, when used for a place; 
 ARD-LAND means a hard and hungry soil; a 
 corruption, doubtless, of arid, but the original 
 sense of Ard is high, and ard-land is bad land 
 because it is high ; ARDEN, the fallow quarter. 
 
 ARR, the scar of a wound; POCK ARRS, pock- 
 marks. 
 
 ARRANT, errand. 
 
 ARVAL, a funeral; ARVAL-BREAD, funeral bread 
 given to the followers in the open air, and 
 expected to be carried home with them, not 
 eaten on the spot. 
 
 ASS-BUIRD, the ash-box; ASS-MIDDEN, the ash- 
 heap in the yard ; and Ass TRUG, a coal-scuttle. 
 
 Ass, to ask; AST, asked. 
 
 ASSART, cleared; reclaimed. ASSART LANDS are 
 forest lands reclaimed. 
 
 ATTERCOPPE, or ADDERCOP, a spider and a spider's 
 web ; also across-grained person, as is ATTERMITE. 
 
 AIJGHTS, or OUTS, a large quantity; not to be 
 confounded with ORTS, leavings. " I'll not eat 
 your orts." I'll not eat your leavings. 
 
 AULD, or AWD, old; T" AULD ANE, the devil. 
 
 AURSELS, ourselves. 
 
 AUTER, altar; but generally called HEE-AUTRE, in 
 unconscious remembrance of the High- Altar of 
 olden times. 
 
 AVER, a cart-horse, or any common hack-horse. 
 
 AWF, an elf; a fool. 
 
 AWND, the awn or beard of barley, &c., often 
 pronounced Arcs. 
 
 Ax, to ask. 
 
 AY, always; yes; with an interrogative accent, 
 meaning surprise. 
 
 AYONT, beyond. " That's ayont my gumption;" 
 that's beyond my understanding. 
 
 A/ZAiU), " a little sneaking or insignificant fellow." 
 IK. und C. Dialects. 
 
 BAAD, an improper woman; as is also BAXDYLAX. 
 
 BABBY-CLOUTS, baby clothes. 
 
 BACK-BWORD, the dough or paste-board on which 
 
 bread or paste is rolled, chiefly used for oat-cake. 
 BACK-END, the latter part of the mouth or year: 
 
 the autumn generally. 
 BACKSIDE, the yard or back part of the house; but 
 
 capable of many equivocal doubles entendres. 
 BADGER, a pedlar; originally a person who pur- 
 chased grain at one market, and took it on 
 
 horseback to sell at another. 
 BADLY, ill ; " I'se nobbut badly." I am ill 
 
 nothing but ill, literally. 
 BAGGIN, food. 
 BAILIES, bailiffs. 
 BAIN, near; BAIXER WAY, a nearer way; "The 
 
 bainer the titter," the nearer the sooner. 
 BANG, to beat; to surpass; a loud noise; a thump; 
 
 " he cam in wi' a bang," he came in with a 
 
 noise, and in haste; and he "banged Ban- 
 
 nagcr," he went beyond Bannager; BENSIL is 
 
 also to bang or beat. 
 BANNOCKS, oatmeal cakes made thick, hot, and 
 
 buttered not the same things as "oat-cake." 
 BARGII, a short, sharp hill; also a horseway up a 
 
 hill. 
 BARN, or BAIRX, child; but constantly used in 
 
 conversation between people on friendly terms, 
 
 whatever the age. 
 BARNEKIN, the outer part of the castle where the 
 
 stables, byres, and barns were placed. 
 BARRIXG-OUT, still kept up in rough country 
 
 schools, but declining like other old customs. 
 BASK, a sharp, acid flavour, as unripe fruit is bask. 
 BASLARD, a dagger; but obsolete now. 
 BASS, perch; BASSEXTHWAITE is the place of the 
 
 bassen, or perch. Also used for dried seders 
 
 and rushes; a rush-bottomed chair being a 
 
 " bass- bottomed " chair, (a corruption of bast ?) 
 BASTE, a blow; and BATERED, beaten. 
 BATTEN, a large truss of straw; called also WAPS. 
 BATTER, dirt. 
 BATTLING-STOXE, the stone, and BATTLIXG-WOOD, 
 
 the piece of wood, used in washing and beating 
 
 clothes by the river side. 
 BAWK, or BALK, a cross-beam ; but BAWKS is a 
 
 hay-loft. 
 
 BAWJIE, to dress oneself smart. 
 BAAVX, ready; BAWNED, prepared to go; ready 
 
 dressed. 
 
 290
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 BAY, to bend. 
 
 HAZE, to alarm. 
 
 BEAU MOUTHS, pit holes, or the passages into coal 
 
 mines. 
 BEASE, or BEESE, beasts ; and BEASTIXGS, or 
 
 BEASTLIXGS, the first milk of a cow newly calved. 
 
 Beastings pudding is a kind of rich batter 
 
 pudding made of that milk; not recommcnd- 
 
 sible. 
 BEISIS, to drink ; and BELVIXG, drinking greedily, 
 
 or gulping down liquid. 
 BECK, a small river or brook. 
 BEELD and BIGG, to build. 
 BEELIX, bellowing ; and BELDER or BLETHER, to 
 
 bellow ; cry lustily. 
 BEIRSII, BRASH, BRATTLE, or BEVISU, "to run 
 
 headlong, a violent push, a sudden motion." 
 
 W. and C. Dialects. 
 BELIVE, presently. 
 BELPER, to cheat. 
 BELTAIN, BELTEIN, BELTAN, the firet of May, when 
 
 fires used to be lighted on the hills, with many 
 
 quaint ceremonies, in which the quicken or 
 
 mountain-ash tree had a large share. 
 BEMOOKED, dirtied; defiled; literally, bemucked. 
 BEXSE, a cow's stall in the byre. 
 BKNT-GRASS (agrostis vylyaris), a long coarse 
 
 grass that grows on poor land, and is used for 
 
 baskets, &c. 
 BERRY, gooseberry ; ' a fine berry year " means a 
 
 fine crop of gooseberries, not of berries in general. 
 BERRY, to thrash corn; and BERI^IER^ a corns 
 
 thrasher. 
 BETTERMER, better; " he's in summut o' a better- 
 
 mer way just now," he is rather better at this 
 
 moment. 
 
 BETWATTLED, confused; out of one's senses. 
 BEYTE, a sharper ; also a bite. 
 BIDDEX-WEDDIXG, a wedding where the guests 
 
 are bidden, but expected to make a collection 
 
 for the newly married couple at the end of the 
 
 feast. 
 
 BIDDY, pediculus humanus. 
 BIDE, to wait, to bear; " I canna bide, or abide, ou 
 
 him," I cannot bear him, I dislike him. 
 BIG, a species of barley of a poor kind. 
 BIGGIX, a building, but not used for large houses; 
 
 also a wooden bowl, or what is elsewhere called 
 pigyin. 
 BILLY, brother. 
 
 BIXK, a stone scat or table. 
 
 BIRLER, or BURLER, the M. C. at a " bidden-wed- 
 ding," who looks after the liquor and gets up 
 the subscriptions. 
 
 BIRR, or BURRE, whirr; a stone flung with force 
 " comes with a birre," because it makes a whir- 
 ring noise in the air, and a spinning wheel 
 " birres " as it goes round. 
 
 BISPEL, mischievous and naughty ; " lisle bispci 
 moonkey," little mischievous monkey! 
 
 BIZEN, a bye-word; "to be a shame and a bizen," 
 to be a disgrace, and the common talk of the 
 place. Bizen is literally bye-said, a bye-saying. 
 
 BLACK-BERBIES, black currants, not bramble 
 berries. 
 
 BLAEBERRY, or BLEABERRY, bilberry or whortle- 
 berry. 
 
 BLAIXED, half dry, spoken mostly of linen hung 
 out to dry; also bleached, whitened. 
 
 BLAKE, yellow; "as blake as a man-gold," as 
 yellow as a man-gold ; also bleak; cold; naked. 
 
 BL.AKELIXG, the yellow bunting. 
 
 BLATE, bashful. 
 
 BLEB, or BLOB, a heavy gout of soap suds or 
 thickened liquid of any kind ; a blish, or blister. 
 
 BLEETS, the blight. 
 
 BLEMMLE, to mix up fluid and solid, as flour and 
 water. 
 
 BLINDER BRIDLES, bridles with blinkers. 
 
 BLISH, a small blister. 
 
 BOBBER, BOBBEROUS, in high spirits ; also boast- 
 ful, bragging. 
 
 BOGGART, and BOGIE, and BOGLE, ghosts, and 
 spectres, and evil spirits made visible. 
 
 BOGGLE, to be afraid ; also to hesitate. 
 
 BOLDER, a loud noise ; " the bolder of a cannon," 
 the report of a cannon. 
 
 BONGAIT, to fasten. 
 
 BOXNY, pretty; " a bonny wee wife," the ultimate 
 perfection of womanhood to every young man's 
 fancy. 
 
 BOON DAYS, free service days, when tenants are 
 obliged to give work and labour gratis fo their 
 lords; a common clause in customary tenures, by 
 which so much land in Cumberland is held. 
 
 BORN, suffered; but BOUXED or BORXT or BUUXT 
 is burnt. 
 
 BORTERT or BOUTREY, the elder-tree. 
 
 BOTTOM-\YIXD, that strange upheaval which some- 
 times takes place on Dcrwcutwater in a ]>crfcctly 
 
 29? Q Q
 
 AITENDIX I. 
 
 calm and windless day, when the waters are 
 violently agitated from beneath, and flung in 
 high waves from west to east. 
 
 BOUKS, the divisions or boundaries of a field. 
 
 BOURT, to offer ; to pretend. 
 
 BOUT, time ; condition; "She's a bad bout on't," 
 she has a bad time of it; used in this sense for 
 illness. " Ay ! it'll sarve its turn this bout ! " it 
 will serve its turn for this time or purpose. 
 
 BOWDER, BOOLDER, BOWLDER BIONICS, large 
 round cobbles, as witness the Bowder Stone of 
 Borrowdale. 
 
 BOWER or BOOR, an inner room. 
 
 BOW-HOUGHED, having crooked thighs. 
 
 " She's bow-houghed, she's hein shinned, 
 Ae limping leg a hand-breed shorter." 
 
 BRAAD-SCAR, a broad stone. 
 
 BRAD, spread out, hot, inflamed, 
 
 BRAE, rather an open stretch of upland than a bank. 
 
 BRAIDS, resembles ; is like to. 
 
 BRAKE, to beat violently. 
 
 BRANDRETH, an iron tripod fixed over the fire, on 
 
 which is placed the pot or kettle or girdle. 
 
 " Three legged Brandreth " is a secondary hill 
 
 near Buttermere. 
 BRANK, to bridle; to hold up the head like a horse 
 
 sharply reined. 
 
 BRANT or BREST, steep; Brantwood, steepwood. 
 BRASS, money. " He's a gay lock o' brass," he has 
 
 plenty of money. 
 BRAST and BRASSEN and BRUSSEN, and BROSSEN, 
 
 burst ; generally applied to over-eating. " Nay, 
 
 what I'se eat till I'se fairly brossen," I have 
 
 eaten till I am nearly bursting. 
 BRAT, an apron or pinafore. 
 BRATTLE, a push, a stroke, to thunder, to hurry. 
 BRAUCHIN, a horse collar. 
 BRAWLY and BRAVELY, well ; in good health. 
 BRAWN, a boar. 
 BRAXY or BRACKSIE, hard mutton hams which 
 
 take the skin off your mouth, and are very nearly 
 
 uneatable altogether. 
 BRAYED, beaten; " to bray in a mortar," to pound 
 
 or beat up. 
 BREAK-DITCH, a straying cow that will wander 
 
 from her pastures. 
 BREE, a bustle. 
 
 BREED BRYDER, a bread-basket. 
 BREEDER, brother. 
 
 BRIDE-ALE, wedding-ale; so called from the bride 
 
 selling the ale at the poorer marriages. 
 BRIDE-CAKE, the thin currant (girdle) cake, which, 
 after they had left the church, and generally at 
 an inn, the bridegroom used to break over the 
 head of the bride (covered with a clean napkin), 
 and for the broken pieces of which the brides- 
 maids and men used to scramble as for 
 charms. 
 
 BRIDE-WAIN, an old custom now almost out of 
 date, where the friends of a newly-married couple 
 assemble for a treat of cold pies, furmcnty, and 
 ale, ending in a collection for the benefit of the 
 entertainers. "At the close of the day, the 
 bride and bridegroom are placed in two chairs, 
 in the open air, or in a large bam, the bride with 
 a pewter dish on her knee, half covered with a 
 napkin; into this dish the company put their 
 offerings, which occasionally amount to a con- 
 siderable sum." " Wain," or " bride-wain," 
 means the bride's -wain or waggon, which, like 
 the French corbeille, is assumed to be filled with 
 bridal articles of value, taken from her father's 
 to her new home, and decorated with ribbons, 
 flowers, &c. But the name and the custom are 
 both passing away. 
 
 The following is from the Cumberland 
 Packet : " George Hayter, who married 
 Ann the daughter of Joseph and Dinah 
 Collin, of Crossley Mill, purposes having 
 a Bride- Wain at his house at Crossley near 
 Maryport, on Thursday, May 7th next, 
 (1789), where he will be happy to see his 
 Friends and Wellwishers, for whose amuse- 
 ment there will be a Saddle, two Bridles, 
 a pair of Gands d'amour, gloves Avhich 
 whoever wins is sure to be married within 
 the Twelvemonths, a Girdle (Ceinture de 
 Venus) possessing qualities not to be de- 
 scribed, and many other Articles, Sports, 
 and Pastimes too numerous to mention, but 
 which can never prove tedious in the exhi- 
 bition." 
 BRIG, a bridge. 
 
 BROCK, a badger; a cabbage; a small fragment. 
 BRONG, brought. 
 BROW, "saucy, pert, handsome, clever." W. and 
 
 C. Dialects. 
 
 BROWN-COCK, the cock-chafer. 
 BRUIL, to broil ; and BKUILLIMENT, a broil. 
 
 298
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 BUCKSTALL, a forest service; attending at a certain 
 
 station to watch the red deer in hunting, and 
 
 assisting to turn them out on the fell tops; a 
 
 net to catch deer. 
 
 BUDE, the participle of bide; having borne with 
 
 patience. 
 
 BULL-STAXG, a dragon fly. 
 BUMBLE BEE, the humble bee. 
 BUMMELLS, or BUMBLE-KITES, blackberries. 
 BUMMIN, humming. Ale is bumming when made 
 into hot posset and singing by the fire on the hob. 
 BUMMLE, and BDMMELT, and BUMMLER'S Luck, 
 means to bungle and bungled, and the bungler's 
 or blunderer's luck. 
 BIX, or BUNXEL, a dry hemp stalk; a her, or the 
 
 dry hollow stalk of the hemlock. 
 BURLEY-BRIGGS, or BARLEY-BREAK, a game. 
 BURX, a brook. 
 
 BUTCH, to kill for meat; "he butches for Joe 
 Ritson; " he kills Joe Ritson's " beasts " for him. 
 BUTTER-SHAG, a slice of bread-and-butter. 
 BUTTER-SOPS, wheaten bread or oat-cake fried 
 
 in butter and sugar. An excellent sweetmeat. 
 BWORD-CLAITH, table-cloth. 
 BWORDER-COWPPERS, horse-dealers from the bor- 
 ders; generally sad rogues. "I'se fra t' border, 
 lad!" Hoot, ay, mon, like eneugh; t' coarsest 
 part o' t' claith 's allus nighest t' selvedge ! " 
 I'm from the border, lad! Pshaw, yes, man, 
 very naturally; the coarsest part of the cloth is 
 always next the selvage ! 
 BYRE, cow-house. 
 CABBISH, cabbage ; a " tailor's cabbish " is what 
 
 the tailor filches or cabbages. 
 CADE LAMB, pet lamb. 
 CAFF, chaff; not to be confounded with CAULF or 
 
 COAF, a calf. 
 
 CALEEVER, or CALLEVIR, to prance about; to make 
 a riot; to be in any way wild and unrestrained; 
 furiously frisky. 
 CALLAR, cold ; fresh ; cool. 
 CAM and COOM, comb; and the crest of a hill. 
 CAMMED, crooked, or ill-tempered. 
 CAMPLE, to reply saucily; to argue and dispute. 
 CAXKERT, rusted; also ill-tempered. 
 CAXXY, a clever and capable, or fine and handsome, 
 woman; a good manager and a clever house- 
 keeper; also a smart and capable man. "A 
 canny body " of cither sex is expressive of a 
 wide range of practical virtues and admiuistra- 
 
 tive qualities, best translated, perhaps, by the 
 American word "faculty;" but a canny hinny 
 is a sly, and not a lovcable person. 
 CAP, to surpass in any way. " That caps a'; " 
 that goes beyond all I have heard; that out- 
 herods Herod, and " bangs Bannager." 
 CAREL, Carlisle. 
 
 CARRAS, by elision and contraction, Car, or Cart- 
 house. 
 
 CART-LOOSE, cart-rut. 
 CAT, sometimes XAPE or CAP, as ' Cat o' the neck,' 
 
 the cap or cape of the neck. 
 CATWITTED, silly and self-sufficient. 
 CADD, or CAULD, cold. 
 CAUL, a swelling; a bell. 
 
 CAWKERS, or CLOGS, the iron tips and heels on 
 the country wooden-soled shoes. SPRIXG CLOGS 
 are the same things made with a sole separate 
 from the heel, and tapering to a fine edge, 
 thus giving a kind of spring-board sole to the shoe. 
 CA\VL, to abuse ; browbeat ; frighten. " He 
 cawll'd me reet nasty; " he abused me very 
 shamefully. 
 
 CHAFT, the jaw; a conniption of chaps. 
 CHAR, our " golden Alpine trout," founel in some, 
 
 not all, the lakes. 
 CHATS, spray-wood. 
 
 CHEG, to chew a hard substance, as you cheg at a 
 bit of wood, and you cheg braxy, or braclmie. 
 CHIMLEY, CHIMLEY LUG, and CHIMLKY NUIK, 
 the chimney corner; the place on the settle 
 nearest the fire. 
 CHITTY, the usual term for a cat. " Chitty-Puss- 
 
 Lane " is a small back street in Keswick. 
 CHOP ix, to put in. 
 CHOW, to mumble and grumble and mutter like 
 
 an old woman or peevish child. 
 CLAAIKIN, scratching. 
 
 CLAGGY, clammy and sticky; clay mud is cloggy ; 
 and half-baked bread is cloggy, as well as sad; 
 and treacle is claggy ; but a damp and sticky 
 hand is puggy. 
 
 CLAM, to hunger; and to climb; CLAVER, or 
 CLEVVER, is also to climb; but CLAVERS is idle 
 talking. 
 
 CLAP-BREAD, thin cakes of oats or barley, baked 
 on the griddle. They arc made on the clap- 
 board. 
 CLARTS, CLARTY, CLARTIXG, mud, muddy, and 
 
 dirtying with mud. 
 299 Q Q 2
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 CLASHES, talc-bcarcrs and gossips. 
 
 CLAY DAUBIN, an old custom, dying out, when the 
 friends of a newly-married couple met together 
 and built them a clay house; ending the day 
 with a feast or merry-making, as of course. 
 
 CLECK, or CLICK, to snatch. " He clicked it oot 
 o' my hand; " he snatched it out of my hand. 
 
 CLECKINGS, a shuttlecock. 
 
 CLEED, to clothe) as CLED is clad or clothed. 
 
 CLEEK, to hook. 
 
 CLEGGER, to cling; and CLEGG is a horse-fly. 
 
 CLEPS, a wooden tool for weeding corn. 
 
 CLEUGH, or GLOUGH, a ravine or ghyll 5 the stem 
 of a tree where it divides into branches. 
 
 CLIFTY, apt ; active; generous* 
 
 CLINK, a blow. 
 
 GLINTS, a kind of limestone or porphyritic stone. 
 
 CLIPT and HEELED, properly drest, like Busked 
 and Bouned. 
 
 CLIPT DIN.MENT, a newly shorn wedder sheep ; 
 a mean, sorry-looking fellow. 
 
 CLISH-MA-SAUNTER and CLISH-MA-CLAVER, the 
 one is a proser, and the other a gossip; and 
 CLISH-MA-CLASII is silly gossip in the concrete. 
 
 CLOD, to throw. 
 
 CLOTT, to toss about. 
 
 CLOUT, a cloth; a piece of cloth; to patch; to give 
 a blow. " I'll gie thee a clout on t' head on thee, 
 lad, if thou fashes me ony mair," I'll punch 
 your head, boy, if you tease me any more. 
 
 CLOWEN, to bustle about. 
 
 CLOWK, or CLOW, to scratch, but rather to claw; 
 as two women might " clowk at ane anither." 
 
 CLUFF, a blow, (pro cuif ) ; and CLUFFT, beaten or 
 cuffed. 
 
 CLUUTS, feet; and CLUVES, hoofs. 
 
 COATTS, petticoats. 
 
 COBBY, headstrong and hearty: "A cobby lad," 
 an obstinate, though he may be also a fine-' 
 natured, lad, but one who must have his head. 
 
 COCKER, a cock-breeder or fighter; COCKIN, cock- 
 fighting; COCKLE, to crow like a cock. Cock- 
 fighting, like pancake casting, used to be the 
 popular amusement on Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 " \Vliaar tlier war tae be Cock feightm', for it war Pankeak 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 We met some lads an lasses gangin' lo kest their Fan- 
 keaks." 
 
 COCKLER, a gatherer of cockles; COCKLIN, gather- 
 ing cockles. 
 
 COCKWEBS, cobwebs. 
 
 COGOERS, woollen leggings. 
 
 COLLOP MONDAY, the first Monday before Lent, 
 when they have collops, or rashers of bacon and 
 eggs for dinner, as they have pancakes for the 
 next day, Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 CONN, and Scuo, a squirrel. 
 
 CONNY, pretty; CONNOLY, prettily; cannily. 
 
 CONVOY, a railway break, chiefly used on the 
 Whitehaven coal-pit tramways. 
 
 Coo, or COE, to call. 
 
 COON, dust. 
 
 COON-THANKS, to requite a favour: "The deil 
 coon him thanks;" the devil reward him. 
 
 COPPY, a small wooden stool; a coppice. 
 
 CORBY, a raven. 
 
 CORNAGE, " a tenure which obliges the landholder 
 to give notice of an invasion by blowing a horn," 
 W. and C. Dialects. Or was it not the service of 
 finding and rendering certain horned beasts at 
 certain times of need or stipulation ? 
 
 CORN LAITERS, corn seekers. Newly married people 
 begging for seed corn for their first crop ; a custom 
 yet in use about Black Combe and Broughton. 
 
 CORP, a corpse. 
 
 COTTERED, cluttered; entangled; matted. 
 
 COUPER FAIR, a market held at Kirkby Stephen the 
 day before the great Brough-hill fair, when 
 "belter for helter," means a proposal to ex- 
 change or barter horse for horse halter for 
 halter. 
 
 COUPRAISE, to raise by leverage. 
 
 COUREN, crouching, cowering. 
 
 COW-CLAT, to spread manure on the fields. 
 
 COWEY, a hornless cow. 
 
 COWD LWORD, oatmeal pudding made with suet ; 
 not recommendable. 
 
 COWL, to scrape up dirt. 
 
 COWP, to exchange; and to upset. "He cowpcd 
 me o'er;" he upset me, or knocked me down; 
 and " we cowped nags," we exchanged horses. 
 
 CRACK, to boast ; to chat, as " He's a fine crack 
 wid him," he is a good talker, an agreeable 
 talker. " I'se du'it in a crack," I'll do it in a 
 moment. 
 
 CRACKET, a cricket; also a lower kind of coppy, 
 or stool. 
 
 CRASIBLE, to crawl and creep, as young children, 
 on hands and knees. 
 
 CRAMMKL, to do a thing clumsily. 
 
 300
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 CKANKLE, weak. 
 
 CRANKY, checked; a dress is cranky when it is 
 checked, and the Rob Roy tartan is cranky. 
 
 CRAP, crept; CRAPPEN, crept in. 
 
 CROFT, a small field. 
 
 CROUPE, to stoop ; to crouch. 
 
 GROUSE, or CKOWISH, spirited; pert, upstart. 
 
 CROW-COAL, an inferior kind of coal. 
 
 CROWDT, thick oatmeal porridge made with lard. 
 A horrible mess. 
 
 CRUIX, CROON, or CRUNE, to murmur; to hum a 
 tune; also to bellow. "The bull's crooning," 
 the bull is bellowing. The church bells at 
 Brough bear upon this word. They were given 
 by one Brunskill, who lived on Stanemore, and 
 who, one day hearing his bull crune, or bellow, 
 from a great distance, said: "Hear ye how loud 
 that bull cranes ? If all the kye could crune 
 together would they not be heard from Brough 
 to Stanemore ?" Whereupon he sold his stock, 
 and bought the church bells with the money, 
 and in this way his bulls and cows " crune " 
 to this very hour, and are heard from Brough 
 to Stanemore. 
 
 CUDDY, Cuthbert, and jackass as well. 
 
 CUMMERLAN', Cumberland ; generally " canny 
 Cummerlan'." 
 
 CURCIIY, to curtsey. 
 
 CURLEY-POW, a ringletted, curly head. 
 
 CURSENMAS, CURSMAS, Christmas ; CURSINIX, 
 
 christening. 
 
 CURSTY, Christopher. 
 
 Cusn, an exclamation: " Cush, lass ! " my word ! 
 look here ! Also the call for the cows. " Cush ! 
 cush ! cush ! " cried at the gate will bring the 
 kye up like dogs. 
 
 CUSHY-COW LADY, the ladybird. 
 
 CUTTEN, cut down. 
 
 CUTTER, to whisper; speak low. 
 
 CUTTY, short; a CUTTY pipe, a short black clay 
 pipe at one time to be seen in every auld wife's 
 mouth. 
 
 CWOLLY, or CWOALEY, a collcy or sheep dog. 
 
 CWOATS, clothes. 
 
 D ADDLE, the hand; to trifle. 
 
 DADGE, to saunter about; " to loaf." 
 
 DAFT, and DAFT-LIKE, idiotic; half- wise. 
 
 DAGGY, drizzly ( W. and C. Dialects) ; also half 
 cooked, and therefore sodden, meat. 
 
 BAIVK, or DILL, to soothe. 
 
 DANDER, to hobble. 
 
 DAN NET, an improper woman. 
 
 DARRAK, a day's work. 
 
 DARTER, active ; energetic; bustling. 
 
 DAWKIN, a simpleton; a soft, feckless, Dolittlc. 
 
 " I'd rather have a wife a dule than a dawhin ; " 
 
 I'd rather have a wife a devil than a fool. 
 DAZED, confused, or dizzy, as with overmuch light. 
 
 Old people are often dazed. 
 DAZEG, a daisy. 
 DEAIL, DOLE, or DRAIL, a share or allotment in 
 
 enclosed land; an intake. 
 DEETIN, or DEEGIITAN, winnowing corn. 
 DEFTLY, cleverly. To do a thing deftly, is to do 
 
 it quickly and quietly and easily. 
 DEG, to sprinkle with water; to ooze slowly. 
 DESS, a row or heap; to dess is to sort or pile up. 
 DEYL'D, spiritless; careworn. 
 DEZZED, injured by cold. Chickens get dczzed 
 
 when they are starved with the cold. 
 DIBBLER, a pewter plate. 
 
 DIDDER, to tremble; to shiver; to dodder, in fact. 
 DIDDLE, to hum a tune. 
 DIGHT, or DEST, to clean; to dress; to put in order. 
 
 You diyht yourself when you dress cleanly ; and 
 
 you diyht a room when you arrange it. 
 DINNLE, to thrill; to tingle from cold. 
 DISSXINS, the eighth part of a mile in horse-racing. 
 DITT, to stop up. 
 Div, to do, and DIVVENT, do not. " Ye divvcnt 
 
 ken me." You do not know me. 
 DOBBY, a bogie, and a fool. 
 DOFF, to put off. You doff one gown, and yon 
 
 don another. 
 DOGGENEL, an eagle. 
 DON, to dress; put on. 
 DOXXET, the devil. 
 DOPE, a simpleton. 
 DORTED, stupefied. 
 DOUBLER, the general bowl in which was served 
 
 the posset ale, before the time of tea and 
 
 individual spoons. 
 DOUSE, or DOUCE, a fresh, canny, well-conditioned 
 
 person. " A douce woman," one who is gentle and 
 
 prudent and well-behaved; also good-looking. 
 Dow, good; "naught a' dow," nothing that is 
 
 good. " We maun do as we </<w," we must do 
 
 as we can ; also a dove. 
 
 DOWLY, melancholy as applied to persons; lone- 
 some and grewsomc as applied to places. 
 
 301
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 DOWN HOUSE, the kitchen. 
 
 DOWXO-CAXXOT ; " the bird that can sing and 
 
 won't sing," is an exemplification of " downo- 
 
 cannot" (don't know, cannot.) 
 DOZAXD, spiritless; impotent. 
 DOZZEL, a hard knob or lump : " A' lumps and 
 
 dozzels like Nanny Haikiu's butter," is a pro- 
 verb to express anything lumpy, as lumpy 
 
 porridge, and a lumpy feather-bed. 
 DRAFF, brewer's grains and pig's food. 
 DREE, long and tedious. " A dree road," a long 
 
 and weary way. 
 DREEAP, to speak slowly; to drip one's words in 
 
 short. 
 
 DRIP, snow; "white as drip." 
 DRUIVY, overcast; muddy. 
 DUB, a small pool or hole of stagnant water. 
 DUBBLER, a large plate whether of wood or 
 
 earthenware. 
 DUDS, clothes, but of poor quality. " Them bits 
 
 o' duds!," those few old rags. 
 DULE, the devil; and DULISH, devilish. 
 DUJIB WIFE, a fortune teller, but only by conse- 
 quence of her dumbness. 
 DUXCH, to nudge roughly. 
 DUXG-OWRE, knocked down. 
 DURDEM, uproar; row; hubbub. 
 DURTMEXT, diriment; anything useless and uncon- 
 
 sidered. 
 DUST, money. 
 DWALLOWED, withered; a flower dwallows, so does 
 
 a sick and fading child. 
 
 DYKES, detached parts of the vein of a coal mine. 
 EA, in; and. 
 EARLES-PEXXY, or ARLES-PEXNY, bargain money; 
 
 money advanced to servants when they are 
 
 hired, to make sure. 
 EAVELOXG, oblong. 
 EAVER, or EEVER, a point or quarter in the 
 
 heavens; " the rainy eever," the rainy quarter. 
 EEM, leisure. 
 EITH, easy. 
 ELCONE, each one. 
 ELCY, Alice. 
 ELDEX, old rubbish of all kinds, specially old wood 
 
 fit only to be burned. 
 ELD-FATHER, a grandfather; but EL-MOTIIER, is a 
 
 stepmother; an "old" or "ill" mother. 
 ELSOX, a shoemaker's awl. 
 ESH, or Ax, to ask ; and ESHT, or AXT, asked. 
 
 ESHES, ash trees; and ESSES, like asses, nshcs. 
 
 " Skeer the esse," sift the ashes from the embers. 
 ETTLE, to prepare; also to earn. 
 FADDER-FWOK, father's family. 
 FADDLE, to fidget over things. "A feckless fad- 
 
 dling body," an incapable, fidgeting, messing 
 
 person. 
 FADGE, to loiter and lounge as if tired ; FADGY, 
 
 corpulent. 
 
 FAFFLE, to saunter and to fumble about. 
 FAGGED, tired. 
 FAIX, glad ; desirous. 
 FAIR-TRO-DAYS, daylight. 
 FAXCY, a ribbon; a prize for the best dancer at 
 
 the " Murrey Neets." 
 FAX, found; felt. 
 FAXSOME, kind ; caressing. 
 FARISH-ON, nearly tipsy. 
 
 FARLIES, outlandish wonders; things from afar. 
 FARR, to ache. 
 FARRAXTLY, orderly ; decently; respectable. AULD 
 
 FARRAXTLY, old-fashioned, but in a decent and 
 
 respectable sense. 
 FASH, to trouble; to tease. "I canna be fashed 
 
 just noo, sae hoo ways wi' ye I" "I cannot be 
 
 troubled just now, so be off with you! " 
 FASHEX, fashion; AULD-FASIIIXED, or AULD-FAS- 
 
 SIONED, wise beyond your natural years or 
 
 opportunities. 
 FASHERY, annoyances; also tediously nice ways; 
 
 and FASSIOUS is tedious and tiresome " bother- 
 ing," in modern slang. 
 FASSEX'S-EVEX, fastings eve, or Shrovetide. 
 FAUL, a farmyard. 
 FAWD, a bundle of straw. 
 FEARFUL, very. " A fearful gran' seeght," a very 
 
 fine sight. 
 
 FJIATER, a good dancer, or footer. 
 FEATLET, four pounds of butter. 
 FECKLESS, feeble ; incapable ; dawdling. 
 FEEAG, to encumber; to load. 
 FEEAL, to hide. " He that fecals can find." 
 FELL, the lower spurs of the mountain ridges; also 
 
 the lower elevations, if rocky, all through the 
 
 country. As a verb, to knock down. 
 FEXD, to work hard ; " he fends hard for a 
 
 living;" also used as a form of greeting; "hoo 
 
 fend ye ? " how do you do ? how do you 
 
 thrive ? 
 FEXDY, thrifty, and well managing. 
 
 302
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 FEST, to let out; also to bind, as an apprentice. 
 FETTLE, to put in order whatever is amiss, whether 
 
 broken, or untidy, or unprepared ; also, substan- 
 
 tively, a cord to fasten a pannier. To be " out 
 
 of fettle," is to be out of condition out of 
 
 health but not seriously so. 
 FEW'T-WEEL, promised fair. 
 FIDGE, to fidget; to sprawl. FIRTLE and FECK 
 
 are also to fidget. 
 FIG-SUE, ale boiled with figs and fine " white " 
 
 (wheaten) bread, and eaten on Good Friday. 
 FILTH, a bad man or woman ; generally a slut. 
 FINE, to cease or end. 
 FISSEL, to rustle lightly. 
 
 FIZZLE, to nestle; to get close up to; caressingly. 
 FLACKER, to quiver; to flutter; as FLACKERED, it 
 
 is rejoiced. 
 
 FLAITCH, to flatter; to persuade. 
 FLATE, or FLAIT, frightened. 
 FLANN, shallow. 
 FLEAD, stood. 
 FLECK, a flitch. 
 FLEEBTSKT, (fly by the sky, fly by night), a flighty 
 
 inconsiderate person. 
 FLEEK, or FLOOR, a flounder. 
 FLEER, the floor; also to jeer and make game of; 
 
 as is FLYER, or FLTRE. 
 FLIG-SIE-GAIREY, a flaunting, "fast," untidy 
 
 girl. 
 
 FLIPE, the rim of a hat. 
 FLOU, or FLEW, or FLUE, bleak; windy; shallow; 
 
 also used to express a certain blue unwholesome 
 
 pallor, as from cold or weakness. 
 FLYRE, to jeer. 
 FLYTE, to scold. 
 FOE, fall; FOETH', fall thee ; FOIN-AWT, fallen out, 
 
 or quarrelled. 
 FOIN, falling. 
 
 FOOSEN, generosity; FOOSENABLE, generous. 
 FORCE, a waterfall. 
 FORRET, or FORRAT, forward; also impudent; pert. 
 
 " To be weel forrat with ane's wark," and a 
 
 " forrat lisle lass," have different moral meanings. 
 FORMAT, to bespeak. 
 FOSSPLE, the impression of a horse's hoof on soft 
 
 ground. 
 Fou, full; also tipsy. "We're no fou," we are 
 
 not tipsy. 
 
 FOUDERSOME, bulky; cumbersome. 
 FOUMART, a pole-cat; the foul marten. 
 
 FOUT, fond; foolish; substantively, a spoiled child; 
 
 a pet. 
 
 FRAHDLE, to talk foolishly. 
 FRASE, fray; and FRATCII, quarrel. 
 FREMMED, strange. 
 FRID or FRITH, unused pasture land. 
 FRIDGE or FRUIN, to brush or rub against another 
 
 in passing. 
 FRITTISH, cold. 
 FROSK, a frog. 
 FROW, a worthless woman. 
 FUDGEL, a clumsy, stupid little child. 
 FUE, or FEW, to attempt. " I canna fue to do it," 
 
 I cannot make the attempt, I cannot dare to 
 
 do it. 
 
 FURED, went. 
 FUSOME, or FEWSOME, handsome; neat; notable; 
 
 tidy. 
 GAAPEN, or GOWPEX, the hands; also what can be 
 
 held by the two hands placed together. 
 GAILY, very well. " I'se gaily, thank ye," I'm all 
 
 right, quite well. 
 GAIT, goat; also a path; a way; a single sheaf of 
 
 corn ; two buckets of water. To gait corn is to 
 
 set up sheaves of corn in wet weather to dry. 
 GALLOWAY, a horse under fifteen hands high; a 
 
 hackney. 
 
 GALLUS or GALLOWS, much ; very; exceedingly. 
 GAMMASHERS, spatterdashers; gaiters. 
 GAMMERSTAXG, " a tall, awkward person of a bad 
 
 gait, a hoyden or awkward girl." W. and C. 
 
 Dialects. 
 GANG, to go. 
 GANGING-A-ROCKING, going a visiting, and taking 
 
 a rock and spindle for the combination of pleasure 
 
 and business. 
 GANGRIL, a toad. 
 GANT, to yawn. 
 GANTREE, a barrel stand. 
 GAR, to make, to compel. " I'll gar thec greet," 
 
 I'll make you cry. 
 
 GARRICK, or GARRACK, an awkward lout. 
 GARTH, a garden, or piece of enclosed cultivated 
 
 land. 
 GATE, a road, or path, or way, as is GEATT; " gang 
 
 the gate," go your way, be off. 
 GATTLE-HEADED, forgetful; addleheadcd. 
 GAVELOCK, an iron bar used as a lever. 
 (lAWMix, silly ; stupid ; a moral gawky. 
 GAYSHEX, smockfaced and silly. 
 
 303
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 GEAR, money; possessions; the tackling of a cart 
 or plough. 
 
 GED-WAND, a goad for oxen. 
 
 GESLINGS, goslings; the yellow blossoms of the 
 sallow or willow, which fall into the river and 
 become goslings. 
 
 GIF and GIN, if. 
 
 GILL, or GIIYLL, a deep ravine with a force or 
 stream at the bottom. 
 
 GILLIVER, a gillyflower. 
 
 A GIRD of laughter, a fit of laughter. 
 
 GIRN, to grin. 
 
 GIRT, or GURT, great. 
 
 GLAD, smooth. 
 
 GLEAAN, squinting. 
 
 GLEAD, or GLEDE, a kite. 
 
 GLENDER, to stare; and GLINT, a glimpse, a 
 glance, as is also GLIFF ; but gliff means a more 
 transient and momentary glance than glint. 
 
 GLIME, to look askance; to squint substantively 
 the glaire or slime that comes from the nostrils 
 of cows and horses. 
 
 GLISH, or GLISK, to shine or glitter. 
 
 GLOAR, or GLOWRE, to stare with passion or 
 malevolence; to leer. " E'en Satan glower'd an 
 fidged fu' fain." 
 
 GLOP, a fool ; and GLOPPEN, to astonish; to stare; 
 to frighten ; to disgust. 
 
 GLOUPING, silent or stupid. 
 
 GLUMPED, gloomed. 
 
 GLUNCII, to look cross and angry. 
 
 GLUTHEN, to gather for rain. 
 
 GOB, the mouth. 
 
 GODDARTLY, cautiously. 
 
 GODIL, God's will ; and GODLINS, God willing. 
 
 GOFFRAM, a clown; and GOBSLOTCII, a greedy 
 clown. 
 
 A GOOD FEW, a good many. 
 
 GOPE, to talk vulgarly and loud. 
 
 GOSH and GOMM, exclamations of the same cha- 
 racter as Cush. 
 
 GOVE, to gape and stare like a fool. 
 
 GOWD i' GOWPENS, gold in handfuls. 
 
 GOWK, the cuckoo; a fool; the core of an apple; 
 the yolk of an egg; the inner part of anything. 
 
 GOWL, to weep; to cry sulkily; as GOWLAN is cry- 
 ing and sobbing in a " howling " kind of way; 
 
 GRAIDELY, honestly. 
 
 GRAIPED, groped. 
 
 GRAITII, " the condition of the body, as being fat 
 
 or lean " ( W. and C. Dialects); but GRAITIIED 
 
 is dressed. 
 GRANK, to moan. 
 GRATII, to repair; assured. 
 GREEAV or GROVE, to cut peat; to dig. 
 GREET, to weep ; to cry. 
 GREPEN, clasped (gripen or griped?) 
 GREYMIN, a thin covering of snow. 
 GREYPE, or GRAPE, a pitchfork for manure. 
 GRISE, young pigs; used to be anciently wild swine. 
 GROUSOME, or GHEWSOME, f earful ; frightful ; grim ; 
 
 awful. 
 
 GRUMP, and GRUMPY, cross; displeased. 
 GRYKE, a cranny; a chink; a fissure. 
 GUD HAWNS, good hands stanch drinkers. 
 GUDMAN, the husband, called also generally " t' 
 
 maister." 
 GUFF, a fool. 
 
 GULDER, to speak harsh and loud. 
 GULLEY, a big clasp-knife, a joctelcgs or jac/icy 
 
 legs. 
 GURDLE, GIRDLE, GRIDDLE, the iron laid over, 
 
 or on, the brandreth, and on which cakes are 
 
 baked. 
 
 GURSIN, grazing, pasturage. 
 HACKED, a term used when a player has won all 
 
 the stakes ; chopped or chapped. 
 HACKER, to stammer; "to hacker and stammer" 
 
 is to prevaricate. 
 
 HACKLED, cross and ill-tempered. 
 HACK PUDDING, a pudding made of suet and 
 
 sheep's heart, sugar and dried fruits, and eaten 
 
 on Christmas morning. 
 HACK-SLAVER, a nasty fellow j a sloven. 
 HADLEYS, hardly. 
 
 HAG, to hack or cut; to haggle; to dispute. 
 HAIKE, an exclamation. 
 HAISTERT, hoisted about. 
 HALLAN, the passage or space between the outer 
 
 and inner door of a cottage; also the partition 
 
 between the passage and the room. Birkett 
 
 derives the word from the German, heldcn, to 
 
 conceal; it is more likely to be the diminutive of 
 
 hall; a kalian is to a cottage what a lobby or 
 
 hall is to a large house. W. and C. Dialects. 
 HALLAN-SHAKER, a beggar who stands in the 
 
 hallan to excite charity. 
 HALTS, " a pair of strong wicker hampers which 
 
 were joined by a pack saddle, and hung across 
 
 a horse's back; they were put to various uses in 
 
 304
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 husbandry, which offices are now performed by 
 carts." W. and C. Dialects. 
 
 HAM-SAMM, anyhow; confusedly. 
 
 HAXTLE, a handful, or good quantity. " She's a 
 hantle o' brass," she has a good handful of 
 money. 
 
 HAP, to cover, and HAPPIX, a coverlid; HAP UP, 
 cover up. 
 
 HAPPEN, or MAPPEX, perhaps it may be; literally 
 the corruption of " it may happen." 
 
 HARDEN-CLOTH, sacking; HARDEN SARK, one of 
 the stipulated modes of paying certain small 
 country priests in former times; a shirt of very 
 coarse texture. 
 
 HARK'T, guessed. 
 
 HARNS, brains. " Ding out your harns," knock 
 out your brains. 
 
 HASK, rough ; parched ; stiff. 
 
 HASPIX, an idle fellow doing nothing but lounging 
 about. 
 
 HASTER, surfeit; something that hastes you to your 
 end. 
 
 HAUGH, like SOUGH, low flat marshy ground. 
 
 HAUSE, HAWSE or HOSE, the neck ; the throat ; 
 the lower spur or ridge of the mountain line ; 
 with a way leading over, as Buttermere Hawse, 
 Bassenthwaite Hawse, &c. 
 
 HAVER, oats; to talk nonsense. 
 
 HAVEY-SCAVEY, helter-skelter. 
 
 HAW, hungry. 
 
 HAWFLIX, a halflmg a half witted person next 
 thing to a fool. 
 
 HAWKEY, a white-faced cow. 
 
 HAY-BAY, noise ; confusion ; HAY-MAIDEN, the 
 ground ivy (ghchoma hederacea). 
 
 HEALD^or WEALD, to lean on one side. 
 
 HEAMS, a wooden collar for horses. 
 
 HECK, " the division from the side of the fire in 
 the form of a passage in old houses; also an en- 
 closure of open work of slender bars of wood, 
 as a rack to hold hay for horses. A HECK- 
 BOARD is the board at the tail of a cart; HECK 
 DOOR, the inner door, not closely panelled, but 
 only partly so, and the rest latticed; HALF- 
 HECK, the half or lower part of a door." 
 W. and C. Dialects. 
 
 HECKLE, to dress tow or flax ; to get impotcntly 
 angry. 
 
 HEEAD-WAUK, headache. 
 
 HEFFLE, to hesitate; to prevaricate. 
 
 HELLE, to pour in a rapid manner. 
 
 HELM WIND, the peculiar wind coming with the 
 
 cloud called the Helm, which rests on the top of 
 
 Crossfell. 
 HERD, a cattle keeper ; HERDWICK, a farm famous 
 
 for its herds or beasts and sheep. Two or three 
 
 farms in Cumberland have this name, hence the 
 
 designation of Herdwick sheep. 
 HERIOT, a fine paid to the lord when a landholder 
 
 dies, generally a horse or cow, but sometimes, 
 
 when the lord is " keen," the best thing the 
 
 unfortunate landholder has left behind him. 
 HERRY, or HARRY, to rob and distress; to rob by 
 
 violence as in the border times, when William 
 
 of Deloraine harried the lands of Richard 
 
 Musgravc. 
 HESP, to latch. " Hesp or hasp the door," latch the 
 
 door; only to be used for the old fashioned latches. 
 HETHER-FACED, rough faced. 
 HE UCK, a crook or sickle; and HEUCK-FINGERED 
 
 is thievish. 
 HEUGH, a ravine. 
 HIGHT, to promise; to vow. 
 HIND, a farm sen-ant. 
 
 HINNY, honey; one of the prettiest terms of endear- 
 ment of the country. 
 HIRPLE, to limp. " He hosts and he hirples the 
 
 weary night lang." 
 HITTEN, eaten. 
 HOAST, the curd for cheese before it is taken from 
 
 the whey. 
 HOB THROSS, " a bodie a' owrc rough " that lies by 
 
 the fireside at nights; the Brownie. 
 HOCKER, to clamber a little unsteadily. 
 HOGS, shtcp from six months old until they are 
 
 shorn. 
 HOLM, rich meadow lands, as Abbey Holm, &c.; 
 
 lake islands, as the holms on Windermere and 
 
 Ullswater, and Ramps Holm on Derwentwater. 
 HOLT, a peaked hill, wooded. 
 HOST, to cough. 
 
 HOT, a square basket, used for manure. 
 HOTCH, to shake. " An' botched an' blew \vi' 
 
 might an' main." 
 HOVE, swelled; to lift or heave. 
 How, empty; "the how neet," the empty lonely 
 
 night. 
 
 HOWDER, to walk heavily. 
 HOWDON-CAN-PAXTER, an ungraceful rider. 
 HOWDY-WIFE, a midwife. 
 
 305 
 
 R R
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 HOWK, to dig out with a spade or pick. 
 
 HCBBLESHOO and HUBBLE-TE-SHIVES, a mob and 
 confusion. 
 
 HUDDLE, to embrace; to hug; HUDDLIX, cuddling. 
 
 HUXSUP, to scold; to"fratch." 
 
 HURSLE, to shrug the shoulders. 
 
 'HWOAZIX, resin. 
 
 ILK, or ILKA, each ; the same. 
 
 IME (a contraction of rime), also IZLE, hoar- 
 frost. 
 
 IMP, an addition to a beehive; a length of hair in 
 a fishing-line. 
 
 IXGLE, fire or flame ; IXGLEWOOD, fire-wood ; 
 JXGLE-XUIK, the fire-corner, or seat nearest the 
 fire. An ingle of sticks is a common phrase. 
 
 JACKET SLOPE, a kite. 
 
 JANXAK, fit; proper; good; fair and honourable; 
 smart or fine. HALLIWELL'S Archaic Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 JAXXOCKS, loaves of oatmeal oat-bread, not 
 cake. 
 
 JARBLE, to bemire; to daggle. 
 
 JAWS o' YELL, great quantities of ale. 
 
 JIDDY-CUM-JIDY, a see-saw. 
 
 JIMMER, a hinge. 
 
 JIMP, slender; a "jimp waist," a small round, 
 trim waist. 
 
 JIXKAX, and CAREERING, " junketing and keeping 
 it up." W. and C. Dialects. 
 
 JOAN-XA-MA-CRAXK, a heron. 
 
 JOBBY and JWOSEP, Joseph. 
 
 JOISTED, pastured. 
 
 JOWRING, or JOWLING, pushing and shaking 
 against anything. 
 
 JYKE, to creak. 
 
 KAAIKIN, looking about stupidly. 
 
 KAIK, or KELK, a kick. 
 
 KALE (Kail), broth. 
 
 KEANE, to scamper away. 
 
 KEAVE, to plunge and struggle and writhe 
 clumsily. 
 
 KECKSY, whooping cough. 
 
 KEEK, to peep and pry. 
 
 KEEL, to cease. 
 
 KEEP and CREEK (keeper and crook), hook and 
 eye. 
 
 KELD, a well or spring; also those dark smooth 
 places which come upon the lakes, without 
 wind, or shadow of cloud. 
 
 KELP, a young crow; also a pot-hanger or crook. 
 
 KEMPS, coarse fibres or hairs in wool. 
 
 KEXCII, a twist; a sprain. 
 
 KEXGUID, an exemplar; also the mark distinctive 
 of any one. 
 
 KEXSPECKLE, noticeable for any peculiaiity of 
 dress or appearance. 
 
 KERLEY-MERLEY, kickshaws and follies; what we 
 might now perhaps call brie a Irac, if speaking 
 fashionably. 
 
 KESSEX, to cast on ; as to " kest a loop," to cast on 
 the first or additional loops in knitting. 
 
 KKTT, rubbish. 
 
 KEVVEL, to walk awkwardly. 
 
 KEX, the hemlock; the withered stalk of the 
 hemlock. 
 
 KEYSAXD, KYSAXT, KISTY, dainty in food; 
 squeamish. 
 
 KEZZLUP-SKIX, rennet; the stomach of a calf used 
 for curdling milk into " come milk " (curds and 
 whey). 
 
 KINK, a small sore specially a small chapped sore 
 on the lips or hands ; KIXK-HOST, the chin- 
 cough. 
 
 KIRK-GARTII, the churchyard. 
 
 KIRN, churn; KIRX-SUPPER, harvest- supper, so 
 called because a quantity of cream, slightly 
 churned, was originally the only dish which 
 constituted it. W. and C. Dialects, 
 
 KIROCK, a raise, a heap of stones, 
 
 IVIST, a chest. 
 
 KITE, the abdomen. 
 
 KITS, pails. 
 
 KITTLE, to tickle, also quick; KITTLY-SLIP-POUXS, 
 barley-meal porridge. 
 
 KIZZARD, wizzened; shrivelled; parched; dry. 
 
 KXACK, or KXAPP, to mince in speaking; to speak 
 affectedly. 
 
 KXAP, the top of a hill. 
 
 KXIEF, or KNEAVE, or NEAF, the fist. 
 
 KXOP, a large tub; also the top of a gooseberry. 
 You have to knop gooseberries, " berries," before 
 using them; in the south you top and tail them. 
 
 KYPE, heed; care; attention. 
 
 LAAVIX-DAYS ! an exclamation, meaning " la!" 
 
 LAIRLY, or LAIRY, idle; base. 
 
 LAIT, to seek; and LAITIT, found; LATIXG, an 
 invitation or a seeking out. 
 
 LAKE, or LAIK, to play; LAKER, a person play- 
 ing, or in high good humour; LAKEING, a 
 plaything. 
 
 506
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 LALL, LILE, and LISLE, little. 
 
 LALLOPS, a trollop. 
 
 LAM, to beat. 
 
 LANE, or LEAN, to hide a fault; to connive at. 
 
 LANG LENGTH, the whole length ; LANGSOME, long, 
 
 tedious. 
 
 LAST, loo; LANTER, a player at loo ; LANTED, loo'd. 
 LASH-COMB, the large " back hair " comb, with 
 
 wide teeth. 
 
 LAUKE, to whip; to weed corn ; LAUKIN, weeding. 
 LAVE, the rest; "ahint the lave," behind the 
 
 others. 
 
 LEATHER-TE.-PATCH, a certain step in a jig. 
 LECK, hard " blue clay," the substratum so often 
 
 found in the north. 
 LEDDER and LEATHER, to beat. 
 LEEA, LEAGH, LEIGH, a scythe; and LEEATII, or 
 
 LEATHE, a barn. 
 LEEFTAIL, a quick sale. 
 LEET, or LYTE, to meet with ; to chance ; to alight ; 
 
 to expect ; and to depend on. 
 LET-TO-GATE, went home. 
 LICK, to beat. 
 LIDS, manner ; fashion, 
 LIG, to lay; also a lie; LIGGING, lying. 
 LILT, to sing, or " turn a tune ; " also to walk 
 
 jauntily. 
 LIMBER, supple. 
 
 LINK, to take hold of arms ; to walk quickly. 
 LIPE, a piece cut off anything. 
 LIRPLE, Liverpool. 
 LIRT, to toss. 
 
 LISH, active; as a "lish dancer." 
 LITHE, to listen; to attend. 
 LOCK, or LOKE, a small quantity. " A lisle lock 
 
 o' brass," a small quantity of money. 
 LOFF, to offer. " I'd like t' loff on 't," I would 
 
 like to have the offer of it. 
 LONNIN, LOANING, a lane. 
 LOOME, lame. 
 Low, to blaze up; to flame. LOWES, small knolls 
 
 rising in the plains. Is this the meaning of 
 
 tame and pretty Lowes Water, where are no 
 
 mountains but only gentle, well-tempered little 
 
 hills ? 
 
 LOWN, or LOUND, a calm. 
 LOWP, or LOPE, leap; LOPE E' DYKE, a cow that 
 
 leaps the hedges and wanders abroad. 
 LOWSE, to loosen ; LOWS'D, loosened. 
 LUGS, the ears. 
 
 S07 
 
 LURRY, tO pull. 
 
 LUSH, the noise of anything falling into water. 
 
 LYTHEY, thick. 
 
 MAANDKR, to wander; and MAAP, to maunder; 
 
 MAAPMENT, rigmarole. 
 MACK, or MEK, make; sort. " Them mack," that 
 
 kind or sort of person or thing. 
 MADDLED and MAFFLIXG, confused like an old 
 
 person; MAFLIN, a simpleton. 
 MADLIN, a bad memory. 
 MAIDEN, a clothes-horse. 
 MAISLIKIN, foolish. 
 MAL, Mar}'. 
 MAN-KEEN, fierce after men, said of animals 
 
 whom the presence of a man makes mad with 
 
 rage. 
 
 MANNERLEY, in a proper manner. 
 MAN-SWORN, perjured. 
 MANT, to stutter. 
 MAPPEN, maybe. 
 MARROW and MARRAS, the match; the like to; 
 
 the equal. 
 MAWKIN, a bunch of rags used for cleaning out 
 
 ovens and other such places; a slattern. 
 MAWSI, peaceable; quiet. 
 MAYTHEM, a " may gosling." 
 MAZLE, daft; stupid; MAZELINS, silly confused 
 
 people. 
 
 MEAKIN, water milfoil (Myriophyllum), 
 MEAN, to bemoan. 
 MELL, to meddle ; also a mallet. 
 
 " I. John Bell, 
 
 Leave this melt, 
 
 For to fell 
 
 Them that gi'es a' to their bairns, 
 And keeps nought for theirsel'." 
 
 " Epitaph on himself by an old country mason, 
 who, during his life, had given away all his 
 property to his ungrateful children. The 
 jockey who is last in a race, is called the 
 me llW. and C. Dialects. 
 MELL-DOOR, the space between the heck and out- 
 ward door; the entry or passage; that is, the 
 middle or intermediate door. The melt-door 
 and heck were always at the back of the 
 house. 
 
 MENSE, manners; decency. TAILOR'S MENSK, the 
 bit of meat which a country tailor always lca\ . > 
 when working out at houses, lest he be charged 
 with eating up everything; MENSFUL, is mau- 
 B ft I
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 nerly and decent ; and MENSELESS, is mannerless, 
 mean, or wanting mense. 
 
 MENT, mixed or mingled. 
 
 MERE, a lake or pool ; MEER, a mare. 
 
 MERTH, greatness; extent. 
 
 MESS, truly; indeed; an untranslateable exclama- 
 tion. 
 
 METHY, difficulty of breathing. 
 
 MICKLE and MUCKLE, much. " Many a little 
 makes a mickle." 
 
 MIDDIN, a dunghill; also MIDDIN-STEAD. 
 
 MIFF, a mow or rick; and MIFFMAFF, nonsense. 
 
 MIRK, dark. 
 
 MIRLIN, pining. 
 
 MISMANNERED, ill-mannered. 
 
 MISNARE, to inconvenience or mislay. 
 
 MISTETCH, evil teaching. " A mistetcht horse " 
 is a horse with one or more special vices. 
 
 MOAM, mellow. 
 
 MODYWARP, and MOULDIEWARP, a mole. 
 
 MOIDER, to distract; to bewilder; to work hard. 
 
 MOMMOCKS, little bits, fragments. 
 
 MOOD, roared; but used chiefly for a cow's " moo," 
 or bellow. 
 
 MOODLE, to fold up, but not neatly. 
 
 MOORMASTER, the superintendent (not the captain) 
 of the mines. 
 
 MUL, the dust of peats; MUL.J,, to break into small 
 pieces. 
 
 MULLOCK, dirt; refuse. 
 
 MURELL, to muse or think with great attention. 
 
 MURRY, merry; and MURRY-NEET, merry night; a 
 dance or other entertainment held at a public- 
 house, where all the guests pay their share, and 
 where drinking the cardinal sin of the north 
 and its companion immorality are rampant. 
 Happily now on the decline. 
 
 NANTLE, to fondle. 
 
 NASH, brittle. 
 
 NATTLE, to rattle lightly; to nattle at a door or 
 window is to shake or tap it lightly. 
 
 NEB and NESS, a point; a beak; the nose; and, 
 allusively, the mouth. 
 
 NECKED, when the ears of corn are laid by the 
 wind they are necked ; and things notched are 
 necked too. 
 
 NIGHT-COURTSHIP, or SiTTiN' OOP, a custom some- 
 thing like the bundling of Wales, when two 
 lovers " sit up " together through the night in 
 the dark, generally lying in bed, both dressed; 
 
 it need scarcely be said with what fatal conse- 
 quences. But this, too, is a custom fast dying 
 out from all but very rough and remote 
 places. 
 
 NOBBUT, only. 
 
 NODDY, a game at cards. 
 
 NOLT, black cattle; but also horned cattle gene- 
 rally. 
 
 NOOLED, curbed; broken-spirited. 
 
 NOUSKAITH, a wishing or longing mixed with 
 envy. 
 
 NOUTEGELD, or NEATGELD, a tax paid in " beasts " 
 in olden times. , 
 
 NUIKKEL, or NUIKKELT, yielding milk; TOP- 
 NDIKKEL, full of milk, said of a cow in the 
 early days after calving. " Nuikkel is probably 
 a conniption of new calved." W. and C. 
 Dialects. 
 
 NYFLE, to pilfer. 
 
 OAST, curd for cheese. 
 
 ODDMENTS, odds and ends. 
 
 ODDWHITE, an oath. " God wite," God knows. 
 
 OFF-AT-SIDE, mad. 
 
 ONDERGANG, to undergo. 
 
 OON EGG, a soft egg without a shell. 
 
 OPEN'D-THEIR-GILLS, " said of those who gape 
 wide and drink much." 
 
 Oss, to offer; to attempt anything; OSSING, 
 offering. 
 
 OCT-ROUP, a public auction. 
 
 OWND, fated; or "overlooked." 
 
 PACE-EGGS, Easter eggs, boiled hard and dyed all 
 colours red, purple, yellow, and black much 
 prized by children. 
 
 PACK, a measure of coals equal to about three 
 Winchester bushels. 
 
 PADDOCK, frog; PADDOCK-RUD, or PADDOCK-RIDE, 
 frog spawn. 
 
 PAFFELDIN, baggage. 
 
 PAN, to fit; to agree. 
 
 PANG'D, quite full, as with food. 
 
 PARLISH, dangerous; a corruption of perilous. 
 
 PARRACK, a paddock near a house. 
 
 PARSEN, personal charms. 
 
 PATE, a badger; also the head, as elsewhere. 
 
 PAUT, to walk with a heavy, clumsy step. 
 
 PAWPE, to step forward in a leisurely measured 
 manner. 
 
 PEAN, to strike or beat. 
 
 PECII, to pant. 
 
 308
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 PEE, to squint; to peer; to look with one eye; ! 
 PEED, blind of one eye. 
 
 PEFF, to cough. 
 
 PEG, to beat with sharp knuckles. 
 
 PELDER, to encumber; and PELTER, a large mass 
 or quantity. 
 
 PELL, a storm of wind or rain; a turmoil and 
 tumult. 
 
 PELSEY, obstinate; froward. 
 
 PEXXYSTOXES, stone discs, made like quoits; a 
 PEXXYSTOXE CAST, the distance they can be 
 thrown. 
 
 PET-LIP, a hanging, sulky-looking lip. 
 
 PETTLE, to trifle. " He pettles and fidges," he 
 fidgets about doing little nothings. 
 
 PEYL, to beat. 
 
 PEZ-STRAE: when a gii'l loses her lover, she is 
 rubbed with peastraw by the young men of the 
 village; and the same thing is done to a youth, 
 by the girls, if he is jilted by his sweet-heart. 
 
 PICK, pitch; PICK-DARK, pitch dark; PICKS, dia- 
 monds in cards. 
 
 PICK-THE-FWOAL, said of mares which foal pre-r 
 maturely. 
 
 PIGGIXS, small wooden pails, made like half barrels, 
 with one long stave left for a handle. They are 
 used for milk and potatoes, and " a' macks o' 
 things." 
 
 PIG-HULL, a hog sty. 
 
 PIRXED, dried up; pinned. 
 
 PLACK, a piece of money. 
 
 PLEEXIX, complaining; "badly." "I'se nobbut 
 pleenin'," I'm ill. 
 
 PLOAT, to pluck the feathers from a fowl or bird. 
 
 PODDISH, porridge. 
 
 POKE, a sack or bag ; and POKEY, saucy; inquisi- 
 tive ; pushing. 
 
 POPPLE, to bubble up. 
 
 POPS-AND-PAIRS, a game at cards. 
 
 POSSET-COP, the pewter flagon in which the old- 
 fashioned ale posset used to be served. 
 
 Pow, to pull; also the head; POWDER, is bustle; 
 haste. 
 
 PRIMELY, like brawly, very well; capitally. 
 
 PRIMP, to be a prude ; to act priggishly. 
 
 PROD, thrust. 
 
 PUBBLE, plump. 
 
 PCDDER, confusion. 
 
 PUGGY, damp or moist; as " a puggy hand," a 
 warm, damp, sticky hand. 
 
 PYFLE, to pick delicately. 
 
 PYOXXET, magpie. 
 
 QUALITY-MAK, quality folk, gentlefolk. 
 
 RACKEX, to think; also to reckon or count. 
 
 RACK-HURRY, the tramroad down to a hurry that 
 is, a staith or coal-wharf. 
 
 RACKLE, rude, boisterous ; RACKLE-DEED, dis- 
 orderly conduct. 
 
 RADDLE, to weave; to banter; to riddle. 
 
 RAGABRASH, ragamuffins; low people. 
 
 RAID, an incursion over the Border, when the Scots 
 harried the poor Borderers and lifted their gear. 
 
 RAISE, a cairn; a tumulus; a heap of stones ; a 
 robbery. 
 
 RAM, having a foul strong smell; RAMMISH, 
 violent; also as the adjective of ram; RAM-STAM, 
 thoughtless. 
 
 RAXXEL-BALK, or RAXXEL-TREE, the beam across 
 the chimney, bearing the chain with crooks and 
 hangers for the pots and kettles, and specially 
 the RATTEX-CBOOK, or longest crook, reaching 
 from the rannel balk to the fire. 
 
 RAXXIGAL, a wild " outward " unmanageable per- 
 son ; REEUL has the same meaning. 
 
 RAXTY and RAXDY, wild to dissoluteness; also, 
 more innocently, only frisky. 
 
 RAPPIS, a rapscallion ; RASCOT, a rascal both 
 corruptions. 
 
 RATCH, a straight lino; to pull asunder; to stretch; 
 as is also RAX. 
 
 RATTEXS, rats. RATTEX-ROW is the name of a 
 hill near Caldbeck. 
 
 RAVE, rove; tore. 
 
 REAR, to raise; to rally; REER'D, raised on end. 
 
 REDD UP, to put to rights; to tidy oneself or a 
 room. 
 
 REEK, smoke. 
 
 RIDE, to ride out on horseback on a raid or foray; 
 a border term. " Ride Rowlie, the hough's i' the 
 pot! " Go out, Rowley, the last bit of beef (re- 
 presented by the shin, or hough, the worst part) 
 is in the pot, so go out and get more. 
 
 RIDIXG THE STAXG. " On New Year's Day the 
 populace carry stangs and baskets; whoever 
 will not join them is mounted on the stang, and 
 carried shoulder height to the next public-house 
 and fined sixpence." Gentlemen's Magazine, 
 1791. Abo, certain classes of misdoers were 
 mounted on the stang, but if too reputable in 
 station for such a display of popular feeling, a 
 
 309
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 substitute was found, who repeated, to make sure 
 of no mistake, 
 
 " It isn't for my foat at I ride stanjf. 
 But for W. B. who his wife does bang." 
 
 The class of offenders generally made to " ride 
 the stang" were unfaithful husbands and such as 
 beat their wives, and those who worked on Sun- 
 days and holidays. 
 
 RIP, news. 
 
 ROCK, a distaff. 
 
 ROOF, or ROUP, hoarseness; a public sale. 
 
 ROUGHNESS, abundance. 
 
 ROUK, a great number. 
 
 ROUNDGE, a great noise; a violent push. 
 
 ROWOKGIN, an organ one that makes a large 
 noise. 
 
 Row UP, to devour. 
 
 ROYSTERAN, roystering; ROYSTERING, screaming 
 loudly. 
 
 ROGGS, woollen counterpanes. 
 
 RUMBUR, the short run before leaping. 
 
 RUSSLIN, wrestling. 
 
 BACKLESS, weak and simple. 
 
 SAIRY, poor and innocent. 
 
 SANK, a great quantity. " A sank o' havver," a 
 great quantity of oats. 
 
 SARK, a shirt or chemise ; a " cutty sark," a short 
 shirt or shift. 
 
 SARRA, to serve. " Will that sarra your turn ? " 
 will that do for you ? 
 
 SATTLE, or SETTLE, the long oaken bench with a 
 back to it, placed along the chimney side. 
 
 SATJRIN, vinegar the sowering. 
 
 SAWW, " a violent yet sluggish kind of ache or 
 pain, such as follows a blow upon the head, or is 
 felt in the fingers when brought to the fire in a 
 severe frost." W. and C. Dialects. 
 
 SCALE, to waste ; also to spread. You scale your 
 property when you waste it, and you scale 
 manure when you spread it abroad on the 
 field. 
 
 SCAR, a bare, steep, jagged rock. 
 
 SCAUMY,' a thick, misty, flaky look in the sky, as if 
 covered with cloud scaum, or scum. 
 
 SCOMTHER, to scorch severely. 
 
 SCONCE, a screen drawn from the heck to the fire, 
 giving the family an inner room or place of en- 
 sconce; also a tin candlestick with a reflector. 
 
 SCONS, barleymeal cakes, eaten hot with butter. 
 
 SCOTTY KYE, Scotch cows the small black High- 
 land breed. 
 
 SCOWDER, and a SCHOW ON, an untidy bustle; 
 also a row; a confusion. 
 
 SCRAFFLE, to struggle, and to quarrel. The pigs 
 scraffle for food, and the bairns scrctffle at 
 their games. 
 
 SCRAT, a scratch; said also of a busv, careful, 
 and economical little housewife, who scrats or 
 scrapes up every penny she can make. " She's 
 a lisle scrat," meaning nothing disrespectful, but 
 only expressive of her exceeding industry and 
 carefulness. 
 
 SCRAWLEN, sprawling. 
 
 SCREES, loose, shingly precipices the Screes at 
 Wastwater the type of the rest. 
 
 SCRUDGE, scrowdge; and SKREENGED, squeezed. 
 
 SCUFTER, to bustle; to hurry; to scuffle after. 
 
 SCUGG, hid in a corner, like a squirrel. 
 
 SCDMFISHED, suffocated. 
 
 SEA-NAG, a ship. 
 
 SECK, such. 
 
 SEEK AS A PEET, sick as a magpie; extremely 
 sick. 
 
 SEEVY CAP, a cap made of " sieves " or rushes. 
 
 SEGGY, hard and horny skin. 
 
 SEUGH, or SOUGH, a wet ditch; also a morass. 
 
 SEYPERS, those who drink to the last drop. 
 
 SHAG, a slice of bread. 
 
 SHAKIN, the ague. 
 
 SHALLY-WALLY, and SHITTLE-CUM-SHAW, both 
 exclamations of contempt. 
 
 SHAWL, to walk ill, with bent and bowed legs. 
 
 SHEAR, to reap ; also to shear sheep. 
 
 SHED, to excel. 
 
 " Here lies John Richmond, honest man ; 
 Shed that who can." 
 
 Gravestone in Cocterham Churchyard 
 ( W. and C. Dialects). 
 
 SHEM, shame ; a SHEM and a BIZIN, a shame and 
 
 a public scandal or byeword. 
 SHILLA, a stony beach ; also used for " shale." 
 SHIRL, and SKIRL, and SLIRD, to slide or skate; 
 
 SKIRL is also to scream. 
 SHIVE, to cut in slices. "Harry-lad shive," a 
 
 whole round of bread. 
 SH WORT-CAKES, Scotch bread; short-cakes. 
 
 Halliwell has it " clear, bright, glossy." 
 310
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 SIDE, to tidy ; to put things away. 
 
 SIEVEYTHWAITE, the place of rushes. 
 
 SIKE, or STKE, a small stream or rill that runs 
 
 dry in summer. 
 
 SIN, since ; SIN SYNE, since that time. 
 SIND, to rinse. 
 SINE, to strain. 
 SINEWAYS, many ways. 
 
 SKAIF, distant, wild, fearful, scattered abroad. 
 SKEER, or SCOWER, gravel, or small pebbles; also 
 
 the place where cockles are gathered. 
 SKELLED, " anything twisted or warped out of a 
 
 flat or straight form into that of a curve, skell, 
 
 or shell." W. and C. Dialects. 
 SKELP, to " pelt along," to walk very fast, also to 
 
 yelp. 
 
 SKEEN, to squint. 
 SKENSMADAM, or WHO MAY SAY ; " a mock dish 
 
 set up on the table for show." W. and C. 
 
 Dialects. 
 SKEWIN UP, tossing up ; SKEW'T and TEW'T, 
 
 tossed about and fagged. 
 SKI LYINGS, "a wooden frame to fix on the top of 
 
 a cart, in order to widen and extend its size." 
 
 W. and C. Dialects. 
 SKIMMELS, forms; seats. 
 SLAISTER, to beat violently. 
 SLACK, a valley or small shallow dell. A slack 
 
 is also the depression in a mountain range. 
 SLAKE, to wipe gently; " the slut's slake," is 
 
 when a room is only half cleaned, merely slaked 
 
 over, not thoroughly dusted. 
 SLAMMAKIN, untidy; sprawling; careless. " A slam- 
 makin lass," a big, sprawling, untidy trollop. 
 SLAPE, slippery; said, too, of a man not over 
 
 honest or truthful. 
 SLAT, to spill; and SLATTERY, wet and dirty and 
 
 untidy, and SLATCHIN is untidy too. 
 SLETHERING, lounging; " loafing;" also slippery. 
 SLINGE, to slink away. 
 SLIVE, to dress carelessly and slovenly. 
 SLOKKEN, to quench thirst. 
 SLON, sly. 
 SLOSH, SLOSHY, (slush, slushy,) muddy; wet; 
 
 dirty. 
 
 SMIDDY, a blacksmith's smithy. 
 SMOOR, to smother; to suffocate. 
 SMULY, demure; looking graciously and smugly. 
 SNAAR, greedy. 
 SNAFFLEN, a sauntering, do-little way. 
 
 SNAG, to cut off ; to notch. 
 
 SNAPE, to gird at others; to snap at them. 
 
 SNAPS, smull round gingerbread cakes. 
 
 SNARREL, a hard knot bad to undo; and SXOCK 
 SNARRELS is both entangled and cross. 
 
 SNECK, the latch of a door or gate. 
 
 SNIFT'RIN; snivelling, as is SXOTTERIXO. 
 
 SXIGGS, young eels. 
 
 SNIRP, to pine; to wither. 
 
 SNIRRELS, the nostrils. 
 
 SNIZY, cold. 
 
 SNODD, smooth; demure. 
 
 SOAV and CLIP, to salve and shear sheep. 
 
 SONN, to think and ponder. 
 
 SONSY, a well-favoured, stout, good-humoured 
 person. 
 
 SOOND, to swoon; to faint. 
 
 SOPS, lumps of blacklead. 
 
 Soss, to fall with a thud, as would any weighty 
 soft body; SOSSING, drinking in a heavy, sodden 
 manner. " To lie sossing in bed," is to lie lazily, 
 stuffy and hot in bed. 
 
 SOTTER, to boil slowly. 
 
 SOUR-MILK, butter-milk. 
 
 SPAIN, to wean. 
 
 SPANG, to shoot with pain; to leap out; to jump. 
 " My side spangs sae," my side shoots with 
 pain. 
 
 SPAT, a sharp quick slap. 
 
 SPELK, a splinter or thatching pin. 
 
 SPOTTLE, schedule. 
 
 SQUOAVERAN CALLAN, a light, merry boy. 
 
 STAAT, an estate; the STATESMEN are the estate- 
 men, men holding a little landed property of 
 their own a race unfortunately fast diminish- 
 ing to make room for large landed proprietors 
 and monopolists. 
 
 STAFFLE, STAVEL, or STOAP, to walk like a 
 drunken person ; to wander about as if lost. 
 
 STAG, a young horse. 
 
 STAXG, a long bar or wooden pole, very strong. 
 
 STANK, to sigh ; to moan ; to gasp for breath ; also 
 a dam or weir. 
 
 STARKEN, to tighten. 
 
 STAVLAN, lounging. 
 
 STEE, or STIE, a ladder or stile; a way of ascent as 
 STY is ascent. "Ye shall see heaven o]>cncd, 
 and the angels of God stiynge up and coming 
 down upon the Son of Man." Wiclif't 
 Bible. 
 
 311
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 STEEK, or STUIK, to shut; to close. 
 
 " Kittle t' coal and mak t' ingle shine ; 
 Sleek t' dere, and keep out t' swine." 
 
 STEG, a gander. 
 
 STEVEN, "to set the steven," to agree upon the 
 
 time and place of meeting for an appointment. 
 STEVVIN, to be in a fuss and flurry. 
 STINT, a limited allowance. 
 STITCHES, narrow ridges of cultivated land; the 
 
 " stitch of potato " is not the furrow. 
 STODGE, any thick satisfying food, as porridge, 
 
 peas-pudding, &c. ; STODGY is the adjective 
 
 of stodge, and is used also for a fat, clumsy girl. 
 STOMP Y, a heavy walker, one who stomps or stamps 
 
 about ; a pianoforte player with a heavy touch 
 
 stomps. 
 
 STORKEN, to cool; to stiffen like cooling tallow. 
 STOUN, or STOCND, a sudden transient pain, like 
 
 spang. 
 STOUR, dust; and, metaphorically, a dispute or 
 
 noisy meeting. 
 
 STOVE, a young shoot of wood. 
 STOWTER, to struggle ; to walk clumsily. 
 STRAMMER, large; great. " A strammer lie " is a 
 
 bouncer. 
 STRONES, tenants bound to assist the lord in 
 
 hunting the red deer. 
 STROO. " to strain a liquid through cloth, or to 
 
 press it through a narrow passage, as through 
 
 the teeth; "-also to draw anything through the 
 
 teeth, as asparagus, &c., instead of biting it. 
 SUKKEN, wet; literally " soaking." 
 SUMP, a dirty puddle or pond; but SUMPLE is a 
 
 blockhead. 
 SUNKETS, suppers. 
 SWAITH, like WRAITH, the fetch or ghost of a 
 
 dying person. 
 SWAYMUS, shy, bashful. 
 SWEELS OF LAUGHTER, bursts of laughter ; a 
 
 candle sweels when placed in a draught. 
 SWEET BUTTER, or RUM BUTTER, butter and sugar 
 
 mixed up with rum, and used at childbirths ; 
 
 generally a piece of this is put into the baby's 
 
 mouth as its first taste of earthly food. 
 SWELT, overcome; faint; to swoon; to die away; 
 
 " grass when cut in hot weather is said to swelt. 
 
 In a hot, dry season it is said that every green 
 
 thing swelts for want of rain." W. and C. 
 
 Dialects. 
 
 SWIPE, to drink off hastily; and SYPE, to drain. 
 SWIRTLE, to fidget about; also to be nimble and 
 
 active. 
 
 SWORT, a syringe. 
 SWURLT, whirled. 
 SYKE, or SIKE, a ditch. 
 SYZLE, to saunter. 
 TAAKIN, in a temper. " She's in a fine taakin," 
 
 she's very angry, very much put out. 
 TAAS, wood split thin to make into baskets. 
 TAAVE, or TEAVE, to wade through mire; but 
 
 TAAVIX is kicking. 
 
 TAGGELT, a bad character, male or female. 
 TAHMY, untwisted; stringy. 
 TAMMY, glutinous; sticky. 
 TANGLE, sea- weed. 
 TAPPY-LAPPY, in a hurry, " with the coat laps 
 
 flying behind through speed." 
 TARN, a small lake or lakelet on the hill tops. 
 TARN'D, ill-natured. 
 TAVE, moving the feet about quickly fidgeting 
 
 with them; also wbrking up plaster with a 
 
 spade. 
 TAYSTRAGELT, i.e., tie strayed; a loose idle person, 
 
 strayed from the tie or tether like a cow or 
 
 horse. 
 
 TEA DRAA (to draw), a place of refuge; a home. 
 TEANALE, a basket. 
 TEARAN, tearing. A "tearan fellow" is a rough, 
 
 hot-headed, riotous person. 
 TEDDER-STYAK, the tether stake to which cattle 
 
 are tied or tethered. 
 TEEHT, a lock of wool, flax, &c. 
 TEEM, or TOOM, to pour out of one vessel into 
 
 another. 
 
 TEM, to kindle, to light. 
 TERRIBLE, often used as very. " 'Twas a terrible 
 
 great sheep; " " aye, 'twas a maist serious grand 
 
 sheep indeed!" 
 TEYLLEYER, a tailor. 
 TEYNEY, tiny. 
 TEYTE, tide, or time, used for "as soon as." " I'd as 
 
 teyte hev a glass o' rum as a pint o' yell." 
 THACK, thatch; THECKED, thatched; THECKER, 
 
 thatcher. 
 THIBEL, or THIVEL, the wooden stick with which 
 
 porridge is stirred. 
 THICK AS WAMPS, intimate friends. 
 THRANG, thronged; busy. 
 TIIRAW, to writhe; to twist. 
 
 312
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 THREAP, Timup, to assert, generally a lie. "She 
 threaped 'till my face," she said positively that j 
 falsehood to my face. 
 
 THRESHWOOD, threshold. 
 
 THRIMMELT, pulled out. 
 
 THROPPLE, the windpipe; and THROPPLED, throt- 
 tled. 
 
 THROSSEL, or THROSTLE, a thrush. 
 
 THROUGH STONE, or THURFF STONE, a flat tomb- 
 stone; also the large binding stones which go 
 through the whole thickness of the unmortared 
 walls. 
 
 THWAITE, a cleared piece of land. 
 
 TIFT, a small draught of liquor; a short fit of 
 doing anything; also condition as to health of 
 the body; as a verb it means fetching of the 
 breath quickly, as after running. 
 
 TIG, to strike gently; also to drag after another. 
 A child tigs at its mother, and too often tews her 
 in doing so; and people that bore one with their 
 constant company, tig efter ane. 
 
 TINKLER, a tinker. 
 
 TITTER, sooner; earlier. " The bainer the road the 
 titter you'll come," the nearer the way the sooner 
 you will come. 
 
 TITTY, sister. 
 
 TOCHER, a dowry. 
 
 TOIT, to topple over, as is also TOYTLE. 
 
 TOME, a hair line for fishing. 
 
 TOOMING, an aching and dizziness of the eyes; 
 also to empty out. 
 
 TOP, or TOPPER, superior; first-rate. 
 
 TRAAVE, or TREEAVE, to stride along lifting the 
 feet high. 
 
 TRAILY, in a slovenly, reckless manner. 
 
 TRAM, a line, or succession of things, as cattle, 
 carts, &c. 
 
 TRIG, tight; compact; also full with food. In this 
 sense trig is a stage lower than brussen; you are 
 first trig and then brussen. 
 
 TRIPPET, " a small piece of wood obtusely pointed, 
 something like a shoe, hollow at one end, and 
 having a tail a little elevated at the other, which 
 is struck with the buck>>tick in a game called 
 'trippet and coit,' played by the rustics." W. 
 and C. Dialects. 
 
 T'ROD, the road. "Moses' trod" not far from "Aaron 
 End," is a steep path going up by Great Gable. 
 
 TROLLYBAGS, tripe. 
 
 TROUNCIN, a beating. 
 
 313 
 
 TUB, or TEW, to work hard; to be worn out and 
 
 fatigued " A tewing darrak " is a laborious, 
 
 fatiguing, wearying day's work. 
 TUITHWARK, the toothache. 
 TUMBLE-CAR, "a cart drawn by a single horse 
 
 probably so named from the axle being made 
 
 fast on the wheels, and turning round with 
 
 them." W. and C. Dialects. 
 TWILT, a quilt. 
 TWISTER, a year-old sheep. 
 TUP, a ram. 
 TYER, moreover. 
 TYKE, a coarse, rough, ignorant fell >w ; also a 
 
 rough terrier dog. 
 UNCO, exceeding; extremely. 
 UNHOMED, awkward; untidy. 
 UNNAME, or UNKNAAM, unknown. 
 UNKAT, awkward; uncouth; uncultivated; but 
 
 UNKET is strange news. 
 URCIION, an " urchin " a hedgehog. 
 VARSAL, universal. "In t' whole varsal world," in 
 
 the whole universal world. 
 WAAT, or WAIT, to tinder-tand. 
 WABBLE, to shake, as boiling water; in fact, to 
 
 wobble. 
 
 WAD, black-lead ; plumbago. 
 WA, DANG IT ! why, hang it! a very frequent ex- 
 pression. 
 WAFF, a whiff; a slight blast of smell ; also a short 
 
 snappish bark. 
 
 WAFFLER, a wavering, undecided person. 
 WAINTLY, very well. 
 WAISTOMEA, woe is to me, woe's me. 
 WAIT, or WARED, spent on goods or wares. 
 WAIT, to know. 
 WALE, choice. 
 WAMP, wasp. 
 WANDLY, gently. 
 WANKLE, feeble. 
 WANKLY, very well. 
 
 WANTERS, the unmarried who want partners. 
 WAP'D, wrapt. 
 
 WAPS, or BATTEN, a large truss of straw. 
 WAR-DAY, the worse or workday; every day in 
 
 the week but Sunday. 
 WARISON, the stomach. 
 WARK, to ache. 
 WEAHZE, WEEZE, or WAZE, a plot of wool, or soft 
 
 cushion, put on the head to protect it from a 
 
 load. 
 
 6 8
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 WEATHERGALL, " the lower part of the rainbow, 
 when the rest of the arch is not seen." W. and 
 C. Dialects. 
 
 WEBSTER, or WOBSTER, a weaver. 
 WED, the heap of clothes placed in the middle of 
 
 the game of Scotch and English. 
 WEE, small. " A wee bittock," a small bit. 
 WEEAKY, moist; juicy. 
 
 WEGHT, or WECHT, a sheep-skin vessel, like a 
 sieve without holes. 
 
 WELLY, well-nigh. 
 
 WELSH, or WALLOW, "tasteless; insipid. Broth 
 and water and pottage without salt are wallow 
 or welsh. A person whose face has a raw, pale, 
 and unhealthy (Jlew} look, whom a keen frosty 
 morning pinches, and to whom it gives an 
 appearance of misery and poverty, has a welsh 
 and wallow face. A welsh da}' is the same as a 
 sleety day when it is neither thaw nor frost; but 
 a wallow day is when a cold, stormy, and hollow 
 wind prevails." W. and C. Dialects. 
 
 WELT, to lean on one side; to upset. 
 
 WEY, yes ; certainly. 
 
 WEYTE, blame. 
 
 WHAKER, to quiver ; to shake ; WHAKERED, 
 quivered and shook. 
 
 WHAXE, to stroke down; to soothe. 
 
 WHANG, to jump clumsily; a blow or bang; also 
 a thick clumsy piece of anything eatable. " A 
 whang " of meat, and a " Harry-lad-slive " of 
 bread, Avould satisfy any one not a ghoul or an ogre 
 
 WHAXTER, to natter. 
 
 WHAXTLE, to fondle. 
 
 WHELKER, also YARKER, a thump or blow; and a 
 thumper generally. 
 
 WHEMMLE, to turn upside down. 
 
 WHEWTLE, a slight whistle. 
 
 WHEY-FACED, white faced; like whey milk. 
 
 WJIEYTE, quite. 
 
 WKEYWIG, buttermilk whey, with an infusion of 
 herbs generally mint or sage. 
 
 WHICK, quick, in the old sense; alive; also the 
 raw or live flesh. 
 
 WHICKS, couch-grass. 
 
 WHICKFLAW, a whitlow. 
 
 WHIDDEU, to tremble. 
 
 WHIEW, to fly quickly; to use great speed. 
 
 WHIXGE, to whine; to weep; and also to shrink back. 
 
 WHIXNERTNG, neighing. C Whinnying.) 
 
 Wmxs, gorse or furze. 
 
 E-CAT, the custom of workmen going 
 out to get work from house to house. 
 
 WHISHT, hush. 
 
 WHISSEXDAY, Whit Sunday. 
 
 WHITE, to requite; also to cut wood with a knife. 
 
 WHITTLE-GAIT, the privilege of the small priests 
 of old time, when dining at the houses of their 
 parishioners in rotation that is the privilege of 
 using their knife or " whittle," was part of 
 their salary. A mode of payment adopted, too, 
 for the schoolmasters of the parish schools, but 
 abolished now everywhere excepting at Wast- 
 dale, where it is still in force, or was, at lea>t, 
 until very lately. 
 
 WHYE, a heifer; WHYE-CAULF, a cow calf. 
 
 WHYLLYMER, or ROSLEY CHESHIRE, the poor hard 
 skim-milk cheese of the country. 
 
 WIDDERSFUL, endeavouring. 
 
 WIG TO WA', "he's banged aboot frac wig t<> 
 wa'; " he is knocked about from pillar to post. 
 
 WIGGEX, the mountain ash, or rowan. 
 
 WILLY-WANDS, willow rods. 
 
 WISKET, or WHISKET, a basket. 
 
 WISSEX, to know. 
 
 Wox, to dwell; to inhabit. 
 
 WOXTED, or WEXMED, milk kept till it is sour. 
 
 WOOD, or WUD, mad. 
 
 WORCHET, an orchard. 
 
 WOT, to know. 
 
 " When Skid'law wears a c*p, 
 Criffel wots full well of that." 
 
 WOTS, oats. 
 
 WRAMP, a sprain. 
 
 WRAUL, to fret; to find fault; to grumble. 
 
 WREEDEX, peevish; ill-tempered. 
 
 YAMMERT, bawled. 
 
 YAXCE, once; YAXS, ones. 
 
 YAT and YETT, gate. 
 
 YAUD, or YAWD, a jade, or sorry horse. " Tli 
 grey yauds " are Druid stones at King Harry, 
 in the parish of Cumwhitton ; called grey yauds. 
 it is supposed, because of the colour of the 
 stones in such striking contrast to the black 
 peat soil. 
 
 YEDDER, a straight hazel stick used in binding 
 down or plashing fences. 
 
 YEK, an oak. 
 
 YELL, whole; also ale. 
 
 YILP, to chirp. 
 
 YOUNGERMER, younger persons. 
 
 314
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 2. GENERAL TERMS. 
 
 BAND, tlic summit of a secondary height ; as 
 
 Taylor's Ghyll Baud, and R-inderson Band, 
 
 Borrowdale. 
 BARROW, a hill; as Latterbarrow, Mitredale, and 
 
 Styebarrow and Gowbarrow by Ullswater. 
 BECK, a brook. 
 CAM, or COMB, the crust of a hill, the analogue of 
 
 which is the comb of a cock; as Kosthwaite 
 
 Cam and Catsty Cam. 
 
 COOM, a hollow, or valley, in the side of a hill. 
 COVE, a recess rather than a valley; as lied Cove 
 
 and Keppel Cove, Helvellyn; Atkinson Cove, 
 
 HartBOp. 
 
 DAL, a dale; as Lindal. 
 UEX, or DENE, a glen; as Mickleden, " the great 
 
 glen," Langdale. 
 DOD: 1. the smaller process, half detached, of a 
 
 larger hill, as Skiddaw Dod, Hartsop Dod ; 
 
 2. A hill with a blunt summit, as the Great 
 
 Dod. 
 DORE, an opening or fissure between rocks; as 
 
 Lodorc, Micklcdore. 
 DUN, a second-class hill; as Dunmallet. 
 KA, water; as Eamont, Easdale. 
 FELLS, the lower spurs of the mountains; bare, 
 
 rocky, elevated land. 
 FORCE, a waterfall; as Stock Ghyll Force, Scale 
 
 Force. 
 GATE, a way; or GAIT, goat; as Gatescarth, a 
 
 hill with a way over it ; or Gaitsearth, the 
 
 goat hill. 
 
 GARTH, an enclosure. 
 GHYLL, a ravine, generally with a "force;" as 
 
 Dungeon Ghyll. 
 
 GRANGE, a farmstead; as the Grange, Borrowdale. 
 HAG, an enclosure; as Strandshag, Keswick. 
 HAWSE, a narrow passage, or a narrow ridge; as 
 
 Buttermere Hawse. 
 HOLM, an island, or the rich low land lying near 
 
 to water; as the holms on Windermere; Abbey 
 
 Holm, and Holm Cultram. 
 How, a small hill; as Butterlip How. 
 HUL, a hill. 
 
 INOS, low meadows; as Broad Ing, Askham. 
 
 KELD, a well or spring; as Threlkeld. 
 
 KNOCK, a hill; as Knock o' Murton. 
 
 KNOT, a rugged, rocky, knotty hill; as Farl-ton 
 Knot, Hard Knot. 
 
 MAN, or MAEN, the pile of stones built up on the 
 summit of all the higher mountains. 
 
 MERE, a lake; as Grasmerc, Windermere. 
 
 NAB, the " neb," or nose, or prominent projection 
 of a hill ; as Nab Scar. 
 
 NESS, a promontory, also the neb, or nose; as 
 Bowness, Furness. 
 
 PEX, a hill; as Penrith, the Red hill. 
 
 PIKE, peak ; as Herring Pike, Scawfell Pike. 
 
 POT, circular holes, whether formed in the hills by 
 the action of the weather, or in the stones of a 
 river by that of water; as Lade Pot, and the 
 Pots by Birks Bridge. 
 
 RAKE, the sunken, practicable way on an otherwise 
 impracticable hill; as the Lady's Rake on Walla 
 Crag, and the Scot's Rake in Troutbcck. 
 
 RAISE, a tumulus formed of up-heaped stones; as 
 Dunmail Raise. 
 
 REACH, the divisions of a lake made by the for- 
 ward thrust of the mountains. 
 
 RIGG, a ridge ; as Loughrigg and Riggcndale. 
 
 SCAR, or SCAUR, a bare rock. 
 
 SCREES, precipices covered with loose, shivering 
 stones. The large stones at the base of the 
 screes arc all called Borrans. The Screes, Wast- 
 water, and Red Screes, Kirkstone. 
 
 SCROGGS, stunted trees or bushes. 
 
 SLACK, a hollow or depression in the outline of the 
 hills; as the Slack between Seat Sandal and 
 Fairfield, the Scandale Slack, and others. 
 
 SYKE, a ditch, or rivulet. 
 
 TARN, a small mountain lake. 
 
 THWAITE, cleared ground ; as Thornthwaite, 
 Bassenthwaite, &c., a most common postfix. 
 
 WATII, a ford. 
 
 WRAY, a landmark. 
 
 WYKE, a bay, or creek; as Peel Wykc, Winder- 
 mere, and Peel Wyko, Uassentliwaite. 
 
 315 
 
 389
 
 APPENDIX 1. 
 
 3. NAMES OF PLACES. 
 
 ASCIIAM, and ASKRIOG, and ASHXESS, the village, 
 the ridge, and the promontory, or projection of 
 water. 
 
 AJIBLESIDE, or HAMELSIDE, said to be from ea, 
 water, and mel, brow or hill; water from the 
 sides of the brows or hills. 
 
 APPLETHWAITE, if not the village of apples, then 
 
 Ea pul thwaite, the village of water (redoubled). 
 
 BASSEXTHWAITE, the place of bass, bassen, or 
 
 perch. 
 
 BLEA TARX, the blue tarn. 
 BORROWDALE, or BOARDALE, BaiTOwdale, or wild 
 
 boar dale. 
 
 BOWFELL, the bowed or arched fell. 
 BOWXESS, the bowed or arched promontory, ness, 
 
 or " neb." 
 
 BRATHAY, water from the brae. 
 BROTHERILKELD, Broad-dur-ail-keld, abroad water 
 
 from the keld or spring. 
 
 BUTTERMERE, Bode-toi -mere ', the lake of a village 
 by the hill, or is it the butter lake, famous for 
 cows and dairy ? 
 CALDER, wooded water. 
 CARL LOFTS, the high dwelling. 
 THE CARRS, the Scars or Scaurs. 
 CARROCK FELL, the rocky fell. 
 CATSTYCAM, or CATCHEDECAM, the wild cat's 
 
 ladder hill. 
 
 CAUSEY PIKE, causeway Pike. 
 COCKLE Y BECK, a winding or rugged stream. 
 COXISTOX, a town at the head of the lake. Ton, 
 
 town ; con, at the head of; is, the lake. 
 CRIXKLE CRAGS, with a crooked or crinkled out- 
 line. 
 
 DERWEXT, the windy lake, Dwr-gwynt; or the 
 clear lake, Dtor-gwyn. Both names are cha- 
 racteristic. 
 DOXXERDALE, the Duddon dale; and DUDDOX is 
 
 the Dod-den, the lesser or lower valley. 
 Dow CRAGS, dove or black crags. 
 EASEDALE, Eos-dale, or Is-dale, the water dale. 
 FAIRFIELD, the sheep hill, from Faar-feld, Danish. 
 FLOUTERX, from the Islandic Floi, the place of a 
 
 marsh. 
 
 GATESCARTH. See ante, GATE. 
 GLEXCOIX the corner glen. 
 
 GLEXDERATERISA, a glen conducting water from 
 the hill. G!en-dwr, water; turret, the hill or 
 eminence. 
 
 GRASMERE, or GRASMOOR, or GERSMERE, or GRIS- 
 MERE, the lake of green grass, or of the wild 
 boar, H rise. 
 
 GRETA, the great ea, or water. 
 GRISEDALE, the dale of the wild swine. 
 HAMMER SCAR, the rocky scar. 
 HARRISOX STICKLE, Harrison's peak or pike. 
 
 Steel Pike was the old name of this point. 
 HARTSOP, the deer's hill. 
 HELVELLYX, the hill that walls in the lake. Hel, 
 
 hill; gwal, wall; lyn, lake. 
 
 HIXDSCARTH, the hind's or shepherd's scarth or hill. 
 KESKADALE. a corruption of Gatescarthdale. 
 KESWICK, Kesh-wick, the village of the Keshes or 
 
 water hemlock. 
 KIRKSTOXE, from the fashion of the stones at the 
 
 top. 
 
 LADE POT, the way (lad} over the pot or depression. 
 LAMPLUGH, the loam (lam) ploughel, or GLAX- 
 
 FLOUGH, dale wet. 
 
 LAXGDALE, or LAXGDEN, long valley. 
 LAXGSTRETH, long street or way, as it is. 
 LEGBERTHWAITE, an inclosed barley field; leigh, 
 
 meadow; bera, barley; thwaite, an inclosure. 
 LIXGMELL, the ling, or heather hill or mell. 
 LODORE. or LOWDORE, said by some to be the same 
 as LOWTHER (Lodwr), the black-water, but by 
 others to be the low opening or gully. 
 LYULPH'S TOWER, L'Ulfs, or the wolfs tower, 
 
 from Liulf, the first baron of Greystoke. 
 LOXG-SLEDDALE, the long smooth valley. 
 MATTERDALE, either Mater dale, the mother 
 
 dale, or Mathair dale, the dale of waters. 
 MELL FELL, the smooth conical hill (moel). 
 MICKLEDORE, the great rift or opening; and 
 
 MICKLEDEN, the great dale or valley. 
 NAXBIELD, the torrent shelter; Nant, water or 
 
 stream, or torrent; and bield, shelter. 
 ORMATHWAITE, the cleared place of snakes. 
 PATTERDALE, Patrick dale. 
 PEXRITH, the red hill; Pen, hill; rhydd, red. 
 PIKE o' STICKLE, the pike of the peak; the point 
 
 of the point. 
 316
 
 PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 ' PORTINSC ALB, port, a landing-place; ing, a meadow; 
 
 scale, a basin. 
 ' PULL WYKE, a bay in the pool or lake. 
 
 RHYDAL, either a contraction of Rothaydale, or 
 Rhydle, a passage place. 
 
 SALE FELL, BLACK SAIL, TOP SAIL, SAYLE BOT- 
 TOM, all coming from the same word, sayal or 
 sahl, bar. 
 
 SAXDWYKE, a sandy inlet or bay. 
 
 SATURA CRAG, SETTARAPARK, SATERRY WATER- 
 CROOK, SATTERTHWAITE; from saetter, the Ice- 
 landic summer chalets for the herdsmen. 
 
 SCANDALE, skans, a fort or rampart. 
 
 SCARF GAP, scoef, smooth, the smooth gap. 
 
 SCAWFELL, either the fissure fell, or the topmost, 
 the most conspicuous fell. 
 
 SEATHWAITE, seath, a well or pond, thwaite, an 
 inclosure. 
 
 SKELWITII, scale wath, a ford in a hollow. 
 
 SKIDDAW, the horse-shoe hill (yseyd), or the pro- 
 tecting hill (scoed). 
 
 STAKE PASS, stoeyer, a stair or road over a 
 
 hill. 
 STRIDING, or STRACHAN EDGE, the name expresses 
 
 the kind of walking needed. 
 STY HEAD, stie, ladder, or way. 
 SWIRREL, or SWIRL EDGE. 
 TIIRELKELD, Jlior's hill held, or the Thrall or serf's 
 
 held or spring. 
 
 TILBERTHWAITE, Till, bera (or barley), thwaite. 
 WALLA CRAG and WALLABARROW, gwal beorg, a 
 
 natural rampart, or smooth grassy ground. 
 WANSFELL, wang, afield; wangsfell, an exposed hill. 
 WATENDLATH, waden, ford; lethe, or lathe, a 
 
 northern " hundred." 
 WHIXLATTER, gwynt-hlaw-tor, windy brow hill; or 
 
 is it simply the hill of whins or gorse ? 
 WIXDERMERE, gwyn-dwr-mere, bright water lake ; 
 
 or the winding lake? 
 WRYNOSE, the nose of the rhin, hill. 
 YOKE, a hill in a chain of hills. 
 ULLSWATER, L'Ulfs water. 
 
 This list has been taken out of Black's and Wordsworth's Guides, and is given for what it is 
 worth; which is not much. No attempt was made in the glossary to give roots or derivations. To do 
 this well needs a thorough and sound philological education; and even then there are traps and pitfalls 
 into which the wariest fall. But I might have given a few very striking coincidences of sound, had I 
 not thought it better to refrain from even conjecture; else, fremmed strange, and fremd the same thing 
 in German; arles-penny, bargain money, and arrhes, French; gang, to go, and gangen, Dutch; gavelock, 
 an iron bar, and gaveloc, Saxon; house, the neck, and hals, German; helle, to pour, and hella, Icelandic; 
 hot, a basket, and hotte, French ; with many others, of which these are only samples, were tempting 
 opportunities for a little commonplace etymology; which, however, all tolerably well-educated people 
 can supply to themselves. 
 
 BU ITKKMKllE
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 1. THE FLOWERS. 
 
 RAXUXCULACE^:. 
 THALICTRUM ALPINUM, Alpine Meadow - Rue. 
 
 Between Great End and Scawfell; Helvellyn; 
 
 Fairfield. 
 T. FLAVUM: Yellow Mcadow-Rue. Windermere; 
 
 margin of the Greta, Howray (Keswick). 
 T. Mixus: Lesser Meadow-line. Common.* 
 T. MA jus: Greater Meadow-Rue. Lodore; Der- 
 
 wentwater shores ; the Screes; Ullswater; Enner- 
 
 dale; Thirlmere; Pooley Bridge. 
 AXKMOXE NEMOROSA: Wood Anemone, or Wind- 
 
 Flower. Everywhere in woods. 
 RAXUXCUXUS AQUATILIS: Water Crowfoot. Com- 
 mon; but specially luxuriant on St. Bees 
 
 moor. 
 R. AURICOMUS: Wood Crowfoot, or Goldilocks. 
 
 Common. 
 R. FICARIA: Lesser Celandine; R. BULBOSUS, 
 
 Bulbous Buttercup ; R. REPENS: Creeping 
 
 Buttercup; R. ACRIS, Meadow Crowfoot. All 
 
 common. 
 R. HEDERACEUS: Ivy-leaved Crowfoot. Lamplugh 
 
 Hall; but common elsewhere. 
 R. LIXGUA: Greater Speavwort. Wastdale and 
 
 Ennerdale. 
 
 R. FLAMMULA, Lesser Spearwort. Common. 
 R. HIRSUTUS: Pale Hairy Buttercup. Drigg. 
 TROLLIUS EUROPE'S: Mountain G lobe-Flower, or 
 
 Lucken-gowans. The lake sides generally, but 
 
 specially fine at Windermere. 
 CAI.THA PALUSTRTS : Common Marsh-Marygold. 
 
 Common. This and the Globe-flower are two 
 
 of the handsomest flowers of the spring 
 
 time. 
 
 HELLEBORUS VJRIDIS: Green Hellebore. Duddon 
 woods; Plumbland; Braithwaite. Rare. 
 
 H. Famous : Stinking Hellebore. Between Bow- 
 ness and Kendal. Rare. 
 
 AQUILEGIA VULGARIS : Common Columbine. 
 Common. 
 
 ALBA: White Water Lily. Common . 
 NUPHAR LUTEA: Common Yellow Water Lily 
 
 Common. 
 
 PAPAVERACE.E. 
 
 PAPAVERRIKEAS: Common Red Poppy. Common. 
 MECOXOPSIS CAMBRICA: Yellow Welsh Poppy. 
 
 Very rich about Windermere and Amblcside, 
 
 where it is much cultivated; Ullock Moss (Kes- 
 
 wick); Long Sled dale; Coniston. 
 GLAUCIUM LUTEUM : Yellow Homed - Poppy. 
 
 Fimby; Coulderton; Bootle. 
 CHELIDOXIUM MAJCS: Common Celandine. Com- 
 
 mon. 
 
 FIMARIACE^E. 
 FUMARIA OFFICINALIS: Common Fumitory. Com- 
 
 mon. 
 CORYDALIS CLAVICULATA : Climbing Corydalis. 
 
 Not uncommon. 
 C. SOLIDA: Solid-rooted Corj-dalis. Ncwlands. 
 
 Rare. 
 
 CRUCIFER^E. 
 SrnuLARiA AQUATICA: Water Awlwort. Enner- 
 
 dale Lake. Rare. 
 THLASPI ALPESTRE: Alpine Penny-Cress. On 
 
 the road from Kendal to Ambloside. A lime- 
 
 stone variety, therefore rare in this district. 
 
 T. tUujus and T. Minus are made synonymous by Clii.ds. 
 318
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 TKKSDAI.IA NUDICAULIS: Naked-stalked Teesdalia. 
 
 Raven Crag (St. John's); Thief Ghyll in Dean. 
 
 C APSEU.A BURSA-PASTOUIS: Common Shcphcrd's- 
 
 Purse. Common. 
 LEPIIHUM SMITHII: Hairy Pepperwort. Low- 
 
 dore. 
 
 L. CAMPESTRE: Field Pepperwort. Common. 
 L. DHABA: Whitlow Pepperwort. Whitbarrow. 
 COCHLEARIA OFFICIXALIS: Common Scurvy-Grass. 
 Kirkstone; Helvellyn; Long Slcddale; Fleswick 
 Bay. Var. Alpinu of Babington is found on 
 Helvellyn and Place Fell. Another variety, as 
 yet uubaptized, is found on Sty Head, according 
 to Otley. 
 C. AXGLICA: English Scurvy-Grass. Workington 
 
 Shore. 
 CAKILE MARITIMA: Purple Sea-Rocket. Seaton 
 
 Shore. 
 
 CRAMHE MARITIMA: Sea-Kale. Couldcrton Shore. 
 
 SKXEBIEKA COROXOPUS, or COROXOPUS RCELLII: 
 
 (Common Wart-cress or Swine's-cress. Beast 
 
 Banks (Kendal); Seaton. 
 
 CARDAMIXE AHAKA: Large flowered Bitter-cress. 
 
 Rare. 
 
 C. HIKSUTA: Hairy Bitter-cress. Common. 
 C. PRATEXSIS: Cuckoo-flower. Common. Some- 
 times double, but rarely so. 
 
 OAMKLIXA SATIVA: Common Gold-of-Pleasure. 
 
 Workington Mill in 1848. ( Harriet Martineau.) 
 
 A i:\ms HIRSUTA: Hairy Rock-cress. Whitbarrow; 
 
 Shoulthwaite Moss. 
 
 A. PETRJEA: Alpine Rock-cress. The Screes. 
 Rare. 
 
 A. STRICTA: Bristol Rock-cress. Lamplugh Hall. 
 Hare. 
 
 CHEIRAXTHUS CHEIRI : Wallflower. Scaleby 
 
 Castle. Rare. 
 TURKITIS GLABRA: Long-podded Tower-Mustard. 
 
 Stainburn. 
 BRAPSICA MOXEXSIS : Is!c-of-Man Cabbage, or 
 
 Wallflower Cabbage. Flimby; St. Bees. 
 
 B. CAMPESTRIS: Common Wild Navew. Common. 
 
 SISYMBKIUM OFFICIXALE: Common Hedge-mus- 
 tard; ERYSIMCM ALLIARIA: Garlic Treacle Mus- 
 tard ; SIXAPIS ARVEXSSIS : Wild Mustard or 
 Cherlock. All common. 
 
 RESEDACE/E. 
 
 RESKDA LUTEOLA: Dyer's Rocket, Yellow Weed, 
 or Weld. Flimby; Eaglesh'eld; Workington. 
 
 CISTP 
 HELIAXTIII-MIM CAM M: Hoary Dw 
 
 Withcrslack; IIumihrcy Head (Cartmel) : 
 Scout Scar. 
 
 VlOLACE^E. 
 
 VIOLA CAXIXA: Dog Violet; V. TRICOLOR: Hearts- 
 ease or Pansy. Both common; the last singular! v 
 fine and richly coloured. 
 
 V. HIRTA: Hairy Violet. Barrowfield (Kendal). 
 
 V. PALUSTRIS: Marsh Violet. Cunswick Tarn and 
 Spittal (Kendal). 
 
 V. LUTEA: Yellow Mountain Violet. The Kes- 
 *wick hills, specially Skiddaw; Brigham. 
 
 DROSERACE.E. 
 DROSERA ROTCXDIFOLIA: Round-leaved Sundew. 
 
 In all bogs everywhere. 
 D. LONGIFOLIA : Long-leaved Sundew. Borrow- 
 
 dalc, where it is common ; Foulshaw Mn~- : 
 
 Ullock Moss; Windermerc. where it is ran-. 
 D. ANGLICA: Great Sundew. Foulshaw Mn ; 
 
 Helvellyn. 
 
 POLTGALA VULGARIS: Common Milkwort. Eveiy- 
 wherc, and in all colours, from the purest white 
 to the deepest blue, and from the palest pink to 
 the fullest rose ; a lovely growth carpeting the 
 moors and fells. 
 
 CARTOPHYLLE^:. 
 SAPOXARIAOFFICIXALIS: Common Soapwort. Not 
 
 common, but found at Keswic-k. 
 SILKXE ACAULIS: Moss Campion. Black Rocks 
 
 (Great End); Griscdale Tarn; Fairficld; Hel- 
 
 vellyn; Borrowdalc. Very rare. 
 S. IXFLATA: Bladder Campion. Common. 
 S. MARITIMA: Sea Campion. Between Kcswiek 
 
 and Lodore, but rare; ai:d at K.skmeals and 
 
 Brackenthwaite. 
 S. NL'TAXS: Nottingham Catchfly. Dean; Moor- 
 
 land Close. 
 LYCHNIS FLOS-CUCULI : Ragged Roln'n; and L. 
 
 DIOICA: Campion. Common, and very fine 
 
 about Amblcsidc. 
 L. ALPIXA: Red Alpine Campion. Brackcntlnvaitr 
 
 Fells. 
 SAGIXA PKOCUMBEXS : Procumbent Pearlwort. 
 
 Common; as arc also Sri .1:1:1 I.A AI:\IN-I>: 
 
 ('>rn Spiinvy; STKI.I.AKIA MKDIA: Cliiekwc ed ; 
 
 ,'519
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 S. HOLOSTEA : Greater Stitchwort ; and S. 
 GRAMINEA: Lesser Stitchwort. 
 
 SPERGULA NODOSA: Knotted Spurrey. Lilly Hall. 
 
 STELLARIA NEMORUM : Wood Stitchwort. Winder- 
 mere; Burdoswald; Moorside Hall; Laverock 
 Lane (near Kendal). 
 
 ARENARIA PEPLOIDES: Sea-side Sandwort. Sea- 
 ton; Flimby. 
 
 A. SERPYLLIFOLIA : Thyme-leaved Sandwort. 
 Pardshaw Hall. 
 
 A. VERNA: Vernal Sandwort. About the lime- 
 kilns, Kendal. Rare. 
 
 A.TRINERVIS: Three-nerved Sandwort. Common. 
 
 CERASTIUM VISCOSUM: Viscid Mouse-ear Chick- 
 weed. Common. 
 
 C. TETRANDRUM: Four-stameued Mouse-ear Chick- 
 weed. Cockermouth. 
 
 C. ALPIXUM: Alpine Mouse-ear Chickweed. Hel- 
 vellyn. 
 
 LIXE^E. 
 
 LIXUM CATHARTICUM: Cathartic Flax. Common. 
 
 RADIOLA MILLEGRAXA: Thyme-leaved Flax-seed. 
 Eheuside. 
 
 MALVACE^;. 
 
 MALTA SYLVESTRIS: Common Mallow. Common. 
 
 M. MOSCHATA: Musk Mallow. Common. 
 
 TILIACE.E. 
 TILIA EUROP^A: Common Lime. Common. 
 
 HYPERICACE^E. 
 HYPERICUM ANDROSOEJIUM: Common Tutsan. 
 
 Windermere; Coniston. 
 H. QUADRANGULUM : Square-Stalked St. John's 
 
 Wort. Clifton. 
 H. PERFORATUM: Perforated St. John's Wort. 
 
 Common; specially at Keswick and Ara Force. 
 H. DUBIUM: Imperforate St. John's Wort. Below 
 
 Kirkby Lonsdale Bridge. 
 H. HUMIFUSUM : Trailing St. John's Wort. 
 
 Everywhere, but specially fine about Lodore. 
 H. MONTANUM: Mountain St. John's Wort. Scout 
 
 Scar (Kendal). 
 H. HIRSCTUM: Hairy St. John's Wort. Camerton; 
 
 Clifton. 
 H. POLCHRUM: Small Upright St. John's Wort. 
 
 Common. 
 H. ELODES: Marsh St. John's Wort. On the 
 
 road from Kendal to Arnbleside; Birker Moor; 
 
 Aitcha Moss; ITllock Moss. 
 
 PARXASSIA PALCSTRIS: Common Grass of Par- 
 nassus. Cunswick Tarn and Coniston, specially ; 
 but not infrequent in boggy places generally. 
 
 ACER CAMPESTRE: Common Maple. Common. 
 A. PSEUDO-PLATAXUS: Sycamore. Common. 
 
 GERANIACE.B. 
 
 GERANIUM SAXGUINEUM : Bloody Crane's-bill. 
 
 Scout Scar; St. Bees; Whitbarrow. 
 G. ROTUNDIFOLIUM: Round-leaved Crane's-bill. 
 
 Common. 
 G. PH^EUM: Dusky Crane's-bill. Kirkby Lons- 
 
 dale; Borrowdale; Pepper Hag near Burnside. 
 G. PRATEXSE: Blue Meadow Crane's-bill. Not 
 
 uncommon, but singularly fine about the banks 
 
 of the Rothay, and at St. Bees. 
 G. SYLVATICUM : Wood Crane's-bill. Coniston, 
 
 Water Head; the Kendal lanes; the lane under 
 
 Swart Fell; St. John's Vale ; Windermere. 
 G. PYRENAICUM: Mountain Crane's-bill. Yeorton 
 
 Hall, and Keswick. Rare. 
 G. ROBERTIAXUM: Herb Robert. Every where; 
 
 a low-growing deep-coloured variety is on Place 
 
 Fell, and a white variety is in a field near Jenkin 
 
 Crag, Kendal, and in one locality at Coniston. 
 G. LUCIDUM : Shining Crane's-bill. Troutbeck; 
 
 Lowdore; Windermere; Hawkshead. 
 G. MOLLE: Dove's foot Crane's-bill. Common. 
 G. PUSILLUM : Small-flowered Crane's-bill. Etterby 
 
 Scar; Windermere. 
 
 G. COLUMBIXUM: Long-stalked Crane's-bill. Cockcr- 
 ' mouth; Fellfoot; Newby Bridge; the canal banks 
 
 at Kendal. 
 ERODIUM CICDTARIUM : Hemlock Stork's-bill. 
 
 Gosforth. 
 E. MARITLMUM: Sea Stork's-bill. St. Bees. 
 
 BALSAMINE.S:. 
 
 IMPATIENS NOLI-ME-TANGERE : Balsam Touch-me- 
 not. Furness Fells; Coniston; Windermere; 
 Ambleside; Scale Hill. 
 
 OXAI.JDEJE. 
 
 OXALIS ACETOSELLA : Common Wood Sorrel. 
 Everywhere in woods and by rivulets and water- 
 falls. 
 
 320
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 CELASTRIXE.E. 
 
 EUOXYMUS ECIIOP^CS: Common Spindle-Tree. 
 Near Keudal; Lodore Woods; Coniston. 
 
 BHAXNBJB. 
 
 RHAMNUS CATIIARTICUS : Common Buckthorn. 
 
 The Windermere islands and woods; Cunswick 
 
 Wood. 
 R. FRAXGCLA: Alder Buckthorn. Cunswick 
 
 Wood; Windermere; Ullock Moss; Cockshot, 
 
 and the Cass (Keswick). 
 
 LEGCMIXOS.E. 
 
 ULEX EUROP^CS: Gorse or Yellow Whin. Every- 
 where, and one of the most beautiful character- 
 istics of the country. 
 
 U. NAXUS: Dwarf Furze. Gosforth; Lamplugh; 
 Pooley Bridge ; Buttermere ; Wastdale. 
 
 GENISTA TIXCTORIA: Dyer's Greenweed. Common. 
 
 G. ANGLICA, Needle Greenweed. Drigg; Bootle. 
 
 CYTISUS SCOPARIUS: Common Broom. Common, 
 but singularly beautiful about Windermere. 
 
 Oxoxis ARVEXSIS : Common Restharrow. The 
 seaside generally; Coniston. 
 
 TRIFOLICM ORXITHOPOUIOIDES: Bird's-foot Tre- 
 foil. Workington Warren. 
 
 T. ARVEXSE: Hare's-foot Trefoil. Flimby. 
 
 T. REPENS: White Clover; T. PRATENSE: Purple 
 Clover. Common. 
 
 T. STRICTCM : Upright Round-headed Trefoil. 
 St. Bees. 
 
 T. FRAGIFERUM : Strawberry-headed Trefoil. 
 Low Levens, Milnthorpe. 
 
 T. PROCUMBEXS: Hop Trefoil. Common; as is 
 also T. FILIFORME: Lesser Yellow Trefoil. 
 
 LOTUS MAJOR: Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil; and 
 L. CORXICULATUS: Common Bird's-foot Trefoil. 
 Both common. 
 
 AXTHYLLIS VULXERARIA: Lady's Fingers. Mary- 
 port. 
 
 VICIA SATIVA, or ANGUSTIFOLIA (Childs) : 
 NaiTow-leaved Vetch. Common. 
 
 V. SYLVATICA: Wood Vetch. Clifton Woods; 
 Laverock Bridge. 
 
 V. CRACCA: Tufted Vetch. Common, and singu- 
 larly lovely with its bright purple flowers 
 threading the green hedge-rows. 
 
 ERVUM HIRSITTUM: Hairy Tare. Lowes Water. 
 
 LATHYRUS SYLVESTRIS: Narrow-leaved Everlast- 
 ing Pea. Parton. 
 
 L. NISSOLIA : Crimson Vetchling. Irton. in 
 
 sand. 
 L. PRATENSIS: Meadow Vetchling. Common; as 
 
 is also OROBUS TUBEROSUS, Tuberous Bitter 
 
 Vetch. 
 ORNITIIOPUS PERPUSILLUS: Common Bird's-foot. 
 
 Irton church; St. Bees Moor; Coniston Lake 
 
 (east) side; Tenterfell (Kendal). 
 HIPPOCREPIS COMOSA: Tufted Horseshoe Vetch. 
 
 Scout Scar; Grange; Windermere. 
 
 ROSACES. 
 
 PRUNUS SPIXOSA: Sloe or Blackthorn. Even-- 
 where. 
 
 P. PADUS: Bird Cherry. Windermere (specially 
 fine), and elsewhere. 
 
 P. AVIUM: Wild Cherry. Common. 
 
 SPIRJEA ULMARIA: Meadow-Sweet. Common; 
 abundant in Borrowdalc and by Derwentwater. 
 
 S. SALICIFOLIA: Willow-leaved Spiraea. Pool 
 Bridge near Hawkshead ; the Ferry, Windermere. 
 A doubtful native. 
 
 GEUM URBAXCM, Herb Bennet; and G. RIVAF.E : 
 Water Avens. Common. 
 
 G. IXTERMEDIUM: Intermediate Geum. Rare. 
 
 POTEXTILLAFRUTICOSA: Shrubby Cinquefoil. In 
 the Devil's Hedgegate ; the Screes. 
 
 P. VERXA: Spring Cinquefoil. Whitbarrow. 
 
 P. AXSERIXA: Silvcnveed. Common. 
 
 TOUMEXTILLA OFFiciXALiS: Common Tomientil. 
 Common and abundant, 
 
 FRAGARIA VESCA: Strawberry. Common, and 
 very fine. 
 
 F. ELATIOR: Hautboy. Woodhall; Keswick. 
 
 RUBUS IDOSCS: Wild Raspberry. Common; fine 
 in the Ashness Woods. 
 
 R. FRUTICOSCS: Blackberry. Everywhere. 
 
 R. C^SIDS: Dewberry. Tallantire and Coniston. 
 
 R. SAXATILIS: Stone-Bramble. Gilsland; Cuns- 
 wick Wood ; Cockshot (Keswick). 
 
 R. CHAMJEMORUS: Cloudberry. Styx Moss; High 
 Street; Goatscar; Long Slcddalc. 
 
 AciUiMoxiA EUPATORIA: Common Agrimony. 
 Common. Var. odorata, Lorton. 
 
 ALCIIEMILLA VULGARIS: Common Lady's-Mantle. 
 Common. 
 
 A. ALVIXA: Alpine Lady's-Mantlr. Hdvellyn 
 crags ; Honister crags ; the Screes -, Hla.-k 
 Sail; Ix>ng Sleddale; and mountain crags gene- 
 rally. 
 
 T T
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 A. ARVEXSIS: Field Lady's-Mantle, or Parsley 
 
 Piert. Common. 
 POTERIUM SAXGUISORBA: Salad Burnet. Scout 
 
 Scar; Hardcndale Nab (Shap); Cartmel Fells; 
 
 Kendal Fells. Hare. 
 
 SANGUISORBA OFFicixALis:Common Burnet. Rare. 
 ROSA SPIXOSISSIMA: Burnct-leavcd Rose. Win- 
 
 denr.ere, rare ; Seascales, plentiful ; Kes- 
 
 wick. 
 R. TOMENTOSA, or VILLOSA: Downy-leaved Rose. 
 
 Lamplugh; Gilsland; Windermere. Common. 
 R. CAXIXA : Dog Rose. Everywhere ; but in 
 
 greatest luxuriance about Ullswater and on the 
 
 Under-Skiddaw road. 
 R. ARVEXSIS : Trailing, or White Dog Rose. 
 
 Whillimoor; Coniston, &c. 
 R. RUBELLA, or HIBERXICA: Red-fruited Dwarf 
 
 Rose. Brackenthwaite. 
 R. INVOLUTA, or SABIXI: Prickly TJnexpanded 
 
 Rose. Derwentwater Bay. 
 R. CINXAMOXIA: Cinnamon Rose. Howray (Kcs- 
 
 wick). 
 R. BRACTESCEXS. Ambleside. Some of the Guides* 
 
 give this as a separate species, but Childs has it 
 
 as a synonym with R. Canina. 
 R. GRACILIS. Whinlatter. (Black's Guide.) 
 PYRUS COMMUXIS: Wild Pear. Not common. 
 P. MALUS: Crab Apple. Common. 
 P. TORMIXALIS: Wild Service-Tree. Not common. 
 P. AUCUPARIA: Mountain Ash. Common, and 
 
 one of the most beautiful of all trees, whether 
 
 white with flower in the spring, or scarlet with 
 
 its clustered berries in the autumn. 
 P. ARIA: White-Beam Tree. Humphrey Head 
 
 (Cartmel). 
 CRAT^EGUS OXYACAXTHA: Hawthorn. Common; 
 
 but most beautiful about "Ullswater. 
 
 OXAGRARLE. 
 
 EPILOBIUM ALSIXIFOLIUM : Chickweed-leaved Wil- 
 low-herb. Buckbarrow-well ; Long Sleddale. 
 
 E. AXGUSTIFOLIUM: Rose -Bay Willow-herb. 
 High Barrow Bridge, near Shap. 
 
 E. TETRAGOXUM: Square-Stalked Willow-herb ; 
 and E. MOXTAXUM: Broad Smooth-leaved Wil- 
 low-herb. Common. 
 
 E. HIRSUTUM: Great Hairy Willow-herb. The 
 River Eden. 
 
 (ExoxuERA BIEXXIS. Evening Primrose. Win- 
 dermere. 
 
 CIRC.EA LUTETIAXA: Common Enchanter's Night- 
 shade. Common; but in special prof usion about 
 Ullswater and Keswick. 
 
 C. ALPIXA: Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade. 
 Barrowside and Aslincss Ghyll ; Derwentwater ; 
 and between Ulverston and Hawkshesd. 
 
 HALORAGACE^E. 
 
 MYRIOPHYLLUM SPICATUM, and M. VERTICIL- 
 
 LATUM: Whorled and Spiked Water-Milfoil. 
 
 Common everywhere. 
 HIPPURIS VULGARIS: Common Mare's-Tail. Dub 
 
 Mill. Rare. 
 CALLITRICHE VERXA : Vernal Water-Starwort. 
 
 Whinlatter. 
 C. AUTUMXALIS, or PEDUXCULATA: Autumnnl 
 
 Water-Starwort. Ennerdale. 
 
 LYTHRARI^E. 
 
 LYTHRUM SALICARIA: Spiked Purple-Loosestrife. 
 Common; singularly beautiful in the meadows 
 about Eascdale Beck. 
 
 L. HYSSOPIFOLIUM: Hyssop-leaved Purple-Loose- 
 strife. Said to grow near Derwentwater; but 
 very rare, if not altogether doubtful. 
 
 PEPLIS PORTULA: Common Water - Purslane. 
 Harras Moor; Kinniside Longmoor ; Caldor 
 Ghylls. Rare. 
 
 CUCURBITACE^E. 
 
 BRYOXIA DIOICA: White Bryony. Partial. 
 
 PAROXYCUIE^E, OR SCLERAXTHACE^:. 
 
 SCLERAXTHUS ANXUA: Annual Knawel. Der- 
 wentside, near Workington. 
 
 CRASSULACE^:. 
 
 RHODIOLA ROSEA: Rose-Root. Helvellyn; Fair- 
 field; Goatscar; Long Sleddale; the Screes. 
 
 COTYLEDOX UMBILICUS: Wall Penny wort. Win- 
 dermere; Ehenside; Gosforth. 
 
 SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM : Houseleck. Langdale. 
 
 SEDUM TELEPHIUM: Orpine, or Livelong; S. 
 AXGLICUM: English Stone-crop; and S. ACRE: 
 Yellow Stone-crop, or Wall Pepper. All com- 
 mon. 
 
 S. SEXAXGULARE: Tasteless Yellow Stone-crop. 
 Hunday. 
 
 S. VILLOSUM: Hairy Stonccrop. Mosedale. 
 
 
 322
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 GROSSULARIACE^S. 
 
 RIBES GROSSULARIA: Common Gooseberry and 
 R. RUBRUM: Red Currant. Common. 
 
 R. NIGRUM: Black Currant. Dcrwentwater. Rare. 
 
 R. ALPIKUK: Tasteless Mountain Currant. Conis- 
 ton. Rare. 
 
 SAXIFRAGES. 
 
 CHRYSOSPLEXIUM OPPOSITIFOLIUM : Common 
 
 Golden Saxifrage. Common about all the road- 
 
 side streamlets and wet places, where its close- 
 
 growing leaves and dull gold-coloured flowers 
 
 make a very lovely moss-like covering. 
 C. ALTERMFOLIUM : Alternate - leaved Golden 
 
 Saxifrage. Portinscale; Benson Hall, Kendal; 
 
 Windermere, but rare. 
 SAXIFRAGA UMBROSA: London Pride. Found 
 
 once wild in the woods behind the Ferry Inn, 
 
 Windermere, but certainly not a true native. 
 S. NIVALIS, Alpine Clustered Saxifrage. Helvellyn, 
 
 by Red Tarn; Legberthwaite. Rare and pre- 
 
 cious. 
 S. OPPOSITIFOLIA: Purple Mountain Saxifrage. 
 
 Borrowdale; Striding Edge, Helvellyn ; the 
 
 Screes; Black Rocks, Great End. Rare and 
 
 precious. 
 S. AIZOIDES : Yellow Mountain Saxifrage. 
 
 Common. 
 S. TRIDACTYLITES: Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Moota 
 
 and Whicham; old walls about Dacre; Swirrel 
 
 Edge, Helvellyn. Rare. 
 S. STELLARIS: fetarry Saxifrage. Mountain tops, 
 
 and sides of mountain streams. 
 S. HYPXOIDES ' : Mossy Saxifrage. Kirkstone; 
 
 "Windermere; Helvellyn; Fairfield. 
 S. GRANULATA: White Meadow Saxifrage. Har- 
 
 rington churchyard. Rare. 
 
 It is impossible to give a perfect list of 
 this order; I can only attempt to cata- 
 logue those which are special, either for 
 their rarity or their abundance. 
 ERYNGIUM MARITIMUM: Sea Holly. Common. 
 SAXICULA EUROPCEA: Wood-Sanicle. Common, 
 specially about Windermere and Elterwater, and 
 noticeable because of its exceeding gracefulness 
 and beauty. 
 
 HYDROCOTYLE VULGARIS: Common Whitcrot, or 
 
 Marsh-Pennywort. Common in bogs. 
 COXIUM MACULATUM: Common Hemlock. Not 
 
 common. 
 
 APIUM GRAVEOLEXS: Smallage, or Wild Celery. 
 Workington Marsh; Kirkbride; Brigsteer Moss, 
 Kendal. Rare. 
 
 BUXIUM FLEXUOSCM: Common Pig or Earth-Nut. 
 Everywhere. 
 
 PIMPIXELLA SAXIFRAGA: Common Burnet-Saxi- 
 frage. Common. 
 
 P. MAGXA: Greater Burnet-Saxifrage. Ballantirc. 
 Very rare. 
 
 ANGELICA SYLVESTRIS: Wild Angelica. Com- 
 mon. 
 
 SIUM AXGUSTIFOLIUM : Narrow-leaved Water- 
 Parsnip. Common. 
 
 S. LATIFOLIUM : Broad-leaved Water-Parsnip. 
 Stock Beck, Kendal. Rare. 
 
 HELOSCIADIUM NODIFLORUM: Procumbent Marsh- 
 wort. St. Bce.=. Rare. 
 
 H. REPEXS : Creeping Marshwort. Nathdale; 
 Brigsteer Scar, Kendal. 
 
 H. IXUNDATUM: Least Marshwort. Lowes Water; 
 Brigsteer Moss, and other places near Keu- 
 dal. 
 
 F<EXICULUM VULGARE : Common Fennel. St. 
 Bees. 
 
 MEUM ATHAMANTICUM: Spignel, Men, or Bald 
 Money. Ennerdale; Keswick; Docker Garths, 
 and other places near Kcudal. Rare. 
 
 CRITHMUM MARITIMUM: Sea Samphire. St. Bees-. 
 
 HERACLEUM SPOXDYLIUM: Cow Parsnip, or Hog 
 weed. Everywhere, 
 
 DAUCUS CAROTA : Wild Carrot. Ravenglass; 
 Kendal Fell, where it is abundant; but not 
 generally common. 
 
 TORILIS No DOS A: Knotted Hedge-Parsley. Bewal- 
 deth. Very rare. 
 
 TORILIS AXTHRISCUS : Upright Hedge-Parsley. 
 Everywhere, and abundant, as are also AXTIIRIS- 
 cus SYLVESTRIS: Wild Beaked-Parsley; and 
 A. VULGARIS: Common Beaked-Parsley. 
 
 CH^ROPHYLLUM TEMULEXTUM: Rough Chervil. 
 Gillfoot and Whicham. Rare. 
 
 MYRRHIS ODORATA: Sweet Cicely, or Sweet 
 Bracken. Banks of the Ehen and about the 
 Coniirton lakes and rivers. Not common. 
 
 1 Childs makes S. Pvlmata and . Ptarypetala (both of which are given in the botanical lists of the lake dbtrfct u 
 distinct species; synonyms with S. ffypntidet. 
 
 323 T T 2
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 PEUCEDAXUM OSTRUTHICM, or IMPEHATORIA : 
 Broad-leaved Hog's Fennel. Gilsland, and 
 by Thirhnere Lake. Very rare. 
 
 ARALIACE.S:. 
 
 ADOXA MOSCHATELLIXA: Common or Tuberous 
 Moschatell, and HEDERA HELIX: Common Ivy. 
 Everywhere. The latter specially noticeable in 
 that small-leaved, close-growing kind, which 
 botanists do not make into a variety, but which 
 has quite a different appearance to the looser 
 and fuller and larger-leaved. 
 
 CORXE^E. 
 
 CORXUS SAXGUIXEA: Wild Cornel or Dogwood. 
 Not common, but in great beauty about Winder- 
 mere, where it has probably been planted. 
 
 CAPRIFOLIACE^:. 
 
 SAMBUCUS NIGRA: Common Elder. Common. 
 
 S. EBULUS: Dwarf Elder or Danewort. Bracken- 
 thwaite ; Scalelands ; Brigham. Not com- 
 mon. 
 
 VIBURXUM OPULUS: Guelder Hose or Water Elder. 
 Keswick and Borrowdale. 
 
 LOXICERAPERICLYMEXU.M : Common Honeysuckle, 
 or Woodbine. Common; in great beauty in 
 GowbaiTow Park and under Skiddaw. 
 
 L. CAPRIFOLIUM: Pale Perfoliate Honeysuckle. 
 Has been found at Lorton Hall and 
 
 L. XTLOSTEUM : Upright Fly Honeysuckle at 
 Workington Park ; but they are more than 
 doubtful as natives. 
 
 
 
 RUBIACE<E. 
 
 GALIUM CRUCIATUM : Crosswort, Bedstraw, or 
 Mugwort; G. VERCM: Yellow Bedstraw; G. 
 MOLLDGO : Hedge Bedstraw. G. SAXATILE : 
 Heath Bedstraw, and G. APARIXE : Goose- 
 grass or Cleavers. All common. 
 
 G. PALUSTRE : Water Bedstraw. Brackenthwaite 
 and Lodore. 
 
 G. BOREALE: Cross-leaved Bedstraw. Common, 
 
 G. PUSILLUM: Least Mountain Bedstraw. Abun- 
 dant on Kendal Fell. 
 
 SHERARDIA ARVEXSIS : Field Madder. Fields 
 about Hawkshead. 
 
 ASPERULA ODORATA: Sweet Woodruff. Com- 
 mon. 
 
 A. CYXAXCHICA: Squinancy Wort. Whitbarrow. 
 
 VALERIAXE^E. 
 VALERIANA OFFICIXALIS: Great Wild Valerian. 
 
 Common, and specially fine at Langdale Head. 
 V. DIOICA: Small Marsh Valerian. Wansfell 
 
 and Loughrigg bogs; also in bogs at Bampton, 
 
 Kendal, Shap, and elsewhere. 
 FEDIA OLITORIA: Common Cora Salad or Lamb's 
 
 Lettuce. Moresby Hall. 
 F. DENTATA: Toothed Corn Salad. Frizington. 
 
 DIPSACE^E. 
 
 SCABIOSA SUCCISA: Devil's Bit, or Premorse 
 Scabious; S. COLUMBARIA: Small Scabious; and 
 KNAUTIA ARVEXSIS : Field Knautia or Field 
 Scabious, are all common. 
 
 COMPOSITE:. 
 
 TRAGOPOGOX PRATENSIS: Yellow Goafs-Beard, 
 John-go-to-bed-at-noon. Common at St. Bees, 
 but not general elsewhere. 
 
 T. PORRIFOLIUS: Salsafy. Workington. 
 
 HELMIXTHIA ECHIOIDES : Bristly Ox-Tongue. 
 Rare ; to be found on Oxenfell. 
 
 PICRIS HIERACIOIDES: Hawkweed Picris; APAR- 
 GIA AUTUMXALIS : Autumnal HaAvkbit ;THRixci A 
 HIRTA: Hairy Thrincia; HYPOCH^ERIS RADI- 
 CATA: Long-rooted Cat's-Ear; LATUCAMURALIS: 
 Ivy-leaved Lettuce; SOXCHUS OLERACEUS: Com- 
 mon Sow or Milk Thistle; S. ARVEXSIS: Corn 
 Sow or Milk Thistle; CREPIS VIREXS: Smooth 
 Hawksbeard; HIERACIUM PILOSELLA: Mouse- 
 Ear Hawkweed; II. SYLVATICUM: Wood Hawk- 
 weed. All quite common everywhere. 
 
 APARGIA HISPIDA: Rough Hawkbit. Common. 
 
 HIERACIUM SABAUDUM : Shrubby Hawkweed. 
 Ennerdale. 
 
 H. UMBELLATUM : Narrow -leaved Hawkweed. 
 Kirkland. 
 
 LEOXTODOX TARAXACUM: Common Dandelion ; 
 LAPSAXA COMMUXIS : Common Nipplewort ; 
 ARCTIUM LAPPA: Common Burdock; SEHRA- 
 TULA TIXCTORIA : Common Saw -Wort, arc 
 all common. 
 
 SAUSSUREA ALPIXA: Alpine Saussurea. Helvellyn. 
 Rare, and very precious. 
 
 CARDUUS NUTANS: Musk Thistle. Near the toll- 
 bar, Shap. 
 
 C. ACAXTHOIDES: Welted Thistle. Carlisle Castle. 
 
 Cxicus LAXCEOLATUS : Spear Plume-Thistle; 
 C. PALUSTRIS : Marsh Plume-Thistle, are 
 both common. 
 
 324
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 C. ACACLIS : Dwarf Plume-Thistle. Barrow. 
 
 II ire. 
 C. HETEROPHYLLUS: Melancholy Plume-Thistle. 
 
 Armboth ; Thirlmere; Shap ; Kendal; Long 
 
 Sleddale. Rare. 
 OXOPORDOX ACAXTHIUM: Scotch Thistle. Com- 
 
 mon. 
 CARLIXA VULGARIS : Common Carline Thistle. 
 
 Ennerdale. This is the Charlemagne Thistle. 
 CEXTAUREA NIGRA: Black Knapweed or Hard- 
 
 head. Common. 
 
 C. SCABIOSA: Greater Knapweed. Eaglesfield. 
 BIDEXS CORXUA: Nodding Bur-Marygold. Braith- 
 
 waite. Rare. 
 B. TRIPARTITA-. Trifid Bur-Marygold. Keswick; 
 
 Bootle. 
 EUPATORIUM CAXXABIXUM : Common Hemp 
 
 Agrimony. Common at Couiston, but not else- 
 
 where. 
 TANACETUM VULGARE: Common Tansy. Tal- 
 
 lantire; Ellercar. 
 GXAPHALIUM DIOICUM: Mountain Cudweed; and 
 
 G. ULIGIXOSUM : Marsh Cudweed, are both 
 
 common. 
 
 G. SYLVATICUM: Highland Cudweed. Common. 
 FILAGO GERMAXICA : Common Filago. Drigg ; 
 
 Wansfell. Rare. 
 
 F. MINIMA : Least Filago. Fieldshead in Eskdale. 
 PETASITES VCLGARIS: Common Butter-bur. Win- 
 
 dermere. 
 
 TUSSILAGO FARFARA : Colt's-Foot. Common. 
 ASTER TRIPOLI L*M: Sea Starwort. Eskholm; Hoi- 
 
 born Hill. Rare. 
 
 SOLIDAGO VIRGAUREA: Golden Rod. Common. 
 SEXECIO VULGARIS : Common Groundsel ; and 
 
 S. SYLVATICUS: Mountain Groundsel, are both 
 
 common; so are S. JACOBCEA: Common Ragwort; 
 
 and S. AQUATICUS: Marsh Ragwort. 
 S. TEXUIFOLICS: Hoary Ragwort. Little Brough- 
 
 ton, and very rare. 
 S. SARACEN icus: Broad-leaved Ragwort. Moresby; 
 
 Sebergham. 
 
 INI:LA HELEXICM: Elecampane. Mosser. 
 I. CONYZA: Ploughman's Spikenard. Whitbarrow 
 
 Fells. 
 
 : CommonFlcabane. Not 
 
 PYRETHRI-M PAUTIIKMIM: Common Feverfew. 
 
 Nether Hall (Maryport). 
 P. IXODORUM: Corn Feverfew; MATKK AHIA CIIA- 
 
 MOMILLA: Wild Chamomile. Common. 
 ANTHEMIS COTULA: Stinking Chamomile. On 
 
 the road to Seascales from Calder Bridge. 
 A. MAUITIMA: Sea Chamomile. Coulderton. 
 ACHILLEA PTARMICA : Sneezewort ; and A. 
 
 MILLEFOLICM: Milfoil, are both common. 
 
 CAMPAXfLACK.E. 
 
 CAMPAXLLA ROTUXDIFOLIA: Hairbell. Common 
 towards the end of summer and the beginning 
 of autumn; mixing in with the golden goree, 
 the purple heather, and the crimson leaves of 
 the bramble, in wonderful blending of colour. 
 
 C. TRACHELIUM : Nettle-leaved Bell-flower. 
 Common, and in great beauty about Watend- 
 lath and Applethwaite (Keswick.) 
 
 C. GLOMERATA: Clustered Bellflower. Harden- 
 dale, near Shap; but not uncommon elsewhere. 
 
 C. LATIFOLIA: Giant Bellflower. Isel; Lamplughj 
 Milnthorpe; Kendal; Coniston. Not common. 
 
 JASIOXE MOXTANA: Sheep's Scabious. Not un- 
 common on the heathy fells, but partial. 
 
 LOBELIACE-E. 
 
 LOBELIA DORTMANXA: Water Lobelia. On all 
 
 the lakes. 
 
 VACCIXIE.B. 
 VACCIXIDM MYRTILLUS: Whortleberry, Bilberry, 
 
 Whinberry. Very common in all the woods, 
 
 and on almost all the mountains. 
 V. ULIGINOSUM: Bog Whortleberry, or Great 
 
 Bilberry. Wardrow Moss; Moorside Parks. 
 V. VITIS ID<EA: Red Whortleberry, or Cowberry. 
 
 Skiddaw, Iron Crag; Swinside Fell. 
 V. OXYCOCCUS: Marsh Whortleberry, or Cranberry. 
 
 Partial, but abundant. 
 ARBUTUS UVA-URSI: Red Bear-Berry. Bootle 
 
 Fell; Brackenthwaite; Grassmoor on Crummock. 
 
 common. 
 
 BELLIS PEREXXIS: Daisy; and CHRTSAXTHEMI M 
 LEUCANTHEMUM: White Ox-Eye, everywhere, 
 like mother and daughter. 
 
 ERICA TETRALIX : Cross-leaved Heath; Eitu v 
 CIXEREA: Fine-leaved Heath; and CALI.I N v 
 VI:LGARIS: Ling, or Heather, abundant every- 
 where, to the rich colouring of which half the 
 autumnal beauty of the mountains is owing. 
 
 AXDROMEDA PoLIFOLIA : Marsh Andromeda. 
 
 Moresby; Drumburgh. 
 
 325
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 MOKOTBOPKJb 
 
 PVROLA ROTUNDIFOLIA : Round-leaved Winter- 
 Green. Walla Crag. 
 
 P. MEDIA: Intermediate Winter-Green. Stock- 
 ghyll Force ; Kirklinton Moors. 
 
 P. MINOR: Lesser Winter-Green. Stockghyll; said 
 also to grow about Keswick. 
 
 P. SECUNDA: Serrated Winter- Green, Helvellyn. 
 All these growths are very rare, and some of 
 them a little apocryphal. 
 
 MONOTROPA HYPOPITYS: Pine Birds'-Nest or 
 Fir-rape. Barrowfield, near Kendal. Kare. 
 
 ILICINEJE. 
 ILEX AQUIFOLIUM: Holly. Common. 
 
 OLEACE^B. 
 
 LIGUSTRUM VULGARE: Privet. Not uncommon. 
 FRAXINUS EXCELSIOR: Ash. Common. 
 
 GENTIANEJE. 
 
 GENTIANA AMARELLA: Autumnal Gentian. Lime- 
 kilns, Kendal Fell; Tallantire. 
 
 G. CAMPESTRIS: Field Gentian. Common. 
 
 G. PNEUMONANTHE : Marsh Gentian. Foulshow 
 Moss, near Grange. Rare. 
 
 ERYTHR.EA CENTAURIUM: Common Centaury. 
 Common, " and a pure white variety at Lowes 
 Water." (H. M.) 
 
 MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA: Fringed Water-Lily, 
 Buckbean or Marsh Trefoil. In peaty bogs on 
 the fells; on Brothers-water, and AVhite-Moss 
 pond ; one of the loveliest flowers of the whole 
 collection. 
 
 POLEMONIACE^E. 
 
 POLEMONIUM C^RULEUM: Greek Valerian, or 
 Blue Jacob 's-Ladder. Graythwaite Woods, near 
 Windermere. Rare. 
 
 CoNVOLVULACE-ffi. 
 
 CONVOLVULUS ARVENSIS: Field Bindweed. Fitz- 
 
 tollbar. Rare. 
 
 C. SEPIUM: Great Bindweed. Common. 
 C. SOLDANELLA: Sea Bindweed. Sea-shore at 
 
 Coulderton and Harrington. 
 
 BORAGINE.E. 
 
 PULMONARIA OrFiciNALis: Common Lungwort. 
 
 Common. 
 SYMPHYTUM OFFICINALE: Common Comfrey. Not 
 
 uncommon. 
 ANCHUSA SEMPERVIRENS: Evergreen Alkanet. 
 
 Kendal; Long Sleddale; Gosforth; Sandwith. 
 
 LITHOSPKRMUM OFFiciXALE: Common Gromwcll 
 
 or Grey Millet. Mosser and Westward Parks. 
 
 (H. M.) 
 
 L. ARVENSE: Corn Gromwell. Stangcr. (H. M.) 
 L. MARITIMUM: Sea-side Gromwell. Bootle and 
 
 Workington. (H. M.) 
 
 MYOSOTIS PALUSTRIS: Forget-me-Not. Common. 
 M. ARVEXSIS: Field Scorpion- Grass, and M. Vi:itsi- 
 
 COLOR: Party -coloured Scorpion-Grass.Common. 
 LYCOPSIS ARVENSIS: Small Bugloss. St. Bees. 
 CYNOGLOSSUM OFFICINALE: Common Hound's- 
 
 Tongue. Flimby; near Levens Church. Rare. 
 
 SOLANK.K. 
 
 SOLANUM DULCAMARA: Woody Nightshade, or 
 Bittersweet. Common. 
 
 ATROPA BELLADONNA: Deadly Nightshade. Fur- 
 ness Abbey ; Flookburgh ; and once about Egre- 
 mont, but now only cultivated. 
 
 HYOSCYAMUS NIGER: Common Henbane. Cocker- 
 mouth; Flimby; Harrington; Levens Church. 
 Rare. 
 
 OROBAXCIIE^E. 
 
 LATHRJSASQUAMARIA: Toothwort. Wansfell; near 
 Kendal, in three places; Coniston lake-side. 
 Rare. 
 
 SCBOPHULARINE-E. 
 
 DIGITALIS PURPUREA: Purple Foxglove. Com- 
 mon and very fine. In certain places, as in the 
 Wythop Woods, Bassenthwaite, and in the Beck 
 Leven Woods, Coniston, attaining to quite 
 majestic stature, and an almost tropical luxuri- 
 ance of growth and colour. Sometimes found 
 with white flowers. 
 
 ANTIRRHINUM ORONTIUM: Lesser Snapdragon. 
 Common. 
 
 LINARIA VULGARIS: Yellow Toad-flax. Common. 
 
 L. CYMBALARIA: Ivy-leaved Toad -flax, Mother of 
 Thousands. Common on old buildings, as 
 Calder Abbey, Rose Castle, &c. 
 
 L. ITALICA: Italian Toad-flax. Rare, but has been 
 found near Coniston. 
 
 SCROPHULARIA NODOSA: Knotted Figwort; and 
 S. AQUATICA: Water Figwort, both common; 
 as is MELAMPYRUM PRATEXSE: Common Yellow 
 Cow-wheat; which last is specially fine in the 
 Linthwaite woods, Scale Hill. 
 
 PEDICULARIS PALUSTRIS : Marsh Red-Rattle 
 Common; very fine in the fields on the way to 
 Easedale Force. 
 
 326
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 P. SYLVATICA: Dwarf Red-Rattle. Everywhere. 
 
 RHIXAXTHUS CRISTA GALLI: Cockscomb, Yellow 
 Rattle. Common. 
 
 R. MA jus: Large Bushy Yellow Rattle. Chapel 
 Bank, St. Helens. 
 
 BARTSIA ODOXTITES: Red Bartsia. Common. 
 
 VERONICA SERPYLLIFOLIA: Thyme-leaved Speed- 
 well; V. CHAMCEDRYS: Germander Speedwell, 
 or Bird's Eye; V. OFFICIXALIS: Common Speed- 
 well; V. BECCABUXGA: Brooklime; V. AGRES- 
 TIS: Field Speedwell. All common. 
 
 V. AXAGALLIS. Water Speedwell. St. Bees and 
 the Ellen. Rare. 
 
 V. SCUTELLATA: Marsh Speedwell. Ullock Moss. 
 Rare. 
 
 V. MONTANA: Mountain Speedwell. Walla Crag. 
 Rare. 
 
 V. HEDERIFOLIA : Ivy-leaved Speedwell. Dis- 
 tington; Workington. Rare. 
 
 V. SPICATA: Spiked Speedwell. The rocks at 
 Humphrey Head, Cartmel. 
 
 VERBASCCM THAPSCS: Great Mullein. Brigsteer 
 Scar. 
 
 LABIATE. 
 
 LYCOPUS EuROP^us: Common Gipsy- Wort. Burn- 
 side Farm, Kendal; Ribton Hall; Drigg Moor. 
 
 MENTHA ROTO'DIFOLIA : Round leaved Mint. 
 Between Lodore and Borrowdale. Not 
 common. 
 
 M. HIRSUTA: Hairy Mint. Common. 
 
 M. PIPERITA: Pepper-Mint; and M. ARVENIS: 
 Corn-Mint. Near Sykes in Nathdale, and on 
 Whitbarrow. 
 
 M. SATIVA: Marsh Whorled Mint. Windermcre. 
 Not common. 
 
 THYMCS SERPYLLUM: Wild Thyme. Common 
 on all the dry uplands. 
 
 ORIGANUM VULGARE: Common Marjoram. Cuns- 
 wick Wood near Kendal. 
 
 CALAMINTHA OFFICINALIS: Common Calamint. 
 Kendal Castle and Calva Hall. 
 
 C. ACINOS: Common Basil. Low Lingbank. Rare. 
 
 C. CLINOPODIUM: Common Wild-Basil. Winder- 
 mere; Mockerkin; Papcastle. Rare. 
 
 AJUGA REPTAXS: Common Bugle. Common; as 
 is TEUCRIUM SCORODOXIA, Wood Sage, or 
 Wood-Germander. 
 
 BALLOTA NIGRA : Black Horehound. Work- 
 ington. Rare. 
 
 LEOXURUS CARDIACA : Common Motherwort. 
 
 Workington Row. Rare. 
 GALEOBDOLON LUTEUM: Yellow Weasel Snout, 
 
 Archangel, or Yellow Dead-Nettie. Crosedale 
 
 and Coniston. Not common. 
 GALEOPSIS TETRAHIT: Common Hemi)-Nettle. 
 
 Common. 
 G. VERSICOLOR : Large-flowered HempNettle. 
 
 Sprint Bridge and Burnside Hall, Kendal. 
 G. LADANUM: Red Hemp-Nettle. Hawkshead 
 
 Fields. 
 LAMIUM PURPUREUM : Purple Dead -Nettle. 
 
 Common. 
 BETONICA OFFICINALIS: Wood Betony. Common, 
 
 as is unfortunately STACHYS SYLVATICA : Hedge 
 
 Wound-Wort, or Stinking Roger, with its foul 
 
 odour so terribly suggestive of carrion ; but 
 
 S. PALUSTRIS, Marsh Wound- Wort, (common) 
 
 is innocent and inodorous. 
 GLECHOMA HEDERACEA : Ground Ivy, and 
 PRUNELLA VULGARIS: Self-Heal. Common. 
 SCUTELLARIA GALERicuLATA: Greater Skull-cap. 
 
 Not common. 
 S. MIXOR: Lesser Skull-cap. Thornthwaite and 
 
 Windermere. Rare. 
 
 VERBEXACE.S. 
 
 VERBENA OFFICINALIS: Common Vervain. Whit- 
 barrow; Lindale, near Cartmel. 
 
 LENTIBULARI.E. 
 
 PINGUICCLA VCLGARIS : Common Butterwort. 
 Common in all the bogs. 
 
 UTRICULARIA VULGARIS: Common Bladderwort; 
 and U. MINOR, Lesser Bladderwort, on Fouls- 
 haw Moss, Shoulthwaite Moss, and Eskmeals. 
 Rare. 
 
 U. INTERMEDIA: Intermediate Bladderwort. Kes- 
 wick. Rare. 
 
 PRIMULACE.E. 
 
 PRIMULA VULGARIS: Primrose. Common; in the 
 spring-time colouring every bank and hedge 
 with its pale sunshine, and to be found in shady 
 and elevated places until quite late into the 
 summer. 
 
 P. ELATIOR: Ox-lip. Kendal and Caldbcok for 
 greatest beauty; as also P. VERIS: Cowslip. A 
 red variety of this last is found at Egremont 
 Castle. 
 
 327
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 P. FARIXOSA : Bird's Eye Primrose. In bogs 
 everywhere about Windermere and Troutbeck, 
 but not generally common. A dark red variety 
 is found near Ireby Low. (H. M.) 
 
 ANAGALLIS ARVEXSIS: Scarlet Pimpernel; Poor 
 Man's Weather-glass. Common ; starring 
 every field with its " prescient " bright scarlet 
 spots. 
 
 A. CERCLEA: Blue Pimpernel. Hensingham Toll- 
 bar. Rare. 
 
 A. TEXELLA: Bog Pimpernel. Common. 
 
 LTSIMACHIA NEMORUM : Wood Loosestrife, Yellow 
 Pimpernel. Common; perhaps in richest pro- 
 fusion about Elterwater. 
 
 L. VULGARIS: Great Yellow Loosestrife. Keswick; 
 Ennerdale; Lorton. 
 
 L. NUMMULARIA: Moneywort, Herb Twopence. 
 Windermere. (H. M.) 
 
 GLAUX MARITIMA : Sea Milk wort. Ravenglass ; 
 St. Bees. Rare. 
 
 SAMOLUS VALERANDI : Brookweed. Coulderton 
 shore. 
 
 PLUMBAGINE^;. 
 
 STATICE ARMERIA: Thrift. Scawfell and sea- 
 shores. 
 
 S. LIMOXIUM: Sea-Lavender. Common at St. 
 Bees, and other sea-coasts. 
 
 S. SPATHULATA: Spathulate Sea-Lavender. St. 
 Bees Head. Rare. 
 
 PLANTAGINE^E. 
 
 PLAXTAGO MAJOR: Greater Plaintain; and P. 
 
 LAXCEOLATA: Ribwort Plaintain. Common. 
 P. MEDIA: Hoary Plaintain. Arcledon; Egre- 
 
 mont; Kendal; Whitbarrow. 
 P. MARITIMA: Sea- side Plaintain. Flimby and 
 
 Gillerthwaite. 
 P. COROXOPUS: Buck's-Hom Plaintain. Flimby; 
 
 Ravenglass, &c. 
 LITORELLA LACUSTRIS: Shore- Weed. Common. 
 
 CIIEXOPODE^E. 
 
 CHEXOPODIUM BOXUS-HEXRICUS: Good King 
 Hemy; C. ALBUM: White Goosefoot. Common. 
 
 ATRIPLEX PATULA: Spreading-fmited Orache. 
 Workington, north shore. 
 
 A. LACIXIATA: Frosted Sea Orache. St. Bees and 
 Harrington. 
 
 SALSOLA KALI: Prickly Saltwort. Coulderton. 
 
 Rare. 
 SALICORXIA HERBACEA: Jointed Glasswort. 
 
 Ravenglass; Workington. Rare. 
 S. RADICAXS: Rooting Glasswort. Workington, 
 
 north shore. 
 
 POLYGOXEJE. 
 
 OXYRIA REXIFORMIS: Kidney-shaped Mountain 
 Sorrel. Ashncss Ghyll; Honister; Wastdale; 
 Helvellyn; Great End Crag; Long Sleddalc, near 
 Buckbarrow well. Rare and highly-prized. 
 
 POLTGOXUM BISTORTA: Common Bistort or 
 Snake-weed " Eastern giants," as the children 
 call them. In special beauty about the Rothay 
 meadows, but not uncommon everywhere, and 
 cultivated as a pot-herb in the cottages. 
 
 P. VIVIPARUM: Viviparous Alpine Bistort. Hel- 
 vellyn ; Hardendale, near Shap. Rare. 
 
 P. AVICULARE: Common Knot-Grass ; P. COX- 
 VOLVULUS : Climbing Persicaria ; P. PERSI- 
 CARIA: Spotted Persicaria ; and P. HYDROPIPER: 
 Water Pepper. Common everywhere. 
 
 P. AMPHIBIUM: Amphibious Persicaria. Dearham. 
 
 RUMEX OBTUSIFOLIUS: Broad-leaved Dock; R. 
 ACETOSA: Common Sorrel; R. ACETOSKLI.A: 
 Sheep's Sorrel. Everywhere. 
 
 TlIYMELE^E. 
 
 DAPHXE LAUREOLA: Spurge Laurel ; andDAPHXK 
 MEZEREUM; are given in Martineau's Guide as 
 having been found in the Rayrigg, and Gray- 
 thwaitc woods. 
 
 ARISTOLOCHIE^;. 
 
 ASARUM EUROPIUM: Asarabacca. About Kes- 
 wick. Very rare. 
 
 EMPETRE.S. 
 
 EMPETRUM NIGRUM : Black Crowbeny, Crakebcrry. 
 Not uncommon on the higher fells. 
 
 EUPHORBIACE.*;. 
 
 EUPHORBIA PEPLUS: Petty Spurge ; E. HKLIOS- 
 COPIA: Sun-Spurge. Common. 
 
 E. EXIGUA: Dwarf Spurge. Bridgefoot. 
 
 E. PORTLAXDICA: Portland Spurge. Braystones 
 and Drigg shores. 
 
 E. PARALIAS: Sea Spurge. Haverriggand Harring- 
 ton shores. 
 
 MERCURIALIS PEREXXIS: Dog's Mercury. Com- 
 
 328
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 URTICE.E. 
 
 FKTICA DIOICA: Great Nettle. Common. 
 U. URENS: Small Nettle. Distington; Ullock. 
 I'UMKTARIA OFFICIXALIS: Common Pcllitory-of- 
 
 the-wall. Torpenhow Church; Crookdale Hall. 
 
 (H.M.) 
 HUMCLUS LUPULUS: Common Hop. Keswick; 
 
 Egremont ; and elsewhere. 
 
 ULMACE^E. 
 
 ULMFS CAMPESTRIS: Common Small-leaved Elm. 
 One of our most beautiful trees. 
 
 AMEXTACE^E. 
 
 SALIX ALBA: White Willow; S. CAPREA: Goat's 
 Willow, or Sallow. Common. 
 
 S. HERBAGE A: Crack Willow. Sea wf ell Pikes; 
 summit of Skiddaw and top of Helvellyn. 1 
 
 POPULUS NIGRA. Black Poplar. Everywhere. 
 
 MYRICA GALE: Sweet Gale, or Dutch Myrtle. 
 Common ; specially plentiful at Coniston, 
 by Birks Bridge, Duddon, and Wastwater 
 Foot. 
 
 BETUTA ALBA: White Birch the lady of the 
 woods. Common. Var. Pendulosa about Der- 
 wentwater. (H.M.) 
 
 ALXUS GLUTIXOSA: Common Alder; FAGUS 
 SYLVATICA : Common Beech. Everywhere ; 
 as are also CASTAXEA VESCA: Sweet Chestnut; 
 QTERCUS ROBUR, or PEDUXCULATA: Common 
 British Oak ; and Q. SESSILIFOLIA: the Sessile 
 Oak; CORYLUS AVELLAXA: Common Hazel 
 Nut; and CARPIXUS BETULUS: Common Horn- 
 beam. 
 
 COXIFERJE. 
 
 Pixus SYLVESTRIS : Scotch Fir ; JUXIPERUS 
 COMMUNIS : Common Juniper ; ABI ES EXCELSA : 
 Spruce Fir; and ABIES LARIX: Larch. All 
 common. 
 
 TAXUS BACCATA: Common Yew. Not large 
 growing trees in general, save in the well-knowti 
 " Fraternal Four " of Borrowdalc, " the Pride 
 of Lorton Vale," the Patterdale Church Yew, 
 and others ; but in general they are stunted. 
 
 HYDROCHARIDACE^;. 
 
 STRATIOTES ALOIDES: Water Soldier. Ennerdale 
 Lake. Very rare. 
 
 ORCHIDK.K. 
 ORCHIS MASOTI.A: Early Purple Orchis, or Doa.l 
 
 Men's Fingers. Common; as is also OKCIIII 
 
 MACULATA: Spotted Orchis, with its Mran_.- 
 
 variety of growth and colour. 
 O. USTULATA: Dwarf Dark- winged Ordii*. 
 
 Wood Hall; Keswick. Rare. 
 HABEXARIA VIRIDIS: Green Butterfly Orchis. 
 
 Murton Moss and Tenter Fell; Kendal. 
 H. CHLORAXTHA, or H. BIFOLIA: Great Butterfly 
 
 Orchis. Not uncommon, and in special beauty 
 
 about the Ara river. 
 GYMXADEXIA COXOPSEA: Fragrant Gymnadenin, 
 
 or Sweet-Scented Orchis. Common, specially 
 
 about Borrowdale. 
 
 LISTER A OVATA: Common T way-blade. Common. 
 L. CORDATA: Heart-leaved T way-blade. Castle- 
 
 rigg Fell; Mellbreak; Helvellyn; and one place 
 
 only on Coniston Fell. 
 L. NIDUS- A vis: Common Bird's-nest. Flimby 
 
 Wood; Wood Hall; and, rarely, near Winder- 
 mere; Coniston; Cunswick Wood, Kendal. 
 OPHRYS MUSCIFERA : Fly Orchis. Near Newby 
 
 Bridge and Kendal. Rare. 
 O. APIFERA: Bee Orchis. Meadows round Cald- 
 
 beck. Rare. 
 EPIPACTIS PALCSTRIS: Marsh Helleborine. Isel; 
 
 Whitbarrow. 
 E. LATIFOLIA: Broad-leaved Helleborine. Dean 
 
 Scales; Bridgcfoot; and Whitbarrow. 
 E. EXSIFOLIA: Narrow-leaved White Helleborine. 
 
 Whitbarrow. Rare. 
 CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS: Common Lady's-S.ip- 
 
 per. Whitbarrow. Rare. 
 
 IKIDACE.E. 
 
 IRIS PSEUD-ACORUS : Yellow Iris, Coni-flai:. 
 Common; in great beauty in the Wythop Woods, 
 and by Bassenthwaite Lake. 
 
 AMARYLLIDACE-E. 
 
 NARCISSUS PSEUDO-NARCISSUS: Common Daffo- 
 dil, Lent Lily, Flocks. Common. 
 
 DlOSCOREACEJE. 
 
 TAMUS COMMUNIS: Black Bryony. Common ; an.l 
 beautiful in all stages, whether in its spring 
 dress of shining leaves, heart shaped and deq.lv 
 
 i Wonlsworiir.s Guidfc. 
 
 U U
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 green, or lightened by its waxen pale-green 
 flowers, or gorgeous with its scarlet berries, 
 starring the spaces between the dark purple and 
 bright yellow of its autumnal leaves. 
 
 TRILLIACE^E. 
 
 PARIS QUADRIFOLIA : Four-leaved Herb Paris, 
 or True-Lovc-Knot. In shady woods ; but not 
 common. 
 
 CONVALLARIA MAJALis: Lily of the Valley. In 
 the two islands of that name on Windermere, 
 but perhaps it is better to say were, for frequent 
 thefts have extirpated them almost entirely. 
 Pullwyke Bay ; Rauncey Woods near Newby 
 Bridge ; and Cunswick Wood, Kendal. 
 
 C. MULTIFLORA: Solomon's Seal. Holker, near 
 Cartmel; Castlehead Wood, Keswick; and 
 Grange, near Borrowdale ; Graythwaite Wood. 
 
 C. POLYGONATUM: Angular Solomon's Seal. 
 Barrowfield Wood, near Kendal. Veiy rare. 
 
 HYACINTHUS NON-SCRIPTTJS: Wild Hyacinth, Blue- 
 bell. Common and everywhere. 
 
 ALLICM URSINUM : Broad-leaved Garlic, Ramps 
 or Ransoms. Common. 
 
 A. SCH03ENOPRASUM: Chives. Cartmel Fell. Rare. 
 
 A. OLERACEUM: Streaked Field Garlic. In one 
 locality only near Windermere (Martineau, who 
 gives it as Allium Carinatum). 
 
 A. VINEALE: Crow Garlic. Bearpot, near Wor- 
 kington. 
 
 JUNCACE^E. 
 
 JuNCtrs EFFUSCS: Soft Rush. J. CONGLOMERA- 
 TUS : Common Rush. J. GLAUCUS : Hard 
 Rush. J. ACDTIFLORUS: Sharp-flowered Jointed 
 Rush. All common. 
 
 JUNCUS FILIFORMIS : Thread Rush. Crummock 
 and Derwentwater lakes. 
 
 J. ULIGINOSUS: Lesser Bog Jointed Rush. Wor- 
 kington. Rare. 
 
 J. TRIFLORIS: Three-flowered Rush. Helvellyn. 
 Rare. 
 
 LUZULA SYLVATICA : Great Wood-Rush, and 
 L. CAMPESTRIS: Field Wood-Rush. Common 
 as is L. PILOSA: Hairy Wood-Rush. In woods 
 between the mountains and the sea. (H. M.) 
 
 NARTHECIUM OSSIFRAGCM: Lancashire Bag As- 
 phodel. Common. A very beautiful little plant, 
 sending up bronze-tipped golden spikes among 
 the pale pink pimpernels and beaded sundews of 
 the bogs. 
 
 ALISMACE^;. 
 ALISMA PLANTAGO : Great Water-Plaintain. 
 
 Keswick Cass. 
 A. RANUNCULOIDES : Lesser Water-Plaintain. 
 
 Eskmeals. 
 SAGITTARIA SAGITTIFOLIA : Common Arrow-Head. 
 
 Braystones Tarn. Rare. 
 
 JUNCAGINACE^E. 
 
 TRIGLOCHIN PALUSTRE : Marsh Arrow-Grass. 
 
 Common. 
 T. MARITIMUM: Sea Arrow-Grass. Cloffocks. 
 
 TYPHACE^E. 
 TYPIIA LATIFOLIA: Great Reed Mace, or Cat's 
 
 Tail. Common. 
 SPARGANIUM RAMOSUM : Branched Bur-reed. Por- 
 
 tinscale; Nathdale. Rare. 
 S. SIMPLEX : Unbranched Upright Bur-reed . 
 
 Harras Moor. Rare. 
 S. NATANS: Floating Bur-reed. Shoulthwnitc 
 
 Moss. Rare. 
 
 ARACE^E. 
 
 ARUM MACULATUM: Cuckoo-pint, Wake-Robin, 
 Lords-and-Ladies. Common. 
 
 PISTIACE.E. 
 LEMNA MINOR: Lesser Duckweed. Even-where. 
 
 NAIADACE^E. 
 
 POTAMOGETON NATANS: FloatingPondweed. Com- 
 mon. 
 
 P. PERFOLIATUS: Perfoliate Pond weed. Bassen- 
 thwaite Lake. 
 
 P. DENSUS: Opposite-leaved Pondweed. River 
 Ellen. 
 
 P. HETEROPHYLLUS: Various-leaved Pondweed. 
 Common. 
 
 P. CRISPUS: Curly Pondweed. River Derwent. 
 
 P. GRAMINEAS: Grassy Pondweed. Harras Moor. 
 
 RUPPIA MARITIMA : Sea Ruppia. Cloffocks. 
 
 ZOSTERA MARINA: Broad-leaved Grass Wrack. 
 Bootle Shore. "Brought up by the tide." 
 (H. M.) 
 
 330
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 CYPERACE^E.' 
 
 CAREX DIOICA: Creeping Diaecious Carex. Orgill. 
 
 C. PDLICARIS: Flea Carex. Hunday. 
 
 C. ARENARIA: Sea Carex. Harrington Shore. 
 
 C. VULPINA: Great Carex. Yeorton Hall. 
 
 C. LIMOSA: . Var. Irriyua;* Mud Carex. Gilsland. 
 Rare. 
 
 C. PALLESCENS: Pale Carex. Sellafield. 
 
 C. FLAVA: Yellow Carex. Hard Knot. 
 
 C. EXTENSA: Long-bracted Carex. Marron Side. 
 
 C. STRICTA or VULGARIS: Common Carex. Bull- 
 gill Bridge. 
 
 C. RIPARIA: Great Common Carex. Stubbin Mire. 
 
 C. VESICARIA : Short -beaked Bladder Carex. 
 Braithwaite. 
 
 C. AMPULLACEA: Slender-beaked Bladder Carex. 
 Cockerside. 
 
 C. FILIFORMIS: Slender-leaved Carex. Work- 
 ington. 
 
 ERIOPIIORUM VAOINATCM: Haretail Cotton Grass. 
 
 Common. 
 E. ANGUSTIFOLIUM: Narrow-leaved Cotton Grass. 
 
 Calder Ghylls and Edge Tarn ; Briglmm 
 
 Moss. 
 SCIRPUS LACUSTRIS: Lake Club-rush, or Bull-rush. 
 
 Lowes water. 
 S. MAKITIMUS: Salt Marsh Club-rush. Work- 
 
 ington. 
 S. SYLVATICUS: Wood Club-rush. Banks of the 
 
 Marron. 
 
 S. C^SPITOSUS: Scaly-stalked Club-rush. Murtou 
 
 Moss. 
 S. PAUCIFLORUS: Chocolate-Headed Club-rush. 
 
 Murton Moss. 
 ELEOCHARIS PALUSTRIS: Creeping Spike Ru>h. 
 
 Lowes Water. 
 E. MULTICAULIS : Many-salked Spike Rush. 
 
 Ennerdale. 
 E. ACICULARIS: Least Spike Rush. Egrcmont. 
 
 2 THE FERNS 
 
 POLYPODIES. 
 
 POLYPODIUM VDLGARE : Common Polypody. 
 Everywhere. Vars. semilacerum and serratum 
 have been found near Windermere. 
 
 I*. DRYOPTERIS: The Oak Fern. Lodore; Bor- 
 rowdale; Calder Bridge; Fumess Fells; Wast- 
 dale; Scale Force; Dalegarth; Stock Ghyll; 
 Glenridding; Coniston. A slate f em ; not rare. 
 
 P. PHEGOPTERIS: The Beech Fern. Borrowdale; 
 Ennerdale; Scawfell; Stock Ghyll; Grasmere; 
 Coniston. Also a slate fern, and not rare. 
 
 I*. ROBERTIANUM : The Limestone Polypody. 
 Scale Force ; Whitbarrow ; perhaps also by 
 Lancey Falls (Thirlmere.) Rare, because of its 
 following the limestone only, and that not freely. 
 
 ALLOSORUS CRISPCS: Mountain Parsley, or Parsley 
 Fern. On all the higher elevations; growing in 
 great abundance round the slate rocks, and at 
 the foot of the unmortared slate walls about the 
 fells and mountains. 
 
 A8PIDIE.E. 
 
 POLYSTICHUM LoNCHiTis: The Alpine Shield or 
 
 Holly Fern. Fairficld; Helvcllyn; and ivportol 
 
 to be found in Deepdale. Very rare. 
 P. ACULEATUM : the Common Prickly Shit- Id 
 
 Fern. Common by rivulets and in woods, 
 
 as are also the varieties lubatum and lon- 
 
 chitidioidis. 
 P. ANGULARE: the Angular or Soft Prickly Shield 
 
 Fern. Less common as a universal growth, but 
 
 luxuriant about Ambleside. 
 LASTREA TIIELYPTKRIS: the Marsh Buckler Fern. 
 
 Keswick; Glcncoin; Blowyke; Irton woods. (A 
 
 peat bog fern.) 
 L. MONTANA: the Mountain Buckler, or Heat 1 1 
 
 Fern. Common. 
 L. FILIX-MAS: the Male Fern. Common. V<*. 
 
 deorso-lobata, and paleacca, Amblcsidc ; > ,n 
 
 incisa, Cockcrmouth; var. Pimliri, Kltenvatei ; 
 
 var. abbreviata, including pumila, Coniston. 
 
 1 This list is ent rely taken from Martineaua Guide, corrected by Chllds. 
 
 2 Made a synonym by Cliilds. 
 
 331 
 
 U C
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 L. DILATATA: Broad Prickly-toothed Buckler 
 Fern. Eltervvater; Langdale; Silverthwaitc ; Old 
 Man; and the fells generally. Var. collina, 
 Elterwater; Langdale; Red House; Torver; var. 
 dumetorum, throughout the rocky fells. 
 
 L. SPINULOSA : the Narrow Prickly-toothed 
 Buckler Fern. Coniston ; Keswick ; Winder- 
 mere ; and Ambleside. (A bog fern.) 
 
 L. RIGIDA: the Eigid Buckler Fern. Arnside 
 Knot; HuttonRoof Crags; Farlton Knot; Silver- 
 dale. Rare. 
 
 L. ^EMULA: the Hay-scented, or Triangular Prickly- 
 toothed Buckler Fern. St. Bees Head ; Coniston ; 
 Windermere. Rare. 
 
 ASPLENIE.E. 
 
 ATIIYRIUM FILIX-FOSMINA: the Lady Fern. Not 
 uncommon. Vars. trifidum and latifolium. 
 Keswick, rare ; growing there in only one 
 locality ; various other forms abundant, specially 
 about Coniston. Vo.r. rhceticum the most common. 
 
 ASPLENIUM SEPTEXTRIONALE: the Forked Spleen- 
 wort. Honister Crag; Scawfell; Patterdale; 
 Borrowdale; Newlands; a ravine near Wast- 
 water; Ambleside. (A slate fern. Rare.) 
 
 A. VIRIDE: the Green Spleenwort. Patterdale; 
 Kendal Fells; Hutton Roof; Farlton; Arnside; 
 Casterton Fell; Mazebeck Scar; Ambleside: 
 Ashness Ghyll; Ban-ow Falls; Brandy Ghyll on 
 Carrock; Borrowdale; Whitbarrow. (A lime- 
 stone fern.) 
 
 A. GERMANICTJM : the Alternate-leaved Spleen- 
 wort. Helvellyn ; Borrowdale. 
 
 A. RUTA-MCRARIA: the Rue-leaved Spleenwort, or 
 Wall Rue. Common on old walls. 
 
 A. TRICHOMANES : the Common Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort. Common, specially about Amble- 
 side and Calder Bridge. Vars. ramosum and 
 incisum, Keswick and Borrowdale. Very 
 rare. 
 
 A. MARINOM: the Sea Spleenwort. Sea cave near 
 Silverdale; St. Bees Head; Head of Morecambe 
 Bay ; Meathop, near Witherslack. (A sand 
 fern, and very rare.) 
 
 A. FONTANUM: The Smooth Rock Spleenwort. 
 Formerly at Wythburn, but now by the greed 
 of collectors extinct. 
 
 A. ADIANTCM-NIGRCM: The Black Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort. Very coinmoii on old walls. (A 
 limestone fern.) 
 
 CETERACII OrriciNARrM: The Scale Fern. Not 
 common, but in great luxuriance on Whit- 
 barrow. A crenated variety found at Arnside 
 Knot; Milnethorpe; Kendal; Ambleside; Gos- 
 forth ; Keswick; Sandwith; St. Bees; Gow- 
 barrow Park; Silverside. (A limestone fern, 
 chiefly on old walls). 
 
 SCOLOPENDRICM VULGARE: The Common Hart's 
 Tongue. Only in the limestone districts, and 
 there abundant. 
 
 LOMARIE^E. 
 
 BLECHNUM SPICANT: The Common Hard Fern. 
 Common. 
 
 PTERIDE^E. 
 
 PTERIS AQUILINA : The Common Bracken. Every- 
 where. 
 
 CYSTOPTERIDE^E. 
 
 CYSTOPTERIS FRAGILIS: The Brittle Bladder Fern. 
 Lamplugh; Holm Rock; Mickledorc; Braith- 
 waite Brows; Kendal. Var. dentata, Borrow- 
 dale ; Egremont ; Kendal ; Silverdale. Var. 
 interrvpta, Windermere, and elsewhere. (A 
 limestone fern). 
 
 C. REGIA: The Alpine Bladder Fern. Blencathra, 
 in 1820. Back of Old Man, Coniston (?). 
 
 PERAXEME^E. 
 
 WOODSIA ILVENSIS: The Blunt-leaved, or Oblong 
 Woodsia. Westmoreland, " in three distant 
 stations," F. Clowes. Cumberland, F. Clowes; 
 but the localities concealed. 
 
 HYMEXOPHYLLE.*:. 
 
 HYMEXOPHYLLUM TUXBRIDGEXSE: TheTunbridge 
 Film-fern. Hawl Ghyll (Wastwater); Enner- 
 dale; Coniston. Very rare. 
 
 H. WILSONI, or UXILATERALE: Wilson's Film- 
 fern. Not uncommon in damp mountain fissures 
 everywhere; but in greatest luxuriance at Scale 
 Force, where it lines the rocks. (A slate fern). 
 
 OSMCNDACE^. 
 
 OSMUNDA REGALIS: The Osmund Royal or Flower- 
 ing Fern. Windermere; Skelwith and Lough- 
 rigg ; Colwith ; Seascales ; Gosforth; Coniston 
 Crags; Ullock Moss (Keswick); Whitbarrow; 
 Millum; Irton; Egremont; Scale Hill. 
 
 332
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 OPIHOQLOSSACEJE. 
 
 BoTRYcmuM LUNARIA: The Common Moomvort. 
 Not uncommon on the higher grounds. Bray- 
 stones ; Muncaster Fells ; Keswick ; Castle 
 Sowerby; Coniston Fells, &c. 
 
 OPIIIOGLOSSCM VDLGATDM: Common Adder's 
 Tongue. Rare at Windermere, but common in 
 several other districts. 
 
 LYCOPODIACE.S:. 
 
 LYCOPODIUM SELAGO: The Fir Club-Moss. Skid- 
 daw ; Helvellyn ; the Ennerdale and other 
 
 mountains. 
 L. AXXOTIXUM: Interrupted Club-Moss. Bowfell; 
 
 Langdale. Rare. 
 L. CLAVATDM : Common Club-Moss, Stag's Horns, 
 
 Foxes' Tails, Wolf's Tails. Common. (A famous 
 
 dye.) 
 L. IXUNDATUM: Marsh Club-Moss. Wastwater, 
 
 and by mountain tarns, but not common. 
 L. ALPINUN VEL COMPLANATDM: Savin-leaved 
 
 Club-Moss. Common on heathy fell-sides among 
 
 the stones and rocks. 
 SELAGINELLA SPINOSA: Prickly Mountain-Moss. 
 
 Fairfield; Kirkstone; Loughrigg; Borrowdale; 
 
 Scawfell; Coniston; Ennerdale, &c. 
 
 MARSILEACEJE. 
 
 ISOETES LACUSTRIS: European Quillwort, or 
 
 Merlin's Grass. All the lakes. 
 PILULARIA GLOBULIFERA: Pill wort, or 
 
 grass. Ennerdale lake only. 
 
 EQUBBXACU. 
 
 EyuiSETUM TELMATEIA: The Great, or Great 
 Water Horsetail. All the lakes. 
 
 E. PRATEXSE: The Shade Horsetail. By the 
 Westmoreland lakes. 
 
 E. ARVENSE : The Cornfield Horsetail. Gos- 
 forth. 
 
 E. SYLVATICUM: The Wood Horsetail, pinner- 
 dale, Watendlath. 
 
 E. LIMOSUM : The Water or Smooth Naked Horse- 
 tail. Common. 
 
 E. PALUSTRE: the Marsh Horsetail. Common ; 
 luxuriant on Coldfell. Var. polystacltyon, 
 rare. 
 
 E. HYEMALE: the Great Rough Horsetail. Old 
 Field Wood, near Kendal; Sowgelt Bridge; and 
 a few other places. Rare. 
 
 E. VARIEGATUM: the Variegated Rough Horsetail. 
 By the Irthing, at Gilsland. 
 
 8 THE MOSSES 
 
 ANDREA ALPINA: Alpine Andrea; A. ALPESTRIS: 
 Rock Andraea ; A. ROTHII : Black Falcate 
 Andrea. Ill Bell and about Windermere. 
 
 BRYAC^E. 
 
 GYMNOSTOMUM RDPESTRE: Rock Beardless-Moss. 
 
 Helvellyn. 
 G. MICROSTOMUM: Small-mouthed Beardless-Moss. 
 
 Miller's ground near Windermere, and elsewhere. 
 WETSSIA VERTICILLATA: Whorled Weissia. Whit- 
 
 barrow. 
 RHABDOWEISSIA DENTICULATA: Toothed Streak- 
 
 Moss. Furness Fells; Grasmere Fells; and else- 
 
 where. 
 
 DlCRAXEJE. 
 
 BLIXDIA ACUTA: Acute-leaved Bliudia. Wiiidcr- 
 mci'e, &c. 
 
 DICRANUM POLYCARPCM : Many-fruited Fork- 
 Moss. Red Screes. Rare. 
 
 IX SQUARROSUM : Drooping-leaved Fork-Moss. 
 Dunmail Raise. 
 
 D. RUFESCEXS: Reddish Fork-Moss. Calgarth 
 Woods, and others. 
 
 TRICHOSTOME.*;. 
 
 DISTICHIUM CAPILLACEUM : Fine-leaved Dis- 
 
 tichium. Ill Bell; Helvellyn; Scawfell; and other 
 
 high mountains. 
 DIDYMODON CYLIXDRICUS: Slender-fruited Di<ly- 
 
 modon. Troutbeck Park ; Cook's House, &c. 
 TRICHOSTOMTM HO.MOMAI.I.I M : Cun'e - lea M < I 
 
 Trichostomum. Calgarth; Lodorc, &c. 
 TORTULA TOHTUOSA: Curly-lcavol S<-icw-> 
 
 T. ALOIDES : Aloe -leaved Screw-Moss; T. 
 
 AMBIGI-A: Taller Rigid Seivw-AIoss. Wliit- 
 
 barrow. 
 
 333
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 ENCALYPTEJE. 
 
 ENCALYPTA CILIATA: Fringed Extinguisher-Moss. 
 The Helvellyn range. 
 
 GRIMMIE^E. 
 GRIMMIA SPIRALIS: Spiral-leaved Grimmia. The 
 
 lower part of Red Screes, Kirkstoue. Not in 
 
 fruit. 
 G. TORTA: Twisted-leaved Grimmia. Kirkstone 
 
 hills. 
 G. DONNIANA: Bonn's Grimmia. "On rocks and 
 
 walls in high situations," (H. M.) " Not found 
 
 in Britain," Hooker and Taylor's Muscologia 
 
 Britannica, or rather, Wilson's Bryologia 
 
 Britannica. 
 RACOMITRIUM ACICDLARE : Dark Mountain Fringe- 
 
 Moss; R. FASCICULARE : Green Mountain Fringe- 
 
 Moss; R.LANUGUINOSUM: Woolly Fringe-Moss; 
 
 R. CANESCENS : Hoary Fringe-Moss. All very 
 
 common on rocks and walls. 
 
 PTYCHOMITRIE.E. 
 
 PTYCHOMITRIUM POLYPHYLLCM : Many-leaved 
 Fringe-Moss. Common. 
 
 ORXHOTRICHEJE. 
 
 ORTHOTRICHUM STRAMINEUM : Straw-coloured 
 
 Bristle-Moss. Common. 
 O. RUPESTRE, or RUPINCOLA: Rock Bristle-Moss. 
 
 Hawes Water. 
 O. LYELLII: Mr. Lyell's Bristle-Moss; O. CRIS- 
 
 PCLUM : Dwarf-curled Bristle-Moss. Both 
 
 common. 
 
 ZYGODONTE.E. 
 ZYGODON MOUGEOTII: Mougeot's Yoke-Moss. In 
 
 crevices of rocks, without fruit. 
 Z. VIRIDISSIMUS: Green-tufted Yoke-Moss. On 
 
 ash-trees. 
 
 BAUXBAMIE-E. 
 DIPHYSCIUM FOLIOSUM : Leafy Bauxbamia. Ill 
 
 Bell; Helvellyn. 
 
 POGONATUM URXIGERUM: Urn-fruited Hair-Moss. 
 
 Common. 
 P. ALPINDM. The higher mountains generally. 
 
 BRYE^E. 
 
 BRYUM ACUMINATUM : Sharp-pointed Threaii- 
 Moss; B. POLYMORPHUM: Changeable Thread- 
 Moss; B. ELONGATUM: Long-fruited Thread- 
 Moss; B. C'RCDi'M: Alpine Glaucous Thread- 
 
 Moss. Not rare on the mountains; but not 
 lowland mosses generally. 
 
 B. WAHLENBERGII: Wahlenberg's Thread-Moss. 
 In mountain rills. 
 
 B. LUDWIGII: Ludwig's Thread-Moss. On wet 
 rocks; Glaramara and the Borrowdale hills. 
 Not in fruit. 
 
 B. ALPIXUM: Alpine Purple Thread-Moss. Com- 
 mon, not barren. 
 
 B. ULIGIXOSUM: Bog Thread-Moss. In a branch 
 of the Wythburn Beck, High Raise. 
 
 B. PALLENS: Pale-leaved Thread-Moss. Ill Bell. 
 
 B. JULACEDM: Slender-branched Thread-Moss. 
 " Mountain rills, fruiting abundantly on Kirk- 
 stone Pass, 111 Bell, and in Wythburn Beck." 
 (H. M.) 
 
 B. ZIERRII: Zierrian Thread-Moss. Red Screes; 
 Rydal Park, &c. 
 
 MNIUM SERRATUM: Serrated Thyme Thread-Moss. 
 Helvellyn. 
 
 M. SUBGLOBOSUM: Round-fruited Thyme Thread- 
 Moss. Helvellyn. 
 
 FUNARIE.E. 
 FCNARIA MtlHLENBERGii: Dr. Muhlenbcrg's Cord- 
 
 Moss. Whitbarrow. 
 PHYSCOMITRIUM ERICETORCM : Narrow -leaved 
 
 Bladder-Moss. Windermere, &c. 
 
 BARTRAMIE^E. 
 
 BARTRAMIA HALLERIANA: Haller's Apple-Moss. 
 On shaded rocks. 
 
 B. ARCUTA: Curve-stalked Apple-Moss. Lodore, 
 in fruit. 
 
 SPLACHNE^:. 
 
 (EDIPODIUM GRiFFiTriiANUM: Griffith's Alpine 
 Collar-Moss. The Helvellyn and other higher 
 mountain ranges. This moss is not known out 
 of England, Scotland and Wales. (Wilson's 
 B. B.) 
 
 LSUCODONTE.E. 
 
 LECCODON SCIUROIDES: Squirrel-tailed Leucodon. 
 Rare in fruit, but found near St. Mary's Church, 
 Windermere. 
 
 ANCECTANGIA COMPACTUM: Compact Beardless- 
 Moss. Red Screes, &c. 
 
 ASTITRICHIA CURTIPENUULA: Pendulous Winj;- 
 Moss. Common. 
 
 A.NOMODO.N V'lTicuLosus: Tall Anomodon. Whit- 
 barrow. 
 
 334
 
 THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 PTERAGONICM GRACILE : 
 Not common in fruit. 
 
 CLIMACIUM DENDROIDES : 
 Derwentwater. 
 
 Slender Wing-Moss. 
 
 Marsh Tree-Moss. 
 
 HYPNILE. 
 HYPNUM RUSCIFOLIUM: Long-beaked Feather- 
 
 Moss. Applethwaite Ghyll, Skiddaw. 
 H. PALDSTRE : Marsh Feather-Moss. Ambleside. 
 H. SCHREBERI : Schreber's Feather-Moss. In 
 
 fruit at Windermere. 
 H. UMBRATUM: Shady Rock Feather- Moss. Kes- 
 
 wick. 
 II. BREVIROSTRE: Short-beaked Feather - Moss. 
 
 Common. 
 
 II. FLAGELLARK: Thong-branched Feather-Moss. 
 Stock Ghyll, and other rocky streams. 
 
 H. SQUARROSUM: Drooping-lcaved Feather-Moss. 
 Common. 
 
 H. RUGOSUM: Wrinkle - leaved Feather -Moss. 
 Whitbarrow. 
 
 H. CRISTA-CASTRENSIS: Ostrich-plume Feather- 
 Moss. Not rare in the lake district, but said 
 to be the most rare and the most beautiful of all 
 the British mosses. 
 
 H. RESUFIXATDM: Upward-turned Feather-Moss. 
 Common. 
 
 H. SYLVATICDM: Wood Feather-Moss. Common. 
 
 H. DEXTICULATCM : Sharp Flat-leaved Feather 
 Moss. Var. Succulentum. Black Beck near 
 Storrs, Windermere. 
 
 The above list of Mosses is taken entirely from Miss Martineau's Guide, slightly corrected by reference 
 to other works; but I do not hold myself responsible for any of the statements as to habitat made therein, 
 which, it seems to me, are meagre and incorrect by their partiality. Miss Martinean only assumes to 
 give the mosses of Windermere and its immediate neighbourhood, and I have not been able to find any 
 other fuller local authority. 
 
 OIJASR OP PARNASSUS AND FRINOKD WATT.R-WI.Y 
 
 33.5
 
 APPENDIX III 
 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT 
 
 BY EDWARD HULL, B.A, F.G.S. OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIX. 
 
 THE mountainous region of Cumberland and West- 
 moreland, like that of Wales and Scotland, is 
 formed of some of the most ancient rock masses 
 with which we are acquainted. That reverence 
 for age which ethical writers, both of ancient and 
 modern times, have alike inculcated, and which 
 seems, in some degree, indigenous in the human 
 mind, seems to have been foreshadowed in ancient 
 geologic times ; for the newer formations of a 
 special district like that we are treating of, seldom 
 venture to raise their heads to a level with those of 
 their ancestors, and, in general, we fiad the more 
 ancient rocks towering in stately grandeur above 
 their descendants. In the lake region, the heights 
 of Scawfell, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn, formed of the 
 more ancient Silurian rocks, overlook in every 
 direction, the surrounding ridges, fells, and plains 
 of the upper Silurian, Carboniferous, and Triassic 
 formations. 
 
 The general arrangement of the Silurian rocks 
 of Cumberland and Westmoreland is extremely 
 simple.* The oldest beds are found in the range of 
 Skiddaw and Blencathra; and commencing at this 
 point you constantly ascend into higher formations 
 
 by traversing the country from north to south, till 
 you reach Kendal, where the highest Silurian beds 
 are found. The mountain chain is girt around by 
 Carboniferous formations, except on the south-west 
 side from St. Bees Head to Morecambe Bay 
 where the hills are separated from the sea by a nar- 
 row strip of Permian, or New Red Sandstone. 
 Speaking of the contrast in the physical features 
 which the central group of Silurian heights presents 
 when compared with the circular zone of Carboni- 
 ferous limestone hills by which it is surrounded, 
 Professor Sedgwick says : " On whatever side it 
 is approached, we are struck with the tameness of 
 the outline of every portion of the calcareous zone, 
 when contrasted with the fine serrated peaks of the 
 loftier and more central elevations. From some of 
 the ridges in the range of Cross Fell the eye takes 
 in, at one view, the greatest part of the northern 
 calcareous zone. Seen from that distance, all its 
 minor inequalities disappear, and I have often 
 fancied that it resembled a portion of a great semi- 
 circular redoubt, formed near the base of the older 
 hills, and presenting a long, sweeping, irregular 
 glacis towards the valley of the Eden.f These 
 
 * To Mr. J. Oiley, of Keswick, we are primarily indebted for a knowledge of the sub-divisions into which the rocks of 
 the Lake District are divisible. Mr. Otley's observations were systematized and extended by the researches of the Rev. 
 Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge, in 1822, and following years ; who, in a series of admirable memoirs in the Geological 
 Transactions and elsewhere, has fully detailed the structure of the region, and co-ordinated the groups of strata with those 
 of Wales, where, by his own labours and those of Sir R. J. Mnrchison, the Cambrian and Silurian systems were first 
 established. Several other observers have added to our knowledge of the geology of the lakes, amongst whom we may 
 mention Professor Phi lips, of Oxford, Professor Harkness, of Cork, Mr. E. \V. Binney, and Mr. Salter, late palaeontologist to 
 the Geological Survey. The geological map, constructed by Mr. J. Ruthven, of Kendal, with the assistance of Professor 
 Sedgwick, will be found very useful, and sufficient to guide the explorer until the maps of the Government Geological Survey 
 are issued to the public. 
 
 t Geological Transactions, Vol. iv., 2nd series. 
 
 336
 
 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 limestone hills sink down under the Permian and 
 Triassic beds which form the plain of the Eden, 
 .mil in the direction of Whitehaven and Working- 
 ton, under the coal-formation. 
 
 In default of a geological map, there is no better 
 mode for bringing the physical structure of a dis- 
 
 trict clearly before the mind's eye than a horizontal 
 section; and I shall therefore beg the reader to study 
 the subjoined representation of the outline of the 
 ground and component formations, drawn from 
 north to south across " the strike," or direction in 
 which the rocks trend from west to ea^t. 
 
 IDEAL SECTION ACROSS THE CENTRE OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, FROM NORTH TO SOITII. sn >\vi\.. 
 
 THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE BEDS, AND OUTLINE OF THE Sl'KFACK.* 
 
 (After Ser1<ju-if:h and ffarkness.) 
 
 I . Granite of Skiddaw Forest. 
 
 2 Felspar Trap. 
 
 a. Skiddaw Slate. 
 
 ft. Green Slate and Porphyry, &c. 
 
 f . 1. Collision Limestone. 
 
 c 2. Calcareous Flagstone. 
 (I. Coniston Grits. 
 
 e. Ireleth Slates. 
 
 f. Kirkby Moor Flags and Tilestone. 
 
 c. Old Red Conglomerate. 
 11. Carbon. ferous Limestone. 
 T. Trias, or Peimian beds of the Vale 
 of Eden. 
 
 The section above shows the true succession of 
 the natural groups, but unless we have the materials 
 for referring these groups to their places in the 
 geological scale, this knowledge would, of itself, be 
 vague and unsatisfactory. Now, as the old forma- 
 tions of the Cumberland hills are completely iso- 
 lated from those of Wales and Scotland, which they 
 appear at first sight to resemble, it is evident we 
 must fall back upon the evidence of the organic 
 remains they may contain in order to determine 
 their true place in the series of rock systems. The 
 uppermost groups at the southern side of the dis- 
 trict were long since determined by Professor 
 Sedgwick to have their representatives in the upper 
 Silurian formations of Wales, as they were found 
 sufficiently rich in shells, corals, and crustacca to 
 allow of this point being determined with accuracy, 
 but it was not so with the two lower groups those 
 of the " green slate and porphyry " (b), and the 
 "Skiddaw slate" (a). In these beds though 
 attaining a thickness of about 15,000 feet the only 
 
 organized bodies discovered after diligent search 
 were a few gi aptolitesnnimals belonging to a \ en- 
 simple form of zoophyte from the Skiddnw slntes. 
 
 GRAPTOLITKS FROIJ TIIK SZIDDAW SLATB 
 
 Professor Harkness has lately added to our know- 
 ledge of the fossils of the period by discoveriii},' 
 additional species of graptolites and certain ern- 
 tacea, and from an inspection of these, Mr. Saltcr 
 our highest authority on this subject has referred 
 the Skiddaw slate series to that group of lower 
 Silurian strata, known as the lower "Llandcilo 
 flags." f These are very old, but by no means tin- 
 oldest fossilifcrous strata, for both in North Wales 
 
 In the above sections all minor irregularities arising from faults, dykes, and changes of dip are omitted, owing to the 
 contraction of the scale. 
 
 t Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. x\x. In page 137, figures of the fossil 
 given, and described by Mr. Salter. 
 
 337 x x
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 and Scotland they arc supported by several thou- 
 sand feet of the more ancient Cambrian rocks.* 
 Having determined the position in the geological 
 
 THE LAKES. 
 
 / 1. Tilcstones and Kirkby Moor) 
 
 Flags (Kendal Group) j 
 
 S "; L ' KIAX< U.Irclcth Slates 
 
 BKM> I 3. Coniston Grits 
 
 LOWER ! 4. Coniston Flags and Limestone 
 
 SILURIAN < 5. Green Slate and Porphyry i 
 
 BEDS. ( 6. Skiddaw Slate ) 
 
 scale of the Skiddaw slate group, we can now 
 arrange the remaining groups in their proper 
 geological places, as follows, in descending order: 
 
 WALES. 
 
 = Tilestones and Ludlow Beds. 
 
 = Wenlock Beds. 
 
 = May Hill Sandstone. 
 
 = Llandcilo Flags, and Bala Limestone. 
 
 = Lower Llandeilo Beds. 
 
 I shall now proceed to give a short description of each of these groups from the bottom upwards. 
 
 SILURIAN SEIUES 
 
 The Shiddaw Slate Group. This group stretches 
 from Dent Hill, near Clcator, to Caldbeck Fells, 
 and from Cockermouth to Keswick. It seems 
 to repose on the porph^yritic rocks of Uldale, 
 and is penetrated by granite in Skiddaw Forest, 
 and at Carrock, which appears to have highly 
 altered the character of the beds, so as to give 
 them a hard and crystalline structure. The group 
 consists of a series of fine black and grey slates, 
 traversed by cleavage planes, and bands of flag- 
 stone. The thickness of the group is probably 
 not less than 7,000 feet, and it rises into the 
 mountains of Skiddaw, Blencathra, and Grisedale 
 Pike ; it also re-appears at some distance from the 
 main mass in Black Comb. 
 
 Green Slate and Porphyry Group. The pre- 
 ceding group is overlaid by a vast series of beds 
 composed of felstone, trappean grits, and breccias, 
 alternating with chloritic roofing slate. In fact, 
 we have here the products of submarine volcanic 
 action repeated at frequent intervals during the 
 ordinary deposition of the sediment of which the 
 green slate is formed. The trappean rocks, whether 
 in the form of sheets of lava, or hardened volcanic 
 ashes, are regularly bedded with the sedimentary 
 materials, and it is interesting to observe that in 
 North Wales, similar irruptions of trap occurred 
 on an enormous scale at this period. This group 
 contains no fossils. It occupies the central portion 
 of the lake region, stretching in a broad band 
 
 from west to east, and rising into the lofty heights 
 of Scawfell, Bowfell, Helvellyn, and the Langdale 
 Pikes; the group dips generally towards the S.S.K. 
 under the Coniston beds. At Wastdale and Esk- 
 dale it is penetrated by granite. 
 
 Coniston Limestone and Flags. This remarkable 
 group, about 1,500 feet in thickness, stretches in 
 a narrow, slightly curved band from Millam, on 
 the west side of Duddon sands, to Wasdale Pike. 
 At the bottom is a band of argillaceous limestone, 
 from 30 to 300 feet in thickness, passing upwards 
 into calcareous shales and flagstone, the whole 
 being plentifully charged with fossils (corals, 
 molluscs, and trilobites). The limestone may be 
 seen at the following amongst other places, 
 commencing at Beck on the west, it ranges through 
 Corn Park, and the village called Hill; then east 
 of Duddon Bridge, Water Blain, Broughton Mill, 
 Appletreethwaite, and Ashgill. It crosses Torver 
 Fell, and ranges along Coniston Old Man ; from 
 this it passes to the head of Windcrmere, and 
 appears in quarries about 400 yards above Low 
 Wood Inn. It passes near the village of Trout- 
 beck. Between this and Wasdale Pike it appears 
 at or near Line Foot, Kentmcre Hall, Pike How, 
 and on the east side of Long Sleddale, near Little 
 London. I have been thus particular in tracing 
 the range of this calcareous band, as it affords a 
 very certain and definite geological horizon, and 
 forms the boundary line between the older and 
 
 The Skiddaw slates are therefore newer than the " Primordial zone" of the Lingula flags. 
 
 338
 
 TOE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 the newer groups of the Silurian period, as well 
 as the margin of a less elevated tract of hill 
 scenery.* 
 
 Coniston Grits. A series of coarse, hard, light- 
 coloured grits, of rather greater thickness than the 
 preceding group. 
 
 Ireletk Slates. A complex deposit of roofing 
 slate, grits, and flagstone, of very great thickness, 
 and in the lower division containing in some places 
 a thin hand of impure concretionary limestone. 
 This group occupies the greater part of both banks 
 
 of Windcrmcro, and stretches from Uhcr.-ton t<> 
 Tebay Fells, and southward to Lcvcn Sand.-. Ii 
 is frequently i>eiietrated by igneous dykes, which 
 generally run in the direction of the strike. 
 
 Kendal Group. A scries, well developed in the 
 hills north of Kendal, and the valley of the Lime, 
 north of Kirkby Lonsdale, consisting of grits and 
 flagstone, passing upwards into greeni>h and 
 reddish flags, resembling the tile-stones at the top 
 of the Silurian rocks. This completes the Silurian 
 series. 
 
 OLD RED SANDSTONE 
 
 THE formations just described apj ear to have been 
 deposited one over the other in a perfectly regular 
 sequence, without any breaks or disturbance what- 
 ever; but at the close of the Silurian period, 
 powerful clevatory movements set in, accompanied 
 by the eruption of granitic rocks in various places, 
 as in Skiddaw Forest. As the rocks were elevated 
 from under the sea, they came in contact with the 
 waves and currents, by which vast quantities of 
 materials were broken up and carried away, while 
 beds of shingle were in places accumulated upon 
 the upturned edges of the Silurian rocks. These 
 beds ofshinyle bvlony to the age of the Old Red Sand- 
 stone and coHij/ninerate. 
 
 The masses of red conglomerate are found 
 
 resting in a discordant, or unconformablc, position 
 on the slaty rocks in several [daces, as at the 
 northern extremity of Ullcswater, extending from 
 the western bank to Mcll Fell; from Simp Abbey 
 southward in along strip underlying the Carboni- 
 ferous limestone as far as Langdale, in a similar 
 position north of Kendal, and at Kirkby Lon>dalc. 
 The pebbles of which it is made up arc generally 
 roundish, and formed for the most part of the older 
 rocks, amongst which we have no difficulty in 
 recognizing fragments of Coniston limestone. The 
 conglomerate rests indifferently on beds of all 
 from the Lower to the I'pper Silurian, and is 
 extremely irregular both in its structure and 
 thickness. 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS 
 
 THE Old Ecd conglomerate supports in some places, 
 and the Silurian rocks in others, the Carboniferous 
 limestone, which, as already stated, almost en- 
 circles the Cumbrian cluster of mountains. The 
 forms of its tabulated hills, its precipitous scars, 
 and terraced slopes, is familiar to all who have 
 visited Kendal, or Kirkby Lonsdale. The forma - 
 tion consists of several thick beds, or group of 
 beds, of limestone separated by bands of shale, 
 
 with coal and flagstone, which arc most numerous 
 on the north side of the district. The " Great Sen 
 limestone," 600 feet thick or more, forms tin 
 of the series. The name, as Professor Sedgwiek 
 remarks, is applied with great propriety to this 
 limestone, which in all parts of its range is marked 
 by grey precipices and mural escarpments.! The 
 following is a general summary of the limestone 
 scries : 
 
 The following are the most common fos>ils from the Coniston limestone: Favorites polymorpha, Poritet pyrtformit, 
 catenifora e chaioiilei, Tentacuiites annuMus ; Orthoceras, three smooth species, Ltptcena depretta, art hit, .'evcral specks, 
 Atrypa affi.iis, Cytherina heviyata, Calyntene mumenbachii, Ataphus tyrannus. This last and many of the other forms arc 
 figured in Murt-hison's Siluria. 
 
 t Geol. Trans, vol. iv. p. 70. The learned author desctil.es, in great detail, the various members of the carboniferous 
 series in the papers here rtferrtd to. 
 
 339 X X '-'
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Carboniferous Limestone Series in Descending 
 Order. 
 
 Greatest thickness in Feet. 
 
 1. Tweloe-fathom limestone 80 
 
 Gritstone, coal, and shale 80 
 
 '2. Fuur-fathom limestone 40 
 
 Sandstone, fissile gritstone, and shale 350 
 
 .'i. Mosdale Moor, or Wold limestone 45 
 
 Grit, shale, and coal 150 
 
 4. Strony post limestone 45 
 
 Sandstone, shale, and calcareous grit 150 
 
 5. Second limestone, or black marble group 45 
 Sandstone and shale 150 
 
 6. Great Scar limestone .... . 600 
 
 Total 1,735 
 
 The beds of coal in this group are very thin and 
 of inferior quality, the only one which has Urn 
 much worked being that which lies below " the 
 twelve-fathom limestone," and which was formerly 
 mined under Great Colm, on the south side of the 
 valley of Dent. A much more important product 
 is the haematite iron-ore of Ulverston and Cleator, 
 which appears to have been deposited in extensive 
 hollows scooped in the limestone, probably by run- 
 ning water, dissolving and carrying away the lime.* 
 The limestone is often rich in fossil shells and corals 
 of the ordinary genera and species, such SL&Producta 
 latissima, Spirifer, Caryophyllia, Encrinites, &c. 
 
 The limestone series is succeeded by that of the 
 millstone grit and coal-measures of Whitehaven. 
 
 PERMIAN AND TRASSIC GROUPS 
 
 RKSTING discordantly on various members of the 
 older rocks, is a thick series of red beds composed 
 of breccias, sandstones, and beds of marl with 
 limestone bands. These are referable to the two 
 formations above-named, but the special age of 
 some of the members is at present a matter of 
 controversy. These beds occupy the broad valley 
 of the Eden, and the sea-coast from St. Bees 
 
 Head southward to Morecambe Bay. They ha\e 
 yielded the richly-tinted stone of which the ruins 
 of Furness and Calder Abbey are built ruins 
 which, by the contrast of their colour to that 
 of the foliage around, derive so much of their 
 beauty and venerable aspect. Near Carlisle a 
 small outlier of the Lower Lias has lately been 
 discovered. f 
 
 GLACIAL PHENOMENA 
 
 THAT the highlah'ds of the British Isles, at a 
 period immediately antecedent to the appearance 
 of man, have been the centres of glacial dispersion 
 varying in form and intensity from the present 
 state of Greenland to that of the Alps, is now 
 generally acknowledged, and the evidences are 
 abundant and satisfactory. Confining our attention 
 to the lake district, we find in its valleys, moun- 
 tain slopes, and surrounding plains all those 
 appearances which are produced in regions where 
 glaciers now exist, though of course, owing to the 
 small size of the mountain group, somewhat in 
 miniature as compared with the Alps or Pyrenees. 
 On approaching the district from the south, we 
 find the whole country strewn with pebbles and 
 boulders, often of large size, which we can identify 
 with their parent masses amongst the hills. Thus 
 
 we find blocks of Shap granite, porphyry, and 
 mountain limestone many -miles distant from their 
 sources. These blocks are often polished and 
 striated by attrition, such as is found to be the 
 case with those which have been carried by icebergs 
 or glaciers. These boulders are often imbedded 
 in reddish clay, or " till," and gravel, which is 
 stratified, and must have been deposited by the 
 sea, as it contains marine shells in some places; 
 so we are driven to the conclusion that the sea 
 once overspread the lowlands, and was studded 
 with icebergs which had their origin in glaciers 
 amongst the highlands. 
 
 The evidences of glacial action in the highlands 
 themselves (I speak of the Cumberland hills) are 
 unmistakeablc. They were originally noticed by 
 the late Dr. Buckland, dean of Westminster. If 
 
 Sir R. Murchison considers tlie iron derived from the red beds of the Permian period. Journ. Geol. Society, vol. xx. i>. K.2. 
 t By Mr. W. Brotkbunk, and Mr. Biiiney, F.It.S., who has described it in the Journal of the Geological Society. 
 
 340
 
 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 
 
 we observe with care the exposed surfaces of the 
 rocks in the bottoms of the valleys, and for a cer- 
 tain height up the sides, we shall find that they are 
 rounded, often polished, and grooved or striated in 
 parallel lines. These are especially noticeable 
 where the surface lias been protected by turf 
 which has been freshly removed. Examples may 
 be seen at Amblcside, in a boss of slaty rock, which 
 rises from the valley close by the church, as shown 
 in the figure below. There is also a remarkable 
 
 ICE-WOHU KUOS: IN AMBLBS1DB VALLilT 
 
 nstance in a projecting mass of slate, on the north 
 flank of Langdale, about GOO feet above the bed of 
 the lake. Similar examples may be observed above 
 Grasmere, Little Langdale, and, indeed, in nearly 
 all the main valleys ; and it will be generally 
 observed that the striations radiate in every direc- 
 tion from the centre of the mountains. Thus in 
 Borrowdale they point north ; in Wastdale, west ; 
 in Grisdale, north-east; at Ambleside and Winder- 
 mere, south; and the stria; often run across the 
 hill-shoulders, as is the case south of Brathay. 
 
 Another effect of glaciers is the production of 
 perched blocks. Thus we find a block of trap 
 resting on a boss of slate; or vice versa. -Good 
 examples of these may be observed on the ridge 
 between Easdale and Langdale; and a very notice- 
 
 able instance occurs at Stickle Tarn, where a boulder 
 rests on a smooth surface of rock rising a little 
 above the centre of the lake. 
 
 Moraines, whether lateral or terminal, are ;iN" 
 of frequent occurrence in the main valleys, and, as 
 in the case of Wastwatcr and Easdale Tarn, form 
 embankments to lakes. The moraines generally 
 assume the appearance of a group of hummocks 
 or tumuli, on which boulders of even- size- lie 
 scattered; the moraines are either thrown trans- 
 versely across a valley, or ranged along its side. 
 In the former case it can scarcely be doubted tlu-y 
 have once formed lakes, which have subsequently 
 been drained by the rupture of the barrier at some 
 weak point. Such a lake, I believe, once existed at 
 the head of Langdale, and the lower end of the 
 wild and lonely Grisedale. Moraines may be ob- 
 served on the Stake pass at the head of Borrowdale, 
 at the head of Great Langdale and Enncrdale, at 
 Easedale Tarn, Stickle Turn, Blea Tarn, Kirkstonc 
 Pass, and at the head of Little Langdale, of which 
 a sketch is given below. 
 
 It is hard to picture to our minds the smiling 
 valleys of Cumberland and Westmoreland once 
 filled by ice, and the heath-clad hills clothed with 
 a mantle of perennial snow, yet science tells us 
 that such was the case at one stage of the glacial 
 period. At another the country was lower tluin it 
 is now by 1,200 or 1,400 feet, and the sea washed 
 the flanks of Scawfell, Helvellyn, and Skiildaw. 
 isolating them from the rest of the world. But 
 the island group still sent afloat messengers of ice, 
 laden with fragments torn from its own sides to 
 remind the outer world that it was not all sub- 
 merged.* 
 
 The glacial phenomena of the district has been treated on by Mr. R. Chambers in Report of Brit. Auocialionfor 1851, 
 and by the writer in Edinburgh New Phil. Journal,}, xi., and Mem. Lit. and Phil. Society of Manchester, vol. i., 3ri 
 
 MORAINE AT THE HEAD "F LI'lilK 
 
 341
 
 APPENDIX IV 
 TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS 
 
 Scawfell Pike 
 
 Scawfell 
 
 Helvcllyn 
 
 Skiddaw 
 
 Bowfell 
 
 Great Gable 
 
 Pillar 
 
 Crossfell 
 
 Fail-field 
 
 Blencathra 
 
 Grasmoor 
 
 High Street 
 
 lied Pike 
 
 Coniston Old Man 
 
 Griscdale Pike 
 
 Ill Bell 
 
 Harrison Stickle 
 
 Pike o' Stickle 
 
 Carrock Fell 
 
 High Pike 
 
 Causey Pike 
 
 Black Combe 
 
 Honister Crag 
 
 Wansfell 
 
 Kirkstone Pass 
 
 Catbells 
 
 Latrigg 
 
 Dent Hill 
 
 The Tongue (Troutbeck) .... 
 
 Pcnrith Beacon 
 
 Scilly Bank (Whitehaven) 
 
 I THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Height in feet 
 
 Cumberland 3229-6 
 
 3172-0 
 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland 3114-6 
 
 Cumberland 3057'9 
 
 Westmoreland 2971'8 
 
 Cumberland 2954-0 
 
 2932-3 
 
 2927-8 
 
 Westmoreland 2878'0 
 
 Cumberland 2856'4 
 
 2805-2 
 
 Westmoreland *2700'0 
 
 Cumberland 2650-2 
 
 Lancashire 2649-0 
 
 Cumberland 2605-9 
 
 Westmoreland 2490'2 
 
 ( 2424-1 
 
 " ( *2300'0 
 
 Cumberland 2173-0 
 
 21C-5-6 
 
 *2030'0 
 
 1974-3 
 
 *1700'0 
 
 Westmoreland 1590-9 
 
 1467-8 
 
 Cumberland *1448'0 
 
 *1 160-0 
 
 1130-7 
 
 Westmoreland 1191-8 
 
 Cumberland 966-0 
 
 529-8 
 
 * Not certain ; the rest arc verified by the Ordnance surveyors. 
 
 342
 
 TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS. 
 
 II THE LAKES 
 
 LAKES 
 
 Length in 
 miles 
 
 Width in 
 miles 
 
 Depth 
 in feet 
 
 Beach marks Height above sea level 
 
 Windcrmcre 
 
 M. F. 
 
 10 5 
 
 7 5 
 
 5 2i 
 3 7 
 2 7* 
 2 4 
 3 
 2 3i 
 2 5 
 2 3 
 
 1 4J 
 
 7 
 1 2i 
 1 Of 
 5f 
 
 o 41 
 
 4J 
 
 M. P. 
 
 1 
 5J 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 1 U 
 4f 
 4 
 2 
 3 
 7i 
 
 3 
 
 o 41 
 
 3 
 3 
 If 
 2 
 2 
 
 240 
 210 
 
 160 
 68 
 72 
 132 
 270 
 
 108 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 180 
 
 140 on Road near Harrow-slack. 
 \ 532 on Road at Sharrow Bay. 
 ( 496 Surface of House Hohn'lslnnd. 
 187 on Road near Coplands Barn. 
 237 on Road near Smithy Grim. 
 272 on Road near the Hotel. 
 330 on Road opposite Buttermerc Haw*.- 
 208 on Road near Countess Beck. 
 698 on Road near Annas Cross. 
 536 on Road near Deergarth Bay. 
 371 on Road near Smithy Beck. 
 \ 225 Contour at side of road opposite I.;ik<- 
 I Bank House. 
 246 A on Island. 
 398 on Road near Hassness. 
 407 on Road near centre of Lake. 
 185 on Road near Nab Cottage. 
 200 Contour near the edge of Lake. 
 539 on Road opposite centre of Lake. 
 
 Ulleswater 
 
 Coniston Water 
 
 Basscnthwaite Water 
 
 Dcrwcnt Water 
 
 Crummock Water .. 
 
 Wast Water 
 
 Hawes Water 
 
 Thirlmcrc 
 
 Ennerdale Water 
 
 Esthwaite Water 
 
 Grasmere Lake 
 
 Buttemiere Lake 
 
 Lowes Water 
 
 Rydal Water 
 
 Eltcr Water . 
 
 Brothers Water 
 
 
 III ALTITUDES OF LAKES 
 
 LAKES 
 
 Altitude in Feet 
 
 Remarks 
 
 Angle Tarn 
 
 1552-8 
 
 Near Bow Fell. 
 
 Bassenthwaite Water 
 
 225-5 
 
 
 Beacon Tarn 
 
 536-4 
 
 
 Blea Tarn (I) 
 
 612-1 
 
 1 \ mile N.W. of L. Langdalc Tarn. 
 
 Blea Tarn (2) 
 
 700-4 
 
 Near the Boot, Eskdalc. 
 
 Blea Tarn (3) 
 
 1561-7 
 
 1^ mile S.W. of Watcndlatli. 
 
 Blea Water 
 
 1583-7 
 
 Near S. end of Hawes Water. 
 
 Blctham Tarn 
 
 138-2 
 
 
 Blind Tarn 
 
 726-7 
 
 Near Blea Tarn, No. 2. 
 
 Borran's Tarn 
 
 413-9 
 
 
 Brothers Water 
 
 519-9 
 
 
 Burnmoor Tarn 
 
 832-4 
 
 
 Buttermcre Lake 
 
 330-7 
 
 
 Codale Tarn 
 
 1527-7 
 
 
 Coniston Water 
 
 146-5 
 
 
 Crummock Water 
 
 320-8 
 
 
 Denvcnt Water 
 
 238'3 
 
 
 Devoke Water 
 
 765-6 
 
 
 343
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 III ALTITUDES OF LAKES continued. 
 
 LAKES 
 
 Altitude in Feet 
 
 Remarks 
 
 Dock Tarn 
 
 1321-8 
 
 
 Easedale Tarri 
 
 914-6 
 
 
 loiter \Vater 
 
 186-7 
 
 
 Ennerdale Water 
 
 368-9 
 
 
 Estliwaite \Vater 
 
 216-8 
 
 
 Goats Water 
 
 1645-5 
 
 
 Grasmere Lake 
 
 207 ' 9 
 
 
 Greycrag Tarn 
 
 1949-4 
 
 1 mile S.E. of Gatescarth Pass. 
 
 Grisedalc Tarn 
 
 1767-9 
 
 
 Hawes Water 
 
 694-4 
 
 
 Hayes W^ater 
 
 1382-7 
 
 
 Iventmere Reservoir 
 
 972-9 
 
 ( When levelled to, the surface of this reservoir 
 
 Keppel Cove Tarn 
 
 1824-8 
 
 \ was only 941 - 5 feet in altitude. 
 Height when levelled to = 1801-6. 
 
 Lovers W^ater 
 
 1349-7 
 
 
 Little Langdale Tarn 
 
 339 6 
 
 
 Loughrig Tarn . . 
 
 307-6 
 
 
 Low Water 
 
 1786-4 
 
 
 Loweswater . 
 
 428 9 
 
 
 Red Tarn (Helvellvn) 
 
 2356-2 
 
 i This and Keppel Cove Tarn have sluices to sup- 
 ply lead mines. The altitude given is the 
 
 Rydal Water 
 
 180-5 
 
 ] highest the water reaches ; present altitude, 
 ( 2347-8. 
 
 Seathwaite Tarn 
 
 1210-1 
 
 
 Siney Tarn 
 
 724-0 
 
 Near Blea Tarn, No. 2. 
 
 Skeggles Water 
 
 1016-6 
 
 
 Small Water 
 
 1483-6 
 
 
 Sprinkling Tarn 
 
 1959-7 
 
 
 Stickle Tarn 
 
 1540-4 
 
 
 Stychead Tarn 
 
 1430-3 
 
 
 Sunbiggin Tarn 
 
 824-3 
 
 
 Thirlmere 
 
 533-2 
 
 
 Ulleswater 
 
 476-6 
 
 
 Wast Water 
 
 204-4 
 
 
 Watendlath Tarn 
 
 847-0 
 
 
 Windermere . 
 
 133-7 
 
 j There is a difference in level of about 0*2 ft. 
 
 
 
 ( between the head and foot of this lake. 
 
 These altitudes are given in feet and decimals above the mean level of the sea. 
 The heights in every case show the highest level reached by the waters of the lake. 
 In the case of a few lakes of smaller size, or where more than one bears the same name, a remark 
 has been added to more exactly define their position. 
 
 Tables II. and III., with the remarks concluding, have been supplied to me from the Ordnance 
 Department through the courtesy of Colonel Sir Henry James ; but did not reach me in time to be 
 acknowledged in the Preface, or I should have there expressed my gratitude for information so valuable. 
 It is right, however, to say that the column of lake depths in Table II. is obtained from local sources; 
 and, therefore, not to be fully relied on. 
 
 344
 
 TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS. 
 
 IV THE WATERFALLS 
 
 Name Place Height in feet 
 
 Scale Force Crummock Water ir.o 
 
 Barrow Cascade Dcrwent Water l-_M 
 
 Lodore 1)M 
 
 Colwith Force The Brathay above Eltcr Water 9n 
 
 Ara Force Ullswater So 
 
 Dungeon Gliyll Langdale 80 
 
 Stock Ghyll Amblcsidc 70 
 
 Birker Force Eskdale 60 
 
 Dalegarth Force fin 
 
 Sour Milk Ghyll Buttermere 60 
 
 Upper Fall Rydal 50 
 
 Skelwith Force The Brathay below Elterwater 20 
 
 The Howk Caldbeck 20 
 
 The waterfalls are entirely incorrect; the Guides not agreeing among themselves, and no information 
 to be had yet from the Ordnance surveyors. There is a difference of fifty feet in some of the falls, 
 according to the various authorities, and the height of the beautiful Sour Milk Ghyll Force in Easedalc 
 is not mentioned by Black, Martinear, or Wordsworth.
 
 APPENDIX V 
 TABLE OF RAINFALL 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1863, FROM MK. SYMONS' " BRITISH RAINFALL." 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Brougham Hall 36 50 
 
 Allithwaite 41'9l 
 
 Holker 43'20 
 
 Cartmcl 44-08 
 
 Lowther Hall 45-76 
 
 Whitehaven 50 - 55 
 
 Ullswater 50'45 
 
 Cockermouth 54-63 
 
 Kendal . 54'92 
 
 In the average of ten years Kcswick had 55*01 inches, Coniston, 71 '40 inches, Seathwaite, 126-98 
 inches, London, 21 '67 inches. Mr. Symons' abstract gives for all England 30-52 as the average fall in 
 the ten years 1850-59, - 0'09 in 1861, + 3-12 in 1862, + 1-49 in 1863. Seathwaite and Coniston are 
 not included in these calculations; if they were, the figures would be 34-13 + 2-19 + 4-75 + 2'97. 
 
 Kirkby Lonsdale 
 
 
 62-83 
 
 Bassenth wai tc 
 
 
 63-70 
 
 "Wray Castle ' 
 Lesketh How 
 The How 
 Loughrigg 
 Kcswick ... 
 
 Windermere 
 >- and H 
 Ambleside. 
 
 68-34 
 81-69 
 84-97 
 86-34 
 71-54 
 
 Coniston 
 
 
 83-90 
 
 Seathwaite 
 
 
 173-84
 
 INDEX 
 
 AARON END, 69, 71, 202, 208 
 Aldingham, xxix, 37, 120 
 
 Allan Crags, 175 
 
 Amblcside, xvi, 3, 6, 11, 18, 
 
 24, 35, 36, 40, 80, 89, 140, 
 
 272, 275 
 Angle Tarn, 110, 122, 139, 141, 
 
 142, 148, 166, 169, 175, 180 
 Angler's Crag, 226 
 Apostle Crag, 97 
 Ara, 102, 166 
 Ashness Bridge, 77 
 Atkinson's Cove, 142 
 
 B. 
 
 BANNERDALE, 117, 124 
 Barf, 51, 96, 97, 185, 186 
 Barnscar, 224, 258, 
 Barrick Italics, 243 
 Barrow, 54, 74, 75, 77 
 Barton, 105, 109, 117 
 Base Brown, 71, 209 
 Bassenthwaite, 47, 50, 51, 56, 
 
 64, 83, 85, 95, 96, 146, 181, 
 
 185 
 
 Beacon Hill, xxxix, 263 
 Beacon Stations, xxxix 
 Beacon Tarn, 263 
 Beckermet, 37, 223, 224, 240 
 Bee Holm, 14 
 Bee Wall End, 227 
 Belle Grange Woods, 13 
 Birker Force, 241, 258 
 Birk Fell, 99, 100, 102, 103, 152 
 Birks Bridge, 246, 251 
 Black Combe, xxxix, 21, 95, 
 
 136, 148, 177, 211, 241, 268, 
 
 271, 287 
 Black Hall, 252 
 
 Black Sail, 95, 184, 193, 200, 
 
 207, 211 
 Black Segs, 287 
 Blake Fell, 184, 188, 226 
 Blake Ley, 220 
 Blakcrigg, 247 
 Bleaberrv Tarn, 184, 192 
 Bleas, 102, 113 
 Blea Tarn, 78, 148, 158, 164, 
 
 174, 241, 254 
 Blea Water, 134, 141, 161 
 Blellam Tarn, 13, 22, 32, 272, 
 
 275 
 
 Blencathra, 46, 47, 51, 56, 81, 
 85, 95, 99, 117, 125, 148, 169, 
 209, 271 
 
 Blind Tarn, 172, 249, 268 
 Bootle, xxxix, 241, 243 
 Boredale, 116, 123 
 Borrowdale, xvi, 21, 52, 55, 58, 
 65, 70, 76, 81, 169, 171, 178, 
 180, 184, 199, 201, 205, 208, 
 209, 268 
 
 Berwick Moor, 272 
 Bont, 224 
 Bowder Stone, 68 
 Bowfell, 3, 7, 9, 21, 22, 52, 166, 
 169, 175, 176, 209, 241,256, 
 268, 272 
 
 Bowness, xv, 5, 9, 96, 272, 282 
 Bowness Knot, 226 
 Bowscalc Tarn, 87, 90, 242, 267 
 Braithwaite, 25, 84, 185 
 Brandreth, 12, 193, 200 
 Branstree, 133 
 Brantwood, 262, 265 
 Brathay, 12, 21, 27, 32, 161, 164, 
 
 255, 275, 278, 287 
 Bridge of Arches, 110 
 Brothers Water, 100, 109, 115, 
 
 116, 139 
 
 Brotto's Gliyll, 46 
 Brougham, 119, 120 
 Brougham Castle, xxi, 119, 120 
 ;i47 
 
 Broughton, 241, 245, 252, 2C6, 
 
 291 
 
 Brownrigg's Well, 150 
 Brow Top, 47, 74, 84 
 Brundholm Woods, 91 
 Buckbarrow, 214, 216 
 Buckbarrow Crags, 270 
 Bull Crags, 45, 69, 170, 17:5 
 Burnmoor Tarn, 207, 241, L':>2 
 Buttcrlip Meadows, 42 
 Buttermere, 95, 183, 188, 200 
 
 c. 
 
 CALDBECK, 85, 89, 90, 96, 148, 
 
 194 
 
 Calder, xl, 214, 218 
 Caldew, 90 
 Calgarth, 3, 5, 8 
 Cark Beck, 289 
 Carlisle, xiv, xvi, xxx, 14, 43, 
 
 55, 61, 63, 89, 90, 95 
 Carrock, 85, 87, 148 
 Carr's Crags, 42, 174 
 Canteddaa, 51, 83 
 
 Cartmcll, xix, xxvi, xxix, xxx, 
 
 2, 6, 34, 240, 288 
 Castle Crag, 52, 56, 67, 68, 72 
 Castlchead, 51 
 Castle How, 97 
 Castlerigg, 47, 73 
 Castle Hooks, 46, 110 
 Catbells, 47. :>>, .")."), 76 
 Cat Crags, 1 7.'1 
 
 un, <j:5, KM), 11.1. lit!. 
 
 144, 145 
 
 DM* 1'ikf. 47, 51, 185, 195 
 
 ,Jl Hill, \M 
 Clicrrv Holm, 123 
 CUufe,6i L>;:{ 
 
 Cloator. ^2! 
 (Wki-r, 1S4, IS7. I'.HI 
 V V
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cockermoutli, xl, 48, 66, 95, 146, 
 
 186 
 
 Cockley Bridge, 252 
 Coclale, 42, 110, 115, 137, 140, 
 
 160, 164, 169, 173 
 Cold Fell, 220 
 Colwith Force, 158, 161, 241, 
 
 255, 256 
 
 Conishead, xvii, xxvi, xxvii, 285 
 Coniston, 3, 9, 21, 89, 95, 136, 
 
 146, 148, 161, 163, 239, 242, 
 
 249, 261 
 
 Copeland, 221, 232, 239 
 Coulton, xxix, 273, 285 
 Crake, 264, 267 
 Crawberry Hawse, 271 
 Criffel, 51, 94, 95, 146 
 Crinkle Crags, 3, 9, 21, 32, 166, 
 
 272 
 
 Crookeldy Bridge, 83 
 Crossfell, 89, 95, 99, 121, 125, 
 
 126, 271 
 
 Crosthwaite, 14, 53, 55, 61, 67 
 Crow Holm, 6, 14 
 Cruinmock, 183, 200, 211 
 Cunsey Beck, 15, 275 
 Curwen's Isle, 14, 26 
 
 D. 
 
 DALE HEAD, 1 73, 200 
 Dalegarth Force, 258, 259 
 Dalemain, 118, 125 
 Dalton, xvii, xxiii, xxviii, xxix, 
 
 273, 279, 281, 286, 291 
 Dancing Gate, 83 
 Deepdalc, 102, 109, 116 
 Deep Slack, 173 
 Derwent, xvi, 54, 67, 68, 96, 97, 
 
 160, 180, 184, 221 
 Derwentwater, xxxvi, 48, 56, 62, 
 
 66, 74, 77, 93, 94, 209, 211 
 Devil's Chimnev, 123 
 Devoke Water, 223, 241, 258, 
 
 271 
 
 Dick Nieve, 187 
 Dock Tarn, 182, 199 
 Dockwray, 99 
 Dod, 51/187 
 Dolly Waggon Pike, 100, 102, 
 
 113 
 
 Dove Crags, 102, 110, 115 
 Doves Nest, 10, 11 
 Dow Crags, 248, 249, 263, 266 
 Drigg, 224, 239 
 Druid Circle, 79 
 Duddon, xvii, xix, 2, 21, 211, 
 
 221, 243, 245, 266, 271, 272, 
 
 278, 286 
 
 Dungeon Gbyll, 28, 161, 165, 175, 
 
 255 
 Dunmail Raise, xvi, 41, 43, 46, 
 
 89, 148, 256 
 Dimniallet, 118, 125 
 Dunncrholme Sand-side, 243 
 
 E. 
 
 EAGLE CRAG, 46, 69, 112, 169 
 
 Eamont, xxxv, 118 
 
 Easedale, 9, 42, 160, 164, 169, 
 
 172, 174 
 Eden, 90, 160 
 Kdenhall, 118, 120, 258 
 Ees Bridge, 275 
 Egremont, 214, 220, 232, 240, 
 
 242 
 
 Ehcn, 221, 229 
 Ellcray Woods, 3, 291 
 Elterwater, 12, 29, 161, 174,256, 
 
 272, 278 
 Ennerdale, 95, 148, 180, 184, 191, 
 
 193, 200, 205, 207, 210, 220, 
 
 232, 240, 268 
 Kskdale, 177, 207, 209, 211, 224, 
 
 240, 241, 247, 252, 257, 259 
 Esk Hawse, 176, 177, 180, 208 
 Eskmeals, 240 
 Esthwaite, 21, 146, 148, 174, 
 
 272 
 Ewe Lamb Crag, 176 
 
 F. 
 
 F AIRFIELD, 40, 43, 89, 102, 111, 
 
 116, 150, 159, 160, 173, 256, 
 
 271, 272 
 
 Fairy Kirk, 90, 289 
 Falcon Crag, 74, 77 
 Farleton Knot, xxxix, 272 
 Ferry Nab, 6, 14 
 Fiends' Fell, 125 
 Fleetwith, 190, 193 
 Fleswick Bay, 233, 234 
 Floating Island, 54 
 Floutern Tarn, 184, 192, 226 
 Fludder's Brow, 177 
 Fordendale Beck, 132 
 Foulncy Isle, 278 
 Froswick, 136, 137, 272 
 Furness, xvii, xix, xxix, xxxvi, 
 
 12, 66, 218, 239, 243, 246, 
 
 247, 253, 272, 277 
 Furness Abbey, xxiii, xxvi, 253, 
 
 266 
 Fuscdale, 117 
 
 348 
 
 G. 
 
 GABLE MOOR, 169, 175 
 
 Gait Crag, 52, 07 
 
 Gait's Water, 263, 266, 2SM 
 
 Gallows How. :>5 
 
 Garnett's Force, 172 
 
 Gatescartb, 90, 133, 183, 193, 
 
 196, 198 
 
 Gatescarth Gbyll, 169, 175. ISM 
 Ghyll Cove, 27*0 
 Ghyll o'Combe, 71 
 Gillerthwaite, 188, 193. 227 
 Gimmcr Crag, 164, 166, 17ti, 
 
 185, 254 
 
 Glaramara, 9, 52, 70, 72, !',<>, 
 
 173, 175, 181, 199, 202, 208 
 Gleaston Castle, 253, 2s 7 
 Glencoin, 102, 206, 109, 110 
 Glenderamaken, 87, 91 
 Glendcraterra, 91 
 Glenridding, 98, 102, 107, 109, 
 
 113, 116, 143 
 Goldmire, xvii, 286 
 Goldrill, 109, 110, 116, 255 
 Goldrill Crag, 251 
 Gold&cope, 51, 195 
 Goosegreen, 84 
 Gosforth, 206, 214, 217 
 Gowbarrow, 99, 101, 109 
 Gowder Crag, 76 
 Grange, 66, 67, 72, 76, 200 
 Grasmere, 21, 39, 43, 69, 151, 
 
 158, 163, 164, 172, 256 
 Grasmoor, 184, 187, 190, 200, 220 
 Great End, 9, 52, 178, 180, 202. 
 
 205, 208, 209, 268 
 Great Gable, 52, 95, 180, 190, 
 
 202, 209, 214, 216, 227 
 Great How, 46, 89 
 Green Comb, 173, 199 
 Green Crags, 46, 47, 193 
 Green Gable, 180, 190, 202 
 Greenside Mines, 107 
 Greemip, 170, 172, 181, 199 
 Greta, 47, 61, 84, 87, 99, 205 
 Grey Crag, 141, 193 
 Grey Friars, 251, 257 
 Grey Knot, 193 
 Greystoke, xxxviii, xxxix, 0. - 5, 
 
 128 
 
 Gridiron Island, 264 
 (iriscdale, 47,113,116,151. 158, 
 
 186, 195, 273, 276 
 
 H. 
 
 H.vu.i.x FELL, 99, 123 
 Hanging Haystack, 170, l ( .:i 
 Hanging Knot, 9 
 Hardknot, xxxix, 241, 247, 25s
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Harrat Crag, 187 
 
 Harrison Combe, 174 
 
 Harrison Stickle, 9, 148, 164, 
 
 174 
 
 Han-op Tarn, 45, 147, 148 
 Hurt Crag, 102, 111 
 Harter Fell, 131, 133, 241, 251 
 Hartsop, 109, 111, 115, 140, 142 
 Hassness, 184, 193 
 Hawes Water, 89, 106, 122 
 Hawkshead, xxvi, xxix, 265, 272 
 Haycock, 148, 225, 240 
 Hayes Water, 115, 122, 139 
 Haystacks, 183, 193, 200 
 Heald Brow, 3, 6, 9, 13, 272 
 Helm Crag, 38, 41, 152, 160 
 Helton Dale, 127 
 Helvellyn, 44, 49, 51, 80, 81, 82, 
 
 89, 93, 95, 97, 100, 108, 113, 
 
 116, 117', 137, 141, 143, 159, 
 
 160, 173, 185, 199, 242, 271, 
 
 272, 275 
 
 Herd House, 191, 225 
 Herring Pike, 102, 116 
 High Crag, 190, 192, 193, 200 
 High Cross, 272 
 High House Tarn, 178 
 High Ladder Brow, 79 
 High Pike, 87 
 High Raise, 172,256 
 High Saddle, 199 
 High Stile, 51, 190, 192, 200 
 High Street, 82, 95, 100, 116, 
 
 122, 14S, 177, 271 
 High Wray, 13, 275 
 Hindscarth, 195 
 Honister, 70, 173, 181, 183, 184, 
 
 188, 190, 193, 196 
 Hovgvn, xxiii 
 How Town, 117, 124 
 Hutton Moor, xvi, 99 
 
 ILL BELL, 136, 137, 148, 271, 
 
 272 
 
 Inglewood Forest, xxxvi, 90 
 Iron Crag, 220, 226 
 Iron Keld, 272 
 Irt, 207, 213, 240 
 Irtou, 207, 216 
 Isle of Man, xxii, 94, 217, 230 
 
 268 
 
 J 
 
 ,! UK Brno, 109 
 .lemiv Bunk's Crag, 181 
 Jenny Crag Well, 226 
 Ju.-tice Stone. 45, 177 
 
 K. 
 
 KAIL-POT CRAG, 123 
 
 Kendal, xxi, xxiii, xxv, xxvii, 
 
 xxxii, 3, 14, 35, 39, 109, 254, 
 
 278, 283, 285 
 
 Kentmere, 34, 133, 135, 136, 272 
 Kent River, 21, 137 
 Keppel Cove Tarn, 108, 144, 145, 
 
 149, 173 
 
 Keppel Crag, 181 
 Keskadale, 195 
 Keswick, xxxviii, 36, 40, 55, 57, 
 
 65, 96, 177, 184 
 Kidsty Pike, 93, 124, 134, 148 
 King Arthur's Round Table, 
 
 120 
 
 Kirkby, xxiii, xxix, 14, 287 
 Kirkfell, 95, 187, 193, 203, 206, 
 
 214, 227 
 Kirkstone, xvi, 20, 23, 24, 26, 
 
 100, 102, 108, 109, 115, 271, 
 
 272 
 
 Knock o' Murton Hill, 226. 
 Knot Crag, 90 
 Knot Rigg, 195 
 
 L. 
 
 LADE POT, 136, 140 
 Ladhouse, 187, 190, 200 
 Lady's Rake, 74 
 Lancaster, xxii, xxviii, 95, 136, 
 
 148,243, 271, 281, 284,290 
 Lancey Falls, 45 
 Langdale, 14, 22, 29, 32, 137, 
 
 158, 174, 176, 177, 209, 211, 
 
 241, 252, 254, 255, 266, 268, 
 
 271, 272 
 
 Langstreth, 69, 169, 176, 180 
 Latrigg, 47, 77, 81, 84, 94 
 Latterbarrow, 13, 226, 272 
 Leven, 160, 243, 267, 278, 289 
 Levers Water, 269, 270 
 Lickle, 246 
 Lindal, xvii, 253, 286 
 Line End Crag, 172 
 Lingmell, 32, 180, 202, 203, 207, 
 
 208,211, 213, 214 
 Lingmoor, 9, 72, 162, 166, 168, 
 
 254, 256 
 
 Linkin Dale Head, 106 
 Linthwaite Pike, 88 
 Linthwaitc Woods, 190 
 Liza, 220, 227 
 Loaf Beck, 183, 187, 200 
 Lodorc, 52, 54, 56, 72 
 Long Meg and her 
 
 120 
 
 349 
 
 Lniigside, 96 
 Lord's Seat, 185 
 Lorton, 184, 186, 187 
 Loughrigg, 2<), 21, 28, 29, 32, 
 
 38, 160, 256, -27-2 
 Loughrigg Fell, 9, 10, 25, 31, 
 
 156, -27-2. -27:< 
 Lmv.-s Water, 40, 184, 188, 189, 
 
 200, 227 
 
 Low Fell, 188, 200 
 Low Water, 267, 269, 270 
 Low Wray, 9, 13, 22, 32, -27:, 
 Low Wood, 9, 13 
 Lune, xix 
 Lyulph's Tower, 100, 104 
 
 M. 
 
 MAD BECK, 185 
 
 Maiden Mawr, 52, 56, 67, 172 
 
 Mardale, 122, 129 
 
 Martindalc, 117, 135 
 
 Matterdale, 99, 116 
 
 Maud's Pool, 120 
 
 Measand's Becks, 132 
 
 Mellbreak, 188 
 
 Mell Fell, 81, 89, 99, 125 
 
 Mickleden, 166, 167, 176 
 
 Mickledore, 212, 213, 2.52 
 
 Middle Fell, 214 
 
 Millar Brow, 8 
 
 Millbeck, 83, 95, 164, 184, 193 
 
 Miller Bridge 19 
 
 Millom, 222, 240, 242, 243, 253 
 
 Miner's Path, 98, 108 
 
 Mite, xxx, 240, 241, 258 
 
 Moor Dovock, 122, 126 
 
 Morecambe Bay, 2, 160, 267, 
 
 27-2, 280 
 Moscdale, 90, 193, 203, 206,211, 
 
 214,215, 227 
 Moses Trod, 20O 
 Muncaster, xxix, 216, 218, 241, 
 
 258 
 Mungrisedale, 88, 192 
 
 N. 
 
 NAB SCAR, 38, 39, 272 
 Naddle Forest, 131 
 NanBield, 133, 136 
 Nathdale Fell, 45, 80, 89 
 NYtlicrbv, xvi, xxxix 
 Newby Bridge, :>, (i, 118 
 
 Newtek!, 24t;. 247. _",- 
 Ncwlamls. 47. 51. :>. 7". J6, 81, 
 S-4. !):. I4f,. 1S4, I.-0. I'J2, 194 
 le, 2(i4, 2i7. '2^7
 
 o. 
 
 OKMATHWAITE, 83 
 
 ( hikrigg Precipice, 270 
 
 ( )ut Dubs Tarn, 275 
 
 Oxendale, 167 
 
 Oxenfells, 161, 257, 272, 275 
 
 P. 
 
 PATTERDALE, 24, 99, 100, 105, 
 
 107, 109, 117, 124, 135, 139, 
 
 140 
 
 Pavey Ark, 9, 164, 174, 256 
 Pendragon Castle, xviii, 119 
 Penholes, 195 
 Penrith, xvi, xxxviii, xxxix, 
 
 100, 118, 136, 146, 211 
 Pet Farm, 290 
 1'etreana, 139 
 Piel Island, 264 
 Piers Ghyll, 203, 205, 206 
 Pike o' Bliscow, 9, 166, 168 
 Pikeo' Stickle, 9, 32, 164 
 Pikes, 3, 10, 21, 28, 32, 162, 
 
 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 254, 
 
 256, 272 
 
 Pile of Foudrey, xxv, 245, 278 
 Pillar, 148, 193, 200, 225, 227, 
 
 268 
 Place Fell, 95, 102, 106, 109, 
 
 115, 139, 152 
 Ponsonby Fell, 220, 240 
 Pooley Bridge, 117, 124 
 Portinscale, 50, 77, 84, 97 
 Potter's Fell, 137 
 Priest-cuddy-Hole, 84 
 Priest's Pot, 274 
 Priest's Stile, 265 
 Pudding Stone, 271 
 Pullwyke Bay, 9, 13 
 Pyat Rock, 133 
 
 R. 
 
 RAMPS HOLM, 54 
 
 Rannerdale Knot, 188, 190, 200 
 
 Ravenglass, 224, 240, 258 
 
 Rawling find, 51, 195 
 
 Razor Edge, 87 
 
 Red Bank, 40, 160, 256 
 
 Red Pike, 51, 190, 192, 200, 226 
 
 Red Screes, 20, 24, 102, 115, 
 
 137, 272 
 
 Red Tarn, 108, 144, 149 
 Revclin, 220, 226, 227 
 Riggindale Crag, 133 
 Kc.l.in Hood's Chair, 226 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Robinson, 51, 172, 193, 195,200 
 Uonian Koads, xvi, 138 
 Roman Station, 25, 32 
 Rose Castle, xxxix, 105 
 Rosset Ghyll, 166, 176 
 Rosthwaitc, 70, 77, 79, 158, 180, 
 
 181, 182 
 
 Rosthwaite Cam, 190, 199 
 Rothay, 12, 19, 21, 25, 27, 32, 
 
 188, 253 
 
 j Ruddy Ghyll Brow, 173 
 Rydal, 10, 12, 36, 102, 160, 174, 
 
 262, 272 
 
 S. 
 
 SALT LEVEL BAY, 55, 59 
 
 Sandal Top, xxxix 
 
 Santon Bridge, 240 
 
 Sawrey, 6, 272, 275, 287 
 
 Scale Force, 123, 184, 190, 191, 
 
 192 
 
 Scale Hill, 184, 187, 190 
 Scales Tarn, 87 
 Scandale, 12, 22, 102,115,139, 
 
 272 
 
 Scarf Gap, 184, 193, 200, 227 
 Scawdale, 70, 181, 195, 202 
 Scawfell, 9, 21, 28, 52, 95, 166, 
 
 169, 175, 177, 201, 240, 241, 
 
 252, 268, 271, 272 
 Scot's Rake, 136 
 Screes, 95, 206, 207, 214, 215, 
 
 216, 241 
 
 Seamew's Crag, 13, 14 
 Seascales, 239 
 Seatallan, 240 
 Seathwaite, 70, 181, 201, 208, 
 
 247, 266, 268, 271 
 Seatoller, 66, 196, 199 
 Seat Sandal, 41, 43, 151, 159, 
 
 160, 173, 256, 271, 272 
 Sergeant Crag, 173 
 Sergeant Man, 199, 256 
 Shap, xxxiv, xxxv 
 Sharrow Bay, 119, 123, 124 
 Silver How,' 21, 32, 42, 160, 256 
 Skeggles Water, 137 
 Skelghyll, 31, 84 
 Skelley Neb, 99 
 Skelwith, 12, 28, 29, 273, 275 
 Skiddaw, xxxix, 46, 47, 50, 56, 
 
 58, 61, 64, 67, 77, 81, 83, 85, 
 
 93, 117, 125, 148, 151, 169, 
 
 177, 185, 186, 211, 212, 242, 
 
 271, 272 
 
 Sleddale, xxxiv, 133, 137 
 Small Water, 133, 134, 141, 176 
 Solway, 94, 146, 160, 177 
 Sour Milk Force, 184 
 350 
 
 Sour Milk Ghyll, 181, 189, 192 
 Souter Fell, 85, 87, 88, 125 
 Southey's Thorn, 184 
 Sprinkling Tarn, 72, 178, 2i2, 
 
 208 
 St. Bees, xxxviii, 95, 214, 221, 
 
 228, 229, 231, 232, 233, 238, 
 
 239, 268 
 
 St. Herbert's Island, 55, 58 
 St. John's Yale, 46, 50, 80, 88, 
 
 91, 99, 253 
 St. Sunday's Crag, 89, 102, 105, 
 
 108, 110, 112, 137 
 Stake Pass, 9, 21, 69, 158, 161, 
 
 167, 172, 175, 180, 181, 254 
 Stanley Ghyll, 241, 258 
 Steel Fell, 43, 44, 89, 160, 173, 
 
 271 
 
 Steeple, 148, 225 
 Stickle Tarn, 43, 164, 169, 174, 
 
 271 
 
 Stockghyll, 12, 18, 75 
 Stockley Beck, 66, 178, 180, 201 
 Stonethwaite, 69, 170, 172, 181, 
 
 199 
 
 Storr's, 15 
 
 Strands, 207, 214, 216, 217 
 Strands Brig, 181 
 Street Gate, 286 
 Striding Edge, 102, 145, 149 
 Styebarrow Crag, 99, 100, 102, 
 
 "109 
 
 Sty Head, 199, 202, 208, 209, 215 
 Sty Head Pass, 69, 72, 181, 202, 
 
 203, 207, 209 
 Sty Head Tarn, 72, 178, 179, 
 
 180, 202, 210, 211 
 Sun-biggin Tarn, xxxix 
 Sunken Kirk, 85, 243 
 Swart Fell, 122, 125, 140 
 Swart Moor, xxv, 287, 288 
 Sweden Bridge, 22 
 Swindale, xxxiv 
 Swineside, 76, 84, 187 
 SwirrelEdge, 144, 145, 149, 159, 
 
 173 
 
 T. 
 
 TALK-OX-THE-HILL, 242 
 
 Tall Tomlyn, 238 
 
 Tarn Haws, 272 
 
 Tarn of Leaves, 181, 199 
 
 Taylor's Ghyll, 180, 201, 202 
 
 Thirlmere, 44, 89, 146, 147, 173, 
 
 177 
 
 Thomthwaite, 84, 97, 184, 185 
 Thrang Crag, 78, 162 
 Three Shire Stones, 162, 253, 268
 
 INDFA'. 
 
 Threlkeld, xxxiii, 47, 50, 86, 90, 
 
 99 
 
 Thresh waite Mouth, 35 
 Tilberthwaite, 161, 166, 256, 
 
 266, 275 
 
 Torver, 238, 250, 263, 265 
 Troutbeck, 8, 9, 31, 89, 124, 135, 
 
 140, 198 
 
 U. 
 
 ULLOCK, 76, 95, 97 
 
 Ullswater, 98, 99, 101, 105, 109, 
 
 116, 122, 146, 148, 158, 160, 
 
 262 
 
 Ulpha, 224, 247 
 Ulverston, xvii, xxii, xxiii, 
 
 xxix, 2, 272, 273, 278, 281, 
 
 286, 287, 290, 291 
 Underbarrow Scar, 136 
 Urswick, xxix, 273 
 
 W. 
 
 WALLABARROW, 247, 249, 258 
 Walla Crag, 52, 56, 73, 77, 81, 
 84,97 
 
 Wall End, 1G<>, i.v, 
 
 Wallow Crag, 131 
 
 Walna Scar, 247, 251, 266, 269 
 
 Walney, 9, 16, 278, 281, 291 
 
 Wanscale, 183, 193 
 
 Wansfell Pike, 9, 20, 24, 31, 136 
 
 Wanthwaite Fells, 46, 81, 89, 97 
 
 Wastdale, 193, 203, 205, 206, 
 
 213, 214, 216, 226 
 Wastwater, 52, 91, 180, 184, 
 
 190, 201, 218, 219, 227, 238, 
 
 241, 267, 271 
 Watendlath, 75, 77, 78 
 Watercrook, xvi 
 Waterhead, 5, 262, 267 
 Wath Bridge, 229 
 Wetherlam, 3, 7, 9, 21, 136, 162, 
 
 174, 249, 251, 256, 269, 272, 
 
 275 
 
 Wray, 9, 13, 32, 275 
 Whelp Dale, 288 
 Whicham, 242, 287 
 Whinfell, xxxix, 119 
 Whinfield Fells, 187 
 Whinlatter, 51, 96, 172, 184, 
 
 185, 186 
 White Cove Ghyll, 192 
 
 White (Va-s, 1U. 174 
 \Vhitoli:ivrii. xxi. iso. 2-JI, _>(:!, 
 
 234, 235, 239, 254 
 White-Iocs, 184, 187, 190 
 Whiteside, 187, 190 
 Winder-mere, xxxv, 1, 12, 14, an, 
 
 24, 39, 109. 136, 146, 148, 156, 
 
 160, 173, 174, 177, 211, 212, 
 
 267, 271, 272, 278 
 Windennere Islands, 14 
 Witch's Lair, 166 
 Withersack, 245 
 Wotobank, 223 
 Wrynose, 21, 162, 241, 247, 251, 
 
 256, 268, 272, 278 
 Wythburn, 45, 173 
 Wythop, 96, 185, 186 
 
 Y. 
 
 YANWATH, xxxii, 86, 105 
 Ycwbarrow, 148, 203, 206, 227 
 Yew Crag, 196, 199 
 Yewdalc,250, 257, 265, 272, 275 
 Yoke, 136 
 
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