 Part 1 of A Guide to the Lakes by Thomas West This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A guide to the lakes dedicated to the lovers of landscape studies and to all who have visited or intend to visit the lakes in Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire by the author of The Antiquities of Furness. Qwis non malarum quas amwr curas habet hec inter obliviskitur. London, printed for Richardson and Urquhart under the Royal Exchange and W Pennington, Kendall, 1778. Since persons of genius, taste and observation began to make the tour of their own country and give such pleasing accounts of the natural history and improving states of the northern parts of the British Empire, the curious of all ranks of court, the spirits of visiting the same, the taste for landscape as well as for the other objects of the noble arts, cherished under the protection of the greatest of kings and best of men, in which the genius of Britain, rivals ancient Greece and Rome, induced many to visit the lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire, there to contemplate in Alpine scenery, finished in nature's highest tints, what refined art labours to imitate. The pastoral and rural landscape varied in all the styles, the soft, the rude, the romantic and sublime, combinations not found elsewhere assembled within so small a tract of country. Another inducement to making the tour of the lakes is the goodness of the roads, much improved since Mr Gray made his tour in 1765 and Mr Pennant his in 1772. The gentlemen of these counties have set a precedent worthy of imitation in the politest parts of the kingdom by opening its private expense, carriage roads for the ease and safety of such as visit the country, and the public roads are properly attended to. If the entertainment be plain, it is accompanied with a propriety of neatness, attention and easy charge. When the roads are more frequented, the inns may become more elegantly furnished and expensive, but the entertainment must remain the same as the vians at present are not excelled in any other quarter of the empire. The design of the following sheets is to encourage the taste of visiting the lakes by furnishing the traveller with a guide, and for that purpose are here collected and laid before him, all the select stations and points of view, noticed by those who have made the tour of the lakes, verified by repeated observations with remarks on the principal objects as they appear viewed from different stations. With such incidents as will greatly facilitate and much heighten the pleasure of the tour, and relieve the traveller from the burden of dull and tedious information on the road or at the inn that frequently embarrasses and often misguides. The local knowledge here communicated will not affect, much less prevent the agreeable surprise that attends the first sight of scenes that surpass all description, and of objects which affect the mind of the spectator only in the highest degree. Such as wish to unbend the mind from anxious cares or fatiguing studies will meet with agreeable relaxation in making the tour of the lakes. Something new will open itself at the turn of every mountain, and a succession of ideas will be supported by a perpetual change of objects and a display of scenes behind scenes in endless perspective. The contemplative traveller will be charmed with the sight of the sweet retreats that he will observe in these enchanting regions of calm repose, and the fanciful may figuratively review the hurry and bustle of busy life in all its gradations, in the variety of unshaded rills that hang on the mountain sides, and the hasty brooks that wobble through the dell, or the mighty torrents precipitating themselves at once with thundering noise from tremendous rocky heights, all pursuing one general end, their increase in the veil and their union in the ocean. Such as spend their lives in cities and their timing crowds will hear meets with objects that will enlarge the mind by contemplation and raise it from nature to nature's first cause. Whoever takes a walk into these scenes must return penetrated with a sense of the creator's power in heaping mountains upon mountains, then throning rocks upon rocks, and such exhibitions of sublime and beautiful objects cannot but excite at once both rapture and reverence. When exercising change of air are recommended for health the convalescent will find the latter here in the purest state and the former will be the concomitant of the tour. The many hills and mountains of various heights separated by narrow veils through which the air is agitated and hurried on by a multiplicity of brooks and mountain torrents keep it in constant circulation which is known to add much to its purity. The water is also as pure as the air and on that account recommends itself to the valitude in Arian. As there are few people in easy circumstances but may find a motive for visiting this extraordinary region, so more especially those who intend to make the continental tour should begin here, as it will give in miniature an idea of what they are to meet with there, introversing the Alps and the Pennines, to which our northern mountains are not inferior in beauty of line or variety of summit, number of lakes and transparency of water, not in colouring of rock or softness of turf but in height and extent only. The mountains here are all accessible to the summit and furnished prospects no less surprising with more variety than the Alps themselves. The tops of the highest Alps are inaccessible being covered with everlasting snow which commencing at regular heights above the cultivated tracks or wooded and verdant sides form the highest contrast in nature with all the variety of climate in one view. To this we oppose the sight of the ocean from the summit of all the higher mountains, intersected with promontries, interrupted with islands and animated with navigation which adds greatly to the beauty and variety of the grand views. Those who have traversed the Alps, who have visited the lake of Geneva and viewed Mount Blanc, the highest of the glaciers from the valley of the Chamunis in Savoy, may still find entertainment in this home tour, where nature on a reduced scale has performed wonders in the epitome of her greater works. The analogy of mountainous countries and their difference furnishes the observant traveller with amusement and the travelled visitor of the Cumbrian lakes and the mountains will not be disappointed in this particular. This guide will also be of use to the artist in his choice of station by pointing out the principal objects in a country that abounds in landscape studies with such variety of scenery. Get it is not presumed dogmatically to direct, but only to suggest hints that may be improved, adopted or rejected. The late Mr Gray was a great judge of perspective, yet whoever makes choice of his station at the three milestone from Lancaster will fail in taking one of the finest afternoon rural landscapes in England. The station he points out is a quarter of a mile too low, and somewhat too much to the left. The more advantageous station, as I apprehend, is on the south side of the great, or Queen's Road, a little higher than where Mr Gray stood. For there the veil is in full display, with a longer reach of the river, and the wheel of the loon, formed by a high-crowned isthmus, fringed with tall trees that in times past was the solitary site of a hermit. A few trees by the owner preserved on purpose conceal the nakedness of Catenmore on the right, and render the view complete. By company from the south, the lakes may be visited, beginning with Haweswater, and ending with Coniston or Thurston Water, or vice versa. Mr Gray began his tour with Oldswater, but did not visit all the lakes. Mr Pennant proceeded from Coniston Water to Windermere, et cetera, but omitted Olds and Haweswater. Mr Gray was too late in the season for enjoying the beauties of prospect and rural landscape in a mountainous country. For in October the Jews lie long on the grass in the morning, and the clouds descend soon in the evening and conceal the mountains. Mr Pennant was too early in the spring when the mountains were mantled with snow, and the Dells were darkened with impenetrable mist. Hence his gloomy description of the beautiful and romantic Vale of St John in his journey from Ambleside to Keswick. Flora displays fewer of her charms early in May in a country that has been chilled by seven winter months. The best season for visiting the lakes to advantage is from the 1st of June to the end of August. During these months the mountains are decked in all the trim of summer vegetation and the woods and trees which hang on the mountain sides and adorn the banks of the lakes are robed in the variety of foliage and summer blooms. In August nature has given her highest tints to all her colours on the enameled plain and borders of the lakes. The striking contrast of the rugged cliff, the broken ridge, the overhanging rock, the rent conic summit and brown vegetation of the mountain sides with the beautiful hanging enclosures of finest verdure and at their feet stretched out the smooth surface of the lake are seen in high perfection. There are also the months favourable to botanic studies, the rare plants are then to be found such as delight in alpine heights or such as are only found in ever shaded dels or gloomy veils. The author of the six months tour visited the lakes in the fine season and saw them all except Coniston and Esthwait, both Lancashire lakes, which are on the western side and lie parallel to Windermere. Nothing but want of information could have prevented that curious traveller from visiting the whole range of the lakes which had he done and described their scenery with that accuracy and glow of colour as he has done the lakes of Keswick, Windermere etc. A copy of that would have been a sufficient guide to all who made the same tour. The author of the excursion to the lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland takes no notice of the Lancashire lakes. His principal objects are Ulzwater and the Lake of Keswick, whose beauties he describes with much elegance and profusion of style, interspersed with not a few political and moral reflections. But at Windermere he vilifies and decries the noble characteristic scenery of the finest lake in England. At the island so-called by way of preeminence, he is pleased to declaim thus. Upward on the lake we looked on a large island of about 30 acres of meager pasture ground in an irregular oblong figure. Here and there some misshapen oak trees bend their crooked branches on the sandy brinks and one little grove of sycamores shelter a cottage. The few natural beauties of this island are wounded and distorted by some ugly rows of firs set in right lines and then proceed in an ungentile manner to abuse the owner for want of taste in laying it out in gardens and pleasure ground to suit a house he then proposed and has since built upon it. This author, however, before he takes leave of the lake does it the honour of giving it one of the first landscape painters of his time, Claude Lorraine, and his genius, Mr Smith, to pencil forth the rich variety of Windermere. Messers young and pennant speak of Windermere in very different strains. The first thinks the island the sweetest spot and full of the greatest capabilities of any 30 acres of land in the king's dominions, and Mr Pennant is pleased to say this delicious isle is blessed with a rich pasture edge is adorned with a pretty grove and has on it a good house. Those gentlemen were upon the island and the author of the excursion was not and the excursion itself for the reasons already assigned is not a complete guide to the lakes. The course of visiting the lakes from Penrith is by Bampton to Horswater and from thence to Ulzwater and return to Penrith. Set out for Keswick 17 miles good road having seen the wonders of Keswick and the environs depart for Ambleside 17 miles excellent mountain road and affords much entertainment. From Ambleside ride along the side of Windermere 5 miles to Bones and having explored the lake either return to Ambleside and from thence to Hawkeshead 5 miles or cross Windermere at the horse ferry to Hawkeshead 4 miles. The road part of the way is along the beautiful banks of Aethswate water. From Hawkeshead the road is along the skirts of the Fhurness Apennines to the head of Coniston or Thurston Water 3 miles good road. The lake stretches from the feet of Coniston fells to the south 6 miles. The road is on the eastern side along its banks to Lowick Bridge from thence to Ulverston by Penny Bridge 6 miles or by Lowick Hall. Good carriage road everywhere. From Ulverston by Dalton to the ruins of Fhurness Abbey 6 miles return to Ulverston from thence to Kendall 21 miles or to Lancaster over the Sands 20 miles. This order of making the tour of the lakes is the most convenient for company coming from the north or overstain more. But for such company as come to Lancaster it will be more convenient to begin the visit with Coniston Lake. By this course the lakes lie in an order more pleasing to the eye and grateful to the imagination. The change of scenes is from what is pleasing to what is surprising, from the delicate and elegant touches of Claude to the noble scenes of Poussin and from these to the stupendous romantic ideas of Salvatore Rosa. This guide shall therefore take up the company at Lancaster and attend them in the tour to all the lakes, pointing out what only can be described, the permanent features, the veils, the dels, the groves, the hanging woods, the scattered cots, the steep mountains, the impending cliff, the broken ridge etc. The accidental beauties depend upon a variety of incidents from light and shade, the air, the winds, the clouds, the situation with respect to objects and the time of day. For though the ruling tents be permanent, the green and gold of the meadow and veil and the brown and purple of the mountain, the silver grey of the rock and the azure hue of the cloud-topped peak, they are frequently varied by an inter-mixture of reflection from wandering clouds or other bodies or a sudden stream of sunshine that harmonises all the parts anew. The pleasure arising from such scenes is personal and best understood when received. To render the tour more agreeable, the company should be provided with a telescope for viewing the fronts and summits of the inaccessible rocks and the distant country from the tops of the high mountains Skidor and Helvellen. The landscape mirror will also furnish much amusement among the mountains. Where the objects are great and near, it removes them to a due distance and shows them in the soft colours of nature and most regular perspective the eye can perceive, art, teach or science demonstrate. The mirror is of greatest use in sunshine and the person using it ought always to turn his back to the object that he views. It should also be suspended by the upper part of the case as it may hang perpendicular to the reflected object and the face be thereby screened from the sun. The landscape will then be seen in the glass by holding it a little to the right or left as the position of the parts to be viewed require. A glass of four inches or four inches and half diameter is a size, though the object be near that will admit a field large enough for the eye to take in at one sweep. The mirror is a plain convex glass and should be the segment of a large circle, otherwise distant and small objects are not perceived in it. But if the glass be too flat, the perspective view of great and near objects is less pleasing by representing them too near. These inconveniences may be provided against by two glasses of different convexity. The glass with the black foil answers well in sunshine, but on cloudy and gloomy days the silver foil answers better. Whoever uses spectacles upon other occasions must use them in viewing landscapes in the glass. End of Part 1 Part 2 of a Guide to the Lakes by Thomas West This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Lancaster The castle here is the first object that attracts the attention of the curious traveller. The elevation of the sight and magnificence of the front strike the imagination with the idea of much strength, beauty and importance. And such it has been ever since the arrival of the Romans in these parts. An eminence of swift descent that commands the ffords of a great tidying river would not be neglected by so able a general as Agricola. And accordingly he occupied the crown of this eminence in the summer of his second campaign and of the Christian era 79. And here erected a station to secure his conquest and passes of the river whilst he proceeded with the army to pass the bay of Morkham into Furness. The station was called Longovicum and in process of time the inhabitants were called Longovikes, i.e. a people dwelling upon the lawn or loon. This station communicated with Overborough by exploratory mounts, some of them still remaining on the banks of the loon which answered the purposes of guarding the ffords of the river, overawing the natives and communicating with the two stations. That at Halton, Mellon and at the east end of the bridge of loon are still entire. It was connected with the station at Watercrook near Kendall by means of the beacon on Wharton Crag and the Castellum on the summit of a hill that rises immediately over Watercrook at present called Castle Steads. The town that Agricola founded here belonged to the western brigantes and in their language was called Cairwered i.e. the green town. The name is still retained in that part of the town called Green Air for green care, the British construction being changed and where it translated into English. The green mount on which the castle stands appears to be an artefactum of the Romans. In digging into it two years ago a Roman silver denarium was found at a great depth. The eminence has been surrounded with a deep moat. The present structure is generally supposed to have been built by Edward III but some parts of it seem to be of a higher date. There are three styles of architecture very evident in the present castle. One round tours, distant from each other, about 26 paces and joined by a wall and open gallery. On the western side there remain two entire and from their distance and the visible foundations of others it appears that they have been in number 7 and that the form of the castle was then a polygon. One of these towers is called Adrian's Tower probably from something formally standing there dedicated to that emperor. There are two stages high. The lights are narrow slits. The hanging gallery is supported by a single range of corbells and the lower stages communicated by a close gallery in the wall. Each stage was vaulted with a plain pyramidal vault of great height. Those in the more southern towers are entire and called John of Gaunt's ovens. But the calling them so is as ridiculous as groundless. Tybroir, Baron of Kendall, is the first after the conquest who was honoured with the command of this castle and William de Tybroir in the reign of Henry II obtained leave to take the surname of Lancaster. It is therefore probable that the barons of Kendall either built or repaired the ancient castle in which they resided until they erected upon the summer site of the station of Concangium their castle at Kendall. The remains of some of the bastions there agree in style with the towers here. Two, the second distinct style of building in Lancaster's castle is a square tower of a great height, the lower part of which is of a remote antiquity. The windows are small and round headed, ornamented with plain short pillars on each side. The upper part of this magnificent tower is a modern repair. The masonry shows it and a stone in the battlements on the northern side inscribed ER 1585RA proves that this repair was made in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It is pretty evident that the two towers with the ramparts have been removed to give light and air to the lower windows on the outside of the tower and it is joined by a wall of communication to Adrian's tower that could not be there when the other towers were standing. There are two lesser square towers on the opposite side. Three, the third style of building is the front and gateway. This may be given to Edward III or to his son, John of Gaunt. It fronts to the east and is a magnificent building in the Gothic style. It opens with a noble and lofty pointed arch defended by overhanging battlements supported by a triple range of corbells cut in form of bulletins. The intervals pierced for the descent of missiles. On each side rise two light watch towers. Immediately over the gate is an ornamented niche which probably once contained the figure of the founder. On one side is still to be seen on a shield. France, quartered with England. On the other side the same with a label ermine of three points. The distinction of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III, the first English monarch that quartered France and England on a shield. Nb, it was Henry V that reduced the lilies of France to three. On the north side of the hill below the churchyard are some remains of the wall that encompassed the station. It retains part of the ancient name of the place being called Wery Wall. Those who suppose it part of the prior enclosure wall that was situated on the north side of the church may be satisfied by viewing the part of the enclosure wall yet standing, a thin mouldering fabric, whereas the Wery Wall is a cemented mass that nothing but great violence can injure. Another fragment of it stands at the style on the footpath under the west end of the churchyard. It is frequently met with in the churchyard and its direction is to the western side of the castle. The father of the late William Bradshaw of Halton Esquire remembered the Wery Wall projecting over the bridge lane pointing directly to the river. This could never be the direction of the prior wall to say nothing of the name which tradition has preserved. Had Mr Pennant viewed both he would not have doubted a moment to join Camden against Leeland. At bridge lane it makes an angle and runs along the brow of the hill behind the houses in a line to Church Street which it crosses about Covel Cross. This is attested by the owners of the gardens who have met with it in that direction and always find blue clay under the foundation stones. Though this station was one of the first which the Romans had in those parts and from its importance the last they abandoned, yet but few Roman British remains have been discovered at it. The Caledonians, the unconquered enemies and greatest plague of the Romans in Britain were particularly galled and offended with the garrison at Lancaster. It's being always the first to oppose them as often as they invaded the empire by crossing the Solway Frith. For having taken the advantage of the spring tides and darkness of the nights at the change of the moon they could escape the garrison at Virosidium, Ellenborough, Arbaea and Moorsby and skulking along the Cumberland coast across the Moorcom Bay and were first discovered on the banks of the loon. Here they were opposed by the townsmen who kept the garrison, and if they did not immediately return by the way they came, the alarm brought upon them the garrisons from Overborough, Watercrook and Ambleside who surrounded and cut them off, and then arose a particular hatred to the Lancastrians, which time and repeated injuries fermented into rage. In the end the barbarous clans, following close upon the heels of the flying Romans would in a particular manner satiate their desire of revenge upon the helpless Lancastrians by sacking and destroying their town and fortifications. That such another at no time might oppose their invasions. The Saxons arriving soon after raised on the ruins the town that remains to this day, so it may be inferred that the present town of Lancaster stands on a magazine of British Roman antiquities. This is verified by digging under any of the ancient houses where it appears that the earth has been moved and Roman remains are frequently found. Beside what Dr Lee mentions, there are many recent instances that proves the conjecture. In the year 1772, in digging a cellar where an old house had stood in a street or lane called Pudding Lane, almost in the centre of the town, was found reversed in a bed of fine sand above five feet underground, a square stone of four feet by two and a half, a foot and two inches being broken of the lower corner on the right hand side so as to render the inscription obscure. The letters elegantly formed, square and about three inches high. The inscription had consisted of eight or nine lines, of which six are entire and of easy explanation. The loss in the seventh is readily supplied, but the eighth must be made out by the common style of such votive stones. The elegance of the letters pronounced them to be the work of the best times, but the two small letters in the third and fifth line reduce it to the age of the Emperor Gordian, and if the three small letters have been occasioned by the emission of the sculptor, then it will be of higher antiquity. It is known by inscriptions found at Olenacum, old Carl Isle, that the Augustan wing mentioned in this inscription was stationed there in the time of Gordian, but from this inscription it seems to have also been at Lancaster. This memorable stone is now to be seen in the rare collection of Ashton Leaver Esquire in Leicester House, London. Two years ago, in sinking a cellar in an old house in Church Street, some carbloads of fragments of Roman earthenware were thrown out, urns, pattera, etc. Many of them finally glazed and elegantly marked with emblematic figures, some copper coins and an entire lamp with a turned up perforated handle to hang it by, the nozzle of which is black from use. At the depth of two yards were also found a great number of human bones, small and large, with burnt ashes, a wall of great thickness and a well filled with rubbish of the same kind, probably leading to a vault where remains are deposited, but the curious must forever regret that no further search was made. What throws new light upon the station here is the late discovery of a Roman pottery by the honourable Edward Clifford in his estate of Cuormor near Lancaster. That the works have been very considerable may be guessed from the space discoloured with broken ware and the holes from where the clay has been taken, with the great variety of bricks, tiles and vessels that are found. But the greatest discovery is upon a tile with turned up ledges, impressed with a stamp on each end, ale sebusia, a wing of cavalry not heard of before. The same inscription is found on bricks, the labels smaller and letters ala sebusia. The shape of the second letter in the first word is like that in the inscription on the rock near Brampton in Cumberland, supposed to be cut in the time of the Emperor Severus AD 207 and is the fifth L in Horsley's alphabet. On the brick the letters are square from which may be inferred that this wing was long stationed at Lancaster. This town ever since the conquest is renowned for loyalty and attachment to established government, for which King John honoured it with as ample a charter as he had conferred on the burgesses of Bristol and Northampton. Charles II exemplified and confirmed the same with additional privileges, but Lancaster derived its greatest lusture and importance from the title it gave to Edmund II's son of Henry III and to his issue, Dukes of Lancaster and Kings of England, of the Lancastrian line, but in the end suffered much by supporting their title to the crown in the contest with the House of York. So little had it retrieved itself when Camden visited it, 1609, that he speaks of it as not populace and that the inhabitants were all husband men. Since that time it is much enlarged. The new houses are neat and handsome, the streets well paved and thronged with inhabitants, busied in a prosperous trade to Guinea and the West Indies. Along a fine quay, noble warehouses are built, and when it shall please those concerned to deepen the shoals in the river, ships of great burden may come up close to the warehouses. At present only such can come up as do not exceed 250 tonnes. The air of Lancaster is salubrious, the environs pleasant, the inhabitants wealthy, courteous, hospitable and polite. The church is a handsome gothic structure. The beautiful east window is obstructed by a tall screen behind the altar and the church is further hurt by a multiplicity of pews. The only remains of ancient furniture are a few turn-up seats carved in the style of the times when it belonged to the priory of Saint Martin of Seize in France. Some of the carvings are fine but the figures are either gross or grotesque. It stands on the crown of an eminence below the castle from which it is only separated by the moat. The views from the churchyard are extensive and pleasant, particularly the grand and much admired prospect of the northern mountains. The new chapel is a neat and more commodious place of worship. There are also in this town Presbyterian, Quaker and Methodist meeting houses and a Romish chapel. When the present and commodious bridge was lately repaired, some brass pieces of money were found under a foundation stone from which it is conjectured to be of Danish origin. A more ancient bridge stood higher up the river at Skirton town end, a situation much more convenient and would make a fine entrance which Lancaster is defective in. Before you leave Lancaster, take a ride to the Three Milestone on the road to Hornby and have Mr Gray's most noble view of the Vale of Lonsdale, which he or his editor describes in these words in the note page 373. This scene opens just three miles from Lancaster on what is called the Queen's Road. To see the view in perfection, here you must go into a field on the left. Here Engelborough, behind a variety of Alessa mountains, makes the background of the prospect. On each hand of the middle distance, rise two sloping hills, the left clothed with thick wood, the right with variegated rock and herbage. Between them, in the richest of valleys, the loon serpentises for many a mile and comes forth ample and clear through a well-wooded and richly pastured foreground. Every feature which constitutes a perfect landscape of the extensive fort is here not only boldly marked but also in its best position. From Lancaster to Hestbank, four miles. Set out with the Oliverstone carriers at the stated hour, or take a guide for the sands called Lancaster Sands, nine miles over. On a fine day there is not a more pleasant seaside ride in the kingdom. On the right, a bold shore deep indented in some places and opening into bays in others. Fall is open to the view that stretch far into the country, bounded on each side by hanging grounds, cut into enclosures, interspersed with groves and hanging woods, adorned with sequestered cots, farms, villages, churches and castles. Mountains behind mountains and others just seen over them close the foreseen. Claude has not introduced Sorakte on the Tiber in a more happy point of view than Ingleborough appears in during the course of this ride. At entering on the sands to the left, Hesham Point rises a broccoli and the village hangs on its side in a beautiful manner. Over a vast extent of sands, Sea Peel Castle, the ancient bullock of the bay, rears its venerable head above the tide. In front appears a fine sweep of country sloping to the south. On the right, Wharton Crag presents itself in a bold style. On its arch summit are the vestiges of a square encampment and the ruins of a beacon. Grounds bearing from the eye, variegated in every pleasing form, by woods, variety of pastured grounds and rock for many a mile, are terminated by Claude top to Ingleborough. A little further on to the right, another veil opens to the sands and shows a broken ridge of rocks and beyond them are seen groups of mountains towering to the sky. Cattlesteads, a pyramidal hill that rises above the station at Kendall, is now in sight. At the bottom of the bay stands Arnside Ancient Tower, once a mansion of the Stanlis. The Cartmel Coast as you advance becomes more pleasing. Betwixt that and Silverdale Nab, a pyramidal mountain of naked grey rock, is a great break in the coast and through it the river Kent rules its waters to join the tide. In the mouth of the estuary are two beautiful conical aisles, clothed in wood and sweet verger. As you advance towards them, they seem to change their situation and vary their appearance. At the same time, a grand view opens up the westmoreland mountains, tumbled about in a most surprising manner. At the head of the estuary, under a beautiful green hill, hevesham village and church appear in fine perspective. To the north, Witbarosgar, a huge arched and bended cliff of an immense height shows a storm-beaten front. The intermediate space is a mixture of rocks and woods and cultivated patches that form a romantic view. As you approach, a guide on horseback called the Carter is in waiting to conduct passengers over the ford. The priory of Cartmel was charged with his important office and had Synodol and Peterpence allowed towards the maintenance of the guide. Since the disillusion of the priory, it is held by patent of the Duchy of Lancaster and the salary £20 per annum is paid by the receiver general. Cartmel is a small district belonging to Lancashire but united to Westmoreland a little below Bones on Windermere and from thence extends itself betwixt the rivers Leven and Kent intersecting the Great Bay of Moorcom. It is three miles across from Carch Lane where you quit the sands to Sand Yet. Pass through Fluckborough, once a market town by charter granted to the priory of Cartmel, Lord Paramount from King Edward I. The only thing worthy of notice is the Church of Cartmel, a handsome gothic edifice. The east window is finally ribbed with pointed arches, light and elegant. The painted glass is almost defaced. The preservation of this edifice reflects honour on the memory of George Preston of Holker Esquire, who, at his own expense, new roofed the whole and decorated the inside with a stucco ceiling. The choir and chancel he also repaired, suiting the new parts to the ancient remains of the cannon's seats, thereby preserving the ancient form entire. Persons uninformed of this always take it to be the same it was before the dissolution. The style of the building, like most of its contemporaries, is irregular, the pointed and round arch is contrasted and the fine clustered pillar faces the heavy octagonal. The form is a cross in length 157 feet, the transept 110 feet, the height of the walls 57 feet. The tower on the centre is a singular construction, being a square within a square, the highest set at cross angles within the lower. This gives it an odd appearance on all sides, but may have some reference to the octagonal pillars in the church, and both to the memory of something now forgotten. It was built at endowed with the manner of Cartmell by William Mariscal, the elder, Earl of Pembroke in 1188, according to some. But as in the foundation deed, mention is made of Henry II, Richard and Henry the Younger, his Lord the King. It appears rather to have been founded in the beginning of that reign. For William the Elder, Earl of Pembroke, died in the fourth or fifth year of that reign, vis Henry III. He gave it to the Canon's regular of Saint Austen, reserving to himself and his heirs the right of granting to them the congé deslier for Pryor, who should be independent of all others and never to be erected into an abbey. Under the north wall, a little below the altar is the tombstone of William de Walton, Pryor of Cartmell. He is mentioned in the confirmation diploma of Edward II, and must have been one of the first Pryors. Opposite to this is a magnificent tomb of a Harrington and his lady, which Mr Pennant thinks maybe of Sir John Harrington, who in 1305 was summoned by Edward I, with numbers of other gallant gentlemen to meet him at Carlisle and attend him on his expedition into Scotland. But it agrees better with a John de Harrington, called John of Cartmell, or his son of Rasham Tower in Cartmell, as Sir Daniel Fleming's account of that family has it. The head of the Harrington family, Sir John Harrington, in the reign of Edward I, was of old income and lived at Gleeston Castle in Furness, and died in an advanced age, 1347, and is more probably the Sir John Harrington mentioned in Dougdale's baronage, and summoned by Edward I. There is not one vestige of the monastery remaining. There is a gatehouse, but whether this was connected with the cloisters or not, tradition is silent, and the distance from the church is unfavourable to the conjecture. Proceed through rocky fields and groves to Holker, one mile, the seat of the right honourable Lord George Cavendish. The carriage road is by Cark Hall. At the top of the hill, there opens a fine view of Furness. Holker Hall lies at your feet, embosomed in wood. On the left, Ulverston Bay opens into the Great Bay, and is four miles over. The coast is deeply indented, and the peninsulas are beautifully fringed with wood. On the right, a bold bending rock presents a noble arched forehead, and a fine slope of enclosed grounds, mixed with wood, leads the eye to Ulverston, the port and the barth of Furness. Connys Head shows its pyramidal head, completely clothed in wood. At its feet, the priory, shielded by a wing of hanging wood that climbs up the side of a steep hill. Bardsy, under its rocks and hanging woods, stands in a delightful point of view. In front, a sweet fall of enclosures, marked with clumps of trees and hedgerows, gives it a most picturesque appearance. A white house on the sea bank, under the cover of a deep wood, has a most enchanting appearance. The coast from that is of singular beauty, of hanging woods, enclosed land and a pasture grounds, varied in every pleasing form, and where an extensive view can charm this must. Desent a hulker, which adds to the scenes, what is peculiar to itself, with the improvements of the noble owner, finished in a masterly style. The traveller will hear observed husbandry in a more flourishing way than in the country he is soon to visit. The farmers here, as elsewhere, are slow in imitating new practises, but the continued success which attends his lordship's improvements, has not failed in affecting a reformation amongst the cartamel farmers. In crossing Leven Sands to Ulverston, you have on the right a grand view of Alpine scenery. A rocky hill, patched with wood and heath, rising immediately from the coast, directs the eye to an immense chain of lofty mountains, increased in magnitude and height, since they were seen from Hesterbank. On a fine morning, this is a pleasant ride, when the mountains are strongly illuminated by the sunbeams, and patched with shadows of intervening clouds that sail along their sides, or over their summits drag their watery skirts, through which the sunbeams streaming, gild their rocky heads with silver, and variagate their olive coloured sides with stripes of gold and green. This fairy scene soon shifting, all is concealed in a mantle of azure mist. At the air, or Ford of the River Leven, another carter conducts you over. On the dissolution of the Priory of Connys Head, King Henry VIII charged himself and successors with the payments which the guide received from the Priory, 15 marks per annum, and the office is held and the salary is paid as to the other carter. Ulverston, the London of Furness, is a neat town at the foot of a swift descent to the south-east, the streets regular and excellently well paved. The weekly markets below Furness has been long established here to the prejudice of Dalton, the ancient capital of Furness. The articles of export are, iron ore in great quantities, pig and bar iron, oats, barley, beans, potatoes, bark and limestone. The principal inns are kept by the guides, who passed to and from Lancaster on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in every week. The entertainment is good, the attendance civil, and charge reasonable. Make an excursion to the west, three miles, and visit the greatest iron mines in England. At Whitriggs the works are carried on with much spirit by driving of levels into the bosom of the mountain. The ore is found in a limestone stratum mixed with a variety of spars of a dirty colour. There is much quartz in some of the works that admits of a high polish. At present, the works in stone close and adgarly are the most flourishing that have been known in Furness. The mineral is not hurtful to animal or vegetable. The verdure is remarkably fine about the workings, and no one ever suffered by drinking the water in the mines, though discoloured and much impregnated with the ore. By Dalton to the magnificent ruins of Furness Abbey, and there, see the wild waste of all devouring years, how Rome, her own sad sepulcher appears, with nodding arches, broken temples spread, the very tombs now vanish like the dead. This abbey was founded by Stephen Earl of Morton and Beloyne, afterwards King of England AD 1127, and was endowed with the lordship of Furness and many royal privileges. It was peopled from the monastery of Savigny in Normandy, and dedicated to St Mary. In ancient writings it is styled St. Mary's of Furness. The monks were of the order of Savigny, and their dress was grey cloth, but on receiving St Bernard's form they changed from grey to white and became Cistercians, as such they remained till the dissolution of monasteries. The situation of this abbey, so favourable to contemplative life, justifies the choice of the first settlers. Such a sequestered site in the bottom of a deep dell, through which a hasty broc rolls its murmuring stream, and along which the roaring west wind, joined with the deep-toned Matinsong, must have been favourable to the solemn melancholy of monastic life. To prevent surprise and call in assistance, a beacon was placed on the crown of the eminence that rises immediately from the abbey, and is seen over all low Furness. The door leading to the beacon is still remaining in the enclosure wall on the eastern side. The magnitude of the abbey may be known from the dimensions of the ruins, and enough is standing to show the style of the architecture. The round and pointed arches occur in doors and windows, the fine cluttered gothic, and the heavy plain Saxon pillars stand contrasted. The walls show excellent masonry in many places counter-arched, and the ruins are strong cements. The east window has been noble, and some of the painted glass that once adorned it is preserved in a window in Windermere Church. On the outside of the window, under an arched festoon, is the head of the founder, and opposite to it, that of Maude his queen, both crowned and well executed. In the south wall and east end of the church are four seats adorned with gothic ornaments. In these, the officiating priest with his attendants sat at intervals during the solemn service of Haimass. In the middle space lies a procumbent figure of a man in armour cross-legged in the place where the first barons of Kendall lie interred. The chapter house has been a noble room of 60 feet by 45. The vaulted roof, formed of 12 ribbed arches, was supported by six pillars in two rows at 13 feet's distance from each other, and the side walls, supposing each pillar to feet diameter, which divided the room into three alleys or passages of 13 feet wide. At the entrance, the middle only could be seen, lighted by a pair of tall pointed windows at the upper end of the room. The company in the side passage would be concealed by the pillars, and the vaulted roof that groined from those pillars would have a true gothic disproportioned appearance of 60 feet by 13. The two side alleys were lighted each by a pair of similar lights, besides a pair on each side at the upper end, at present entire, and 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 up, a fine circular arch, beautified with a deep cornish, as also a portico on each side. The only entire roof now standing is of a building without the enclosure wall. It was the schoolhouse for the children of the abbots tenants, and is a single ribbed arch that groins from the walls. There is a general disproportion remarkable in gothic churches, which must have originated in some effect intended by all the architects. Perhaps to strike the mind with reverential awe at the sight of magnificence arising from the vastness of two dimensions, the third seemingly disregarded, or perhaps such proportion of height and length was found more favourable than any other to the church song by giving a deeper swell to the choir of chanting monks. A remarkable deformity in this edifice, and for which there is no apparent reason or necessity, is that the north door, which is the principal entrance, is on one side of the window over it. The tower has been supported by four magnificent arches of which only one remains entire. They rested upon four tall pillars, three are finely clustered, the fourth is of a plain unmeaning construction. From the Abbey, if on horseback, returned by Newton, Stanton and Adgallee. See on the right a deep embade coast, the islands of Walney, Fulney and Peel Castle, a variety of extensive views on all sides. At Adgallee, the new works are carried on under the old workings. The richest iron ore is found here in immense quantities. 140 tons have been raised at one shaft in 24 hours. To the right have a view of the ruins of Gleesden Castle, the feet of the Fleming soon after the conquest, and by a succession of barrages it went to Cansfield, then to Harrington, who enjoyed it 60 cents, after that to Bonville and lastly to Grey, and was forfeited by Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk AD 1559. Leaving Urswick behind, Ascend Burkrig, a rocky eminence, and from the beacon have a variety of extensive and pleasant views of land and sea, mountains and islands. Ulverston appears seated under a hanging wood, and behind that, furnace fells in various shapes form the grandest far ground that can be imagined. The back view is the reverse, when the tide is up, a fine arm of the sea stretching far within land, terminated by bold rocks and steep shores. Across this expanse of sea, a far country is seen, and Lancaster Town and Castle is perceived in a fine point under a scree of high grounds, over which Fable Cluffer rears his venerable head. Ingleborough, behind many other mountains, has a fine effect from this station. If in a carriage, returned from the Abbey by Dalton, this village is sweetly situated on the crest of a rocky eminence, sloping to the morning sun. At the upper end is a square tower, where formally the abbot held his secular court and secured his prisoners. The keep is in the bottom of the tower, a dismal dungeon. This village, being conveniently situated in a fine sporting country, is honoured with an annual hunt, begun by the late Lord Strange, and is continued by his son, the truly noble Earl of Derby. It commences the Monday after the 24th of October and continues two whole weeks. For the better accommodation of the company, two excellent long rooms were built about four years ago, and called Sportsman's Hall. Return to Ulverston and from thence to the Priory of Connyshead, the Paradise of Furnace. Am mount Edgecombe in Miniature, its well deserves a visit from the curious traveller. The house stands on the site of the Priory of Connyshead at the foot of a fine eminence, and the ground falls gently from it on all sides. The slopes are planted with shrubs and trees in such a manner as improve the elevation, and the waving woods that fly from it on each wing give an airy and noble appearance. The south front is in the modern taste, extended by an arcade. The north is in the Gothic style with a piazza. The offices on this side form wings. The apartments are elegantly furnished, and the house is a good and convenient one, but what recommends itself most of the curious is a plan of pleasure ground on a small scale, raised by improvement to equal one of the greatest in England. The variety of culminated grounds and winding slopes, comprehended within this sweet spot, furnishes all the advantages of mountains and veils, woods and water. By the judicious management of these assemblages, the late owner did work wonders, and by well consulting the genius of the place, called in to aid his plan, and harmonized the features of a country vast in extent, and by nature, highly picturesque, whole distant parts answering, form a magnificent whole. Besides the ornamental grounds, the views from the house are both pleasing and surprising, pastoral, rural and marine. On one hand a fine estuary, spotted with rocks, aisles and peninsulas, a variety of shore, deeply indented in some places, in others composed of noble arched rocks, craggy broken and fringed with wood. Over these, hanging woods, intermixed with cultivated enclosures, covered with the background of stupendous mountains. The contrast of this view is at the other end of the gravel walk, between two culminating hills, covered with tall wood, is seen in fine perspective. A rich cultivated dale, divided by hedgerow trees, beyond these hanging grounds cut into enclosures with scattered farms. Above all, a long range of waving pasture ground and sheep walks, shining in variety of vegetation. This sweet pastoral picture is heightened much by the deep shade of the towering wooded hills, between which it is viewed. Turn to the left, the scenery is all reversed. Under a range of tall sycamores, an expanse of water bursts upon the eye, and beyond it, land just visible through the azure mist. Vessels traversing this bay are seen in a most picturesque manner, and from the lower windows appear sailing through the trees and approaching the house, till they drop anchor just under the windows. The range of sycamores has a fine effect in this sea view, by breaking the line in the watery plain, and forming an elegant frame to a very excellent picture. By turning a little to the right, the prospect changes. At the head of a sloping enclosure, and under the skirts of a steep wood, a sequestered cottage stands in the point of beauty. There is a great variety of pleasing views, from the different meandering walks and seats in the wood. At the moss house, and the seat in the bottom of the wood, where Ulverston and the environs make a pretty picture. Under the shrubbery on the eastern side of the house, and from the gate at the northern end of the walk, in the afternoon and sun shining, behind a swell of green hills, the conical summits of distant mountains are seen, glistening like burnished gold in the sunbeams, and pointing to the heavens in a noble style. But as this sweet spot is injured by description, I shall only add that it is a greater mission in the curious traveller to be in Furness, and not to see this wonderfully pretty place, to which nature has been so profusing noble gifts, directed by the assistance she has had under the conduct of an elegant fancy, a correct judgement and refined taste. End of Part 2 Part 3 of a Guide to the Lakes by Thomas West This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Coniston Lake From Ulverston to Coniston Lake, six miles, is either by Pennybridge or by Lowick. Excellent carriage road. By Lowick, the road is along a narrow vale, beautifully divided by hanging enclosures and scattered farms. Halfway up the mountain sides, whose various heads are covered with heath and brown vegetation. About four miles from Ulverston, you have a distant view of the lake, finely intersected with high-crowned peninsulas. At the upper end, a snow-white house is seen under a hanging wood, and to the north-east, the lake seems to wind round the mountain's feet. The whole range of Coniston fells is now in sight, and under them a lower sweep of dark rocks frown over the crystal surface of the lake. Advancing on the left sea Lowick Hall, once the seat of a family of that name, behind this a dismal scene of barrenness presents itself. Clustered grey rocky mountains, variegated with some few stripes of heath. After crossing the outlet of the lake at Lowick Bridge, these scenes of barrenness are often intercepted by pieces of arable ground, hanging sweetly to the east and cut into waving enclosures, with cottages prettily situated under ancient oaks or venerable use. The white houses in these parts, covered with blue slate, have a neat appearance. The thatched cot is esteemed a more picturesque object, yet the other, seen under a deep green wood or covered by a purple background of heath, variegated with grey rocks and evergreens, have a pleasing effect. Reach the south end of the lake. Here it is narrowed by rocky prominences from both sides, forming between their curvatures a variety of pretty bays. The whole length of the lake is about six measured miles, and the greatest breadth about three quarters of a mile. The greatest depth by report exceeds not forty fathom. A little higher, the broadest part commences and stretches with small curvatures to waterhead. The shores are frequently indented and one pretty bay opens after another in a variety of forms. Station One. A little above the village of Nipthwaite, the lake opens in full view. From the rock on the left of the road, you have a general view of the lake upward. This station is found by observing an ashtree on the west side of the road, and passing that till you are in a line with the peninsula. The rock is then at your feet. On the opposite shore to the left and close by the water's edge, are some stripes of meadow and green ground, cut into small enclosures with some dark coloured houses under aged use and tall pine trees. Two promontries project a great way into the lake. The broadest is finely terminated by steep rocks and crowned with wood. Both are insulated when the lake is high. Upwards, over a fine sheet of water, the lake is again intersected by a far projecting promontry that swells into two eminences, and betwixt them the lake is again caught with some white houses at the feet of the mountains. And more to the right, over another headland, you catch a fourth view of the lake, twisting to the northeast. Almost opposite to this stands a house on the crown of a rock covered with ancient trees that has the most romantic appearance. The noble scenery increases as you ride along the banks. In some places, bold rocks, lately covered with woods, concealed the lake entirely, and when the wind blew, the beating of surges were heard just under you. In other places, abrupt openings show the lake anew, and when calm, its limpid surface, shining like a crystal mirror, reflecting the azure sky, or chequered with dappled clouds, the vaulted canopy of heaven, is the finest mixture of nature's clear obscure. On the western side, the shore is more variegated with small enclosures, scattered cots and groves, and meadows grace the banks. The road continues along the eastern banks of the lake. Here bear, there sweetly fringed with a few tall trees, the small remains of its ancient woods that lately clothed the whole. Station 2. When you are opposite to the peninsula, last described, take in at a gate on the left hand, and from the rocky eminence you have a general view of the lake both ways. To the south, a sweet bay is formed between the horns of two peninsulas, and beyond that, a fine sheet of water appears, terminated by the promontress, which form the straits through which the lake has its outlet. From that, the coast is beautifully diversified by a number of green eminences, crowned with wood, and interspersed among them, sequestered cottages, half concealed by tall yew trees, and above them, a wave of rocky spiral mountains dressed in brown vegetation form most romantic scenes. Between this and a wooded eminence, a green hill cut into enclosures to the very top, in some parts patched with rock and little groves, as a beautiful appearance, contrasted with the barren scenes on one hand, and the deep shade of a waving wood on the other. At the foot of this cultivated tract and on the margin of the lake, a few white houses partly concealed in a grove of yews look like enchanted seats on a fairy ground. Behind these, a barren bleak mountain frowns in southern majesty, and down his furrowed side, the black beck of tover rolls with mighty noise. Just at your feet lies the oblong rocky isle of Peel, and near it, the dark points of half-drowned rocks just show themselves by turns. Here is the finest picture of the lake, and when it is smooth, the whole is seen reflected on the shining surface of the watery mirror. On the western side, the coast is steep rocks. The eastern side is much embade. The high end of the lake is here in view, yet it seems to wind both ways behind the opposite promontress. The range of naked rocks that cross the head of the lake appear now awful from their sable hue, behind them the immense mass of cove, ridle head, and many nameless mountains have a most stupendous appearance and inaccessible height. A succession of pretty bays opens to the traveller as he advances. The banks become more wooded and more cultivation appears. On the western margin stands the lady of the lake, Coniston Hall, and above it the village of the same name. It has only changed masters twice since the conquest and has belonged to the family of Fleming most of the time. Station 3. The next grand view is in the boat and in the centre of the lake opposite to Coniston Hall. Looking towards the mountains, the lake spreads itself into a noble expanse of transparent water, and bursts into a bay on each side, bordered with verdant meadows, and enclosed with grounds rising in a various and exceeding bold manner. The objects are diversified in the simple and natural order and contrasted by the fine transition of rural elegance and pastoral beauty, cultivation and pastureage, waving woods and sloping enclosures, adorned by nature and improved by art, under the bold sides of stupendous mountains, whose airy summits the turned up eye cannot now reach and deny all access to the humankind. Following the line of shore from Coniston Hall to the upper end of the lake, the village of Coniston is in full view and consists of seats, groups of houses, farms and cots scattered in a picturesque manner over the cultivated slope. Some snow white, others grey, some stand forth on bold eminences at the head of green enclosures, backed with steep woods. Others are pitched on swift declivers and seem hanging in the air. Some are on a level with the lake. All are neatly covered with blue slate, the produce of the mountains, and are beautified with ornamental use, holless and tall pines or furs. This is a charming scene when the morning sun gills the whole with a variety of tints. In the point of beauty and centre of perspective, a white house under a hanging wood gives life to this picture, yet is somewhat injured by a cot that stands on the foreground between it and the lake and interrupts the harmony of this sweet landscape. The range of dark rugged rocks rise abruptly and deeply contrast the transparent surface of the lake and the stripe of verdea that skirts their feet. The eastern shore is not less bold and embade, the slates brought down from the mountains is laid up here till put on board boats that transport it to the water foot. It will be allowed that the views on this lake are beautiful and picturesque, yet they please more than surprise. The hills that immediately enclose the lake are ornamental but humble. The mountains at the head of the lake are great, noble and sublime without anything that is horrid or terrible. They are bold and steep without the projecting precipice, the overhanging rock or pendant cliff. The hanging woods, waving enclosures and airy sights are elegant, beautiful and romantic and the whole may be seen with ease and pleasure. In a fine morning there is not a more pleasant rural ride and the beauties of the lake are seen in a true light and fine order. In the afternoon, if sunshine, much of the effect is lost by the change of light and such as visit it from the north, lose all charms arising from the swell of the mountains by turning their backs upon them. The char here is said to be the finest in England. They are fished later than on Windermere and continue longer in the spring. At Waterhead, the road to the east leads to Ambleside eight miles to Hawkeshead three. Ascend a steep hill, surrounded with wood and have a back view of the lake. To the north is a most awful scene of mountains heaped upon mountains in every variety of horrid shape. Amongst them sweeps to the north, a deep winding chasm darkened by overhanging rocks that the eye cannot pierce nor the imagination fathom from which turn your face to the east and have a peep at some part of Windermere. The road soon divides, the left leads to Ambleside, the right to Hawkeshead which stands under the mountain at the upper end of a narrow valley. The church is seated on the front of an eminence that commands the valley which is floated with the lake of S3W, two miles in length and half a mile in breadth, intersected by a peninsula from each side jutting far into the lake, finally elevated, the crowns cultivated and the borders fringed with trees and low wood. The lake is encompassed with a good carriage road and over its outlet is a narrow stone bridge. On the banks are villages and scattered houses, sweetly situated under woods and hanging grounds, enameled with delightful verdea and soft vegetation, heightened by the deep shade of the woods and the strong background of rocky mountains. At the head of a gentle slope and just elevation a handsome modern house, Belmont is charmingly situated and commands a delightful view of the lake with all the environs. The fish here are perch, pike and eels. No trout or char frequent this lake, though it's be connected with Windermere. From Hawkeshead to Ambleside, five miles, to the horse ferry on Windermere, three miles. On horseback this is the more eligible route as it leads immediately to the centre of the lake where all its beauties are seen to the greatest advantage. End of Part 3 Part 4 of a Guide to the Lakes by Thomas West. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Windermere The Windermere, like Coniston Lake, is viewed to greatest advantage by facing the mountains which rise in grandeur on the eye and swell upon the imagination as they are approached. The road to the ferry is round the head of Sthwaite's water through the villages of Colthouse and Souris. Ascend a steep hill and from its summit have a view of the long reach of Windermere stretching far to the south till lost between two high promontories. The road serpentises round a rocky mountain till you come under the broken scar that in some places hangs over the way. Ancient Jews and Hollies grow here fantastically amongst the fallen rocks. Station 1 Near the isthmus of the ferry point observe two small oak trees that enclose the road. These will guide you to this celebrated station. Behind the tree on the western side ascend to the top of the nearest rock and from thence in two views command all the beauties of this magnificent lake. The trees are of singular use in answering the purposes of foreground and of intersecting the lake. The rock rises perpendicular from the lake and forms a pretty bay. In front ramps home Barkshire Island presents itself in all its length clothed in wood. To the left the ferry point closing with Crow Home a wooded island form a fine promontory. Just behind this the mountain retiring inward a semi-circular bay is formed surrounded with a few acres of the most elegant verdure sloping upward from the water's edge graced with a cottage in the fine point of view. Above it the mountain rises in agreeable wildness variegated with scattered trees and silver grey rocks. An extent of water of 12 miles circumference spreads itself to the north frequently intersected with promontories or spotted with islands. Amongst them the home or Great Island an oblong tract of 30 acres traverses the lake in an oblique line surrounded by a number of inferior aisles finely formed and dressed in wood. The curlew crags pointed dark rocks appear above the water and others just concealed give a sable hue to that part of the lake. Rough home is a circular aisle covered with trees. Lady home an aisle of an oval form is vested with coppice wood. Hen home is a rock covered with shrubs. Grass home is its present shaded with a grove of oaks and two smaller islets borrow their name from the lilies of the valley which decorate them. These with crow home and barchshire island form this archipelago. To the north of this magnificent scene a glorious sheet of water expands itself to the right and left in curves bearing from the eye bounded on the west by the continuation of the mountain where you stand. Whose bold lofty side is embellished with distant growing trees and shrubs and coarse vegetation intermixed with grey rocks that group finally with the deep green use and hollies. The eastern shore is a noble contrast adorned with all that is beautiful grand and sublime. The immediate shore is much cultivated. The variety of hanging grounds are immense. Woods, groves, enclosures all terminating in rocky uplands of various forms. The shore upward is spread out in beautiful variety of waving enclosures intermixed with hanging woods and shrubby spots in circles and in every waving line of beauty over topped with wild grounds and rocky ridges of broken mountains. The shore in some places swells into spacious bays in parts fringed with trees. Their bushy heads wave over the crystal flood. The parsonage house is seen sweetly seated under a fringe of tall firs following the same line of shore above the east ferry point and on the banks of the bay. The tops of the houses and church of Windermere are just seen. Above that, bannerig o orrhyst head rise gradually into points cultivated to the top and cut into enclosures. These are contrasted by the rugged crags of Biscoteau. Troutbeck Park comes next in view and over that, Illbell rears his conic head and Fairfield swells in Alpine Pride rivaled by ridles loftier head. The eastern coast to the south of what has been described is still more pleasing in a variety of little groves and interposed enclosures with scattered houses sweetly secreted. To the south and from the western coast at three miles distance, Rawlinsons Nab, a high crowned promontary, shoots far into the lake and from the opposite shore, the store, another wooded promontary, stretching far into the water, pointing at the rocky isle of Lingholm. Over Rawlinsons Nab, the lake spreads out in a magnificent sheet of water and following the winding shore far to the south is lost behind a promontary on the eastern side. Over two woody mountains, Park and Landon Nab, the blue summits of distant mountains waving in various forms close the scene. Having from this station enjoyed these charming views, descend to the ferry house and proceed to the great island where you again see all that is charming on the lake, all that is magnificent and sublime in the environs in new points of view. Of this sequestered spot, Mr Young speaks in rapture and Mr Pennant has done its much honour by his description. But alas, it is no more to be seen in that beautiful and affected state that those gentlemen saw it in. The sweet secreted cottage and the sycamore grove are no more. The present owner has modernised a fine slope in the bosom of the island into a formal garden, an unpleasing contrast to the natural simplicity and insular beauty of the place. What reason he has for adopting such a plan I shall not inquire, much less treat him with abuse for executing it to his own fancy. The want of choice might justify his having a garden on the island, but since it is now in his power to have it elsewhere, I hope it will be his pleasure when he revisits the place to restore the island to its native state of pastoral simplicity and rural elegance. The island was long the property of the Philipsons, once a potent family in these parts, and Sir Christopher Philipson, with his family, resided upon it in the beginning of this century. Station 2. The views from this delicious spot are many and charming. From the south end of the island you look over a noble extent of water, bounded in front by waves of distant mountains that rise from the water's edge. The two ferry points form a picturesque strait, and beyond that, the store on one side, and Rawlinson's nab on the other, shooting far into the lake, form a grand sinuosity, and the intermediate shores are beautifully indented by promontries covered with wood, hanging to the eye, and skirting the bays with elegant edgings of spreading trees. Berkshire Island and Crow Home break the line in this noble expanse of water. The eastern shore confesses much cultivation, the hills are much diversified, and strangely tumbled about. Some are laid out in grass enclosures, others cut with hedges and fringed with trees. One is crowned with wood, and skirted with the sweetest verdure. Others wave with corn. The whole is a mixture of objects that constitutes the most pleasing of rural scenes. The upper grounds are wild and pastured with flocks. Station 3. From the north end of the island, the views are more sublime, the scenes are vast. The lake is here seen both ways. To the south, an expanse of water spreads to the right and left, behind a succession of promontries, with a variety of shore, patched with islands, encircled by an amphitheater of distant hills, rising in a noble style. Turning to the north, the view is over a reach of the lake, six miles in length, and above one in breadth, interrupted with scattered islands of different figure and dress, reflected from the limpid surface of the water seen distinctly between them. The environs exhibit all the grandeur of alpine scenes, in the conic summits of Langdale Pikes and Hillbell, the broken ridge of rhinos and Kirkstone's rocky front, the overhanging cliff of Hardnought, the uniform mass of Fairfield and Ridlehead, with the far extended mountains of Trautveck and Kentmere, form the most magnificent amphitheater and grandest assemblage of mountains, dels and chasms, that ever the fancy of Busan suggested, or the genius of Rosa invented. The island is the centre of this amphitheater, and in the opposite point, directly over the extremity of the lake, is Ridle Hall, sweep the seated for the enjoyment of these scenes, and in return, animates the whole. The immediate borders of the lake are adorned with villages and scattered courts. Calgarth and Rayrig grace its banks. After enjoying these internal views from the bosom of the lake, I recommend sailing down to Rawlinsons Nab. On the south side of it, a pretty bay opens for landing on. In the course of the voyage you should touch at the different islands in the way, where every object is varied by a change of features, in such a manner as renders them wholly new. The great island changes its appearance, and joined with the ferry points cuts the lake in two. The house on it becomes an important object. The ferry house, seen under the Sycamore Grove, has a fine effect, and the broken cliff over it constitutes a most picturesque scene. The beauty of shore, and finest rural scenes in nature, are seen by traversing the lake, and viewing each in turn they contrast strongly. The western side is spread with enchanting silver scenes, the eastern waves with all the improved glory of rural magnificence. Station 4. Rawlinsons Nab is a peninsula rock of a circular figure, swelling to a crown in the centre, covered with low wood. There are two of them, but this is from the crown of the interior nab. You have a surprising view of two fine sheets of water that bend different ways. The view to the south is bounded by a bold and various shore on both sides. The hills are wooded and rough, but spotted in parts with small enclosures, and their tops burst into rocks of various shapes. The view to the north is more beautiful. An extent of three miles of the lake, broke into by the bold promontory, the stores, and above that, Berkshire Island, is charmingly placed. Bannerig and Orest Head, rising from the shore in magnificent slopes, are seen from hence to great advantage. This beautiful scene is well contrasted from the opposite side by a ridge of hanging woods, spread over wild romantic grounds that shoot abruptly into bold and spirited projections. Return to Bones and conclude by taking Mr Young's general view of the lake, where at one glance you command all its striking beauties. No station can better answer the purpose, and it would be an injustice done to the discoverer to deviate one title from his description. Station 5, from Young's Six Months Tour. Thus having viewed the most pleasing objects from these points, let me next conduct you to a spot where at one glance you command them all in fresh situations, and all assuming a new appearance. For this purpose, you return to the village, and taking the by-road to the turnpike, mount the hill without turning your head. If I was your guide, I would conduct you behind a small hill that you might come at once upon the view, till you almost gain the top, when you will be struck with astonishment at the prospect spread at your feet, which, if not the most superlative view that nature can exhibit, she is more fertile in beauties than the reach of my imagination will allow me to conceive. It would be a mere vanity to attempt to describe a scene which beggars all description, but that you may have some faint idea of the outlines of this wonderful picture. I will just give the particulars of which it consists. The point on which you stand is the side of a large ridge of hills that form the eastern boundary of the lake, and the situation high enough to look down upon all the objects, a circumstance of great importance which painting cannot imitate. In landscapes you are either on a level with the objects or look up to them. The painter cannot give the declivity at your feet, which lessens the objects as much in the perpendicular line as the horizontal one. You look down upon a noble winding valley of about 12 miles long, everywhere enclosed with grounds which rise in a very bold and various manner. In some places bulging into mountains abrupt, wild and uncultivated, in others breaking into rocks, craggy, pointed and irregular. Here rising into hills covered with the noblest woods, presenting a gloomy browness of shade almost from the clouds to the reflection of the trees in the limpid water of the lake they so beautifully skirt. There waving in glorious slopes of cultivated enclosures, adorned in the sweetest manner with every object that can give variety to art or elegance to nature. Trees, woods, villages, houses, farms scattered with picturesque confusion and waving to the eye in the most romantic landscapes that nature can exhibit. This valley, so beautifully enclosed, is floated by the lake which spreads forth to the right and left in one vast but irregular expanse of transparent water. A more noble object can hardly be imagined. Its immediate shore is traced in every variety of line that fancy can imagine, sometimes contracting the lake into the appearance of a noble winding river, at others retiring from it and opening into large bays, as if for navies to anchor in. Promanter is spread with woods or scattered with trees and enclosures, projecting into the water in the most picturesque style imaginable. Rocky points breaking the shore and rearing their bold heads above the water, in a word a variety that amazes the beholder. But what finishes the scene with an elegance too delicious to be imagined is this beautiful sheet of water being dotted with no less than ten islands distinctly comprehended by the eye, all of the most bewitching beauty. The large one presents a waving various line, which rises from the water in the most picturesque inequalities of surface, highland in one place, low in another, clumps of tree in this spot, scattered ones in that, adorned by a farmhouse on the water's edge and backed with a little wood, vying in simple elegance with baromian palaces. Some of the smaller isles rising from the lake like little hills of wood, some only scattered with trees and others of grass of the finest verdure, a more beautiful variety is nowhere to be seen. Strain your imagination to command the idea of so noble an expanse of water, thus gloriously environed, spotted with islands more beautiful than would have issued from the happiest painter. Picture the mountains rearing their majestic heads with native sublimity, the vast rocks boldly projecting their terrible craggy points, and in the path of beauty, the variegated enclosures of the most charming verdure hanging to the eye in every picturesque form that can grace landscape with the most exquisite touches of la belle nature. If you raise your fancy to something infinitely beyond this assemblage of rural elegances, you may have a faint notion of the unexampled beauties of this ravishing landscape. If the sun shines, this view of Mr Young's can only be enjoyed early in the morning, as that on the opposite shore behind the two oak trees is an afternoon prospect from a parity of circumstance. The sun in both places illuminating the objects on the opposite sides of the lake at different times of the day. These are the finest stations on the lake for pleasing the eye, but are by much too elevated for the purpose of the artist, who will find the picturesque points on the Great Island well suited to his intention of morning and evening landscape. Having command of foreground, the objects well ascertained, grouped and disposed in the finest order of nature, a picture of the north end of the lake taken from this island, will far exceed the fanciful production of the happiest pencil. This may be easily verified by the use of the convex reflecting glass. Rawlinson's nab is another picturesque point, either for the eye or the pencil. You are there advanced a great way into the lake, in the midst of the finest scenes, with a charming foreground at your feet. From the low cat's crag, which is a little to the south of the nab, you have a view of the south end of the lake, and as far north as the Great Island. The ferry points, the stores, the nab, the lesser islands are distinctly viewed in a fine order. Mr English's house on the island is a fine object, and the beauties of the western shore to the south of the crag are only seen from thence. To sum up the peculiar beauties of Windermere, the great variety of landscape and enchanting views that this chief of lakes exhibits. After what Mr Young has said of it is unnecessary. He allowed himself time to examine this, and the lakes in Cumberland, and he describes each of them with much taste and judgment. And it is evident that he gives the preference to Windermere. Yet this ought not to prejudice the minds of those who have the tour to make, against such as Prefer, Durwent Lake or Ulzwater. The styles are all different, and the sensations excited thereby will also be different, and the idea that gives pleasure or pain in the highest degree will be the rule of comparative judgement. It will perhaps be allowed by all that the greatest variety of fine landscape is found here. These stations will furnish much amusement to those who visit them, and others will present themselves occasionally. And whoever is delighted with water expeditions and entertainments, as rowing, sailing, fishing etc., will meet with full employment here for a few days. The fish of this lake are char, trout, perch, pike and eel. Of the char there are two varieties, the case char and the gelt char. The latter is a fish that did not spawn the last season, and is on that account more delicious. The greatest depth of the lake is opposite to Echolsrig Crag 222 feet. The fall from Newby Bridge, where the current becomes visible, to Lowwood, the High Watermark, distant 2 miles is 105 feet. The bottom of the lake is therefore 117 feet below High Watermark. In Bones, nothing so remarkable, as some remains of painted glass in the east window of the church that was bought from the Abbey of Furnace. From Bones to Ambleside, six miles along the side of the lake. On the top of an eminence a little behind Rayrig, there is a fine view of the northern extremity of the lake. As you proceed along the banks, every step has importance. The prospect becomes more and more august, exhibiting much variety of a Pennine grandeur. Langdale pikes that guard the pass into Borodale, on this side the yoke and spiral hillbell. The overhanging crags of Lofty Rainsbarrow, the broken ridge of Red Screes, Fairfield and Scrubby Crag, on whose precipitous front the eagle builds his nest. Secure from the envious shepherds of the Vale, with a chaos of nameless mountains, are all in sight and seem to move as you advance and show themselves in turns. Just at the head of Windermere, and a little short of Ambleside, turn down a by-road to the left, and see the vestige of a Roman station. It lies in the meadow on a level with the lake, and as supposed, was called the dictus, where a part of the cohort, Nerviorum dictentium, was stationed. It is placed near the meetings of all the roads from Penrith, Keswick, Ravenglass, Furness and Kendall, which it commanded, and was accessible only on one side. End of Part 4 Part 5 of A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Ambleside. Here nothing at present is found of all that Camden mentions of this place, so swift is time in destroying the last remains of ancient magnificence. Roman coins and arms have been frequently found here, and in forming the turnpike road through Rhydel, an urn was lately taken up, which contained ashes and other Roman remains, and serves to prove the tract of the ancient road to have laid that way. In mountainous countries, cascades, waterfalls and cataracts are frequent, but are only seen in high beauty when in full torrent, and that is in wet weather or soon after it. Above Ambleside about a mile there is a cascade that, though the season should be dry, merits a visit on account of its singular beauty and distinguished features, from others you will see in the course of the tour. The stream here, though the water below, is much divided and broken by a variety of pointed dark rocks. Then collecting itself in one torrent, it is precipitated with a horrid rushing noise into a dark gulf unfathomable to the eye, and after rising in the foam is dashed with a thundering noise, headlong down a steep craggy channel till it join the rothae below Ambleside. The parts of this cataract are noble. The deep dark hue of the rocks in the gloomy bosom of a narrow glen just visible by day and shown by contrast of the ffretted foaming water heightened by a mixture of green from the trees that wave over the fall and the shrubs and bushes that hang on the rocks that divide the stream and render this scene highly picturesque. Hutchinson is the first that mentions this surprising object and his station is well chose at the old oak that leans over the precipice, but there is a lower station that will better suit such as do not choose to overlook a trembling precipice. From Ambleside to Keswick, 18 miles of excellent mountain road furnishes much amusement to the traveller. If the season be rainy or immediately after rain, all the possible variety of cascade, cataract and waterfalls are seen in this ride. Some precipitating themselves from immense heights, others leaping and bounding from rock to rock in foaming torrents, hurling huge fragments to the veil that make the mountains tremble to their fall. The hollow noise swells and dies upon the ear by turns. The scenes are astonishing, the succession of them matchless. At Riddle Hall are two cascades worthy of notice. One is a little above the house to which Sir Michael Le Fleming has made a convenient path that brings you upon it all at once. A mighty torrent tumbling headlong for many men's height of rock uninterrupted into the rocky basin below, shaking the mountain under you with its fall and the air above with the rebound. It is a surprising scene. This gentleman's example in opening a road to the fall recommends itself strongly in this country that abounds with so many noble objects that travellers of the least taste would visit with pleasure. Could they do it with safety? The other cascade is a small fall of water seen through the window of the summer house in Sir Michael's Orchard. The first who brought this sweet scene to light is the elegant and learned editor of Mr Gray's Letters. And as no one describes with such propriety as Mr Mason, the reader shall have his account of this masterpiece of nature. Here nature has performed everything in little that she usually executes in her larger scale and on that account, like the miniature painter, seems to have finished every part of it in a studied manner. Not a little fragment of a rock thrown into the basin, not a single stem of brushwood that starts from its craggy sides but has a picturesque meaning and the little central current dashing down a cleft of the darkest coloured stone produces an effect of light and shadow, beautiful beyond description. This little theatrical scene might be painted as large as the original on a canvas not bigger than those usually dropped in the opera house. Ridle Hall has a grand situation at the feet of Stupendous Mountains, opening to the south at the entrance of the Vale. Over a noble foreground and commands a charming view of the Windermere. The River Rothy winds through the Vale amidst lofty rocks and hanging woods to join the lake. The road serpentises upwards round a bulging rock fringed with trees and brings you soon in sight of Ridle Water, a lake about one mile in length, spotted with little aisles which communicates by a narrow channel with Grasmere Lake. The River Rothy is their common outlet. Mount Grasmere Hill and from the top have a view of a sweeter scene as travelled eye ever beheld. Mr Gray's description of this peaceful happy Vale will raise a wish in every reader to see so primeval a place. The bosom of the mountains spreading here into a broad basin discover in the midst of Grasmere Water. Its margin is hollowed into small bays with eminences, some of rock, some of soft turf that half conceal and vary the figure of the little lake they command. From the shore a low promontory pushes itself far into the water and on it stands a white village with a parish church rising in the middle of it. Hanging enclosures, cornfields and meadows, green as an emerald with their trees and hedges and cattle, fill up the whole space from the edge of the water and just opposite to you is a large farmhouse at the bottom of a steep smooth lawn embuzzomed in old woods which climb half way up the mountain sides and discover above a broken line of crags that crown the scene. Not a single red tile nor flaring gentlemen's house or garden wall breaking upon the repose of this little unsuspected pattern but all is peace, rusticity and happy poverty in its neatest, most becoming attire. Mr Gray's description is taken from the road descending from Dunmayle Rays but the more advantageous station to view this romantic veil from is on the western side. Proceed from Ambleside by Clappersgate along the banks of the River Brathir and at Skelleth Bridge. From the west to the west and a little behind it's summit you come in sight of the valley and lake lying in the sweetest order. The island is near the centre unless the water be very low. The church stands at a small distance from the lake on the side of the rothi, its principal feeder. On each hand spreads the cultivated tract up the steep sides of surrounding areas and on the south side of the river. Here you have Mr Gray's view and we'll see the difference. Mr Gray has a missing view of Dunmayle Rays. The broken head of home crag has a fine effect seen from this point. Desend the hill, leave the church on the right hand and presently arrive at the great road to Ambleside or Keswick. Here you have Mr Gray's view and we'll see the difference. Mr Gray has omitted the island in his description which is a principle in this sweet scene. This veil of peace is about four miles in circumference and guarded at the upper end by home crag, a broken pyramidal mountain that exhibits an immense mass of antediluvian ruins. After this the road ascends Dunmayle Rays where lies the historical stones that perpetuate the name and fall of the last king of Cumberland defeated there by the Saxon monarch Edmund who put out the eyes of his two sons and for confederating with Leolin king of Wales against him he first wasted his kingdom and then gave it to Malcolm king of Scots who held it in feet of Edmund AD 944 or 945 The stones are a heap that have the appearance of a carnd or barrow The wall that divides the county crosses them at right angles which proves their priority of time there From Dunmayle Rays the road is an easy descent of nine miles to Keswick except Castle Rig that is somewhat quick Leaving the veil of Grasmere behind you soon come in sight of Leith's water called also Withburn and Thulmia It begins at the foot of Helvellen and skirts its base for the space of four miles increased by a variety of pastoral torrents that pour down the mountain sides their silver streams which warbling join the lake The range of mountains on the right are tremendously great Helvellen and Cachide Camp are the chief and according to the Withburn shepherds much higher than Skidor This is certain that these mountains retain snow many weeks after Skidor has lost his winter cover but that may be owing to the steepness of Skidor's northern side and the shivery surface that attracts more forcibly the solar rays than the verdant front of Helvellen and so precipitates the avalanches the winter's load at once A thousand huge rocks hang on Helvellen's brow all once in motion and ready to start anew Many have already reached the lake and are at rest The road sweeps through them along the naked margin of the lake The opposite shore is beautified with a variety of crown topped rocks some wooded, others not rising immediately from the water some rent and hanging forward to the water all set off with a background of verdant mountains rising in the noblist pastoral style the whole reflected from the soft bosom of the lake Its singular beauty is being almost intersected in the middle by two peninsula's that are joined by a bridge in a taste suitable to the genius of the place which serves for an easy communication among the shepherds that dwell on the opposite banks At the 6th mile post from the top of an eminence on the left there is a good general view of the lake and Vale but the most picturesque point is from an eminence behind Dalehead House The lake terminates sweetly with a pyramidal rock wooded to the top and opposite to it a silver grey rock hanging over its base towards the lake has a fine effect The road after this leads through the narrow green Vale of Agbathwaite divided into small enclosures peopled with a few cots and nobly terminated by the romantic castle-like rock of St John Below the Vale contracts into a deep craggy dell through which Leithswater rolls itself till it joins the Greta at Newbridge under the foot of Threlkeld Fell a gloomy mountain of dark-done rocks that shuts up the view of the sweet-spreading Vale of St John The road winds to the left along Thraite Bridge and ascends Nadel Fell by Causieway Foot to Castle Rig At the turn of the hill and within two miles of Keswick you come at once in sight of the glorious Vale with all its noble environs and wonderfully enchanting scenes which, when Mr Grey beheld, had almost determined him to return to Keswick and repeat his tour I left Keswick, says he, and took the Ambleside Road in a gloomy morning at about two miles from the town mounted an eminence called Castle Rig and the sun breaking out discovered the most enchanting view I have yet seen of the whole valley behind me the two lakes, the river, the mountains, all in their glory so that I had almost a mind to have gone back again this is certainly a most ravishing morning view of the bird's eye kind a circuit of 20 miles, two lakes, Durwent and Batonthwaite the river serpentising between the town of Keswick and Church of Crossthwaite in the centre points an extensive fertile plain all the surrounding mountains that enclose this delicious spot seen in all their greatness, astonish, surprise and delight the druid temple mentioned by Hutchinson and delineated in Penance Tour lies about half a mile to the right but will be more conveniently seen from the Penrith Road Desensu, Keswick End of Parts 5