THE
LAKE COIfflTBY
BY
E. LYNN LINTON
WITH A MAP
AND ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN AND ENOHATED BY
W. J. LINTON
LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 05, CORNHILL
1804
Df)
47O
L,L
CONTENTS
C11APTEE PAGE
PREFACE ix
Early History xiii
I. Wiiidermere 1
II. Walks about Ambleside 18
III. From Ambleside to Keswick 36
IV. Keswick and Derwentwater 48
V. The Keswick Walks 65
VI. Blencatlira, Skiddaw, and Bassenthwaite 85
VII. Ullswater <J8
VIII. Hawes Water and High Street 12:>
IX. Helvellyu and Fairfield 143
X. Langdale and the Stake 158
XI. The Tarns 171
XII. Buttennere, Crummock, and Lowes Waters 183
XIII. Wastwater and Scawfell 201
XIV. Calder Abbey, Egremont, and Eunerdale 817
8GS718
CONTENTS.
(iiArrr.il i V.K
XV. St. Hi-es and the Sra Coast '-Ml
XVI. I'n the Duddon 345
\\ II. Collision and ILawkshead -<>1
XVIII. FuriK'ss Al)lx v and (lie Sands.... -27?
APPENDICES
PAGE
J. Provincialisms of the Lake District ^05
II. The Botany of the Lake District 318
III. The Geology of the Lake District 336
IV. Table of Mountains, Lakes, and Waterfalls 342
V. Table of Rainfall 346
INDKX . :(17
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Derwent and Bassenthwaite Waters, from Asliness Bridge Frontispiece
From Esk Hawse Title-page
Bird's-eye Primrose ii
Criffel, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn Tops iv
lloadside, Crummock Water viii
Oak Fern xii
Initial W xiii
Common Maiden-Hair Spleenwort xl
Windermere, from above Low Wood 1
Professor Wilson's House, Elleray 4
Barked Tree 8
Troutbeck Bridge 8
Windermere, from near Dove's Nest 11
Coming Storm „ 10
Windermere, from Troutbeck Road 1?
Head of Stockghyll Force IB
Sweden Bridge 22
Top of Kirkstone Pass 2.~>
gg Tarn 28
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The Roman Station at Ambleside
Bronze Ornament to Roman Sword-hilt
Rydal Water, from Scandale Side ;tfl
Upper Force, Rydal Park
Wordsworth's House, Rydal Mount 38
Grasmere, from Loughrigg Side 41
Thirhnere, from the Foot A 40
Derwentwater, from Castlehead 48
Derwentwater, from Sir John Woodford's Grounds 57
Roman Pot 00
Crosthwaite Church 01
Borrowdale and Glaramara 05
Castle Crag in Borrowdale facing 07
TheBowder Stone 08
Lodore 73
Watendlath Bridge 77
The Druid Circle 79
Bassenthwaite Water, from Faw Park Woods 85
Razor Edge and Scales Tarn 87
Mill Race in Brundholm Woods 91
Skiddaw, from near Portinscale 93
Long Side, Skiddaw 97
Ullswater, from Sharrow Bay 98
Ullswater, from Gowbarrow Park faciny 101
Ara, above the Force 104
Deepdale Head Ill
Ullswater, from Glencoin 121
Small Water 122
Hawes Water i:)l
Long Stile 135
1 Lives Water HO
\i
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Angle Tarn, by High Street 142
Fail-field Top 143
Swirrel Edge 144
Striding Edge 145
From Helvellyn Top, looking over Striding Edge facing 149
Fairfield Ridges 152
The Two Edges, from below 157
Langdale Pikes 158
Thrang Crag Quarry Mouth 162
Dungeon Ghyll 165
Gimmer Crag 170
Stickle Tarn, looking over Langdale 171
Angle Tarn, under Bowfell 176
Sprinkling Tarn 178
High House Tarn 17!)
Sty Head Tarn 182
Crummock and Buttermere, from Lowfell 183
The Vale of Lorton 186
Scale Force 191
Honister, from Crummock Water 193
Honister Quarries — Sled Roads and Quarryman's Sled 197
Scawfell and "NVastwater 201
Sty Head Pass 204
Wastdale Church 206
Borrowdale Head 208
Scawfell Ascent (different Aspects) 209, 210
The Screes 215
Colder Abbey 217
Ennerdale Water 225
The Isle of Man, from St. Bees 230
FleswickBay 231
vii
LIST OF TLIA'STHATIONS.
PAGE
C'.nulu'. from St. Bees •> \ I
l-';ills of the Duddon, above Scatlnviiitr '.'I"'
Wordsworth's Stepping Stones -•">'-
From Duddon Bridge vM'.n
Coniston Old Man, from Brantwood ^('.]
Coniston Water, from the Head ^7(i
Furness Abbey T ^77 . ->."i
Sunset across the Sands •».)•>
Si-a\vfi'll Miin : :>!M
Buttermere 817
Grass of Parnassus and Fringed Water Lily :S.T>
Geological Section 337
Graptolites 337
Ice-worn Rock, Anibleside 341
Moraine, Little Langdale 341
Col«ith Force .SI.")
l!;i in Clouds.... :; ir,
PREFACE
IT is long since any book was written descriptive of the Lake Country.
Green, and West, and Mrs. Radcliffe, and others of the Picturesque School,
gave their absurdly exaggerated accounts of what they saw and perilled in
these " inhospitable regions," as it was then the fashion to call them ; but
when the reaction against romanticism set in, and people had learnt for
themselves that the ascent of Blencathra could be made without a fit of
apoplexy and the necessity of blood-letting midway — that Borrowdale
had nothing maniacal in it, and that Newlands was rather lonesome but
not in the least degree terrifying — then all this idealistic writing was at
a discount, and only guide-books containing useful road-side informa-
tion were asked for.
Now that these have served their turn, it seemed to my husband and
myself that a pleasant book could be made by treating the Lake Country
with the love and knowledge — artistic and local — belonging of right to natives
and old inhabitants. We hope that what we have done will bear out our
design. Though a faithful description of scenes and places, it is not a tour
made up of personal adventures ; neither is it a hand-book, telling what inns
to go to and how much to pay for breakfast and dinner ; nor yet an exhaustive
monograph, for which we should have needed thrice the time and space
ix b
PREFACE.
afforded ; but it is merely a Book on the Lakes, giving such of the general
and local history as fell in with our plan and what we thought would interest
the reader, while doing our best to worthily illustrate and describe the
most beautiful places — both those popularly known, and those which only
the residents ever find out. It is indeed a " Love-book " which we give
to the world, in the earnest desire for others to share in our experiences,
and to receive the same joy and healthy excitement as we ourselves
have had.
I wish to express now my most grateful thanks to Thomas
Wright, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. F.S.A., &c., for an amount of kindly help,
rare even in the literary world where there is so much genuine kindness. He
took infinite pains to render my Early History free from faults, and he did
this with a fulness and frankness of generosity that enhanced even the value
of his scientific aid. To Edward Hull, Esq., F.G.S., &c., I would also
add my best thanks for relieving me of the responsibility of the geological
chapter, to the great improvement of the work, which has gained so much
by his accurate knowledge. Of the engravings I cannot speak, as can be
easily understood, because of the relations between the artist and myself;
I may however say that all the sketches were made expressly for this
work during our rambles, and that they have the merit of absolute fidelity ;
for the rest, they will speak for themselves more eloquently than the most
florid praises could. The Botanical notices and the Glossary I think
will be found to be fuller and more correct than any yet published ; and
I have only to lament the want of authority in the comparative tables
of lakes and waterfalls, which want however I had no possible means
of supplying.
E. LYNN LINTON.
Diuntu-ood, Conixttni .
September, 1864.
THE LAKE COUNTRY
THE LAKE COUNTRY
EARLY HISTORY
HEN Imperial Rome held Britain as one of her outlying pos-
sessions, she had a troublesome set of subjects in the Brigantes,1
those northern " people of the heights," whose province,2 in-
cluding among others our modern Lancashire, "Westmoreland,
and Cumberland, formed part of the larger and later division
of Maxima Caesariensis, and of the still later Saxon kingdom
of Deira. Those early northern Britons were a wild race, and gave
their conquerors no little trouble. They subsisted chiefly by hunting,
like most savages, abjuring fish " of which they had a prodigious
plenty," and holding hares, geese, and poultry in a kind of religious
abhorrence — perhaps the more industrious of them keeping cattle,3 like
1 Geoffrey of Monmoutli, in the time of Henry II., and Holinshed after him, say that
the first Britons were descended from Brutus, or Bruto, son or descendant of ^Eneas, who
settled here 1108 B.C. or 2855 A.M. Camden, indignant at the Romans for their aboriginal
theory, " as if mankind first sprung up out of the earth like mushrooms," makes Gomer.
the eldest son of Japhet, whose posterity became the Gomeri, or Gauls, our great ancestor.
The Cambrian Register says that Brigantes is from Beg, a summit, hence Brigantwys. the
People of the Summits; and Ridpath, that it is from the goddess Briganta, whose statue
was found in Scotland. " The interior of the island northward was occupied by the
Brigantes, who held the extensive districts, difficult of approach on account of their moun-
tains and woods, extending from the Humber and the Mersey to the present borders of
Scotland. This extensive tribe appears to have included many smaller ones. Two of
these are called by Richard of Cirencester, the Voluntii and the Sestuntii, the former
in the west of Lancashire, the latter in Westmoreland and Cumberland. The Jugantes
and the Cangi of Tacitus, on the borders of the Irish Sea, are also understood to
have belonged to, or been dependent upon, this tribe. The Brigantes are believed to have
been the original inhabitants of the island, who had been driven nortliAvard by successive
invasions and settlements, and they appear to have been the least civilized tribe of South
Britain." — The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. By THOMAS WRIGHT.
2 " Beyond the boundary which Ostorius had formed by his line of forts, the interior of
the island was inhabited by tribes who were fiercer and less civilized than the southern
nations. The chief of these was the great tribe of the Brigantes, extending through the
mountainous and wooded districts from the borders of Lincolnshire, through Yorkshire.
Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland." — Ibid.
3 Numbers were found in the capital of Cassivellaunus.
xiii
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
the old Novsv dalesmen. Their clothing was the skins of heasts, according
to some ; according to others, their habit of body was brute nakedness stained
with woad for a warlike effect ; their dwellings4 were " among the pillars of the
forest, enclosed with interwoven branches," whence they came out in fierce
hordes to harass their invaders ; their government was monarchical in form
but independent in individual practice; their religion druidical— " furies
for gods," said their masters, thinking of Diana and Venus, Minerva and
the beneficent Ceres — human sacrifices for propitiation, and eternal trans-
migration of souls for their only hope beyond the grave; their morality
was lax read by the more complex social polity of the Latins, but they
were faithful to their law such as it was, and indeed notably obedient to all
laws, by which they had a due measure of self-government preserved ; they wore
long hair both on the head and upper lip; and they ate a certain fruit of
the size of a bean — (Cesar's " chara ") — which allayed both hunger and
thirst.5
This portrait of the fierce Britains, with every repulsive feature heightened
in the Brigantes, is not a very inviting one ; being, in fact, simply that of
unmitigated savages before civilization has developed or history6 ennobled
4 Caesar says, •' a town among the Britons is nothing more than a thick wood fortified
with a ditch and rampart, to serve as a place of retreat against the incursions of their
enemies."
5 This was probahly the root of the Orobits tuberosus, or Tuberous bitter vetch, the
I.eath peaseling," which Sir William Hooker says the Highlanders eat to this day, and
call Cormeille, and which the Hollanders roast or boil like a chestnut ; the analogue to
which is the coca of the South Americans.
8 " The Britons of Cumbria," says Palgrave, " occupy a tolerably large space on the map.
but a very small one in history ; their annals have entirely perished, and nothing authentic
remains concerning them. Romance has more. In Cumbria, Merlin prophesied and Arthur
held his court. These, and such like fantastic personages — Roderic the Magnificent, and
Peridur, Prince of Sunshine — are, however, of importance in one point of view, showing
that from the Ribble to the Clyde existed a dense population of Britons, even in the tenth
century inhabiting the greater part of the western coast. Dunbritton — now Dumbarton, or
Alduyd, Clyde — was the residence of the Cumbrian kings, whose kingdom extended nearly to
our modern Leeds, but the Saxons drove them continually further back, conquering at a very
early period Carlisle, which Egfrith of Northumbria bestowed upon the See of Liiidisfarn.
He extended his conquests to Furness. After the reduction of Alcluyd by Egbert (680 to 756),
the Britons were governed by Scottish princes, who probably acquired their rights by inter-
marriage with a British princess. The Cumbrian Britons gradually melted away into the
xiv
EARLY HISTORY.
them : whether true or not is another matter. But indeed it is needful to
take, with a very large "grain," accounts of things and people so unlike the
ordinary home experience which was the only standard whereby Imperial
Eome could measure values.
Rome got many good things out of her Britons, Brigantes and others.
Breastplates of British pearls (baccae conchae, " shell-berries," as Carndeu
calls them), which Caesar dedicated to Venus Genitrix; ship-loads of chalk,
wicker baskets, tin, lead, iron, and other metals ; corn (the Gauls must
have starved in 360 had not Julian, then commanding the Roman army in
Gaul, fed them with British wheat) ; coal (as Wright has shown, there
being coal enough left in the old Roman homes to make many a good-
sized fire); fierce dogs of noble breed and glorious aspect; soldiers7 good
for foreign service ; the spectacle of Caractacus bound, but more royally
free than his captors ; the noble womanhood of Boadicea as a lesson to the
perfumed Julias and soft-eyed Messalinas of the imperial city ; and the fair-
haired slaves of later years, who gave a Pope occasion for two moderate
puns, and to St. Augustine a mission ; with such gifts as these our little
island of Albion 8 was of no mean value to the queen and mistress of the
world. What she left would occupy too large a space in these pages. But
though we cannot speak of all the Roman legacies to England, we can of
surrounding population, jret probably not till a very recent period. The Welsh even were
enumerated by David the Lion among his subjects, and the laws or usages of the Brits or
Britons continued to Edward I., 1124-53, when he summoned the representatives of
Scotland to attend his parliament at Westminster. In some secluded districts the language
is thought to have lingered to the Reformation. Pendragon Castle reminds the traveller of
the fabled Uther ; and Skiddaw and Helvellyn (he might have added Blencathra, Glaramara,
the Glenderamakin, the Glenderaterra, and Walla Crag), retain their original names, as
the sepulchral moimments of a race which has passed away." — NOTE to GILES'S Translation
of Geoffrey of Moninouth.
7 According to the Notitia, the fourth ala of Britons was stationed in Egypt. The
lircnty-sixth cohort of Britons occurs in Armenia. A body of the "Invincible Younger
Britons " was stationed in Spain ; and one of the " Elder Britons " in Illyricum. The
•• Younger British Slingers, (exculcatores)" are found among the Palatine auxiliaries. Other
bodies of Britons are found in Gaul, Italy, and other countries. — The Celt, the Roman,
and the S<i.v<»i.
s The earliest mention of Albion is in the treatise De Mundo, attributed to Aristotle,
340 B.C. where it says : " Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean which flows round
I he earth. In it are two very large islu:i:ls called Britannia : these are Albion and lenn-."
XV
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
one — the harmless amusement left to our antiquaries in the roads'-' still
tramihli', in the harrows every now and then stumbled over, in the camps
to he still denned among the furrows of potato-fields and wheat-fields, in
the tesselated pavements and bits of pottery, the urns and the coins, the—
" Filmhe without a robe to clasp,
Obsolete lamps, whose light no time recals.
Urns without ashes, tearless lachrymals —
to he dug up yet by the curious at any spot famous for their occupation.
In our special lake country we come across many such relics ; but the
chief in point of interest are the roads, about which no two explorers can
agree, nor does any antiquarian itinerary intelligibly or credibly trace from
end to end. It is very certain, however, that one went from Ambleside to
Penrith, and one from Penrith to Kendal,10 meeting on High-street ; that
9 It would be only a false pretence of learning if I were to attempt any detailed account
of the Roman roads in the Lake district ; and the old county histories are so little to be
depended on, that they cannot be quoted as reliable authorities. But for what it may be
worth, I will give Hodgson's "Itinerary," taken from his History of Northumberland.
Agricola's " two columns marched into Westmoreland — one by Overborough on the Lune,
Castlebower, Borrowdale, and the Brins of Shap, as far as our present Brougham Castle —
the other by Water Crook, Kendal, to the Birrens Ring at Ambleside — where it was sub-
divided, one party going by Kirkstone and High Street (the Saxon Street, the version of
the Latin strata), through Patterdale and Matterdale, to the camp of Whitbarrow on Hutton
Moor, and thence to Old Penrith ; the other by BorroAvdale, or the pass of Dunmail Raise,
down the Derwent, and along the coast to Carlisle, where it would meet the first division
from Brougham Castle and Old Penrith, advancing by Netherby and the Birrens of
Miildleby to the large camp at Bin-ens-work Hill, their furthest post in this campaign."
10 " In the spring of the year 80, Agricola placed himself again at the head of the
army, and, proceeding to invade and reduce the lowlands of Scotland, extended the Roman
territory as far as the estuary of the river Taus (the Tay). When this campaign was over,
the Roman troops were employed under the eye of their leader in erecting fortresses over
the newly-acquired territory, and the sites were chosen with so much judgment, that it was
a common remark that no castellum built by Agricola was ever taken by the enemy, while
they were placed near enough together to communicate easily with each other. His fourth
summer (A.I). Hi) was employed in the erection of a chain of forts between the two
estuaiies known to the Romans by the name of Clota and Bodotria (the Clyde and
Forth), as a check upon the incursions of the north Highlanders Lollius Urbicus
nii^rd, on the same site, a new line of forts, and joined them together by an immense
continuous rampart of earth and turf, which from the name of the emperor under whom it
was built, is usually called the wall of Antoninus. It is now popularly called Graham's
xvi
EARLY HISTORY.
another was oil the east border of Satterthwaite, pointing to Ambleside where
was a camp or station, and apparently made for a by-way to Low Furness ;
and that another skirted the lower part of the township of Ulverston, from the
White Thorn, the Spina Alba on Conishead Bank, by Lindal, Dalton, and
Goldmire, to Roauhead on Duddon Bank. Part of this was found, not very
many years ago, in a small lane near Mountbarrow House.
When the Romans finally withdrew, the Scots and Picts swarmed over
the wall n into Cumberland and Lancashire, and farther south still, oppressing
the unhappy Britons who had no longer their old power of manhood to
protect them. They wrote to Rome for help; the "lamentations of the
Britons unto JSgitms their consul " setting forth in piteous terms how the
barbarians drove them into the sea, and the sea drove them back to
the barbarians, so that of two kinds of death they must choose one —
either to be drowned in the waves or to be butchered by the sword, if
Rome would not help them. But the Mistress of the World, with the
troth at her gates and famine within her walls, had neither men nor
money for the Britons ; and when all help from that quarter was found
to be impossible, the Saxons were invited over instead. How they came
to the call in their ships of hide ; how Hen gist and Horsa watched their
Dike, and along its course are frequently found inscribed tablets commemorating the portion
built by the different troops and cohorts of the Roman army. — The Celt, the Roman, and
the Saxon. T. WRIGHT.
11 Hadrian's wall, built in 120 A.D., was eighty miles long, of the finest masonry in the
world, and had a ditch to defend it. " He caused that formidable barrier to be built
across the island, from the Solway to the Tyne, of which we still trace the stupendous
remains ; a massive wall, nearly seventy miles in extent, extending over plain and moun-
tain, from Bowness on the Solway Frith to the now celebrated locality of Wall's End on
the Tyne, accompanied on its southern side by an earthem vallum and a deep ditch,
and fortified with a formidable series of twenty-three stationary towns, with intermediate
mile-castles and watch-towers. It has been customary to consider the wall only as the
structure raised by Hadrian, while the earthern vallum, or rampart, was ascribed to Severus ;
but both are parts of one work, erected by the former emperor." — Ibid.
At Moresby the 20th legion stationed at Chester (Deva), for the subjugation of the
Brigantes, inscribed a tablet to Hadrian, which was found in digging the foundations of a
building there ; and the second cohort of Lingones raised an altar, also at Moresby,
dedicated to the god Silvanus (Deo Silvano). Most of our information respecting the
Roman occupancy of Great Britain is taken from the Itinerary of Antonine — a soil of Road-
Book for the empire — and the Notitia — a list of all the officers and their places of com-
mand, or the Courc-calendar of the time.
xvii c
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
opportunities and made the most of their chances, and how Rowena, the
"hlue-eyed," added the power of her fatal heauty as well; and how, in that
meeting or "palaver" on Salisbury Plain, the cry of " nemed cure Saxes"
gave the signal for the butchery of three hundred of the best in the land — the
Britons having come unarmed, but the false Saxons with short skeines
beneath their cloaks — how all this happened with the terrible ruthlessness
of Fate, do not the youngest readers of history know?
But a gleam of light shot through the darkness. Tradition comforts
us with the account of how good Ambrosius and his brother, Uther Pen-
dragon, took matters into their own hands, repulsed the Saxons, and did
many mighty works; though the ordinary proverb spoken of by Fuller,
and quoted constantly since —
" Let Uther Pendragon do what he can,
The river Eden will run as it ran,"
records one failure, namely, the attempt to divert the course of the Eden
to better fortify the castle of Pendragon. Uther was a mighty man in his
day — the friend of Merlin, and a practiser of the black art himself; but he
was finally overcome by the superior cunning of his enemies ; for the Saxons,
unable to destroy him in fair fight, threw poison into his favourite spring,
of which he, drinking, died.
The snake was only scotched, not killed. If they had got rid of
Uther, they had still his son Arthur at their heels. "This large island
of Britain," says Gildas, "placed at almost the uttermost bounds of the
earth, with her large spreading fields, pleasantly seated hills, and moun-
tains most convenient for the changeable pastures of cattle ; watered with
clear fountains and sundry brooks ; beating with snow-white sands, together
with silver streams gliding forth with soft sounding noise, and leaving a
pledge of sweet savours on bordering banks, and lakes gushing out abun-
dantly in cold running rivers," was again to be defiled with war. Arthur,
Uther Pendragon's son by Lady Igren, "Duchess of Cornwall" — our famous
King Arthur, half hero half myth, but about the most popular character
of the day — put himself at the head of the national party, His first battle
was fought at the mouth of the Glem, and his second, third, fourth, and
fifth by the Douglas which ran red to Wigan, in " the region of Linius,
xviii
EARLY HISTORY.
one of the cantreds or great divisions of the Sistuiitiau kingdom or western
half of South Lancashire." By which four victories, and eight more to the
back of them, Lancashire was delivered from the Saxons, the land had rest,
and "Le roy Arthus d'Angleterre et le Due de Lancastre ordonnerent et
firent la Table Ronde." A slight anachronism, as there was no " Duke
of Lancaster'' for some centuries after.
The Britons, who had been Christians once, but who had relapsed
into their former heathenism, partly owing to the heathendom of the Saxons,
were now again to be converted. Augustine came over and did much,
but not all ; for a knot of old sinners lived securely at Furness, or Fore-
nesse, where, defended by the sea before them and the mountains behind,
they enjoyed themselves in their own ways, and worshipped their stone
dolls after their own fashion. To remedy these abuses, Egfrid, then King
of Northumberland or Deira,12 gave Saint Cuthbert (686) "the land called
Carthmell, and all the Britons in it " (including that special stronghold
of iniquity, Furness), to be by him reduced to order and decent living, and
appreciation generally of the blessing of enlightenment and good government.
The next special notice of our particular land is when Egbert (825)
united the several distinct provinces into a monarchy and it was called England ;
he " divided his new acquisites into seueral portions and shares, and for the
preseruation of a future peace set over each of them a Comes, to rule
them, whence each portion or bailiwick was styled comitatus, a scyre or
county, sc., an earldome. . . . And on the west part from the riuer
Solway to the riuer Duden on the south. This he cald Carliershire, or
Cumberland; and what lay upon the west, or Durham and Lancashyre, he
cald Aplebyschyre or Westmorland; and from the riuer Duden to the
riuer Mersey, upon the south, was styled Lancaster schyret Ouer euery
scyre, as hath been said, he placed a Comes to rvle and gouern it, according
to the Lawes and Customes of the country, who together with the By shop
of the Diocess, were to instruct and rvle the people, the one declaring to
them the Laws of God, and the other the Laws of the Land ; and they had
12 Tliis Saxon kingdom of Deira included our modern Lancashire, Yorkshire, West-
moreland, Cumberland, and Durham, in its limits ; in fact, much of the ancient Brigantine
territory. AVhen it was divided into counties, the southern portion was called Loukeshire
from Loncaster, the castle on the Lone or Lime.
xix c 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
likewise vnder them a Heretoge, chosen hy the people in a folemote, who
had the power to raise the people to compell the otherwise disobedient to
ohedience, and to inflict chastisement for offences." 13
After Egbert came Alfred the Great; hut neither saint nor monarch
had as yet done much for the enlightenment of the people, if we are to
believe the great king's oft-quoted expression, that, when he took the throne,
very few even south of the Humber could understand their daily prayers in
English or translate a letter from the Latin — not one south of the Thames.
It was in Lancashire that Alfred allowed the Danes to strike root, to the
after disaster of the country ; and still, all through the northern provinces,
are types of pure Scandinavian beauty and manhood — features more finely
cut, and forms more grandly framed, than in any other part of England.
Canute entered Lancashire in revolt against him, with an army ; (these
northern counties were always the last to submit to any change of
authority;) he took possession of Cumberland, then, as later, the Debate-
able Land, and placed Duncan, the grandson of Malcolm, king of Scotland,
in possession thereof, subject to England. But there was little beside
war, and tumult, and fighting about boundaries, and private wrongs, and
public injuries, and the revolt of this earl and of that, till William the
Conqueror finally defeated Earls Morcar and Edwin, the great leaders of
the Northmen, and so broke the neck of the northern insubordination.14
He then built Lancaster Castle,15 as a stronghold in case of future trouble,
and married the sister of the offending noblemen to Ivo Tailbois, (or
Taillebois,) whom he made Baron of Kendal, and who was the brother of
Fulk, Earl of Anjou, his great friend and partisan.
Lancashire is not mentioned by name in Domesday-book. The southern
part of it is included in Cheshire ; while the northern, the south of West-
moreland, and part of Cumberland, go into the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The different ranks of men given are barons, thanes,16 freemen, radmen,
13 Kuerden's unpublished Preface to his History of LancftsJthr.
14 He had not many enemies to subdue, it would appear, seeing that the whole popula-
tion of England was not two millions at the time of the Conquest.
15 By the end of Stephen's reign there were 1,115 castles in England. " Nests of
Devils," Matthew Paris calls them.
16 Thanage— service : Thane ( Saxon, thrinan) ministrare: the same tenure as the feudal
Barons.
EAKLY HISTORY.
drenches (a kind of Socmanni, having land set apart for them as husband-
men, and exempt from military service), bordars, bondmen, and villeins.
But Lancashire had not many of the nobler sort ; for she was then a
miserable place17 scarcely worth the trouble of holding. In 1086 all the land
lying between the Mersey and the Kibble was valued at one hundred and
twenty pounds : in 1814, at over two millions and a half. But this is not to
be taken absolutely ; a large allowance having to be made for difference in
relative value. In that tract between the Mersey and the Kibble lay a famous
place of safety, " Christ's Croft " : —
" When all England is alofte,
Safe are they in Christe's Crofte :
And where should Christe's Crofte be
But between Kibble and Mersey."
Ivo Tailbois then was the starting-point of the great House of Lan-
caster. William, his great grandson, had the royal licence to call himself
William de Lancastre, as well as Baron of Kendal ; Edmund Crouchback, son
of Henry III., had granted to him the honour, earldom, castle, and town
of Lancaster, in joyful commemoration of the royal victory at Evesham.
His son Thomas married the sole daughter and heiress of de Lacy, Earl of
Lincoln, possessing by his marriage, and in his own right, six several
earldoms. Taking part in the Gaveston troubles, he was attainted and
executed ; but his estates were subsequently restored to his brother Henry.
Henry's son was the second Knight of the Garter, the Black Prince being
the first. He was in both Crecy and Poitiers, and was the first or " good "
Duke of Lancaster. At the same time the county was raised into a county
palatine, " with power to have a chancery in the county, to issue out writs
under his own seal, as well touching pleas of the crown as others relating
to the common laws of the realm, as also all other liberties and regalities
belonging to the county palatine." His daughter Blanche married John of
17 Camden, quoted in Pictorial England, speaks of the north country generally with
great disdain. He approaches the people of Lancashire " with a kind of dread : may it
forbode no ill. However, that I may not seem wanting to this count}*, I will run the hazard
of the attempt." He says, too, that Lancaster is not populous, and the people are husband-
men; Kendal, on the contrary, is a very populous town, with two streets crossing eacli
other ; Appleby has fallen into decay ; and Whitehaven is not so nmch as mentioned, for
the good reason that no such town or even hamlet then existed.
xxi
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Gauut — " time-honoured Lancaster," third sou of Edward III. — more pro-
perly John of Ghent, his birthplace ; and who, as king of Castile and Leon,
impaled the Spanish royal arms with his ducal coat. During the rebellion
of John Ball, Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw against the poll-tax, John of Gaunt
was so unpopular, that his life was threatened by the people ; wiierefore he
was forced to bide in Scotland under the honourable guardianship of William
Earl of Douglas until the tumult was stayed. Constance, his second wife, was
left in woeful plight. She could not get admission into Pontefract, whither
she had gone for safety ; and was fain to travel seven miles at night by torch-
light to Knaresborough. And a midnight journey of seven miles through
a disturbed country was not a thing most high-born gentlewomen would have
cared to encounter. After the death of this wife Lancaster married Catherine
Swinford a knight's daughter ; already, during his wife's lifetime, the con-
fessed mother of two sons and a daughter by him ; "at which all marvelled,"
not at the motherhood, but at the marriage ; and the ladies of her new degree
rebelled against her association, and the Duke of Gloucester, "being a man
of a high mind and a stout stomach, misliked his brother matching so meanly ;
but Catherine bore herself so honourably, that hate gave place to love and
dishonour to esteem." His three children by her were legitimized, and the
marriage was a success. Nevertheless, when he died, he was laid by the
side of the wife of his youth, Blanche the daughter of the " good."
John of Gaunt spoke in favour of Wickliffe, "the morning star of the
Reformation," and had to fly for his life for this too ; getting into further
trouble by the wild revenge which certain friends of his — Lord John
Holland and Sir Henry Green — took on John Latimer, the Franciscan,
who had falsely accused him of compassing the death of the king. John's
son, Henry Bolingbroke or Bullenbroke, made himself king, as we all know ;
and henceforth the House of Lancaster, with its red rose (John of Gauut's
device), became the house of royalty, and the duchy was vested in the sove-
reignty. Henry gave his friend Henry de Percy, Earl of Northumberland,
and his son Henry Hotspur, a grant of the Isle of Man, on condition of
their bearing the curtana — the Lancaster short-sword — at the left shoulder
before the king and his heirs ; the same short sword which John of Gaunt
had carried before Richard II.
Lancaster was not famous for its religious zeal, or its means of religion ;
xxii
EARLY HISTORY.
wherefore, in consideration of its spiritual destitution,18 Stephen removed (1127)
to Furness, then called Bekangesgill or the Glen of the deadly nightshade,
the House which had been founded in 1124 at Tulketh for the Cistercian
monks of Savigny; which Furness Abhey became one of the most cele-
brated Houses of the county, and one of the nursery places of thought
and learning.19 But it was not all get and no give, even with the favoured
monks of Furness ; for in the time of Edward III., who knew how to keep
people to their duty, the abbot was commanded to provide a suitable house
for the custody of the king's pence, during that monarch's war with France
— as the sheriff of Lancaster was commanded to provide a hundred bows and a
thousand sheaves of arrows ; — and when a certain royal lady was married to
a certain nobleman of high degree, an order was issued to the abbot of Furness,
as well as to the Priors of Burscough, Up Holland, and Coningshead, to
levy a subsidy for the rnaritagium or dowry.
King John, who had been endowed by Richard with the earldom and
honour of Lancaster, seems to have always retained a friendly feeling for his
old estate. At Runnymede special privileges were granted to the Honour
of Lancaster, and even before the famous Carta de Foresta, he granted a
private forest charter to his duchy (which when he became king he con-
firmed, in the first year of his reign), "allowing his knights, thanes, and
freeholders, without challenge of him or his heirs, to fell, sell, and give at
their will, the forest woods,20 without being subject to the forest regulations ;
and to hunt and take hares, rabbits, and all kinds of wild beasts (except
18 Domesday records no place of worship in Lonsdale North — the North of Lan-
cashire— save at Hovgvn, where there was a Santa Cherche, or Santon Kirk (which,
however, is in Cumberland), and Cherchebi or Kirkby Kendal. Hovgvn was a manor
containing twenty villages, known in Stephen's time as Futherness — now High Furness
and Furness Fell-*. Lonsdale North included the forest of Fudemesse and Wagenei (pro-
bably the Hovgvnai of Domesday), Dalton, and Ulverston, the fishery and warren of which
were given by Stephen to the monks of Fumess. — BAINES' History of Lancashire. But
" the fact of a church not being mentioned in Domesday does not always prove that
there was no church there ; there were plenty of churches not mentioned in that record." —
T. WIUGHT.
19 The couchers' books at Furness show that considerable progress had been made in
the arts, in the time of the first Duke of Lancaster even.
20 In forest terms, vert was the covert, the trees, the herbage ; and, according to Coke,
whatever beast of the forest was good for food was venisqn.
THE LAKE COUNTKY.
<]eer — bisse— goats, and wild hogs) iu all parts within his forests and
demesnes, hays of the county." This was a liberal thing of John to do,
for the forest laws, as reduced to consistency by Canute, were horribly severe.
A bondman, hunting a beast in the forest so as to make him pant for breath,
was to lose his skin. Freemen only might keep greyhounds, provided the
bulls of their feet were cut. If a mad dog bit a forest beast, the fine was the
price of a freeman ; if a royal beast, death. A solemn inquest was held on a
dead deer ; but down to the time of the Plantagenets, these laws had been so
far ameliorated, that at a forest assize, held in 1286, only fine and imprison-
ment are recorded for killing the deer and " venison." John's generous
intentions to his old subjects were not always of avail ; for once they com-
plained of Theobald Walter who had abridged their supply of fuel, and of
Roger Poer who had deprived them of wood and forest land used as pasturage ;
it is to be hoped they got redress and restitution.
In the reign of Edward I. summonses were issued to the men of the
three counties, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, to join the
king's army in Wales ; and in 1282 the sheriff of Lancashire was ordered
to provide two hundred wood-cutters (coupiatores), each furnished with a
hatchet to cut down the trees. They were to muster at Chester on Saturday,
the Octaves of the Feast of St. Peter, and each cutter was to have three-
pence a day. Not such bad pay at a time Avhen a labourer's wages were
three-halfpence, a harvest man's twopence, the rent of the Lord Mayor's
house one pound, a cow six shillings, and a sheep one shilling, a pair of
shoes fourpence, eggs a halfpenny the dozen, and arable land, even in Kent,
threepence and sixpence per acre.
Lancashire either sent up no Parliamentary representatives, or has not
preserved the records, till the thirty-third year of Edward I. Then were
elected to serve in the Parliament, to assemble at Westminster on Sunday
next after the Feast of St. Martin, Matthew de Redman and John d'Ewyas,
"elected knights for the county, by the consent of the whole, who have full
power to do for themselves and commonalty what our lord the king shall
ordain. The said knights affix their marks ; not able to write." The sheriff's
return adds : " There is no city in the county of Lancaster." In 1322
Edmundus de Neville, miles, and Johannes de Lancastria, miles, are returned ;
one receiving for seventeen days' attendance iu Parliament at York, and six
xx iv
EARLY HISTORY.
days -l coming and returning, sixty-nine shillings, or three shillings a day ;
the other thirty-eight shillings, or twenty-pence a day. But Parliamentary
deputies were not always to be had, even for money. In the thirty-
ninth year of Edward III. the sheriff returns : " There is not any city or
borough from which any citizens or burgesses are able or accustomed to
come, according to the tenure of the writ, by reason of their debility and
poverty." Under the sixth Edward the franchise was resumed ; had it
been in abeyance ever since, and were they always in debility and poverty ?
Yet they had a good character for honesty and liberality in those early
days, poor as they were ; hence, in the time of the second Richard, arose
the necessity for a law respecting uniform weights and measures, because,
says the king, " There has always been a larger measure used in Lancashire
than in any other part of the kingdom ; " which would scarcely be said now,
either of the great sellers or the small.
Lancashire had her share of the troubles which every now and then
disturbed the empire. Lambert Simnel landed at the Pile of Foudrey in
1487 (where also they expected the Spaniards to land during the time of the
Armada), and brought poor Sir Thomas Broughton to his ruin ; and Swart
Moor still owes its name to Martin Swart, who mustered the impostor's
forces there the year before. And at the battle of Flodden Field, when : —
" The left hand wing, with all his rout,
The lusty Lord Dacre did lead,
With him the bows of Kenclal stout,
With milk-white coats ** and crosses red."
Lancaster was not behind, though not, perhaps, the most forward; but all
the three north counties were well represented there.
" Then for the Earle of Surry hee sente,
And Regente of the North him made ;
21 The time allowed for travel from Lancaster to London was five or six days in good
weather, eight in snow, or if foul.
22 Milk-white cloth was a Kendal manufacture, as was Kendal green and " Kendal
cottons." " Master Camden termeth that town, ' Lanilicii gloria et industria prascellens.' "
Yet though the home manufacture was so good, Fuller says that fustian of foreign make only
was worn by the first quality among us. The knight in Chaucer who " of fustian he weared
u gippon," was dressed in the height of the fasliion of the time, provided his fustian was
not of local make, or his gippon of home art. The clothiers of Kendal were the first
founders of Stourbridge fair.
xxv d
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
And lad him, if the Scoots were bente
The Northern Borders to Invaid,
That he should raise a lloyall Baud
In Yorkshire and in Bishoppricke,
In Westmorland and Comberland,
In Lancashire, and Cheshire eake.
And, if thou need, Northumberland.
Quoth he, theare is stronge men and stouto
* * * * *
There is the Bower of Kendall bold,
Which ferce will fight, and never flee.
And all that clim the Mountayne came,
Where groune from Frost is seldome free,
With lustie ladds, and large of length,
Which dwelt on Sommer water syde.23
In 1535 began the dissolution of the monasteries. Dr. Thomas Legh
and Dr. Richard Layton were appointed commissioners for Lancashire ;
where they questioned : — 1. As to the immortality of the heads of each
monastery. 2. The name of the founder. 3. The estate of the convent.
4. The superstitions therein. 5. Their debts. 6. The names of those
therein wishing to be discharged. As to the first, Furness and Cartmel
and Conishead came off but badly ; the second hurt them just a trifle ; the
rest did not harm much. By this dissolution, says Fuller, "Ten thousand
persons were sent to seek their fortunes in the wide world ; some had
twenty shillings given them at their ejection, and a new gown, which needed
to be of strong cloth to last till they got another. Most were exposed to
want, and many a young man proved an old beggar." This suppres-
sion was followed by the insurrection in the northern provinces called
the Pilgrimage of Grace, under Robert Askew, self-styled Earl of Poverty
in his proclamation to the people of Hawkshead; an insurrection in which
most of the dispossessed Heads naturally took part. The brunt of the matter,
though, fell on the east, and the poor pilgrims who had sought to bring
back the old faith were eventually dispersed — the Earl of Cumberland
repulsing their attack on Skipton Castle, though their priests assured them
that their banners were sacred and must prevail ; for on them were emblazoned
the five wounds, or stigmata, and a chalice ; every pilgrim wearing on his
23 From an old MS. in the British Museum.
xxvi
EARLY HISTORY.
sleeve, as a badge, the five wounds, and the name of Jesus in the midst.
But even sacred banners have to yield to superior numbers, as the Earl
of Poverty and his followers found. The king was very scornful and
bitter in his words. He could not understand how it was that " ye who
be but brutes and inexpert folk " should meddle in state matters, and
expressed himself otherwise hardly. Some abbots — they of Whalley, Jorvaux,
Salley — and sundry priors and monks implicated, were executed ; and the
rebellion was made cause for still more rigorous suppression of religious
houses.24 But Furness saved its bones, if at the expense of its skin. The
only original surrender now to be found is that of Furness, dated the 9th of
April, 1537, which proves that the abbot, Roger Pyle, could read the signs
of the times as well as most men, and knew when the oak must bend, if
it would not be uprooted or cut down. The charges against him and his
monks were that they had raised up a rebellion against the king's majesty ;
that the abbot had lied to the commissioners at the time of the visitation ;
that he had caused his monks to be forsworn ; that he had concealed the
treason of one, Henry Salley, a monk, who had said that no secular knave
should be head of the Church, and of another who had said that the king
24 List of religions houses in Lancashire at the time of the Dissolution (visitations
1534-1540). — From Dugdale and Speed. At Cockerham a Priory. At Cockersand a
Premonstratensian Abbey (allowed to remain for a while). At Coiiisltead a Priory of
Austin Canons. Gabriel Pennington built, temp. Henry II., by encouragement, and on the
land of William de Lancastre, Baron of Kendall (a great benefactor), an hospital and
priory of Black Canons, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consisting of a Prior,
seven religious, forty-eight servants, valued at 161Z. 5s. 9<l. At Fumes a Cistercian Abbey,
to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the monastery begun at Tulket, 1124, for the
monks of Savigny, in France, removed, 1127, to Furness Valley, then called Bekangesgill ;
the founder Stephen, Earl of Morton and Bouloigne, afterwards king ; value, 8057. 16s. 5d.
At Kcrtmel or Cartmell a Priory of Austin's Canons ; Wm. Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke,
founder; value 1,1 18Z. ; regular canons of Saint Austin, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, rated 26 Henry VIII. at 91Z. 6s. 3rf., at second valuation, 212/. lls. 1(W. ; ten religious,
thirty-eight servants ; site granted 38 Henry VIII. to Thomas Holcroft. At Lancaster,
(1) an alien priory (Benedictine), dissolved with other aliens, and annexed by Henry V. ;
(2) a hospital dedicated to St. Leonard, founded by King John, while Earl of Morton,
afterwards by Henry Duke of Lancaster, about 30 Edward III. annexed to the nunnery of
Seton, in Cumberland ; (8) a priory of Dominican or Black Friars ; (4) a Priory of Grey
Friars — a Franciscan convent near the bridge. The lands or revenues of Furness,
Cartmel, and Conishead, were vested in the officers of the Duchy of Lancaster, for the
king's use.
xxvii d 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
was not the true king, and no rightful heir to the crown. On these charges
two monks were taken to Lancaster Castle, and the abbot having been taken
into custody was prevailed on to sign a voluntary surrender of the abbey,
which he did at Whalley on the date given above. That the charges were
merely trumped-up excuses for an arbitrary act, even Henry's own tool was
obliged to confess. "After two rigorous investigations, nothing treasonable
or in any manner indictable could be brought against the house ; " " where-
upon," writes Sussex to Henry, "devising with myself yf one way would not
serve, how and by what means the said monks myght be ryd from the
said abbey, and, consequently, how the same myght be at your gracious
pleasur, I determined to assay him as of myself, whether he would be
contented to surrender giff and graunt unto (you) your heirs and assigans
the sayd monastery; which thing so opened to the abbot farely, we found
him of a very facile and ready mynde to follow my advice in that behalf."
The deed acknowledges " misorder and evil rule, both unto God and the
king, of the brethren, and of the said abbey," and so in discharge of his
conscience, the abbot gives all into the king's hands ; the community con-
senting. They were provided for, as were all who voluntarily surrendered.
To the abbot were assigned the revenues of the rectory of Dalton, value some-
where about thirty-three pounds 25 per annum ; and one hundred and fifty
pounds were charged on the revenues of the Lordship for the prior and the
twenty-eight brethren who signed the abdication.
In 1569, Lancaster, surely the true "cock-pit of conscience," if the
country of games,86 wras again disturbed by the conspiracy of the Earls of
" A very large sum for one man's income, when ten pounds a year was considered a
good salary.
86 The Lancashire games, from the Second Eandle Holme : —
" And they dare chalenge for to throw the sledge,
To jumpe, or leape ovir ditch or hedge ;
To wrastle, play at stoole ball, or to runne,
To pitch the barre, or to shoote of a gunne ;
To play at loggets, nine holes, or ten pinnes,
To trye it out at foote ball, by the shinnes,
At tick tacke, seize nody, maw and ruffe,
At hot cokles, leap frogge, or blind man's buffe ;
xxviii
EARLY HISTORY.
Westmoreland and Northumberland, for poor beautiful Mary Stuart; and at
that time a search was made here, as elsewhere, for vagrants, beggars,
gamesters, rogues, or gipsies, lasting from nine o'clock on Sunday morning,
July 10th, to four in the afternoon of next day, whereby thirteen thousand
" masterless men," with no visible means of living but from games, bowling,
archery, and the like, were passed to their own counties (the same process
repeated monthly till November). After this came the battle of Thurland, as
the next great disturbance (1643), when Colonel Rigby, the Parliamentarian,
besieged Thurlaud Castle, the last stronghold of the Cavaliers in the north of
the country. The royal force in Westmoreland and Cumberland, lying near,
united with that from Cartrnel and Furness, and assembled on the sands,
a company of sixteen hundred men, to relieve the garrison. But Colonel
Rigby marched into Furness on a Sunday morning, and attacked and defeated
them without trouble, the whole affair not lasting much above a quarter of an
hour. The Cavalier ciy was, " In with Queen Mary ! " the Parliamentary,
" God with us ! " " Upon the close of the business, all our men," writes
their commander, October 17th, " with a great shout cried out, Glory be to
God, and we all, except one troop of horse and one foot company, which
I left to quiet the country, returned forthwith to our siege of Thurland,"
which capitulated ten days after. The fortress was then demolished, and
" mercy set as a crown upon the head of poor Lancashire ; " the mercy
culminating in dividing the county (1646) into nine classical Presbyteries.
The ninth included the parishes of Aldinghani, Ursewick, Ulverstone,
Hawxhead, Coulton, Doulton, Cartmel, Kirkby, and Winnington, of which
the ministers were Mr. Thomas Shaw, of Aldingham ; Philip Bennet, of
Ulverston ; Kemp, of Hawxhead ; Bryan Willow, of Coultou ; and John
To drink the halper pottes, or clcale at the whole cann
To play at chesse or pue, and inke home ;
To daunce the inoris, play at barley brake,
At al exploits a man can think or speak :
At shrove-groate, vanter poynte, or cross and pile,
Or beshrew him that's last at any stile ;
At leapinge over a Christmas bonfire,
Or at the drawinge dame out of the myer ;
At shoote cocke, Gregory, stoole ball, and what not ;
Picke poynt, toppe and scourge, to make him hott."
xxix
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
Manjold, of Cartmel ; since which period it may be said to have passed out
of the limits of an early history.27
Part of the history of Westmoreland — or Westmoreland,28 as it is some-
times written, Westmorland and Westmaria — is bound up with that of
Lancashire ; as in the barony of Kendal, which went with the earldom of
Lancaster — belonging, indeed, to the Hundred of Lonsdale, one of the
divisions of that county ; but the barony of Westmoreland,59 frequently called
the barony of Appleby and the Bottom of Westmoreland, and which went
with the countship of Cumberland, was an independent division altogether,
and belonged to quite another family. Both barony and countship were granted
by the Conqueror to Ranulph de Meschines, from whom they descended to Hugh
de Morville, one of the assassinators of A'Becket ; and then the estates became
divided, part going with Hugh's sister, Maud, into the family of the de
Veteriponts (Maud's Meaburn is a manor to this day), and the castle of
Appleby passing into the custody of Grospatric the son of Orme (one of the
Tailbois race), when Henry was compelled to chastise those who had translated
his wishes but too faithfully before the altar of Canterbury church. The
family estates came back in John's time to Maud's son, old Roger de Morville's
grandson, though a de Veteripont ; and then, in three generations, passed by
marriage to Roger de Clifford, the source of a long and illustrious line.
Among them, the eighth of his name, was the Black Clifford, he who slew
that " fayre gentleman, and maydenly person," the young30 Earl of Rutland,
27 The first potatoes grown in England were raised in Lancashire, and it is still famous
for them; Lancashire coal is spoken of as used in 1260, temp. Henry III. again in tin-
wars of Edward I. against Scotland, during the king's march from Preston through Carlisle,
against " Ilobertus de Brus;" and the finest wheat in Lancashire is grown by Mitrsiili-.
28 In the time of the Heptarchy, Westmoreland—" The land of the Western Lakes"—
was part of the kingdom of Northumberland, like Lancashire, and when Edward the
Confessor divided Northumberland into six shires, one was called " Appelbishire— to which
appertained the land of Westmorland." In still earlier tunes it seems to have been an
independency, for when Edgar summoned liis vassals to Chester, we find among the kings
who rowed his barge on the Dee, " the king of Westmere."
29 The unmarried widow in this barony retained her husband's land, which was a
marvellous privilege in those days.
30 There is some obscurity as to the young earl's age, some making him to be between
seventeen and eighteen, others only twelve, or indeed scarce that. He was being taken out
of the battle (of Wakefield) by his chaplain and some others, when Black Clifford's band
surrounded him before he reached the town, and " by reason of his apparell," seeing him
EARLY HISTORY.
not in the passion of the light, for the battle was to the side, but of mere
personal, or rather family revenge ; and there was his son, Henry the Shepherd
Lord, whom Wordsworth has celebrated in his poem, and who was so long
concealed among the dales and fells of Cumberland, for fear of the Yorkists,
then in the ascendant. But Sir Launcelot Threlkeld, his stepfather, and a good
Christian gentleman, preserved him to his rights, and when Henry VII. came
to the throne, the Shepherd Lord — the good Lord Clifford — came also to his
own. His son was Henry, the first Earl of Cumberland, President of the
northern parts, and oftentimes Lord Warden of the Marches — a gallant soldier
and a gay courtier, the friend of Henry VIII. , when Henry VIII. was young
and unspotted with blood, and the especial foe of his gentle old father, whose
simple tastes (perhaps, too, somewhat clownish habits for a gay courtier's
father), ill agreed with his own. His second marriage with Mrs. Florence
Pudsey, our mighty Earl of Cumberland could never forgive. A gentler
Clifford was the earl's son, the alchemist, the distiller of waters, and the
scholar, he who so narrowly escaped being buried alive when he fell into a
trance for grief at the death of his wife, Eleanor Brandon, daughter of
Charles Duke of Suffolk and the Queen of France ; and a more noted than
them all, was his grand-daughter Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke,
and Montgomery, and half a score titles beside, who " knew well how to
discourse of all things, from predestination to slea silk," and who lost none
of her natural advantages by over diffidence in setting them forth. Truly, a
great and well endowed lady ; beautiful, intellectual, orderly, and high hearted,
uniting in herself the best characteristics of her race, in its courage on the one
side, and its love of literature on the other. From her the estates passed to
the Tufton family, where they are to this hour.
to be no common person, demanded who he was. " The young gentleman, disrnayde, had
not a word to speake, but kneeled on his knees, cravying mercy and desiring grace, both
with holdying up liis hands and making a dolorous countenance, for his speach was gone
for fear. ' Save him,' said liis chapleyn, ' for he is a prince's sonne, and peradventure may
do you good hereafter.' With that worde, the Lord Clifford marked him, and sayde, ' By
God's blood ; thy father slew mine, and so will I do thee, and all thy kinne ! r and with
that word strake the erle to the hail with his dagger, and bad his chapleyn beare the erle's
mother and brother worde what he had done and sayde. In this act, the Lord Clifforde
was accoumpted a tyrant and no gentleman." — Beauties of Westmoreland, quoting either
Pembroke MS., or Austin Vincent's Nobility — it is not very clear which.
xxxi
TH K LAKE COUNTRY.
The estates and fees belonging to the Barony of Kendal have not
been kept so well together. In the seventh generation after Ivo Tailbois
they were divided, and after then divided again, part, the Marquis Fee,
going into the family of the Parrs, whereof Catherine, Henry's wife, was
one, and part dwindling off into many small side-ways ; but of later gene-
rations some becoming united again in the Lowther property, where they
are still held under a lease, renewable, from the crown. There were no
other very exalted names or honours belonging to the county, though
singularly rich in old families and estates long retained in the same holding,
and names of second-class historic interest, but nothing of so much
county importance, however great the local, as to need special recording as
matter of history.
The great military tenure of Westmoreland was by " homage,31 fealty,
and cornage, which last drew after it wardship,32 marriage, and relief, and
the sendee of this tenure was knight's service." Cornage seems to have
been peculiar to the border service against the Scots, and was commuted
to a money fine in later times : cornage, horngeld, and noutegeld (cow-tax),
being all the same thing — an annual payment of certain horned beasts for
the maintenance of the garrisons in the border castles. The tenants who
held by cornage were bound to be always ready to serve the king and the
lord of the manor upon horseback or on foot at their own charge ; and
when the king marched into Scotland they were in the van, and when he
marched out again they were in the rear ; which speaks something for the
31 In the old days of homage, the tenant " bared of head, unsworded, and kneeling on
his two knees," his hands held out and clasped between his lord's, said, " I become your
man from this day forward of life, and limb, and earthly honour, and unto you will be true
and faithful, and faith unto you will bear for the tenements that I claim to hold of 3*011.
saving the faith that I owe to our sovereign lord the king." And then the lord so sitting
was to kiss his man, by which kiss he was bound to be his vassal for ever.
32 In wardship the consent of the superior lord was requisite for the marriage of a
female vassal, and this power was distorted into the right of disposing of the ward in
marriage. "When the king or lord was in want of money, it was by no means unusual to
put up the wards to a kind of auction — wife and land to the highest bidder : husband and
land, in the case of a male ward. If the ward refused to fulfil the marriage so made, then
a sum was due from the estates equal to what they would have fetched. This was a frightful
source of abuse, and only got rid of by the famous statute of Charles II., abolishing the
Court of Wards and Liveries.
xxxii
EARLY HISTORY.
valour of the brave mountaineers. " Scutage," or shield money — redemption
of the service of the shield — was another form of compensation for personal
service against the Scots.
The drengage tenure, which prevailed about Brougham and Clifton, as
well as in some parts of Northumberland, was horribly servile. " They
seem to have been drudges to perform the most laborious and servile
offices," says Dr. Burn, and he shows that Sir Hugh de Morvile in West-
moreland changed drengage into free service, and that Gilbert de Brougham
gave one half of the village of Brougham to Robert de Veteripont to make
the other half free of drengage. One of the de Threlkelds also, who lived
at Yanwath Hall in the time of Edward I., relieved his tenants at Threl-
keld of servile burdens at fourpence a head. The services were half a
draught for one day's ploughing ; one day's mowing ; one of shearing ;
one of clipping ; one of salving sheep ; one carriage load in two years,
not to go above ten miles ; to dig and load two loads of peat every year —
the tenants to have their crowdy while they worked ; the cottagers the same,
only they found a horse and harrow instead of the half plough, and a
footman's load not a carriage load. A knight's fee was valued at about twenty
pounds, and the lord's rent was called white money or white rent. West-
moreland paid subsidies, as well as border service and fines, and always
came handsomely to the front whenever men or money was demanded.
" Taking all the taxes together," says one writer, " we shall find that
this county paid more to government, in proportion to its inhabitants,
than any other county in the kingdom." From a return of horsemen
and footmen made for Westmoreland and Cumberland during the Border
wars (1584), out of eight thousand three hundred and fifty men jointly
raised, Westmoreland gave four thousand one hundred and forty -two ; one
thousand four hundred " archers furnished," and one thousand three
hundred "billmen furnished," which was not a bad proportion for the Land
of the Heights.
More fortresses and castles than churches or monasteries belonged to
the old time of Westmoreland. At the date of the Domesday Book,
Kendal and Lonsdale were the only places that had churches at all, and
when the religious houses were suppressed, the commissioners were not
overweighted with a superfluity of work here. There was certainly one of
xxxiii C
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
some note, Vallis Magdalenae de Heppe — Sliap or Heppe33 Abbey — the
Briar-fruit abbey — founded by Thomas, son of Gospatric, for the Pnemon-
stratensiau canons of Preston in Kendal, and dedicated by him to God and
St. Mary Magdalene.34 He endowed them liberally, and allowed them freely.
" The monks of Shap had what wood they liked, and all the bark that fell,
and toll, free grinding at the lord's mills, and pasture about Swindale for
twenty mares, sixty cows, and five hundred sheep." At the time of the
dissolution the rated value was 1541. 7s. l%d. only.
But the great political life of the county, and the artery through
which flowed all its passions, was the Border Wars — its objects of supreme
hatred, as with Cumberland, Scotland and the Scots. Even to this day
they are not well regarded by the people — meaning by that the uneducated ;
and a " Scotch body," like an " Irish body," is a term with as much
contempt as geography in it. The boy's version of the southern lad's
French and English is here Scotch and English — a small raid of miniature
moss-troopers, where the clothes of the combatants, called the " wed,"
represent the gear to be lifted; and the opening of the sport — " an Englisher"
putting his foot over the boundary line, with "here's a leg in thy land,
dry bellied Scot" — is an insult and an incursion over the border. But all
these local habits and traditions are fast fading away now, and Westmore-
land is no longer the half savage wild that writers, less than a hundred
33 " And sweete as is the bramble flour
That beretli the red hepe."
CHAUCER'S Rime of Sire Thopas.
34 Other writers say, given to God and St. Mary de Bellalanda, or to the Abbey of
I > viand, in Yorkshire. At Shap Thorn were once some beautiful Druidical remains — large
granite stones, which were recklessly blasted, and taken away for any kind of use the
neighhours might wish to put them to — for boring into millstones, or building foundations.
•• Would make beautiful chimney-pieces," say Nicholson and Burn. The rough little
hamlet of Wet Sleddale — where the popular belief is that it always rains, as perhaps it does
— hud an uncomfortable half hour in 1300, when the bishop commanded the rural dean and
various vicars of the various churches to excommunicate the people for violently breaking
inio the house and gninge of tin: Abbot of Heap. At High Mass, when the greatest
numbers would he a>scmhled, candles were to be lighted, and bells rung, and with bell,
hook, and ciindle. all the misdoers were to be excommunicated, which method would surely
catch some among the congregation, even though they did. as Fuller said of the moss
troopers, " conic to church as seldome as the 29th of February comes into the kalendar."
xxxiv
EARLY HISTORY.
years ago, declared it was, with manners too gross to be witnessed, living
too coarse to be endured, "a country full of infertile places, which the
northern Englishmen call moors," 35 a climate unbearable because of its
severity, and prejudices too dense for the hope of enlightenment, present
or to come. Since 1752, when a bill was obtained for making a road
from Burton, through Kendal and Shap, to Eamont Bridge (never, until
the rebellion of 1715, when there was good fighting between the two
parties in these northern wilds, had government thought of highways here
at all) ; since 1774, when the first stage-coach, the Fly, was put on the
road, to run between London and Glasgow, over Stanemore ; since the
first mail was set on the Kendal and Shap road in 1786; since those
times, and even since periods much nearer to our own, what an immeasur-
able change of manners and customs, and habits and thoughts, has taken
place. Grand hotels, first-class lodging-houses, sumptuous fare, and fashion-
able clothing, assimilate the rugged land of the hill and fell to the most
fashionable watering-place within the reach of London. "Nubila West-
moreland— Saxosa et misera poor land," said a rhyming collegian with
more love of luxury than of beauty in his young head ; but none save
the veriest Cockney, who calls Hampstead " a wild place," would echo his
opinion now ; while the doubt, gravely expressed so late as 1814, whether
Bishop Watson's new plantations of oak and elm and sycamore, and other
fair-growing forest trees at Calgarth, would ever survive the inclemency of
the seasons, and whether hardy fir and larch were not the only trees that
would thrive in this bleak valley of the Winandermere at all, reads strangely
now, under the shadow of woods, luxuriant beyond ordinary course. Yet
even old Fuller could see no charm in this, one of the loveliest and
choicest spots of God's dear earth. Speaking of " Westmorland," he says,
" Here is cold comfort from Nature, but somewhat of Warmth from Industry.
That the Land is barren is God's Pleasure, the People painfull, their
Praise. . . . Though sterile by general rule, it is fruitfull by some few
exceptions, having some pleasant Vales. . . . much of Eden (running
clean through it) yet— little of Delight ! " If Fuller had written in 1864,
when nature was better understood and more intelligently loved, he would
35 Speed's Theatre, representing the exact geography of 1670.
XXXV e 2
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
have given a different verdict — a verdict as loving and as full of apprecia-
tion as our own !
Brave and bonny Cumberland, wedged36 up against the frontier line of
Scotland, had even more to do with the Border service than her more
southward sister. Her whole life was centered in the struggle for ever
going on between herself and those wild moss troopers and rievers across
the Border; and all her energies were needed to keep them in anything
like check. Once, led by Kobert de Brus, they came trooping down as
far as Furness, firing and slaying and lifting all before them ; and once
again they swept like a cloud of locusts through the land, till they halted
at the Abbey of Holme Cultram, which they plundered, when they departed,
replenished, with sacrilege as well as murder on their souls. To Gilsland
and Penrith was but a short day's raid, and a frequent ; to Derwent Fells
and Alston Moor almost as frequent ; Inglewood Forest they made their
constant hunting-ground ; and once (the Earl of Douglas heading the
raid) they swarmed down upon Penrith in fair time, and lifted a king's
ransom as their reward. So that poor Cumberland had enough to do to
hold her own, and found the defence of industry by valour a hard and
heavy lesson. The result being a larger amount of individualism,37 and
less attention to rules and law than with most English counties.
Kumbraland, as she is called in the old map to Thorkelin's Fragments—
or Caerleylshire, from the capital Caerleyl, in certain other old writers — was
never famous for amenity of manners, but never infamous for cowardice or
M Speed says, " The forme of this countie is long and narrow, pointing wedge-like into
tin south, which part is altogether pictured with copped hills, and therefore hath the name
of Copland. The middle is more level and better inhabited, yielding sufficient for the
sustenance of man ; but the north is wild and solitairie, and combed with hilles, as Co]>I<i>n!
is. The air is piercing, and of a sharp temperature, and would be more biting, were it not
that these high hilles brake off the northern stormes and cold falling snowes. Notwith-
standing, rich is this province, and with great varieties of commodities is replenished; the
hilles, though rough, yet smile upon their beholders, spread with sheep and cattle, the
vallies stored \\itli ^rasse and come sufficiente, the sea affordeth great store of fish, and
the land is overspread with great varietie of fowl."
37 This is seen, as one example, in the immense variety of landed tenures in use among
the Cumbrians, until a little more uniformity was introduced by Act 12 Charles II. — that
is. by the Commonwealth; but even now there is diversity enough, and a great deal of
local law and usage afloat. By the way, Blackstone says that copyholders are only
villeins improved.
xxxvi
EAKLY HIST011Y.
want of manhood. Even in the time of the Heptarchy she seems to have
been rather a self-annexing province of Northumberland, governed by her
own people and in her own way, than a conquered county held by force
or fear. Else how do we hear of the kings of the county ? and what is
the meaning of the story of poor Dunmail ? and the grant by Edmund,
son of Athelstane, of all our fells and lakes and mountains and morasses
to Malcolm the Scottish king, on condition that he protected the North
of England generally, against all Edmund's enemies,, both by sea and
land ? — a grant that led to nothing but bloodshed and confusion between
England and Scotland, and wars unceasing, and boundary lines never fixed,
and rights by no possible means to be decided, until William the Conqueror
took the county to himself, and bestowed it on Ranulph de Meschines, with
the Border Service to follow. It was not likely that the Scotch king38 who
laid claim to the county as his right would submit quietly to this. He
entered the land and ravaged it, burning and slaying in the wild wilful sin-
fulness of those days ; but William Rufus came sweeping down at the head
of his men — obliged though to sweep back again, because "they could not
bear the severity of the seasons," — doing little good in his attempt, beyond
that of rebuilding Carlisle, which had fallen into ruins, and settling a few
agricultural soldiers on the land, which, since the time of the Romans, " had
38 The following is a summary from the Scottish side of the history of Cumberland.
During the heptarchy, part of Northumberland was invaded by the Danes, in the reign of
Kthelred, at the end of the eighth century, and thoroughly conquered in 875, by Halfdin
tlio Dane, when Carlisle was most probably destroyed. The Scottish King Gregory, in
S7(i, helped the Northumbrians to expel the Danes, but the Britons, quarrelling with their
benefactor, invaded Scotland, were defeated, and as terms of peace ceded Cumberland and
Westmoreland to Gregory, and retired to Wales, about 880. Cumberland, in rebellion
iigsiinst Scotland, set up a king of its own, Dummaile. Edward, son of Athelstane (945)
laid waste the country, put out the eyes of Dummaile's two sons, and restored Cumberland
to Malcolm. 1001, Ethelred invaded Cumberland, because Malcolm, its prince, son of King
Kenneth (the Scottish king's eldest son was Prince of Cumberland, as ours is Prince
of Wales) had not paid his quota of tribute to the Danes ; Canute confirmed the county to
the Scot on condition of homage, agreed to by Duncan, " gracious Duncan," after a struggle ;
and young Malcolm, after Duncan's murder by Macbeth, took refuge in his own princi-
pality, Edward the Confessor gave it to Seward, Earl of Northumberland, and William the
Conqueror, offended at Scottish hospitality to Saxon refugees, took the county into his own
hands, and made a grant of it to Ranulph de Meschines, our old friend of Westmoreland. — •
LYSON'S Mitijiut llrit'iniiin.
xxxvii
Till; LAKE COUNTRY.
never had a ploughshare through it." When Henry III. came to the throne,
Scotland demanded back her counties, and Henry, to put off a demand for
the moment inconvenient, gave as much land as was worth 200/. about Penrith
and Sowerby ; but took it back again directly, and the Border wars went on,
as they had been going on for centuries before.
It was Edward I. that put the Border service into its first reasonable
shape. He made Lord Robert de Clifford (1296) first Lord Warden of the
Marshes, with full power to execute summary vengeance strict and stern on
all offenders. That terrible but needful law of "hot trod" was a mutual
convention between the peaceable parts of the two kingdoms ; the permission
of pursuit for six days, into the opposite realm, of all moss troopers, rievers,
black mailsrnen, thieves, and other offenders, with horn and hound, with hue
and cry, hunting them with blood hounds, the sleuth or slough dogs trained
and kept for that purpose. But it was not till the time of Queen Anne
that these border violences died finally away, for all that there had been a
common king for three generations before her. Great names,39 though, are
associated with those lawless times. The Grahams, the Howards, and the
Dacres, Musgrave and Eeatherstonhaugh, even Richard Coldale, or Dick o'
the Cow, that border guerilla and partisan of Lord Scroop of Greystoke, so
dreaded by all naughty children, but lying peacefully now in Penrith church ;
39 Fuller's Worthies grants but few notabilities to our lake land. Of saints we have
but " Herebert, Priest and Confessor," and Saint Abricke, belonging to Carlisle, whose
soul another hermit saw " ascend to heaven " as it were in a spherical form of a burning
wind, " but we listen unto it as unto wind." He was of very little value anyhow, for he
•• did not more macerate himself with constant fasting than time since hath consumed his
memory, which hath reduced it to nothing more than the scelleton of his name, without any
historical passages of flesh to fill up the same." Of martyrs in Queen Mary's time nom ;
because of our being " mezzell'd in ignorance and superstition ; " of worthies, only Edmund
Grindall, of St. Bees, Sir Richard Hutton, " bom at Penrith, of a worshipful family," and
called by Charles " the honest judge," " Sir John Banks, of Keswick, another judge in
Charles' time ; and John Skelton, the ribald poet— king s orator, and poet laureate to
Henry VIII., called by Erasmus, Britannicarum Literarum Lumen et Decus. " Indeed
he had Sclmlnrxliip enough, and Wit too much ; seeing one saith truly of him, Ejus serum
salsus in mordaorin, risus in opprobrium, jocus in amaritudinem. Yet was his satyrical wit
unhappy to light on three Noli me tatujcres : vi/., the rod of a sehoolmtixtfi; the mulx of
l-'ri'irx, and tin; nip of a Cardinal : " the schoolmaster Lilley, the Dominican Friars, and
Cardinal \\'O!N« y Alil.ot Islip protected him in Westminster sanctuary, where he died.
June 21, 1529. And these are all the old author and philosopher allows us.
xxxviii
EARLY HISTORY.
Naworth and Corby and Netherby,40 Lyddal41 and Greystoke, they are all like
snatches of border song in their very sound ; and who cannot realize a whole
volume of rude poetry in such names as Clym o' the Clough, and Wyllyam
of Cloudesle ?
Part of the Border service consisted in the firing of beacons42 at certain
places, when the tenants were obliged to attend their lord for forty days
against the Scots at their own expense ; some holding by nag tenements
(the Manor of Bewcastle was all held by nag tenement), obliged to furnish
a certain number of horses, or themselves to attend on horseback ; others by
foot tenement, which involved only footmen or individual personal service,
as the value of the holding might require.
Many a castle rose on Cumberland ground, strong and sturdy, if not
rich and ornamented ; 43 bonny Carlisle, Naworth and Dacre and Brougham,
40 About two miles from Netherby, is a strong entrenchment, called LiddaTs Strength,
or the Mote, on a lofty and steep cliff, commanding a vast extent of country. At one end
is a high mount ; in the middle is the foundation of a square building. On the weakest
side it is strongly entrenched, having a sort of half moon before it, with a vast foss ; its
form is circular. " This," says Leland, " was the moted place of a gentilman cawled Syr
Walter Seleby, the which was kylled there, and the place destroyed yn King Edward the
Thyrde time, when the Scottes went to Dyrham." It was taken by storm by David the
Second, who caused the two sons of Sir Walter to be strangled before their father's face,
and then commanded their parent to be beheaded. Netherby was also a Roman station, by
name Castra Exploratorum.
41 The Barony of Lyddal was given by Ranulph de Meschines to his dependant
Turgent Brundey, part of Arthuret going with it.
4* The beacons stations in Cumberland were Black Combe, Bootle, Muncaster Fell,
St. Bees Head, Workington Hill, Moothay, Skiddaw, Sandal Top, Carlisle Castle, Lingy-
Close Head, Beacon Hill, Penrith, Dale Raughton, Brampton Mote, and Spade Adam Top.
In Westmoreland, they were Stanemore Top, Ortoii Scar, Farleton Knot, Whinfell Fell,
mid Hard Knot. Orton Scar is famous for dottrels, and all manner of wild fowl, and has
a tarn — Sunbiggin Tarn — full of char and trout.
43 " This county pretendeth not to the mode of Reformed Architecture, the vicinity of the
Scots causing them to build rather for strength than state. The Cathedral of Carlisle may
pass for the emblem of the Militant Church, Mack, but comely, still bearing in the complexion
thereof the remaining signs of its former bunnmj. Rose Castle, the Bishop's best Seat, hath
lately the Hose therein withered, and the prickles, in the ruins thereof, only remain. The
houses of the Nobility and Gently are generally built Castle-wise ; and in the time of the
Romans, this country (because a L im itary) did abound with Fortifications; Mr. Camden
inking notice of more Antiquities in Cumberland and Westmoreland, than in all England
beside." — FULLER'S Worthies.
xxxix
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Penrith and Corby, and Cockermouth, Rose, and the fortress of Kirkoswald,41
and many more, if strength of wall and wealth of arms might be held to
constitute a stronghold ; but if there were castles for the defence of bodies,
there were prayer-houses for the salvation of souls, and when the dissolution
of the religious houses was ordained, Cumberland had not a few in the list.
There was Wetheral Priory, founded by Ranulph de Meschines for the
Benedictines, or Black monks ; annual value in 1539, 130L ; and the Nunnery,
for the Benedictine nuns, which William Rufus founded, and which, at the
time of the dissolution, held one prioress and three nuns, and its rent-roll
was but a poor eighteen guineas yearly ; and there was Skelwith Abbey,
belonging to the Knights Templars; and Abbey Holm, or Holme Cultram,
a Cistercian monastery of the yearly value of 5271. 3s. Id. This was the-
monastery where the chancel of the chapel was burnt by means of a jackdaw's
nest. And there was Calder Abbey, which Ranulph de Meschines also
founded, worth 64L 3s. 9d. ; and Lanercost Priory, an Augustine monastery,
worth 791. 19s. ; and the episcopal chapter of St. Austin, at Carlisle, the
only one of its order in England, worth 513L ; and the priory of the same,
worth 418?., and rich in relics, having a bone of St. Peter, and another of
St. John the Baptist, two stones from the Blessed Sepulchre, and a bit of
the Holy Cross, for the edification of true believers.
Ah ! but better gifts than these has old Cumberland ! — the gift of
loveliness girt with power, of health on its moors, of freedom on its hills ;
the gift of bravery and of manhood, of beauty and of strength, of self-
respect which knows nothing of servility, of justice that is honest though
not lavish, of truth that is straight if not smooth — GOD'S better gifts than
monkish relics to the men and women of the lakes and mountains — to the
dwellers in the loveliest homes of England !
44 The weapon with which Hugh de Morville slew, or rather helped to slay, Thomas
A'Becket, was Ion*,' preserved as a precious relic in the fortress of Kirk-Oswald ; which does
not look much like the assassin's remorse.
WINDEBMEBE
CHAPTER I
ONE of the most noticeable features of the lake district is the broad tract of
poor land which lies like a way of separation between the loveliness hidden
behind the hills, and the more generous beauty of the plains. If you trace
on the map the boundaries of this district, rarely will you find the mountains
flowing down into richness and fertility on the outer side, but generally
subsiding into barren moors and impracticable fells : generally, though not
always, this broad way of desolation between the grandeur of the hills,
i B
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
with the heart of loveliness within, and the generosity of the plains. And
so it is that from Lancaster, which may be taken as the gateway of
the lake district, the country has been gradually getting more rugged and
less populous as it runs up towards the mountains. Past Oxenholme and
Kendal1 the only human habitations are scattered fell-side hamlets, bleak
and bare, where one wonders what the people find to do, and how they
live, and what their pleasures and emotions, and what their special uses to
the world at large. The laud is poor, with stones lying thick among the
voung crops and over the coarse grass; the railway cuttings cleave clean
through the solid rock ; bare stone walls, instead of hedges, mark the
boundaries of the fields and properties ; streams as bright as crystal, but
streams with no fertility in them — mere brawling expressions of the waste
and wet of the place — break in all directions over beds of rock and pebble ;
the country on either side gets wilder and rougher, the houses fewer and
of still poorer character, the masses of yellow broom and golden gorse and
trailing wealth of briar yet more lovely in their contrast with the grey
boulders breaking out through the green grass, but yet more eloquent of
the poverty they adorn ; the crags and fells are steeper, more jagged, and
more inhospitable ; till, as you steam rapidly on, the dim blue outlines,
1 The lake country may be entered by the traveller from the south, either at Carnforth,
taking the branch line from Ulverston, on the other side of Morecambe Bay, to Coniston ;
or at Oxenholme Junction, for Kendal and Windermere. The latter is, perhaps, the better
way, as Windermere, being the largest and therefore the most important of the lakes, claims
priority of notice ; and also, because of its tamer character, ought to be seen before the
wilder and more romantic. Before railway times, travellers generally went across the sands
at the head of Morecambe Bay, which Wordsworth told Mrs. Hemans he thought the finest
entrance. Leland, in his Laboriouse Journey and Searchefor England's Antiquities — Geven
of hym at a New Yeare't Oyfte to King Henry VIII., says : " If I had kept the by Shore
Way from Lancastre to Cumbreland, I should have gone by Cartemaile Sand, wher a fresch
W;iter doth cum a vii Myles ; to Conyhed Sande, whither a River resortith, a viij Miles ; to
Dudden Sandes, wither a River resortith a iiii Miles ; Furnis Abbay up in the Mountaines
a iiii Miles off. A ii Mile from Lancastre the Cuntcri began to be stony, and a little to wax
MontAinions."
WINDERMERE.
first seen like darker clouds in the distance across the glistening breadth
of Morecanibe Bay, and which you have been Watching lovingly since you
left Kendal behind you, assume definite form and stability, and soon you
recognize Wetherlam and Coniston Old Man — others coming out from the
clouds and unfolding themselves in turn as you rush on. And now the
sunlight catches the surface of a small shining tract far to the left; in half
a minute more, you see another shining glimpse under the wooded banks
of Heald Brow ; and then you draw breath at the station, full in the
narrow valley, and WINDERMERE, the first of the lakes, lies like a dream
of Eden at your feet.
Say that it is a May morning when you stand on the green height just
above the Elleray Woods ; where, being so close to the hotel, as well as
giving one of the best views of the lake, you, like all visitors, make your
initiatory walk. The early mists are hanging in slender wreaths about
Heald Brow and through the Calgarth Woods, rising up in rounder and
more cloudlike forms from the lake which they leave calm and black below,
and heaped in broken masses all along the glorious line made by the Old
Man and Wetherlam, Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, and the Pikes, up to the
denser cluster behind Ambleside. But though it is the middle of May,
the spring you left behind in London fully matured you find here shy and
tender and undeveloped. The oaks are mere sprinklings of golden beads
threaded through with their darker stems ; the ash is unclothed, with
naked branches bare as in winter ; but the mountain-ash — the quicken
or rowan — has put out leaves and flowers both, and is as rich in scent
and blossom as the dogwood, or the bird-cherry, or the flowery spikes of
the laurel growing everywhere so luxuriantly. The copper beeches are brave
in their first flush of crimson or more sullen purple, and the golden
fringe of the Scotch fir is as beautiful as if the tree hung laden with
flowers ; the spruce-fir is reddened with the tender blush of its young
cones, and the hawthorn, which is just beginning to blossom, is reddened
too, as if its stems and leaf- veins were quickened with crimson blood.
;< 2
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
Amoug all this richness of colour the cold grey-green of the willow looks
wan and ghastly, and the heavy gloom of the yew-trees, of the junipers
and the hollies, becomes black by force of contrast ; but the drooping
plumes of the larch, and the dainty leaflets of the silver birch, the full
given and rounded symmetry of the sycamores, and the golden bursts of
broom among the young elms and hazels, tell with increased force ; and
not even in the gorgeous autumn are the lake-side woods so full of beauty
as they are in the fresh young spring — never do they so gloriously enframe
that long blue line of water lying between them, — " wooded Winandermere,
the river-lake." For this is the characteristic of Windermere : — its narrow
length filling up the valley, and leaving little margin between it and the
feet of the fells ; so that, for the most part, it is feathered with wood down
to its brink, and only at its head, where the Bydal Valley begins, are there
broad spaces of cultivated ground, or level fields for grass and corn.
But now you must come down from your breezy height, where the air
blows fresh and strong, full of sweet wood-scents, and with a power of
manhood in it, of health and vigour, only to be had from mountain air ;
and, leaving the walls fencing in a higher head— the tufts of primroses
among the roots of the trees — the shining tract studded with islands and
broken by promontories below — and the
everlasting hills above and around — you
wind through the Elleray Woods again ;
passing by the small, low cottage where
Professor Wilson first lived, and which
is now half hidden by a grand old syca-
more; then by his later and more sightly,
if less picturesque, home; and on by trim,
lu.me-kept, shrubbery paths, to the high road and the grey, half-Swiss,
half-Elizabethan, houses in and about the new village of Windermere.
Here everything is modern, wealthy, and well adapted. Natural
arc made the most of, and natural beauties respected; becoming
WINDERMERE.
sites are chosen for mansions fitted for people of deep purses and liberal
education ; a fine old tree is left standing, perhaps even fenced round with
rustic palings, if it accords well with the newer building ; a rough ledge
of rock is incorporated into the garden wall ; and wild flowers are sedu-
lously planted on gate-post toppings, on wall copings, and against garden
boundaries, to give an air of country -bred simplicity to the whole ; — but
it is all a wildness creditably laid out — nature under the tuition of a land-
scape gardener, smoothed and combed and daintily trimmed — Wordsworth's
mountain child with a perpetual Sunday frock on, and curls newly taken
out of paper.
Bowness,2 which all writers agree to call the " port of Windermere," 3 is
2 Called Bulness (Bull's Nose or Promontory) so late as 1814. Gilpiii speaks of it
rather grandly as " the great mart for fish and charcoal," " its harbour crowded with vessels
of various kinds." It was to tliis same Windermere, or Wonwaldremere, according to the
Melrose Chronicle, that " Ethred, King of the Northerns, in the year 792, convoyed Elf and
Edwin, the sons of King Elfwold, prisoners from York, and assassinated them."
3 There were some strange misapprehensions of this lake in old time. Camden, quoted
by Cony, speaks of it as " paved with one continued rock," whereas the bottom is for the
most part' soft mud, save just across the head, where was the supposed Roman harbour for
the camp : and as " wonderfully deep or unfathomable, as the neighbouring inhabitants
informed me" — its greatest depth being not quite forty fathoms ; but he speaks truly, even
for this day, when saying that it is " abounding with chare, a golden Alpine trout." These
char — the speciality of our lakes — " are of two sorts, called by some, from their colour, the
xilrer and the golden char, and, by others, from a supposed anomaly that each breeding fish
only spawns once in two years, the case char and the gilt char, the latter being thought the
same as the silver char, and only retaining its name for the year that it is barren : it is
accounted the most delicious, and is baked and sent in pots to London. A Winandemiere
char ' is near twice the size of a herring. Its back is of an olive green, its belly of a light
vermilion, softening in some parts into \vliite, and changing into a deep red at the injection
of the fins.' The fishery of the lake is divided into three cables, as they were called in
Machel's time — but now cubbies. The first, or high cable, reaches from the Waterhead
to the char bed half a mile above Calgarth ; the middle, from thence to below the ferry ;
and the low cable, from below the ferry to Newby Bridge. In each cubble arc four
fisheries. The rector has a right to a pleasure boat, and so much a boat in lieu of
his tithe fish." — Beauties <>f W'csUnorcland, and some others.
5
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
simpler and more old-fashioned; and, beyond Bowness again, over Cartmell
Fells towards Newby Bridge, nature is left natural, and habitations are made
picturesque by accident — by the loving grace of growing wood and crumbling
crag, and not by the scholarly tuition of a landscape gardener understanding
the rules of art. The road from Bowness to Ambleside is one of the most
beautiful in the neighbourhood ; but there is nothing in the little village itself
to call for much attention, excepting first, — the old weather-stained church,
with its shabby-looking cottage-like aisle windows, and its chancel panes of
painted glass from Furness, its prelatic tomb, more unpretending than many
a city shopman's, its belt of yews, and primitive lych-gate ; next, on the way
to the Ferry Nab, the old parsonage — the very ideal of a parsonage — with its
chimnied porch overgrown with ivy and large enough for a village assembly to
be held in it ; and, last, the breezy point of the Ferry Nab itself, with its
ghost story of the Crier of Claife in the quarry behind, and its beautiful
panorama all round.
Here, if you want to cross, you stand and call a boat, which comes to you
from the ferry-house opposite ; meanwhile you may, if you are fortunate, catch
a glimpse of some rare bird skimming over the water, or fluttering uneasily
through the woods; or you may sketch the beauty of that little islet of
Crow Holm, which is now a mere golden boss like a gigantic tuft of moss on
the water; or you may admire the sycamores and snow-white cherry-trees
behind the ferry -house ; or you may wander back a little way on the ferny road
to Kendal— for the ferry is part of the highway between Kendal and Hawks-
head — and jot down studies of rustic gates and stiles, and note the constantly
recurring effect of the line of grey stone wall against the golden green of the
woods. For the lake livery in the spring-time is gold and grey ; the gold of
the young oaks and the moss and the broom and the Scotch fir- shoots ; and
the grey of the stone houses, the stone walls, the boulders and great rocks
bared against the green, the blue-grey hills, and the soft grey clouds above
them all. Or else you may watch the steep road that goes up to Sawrey, over
the shoulder of Heald Brow opposite, winding through walls and flowery
WINDERMERE.
hedges till it is lost between the hill and the sky ; or learn by heart
the names and aspects of the mountains clustered in increasing grandeur
at the head across that restless span of blue — ever topped by the Pikes
which, in the misty mornings, look like two handfulls of unsubstantial dust
heaped up against the sky. Or you can turn your face to the foot of the
lake, and see how the hills slide off into mere slopes and fells, till finally they
slide away into railroads and plains and market-gardens and the lower
existence of the midlands, down to the roar and the tumult of the cities of the
south. And when you have done this, turn back again and thank GOD that
you are breathing mountain air, and that the waves of a north-country lake
are at your feet. If you want no ferry-boat, fill your hands with globe-flowers
and marsh-marigolds, and then go back through the woods and the fields and
the village, and by the Lower-road to Amble side.
Your way lies between stone walls golden-brown with moss, the earth coping
besprinkled with its auburn-coloured filaments and the pale mountain speed-
well, and the base bestarred with stitch wort and blue bird's-eye, the yellow
pimpernel and the deep pink flowerets of the wild geranium. To the left
lies the lake, and beyond it rise the blue tops of the higher mountains;
Wetherlam and Bowfell heading the lower sweep of Heald Brow ; with changing
vistas of yet more distant hills caught as the road winds on. Mountain
streams set in a broad margin of wild garlic — " ramps," as it is called
here — so dainty to see and so evil to touch, rush through the wood on your
right; the close-growing small-leaved ivy clothes the walls and tree-stems
with a mantle of green ; arcades of beeches overhang the road ; on either side
are woods with oak and pine and the waving larch, black firs, flowering
garden bushes, and sycamores of the true emerald green ; stone steps and
walks, as in a private park, lead through groves and fields, making short cuts
to houses on the upper road; the trees are fountains of sound with the
rustling of the leaves and the varied song of the birds ; here the round head
and back of a green knoll hides all the view — there the mountains are caught
in broken outline and the water glances like silver through the fretwork of the
7
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
leaves and stems; and now a full burst of lake and hill breaks across a
level meadow dotted with milk-white lambs just yeaned, where a singing little
brook winds its way through the grass to the great water. And so over Millar
Brow and on towards Ambleside.
By a wayside publichouse, where an old fir stretches its branches across the
road and where a cottage, with high steps leading up to the door and twin
rhi umeys covered with ivy, of which a trailing wreath swings to and fro in
the wind, makes a pretty sketch for an artist's album, you hear the sound
of water. Turn into a field at the left, clamber over a stone wall into a
pleasant copse, and you will find yourself by the side of the river which
comes down from Troutbeck Valley : the Troutbeck all above that long
low-spanned bridge, but the Calgarth river below, and till it runs into the
lake. They are felling and barking some of
the young saplings in the copse, and these
have fallen into strange shapes — their white
limbs branching out like stags' antlers,
though some of them are more like ante-
diluvian monsters, pterodactyles and bony
beasts with multitudinous legs ; but the smell of the bark is full of aromatic
freshness, and you can sketch the poor naked monsters pleasantly. For there
is an old tree with a moss-covered seat in the parted root, where you may
TROTJTBECX BRIDGE
WINDEHMERE.
sit for a long summer's hour looking at the branches dipping into the stream,
and the mayflies flitting on the water, and the shy fish, so full of mystery
and haste, gliding among the stones, and the water rippling about the rocks ;
watching the restless waves with that infinite yearning — it may be with those
infinite memories and regrets — which the flow of a river always creates.
Returning to the highway the ground becomes more undulating, and belts
of trees follow the undulations. Stone is quarried out of the road-side for
road mending, and parish paupers sit hammering at the granite piled in heaps
by the way. A castle, a hideous modern sham, is seen on the fell across
the lake, disfiguring the height (Low Wray) on which it stands ; the Calgarth
Woods, (in old deeds, the Calfgarth Woods,) planted by Bishop Watson, the
Bishop of LlandafF — he whose plain, flat tombstone is in Bowness churchyard
— continue on the left ; pleasant turns are in the road, and the scenery
becomes wilder and yet more beautiful. In front stands Wansfell Pike by
which a steep road leads up to Troutbeck Valley ; and immediately beyond is
Low- wood. But before you halt there, go up that steep Troutbeck road to the
right, to get a better view of the lake — the view given at the head of the
chapter. The first mountain to the left, half hidden by the trees, is Coniston
Old Man ; Wetherlam is over Heald Brow, Crinkle Crags following and the
Pike o' Bliscow below ; yet more to the right and in front is Lingmoor — the
round boll ; above it, in the extreme distance, Scawfell Pike ; to the right,
seeming higher — but only seeming — Bowfell ; then, Hanging Knot, Great
End, and Glaramara. The lowest dip to the right of the mountain next
to Glaramara is the Stake Pass, leading from Langdale into Borrowdale ;
Langdale Pikes — the Pike o' Stickle, and Harrison Stickle— come next, with
the depression of Pavey Ark to the right ; and yet more to the right is
Easedale Head, with Loughrigg Fell in front.
The lake is at its widest here at Low-wood, broadening to a full mile
across to Pullwyke Bay where the waterlilies grow and the lily of the valley
is in the woods beside the shore ; and which is a long ferry towards
Collision ; and, just beyond, the road goes close down to the water's edgo,
9 r
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
mid winds and turns with it. And what a road ! Fringed with beeches
dropping their golden buds quite into the ripple — globe flowers and marsh
marigolds gilding the grey stones — little promontories jutting out, and deep
l>:tys indented — here a wall built up against the further encroachments of the
lake— there a broken bit of sedgy shore, wooded and flowery — twisted roots
of trees lying bared like snakes in the water — and at every ten yards the
aspect of the whole scene changing — was there ever such a way of travel set
before man for his enticement and delight ? There is not a more lovely
bit of coach road than this through the entire breadth of England. Sometimes
the Pikes are wholly lost, and sometimes the road turns to the foot where
the hills go oiF into plains and the lake joins the sky ; and sometimes there
is nothing but a screen of golden oaks standing out against the slaty sky
and slaty water, while the waves ripple and splash musically on the beach,
and the birds sing from the wooded bank, thick with undergrowth and white
with wind-flowers, to the right. Now you pass Doves-nest, where Mrs. Hemans
lived, with its cropped hedge, and wealth of yellow poppy about the garden
gate ; and you meet, perhaps, a scattered body of otter hounds, a characteristic
of the country, headed by a group of broad-shouldered, light-haired men in
velveteen and fustian, talking racy Westmoreland and smacking their whips
noisily as they pass; or a couple of rough -mannered lads from the farther
fells or lonely dales drive by in a small cart filled with frightened lambs ; and
then comes the last reach, and again you are turned to the foot of the lake,
with Ambleside4 behind you.
Now you see the glitter of a shining stream on Brow to the left, and some
white houses (Clappcrsgate) clustered on the side of Loughrigg Fell: now
4 Aiiilili->iik- only since Queen Elizabeth's time. In the Boundary roll of Rydal, 1273,
Ainlili-siilo is called Amelsate, and had a park ; after then it was Hamelside, Amylside, and
A in. Nidi:. James the Second granted to Ambleside a weekly market on Wednesdays ; two
fairs— one, the Cow Fair, on Whit Monday ; and another, the Tip Fair, for long horns and
tups ; also a Court of Pie powder. It is a common saying that often the market begins at
twi-lvo and ends at noon. Here is also the pretty ceremony of rushbcaring, but flowers arc
IHI\V substituted for the undent rushes, with better effect.
10
WIND ERM ERE.
you are at the tollgate, and copper beeches and stone houses thicken before
you, and the rich woods get richer, and the gardens are trimmer and the
fields are greener : now you are at Waterhead, and the lake dwindles into a
mere tarn : and then, in a few steps more, you are in the quaint, steep,
clustered streets of Ambleside, under the lee of Wansfell Pike, and just at
the entrance of Rydal Valley. And the first rich lake-country walk is ended.
NBA.B DOVES-NEST — LOOKING BACK
It was a cold, chill day when we took boat at Waterhead for a row on
the lake. The sky was partially covered by sullen-looking clouds, though
flashes of angry sunlight broke in between, bringing out into all varied shapes
of rock and crag the dim and indefinite grey masses which else showed nothing
of their true forms. It was thundery in the distance, and copper-coloured
edges and fiery spaces tinged the nearer clouds, while darker masses, swollen
and purpled, hung above the farther mountains ; but we disregarded these
signs, and pulled out of Waterhead Bay too rich in joy to count the probable
cost. Streaks of light quivered across the water, or the shadows of the coming-
gusts darkened the waves as they passed; and every now and then a pale,
watery ray dashed a line of yellow light across a mountain top or struck a
11 c 2
THE LAKE COUNT KY.
distant reach of lake, throwing all else into colder gloom by the contrast.
The houses looked marvellously picturesque, scattered on the hills and by
the lake side. One was set like a jewel in an enamelled framework of black
and gold against its background of fir and oak ; another was almost hidden
behind green sycamores and beeches ; a third stood like an Italian convent,
declared and aspiring, high up on the treeless mountain side; and a fourth
clung to a wooded crag, where it seemed to have scarcely room to root itself
upon the jagged ledge : wherever they were they had a special beauty of their
own, and seemed to be in the most fitting spot that could have been chosen ;
this peculiar gift of adaptability belonging to lake-side and mountain houses
generally, and only to be spoiled by an architecture of violent unsightliness.
We pulled round to the mouth of the Brathay,5 which divides Westmore-
land from Lancashire, and which was one of the boundaries of the old Lord-
ship of Furness;6 and we passed the "Brathay rocks" — little wave- washed
rock-bases for a clustering of firs — and a fair-set mansion backed by wood and
fell, with its lawn sloping down to the water and its group of children among
the trees — their scarlet cloaks, and frocks of vivid blue, coming out powerfully
* The Brathay comes from the Great and Little Langdale becks, and the thousand rills of
that lofty mountain-group up by Langdale head — its farthest source, perhaps, the stream on
the top of the Stake Pass — forming Elterwater, at the foot of Lingmoor, by the way : from
Eltenvater, whence it is the Brathay proper, flowing on by Skelwith to where it meets the
liothay at Three-foot Brandreth, in the fields just beyond Ambleside. The Rothay comes
out of the Grasmere and Hydal becks — receiving the waters of Stockghyll and Scandale
Becks by the way — to where it merges into the Brathay. But though the two rivers join
before they pour into the lake, no one yet knows why the char, Camden's " golden alpine
trout," always go up the Brathay, and the trout up the B^thay, at spawning time ; and
why never, by any chance, do they miss their way or change their routes.
6 Though not included in the Lordship, yet the Lake of Windennere was put to pleasant
HM->. sis well as to pious ones, by the monks of the old abbey. They had too many patrons
and beiieiiii-tors aimmg the laity not to get all they wanted. William de Lancastre III.,
" for the health of liis soul and the soul of Agnes de Brus, his 'wife, gave the monks of
1'u rues one boat to be used on Wyuandermere for the carriage of timber and other
commodities, and one other boat to fish in that mere — one boat and twenty nets."
1-2
WINDERMERE.
as points of colour in the landscape ; and we went into the recesses of two or
three little bays ; and by a rocky islet — Seamew's Crag — just big enough for
a small party of seamews to alight on ; and then to Pullwyke Bay, opposite
Low-wood — a rich and gracious harbour of wooded loveliness. Pull Scar is
behind the bay — a low rough crag ; and behind Pull Scar is Bowfell, and,
more to the left, Latterbarrow, making a long soft line to the Ferry House,
with a lake-side road passing over it. And on Pull Scar is one lonely white
house placed high on the fell; and the name of that house is the "Drunken
Duck " (Drook'n Dook, if spelling went by phonography), and the mission of
that house is beer.
On again, past the sham castle and its castellated boat-house on Low
Wray — High Wray above, with the pretty river, the Wray, forming Blellam
Tarn on its way — and in by Anthony Wilson's Bay, so called because one
Anthony Wilson once kept his boat there ; by meadows with their green
feet in the lake, and by small wind-worn trees on the tops of small wave-
worn crags ; by lines of grey stone wall and grey wood palings against the
green copsewoods ; with ever the crag and the fell and the moor, and the
tops of Wetherlam and the Old Man towering over Heald Brow, forming
the framework of the whole. But the intermediate mountains, and indeed
most of the hills, are strangely dwarfed seen from the breast of this long
and narrow lake. In the Belle Grange Woods — with their wealth of silver
birch or "birk," their black plumed junipers which are so often miscalled
"savins," as sycamores are generally "maples," — the lake-side road comes
creeping down to the water's edge: "up-bank" to Wray, " down -bank " to
the Ferry. And as we passed the sun flashed out in a sudden glare and
fell on the pretty island of Saint Mary, or Lady Holm, which once belonged
to Furness, and where, in the time of Henry VIII., was a chapel dedicated to
Our Lady and service duly performed, by a monk of Furness, within, but which,
since then, has passed from decay to total obliteration ; and that wild and
sudden sunlight almost dazzled us as it flashed full on another group of scarlet
cloaks sitting on a felled white tree, naked of its bark. Then we came to the
13
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Waterloo Gardens where the daffodils (" Lent lilies " or " flocks ") grow wild
for the universal colouring of Easter " pace eggs,"7 but where the most notice-
able thing at this present time was the crimson foam of apple blossom tossed
up over the wall : and full in front were Curwen's Isle8 and all the smaller
islands9 clustered like a band of broken jewels between the two promontories
of the Ferry House and the Ferry Nab. We landed at the Ferry House,
and struck off into the woods full of globe flowers by the lake side, and of
yellow poppies by the wood wall ; of hyacinths beneath the trees ; of the
7 A corruption of pasclie or paschal.
8 Once called Longholme, and, still more anciently, Wynandermere Island. " Amongst
the escheats in the 21 Edward III. there is an order, that the wood in the Island of
Wynander Mere, called Brendwood (that is, firewood, from the Saxon brennan, to burn),
shall not be several, but common to all the free tenants of Kirkby in Kendal, and of
Stirkland, Crosthwaite, Croke, and others, as well to depasture all their cattle, as to take
hausbote and heybote at their will, without view of the foresters." This island was the
scene of the famous siege which Major Robert Philipson — Robin the Devil, by more
familiar baptism — the Cavalier leader, withstood from Colonel Briggs, then Parliamentarian
major and magistrate at Kendal. Robin bore the press for ten days gallantly ; and then,
the siege of Carlisle being raised, his brother Huddleston Philipson, of Croke, the owner of
the property, got together a band of men, and relieved him. The next day, being Sunday,
Major Robert put himself at the head of a party of horse, and rode off to Kendal ; passed
the watch, and into the church, where he rode up one aisle and down another, looking for
liis enemy. But Colonel Briggs, by good hick to himself, had not attended church to-day,
so Robin rode out empty-handed, when the congregation, recovering from their stupor, made
a dash at him aa he passed out. One cut his saddle-girths, but paid for his act with his
life ; and then Robin, chipping the girthless saddle on to his horse, galloped off, slashing
liis way through the armed crowd ; and so got safely back to the island on the lake, more
than ever " Robin the Devil " after the feat. He was killed at the battle of Washford, in
Ireland.
9 There are ten in this centre group ; Rough Holm and Lady Holm, Hen, Hawse, and
Thompson's Holms, two Lily-of-the-Valley Holms, Curwen's Isle, and Crow Holm — our
little golden boss— and Berkshire Isle, somewhat lower down. Still more towards the foot,
and close in shore, are Ling Holm and Grass Holm, Silver Holm, and Blake Holm Island :
and up at the head are Seamew's Crag, Bee Holm, and Green Love ; but most of these are
only like small tufts of gold set in the steel plate of waters, scarcely to be called islands at
all : and some are only rocks.
14
WINDERMERE.
curved crozier heads of the sprouting bracken ; of young foxglove spathes,
thick, downy, and as yet flowerless ; of tufts of mountain fern like Indians'
head-dresses ; of trailing brambles and yet more delicate sprays of wild-
raspberry ; of bird's-eye, blue and lustrous ; of violets and wood-sorrel ; of
lady's-mantles, green, gold-spotted ; of delicate wind-flowers and starry
stitchwort, — full of all manner of sweet wood-flowers ; and then, returning,
we saw two large carts and two large horses put into the ferry-boat, which
a man nearly as large rowed leisurely across, according to the mode and
manner of the place.
The lake was bright but opaque; slaty where the lighter clouds were
reflected in it, steely where the darker. When the sun came out it glinted
on the waves in broken glitter and the shine was reflected in the water below ;
when there was no sun the under-side of the ripple was black. There was
no reflection to-day, save at the edges of the quietest and most deeply indented
bays, where the water was an olive-brown in which the trees looked blackened
masses without break or detail ; but the pebbles gleamed bright and many-
coloured, and the fish passed like streaks of light as they hurried over the
rocks and stones. Yet, save in these still bays, the whole lake was of a
dull, grey, troubled hue, and the flow of the waves was troubled too. But
now they got darker in the dip and whiter in the crest and deeper in the
curve. Up at the head of the lake black rain-clouds were gathered, with
ragged edges torn and trailing, blotting out the farther mountains and
throwing a smoke-coloured veil over the nearer. The water darkened and
rose under the wind, with a wilder clash in its stroke and a fiercer hurry
in its flow ; and the waves dashed against the boat which rocked and strained
at each blow, while the spray flew over us, and the curling crests broke down
the sides and swept across our feet. We were driven as if in a rapid stream,
the oars scarcely plied at all ; but the storm flew faster than we, and we were
soon overtaken.
We swirled on, past Storr's Point and the bobbin-mills at the mouth of
Cuusey Beck; Grass Holm, close to the bay, was passed, and another point,
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
scarcely discernible ; for now we could see neither hill nor wood ; the storm
had won the race, and we were in the midst of a wild waste of blinding rain
and stinging hail, of surging waves and sheeted mist. The mountains on
either side disappeared as by enchantment, and there was nothing in the
whole universe but our frail skiff — far too frail for the lake — and the lashed
waves leaping under the hail and the wind ; nothing but the tossing water
and the driving rain and the shroud of angry hail. In less than half an
hour the storm passed ; and then all the hills stood out in the sun as clear
and bright as if of glass, while the ghost-like wrath of cloud and mist hurried
on — the sun shining on its back as it went, giving it the appearance of a
solid body. The wind passed with it, and the waves sank back into a network
of rippling lines, with just an under-swell heaving up from beneath in long
smooth curves, too smooth to break into crested edges. The woods glittered
and sparkled in the sun, each dripping branch a spray of golden light, and
the light was married to the loud music of the birds flowing out in rivulets
of song. Countless flies shot through the air and vibrated on the water,
and the fish leaped up to catch them, dimpling the shining surface with
concentric ripples and throwing up small jets of light in the smooth black
bays. Every crag and stone and line of waU and tuft of gorse was visible
on the nearer hills, where the colouring was intense and untranslateable ; and
on the more distant mountains we could see, as through a telescope, the
scars on the steeps, the slaty shingles and the straight cleavings down the
hides, the old grey watercourses threaded now with a silver line— those silver
WINDBRMER&
lines, after the storm, over all the craggy faces everywhere ; we could see
each green knoll set like an island among the grey boulders, each belt of
mountain wood, each purple rift, each shadowed pass ; slope and gully and
ghyll and scaur, we could count them all glistening in the sun or clear
and tender in the shade, while the sky was of a deep pure blue above, and
the cumulus clouds were gathered into masses, white and dazzling as marble,
and almost as solid-looking.
And over all, and on all, and lying in the heart of everything, warming,
creating, fashioning the dead matter into all lovely forms, and driving the
sweet juices like blood through the veins of the whole earth, shone the
glad sun, free, cloudless, loving — life of the world's life, glory of its glory,
shaper and creator of its brightest beauty. Silver on the lake, gold in the
wood, purple over the hills, white and lazule in the heavens — what infinite
splendour hanging through this narrow valley ! — what a wealth of love and
beauty pouring out for the heart of all nature and the diviner soul of man !
17
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE
CHAPTER II
MANY and beautiful are the walks about Ambleside : walks within a reason-
able distance for any fair pedestrian, and which all but very fine ladies, or very
delicate ones, may take without too much fatigue, and without risk or danger
if they are but moderately careful. First, there is Stockghyll Force, just
at the back of the town ; a rough unspoiled bit of rugged beauty, happily
for the lake-world scarcely able to be spoilt even by Improvers, so imprac-
ticable is it and so wild.
(her nx-ks and stones, brawling and leaping in its imprisoned strength,
the river rushes on in its mountain vigour — past the bobbin-mill, where the
18
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
barked " stags' antlers " and " antediluvians " go, and where you may stand
on the narrow plank that does duty for a bridge, and, if you have lost any
one among the rocks, fancy you hear their groans behind you — past the town,
and Miller-bridge just below the town, where it makes its last leap before sub-
siding, spent and dwindled, into the tranquil existence of the Rothay rippling
through the meadows to the lake. Traced up beyond the mill, following the
wild path of rock and running water and twisted tree-roots — the rocks below
getting larger and more broken, the rift between them deeper and sharper —
the roar of the waters louder, and the rush more fierce and rapid — close
to where an old tree bends over the ravine, with its mossy roots thrust
through and through the pathway, while all its weight of stem and branches
is flung across the rift — there you come upon the "loosening silver" of the
fall, with its forked double leap of seventy feet, and its thousand little
cataracts below.
In the centre, and splitting up into four what else would have been one
unbroken sheet, is the obstructing rock, its bordering of vivid green marking
the point to where the waters flow in fullest seasons, and its old scarred face
grey and naked in the centre. Down below the leap are quiet pools where
the water fairies live; and pools not quite so quiet which the passing rush
of the torrent disturbs if it does not penetrate ; and desolate wastes of
pebbles lying dry and many-coloured in the sun ; and rocks which the
water never wholly covers but is forced to leave midway, falling like a
mantle from their shoulders neither crowning nor concealing ; and others
over which it is just able to lip with an effort and an almost visible strain,
as of actual nerve and muscle, each wavelet seeming as if it must fall
back before it reaches the edge, but each finally conquering and fretting
painfully over; and others, with an unchanging crest of foam as the waters
dash on triumphantly, burying them body and soul beneath their flow, and
planting that crest of foam as a mark of their victory — types, all three, of
the power of the will and its several degrees of conquest and tyranny in life.
Through the breaks in the wood may be seen the purple hills, and in the
19 D 2
THE LAKE CorXTKY.
en-vices of the rock, wiudtiowers and young ferns; and, for those who luive
stout nerves, and know the pattern of the thing they seek, the pyrola media,
:i rare growth of the Winter-green, found only among the rocks in the centre
<>t' the fall. But for every one there are sweet spring-flowers in the sheltered
corners, and glimpses of the purple hills among the green.
On a clouded day, rock and river and hill beyond are all soft and tender
and subdued, with no angles or sharp outlines anywhere ; but when the
sun comes out, the hills look shimmery in the light and the waters are
blinding and gem-like ; and every pebble in the waste places, and every tuft
of moss or clinging lichen, every ehannel worn by the water, and every furrow
traced by the rain, is seen as distinctly as if it was a picture of mosaic work.
Indeed, the whole thing looks like mosaic ; meaning by that, startling
contrasts of colours and no continuity of sweep or shading, not even in the
line of the Fall itself. The Stock, which separates the parishes of Windermere
and Grasmere, comes chiefly from the barren heart of Red Screes up by
Kirkstoue Pass : a desolate birthplace for so beautiful an outcome ! Round
about both Force and Ghyll is a charming day's ramble, with just enough
of difficulty and danger l to delight a town-bred tourist, and put a fine white
feather in his mountain-cap.
The Force and Wansfell Pike may be "done" in succession. Properly
undertaken, this rather large grassy slope— this moderate mountain of only one
thousand live hundred and ninety feet — is nothing ; but, attempted up his
ridgy back and not along his softer shoulder, he is rather a tougher matter ;
still, not tough in absolutes, according to the law of mountain nature. As
you ascend, Red Screes comes out in rude majesty, the desolate way of Kirk-
stone Puss winding between him and .Broad End: Loughrigg, rich and
1 An. I VH tlinv is dimmer, especially to the rash and over-confident. A fine athletic
young man, in the very prime of his life and flower of his strength, lost Ms life at the Force
while \v.. wciv tlinv. J king for ferns, he overbalanced himself and fell— dashed into
eternity in a Mnmd among the rocks.
20
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
beautiful, shows Silver How behind, apparently at the foot of Crinkle Crags ;
and between Crinkle Crags and Bowfell, Scawfell's steep head appears like a
dark point against the sky. You see the Kydal mountains, and where Ease-
dale lies behind the Pikes, and where the Stake Pass leads over Langdale • to
Borrowdale. Then as you go higher, Rydal-mere comes into view ; and, a
little higher still, lying behind an intervening point of Loughrigg, Grasmere
water, looking as if it might be a continuation of the Rydal lake ; the Rothay
winds gently through the meadows, and Brathay comes down more masterfully
round by the foot of Loughrigg.
The sheep-dogs are gathering the sheep on the mountains ; and you will
probably meet an old Wordsworthian shepherd with his staff and shepherd's
hat, with whom you stop and talk — not to much enlightenment of your
wits ; while the lambs wilfully lose themselves like wayward children, then
bleat passionately for rescue, and the sheep — those most phlegmatic of all
living mothers — answer with a temperate compassion, calmly confident in the
providence of lambs. A few cows are dotted about in beautiful ordering of
colours ; for the rich brown carries out the gold of the trees, and the slate-
colour goes into the blue of the sky, and the white comes out as high light
on the green, with much telling effect. On the fell itself you have to
encounter all manner of bogs of varying intensity of boghood; and if you
choose a way of your own, heedless of the authorized path, you must scale an
endless succession of stone walls, with such lightness of limb or heaviness of
muscle as nature and training ordain ; but, by time and patience and the
philosophy of never minding, the last barrier is scrambled over, the last bog
tramped through, and the last stiff bit overcome ; and then your labours are
rewarded. For suddenly you burst upon the lake lying below, with its
waistband of islands and its girdle of hills ; while far away to the right, out
against the sky, lies a broad line of golden light — the sea and Duddon
sauds. To the left is tne winding thread of the Kent River ; to the right is
Esthwaite Valley — Coniston and Black Combe beyond. Wrynose is next to
Wetherlam, and Scawfell stands up somewhat more distinctly than before,
21
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
but still only peeping over the shoulders of Bowfell. Blellam lies in the
ilip l>ehind Low Wray, and the Brathay Valley and Little Langdale steal up
and away into the mountains. The crags, which are so grand when you
stand below them, are now dwarfed to molehills; and beyond the 'head of
Kydal rises a troubled sea of mountains for all present use of indistinguishable
baptism. A steamer is on the lake, and the railroad is to the left, to remind
you that you are not quite alone with GOD and nature ; but that, down below,
the busy heart of man is toiling, and his hand is fighting, for toys and
gewgaws — for which you, too, do your share of toil and turmoil in the great
battle-field of the world.
SWEDEN BRIDOB
By a pretty home-like road in the beginning, but soon going off into stones
and loneliness and rough walking, with a lovely view of Kydal-mere — loveliest
when its waters are flushed with the burning sun — on, in ever-increasing
wildness, till the music of a stream is heard from the depths of a wooded rift
far below — wild crags about, and wilder clouds above — there lies the Scandale
beck, tearing down that narrow gully called the Scandale valley. Every now
and then a glimpse of the waters down in the rift is to be had ; but the rough
road does not follow the .course of the stream very closely, and it is only when
bridge, which spans the stream higher up among the falls, is reached,
22
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
that a full view of its beauty can be had. But here is repayment for the long
rough walking among loose stones and over boggy places and through
uncounted mountain streams stretching across the path — repayment for false
steps on slippery rocks, and for ancle-deep plunges into sweeping streams —
repayment for even the heavy shower that has fallen between whiles — by the
rich clusters of bird's-eye primrose starring the watery way, and by the beauty
of the scene. In front are the steep mountain sides without house or
tree, barren and bare save where stone walls enclose a greener plot
where sheep and cattle are feeding; and behind, is the wild torrent coming-
down by Kydal Head, and resting in a broad pool beneath the little bridge
before making its headlong journey onward. The stones are waterworn in
cups and hollows, honey-combed some of them and white as bleached bones ;
and the waters dash impetuously against them, with that restless look of force
imprisoned which a mountain stream always has ; and the little bridge itself is
one of the quaintest in the country.
Leaving the bridge to the left, you take a sheep-track which soon widens
out into a green lane between stone fences, through the treacherous swamps of
which, and its thousand rills bursting over on all sides, you walk to where the
lane ends and the living wall of mountain begins. For you come out literally
against a mountain ; face to face with a conical, steep, bare bank, flanked on
each side by banks still steeper and more bare, over which, however, you can
tind a path that will lead you down to Brother's Water and Kirkstone
Pass lying on the other side. Or rather you must make the path you will
not find. Through the one unending bog that it is, more especially if
after rain, — up the steep ascent — over the crags — fording the streams
swollen to quite tumultuous torrents — plashing through water all the
way to the small stretch of level ground on the top, granted as a breathing
space before the descent is begun — this is what your expedition to Scandale
Beck may end in, if you are adventurous and brave. And now you must
clamber down as you best can. Barren screes, utterly unscaleable, hem you
in on both sides, so that you must needs find a way down this sharp descent,
23
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
for none other is to be had. And in time, by dint of courage and firm
tooting, you splash down as you splashed up, and drop into the Patterdale
road just above Brother's Water.
Calm and still lies this lonely lake at the foot of the Patterdale moun-
tains— a lonely lake at the foot of lonely mountains, cut off from the rest
of the world, and of no account in the history of the time. The seagulls,
so often in sullen flight above the black waters, only add to the soli-
tude ; and seen for the first time, and unexpectedly, in the solemn grey
of evening, the place looks the very home of desolation, — a witch-haunted
mere whence is no beyond and no return, and where life and hope are
caught like wandering children, and held imprisoned for ever. But now,
leaving Brother's Water behind, toil up Kirkstone Pass to where the Kirk
stones look like a ruined church in the distance, and the starry and the mossy
saxifrage are in long white lines by the wayside; up through unutterable
desolation to the highest inhabited house in England. From here the road
down to Ambleside lies between stone walls, which the parsley fern fringes
with its tender green. Wansfell, on the left, is gilded with the setting sun,
but old Ked Screes lies grimly in deep shadow ; scarred, furrowed with water-
courses where the winter torrents plough their way into the very heart of the
rock, barred with grey stone walls, and strewn with loose shingle and scattered
boulders. Down below lies Windermere, rich and calm, her lake-side moun-
tains, gentle hills, her islands specks, and all her blue expanse asleep
in the evening sun ; and the contrast between the wildness just passed
through, and this quietness beyond, is more than can be expressed
by words. Looks may tell it, and a few broken expressions — the flush on
the cheek and the moisture in the eye; but no conceivable amount of
epithets, and no number of graven lines. Kirkstone is one of the first
passes to be seen. There are others wilder and steeper and grander, and
even more deserted of life ; but these are only footways, or at the best pony
paths for the strong-headed ; Kirkstone is a practicable ordinary coach road
—a good, broad, substantial highway on which you may drive your carriage
24
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
and pair with ease ; but, perhaps without exception, the most desolate and
violently wild of all the coach -
roads in England. Turning
hack when well down the pass,
the white road is seen wind-
ing up in a long serpentine
track, sharper and sharper
in its curves and wilder in
its way as it nears the top,
as if going off to eternal
desolation and the end of all
human things.
In another walk you may take in order the Roman Station, the
Brathay, Loughrigg Tarn (" Diana's Looking-glass "), Elterwater, and
Loughrigg Fell ; a rich programme for a few hours' walking. This Station,
formerly held to he the Dictis of the Notitia, but which Wright says was
Alonae, — in Camden's time " the carcase of an ancient city, with great
ruins of walls still remaining scattered about," and which others, later,
speak of as "a castrum, a parallelogram of 396 feet by 240 " —is now
a ploughed field, with a slight depression in the centre, and a raised
slope all round; a formation still visible, though so many hundred years
have passed since it was first tilled and ploughed, and flattened by wind
and rain, yet even, to this day, evident to the most careless observer to
be something not usually met with in potato-fields. Signs of the ditch,
too, are traceable on one side ; as also a dark meandering track along the
meadow where the course of the Rothay was turned for the uses of the
camp ; and still across the head of the lake is the great square stone
pavement, as if for the foundation of a harbour — the only bit of stone
bottom in the lake, the rest being mud. And, though no more gold2 or
a In the Ifbraiy of the University of Oxford is a collection of coins found here, given
bv the Braithwaites.
TIIK LAKK CorXTRY.
si her coins, rusty swords, brass eagles, sepulchral urns, or tesselatecl
pavements3 are to be found, yet broken shards of red Roman pottery,
and bits of old Roman cement, and small fragments of freestone with
illegible inscriptions on them, are yet to be turned up ; and a careful and
thorough search would, doubtless, bring even more hidden treasure to light.
This station4 was certainly, as Wordsworth says, established here as a
check on the passes of Kirkstone and Dunmail Raise, Hard Knot and
Wryuose ; whence the wild Brigantes sometimes came pouring down, waking
the Romans from their day-dreams, and making the old mountains echo
to sounds more discordant than the blare of the evening trumpet or the
song of the evening meal. How the Mariuses and the Manliuses must
have cursed their gods which sent them to such lonely places, away from
the blue skies, the vineyards and the olives, the gardens and the fountains,
of their own native Italy ! How they must have sighed for the pleasures
of Rome again ! — for the amphitheatre and the gorgeous processions — for
the games and the sacrifices and the pomp of imperial majesty — for the
shining tresses of Julia and the perfumed robes of Lesbia — for the love
and the glory, and the home more noble than all, with its matron and
its young citizens, left behind ! Little they cared for the stern beauty of
this desolate Brigantia, this land of wolves and wild beasts and men even
8 Curwen's island, too, had certain remains, showing that some Roman of taste —
perhaps the officer in command — had once made it his home, and had cared for it enough
to decorate and embellish it. For when, in 1774, a Mr. English rebuilt the house, " in
rutting a large drain on the west part of the building, to take away the wash from different
parts of it, into the lake, were found several pieces of lead and old iron, and a great number
of old bricks. About six feet deep they dug through several old drains, and a hearth WM
found in a perfect state. They found, at the same time, several pieces of old armour. Ir
I. -veiling the ground on the north of the building they dug through a beautiful pavement
curiously paved with pebbles of a small kind. They also dug through several curious
gravel walks."
4 One paved road, still traceable beneath its Iyer of mud, branched off from tliis
castrum to Keswick, by Grasmere; another to Patterdale, by Kirkstone, meeting the other
road on Iliuh Street, mid so on to Kciula nnd Eavonglass.
26
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
wilder than the beasts, where they were sent simply to subdue but in
nowise to enjoy ; little they noted of the march of the clouds or the
sunset triumphs in the sky, of the shadows lying softly on the summer
lake or the grandeur crowning the hoary heads of the winter crags : the
snow upheaped in fantastic shapes across the fells was only the pathway
of beasts of prey and stealthy-footed savages to them ; the depths of the
summer woods masked only death and danger, and a lurking Painted One
crouching behind the leaves, with fierce passions in his heart and murder
in his hand : — they hid no softening influences of love and beauty in their
tender glades ; where now we wander thrilled to the soul by this mar-
vellous beauty, the Eoman soldier shivered with dismay or burned with
the lust for blood, as nature had given him a strong heart or a weak.
Britain was no Elysium for him in any district ; but in these northern
parts he foretasted the pains of hell and Hades, and, doubtless, put the
punishment to the account of his sins and the righteous anger of the gods.
And now this reviled Brigantia is the favourite love-temple of the king-
dom ; and more young lovers pass here into the gladness and security of
marriage, than Rome ever sent soldiers to curse their unlucky stars which
set them face to face with the desolation of the Brigantine lakes, and the
lonely savagery of the mountain passes. Times change : it is a thankful
echo — and we change with them !
From the station the road leads over the Rothay bridge, and on beneath
the fell, to the side of the Brathay dashing itself noisily among its rocks.
Very beautiful is the Brathay, gemmed with little islands of golden mari-
golds and " lucken go wans " (globe-flowers) set in the midst of its troubled
waters, as if they had dropped from heaven for the good of beauty alone —
scarcely for the good of service ; very beautiful in its turbulence, in its richness,
in its wilfulness and wayward wanderings, and quite different to the meek and
tranquil Rothay, which has been tamed and pruned to a home and feminine
existence, while this wilder stream shakes the hand of man from his neck,
and rushes through the land bound only by the will of nature and the law
-.'7 E 2
THE LAKE COUNTHY.
of beauty. The two rivers are lilte the man's life and the woman's ; but they
meet in the quiet meadows at the end, and there flow, undivided, calm, and
strong, into the oblivion of the still greater life beyond.
Perched on a rock, its feet besprinkled with flowers and the mountain
wood clothing its sides, is the Brathay Church ; more like a church of the
old time than of the present, for the unwonted picturesqueness of its site
and the isolation in which it stands ; a beacon of the light rather than its
home — calling not indwelling ; and below it is the bridge flung across the
stream under the dropping branches of the trees. "Winding beneath the
fell all green and gold and brown — catching lake-like views of the river
now broadening out between its level banks — you go forward into the new
valley opening before you — Skelwith Valley, with the cleft Pikes seeming
at its head, but far beyond. Up a brant bit of road, and through a ragged
lane with a watercourse dribbling over the stones and a carpet of purple
butterwort to walk on, into a field blue with bird's-eye and crimsoned with
f red rattle, and there lies the tarn, sleepy and still, in the hollow of
u green grass basin. The water is absolutely unruffled, save where the leaping
tish sprinkle it with sprays and circlets of light ; and the grand old Pikes
are mirrored in it with a deeper purple in their shadows, while the gleam
of light that takes the edge of Scawfell and falls across the chasm
where Dungeon Ghyll is to be found, is translated into gold in its waters.
28
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
Dark banks of sullen clouds, touched into burning by the living sun, hang
above the hills, but far above and beyond them ; while the rays break through
the lighter "curl clouds" and pour down across the sky, till all the farther
mountain-heads are lost behind a veil of gilded mist, as if it were a film of
gold-dust between you and them.
Partly through woods rich in their spring scents, and partly through
the bounteous meadows, follow now the road to Skelwith Force, on the way
to Elterwater. A perfectly beautiful, if scarcely to be called a noble, Force,
this of Skelwith; beautiful rather for its accessories than in itself — richer
in the chased setting than in the gem — but lovely, as a fair woman is lovely
when her beauty is enhanced by grace. As the waters leap among the rocks —
the sun shining on the fantastic sprays flung up into its face, or on the
white plumes of the cascades tossed down into the river — the golden leaves
mirrored in the quiet pools and the green wood throbbing to the ceaseless pulse
of the waters, — it is as much like fairy-land as anything to be met with.
And as you sit there old dreams and poems of Queens of Faery, of Viviennes
smoothing their silky shining tresses, of Titanias wilful and blinded, and of
merry Midsummer's Night Dreams, crowd tenderly upon you ; for there are
some places that are witch-haunted, some that are nymph-haunted, others
that are full of elves and fairies, and others eloquent with the echoes of
knightly romance and noble chivalry ; and this special waterfall — this Skelwith
Force — is full of faery life, and rich in loveliness if not in heroism. And
all the more penetrated with these sweet and subtle fancies, because of the
pastoral simplicity of Loughrigg Tarn, and the grim associations of the
Roman camp, just seen.
Now you go on by the side of the Brathay to Elterwater. Indeed, Elter-
water is only the Brathay itself, making three resting-places, or large pools
strung together, at the outlet of the Langdale valley, before it goes on again
as a river should ; but, as was said before, not yet christened by its name
of Brathay until it has strung its watery beads and issued forth by that
reedy delta at the end. A rather dead and disheartening place this, pretty
29
THE LAKE COUXTKY.
and peaceful but without life or motion. Even the river, which elsewhere
is so full of joy and the capricious grace of liberty, trails here in a chained
and melancholy kind of way, and the three pools have nothing more vigorous
to do than to reflect, in perfect stillness and silence, the outer forms of the
mountains set round them, and the marvel of the sunlight beyond. And
when the sun pours down a torrent of glory and colour, making the grey
of the hills purple, and the metallic shine of the buttercups a hyacinthine
orange, flooding the meadows with rose-tints and gold, and blurring all the
outlines by excess of light — when the day's cup is filled to the brim, and
the yellow flood overflows with largest power and unrestraint — then Elterwater
is a place to meditate by mournfully, asking oneself cui bono ? and to what
end this pageantry of loveliness, which so few can see, and still fewer under-
stand when they do see it ? The intense solitude and irrepressible mourn-
fulness of feeling and thought resulting, of certain of the remoter lake country
places, must be felt to be understood. And when once felt, never possible
to be forgotten.
When you have dreamt out your dream, then go through a young wood
full of yellow pimpernel and wood sanicle of healing power : 5 full to moss-
like closeness of growth : where are exquisite effects, and glorious views, and
walls that must be clambered over, and rough gates and uncouth stiles every-
where, and where you are sure to find yourselves in places in which you
have no earthly business to be ; but you will finally set yourselves straight,
and strike the right road for a pathless scramble over the fell.
And such a scramble ! The plovers wheel over you with their pitiful
cry and their heavy flight, and the young lambs start bleating from their
couching-places behind the grey rocks bordered with the pretty little parsley
fern, or bound from sheltered nooks where the stag's-horn moss spreads its
elastic branches, and which the young junipers fence in and the bent heads
of the bracken carpet. On you must go ; up one craggy knoll after
4 " He that hath sanicle needeth no surgeon " — an old herbal proverb.
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE.
another, each seeming to be the last, hut always showing another further and
higher, which must for shame, and the mountaineer's pride of perseverance,
be surmounted ; down grassy slopes, smooth and soft as a well-kept bowling-
green, lying between high grassy banks utterly impassable, down — down —
with a perilous swiftness, till the slope breaks suddenly off into a rift, and
you stand some hundred feet above eternity. Back again, up more last crags
which never are the last, through pale yellow swamps with scarlet mosses
set in their hearts and the graceful butterwort on its frosted leaves about
their edges ; and, if you are fortunate, to a black peat tarn, deep and unsavoury
but glorified with exceeding glory — beautified with a living beauty, which has
to be won at any cost — its black unsightliness clothed and veiled and trans-
formed to splendour by the loveliness of the marsh trefoil, " the fringed
water-lily" growing there in the wild with more than garden grace. Care
nothing for the black, unsavoury bog-water. In for the prize, no heed given
to soaked feet or dripping hems — in, even up to the mid leg, and think your-
selves well rewarded by a fragile handful of the flowers, one of the loveliest
wild-flowers in England !
The fells are beautiful everywhere. Those over by Wansfell, and to the
source of the Skelghyll, and through the green road between stone walls,
down into Troutbeck,6 though not so varied as the Loughrigg Fells, are yet
6 Troutbeck is to Ambleside what Borrowdale is — or was — to Keswick, the land of
Gotham, upon whose wise men is saddled every absurdity of the district — the scapegoat
bound to bear the weight of all the rude wit afloat. In a few years this, too, will be done
away with, and pretty, dirty, neglected Troutbeck will be cleaned, schooled, and orna-
mented, and made fit company for ambitious Windermere and respectable Ambleside. It is
worth seeing, however, in its dirt and neglect ; its tumbledown cottages — not one among
them all straight according to the plumb-line — with ivied walls and casements patched with
rags and paper ; its one curious chateau-like house, with its formal courtyard, and formal
ten-ace, and formal yew-trees clipped and closely shaven; its destitution and penury;
all so grandly enframed that its very poverty becomes a charm the more. It is one of
the real bye-hamlets of the lake district, picturesque, wild, dirty, diseased, which the
]>r< >s;uc architect and schoolmaster will sweep away before many years are gone.
31
TI IK LAKE COUNTRY.
v.-rv grand ill their noble solitudes — noble because useful though desolate,
because fenced into natural fields where the birds find food, and the she'
and cattle pasturage, and the wild-flowers root themselves, and even moth
and butterflies make their home ; noble because, though deserted and un-
tenauted by humanity, they are still brought into the service of humanity,
and give of their strength and their substance for the uses of the world.
Great, calm, wave-like sweep these fells at the head of Troutbeck, where
you may wander for many hours, with no more variety of scene than what
is to be had in the relative position of the mountains, or the need of climbing
more and more stone walls rising everywhere against you.
The path is rough and stony enough ; but who notes the rudeness of
the way when the world is such as it is on a bright spring day — bright
as the days here are after rain? A bush with the sun shining through is
a tree of golden flowers set upon purple stems ; the distant mountains towards
Langdale are threaded with silver where the watercourses have filled ; and
the Rothay in her even line, and the Brathay in his far-off pools sun-flecked,
break out into spaces of light as eloquent as speech. Crinkle Crags and
Lingmell are dusky with light ; but Silver How has caught the shadow of
a cloud, and is dark with tenderness, not gloom. Loughrigg is radiant
in the sunshine, and the lake is barred with silver or blue as the
sun or the shadow falls. Going higher the Pikes come up— Pike o' Stickle
split in two ; and little Blellam shows itself behind Low Wray like a
piece of glass let into the green. The Roman Station at the head of the
lake is to be clearly made out now between the Rothay and the wood
below, its square form and brown colour — the potatoes not yet covering it
— marking it from among the green fields. Now, over a thorny dyke,
down the darkest and loneliest of gipsy glens, through a newly-felled wood
where the ground is blue with hyacinths, darkening to purple when broad
patches of meadow cranesbill hold the way instead — where ladies' mantles
trail over the earth, and matted larch twigs make a carpet many feet above
the ground— up through this enchanted land over the fells to Troutbeck.
32
WALKS ABOUT AMBLESIDE
THE ROMAN STATIOM
Troutbeck, the smallest and most primitive of hamlets, has its own minute
history, both authentic and legendary, as well as the best of them. It
was the dwelling-place of Hogarth's7 uncle, " Auld Hoggart," as he was
called, a satirist, a poet, and an original, whose memory is still green in
the vale, and who was by no means an ordinary individual. " He did as
much good as a clergyman," was the report of one old lady, fondly mindful
of the past however cloudy. And there was, besides, a clever and home-
made genius, by name Julius Caesar Ibbotson, who painted a noted sign,
called the " Mortal Man ; " one mortal man being round and rosy-gilled, the
other cadaverous and lean ; with this distich underneath : —
" Oh, Mortal Man, that liv'st on bread.
How comes thy nose to be so red?
Thoti silly ass, that looks so pale,
It is bv drinking Birkett's ale ! "
7 The Hogarths, Hoggarts, or Hoggards, were rightfully of Kirkby There. The eldest
brother was a yeoman at Bampton ; the second a ploughman at Troutbeck ; the youngest,
Richard, the painter's father, was educated at St. Bees, and went up to London, where his
son William was born, December 10th. lf>!)7.
TMK LAKE COUNTRY.
The Mortal Man still exists as a not too luxurious public-house ; but the
famous sign has departed, having been taken away to a place near Cartmell,
where it gradually faded out of existence altogether ; thus proving its own
mortality without question. There were other local worthies beside the
Hoggarts (generally pronounced Hoggartys) and Ibbotsons ; and, for one, there
was Huddleston Philipson of Croke (brother to Robin the Devil), who was
the magnate of Troutbeck in his time. Charles I. gave him a park and
estate there, as a reward for his devotion during the Civil War. Harriet
Martineau says it was the same estate so cleverly obtained by a giant of the
time of Edward VI., one Hugh Hird, or, as Clarke calls him, " Gilpin, the
cook-lad of Kentmere, from his corcousness or corpulency," whose ordinary
diet was " Porridge so thick that a mouse could walk over them8 dryshod,
and the sunny side of a wedder — when he could get it." This Hird, " a man
of amazing strength," " quite uncivilized, and knowing no law but strength,"
came begging his way to Troutbeck. There he found an empty house — one
which had been forfeited to the Crown, and of which no one cared to
take possession, it was so valueless. But it just suited Hugh, so he
established himself in it forthwith. When a lawful tenant appeared, the
giant prevented his entrance ; and being sent for to London, there to
answer for his contumacy, exhibited to his Majesty such feats of strength
8 Porridge is always plural. You " stir them with a thivel," and you " sup them " with
a good will, unless they are " smeuked" or " bishopped," or " a' lumps and dozzels like
Niinny Haikiu's butter;" and you give them to your childer, for they are " serious grand
tilings for making banging bairns." When made of barley-meal they are called "kittly
slipdnwns, and kittly slipdowns, eaten with fresh cream, are among the real luxuries of
tli. north. Oatmeal porridge and oatmeal cake — haver bread — are very fair tasted. Even
Fuller, who was not over fond of the north, does not despise oatcake. " While Wheat and
Barley maij seem but the adopted, Gates are the natural issue of this Country. Say not
Oates are Horse-yraint', and fitter for a stable than a TABLE ; for besides that the meal
thereof is the di-tinguUliing/orro of Gruel or Broth from Water, mo§t hearty and whole-
some Bread is made thcroof." Anciently none other was used north of the Humber ; and
William the Conqueror gave the manor of Castle Bithan, in Lincolnshire, to Stephen Earl
of Albermarle and Holdernesse, to supply his infant son with wheaten bread.
34
WALKS ABOUT AMBLKS1DK.
— lifting a beam too heavy for ten ordinary men, tying two bows together
Mini breaking them, and showing how he once drove back a party of
Scottish moss-troopers with his own bow and arrows unassisted — that
Edward offered to grant him any reasonable petition he might present.
Whereupon Hugh prayed for the house at Troutbeck, the field behind for
peat-turf for his fuel, and leave to cut what wood he liked in the new
park; which, being granted, he lived happy all the rest of his life, dying
at forty-two, pulling up trees by the roots.
Troutbeck was once a place of some importance, and there is still a
hill called Gallows How, where probably the old Barons at Kendal had a
place of execution for their rebellious and misbehaving vassals ; and another
place called Spying How, where was once a raise, which, when opened, was
found to contain a kistvaen full of human bones. Were they the bones of
the poor old Brigantes, listening in their woods to the ring of the Roman
axe and the clang of the Roman hammer, as the victorious legions of
Agricola marched over the mountain tops to join the cohorts at Concagium ?
The valley, now so bare of trees, was once so thickly wooded that the old
inhabitants used to say a squirrel could have passed from the lake side
up to Thresthwaite Mouth without once touching the ground. It is at
Troutbeck that we are told of the three hundred bulls, and three hundred
bridges, and three hundred constables, belonging to the parish ; the
explanation being that the township is divided into three Hundreds, and
to each Hundred belonged a bull, a bridge, and a constable.
BROMZE — FODND AT AMBLE31DE
.",.3 F 2
FROM AMBLE SIDE TO KESWICK
CHAPTER III
,1 where the Le Flemings live, is the one bit of real aristocracy
belonging to Ambleside. The whole valley was once a park for the entertain-
ment of the lord, when he left his richer domains for a spell of vigorous
north-country hunting ; and though so long since disparked and turned to
the ordinary purposes of food and fodder -bearing, still retains traces of its
former richness and exclusiveness, specially about the Hall, where the care-
fulness of ownership has never been relaxed. There, the trees are trees of
mere beauty and ornament, with no firewood in their twigs, no bobbins in
their branches, no masts or tables, gate-posts or window-frames in their
stems — trees, the only functions of which are to give shelter to the rooks ;
1 llydal is said by some to mean the rye-dale or valley, which is surely a sad straining
<>f etymology; by others, among whom was Mr. Wordsworth, to be a contraction of Rothay-
dale, from the river — a more likely reading, seeing that the old name of the lake was
KnwtlmiiTr, which seems to have been from the same root as Rothay ; hence, by elision
and contraction, Rydal, for the vale. Black gives it as Rliydle, a passage place.
36
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESW1CK.
the mossy lawn has been for centuries a lawn, put to no coarse ends of
usefulness ; the meadows, where the cattle stand knee-deep in flowers and
grass, seem as if they might have been just what they are now hundreds of
years ago, when De Lancastre and De Eos2 held high court and revel through
the vale ; and through the whole estate lies that unmistakeable sign of
ancient aristocracy which no money can purchase, and no art or science can
supply. It all seems a lord's private property, where nature is elbowed out
of court, and where meaner people exist by sufferance.
The cottages are as trim and picturesque as if made of Dresden china
for Madame d'Arblay's princes and princesses, while the Falls 3 — the famous
Kydal Falls — are so pretty and well-arranged that surely their fittest place
is the back scene of some pastoral opera, where the shepherds dress in
velvet tights and silk stockings, and the shepherdesses dance in muslin and
wreaths of roses ! Certainly they are pretty — but they have been so trimmed
and cared for — the trees have been so artistically disposed — the vistas so
cunningly contrived — the channels have been so scientifically deepened — the
resting-basin so tastefully arranged — and the summer-house is such a bit
of picturesque trick, that one loses all perception of nature, and cannot but
2 The Rydal estate was granted by Margaret, widow of Robert de Ros, of Wurk
Castle, to Roger de Lancastre, somewhere towards the end of the thirteenth century, the
grant being confirmed by Edward I. in 1274. From Roger de Lancastre it passed to the
Lancastres of Howgill ; and then, by the marriage of Isabella, coheir with Sir John de
Lancastre, to Sir Thomas le Fleming, of Coniugstone. These Le Flemings were the
descendants of the famous Sir Michael le Fleming — " Flandrensis" — the relative of
Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, brother-in-law to William the Conqueror, and a strict clansman
of the King. Sir Michael was the ancestor of Lady Jane Grey. He was a famous man in
his day : good against the Scots especially, and rewarded for his prowess in that direction,
by the grant of several manors both in Lancashire and Cumberland: among them,
Beckermet Castle, Aldingham Castle, and Coningstone Hall. Rydal Hall suffered much
from the Parliamentary party ; the le Flemings remaining Catholic to the reign of James II.
3 There are two falls — the upper and the lower — situated in the Rydal Hall grounds,
which you pay a fee to see. The way leads through the park meadow and outer
gardens by a path of singular beauty and richness ; but all made and artificial— luxury and
the effeminacy of oivili/atinn stilling everything like natural growth or freedom.
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
regard those very elegant waterfalls as artificial
altogether; to the extent of easily believing in a
forcing pump or a steam-engine somewhere out of
sight and hearing. They are like a wild fawn that
has leaped the park-palings in her play across
the moor, and has been caught, and led about
among the young queens and kings, with a chain
of flowers round her neck, and her hoofs shod with
gold. She is very lovely in her tameness, and with all
her old grace of limb and action ; but she is no
longer the wild fawn with the mountain wind for
her companion, and the mountain eagle for her
playmate — she is only a caged creature now ; well-
fed and golden-shod, but — caged. And so the free
mountain stream that ran joyously among the fern
and about the rude rocks, uncared for and dis-
regarded, when it gave that one sharp leap from
off the fell, leapt into civilization and subjection — into flowery
/ , wreaths and mossy banks and all the luxuries of wealth and art ;
but it is never the free mountain water again — never anything but the toy of a
grand domain. And, for this reason of patent artificiality, the Kydal Falls,
though sweet, are not entirely pleasing ; like something warped from its first pur-
pose and perverted from its natural meaning.
Pass across the road, from the Hall to
the Mount where the most famous of the
lake poets lived ; and see there the celebrated
terrace-walks, the garden-steps, the porch
with its seat, the mound, and the view ;
see and admire; for truly it is a poet's
fitting home, — set against Nab Scar as
its shelter, the steeps of Loughrigg in front, Helm Crag at its side, and
38
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK.
the gentle little mere at its feet. The terrace-walk along Nab Scar, with its
desolation sometimes left bare and naked to the sky, and sometimes clothed
with fern and moss and lichen, is very lovely ; lovely from the first step out-
side the poet's garden, to the last by White Moss and the little pool of
"fringed water-lily." And then the road must be taken; and GRASMERE,4
and the churchyard, and the daisied nook where lie the Wordsworth family
in quietness and peace, with poor Hartley Coleridge near them in death,
as he had been in life. That quiet little nook in the churchyard among
the mountains, with all the burning fire of passion, the light of thought,
and the tender weight of love that lie buried there — how one could dream
away a working day in merely looking at those stone^, and remembering
against what manner of human life they have set their solemn seal of
"For ever!"
Of all the lake country villages Grrasmere is the most picturesque and
the likest one's ideas of the typical English home. It has no street, properly
so called, but is a scattered collection of human habitations — cottages, shops,
houses, mansions — each with its own garden or special plot of greenery, how-
ever small, and all for the most part standing apart and individual. The
postman walks daily some eight miles in and about the village in the delivering
of his letters ; which may give an idea of its scattered and therefore picturesque
character. And perhaps more than any other, does it impress one with
the feeling of peace and the absence of passion or even of suffering. Though
not trimmed and decorated as the dainty Rydal hamlet, nor so evidently
4 Grasmere, Gresmere, Grismere — the mere, or lake, of the grise, or wild swine — was
once a chapelry only, under the mother church of Kendal. The ecclesiastical patronage
was sold by Henry VIII. to Alan Bellingham, of Levins and Helsington, Gaythorn and
Fawcet Forest, treasiirer of Berwick, and deputy warden of the Marches, he whose punning
motto was —
" Amicus amico Alanus,
Belliger Belligero Bellinghamus."
He resold it, in Elizabeth's time, for 100Z. to the Le Flemings of Ilydal. The manor was
formerly included in that of Windermere.
39
THE LAKH COfXTRY.
artistic and considered as the new town of Windermere, it has a certain
well-to-do look about it — not as of fashion and luxury and a few large
fortunes flaring out over all the rest like the dominant notes in an orchestra
or the master colours of a picture — but in the quiet beauty and cleanliness
everywhere, and the absence of sordid squalor even in the poorer cottages.
It is full of flowers and green trees and pleasant meadows and lovely little
lanes, and the signs of human care throughout; but not of human care
putting a luxuriant nature too fussily to rights. As the waters have made
a halting-place at the foot of Red Bank and Fairfield, so man has halted
here too, and finally has settled where he rested. This is the impression
that you have of Grasmere, on your way from Ambleside to Keswick, as
of a lovely halting-place, where industry has forced a living from nature,
and not as if work had been lying there from the beginning which must
needs attract hands, sooner or later, to itself. So sheltered and so peaceful
is it, that even in the rugged winter time it does not look cheerless or dreary,
while in the bright young spring, in the luscious summer, and in the ripe
and lusty autumn, it is the pleasantest spot for lotus-eating, and dreaming
in bye arbours of Armida's garden, to be found between AVindermere and
Lowes Water. Unimportant, uncommercial, unproductive, but serene, beautiful,
and happy, it is like some gracious lady sitting by the wayside and offer-
ing milk to thirsty travellers. No costly wine in a jewelled goblet, and
yet something more loving than water in a cup of leaves, it is the real
sweet pastoral milk in the carved beechen cup that Grasmere gives — such
as Virgil might have drunk when he sat with Tityrus under the spreading
beech-tree, or listened to the rivalry of Damoetas and Menalcas. It is the
place for poets and lovers and the contented aged; but scarcely for the
adventurous or the restless. As indeed may be said of most of these lake
country villages, bound in the quiet bondage of love and beauty, but leaving
no space wherein the wilder soul may "rage and ramp." Eat then your
summer's lotus at Grasmere, but lay aside your life's armour while there,
and think of no battles to be fought and of no victories to be won !
40
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK.
QRASMEEE — FROM LOUQHRIOO BIDE
Helm Crag stands out now boldly, with Dunmail Raise winding between
it and Seat Sandal — great sentinels of the pass — and the Lion and the Lamb
as its crest. Wordsworth called those stones the Astrologer and the Ancient
Woman, but they are more like the old designation from this side ; perhaps
from the other side the poet's picture may come into clearer shape.
" Above Helm Crag a streak halt' (load,
A burning of portentous red ;
And near that lurid light, full well
The Astrologer, sage Sidrophel,
Where at his desk and book he sits.
Puzzling aloft Ms curious wits ;
He, whose domain is held in common
With no one but the Ancient Woman,
Cowering beside her rifted cell,
As if intent on magic spell.
Dread pair, that, spite of wind or weather,
Still sit upon Helm Crag together!"
At any rate the lines are good if the picture is less than exact, and poets
have even more licence than artists.
41 G
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
But now a white stream, foaming down the deep blue recess between
Silver How and Helm Crag, makes you diverge from the main road, choosing
White Bridge and Butterlip Meadows instead, and a rough paved, way, us
much water-course as way, with purple geraniums and spotted orchis set
in golden kingcups among the sedges on either side. And by this rough
way, getting still rougher and wilder as you go on, but with snatches of
exquisite grace interleaved — the wildness to conciliate your rougher moods,
and the grace to harmonize with your more loving — you finally reach and
clamber up the rocky sides hemming in Sour-Milk- Ghy 11 Force, otherwise
Easedale Force.
A broken and tumultuous fall is this ; one fall indeed not, but a
multitude of falls — a knotted string of cascades — rushing down the black
rocks from the lonely tarn high up in the barren hills, and pouring out its
life with as much of untamed wildness as the Rydal Falls have of artificiality.
Nothing can be more thoroughly contrasted than these two waterfalls, so
few miles apart and to be seen almost within the hour ; and of the two,
surely the untouched natural life is the nobler and more beautiful.
A little higher up, through reaches where the pale yellow moss is
reddened with sundew, and where stag's-horn moss and club moss and
the cock'scomb-shaped lycopod'mm complanatum give worlds of delight to
those big boys and girls, the botanists, you come upon an amphitheatre, in
the centre of which lies Easedale Tarn as it might be the arena. The
outline is serrated like an elephant's tooth, and the sides are folded and
wrinkled, and there is more the appearance here of landslip than in many
other places, and a richer manner of natural beauty. It is especially lovely
with the sunlight lying on every rock and stone — a cup-full of sunlight indeed,
round which the mountains are as pure and full of colour as if they were
of metal ; the tarn reflecting every image and adding while giving back.
Then up to Codale Tarn, of course not by the gentler way — never take the
gentler way — but up the very face of those wild Carr's Crags ; the true rocky
scramble, with the true rocky incidents to give it proper pleasure — the ash-
42
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK.
tree growing out from a rift, and bending over the stream — the rocks bleached
and bony — the whitened skeletons of trees stripped of their leaves by the
wind and the hail and the frost, never to be clothed again by the sun and
the shower — the fling of ferns across the grey — all the dear old features of
the craggy path, till you come to Codale Tarn, lying under the shadow of
its own particular pike. Whence, if you have a mind, you may go to Stickle
Tarn and Dungeon Grhyll, and down into Langdale, or over the Stake, as
you will. To-day do none of these things ; turn back by the way you came,
to the foot of Helm Crag; and passing among farmsteads and gentlemen's
seats, shady narrow lanes, and fenced fields full of cattle, fall into the main
road again at the pass of Dunmail Raise.5
A dreary way enough lies before you; with Grasmere, pretty, pastoral,
sleepy, and green, bathed in the summer sunshine, the haymakers just beginning
their pleasant labours, and the cows and sheep dotted picturesquely about its
pasture lands. Helm Crag is now only a corner-stone of large dimensions, —
the Ancient Woman and Sage Sidrophel taking the place of the Lion and
the Lamb, as expected — and Steel Fell, sharp and straight as its name, rises
with a threatening kind of front, behind it. You have passed Fairfield which
has been so long your landmark ; but Seat Sandal flows out perpetually into
new lines, ever rugged and rough both in form and dip, whatever the change
5 Hutchiiison has a very quaint theory respecting the growth and meaning of this
name, which we will give abridged so far as we can. Popular assemblies were called
mallums, afterwards mallum-motes, folk-motes, ward-motes, wittenage-motes. Justice used
to be administered by the presiding Druid, sub Dio, within the circle of the ray, equal to
our bar: hence arraign (at ray in), arrested (at ray est). Even religio is ray-ligio (bound by
the ray). Near Cockermouth is the hill Muta or Moota, and on the top Moota-man.
Carlisle assizes are still held in the mote or moot-hall, and we still moot a point. A
general meeting was a mallum-mote ; and in these motes every arrest or act passed was
called dun-ivallo, the will done or enacted, our present parliamentary phrase the outgrowth
of the same. Dun-mallard, near Ullswater, and Dun-mail-raise, evidence the same thing.
Dun in old law records is a hill, and Dunmallo was the law of the hill. That heap at
Dunmail Raise is our only monument, says Southey, and that doubtfi.il, because it may be
merely a division made between the two comities.
43 c. *
II IK LAKE COUNTRY.
of position. The Raise beck, which here divides Cumberland and West-
moreland, makes sweet mountain music at the foot of Steel Fell, singing
its noble song with a clear, loud, freeborn voice that stirs the blood within your
veins almost as the blast of a trumpet might, till the highest point of the
Pass is reached, and you come upon the ancient pile of stones, now welted
together with fern and moss and covered with the sweet charities of time and
nature, which, they say, marks the spot where the poor county king, Dun-
mail, was buried, when he was defeated and slain by the Saxon Edmund,
and his kingdom given to the Scottish Malcolm. As you descend and round
the last spur of Seat Sandal, Helvellyn, stern and fervid, sweeps down its
barren lines in terrible majesty of power ; the upheaved mountain wall to the
west breaks into more distinctive members, and new vistas reveal themselves ;
and then, towering up above all the rest, and a long way off, a dim blue top
comes out from among the grey clouds, and the dim blue top is SKIDDAW.
Below lies the little lake of Thirlmere,6 with its two promontories bound
together by a bridge,7 shaped like a bridge of boats set stem to stern ; and
you pass by, not through, the City of Wythburn, a miserable hamlet with
nothing curious about it save its ambitious name, past Thrispot, and the
humble little church belonging to the district —
" Wytheburn's modest house of prayer,
As lowly as the lowliest dwelling —
well in keeping with the place and people. Rough Crag and Raven Crag—
the last is one of those richly-wooded and ringleted-looking crags so often to
be met with in the lake country — stand boldly forward on the west of
Thirlmere, where also is the Haunted House and the terrible ghost-story
as reported by Harriet Martineau. And quite to the left is a mountain
shoulder, with the well-known features betokening the probability of a tarn
6 Thirlmere has many names, Leatheswater and Wythburnwater, and anciently Brack-
" At th<> foot of Wy I him ni fells lies Brackmere." — GOUGH'S CanuJcn.
7 Siiid to hit Uoiiiiin, but more than doubtful.
44
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK.
within the dip ; as indeed there is — Harrop Tarn, with Dobghyll8 proceeding,
and that noble mass of rock, Tarn Crag, overhanging.
Go across the boat-like bridge to the west side of the lake, to where
Laucey Falls are1 to be found among the trees and ferns : 9 not prettily tame,
like the Rydal Falls — not with the same amount of passion and tumult
in their rush, as in Sour-Milk Ghyll — but with an adorned luxuriance, a
generous and graceful beauty, whether flowing through fairy nooks, or lost
in shy entanglement of root and rock, or leaping out in bold cascades,
laughing so that the old hills catch up the sound and fling it back with
dimmer music — these seldom-visited falls are as worthy of odes and pictured
praises as many others of which so much public account has been made.
Feathered with woods but not obscured — craggy and wild but not bleak
or bare — bank and jutting stone moss-covered and fern-adorned but not
softened into effeminacy, or their natural beauty crippled by false art —
dark, cool, lonely, and lovely, their wild grace at once rich and free, — it is
time well bestowed to take an hour or two from the journey, and spend
them in golden moments by the side of those falling waters. If it is a
still day, Thirlmere lies absolutely unrippled, the reflection so entire that
you cannot, at first sight, tell where the line of water begins, and what
is real and what only repetition. These marvellously clear reflections
are characteristic of Thirlmere, kept by Helvellyn from the east wind, and
by its own crags from the west, closed up by Nathdale10 Fell and the
8 Under Bull Crags, not far from the ghyll, is a tall flat-topped stone, called the Justice
stone, where the dalesmen of Wythbum, Legberthwaite, and St. John's-in-the-Vale, used
to meet to settle public matters, such as the letting of the sheep-runs, repairing roads, &c.
An old man now living at Wythbum remembers being taken by his father to the last of
these meetings. The stone is half-way between the city and Armboth, and nearly opposite
the little promontoiy called Clarke's Lope, where one Clarke tried to get rid of his wife,
but was drowned himself instead.
9 Some rare ferns are to be found here : among them the asplenium viride, or green
spleenwort, a limestone fern growing on a thin vein of limestone running through this district.
10 Pronounced Naddle.
45
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
St. John's Vale hills against the north, and by Dunmail Raise from even
the tender south ; and wonderfully perfect they are. The rich and stately
trees of Dalehead, the desperate front of Helvellyn, the bounding leap of
Brotto's Ghyll, and Eagle Crag like a bird's wing — not in its sweep but in
its grey striated lines fringed with growth of wood for feathers, — all by turns
appear, loaded with additional colour in the mirror below, and all are suddenly
swept out, as an artist would sweep out a picture with one stroke of his
brush, when a small light breeze glides swiftly across the lake, and shakes
it mischievously into smiles.
Keep still to the left for Shoulthwaite Moss ; passing now under Eaven
Crag — Great How, where Wordsworth's boys built their- snow man, covered
with trees, on the right ; Wanthwaite Fell, a lower shoulder of Helvellyn,
still further to the right ; Nathdale Fell, which runs like a hog's back between
the vales of Nathdale and Saint John, in front ; and beyond Nathdale the
blue mass of Blencathra; to be soon followed in full profile by Skiddaw.
Turn back before the scene is changed, and take in the whole of the lake,
THIRLMERE
winding and river-like, to the very foot of the Raise ; a view to be well
noted when seen, and not the less noted because not one of the more popular
or widely known. As you descend, the Castle Rocks appear— Green Crag
properly— where the Bridal of Triermain was held ; and where now, instead
46
FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESW1CK.
of Arthur's love and Guendolen's proud beauty, instead of the revelry and
knighthood of the magic time, is only a heap of cold grey stone, touched
into golden glory by the westering sun; which the imaginative and short-
sighted may believe to look like a ruined castle, but which the clear-eyed
make to be only a heap of cold grey stone. But, from the Threlkeld side,
and in a not too brilliant sunset, even they, the clear-eyed, may be deceived,
and think they see the remains of a ruined castle in the broken rocks of
Green Crag.
Then, by sweet flowery lanes rather than an ordinary Queen's Highway,
out from the Vale of Thirlmere (Legberthwaite properly) into the Vale of
St. John's, and by wooded Castlerigg (which you must pronounce Castrigg if
you wish to be understood by the vale people) where the great Derwentwater
family had once a house on the heights above Walla Crag ; and down the long,
steep, wooded slope to Brow Top, Skiddaw showing his huge bulk more fully,
Latrigg standing like a watchdog by its side, Blencathra sharp and picturesque,
the Bassenthwaite Fells distant and dim, and Bassenthwaite Lake like a silver
line against them and the sky, the Greta, most musical, most beautiful of
rivers, flowing on its careless way like a happy child singing in its play : all
caught up, one after the other, as the eye wanders lovingly from each to each.
There they all are — the lake, the mountains, the islands where the sweetest
wild flowers are to be found and the loveliest pictures to be made, the bays
where the water-lilies grow, and where fairies used to live in the days when
life was young and love was not ashamed of faith — there are the sweet
meadows, and the little golden becks running over their golden sands — there
smile the sunny slopes of Catbells — there peers up to the sky the royal face
of Causey Pike — Grisedale Pike, and the sharp Newland hills, tell pleasant
tales of summer rambles — and the bold dark mass of Borrowdale's wilder
cluster shuts in the heart of the Lake Rose against the world beyond. For
it is in truth the Lake Rose, this VALE of DERWENTWATER — the loveliest flower
in all the garland — the brightest gem of the whole grand crown !
PERWENTWATER
from
CASTLEHEAD
KESWICK AND DERWENT WATER
CHAPTER IV
THE Vale of Derwentwater bears quite a different aspect to that of eith<
Windennere or Ullswater. The first — a long narrow tongue or inlet from the
south — modernised and beautiful, but tame, save at the head ; in all its lowe
and middle lengths rather a promise of what is to come than the fulfilment
hopes — strikes one as a lovely garden, or park, where the very wildness is wel
kept, and nature is constrained to neatness. A delicious translation for the
town-weary Cockney, but too well-dressed for the true-born mountaineer, anc
oppressive in its modern luxury to those who remember this country in it
simple homeliness of forty years ago. The second is liker the ideal norther
life, and has a certain savageness and solitude about it which makes one forge
48
KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER.
its two grand hotels with their startling London prices, and the grim exclusive-
ness of its one stately owner, careful rather for exclusiveness than for simplicity.
Even its inconveniences are pleasant as a summer day's experience — its no
market and its no shops, and the need of sending fifteen miles to Penrith for
a cap-string or a fishing fly, its butcher's supply coming once a week, and no
oftener, and its postman in his little cart the general Mercury and the great
event of the day. All this is very delightful ; though, to be sure, it is only
a playing at the life of long ago, with the steamboat hissing on the lake, and
crinolines swelling on the mountains ; but it charms during a short stay where
no vital inconvenience is felt, and gratifies the imagination. Still Ullswater,
like Windermere, for all its grandeur is only partially mountainous ; noble in
the upper reach, beautiful in the middle, but tame if lovely in the lower, going
off into softness and rich living and the broad plains of castle-crowned
Penrith and the flowing wealth of rivers. It is not the amphitheatre that
Derwentwater is, though it may be that it has grander lines about it; as in the
lines of Helvellyn, which belongs to Ullswater, and which are nobler than
those of Skiddaw.
Yes, Derwentwater is the gem of the whole. Whatever there is of beauty
special to the other districts is here in ripest fulness. Crag and fell ; the
evidence of the mountain top and the secrets of the dale ; gentle river and
brawling stream ; the turbulent ghyll and the grander force ; the lake hiding
itself away in bays starred with water-lilies and blue with lobelia, or dashing
round rocky promontories where it beats up in waves that are almost billows
in the heavy winds of winter, or bossed with islands endeared by legends
and beautified by poems ; distant prospects leading down to the dark blue
sea, and over to Cumberland's old enemy, Scotland, beyond; and home
views across one's own garden that touch the heart like the face of a fair
child : nothing is wanting, and nothing is left unfinished, as where the
hills rise up only as a kind of hood at the head, but wander off into
undeveloped fells at the foot. Here they are set all round the vale in
equal majesty — a rampart or a crown, as one's mood would phrase it.
49 H
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Again, the Keswick lake is not all the valley, as with the narrower
and more river-formed. Between the roots of the mountains and the
lake-side lies a wide tract, where fields and meadows and rivers and
hamlets and sunny slopes and secondary heights, make a pleasant world of
human industry and love. There is the hill where Southey1 lived, in the
midst of " great flourishing bears and monsters," as Charles Lamh called
his " net of mountains," and its fellow fork where the Vicarage stands —
the Greta flowing between ; the Derwent hills out by Portinscale ; the peopled
terraces under Skiddaw, creeping up on to his very breast ; the hills towards
St. John's, and those on the Threlkeld road, all lovely with gardened homes,
and sanctified by human hopes ; the broadest district and the most populous
in the lake country. The form of the valley, too, is so beautiful in its
roundness — not a geometrical roundness scientifically true — but a nearly
unbroken circling of hills; its only visible outlet being towards the setting
sun, where the Bassenthwaite Fells and Water are the barriers against
the Cockermouth plains leading to the sea. Thus the lake itself is not
such an all-absorbing feature as either Windermere or Ullswater, or yet
Coniston. The first is ten, and the second nine, miles long; the last six
with sometimes only the road and sometimes a meadow or a lawn betwec
them and the mountain bases. Derwentwater is but three miles at its
fullest, and lies away by itself at one end of the valley, leaving the rest
free for man. So that it is only part of the life of the place, as the
mountains are only part, too, shared with the woods and the fields, and the
1 Besides Southey and Wordsworth — the last only collaterally — Keswick has a claim
on Shelley and Coleridge. Poor Shelley and his Harriet lived for some time at Chesnut
Hill, where he used to go and see Mr. Southey, " like the ghost of his former (Pantisocratic)
self," and eat Mrs. Southey's buttered cake, which he wanted to " eat for ever ; " and
Coleridge, who was often at,. Greta Hall, wrote the second part of Christabel at Keswick, if
not other things. Southey brought up Sara Coleridge as his own daughter, for he was a
generous man to his own kindred if less than loving to the world at large, and the most
thorough-bred gentleman of the whole lake school.
50
KESWICK AND DEKWENTWATEB.
pleasant bye-lanes among hedges and corn-rows, and evening saunters through
the hay-fields.
From the little hill of Castlehead — its love-name hereabouts is Castlet
— that wooded crag just out of Keswick on the Borrowdale road, the most
expressive of the home views is to be had. Follow the sweet wood-path,
winding and cool as a wood-path should be, up to the craggy apex where the
picture bursts upon you. For it is truly a picture, of which the framework
is the sky. Skiddaw stands to the right, isolated as ever, but with more
sharpness of aspect than is its usual characteristic; even 'little Dod looks
impudently independent, and no longer the " cub " resting by its parent,
of ordinary times ; and that cone born of the mountain's very heart, that
peak within a peak, Carsleddam by name, shows such a fierceness of front,
and such a red wrath of background, that it might be a bit of Helvellyn,
instead of a member of the mildest mountain patriarch in the country.
Through the trees to the right Blencathra shows itself half shyly ; while
to the left Bassenthwaite Lake lies like a shining belt against the sky,
joining Skiddaw and its own special fells, Barf and Whinlatter, with a line
of silver. In clear weather Criffel's dim top is to be seen beyond that line ;
but this is rare, and not to be expected by the every-day tourist. The
mountains round the lonely Newlands Valley look sharp and peaked and
full of temptation to adventurous ramblers ; full of danger, too, let it be
distinctly understood. Causey Pike, with its royal fatuous face2 upon its
crest, and Grhyll Mickle at its side, looks well from here ; and between it
and Rawling End comes up a small pointed head, which, seen at the other
side, has a noble body attached known to guides and tourists as Knot Pike.
Red Pike, one of the Buttermere hills and as ruddy as its name, is in the
distance, High Stile, its companion, following ; a small bit of Robinson and
another, still smaller, of the rich sounding Goldscope look up over their
" George the Third, double chin, snub nose, receding forehead and all, can be made out
quite well in the crowning knobs of Causey Pike.
51 H 2
TIIE LAKE COUNTRY.
neighbours' heads ; and then come the slopes of Catbells, and the wilder
fall of Maiden Mawr; — Gait Crag and Castle Crag below. But the highest
points of all, Scawfell3 and Scawfell Pike (the Wastwater giant), are far
away, almost as dim and blue as the sky against which they stand.
Great End and Bowfell, belonging to the same group, are also seen,
but indistinctly ; Glaramara is to the left of Bowfell, heading Borrowdale ;
and then comes the Lodore range, massed into Walla Crag, so far as
perspective goes, which completes the panorama.4 Below, is the lake,
with the reflections as clear as if shadowed in a mirror, save where a
light breeze creeps tremulously, as if on tiptoe, just across the surface, or
where a boat trails a comet-like stream of widening ripple in its wake ; or
perhaps where those shadowed places called " kelds" tell of a coming storm,
according to the saying : " It is no hay-day to-day — the kelds are on
tne lakes."
But ah ! how lovely is that lake ! Go down to the boat-landings,
where the pretty wood of Cockshot on the one side and the sloping space of
Crow Park on the other, catch the sunlight with their two expressions of
mystery and revelation ; and go through its pleasant places one by one.
3 Scawfell is generally said to be the centre of the Borrowdale system, perhaps, because
it is the highest point, and so appears as if it ought to be the centre. But a careful study
of Flintoft 's model will show Great Gable rather as the centre ; the point whence the
Langdale ranges and the Wastwater mountains (Scawfell itself and the Screes, and the
rest), the Ennerdale mountains, and the Buttermere (but those last at Crummock are broken
across, as if against the grain, hi a very strange manner), all radiate as the spokes of a
wheel radiate from the nave. This last is a simile often used, but it is too good to be
discarded for a newer and less fitting image.
4 Travelling from right to left, against the sun, and so coming back, save for the
wooded knoll on which we stand, to Skiddaw, where we began. It is of course impossible
to give tliis view as a panorama. Therefore, the best and most picturesque part has been
taken as the heading for the chapter : namely, Walla Crag and Borrowdale, Castle Crag
for the very centre of the picture, — Glaramara, Bowfell, Great End, and Scawfell Pike
behind it, — then Maiden Mawr and Catbells, with the lake and islands below.
52
KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER.
Here is Derwent Isle, which has had almost as many names as owners —
Vicar's Isle3 when it belonged to Fountain's Abbey, Peachey's, Pock-
lington's, The Island, and now Derwent Isle ; more appropriate if less
distinctive ; surely the loveliest water-home ever made by man, with its
emerald lawn sloping to the south, and its tulip-tree like a bit of tropical
life among the northern growths. Friar's Crag, that bold jut of rock and
tree, where the monks of Lindisfarne used to come yearly to be blessed
by St. Herbert, and where now every artist tries his hand at a sketch,
flanks it to the left; and beyond Friar's Crag is the largest of all the
islands — Lord's Island, where the Derwentwaters lived. They built them-
selves a summer bower there, out of the ruins of the old Castlerigg
mansion, when they abandoned that estate for Dilston, on the marriage of
Margaret, the heiress and daughter of Sir John de Derwentwater, with
the Ratcliffe of Dilston ; 6 cutting through the connecting tongue of land at
Strandshag,7 which made the island part of the mainland, and throwing
5 Alice de Romeli, the great religious benefactress of this valley, gave this island and
the parish church of Crosthwaite to Fountain's Abbey ; but at the dissolution of the
monasteries it was granted to one John Williamson, from whom it passed, by successive
translations, into the hands of its present owners. It has had many owners, and among
others, in Camden's time, German miners, and, perhaps — but this is a mere supposition,
without proof or groundwork — some old Roman may have set up his tent among its trees,
and defied the Britons in full security from its pleasant shores.
6 It was one of these Ratcliffes who figured in the old couplet —
" The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel the Dog,
Ruled all England under the Hog;"
the Rat being Sir Richard Ratcliffe, not one of the Derwentwater set, but belonging to the
elder branch — the famous Sir Richard, of scarcely enviable notoriety. It brings one face to
face with strange things of bygone times, to be able to connect such mighty men with an
insignificant little island good only as a show place to summer visitors.
7 In 1769, money of Queen Elizabeth's time — shillings and sixpences, and a half-crown
piece of Charles I. — were found at Strandshag (hag means a wooded enclosure or coppice) ;
doubtless buried there in a moment of peril by the Derwentwaters, or by some of their
retainers.
53
THE LAKE COUNTKY.
over a drawbridge instead, as a safer manner of way in troublous times
than a level space of green.
The flat of Stable Hills, where Southey would have built his house
if he had had Aladdin's lamp or Fortunatus's purse, looks well from here
and Scarf Close Bay, under the shadow of Great Wood on Walla Cn
has very likely a shoal of banded perch or shy trout sleeping in the si
among the stones. In the spring Ramps Holm is or was once thick wii
wild garlic, as its name implies ; for Ramps Holm is only Garlic Island wh<
translated into English ; and the Scarf Stones may be dangerous
high-water time when their heads are covered, if you do not know thei]
whereabouts. Then there is Barrow Bay, and the river inlet to Lodore,
which takes close steering to keep the boat clear up its centre, and not
run it aground on the mud among the reeds and rushes; and the Floating
Island,8 that strange phenomenon of the hotter summers ; and the beautiful
Derwent, coming in its last hour, after all its rocky clearness, through a
8 In the summer of 1863 there were two floating islands — a thing not known before ;
but the second was part of the same system as the first, and both were portions of
the bottom of the lake, torn up by some agency as yet a little undetermined by the scientific.
It is evident that one cause is the generation of gases — carburetted hydrogen and azote in
equal parts, with a little carbonic acid — underneath the lake bottom in very hot weather, by
which means the flooring is at last torn and lifted up bodily, and floated to the surface.
But why those gases are generated in that one particular spot is, after all, the real mystery.
The older and more intelligent of the guides will tell you of a little stream that gets lost in
the ground before reaching the lake, and which disappearance, they say, has something to
do with the subsequent upheaval of the island ; but this point has not been quite
established as yet. The island is a mere soft spongy bit of vegetation and earth, such as
the bottom of the lake close in shore would be, covered with water lobelia (Lobelia dort-
manna), common quillwort (Isoetes lacustris), and shore-weed (Littorella lacustris) ; the
same plants, in short, as grow round the margin of the lake everywhere. There seemed
great chance at one time this year of a very large portion of that Lodore side of the lake
bottom rising to the surface ; for, owing to the heat and long drought, the water was
exceedingly shallow— the yellow part of the bulrushes standing nearly a foot out of it ; and,
had the same kind of weather continued, we should probably have had a floating island of
unheard-of magnitude, shaking its loose sides upon the water.
54
KESWICK AND DERWENTWATER.
mere swamp where the herons find their food, and where there used to
be snipes and wild ducks and the like, until population and civilization
drove them all away to wilder places. And there are the points, like
tongues, darting up towards Grange and Borrowdale ; and the lead-mine
at Salt Level Bay, where there is a steam-engine with heaps of grey refuse,
and the water soiled and whitened for a broad space outward ; and the
Brandelow Woods under Catbells, where old-world smugglers used to live,
and run their kegs of brandy ashore — bold "Will Watches, bolder than
honest, and with a monstrous amount of false sentiment about their
memories. And then there is St. Herbert's Island,9 the sweetest of all.
Every one lands on St. Herbert's Island, and wanders through the close-
grown paths to the summerhouse, where picnic parties, needing a roof over
their heads, spread their table-cloths and bring out their veal pies and cold
chickens ; and every one studies the new aspect of the mountains as seen
from this Omphalos of the lake. Catbells looks steeper than in general, if
9 Almost every one knows the beautiful tradition attached to this island, where
" Herebert, priest and confessor," came when he withdrew himself from the world of men
and action, to live in the life of God and contemplation — retaining only one earthly
affection : his love for St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarn, or, as Bede calls it, Farn Island. When
St. Cuthbert came as bishop to Lugubalia, (which we now call Carlisle,) St. Herbert went
over to him for godly talk and affectionate communion ; and then it was that the elder saint
prayed God to grant his younger brother's prayer, and to let them both depart from life on
the same day. And the promise was given. On the same day, which was the 19th day of
March, " their souls departed from their bodies, and were straight in union in the beatific
sight and vision, and were transported hence to the Kingdom of Heaven by the service and
hands of angels." For centuries after, the Vicar of Crosthwaite, attended by the priests
and monks of every church and chapel and convent round about, went in grand procession
up the lake on the 13th April, to celebrate mass on St. Herbert's Isle, to the joint honour
of the two sainted friends ; granting forty days' indulgence to all the pious who accompanied
them. Fuller's notice of the story is this, " Herebert, Priest and Confessor, may justly be
referred to this county ; for there is a lake therein (Bede calleth \tpregrande stagnum), nigh
Keswick, made by the river Darwent, wherein three islands are found, in the least of which
this Herebert led an eremitical life."
55
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
not so high, and Maiden Mawr is wilder ; Skiddaw is infinitely mild and
paternal, and the valley between it and the lake is crumpled up into a few dotted
lines ; Bassenthwaite seems to be endless miles away, and Blencathra is sharp
and aggressive ; the front of Walla Crag, and the rocks about Lodore, are
rich in colour and of threatening aspect; and the great purple caverns of
Borrowdale seem close at hand, as if you could fling a stone against the very brow
of Castle Crag, blocking up the way. In some conditions of the atmosphere
the smallest accident of the hills, whatever it may be, is as clearly marked
and as vividly coloured as if it was a toy model you had before you. In
others you see nothing but the presence of large masses and the shadowy
places of the dales, while all the details are rapt away into misty dreamland,
and that southern gorge is the home of only spirits and genii. Sometimes
the home of pale ghosts, or of furies let loose, when the clouds come down,
and the wind and the rain go forth to meet them. Those great purple caverns
— that deep throat into which you plunge with such insatiable longing — how
often have the weary-hearted stood here on the very spot where St. Herbert
prayed, and cast down the Rurden of their sorrows where he took up his
cross !
Now back to your boat, past the hole by the Otter-rock where the big
eel was caught one day, and into Derwentwater Bay — or Waterend Bay,
Waterlily Bay, or Sir John Woodford's, as you like to call it— but under any
name the sweetest haunt to be found within the four seas. One of the chief
beauties of Derwentwater is its clearness on account of its shallowness : and
of all its bays and shallows this is the clearest and most transparent. The
water lies over a pavement of jewels of all kinds and of all hues ; ranging
from pale sea-green passing into white, to the deepest purple of the shade
next to black. It is a "wonderwork," that lake pavement inside the bay;
so is the lovely wood surrounding it ; so is that broad roofing of lily leaves,
red and green, beneath which the Undines of the lake sway the white cups
to and fro in the evening ripple ; and even the broken steps leading up into
the private grounds, with the battered old stags upon the gate-posts — even
66
KESWICK AND DERWENTWATEK.
the stone arm-chair on the rock ut the corner, with its rustic history belonging —
have a fascination and a fitness not to be found anywhere beside.
Then, skirting past pleasant Silver Hill, where the sun always seems
to shine, — taking care not to get wrecked on either of the little Ling Holms
at hand, but keeping within the shadow of the woods, so lovely at this par-
ticular spot, as, indeed, they are all along the western side — steering up
and out again the reedy stretch of the issuing Derwent, the Greta joining
close by but not meeting in the lake — past the wooded Promontory and Crow
Park, and then to the landing-place again ; the inventory of the lake complete.
FROM SIB JOHN WOODFORD's GROUNDS
Of the history of Keswick10 not much is to be said, for all that it is
the largest and most important of the Lake Country towns — the metropolis,
as it is the centre, of the district. It used to have three special branches
10 Kesh is the local name for the water hemlock, which grows very abundantly here ; so
that Keswick is literally the head, or bay, or village of the water hemlock. In early times,
Keswick was not the favourite place it is now. The town was almost wholly inhabited by
57 I
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
of industry — the woollen trade,11 the black-lead mines in Borrowdale, and
the gold and silver mines in Newlands;12 but the woollen trade has dwindled
miners, and Leland, who seems to have hated our north country bitterly enough, calls it
" a lytle poore market town cawlled Keswike, a mile from St. Herherte's Isle, that Bede
speaketh of; " but Camden's summary was more gracious : " On the edges of this lake in
very rich land," he says, " surrounded by dewy lulls, and defended from the north winds by
Skiddaw, a very high mountain, lies Keswicke, a small market town, many years famous
for the copper works, as appears from a charter of King Edward IV., and at present
inhabited by miners, whose smelting house is by Derwentside, which, with his forcible
stream, and other ingenious inventions, serveth them in notable stead for easy bellows -
works, hammer-works, forge-works, and sawing of boards, not without admiration of th<»«'
who behold." (This is quoted from a quotation.) A contributor to the Gentiamatt$
Magazine, in 1751, is very severe. He says out boldly, with no chance of being mis-
understood, that " the poorer inhabitants of Keswick subsist chiefly by stealing, or
clandestinely buying of those that steal, the black lead, which the}* sell to Jews or other
hawkers." Hutchinson, in his Tour, gives his verdict, too, on the adverse side. " Keswick
is but a mean village, wholly indebted to the amenity of its situation to the notice of
travellers," he says ; and he sums up all that is to be said in the facts, that the
accommodation is very indifferent, that no tradition is preserved of St. Herbert, that there
are eagles in the cliffs near Bank Park (at the head of the lake), and on the shores a saline
spring of very salubrious quality (at Manesty, probably), and that a cliff, projecting over
the lake, is called " Eve's Crag" from its likeness to a woman. "NVhich was his own dream
surely, whatever else he may have had warrant}- for !
" There are still some hands emplo}red in tin's, but very few compared to old time, when
spinning and weaving and carding Avent on in all the cottages, and home-spun ginghams
and fustians were the rule, not the exception.
'- The Newland mines were discovered in Queen Elizabeth's time, by Thomas Thurland
siiul I >aniel Hetchletter, a German from Augsburg : the upshot being a law-suit between the
Queen and Thomas Percie, Earl of Northumberland, the Lord of the Manor, which ended in
favour of the former and her prerogative, because more silver and gold than copper was found,
sn they said, and the royal metals belonged to her, the baser only to the Lord. Fuller, in his
ll'iirtfiii'x, has a very (jiiaint note on the Newland mines. " These Mines lay long neglected,
choaked in their own rubbish, till renewed about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, when
plenty of Copper was here afforded, both for home use and for forraign transportation.
I '.lit Copper itself was too soft for several! military services, and could not alone (no single
person can pnn, ;| Parent) produce. Brass, most useful for that purpose. Here taste and
'ivine Providem-p : which never doth its work by halfes, and generally doubleth gifts
by -(.asonable gning them: /,<////.< i-.ihnnitinrix (whereof hereafter in due place) was then
58
KESWICK AND DERWENTWATEK.
now, and is almost dead ; and the " rune " cut into the flagstone, which was
to keep it flourishing for ever,
" May God Almighty grant His aid
To Keswick and its woollen trade — "
was before the entrance to a pencil-mill when last heard of; for the pencil
manufactory, a little slackened of late, survives all other changes, though
the working of the wad-mines has ceased. As for the Newlands mints
they were long abandoned, but are now in full yield again ; while a new
lead-mine has been opened at Salt Level Bay, and a sufficiency of ore found
to make the working profitable.
The buildings are not specially noteworthy. There is a town hall —
called Moot Hall locally — very much like any other town hall in England,
where eggs and butter are sold at the Saturday market,13 and where certain
courts and public meetings are held — notably the weekly petty sessions or
magistrates' meetings, and the annual Court Leet, on the business of the
manor and its lord. It has one or two special objects of interest : one, the
first found in England, the Mother of Brass, as Copper the Father thereof." " We must
not forget the names of the two Dutchmen (good froygs by Sea, but better moles by land}.
who refound out these Copper mines, wherein also some Silver (no neir milk without some
i-i-i'iime therein) — viz., Thomas Shurland and Daniel Hotchslabter, of Auspurge, in
Germany," whose nephews bought land (probably in the county).
13 This was a privilege got by Sir John de Derwentwater, the then lord of the Manor,
from Edward I. There are also certain fairs for cattle, cheese, and hiring, held at various
times of the year. The old Morlan fair for leather has long since been discontinued,
though the shoemakers still get drunk on the day (the 2nd of August) in memoiy of the
occasion. The Morlan fair gave rise to the proverb, " Morlan fluid ne'er did .guid," benm-c'
of the damage done to the leather by over much rain. And, indeed, the summer floods of
the lake country are sometimes very terrific. One of the old chapelry priests was drowned
in the ditch near the High Hill, on a Morlan flood, not so very many years ago ; and there
have been times, quite of late, when the two lakes were joined together, and the Portinscalo
road had to be traversed in boats. Morlan is an instance of the gradual corruption of words.
It is Magdalen properly, first brought down to Maudlin, and then still further clipped.
to Morliin.
59 12
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
bell on which the clock strikes, which has an almost illegible date of 1001,
and the letters H. D. R. 0. on it ; supposed to have been a curfew-bell of
the period, and brought from Lord's Island; and the other, the very
stones of which it is built, for they too came from Lord's Island, being the
ruins of the Perwentwater House when everything went to decay after the
attainder and that tragic execution. It has a more modern interest in
Klintoft's masterly model which is exhibited here, and which every lake
visitor ought to study if he wishes to understand his whereabouts. It is
really a masterpiece, this model, perfectly truthful and admirably explained.
Farther down the town is a museum 14 of Saxon
antiquities, and Greek and Roman remains -
coins, swords, celts, urns, bronze eagles, and the
like ; some fine geological specimens, a double
octave of musical stones — the first discovered —
and the usual curiosities of such a place; the
door flanked and guarded by two huge whale-
bones as the supporters, to the eternal awe and
wonder of the rising generation.
FOUND AT OAKHMOT ^d fo^ iS__n0) ^QJ-Q WaS — a 1'OWOf
quaint, old-fashioned almshouses, where eighteen poor and indigent folk
were supported, according to the will and bequest of Sir John Banks, Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1640, and a native of
Keswick ; 15 but the almshouses have been swept away now, and a Bank is
built on the site, and the remnant of the eighteen poor and indigent folk
14 Better known as Crosthwaite's Museum, a really remarkable collection, not only for
matters of intrinsic value, but as a monument of the industry and research of one of our
Keswick worthies. Peter Crosthwaite, like Jonathan Otley, was a self-made man ; and
In. tli these local celebrities do no little honour to the self-making and self-educating system.
They were both Dalton kind of men : not an unusual type in the north country.
15 Fuller says he left a sum of money " to set up a manufacture of coarse cottons in llu-
i nun of Keswick."
60
KKSWICK AND DEIIWENTWATEK.
has been drafted oft' to the omnivorous Union, ready for the engulfing of any
amount of lives.
Outside the town is Southey's house, Greta Hall by name, where he-
lived the life of a gentleman and a scholar, wrote the " Doctor " and made his
" Cottonian library," played with Dapper the dog, and flung stones for
exercise into the Greta; and at the other, the east, end of the town, are,
St. John's Church, pink and pretty, and the most picturesque parish library
to be found anywhere : as well adapted to our modern ways as any of the
most beautiful college-halls of olden times.
And then there is the mother church,16 St. Mungo's, or St. Kentigern's,
if you prefer the latter name instead — a saint much honoured in the north
country — standing alone towards the base of Skiddaw, away from the town
and the old church village of Crosthwaite alike. It is the Lake cathedral,
and was nobly " restored " some eighteen years ago by Mr. Stanger. Strangers
flock round Lough's monument of Southey, with Wordsworth's sonnet at
the base ; and archaeologists find solace in those old relics of the Derwent-
waters — two battered figures of a knight and a lady in composite, which, in
16 Alice de Romeli's gift to Fountain's Abbey, so far as the rectory was concerned ; but
the patronage of the vicarage reserved to the see of Carlisle.
61
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
the days of ignorance, used to be called Adam and Eve, but which were
doubtless images of the ordinary generation of man once riving up at Castlerigg
and known as the Lords de Derwentwater, but now lying under a speckled
marble slab close to where the school children sit and make the responses.
On this dark speckled slab are some brasses, two being the figures of a knight
in armour and his lady, with the inscription in black letter beneath:17—
" Of yor Charite f/ for the Soule of Sr John Ratclif, knyght : and for the
state of Dame Alice his wyfe : which Sr John dyed ye ii Day of February
An Di M" D° xxvii. 6 whois soule Jhu have mcy." There are also some
painted windows not to be passed over with disrespect; and an old font,
very curious, said to have been given by Alice de Romeli. A certain part
of the church (the east end of the south aisle) is known as the Derwentwater,
or Lord's Chapel, also the Magdalen Chantry, where the souls of the
translated Derwentwaters were daily prayed for under the special patronage
of " Sancta Maria Magdalena de Keswyke." And then there is a peal of
bells. Such a peal ! — pouring a very cascade of music through the vale, —
when the wind blows gustily, sinking and swelling with the breeze in mingled
passion and suppression infinitely beautiful. The bells are all inscribed, as was
17 Tliis monument, and an old carved chair in Crosthwaite's Museum, are almost ;ill
the remains left of the Derwentwaters, so long the chief family of the place, and even n< >\\
regarded with romantic tenderness, perhaps hecause of the sad tragedy of the last of the
race. For it was not the simple fact of his execution that made the story of the young
earl so pitiful — it was his youth and gallantry and chivahic character; it was his wife's
devotedness, both to the cause for which she sacrificed her husband, and to that husband
himself, when the stake for which he had played was lost, and only the player was to be
rescued. It was the story of love and heroism — a stoiy as old as time, and as noble as human
history — that has invested the name of the Derwentwaters with so much interest, and that
has kept them still the traditionary heroes and local magnates of the vale, no matter what
great name or greater wealth comes in their stead and on their land. To this day the
Aurora Borealis is called " Lord Derwentwater's Lights," because they shone with unusual
brilliancy the night after his execution. The common people said it was a sign of the
wrath of Heaven for his execution, but the religious said it was the fiery chariot of his soul
taken upwards ; and the last got the greater consolation.
62
KESWICK AND DEKWKNTWATKK'.
the custom of old time ; but if their music was no better than their poetry,
the world of hearers in and about that old Crosthwaite Church would not
be much benefited.
The manner of electing churchwardens and sidesmen in this church is of
old-time origin.18 The assembly of electors commanded to gather themselves
together at Crosthwaite Church on the afternoon of Ascension-day, is to be
composed of the Vicar of Crosthwaite, the eighteen sworn men (sidesmen),
the churchwardens, the representatives of the house of Derwentwater, the
sealer and receiver of the Queen's Majesty's portion at the mines, the bailiffs
of Keswick, Wythburn, Borrowdale, Thornthwaite, Brundholm, and the
Forester of Denvent Fells ; and these are to choose and elect the eighteen men
for the year to come, and also the churchwardens. The oath to be administered
on the Sunday following, between the morning prayers and the Litany, is as
(juaiut as the rest, but too long to be given here. There is also a free or national
school near the church — abutting, indeed, on to the churchyard wall — with
certain local privileges helpful to the young of the place, and which the
18 There was more to do in those early times than simply to provide for the right ill
distribution of the parish funds, or to look after the scholars and their master; for the
north countrymen, slow to move in everything, were the last to accept the new dispensation.
Clergy and laity, almost to a man, supported Aske's rebellion — the Pilgrimage of Grace;
iind Sir Ralph Sadler wrote in 1569 to Lord Burghley that, "the hearts of all the com -
UK malty of the North country were altogether bunded with th' olde popishe doctrine." These
Iioniiinistic proclivities got the poor Eighteen into temporary trouble ; and the authorities
appointed for the better ordering of the religious observances of the county, did their best
to drive them into the way of simplicity and the Reformation, and to destroy the lingering
love of papistry and papistical splendours still existing. No great harm came to any of
them, and no lives were lost. Fuller, speaking of Cumberland martyrs, says, in his diy
sarcastic way. "This country aftbrdeth none in the Raign of Queen Maiy. First, the
People thereof were mezell'd in Ignorance and Superstition. Secondly, such as favoured the
Reformation were connived at by Owin Oglethorpe, the courteous Bishop of Carlisle, who
crowned f^neen Ell/abeth. However. Cumberland had one- Native, who going up to
London, first found a husband, and then met with martyrdomo therein: viz., Elizabeth
1'oster." born at ( Iniystock. burnt with six others in one fire at Smithfield, January 27,
L556.
G.T
TIIK LAKE COl'XTKY.
eighteen sworn men manage to the good or evil of the institution mid
scholars, as the worse- or better element among them prevails. Sometimes
there are disagreements between the Eighteen and the master ; one objecting
to the over-severity and the other indignant at the over-leniency ; one fuming
that his son does not learn fast enough and another fretting because his
daughter is going to be such a fine scholar she will make but a feckless woman.
Self-government has its disadvantages.
The ancient and original village of the vale is Crosthwaite ; that little
hamlet below the Vicarage-hill to the right, where there is a fine old house
called Monk's Hall, now a farm, and a tree with a tradition at its roots. This
was the parish hamlet when the Christian religion was represented by noble
architecture and social inequality; when the monk dwelt in a celled palace,
and the serf herded with the pigs and the goats. It is now nothing but the
decrepit old name-giver, palsied, withered, and worn out.
But withered and decrepit as it may be, it still lives in the glories whicl
neither time nor circumstance can change : it still looks up to Skiddaw'i-
calm, grand front, still sees the burning sunrise flushing it a glowing
crimson as the day steals on and over the mountain tops and then
down to the valley beneath ; still sees it paling gradually from red and purpl
to grey and green, like a fire burning itself out to ashes, as the sun siul
down behind the Bassenthwaite lake and the sea beyond ; still sees it whit
and silent as a frozen statue in the winter — green as a young flower leaf in tl
spring — belted with gold in the summer, but the gold broken into by purpl
shadows and greyer markings — and in the autumn time burnished with all tl
richest colours nature can give — purple and red and gold and bronze
till it is one large garden of beauty and fragrance. And so the tim<
wear on, and man and all his fashions change from year to year, and froi
day to day ; but palsied, withered, and decrepit old Crosthwaite village
lives in the presence of the Eternal — the Eternally Young and the Eternally
Beautiful !
G4
BORROWL>i»L:E
FROM
BELOW THE BOWDEF
THE KESWICK WALKS
CHAPTER V
YES, the Vale of Keswick is the opened rose itself, and all the other lakes and
mountains are the leaves and buds. Noble sprays, some of them, fall of rich
tones and delicious sweetness, but none equal to the perfected flower. And
Borrowdale is the heart of the rose ; the inner golden recess where the bees
seek their food and the butterflies their enjoyment ; the point where so many
lines converge and where we rest before taking wider flights beyond ; for,
indeed, the most noticeable thing in the whole vale is that cluster of dark blue
mountains up at the head of the lake, if it be not the solitary Northern mass
of Skiddaw set up like a kind of mountain Jove above the rest.
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Borrowdale * is generally only ranked as one of the " walks about
Keswick." Though the heart and nucleus of the mountain system, it is
regarded mainly as the way to Langdale by the Stake, or to Wastwater by
Sty Head, or to Buttermere by Honister ; not often as a place of sojourn or of
intimate knowledge. And yet it has within itself beauty that would reward
long months of loving roaming. For instance, the walk from Grange, ending
at Stockley Bridge at the foot of Sty Head Pass, is without an equal ; especially
if you choose an evening full of rich sunset tones, and know the worth of
the loveliness about you.
1 The manor of Borrowdale was once part of the Castlerigg manor, belonging to the
Derwentwater estate, but probably given by one of the family to the church ; for, in some I
accounts, it is said that, " the monks of Furness held, of the honour of Cockerrnouth, in
pure and perpetual alms, Borrowdale, which, by the dissolution of the said monasterie, fell
into King Henry's hands, and was, at the time this survey of the Derwent Fells manor was
taken (1578), still in the possession of the Queen. The abbot and convent of Fountains
late held the other Borrowdale of the said honour, in pure and perpetual alms, which came
in the said king by the dissolution of the abbey; and, by the said King Henry, granted to
Richard Grame and his heirs." Another account gives the manor to William Whitmore
and Jonas Verdon, by grant of James I., and they, by a " deed dated the 28th of Novemln >r.
1014, sold and conveyed to Sir Wilfred Lawson and thirty others therein named, all the
said manor of Borrowdale, except all those wad-holes and wad, commonly called black
cawke, within the commons of Seatollar, or elsewhere, witliin the commons and wastes of
the manor of Borrowdale aforesaid, of the yearly rent or value of fifteen sliilliugs and
fourpence, since which time it has been held distinct from other royalties of the manor."
Great fun used to be made of the Borrowdale people when intercourse was rarer and
local distinctions greater than now, (Clarke, writing in 1789, says that twenty years ago a
cart was unknown in Borrowdale,) and many of the old Gotham traditions were fastened on
them as on the Troutbeck men. True or not, it is believed to this day in Keswick that the
cuckoo wall, which was to build in the gowk or cuckoo, and so ensure eternal spring, w:is
actually begun at Borrowdale ; and " Borrowdale gowk " is a term not infrequently applied
to the heavy Borrowdale men. There are other stories, as that of the red deer which
\\;is certainly a witch, because it escaped the hunters; and that of the mule which was
certainly a peacock (a beast heard of just then for the first time), for what else could it be ?
and other rough old tales, expressive of the superior enlightenment of the towns and their
consequent contempt of the dales. The " tongue," too, is of the broadest, and even a born
Cumbrian lias difficulty in understanding tin- ivnl, ripe, racy, Borrowdale vernacular, whl
66
THE KESW1CK WALKS.
Grange,2 though not in itself beautiful as a human dwelling-place, is yet
pretty to look at with its long soft line of double bridge leaping over the river.
And the river flowing beneath, against that banked waste of stones, is as
lovely as its name. Skiddaw and the lake behind look their best from here ;
Maiden Mawr facing us, leading off into the bolder mass of Gait Crag,:i
is at its noblest ; Castle Crag, wooded from base to summit, and standing like
a fortress4 to guard the pass, is picturesque as ever; and the greater mountains
at the head look dim and full of mystery, as belongs to their grandest aspect.
A little farther inward and you come to the choicest part of the valley, wild
with crag and fell, yet rich with trees and flowers and flower-full meadows,
and lightened by the life and music of the bright Derwent, flowing on like
a noble song. You are near the bend of the road just facing Castle Crag
(the place chosen for the large view), one of the loveliest of the walk, and
singularly like a bit of Norwegian road. The wooded hill standing out from
calls a heron " Joan na ma crank," and a glead or kite " Jackey Slope." The attachment
of the dales people to their native place is at all times marked. In the parish register of the
chapel is a notice that a youth who had quitted the valley, and had died in one of the
towns on the east coast, requested that his body should be brought home and interred at the
foot of the pillar where he used to sit as a schoolboy ; and many more of the like could be
found by any one interested in the search. To go back to the old cuckoo scandal. In Cum-
berland and Westmoreland an April fool is an " April gowk;" and the local proverb for the
tirst of April is, " Hunt the gowk another mile." There are also May goslings, or
•• ur slings," for the first of May ; but for that day only. If you tiy to make a May gosling
mi any other, your answer will, or ought to be —
" May day is come and gone,
Thou art the gosling, and I'se none."
2 Grange was the store place of the monks, their gi-anary or harvest-room, where they
kept their grain and salt and tithes secure against all depredations; being guarded by the
lake to the north, and by the then almost impassable mountains behind. The mountain
passes, be it remembered, are quite things of modem invention.
3 Goat Crag — often improperly spelt Gate Crag.
4 Castle Crag was a Roman station, commanding the pass behind and the valley in
front ; but I believe that no Roman remains have yet been found on it. Some of the guide-
books say they have, and that they are to be seen in Crosthwaite's Museum — a fallacy.
67 K 2
THK LAKK COUNTRY.
the rest is Castle Crag, black with shadow and burnt with sunshine — a sun-
shine that catches each pointed rock and craggy face upon the edges, and
makes them aflame with ruddy gold, while it deepens the shadows in
unfathomable blackness. Over Gait Crag and Maiden Mawr is poured a thin
golden haze — that thin soft haze which, more than any other atmospheric effect,
transforms the mountains from their real being, and cheats the eye from its
truth. At the base of Castle Crag runs the Derwent, winding away from fields
red with ripe grass down to the quiet lake beyond ; and side by side with the
river runs the road, grey to its blue, motionless to its flow, but repeating colour
and line as an echo repeats the spoken word. The opposite crags are bright
and clearly defined in their " coats of many colours," the bramble is corning
into flower, and a lovely festooning of ivy of the small-leaved kind runs in and
out among the stones of a beck- side wall ; while the air is perfumed with
young meadow-sweet — "queen of the meadows" — just coming into flower,
every now and then interrupted by wafts of honeysuckle clinging round the trees.
Back, a little way, to where the shingle of the slate quarry is tumbled
in road-side masses beautifully blue against the warmer grey of the rocks
above, and up the side path to the great
Bowder Stone, which has been likened5 to
all things on earth to which it has no
manner of resemblance. Then, on again,
to almost the same spot as that of the large
view, but looking up the vale instead of
across it, to the station whence the view
at the head of the chapter is taken.
6 " Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground
A mass of rock, resembling, as it lay
Right at the foot of that moist precipice,
A stranded ship, with keel upturn'd, that rests
Careless of winds and waves." — WORDSWORTH.
Tliis is the universal quotation ; but never meant by Wordsworth for the Bowder Stone.
THE KESWICK WALKS.
It is impossible to worthily describe the craggy rocks clothed in fern
and heather ; the grey blue of the slate quarries ; the woods and fields
and fells in all their sweet and subtle shades of green and grey and gold ;
and, to crown all, the glorious sunset filling everything with intensity as
well as delicacy of colour. Man is only a part of nature : how, then,
should he fitly translate the infinite ? The western crags and hills are
apparently solid black, but a black which, when looked into, is rich with
purple and green and the finer tones of orange; on the north the contrast
of the bright green bracken touched here and there to red and gold,
and the blue slate darkened to indigo or lightened to cold grey, show
clear and crisp against the dim uncertainty, the slow, shy, rich revealing, of
the southern side. The broad grey bed of pebbles fringed with larch
is warmed to purple, and the quiet pools among the waste are like
sheets of beryl ; while Glaramara stands bathed in delicious radiance, as
if the shadow of a rainbow was passing over it. Every tenderness and
variety of tone and colour is there : from the richest orange to the deepest
purple, and all possibilities of red and green and blue between ; but all
toned down now into an amethystine violet, like a mass of molybdena,
or "peacock ore" a little veiled, or the feathers on a dove's throat.
The cup-like hollow which looks so like a tarn-bed, but is not, is
softened to a mere tender marking — a shadow darker, but more bloom -
like than the rest ; the great Bull Crags glow and burn as if the very
heart of them was on fire within ; and the river hurries through the valley
like a thread of gold — a little gentle streamlet, too meek for wrath
and too weak for work. At least, so it seems now, shrunk to a narrow
line against the wide belt of pebbles : wait till the floods break loose,
and then see what that tender little stream can do.
A few steps farther, and you see the way of the Three Passes : not
the paths themselves, but the openings of the dales ; where the Stake
Pass goes up by Stonethwaite and Langstreth, under Bull Crags and
Eagle Crag; where the Sty Head Pass winds up over Aaron End, beyond
69
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Seathwaite ; and where the Buttermere Pass goes over by Honister Crag.
There is also another, less known and less cared for — a stony way between
High and Low Scawdale which leads into Newlands, and whence the
sunset effects are supremely grand. Follow this way to-night, and when
you are at the top of the pass, turn back and note them.
Rosthwaite and the valley, narrowed now to a mere line, lie cool in
the evening shadows — cooler and deeper for contrast with what is above.
For the Borrowdale Fells, just over against the little village, are one
broad band of reddened gold ; and beyond, but looking far too close to
have all Thirlmere in the dip between, is the Helvellyn range, a burning
purple in the chrysolite-coloured sky — the very intensity of passion in the
wonderful beauty of an eternal calm. While you look the shadows
lengthen and the band of red gold contracts, an exquisite greenness
mounting or rather flowing up into it, a green through which the gold
faintly strikes like the changing hue of an opal ; Helvellyn gets more
sombre in colour, but clearer in outline — each form distinct against the
liquid heavens — less passionate and more sullen as the minutes pass. Every
gradation of hue is before you, from the cold green and grey of the
shadowed fell, which yet, when you look into it, is full of lingering
touches of warmth, through the blue and violet and red of Helvellyn, up
to the gold of the sky. And here, the intense orange in the line next
to the mountain fades from orange to yellow, and from yellow to primrose,
and then through a pale cream tint to almost white; till, looking higher,
you see the pure blue, and the rose-red clouds turning gently westward to
catch the last of the sunshine. And then the shadow finally conquers the
golden band of the fell top. Helvellyn burns itself out and gets dark
and slaty; and the glory fades from the sky, to be caught back and
flung down in reflected light from the higher crimsoned clouds. And then
the white moon rises behind amethystine Glaramara; and the daylight
flows into the moonlight, in the commingling of indistinguishable beauty.
And, in the moonlight, walk up to the head of the dale, and see the
70
THE KESWICK WALKS.
glistening masses of refuse by the "wad" mines6 under Ghyll o'Combe 7
on Base Brown ; and the black group of the famous yew-trees, the " fraternal
four ; " and, farther on, the white streak of Sty Head Ghyll — Taylor's Gliyll
it is generally called — muttering to itself long before seen; and the sharp
road up Aaron End. And now you are in the very home of the gnomes
and the genii, and may hear their voices sighing in the hills, and the
hurrying of their feet across the water as they float like vapoury mists
from out their caverns, and swarm about the mountain-tops and down
the rocky fells. If no dear ones are waiting on your prudence you may
walk away into the gloom of Wastwater over Sty Head Pass by moonlight.
It would be worth doing on a reliable summer's night; something to
remember for ever, and to set as a seal against the loving glories of the
evening. But, alas ! prudence never had much to do with the moonlight
yet ; so, if you are wise, you will turn your faces homeward, and lament ;
and the owls and the corncrake will lament with you.
This is Borrowdale in the dry summer weather. See it when the
6 These are the famous blacklead mines, so long held to be the only ones in the world,
where fortunes have been made — and some lost — and which have been the origin and
beginning of the prosperity of Keswick. The mines are very variable, a " sop " of large
value being sometimes stumbled against, and sometimes notliing found for months. But
so many substitutes have been discovered of late years, not to speak of the great Russian
display in the Exhibition of 1862, that the value of the Borrowdale wad is a little
diminished ; or, if not its value, yet the dependence of the public on the yield.
7 Gillercoom, as it is spelt, is a singular instance of the degradation of sense by sound,
and the manner in which the true meaning of a word gets lost by phonography. Gillercoom
Hollow is the name of the depression on the top of Base Brown, whence issues the fall,
" Sour-Milk Ghyll." Now a ghyll is not a waterfall rightfully — a ghyll is only a chasm or
deep cut between two rocks or through a hill, down wliich is naturally the place of a water-
fall. Above the ghyll, or pathway, of Sour-Milk Force is the Combe, or crest of the hill,
over which the water of the force comes down. The ghyll, therefore, is the ghyll of the
combe, and the hollow is still called Gillercoom (Ghyll o' Combe) Hollow — the hollow
between the ghyll and the combe. Sour-Milk Force in the Ghyll of the Combe, became
Sour- Milk Ghyll only ; and Ghyll of Combe Hollow became Ghyll o' Combe, so intelligent ly
spelt in the guide-books as Gillercoom.
71
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
rain has fallen for twelve hours,8 after the rising of the " Borrowdale sop,"9
and you will find the whole conditions changed. Lodore, which had
scarcely a cupfull of water trickling through its stones, is now a turbulent
and turhid Force in the place of a limpid stream rippling musically from
stone to stone. The river into which it subsides — a mere silver line before —
is now a boiling whirlpool, white or brown as it holds itself together in its
sullen flood or breaks passionately into spray and foam upon the rocks.
The fall comes down, parting into three fierce streams before they join
again in one ; with just one or two black rocks putting out their heads
above the waters ; but all the rest are covered, and their places marked only
by the fiercer rush and the louder roar. The lake-side meadows are standing
swamps ; and the river by Grange is no longer a waste of stones, but a
waste of waters breaking up into thundering waves — not the mere dashing
of petulant spray against the rocks. It is the same higher up. There are
no stones now in the river-bed by Castle Crag ; the larches stand waist-deep
in the water ; the road is flooded up to the horses' girths, and the waters
dash into the carriage and pour through it. The mountains are loud with
water-courses ; and not a trace of that gorgeous colouring of twenty-four hours
ago is to be seen. All yesterday Skiddaw was hidden under a straight-ruled
smoke-coloured coverlet, which came nearly down to Applethwaite ; to-day it is
washed clean out of the picture as the storm traverses the vale. So with
Glaramara and the mountains at the head of Borrowdale. You see nothing
8 The accounts of floods, and disasters and irreparable losses following on tlie summer
I'M ins. are far too numerous to be quoted liere. Any of the older guide-books and county
histories give them, bxit it is a tiling of which south country people have no idea, and of
which a simple and unexaggerated statement would look like romance to those uninitiated.
9 The " Borrowdale sop " is a small, single cloud, at first no bigger than a man's hand,
but gradually gathering size and substance, which rises at Pierce Ghyll Head (a ghyll and
force by the Sty Head Pass, on Lingmoor side), and floats away round by Sty Head Tarn
and Sprinkling Tarn. Should it take the direction of Langdale, and fall over into the vale
of Langdale, it will rain within twelve or twenty-four hours, even though the sky be
cloudless, and the glass high ; but it marks the continuance of fine weather, if it floats over
into the vale of St. John
THE KESWICK WALKS.
but a driving hoary mist, or a fiercer wrath of rain pitiless as hail ; nothing
but trees bent in the wind, and waters foaming from the hill sides, and the
rain pouring down a level torrent, and the paths of the mountain ghylls
filled with raging mountain streams. This is what twelve hours' rain among
the mountains has brought.
"Round the lake" is perhaps the most beautiful of the home walks
about Keswick, more especially if able to gather up into one knot all the
scattered points of interest lying by the way — the ascent of " Castlet," already
spoken of ; the two cascades, Barrow and Lodore ; the Bowder Stone and
Borrowdale, for those who have not been there before. Of Castlet and these
last two no more need now be said, though, indeed, their loveliness is as fresh
to-day as it was yesterday and will be to-morrow ; fresher than the words to
paint it. But there is Walla Crag beyond Castlet, of which volumes might
be filled, and never end by doing it justice. For what mere verbal description
can photograph its purple scaurs and blackened rifts, its clefts and boulders,
73 L
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and that pleasant tossing of green about its base? Walla Crcg lias the
place of the declared Beauty of the Derwentwater range. Then, it is more
interesting than any other from its associations; for there is still that
steep and dangerous way called the Lady's Eake, up which poor Lady
Derwentwater escaped with her jewels, to do her loving woman's utmost
for the release of her lord ; and perhaps it is the human interest associated
with it that has given it such a special holding in the hearts of the
Keswick people. In old times, too, a large white stone in among the boulders
used to be pointed out as the Lady's Pocket-handkerchief; and it was firmly
believed in a certain nursery then filled with rosy-cheeked credulity, that the
Lady had dropped her handkerchief in her flight, and that it still hung among
the crags, where no one could get at it. It was a sad blow struck at faith
when it became known that the handkerchief was a stone to which a certain
Crosthwaite and one Atkinson were said to climb every year, and paint with a
material paint-brush and white lead. The last story may be as apocryphal as
the first. That Great Wood of Walla Crag, as it is called, is full of delicious
walks ; some leading up among the crags, and some keeping to the low ground
among the ferns and wild flowers and shy birds and shyer wood beasts ; and
one, the sweetest of all, going by a field through the pleasant coppice of
Keswick Springs into the road at Brow Top ; very lovely, and lonely enough
for lovers.
But now you are bound for Barrow Falls and " round the lake." Still
under Walla Crag, you pass by where a mountain streamlet, set with ferns ;ii)<l
flowers, dashes through the cool wood ; and then the bare brow of Falcon
Crag — keen and wild as its name — cuts against the blue sky sharply. The
lake shines in the yellow sun, and the ripple just whispers to the pebbles if
no wind is astir to-day, and the vale rests in calm radiance, — a blue lake
under a blue sky, and golden fields shined on by a golden sun. And then you
come to the gates of the Barrow grounds,10 and by the well-kept gardens to
Barrow Falls, just behind the house. Wliat a possession for a dining-room
10 Barrow means a hill or tumulus.
74
THE KESWICK WALKS.
window ! — an out-look right into the heart of a waterfall, not a hundred yards
away !
The falls make a double leap, one hundred and twenty-four feet in all ;
with a resting-place in between, something like a flight of steps with a landing
in the middle. The upper fall throws itself off into foam and spray, like a
shower of snowflakes ; the lower twines its water into strings, and keeps its
forces close. The space is too much cleared of trees, perhaps ; and, though
not so artificial as the Kydal Falls, yet there are signs of the spirit, if not
traces of the blast, which once made the leap grander than what time and nature
had ordained. But even improvers cannot entirely spoil a waterfall. There are
still the golden sands and the rocks, the clear pools and the green depths
within the shade, the old tree-stems covered with moss and the moss bearing
ferns and polypodys, the wild flowers in the sunshine, and the wild birds in
the bushes. And though the Barrow Falls look too much like what they are
— a private cascade in a gentleman's private grounds — yet they are very
beautiful in substance, and would be more beautiful if left wholly to the
gracious care of nature.
Lodore, of apparently unknown height, for some call it three hundred
and sixty,11 some one hundred and fifty,12 and some one hundred 13 feet only,
has a grander impress. Broken and fierce — less thickly wooded than
Stockghyll and of a longer range of fall — the rift deeper and wider and the
boulders larger — here is a turbulent scene enough ; but disappointing ; save
to those who see it not only immediately after heavy rain but even during
the shower. For the supply from Watendlath Tarn runs down perceptibly
in half an hour, and then there are only big old rocks and small spaces of
fall, and olive-brown pools clear and very shallow, and lipping rills, in place
of the rush and the hurry and the wild outpouring, and the funnels of
foam driven underneath the pools in long whitened streaks, and the mad
outcry and hurtling of the waters. It is not often in perfection during the
11 Otlcy's Guide. l2 Handbook of Kcswick. 13 Black's Guide.
75 L 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
summer, excepting in the July rains, such as those spoken of; and again,
as with so many points in this country, only residents and natives know
its beauty by heart. The dark crags — Gowder Crag on the left, and
Shepherd's Crag on the right — are fringed with trees to the top; and here
and there an oak sapling or a young mountain ash has taken root among
the very boulders themselves, some of which, covered with moss, look like
great green velvet balls, and some, left bare, shine in the sun with prismatic
colours. The blackened sides of the rift are wet with spray, and there are
dark corners under cavernous ledges, and shallow places barely covering the
pebbles. Sometimes huge stones overarch each other, and the water dashes
through and over as if spinning from a wheel ; sometimes a thundering leap
comes madly down; and sometimes a rock stands stolidly in the way, and
forces the dashing stream apart; and then the tumult subsides, and only a
clear small stream runs among the stones through the meadows to the lake.
Now on, towards Grange, past the place where Gowder Crag fell into
the road two years before poor Gray's visit, to his mortal terror lest it should
fall again as he was passing, to where the Borrowdale gorge shuts in its vale
against the world ; and then across the double bridges of Grange, where
the old monks used to store their harvests ; and so by steep climbs and
sharp descents on to the high mountain road of Catbells.
The lake lies far below, and boats are gliding over its still waters, making
long tracks of light and disturbing the sharply-drawn reflections as they pass.
Swineside is unfolding its summer mantle of golden gorse, and the Newlands
Mountains, with their quiet vales and glens, entice to further wanderings ;
down in the swamps where snipes and herons are to be found, by Ullock
Moss, the yellow iris is blooming with lavish grace, the wild columbine
bears its doves upon its breast, and orchids and rare ferns are to be found
by careful seekers; but purple foxgloves, musical with great brown bees
within their bells, and hedges rich with honeysuckles and wild roses, offer
themselves to all. Then through a delicious bit of road, dark with wood,
and fragrant as no other road in the world — turning aside to the old landing
76
THE KESWICK WALKS.
place of Nichol Ending by the lake, and coming back with a heart full of
pleasant memories, and some not quite so pleasant; — as of that diseased,
deformed, half-idiot lad, poor wretch ! who used to be always there ham-
mering at his boat, and who had but two loves in the world, of which his
boat was one, and the Portinscale cockatoo the other ; — then through the
pretty village of Portinscale,14 where the white cockatoo still flies among the
trees, and speaks to the passers by; over Derwent Bridge, which, high as
it is, the floods have often washed over, and where those mysterious and
fatal " cradles " were always causing the death of drunken men and unwary
children ; and so home : with the evening rays reddening the mountain tops and
turning into diamonds all the window panes on Brow Top and Chesnut Hill.
This is one of the Keswick walks, beautiful in all seasons and at all
times — ten miles only in length — but a microcosm of loveliness : being to
the vales what an epigram is to literature, or a sonnet to poetry — the compass
small, but the sense and feeling entire.
WATENDLATH BBIDGK
To Watendlath and round by Rosthwaite is also within the powers of
the ordinarily strong. You pass under Walla Crag again, striking up to
Ashness Bridge where Barrow Beck flows noisily and artists stop to make
a sketch of Skiddaw and the two lakes in the valley below ; though, to be
sure, Skiddaw is a little hidden on the Latrigg side by Falcon Crag, under
which you sit. Then through the Barrow woods, taking care to diverge to
M <. Portings-ghyll," say some.
TIIK LAKE COUNTKY.
those two magnificent chasms in Thrang Crag, where you stand — your only
support the small, frail, ash-tree leaning outwards — looking at the view ac-ross
eternity. After which you go on again through more wood, till you come
into the narrow vale of Watendlath.
The first aspect of the valley is very wild, but the second tells you that
the mountains do not exceed in actual height, and that the main elements
of grandeur are the narrowness of the pass and the tumultuous forms of
the rocks. There is room only for the narrow, stony way of the river, which
jumps from rock to rock in a straight line, hemmed in by a rude wall on
the one side and by the living crag on the other ; for the narrow, stony WHY
of the cart-road ; and for a slender slip of meadow at the side, golden with
buttercups and peopled with kine ; the masses of rock overhanging helping
to make it all look narrower still. Before you reach the hamlet, you turn
aside to see a curious and lovely little cascade, where the rocks are curiously
hollowed and waterworn, and which is a small miniature of the future full
length of Lodore. For this Watendlath beck, issuing from the Watendlath
Tarn (into which originally falls a little stream from Blea Tarn on the Thirlmere
fells), makes the Lodore fall in its ending.
The tarn and the hamlet belonging are noticeable chiefly for their
seclusion ; not for wildness, nor for grandeur, but for seclusion — life in a
recess with no outside relations — a bit of primitive isolation, the next step
from which would be to savagery. The valley is very high, but the moun-
tains are higher still, and there is no way back to the world again save by
the hill tops to Borrowdale, or over that spongy flat of mountain table-land
to Thirlmere : so you must sit for a short time in the porch of a farm cottage
where every one sits, and, if you can, sketch that old woman in her scanty
purple dress, with her blue-checked apron over her head, painfully gathering
sticks. Some among you may think that more comfort and less picturesque-
ness would perhaps advance that poor old flickering life a little ; but others,
if artists of a certain school, hold to the blue-checked apron and the scanty
purple dress, stained by the weather to such a delicious tone. Now go over
THE KESWrCK WALKS.
the quaint little bridge to the tarn, and look at the green rushes extending
almost half way across, with their red edging of water-lily leaves ; and then
up High Ladder Brow, and over the fell top, — most probably in the rain —
to where the beautiful Borrowdale valley 15 opens below you. The hills are
smoking, and clouds are hanging round them in all directions ; Scawfell's
head is covered and Glaramara is veiled ; but what of that ? — the young
green ling and the fruitless tufts of bleaberry hang laden with jewels, as
the sun dashes aside the nearer mists like a loving face smiling through
tears and sorrow. Be grateful for the smile, and glad of the sunlight which
gives such splendour to the rain-drops as you come over the fell, wet and
tired, and so through the wood to Eosthwaite.
't
THE DRtJID CIRCLE
The Druid Circle is another Keswick possession worth seeing. Not for
particular beauty in those forty-eight old cobble-stones set up on end,
and looking like so many enchanted creatures sitting in mute perpetual
council, and which the saying is that no one can count twice alike; nor yet
1S This is the manner in which old writers spoke of the view of Borrowdale from High
Ladder Brow. " Dark caverns yawn at its entrance, terrific as the wildness of a maniac,
and disclose a narrow strait, running up between mountains of granite, that are shook into
Almost every possible form of horror, and resemble the accumulations of an earthquake,
*!>linterod, shivered, piled, amassed." In reality it is simply beautiful, and no more
than Windsor Park.
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
for any particular loveliness in the way thereto ; but because of the asso-
ciations and traditions attached, the thoughts to be evoked, and the magnificent
panorama to be studied. You can get there by either the Ambleside or
Penrith road : if the first, up Brow Top, past Castlerigg, and through the
pretty Castle Lonning ; if the second, by Brigham and the old Penrith road,
till you come to the waste, where these dumb stone creatures sit in the
sunshine, waiting for the hour of their deliverance and the return of their
gods, all bound in Ragnarok together.
What a crowd of feeling rushes on us, as we stand on the sacred place
where our savage ancestors so often offered up their sacrifices, and poured
out their Custom of blood and agony to propitiate the GOD whom we know
now to be the GOD of Love ! What a long and varied chapter of nobler
education since those dark times to the present turning of the cleaner historic
page ! No better than the Zulu Kaffir or the tatooed Maori, the Druid priest
and his flock of trembling worshippers represented only the darkness and
the stumbling of ignorance, only the debasement of fear and the cruelty of
superstition. And now, the light that has broken through the darkness ! —
the knowledge that has guided the heart of fear, and the feet of stumbling !
This Druid's temple was well chosen for its purpose. Commanding the
finest mountain view to be had lower than from a mountain top — itself the
centre of an amphitheatre closing it in on all sides — the lake hidden, and
every sign of opening or way of escape concealed — we can fancy what it must
have been, when rendered even more awful by reverence of place, and when
thick woods still further shut out the light of liberty and the chance of
deliverance. The inner circle, supposed to be the priest's place,16 looks
directly towards the Vale of St. John and the broken outline of Nathdale
Fells. Helvellyn, fierce and dark, stands as the great barrier against
16 Wright repudiates the theory that these Druids' circles were temples, or places of
sacrifice and worship, inclining to the belief that they were burial-places instead, though
puzzled with cemeteries of such magnitude as Stonehenge, and of such intricacy as
Avcbury.
80
THE KESWICK WALKS.
Eastern hope and life ; and we understand now the meaning of its terrible
lines, and what is the spirit in-dwelling, and how it has become the repre-
sentative of cruelty in the mountain system. Is there such a thing as
brute matter ? Cannot even the hills and the woods be filled with the
abiding spirit of life, good or ill according to its generation ? Beyond
Helvellyn, over Wanthwaite Fells, is Mell Fell, looking like a huge
tumulus, suggestive of death to the men of old time. The ravines and
precipices of Blencathra show all their wildness, and Skiddaw and Latrigg
scarcely soften the fiercer front of their neighbour ; the Newlands Mountains
rise sharply against the sky ; and Walla Crag shuts out the Borrowdale
range with its dark and clean-cut prison walls. Mountains all round, and
never a glimpse of the quiet lake, nor the wide plains beyond ! — nothing but
a living cell of rocks and hills, with no escape and no reprieve !
Think what this place of the Druid Circle has seen. Picture the long
procession gathering from the mountain caves and rude forest homes, as
the white-robed priests and the holy maidens, oak-crowned and with torque
and band of gold, marched slowly through the vale, leading the white bulls
for sacrifice and bearing the golden sickle and the unspotted cloth, while
chanting their temple songs and striking their barbaric music. Old warriors,
scarred with the mark of many a fight and bowed with years and the
labours of their savage life ; armed men in the prime of their manhood,
their long hair floating on their shoulders, and their garments, of the
skins of beasts, hanging loosely round them ; fair-haired women bearing
their children in their arms ; youths and maidens ; all swarming in from
their fastnesses to attend the high festival held in honour of the gods
they worshipped and did not know. And what festivals ! — the shrieks of
the slain, their organ chaunt ; and the blood of the victims, their incense
swinging from the altar ; and muttered invocations to dread names, their
Litany of Love; and blind terror, and bewildered guiding, and the heart
bowed for fear, and the hand clenched for death, their High Mass and
Church Service ; and the earth a charnel-house for the sustenance of heaven,
81 M
Tlir, LAKE COUNTRY.
and man the sport of the gods and their victim, for all their creed of hope !
Oh, those dumb, eternal mountains ! what tragedies of crime and terror
have been enacted year by year before them ! Yet there they stand,
unchanging witnesses of good or ill, patient in their power and of supreme
and infinite compassion ; the same now and always, whatever storms of
life beat up about their feet.
The same and yet how different ! There are mountains which mean only
summer days' excursions, and children gathering bilberries, and lovers wander-
ing through the bracken, and skylarks singing overhead ; and there are others
which the fury of the elements never wholly quits, but which have ever in
the heart of them an elemental spirit of wrath and a terrifying Presence ;
and there are others, like High Street, where the aspect is one of command
and authoritative rule ; and others, like Helvellyn, penetrated with the
crying souls of victims and the masterful spirits of torture. And then,
again, there are places like this of the Druid Circle, where every expression
is of loneliness and terror, and the solemnity of priestly rites, and the help-
lessness of man in the grasp of superstition.
Whether it is that the Druids chose what they saw befitted them, or
whether they have left their spirits in their temple yet to this day, who
can say? — but sure it is that their "Circle" near Keswick makes quite a
different impression on the soul to anything else in the district ; and that
some such thoughts as these, more or less distinct, flow as naturally through
the mind while standing there, as the thought of children in a daisy-field,
or of young lovers in the spring time. And for this reason, the best time
and manner in which to see the stones is on a dark, lurid, lowering summes
day, when the clouds are full of thunder and the mountains full of wrath,
when all the forces of nature look fierce and aggressive, and the whole earth
teems with secret life and the souls of the slain struggling to come forth.
Or else on a wild winter's twilight, when the wind is thronged with demons,
and in every blast you hear their voices, and in every flying cloud behold
their forms. And you understand the meaning of these stones as well then
82
THE KESWICK WALKS.
as in the heavier aspect : the only difference being in the heaving struggle
to get loose, and in the riot of escape.
No such thoughts could come from that lovely walk by Skiddaw Terrace,
through Millbeck and Applethwaite, (said by the etymologically crazy to mean
Ea-pul-thwaite — water- water-place,) and home by the pleasant fields of
Orinathwaite, the " cleared place of snakes." This is one of the favourite
Keswick walks ; and no wonder. First there is the Bassenthwaite road,
worth going on if only for the sake of passing by such places as " Crookeldy
Bridge," and "Dancing Grate;" and then there is the turn sharp to the
right, and the steep way just under Carsleddam — so close under, that you
look into the very heart of Skiddaw, and see the form of its bones and the
colour of its blood. Millbeck is the first of the hamlets on Skiddaw Ten-ace,
and the bridge there has long been a favourite with artists ; while farther
on, Applethwaite and its ghyll — called locally Wordsworth's Ghyll, because
the great poet was once pleased to express his approbation of the same —
might stay the wandering feet and arrest the roving eyes for many long
days together : such mountain climbs and wooded rambles and sketches
of picturesque, unhealthy old houses, and such a view as cannot be matched
from any mountain side in the world. But the view is the same as that had
during the ascent of Skiddaw; so the description of it will come in more
properly there.
The gully and the river divide the village of Applethwaite in two ; and
by the water-side in that cleft you may see a bank of nettle-leaved bell-
flowers — " Canterbury bells," growing as richly as if cultivated in a private
garden ; and count the lovely icicles in winter and the pretty cascades in
summer, and rejoice in the very home of beauty and picturesque wildness.
The village of Applethwaite, with its gardens and its lanes, its fruit-bearing
trees- and stretches of gorse-clad mountain, its mill and the rift with the
rivulet within, is a gem of its kind — the real hamlet of the hills.
The way home (more rightfully the ways home) is as beautiful as the
rest. Either down the lane, and through the Ormathwaite fields and wood,
83 M 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY
and by the Lairthwaitc fields where the bearers and mourners in the funerals
from under Skiddaw "raise the psalm,"17 and so to Keswick by the Vicarage
Limepots ; or by Gale which lies under Lonscale, and through the Latrigg
woods, and by Goosegreen and the Greta. Very precious whichever way is
taken. And all this time, remember, you have the lake and its islands and
the Borrowdale mountains before you ; and the grey town, with its pink church,
spreading out to the foot of Brow Top and backed by Walla Crag; and the
vale with its green fields and its white terraces below you ; and the great green
head of Skiddaw towering above you. Can you ask anything more beautiful '?
No section of a book can give even a list of all the walks about
Keswick. They would take a volume to their own share, and then leave half
untold ; but we can mention a few of them in the catalogue and guide-book
style. There is the way from Keswick to the Portinscale road through
Howrah's, with a noble view of Skiddaw like a consolidated thunder-cloud
sent from the north, and where you can track the course of the Greta, and
see the Borrowdale mountains, but not the lake : and that pretty church lonning
with the mysterious " dub " attached, called Priest-cuddy-Hole,18 of strangely
dark and mystic meaning : and there are the fields about Portinscale, bringing
one to all sorts of pleasant places full of sweet surprises : and Gutherscale
and Skelghyll are worth seeing : and the by-ways about and through New-
lands. Swineside is a fair young hill to be compassed and surmounted ;
the Faw Park woods are the sweetest ever grown between the sun and the
generous earth ; and out by Braithwaite and Thornthwaite you come to
episodes of beauty which fill your heart, and make you press the hand
within your own with a tenderer grasp. All ! go which way you will, in
and about that beloved Vale of Derwentwater you must perforce go into
the very heart and home of beauty !
17 This striking custom is still kept up. At a given spot in the road, before nearing the
church, the clerk, who heads the funeral procession, gives out the Old Hundredth, and (he
mournful wail may he heard far and wide through the valley.
18 A cuddy is a donkey, as well as the familiar abbreviation of Cutlibert.
84
w>
BASSKN I'llWAITK WAi'KK
BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTHWAITE
CHAPTER VI
THE Skiddaw l group comprises Blencatbra, Souter Fell, Carrock Fell with
its strange Sunken Kirks, the Caldbeck Fells, and Skiddaw proper with
its various members ; for every peak and larger crag in this country has a local
name, sometimes known only to the shepherds, but sometimes, as with the
various peaks and crags of Skiddaw and Blencathra, made historical.
1 By some made to mean the Great Hill ; by others, the Horseshoe Hill, " from its
fancied likeness to a horseshoe (yscycl) ;" and by others, Scoed How, from sheath or
M-ivcn — the screening or protecting hill. liobinson, rector of Ousby, hazards the etymo-
logical conjecture, " JSkidday. or Sky-day, t,o called from tlic height of it."
85
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Blencathra, though apparently independent, is, in reality, only a portion
of the Skiddaw group ; as may be seen by the model ; where the Skidd; nv
range stands apart in a mountain crown or circle, Blencathra, and the others
merely belonging to the whole. The way to it lies by the Greta, along the
Penrith road, leaving the gardens of Low Bryery, so neat and Dutch-like, to
the left, and thence, by many a pleasant turn, to Threlkeld,2 where some old
traditions still live and the links between the present and the past can yet be
counted. It was here that Sir Launcelot de Threlkeld had his third house ;
for he was wont to say that he had three — Yanwath (near Penrith), for profit
and warmth and comfortable winter quarters ; Crosby, which gave him a park
well filled with deer, and days of knightly sport and revelry ; and Threlkeld
Hall, which gave him tenants for war-time. Three tolerably desirable posses-
sions for a landowner of the olden time barely able to read his mass-book !
But Sir Launcelot was a noble gentleman ; and, if riches may be measured
according to desert, had neither men nor money beyond his merit. It was
he who married the widow of the ruthless Clifford, and who proved such a good
stepfather to the young heir — the shepherd-lord of Wordsworth's " Song at
the Feast of Brougham Castle." And in days when murder was part of
every gentleman's fitting education, and the slaughter of the innocents for the
better seizure of their estates by no means a reprehensible act, the tender
guardianship which he, a stepfather, bestowed on a lad by whose death lie
would have benefited, stamps him as a Christian far removed from his time,
and as a knight who had won his spurs on a better than the battle field.
There is a steep way up Blencathra which those may go who covet
superfluous fatigue ; but the more rational path is farther on, by the little
hamlet of Scales. Yet, though more rational, by no means ignominiously
secure, for it is only a narrow ledge running over the shoulder like a great
muscle starting out, and is not always a pleasant track to walk in, especially
when the wind blows with such force that you may be blown fairly over by a
a Tbrall-keld (serf or slave spring) ? or Thors Hill Keld?
86
BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AXD BASSENTHWAITE.
stray blast waiting like a thief round the corner of a rock. Still it can be
done without real peril ; but it is not always pleasant, and might be a little
unsafe to the very timid. If it is a windy day, the oak and the ash will be
white, the fern feathers driven and laid, and the" great dock leaves doubled
up, as you turn into the hill-side path, which, followed to its end, would land
you in the small town of Hesket New Market, out by High Pike and Carrock
Fell ; in which case you would pass by Souter Fell, and, if you wished, by
Bowscale Tarn, both famous in local traditions, the one for its spectres and
the other for its undying fish.3 But if you want to go to the top, you must
keep straight up the shoulder for Scales Tarn and Razor Edge : with such way
of descent as you may choose.
RAZOR EDOE
That small and noisy stream to the right, coming out of Scales Tarn,
is one source of the Greta : but only the Grlenderamakin as yet, not the
3 " Both the undying fish that swim
In Bowscale Tarn did wait on him ;
The pair were servants of his eye
In their immortality ;
Thej' moved about in open sight,
To and fro for his delight."
These, too, like the old stone dolls in Crosthwaite Church, used to be called " Adam and
Eve." We never knew of any one who had seen them, but they are none the less there.
87
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Greta until it meets the St. John's Vale bock, the ancient Burc. It
makes a wide circuit before it comes down into the valley, going all the
way to Souter Fell and Mungrisedale before finally subsiding into the Greta.
Following then the direction, if not exactly the course of the stream, you
soon come upon the thing you want to see — Scales Tarn, under the shadow of
Tarn Crag, one of the bolder processes of Linthwaite Pike, itself the boldest
of the whole mass, saving the Edges. Here, the saying is, the sun never
shines and the stars are visible at noonday. Of your own experience the
little lake will probably be covered with shining spangles, not of direct
sunlight though, and no stars will be visible — not even in the blackest part
under that jagged height, so precipitous and overhanging that the very sheep
learn caution and make no tracks across.
It is very lovely to watch the ripple of a tarn ; a wonderful lesson
in wave curvature, if small in scale yet as true as the wildest ocean
storm could give. Ever changing in line and yet so uniform in law,
the artist and the hydrographer might learn some valuable truths from
half a day's study of one of these small mountain sheets of water. Now
the broad, smooth, silky curves flow steadily across ; now a fine network
spreads over these, and again another network, smaller and finer still,
breaks up the rest into a thousand fragments ; then the tarn bursts out
into tiny silver spangles like a girl's causeless laughter ; and then comes
a grey sweep across the water, as if it shivered in the wind ; and then
again all subsides, and the long silky flow sets in again, with quiet
shadows and play of green and grey in the transparent shallows. It is
like a large diamond set in emerald ; for the light of the water is radiance
simply, not colour, and the grass, with the sun striking through, is as bright
as an emerald. We can never get beyond crystals and metals as the image of
the supreme excellence of water and earth.
Now up from the tarn, by a sharp pull, to the Threlkeld side of the
mountain, where are some notable transformations. From below the
various parts of Blencathra look like the shoulders of Skiddaw, but bonier
88
BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTI1WAITE.
and scraggier ; part of the same upheaval, but the wilder and more troubled
part, as is always the case with one side of a mountain. Seen from
above, these shoulders turn to Edges topping deep and precipitous ravines ;
the ridges, like Striding and Swirrel Edge on Helvellyn, only sharper and
more dangerous, leading up like the crests of a wave to the grassy mountain
top, as smooth and soft as the Sussex Downs. Gold and black are those
ravines, sweeping down in enormous mountain bays.; and the top is sharp
too, and broken, and not good for weak nerves to venture too near the
edge ; but the pictures seen from these high mountain bays are wonderfully
grand, and worth a little daring and danger. The whole Helvellyn line is
there, from Wanthwaite Fells to Helvellyn Top, with Fairfield and St.
Sunday's Crag accompanying ; and there is the enchanted vale of St. John,
and Nathdale Fells set like a backbone between the two valleys, and the
valleys themselves, calm and rich, and still. Great How and Thirlmere are
beyond, with Steel Fell barring the way, and the Dunmail Kaise gap just
\isible ; and, far in the distance, are the Coniston Fells, and a shining strip
of sea beyond. A mass of blue heads are the mountains about Ambleside
and Troutbeck and Hawes Water; and then come the two cones known
as the Mell Fells, and the great spine of all, Crossfell, like a dim line
of cloud backing up the horizon.
They say that the castles of the Penrith plains may be seen though
a pocket telescope clearly. If you have none, you cannot go maundering
about the Danes, or the Border deeds of the Mosstroopers ; or how Anne,
Countess of Pembroke, Montgomery, and Dorset, set all her smaller world
at nought ; of the magnificent Toryism of the old Lord Lonsdale ; or any
other platitudes of the same nature, sure to be uttered by those more his-
torical than the rest. But you can make out instead Carlisle as a vapoury
marking on the earth's map in between the dip formed by Atkinson's Man
and Carrock Fell ; and the lonely living of Caldbeck.4 The green shoulders
4 Caldbeck is one of the bleak outlying stations of the lake country — lonely and
89
T1IK LAKE C'UINTKY.
of Skiddaw and its forest — where is never a tree, but only moor-birds and
ling and a geological peculiarity to be noticed in its place and a certain
shooting-box of enviable circumstance — rise up in endless succession ; and then
comes a glimpse of the sea between Lonscale and Grisedale Pike, with a
fierce bit of Blencathra itself — " stern Blencathra's skyey height" — all radiant
green, and bleached stones like the bones of the creature laid bare ; and
the sunlight falling on it heavily, chased by large cloud shadows, and chilled
by the raving wind.
If you are strong, you may go down by Carrock and Bowscale Tarn,
ending in Caldbeck and its fells and moors. Or you may take Skiddaw on
your way home ; or you may descend by Knot Crag upon Threlkeld, which
would however be too much of a retrogression ; or you may find out the
desolate, but with a past, a history, capacities of wealth, and beautiful nooks, llauulph
Engaiu, the cliief forester of Inglewood, granted a licence to the Piior of Carlisle to build
an hospital there to secure travellers from thieves and storm, on their way through the
wild Caldbeck fells to more civilized parts. When this was done, the church was founded,
and dedicated to Saint Mungo, who had already given his name and benediction to a
famous well which still exists near the churchyard. Gospatric, the son of Orme, gave the
patronage of the rectory to the Prior of Carlisle, from whom it passed to the bishop when
times and rulers and church services were changed. The district is divided into Caldbeck -
Uptown, or Uppertown, and Caldbeck-Underfell. The Cald (keld) ? beck rises in Braefell
from half a dozen heads, coming down from Park End, past the Faulds and Whelpay
la wolf's name in disguise), by Pategill, or Paddergill, Rattan Row, and Hudscales, to one
of the loveliest places under heaven, called the Meeting of the Waters ; and here it falls
into the Caldew that has come out of Skiddaw Forrest round by Mosedale (where it has
received the Bowscale Tarn stream) and Hesket New Market, to finally lose itself in the
Eden, or Water of the Hills, just below Carlisle. Caldbeck has riches, too. The old
saying, " Caldbeck and Caldbeck Fells are worth all England else," is not without some
foundation ; for there are mines at Swineside, and even " gowd scope has been found there."
As for beauty, the Howk, or Fairy Kirk and Fairy Kettle, the Meeting of the Waters
already spoken of, and, within a walk, Iveghyll or Ivesgill Mill, and Sebergham, may stand
as fair even after Keswick and the lakes. But it is a desolate old place, for all that :
and, towards Carlisle and Wigton, the very essence and extreme of bleakness and poverty,
save for those who like and understand the wildest form of moorland life, and can take
interest in nature without a single adventitious grace to her share.
90
BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTIIWAITE.
birthplace of the Glenderaterra, and follow its course iu the cleft between
Skiddaw and Blencathra ; or you may come down the green steep that leads
directly upon Waste Cote, and through the Brundholm Woods by Greta5
side, where you have one of the best, though not most characteristic, views
of the lake and vale.
These woods, set up on a height, with the river down in the vale below,
and the lake and the mountains as the distant view beyond, are infinitely
lovely. Had they been farther south they would have been peopled with
nightingales ; as it is, every bird that lives and sings in the north seems
to find its home here. The river, too, is a real woodside river — broken, rich,
varied — parts full of happiness and love, like that glorious bit beneath the
trees, where, when you have crossed the little wooden bridge, you must needs
MILLRACE — BRTJNDHOLM WOODS
5 Called Greta, say some, from the word to greet, or cry ; for, indeed, it is a very
sounding river, wailing or singing, according to one's mood. But a clever friend suggests as
its etymology instead — Great-Ea, or the great water ; and older etymologists give it as the
Greot-Ea, the rocky water. It is formed by the St. Jolm's beck, formerly the Bure, which
issues from Thirlmere, and the Glenderamakin, wliich, falling out of Scales Tarn, winds
away round Souter Fell till it joins the St. John's beck, not far from Threlkeld. In old
accounts, Keswick is said to be situated near the Bure, and, in some guide-books, this river
is said to " issue from the coves of Wythburn ;" but the name is, in fact, lost noAv, and no
one knows anytliing of the Bure : neither of that from the coves of Wythburn, nor of that,
still more apocryphal, from the top of Castlerigg : both of which may be found by the
curious in old books of the county.
9V N 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
sit down on the bank among the flowers, and dream of the one you love ;
and others full of sorrow; and others — like the Mill Bace— eloquent of human
industry and the ceaseless round and nohle glory of toil. Factory life seems
to be robbed of half its squalor when the surroundings are such as these. But
now indeed the Greta loses its character of the Avood-side river, and becomes
the serviceable river to the town ; and for all its length hereafter, from Brierley
to Calvert Bridge, and thence to the Keswick Bridge, it has something set it
to do ; perhaps nobler in the end, than showing the law of river flow, or teach-
ing the perspective of reflection, or even emblemizing the phases of human
life, and the changes of human feeling.
And so you will have accomplished Blencathra : beautiful in itself, with
grand prospects from its heights, and by no means difficult to surmount, yet,
strangely enough, not one of the " fashionable " mountains among tourists.
But, having accomplished it, perhaps it has scarcely been with thorough
satisfaction. For, though there may have been sunshine and cloud in
abundance, which should, apparently, have made effect enough, yet the shine
may have been of that poor and hard kind sometimes seen in the mountain
districts — a flaring not an enriching light, taking out all the more delicate
shades of colour and hardening all the softer touches, reducing the tender
gleams to one monotone of lifeless yellow, and leaving only a level glare
in the place of those thousand subtle changes which make the true beauty of
a mountain day. And though the wild clouds may have been for ever sweeping
over the sky, and burying broad tracts of the hillside under their depths of
shade, yet the shadow has been perhaps as hard and soulless as the rest.
There have been no gentle pencillings of tender grey through which the light
might flow shyly down ; no prismatic aureoles crowning the shining crags ;
the clouds have come sweeping along, as if they strode mailed and armed
through the sky, and dashed aside the heavy glare with a hand as harsh and
unloving as itself. For moods of nature are as various as the tempers of
men ; and this harshness of sunshine is not an infrequent experience on
summer days in a strong east wind.
BLENCATHRA, SKIDDAW, AND BASSENTHWAITE.
"0 its fine black head, and the bleak air a top of it, with a prospect of
mountains all about and about, making you giddy; and then Scotland afar
off, and the border countries so famous in song and ballad ! It was a day
that will stand out like a mountain, I am sure, in my life ! " That was
Charles Lamb's impression of Skiddaw top : not going into guide-book par-
ticulars as to what he saw thence. Perhaps because he neither knew nor
cared for the formal baptism of small blue points scarce seen in the dim
horizon.
Skiddaw6 is a mountain peculiar to itself in all things ; of special place
and special formation, of a different view to anything else in the whole district,
and of quite a different character of ascent. For, instead of the gradual
revealing of most other mountain ascents — the new lake that peeps out here —
as you go a few feet higher the hidden tarn that lies below you there — the
ranges you first look up to and then look down on — and the new knowledge
of position and relation that you attain — here you have nothing but the one
same view of Derwentwater all throughout, until you get to the top and look
6 " Skiddaw, Lanvedin, and Casticand,
Are the highest mountains in all England."
This was Camden's proverb ; Clarke's is : —
" Kidstow Pike, Catstycain, Helvellyn, and Skiddaw man,
Are the highest hills ever clomb by Englishmen."
Its real height is said by the Ordnance surveyors to be three thousand and twenty-four feet
above the level of the sea.
03
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
over the plains to the sea, and over the sea to the border land of our old
enemy beyond.
It is an ascent of which very little can be said by way of description.
For, when we have spoken of Derwentwater and its islands in the sunshine, —
of how the mountains stand all round it, a liquid purple if in shadow,
or flecked with gold if the sun shines fitfully through the clouds, or bravo
in one broad gleaming sheen if the heavens are free and the light of the day
unchecked — of how the lower hills get gradually lost and are at last reduced
to the level of the plains — and how the fields and woods and gardens become
more and more map-like as we go higher, the houses less distinct, and the
lake nothing but a tarn with a few dark spots on it, — when we say that new
ranges of hills come gradually up behind the others, a very sea of mountain
tops, but with less individuality than many other ranges seen from nearer
heights, we say all that the first part of the ascent reveals to us. All,
that is, leaving the beauty untold. But, from the beginning of the way
up by Latrigg and Gale lying under Jenkin Hill which is the shoulder
ascended, and whence the Skiddaw Terrace view spoken of before is seen —
the view of the ascent — from the beginning to the end of that chapter by
the King of Saxony's Well, a world of beauty if not a world of startling
surprises lies before you. And without difficulty in the going ; which is a
recommendation with many ; which indeed is the chief cause why Skiddaw
is so popular, for the most timid horsewoman can ride to the top, without
a really hard pinch anywhere. It is just a smooth rising front of moorland,
with a lovely home-view lying below — a great, green amphitheatre beyond,
Skiddaw forest — and then the stony, bleak, wild top, the distant prospect, and
the glorious outburst.
There lies the Solway, yellow in the northern distance, with the blue
mass of Criffel r beyond ; there can be sometimes seen the Isle of Man,
7 " When Skiddaw wears a cap,
Criffel wots full well of that."
94
BLENCATHHA, SKIDDAW, AXD BASSENTHWAITE.
mid by the specially favoured, so specially that they are almost apocryphal,
the coast of Ireland ; the town and castle of Cockermouth — not Whitehaven,
because of Scilly Bank, but the line of sea-coast about St. Bees; the
Newlands Mountains and those of Buttermere ; the Ennerdale range ; Scaw-
fell, and part of the Screes in the dip of Black Sail; Black Combe, just
appearing in an opening between Great Gable and Kirkfell; the Coniston
range, and the sea and plains beyond. Some do speak of Lancaster
C'ustle, and some of Ingleborough in Yorkshire, and some of Snowdon —
" Snowdon and Criffel nodding to each other " (?). You may think yourself
fortunate to make out the whereabouts of Penrith against Crossfell, and of
Carlisle from the Point of Ullock, whence also you will see Bassenthwaite
Lake, which has been hidden before by the intervening heights. Helvellyn and
Blencathra stand close up to you, and between them you see Place Fell and
High-street, belonging to Ullswater. But the air is too bleak to bear a very
long survey ; indeed you are obliged in self-defence to shelter yourself
behind the maen, or Man, on the top, whence you see the northern side,
and where the grey granite, found at only one other place in Cumberland,
crops out from among the Skiddaw slate in the hollow below. The descent
is as long and tedious as the ascent was gradual, and tedious too, for
the real mountain climber ; relieved, perhaps, by stumbling on a sand-
piper's nest in the path, and by the loveliness of a fine ravine near the
bottom, where the fern is like forest trees of fairy size, and the rocks are of
all colours in the summer sun. As you walk home the yellow light is lying,
brighter than gold, on the yellow fields towards the lake, and Walla Crag
is black and purple and crimson behind the golden surface poured like a
liquid wash over its whole breadth.
There is a way down the "breast" of Skiddaw, coming on to Millbeck,
Avliich is practicable if steep, and shorter than the ordinary round ; and
another way down by Bassenthwaite,8 or Broadwater as it was anciently
8 Bass, local name for perch — Bassenthwaite, the place of perch.
95
TIIK LAKE COVXTUY.
, which tourists often take; but Bassenthwaite is generally left for
independent tour. Indeed, poor Bassenthwaite gets scarcely its due. Lil
a pretty girl by the side of a professed beauty, few people see the sweetues
which would have charmed many but for the blinding power of contrast
And, as there is a fashion in all things, not one tourist in a hundred
knows anything of the real beauty of Bassenthwaite. Yet, even Blea Soughs,
and all the other swamps about, are beautiful in their way, and used in
olden times to give pleasant skating in the frosty winter weather, and grand
days and nights to snipe and wild-duck shooters. Bassenthwaite Lake is a
famous place for wild fowl, and keeps " open " in frosty weather longer
than any other. It is an early recollection, that a couple of wild swans
once flew over Bassenthwaite ; and a flock of wild geese stands out to this
day as a childish memory of much wonder and not a little awe.
Skiddaw looks grand when you are beneath him — his big limbs and
comely proportions and the roundness of much flesh showing to stately
advantage ; and even little Dod sticks its cap of fern and heather knowingly
awry, and looks out upon the world as if it were a creature with a will of its
own, and an independent social position. As for Longside it is a mountain
in itself; and a tourist's day might be far less profitably employed than in
exploring Longside and the Skiddaw points adjacent. Very few people know any-
thing of the view from Bassenthwaite Hawse, looking towards Isell and Embleton,
with the lovely Derwent flowing through, and the valleys spread out in all
their sweet pastoral richness like great gardens ; and still fewer know anything
of that wild bit of desolation, TJldale Moor, or of Little Tarn and Overwater,
or of Brae Fell, beneath which you may pass, if you are so minded, on your
way to Caldbeck, or bear more to the left if you dread the rougher road.
These are out-lying members not adopted yet into the lake family, but by no
means to be despised by the true lover of nature, the artist, or the naturalist.
The Keswick Mountains look well from the Skiddaw or north side of
Bassenthwaite ; so do its own special fells — Barf and "Wythop and Whinlatter ;
but you cannot see the famous bays — Bowness, Braidness, and Scarness ;
96
BLKNCATHHA, !SK1DUA\V, AM) HASSENT11WA1TK.
you must wait for these until you are on the other side — until you have
through the toll-gate where the skeleton of a horse, framed in the house-side,
indicates a veterinary surgeon hereabouts ; and by Armathwaite the seat of all
the Vanes ; and over Ouse Bridge which crosses the Derwent — flowing down
now as a fully developed river to Cockerniouth and the sea.
Stop at Castle How where was once a Roman encampment ; but you will
not find anything better now than enchanter's nightshade and wild geranium.
Tou will see only the way of that pitiless railroad ; the places of the five little
islands covered at half-flood ; and the scored mass of rock under which you
•itand, in a fairy kind of bay. But you ought to know the uncatalogued secrets
>f the lake-side : where the yellow flag — the iris pseud-acorns — is to be found,
and where the rarer ferns and bog mosses ; and when you are under the
Wythop Fells, where the woods are full of fox-gloves towering like great purple
thyrsi among the trees, you ought to be thoroughly at home, and to know your
paths and where to set your feet. At Beck Wythop you see the three fine
bays opposite, Wythop Brows rising nobly behind you, and the Point of Ullock
showing grandly as a back-ground with the Long Side of Skiddaw across the
lake ; and when you are under Barf, you see the Apostle Crag. The solemn,
shrouded figure comes out with bowed head and reverent mien, as if actually
detaching itself from the rock — a vision seen for not a dozen yards ; and then
the magic ceases, and the Apostle goes back to stone. Then by Thornthwaite
and its pleasant mountain woods, and through Portinscale, home ; watching
a whole battery of rolling clouds pouring across Walla Crag — the mountain a
burning orange and the sky almost pure gold, Wanthwaite Fells radiant in the
sunshine, and Helvellyn clear and glorious like a mass of many-coloured ore.
I.OXG-SIDE — FROM CASTLE HO.V
97
DL1SWATER — FROM SH ARROW BAT
ULLSWATER
CHAPTER VII
THE heroic way from Keswick to Ullswater 1 is straight over Helvellyn ; but
for those who do not care to go by the Miner's Path to Glenridding, there
is the unheroic road of Wanthwaite Fells, which yet they will find quite
sufficiently rough for even boastful mountain travellers ; surely the longest
1 Has Ullswater anytliing to do with L'ulf, the Wolf; Lyulph, as we call it? A Lyulf
was the first Baron of Greystoke ; did he give his name to the sheet of water beliind the
mountains ? All the Whelpdales and Whelpays of this country may be referred to the
wolf theory, and perhaps Ullswater is Wolf's Water, among the rest ; unless it is, as llobinsi ni
says, a pleonasm, the prefix meaning water — el, hel, ul, 1ml, wel, elv, elf, all the same
tiling — and therefore literally water- water.
98
UIXSWATEH.
and dreariest line of fell road in the kingdom ! Fine views of the Vale of
St. John and of Threlkeld, of Skiddaw, Blencathra, and the bright Greta,
are to be had at the outset ; while, as you proceed, the broad expanse of
Hutton Moor, with Crossfell blue in the distance, has a charm of its own-
that charm of wide range and free breathing belonging specially to the moors.
Yet it cannot be called beautiful, as painters use the word, save in its
generous expanse and the tender flow of the bounding lines. Turning to the
right, and happily leaving that ugly cone of Mell Fell out of sight, the
open wild is suddenly changed for the mountains and the narrow pass again ;
and the road drops down the sharp hills of Matterdale 2 on to the hamlet of
Dockwray, and from Dockwray down the steep descent of Gowbarrow Park ; 3
through woods where old thorns are literally smothered by honeysuckle, and
the rose-trees are crimsoned with bloom, and the air sweet with orchis, till
the blue water shines clear through the trees, and you are by the lake side.
Ullswater is a long, narrow, irregular lake, in shape not unlike a
smaller pattern of Lucerne as has been so often said ; though, of course,
immeasurably inferior both in size and circumstance. It is divided into
three unequal reaches, which give it the form of a Z if you change the
angles into curves ; of which Skelley Neb and Hallin Fell close in the
lower, and Birk Fell foot, where it runs out into the water, and Styebarrow
Crag, head the middle part where the pretty little island of House Holm
stands half-way between, so that you might almost draw a line through for
2 Mathair or Mothair — pronounced maer and moer, and coming down into mere and moor
— means the mother and source or reservoir of water. This is Dyer's derivation of Mathair.
Another makes Matterdale, Mater-dale ; and Patterdale, Pater-dale ; and Miss Martinean
relegates such clrristening to the aves and paters said by the trembling monks on their
way across Wanthwaite Fells. Matterdale had its little chapter of heroism in 1(530, when
the tenants there defended a suit which went to deprive them of common rights, and in
the defence spent half their estates. One man is said to have walked to London in three
days, in wooden clogs, on business in this suit. The sacramental wine used to be kept in
this chapel in a wooden keg : perhaps is so still.
3 The place or country of the wild swine ; once swarming with foxes.
99 O2
TIIK I.AKK COUXTUY.
Ilic divisiou. Even the highest reach, trending away to the Patterdale hills,
has a, fourth small independency, very pretty and minute, hut never counted
as a separate division. This winding shape and the intercepting of the
mountain feet, make it impossible to ever see the lake as a whole ; but the
partial view, as you come down between the flowering bushes, is very grand.
Birk Fell rises out of the water sheer and sharp before you — a mass of
intense gold and purple ; High Street is behind in cooler grey, showing clearly
now why the Romans chose it as their main road to Penrith, for the long level
of its top and the tremendous command it gave of all around and below ;
the Kirkstone hills, backing up Brother's Water,4 or Broad Water as it is
sometimes called, are at the head of the lake, grim enough when you are near
them, but softened now into dim mysteries of loveliness ; Helvellyn and its
main buttress, Catstycam,5 are behind that wooded crag of Styebarrow ; 6 and,
as you advance, Dolly Waggon Pike puts up its pert peak, and challenges
notice as much by its form as by its name.
Turn now to the left to see L'ulf 's or Lyulph's tower and Ara Force ;
but if you are of the " true sort," you will care nothing for the first — a mere
modern make-believe, with glazed windows among the ivy and cucumber
frames at the tops of the towers — (the views from it, however, are fine, and
it has a pair or two of antlers worth seeing, which somewhat redeem its
inanity) — and when you have seen enough of it, take boldly to the fell and
4 Called Brother's water, they say, from the circumstance, twice happening, of two
brothers being drowned in it together.
5 Cat-stie-cam, the hill-way of the wild cats, — modernised, corrupted, and vulgarised
into Catchedecam, which has no meaning whatever.
6 This is not the Pig Hill, but the Stie-barrow,— way-liill, the road over a barrow or
height. lu old times, when the road round the lake was yet a thing of the future, pack-
horses used to carry all the goods of the country by a way behind the Styebarrow, which thus,
it may be supposed, got its name. Speaking of Styebarrow — sometimes spelt Styboar, and
which he calls Starbery Crag— Brand says that the view is, " nobly aweful ;" il the women
remarkably beautiful ;" with " intelligent looks ;" " clothed in majesty and politeness united
with simplicity of manners."
100
.
ULLSWATER.
clamber up among the crags and bracken to the spot whence our page-view
is taken. The wood, with its birch falling in fountains of green, its light-
limbed beeches, and oaks no longer young and golden but green and adult,
its hornbeams, its planes, and its twisted thorns, makes a beautiful line as
it follows the course of the stream ; indeed, all the lines, whether of cloud
or wood or mountain, flow into and fulfil each other in the most marvellous
manner — marvellous because, with their constant repetition, there is never
monotony, nor does their harmony at any time flatten into sameness. The
slope of fell opposite, its belt of pasture-land dotted with cows and sheep
and its head of larch kept by the grey wall from wandering down into the
field, looks quiet and home-like ; while away into the distance the mighty
hills, stern, sublime, and silent, seem to take the soul away from human
living altogether and to place it in close keeping with the great things of
eternity. The teaching of the lake country is everywhere solemn and earnest,
but perhaps nowhere is there so much solemnity, at once grave and tender,
as about Ullswater. There is greater stillness here, and less stir and throng
of visitors perceptible, than with either of the other large lakes ; the hills
press round with closer grasp ; the dales are more lonesome, and there are
fewer rich estates ; the mountain forms are more impressive, partly because
the vale is narrower ; and there is still left here the sentiment of old world
life, of simpler times, of society less complex and humanity more child-like
than now, such as used to be the characteristic of the whole north country,
but which fashion and the universal railroad have swept away from Winder-
mere, and are on the eve of sweeping away from Keswick. But here, at
Ullswater, man may stand face to face with nature as yet undisturbed and
unchilled. All this crowds through the mind while looking at the lake lying
below Gowbarrow, and counting up the mountains, naming them one by one.
And when you are there, a few deer will probably come about you and stand
at gaze, much as they might have done when the Norman baron hunted
them with sound of horn and twang of bow, and a villein's life was held of
less importance than theirs.
101
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
The great mass of fell to the left, stretching into the middle of the lake,
is Birk Fell ; a part of the larger side of Place Fell which appears above
it. The mountain behind the foot of Place Fell and across the head of the
lake, is St. Sunday's Crag ; at least, the higher part is St. Sunday, the lower
is Birks, and the lowest, over the foot of Place Fell, Bleas ; the one meaning
Birches and the other Blue Things. Over Bleas again, in the centre, is the
line of Deepdale Park ; and over that, in the extreme distance, Red Screes,
the Kirkstone Pass mountains, with Scandale Head to the right. Then, still
travelling with the sun, Dove Crags and Hart Crag, a little peep of Rydal
Head above Birks, and Fairfield7 to St. Sunday's right. At the water head,
under Birks, is Hall Bank, while Styebarrow bounds the greater part of the
western bank of the lake. At the top of Styebarrow is Glenridding Dod. Above
that, to the right of Fairfield, is Dolly Waggon Pike; then the long round
line of Bleaberry Fell, with Striding Edge behind ; and then Herring Pike,
rather more forward, in shadow above the sunny side of Glencoin.8
Coming down from the fell, you go through a meadow fragrant with
orchids, the sweet-scented and the butterfly, and gilded with yellow cocks'
combs, bronze-tipped — passing a curiously shaped mass of stone in the river
bed, browned with moss and looking like an enormous mushroom, where the
Ara dashes down in winter from Great Dod grandly — and up to a beautiful
initiatory leap, not included in an ordinary visit to the Falls, and thus not
made a show-place productive of sixpences to the guide at the sham tower.
But very wild and lovely, nevertheless, and the more so, for its comparative
loneliness. Then, back to the little wooden bridge, over an inky rift where
the water dashes below with a deep and sullen roar, and down to the side of
the stream, to look up at the rift from below, and to get dizzy as you look. The
rocks are cloven in great square blocks, amethyst and brown and iron-red,
7 Faar-feld? — sheep-pasture.
8 Sometimes spelt Glencune, Glen-ma-coin, or coyne ; Glen in a corner, hidden away
and secret.
102
ULLSWATEU.
green and orange and purple ; in places covered with ferns and beaded
sprays and swinging fibres trailing over ; here, a holly tree hanging down
head foremost over the stream, clings to the ground above, like a live thing
clutching for support — there a growth of moss, dank and dripping, is thrown
like a velvet robe over the nakedness of the stones. The eaves and caves
of coloured stones, like various marbles, are reflected in the quiet pools, clear
and olive brown, where the golden sands drift to the sides in fine sifted heaps,
and wastes of coloured pebbles, large and smooth, lie for margins. The wild
wood all around is carpeted with moss close pressed, and wood- sorrel leaves
as close as moss, and more freshly green; old trees make pleasant seats in
their great roots, and some up-torn by a long past storm, lie across the stream.
But the scars of that old strife of elements are covered up now by the
generous giving of the spring time and the love of the rich summer; ferns
and foxgloves plume the mossy trunks where never leaf or bud of their own
will grow again, and hurt is once more, as so often, transformed by grace to
beauty ; — as so often !
On again, through a woodland tract of surpassing sweetness, to where the
noise of the water comes louder on the ear ; and then you stand upon the
spidery lines thrown across the head of the fall. The little bridge quivers
under you, as the waters thunder in a leap of eighty feet, and the spray
flies off into the space below like a fine prismatic veil. Birk Fell is seen
through the trees at the left, the blue lake lipping its base ; and snatches of
richest loveliness are to be had on either side, as you follow the winding path
which leads below the fall, whence you can look up and see the full form of its
grandeur. A tree has wedged itself into the chasm, spoiling the symmetry
while adding to the wildness ; but the whole course is full of beauty of a
noble kind, shading off into exquisite grace and sweetness and the gentleness
of power suspended, when, after making this one wild bound, the water
comes quietly down in soft and tender flow, in sweeping lines and smooth
resting-places, where scarce any motion is perceptible. Grand or gracious
throughout its length, mournfully tender in its legend, the Ara and its
1U3
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Force may well attract your footsteps often, and enchain your hearts with
love.9 It is a place where the young would love their hope the hest, where
the mature would cling most proudly to their choice, and the aged dream
back over the past and the lost, with tenderest memories ; it is a place for all
time and for all ages, for all moods and for all minds.
I'Ufc! t'OIM'K
9 " In a castle which occupied the site of Lyulph's Tower, there dwelt in days long
passed away, a fair damoselle, the wooed of many suitors. Sir Eglamore, the knight of her
choice, was in duty bound to prove his knightly worth by seeking and accomplisliing deeds
of high empri/e in distant lands. He sailed to other shores, and month after month
disappeared without bringing tidings of either his welfare or return. The neglected
Emma fell into a bewildered state of mind, her sleep became infected with Ids image, and
sometimes in dreams she threaded her way to the holly bower on Airey stream, where she
last parted from her errant lover. One evening, when she had betaken herself tliither,
her faculties wrapped in sleep, Sir Eglamore unexpectedly approached the castle, and
perceived her, to his great astonishment ; upon advancing, she awoke, and fell with the
suddenness of the shock, into the stream, from which she was rescued by the knight only
in time to hear her dying expression of belief in his constancy. Straightway he built
himself a cell in the glen, and spent the remainder of his days as an anchorite."
104
ULLSWATER.
Then again to the right, and by the lake side to Patterdale 10 — St. Patrick's
dale,11 in the days before vocal hieroglyphics came into vogue: surely never
the dale of Pater Nosters for monkish fears ! — a road something like the famous
coach-road of Windermere, but not so soft or cultivated ; wilder and richer,
with more boldness and variety of form, more grandeur, and owing nothing as
yet to art. No coquettish houses stand in studied shyness along its banks ;
no trim gardens, with cultivated growths of ferns and wild flowers, give
pictures of artificial simplicity; but all is left very much as it might have
been in the elder times (we cannot dissociate ourselves from those elder times
here!) when aurochs and wolves and wild boars and the Baron's stags ran
wild over the fell tops and fought with the eagles for food : much as in the
still older days when the Roman legions marched over High Street with blare
of music and flash of steel and the imperial eagle glancing in the sun, while
the Britons hid, trembling and yet admiring, in the dales below. For all
about Ullswater, on both sides, are multitudes of glens that run up behind
the mountains, and thread them like garden paths about their feet ; which
mountain veins are the principal feature of this lake : more marked here,
10 Beside Mounsey, the " King of Patterdale," the little chapelry has a notability to
boast of in the person of Mr. Mattison, the curate, who for sixty years officiated at that
small "chapel with the yew tree," at the foot of St. Sunday's Crag. His ordinary income
\\iis generally twelve pounds a year, and never over eighteen ; he married, and had four
children, all of whom he christened and married, educating his son to be a scholar, and
sending him to college. He buried his mother, married and buried his father, christened
his wife, published his own banns, and died worth one thousand pounds. But he had no
biographer like Wordsworth, and no one ever appended the Wonderful to his name.
1 'iittcrdale is a chapelry in the parish of Barton. All the land in the district once belonged
to Ivo de Taillebois ; all save Yanwath out by Penrith, widen was the de Threlkelds' held
under the Greystokes. But it went, in the seventeenth century, to the Lowthers, as did the
rest. And from the Lowthers it has got parcelled out into different holders: Ivo de
Taillebois, rude, strong, and illiterate, but great and generous, being represented by quite
another manner of lord in the Patterdale world.
11 Surely Patrick's-dale ; see the Calendarium Inquisitiomim post mortem, when iu
the thirty-first of Henry III., Patricksdale is found to belong to " Will'us de Lancastre."
Also called so in the Bishop of Carlisle's Register at Rose Castle, so early as 1581.
105 P
TIIK I.AKK COUNTRY.
and at Hawes Water in n minor decree, than anywhere else. You come
now to one of these glens ; first passing by fields full of ripe brown grass
ivady for the scythe, starred with white ox-eye and splashed with gold and
purple — the purple mountains matching the meadow crane's-bill, but deeper
and darker in tone, and the golden sunshine struck back from the yellow
shine of the buttercups; — past scores of cows standing knee-deep in the
lake, and some under the shade of the rose-trees and honeysuckles; up
through fragrant woods, and on by that steep path to Linkin Dale Head,
whence issues the Glencoiu beck, dividing Cumberland from Westmoreland.
The day was fitful when we went up the glen, but full of effects to
be noted as studies of sun and shadow. As we turned back to get a view
of the lake, the sun flashed out and flung a double rainbow over by
Place Fell, and a bright metallic light caught point after point, making
the dim grey masses as if of emerald, gold-flecked, throwing a golden
shine on the naked crags and forming golden islands on the distant hills,
falling with a greener radiance on the water, but barring the fields with
streaks of purest gold. A tree became a golden fountain in this bright
metallic sunshine, and the thin smoke from the house below was coloured
to a rainbow-edged aureole. At the next outburst the light, no longer
yellow, was white like exaggerated moonlight, pale and bleaching but
intense ; making the near fells of hoary silver against the deep violet
mountains behind, and taking out the colour from everything it touched —
the whitest and most bleaching light possible to fall from the yellow sun.
And then all faded as a mist drove through the valley, washing out gold
and silver and emerald and rainbow tints into one uniform grey ; the wood-
pigeons which had been calling softly to each other in the woods ceased
suddenly; and when we turned to the steep fell the clouds were aga'in
gathering thick and heavy before us.
Over shoulder after shoulder our narrow mountain path led us, not
too tenderly. Once, where the way had been broken down by a torrent,
\\e \\eiv obliged to cling to the face of the rock as we scrambled over
106
ULLSWATER.
the slippery bit carefully ; and always we were obliged to take heed to
our steps, and not carry our eyes too high. And now the rain came
lilindingly, and the wind blew spitefully, as we stood and looked at the
barren sweeps about, beautiful in form and full of noble lines, but bearing
neither tree for shelter nor food for life — only holding the "back door"
to the famous Greenside mines, which pierce the mountain through to
the other side. On, higher, tramping blindly into clouds and through
peat bogs, till we finally fell upon the actual entrance of the mines, coming
upon it suddenly, not knowing where we were, or what we had to find.
The artificial desolation about — the stones and rubbish cast away — the
broken rocks — the water-wheels not at work — the fragments of old iron
and riven planks, useless and worn out — the utter silence and solitude of
this place of man's life and labour (it was Saturday evening, and the
workers had gone home), where, at the present moment, his labour was
represented only by its destruction, and his life was a sign of the past —
all made the natural desolation yet more striking. No sign of animate
existence was anywhere, save one solitary sheep walking in a bewildered
manner along the stony causeway, and the smoke curling up from a mine
chimney, as from a volcano, in the mountain beyond.
And yet many scores of men12 are employed in these rich lead mines,
and neither care nor science spared to make both labour easy and life
secure. Tramways are laid for the wheeling of the waste, which is thrown
down in a huge dead mass beyond a desolate crag ; the stream is banked
and built up scientifically, so as to give most power with least expendi-
ture ; a rivulet is made for a rude mountain torrent which rages in the
times of the autumn rains and the spring snow meltings, and an archway
is built expressly for it, so that it may not tear down that zig-zag rnoun-
12 The discontented " conservatives " of a hundred years ago used to say that, " Patter-
(bili- men were rich before these mines were opened, but since then they had become poor,
for having taken to drinking, consequent on earning more money, and then by losing
health and estates."
107 1> 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
tain road — one of the most tremendous possible for laden horses ; and
strangely beautiful in all this wildness is a very field of the oak and parsley
ferns and shining-leaved alpine lady's mantle, set in the stones under a
crag as grim as the seal against the gates of death. Nothing is more
striking than rare growths found in the midst of desolation. We cannot
divorce the idea of care and protection and fitting circumstance from what
we prize ; and even a mountain fern, to which we attach an arbitrary value,
seems out of place in a mountain wilderness, and as if it needed more
tender handling than only the liberty of nature and the leave to grow.
The lightning- shaped path leads to what looks from above like a flat
glass pavement let into the earth ; a refinement on the ancient habits of
gnomes and kobolds ; but which are merely miners' houses with shining •
slate roofs made into flat glass pavements by the glamour of light
and perspective. The rain and mist had now cleared, and we saw
the Miner's Path leading to Helvellyn top (and over to Keswick also) ;
we saw the steep sides and sharp edges set round the crown of Helvellyn ;
we saw the vale of Glenridding, rich and beautiful before us, backed by
hill and crag tossed up in waves against each other — St. Sunday's Crag
most masterful of all — and feathered by woods seeming to fall softly to the
very edge of the lake ; we saw the Kirkstone mountains, where it was
still wild and cloudy and dim and full of sorrow; and then we plunged
down the steep descent, having to the right the Glenridding beck, coming
from Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn in the heart of Helvellyn, rushing
down beside us. All in mountain loveliness of place and circumstance
is this stream; with fern and flowering bush and feathery ash and sharp
escapes and quiet harbours, as beseems a mountain stream ; but so soiled
by miner's work that we could trace its white line far into the lake, and
the whole bay is whitened where it enters, as if meal or lime were poured
into it. The Greenside mines, however, are worth the cost of a soiled
streamlet and the destruction of a few yards of lake beauty. Then we went
by a pleasant bit of copsewood down into the highway again ; passing
108
ULLSWATBR.
St. Patrick's Well — a fountain under a peaked niche, almost like a foreign
saint-shrine — and going under Styebarrow Crag, where the King of Patter-
dale, Mounsey of Patterdale Hall, made his famous stand against the
Scots,13 and drove them back from Ullswater. He headed a mere handful
of dalesmen against a stout armful of moss troopers ; but he won the day,
and bore the title of king for ever after.
Up at the head of Patterdale, where the valley lengthens out towards
Brother's Water, are Deepdale and High Hartsop ; perhaps the two most
beautiful of the many beautiful dales about Ullswater. But different in
character ; Deepdale, a barren sweep where the snow gathers thick in winter
and the wind rushes down in summer, and High Hartsop wooded, sheltered,
and rich, like a gentleman's private park rather than an uninhabited, and,
save one small enclosure, uncultivated wilderness. A mountaineer could
take both dales in one walk, for they lie side by side, divided only by the
mountain wall of Deepdale Park — a rough but not insurmountable barrier.
As independent walks they are within the compass of any south country-
woman who can go beyond her own garden. Let us first speak of High
Hartsop.
The road leads by the Goldrill u and the bridge, where the river bends
into a broad pool over a growth of brown weed, like the repetition under
water of the trees above ; the ashen grey stems of the beeches are reflected
in purer black and white in the stream, which is yellow in the sunshine
and purple in the shade ; Place Fell, red and purple and 'copper coloured,
13 Are Glencoin and Glenridding verbal testimonies to their encounters ? Glen is not
an ordinary term in Cumberland or Westmoreland topography ; was it taken there in
memory of the Scots whose word it is ?
14 The highest source of the Goldrill is said to be either at Jack Brig, where the three
juivishes of Barton, Kendal, and Windermere join; or on Kirkstoiie Fell. At Goldrill
Bridge a vein of yellow ore crosses the rock in the bed of the river, — hence the name.
Six streams enter Ullswater on the west of the lake from the glens ; two only of importance
on the east — the Goldrill, and Sandywyke Beck from Marthulule, opposite Gowbarrow.
109
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
rises behind the trees and meadows like a huge side of metallic slag;
the dull colour and harsh forms of the knotted figwort break through the
lighter and more tender growths by the bridge and the wall ; and most
probably you will see a yellowhammer flying across, carrying a golden line
through the green of the trees and against the metallic brilliancy of the
mountain : a dominant chord of colour, subordinating all the rest. As you
go forward St. Sunday's Crag is to your right, and in front are Hartsop
Dod, steep and conical, and Codale Moor showing its front seamed with that
jagged pathway. You pass the wooded range of Deepdale Park, and that quaint
little Bridge of Arches13 where a third segment has been built seemingly
only to buttress up a garden plot; and you come to the strange blighted
tree which the lightning has shivered into planks as it stands ; still following
the Goldrill — worthy of its name — and making out the form of the Lion
Crag over against the fall which comes from Angle Tarn ; keeping to the
right-hand of Brother's Water, under the wooded hill, and by the water-
lilies and marsh trefoil.
The road now leads by Hartsop Hall with its church windows and
old trees, once a place of importance, but at present only picturesque ; and
then into High Hartsop, the dale itself, the loveliest and the richest in
the country. Dove Crags, which back this glen, are softened into a tender
mass of bloomy lilac which may be miles away, and may be gentle slopes
no more difficult to conquer than Primrose Hill : but as you go on, the
subordinate forms come out from behind this tender veiling, and show
a thousand different heights, angles unapproachable, crags unscalable, sharp
points, and rugged clusters, all the tumbled ruins of the wildest bit of
crag in the vale. You are in an amphitheatre. On one side is a curious
hollow, like a giant's arm-chair, where the king and his guests would sit
when they watched the tournament below; and in the centre is a ruined
castle — far more like a ruined castle than the Castle Kocks of St. John.
16 Deepdale-Beck Bridge, rightfully.
110
ULLSWATEIt.
[t is a very rare and a very singular mountain nook altogether ; richly
wooded and wildly broken, and sleeping as stilly in the shadow of the
great hills about as if it was in truth the enchanted place it seems. Hart
Crag is behind Dove Crags, and Fairfield is in the distance to the right;
and, if you have a stout heart, you may follow the course of that jocund
stream which comes bounding down among the trees and rocks like a
wild white horse leaping to the plains, and so clamber up, the best way
you can, either over the tops and on to Fairfield, or back and down to
Deepdale on the other side. Either way you will have your reward ; if
beauty, and pride in a daring feat well accomplished, can reward you. Let
us hope it can ; even better than riches, if not so well as love.
DEEPDALE HEAD
Deepdale has none of this richness. It has not a tree at its head,
save a little rosebush hanging over the stream, and here and there an old
twisted thorn, bowed and bent by the wind with which it has battled so
many years ; and the crags are not broken up into such picturesque masses,
nor flung abroad with the careless grace of High Hartsop, but slope steeply,
with the old wave-like sweep — like Scandale enlarged, or the trough of a
tremendous billow struck to stone. As you stand in the centre a cloud rises
slowly before you, strangely counterfeiting the forms below as it gathers
itself up off the heights and folds itself together, then drifts away into open
space. The wind is roaring down the gorge, and you know now why the
thorns are bent and twisted with that crippled look of pain which these
in
THK LAKE COUNTRY.
wind -dwarfed trees always have, and why the rocks are so wan and bleached,
worn into such fretted faces, and so heavy and time-troubled. 'Flic wind
that sweeps across the vale with such fury on an ordinary summer's day
is a sign of what it must be in winter time, when the elements have a harder
grip on the throat of nature, and press the earth with a heavier foot. Water-
courses wander down in all directions, like silver veins in the purple rocks ;
but sometimes a broad green stripe, with yellow spots about the edges and
crimson threads among the yellow, tells of a hidden stream dissipating itself
silently under the roots of rushes and spearwort and tufts of pale yellow
moss — over which be careful of your tread, for you may get mid-leg into
water before you are aware. Parsley fern and bracken, plentiful if not strong,
give the only softening growth to the wildness of Deepdale ; for the gold
and green and grey and red of the lichen on the bleached rocks can be
scarcely said to soften, though they may beautify; and ever as you go
deeper in — till you stand against the very back plates of the gorge — the
sense of its wildness and desolation increases with you — the sense of your
own loneliness — and how your present place is severed from all the uses of
the world outside. More desolate and lonely still, if a solitary lamb cries
piteously on the crag, its mother lost and silent — if the wind raves with
frantic wrath — and if a bank of dark clouds is gathered against a back-
ground of fiery red, with a thunderstorm already breaking in the distance.
A beautiful way back is to be had by scrambling over part of St. Sunday's
Crag, behind Eagle Crag (there is always an Eagle Crag to all mountain
masses), across the rifts where the mountain torrents have worn deep wrinkles
into the softer mountain face, which the wind has planted with quickens and
thorns and rosebushes and fern down the sides, and out on to the wide
heights, above all human cares and free from human fears. And here on these
wide heights we once saw a thing of no special importance, but which
gave a " local colouring " of richest tint to the scene. A troop of horses, with
arched tails and flying manes, came thundering past us, making the earth
literally shake as they went, and scaring the sheep and lambs into frightened
112
ULLSWATER.
groups, too frightened even to cry. It was really a grand sight, these reinless
horses careering over the mountain tops, leaping the chasms and spurning the
hillocks, plunging knee-deep through a black peat bog, which they tore and
splashed into thick cascades, all finally dashing round and behind a crag,
where we heard their hoofs striking the hard rock as they thundered down its
face. Soon after, a handsome boy, flushed and panting, his hands and rough
jacket pockets filled with wild flowers, his manners shy and modest however
awkward, came running across the ridge. He was hunting the horses off the
fell to get them home ; and though it was nothing but a troop of farm-horses
driven down to work by a farm servant, still it was a very interesting sight ;
the more so, perhaps, because of the beautiful face of the boy, one of the
noblest of the noble north-country type.
Now wander on over the fell till you come to the head of Bleas, where
you will break upon the lake and its islands and the sweet vales of Grisedale
and Glenridding, with the miner's smoke and the miner's slag and the bare
tops of Helvellyn and Catstycam, and Dolly Waggon Pike beyond. A scramble
down the crags, a swamp or two to cross with light steps, and you are in the
beaten track again ; and one more stanza of the poem is complete.
Two things ought to be seen in the lake country : sheep-washing and
sheep-shearing — the last by no means so pretty as the first, neither so
animated nor so picturesque, but still to be seen by all who have the oppor-
tunity. The day before it begins the sheep and lambs are bleating with
more than usual passion, for the dogs are bringing them in off the fells,
separating them into lots, and dividing the little ones from their mothers, to
the really pathetic distress of both. Then the lambs are left to the care of
heaven, and the sheep are pent up in a shed together ; whence they are dragged
out by boys as they are wanted, and flung on their backs into the lap "of a
clipper seated on a long kind of settle — " sheep forms " they are called — who
tranquilly tucks the little pointed head under his arm, and clips away at the
under part of the wool, taking care to keep the fleece unbroken ; the art being
113 Q
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
to hold the middle way, aud neither to graze the skin by going too close, nor
to loosen the fleece by cutting above the welted fibres. All four feet are now
tied together, and the beast is hauled round as a solid kind of rug, when its
back is sheared in the same way, the fleece hanging down like a bit of carpet
or small crib blanket. When the whole is off, its legs are untied, and it is
lugged — that is the only word to express it — panting and terrified to the place
where the man stands with the ruddle pot and branding-iron ; where it receives
its distinctive smear and letter of assignment, and is then dismissed to its
huddled group of companions clustering together at the remotest spot in the
yard available.
This is merely a bald catalogue of the scene ; the real portraiture would
be very different. For in this must be included the farm buildings over-
shadowed with trees, and the low-roofed farmhouse covered with ivy and
bordered with English cottage flowers ; the sheep dogs lying in the sun, with
a lazy manner of indifference as having nothing to do, it being holiday time
for them and a transfer of responsibility — some about the feet of the men, and
some stretched, wide awake in fact however fast asleep in seeming, as out-
posts by the gates and along the walls, to keep the sheep in closed ranks ; the
one special strong man — generally a dare-devil looking fellow who might be a
smuggler or a poacher but who is only an extra powerful shepherd — whose
particular duty seems to be to supply the jokes and rough horseplay, and to
carry the shorn sheep to the ruddle pot : for they are difficult to manage now
when they have no wool, and must be held by sheer strength ; the one or two
handsome Scandinavian faces, straight and fair, sure to be among the number;
the lithe figures of the boys learning of the men, and handled gently even by
the roughest ; the pretty young house girls, looking so quiet and gentle,
dressed in their Sunday best and carrying great jugs of beer — the strongest
that can be brewed — laughing and yet shy, as they penetrate into the mass of
men and animals in the yard ; the cows milking by the byre doors ; the purple
hills and the calm lake ; the home fells whitened with the shorn sheep let
loose scattered over them like daisies, but very unhappy yet, not recognized
114
ULLSWATER.
by their lambs and utterly humiliated and ashamed ; the harmonious
combinations into which all things group themselves, animate and inanimate ;
and the hot summer sun shining over all : these are the incidents which make
sheep- shearing a striking thing to see. But perhaps, for reasons not needed
to be particularised, more pleasing if you stand to leeward, and oat of earshot
of what is said. For the first fortnight in July you may take your choice of
the farms all over the country, small or large according to your liking ; wanting
no other guidance than the incessant bleating you will hear from daybreak to
sunset, with the loud barking of the sheep dogs and the rough voices of the
men directing.
A fine steep walk up Place Fell shows you Codale Moor in all its rudeness,
Hartsop Dod like the roof of a house rather than an honest mountain, Eed
Screes and the Kirkstone Pass, and the deep shadowed hollow where the way
comes down from Scandale by that white line of water : a weird-looking place
even in the kindly sunlight, like an ogre sleeping in his arbour after dinner,
but all the same an ogre when he wakes. And none the less weird for the
strange faculty the mountains have of changing themselves and their posi-
tions. If you lose sight of them for a hundred yards they are something
else when you turn back ; independent members have come out, and guiding
landmarks are hidden; an angle of forty-five degrees has become a perpen-
dicular descent, if it has not sloped away into a mere gentle swell ; what looked
an accidental shadow turns out to be a rift between two heads some miles
across ; and no Protean tricks of old times were ever fuller of misleading
disguises than the aspects of the hills according to the change of one's own
position.
From this station on Place Fell are to be seen many points of interest
and some old acquaintances : the pass to Hayes Water by Nether Hartsop to
the left of Hartsop Dod ; the zigzag way up Codale Moor — the very essence
of bleakness and roughness ; and the lonely Kirkstone Pass beyond Brothers'
Water ; the beautiful little hiding-place of High Hartsop under Dove Crags ;
115 Q 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and Deepdale running up beneath Fairfield ; Grisedale and Glenridding, and
where Glencoin lies behind the wood ; the Goldrill, banding Brother's Water
and Ullswater together, and turning up in all manner of unexpected places
and fugitive glimpses : all paved and underlined by the bright green fields,
among which can be made out a certain stately garden, looking from here like
a bald geometrical map, or like the pieces of a card puzzle scattered abroad.
Helvellyn's square top now appears, and Catstycam, and the miner's smoke by
Herring Pike — perhaps blown down by the wind into the gorge — and the sweep
of the mountains coming down into the dales ; which, as you ascend higher
so as to take in only the leading lines, are more and more like the typical bird's
wing. And now the path leads right away over the shoulder of Place Fell,
and the lake and the farther mountains are lost altogether, but the bird's wing
and the wave form remain in every higher hollow and mountain side ; and still
everything is clear and yet tender with excess of softened light. As you go,
the rugged' sheep yet unshorn, with heavy brown fleeces trailing to the ground,
some with half their wool rubbed off which makes them still more ragged,
but the newly sheared white and milky, look at you wildly, and then bound
away like goats ; and sometimes a skilfully ruddled lamb, catching the sunlight
slantingly, glows all a-fire like one of Linnell's Sussex sheep. And now you
are on the top of Place Fell, on broken ground, spongy and treacherous, with
a world to choose from, and only your own will and powers of endurance to set
the limits. So you wander on at random, falling upon all manner of wild bits,
till brought up suddenly by the deep chasm of Boredale Head.
At your feet lies a wide, green sweep, tenantless, houseless, lifeless, so
far as you can see, with the lake flowing past in a blue line at the outlet, and
the Penrith plains beyond, shining in the sun with map-like clearness. High
Street, now a green-grey wall patched with purple and white, is above the
Martindale range l6 where the wild red deer are still to be found ; and across
16 The martiii is the clean mart, and the foumart is the foul mart or weasel ; and Martin-
dale is the dale of the martin, which once ranged on these hills with red deer and wolves.
" We have no great numhers on the south side of the Trent, but yet in the county of "NVestmore-
116
ULLSWATER,
the lake, as you go on, the well-known head of Skiddaw comes up out of the
blue, and soon the longer side of Blencathra ; while every stone and glittering
spar and purpled edge of turned peat-moss nearer home, is translated into
living jewels by the lavish sun. And wandering, wandering over the moor, and
to the head of all the great sweeping dales flowing like green troughs into the
lake, you at last find or make a way for yourselves down the roughest clamber
that even cragsmen can call a path. And so by the lake side track at the base
of Place Fell to the meadows and your home.
By the foot of the lake the road leads you to quite another manner of
country. Landing at How Town with Fusedale at its back, the Hawse
running like a hog's back between the two valleys of Fusedale and Bannerdale,
and keeping along the lake-side way — rounding Sharrow Bay (the view at
the head of the chapter), you come into a lovely land. For after passing
through a narrow lane thick with flowers and where the woody cranesbill grows
in rank profusion, you come to Pooley Bridge,17 which is to Ullswater what
land in Martindale there are main-.' This was Manwood's experience. Martindale used to
pay three pounds out of its township for the priest's wages, and the last curate of the parish,
or of these pails at all, called " sir," was the Reverend Richard Birket (apud 1089). The
old designation of the clergy hefore the Reformation, was always " sir ; " knight being added
as the military or civil distinction. Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century says, " Since I can remember, there was not a reader in an}' chapel who
was not called ' sir.' "
17 Pooley Bridge, like Ullswater and Patterdale and Helvellyn, is in Barton parish.
Barton was a strange uncouth place by all accounts. It was one of its customs, not
peculiar to itself though, that the master should give his scholars a prize to fight cocks
for, the scholars too subscribing their cock-pennies, and the match coming off at Shrovetide
or Easter. In some schools the salary partly depended on tliis custom, for of course the
cocks to be fought did not come up to the value of all the " cock-pennies " subscribed.
The village is now quite an obscure little place, but the churchyard has one oddity in a
certain epitaph worth transcribing: —
" Under this stone ! reader, interr'd doth lye
Beauty and virtue's true epitomy ;
117
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Newby Bridge is to Wiudermere — the archway by which the waters march from
beautiful obscurity to stately service. Here the Eamont — the Water from the
Hills — is spanned by a fair stone bridge, " where was once a fair stone cross
with steps or seats all round it," and on the top the Dacre arms : which cross
was repaired May 2, 1679, by Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, as inscribed on the
weathercock. This is not surely the same bridge which was built in 1425, the
New Bridge then, in which the Bishop of Durham took such interest that he
" granted an indulgence of forty days to all persons truly repenting of their
sins, and confessing, who should contribute any of their goods given them by
God to the building of a bridge over the river Amot, in the parish of Penrith?"
From Pooley Bridge the view up the lake is marvellously grand, but nearer at
hand there is beauty and interest too. Dunmallet, once a Eoman station, and
now a strange artificial looking hill — " a remarkable hill, but itself rather a
disgusting object," as some one calls it — stands up like a tumulus of trees ;
the Dalemain woods, where the squirrels and the robins and the thrushes
and the linnets live in perpetual joy and gladness together, stretch far into the
distance ; while not quite dx miles away lies Penrith, full of interest to the
antiquary7, both in itself and in its neighbourhood.
For here on the banks of the Eamont, and about two miles from Edeuhall,
are the giant's caves, Isis Parlis, where it is reported one Isir, a terrible giant,
once hid, dragging men thither, like Cacus, to devour them at his better
leisure : though another version makes this Isis Parlis the keep of the
castle where Tarquin lived, whom Sir Lancelot du Lac came down to slay
and destroy. The giant's grave is in the churchyard : two stone pillars twelve
At her appearance the Noon Sun
Blush'd and shrunk in cause quite undone.
"In her concenter'd did all graces dwell;
God plucked my rose that he might take a smell.
I'll say no more, but weeping wish I may
Soon with thy dear chaste ashes come to lay.
Sic Efflevit Maritus." CLARKE'S Surrei/.
118
ULLSWATER.
feet high, placed there in memory of Ewaiu Caesarius, knight, a famous warrior
friii}). Athelstane — some call him king in the time of Ida — anyhow a magni-
ficent man, fifteen feet high (as the distance between the pillars proves), who
killed wild boars like sucking pigs ; in memory whereof older writers speak
of four boars sculptured between the pillars. Not far from them is the
Giant's Thumb, another big stone, to mark the spot where Ewain's thumb
was buried, and which was an old rose-cross very rudely done; as, indeed,
is all that remains of the workmanship altogether.
Then there is the Countess's Pillar, where Lady Anne Clifford parted in
such bitter grief from her good and pious mother, erecting this stone cross
as a memento, with this inscription : " This pillar was erected in the year 1656
by Anne Countess Dowager of Pembroke, for a memorial of her last parting
with her pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the
2nd of April, 1616 ; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 41. to
be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham every 2nd day of April
for ever, upon the stone table placed hard by. Laus Deo ! "
And there is the Harts Horn tree, or rather there was, where "mutual
the victory, mutual the defeat "
" Hercules killed Hart o' Grease, and Hart o' Grease killed Hercules."
And of which the story ran, that when Edward Baliol, King of Scotland,
came over to Westmoreland to stay with Robert de Clifford in the year 1333
or 1334, visiting his castles of Appleby, Brougham, and Pendragon in
succession, they ran a stag by a single dog out of Whinfell Park to Bed
Kirk in Scotland, and back again to the same place. The stag leaped the
park palings, but fell down and died : the dog tried the leap after him but
failed, and fell and died the other side. So they nailed the stag's horns to
an old oak hard by, where they remained for three centuries after — the
bark growing over the horns, and, so to speak, engrafting them ; but in
1648 some Vandals in the army broke off many of the branches, and ten
years afterwards some Goths took down the remainder at night. Here, too,
are the ruins of Penrith Castle, where the Duke of Gloucester once lived so
119
THE LAKE COUNTKY.
magnificently, but which belonged to the Nevills, who lived as magnificently
as the king himself; if all things were equal to the "six oxen eaten at
breakfast at Kichard Nevill's house in London." The date of the castle is
unknown. It seems older, say they who understand such things, than
Edward V., but no castle was in existence in the times of John or Henry III. ;
no mention of it is made when Edward III. seized Penrith in 1300, and none
made in the Scotch incursions. It was held for a few weeks by Lambert in
1648, and then dismantled by order of Parliament.
And there is Mayborough, supposed to be Druidical ; and King Arthur's
Bound Table which some say was a jousting place ; and Long Meg and her
Daughters in Aldingham parish (Keld-ling-harn, "habitation near the Hanging
Stones"), which they say was a judicial court of the Druids, where they prayed
to the All-healing Power, and burned their criminals in wicker-work baskets.
And then there is Brougham Castle,18 which has so often passed to the younger
branch, and which was added to (not built) by Roger de Clifford, who left his
seal and signature in an inscription, " This made Roger," over the inner
gateway, together with his own arms and those of his wife, Maud Beauchamp,
the Earl of Warwick's daughter, sculptured elsewhere. A pond called Maud's
Pool is in the grounds to this day. And then there are the castles : Greystoke
Castle where the proud Howards have succeeded to the De Meschines and
Lyulfs of olden date; Lowther Castle, or Louder, the castle of the Dark
Waters ; and Edenhall where the Luck is kept as religiously as if fairies did
really give it to the butler, singing as they went
" If tliis glass should break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Eden Hall."
And, in truth, once when it rolled to the ground, shaking but not
18 "AtBurgham is an old castel that the commune people ther sayeth doth syiike.
About this Burgham plowghmeii fynd in the feldes many square stones, tokens of old
buildinges. The castel is set in a stronge place by reasons of ryvers enclosing the cuntery
thercabowt." — LELAND'S Itinerary. Brougham was the Roman Brocavium.
120
ULL8WATEB.
shivering, misfortunes came upon the family of Musgrave thickly. And
there is Dacre Castle, or more rightly D'Acre, now a mere rained farm, but
once the seat of men as famous in their days as the best in the land; and
Brougham Hall, where our youngest, sprightliest, and cleverest statesman
and philosopher lives, but which is modern, with no tradition at its back.
And then there is the Beacon Tower and Crossfell farther off. These are
only a few of the things to be seen in and about the Red Hill (Penrith is
archaically Pen Rhudd, or the Red Hill) ; but, not coming quite naturally
in a book on the Lakes (though they form part of the instruction of a guide
book proper), they must be left on one side. But Penrith would repay long
and sound study, where there was any love or understanding of antiquity.
FROM QLENCOIN
frUALL W-.
CNDSR H1OH
HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET
CHAPTER VIII
THOSE who love the mountains can understand the pleasure of slinging on
hag and knapsack and setting off on foot for the discovery of Hawes Water.
For all these expeditions are in a manner discoveries, if undertaken without a
guide, and steering by map and compass only. The way from Ullswater to
Hawes Water and back — across Swart Fell, over Moor Dovock, and by the
side of the lake (Hawes Water) to Mardale Green, returning by High
Street, Hayes Water, and Angle Tarn — is a comprehensive and instructive
walk ; containing, as it does, so many of the characteristics of the country
—the wild moor, the open plain, the lake, the hidden tarn, the mountain
top, the craggy climb, the hill-side stream, and the rugged puss.
HAWKS WATER AND HIGH STUKET.
The first tiling to do is to take boat down the lake to Shavrow Bay.
Let us suppose it one of the hot, still, passionate July days, when the water
is smooth as glass and full of light and colour — but chiefly an intense sea-
green in the depths, changing to a clear olive brown, gold-hearted, in the
shallower bays ; when the mountains have gone miles away in the tremulous
summer mist which widens the distances and lowers the heights so strangely
in this country ; and when the reflections in the water are as clear and still
as the objects they mirror : nowhere so clear as in the bays and under the
lee of the islands.1 Islands indeed they are not ; rather grey rocks crowned
with a few trees, which two steps would cross and a flight of swallows cover.
There are several things of interest to be seen as you row down the lake.
First, there is that strange fissure called the Devil's Chimney, directly under-
neath which you may row, and look up the rent which Professor Tyudall
would climb, chimney-fashion, without much trouble ; and perhaps you may
see an otter come tumbling into the water ; for they have a favourite resting-
place there, on a kind of shelf, where they lie till they are disturbed by
strange visitors. Then there is Scale How Pike, a sharp pyramidal point,
with Scale Force foaming below, a mountain glen leading up into Boredale
at its feet, the long High Street line at its back, and the Hawse splitting
up the valley into two parts. And then there is the Kail-pot Crag at the
foot of Hallin Fell ; a pretty place much frequented by picnic parties — its
lovely bay, as clear as if a crystal film was spread over the bright stones,
its wood-topped crags, its ferns, and luxury of wild flowers, making it an
ideal place for that pleasant admixture of flirting and good cheer. The " Kail-
pot " is in the crag ; a round hole which the water always washes, and where
you could boil a good-sized leg of mutton if the lake was a Geyser, and
you had your kitchen fire ready burning.
1 There are four of these small insurrections of rock on Ullswater : Cherry Holm at
the head, where was never a cherry-tree within the memory of man : Wall Holm by the
Purse, where no one ever saw a wall ; Lin<j Holm close in shore : and House Holm (house-
less), with its little offset under its lee.
K 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
And so you row leisurely on ; past rude and homely How Town, and
its hawse — the hog's hack standing isolated like Troutheck Tongue or Nath-
dale Fell in St. John's (a common mountain form in the independent
valleys) ; and perhaps a heron flies heavily over the lake at the next reach,
while, for contrast, the steamboat walks quickly up with its noisy steps,
making three large waves, no more, which break into white foam on the
shore everywhere, and shatter the reflections like a broken mirror. And
when you see the boat you will naturally think of the time, not so very
many years ago, when there was no wheel-road along Ullswater at all ; when
all goods were carried either on pack-horses behind Stybarrow (Styboar, it
was called then), or by carriage -boats up the lake ; and when Patterdale was
as much out of the world as the wildest nook now in Styria or the Caucasus.
And, if you are not singularly logical and close, you will somehow mingle
up into one confused picture as, in a way, representatives of the past and
present, the red deer still to be found wild at the head of Bannerdale and
on Kidsty Pike, and which you hope to see, and that smart hotel, with its
sumptuous fare and its lordly charges, which you have just left ; which
musings will bring you to Sharrow Bay, where you repeat again your
lesson of the mountain names at the head of the lake, and again confess
that, whatever their names, no description of yours can fitly set forth the
grandeur of their outlines, the variety of their details, the glory of their
colouring, or the magical effect of the hot July noonday mist upon them.
At the foot, by Pooley Bridge, is a very different view. Here, all is
suft and fertile ; with cornfields and broad pasture lands, fair towns, rich
castles, and stately rivers bearing golden treasures to all as they pass — the
life of the plains and of lordly owners, where past service2 and present
honour, the founder's fame and the descendant's wealth, meet in full measure
round keep and castle — where Penrith carries back the light of history to
the old Roman times and the Druidical before them, to the days of the Norman
2 " The great Earl of Warwick disdained not to be Marshall Steward and Captain
of t' honor of Penrith and villages adjoining." — SANDFORD.
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HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
conquest and the Scottish marauder,3 the last historical flicker being lighted
at the Cavaliers' expiring flame.
Now follow the track over Swart Fell, watching still the richness of
the Penrith plains, and seeing how spectre-haunted Souter Fell, beautiful
Blencathra, Skiddaw, and unlovely Mell Fell come out by turns from behind
the Ullswater screen ; seeing how the noble Dalemain Woods make a resting-
place for the eye in the middle distance ; and how the little wooded cone of
Dunmallet gains a beauty not quite its own, when its formal green head
rests against the blue line of Crossfell as its background : — Crossfell, where
the Helm Wind4 blows, and which was once Fiend's Fell, where all the
3 The paiish register has not infrequent entries of " incursate of pirites, borderers,
theifs and murtherors ;" and great complaints generally of com and beasts destroyed by the
Scots ; to whom poor Penrith was a market town of tempting supply — all the more tempt-
ing, as its wares could be had without repayment.
4 In Richardson's History of Cumberland, the following is the account given of the
Helm Wind : — " Its appearance, according to my remarks, have been that of a white cloud
resting on the summits of the liills, extending even from Brough to Bampton ; it wears
a bold, broad front, like a vast float of ice, standing on edge. On its first appearance, there
issues from it a prodigious noise, which, in grandeur and awfulness, exceeds the roaring of
the ocean. Sometimes there is a Helm-bar, which consists of a white cloud arranged opposite
to the helm, and holding a station various in its distances, being sometimes not more than
half a mile from the mountain ; at others, three or four miles. Its breadth also varies
from a quarter of a mile to a mile at least, this cloud prevents the wind blowing farther
westward. The sky is generally visible between the helm and the bar, and frequently loose
bodies of vapour, or small specks of clouds, are separated from the helm and the bar, and
flying across in contrary directions, both east and west, are seen to sweep along the sky
with amazing velocity. From the bar-cloud the wind blows eastward ; but underneath
it is a dead calm, or gusts of wind from all quarters ; and the violence of the wind is
generally greatest when the helm is highest above the mountains. The cold air rushes
down the hill with amazing strength ; it mostly comes in gusts, though it sometimes blows
with unabated fury for twenty-four hours, and continues blowing at intervals for three, four,
five, and even six weeks. I have at different times walked into the cloud, and found the
wind increase in violence, till I reached the mist floating on the side of the liill , when once
entered into that mist, I experienced a dead calm. If the helm is stationed above the
mountain, and does not rest upon it, it blows with considerable violence immediately under
the helm. Shepherds have frequently observed, that the wind rushes down on each side,
125
THE LAKE CO I* NTH V.
unloosed demons used to hold their open-air meetings, till pious St. Augustine
reclaimed it to the uses of good angels by building a cross and an altar on
the top, administering the Holy Eucharist and baptizing it afresh by the name
of Crossfell. A heap of stones there is still called by the country people
The Altar on Crossfell.
If it is a true lake-country summer's day, you will find that life lias
enough to do to hold its own against the sun. The birds are silent in the
woods, and the woods themselves, no longer broken up into the separate
tints and distinctive forms of spring, are in massed and solemn monotony
of form and shade ; the mists quiver over the ground, and rise up in a
thin grey film, through which the sun breaks with a stifling heat more
difficult to bear than the sharper and clearer shine ; but you know that
in all this dimness of heat and oppressiveness of silence, nature is
perfecting her summer flowers and saturating with rich savours her autumn
fruits, turning into golden lances the waving fields of oats and corn, and
the stiffer ranks of the bearded barley, and ripening into food the poorer
fields of grass, left standing for such days as this.
And now you are on Moor Dovock ; a wide tract where nothing grows but
ling and bracken and peat-bog mosses ; but where, at every ten yards, you put
up all manner of unusual creatures whose strange cries only increase the lone-
liness of the place. Strange, that is, unless you are a sportsman ; which the
writer of these pages is not. The plaintive scream of the plovers, the harsh
voices of the moor fowl, the skylarks soaring in their song over head, the
startled whirr of the partridges, and the thousand uncatalogued sounds pro-
ceeding from things hidden, only serve to make the solitude more entire,
because so eloquent of the absence of man. And when you go down into the
hollows whence the distant view is shut out, with the grey film between you
and the sky, and the voices of these wild creatures like the voices of ghosts,
so that at a distance from the base of the mountain, it blows from different quarters. The
holm does not always observe a regular form ; neither is there always a holm-bar, for that
phenomenon only appears when the wind at a little distance blows from the west."
120
IIAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
heard but not seen, about you, it is as if you were standing alone on the edge
of the world, with all life behind you, and only space and the unknown spirit
world beyond. That wide misty moor — reach after reach the same, till the
way becomes almost awful in its monotony — its distant landmarks, ever in
the same relative positions, seeming to mock the idea of progress — is to you,
almost fainting under the heat and the stagnation of the air, like an enchanted
plain, where you are doomed to wander for ever. But at last — what does
not come " at last !" — the first forms of the Hawes Water hills begin to show
themselves on the right ; then you come to a solitary cottage keeping guard
over a little space of cultivated ground ; and then to the head of Helotn
Dale, with the old wave form, and the end of all things in the closed trough-
like sweep.
At the edge of the moor are the few lonely dwellings, customary
with waste places literally taken from the moor-fowl, and made to grow
potatoes and oats for men and bairns ; dwellings and people as little
part of the social life of the country, as the backwoodsman in his hut is
part of the body politic of New York. The people living on the skirts of
these wide moors are as peculiar in their way as the dalesfolk; often
educated to a scholarly exercise of intellect, while living in a loneliness that
is almost eremitical, and in a simplicity and poverty that take you back
many generations, and still more cycles of national civilization. At one
such lonely place — a house standing in the midst of desolation — a homestead
literally snatched from the wild — we, the artist and author of this book, Avent
in to ask for bread and milk ; it being well into the evening when we came off
the moor, and Hawes Water was still a haven undiscovered before us. And
though what we saw and heard there was neither poetical nor dramatic — in
fact, not specially interesting to the reader at all — yet it is worth relating
as a kind of typical or general representation of the class of person and
manner of life belonging to these places.
The house was a poor-looking, but well-built stone cottage, surrounded
by a wall that of itself at once inspired the feeling of loneliness ; for
127
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
it enclosed no gardened space of fruit and flowers, only a neglected barren
strip of ground that in the winter would be ankle-deep with mud, and
in summer was a dusty cart-track thickly grown with weeds and dis-
figured by all manner of accumulated unsightliness ; an utterly unlovely
and ungraceful enclosure, meaning defence of a kind only, no more. Indeed
the general aspect of the place was not so much one of poverty or stint as of
bleakness and unloveliness : life with the element of artificial or made beauty
entirely absent. Of natural beauty even, there was none of the softer or
more ornamented kind ; only such as could be got out of a wide tract of
moorland, with the distant line of hills beyond, and the ever-changing aspects
of the sky. There was no bustle of a farmhouse about ; no kine lowing,
no horses tramping, no bleating of sheep or barking of dogs, and at first
not a human being anywhere ; but presently, in a field a little way off, we saw
a family group haymaking ; 5 and when they saw us standing by the house-
door, they left off work and came to know what we wanted.
They were noticeable people, these two " house parents." The man — a
mere working farmer tilling his small piece of ground for family consumption
mainly, coming in to greet us, hot and weary with his work — was refined and
thoughtful ; a man evidently well considered in his degree ; as his wife said
with no little pride, though with feigned displeasure, " chosen to be a juryman
oftener than was fair, because they knew him, and knew what a fine scholar he
was." She was a ruder person, bright-eyed and bonny, but of a less gracious
nature ; not at the first so frankly hospitable as he — he offering his best with
a manly courtesy, and an open-handed generosity essentially noble — but she,
woman-like, hanging back doubtingly, troubled at the prospect of short-
coming in the hay time, and reckoning up mouths and loaves with true feminine
carefulness.
5 The hay and corn harvests lie very lute in these colder uplands. Haymaking at
the " back end " of July, or even well into August, is no such uncommon matter ; and
corn has been seen so late as the week before Christmas, before the reapers came to the
reaping.
128
IIAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
"I dunno' ken aboot bread, ye see," she said, hesitatingly; "white bread,
ye see, 's bad to get at haymakin', and we'se mony to gie' tu."
After a short time, however, she was as kind and generous as her
husband : but her kindness was from personal magnetism, and the quick
sympathies of her woman's heart ; his from the dignity of his own nature,
and the service he felt bound, by his manhood, to render to all men
alike. They gave us freely of their best ; wheaten bread, butter, and a huge
jug of milk ; and the man took down a large cheese from the " rannel balk "
(the beam running across the kitchen) piled up with cheeses for their own
use only, and told us "to spare nothing, we were kindly welcome." The
place was well furnished in its way — the old settle by the chimney neuk, the
press and clock of black oak, the high-backed chairs, and wealth of "delf,"
giving it a true old-fashioned air and manner of comfort, as understood by
these remote farmers. And they were proud of their place, boasting that the
Dun Bull (the little inn at Mardale Green) " hadn't a room the like of theirs,
and that they could accommodate more folk than them if they had a mind."
But though they were so kind and genial we saw that their hearts
were heavy, and in a short time they told us their sorrow — unfortunately
too general in these parts — the loss by consumption, or more accurately,
scrofula, of their eldest two girls; "as fine lassies as you ever set eyes
on," said the mother, weeping, " and as guid anes ! " The other girls
whom we saw, were apparently ideals of country health and strength, rosy,
well-fashioned, as wild and unkempt as colts and as shy, and yet they were
not safe ; and we saw that at any moment the same disease might show itself
in them as had already struck down their sisters : this disease of scrofula, in
its two forms of consumption and brain affection, being the curse of the whole
country. We shall ever remember that lonely dwelling on the moor, with its
quiet, thoughtful, and religious man, its bonny wife, brave and active, troubled
like Martha with many cares, yet with a true human heart beneath them all,
its great, bright, rosy girls stealing "behind backs" in the milk-house, too
rough and shy to " face t' folk," or " quality," with gratitude and respect.
129 S
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
For indeed it is a matter of gratitude, if rightly taken, to see human nature
in its fairer and better forms.
Yet they were not uncommon specimens of the more lonely northern
folk. In many a secluded home where the outside world never enters, and
the whirring wheels of this great material civilization of ours are heard but
faint and far off, where the physical life is of the meagrest and the social of
the deadest, you may fall upon thoughtful men, well educated to an almost
scholarly point, and with a refinement of moral feeling that passes from
honesty to real nobleness. Shy perhaps — perhaps, too, not a little dry and
hard in manner at the outset — keen with an almost savage acuteness — and
by no means disposed to loose-lipped confidences, or to unproved trust — with
much of the Scottish caution, and hereditary reminiscences of the times when
strangers were enemies still clinging to them, — and yet men who could hold
their own against the best and brightest in the land. Ah ! they are a fine
set of men and women, these northerners — God bless them !
In another desolate place, two little children of four and six years. of
age were sitting hand in hand on the fell-side, watching a couple of hundred
sheep huddled up at the farm-gate for to-morrow's clipping. Not another
human being was to be seen anywhere ; and when we asked them if they
were minding the sheep, the elder answered: "Ay! us and 't lisle dog,"
quite in a fraternal and family manner, as if "us and 't lisle dog" were all
on an equal footing together, and accustomed to joint duties. They made
a pretty picture as they sat in the evening light, alone on the wild fell-side,
with the frightened flock of sheep before them, and the golden rays of the
sun slanting through the mottled sky above ; and they, too, told of the
entire loneliness, and security of the place.
And now you are at Hawes Water ; a long narrow lake turning round
at the head like Ullswater, and like Thirlmere almost cut in two by an
intersecting promontory. The mountains to the right are set edgewise
to the lake, with small dales running up between ; but to the left there is
only one huge sweep — wooded at the foot, craggy at the head — standing
130
HAWKS WATKK AND HIGH STKKKT.
HAWE3 WATER
broadside like Place Fell on Ullswater. This broadside sweep is respectively
Naddle Forest and Wallow Crag ; where, in the last, lies " Jamie Lowther's "
wicked ghost, and which now, in the quiet evening stillness, looks stern
enough for any awful tale to hang about it ; while the edgewise ridges
are really only spurs of High Street buttressing up the long range, as the
Ullswater spurs buttress up Helvellyn.
It is a grand walk all along the edge of Hawes Water, under the eaves
of the mountain ridges, with that great Wallow Crag on your flank, and
Harter Fell and the other rough Mardale mountains before you. And none
the less delightful for the unwonted simplicity and primitive lives of the
people. Very little of distrust here ! If you ask your way, they will,
perhaps, lead you right through the house to save you a few steps ; and
certainly no new fashion of wealth or luxury or even beauty has yet found
its seed-bed at Hawes Water. Here is still the ugly, poor-looking gentleman's
house, which one sees so rarely now among the pointed roofs and grey
stone cottages in the lake district — a cream-tinted, stuccoed square box,
adorned by no trellis-work with tea-roses or grape-like westeria, passion
flower or purple clematis, flame-coloured pyrus or saffron canariensis,
growing up, but standing there in its naked ugliness, a mere windowed
131 S 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Icirrack stuck down on a coarse and flowerless lawn, with nothing more
beautiful in front or rear than a plot of blue iris or a clump of white rocket.
And here, too, is still the tumble-down cottage and the rickety farmhouse,
with the byre and the stable and the pigsty all in architectural community
together; with the " middenstead" at the house door, and the children
playing with fever and ague by its side. Measands Becks is one of these
old hamlets : a miserable collection of dirty huts made beautiful by the
trees and shrubs and wild-flowers growing about, and which might so easily be
made clean by the aid of noisy Fordendale Beck — a pretty mountain stream
dashing through, pleasantly continuing that broad white fall on the crags
above, and whence, they say, the best view of Hawes Water is to be had.
But every view is lovely, for all that the lake is not one of the most frequented,
and, consequently, not of established reputation ; yet, seen in the calm of
evening, with every mountain form repeated with tenfold force of line and
colour in the black lake, and all these forms so grand and severe, it is
something well worth travelling far to see, and looking back upon with love
when left for ever.
But in truth, it is all very primitive and rough ; and it is easy to
understand how fine gentlemen and ladies who travel with "comforts,"
would shrink from the only place of entertainment at Hawes Water as
they would shrink from an Indian's wigwam ; and for some of the same
reasons. Then, it is not very practicable for grandees in their carriages; for
the high road is a mere walled-in path, where two carts, if they met, would
have to make compliments to each other, and one must back into the
nearest gate — there would be no passing with all four wheels left sound.
The church is picturesque enough, with its gilt weathercock now so seldom
seen, but it is by no means a rustic cathedral ; the royal hotel —and the
only one — is a wretched wayside public-house, where you can get eggs
and bacon and nothing else — except the company of a tipsy parson lying in
bed with his gin-bottle by his side; and the King of Mardale — the great
man of the place, the largest landed proprietor of the home blood, and in
132
HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
bis time the best wrestler and best sheep-shearer of the dale— is a yeoman,
whose family certainly came in with the Conqueror,6 keeping both name and
estates through all the long generations since ; but he is still, according to the
Guide Book, nothing better than a yeoman for all that, though he has some
of the oldest blood of England in his veins, and is the virtual King of the
Dale. So that, on the whole, the social and political life of Hawes Water is
not of the most fashionable or brilliant description.
High Street must now be conquered. Your way lies up Mardale
Green, having Branstree to your left, Harter Fell in front, and your right
path leading under Pyat Eock, a vicious-looking crag serving as a landmark.
Between Branstree and Harter Fell is the rough Gatescarth Pass into Long
Sleddale ; and between Harter Fell and Small Water is the entrance to the
magnificent pass of Nan Bield, leading to Kentmere, which you must go
out of your way to see, for the pleasure of standing a little nervously under
its overhanging crags, and feeling as if about to be crushed between its
facing rocks. Then cross the crags again, looking back on the long flat of
Mardale Green so often overflowed in the winter time, with that one solitary
house at the end (the Dun Bull, its royal hotel, near to the church), and
6 The Holms, the family in question, were originally Swedes of Stockholm, but
came into England with the Conqueror; to be rewarded for their adhesion with certain lands
and estates in Northainptonsliire, where they lived in such peace as the times afforded,
until the days of King John ; when troubles came upon them, and the head of the house
had to fly for liis life. He came down to Mardale, then well nigh inaccessible, and con-
cealed himself in a cave at the foot of Riggindale Crag, called Hugh's Cave to tliis hour ;
not half a mile from Chapel Hill where the present Holm lives, as liis forbears have lived
before him. It has its name of Chapel Hill from the fact of Udolphus, one of the family,
founding an oratory near liis dwelling-house. The fugitive, when the time of trouble was
overpast, bought the present Holm estate in Mardale, and here the Holm family has been
from that time to this, never wanting a son to take the estate and perpetuate the name.
Many attemps have been made to buy out the old yeoman, but he and liis have been
steadily true to themselves and their generations, and no amount of modern money has yet
been able to purchase those well-worn and honourable title-deeds.
183
TIIK LARK rnlNTKY.
its framework of savage bill; catching the precious breeze as it creeps down
tbe gorge so languidly it does not ruffle tbe starry spikes of tbe yellow bog
aspbodel, or tbe face of tbat deep blue Small Water lying under tbe sbadow
of Higb Street. Tbe tarn is pleasant in tbis clinging summer beat ;
cool, quiet, and fresb ; a perfectly round and symmetrical dimple in tbe
old mountain cbeek, wbicb tbe dews and the clouds conie down to fill, and
wbicb tbe Greeks would have consecrated by some sweet legend into a
favourite place of pilgrimage for tbe young Boeotians in the vale. A shoulder
of Higb Street, represented by a rough mass of broken rock over which you
must make your way, separates Small Water from Blea Water, another tiny
mountain lake which you are bound to risk your neck to see before you
begin the real ascent of the day. As you stand on the gentle slope by Blea
Water, you will begin to make out your work, which, it is to be hoped, you
will be gallantly sure is quite of a mild and tranquil character — a mere
nothing for steady beads and strong feet. Kidsty Pike, staring at you in
tbe sunlight with its broad red face, is impassable certainly, save to
gnome flies prepared to walk up a shingly perpendicular ; but tbe level line
of High Street is no more difficult than a meadow path — when you are
once on it ; and though there are a few questionable crags, shaped like a
lion's head, to tbe left, between which and tbe shingly perpendicular opposite
you must make your choice, yet believe them easy (if you must go up
them) until better known. Wherefore toil on merrily as others have, till
you near tbe questionable crags and stand face to face with the day's event.
If you are like some others known to us, to this hour it will be a
dream, as well as a marvel, how you ever got over those crags. Sharp
cuttings, higher than your bead, have to be surmounted, with such aids as
small foot-holds worn into tbe rock, or toe-points jutting out, or a stout
tuft of bracken or ling may afford ; narrow sheep tracks, with the rock
perpendicular above and the crags steep and pointed below, have to be
warily trodden, and the loose stones and slanting slides carefully passed,
where one false step would be fatnl to life possibly, and to limb certainly ;
134
HAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
a set of steps a yard high, and sometimes overgrown with slippery grass,
(like a giant staircase with all the corners worn off, the stairs broken, and
no balustrades), leading right up the
face, has to be taken — or none other ;
gaps, through which nothing larger
than a lean lamb could force itself,
are sometimes the only way of pass-
ing from a lower round to the higher,
unless you can drag yourself up the
cleft by mere force of arms and
shoulders, or the weaker be dragged
up by the stronger, standing on the
narrow ledge above ; and when
dragged up, there is often not room
enough for four feet and two bodies
between the rock and destruction. The sharp angles will graze you, the
gorse will tear your ancles and the junipers will prick your hands ; and
ever the climb gets steeper and the way more rugged — ever the need of
going on without halting, or daring to look above or below, or to question
probabilities of success, or to think of what you have done or have still to
do, more absolute, if you would keep your nerves in working order at all ;
till, with a supreme effort, scrambling up a narrow ledge where one slip
of hand or foot would be simple death, you get over the last barrier, and
stand on the broad turfed down,7 which is the top of HIGH STREET. But for
nights after those crags will come back like monsters haunting your dreams,
7 So broad and spacious and level is this mountain top, that it made not only the best
road the Romans could have had in the district, but for centuries after was used as a
general meeting-place for the shepherds of Patterdale and Martindale, Mardale, Kentmere,
and Troutbeck, who assembled there every tenth of July as much for fun as business,
uii (I with as keen eyes to cakes and ale as to professional purposes. It is a grand stretch of
table land, but not one of the best in point of views ; though very noble prospects are to be
had ; as indeed wherever you can go here half a hundred feet above the level.
13.5
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and it may prove to be a very close question, whether, as with one of us aftei
that day's climb, you are not going crag-crazy.
High Street is like no other mountain in the country. On the top it
is more like a common than a mountain, with scarcely a slope to break its
level, until it dips down towards Troutbeck on the one side, before mounting
Froswick, and climbs up Lade Pot0 on the other, before finally descending to
the Penrith plains. Standing just above the Tongue which splits Troutbeck
in two, and not far from the Scots' Rake,9 you see Windermere and its islands
— only part of the lake, cut into by Wansfell Pike ; you see Wetherlam and
the Old Man, Black Combe, and the sea beyond, and maybe Ingleborough, and
Lancaster church and castle, and Underbarrow Scar at Kendal. To the left is
the valley of Kentmere, where Bernard Gilpin10 was born, and whither the pass
of Nan Bield leads from Hawes Water ; and also to the left, Froswick, 111 Bell
with its two peaks like horns, and Yoke, — the last showing only its mighty
Rainsborrow Crag, sharply broken and needle-like on the Kentmere n side where
the reservoir, which is the modern substitute for the old natural tarn, lies
8 Lad means way, and Pot a circular hole or scoop.
9 Where tradition says a party of Scots came down upon Troutbeck one bright day in
1715, but were driven back. It was not often that such incursions happened. " Border
contests were carried on at a distance from our lake land," says Southey ; " where the
inhabitants being left in peace seemed to have enjoyed it." Wherefore we have no ballad
poetry among us, though one old bard, Llywarc Han, is mentioned in liistory as a " Prince
of Cumbria." He lived to be a hundred and fifty years old, and had twenty-four sons.
" wearing the golden chain — leaders of battles," all slain before his death. He was exiled,
and died at Bala, at a place still called the Cot of Llywarc the Aged.
10 Bernard Gilpin was born at Kentmere, 15 17, the great, good man, the apostle of peace
that he was ! Bichard Gilpin, before him, was also a mighty man of the place. He was
" infeoffed, in the reign of John, by the Baron of Kendal, in the Lordsliip of Keutmere
Hall, for liis singular deserts in peace and war." It was he " who slew the Wild Bore that,
raging in the Mountains adjoyning (as sometimes that of Erimanthus) much indamaged
the country people ; whence it is that the Gilpins in their coat-armes give the Bore." So
says Fuller. A valiant man this Richard ; but Bernard stands, perhaps, the highest in the
hierarchy of the just.
11 It seems scarcely fair to pass over the Kentmere Valley so lightly. One of the
widest and most important that we have — and one of the most important of our rivers
136
ITAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
below, but smooth enough towards Troutbeck. Langdale Pikes are in the
distance ; Red Screes and Codale Moor apparently within a stone's throw ; but
if the sun is in the west, St. Sunday's Crag and Helvellyn will be nothing but
dim uncertain outlines in a radiant haze — dark purple masses lost behind
a tremulous sea of golden light. Neither, as you go, will you perhaps
make out much of Skiddaw or Blencathra, of Crossfell or the more distant
plains. The first will be only great blue limits, the last, reaches of mottled
green shading off into cooler grey ; but on the eastern side, where the sun
falls, you can almost count the stones on the hills opposite, if the light is
giving its name to both vale and town — it seems to demand a longer notice, which,
however, cannot be accorded. Yet the course of the Ken is full of interest. Rising at the
back of High Street, passing by Froswick and 111 Bell, and through the old Kentmere Tarn,
receiving soon after the stream from Skeggles Water, and those from the two little tarns in
Potter's Fell — then the Sprint from Long Sleddale, and the Mint from what was once
Fawcett Forest — then watering the feet of Kendal, turning its mills, and refreshing its
parks and gardens — then rushing onward, taking up the Uiiderbarrow and Beetham becks,
and passing through Leven's park, where the clipped yew-trees are, till it wanders finally
into the sea, where it forms its dangerous sands, (" Kent and Keir have parted many a good
man and his meer " — i. e., mare) — what a history might be written of it, from its first shy
bubbling forth among the moss and ferns of the mountain tops, to its last wide, rapid flow
into the illimitable sea ! So innocent and full of childish play in the beginning, so mighty
and full of dangerous wrath in its ending ! " Certes, this riuer Ken is a pretie deepe riuer,
yet not safe to be aduentured upon with boats and balingers, by reason of rolling stones and
other huge substances that oft annoie and trouble the middest of the channell there," says
an old writer ; to which Camden, reported by Fuller, adds his word, respecting the two
waterfalls which presage the coming weather : — " I learn of Master Camden that in the
river Cann, in this County, there be two CataduptB or Waterfalls ; whereof the Northern,
sounding clear and loud, foretokeneth Fair Weather ; the Southern, on the same terms,
presageth Rain. Now I wish that the former of these may be vocall in Haytime and Harvest,
the latter after great Drought, that so both of them may make welcome musick to the
inhabitants." These catadupse are, one waterfall in Leven's park and one in the Beetha,
below Beetham. " When the Levens fall sounds more loud and clear they look for fair
weather; when " that below Beetham " doth the same, they expect rain. The philosophy
of which is no more than this, that the south-west winds, blowing from the sea, bring the
vapours along with them, and generally produce rain ; consequently, blowing from the north
or north-east, they have the contrary effect." — BURNKT.
137 T
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
bright mid the air still. Miss Martincau's report of the weather general to the
top of High Street is, " It donks and it dozzlcs, and whiles it's a bit siftering,
but it don't often make no girt pell;" but even this mild kind of turmoil was
not our experience when we went up.
And now follow the Roman Road as long as you dare, treading on the
very line where the Latin legions trod so many centuries ago, and seeing the
very objects which they saw. And yet how different in spiritual percep-
tion ! For you love what they coveted, you admire what they abhorred,
to you the hills have in them the glory of nature and delight in her love, to
them they were but good military roads for the passage of their armies, or
natural citadels of the foe to be carefully watched and powerfully beset. One
cannot get away from the Romans on High Street. Their ghosts march with
us in the evening light, and the summer winds blow the echo of their tread in
faint gusts across the air ; we see them in their serried ranks, their bright
armour flashing back the sunlight, and their music drowning the roar of the
wild beasts and the shrill cries of the barbarians below ; we hear their strong
Italian voices singing snatches of Latin song — some of the younger and
patrician trolling out Greek ditties, perhaps those which old Anacreon had
sung under the shadow of the Athenian vineyards — and some of the ruder
nations breaking in with rougher force of voice than what the Roman
gentleman, singing his Greek ode softly, cared to hear ; we see them in their
insolent confidence as Masters of the World, condescending to the conquest of
this remote island of wolves and savages, where the summer sun was scarce
brighter than their native moon, and where the snows lay sleeping on the hills
far into the morning of May. They throng the level height on these still July
evenings — they tramp again through their own road, which neither time nor
the elements have yet destroyed, strongest and most masculine of all the
nations of the world — they fill the air, and they people the earth ; and it is
only by an effort that we can banish those ghostly legions from us, and come
IK irk to the actual life and being of our tamer nineteenth century. Ossian
wrote no fancies. If any one wishes to see ghosts, and to feel and hear them,
138
HAWES WATER AMD HIGH STHEET.
let him go up High Street in the evening, and march with the shadowy
cohort ever passing from Alonae to Petreana hy that long green strip which
was their famous hill-top road.
When you leave the ghosts you fall upon Hayes Water in the hollow below
you ; Grey Crag overshadowing it, and Hartsop Dod putting up its sharp sides
beyond ; and then perhaps you stumble against what is even more impressive
than the lonely mountain tarn — the fleece of a sheep lying almost undis-
turbed, and as the creature must have died. Quite in the same attitude and
position, though the wool will be spread as if it had been pulled at, while
underneath you will see the gaunt skeleton of the ribs as under an artificial
coverlet, the skull and leg bones being scattered a little way off. Of all the
lonely and desolate impressions of these mountain walks, this finding of dead
sheep is by far the most so. It tells such a tale of helplessness and suffering
and the wild fight for food, on these dumb heights, with perhaps accidents of
winter storms, of hurt, or of mere weakness and decay, that the heart is made
more pitiful than if it was not the lot of sheep to die before their time, and as
if it was not the appointed law that the rooks and ravens should be fed.
Then you come to Angle Tarn, in its high shallow basin on the lower
heights of Place Fell. The first view of it is more beautiful than the second.
Seen from the east side it is symmetrical and harmonious ; from the west, it
is like an oddly-shaped trefoil, with a dotting of island spots across the upper
leaves. A step to the left brings you in sight of Brothers' Water, not looking
so desolate from here as on the Scandale evening ; perhaps because you have
now learnt its softer aspects better, and have come to connect it with the life
and civilization of Patterdale ; but looking only lovely and picturesque, and of
tenderest peace and quietude. The west side, where the Scandale mountains
fling their shadows, is a deep black lightening to purple, and there is a wild
rising of buttresses and spurs round it, all springing from the same platform,
and running up to greater or less majesty of development. The steep sides
of Hartsop Dod are fine from here ; so are those rosy clouds coming up over
High Street, which you are now facing, having turned back from the direct
ias» T 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
road down Place Fell, for the purpose of descending by Hayes Water and
Nether Hartsop.12
HAYES WATER
The solitude here is as perfect as if you were alone in creation. Not a
sight, not a sound, not even a wild bird or a wild flower — nothing but the
close turf, and the peat bogs, and the sharp sides or rough crags or tossing
heads of the mountains, with the level sun striking all the eastern side with a
hard and shadowless light. Too hard a light ; for by it everything is brought
out in the same proportion, and as much importance is given to a heap of
stones as to a mountain shoulder ; a crag is as large as a mountain, and the
mountain as near as the crag ; nothing is left unrevealed, and the sun thrusts
its flaming torch with almost cruel vigour wherever the light can rest. To the
18 There are many other ways for those so minded. There is one by Troutbeck to the
old haunts of Ambleside ; another by Codale Moor to Kirkstone ; or down the face of
Codale itself, by the rough -looking path that serpentines along its knotty shoulders into the
road by Brothers' Water ; or you may go down by Bannerdale, where you will have a
chance of seeing the red deer ; or by Lade Pot to Swart Fell ; but if you have your resting-
place at Patterdale, and wish to see Nether Hartsop, choose the pass by Hayes Water —
which is not recoinmendable, however, on the score of smooth walking or case of going.
140
1IAWES WATER AND HIGH STREET.
west everything is wrapped away in golden doubt, and there is nothing but dim
purple shapes thickly veiled in gold and crimson. On an eminence to the
right you see both Angle Tarn and Hayes Water13 again ; one on the right hand,
the other on the left — the one all in light, the other in inky darkness— the
one barely topped by the fell-side rim, the other set deep at the very base of
the hills.
It looks a mere five minutes' run down to Hayes Water, and perhaps
a twenty minutes' pull to High Street, which you have left some hours
ago ; and mountaineers as you may be by birth and habit, even you may
be easily deceived by the flattering brightness of the atmosphere. You will
find out your mistake by the time you have toiled down to the margin of the
tarn, through bogs, and water-courses, and plum-coloured peat-mosses, and rare,
but welcome patches of fern, and dry peninsulas of rock ; Grey Crag, as you
go, slowly clothing itself with gold and crimson as the sun sinks lower and
lower. Behind Helvellyn — far behind, so that the light is not interrupted —
comes up a bank of cold grey clouds, not yet sunlit ; and against them, as a
background, hangs a flock of small curl-clouds of the deepest crimson for your
last evening splendours, as you cross the stream at its issue from the tarn —
crossing by a curious paved stile, stile and bridge and wall in one. Then
you descend by a rough path, following the lovely stream flowing on your
right, fern-fringed and fairy haunted — resting in pools, or leaping out in
foam, or creeping slyly under the shadow of its ash-trees and flowering
bushes, — a stream full of poems and fairies and nymphs and children's
fancies, wild, beautiful, and untouched.
A sheep maze — (they are everywhere by the fell-side brooks, wherever there
13 The four tarns seen to-day are very characteristic of the three forms most generally
taken. Small Water and Blea Water are the usual fillings in of mountain cups — hollows
made in the lulls as you would make a thumh-mark in a piece of dough; Hayes Water is
the lake naturally collecting at the feet of sharp precipices — the reservoir into which are
drained the springs and becks ; and Angle Tarn is the water lying in a shallow basin on the
hill-tups.
141
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
is a deeper pool than usual handy for the sheep washing) — is at the end of the
pass ; and you will not be sorry to see even this remote sign of human living ;
for by the time you come down into Nether Hartsop, by Atkinson's Cove, the
bank of cold grey clouds will have burned itself from dun crimson into ash
colour again ; the mountain tops, from having been like sultanas gold and
gem-bedecked, will be now like pale nuns wrapped in scapular and veil ; and
you will be at the end of your powers, if you have spent, as we once did,
more than twelve hours in the transit between Mardale and Ullswater. (The
"king" said he would do it in less than two, and he gave us three.) Now
you pass the blasted tree, looking black and ghostly, and you hear the fall of
the stream from Angle Tarn, and even see its white track against the rocks
before leaping into the valley beneath; but all is getting very dim and
uncertain, for the faint wash of warm tint in the west has faded finally away,
and the sky is all silver and blue and quiet grey — grey like the evening moths
flitting across the path ; the moon and the stars have come out with the soft
light of a summer's night ; and the earth has folded herself to her rest. And
now you are at home ; and if you have done what has been written of in
this chapter, you will have done what many could not have accomplished in the
same manner, and by the same ways — the heavy climb, the length of road, and
the unresting pace of two days' severe work.
ANGLE TARN
HELVELLYN AND F AIRFIELD
CHAPTER IX
THE lonely, gleaming miner's town on Glenridding side looks very cold and
hard, as you pass it on your way up to Helvellyn. Colder, too, and harder,
for the pale sunlight which, if the day is fitful, flashes at intervals through
the clouds, bleaching the rocks and works and massed heaps of refuse to
a sickly greenish white, and making the slated roofs again as if of shining
glass. But uncomfortable as the morning looks, it may be one of those
days which have hope, and a noonday crisis, possible in the heart of them ;
and when, if the weather does really, as they call it, " take up," you will have
far more beautiful effects, and a richer reward of loveliness, than in days
which have had no sorrow to begin with. In which may perhaps be found
143
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
nn analogy to human life ; as indeed may be found in all the conditions
and variations of nature whatsoever.
Passing through this small miner's town, and up hy the steeply winding
road — keeping by the side of Red Tarn Beck, not yet polluted with the
miner's ore, but flowing down the brant brow of the hill, clear and pure as
a mountain stream should be — the way leads by long and slow degrees right
into the wild Helvellyn heart. But many a furlong of lonely mountain
road must be trodden before Catstycam, which has been the landmark so long
in front, is fairly reached, or before the hollow where lies Keppel Cove Tarn
between this " Wild Cat's Hill " and Helvellyn proper, is plainly marked.
At last however you reach the tarn, lying under a bleak shoulder which you
have to climb ; and here you would do well to sit for a while on the rough
hill-side, catching the water trickling from a little nameless brook, and
making out the form of what lies before you.
Clouds are drifting over the whole top of Helvellyn : and you will have to
walk into them unless the sun can break a way through, as it has already
broken through and utterly routed and destroyed others of the morning's
making ; but, for the present, be thankful for them — thankful for the grand
effect they make, sweeping in broken feathers across the nearer heights while
heaped up in denser masses beyond, so that the jagged lines of Swirrel
Edge 1 come out against the background with startling clearness and
isolation. And Swirrel Edge is a fine thing to see, especially when it stands
out so utterly alone as now, with only the clouds between it and infinity, or
1 Swirl-Edge.
144
HELVELLYX AND F AIRFIELD.
perhaps the topmost height of Helvellyn, like some giant keep, peering for
a moment dimly through.
The Tarn lies just below. Shallow, reddened at the sides, and with a
certain drawn and drained look about it, (which is not mere fancy, for it is
really the reservoir of the mines,) it is not one of the most beautiful of the
mountain tarns, and yet its situation is of surpassing grandeur, lying as it does
in the shadow of Catstycam's sharp precipices, and under the noble tumult of
Swirrel Edge, with its third boundary, that " huge nameless rock," where the
path winds up to-day. But though its enclosing lines are so magnificent, Keppel
Cove Tarn is, it must be confessed, (comparatively) uninteresting in itself.
Notwithstanding all the greater dislocation here than usual, note still
the ever-recurring bird's sweep of wing in the dale, where the little brook
runs like a blue pencil mark, edging the longer feathers ; and the wave form
of the mountains, — the sharper peaks to one side, where the wave has fallen
most steeply down, and been beaten against, and broken into; and the
smoother slope to the other — the slope of simple flow and upheaval. Go
where we will, these same forms recur without exception, if with manifold
and most lovely variations. A burst of sunlight now conies through the
dark screen of the headland, tearing the clouds to fragments which the
wind blows roughly away ; and, as they drive across towards the sea, the top,
where that small black point of the stone maen stands, and the second Edge —
Striding, alone and beyond Swirrel — are seen in photographic crispuess of
outline. In photographic crispness and clearness, too, is the green and
purple and rich red brown in the mountain depths, and the lustre of the
145 U
TIIH LAKE COUNTRY.
thinner yellow lights below. The Penrith plains are all in sunshine; and
Ullswater and the lower mountain tops are bathed with the same golden glory ;
and the brightness of the plains makes those solemn purple shadows, and the
angry clouds yet hovering about, more striking for the contrast.
But now turn up the shoulder: plodding over its broken steeps with
hearts full of mountain joy — and there is no joy like that — till you come
upon an instalment of your day's inheritance — the Keswick mountains, with
Bassenthwaite lake as the outlet, the Solway beyond the level line of the
Cockermouth plains, Criffel in delicate shading against the horizon, with a
dimmer Scottish range yet, the Newlands sentinels, and the dark heads of
the Borrowdale group, darker and more severe than all the rest. In a few
more steps, come up the divided spurs of the flat-topped Thirlmere range —
that great spongy bog of tableland leading off to Borrowdale : but Keswick
lake2 is hidden.
Ah, what a world lies below ! But grand as it is on the earth, it is mated
by the grandeur of the sky. For the cloud scenery is of such surpassing noble-
ness while it lasts and before it is drawn up into one volume of intensest blue,
that no kind or manner of discord mars the day's power and loveliness. Of all
forms and of all colours are these gracious summer clouds — ranging from roseate
flecks to dazzling white masses and torn black remnants, like the last fragments
of a widow's weeds thrust aside for her maturer bridal ; from solid substances,
firm and marble-like, to light baby curls set like pleasant smiles about the
graver faces : words and pictures, in all their changes, unspeakably precious to
soul and sense. And when, finally, they all gather themselves away, and
leave the sky a vault of undimmed blue, and leave the earth a gorgeous
picture of human industry and dwelling— when field and plain and mountain
and lake and tarn and river are fashioned into the beauty of the primeval
4 Six lakes are seen from the top of Helvellyn, not counting the smaller waters :
I'llswatcr and Winclermere, Esthwaite, Collision, Bassenthwaite and Thirlmere; but Rydal
and Grasmere and Derwentwater, which it would be natural to expect to see, are all hidden
by intervening spurs or ranges.
146
HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD.
earth by the purity of the air and the governing strength of the sun and
the fragrant sweetness of the summer, and when the very gates of heaven
seem opening for our entering where the southern sun stands at gaze in his
golden majesty, — is it wonder if there are tears more glad than many smiles,
and a thrill of love more prayerful than many a litany chanted in the church
service? In the very passion of delight that pours like wine through the
veins, is a solemn outfall — in the very deliciousness of joy an intensity that
is almost pain. It is all so solemn and so grand, so noble and so loving,
surely we cannot be less than what we live in !
Let any one haunted by small cares, by fears worse than cares, and by
passions worse than either, go up on a mountain height, on such a summer's
day as this, and there confront his soul with the living soul of nature. Will
the stately solitude not calm him ? can the nobleness of beauty not raise
him to noble likeness ? is there no divine voice for him in the absolute still-
ness ? no loving hand guiding through the pathless wilds ? no tenderness
for man in the lavishness of nature ? have the clouds no lesson of strength
in their softness ? the sun no cheering in its glory ? has the earth no hymn
in all its living murmur ? the air no shaping in its clearness ? the wind no
healing in its power ? Can he stand in the midst of that great majesty the
sole small tiling, and shall his spirit, which should be the noblest thing of
all, let itself be crippled by self and fear, till it lies crawling on the earth
when its place is lifting to the heavens ? Oh ! better than written sermon
or spoken exhortation is one hour on the lonely mountain tops, when the
world seems so far off and GOD and his angels so near ! Into the Temple
of Nature flows the light of the Shekinah, pure and strong and holy, and
they are wisest who pass into it oftenest, and rest within its glory longest.
There was never a church more consecrated to all good ends than the stone
waste on Helvellyn top, where you sit beneath the sun and watch the bright
world lying in radiant peace below, and the quiet and sacred heavens above.
And now you can make out the faces of old friends, and call to them
through the space. Harrop Tarn, on the Thiiiinere Fells opposite, is
147 L •>
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
touched to silver by the geuerous light; and little Blea Tarn — a doll's lake
it looks from here — lying higher and more north than Harrop Tarn,
shines like a pool of quicksilver in the purple distance. Dunmail llaiso
looks a pleasant hour's walk from end to end, and not more than a few
minutes from where you stand, if you care to run briskly down the green
slope before you. Just over the doll's lake you see the heads of some of
the Ennerdale and Buttermere mountains — Steeple, Pillar, Haycock, and
Yewbarrow, all in a little group together ; then the Borrowdale family,
headed by Scawfell Pike ; farther on a bit of one of the Langdale Pikes
(Harrison Stickle), and a dim boll, which you know from its position to
be Black Combe. Over to the south lies Coniston, and the sea beyond ;
Coniston water looking higher than the rest — a mere delusion of distance —
and the sea quite clear and bright ; and, still farther to the south, part of
Windermere, seeming from your present height tame and flat, and, now that
its prettiness is invisible, of no importance in the mountain map. Esthwaite
lies between these last two ; the three lakes all together in the same sweep.
To the east you see Ullswater, with its noble fells brought down to baby-house
toys, and Angle Tarn, like a small spangle stuck on a many-coloured ground ;
but Kidsty Pike breaking the level line of High Street ; High Street itself,
and 111 Bell, hold their own, even from Helvellyn. And then you see some-
thing in the far off horizon, over beyond Windermere, which the one of you
with the best eyes declares to be Lancaster Castle. It may be so.
Faith is not always a bad showman. To the north, Skiddaw is not the
soft-natured patriarch of the Keswick side, but showing a noble front of
purple rifts and scarred seamings — quite a pronounced and energetic mass
of mountain life ; and Blencathra — the Carrock Fells in the dip, where
Caldbeck lies beyond — is picturesque as ever, the shadows deep and pure,
and the crested edges broken down into cascades of screes and froth of
crag, very noticeable and very fine.
And now you come to the grandest sight of all — the one great vision
of power — the Edges in their eternal majesty of wrath, like an angry
148
HELVELLYN AND FAEttMBLD.
word of GOD spoken through the storm. There they stretch in a grand
wide sweep above Red Tarn, the broken line of Striding Edge like a mere
knotted cord, and Swirrel Edge not much broader, or with a firmer foot-
hold. The sharp sides and jags and crags are all green and brown and
grey, as you stand on the top and look down into this fierce mountain
bay with the still mountain lake in its heart lying nearly eight hundred feet
below : a scene never to be forgotten — unequalled in our England both for
form and colour, both for savageness and majesty. There is no real
danger on Swirrel Edge, terrifying as it looks ; so you may pick your steps
down among its stones set like ckevaux-de-frise all along the ridge, and
enjoy the feeling of standing on a tight-rope slung between the earth
and the sky. The two Tarns — Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn — lie to
the right and left ; so closely set under the Edge that you could drop a
ball from either hand into both. Striding Edge runs on the other side in
mute companionship, furious and more difficult than Swirrel, and with real
danger on its sharp, steep, narrow ways ; 3 but yet a portion of the same
body — torn asunder, each from each, by some great convulsion or giant
irresistible power — twin Edges, with just so much difference in spirit and
temper as marks the individuality.
Down, too, by Swirrel Edge, among its rocks and sheltered places
can be found some rare plants. The rose root (rhodiola rosea), with its
curious fleshy leaves, and the scent of roses about its root, as the form of
the opened rose is in its crowning spathe, is there; as are also the
kidney-leaved sorrel (oxyria reniformis), the clustered alpine saxifrage — why
not the "snowy" saxifrage? — (saxifraga nivalis), and the moss campion
(xilene acaulls) ; treasures all of them, worth a little extra difficulty or even
3 Tills was the Edge wherefrom Charles Gough, whom the guide-books will persist in
calling an " unfortunate young lover of nature," was lost more than half a century ago.
The memory of liis untimely fate has been embalmed with special and peculiar honour in
the poems of Scott and Wordsworth ; and is known to all believers in the superior nature
and better morality of dogs, — the fidelity of his dog being very pathetic, and indeed the
supreme point of interest in the story.
149
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
danger to obtain. At least it will be well for you if you think so,
scrambling and stumbling about the rocks perhaps with more courage than
grace, though you have no traveller's business there, and must scramble up
a<min, whether full-handed or empty, when the time comes to turn your-
self homeward.
But it is such a fine, rich sensation, that of wandering about these
perilous places — so grand in their sublime loveliness, so magnificent in
their dangerous beauty — that almost any amount of foolhardiness may be
excused. It is worth whole years of tamer living in the plains — worth a
generation time of living in the cities. It is like playing with a tiger of
which we believe ourselves the master, but which at any time may turn
against us and crush our bones in the play that has flashed out into
wrath. And so these mountain precipices, so easily mastered and overpassed
in a sunny, even-tempered day, may become dangerous as wild beasts in
the wind and the mist and the storm, which may burst out in less than
half an hour under a fitful and unreliable sky. Yet how one loves these
wild beasts ! — how one delights to lay one's hands on their manes, and to
tread their tawny necks beneath one's feet, and to venture into their
deepest dens, even when the thunder of their roar is beginning, and their
anger and their fierceness is aroused ! Beautiful mountains ! dear tigers
but half tamed ! it is better living with you than with the loveliest of the
home-side creatures !
Coming up at last from the Edge — you need not say with what botanical
results, for very likely you have found nothing, searchers are so many and
pilferers so unconscientious — you first come to the famous spring called
Brownrigg's well, and then, three hundred yards off, to the summit where
the stone maen is, and where you sit behind the shelter that it makes, and
dream away your resting-time in pleasant and sleepy fancies. Then go
forward, to where you look down on the top of Fairfield; noting there the
same kind and manner of ridges as belong to Helvellyn, of which indeed
it is geologically only a buttress and component part; less grand in mass,
I'M
HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD.
of course, but of the same broken structure — the same cresting of the wave
falling over into rocky foam — the same flood of movement struck to stability
for ever. The prospect on all sides is of a very sea of mountains : wave
after wave rising up into the sky : with a boundary line of level shine. And
all in such marvellous harmony — the lines flowing into each other, and
going together for such good ends of beauty and agreement ! Some are
battlements, and others are spurs and buttresses, and some are gentle slopes,
and some are walls; but the typical form is the wave — the sweep and the
crest, the flow and the break. Swell after swell has beaten up on this
ancient strand : some higher, others lower, some now in cool shadow purple
and blue, and others in the hot summer sunshine ; and all flowing out from
the Borrowdale centre — all but Helvellyn and Skiddaw, both of which are
interpolations in the archaic mass. It is a mighty spectacle ; and something
to be seen by all men.
And now turn homeward, for the coming shadows are beginning to lengthen,
and Grisedale is not a contemptible valley. So you go to the top of the big
hill at the foot of which lies Grisedale Tarn, where the wild swine of old
time used to come to drink. But before this you must notice one most
eloquent change in the social conditions of the mountain : the wire fence put
up round the limits of a certain lordly property. Where the old Normans
built their rude stone walls, rough, ready, unscientific, but durable, the modern
man of money and education draws a light wire line, as effective for its time,
but not quite so durable perhaps, as the stone wall symbolic of the heavy,
mailed hand that won roughly and griped hardly. Now we have position
instead of valour ; and a long pursa for title in place of the gilded spurs and
the uncaptured banner : and a light wire fence carried round the precipices
of Helvellyn, as round a gentleman's private park. A strange combination of
scientific improvement, and an invincible nature presumed to be conquered !
You come down among the plum-coloured patches of turned bog-earth
colouring the big shoulder, and see the mountain path, on the other side of
the tarn, leading to Grasmere through the dip of Fail-field and Seat Sandal ;
151
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and you note how the face of the mountain is drawn and puckered as if
with wrinkles, and how all the hills seem to go up as you come down —
twenty feet to your one. And then you lower yourself into the head of
the dale, and walk through the evening splendours to your home. Looking
behind as you go to see the amethystine light lying so soft, and yet so
intense, on every rock and grassy tuft and patch of shingle — looking to see
the sunset films all red and yellow and purple and orange in the sky — the
green gorge before you all the greener for the coloured background shedding
such a light beyond. Place Fell stands up square and wide ; Birk Fell is
conical and sharp ; and the hill sides, as you descend lower and face them,
are angular and perpendicular. And the wyay seems to lengthen as you go ;
for the reaches that were shut out by spurs which looked nothing when you
were higher up, but which now become large chasms, or heavy feet thrust
forward and taking much time to round, seem to be interminable ; but,
weary as you are, you will surely still recur to the mighty things you have
seen halfway up to heaven, and still vividly rejoice in the beauty lying
round you.
FAIKFIELD RIDGES— FROM HBLVELLYN TOP
Our day on Fairfield was a different experience to this of the typical
mountain perfection. We will give it as we proved it ; for though it was
not a very instructive ascent, according to the teaching of the guide-books,
still, it was great in its way, and of grand, if exceptional, teaching. It
should be said, however, that the views from the top of Fairfield on
a clear day, are very fine; one special point taking in a circuit of eight
lakes and tarns, with a noble range of mountain tops — among which Hel-
vellyn is the proudest and most majestic, and little Helm Crag, crested
152
HELVELLYN AND FAIRFIELD.
with its strange stone feathers, the most picturesque. But for us it was
grand as a bit of cloud scenery chiefly; though oftentimes in between the
rents came golden bursts of sunlight, and landscapes of such loveliness as
one would willingly have suffered a martyrdom to see. But we will speak
of the clouds only.
It was rash to attempt the mountain at all to-day; for the sky was
heavy with dark rain-beds, thick and heaped, of that colour which makes the
green of field and wood, and the crimson roses and burning bright geraniums
in the garden, all the brighter by force of contrast against so sullen a back-
ground. A kind of sky which never by any chance breaks into blue for that
morning at least ; but which, however, may continue simply lowering without
falling into actual storm. We gave ourselves the benefit of the chance, and
attacked the ascent of Fairfield as a thing likely to result in both profit and
pleasure.
As the day wore on the clouds came lower — so low that it seemed as
if we should have touched them with our hands had we been standing
half a yard higher; clouds with dark pencilled edges, and unfathomable
caverns in them, where lighter mist wreaths stood at the portals and in
the black jaws and throats : and before we were halfway up they had
come to meet us in very truth, with the gates of their waters flung abroad.
Down came the pouring rain in a torrent which might have been the
"tailing" of the deluge; and for the time all other forms and forces of
nature were lost, and there was nothing in the whole of creation but a universal
sky, leaden-coloured, and a general downfall of the waters. But still we
persevered in the ascent ; in our hearts not unwilling to be on a mountain
top in a thorough mountain storm.
And we were rewarded, richly; for we saw such things that day as we
had never seen before, and perhaps may never see again. We saw the cloud
world in its almost every aspect, from grandeur that was absolutely terrifying
to loveliness that was very enchantment. Sometimes a big cloud rose
slowly up against the edge of a mountain, and then turned over as if
153 X
THE LAKK COIM'IJV
down into the world below, increasing and increasing in bulk and
weight till at last it rolled heavily down the sides, as if overpowered by its
own density; sometimes we skirted the edge of a precipice, from which
boiled up large volumes of vapour, literally as if the earth sent up steam
or smoke from its seething heart ; and. sometimes we saw the vapours
creeping down into the fathomless abyss — creeping — creeping — till they
seemed to fill the whole space, and were then forced to rise up again — the rising
seemingly as interminable as the fall had been. There was one precipice
by the edge of which we stood watching these boiling vapours till our
senses almost reeled, and we had to remember that there is no such thing
as a physical Hell anywhere ; and that if there is even, it is not on the
top of Fairfield. But it was awfully like the ideal Mouth of the Pit !
Sometimes we were cheated into the belief that all this would soon
end, and that the sun would come out, as he seemed to promise by the
clouds getting thinner with a light striking through, most hopeful and
suggestive ; and then we congratulated each other on our perseverance and
courage, and promised ourselves magnificent views from the top, quite equal
to those to be had from Helvellyn after a threatening morning. And while
we wagged our heads complacently, and spoke false hopes to each other,
suddenly we were entirely enveloped, and everything gone from us, save the
stone on which we stood, or the one square foot of ground immediately
beneath us. And there was no earth anywhere, no solid foot-hold, no foun-
dation, nothing but this one small stable point, and all the rest an infinity
of mist — an eternity of space. Nothing beyond, behind, above, or around,
but a white and ghostly world of cloud, elusive, impenetrable, and formless.
Then this ghostly world would break up into separate forms, and the
heavier masses would heave themselves away into the upper world, while light
fragments would be left scudding close to the ground, like lambs or little
mountain elves — fairy wreaths which a child would have chased to catch, as
they swept and curled and careered before us. They came over our feet, and
Wi- trod on them but did not hurt them ; and they ran before us, but we
1J4
1IKI.VKI.LYX AM) FAIRFIELI).
caught them np again, as they rested round the head of sonic old dumb
stone or played round the moss-bed of some patient hillock ; sometimes,
when we got up to them, they made themselves into thin air and ran away
altogether, and sometimes they gathered substance, and rolled themselves
into winged cherubs that took flight up to the graver family above : nothing
in the world could have been more bewitching or fairy-like than those
fragments of baby clouds scampering like sentient things about the crags
and mountain tops.
Then a cold, thin, grey mist — not so dense as what had been — would
steal on ; a mist in which all forms were exaggerated and all conditions
obscured ; which made a sheep look like an elephant, and then dissolve away
like a phantom ; which made a mountain wall of some five feet an insur-
mountable barrier, like a castle keep ; which made indifferently sized boulders
mighty crags, and accidental hillocks towering heights. This light, cold,
exaggerative mist gave the strangest effects of all, and was the most pure-
bit of glamour of the whole day ; for it came and went with its silent feet,
and it deepened or lightened as it crept before the wind, now revealing and
now concealing, now enlarging and now withdrawing, till the mind became
as unsteady as the eyes, and lost the true perception of everything about.
Then there would be a sudden clearing : the denser vapours would gather
into solid masses and quit the earth altogether, and the mists would disperse
like a film withdrawn, and leave the valley free to the sight. And then
we would see lakes and tarns lying to the right and the left, some, by the
fantastic perspective of the vapours still hanging about, seeming to lie in
the sky ; and some, by the chance angles of reflection, seeming to bear huge
waterlilies or strange shapes of tower and castle within them ; all utterly
unearthly and weird, however beautiful, when the white curtains shrouding
them were withdrawn and we looked through the opening. We saw then
how old tales of enchanted lakes and drowned castles and mythic fairylands
concealed from near observers, had grown, in times long past, when simple
men and women only perceived, and neither understood nor criticised. The
155 X 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY,
sun and the moon and the mist and the rain, the wind and the rending
' O
frost — these were the sources of those lovely fairy-tales of old ; yet, lovely
as they are, how much less beautiful than the sources whence they sprang.
And now the clouds were quitting us altogether, to establish themselves
finally, after multitudes of changes, in their rightful home. But what a
wonder-world of magic was wrought during those changes ! How they
mirrored in their forms the features of the earth below ! There were caverns
and peaks, and deep dark gorges, and swelling bolls : all softer transcripts
of the lower world ; marvels to which the marvel of icebergs is as nothing.
And other and nobler forms yet : prophets, angels, sweet praying saints, and
dancing peris, winged birds, and bounding beasts — whatever the earth holds
incorporate within her, given back in this translation of the clouds ; given back
in all the loveliest colours, as well as in each perfectness of form ; now soft
and warmly tinted like monthly roses shed abroad ; and now a heap of snow ;
and now the black grey of funnel smoke ; and now, again, a thin and luminous
mist, not strong enough to be called cloud. And with all these changes, one
dark bank rested ever against the western sky, as motionless as if anchored ;
not changing and not moving, while this petulant foreground shifted its place
continually.
And now they lifted themselves up a few feet higher; and we saw how
soft and velvet-like was the light lying on the emerald green and golden
mole-skin brown of Loughrigg Fell, and how one side of the Windermere
valley was all in sun and like topaz and malachite, and the other all in shade,
and like the darker veins of lazule. And here stole in a ray of shame-faced
sunlight, touching some of the night-robed clouds and turning them to
brides confident of the bridegroom ; making the whiter clouds blush bright
rose-colour, and making the black a bloomy purple ; dissolving some to mere
vapour, and flinging out others into sable masses, desperately distinct : yet,
finally getting strength, and conquering the cloud-world at large, and taking
the earth back to his own life and his own love.
When we came off the mountain it was under the unclouded blue and
156
IIELVELLYX AND FAIRFIELD.
the slanting rays of a yellow sun. The birds were singing with a
leliriousness of song, and the old hills were alive everywhere with the voices
)f the brooks leaping into life ; the grass was gemmed with a thousand shining
sun-born jewels, and the trees hung laden with diamonds on every spray ;
id everything in heaven and earth looked more beautiful for the heavy
tin that had fallen throughout the day, and had washed the atmosphere to
silken lustrousness and the purity of crystal.
THE TWO EDGES
THE PIKES — FROM BLEA TAHN
LANGDALE AND THE STAKE
CHAPTER X
FROM Ullswater to Borrowdale by Grisedale Tarn, Grasmere, Great Lang-
dale, and the Stake, is a delicious day's walk of only twenty-six miles in
all; unless is added the loop of Colwith Force, Little Langdale, and Blea
Tarn, which gives another half dozen or so. Those who are not heroes or
heroines will split the transit ignominiously into divisions, though to many
the whole way would be a mere summer day's journey — a moderate " con-
stitutional " between breakfast and dinner, pleasantly flavouring the Kos-
thwaite ham and eggs. This, however, is a matter of individual liking and
power, not affecting the rest.
158
LANG DALE AND THE STAKE.
Grisedale Beck never looks so bright and living as on the morning
when you are going to leave it — it may be for ever. Place Fell is never
more majestic ; the Kirkstone mountains never fuller of gloom and mystery ;
and the lake is sure to be at its loveliest, whatever its mood, when you
turn away from them all, and go up into the wooded glen, with something
that is at least sadness if not so bitter as grief. For is it not a heart-
wrench to leave these pleasant mountain places ? Truly is it the parting
of friends ! — quiet friends, where our affections root themselves and grow
as if those grand old hills were human beings — brothers or lovers — to love
us in return !
The mountains fronting you as you ascend the Grisedale pass are
nobly grand — the long line to the right, leading to Swirrel Edge, especially
full of temptation — needing an effort of common sense not to go along its
purple ridge and once more risk your neck on the Edges; for it is some-
times an effort of common sense not to peril life unnecessarily, as all
mountain lovers know. A flock of newly shorn sheep marks out in white
the windings of a hill-side track below ; the living line, scattered and broken,
but ever continuous, repeating the rougher line above, as does the stream
lower down, and the broad grey path beside it. And when colour is
added to this delicacy of repeated form — when the ascending line of
the ridge, and the curved sweep of the side, and the harmonious flow
of the path and the stream, are mated with violet shadows and golden
sunlight — the one softening every discord, and the other giving full power
to every harmony — it may well be understood that the walk up Grisedale
Pass is a thing to be remembered and loved for a lifetime.
In time you come to Grisedale Tarn, lying under its three mountains
— Fairfield, Seat Sandal, and Helvellyn : its situation, its speciality,
though, for individual distinction, it is the largest of all the tarns; and
when you have passed Grisedale Tarn you turn to the left, between Fair-
field and Seat Sandal, and set your face towards your old friend Grasmere
again. Seat Sandal, to your right, is of a singular blue-green ; Fail-field,
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THE LAKE COUNTRY.
to your left, is a rich burnt umber splashed with lake and purple; and
your Avay down Tongue Hill — the slack between the two — is moderately
steep and sometimes immoderately boggy, with the usual winding way and
winding stream side by side.1 At one point the stream breaks out into a
fall, now a mere suggestion lipping over the brown rocks, but in the rain
times forming a wild cascade. A merry little stonechat talks and
curtsies to you as you pass; a sandpiper runs scared out of its unpro-
tected nest; and then a sudden rush of wings startles you with its
strange sound, and a dense flock of rooks — probably the Rydal rooks —
come sweeping over Seat Sandal homewards like a crowd of children
trooping out of school. For it is perhaps scarcely a day when even rooks
care to be far abroad ; glaring and sultry where you stand, but misty
towards the sea, where the tide-clouds are blowing up : a vain day — a day
of temper and show, with lovely yellow lights across the hills and blue
spaces in the sky, like a woman's hair and eyes, but a threatening of pos-
sible anger in those sullen clouds above Loughrigg, like the swollen
eyebrows and darkened forehead of temper. Under any aspect, however,
the view of Grasmere hence is lovely.
Then across the vale and up by Bed Bank to the west side of
Grasmere, where it looks the sweetest for home and the grandest for back-
ground ; where no man, who has not yet seen the nobler districts, would
ask a better boon of fortune than leave to lay down his staff and pitch his
tent for life, like any other bewitched nomad tethered by the magic
of beauty. A bit of Helvellyn is seen between Fairfield and Seat Sandal ;
Steel Fell is behind Helm Crag ; the still recess of Easedale, and the dip
where Codale lies behind its enclosing rim, are to be made out; the great
mass of Silver How, dark and beautiful, is to the left as you look down
on the valley and the lake : and when you have seen your fill of all these,
1 " From a small space of ground here the rain-water sheds into Windermere,
I'llswater, and Denvent, entering the sea by the river Leven into Morecambe Bay; Ly the
Eden into the Solway Frith ; and by the Denvent into the Irish Sea." — OTLEY'S Gii'nl<:
100
LANGDALE AND THE STAKE.
turn up to the fell, walking among sundew and starry asphodel, yellow
saxifrage and the pretty pink bells of the bog asphodel, till you come
upon Elterwater at the entrance2 of Great or "Girt" Langdale.
The mountains on this side are singularly craggy; broken, rough,
untamed masses of rock ; great unscaleable monsters, beneath which the dark
valley of Langdale3 winds away into the very jaws of the hills — the most
picturesque of any valley yet seen, the most Alpine-looking and pleasantly
2 Across the dale would lead the traveller past the head of Elterwater to Colwith
Bridge and Colwith Force, one of the finest in the country ; and then, either to Oxenfells,
Tilberthwaite, and Coniston, or, to the right, round by Little Langdale and its Tarn
and Blea Water to Dungeon Ghyll. Those, however, whose chief object is Dungeon
Ghyll and the Stake Pass must go straight up the greater dale.
3 Sir Leoline and Christabel lived at Langdale Hall, where Sir Leoline " rose and
found his lady dead," and ordained the slow tolling of the Langdale bell at dawn,
as said by Coleridge : —
" Hence the custom and law began,
That still at dawn the sacristan,
Who duly pulls the heavy bell,
Five and forty beads must tell,
Between each stroke — a warning knell :
Which not a soul can choose but hear
From Bratha Head to Wyndermere.
Saith Bracy the bard — So let it knell !
And let the drowsy sacristan
Still count as slowly as he can !
There is no lack of such, I ween,
As will fill up the space between.
In Langdale Pike and Witch's Lair,
And Dungeon Ghyll so foully rent,
With ropes of rock and bells of air,
Three sinful sextons' souls are pent,
Who all give back, one after t'other,
The death note to their living brother,
And oft too, by the knell offended,
Just as their one ! two ! three ! is ended ;
The devil mocks the doleful tale,
With a merry peal from Borrowdale."
161 Y
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
primitive. Not more primitive than Hawes Water and Mardale, but more
beautiful and loveable — a sweeter mountain retreat — where the weary would
find a refuge and not only a hiding-place, but where the young and the
high mettled would pine to death, reduced to despair by the imprisonment of
the hills.
Behind Lingmoor come up the sharp peaks of Wetherlam and of Wrynose
(pronounced Raynuz), where the Three Shire Stones are, chiefly noticeable for
the bright violet shadows lying on them, and for their roughness of outline ;
the square head of Tilberthwaite, with its heathery crags and tracts of juniper,
blocks up a large space in front ; and, to the right, one of the Pikes stands
grimly against the sky. Beautiful things that look like artificial cascades are
to be caught in the distance, all of a shining fall of grey like water struck to
stone : they are the Thrang Crag slate quarries (where the slates are " thraug"
or "thronged" enough), noted for their
picture slates, which are very curious ; for
sometimes a whole landscape is figured on
a slab, with trees and lakes and mountains
and rivers, just like their own larger natural A
selves. If you go into the excavation you /,
may knock your head against the propped- /
up roof, and see where the last block has ^
been cut ; and stumble on the loose shingle,
and cut your hands, and bruise your feet,
without being much the wiser for the ordeal ;
and then you can come out again, and look
at the falling oaks and larches, clinging to
the ground by only a root or two where they have been undermined, and
admire the porphyritic colour of the stones, and take in the whole beauty of
desolateness, in the solitude and the wreck of slates heaped up about.
Though late in the summer, say in August, hay-making will probably be
still on hand ; and the small industry of the few fields makes the loneliness of
162
THRANG CRAO QUARRY MOUTH
LAXGDALE AND THE STAKE.
the vale more apparent. Yet here are our fellow-men, with whom the same
human tragedies are enacting as on the largest theatre of social life ; though we
cannot help wondering, as so often before, what manner of being it is that they
fulfil, and what is their importance in the history of their age,4 and whether
they care for their dales and hills and flowers, which so many grand ladies
and gentlemen come whisking down by steam to see ; and what they think of
all the fine folk moving about them like Baker Street visitors about the cattle-
pens ; how the thorough-bred cockney, inane and self-satisfied, strikes them ;
and how the languid young parson, not quite certain as to the permissibility of
his manhood at all; and how the stout-limbed collegians, enthusiastic,
pedestrian and mathematical ; and the brides and bridegrooms, not looking at
the scenery critically, but simply drinking in the impression of its loveli-
ness, as flowers drink in the sunlight, and growing in their own love from
the draught — what do they think of them all ? — how do those foreign lives
affect the homebred ? One can understand the grandeurs going to Winderniere,
and Grasmere, and Keswick, or any other of the more notorious show places ;
but in these wild and primitive dales one feels an unusual sympathy with
Wordsworth's horror at the idea of lake desecration and cockney travel brought
northward by railroads, and more minded to defend these Alpine homes from
eyes that do not really love their beauty than glad to welcome new fashions
or even a " rasher " spread of gold or a nearer contact with refinements.
4 This primitive little valley, looking like a strip of Switzerland or one of the German
Alp dales, has some importance though, in the history of its tune, and an economic value to
the country at large. For here, buried among trees and in a place of beauty fitter for
temple or for palace, for parsonage or for love-cottage, than for its present uses — are the
Government powder- works : the most unlikely of all things to be found in an Alpine valley,
where apparently nothing more practical than waterfalls and crags are to be met with.
All this side of the country is famous for its charcoal. Richly wooded, and for the most
part with quick-growing timber, rather a large business is kept up in bobbins, cask-
hoops and staves, bark for tanning, fence-wood, charcoal, and more rarely, flooring-
planks and mast-wood, which form the staple of commerce in and about Langdale and
the Tilberthwaite side of the Coniston range.
163 V -2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Carrying such thoughts as part of the impress of the place, not less
true because of meeting with a noisy carriage load or two of Regent Street
bonnets and " fast " hats intermingled, you continue your appointed way
along the high road — which in fact is a mere ferny lane bounded on either
side by close walls and crags — through the meadow and over the beck, Mill
Beck, one of the sources of the Brathay : and then by the narrow stony way
to the foot of a great white tumbling cascade, called Mill Beck Force, coming
out from Stickle Tarn, with the Pikes over-topping. The highest5 to the
right is Harrison Stickle, that to the left Pike o' Stickle, and the long sweep
to the right of Harrison Stickle is Pavey Ark, in the cup or lip of which
lies Stickle Tarn, whence comes that foaming reach — the Mill Beck Force.
Just over the tarn is White Crag, where the bodies of poor William and
Sarah Green were found forty years ago, lost in a snowstorm on their way
from Langdale6 to Easedale, their own home. Their story has been preserved,
not only on account of its sad tragedy, but also because of the sweet womanly
thoughtfulness and courage of their little daughter, of nine, left in charge
of the younger six at home, and who provided and cared for them with wonder-
ful sagacity during the many days when they were blocked up by the snow,
and left parentless and almost foodless in their Easedale cottage.
Mill Beck Force foams grandly down among the crags and broken ledges,
its sides beset with purple heather just brightening into colour and now turned
by the sun to crimson, with bracken bronzed and reddened, with fleshy um-
belliferae — some of the younger leaves freed, pluming the veined spathe,
and others seeming as if they would burst clean open with the force of
the concealed life not yet come out into the sunlight. It is a pleasant
exercise to climb up the crags so far as you can without becoming actually
5 Tliis explanation refers rather to the view heading the chapter, which, taken from
the back of Blca Tarn, includes also the glorious point of Gimmer Crag, the point lying
farthest to the left, but not seen by the traveller standing near to Mill Beck Force.
6 There is a way from Grasmere by Easedale and Codale Tarns, over to Stickle Tarn,
and down by the Mill Ghyll crags into Great Langdale Head.
164
LANGDALE AND THE STAKE.
crag fast ; but it is well to remember that they are not over easy, and that
in parts they are absolutely dangerous ; yet, as you mount higher, the cascade
becomes grander, the rocks wilder, and the way more difficult, but the reward
more royal, so that you must set danger against delight, and balance both
by the order of your muscles and the steadiness of your brain.
This open face of foam and tumult is
to the right : to the left is Dungeon Ghyll,7
a dark chasm, cold and black, where the
waters pour down through a curious fissure
above, and where the stream for all its
length hereafter in the open air has a secret
look somehow, like the half-confidences of a
conspirator. As you follow this deep-voiced,
self-contained water to the Ghyllhead, you
feel that its heart will be a mystery like few
yet penetrated; and so you find it, when
you get into the damp, clammy chamber,
where the sun never shines and the free airs
never enter, but where only the waters leap
for ever and for ever, falling from the bright
upper world of the fell top into midnight
and dungeon gloom, never afterwards to
lose the stamp set upon them there. A
wonderfully impressive chasm ! — indeed it
is a piece torn out of the very body of
7 " It was a spot which you may see,
If ever you to Langdale go;
Into a chasm a mighty block
Hath fallen, and made a bridge of rock ;
The gulf is deep below ;
And in a basin black and small,
Keceives a lofty waterfall." — The Idle Shepherd Boys.
165
Till; LAKE COUNTRY.
the hill ; where the roof is two huge stones that have got wedged together,
making a narrow pathway for the adventurous to walk over if they please.
Down below are steps and ladders and helping stones to enable you to
enter into the farther chamber, where you may stand and watch the restless
waters ever hurrying down, and listen to their unceasing roar, till your brain
teems with weird fancies, and you feel yourself to be in one of the torture
chambers of the earth. Then come out into the sunshine again, and see
how the rocks look covered with green and purple and swinging honeysuckle,
and how the banks show under their carpeting of yellow stars — much the
same in effect whether spearwort or buttercup or hawkweed or potentilla —
see how full of life and song and poetry they all appear, after the gloom and
mystery of the Dungeon chamber !
The Pikes — the two Stickles — are two or three miles from Mickleden,
the head of the dale, and that head is the wildest and finest part of it.
Hitherto Lingmoor has bounded the way on the left ; now you must bear up to
the right between the Pike o' Bliscow — a grand old craggy head — and the
Pikes, and then between them and a great fore-thrown buttress of Bowfell
(itself only an outwork of Scawfell) which stands like a tongue at the
head. Bowfell proper rises beyond and behind its henchman ; and Crinkle
Crags are to the left. You walk on among the grim rocks — not coloured and
porphyritic as at Ara Force, but grey and time-worn — and through tracks of
yellow moss, with the red lines of the sun-dew beading the gold ; and over the
stone river-bed, which will have no water to-day if the season is dry, but will
be a waste of dry stone ; seeing where one road goes over by Wall End to
Blea Tarn and its larches, and where another goes up by Rosset Grhyll to
Angle Tarn and Scawfell, and how that grand old Gimmer Crag, so absolutely
lifeless — not even lichen-covered — looks almost white in the pale sunlight, and
finer than even the Pikes. As it rises in one unbroken up- springing line from
the dale to its height of over two thousand feet, it is, perhaps, the most
beautiful thing in the whole country, whether seen alone or in combination
with the Pikes from Blea Tarn, or yet farther off, from Tilberthwaite or from
166
LANGDALE AND THE STAKE.
"VVindermere ; wherever seen, still the one fine and culminating poiftt of the
whole ; but, strangely enough, not even named in some of the guide-books,
and not so notorious as the Pikes in any.
A long flat waste of marshy ground filled with watercourses and stone
beds, and a whole congeries of green mammae or giant graves like the last
dashes of foam on the strand — leads up to the foot of the pass. This is
Mickleden, and the great blind alley corresponding on the left, is Oxendale.
It is the old end of all creation, so often come to at the dale heads, — the old
hemming in by the walls of an oblong kind of cup with lips and sides
seemingly impassable. These passes are strangely suggestive ; at a distance
they look impossible, perpendicular ascents not to be conquered ; close
at hand they are nothing, a mere half-hour's pleasant mounting, and then
down again into the free country on the other side ; when really on them they
are interminable, with tops cut off like the Irishman's end of thread, and not
to be attained by any means known to a miserable walking humanity. Yet,
though you know all this by frequent experience, you will be sure to let
yourself be cheated once again, and not for the last time ; and when you
come to the foot of your mountain ladder, and see how it rounds away into a
mere garden mound above your head, you will argue quite blithely that the
Stake Pass is a nothing after all, and what can people mean by their
exaggerations — you will be over before you know that you have begun.
While standing there, looking at the eternal crest of the eternal wave,
like the grand sweep and " sshe" on the shingle, noting where it tore down
in the days when all was fluid and what a tremendous force once poured
through the dale, perhaps one of the sudden mountain storms so common
here will come over the pass, white, ghostly, and pitiless — an in-pouring of
winter through the summer warmth — blotting out every trace of the way
before you, while all the wild hills lying backward will become solemn and
listening, like neutrals waiting for the result of the fight. The clouds pour
over the edges of the hills, like waterfalls of mist ; the grey rocks turn to
white before them, and the Pikes become of a dead ash-colour ; the monu-
167
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
mental cumuli of the morning are torn and trailing wrecks in the sky, and a
world of future turmoil, angry and full of blackest fears, gathers up from
Scawfell. But the valley behind is all in sunlight yet, with no sign of the
wrath to come deadening its yellow shine. When you turn to the pass again,
there is the ghostly hurrying of silent feet, and the cloudy army rushing over
the hills in wrath to sweep through the valley in tears, the wind and the rain
and the sheeted mist and the chilling breath, desolation, and the way washed
out : perhaps bewilderment and peril, if the storm should continue or deepen.
But hope for the best, and, if you dare, walk into it cheerily ; enjoying
the sensation of struggling up a steep mountain pass, with the rain beating
into your face and drenching your clothes, which the wind will soon shake
with such good-will that it will shake the rain-drops out of them, and
which the summer sun will then warm and dry. For, in a few minutes
perhaps, the sky may burst into blue and sunshine ; the skirts of the mist
will gather themselves up, though one black rain-edge may still linger on
the top of Bow Fell, and over the Pike o' Bliscow will hang the last shreds
of a thin, diffused vapour, like a veil or a garment spread abroad. And the
effect of this thin mist gathered up into denseness in one part, and at the
other spread out into light grey layers, filmy and diaphanous, is very lovely.
Windermere and the plains beyond are enframed in the dip made by the
Pikes and Lingmoor, like a picture exquisitely coloured, seen from a window.
The bounding line is positive cobalt, intensely and purely blue ; the middle
distance is of yellow, shading through grey to green and purple ; and the
nearer tints are of velvet softness, or of radiant brightness. You will have
the opportunity of watching all this for a long time and often ; for your way
is not the mere half hour's stout footing that it seemed to be at the base,
but a long, tough, and rough hour's climb, with frequent rests, as of neces-
sity, in between. At last, however, you lose it all when you are on the
top of the pass, in a waste of stones with a black pool and a brawling stream
beside you : rugged forms closing you in all round, and a wide cup— a broad,
shallow basin — before you, which you have to cross.
168
1.. \.\GDALE AND THE STAKK
No smooth slopes here ; no mammal likenesses, rich and fertile in
their suggestiveness ; if waves, then waves when the wrath of the sea was
spoken in foam and broken in angry spray upon the land ; when the
fury of passion stamped itself on the rocks, and was incorporated for ever
in the tumbled froth of stone scattered abroad. Yet how one longs to go
to the tops of all these big mountains reared up round the rim of the
waste-cup ! How one yearns to follow the feet of Bowfell, where it crawls
away up to Scawfell ; and to tread the long broad shoulder of Gable Moor
to Angle Tarn ; and to learn the features of Glaramara's hoary head
looking out from the rift yonder ! What delight it would be to climb
those crags to the right, beyond which would be found Stickle Tarn
and the backs of the Pikes, and Codale Tarn, and the Easedale range ; or
even to get down into Borrowdale by the fell tops, where that fine sweep
ends (or seems to end) in Eagle Crag ! But tarns and mountain-tops must
be left for another day. You must carry yourself and your knapsack
over the rim of your great unfinished waste-plot of the world, and down
by Langstreth (Longstreet) into Borrowdale ; which you will find quite rude
and fatiguing enough before you come to Rosthwaite this evening.
Skiddaw and Blencathra now show themselves behind and beyond the
Borrowdale Fells. The fells get finer and the crags more broken ; the road
momently more steeply rugged as it dashes down the broad shoulder — so
sharply that you constantly lose sight of it altogether, and have no perception
of the next turn when this acute angle is ended. Langstreth, the valley
below, is wilder than even Langdale, grander and more powerful ; and that
Force, unbaptized by any guide-book but which is called in the country
Gatescarth Ghyll, falling over the broad face of rock by your right, has a
bolder look than many better known and more celebrated. Indeed, it is
all wilder and larger and more energetic here than what you have seen
before, and more beautiful.
At last — and not until after a long descent — you come down into the
narrow path, and the stony one, lying between Glaramara and the Borrowdale
169 Z
T1IK LAKE COUNTRY.
Fells ; a long hour's rude journey leading you under that magnificent
monster, Eagle Crag, standing sentinel between the gorges of Greenup
and Langstreth, and under Bull Crags opposite. Then hy a wide, dry
torrent bed, where the stones are brought down by the winter rains and
storms from the mountain tops ; and by terrible roads of stone, worse than
sea-shore shingle ; and under great heaps of stones ; and by hill-side cataracts
of stones ; till the primitive old hamlet of Stonethwaite is reached — Stone-
thwaite rightly called, indeed ! — for surely here are all the waste stone-heaps
.of creation ! To add to the desolateness of the lonely dwellers in this hamlet,
they do not see the sun for three months in the year. "On" or "about"
the twenty-fourth of February, the first ray shivers down upon a house-
top, from the cleft between Bull Crags and Hanging Haystack. And Stone-
thwaite then has nine months of very doubtful shine to make up for its
three months of darkness.
Yet even this miserable place has its amenities. About its rocks and
crags are gracious little crumpled sprays of oak fern — and the startled -
looking beech fern putting back its ears like a kid, or that kid-like plant,
the cyclamen — and rarer plants still, among its secret sacred haunts, to be
found by diligent searchers fond of exploring rough mountain sides, and
to whom a rare fern is as precious as a jewel, and a new wild flower as dear
as a new friend. There must be this love, though, to make Stonethwaite
anything but a desert or a prison ; as there must be love to help man through
every rough pass in life.
STICKLE TARN
THE TARNS
CHAPTER XI
BORROWDALE is good head-quarters for the tarns ; and a tarn hunt is by no
means unexciting sport ; for though all of the more important are named
in the guide-hooks and figured on the maps, still there are a few neither
spoken of nor marked, the finding of which is a true discovery to the
ordinary traveller, leading him into the heart of many a secret of nature,
and showing the form of many of her workings. We get to the back of
the mountains, so to speak, on such expeditions as these ; and when not
to the back, then to the inner depths, where we can follow the track of the
forces by which these great things have been done, tracing where the fire
has fused and the water wasted ; and seeing how the mighty shaping hand
has fashioned the mountain world to perfect nobleness, and where it has
left rough, unfinished bits, like waste-plots in the great garden : rough
bits, where only ferns and moss and heather are flung by the summer's
charity, and where useless water gathers into useless hollows, idle for the
171 Z 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
world's work, if glorious for the world's beauty. Yet not wholly useless :
for they all send out small subscriptions to the general fund, and at least
help to swell, if they do not originate, the wealth of rivers and the bounty
of the sea; in which manner they are working members, if unnoted, in the
great republic of natural forces. Not that every mountain stream springs
from a tarn, but almost every tarn l sends out a stream. Then, tarn-hunting
teaches the relative position of places almost as exactly as do the mountain-
tops, leading by "backs," and "shoulders," and "slacks," and "feet,"
and over the lower heights straight to half a dozen seemingly irreconcilable
districts, each one of which is a day's journey from the other by the beaten
track. Thus, Easedale and Sty Head in one day must needs include some
glorious cross-country experiences, as you will find if you set out from
Rosthwaite as your centre, to see how many tarns may be found between
the morning and the night.
Go first to lonely Stone thwaite, on which if the sun is shining as
you pass it may be counted a notable thing in the Stouethwaite calendar ;
not following the stony road to the Stake Pass, but leaving Langstreth
and Eagle Grag to the right, and taking the left-hand gorge of Greenup
instead. Climb straight up the gorge, past the rocky pool where the
two streams join, past Garnett's Force — a beautiful cascade, not generally
known, its only present sponsors the shepherds — then up Greenup Edge
towards High Raise, keeping Line End Crag to the right, till you come
upon a vast bowl-shaped amphitheatre, something like that of the Stake,
but not so large. This you cross in the direction of Grasmere, climbing
the opposite rim where a line of stone piles marks the way for the
belated shepherds and the snow-bound, and where an outcrop of grey stones
through the yellow boggy grass is in striking contrast of colour. A
fine up-rising of mountain tops is to be seen from here : Whinlatter and
Grisedale Pike over Maiden Mawr ; Robinson in a dip over Eagle Crag ;
1 Blind Tarn by Collision Old Man is an exception, being without any issuing stream.
\7->
THE TARNS.
Dale Head over Bull Crag; the sheer precipice of Honister over Serjeant
Crag ; and the little point of Cam beyond Glaramara. But Glaramara itself
has probably faded away into a cloud, which also impenetrably conceals
Bowfell. A little farther on, and all this is lost, and you look down on
Wythburn Head to Wythburn and Thirlmere (but merely to a corner of this
last lying far below, between Cat Crags and Steel Fell), and on Ruddy Ghyll
Brow in Wythburn Head to the left of Cat Crags, with Green Comb above.
The mists may probably be thick here, veiling the tops of the highest
mountains — Helvellyn, Seat Sandal, and Fairfield — and draping their feet too,
so that they may be of any imaginable height and circumstance ; but not
hiding the great slip of screes a hundred feet high, on Ruddy Ghyll Brow (all
green ground now), which burst out with some rush of water one day, laying
bare a strip of mountain bark which will never have power to grow again.
Across Deep Slack, a disturbed hollow, with wave-like mounds and rocks
and stones and all manner of ground irregularities, you look on something
round and light ; like a diamond in the heart of an uncut emerald cup
about which still clings some of the green-grey matrix ; that green-grey
matrix is the outcome of stone against the mountain side, and the diamond is
Codale Tarn. So immediately overhanging it is the crag whereon you stand
that it seems as if you could drop into the water beneath, as you could drop a
ball into Red Tarn and Keppel Cove Tarn from Swirrel Edge. It is a singular
effect that of standing on a summit, with a sheet of water immediately
below: and of dangerous fascination. For who does not know the impulse,
more or less strong according to temperament, to fling oneself off the top, and
learn the mysteries of that dark blue world below ? The Germans were not
far wrong when they embodied this impulse in the legend of fair-haired Nixes
luring men to their destruction by the insatiable longing of the unknown
love !
As you rise the last few yards, under the unseen horizon — unseen, because
of the formless mist hanging round it — you catch a dim streak of water
lying as it might be in the sky, but which you know to be "VVindermere ;
173
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
another to the right, rather less dim, which is Elterwater ; Rydal-mere is in :i
hollow to the left ; and between Rydal-mere and Codale Tarn is Easedale Turn,
lying lower than the rest, under those steep, rough, fence-ways, called Carr's
Crags — pleasant scrambling places for the sure-footed and adventurous, but
terrifying to neophytes not yet familiar with mountain circumstance. Very
wild and very lonely are these two tarns ; Codale the wilder of the two, because
more rock-bound and of higher altitude than Easedale, but neither sparing
much for softness or tenderness, neither borrowing of the Sybarite roses or
eiderdown for the rugged Doric bonework beneath ; true mountain tarns, both
of them, born in the wilds where but little of pleasure and less of gain leads
human footsteps — their only companions the free creatures of the air and the
gracious throngings of the sky. Ah ! if all men could be taught the
deliciousness of a lonely mountain tarn, and a rough mountain scramble,
where they would cut their feet, and graze their knees, and tear their hands,
and get wet-footed in the bogs, and wet-backed in the mists, and meet with
nothing more exciting than a flock of frightened mountain sheep or a noisy
swoop of plovers screaming overhead ! If they could but be all inoculated
with the love of such joys as these, how much better it would be for the present
world and for the future generations !
Now to the right — your landmark Harrison Stickle, which, as well as
his Combe, soon comes in sight ; and so to the point whence you can look
down on Stickle Tarn, and over it and Great Langdale and Blea Tarn to
Wetherlam, and such distance beyond as the day may allow. Esthwaite
Water has now come within view, to the right of the dim line of Winder-
mere; but Blea Tarn is too close under the rocks overhanging to be seen.
Stickle Tarn, however, is enough for any picture by itself, shadowed as it
is by those fierce Langdale crests, with mountains stretching away to the
right, and to the left Windermere, Esthwaite, and Elterwater, like lakes seen
in a dream. White Crags are in front of the Stickle, and the tarn lies between
in a sort of shelf or cup, under Pavey Ark. It is used as a reservoir for the
service of the Langdale Government powder-works, and is none the less
174
THE TARNS.
beautiful for its usefulness ; its outlet is that fine Mill Beck Force which is
seen when passing through Great Langdale on the way to Dungeon Ghyll and
the Stake. A little peep of Bowfell to the left of the Stickle is to be had, and
to the right the line of the peak rises up into an independent jag called
Harrison's Combe, a kind of cock's-comb-shaped crest of crags for the
mountain's top — what old country wives would call a " top-knot."
The Stickle is a grand tarn, lying in the manner of a hanging water-
garden in a shallow basin seemingly specially hollowed out for it : as unlike
both Codale and Easedale Tarns as these are unlike each other, but quite
as wild and lonely, and as far removed from the human world as either.
And, perhaps, this is the real meaning of these tarns — this utter isolation,
and, in general, severance from all the uses of human life; like something
given us which we must retain but over which we have no control — a
savage child dropped at our doors, of whom we can make neither playmate
nor servant.
And now straight away to the right of the Combe for Angle Tarn under
Bowfell at the head of Rosset Ghyll; best reached by crossing the great
Stake Pass Amphitheatre, and over the beck that falls down Gatescarth Ghyll,
and then up the shoulder of Gable Moor, with Scawfell sullen in the lowering
sky before you, and Bowfell blacker and more sullen still. But perhaps
old Glaramara has caught a ray of the passing sunlight, and seems to smile,
as sunny mountains do, with such a welcome of friendliness ! — the only lover,
open-faced, in a company of veiled strangers.
It is a " dree " way up the Gable shoulder at all times, but specially so in
the dull monotone of certain atmospheric conditions ; yet even in such dust-
coloured times there are breaks of rich effects and gorgeous colourings, and
always magnificent outlines and grand circumstance of rock and fell : such
as that deep, indented, purple wall of Allan Crags which you fall upon in
your way up Gable, and that smaller and further intervention of turf-clad
mountain bone called the Tongue, dividing little Ghyll Head. To the left
of which stands Rosset Pike, where lies a -black well-head of a tarn ; very
175
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
deep, for it is black almost to the brink, with grey-white stones and green
turf chasing for the jet all around, and a dark mass of fell like that at the
back of Small Water behind it. This is Angle Tarn under Bowfell. Ami
here the dull monotony of your day may be broken ; for down a nameless
rift in the dark fells comes an outpouring of clouds, every now and then
covering the black face upturned to them, and then quietly stealing down
that steep bit of loose screework, by courtesy named a pony road, which goes
over the side of Bowfell down Mickleden into Great Langdale — in other words,
the famous Kosset Ghyll Pass. These sudden outpourings of clouds scatter
the monotonous sullenness of the day grandly ; they make the dark beauty
of Angle Tarn more gravely, mournfully, tender than it would have been,
softening to sorrow what else was fierceness and desolation, and bringing the
grace of tears over the hardness of despair.
From Angle Tarn mount immediately towards Esk Hawse (pronounced
Ash Kawse by the dalesmen), taking your farewell of Langdale Pikes : the
three very plain now, and beautiful Gimmer Crag, the Crag of the Ewe Lamb,
showing well and grandly defined. Directly before you is the same kind of
crest or comb as that of Harrison's Combe, crowning the brant brow sloping
over from Angle Tarn to Langstreth ; and a few steps farther bring you to
a spot where, looking over Tongue Ghyll into Langstreth, you see an inky
pool, a rocky edge, a foaming rush, — and the beck a mile down immediately
176
TIIK TAKXS.
after. Such a magnificent hurling from tho heights as it is !— such a grand
and headlong outfall ! But the head should he steady which looks over
into the rift, and the feet sure that stand on the edge, and courage should
not weaken itself by rashness, and daring should be specially careful of folly.
This, indeed, may stand as stereotyped advice for all mountain explorers
venturing into unknown places, and beset by many temptations to over
boldness. For it is a temptation of surpassing force, the noble view to be
had from that giddy crest — it is a temptation, the rare fern known to be
growing down that steep face of rift ; so steep that even the mountain sheep
do not cross it — the flower to be found among those perilous rocks, and
planted as a trophy in the quiet garden at home — the wild bird's nest among
those almost insurmountable crags ; what allurements to danger, all of these,
to the young and ardent, and those who believe in the worth of a muscular
manhood, and in the analogous beauty, for the matter of that, of a powerful
womanhood ! If lives are sometimes left at the feet of these great mountain
sirens, we can scarcely wonder at the fascination which leads men to such
sacrifice.
Now on to Esk Hawse, where one of the finest. views of the country
is to be had — a view that takes in, as one section, the Scotch mountains lying
beyond Borrowdale and the vale of Keswick, Skiddaw, and the Solway ;
as the other, Eskdale and its white line of river running through the
green narrow valley, the sands and the sea and desolate Black Combe ; and
for the third, the Langdale and Brathay valleys on to Windermere and
Ingleborough. A grand view in truth ! grand in the sunshine and the shade,
in the morning and the evening alike. Here, too, is the famous Fludder's
Brow where the guides and shepherds meet for business, as they do on
High Street, and used to do at the Justice Stone by Thhirnere; but your
path will keep you nearer to Scawfell than to Fludder's Brow to-day : first
passing by that great ravine which looks as if ploughed by some world-
wasting cataract, lying almost on the mountain top. A deep, winding, and
most noticeable ravine is this : thirty, forty, fifty feet down — it may be a
177 A A
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
hundred or a thousand or many thousands for all the accuracy of measure-
ment to be had by the bewildered eye : with fierce-coloured iron-red sides,
and a little beck at the bottom, which finds its way down High House side
to Stockley Beck and Borrowdale ; a ravine nameless so far as we could
find, but grander than half those baptized. This passed, keep away under
Great End ; if it be a misty day, walking in and out of the clouds as you
walk in and out of passages and fields and woods, till you come to Sparkling
Tarn, sometimes called Sprinkling Tarn, set, not in a cup but in a mere
hollow, on the top of High House.
Angle Tarn needed the cloud blackness, which suited well with its depth
under the high fell shadow ; but Sparkling Tarn — lying in its shallow basin
on the very brow of High House, looking up into the face of the sky, and
catching the faintest glint of sunshine that falls — seems born only for the
light of heaven to mirror itself within — only for the smiles and the joy of
the sunshine : a bright-faced, bright-eyed little Naiad resting on the bosom
of the old green hill, and playing with the sunbeams as they get entangled
in her hair. The rim of the tarn is singularly shallow ; it seems
scarcely high enough to prevent the water from overflowing High House
sides, and streaming down at every angle, instead of keeping its appointed
channel as feeder in principal to Sty Head Tarn ; but if shallow it is broad,
with a great promontory of turf and rock — almost an island — plunging into
its very heart, and giving food and shelter to the mountain sheep. It is
very beautiful and remarkable, lying there on the mountain top with only
so narrow a ledge of rock to keep it within bounds and prevent it shedding
178
THE TARNS.
itself all abroad. The proper course of the issuing stream is down a little
rocky bed to Sty Head Tarn, of which it is the principal feeder, as was said ;
but not much of a feeder to the Sty Head fishes, for they — no, the anglers —
complain that these suifer considerably in food and flesh by the impoverish-
ment of the. Sparkling waters, of which the Sparkling fishes have had the
first and fullest benefit. A strange fact, but quite intelligible ; and almost
patent in the general aspect of seemliness in this well-conditioned tarn —
fishpond, or Naiad's home, as one chooses to be practical or imaginative.
Scarcely a hundred yards from this lovely little water-world you come
upon another tarn — your real discovery of" the day ; a tarn known only to
the shepherds, and not even to the guides, still less to guide-book makers.
It is a sort of toy-lake, different to anything seen before ; oval, surrounded
by small, slaty, basaltic-looking crags, part with a little grass growing in
among them, and part a mere piling up of small stones, as if they were
miniature crags built by children : a very fairies' lake on which you will
come with as much pleasure as if you had fallen upon a royal child among
the shepherds, or a white enchanted fawn among the sheep. It is called
by the few who know of it, High House Tarn ; and, like Sparkling Tarn,
sends down its little toy tributary into Sty Head Tarn. As the mists steal or
scud over it, it is the most lovely and most unreal vision of a lake that can be
imagined — quite a haunted lake ; the undrugged cup of an innocent Circe,
HIQH HOUSE TARK
A A 2
THE LAKE COL" NTH Y.
the home of a mountain Calypso where is no Ulysses. Beyond it lie three
other tarulets — mere watery beads on the grass — anonymous, yet worth
looking at, and of no mean account in the day's "bag;" but dwarfed in
interest by the superior beauty of the fairy lake. They ought to be seen
first to have real justice done to them. However, there they are, and,
first or last, are very pretty watery beads, if not so fair as the brighter
gem of High House.
After this you can go by a short, steep, and it must be owned not
wholly safe, cut down to Sty Head Tarn lying black under the green walls,
cloud-topped, of Great Gable, which like Helvellyn and Seat Sandal in the
morning, may be of any height under the disguise of the evening mist. But
Sty Head Tarn, when you reach it, has a worldly look, lying as it does in
the midst of the pass ; and wild as it seems to the traveller going over from
Rosthwaite to Wastwater, it is but a tame home-pond to the " hunter " who
has made his own way across the wildest hills we have, and who, like a moun-
tain Columbus, has found for himself water-worlds uncatalogued before. Now
descend the pass towards Borrowdale, leaving the immense great end of Ling-
mell on your left — the two Gables, Great and Green, in front, from between
which flows a stream into Sty Head Tarn. On the other side of Gable Head
Ghyll — the two sources but a few yards apart — flows another beck into
Ennerdale, to supply Whitehaven with fresh water. You cross Sty Head
Beck, the outlet of Sty Head Tarn and one of the " forbears " of the Derwent ; l
1 The genealogy of the Derwent, so far as we could arrive at it — but these local
variations were very difficult to verify — may serve as a specimen of how these mountain
streams are made, and by how many upland littles comes the mickle of the great river
watering the plains and bringing riches to towns and cities. Stockley Beck comes from
above High House, out of the ravine by Esk Hawse under Great End : this is, we
believe, the real or highest source of the Derwent. From Sparkling Tarn and High
House Tarn a stream falls into Sty Head Tarn ; another also from between the Gables —
Great and Green : the outlet of Sty Head Tarn is Sty Head Beck (in which is the Force
called Taylor's Ghyll, being at the foot of the Ghyll, but not in it), which falls into Stockley
Beck, a little below Stockley Brig. Down Langstreth comes a stream from Angle Tarn
under Bowfell; and from tlio Stake Pass falls another, Gatnsoarth Ghyll. into it; and
180
THE TARNS.
and then down to Stockley Brig, your old place of desolate delight. Now
through lonely, humid Seathwaite,2 and by the mines and the yew-trees and
Keppel Crag and Jenny Bank's Crag beyond, and by Sour Milk Grhyll
opposite, and through the fields by the beck (the fields where used to be the
mad "man-keen" bull3 that went raging mad if it heard the voice or step
of a man) ; and so, over Seathwaite Brig and Strands Brig to Kosthwaite :
the circle of your tarns complete.
The rooks will be going home in the twilight, the owls hooting, and
the bracken throwing out its powerful scent, the yellow moon is looking at you
just over Glaramara, peeping into the Tarn of Leaves on Glaramara, and
these two, united, join a third force, Greenup Edge, at Stonethwaite. Greenup Edge, the
Stake, Langstreth, Borrowdale, High House, Sty Head Pass, Honister, and between
the Scawdales, and many an untracked beck besides, all send down their supplies to form
the river Derwent, which is carried through the Derwent lake on to Bassenthwaite, and
thence to the sea — a broad, full, gracious river, but born of a mere mountain rivulet
which a child could leap across.
2 Humid indeed : the average annual rainfall, taking ten years as the basis, is over
one hundred and twenty-six inches for Seathwaite; for the rest of England it is twenty-
nine inches.
3 Bulls cannot long be kept sane in these narrow valleys ; the constantly repeated
echoes of their own bellowings make them mad. There are always some local " bogies " of
this kind — always a mad bull somewhere in the lake district ; and awful brutes they are to
look at, and something more than awful to meet. This mad bull of Seathwaite had a no
mean list of killed and damaged, more or less true, tacked to its reputation ; and, indeed,
even a brave man might own to something like tremor at the sight of its fierce head thrust
above a low stone wall, its eyes literally flashing with fiery red rage, foam hanging about
its lips and nostrils, its whole attitude, as it pawed and stamped and tore up the ground,
one of ungovernable fury, and its voice a low, harsh grunt, like a bellow dwarfed and
roughened and strangled by passion. The wall looked perilously low, and the padlocked
gate seemed dangerously old and crazy, when we passed the field where our " man-keen "
friend was snorting and grunting and stamping, as he glowered after us viciously, and
with a wicked expression of disappointment in his blood-red eyes ; and though we had met
and passed tranquilly enough many a bull and many a wild-looking herd of kine on the
hills in our rambles, we did not pass the place of the Seathwaite bull with pulses quite so
calm or steps quite so even as heretofore ; nor did the dalespeople themselves : all were
more or less terrified at the mad man-hater.
181
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
into Dock Tarn on the Rosthwaite Fells, and then dipping again behind the
hills, as you wander up the road — it is to he hoped not too tired, after your
twelve hours' stiff mountain work, to tell of the beauties of the ten tarns JIIK!
the four lakes which you have seen to-day and made friends of for life.
STY HEAD TARN
CRUMMOCK AND BUTTERMERE
FROM LOWFELL
fjiEr*o '^-ww- )^v^
V? ^ -/:?'v
BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS
CHAPTER XII
THESE three lakes are always taken together; with sufficient geographical
reason, connected as they are by a river-chain 1 of which they are only
the larger and more open loops, and lying in a banded row between two
spokes of the mountain wheel, one of which divides them from Newlands,
and the other from lonely Ennerdale. But though so closely united, they
1 Two mountain streams fall into and form Buttermere lake, and, by consequence,
Crummock : the one rising in Honister Crag, called Gatescarth Beck (Gatescarth or.
perhaps, more properly Gaitscarth — the way over the scaur or steep hill ; or the Goats' hill ).
because it runs down through Gatescarth dale; the other rising in the Haystack.-, called
1'xck. mot-ting with a third, rising in Flcctworth, and then called Wanscalc.
183
T1IK LAKE COUNTRY.
are very different in character, passing from the tame and pastoral prettincss
of Lowes Water through the mature grandeur of Crummock up to the stern
severity of the head of Buttermere ; striking a chord of beauty, unlike and
yet harmonious, not to be bettered in the country.
There are three ways from Keswick to these lakes ; one over Whinlatter
and by the old Cockermouth road to the Vale of Lorton, and so to Scale Hill
and Lowes Water ; another by Newlands and Buttermere Hawse ; and the
third and grandest, by Borrowdale and Honister Crag. There are, also, the
two fine passes of Black Sail and Scarf Gap, leading from Wastwater to
Buttermere ; and a way by Floutern Tarn and Scale Force from Ennerdale
to Crummock, or over Blake Fell to Lowes Water beyond. But these
are mere mountain " trods." The first three mentioned are good broad
carriage-roads, severe in their structure certainly, and demanding extra
strength of horse-flesh and more stoutness of skid than usual to ordinary
highways — but carriage-roads all the same ; though not a little frightful to
those unaccustomed to them, and absolutely perilous if south-country horses
are used, or, indeed, any but those trained in the mountain ways — then they
are safe enough, provided the driver is sober and the tackling sound. We
will speak first of the way by Whinlatter.
By Southey's Thorn — an ugly, crippled, old thorn-tree in a field on
the Cockermouth road; by the Thornthwaite woods and orchards looking
Beck, coming out from little Loaf Tani, Hassness Beck, and Boulden Beck, and one or two
more runlets of no importance, also help as feeders to the lake. The great stream of Sour
Milk Force, coming out of Bleaberry Tarn, falls into the Dubs, not the lake ; and the Dubs
(or Pools in ordinary English) is the stream connecting Buttermere and Crummock lakes.
Ruddy Beck — quite a little fellow — Rannerdale Beck from between Whitelees and Grasmoor,
Cinnerdale (Cinderdale) Beck, and Wandham out of the Newlands mountains, whi<-h is
first Wandham, then Millbeck after it has passed the bridge, and then Driggora lower down —
Mossdale Beck out of Floutem Tarn, High Nook Beck, and Scale Beck, the stream into
which Scale Force subsides, all help to form Crummock; falling either into the Dubs
flowing from Buttermere, or into Park Beck flowing from Lowes Water into Crummock,
or into the lake itself. The stream falling out of Crummock is the Cocker, on which
Cockermouth is built, and where it loses itself in the Denvent.
184
BUTTERMERE, CBUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
full of beauty and the loveliness of home ; • past Mad Beck by Braithwaite,
which so extraordinarily overflows its bounds at certain times — hence its
name, by no means a libel on its nature ; over Braithwaite Bridge with the
< tuple niiini trichoma nes, the maidenhair spleenwort, feathering its stones; and
up by the back of the Newlands mountains — Causey Pike, (rhyll Mickle,
dimmer Pike, and the rest, finer as you go on ; and then you are fairly
upon the slaty, steep ascent of Whiulatter at the back of Thornthwaite,
Barf Fells above, with the Wythop woods beyond. The vales of Keswick
and of Bassenthwaite wind below ; not the lakes, only the valleys ; Der-
vventwater, to the right, being hidden by the Newlands mountains, and
Bassenthwaite, to the left, obstructed by Lord's Seat and its own particular
fells. But the scene is one of exquisite softness ; and though you know
that those bright gold -co loured tracts out by Basseuthwaite cover the poorest
heart of soil, and that those fair green level spaces are swanips, fruitful
chiefly to the water-fowl, yet you let yourselves be charmed with false faith
and fair appearances, and believe in the richness which has only show for
its dowry, and no reality for its substance.
Yes, the view from Whiulatter is very great, if even a little delusive
in the matter of commercial value. Skiddaw has a noble frontage, and is
mild and many-fleshed, as best beseems him ; while stern Helvellyn, far
away, is softened by distance as faults are softened by absence, till its
huge severity of bulk and form has become the force of grandeur only, like
a turbulent manhood mellowed into a wise old age. The wooded lanes, and
homestead fields, and quiet houses scattered about the vales, all blend together
in one sweet emphasis of peace and love ; and the silver band of the winding.
2 Thornthwaite and Braithwaite, hut especially the former, are famous for their orchards,
which are held to be the best in the district ; and their spring-time loveliness, when out in
full blossom, is one of the really beautiful sights of the place. Pail of the clergyman's
income at Thomthwaite arises from the orchard which is the only bit of glebe he has ; mid
the value of the fruit of which averages about twelve pounds yearly, lint the lake country
generally makes a very indifferent orchard ground, not for berries which are plentiful au
fine, hut for all the pomaceous group.
185 B B
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
river runs from each to each with that wonderful expression of life and spc •»•< -li
which a river always infuses into a landscape. It is one of those views
which impresses itself on the memory, clamped as it is with so much
grandeur in the background, and such softness in the low-lying depths ;
and when seen in the autumn time with the Wythop woods all tawny
orange and russet brown, and Skiddaw purpled and bronzed and crimsoned
with heath and ling and the dying bracken, it is as much a marvel of
•colouring as of nobleness of form.
Then along the slaty Whinlatter Pass, with the great masses of fell
rising boldly up on either side — bare-flanked Grisedale Pike to the left,
showing his twenty- six hundred feet and eighty of height in a fine uprearing
head — Lord's Seat (seventeen hundred and twenty-eight feet high,) — and
Wythop and Whinlatter and Barf fells, broken not so much into the naked-
ness of crags as into green and scattered steeps — the sweep between covered
with coarse brent grass, a rush which is plaited for basket-work of a kind.
It is a desolate way from the top of the pass to King End, when the
broad plains of Cockermouth, fertile and field-full, burst on the sight,
bounded by the s.ea with its band of light, and broken into on the left
by the Lorton hills, overlapping at the foot, and studded with white houses
set high up on the sides ; higher than elsewhere, as it seems from here,
or whiter, which comes to the same thing perhaps.
You leave the fair plains of Cockermouth veiled tenderly in haze, and
the shining sea line, and the Scottish mountains very dim, too, in the
mist beyond the sea, and the road leading down to where the sweet Lorton
valley opens out into the plains as a way of escape for beleaguered moun-
BUTTERMEBE, CBUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
taineers — keeping the higher terrace ; whence you have a delicious view of
the whole vale and the Whinfield fells to back it, and where you can
make out the one solitary yew-tree, that famous "pride of Lorton vale,"3
as a dark spot beside a white farm-house. You pass hedges flush with
summer flowers, rich-coloured cows, whitened sheep with orange-red housings
daubed on them, children in big bonnet-hoods and frocks tucked up, weeding
in the fields, and calves at the gates being fed as delicately as babes ; and
then you turn from all this tenderness of the vale life, and get back to the
wilder hills again ; rounding the end of the " spoke," out by Whiteside and
Scalehill.
These rugged, steep ascents ! — they dwarf the earlier fells to nothing !
— each new cone seeming more terrible than the last as you wind round
the forward spurs down into the Crummock valley, past Kirkfell and
Harrat Crag, and Swineside and its maen, and over pretty Hope Beck
falling into the Cocker at a little distance off, with Dod and Whiteside
and high Grasmoor and lower Ladhouse and the naked head of Whitelees
Pike, all to the left; where also is "Dick Nieve," a mountain "fist"4 of
goodly dimensions. And then you come down to Scale Hill, where fierce
Mellbreak is before you, surpassing, if not overtopping, them all. The bright
3 " Thei'e is a yew tree, pride of Lorton vale.
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore,
Not loath to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Percy, ere they march'd
To Scotland's heath, or those that cross'd the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azinconr,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, or Poictiers.
Of vast circumference, and gloom profound,
This solitary tree, a living thing.
Produced too slowly ever to decay ;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroy'd. '
^ Nieve means a list.
187 B B 2
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
blue dragon-flies are flitting about, and the day is hot with the true summer
heat, gladdening and enlivening, but not flowing over into that sullen con-
gestion whereby storms and tempests are engendered ; a bright, innocent,
i-heery summer heat, the fittest day in which to see so bright and innocent
a lake as Lowes Water.5
Then by Gillerthwaite and down the steep hill to the banks of the
lake ; through High Gap Yett, and over Crabtree Beck, and under the
brows of Low Fell, till you come to the tame and uninteresting country
at the foot — a land of level ugliness, with neither the richness of the valleys
nor the beauty of the hills to give it value. But at the head the old grandeur
remains ; and when the sun and cloud throw their magic of light and shade
across the broken steeps of Blake Fell, and over the uprising of which
Honister is the wildest member, the timid banks of Lowes Water have
a charm about them sufficiently satisfying to soul and sense. Add the
accessories — the orchids in the fields below Low Fell, the birds singing
and the bees humming over the cow-wheat and the stonecrops, the smell
of the firs and of the peeled oak bark, the lake rippling its tune against
the pebbles on the shore, the stream of golden glory falling from the evening
sun which makes the cows a fiery red, and the grey walls a purpled red,
and the great stony cones round the two inland lakes heather-coloured, and
Eannerdale Knot like an immense piece of porphyry stuck cornerwise into
the water, and fills all the mountain distances with mystery and love, and
bespreads the sky with clouds carrying the last colours of the day : which
5 Lowes Water has one peculiarity, quite exceptional to itself. Its discharging river
(Park Beck), instead of running on towards the sea, as with all the other lakes, flows
backward, as it were, into Crummock, so that instead of being a continuation of the
preceding two lakes, it is an independency — a separate water-world of its own — holding no
ties or duties in common with its neighbours. And though both Crummock and Buttermere
lakes are full of char, none is found in Lowes Water; apparent likeness of food and
harbourage, and even actual connexion of water, proving no law to these dainty and
capricious creatures : as in the distinction which they and the trout make between the
Brathay and the Rotlmy.
188
BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
illuminations would beautify the tamest paragraph in the great natural
page.
"Bound the lake" of Lowes Water is one of the favourite walks of
the neighbourhood ; not often taken, truly, because so few people ever care
to stay at any of these lakes. Within a day's excursion of Keswick, they
are simply visited, not studied — looked at, not learnt; for, in a country
where there are professed grandest bits few take to heart the simpler views,
which however in a less picturesque neighbourhood would be widely
sought after. This walk round Lowes Water is very choice ; though marred
in its integrity of beauty by the swampy ugliness of the country at the
immediate foot. There is first the quaint little church belonging to
the parish ; 6 and then there is the pretty cascade falling from Carling
Knot, with its froth and its foam and its unruly mountain life ; and
there are the woods and the crags, and the incessant shifting of the
mountain picture, and Crabtree Beck, and the sweet lake-side road, and
the pleasant inn at the end of it. Only a seven miles walk or so ; and
yet how many of the thousands visiting our country yearly, ever dream of
taking this walk into their experiences ?
But if Lowes Water is tame, Crummock7 is grand. The mountain
system is different here to elsewhere ; the spoke is splintered across, as if
6 Lowes Water was the manor of Randolphus or Ranulphus de Lindsay. In Richard
the First's time, " William Lindsay sued out a writ of right against Henry Clarke, of
Applehy, the Countess of Albemarle, and Nicholas Estoteville, for Loweswater and other
lands." The parish registers of Lowes Water contain some curious particiilars respect'ng
the characters and incidents of certain deceased ; things of only local interest, but full of
quaint revelations, at least to those to whom the lives of men and women, utterly unknown
and unimportant in the world at large, can convey any object of human sympathy.
7 Crummock means a cow with a crumpled horn. Does not Tarn o' Shanter speak of
" Loupin' and flingin' ower a crummock?" Many of the names about here — Bttttermere,
Orummock, Sour Milk Ghyll, and even Lowes Water, if one chose to force a meaning —
seem to allude to the dairy-farm capacities of this valley ; and it is, in truth, rich and
pastoral, as if the very home and haunt and appointed place of cows.
189
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
against the grain, and the forms are all sharper and more conical, more split
and bare than usual, with a savage, vixenish, unaccommodating look quite
special to themselves. Whiteless Pike, Mellbreak, Red Pike and his companions
High Stile and High Crag, old Honister and the army at his back, Gras-
moor,® Ladhouse scarred and naked, and Whiteside black as death, all make
a noble array when seen from the various stations in Lanthwaite woods, or
from the tops of any of the mountains round about. Rannerdale Knot, too, is
a thing to study. It is one of the isolated hills, like Helm Crag and Castle
Crag, a petulant hill, standing by itself on its own feet in an aggressive
and self-assertive manner not to be overlooked, and seen from Lanthwaite
Woods, with Buttermere Moss, Fleetwith, Great Gable and Green Gable,
the Wastwater Kirkfell, and, farther still, Rosthwaite Cam, as its supporters
and backers, it is by no means a despicable gateway by which to enter into the
richer depths of mountain beauty.
Then to Crummock belongs one of the finest water-falls, Scale Force, the
Staubbach of the lakes, over a hundred and fifty feet in 'height, and falling in
a sheer perpendicular down a clean-cut rift, after the manner of Dungeon
Ghyll but not so gloomy or deep set. It is a channelled fall, which seems as
if it would get deeper with the years ; and the waters come down in what
at first sight looks all one stream, but which soon resolves itself into a
thousand gracious forms — a thousand little falls strung together, catching the
points of the jutting rocks and flinging themselves off in arching sprays
— little hidden leaps, continuous and yet broken, dashing down like a
cascade of plumy feathers. The rocks of the rift, close to the heart of the
8 In 1760, on the ninth day of September, there was a tremendous storm in this
neighbourhood, during wliich a waterspout burst on Grasmoor — written Grasmire then —
following the course of the little Lissa, wliich runs from it into the Cocker, tearing up the
ground and doing irreparable damage. " It laid devastate ten acres with stones no human
art can ever restore." Brackenthwaite, the hamlet by Scale Hill, had a narrow escape, and
the " lisle Lissa" was thrown into the Cocker with such force and violence of its \\;i1rrs.
that the Cocker itself overflowed, and became one vast and stagnant inundation.
190
BUTTERMERE, CKl MM<>( K, AND LOWES WATKRS.
fall, are bare and lifeless ; but at the entrance they
are bespread with moss and flowers, while whole reaches
are covered with the film fern, the hymeno]>l/t/ll/iiii
Wlhoni, which no one can get at, and only the clear-
sighted can distinguish from moss. The water here
is not olive-brown as usual, but absolutely colourless —
pure, limpid, unstained world, which splashes merrily
at your feet and flies daintily, all refined to spray,
into your face as you scramble up the wet rocks and
front the whispering Naiad shrouded behind her long
white veil. It is pleasant among these slippery rocks,
where, if you do plunge knee-deep in the pools, you
come to 110 vital harm, and can shake yourself from
the wet out on that spongy bit of waste-land, stone-
strewed, leading from the Force to the lake. Mishaps,
if not too serious, only add to enjoyment ; and he is
but a bastard mountaineer who cannot take a ducking
with unruffled equanimity, or to whom a bog or a
shower is not as much a matter of indifference as the
colour of a gate-post or the fashion of its handle. And,
by the way, the gate fastenings are to be noticed here ;
the quaintest, most ingenious, and most varied of any
to be seen.
There are other things worth seeing by Scale Force.
There is Ling Crag at the foot of Mellbreak, a small
kind of Dod or independency coming out into the lake,
which the wise will climb for the sake of what they
can see from the top ; and there is the green flat head
of Herd House, which divides Crummock from Enner-
dale, from one special point on which issues the water
of the Force, us a kind of boundary between Herd House
191
THE LAKE COUNTKY.
and lied Pike, to fall down that tremendous chasm under Blea Crag, and
then to mark, with a silver line, the way of separation between Red Pike
and Mellhreak — Ling Crag rather, if that pert little Dod must be specially
mentioned. And there is the way over to Ennerdale already spoken of; and
pleasant wanderings all about Floutern Tarn ; and along its river side, that
pretty Mossdale Beck, at least as far as you can go — which is not very far ;
and fine prospects to be had from every point ; and such mountain ascents —
if the side be properly chosen — as even a member of the Alpine club might
pronounce " stiff." Crummock is a grand bit of mountain jewellery, and
none the less so because of the comparative ignorance of the travelling world
about it.
Then there is Buttermere,9 a smaller lake, and lying farther still among
the mountains, with scenery yet wilder and forms yet grander, and with
its own special force, Sour Milk Ghyll, coming out of Blebba10 or Bleaberry
or Burtness Tarn, lying in a hollow between Red Pike and High Stile ;
where is also a place called Burtness Cove, said to be an old crater, and
where the Buttermere eagles formerly built their nests. And there is White
Cove Ghyll as well ; a mountain force of no mean value, but suffering from
the neighbourhood of greater values in Sour Milk Ghyll and Scale Force.
And there are mountains, Red Pike and High Stile and High Crag, all in
9 Buttermere was said to allow its priest " whittle-gate " and twenty shillings yearly :
by other accounts, " clog-shoes, harden-sark, whittle-gate, and guse-gate" — that is, a pair of
shoes clogged or iron-shod (capital things for this country), a coarse sliirt once a year, free
living at each parishioner's house for a certain number of days, and the right to pasture a
goose or geese on the common. Not too luxurious appointments for even a successor of the
Apostles, bound to forswear the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life! The person who
held Newlands chapel in the time of George II. was a tailor, a clogger, and butter-pat
maker, and the Mungrisdale priest had 6Z. Os. Qd. a year. Such cures were often held l>y
unordained persons — hedge parsons with a vengeance !
10 Blebba is a corruption of Bleaberry, or is it the archaic word ? Blseber is the
name of the Norwegian fruit. Have we preserved the sound unconsciously? The fells
about here are famous for their bilberries, and it is quite' one of the recognized industries
of the autumn to gather them for selling and preserving.
iaa
BUTTERMERE, ORUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
a stretch of cones together ; the Haystacks u — those twin brothers backing
up old Honister ; the pass of Scarf Gap leading from Gatescarth to Ennerdale
between the Haystacks and High Crag — Wanscale beneath, meeting that of
Black Sail coming from Wastdale between Kirkfell and the Pillar up through
Mosedale, and down to Gillerthwaite by Ennerdale on the other side ; and
there is Fleetwith, to the east of Honister, and Scarf to its west ; Robinson
over Hassness ; and Buttermere Moss, both High and Low ; and there is that
magnificent recess, like a deep blue clam-shell and as finely serrated, beneath
the pale green line of the Three-legged Brandreth,12 and known geographically
as Grey Knot and Green Crags ; but very like a clam-shell, whatever its
name. And above all these is Honister, sullen and sharp and stern : a grim
old mountain tyrant, so individual that he can be recognized from the
smallest perceptible corner or the loosest sketch.
HONISTER — EVENING
Belts of blue lobelia are round Buttermere Lake, and great purple spikes
of loosestrife are in the meadows, and the air is full of the scent of the
meadow-sweet, and the hedges are yellowed with the yellow vetch, and the
fields and lanes are gold-spotted with the hawkweed tribe; and down by
that sweetly singing Mill Beck grow blue forget-me-nots and still bluer
birdlime, and all manner of wild-flowers and pleasant herbs ; and butterflies
and dragon-flies, arid softer moths and gaudy beetles, and many a lovely
wild bird, pausing in its flight, swarm about the flowers in and round the
11 Not the Hanging Haystacks of Borrowdale.
12 A brandreth is the three-legged stand on which is placed the griddle or flat iroii
girdle whereon cakes, &c. are baked.
193 C C
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
beck, mating their sweet music with the happy murmur of the waters, and
fashioning out the old idyl of peace and love and the tender harmonies
of nature, for ever and for ever repeated but never tiring. And then
there is the chapel, which used to be the smallest in the lake district. It
is very small now, but not quite so minute as in olden days ; and a great
deal more decent in architecture and arrangement.
And there is the story of pretty Mary of Buttermere to think of, while
waiting at the inn, or rambling by the lake side. An old story now, but
always finding an echo in human sympathy, because never beyond the
pale of social possibility. Poor pretty Mary ! it was a bad day when her
foolish but innocent admirer published her charms to the world, and made
her the sad gazing-stock of all the idle and curious and dissolute down for
a month's holidays to the lakes : still worse when a low-born gambler and
forger came to the little inn, and passed himself off as one of our Aristoi—
brother to Lord Hopetown, a colonel in his own right, and something too
magnificent in station and manhood to be mated with anything but beauty
as transcendent as her own. Mary caught at the bait : it was a glittering
one ; but she found out her mistake, poor simpleton, when her husband was
arrested and carried off to Carlisle, where he was hung in his own name
as one James Hatfield, thief and forger. Mary was wiser next time. She
contented herself with a man of her own class in her second venture ; and,
as the stout, sonsy, and by no means over-refined wife of Dick Harrison of
Caldbeck, retained very little of the beauty which had procured her so much
disaster. She transmitted it though ; for her daughters were the loveliest
young women of the district ; but happily preserved from their mother's fate,
and given over to the care — questionable in one instance — of " men of the
people," who, if they did use them a little roughly, did it by virtue of
equality, which was better than deception and crime and being hanged at a
jail door as the upshot.
Another way to these lakes from Keswick, and a very general one, is
by Newlands and Buttermere Hawse ; a way which many think sufficiently
194
BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
terrifying when they first see that sharp zigzag line built up against the side
of the mountain and seeming to hang in the air, down which they have to
drive with such safety as the steadiness of their driver and the sure-footed-
ness of their horses allow. The pretty vale of Newlands, with its peeps across
the wood out to the grand world of Keswick, and its humble admiration of
Skiddaw, has many pleasant incidents. It has the beck, where the Newlands
bull once chased a notable of the district, and forced him into the water where
he stood shivering ; but even then not over-safe from the broad forehead and
the vicious horns longing to be at the game of pitch and toss with a shuddering
magnate as the ball ; and it has the little village of Stair, where Ludlow once
lived, and where society is simplified to almost its primitive elements; and
it has Rawling End, a "brawny mountain of goodly proportions ;" and that
tremendous cleft or slit by Knot Rigg; and Goldscope, with all her riches
hidden in her brown bosom, and those curious old excavations called Penholes ;
and it has Grrisedale Pike, which is one of the more difficult mountains ; and
Hindscarth and Causey Pike, both of them fine headlands for distant views ;
and it has Robinson, — and he is a grand old mountain too, but not one to
take liberties with in misty weather, or when the night is setting in. There
have been sad adventures on Robinson, and aching hearts kept sore for long
because of the dangerous ravines and the cleanly cut precipices belonging to
him, and veiled from the searching eye by night or cloud. There is also
a fine Force in Robinson, where the broken crags are curiously uptorn, and
where there is a "punchbowl" of glorious dimensions down below, and the
figure of a huge bear, so they say, to be seen climbing up the steepest part
of the rock and dividing the water as it falls ; and there is the slack which
leads from Scawdale ; and the giant's foot of Whitelees Pike ; and the cavern
and the rift and the stream and the dale, the desolation of all things after
you have passed by Keskadale,13 and the long spell of utter loneliness and
wildness.
13 A corruption of Gatescarthdale.
105 C C 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
It is a very beautiful journey, and used to be one on which the older
lake country writers expended a vast amount of fine writing. " The lower
parts are pastured with a motley herd; the middle tract is assumed by the
flocks; the upper regions (to man inaccessible) are abandoned to the birds
of Jove. Here untamed nature holds her reign in solemn silence, amidst
the gloom and grandeur of dreary solitude — and here the following excla-
mation of young Edwin may be properly recalled to the reader's remembrance,
— ' Hail, awful scenes,' " &c. This was old West's manner of depicting the
impressions made by Newlands Hawse ; but the truth — plain and collapsed
— dwarfs his birds of Jove into barn-door fowl, or sparrows on the house-top.
By Honister the way is the finest of all ; a larger nobleness, a wilder
going, a feeling of being in the heart and veins, and receiving the very
life of the hills, accompanying one from the first step up by Seatollar, to the
last by Gatescarth and Buttermere. A grand pass in truth ! — something to
be seen with reverence as well as love, and to be remembered in the distant
days and nights when time and inexorable circumstance have separated
you from "this land of loveliness and grandeur and driven you down into the
pallid life of the city again.
A rough and rugged road leads up between the stream — the Seatollar
beck — and the mountain; the stream becoming wilder, and the mountain
sterner, and the road a harder problem for wheeled things to solve,
and the whole scene a grander gathering of natural forces, and a nobler
revelation. With its human uses too ; which is more than can be said
of every mountain pass ; for down that scarred and lined and tear-streamed
face are the most famous slate quarries in the lake district, and whence
was hewn the slate " that took the prize " in the exhibition of '51. The first
you come to are on the right-hand side, in Yew Crag, where was hewn that
prize slab, but the second and more important are on the left, in Honister.
This slate quarrying is awful to look at, both in the giddy height
at which the men work, and in the terrible journies which they make
196
BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
when bringing down the slate in their " sleds." It is simply appalling to
see that small moving speck on the high crag, passing noiselessly along
a narrow grey line that looks like a mere thread, and to know that it is a
man with the chances of his life dangling in his hand. As we look the
speck moves ; he first crosses the straight gallery leading out from the dark
cavern where he emerged, and then he sets
himself against the perpendicular descent, and
conies down the face of the crag, carrying
-,.x something behind him — at first slowly, and,
as it were, cautiously; then with a swifter
step, hut still evidently holding back ; but at
the last with a wild haste that seems as if
he must be overtaken, and crushed to pieces
by the heavy sled grinding behind him. The
long swift steps seem almost to fly ; the
noise of the crashing slate comes nearer;
now we see the man's eager face ; and now
we hear his panting breath ; and now he draws up by the road-side — every
muscle strained, every nerve alive, and every pulse throbbing with frightful
force. It is a terrible trade — and the men employed in it look wan and
worn, as if they were all consumptive or had heart disease. The average
daily task is seven or eight of these journies, carrying
about a quarter of a ton of slate each time ; the down-
ward run occupying only a few minutes, the return
climb — by another path not quite so perpendicular,
where they crawl with their empty sleds on their backs, QUARRYMAN'S SLED
like some strange sort of beetle or fly — half an hour. Great things used to be
done in former times, and the quarrymen still talk of Samuel Trimmer, who
once made fifteen journies in one day, for the reward of a small per-centage on
the hurdle and a bottle of rum; and of Joseph Clark, a Stonethwaite man,
who brought down forty-two and a half loads, or ten thousand eight huudrei
197
SLED EOADS — HONISTER QUARRIES
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and eighty pounds of slate, in seventeen journies ; travelling seventeen miles —
eight and a half up the face of the crag, and the same number down, at
this murderous pace. These are almost legendary days, though, in the Honister
world ; days which belonged to the style and manner, if not to the date, of Guy
of Warwick, and our old friend Hugh Hird of Troutbeck. Twelve journies
a day rank now as a feat scarcely to be compassed ; for no man of modern
slate-quarrying powers can do anything near to these giants of the elder time.
The quarrymen have small sleeping huts among the crags, and remain
during the week at their work, going home only from the Saturday night
to the Monday morning; which leaves scarcely too much time for the
building up of a man's domestic life; but they are not a bad race, though
rough and uncouth, as are all men whose business leads them to much
separation from women and exclusive companionship with each other.
About the base of the crag are broad tracts of alpine ladies' mantle
(alchemilla alpina), while "forked spleenwort (asplenium septentrionale),
and many a rare plant besides, are to be found among the screes and
shelving sides ; in places not always easily accessible, certainly ; but courage
and patience do a great deal towards filling the pockets of a plant collector.
The Pass is solemn to oppressiveness. Up the steep ascent, with the
high broken hills pressed in on either side, and the rough road cleaving
the air in the old lightning shape, as usual — up to the grim top, where you
stand in the very centre of gloom, before and behind and all around you
only gloom, and no radiant shine of joy to break in between — and then
down — down where the sun seems scarcely ever to shine, and where the
clouds throw deepest shadows, and the serpents' winding way seems going,
not to freedom and the tranquil life of the valley, but to everlasting
death; down to where Gatescarthdale lies silent in the depths below, the
river, the Gatescarth beck, the only living sound to- break the stillness,
till you come upon the lake throbbing like an imprisoned heart against
its bonds ; — follow the road of the Honister Pass with the honest intention
to receive its own special spirit, and then confess that it is the most sublime
198
BUTTERMERE, CRUMMOCK, AND LOWES WATERS.
of all that you have seen yet, whatever larger adjective lies before you in
the future. Kirkstone was most desolate ; Sty Head will perhaps prove most
terrifying and tumultuously wild ; but Houister is the sternest, the severest,
and most majestic ; the Pass where the iron ribs of nature are clothed
Avith sparest flesh, where the frown lies heaviest on the eyelids, and the
hand is clenched with the firmest grasp, where the old Egyptian Statues of
the Plain might be set up as fitting doorkeepers and guardians — art like
to nature in the stillness and solemn grandeur of their mien.
Most noble, too, is Honister won — Honister from the crest not only
from the foot. You go up the road by Seatollar Beck, and on to the
common through the gate — the sun gleaming through the oaks and across
the bracken and making the fells to sparkle like bright steel : behind, as you
rise, is seen Black Crag (against and beyond which lies Dock Tarn), an
outline of Helvellyn, High Saddle and Green Comb above Greenup, Glara-
inara and where lies the Tarn of Leaves, Rosthwaite Cam, Low White-
stones, and Serjeant Man, and a host of other points and stony tongues
belonging to the Borrowdale mountain world. To the right is Yew Crag,
looking from here as if utterly unserviceable to all uses whatsoever, and not
in any way the home and habitation of some scores of human beings, with
such strong links to civilization and the great world beyond, as that prize slab
implies. And when you have looked your fill, you go up without further stop
to Honister Head. A wild place this for shepherding ! — where many a man
has been lost in the snow and the winter's storm, in the darkness of the
night, and in the rain and mist ; a wild place in truth ! — counting its victims
by the score, to count them still in the future as in the past. Stag's
horn moss and alpine ladies' mantle, wild thyme, the precious eyebright and
yellow torinentil lift their lovely little heads by many a crossing streamlet
among the rocks and grass ; a slate causeway ; the remains of some slate
shed or shelter — a wall with piercings for doors or windows, some six
feet thick ; another survey back over the Hawse into Borrowdale, seeming
like a pleasant easy descent all the way from where you have climbed ; a
199
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
sight of Black Sail Pass at Ennerdale Head, with the Pillar to the right
of it ; a look against Honister side and its quarries, and down the crag
to the pass below — road and stream like mere lines from the height above ;
the long slate road seeming on the very edge of the crag, sloping steeply
down under its several archways ; then higher still, and another look down
the precipice into the pass; higher still, again, till you catch the tops of
Robinson and Dale Head over Yew Crag; and the quarries on the top
of Honister are reached.
And then, a little beyond the quarries comes the view : Lowes Water
and Buttermere and Crummock all lying down at your feet; Buttermere
directly within the fork of the pass ; Crummock rounding Rannerdale
Knot, and backed up by Mellbreak; and Lowes Water, still further,
between Mellbreak and Low Fell. To the right of Rannerdale Knot is
Moss, and above it, in the distance, Ladhouse ; and over that, again, the
black clouded height of Grasmoor ; while away and beyond lie the plains
and the sea and the dim line of Scottish hills.
Now retrace your steps toward the quarries, noticing their sheer sides,
and the slates cropping up edgewise in the turf on the crag top ; then
cross back by a grassy, disused road, and see what a direct vein of slate
runs right through Honister and into Yew Crag on the other side.
It is the hard roofing slate, in contradistinction to the soft clay slate
of Grange and Gatescarth, and is noticeably distinct. You are now on
" Moses' Trod " going up towards Brandreth, where the sheep are
"rank" on the fell sides (Gatescarth farm below being the largest sheep
farm in the country), and where the Three-Legged has all his feet in the
air; and, as you go, you see the Pillar at the head of Ennerdale, and
Black Sail Pass, and the Hay Stacks (Loaf Tarn on the top, and Scarf
Gap in between) and the triplet of cones, High Crag, High Stile, and
Red Pike ; and when you are a little higher you see down into the heart
of lonely Ennerdale, all along the wild dale — wilder than any excepting
Westdale — past the lake, and to the distant country, seaward, beyond.
200
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL
CHAPTER XIII
AT Stockley Brig beyond Seathwaite (Borrowdale Head) the world of human
going seems to have come to an end. Perhaps the goats or the more
lissome of the mountain sheep might find a way out over the living barriers
closing them in on all sides, but surely no ordinary man, in "boots of
the period," could scale those crags or surmount those steeps ! The shep-
herds give a different answer. They will tell you that what looks so
utterly impossible to you is <mere ordinary habit to them, and that they
can " shepherd " all about both crags and mountain side as well as you
can walk up Primrose Hill, or down the slope of Hampstead Heath. One
spot, however, even they abandon : the red-scarred gash by Taylor Ghyll,
201 D D
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
which, so far as the world has yet gone, has been found inaccessible ; so
sharp and shingly, so loose in footing, and so severe in climb is it. But
though the general look of the hills and crags is simply impossible, there is
an outlet in the steep ascent between High House Crag and Taylor Ghyll —
that forked path known as Aaron End, up which you go for Sty Head -
Pass; which, indeed, is the beginning of the Pass, and whence you can
bend your steps either to Great Gable or to Scawfell, or to any other of
the high mountain tops clustered about the nave of the wheel.
If Honister is stern, Sty Head is violent; if Kirkstone is desolate, Sty
Head is terrifying — in certain aspects, when the clouds hang low over Wast-
water, literally terrifying, as if the road was going down into the home of the
Eternal Death. The disruption, the dislocation, the violence of the way, is
beyond all that has been seen yet. It is nature in one of her wildest moods,
her fiercest and most turbulent. If the Egyptian statue, silent and oppressive,
might be taken to represent the spirit of Honister, the strong man in his
wrath would be likest to Sty Head Pass. Even in the beginning, up by
Aaron End, the key-note of the rest is struck. The castellated heights of
High House Crag ; the red scars of Taylor Ghyll with the white foam flung
restlessly up through the heart of it ; the purple breadth of the backward
lying hills, with the utter loneliness of the valley winding away between
Scawdale and Glaramara ; all have a majesty, and some of these incidents
a fierceness, which prepare for what has to come.
And when you have passed the little wooden bridge which a chance
tourist put up over Sty Head Beck, in pity for belated travellers or those
overtaken by storm and flood, and have come face to face with Lingmell, with
that one sharp rift in his side — to Green Gable, torn asunder from Great
Gable by the deep ghyll which looks like a gash into its very heart — and
have seen where Sty Head Tarn lies lonely in its shallow cup under the
noble crag of Great End, and in the shadow of dark Lingmell — and where
the path goes up to Scawfell by Sprinkling Tarn — all the forms now about
you wild and broken and tumultuous exceedingly, and the sense of fierce-
202
WASTWATEH AND SCAWFELL.
ness and uprising and the strife of elements and the battling together of
natural forces, the greatest impression made on you — you have come into the
meaning of your way ; but not into its full spirit. That is for the descent ;
when you see your path, as a sharp and sudden line, falling down like a
straw flung by the winds ; a path literally built up of stones against the moun-
tain side, but which the winter winds and torrents will sweep down like a
child's fortress on the sea-sand, levelling all that solid -looking embankment,
and showing the naked rock and pathless crag again, as the sea wave will
level the child's busy day's delight ; when the characteristic features of Wast-
water come out — Yewbarrow broad and black ; the gorge of Mosedale dark
and purple ; Great Gable with his grey crown and his steep sides all red
and orange-striped, both he and Lingmell looking jewelled1 in the sun ;
when you see how Kirkfell stands like an impenetrable barrier against
you, and how the crags are fiercer and the mountains more aggressive
here than elsewhere : you have entered within the gates of one of
Nature's grandest temples, and have caught the echo of some of her noblest
harmonies.
It is all so wild here ! The sharp lean sides of the hills ; the stream
foaming down in the bottom, and the steep path above ; the crags all hoary
and naked, save on the ledges where the summer has cast a few spare tufts
of moss and grass, as if in defiance of the sternness which forbids all other
forms of love and grace ; the darkness of the Wastdale valley, with, perhaps,
a pale sun-gleam stealing over Kirkfell, or across that glorious stalactite-
looking crown on Great Gable ; the magnificent markings of Piers Ghyll
all furrowed with deep and angry rivings ; the broken line of crag and hill-
top— no longer the wave line with the quiet flow, but thrown up in broken
foam, beaten and lashed and tortured ; all make our mighty Sty Head Pass
a fitting way from the grandeur of Borrowdale to the gloom and death of
Wastwater. For do we not so often pass from strength through passion
1 As, indeed, they are ; garnets studding the slate to be found on both.
203 D D 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
into death ? from the violence and writhing of the tortured spirit into the
desolateness of the broken heart, and the still grave lying beyond ?
Half-way down the pass, on looking back, the road seems to end.
You are standing by a huge jutting crag, which you have just rounded, and
your way is suddenly cut off. You
see nothing but the huge jutting
crag overhanging its base, and the
steep side of the ravine where no
v> pathway can possibly go. You have
" come by a way of glamour, spirit
made, withdrawn so soon as passed
over. This is an effect several times
repeated ; so that you have an infi-
nite succession of endings behind
you ; all trace of your past way lost,
and no continuation apparently pos-
sible. Looking downward it is the
same. Here the way is so steep
that often the lines lie side by side,
In bad weather, when the mists boil
up from the valley, and the clouds pour down from the hills, and the
foothold is lost, and you see only the crag and the sharp descent
and the surging mist and the eternal Nothing, when the wind shouts
behind you and drives you on, and the rain and hail envelope you, and
you are pelted and hunted and savagely hounded by the furies yelling at your
heels, their curses in your ears, their blows on your back or struck open-
handed into your face, it is like going into Hell. But not with the facili*
descensus. Surely the old mythologists would have named it so ; and he
who had been brave enough to first face the dangers of the way, would have
been celebrated as another Orpheus victorious over another guardian of the
dread gates !
204
the connecting loop entirely lost.
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL.
As you descend this awful pass, a wonderful effect of form and colour
is shown in Great Gable and its crags. Hollowed in the centre, and buttressed
with grey pillars on each side — a whole cascade of immense boulders pouring
from that sweeping curve to show what wind and rain have done, and the
jewelled brightness of its sides shining many coloured and glorious if the
sun lights on them — it is the most picturesque of the Wastdale moun-
tains, though not the most sought after. But the centre, as it is, of the
Borrowdale system — the nave of the nave — the key-stone of her arch and
point of the pivot — with Wastdale, Ennerdale, and Borrowdale branching out
from its feet, it deserves all manner of recognition, and will repay all manner
of research. It is one of the finest mountains to ascend ; giving some of
the grandest views and most glorious effects ; not to speak of the natural
basin in a rock on the summit, always full of the purest water, and the garnets
to be found imbedded in the slate.
Wastdale Head has more than mountain road or even mountain top
for the traveller ; it has a ravine and a waterfall, both of which would be as
famous as Scale Force or Dungeon Ghyll, if the way was more accommo-
dating. Piers Ghyll, that long and deep ravine under Great End, where the
huge rocks wall you in on both sides and the tremendous steeps of Scawfell
look at you in front, while Great Gable bars the way against the world behind,
is one of the noblest rifts in the whole lake country ; and Greta Force, close
by, is as fine a waterfall as the other is a chasm. But the way thereto is
rough and wet and stony, with steep bits to overcome, and rugged bits to
master, and rivers to cross, and bogs to wade through, so that only the really
strong-hearted tourist would add either rift or fall into his day's sum of
exploration. They are close together, however, and both can be seen when
one is reached. You see Piers Ghyll from the pass road; but merely see
it : you know it only by entering into its heart and learning its secrets from
its own telling. Greta Force is not visible ; it has to be sought for, where
its double stream falls into the ghyll, with a larger body of water than what
belongs to either Ara Force or Scale Force ; but then so few of the ordinary
205
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
tourists care to clamber up into the heart of a fierce and desolate mountain
for the sake of a ravine and a fall, that both Piers Ghyll and Greta Force
get passed by unvisited, and almost unmentioned in the guide books. Still,
there they are, for the noble delight of those who care for noble beauty.
And now you see the old shining line of sun and sea out by Gosforth —
that bounding line, whatever the height on which you stand ; but not the
lake, at least not yet : it is lying shyly away under the Screes, and you must
go down a good part of the way before its dark, still face catches yours.
But now you do see it ; and now you are by a wide river bed of stone and
water — a waste, as so many mountain streams are ; and now you are fairly
at the head of Wastdale, and the Pass is conquered. And when you have
got down, and are standing by the wall, you look back, into a bit of veritable
enchantment. The buttressed, broken, stalactite segment of Great Gable has
gone back into one uniform and flowing curve, over which perhaps a bright
cloud is hovering with a repeat of line as accurate as a mirror would have
given : the terrible pass has closed in at the top, and has become merely a
steep pathway over a mountain shoulder, with not a trace left of the
ruggedness hidden behind the crags — of the fury and terror and violence by
which you have come. Wastdale, which looked so green and calm from
the height, is now a desolate wild ; and the Screes, and Yewbarrow square
and trenchant, and Kirkfell all scored and skinned, and the dark Mosedale
Pass, and the few scattered houses that can scarce be called a hamlet even,
they are so few, all come out in their true colours — the colours of gloom
and savageness unmitigated.
Wastwater is always desolate, whatever the weather. It has no trees,
no cultivated lands, and, indeed, none to
cultivate, save a mere handful at the upper
end about the feet of the Ennerdale and
Borrowdale mountains. All its wealth is
gathered round its small quaint church —
the smallest and quaintest of the country, now that Buttermere has been
206
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL.
dowered with one newer and larger ; 2 but down the sides of its mountains is
nothing fit for the uses of man or the good of life — nothing but desolate grandeur
and the awful stillness of nature waiting, rockbound, for deliverance. Even
in the sunshine Wastwater is desolate ; perhaps more so indeed, then, than
in the gloom. For you cannot help contrasting the loneliness of the place,
its deathly silence, and cut off and cornered kind of life, with the brightness
lifting up the heart of the world elsewhere ; the sunshine seeming to you,
standing in the shadow of these gloomy mountains, like music from the
outside filling the death chamber, or the voice of other's laughter when
your own is broken with. weeping. One thing is very noticeable in this lake
country of ours — the distinct spirit and feeling with which each separate place
seems to be imbued; so that one place is the representative of gloom, and
another of passion, a third of desolation, a fourth of loving homeliness, a
fifth of rustic peace, and a sixth of dreadful fear ; each place seeming to have
certain qualities with which the spiritual and material impressions accord.
There are several ways out, though, from this lonely place. There is
the Sty Head Pass by which you have come ; and Black Sail to either
Ennerdale or Buttermere ; and the way by Strands, at the foot of the lake,
to Gosforth and the sea ; and another way to Gosforth, leaving Strands to
the left ; and a way up to Scawfell by Lingmell ; and one between Scawfell
and the Screes, over by Burnmoor Tarn to Eskdale ; and another to Irton
and Eskdale — the infant Irt, where the Romans got their pearls,3 rising in
2 The Wastdale church has eight pews, three small cottage windows, and is further
lighted by a skylight immediately over the pulpit.
3 Pearls. — " These are found commonly by the rivers Irt, where Mussels (as also
Oysters and other Shell Jish) gaping for the Dew, are in a manner impregnated therewith;
so that some conceive that as Dew is a liquid Pearl, so a Pearl is Dew consolidated in these
(l.ihi's. Here poor people, getting them at low water, sell to jewellers for Pence what they
sell again for Pounds." But the pearls are " far short of the Indian in Orientness. But
whether not as usefull in Physick is not as yet decided." About the year 1695 some
gentlemen got a patent for pearl fishing in the Irt ; and Mr. Patrickson, of How, obtained
as many as were afterwards sold for ROO/., though the pearl mussels never seem to have been
very plentiful.
207
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Scawfell between Lingmell and Great End — so that no one is obliged to
remain at Wastwater for want of means of escape, though none of those
means, save by the high road and the lake side, are specially easy. But a
grander way than that of Sty Head from Borrowdale to Wastwater is straight
over the top of Scawfell Pikes ; and this was one of our own experiences. A
way to be taken only in the summer, not in the desolate snow-time represented
in the view below, — a view given to contrast with the crisp clearness of
summer, and because Borrowdale under snow is a thing to be seen, and when
seen to be remembered for a life.
UP THE OOKGK — BORBOWDALE HEAD IN SNOW
It was past one in a June day when we left Seathwaite ; not going up by
Aaron End as when following the road of the pass, but keeping straight
up the gorge, as if for Sprinkling Tarn and Esk Hawse ; and soon coming
to a bit of real climbing, over a green shoulder, steep and not pleasant to
look back from, for it was very narrow and sharply curved, so that, when
we looked back, all our past way was gone, and we had the impression of
208
WASTWATEK AND SCAWFELL.
standing in mid air with no material support before or behind us — which
was not agreeable; with a steep declivity below, where a false step would
have been a broken limb at the least. Then we went over another shoulder,
broader and less steep, but boggy : Glaramara, Skiddaw, and Base Brown
behind us, and before us Great End, looking no nearer and no smaller for
our hour's walk, and standing like an upright wall in the sultry summer
haze. Still another shoulder ; this time flanked with rocks on both sides,
like walls of rock to uphold it ; a way like the old giant's staircase we know
of — the perpendicular of rock and the step-top of grass, but sometimes of
rock too, where the giant's footsteps had worn away the grass.
And now we seemed to be almost at the top of the pass, with, apparently,
only a handful of crags to climb. As we rose, Great Gable loomed up over the
other side of Sty Head with a cloud on his summit, as usual; the line of
Skiddaw and Blencathra was plain behind us ; Derwentwater beneath, but far
away ; and, nearer, the whole length of Borrowdale. But a few steps onward
took Borrowdale away from us, and brought us to the edge of a deep chasm,
which seemed to divide us from the Sty Head Pass, and directly over which
was the place of our bright-faced jewel-like Sparkling Tarn. We found an easy
way across the chasm, but we had to go back again and still to the left of Great
End, by the little piles of stones set to mark the way ; climbing up and up,
with all manner of mountain-tops rising ever behind and beyond each other
in a very sea of solid waves ; till two cones appeared far below us — the
Laugdale Pikes, piercing into the sunshine bright and glowing. In a few
moments more, and we looked down into Langdale, and over Bowfell down
into Eskdale — and far away over fell and valley into the indistinguishable mist.
Then we turned to the right, and a long shoulder was before us. To
the left was the sea of mountains ; to the right, Great Gable, becoming
gradually lost in the shadow of the End.
In front of this long shoulder was Scawfell.
This was what we had to reach, when we
had rounded the foreset boll in question. But when we came to the top, we
209 E E
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
found that while we were toiling on, Great End had slipped away, leaving us to
climb an empty sleeve, in which he was only laughing at us ; and there
he was as far off as ever, with Scawfell Pike
in the distance — yet in the distance. To
the left again — another steep climb ; and to
the right, below us, a pit, bottomless for aught that we could see; but a
little farther on, a green platform rose in the midst, with Sty Head Tarn
shining like a star upon it, and the great black mountains steeply walling
it round. Yet all below us ; great as they were, we looked over their tops.
Then a quarter of a mile of scrambling over a sea of rocks — rough as
any sea-shore scrambling ; only there was no sea-weed to make them
slippery, nor growth of any kind till they were crossed ; and then
Scawfell rose up, and looked bigger and
more formidable than ever. As we pro-
ceeded he grew, and our work seemed only
beginning : all the climbing we have had mere child's play to what was to
come. This was his next aspect, still
bigger, yet seeming no nearer for his en-
largement ; and again he became bigger and
bigger yet again, till we rose above every-
thing else, and saw only himself before us,
more gigantic than ever. We had to get
down this steep embankment, over the shale
and rocks, to the foot of the Pike itself;
but before we went forward we looked down
over the tops of the other mountains and
saw a lake of gold lying in the grey formless
mist beyond them — the lonely lake of Ennerdale. Then up the corner,
through the steep loose screes ; digging places for our feet, and afraid at every
step of disturbing the stones and bringing down a torrent of slates and
boulders upon us (it was like going up the corner of a crumbling house
210
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL.
for steepness arid insecurity), glad to rest continually, yet almost afraid to
stop, lest we should be sent sliding to the bottom by the very sharpness
of the angle at which we stood. We could not see how far we had come ;
and we could see nothing of what remained above us — nothing but loose
stones, and sometimes a footing of grass under a bigger mass of rock.
And now we were close upon the summit. Behind us, no trace of the
way passed over, only a stony and almost perpendicular side, which looked
from here impossible ; and a third sea of stones — a mound of rocks washed
bare, and bleached by the wind and the storm. We saw one golden
patch of delicate moss on them, and lichens as brilliant and gorgeous
as if they had been garden-beds of flowers, or clusters of precious stones;
and then we passed to the pole, set up like a flag-staff above all England —
the highest point in England; standing three thousand two hundred and
thirty feet above the level of the sea. Wastwater lay dark and broken
below, and two little tarns beyond it ; a sparkle was on Kirkfell, and
Mosedale and Blacksail looked full of purple ripeness; the sun had
caught a portion of Crummock lake till it glowed like a cup of red wine
spilled on the earth ; we looked over Sty Head Tarn, and a little jewel
shimmering above, and we saw Borrowdale and Derwentwater, and the
Scottish mountains beyond the Skiddaw range ; we saw the Penrith plains,
Windermere and Langdale Pikes, and we looked into Eskdale, and down the
vale of the Duddon, and saw where their rivers ran hurriedly from the
mountains to the sea ; and then we saw the sun shining down the sea,
and Black Combe as the foremost sentinel of the land, and a wild range
of mountain tops everywhere beneath us. Amongst them all, most conspicuous
from where we stood, was Lingmell, like a huge lion creeping at our feet
and guarding us in our lonely majesty.
And now it was getting very dim and dusky : the sun was sinking,
and the wind was cold and noisy; so we went to our new apartments,
once held by the ordnance surveyors, but now roofless and doorless; and,
selecting the one which had a chimney — on the principle of Dickens' Fleet
211 E E 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
prisoner, who preferred to sleep under the table because he had been used to a
four-poster, and the legs were good make-believes — we made our beds of the
flattest stones we could find, and agreed to wait patiently for the morning.
The passing sunshine still settled warmly among the stones on the waste
top, and on the one little patch of golden moss which stood out delicately
from the blue-grey of the nearer crags ; passing imperceptibly through bluer
tones into the hazy distance and warmer sky, where the sun was sinking,
leaving long bars of red and gold, and a tender, mellow glory everywhere,
like the calm of a prayer for all England. So, before it should get quite
dark, we went out on the causeway for a last look at the flagstaff.
There it stood alone against the clear sky, the light of the setting sun
behind it, and the young moon, clear as crystal, rising in the sunlight
below. The silent stars came out one by one, as we lay in our turret
chamber, and the white clouds like angels floated noiselessly over us. The
only sound was that of the winds, which shouted like thunder, as at last
they sang us to sleep in the continuing twilight.
When we awoke the wind was raving and the stars were gone;
Derwentwater and all the distances were lost, and there was a dead mist
everywhere; but by-and-by the mist changed to feathery clouds rapidly
driven across the sky ; the light in the horizon gradually increased, and
a faint tinge of brown came into it, changing to a sea-shell colour — to
faint red — to reddish yellow — and then to a broad band of pure gold, into
which the great sun came leaping, as if the whole heavens had shouted
when he rose. Up from the chasm between Scawfell and the Pike — that
terrible Mickledore — swept huge white masses ; while over Skiddaw, on the
opposite side, the long line of clouds, behind which the sun had set,
stretched itself out in broad bars, growing more distinct, and seemingly
nearer, at each moment. The mountains toward Windermere lay in mist,
with mist between us and them, and a band of mist behind them ; and behind
that mist rose up strange black monsters, coming close in their blackness
though countless miles away. Sometimes a herd of buffaloes leaped over
212
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL.
one another; sometimes one gigantic beast came tumbling over the white
rock of mist, which then opened and swallowed him up alive ; some-
times an eagle, presently dissolving into vapour, flew for one minute
through the sky and then was gone ; higher in the arch were great
feathers, wind-born, and long white arms thrust across, and caverns many-
chambered, and columns and rocks and light pencilled curls, and all the
whole phantasy of the world of vapour, which the sun touched now
to gold, and now to orange — to pale pure rose — to burning crimson — and
then to deep and passionate purple, like the very heart of love outpoured
on the heavens. And then, finally, he drew them all up into himself,
and the earth was left free to him,, and the heavens were interpenetrated
with his life, and there was no sorrow and no dimness and no distrust
or shadow of fear anywhere. It was a sunrise like a bridal — the renewal
of the earth's daily life — nature, like humanity, putting on fresh youth and
hope by love.
Now we had to descend. We had done the great feat, and seen the
great sight — slept on the top of Scawfell, and seen the sunrise in the
morning — and now it was time to think of the world below and the
future of the day. So we turned away from off the top, and went
down by Lingmell toward Wastwater ; down steeply but without real
difficulty, to boggy grass and water. Very pleasant the first gush of it in
the grass, and the feeling of the soft turf after those hard bare stones,
and the bleat of a startled sheep after the night's stillness. After a time
we reached the real source of the lake and the Irt below, seeing where
the infant stream rises in a great shoulder of Lingmell. Then we
went on, keeping to the left and close under the crags of Scawfell ;
passing the terrible gap of Mickledore, bridged over now by a white cloud,
come no one knows whence, or why, or how; and then down by the beck
and over a long stretch of wet grass, winding up and over another
shoulder, and by loose screes and broken rocks, to get entangled in a
labyrinth of walls and watercourses and sheep-tracks and delusive paths,
213
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
till the hour of deliverance came at last to us, as to us all, and \\c
found ourselves at Wastdale Head in the early morning, before the world
of man was yet well astir, having accomplished our purpose without let
or hindrance, or evil resulting.
Not by Black Sail to Ennerdale or Buttermere to-day, but by the lake-side
and Strands to Gosforth, and round by Calder Abbey, Egremout, Ennerdale,
to St. Bees and the sea ; a way which gives to perfection the mountains up at
Wastdale Head, Scawfell, and Scawfell Pike, and that magnificent buttress
called the Screes, the only thing of its kind in the district. The promise
of the morning was not to be fulfilled by the maturer day; for the mist
was slowly rising up through the purple chasm of Scawfell, and filling all
Mosedale like the very presence of despair : very quietly — very stealthily —
coming down the pass, and over the lake, which it turned from purple
to grey as it crept on like a spirit ; first blotting out Great Gable, then
Kirkfell, then Lingmell, then veiling Scawfell and the Screes, and then
hanging soft and rolling immediately above our heads ; but soon floating away
again, and leaving everything brighter for its presence. As we went on
everything became grander. Scawfell Pike showed his great bulk, and that
fine crest of his, all serrated and fierce — a very tiger of a mountain ;
indeed, all the mountains here are of the tiger nature ; even at the foot, not
going off tamely, but subsiding in throes and bounds and angry claws thrust
forward savagely; like tigers passing into cats. Middlefell and Buckbarrow,
Kirkfell in his radiant coat, Great Gable well bearing out his name, for he
was just like a house side from here, with a pointed roof and great gable
end, Lingmell with the perpendicular ghyll, and all the other mountains,
glowed or gloomed with wonderful intensity, as sun or shadow fell. Indeed,
the colours to-day were of that intense character so much delighted in
by artists, and the lines were of that marvellous clearness which seems to
multiply and enhance every circumstance. The hazel leaves were burning red
and gold, and blue-bells and gorse and the changing leaves of the bracken —
214
WASTWATER AND SCAWFELL.
bronzed and green elfin ling and purple heather — and the little tormentil
like drops of gold upon the grass, all made up a compound of colour that
was as lustrous as so much enamelled work. The Screes were purple, with
patches of golden-brown moss set in rims of golden-green scattered through ;
and the lake, that deep still lake which no frost, however severe, can ice over,
was blue and green and grey and purple and silver and gold by turns, with
great slabs of turquoise and malachite beneath ; the Sty Head mountains,
looking glacier-scored, were shining in the sun ; Mosedale was dark, and
bloomy, and tender ; and the shadows were everywhere sharply defined, and
the lights were everywhere radiantly brilliant. Still watching Scawfell's great
shell-shaped head, across a miniature forest of gorse and bracken which grew
between us and the lake-side — over the bridge, and by the river running away
with its burden of song — seeing how the sea-wind had dwarfed the few trees
about into stunted cripples bowed and twisted, we finally got opposite the Screes.
Wonderfully soft and velvet-like was the late summer verdure on them —
great brown velvets, and green satins, and gold-coloured silks, set among the
grey stones with a contrast that heightened both ; and wonderfully glacier-like
the form. You can almost see where the primaeval waters once rushed down
that steep side, which looks like a wave broken down at the top — the channels
in them (like lava-veins flowing among the velvet green,) all leaf-shaped, like
those fan-shaped coralline forms seen in the sea-sand — and large stones, and
red marks as if the earth had been skinned to the blood-veins beneath, and
the great skeleton ribs shown one by one. The Screes stand sheer against
215
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
the lake, almost as straight as if ruled with a line. The other side is
gracious with little bays and promontories, but the Screes rise straight and
sharp, and suffer no tender play whatever at their feet. Looking back, when
opposite this huge buttress, there is no longer any outlet for the world at
the head. Great Gable and Buckbarrow, gone now to softest dove colour,
close up the dale, while at the foot the Screes mellow down to rocks, the
rocks broken into by chasms : Hawl Ghyll,4 or Hawley Gap, the most
remarkable : to finally pass off into the fells and the plains and the sea.
And now the way goes gradually back into civilization, and the well-known
refinements of art and cultivation. Close to a bold crag on the right is a quiet
shaded bit of road running between stone walls, with garden and shrubbery on
either side ; the evidence of home and human care, and the place of rest and
peace, very beautiful to look upon after the wildness gone through. We
cannot make a home on the wilds, or pitch our tent on the hill-tops. We
have grandeur there, and communion with nature, and the filling of soul
and sense, but the care and the thought which make up social life — the
tenderness and the beauty which are our real home — belong to the low-lying
lands exclusively. We felt that very strongly to-day, when passing from the
cold majesty of Scawfell, and the dark gloom of Wastwater, into the peace
and cultivation of the lower country. Near a field filled with sunny sheep, we
turned again to look at what we had left. The Wastdale mountains looked
quiet and almost tame, and even our tiger Scawfell lay with his forepaws
stretched out, and his nose between them, asleep ; the Screes looked low and
grey, flowing into the Irton Fells, with the grey line of the Muncaster Fells
behind, topped and ended by Black Combe. Then we came on Strands
and its pretty river ; and then on the level line of the blue sea, with the clouds
heaped up in white cumuli over Wastdale, but lying in filmy streaks across
the sea, over each world repeating the line and the form below.
*The felspar of the rock has decomposed here, and wasted into sharp needle-like
points— true aiguilles, though minute— with very beautiful fashioning and results. A fine
vein of spicular iron ore, as well as one of haematite, runs here.
216
CALDER ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNERDALE
CHAPTER XIV
FEOM Strands the way goes through Gosforth — the ' ' reddest of villages ; "
where an old stone pillar l in the churchyard is covered with unintelligible
carving, to the confusion of the wise and the bewilderment of the foolish,
and Avhere, from the hill beyond, is a magnificent view of the sea, with
the Isle of Man lying clear and distinct on its bosom ; behind, to the right,
1 In Gosforth churchyard is a cross — whether Danish or British no one knows. It is
frmrteen feet high ; the lower part is placed on a pedestal of three steps ; the top is per-
forated with four holes; the sides are enriched with various guilloches and other ornaments,
and with men and animals in bas-relief — one of a man on horseback upside down. Another
column was there once, but it has been taken away, as also a horizontal stalue between
them, with a sword sculptured on it/ — Vide Gentleman's j\r<iiiuz'»ir, Oct., 1700.
217 V V
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
the "Wastwater mountains blue and dark ; to the left, the purple Muncaster
Fells; and in front a rich and varied road, where the hedges, bright with
flowers and loud with song-birds, are crowned with great golden fields of
corn waving above the green fences; a sweet country road, which leads to
Calder Bridge, where is something to be seen before going farther to the
abbey, which, however, is the real lion of the district.
For at Calder Bridge are both Ponsonby Hall, with its beautiful grounds
and pleasant cascade, and the picturesque little modern church, with that
pleasant walk through the churchyard and by the river side ; also the prettiest
inn parlour in the world, with the river dashing underneath the bridge, and
the sweetest sentiment of old world rusticity and simplicity to be found
anywhere ; the very perfection of an inn parlour of the old-fashioned style.
And then there is the mile-long walk underneath the trees, and between
the red sandstone walls, which the wind and weather have mellowed to the
most delicious tone, and which the black-veined spleenwort, our old friend
asplenium trichomanes, covers. And then there is the broad and shady
avenue of old elms and oaks and sycamores, leading up to the house and
the abbey; the preface, introducing you by a stately chord to the statelier
melody beyond. And all these are things worth seeing and noting, before
entering into the mystery of beauty and the past in the ruins of the abbey.2
2 Calder Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1134 by Ranulph de Headlines.
the second Earl of Chester and Cumberland, and completed by Thomas de Multon, who
added to the number of monks, and increased their possessions. It was a kind of offset or
dependency on Furness, the great institution of the country, and was but a small community
at the best, but rich in aristocratic relations. At the Dissolution the whole of the revenues
accruing amounted but to 04Z. 3s. 9d., according to Speed. Henry VIII. gave the Abboy
and its lands to Thomas Leigh, LL.D., and his heirs, to hold in capite, and Dr. Leigh's
grandson, Sir Ferdinand Leigh, sold the abbey to Sir Richard Fletcher, who gave it as a
marriage portion to his daughter when she married John Patrickson. From the Patricksons
it passed to Mr. John Tiffin, of Cockermouth. and then to Mr. John Senhouse ; it is now in
the possession of Captain Irwin. The Senhouses — whom we do not meet with again, their
history and houses lying out of our track — are a very notable family in the north-west of
Cumberland ; and among the ancient forbears was a " limb " called Dick Senhouse, a
218
CALDEll ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNEKDALE.
It tells the reader little to say that these rums consist of the square
tower of the church, supported by pointed arches upheld by four clustered
columns ; that the width of the choir appears to have been only twenty-
five feet; that traces of a fascia are yet to be made out (or were, but a
short time since), above the remaining arches ; and that the various relics
dug up from time to time represent such and such knights and noble
patrons. The most learned catalogue of architectural details would not advance
any one much to know, unless was added that which makes up the true
portrait of the place, because giving its real spirit — the rich old monkish
look of beauty and fertility, assumed to be self-denying because still and
quiet ; the low-lying meadows, with the kine standing knee-deep in the
luxuriant grass ; the clear trout-stream running among the old oaks and
elms of the grove, where Brother Ignatius used to hook out fine fat fish for
the prior's supper, with Brother Hilary standing by breaking the tenth
commandment as he thought of his own lentils and coarse oaten pottage ;
the evidence of centuries of cultivation lying on every square rood of ground,
a cultivation of time so different to the ripest of the merely modern ; the
green smooth sward which has taken generations of diligent scythemen
to bring to its present state of velvet perfectness ; the rooks flocking home
in the declining sun ; the sentiment of repose, and the spirit of old time
still about it ; all this is to be added to make up anything like a picture
of Calder Abbey — pure and noble in its ruin, as it was pure and noble in
its prime. So different to Wastwater left in the morning ! — the one the
historic past, the other the natural present; the one dealing only with the
world of human uses, the other with the grandeur of material forms : and
both so beautiful in their way.
terrible gambler with terrible luck. "You must be either the Devil or Dick Senhouse
for tipping the dice so pat ! " said one man, playing with liim unawares; and " I will do it
in spite of the Devil and Dick Senhouse ! " was a common phrase, expressive of other
points of Master Dick's character not quite in accordance with received notions of ordinary
morality.
219 *' F 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
The ivy and the pretty little ivy-leaved toad-flax (antirrhinum linarui)
hang in clusters and festoons about the dark red arches and moulded capitals ;
and the winds have carried winged seeds into the very cells and cloisters
where the pious monks said their early orisons, and walked, repeating the
hymns and collects of the day, so that now all sorts of trees and shrubs
and flowers are springing up round the old stones, and the free things
of earth are rooting themselves where the ordered thoughts of heaven went
before ; honeysuckles and great ash-trees overshadow arch and aisle and
pillar ; and side by side with the rich old ruin stands a modern house,
square, stuccoed, and glaring; yet not without value in one's thoughts and
meditations among the remains of Calder Abbey.
Those who care to see everything may go to the Camp, as it is called,
where they may make out (if they can) the limits of the ancient encamp-
ment which is said to have been on the side of Ponsonby Fell ; but it is
not very distinct in its markings, nor have any relics ever been found
there, so that its ancient service is perhaps a little doubtful, and certainly
its present aspect is by no means inviting. Still, it is there, and the
insatiable traveller may bind it into his sheaf of sights if he will. From
Calder to Ennerdale he may then choose either of two ways : the one
leading up and over Cold Fell, and under Blake Ley, where lies the little
tarn that sends out one branch of the Calder — though the higher and main
issues are from the top of Iron Crag and under Kevelin — and where he
may see the bleak fell road and the wild fell side to perfection ; and the
other taking him by a good and rational carriage-road through Egremont,
both meeting at last at Ennerdale Bridge,3 a little below the foot of the
lake.4 The fell road is the most " accidented." The wide sea view, and
3 Ennerdale Bridge is the scene of Wordsworth's poem, " The Brothers."
* The peculiarity of Ennerdale Lake is that it lies at the outlet of the valley, not at its
head among the mountains, as is usually the case with lakes. Instead of hiding away at
the feet of the higher hills, Ennerdale has run off as far out into the plain and towards the
sea as it could, leaving the dale, little Liza, and the greater hills, to themselves.
220
C ALDER ABBEY, EGKEMONT, AND ENNERDALE.
the yellow fling of gorse among the purple heather and the cold crag,
have many beautiful points and incidents; and for walkers not irritated by
a multitude of gates to open and bad places to pass, it is the most inter-
esting; but let carriage folks go by Egremont5 — four miles farther. They
will be repaid; for the village, like every place in this district, has its
antiquities and historical associations, its legends and its traditions, as well
as no little natural beauty. The ruins of the old castle6 stand on the
western height, with the wide fertile plains below, now marred in their
5 Egremont was a borough at the time when Parliamentary representatives were
remunerated, but when that practice was discontinued the inhabitants petitioned to be freed
from an expensive privilege, and to have their borough disfranchised, which was accordingly
done. They had various privileges secured to them by charters granted by the successors
of William de Meschines, but they were burdened also with all the old feudal servile duties,
which made men of less account than beasts. By the charter granted by Richard Lucy, in
the reign of King John, and which is still extant, " the burgesses were obliged to find armed
men for the defence of the castle forty days, at their own charge ; they were bound to aids
for the redemption of the lord and his heir from captivity ; for the knighthood of one of his
sons ; and the marriage of one of his daughters. They were to find him twelve men for his
military array ; to hold watch and ward ; and were restrained from entering the forest of
Ennerdale with bow and arrow. Every burgess that kept a plough was compelled to till the
lord's ground one day hi the year, and likewise to find a man to mow and reap in autumn.
If a wroman belonging to the borough was seduced, the fine to be paid to the lord by the
male offender was three shillings ; but if a burgess seduced the daughter of a rustic, who
was not a burgess, he was excused the penalty, unless it could be proved that he had
promised her marriage. The wife of a burgess guilty of using contumelious language to a
neighbour (in other words, a scold) forfeited fourpence." The parish church is a very old
building, built by William de Meschines in honour of St. Mary, and granted by him to the
cell of St. Bees. The town has about fifteen hundred inhabitants, and the land yields
large quantities of iron ore, which is sent to Whitehaven unsmelted, and thence shipped to
South Wales. That pretty river running by is the Ehen or Enna, which falls out of
Ennerdale Lake into the sea, almost side by side with the Colder.
6 It was built about the beginning of the twelfth century by William de Meschines,
brother to the mighty Ranulph, who gave Imn the barony of Copeland, which included all
the country between the sea and the rivers Duddon and Derwent ; but in process of time, by
marriage and other manners of transfer, the property got divided, and the castle of
Egremont passed into the hands of the de Lucys. General Wyndham is the present
owner.
•2-21
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
beauty by the tall chimneys and mining villages scattered among the fruit-
trees and corn-fields ; but still, as ever, enframed by the dark Ennerdale
mountains and the long line of deep blue sea, with the changing clouds
flung in fleecy masses on the mountain tops, or resting in burning ingots
over the water world below. About the old ruins hangs the historical
legend of the Two Brothers,7 known far too well to quote ; and the
romance of the Boy of Egremont, the son, say some, of the Lady Alice
7 This anecdote of Denton's points to the same story, differently related. " The
Baron of Egremont being taken prisoner beyond the seas by the Infidels, could not be
redeemed without a great ransom ; and being for England, entered his brother or kinsman
for his surety, promising, with all possible speed, to send him money to set him free ; but,
upon his return to Egremont, he changed his mind, and most unnaturally and unthankfully
suffered his brother to lie in prison, in great distress and extremity, until his hair was grown
to an unusual length, like to a woman's hair. The Pagans being out of hopes of the
ransom, in great rage most cruelly hanged up their pledge, binding the long hair of his
head to a beam in the prison ; and tied his hands so behind him, that he could not reach
the top where the knot was fastened, to loose himself. During his imprisonment, the
Paynim's daughter became enamoured of him, and sought all good means for his
deliverance, but could not enlarge him ; she, understanding of this last cruelty, entered his
prison, and taking her knife to cut the Lair, being Lastened, she cut the skin of his head, so
that with the weight of his body he rent away the rest, and fell down to the earth half dead ;
but she presently took him up, causing surgeons to attend him secretly, till he recovered his
former health, beauty, and strength ; and so entreated her father for him, that he set him at
liberty. Then, desirous to revenge Ms brother's ingratitude, he got leave to depart to liis
country, and took home with him the Hatterell (scalp lock) of his hair, rent off as aforesaid,
and a bugle-horn, which he commonly used to cany about him. When he was in England,
where he shortly arrived, coming toward Egremont Castle, about noontide of the day, when
his brother was at dinner, he blew his bugle-horn, which, says the tradition, the Baron
presently acknowledged, and thereby conjectured his brother's return; then sending his
Mends and servants to learn his brother's mind to him, and how he had escaped, they
brought back the report of all the miserable torment which he had endured ; wliich so
astonished the Baron (half dead before with the shameful remembrance of his disloyalty and
breach of promise), that he abandoned all company, and would not look on liis brother till
his just wrath was pacified by diligent entreaty of the friends. And to be sure of his
brother's future kindness, he gave the Lordship of Millum to him and liis heirs for ever.
Whereupon the first Lords of Millum gave for their arms the Horn and the Huttrirll."
•2-2-2
CAL.DEK ABBEY, EGREMONT, AND ENNERDALE.
de Romili of Keswick, but about whose personality8 there is some doubt,
antiquarians never agreeing. Still the story remains the same, and the
connection of the de Romilis with Egremont, " the Mount of Sorrow," is
undoubted. For the rest, Wordsworth's readers and lovers know all that
can be said.
Two miles and a half from Egremont, but nearer to Calder Bridge,
is the village of Beckermet, where another tragical tradition is attached
to a place called Wotobank, but which reads as if the story had been made
to account for the name. There was once a certain Lord of Beckermet,
8 We -mil give the account as we find it. " The Lady Alice had two sons, the younger
of whom, from the place of his birth, was called " the Boy of Egremond," and who,
outliving an elder brother, became the last hope of his family. She had also three daughters,
Cecily, Amabil, and Avice, who, on the death of their surviving brother, fell heirs to this
extensive heritage, which, after their mother's decease, was accordingly parted among them.
Her son, who was named William, is said to have been drowned on his return from hunting
or hawking as he crossed the river Wharf, near Barden Tower in Craven. The accuracy
of this account, though admitted to be true so far as the death by drowning of a scion of
Romilfs house, is, however, doubted by that popular antiquarian writer. Doctor Whitaker,
who states that the drowned son of the Lady Alice or Aaliza was a party and witness to the
charter of translation to Bolton, in 1154, of the canons of the priory of Embsay, founded
in 1121 by William le Meschin and Cecilia his wife. Besides, as the boy of Egremond was
alive in llfiO, and a partaker in the rebellion of the Pictish Celts of Scotland, of which the
object was to set him on the throne as the rightful heir, the lucid archaeologist is of opinion
that the story refers to one of the sons (both of whom died young) of Cecilia le Meschin,
grandmother of Lady Alice. Be this as it may, the generally received version of the tale
affirms that the young lord's greyhound, being tied to his girdle by a leash, hung back as
its master sprang across the deep chasm, through which the waters pour with resistless
force, and, thus checked in his leap, the unfortunate Romili fell into the seetliing torrent, at
a place called " The Strid," where he was drowned. When the report of her bereavement
reached liis mother, borne by the attendant who beheld his untimely fate — and who, wisliing
to break the pitiful tidings as softly as possible, inquired in language whose phraseology in
the present day is almost unintelligible, " What is good for a bootless bene ? — meaning
thereby, "What remains when prayer is useless?" — tradition avers, that apprehending
from the return of the falconer alone, with despair pictured on his countenance, that some
great calamitv had befallen her son, her answer was couched in that memorable archaism,
" Bootless bayl brings endless sorrow."
223
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
who one day went out hunting wolves, accompanied by his lady and a lordly
retinue. The "ardour of the chase" separated him from his wife, who
was soon missing from the cavalcade, but after a search was found lying
dead on the side of a hill, with a wolf devouring her. In the agony of
his sorrow the husband cried out, " Woe to this bank ! " and succeeding
ages crystallized the cry, which at this day is the name of a pretty modern
house built on the site of the poor lady's untimely deathbed. There is also
another story attached to Beckermet, of a gayer character. About four miles
south of Bout in Eskdale, lies a lonely tarn with a rocky islet in the
middle, called Devoke Water; and three-quarters of a mile from Devoke
Water are some remains, generally called Barnscar, or the City of Barnscar,
which folks say are the remains of a Danish city, though no historical
record confirms that idea. However, it was a city of some kind, for
silver coins have been found there ; and when Hutchinson wrote his
history, the character of the buildings seems to have been more easily
traced than now ; for he speaks of walls and a main street, with several
cross streets, and an ancient road from Ulpha to Ravenglass as quite well
made out; but now there are merely small piles of stones set up on a
very desolate bit of fell, and you may believe them to have been a city of
human inhabitants if you like. The popular belief further is, that the
Danes peopled this Barnscar in something of the old Sabine manner,
making a raid on Beckermet and Drigg,9 with forcible union consequent ; so
that when any sudden friendship or love-making springs up between two
young people in this part of the world, they are said to "go together like
the lads of Drigg and the lasses of Beckermet."
From Egremont down to Ennerdale the road passes over the fell, rich
in gorse and bramble and great bunches of yellow ragwort, with splashes
of bronzed and blood-red bracken and purple tufts of vetch for compen-
sating colours, till it comes down to Ennerdale Bridge, and thence on
Drigg, Progg, Perigh, or IVrgh — the Irish for oaks.
224
CALDER ABBEY, EGRE.MOXT, AM) ENXKKPA I.E.
KNNERDALE WATER — FROM ANGLiiBb OR/
to the foot of the lake. The square top of Herdhouse stands well forward
as you round the common road or go down the steep hill which leads to
the boathouse ; whence the Ennerdale valley is at its best. At the head
of the dale stands the Pillar,10 the steepest and craggiest of all the mountains,
till one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six deemed the English Jungfrau,
our maiden mountain inaccessible, but now owning to nearly a dozen con-
querors ; each traveller who has actually reached the top writing his name on a
slip of paper which he places in a bottle left in the crevice of a rock for the
purpose. So at least goes the story, which we could not verify by personal
observation. It is a magnificent-looking mountain ; the crowning rock, a
great grey striated column which fires all one's ambition to surmount. By
it is the Steeple, followed by the Haycocks, with a sharp little bit peeping
up like a child's pert voice among the grave elders ; and then comes the
10 " You see yon precipice ; it wears the shape
Of a vast building, made of many crags;
And in the midst is one particular rock,
That rises like a column from the vale.
Whence by our shepherds it is called the Pillar."
WORDSWORTH.
U U
TIIK LAKH COt'NTUY
fine broad sweep of Reveliu, falling into that of Crag Fell — Iron Crng
behind, and the Angler's Crag below. On the left are Black Sail and Red
Pike and the distant point of Grasmoor ; Latterbarrow, a little green
knoll, thrusting its feet into the water, is followed by Windsor Crag — a small
bit of screes — and Bowness Knot, fellow comrade and of like nature to
itself; next are the long slopes of Bannerfell, leading over to Floutern
Tarn on Blake Fell ; and, quite at the back, looking towards the sea,
one of the last of the wavelets thrown up in this mountain tide, the Knock
o' Murton Hill, a smooth round protuberance bulging out on the plain like
a great green wen.
All the Ennerdale mountains are of the same nature ; a kind of craggy
moorland, capital for sportsmen ; but, save in the sheltered nooks at the foot,
where are patches of forward land and good crops enough, no cultivation
anywhere. The place is wilder even than Wastdale ; more lonely and austere
if less sublime ; at the head wonderfully noble, with a majesty of mountain
unusual. But it is not lovely, taking that word to mean an admixture of
softness with the grandeur: not even when "on the lake," which is- such
a soft and lovely experience everywhere else. An extraordinary collection of
small stones in this lake is called "the island." How they ever came
there, or why they should be there at all, surpasses the intellects of the
best guessers ; as also why a fine rift in the rock on Crag Fell should
be called Robin Hood's Chair. Scores of names and initials are carved,
modo Anglice, on the walls of this rift ; some of them dating so far back
as the year one thousand seven hundred. Jenny Crag Well, under Revelin,
is another of the notabilities of Ennerdale. It is a spring of perfectly pure
water, cool in summer and unfrozen in winter ; of the same temperature
the year round ; never failing whatever the drought, and never muddied
whatever the rainfall ; one of the many such to be found in the lake country.
Revelin itself is an important mountain, all things considered. The
whole land hereabouts being more or less impregnated with iron ore, even
Revelin has had its secret chambers rifled with the rest, and has been forced
226
CALDER ABBEY, EGREMONT, AM) KXXKKDALK.
to give up its treasures. Lately, they have begun to work for irou ore on
Bowness Knot — the yield in Revelin failing, or the directors quarrelling
among themselves, or some other of the many casualties of mining property
having befallen both works and yield, so that it has returned to its earlier
and humbler function — that of feeding bees. Every summer and autumn
hundreds of hives are brought up to Ennerdale and set on Kevelin, for the
bees to get strength and sustenance before winter time. Carts come in the
early morning laden with beehives, and " a vast o' good honey gets shakt
oot ont' road." A certain wall on the mountain is called Bee Wall End;
and the honey gathered from the heather hereabouts is their Hymettau
honey to the north-country people.
The head of the dale flows up into the old closed barren sweep, with the
Liza running through; the pretty, clear, bright little Liza starting with a
laugh from her birthplace on Great Gable, and laughing to the end, where she
loses herself in the Big Water. But though presenting many of the ordinary
features of the dale, it has some special and noble characteristics of its own :
and the walk over Blacksail to Wastwater by Gillerthwaite, and between
Kirkfell and the Pillar, and Kirkfell and Yewbarrow, into Mosedale valley, is
one of the finest in the country — one of the wildest as well, and to the
inexperienced, of no contemptible danger. Scarf Gap to Butterniere is not
so bad ; but the mountain path over by Floutern Tarn and Blake Fell to
Lowes Water, is a thing not to be attempted by the ignorant or unwary :
such a wild, lost bit of travel as it is ! — when the eager mountain storms
come on, like great white wolves raging over the heights and hollows, a
perilous way even to the guides themselves, and to the stranger too often fatal.
More stories are told of travellers lost about the Ennerdale paths and passes
than in any other part of the country, the distances between point and point
not being long — which is a temptation ; and the ways apparently easy — which
is another temptation; but under any obliteration, or disguisement by storm,
proving utterly unreliable and destructive.
Eunerdale is the least known, and, at the present time, the least likely t<>
227 (i <: 2
THE LAKK COUNTRY.
be visited of all the lakes. Indeed, it can have only its own special sifting of
visitors, for the carriage-road to the foot goes no farther than the Boat-House ;
at least what follows is very indifferent and leads nowhere ; and the Boat-House
itself, the only place of accommodation, cannot house many visitors at a time,
and has no attractions for fine folks at all. The other approaches to the lake
are either severe pony roads, as the Black Sail and Scarf Gap passes, impossible
to all save good walkers and hardy riders ; or mere mountain paths, like the
Bannerdale Fell way over to Floutern, or by Iron Crag and Tong Fell down to
Scalderskew and Calder. So that until Ennerdale has the benefit of carriage
ways along its banks, it will remain comparatively a terra incognita to the
tourist world, save those who can brave a rough pass, and those who care only
to gape away an hour at the foot while their horses are baiting at the inn.
And this is what butterfly people generally do ; driving over from Lowes "Water
through Lamplugh u to Ennerdale Bridge, or from Wastwater by Egremont,
or the fell road higher up ; to be for ever after quite contented with the belief
that they have seen Ennerdale, and have " done " the lake effectively.
Those who want variety in scenery would do well to pass from Enner-
dale to St. Bees. A more thorough diversity could scarcely be found, from
the lonely mountain lake imprisoned within its iron barriers, through flowery
country lanes, and by dirty and ugly mining villages, down to the mighty
sea — the term and bound of all things. The character and spirit of the
way change strangely as you go on. When you leave Ennerdale you pass
first through the dear old country roads, narrow, tortuous, bordered with
hedges full of flowers — in this early autumn time silvered with great bind-
weed, azured with hairbells passing into the deeper purple of the tufted
vetch, and gilded with hawkweed, bright yellow vetchling, and heavy ragwort
— country roads diversified by stretches of copse wood and the sudden windings
" I.aiu]ilugh, siiid to mean (lie \v< I (lnlc, being a corruption of Glan-lillough or Glan-
ploiigli. Tlir manor and otatrs \vrrr held by the Laniplughs, a race- of valorous gentlemen,
all of whom were knighted on the iiekl.
228
CALDEU ABBEY, EGREMOXT, AND EXXEUDALE.
of the Ehen — by pretty bridges such as that of Wath Bridge, with the fine
spun of arch so customary to this country — by picturesque cottages, and
healthy, honest faces ; but gradually losing all these features as the way leads
you into the mining district. And then you come to a new order of things ;
to a village like Cleator, formal and ugly, with evil faces and squalid looks
haunting every door and window ; with ragged children ; girls and women
unkempt, flaring, and untidy; men lounging and vicious, sometimes brutal-
looking for a change ; in a word, with the outward signs, so fatal and so
easily recognized, of a trade that excludes healthy physical influences, and
where bodily waste is supplied by sensual excess. They all look sodden and
hard- worked, and in the whole of the two villages you will pass through you
will not perhaps see one well-looking woman — meaning by that, modest and
cleanly — nor one really cared-for child. The very colour of the earth, too, is
altered from that of the lake-land proper. The rich browns and pure greys
of the mountains have given place to a coarse, hard red, which ruddles every-
thing to the same ochreous tint alike. The roads are red and the houses are
red, the carts and the horses and the slouching canvas-clothed men and the
bare-footed children — they are all daubed and saturated with red. About
the Big Rigg works, where the landslip took place on the high road one day,
the redness is singularly offensive ; but by-and-by the mining district yields
to the clean, close-shorn uplands of the sea-side ; and when you mount the
last hill, leading to St. Bees, you are in another world.
You cannot see the sea-line yet, because of the intervening headland,
but if you are fortunate you may see instead what will serve for many minutes
of pleasant wonder. The sky in a long straight line of deep blue, flecked
with warm-grey clouds standing as it seems far above it, at times so perfectly
represents the sea, that it is long before one can be convinced it is only
cloud and sky, and not the sea beneath. The heavens overhead are upheaped
with clouds, while on the horizon this band of intensest cobalt lies, like the
ocean, perfectly still and unruffled, with the clouds standing above it. The
illusion lasts till a deep cut in the Head lets in a view of the real sea, with
229
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
the Scotch mountains and the Isle of Man; and then the Fata Mor;/<ti«t
vanishes, and when the sun sinks below a broad blood-red band that fades off
to divinest grey, through purple and violet and yellow and green and blue,
to the great white clouds above, you have one of Nature's most beautiful
phantasmagoria replaced by one of her noblest realities.
1SLK OF MAN — FROM ST. BEE6
FLESWICK BAY
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST
CHAPTER XV
ST. BEES 1 is the favourite watering-place of the lake district ; and it is
easy to understand that it should he preferred to Allonhy or Parton, or any
other station on the coast, because of the greater amount of beauty and poetry
1 St. Bees is said to take its name from Bega or Beza, according to some, Begoth
(beg — og, little, young) — a sweet Irish saint who was shipwrecked on the coast, and who, in
gratitude for the holy love that heard her prayer, founded, about the year 650, a small
monastery, where afterwards a church was built in memory of her — the Lord of Egremont
giving her all the land where the snow should fall on St. John's Eve : and it fell in a broad,
bold band, as of course it would. The " aforesaid religious house having been destroyed by
the Danes, was restored by William le Meschines (the Lord of Egremont), son of Ranulph,
and brother of Ranulph le Meschines, first Earl of Cumberland after the Conquest, and
made a cell of a prior and six Benedictine monks to the Abbey of St. Mary at York."
William further " granted to God and St. Mary of York and St. Bega, and to the monks
serving God there, all the woods within their boundaries, and everything within the same,
except hart and hind, boar and hawk ; and all liberties which he himself had in Coupland.
231
Till-; LAKE COUNTRY.
associated with it. Its foundations laid in legend and romance, hut with ;i
positive history to lift it out of cloud-land into the world of fact; rich in both
land and sea treasures, in the flowers of the field2 and in those of the wave ; with
sunsets unequalled on any sea-line in England ; with a wide belt of sound sand,
and a bed of rock full of anemones and star-fish, jelly-fish, and all manner of
odd sea creatures ; with pretty country walks, and a glorious sea-beach ; what
is wanting for its reputation ? and what to its power of fascination ? So near
to Ennerdale, too, as it is, it seems as if a ray of mountain loveliness has
flashed across it ; as if the sweet influences of the hills and lakes have flowed
down even to the great sea, and that the breezes which bring back health and
strength and the freshness of the free skies, go out from the land laden with
beauty and delight. It is strange how much the sentiment of the mountains
lingers round St. Bees, and how we find it to be the true and real outlet of the
lake system ; the last expression, if not the culminating point.
Very sweet are the close flowery lanes about, and gloriously noble the
wide reach of downs, with the sea shining below, and the great burning sun
as well on land as on the water, both salt and fresh." At the Dissolution, Archbishop Grindal
(who introduced the tamarisk into England) — Fuller's " pious Grindal," and other men's
" perfidious prelate "—founded a free grammar school in the -place of the Benedictine cell,
where the youths of Cumberland and Westmoreland might learn the Humanities at small
charges and to large profits: his spur thereto being that he was a native of Hensingham. ;<
small village close at hand. This was in 1587, by a charter got from Queen Elizabeth ;
and in later days a college was established, under the patronage of Lord Lonsdale, for the
education of our northern priests and curates of small incomes and unimportant cures. At
the Dissolution, Edward VI. granted the manor of St. Bees to Sir Thomas Chaloner, from
whom it passed to the Wyberghs; and from them, by foreclosed mortgage, to Lord Lonsihilf
about the year 1663. Of the old church only the tower is Saxon ; the rest is florid
Gothic. It is built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood ; and at the east end are some
fine carvings. The nave is used as the parish church, the cross aisle (used to be) the phu-e
of burial; and there is a wooden effigy of Anthony, the last of the Lords Lucie or Lucy.
of Egremont, which is very ugly and vory curious.
2 " Who climbs on hands and knees,
For some rare plant, yon headland of St. Bees."
The great cliff called Bees Head, or Bamhead, says Gough, abounds with sea-fowl.
232
ST. BEES AXD THE SEA COAST.
in the cloudless heaven above. All so silent, too ! — as silent as on the
mountain tops ; the only breaks to the stillness there being the cry of a
sheep, or the music of the falling waters within the ghylls, while here it is
the song of the skylark, or the lowing of the cattle pastured on the downs —
those wide shadowless downs seething in the summer sun. And all the
more impressive is this stillness, because of the life and movement we know
of, but do not recognise below. We know that the waves are breaking with
sounding murmurs against the rocks and on the shore, though now the whole
glittering expanse has neither sound nor movement ; that the ships, lying
seemingly as idly as "painted ships upon a painted ocean," are full of human
life and industry, freighted with passions as well as with cargoes, loud with
hope and fear and love and sorrow, as well as with flapping sails and twanging
cordage ; we know that the villages and towns shining white and still in the
scene, are plenished with varied life ; and that the hum of men and the
whirling wheels of commerce are echoing in the lower lands, while we stand,
silent and alone, beyond them all ; we know all this, and therefore the stillness
of those great sea-downs falls on the heart with a powerful fulness of emotion,
deeper and stronger than any speech or sound could give.
There is a choice of pleasant ways about St. Bees. One carries you
by the breezy downs, where the elastic grass is beaded with white mush-
room balls, and starred with flowers — sea-pinks and thrift and lavender
and rest-harrow and countless others — whence you look over to the sea dotted
with ships, some standing close in shore, their white sails looking like
large wings, and others gliding noiselessly away over the edge of creation,
bound " one knows not for what distant port ; through heath and pleasant
pasturage, down to the head of that strange red rift gemmed with agates and
pretty pebbles, called Fleswick Bay. Here the St. Bees and Whiteliaveu
people make pic-uic parties, finding every requisite for that agreeable pastime ;
for a little stream of fresh water, good for many uses, meanders through the
glen; and flat blocks of red freestone serve for tables, and round smooth
stones for seats ; and a grim but none the less convenient cave, once doubtless
233 H H
THK LAKE COUNTRY.
given up to unhallowed kegs of brandy and casks of whiskey overproof and
innocent of excise duties, but which now young couples are fond of exploring,
offers facilities for one essential element in a happy pic-nic to get itself enacted.
So that on the whole Fleswick Bay is the most popular place for miles round ;
and in truth worth a long hour's visit, without a merry pic-nic party or a pair
of bright eyes as incentives.
The way off the cliffs is down a true gipsy lane, where you have to do
a little scrambling: not more than is good for you, but still, at one point,
rather a pinch for the stately and many-fleshed; the red walls of rock on
either side are covered with a small fine green bordering of moss, and flowers
grow on the ledges — chamomile with its hair-like leaves, samphire, and thrift.
The cows, pasturing on the uplands, come down the red glen to drink at
the sweet streamlet of fresh water, and to stand knee-deep in the warm,
smooth sea; and you have to drive them boisterously before you when
you go back, if you return by the way of the downs, for the rift is too
narrow for you and those four-footed beasts, in comfortable intermingling
together. The stones are water-worn and ribbed and channelled, and you can
sac where the waves have washed up in their remorseless strength for centuries
past, and how the once sharp ribs of the earth are worn away under that
incessant sweep ; and you can learn, if you will, something of the law of
wave force, which is the same, with a difference, as what you have learnt
in the lake wave ; with a difference : for the sea wave is a long, steady,
and incessant sweep, regular and rhythmic, and the lake wave is irregular
and interrupted — partial in its flow and of uncertain boundary — so that lake
rocks, though they get worn and channelled too, do not show such persistent
action as either river stones or sea-side rocks.
From Fleswick you may go back either by the road or the downs, or,
at low tide, by the rocks and the sea-shore ; or you may' go farther on
the Whitehaven side, to the lighthouse, and see what fine arrangements
they have there for the guidance into safety of the ships wandering in
fog or darkness about the pathless dangers of the St. Bees headland, and
234
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST.
how the very perfection of cleanliness is attained in that tall, chimney-
looking building — a cleanliness almost approaching to genius, it is so full
of watchfulness and thought.3 The road and the downs are both delightful
ways, but by the sea-shore is the best of the three; for there you not
only pass under magnificent cliffs, where the sea birds are sitting in the sun
or wheeling round in heavy flight screaming to their young within their
nests, where you have the sensation of being at the roots of creation, and
under the shadow of the remorseless grandeur of Nature ; but you also come
upon a bed of rocks, where you may lose yourself for as many hours as
the tide will give you free-warren and the right of search. And how many
soever these hours may be, you will not have seen half the wonders of that
marvellous world.
Limpets and periwinkles, and small gray cirrhipeds and great yellow
whelks and deep blue mussels — some of them of singular smallness — with
their long beards like slender rootlets beaded with fragments of stone and
seaweed, cling all about ; some fastened to the lifeless rock with a look of
ancient holding as if they had sat there since before the flood, and some
entangled in among the ulva — that fine green weed hanging down from the
rocks like hair newly smoothed and combed, as if those great round stones
were the heads of enchanted mermen, and that smooth growth of weed
their comely locks. And there are broad bands of purple sea- weed like
great ribbons floating about ; and little coralline tufts of the daintiest growth
and loveliest tint — red and pink and white, and some as if dyed in the royal
purple, and some as if newly taken from a vat of liquid amber. And there
are sea grapes, which, however, are nothing but cuttle-fish eggs; and sea
barberries, which are the eggs of the purpura whelk ; and mermaid's purses,
which, if not empty, hold a very ugly creature as their treasure ; and masses
of bladder wrack, which you pop with a sounding noise and great squirt
3 Camden did not even mention Whitehaven in his accounts of the northern counties ;
and in 1506, Gough says there were but six houses and only one pichard of eight or nine
tons belonging.
235 H H 2
TMK LAKE COUNTRY.
of sea water; and balls of honey-combed froth like desiccated sponges or
consolidated foam, which are the worn-out egg clusters of the whelk; and
other wonderful things to be picked up and studied by those caring to
know what lies about them.
And then there are the live things : little brown crabs scuttling away all
on one side, and queer little shrimps diving about in great perplexity of soul ;
and, sticking underneath the rocks, so that you must go down on your hands
and knees to find them, are some wet, shining, deep-coloured masses. Of all
colours are those wet shining masses, and of all patterns : some like big
carbuncles of dark blood-red ; and others of emerald-green ; and some of dull
olive-green, like the oriental peridot; some like chrysolites, with a kind of
brown struck through the yellow shine ; and some pale rose colour, like
delicate pink topazes : mere fleshy masses now, without life or motion or
change ; but take them tenderly from their rocks — tenderly, and yet autho-
ritatively— slipping underneath some thin and harmless instrument, like a
small paper-knife, or even, if you have a steady hand and are careful not to
injure the base of your prize, the blade of a pocket-knife itself — feed them
with some of that fine green hair-weed, and some of that purple growth as
well, and give them plenty of sunlight and fresh sea-water — and then see
what your monochromatic bits of sea-flesh become. That brown lump throws
out a million yellowed anthers, each threaded with a bright blue bead at
the base, while round the inner circle is another edging of bright blue,
contracting or enlarging, paling or deepening, at the creature's will. That
little pale rose topaz puts on an outer robe all pearl strung — rows of small
spots, like seed pearls, banding it round ; and the large, solid, blood-red gout
puffs itself out till it looks a congeries of bladders of a transparent white shot
with pink. The yellow nodule shows a deep violet lining ; and they all
•expand like flowers, and turn to the sun for joy and increase. They are
indeed living flowers ; flowers that move their petals and anthers at will, and
that open and close themselves from formless buds to full-blown blossoms also
at will ; flowers that have all manner of lovely markings about their edges,
236
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST.
and coloured hearts and changing petals ; flowers that are never two hours
the same, but that put on their crowns and royal mantles in the sun with
more than the peacock's pride, and then sit in the ashes with dust-coloured
Cinderella, sullen and disarrayed; flowers that change like things in a fairy
tale gifted with powers of transformation. Our rock hed here is rich in
these sea anemones ; " crass " and " mess " growing to enormous sizes and
in large quantities.
Then there are star-fishes, queer leathery beings with orange painted
backs, and a dull and lifeless look altogether till they are thrown into a
pool of sea-water or cast upon their backs, when they show the wealth
of beauty with which Nature has dowered them in rich excess. Myriads
of small, fine, pellucid threads unfold themselves from the inside of the
rays, moving about in a strange kind of order as if making patterns or
geometric figures — now all clustered together in a pearly cloud, and now
fringing the edges with the daintiest beads, like small moonstones or colour-
less opals. The silent, ceaseless wandering of these fragile threads, which are
the creature's feet with which it walks over sand and rocks and treads
the surface of the wave with the certainty, if not the force, of a giant,
has a very fairy-like appearance. Yet no one seems to care much for these
five-rayed, orange-backed, star-fish, though they are wonderfully interesting
beasts, if you have patience enough to watch how they accommodate them-
selves to circumstances, and how they fit their thick bodies into all manner
of inequalities, and how they change themselves from mere dead-alive leathery
bits of inanimation into the most exquisitely jewelled surfaces, instinct with
life and feeling and movement. Ah, truly, not the meanest thing of Nature
but has its secret world of loveliness and wonder, if we only look for it.
Then, on the sands, you will see lying flat plates of dirty-looking
jelly, torn and ragged at the edges, covered with sand, and altogether of
a disreputable appearance. Take one up carefully — not touching him with
your naked hand — and fling him into a shallow pool left by the receding
tide among the rocks. In a few moments your dirty plate of jelly will
237
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
expand into the most lovely disc — striped and barred with brilliant colours,
shooting out long threads that wave and play in the water as the creature
slowly sways itself to and fro. It is a jelly-fish — a Medusa — a sea-nettle —
one of the acephalae — that you have captured, and hundreds of them are
probably lying on the beach, mere battered and bruised masses, but needing
only to be taken back to their own sea world to become again things of
loveliness and grace unequalled.
These, and many more than these, you will find among those green
and black-haired rocks by the bluff headland ; there where the escarp-
ment, split into great parallel blocks of the richest red, wears such a
different aspect to the sea-beach pavement smoothed and rounded into
gigantic pebbles ; yet both are of the same formation ; only the one shows
the varied action of the wind and rain and frost, and the other the uniform
sweep and swell of wave, for ever and for ever repeated.
When the tide has run down the sands are ribbed and channelled in
the old form, like the markings on the Screes at Wastwater ; and you see
again the leaf, both the coralline growth and the fan shape, which the
downward pour of water on a yielding surface always gives. And farther
on, you most likely fall against a thick length of iron cable, now bent
and twisted like a doll's wire, telling its sad tale of wreck and disaster,
and noble lives entombed and lost to humanity for ever. Nothing gives a
more vivid idea of the tremendous force of the waves than a cast-up iron
cable, not one strand of which you can bend, now all twisted and unravelled
as if it had been made of thread.
The sea beach and the rocks and the cliffs, with their pleasant downs
above — the cliff of Baruth and Tall Tomlyn, as the Head is affectionately
called — are of course the chief features of interest about St. Bees ; but
there are others for the stranger beside. There is Grindal's college 4 with
4 " Edmund Grindall, born at St. Bees, bred Scholar, Fellow, and Master of Pembroke
Hall, in Cambridge, and Proctour of the University ; " in Mary's reign he fled beyond
238
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST.
its antiquities; and the giant's burying-place 5 — if you can find it; and the
villages round about ; and the lanes and fields full of wild flowers ; and
the strange Scalegill pond, the birth of which did so much damage, or
rather was coincident with so much damage — for, on the first of March,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the ground in a meadow
belonging to Lord Lonsdale suddenly sank several feet, and immediately
after the water rushed out, falling through the fracture as into a funnel,
drowning the Scalegill colliery, and making the Scalegill pond in question.
And there is Whitehaven, for those who care to see a town given up to
coals and fish ; and then there is the sea-coast, and the stations leading
gradually on to Coniston and Furness.
Lonely and desolate are those small grey stations on the sea-shore ;
without history and without trade ; spare in population and poor in
circumstance ; devoid of all that makes a western civilized home more
beautiful than a savage wigwam ; but ever with the dark blue mountain
boundary behind, and the wide and fathomless sea, with its teeming life
and its gorgeous sunsets, its power and its unrest, in front. Nethertown
and Braystones and Sellafield — close to which, however, the Calder escapes
into the wider world of waters, so that dusty, stony, desolate little Sellafield
has that interest if none other— Seascales and Drigg, whence the lasses of
l>y Elizabeth he was made Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and Canterbury ; a man
of learning and piety, modesty and single life : he offended Leicester when he would not let
him have Lambeth House, and forbade the Earl's physician from marrying another man's
wife, so he was undermined with the queen, and had lost his archbishopric but for the
queen's relenting. He died July 6th, 1683. " Worldly wealth he cared not for, desiring
only to make both ends meet ; and as for that little that lapped orer, he gave it to pious uses in
both Universities, and the founding of a fair Free-school at St. Bees, the place of liis nativity."
5 In the library of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle is an account of the finding a
giant at St. Bees, in the year 1601, just before Christmas time : it is in Machell's MSS.,
and tells how that " he the said Gyant was four yards and a half long, and was in complete
nriiimir; that his teeth were six inches long, and that he was buried four yards deep in the
ground, which is now a cornfield. His armour, sword, and battle-axe are at Mr. Sand's,
of Redington (Rollington), and at Mr. Wyber's, at St. Bees."
239
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
Beckermet got their lads — what are they all but the poorest and most pitiful
sea-side hamlets to be seen anywhere ? There is not a paragraph of history
to be written on them all.
Eavenglass 6 is better. Not that the little town is much, but some
of the traditions are interesting. The three rivers, the Irt, the Mite, and
the Esk, fall into the sea near together, forming an estuary called Esk
Meals,7 which, at low tide, is a wide bed of sand, and at high tide a
grand and foaming river ; and there are fine oysters to be had here, which
to some would prove the greatest attraction of all. The three rivers, fol-
lowed to their sources, would lead you into very noble company. The
Irt would take you up to Wastwater, Scawfell, and Lingrnell, and,
if you chose to add the track of the Bleng which falls into it just above
Santon Bridge, you would get into the wilds of Ponsonby Fells, Seatallan,
and the Haycock, where you might lose yourself between Ennerdale and
6 Anciently part of the barony of Egremont, till the manor was granted by Richard
Lucy "to the Penningtons, ancestors of the present Lord Muncaster. Richard Lucy,
however, obtained for Ravenglas the privileges of a fair and a market from King John,
and the fair is still held by the Earl of Egremont or his representative on the eve, the day,
and the morrow of St. James. " On the first day the Earl or his proxy attends,
accompanied by the serjeant of the borough of Egremont, with the insignia called -the Bow
of Egremont, by the foresters, with their bows and arrows, and by all the tenants of the
forest of Copeland, who hold their estates by the special service of attending the Earl or
his representative dining Ravenglass fair. On the third day, at noon, the Earl's officers
and tenants of the forest depart after proclamation, and Lord Muncaster and liis tenants
take formal repossession of the place, when the day is concluded by horseracing and various
rustic diversions. The children of Ravenglass manor go about from house to house
singing for the bounty they were wont to have in old King Edward's days." They get a
pie or twopence at each house. Denton says that Ravenglass was anciently a place of
ferns, and that the name is a corruption of the Irish Rainigh Fernsald.
7 " Eskmeals is a plain, low, dry ground, at the foot of the Esk, between the mountains
and the sea, which sort of grounds, lying under mountains and promontories into, or at the
sea, are commonly called Meeles or Meiles, as it were the entrance or mouth from the sea
into a river or such like place, as the Meild or (query of?) Esk. Kirksanton Meil, Cartmeil,
Mealholme, the Mule of Galloway, and Millom itself, and many other such like."
240
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST.
Wustwater, and be days and even weeks before you found yourself and
civilization again. The Mite would carry you up into wild and desolate
Mitredale under tbe Muncaster Fells, and face to face with Scawfell, and
finally to the back of the Screes, just escaping Burnmoor Tarn where one
of the tributaries of the Esk has its head-quarters. As for that same
sweet winding Esk, to follow it would take you to Devoke water, and into
green Eskdale, to Stanley Ghyll and Birker Force, to Harter Fell and
Hard Knot and Bow Fell, and finally to Scawfell, close under the
shadow of the Pike, where it has its highest spring and earliest cradle.
The dale itself would carry you over by Hard Knot and Wrynose and
Fell Foot, with a diversion to Blea Tarn, down into Little Langdale and
Colwith Force ; where, however, you have no business at this moment, if you
want to go by the way of the sea-coast, under the lee of Black Combe to
Broughton ; a way worth seeing, if only for the sake of the purple background
of hills always standing between you and the sky — Scawfell topped far above
the rest, and the Screes drawing the noblest line against the grey clouds.
Very beautiful, too, is it to see the valleys opening up towards the hills, Mitre-
dale and Eskdale, with Birker and Harter Fells behind, and Muncaster
Fells below ; and grander still the way becomes as you go on towards
Black Combe from Bootle.8 The golden oats and purple heather make a
lovely contrast between fell and field ; and the hedges look like golden
lines, all yellowed in the early autumn by the great square ragwort growing
here in wonderful profusion ; and then you get to the foot of Black
Combe 9 — that grand culmination of the mountain system on the southern
8 Boot hill — Beacon hill, so some of the etymologists say : others Bothal, from
cromlechs, or Bethel, the House of God. In some old records it is Bodele. It is the
smallest market town in England, and has a market cross.
9 Some superstitions, and a few odd customs, still exist about Black Combe. It is said
there that the bees sing, and the labouring ox kneels in adoration at twelve o'clock at night on
Christmas Eve ; and that what quarter soever a bull lies facing, on Alllialloween. them-.-
will blow the prevailing winter wind; and Hob Thross, " a body all ower rough," like the
Brownie of old time and Milton's lubber fiend, has still, we believe, private quarters somc-
241 I I
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
side, the buttress, the advanced guard, the foremost sentinel of all. Black
Conibe, indeed, has the widest range of any — fourteen counties being to
be seen from it, and as far as Talk-on-the-Hill, in Staffordshire, a hundred
miles off. It is no rare thing to see Ireland too — before the sun rises,
not after. Of the same geological formation as Skiddaw,10 it is still more
marked in its condition, isolated as it is from the green slate at its back,
and the red sandstone in front; and, with its fine black head,11 deserves
well its name, and regal sovereignty of the south. But if its head is
black, the fells belonging are bronzed with seeding gorse — brown where the
gorse and the still green bracken flow into each other, and reddened gold
where the fern-leaves have begun to change. The changing bracken, and the
where in the lowly dwellings about Black Combe ; or had, before the railroad came to ST
him away into the limbo of the unproved and the unpractical. Newly married people d<
not buy corn for their first sowing about Black Combe ; they go tlirough the country side,
begging a handful here and a handful there, till their friends and neighbours have filled
their sack, and given them their future crop : else sorrow a loaf of bread would they rear,
were they to give money for their grain. They are called cornlaiters when on tliis
interesting mission : laiting meaning seeking or looking for. On Christmas morning the local
dish hereabouts is hack pudding, made of sheep's heart, suet, and dried fruits. Servant
are hired only at Martinmas and Whitsuntide ; money is lent only at Candlemas ; and tin
dead are always waked.
10 It is of Skiddaw slate ; the only outcome of that special geological formation
this side. At the summit is a cavity, as of an extinct crater, out of a corner whereof
rivulet flows into Whicham, with vitrifications as at Bowscale. The same kind of crater
on Coniston Old Man, and Helvellyn, but on each of these is a lake at the mouth of the
cavity.
11 Black Combe is literally Black Head. It is in the lordship of Millom, and where is
still a " castle," then " Millom Castle," which is now partly a farmhouse and partly a ruin.
The lordship belonged to William de Meschines, and was given by him, in the reign of
Henry I., to a de Boyville, who exercised "jura regalia" there, including the pleasant
privilege of erecting a gallows, with the right to hang men thereon. From the de Boyvillos.
who were related to the Lords of Egremont, it passed to the Huddlestons, and then
in 1714 to the Earl of Lonsdale for twenty thousand pounds. It was disparked only as
lately as 180-2. During the Parliamentary wars, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, vicar of
Staindrop, who had enterel the royal army, was slain at Millom Castle.
242
ST. BEES AND THE SEA COAST.
purple heather, and the undertone of grey crag, make, in the early autumn
days, a glorious arrangement of hill- side colouring, more ripely gorgeous
than the spring, and more varied than the summer. Indeed, the early autumn
time is the grandest of all for scenic effects in the lake district ; the time
when the atmosphere lends the greatest charm, and when vegetation is at its
loveliest — emphatically the fittest time for this sea-side route, and for watching
the hills and hollows and lights and shadows of the grand old solitary sentinel
glooming in the sun, itself the fitting witness, in its massiveness and
mystery, of the ancient spirits 12 still hovering round its base.
From Bootle you come to the mouth of the Duddon, seeing where the
railroad bridge is flung across the wide Duddon sands,13 like a mere thread
suspended between earth and sky — seeing, too, where the old monks, in their
rich valley of Furness, gave motive and action, and a rule whereby the lay
world was forced to live, lording it over the lake country with somewhat a
heavy hand if a beneficent, and caring as much, we must confess, for their own
12 Many Druidical circles exist in this district, to be best seen by the Ordnance maps.
At Annaside twelve stones in a circle, which were once, it is natural to suppose, a temple
like that at Keswick ; near Gutterby are thirty stones in a circle called Kirkstoues, and two
hundred yards off is a cairn. The Standing Stones are three miles farther south ; these are
eight big blocks, which once formed part of a circle twenty-five yards in diameter; in
Millom grounds are the imperfect remains of a circle ; about a mile east of Black Combe is
the Sunken Kirk ; and a mile off, another circle, smaller. All these are assumed to be
Druidical remains ; and probably the reasons which led the monks to Fnmess previously
caused the bards and priests of Druidism to establish their temples and celebrate their rites
in the same district.
13 The Lancashire side of the estuary is called Dunnerholme-sand-side. The Cumber-
laud side is Barrick Railes. The Duddon has a speciality in its cockles, which are reputed
the best and finest of any in the north country ; though both the Lancaster and Leven
sands prodiice very largely in size and quantity, yet the " fresh Dutton cockles," as they ;irc
called, bear the palm over both, and help to the support of many a poor family by the sea-
side. The calculation a few years ago was of 8,553,600 cockles in a month, allowing ninety
to the quart. Sandford (about 1675) speaks of the Duddon as " a brave river, wln-iv tin-
famousest Cockles of all England is gathered in the sands, scraped out with hooks like
sickles, and brave salmons and fiookcs. the bravest in England, hung up and dried like
bacon."
Vi." 112
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
pleasant temporalities as for the spiritual graces of their vassals. But for
the present you must leave Furness Abbey on one side, until you have
learnt what Donnerdale and Eskdale, Wrynose, Little Langdale, and
Collision have to show YOU.
BLACK CHMB1
FROM BIRKS BRIDGE
UP THE DUDDON
CHAPTEK XVI
BKOUGHTON ' is the " chief town " of the Duddon ; the metropolis and capital,
1 Broughton belonged to the tie Broughtons, — the grant confirmed to Edward do
Broughton by Wm. do Lancastre III. to he held hy knightly service and a rent — amount
unknown. "NY hen Lambert Sinmel landed at the Pile of Foudrey in 1487, the Duchess of
Burgundy, sister t > the deposed king and so-called aunt to the adventurer, prevailed on Sir
Thomas Broughton to join the invaders landing there probably through some such agree-
ment with the fair plotter. After the defeat at Stoke, near Coventry, Sir Thomas escaped,
and found an asylum with sonic of his tenantry at NYithersack, in Westmoreland, \\heiv
he died without issue in 14U."). And so the grand old family, which had lived unstinted from
the Saxon times, through the Norman Conquest and the troubles of the York and
disturbances, fell for an adventurer.
THE LAKE COINTHY.
whence post-horses can be taken seven miles up the road, as far as Newfield ;
or a couple of miles farther to Birks Brig ; or, indeed, over the pass entirely,
if not particular in the matter of carriage-springs, and if a sharp climb one
way, or a steep pitch the other, can be faced without wincing. The road
cannot be called a normal carriage-road, let it be remembered ; still, it is
practicable ; but whether riding or driving or walking, your way up the
Duddon is to start from Broughton, fronting the hills, and leaving the sands
and the plains and the sea behind you.
The river first fallen upon is only the Lickle,2 a side branch of the
greater stream, coming from the heathery bee-haunted Furness Fells, but not
the real thing yet for a few paces. There is no mistaking the Duddon
when you do see it ; for you feel it at once to be a pathway 3 up into a
world of beauty and strength unusual and supreme, and that the waters
foaming under the wooded heights that bank it up on the left, while
tender copses and bright fields lead down to it on the right, are sure to
carry you to a birthplace equal to their out-fall. Very rich is the way for
the first long part — sweet and flowery and pastoral ; reminding one some-
what of the broken picturesqueness of Great Langdale, but not so primitive ;
with Broughton Tower rearing itself up through its screen of trees, and
Duddon Grove displaying its luxury in the midst of simplicity like an
exotic plant blowing among our English wild-flowers ; with pretty homes
and hamlets, and pleasant signs of work and industry by the road-side, but
getting wilder and less rich, if more noble, as you proceed. Till, when you
a Often erroneously set down as the Little in maps and charts.
3 " Now it has assumed something of the port and strength of a river ; the water, too,
which like Cotton's favourite Dove, was ' black at its source, because it springs from the
mosses,' has, like it, become ' so clarified by the addition of several clear springs, bigger than
itself, which gush out of the limestone rocks, that in a few miles you will find it one of the
purest crystalline springs you have seen.' Wordsworth says, ' the water is perfectly
pellucid, through which in many places is seen, to a great depth, its bed of rock or blue
l. which gives to the water itself an exquisitely Cerulean colour.'" — THORXK'S
liiiera.
246
UP THE DUDDOX.
are at Ulpha (which you must call Oopha, if you want to be understood),
you have come into quite untrimmed life again, and have got your first grip
on the mountains. For you stand some feet higher above the sea at Ulpha
Kirk, ("to the pilgrim's eye as welcome as a star,")4 than you did at
Broughton in the morning.
The scenery hereabouts is wonderfully grand, and from a certain point
in the road you get one of the finest views of your day. Cove and Blakerigg
and Walna Scar and Seathwaite Fell, all purple and gold, rise up before
you ; while dusky Wrynose and steep-sided Hard Knot break through the
clouds in the extreme distance, and the sea lies like a sheet of silver at
your feet. A marvellously beautiful view, turn where you will ; to the
richness of the open valley and the sea ; to the white track of river ; to the
sterner distance before you, or the desolateness of the hill-side, too bleak
for cultivation and too poor for human life. And tempting even to steady-
headed travellers are the many by-roads leading to all manner of hidden
beauty. At one place a grey, roughly-marked road leads over Wallabarrow
to Eskdale. (There was a good wheel track before you came to Ulpha, but
this steep, fell-side cat's climb has fascinations far superior to the plain,
broad, rolling way.) By another cat's climb you would be taken right into
the heart of the Furness Fells, and over to Coniston by the help of the
sky and the sun as your compass only ; but if you are bound for the track
"up the Duddon," you will have to rein in your curiosity with a strong
hand, and away by the beaten track to Newfield, which is Seathwaite, and
the home of Wordsworth's Wonderful Walker ; who, by the way — pity
that it should be so ! pity that any idol whatever should have its clay feet
smashed ! — was not so wonderful after all, but simply a shrewd and thrifty
" statesman-priest," who knew how to turn an honest penny with the best
* '' The Kirk of Ulpha to the pilgrim's eye
Is welcome as a star that doth present
Its shining forehead through the peaceful rent
Of a hlack cloud diffused through half the sky." — Sonnet .rj-.fi .
•247
THE LAKK rol'XTKY.
of them, and who, by this thrift and divided genius for turning honest
pennies, managed to leave a handsome mass of savings out of an apparently
beggarly income. His cottage parsonage still exists, of the humhlest archi-
tecture hut beautified by flowers and climbing roses ; and the cloth lining
of his pew, woven by his own hand, is a local lion of the place ; his tombstone
is in the quiet churchyard, where, under the shadow of the yew-tree and
near to an old-fashioned sun-dial, the world is told by the record on a
plain blue slab that Eobert Walker died the 25th day of June, 1802, in
the ninety-third year of his age and the sixty-seventh of his curacy at
Seathwaite ; and that Anne, his wife, also died this same year of grace 1802,
on the 28th day of January, in the ninety-third year of her age. A right
worthy and venerable couple, but in no wise superior to many others of the
ancient parson class in the mountain district, save in the ability to make
money by a variety of sources, even including that of unlicensed beer-
selling.
At Seathwaite comes down the Seathwaite brook, bringing with it the
freshness and cheerfulness of its birthplace on breezy Dow Crag for one
portion, and from Seathwaite Tarn on Seathwaite Fells for the other. This
is the brook spoken of by Wordsworth as desecrated by the erection of a
mill for spinning yarn upon its banks, but which he would not have much
cause to lament now — at least, for the unpicturesqueness of use and neatness ;
for the old mill is a tangled ruin ; and the poet's ghost may rest appeased.
Poor Wordsworth ! how he fretted and fidgeted his soul at the inevitable
march of events, and the throwing open to the world at large the hidden
mountain beauties he wanted so earnestly to keep to himself and the
shepherds !
Going up this supplementary valley, or gorge, of the Seathwaite beck,
passing under Under Crag as if to ascend Walna Scar, you come upon
wild and beautiful nooks — hidden recesses, where it seems to you that no
one has ever been before ; lovely hiding-places, which you and the mountain
spirits alone know of, and which the sins and follies of humanity have
248
UP THE DUDDON.
never polluted. So it seems to you, going up that wild gorge of the little
beck. And so does it seem to you also when sitting under the lee of that
tall rock called emphatically The Pen, or The Hill, according to the speech
of our forefathers, the Painted Ones; with Wallaharrow on your left, and
the foaming river below. This is the place where the pensive stranger
wandered out for a noonday stroll while dinner was preparing at the little
inn. Coming back sooner than was expected, and asked, " Where he had
been ? " he answered innocently, " As far as it was finished ; " not under-
standing the beauty, which to him was simple chaos.
And here a divergence must be made. Go off the road and scramble down
to the bed of the Duddon, and see how wildly and how grandly the rocks
have been riven and tossed about by frost and wind and the pitiless pene-
tration of rain. Deep and fierce lies the river below, marking its way by
a thousand white cascades, leaping all obstacles with a bound, and flinging
up its cap of spray and foam with a wild hurrah and a furious hurling
onwards ; and high and broken towers Wallabarrow Crag above you ; and
dark and full of fear the mountains at the head, which you have to learn
and conquer before the day is out. And when you have wandered about
the rocks for as long as you may and dare, you must come back to the road
again ; if, indeed, you be not minded to follow the Duddon step by step,
and never quit its side till you have come to its birthplace ; which you may
do if you have stout sinews, and the summer day is long, and you are not
finical in the matter of your pavement. But, perhaps, you had better come
back to the road and Nettleslack Bridge, unless you wish to be bogged and
belated.
To the right a sharp clear way is traced over Walna Scar — that great
broken crag with Seathwaite Tarn in the dip and Wetherlam behind. This
leads to Coniston ; is, indeed, the recognized way of communication between
the Duddon and Coniston ; and a noble way it is ! By the Walna Scar
quarries, and near to Blind Tarn under Dow Crag — a streamless lakelet set
in the moss like a thing lost, with never an outlet beyond; by Black Fell,
249 K K
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
and across Ashgill and Torver Becks, till you come down under Yewdale Crag
to Coniston, just where the railroad ends, on the west side of the lake ; — if
you want one of the best fell-side walks that can be named, take this some
day when you have perfectly learnt the Duddon in its main artery, and so
have leisure to study the ramifications. But not to-day.
Then on again, having now lost the river within the rocks until you
pass Wallabarrow, when there it is again, beautiful as ever, under the crags,
the birds singing in the trees, and the cows pasturing in the fields — a perfect
picture of peace and sweetness, till you come to a greenish-grey lane which
leads you down to some stepping-stones. Not the famous stones; only a
few " water- teeth " for the shepherds, where, however, you may stand and
see the grandeur of the rift — a sheer chasm where the water rushes in un-
checked force, the fell all in gold and purpled tones, while isolated crags come
out in cool grey, and the background of wild mountains of a deep bloomy
purple. A very noticeable bit this of the Duddon ; perhaps the loveliest and
most noticeable of all, with the stormy river rushing so fiercely forward to
bury itself, like many a life too eager and too passionate, within the depths
of the rock, and behind the gates of death and bondage. Only, with no
eternity of death for the river, as so often for the life ; for the rock gates
open again beyond, and the Duddon strides through them into the light
of life and the joy of the sun once more, for many a long and lovely mile
before its last issue into the waste of waters by Duddon Sands.
A long dale, and a wild one, this which you are now traversing, unin-
habited save at rare intervals, when you fall upon a few poor fell-side dwellings ;
at least not fall upon them, for oftentimes they are off the line of such "high
road " as it is, and well-nigh inaccessible at certain seasons and in certain
weathers ; but great is the courage of the dalesmen, and wonderful their
power of isolation, sustaining, as they so often do, a life of almost unbroken
solitude, with minds not uncultivated, and manners Hot rude if less than
soft. They form a race apart, and are the most interesting of the mountain
folk. But wild and lonely as this dale is, how full of incident ! Here you
250
UP THE DUDDON.
come to Goldrill Crag5 and Wordsworth's Fairy Chasm, where the roots of the
roc-k are of a pure blue below the water, though only of a warm dove-colour
in the sunlight ; where the water is no longer a river but a broken cascade ;
and where the wild fells, backed by the wilder mountains — Harter Fell and
Birker Fell on the one side, the Old Man and Wetherlam and Walna Scar
on the other, Wrynose and Grey Friars in front — seem the very term of all
human life.
Then on again to Birks Bridge, a stone bridge flung across a black
rift where the stones are hollowed into deep " pots," all the angles rounded,
and all asperities softened — honeycombed through and through — one reck
specially worn away into an arch through which the river leaps merrily.
The water has a strange sound. The surging in and out these holes gives
a weird kind of anger to its flow, both by sound and look ; and the life and
tumult here make the next reach — a stony, marshy, flat, stagnant rather
than running — still more dead and dull. But the fell-side and the river
meadows are covered with sweet-gale, and the loveliest bog plants are to 1 e
found here in their season ; beautifying the desolation and peopling the
solitude. Else it is all a mere waste, doing nothing, bearing nothing, giving
nothing towards the great commonwealth of human life ; its only use the
scanty pasturage to be had off the fells for a few sheep and shabby "beasts,"
— the wildest, loneliest, most lifeless place yet seen. But by-and-by you
come to some stepping-stones — Wordsworth's stepping-stones — which, of
course, you go down to see and stand on, and sentimentalise about ;
s Green speaks of his escape from what might have been rather an embarrassing
experience. Not long after he and a friend had been sitting on a certain stone that rises
out of the river under Goldrill crag, an immense fragment came down from above, and fell
on the exact spot where they had been. It was in the night time when it fell, and the
shepherds were, naturally, much alarmed, biit did not discover till morning what tlie noise
had meant. These slips and fractures are by no means uncommon in the lake country,
where the frost splits the rocks with such a clean and unseen fracture, that you have a ton's
weight hanging loose above your head, held together by perhaps the last rootlets of a huneli
of ling, without your knowing that it is anything but the solid side of a rock, as linn as the
earth itself.
251 K K -2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
" A zone
Chosen for ornament — stone matched with stone
In studied symmetry,6 Avith interspace
For the clear waters to pursue their race
Without restraint."
and then you pass Black Hall ; and then you come to Cockley Bridge
— Cocklety Brig, as the dalesmen call it — where the Eskdale Pass to the left
joins your present road — Wrynose Pass before you. Mickledore Chasm is
seen over where Burnmoor Tarn lies ; Scawfell and Scawfell Pike ranging
to the left. If a storm is coming on, walking over the mountains with a slow
and solemn tread, the fields below you, and the woods and crags, will all look
doubly bright and full of colour in the grey of the coming shower ; the subtle
darkness of background having the power to bring out to the utmost all the
brighter tones in the landscape beyond. The wonderful vividness of colour
against the blotted, misty, grey-clad hills, is one of the special atmospheric
effects of the mountain district. It may be seen to a faint degree on the
plains, but never as here.
You have come twelve miles from Broughton when you stand on
Cockley Beck Brig, and have eight more at the least before you land at
Langdale. It is a long day's journey, adding the side excursions to the
river, and wandering afield for any new beauty that may attract you.
6 " As harmonious in colour as symmetrical in form — of a delicate wliite, with the
slightest admixture of blue." — THOHNE'S Rambles by Hirers.
252
UP THE DUDDON.
And now you have your real mountain pass before you ; the steep shingly
road ; the sweep of the bird's wing, broken here, though, out of its true
line, and heaped up with adventitious bones ; the wet and watery river side ;
the jutting crags, the crossing stream, and the true mountain desolateness
of all. The interminable dale that it looks, viewed which way you will !
backward to the sea, with the road and the river winding together, in
harmony and completeness, if not in repetition ; or forward, to the barren
fells and the crags above, and the grey chain of mountains below and
against the sky ! But in due time you reach the top of the pass, where
the Three Shire Stones 7 mark the point of junction of the three counties.
And near the stones, among the oozy moss and bog, is the highest source
of the Duddon ; a little pool of water welling silently up among the
stones and moss, to become hereafter one of the most celebrated of the
Lancashire rivers.8 And without being sentimental and absurd, it is impos-
7 The " Tliree Shire Stones " are something like a rude three-sided altar, with the
name of each county — Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland — carved on smoothed
slabs let into each side, and facing according to the compass. A wliite pillar, with
" W. F., 1816," on one side, and a bold " Lancashire " on the other, asserts the position of
that county with even more distinctness than the others. Young men not burdened with
flesh, and possessing long limbs, may stand in two counties, and touch the third at the same
time, which is still held to be a noteworthy geographical feat.
8 The venerable Harrison, chaplain to Lord Cobham, in a description of the Lancashire
rivers, " nearly three hundred years ago," says : " Having passed the Leuen, or Corny -
sandes, or Winander fall (for all is one), I come to the Lew, which riseth at Lewicke
chappell, and falleth into the sea beside Plumpton. The Rawther, descending out of Lowe
Furnesse, hath two heads, whereof one cometh fro' Pennyton, the other by Uhnerstone
Abbey, and joyning both in one chanell, they hasten into the sea, whither all waters direct
theyr voyage. Then come we to another rill south-west of Altlingham, descending to
Glaiston Castell, and likewyse the fourth that ryseth neare Lyndell, and running by Dawlto
Castell and Furnesse Abbey, not farre from the Barow heade, it falleth into the sea oner
against Wauey and Wauey chappell, except myne aduertisements misleade me. The
Dodon cometh fro' the Shire stonehill bottome, and going by Black hil, Southwake, S. John's,
Uffay parke, and Broughton, it falleth into the salt water betweene Kyrby and Mallum
C'astell, and thus we are now come unto the Ravenglasse point," where our authority quits
ilic vivers of Lancashire.
253
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
sible to see the insignificant, scarce definable source of a noble river without
experiencing something more than mere delight in a fine prospect, or pleasure
at a curious discovery. The analogy between it and our human life is so
strong that we cannot choose but recognize it, with happy meditations or
gloomy, according to the teaching of our lives, and the lessons learnt from
experience. Bleak and dark and desert is this fell top — this cradle of that
sunny reach below; as if it is the crest of the last wave, where the only
Beyond will be destruction. But as you go on, following now the rough
marking of what was the old Kendal and Whitehaven road in the days
when carts and railroads were not, and the universal pack-horse did the
commercial carrying of all 'cross country traffic, you come upon Little Langdale
Valley, lying in its beauty below you. In a short time you see Little Langdale
Tarn, where the pass goes over by the Stake, the Pikes topping and ending
that section of your view. For the rest there is a wild upheaval of mountains,
and when you turn to the left, across Lingmoor, for high-lying Blea Tarn
and Fell Foot, you are wandering in a corner of old chaos — a forgotten corner,
never reduced to symmetry and order.
Blea Tarn has one or two specialities. It is the scene of Wordsworth's
Solitary — that one lonely house still there to make it yet more lonely — and
the hill-sides round it are clothed with larch- wood ; almost the only instance
in the country of wood growing about a real mountain tarn ; it lies in a
more regularly formed basin, as if it had been made in a more compact
and finished manner than its congeners, and the Pikes " that from some
other dale peer into this," but more especially Gimmer Crag, look their
best from here ; all of which give boggy, black, and desolate Blea Tarn a
specific value, even beyond what belongs by right to a tarn ; the solitude
and the distant heights that rise up over the immediate mountain wall,
the crags and the free life, the wild prison that it is, and the yet more
wild escape. There is a stronger, and, for its very strength, a tenderer and
more chastened beauty, in the mountain shapes and lines in these most
desolate places, than there is in even the richest luxuriance of cultivation.
254
UP THE DUDDON.
Is it that they are the types of Christ-like resignation and Promethean patient
fortitude, more beautiful than all the undulations of happiness and success ?
and that when we see these lean, gaunt, lonely hills clustered round their
dark and lonely tarns, with a grip of love all the stronger because unshared,
we see a positive picture of man's soul, and the emblem of silent endurance,
and the love that sometimes binds the strong and the unlovely together ?
If you care to go down by Fell Foot and Wall End, you will come
out nearly opposite to Dungeon Ghyll ; but if you want to see Little Langdale,
and one or two lonely spots connected, come back again to the old road,
simply knitting Blea Tarn in with the day's chain, making it a loop but
not an ending. For this walk into Little Langdale and on to Colwith
Force is something worth seeing. Every step of the way is lovely. The
leafy lanes through belts of copsewood, with the valley below and the heavy
mountains behind and on each side, are beautiful both in themselves and
in what they show. Rich as the richest parts of the Midland counties, and
grand as only mountain scenery can be, these wooded lanes are things to
remember for ever, especially if seen in the autumn time, when the yellow
leaves are scattered in showers of gold on the ground, and the sunlight,
slanting across the trees, brings out all hues and tones possible to nature,
from cobalt in the shadows to gold on the surface, and from gold, through
orange, to blood-red crimson in the heart.
The place of the powder-mills alone is a poem in itself, and the bridge
across the Langdale Beck (the Brathay in its embryonic state,) lets you into
such a scene of river loveliness as you will never forget all your life long.
The river has made itself a pathway there, under the overhanging trees and
down the steep fall of stones, which, in its one small bit of isolation, is
unparalleled for beauty. Even the Greta in Brund Holme, even the Derwent
in Borrowdale, or Grisedale Beck, or the bright-eyed Goldrill, or the Duddon
itself, cannot surpass these few yards of river beauty at the back of the
powder-mills as seen from Langdale Brig.
Then through the primitive Alpine lanes, of which you have seen
255
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
something before ; between woods and over hills, and diving down into
valleys again, with the Brathay valley before you, and Loughrigg, and the
back of Red Bank Grasmere between it and Fairfield — with all the sweet
incidents of a true country walk, till you come to Colwith Force fretting
out its life under the crags and about the tree roots, while the great rocks look
serenely down into the very heart of its turmoil, and the branches whisper
to each other gently, and shake their leaves, light as the fall of baby
fingers, on its troubled breast. The spray flies off as the fall leaps down
from stone to stone, and the sun glints on it cheerily, and the huge
mountains at the back, Wetherlam and the Old Man, send down their clouds
and mists to swell the flow, which, in rainy times, is really grand. It is
a leap in the river running between Little Langdale Tarn and Elterwater ;
an heroic leap, plunging down its rocky rift with the fury of a wild Arab
rushing to the plain.
On the height above the Force, crossing Colwith Bridge, is a fine
panorama of mountains. Wetherlam, big as an" elephant and grim and
wolfish in appearance, is to the extreme left, and next it comes the oddly-
shaped crest of Wrynose ; Bowfell between it and Lingmoor ; the highest
point to the right is one of the Pikes, and Pavey Ark follows, while it
lowers, the line : High Raise — Serjeant Man just peeping up above — Silver
How, and the dip of Dunmail Raise, are all in a cluster together; and then
come Seat Sandal, Grisedale Pass, and Fairfield above. The rest are
probably in the clouds, but the lower foreground crags are sure to come out
fine and bold, and a bit of Elterwater shines in the sun to give animation
to the landscape.
And now the road becomes at every yard more beautiful. You are no
longer among the mountains, but among the fells — the Tilberthwaite Fells
— notoriously the most picturesque of all. Not an attempt at neatness ; not
a sign of the intelligent landscape gardener anywhere ; a good road, newly
made, and an old and indifferent one abandoned, the only marks of man's
life at all ; not a house, not a garden, not a field, only the wildness of the
256
UP THE DUDDON.
fell-side, with the steep hill and the steep valley, and the blue crags feathered
with ling and bracken and sullen juniper, with the crimsoned leaflets of the
bilberry and the purple pods of the gorse ; little copses of elms and hazel
by the wayside, the leaves all turned to fiery jewels in the autumn sun, with
here and there a solitary thorn -tree, or an ash set high up among the rocks,
or belted in with a chain of larch across the middle ; wild -flowers of all
kinds, from the dainty scarlet pimpernel to the coarse-leaved prickly ox-
tongue ; Wetherlam and the Old Man and Grey Friars ever in the landscape,
and glimpses of Black Combe and the sea to be had at intervals ; wildness,
with nothing desolate about it, but only beauty and solitude ; this is the
character of the way between Little Langdale and Collision. It is like a
mountain park or garden, run wild ; in its wildness bearing fruits and
flowers, perhaps of little value, but still bearing both fruits and flowers, left
to the grace of nature unchecked, not to barrenness and the disgrace of
nature destroyed. Over by Oxenfell and Yewdale runs this beautiful fell-side
road ; one of the richest, the most varied, and the most picturesque ; well
worthy to be known and loved by all who care for the noblest kind of hill-
side scenery, not necessarily including the hill-top.
If you have wanted to include Eskdale9 in this walk " up the Duddon,"
9 Speaking of Eskdale chapelry, Hutcliinson says, " Wakes and Doles are customary,
and weddings, christenings, and funerals are always attended by the neighbours, sometimes
to one hundred. The popular diversions are hunting and cock-fighting." Winning the
kail — in Scotland the brosa, in West Cumberland Riding for the Ribbon — is mentioned in
a curious local poem by one Edward Chicken, parish clerk of St. John, Newcastle-on-Tync :
and though not belonging strictly to the present note, yot it may be included as ;m
appendix : —
" Four rustic Fellows went the while
To kiss the Bride at the Church Stile :
Then vig'rous mount their fetter'd Steeds —
To scourge them going, head and tail.
To win what country call ' the kail.
In the Westmoreland dialect we are told, the ceremony being over, " Awe raid haanic
fearful wele, and the youngans raaid for th' Ribband, me Cuson Betty banged awth Lads.
an gat it for sure."
257 L L
INK LAKE COUNTRY.
you must have either started from Ravenglass, or have turned back on Hard
Knot, or else have diverged midway over by Wallabarrow Crag, as you were
told. If you have gone from Ravenglass you will have had a fine day's excur-
sion. In the first place there is Muncaster Castle,10 at the foot of the Muncaster
Fells, dividing you from Mitredale ; and to those who care for grandeurs
and the like, the castle will be a treat. Then there is Devoke Water, with
the city of Barnscar (Bardskew and Barnsea), tempting the antiquarian with
its strange old remains and suggestive fancies ; and then there is beer to
be had at the " King of Prussia." And beer in a mountain ramble does
not count for little. Indeed, the " King of Prussia " is an institution of
such importance that it is marked on the maps as a station equal in
interest with Stanley Ghyll or Birker Force. Stanley Ghyll, by the way,
is a stupid modernism. Dalegarth Force is the old name of the waterfall,
and until the Stanleys of Ponsonby bought the property ; but if our fells
and falls are to change their names according to the baptism of the lords
of the manor for the time being, we shall have rather a confused geography
for future generations to commit to memory.
The name, however, cannot spoil the thing. Stanley Ghyll or Dalegarth
Force, what matters it ? here is one of the choice places of the earth. It
is not the finest waterfall by any means (it is only sixty feet in fall), but
it is the finest glen, and the view from the moss-house at the top is superb.
A deep, dark, cool recess, where wild-flowers and ferns and bilberries grow
10 Muncaster has its Luck as well as Edenhall, but the one has no pretension to tho
supcrnaturalism of the other. The Musgraves got their Luck from the fairies; it was
Henry VI. who gave Sir John de Pennington his — a curiously wrought glass cup in remem-
brance of the zeal with which he had served him, and the fidelity with which he had
followed the kingly fortunes, even when they were at their worst, and the head that wore a
crown wanted a shelter, which who but Sir John supplied ? The Fool of Muncaster,
Thomas Skelton, was a man of note in his day, and his portrait is still to be seen in the
castle. The boys of the district have preserved his memory in a certain game, which tliey
call " Mad Tom of Mulcaster." The right name is Mulcastrse or Moelcastre, according to
Denton's MS., or Mealcastro, from the Meal on which it stood.
258
UP THE DUDDOX.
iu more than ordinary luxuriance ; a great steep rift, one side of which is
bare crag, but the other covered with wood through which the sun slants
with brightest radiance ; a river as clear as a tremulous sheet of crystal flowing
over its bed of rock and small fine golden sands ; and then the waving of the
plumy birch and the greater greenness of the damp moss, step by step
greener and more damp, till you come up to the fall; the leap— the many
leaps — the mad uproar, and the foaming waters, with those three frail bridges
leading you across and across, till you have learnt every feature and have
taken to heart every line — that is Dalegarth Force, such as you see it when
you have got the key from the farmhouse — and have fee'd the keeper. It
is something after the pattern of Ara, but smaller in volume and not so
sheer in fall ; and of even grander accessories. Or perhaps they look grander
here in this narrow valley, where one has so lately left the long flat of
sands and sea-side wastes, than they would if seen in the powerful nobleness
of the larger mountain district.
Eskdale can boast a very fair share of natural riches ; one of which is
the green dale itself, with its glittering river winding like a silver snake
through its midst ; while Dalegarth is a thing to remember for ever, to
long for, and to love — as one loves a noble poem or a beautiful and suggestive
story. Passing on from this cool recess, you follow next the road that takes
you to Birker Force, a finely placed waterfall, coming, in its small beginning,
from Low Birker Tarn out on Birker Fell. Wilder and less rich than
Dalegarth, with more mountain strength and less woodland loveliness about
it, broad and bounding, and with a fine volume of water, not high, yet
inspiring, like a full-toned mountain song — Birker Force is as unlike to
Dalegarth as the Highland chieftain is unlike the Lowland lord. Both are
noble and both full of manhood ; but the one has added richness, not
effeminacy, and the other has kept to his simplicity, which yet is not
barrenness. They are well contrasted in tone and spirit ; and if niciv
words of description fail to give their picture, at least they can give their
meaning. For every place has its special meaning, and its secret sympathy
259 L L 2
THE LAKE I'orXTUY.
with human mood and circumstance ; and it needs no fanciful imagination,
no aptness at idealisms, to read a page in human character, or to fashion out
the conduct of a life in the aspect of a waterfall or the features of a
mountain side.
Then on by the road — a good highway as mountain paths go ; through
patches of common land, where wayside bogs show rare mosses, and the
rough places have the bristly ox-tongue as their treasure, where the ground
is blue with harebells and the air alive with birds; on, over the brow and
under the crag, past the rock and the river, and in the shadow of the hill,
till you come to where a long line of blue glitters in the autumn sunshine,
and the sweet and tranquil waters of CONISTON welcome you like a loving
face upturned to yours.
FROM DDDDON BRIDGE
THK OLD MAN — 1'KUM BKAN J.-WOUI}
CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD
CHAPTER XVII
IT is a strange fact that Collision,1 which may be taken as the first of the
lake series by the visitors approaching from the south, and which has direct
communication by way, if not by vehicle, with all the rest, is still the least
known and the least loved. Yet the scenery here is as beautiful as elsewhere,
excepting, perhaps, the choicest parts about Keswick and Ullswater, which
stand out as unique and inimitable. For there must always be the Best
with everything, and Nature, like man, has the purple for some of her
1 Anciently Conyngstone, or Cunyngstone, or Thurston Water. The several meanings
given for these names may be mentioned here as an instance of the troubles into which
etymologists get, when they attempt their rational (and irrational) derivations of the names
of places. "Coniston: ton, a town ; 'con, at the head of ; in. a lake." " Conyagstone, or
Konyg'ston," the royal town, without authority or tradition to connect it in any way with
royalty. " Cunyngstone, or Cunning Stone," because of its many clefts, and caves, and
hill-side hiding-places, good for old-time fugitives to whom the law was inconvenient :
though indeed for that matter it is less suitable for a hiding-place than Ullswater. <>r
Derwentwater, or Ennerdalc. or Wastwator. In the tenth year <>f Ivlwanl III. the Abbot
of 1'urncss had a grant of free warren in several places, among which was " Kunygst<>n.
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THE LAKE COUNTRY.
cradles, if nothing better than shabby linings, torn and jagged, for others.
Yet Conistou Lake, that long and narrow2 sheet of water stretching its six
miles of blue between the fells, deserves a more generous appreciation than
what it has met with, and a more popular acceptance. And now that it
has a railroad probing its very heart, it is likely that lovers will come round
it, as thickly as round Windermere and Derwentwater.
Take the circuit round the lake, beginning at the Waterhead on the
west side, and going southwards towards Furness, past the islands and by
Brantwood on the east, as one example of the sweetness and the richness
of the place. There is first that grand Old Man, at the feet of which you
reverently walk, overshadowed by his huge crags as you pass through the
ancient village of Church Coniston — one of those quaint villages with the
flavour of old times about them, and the generous beautifying of nature
around, so characteristic of our lake country. The old deer-park, where
once the lord held his high days of sport and revelry, and which has still
the inheritance of richer foliage and nobler growths than belong elsewhere,
is one of those flavourings : so is that ivied and venerable house, Coniston
Hall,3 where the Flemings used to live, and which was the residence for a
2 It is six miles long, and from three-quarters to a mile in breadth, iind contains the
best char of all the lakes, as Ullswater has the worst and poorest. Even Corry bears
testimony to this fact, when he says, " Our learned Clarencieux (Camden) was imposed
npon when he was informed that the char was a fish peculiar to Winder Meer, since in
Coningston Meer, within five (?) miles, a char much fairer and more serviceable is caught.'
Also the best black-faced mutton feeds on the Coniston Fells, which are the richest in mines,
have the best slate, and are of most geological importance, of the whole lake district.
3 The manor of Coniston passed, by the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of
Adam de Urswick, in the reign of Henry III., to Richard le Fleming, and Coniston Hall
became the family seat for seven generations. About the tenth year of Henry IV., Thomas
le Fleming married Isabella, one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John
de Lancastre, and acquired the manor of llydal ; and for seven generations more Rydal and
Coniston vied with each other which should hold the family seat, and whether it should be
in Westmoreland or Lancashire. Rydal conquered. Michael le Fleming, the founder of
the family, had much land and property about this neighbourhood, but he was fond of
262
CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAI).
time of the Countess of Pembroke—" Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother,"
but which is now only a farmhouse famous for its sheep-clipping. Both of
these places have a world of suggestive thought lying about them; of quite
another character to what is awakened by the primitive hamlet of Torver
farther on; where was never a name of note, nor a family \\ith spurs at
their heels, nor " cote armoure " on their shields, but only sons of the soil-
brave thralls and faithful serfs — whose descendants are, some of them, living
on the same lands to this day, as brave, and happily somewhat better educated
than their forbears. Here, at Torver, was once an old chapel, lately removed
for one more suited to the ideas of the present day ; but which had a special
interest in that it was consecrated by Archbishop Cranmer, and said to be
the first place of Protestant worship consecrated in England. It is doubtless
right that these relics should pass away, and yet one cannot refrain from a
feeling of sorrow and untimely loss when they have gone. It is the sacrifice
of sentiment to convenience ; and the sentiment seems to be the stronger
fact of the two. The Black Beck of Torver is a beautiful episode in the
day's ramble, and the Black Beck Falls, flowing down from the mountain's
side and joining the Torver Beck which comes from Gait's Water lyin^;
under Dove or Dow or Dim Crags, are worthy of all renown. But indeed
these mountain cascades are so exquisite everywhere, that we might build
shrines and say our orisons of praise impartially and equally by all.
Then on, under the hoary fells, where gorse and bracken clothe the old
bleached bones with grace and glory; past Beacon Tarn, which, unless you
have chosen the higher road from Oxenhouse, you must go out of your way
to see, though it is not specially picturesque, being merely a well-sized pond
lying tranquilly on the dark brown moors of Beacon Hill, and sending out
exchanging his rights and estates. Tims, he gave •' Eos, with its fishponds and members
and appurtenances " for Berdesey and its fishponds;" and lie gave away Urswick and its
appurtenances, save the church. Muchlands was originally " Michael's Land," as Much
Urswick is only the corruption of Michael's Urswick : it is called Mychel-land in the
Denby records — as the manor of Aldingham is called the manor of Muchluud.
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THE LAKE COUNTRY.
a small thread of living water, known to the world as Beacon Beck, which
joins the Crake at Bouthray Bridge ; then by Water Yeat, and Arklid, and
Low Nibthwaite, first turning to note the whole length of the lake shining
like a bright blue ribbon from the copper sheds to the noble park at the
head. You are not among the mountains at the foot of the lake ; only
in the fell country, with the purple heights clustered against the sky in the
distance, and nothing but whitened rocks or dark stretches of mossy uplands
around you, bronzed or reddened as the growth upon them is dying fern
or seeding gorse or the elfin bells of heath or heather. There, away to the
south, lie the plains and the cities and the waste of sands and the eternal
sea ; there the loud whirr of the factory and the rattle of the steam engine,
the hoarse murmur of life concentrated, and the fierce struggle for existence
and pre-eminence for ever going on ; and here, up to the north, is the love-
liness of fell and flood, the noble peace of the mountain top, the grandeur
of the mountain torrent, the sufficing space, and the breadth and power of
true manhood : all emblemised in the glorious majesty of the Old Man,
standing up against the west like a royal lord, with his court of lower nobles
surrounding. Such a noble mass as he is, clothed now in this autumn time
in purple and gold, with a crown of crimson if it is in the evening and the
cloud wreaths are light and vapoury, but clothed ever with power and beauty,
no matter what the season or the weather.
And now you turn up the east side of the lake, seeing where the floating
island (for Coniston could once boast of this phenomenon as well as Derwent-
water and Esthwaite) got stranded among the reeds at Nibthwaite during a
high wind and heavy flood, and has never been able to get off again ; passing
by Gridiron or Peil or Montague Island as you choose, and then by Fir, or
Knott's Island — sometimes island, sometimes promontory, according to the
rain-gauge — where the wild balsam grows among the raspberries and black-
berries, and where, on the road-side bank across the way, a very cloud of
white convolvuluses hold up their "moonlight-coloured cups," and the grnss
of Parnassus shows its gold-green veins under its waxen skin. Then on
264
CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD.
again, past pretty copses and over pleasant becks— one, the Black Beck, though
not the "Black Beck of Torver" opposite — with a wide wealth of flowers by
the wayside, and ever the noble mountain king to the left ; past Brantwood,
which Wordsworth's seat, where the great poet sat pronouncing this the
best view of the lake and the Old Man, has made classical ; past Tent Lodge,
made classical, too, by the tragedy of poor Elizabeth Smith, who, in her last
illness, used to be brought down to the lake-side here, and laid on her couch
under a tent, whence the name of the house succeeding ; up steep hills and
down sharp pitches,, through copses and by fields, and past the hazel-tree
where the toothwort grows under the stone at its root ; and so to the quaint
and ancient village again — Church Coniston, at the foot of the Old Man.
And here, it may be well to say, that there are two Conistons, though not
two villages : Church Coniston on the west side of the lake, reaching from
Yewdale, or Yellowr or Udale, or Ulldale Beck to Torver, and backwards to
Fell Foot— once a chapelry in Diversion parish, but made parochial in 1586;
and Monk Coniston on the east sider and at the head of the lake, a chapelry
in Hawkshead parish.
There are very few traditions about Church Coniston, but such as they
are, they may be had for the asking. For instance, there is that brawling,
rocky Church Beck, where a young miner was — not drowned, but dashed to
pieces before he had time to drown^one dark night Avhen out a-courting ;
and there is Priest's Stile, so called it is said because an old priest died
suddenly while crossing it, or, according to another " saga," which got its
name from the frequency of the priest's visits to Coniston Hall, when the
right of Whittlegait was part of his stipend, and the larder at the hall the
most inviting ; for Priest's Stile leads to the Old Hall. Then there is
Jenkin Syke, where poor Jenkin's dead body, enclosed in its coffin, slipped
from the "sled" into the ditch, all unbeknown to the bearers until they
came to Torver, when they turned back for their burden and found it in
the " syke " or ditch just out of Conistou. This was in the days when
Coniston had no burying-place of its own, but was obliged to send all its
265 M M
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
deceased to Ulverston for interment and Christian "happing up." And
beside these far-away traditions, interesting only for the glimpse they afford
of the rougher ancient times, there is a certain classical savour remaining,
for the Black Bull was the "Howf" where De Quincey established himself
when he came to Coniston, and is therefore a fitting place of literary pilgrimage
in the eyes of some. Though, after all, this is not much on which to found
a Coniston Parnassus.
Of walks about, and to, and from, Coniston, there are plenty ; and numerous
excursions to be made into some of the finest and most striking scenery of
the lake district. Tilberthwaite and the Langdales, Windermere, and even
Derwentwater for the moderately strong who can take kindly to a mountain
walk of over twenty miles, Furness Abbey and the Duddon ; these are just
a few of the most noteworthy among a crowd of the desirable. Then there
is the road to Broughton, by the west side of the lake and over by the foot
of the Duddon fells ; but the better way is from Coniston to Seathwaite, over
Walna Scar, and so down the Duddon — by the way you know. You do
not know the Walna Scar road yet ; you have not yet mounted that " brant
bit " rising so sharply out of the village — mounting by what is a good road
enough in the beginning, but which soon goes off into rudeness as you creep
higher up on the flank of the Old Man, and the farms and fields of the
home-land sink lower. On the way — and when the way is merely a dry
torrent bed, and well for you if dry — turn aside to the "right, and steer
your course among bogs and stones and over watercourses and through
stretches of reedy grass, to Gait's Water, the progenitor of the turbulent
Torver Beck, which, by-the-by, gets lost in the ground soon after its issue
from the tarn ; and as you walk over the natural archway of moss and stones,
you hear it bubbling and running beneath your feet down in the earth. The
wildest of all the tarns is this of Gait's Wrater, hidden away under the bleak
rocks of Dow Crags, like the very wreckage of creation and the spoils
of a world foregone. Hemmed in on one side by a wall of precipice —
black where the shadow, of a dead ashen colour where the sun, lies on those
266
CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD.
jagged columns and shivering screes — surrounded on another by a tumbled
mass of dark grey stones, at the roots of which foxes make their homes,
as the ravens used on the crest of the precipice — lying far away from all
signs of man, with no outlet into the wider world beyond, no prospect of
distant lands, no opening to softer scenes — it is the most weird-looking and
imprisoned of all the tarns ; as if a ghoul or an Afrit was chained and fettered
beneath its pitchy waters. In fact, it is a miniature Wastwater, as fierce
and savage in degree if not in extent ; and if seen on a gloomy day, with
the winter wind raving through the sky, or the sullen summer thunders
muttering overhead, it is a place where it would not be matter of surprise
if weak nerves lost their balance, and unsteady wits were overset. Close at
hand, too, to add to the weirdness and facility of terrifying imaginations, is
what is locally known as the Giant's Cave ; a large deserted slate quarry,
about which are some tremendous traditions of how it goes right through the
very entrails of the Old Man, falling into the copper mines on its way, and
coming out on the other side — a terrible place, filled with bogies and
kobolds and gnomes and all manner of evil influences, and utterly impos-
sible to be explored through all its extent with safety to life or limb ; so say
the gobemouches of the district.
Now ascend (if you can) the rocky ridge that divides you from Low
Water — the highest of the Coniston tarns, Levers Water lying just below
it — where the hairy (?) trout used to live ; a big monster very nearly as
apocryphal as the Adam and Eve of Bowscale ; and see the ripple and the
shadow chase each other like smiles and sighs over its steel-grey face, and
then scramble back to the main road again, where the view, even though
familiar, will seem to you of divine sweetness by contrast with the savagencss
you have just left.
There is Coniston lake from Waterhead to Nibthwaite and on by the
shining Crake to the glittering sea beyond ; and there is Windermere with
its islands like a nest full of young birds, and the pleasant line of the Lrvrn
running down to meet the Crake at the root of that rich tongue of land thrust
267 • M M -'
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
out between Morecambe Bay and the estuary of the Duddon, one of the
"papillae" of which is Furness Abbey; and there is Black Combe like a
darkened Pharos built up against the sea ; and, if the air is clear, you may
see the hills of the Isle of Man, St. Bees Head, and the Scotch mountains
— faintly : but at all times, save those of persistent gloom, you may
see Bowfell and Great End out by Borrowdale, and Scawfell Pikes and
Scawfell proper, and the Pillar and the other Ennerdale mountains ; and
ever the sweet valleys lying peacefully at the giant feet bestriding them, and
ever the glittering expanse of sea, with the long thin lines of dusky grey
where the steamers are passing up and down.
Then down the steep path to Seathwaite ; diverging on your way to
Blind Tarn, that voiceless pool which no clear stream issuing therefrom
reveals or expresses ; unique in this " blindness " and isolation ; very different
to its neighbour which sends out a mountain river every step of which is a
cascade, and the voices of whose waters are noisy exceedingly, and of wonderful
variety of modulation. Thence to the ruins on Black Fell, which archaeologists
pronounce definitively to have been what Dan Birkett says they were, " the
ruins of a city of t' ould ancient Britons," though they cannot date them
quite accurately ; but which certain shrewd shepherds, without reverence, say
are merely the remains of an abandoned "peat-scale," a building used for
storing peats before carting them away for use in the farms and cottages, thus
bringing into actual life Sir Walter's famous satire and rebuke. Then back
to the road again — and stop to admire that little oasis of fields and farms,
the first meeting of human habitation which befals you, and perhaps for that
reason striking you as so specially sweet and homelike. And now on to New-
field, by the rugged path and the leaping stream and the flowers and the ferns
and the purple heather, and so to Broughton — if your will carries you there ;
or by Wrynose and the Three Shire Stones, to Langdale — at your pleasure.
But the day of days at Coniston is the day spent on the Old Man, that
lig old patriarch of two thousand six hundred and fifty feet, with his "wife"
268
CONISTON AND HAWKSHEAD.
.and " son " in his arms, and Wetherlam, his friend, by his side. You go
up through Church Coniston, and by the old Walna Scar road, past the
blue slate quarry — where the birds' nests, built on the ledges, show
desertedness and long disuse, even more eloquently than the tufts of ling
and closeness of white heath bedstraw; and when a steep pull has set you
well on to the fell, note — for they are worth noting with much love —
the tossing, tumbling Boon Beck falls in the ghyll yonder — the Boon Beck
being the joint production of Low Water and Levers Water, aided by a third
anonymous stream forking that of Low Water. Then to the coppermiues,
Avith the yellow veins glittering like gold in the shining quartz, and where
you may go through the whole process and mystery of mining, even to a
descent in profimdum, and the pleasant chance of knocking your head against
the roof and grazing your shoulders and elbows against the walls of the mine
passages. In old times these mines were wrought on somewhat the same
principles as those by which Hannibal cut his way through the Alps : the
rocks were heated with fire, to the utmost heat attainable, then suddenly
cooled with water, which caused them to split and crack sufficiently to admit
the old workmen's rude wedges ; some of which, scarcely fit for a modern
Christian's " darrack," have been found jammed into the rock. They use gun-
powder and the ordinary process of blasting now ; generally without evil results,
but sometimes to the destruction of the workman ; as witness that fatal cut called
" Simon Nick," still to be seen in the face of a precipice not far off, where
one luckless Simon once made his ill-omened nick for blasting, but got caught
in a premature explosion and so was blown to eternity unawares. Refuse
heaps are about the mouth of the mines, troughs and water-pools, broken
beams and rusted iron, and all the litter and lumber belonging ; but they
are not so desolate-looking as the Greenside mines at Ullswater, and have
a more heartsome and inhabited appearance generally. And in truth they
are inhabited ; and not only with human beings ; for they are also
swarming with rats, which get sustained by some mysterious process of
assimilation unexplained, seeing that they have nothing but quartz and
269
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
copper to eat ; if they do not take to clay for a diversion. Higher up, and
seemingly unconnected with the lower works, is a huge waterwheel, turning
round as if for the benefit of the crows and ravens only; but in reality it
hoists the kibbles in the mines below to a certain level, and does its business
none the less effectually because remotely.
Then, leaving the mines, a rough and steep road leading zigzag up
the hill takes you to some more works at Paddy End, and on to Kernal
Crag; this last, a huge mass of solid rock with a face of broken precipice
turned, threatening and impassable, against you. There is always a raven's
nest on Kernal Crag. Let the shepherds kill one or even both the parent
birds, with a nestful of younglings to look after — by which bereavement
it is expected they will all perish and the world be rid of that generation,
at least — so surely do other ravens appear and take the orphans under
their charge. It is said to be impossible to exterminate the ravens on
Kernal Crag— only one nest and one brood yearly, but a constant succession
of foster-parents, and the orphans fed by strange maternal charity — let the
shepherds shoot " till their arms drop off."
Then up and up, the way now becoming very steep, to the edge of
Levers Water, the largest of all the tarns and one of the most beautiful,
both in shape and position ; nearly round and measuring a mile in circum-
ference, with copper-mines near, to the uses of which it is turned. It
lies between the Old Man and Wetherlam, and is not far from Low Water,
the highest of the Old Man's lakelets, and placed immediately under the
highest point — Buckbarrow Crags surrounding and overtopping it. It is
as famous for foxes as Gaits Water ; the fallen rocks affording the same kind
of harbourage. And here it may be mentioned, what perhaps every one
would not see for themselves even by looking at a map, that all the Waters
on the Old Man lie to the west, and the Tarns to the north : though no
one now knows why that distinction of terms was made. Now go along
the bad road that you will find to the west of Levers Water ; see Oukrigg
precipice ; toil up the side of a watercourse ; see Ghyll cove ; mount Brimfell,
2:0
CONISTOX AND HAWKSHEAD.
which you will find as stiff a bit of work as you can desire ; and then on to the
narrow ledge of rock and fell which leads you to the top — " the varra topmost
towerin' height," of the Old Man — the Alt Maeu, as some people say it is
righteously, and according to etymology — the Giant of Coniston Lake.
And now see your view. It sweeps round, as the outline, from Lancaster
to the Scottish hills, seen over Skiddaw but faintly, and from Crossfell to
Ingleborough ; some indeed adding to the list Snowdon and Slieve Donard
in Ireland. But these are the exceptionally clear-sighted who have made the
ascent on exceptionally clear days, so are not to be taken as averages of
what ordinary travellers may expect. Black Combe is there dark against the
brightness, and Devoke Water filled yet with the fine fat trout, the fore-
fathers of which the merry monks of Furness brought from Italy, to help the
lentils and dry bread of abstinence days ; Scawfell and Wastwater you see ;
the Borrowdale hills in a confused, inextricable mass ; Skiddaw, Blencathra,
and all the huge Helvellyn range, including Fairfield and Seat Sandal, Steel
Fell, and the other lower heights ; Langdale Pikes and Stickle Tarn ; the
Kirkstone Hills and High Street ; 111 Bell ; Windermere in fragments ; and
the sea beyond the valley. All these the eye takes in with loving admiration,
while, lying seemingly close under you, are Seathwaite Tarn and the valley
of the Duddon, Coniston Lake, and the houses and fields belonging, with the
sparkling threads of running rivers, and the foam of the hill-side falls. And
then, right against you, highest and grandest of all from where you stand,
is the sober face of your companion, Wetherlam, and the mysteries of the
Tarns and Waters not a stone's throw from you.
Come down by the slate quarries again ; for almost all the mountain,
where it is not copper, is of a fine blue roofing slate, of varying quality and
of varying uses— for "London," "Country," "Tom," and "Peg," do not
represent the same geological conditions or the same commercial value. Then
see the Pudding Stone, that great travelled boulder of the like nature as the
Borrowdale Bowder Stone ; see High and Low Crawberry, with Crawberry
Hawse between, the Old Man's " Sons," those queer protuberant gemini,
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THE LAKE COUNTRY.
standing like massive heads crusted over with turf and stone; see all that
lies before and behind and around you, and then fall into the road again,
thankful for the emotions learnt on the heart of Coniston Old Man.
Another beautiful walk is to be had from Coniston to the Ferry
(Windermere), passing by High Cross, Esthwaite Water, and Sawrey ;
adding the ascent of Iron Eeld off the old Ambleside-road, going by Tarn
Hawse, and coining down by Borwick Lodge. From Iron Keld is to be had
one of the finest views of the whole lake district, at the least expendi-
ture of force and from the most unusual level. For you see the other
mountain ranges, not from a commanding height and thus flattened and
foreshortened, but breast-high and face to face, so that you can understand
all their magnificence and rejoice in their relative positions and distinctive
features of structure undiminished by any tricks of perspective. This view
from Iron Keld is very little known ; it does not come into the programme
of the ordinary lake tourist, and only a few of the more adventurous ever
dream of exploring out-of-the-way places ; so that, save the immediate neigh-
bours who ferret out all things strange or lovely in their locality, the marvels
to be seen from Iron Keld are as though they were not.4
When you have seen as much as you have time for, come down into the
wild fell-road again, noticing the gorgeous autumn colouring of the way, till
you come to Hawkshead Hall, called Hawks Hall in old deeds, that low-
4 This is the roll-call of what you can see from the top of Iron Keld. Black Comhe,
the Old Man, Wetherlam, Wrynose, Crinkle Crags, Scawfell, Bowfell, Skiddaw, Helvellyn,
Seat Sandal, Fairfield, Nab Scar, Ilydal Park, Arnold Crag, Scandale, Kirkstone Pass,
Red Screes, 111 Bell and Froswick, the Kentmere Hills, Farleton Knot, Ingleborough,
Wyresdale Fells, Morecambe Bay, the Furness Fells, Greenodd, Ulverston, and the Diiddon
again. This is the outline. In the. inner circle — the middle distance — Coniston Lake,
The Tarns on Borwick Moor, Yewdale and Oxenfell, Little LangdaJe, the Pikes and
Fellfoot, Great Langdale, Elterwater, and Loughi-igg Tarn and Fell, Amhlcside, Winder-
mere, Blellam Tarn, Bowness, Latterbarrow, Lindal Fell and Heald Brow, Hawkshead,
and Esthwaite Water.
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CONISTON AISD HA \VKESHEAD.
1 »rowed ecclesiastical-looking old place, where the monks from Furness used
to come at stated times to hold their manorial Court of Rights, looking after
the temporalities while administering spiritual life and consolation and the
righteous ordinances of the Church. It is a pleasantly placed old house, with
noble trees about it, and the brawling Hawkshead beck running through the
grounds ; and it stands well for a sketch, which can be made without difficulty,
leaning against the stone wall fencing off the house and its appurtenances
from the highway. Like all these old places where the church met the parish,
and pocketed the proceeds, it is turned now to very low mundane uses, being
merely a barn and " shippon," or barn and beast-place, instead of the lordly
dwelling, and the holy, of old time.
Then on to Hawkshead,5 where again the evidences of the past 6 meet you
in the face, and where the spirit of the departed is mightier than that of the
present. It is a desolate-looking town enough, bleak and uncomfortable, as if
it wanted counterpanes and blankets on winter nights; the want of "snug-
ness " being the want most evident of all. The church is of the same class
as Crosthwaite, but dedicated to St. Michael instead of to St. Kentigern, with
one tablet against the wall worth noticing, and one tombstone in the church-
yard, that of Elizabeth Smith's. Hawkshead has a grammar-school of some
5 Hawkshead has four townships — Hawkshead, Monk Coniston with Skelwith, Claife
including Sawrey, and Satterthwaite including Grizedale. It was a perpetual curacy only,
though called a vicarage, and was ecclesiastically under Ulverston ; but Diversion was
ecclesiastically under Dalton. In or about 1200 a dispute arose as to which of the t\\<>
belonged a chapel at Hawkshead, when it was shown by old testimony that Ulverston had
been dependent on Urswick, and Urswick on Dalton. Urswick, like every other valley in
the days of the origin of names, gave a denomination to a family. Yet Urswick is tke
Wick of Urse, which seems a misnomer somehow.
6 In the time of Elizabeth certain " blomaries " or iron smithies were suppressed at the
common request of the tenants of Hawkshead and Coulton, that the tops and cropping <>i
the woods might be preserved for the nourishment of the cattle. Christ. Sandys, gent., and
Wm. Sawrey leased these smithies, and paid the Queen twenty pounds annually for tin-
wood. At the suppression the tenants charged themselves with this rent, called blooinsmitliy
or wood-rent, assessed on and by the customary tenants. These Uoomaries first belonged t.i
Furness, then to the Crown, and nave since been bought by private individuals
273 N N
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
note, founded in 1588, by Archbishop Sandys, whose family came into Furness
before the time of Henry VI., and where the two Wordsworths were educated.
The old prelate, the friend of Cranmer, Jewel, and Hooker the "judicious,"
is represented by the family at Graythwaite High, where are also other
relics7 of the past beside genealogical traditions. Hawkshead is not a very
stirring place by history or by fact. The only register of consequence in the
parish books, beside the record of its numerous charities, is of a tremendous
storm in the summer of 1686, an account of which is given at full length,
as in the note below.8 It is perhaps better for a parish to be so destitute of
disturbance ; but only in the sense in which it is better to be an oyster than a
man ; thus avoiding anguish, but also foregoing nobleness and the sphere of
noble action. It has Esthwaite for its lake ; full of pike, as well as of such
other fish as that ogre of the waters will suffer to exist in its vicinity, with its
floating island, bearing alders and willows, careering about the little offset at
the head called Priest's Pot ; though why so called no one knows, if many
guess. It was here that Wordsworth laid the scene of his famous skating
7 A Saxon commill, with a small channel and a circular recess like a basin, was found
in Field Head Moss, near Graythwaite High, at ploughshare depth. Graythwaite High is
the seat of the Sandys, who came into Furness before the reign of Henry VI. : Graythwaite
Low, of the Sawreys of the time of Henry VIII. There is a yew-tree at Graythwaite
Head which is sixty-four inches in girth at the height of six feet above ground.
8 " Be it remembered that upon the tenth day of June, at nighte, in the yeare of our Lord
God one thousand six hundred eighty and six, there was such a fearfull thunder with fyrn
and rayne, which occasioned such a terrible flood, as the like of it was never seene in these
parts of no man liveninge, for it did throwe down some houses and mills, and tooke away
several! briggs, the water also did run through houses, and did much hurte to houses,
besides the water washed down trees and timber, and the rills carried them, with stones and
other things, a greate waye off, where they layd on ground : yea, further, the water did
so fiercely run down the hye ways, made such deepe holes and ditches in them, that at
severall places neither horses nor foote coulde passe, and the brookes and - — did so
breake out of their places that they brought exceedinge greatt sand beds into men's grounds
at many places, which did greater hurte than ever like was knowne. I pray God of his
gront mercy grant that nomi which is now liveninge never see the like again."
274
CONISTON AND IIAWKESHEAD.
picture ; here that Matthew was dreaming on the old grey stone, and "growing
double " as he dreamed ; and here, too, is the yew-tree, on the seat near which
were left the lines beginning : —
" Nay, traveller! rest. This lonely yew-tree stands
Far from all human dwelling."
Esthwaite is not a large lake, though not one of the smallest, being
sixth in degree from the smallest — standing indeed eleventh in the scale,
of which Windermere is the largest and Brothers Water the least. The
stream therefrom is the Cunsey Beck, which flows into Windermere,
having first made Out Dubs Tarn and Eel House Pool, above the first
of which is Ees Bridge, whence a glorious view is to be had, with the
special grace of Helvellyn standing as a distant background, and filling
in the bounding lines with a mightier sweep than any other hill repeats.
From Esthwaite water — which you leave before you have seen the last
ripple at the foot — you go through the Sawreys, High and Low, where
you may see where " Cooks' braw bog house " once held all the Saw-
reyans during a Scottish raid ; and a braw bog house it must have been
to have sheltered all the people on that dreadful day. And from the
Sawreys you wind down the hill where the old blasted tree used once
to stand, and on to the ferry and the Fashion of the lakes again.
Another way takes you to Ambleside by the Brathay and Skelwith, passing
under Loughrigg Fell by the road we know of; unless Blellam Tarn is
preferred instead, and the walk over the Wrays, both High and Low. And
another famous Coniston walk is into Yewdale and on to Tilberthwaite —
that most picturesque of all the fell foot valleys, lying between Oxenfell and
Wetherlam; or by Oxenfell into Tilberthwaite. But the first is perhaps
the most beautiful, because you keep under the steep wall of Couiston Crags.
If you go into Yewdale you must look out for the old yew-tree, the
patriarch of the Yewdale family, which, people do say, dates somewhere near
the deluge, and which is a living fable as it is, with no exaggeration to help
275 X X 2
TIIK LAKE COUNTRY.
its fabulousness. But there are plenty of yew-trees in the dale generally ;
and at High Yewdale (a farm of that name) is a small wood of them quaintly
clipped and carved into all manner of monstrous shapes ; the taste for which
came in with our Dutch William. Then you can go to Esthwaite over the
Grizedale fells if you like ; or stop short at Grizedale if you like that better,
though you will not come to much when you get there ; still, it is a wild walk,
and you see how the remoter dalesmen live, and what manner of minds and
thoughts spring up in these far-away regions. In short, you can go every-
where to or from Coniston ; but for all that, it is not one of the more
frequented of the lakes : though, like many other things little flattered, it
is among the more deserving of praise. And now turn down to the south,
and set your face to the Abbey, of which this lovely lake was formerly the
fief, and see where the Lords of Furness — and of Coniston — used to live and
have their beinsf.
CONISTON WATER
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS
CHAPTER XVIII
BEAUTIFUL as Furness 1 is now at this present time, with its noble ruin glowing
among the autumn trees and across the rich meadows of its native glen,
its main interest lies in the past. The system of which it is the representative
1 Frudernesse or Futhernesse — Fudemesiain Stephen's charter, 1120 — the farthest point
or promontory, according to some ; according to others, Fruder's point or promontory ;
but Fruder's identity left undetermined. Originally the name was Bekangsghyll, the Glen
of the Deadly Nightshade, from Lethel Bekan, the solanum lethale. So says one John Stcll,
a monk and poetical historian of the time of Henry VI.. in his famous lines : —
" Hsec vallis olim sibi nomen ah licrl>;i
Bekan. qua viruit, dulcis mine, tune sed acerb:) :
Inde domus nomen, Bekansgill, claruit ante."
277
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
was one of so much importance in our English life, it was at one time so
wholly the law and the gospel, the guide of man's soul and the guardian of
his body, that we cannot regard these ruins only as beautiful red sandstone
architecture, but must go back to the days when they formed one of the thrones
and castles of the rule set up throughout England for all men to obey.
Furness Abbey was a wide domain. The Lordship 2 included all that land
between the Duddon and the Leven, and the sea and Windermere. It followed
the water-line, beginning at the mouth of the Duddon and tracking the
stream up to its source on Wrynose (then called the Wrinrose Hills), going
down the opposite side with the infant Brathay, taking in Elterwater, following
the Brathay to Windermere, and thence along the west side of the lake
by the Leven to the sea again, where it swept in the Leven sands, the Isle
of Foulney, the Pile of Fouldrey,3 and the Isle of Walney.4 On which
last was built Peil Castle,5 (the ruins to be seen yet near the landing pier,)
by an abbot of Furness in the time of Edward III.
2 The Duke of Buccleugh is the present Lord of the Liberty of Furness, and Ulverston
manor is part of the same Liberty, which went to Furness by the grant of Stephen. At
the Dissolution the Crown seized what the Crown had given, or at least confirmed ; but
Charles II. gave the lordship to John, Duke of Albemarle, as a reward for his services,
and from him it passed by various descents and purchases to the Duke of Buccleugh and
his heirs. Various privileges are attached to the Liberty, amongst them that of executing
all writs, processes, and precepts of her Majesty within the limits.
3 Where Lambert Simnel landed in 1487.
4 The boundaries of Furness and the barony of Kendal are mentioned in the coucher's
books of the Abbey. " Ab Eltrewatra ad Tillesbure, et inde ad Conigston et inde ad caput
de Thurstin Watra (Coniston Water) , et per ripam ipsius Aque, usque Crek, et inde ad
Levenam." Later in another deed : " Ab Eltrewatra per vallem de Tildebtirghthwaite, inde
per Ywedale bee ad Conigton, sic in Thurstin Water, &c." — WHITAKEU'S History of
Bichmondshire.
5 Peil was reported to Elizabeth in 1588 as the only good haven for great ships between
Milford Haven and Scotland. The famous " Papist Dr. Allen was bom hard by the pyle : "
and at the time of the Armada it was named as one of the places for the likely landing of
the Spaniards : one reason thereof being its fine harbourage ; the other, and in those days
the most conclusive, that the depiity lieutenant was a Catholic.
278
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
The Abbot's power was equal to his domain, and recognized no other
man's sovereignty or independence. He was the one absolute autocrat of
his territory, and exacted the same oath of allegiance as was paid to the
king. In all matters, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, he was supreme,
ordering the supplies of men and the raising of armies for the border service
or his own uses6 as he liked; subject to the king only in so much that
he was bound to furnish him with arms and men, when a general levy was
commanded. He had the patronage of all the churches, save one, in his
Lordship, and the appointment of the coroner, the chief constable, and all
the officers connected with the Courts Baron ; "he and all his men were free
from all county amerciaments and suits of counties and wapentake ; " he
had a free market, a fair, and a criminal court at Dalton ; in fact, he had
all manner of rights everywhere, " with sac and soc, tol and team, infangene-
theof,7 and everything within Furness, except the lands of Michael le
Fleming," as Stephen's charter expressed it. He issued summonses and
attachments by his own bailiffs ; he had the return of all the writs, and
his territories were closed against the sheriff and his officers under any
pretext whatsoever. His lands and his tenants were exempt from all
" talliage, toll, passage, pontage, and vectigal ; " and the man who presumed
6 " The military establishment of Fumess likewise depended on the Abbot. Every
mesne lord and free liomager, as well as the customary tenants, took an oath of fealty to the
Abbot, to be true to him against all men, excepting the king. Every mesne lord obeyed
the summons of the Abbot, or his steward, in raising his quota of armed men, and eveiy
tenant of a whole tenement furnished a man and a horse of war for guarding the coast, for
the border service, or any expedition against the common enemy of the long and kingdom.
The habiliments of war were a steel coat, or coat of mail, a falce or falchion, a jack, tin1
bow, the byll, the crossbow, and spear. The Furness legion consisted of four divisions —
one of bowmen horsed and harnessed ; bylmen horsed and harnessed ; bowmen without
horse and harness ; bylnien without horse and harness." — Antiquities of Furness.
7 Saccum, the power of imposing fines ; soccuin, the power of administering justice ;
tollum, the right of levying tolls ; team or theam, a royalty granted for trying bondsmen
and villeins, with sovereign power over the villein, tenants, their wives, children, and g Is
(abolished 12 Car. II.) ; infangthefe, the power of judging theft.
279
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
to disturb or molest my lord abbot or any of his tenants was to pay a
fine of ten pounds to the king. In addition to which he was the owner
and occupant of almost half the low country, and he and his order had
prolations, privileges, and immunities of every kind. One of which was, that
as the sands of Morecambe Bay were dangerous (sixteen men having been
drowned therein at one time, and six at another), the Abbot of Furness prayed
Edward II. that he might have a frank-pledge and coroner of his own, " for
everywhere it would be the salvation of one soul at least ; " which was
granted. Another was, that he was absolved from the obligation of appearing
at the wapentake of Staincliffe and Friendless in York, it being a long way
off — forty miles, with two dangerous arms of the sea to cross; wherefore
my lord abbot was allowed to appear there by proxy, and in the person of
an attorney only. In fact, he was the greatest man in the whole north
country ; and that wild and savage Lordship of Furness was as absolute an
autocracy as Russia or China at the present day ; happily, perhaps, for
the district, which had greater chance of good rule and civilizing influences
under the monks of Furness than if it had been under the ruder hand of
some lawless old baron or God-denying knight, intent only on rapine and
revel. The ecclesiastical rule of the middle ages might be hard and heavy
and unloving, but it was not so actively oppressive, nor so thoroughly evil
as many another.
Originally the monastery of Furness was of the Savignian order of
St. Benedict, and was established at Tulketh in Amoundernesse, a branch of
the Kibble near Preston. But two years after, namely, in 1127, it was
taken by its founder and patron, Stephen,8 then Earl of Morton and
8 " In the name of the Blessed Trinity, and in honour of St. Mary of Furness, I,
Stephen, Earl of Bologne and Moreton, consulting God, and providing for the safety of my
own soul, the soul of my wife, the Countess Matilda, the soul of my lord and uncle
Henry, King of England and Duke of Normandy, and for the souls of all the faithful,
living as well as dead, in the year of our Lord 1127 of the Roman indiction, the 5th
and 18th of the Epact. Considering every day the uncertainty of life, that the roses and
flowers of kings, emperors, and dukes, and the crowns and palms of the great wither and
280
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
Boulogne, to Furness, where it reigned as we have seen in absolute supre-
macy until the Dissolution in 1537. In the meantime it changed its order
and its colour. In 1148, under the Pontificate of Eugenius, the whole
Savignian order passed over into the Cistercian,9 or Bernardine, in honour
of St. Bernard of Citeaux (hence the name), who remodelled the Benedictine
rules. And after a severe struggle with the conservative element of the
house, Bajocis, the fifth Abbot of Furness, and his prior and his almoner
and all the rest of the body, made themselves Cistercians like the rest, and
were no longer the Grrey monks but the White. For instead of the grey
dress which had formerly marked them, cassock, cowl, and scapulary were
decay, and that all things, with an uninterrupted course, tend to dissolution and death, I
therefore return, give and grant to God and St. Mary of Fumess, all Furness and "\Valney
(Wagnea), with the privilege of hunting; with Dalton and all my lordsliip in Furness
(infra Frudemisiam) , with the men and everything belonging, that is in woods and in open
groxmd, in land and in water; and Ulverston (Olvestonam), and Roger Braithwaite, with
all that belongs to him ; my fisheries at Lancaster and Little Guoiing (Guorenem Pan-am),
with all the lands thereof, with sac and soc, tol and team, iufangtheof, and everything
within Furness, except the lands of Michael le Fleming : with this view and upon this
condition, That in Furness an order of regular monks be, by divine permission, established ;
which gift and offering I, by supreme authority, appoint to be for ever obsenred ; and that it
may remain firm and inviolate for ever, I subscribe this charter with my hand, and confirm
it with the sign of the Holy Ghost.
" HEXRY, King of England and Duke of Normandy.
THURSTAN, Archbishop of York.
" AUDIN.) -r>. ,
\ Bishops.
BOCKO, /
" ROBERT, Keeper of the Seal.
ROBERT, Earl of Gloster."
9 The spread of the Cistercian order was very rapid. Beginning with its titular saint
and twelve monks who filiated from Citeaux, it soon rose to such repute that St. Bernard
himself founded one hundred and sixty monasteries, and in fifty years from its first
establishment it had eight hundred abbeys. In England and Wales were eighty-five Houses
of Cistercians, two only in Lancaster, namely, Furness and Whalley ; but nine in all as
dependencies or filiations from Fumess, the House of most importance in England, after,
perhaps, Fountains in Yorkshire. All the Cistercian Houses were dedicated to the Virgin
Mary.
281 O O
T1IK LAKE COUNTRY.
now white, with, in full choir, a girdle of black wool with a mozet or hood
coming down in front as far as the girdle, where it was rounded off, and
falling to the mid leg behind. When they went abroad they wore a cowl
and full black hood ; but each house had its distinctive marks and signs ;
the description above is only general to the order. Furness once disputed
with its brother abbey of Waverley in Sussex. It was on a question of
precedence, wherein the pride of both holy fathers was roused almost to
bloodshed point, and the Christian virtues got sadly put out of court
hi favour of the ecclesiastical. It was a long quarrel and a hard one, but
it was settled at last by the good offices of the calm-headed ; when it was
arranged that the Abbot of Furness should have precedence through all the
houses of eleemosyna in England, and that the Abbot of Waverley should
be foremost in the Chapter of Abbots, with superiority over the whole order ;
which was not supremacy, be it remembered. This was about the hardest
lesson that the proud House of Furness ever had to learn, till the end of
all monkish things, when the abbot was fain to accept as his pension for
life the rectory of Dalton, valued at thirty-three pounds six shillings and
eightpence per annum. Rather an awkward translation for the head of a
sovereign and independent establishment, worth, according to Dugdale,
805Z. 16s. 5d. per annum, or 946L 2s. 10c/., according to others ; and
766/. 7s. WcL, by Speed's calculation ; exclusive of the woods, meadows,
pastures, and fisheries retained in the hands of -the monastery, and the
mines, salt-works, and mills belonging, which would bring up the revenue
to something more than princely.
Some of the painted glass formerly belonging to the Abbey, is in Bowness
churchyard ; the Virgin Mary, St. John, the Crucifixion, a group of monks
and their abbot, some angels, St. George and the dragon, St. Catharine and
her wheel, the arms of France and England, and the arms of various patrons
and benefactors of the Abbey — I,ancaster, Urswick, Le Fleming, Millom, &c.
are yet to be seen. The glass belonged to the large east window — a magnificent
and noble inlet of God's light ; r.nd on the outside, under an arched festoon,
FUHNE8S ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
are still the crowned heads of Stephen and Maud, his queen, which have
evidently been finely executed. But the red sandstone of which the church
and abbey were built is not good for finer sculpture. In the south wall, and
at the west end of the church, are four seats with Gothic ornaments ; and in
the middle space, where the first strong-handed old Barons of Keudal were
interred, lies the figure of a man in armour, cross-legged. As West's account
is the best that has been given yet, and as the ruins are very much in the same
condition as when he wrote of them, it is better to give part of his description
as it stands, than to run the risk of obscuring what else is so plain and distinct.
" The chapter-house is the only building belonging to the Abbey which
is marked with any elegance of Gothic sculpture ; it has been a noble room
of sixty feet by forty-five. The vaulted roof, formed of twelve ribbed arches,
was supported by six pillars in two rows, at fourteen feet distance from each
other. Now, supposing each of the pillars to be eighteen inches in diameter, the
room would be divided into three alleys or passages, each fourteen feet wide. On
entrance, the middle one only could be seen, lighted by a pair of tall pointed
windows at the upper end of the room ; the company in the side passage would
be concealed by the pillars, and the vaulted roof, that groined from these
pillars, would have a truly Gothic disproportional appearance of sixty feet by
fourteen. The northern side alley was lighted by a pair of similar side-lights,
and a pair at the upper end ; the southern side alley was lighted by four small
pointed side windows, besides a pair at the higher end, at present entire, and
which illustrate what is here said. Thus, whilst the upper end of the room
had a profusion of light, the lower end would be in the shade. The noble roof
of this singular edifice did but lately fall in : the entrance or porch is still
standing, a fine circular arch, beautified with a deep cornice, and a portico
on each side. The only entire roof of any apartment now remaining is that
of a building without the enclosure wall, which is supposed to have been
a private chapel to the Guest Hall. It is a single ribbed arch that groins
from the wall. The tower has been supported by four magnificent arches, of
which only one remains entire. They rested upon four tall pillars, whereof
283 OO2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
three are finely clustered, but the fourth is of a plain, unmeaning construction.
The west end of the church seems to have been an additional part, intended
for a belfry, to ease the main tower ; but that is as plain as the rest : had the
monks even intended it, the stone would not admit of such work as has been
executed at Fountains and Bievaulx Abbies. The east end of the church
contained five altars, besides the high altar, as appears by the chapels ; and
probably there was a private altar in the sacristy. In magnitude, this Abbey
was the second in England, belonging to the Cistercian monks, and next in
opulence after Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire. The church and cloisters were
encompassed with a wall, which commenced at the east side of the great
northern door, and formed the strait enclosure ; and a space of ground, to the
amount of sixty-five acres, was surrounded with a stone wall, which enclosed
the mills, kilns, ovens, and fish-ponds belonging to the Abbey, the ruins of
which are still visible. This last was the great enclosure, now called the
Deer Park, in which such terraces might be formed as would equal, if not
surpass, any in England."
And now in these glorious grounds, where formerly the mighty Abbot
and his monks walked and prayed and framed the laws of their generation,
is a grand hotel for summer tourists, full of all modern luxury and modern
self-assertion : the greatest contrast to that great thing of the past that could
have been possibly made : greater even than a row of modern barracks, or a
union, or a police-station would have been. The Furness Abbey Hotel is
an essay in itself on the change of society included in the title.
The seal of the House was the Virgin and child in a circle, she with a
crown, the nimbus, and a globe, he with only the nimbus ; on either side
were two escutcheons of the House of Lancaster, supported by bundles of
nightshade, and charged with the three lions of England. At the base each
shield was supported by two monks in full habit ; in the foreground were two
plants of nightshade, and over each monk's head a sprig of the same. The
wyvern in the lower compartment was the device of Thomas Earl of Lancaster,
and the legend was " Sigillum. Commvne. Domvs. Beate. Marie, de. Furnesio."
284
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
Until the time of Pope Sixtus IV. the rules of the order as to fasting and
devotional exercises were very severe ; but the good Pontiff, taking into account
the frailties of human nature, granted them the privilege of meat thrice a
week, for which a special room, distinct from the usual Refectory, was fitted up
in every monastery. They were great benefactors in their way, and did their
best for the land and the people committed to their charge — no doubt with
an eye always to the advantage of the House and the permanence of their
influence ; but still, under this restriction, they did their best. They built
chapels and threw out new Houses, as bees throw off new swarms ; they
enclosed waste places, and favoured piety and learning ; if they laid their
grip heavily on purse or scrip, it was with less cruel clenching of the fingers
than the mailed hand would have had ; and on the whole the- rule of that
great Cistercian autocracy was no hindrance to the progress or prosperity of
the subjects living under its sway.10
Though Furness was the seat of ecclesiastical supremacy in the pro-
montory, consequently of greatest importance to men and history, there were
many other places of interest round about. There was, rather there is, the
beautiful Conishead Priory, the paradise of Furness, founded by William
10 In the reign of Edward I. the Abbot of Furness, to whom belonged the bailiwick of
Coulton, enclosed by royal licence Abbott Stott, Oxen and Hill Parks, all in the said parish.
By indenture dated the 28th of January, 1 Henry VIII., each tenant was allotted his pro-
portion of common by a jury composed of the monks of Furness and the tenantry of Coulton.
The lands feU to the Duchy on the dissolution of the monasteries, and were held of Queen
Elizabeth by customary land, and bloomsmithy or wood-rents.
285
THE LAKE COUXTHY.
Tailbois the first baroii of Kendal ; for though the name still remains,
it is only as belonging to a gentleman's mansion built on the old site. And
there is Dalton, which used to be a Roman station11 as well as the capital
of the district in the time of the Abbey and before the rise of Ulverston, and
which West thinks must have been the mother church, if antiquity and
seniority go for anything. Dalton, too, was the place where George Romney
the painter was born one fifteenth of December (1734) ; at least at Bankside
or Cocken, nigh at hand and in the parish. Certain old customs are still
kept up here : such as the cherry fair — the child's fair, held on the Sunday
before Lammas ; the habit of hiring reapers on Sundays in harvest time ;
and the strange fashion at funerals of not only giving bread and cheese at
the house, but, when the corpse is buried, of the clerk proclaiming at the
grave- side that the company must assemble at some public-house appointed,
where they sit in groups of four — to each four one quart of ale allowed,
half to be paid by the conductor of the funeral, and half by the company.
In the meantime the waiter goes round with cakes, and gives one to each
guest, which he must carry home with him, not eat. And then the Dalton
Crag is worth looking at, being of the finest limestone in the district.
And there is Kirkby Irelath, with its relics 12 and its church — the " kirk by
the western place of assembly," temp. Henry IV., and dedicated to St. Cuth-
bert ; and its house — Kirkby Hall, or Cross House, or Kirkby Cross, as you
like to call it, before which once stood a cross that Edwin Sandys, Archbishop
.of York, demolished in his Protestant zeal; nearly as zealous in his
Protestantism as Barnaby Potter, the Right Reverend of Carlisle, of whom it
11 West says the Roman road proceeds from the Thorn on Conishead Bank west
through Street Gate (an important and decisive name), to the place where it joins the new
turnpike road from Ulverston, and forming an obtuse angle to the south-west, points directly
by Lindal to Dalton ; at the Cross it turns up Scalegate, and slanting over the rocks by
St. Helen's, crosses Goldmire, and circling a little takes its direction by Roan Head to
Duddon Sands. The station must have been at Dalton, abandoned before the Itinerary
was written.
12 Four celts, three rude and one polished, were found at Haunie, near Kirkby Irolatli.
28G
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
was said "that the organs would blow him out of church." 13 This Kirkby
Hall was the home of the Kirkby family u for ten generations ; the imme-
diate neighbourhood is famous for the dark blue slate worked in almost
inexhaustible quantities out of the fells surrounding. And there is Irelath
hard by, where the best iron mines are ; and Whitrigg, called the " Peru
of Furness ; " and Whicham, with its lake or pond famous for Will-o'-the-
Wisps, where it is always calm when Barfield is troubled, so that the two
parishes at the foot of Black Combe have never the same kind of weather ; and
Whicham Hall, where Scot's Croft is supposed to have been the site of an
old battle with the border enemy. For once, Furness Fells, the " Apennines
of Lancashire," as West calls them, were the boundary lines between Scotland
and England, and the incursions into the low country were many and mighty ;
specially one in 1138, of gigantic violence and rapine. And there are the
ruins of Gleaston Castle built in such haste, which belonged to the Duke
of Suffolk, poor Lady Jane Grey's father; and Gutterby Bay, where the
sunken rock, called Black Segs, causes the loss of many brave lives by ship-
wrecks, and where old roads, visible below water-mark, show that the sea has
gained here, and how much, within the record of man's hand.
And there is Swart Moor, where, in 1486, " the German Baron, bold Martin
Swart," mustered the forces of Lambert Simnel, poor knave ; and where on
the last day of September, 1643, Colonel Eigby, with seven or eight companies
of foot, all "firemen," save about twenty with pikes — assembled for prayers,
coming in from Ulverston, after which exercise they went on to Lindal Moor
13 Sandys was imprisoned for taking part with Lady Jane Grey, and kept for some time
in the Nun's Bower with Bradford the Martyr. He escaped, however, happily for himself,
and went to Zurich and Peter Martyr, where he remained until Queen Elizabeth's
accession, when he returned to safety and esteem, to be ultimately made Archbishop of
York.
14 Saxon families, so late as in the time of Henry VIII., lived in villages and places
of their own names, as appears from the court rolls— the Braithwaitcs at Brathay, the
Sawreys at Sawrey, &c. At Nibthwaite all were Redheads, at Finsthwaitc ;ill Taylors,
at Coltham all Satterthwaites, &c.. still a north-country peculiarity.
287
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
for more mundane matters. A few years ago, some labourers, making a new
road over the moor, came upon large numbers of horse-shoes of very small
size ; but whether they had belonged to Colonel Rigby's forces, or to Lambert
Simnel's, the antiquarians could not decide. Swart Moor is famous, too, for
its connection with George Fox. In 1652, he went there in his character
of itinerant preacher,15 preaching Quaker doctrines to Judge Fell and his
family; converting the women, but not at first the judge, whom afterwards
however he reclaimed; converting the wife indeed — daughter of John Askew
— to such good purpose, that he married her in 1669, eleven years after the
judge's death. He lived at Swart Moor Hall, now a farmhouse merely,
where his bed-room and study may still be seen ; and he built a Quaker
meeting-house on the moor, the first in England, with Ex Dono G. F. 1688,
to be spelt out at this day over the door.
And there is Kirkby Thore, with its Whelp Dale, and Whelp Castle,
where the Machels once lived ; a grand family in their day, and going quite
back into the haze of tradition. Their seal is a problem in itself, " an Indian
dog, ex grseco et tigride nato, and with a forked tail," on which hung a whole
world of romance. They were great patrons of the church, for we find that
Henry II. confirmed the grant of land at Crackenthorpe, (the village of the
crakes, rooks, or crows,) to the priory of Carlisle, which had been given
by Halth le Malchael, and Eva his wife ; and L'Ulf, or Liulf of Kirkby
Thore gave some lands there to the Abbey of Holme Cultram, also in the time
of Henry II. Ulf le Malchael, "Wolf, that mischievous whelp," was a noted
man in his day, though now only a name — a mere breath and no more. And
then there is Cartmel,16 still a place of some note if not so much as in olden
times, when it was of such large monkish value that the priory was a kind of
15 " The Quakers, whose en-ant lives as errant preachers made them the first travellers
to solicit goods," have always been well considered in the north, and are notorious for their
commercial respectability and worldly success.
16 " The high antiquity of this district, with a town in it called Sudgetluit, is identified
by a grant of Egfrida, a king of the Northumbrians (670 — 685), who gave the whole of it,
with all the Britons in it, to St. Cuthbert."
288
FURNESS ABBEY AND THE SANDS.
rival to Furness. It stood on the little Ay stream, which rises in the small pool
called the Ayside Tarn, in Stavely, three miles north of Cartmel.1* Below
the latter it goes by the name of Lower Cark Tarn, and Cark Beck, and fulls
into the Leven by Holkar Hall. Cartmel Priory was founded in 1188 by
William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, for the regular canons of St. Augustin,
and dedicated to St. Mary. The founder said in his instrument : " This house
I have founded for the increase of our holy religion, giving and granting to it
every kind of liberty that heart can conceive, or the mouth utter, and whoso-
ever shall in any way infringe upon these immunities, or injure the said priory,
may he receive the curse of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the
other saints, as well as my particular malediction."
The priory had various privileges ; as was the case with all religious
Houses ; among them that of the exclusive appointment of guides over the
sands, as the priory of Birkenhead had the privilege of appointing boatmen
for the ferry across the Mersey. There were two of these guides, and the
prior had synodal and Peter's pence allowed for them, afterwards commuted
to a yearly stipend. It had also a spring good for scorbutic affections —
the Holy Well in the limestone rock of Humphrey Head, where are th>
Fairy Church and Chapel, and where the knight once destroyed a ferocious
wolf; the same knight as lies in Cartmel church, supposed to be Sir John
Harrington, who went to Scotland with King Edward I. and was there
knighted. He and his lady lie now in a fine open-wrought arch, with
grotesque figures — monks chanting and others — on the surbase. Here is
also the tomb of the prior William de Walton, with "Hie facit Frater
Wilelmus de Walton, prior de Kartmel," on it. There is also a free
grammar-school at Cartmel, under the superintendence of the church-
wardens and sidesmen of the parish, where sixpence quarterage used to
be paid for "grammarians" in 1635, and fourpence for "petties" (little
17 Kert— camp, aud mell— hill, some et^vmologists say ; but these derivations are dan-
gerous things to play with.
289 P P
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
ones). In 1664 the master's salary was twenty pounds a year; in 1674
the quarterage for grammarians was eightpence, but no charge was made
for petties ; in 1711 the quarterage was one shilling and sixpence for Latin,
and one shilling for English. People of means gave cockpence at Shrove-
tide, on the plea of a prize for cockfightiug. Any one may be taught
here, but only twenty non-parishioners at a time. Dr. Law — Edmund
Law, D.D., the Bishop of Carlisle — was educated at Cartmel free school,
his father being only the curate of one of the small chapelries in the
parish, which office he held for forty-nine years. When Lonsdale Hundred
had a part to play, while Thurland Castle was besieged, Roger Kirby and
Alexander Rigby of the Burgh, assisted by all the malignant gentry of
Westmoreland and Cumberland, set on foot " to raise all the forces of
Cartrnel and Furness part of Lancaster, to surprise Lancaster and Hornby
Castle, and to assault on all sides, and to raise on siege, and then to
proceed further into Lancashire (as upon credible information, I believe),
to joyn with Latham House and all the ill-affected in our country to our
generall devastation. And for this end they drew together part of the
Cumberland forces into Fourness, and with them the strength of that place
to about the number of 1000, intending the next day to march into Cart-
mel." But they never did. The colonel intercepted and defeated them
instead. And besides these ancient things there is the HoUy or Holy
Well — much frequented in summer-time and very lovely; and an inter-
mittent spring at Pet Farm, something like the famous Giggleswick well
in Yorkshire, and which old John Gough accounts for as produced by " a
natural compound syphon formed in the recesses of the hills."
And then there is the comparatively modern town of the present
capital of the peninsula, Ulverston ; which was once pronounced Owston,
and which is a derivation somehow from ulf, or wolf; where, in old times,,
William de Lancastre — he whose body lies buried in the quire of Furness
Abbey — gave the mills to Lawrence de Cornwall, who, in his turn, gave
them to Edmund Neville and his heirs, confirming also the manor of
290
FURNESS ABBEY AND T1IK SANDS.
Broughton or Broghton to Edward de Broghton. The Neville family18 came
into Furness in consequence of this grant, establishing themselves at Neville
Hall ; hut lands and mills and estates were all forfeited by the rebellion of
Sir John de Neville against his lawful sovereign. He joined his kinsman,
Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and Thomas Percy, Earl of
Northumberland, in the Mary Stuart attempt of 1569, and lost his go<n|-<
and gear in consequence. Ulverston rose to favour and importance during
the plague year of 1631, when Dalton was decimated, as was Bigger in
the Isle of Walney. From the parish registers it appears that " there died
in Dalton three hundred and threescore, and in Walney one hundred and
twenty." It lasted up to the next Easter, and was so severe that the people
left their homes and took to tents in the fields ; the market being thus
suspended for some months, Ulverston came into its place. The tradition
went that it was brought into the town in a parcel of ribbon. So at least
reports old West. In the eighth year of his reign Edward I. granted to
Ulverston a charter for a weekly market and annual fair ; but Dalton swallowed
up all the good of this and of everything, till the see-saw of history adjusted
itself.
And so come dreams and echoes of the old times as we wander by the
sea-shore in the autumn evening, listening to the murmur of the receding
waves, and looking back into the darkening depths of the mountain land
behind us. It was the early spring morning when we stood on the wooded
heights of Elleray ; the mists were rising from the earth, and the new town
of Windermere, and the young life of the year, lay burnished and bright in
gold below us. It is the late chill autumn now, when we are on the level
sands looking over the gloomy waste towards mutilated Furness, with tin-
wreck of the past, and ruins and relics the only world before us. The
18 It is almost impossible to know how to spell tliese old names. Should they be spelt
as was usual at the time whereof we are writing, or as they are spelt at the present day'.1
The name in question may be Nevil, Nevill. «>r Neville, as the reader likes.
.,<U P T 2
THE LAKE COUNTRY.
sun is sinking, and a broad blood-red band dyes the sea with crimson ; but
a bank of sullen purple clouds is slowly gathering up and gaining on the
last glory of the dying day; the wind is rising in the distant ocean caves,
the sands are bleak and bare, the sea-birds are wheeling over head
uttering their mournful cries, the wild night is coming on, and the tide
is running out, like the tide of life ebbing into eternity and death.
I. PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT
II. BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT
III. GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT
IV. TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS
V. RAINFALL
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT
§ 1— GLOSSARY
A or AT, yes; "Hoot ay mon! " Pshaw! yes,
man; also always, ever.
AANDORN, ORNDORN, or ORNDINNEU, anything
taken between dinner and tea; an afternoon
luncheon or country " kettledrum ; " also the
afternoon.
ABACK o' BEIIINT, behind; in the rear; and "the
other end of nowhere."
ABRAIDE, to feel nausea after food; " to have the
acid," in fact.
ACKER, "to curl, as the curl of water from the
wind, hence Ackeraph-e, the term for the
shooting of barley when in steep for malt."
Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects.
ADDLE or ETTLE, to earn by work; as ADDLINGS
or ETTLINGS, are earnings or wages received for
work; but a horse that falls and rolls from side
to side " addles his shoon."
AE, a or one.
AFIT, on foot; and A-FOAT, afoot; as "a design is
afoot."
AGNAILES, or NANGNAILES, or HANGNAILS, the
small strip of flesh, sometimes also called a
Backfriend, which grows by the side of the
nail and tears off down into the which, or quick
of the flesh.
AIIINT, behind; "Gang ahint ! " — the word of
command to thecolley,or shepherd's dog, to fall
into the rear of the sheep and bring up the
straying members.
AIBLINS, perhaps; maybe. " Aiblins I wool, and
aiblins I woonot: " Maybe I will, and maybe I
will not.
AIL, to be ill; "She's varra ailing," she is very
unwell.
AIRT, AIRTU, a point in the compass, or the
horizon.
" Of a* the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the west."
AITHER, either and each.
A JEE, awry ; crooked.
" The best laid schemes o' mice and men,
Gang aft ajee."
ALAAN, A LANE, alone.
A LANG, along.
ALEGAR, or ALLEKAR, vinegar.
AI.LAR, or ELLER, the alder tree, (Alnus glutinosa.)
ALL HALLOWMAS, All Saints' Day; when (on All
Hallow Een rather,) the girls try charms: such
as melting lead, or breaking the white of an
egg into a tumbler of water, tying up their
garters, peeling apples before the glass, burning
nuts, and other like efficacious manner of pro-
phesy for the matrimonial future.
AMACKILT, in some fashion.
AMANG, among.
AMBRV, a pantry or cnpb >.inl.
APPENDIX I.
AMEAST, almost.
AN, if; AN', and; EN', and.
AXAN, directly; immediately.
AND AW, and all.
ANE, own.
ANENST, over against.
ANTERS, in case that; also adventures and needless
scruples. " He's fashed wi' anters," he is
troubled with fancies and doubts.
ANUDDER, another.
AXUNDER, beneath.
APRIL GOWK, April fool.
ARD, or AIRD, high, when used for a place;
ARD-LAND means a hard and hungry soil; a
corruption, doubtless, of arid, but the original
sense of Ard is high, and ard-land is bad land
because it is high ; ARDEN, the fallow quarter.
ARR, the scar of a wound; POCK ARRS, pock-
marks.
ARRANT, errand.
ARVAL, a funeral; ARVAL-BREAD, funeral bread
given to the followers in the open air, and
expected to be carried home with them, not
eaten on the spot.
ASS-BUIRD, the ash-box; ASS-MIDDEN, the ash-
heap in the yard ; and Ass TRUG, a coal-scuttle.
Ass, to ask; AST, asked.
ASSART, cleared; reclaimed. ASSART LANDS are
forest lands reclaimed.
ATTERCOPPE, or ADDERCOP, a spider and a spider's
web ; also across-grained person, as is ATTERMITE.
AIJGHTS, or OUTS, a large quantity; not to be
confounded with ORTS, leavings. " I'll not eat
your orts." I'll not eat your leavings.
AULD, or AWD, old; T" AULD ANE, the devil.
AURSELS, ourselves.
AUTER, altar; but generally called HEE-AUTRE, in
unconscious remembrance of the High- Altar of
olden times.
AVER, a cart-horse, or any common hack-horse.
AWF, an elf; a fool.
AWND, the awn or beard of barley, &c., often
pronounced Arcs.
Ax, to ask.
AY, always; yes; with an interrogative accent,
meaning surprise.
AYONT, beyond. " That's ayont my gumption;"
that's beyond my understanding.
A/ZAiU), " a little sneaking or insignificant fellow."
— IK. und C. Dialects.
BAAD, an improper woman; as is also BAXDYLAX.
BABBY-CLOUTS, baby clothes.
BACK-BWORD, the dough or paste-board on which
bread or paste is rolled, chiefly used for oat-cake.
BACK-END, the latter part of the mouth or year:
the autumn generally.
BACKSIDE, the yard or back part of the house; but
capable of many equivocal doubles entendres.
BADGER, a pedlar; originally a person who pur-
chased grain at one market, and took it on
horseback to sell at another.
BADLY, ill ; " I'se nobbut badly." I am ill —
nothing but ill, literally.
BAGGIN, food.
BAILIES, bailiffs.
BAIN, near; BAIXER WAY, a nearer way; "The
bainer the titter," the nearer the sooner.
BANG, to beat; to surpass; a loud noise; a thump;
" he cam in wi' a bang," he came in with a
noise, and in haste; and he "banged Ban-
nagcr," he went beyond Bannager; BENSIL is
also to bang or beat.
BANNOCKS, oatmeal cakes made thick, hot, and
buttered — not the same things as "oat-cake."
BARGII, a short, sharp hill; also a horseway up a
hill.
BARN, or BAIRX, child; but constantly used in
conversation between people on friendly terms,
whatever the age.
BARNEKIN, the outer part of the castle where the
stables, byres, and barns were placed.
BARRIXG-OUT, still kept up in rough country
schools, but declining like other old customs.
BASK, a sharp, acid flavour, as unripe fruit is bask.
BASLARD, a dagger; but obsolete now.
BASS, perch; BASSEXTHWAITE is the place of the
bassen, or perch. Also used for dried seders
and rushes; a rush-bottomed chair being a
" bass- bottomed " chair, (a corruption of bast ?)
BASTE, a blow; and BATERED, beaten.
BATTEN, a large truss of straw; called also WAPS.
BATTER, dirt.
BATTLING-STOXE, the stone, and BATTLIXG-WOOD,
the piece of wood, used in washing and beating
clothes by the river side.
BAWK, or BALK, a cross-beam ; but BAWKS is a
hay-loft.
BAWJIE, to dress oneself smart.
BAAVX, ready; BAWNED, prepared to go; ready
dressed.
290
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
BAY, to bend.
HAZE, to alarm.
BEAU MOUTHS, pit holes, or the passages into coal
mines.
BEASE, or BEESE, beasts ; and BEASTIXGS, or
BEASTLIXGS, the first milk of a cow newly calved.
Beastings pudding is a kind of rich batter
pudding made of that milk; not recommcnd-
sible.
BEISIS, to drink ; and BELVIXG, drinking greedily,
or gulping down liquid.
BECK, a small river or brook.
BEELD and BIGG, to build.
BEELIX, bellowing ; and BELDER or BLETHER, to
bellow ; cry lustily.
BEIRSII, BRASH, BRATTLE, or BEVISU, "to run
headlong, a violent push, a sudden motion." —
W. and C. Dialects.
BELIVE, presently.
BELPER, to cheat.
BELTAIN, BELTEIN, BELTAN, the firet of May, when
fires used to be lighted on the hills, with many
quaint ceremonies, in which the quicken or
mountain-ash tree had a large share.
BEMOOKED, dirtied; defiled; literally, bemucked.
BEXSE, a cow's stall in the byre.
BKNT-GRASS (agrostis vylyaris), a long coarse
grass that grows on poor land, and is used for
baskets, &c.
BERRY, gooseberry ; '• a fine berry year " means a
fine crop of gooseberries, not of berries in general.
BERRY, to thrash corn; and BERI^IER^ a corns
thrasher.
BETTERMER, better; " he's in summut o' a better-
mer way just now," he is rather better at this
moment.
BETWATTLED, confused; out of one's senses.
BEYTE, a sharper ; also a bite.
BIDDEX-WEDDIXG, a wedding where the guests
are bidden, but expected to make a collection
for the newly married couple at the end of the
feast.
BIDDY, pediculus humanus.
BIDE, to wait, to bear; " I canna bide, or abide, ou
him," I cannot bear him, I dislike him.
BIG, a species of barley of a poor kind.
BIGGIX, a building, but not used for large houses;
also a wooden bowl, or what is elsewhere called
pigyin.
BILLY, brother.
BIXK, a stone scat or table.
BIRLER, or BURLER, the M. C. at a " bidden-wed-
ding," who looks after the liquor and gets up
the subscriptions.
BIRR, or BURRE, whirr; a stone flung with force
" comes with a birre," because it makes a whir-
ring noise in the air, and a spinning wheel
" birres " as it goes round.
BISPEL, mischievous and naughty ; " lisle bispci
moonkey," little mischievous monkey!
BIZEN, a bye-word; "to be a shame and a bizen,"
to be a disgrace, and the common talk of the
place. Bizen is literally bye-said, a bye-saying.
BLACK-BERBIES, black currants, not bramble
berries.
BLAEBERRY, or BLEABERRY, bilberry or whortle-
berry.
BLAIXED, half dry, spoken mostly of linen hung
out to dry; also bleached, whitened.
BLAKE, yellow; "as blake as a man-gold," as
yellow as a man-gold ; also bleak; cold; naked.
BL.AKELIXG, the yellow bunting.
BLATE, bashful.
BLEB, or BLOB, a heavy gout of soap suds or
thickened liquid of any kind ; a blish, or blister.
BLEETS, the blight.
BLEMMLE, to mix up fluid and solid, as flour and
water.
BLINDER BRIDLES, bridles with blinkers.
BLISH, a small blister.
BOBBER, BOBBEROUS, in high spirits ; also boast-
ful, bragging.
BOGGART, and BOGIE, and BOGLE, ghosts, and
spectres, and evil spirits made visible.
BOGGLE, to be afraid ; also to hesitate.
BOLDER, a loud noise ; " the bolder of a cannon,"
the report of a cannon.
BONGAIT, to fasten.
BOXNY, pretty; " a bonny wee wife," the ultimate
perfection of womanhood to every young man's
fancy.
BOON DAYS, free service days, when tenants are
obliged to give work and labour gratis fo their
lords; a common clause in customary tenures, by
which so much land in Cumberland is held.
BORN, suffered; but BOUXED or BORXT or BUUXT
is burnt.
BORTERT or BOUTREY, the elder-tree.
BOTTOM-\YIXD, that strange upheaval which some-
times takes place on Dcrwcutwater in a ]>crfcctly
29? Q Q
AITENDIX I.
calm and windless day, when the waters are
violently agitated from beneath, and flung in
high waves from west to east.
BOUKS, the divisions or boundaries of a field.
BOURT, to offer ; to pretend.
BOUT, time ; condition; "She's a bad bout on't,"
she has a bad time of it; used in this sense for
illness. " Ay ! it'll sarve its turn this bout ! " it
will serve its turn for this time or purpose.
BOWDER, BOOLDER, BOWLDER BIONICS, large
round cobbles, as witness the Bowder Stone of
Borrowdale.
BOWER or BOOR, an inner room.
BOW-HOUGHED, having crooked thighs.
" She's bow-houghed, she's hein shinned,
Ae limping leg a hand-breed shorter."
BRAAD-SCAR, a broad stone.
BRAD, spread out, hot, inflamed,
BRAE, rather an open stretch of upland than a bank.
BRAIDS, resembles ; is like to.
BRAKE, to beat violently.
BRANDRETH, an iron tripod fixed over the fire, on
which is placed the pot or kettle or girdle.
" Three legged Brandreth " is a secondary hill
near Buttermere.
BRANK, to bridle; to hold up the head like a horse
sharply reined.
BRANT or BREST, steep; Brantwood, steepwood.
BRASS, money. " He's a gay lock o' brass," he has
plenty of money.
BRAST and BRASSEN and BRUSSEN, and BROSSEN,
burst ; generally applied to over-eating. " Nay,
what I'se eat till I'se fairly brossen," I have
eaten till I am nearly bursting.
BRAT, an apron or pinafore.
BRATTLE, a push, a stroke, to thunder, to hurry.
BRAUCHIN, a horse collar.
BRAWLY and BRAVELY, well ; in good health.
BRAWN, a boar.
BRAXY or BRACKSIE, hard mutton hams which
take the skin off your mouth, and are very nearly
uneatable altogether.
BRAYED, beaten; " to bray in a mortar," to pound
or beat up.
BREAK-DITCH, a straying cow that will wander
from her pastures.
BREE, a bustle.
BREED BRYDER, a bread-basket.
BREEDER, brother.
BRIDE-ALE, wedding-ale; so called from the bride
selling the ale at the poorer marriages.
BRIDE-CAKE, the thin currant (girdle) cake, which,
after they had left the church, and generally at
an inn, the bridegroom used to break over the
head of the bride (covered with a clean napkin),
and for the broken pieces of which the brides-
maids and men used to scramble as for
charms.
BRIDE-WAIN, an old custom now almost out of
date, where the friends of a newly-married couple
assemble for a treat of cold pies, furmcnty, and
ale, ending in a collection for the benefit of the
entertainers. "At the close of the day, the
bride and bridegroom are placed in two chairs,
in the open air, or in a large bam, the bride with
a pewter dish on her knee, half covered with a
napkin; into this dish the company put their
offerings, which occasionally amount to a con-
siderable sum." " Wain," or " bride-wain,"
means the bride's -wain or waggon, which, like
the French corbeille, is assumed to be filled with
bridal articles of value, taken from her father's
to her new home, and decorated with ribbons,
flowers, &c. But the name and the custom are
both passing away.
The following is from the Cumberland
Packet : — " George Hayter, who married
Ann the daughter of Joseph and Dinah
Collin, of Crossley Mill, purposes having
a Bride- Wain at his house at Crossley near
Maryport, on Thursday, May 7th next,
(1789), where he will be happy to see his
Friends and Wellwishers, for whose amuse-
ment there will be a Saddle, two Bridles,
a pair of Gands d'amour, gloves — Avhich
whoever wins is sure to be married within
the Twelvemonths, a Girdle (Ceinture de
Venus) possessing qualities not to be de-
scribed, and many other Articles, Sports,
and Pastimes too numerous to mention, but
which can never prove tedious in the exhi-
bition."
BRIG, a bridge.
BROCK, a badger; a cabbage; a small fragment.
BRONG, brought.
BROW, "saucy, pert, handsome, clever." — W. and
C. Dialects.
BROWN-COCK, the cock-chafer.
BRUIL, to broil ; and BKUILLIMENT, a broil.
298
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
BUCKSTALL, a forest service; attending at a certain
station to watch the red deer in hunting, and
assisting to turn them out on the fell tops; a
net to catch deer.
BUDE, the participle of bide; having borne with
patience.
BULL-STAXG, a dragon fly.
BUMBLE BEE, the humble bee.
BUMMELLS, or BUMBLE-KITES, blackberries.
BUMMIN, humming. Ale is bumming when made
into hot posset and singing by the fire on the hob.
BUMMLE, and BDMMELT, and BUMMLER'S Luck,
means to bungle and bungled, and the bungler's
or blunderer's luck. •
BIX, or BUNXEL, a dry hemp stalk; a her, or the
dry hollow stalk of the hemlock.
BURLEY-BRIGGS, or BARLEY-BREAK, a game.
BURX, a brook.
BUTCH, to kill for meat; "he butches for Joe
Ritson; " he kills Joe Ritson's " beasts " for him.
BUTTER-SHAG, a slice of bread-and-butter.
BUTTER-SOPS, wheaten bread or oat-cake fried
in butter and sugar. An excellent sweetmeat.
BWORD-CLAITH, table-cloth.
BWORDER-COWPPERS, horse-dealers from the bor-
ders; generally sad rogues. "I'se fra t' border,
lad!" Hoot, ay, mon, like eneugh; t' coarsest
part o' t' claith 's allus nighest t' selvedge ! "
I'm from the border, lad! Pshaw, yes, man,
very naturally; the coarsest part of the cloth is
always next the selvage !
BYRE, cow-house.
CABBISH, cabbage ; a " tailor's cabbish " is what
the tailor filches or cabbages.
CADE LAMB, pet lamb.
CAFF, chaff; not to be confounded with CAULF or
COAF, a calf.
CALEEVER, or CALLEVIR, to prance about; to make
a riot; to be in any way wild and unrestrained;
furiously frisky.
CALLAR, cold ; fresh ; cool.
CAM and COOM, comb; and the crest of a hill.
CAMMED, crooked, or ill-tempered.
CAMPLE, to reply saucily; to argue and dispute.
CAXKERT, rusted; also ill-tempered.
CAXXY, a clever and capable, or fine and handsome,
woman; a good manager and a clever house-
keeper; also a smart and capable man. "A
canny body " of cither sex is expressive of a
wide range of practical virtues and admiuistra-
tive qualities, best translated, perhaps, by the
American word "faculty;" but a canny hinny
is a sly, and not a lovcable person.
CAP, to surpass in any way. " That caps a'; "
that goes beyond all I have heard; that out-
herods Herod, and " bangs Bannager."
CAREL, Carlisle.
CARRAS, by elision and contraction, Car, or Cart-
house.
CART-LOOSE, cart-rut.
CAT, sometimes XAPE or CAP, as ' Cat o' the neck,'
— the cap or cape of the neck.
CATWITTED, silly and self-sufficient.
CADD, or CAULD, cold.
CAUL, a swelling; a bell.
CAWKERS, or CLOGS, the iron tips and heels on
the country wooden-soled shoes. SPRIXG CLOGS
are the same things made with a sole separate
from the heel, and tapering to a fine edge,
thus giving a kind of spring-board sole to the shoe.
CA\VL, to abuse ; browbeat ; frighten. " He
cawll'd me reet nasty; " he abused me very
shamefully.
CHAFT, the jaw; a conniption of chaps.
CHAR, our " golden Alpine trout," founel in some,
not all, the lakes.
CHATS, spray-wood.
CHEG, to chew a hard substance, as you cheg at a
bit of wood, and you cheg braxy, or braclmie.
CHIMLEY, CHIMLEY LUG, and CHIMLKY NUIK,
the chimney corner; the place on the settle
nearest the fire.
CHITTY, the usual term for a cat. " Chitty-Puss-
Lane " is a small back street in Keswick.
CHOP ix, to put in.
CHOW, to mumble and grumble and mutter like
an old woman or peevish child.
CLAAIKIN, scratching.
CLAGGY, clammy and sticky; clay mud is cloggy ;
and half-baked bread is cloggy, as well as sad;
and treacle is claggy ; but a damp and sticky
hand is puggy.
CLAM, to hunger; and to climb; CLAVER, or
CLEVVER, is also to climb; but CLAVERS is idle
talking.
CLAP-BREAD, thin cakes of oats or barley, baked
on the griddle. They arc made on the clap-
board.
CLARTS, CLARTY, CLARTIXG, mud, muddy, and
dirtying with mud.
299 Q Q 2
APPENDIX I.
CLASHES, talc-bcarcrs and gossips.
CLAY DAUBIN, an old custom, dying out, when the
friends of a newly-married couple met together
and built them a clay house; ending the day
with a feast or merry-making, as of course.
CLECK, or CLICK, to snatch. " He clicked it oot
o' my hand; " he snatched it out of my hand.
CLECKINGS, a shuttlecock.
CLEED, to clothe) as CLED is clad or clothed.
CLEEK, to hook.
CLEGGER, to cling; and CLEGG is a horse-fly.
CLEPS, a wooden tool for weeding corn.
CLEUGH, or GLOUGH, a ravine or ghyll 5 the stem
of a tree where it divides into branches.
CLIFTY, apt ; active; generous*
CLINK, a blow.
GLINTS, a kind of limestone or porphyritic stone.
CLIPT and HEELED, properly drest, like Busked
and Bouned.
CLIPT DIN.MENT, a newly shorn wedder sheep ;
a mean, sorry-looking fellow.
CLISH-MA-SAUNTER and CLISH-MA-CLAVER, the
one is a proser, and the other a gossip; and
CLISH-MA-CLASII is silly gossip in the concrete.
CLOD, to throw.
CLOTT, to toss about.
CLOUT, a cloth; a piece of cloth; to patch; to give
a blow. " I'll gie thee a clout on t' head on thee,
lad, if thou fashes me ony mair," I'll punch
your head, boy, if you tease me any more.
CLOWEN, to bustle about.
CLOWK, or CLOW, to scratch, but rather to claw;
as two women might " clowk at ane anither."
CLUFF, a blow, (pro cuif ) ; and CLUFFT, beaten or
cuffed.
CLUUTS, feet; and CLUVES, hoofs.
COATTS, petticoats.
COBBY, headstrong and hearty: "A cobby lad,"
an obstinate, though he may be also a fine-'
natured, lad, but one who must have his head.
COCKER, a cock-breeder or fighter; COCKIN, cock-
fighting; COCKLE, to crow like a cock. Cock-
fighting, like pancake casting, used to be the
popular amusement on Shrove Tuesday.
" \Vliaar tlier war tae be Cock feightm', for it war Pankeak
Tuesday,
We met some lads an lasses gangin' lo kest their Fan-
keaks."
COCKLER, a gatherer of cockles; COCKLIN, gather-
ing cockles.
COCKWEBS, cobwebs.
COGOERS, woollen leggings.
COLLOP MONDAY, the first Monday before Lent,
when they have collops, or rashers of bacon and
eggs for dinner, as they have pancakes for the
next day, Shrove Tuesday.
CONN, and Scuo, a squirrel.
CONNY, pretty; CONNOLY, prettily; cannily.
CONVOY, a railway break, chiefly used on the
Whitehaven coal-pit tramways.
Coo, or COE, to call.
COON, dust.
COON-THANKS, to requite a favour: "The deil
coon him thanks;" the devil reward him.
COPPY, a small wooden stool; a coppice.
CORBY, a raven.
CORNAGE, " a tenure which obliges the landholder
to give notice of an invasion by blowing a horn,"
W. and C. Dialects. Or was it not the service of
finding and rendering certain horned beasts at
certain times of need or stipulation ?
CORN LAITERS, corn seekers. Newly married people
begging for seed corn for their first crop ; a custom
yet in use about Black Combe and Broughton.
CORP, a corpse.
COTTERED, cluttered; entangled; matted.
COUPER FAIR, a market held at Kirkby Stephen the
day before the great Brough-hill fair, when
"belter for helter," means a proposal to ex-
change or barter horse for horse— halter for
halter.
COUPRAISE, to raise by leverage.
COUREN, crouching, cowering.
COW-CLAT, to spread manure on the fields.
COWEY, a hornless cow.
COWD LWORD, oatmeal pudding made with suet ;
not recommendable.
COWL, to scrape up dirt.
COWP, to exchange; and to upset. "He cowpcd
me o'er;" he upset me, or knocked me down;
and " we cowped nags," we exchanged horses.
CRACK, to boast ; to chat, as " He's a fine crack
wid him," he is a good talker, an agreeable
talker. " I'se du'it in a crack," I'll do it in a
moment.
CRACKET, a cricket; also a lower kind of coppy,
or stool.
CRASIBLE, to crawl and creep, as young children,
on hands and knees.
CRAMMKL, to do a thing clumsily.
300
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
CKANKLE, weak.
CRANKY, checked; a dress is cranky when it is
checked, and the Rob Roy tartan is cranky.
CRAP, crept; CRAPPEN, crept in.
CROFT, a small field.
CROUPE, to stoop ; to crouch.
GROUSE, or CKOWISH, spirited; pert, upstart.
CROW-COAL, an inferior kind of coal.
CROWDT, thick oatmeal porridge made with lard.
A horrible mess.
CRUIX, CROON, or CRUNE, to murmur; to hum a
tune; also to bellow. "The bull's crooning,"
the bull is bellowing. The church bells at
Brough bear upon this word. They were given
by one Brunskill, who lived on Stanemore, and
who, one day hearing his bull crune, or bellow,
from a great distance, said: — "Hear ye how loud
that bull cranes ? If all the kye could crune
together would they not be heard from Brough
to Stanemore ?" Whereupon he sold his stock,
and bought the church bells with the money,
and in this way his bulls and cows " crune "
to this very hour, and are heard from Brough
to Stanemore.
CUDDY, Cuthbert, and jackass as well.
CUMMERLAN', Cumberland ; generally " canny
Cummerlan'."
CURCIIY, to curtsey.
CURLEY-POW, a ringletted, curly head.
CURSENMAS, CURSMAS, Christmas ; CURSINIX,
• christening.
CURSTY, Christopher.
Cusn, an exclamation: " Cush, lass ! " my word !
look here ! Also the call for the cows. " Cush !
cush ! cush ! " cried at the gate will bring the
kye up like dogs.
CUSHY-COW LADY, the ladybird.
CUTTEN, cut down.
CUTTER, to whisper; speak low.
CUTTY, short; a CUTTY pipe, a short black clay
pipe at one time to be seen in every auld wife's
mouth.
CWOLLY, or CWOALEY, a collcy or sheep dog.
CWOATS, clothes.
D ADDLE, the hand; to trifle.
DADGE, to saunter about; " to loaf."
DAFT, and DAFT-LIKE, idiotic; half- wise.
DAGGY, drizzly ( W. and C. Dialects) ; also half
cooked, and therefore sodden, meat.
BAIVK, or DILL, to soothe.
DANDER, to hobble.
DAN NET, an improper woman.
DARRAK, a day's work.
DARTER, active ; energetic; bustling.
DAWKIN, a simpleton; a soft, feckless, Dolittlc.
" I'd rather have a wife a dule than a dawhin ; "
I'd rather have a wife a devil than a fool.
DAZED, confused, or dizzy, as with overmuch light.
Old people are often dazed.
DAZEG, a daisy.
DEAIL, DOLE, or DRAIL, a share or allotment in
enclosed land; an intake.
DEETIN, or DEEGIITAN, winnowing corn.
DEFTLY, cleverly. To do a thing deftly, is to do
it quickly and quietly and easily.
DEG, to sprinkle with water; to ooze slowly.
DESS, a row or heap; to dess is to sort or pile up.
DEYL'D, spiritless; careworn.
DEZZED, injured by cold. Chickens get dczzed
when they are starved with the cold.
DIBBLER, a pewter plate.
DIDDER, to tremble; to shiver; to dodder, in fact.
DIDDLE, to hum a tune.
DIGHT, or DEST, to clean; to dress; to put in order.
You diyht yourself when you dress cleanly ; and
you diyht a room when you arrange it.
DINNLE, to thrill; to tingle from cold.
DISSXINS, the eighth part of a mile in horse-racing.
DITT, to stop up.
Div, to do, and DIVVENT, do not. " Ye divvcnt
ken me." You do not know me.
DOBBY, a bogie, and a fool.
DOFF, to put off. You doff one gown, and yon
don another.
DOGGENEL, an eagle.
DON, to dress; put on.
DOXXET, the devil.
DOPE, a simpleton.
DORTED, stupefied.
DOUBLER, the general bowl in which was served
the posset ale, before the time of tea and
individual spoons.
DOUSE, or DOUCE, a fresh, canny, well-conditioned
person. " A douce woman," one who is gentle and
prudent and well-behaved; also good-looking.
Dow, good; "naught a' dow," nothing that is
good. " We maun do as we </<w," we must do
as we can ; also a dove.
DOWLY, melancholy as applied to persons; lone-
some and grewsomc as applied to places.
301
APPENDIX I.
DOWN HOUSE, the kitchen.
DOWXO-CAXXOT ; " the bird that can sing and
won't sing," is an exemplification of " downo-
cannot" (don't know, cannot.)
DOZAXD, spiritless; impotent.
DOZZEL, a hard knob or lump : " A' lumps and
dozzels like Nanny Haikiu's butter," is a pro-
verb to express anything lumpy, as lumpy
porridge, and a lumpy feather-bed.
DRAFF, brewer's grains and pig's food.
DREE, long and tedious. " A dree road," a long
and weary way.
DREEAP, to speak slowly; to drip one's words in
short.
DRIP, snow; "white as drip."
DRUIVY, overcast; muddy.
DUB, a small pool or hole of stagnant water.
DUBBLER, a large plate whether of wood or
earthenware.
DUDS, clothes, but of poor quality. " Them bits
o' duds!," those few old rags.
DULE, the devil; and DULISH, devilish.
DUJIB WIFE, a fortune teller, but only by conse-
quence of her dumbness.
DUXCH, to nudge roughly.
DUXG-OWRE, knocked down.
DURDEM, uproar; row; hubbub.
DURTMEXT, diriment; anything useless and uncon-
sidered.
DUST, money.
DWALLOWED, withered; a flower dwallows, so does
a sick and fading child.
DYKES, detached parts of the vein of a coal mine.
EA, in; and.
EARLES-PEXXY, or ARLES-PEXNY, bargain money;
money advanced to servants when they are
hired, to make sure.
EAVELOXG, oblong.
EAVER, or EEVER, a point or quarter in the
heavens; " the rainy eever," the rainy quarter.
EEM, leisure.
EITH, easy.
ELCONE, each one.
ELCY, Alice.
ELDEX, old rubbish of all kinds, specially old wood
fit only to be burned.
ELD-FATHER, a grandfather; but EL-MOTIIER, is a
stepmother; an "old" or "ill" mother.
ELSOX, a shoemaker's awl.
ESH, or Ax, to ask ; and ESHT, or AXT, asked.
ESHES, ash trees; and ESSES, like asses, nshcs.
" Skeer the esse," sift the ashes from the embers.
ETTLE, to prepare; also to earn.
FADDER-FWOK, father's family.
FADDLE, to fidget over things. "A feckless fad-
dling body," an incapable, fidgeting, messing
person.
FADGE, to loiter and lounge as if tired ; FADGY,
corpulent.
FAFFLE, to saunter and to fumble about.
FAGGED, tired.
FAIX, glad ; desirous.
FAIR-TRO-DAYS, daylight.
FAXCY, a ribbon; a prize for the best dancer at
the " Murrey Neets."
FAX, found; felt.
FAXSOME, kind ; caressing.
FARISH-ON, nearly tipsy.
FARLIES, outlandish wonders; things from afar.
FARR, to ache.
FARRAXTLY, orderly ; decently; respectable. AULD
FARRAXTLY, old-fashioned, but in a decent and
respectable sense.
FASH, to trouble; to tease. "I canna be fashed
just noo, sae hoo ways wi' ye I" "I cannot be
troubled just now, so be off with you! "
FASHEX, fashion; AULD-FASIIIXED, or AULD-FAS-
SIONED, wise beyond your natural years or
opportunities.
FASHERY, annoyances; also tediously nice ways;
and FASSIOUS is tedious and tiresome — " bother-
ing," in modern slang.
FASSEX'S-EVEX, fastings eve, or Shrovetide.
FAUL, a farmyard.
FAWD, a bundle of straw.
FEARFUL, very. " A fearful gran' seeght," a very
fine sight.
FJIATER, a good dancer, or footer.
FEATLET, four pounds of butter.
FECKLESS, feeble ; incapable ; dawdling.
FEEAG, to encumber; to load.
FEEAL, to hide. " He that fecals can find."
FELL, the lower spurs of the mountain ridges; also
the lower elevations, if rocky, all through the
country. As a verb, to knock down.
FEXD, to work hard ; " he fends hard for a
living;" also used as a form of greeting; "hoo
fend ye ? " how do you do ? how do you
thrive ?
FEXDY, thrifty, and well managing.
302
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
FEST, to let out; also to bind, as an apprentice.
FETTLE, to put in order whatever is amiss, whether
broken, or untidy, or unprepared ; also, substan-
tively, a cord to fasten a pannier. To be " out
of fettle," is to be out of condition — out of
health — but not seriously so.
FEW'T-WEEL, promised fair.
FIDGE, to fidget; to sprawl. FIRTLE and FECK
are also to fidget.
FIG-SUE, ale boiled with figs and fine " white "
(wheaten) bread, and eaten on Good Friday.
FILTH, a bad man or woman ; generally a slut.
FINE, to cease or end.
FISSEL, to rustle lightly.
FIZZLE, to nestle; to get close up to; caressingly.
FLACKER, to quiver; to flutter; as FLACKERED, it
is rejoiced.
FLAITCH, to flatter; to persuade.
FLATE, or FLAIT, frightened.
FLANN, shallow.
FLEAD, stood.
FLECK, a flitch.
FLEEBTSKT, (fly by the sky, fly by night), a flighty
inconsiderate person.
FLEEK, or FLOOR, a flounder.
FLEER, the floor; also to jeer and make game of;
as is FLYER, or FLTRE.
FLIG-SIE-GAIREY, a flaunting, "fast," untidy
girl.
FLIPE, the rim of a hat.
FLOU, or FLEW, or FLUE, bleak; windy; shallow;
also used to express a certain blue unwholesome
pallor, as from cold or weakness.
FLYRE, to jeer.
FLYTE, to scold.
FOE, fall; FOETH', fall thee ; FOIN-AWT, fallen out,
or quarrelled.
FOIN, falling.
FOOSEN, generosity; FOOSENABLE, generous.
FORCE, a waterfall.
FORRET, or FORRAT, forward; also impudent; pert.
" To be weel forrat with ane's wark," and a
" forrat lisle lass," have different moral meanings.
FORMAT, to bespeak.
FOSSPLE, the impression of a horse's hoof on soft
ground.
Fou, full; also tipsy. "We're no fou," we are
not tipsy.
FOUDERSOME, bulky; cumbersome.
FOUMART, a pole-cat; the foul marten.
FOUT, fond; foolish; substantively, a spoiled child;
a pet.
FRAHDLE, to talk foolishly.
FRASE, fray; and FRATCII, quarrel.
FREMMED, strange.
FRID or FRITH, unused pasture land.
FRIDGE or FRUIN, to brush or rub against another
in passing.
FRITTISH, cold.
FROSK, a frog.
FROW, a worthless woman.
FUDGEL, a clumsy, stupid little child.
FUE, or FEW, to attempt. " I canna fue to do it,"
I cannot make the attempt, I cannot dare to
do it.
FURED, went.
FUSOME, or FEWSOME, handsome; neat; notable;
tidy.
GAAPEN, or GOWPEX, the hands; also what can be
held by the two hands placed together.
GAILY, very well. " I'se gaily, thank ye," I'm all
right, quite well.
GAIT, goat; also a path; a way; a single sheaf of
corn ; two buckets of water. To gait corn is to
set up sheaves of corn in wet weather to dry.
GALLOWAY, a horse under fifteen hands high; a
hackney.
GALLUS or GALLOWS, much ; very; exceedingly.
GAMMASHERS, spatterdashers; gaiters.
GAMMERSTAXG, " a tall, awkward person of a bad
gait, a hoyden or awkward girl." — W. and C.
Dialects.
GANG, to go.
GANGING-A-ROCKING, going a visiting, and taking
a rock and spindle for the combination of pleasure
and business.
GANGRIL, a toad.
GANT, to yawn.
GANTREE, a barrel stand.
GAR, to make, to compel. " I'll gar thec greet,"
I'll make you cry.
GARRICK, or GARRACK, an awkward lout.
GARTH, a garden, or piece of enclosed cultivated
land.
GATE, a road, or path, or way, as is GEATT; " gang
the gate," go your way, be off.
GATTLE-HEADED, forgetful; addleheadcd.
GAVELOCK, an iron bar used as a lever.
(lAWMix, silly ; stupid ; a moral gawky.
GAYSHEX, smockfaced and silly.
303
APPENDIX I.
GEAR, money; possessions; the tackling of a cart
or plough.
GED-WAND, a goad for oxen.
GESLINGS, goslings; the yellow blossoms of the
sallow or willow, which fall into the river and
become goslings.
GIF and GIN, if.
GILL, or GIIYLL, a deep ravine with a force or
stream at the bottom.
GILLIVER, a gillyflower.
A GIRD of laughter, a fit of laughter.
GIRN, to grin.
GIRT, or GURT, great.
GLAD, smooth.
GLEAAN, squinting.
GLEAD, or GLEDE, a kite.
GLENDER, to stare; and GLINT, a glimpse, a
glance, as is also GLIFF ; but gliff means a more
transient and momentary glance than glint.
GLIME, to look askance; to squint — substantively
the glaire or slime that comes from the nostrils
of cows and horses.
GLISH, or GLISK, to shine or glitter.
GLOAR, or GLOWRE, to stare with passion or
malevolence; to leer. " E'en Satan glower'd an
fidged fu' fain."
GLOP, a fool ; and GLOPPEN, to astonish; to stare;
to frighten ; to disgust.
GLOUPING, silent or stupid.
GLUMPED, gloomed.
GLUNCII, to look cross and angry.
GLUTHEN, to gather for rain.
GOB, the mouth.
GODDARTLY, cautiously.
GODIL, God's will ; and GODLINS, God willing.
GOFFRAM, a clown; and GOBSLOTCII, a greedy
clown.
A GOOD FEW, a good many.
GOPE, to talk vulgarly and loud.
GOSH and GOMM, exclamations of the same cha-
racter as Cush.
GOVE, to gape and stare like a fool.
GOWD i' GOWPENS, gold in handfuls.
GOWK, the cuckoo; a fool; the core of an apple;
the yolk of an egg; the inner part of anything.
GOWL, to weep; to cry sulkily; as GOWLAN is cry-
ing and sobbing in a " howling " kind of way;
GRAIDELY, honestly.
GRAIPED, groped.
GRAITII, " the condition of the body, as being fat
or lean " ( W. and C. Dialects); but GRAITIIED
is dressed.
GRANK, to moan.
GRATII, to repair; assured.
GREEAV or GROVE, to cut peat; to dig.
GREET, to weep ; to cry.
GREPEN, clasped (gripen or griped?)
GREYMIN, a thin covering of snow.
GREYPE, or GRAPE, a pitchfork for manure.
GRISE, young pigs; used to be anciently wild swine.
GROUSOME, or GHEWSOME, f earful ; frightful ; grim ;
awful.
GRUMP, and GRUMPY, cross; displeased.
GRYKE, a cranny; a chink; a fissure.
GUD HAWNS, good hands — stanch drinkers.
GUDMAN, the husband, called also generally " t'
maister."
GUFF, a fool.
GULDER, to speak harsh and loud.
GULLEY, a big clasp-knife, a joctelcgs or jac/icy
legs.
GURDLE, GIRDLE, GRIDDLE, the iron laid over,
or on, the brandreth, and on which cakes are
baked.
GURSIN, grazing, pasturage.
HACKED, a term used when a player has won all
the stakes ; chopped or chapped.
HACKER, to stammer; "to hacker and stammer"
is to prevaricate.
HACKLED, cross and ill-tempered.
HACK PUDDING, a pudding made of suet and
sheep's heart, sugar and dried fruits, and eaten
on Christmas morning.
HACK-SLAVER, a nasty fellow j a sloven.
HADLEYS, hardly.
HAG, to hack or cut; to haggle; to dispute.
HAIKE, an exclamation.
HAISTERT, hoisted about.
HALLAN, the passage or space between the outer
and inner door of a cottage; also the partition
between the passage and the room. Birkett
derives the word from the German, heldcn, to
conceal; it is more likely to be the diminutive of
hall; a kalian is to a cottage what a lobby or
hall is to a large house. — W. and C. Dialects.
HALLAN-SHAKER, a beggar who stands in the
hallan to excite charity.
HALTS, " a pair of strong wicker hampers which
were joined by a pack saddle, and hung across
a horse's back; they were put to various uses in
304
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
husbandry, which offices are now performed by
carts." — W. and C. Dialects.
HAM-SAMM, anyhow; confusedly.
HAXTLE, a handful, or good quantity. " She's a
hantle o' brass," she has a good handful of
money.
HAP, to cover, and HAPPIX, a coverlid; HAP UP,
cover up.
HAPPEN, or MAPPEX, perhaps it may be; literally
the corruption of " it may happen."
HARDEN-CLOTH, sacking; HARDEN SARK, one of
the stipulated modes of paying certain small
country priests in former times; a shirt of very
coarse texture.
HARK'T, guessed.
HARNS, brains. " Ding out your harns," knock
out your brains.
HASK, rough ; parched ; stiff.
HASPIX, an idle fellow doing nothing but lounging
about.
HASTER, surfeit; something that hastes you to your
end.
HAUGH, like SOUGH, low flat marshy ground.
HAUSE, HAWSE or HOSE, the neck ; the throat ;
the lower spur or ridge of the mountain line ;
with a way leading over, as Buttermere Hawse,
Bassenthwaite Hawse, &c.
HAVER, oats; to talk nonsense.
HAVEY-SCAVEY, helter-skelter.
HAW, hungry.
HAWFLIX, a halflmg — a half witted person next
thing to a fool.
HAWKEY, a white-faced cow.
HAY-BAY, noise ; confusion ; HAY-MAIDEN, the
ground ivy (ghchoma hederacea).
HEALD^or WEALD, to lean on one side.
HEAMS, a wooden collar for horses.
HECK, " the division from the side of the fire in
the form of a passage in old houses; also an en-
closure of open work of slender bars of wood,
as a rack to hold hay for horses. A HECK-
BOARD is the board at the tail of a cart; HECK
DOOR, the inner door, not closely panelled, but
only partly so, and the rest latticed; HALF-
HECK, the half or lower part of a door." —
W. and C. Dialects.
HECKLE, to dress tow or flax ; to get impotcntly
angry.
HEEAD-WAUK, headache.
HEFFLE, to hesitate; to prevaricate.
HELLE, to pour in a rapid manner.
HELM WIND, the peculiar wind coming with the
cloud called the Helm, which rests on the top of
Crossfell.
HERD, a cattle keeper ; HERDWICK, a farm famous
for its herds or beasts and sheep. Two or three
farms in Cumberland have this name, hence the
designation of Herdwick sheep.
HERIOT, a fine paid to the lord when a landholder
dies, generally a horse or cow, but sometimes,
when the lord is " keen," the best thing the
unfortunate landholder has left behind him.
HERRY, or HARRY, to rob and distress; to rob by
violence as in the border times, when William
of Deloraine harried the lands of Richard
Musgravc.
HESP, to latch. " Hesp or hasp the door," latch the
door; only to be used for the old fashioned latches.
HETHER-FACED, rough faced.
HE UCK, a crook or sickle; and HEUCK-FINGERED
is thievish.
HEUGH, a ravine.
HIGHT, to promise; to vow.
HIND, a farm sen-ant.
HINNY, honey; one of the prettiest terms of endear-
ment of the country.
HIRPLE, to limp. " He hosts and he hirples the
weary night lang."
HITTEN, eaten.
HOAST, the curd for cheese before it is taken from
the whey.
HOB THROSS, " a bodie a' owrc rough " that lies by
the fireside at nights; the Brownie.
HOCKER, to clamber a little unsteadily.
HOGS, shtcp from six months old until they are
shorn.
HOLM, rich meadow lands, as Abbey Holm, &c.;
lake islands, as the holms on Windermere and
Ullswater, and Ramps Holm on Derwentwater.
HOLT, a peaked hill, wooded.
HOST, to cough.
HOT, a square basket, used for manure.
HOTCH, to shake. " An' botched an' blew \vi'
might an' main."
HOVE, swelled; to lift or heave.
How, empty; "the how neet," the empty lonely
night.
HOWDER, to walk heavily.
HOWDON-CAN-PAXTER, an ungraceful rider.
HOWDY-WIFE, a midwife.
305
R R
APPENDIX I.
HOWK, to dig out with a spade or pick.
•HCBBLESHOO and HUBBLE-TE-SHIVES, a mob and
confusion.
HUDDLE, to embrace; to hug; HUDDLIX, cuddling.
HUXSUP, to scold; to"fratch."
HURSLE, to shrug the shoulders.
'HWOAZIX, resin.
ILK, or ILKA, each ; the same.
IME (a contraction of rime), also IZLE, hoar-
frost.
IMP, an addition to a beehive; a length of hair in
a fishing-line.
IXGLE, fire or flame ; IXGLEWOOD, fire-wood ;
JXGLE-XUIK, the fire-corner, or seat nearest the
fire. An ingle of sticks is a common phrase.
JACKET SLOPE, a kite.
JANXAK, fit; proper; good; fair and honourable;
smart or fine. — HALLIWELL'S Archaic Dic-
tionary.
JAXXOCKS, loaves of oatmeal — oat-bread, not
cake.
JARBLE, to bemire; to daggle.
JAWS o' YELL, great quantities of ale.
JIDDY-CUM-JIDY, a see-saw.
JIMMER, a hinge.
JIMP, slender; a "jimp waist," a small round,
trim waist.
JIXKAX, and CAREERING, " junketing and keeping
it up." — W. and C. Dialects.
JOAN-XA-MA-CRAXK, a heron.
JOBBY and JWOSEP, Joseph.
JOISTED, pastured.
JOWRING, or JOWLING, pushing and shaking
against anything.
JYKE, to creak.
KAAIKIN, looking about stupidly.
KAIK, or KELK, a kick.
KALE (Kail), broth.
KEANE, to scamper away.
KEAVE, to plunge and struggle and writhe
clumsily.
KECKSY, whooping cough.
KEEK, to peep and pry.
KEEL, to cease.
KEEP and CREEK (keeper and crook), hook and
eye.
KELD, a well or spring; also those dark smooth
places which come upon the lakes, without
wind, or shadow of cloud.
KELP, a young crow; also a pot-hanger or crook.
KEMPS, coarse fibres or hairs in wool.
KEXCII, a twist; a sprain.
KEXGUID, an exemplar; also the mark distinctive
of any one.
KEXSPECKLE, noticeable for any peculiaiity of
dress or appearance.
KERLEY-MERLEY, kickshaws and follies; what we
might now perhaps call brie a Irac, if speaking
fashionably.
KESSEX, to cast on ; as to " kest a loop," to cast on
the first or additional loops in knitting.
KKTT, rubbish.
KEVVEL, to walk awkwardly.
KEX, the hemlock; the withered stalk of the
hemlock.
KEYSAXD, KYSAXT, KISTY, dainty in food;
squeamish.
KEZZLUP-SKIX, rennet; the stomach of a calf used
for curdling milk into " come milk " (curds and
whey).
KINK, a small sore — specially a small chapped sore
on the lips or hands ; KIXK-HOST, the chin-
cough.
KIRK-GARTII, the churchyard.
KIRN, churn; KIRX-SUPPER, harvest- supper, so
called because a quantity of cream, slightly
churned, was originally the only dish which
constituted it. — W. and C. Dialects,
KIROCK, a raise, a heap of stones,
IVIST, a chest.
KITE, the abdomen.
KITS, pails.
KITTLE, to tickle, also quick; KITTLY-SLIP-POUXS,
barley-meal porridge.
KIZZARD, wizzened; shrivelled; parched; dry.
KXACK, or KXAPP, to mince in speaking; to speak
affectedly.
KXAP, the top of a hill.
KXIEF, or KNEAVE, or NEAF, the fist.
KXOP, a large tub; also the top of a gooseberry.
You have to knop gooseberries, " berries," before
using them; in the south you top and tail them.
KYPE, heed; care; attention.
LAAVIX-DAYS ! an exclamation, meaning " la!"
LAIRLY, or LAIRY, idle; base.
LAIT, to seek; and LAITIT, found; LATIXG, an
invitation or a seeking out.
LAKE, or LAIK, to play; LAKER, a person play-
ing, or in high good humour; LAKEING, a
plaything.
506
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
LALL, LILE, and LISLE, little.
LALLOPS, a trollop.
LAM, to beat.
LANE, or LEAN, to hide a fault; to connive at.
LANG LENGTH, the whole length ; LANGSOME, long,
tedious.
LAST, loo; LANTER, a player at loo ; LANTED, loo'd.
LASH-COMB, the large " back hair " comb, with
wide teeth.
LAUKE, to whip; to weed corn ; LAUKIN, weeding.
LAVE, the rest; "ahint the lave," behind the
others.
LEATHER-TE.-PATCH, a certain step in a jig.
LECK, hard " blue clay," the substratum so often
found in the north.
LEDDER and LEATHER, to beat.
LEEA, LEAGH, LEIGH, a scythe; and LEEATII, or
LEATHE, a barn.
LEEFTAIL, a quick sale.
LEET, or LYTE, to meet with ; to chance ; to alight ;
to expect ; and to depend on.
LET-TO-GATE, went home.
LICK, to beat.
LIDS, manner ; fashion,
LIG, to lay; also a lie; LIGGING, lying.
LILT, to sing, or " turn a tune ; " also to walk
jauntily.
LIMBER, supple.
LINK, to take hold of arms ; to walk quickly.
LIPE, a piece cut off anything.
LIRPLE, Liverpool.
LIRT, to toss.
LISH, active; as a "lish dancer."
LITHE, to listen; to attend.
LOCK, or LOKE, a small quantity. " A lisle lock
o' brass," a small quantity of money.
LOFF, to offer. " I'd like t' loff on 't," I would
like to have the offer of it.
LONNIN, LOANING, a lane.
LOOME, lame.
Low, to blaze up; to flame. LOWES, small knolls
rising in the plains. Is this the meaning of
tame and pretty Lowes Water, where are no
mountains but only gentle, well-tempered little
hills ?
LOWN, or LOUND, a calm.
LOWP, or LOPE, leap; LOPE E' DYKE, a cow that
leaps the hedges and wanders abroad.
LOWSE, to loosen ; LOWS'D, loosened.
LUGS, the ears.
S07
LURRY, tO pull.
LUSH, the noise of anything falling into water.
LYTHEY, thick.
MAANDKR, to wander; and MAAP, to maunder;
MAAPMENT, rigmarole.
MACK, or MEK, make; sort. " Them mack," that
kind or sort of person or thing.
MADDLED and MAFFLIXG, confused like an old
person; MAFLIN, a simpleton.
MADLIN, a bad memory.
MAIDEN, a clothes-horse.
MAISLIKIN, foolish.
MAL, Mar}'.
MAN-KEEN, fierce after men, said of animals
whom the presence of a man makes mad with
rage.
MANNERLEY, in a proper manner.
MAN-SWORN, perjured.
MANT, to stutter.
MAPPEN, maybe.
MARROW and MARRAS, the match; the like to;
the equal.
MAWKIN, a bunch of rags used for cleaning out
ovens and other such places; a slattern.
MAWSI, peaceable; quiet.
MAYTHEM, a " may gosling."
MAZLE, daft; stupid; MAZELINS, silly confused
people.
MEAKIN, water milfoil (Myriophyllum),
MEAN, to bemoan.
MELL, to meddle ; also a mallet.
" I. John Bell,
Leave this melt,
For to fell
Them that gi'es a' to their bairns,
And keeps nought for theirsel'."
" Epitaph on himself by an old country mason,
who, during his life, had given away all his
property to his ungrateful children. The
jockey who is last in a race, is called the
mell»—W. and C. Dialects.
MELL-DOOR, the space between the heck and out-
ward door; the entry or passage; that is, the
middle or intermediate door. The melt-door
and heck were always at the back of the
house.
MENSE, manners; decency. TAILOR'S MENSK, the
bit of meat which a country tailor always lca\ . >
when working out at houses, lest he be charged
with eating up everything; MENSFUL, is mau-
B ft I
APPENDIX I.
nerly and decent ; and MENSELESS, is mannerless,
mean, or wanting mense.
MENT, mixed or mingled.
MERE, a lake or pool ; MEER, a mare.
MERTH, greatness; extent.
MESS, truly; indeed; an untranslateable exclama-
tion.
METHY, difficulty of breathing.
MICKLE and MUCKLE, much. " Many a little
makes a mickle."
MIDDIN, a dunghill; also MIDDIN-STEAD.
MIFF, a mow or rick; and MIFFMAFF, nonsense.
MIRK, dark.
MIRLIN, pining.
MISMANNERED, ill-mannered.
MISNARE, to inconvenience or mislay.
MISTETCH, evil teaching. " A mistetcht horse "
is a horse with one or more special vices.
MOAM, mellow.
MODYWARP, and MOULDIEWARP, a mole.
MOIDER, to distract; to bewilder; to work hard.
MOMMOCKS, little bits, fragments.
MOOD, roared; but used chiefly for a cow's " moo,"
or bellow.
MOODLE, to fold up, but not neatly.
MOORMASTER, the superintendent (not the captain)
of the mines.
MUL, the dust of peats; MUL.J,, to break into small
pieces.
MULLOCK, dirt; refuse.
MURELL, to muse or think with great attention.
MURRY, merry; and MURRY-NEET, merry night; a
dance or other entertainment held at a public-
house, where all the guests pay their share, and
where drinking — the cardinal sin of the north
— and its companion immorality are rampant.
Happily now on the decline.
NANTLE, to fondle.
NASH, brittle.
NATTLE, to rattle lightly; to nattle at a door or
window is to shake or tap it lightly.
NEB and NESS, a point; a beak; the nose; and,
allusively, the mouth.
NECKED, when the ears of corn are laid by the
wind they are necked ; and things notched are
necked too.
NIGHT-COURTSHIP, or SiTTiN' OOP, a custom some-
thing like the bundling of Wales, when two
lovers " sit up " together through the night in
the dark, generally lying in bed, both dressed;
it need scarcely be said with what fatal conse-
quences. But this, too, is a custom fast dying
out from all but very rough and remote
places.
NOBBUT, only.
NODDY, a game at cards.
NOLT, black cattle; but also horned cattle gene-
rally.
NOOLED, curbed; broken-spirited.
NOUSKAITH, a wishing or longing mixed with
envy.
NOUTEGELD, or NEATGELD, a tax paid in " beasts "
in olden times. ,
NUIKKEL, or NUIKKELT, yielding milk; TOP-
NDIKKEL, full of milk, said of a cow in the
early days after calving. " Nuikkel is probably
a conniption of new calved." — W. and C.
Dialects.
NYFLE, to pilfer.
OAST, curd for cheese.
ODDMENTS, odds and ends.
ODDWHITE, an oath. " God wite," God knows.
OFF-AT-SIDE, mad.
ONDERGANG, to undergo.
OON EGG, a soft egg without a shell.
OPEN'D-THEIR-GILLS, " said of those who gape
wide and drink much."
Oss, to offer; to attempt anything; OSSING,
offering.
OCT-ROUP, a public auction.
OWND, fated; or "overlooked."
PACE-EGGS, Easter eggs, boiled hard and dyed all
colours — red, purple, yellow, and black — much
prized by children.
PACK, a measure of coals equal to about three
Winchester bushels.
PADDOCK, frog; PADDOCK-RUD, or PADDOCK-RIDE,
frog spawn.
PAFFELDIN, baggage.
PAN, to fit; to agree.
PANG'D, quite full, as with food.
PARLISH, dangerous; a corruption of perilous.
PARRACK, a paddock near a house.
PARSEN, personal charms.
PATE, a badger; also the head, as elsewhere.
PAUT, to walk with a heavy, clumsy step.
PAWPE, to step forward in a leisurely measured
manner.
PEAN, to strike or beat.
PECII, to pant.
308
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
PEE, to squint; to peer; to look with one eye; !
PEED, blind of one eye.
PEFF, to cough.
PEG, to beat with sharp knuckles.
PELDER, to encumber; and PELTER, a large mass
or quantity.
PELL, a storm of wind or rain; a turmoil and
tumult.
PELSEY, obstinate; froward.
PEXXYSTOXES, stone discs, made like quoits; a
PEXXYSTOXE CAST, the distance they can be
thrown.
PET-LIP, a hanging, sulky-looking lip.
PETTLE, to trifle. " He pettles and fidges," he
fidgets about doing little nothings.
PEYL, to beat.
PEZ-STRAE: when a gii'l loses her lover, she is
rubbed with peastraw by the young men of the
village; and the same thing is done to a youth,
by the girls, if he is jilted by his sweet-heart.
PICK, pitch; PICK-DARK, pitch dark; PICKS, dia-
monds in cards.
PICK-THE-FWOAL, said of mares which foal pre-r
maturely.
PIGGIXS, small wooden pails, made like half barrels,
with one long stave left for a handle. They are
used for milk and potatoes, and " a' macks o'
things."
PIG-HULL, a hog sty.
PIRXED, dried up; pinned.
PLACK, a piece of money.
PLEEXIX, complaining; "badly." "I'se nobbut
pleenin'," I'm ill.
PLOAT, to pluck the feathers from a fowl or bird.
PODDISH, porridge.
POKE, a sack or bag ; and POKEY, saucy; inquisi-
tive ; pushing.
POPPLE, to bubble up.
POPS-AND-PAIRS, a game at cards.
POSSET-COP, the pewter flagon in which the old-
fashioned ale posset used to be served.
Pow, to pull; also the head; POWDER, is bustle;
haste.
PRIMELY, like brawly, very well; capitally.
PRIMP, to be a prude ; to act priggishly.
PROD, thrust.
PUBBLE, plump.
PCDDER, confusion.
PUGGY, damp or moist; as " a puggy hand," a
warm, damp, sticky hand.
PYFLE, to pick delicately.
PYOXXET, magpie.
QUALITY-MAK, quality folk, gentlefolk.
RACKEX, to think; also to reckon or count.
RACK-HURRY, the tramroad down to a hurry— that
is, a staith or coal-wharf.
RACKLE, rude, boisterous ; RACKLE-DEED, dis-
orderly conduct.
RADDLE, to weave; to banter; to riddle.
RAGABRASH, ragamuffins; low people.
RAID, an incursion over the Border, when the Scots
harried the poor Borderers and lifted their gear.
RAISE, a cairn; a tumulus; a heap of stones ; a
robbery.
RAM, having a foul strong smell; RAMMISH,
violent; also as the adjective of ram; RAM-STAM,
thoughtless.
RAXXEL-BALK, or RAXXEL-TREE, the beam across
the chimney, bearing the chain with crooks and
hangers for the pots and kettles, and specially
the RATTEX-CBOOK, or longest crook, reaching
from the rannel balk to the fire.
RAXXIGAL, a wild " outward " unmanageable per-
son ; REEUL has the same meaning.
RAXTY and RAXDY, wild to dissoluteness; also,
more innocently, only frisky.
RAPPIS, a rapscallion ; RASCOT, a rascal — both
corruptions.
RATCH, a straight lino; to pull asunder; to stretch;
as is also RAX.
RATTEXS, rats. RATTEX-ROW is the name of a
hill near Caldbeck.
RAVE, rove; tore.
REAR, to raise; to rally; REER'D, raised on end.
REDD UP, to put to rights; to tidy oneself or a
room.
REEK, smoke.
RIDE, to ride out on horseback on a raid or foray;
a border term. " Ride Rowlie, the hough's i' the
pot! " — Go out, Rowley, the last bit of beef (re-
presented by the shin, or hough, the worst part)
is in the pot, so go out and get more.
RIDIXG THE STAXG. " On New Year's Day the
populace carry stangs and baskets; whoever
will not join them is mounted on the stang, and
carried shoulder height to the next public-house
and fined sixpence." — Gentlemen's Magazine,
1791. Abo, certain classes of misdoers were
mounted on the stang, but if too reputable in
station for such a display of popular feeling, a
309
APPENDIX I.
substitute was found, who repeated, to make sure
of no mistake, —
" It isn't for my foat at I ride stanjf.
But for W. B. who his wife does bang."
The class of offenders generally made to " ride
the stang" were unfaithful husbands and such as
beat their wives, and those who worked on Sun-
days and holidays.
RIP, news.
ROCK, a distaff.
ROOF, or ROUP, hoarseness; a public sale.
ROUGHNESS, abundance.
ROUK, a great number.
ROUNDGE, a great noise; a violent push.
ROWOKGIN, an organ — one that makes a large
noise.
Row UP, to devour.
ROYSTERAN, roystering; ROYSTERING, screaming
loudly.
ROGGS, woollen counterpanes.
RUMBUR, the short run before leaping.
RUSSLIN, wrestling.
BACKLESS, weak and simple.
SAIRY, poor and innocent.
SANK, a great quantity. " A sank o' havver," a
great quantity of oats.
SARK, a shirt or chemise ; a " cutty sark," a short
shirt or shift.
SARRA, to serve. " Will that sarra your turn ? "
will that do for you ?
SATTLE, or SETTLE, the long oaken bench with a
back to it, placed along the chimney side.
SATJRIN, vinegar — the sowering.
SAWW, " a violent yet sluggish kind of ache or
pain, such as follows a blow upon the head, or is
felt in the fingers when brought to the fire in a
severe frost." — W. and C. Dialects.
SCALE, to waste ; also to spread. You scale your
property when you waste it, and you scale
manure when you spread it abroad on the
field.
SCAR, a bare, steep, jagged rock.
SCAUMY,' a thick, misty, flaky look in the sky, as if
covered with cloud scaum, or scum.
SCOMTHER, to scorch severely.
SCONCE, a screen drawn from the heck to the fire,
giving the family an inner room or place of en-
sconce; also a tin candlestick with a reflector.
SCONS, barleymeal cakes, eaten hot with butter.
SCOTTY KYE, Scotch cows— the small black High-
land breed.
SCOWDER, and a SCHOW ON, an untidy bustle;
also a row; a confusion.
SCRAFFLE, to struggle, and to quarrel. The pigs
scraffle for food, and the bairns scrctffle at
their games.
SCRAT, a scratch; said also of a busv, careful,
and economical little housewife, who scrats or
scrapes up every penny she can make. " She's
a lisle scrat," meaning nothing disrespectful, but
only expressive of her exceeding industry and
carefulness.
SCRAWLEN, sprawling.
SCREES, loose, shingly precipices — the Screes at
Wastwater the type of the rest.
SCRUDGE, scrowdge; and SKREENGED, squeezed.
SCUFTER, to bustle; to hurry; to scuffle after.
SCUGG, hid in a corner, like a squirrel.
SCDMFISHED, suffocated.
SEA-NAG, a ship.
SECK, such.
SEEK AS A PEET, sick as a magpie; extremely
sick.
SEEVY CAP, a cap made of " sieves " or rushes.
SEGGY, hard and horny skin.
SEUGH, or SOUGH, a wet ditch; also a morass.
SEYPERS, those who drink to the last drop.
SHAG, a slice of bread.
SHAKIN, the ague.
SHALLY-WALLY, and SHITTLE-CUM-SHAW, both
exclamations of contempt.
SHAWL, to walk ill, with bent and bowed legs.
SHEAR, to reap ; also to shear sheep.
SHED, to excel.
" Here lies John Richmond, honest man ;
Shed that who can."
Gravestone in Cocterham Churchyard
( W. and C. Dialects).
SHEM, shame ; a SHEM and a BIZIN, a shame and
a public scandal or byeword.
SHILLA, a stony beach ; also used for " shale."
SHIRL, and SKIRL, and SLIRD, to slide or skate;
SKIRL is also to scream.
SHIVE, to cut in slices. "Harry-lad shive," a
whole round of bread.
SH WORT-CAKES, Scotch bread; short-cakes.
Halliwell has it " clear, bright, glossy."
310
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
SIDE, to tidy ; to put things away.
SIEVEYTHWAITE, the place of rushes.
SIKE, or STKE, a small stream or rill that runs
dry in summer.
SIN, since ; SIN SYNE, since that time.
SIND, to rinse.
SINE, to strain.
SINEWAYS, many ways.
SKAIF, distant, wild, fearful, scattered abroad.
SKEER, or SCOWER, gravel, or small pebbles; also
the place where cockles are gathered.
SKELLED, " anything twisted or warped out of a
flat or straight form into that of a curve, skell,
or shell." — W. and C. Dialects.
SKELP, to " pelt along," to walk very fast, also to
yelp.
SKEEN, to squint.
SKENSMADAM, or WHO MAY SAY ; " a mock dish
set up on the table for show." — W. and C.
Dialects.
SKEWIN UP, tossing up ; SKEW'T and TEW'T,
tossed about and fagged.
SKI LYINGS, "a wooden frame to fix on the top of
a cart, in order to widen and extend its size."
— W. and C. Dialects.
SKIMMELS, forms; seats.
SLAISTER, to beat violently.
SLACK, a valley or small shallow dell. A slack
is also the depression in a mountain range.
SLAKE, to wipe gently; " the slut's slake," is
when a room is only half cleaned, merely slaked
over, not thoroughly dusted.
SLAMMAKIN, untidy; sprawling; careless. " A slam-
makin lass," a big, sprawling, untidy trollop.
SLAPE, slippery; said, too, of a man not over
honest or truthful.
SLAT, to spill; and SLATTERY, wet and dirty and
untidy, and SLATCHIN is untidy too.
SLETHERING, lounging; " loafing;" also slippery.
SLINGE, to slink away.
SLIVE, to dress carelessly and slovenly.
SLOKKEN, to quench thirst.
SLON, sly.
SLOSH, SLOSHY, (slush, slushy,) muddy; wet;
dirty.
SMIDDY, a blacksmith's smithy.
SMOOR, to smother; to suffocate.
SMULY, demure; looking graciously and smugly.
SNAAR, greedy.
SNAFFLEN, a sauntering, do-little way.
SNAG, to cut off ; to notch.
SNAPE, to gird at others; to snap at them.
SNAPS, smull round gingerbread cakes.
SNARREL, a hard knot bad to undo; and SXOCK
SNARRELS is both entangled and cross.
SNECK, the latch of a door or gate.
SNIFT'RIN; snivelling, as is SXOTTERIXO.
SXIGGS, young eels.
SNIRP, to pine; to wither.
SNIRRELS, the nostrils.
SNIZY, cold.
SNODD, smooth; demure.
SOAV and CLIP, to salve and shear sheep.
SONN, to think and ponder.
SONSY, a well-favoured, stout, good-humoured
person.
SOOND, to swoon; to faint.
SOPS, lumps of blacklead.
Soss, to fall with a thud, as would any weighty
soft body; SOSSING, drinking in a heavy, sodden
manner. " To lie sossing in bed," is to lie lazily,
stuffy and hot in bed.
SOTTER, to boil slowly.
SOUR-MILK, butter-milk.
SPAIN, to wean.
SPANG, to shoot with pain; to leap out; to jump.
" My side spangs sae," my side shoots with
pain.
SPAT, a sharp quick slap.
SPELK, a splinter or thatching pin.
SPOTTLE, schedule.
SQUOAVERAN CALLAN, a light, merry boy.
STAAT, an estate; the STATESMEN are the estate-
men, men holding a little landed property of
their own — a race unfortunately fast diminish-
ing to make room for large landed proprietors
and monopolists.
STAFFLE, STAVEL, or STOAP, to walk like a
drunken person ; to wander about as if lost.
STAG, a young horse.
STAXG, a long bar or wooden pole, very strong.
STANK, to sigh ; to moan ; to gasp for breath ; also
a dam or weir.
STARKEN, to tighten.
STAVLAN, lounging.
STEE, or STIE, a ladder or stile; a way of ascent as
STY is ascent. "Ye shall see heaven o]>cncd,
and the angels of God stiynge up and coming
down upon the Son of Man." — Wiclif't
Bible.
311
APPENDIX I.
STEEK, or STUIK, to shut; to close.
" Kittle t' coal and mak t' ingle shine ;
Sleek t' dere, and keep out t' swine."
STEG, a gander.
STEVEN, "to set the steven," to agree upon the
time and place of meeting for an appointment.
STEVVIN, to be in a fuss and flurry.
STINT, a limited allowance.
STITCHES, narrow ridges of cultivated land; the
" stitch of potato " is not the furrow.
STODGE, any thick satisfying food, as porridge,
peas-pudding, &c. ; STODGY is the adjective
of stodge, and is used also for a fat, clumsy girl.
STOMP Y, a heavy walker, one who stomps or stamps
about ; a pianoforte player with a heavy touch
stomps.
STORKEN, to cool; to stiffen like cooling tallow.
STOUN, or STOCND, a sudden transient pain, like
spang.
STOUR, dust; and, metaphorically, a dispute or
noisy meeting.
STOVE, a young shoot of wood.
STOWTER, to struggle ; to walk clumsily.
STRAMMER, large; great. " A strammer lie " is a
bouncer.
STRONES, tenants bound to assist the lord in
hunting the red deer.
STROO. " to strain a liquid through cloth, or to
press it through a narrow passage, as through
the teeth; "-also to draw anything through the
teeth, as asparagus, &c., instead of biting it.
SUKKEN, wet; literally " soaking."
SUMP, a dirty puddle or pond; but SUMPLE is a
blockhead.
SUNKETS, suppers.
SWAITH, like WRAITH, the fetch or ghost of a
dying person.
SWAYMUS, shy, bashful.
SWEELS OF LAUGHTER, bursts of laughter ; a
candle sweels when placed in a draught.
SWEET BUTTER, or RUM BUTTER, butter and sugar
mixed up with rum, and used at childbirths ;
generally a piece of this is put into the baby's
mouth as its first taste of earthly food.
SWELT, overcome; faint; to swoon; to die away;
" grass when cut in hot weather is said to swelt.
In a hot, dry season it is said that every green
thing swelts for want of rain." — W. and C.
Dialects.
SWIPE, to drink off hastily; and SYPE, to drain.
SWIRTLE, to fidget about; also to be nimble and
active.
SWORT, a syringe.
SWURLT, whirled.
SYKE, or SIKE, a ditch.
SYZLE, to saunter.
TAAKIN, in a temper. " She's in a fine taakin,"
she's very angry, very much put out.
TAAS, wood split thin to make into baskets.
TAAVE, or TEAVE, to wade through mire; but
TAAVIX is kicking.
TAGGELT, a bad character, male or female.
TAHMY, untwisted; stringy.
TAMMY, glutinous; sticky.
TANGLE, sea- weed.
TAPPY-LAPPY, in a hurry, " with the coat laps
flying behind through speed."
TARN, a small lake or lakelet on the hill tops.
TARN'D, ill-natured.
TAVE, moving the feet about quickly— fidgeting
with them; also wbrking up plaster with a
spade.
TAYSTRAGELT, i.e., tie strayed; a loose idle person,
strayed from the tie or tether like a cow or
horse.
TEA DRAA (to draw), a place of refuge; a home.
TEANALE, a basket.
TEARAN, tearing. A "tearan fellow" is a rough,
hot-headed, riotous person.
TEDDER-STYAK, the tether stake to which cattle
are tied or tethered.
TEEHT, a lock of wool, flax, &c.
TEEM, or TOOM, to pour out of one vessel into
another.
TEM, to kindle, to light.
TERRIBLE, often used as very. " 'Twas a terrible
great sheep; " " aye, 'twas a maist serious grand
sheep indeed!"
TEYLLEYER, a tailor.
TEYNEY, tiny.
TEYTE, tide, or time, used for "as soon as." " I'd as
teyte hev a glass o' rum as a pint o' yell."
THACK, thatch; THECKED, thatched; THECKER,
thatcher.
THIBEL, or THIVEL, the wooden stick with which
porridge is stirred.
THICK AS WAMPS, intimate friends.
THRANG, thronged; busy.
TIIRAW, to writhe; to twist.
312
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
THREAP, Timup, to assert, generally a lie. "She
threaped 'till my face," she said positively that j
falsehood to my face.
THRESHWOOD, threshold.
THRIMMELT, pulled out.
THROPPLE, the windpipe; and THROPPLED, throt-
tled.
THROSSEL, or THROSTLE, a thrush.
THROUGH STONE, or THURFF STONE, a flat tomb-
stone; also the large binding stones which go
through the whole thickness of the unmortared
walls.
THWAITE, a cleared piece of land.
TIFT, a small draught of liquor; a short fit of
doing anything; also condition as to health of
the body; as a verb it means fetching of the
breath quickly, as after running.
TIG, to strike gently; also to drag after another.
A child tigs at its mother, and too often tews her
in doing so; and people that bore one with their
constant company, tig efter ane.
TINKLER, a tinker.
TITTER, sooner; earlier. " The bainer the road the
titter you'll come," the nearer the way the sooner
you will come.
TITTY, sister.
TOCHER, a dowry.
TOIT, to topple over, as is also TOYTLE.
TOME, a hair line for fishing.
TOOMING, an aching and dizziness of the eyes;
also to empty out.
TOP, or TOPPER, superior; first-rate.
TRAAVE, or TREEAVE, to stride along lifting the
feet high.
TRAILY, in a slovenly, reckless manner.
TRAM, a line, or succession of things, as cattle,
carts, &c.
TRIG, tight; compact; also full with food. In this
sense trig is a stage lower than brussen; you are
first trig and then brussen.
TRIPPET, " a small piece of wood obtusely pointed,
something like a shoe, hollow at one end, and
having a tail a little elevated at the other, which
is struck with the buck>>tick in a game called
'trippet and coit,' played by the rustics." — W.
and C. Dialects.
T'ROD, the road. "Moses' trod" not far from "Aaron
End," is a steep path going up by Great Gable.
TROLLYBAGS, tripe.
TROUNCIN, a beating.
313
TUB, or TEW, to work hard; to be worn out and
fatigued " A tewing darrak " is a laborious,
fatiguing, wearying day's work.
TUITHWARK, the toothache.
TUMBLE-CAR, "a cart drawn by a single horse
probably so named from the axle being made
fast on the wheels, and turning round with
them."— W. and C. Dialects.
TWILT, a quilt.
TWISTER, a year-old sheep.
TUP, a ram.
TYER, moreover.
TYKE, a coarse, rough, ignorant fell >w; also a
rough terrier dog.
UNCO, exceeding; extremely.
UNHOMED, awkward; untidy.
UNNAME, or UNKNAAM, unknown.
UNKAT, awkward; uncouth; uncultivated; but
UNKET is strange news.
URCIION, an " urchin " — a hedgehog.
VARSAL, universal. "In t' whole varsal world," in
the whole universal world.
WAAT, or WAIT, to tinder-tand.
WABBLE, to shake, as boiling water; in fact, to
wobble.
WAD, black-lead ; plumbago.
WA, DANG IT ! why, hang it! a very frequent ex-
pression.
WAFF, a whiff; a slight blast of smell ; also a short
snappish bark.
WAFFLER, a wavering, undecided person.
WAINTLY, very well.
WAISTOMEA, woe is to me, woe's me.
WAIT, or WARED, spent on goods or wares.
WAIT, to know.
WALE, choice.
WAMP, wasp.
WANDLY, gently.
WANKLE, feeble.
WANKLY, very well.
WANTERS, the unmarried who want partners.
WAP'D, wrapt.
WAPS, or BATTEN, a large truss of straw.
WAR-DAY, the worse or workday; every day in
the week but Sunday.
WARISON, the stomach.
WARK, to ache.
WEAHZE, WEEZE, or WAZE, a plot of wool, or soft
cushion, put on the head to protect it from a
load.
6 8
APPENDIX I.
WEATHERGALL, " the lower part of the rainbow,
when the rest of the arch is not seen." — W. and
C. Dialects.
WEBSTER, or WOBSTER, a weaver.
WED, the heap of clothes placed in the middle of
the game of Scotch and English.
WEE, small. " A wee bittock," a small bit.
WEEAKY, moist; juicy.
WEGHT, or WECHT, a sheep-skin vessel, like a
sieve without holes.
WELLY, well-nigh.
WELSH, or WALLOW, "tasteless; insipid. Broth
and water and pottage without salt are wallow
or welsh. A person whose face has a raw, pale,
and unhealthy (Jlew} look, whom a keen frosty
morning pinches, and to whom it gives an
appearance of misery and poverty, has a welsh
and wallow face. A welsh da}' is the same as a
sleety day when it is neither thaw nor frost; but
a wallow day is when a cold, stormy, and hollow
wind prevails." — W. and C. Dialects.
WELT, to lean on one side; to upset.
WEY, yes ; certainly.
WEYTE, blame.
WHAKER, to quiver ; to shake ; WHAKERED,
quivered and shook.
WHAXE, to stroke down; to soothe.
WHANG, to jump clumsily; a blow or bang; also
a thick clumsy piece of anything eatable. " A
whang " of meat, and a " Harry-lad-slive " of
bread, Avould satisfy any one not a ghoul or an ogre
WHAXTER, to natter.
WHAXTLE, to fondle.
WHELKER, also YARKER, a thump or blow; and a
thumper generally.
WHEMMLE, to turn upside down.
WHEWTLE, a slight whistle.
WHEY-FACED, white faced; like whey milk.
WJIEYTE, quite.
WKEYWIG, buttermilk whey, with an infusion of
herbs — generally mint or sage.
WHICK, quick, in the old sense; alive; also the
raw or live flesh.
WHICKS, couch-grass.
WHICKFLAW, a whitlow.
WHIDDEU, to tremble.
WHIEW, to fly quickly; to use great speed.
WHIXGE, to whine; to weep; and also to shrink back.
WHIXNERTNG, neighing. C Whinnying.)
Wmxs, gorse or furze.
E-CAT, the custom of workmen going
out to get work from house to house.
WHISHT, hush.
WHISSEXDAY, Whit Sunday.
WHITE, to requite; also to cut wood with a knife.
WHITTLE-GAIT, the privilege of the small priests
of old time, when dining at the houses of their
parishioners in rotation — that is the privilege of
using their knife or " whittle," — was part of
their salary. A mode of payment adopted, too,
for the schoolmasters of the parish schools, but
abolished now everywhere excepting at Wast-
dale, where it is still in force, or was, at lea>t,
until very lately.
WHYE, a heifer; WHYE-CAULF, a cow calf.
WHYLLYMER, or ROSLEY CHESHIRE, the poor hard
skim-milk cheese of the country.
WIDDERSFUL, endeavouring.
WIG TO WA', "he's banged aboot frac wig t<>
wa'; " he is knocked about from pillar to post.
WIGGEX, the mountain ash, or rowan.
WILLY-WANDS, willow rods.
WISKET, or WHISKET, a basket.
WISSEX, to know.
Wox, to dwell; to inhabit.
WOXTED, or WEXMED, milk kept till it is sour.
WOOD, or WUD, mad.
WORCHET, an orchard.
WOT, to know.
" When Skid'law wears a c*p,
Criffel wots full well of that."
WOTS, oats.
WRAMP, a sprain.
WRAUL, to fret; to find fault; to grumble.
WREEDEX, peevish; ill-tempered.
YAMMERT, bawled.
YAXCE, once; YAXS, ones.
YAT and YETT, gate.
YAUD, or YAWD, a jade, or sorry horse. " Tli
grey yauds " are Druid stones at King Harry,
in the parish of Cumwhitton ; called grey yauds.
it is supposed, because of the colour of the
stones in such striking contrast to the black
peat soil.
YEDDER, a straight hazel stick used in binding
down or plashing fences.
YEK, an oak.
YELL, whole; also ale.
YILP, to chirp.
YOUNGERMER, younger persons.
314
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
§ 2.— GENERAL TERMS.
BAND, tlic summit of a secondary height ; as
Taylor's Ghyll Baud, and R-inderson Band,
Borrowdale.
BARROW, a hill; as Latterbarrow, Mitredale, and
Styebarrow and Gowbarrow by Ullswater.
BECK, a brook.
CAM, or COMB, the crust of a hill, the analogue of
which is the comb of a cock; as Kosthwaite
Cam and Catsty Cam.
COOM, a hollow, or valley, in the side of a hill.
COVE, a recess rather than a valley; as lied Cove
and Keppel Cove, Helvellyn; Atkinson Cove,
HartBOp.
DAL, a dale; as Lindal.
UEX, or DENE, a glen; as Mickleden, " the great
glen," Langdale.
DOD: 1. the smaller process, half detached, of a
larger hill, as Skiddaw Dod, Hartsop Dod ;
2. A hill with a blunt summit, as the Great
Dod.
DORE, an opening or fissure between rocks; as
Lodorc, Micklcdore.
DUN, a second-class hill; as Dunmallet.
KA, water; as Eamont, Easdale.
FELLS, the lower spurs of the mountains; bare,
rocky, elevated land.
FORCE, a waterfall; as Stock Ghyll Force, Scale
Force.
GATE, a way; or GAIT, goat; as Gatescarth, a
hill with a way over it ; or Gaitsearth, the
goat hill.
GARTH, an enclosure.
GHYLL, a ravine, generally with a "force;" as
Dungeon Ghyll.
GRANGE, a farmstead; as the Grange, Borrowdale.
HAG, an enclosure; as Strandshag, Keswick.
HAWSE, a narrow passage, or a narrow ridge; as
Buttermere Hawse.
HOLM, an island, or the rich low land lying near
to water; as the holms on Windermere; Abbey
Holm, and Holm Cultram.
How, a small hill; as Butterlip How.
HUL, a hill.
INOS, low meadows; as Broad Ing, Askham.
KELD, a well or spring; as Threlkeld.
KNOCK, a hill; as Knock o' Murton.
KNOT, a rugged, rocky, knotty hill; as Farl-ton
Knot, Hard Knot.
MAN, or MAEN, the pile of stones built up on the
summit of all the higher mountains.
MERE, a lake; as Grasmerc, Windermere.
NAB, the " neb," or nose, or prominent projection
of a hill ; as Nab Scar.
NESS, a promontory, also the neb, or nose; as
Bowness, Furness.
PEX, a hill; as Penrith, the Red hill.
PIKE, peak ; as Herring Pike, Scawfell Pike.
POT, circular holes, whether formed in the hills by
the action of the weather, or in the stones of a
river by that of water; as Lade Pot, and the
Pots by Birks Bridge.
RAKE, the sunken, practicable way on an otherwise
impracticable hill; as the Lady's Rake on Walla
Crag, and the Scot's Rake in Troutbcck.
RAISE, a tumulus formed of up-heaped stones; as
Dunmail Raise.
REACH, the divisions of a lake made by the for-
ward thrust of the mountains.
RIGG, a ridge ; as Loughrigg and Riggcndale.
SCAR, or SCAUR, a bare rock.
SCREES, precipices covered with loose, shivering
stones. The large stones at the base of the
screes arc all called Borrans. The Screes, Wast-
water, and Red Screes, Kirkstone.
SCROGGS, stunted trees or bushes.
SLACK, a hollow or depression in the outline of the
hills; as the Slack between Seat Sandal and
Fairfield, the Scandale Slack, and others.
SYKE, a ditch, or rivulet.
TARN, a small mountain lake.
THWAITE, cleared ground ; as Thornthwaite,
Bassenthwaite, &c., a most common postfix.
WATII, a ford.
WRAY, a landmark.
WYKE, a bay, or creek; as Peel Wykc, Winder-
mere, and Peel Wyko, Uassentliwaite.
315
389
APPENDIX 1.
§ 3.— NAMES OF PLACES.
ASCIIAM, and ASKRIOG, and ASHXESS, the village,
the ridge, and the promontory, or projection of
water.
AJIBLESIDE, or HAMELSIDE, said to be from ea,
water, and mel, brow or hill; water from the
sides of the brows or hills.
APPLETHWAITE, if not the village of apples, then
Ea pul thwaite, the village of water (redoubled).
BASSEXTHWAITE, the place of bass, bassen, or
perch.
BLEA TARX, the blue tarn.
BORROWDALE, or BOARDALE, BaiTOwdale, or wild
boar dale.
BOWFELL, the bowed or arched fell.
BOWXESS, the bowed or arched promontory, ness,
or " neb."
BRATHAY, water from the brae.
BROTHERILKELD, Broad-dur-ail-keld, abroad water
from the keld or spring.
BUTTERMERE, Bode-toi -mere ', the lake of a village
by the hill, or is it the butter lake, famous for
cows and dairy ?
CALDER, wooded water.
CARL LOFTS, the high dwelling.
THE CARRS, the Scars or Scaurs.
CARROCK FELL, the rocky fell.
CATSTYCAM, or CATCHEDECAM, the wild cat's
ladder hill.
CAUSEY PIKE, causeway Pike.
COCKLE Y BECK, a winding or rugged stream.
COXISTOX, a town at the head of the lake. Ton,
town ; con, at the head of; is, the lake.
CRIXKLE CRAGS, with a crooked or crinkled out-
line.
DERWEXT, the windy lake, Dwr-gwynt; or the
clear lake, Dtor-gwyn. Both names are cha-
racteristic.
DOXXERDALE, the Duddon dale; and DUDDOX is
the Dod-den, the lesser or lower valley.
Dow CRAGS, dove or black crags.
EASEDALE, Eos-dale, or Is-dale, the water dale.
FAIRFIELD, the sheep hill, from Faar-feld, Danish.
FLOUTERX, from the Islandic Floi, the place of a
marsh.
GATESCARTH. See ante, GATE.
GLEXCOIX the corner glen.
GLEXDERATERISA, a glen conducting water from
the hill. G!en-dwr, water; turret, the hill or
eminence.
GRASMERE, or GRASMOOR, or GERSMERE, or GRIS-
MERE, the lake of green grass, or of the wild
boar, H rise.
GRETA, the great ea, or water.
GRISEDALE, the dale of the wild swine.
HAMMER SCAR, the rocky scar.
HARRISOX STICKLE, Harrison's peak or pike.
Steel Pike was the old name of this point.
HARTSOP, the deer's hill.
HELVELLYX, the hill that walls in the lake. Hel,
hill; gwal, wall; lyn, lake.
HIXDSCARTH, the hind's or shepherd's scarth or hill.
KESKADALE. a corruption of Gatescarthdale.
KESWICK, Kesh-wick, the village of the Keshes or
water hemlock.
KIRKSTOXE, from the fashion of the stones at the
top.
LADE POT, the way (lad} over the pot or depression.
LAMPLUGH, the loam (lam) ploughel, or GLAX-
FLOUGH, dale wet.
LAXGDALE, or LAXGDEN, long valley.
LAXGSTRETH, long street or way, as it is.
LEGBERTHWAITE, an inclosed barley field; leigh,
meadow; bera, barley; thwaite, an inclosure.
LIXGMELL, the ling, or heather hill or mell.
LODORE. or LOWDORE, said by some to be the same
as LOWTHER (Lodwr), the black-water, but by
others to be the low opening or gully.
LYULPH'S TOWER, L'Ulfs, or the wolfs tower,
from Liulf, the first baron of Greystoke.
LOXG-SLEDDALE, the long smooth valley.
MATTERDALE, either Mater dale, the mother
dale, or Mathair dale, the dale of waters.
MELL FELL, the smooth conical hill (moel).
MICKLEDORE, the great rift or opening; and
MICKLEDEN, the great dale or valley.
NAXBIELD, the torrent shelter; Nant, water or
stream, or torrent; and bield, shelter.
ORMATHWAITE, the cleared place of snakes.
PATTERDALE, Patrick dale.
PEXRITH, the red hill; Pen, hill; rhydd, red.
PIKE o' STICKLE, the pike of the peak; the point
of the point.
316
PROVINCIALISMS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
' PORTINSC ALB, port, a landing-place; ing, a meadow;
scale, a basin.
' PULL WYKE, a bay in the pool or lake.
RHYDAL, either a contraction of Rothaydale, or
Rhydle, a passage place.
SALE FELL, BLACK SAIL, TOP SAIL, SAYLE BOT-
TOM, all coming from the same word, sayal or
sahl, bar.
SAXDWYKE, a sandy inlet or bay.
SATURA CRAG, SETTARAPARK, SATERRY WATER-
CROOK, SATTERTHWAITE; from saetter, the Ice-
landic summer chalets for the herdsmen.
SCANDALE, skans, a fort or rampart.
SCARF GAP, scoef, smooth, the smooth gap.
SCAWFELL, either the fissure fell, or the topmost,
the most conspicuous fell.
SEATHWAITE, seath, a well or pond, thwaite, an
inclosure.
SKELWITII, scale wath, a ford in a hollow.
SKIDDAW, the horse-shoe hill (yseyd), or the pro-
tecting hill (scoed).
STAKE PASS, stoeyer, a stair or road over a
hill.
STRIDING, or STRACHAN EDGE, the name expresses
the kind of walking needed.
STY HEAD, stie, ladder, or way.
SWIRREL, or SWIRL EDGE.
TIIRELKELD, Jlior's hill held, or the Thrall or serf's
held or spring.
TILBERTHWAITE, Till, bera (or barley), thwaite.
WALLA CRAG and WALLABARROW, gwal beorg, a
natural rampart, or smooth grassy ground.
WANSFELL, wang, afield; wangsfell, an exposed hill.
WATENDLATH, waden, ford; lethe, or lathe, a
northern " hundred."
WHIXLATTER, gwynt-hlaw-tor, windy brow hill; or
is it simply the hill of whins or gorse ?
WIXDERMERE, gwyn-dwr-mere, bright water lake ;
or the winding lake?
WRYNOSE, the nose of the rhin, hill.
YOKE, a hill in a chain of hills.
ULLSWATER, L'Ulfs water.
This list has been taken out of Black's and Wordsworth's Guides, and is given for what it is
worth; which is not much. No attempt was made in the glossary to give roots or derivations. To do
this well needs a thorough and sound philological education; and even then there are traps and pitfalls
into which the wariest fall. But I might have given a few very striking coincidences of sound, had I
not thought it better to refrain from even conjecture; else, fremmed strange, and fremd the same thing
in German; arles-penny, bargain money, and arrhes, French; gang, to go, and gangen, Dutch; gavelock,
an iron bar, and gaveloc, Saxon; house, the neck, and hals, German; helle, to pour, and hella, Icelandic;
hot, a basket, and hotte, French ; with many others, of which these are only samples, were tempting
opportunities for a little commonplace etymology; which, however, all tolerably well-educated people
can supply to themselves.
BU ITKKMKllE
APPENDIX II.
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
§ 1.— THE FLOWERS.
RAXUXCULACE^:.
THALICTRUM ALPINUM, Alpine Meadow - Rue.
Between Great End and Scawfell; Helvellyn;
Fairfield.
T. FLAVUM: Yellow Mcadow-Rue. Windermere;
margin of the Greta, Howray (Keswick).
T. Mixus: Lesser Meadow-line. Common.*
T. MA jus: Greater Meadow-Rue. Lodore; Der-
wentwater shores ; the Screes; Ullswater; Enner-
dale; Thirlmere; Pooley Bridge.
AXKMOXE NEMOROSA: Wood Anemone, or Wind-
Flower. Everywhere in woods.
RAXUXCUXUS AQUATILIS: Water Crowfoot. Com-
mon; but specially luxuriant on St. Bees
moor.
R. AURICOMUS: Wood Crowfoot, or Goldilocks.
Common.
R. FICARIA: Lesser Celandine; R. BULBOSUS,
Bulbous Buttercup ; R. REPENS: Creeping
Buttercup; R. ACRIS, Meadow Crowfoot. All
common.
R. HEDERACEUS: Ivy-leaved Crowfoot. Lamplugh
Hall; but common elsewhere.
R. LIXGUA: Greater Speavwort. Wastdale and
Ennerdale.
R. FLAMMULA, Lesser Spearwort. Common.
R. HIRSUTUS: Pale Hairy Buttercup. Drigg.
TROLLIUS EUROPE'S: Mountain G lobe-Flower, or
Lucken-gowans. The lake sides generally, but
specially fine at Windermere.
CAI.THA PALUSTRTS : Common Marsh-Marygold.
Common. This and the Globe-flower are two
of the handsomest flowers of the spring
time.
HELLEBORUS VJRIDIS: Green Hellebore. Duddon
woods; Plumbland; Braithwaite. Rare.
H. Famous : Stinking Hellebore. Between Bow-
ness and Kendal. Rare.
AQUILEGIA VULGARIS : Common Columbine.
Common.
ALBA: White Water Lily. Common .
NUPHAR LUTEA: Common Yellow Water Lily
Common.
PAPAVERACE.E.
PAPAVERRIKEAS: Common Red Poppy. Common.
MECOXOPSIS CAMBRICA: Yellow Welsh Poppy.
Very rich about Windermere and Amblcside,
where it is much cultivated; Ullock Moss (Kes-
wick); Long Sled dale; Coniston.
GLAUCIUM LUTEUM : Yellow Homed - Poppy.
Fimby; Coulderton; Bootle.
CHELIDOXIUM MAJCS: Common Celandine. Com-
mon.
FIMARIACE^E.
FUMARIA OFFICINALIS: Common Fumitory. Com-
mon.
CORYDALIS CLAVICULATA : Climbing Corydalis.
Not uncommon.
C. SOLIDA: Solid-rooted Corj-dalis. Ncwlands.
Rare.
CRUCIFER^E.
SrnuLARiA AQUATICA: Water Awlwort. Enner-
dale Lake. Rare.
THLASPI ALPESTRE: Alpine Penny-Cress. On
the road from Kendal to Ambloside. A lime-
stone variety, therefore rare in this district.
T. tUujus and T. Minus are made synonymous by Clii.ds.
318
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
TKKSDAI.IA NUDICAULIS: Naked-stalked Teesdalia.
Raven Crag (St. John's); Thief Ghyll in Dean.
C APSEU.A BURSA-PASTOUIS: Common Shcphcrd's-
Purse. Common.
LEPIIHUM SMITHII: Hairy Pepperwort. Low-
dore.
L. CAMPESTRE: Field Pepperwort. Common.
L. DHABA: Whitlow Pepperwort. Whitbarrow.
COCHLEARIA OFFICIXALIS: Common Scurvy-Grass.
Kirkstone; Helvellyn; Long Slcddale; Fleswick
Bay. Var. Alpinu of Babington is found on
Helvellyn and Place Fell. Another variety, as
yet uubaptized, is found on Sty Head, according
to Otley.
C. AXGLICA: English Scurvy-Grass. Workington
Shore.
CAKILE MARITIMA: Purple Sea-Rocket. Seaton
Shore.
CRAMHE MARITIMA: Sea-Kale. Couldcrton Shore.
SKXEBIEKA COROXOPUS, or COROXOPUS RCELLII:
(Common Wart-cress or Swine's-cress. Beast
Banks (Kendal); Seaton.
CARDAMIXE AHAKA: Large flowered Bitter-cress.
Rare.
C. HIKSUTA: Hairy Bitter-cress. Common.
C. PRATEXSIS: Cuckoo-flower. Common. Some-
times double, but rarely so.
OAMKLIXA SATIVA: Common Gold-of-Pleasure.
Workington Mill in 1848. ( Harriet Martineau.)
A i:\ms HIRSUTA: Hairy Rock-cress. Whitbarrow;
Shoulthwaite Moss.
A. PETRJEA: Alpine Rock-cress. The Screes.
Rare.
A. STRICTA: Bristol Rock-cress. Lamplugh Hall.
Hare.
CHEIRAXTHUS CHEIRI : Wallflower. Scaleby
Castle. Rare.
TURKITIS GLABRA: Long-podded Tower-Mustard.
Stainburn.
BRAPSICA MOXEXSIS : Is!c-of-Man Cabbage, or
Wallflower Cabbage. Flimby; St. Bees.
B. CAMPESTRIS: Common Wild Navew. Common.
SISYMBKIUM OFFICIXALE: Common Hedge-mus-
tard; ERYSIMCM ALLIARIA: Garlic Treacle Mus-
tard ; SIXAPIS ARVEXSSIS : Wild Mustard or
Cherlock. All common.
RESEDACE/E.
RESKDA LUTEOLA: Dyer's Rocket, Yellow Weed,
or Weld. Flimby; Eaglesh'eld; Workington.
CISTP
HELIAXTIII-MIM CAM M: Hoary Dw
Withcrslack; IIumi»hrcy Head (Cartmel) :
Scout Scar.
VlOLACE^E.
VIOLA CAXIXA: Dog Violet; V. TRICOLOR: Hearts-
ease or Pansy. Both common; the last singular! v
fine and richly coloured.
V. HIRTA: Hairy Violet. Barrowfield (Kendal).
V. PALUSTRIS: Marsh Violet. Cunswick Tarn and
Spittal (Kendal).
V. LUTEA: Yellow Mountain Violet. The Kes-
*wick hills, specially Skiddaw; Brigham.
DROSERACE.E.
DROSERA ROTCXDIFOLIA: Round-leaved Sundew.
In all bogs everywhere.
D. LONGIFOLIA : Long-leaved Sundew. Borrow-
dalc, where it is common ; Foulshaw Mn~- :
Ullock Moss; Windermerc. where it is ran-.
D. ANGLICA: Great Sundew. Foulshaw Mn»;
Helvellyn.
POLTGALA VULGARIS: Common Milkwort. Eveiy-
wherc, and in all colours, from the purest white
to the deepest blue, and from the palest pink to
the fullest rose ; a lovely growth carpeting the
moors and fells.
CARTOPHYLLE^:.
SAPOXARIAOFFICIXALIS: Common Soapwort. Not
common, but found at Keswic-k.
SILKXE ACAULIS: Moss Campion. Black Rocks
(Great End); Griscdale Tarn; Fairficld; Hel-
vellyn; Borrowdalc. Very rare.
S. IXFLATA: Bladder Campion. Common.
S. MARITIMA: Sea Campion. Between Kcswiek
and Lodore, but rare; ai:d at K.skmeals and
Brackenthwaite.
S. NL'TAXS: Nottingham Catchfly. Dean; Moor-
land Close.
LYCHNIS FLOS-CUCULI : Ragged Roln'n; and L.
DIOICA: Campion. Common, and very fine
about Amblcsidc.
L. ALPIXA: Red Alpine Campion. Brackcntlnvaitr
Fells.
SAGIXA PKOCUMBEXS : Procumbent Pearlwort.
Common; as arc also Sri .1:1:1 I.A AI:\IN-I>:
('•>rn Spiinvy; STKI.I.AKIA MKDIA: Cliiekwc ed ;
,'519
APPENDIX II.
S. HOLOSTEA : Greater Stitchwort ; and S.
GRAMINEA: Lesser Stitchwort.
SPERGULA NODOSA: Knotted Spurrey. Lilly Hall.
STELLARIA NEMORUM : Wood Stitchwort. Winder-
mere; Burdoswald; Moorside Hall; Laverock
Lane (near Kendal).
ARENARIA PEPLOIDES: Sea-side Sandwort. Sea-
ton; Flimby.
A. SERPYLLIFOLIA : Thyme-leaved Sandwort.
Pardshaw Hall.
A. VERNA: Vernal Sandwort. About the lime-
kilns, Kendal. Rare.
A.TRINERVIS: Three-nerved Sandwort. Common.
CERASTIUM VISCOSUM: Viscid Mouse-ear Chick-
weed. Common.
C. TETRANDRUM: Four-stameued Mouse-ear Chick-
weed. Cockermouth.
C. ALPIXUM: Alpine Mouse-ear Chickweed. Hel-
vellyn.
LIXE^E.
LIXUM CATHARTICUM: Cathartic Flax. Common.
RADIOLA MILLEGRAXA: Thyme-leaved Flax-seed.
Eheuside.
MALVACE^;.
MALTA SYLVESTRIS: Common Mallow. Common.
M. MOSCHATA: Musk Mallow. Common.
TILIACE.E.
TILIA EUROP^A: Common Lime. Common.
HYPERICACE^E.
HYPERICUM ANDROSOEJIUM: Common Tutsan.
Windermere; Coniston.
H. QUADRANGULUM : Square-Stalked St. John's
Wort. Clifton.
H. PERFORATUM: Perforated St. John's Wort.
Common; specially at Keswick and Ara Force.
H. DUBIUM: Imperforate St. John's Wort. Below
Kirkby Lonsdale Bridge.
H. HUMIFUSUM : Trailing St. John's Wort.
Everywhere, but specially fine about Lodore.
H. MONTANUM: Mountain St. John's Wort. Scout
Scar (Kendal).
H. HIRSCTUM: Hairy St. John's Wort. Camerton;
Clifton.
H. POLCHRUM: Small Upright St. John's Wort.
Common.
H. ELODES: Marsh St. John's Wort. On the
road from Kendal to Arnbleside; Birker Moor;
Aitcha Moss; ITllock Moss.
PARXASSIA PALCSTRIS: Common Grass of Par-
nassus. Cunswick Tarn and Coniston, specially ;
but not infrequent in boggy places generally.
ACER CAMPESTRE: Common Maple. Common.
A. PSEUDO-PLATAXUS: Sycamore. Common.
GERANIACE.B.
GERANIUM SAXGUINEUM : Bloody Crane's-bill.
Scout Scar; St. Bees; Whitbarrow.
G. ROTUNDIFOLIUM: Round-leaved Crane's-bill.
Common.
G. PH^EUM: Dusky Crane's-bill. Kirkby Lons-
dale; Borrowdale; Pepper Hag near Burnside.
G. PRATEXSE: Blue Meadow Crane's-bill. Not
uncommon, but singularly fine about the banks
of the Rothay, and at St. Bees.
G. SYLVATICUM : Wood Crane's-bill. Coniston,
Water Head; the Kendal lanes; the lane under
Swart Fell; St. John's Vale ; Windermere.
G. PYRENAICUM: Mountain Crane's-bill. Yeorton
Hall, and Keswick. Rare.
G. ROBERTIAXUM: Herb Robert. Every where;
a low-growing deep-coloured variety is on Place
Fell, and a white variety is in a field near Jenkin
Crag, Kendal, and in one locality at Coniston.
G. LUCIDUM : Shining Crane's-bill. Troutbeck;
Lowdore; Windermere; Hawkshead.
G. MOLLE: Dove's foot Crane's-bill. Common.
G. PUSILLUM : Small-flowered Crane's-bill. Etterby
Scar; Windermere.
G. COLUMBIXUM: Long-stalked Crane's-bill. Cockcr-
' mouth; Fellfoot; Newby Bridge; the canal banks
at Kendal.
ERODIUM CICDTARIUM : Hemlock Stork's-bill.
Gosforth.
E. MARITLMUM: Sea Stork's-bill. St. Bees.
BALSAMINE.S:.
IMPATIENS NOLI-ME-TANGERE : Balsam Touch-me-
not. Furness Fells; Coniston; Windermere;
Ambleside; Scale Hill.
OXAI.JDEJE.
OXALIS ACETOSELLA : Common Wood Sorrel.
Everywhere in woods and by rivulets and water-
falls.
320
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
CELASTRIXE.E.
EUOXYMUS ECIIOP^CS: Common Spindle-Tree.
Near Keudal; Lodore Woods; Coniston.
BHAXNBJB.
RHAMNUS CATIIARTICUS : Common Buckthorn.
The Windermere islands and woods; Cunswick
Wood.
R. FRAXGCLA: Alder Buckthorn. Cunswick
Wood; Windermere; Ullock Moss; Cockshot,
and the Cass (Keswick).
LEGCMIXOS.E.
ULEX EUROP^CS: Gorse or Yellow Whin. Every-
where, and one of the most beautiful character-
istics of the country.
U. NAXUS: Dwarf Furze. Gosforth; Lamplugh;
Pooley Bridge ; Buttermere ; Wastdale.
GENISTA TIXCTORIA: Dyer's Greenweed. Common.
G. ANGLICA, Needle Greenweed. Drigg; Bootle.
CYTISUS SCOPARIUS: Common Broom. Common,
but singularly beautiful about Windermere.
Oxoxis ARVEXSIS : Common Restharrow. The
seaside generally; Coniston.
TRIFOLICM ORXITHOPOUIOIDES: Bird's-foot Tre-
foil. Workington Warren.
T. ARVEXSE: Hare's-foot Trefoil. Flimby.
T. REPENS: White Clover; T. PRATENSE: Purple
Clover. Common.
T. STRICTCM : Upright Round-headed Trefoil.
St. Bees.
T. FRAGIFERUM : Strawberry-headed Trefoil.
Low Levens, Milnthorpe.
T. PROCUMBEXS: Hop Trefoil. Common; as is
also T. FILIFORME: Lesser Yellow Trefoil.
LOTUS MAJOR: Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil; and
L. CORXICULATUS: Common Bird's-foot Trefoil.
Both common.
AXTHYLLIS VULXERARIA: Lady's Fingers. Mary-
port.
VICIA SATIVA, or ANGUSTIFOLIA (Childs) :
NaiTow-leaved Vetch. Common.
V. SYLVATICA: Wood Vetch. Clifton Woods;
Laverock Bridge.
V. CRACCA: Tufted Vetch. Common, and singu-
larly lovely with its bright purple flowers
threading the green hedge-rows.
ERVUM HIRSITTUM: Hairy Tare. Lowes Water.
LATHYRUS SYLVESTRIS: Narrow-leaved Everlast-
ing Pea. Parton.
L. NISSOLIA : Crimson Vetchling. Irton. in
sand.
L. PRATENSIS: Meadow Vetchling. Common; as
is also OROBUS TUBEROSUS, Tuberous Bitter
Vetch.
ORNITIIOPUS PERPUSILLUS: Common Bird's-foot.
Irton church; St. Bees Moor; Coniston Lake
(east) side; Tenterfell (Kendal).
HIPPOCREPIS COMOSA: Tufted Horseshoe Vetch.
Scout Scar; Grange; Windermere.
ROSACES.
PRUNUS SPIXOSA: Sloe or Blackthorn. Even--
where.
P. PADUS: Bird Cherry. Windermere (specially
fine), and elsewhere.
P. AVIUM: Wild Cherry. Common.
SPIRJEA ULMARIA: Meadow-Sweet. Common;
abundant in Borrowdalc and by Derwentwater.
S. SALICIFOLIA: Willow-leaved Spiraea. Pool
Bridge near Hawkshead ; the Ferry, Windermere.
A doubtful native.
GEUM URBAXCM, Herb Bennet; and G. RIVAF.E :
Water Avens. Common.
G. IXTERMEDIUM: Intermediate Geum. Rare.
POTEXTILLAFRUTICOSA: Shrubby Cinquefoil. In
the Devil's Hedgegate ; the Screes.
P. VERXA: Spring Cinquefoil. Whitbarrow.
P. AXSERIXA: Silvcnveed. Common.
TOUMEXTILLA OFFiciXALiS: Common Tomientil.
Common and abundant,
FRAGARIA VESCA: Strawberry. Common, and
very fine.
F. ELATIOR: Hautboy. Woodhall; Keswick.
RUBUS IDOSCS: Wild Raspberry. Common; fine
in the Ashness Woods.
R. FRUTICOSCS: Blackberry. Everywhere.
R. C^SIDS: Dewberry. Tallantire and Coniston.
R. SAXATILIS: Stone-Bramble. Gilsland; Cuns-
wick Wood ; Cockshot (Keswick).
R. CHAMJEMORUS: Cloudberry. Styx Moss; High
Street; Goatscar; Long Slcddalc.
AciUiMoxiA EUPATORIA: Common Agrimony.
Common. Var. odorata, Lorton.
ALCIIEMILLA VULGARIS: Common Lady's-Mantle.
Common.
A. ALVIXA: Alpine Lady's-Mantlr. Hdvellyn
crags ; Honister crags ; the Screes -, Hla.-k
Sail; Ix>ng Sleddale; and mountain crags gene-
rally.
T T
APPENDIX II.
A. ARVEXSIS: Field Lady's-Mantle, or Parsley
Piert. Common.
POTERIUM SAXGUISORBA: Salad Burnet. Scout
Scar; Hardcndale Nab (Shap); Cartmel Fells;
Kendal Fells. Hare.
SANGUISORBA OFFicixALis:Common Burnet. Rare.
ROSA SPIXOSISSIMA: Burnct-leavcd Rose. Win-
denr.ere, rare ; Seascales, plentiful ; Kes-
wick.
R. TOMENTOSA, or VILLOSA: Downy-leaved Rose.
Lamplugh; Gilsland; Windermere. Common.
R. CAXIXA : Dog Rose. Everywhere ; but in
greatest luxuriance about Ullswater and on the
Under-Skiddaw road.
R. ARVEXSIS : Trailing, or White Dog Rose.
Whillimoor; Coniston, &c.
R. RUBELLA, or HIBERXICA: Red-fruited Dwarf
Rose. Brackenthwaite.
R. INVOLUTA, or SABIXI: Prickly TJnexpanded
Rose. Derwentwater Bay.
R. CINXAMOXIA: Cinnamon Rose. Howray (Kcs-
wick).
R. BRACTESCEXS. Ambleside. Some of the Guides*
give this as a separate species, but Childs has it
as a synonym with R. Canina.
R. GRACILIS. Whinlatter. (Black's Guide.)
PYRUS COMMUXIS: Wild Pear. Not common.
P. MALUS: Crab Apple. Common.
P. TORMIXALIS: Wild Service-Tree. Not common.
P. AUCUPARIA: Mountain Ash. Common, and
one of the most beautiful of all trees, whether
white with flower in the spring, or scarlet with
its clustered berries in the autumn.
P. ARIA: White-Beam Tree. Humphrey Head
(Cartmel).
CRAT^EGUS OXYACAXTHA: Hawthorn. Common;
but most beautiful about "Ullswater.
OXAGRARLE.
EPILOBIUM ALSIXIFOLIUM : Chickweed-leaved Wil-
low-herb. Buckbarrow-well ; Long Sleddale.
E. AXGUSTIFOLIUM: Rose -Bay Willow-herb.
High Barrow Bridge, near Shap.
E. TETRAGOXUM: Square-Stalked Willow-herb ;
and E. MOXTAXUM: Broad Smooth-leaved Wil-
low-herb. Common.
E. HIRSUTUM: Great Hairy Willow-herb. The
River Eden.
(ExoxuERA BIEXXIS. Evening Primrose. Win-
dermere.
CIRC.EA LUTETIAXA: Common Enchanter's Night-
shade. Common; but in special prof usion about
Ullswater and Keswick.
C. ALPIXA: Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade.
Barrowside and Aslincss Ghyll ; Derwentwater ;
and between Ulverston and Hawkshesd.
HALORAGACE^E.
MYRIOPHYLLUM SPICATUM, and M. VERTICIL-
LATUM: Whorled and Spiked Water-Milfoil.
Common everywhere.
HIPPURIS VULGARIS: Common Mare's-Tail. Dub
Mill. Rare.
CALLITRICHE VERXA : Vernal Water-Starwort.
Whinlatter.
C. AUTUMXALIS, or PEDUXCULATA: Autumnnl
Water-Starwort. Ennerdale.
LYTHRARI^E.
LYTHRUM SALICARIA: Spiked Purple-Loosestrife.
Common; singularly beautiful in the meadows
about Eascdale Beck.
L. HYSSOPIFOLIUM: Hyssop-leaved Purple-Loose-
strife. Said to grow near Derwentwater; but
very rare, if not altogether doubtful.
PEPLIS PORTULA: Common Water - Purslane.
Harras Moor; Kinniside Longmoor ; Caldor
Ghylls. Rare.
CUCURBITACE^E.
BRYOXIA DIOICA: White Bryony. Partial.
PAROXYCUIE^E, OR SCLERAXTHACE^:.
SCLERAXTHUS ANXUA: Annual Knawel. Der-
wentside, near Workington.
CRASSULACE^:.
RHODIOLA ROSEA: Rose-Root. Helvellyn; Fair-
field; Goatscar; Long Sleddale; the Screes.
COTYLEDOX UMBILICUS: Wall Penny wort. Win-
dermere; Ehenside; Gosforth.
SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM : Houseleck. Langdale.
SEDUM TELEPHIUM: Orpine, or Livelong; S.
AXGLICUM: English Stone-crop; and S. ACRE:
Yellow Stone-crop, or Wall Pepper. All com-
mon.
S. SEXAXGULARE: Tasteless Yellow Stone-crop.
Hunday.
S. VILLOSUM: Hairy Stonccrop. Mosedale.
322
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
GROSSULARIACE^S.
RIBES GROSSULARIA: Common Gooseberry and
R. RUBRUM: Red Currant. Common.
R. NIGRUM: Black Currant. Dcrwentwater. Rare.
R. ALPIKUK: Tasteless Mountain Currant. Conis-
ton. Rare.
SAXIFRAGES.
CHRYSOSPLEXIUM OPPOSITIFOLIUM : Common
Golden Saxifrage. Common about all the road-
side streamlets and wet places, where its close-
growing leaves and dull gold-coloured flowers
make a very lovely moss-like covering.
C. ALTERMFOLIUM : Alternate - leaved Golden
Saxifrage. Portinscale; Benson Hall, Kendal;
Windermere, but rare.
SAXIFRAGA UMBROSA: London Pride. Found
once wild in the woods behind the Ferry Inn,
Windermere, but certainly not a true native.
S. NIVALIS, Alpine Clustered Saxifrage. Helvellyn,
by Red Tarn; Legberthwaite. Rare and pre-
cious.
S. OPPOSITIFOLIA: Purple Mountain Saxifrage.
Borrowdale; Striding Edge, Helvellyn ; the
Screes; Black Rocks, Great End. Rare and
precious.
S. AIZOIDES : Yellow Mountain Saxifrage.
Common.
S. TRIDACTYLITES: Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Moota
and Whicham; old walls about Dacre; Swirrel
Edge, Helvellyn. Rare.
S. STELLARIS: fetarry Saxifrage. Mountain tops,
and sides of mountain streams.
S. HYPXOIDES ' : Mossy Saxifrage. Kirkstone;
"Windermere; Helvellyn; Fairfield.
S. GRANULATA: White Meadow Saxifrage. Har-
rington churchyard. Rare.
It is impossible to give a perfect list of
this order; I can only attempt to cata-
logue those which are special, either for
their rarity or their abundance.
ERYNGIUM MARITIMUM: Sea Holly. Common.
SAXICULA EUROPCEA: Wood-Sanicle. Common,
specially about Windermere and Elterwater, and
noticeable because of its exceeding gracefulness
and beauty.
HYDROCOTYLE VULGARIS: Common Whitcrot, or
Marsh-Pennywort. Common in bogs.
COXIUM MACULATUM: Common Hemlock. Not
common.
APIUM GRAVEOLEXS: Smallage, or Wild Celery.
Workington Marsh; Kirkbride; Brigsteer Moss,
Kendal. Rare.
BUXIUM FLEXUOSCM: Common Pig or Earth-Nut.
Everywhere.
PIMPIXELLA SAXIFRAGA: Common Burnet-Saxi-
frage. Common.
P. MAGXA: Greater Burnet-Saxifrage. Ballantirc.
Very rare.
ANGELICA SYLVESTRIS: Wild Angelica. Com-
mon.
SIUM AXGUSTIFOLIUM : Narrow-leaved Water-
Parsnip. Common.
S. LATIFOLIUM : Broad-leaved Water-Parsnip.
Stock Beck, Kendal. Rare.
HELOSCIADIUM NODIFLORUM: Procumbent Marsh-
wort. St. Bce.=. Rare.
H. REPEXS : Creeping Marshwort. Nathdale;
Brigsteer Scar, Kendal.
H. IXUNDATUM: Least Marshwort. Lowes Water;
Brigsteer Moss, and other places near Keu-
dal.
F<EXICULUM VULGARE : Common Fennel. St.
Bees.
MEUM ATHAMANTICUM: Spignel, Men, or Bald
Money. Ennerdale; Keswick; Docker Garths,
and other places near Kcudal. Rare.
CRITHMUM MARITIMUM: Sea Samphire. St. Bees-.
HERACLEUM SPOXDYLIUM: Cow Parsnip, or Hog
weed. Everywhere,
DAUCUS CAROTA : Wild Carrot. Ravenglass;
Kendal Fell, where it is abundant; but not
generally common.
TORILIS No DOS A: Knotted Hedge-Parsley. Bewal-
deth. Very rare.
TORILIS AXTHRISCUS : Upright Hedge-Parsley.
Everywhere, and abundant, as are also AXTIIRIS-
cus SYLVESTRIS: Wild Beaked-Parsley; and
A. VULGARIS: Common Beaked-Parsley.
CH^ROPHYLLUM TEMULEXTUM: Rough Chervil.
Gillfoot and Whicham. Rare.
MYRRHIS ODORATA: Sweet Cicely, or Sweet
Bracken. Banks of the Ehen and about the
Coniirton lakes and rivers. Not common.
1 Childs makes S. Pvlmata and «. Ptarypetala (both of which are given in the botanical lists of the lake dbtrfct u
distinct species; synonyms with S. ffypntidet.
323 T T 2
APPENDIX II.
PEUCEDAXUM OSTRUTHICM, or IMPEHATORIA :
Broad-leaved Hog's Fennel. Gilsland, and
by Thirhnere Lake. Very rare.
ARALIACE.S:.
ADOXA MOSCHATELLIXA: Common or Tuberous
Moschatell, and HEDERA HELIX: Common Ivy.
Everywhere. The latter specially noticeable in
that small-leaved, close-growing kind, which
botanists do not make into a variety, but which
has quite a different appearance to the looser
and fuller and larger-leaved.
CORXE^E.
CORXUS SAXGUIXEA: Wild Cornel or Dogwood.
Not common, but in great beauty about Winder-
mere, where it has probably been planted.
CAPRIFOLIACE^:.
SAMBUCUS NIGRA: Common Elder. Common.
S. EBULUS: Dwarf Elder or Danewort. Bracken-
thwaite ; Scalelands ; Brigham. Not com-
mon.
VIBURXUM OPULUS: Guelder Hose or Water Elder.
Keswick and Borrowdale.
LOXICERAPERICLYMEXU.M : Common Honeysuckle,
or Woodbine. Common; in great beauty in
GowbaiTow Park and under Skiddaw.
L. CAPRIFOLIUM: Pale Perfoliate Honeysuckle.
Has been found at Lorton Hall and
L. XTLOSTEUM : Upright Fly Honeysuckle at
Workington Park ; but they are more than
doubtful as natives.
»
RUBIACE<E.
GALIUM CRUCIATUM : Crosswort, Bedstraw, or
Mugwort; G. VERCM: Yellow Bedstraw; G.
MOLLDGO : Hedge Bedstraw. G. SAXATILE :
Heath Bedstraw, and G. APARIXE : Goose-
grass or Cleavers. All common.
G. PALUSTRE : Water Bedstraw. Brackenthwaite
and Lodore.
G. BOREALE: Cross-leaved Bedstraw. Common,
G. PUSILLUM: Least Mountain Bedstraw. Abun-
dant on Kendal Fell.
SHERARDIA ARVEXSIS : Field Madder. Fields
about Hawkshead.
ASPERULA ODORATA: Sweet Woodruff. Com-
mon.
A. CYXAXCHICA: Squinancy Wort. Whitbarrow.
VALERIAXE^E.
VALERIANA OFFICIXALIS: Great Wild Valerian.
Common, and specially fine at Langdale Head.
V. DIOICA: Small Marsh Valerian. Wansfell
and Loughrigg bogs; also in bogs at Bampton,
Kendal, Shap, and elsewhere.
FEDIA OLITORIA: Common Cora Salad or Lamb's
Lettuce. Moresby Hall.
F. DENTATA: Toothed Corn Salad. Frizington.
DIPSACE^E.
SCABIOSA SUCCISA: Devil's Bit, or Premorse
Scabious; S. COLUMBARIA: Small Scabious; and
KNAUTIA ARVEXSIS : Field Knautia or Field
Scabious, are all common.
COMPOSITE:.
TRAGOPOGOX PRATENSIS: Yellow Goafs-Beard,
John-go-to-bed-at-noon. Common at St. Bees,
but not general elsewhere.
T. PORRIFOLIUS: Salsafy. Workington.
HELMIXTHIA ECHIOIDES : Bristly Ox-Tongue.
Rare ; to be found on Oxenfell.
PICRIS HIERACIOIDES: Hawkweed Picris; APAR-
GIA AUTUMXALIS : Autumnal HaAvkbit ;THRixci A
HIRTA: Hairy Thrincia; HYPOCH^ERIS RADI-
CATA: Long-rooted Cat's-Ear; LATUCAMURALIS:
Ivy-leaved Lettuce; SOXCHUS OLERACEUS: Com-
mon Sow or Milk Thistle; S. ARVEXSIS: Corn
Sow or Milk Thistle; CREPIS VIREXS: Smooth
Hawksbeard; HIERACIUM PILOSELLA: Mouse-
Ear Hawkweed; II. SYLVATICUM: Wood Hawk-
weed. All quite common everywhere.
APARGIA HISPIDA: Rough Hawkbit. Common.
HIERACIUM SABAUDUM : Shrubby Hawkweed.
Ennerdale.
H. UMBELLATUM : Narrow -leaved Hawkweed.
Kirkland.
LEOXTODOX TARAXACUM: Common Dandelion ;
LAPSAXA COMMUXIS : Common Nipplewort ;
ARCTIUM LAPPA: Common Burdock; SEHRA-
TULA TIXCTORIA : Common Saw -Wort, arc
all common.
SAUSSUREA ALPIXA: Alpine Saussurea. Helvellyn.
Rare, and very precious.
CARDUUS NUTANS: Musk Thistle. Near the toll-
bar, Shap.
C. ACAXTHOIDES: Welted Thistle. Carlisle Castle.
Cxicus LAXCEOLATUS : Spear Plume-Thistle;
C. PALUSTRIS : Marsh Plume-Thistle, are
both common.
324
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
C. ACACLIS : Dwarf Plume-Thistle. Barrow.
II ire.
C. HETEROPHYLLUS: Melancholy Plume-Thistle.
Armboth ; Thirlmere; Shap ; Kendal; Long
Sleddale. Rare.
OXOPORDOX ACAXTHIUM: Scotch Thistle. Com-
mon.
CARLIXA VULGARIS : Common Carline Thistle.
Ennerdale. This is the Charlemagne Thistle.
CEXTAUREA NIGRA: Black Knapweed or Hard-
head. Common.
C. SCABIOSA: Greater Knapweed. Eaglesfield.
BIDEXS CORXUA: Nodding Bur-Marygold. Braith-
waite. Rare.
B. TRIPARTITA-. Trifid Bur-Marygold. Keswick;
Bootle.
EUPATORIUM CAXXABIXUM : Common Hemp
Agrimony. Common at Couiston, but not else-
where.
TANACETUM VULGARE: Common Tansy. Tal-
lantire; Ellercar.
GXAPHALIUM DIOICUM: Mountain Cudweed; and
G. ULIGIXOSUM : Marsh Cudweed, are both
common.
G. SYLVATICUM: Highland Cudweed. Common.
FILAGO GERMAXICA : Common Filago. Drigg ;
Wansfell. Rare.
F. MINIMA : Least Filago. Fieldshead in Eskdale.
PETASITES VCLGARIS: Common Butter-bur. Win-
dermere.
TUSSILAGO FARFARA : Colt's-Foot. Common.
ASTER TRIPOLI L*M: Sea Starwort. Eskholm; Hoi-
born Hill. Rare.
SOLIDAGO VIRGAUREA: Golden Rod. Common.
SEXECIO VULGARIS : Common Groundsel ; and
S. SYLVATICUS: Mountain Groundsel, are both
common; so are S. JACOBCEA: Common Ragwort;
and S. AQUATICUS: Marsh Ragwort.
S. TEXUIFOLICS: Hoary Ragwort. Little Brough-
ton, and very rare.
S. SARACEN icus: Broad-leaved Ragwort. Moresby;
Sebergham.
INI:LA HELEXICM: Elecampane. Mosser.
I. CONYZA: Ploughman's Spikenard. Whitbarrow
Fells.
: CommonFlcabane. Not
PYRETHRI-M PAUTIIKMIM: Common Feverfew.
Nether Hall (Maryport).
P. IXODORUM: Corn Feverfew; MATKK AHIA CIIA-
MOMILLA: Wild Chamomile. Common.
ANTHEMIS COTULA: Stinking Chamomile. On
the road to Seascales from Calder Bridge.
A. MAUITIMA: Sea Chamomile. Coulderton.
ACHILLEA PTARMICA : Sneezewort ; and A.
MILLEFOLICM: Milfoil, are both common.
CAMPAXfLACK.E.
CAMPAXLLA ROTUXDIFOLIA: Hairbell. Common
towards the end of summer and the beginning
of autumn; mixing in with the golden goree,
the purple heather, and the crimson leaves of
the bramble, in wonderful blending of colour.
C. TRACHELIUM : Nettle-leaved Bell-flower.
Common, and in great beauty about Watend-
lath and Applethwaite (Keswick.)
C. GLOMERATA: Clustered Bellflower. Harden-
dale, near Shap; but not uncommon elsewhere.
C. LATIFOLIA: Giant Bellflower. Isel; Lamplughj
Milnthorpe; Kendal; Coniston. Not common.
JASIOXE MOXTANA: Sheep's Scabious. Not un-
common on the heathy fells, but partial.
LOBELIACE-E.
LOBELIA DORTMANXA: Water Lobelia. On all
the lakes.
VACCIXIE.B.
VACCIXIDM MYRTILLUS: Whortleberry, Bilberry,
Whinberry. Very common in all the woods,
and on almost all the mountains.
V. ULIGINOSUM: Bog Whortleberry, or Great
Bilberry. Wardrow Moss; Moorside Parks.
V. VITIS ID<EA: Red Whortleberry, or Cowberry.
Skiddaw, Iron Crag; Swinside Fell.
V. OXYCOCCUS: Marsh Whortleberry, or Cranberry.
Partial, but abundant.
ARBUTUS UVA-URSI: Red Bear-Berry. Bootle
Fell; Brackenthwaite; Grassmoor on Crummock.
common.
BELLIS PEREXXIS: Daisy; and CHRTSAXTHEMI M
LEUCANTHEMUM: White Ox-Eye, everywhere,
like mother and daughter.
ERICA TETRALIX : Cross-leaved Heath; Eitu v
CIXEREA: Fine-leaved Heath; and CALI.I N v
VI:LGARIS: Ling, or Heather, abundant every-
where, to the rich colouring of which half the
autumnal beauty of the mountains is owing.
AXDROMEDA PoLIFOLIA : Marsh Andromeda.
Moresby; Drumburgh.
325
APPENDIX II.
MOKOTBOPKJb
PVROLA ROTUNDIFOLIA : Round-leaved Winter-
Green. Walla Crag.
P. MEDIA: Intermediate Winter-Green. Stock-
ghyll Force ; Kirklinton Moors.
P. MINOR: Lesser Winter-Green. Stockghyll; said
also to grow about Keswick.
P. SECUNDA: Serrated Winter- Green, Helvellyn.
All these growths are very rare, and some of
them a little apocryphal.
MONOTROPA HYPOPITYS: Pine Birds'-Nest or
Fir-rape. Barrowfield, near Kendal. Kare.
ILICINEJE.
ILEX AQUIFOLIUM: Holly. Common.
OLEACE^B.
LIGUSTRUM VULGARE: Privet. Not uncommon.
FRAXINUS EXCELSIOR: Ash. Common.
GENTIANEJE.
GENTIANA AMARELLA: Autumnal Gentian. Lime-
kilns, Kendal Fell; Tallantire.
G. CAMPESTRIS: Field Gentian. Common.
G. PNEUMONANTHE : Marsh Gentian. Foulshow
Moss, near Grange. Rare.
ERYTHR.EA CENTAURIUM: Common Centaury.
Common, " and a pure white variety at Lowes
Water." (H. M.)
MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA: Fringed Water-Lily,
Buckbean or Marsh Trefoil. In peaty bogs on
the fells; on Brothers-water, and AVhite-Moss
pond ; one of the loveliest flowers of the whole
collection.
POLEMONIACE^E.
POLEMONIUM C^RULEUM: Greek Valerian, or
Blue Jacob 's-Ladder. Graythwaite Woods, near
Windermere. Rare.
CoNVOLVULACE-ffi.
CONVOLVULUS ARVENSIS: Field Bindweed. Fitz-
tollbar. Rare.
C. SEPIUM: Great Bindweed. Common.
C. SOLDANELLA: Sea Bindweed. Sea-shore at
Coulderton and Harrington.
BORAGINE.E.
PULMONARIA OrFiciNALis: Common Lungwort.
Common.
SYMPHYTUM OFFICINALE: Common Comfrey. Not
uncommon.
ANCHUSA SEMPERVIRENS: Evergreen Alkanet.
Kendal; Long Sleddale; Gosforth; Sandwith.
LITHOSPKRMUM OFFiciXALE: Common Gromwcll
or Grey Millet. Mosser and Westward Parks.
(H. M.)
L. ARVENSE: Corn Gromwell. Stangcr. (H. M.)
L. MARITIMUM: Sea-side Gromwell. Bootle and
Workington. (H. M.)
MYOSOTIS PALUSTRIS: Forget-me-Not. Common.
M. ARVEXSIS: Field Scorpion- Grass, and M. Vi:itsi-
COLOR: Party -coloured Scorpion-Grass.Common.
LYCOPSIS ARVENSIS: Small Bugloss. St. Bees.
CYNOGLOSSUM OFFICINALE: Common Hound's-
Tongue. Flimby; near Levens Church. Rare.
SOLANK.K.
SOLANUM DULCAMARA: Woody Nightshade, or
Bittersweet. Common.
ATROPA BELLADONNA: Deadly Nightshade. Fur-
ness Abbey ; Flookburgh ; and once about Egre-
mont, but now only cultivated.
HYOSCYAMUS NIGER: Common Henbane. Cocker-
mouth; Flimby; Harrington; Levens Church.
Rare.
OROBAXCIIE^E.
LATHRJSASQUAMARIA: Toothwort. Wansfell; near
Kendal, in three places; Coniston lake-side.
Rare.
SCBOPHULARINE-E.
DIGITALIS PURPUREA: Purple Foxglove. Com-
mon and very fine. In certain places, as in the
Wythop Woods, Bassenthwaite, and in the Beck
Leven Woods, Coniston, attaining to quite
majestic stature, and an almost tropical luxuri-
ance of growth and colour. Sometimes found
with white flowers.
ANTIRRHINUM ORONTIUM: Lesser Snapdragon.
Common.
LINARIA VULGARIS: Yellow Toad-flax. Common.
L. CYMBALARIA: Ivy-leaved Toad -flax, Mother of
Thousands. Common on old buildings, as
Calder Abbey, Rose Castle, &c.
L. ITALICA: Italian Toad-flax. Rare, but has been
found near Coniston.
SCROPHULARIA NODOSA: Knotted Figwort; and
S. AQUATICA: Water Figwort, both common;
as is MELAMPYRUM PRATEXSE: Common Yellow
Cow-wheat; which last is specially fine in the
Linthwaite woods, Scale Hill.
PEDICULARIS PALUSTRIS : Marsh Red-Rattle
Common; very fine in the fields on the way to
Easedale Force.
326
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
P. SYLVATICA: Dwarf Red-Rattle. Everywhere.
RHIXAXTHUS CRISTA GALLI: Cockscomb, Yellow
Rattle. Common.
R. MA jus: Large Bushy Yellow Rattle. Chapel
Bank, St. Helens.
BARTSIA ODOXTITES: Red Bartsia. Common.
VERONICA SERPYLLIFOLIA: Thyme-leaved Speed-
well; V. CHAMCEDRYS: Germander Speedwell,
or Bird's Eye; V. OFFICIXALIS: Common Speed-
well; V. BECCABUXGA: Brooklime; V. AGRES-
TIS: Field Speedwell. All common.
V. AXAGALLIS. Water Speedwell. St. Bees and
the Ellen. Rare.
V. SCUTELLATA: Marsh Speedwell. Ullock Moss.
Rare.
V. MONTANA: Mountain Speedwell. Walla Crag.
Rare.
V. HEDERIFOLIA : Ivy-leaved Speedwell. Dis-
tington; Workington. Rare.
V. SPICATA: Spiked Speedwell. The rocks at
Humphrey Head, Cartmel.
VERBASCCM THAPSCS: Great Mullein. Brigsteer
Scar.
LABIATE.
LYCOPUS EuROP^us: Common Gipsy- Wort. Burn-
side Farm, Kendal; Ribton Hall; Drigg Moor.
MENTHA ROTO'DIFOLIA : Round leaved Mint.
Between Lodore and Borrowdale. Not
common.
M. HIRSUTA: Hairy Mint. Common.
M. PIPERITA: Pepper-Mint; and M. ARVENIS:
Corn-Mint. Near Sykes in Nathdale, and on
Whitbarrow.
M. SATIVA: Marsh Whorled Mint. Windermcre.
Not common.
THYMCS SERPYLLUM: Wild Thyme. Common
on all the dry uplands.
ORIGANUM VULGARE: Common Marjoram. Cuns-
wick Wood near Kendal.
CALAMINTHA OFFICINALIS: Common Calamint.
Kendal Castle and Calva Hall.
C. ACINOS: Common Basil. Low Lingbank. Rare.
C. CLINOPODIUM: Common Wild-Basil. Winder-
mere; Mockerkin; Papcastle. Rare.
AJUGA REPTAXS: Common Bugle. Common; as
is TEUCRIUM SCORODOXIA, Wood Sage, or
Wood-Germander.
BALLOTA NIGRA : Black Horehound. Work-
ington. Rare.
LEOXURUS CARDIACA : Common Motherwort.
Workington Row. Rare.
GALEOBDOLON LUTEUM: Yellow Weasel Snout,
Archangel, or Yellow Dead-Nettie. Crosedale
and Coniston. Not common.
GALEOPSIS TETRAHIT: Common Hemi)-Nettle.
Common.
G. VERSICOLOR : Large-flowered HempNettle.
Sprint Bridge and Burnside Hall, Kendal.
G. LADANUM: Red Hemp-Nettle. Hawkshead
Fields.
LAMIUM PURPUREUM : Purple Dead -Nettle.
Common.
BETONICA OFFICINALIS: Wood Betony. Common,
as is unfortunately STACHYS SYLVATICA : Hedge
Wound-Wort, or Stinking Roger, with its foul
odour so terribly suggestive of carrion ; but
S. PALUSTRIS, Marsh Wound- Wort, (common)
is innocent and inodorous.
GLECHOMA HEDERACEA : Ground Ivy, and
PRUNELLA VULGARIS: Self-Heal. Common.
SCUTELLARIA GALERicuLATA: Greater Skull-cap.
Not common.
S. MIXOR: Lesser Skull-cap. Thornthwaite and
Windermere. Rare.
VERBEXACE.S.
VERBENA OFFICINALIS: Common Vervain. Whit-
barrow; Lindale, near Cartmel.
LENTIBULARI.E.
PINGUICCLA VCLGARIS : Common Butterwort.
Common in all the bogs.
UTRICULARIA VULGARIS: Common Bladderwort;
and U. MINOR, Lesser Bladderwort, on Fouls-
haw Moss, Shoulthwaite Moss, and Eskmeals.
Rare.
U. INTERMEDIA: Intermediate Bladderwort. Kes-
wick. Rare.
PRIMULACE.E.
PRIMULA VULGARIS: Primrose. Common; in the
spring-time colouring every bank and hedge
with its pale sunshine, and to be found in shady
and elevated places until quite late into the
summer.
P. ELATIOR: Ox-lip. Kendal and Caldbcok for
greatest beauty; as also P. VERIS: Cowslip. A
red variety of this last is found at Egremont
Castle.
327
APPENDIX II.
P. FARIXOSA : Bird's Eye Primrose. In bogs
everywhere about Windermere and Troutbeck,
but not generally common. A dark red variety
is found near Ireby Low. (H. M.)
ANAGALLIS ARVEXSIS: Scarlet Pimpernel; Poor
Man's Weather-glass. Common ; starring
every field with its " prescient " bright scarlet
spots.
A. CERCLEA: Blue Pimpernel. Hensingham Toll-
bar. Rare.
A. TEXELLA: Bog Pimpernel. Common.
LTSIMACHIA NEMORUM : Wood Loosestrife, Yellow
Pimpernel. Common; perhaps in richest pro-
fusion about Elterwater.
L. VULGARIS: Great Yellow Loosestrife. Keswick;
Ennerdale; Lorton.
L. NUMMULARIA: Moneywort, Herb Twopence.
Windermere. (H. M.)
GLAUX MARITIMA : Sea Milk wort. Ravenglass ;
St. Bees. Rare.
SAMOLUS VALERANDI : Brookweed. Coulderton
shore.
PLUMBAGINE^;.
STATICE ARMERIA: Thrift. Scawfell and sea-
shores.
S. LIMOXIUM: Sea-Lavender. Common at St.
Bees, and other sea-coasts.
S. SPATHULATA: Spathulate Sea-Lavender. St.
Bees Head. Rare.
PLANTAGINE^E.
PLAXTAGO MAJOR: Greater Plaintain; and P.
LAXCEOLATA: Ribwort Plaintain. Common.
P. MEDIA: Hoary Plaintain. Arcledon; Egre-
mont; Kendal; Whitbarrow.
P. MARITIMA: Sea- side Plaintain. Flimby and
Gillerthwaite.
P. COROXOPUS: Buck's-Hom Plaintain. Flimby;
Ravenglass, &c.
LITORELLA LACUSTRIS: Shore- Weed. Common.
CIIEXOPODE^E.
CHEXOPODIUM BOXUS-HEXRICUS: Good King
Hemy; C. ALBUM: White Goosefoot. Common.
ATRIPLEX PATULA: Spreading-fmited Orache.
Workington, north shore.
A. LACIXIATA: Frosted Sea Orache. St. Bees and
Harrington.
SALSOLA KALI: Prickly Saltwort. Coulderton.
Rare.
SALICORXIA HERBACEA: Jointed Glasswort.
Ravenglass; Workington. Rare.
S. RADICAXS: Rooting Glasswort. Workington,
north shore.
POLYGOXEJE.
OXYRIA REXIFORMIS: Kidney-shaped Mountain
Sorrel. Ashncss Ghyll; Honister; Wastdale;
Helvellyn; Great End Crag; Long Sleddalc, near
Buckbarrow well. Rare and highly-prized.
POLTGOXUM BISTORTA: Common Bistort or
Snake-weed — " Eastern giants," as the children
call them. In special beauty about the Rothay
meadows, but not uncommon everywhere, and
cultivated as a pot-herb in the cottages.
P. VIVIPARUM: Viviparous Alpine Bistort. Hel-
vellyn ; Hardendale, near Shap. Rare.
P. AVICULARE: Common Knot-Grass ; P. COX-
VOLVULUS : Climbing Persicaria ; P. PERSI-
CARIA: Spotted Persicaria ; and P. HYDROPIPER:
Water Pepper. Common everywhere.
P. AMPHIBIUM: Amphibious Persicaria. Dearham.
RUMEX OBTUSIFOLIUS: Broad-leaved Dock; R.
ACETOSA: Common Sorrel; R. ACETOSKLI.A:
Sheep's Sorrel. Everywhere.
TlIYMELE^E.
DAPHXE LAUREOLA: Spurge Laurel ; andDAPHXK
MEZEREUM; are given in Martineau's Guide as
having been found in the Rayrigg, and Gray-
thwaitc woods.
ARISTOLOCHIE^;.
ASARUM EUROPIUM: Asarabacca. About Kes-
wick. Very rare.
EMPETRE.S.
EMPETRUM NIGRUM : Black Crowbeny, Crakebcrry.
Not uncommon on the higher fells.
EUPHORBIACE.*;.
EUPHORBIA PEPLUS: Petty Spurge ; E. HKLIOS-
COPIA: Sun-Spurge. Common.
E. EXIGUA: Dwarf Spurge. Bridgefoot.
E. PORTLAXDICA: Portland Spurge. Braystones
and Drigg shores.
E. PARALIAS: Sea Spurge. Haverriggand Harring-
ton shores.
MERCURIALIS PEREXXIS: Dog's Mercury. Com-
328
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
URTICE.E.
FKTICA DIOICA: Great Nettle. Common.
U. URENS: Small Nettle. Distington; Ullock.
I'UMKTARIA OFFICIXALIS: Common Pcllitory-of-
the-wall. Torpenhow Church; Crookdale Hall.
(H.M.)
HUMCLUS LUPULUS: Common Hop. Keswick;
Egremont ; and elsewhere.
ULMACE^E.
ULMFS CAMPESTRIS: Common Small-leaved Elm.
One of our most beautiful trees.
AMEXTACE^E.
SALIX ALBA: White Willow; S. CAPREA: Goat's
Willow, or Sallow. Common.
S. HERBAGE A: Crack Willow. Sea wf ell Pikes;
summit of Skiddaw and top of Helvellyn.1
POPULUS NIGRA. Black Poplar. Everywhere.
MYRICA GALE: Sweet Gale, or Dutch Myrtle.
Common ; specially plentiful at Coniston,
by Birks Bridge, Duddon, and Wastwater
Foot.
BETUTA ALBA: White Birch — the lady of the
woods. Common. Var. Pendulosa about Der-
wentwater. (H.M.)
ALXUS GLUTIXOSA: Common Alder; FAGUS
SYLVATICA : Common Beech. Everywhere ;
as are also CASTAXEA VESCA: Sweet Chestnut;
QTERCUS ROBUR, or PEDUXCULATA: Common
British Oak ; and Q. SESSILIFOLIA: the Sessile
Oak; CORYLUS AVELLAXA: Common Hazel
Nut; and CARPIXUS BETULUS: Common Horn-
beam.
COXIFERJE.
Pixus SYLVESTRIS : Scotch Fir ; JUXIPERUS
COMMUNIS : Common Juniper ; ABI ES EXCELSA :
Spruce Fir; and ABIES LARIX: Larch. All
common.
TAXUS BACCATA: Common Yew. Not large
growing trees in general, save in the well-knowti
" Fraternal Four " of Borrowdalc, " the Pride
of Lorton Vale," the Patterdale Church Yew,
and others ; but in general they are stunted.
HYDROCHARIDACE^;.
STRATIOTES ALOIDES: Water Soldier. Ennerdale
Lake. Very rare.
ORCHIDK.K.
ORCHIS MASOTI.A: Early Purple Orchis, or Doa.l
Men's Fingers. Common; as is also OKCIIII
MACULATA: Spotted Orchis, with its Mran_.-
variety of growth and colour.
O. USTULATA: Dwarf Dark- winged Ordii*.
Wood Hall; Keswick. Rare.
HABEXARIA VIRIDIS: Green Butterfly Orchis.
Murton Moss and Tenter Fell; Kendal.
H. CHLORAXTHA, or H. BIFOLIA: Great Butterfly
Orchis. Not uncommon, and in special beauty
about the Ara river.
GYMXADEXIA COXOPSEA: Fragrant Gymnadenin,
or Sweet-Scented Orchis. Common, specially
about Borrowdale.
LISTER A OVATA: Common T way-blade. Common.
L. CORDATA: Heart-leaved T way-blade. Castle-
rigg Fell; Mellbreak; Helvellyn; and one place
only on Coniston Fell.
L. NIDUS- A vis: Common Bird's-nest. Flimby
Wood; Wood Hall; and, rarely, near Winder-
mere; Coniston; Cunswick Wood, Kendal.
OPHRYS MUSCIFERA : Fly Orchis. Near Newby
Bridge and Kendal. Rare.
O. APIFERA: Bee Orchis. Meadows round Cald-
beck. Rare.
EPIPACTIS PALCSTRIS: Marsh Helleborine. Isel;
Whitbarrow.
E. LATIFOLIA: Broad-leaved Helleborine. Dean
Scales; Bridgcfoot; and Whitbarrow.
E. EXSIFOLIA: Narrow-leaved White Helleborine.
Whitbarrow. Rare.
CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS: Common Lady's-S.ip-
per. Whitbarrow. Rare.
IKIDACE.E.
IRIS PSEUD-ACORUS : Yellow Iris, Coni-flai:.
Common; in great beauty in the Wythop Woods,
and by Bassenthwaite Lake.
AMARYLLIDACE-E.
NARCISSUS PSEUDO-NARCISSUS: Common Daffo-
dil, Lent Lily, Flocks. Common.
DlOSCOREACEJE.
TAMUS COMMUNIS: Black Bryony. Common ; an.l
beautiful in all stages, whether in its spring
dress of shining leaves, heart shaped and deq.lv
i Wonlsworiir.s Guidfc.
U U
APPENDIX II.
green, or lightened by its waxen pale-green
flowers, or gorgeous with its scarlet berries,
starring the spaces between the dark purple and
bright yellow of its autumnal leaves.
TRILLIACE^E.
PARIS QUADRIFOLIA : Four-leaved Herb Paris,
or True-Lovc-Knot. In shady woods ; but not
common.
CONVALLARIA MAJALis: Lily of the Valley. In
the two islands of that name on Windermere,
but perhaps it is better to say were, for frequent
thefts have extirpated them almost entirely.
Pullwyke Bay ; Rauncey Woods near Newby
Bridge ; and Cunswick Wood, Kendal.
C. MULTIFLORA: Solomon's Seal. Holker, near
Cartmel; Castlehead Wood, Keswick; and
Grange, near Borrowdale ; Graythwaite Wood.
C. POLYGONATUM: Angular Solomon's Seal.
Barrowfield Wood, near Kendal. Veiy rare.
HYACINTHUS NON-SCRIPTTJS: Wild Hyacinth, Blue-
bell. Common and everywhere.
ALLICM URSINUM : Broad-leaved Garlic, Ramps
or Ransoms. Common.
A. SCH03ENOPRASUM: Chives. Cartmel Fell. Rare.
A. OLERACEUM: Streaked Field Garlic. In one
locality only near Windermere (Martineau, who
gives it as Allium Carinatum).
A. VINEALE: Crow Garlic. Bearpot, near Wor-
kington.
JUNCACE^E.
JuNCtrs EFFUSCS: Soft Rush. J. CONGLOMERA-
TUS : Common Rush. J. GLAUCUS : Hard
Rush. J. ACDTIFLORUS: Sharp-flowered Jointed
Rush. All common.
JUNCUS FILIFORMIS : Thread Rush. Crummock
and Derwentwater lakes.
J. ULIGINOSUS: Lesser Bog Jointed Rush. Wor-
kington. Rare.
J. TRIFLORIS: Three-flowered Rush. Helvellyn.
Rare.
LUZULA SYLVATICA : Great Wood-Rush, and
L. CAMPESTRIS: Field Wood-Rush. Common
as is L. PILOSA: Hairy Wood-Rush. In woods
between the mountains and the sea. (H. M.)
NARTHECIUM OSSIFRAGCM: Lancashire Bag As-
phodel. Common. A very beautiful little plant,
sending up bronze-tipped golden spikes among
the pale pink pimpernels and beaded sundews of
the bogs.
ALISMACE^;.
ALISMA PLANTAGO : Great Water-Plaintain.
Keswick Cass.
A. RANUNCULOIDES : Lesser Water-Plaintain.
Eskmeals.
SAGITTARIA SAGITTIFOLIA : Common Arrow-Head.
Braystones Tarn. Rare.
JUNCAGINACE^E.
TRIGLOCHIN PALUSTRE : Marsh Arrow-Grass.
Common.
T. MARITIMUM: Sea Arrow-Grass. Cloffocks.
TYPHACE^E.
TYPIIA LATIFOLIA: Great Reed Mace, or Cat's
Tail. Common.
SPARGANIUM RAMOSUM : Branched Bur-reed. Por-
tinscale; Nathdale. Rare.
S. SIMPLEX : Unbranched Upright Bur-reed .
Harras Moor. Rare.
S. NATANS: Floating Bur-reed. Shoulthwnitc
Moss. Rare.
ARACE^E.
ARUM MACULATUM: Cuckoo-pint, Wake-Robin,
Lords-and-Ladies. Common.
PISTIACE.E.
LEMNA MINOR: Lesser Duckweed. Even-where.
NAIADACE^E.
POTAMOGETON NATANS: FloatingPondweed. Com-
mon.
P. PERFOLIATUS: Perfoliate Pond weed. Bassen-
thwaite Lake.
P. DENSUS: Opposite-leaved Pondweed. River
Ellen.
P. HETEROPHYLLUS: Various-leaved Pondweed.
Common.
P. CRISPUS: Curly Pondweed. River Derwent.
P. GRAMINEAS: Grassy Pondweed. Harras Moor.
RUPPIA MARITIMA : Sea Ruppia. Cloffocks.
ZOSTERA MARINA: Broad-leaved Grass Wrack.
Bootle Shore. "Brought up by the tide."
(H. M.)
330
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
CYPERACE^E.'
CAREX DIOICA: Creeping Diaecious Carex. Orgill.
C. PDLICARIS: Flea Carex. Hunday.
C. ARENARIA: Sea Carex. Harrington Shore.
C. VULPINA: Great Carex. Yeorton Hall.
C. LIMOSA: . Var. Irriyua;* Mud Carex. Gilsland.
Rare.
C. PALLESCENS: Pale Carex. Sellafield.
C. FLAVA: Yellow Carex. Hard Knot.
C. EXTENSA: Long-bracted Carex. Marron Side.
C. STRICTA or VULGARIS: Common Carex. Bull-
gill Bridge.
C. RIPARIA: Great Common Carex. Stubbin Mire.
C. VESICARIA : Short -beaked Bladder Carex.
Braithwaite.
C. AMPULLACEA: Slender-beaked Bladder Carex.
Cockerside.
C. FILIFORMIS: Slender-leaved Carex. Work-
ington.
ERIOPIIORUM VAOINATCM: Haretail Cotton Grass.
Common.
E. ANGUSTIFOLIUM: Narrow-leaved Cotton Grass.
Calder Ghylls and Edge Tarn ; Briglmm
Moss.
SCIRPUS LACUSTRIS: Lake Club-rush, or Bull-rush.
Lowes water.
S. MAKITIMUS: Salt Marsh Club-rush. Work-
ington.
S. SYLVATICUS: Wood Club-rush. Banks of the
Marron.
S. C^SPITOSUS: Scaly-stalked Club-rush. Murtou
Moss.
S. PAUCIFLORUS: Chocolate-Headed Club-rush.
Murton Moss.
ELEOCHARIS PALUSTRIS: Creeping Spike Ru>h.
Lowes Water.
E. MULTICAULIS : Many-salked Spike Rush.
Ennerdale.
E. ACICULARIS: Least Spike Rush. Egrcmont.
§2— THE FERNS
POLYPODIES.
POLYPODIUM VDLGARE : Common Polypody.
Everywhere. Vars. semilacerum and serratum
have been found near Windermere.
I*. DRYOPTERIS: The Oak Fern. Lodore; Bor-
rowdale; Calder Bridge; Fumess Fells; Wast-
dale; Scale Force; Dalegarth; Stock Ghyll;
Glenridding; Coniston. A slate f em ; not rare.
P. PHEGOPTERIS: The Beech Fern. Borrowdale;
Ennerdale; Scawfell; Stock Ghyll; Grasmere;
Coniston. Also a slate fern, and not rare.
I*. ROBERTIANUM : The Limestone Polypody.
Scale Force ; Whitbarrow ; perhaps also by
Lancey Falls (Thirlmere.) Rare, because of its
following the limestone only, and that not freely.
ALLOSORUS CRISPCS: Mountain Parsley, or Parsley
Fern. On all the higher elevations; growing in
great abundance round the slate rocks, and at
the foot of the unmortared slate walls about the
fells and mountains.
A8PIDIE.E.
POLYSTICHUM LoNCHiTis: The Alpine Shield or
Holly Fern. Fairficld; Helvcllyn; and ivportol
to be found in Deepdale. Very rare.
P. ACULEATUM : the Common Prickly Shit- Id
Fern. Common by rivulets and in woods,
as are also the varieties lubatum and lon-
chitidioidis.
P. ANGULARE: the Angular or Soft Prickly Shield
Fern. Less common as a universal growth, but
luxuriant about Ambleside.
LASTREA TIIELYPTKRIS: the Marsh Buckler Fern.
Keswick; Glcncoin; Blowyke; Irton woods. (A
peat bog fern.)
L. MONTANA: the Mountain Buckler, or Heat 1 1
Fern. Common.
L. FILIX-MAS: the Male Fern. Common. V<»*.
deorso-lobata, and paleacca, Amblcsidc ; > ,n
incisa, Cockcrmouth; var. Pimliri, Kltenvatei ;
var. abbreviata, including pumila, Coniston.
1 This list is ent rely taken from Martineaua Guide, corrected by Chllds.
2 Made a synonym by Cliilds.
331
U C
APPENDIX II.
L. DILATATA: Broad Prickly-toothed Buckler
Fern. Eltervvater; Langdale; Silverthwaitc ; Old
Man; and the fells generally. Var. collina,
Elterwater; Langdale; Red House; Torver; var.
dumetorum, throughout the rocky fells.
L. SPINULOSA : the Narrow Prickly-toothed
Buckler Fern. Coniston ; Keswick ; Winder-
mere ; and Ambleside. (A bog fern.)
L. RIGIDA: the Eigid Buckler Fern. Arnside
Knot; HuttonRoof Crags; Farlton Knot; Silver-
dale. Rare.
L. ^EMULA: the Hay-scented, or Triangular Prickly-
toothed Buckler Fern. St. Bees Head ; Coniston ;
Windermere. Rare.
ASPLENIE.E.
ATIIYRIUM FILIX-FOSMINA: the Lady Fern. Not
uncommon. Vars. trifidum and latifolium.
Keswick, rare ; growing there in only one
locality ; various other forms abundant, specially
about Coniston. Vo.r. rhceticum the most common.
ASPLENIUM SEPTEXTRIONALE: the Forked Spleen-
wort. Honister Crag; Scawfell; Patterdale;
Borrowdale; Newlands; a ravine near Wast-
water; Ambleside. (A slate fern. Rare.)
A. VIRIDE: the Green Spleenwort. Patterdale;
Kendal Fells; Hutton Roof; Farlton; Arnside;
Casterton Fell; Mazebeck Scar; Ambleside:
Ashness Ghyll; Ban-ow Falls; Brandy Ghyll on
Carrock; Borrowdale; Whitbarrow. (A lime-
stone fern.)
A. GERMANICTJM : the Alternate-leaved Spleen-
wort. Helvellyn ; Borrowdale.
A. RUTA-MCRARIA: the Rue-leaved Spleenwort, or
Wall Rue. Common on old walls.
A. TRICHOMANES : the Common Maidenhair
Spleenwort. Common, specially about Amble-
side and Calder Bridge. Vars. ramosum and
incisum, Keswick and Borrowdale. Very
rare.
A. MARINOM: the Sea Spleenwort. Sea cave near
Silverdale; St. Bees Head; Head of Morecambe
Bay ; Meathop, near Witherslack. (A sand
fern, and very rare.)
A. FONTANUM: The Smooth Rock Spleenwort.
Formerly at Wythburn, but now by the greed
of collectors extinct.
A. ADIANTCM-NIGRCM: The Black Maidenhair
Spleenwort. Very coinmoii on old walls. (A
limestone fern.)
CETERACII OrriciNARrM: The Scale Fern. Not
common, but in great luxuriance on Whit-
barrow. A crenated variety found at Arnside
Knot; Milnethorpe; Kendal; Ambleside; Gos-
forth ; Keswick; Sandwith; St. Bees; Gow-
barrow Park; Silverside. (A limestone fern,
chiefly on old walls).
SCOLOPENDRICM VULGARE: The Common Hart's
Tongue. Only in the limestone districts, and
there abundant.
LOMARIE^E.
BLECHNUM SPICANT: The Common Hard Fern.
Common.
PTERIDE^E.
PTERIS AQUILINA : The Common Bracken. Every-
where.
CYSTOPTERIDE^E.
CYSTOPTERIS FRAGILIS: The Brittle Bladder Fern.
Lamplugh; Holm Rock; Mickledorc; Braith-
waite Brows; Kendal. Var. dentata, Borrow-
dale ; Egremont ; Kendal ; Silverdale. Var.
interrvpta, Windermere, and elsewhere. (A
limestone fern).
C. REGIA: The Alpine Bladder Fern. Blencathra,
in 1820. Back of Old Man, Coniston (?).
PERAXEME^E.
WOODSIA ILVENSIS: The Blunt-leaved, or Oblong
Woodsia. Westmoreland, " in three distant
stations," F. Clowes. Cumberland, F. Clowes;
but the localities concealed.
HYMEXOPHYLLE.*:.
HYMEXOPHYLLUM TUXBRIDGEXSE: TheTunbridge
Film-fern. Hawl Ghyll (Wastwater); Enner-
dale; Coniston. Very rare.
H. WILSONI, or UXILATERALE: Wilson's Film-
fern. Not uncommon in damp mountain fissures
everywhere; but in greatest luxuriance at Scale
Force, where it lines the rocks. (A slate fern).
OSMCNDACE^.
OSMUNDA REGALIS: The Osmund Royal or Flower-
ing Fern. Windermere; Skelwith and Lough-
rigg ; Colwith ; Seascales ; Gosforth; Coniston
Crags; Ullock Moss (Keswick); Whitbarrow;
Millum; Irton; Egremont; Scale Hill.
332
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
OPIHOQLOSSACEJE.
BoTRYcmuM LUNARIA: The Common Moomvort.
Not uncommon on the higher grounds. Bray-
stones ; Muncaster Fells ; Keswick ; Castle
Sowerby; Coniston Fells, &c.
OPIIIOGLOSSCM VDLGATDM: Common Adder's
Tongue. Rare at Windermere, but common in
several other districts.
LYCOPODIACE.S:.
LYCOPODIUM SELAGO: The Fir Club-Moss. Skid-
daw ; Helvellyn ; the Ennerdale and other
mountains.
L. AXXOTIXUM: Interrupted Club-Moss. Bowfell;
Langdale. Rare.
L. CLAVATDM : Common Club-Moss, Stag's Horns,
Foxes' Tails, Wolf's Tails. Common. (A famous
dye.)
L. IXUNDATUM: Marsh Club-Moss. Wastwater,
and by mountain tarns, but not common.
L. ALPINUN VEL COMPLANATDM: Savin-leaved
Club-Moss. Common on heathy fell-sides among
the stones and rocks.
SELAGINELLA SPINOSA: Prickly Mountain-Moss.
Fairfield; Kirkstone; Loughrigg; Borrowdale;
Scawfell; Coniston; Ennerdale, &c.
MARSILEACEJE.
ISOETES LACUSTRIS: European Quillwort, or
Merlin's Grass. All the lakes.
PILULARIA GLOBULIFERA: Pill wort, or
grass. Ennerdale lake only.
EQUBBXACU.
EyuiSETUM TELMATEIA: The Great, or Great
Water Horsetail. All the lakes.
E. PRATEXSE: The Shade Horsetail. By the
Westmoreland lakes.
E. ARVENSE : The Cornfield Horsetail. Gos-
forth.
E. SYLVATICUM: The Wood Horsetail, pinner-
dale, Watendlath.
E. LIMOSUM : The Water or Smooth Naked Horse-
tail. Common.
E. PALUSTRE: the Marsh Horsetail. Common ;
luxuriant on Coldfell. Var. polystacltyon,
rare.
E. HYEMALE: the Great Rough Horsetail. Old
Field Wood, near Kendal; Sowgelt Bridge; and
a few other places. Rare.
E. VARIEGATUM: the Variegated Rough Horsetail.
By the Irthing, at Gilsland.
§ 8— THE MOSSES
ANDREA ALPINA: Alpine Andrea; A. ALPESTRIS:
Rock Andraea ; A. ROTHII : Black Falcate
Andrea. Ill Bell and about Windermere.
BRYAC^E.
GYMNOSTOMUM RDPESTRE: Rock Beardless-Moss.
Helvellyn.
G. MICROSTOMUM: Small-mouthed Beardless-Moss.
Miller's ground near Windermere, and elsewhere.
WETSSIA VERTICILLATA: Whorled Weissia. Whit-
barrow.
RHABDOWEISSIA DENTICULATA: Toothed Streak-
Moss. Furness Fells; Grasmere Fells; and else-
where.
DlCRAXEJE.
BLIXDIA ACUTA: Acute-leaved Bliudia. Wiiidcr-
mci'e, &c.
DICRANUM POLYCARPCM : Many-fruited Fork-
Moss. Red Screes. Rare.
IX SQUARROSUM : Drooping-leaved Fork-Moss.
Dunmail Raise.
D. RUFESCEXS: Reddish Fork-Moss. Calgarth
Woods, and others.
TRICHOSTOME.*;.
DISTICHIUM CAPILLACEUM : Fine-leaved Dis-
tichium. Ill Bell; Helvellyn; Scawfell; and other
high mountains.
DIDYMODON CYLIXDRICUS: Slender-fruited Di<ly-
modon. Troutbeck Park ; Cook's House, &c.
TRICHOSTOMTM HO.MOMAI.I.I M : Cun'e - lea M •< I
Trichostomum. Calgarth; Lodorc, &c.
TORTULA TOHTUOSA: Curly-lcavol S<-icw->
T. ALOIDES : Aloe -leaved Screw-Moss; T.
AMBIGI-A: Taller Rigid Seivw-AIoss. Wliit-
barrow.
333
APPENDIX II.
ENCALYPTEJE.
ENCALYPTA CILIATA: Fringed Extinguisher-Moss.
The Helvellyn range.
GRIMMIE^E.
GRIMMIA SPIRALIS: Spiral-leaved Grimmia. The
lower part of Red Screes, Kirkstoue. Not in
fruit.
G. TORTA: Twisted-leaved Grimmia. Kirkstone
hills.
G. DONNIANA: Bonn's Grimmia. "On rocks and
walls in high situations," (H. M.) " Not found
in Britain," Hooker and Taylor's Muscologia
Britannica, or rather, Wilson's Bryologia
Britannica.
RACOMITRIUM ACICDLARE : Dark Mountain Fringe-
Moss; R. FASCICULARE : Green Mountain Fringe-
Moss; R.LANUGUINOSUM: Woolly Fringe-Moss;
R. CANESCENS : Hoary Fringe-Moss. All very
common on rocks and walls.
PTYCHOMITRIE.E.
PTYCHOMITRIUM POLYPHYLLCM : Many-leaved
Fringe-Moss. Common.
ORXHOTRICHEJE.
ORTHOTRICHUM STRAMINEUM : Straw-coloured
Bristle-Moss. Common.
O. RUPESTRE, or RUPINCOLA: Rock Bristle-Moss.
Hawes Water.
O. LYELLII: Mr. Lyell's Bristle-Moss; O. CRIS-
PCLUM : Dwarf-curled Bristle-Moss. Both
common.
ZYGODONTE.E.
ZYGODON MOUGEOTII: Mougeot's Yoke-Moss. In
crevices of rocks, without fruit.
Z. VIRIDISSIMUS: Green-tufted Yoke-Moss. On
ash-trees.
BAUXBAMIE-E.
DIPHYSCIUM FOLIOSUM : Leafy Bauxbamia. Ill
Bell; Helvellyn.
POGONATUM URXIGERUM: Urn-fruited Hair-Moss.
Common.
P. ALPINDM. The higher mountains generally.
BRYE^E.
BRYUM ACUMINATUM : Sharp-pointed Threaii-
Moss; B. POLYMORPHUM: Changeable Thread-
Moss; B. ELONGATUM: Long-fruited Thread-
Moss; B. C'RCDi'M: Alpine Glaucous Thread-
Moss. Not rare on the mountains; but not
lowland mosses generally.
B. WAHLENBERGII: Wahlenberg's Thread-Moss.
In mountain rills.
B. LUDWIGII: Ludwig's Thread-Moss. On wet
rocks; Glaramara and the Borrowdale hills.
Not in fruit.
B. ALPIXUM: Alpine Purple Thread-Moss. Com-
mon, not barren.
B. ULIGIXOSUM: Bog Thread-Moss. In a branch
of the Wythburn Beck, High Raise.
B. PALLENS: Pale-leaved Thread-Moss. Ill Bell.
B. JULACEDM: Slender-branched Thread-Moss.
" Mountain rills, fruiting abundantly on Kirk-
stone Pass, 111 Bell, and in Wythburn Beck."
(H. M.)
B. ZIERRII: Zierrian Thread-Moss. Red Screes;
Rydal Park, &c.
MNIUM SERRATUM: Serrated Thyme Thread-Moss.
Helvellyn.
M. SUBGLOBOSUM: Round-fruited Thyme Thread-
Moss. Helvellyn.
FUNARIE.E.
FCNARIA MtlHLENBERGii: Dr. Muhlenbcrg's Cord-
Moss. Whitbarrow.
PHYSCOMITRIUM ERICETORCM : Narrow -leaved
Bladder-Moss. Windermere, &c.
BARTRAMIE^E.
BARTRAMIA HALLERIANA: Haller's Apple-Moss.
On shaded rocks.
B. ARCUTA: Curve-stalked Apple-Moss. Lodore,
in fruit.
SPLACHNE^:.
(EDIPODIUM GRiFFiTriiANUM: Griffith's Alpine
Collar-Moss. The Helvellyn and other higher
mountain ranges. This moss is not known out
of England, Scotland and Wales. (Wilson's
B. B.)
LSUCODONTE.E.
LECCODON SCIUROIDES: Squirrel-tailed Leucodon.
Rare in fruit, but found near St. Mary's Church,
Windermere.
ANCECTANGIA COMPACTUM: Compact Beardless-
Moss. Red Screes, &c.
ASTITRICHIA CURTIPENUULA: Pendulous Winj;-
Moss. Common.
A.NOMODO.N V'lTicuLosus: Tall Anomodon. Whit-
barrow.
334
THE BOTANY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
PTERAGONICM GRACILE :
Not common in fruit.
CLIMACIUM DENDROIDES :
Derwentwater.
Slender Wing-Moss.
Marsh Tree-Moss.
HYPNILE.
HYPNUM RUSCIFOLIUM: Long-beaked Feather-
Moss. Applethwaite Ghyll, Skiddaw.
H. PALDSTRE : Marsh Feather-Moss. Ambleside.
H. SCHREBERI : Schreber's Feather-Moss. In
fruit at Windermere.
H. UMBRATUM: Shady Rock Feather- Moss. Kes-
wick.
II. BREVIROSTRE: Short-beaked Feather - Moss.
Common.
II. FLAGELLARK: Thong-branched Feather-Moss.
Stock Ghyll, and other rocky streams.
H. SQUARROSUM: Drooping-lcaved Feather-Moss.
Common.
H. RUGOSUM: Wrinkle - leaved Feather -Moss.
Whitbarrow.
H. CRISTA-CASTRENSIS: Ostrich-plume Feather-
Moss. Not rare in the lake district, but said
to be the most rare and the most beautiful of all
the British mosses.
H. RESUFIXATDM: Upward-turned Feather-Moss.
Common.
H. SYLVATICDM: Wood Feather-Moss. Common.
H. DEXTICULATCM : Sharp Flat-leaved Feather
Moss. Var. Succulentum. Black Beck near
Storrs, Windermere.
The above list of Mosses is taken entirely from Miss Martineau's Guide, slightly corrected by reference
to other works; but I do not hold myself responsible for any of the statements as to habitat made therein,
which, it seems to me, are meagre and incorrect by their partiality. Miss Martinean only assumes to
give the mosses of Windermere and its immediate neighbourhood, and I have not been able to find any
other fuller local authority.
OIJASR OP PARNASSUS AND FRINOKD WATT.R-WI.Y
33.5
APPENDIX III
THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT
BY EDWARD HULL, B.A, F.G.S. OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIX.
THE mountainous region of Cumberland and West-
moreland, like that of Wales and Scotland, is
formed of some of the most ancient rock masses
with which we are acquainted. That reverence
for age which ethical writers, both of ancient and
modern times, have alike inculcated, and which
seems, in some degree, indigenous in the human
mind, seems to have been foreshadowed in ancient
geologic times ; for the newer formations of a
special district like that we are treating of, seldom
venture to raise their heads to a level with those of
their ancestors, and, in general, we fiad the more
ancient rocks towering in stately grandeur above
their descendants. In the lake region, the heights
of Scawfell, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn, formed of the
more ancient Silurian rocks, overlook in every
direction, the surrounding ridges, fells, and plains
of the upper Silurian, Carboniferous, and Triassic
formations.
The general arrangement of the Silurian rocks
of Cumberland and Westmoreland is extremely
simple.* The oldest beds are found in the range of
Skiddaw and Blencathra; and commencing at this
point you constantly ascend into higher formations
by traversing the country from north to south, till
you reach Kendal, where the highest Silurian beds
are found. The mountain chain is girt around by
Carboniferous formations, except on the south-west
side — from St. Bees Head to Morecambe Bay —
where the hills are separated from the sea by a nar-
row strip of Permian, or New Red Sandstone.
Speaking of the contrast in the physical features
which the central group of Silurian heights presents
when compared with the circular zone of Carboni-
ferous limestone hills by which it is surrounded,
Professor Sedgwick says : — " On whatever side it
is approached, we are struck with the tameness of
the outline of every portion of the calcareous zone,
when contrasted with the fine serrated peaks of the
loftier and more central elevations. From some of
the ridges in the range of Cross Fell the eye takes
in, at one view, the greatest part of the northern
calcareous zone. Seen from that distance, all its
minor inequalities disappear, and I have often
fancied that it resembled a portion of a great semi-
circular redoubt, formed near the base of the older
hills, and presenting a long, sweeping, irregular
glacis towards the valley of the Eden.f These
* To Mr. J. Oiley, of Keswick, we are primarily indebted for a knowledge of the sub-divisions into which the rocks of
the Lake District are divisible. Mr. Otley's observations were systematized and extended by the researches of the Rev.
Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge, in 1822, and following years ; who, in a series of admirable memoirs in the Geological
Transactions and elsewhere, has fully detailed the structure of the region, and co-ordinated the groups of strata with those
of Wales, where, by his own labours and those of Sir R. J. Mnrchison, the Cambrian and Silurian systems were first
established. Several other observers have added to our knowledge of the geology of the lakes, amongst whom we may
mention Professor Phi lips, of Oxford, Professor Harkness, of Cork, Mr. E. \V. Binney, and Mr. Salter, late palaeontologist to
the Geological Survey. The geological map, constructed by Mr. J. Ruthven, of Kendal, with the assistance of Professor
Sedgwick, will be found very useful, and sufficient to guide the explorer until the maps of the Government Geological Survey
are issued to the public.
t Geological Transactions, Vol. iv., 2nd series.
336
THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
limestone hills sink down under the Permian and
Triassic beds which form the plain of the Eden,
.•mil in the direction of Whitehaven and Working-
ton, under the coal-formation.
In default of a geological map, there is no better
mode for bringing the physical structure of a dis-
trict clearly before the mind's eye than a horizontal
section; and I shall therefore beg the reader to study
the subjoined representation of the outline of the
ground and component formations, drawn from
north to south across " the strike," or direction in
which the rocks trend from west to ea^t.
IDEAL SECTION ACROSS THE CENTRE OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, FROM NORTH TO SOITII. sn >\vi\..
THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE BEDS, AND OUTLINE OF THE Sl'KFACK.*
(After Ser1<ju-if:h and ffarkness.)
I . Granite of Skiddaw Forest.
2 Felspar Trap.
a. Skiddaw Slate.
ft. Green Slate and Porphyry, &c.
f . 1. Collision Limestone.
c 2. Calcareous Flagstone.
(I. Coniston Grits.
e. Ireleth Slates.
f. Kirkby Moor Flags and Tilestone.
c. Old Red Conglomerate.
11. Carbon. ferous Limestone.
T. Trias, or Peimian beds of the Vale
of Eden.
The section above shows the true succession of
the natural groups, but unless we have the materials
for referring these groups to their places in the
geological scale, this knowledge would, of itself, be
vague and unsatisfactory. Now, as the old forma-
tions of the Cumberland hills are completely iso-
lated from those of Wales and Scotland, which they
appear at first sight to resemble, it is evident we
must fall back upon the evidence of the organic
remains they may contain in order to determine
their true place in the series of rock systems. The
uppermost groups at the southern side of the dis-
trict were long since determined by Professor
Sedgwick to have their representatives in the upper
Silurian formations of Wales, as they were found
sufficiently rich in shells, corals, and crustacca to
allow of this point being determined with accuracy,
but it was not so with the two lower groups — those
of the " green slate and porphyry " (b), and the
"Skiddaw slate" (a). In these beds— though
attaining a thickness of about 15,000 feet — the only
organized bodies discovered after diligent search
were a few gi aptolites—nnimals belonging to a \ en-
simple form of zoophyte — from the Skiddnw slntes.
GRAPTOLITKS FROIJ TIIK SZIDDAW SLATB
Professor Harkness has lately added to our know-
ledge of the fossils of the period by discoveriii},'
additional species of graptolites and certain ern-
tacea, and from an inspection of these, Mr. Saltcr —
our highest authority on this subject— has referred
the Skiddaw slate series to that group of lower
Silurian strata, known as the lower "Llandcilo
flags." f These are very old, but by no means tin-
oldest fossilifcrous strata, for both in North Wales
» In the above sections all minor irregularities arising from faults, dykes, and changes of dip are omitted, owing to the
contraction of the scale.
t Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. x\x. In page 137, figures of the fossil
given, and described by Mr. Salter.
337 x x
APPENDIX III.
and Scotland they arc supported by several thou-
sand feet of the more ancient Cambrian rocks.*
Having determined the position in the geological
THE LAKES.
/ 1. Tilcstones and Kirkby Moor)
Flags (Kendal Group) j
S";L'KIAX<U.Irclcth Slates
BKM> I 3. Coniston Grits
LOWER ! 4. Coniston Flags and Limestone
SILURIAN < 5. Green Slate and Porphyry i
BEDS. ( 6. Skiddaw Slate )
scale of the Skiddaw slate group, we can now
arrange the remaining groups in their proper
geological places, as follows, in descending order: —
WALES.
= Tilestones and Ludlow Beds.
= Wenlock Beds.
= May Hill Sandstone.
= Llandcilo Flags, and Bala Limestone.
= Lower Llandeilo Beds.
I shall now proceed to give a short description of each of these groups from the bottom upwards.
SILURIAN SEIUES
The Shiddaw Slate Group.— This group stretches
from Dent Hill, near Clcator, to Caldbeck Fells,
and from Cockermouth to Keswick. It seems
to repose on the porph^yritic rocks of Uldale,
and is penetrated by granite in Skiddaw Forest,
and at Carrock, which appears to have highly
altered the character of the beds, so as to give
them a hard and crystalline structure. The group
consists of a series of fine black and grey slates,
traversed by cleavage planes, and bands of flag-
stone. The thickness of the group is probably
not less than 7,000 feet, and it rises into the
mountains of Skiddaw, Blencathra, and Grisedale
Pike ; it also re-appears at some distance from the
main mass in Black Comb.
Green Slate and Porphyry Group. — The pre-
ceding group is overlaid by a vast series of beds
composed of felstone, trappean grits, and breccias,
alternating with chloritic roofing slate. In fact,
we have here the products of submarine volcanic
action repeated at frequent intervals during the
ordinary deposition of the sediment of which the
green slate is formed. The trappean rocks, whether
in the form of sheets of lava, or hardened volcanic
ashes, are regularly bedded with the sedimentary
materials, and it is interesting to observe that in
North Wales, similar irruptions of trap occurred
on an enormous scale at this period. This group
contains no fossils. It occupies the central portion
of the lake region, stretching in a broad band
from west to east, and rising into the lofty heights
of Scawfell, Bowfell, Helvellyn, and the Langdale
Pikes; the group dips generally towards the S.S.K.
under the Coniston beds. At Wastdale and Esk-
dale it is penetrated by granite.
Coniston Limestone and Flags. — This remarkable
group, about 1,500 feet in thickness, stretches in
a narrow, slightly curved band from Millam, on
the west side of Duddon sands, to Wasdale Pike.
At the bottom is a band of argillaceous limestone,
from 30 to 300 feet in thickness, passing upwards
into calcareous shales and flagstone, the whole
being plentifully charged with fossils (corals,
molluscs, and trilobites). The limestone may be
seen at the following— amongst other — places,
commencing at Beck on the west, it ranges through
Corn Park, and the village called Hill; then east
of Duddon Bridge, Water Blain, Broughton Mill,
Appletreethwaite, and Ashgill. It crosses Torver
Fell, and ranges along Coniston Old Man ; from
this it passes to the head of Windcrmere, and
appears in quarries about 400 yards above Low
Wood Inn. It passes near the village of Trout-
beck. Between this and Wasdale Pike it appears
at or near Line Foot, Kentmcre Hall, Pike How,
and on the east side of Long Sleddale, near Little
London. I have been thus particular in tracing
the range of this calcareous band, as it affords a
very certain and definite geological horizon, and
forms the boundary line between the older and
• The Skiddaw slates are therefore newer than the " Primordial zone" of the Lingula flags.
338
TOE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
the newer groups of the Silurian period, as well
as the margin of a less elevated tract of hill
scenery.*
Coniston Grits. — A series of coarse, hard, light-
coloured grits, of rather greater thickness than the
preceding group.
Ireletk Slates. — A complex deposit of roofing
slate, grits, and flagstone, of very great thickness,
and in the lower division containing in some places
a thin hand of impure concretionary limestone.
This group occupies the greater part of both banks
of Windcrmcro, and stretches from Uhcr.-ton t<>
Tebay Fells, and southward to Lcvcn Sand.-. Ii
is frequently i>eiietrated by igneous dykes, which
generally run in the direction of the strike.
Kendal Group. — A scries, well developed in the
hills north of Kendal, and the valley of the Lime,
north of Kirkby Lonsdale, consisting of grits and
flagstone, passing upwards into greeni>h and
reddish flags, resembling the tile-stones at the top
of the Silurian rocks. This completes the Silurian
series.
OLD RED SANDSTONE
THE formations just described apj ear to have been
deposited one over the other in a perfectly regular
sequence, without any breaks or disturbance what-
ever; but at the close of the Silurian period,
powerful clevatory movements set in, accompanied
by the eruption of granitic rocks in various places,
as in Skiddaw Forest. As the rocks were elevated
from under the sea, they came in contact with the
waves and currents, by which vast quantities of
materials were broken up and carried away, while
beds of shingle were in places accumulated upon
the upturned edges of the Silurian rocks. These
beds ofshinyle bvlony to the age of the Old Red Sand-
stone and coHij/ninerate.
The masses of red conglomerate are found
resting in a discordant, or unconformablc, position
on the slaty rocks in several [daces, as at the
northern extremity of Ullcswater, extending from
the western bank to Mcll Fell; from Simp Abbey
southward in along strip underlying the Carboni-
ferous limestone as far as Langdale, in a similar
position north of Kendal, and at Kirkby Lon>dalc.
The pebbles of which it is made up arc generally
roundish, and formed for the most part of the older
rocks, amongst which we have no difficulty in
recognizing fragments of Coniston limestone. The
conglomerate rests indifferently on beds of all
from the Lower to the I'pper Silurian, and is
extremely irregular both in its structure and
thickness.
CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS
THE Old Ecd conglomerate supports in some places,
and the Silurian rocks in others, the Carboniferous
limestone, which, as already stated, almost en-
circles the Cumbrian cluster of mountains. The
forms of its tabulated hills, its precipitous scars,
and terraced slopes, is familiar to all who have
visited Kendal, or Kirkby Lonsdale. The forma -
tion consists of several thick beds, or group of
beds, of limestone separated by bands of shale,
with coal and flagstone, which arc most numerous
on the north side of the district. The " Great Sen
limestone," 600 feet thick or more, forms tin
of the series. The name, as Professor Sedgwiek
remarks, is applied with great propriety to this
limestone, which in all parts of its range is marked
by grey precipices and mural escarpments.! The
following is a general summary of the limestone
scries : —
• The following are the most common fos>ils from the Coniston limestone:— Favorites polymorpha, Poritet pyrtformit,
catenifora e chaioiilei, Tentacuiites annuMus ; Orthoceras, three smooth species, Ltptcena depretta, art hit, .'evcral specks,
Atrypa affi.iis, Cytherina heviyata, Calyntene mumenbachii, Ataphus tyrannus. This last and many of the other forms arc
figured in Murt-hison's Siluria.
t Geol. Trans, vol. iv. p. 70. The learned author desctil.es, in great detail, the various members of the carboniferous
series in the papers here rtferrtd to.
339 X X '-'
APPENDIX III.
Carboniferous Limestone Series in Descending
Order.
Greatest thickness in Feet.
1. Tweloe-fathom limestone 80
Gritstone, coal, and shale 80
'2. Fuur-fathom limestone 40
Sandstone, fissile gritstone, and shale 350
.'i. Mosdale Moor, or Wold limestone 45
Grit, shale, and coal 150
4. Strony post limestone 45
Sandstone, shale, and calcareous grit 150
5. Second limestone, or black marble group 45
Sandstone and shale 150
6. Great Scar limestone .... . 600
Total 1,735
The beds of coal in this group are very thin and
of inferior quality, the only one which has Urn
much worked being that which lies below " the
twelve-fathom limestone," and which was formerly
mined under Great Colm, on the south side of the
valley of Dent. A much more important product
is the haematite iron-ore of Ulverston and Cleator,
which appears to have been deposited in extensive
hollows scooped in the limestone, probably by run-
ning water, dissolving and carrying away the lime.*
The limestone is often rich in fossil shells and corals
of the ordinary genera and species, such SL&Producta
latissima, Spirifer, Caryophyllia, Encrinites, &c.
The limestone series is succeeded by that of the
millstone grit and coal-measures of Whitehaven.
PERMIAN AND TRASSIC GROUPS
RKSTING discordantly on various members of the
older rocks, is a thick series of red beds composed
of breccias, sandstones, and beds of marl with
limestone bands. These are referable to the two
formations above-named, but the special age of
some of the members is at present a matter of
controversy. These beds occupy the broad valley
of the Eden, and the sea-coast from St. Bees
Head southward to Morecambe Bay. They ha\e
yielded the richly-tinted stone of which the ruins
of Furness and Calder Abbey are built — ruins
which, by the contrast of their colour to that
of the foliage around, derive so much of their
beauty and venerable aspect. Near Carlisle a
small outlier of the Lower Lias has lately been
discovered. f
GLACIAL PHENOMENA
THAT the highlah'ds of the British Isles, at a
period immediately antecedent to the appearance
of man, have been the centres of glacial dispersion
varying in form and intensity from the present
state of Greenland to that of the Alps, is now
generally acknowledged, and the evidences are
abundant and satisfactory. Confining our attention
to the lake district, we find in its valleys, moun-
tain slopes, and surrounding plains all those
appearances which are produced in regions where
glaciers now exist, though of course, owing to the
small size of the mountain group, somewhat in
miniature as compared with the Alps or Pyrenees.
On approaching the district from the south, we
find the whole country strewn with pebbles and
boulders, often of large size, which we can identify
with their parent masses amongst the hills. Thus
we find blocks of Shap granite, porphyry, and
mountain limestone many -miles distant from their
sources. These blocks are often polished and
striated by attrition, such as is found to be the
case with those which have been carried by icebergs
or glaciers. These boulders are often imbedded
in reddish clay, or " till," and gravel, which is
stratified, and must have been deposited by the
sea, as it contains marine shells in some places;
so we are driven to the conclusion that the sea
once overspread the lowlands, and was studded
with icebergs which had their origin in glaciers
amongst the highlands.
The evidences of glacial action in the highlands
themselves (I speak of the Cumberland hills) are
unmistakeablc. They were originally noticed by
the late Dr. Buckland, dean of Westminster. If
» Sir R. Murchison considers tlie iron derived from the red beds of the Permian period. Journ. Geol. Society, vol. xx. i>. K.2.
t By Mr. W. Brotkbunk, and Mr. Biiiney, F.It.S., who has described it in the Journal of the Geological Society.
340
THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.
we observe with care the exposed surfaces of the
rocks in the bottoms of the valleys, and for a cer-
tain height up the sides, we shall find that they are
rounded, often polished, and grooved or striated in
parallel lines. These are especially noticeable
where the surface lias been protected by turf
which has been freshly removed. Examples may
be seen at Amblcside, in a boss of slaty rock, which
rises from the valley close by the church, as shown
in the figure below. There is also a remarkable
ICE-WOHU KUOS: IN AMBLBS1DB VALLilT
nstance in a projecting mass of slate, on the north
flank of Langdale, about GOO feet above the bed of
the lake. Similar examples may be observed above
Grasmere, Little Langdale, and, indeed, in nearly
all the main valleys ; and it will be generally
observed that the striations radiate in every direc-
tion from the centre of the mountains. Thus in
Borrowdale they point north ; in Wastdale, west ;
in Grisdale, north-east; at Ambleside and Winder-
mere, south; and the stria; often run across the
hill-shoulders, as is the case south of Brathay.
Another effect of glaciers is the production of
perched blocks. Thus we find a block of trap
resting on a boss of slate; or vice versa. -Good
examples of these may be observed on the ridge
between Easdale and Langdale; and a very notice-
able instance occurs at Stickle Tarn, where a boulder
rests on a smooth surface of rock rising a little
above the centre of the lake.
Moraines, whether lateral or terminal, are ;iN"
of frequent occurrence in the main valleys, and, as
in the case of Wastwatcr and Easdale Tarn, form
embankments to lakes. The moraines generally
assume the appearance of a group of hummocks
or tumuli, on which boulders of even- size- lie
scattered; the moraines are either thrown trans-
versely across a valley, or ranged along its side.
In the former case it can scarcely be doubted tlu-y
have once formed lakes, which have subsequently
been drained by the rupture of the barrier at some
weak point. Such a lake, I believe, once existed at
the head of Langdale, and the lower end of the
wild and lonely Grisedale. Moraines may be ob-
served on the Stake pass at the head of Borrowdale,
at the head of Great Langdale and Enncrdale, at
Easedale Tarn, Stickle Turn, Blea Tarn, Kirkstonc
Pass, and at the head of Little Langdale, of which
a sketch is given below.
It is hard to picture to our minds the smiling
valleys of Cumberland and Westmoreland once
filled by ice, and the heath-clad hills clothed with
a mantle of perennial snow, yet science tells us
that such was the case at one stage of the glacial
period. At another the country was lower tluin it
is now by 1,200 or 1,400 feet, and the sea washed
the flanks of Scawfell, Helvellyn, and Skiildaw.
isolating them from the rest of the world. But
the island group still sent afloat messengers of ice,
laden with fragments torn from its own sides to
remind the outer world that it was not all sub-
merged.*
» The glacial phenomena of the district has been treated on by Mr. R. Chambers in Report of Brit. Auocialionfor 1851,
and by the writer in Edinburgh New Phil. Journal,™}, xi., and Mem. Lit. and Phil. Society of Manchester, vol. i., 3ri
MORAINE AT THE HEAD "F LI'lilK
341
APPENDIX IV
TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS
Scawfell Pike
Scawfell
Helvcllyn
Skiddaw
Bowfell
Great Gable
Pillar
Crossfell
Fail-field
Blencathra
Grasmoor
High Street
lied Pike
Coniston Old Man
Griscdale Pike
Ill Bell
Harrison Stickle
Pike o' Stickle
Carrock Fell
High Pike
Causey Pike
Black Combe
Honister Crag
Wansfell
Kirkstone Pass
Catbells
Latrigg
Dent Hill
The Tongue (Troutbeck) ....
Pcnrith Beacon
Scilly Bank (Whitehaven)
§ I— THE MOUNTAINS
Height in feet
Cumberland 3229-6
„ 3172-0
Cumberland and Westmoreland 3114-6
Cumberland 3057'9
Westmoreland 2971'8
Cumberland 2954-0
„ 2932-3
„ 2927-8
Westmoreland 2878'0
Cumberland 2856'4
„ 2805-2
Westmoreland *2700'0
Cumberland 2650-2
Lancashire 2649-0
Cumberland 2605-9
Westmoreland 2490'2
( 2424-1
" ( *2300'0
Cumberland 2173-0
„ 21C-5-6
„ *2030'0
„ 1974-3
„ *1700'0
Westmoreland 1590-9
„ 1467-8
Cumberland *1448'0
„ *1 160-0
„ 1130-7
Westmoreland 1191-8
Cumberland 966-0
529-8
* Not certain ; the rest arc verified by the Ordnance surveyors.
342
TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS.
§ II— THE LAKES
LAKES
Length in
miles
Width in
miles
Depth
in feet
Beach marks— Height above sea level
Windcrmcre
M. F.
10 5
7 5
5 2i
3 7
2 7*
2 4
3 0£
2 3i
2 5
2 3£
1 4J
0 7£
1 2i
1 Of
0 5f
o 41
0 4J
M. P.
1 0
0 5J
0 4
0 7
1 U
0 4f
0 4
0 2£
0 3
0 7i
0 3
o 41
0 3
0 3
0 If
0 2£
0 2£
240
210
160
68
72
132
270
108
80
80
180
140 on Road near Harrow-slack.
\ 532 on Road at Sharrow Bay.
( 496 Surface of House Hohn'lslnnd.
187 on Road near Coplands Barn.
237 on Road near Smithy Grim.
272 on Road near the Hotel.
330 on Road opposite Buttermerc Haw*.-
208 on Road near Countess Beck.
698 on Road near Annas Cross.
536 on Road near Deergarth Bay.
371 on Road near Smithy Beck.
\ 225 Contour at side of road opposite I.;ik<-
I Bank House.
246 A on Island.
398 on Road near Hassness.
407 on Road near centre of Lake.
185 on Road near Nab Cottage.
200 Contour near the edge of Lake.
539 on Road opposite centre of Lake.
Ulleswater
Coniston Water
Basscnthwaite Water
Dcrwcnt Water
Crummock Water ..
Wast Water
Hawes Water
Thirlmcrc
Ennerdale Water
Esthwaite Water
Grasmere Lake
Buttemiere Lake
Lowes Water
Rydal Water
Eltcr Water .
Brothers Water
§ III— ALTITUDES OF LAKES
LAKES
Altitude in Feet
Remarks
Angle Tarn
1552-8
Near Bow Fell.
Bassenthwaite Water
225-5
Beacon Tarn
536-4
Blea Tarn (I)
612-1
1 \ mile N.W. of L. Langdalc Tarn.
Blea Tarn (2)
700-4
Near the Boot, Eskdalc.
Blea Tarn (3)
1561-7
1^ mile S.W. of Watcndlatli.
Blea Water
1583-7
Near S. end of Hawes Water.
Blctham Tarn
138-2
Blind Tarn
726-7
Near Blea Tarn, No. 2.
Borran's Tarn
413-9
Brothers Water
519-9
Burnmoor Tarn
832-4
Buttermcre Lake
330-7
Codale Tarn
1527-7
Coniston Water
146-5
Crummock Water
320-8
Denvcnt Water
238'3
Devoke Water
765-6
343
APPENDIX IV.
§ III — ALTITUDES OF LAKES— continued.
LAKES
Altitude in Feet
Remarks
Dock Tarn
1321-8
Easedale Tarri
914-6
loiter \Vater
186-7
Ennerdale Water
368-9
Estliwaite \Vater
216-8
Goats Water
1645-5
Grasmere Lake
207 ' 9
Greycrag Tarn
1949-4
1£ mile S.E. of Gatescarth Pass.
Grisedalc Tarn
1767-9
Hawes Water
694-4
Hayes W^ater
1382-7
Iventmere Reservoir
972-9
( When levelled to, the surface of this reservoir
Keppel Cove Tarn
1824-8
\ was only 941 -5 feet in altitude.
Height when levelled to = 1801-6.
Lovers W^ater
1349-7
Little Langdale Tarn
339 • 6
Loughrig°° Tarn . .
307-6
Low Water
1786-4
Loweswater .
428 • 9
Red Tarn (Helvellvn)
2356-2
i This and Keppel Cove Tarn have sluices to sup-
ply lead mines. The altitude given is the
Rydal Water
180-5
] highest the water reaches ; present altitude,
( 2347-8.
Seathwaite Tarn
1210-1
Siney Tarn
724-0
Near Blea Tarn, No. 2.
Skeggles Water
1016-6
Small Water
1483-6
Sprinkling Tarn
1959-7
Stickle Tarn
1540-4
Stychead Tarn
1430-3
Sunbiggin Tarn
824-3
Thirlmere
533-2
Ulleswater
476-6
Wast Water
204-4
Watendlath Tarn
847-0
Windermere .
133-7
j There is a difference in level of about 0*2 ft.
( between the head and foot of this lake.
These altitudes are given in feet and decimals above the mean level of the sea.
The heights in every case show the highest level reached by the waters of the lake.
In the case of a few lakes of smaller size, or where more than one bears the same name, a remark
has been added to more exactly define their position.
Tables II. and III., with the remarks concluding, have been supplied to me from the Ordnance
Department through the courtesy of Colonel Sir Henry James ; but did not reach me in time to be
acknowledged in the Preface, or I should have there expressed my gratitude for information so valuable.
It is right, however, to say that the column of lake depths in Table II. is obtained from local sources;
and, therefore, not to be fully relied on.
344
TABLE OF MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND WATERFALLS.
§ IV— THE WATERFALLS
Name Place Height in feet
Scale Force Crummock Water ir.o
Barrow Cascade Dcrwent Water l-_M
Lodore „ „ 1)M
Colwith Force The Brathay above Eltcr Water 9n
Ara Force Ullswater So
Dungeon Gliyll Langdale 80
Stock Ghyll Amblcsidc 70
Birker Force Eskdale 60
Dalegarth Force „ fin
Sour Milk Ghyll Buttermere 60
Upper Fall Rydal 50
Skelwith Force The Brathay below Elterwater 20
The Howk Caldbeck 20
The waterfalls are entirely incorrect; the Guides not agreeing among themselves, and no information
to be had yet from the Ordnance surveyors. There is a difference of fifty feet in some of the falls,
according to the various authorities, and the height of the beautiful Sour Milk Ghyll Force in Easedalc
is not mentioned by Black, Martinear, or Wordsworth.
APPENDIX V
TABLE OF RAINFALL
FOR THE YEAR 1863, FROM MK. SYMONS' " BRITISH RAINFALL."
Inches.
Brougham Hall 36 50
Allithwaite 41'9l
Holker 43'20
Cartmcl 44-08
Lowther Hall 45-76
Whitehaven 50-55
Ullswater 50'45
Cockermouth 54-63
Kendal . 54'92
In the average of ten years Kcswick had 55*01 inches, Coniston, 71 '40 inches, Seathwaite, 126-98
inches, London, 21 '67 inches. Mr. Symons' abstract gives for all England 30-52 as the average fall in
the ten years 1850-59, - 0'09 in 1861, + 3-12 in 1862, + 1-49 in 1863. Seathwaite and Coniston are
not included in these calculations; if they were, the figures would be 34-13 + 2-19 + 4-75 + 2'97.
Kirkby Lonsdale
62-83
Bassenth wai tc
63-70
"Wray Castle '
Lesketh How
The How
Loughrigg
Kcswick ...
Windermere
>- and H
Ambleside.
• 68-34
81-69
84-97
86-34
71-54
Coniston
83-90
Seathwaite
173-84
INDEX
AARON END, 69, 71, 202, 208
Aldingham, xxix, 37, 120
Allan Crags, 175
Amblcside, xvi, 3, 6, 11, 18,
24, 35, 36, 40, 80, 89, 140,
272, 275
Angle Tarn, 110, 122, 139, 141,
142, 148, 166, 169, 175, 180
Angler's Crag, 226
Apostle Crag, 97
Ara, 102, 166
Ashness Bridge, 77
Atkinson's Cove, 142
B.
BANNERDALE, 117, 124
Barf, 51, 96, 97, 185, 186
Barnscar, 224, 258,
Barrick Italics, 243
Barrow, 54, 74, 75, 77
Barton, 105, 109, 117
Base Brown, 71, 209
Bassenthwaite, 47, 50, 51, 56,
64, 83, 85, 95, 96, 146, 181,
185
Beacon Hill, xxxix, 263
Beacon Stations, xxxix
Beacon Tarn, 263
Beckermet, 37, 223, 224, 240
Bee Holm, 14
Bee Wall End, 227
Belle Grange Woods, 13
Birker Force, 241, 258
Birk Fell, 99, 100, 102, 103, 152
Birks Bridge, 246, 251
Black Combe, xxxix, 21, 95,
136, 148, 177, 211, 241, 268,
271, 287
Black Hall, 252
Black Sail, 95, 184, 193, 200,
207, 211
Black Segs, 287
Blake Fell, 184, 188, 226
Blake Ley, 220
Blakcrigg, 247
Bleaberrv Tarn, 184, 192
Bleas, 102, 113
Blea Tarn, 78, 148, 158, 164,
174, 241, 254
Blea Water, 134, 141, 161
Blellam Tarn, 13, 22, 32, 272,
275
Blencathra, 46, 47, 51, 56, 81,
85, 95, 99, 117, 125, 148, 169,
209, 271
Blind Tarn, 172, 249, 268
Bootle, xxxix, 241, 243
Boredale, 116, 123
Borrowdale, xvi, 21, 52, 55, 58,
65, 70, 76, 81, 169, 171, 178,
180, 184, 199, 201, 205, 208,
209, 268
Berwick Moor, 272
Bont, 224
Bowder Stone, 68
Bowfell, 3, 7, 9, 21, 22, 52, 166,
169, 175, 176, 209, 241,256,
268, 272
Bowness, xv, 5, 9, 96, 272, 282
Bowness Knot, 226
Bowscalc Tarn, 87, 90, 242, 267
Braithwaite, 25, 84, 185
Brandreth, 12, 193, 200
Branstree, 133
Brantwood, 262, 265
Brathay, 12, 21, 27, 32, 161, 164,
255, 275, 278, 287
Bridge of Arches, 110
Brothers Water, 100, 109, 115,
116, 139
Brotto's Gliyll, 46
Brougham, 119, 120
Brougham Castle, xxi, 119, 120
;i47
Broughton, 241, 245, 252, 2C6,
291
Brownrigg's Well, 150
Brow Top, 47, 74, 84
Brundholm Woods, 91
Buckbarrow, 214, 216
Buckbarrow Crags, 270
Bull Crags, 45, 69, 170, 17:5
Burnmoor Tarn, 207, 241, L':>2
Buttcrlip Meadows, 42
Buttermere, 95, 183, 188, 200
c.
CALDBECK, 85, 89, 90, 96, 148,
194
Calder, xl, 214, 218
Caldew, 90
Calgarth, 3, 5, 8
Cark Beck, 289
Carlisle, xiv, xvi, xxx, 14, 43,
55, 61, 63, 89, 90, 95
Carrock, 85, 87, 148
Carr's Crags, 42, 174
Canteddaa, 51, 83
Cartmcll, xix, xxvi, xxix, xxx,
2, 6, 34, 240, 288
Castle Crag, 52, 56, 67, 68, 72
Castlchead, 51
Castle How, 97
Castlerigg, 47, 73
Castle Hooks, 46, 110
Catbells, 47. :>•>, .")."), 76
Cat Crags, 1 7.'1
un, <j:5, KM), 11.1. lit!.
144, 145
DM* 1'ikf. 47, 51, 185, 195
,Jl Hill, \M
Clicrrv Holm, 123
CUufe,6i L>;:{
Cloator. ^2!»
(Wki-r, 1S4, IS7. I'.HI
V V
INDEX.
Cockermoutli, xl, 48, 66, 95, 146,
186
Cockley Bridge, 252
Coclale, 42, 110, 115, 137, 140,
160, 164, 169, 173
Cold Fell, 220
Colwith Force, 158, 161, 241,
255, 256
Conishead, xvii, xxvi, xxvii, 285
Coniston, 3, 9, 21, 89, 95, 136,
146, 148, 161, 163, 239, 242,
249, 261
Copeland, 221, 232, 239
Coulton, xxix, 273, 285
Crake, 264, 267
Crawberry Hawse, 271
Criffel, 51, 94, 95, 146
Crinkle Crags, 3, 9, 21, 32, 166,
272
Crookeldy Bridge, 83
Crossfell, 89, 95, 99, 121, 125,
126, 271
Crosthwaite, 14, 53, 55, 61, 67
Crow Holm, 6, 14
Cruinmock, 183, 200, 211
Cunsey Beck, 15, 275
Curwen's Isle, 14, 26
D.
DALE HEAD, 1 73, 200
Dalegarth Force, 258, 259
Dalemain, 118, 125
Dalton, xvii, xxiii, xxviii, xxix,
273, 279, 281, 286, 291
Dancing Gate, 83
Deepdalc, 102, 109, 116
Deep Slack, 173
Derwent, xvi, 54, 67, 68, 96, 97,
160, 180, 184, 221
Derwentwater, xxxvi, 48, 56, 62,
66, 74, 77, 93, 94, 209, 211
Devil's Chimnev, 123
Devoke Water, 223, 241, 258,
271
Dick Nieve, 187
Dock Tarn, 182, 199
Dockwray, 99
Dod, 51/187
Dolly Waggon Pike, 100, 102,
113
Dove Crags, 102, 110, 115
Doves Nest, 10, 11
Dow Crags, 248, 249, 263, 266
Drigg, 224, 239
Druid Circle, 79
Duddon, xvii, xix, 2, 21, 211,
221, 243, 245, 266, 271, 272,
278, 286
Dungeon Gbyll, 28, 161, 165, 175,
255
Dunmail Raise, xvi, 41, 43, 46,
89, 148, 256
Dimniallet, 118, 125
Dunncrholme Sand-side, 243
E.
EAGLE CRAG, 46, 69, 112, 169
Eamont, xxxv, 118
Easedale, 9, 42, 160, 164, 169,
172, 174
Eden, 90, 160
Kdenhall, 118, 120, 258
Ees Bridge, 275
Egremont, 214, 220, 232, 240,
242
Ehcn, 221, 229
Ellcray Woods, 3, 291
Elterwater, 12, 29, 161, 174,256,
272, 278
Ennerdale, 95, 148, 180, 184, 191,
193, 200, 205, 207, 210, 220,
232, 240, 268
Kskdale, 177, 207, 209, 211, 224,
240, 241, 247, 252, 257, 259
Esk Hawse, 176, 177, 180, 208
Eskmeals, 240
Esthwaite, 21, 146, 148, 174,
272
Ewe Lamb Crag, 176
F.
F AIRFIELD, 40, 43, 89, 102, 111,
116, 150, 159, 160, 173, 256,
271, 272
Fairy Kirk, 90, 289
Falcon Crag, 74, 77
Farleton Knot, xxxix, 272
Ferry Nab, 6, 14
Fiends' Fell, 125
Fleetwith, 190, 193
Fleswick Bay, 233, 234
Floating Island, 54
Floutern Tarn, 184, 192, 226
Fludder's Brow, 177
Fordendale Beck, 132
Foulncy Isle, 278
Froswick, 136, 137, 272
Furness, xvii, xix, xxix, xxxvi,
12, 66, 218, 239, 243, 246,
247, 253, 272, 277
Furness Abbey, xxiii, xxvi, 253,
266
Fuscdale, 117
348
G.
GABLE MOOR, 169, 175
Gait Crag, 52, 07
Gait's Water, 263, 266, 2SM
Gallows How. :>5
Garnett's Force, 172
Gatescartb, 90, 133, 183, 193,
196, 198
Gatescarth Gbyll, 169, 175. ISM
Ghyll Cove, 27*0
Ghyll o'Combe, 71
Gillerthwaite, 188, 193. 227
Gimmcr Crag, 164, 166, 17ti,
185, 254
Glaramara, 9, 52, 70, 72, !•',<>,
173, 175, 181, 199, 202, 208
Gleaston Castle, 253, 2s 7
Glencoin, 102, 206, 109, 110
Glenderamaken, 87, 91
Glendcraterra, 91
Glenridding, 98, 102, 107, 109,
113, 116, 143
Goldmire, xvii, 286
Goldrill, 109, 110, 116, 255
Goldrill Crag, 251
Gold&cope, 51, 195
Goosegreen, 84
Gosforth, 206, 214, 217
Gowbarrow, 99, 101, 109
Gowder Crag, 76
Grange, 66, 67, 72, 76, 200
Grasmere, 21, 39, 43, 69, 151,
158, 163, 164, 172, 256
Grasmoor, 184, 187, 190, 200, 220
Great End, 9, 52, 178, 180, 202.
205, 208, 209, 268
Great Gable, 52, 95, 180, 190,
202, 209, 214, 216, 227
Great How, 46, 89
Green Comb, 173, 199
Green Crags, 46, 47, 193
Green Gable, 180, 190, 202
Greenside Mines, 107
Greemip, 170, 172, 181, 199
Greta, 47, 61, 84, 87, 99, 205
Grey Crag, 141, 193
Grey Friars, 251, 257
Grey Knot, 193
Greystoke, xxxviii, xxxix, 0.-5,
128
Gridiron Island, 264
(iriscdale, 47,113,116,151. 158,
186, 195, 273, 276
H.
H.vu.i.x FELL, 99, 123
Hanging Haystack, 170, l(.»:i
Hanging Knot, 9
Hardknot, xxxix, 241, 247, 25s
INDEX.
Harrat Crag, 187
Harrison Combe, 174
Harrison Stickle, 9, 148, 164,
174
Han-op Tarn, 45, 147, 148
Hurt Crag, 102, 111
Harter Fell, 131, 133, 241, 251
Hartsop, 109, 111, 115, 140, 142
Hassness, 184, 193
Hawes Water, 89, 106, 122
Hawkshead, xxvi, xxix, 265, 272
Haycock, 148, 225, 240
Hayes Water, 115, 122, 139
Haystacks, 183, 193, 200
Heald Brow, 3, 6, 9, 13, 272
Helm Crag, 38, 41, 152, 160
Helton Dale, 127
Helvellyn, 44, 49, 51, 80, 81, 82,
89, 93, 95, 97, 100, 108, 113,
116, 117', 137, 141, 143, 159,
160, 173, 185, 199, 242, 271,
272, 275
Herd House, 191, 225
Herring Pike, 102, 116
High Crag, 190, 192, 193, 200
High Cross, 272
High House Tarn, 178
High Ladder Brow, 79
High Pike, 87
High Raise, 172,256
High Saddle, 199
High Stile, 51, 190, 192, 200
High Street, 82, 95, 100, 116,
122, 14S, 177, 271
High Wray, 13, 275
Hindscarth, 195
Honister, 70, 173, 181, 183, 184,
188, 190, 193, 196
Hovgvn, xxiii
How Town, 117, 124
Hutton Moor, xvi, 99
ILL BELL, 136, 137, 148, 271,
272
Inglewood Forest, xxxvi, 90
Iron Crag, 220, 226
Iron Keld, 272
Irt, 207, 213, 240
Irtou, 207, 216
Isle of Man, xxii, 94, 217, 230
268
J
,! UK Brno, 109
.lemiv Bunk's Crag, 181
Jenny Crag Well, 226
Ju.-tice Stone. 45, 177
K.
KAIL-POT CRAG, 123
Kendal, xxi, xxiii, xxv, xxvii,
xxxii, 3, 14, 35, 39, 109, 254,
278, 283, 285
Kentmere, 34, 133, 135, 136, 272
Kent River, 21, 137
Keppel Cove Tarn, 108, 144, 145,
149, 173
Keppel Crag, 181
Keskadale, 195
Keswick, xxxviii, 36, 40, 55, 57,
65, 96, 177, 184
Kidsty Pike, 93, 124, 134, 148
King Arthur's Round Table,
120
Kirkby, xxiii, xxix, 14, 287
Kirkfell, 95, 187, 193, 203, 206,
214, 227
Kirkstone, xvi, 20, 23, 24, 26,
100, 102, 108, 109, 115, 271,
272
Knock o' Murton Hill, 226.
Knot Crag, 90
Knot Rigg, 195
L.
LADE POT, 136, 140
Ladhouse, 187, 190, 200
Lady's Rake, 74
Lancaster, xxii, xxviii, 95, 136,
148,243, 271, 281, 284,290
Lancey Falls, 45
Langdale, 14, 22, 29, 32, 137,
158, 174, 176, 177, 209, 211,
241, 252, 254, 255, 266, 268,
271, 272
Langstreth, 69, 169, 176, 180
Latrigg, 47, 77, 81, 84, 94
Latterbarrow, 13, 226, 272
Leven, 160, 243, 267, 278, 289
Levers Water, 269, 270
Lickle, 246
Lindal, xvii, 253, 286
Line End Crag, 172
Lingmell, 32, 180, 202, 203, 207,
208,211, 213, 214
Lingmoor, 9, 72, 162, 166, 168,
254, 256
Linkin Dale Head, 106
Linthwaite Pike, 88
Linthwaitc Woods, 190
Liza, 220, 227
Loaf Beck, 183, 187, 200
Lodorc, 52, 54, 56, 72
Long Meg and her
120
349
Lniigside, 96
Lord's Seat, 185
Lorton, 184, 186, 187
Loughrigg, 2<), 21, 28, 29, 32,
38, 160, 256, -27-2
Loughrigg Fell, 9, 10, 25, 31,
156, -27-2. -27:<
Lmv.-s Water, 40, 184, 188, 189,
200, 227
Low Fell, 188, 200
Low Water, 267, 269, 270
Low Wray, 9, 13, 22, 32, -27:,
Low Wood, 9, 13
Lune, xix
Lyulph's Tower, 100, 104
M.
MAD BECK, 185
Maiden Mawr, 52, 56, 67, 172
Mardale, 122, 129
Martindalc, 117, 135
Matterdale, 99, 116
Maud's Pool, 120
Measand's Becks, 132
Mellbreak, 188
Mell Fell, 81, 89, 99, 125
Mickleden, 166, 167, 176
Mickledore, 212, 213, 2.52
Middle Fell, 214
Millar Brow, 8
Millbeck, 83, 95, 164, 184, 193
Miller Bridge 19
Millom, 222, 240, 242, 243, 253
Miner's Path, 98, 108
Mite, xxx, 240, 241, 258
Moor Dovock, 122, 126
Morecambe Bay, 2, 160, 267,
•27-2, 280
Moscdale, 90, 193, 203, 206,211,
214,215, 227
Moses Trod, 20O
Muncaster, xxix, 216, 218, 241,
258
Mungrisedale, 88, 192
N.
NAB SCAR, 38, 39, 272
Naddle Forest, 131
NanBield, 133, 136
Nathdale Fell, 45, 80, 89
NYtlicrbv, xvi, xxxix
Newby Bridge, :>, (i, 118
Newtek!, 24t;. 247. _",-
Ncwlamls. 47. 51. :>«. 7". J6, 81,
S-4. !):». I4f,. 1S4, I.-0. I'J2, 194
le, 2(i4, 2»i7. '2^7
o.
OKMATHWAITE, 83
( hikrigg Precipice, 270
( )ut Dubs Tarn, 275
Oxendale, 167
Oxenfells, 161, 257, 272, 275
P.
PATTERDALE, 24, 99, 100, 105,
107, 109, 117, 124, 135, 139,
140
Pavey Ark, 9, 164, 174, 256
Pendragon Castle, xviii, 119
Penholes, 195
Penrith, xvi, xxxviii, xxxix,
100, 118, 136, 146, 211
Pet Farm, 290
1'etreana, 139
Piel Island, 264
Piers Ghyll, 203, 205, 206
Pike o' Bliscow, 9, 166, 168
Pikeo' Stickle, 9, 32, 164
Pikes, 3, 10, 21, 28, 32, 162,
164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 254,
256, 272
Pile of Foudrey, xxv, 245, 278
Pillar, 148, 193, 200, 225, 227,
268
Place Fell, 95, 102, 106, 109,
115, 139, 152
Ponsonby Fell, 220, 240
Pooley Bridge, 117, 124
Portinscale, 50, 77, 84, 97
Potter's Fell, 137
Priest-cuddy-Hole, 84
Priest's Pot, 274
Priest's Stile, 265
Pudding Stone, 271
Pullwyke Bay, 9, 13
Pyat Rock, 133
R.
RAMPS HOLM, 54
Rannerdale Knot, 188, 190, 200
Ravenglass, 224, 240, 258
Rawling find, 51, 195
Razor Edge, 87
Red Bank, 40, 160, 256
Red Pike, 51, 190, 192, 200, 226
Red Screes, 20, 24, 102, 115,
137, 272
Red Tarn, 108, 144, 149
Revclin, 220, 226, 227
Riggindale Crag, 133
Kc.l.in Hood's Chair, 226
INDEX.
Robinson, 51, 172, 193, 195,200
Uonian Koads, xvi, 138
Roman Station, 25, 32
Rose Castle, xxxix, 105
Rosset Ghyll, 166, 176
Rosthwaitc, 70, 77, 79, 158, 180,
181, 182
Rosthwaite Cam, 190, 199
Rothay, 12, 19, 21, 25, 27, 32,
188, 253
j Ruddy Ghyll Brow, 173
Rydal, 10, 12, 36, 102, 160, 174,
262, 272
S.
SALT LEVEL BAY, 55, 59
Sandal Top, xxxix
Santon Bridge, 240
Sawrey, 6, 272, 275, 287
Scale Force, 123, 184, 190, 191,
192
Scale Hill, 184, 187, 190
Scales Tarn, 87
Scandale, 12, 22, 102,115,139,
272
Scarf Gap, 184, 193, 200, 227
Scawdale, 70, 181, 195, 202
Scawfell, 9, 21, 28, 52, 95, 166,
169, 175, 177, 201, 240, 241,
252, 268, 271, 272
Scot's Rake, 136
Screes, 95, 206, 207, 214, 215,
216, 241
Seamew's Crag, 13, 14
Seascales, 239
Seatallan, 240
Seathwaite, 70, 181, 201, 208,
247, 266, 268, 271
Seatoller, 66, 196, 199
Seat Sandal, 41, 43, 151, 159,
160, 173, 256, 271, 272
Sergeant Crag, 173
Sergeant Man, 199, 256
Shap, xxxiv, xxxv
Sharrow Bay, 119, 123, 124
Silver How,' 21, 32, 42, 160, 256
Skeggles Water, 137
Skelghyll, 31, 84
Skelley Neb, 99
Skelwith, 12, 28, 29, 273, 275
Skiddaw, xxxix, 46, 47, 50, 56,
58, 61, 64, 67, 77, 81, 83, 85,
93, 117, 125, 148, 151, 169,
177, 185, 186, 211, 212, 242,
271, 272
Sleddale, xxxiv, 133, 137
Small Water, 133, 134, 141, 176
Solway, 94, 146, 160, 177
Sour Milk Force, 184
350
Sour Milk Ghyll, 181, 189, 192
Souter Fell, 85, 87, 88, 125
Southey's Thorn, 184
Sprinkling Tarn, 72, 178, 2i»2,
208
St. Bees, xxxviii, 95, 214, 221,
228, 229, 231, 232, 233, 238,
239, 268
St. Herbert's Island, 55, 58
St. John's Yale, 46, 50, 80, 88,
91, 99, 253
St. Sunday's Crag, 89, 102, 105,
108, 110, 112, 137
Stake Pass, 9, 21, 69, 158, 161,
167, 172, 175, 180, 181, 254
Stanley Ghyll, 241, 258
Steel Fell, 43, 44, 89, 160, 173,
271
Steeple, 148, 225
Stickle Tarn, 43, 164, 169, 174,
271
Stockghyll, 12, 18, 75
Stockley Beck, 66, 178, 180, 201
Stonethwaite, 69, 170, 172, 181,
199
Storr's, 15
Strands, 207, 214, 216, 217
Strands Brig, 181
Street Gate, 286
Striding Edge, 102, 145, 149
Styebarrow Crag, 99, 100, 102,
"109
Sty Head, 199, 202, 208, 209, 215
Sty Head Pass, 69, 72, 181, 202,
203, 207, 209
Sty Head Tarn, 72, 178, 179,
180, 202, 210, 211
Sun-biggin Tarn, xxxix
Sunken Kirk, 85, 243
Swart Fell, 122, 125, 140
Swart Moor, xxv, 287, 288
Sweden Bridge, 22
Swindale, xxxiv
Swineside, 76, 84, 187
SwirrelEdge, 144, 145, 149, 159,
173
T.
TALK-OX-THE-HILL, 242
Tall Tomlyn, 238
Tarn Haws, 272
Tarn of Leaves, 181, 199
Taylor's Ghyll, 180, 201, 202
Thirlmere, 44, 89, 146, 147, 173,
177
Thomthwaite, 84, 97, 184, 185
Thrang Crag, 78, 162
Three Shire Stones, 162, 253, 268
INDFA'.
Threlkeld, xxxiii, 47, 50, 86, 90,
99
Thresh waite Mouth, 35
Tilberthwaite, 161, 166, 256,
266, 275
Torver, 238, 250, 263, 265
Troutbeck, 8, 9, 31, 89, 124, 135,
140, 198
U.
ULLOCK, 76, 95, 97
Ullswater, 98, 99, 101, 105, 109,
116, 122, 146, 148, 158, 160,
262
Ulpha, 224, 247
Ulverston, xvii, xxii, xxiii,
xxix, 2, 272, 273, 278, 281,
286, 287, 290, 291
Underbarrow Scar, 136
Urswick, xxix, 273
W.
WALLABARROW, 247, 249, 258
Walla Crag, 52, 56, 73, 77, 81,
84,97
Wall End, 1G<>, i.v,
Wallow Crag, 131
Walna Scar, 247, 251, 266, 269
Walney, 9, 16, 278, 281, 291
Wanscale, 183, 193
Wansfell Pike, 9, 20, 24, 31, 136
Wanthwaite Fells, 46, 81, 89, 97
Wastdale, 193, 203, 205, 206,
213, 214, 216, 226
Wastwater, 52, 91, 180, 184,
190, 201, 218, 219, 227, 238,
241, 267, 271
Watendlath, 75, 77, 78
Watercrook, xvi
Waterhead, 5, 262, 267
Wath Bridge, 229
Wetherlam, 3, 7, 9, 21, 136, 162,
174, 249, 251, 256, 269, 272,
275
Wray, 9, 13, 32, 275
Whelp Dale, 288
Whicham, 242, 287
Whinfell, xxxix, 119
Whinfield Fells, 187
Whinlatter, 51, 96, 172, 184,
185, 186
White Cove Ghyll, 192
White (Va-s, 1»U. 174
\Vhitoli:ivrii. xxi. iso. 2-JI, •_>•(:!,
234, 235, 239, 254
White-Iocs, 184, 187, 190
Whiteside, 187, 190
Winder-mere, xxxv, 1, 12, 14, an,
24, 39, 109. 136, 146, 148, 156,
160, 173, 174, 177, 211, 212,
267, 271, 272, 278
Windennere Islands, 14
Witch's Lair, 166
Withersack, 245
Wotobank, 223
Wrynose, 21, 162, 241, 247, 251,
256, 268, 272, 278
Wythburn, 45, 173
Wythop, 96, 185, 186
Y.
YANWATH, xxxii, 86, 105
Ycwbarrow, 148, 203, 206, 227
Yew Crag, 196, 199
Yewdalc,250, 257, 265, 272, 275
Yoke, 136
THE EX1).
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