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Page 200:-
opened a fine valley, with green meadows and hedge-rows, a
gentleman's house peeping forth from a grove of old trees. On a
nearer approach appeared myriads of cattle and horses in the road
itself, and all the fields round me, a brisk stream hurrying
across the way, thousands of clean, healthy people in their best
party-coloured apparel: farmers and their families esquires and
their daughters, hastening up from the dales and down the fells
from every quarter, glittering in the sun, and pressing forward
to join the throng. While the dark hills, on whose tops the mists
were yet hanging, served as a contrast to this gay and moving
scene, which continued for near two miles more along the road,
and the crowd (coming towards it) reached on as far as Appleby.
On the ascent of the hill above Appleby, the thick hanging woods,
and the long reaches of the Eden, clear, rapid and full as ever,
winding below, with views of the castle and town, gave much
employment to the mirror [1]; but now the sun was wanting, and
the sky overcast. Oats and barley cut everywhere, but not carried
in. Passed Kirkby-thore, Sir William Dalston's house at
Acorn-bank, Whinfield-park, Harthorn-oaks, Countess-pillar,
Brougham-castle, Mr. Brougham's large new house; crossed the Eden
and the Eamont with its green vale, and dined at three o'clock
with Mrs. Buchanan, at Penrith, on trout and partridge. In the
afternoon walked up beacon-hill, a mile to the top, and could see
Ulls-water through an opening in the bosom of that cluster of
broken mountains, which the Dr. well remembers, Whinfield and
Lowther parks, &c. and the craggy tops of an hundred nameless
hills: these lie to the west and south. To the north, a great
extent of black and dreary plains. To the east, Cross-fell, just
visible through mists and vapours hovering round it.
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[1]
Mr. Gray carried usually with him on these tours a plano-convex
mirror, of about four inches diameter, on a black foil, and bound
up like a pocket-book. A glass of this sort is perhaps the best
and most convenient substitute for a camera obscura, of anything
that has hitherto been invented, and may be had of any optician.
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