Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1
p.30
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Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1 p.30
head of the Lake, (Windermere,) with all its mazy windings and massive woods, its verdant plains and rocky mountains, will scarcely fail to enrapture that traveller who, with feelings alive to all the charms of nature, has rarely seen a mountain; or a lake of more extended dimensions than the Serpentine river." We are now to consider ourselves safely arrived at Ambleside, in excellent health and with buoyant spirits; our bosoms open to all the soft impressions of natural beauty, and minds firmly resolved to explore the terrible or pleasing scenes in its vicinity, at the expense of weary limbs or dizzy heads. Here, he informs us, are good accomodations at the inns, besides genteel lodgings at private houses, a good circulating library to drive away the ennui which generally pays an unwelcome visit to the fireside on a wet day; to these conveniences we may add his own exhibition of views on the Lakes, which he has omitted to notice. Having fixed our travelling station at Ambleside for a few days, our Guide is again on the alert to lead us round another series of mountain views, more diversified in appearance than those of Coniston, of greater extent and of higher interest. The first of our Ambleside excursions, is to Stock Gill, a cascade close by the village. "Stock Gill Force is a most interesting water-fall, if seen to advantage. The finest views are from the bottom, and at some places a little above it; but few dare venture to the bottom, particuarly those females whose pedestrian excursions have been chiefly upon level ground; nay the male-sex are often appalled with a view of the way, and many a Bond-street gentleman, in his stable costume, would rather hazard his neck four-in-hand, than risk it by having his arms precariously supported by the twigs and branches he may find in his way to the gulph below. "Several easy descents might be made at inconsiderable expense, and the masters of the salutation inn and the writer have, years ago, and every year, decided on the existing necessity for such improvement, and determined, that while one shall find ways the other shall furnish means; but it has thus far unfortunately happened that the means have been so engaged with spades and ploughs, with halters and horse-whips, as to be unprovided with leisure either to amend their old ways or to make good new ones." After viewing Stock Gill and other beauties about Ambleside, our Author takes us round the beautiful Lake of Windermere in one fine excursion drive. This, he observes, if the weather be favourable, may be performed in a single day. But, as so hasty a survey of these fairy scenes will leave a very faint and even bewildering impression on the Tourist's memory, a superior method of examining the fine scenery round Windermere, is to visit the different inns on the margin of the Lake in succession; and having satiated the palate of taste with the peculiar beauties of each, return to the original station at Ambleside in order to enjoy its other surrounding beauties. Leaving our Lodgings at Ambleside therefore for a few days, while we sip the sylvan sweets which nature has so plentifully scattered round this magic spot, we proceed to the Low Wood Inn. The views from the neighbourhood of this inn are extremely fine, particularly one from the Bowling-green. "Exquisite compositions" says Mr. Green, "out of the fields belonging to the inn, may readily be discovered from the back of the house, and many circuitous upland excursions will, at every turn, give to the wondering eye a diversity of hill and dale, of rock, of wood, and of water, too little seen by former tourists, to whom generally speaking, this extraordinary volume in the great book of nature has hitherto been sealed." After numerating several delightful stands in the vicinity of this inn, he says, "about a mile from the Low Wood Inn, there is a scene which is the finest in its kind among the Lakes; this is a view of the great and all the inferior islands." The next of our secondary stations is Bowness, which, "is a good place for the enjoyment of the central part of Windermere." All round Bowness there are numberless stations for viewing this lake to advantage. But perhaps none equal to Curwen's island. From almost every part of this highly cultivated isle, the ornamented margin of Windermere presents a succession of scenes, which for softness and richness are not excelled by any other Lake among the Westmorland Alps. Not far from Bowness, but on the opposite side of the water, is the Ferry |
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