Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1
p.31
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Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1 p.31
Inn, near which is the Station, justly acknowledged to be the sweetest spot in the whole circle of Windermere. An old woman keeps the keys of this earthly Eden, and conducts the visitor by a shaded and circuitous path to the little summer house which commands so noble a view of the Lake and its contiguous mountains - nor will the tasteful Tourist grudge the complimentary shilling to his loquacious conductress, as she bids his honour farewell at the garden gate. The last of these subordinate stations is Newby Bridge, delightfully situated at the foot of the Lake. "Above Newby Bridge, the water gradually from a river widens, and in sportive curves, is formed into many charming little bays, which margin the Lake all the way from the Landing on one side and the Fell Foot on the other, up to the great island. It then spreads out in more expanded curves: here the bays are larger, and more appropriately suited to the subjects of the northern scenery." We shall close this excursion round Windermere, as Mr. Green does, with an extract from Mr. Young: "Strain your imagination to command so noble an expanse of water thus gloriously environed, spotted with islands more beautiful than would have issued from the happiest painter. Picture the mountains rearing their majestic heads with native sublimity, the vast rocks boldly projecting their terrible craggy points; and in the path of beauty the variegated enclosures of the most charming verdure, hanging to the eye in every picturesque form that can grace landscape, with the most exquisite touches of la belle nature. If you raise your fancy to something infinitely beyond this assemblage of rural elegancies, you may have a faint notion of the unexampled beauties of this ravishing landscape." Our Author, having 'squired us very pleasantly round the beautiful vale of Windermere, and set us safely and happily down at our former lodgings in Ambleside, prepares again to accompany us to the picturesque glens which are formed by the involutions of these gigantic hills. The first of our rural rides is to "the vales of Great and Little Langdale,"which are "considered by some persons, possessing fine taste, as superior to any others in the north of England." - "Nearly all the beauties of this tour," he says, "are seen by commencing with Little Langdale. A more dignified and impressive assemblage of mountain lines, scarcely exist in the nroth of England." In this day's journey he shews us Blea-tarn, which bursts on the astonished view, with all the agreeable surprise, which a lovely object unexpectedly presented, always occasions in the bosom of an enthusiastic admirer of nature's charms. In this journey we also visit Stickle tarn and Dungeon gill; the stream issuing from the former, "tumbles down many a rocky steep in its progress, and is, in wet weather, a sparkling and exhilerating feature." - "Dungeon gill, which is north of that proceeding from the tarn, passes through a deep cleft of the mountain, and the walls of the cleft impending, may perhaps affright the fair one, who venturing to glance her beauteous eyes upwards, will retreat with anxious trepidation, fearing the stone which spans the yawning chasm, may tumble and destroy her." Returning homeward, at a place called High Close, we are presented with a landscape of the Claude kind, of which there is not a finer inWestmorland. - "Loughrigg tarn, not half a mile in length or breadth, is encircled by waving enclosures, woods and single trees, which traverse the whole range between Great and Little Loughrigg, with that elegant disorder which will evidently fix the un-wearied eye of sentiment; beyond this pretty little tarn, a portion of the largest lake in England, and in form and quantity exactly suited to its situation, renders the whole the most admirable in its kind; between these lakes the ground swells in easy and unassuming lines, all graced by woods of various sorts and growth; near the eye there is neither foreign spriggery nor sprig, and those remote from it are melted down by distance and air, so as not to be offensive." Our indefatigable Guide having brought us safely back to our lodgings at Ambleside, is now ready to conduct us along other little routes, equally fertile in the beautiful as those we have so lately enjoyed. Round and over Loughrigg, a hill near the village, we pursue our winding way to Elter-water, Loughrigg tarn, and Grasmere. But one of our sweetest pedestraian excursions is to Round Knot, sometimes called Pincushion Hill: "Here is one of the most delightful terraces round Ambleside; from which, splen- |
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