Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1
p.122
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Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1 p.122
the Metropolis, would scarcely suppose to exist any where but in the Poet's imagination. Mr. Green says, when he last visited Gillerthwaite, it contained only an old woman and her grandson. But from the following description one would suppose this place would have been selected as a favourite residence of the sons of taste. "The houses at Gillerthwaite," says Mr. Green, "are placed on the edge of an extensive and circular plain of great fertility, graced by a romantic scattering of oak and ash trees. These flourishiing with uncommon richness, give this bottom through which flows the meandering Liza, a most enchanting appearance. But the wild mountains rising in terrific grandeur, above this vale of paradise, are in awful contrast to the flat. A more sylvan bottom than Gillerthwaite can scarcely be imagined, nor a more rugged range of mountains than those by which it is bounded. Turning from the dale, which beyond the enclosures becomes narrow, the Pillar assumes still greater importance. From the foot and sides of the lake, its rude parts, softened by distance and air, appear only indications of what, on a near approach becomes more terribly palpable. Frightful would be the vision to the timid, or those unaccustomed to sights like these, and awful to all men, if instantaneously transported from even meadows to such rugged uplands, particularly as seen above the path, where in savage startings from the mountain's side, the rocks are like huge towers falling from immense fortifications." The next object which arrests our attention, in this excursion, is the magnificent scenery round Wast Water. To the admirers of the grand or the terrible, a view of Wast Water would be a solemn but acceptable feast. It has "in its composition, more of the sublime than the rest of the English lakes; the mountains are not only higher than the other mountains of the country, but swelling proudly above their interesting bases, each has a distinct and characteristic appearance." From Wast Water our complacent Guide escorts us home to our former lodgings at Keswick: and as he has hitherto led us round the softer and more lovely scenes in this district, he now prepares to lead us to the summits of the highest neighbouring mountains. The first in place, as well as dignity is Skiddaw, the view is remarkable extensive, grand and curious. There is one phenomenon which frequently occurs on Skiddaw, which we shall give in his own words. "Floating vapours are frequently the sources of supreme amusement; sometimes encircling the party so grossly as to make invisible, objects not fifty yards from the eye; when perhaps a few minutes before, others might have been observed, distant as many miles. In their playful humours, these immense curtains, in openings of every shape and feature, when contrasted with the azure of a beautiful distance, appear as brown frames, through which, like scenes of enchantment, momentary glimpses are caught of the far removed country; which lost, the anxious spectator may be as suddenly saluted from another quarter, perhaps displaying a scene more grateful than the former, and with which the capricious elements may either feast him, or as suddenly as the former veil it from his view. Thus by an ever shifting exhibition, the eye is kept in perpetual play, and the senses alternately delighted, vexed, or agitated into ecstasy. Open sunshine or murky gloom, are the occasional results of this sort of vapour, and in the heat of one, or solemnity of the other, the traveller not unusually descends the mountain." From the summit of Grasmire there is another fine and extensive view. the hill itself is a curiosity independent of the prospect from its top. "Immense rocks," says our Guide, "parallel to each other, stream down the mountain Whiteside; where the rains descending with infuriated violence have furrowed the softer material between rock and rock into frightful chasms. The whole appearance is as singular as it is awful and sublime." Swinside, another mountain from whose summit there is a delightful prospect, is a pleasing object to behold; for this hill, "though encircled by a profusion of trees, discovers them as if shaken from the clouds, and generally in the happiest distribution. Nor is there another stand in the country, either high or low, that looks completely round upon so busy a population as Swinside." "From the higher Cat-bell," which is another of those Alpine accesses to which |
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