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diff --git a/42139-8.txt b/42139-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 211a47d..0000000 --- a/42139-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1596 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The English Lakes, by A. G. Bradley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The English Lakes - -Author: A. G. Bradley - -Illustrator: E. W. Haslehust - -Release Date: February 20, 2013 [EBook #42139] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENGLISH LAKES *** - - - - -Produced by Hope Paulson, sp1nd and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - [Illustration: WINDERMERE FROM ORREST HEAD] - - - - - THE ENGLISH LAKES - - DESCRIBED BY A. G. BRADLEY - PICTURED BY E. W. HASLEHUST - - [Illustration] - - BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED - LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY - 1910 - - - - - Beautiful England - - - _Volumes Ready_: - - OXFORD - THE ENGLISH LAKES - CANTERBURY - SHAKESPEARE-LAND - THE THAMES - WINDSOR CASTLE - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Page - - Windermere from Orrest Head _Frontispiece_ - - Coniston Lake 8 - - Rydalmere 12 - - Grasmere from Loughrigg 16 - - Thirlmere and Helvellyn 20 - - Kirkstone Pass and Brothers Water 26 - - Ullswater 32 - - Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw 36 - - Derwentwater from Friars Crag 40 - - Honister Pass--Dawn 44 - - Head of Buttermere and Honister Crag 48 - - Scale Force, Crummock Water 52 - - - - -[Illustration: THE ENGLISH LAKES] - - - - -WINDERMERE AND CONISTON - - -The luxuriance of Windermere is of course its dominant note, a quality -infinitely enhanced by that noble array of mountains which from -Kirkstone to Scafell trail across the northern sky beyond the broad -shimmer of its waters. The upward view from various points in the -neighbourhood of Bowness, for obvious reasons of railroad -transportation, has been the first glimpse of the Lake District for a -majority of two or three generations of visitors, and this alone gives -some further significance to a scene in any case so beautiful. Orrest -Head, a few hundred feet above the village of Windermere, is the point -to which the pilgrim upon the first opportunity usually betakes himself; -for from this modest altitude the entire lake with its abounding beauty -of detail, and half the mountain kingdom of Lakeland, are spread out -before him. - -On the slopes of Orrest, too, is the house of Elleray, successor to that -older one in which Professor Wilson, by no means the least one of the -Wordsworthian band, led his breezy, strenuous life. Son of a wealthy -Glasgow merchant, winner of the Newdigate and a first classman at -Oxford, and scarcely less conspicuous for his athletic feats and -sporting wagers, young Wilson bought the land at Elleray while an -undergraduate and built a house on it later, after the passing of an -unsatisfactory love affair. As "Christopher North" every lover of the -rod with any sense of its literature knows him yet. Nor would all this -be worthy of record were it not that the brilliant little band who did -none of these things held Wilson of Elleray as one of themselves. Losing -his fortune ten years later through a defaulting trustee, he became the -brilliant supporter of _Blackwood_ and Professor of Moral Philosophy in -Edinburgh University, though always retaining his connection with -Windermere. In fact, when Scott made his memorable visit to the Lake -District, and with Lockhart and Canning stayed with the then owner of -Storrs Hall, now a hotel on the lake shore, we find Wilson doing the -honours of Windermere as commodore of its large fleet of yachts. - -Country houses, villas, and rich woods cluster thickly up and down -either shore; here and there perhaps a little too thickly. But the -general prospect up to Ambleside on the one hand, and down past Curwen -Island--named after one of the oldest of Cumbrian families--to Newby -Bridge on the other, is no whit blemished. One feels it to be a region -rather of delightful residence, which indeed it is, than of temporary -sojourn for the tourist, with the mountains beckoning him into the -deeper heart of Lakeland and to more primitive forms of nature. Shapely -yachts flit hither and thither, less alluring steamboats plough white -furrows, while the irresponsible pleasure boat is in frequent evidence. -Occasionally, too, there are winters when the great lake glistens with -thick glassy ice from end to end beneath snow-peaked mountains, and the -glories of such a brief period--glories of scene and of physical -exhilaration--shine out in the memory yet more luminously than the -unfailing pageants of summer; even the pageants of early June when the -lake is quiet, and in sequestered bays the angler, like his neighbour of -Derwentwater, celebrates the festival of the May-fly, the only one -seriously observed by the lusty and wily trout of these two waters. - -The personal associations of these opulent shores of Windermere are too -crowded for us here; but Dr. Arnold of Rugby had, of course, his holiday -home of Foxhowe near the Ambleside end, which is still occupied by his -daughter. - -Calgarth and its fine woods, just under Orrest, is the oldest and -perhaps the most notable place on the lake, partly because in ancient -times the well-known family of Phillipson lived there, though in a -former house, a dare-devil race in the Civil War period, one of whom, -known as Robert the Devil, did all sorts of heady things. The _skulls of -Calgarth_, too, which occupied niches in the old hall and could never be -got rid of, wherever flung to, always returning to their place on the -wall, are a treasured legend of the district. But the present mansion -and woods of Calgarth are little more than a century old, and are the -work of another Lakeland luminary of the Wordsworthian period. Bishop -Watson, officially of Llandaff but otherwise of Calgarth, is famous in -ecclesiastical history and of immortal memory in Wales, not for the -things he did, but rather for the things he left undone. For he was -bishop of Llandaff for about thirty years, and only once visited his -diocese in that period, preferring the life of a country gentleman at -Windermere. - - [Illustration: CONISTON LAKE] - -Precisely parallel to Windermere, a little more than half its length and -half its breadth, and four miles to the westward, lies Coniston, its -head in the mountains, its foot almost trenching on another, and -virtually lowland, country. There can be no doubt whatever about the -presiding genii of Coniston, the "Old Man" in the substance and Ruskin -in the shadow, if one may put it that way, having no rivals. The hills -crowd finely around their leader, the "Allt-maen" (lofty rock), at the -lake-head, as our artist well shows. As the lake shoots southward, -however, in a straight line, without any conspicuous curves or -headlands, and no heights comparable to those it leaves behind, one -feels upon thus looking down it that Coniston lacks something of the -fascination which never flags at any part of the other lakes. If -Windermere, too, trails away from the mountains, it does so in glorious -bends and headlands, curves and islands, and has an opulence of detail -and colouring all its own. But if Coniston, with its straight unbroken -stretch all fully displayed, and framed in a fashion less winsome than -Windermere, and less imposing than Ullswater, "lets you down" a little -on arriving at its head, looking upward from its centre it assuredly -lacks nothing, while the view from Ruskin's old home of Brantwood, -perched high among woods upon the eastern shore, commands all that is -best of it. After thirty years of intermittent residence here, Ruskin -was buried in the churchyard at Coniston, exactly half a century after -Wordsworth had been laid to rest at Grasmere. A generation later than -his great predecessor he has Coniston to himself. And if the points of -divergence between the two seers have been more than sufficiently -insisted upon, it is from the very fact, perhaps, that in intellect and -temperament they had so much in common. - - - - -THE HEART OF LAKELAND RYDAL AND GRASMERE - - -Those delectable little sister lakes of Rydal and Grasmere probably -suggest themselves to most of us as the heart of Lakeland. If we took a -map and measuring rule we might possibly be surprised to find, as we -should do, this vague intuition geometrically verified. How singularly -felicitous, then, one may surely deem it, that Wordsworth lived and died -here, and that the shrine of the sage and all thereby implied should be -thus planted in the very innermost sanctuary of the hills. - -The intrinsic charm of these two little lakes and all that pertains to -them lies in the delightful variety exhibited within a small compass of -wood and water, of rugged crag and fern-clad slope, of velvety park-like -meadow and stately timber. The blithesome Rothay unites the upper and -larger lake of Grasmere with Rydal Water by a short half-mile display -in meadow and ravine of every winsome mood that a mountain stream has at -command. The broken, straggling heights and skirts of Loughrigg Fell -fill most of the western side of either lake, and on a minor scale, like -the stream below, show every type of form and colouring, of drapery -primeval or man-made, from naked crag to bowery lawn, all within the -compass of three miles and the modest altitude of a thousand feet. - -Rydal Water has almost the air of being designed for the embellishment -of man's immediate haunts. With its occasionally reedy fringe, it -breathes the spirit of quiet, almost domestic beauty, and of the spirit -of solitude scarcely anything. Of Grasmere as much and as little might -be said. The atmosphere of seclusion that wraps at normal times so many -of the lakes seems here frankly absent. Nothing, indeed, is lost by this -sense of human propinquity; for all is exquisite. But the sign of -appreciative humanity, residential or transient, is more than commonly -strong. Yet Grasmere is a favourite haunt, too, of the serious -pedestrian, not merely because it is beautiful, but because it is -central. The lake tourist might be reasonably classified under four -heads: the crag climbers, the strenuous walkers, the saunterers, and the -roadsters. The first are a mere handful, for obvious reasons, and -greatly affect Wastdale Head. The second are not very numerous, and -seem on the decline. The third include a substantial number, whose -limitations are dictated either by lack of physical strength or an -indifference to the strenuous life; by a preference for the tennis -court, or croquet lawn, or a pair of sculls, with a further company, -always numerous among Britons, who have an unconquerable aversion to -missing a single one of the four conventional meals. Of the roadsters, -the cyclist may get a great deal out of the Lake country, and is -nowadays quite innocuous to others. As for the motor, it has proved for -all true lovers of this region an unmitigated curse. It is truly -pitiable to see these green vales half buried at times under dense -volumes of driving dust, or the same noisome clouds falling in heavy -masses on the fair surface and flowery banks of Rydal or Ullswater. The -roads, too, are often tortuous and narrow. There was a talk at one time -of prohibition within Lakeland, and there would seem in equity no -justification in this glorious holiday preserve for unlimited vehicles -roaring through it at twenty to thirty miles an hour. It lies on no main -highway. And for touring use within the district the motor has no single -point of sanity. One might almost as well thrash up and down Grasmere in -a steam yacht. Their exclusion, with a few exceptions for local purposes -or for genuine residents, would be an enormous gain, and any counter -plea ridiculously inadequate. I have here pictured Rydal Water as a -winsome summer lake, for this I am sure, before most of us who know it, -its image rises. - - [Illustration: RYDALMERE] - -But upon a spring day some years ago I watched it raging with abnormal -frenzy under the influence of a helm wind, cleaving diligently myself in -the meantime to a stone wall, lest peradventure I should be blown into -its seething waters. These hurricanes are idiosyncrasies of the Lake -country, and are formed by the contact of winds from the North Sea with -the warmer temperature they meet as they leap over the Pennine range, -like a wave breaking over a sea wall. The disturbance thus created -drives them down in narrow tornadoes upon Lakeland. I have never -experienced anything else like it in these islands. The waters of Rydal -on this occasion, now here and now there, were lifted high into the air -in the fashion of successive waterspouts and hurled in hissing volumes -of sleet at a great elevation against the woody foot of Loughrigg Fell. -The sun, too, was shining brilliantly, and every hurtling cloud of spray -glittered in prismatic colours. But above all are these two lakes bound -up with the name and fame of Wordsworth. From one or other of the banks -of them for nearly half a century the great nature poet--the prophet, -sage, and interpreter of Lakeland--of whose fruits the world will pluck -as long as these hills endure, set forth on his almost daily ramble. -Whether this or that generation decide that Wordsworth is among the -elect of their fleeting day is an altogether trumpery question. Didactic -and complaisant youth have tilted against many a classic and passed into -oblivion while the subject of their convincing satire remains immovable -as a granite rock. Wordsworth has struck roots so deep into this -glorious country, has so identified it with his own personality, that -even if he were a much lesser poet, immortal fame would be as surely his -as the endurance of Skiddaw or Helvellyn. But Wordsworth has a firmer -grip than that of mere atmosphere on unborn generations, though this -almost alone would endear him to all those with any sense of feeling who -love the Lake country, and of such it is inconceivable that future -generations will not each supply their ample store. It is pedantry to -hector every man or woman who feels the spirit of our British Highlands -so perfectly expressed as they are in this Lake country into -Wordsworthian enthusiasm. But let them alone, and as the Lakeland fever -begins to develop more strongly with each visitation, and as spring and -summer come round, if they have the sense of song at all within them -they will put their Wordsworth at any rate within reach, and the process -thenceforward to some measure of intimacy and delight is merely an -affair of time. - -Rydal Mount, standing embowered in foliage above the road which -afterwards skirts both lakes, is not accessible, but Dove Cottage on -Grasmere, where the poet, with his gifted sister and for a time with S. -T. Coleridge, spent the years preceding his long married life at Rydal -Mount, is open to the pilgrim, be he a devout or an indifferent one. It -will be hardly less interesting as the residence for twenty years of -that strange genius, stylist, and laudanum drinker, De Quincey. Apart -from the great literary obligations under which he has laid posterity, -the autobiographical volume which deals with this Lake country, and the -brilliant circle of which he was a member, is a book of extraordinary -interest. He married a local yeoman's daughter, and the domestic side of -his life, including a devoted and successful family, infinitely -alleviates the tragedy of his own long and indifferently successful -struggle with the fatal drug. The weak-willed but lovable and brilliant -Hartley Coleridge, too, who would dash off a sonnet in ten minutes, -lived at Nab Cottage, on Rydal Water, till he was laid in Grasmere -Churchyard, to be followed there by Wordsworth in the succeeding year of -1850. Wordsworth himself was never really in touch with his humbler -neighbours. He had not the temperament for that kind of thing, and -remained a continual mystery to most of them. - -"Well, John, what's the news?" said the rather too sociable Hartley -Coleridge one morning to an old stone-breaker. - -"Why, nowte varry particlar, only ald Wudsworth's brocken lowce ageean." -This had reference to the poet's habit of spouting his productions as he -walked along the roads, which was taken by the country folk as a sign of -mental aberration. On another occasion a stranger resting at a cottage -in Rydal enquired of the housewife as to Wordsworth's neighbourly -qualities. - -"Well," said she, "he sometimes goes booin' his pottery about t' rooads -an' t' fields an' takes na nooatish o' neabody; but at udder times he'll -say 'Good morning, Dolly,' as sensible as oyder you or me." - - - - -THIRLMERE AND HELVELLYN - - -Lying beside the familiar and continuously beautiful road from Grasmere -to Keswick, Thirlmere has happily lost nothing of its pristine beauty in -becoming the source of Manchester's water supply. An engine house at one -point and the big dam, only visible at the far end, are more than -counterbalanced in the raising for many feet of a lake that is three -miles long and only a quarter of a mile wide. That first delicious view -of it which greets the pilgrim on the downward winding road from the -pass of Dunmaile Raise, deep channelled between the rugged wall of -Armboth Crags and the northern shoulders of Helvellyn, with the pale -cone of Skiddaw rising over the hidden interval beyond, will be among -the most familiar memories of the lake tourist. These grey Armboth -steeps, falling from the wild moorish table-land above so abruptly to -the water's edge, and planting everywhere their knotted pine-feathered -toes in the deep clear water, with the little promontories and islands -wooded in the like fashion, give a character all its own to the narrow -but beautiful lake. As a road now skirts both shores, those denied the -physical joy of walking this country can get all that the banks, at any -rate, of Thirlmere have to offer. The best of this, no doubt, is the -prospect here depicted from the lower end, with Old Helvellyn looming so -near and filling up the vista to the southward. - - [Illustration: GRASMERE FROM LOUGHRIGG] - -The little inn at Wythburn on the highway near the lake-head where the -coaches halt, unpretending tavern in outward appearance though it is, -might yet be almost accounted as classic ground for the number of men of -note, from Scott and the lake poets onward, its modest walls have -sheltered. For it has not only been for all time a halfway -resting-place between Ambleside and Keswick, but for many either a -starting, or a finishing, point in the ascent of Helvellyn. It was in -the little parlour of this inn a century ago that Professor Wilson, the -athletic and breezy Scottish Intellectual, played an almost brutal -practical joke on his hyper-sensitive friends--the two Coleridges and De -Quincey--as they all sat resting here by the fire after a long walk one -winter night. Seeing a loaded gun in the corner, the Professor -introduced it stealthily into the group, and, pointing it up the -chimney, pulled the trigger. In the then diminutive bar parlour, hung -about with glass and crockery, the unexpected explosion on the -drug-weakened nerves of two, at any rate, of the brilliant trio must -have been almost more than the most hardened practical joker could have -wished for. - -This is, of course, the smooth side of Helvellyn, and you may ascend it -from virtually any point. Roughly speaking, it represents a huge mound -cloven half down the middle and the refuse carted away. After climbing -the steep smooth slope from the Thirlmere side to the top, you find -yourself suddenly standing on the edge of a precipice, almost of a -crater, with the farther side of course wanting, and in its stead -beautiful sweeps of glen and crag dipping gradually to the vale where -the blue coils of Ullswater lie sleeping. Needless to add, this is but -a fraction of the prospect from Helvellyn, and to relate what can be -seen from it on a reasonably clear day would merely be to compile a -chart of the entire mountain system of Lakeland, and for an -exceptionally clear one it would be necessary to make many and remoter -additions. - -To anyone in touch with these things, the summit of Helvellyn is an -inspiring spot, commanding in a single glance the entire dominion of a -race not merely homogeneous in breed, but till recently unique in -situation. Here were a people, ranging as individuals from peasant to -yeomen, to put it roughly; four hundred square miles, say, of freehold -farmers, who had never known a landlord since the Crown in the sixteenth -century held them as tenants on Border service; a complete democracy -among themselves, into whose lives the influence of an aristocracy, as -exerted everywhere else without exception in Great Britain, never -entered. For there was no such thing within all these wide bounds. These -primitive conditions passed away by degrees during the last century. But -it was such that bred the Lakelander much as you see him now, though -inevitably modified by the influx of large landlords who have bought him -out, of villa residents and countless tourists. But here he is still, a -type who till recently had virtually no experience of what social grades -and distinctions meant in his own daily life, though he dispatched from -his rugged stone homestead a steady stream of raw lads who rose to -power, wealth, and influence in the world. The Lakelander, too, like his -immediate neighbours, is of more definitely Scandinavian origin than any -other community in England. His country bristles with Norse place-names; -his genuine tongue is so full of it, that an expert in old Cumbrian, it -is said, can almost read the Norse Bible. His traditions give him an -easy and independent bearing. For two or three generations of more or -less contact with the outer world and its complications can only modify, -not efface, such things. He still remains a cheery, independent soul, -but absolutely one of Nature's gentlemen. - - [Illustration: THIRLMERE AND HELVELLYN] - -Now from Helvellyn you can see the Pennines, and across the Pennines -lies Northumberland. We have nothing to do here with the Northumbrian, -but as an immediate neighbour of these others it is interesting to note -that he has less Norse blood in him, and together with his Lothian and -Berwickshire neighbours is accounted the purest Saxon of any Englishman. -His place-names have the Saxon flavour. Here in Lakeland we have _fells_ -and _becks_ and _garths_ and _ghylls_; beyond the Pennines and the -Cheviots they are all _burns_ and _laws_ and _tons_. The Lakelanders -proper were not Border fighters as the word applies to their low -country neighbours and the Northumbrians. They were liable to service, -and frequently took a hand against the Scots, but their savage country -was not tempting to the Scottish freebooter nor worth the risk. Nor when -the tide set the other way were they accounted as actually of the -following of the great Border houses. When James I. ascended the throne -of a United Kingdom, and fondly fancied Border troubles were at an end, -that canny monarch thought to make some money by commuting the feudal -service nature of the Lakeland statesmen's holding to a money rent. -These military tenants of the Crown met to the number of two thousand -between Windermere and Kendal and swore that they would yield up their -lives rather than their title-deeds, which settled the matter. It -remained for the growth of national wealth, luxury, and what we call the -march of civilization to destroy by individual land purchase, assisted -by local conditions too complex to mention, the greater number of the -Lakeland freeholders or "statesmen". - -There are still some few left in possession, but otherwise the man -himself, though now a tenant, has by no means parted with his qualities -because his father or his grandfather parted with his freehold. - - - - -KIRKSTONE AND ULLSWATER - - -Kirkstone Pass looms always large in one's Lakeland memories. For one -thing, it is the ladder over which all traffic laboriously climbs from -the comparatively populous shores of Windermere into the long -sequestered trough of Ullswater, while for the walker it links the -eastern block of mountains to the Helvellyn and central group. It is, I -think, the highest road pass in England, touching the line of 1500 feet -where a lonely inn claims, by a natural inference, the uncomfortable -distinction of being the highest habitation in the kingdom. But whatever -may be the measure of its winter solitude, the cheery turmoil of the -shepherds' meeting in November, attended by some three hundred more or -less interested persons, must put heart into its occupants for the -ordeal. For on that great day, crowned by a gargantuan feast, the stray -sheep that have wandered from their rightful ranges and mingled with a -neighbouring flock are handed over, accompanied by ceremonies of -immemorial use. Then, too, a hundred or so of collie dogs settle such -disputes among themselves as may be of old standing, or more often -perhaps excited thereto by such unparalleled opportunities. A hound -trail usually completes the long day which begins betimes, for every man -upon these mountains is an enthusiast on the chase in its literal sense, -and knows as much of hounds and foxes as many an M.F.H. elsewhere. - -The steep descent into the narrow, verdant, stone-walled, thinly peopled -floor of the head of Patterdale, with its sprinkling of little -white-washed, scyamore-shaded homesteads, is not a theme for words but -for the brush; above all for the eye itself. Caudale Moor and Hartshope -Dodd loom largest above our right shoulder, shutting out the lofty -solitudes behind, while on the left Redscrees, Raven Crag, and Harts -Crag, and a fine confusion of rugged summits culminate in Helvellyn, -which upon this eastern side shows its nobler and precipitous front. -Brotherswater, though but a quarter of a mile in diameter, fills the -vale, and like a jewel catches every humour of these ever-restless -skies; gleaming betimes like molten gold, or on windless noons -reflecting the greys and greens of the overhanging steeps so vividly on -its glassy surface as almost to efface itself in its own shadows; at -other times, torn by the tempests that pour down from Kirkstone, into a -sheet of seething foam. For it is incredible to what a fury even a -little lake like this can lash itself, when exposed to the concentrated -volleys of two or three mountain glens. - -The memory of one of these spectacles on Hayswater, but a mile or so -distant, is suggested by the little hamlet of Low Hartsop at the mouth -of a lateral glen that comes in just where the valley widens somewhat, -bringing with it Hayswater beck to join the Goldrill, which last has run -through Brotherswater. Hartsop Hall is a plain, rugged old manor house -overhung with trees on the Kirkstone shore of the lake, long the abode -of sheep farmers, but possessed of the inconvenient disability of a -public right-of-way through the centre, now presumably lapsed. - -But till a few years ago a venerable champion of popular rights, or -perhaps merely a humorist with plenty of spare time, used to make an -annual pilgrimage here, and walk in at the front door and out at the -back without any ceremony. - -Low Hartshope itself is a group of some half-dozen mellow and mossy -homesteads, planted irregularly above the beck at any time within the -last five centuries. Fine old trees of sycamore, ash, and oak spread a -protecting mantle of foliage over this snug and ancient haunt of -dalesmen--a little patch of leafy opulence between the stern walls of -fell that rise sharply on either hand. One or two houses of the group, -representing, one might fancy, the proportionate decline of population -in the dales, are falling or have long ago fallen into ruins. Moss and -ferns, stone-crop and saxifrage, have seized alike upon both the -abandoned and the fallen, upon the sagging flagstone roof which covers -neither more nor less of the exposed weather-stained oak rafters than it -did ten years ago, upon the fallen stones of a more completed ruin -slowly sinking into the ground. Here may be seen, too, the deep, -oldfashioned spinning galleries thrust out from the upper story and -covered by an extension of the roof, invaluable not merely for the -summer air, but for the lack of winter daylight in those massive, -low-browed, small-windowed fortresses where the thrifty dalesmen dwelt. -Wordsworth has celebrated a pretty old tradition that the spindles ran -truer after the sheep had mounted the hill for their night's rest. - - Now beneath the starry sky - Crouch the widely scattered sheep, - Ply the pleasant labour, ply, - For the spindle while they sleep - Runs with motion smooth and fine, - Gathering up a trustier line. - -A mile or so up the glen, the higher part a steep climb, down which a -beck comes leaping in successive cataracts over black rocks feathered -with fern and rowan trees, lies entrenched between mountain walls which -rise some fifteen hundred feet above its three sides, the lonely lake of -Hayswater. Scarce a mile in length and narrow in proportion, the scene -is one in fair weather of delightful and impressive solitude, in wild -weather awesome to a degree bordering on the uncanny. The mountain -ridges all round are grey, stern, and rugged, while their green, -rock-strewn lower slopes fall for the most part sharply to the water's -edge. There is nowhere even a suggestion of humanity, but a rude boat -half full of water chained to a rock. So lonely a sheet of water of this -size, and thus nobly encompassed about and shut off from the world, -there is not in all Lakeland. On a tempestuous May day some two years -since the writer, underrating the measure of ferocity that the extra -elevation of a thousand feet adds to a storm, found himself a solitary -angler, beside these gloomy shores, amid as fine a prospect of the kind -as the somberer side of one's soul might wish for. The south-west gale -had found its way over the screes of the High Street ridge that closes -the head of the narrow valley of which Kidsty and Grey Crag form the -sides. Enraged apparently by opposition, it was coming down the full -length of the lake in intermittent bursts of rain-laden fury that made -even keeping one's feet no simple matter, and life altogether for the -moment a moderate sort of entertainment. The fact that in the brief -pauses, while the storm drew fresh breath, I could just keep my flies on -the water in the shelter of rocky points, and at the same time not -unprofitably, must be quoted in explanation of what might otherwise seem -a quite superfluous attendance at such a dismal pandemonium of the -elements. But these fortuitous encounters with nature in her most savage -mood, and in her grimmest haunts, are among the memories that for myself -I would ill spare, and none the less so because they so often belong to -the unexpected and the unsought. - - [Illustration: KIRKSTONE PASS AND BROTHERS WATER] - -The upper and more rugged half of the valley walls on this sombre -occasion opened and shut in veils of scudding mist, while their steep -green flanks, littered with black crags fallen in long ages past from -above, made a fitting frame for the white hissing waters that filled the -long and stormy trough. But the crowning feature of this particular -scene was at the foot of the lake, where it draws to a narrow point -between high rocky banks, and the out-going beck leaps towards the gorge -below through a gap in a stone dyke which otherwise closes the entrance. -For into this funnel the storm seemed to concentrate its fury, lashing -the waters after the fashion of a helm wind high into the air, and -hurling them far down into the ravine below. - -But I do not wish to keep the reader out in the wind and rain for the -whole of our sojourn in Patterdale, and I should be an ingrate indeed to -do so, for in many visits to this delightful haven in the Lake country -I am only too rejoiced to remember that sunshine has far outbalanced -cloud. And under such conditions the three miles of verdant vale from -Hartsop to Ullswater, by way of the hamlet and church of Patterdale -(named from St. Patrick) to Glenridding on the lake shore, is as -characteristic and charming a pastoral valley as there is in all the -Lake country. Cottages and homesteads, with their sheltering tufts of -foliage, have still even this much-visited country almost to themselves, -as they had it a century ago. The Goldrill, now a lusty stream, curves -and sparkles from farm to farm. The bordering fields terminate in -pleasant strips of woodland, or in bosky knolls of fern and rock, while -far above upon either side rise steep and high the everlasting hills. -And crowding round the head of Ullswater, which now spreads wide its -bright island-studded waters and ends the vale, are mountains piled up -everywhere. Place Fell and Birk Fell, lifting their untamed steeps of -crag and scree sheer up from the water along four miles of the eastern -shore, give that exceptional touch of wildness to the great lake which, -together with the fine grouping of Helvellyn and her satellites upon the -other side, justifies in the opinion of many its claim to pre-eminence -among its sisters. For myself, I frankly admit that the head of -Ullswater, and, for choice, a lodgment upon the Glenridding shore near -the edge of the lake, holds me more tenaciously when I get there than -any part of Lakeland. - -There was once a king in Patterdale. His name was Mounsey, and he died -in 1792, and the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for that year in its obituary -tells us all about him, facts confirmed, if such were necessary, by -local tradition. This was in the days of the "statesmen", before -outsiders came in and bought property and broke in upon the old Lakeland -democracy. Patterdale Hall has now this long time been a large country -house with a large estate attached to it. In the modest original -homestead, however, reigned the Mounseys, who from time immemorial had -been regarded as "kings" of the dale before the reign of the undesirable -and eccentric monarch who proved to be the last but one of them. - -This John Mounsey had an income of £800 a year, and the chief efforts of -his life, which lasted over ninety years, were directed to keeping his -expenses down to £30. In short, he was a miser of the most unabashed -type. He was endowed with immense physical strength, of which, unlike -his money, he grudged no expenditure in the pursuit of the -over-mastering passion of his life. He rowed his own slate and timber -down the lake to market, and toiled all day at the hardest manual tasks. -When compelled to visit Penrith or elsewhere on business, he slept in -neighbouring barns to save a hotel bill. He had his stockings shod with -leather, and always wore wooden shoes. He is reported on one occasion, -while riding by the lake, to have dismounted, stripped, and dived into -it after an old stocking that caught his eye. Rather than buy a -respectable suit for funerals, markets, and the like, he used to force -the loan of them from his tenants, who were also under agreement to -furnish him with so many free meals a year. Ever fearful of being -robbed, he used to secrete his money in walls and holes in the ground, a -practice which occasioned many exhilarating hunts for treasure-trove -among the idle. His last luxury was putting out to the lowest tender the -drawing of his will. The Patterdale schoolmaster, with a bid of -ten-pence, obtained the contract. His son, however, closed the dynasty -with honour, when the forbear of the present owner bought the royal -domain and a good deal more beside, and planted those beautiful wild -woods along the western margin of Ullswater that are the delight of -every visitor, and above all of those for whom mountain and lake offer -too strenuous adventure. - -Various glens of infinite beauty wind up to the heart and shoulders of -Helvellyn and Fairfield, which mountains display to the people of -Ullswater by far their finest qualities. Across the lake a fine -solitude of moor and fell, rising to 2600 feet, spreads far away -eastward to Shap, including Martindale, Boredale, Mardale, and the High -Street range, which carries the old Roman road to Carlisle (whence comes -its name, Ystrad) along its summit. The wild red deer still roam over -this wilderness as far as the shores of Ullswater, while as regards -foxes they are almost too plentiful everywhere. Nor is there any part of -England, no not Leicestershire, though in far different fashion, where -they fill a bigger place in the public eye. Of the four or five packs of -foxhounds hunted and followed on foot over the fells of Lakeland, one -kennelled at Ullswater is among the most notable, if only for its famous -huntsman. Every soul in Lakeland as far east as Crossfell, and every -frequenter of Ullswater, knows "Joe Bowman", who has just now completed -thirty years of such severe service as hunting a pack of fell hounds on -foot means. The mantle of John Peel (who hunted a lower country, -however, and rode to his hounds) has almost fallen upon him. His -stalwart form may even be seen, like that of John Peel's, outside the -cover of hunting songs in the windows of Carlisle music shops. If the -songs are not sung like the others round the world, the memory of their -subject will live among the dalesmen, I'll warrant, to their children's -children. For hunting here is actually, not theoretically, democratic. -When hounds throw off soon after daylight on a mountain side, and hunt a -slow drag for an hour or two till they move their fox, and the field -have to follow on foot as best they may, there is not much scope for the -dashing and the decorative side of the chase. The fell farmers are all -devoted followers, are on familiar terms with all the foxes, their -domestic arrangements, and their families, and their probable line of -action when pursued. They mostly know the hounds, and can recall their -fathers and their mothers and their grandparents, and are steeped in -hound lore. The very children about the head of Ullswater know many of -the "dogs" personally, and have played with them as puppies. For they -are mostly "walked" on the surrounding farms in summer, and when they -play truant, which is pretty often, and come trotting through the -village after a hunt upon their own account, it is quaint to hear them -affectionately invoked by name from window or doorstep as familiar -public characters. The necessity for keeping down the foxes gives, of -course, an extra zest to the chase in these mountains. There being -nothing to prevent and much to stimulate it in this country of late -lambs, hunting is carried on vigorously till the middle of May; April, -as a matter of fact, being for many reasons irrelevant here the most -active month, and the best for seeing the sport. It is glorious, indeed, -on an early spring morning to be perched, let us say, on one of the -lower shoulders of Helvellyn, with the joyous crash of hounds upon a -warming scent echoing from cliff to cliff. - - [Illustration: ULLSWATER] - -But let us turn to gentler themes, noting for a moment Stybarrow, the -foot of which is the subject of our artist's skill. There is very little -of the Border foray tradition in the heart of the Lake country. It was -obviously unprofitable as well as risky to the aggressor. But a body of -Scots did once, at least, make a dash on Patterdale and on Stybarrow, -which is in a sense its gateway, and met their fate. If the eastern -shore of the upper half of Ullswater is inspiring from its solitary -grandeur of overhanging mountain, its feathered cliffs and promontories, -its indented rocky coves, its western shore holds one's affections by -its gentler and more sylvan beauties. For after the picturesque -confusion of mossy crag and forest glade around Stybarrow, beneath which -the lake lies deep and dark, the two large demesnes--"chases" would best -describe them--of Glencoin and Gowbarrow slope gently down from the -back-lying mountains to the curving shore. Here are pleasant silvery -strands overhung with tall sycamores and oaks; there are rocky shores -fringed with hazel and alder, where the crystal waters of this most -pellucid of large lakes breaks sonorously when a gale is blowing. The -little becks come tumbling in too over the sloping meadows from the -fells--that of Glencoin of familiar name, and that of Aira of greater -fame for its waterfall, whose hoarse voice can be heard on still -evenings on the lake, and for the legend embodied in Wordsworth's -well-known poem. Here, too, behind the long grassy promontory with -pebbly shore that roughly marks the entry to this upper and more -beautiful four miles of lake, is Lyulph's tower. Not a very ancient -fabric, to be sure, but marking the site of that shadowy keep where -dwelt the sleep-walking, love-lorn maiden, who perished in the pool -below Aira Force in the arms of her errant knight, as he arrived only -just in time to drag her expiring to the shore. - - List ye who pass by Lyulph's tower - At eve how softly then Doth Aira - Force, that torrent hoarse, - Speak from the woody glen. - - - - -BASSENTHWAITE AND DERWENTWATER - - What was the great Parnassus' self to thee - Mount Skiddaw? In his natural sovereignty - Our British hill is fairer far; he shrouds - His double front among Atlantic clouds, - And pours forth streams more sweet than Castally. - - --_Wordsworth._ - - -Mercifully it is not our province here to pass a pious opinion on the -comparative beauties of Ullswater and Derwentwater. It is tolerably -certain that the one which held you the longer and the most often in its -welcome toils would have your verdict. The lake of Ulpho is a thought -wilder and grander and withal less accessible. Save on occasions, it -wears generally a more isolated and aloof demeanour. The other, too, is -much smaller and quite differently formed; its length, three miles and -odd, being little more than twice its breadth, but picturesquely -indented, and virtually surrounded by mountainous heights. Keswick town -almost adjoins, though nowhere trenching, on its lower end, and behind -Keswick the great cone of Skiddaw fills the north. Though of no -distinction in itself, not a country town in all England is so -felicitously placed. Within five minutes' walk of its extremity its -fortunate burghers can pace the shores of Derwentwater, or, better -still, the fir-clad promontory of Friars Crag, and look straight up the -mountain-bordered lake to the yet sterner heights looming at its farther -end, known as the Jaws of Borrowdale. Behind and to the north Skiddaw, -as related, joining hands to the eastward with more precipitous -Blencathara, otherwise Saddleback, lifts its shapely bulk. Through a -fair green vale between, the Derwent, joined by Keswick's own bewitching -stream, the Greta, urges a bold and rapid course to Bassenthwaite, which -completes the picture two miles below. Though not geographically -central, Keswick is nevertheless an admirable base from whence to -adventure the Lake country for such as trust to wheels of any kind, and -have no great length of time at their disposal. The _genius loci_ of -Keswick is of course Southey, and the plain red house where that -kind-hearted and industrious poet and brilliant essayist lived for most -of his life still stands above the Greta. Different in every personal -characteristic, as De Quincey their mutual friend so lucidly sets forth, -was Southey from Wordsworth, his successor in the Laureateship. The one, -elegant, reserved, modest, fastidious, business-like, a methodical and -indefatigable worker, but essentially a man of books; the other, -sprawly, almost uncouth in minor habits, self-centred to the verge of -arrogancy in social intercourse. Southey at Keswick earned by the -_Quarterly_ and other sources a quite substantial income, out of which -he maintained not merely his own family, but for long that of poor S. T. -Coleridge, whose haphazard existence consisted very largely of a -succession of extended visits to generous and admiring friends. -Wordsworth, on the other hand, ridiculed by most of the critics, made -very little out of his poems till quite late in life. But for once in a -way Providence, as represented by pounds sterling, seemed to recognize a -dreamy genius, with no capacity for earning bread and butter, and -showered upon him from all sides legacies, annuities, and sinecures that -made him probably a richer man than Southey, even apart from his belated -earnings. - - [Illustration: BASSENTHWAITE LAKE AND SKIDDAW] - -A striking picture, too, is this ancient church of St. Kentigern planted -in the level vale--the Derwent chanting in its rocky bed upon the one -hand, and Skiddaw lifting its three thousand feet upon the other, with -Bassenthwaite opening not far below its broad and shining breast. Fate -has laid the bones of many a man and woman of some modest fame in their -day beneath the heaving turf of this picturesque crowded graveyard, -caught unawares, some of them, while temporary sojourners in a country, -whose beauty drew hither two or three generations of pilgrims, before -facilities of transport made the achievement the simple one it is for -us. Within the church, however, a monument to John Radcliffe, the second -Earl of Derwentwater, father of that ill-fated young man who lost his -head and the vast estates of the family in the 'Fifteen, husband, too, -of Charles the Second's daughter by the Duchess of Cleveland, strikes an -earlier and more genuinely local note. The original nest of the -Radcliffes was on Lord's Island, one of those near the foot of the lake, -and its foundations may still be traced; but they acquired their chief -consequence through wealthy Northumbrian heiresses. The Keswick property -remained with them till the confiscation; but it is with the ruined -towers of Dilston, near Hexham, rather than the land of their origin and -their title that the memory of the Radcliffes will be chiefly -associated. So one must not linger here over the story, rather a -pathetic one, in fact, how the young peer of 1715, admirable in every -relation of life, with youth, a happy marriage, and an immense property -all to his credit, was drawn into the rising against his better -judgment, to become its chief victim. Forced by a train of circumstances -and by an almost morbid sense of honour, as a near relative of the -exiled house, to join the ill-concerted scheme, in which he had not even -been consulted, since his name only was wanted, his fate was a hard one, -and he was duly mourned on both the Western and the Eastern march. - - "O Derwentwater's a bonny lord, - Fu' yellow is his hair, - And glinting is his hawky 'ee - Wi' kind love dwalling there." - -Another historical character intimately associated with the Keswick -country was that "Shepherd Lord" celebrated by Wordsworth. This was the -only surviving son of the Black Clifford, whom, in the ruthless feuds of -The Roses, his mother, dreading the vengeance which might pursue the son -of such a father, sent to be reared as a shepherd's son on the slopes of -Saddleback. Nor till he was thirty did he emerge from this humble role -to take his place as a peer of the realm, to marry twice, and to acquit -himself reasonably well when called to public duties from the seclusion -of Borden Tower, still standing on the Yorkshire moors above the Wharfe, -where he lived a studious life. Indeed he marched to Flodden Field, -which must have irked such a peaceful soul, one might fancy, not a -little. - -It is at the head of Derwentwater that the Lodore beck makes that -sonorous descent into the vale, which, by a famous poet's frolic, as it -were, achieved a notoriety it only merits in a wet season. The mouth of -Borrowdale, however, down which the Derwent hurls its beautiful limpid -streams through resounding gorges to an ultimately peaceful journey to -the lake, is a place to linger in, not merely to admire in passing, and -two well-known hotels of old standing are evidence that the public are -of that opinion. If the heights of Borrowdale make an inspiring -background for the lake, as viewed from the Keswick end, Skiddaw, as -seen from Borrowdale, serves as noble a purpose. Then there is that long -array of heights right across the lake, and those behind them, spreading -away to Buttermere. - -The view from Skiddaw is well worth the long but easy climb. -Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, linked by the silver coil of the river -in the green vale, make a perfect foreground to a prospect which, like -that of Helvellyn, covers not only the whole of Lakeland, but the sea -coast and much more beyond. Skiddaw, however, stands sentinel, as it -were, at this northern gateway into the Lake country, and looks right -over Cumberland, with Carlisle in the centre of the picture, the Solway -gleaming beyond, and behind that again the dim rolling forms of the -Scottish hills. We have nothing to do with Carlisle, or the Eden, or -Solway Moss, with Eskdale or Liddesdale, or any of this classic -Borderland here laid open to the view. But one may be pardoned, when -perched thus in fancy upon Skiddaw's aerial cone, for a brief -reflection of how different was the past and how strangely different the -associations of this rugged romantic Lake country with its simple, -uneventful peasant story, quite obscured what there is of it by its more -recent literary associations, from that classic soil of Border story -spreading to the northward. "Happy is the land", says the old saw, "that -has no history"; and no part of England has so little, in the ordinary -sense of the word, as that which one looks back upon from the top of -Skiddaw. None, upon the other hand, has more than that once -blood-stained region, now spreading so fair and green and fertile to the -dim hills of Scotland, which share its stirring tale. - - [Illustration: DERWENTWATER FROM FRIARS CRAG] - -Immediately below and behind the mountain Skiddaw forest spreads--an -unusual sight in Lakeland--its heather-clad undulations, and beyond and -all around it is the green up-lying country, where John Peel of immortal -memory hunted those no less immortal hounds. A majority of persons, I am -quite sure, still think he is a mythical person, the burden of a fancy -song, a legendary hero. But, on the contrary, he lived down yonder in -Caldbeck, and only died in 1854. You may see his tombstone at any time -with his obituary, and a hound, whip, and spur carved on its face in the -village churchyard. Plenty of people still living remember him well. The -late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, whose home, and that of his forbears, is -easily visible from here, knew him well, and in his youth had hunted -with him. The last time I was at Caldbeck, ten years ago, two of his -daughters, old married ladies, were still alive in the neighbourhood, -and I spent several hours myself in company with his nephew, who, when a -boy, used to help him with his hounds. Peel was, in fact, a well-to-do -yeoman who kept a small pack of hounds, which he hunted when and where -he pleased for his own entertainment, and, incidentally, for that of a -few of his neighbours, one of whom, Woodcock Graves, the whilom owner of -a bobbin mill and his most constant companion, wrote the song, never -dreaming of it as more than a passing joke. Afterwards, when Graves, -having failed in business, went to Tasmania, where he died in the -'Seventies, Mr. Metcalf, of the Carlisle publishing house, arranged the -song, which fortuitously caught on in Cumbrian hunting circles, and has -now gone round the world. Graves has told us all about the writing of -it--tossed hastily off one evening in Peel's little house at Caldbeck, -which anyone may see to-day. The village is full of his relatives and -connections, and I have no doubt that the famous sportsman spoke an -archaic and forcible Cumbrian, that strangers who can understand the -ordinary fell farmer or peasant of to-day without difficulty would make -mighty little of. At any rate, his nephew Robert did! Peel was not a -fell hunter of the Ullswater pattern, but worked altogether a lower -country and rode to his hounds. He was an exact contemporary of the lake -poets, this other lion, and there is a spice of humour in the thought! -"When he wasn't huntin'," remarked his venerable relative to me, in a -heartfelt, reminiscent sort of tone, "he was aye drinkin'." His view -holloa, though said by those who remember him to have been the most -tremendous and piercing ever let out of mortal throat, obviously never -penetrated the barrier of Skiddaw and Saddleback and reached the ears of -the Lake poets "in the morning". - - - - -BUTTERMERE - - All nature welcomes Her whose sway - Tempers the year's extremes; - Who scattereth lustres o'er noonday, - Like morning's dewy gleams. - While mellow warble, sprightly trill - The tremulous heart excite, - And hums the balmy air to still The balance of delight. - - --_Wordsworth (Ode to May)._ - - -Buttermere in May or early June! The May of the poet, that is to say, -which smiles upon us twice or thrice in a decade, not the May of -actuality which is spent in overcoats and blighted hopes, and bad -tempers and east winds. But there are Mays even yet like those of the -invincible tradition, and just enough of them to save the face of the -poet. And Buttermere in the full flush of one of them stands always out -for me conspicuous in that long gallery of bygone summer pageants, which -are not the least of those pleasant fancies kindled by the cheery glow -of the winter fireside. Ullswater and Wastwater can turn almost any -atmosphere to account. They can grasp the glories of high June and -diffuse their radiance over shore and mountain to as much purpose as -any, or can turn savage in the storms and clouds of autumn with infinite -grandeur. - - [Illustration: HONISTER PASS--DAWN] - -Honister, too, though surmounted in many moods, I almost prefer to -recall in some such one as this, when the replenished ghylls are -spouting like silver threads down the dark mountain sides to the right -and left as you draw up from Seatoller, and the sombre crag itself is -thrusting up a rugged head against a background of whirling clouds. But -down in the long secluded vale of Buttermere, its narrowed trough for -most of the five miles it winds its beauteous length, filled with the -waters of two pellucid lakes, I would have it always June, or rather -that ideal, precocious May which has planted it irrevocably in the -chambers of my soul. - -Of all the better-known lakes or haunts in Lakeland, this one is perhaps -the most secluded. A dozen miles by steep roads and some fearsome hills -are made light of, it is true, by the coaches of the holiday season; but -at other times the valley is cut off from the travelling world dependent -on public transport, and its two or three small hostelries are then apt -to become very empty havens of peace amid the hills. Lying amid bosky -knolls upon the half-mile meadowy interval, through which the Cocker -sparkles from the foot of Buttermere to the head of Crummock, with the -steep green wall of mountain, cloven here and there by the white trail -of falling streams, rising sharply for two thousand feet above it, the -pose of this little group of cottages and homesteads scattered around -their diminutive church is perfection itself. The sense of snug -seclusion from a noisy and ever noisier world, and that, too, in a spot -familiar by name at least wherever the English language obtains, is -everywhere eloquent, and holds one's fancy above the common. And along -the steep western shore of Buttermere itself, following a sheep track on -the rough mountain side, amid the scent of thyme and freshly blooming -gorse, the hum of bees, with the flowers of the upland showing their shy -heads among the ragged moorland grasses, what a picture at such time as -I have in mind is this mile and a half of limpid water, fringed upon its -farther shore by mantling woods! For though only one residence of any -kind trenches upon the margin of either lake, this one of Hasness upon -Buttermere has been enfolded by time and taste in groves of larch and -beech and sycamore that extend half along the lake shore, and flaunt -their earliest foliage of summer upon the glassy water. While on the -rugged oaks mingled among them, self-sown, perhaps, some of them by -hardy stunted forbears, there still flares that golden tint in which its -bursting leaf so curiously forestalls the radiant decay of Autumn. - -And when the woods cease, what delightful natural lawns of crisp turf -sweep in little curving bays to the mere edge, where gently shelving -beaches of silvery gravel dip into the shallow waters, and show far out -into the lake their clean white bottom beneath its crystal depths! At -the head of the lake the Cocker comes prattling down through the meadows -of Gatesgarth, a typical mountain sheep farm, whose Herdwicks, running -to many thousands, count every mountain within sight as their own -traditional domain, to the summit of Honister and the Haystacks--a noble -pair of sentinels closing the gateway to the vale. - -Most notable valleys in the Lake country have their _genius loci_, as is -only natural in a region till quite recent times utterly removed from -the world's life. And they are often simple folk whose sorrows or -humours have acquired immortality from the very seclusion, the normally -unruffled calm of their environment. Mary of Buttermere and her -harrowing story, for instance, would long ago have been forgotten in -Hampshire. But no one reasonably versed in Lakeland lore ever, I trust, -crosses the threshold of the Old Fish Inn without taking off his hat, so -to speak, to the memory of that ill-used maiden. Her trials, however, -were after all comparative; well-looking barmaids suffer much worse -things, and men lose their lives over them in various ways once or -twice a year. But the sentiment attaching to the personality of this -mountain beauty, whom, like Phyllis, all the shepherd swains adored, and -yet further celebrated by such visitors as penetrated to this romantic -spot, including the Lake poets, made a stir in the world when the -villain was hung as high as Haman. The press rang with it, which meant -more in those days than in these, and the "Beauty of Buttermere" -appeared in various forms upon the stage of London theatres. - -The Old Fish Inn still stands a little way down the meadow from the -village, as it stood over a century ago, when the yeoman father of Mary -Robinson, the heroine, presided over it, and she herself ministered to -the hunger and thirst of his varied guests. The gentlemen visitors no -doubt turned her head a little, though Wordsworth, who had evidently -taken a social glass there with Coleridge, reminds him how they had both -been stricken with the modest mien of this artless daughter of the -hills. But one may safely hazard the belief that Wordsworth was more -artless in this kind of divination than the most rustic young woman who -ever poured out a glass of beer. De Quincey, who also knew her, bears -witness to the admiration the two poets had for her, and has a sly hit -at their romantic assumption of her ingenuousness. - - [Illustration: HEAD OF BUTTERMERE AND HONISTER CRAG] - -But if Mary broke rustic hearts and held her head a little high, she was -at least a young woman of irreproachable character, and it was in 1805 -that the distinguished stranger who gave her such fortuitous immortality -arrived in Keswick in a handsome turnout and took up his abode at its -chief hotel, entering his name as the Honourable Augustus Hope, M.P., a -brother by assumption, modestly admitted by the stranger himself, of -Lord Hopetown. One must endeavour, if it costs a mental effort, to -imagine the aloofness of this country and all such regions in the year -of Trafalgar, when one finds a very poor imitation of a fine gentleman -posing as the brother of a well-known peer, taking local society with a -big S by storm, and the "county" within reach of Keswick tumbling over -one another to do him honour. There was a sceptic here and there, to be -sure. He overdid his affability, and Coleridge even hints that his -grammar was shaky, which nowadays would possibly be a point in his -favour. But as he franked his letters, and forgery then meant death, the -unbelieving minority were temporarily silenced, and the Honourable -Augustus continued to enjoy himself very much indeed. Perhaps so -experienced a gentleman knew precisely when to stop, for in due course -he betook himself to Buttermere and to the Fish Inn, ostensibly to catch -char or trout, but the only record of his sport we have is the capture -of the heart, or at any rate the hand--for he wooed her openly and -honourably--of his landlord's daughter. What society in the vale of -Keswick, a member of whom had even christened a recently arrived son and -heir _Augustus Hope_, particularly matrons with marriageable daughters, -thought of the escapade of the Honourable Augustus, history does not -say. It has no occasion; we may be quite certain without being told. The -happy day was fixed. It arrived, and the smallest church in England -tinkled out the marriage peals with its single bell. The Hopetown family -were not represented at the wedding for one excellent reason, and the -aristocracy of the vale of Keswick for quite another one. The absence of -the former was easily explained away to so artless a gathering as was -here collected. That of the latter was only natural, and must have -provided even a spice of triumph for the victorious Beauty of -Buttermere. The honeymoon, of which London with the brotherly welcome of -a noble family and the smiles of a Court was to be the culmination, -extended very little farther than Keswick, when the minions of the law -swooped down upon Augustus and tore him from Mary's arms on a charge of -forgery, which proved the least of his many heinous crimes. In brief, -the man's name was Hatfield, son of a Devonshire tradesman, and Mary -was only the last of many victims, most of them her superiors in -station, whom with marvellous skill and cunning this accomplished -ruffian had deceived, abandoning them one after another in conditions of -distress, and some of them with children. He was hung at Carlisle, and -Mary returned to her father's inn and resumed her former position. She -had no child and bore no reproach, among her simple neighbours the most -fortunate, probably, but the most celebrated of the villain's many -victims. She eventually married a farmer from Caldbeck, and her grave -may be seen to-day, near by that one distinguished by the curiously -sporting tombstone beneath which lies the dust of John Peel of immortal -memory. - -Crummock is just twice the length of Buttermere, with about the same -average width of half a mile. Like the other, it is pressed between the -feet of steep mountains, and has the same charm at the open and upper -end of silvery strand shelving from meadowy banks, with the same -clusters of fir, alder, or gnarled oak grouped gracefully about the -grassy shore. Here, too, on still summer days the same crystal water -shows far out into the lake the clean, white, gravelly bottom on which -it lies. There are two or three boats, moreover, available on Crummock, -and it is out on the bosom of the lake that this whole beautiful vale, -above and below it, is displayed perhaps to the best advantage. The now -remoter heights of Honister and its companions fill the head. The steeps -of High Stile and Red Pike dip to the gorge near by, whence issues the -hoarse murmur of Scale Force making its sheer leap of a hundred and -twenty feet, and spraying with perennial moisture the ferns, mosses, and -feathery saplings that cling to its shaggy cliffs. Above the lower -heights upon the eastern shores rise the higher fells of Whiteside and -Grassmoor, the latter bearing the strange unhealed red scars where its -whole front was shaved away a century and a half ago by a tremendous -waterspout. - -A May morning out on Crummock, the fly rod laid aside in despair for the -moment with its capricious little trout, though the compensations forbid -so untoward a word; the boat drifting idly with gently gurgling keel -upon the faint ripples stirred by the very softest of zephyrs; the -distant murmur of the Cocker splashing toward the lake head; the faint -dull roar of Scale Force, and, above all, the silent throng of -overhanging mountains fairly pealing with the cuckoo's note, is a memory -always to be treasured. Another such morning, too, comes back to me, -when splashes of brilliant blue lay here and there upon the eastern -shore of the lake, disclosing to a nearer view great beds of -bluebells at the height of their glory. A moonlight night again, the -sequel of the same or another such effulgent day, is before me as, idly -trolling for the bigger trout, those prowlers of the night, one felt the -awesome black shapes of the mountains piled up on every hand, while the -slow, measured stroke of the oar struck molten silver as we crossed and -recrossed the moon's shining path. - - [Illustration: SCALE FORCE, CRUMMOCK WATER] - -Stern and wild enough under the shadow of night or beneath stormy skies, -Crummock thrusts its gradually narrowing point deep into richer scenes -of woody foot-hill, and radiant meadow, overlooked by the picturesquely -perched old hostelry of Scale Hill, familiar to generations of Lakeland -tourists. And here the Cocker leaps rejoicing and in fuller volume to -sparkle down the long, lovely vale of Lorton towards its junction with -the Derwent at Wordsworth's birthplace. A mile or so to the westward -Loweswater lies bewitchingly in the lap of fells, but overhung upon one -bank for its entire length by the opulent foliage of Holm Wood, and -lacking the more rugged features which dominate the others, seems to lie -somewhat aloof from them in quality as it does in fact. - -But one privilege of a sojourn in the valley is its easy access, over -the single ridge that divides them, to the famous but secluded trough -of Ennerdale, lying parallel to that of Buttermere. The prospect from -Scarth Cap before descending into one of the wildest valleys in all -Lakeland has a peculiar grimness, for the long array of precipitous -steeps and crags that confront one above the twisting thread of the beck -hurrying down to Ennerdale Lake turn their savage fronts so -uncompromisingly to the north. The more radiant the summer morn, the -brighter the summer day, the darker by contrast with the interludes of -spring verdure that no north aspect can quench are the impenetrable -shadows which mask all detail, and make fearsome precipices out of -rugged but accessible steeps. For above them the Pillar Mountain almost -touches 3000 feet, and the far-famed Pillar Rock springing from its -outskirts, whose naked walls need no black shadows for their -enhancement. But this is wandering from our immediate subject, and -involving us in the group of big mountains that cluster round Scafell. -Far down the valley the lake of Ennerdale, in size and shape resembling -Crummock, glistens at the fringe of civilization. If local genii count -for aught, that of this valley, though not nearly so familiar, should -surely be "t'girt dog of Ennerdale". - -The first notice of his appearance was in May, 1816, when carcasses of -three or four sheep killed and as many mangled were found in Lower -Ennerdale. Such mishaps were common enough, but the usual sequel, the -destruction of the dog within a few days, utterly failed here. Every -device known was futile before this formidable vampire. For a long time -no trace could be found of him, but in the increasing toll of victims -that greeted the shepherd's eye in ever-changing and unexpected -quarters. He never visited the same place twice within an ordinary space -of time, and the scene of some of his raids were twenty miles apart. He -worked entirely at night, laying low through the day in woods and -ditches. His bi-weekly or tri-weekly toll increased with his rage for -blood, and the hue and cry raised everywhere brought him into view -occasionally in the early mornings. But while men with guns were lying -for him in one place, he would be enjoying himself on some unsuspected -hillside ten miles away. The toll of victims mounted into the hundreds; -June and July passed away, and "t'girt dog" was still master of the -situation, the growing grain crops giving him ampler refuge. - -Half the men in the country spent the night afield with guns, and were -worn out with watching. Many idlers, tempted by the large reward -offered, seized the chance to join the chase, and the statesmen's wives -waxed weary of cooking meals for all and sundry by day and night. The -children were afraid to tread their often lonely paths to school, and -screamed in their sleep that "t'girt dog" was after them. The mountain -foxhounds were brought up and laid on. But the girt dog with his -greyhound blood ran away from them all, carrying the line on one -occasion from Ennerdale to St. Bees on the coast, and on another to -Cockermouth. The following, on this occasion, consisted of two hundred -souls. It was a Sunday, and passing Ennerdale Church during service in -full cry had added to the field the males of the congregation as one -man, including the parson. The humours of some of these exhilarating -hunts as told by a contemporary pen are delightful. Once, when -surrounded by guns in a cornfield, the ingenious quarry singled out the -least efficient sportsman, Will Rothbury, who, as the sanguinary beast -broke cover and ran past him within easy shot, leaped up in the air -instead of firing and cried out, "Skerse, what a dog!" The latter, -shaken for a moment out of his presence of mind, bolted between the -notoriously bandy legs of a deaf old man who was gathering faggots, -unconscious of the excitement. Not till the middle of September did the -girt dog succumb after a long chase. He was set up in Keswick Museum -with a collar round his neck describing his exploits. Such, in brief, -for much more might be told, is the story of "t'girt dog of Ennerdale". - - - * * * * * - - - Transcriber's Note: Obvious punctuation errors corrected. - Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The English Lakes, by A. G. 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