English Pictures Drawn with Pen and PencilManning, Samuel
History
English Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil
Manning, Samuel
England -- Description and travel
Then the grandeurs of Borrowdale unfold themselves, and Rossthwaite, in
the heart of this valley, is the very ideal of sequestered loveliness.
The road, turning to the right at Seatoller, climbs a long steep hill
beside a dashing torrent. A little way beyond the summit is Honister
Crag, most magnificent of inland cliffs; and so, amid wild rock-scenery
on either hand, we descend to Buttermere. The drive now discloses
a grand amphitheatre of mountains, whose summits form a rugged
ever-changing line against the sky. Soon the little inn is reached;
but we would advise no tourist so to occupy himself with the welcome
refreshment, though flavoured with that "best sauce," a sharp-set
appetite, or even with the ever-amusing "Visitors' Book," as to neglect
rowing across Crummock Water, when a walk of about a mile will take him
to Scale Force, in its deep rocky glen, the loftiest and noblest, as
well as the most secluded of the lake waterfalls. The drive back from
Buttermere to Keswick, by the Newland Valley, or the Vale of Lorton,
with its old yew tree, is full of interest, from the bold mountain
forms ever in view, but has not the wonderfully varied beauty of the
Borrowdale and Seatoller route.
Everybody, as we have said, takes this drive: but there is an excursion
known to comparatively few, not a very long one, but "beautiful
exceedingly."
Should a morning at Keswick be unemployed, or if the question should
arise in the interval of wider explorations: "What shall I do to-day?"
our advice is to go up to Watendlath. This is a narrow upland valley,
extending from the head of the stream that supplies Barrow Fall, to that
which comes down at Lodore, then up by the latter to the tarn from which
it flows. It may be reached by one of two or three routes from below,
and after a short ascent the traveller finds himself, as it were, in
the very heart of the hills; a still and lovely world, above the beaten
ways, with nature's fragrance and music all around. We have suggested "a
morning" for the excursion, but it is still better to proceed leisurely;
resting on some turfy bank beside the path, in happy talk with congenial
friends; or, if alone, in quiet communion with our own souls and with
Him who has made the world so beautiful. In the earlier parts of the
walk the occasional views over Derwentwater, and down to Bassenthwaite,
with Skiddaw towering grandly in one direction, and the Borrowdale
Mountains in another, are magnificent; but in the heart of the glen,
leading up beside the Lodore torrent, these are gradually left behind.
When the hamlet, and the tarn with its bright rippling waters, at length
are reached, and the torrent has been crossed by a little rustic bridge,
Ross-thwaite is descried below, and may be reached by a steep descent;
or the stout pedestrian may strike boldly over Armboth Fall for
Thirlmere at the foot of Helvellyn, or if he please may climb still
higher by the side of the Lodore stream until he reaches Blea Tarn, high
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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