Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wordsworth, Dorothy
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Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Diaries; Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855 -- Diaries; Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Family
After breakfast we walked onwards, expecting that the stream would lead
us into some considerable vale; but it soon became little better than a
common rivulet, and the glen appeared to be short; indeed, we wondered
how the river had grown so great all at once. Our horse had not been
able to eat his corn, and we waited a long time in the hope that he
would be better. At eleven o'clock, however, we determined to set off,
and give him all the ease possible by walking up the hills, and not
pushing beyond a slow walk. We had fourteen miles to travel to Kenmore,
by the side of Loch Tay. Crossed the same bridge again, and went down
the south side of the lake. We had a delightful view of the village of
Killin, among rich green fields, corn and wood, and up towards the two
horns of the vale of Tay, the valley of the Dochart, and the other
valley with its full-grown river, the prospect terminated by mountains.
We travelled through lanes, woods, or open fields, never close to the
lake, but always near it, for many miles, the road being carried along
the side of a hill, which rose in an almost regularly receding steep
from the lake. The opposite shore did not much differ from that down
which we went, but it seemed more thinly inhabited, and not so well
cultivated. The sun shone, the cottages were pleasant, and the
goings-on of the harvest--for all the inhabitants were at work in the
corn fields--made the way cheerful. But there is an uniformity in the
lake which, comparing it with other lakes, made it appear tiresome. It
has no windings: I should even imagine, although it is so many miles
long, that, from some points not very high on the hills, it may be seen
from one end to the other. There are few bays, no lurking-places where
the water hides itself in the land, no outjutting points or
promontories, no islands; and there are no commanding mountains or
precipices. I think that this lake would be the most pleasing in
spring-time, or in summer before the corn begins to change colour, the
long tracts of hills on each side of the vale having at this season a
kind of patchy appearance, for the corn fields in general were very
small, mere plots, and of every possible shade of bright yellow. When we
came in view of the foot of the lake we perceived that it ended, as it
had begun, in pride and loveliness. The village of Kenmore, with its
neat church and cleanly houses, stands on a gentle eminence at the end
of the water. The view, though not near so beautiful as that of Killin,
is exceedingly pleasing. Left our car, and turned out of the road at
about the distance of a mile from the town, and after having climbed
perhaps a quarter of a mile, we were conducted into a locked-up
plantation, and guessed by the sound that we were near the cascade, but
could not see it. Our guide opened a door, and we entered a dungeon-like
passage, and, after walking some yards in total darkness, found
ourselves in a quaint apartment stuck over with moss, hung about with
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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