Lancashire: Brief Historical and Descriptive NotesGrindon, Leo H. (Leo Hartley)
History
Lancashire: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes
Grindon, Leo H. (Leo Hartley)
Lancashire (England) -- Description and travel
Kent's Bank, a couple of miles beyond Grange, supplies hill scenery
little inferior. The heights above Allithwaite cover almost the whole
of the fine outlook characteristic of the northern shore of Morecambe
Bay. Kirkhead and Humphrey Head also give unlimited prospects,
especially when the tide is in. The man who loves solitude will find
them lonely enough for hermitages:--blackberries beyond measure grow
on the slopes. Humphrey Head presents features rarely met with,
consisting of a limestone promontory, the sides, in part, nearly
vertical, thus closely resembling the rock at the south-western
extremity of Clevedon, with which many associate Tennyson and the
mournful verses which have for their burden, "Break, break, break, on
thy cold gray stones, O Sea!" Grange, Kent's Bank, Kirkhead, and
Humphrey Head, constantly awaken recollections of the beautiful
village on the eastern edge of the Bristol Channel. The scenery
corresponds, and in productions there is again a very interesting
similarity, though Clevedon has a decided advantage in regard to
diversity of species. Hampsfell and Allithwaite recur at intervals all
the way to the borders of the Leven; thence, constantly varying,
westward to the banks of the Duddon, and southward to the Furness
Valley: not, indeed, until we reach Piel--the little cape where the
boats arrive from Fleetwood--is there surrender.
Piel, as said above, is preferable as a route to the Lake District,
because of the preliminary half hour upon the water, which is
generally smooth and exhilarating. It offers the most interesting way
of approach, also, to Duddon Bridge, where the coast of Lancashire
ends--a place itself of many attractions. The river, it is scarcely
necessary to say, is the Duddon immortalised by Wordsworth, one of
whose sonnets describes the "liquid lapse serene" of this too-seldom
visited stream as it moves through Dunnerdale, after entering, near
Newfield, through a rent in the rocky screen which adds so much to the
romantic features of its early existence. The bridge gives ready
approach to Black Combe, most gloomy and austere of the Cumberland
mountains, but affording full compensation in the magnificence of the
prospects, the height being little short of 2000 feet. Close by, in
Lancashire, we find the ancient village of Broughton, the lords of
which, four or five centuries ago, gave their name to a well-known
suburb of Manchester--so curious is the history of estates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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