Tales and Legends of the English LakesArmistead, Wilson
General
Tales and Legends of the English Lakes
Armistead, Wilson
Folklore -- England -- Lake District; Legends -- England -- Lake District; Tales -- England -- Lake District
It would be superfluous to say that I would have the last picture
sketched at the moment when the mother first discovers that it is the
lifeless body of her daughter that lies stained with its own gore, that
she is bending over. Cold must be that heart that would not feel the
full force of such a piece. Poor would the richest landscape you ever
drew appear, when compared with this.
It is strange that those who profess to have hearts so open to the
beauties of nature, should reject the loveliest object in it. Adam,
though placed in the midst of Paradise, was not content till Eve was
added to its other beauties; nor would I ever draw a picture without
such an enlivening object. Beside, in most of our fine sublime scenes
about the lakes, we lose the principal zest of the piece by having
nothing beautiful to contrast with the rugged. The more wild and
terrible the scene I had to paint, the greater care would I take to
introduce some lovely female form to mark the contrast; then
"Each would give each a double charm,
Like pearls upon an Ethiop's arm."
HISTORICAL, POETICAL, AND ROMANTIC
ASSOCIATIONS OF CARLISLE.
No one versed in ballad lore--no reader of old poetry and romance, can
approach Carlisle for the first time without pleasurable emotion.
Carlisle is the border city--the city of King Arthur and his knights. It
has been the scene of many a stout siege and bloody feud; of many a
fierce foray, and mournful execution, and of many a just punishment upon
traitors and reivers. It is, consequently, not to be pictured to the
imagination without unusual interest. Old traditions of events like
these have made it among the most remarkable of the cities of England;
and it would be difficult to name another around which are clustered so
many memories of such various degrees of attraction to the poetical and
historical antiquary. Its approach from the south, though striking,
gives no idea of its antiquity and former feudalism. It is situated in
an extensive plain, surrounded in the distance by mountains, amongst
which Saddleback, Skiddaw, and Crossfell, are prominent; and from afar
off, with the smoke of its households hanging over it, does undoubtedly
impress the imagination with ideas of the romantic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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