The Old Man; or, Ravings and Ramblings round ConistoneGibson, Alexander Craig
History
The Old Man; or, Ravings and Ramblings round Conistone
Gibson, Alexander Craig
Coniston (Cumbria, England) -- Description and travel; Lake District (England) -- Description and travel
On the upper side of the road, you have a steep fell-side consisting
of grey rock, alternating with green pasturage, and on the lower a
high and dry stone wall, and when you come to a gate therein, you may
rest, and look over, or through it, at the dale and village from a new
point of view. It is “devoutly to be wished” that, when wearied in
the up-hill journey through life, we may always find a resting-place
pleasant as this. You are, of course, delighted, for the beauty of
Conistone is of that sterling character that, from whatever direction
you gain a peep at it, you are struck with renewed admiration, and
you are always inclined to fancy that it is seen to most advantage
from the place whence you then happen to be looking. But all earthly
delights must end, and you must not stand all day gazing so eagerly
at the landscape through the gate—reminding one of a hungry monkey
eyeing gingerbread nuts through the bars of his cage. So resume your
walk, and when the wall terminates, you have in its place a deep
rugged ravine, with the soap-_suddy_ beck brawling and foaming along
its jagged course at the bottom. And here the lover’s leap might
commodiously be perpetrated, as one of Mr George Robins’ advertisements
said in its enumeration of the attractions of a property he had to
sell hereabouts some years ago. But you had better, if you contemplate
such an exploit, defer the execution of it, until once I have shown
you all that is worth seeing around this same Conistone; and then, if
you still wish to quit a world containing a locality so beautiful,
why, the sooner such an insensate animal makes his exit, the better
for all parties concerned. About half way up the ghyll, you come to
a waterfall of about forty feet, where the water, being much broken
by the inequalities above, and upon the broad ledge it falls from,
spreads out like a huge white apron _gathered_ a little at the waist.
A hundred yards higher is another fall, and, higher still, a third,
where the stream is split into three by two sharp projecting rocks,
and, about half way down, falls upon a sort of “slantindicular” shelf,
whence, white as butter-milk, it makes a second fall at right angles
to the first, and forms altogether a highly interesting subject of
contemplation.
[Sidenote: CHRONOLOGICAL DATA.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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