When we have left the highest part of Wether Fell, we find the track
taking a perfectly straight line between stone walls. The straightness
is so unusual that there can be little doubt that it is a survival of
one of the Roman ways connecting their station on Brough Hill, just
above the village of Bainbridge, with some place to the south-west. The
track goes right over Cam Fell, and is known as the Old Cam Road, but I
cannot recommend it for any but pedestrians. When we have descended
only a short distance, there is a sudden view of Semmerwater, the only
piece of water in Yorkshire that really deserves to be called a lake.
It is a pleasant surprise to discover this placid patch of blue lying
among the hills, and partially hidden by a fellside in such a way that
its area might be far greater than 105 acres.
Those who know Turner's painting of this lake would be disappointed, no
doubt, if they saw it first from this height. The picture was made at
the edge of the water with the Carlow Stone in the foreground, and over
the mountains on the southern shore appears a sky that would make the
dullest potato-field thrilling.
A short distance lower down, by straying a little from the road, we get
a really imposing view of Bardale, into which the ground falls suddenly
from our very feet. Sheep scamper nimbly down their convenient little
tracks, but there are places where water that overflows from the pools
among the bent and ling has made blue-grey seams and wrinkles in the
steep places that give no foothold even to the toughest sheep.
We lose sight of Semmerwater behind the ridge that forms one side of
the branch dale in which it lies, but in exchange we get beautiful
views of the sweeping contours of Wensleydale. High upon the further
side of the valley Askrigg's gray roofs and pretty church stand out
against a steep fellside; further down we can see Nappa Hall,
surrounded by trees, just above the winding river, and Bainbridge lies
close at hand. We soon come to the broad and cheerful green, surrounded
by a picturesque scattering of old but well preserved cottages; for
Bainbridge has sufficient charms to make it a pleasant inland resort
for holiday times that is quite ideal for those who are content to
abandon the sea. The overflow from Semmerwater, which is called the
Bam, fills the village with its music as it falls over ledges or rock
in many cascades along one side of the green.
There is a steep bridge, which is conveniently placed for watching the
waterfalls; there are white geese always drilling on the grass, and
there are still to be seen the upright stones of the stocks. The pretty
inn called the 'Rose and Crown,' overlooking a corner of the green
states upon a board that it was established in 1445.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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