button to main menu  Description of Sixty Studies, pp.114-115
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page 114:-
[per]formed, were they occasionally to alight and "range the fields," either as directed, or at pleasure, where, on some commanding knoll, they might watch the progress of the clouds upon the face of the mountains, or their inverted summits as reflected in the crystal mirror; or see the declining sun with his warm rays, gilding the rocks and trees, which, gradually losing their brilliant hues, sink, at length, into complete obscurity.
What enjoyment can be derived by such as, lolling in their coaches or their chariots, are confined to the vision of their windows! Many so bevehicled have passed from Keswick to Ambleside, and from Ambleside to Penrith, uniformly leaving the finest views behind them.
A sociable is a better conveyance, unless it be on the barouche seat, than a coach or a post-chaise; and as heavy carriages are unfit for rough roads
page 115:-
the lake innkeepers ought to accommodate their guests with, not only sociables, but carts on the sociable construction; the carts to be drawn by single horses, and managed by drivers well acquainted with the country.
Human ingenuity cannot devise a method by which the monotonies of life would be more pleasantly diversified than by such occasional jaunting: On any little eminence, a tent might be planted in a moment, and from the larder and bins of the cart refreshment procured; at the pleasure of the party, plaintive solos on the clarionet or flute would have a fine effect among the rocks, which, during intervals of rest, would echo back in soft reverberation, the melancholy notes, and produce on the mind an union of the most pleasing sensations.
For such excursions, ten or twelve hours would be little enough for most people.
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