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Just after entering the mail road, the driver will point out
the cottage in which the poet and his sister lived, many
long years ago, when Scott was their guest. Several good
houses have sprung up near it, within a few years. The
promontory which here causes the lake to contract to the
little river (which is called the Rothay in all the
intervals of the chain of lakes,) may be passed in three
ways. The mail road runs round its point, and therefore
keeps beside the water;- the Roman road, where the Wishing
Gate used to be, crosses it by a rather steep ascent and
descent;- and a shorter road still, steeper and boggy, cuts
across its narrowest part, and comes out at the Rydal
Quarries. Our traveller will take the mail road, probably.
It will soon bring him to Rydal Lake; and he cannot but
think the valley very lovely in the summer afternoon. On the
opposite side of the lake is Loughrigg, with its
terrace-walk distinctly visible half-way up. The islands are
wooded; and on one of them is a heronry; and the grey bird,
with its long flapping wings, is most likely visible, either
in flight, or perched on a tree near its nest, or fishing in
the shallows. Nab Scar, the blunt end of Fairfield, which
overlooks the road and the lake, is very fine with its
water-worn channels, its wood, and grey rocks. Nab Cottage,
the humble white house by the road side, and on the margin
of the lake, is the place where Hartley Coleridge lived and
died. In the distance, Ivy Cottage peeps out of the green;
and further on, Rydal Chapel rises out of the foliage on the
verge of the park.
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