button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 169:-
[estab]lishment of sheds, shops and offices, clustered at the upper end of a basin among the hills. If the traveller desires to explore the mines, he can descend on that side of the mountain. Meantime, looking abroad from his perch, he sees, (beginning from Gait's Tarn) Devoke Water, in a line with Gait's Tarn, to the west. It is said that the trout in that lake are the best known; and tradition declares that the comfortable abbots of Furness imported them from Italy. There is a fine stretch of sea visible, with the Isle of Man, conspicuous in good weather. We need not recapitulate the names of the chief mountains. Suffice it that Ingleborough is visible in one direction, and Lancaster Castle again in another; and in clear weather, Snowdon. The number of tarns within view is remarkable. We have mentioned Gait's Tarn and Low Water. Beyond the latter lies Seathwaite Tarn, whence the infant Duddon issues. Stickle Tarn is conspicuous, lying under Pavey Ark. In a hollow of the mountain, on its north-east side, lies Lowes Water. Only the nearer lakes are seen; but there is a glorious stretch of sea; and, when the estuaries are full, the coast is a beautiful spectacle. The shores of Coniston and Windermere, studded with woods and dwellings, are the nearer beauties.
The finest descent, though the longest, is by the ridge of Wetherlam, above Levers Water, descending into Tilberthwaite, and returning to Coniston through Yewdale, noticed at p.27.
gazetteer links
button -- Coniston Copper Mines
button -- Devoke Water
button -- Old Man of Coniston ascent 1855
button -- Old Man of Coniston, The
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